Posted by Bob on November 12, 1999, at 20:52:12
In reply to Re: Psychotherapy sites, posted by Adam on November 12, 1999, at 18:23:53
... for me, that is.
(btw, Adam, I can see why maybe we knock heads on occasion without me knowing it ... in some ways, we are just too much alike ;^)
Sri Chinmoy, in teaching about the "goal" of meditation, talks about expanding upward and inward at the same time. The ultimate high, the deepest insight, all at the same time. That's why, for me, meditation is therapeutic.
With my therapist, it works this way. I started with what I thought was a good understanding of the heart of my problem ... but there always were these metaphors I used to "understand" my pain without really understanding the metaphors themselves. Examining my life with my therapist has been like peeling an onion -- she challenges my perceptions and adds her own insights, and eventually (tho not gradually ... it tends to come in an epiphany or thru some critical mass) a layer gets peeled back. the metaphors take on not one but two added dimensions -- one peering in on the structure of my "self", the other peering out on how that self experiences the world. In four years, I've been able to do this three or four times. It may not seem like much progress, but each shift in understanding has been life-shaking. Quality, not quantity.
Of course, my meditation has given me one more metaphor ... something that acted as a key to the locks several of my other essential metaphors posed. One guided meditation of Sri Chinmoy's is, once you have calmed yourself in a deep meditative state, to go to your heart's door and open it to see what's there. When I went to my heart's door, I was standing on the outside. Everything outside was blacker than night, except for the pure white light (tinging my heart's door that color of red you see when you put your fingers over a flashlight) coming from inside thru a barely cracked opening of the door. Even though the door is clearly not locked, since it's open a bit, I cannot open the door. Yet. For now, I'm still on the outside of my own heart.
It may not sound all that good, but recognizing that has been a comfort ... it feels like something unknown is now much better defined.
Bob
poster:Bob
thread:14804
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991108/msgs/15115.html