![]() This extra time will help you get clarity about the actual need and the relative urgency of your desired object. Why not try enforcing the 30 day wait-period on purchases? Replace impulsive purchases with deliberate and conscious actions.Ī Washington University study on ‘Impulsivity and self control’ has revealed that, the patient individuals devoted more energy to imagining receiving their reward later. Watch out for the stimuli that urge you to reach for instant fixes. ![]() So, it is most likely to make subconscious choices that do not reflect your best intentions. When you are multitasking, your brain is distracted. How to overcome the lure of instant gratification? The follow-up studies to the marshmallow experiment have found that the ability to delay gratification can be practiced and learned like any other life skill. Whatever is happening becomes a support for staying undistracted.Īfter I had practiced this for a while, Ponlop Rinpoche’s words in Mind Beyond Death took on a new importance for me:ĭo not be afraid of being who you are in any moment, or under any circumstance.If you are already in grips of the ‘right here right now’ mentality, don't despair. In meditation, you regard all sensations, thoughts, and feelings like waves on the ocean or clouds in the sky. It means to rest in this honest, open space and just let all sensations, thoughts, and emotions come and go. You drop thoughts of higher and lower, spiritual and mundane and stop looking for a “better” experience outside of the present one. In meditation, that means not trying to improve, reject, or change the present experience. It means feeling my body in space and the space in my body.Īuthenticity means not trying to be anyone or accomplish anything, even meditation. ![]() In a meditation session, that means connecting with what I am seeing, feeling, tasting, etc. Personally, I do this through my body and senses. Simplicity means to drop the story about past, present, and future and connect directly to your experience right now. It turned out that those early instructions I had haughtily dismissed were three basic principles of meditation: simplicity, authenticity, and presence. Rather than giving up on a spiritual path, I was starting one. I felt raw and vulnerable, but also more spacious and kind. I began to let go of my spiritual safety blanket and open up to myself and those around me. Having fallen on my face, so to speak, I had finally found ground I could stand on. Yet this sobering insight was deeply transformative. Seeing this was like having the rug pulled out from under me. Through meditation practice I discovered that, like some of the original German fairy tales, a genuine path of awakening is a little messier than the stories I knew as a kid. Rather than waking up from the Matrix of self-deception, I was burrowing deeper into a fantasy. I was trying to be someone else, someone special. Slowly, I noticed how I was using “spirituality” and the quest for something to separate myself from others, to hide from my problems and pain, and to hide from myself. “Where are the angels, the chakras lighting up, the soaring into the astral plane, the voice of God or ancient masters telling me the secrets of the universe?” “This isn’t special enough to be a spiritual experience,” I thought. This is boring and awkward, just like me and my life.” When I first learned meditation from my teacher, Ponlop Rinpoche, my reaction was, “That’s it? Just sit and look? No, no, no. I wanted to be the hero in my story of enlightenment. I wanted to peel back the veil of this illusory existence and wake up from my life. I wanted to have a special “spiritual” experience, to find my “True” self, my “Higher” self, God, or enlightenment. I wanted to meet yogis, gurus, wizards, alchemists, and adepts from the mystical traditions of the world. I didn’t want to be an average kid from a small town in Texas. Growing up, I thought a spiritual path would rescue me from my boring life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |