From Transcendence to Transmutation

Chas DiCapua

The human heart and mind that is not endowed with wisdom is left to its more animal nature to guide it in its search for happiness and evasion of suffering. Maximizing what is pleasant and minimizing what is unpleasant is the underlying strategy. It is with this approach to life that most, if not all people, start their meditation journey. In this paradigm, meditation is seen as a way to transcend all that is difficult and painful in life.

As one walks the Noble Eightfold Path, what begins to become clear is that this approach is not the correct one, as it does not work. That is, it doesn’t bring the peace, ease, and contentment that all people want. The dawning of this truth can be a difficult time in one’s meditative journey. In fact, it is during this time that people can even give up the practice. “It’s not giving me what I want, so why continue?” They misperceive the problem as being in the practice itself, not in the approach.

What, then, is a better approach to the practice? The description of Vipassana meditation practice goes something like “being mindful of one’s moment-to-moment experience with non-judgmental attention.” All things, including what is painful and difficult, are included in what one is to be aware of. The non-judgmental part is important. It means one doesn’t grasp after or push away any experience. Simply know it clearly, be with it, and allow it to follow its nature, which is to pass away. Difficult and painful experiences don’t need to be let go of. Not being fed through wanting and not wanting, they follow their nature, which is to go. To fade away. The correct understanding of the phrase, “let it go” doesn’t mean that one is holding something and must put it down. It means to let it, or allow it, to simply follow its nature. Which is, having arisen, to pass away. Let it, allow it to go.

When challenging and difficult experiences are practiced with in this way, the meditator moves from a transcending approach to a transmutation approach. That is, the freedom associated with what is difficult doesn’t come from getting rid of it or escaping from it. It comes from changing one’s relationship to it. From seeing it as wrong or bad, to something that can open the heart and illuminate the mind. Not an experience to be scorned, but to be leaned into and opened to. To the degree that this view is established, meditation and the Noble Eightfold Path become less of a struggle and more joyous.

Of course, certain inner and outer experiences can be extremely painful. Opening to them often involves a refined skillset, and much patience and perseverance. Sometimes consciously turning away from an experience temporarily is the skillful thing to do. The details of how to practice with very difficult things that arise warrant a whole other article or talk. What is presented here is the foundation. It is an important and necessary foundation that not only supports practice with difficult things but informs the best way for that practice to unfold so that it actually delivers on this path’s promise of peace, contentment, and happiness.