June, 2024
My personal meditation practice took an interesting turn when I came across this book recently. It talks about a modern interpretation of an ancient Tibetan practice called Chöd.
I’m pretty sure we have all had thoughts, feelings, or even physical pain that we just want to get rid of, and there are practices that focus on “clearing” them out – removing them. There are examples I can think of in Christian prayer as well as many forms of healing work.
Chöd takes a different approach. Instead of asking or seeking to be rid of these things, we should consider why they are there, what they want, and then give it to them. The idea is then that, once satiated, they will abate and perhaps even transform into an energy that can be helpful and healing.
It’s a very specific and detailed practice, and I can’t claim that I’ve applied much rigor to my experiments, but I have found it helpful and effective. Having said that, it’s a little bit of a trust fall to honor or almost befriend the thing that is causing you pain. I was intrigued, though, by the serendipity of the fact that, having never heard anyone mention it before, I almost immediately learned that someone I know well is so interested in it that she is going to Tsultrim Allione’s center in Colorado for a Chöd retreat.
It reminds me of the Internal Family Systems approach, and similar approaches, to talk therapy. My very, very simplistic interpretation being that the more you try to deny or get rid of something that is trying to get your attention, the more it will fight to survive.
February, 2024
It’s a noisy world, and I think a lot about trying to find the signal in all the noise that matches the rhythm I want for my life. And that’s why I meditate.
January, 2024
Anything involving water – me in the water, me around the water – just makes meditation better for me.
That’s why I have to share this experience even though it was years ago – it was called a Himalayan Sound Bath.
It took place in a swimming pool @MiravalArizona and was led by the lovely @pamlancaster108.
Picture a small group standing in the shallow end of a nice warm shady pool. You get a pool noodle under the arms and floats on your ankles. You lay back with your legs over a floating lane marker, the noodle under your arms, eyes closed. Behind your closed eyes, the light changes, just a little, as the sun comes in and out of the shade. Once everyone settles in, the leaders start to play the Tibetan bowls.
Because the bowls are in the water, the sound transmits, but so do the vibrations, so your whole body feels the sensation. Now here’s the good part – eventually, and if you are lucky more than once, one of the leaders makes their way over to you, places a bowl in your chest or stomach, and makes it sing. There’s nothing like it.
A privileged experience, for sure. But here’s what’s fun – last time I was in a pool there was this donut shaped float, and I put my butt in it and closed my eyes and felt the sun and the breeze. I think the floating vacuum even added a little hum, and everything just fell away, just like it did the fancy time.
