Author: telecaster
Forum: Dharma Overground Discussion Forum

I agree with the members of this site who see the failings of practitioners and teachers who put too much emphasis on working on people's personal pyschological stuff.
But, it is acknowledged that there is still a benefit to this, which is what I have been thinking about a lot lately.
For me, and many others of course, I entered early adulthood with a lot of this "stuff" which I can see negatively effected my life in one main way: "projection."
I developed a lot of negative thoughts about life and myself that I really couldn't handle but were ever present in my psyche anyway. Which caused me to project onto the world, especially people, untruthful projections. These projections made me react to people and events in a way that was not helpful and, often, very destructive to me, and the cause of a LOT of suffering (I should insert examples here, I will think of some later).
However, when I've stayed very present to my thoughts, feelings and perceptions moment to moment and saw when they started and what they did and when they stopped, really felt the pain generated, then very slowly I could see VERY CLEARY that I was projecting and what I was doing was all in my head and not related to reality in any way. Once that was seen, then the projection stopped forever. (looking at this again I think the "forever" part may not always happen with the first insight, sometimes it take more to really get rid of it.)
This process over time permanently eliminated many "unskillfull" behaviors and made my basic life better, more effective, and eliminated some suffering.
So, I also suspect that a person can't really become awake unless their level of negative projections is quite low. So, the working on psychological stuff while ultimately not really a part of the final fruits of practice, is certainly important to getting to the point that one can get to the final fruits.
Sound true?

Author: telecaster

I keep forgetting: My name is Michael Monson.

Hi Michael,
Coming just from my own personal thoughts to this matter, I would say yes, it is beneficial to work on one's psychological "stuff." Just be aware that even though you're practicing insightfulness relative to mindfulness, this is different from let's say: Vipassana insight meditation (I'll just refer you to MTCTTB - Daniel's book, for further clarification on that). Also, you might find it helpful to check out the DhO board for the thread entitled: "The Shadow Knows..." - a discussion about working with the shadow side of ones humanness.
Sounds like you've been making good progress and some significant changes that are beneficial not only to yourself, but also your interaction with others.

Author: telecaster

That's interesting.
I think until now I'd assumed that practicing awareness of thoughts, feelings, perceptions while walking around in the world and relating to oneself and others was Vipassana.
But are you saying that Vipassana is a process or technique that can only be done while in some kid of formal meditation setting? I know I've become aware somewhat of the three characteristics while just watching my experience as completely and fully as possible while driving, talking to someone, working, eating, etc.
This is important to me because I have put a lot of faith in the value of moment-to-moment awareness and always thought it was just as important as sitting on the cushion. But, to tell you the truth, I never really hear or read of any one else having the same level of faith. Meditation, insight, Vipassana, etc. to most of you and other practitioners seems to be something that happens during sitting or walking meditation during a specific time set aside for "meditation."

Yes, I think this projection I'm talking about is related to the whole "shadow" idea.
Thanks.