Struggle Creates Success
One time in Sri Lanka, while on a long silent retreat, I complained to the teacher that I was having a particularly difficult time with a block that had arisen in meditation. I won’t go into the nature of the block, but it was very physical and very painful, and I’d been struggling with it for over a week.
His reaction was not entirely sympathetic – in fact, he smiled and said, ‘That’s good.’
‘Why is it good?’ I asked.
‘Because when struggling is present, the lessons are deep,’ he said.
As I watched the following video, I remembered this, and how that particular struggle led to an eventual understanding of the nature of what I had been doing wrong in meditation, and a progression I could never have achieved easily. And it has to do with the way the brain structures itself, and how it learns, and assimilates learning.
This particular TED talk is fascinating, and pertains very much to the process we undertake when we meditate – and how what we perceive as ‘problems’ are not problems at all, but opportunities to progress.
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‘BEING STILL – MEDITATION THAT MAKES SENSE’, Roger’s new book, is available now.
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‘BEING STILL’ is available on Amazon as a softback book …….. AUD $26.40 (incl. GST)
‘BEING STILL’ is also available as a Kindle ebook ………………………………………..AUD $11.99
‘BEING STILL’ the audiobook (including all exercises) ………………………………. AUD $25.00
(The audiobook includes all the exercises, as well as ebooks of Being Still, to fit any device.)
