I used to prescribe narrow instructions for meditation when I talked about it. I don't think about it so narrowly anymore and I wanted to share a story about meeting people where they are.
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Today I talked to a special someone who wanted to understand me and my meditation practice better so he bought the book I learned from, the Mind Illuminated by Culadasa.
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I asked whether he was going to take up the practice and he said he thought he never could because he finds it impossible to focus on nothing. He needs things that grab his discriminating mind and gave the examples of his work or mathematics.
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I tried to persuade him that his mind in fact is like every other mind and capable of learning meditation. I appealed to ethos in that Theravada Buddhism takes into account objections like skeptical doubt, they are well characterized and remedied.
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Which was totally silly because it's my system and not his. And I dont need him to learn my system or to believe in it. There was an opportunity here to offer something practical on meditation without it being tethered to a tradition.
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I asked him if theres anything like a mantra in his tradition and he told me about the Amidah, a collection of 19 prayers he does daily ideally.
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When he goes through the Amidah, he rushes to get through, though he enjoys the intense feeling he gets from the opening and closing and gets a sense of gratitude from middle prayers.
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I suggested this: Treat the Amidah as an accordion file. Look into a middle prayer and spend time there, repeating it not as rote but as Evoking the sense of gratitude, trying to feel it through all senses in and moment by moment.
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There's a major attitude adjustment that goes into words said rote for tradition's sake and transforms it it into present, expansive, felt gratitude.
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It's very similar to the adjustment I made going from effortful, returning to sensation at the object from mind wandering going into effortless fascinated, interested, awareness naturally absorbed in sensation.
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"Nasty little Buddhist"
Seeking via neuroscience and psychology informed dharma.