MIDL Meditation 19-24

In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 19/52 you change from observing when your attention moves towards experiences that arise within the mind, to becoming aware of the pure movement of attention itself. The ability to do this is dependent on skills developed in previous training as it requires a giving up of control of habitual movements within the mind. Through grounding awareness within the sensate quality of your body and not identifying with the habitual functions of the mind it is possible to observe the rapid flickering of your attention as experiences arise within the field of the six senses.  

In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 20/52 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.  

In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 21/52 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.

In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 22/52 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. 

In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 23/52 you develop the higher MIDL skill of deconditioning the emotional charge attached to thoughts and memories. Our mind has a simple survival sorting mechanism in which it uses feeling tone (Vedana), to sort memories as dangerous or safe. It attaches pleasant feeling to signify safe memories or unpleasant feeling if the memory is perceived as being dangerous. Through using the MIDL Softening skill you can experience and soften your relationship of attraction or aversion towards the feeling, deconditioning the strength of the feeling tone attached to the memory. 

Caution:

If want to try this MIDL deconditioning technique, do so at your own discretion. If you have not done the earlier training and developed your mindfulness, concentration and softening skills then you are likely to become lost within the emotional charge and resist the unpleasantness. In this case you either need to commit to the MIDL systematic training or have someone skilled in this technique to guide you to develop this skill. 

In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 24/52 you learn the skill of abandoning all participation through developing sensitivity to mental activity and softening the desire 'to do'. While the previous training was concerned with deconditioning defensive emotional charge, this training is concerned with not conditioning it in the first place. With practice you will be able be able to bring all mental proliferation and commentary to an end, allowing you to experience the purity of awareness free from content.