📖 Introduction
How much of your life is spent putting on a mask? We often live pretending not to be lonely, pretending to be tough, and pretending everything is fine when we are actually consumed by anxiety and stress. Over time, this self-deception and the heavy burdens of anger, annoyance, and perfectionism don’t just ruin our relationships—they can literally destroy our physical health. But what happens when you finally stop blaming the world, look inward, and let go of the toxic emotions threatening your life?
In this post, two practitioners share how mind subtraction meditation helped them break free from self-deception and deep-rooted anger. A 23-year-old reveals how overcoming initial doubts allowed him to see how he had been living a false life, ultimately finding true peace of mind by dropping his tough facade. Meanwhile, a 51-year-old shares a miraculous journey of survival—after severe stress and anger led to a life-threatening liver illness and transplant, he used meditation to completely overhaul his personality, discarding his hatred to receive what he calls a “third life.”
Read their inspiring stories to discover how stopping self-deception and emptying the mind of anger can give you a true second chance at life.
💬 Story 1: “I lived deceiving even myself with countless minds”
By ShouldIMeditate? / Age 23 / Level 1
Actually sitting still and meditating for several hours was not easy at first. It wasn’t that sitting for a long time was hard, but I couldn’t understand why I had to bring up bad memories from the past and why I was told to discard happy and nostalgic memories, and on the other hand, I also had doubts about whether this would really help me.
However, since I had already made the time to do it, I continued meditating following the helper’s words and guidance. But as I did it, I had this thought.
“Looking back on my lived life, I truly lived a false life. I only viewed others badly or well within my mind, and I think I lived deceiving even myself, worrying and stressing over all kinds of futures that hadn’t come.”
Pretending not to be struggling, pretending not to be lonely, pretending to be tough, pretending nothing was wrong… I felt that I hid my original self and deceived myself with all sorts of minds on top of that. While meditating, feeling that this meditation is a method that truly works, my mind also became quite calm and comfortable.
Thank you.
#Worries #Stress #PretendingToBeOkay #Doubt #PeaceOfMind
💬 Story 2: “I truly looked back on myself and discarded my mind”
By Myungchul Cha / Age 51 / Level 7
I was a person with a lot of anger who got easily annoyed. Because of that, my interpersonal relationships were not smooth in my social life, and I easily got annoyed a lot at my family too. In society and at work, I developed a personality of always being anxious and having to handle everything perfectly, and doing so, it became increasingly difficult to adapt to work and social life, and I always ended up failing.
Meanwhile, due to stress, my health deteriorated to cirrhosis of the liver leading to the brink of death, and because of this, I even underwent a major surgery called a liver transplant. Through this, I received a great gift of another life. At that time, I thought I shouldn’t live like this from now on. Having been reborn at the threshold of death, I thought I couldn’t just live in the same pain and stress again, and decided to try changing my own personality first. Then, thinking I should live by emptying my mind first, I started this meditation at a friend’s recommendation.
“During Level 1, I realized that all the faults—the anger, annoyance, interpersonal relationships, family relationships, and failing to adapt to social life—lay not with other people but with myself.”
Hating my parents and siblings; having dissatisfaction, complaints, and a constant inferiority complex due to growing up in a difficult family environment; the pride of not wanting to lose to anyone; failing to adapt well to social life and always living in anxiety, eventually quitting my job; the years spent being greedy; failing while always looking up without acknowledging my reality—I blamed others for all of this, and I realized I truly hadn’t been able to look back on myself like this.
So from Level 2, I looked one by one for where the roots of my anger and annoyance lay, why I got angry and annoyed at others, and what the problem was. After discarding the minds about the connections related to me one by one, especially my parents, siblings, and the people I hated the most, I realized my mind had truly disappeared. From then on, I gained the conviction that, ah, this meditation is truly a meditation that changes my personality and mind.
While doing Levels 4, 5, and 6, truly feeling that the mind I had was fake, as I discarded them one by one, my mind was disappearing before I knew it. Up to Level 4, I just thought my mind was getting comfortable, but especially passing Level 5 and from Level 6, I could know that I truly had no mind.
“Encountering this meditation is receiving a third life in my life. I consider this meditation, which gave me a third life, more precious than anything else, and I sincerely thank you.”
#PersonalityChange #AcquaintanceRecommendation #Pride #InferiorityComplex #Annoyance #InterpersonalRelationships #EmptyingMind #Dissatisfaction
🌱 NEXT STEPS: Stop Pretending and Heal Your Deepest Anger
Are you exhausted from pretending to be okay, or feeling your physical and mental health deteriorate from carrying years of deep-rooted anger and resentment? Blaming the world and deceiving yourself only tightens the heavy chains holding you back.
Through mind subtraction meditation, you can bravely look back at the roots of your frustration, perfectionism, and stress. By discarding the false mind and the painful memories that fuel your anger, you can experience a profound personality shift. Take the first step today to stop pretending, heal your relationships, and embrace the peace of a brand new life.
👉 Book a Free Introductory Session at Santa Clara Meditation: https://santaclarameditation.org/free-meditation-introduction
