In MIDL Mindfulness Training 13 - 18 you will develop mindfulness by observing habitual movements of your attention during meditation. This will also strengthen skill in investigation, concentration and weaken your identification with habitual thinking.
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
13/52: The Four Elements
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
14/52: Perceptional Borders
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
15/52: Observing Attention 1
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
16/52: Observing Attention 2
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
17/52: Training Attention 1
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
18/52: Training Attention 2
Simple Instructions:
Slowly move your awareness through your body, gently rubbing your awareness within the elemental qualities experienced.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 13/52 you intentionally develop sensitivity to the four elemental qualities of experience. They are experienced as Earth Element = a range of ‘soft’ to ‘hard’, Fire Element = a range of ‘cool’ to ‘hot’, Water Element = a range of ‘dry’ to ‘wet’ and Wind Element = a range of contraction to expansion (movement). These four elemental qualities are the building blocks of all experience appearing before perception and the proliferation of the mind. By developing sensitivity to these elemental qualities all experience breaks up and identification with experience ceases.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Three Stages:
1. Ground awareness within the experience of your body as it sits.
2. Systematically move through the elemental qualities one at a time within your body:
Range of:
Softness – hardness
Hotness – coolness
Dryness – wetness
Contraction - expansion.
3. Bring awareness to each quality and gently rub it against it to ‘feel’ it while repeated a label silently:
Soft, soft
Hard, hard
Hot, hot etc.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Bring one elemental quality to mind at a time and intentionally bring your awareness to it if you notice it within your body. If an elemental quality is not obvious to you do not go searching for it but rather observe what is present to you.
Investigation:
Be playful with these elements and where you experience them. See if you can observe where two elemental qualities are close together like soft & hard or warm & cool. Are they stationary or is there a flowing changing border? Is your body the only place that these elemental qualities can be experienced? Can they be found within emotions? Can elements be found with different states of mind such as frustration, boredom, irritation, love,empathy etc.
Simple Instructions:
Gently rubbing your awareness within the elemental qualities experienced observing the dissolving of borders of perception.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 14/52 you further develop your perception of the four elemental qualities. As this perception strengthens and concentration develops, you intentionally bring awareness to the borders between things such as one of your hands touching the other or your body pressing against the chair or floor. As you focus on the elemental qualities at these points of touch the mind created perceptional borders start to dissolve and you can experience reality free from separation.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Ground awareness within the experience of your body as it sits.
2. Systematically move through the elemental qualities one at a time within your body:
Range of:
Softness – hardness
Hotness – coolness
Dryness – wetness
Contraction - expansion.
3. Bring awareness to each quality and gently rub it against it to ‘feel’ it while repeated a label silently: Soft, soft Hard, hard Hot, hot etc.
4. Observe the illusionary nature of perceptions over-layed by the mind on the four elemental qualities to create its own reality.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Bring one elemental quality to mind at a time and intentionally bring your awareness to it if you notice it within your body. If an elemental quality is not obvious to you do not go searching for it but rather observe what is present to you. Move awareness towards borders of your body, the contact point between things and observe the illusionary nature of perception.
Investigation:
Be playful with these elements and where you experience them. See if you can observe the border between things like: your hands touching, your buttocks against the chair or your feet against the floor. Are these borders of separation really clear or do they come and go? Notice how if you try to feel the chair or the floor the border will appear but if you focus in on the sensations of touch the borders will also fade.
Simple Instructions:
Be aware of the experience of your hands touching and observe whenever your attention habitually moves away from it.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 15/52 you change your focus from observing the elemental experience of your body in the previous trainings, to developing the skill of observing the habitual movements of your attention away from them. This is done by using the elemental quality of the touch of your hands as a reference point from which to observe when awareness shifts towards habitual thinking. Observing these shifts in attention strengthens mindfulness, lowering the time lost within habitual thinking thereby allowing you to observe when it arises and eventually the desire to think the thought itself.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Ground awareness within the experience of your hands touching each other.
2. Relax your mental grip on the touch of the hands and allow the attention to habitually move.
3. Observe the flickering of your attention and collapsing of mindfulness.
4. Observe the re-arising of mindfulness and re-grounding of awareness.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Next ground your awareness in the touch of your hands, as the mind settles relax your mental grip on the touch and allow your mind to wander. Put effort towards observing these wanderings. Take interest in the movement of your mind from 'awareness', to 'unawareness' as habit arises, back to full 'awareness again'. Stay alert for any mental aversion that arises due to this process and soften into it.
Investigation:
Learn to ground your awareness within the elemental quality of your meditation object, such as the touch of your hands. Use this 'grounding' as a reference point from which to observe your attention habitually move. Take particular interest in the points of change between knowing and unknowing, or as it is experiencing within meditation as 'forgetting' and 'remembering'. Investigate the different experience between when you are present, and on reflection, of when you are lost within habitual thinking.
Simple Instructions:
Aware of the experience of touch and observe whenever your attention moves away from your body, breath or calmness.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 16/52 you continue to refine your skill in observing habitual shifts of your attention away from the elemental quality of your body in order to develop understanding of the nature of attention. Through placing effort towards noticing when attention shifts towards thoughts arising within the mind you continue to develop your sense of investigation, continuity of mindfulness and momentary concentration. As these mental factors mature you will also start to experience the ability to observe thinking patterns as they arise within the mind in daily life.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Five Stages:
1. Ground awareness within the experience of your hands touching each other.
2. Relax your mental grip on the touch of the hands and allow the attention to habitually move.
3. Observe the flickering of your attention and collapsing of mindfulness.
4. Observe the re-arising of mindfulness and re-grounding of awareness.
5. Acknowledge where attention has moved to.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Next ground your awareness in the touch of your hands, as the mind settles relax your mental grip on the touch and allow your mind to wander. Put effort towards observing these wanderings. Take interest in the movement of your mind from 'awareness', to 'unawareness' as habit arises, back to full 'awareness again'. Stay alert for any mental aversion that arises due to this process and soften into it. Take interest in where your attention has habitually moved to.
Investigation:
Learn to ground your awareness within the elemental quality of your meditation object, such as the touch of your hands. Use this 'grounding' as a reference point from which to observe your attention habitually move. Take particular interest in the points of change between knowing and unknowing, or as it is experiencing within meditation as 'forgetting' and 'remembering'. Investigate the different experience between when you are present, and on reflection, of when you are lost within habitual thinking.
General Instructions:
Observe breath at tip of nose, each time the breath comes in & out you count 1, the next two up to 5, then start again at 1.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 17/52 you develop the accuracy of your attention by using a breath counting technique to develop steadiness of awareness through one-pointed concentration. The focus during this training is on the experience of breathing at the tip of the nose. As you experience the breath draw in, then out, you count "1". As it draws in, then out, you count "2"; up to five out-breaths. Once you have experienced 5 in and out-breaths you start at 1 again. If you become distracted in any way you start at 1 again refining the steadiness of your attention and temporarily suppressing the five hindrances.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Ground awareness within the experience of your body as it sits.
2. Bring awareness gently to the tip of your nose, observing in and out-breath as one breath.
3. Every time the breath goes out give it a number starting at 1, until you count 5 out-breaths.
4. Whenever your attention wanders start at 1 again.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your breath at the tip of your nose to develop steadiness of awareness through one-pointed concentration. The focus during this training is on the experience of breathing at the tip of the nose. As you experience the breath draw in, then out, you count "1". As it draws in, then out, you count "2"; up to five out-breaths. Once you have experienced 5 in and out-breaths you start at 1 again. If you become distracted in any way you start at 1 again refining the steadiness of your attention and temporarily suppressing the five hindrances.
Investigation:
Treat this like a game that you can't lose. Whenever you forget this is ok, just start at the beginning again. Take interest in habitual forgetting of what you are doing and notice where your attention wanders off to when you do forget that you are meditating. Play around with how much effort is needed to be aware of the experience of each breath and also how much effort is needed to remember to count them.
General Instructions:
As the breath comes in say "in", as the breath goes out say "out". Use a simple label to describe wandering such as "thinking".
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 18/52 you develop the skill of clarifying shifts of attention during meditation by using a mindfulness labeling technique. A label is a silent, intentional word used to describe an experience that arises during meditation in order to direct awareness and clarify perception. As an example, as the breath draws in you silently say “in”, as it goes out you silently say “out”, aligned with the experience of the breath. Whenever you notice your attention habitually move from the experience of breathing you clarify it by silently saying “hearing” for a sound or “thinking” for a thought etc.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Ground awareness within the experience of your hands touching, body sitting or body breathing.
2. Relax your mental grip on your grounding point and allow the attention to habitually move.
3. Clarify movements of attention by using a silent label such as wandering, dreaming, thinking, hearing etc.
4. Clarify the relationship to the distraction through simple silent labels such as planning, remembering, longing, fearing etc.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits and breathes. Next ground your awareness in this experience, as the mind settles relax your mental grip on the touch and allow your mind to wander. Put effort towards observing these wanderings. Use simple, silent labels to clarify where your attention moves to. Use two labels, the first to bring your attention towards the experience, the second to clarify it. Such as "thinking, thinking", "dreaming, dreaming", "fearing, fearing" etc.
Investigation:
Use labels as a way of clarifying your experience. Be careful of focusing on the label rather then on the actual experience. Every time you use a labels to describe your experience, gently rub your awareness against the experience and mentally 'feel' it in order to develop understanding.
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