Movement masks suffering

The inspiration behind this blog comes from the great Meditation teacher, Joseph Goldstein. I was listening to one of his talks, where he explained a very interesting concept - “Movement masks Dukkha”. (‘Dukkha’ in the Pali means suffering).

According to him, every ‘movement’ that we do, is to get rid of a suffering of some kind. For example, if we decide to sit all day, within a few minutes we would get uncomfortable. To push away this discomfort (mask this suffering), we would feel the need to stand. Eventually, even standing for a while would make us uncomfortable and we might get an urge to lie down. Movement masks Dukkha. Movement distracts us from our suffering. It is easier to indulge in a movement, than facing the discomfort. Please note that in the context of this blog, the word “movement” will stand for “a distraction that is created to avert suffering”.

Now, this would have been good news, only if this distraction could dissolve our discomfort from its roots. It does not. Distraction just gives us a temporary relief by taking our mind off what we feel in that particular moment. If we decide to pamper the mind with one distraction after another, eventually the mind gets addicted to these distractions. This amplifies our stress and thus our suffering. We get into that rut of finding a new distraction all the time. Being with yourself becomes more and more difficult. Although the intensity may differ from person to person, we are all trying to mask our “dukkha” in one way or the other. Even while writing this blog, I have had the urge of checking my mails, adding new songs in my playlist and watching the next episode of The Walking Dead.

These movements can be simple movements that we do without awareness. This includes actions like continuously tapping the feet, checking the cell phone too frequently, opening and closing the pen cap, smoking, etc. Most of the time, our awareness is so low, that we don't even realise that we are indulging in such movements. How many times has it happened, that you are tapping your feet involuntarily and your friend brings it to your notice?

Now sometimes, we resort to a more complex and a more dangerous distraction plan. These movements can also originate out of a deeply formed habit pattern. A lot of times we come across “workaholics” who have chosen to bury themselves deep in their work, as a way to distract themselves. If your workaholic habits have originated from intense passion, then that’s good news. But one can’t deny that many a times, lot of us drown ourselves with work to run away from ourselves. People suffering from substance abuse also fall into this category. A few of us are constantly drawn to the habit of multitasking. Basically, any habit pattern that keeps you away from yourself, falls into this category.

Awareness!
That is what we need. Awareness. As a simple exercise, one could snap out of the thinking mind at different times in the day, just to analyse how one feels. Stress? Worry? What is the pre-dominant emotion being experienced? For long term distractions, we need to dig deep and ask ourselves a simple question - “Is my passion just a distraction? Or is it something that I really want to do?”
We need to spend more time with ourselves.

Believe me, creativity is not born out of these distractions. These distractions are far from fulfilling. This is a mere activity to keep us away from our present awareness. Distractions are not wholesome. How can we expect to create something beautiful from a habit pattern which is stress driven? To create something meaningful, the source needs to be something pure, natural and unadulterated.

We are not enlightened beings and it is natural to resort to these distractions. However, the extent to which we depend on these has to be steadily reduced. This can only happen through awareness.

Awareness, like always, is the key here. :)