Oakville Zen Meditation
By resentments I mean anything that we perceive negatively, and affecting us emotionally. They are endless in nature, appearing all the time when they are not hidden in our subconscious which is most of the time. I will elaborate in detail further in a few weeks.
Meditating intensively on our negativities seems to be counter-intuitive, and yet this practice will help you greatly in achieving serenity. This approach invites us to bring conscious and constructive awareness to them.
1- First step: avoid being trapped in your ego-driven trap:
While facing unpleasant mental states, avoid ruminating, escaping, suppressing, resisting and fighting them. Our ego loves to fight back. If you do so, you are adding oil on fire.
2- Second step: the meditative path as taught by Zen
Instead of seeing a negative emotion as an absolute fact / truth , you view it as a transient mental phenomenon passing through. When you become the observer
of one of your negative emotions, you are not anymore this emotion: “I have anxiety and not I am anxious”. Disconnect yourself from your emotions.
You may follow this well known approach while facing a mental unrest that you dislike:
1 Recognize the content of your struggle / discomfort w/o overanalysing it.
2 Accept it as it is.
3 Shift this negative mental manifestation to the physical one: It is called somatization.
Mind and body are one and any mental emotion has its physical twin. Learn to look for,
and to analyse it carefully. Strip away words like "bad" or "negative." View it simply as raw physical energy moving down through your nervous system. As you breathe in a mindful way, you will observe how your mental energy is venting to your physical sensations naturally,
and then will dissolve slowly
4 Keep in mind these Zen adjuvants:
Everything is transient including our emotional reactions while facing resentment.
Practice A "Beginner mind” attitude that is approaching each moment of discomfort
with fresh curiosity rather than resistance or fight.
5 Offer self- compassion is also hightly recomended.
Finally:
Pace yourself: If a negative emotion or memory feels overwhelming or traumatic, do not force yourself to sit with it intensely. Instead, practice so-called grounding that is shifting to your breathing for a few min. while being mindful of the present moment. The intensity of the
emotion will drop eventually.
Your take home:
When you focus in a mindful way on an emotional subject, one has to go because you are putting 2 opposite energies in direct competition.
With practice, the latter will retreat at least partially. Thank you.
