What he was pointing at here is that we practice meditation because it’s a means of unwinding and dissolving the habits that limit us so that we can open our heart. It is very counterintuitive—but when we feel an emotion that feels totally threatening and awful, it is time to hold the experience of it. As I mentioned, Trungpa Rinpoche said that the definition of emotion is energy mixed with thoughts. If you can let the thoughts go, or interrupt the conversation, then you have just the energy. But you have to watch this closely in your meditation practice: a strong emotion distracts your attention away from the breath; it doesn’t distract your attention into the emotion. You would think a strong emotion would distract you from the breath into the emotion, but in fact what a strong emotion does is distract you away from the experience. That’s what happens. A strong emotion arises, and then whatever we do next with our mind, or with our words, or with our actions, distracts us away from the energy.In the past few chapters, I’ve been trying to point out the importance of experiencing emotions as part of our path to awakening, to living more wholehearted lives.
