05 COMING HOME WITH MINDFULNESS

【回到内心的平静】

当我们停止内心的忙乱，回归自己时，可能会感到痛苦变得非常强烈。这是因为我们习惯于忽视它，用各种分心的方式逃避痛苦。通过这些分散注意力的手段，我们可能短暂地麻痹自己，但内在的痛苦渴望得到我们的关注，如果我们继续忽视，它就会在内心滋生、翻腾，直到我们不得不面对它。

因此，第一步的练习就是停止奔波，回到自己的身体，去认知我们感受到的痛苦——无论是愤怒、焦虑，还是恐惧。痛苦是一种能量，而正念是一种我们可以召唤来拥抱痛苦的另一种能量。正念的作用首先是认识到痛苦，然后温柔地拥抱它。

这个练习不是为了与感受对抗或压抑它，而是要用温柔去包裹它。就像母亲拥抱她的孩子——即使一开始她并不完全明白孩子为什么痛苦，但这种温柔的能量已经能带来一定的舒缓。如果我们能够在正念呼吸中认知并拥抱痛苦，解脱就会随之而来。

你的痛苦正在试图吸引你的注意，它想告诉你一些事情，而现在，你可以借此机会去倾听它。

[COMING HOME WITH MINDFULNESS]

When we stop the busyness of the mind and come back to ourselves, our suffering can seem very intense. This is because we are so used to ignoring it and distracting ourselves from the pain. With distractions, we may succeed in numbing ourselves for a little while, but the suffering inside wants our attention and it will fester and churn away until it gets it.

That’s why the first practice is to stop running, come home to our bodies, and recognize our feelings of suffering—our anger, our anxiety, our fear. Suffering is one energy. Mindfulness is another energy that we can call on to embrace the suffering. The function of mindfulness is first to recognize the suffering and then to embrace it.

The practice is not to fight or suppress the feeling, but rather to cradle it with tenderness. When a mother embraces her child—even if she doesn’t understand at first why the child is suffering—that energy of tenderness can already bring relief. If we can recognize and cradle the suffering while we breathe mindfully, there is relief already.

Your suffering is trying to get your attention, to tell you something, and now you can take the opportunity to listen.