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The Doubting Mind

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Teacher: Rodney Smith
Date: 2004-06-22
Venue: Seattle Insight Meditation Center

Series

Homework

From time to time all of us question how well our meditation practice is going. Some of us go further and doubt whether we are up to the task and feel as if we are failing in our efforts. This is your personal story following you through the tasks or your life. This sense of personal failure is self-doubt. This week look at your meditation practice and see if you are discouraged by it in any way. Self-doubt starts with discouragement and moves quickly to “I am not able….” Feel the judgments associated with discouragement. Focus in on this experience whenever it arises. Feel the pain of the self-opinion. Release yourself from any belief about your incompetence by asking whether the thoughts are true or just emotionally based on the past. Do not assume the truth of thoughts merely because they arise. The ability to practice is not an evaluative measure. No one fails if they are willing to begin again.

TalkID=781 SeriesID=35

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