"There is in the body a current of energy, affection and intelligence, which guides, maintains and energizes the body and mind. Discover that current and stay with it."
Nisargadatta Maharaj
While I like the tao of this quote, and I love the way it is written, I have problems with the suggestion. Not believing that there is one current, but many currents, meditation, for me, is a negotiation of the selves and of often contradictory sides to ourselves. How would tapping into that one current deal with the part of us that rebels against a possibly autocratic idea that there can be one current to which we must subsume the multiplicity of ourselves?
Each day meditation is different, though, perhaps, the river is the same.
What are your thoughts on this? Your experience of contradictorinesses in approaching meditation, staying with it, learning from it?
Is is the problem of the one curent idea when each day is different?
Is meditation like practicing one set of simple scales over and over to tedium?
Can we gather around this beautiful little quote to discuss difficulties with meditation?
I feel more like there is not one current but one ocean of being, containing many currents, that I tap into. Not unrelated to my recent poem "Sentenced to confusion" which reflects in part on my continual inability to fully collect myself.
Hmm. I think it's at a level of abstraction that I can't really bring down to earth to mean much to me. But I've always had this problem with monism & dualism -- at the level of generality at which it's all just one thing, or all just two things, I'm usually not very interested any more :-)
Having said that, though, I must also say that I have had experiences of -- something -- sensations of being saturated with light and removed from anxiety -- that have been terribly important to me. But discovering it and staying with it seem like impossible propositions. It discovers me, and stays just as long as it pleases, in my experience :-)
My biggest motivation for meditation and ethical living is that I think they make me more receptive to these visitations. But I'm not sure of that. They may just come and go no matter what I do.
I think that was a longwinded way of saying "gee, I don't know."
MB, I'm with you - it is one ocean, but the currents are different, or the light is, or the taste of the salt. Meaning each day is different to the one before. Variations on a theme, perhaps.
Dale, I love reading your response, "sensations of being saturated with light and removed from anxiety" is utterly beautiful. One only wishes to silently bow... and completely inappropriately ask, is it always the same light?
4 Comments:
"There is in the body a current of energy, affection and intelligence, which guides, maintains and energizes the body and mind. Discover that current and stay with it."
Nisargadatta Maharaj
While I like the tao of this quote, and I love the way it is written, I have problems with the suggestion. Not believing that there is one current, but many currents, meditation, for me, is a negotiation of the selves and of often contradictory sides to ourselves. How would tapping into that one current deal with the part of us that rebels against a possibly autocratic idea that there can be one current to which we must subsume the multiplicity of ourselves?
Each day meditation is different, though, perhaps, the river is the same.
What are your thoughts on this? Your experience of contradictorinesses in approaching meditation, staying with it, learning from it?
Is is the problem of the one curent idea when each day is different?
Is meditation like practicing one set of simple scales over and over to tedium?
Can we gather around this beautiful little quote to discuss difficulties with meditation?
I feel more like there is not one current but one ocean of being, containing many currents, that I tap into. Not unrelated to my recent poem "Sentenced to confusion" which reflects in part on my continual inability to fully collect myself.
Hmm. I think it's at a level of abstraction that I can't really bring down to earth to mean much to me. But I've always had this problem with monism & dualism -- at the level of generality at which it's all just one thing, or all just two things, I'm usually not very interested any more :-)
Having said that, though, I must also say that I have had experiences of -- something -- sensations of being saturated with light and removed from anxiety -- that have been terribly important to me. But discovering it and staying with it seem like impossible propositions. It discovers me, and stays just as long as it pleases, in my experience :-)
My biggest motivation for meditation and ethical living is that I think they make me more receptive to these visitations. But I'm not sure of that. They may just come and go no matter what I do.
I think that was a longwinded way of saying "gee, I don't know."
MB, I'm with you - it is one ocean, but the currents are different, or the light is, or the taste of the salt. Meaning each day is different to the one before. Variations on a theme, perhaps.
Dale, I love reading your response, "sensations of being saturated with light and removed from anxiety" is utterly beautiful. One only wishes to silently bow... and completely inappropriately ask, is it always the same light?
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