Moving away is suffering.
Moving away from what’s here is suffering. It’s a moving away from ourselves, from who and what we are. And that’s painful.
So why not try the opposite? Why not try to move in?
How do I do that?
Rest with what’s here. Notice. Allow. Shift from thinking to noticing.
Feel the sensations.
Inquire into the images, words, and sensations. See what’s already here.
Relate to it with kindness. Love. Kind presence.
Find the love behind identifications, and the results of identifications. It comes from deep caring. It is love. (Even if it’s confused or worried love.)
When we move into this, we move into who and what we are. We return home, and that’s a relief.
There is more to it, of course. I’ll address some of it below.
Why do we move away? Why do we move away from what’s here? Why do we move away from our own experience, which is also who and what we are, and home?
Because we have scary stories about it, and – somewhere – believe those stories. We believe something terrible will happen if we feel these sensations, or look at these images and words. We believe they are true, so it’s pointless. Or that it will be overwhelming, or perhaps just uncomfortable. Or something else that scares us from resting with it and moving closer.
The fear has some validity to it. If we don’t know what we are doing, if we have little or no experience with it, or little or no guidance, it can be terrifying. We can get caught even further in scary stories.
So we do need guidance, experience, and small moves – especially in the beginning. It’s an ongoing exploration.
It’s all created by our mind. What’s really happening is that our mind creates scary stories, it believes these stories, and then tries to escape its own creation. It’s all happening here. And this can all be resolved here.
Mutual supportive remedies. The remedies listed above are just some of the ways we can explore moving in. And they tend to support each other.
Inquiry makes it easier to rest with what’s here, and feel the sensations. It can also help us find kindness and love for what’s here, and see that even the discomfort and the scary stories come from deep caring and love.
Resting with what’s here allows for inquiry and finding kindness for what’s here. These happen within the resting, the noticing and allowing.
Finding kindness towards what’s here makes it easier to rest with it, and inquire into it.
Each of these makes the other two more possible for us, and easier.
Why is moving away = suffering? Another question is, why does it create suffering to move away from what’s here?
We are moving away from who and what we are, from home.
We act on our own painful and scary stories, which reinforces these stories.
It doesn’t work. We can’t escape what’s here. (It’s at best in the background, and keeps returning in more obvious ways.)
We could also say that suffering is a sign that something is off. We are out of alignment with reality. Our mind is scaring itself with stories it holds as true, which makes it try things that are fruitless, and suffering lets us know. Suffering is our pointer home.
Suffering can also be called discomfort, or unease, or stress.
And we can say that life is too kind to let this work for us. Moving away comes from being out of alignment with reality, and life is too kind to let that work, or even to be comfortable.
What do you mean by identifications? When our mind believes its own scary stories, it’s because it identifies with these stories. It takes on the viewpoint and perspectives of these stories, sees the world through them, and holds it as real and true. Its world becomes quite small, scary, and painful.
This is what’s called identification. It’s also how velcro is created, sensations that seem “stuck” on associated images and words, and give them a charge and sense of solidity and reality. It’s also the same as beliefs, taking a story – any story – as real and true. And really, it’s the same as “ego” as that word sometimes is used in a “spiritual” context. Identification = velcro = beliefs = ego, at least in a loose sense.
How is it that identifications come from love? Identifications may first come from early childhood, from seeing others doing it. That’s how people do it on this planet, so I’ll do it too. It’s from innocence. And really, its from love. Love for others, for ourselves.
When we keep recreating these identifications, and add new ones to our list of identifications, it’s also from love. It comes from deep caring. It’s worried love, and confused love, and still love.
It really helps to see this. To find it in my own experience, through looking and seeing what’s there. There is a shift that happens. The mind recognizes its own kindness in this, in the “mistake” of taking painful stories as real and true. It’s a deep caring behind it. Love. It is love. And that allows the mind to relax. To befriend itself. To befriend this dynamic, even.
Why is it a relief to inquire into stories we hold as true? We get to examine our scary stories, and see that they are not true in the way we thought they were. Also, it can help loosen or release velcro, and velcro is what creates the suffering.
Three centers and moving in. It’s possible to map the moving in onto the idea of three soul centers. This mapping mostly satisfies the mind’s interest in understanding, although it can also have a practical function in checking that we are not leaving out something obvious within this context. (Of course, the three centers map is very simple and itself quite limited.)
(a) Ground. Rest. Notice. Allow. Rest with what’s here. This is what allows the other approaches, and what the other approaches happen within. Natural rest is the “ground”, and invites us to find ourselves as that which already allows and is the field of experiences, as they are now.
(b) Head center. Curiosity. In this case, curiosity is about our own experience and how it’s created. This may be supported by inquiry. It may even be a relatively structured inquiry, as support for the mind to explore what’s here.
(c) Heart center. This is the kindness towards our own experience, kindness towards ourselves as who and what we are.
(d) Belly center. This is feeling sensations we previously would have avoided. Resting with the sensations. Feeling them. Taking time.
(e) There is also living this, bringing it into everyday life. See it as an ongoing process.
Sorry for a somewhat rambling post!
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Notes….
– moving away = suffering
– why is it suffering?
— we are moving away from what’s here, who and what we are, home
— we act on our own painful stories, which reinforces these stories
— it doesn’t work – it’s painful, we can’t escape (not really)
– so why not try to the opposite? why not move in?
— rest with what’s here
— find kindness for, love for
— see that identifications and their results come from deep caring, kindness, love
— inquire into painful stories, velcro
— (these are all mutually supportive of each other)
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Initial notes……
– moving away = suffering
– moving in
— feel the sensations
– inquire to see what’s there
– find the love behind identifications and the results of identifications
– return home (a) into what’s here, (b) into reality
– move closer, until there is no separation
– moving away from what’s here, who and what we are, home
– doesn’t work
– so can try to move in, into what’s where, return home
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What do we move away from? Really, we don’t wish to feel sensations our mind have beliefs about as being – or pointing to – something pain, bad, uncomfortable, or even unbearable. We wish to escape the velcro our own mind has created.
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What do we move away from? We move away from sensations our mind says are uncomfortable, or points to something – images and words – that are uncomfortable.
So why not try the opposite? Why not try to move in?
Why not try to move into what’s here? Into who and what I am. Returning home.
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Why is it a relief to inquire into stories we hold as true? First, it’s because reality is not as scary as our thoughts about it, and through inquiry we align more closely with reality.