Развитие осознанности:
WELCOME
Theme – developing awareness and kindness by means of meditation, this week it is awareness.
INTRODUCTION
Our name, why we came, one sentence,
I am Suvannavira, Buddhist name, I am a Buddhist
No religion, I wanted to make these classes accessible to all.
PREPARATION to today's meditation, the Mindfulness of Breathing.
Preparation, is very important, if we prepare well we are almost meditating in the real sense of the word.
PRINCIPLE: If we want to be able to focus our attention, we need to have a relaxed and broad base of awareness.
So we will start by developing these two qualities, a broad base of attention and relaxation.
IMAGE: sitting like a mountain, broad base, very still, small tip.
BROAD BASE OF EXPERIENCE means all of ourselves,
both in terms of all aspects of our direct experience and all sides of ourselves.
SOUNDS: starting with a broad experience outside ourselves, the sounds in the room and beyond.
BODY: the whole of our body sitting here, pleasant and painful feelings, and the rhythm of the breath in the body.
FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS: just let us feel what we are feeling, pleasant and unpleasant, comfortable uncomfortable.
Don't worry, everything is normal. End on a positive note. Не вините себя.
THOUGHTS: people often coming thinking meditation is 'not thinking'. OK, now we can think, doesn't mean start thinking about something, just notice thoughts that arise, and where they go. Thinking can be a doorway to deep concentration.
ALL TOGETHER
MINDFULNESS OF THE BODY
We will now focus on the body, part by part. I will explain again this practice during the meditation.
Being aware of the body doesn't meaning thinking about it or using your imagination,
but being aware of the feelings in each part, pleasant, painful or neutral.
Being aware of painful feelings doesn't mean we need to sit and suffer, can move quietly.
INTRODUCTION
Many different types of meditation in the world, forget your preconceptions?
We teach meditation in terms of Western culture, so no Eastern words.
Meditation is a practice, we need to do it regularly to get results.
We do it to transform ourselves (in the end) completely.
Sometimes it is difficult, sometime easy and very pleasant, in both cases we just need to keep going.
It is a tool for us to work on ourselves, on our mind with our mind.
MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO DO
We try to be more aware by becoming more concentrated, when we are really concentrated we are naturally aware.
Being concentrated does not mean a forced fixation on a small point,
GOAL the natural integration of all our energies, which then flow in one direction, with stable concentration.
It can be very pleasant, pleasure can be a doorway to concentration.
HOW ARE WE TRYING TO DO IT
We work on developing awareness by keeping our mind focussed on one object.
It happens to be the breathing, it relaxes us, we just breath naturally.
And we have our eyes closed so none of the usual distractions.
STAGES OF THE PRACTICE.
So I will now explain two stages of the mindfulness of breathing.
FIRST STAGE we simply try to maintain an awareness of the breathing,
somewhere in the body, our choice where,
we can just breath naturally, not need to control our breath,
to help us stay focussed on the breath, and to help the rational mind take part,
we count after every out-breath, until 10, then start again.
If we notice we are distracted, or gone on to 11,12,13, or we have started thinking, just gently return to the breath.
The very first step is learning to simply come back to the breath, noticing when we have slipped away.
Later we can look at other ways to work in meditation.
SECOND STAGE we don't have the help of the numbers, we just try to be aware of the breath
Anywhere in the body, just somewhere interesting, allow yourself to get more interested in the process of breathing.
Look for doorways to deeper concentration: images, emotions and pleasant feelings, thoughts even.
FURTHER TEACHING, GOING FURTHER
BACK TO PREPARATION How to go further with it? Five stages:
--Поза для медитации
If our posture has deteriorated, get it back, or deal with pain points; ankles, back, shoulders, neck.
Fine tuning; rock on hips, lift hand and shoulders, rock head
Then give some time to be aware of the body again, shades into ...
--Само наблудение give yourself time to feel what you are feeling, body, emotions, thoughts, не вините себя
--Цель; Remember exactly what we are trying to do, what the practice is, qualities to develop, and not drifting.
--Энмузиазм; why you wanted to learn to meditate, inspiring people who meditate, your good meditations,
--Решимость, решительность.
We decide to really do it, wholeheartedly, not mechanically, every time like the first time, resolved not to waste time, with balanced energy, to really be in the moment.
PRACTICE AT HOME
Try to meditate every day, or 3-4 times a week; 10, 20 or 30 minutes a day.
Start with самонаблудение, Mindfulness of the Body then Development of Awareness,
how much time for each practice, learn to know what you need, how many minutes for each, and for each stage?
Helps to find a regular place and time to meditate, for it to be calm around you, switch off your phone.
Leave time free before and after, otherwise jarring.
Sometimes difficult, keep on, notice state of mind at beginning and end.
Repetition is key to success in meditation.
SO HOW CAN WE PRACTICE IN EVERYDAY LIFE?
--We can be more aware of our bodies, when we are walking, body scan in the metro rather than listen to music.
All the time, notice how we are sitting when we are working on the computer, how does it feel in our feet when we walk somewhere, letting our shoulders relax and move downwards when we feel tense.
Or just at particular moments, instead of a cigarette break, take a moment to do a quick mindfulness of the body.
--We can be more aware of our thoughts.
Give ourselves time to think, think through all those details, it will make our lives less chaotic.
Plan and anticipate rather than get in a mess.
If we experience anxiety when we think, relax, take a deep breath and that will help us think without anxiety.
We can get very concentrated through thinking especially when we are very engaged with something.
We can consider the consequences of our actions, why we sometimes feel well and other times not,
Why sometimes people are friendly and at other times not.
Next week other practice, development of kindness, then come once a month to keep up the connection.
QUESTION: HOW DO YOU KNOW IT IS WORKING?
--We notice a change in how we experience the world in our everyday lives.
--Meditation is not always easy, we all have times where they feel they can't do it, then we notice a change only afterwards.
--Sometimes straight after the sit, we think and start being absorbed.
--Our friends notice a change in us, they may not be able to say what.
--How do we know it is not working, after 4 weeks we want a new practice, we are bored, we want something more advanced.
Posts
