Resolving Reactivity

Buddha may have been the greatest psychologist in the last 3,000 years.

The reason I started this blog is because I made a vow to myself, to follow my passions regardless of the obstacles or negative perceptions involved. I thought this concept would be interesting enough for a blog so...I'll just get right to it.

I'm heading back to Thailand in a few short days. While there, I'll spend several weeks living in a monastery with Buddhist monks. I am not interested in either Buddhism nor any other kind of eastern philosophy. I'm not going there for that. I'm going there to acquire a skill.

The Rules: wake up at 4 AM, breakfast at 6 AM, lunch at 11 AM, in bed by 10 PM. No solid food after 12 noon. No reading anything, no writing anything, no leaving the temple (unless it's an emergency) and no speaking with anyone besides the instructor for the duration of the course.

All that time in between? Meditate. Damn.

I know, I know, most of you unfamiliar with meditation know it as a relaxation tool. You might ask, "Yo, did no one tell you? There's no need to meditate 14 hours a day in isolation to relax! Listen, let me roll you a fatty. Or better yet, I have this coupon for this one massage place on U Street that even does happy endi..." I agree. It would be pretty absurd to travel to the other side of the world simply to relax. But meditation is so much more than that.

It's just difficult to explain. Not because I can't find the words; the words are available. But meditation, real meditation with purpose (instead of simply to chill out after a long day at work) is absorbed into our minds in a very similar manner as the lessons learned from intense, even traumatic, experiences. There's no possible way for someone to show you what it feels like to survive cancer. There's no method to truly convey how your parents' divorce affected you as a child. There's no way for me to fully appreciate how deeply you experience love with your partner. The only way to feel the full effect of these experiences is not through words, but through directly experiencing them. These lessons form part of a broader category of learning called tacit knowledge, or more commonly known as wisdom. And it fully applies to meditation.

I will explain my perspective on the effects of meditation in a subsequent post. Most likely though, someone will still try to offer me massage coupons.