Mental Screen* Subdue and Conceal Elements of His Nature*

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Mental Screen* 

I found out that the online version (not the app) of Insight Timer has a script for each meditation.  Here's Shinzen Young in Insight Timer - title: Thoughts and Emotions

Lengthen your spine and relax your shoulders and arms.

At any given instant, You may be thinking about a person,

Place, Object, Memory, Plan, Or fantasy.

If so, You'll probably notice a mental image.

Sometimes mental images can be vivid like the material world or a photograph,

But more often they appear as vague, Fleeting impressions of form.

Most people see mental images in front of or around their eyes.

We'll call this area your mental screen.

Bring your attention to your mental screen and notice if you're experiencing any mental image.

If you are, Great. Be aware you're having a visual thought. If you're not, Great.

Enjoy that as a restful experience.

Your mental screen may be quite active with images or pleasantly blank and restful.

Either is natural, Either is fine. Just keep track of whatever's happening.

If your attention wanders to other experiences,

Like mental talk, Sounds, Or body sensations, That's okay.

Just let those distractions come and go in the background and bring your attention back to your mental screen.

If you're experiencing mental images and they're pleasant,

Enjoy that. If they're stressful, Try to view them with detachment.

This will train you to watch your mind like a spectator watches a parade.

You appreciate what you're seeing,

But you aren't caught up in it.

If you're having difficulty detaching from stressful mental images,

Try taking a few deep breaths or relaxing your whole body or putting a slight smile on your face.

Now, Let go of that and bring your attention to the space where you hear mental talk.

Most people hear mental talk in their head or around their ears.

We'll call this area talk space.

At any given instant,

You may be aware that you're hearing mental talk,

Such as an inner monologue or dialogue.

Or you may be aware that there's no mental talk. Either is natural, Either is fine.

When there's mental talk, Listen with detachment.

When there's no mental talk, Enjoy that mental quiet as a restful state.

If the mental talk lasts, Continue to listen.

If it disappears as soon as you notice it,

Get interested in what comes next.

Maybe you'll hear another burst of mental talk.

Or maybe you'll hear mental quiet.

Now, Let go of that and bring your attention to your body.

We're going to explore the presence or absence of emotional sensation in your body.

By emotional sensations,

I mean things like anger, Fear, Sadness, Impatience, Joy, Humor, Love, Interest, And so forth.

Many people feel emotions in their belly, Chest, Heart, Throat, Or face.

But you may experience them anywhere in your body.

If you notice emotions, Great. That's part of the richness of life.

If you're free of emotions,

That's great too. Enjoy that as a restful state.

It's all natural. It's all good.

If you notice emotions and they're pleasant, Enjoy them.

If they're stressful, Do your best to soften around them.

You can learn to relate to emotional sensations the way you relate to the sensations of physical stretching.

If you don't fight with the stretch,

You can feel yourself developing flexibility.

In the same way, If you don't fight with emotional sensations,

You can feel yourself developing flexibility.

If you don't fight with emotional sensations,

You can feel yourself building emotional resilience.

If you're having trouble opening to stressful emotions,

See if there's a place in your body where the emotion is less intense and try opening up to that.

With time, This may lead to a spontaneous softening in the more intense areas.

If your attention wanders to other experiences like thoughts or sounds or non-emotional body sensations,

Gently return to tracking the presence or absence of emotional sensation in your body.

The next time you're stressed,

Try focusing on your mental screen or on talk space or on your emotional body,

Even if it's just for a few seconds,

And see if the stress bothers you less.

Subdue and Conceal Elements of His Nature*

LBJ

Yet, obvious as may have been the necessity for subduing these qualities, for him to subdue them must have been very difficult. They had not, after all, been eliminated from his nature. They were still there, powerful as ever—as will be seen, all too clearly, in the next volume of this work. Lyndon Johnson had grasped in an instant what needed to be done with Kennedy's men and Kennedy's legislation: his insight into the crisis and the rapidity of his response to it a glimpse of political genius almost shocking in its acuity and decisiveness. But the genius in knowing what he needed to do was no more vital in the crisis than the self-discipline and strength of will that enabled him to do it. Accomplishing what was needed required him to subdue and to conceal elements of his nature that he had never before concealed or subdued — elements so basic to his personality that they had, in fact, governed his behavior during all of his previous life.

Yet he subdued them, overcame them, in a triumph not only of genius but of Will p 603. The passage of power