Insight Meditation

Category Archives: Insight Meditation

Cycles

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Bill Leave a comment

The Universe

The universe cycles. Things arise, then pass away. It may take a while, a few billion years or so, but the only constant is change. So it is with my life, change is the constant, it is just that the cycles are shorter. The big cycle is of course, life itself. Born, live, decline, and die. After that, who knows for sure?

Today, it is about my spiritual cycles. Those cycles can run from weeks to years. Lately it is weeks. I am a seeker, and was drawn to Buddhism in college. I read, thought, but couldn’t meditate. Now I meditate and after a number of false starts, I can call myself a beginner Buddhist. Well, a Bhuddapalian, because Jesus is still in my life, but that’s another story and other cycles.

I have made quite a bit of progress, and have experienced varying times when I am actually living in the moment, not thinking about the past or future. After all, the past or the future don’t exist except in our heads. A few weeks I went on a retreat of enormous benefit. 18 people at the Y of the Rockies in Estes Park where we formed a bond during a silent retreat.

Cycles. After the high comes the low. From being in the moment, I found myself trapped in my past. Now, for the purpose of survival I need the past. I learned things and apply the knowledge for the sake of survival in a fairly hostile world. I don’t need all the old traumas and mistakes filling my head, however. I use that stuff to fuel addictions in order to block what is gone anyway. That’s how the brain works sometimes. I block with food, various drugs, sex, and depression.

The problem, those strategies wear off and I am back simmering in the cauldron of despair. Old pains lead to compulsive behavior leading to despair and addiction. The Buddhist strategy is to devote oneself to serving all beings, clean living, loving kindness, and letting go-detachment. Lately, not working. I watch violence on You Tube, eat, fantasize, and avoid drugs. Letting go? Hmph.

I had this dream. I was back at work after a vacation and there was new stuff I didn’t know how to work with. There weren’t any instructions, of course. When are there ever instructions about what to do? So, I just had to cope, even though the boss and an engineer were running around talking about the future. They weren’t going to be any help.

That’s where we are, isn’t it? New tasks and no owners manual. I just have to sit with the situation until a strategy presents itself. Oh, wait, I just laid out the strategy, didn’t

Posted in Addiction, Buddhism, Depression, Insight Meditation, Jesus, Meditation, Stories

Mindfulness

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Bill Leave a comment

Meditation

The ostensible purpose of mindfulness meditation is to stay in the moment. One does this by watching the breath. Just watching the breath. Not thinking about breathing, not planning the week, not obsessing about ice cream. By watching the breath only, one is in the moment. Not the past, not the future, just now.

What the Buddhists call the self is that portion of our brain which wants to stay busy. So, we think. Thinking about most anything. Some people have feelings, but I mostly think about feelings. We are to note the thought of feeling, and return to the breath. The goal is like cleaning the garage, getting rid of junk and having the other stuff organized so we don’t have to think about it.

Carol and I start our mornings with fifteen minutes of meditation. We both agree about considering the meditation a success if we are able to watch more than two breaths. I beat myself up about this. What the hell am I doing this for if I can’t stay with my breath more than two times. I must be some sort of failure. When I complain about this to accomplished meditators, I hear “That is just where you are.” That is no help, thank you very much.

Can’t they wave their wands and create an enlightenment spell? Where is Hermione when I need her? In fact, I am making some progress. Some mornings I can stay with two or three breaths several times. During longer meditations I sometimes can sustain for several minutes. If I can’t stay with the breath, I pray. I pray for others, I pray for myself, or I just pray with gratitude.

I also use mantras. I justify them by believing my ADD doesn’t allow me to meditate like normies. After all, people have used mantras for thousands of years. I also blame my addictions, as if people haven’t overcome addictions with meditation for thousands of years.

Well, despite my resistance and whining, I am actually getting somewhere with this mindfulness business. I have tried lots of stuff, trying to get myself somewhat lined out in life, and mindfulness meditation is what works for me.

Now, this mindfulness is not a standalone thing. It is Buddhist. That means The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. They explain why we are always thinking, mostly for no good reason, and provide guidelines for going through life without doing harm. I dodge them by telling myself I can’t find a clear, brief explanation, as if Mr. Google doesn’t exist. Well, I do a fairly good job of following them. Most of the time.

At age 74 I feel I am finally on the way. What more is there?

Posted in Buddhism, Insight Meditation, Jesus Prayer, Meditation, My Story, Stories

Weather

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Bill Leave a comment

Weather Map

One of my Insight Meditation teachers likes to say everything is what it is. Well, the weather comes and it goes. If you are curious about the weather, look outside. We seem to be preoccupied about the weather. One of the big small talk topics is weather. Every local TV newscasts has two segments on the weather. The national news now has a weather story every evening.

We always have weather. It is always changing. Regardless of what they say, we will get what we are going to have. The meteorologists can give us an educated guess, but so what? Look outside. That is what we have. Life goes on.

We are at the mercy of the weather. It’s hot, cold, wet, snowy, or beautiful. The changes bring beauty. We should be preoccupied with the beauty. My teachers talk about impermanence. That’s weather, that’s life. We are born, live, and die. The storm comes, stays a while, and is gone.

Weather is not tomorrow, it is now. Feel the cold, your stiff fingers. See the sunrise, breathe the coffee smell, listen to the coffee shop chatter. That is the weather. Life is now. Not tomorrow, not yesterday. Yes, we have to act. Work, laundry, get the brakes fixed, stop that faucet from dripping.

The lesson is to feel the weather while stopping the drip. Enjoy the light when the driver in front of you is texting after the light changes. You will get there. He will get there. The clouds will be gray. The sun will shine. It is. You are. That’s all.

Posted in Buddhism, Equanimity, Insight Meditation, My Story, Stories, Weather

Winter Blues

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Bill Leave a comment

Winter

As I sit here in the coffee shop it is a gray January day with a light rain falling, promising to turn to snow. This is an accurate metaphor for my mood of late. I’m prone to depression, get treatment for it, but this is probably Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I haven’t been able to do much writing, and what I have written I haven’t posted. This is unusual. My goal is to put something up every week and I haven’t come close.

I used to have two of those lights which are supposed to help, but I gave one away and the other is over the bathtub I haven’t been able to use lately. Why no baths? Leaks. The upstairs bathroom sink cold water faucet started leaking as well.

For me, things happening around me are often related to the state of my psyche. Water is also a symbol of the unconscious mind, and leaks are about something important trying to come to consciousness. I am engaged in a struggle to keep things buried. Thus, leaks I am slow in fixing, and gloom leading to inaction. It’s easy to guess how my meditation practice is going.

My meditations are supposed to have the goal of being totally in the moment-no thinking about the pas, the future, or Donald Trump. I can stay with just observing my breath for maybe five seconds. I usually am able to stay with my breath or a prayer for several minutes before drifting off to be with Dorothy and Toto. I come back to the breath, stay there a while and drift off again. Currently, I obsess.

I think the real issue for me is aging. I am 74 years old. Lifting a fifty pound sack of ice melt salt is hard. I used to throw fifty pound sacks around. I cannot go above the second step on the ladder for fear of falling off. I sometimes cheat and go to the third step, no higher. My balance is not very good. I have stayed at the same weight for some time but the muscles are shrinking and the belly is growing.

I forget stuff. I have always been somewhat forgetful, an ADD-ADHD symptom, but it’s worse lately. I am going to have to go back to writing reminders down, a habit I have slipped away from. I also head downstairs to do something, do two or three other things and head upstairs with the task not done. At least I get some exercise going up and down the stairs all day.

I know this too will pass, but I am tired of waiting

Posted in Aging, Arthritis, Current Activities, Depression, Health Issues, Insight Meditation, Meditation, Memoirs, My Story, Stories

My Meditation Practice

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Bill Leave a comment

The Buddha

As I mentioned in the last post, for years I was unable to meditate. I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and as soon as my eyes closed my brain would go into high gear. The idea of meditation is to let those thoughts go so you can be aware in the moment. For ADD’s, the moment is often chaos, with thoughts leaping from subject to another, or hyper focus, with the thoughts totally engaged on one topic or task.

After a diagnosis and treatment, I can meditate. Now meditation is not spending all one’s time in the moment. At first and often those thoughts arise and with my addictions, they can be compelling. So, sit, watch my breath, the thoughts arise, I let them go, and they arise again. It can be excruciating, dealing with all that meaningless thought. I find a prayer helps me instead of just focusing on the breath.

Paradoxically, my prayer is Christian. At its core, Buddhism is essentially atheistic and in my view a psychology, not a religion, being 2500 years old from a culture soaked in religion, it adopted all the trappings. I grew up nominally Christian and became a toung-talking holy roller Christian in my forties. I don’t do that so much any more, but Jesus is in my life to stay.

I use the Jesus Prayer, an ancient Eastern Orthodox prayer dating back to the desert fathers. “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The most famous book about the prayer, “The Way of a Pilgrim“, suggests starting with 3000 repetitions per day. I recite the prayer a lot, but never 3000 times. I sit, start praying, and time the words with my breath. When those thoughts rise, as they always will, I return to the prayer. Those times of being in the moment come, and I drop into watching my breath. Thoughts arise and I gently return to the prayer.

I find the moments of stillness are slowly growing. I also find the poisonous thoughts are diminishing. When poisonous thoughts about pretty girls arise, I pray for them. “May she be happy, may she be free, may she be safe”. Then back to the Jesus Prayer until more thoughts arise.

The thoughts aren’t just about pretty girls, I find myself planning, plotting, reviewing past mistakes, feeling guilt or shame; being angry, sad, sick, hurting, happy, horny, old, tired, loving, lonely, excited, the entire range of feeling and thought. All that stuff comes from my past or is about the future. Thus, they are all meaningless. The past is gone, and the future is unknown.

All there really is is the moment. My brain tends to disagree. I experience all those thoughts and feelings as real because they are wired neural connections. The task of meditation is to rewrite those connections so I can spend more time in the moment.

Now, lots of those connections are important. I need food, shelter, my long baths, some rags on my back, all the stuff of daily living. I don’t need Donald Trump or the Kardashians. I mention those because I was in the doctor’s office yesterday reading those stupid magazines. Why didn’t I have my book or just pray?

I find myself wanting to meditate more. The toxic thinking is diminishing, although lots of people continue to be prayed for. I have purged the computers, my library, don’t watch the wrong television or movies, and am able to spend more time in the moment (still not much time, alas).

Next is some retreats. Retreats last from one day up. I have done them in a Christian context and found them useful. I am looking at attending a four day retreat in the mountains. There are lots of retreats available, mostly led by Dharma teachers who are therapists or in other helping professions. Retreats allow intensive meditation with little interruption from the outside world. I need that.

Posted in Buddhism, Family History, Health Issues, Insight Meditation, Jesus Prayer, Meditation, Mental Health, My Story, Pain, Stories

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Bill Leave a comment

Meditation

I recently wrote about my struggle with addictions. Yes, multiple addictions. It is just now coming out that the root cause of addiction is abuse at some time in the addict’s life. It is true for me. I turned to addictive behavior to get a feel good in a life that incorporated pain or suffering stemming from the abuse.

The mental pain or suffering arises, and I seek to eliminate or blunt the pain with the feel good. It can be alcohol, food, exercise, sex, tobacco, work, drugs, shopping, gambling, music, or other obsessive behaviors. I tried most of them, and they worked-briefly. The pain returns. Another round starts, but it takes a bit more to drive the pain away as the guilt and shame grow. The wheel turns.

The result? I have had a lifetime of suffering with futile attempts to escape. The addictions have not been all-consuming. I have a good marriage, a comfortable retirement, many interests to keep me occupied and engaged, and a family I am close with. I have had years of therapy that helped in some areas, but the addictions remained. The addictions have consumed a tremendous amount of time and energy. All this stems from events in my childhood continuing to haunt me.

Well, that was then, and it is now. So, why addictive behavior when the abuse happened so long ago? We store the feelings from abuse in our minds. Those feelings and sensations stay with us and arise later as suffering. They exist as neural connections in our brains. Those connections and stored memories and feelings are not permanent or hard wired. The brain is plastic and those old demons can be dealt with, the connections altered or eliminated.

There are a number of techniques, including 12 step programs, cognitive therapy, psychoanalysis, immersion in a religious organization, and other therapies. Some work, some don’t or are just mental band-aids.

Recent neuroscience research indicates that insight meditation is an effective means of altering or eliminating those old neural pathways. In many cases, ten or fifteen minutes per day seem to be effective. In deeply entrenched addictions, fifteen minutes is not enough. I try to do a forty minute meditation along with the morning fifteen minute session every day. I also attend two formal insight meditation meetings per week.

Insight meditation is fairly simple. Find a comfortable position where you are not likely to fall asleep. Observe your breath. It may be your nostrils or your abdomen or chest rising and falling. Just focus on the breath. Thoughts will arise. Just note and name them. Hungry, hungry. You will find the thought changes or fades, leaving you a moment without thoughts arising. When they do, note them name them, and observe them changing.

You will find yourself drifting away, planning, worrying, most anything. When you notice this, gently return to the breath. I find it useful to say a short prayer several times until I am able to return to the breath. At times, it seems like all I am doing is praying, with no stillness. Other times I can return to the breath right away.

The process is frustrating at first, because it seems like there is almost no time just watching the breath. No big. Deal, just keep it up. You will find those thoughts arising with less frequency and intensity. You are reprogramming your brain.

Insight meditation is used in schools, some workplaces, in prisons, and in psychotherapy. It sometime seems it is the next big thing. Well, no. It is a Buddhist practice in use for twenty five hundred years. It is not really a religious practice. It is a practice used to get rid of all the mental clutter so one can lead a life free of the suffering all that clutter causes.

Next time I will illustrate the process with my own experience. Stay tuned.

Posted in Alcohol, Buddhism, Insight Meditation, Jesus Prayer, Meditation, Mental Health, My Story, Pain, Stories

Guns

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Bill Leave a comment

I am from Western Colorado-outdoor sportsman central. Hunting big game, small game, ducks and geese, most any things that moves was a way of life. I grew up around guns as my father hunted and fished. I hunted as well, but fishing never appealed to me-too boring.

I was always fascinated by guns. I liked the mechanical precision, the looks, the way they felt in my hands. There was, of course, another set of reasons for my fascination.

Guns are for killing. When hunting, I was repelled and attracted to the act of killing. I would walk along hunting rabbits thinking “Why am I here, I don’t like the killing?”. As soon as a rabbit jumped, the gun came up and I was shooting. More than once I have sold all my guns, swearing off them, only to find myself in a gun shop.

In Army basic training I became welded to the famous old M1 Garand rifle. I still like the damn things, although I haven’t bought one as a civilian. In Germany I got an M14, much like the M1, but holding 20 rounds instead of eight.

.50 Caliber Machine Gun

When I got promoted I was given the responsibility for a .50 caliber Browning machine gun. Completely assembled it weighs about 120 pounds and fires a cartridge about six inches long, with a bullet half an inch in diameter. We went to Wildflecken, Germany, the traditional invasion route for eastern invaders, to shoot the thing across a canyon. It sure was fun. It sure did give me a significant hearing loss.

The real reason for my fascination with guns, however, is fear. I have been afraid for my safety for as long as I can remember. The cause? Probably some abuse I experienced at a young age. I remember making a tent out of a card table and blankets in the living room when I was home alone. I would get under there with my .22 rifle and dream about driving the invaders away.

The gun magazines used to be mostly about hunting arms, now they are filled with articles about protecting your home from hostile invaders. That is right down my alley, even though I live in a safe neighborhood and have never experienced any need for protecting myself with a gun for 73 years. This is a big cognitive disconnect in my life. I think the strategy is to not read that stuff.

To deal with my fear I am now using a mindful meditation technique. I meditate watching my breath. When any fear-related thoughts arise, I notice them, name them “fear, fear”, and watch them fade. I also have the fear thoughts arise at other times, as when driving. I say a short prayer, sometimes several times, until the fear thought fades. I do this many times during the day. It works. The thoughts leave, and they are not recurring with the same frequency. I feel better, and have more energy for useful things. I am not doing this to seek enlightenment, I am doing it to rid myself of wasteful thinking so I can focus on the good.

Posted in 1963 Volkswagen, Guns, Insight Meditation, Stories, Western Colorado