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# Re: Problems in Eom

#### Message 03757 of 3835

- To: BardonPraxis@yahoogroups.com
- Subject: Re: Problems in Eom
- From: "Martin" <stultus@...>
- Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 10:38:11 -0000
- In-reply-to: <000401c5420c$abb035e0$1cb63542@ownerbqacdlzy6>
- User-agent: eGroups-EW/0.82

    Dear Joel,

    I was moved to reply to your message, because I can relate to how
    you are feeling. It took me a long time to achieve EOM (and I still
    have a long way to go with it) and I went through various stages
    during that time.

    Originally, I realized that I too had rushed through the previous
    mental exercises and so started over and spent quite a long time
    mastering those to the extent necessary. Then I returned to the EOM
    exercise and felt that I had more solid foundations to work with.

    It took me another fairly long stretch of time to then get to a
    point where I could "tap into" that silence, or absence of thoughts
    that Rawn mentioned more times than I couldn't. But before I arrived
    at that point, I went through periods of being very frustrated,
    angry, doubting myself, beating myself up about it, not caring,
    feeling like giving up, not knowing what I felt... etc etc. With
    hind sight that was great! I was dealing with emotional issues at
    the same time as I was taking tiny steps forward with the EOM
    exercise.

    The Step One mental exercises taught me to be a little more patient,
    a little more detached, a little more willful and a little more
    positive. I stopped reaching out frantically towards some abstract,
    emotionally-tinged future goal (to the point where I was getting
    frustrated if I did not perceive some success every time I sat down
    to meditate), and changed my mind set to one of "Oh well, I'm going
    to practise this exercise twice a day when possible and enjoy what I
    get out of it each time and know that I am moving forward even if it
    does not seem like it and keep at it even if it means it takes me
    years and years, because at the very least it allows me time each
    day to relax and centre myself." (Not a very catchy affirmation, I
    know!)

    For me personally, achieving EOM feels like a balance between
    intense focus and detachment. There is a sensation of tapping into
    something greater than/outside of my own small mental processes.

    The first times that I experienced it, my physical body would tense
    and I would have to make a conscious effort to relax it, my heart
    would beat faster, I would feel a strong surge of "energy"
    throughout my body, then I would experience a very powerful and pure
    sensation of Joy and Peacefulness and Oneness which was amazing, but
    I had to let that go too and not cling on to it. Then at a certain
    point it was as if something else took over and I no longer had to
    fight to keep my mind clear.

    The other piece of advice that I would like to offer from my own
    experience is: don't over-analyse it! Just practise every day... and
    you know you *can* find time every day, even just ten minutes in the
    morning and ten at night... but do you really *want* to or are you
    scared that if you do commit to that you will fail at it?? The only
    way to fail is by not doing the exercises, not sticking with it.

    Once you have the basics sorted out and a routine going, don't
    assume that you are doing something wrong if you are not successful
    as soon as you would like. I would sometimes hear a voice in my head
    telling me how stupid I must be for not being able to sit and clear
    my mind for 5 or 10 minutes; I just started to laugh when that
    thought entered my head and stuck firmly to my belief that I had to
    be persistent and detach myself from any negative thoughts or
    feelings.

    So, in conclusion (I'm a bullet point person):

    *Establish a routine (morning and evening)
    *Be persisent (but don't beat yourself up if you miss the odd
    session here and there)
    *Try to detach yourself from negative thoughts and feelings
    concerning your practice
    *Know that you are always moving forwards even when it doesn't seem
    like it

    I wish you all the best with it!

    :-)
    Martin

- References:
  - Re: Problems in Eom
    - From: "Rawn Clark" <rawnclark@...>

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