This weeks live class: MIDL 39 Stillness Meditation
This weeks live class: MIDL 39 Stillness Meditation
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 7 - 12 you will develop mindfulness and concentration by being aware of the experience of your body as it breathes. This will create your 'viewing platform' from which you can allow yourself to open to and soften into your experience.
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
7/52: Experiencing Breathing
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
8/52: Developing Breathing
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
9/52: Deepening Breathing
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
10/52: Expanding Breathing
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
11/52: Calming Breathing
MINDFULNESS TRAINING
12/52: Calming The Senses
Simple Instructions:
Allow your breathing to flow freely through your body, aware of the experience. As the breath draws in, silently say "in, & out'.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 7/52 you begin mindfulness of breathing by observing the breath as its flows autonomously through your body. Your ability to observe breathing free from control was refined in the previous training. Your focus now should be on developing the strength of your mindfulness and concentration. To do this it is not important to place your attention in any one location but rather to be clearly aware of the experience of breathing as a flow of sensations within your body. To aid in this you use basic labels such as "in" "out" and "wandering" in order to focus your attention.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. After grounding awareness within your body as in MIDL 1/52 observe the breath naturally flowing within your body.
2. Become aware of wherever the experience of breathing is most clear to you.
3. Silently say "in" as the breath draws in, silently say "out" as the breaths goes out.
4. Whenever you notice your attention has wandered silently say "wandering, wandering", soften, ground in your body, slowly breathe out through nose and wait for breath to come in by itself.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week. In your first meditations use the guided meditation above.then learn to alternate between guided and unguided meditations. If you feel you would like to continue with this meditation longer then for 1 week then that is perfectly ok. There is no strict time frame for this training. The important part is just to be aware if the meditation becomes habitual, if so then move on to the next training regardless of whether you have refined the skill or not, you can always come back later. It is important to understand however that habit is the enemy of mindfulness meditation.
Investigation:
Play with how little effort you need to observe the movement of your breath as it comes in and out. Pay particular attention to the experience of the breathing, the changing sensations within your body, rather then the breathing itself. Take interest in every time you forget that you are sitting in meditation and become lost with habitual thought.
Simple Instructions:
Gently observe the beginning of the in-breath. Also become aware of the middle and end of the breaths full length.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 8/52 you develop your skill in mindfulness of breathing by becoming aware of whole length of each breath from its beginning, to its middle and end. This is done by intentionally bringing your awareness towards the beginning of each in-breath and the beginning of each out-breath. This naturally develops a clear perception of the length of each breath allowing you to 'rub' awareness along the breaths length creating the basis for the development of one-pointed concentration and the temporary suppression of the five hindrances to meditation.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. After grounding awareness within your body as in MIDL 7/52 observe the breath naturally flowing within your body.
2. Bring your awareness towards the beginning of the in-breath and out-breath until they are clear.
3. Next also become aware of the middle and end of the in-breath and out-breath.
4. Rub awareness along the full length of each in-breath and full length of each out-breath.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week, begin mindfulness of breathing by observing the breath as its flows autonomously through your body. Observe and label any movements of your attention away from the breath. Once sufficient concentration has developed, that is the five hindrances to meditation have settled down and your attention is not longer drawn out to your five senses then change the way that you observe the breathing.
Investigation:
First clarify the beginning of each in-breath, then also clarify the beginning of each out-breath. Whenever your attention moves observe the wandering and soften back into the breath. When the beginning of these breaths become clear you will also become aware of the middle and end of each breath. Become fully aware of the full length of each breath, gently rubbing awareness along the length of the breath while being sensitive to relaxing the effort behind this intention. Do this until the attention fully sustains with the breath and there has been a partial closing down of the six senses.
Simple Instructions:
Start by being aware of your breath at the tip of your nose, then experience it in your head, throat, chest and belly.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 9/52 you develop your perception from mindfulness of the breath as it draws in and out, to the expansion & deflation of your whole body as it responds to breathing. This is a necessary transition from the development of one-pointed concentration to momentary concentration in order to open to the experience of your six senses to develop Wisdom. This transition is initially made by increasing awareness of your whole body as it responds to breathing part by part, by gradually expanding your awareness of the experience breathing within it.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. After grounding awareness within your body as in MIDL 7/52 observe the breath naturally flowing within your body.
2. Bring your awareness towards the beginning of the in-breath and out-breath until they are clear.
3. Next also become aware of the middle and end of the in-breath and out-breath.
4. Rub awareness along the full length of each in-breath and full length of each out-breath.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week, begin mindfulness of breathing by observing the breath as its flows autonomously through your body. Observe and label any movements of your attention away from the breath. Once sufficient concentration has developed, that is the five hindrances to meditation have settled down and your attention is not longer drawn out to your five senses then change the way that you observe the breathing.
Investigation:
First clarify the beginning of each in-breath, then also clarify the beginning of each out-breath. Whenever your attention moves observe the wandering and soften back into the breath. When the beginning of these breaths become clear you will also become aware of the middle and end of each breath. Become fully aware of the full length of each breath, gently rubbing awareness along the length of the breath while being sensitive to relaxing the effort behind this intention. Do this until the attention fully sustains with the breath and there has been a partial closing down of the six senses.
Simple Instructions:
Notice how as your breath comes in, your body naturally expands outwards. As your breath goes out, your body deflates.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 10/52 you develop your awareness of the expansion and deflation of your whole body as it responds to breathing. At first this perception is most clear as movement in the shoulders, upper chest and upper back area but gradually it expands until your whole body is experienced as breathing itself. This then creates the foundation from which you can 'open' and allow yourself to 'feel' your relationship towards any experience that arises within the field of your six senses with the expansion of each in-breath.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Five Stages:
1. After grounding awareness within your body as in MIDL 7/52 observe the breath naturally flowing within your body.
2. Widen awareness to the experience of your whole body as it breathes.
3. Align awareness with the length of the expansion of the body with the in-breath.
4. Align awareness with the length of the deflation of the body with the out-breath.
5. Open to the experience of the six senses with each expansion, soften into this experience with each deflation.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week, begin mindfulness of breathing by observing the experience of the breath as its flows in and out - autonomously - free from control. Observe and label any movements of your attention away from the breath. Once the five hindrances have settled down and a base concentration developed, change your perception of breathing by widening your awareness to your whole body. Bring your 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.
Investigation:
Gradually develop awareness of your body breathing down to your fingers and toes until your whole body just becomes breath (if this does not appear to you this is also ok). Open your awareness to anything that arises within the field of your six senses, allow yourself to deeply experience it. Soften your minds relationship towards the six senses by borrowing the natural relaxation of the deflation of your body with each out-breath. As your body deflates soften and allow that deflation to draw you inwards.
General Instructions:
As your body deflates borrow the deflation to soften / relax into your relationship to what you are experiencing now.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
In MIDL Mindfulness Training 11/52 you bring your softening skills developed earlier into your mindfulness of breathing. As your breath draws in and your body expands outwards you 'open'; you 'open' to whatever you are experiencing now, regardless of what it is. As your breath goes out and your body deflates you than borrow the deflation of your body to soften / relax into your relationship to what you are experiencing now. In breath 'open', out-breath 'soften'. In this training you then turn your attention towards developing clarity of the end of each out-breath. As the end of the out-breath clarifies you can than observe a gap between the breaths before you experience the arising of the beginning of the in-breath. As this develops all you see is "end - gap - begin".
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Four Stages:
1. Widen awareness to the experience of your whole body as it breathes.
2. Align awareness with the length of the expansion of the body with the in-breath.
3. Align awareness with the length of the deflation of the body with the out-breath.
4. Abandon all physical and mental effort with the natural deflation of each out-breath.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your 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.
Investigation:
Open your awareness to anything that arises within the field of your six senses, allow yourself to deeply experience it. Soften your minds relationship towards the six senses by borrowing the natural relaxation of the deflation of your body with each out-breath. As your body deflates soften and allow that deflation to draw you inwards.
General Instructions:
Use mindfulness of breathing as a foundation from which to observe your mind and six senses.
Purpose:
Benefits:
Summary:
MIDL Mindfulness Training 12/52 is the final training in developing the MIDL Viewing Platform. The viewing platform is the whole of your seated mindfulness meditation practice. This is based on grounding awareness within your body, mindfulness of the experience of breathing as it moves within it and the skill of grounding within awareness itself as a basis to observe the minds habitual interactions with the six senses.
Traditionally you could think of this as being your seated meditation practice, we just developed individual parts and now have brought them together as one. From this Viewing Platform all MIDL Mindfulness Training that come after this, MIDL 13 – 52, are practiced as different ways of structuring your attention from the basis of this Viewing Platform, to develop Wisdom and to fulfill the Buddha’s instructions in the Noble Eightfold Path of: Abandoning, Guarding, Cultivating and Establishing to enter the highest path.
Instruction:
Meditation is practiced in a seated position.
The Five Stages:
1. Align awareness with the length of the expansion of the body with the in-breath.
2. Align awareness with the length of the deflation of the body with the out-breath.
3. Abandon all physical and mental effort with the natural deflation of each out-breath.
4. Sit in and expand the gap between breaths until breathing disappears and awareness expands.
5. From the basis of Stillness observe the minds habitual interaction with the six senses softening any entanglement with them.
How Often?
Practice daily for 1 week by bringing your 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. Soften your minds relationship towards the six senses by borrowing the natural relaxation of the deflation of your body with each out-breath. As your body deflates soften and allow that deflation to draw you inwards. Sit in and expand the gap between breaths until Stillness arises.
Investigation:
Soften any participation of awareness with the six senses, observe and relax the habitual movements of the mind towards all sensory experience.
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