[Gem]

Originally Posted by A human Being

On the bit in bold - absolutely, it brings to mind a Rumi quote: 'Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.' So in meditation we're not trying to perfect ourselves or our experience, we're simply letting arise what wants to arise without judgment or attempts at censorship. Now of course what often arises is judgment, in one form or another, but when we're sitting in a state of equanimity we're not passing judgment on the judgment, so to speak - in psychological terms you might say that the ego is being allowed full expression without the interference of the super-ego, it's being let off its leash if you will. I watched one of Shinzen Young's video recently in which he made the point that our bodies tend to be in resistance to their own sensations, and it's this conflict that's the cause of most of our suffering - there's a civil war going on inside us (of course the intensity varies, for some it might be akin to a playground scuffle, whilst for others it might be more like a steel-cage death-match), and it's this that we address in mindfulness meditation.

Well said. It's ironic that we so often struggle to change the way things are but only tend to affect superficial changes ('plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose', as the French say - 'the more things change, the more they stay the same') when as far as I can discern, real, positive change only arises as the result of an acceptance of what is.

Very well said.

It is very subtle in the way it works, and I just want to mention this thing about acceptance, as the semantics can imply meanings unintended. The word 'acceptance' can imply that someone is there choosing to accept it or reject it, whereas the meditation can be called 'choiceless observation', meaning it is based on 'as it is', not on 'the way you want it to be'. I have heard Jiddu Krishnamurti talk about being choiceless, and he speaks very well. I prefer to think of it as as 'noticing', because one has to notice it prior to any accepting/rejecting. More like being aware of how it is without any secondary impulsion whatsoever. I'm probably just addressing semantics here, But I thought I'd just make mention.