According to Thich Nhat Hahn, the aspect of meditation called shamatha contains four functions (stopping, calming, resting and healing). Why do we need to stop, calm, and rest in order to heal? What are you healing from? Give examples from the article as well as your own life.
Thich Nhat Hahn encourages shamatha, an aspect of meditation, as a means of breaking habits to live more fully in the present with awareness, acceptance and ultimately with love and a desire to bring joy and relieve suffering. Thich Nhat Hahn believes by letting go of habits through a series of functions that include stopping, calming, and resting, your systems can finally heal. The Buddha put it into five stages that can be summarized as: recognizing, accepting, embracing, looking deeply in, and ultimately insight. We will be diving in to why this method of meditation is pivotal to human behavior and how it can really help in healing ourselves and the world around us.
With either technique, both men emphasis the importance to stop, look, feel and listen to our minds and body for guidance and healing. Thich Nhat Hahn says when we stop, that gives us space to stop our thinking; to recognize our habit energies; to see our forgetfulness or the strong emotions that rule us; or perhaps the state of agitation or the restlessness that we encounter. He says, “By recognizing the habits as they come up, as we uncover and shine light on them, they weaken, they lose their dominant position on us.” Understanding the many causes and conditions, primary and secondary, sheds light on the self and exterior circumstances that may have led to the emotion. When we are calm enough, we can look at what causes discomfort, what has brought the emotion to be, and therefore we can discover what we can do ourselves to let it go.
Recognizing and reflecting are not complete without the practice of acceptance and embracing. Thich Nhat Hahn says, “After calming is resting, through sitting meditation. Sinking into the position, "like a pebble thrown into a stream, without effort allows itself to sink slowly to the bottom, where it rests allowing the river water to bass by." In that rest we can practice accepting what comes up and embracing it as part of our process, rather than rejecting or judging it. This creates transformation. So what develops is a rest for the mind and body, a level of calm that affirms life.
Thich Nhat Hahn put it beautifully when he said, "If an animal gets wounded, they find a quiet place and stop. they rest for days on end, lose sight of food, and let the healing powers wash over them. Then they resume life, back to health and vigor. We need to learn and know how to rest. To truly sink into those spaces, where the body shuts off autopilot and is allowed to idle in the healing soothing waters of time. Same goes for the mind. A calming, meditative state, where there is no need to attain anything. No struggle. Just being."
In that state of being, a state of understanding washes over us and connects us to the world. It heals us and puts us in grace. I know, when I allow myself that space, such a as when sitting on a rock overlooking a valley of trees, watching how the leaves blow from the wind, or how the clouds saunter by, without any hurry, I heal. That space for me is stopping. It's a chance to check in and settle into a stillness, to receive and let go of whatever I may have been holding unconsciously of consciously.
Also, by practicing shamatha, I find that I no longer indulge or lose control over my emotions or thoughts. The ability to separate them from personal ownership has been part of my practice for some time now. No longer that which defines me, the emotions are like my child, I am to watch them, care for them, and nurture them when they are upset, but they are not all of me. Just a part, a mix of chromosomes and external stimuli. Realizing and embodying these gifts of wisdom has been truly healing.
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