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Talk: 19970309-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-daily_life_some_guidelines_to_practice-42353 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 00:33:02 Display_question: If you're totally present to your experience, where are emotions? Keyword_search: walking meditation, emotions, thoughts, attention, Thailand, French medical journal, World War II, Indian, Paris, samadhi, absorbed, physical pain, Buddha, fear, impermanent, attachment, psychotherapy, insight meditation, self-knowledge, spiritual path, enlightenment, awakening, illusion, self Question_content: Questioner: Yesterday I had kind of an interesting experience outdoor walking meditation, and focusing on my steps. And then I had this thought come to my head, and then I started to cry. And then I started focusing on my steps again, and the tears went away. And then the same thought came into to my head, and I started to cry again. So, I put my focus back on my feet, and the tears went away. So, my question is, like, if you're totally present to your experience, where are emotions? Because I felt like I was totally present to the walking. Larry: And in the present, and in the process, you left your emotions behind? Questioner: Right because they really were connected with the thought. Larry: Yes but let me see if I understand you. See, there are a number of things you could have done. Let's say you're doing the walking, and you have a certain thought, and then you start to cry. Okay now, in the process of resuming walking, what you're doing is taking your attention away from where you were, and you're becoming absorbed in walking again. So, in the process of becoming, it's something like this. A child is mischievous, right? Naughty. Give it a toy, it becomes absorbed in it, and then it's not naughty anymore, until it gets bored with it. Then it starts being naughty again. Break_line: So, you…for example, it's an interesting way to look at practice. In Thailand, sometimes what they'll have, you have a walking path, back and forth, but they'll have a little platform with a tin roof right next to the walking path. Not everyone gets one of those, but there are some, and that's for…sometimes you're doing the walking, and something comes up that's really profound. Stop walking. And they don't even want you to interrupt it, or short circuit what's going on, by climbing up to where you live. It's on the second story, they're raised because of the rainy season. And so, it's just a few seconds away from you. You just go right into the sitting, so that you can go deeply into, in this case, the particular emotion. You would drop the walking. Do you see what I'm getting at? Break_line: Now, I don't want to make that into a formula. You have to learn how to work artfully. But what you did sounds like… but it's like by switching to the walking, you took the energy out of what was happening, and you became absorbed in the walking. And then, of course, the other started to lose its power. You can become so absorbed in whatever object, that you can undergo an operation. And it's like an anesthetic. There was a recorded case in one French medical journal, during World War II, there was an Indian, who was in Paris, who had an emergency appendectomy operation, and there was nothing to… no anesthesia. So, he said, how long will this operation take? And they told him about a half an hour. He took a picture of his guru, and he used that to become absorbed. Doesn't have to be the breath. And he went completely into a very deep state of Samadhi, and the operation took less time, and he was still out, and he was still very, very concentrated. Break_line: Now that's so that…. what you're doing is, you become absorbed in something else. So, you're not in touch with the physical pain, or the emotional pain, and then it kind of wears out. Do you see what I'm getting at? One thing the Buddha did, he had a principle that he put into effect, like, anytime… this is in regard to fear, we didn't cover this the other evening. Anytime he came upon any strong fear, he would not change his posture. In other words, he would continue to meditate on that fear, in whatever posture he was in. If he was walking, he would continue to stay with it. It's a little different twist on this. Probably not so much walking, but if he was standing, or lying down, because he didn't want to change the posture, because in the process, he might have short circuited it, so he'd continue doing whatever it was he was doing, in order to penetrate deeply into it. Questioner: Continue that thought. Penetrate, penetrate, penetrate. deeply into it. And then find out what it is. Larry: No, let life teach you. Find out what that means. In other words, you're going to see into the nature of what it is. Questioner: I'm missing that piece. If I were in this person’s…if that experience happened to me. I went to that weeping and just stayed there. Larry: And what happened? Questioner: It finished. Larry: Yeah. So, it's impermanent. Questioner: I recognize that’s weeping. And I started watching it. Larry: Okay. No, fine. But look, if you view it from the point of view of practice, when I say go deeply into it, means you see more clearly, that it's impermanent, and that it lacks self. Then that would free you from the attachment to it, and enable you to go deeper inside. This is an interior journey. It's not only. But right now, we're caught on the surface of consciousness, because we get so caught, in all these things, like and dislike. So, as you are able to observe something, and you go deeply into it, you see its true nature. Break_line: Now, if you want to understand it on its content level, which I sense that you do, that's more of a psychotherapeutic mode, not also valuable, but also you learn about it in this, too. It's not that we don't want to learn these things. You learn a lot, that people would call psychotherapy, in doing this practice, too, don't you? I mean, it just comes don't you get just an ordinary sense, begins to understand certain of your motives and why you're doing things, et cetera. So that's part of the practice. Break_line: But insight meditation has a much more specific meaning, in addition to whatever else you learn about yourself. Self-knowledge, it's a seeing into the nature of all formations, and you'd see that whatever that emotion was, it was impermanent, and it lacked self, which would take you deeper into yourself. Now, if your goal is to be a well-adjusted person… see, there's a dimension to this. Why is this a spiritual path? It's not just psychological well adjustment or to be a happier person. Although that, of course, is very, very important. What is this stuff that we hear about enlightenment, about awakening? It's another dimension. If you're caught, on all of your stuff, you're not going to taste that dimension, because all the energy is caught there. So, the penetration enables you to go deeper into what it was you were crying about or what your emotion was. Break_line: Now, in the process, you can also learn what it is. But there's another kind of learning which most people are not interested in. Who cares if it's impermanent and it's not self. But if you're on this path, we're strange. We are interested in it. For one thing, that's exactly what keeps the illusion of a self, alive. Now, maybe you don't want to let that illusion go. It's a free country. Whatever you want. End_time: 00:41:16
