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cjan -> RE: fear of what I desire (1/29/2009 6:31:45 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: allthatjaz
This is also a Buddhist philosophy. They also believe you can turn pain into a positive instead of a negative.
I am able to do this. I practice pure meditation and I can put myself in a place where I fear nothing and feel very little pain but it becomes very insular.
An example of this is when I was suspended on shark hooks. I wasn't doing this for anyone else but myself and to get to a place where I could do it I needed to meditate myself into a beautiful place. With each hook that slid in it felt like a barrier had just been broken down and the pull of the hooks on my flesh felt like a re-birth. I was photographed through the whole experience and on each of those pictures I have a tranquil smile.
I can also go to this place when I take extreme pain over a period of time from my partner. Some may call it sub space but for me it is a moving away from what is actually happening, its disconnecting. I often have to try and stop myself from doing that because I want to remain connected.
I recently wrote a journal regarding a scene and in it I wrote,
'I thought about life and very briefly I thought about death. I saw the ocean and it was the most beautiful blue and I watched as the reflection of the stars bounced off its ripples. I saw twinkling lights along the shore line and I began to swim towards them.
The one thing that is clear here is, I was no longer with him. I was suddenly out on my own and thats not a place I want to go to but sometimes I just can't help it.
With all due respect, jaz, this is a misunderstanding of Buddhism.It's not really about turning pain from a negative into a positive experience, it's about fully experiencing the reality rather than resisting it because of our ideas about it. But, it's not that far off, in that what meditation can show us, through our own direct experience, is that things like fear and pain, when experienced fully and openly instead of resisted, are often much less unpleasant than the idea/anticipation of either. And yes, a certain peace and even euphoria may ensue when we openly embrace and explore the experience. Good thread, thanks for the topic .
Revised to add: After re-reading my post, I think perhaps I am splitting hairs here. In a very real sense, what we are talking about does turn a "negative" experience into a "positive" one. Doesn't it ?
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