Sitting Without Friction
Sentarse sin fricción
A student describes visual and bodily experiences during meditation and asks whether they should be doing more with their attention when no contraction is present.
Sitting Without Friction
A student describes visual and bodily experiences during meditation and asks whether they should be doing more with their attention when no contraction is present.
In the meditation just now, I could see something like a moving cobweb, and inside the cobweb there was a dot that felt like an eyeball. When you mentioned friction, I wasn't sure if that was the kind of thing you were referring to. I don't really understand it fully. Seeing this wasn't giving me any trouble, but when I hear a piano ring, the whole body feels like sitting on a boat in the ocean, gently rising and falling. That sort of sensation is really relaxing.
If you don't find any friction, if nothing is pulling you into a kind of contraction, just sit with that. Keep sitting, and you can stay with it as long as you want. In a sense, that's all you need to do.
Undirected attention
The less you direct your attention into any kind of practice, the better. But this only applies if you're not getting pulled into what I was calling friction.
I can also direct my attention to tune in to some sort of still, background silence.
You could notice that true silence isn't located anywhere. It's not in the background. Just let it permeate everything.
Giving time to openness
If this friction isn't coming up, if there's no sense of contraction or getting stuck in narrative, just give yourself time to be in that openness. Then you can let whatever happens, happen.
The deeper insights: don't look for them. Let them come. They will come if you let the process do whatever it does. There is no need to direct or inquire. If something starts to get activated and you get a sense of stuckness, then you might know how to direct your attention to unstick. But if you're already able to just be in that openness, simply be there.
Yes. Thank you.