“To Scratch or Not to Scratch” — Meditation Questions for the Consciously Aware
Meditation Woes & Self-Mastery
NOTE: Meditation is a unique personal experience and might be different for you. This piece is written from my personal perspective about the process behind meditation and more importantly — itching while meditating. This might not seem important to you — however, If you disagree with this point of view please submit your complaints in written-form to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington D.C.
Science tells us that an “itch” — or ‘Pruritus’ according to their smuggish semantics — is a “general sensation arising from the irritation of skin cells or nerve cells associated with the skin.”- [Source]
An itch performs a vital function within the body — like creating a kinesthetic model of the world around you, alerting you to abrupt changes in your environment and making you aware of general “discomfort”. As a survival mechanism —Pruritus is a Saint!
However — when you’re trying to “still your mind” and dive deep into a meditative trance- Pruritus is a demon sent to torment you, to distract you and test you. Or perhaps it simply is an itch that needs to be scratched however, more than often it’s a “lesson to be learned”.
Why do I suddenly feel itchy when meditating?
While from a “mechanical” and scientific perspective — an itch is nothing more than ‘something getting on your nerves’…nerves!’ — within the context of meditation it can have a far more profound meaning than simple bio-mechanics.
Before we get into symbolic meanings behind this minute bodily function; let’s at least attempt to answer the question “why”.
One of the predominating beliefs as to “why you suddenly feel the need to scratch” when you meditate is simply -because you’re aware of it. Yep — nothing mystical about that! However, people who do not meditate often fail to realize the layered-reality of their existence.
The Layers of Perceptive Reality
The more you meditate and learn how to be still— the easier it becomes to discern the conical nature of thoughts stemming from one’s single point consciousness [The Here and Now] —expanding inward towards the infinite chaos we call the “subconscious mind”.
In other words — in your “here and now”, the event that is pulling your conscious awareness — there are only a ‘few thoughts’ accessible in your immediate space. These are thoughts all relevant to the particular event that is occurring right now .
For example; if you’re in a conversation with a co-worker your mind will tend to focus on thoughts relevant to the conversation, scene, setting, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily be thinking about the “social happenings” of the average street cat or whether vegetables possess sentience — which they do.
Nonetheless — within our state of “current-awareness”, our thoughts seem organized and relevant. We can call this single-point-consciousness the 1st layer of perceived reality.
Below the Order Lies Madness!
The moment you manage to filter out this first “thought-cluster” — you begin to enter directly into the second layer which tend to seem far more random — yet still ‘somewhat relevant’ to your recent history.
These thoughts include ‘undigested ideas about series, books, conversations’, random facts, oddities you saw along the way, weird ideas, etc.
Eventually, you make it through this layer and go deeper and deeper where the thoughts start becoming ‘further and further apart’. Longer bouts of silence persist between each thought-form. Each thought form becoming more profound — at times even scary.
Yet we continue to persist — we breathe, relax and let the thought form go. As we do this, we sink deeper and deeper into silence. We experience the void, the quiet, the profound…your break through is right around the corner…just a few moments…but then…
…YOUR NOSE STARTS ITCHING!
That ‘Son of an itch!’
Now the real work begins — do you give into your earthly qualms like the Basic Ape that you are — or do you push on through and achieve existential bliss?
You KNOW that giving into the scratch will ‘knock you out of your meditative trance’ ever so slightly. However, now that you are aware of the itch — IT’S VERY PREVALENT!
“It’s okay…just relax…breathe…oh MOTHERF***!” here is where the real work begins. Here’s where you begin to think about a simple “itch” as something far more significant. As something that might even teach you a thing or two about life.
Firstly — the real reason why you’re itching now — and not when you’re doing something less important liking watching T.V is because you’ve filtered out a lot of the “subconscious noise” floating in your head.
You are more aware about the state of your body, your breathing, your surroundings and the usually much ignored neurotic nature of nerves screaming for attention — or commonly known as “those itches”.
The fact of the matter is that you’re always itching — the difference is that you you aren’t aware of the fact that you’re scratching. You just do it on auto-pilot because your “Single-Point-Consciousness” doesn’t need to actively think about “scratching”. It simply sees the need — and completes it automatically to use mental processing power more efficiently.
Thus — it stands to reason that the mere act of “silencing your thoughts” will bring unwanted attention to the demon Pruritus — just as you’re about to dive into the deep end of your inner-most being. Or in simpler terms — you’ve got more conscious-real estate to ‘focus on the itches’. And so it becomes more apparent.
Creating Metaphors out of bodily functions
As you struggle with the demon Pruritus — a continual tug-o-war between resistance and acceptance —you have the ability to inscribe meaning to the meaningless.
A simple itch becomes a metaphor that can relate to other aspects in our lives.
This usually is discovered when you engage in a firm stance of resistance to the stimuli, “TO HELL WITH YOU PRURITUS! I BANISH YE FROM MY AWARENESS!”
Of which Pruritus responds, “We’ll see about that!”
And in this inner-struggle, you begin to realize that an itch can be symbolic for any discomfort in your life in that the purpose of an itch is to “make you aware of sudden changes within your environment”.
Similarly, emotional “itches” serve as indicators that “something is amiss” within your life — whether from a specific dynamic you are engaging with, or a personal relationship or a combination of all of these factors.
If you’re “not aware of it”, you tend to subconsciously act out — because whether you’re aware of it or not — it’s still happening. It still beckons some sort of response. And so, your body/subconscious will act out without your permission in order to deal with it — perhaps because your attention is somewhere else.
The moment you do become aware of it — yet decide to ignore it, it only grows in intensity until it overpowers you and consumes your entire awareness. Similar to any emotional malady — ignoring it simply makes it stronger.
The only way out is through — meaning that you’d have to do one of two things. Take the physical approach and scratch the itch — however, this might disrupt your “desired state of being” momentarily.
In other words, dealing with emotional or “life issues” directly, sends “ripples” throughout your daily life — disrupting your normal behavioral processes by increasing instances of chaos that challenges your belief system, which permits those maladies to exist.
The mere act of “scratching” requires conscious effort directed to the particular spot of discomfort. Psychologically speaking — you can make the connection.
What’s “Beyond the Itch?”
While “scratching” is definitely a sound approach to dealing with an itch — it is counter productive if you’re trying to “push to the next level” within your meditative practices.
This is because sometimes an “itch” isn’t about you at all — in relation to life of course. An itch on your body is always 100% JUST ABOUT YOU. We’re talking metaphorically here.
Sometimes we have “life itches” that persists even if we scratch it. These are situations that are ‘out of our control’. No matter what you do — you’ll still be scratching and only accomplish to ‘not reach your desired destination’.
When you understand that you’re in a situation where direct action is less effective than lateral-action, in that, directly dealing with a particular situation has no significant influence on the outcome and where rather focusing your attention on something more productive provides greater personal returns. Surrender is the only way to go about it.
When you’re faced with the Demon Puritus in your meditation session — don’t resist it, realize that it’s just a thing that is happening. No action is necessary. It’s simply happening and you’re okay with that.
Eventually — the itch will fade away and you’ll go on a deeper journey, having transcended the discomfort through integration.
Sometimes — letting go is the fastest way through an uncomfortable situation. At least that is what an itch can teach you — if you can just resist scratching it for a while.
