MINDFULNESS

HAVE A BIT OF KIND-MINDFUL TIME FOR YOURSELF:

Now, as you sit on your chair, or on your cushion on the floor make sure you hold an erect straight back and neck, yet relaxed. Allow your hands to rest on your laps and arms relaxed.

Gently close your eyes and focus your awareness on the breath as it flows into and out of your body. Feel the sensations the air makes as it flows in through your nose, down your throat and into your lungs. 

Feel the expansion and subsiding of your chest and belly as you breathe. Slowly allow to focus your awareness as you stay in contact with each in-breath and each out-breath. Observe it without trying to alter it in any way or expecting anything special to happen.

During meditation, you are going to find that your attention wanders off. This can happen a lot. It's part of the process. So, when your attention wanders, instead of getting frustrated, acknowledge it and  then bring your attention back to the breath. Even if you have to do this more than a few times, every time, gently bring your attention back to it. 

Try not to criticise yourself. Minds wander. It’s what they do. The act of realising that your mind has wandered – and encouraging it to return to focus on the breath – is central to the practice of mindfulness meditation and so re-focusing on the breath to learn to pay attention to the present moment.  

Little by little through patience and practice you will realise and increase the ability to accept that thoughts and feelings and body sensations are not permanent but come and go. This can help us not to be attached too much to worry and detrimental negative thinking.

As the session goes by, your mind will eventually become calm – or it may not. If it becomes calm, then this may only be short-lived or it may not. Your mind may become filled with thoughts or powerful emotions. These may also be fleeting. Whatever happens, simply observe as best you can without reacting, judging your experience or trying to change anything. Gently return your awareness back to the sensations of the breath again and again.

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Mindfulness can be defined as awareness of the present moment experience with acceptance.

When we  are mindful, we experience the world directly here and now and not just through the lens of thoughts and attachment to the past or future.

Thoughts are only representations of symbols that stand for reality itself. 

You can’t smell, or taste  the word apple. 

When we drop below the level of thoughts and make direct contact with the present moment experience, we are able to get in touch with the ever changing nature of reality. One moment is in one way and the next will be different and so on.

We can drop the idea of what we think reality should be like and open to what is in each present moment and stay with it.

 This means when we are suffering,( meaning resisting toward something or giving ourselves hard time or hard time toward others or  a situation in general, for not accepting things as they are ) we can let go of the story of what is happening and simply be with it and with ourselves, with acceptance, courage, non judgemental presence and whenever,  all the previous ones you will find it difficult to connect with, some self compassion will be of great support. ( Just think how you would talk to a really good friend whenever he/she is going through hard, difficult time….well reverse that as you would talk to yourself with soothing encouraging and supportive words of understanding )

The Mindfulness teacher Jon Kabat Zinn describes, mindfulness is allowing kind presence curiosity to our experience and so we can be with it wherever we are, in the city, in a park, with our loved ones, at work and learn new ways of responding to our experiences and ultimately life itself.

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MEDITATION IS NOT ABOUT STOPPING OUR THOUGHTS

Non-meditators, beginners, and long-time Buddhist practitioners alike tend to believe meditation is all about stopping our thoughts. This is a serious misunderstanding, and, sadly, keeps many people from embracing the practice of meditation. It’s very important to understand the true purpose and function of meditation, because the vast majority of us find it impossible to stop our thoughts, at least through determined effort. 

Even the rare person who has the mental control to suppress thoughts for periods of time finds this is not really the point of meditation.

Meditation is not about stopping thought, but instead is a practice of diligently and repeatedly turning our attention inward to something beyond thought, thereby realigning our whole being. Meditation requires diligence and determination, but also patience, humility, and trust.

 

Our Longing to be Free from Thought

 

When people hear I’m a Zen Buddhist, they often respond by saying something like, “I tried meditation but I’m no good at it, I can’t stop thinking.” If I inquire further, it usually becomes clear that when people experience lots of thoughts in meditation, they either conclude the exercise is a waste of time, or they find the experience of sitting with their thoughts unpleasant, if not unbearable.

Facing the state of your mind in meditation can be uncomfortable for a number of reasons.

-First, there may be things in your life you really don’t want to look at or accept.

-Second, the content of your thoughts may be negative, painful, or repetitive – think endless self-criticism, obsession, remorse, anxious worries about the future, persevering on past events, etc.

- Third, the content of your mind may be fairly innocuous or even pleasant, but the ceaseless train of thoughts becomes exhausting and pointless. Even worse, some of us with busy minds feel like the first few years of meditation are like sitting down to stare into a blender; the sheer quantity of thoughts, whirling around more or less randomly, is dizzying and distressing.

Lending additional discomfort to all of these face-your-mind scenarios is the sense that “you” have almost no control over what’s going on in your mind. You bring your mind back to your breath or the present moment… and in a split second it’s off again. This process happens over and over and over, and for many of us, with diligent effort in meditation, that split second lengthens gradually over the years to a whole second, or maybe two.

Prolonged periods free from thought continue to elude us, except maybe for a brief time in the middle of an intensive week of meditation at a silent retreat.

It can really feel like gaining even a few minutes of freedom from thought is a nearly insurmountable, exhausting task, like moving all the sand off a beach using a teaspoon. Faced with this task, many people give up meditation entirely. Those of us who don’t give up find ourselves making countless trips carefully balancing a teaspoon full of sand, and no matter how carefully we walk, we watch the grains slide down the sides of the pile, over the edge of the spoon, and fall to the ground.

We may frequently doubt whether the effort is worth it, and harbour fantasies about some other kind of spiritual practice.

Does it mean the ultimate goal of meditation is stopping our thoughts?

The answers to both of these questions – you probably won’t be surprised – is “yes” and “no.”

Yes, we are encouraged to deepen and strengthen our meditation in order to experience  a calm clear state of mind more often and for longer periods of time.

But no, a calm ,clear state of mind ,is not the goal of our meditation because it is not something that can be achieved as a goal in the ordinary sense. As soon as we set up a goal, we are separated from it. In our minds, we create an “I” who is striving the meditation to achieve some state we do not currently have.

Therefore, no, the practice of meditation is not about stopping our thoughts, because that involves setting up this wanting at all cost a calmer and clearer mind as a goal and striving for it.

What we do in meditation is patiently create the right conditions for a calm , clear state of mind, and then sometimes we’re blessed with the experience. It’s like creating a lap for a shy cat; you can’t reach out for the cat, grab it, or try to hold it. If you want it to come curl up on your lap, it’s probably best to sit really still and pretend you don’t even care if the cat comes over.

- Meditation Is Not a Matter of Thinking (or Not Thinking)

 

So, what is meditation about if it’s not about stopping our thoughts? (even though it is impossible anyway ) Surely, it’s not about just sitting there in our habitual, thought-centered mind trip!

When we aren’t striving for a thoughtless state in meditation, we experience that meditation is about giving up our attachment to thinking.

When we notice our discriminating mind, intellect, and self-consciousness are operating again, we give them up. When we notice we’re measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views – including, or especially, ideas about meditation – we let go of that effort. 

“When a thought arises, be aware of it. When you are aware of it, it will disappear.

That’s all we have to do is be aware of thoughts when they arise! We don’t have to analyse them, push them away, reject them, or figure out a way to prevent new thoughts from arising.

As soon as you become aware you are sucked in the thoughts vortex twirl , step out and watch, become slowly the witness of that noisy sucking mind, and connect with you breath which makes you come back to the present moment.

Thought don t stop but your witnessing awareness does make the difference in lowering the noise volume and decreasing your endless effort of wanting to stop the mind. As soon as you realise that, something sort of stillness begin. A stillness in a sense of not non having thought, but in a sense of taking ownership of you though understanding you are not you thoughts, you are not your intense emotions while sitting. And that s what meditation is. And ongoing awareness rise as you keep sitting in silence , immobile. And then maybe a second wave of thoughts starts aging out of the blue, and again let your awareness settle in via the breath, anchoring your attention back to the present moment. Sitting immobile witnessing your self awareness going in and out and witnessing what is in deep connection with your presence.

In the practice of meditation, we return to the simple, physical act of just sitting, still and upright and return, your attention to your breathing, effortlessy without thinking about it, as a natural process and feeling here alive in connection with the breath.

In all cases, the meditative practice is not a matter of thinking. It’s also not a matter of not thinking. Meditation is about overcome the whole realm of thinking and not thinking, dedicating ourselves to an activity that does not depend on thought – even thoughts about how to stop thoughts.