Hello everyone! We are almost halfway through our month-long challenge. I want to send everyone a virtual pat-on-the-back for all the effort you have put in so far.
In the spirit of this week’s theme on mindfulness on the body, I thought I would talk about my least favourite bodily sensation while meditating – my neck pain. I’ve had it for a number of years now and I don’t really know why it started. Anyways, it’s been a constant challenge in my practice. Whenever I’m following the meditation instruction to shift my focus from the breath to the body sensation is most prominent, I nearly always end up on my neck. It’s an achey, tight feeling. It’s usually more on the left than the right, and it’s always annoying! When I was on my first week-long retreat in December 2014, it was the central theme. I figured I would have to deal with some unpleasant sensations and emotions during the retreat, but having pain take center stage caught me entirely by surprise. I wanted it to go away so badly, but the more I wanted it to go away, the worse it got. Eventually, I made it through the week, but it was a constant challenge.
When touched with a feeling of pain,the ordinary uninstructed person
sorrows, grieves,
and laments, beats his breast,
becomes distraught.
So he feels two pains,
physical and mental.
Just as if they were to shoot a man
with an arrow and,
right afterward,
were to shoot him with another one,
so that he would feel
the pains of two arrows…
—the Buddha
Wishing everyone well in their practice over the next week!
Keith