MEDITATION SKILL 19
Observe Attention 1
MEDITATION SKILL 20
Observe Attention 2
MEDITATION SKILL 21
Observe Attention Flicker
MEDITATION SKILL 22
Observe Thinking
MEEDITATION SKILL 23
Observe Thinking Patterns
MEDITATION SKILL 24
Observe Past & Future
Simple Instructions:
Be aware of the experience of your hands touching, relax and observe whenever your attention habitually moves away from it.
Purpose:
Benefits:
This mindfulness training weakens the habitual entanglement with the natural functions of the mind and the feeling of the need to control them. Observing in this way also weakens entanglement with thinking and develops wisdom into the habitual and impersonal nature of the heart / mind.
Summary:
In this meditation, you develop skill in observing habitual movements of your attention away from your object of meditation. This is done by first grounding your awareness within the elemental experience of your hands touching each other. Then intentionally relaxing and allowing your mind to habitually wander.
With the touch of your hands as a reference point, you will gradually be able to observe when awareness shifts away from your hand towards different experiences such as thinking. Observing these shifts in attention strengthens curiosity and mindfulness, allowing you to observe when it arises and the desire to think itself.
Instruction:
Step 1: Ground Awareness in Your Body
Sit down in your meditation posture and bring awareness to the experience of your body as it sits. Mentally feeling your whole body. Warmth, coolness, heaviness. Your whole body as one. Once your mind has settled, gradually relax awareness into your body.
Step 2: Bring Awareness to the Touch of Your Hands
Now place one hand within the other and bring awareness to the touch of your hands. To the elemental quality of that touch. Warmth, coolness, pressure, holding them gently in mind. Gently relaxing into this point of touch. Present.
Step 3: Allow Your Mind to Wander and Observe it
Next, relax your mental grip on the touch of your hands and allow your mind to habitually wander. You must give up control at this point. This means also relaxing your effort to be mindful. Your effort is not towards stopping your attention from wandering, but rather towards noticing when it has wandered. This needs to be done if you wish to develop deep understanding of the habitual nature of your mind. Whenever you notice your attention has wandered, simply bring it back to the touch of your hands, relax, and allow your attention to wander again.
Investigation:
Take 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. Stay alert for any mental aversion that arises due to this process and soften into it.
Simple Instructions:
Be aware of the experience of touch, breathing or stillness and observe whenever your attention habitually moves away from it.
Purpose:
Benefits:
This mindfulness training weakens the habitual entanglement with the natural functions of the mind and the feeling of the need to control them. Observing in this way also weakens entanglement with thinking and develops wisdom into the habitual and impersonal nature of the heart / mind.
Summary:
In this meditation, you continue to refine your skill in observing habitual shifts of your attention away from different experiences, in order to develop understanding of the nature of attention. Through being curious regarding the moment your attention shifts away from your object of meditation, and any periods of forgetting, you will continue to cultivate curiosity, mindfulness and momentary concentration. As these mental factors mature you will also start to notice a natural transference of being able to observe thinking patterns, within your daily life.
Instruction:
Step 1: Ground Awareness in Your Body
Sit down in your meditation posture and bring awareness to the experience of your body as it sits. Mentally feeling your whole body. Warmth, coolness, heaviness. Your whole body as one. Once your mind has settled, gradually relax awareness into your body.
Step 2: Bring Awareness to the Touch of Your Hands
Now place one hand within the other and bring awareness to the touch of your hands. To the elemental quality of that touch. Warmth, coolness, pressure, holding them gently in mind.
Step 3: Allow Your Mind to Wander and Observe it
Next, relax your mental grip on the touch of your hands and allow your mind to habitually wander.
Step 4: Bring Awareness to the Flow of Breathing
Start to notice the natural flow of breathing within your body. Be aware of each breath as it comes in, and as it goes out again. Become aware of full breath length from the beginning to the end.
Step 5: Allow Your Mind to Wander and Observe it
Next, relax your mental grip on the flow of your breathing and allow your mind to habitually wander.
Investigation:
Take 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. Stay alert for any mental aversion that arises due to this process and soften into it.
Simple Instructions:
Be aware of the touch of your hands, relax your mental grip and observe your attention flicker away from it to your six senses.
Purpose:
Benefits:
This mindfulness training weakens the survival minds entanglement and desire to control the autonomous functioning of the mind. Observing the mind in this way develops a deep sense of its habitual and impersonal nature.
Summary:
In this meditation, you change from observing you’re your attention habitually moves, to becoming aware of the pure experience of the movement of attention itself. Your ability to do this is dependent on your developed skill in the previous trainings as it requires the ability to give up of control of habitual movements within your mind. This is simply done by being aware of the sensation of your hands touching each other and allowing your attention to habitually wander. The key here is to not take interest in where your attention wanders to, but rather in the purity of the movement of awareness itself. Taking interest in the rapid habitual flickering of your attention away from your hands to experiences that arise.
Instruction:
Step 1: Aware of Just Being Here
Sit down in your meditation posture and start to be aware of what it feels like just to be here, in the room. Sounds, temperature, the general feeling of your body. Keep this experience within your mind and see if you can notice flickering of your attention away from it.
Step 2: Aware of Your Whole Body
Next bring awareness to the experience of your body as it sits. Mentally feeling your whole body. Warmth, coolness, heaviness. The pressure of your body as it rests on the chair or the floor. Your whole body as one. Keep this experience within your mind and see if you can notice flickering of your attention away from it.
Step 3: Bring Awareness to the Touch of Your Hands
Now place one hand within the other and bring awareness to the touch of your hands. To the elemental quality of that touch. Warmth, coolness, pressure, holding them gently in mind. Gently relaxing into this point of touch. Present. Keep this experience within your mind and see if you can notice flickering of your attention away from it. Relax into your point of the touch of your hands. Also relax the mindfulness of this touch to allow wandering to occur.
Investigation
Put effort towards observing these wanderings, in particular taking interest in the subtle shifts rather than where the attention moves to. Take interest in the shift from awareness to unawareness as habit arises, back to full awareness again. Notice the collapsing and arising of mindfulness. Stay alert for any mental aversion that arises due to this process and soften into it.
Simple Instructions:
Hold your meditation object gently in mind, relax your mental grip and allow your mind to habitually produce thoughts.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In this meditation, you have now developed the mental factors and skill needed to take thinking as a meditation object without identifying with it. By releasing the habitual mind you can allow it to produce thought and follow the process of thinking in order to develop understanding of its habitual and impersonal nature. During this training you learn to observe your experience of thinking and find that thinking has no shape or form but rather manifests as one or a combination of the five senses. We see, hear, smell, taste or feel our thoughts. Its impersonal and fleeting nature is revealed.
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 mind to think.
3. Hold the intention to observe the characteristic of how you experience thinking.
4. Question: Do you see, hear, smell, taste or feel your thoughts?
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 relax your effort ‘to do’, allow your mind to produce thought.
Investigation:Take interest in the characteristic of thinking rather then what you are thinking about. Keep the question in mind “Do I see, hear, smell, taste or feel my thoughts? Be curious about how thinking appears to you. Notice how thinking arises as an experience of one or a combination of your five senses. Observe how thinking itself has no shape or form but rather that your mind hijacks the five senses to communicate with you.
Simple Instructions:
Hold your meditation object gently in mind, relax your mental grip and allow your mind to habitually produce thinking.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In this meditation, you continue to release control of the habitual mind, allowing it to produce thought so that you can observe the process of thinking to develop understanding. Through this observation you will start to see the conditional habitual thinking patterns within your mind. The habitual tendency of fascination with past and future will become clearer to you. The defensive qualities of complaining, judging, fantasizing, doubting etc within your mind start to map out the defensive qualities of what you may have believed to be your personality.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Ground awareness in the experience of your hands touching each other.
2. Relax your mental grip on your hands and allow your mind to think.
3. Hold the intention to observe the habitual patterns driving your thoughts.
4. Observe any emotion charge or feeling pleasant or unpleasant feeling that arises within your body as a reflection of your mind.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Next ground awareness in the touch of your hands, as your mind settles relax your mental grip on the touch and relax your effort ‘to do’, allow your mind to produce thought.
Investigation:
Take interest in what is driving your thinking patterns like remembering, worrying, planning, fantasizing etc. and use a simple label to describe it. Observe any emotional reaction within your body and soften into it. Observe the feeling or pleasantness or unpleasantness underlying that emotion and soften into it.
Simple Instructions:
Become present within your body, bring a past or future memory to mind, observe the feeling in your body change.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In this meditation, you continue to observe the habitual patterns within your mind by intentionally directing your attention towards the movement of the focus of awareness between past, present and future. By doing this in a methodical way you will learn to observe the changes in feeling within your body in relationship to memories of the past and thoughts of the future. This interdependence will become clearer to you. You will also be able to observe the uncomplicated nature and your body’s response when awareness rests within the experience of the present.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Ground awareness within your body and the experience of your hands touching.
2. Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now.
3. Bring to mind a memory from the past, observe change in the experience of your body.
4. Bring to mind a thought of the future, observe change in the experience of your body.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Next ground awareness in the touch of your hands. Observe the experience of just sitting here, the simplicity, no past no future just here. Observe the experience of presence within your body. Next bring to mind a memory of the past, either happy or painful.
Observe the change of the experience of your body in regards to sensations and feeling tone. Soften into it. Next bring your mind back to the present, just here, now. Then bring to mind a thought of the future. Observe the change in the experience of your body in terms of sensations and feeling tone. Soften. Then bring your awareness back to the present, just here, now. Safe.
Investigation:
Take interest in the focus of your attention and the changing landscape of sensations within your body. Be curious in regards to the underlying feeling: pleasant, unpleasant or neutral in regards to past, present and future focused attention. Observe the undeniable urge to escape from unpleasant feeling, to search for pleasant feeling and to stop paying attention when neutral feeling is present.
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