Archive for July, 2008
Love until it hurts
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 | Anything | No Comments
I recently watched a video involving Ken Wilber, when he was asked by a woman what meditation/spiritual practise might be like had it been developed by women, rather than men. Ken goes on to utilise historical precedent as what meditation may be for women, should it be developed. His key point being that the feminine generally reaches enlightenment through love rather than through equanimity. His example was that earlier in history, as a practise, the feminine would literally kiss and suck the wounds of a leper. In this way, women were able to exercise their practise of loving completely and equally, regardless of the situation (which would then make it a pagan practise). This was (in Wilber’s words) just as extreme, if not more than, a man staring at a wall for 8 hours (which was an early meditative practise).
I think we’re beginning to see a shift in meditative practise, (well for me anyways), particularly with meditation techniques such as tonglen which focuses on the suffering we experience in the paranormal world, but ultimately striving to turn that suffering into love. I don’t know if it’s this practise alone that has made me change the way I view things, but something is changing. I for one, feel… almost a need to make people’s lives easier. This was not present more than a year ago and has probably only surfaced within the last 6 months. I’m not sure if this is just my brain growing and my ego feeling as though it needs to deliver love more openly and completely, or if it’s a direct effect of tonglen. In any case, I’m quite enjoying this new view of life, but at the same time it creates conflicts. For example, until having met my missus - I thought I was quite a generous person. Note to those of you - generous does not mean selfless! This has been a hard and lengthy lesson not only for me, but my partner as well.
With this new turn of awareness, I find myself battling between selflessness and doing things I like doing. Which is more “right”? Or, perhaps more accurately - how can I perceive that which is more present? How do I connect more accurately with that “isness”? I guess that’s the next phase - to find that balance without feeling guilty. Time will tell, and I will post here soon as I know.