Breaking Open vs. Down
Another simple little guideline...
If I resist experiences, it creates suffering. And if the experience and resistance both are strong, it may lead to a breakdown of one sort or another.
If I allow whatever is experienced - including any resistance to it, then the intensity leads to a breaking open rather than breaking down. I move to and beyond the current edge. There is a new territory explored. And eventually, it can lead to the breaking open into a realization of no I anywhere.
This is of course a very rough way of talking about it.
When there is an experience, and an identification with a resistance to that experience, it leads to suffering. And this identification to the resistance usually comes when the initial experience is outside of my conscious identity - my view of who I am or at least should be. So when both the initial experience and the resistance are strong, it can lead to some sort of breakdown - form exhaustion to something more dramatic.
When there is an experience, and no or less identification with any resistance to it, then it just unfolds in space as anything else. There is less or no suffering. It is just living its own life. And I find myself as the space holding it all. Any intensity of the content now only serves to help me notice the inherent and natural space and clarity of mind. Intensity now helps me notice the nature of mind more clearly, that which is there independent of any changing content. The Ground and clarity.
When there is an identification with resistance, what is resisted appears as a disturbance and an Other. When there is less or no identification with this resistance, what is resisted just happens - along with everything else. It is just a part of what is passing through.
Labels: being with, resistance