MCI4 Meditation course, introduction: formless meditation

MCI4 Meditation course, introduction: formless meditation by Suvannavira

Looked at the body breath metta
Can call them active practices
Active means something we try to do
Concentrate on the body the breath
Develop metta

Now we will do receptive practices
We aren’t trying to do anything
We are trying to be receptive

To practice meditation
To continue practicing
To get real benefits from practice
We need to balance active and receptive practices

In the early days of the order people did active practices
Emphasis on getting concentrated
On breaking through / overcoming hindrances

Some started to get more dissatisfied
Started to experiment with receptive practices
Tried just sitting
Remember sleeping thinking dry concentration
Danger just sitting = drifting
(Sinking and drifting)

Meditation without form
Arrive at question
What are we trying to do in receptive practices?

We are still trying to do something
Only we don’t decide what
That’s why it is formless
It doesn’t have a form or structure
No stages
No object

Rather no specific object
Or everything is our object
We try to be as aware as possible
Aware of everything
Aware of anything that happens
Aware of thoughts sensations images
Aware of smells and sounds

Two ways we can do this practice
Try to be aware of everything all at once
Or just let our attention / awareness go where it wants.
Our awareness / attention is always changing its object of awareness

So if we start thinking, try to be as aware as possible of our thought
Start feeling, try to be as aware as possible
Of sounds, as aware as possible

Like watching internal tv
So we are being active
Just not doing anything
Or rather our doing is watching
Watching without control
Being receptive to everything that is happening

DO IT

What did we focus on?
Thoughts sensations images sounds

Try to bring this receptive quality into other practices
Into life
How to do that? Ask them what they think

We can just sit as well. When?
1/ before starting meditating, when we feel restless
2/ after meditation, called sitting on when we are already concentrated
3/ on retreat when already concentrated

TRY JUST SITTING NOW OR AT END OF CLASS - 2 minutes

One more thing. Doing nothing
Helps us develop receptivity too
Spend some time each day doing nothing
Not reading thinking watching your phone etc ….
10-20. Get a cup of tea. Comfortable chair. Do nothing.
Waste time
Don’t get too strict, don’t make doing nothing into something!

Bring receptive quality into all meditations
And everyday life
A good balance to always being directed by thoughts
Of always having something to do

End of course
Now four more
Four weeks on each of these practices
To go deeper into them
To respond to your experience as you start to practice them regularly

Meditation course, MC1/4, Introduction, mindfulness of the Body

Meditation course, MC1/4, Introduction, mindfulness of the Body, by Suvannavira

1/ Who am I

Don’t have to be Buddhist

Ethics meditation wisdom

Change in our depths, change in how we see the world

What meditation is not

Getting what we want: love wealth health success

chakras and mantras

My meditation is: time of no thinking

Developing awareness

General: understanding > higher state of consciousness > wisdom

but need specifics

awareness, understanding, higher states of consciousness, wisdom

Four practices: then four courses, one on each, five courses in everyday life, wisdom

Communication, objectifying

Not knowledge but direct experience, intuitive knowledge

6/ today’s meditation practice
7/ why do this practice?

8/ what are we trying to do, beyond the technique?

9/ What is good posture

10/ common misconceptions or dangers
11/ positive signs of progress
Basics learn then we have difficulties, excellent!

THE BODY

value of intention and practice, not spontaeous at the beginning, new habits

Tips:

Listen to your body

Look for enjoyment

Warm attitude

Be open to all parts of yourself

First arrow second arrow

12/ how to respond to difficulties?

Sleep, thinking, over concentrated

easiest, most pleasant part of the body, hardest, most enigmatic part

13/ discuss our experience, what can I do to help you express your experience?
16/ what is the question for reflection?

18/ what else can they do during the week?
Meditate every day

Same time, same place, commitment, beauty, not too long

Body in every day life

All the time, mindfulness breaks, relax, pleasure, energy (ie what happens when it works).

Mindful activity, walking ….

Next week, on basis of the body, the breath.

Meditation course, MCI2/4, Introduction, Mindfulness of Breathing

Meditation course, MCI2/4, Introduction, Mindfulness of Breathing by Suvannavira

0/ Intro, raise awareness

Higher state of consciousness

greater understanding > wisdom

Change yourself, / and personal relations, relations to the world

Meditation as microscope, a new world emerges

1/ overview of course
2/ review of last week and h/w
3/ todays practice
4/ it’s place in Buddhism

Buddha gaining Enlightenment

Simplest practices are the most advanced, very steep

5/ why focus on the breath?
Physical, emotional, spiritual dimensions
6/ not technique, not forced concentration, but awareness
7/ leads to dhyana
8/ real meaning of concentration
9/ resistance to meditation
Value of light awareness

Light awareness in meditation, light awareness in life

10/ hindrances and antidotes
11/ meaning of integration and commitment
12/ difference dhyana and vipassana

13/ misconceptions and dangers

Dryness = lack of emotional connection, absence of receptivity

(Sleep, thinking, forced concentration).
14/ signs of progress
15/ what is it beyond the technique
16/ importance of connection with our body

DO MEDITATION IN TWO PARTS

17/ discuss our experience, why is it important: objectify and greater awareness
18/ how to help them express it
19/ question for reflection
20/ practice during the week ahead
21/ what to do outside practices
22/ return to why we meditate
23/ end with a wish

Meditation course, MCI 3/4, introduction, Metta Bhavana

Meditation course, MCI 3/4, introduction, Metta Bhavana by Suvannavira

Overview
Review last week – the Breath, how did the week go, did we use the breath to change our state?
Today’s practice

Meaning of metta

warm attitude,

open attitude

friendly

intention to help

desire for happiness

with awareness

understanding

gratitude

forgiveness

Rejoicing in merits

unattached, wanting nothing in return

universal but not equal

Putting ourselves in the shoes of others

Kindness

See what is good and bad, person as a whole, dear to someone, bad as poisons to overcome

Mother’s love for only child

Very strong positive emotion

Benefits? Your thoughts. Surprising
-Self view, feel good about yourself
-No enemies, not in such a relation to others, not trying to harm, not being harmed
-Energy, not blocked, not trying to forget, make abstract, ignore
-Reality, not stories, identity, real communication, strong bond, stable relations

Resistances
Hindrances and antidotes
Dangers and misconceptions, nagas vs. ideas about ourselves

Stages of practice – explain them
The how
-Words, intention
-Pleasant physical sensations, energies, attraction
-Images, of kindness, love (mention sex?)
-Memories, inc gratitude, moving words, happy times
-In place of the other, imagination
No effort of will / connection to body / be creative

Developing intention

Develping by practice

What we give attention to we become
Repeat stages we do in more detail

DO PRACTICE in 2/3 parts (cover in two weeks?),

Discuss experience
Favorite stage?
Question for reflection
Practice during the week
Outside formal practice
Set up for next week

MCI4 Meditation course, introduction: formless meditation

MCI4 Meditation course, introduction: formless meditation by Suvannavira.

Looked at the body breath metta
Can call them active practices
Active means something we try to do
Concentrate on the body the breath
Develop metta

Now we will do receptive practices
We aren’t trying to do anything
We are trying to be receptive

To practice meditation
To continue practicing
To get real benefits from practice
We need to balance active and receptive practices

In the early days of the order people did active practices
Emphasis on getting concentrated
On breaking through / overcoming hindrances

Some started to get more dissatisfied
Started to experiment with receptive practices
Tried just sitting
Remember sleeping thinking dry concentration
Danger just sitting = drifting
(Sinking and drifting)

Meditation without form
Arrive at question
What are we trying to do in receptive practices?

We are still trying to do something
Only we don’t decide what
That’s why it is formless
It doesn’t have a form or structure
No stages
No object

Rather no specific object
Or everything is our object
We try to be as aware as possible
Aware of everything
Aware of anything that happens
Aware of thoughts sensations images
Aware of smells and sounds

Two ways we can do this practice
Try to be aware of everything all at once
Or just let our attention / awareness go where it wants.
Our awareness / attention is always changing its object of awareness

So if we start thinking, try to be as aware as possible of our thought
Start feeling, try to be as aware as possible
Of sounds, as aware as possible

Like watching internal tv
So we are being active
Just not doing anything
Or rather our doing is watching
Watching without control
Being receptive to everything that is happening

DO IT

What did we focus on?
Thoughts sensations images sounds

Try to bring this receptive quality into other practices
Into life
How to do that? Ask them what they think

We can just sit as well. When?
1/ before starting meditating, when we feel restless
2/ after meditation, called sitting on when we are already concentrated
3/ on retreat when already concentrated

TRY JUST SITTING NOW OR AT END OF CLASS - 2 minutes

One more thing. Doing nothing
Helps us develop receptivity too
Spend some time each day doing nothing
Not reading thinking watching your phone etc ….
10-20. Get a cup of tea. Comfortable chair. Do nothing.
Waste time
Don’t get too strict, don’t make doing nothing into something!

Bring receptive quality into all meditations
And everyday life
A good balance to always being directed by thoughts
Of always having something to do

End of course
Now four more
Four weeks on each of these practices
To go deeper into them
To respond to your experience as you start to practice them regularly

MCM 2/4 – meditation course middle level – the body

MCM 2/4 – meditation course middle level – the body

Review

Started looking at mindfulness of body

Leaving the world of ideas

Arriving in the body

what emerges with that

Any thoughts observations during the week?

This week looking in more detail

At world of ideas

Stories, personal myths, collective myths, identity, strategies, beliefs

That build our sense of self

Our character 

Who we are

In fact not so much leaving the world of ideas

As adding to the world of ideas

By an awareness of the body

Adding to our sense of self

But we can add to our sense of self 

By better understanding ourselves

By becoming more aware of ourselves

We can do this by analysing ourselves

Before I start just mention Anatman 

You might be thinking about Anatman 

The doctrine of no self

Well known Buddhist teaching

But this teaching is the negation of Hindu idea of Atman

A fixed permanent separate self

Uniquely in control of its destiny

Buddha said such a self doesn’t exist

Challenged anyone to find such a separate self, that you can point to,

this is me, this is unique to me, and this is not found anywhere else in the universe

In their experience as they meditate 

So we can talk about the self

Sangharakshita talks about the empirical self

The self we experience 

What’s more this self can change

It is how it is on the basis of conditions 

Change for the worse or better

Depending on how we act

Being clear about who we are helps us change for the better

So we can analyse the self from different points of view

1/ logic reason facts knowledge 

My age

Nationality

Sex

Family

Profession etc …

2/ symbols, myths and legends, beliefs, сказки

The great Russian soul

Religion

Сказки

Stories that have moved us etc …

So reason and emotion, we can group the different things together as reason or emotion, 

Rational knowledge 

Emotional knowledge 

But there is a third category

3/ direct experience, an the intuition that arise in dependance on it

This is usually less developed 

Mindfulness of the body helps us develop it

Our direct experience can sometimes be in conflict with the other two. 

We might think all Germans are orderly. 

A German is before us

He might not be orderly. 

So direct experience can modify our ideas and emotions. 

That’s why analysis of our direct experience is important. 

We can develop our ability to access direct experience 

Do this by mindfulness of the body

What is our direct experience?

DO THE PRACTICE 

and report back

WHAT NEXT?

What discrepancies can we discover comparing rational and emotional knowledge with direct experience?

1/ in the stories we tell

Things we repeat to ourselves 

Become our identity 

have an emotional force

Always strengthening it by repetition

Basis if relations to world

Or we try to forget something or someone,

Try to ignore them, and we lose part of ourselves, leads to weakness,

wholeness is strength. 

Could be positive 

But often negative 

A Russian woman friend often talked about Russian men

Women in love

2/ in beliefs

I follow such and such religion

This is how my religion tells me to treat my wife

And who makes certain choices

Regardless of what I think is best

3/ plans and strategies 

Ideas that we follow

Maybe from psychology

Good to keep strong boundaries

Idea of simply being the strongest

The cleverest

The richest

The most beautiful etc …

Let’s call it winning all the time

Q which has the strongest influence on you

Stories beliefs strategies winning

Are you satisfied with living like that

If not why not?

MCM ¼ - Meditation course, middle level – the body

MCM ¼ - Meditation course, middle level – the body

Entering the world of the body!
Mindfulness of body is foundation of all meditations. Why?

What it is not: Bells, mantras, chakras, yoga, getting what you want, my meditation is…,

In general meditation is:
Raising level of awareness
Higher state on consciousness (not Krishna consciousness)
Understanding > wisdom (and compassion).
Value of communication for developing our awareness

How do we raise our level of awareness?
Not a big abstract?
Give more attention to specific objects,
Open up to things we usually ignore.

Start with being more aware of the body
And leaving world of ideas.

Ideas are valuable.
Basis of human civilisation.
Sets us apart from the animals.
But by themselves they limit us.

We receive ideas about ourselves from:
Parents, school, friends, CMI from different countries.

Different theories, religions, therapies.

Ideas like what’s cool and not cool,
Good to be independent,
Good to love your family,
Strong people never cry etc ….

Q What are our ideas about ourselves?
Ideas can include plans and strategies.
Q Are they enough?

They are limited because don’t include all of us.
Start with awareness of body.
Sensations in hand different from idea of the hand.

What do we get from being more in touch with the body?

Pleasure
Energy
Stability
Confidence
Relaxation
Contentment
Положительные эмоции
Physical dexterity

But awareness also opens up other parts of our experience.
Simply sitting eyes closed and being aware,
opens us up to other aspects of our experience.

Bits gets hidden or ignored.
We often try to ignore responses that are painful,
Or we don’t know how to deal with.
Or try to forget them.
And we lose energy.
We’ll come back to this theme later.

Or maybe sexual attraction to a married woman.
Выход есть?

1/ get in contact with more parts of ourselves.
Useful mindfulness of the body to do this.

2/ get into relationship with these parts of ourselves.
Called integration in psychological sense.
Energy gets freed up.
We don’t really know what they are.
We fear them, like a wolf at the door.
Our unconscious mind.

3/ change our relationship to these parts of ourselves.
When they’ve come to light.
We have reclaimed their energy.
We’ve become whole.
We are able to concentrate.
We can act with energy and power.

So this is what we’re trying to do.
Trying by meditation practice in general
And by starting to give more attention to our body.

The purpose of this course is starting to practice in everyday life.
What can we do?
A/ practice the mindfulness of the body meditation each day.
B/ try to maintain awareness of the body throughout the day.
This is very difficult.
C/ have times when we focus on the body.
Not a coffee break but an awareness break.
D/ look to enjoy simple activities performed with awareness.
Feeling the sensations in the feet, With each step.

Try all these next week. We’ll start with a review of what you did, And what effects did you feel.

Next week we’ll look more at the ideas,
The world we are trying to leave.
1/ stories we tell ourselves.
2/ ideas we have about ourselves and others.
3/ where these ideas about ourselves place us in hierarchies.
4/ our identity. Who we believe ourselves to be.
5/ the strategies we use in life, the habits we cultivate.

Enough for now.