Bjarne Timonen

In the years that I have practiced meditation I have met a lot of long time practitioners who, even after all these years, still struggle with psychological problems. Also with myself I noticed that meditation itself didn’t clear up all the points in my life where I got stuck. Often we need something extra next to our meditation practice. We might visit a therapist to talk about a possible long-time unresolved trauma, or we might use other techniques to give attention to certain areas where we get stuck. I myself find writing a very effective way of dealing with some of the stuff that meditation doesn’t seem to reach. With writing we actually use a different brain part than the areas we use when we worry or ruminate, which seems to work like a loop. Writing seems to re-process the experience, memory or worrying thoughts and is a very effective tool to end rumination and become aware of the loop we have been stuck in for so long. In Sweden, where I currently live, we use the term ’smörgåsbord’ (A Swedish buffet meal with a lot of different kinds of food) in psychiatry, which basically means that if we want to tackle a problem, say depression, it’s best to have multiple interventions. So next to meditation, writing or therapy we might even strengthen this whole process by doing running (which increases endorphins in our brains), yoga, martial arts or something other creative such as painting or making music, all methods which have been scientifically proven to be helpful in psychological and physical well-being. It is important that you find out what works for you. In cases such as severe depression, psychotic disorders or affective disorders medication is often needed, but can be ignorant and dangerous to think that medication alone will solve someone’s disorder. But we can always go back to the cushion, the use of other interventions can be a great stimulation to our meditation practice, enlightening those points of suffering in which our meditation practice got stuck so that much more space is created for compassion and insight to benefit other beings.

Practicing without the heart is useless

In mindfulness meditation the quality with which we deal with our minds is very important. A strong metaphor is the view of a king (or queen of course) who beholds his or her land. We are not talking about an arrogant view, but about a compassionate view, yet with the sharpness and intelligence a king should have. The king observes all that is happening in his country from his balcony. He feels the gentle breeze in his face, filled with the scent of the country he holds so dear. He observes the beautiful nature his country offers. But also he feels the people that live in it and feels a deep appreciation for them. At the same time his sharp view is aware of the problems in his country, the suffering that is there. He does not ignore that, instead he feels fully engaged with that too and he lets his sharp view seep into all the tiny vessels of what he sees. By resting in this view every day, he feels very connected with his land, fully connected. Therefore he is always awake, always connected and always skillful in his actions. In our meditations we can adopt this same kind of view. We can have this same royal view on our minds and all that occurs in it. We bring this view into our lives too, so that we can treat all that occurs in our lives with great tenderness and nowness. We become the kings and queens of our own lives.

Just being kills all neuroses

Why is it so hard for us to be kind to ourselves? Why is it is so hard to learn to relax? To not force ourselves to do all kinds of stuff when we come home from a hard day of working, but instead just relax for a while and do nothing. Why have we gone so far from this experience of being right here, which we often experienced in our childhood. Why do we have the feeling that somehow we do not deserve to experience this? Why is our society based on the wrong assumption that you should not love yourself?