I had been wondering how to explain to patients why concepts seem to naturally obstruct healing. When I am doing Energy Balancing work, I am not necessarily interested in “the story”.
On the other hand, if a patient is in Analysis with me, I am very interested in “the story.”
A few years ago when I was contemplating studying Energy Healing work, I wondered if it would be helpful to me as an Analyst. Shamans would often consult nature when they had a question about something. If one was open, nature has its way of confirming or denying a situation. A message seemed clear to me- Energy Healing work would take me where I wanted to go much, much faster.
One way that I understand this today is to understand the limitations of our conceptual mind. Concepts are important to try to communicate ideas but in the worst sense they can become a means of limiting our understanding of our world and what is possible. If we don’t have a concept or if we don’t understand a concept does that mean that something is or is not helpful?
As I progressed along my Buddhist path I found that I could not think the way that I had been trained to think in my consulting room. For awhile, I worried about this. I wondered if my “thoughts” would come back? If they were really gone, where did they go?
I trusted that if I sat in the space of not knowing anything that usually some wisdom would arise. I began to trust more and more this space of not knowing. Actually, I did not have much of a choice in the matter. My thoughts were not thinking the way that I “wanted” them to “think.” I had to give up.
Funny thing concepts are…. I had mentioned this “not being able to think” experience to a colleague of mine and they suggested that I was in a “pre-verbal” state. Pre-Verbal state? How odd that I might be in that state for more than 3 years. I found this theoretical assumption rather dubious and slightly rediculous; such is the way of concept from time to time.
Most of us are not used to hanging out without concept. It makes us nervous. But, without concept, we are with things as they are- without placing an idea on top of things. Simply put, an apple is an apple. We may have thoughts about that apple…. “I like green ones and not red ones”, “My grandmother made wonderful apple pie”, “One time I found a worm in an apple, ” “Grainy apples don’t taste very good.” Because of our concept of apple, it is difficult to just be with an apple as if for the first time- to be with the “appleness” of apple.
Psychology can be the same. Words, concepts, ideas, methods- all are ways to try to understand mind and why it might be doing what it is doing.
But what to do when concept falls away? How can we experience one another without them?
It is often our own ideas about things that limit us from being directly with what is without judgement. Can we be curious about ourselves in a way that promotes a kindness for our own confusion and the confusion of others?
Life is already pretty complicated as it is without laying things on top of it.
I read recently something that not only answered my question about where did my thoughts go, but also, indicated where true healing and insight takes place.
In his book RULING YOUR WORLD, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche explains that conceptual mind is like a spaceship trying to land on the sun. The brilliance and heat of the sun burns the spaceship up before it can land. That brilliance and heat of the sun is called wisdom.
To be close to the wisdom of the mind burns up concept. People, including myself, have often had the experience while being in close proximity to a truly enlightened being that their “mind stops.” What they are saying is that the brilliance of that teachers wisdom mind is so vast that conceptual mind burns up and stops in their presence.
One of the things that I love most about Energy Healing is that it bypasses conceptual mind. I witness the wisdom of the patients mind burn up and heal concepts that are no longer viable for the person any longer.
My loosing my “ability to think” had nothing to do with the Psychological concept that my colleague suggested. Instead, a rather interesting thing was taking place… I was losing my conceptual mind to be much closer to wisdom .
The rays of the sun were burning up that which is not entirely dependable. It is without these concepts that I am much more able to “be with” healing taking place with Energy Work. Without concept I can witness what is and how it innately knows how to self correct. This innate ability to self correct is, I believe, an expression of wisdom itself.