Two Perspectives on Mindfulness Practice

 From Sogyal Rinpoche:

The practice of mindfulness defuses our negativity, aggression, and turbulent emotions...Rather than suppressing emotions or indulging in them, here it is important to view them, and your thoughts, and whatever arises with an acceptance and generosity that are as open and spacious as possible. (From The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, p. 61.)

From Jack Kornfield:

Meditation and spiritual practice can easily be used to suppress and avoid feeling or to escape from difficult areas of our lives. Our sorrows are hard to touch. Mindfulness works only when we are willing to direct attention to every area of our suffering. This doesn't mean getting caught in our personal histories, as many people fear, but learning how to address them so that we can actually free ourselves from the big and painful "blocks" of our past. (From the article, Even the Best Meditators Have Old Wounds to Heal, appearing in  Psychotherapy in Australia in 1998.)

Blessings,
Roger