2 weeks til Vipassana - All about my bum...

There is a reason for the saying 'its what you do today that matters most'. Meditation practice got difficult with 3 weeks to go before vipassana  because I got sick and had to finish work and move out. In cases such as these, the teaching is - just as per the practice itself of just coming back to breathe when your mind wanders (without judging yourself) the same applies for not practising for a while. Just start again and don't judge yourself. Sounds good to me!

2 weeks til vipassana and I'm in Thailand heading to an island! Today I meditated on a bus for 2 hours. I don't think my ass has ever hurt so much! The extra 15 mins on top of what I was doing seemed to be solely dedicated to ass pain! 

The longer mediations are very interesting. So much more comes up and is experienced and needs to be breathed through than in 40 mins. Today, one of my hairs was tickling 
my face in that kind of way that you just need to immediately move it and scratch it. It is an acute sensation which ordinarily you'd react to straight away. One of the purposes of watching these experiences is to recognise change - impermanence. Sensations are a good example of this and so i watched. Sure enough within about 2 minutes which in meditation time - is quite a lot of 'moments' - the sensation had completely disappeared! This small and seemingly trivial event shows that our reactions to things - often as a result of what feels like a strong sensation or feeling - might be different if we stop and watch for a moment. Reactions after a pause could help in many situations in life.

Unfortunately the same disappearing act of sensations cant be said for the pain in my ass! For about the last 30 mins it really hurt. Aside from watching the pain change in feeling, intensity, locality which happens when you watch, I find it interesting that when I put my awareness in other areas of my body - they feel really nice. My feet against my soft flip flops. My back against the seat. The relaxed feeling in my face. Despite the pain, there were other nice experiences to focus on. My whole experience didn't have to be  defined by that aspect, as long as my mind didn't just say over and over 'it hurts, it hurst!' 

The idea of working through the sensation of pain is that we encounter pain in life all the time but there are often two arrows. The first arrow is the sensation of pain in the body or even the mind (for emotional pain). Then there is often a second arrow which is the thinking that goes with it. This second arrow  is often resistance - a frustration with the pain - a denial that it is happening or thoughts of annoyance. The pain multiplied by the resistance often leads to quite a lot of suffering. 

The 'invitation' when meditating is to watch the pain and your thoughts. And try not to just wish the alarm would ring!! In this way, you have pain, but less resistance and therefore less suffering. In life, this helps to reduce suffering and increase acceptance of what is. 

For the 30 mins, I tried several techniques - softly labelling what was happening (a practice recommended in insight meditation) - followed by 'how long left? When will it ring?!!!),  deep breathing (ring!!!), body scan to see how the rest of my body felt (reminding myself that I was probably in last 10 mins), breathing (ring!!!!), calming my mind....

Ding dong, ding dong. Ahhhhh.....welcome back bum!