1
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Is it okay to bring specific issues up during meditation as opposed to just allowing an experience to rise naturally?

2
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Like if I get angry at work, I'd like to examine the source of it during my meditation time, but it may not come up naturally.

3
00:00:18,458 --> 00:00:19,961
I've answered this one before.

4
00:00:20,482 --> 00:00:23,828
I'm not sure if I've answered it on the internet, but it's a common question.

5
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And rather than answer it directly, I'll point out the problem with it.

6
00:00:29,821 --> 00:00:30,762
The answer is no.

7
00:00:31,103 --> 00:00:31,564
But why?

8
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Because there's good in it.

9
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You can see the potential good in doing this.

10
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The things that you really have to deal with come up and you can deal with them.

11
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The problem with that is this bringing up.

12
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That is a karma.

13
00:00:49,591 --> 00:00:50,852
There's something behind that.

14
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There's the delusion of self.

15
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There's greed.

16
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There's maybe anger.

17
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There's defilements involved with that.

18
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Most likely defilements involved with that subtle delusion and probably greed and anger.

19
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There's unwholesomeness involved.

20
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And you're cultivating that.

21
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Every time you bring something up, you're cultivating the idea of self, the idea that you have the power to bring this up.

22
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And that eventually becomes a view and it corrupts.

23
00:01:23,356 --> 00:01:27,683
So it's one of those practices that

24
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you would say is black and white karma, because it's doing something good, but it has a bad result as well.

25
00:01:33,572 --> 00:01:36,697
And so no, we don't do that, ideally.

26
00:01:36,977 --> 00:01:39,261
And sometimes you can make exceptions.

27
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There are exceptions.

28
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You could say if you don't have enough time, if you're, you know, there could be a reason for accepting the bad, the need, or it not being bad karma, because there's something, some extenuating circumstances that require it.

29
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Often a teacher will bring things up for students, will prod the student into experiencing something that they're avoiding, for example.

30
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But for the most part, we try to be patient and because we're trying to cultivate objectivity, we have to be objective about the states that arise.

31
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That's important.

32
00:02:19,071 --> 00:02:23,860
And so as a result, pushing something to come up is problematic.