Less Thinking More Being

I can distinctly remember the day of my 10-day Vipassana retreat in which we transitioned from a simpler technique to the whole enchilada. The hall was cool and the light dim. I was sitting cross-legged against a wall. I was feeling a bit frustrated about having to sit AGAIN -- this time for a stretch of 2 hours. Still, I was excited about learning the technique. Our lessons were delivered via tape and I settled into my space and my body just as the tape began playing.

Perhaps 45 minutes or an hour into the instruction...WHAMMO! My mind was screaming for me to move to get up and leave the hall to end this...suffering. I remember frantically wondering how much longer the instruction was going to last. Why was the teacher speaking so slowly? Wow, my knee hurts. I'm hungry -- when are we going to eat? My ego popped in there for good measure with a resolve to stay still even if it killed me. Just about everything and anything ran through my mind. Then at one point in the process I started to notice my thoughts from a more objective perspective. I started to become amused by how extreme these thoughts were and how they were turning my experience into a hellacious (yep, I'm making up words again) one. Up until that retreat I hadn't sat for that long at one time. I had typically sat for shorter periods with walking meditation mixed in. Sitting still for a few hours -- after already having done so for a few days prior -- was completely new to me. Let's just say that my mind didn't like this new experience (or so it screamed).

I had been practicing yoga for quite some time before that retreat and I had been on other meditation retreats (albeit shorter ones). I had read a lot of Buddhist-inspired books and soaked up quite a bit of yoga and Buddhist teachings. I knew that thoughts create suffering. Yet it wasn't until that day when I truly experienced it in stereo that I felt that teaching in my bones. Ever since that day I've been more aware of the importance of living from the heart rather than the mind. In fact, I recently read an excellent blog post on the topic (Thinking Can Ruin Your Life) on the Pick The Brain blog. Check it out.

As with many things in my life, when I focus on something a whole chain of wonderful related events/meetings/happenings ensue. Right now I'm studying heart meditation and learning some heart-centered teachings. What shows up, you ask? A wonderful song from Snatam Kaur (who has the voice of an angel, by the way) appropriately entitled Follow Your Heart. I have quite a bit of Snatam's music and I find her voice to be simply amazing but this recording really touched something deep inside of me. It's the sort of song that you just put on repeat and listen to all day long (that's what I did last night). You can download a live performance of the song from the generous folks over at Omega. I suggest going straight to the high-res download rather than listen to the preview. The download is the complete 8-minute song. Soak in the words and enjoy!

This blog is a great example of following my heart. Often I get questions about how I "come up with" the content that I post. I don't come up with anything -- it comes to me. Very rarely to I think about what I'm going to post -- the content just comes. I don't plan. I don't put a lot of thought into the posts. Instead, I let the material come from inside. Sure enough, it feels better that way.

And on a somewhat related note...

Today I did a little something that made me feel reeeeaaally good -- I saved a tree or two by signing up with a wonderful company called GreenDimes to stop my junk mail. You can sign up for their free service or their one-time fee services (which are both inexpensive -- I only spent $20). They even offer to pay you $1 to banish junk mail. Rather than accept their generous offer, I opted to have a tree planted (you can either get a dollar back, have a tree planted, or get a free issue of a living green magazine) -- that just felt more valuable to me than getting a buck back in the mail.

Get out of your head and go in peace.

Namaste!

Comments

[Sanjiv]

GreenDimes here,

Thanks for signing up and the warm sentiments. On a personal note, I need to put you in touch with my Dad; he's huge into yoga.