Meditation Challenges & Issues

Addressing Common Issues

1. A common misunderstanding among students is that in meditation, we are trying to control or stop thoughts. This is a misconception. Instead, the practice is designed to gain an understanding of the nature of the mind. Becoming aware of thought patterns is different from attempting to control them.
2. With practice, a natural quieting allows a wiser voice to arise, but this cannot be forced. Rather than using forcefulness, the practice is one of patience and ease (and humor, if desired).
3. Various techniques utilize different approaches to noticing or labeling thoughts for instance, and some teachers will emphasize a neutrality to the witnessing. In addition, a foundational principle of meditation in most styles is to observe with gentleness, compassion and loving-kindness.
4. Resistance to the present moment is a well-ingrained habit for most. And so while forcing doesn’t work, Sally Kempton expertly teaches to not back down either.

Readings

TRYING TO CONTROL THOUGHT IS LIKE TRYING TO LASSO THE WIND

You’re finding it very hard to stop your mind’s wandering. That’s good news! Why? The practice is working. You’re seeing the wild, wandering nature of the mind AND sensing the futility of trying to control thought. You’re not failing, you’re seeing that thought doesn’t come to rest via strategies of control. Trying to control thought is like trying to lasso the wind. The harder you try, the more frustrated you become… So, when thoughts are blowing around, you’re not doing something wrong. Meditative stillness doesn’t come through controlling your mind; just as peace doesn’t come through winning wars. Don’t waste your energy there… The practice of meditation offers a different path. A way of relating to all patterns—including the control pattern—with loving awareness. Rather than being identified with the controlling impulse and its futile struggle to arm wrestle thought into submission . . . you see the impulse to control as one thought pattern among many… [It is] periodically shouting about how badly you’re meditating and that you should just squash unruly thoughts into stillness. But, as you cultivate meditative awareness and loving awareness, you start to hear another wiser, truer voice. – Eric Klein 

ALL THOSE VOICES MUST BE RECOGNIZED & ACCEPTED

There’s no way around it: The way to liberation points inward through the personally mundane, profane, and sacred. All of those voices in our head—no matter how scary, boring, distasteful, lascivious, or holy—must be recognized and accepted. If we deny or repress them, they only become more distracting, and our meditation practice suffers. This does not mean that we have to let them run amok; we can develop the capacity to contain a multitude of opposing voices without buying into any of them. – John Kain

THE LID ON THE BOILING KETTLE

Meditation is a state of “thoughtless awareness” and… willpower in meditation is the famous lid on the boiling kettle. When you force yourself to be still, instead of surrendering into the present moment so that stillness arises naturally, it’s as if you’re pushing down on the kettle lid so that the steam pushes back. – eckharttolle.com