SSr

My favorite one - Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment chop wood and carry water.

I have been meditating for 10 months and I have been able to "purge" many of my negative ways of thinking. But only stuff that were easier to change. Certain issues I am neurotic about, I have not been able to. However I am much more aware of my thought pattern, feelings now. I know I could see them as an opportunity to work with those problems, but I really feel I am not there yet.

I had this problem too and it was quite a huge one for me. I live in India and you would think I am used to noises by now! But I have an issue with certain noises. Any slight noise from upstairs neigbour caused such an anxiety. During meditation it was not an issue, but at other times it was, when it was very quiet, when I was alone etc. In my previous apt, I fought with my upstairs neighbour because she was causing some nuisance. She (and her adult son) made it worse for me by dragging furniture around all the time on the concrete floor! It was pure torture for me. We moved out after 2 months. But since then, for 2 years now, I am "tuned" to any noise from above. Loud noises are not a big deal. For ex, my neigbour's 2 dogs bark all the time, but that seems alright. For a long time I thought they did it on purpose like the other one. But now I am slowly starting to realize it may not be deliberate ?. So I know exactly what you are saying. Reg you issue, do not be hard on yourself. Do not resist how you are feeling but accept that it IS a serious problem for you and that you do not have a solution yet. Do not feel bad about not being able to overcome it during meditation. Calmness and acceptance ( of the noise, in your case) is not a natural state when you sit down to meditate, but rather a goal that you achieve over the years. Meanwhile, you should find a way around the problem - 1) See if you can meditate early in the morning before that neighbour wakes up and starts stomping around. ? 2) or find out if there is a centre nearby where you can mediate in silence. Also, during mediation, if you are feeling nervous about the noise, accept that. If you are feeling bad about not being able to overcome accept that. If you are feeling bad about feeling bad, accept that also.

In the words of an ancient Eastern adage: " Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. " This is from the book, Mastery, the keys to success and long term fulfillment by George Leonard. According to him, life itself is an adventure and that destinations will appear in the distance will be achieved and left behind, and still the path will continue. And it is our destiny to learn and to keep on learning as long as we live. That nothing in this life is "commonplace" nothing "inbetween". It has been only a few days since I started meditating and going on this path to spirituality. (I peeped into Leo Gura's meditation videos while going through his other videos.) This book has kept me grounded on what to expect along the way and what afterwards - Enlightenment itself will appear, will be achieved ( if ever! ) and left behind and still our paths will continue in the same way as before