Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
Trainings to Cultivate Awareness of Experience in Real Time
Mindfulness is present moment awareness of what is going on in the mind and body as well as our immediate environment and world. Our lives are made up of present moment experiences, each tied to the next. Often we get caught up in how we have gotten to where we are today, in stories we create about our own personal narrative. Likewise, we often get caught up in thoughts of the future, stories about where we want to go or fear we might end up. Intentionally placing our awareness on the present moment forces us to become aware of these stories and to step out of them, into an objective monitoring of what we are directly experience: awareness of sensation (taste, touch, smell, sight and sound) and the conditioned mind (thoughts, feelings and awareness of our attention).
Generally we begin with a focus on the quality of our attention and relationship to present moment experience. We pay attention to physical sensations of the body and the way positive and difficult thoughts and feeling states are associated with them. Such as how an unpleasant physical sensation of pain may trigger feelings of aversion and leading to craving or fantasizing. We pay attention to how particular thoughts patterns and feelings states frame how we experience present moment experience. We intentionally work to cultivate wholesome, kind mind states that allow us to shape the quality of our attention and our relationship to thoughts and feeling states. We also work outwards, paying attention to how our relationships with others is effected by the way we direct and quality of our attention. The degree to which we are able to accomplish all this depends on the resources we invested in and quality of our practice, the degree to which we have trained ourselves to pay attention, focus and concentrate on whatever is at hand in the present moment.
Whoever we are, we all already pay attention to present moment experience in one way, shape or form, to one degree or another. The question is, how aware are we of how we relate to our experiences? We all share and posses the ability to become aware of our relationship to present moment experience. It is a basic, universal application of the human endowment. This ability seems to come easier to some rather than others, but even the busiest, most disorganized minds can learn to skillfully focus and cultivate their attention. Mindfulness is free to all. Our conditioning and motivations will differ, but the effort to begin a practice and planting seeds is all that is necessary begin cultivating mindfulness. Whatever motivates to cultivate a balanced, effortful practice is the right motivation for you.
Mindfulness in this context is largely composed of two interconnected forms of practice, metta and vipassana. Metta is the Pali word for lovingkindness or lovingfriendliness. Vipassana is the Pali word for insight meditation. Neither one is necessarily better or more significant than the other, they two sides of the same coin in practice. Both are equally necessary. By cultivating one we lay the foundations for cultivating the other.
When you boil down vipassana, you are left with exercises that cultivate an ability to focus and concentrate our attention. We can use the breath, body or sound to anchor us in present moment experience and keep us safe from drifting too far into the past or the future. Take the analogy of a ship's anchor for how we begin focusing on attention in practice: Though an anchored vessel may drift off from where it originally came to rest in a harbor, it can only move so far from where it is anchored.
We cannot stop our mind from thinking, but we can bring our attention back to our anchor once we recognize its focus has strayed. The vessel may drift off from where it came to rest, just as the mind may drift off into thought over and over again, but it will always return thanks to the chain connecting it to its anchor. Thanks to the anchor, the vessel does not become lost and drift out to sea. This is the purpose of choosing an object as an anchor in meditation practice.
Anchors are very important, because you will be continuously distracted by different stimuli throughout your practice. Whether past memories or future plans, such thoughts are inevitable. Particularly challenging mind states, such as aversion, craving, fantasizing, sloth and torpor, restlessness and doubt are also inevitable in practice, just as uncomfortable physical sensations are. Distraction and discomfort are generally a regular theme in one's mindfulness practice. The impulse of the reptilian part of our deepest brain, to avoid unpleasant sensation and seek out pleasant ones, is the ultimate Teacher. Anchors allow us to effectively bring our attention back to a focus on the rhythms of the present moment.
No matter how able or skilled in practice you become, there will always be new distractions and challenges to tackle and overcome. At first it may seem to be a curse, but soon you will understand this is in fact a blessing. We practice concentration because we expect to become distracted. Our mindfulness practice is like strength training, building up our ability engage in more skillful behavior.
Perhaps mindful awareness practice is primarily a course in the practice of resiliency. The wisdom of practice is in embracing our failure. Each success in practice is a temporary step leading us towards future opportunities in success and failure alike. Welcome failure, it will teach you a lot about success. The heart of any mindfulness practice is in the coming back to one's anchor. That moment when you "wake up" and realize you have drifted off into the past or planning for the future, let go of whatever thoughts led your attention astray and return to your anchor. It is normal for this process of waking up, letting go and bring the attention back to the anchor to repeat itself many times throughout a sitting. This is the essential dynamic of a mindful awareness meditation practice.
Choose one anchor for each meditation at its start, and stick to that one anchor lest you become confused. You will surely have more than enough distractions once you begin. You will eventually find that a certain anchor feels right for you, or for certain circumstances. For many, many reasons, it is recommended you begin with the breath as your anchor. However, if you find yourself drawn to a distracting experience of sound or physical sensation in the body, let that be your anchor for the practice session.
Everyone is able to develop a practice and hone their ability, it just requires dedication and certain a measure of determination. One of my teachers once defined “spirituality” as a desire to change, a lusting for something more - qualitatively more, not quantitatively. To be spiritual is to desire a better, more meaningful life, one worth living. What could be more significant or human?
Whenever in doubt be kind and gentle with yourself. Willingness and determination are important, but being kind and gentle with one's self and one's process is perhaps more so. These are skills cultivated by engaging with and participating in a spiritual life. What we are attempting to do with mindfulness is create conditions fertile for a healthy being to grow out of:
Mindfulness is present moment awareness of what is going on in the mind and body as well as our immediate environment and world. Our lives are made up of present moment experiences, each tied to the next. Often we get caught up in how we have gotten to where we are today, in stories we create about our own personal narrative. Likewise, we often get caught up in thoughts of the future, stories about where we want to go or fear we might end up. Intentionally placing our awareness on the present moment forces us to become aware of these stories and to step out of them, into an objective monitoring of what we are directly experience: awareness of sensation (taste, touch, smell, sight and sound) and the conditioned mind (thoughts, feelings and awareness of our attention).
Generally we begin with a focus on the quality of our attention and relationship to present moment experience. We pay attention to physical sensations of the body and the way positive and difficult thoughts and feeling states are associated with them. Such as how an unpleasant physical sensation of pain may trigger feelings of aversion and leading to craving or fantasizing. We pay attention to how particular thoughts patterns and feelings states frame how we experience present moment experience. We intentionally work to cultivate wholesome, kind mind states that allow us to shape the quality of our attention and our relationship to thoughts and feeling states. We also work outwards, paying attention to how our relationships with others is effected by the way we direct and quality of our attention. The degree to which we are able to accomplish all this depends on the resources we invested in and quality of our practice, the degree to which we have trained ourselves to pay attention, focus and concentrate on whatever is at hand in the present moment.
Whoever we are, we all already pay attention to present moment experience in one way, shape or form, to one degree or another. The question is, how aware are we of how we relate to our experiences? We all share and posses the ability to become aware of our relationship to present moment experience. It is a basic, universal application of the human endowment. This ability seems to come easier to some rather than others, but even the busiest, most disorganized minds can learn to skillfully focus and cultivate their attention. Mindfulness is free to all. Our conditioning and motivations will differ, but the effort to begin a practice and planting seeds is all that is necessary begin cultivating mindfulness. Whatever motivates to cultivate a balanced, effortful practice is the right motivation for you.
Mindfulness in this context is largely composed of two interconnected forms of practice, metta and vipassana. Metta is the Pali word for lovingkindness or lovingfriendliness. Vipassana is the Pali word for insight meditation. Neither one is necessarily better or more significant than the other, they two sides of the same coin in practice. Both are equally necessary. By cultivating one we lay the foundations for cultivating the other.
When you boil down vipassana, you are left with exercises that cultivate an ability to focus and concentrate our attention. We can use the breath, body or sound to anchor us in present moment experience and keep us safe from drifting too far into the past or the future. Take the analogy of a ship's anchor for how we begin focusing on attention in practice: Though an anchored vessel may drift off from where it originally came to rest in a harbor, it can only move so far from where it is anchored.
We cannot stop our mind from thinking, but we can bring our attention back to our anchor once we recognize its focus has strayed. The vessel may drift off from where it came to rest, just as the mind may drift off into thought over and over again, but it will always return thanks to the chain connecting it to its anchor. Thanks to the anchor, the vessel does not become lost and drift out to sea. This is the purpose of choosing an object as an anchor in meditation practice.
Anchors are very important, because you will be continuously distracted by different stimuli throughout your practice. Whether past memories or future plans, such thoughts are inevitable. Particularly challenging mind states, such as aversion, craving, fantasizing, sloth and torpor, restlessness and doubt are also inevitable in practice, just as uncomfortable physical sensations are. Distraction and discomfort are generally a regular theme in one's mindfulness practice. The impulse of the reptilian part of our deepest brain, to avoid unpleasant sensation and seek out pleasant ones, is the ultimate Teacher. Anchors allow us to effectively bring our attention back to a focus on the rhythms of the present moment.
No matter how able or skilled in practice you become, there will always be new distractions and challenges to tackle and overcome. At first it may seem to be a curse, but soon you will understand this is in fact a blessing. We practice concentration because we expect to become distracted. Our mindfulness practice is like strength training, building up our ability engage in more skillful behavior.
Perhaps mindful awareness practice is primarily a course in the practice of resiliency. The wisdom of practice is in embracing our failure. Each success in practice is a temporary step leading us towards future opportunities in success and failure alike. Welcome failure, it will teach you a lot about success. The heart of any mindfulness practice is in the coming back to one's anchor. That moment when you "wake up" and realize you have drifted off into the past or planning for the future, let go of whatever thoughts led your attention astray and return to your anchor. It is normal for this process of waking up, letting go and bring the attention back to the anchor to repeat itself many times throughout a sitting. This is the essential dynamic of a mindful awareness meditation practice.
Choose one anchor for each meditation at its start, and stick to that one anchor lest you become confused. You will surely have more than enough distractions once you begin. You will eventually find that a certain anchor feels right for you, or for certain circumstances. For many, many reasons, it is recommended you begin with the breath as your anchor. However, if you find yourself drawn to a distracting experience of sound or physical sensation in the body, let that be your anchor for the practice session.
Everyone is able to develop a practice and hone their ability, it just requires dedication and certain a measure of determination. One of my teachers once defined “spirituality” as a desire to change, a lusting for something more - qualitatively more, not quantitatively. To be spiritual is to desire a better, more meaningful life, one worth living. What could be more significant or human?
Whenever in doubt be kind and gentle with yourself. Willingness and determination are important, but being kind and gentle with one's self and one's process is perhaps more so. These are skills cultivated by engaging with and participating in a spiritual life. What we are attempting to do with mindfulness is create conditions fertile for a healthy being to grow out of:
The idea that the environment shapes brain development is a very straightforward one, even if the details are immeasurably complex. Think of a kernel of wheat. No matter how genetically sound a seed may be, factors such as sunlight, soil quality, and irrigation must act on it properly if it is to germinate and grow into a healthy adult plant. Two identical seeds, cultivated under opposing conditions, would yield two different plants: one tall, robust, and fertile; the other stunted, wilted, and unproductive. The second plant is not diseased: it only lacked the conditions required to reach its full potential.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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