Mental Experiments continued
Is it possible to drop the knife?
I woke up with a crick under my shoulder blade. That would be unremarkable — we know such things usually go away on their own — except I’ve been dealing with one painful body part after another for the past several months. A voice in my head tells me this is natural, this is what it’s like to get old.
Another voice reminds me that this is what it’s like to sit for a 10 day silent Vipassana meditation retreat.
I completed three silent retreats years ago and I learned some surprising things about pain. Most people who sit for one of these 10 day courses experience an insane amount of pain. During my first course I thought all the pain meant I hadn’t done enough yoga beforehand, but afterwards I talked to a woman who was a yoga teacher, and it was the same for her — so much pain! The meditation instructor patiently explains day after day that whatever we are experiencing — pain, itching, hunger, too hot, too cold, sleepiness, sniffles, coughing — we are to simply observe. Intense pain is scary! We think there’s something wrong, maybe something terrible is happening. Meditating through this really isn’t easy, but there’s a lot of support.
The teacher tells us that the pain arising while we meditate comes from “sankaras” or mental impurities, and that as we observe…
