The Warrior's Meditation: The Best-Kept Secret in Self-Improvement, Cognitive Enhancement, and Stress Relief, Taught by a Master of Four Samurai Arts (Total Embodiment Method (TEM)) by Haight Richard L

Author:Haight, Richard L
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shinkaikan Body Mind Spirit LLC
Published: 2020-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Perfectionism

Although we touched on this topic earlier, I feel there is still more to discuss regarding perfectionism. “Am I doing this correctly?” is one of the most common questions I get after teaching someone to meditate. After we start anything new, it is totally natural to feel awkward and doubt our performance.

To alleviate doubt, I often say, “You feel that way because you certainly are not doing it correctly. It is impossible for you to meditate correctly, for you cannot do meditation. Once you have had enough truly meditative experiences, you will begin to realize that during meditation, there is no you doing it, for awareness has transcended the sense of self.”

What I have just stated may seem empty or circular, but really it is nothing of the sort, for surely you have already had moments in your life when there was no sense of self.

Some obvious experiences wherein the self can slip away are while receiving bodywork. If sufficient relaxation occurs during a bodywork session, for example, you may notice that there is a gap of time during which only sensory feeling occurs — but no thought. It’s a fascinating feeling.

Furthermore, the sense of self and thought might disappear when we are doing something so intense that there is no time for mental activity, such as when playing a fast-paced sport or video game, or when rock climbing, skydiving, or bungee-jumping. Any intense activity can overwhelm the mind, leading to gaps in thought and the absence of self. Another common way in which thought and self quiet is when we are deeply appreciative of something. Take, for example, a truly captivating fragrance. When a fragrance fills your being, you are lost in the experience.

Many ways are open to us if we wish to lose the sense of self and thereby feel life more directly. Deep relaxation, appreciation, and intense engagement in activity are but a few ways in which we have already experienced a loss of self. If we ask ourselves why we enjoy whatever it is that we enjoy, we may discover that the loss of self during the particular activity is what we are truly enjoying.

When the self slips away, we find that life is much more vibrant and spacious. We find a kind of freedom that is revealed only when the sense of self is not there. The freedom that we feel is the temporary release from our habitual mindset and accumulated mental/emotional baggage.

True meditation is the embodiment of vibrant, spacious freedom — the absence of self. So I repeat, “You cannot do meditation.” You will certainly try for a time, and that is as it should be. Just keep doing meditation, and, little by little, larger and larger gaps of no self can emerge, when you are not doing anything, yet awareness is happening. As those no-self experiences repeatedly occur in your life through the process of intentional meditation, periods of spacious — “no-mind” — will emerge spontaneously more often during your daily life.

Accept that you will continue to feel doubt about your meditative process for a time.

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