I agree but wish to add my two cents. I don't think separation from the ego is the phrase that is helpful, more it's non-attachment to the outcome and the outcome everyone here wants is symptom relief, primarily from pain. I am certainly drawn to posts of men who are "successful" but I look for the sentence that says, "I am pain-free" to peak my interest. I have a good pelvic PT and she insisted I attend a Mindfulness Meditation 7-session workshop. I just completed it and it was great, right in keeping with HITP book. It's based upon Jon Kabat-Zinn's work at the University of Mass. Medical Center's stress reduction classes and was designed for people with chronic illness, pain, anxiety, etc. It was taught by 2 skilled clinicians at one of our local hospital's Wellness Center and is taught by over 200 hospitals in the U.S. You can read "
Full Catastrophe Living" by Kabat-Zinn or listen to his CD's (they're including in the cost of the workshop) but the workshop experience is first-rate.
It's present-centered and I really never liked sitting meditation (Can you imagine why?) but the easy Yoga lying on a mat, the walking meditation and the eating meditation really resonated with me. I'm currently trying acupuncture which is helping (time and PT brought average pain down from a 7 to a 3-4) and my doctor recommended Tolle and the non-attachment. I realize how silly it is to fear something that happens daily (visit from Mr. Pain) and I have been less fearful about the pain but as for now, the change in attitude has not affected the pain. What I learned from a lot of journaling, obsessive recording of pain and misery is that pain causes
dysphoria, without significant pain I really don't have much dysphoria. I cannot control the pain of sitting but I can modulate the dysphoria. Am working on meditating more and trying the breathing techniques in HITP but doubt I can be very successful without a trip firsthand to California.
In the MM workshop, they showed an old video of Kabat-Zinn working with a fellow with 3 major back injuries and chronic pain. He demonstrated the "dance" the man has with pain, put their hands behind each other's neck and told him, "here I am, I'm not leaving, no matter what you want. Now let's learn how we can be together without so much misery." That makes sense. I have to frequently bring myself back to the present and work on my attitude that says Pain = Misery, No Pain = Happiness and that ain't easy. Thanks.
. But if dreams start than worry also comes with it. So this gets abstract and debatable pretty quickly.
