Meditation: On sitting with oneself - with others

Danish version below

Meditation is often described as a mental activity to focus one's mind.

I think both that this is correct but also that it is misleading, because meditation is not something we "do" or "must do" to get better, through yet another kind of technique to discipline our mind. If we think so, it might even reinforce our society's chronic tendency to experience life mostly mentally through our heads. Also through the western use of the word Mindfulness, it is lost that "mind" is not our mind, but our consciousness, which includes the body, heart and thinking power.

I like the idea that sitting with oneself is an intimate engagement with our life.

During the training to be a body therapist, my teachers used the words "let's sit together" when we started the morning sessions. And that is what I want to highlight. Sitting with oneself (and perhaps with others) is the opposite of a mind technique for discipline. It is to consciously welcome the present.

To sit with oneself, to be here (in the body), as a somatic, bodily, sensual self, is to experience oneself where our experience actually is.

From our sensory impressions, to our instinctive impulses and our mental processes, our emotional reactions and relative patterns - being with it as it is, without having to change anything, judge or imagine something else. It is therefore just being one-self, embodied living.

Lets sit together at Monday Morning Meditation.

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Meditation: Om at sidde - med sig selv (sammen med andre)

At sidde med sig selv er et intimt engagement med vores liv.
Meditation beskrives ofte som en mentalt aktivitet for at fokusere sit sind.
Jeg synes det er misvisende, fordi meditation er ikke noget vi “gør” eller “skal gøre” for at blive bedre, gennem endnu en slags teknik og disciplinering for vores sind. Hvis vi tænker det sådan, kan det måske endda forstærke vores samfunds kronisk tendens til at opleve livet hovedsagelig mentalt gennem vores hoved. Også gennem den vestlige brug for ordet Mindfulness går der tabt, at “mind” er ikke vores sind, men vores bevidsthed, som inkluderer kroppen, hjertet og tankekraft.

Under uddannelsen til kropsterapeut brugte min lærer ordene “lad os sidde sammen” da vi startede morgensamlingerne. Og det er det jeg vil fremhæve. At sidde med sig selv (og måske sammen med andre) er det modsatte af en sinds-teknik for disciplinering. Det er at bevidst hilse velkommen til nuet.

At sidde med sig selv, at være her (i kroppen), som somatisk, kropslig, sanselig selv, er at opleve sig selv der, hvor vores erfaring faktisk er.
Fra vores sanselige indtryk, til vores instinktive impulser og vores mentale processer, vores emotionelle reaktioner og relative mønster - at være med det, som det er, uden at skulle ændre noget, bedømme eller forestille sig noget andet. Det er altså at være sig selv og bebo vores kropslige liv, embodied living.

Lad os sidde sammen hvert mandag morgen