Discomfort with Self

[Dali]

Hello Tara,

Thank you so kindly for sharing. I have done meditation for about 5 years and I still have to overcome very low self esteem and feelings of guilt. Feelings of anxiousness swirl around my head. I see the wisdom in what Jundo has shared and also what Voyager mentions. Sometimes the mud and feelings of unworthiness are just part of the process. Your perseverance will show you are perfect just as you are.

Gassho,
Dali

[Joyo]

I believe what you are describing is what Tara Brach calls "the trance of unworthiness" in her book Radical Acceptance . She describes, and I've seen described elsewhere, a story in which the translator for the Dalai Lama had much difficulty explaining to him the concept of low self-esteem for there is apparently not an equivalent concept in the Tibetan language. This points to the fact that the problem of dissatisfaction with self has some unique Western cultural components that are a part of the conditioning that gives rise to our sense of suffering, and which fuels the illusion that there is a need to engage in "personal improvement". It seems to me that the only thing that needs to be done is to see what has always in its perfection been there.

Gassho,
Jimmy
Sattoday

That is very interesting. I'm not a very well-traveled person, but there does seem to be a lot of emphasis in this Western culture on improving yourself. I see it a lot at yoga class, and all different seminars put on at the yoga studio that I attend. It's become a cash cow, people spend a lot of money and invest huge amounts of time in trying to find ways to improve or feel better about who they are.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today