Meditator spotlight - Yixue
Yixue came to the sept 2-12 retreat and on her last day as we rode to the airport together she shared some wonderful insights about meditation and about life. She was beaming with joy and happiness from what she had learned during her retreat. She was telling me that she figured out you can play your game in easy mode and I wanted to know more. I asked to write her ideas to share with me and other meditators and she said yes!
Here is what she shared:
“Life is a game. And guess what? You can unlock the easy mode. It feels like the default setting of life is the hard mode and everyone is struggling with many challenges all the time. Say it’s a car racing game. The default setting is like you’re racing with many other competitors, and the roads are narrow, curvy and bumpy, and sometimes other drivers can throw stuff at you to slow you down.
But actually, you can unlock the easy mode of this game! Through my meditation, I came to realize that this game is not a competition at all. Your goal is not to be the fastest driver or anything, but just to enjoy the journey. And you can pick the easy mode where you get to design the game in any way you want it! You don’t have any other cars to race with, but of course you can set the game to have some friends driving together with you for company :). The road is wide and straight, the weather is nice, there’s no traffic, you’ve got a nice view, and so on. It feels really fun to design it and play it your own way.”
I started to think about ways we play in difficult mode and make life unnecessarily too hard. We blame ourselves when things don’t go perfectly and we expect things to be different than they are. Then I started to think about ways of playing the game in easy mode and I came up with many ideas.
But maybe the takeaway is to notice that if things are challenging you can ask yourself if you are making your meditation too difficult and if so, what can you do to unlock the easy mode in that moment.
How can you unlock the easy mode?
Wonderful insights
ReplyDeleteYes, it was beautiful to see!
DeleteWays to play in easy mode:
ReplyDelete1) Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Instead take time to value and cherish time with yourself and your practice.
2) Instead of thinking how others may be racing against you, imagine they are helping you.
See and imagine the very best in everyone you meet.
3) Remind yourself your only job is to observe (not to control).
4) Be kind to yourself the way you would be to your precious child - speak kind and encouraging words to yourself within your mind.
5) Imagine that someone who loves you very much is cheering you on.
6) Keep your mind light and soft.