A friend was complaining about itch during meditation.
Here's a portion of our chat log.
Jagaro gives tips on his website on how to handle this.
Itches
When sitting [in] meditation it's very common to get itches somewhere on your body or face. Don't move to scratch it. Instead sit with the itch and use it as a focus for your meditation. It essence "scratch the itch with your mind". Focus in on it, feel it, accept it and be easy with it. Notice how it feels, notice your reactions to it and the urge to want to scratch it. Watch the changing in sensation and then watch it pass over time. Itches are a wonderful way to be present with the changing conditions of the body and how they manifest bodily sensations, feelings and emotions in us, and how we have desire to do something about them or desire to move away from them. This is where our practice is. Next time you get an itch, even when you are not doing sitting meditation, try this technique.
http://www.themindfulmoment.com/2010/09/meditation-technique-1-itches.html
He also had this to say:
There are two ways to deal with the itch. Continue to focus on your normal breath meditation with the breath as the meditation object and just leave the itch as something in the background. The other way to deal with it is to put the attention on the itch itself and make the itch the object of the meditation. In this way the itch becomes the thing you are focusing on. Dive into the sensation and feel it fully. See all its detail and how the sensation changes.
So both of these are good ways to work with itches. Just don't scratch it. ;-) In time the itch will just pass. If it is an itch due to rash then the itch may continue because there is a physical condition. You can however eventually learn through meditation to experience the sensation as just raw sensation and not as the irritation of emotion and mind that we place on top of the itch (or pain).
Glad to have these tips from Jagaro
And my own 2 cents : if it's discernibly a rash, then get it treated too.
nice to know, thks...Amituofo
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. AMTF.
My leg ache if I meditate for too long. Can I use the same method as recommended above ? If I'm at home, I can stop meditating when the legs start to ache but it will be a bit difficult if I'm meditating as a group.
yes coz the more you scratch the worse it may get..
if the itch persist, its highly recommend you seek medical treatment asap..
Originally posted by Dawnfirstlight:My leg ache if I meditate for too long. Can I use the same method as recommended above ? If I'm at home, I can stop meditating when the legs start to ache but it will be a bit difficult if I'm meditating as a group.
Take a look at the TIPS ← click
I noticed one or two topics which may be relevant to your issue :)
Realization - Thank you for posting my comments and sharing with others. And yes, haha, please get the itch seen by a doctor if you has a rash. ;-)
Dawnfirstlight - To answer your question, yes you can use a similar technique for pain however pain and our reaction to it is slightly different than the reaction we have to itches. An itch creates a desire to resolve the itch, so there is an arising of intention to do something to bring about a solution to our problem - we want to scratch it. With pain we can't simply scratch it but but we do try to resolve it through aversion, we try to push the pain away. So in both see there is this inherent drive for resolution. How we go about seeking that resolution is different. Instead of just being with each experience fully for how it is we try to make it something different. One is desire, the other is aversion. So we come to see how we bring the "me" into the experience to change it, "I don't like this" and so we seek to alter it. So you can try the same technique with pain, either continue the meditation and notice the experience and reactions to the pain or place the awareness on the pain and examine its nature directly. Both are beneficial practices.
Of course if the pain is severe then use commonsense and be kind to yourself and end the meditation session and try again next time. Just watch however, sometimes the story of how bad we think the pain is, is actually worse than what the pain actually is. so stay with it as long as you can. Pain is often and most commonly a psychological and emotional response to a sensation in the body. The sensation is one thing, but the layers and layers of emotion and thoughts on top is often our experience of "pain". Knowing the difference takes time and practice.
I hope that is helpful.
Metta,
Jagaro
if there is an earthquake, stay calm and hide under the table
if there is an itch, just observe the sensation. in time to come, the itch will disappear.
not many people can bear the itch sensation and tend to scratch or touch it.
Originally posted by Dawnfirstlight:My leg ache if I meditate for too long. Can I use the same method as recommended above ? If I'm at home, I can stop meditating when the legs start to ache but it will be a bit difficult if I'm meditating as a group.
Yes, if the method is ok with you. In group meditation, they are meditating and will not be bothered by your ache. It is more wiser to relax your leg than the organiser calling the ambulans
Thanks guys for your advise.