Question

In reflection meditations, are the feelings that arise during the reflections to be noted objectively, or are they feelings to be allowed to form normally, which sometimes leads to a cascade?

Answer

In the reflection meditations, just like any other meditation, in regard to hindrances arising, we note them, and we come back. If we are distracted in any way, then we call that a "hindrance".

It's helpful to realize that the word hindrance does not mean "bad", it just means it hinders. If I'm building a house, and I'm putting together some wood, I have a nail in one hand and a hammer in the other. Then I start dreaming of coming back to Wat Kow Tahm to do a retreat. I start thinking how good my last retreat was, how wonderful another retreat would be, well, what's going to happen? Eventually, I'm going to hit my thumb with my hammer.

That's a "hindrance", even though that's a wonderful good thought to come back and do another retreat. It's a hindrance if we're trying to build a house, when we have a nail and a hammer in our hands. So when you're doing a reflection meditation, if anything distracts you away from the meditation, then note it and come back. If you have some feelings arise, that are about other people, e.g. maybe we don't like them so we have aversion, or maybe we like them so we have desire, just note them, come back to the reflection, stay with the theme.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.