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Much as I love practicing inner dissolving and all the nei gung I’ve learned from Bruce over the years, I sometimes find myself yearning for more simplicity, and perhaps also an absence of striving. It sometimes seems that with Bruce’s teaching, there’s always a more advanced level of practice to aim towards, and he sometimes seems to give the impression that even though we might have practiced for years, we’re still just paddling in the shallow end. I find it a bit discouraging sometimes.
I’m feeling quite tired at the moment and have been for a couple of weeks, so maybe that’s contributing to my experience. I notice that I sometimes get “blocks” where I just can’t seem to find the energy to do the more subtle practices, so I focus on just simple standing or breath work.
I particularly enjoy a practice I learned from Lama Lena which involves simply sitting down with a pebble in front of me and being present – it’s called “shinay with an object” I believe. There’s something about the non-goal orientedness and ease of this practice that I love.
However, I want to make “progress” in my meditation practice, whatever that actually means, and I’m sometimes conflicted between following my intuition and leaving inner dissolving alone for a period of time on the one hand, and gently pushing through my resistance and keeping doing it, because I’ve somehow internalised the message that it’s the most important practice.
I’m curious to hear if anyone else here has any similar experience or reflections on what I’ve written from their own practice and understanding.
Regards,
Robin.
I’m with you entirely…I think whatever you can do that gets you meditating so you’re internally going “okay, now we’re meditating” is synonymous with inner dissolving and that inner dissolving is just something that we name it for whatever is really going on when you’re meditating.
I think labeling the experience can be detrimental, as can be the expectation of what inner dissolving is. I think inner dissolving is always revealing new facets and though it’s a circular path, it has a bit of a spiral to it in that even though it’s the same it’s genuinely different. Maybe you’re trying to reveal this new perspective of what it has to offer to yourself but you’re stuck on what you expect.
I hope this helps
Hi Robin,
I’ve had some similiar experiances that I can talk about.
I think Inner Dissolving is the most powerful practice that Bruce teaches. I remember he once told the class “Meditation is the solution to all of life’s problems.” At the time, I thought “That seems like a really big exaggeration.” But the more I practice, the less of an exaggeration that statement seems to be.
Do you hate someone? You can dissolve that hatred and be at peace with the other person. Has someone done you wrong and you can’t forgive them? You can dissolve that pain, until you can forgive them. Is there something you want to do in life but for some reason can’t get past the resistance? You can dissolve that resistance. Are you faced with a decision that you are unsure about? You can dissolve until you develop more clarity about the decision.
Inner dissolving seems to be endlessly useful and an incredibly powerful tool to transform your life.
I’ve had similiar feelings of “I’m only practicing the basics and there so much more advanced material to learn.” I used to spend a lot of time being anxious about how much progress I was making. Thinking about ways to “go faster”.
One of Bruce’s older students told me something that left an impression on me. He said “I stopped trying to get anywhere in this system a long time ago. And when I did, I noticed that I started to make faster progress.” This left a very strong impression on me and changed the way I practiced.
I’ve noticed that this pattern has held true for me as well. When I stopped trying to “get somewhere”, I noticed my overall rate of progress increased quite a bit.
One change that led to faster progress was simplifying my practice. My current approach bears a resemblence to Lama Lena’s “Find a pebble and stay present to it”. My current Inner Dissolving practice is “Find a block and stay present while you dissolve it”.
It’s a very simple way of practicing. Find block. Dissolve Block. Rinse and Repeat. Again and again. No need for anything more complicated then that. I usually find the biggest loudest easiest to find block and just sit on it for the whole practice session. I’ll often dissolve the same block for a week or two. I find this leads to more progress for me then lightly dissolving a number of different blocks.
Hope this helps,
Janak
Hi Janak.
Thanks for your reply.
I’ve just enrolled on the EA Training Circle, so hopefully that will give me the support and motivation to keep doing inner dissolving. I’m usually very self-motivated and can practice daily for months without any input, but every now and again I need a “boost.” It’s great to have my “pebble practice” as a fallback when things get too sublte or complex, though. I recommend it to anyone who wants to give their system a nice rest while keeping up meditation practice. I’m guessing that the times I feel drawn to it are when I need a period of integration.
It reminds me of a practice Bruce taught on a spiralling retreat around 2002. We were all a bit cooked and he got us to simply sit passively and let everything come to us – sounds, images etc, while he transmitted some kind of inner peace state which he told us was a great gift. Knowing when and how much of this to do is an interesting question.
I know part of becoming spiritually mature is about choosing what to practice according to our own sensitivity and experience, but there are times when I would definitely value some guidance on choosing practices given my level of experience and particular issues. Maybe I’ll get some of that kind of input as part of the training circle…
Anyway, thanks again. BTW, did I see you in Ibiza this year during the meditation week?
Regards,
Robin.
I
Yup, I was there in Ibiza. I’m the guy that’s always laying on the green cot
Some schools of work really emphasize a step wise fashion, where you must go through ABC before someday getting to XYZ. I’ve always disliked this approach and tend towards more simple and accessible approaches.
What I appreciate about this way of meditation is that you’re really just working with what is presenting itself to be known and worked with at the moment. But you’re specifically working with bodily held psycho-emotive material. Other methods of eastern meditation I’ve spent years in, just have you sit for long periods and you eventually just end up back in your head. At least that was my experience.
I see a parallel in this Water method compared to humanistic psychology/psychotherapy, where our process knows what to do and where it needs to go, the work is to simply remove the blocks to that natural movement. Some of these other very directive and prescribed paths and energy work seem to think that the maps they have are more intelligent than our processes.
I had a thought about “simplicity” and then see David’s above comment, which I believe are good pts…
in regards to simplicity- I’d say not to confuse: less of a cognitive-dissonance (ie trying something that is more similar, or more of a change, from what you are already doing), vs simpler…. as what one may be doing (one’s socio-cultural system, and sub-system methodologies) may be quite “complex” intricate… seeing from the outside of the system (as an outsider vs immersed within)..In other words (to make above simpler, I think- as was simple concept in my thoughts- just translate-transcribing outward…) – to move your finger, you just “wiggle it” -how? like this (the triggering of certain nerve-pathways)… and yet if “those” nervepathways are damaged (concussed, or impaired, injury or stroke.. or trying to “improve” one’s coordination/ recovery.. then it isn’t self-evident…)- then “how move? .. most systems in our culture are basically, try to… until you seem to (thus the idea of either having a system of certain steps- this first and then this second, and then… -assuming that the first is close to where students are, and each next isn’t too much of a gap… ie a “system” vs customized/personalized instruction).. or the stoic method- the first step is a dozy- how? figure it out (struggle- eat bitter)..
thus how move a finger? if can’t- then how to explain, from where they are.. until closer.. even once they can, need develop skill until it is “second nature” (even then it is only “second” not “first-nature”….) once it is a-part-of-you.. then
-dissolving (and KaiHe..and other NeiGung) is like this- how move that finger (L hand pointer)? like this (if one can). How dissolve this pt, now? like this (if one can). -if just do it “like this” -what could be more simple? (if one can’t then that doesn’t mean the skill-task isn’t simple, just how to get there, from here….)
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