Feelings just below the surface

Conure

Hey all,

I haven't really started meditating yet as I wished to learn more first. I often find I'll go through periods of happiness, then sadness connected to previous feelings of guilt/anxiety etc. I am not depressed, but far from happy. I have seeked professional help from a councillor which starts next week, but should meditation go some way to help me find peace?

Like I said in my other post, I've had quite a violent childhood and I feel I'm particularly sensitive to hurting people I care about - but that is exactly what I have done in the wrong circumstances. Can meditation bring about a significant change to this way of thinking? If so, does it take years to do so?

Thanks all

username_5

I would suggest you ask your counselor about meditation and Buddhism within the self improvement/healing context.

It's possible the counselor will be clueless about both, but there is a good chance s/he will recommend both and may even be able to point you to some resources.

Will meditation go some way to help you find peace? I don't know, but certainly it can. If you will engage in Buddhist meditation you will likely want to include the ethical and wisdom components of the path as well. In other words learning the essentials of Buddhist teaching which help influence the meditation process and also give some consideration to things like right living, right action etc. The 5 precepts. They all work together and support/reinforce one another.

2 counselors I know both recommend meditation and one attends buddhist meditation retreats 1-2 times per year in addition to his own meditation practice. He starts every session with clients with 5-10 minutes of a focus on the breath meditation with all clients regardless of religious beliefs.

Conure

Thanks Username_5, as always your advice has been invaluable and I'll take it all into account. Another question I had is, martial arts. I like competition and physical activity, and have in the past enjoyed contact/combat sports. I'd love to take it up again as part of a program I've got going - The buddhist/humanist learning, meditation and martial arts. Kind've a way to self improvement. Do you think I will find that martial arts and buddhism are conflicted, as martial arts are aggresive in nature?

Thanks very much,

Conure

username_5

Conure wrote: »

Do you think I will find that martial arts and buddhism are conflicted, as martial arts are aggresive in nature?

Thanks very much,

Conure

Not necessarily. It's not so much the outward action, but the inward motivation|intent.

Also, finding a martial art instructor who has a spiritual bent rather than one who didn't know how else to make a living would go a long way to making it easy to integrate with your Buddhist practice. I used to train with a full contact Kung Fu studio when I was a teen. Good place. I also studied for awhile with a ninjitsu instructor who was a scam artist and manipulative person with no sense of shame. And then there was the Okinawan karate instructor who was a nice guy, but somewhat shallow in terms of his interest in being an instructor. The instructor can make all the difference in the world.

federica

I have studied the passive Martial Arts and am an instructor of Qi Gong and Zam Zong.

I prefer to call the "Aggressive" Martial Arts, either Defensive, or Dynamic, because when taught properly, mindfully and to a correct level of consciousness, a really good Martial Arts practitioner refines his art in order to never actually have to use it in anger....

I used to live in France, and I used to frequent local Karate and Judo classes run for the youth of the area. I was always welcomed as a guest, to teach the dynamic opposite of what the children were learning.
I also offered my services to a local Tae Kwondo school, but the Principal refused to entertain the idea of my teaching classes in tandem with his, because he saw my personal discipline as futile, namby-pamby nonsense.

'La Federation the Tai Chi Chuan et les Arts Martiaux' expelled him from membership about a year later, because in their opinion, he was not promoting the Arts within the True Spirit of the Discipline....

He tried to carry on teaching, but without the official backing and sponsorship of the Bona Fide organisation, in Paris, he soon lost pupils and following.

Which in my view, was just as well.

Paulclem

Hi Conure.

I have a friend who has studied Aikido, and who is a second Dan. He also practices Buddhism and has the good fortune to be taking 1 to 1 teachings. He has recently been back to his Aikido class, but has decided that it is incompatible with his practice, as the way he has been taught, and the atmosphere in the class is such that it arouses competitiveness and aggression within him.

So, insupport of Fedrica and Username, it seems important to find a suitable class / teacher, though in the short term it may be a good discipline.

Conure

Thanks for all the replies. So it seems that it'll be good discipline and healthy provided a find a teacher with the right values, i.e further development as a person rather than just winning competitions and kicking ass ninja style!

My real problem is finding the right class, I've googled it but can't find too much - Anyone have any recommendations? I'm at Canterbury, Kent, if that's any use! It'd be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all

anna

Sorry no recommendations, but I wanted to say "Hi" - I grew up in Bromley, Kent.

Thao

Here are a few sanghas listed below. I would try both, a good dharma teacher and a good therapist. See which helps you more and then go with that. Only an opinion here.

Meditation can bring peaceful, but along with that you also need to work on your issues. The good thing I see with you in this post, as I haven't read the others, is your experience in your childhood has caused you to feel compassion for others in that you do not desire to hurt them. That can actually work to your benefit if you work on developing more compassion, Buddhism can help you with that also.



http://www.dharmanet.org/listings/centres/listofcentres/Canterbury,Kent,United_Kingdom

fivebells

This is the way I usually find Buddhist groups in a given vicinity. Seems like there are quite a few, for a town that size.

Conure

Thanks all for the responses I was in Paris for a while and had no internet! Thank you all

Mountains

anna wrote: »

Sorry no recommendations, but I wanted to say "Hi" - I grew up in Bromley, Kent.

I've been to a pub in Bromley, Kent! What a small world