Death Row for the Illusions
Corredor de la Muerte para las Ilusiones
A student notices the sense of threat that can arise in meditation and asks whether there is anything truly threatening at all.
Death Row for the Illusions
A student notices the sense of threat that can arise in meditation and asks whether there is anything truly threatening at all.
During the meditation, at one point you said something like, "It seems like there could be something threatening." I felt that immediately, yes. But it sounds like you're suggesting there isn't actually anything threatening.
It depends on what the threat is to.
The threat is to our illusory nature. In that sense, sitting to meditate is death row for that part of us: for our illusions, for what we believe that is not true, for what we believe we are that is false, for our attachments. Sitting to meditate is very threatening, and that is the resistance.
What can be threatened grows smaller
There are two aspects we can notice over time in the practice. One is simply getting accustomed to it. It's like stepping into a hot tub. At first it burns, and then it feels nice. Sitting to meditate has that aspect. But there is also a more important aspect: to recognize that what we are can less and less be threatened. There can be a shifting. As the illusions dissolve, as they fall, as we stop believing them, then those threats are over.
Ultimately, we can recognize that what we truly are has no threat. What we are, in a sense, is everything and nothing, and therefore nothing that happens can threaten this.
Working with what still feels real
In a way, I already knew that. But at the same time, it really doesn't feel like that. I suppose it's just good to work with whatever is there.
Whatever feels threatening is a sign of an illusion, something that is not real.