| | If you want to feel good now, there are many options, obviously. Some of the meditative ones are Brahma Viharas done at the level of jhana, and just good old samatha jhanas themselves.
I sent this to someone recently who was having a hard time, and I thought I would repost it here:
"Desire, anticipation, expectation, doubt, fear, wonder, speculation, and the other reactions to those things, meaning repression, guilt, frustration and the rest are absolutely and completely normal and actually not the problem at all and instead ARE THE SOLUTION in a way: simply allow them to arise and see their true nature, Three Characteristics, etc. They clearly contain the suffering that you wish to see clearly, so embrace them as best you can: this is a subtle business and takes practice, but allowing them again and again just to show their true nature, their impermanence, the keys to seeing the suffering of misperception directly, their happening completely on their own (notice that you can't stop them), all are excellent opportunities for insight: remind yourself this again and again. It is NOT about those thing not happening: real Equanimity is ok with any of those and bomb proof and can take it, so go ahead and adopt that attitude and welcome them, delighting in the fact that, from that point of view, they make it so easy, as they so clearly are full of suffering, out of your control and arise and vanish.
This could be exactly that easy. Be your human, expectation and frustration driven self, but really see all of that just as it is! This is the way the insight game is played. When you get better, notice the fact that these things are part of fluxing attention space and attention is the same as those things: that can come later, so just start with the first point above about 1000 times more than you think you should have to (luckily you can do this ever second, so 1000 isn't so many, really)."
However, at your current place in the cycles of things, that advice may not resonate with you, so sometimes returning to whatever normal, ordinary things you were doing to see how they work for you is of value, as we investigate for ourselves what leads to happiness and what to something else.
One way or the other, I do submit that more clarity helps and more stability of mind helps and more seeing how things really are helps, as in the room you are sitting in the problems are probably quite small when you consider that space, and if you can actually find what the problem actually is in that space, you will know something of real value.
Right here, right now, as you read this, is there really some big problem? Are these ordinary sensations really so hard to just see as they are? Is not seeing your thoughts and whatever subtle feelings of unease are presenting now clearly really going to help?
See what works for you, but if you are interested in various meditative solutions, both temporary in the concentration states and more lasting in various attainments, they are waiting to be discovered.
Daniel |