ONE SMALL STEP

I sent out my weekly invitation to the group who join me for my Wednesday meditation sessions on Zoom. I headed it "One small step..." and added, in the first line: "... towards the end of suffering." I'm thinking, this evening, to propose a search for those places in the body where we tend to harbor those emotions that we hide, repress, deny; emotions that we prefer, for whatever reason, not to process. They gather in tight little knots of tension that go for the most part undetected. If I look carefully and patiently enough, I find them everywhere: in the belly, of course. That's the prime location. In the neck and shoulders, another one. But also in the fingers, hands and wrists; up the length of the arms; around the eyes and the jaw...

In meditation the strategy is not to examine their source--as it is in, say, therapy--unless that source pops up of its own accord in the form of an insight that the mind can tuck away for future investigation. But once I have found one of these knots of raw, unprocessed emotion I take care to do no more than take note of its presence, and then to use the breath to untangle the physical sensation and allow it to dissipate. If I dwell on it, the mind will wander off on an endless path of unprofitable thinking--which can soon prove the end to meditation. Notice, and let it go with the breath. And if it's a stubborn knot, if it refuses to allow itself to be untangled the first time around, try another breath; and, if necessary, another. 

Each release is another small step towards the end of suffering.