Federica wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 6:10 pm
mikekatz wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 6:07 pm
Hi Eugene
I do this type of exercise often, and I find it works sometimes. Other times, the resistance is too strong. Patience is a virtue, it takes practice.
As a matter of technique, I find it best to start with feelings. Starting any other way, especially with the idea of a separate self, already grounds the exercise within that self. The whole exercise then becomes an analysis rather than an experience. At least that’s the way it is for me, I’m intellectually top-heavy.
Mike, could you be more detailed how you go about it when you start with feelings? Could you give an example?
My wife likes to tell me everything in lots of detail - lots. And I always used to get impatient, sometimes internally, sometimes externally. I used this exercise, and still use it, to get to the bottom of this.
If I start from thinking, I conjure up all the excuses in the book. She doesn’t have to go into such detail, she just interrupted what I was doing, etc. So I go to the feeling of impatience, or I try to. Sometimes, the mind actively tries to prevent this. I’ll suddenly remember something important I have to do. I might get a pain or itch, etc. There’s a non-action of letting go that’s sometimes needed to get to the feeling.
If there’s success, I connect to the feeling. I experience the feeling of impatience, and it’s uncomfortable. There is fear of connecting deeper to the feeling of impatience, and sometimes I have to back off.
But I go deeper into it, and it’s almost overwhelming. It’s not impatience anymore, that was just a smokescreen. There’s something much deeper, some kind of primordial fear. It has layers, and I am still penetrating the layers even today to get to the bottom of it. It’s like the whorls and jagged lines in my being that Cleric describes.
I have learnt a lot about this feeling, and I continue to work on it. I see how it extends to much of my behaviour, not just with my wife. And it’s changed things for me. I am now different in the same circumstances. I am more connected with her, and with others. But there’s much more to learn.
And the thing is, is that the impatience as such is now gone. It’s over for me. There’s no more mind tricks when I’m in a conversation. The ego knows the game is over with regards that particular feeling. And I know that when I get to the deeper pain that generated the impatience, and fully experience that, it will also go. But right now, that’s even more terrifying.
Again as a matter of technique, the only way I can really move into this feeling is to start from a position where I am relatively separated from myself. If I think that this is
my feeling, it’s literally too terrifying. If there’s just the perception of the feeling as a sensation, equivalent to feeling my position on the chair, for example, then I can approach it. But there’s still the choice that has to be made to dive into it and experience it.
I read all the discussion that goes on here between Ashvin, Cleric, and Eugene (in alphabetic order lol). It’s
interesting, and
attractive, and it
piques my interest, but it doesn’t serve a spiritual purpose for me. My intellect, my thinking, has got me to its limit. It’s showed me that there is a non-dual state, and I now experience that. It’s showed me that I have to work on myself, and I do that. It can’t take me further, it can only distract me. And that is where I am spiritually. Of course, if you are somewhere else, and these discussions are vital for you, that’s great! We are all where we are, and we should all respect that.
Like Eugene, and probably even less than him, I lose the non-dual state far too much. You just have to experience it once to know that this is our birthright that we have lost, and that we can get it back. I use meditation and prayer to “achieve” and strengthen the non-dual state.
The detailed work on myself, smoothing out the soul as Cleric puts it, or purifying it as is commonly stated - this detailed and difficult work
has to be done. For me personally, without the anchor of the non-dual state, I would never be able to truly approach it.
Frederica, I hope you connect to this in some way. I invite you to try the same thing, and see what happens. Drop the thinking, drop trying to fit anything into a theory, just try simple, direct experiencing of a negative feeling, and see what happens. And no need to publicly report the details.