right on Thich Nhat Hanh and Mr. C.K., right on.

Thich Nhat Hanh
– Keeping the Peace
‘In order to forget that we have blocks of pain, sorrow, fear, and violence, we lose ourselves in the practice of consumption. Why do we turn on the television? Why do we continue to watch, even if the programs are not interesting at all? We watch because we want something to cover up our pain, sorrow, fear, and anger. We don’t want those feelings to come up, so we suppress them by consuming.

There is some feeling of loneliness, fear, or depression inside that we don’t want, so we pick up the newspaper, we turn on the radio, we turn on the television, we pick up the phone, we go for a drive. We do everything we can to avoid confronting our true selves. This kind of consumption is a practice of running away, and the items we consume continue to bring the toxins of violence, fear, and anger into us. By practicing an embargo on our negative feelings, we create a situation of bad circulation in our psyche, suppressing our unwanted thought patters and not allowing them to circulate. When we create a situation of bad circulation in our consciousness, it causes symptoms of depression and mental illness.

When the blood in our body does not circulate well, we experience physical pain- we have a  headache, a backache, sometimes there is pain everywhere. When we exercise and massage to help the blood circulate well, we diminish these symptoms in our body. The same is true with our consciousness. If we block unpleasant thought patterns through consumption, we create bad circulation in our psyche, and symptoms of mental illness will appear. That is why it’s very important to lift the embargo, allowing fear, pain, and sorrow to come up.

You can only do this if you are ready, or you’ll be overwhelmed by your suffering. You invite the negative thoughts to come up with the energy of mindfulness generated by your practice. This energy is there to recognize, embrace, and transform. If you practice, if you know how to sit, then the energy of mindfulness and concentration within you will be powerful enough to do the work of recognizing, embracing, and bringing relief to your suffering. After being embraced by mindfulness and finding relief, the energy of fear, anger, and depression that was growing within you will lose some of its power.’