Vipassana Meditation For Innovation
Misinterpreting sensations on the body, Identification with fleeting thoughts and temporary emotional states.
There are events happening on the surface of the body and inside the body at all times. Human body is like a big metropolis with millions of people. In big metropolises like Mumbai, London or New York, people are engaged in and involved with something all the time. “Something is happening” in some corner of the city and in some corner of the body at all times. Similarly, billions of cells in this body are interacting with each other and running some electro-chemical processes all the time.?
Our conscious awareness does not register automatically running processes within the body or on the surface of the body. As long as everything is running smoothly, our brain does not pay attention to those processes.
Our self-image or self-view is who we consider ourselves to be. We identify ourselves with a specific role, professional title, personality trait, career success, organization, religious belief, political belief or national or linguistic/cultural pride. For example, you may think of yourself as a good husband, nice son, loving person, senior vice president, millionaire, member of a specific religion etc.?
Your self-view or self-image is NOT simply an image or view. Most people intimately, completely and deeply identified with their Self-Image. For them, who they are is their self-image. If the self-image is threatened, they feel their life is in danger!
Our conscious awareness is usually directed to subjects that are of interest to our survival. Survival not only includes our physical survival but also the survival of the self-image that we have created. At all times, all our thoughts and emotions are centered on survival.?
We are hard-wired to interpret every external stimulus as either favorable or unfavorable to the?survival of our self-image or our self-view. Our body and brain reacts with repulsion to stimulus that we perceive as detrimental to the survival of our self-image and we create craving for stimulus that we consider as essential for our survival.
Although it appears that we are responding to external stimulus, the process is far more complex:
1) External Stimulus & Body Sensations: Every external stimulus, every activity creates a corresponding sensation within the body or over the skin.
2) Interpretations: We have an unconscious habit of interpreting every sensation happening on the body or inside the body. We automatically and habitually interpret every stimulus or sensations as either favorable or unfavorable to the survival of our body or our self-image.
3) Reactions: External stimulus, corresponding bodily sensations, unconscious interpretation in reference to survival, and correlated action happen at lightning speed in fractions of a millisecond. We feel hopelessly stuck in the pattern of self-destructing, self-sabotaging interpretations and reactions.
If we interpret the sensations as favorable to our survival, we get attached to those sensations and stimuli. We crave for that sensation and stimulus repeatedly.?
If we interpret the sensations as unfavorable to our survival, we feel aversion and we try to avoid it. We either fight or run away from those sensations.
We continue to repeat the unconscious pattern of external stimulus, bodily sensations, automatic interpretations and mechanical habitual reactions.?
Our biggest and most stubborn illusion is that we get fooled by our own sensations and its automatic interpretations. Misattribution of Arousal is a specialized field in psychology that studies this unique phenomena. Several research papers provide evidence of powerful & at times funny evidence that we misattribute arousal and bodily sensations and get stuck with inaccurate interpretations:
“An example of the possible effects of misattribution of arousal is perceiving a potential partner as more attractive because of a heightened state of physiological stress. A study done by White et al. (1981)[2] investigated this phenomenon and found that those in an unrelated aroused state will rate an attractive confederate more highly than a rater without arousal. The researchers also found that aroused raters would dislike an unattractive confederate more than those without arousal.”
“In the case of the bridge study, the researchers believed the men attributed their increased heart rate and sweaty palms to the attractive woman rather than the fact that they had just crossed a wood-and-cable bridge suspended 70 metres above a rushing river.”
“ Consistent with the predictions of excitation transfer theory, for males and females riding with a non romantic partner, ratings of attractiveness and dating desirability toward the photographed individual were higher among persons exiting than entering the ride.”
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We can step out of the automatic pattern of stimulus and response by being aware of the stimulus, its corresponding sensation in the body and recognizing that every stimulus and sensations are fleeting, changing and temporary. Key to liberation and freedom is becoming aware of the sensation & instantly recognizing that every sensation is temporary. Once we develop Awareness and Equanimity for automatically occurring sensations on the body and inside the body, we step into a new world of freedom and joy.
Whenever we are able to accept and witness bodily sensations as natural phenomena occurring automatically, those sensations lose their iron grip. We can create new interpretations, new ways of responding to the old familiar sensations. Once we master the science of accepting, observing and witnessing bodily sensations we access a new world of power & freedom. When we develop skill, practice and habit of acceptance, equanimity and mindfulness towards sensations, we can experience a completely new level of creativity, strength & stability.
Ultimately, there are three internal forces that make up our internal life experience and directs/ impacts our actions:
1) Thoughts, Images, Words - Either from the past or about the future.
2) Emotional State - Feelings - Moods?
3) Sensations experienced on the body and within the body.
You can start by noticing sensations on the body. Here is the list of commonly occurring sensations on the body:
In some Buddhist traditions, the process of noticing these temporary sensations with profound acceptance, awareness and equanimity as Vipassana Meditation or satipa??hāna bhāvanā. Buddhist used the term Anicca to describe the temporary & unsatisfactory nature of sensations.
If we wish to develop authentic and complete power over mental state and actions, we need to develop practice, skills and ability to observe and remain detached from the bodily sensations.?
Shri. S. N. Goenkaji has set-up Vipassana Research Institute that offers 10-days Vipassana Meditation Course to sit silently and peacefully observe fleeting nature of bodily sensations. This course is offered free to tens of thousands of students at Vipassana Centers around the world.?
Once we develop prowess in being peaceful and at ease with changing body sensations, we can achieve higher levels of peace, joy and effectiveness.
Vipassana is the direct pathway towards power, well-being and peace. Vipassana Meditation can also free-up the brain from its mechanical interpretations and reactions. Your brain can engage authentic creativity and innovation once it is silent.
Practice of meditation is the biggest gift you can give yourself.
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Lean Six Sigma Consultant @Greendot Management Solutions | Lean Six Sigma
2 年Hiten, thanks for sharing!
Lean Six Sigma Consultant @Greendot Management Solutions | Lean Six Sigma
2 年Hiten, thanks for sharing!
Hotel Vikas Diamond Awards Manager
3 年This is an outstanding, well-researched article on the source of all suffering. One has to read couple of times and look at our own body, our own reactions to fully grasp the amazing insights. Extremely valuable article.