Silence and the Presence of Suffering
El silencio y la presencia del sufrimiento
A student describes finding unexpected silence during meditation despite recent suffering, and the teacher clarifies the difference between invoking stories of suffering and noticing contraction in present experience.
Silence and the Presence of Suffering
A student describes finding unexpected silence during meditation despite recent suffering, and the teacher clarifies the difference between invoking stories of suffering and noticing contraction in present experience.
I actually experienced something similar in the meditation, and it was very helpful to hear the answer you just gave, because it resonated with me. I know there is suffering in me, but as of right now there is all this silence. I can evoke what creates suffering for me, but do I want to right now? Maybe I'll just give myself another day. I even had a similar thought at some point: right now there's a lot of silence, and there are other things that could evoke suffering, but I don't want to bring them up.
But there's a difference in the invitation. At least what I meant to invite is not to invoke thoughts that create suffering. I was inviting you to look, right now, in your present experience, for any sense of contraction, any sense of "what's happening shouldn't be happening," any sense that something's not okay. That is different from invoking a story that brings suffering.
Invoking a story versus scanning present experience
That's a good clarification, because I felt more like I could do the latter. I can start thinking about things I know would bring me to suffering, but the current experience is very strangely silent right now. When I started scanning my body for where the pain is, where the fear is, there was actually quite a release. A silent release. So I felt like I didn't want to deliberately invite myself to contemplate this or that story that could bring suffering.
Right.
I think the words just take us where they take us, and it's hard to distinguish. But I found really valuable the way you were answering the previous question, especially because I've been suffering a lot in the past few days. So particularly today, I noticed: there's just all this silence, but I know there's suffering in my experience.
Yes. And I wasn't inviting that. If I somehow suggested it, that's not what I meant. But it's also not a bad thing to explore. I'm not saying it's wrong to do so. It's just not what I was inviting today.