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Teacher: Rodney Smith
Date: 2009-07-14
Venue: Seattle Insight Meditation Center
Series
- The Ten Paramis 2009-01-27
Description
Suffering leads either to contraction and further distortion of energy, or connection and release of resistance.
Homework
An analogy that might demonstrate the spiritual significance of conflict is of a melting stream where chunks of ice break apart and bump into each other. For the stream to flow smoothly the ice has to melt. Avoiding conflict freezes and constricts energy and growth.
Historically, what has been your relationship to conflict? Do you avoid it and pretend it is not occurring? Is your role usually the victim, aggressor, or mediator? Does conflict empower or deplete you?
The next time you are in conflict either internally with some part of yourself or externally with someone else, focus on the feeling of being in conflict, not its resolution. Do not flee from it, but receive it as energy itself, not as a problem to be solved or a circumstance to avoid. Think of it as a situation to understand. Bring patience and forbearance to the struggle itself. Investigate where the energy is being blocked (what is the struggle about)? Can you let go of where you are holding to an ideal or expectation? Relaxing into the struggle frees the energy towards a creative solution. Does the resolution of this problem mean you will have to change, and does your resistance to conflict come from that fact?
Video
Link to view on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/5608852
TalkID=295 SeriesID=15
