Sat for 10 or so minutes. Most of that time was spent observing the mental formations that arise from pain-suffering -- I drew an analogy between those formations and the inflammation that happens as one's body responds to an injury or infection. The inflammation is a built-in response to the injury -- it's not the injury itself. Similarly, the mental formations (thoughts, feelings) that arise as a result of pain-suffering are a symptom, not the cause, or even the pain-suffering itself.

Thought some about Dexter's lab again, and about my mom/family.

Tried to work a bit on breaking down my internal, reflexive resistance to pain -- again, much like one might take Ibuprofen to reduce swelling. The idea was to help myself develop the skills I need to take a thorough, compassionate-yet-detached look at what's bothering me. It's hard to do that with lots of mental noise.

-- Des