Learn Buddhist insight meditation in your daily life.
MIDL (Mindfulness in Daily Life) provides a systematic way of practising traditional Buddhist Insight Meditation (satipatthana vipassana) in your daily life. MIDL takes advantage of the disturbances and overstimulation that are part of living a normal life and uses them as a foundation for both calm and insight. When vipassana-insight & samatha-calm are developed in tandem through intentional letting go, much of the dukkha (suffering) experienced by insight meditators due to disenchantment ceases, due to the mind having a place of safety to return to, within the calm-abiding of mindfulness of body. In this Insight Meditation Course, you will learn to find the middle way in your insight practice, by neither suppressing nor avoiding any experience but rather softening your relationship toward it.
In this course, you will practice systematic mindfulness of breathing techniques designed for daily life. The foundation for your meditation will be developing relaxation and calm (samatha). Anything that hinders samatha is used as an opportunity for vipassana insight.
Your first step when practicing MIDL Insight Meditation in daily life is to create a foundation for both calm and insight by mindfully relaxing your body and mind with clear comprehension of it.
Suitability: Beginner.
Purpose: Creating Your Foundation.
Introduction to MIDL Insight Meditation.
New to Buddhist Insight Meditation? Begin here:
Mindfulness of Breathing Skills 01-03.
Develop insight into the left-hand hindrance to transform it into the right-hand marker of calm.
Support Articles.
The theory behind the above meditation skills.
Optional Meditation:
If you experience stress, anxiety, or brain fog, practice this first.
Your second step is to cultivate curiosity about balancing mental effort by developing insight into what hinders the development of calm & tranquility.
Suitability: Intermediate.
Purpose: Insight into restlessness.
Mindfulness of Breathing Skills 04-06.
Develop insight into the left-hand hindrance to transform it into the right-hand marker of calm.
Support Articles:
Your third step is to cultivate your skill in stable attention during mindfulness of breathing by including joy and tranquility in your attention.
Suitability: Skilled.
Purpose: Insight into dullness.
Mindfulness of Breathing Skills 07-09.
Develop insight into the left-hand hindrance to transform it into the right-hand marker of calm.
Support Article:
Your fourth step is to cultivate your skill in samadhi (unification) to develop access concentration.
Suitability: Accomplished.
Purpose: Develop access concentration.
Mindfulness of Breathing Skills 10-12.
Develop insight into the left-hand hindrance to transform it into the right-hand marker of calm.
Support Article:
Your fifth step is to cultivate your skill in meditative absorption (jhana), to establish equanimity.
Suitability: Proficient.
Purpose: Develop Factor of Equanimity.
Course Lessons:
Use your skill developed in mindfulness of breathing to access the first four pleasure jhana.
The insight practices in this section are designed to create the conditions for Sotāpanna: Stream Entry and more advanced levels of insight once a meditator has become proficient in at least a second jhana (absorption) in Cultivation 05.
Suitability: Advanced.
Purpose: Develop Conditions for Awakening.
Course Lessons:
Use the accumulation of your skill in mindfulness of breathing and jhana to establish the 7 Awakening Factors and create the conditions for the four levels of Nibannic Insight.
This section is advanced and not necessary for completing the meditation course above. It may be offered to you as a support for calm & insight by a teacher or to create the conditions for higher insight paths once you are skilled in jhana (absorption) in Cultivation 05.
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3hr MIDL Insight Meditation Workshop
Saturday, December 7 @ 9am - 12pm EST.
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3 Week Introduction to MIDL:
GOSS Formula: How to Let Go.
Sunday Dates: December 8, 22, 29 @ 2 - 3:15pm EST