Dhamma Sobhana - The Jewel of the North

...Lured in by the Scent of the Dhamma (Surabhi), onwards to the Valley of Dhamma (Kuñja), to experience the Beauty of Dhamma (Sobhana)...

I have arrived back into the agitated madness of city life. From having served a 10 day Vipassana course in the role of the male student manager, a very stimulating task with plenty of opportunity for meditation as well as interaction.
The last two days back in Stockholm I have learned about the importance of utilizing the energy freed up through meditation, and the reversion into old habits if this freed up energy isn't immediately redirected into creative and sustainable endeavors.

Sobhana is just as beautiful as it's name, which means just that, Beauty, in Pãli.
Rich animal life, birds, mammals, reptiles and what not. We witnessed it all. I have some pictures that may shed some light on this. And a movie of the sunrise with accompanying wildlife sounds to be found here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4072517/Sunrise%20at%20Sobhana.AVI

full moon above the turbines

During my stay, I wrote one article. I just slightly scraped upon the surface the infinite well of knowledge within. I was generally unwilling to dig deep, unwilling to let go of attachments, I kept pulling back whenever the door into the unknown stood ajar, still clinging on to the known. Limiting the flow of my inspiration by my own force. The potential dwelling within, it is so scary. So safe to hide, to be unseen, to mend in with the masses, blame the outside for ones misery, pretend to be incapable of growth. The article follows:

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Power vs Force, Addiction to Misery, and Healing Addiction. 

David Hawkins, Scientist in the field of human consciousness, writes of Power vs. Force, and I am currently experiencing the potential transition from Force to Power. From victimization to empowerment.

Force being the energy of strain and struggle, between self-sabotage and progress, an inner tug of war, fueling a cocktail of anger, blame, animosity and self pity. "Oh poor me, I try so hard, yet my progress never comes. Or it comes, and then it reverts. I really want to change, but the world just does not allow me to".

Power being the same energy freed up from it's bondage through consistent observation, patience, persistence and surrender. Surrender being the process of continuously abstaining from the temptation (or surrendering the urge to) habitually react to a certain stimuli, such as lashing out at someone as soon as anger raises it's tail. Each time when prompted to react, reminding oneself that through EACH reaction abstained from, the energy propelling that invitation to react lessens in strength, to eventually after consistent abstinence, entirely dissolve. The energy then, becomes available for distribution into a new, healthy, constructive action as opposed to the detrimental and destructive habit pattern that it previously was invested in due to a previous convenience.

Example given; perhaps at some point it served a person (was a convenience) to start screaming as soon as he or she felt threatened, but fast forward 10 years and that reaction of screaming which is now deeply ingrained, causes a lot of misery and trouble for this person. Yet one is a slave of the habit, and can not break it by mere will. Power, then, as referred to in this meaning, is achieved by consistent and patient, equanimous, non-reactive observation of a phenomenon to the point where it has lessened in strength until not possessing the gravity to produce a reaction any longer.

Such seems to be the mental process of healing an addiction.
Force, in other words, is energy moving between two points, linearly,  whereas Power is energy moving in an unobstructed, circular, non-linear flow. Capable of moving mountains due to an inextinguishable supply. Faith could be seen as energy moving in such a flow.

To begin healing our negativities, synonymously mental impurities, we must first be willing to take full accountability, accept full responsibility for their arising, realizing that it is by our own effort, and our own effort alone, habitual as it may be, that we keep on perpetuating their manifestation in our lives. Not until we accept the full responsibility for even the minutest occurrence can we ever hope to reach a state of empowerment and unwavering direction in our lives.
The cause of our misery is not out there, it is in here. Until we welcome and eventually realize this, we are destined to a life with reoccurring miseries and sufferings.
Meditate, serve, and realize the existential truths, leaving suffering behind through proper understanding of the mechanisms of the human mind.  

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More pictures of the centre, surroundings, and Dhamma servers;

ET phone home!

living superfoods

 

 Sunrise at Sobhana

 metta in motion

Finally, I would like to extend wishes of strong continuity of practice to all the students, thanks to the servers and the assistant teacher, and wish everybody involved a
life aligned and in tune with the Dhamma or Law of the workings of all things.

Chapter 4 - The cocoon, starts tomorrow

Bag packed, lunch box prepped, intent set. Tomorrow I head towards Dhamma Sobhana, the only Vipassana meditation centre in Scandinavia as of yet, to serve the course beginning on the 14th of April. Serving, for the uninformed, means being on the work force that makes sure the students have a smooth running course. It mostly means kitchen work, such as preparing, cooking, and cleaning. I am thrilled to establish a foothold on Scandinavian ground after having returned here from Canada only 10 days ago. I am also enthused to meet some Dhamma brothers and sisters over here, potentially mending some lasting friendships.

I am arriving this time with a solid daily practice for the first time, and I feel much more capable of facing the challenges and tribulations of days full of meditation than ever before. There has previously been plenty of reluctance and resistance within towards sitting, but those barriers are slowly breaking down, and I am becoming more and more willing to do the work, which means, less and less inclined to perpetuate my misery through stubborn acts of self pity and self destruction. I waver in my blogging with questions such as;

'Why would any being on earth want to read the stuff I write, why should I even bother putting energy into this?' 


'What kind of self centered egomaniac am I to be doing this? Is this some kind of subtle cry for approval from others due to feeling unloved at some point in my childhood?


 'Maybe I should just drop this sh*t and spend the energy on something that doesn't involve the risk of being judged instead'


Nonetheless, I persevere... At least it gives me a chance to practice writing and language, and it also gives me a space to crystallize my thoughts and reflect on what goes on in my head. Those reasons seem sufficient enough to keep it up right now.

I hope to once again be inspired in my writing, which usually is the case when focus is directed upon meditation.

...to be continued...