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Review of “Break Through Pain”
By Ben | July 14, 2008
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This has replaced “The Science of Enlightenment” as my favorite product from Shinzen Young.
This gives a vast amount of information on how to deal with pain as well as insight meditation.
For years, I refused to do meditation in certain positions. If the posture hurt my knees, I wouldn’t do it. If there was too much discomfort in my back, I wouldn’t do it. Now I realize that these can just be more effective objects of meditation. The most effective object of meditation isn’t the one you choose, it is the one you are presented with.
Now I’m not saying that you have to put yourself in pain in order to meditate… in fact, you want to listen to your body to determine what is just discomfort, and what could actually damage you.
Studying this book and the accompanying CD will help you learn to
transcend suffering,
and therefore your understanding of pain. Most of what we refer to as pain is actually suffering.
As an example, when I used to do sitting meditation, I would get pain in my knees. I would then think something along the lines of “Oh shit, I don’t want to permanently mess up my knees!” Then I would visualize the damage to the knee, and sometimes I would play a movie inside my mind of me trying to move through the world with a serious knee injury.
Since I have studied this book and practiced the meditations on the CD, I have come to realize that the pain in my knees was actually very minor. My subjective sense of suffering was great because I lost track of what I was experiencing. When our experience is outside of our conscious awareness, it has a seemingly much more dramatic effect! Most of the emotional challenges that we face in life are easily handled with these techniques! Now that I am paying closer attention to what is happening, I am now aware that the pain in my knees is actually just discomfort. If any troubling visualizations or internal sounds come up while I practice, I can focus specifically on the nature of these sounds and pictures, or I can just let them pass and continue to pour my awareness into the focus of my meditation.
You can bring these skills into any aspect of your life!
There is also an amazing meditation in this book/CD called “Breath Pleasure”. This has become one of my favorite mental exercises. It takes just a little bit of practice to get it down, and then it is an easy resource for good feelings at any point in your life! Do you ever stop breathing? As you play with this meditation more and more, you will be able to enter deeper and deeper states of pleasure, just by paying attention to your breath!
Shinzen Young is an excellent author and speaker. He explains the concepts simply and precisely. If you are looking to develop laser-like focus and the ability to allow your day-to-day experience to become a blissful flow of awareness, then this book is a must read!
If you get it right now, it’s less than $20 from Amazon (with shipping)! Check out the Amazon box on the lower left hand side of this page.
I have been studying many schools of meditation for over 15 years. “Break Through Pain” is one of the simplest, fastest, most effective presentations of ‘how to meditate’ that I have ever seen. Take a look!
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: Experiences, Product Reviews |
