saut
05-11-2004, 07:11 AM
I recently read Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana Mahathera (you can read the entire text online here: http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/mipe/mipe_0.htm), which is a basic guide to Vipassana meditiation.
How does meditation relate to The Patient? The following quote from Mahathera's guide can sum it up:
Meditation is not easy. It takes time and it takes energy. It also takes grit, determination and discipline. It requires a host of personal qualities which we normally regard as unpleasant and which we like to avoid whenever possible... [So] Why waste all that time and energy when you could be out enjoying yourself? Why bother? Simple. Because you are human. And just because of the simple fact that you are human, you find yourself heir to an inherent unsatisfactoriness in life which simply will not go away. You can suppress it from your awareness for a time. You can distract yourself for hours on end, but it always comes back -- usually when you least expect it. All of a sudden, seemingly out of the blue, you sit up, take stock, and realize your actual situation in life...
In The Patient, there is a conflict of two wills: the will to continue on the path of enlightenment (likely by meditiation among other means), or to give up and take the easy road.
For anyone that's tried meditation (that is, REAL meditation), you know how tedious it can be to keep your mind completely *blank.*
A groan of tedium escapes me,
Startling the fearful.
Is this a test? It has to be,
Otherwise I can't go on.
Draining patience, drain vitality.
This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.
In these lines, Maynard speaks of frustration, tedium, and thoughts of quitting: these are things experienced by novice meditators. As Mahathera said, "Why bother?"
But I'm still right here
Giving blood, keeping faith
And I'm still right here.
Wait it out,
Gonna wait it out,
Be patient (wait it out).
However, Maynard does not give up. He decides to continue on his chosen path, to be patient.
If there were no rewards to reap,
No loving embrace to see me through
This tedious path I've chosen here,
I certainly would've walked away by now.
Gonna wait it out.
Here Maynard says that he would have "walked away by now" ... "if there were no rewards to reap." One who has stuck with meditation for many years can attest to "rewards to reap;" increased mindfulness and a new awareness of life.
If there were no desire to heal
The damaged and broken met along
This tedious path I've chosen here
I certainly would've walked away by now.[/QUOUTE]
The "desire to heal the damaged and broken..." is the goal of meditation; looking inside and realizing what is wrong, then fixing it.
[QUOTE]And I still may ... (sigh) ... I still may.
Maynard tells us he still may walk away, if the path becomes too tedious to bear.
Be patient.
I must keep reminding myself of this.
The line "I must keep reminding myself of this" really stood out to me, ESPECIALLY because the next song on Lateralus is "Mantra." Many people who meditate have a mantra, which is defined as "A sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation..." Maynard's mantra is "Be patient."
Take this all with a grain of salt, because I am no expert on meditation. I do, however, hope this interpretation sparks some new discussion here.
How does meditation relate to The Patient? The following quote from Mahathera's guide can sum it up:
Meditation is not easy. It takes time and it takes energy. It also takes grit, determination and discipline. It requires a host of personal qualities which we normally regard as unpleasant and which we like to avoid whenever possible... [So] Why waste all that time and energy when you could be out enjoying yourself? Why bother? Simple. Because you are human. And just because of the simple fact that you are human, you find yourself heir to an inherent unsatisfactoriness in life which simply will not go away. You can suppress it from your awareness for a time. You can distract yourself for hours on end, but it always comes back -- usually when you least expect it. All of a sudden, seemingly out of the blue, you sit up, take stock, and realize your actual situation in life...
In The Patient, there is a conflict of two wills: the will to continue on the path of enlightenment (likely by meditiation among other means), or to give up and take the easy road.
For anyone that's tried meditation (that is, REAL meditation), you know how tedious it can be to keep your mind completely *blank.*
A groan of tedium escapes me,
Startling the fearful.
Is this a test? It has to be,
Otherwise I can't go on.
Draining patience, drain vitality.
This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.
In these lines, Maynard speaks of frustration, tedium, and thoughts of quitting: these are things experienced by novice meditators. As Mahathera said, "Why bother?"
But I'm still right here
Giving blood, keeping faith
And I'm still right here.
Wait it out,
Gonna wait it out,
Be patient (wait it out).
However, Maynard does not give up. He decides to continue on his chosen path, to be patient.
If there were no rewards to reap,
No loving embrace to see me through
This tedious path I've chosen here,
I certainly would've walked away by now.
Gonna wait it out.
Here Maynard says that he would have "walked away by now" ... "if there were no rewards to reap." One who has stuck with meditation for many years can attest to "rewards to reap;" increased mindfulness and a new awareness of life.
If there were no desire to heal
The damaged and broken met along
This tedious path I've chosen here
I certainly would've walked away by now.[/QUOUTE]
The "desire to heal the damaged and broken..." is the goal of meditation; looking inside and realizing what is wrong, then fixing it.
[QUOTE]And I still may ... (sigh) ... I still may.
Maynard tells us he still may walk away, if the path becomes too tedious to bear.
Be patient.
I must keep reminding myself of this.
The line "I must keep reminding myself of this" really stood out to me, ESPECIALLY because the next song on Lateralus is "Mantra." Many people who meditate have a mantra, which is defined as "A sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation..." Maynard's mantra is "Be patient."
Take this all with a grain of salt, because I am no expert on meditation. I do, however, hope this interpretation sparks some new discussion here.