asdr83

So today in my "Philosophy of Mind" class we discussed some of the Eastern traditions' ideas of the mind/body problem, focusing particularly on Daoism and Tai chi. Part of class was to meditate for 5 minutes. I have not meditated for a long time and it was really nice. I was reminded of the first time I did organized meditation, I was 11. My Sunday school curriculum that year was "The Faiths of Our Town" and we were visiting a Zen school/temple in Boston. We were told to concentrate on a beautiful place. I very carefully found a beautiful place in my mind, it had lovely mountains and lush green valleys and a double rainbow in the sky. And a lava pit between two of the mountains. A fucking lava pit in my beautiful spot. More like a river of molten lava actually and a rickety wooden bridge stretched across it and I was on the bridge in the middle. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get rid of the lava and the spot is still the same in my mind everytime I try to go to a beautiful (but undefined in the real world) spot in my head. I've come to accept it but today I suddenly wondered what it meant. I think that spot maybe my intangible mind but why am I over a lava river? I'm never afraid of it, in fact I'm at peace and I think it's gorgeous. It's weird. Another odd thing that happened during my meditation was that after I closed my eyes I willed myself to think of a peaceful place. I did eventually get to my bridge over lava place, but the first image that flashed into my head (just for a split second) was of me curled up in a comfortable bed with