Remember the definition of the meditation we are learning is: ‘the state of non-distraction’, and that we aim to take meditation into our daily lives in a very useful way.  But we often have an idea that meditation is relaxation, de-stressing, feeling calm – and it can be all of these things – but it’s also a lot more than that.  We’re learning about our mind, and how it works, so that it becomes more flexible and so that we can begin to use it, rather than it using us.

The subject of the current meditation course is using different objects for meditation, and after sight and sound, we’ve moved on to physical sensation. As we sit in meditation posture, usually when we find a slight discomfort, if we try to ignore and avoid it, it often makes it worse, whereas if we just look at the discomfort directly it becomes more acceptable.  We’re not being masochistic or suggesting that we ignore painful injuries, not at all, it’s taken as fundamental that we all want to avoid suffering.  But we can use sensations, both pleasurable and unpleasant as a support for shamatha practice, by simply observing them and not getting caught up in the stories that we add to the actual sensation.  This is what we mean by meditating on pain. Now it doesn’t sound so weird, does it?

So can we seek deep inner happiness and still enjoy material possessions?  Yes, we can.  But we can also be less jealous when we don’t acquire as many possessions as our neighbour, and we can be more content with the possessions we do acquire and find pleasure in them.

We also practised meditating on form, by looking at an object and not adding our stories to it, but simply being aware of its shape.  This is not as easy as it sounds – try it!  Usually within a few seconds we start to think ‘I prefer the white flower to the red one’ or ‘The plant probably needs watering, it’s starting to droop’.  Too much concentration and you focus on every tiny detail, then you may become tense. Being able to remain in the simple recognition of form is a challenge, but this is a technique you can practise with any object within your field of vision, so there’s plenty of opportunity.

It’s also a challenge at the beginning to get a soft gaze.  Not staring, not concentrating too much on a spot on the floor, but not spacing out either, finding a balance that is focussed and relaxed.  With practice, this becomes natural, and you can use the same relaxed focus for other daily tasks and situations.  25% mindful, 25% aware of being mindful, and 50% remaining aware of whatever rises.  Try applying this technique to any activity, washing dishes (or loading the dishwasher), brushing your teeth, and slowly work up to more challenging situations.  Start gently and never give yourself a hard time – it’s a process, not an end game.

Here is a brief summary of Module 1:

The essence and foundation of meditation is the state of non-distraction.

We need awareness as well as mindfulness because without it we’ll be wandering off in our own stories, like a soap opera or a daydream.

We start to work with our mind, you could say to tame our mind, by first making friends with it.  We cannot make friends with our mind by struggling with our thoughts and emotions, or by suppressing them or trying to make them go away.  Nor do we surrender completely and follow whatever is going on in our minds.  We give our thoughts and emotions space and are simply aware of them.

As long as we remain aware of what is going on and we are not distracted, then whatever we experience is actually meditation.  And when we get a glimpse of our true nature, we feel good, we feel really well, so don’t get distracted. Come back to mindfulness, to awareness and to that space.

And come back to Module 2, starting on 23 April, 7.45pm at The Salisbury Centre.  Hope to see you there.

The three components which are present in each of these meditations are mindfulness, awareness and spaciousness, and we use the proportions of 25%, 25% and 50%.  But that’s just a guideline, the most important thing is that all three are present together.  This might take a bit of time to get used to, but it really does help to work with this.

Shamatha meditation, as we have been practising every week, calms our mind and so helps to bring us some stability.  And once our mind becomes calm, it also becomes clearer and begins to see more reality and is less swept up by our stories.  Slowly we start to have a little more control of our mind, then it becomes more flexible, so that when we want it to settle, it will settle.  In this way we might stop worrying quite so much because as Shantideva said ‘ If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?  If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?’

From a Buddhist point of view, the highest goal of meditation is to awaken in us our fundamental goodness, our good heart, where kindness, love and compassion naturally rise.   This brings us in touch with ourselves, and we experience less of a barrier between ourselves and others, which naturally makes our lives more peaceful and harmonious.  We can all imagine how that transformation would benefit our lives.

Studies done in the USA have found that the brain has the ability to change its structure and function.  Neuroscientists have discovered that meditation increases activity in the parts of the brain associated with positive emotions.  This change was seen vividly on MRI scans which were done on experienced meditators.  However, the good news for us is that some increase in activity was also observed on new meditators after practising for 30 minutes a day for only two weeks.

Click on the link to read an interesting article on how meditation modifies the brain. And do add a comment if you like.

And during the week, I found a video clip about Appearance and Essence of Mind, which is a good refresher from last week’s class.  Try to watch this clip now, as it’s on the blog page and will change soon.  Post a comment if you can’t find it later and we’ll look for another link for you.

We are also practising the mindfulness of watching the breath, and trying to get a balance, not too much concentration, not too much relaxation, and also watching that we come back to the breath when we notice that we’ve wandered off, without giving ourselves a hard time.  So we’re placing 25% of our attention on the breath, 25% on watchful awareness to check whether we are on the breath, and 50% of our attention is remaining spaciously.  But we don’t fixate on the percentages either, but try to have all three elements present.  Try the guided meditation on Watching the Breath then leave a comment below if you like.