This post is going to be the first in a series of 'meditator's guides to...' various things. There is a rich wisdom in the meditative and somatic traditions about the ordinary experiences of life that we all go through: pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, thoughts, sensations, movement and stillness, activity and rest. These are the kinds of things that are so basic to human experience that we don't really even think about them. They just happen to us, or we do them instinctively. And yet they determine so much of the quality of our lives. Anyone who has lived with pain knows it fundamentally changes your being. It transforms the shape of your personality, the way you inhabit and move your body, the natural rhythm of your day, your routine, your life, your relationships. When it persists for long enough, you end up molding your life around it. The same could be said about a more 'neutral' experience like thinking.
A Meditator's Guide to Emotions (I)
A Meditator's Guide to Emotions (I)
A Meditator's Guide to Emotions (I)
This post is going to be the first in a series of 'meditator's guides to...' various things. There is a rich wisdom in the meditative and somatic traditions about the ordinary experiences of life that we all go through: pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, thoughts, sensations, movement and stillness, activity and rest. These are the kinds of things that are so basic to human experience that we don't really even think about them. They just happen to us, or we do them instinctively. And yet they determine so much of the quality of our lives. Anyone who has lived with pain knows it fundamentally changes your being. It transforms the shape of your personality, the way you inhabit and move your body, the natural rhythm of your day, your routine, your life, your relationships. When it persists for long enough, you end up molding your life around it. The same could be said about a more 'neutral' experience like thinking.