Loving-Kindness and the Subtle Mind

Loving-kindness vs. Subtle mind

To have a better grasp on these two exercises and get the experience that was sought after, I had to do them over a few times, three times to be exact, to really “loose” (not literally J) myself in the experience. I have been doing meditation, but nothing fancy like these type of exercises. My meditations have been just me, myself, and I, alone, with some soothing music or sounds in the background. No guided voices. The experience, every time, has been refreshing, invigorating, revitalizing, restorative, tonic,… I don’t want to exhaust the dictionary resources here; I think you get the picture. J The “guided” meditation is another ball game, for me. At first, I could not quite get past the “voice”. I have kind of adjusted now and I realize that I respond better with female voices. Why, you may ask? Truthfully, I am not quite sure… Maybe it has to do with what the female voice represents “for me”: softness, feelings, emotions, compassion, comfort, nurture, foundation, tranquility, stillness, peace, strength, wisdom, and, yes, loving-kindness. Notice I haven’t attached “positive” or “negative” to feelings and emotions. It’s because it does not matter, the emphasis here is to just have feelings and emotions. One can always dissolve the negative ones and let the positive ones flourish. Furthermore, the loving-kindness practice stroke a cord with me. My younger sister has been going through some rough times lately. She’s actually moving in with us today, with my three-year old niece. During the loving-kindness exercise, I was able to reach into her negative emotions. I was able to really feel her pain, her worries, her uncertainties, her doubts and her stress. Taking in so much of those bad emotions was quite a burden and a mind baffling experience. I cried. But then, as I visualized those bad emotions dissolve in my heart with each breath in, the painful crying gave way to tears of joy. The tears of joy were from knowing that, with each breath out, I gave my sister a little more positive feelings and emotions. I gave her hope, happiness, peace, and strength. Soon the tears stopped altogether to give way to peace, inner peace. The more I did the exercise, the more goodness I spread out, the greater I felt deep inside. By the end of the exercise, I felt “lighter”. All my own stress had melted away.

The subtle-mind practice was a bit more challenging. Keeping the focus on just the breathing was feasible for me but, every time I shifted my focus to stillness, multitudes of thoughts rushed into my mind. I kept on shifting back to the breathing to chase those thoughts away. Not having a visual to focus made it quite challenging for me. After a while, I became exhausted mentally. I finished the practice not trying to focus on the stillness anymore. Instead, I just focused on the breathing. In doing that, I was able to relax and just enjoy being.

Between the two exercises, I was impacted more by the loving-kindness practice: I was able to gain a fuller and deeper experience. I was more comfortable doing the loving-kindness practice because I believe that, as they stated in the exercise, “loving-kindness attracts loving-kindness; we get what we give”. That philosophy is not new to me. I have grown up hearing this from my parents, family members and friends. It’s been sort of a cultural thing, almost. As I grew older, I witnessed the veracity of this in numerous occasions. I truly like to help, without expecting anything in return. Like I said in a prior post, I find it uncomfortable and sometimes insulting for someone to tell me “I owe you one” when I do something for them. A mere “thank you”, “I appreciate your help” or a hug, a smile, is more than enough. “I owe you one” makes it a debt and therefore, defeats the purpose of just “doing” for goodness sake.

As for the subtle-mind practice, it will take many more practices for me to gain the deep and full experience I was able to gain with the loving-kindness exercise.

The interconnection of the spiritual wellness with the mental and physical wellness.

Human beings are composed of mind, body, and spirit which, together, form the integral “whole” being. It is, therefore, normal for the latter to be interconnected. This means that when one is affected, so are the other ones. When the body is affected in a negative way, the mind and the spirit are also affected the same way. This is also true vice versa. The negative effect on the body can be lessened or taken out altogether if we only care and nurture all the levels of our being, with a special focus on the spiritual which is the core of our being. When our spiritual wellness is strong, we feel better inside and out, mentally and physically. We feel in control mentally and physically, we are well. At this time, we have reached integral health.

Browny.