I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. Me, of all people!
So the other night I was meditating–I can’t even remember on what. I’m sure it was very worthwhile but I forgot to blog it so it’s gone–and during the meditation I had a sudden ‘twinge’ in my left foot.
Of course when you meditate you get all kinds of distracting body sensations, little pains, etc. But because I was at that moment pouring energy into an archetype (to no particular effect), without thinking much about it, I shifted and for a few moments, was pouring the same kind of energy-intent into my foot where it had the painful little twinge. And I got a *major* rush, body-wide.
I was astonished. It made me realize that when we are meditating on something, body stuff isn’t just a ‘distraction’ — it’s energy acting-out, it’s communication or at least warning sparks — and THAT is exactly where to focus. I mean, that’s what pain is about: saying, “pay attention to me!” And all this time I’ve been taking this no-mind meditation approach toward it — rather than the active-meditation format I actually use — I’d been working to ignore that kind of thing.
Once I realized that my body could talk to me and that energy with my body was as much a part of the meditation as the other things, that seemed to come and go for awhile, as if my body was as delighted as I was that I had learned a few simple words of its language.
This should have been obvious. I don’t know why I had to discover it by accident. But it’s a fabulous insight!
PJ
Wow, the same thing just happened to me during a meditation! I’ll try putting energy into it the next time it happens. Thanks for the tip!
In traditional High-land Mayan calendar divination those body signals are known as blood-lightning. They call attention to meaningful moments in the divination process. Barbara Tedlock writes about this in “Time and the Highland Maya”. She is an anthropologist who apprenticed with a Mayan day-keeper to learn divination.
That’s really interesting about the Mayan stuff Dan. ‘blood lightning’ sounds a lot like ‘sparking’ to me for sure. I’ll have to keep that framework in mind. I really can’t believe I didn’t “grok” that 20 years ago. Sheesh. At this rate if I ever want to have half a clue I’d better plan on living to age 382!