In MIDL Mindfulness Training 49 & 50 you develop your skill in observing your mind as a sense sensitivity of awareness to the other five senses. This then brings you to your two different MIDL Viewing Platforms (Meditations from which you self observe). MIDL Training 51 - 52 are the place from which you learn the skill of opening to what you are experiencing now and softening your relationship towards it in an intentional process of deconditioning and disentanglement of awareness..
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
49/52: Mindful Knowing pt1
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
50/52: Mindful Knowing pt2
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
51/52: Deconditioning
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
52/52: Calming all Activity
Simple Instructions:
Ground awareness in your body as it sits. Observe the sense sensitivity of of awareness as it rests on different experiences.
Purpose:
(Right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness & concentration.)
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 49/52 you develop your sensitivity to awareness as it sits on different experiences within the field of your senses. In particular awareness of your body, points of touch and thinking. Learning to observe awareness of the knowing quality of awareness creates a grounding for mindfulness within daily life and also the ability to observe attraction or aversion as they arise within the mind.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Eight Stages:
1. Ground your awareness within the experience of your body as it sits.
2. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting within your body.
3. Bring awareness to just the touch of your hands.
4. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting on this point of touch.
5. Expand awareness outwards to your five senses.
6. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting on your senses.
7. Bring awareness back to the touch of your hands and allow your mind to wander.
8. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting on thoughts / memories as they
arise.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Soften into your body, developing sensitivity to the field of awareness that fills / knows it. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness. Bring awareness to one point of touch of your hands. Soften into the point of touch, developing sensitivity to the field of awareness that sits on / knows it. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness.
Widen awareness to open to your five senses, beyond your body. Soften into your senses, developing sensitivity to the field of awareness that sits within / knows them. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness. Bring awareness to one point of touch of your hands. Soften into the point of touch, developing sensitivity to the field of awareness that sits on / knows it. Relax all effort and allow your mind to wander developing sensitivity to the field of awareness that sits on / knows thoughts/ memories. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness.
Investigation:
Be curious about the about the experience of awareness and the ability to be aware of being aware. Play with the adjustment of the effort to 'know' and the depth of presence. Investigate what it means to disentangle awareness by softening into its field of knowing.
Simple Instructions:
Ground awareness in your breathing and sound. Observe the sense sensitivity of awareness as it rests within it.
Purpose:
(Right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness & concentration.)
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Meditation Training 50/52 you continue to develop your sensitivity to awareness as it sits on different experiences within the field of your senses. In particular awareness of your breathing and hearing. Learning to observe awareness of the knowing quality of awareness creates a grounding for mindfulness within daily life and also the ability to observe attraction or aversion as they arise within the mind.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Nine Stages:
1. Ground your awareness within the experience of your body as it sits.
2. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting within your body.
3. Develop sensitivity to the flow of breathing in your body.
4. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting on your breathing.
5. Bring awareness to the flow of breath at the tip of your nose.
6. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting on your breathing.
7. Widen your awareness to your whole body as it breathes.
8. Develop sensitivity to the field of awareness resting on your whole body.
9. Bring awareness to sound and observe awareness resting on it.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your awareness to the experience of your whole body as it sits. Soften into your body, developing sensitivity to the field of awareness that fills / knows it. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness. Bring awareness to the flow of breath in your body in a general way. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness.
Bring awareness to the experience of breath as it flows in and out of your nose. Aware of that one point of touch. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness. Widen awareness to the experience of your whole body as it breathes. The experience of expanding and contracting. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness. Observe awareness go out to sound. Observe it rest on its flow and change. Soften / relax into presence within this field of awareness.
Investigation:
Be curious about the about the experience of awareness and the ability to be aware of being aware. Play with the adjustment of the effort to 'know' and the depth of presence. Investigate what it means to disentangle awareness by softening into its field of knowing.
Simple Instructions:
Bring a memory to mind and notice the emotional response and feeling of unpleasantness that arises, soften into your relationship.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Caution:
This is a high skill, MIDL technique, and during this training mindfulness meditation becomes very real. We intentionally trigger painful memories to develop understanding of the heart / mind and to decondition Vedana (feeling tone) from these memories.
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.
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 51/52 you apply 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.
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 - safe.
3. Bring to mind a memory from the past, observe change in the experience of your body.
4. Observe the feeling tone that underlies it and using six slow softening breaths, soften your relationship towards the feeling tone.
How Often?
Once understood, practice weekly as a seated meditation and introduce this MIDL skill of deconditioning into all aspects of your life. In seated meditation start 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. Notice the safety of being present.
Observe the experience of presence within your body. Next bring to mind a predetermined painful memory of the past. Observe the change of the experience of your body in regards to sensations and feeling tone. Use six slow, deep softening breaths to soften into it, lengthening the out-breath through the nose to mentally relax and provide mindful non-participation. Follow this cycle six times, at the end of each softening checking your progress with three simple questions:
“Is the emotional charge in my body stronger, the same or weaker now that I have softened then it was when I first brought the memory to mind?”
If the emotional charge is stronger then you need to refine your mindfulness and softening skills, do not practice this meditation further. If the emotional charge is the same you need to develop your softening skill, there is still some resistance present. If the emotional charge is weaker now then your softening and mindfulness are strong enough. Apply five more cycles of deconditioning to this memory.
Investigation:
Be curious about the relationship between memories and the feeling tone present. observe that when a memory is brought to mind a corresponding feeling is released within your body. Observe the undeniable urge to escape from unpleasant feeling, to search for pleasant feeling and to stop paying attention when neutral feeling is present. Observe that when you soften / relax all resistance or attraction against that feeling that the feeling and emotional charge attached to the memory start to fade.
Simple Instructions:
Grounded within mindfulness of your body, silently observe and desire 'to do' that arises, soften that desire into stillness.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 52/52 you apply the skill of abandoning all participation through developing sensitivity to mental activity and softening the desire 'to do' in order to decondition the mind. 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 to bring all mental proliferation and commentary to an end, allowing you to experience the purity of awareness free from content.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Ground awareness within your body and experience the flow of your breath.
2. Practice MIDL Mindfulness of Breathing to create your Viewing Platform.
3. Gradually abandon all effort through observing awareness interact with your six senses.
4. Soften the effort to hear, the effort to feel, the effort to think, the effort to be aware and the effort to give up effort.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by grounding awareness within your body then bringing awareness to the experience of your whole body as it breathes so that the full length of the expansion of the in-breath and deflation of the out-breath become clear to you. Open your awareness to anything that arises within the field of your six senses, allow yourself to deeply experience it.
Investigation:
Observe your minds interaction with any experience that arises within the field of your six senses and soften into the effort behind that interaction. Cultivate the arising of Stillness through abandonment of participation and observe its affect on attraction and aversion.
Copyright © 2020 Meditation in The Shire - All rights reserved.
Using Material? Please link back to this website and give credit to author Stephen Procter.