Introduction to MIDL

I look forward to sharing with you some practical techniques for developing traditional mindfulness (insight) meditation in your daily life. Here are some simple tips to help you on your journey:

In the main menu it is easy to see the 12 Cultivations (bhavana: lit: to cultivate, to grow) and to feel overwhelmed by the size of this meditation course. What you are viewing is a complete curriculum for beginner to advanced meditators, like a complete exercise program for the mind. 

Like any other exercise program, you will gain most benefit if you focus on the meditation skill that you are training your mind in now, rather than looking ahead in this course. 

Like progression in a school curriculum, you start by developing foundational skills and gradually progress onto more advanced training in meditation at your own pace.

There is no set time or deadlines for meditation. Insight meditation is an intimate journey into your heart and mind that unfolds organically if approached with an attitude of acceptance and letting go. 

The daily meditation skills that you will be practicing in this course create the conditions for this natural unfolding. Take your time with each meditation skill, getting to know it well and you will experience its benefits in your daily life.

New to Meditation?

• Continue Reading: Creating a Daily Meditation Practice.

Experienced Meditator?

• Continue Reading: A Note for Experienced Meditators.

Your first goal is towards developing a daily meditation practice.

This is done by making an agreement with yourself to commit to a time during your day that you allow yourself the space to be fully present with your heart and mind.

This commitment to creating time to really getting to know yourself is the first step towards inner and outer harmony (sila: morality).

Tip: "Make a commitment to your first daily meditation." 

Create a nice area to meditate, a little corner in your home or workplace that you can get away to for a short time (I have used my car) and return to it again and again to teach your mind that this place is for meditation. 

You can add a blanket, a statue, some candles to create an atmosphere. Using a timer (phone on 'do not disturb') can be helpful to setting your meditation length. The guided meditations within this course will also help with your commitment.

Tip: "For positive change to happen you need to start mimicking the life you want to live, now."

Start by setting a regular time for your daily meditation, something that is achievable, and committing to it. Once committed to a specific time, stick to it; be careful of giving your mind mixed messages here.

At first you may find that your mind may throw up all sorts of reasons why you should miss today's meditation: Too busy, too tired, too...., don't believe it. This is just your old habits talking to you. 

If you want to change your life you need to go against these urges. As the Buddha said: "Swim against the stream", the current of habits, the current of old patterns.

It is important to recognise that your meditation is not always going to be enjoyable. Some meditations feel comfortable, others don't.

Since the techniques that are used in meditation will challenge habits of your mind, and your body is adjusting to sitting still, some meditations may feel uncomfortable. This is a normal part of any exercise routine, be it physical or mental, especially in the beginning.

Committing to the time you have set for your meditation, regardless of how it feels, develops resilience, determination and understanding about yourself that will lead to life changing insight.

Commitment also creates a feeling of achievement and trust in your own ability, trust in yourself. It is this commitment rather than how good you think the meditation is, that will start to change any habitual negative behaviour in your mind.

• Continue Reading: Choosing Your Meditation Posture.

 A basic understanding of the correct posture for meditation is important.

When sitting on a chair to meditate, it is ok in the beginning to lean against the back rest. Make sure that your buttock is all the way back in the chair or else you may slump in your lower spine causing you to feel discomfort and sleepiness.

Once seated, un-round your shoulders by bringing them forward, raising them up, bringing them back and then dropping them down. 

Also tuck your chin under slightly, extending the crown of your head towards the ceiling to balance your head on your neck.

Once your meditation practice develops it is helpful to start introducing more discipline within your meditation posture. This can be done by sitting towards the front of the chair and slightly rotating the top of your hips forward. 

Forearms and hands can then sit gently on your legs, creating a triangle shaped balance point. 

When sitting on the floor it is important to take a posture that keeps your back straight and that you can maintain for a period of time without moving. Sitting flat on the floor requires a lot of flexibility in your hips.

You can test this now by sitting flat on the floor.

If your knees have trouble touching the ground while your back is straight, then you should consider using different props to help with your posture. 

Props such as a firm cushion under your buttocks help to raise your hips off the ground, changing the angle of your legs. This lowers the amount flexibility needed in your hips for the posture.

When sitting on the floor I recommend trying the Burmese meditation posture. Sit down, on a cushion if needed, and fold one leg into your body so that the sole of the foot is facing the inside thigh of the other leg. Next fold the other leg in front of it. 

In this way the legs are folded next to each other but not on top of each other. This prevents the pain and numbness that comes from the pressure of one limb pressing against the other. 

If this is still difficult you can try a kneeling position on the floor with a rolled blanket or cushion between your legs with your legs folded back, under you. 

If this still isn't comfortable then go easy on yourself, get to know your body and what it can and can't do. Accept it; and then work with what you have. 

There are other postures just as good, like a chair or lying down on the floor.

When laying on the floor use a yoga mat or blanket plus a pillow if needed. If you have back trouble, slightly bend your knees and place a bolster or rolled blanket under them to protect your back. 

To keep alertness so that you don't fall asleep, place your arms by your sides with palms facing upwards. If you have back or neck issues you can also lay on your side in the CPR recovery position (on your side).

If there is no other option meditation can also be done lying on a bed but there is a higher risk of you falling asleep. You can prop your body upright by using pillows behind you back and head, a rolled blanket under your knees to protect your lower back. 

When meditating in a bed it is important to focus on proper support or else your body may slump and fall to the side as you relax. 

With practice an MIDL meditator can meditate lying on a bed while staying fully alert. In the beginning however this is difficult.

Now that you understand postures for meditation you can either:

• Continue Reading: Practicing Mindfulness in Daily Life.

or

• Begin your Meditation: Grounding & Softening Meditations.

You can always return this section at a later time for future reference.

The meditation skills you will be learning in this Insight Meditation Course are all designed to be integrated into your daily life.

When practicing Mindfulness in Daily Life (MIDL):

⚪ Daily Seated Meditation

is a way of developing specific meditation skills for:

⚪ Mindfulness in Daily Life

In MIDL you will use the intentionally controlled environment of your daily seated meditation to strengthen the mental factors of mindfulness, curiosity and softening (letting go).

These are the basic attention skills that are necessary to be with habitual patterns and difficult experiences that arise within your life, in a way that develops insight into their nature.

"You use the controlled environment of daily seated meditation to develop specific skills that will allow you to self-observe and let go in your daily life, in a way that will weaken defensive patterns of your heart & mind."

The main difference between sitting quietly in meditation and your daily life is that when you intentionally sit down to meditate you are, to a certain degree, creating a more controllable environment in which to practice specific skills of heart & mind.

In essence, the structure of your attention when meditating in daily life is similar to that used when sitting in meditation. Insight meditation is a posture of attention within your mind, not a posture of your body. 

This means that as you develop skill in meditation you will be able to meditate while laying down, sitting, standing and walking.

With practice by following the meditation exercises in this course, you will be able to meditate throughout the day regardless of what posture your body is in and experience the benefits within your life.

Just as we have intimate relationships with other people, our mind also has intimate relationships with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, thoughts & memories, views etc. 

If your relationship towards what you are experiencing is needy and grasping, relying on these experiences to bring happiness, to satisfy needs, then because of their impermanent nature (anicca), dissatisfaction and suffering (dukkha) within your heart will follow in its wake.

As insight meditators we develop the understanding that any sense of fulfillment or happiness that is going to last within this changing world, needs to come from an intimate and healthy relationship between our own heart and mind.

Main Points:

• It is these habitual relationships based on attraction, aversion and indifference that you will be developing skill in working with as an insight meditator. 

• It is the cultivation of the conditions for contentment, equanimity, imbued with love and kindness, that you will cultivating until they become your natural way of being.

• It is the purpose of insight & wisdom cultivated through self-observation, to create a different reference point for the mind. One that will unify your heart and mind so that you can abide in harmony and contentment. 

Once you are harmonious and content within your own heart then your relationships with others, this planet, and experiences within it, also becomes harmonious and peaceful.

This change has to come from within through experienced based on understanding (insight).

• Continue Reading: Three Pillars of Mindfulness in Daily Life.

The practice of Mindfulness in Daily Life (MIDL) rest on three pillars of meditative skill:

1. Flexible Attention: the ability to self-observe to develop insight into your mind.
2. Softening: the ability to physically and mentally let go by deeply softening.
3. Stillness: the stillness of awareness that is no longer entangled in habitual patterns.

When meditating in daily life you can apply the Three Pillars of MIDL by following a simple formula both in seated meditation and in your daily life.

Follow this simple formula:

• Ground --> Observe --> Soften --> Still. 

STEP 1: Ground your awareness.

• This means to be mindful of the experience of your body (warmth, coolness, touch etc.) as a reference point to the present experience to counter the minds tendency to dwell in past and future. Your body knows nothing of the past or future, it is always here, now. It is this quality of your body always being present that makes mindfulness of body (kaya-gata sati) so valued to insight meditators.

STEP 2: Observe your attention habitually wander.

• This refers to being mindful of any time that your attention moves away from resting in the awareness of your body. This is the skill of self-observation that you help you develop understanding about the intimate relationship between habits of your mind, and how your body feels. This self-observation needs to be very gentle and enjoyable like a game, so that it develops curiosity and the joy of letting go.

STEP 3: Soften your relationship.

• This means to deeply soften/relax the underlying effort to feel attracted, averse or indifferent towards your present experience. This includes memories of the past, and thoughts of the future, because they too are part of present experience.

STEP 4: Experience the pleasure of stillness.

• This refers to the pleasurable experience of calm & tranquility that can be accessed whenever your mind lets go of the effort to feel attracted, averse or indifferent towards your present experience. This is what you will be training your mind to do during this meditation course, to let go and experience the subtle pleasure of each letting go as a way of rewarding your for changing its behaviour. 

Summary:

The whole path of an insight meditator from the beginning to the end rests on and is held together by a constant thread of letting go and the pleasure of it. 

Sila (morality), samadhi (unification of meditative attention) and panna (wisdom) all rest on and held together by a thread of letting go and the pleasure of it.

Now that you have some basic understanding of the structure for meditating in daily life, it is time to begin your first meditations, where you will learn the meditative skills of grounding & softening.

• ***View the Progressive Menu to see your next step.

***TIP: This is a map to track your progression and is at the end of each page in this course. As you progress this menu will grow to reflect your progression through this meditation course.