Re:meditation and therapy

Hi, Darrell,

I am not sure anyone desires to remain in their suffering. Very often people have never been informed there is another way. For instance, when I first began trying to meditate, I thought it was supposed to be relaxing and blissful. So I soon gave up trying, as whenever I sat, I had intrusive sensations and flashbacks. It was not until many years later I learned that this can be common in meditation: that I was not doing anything "wrong". In fact, I was accessing myself, a wounded self, a self I did not admit or realize WAS wounded.

So much of the abused person's "wiring", learned in childhood, is to regard chaos and deprivation as the "norm". It is thus hard for such persons to embrace peace, calm or lovingkindness. It is almost impossible, at the very least a great effort, for them to turn lovingkindness toward themselves, to be 'nonharming' of themselves. And those qualities are what meditation is all about.

Anyway... I think I am preaching, but the more I meditate the less I believe anyone is a lost cause or wallowing, intentionally in their suffering. We are all dreaming, some more deeply than others...

Replies:

There are no replies to this message.

| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |

Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.