Three Simple Meditation Exercises

                                                        

Exercise 1: One Minute of Mindfulness

For the next 60 seconds your task is to focus all your attention on nothing. That's right, nothing. For one minute, sit comfortably with your hands placed in your lap or on your thighs. Take a few breaths and release any tension in your body, especially the neck and shoulders. Gaze at a spot on the floor a few feet in front of you with soft focus--you look at it but you aren't really seeing it. Allow the eyelids to close half way. 

Don't focus your attention, just sit there and do nothing. Breathe normally. If you mind wanders, notice that you are having thoughts and then let them dissolve and then allow the mind to empty again.

This exercise is simply for practice. It's not a personal challenge. Don't try to accomplish anything, just allow yourself the freedom to be whatever you are in the moment.

This exercise can be used often to calm the mind and restore clarity. You can gradually extend the duration of the exercise into longer periods.

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Exercise 2: Conscious Observation

Pick up an object that you have lying around. Any everyday object that you can easily hold in your hand will do. Allow your attention to become slowly and fully absorbed by the object. Just observe it as it is. Don’t critique it or try to imagine how it was formed our how it came to be in your possession. Just notice it's shape, it's color, it's hardness, it's weight, all it's properties without judgment or analysis.

You may feel a heightened sense of awareness or "being awake" during this exercise. Conscious observation is a subtle but very powerful form of meditation.

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Exercise 3: Mindfulness Triggers

In this exercise you pay attention to nothing or to your breath. It doesn't matter if your mind wanders because you will hear a bell at regular intervals that will remind you to drop the thinking and refocus. 

This exercise was designed for one of my classes and I was ringing the bell but you can use this technique during the day by choosing any environment trigger you like. I know one guy who has chosen to use traffic lights to remind him to pay attention to the moment. You might choose to become mindful every time you look in the mirror or wash your hands. I'm practicing becoming mindful every time I hear the words, "You ought to...."

Mindfulness triggers is an excellent technique designed to snap you out of the unconscious “autopilot” state of mind. 

A Little Insight

Sometimes the conditioned mind works wonderfully for us. After all, its original purpose was to help us survive in a hostile world. Any yet, sometimes it seems to be the problem. The analogy of a wild fire works for me. My mind sometimes keeps reminding me of possibilities that I don't really help me and my serenity, my concentration, and my health--emotional and physical--are burned, charred and ashed. Mindfulness allows us to see that the wild fire is an illusion, even though the burning and suffering is real.

Meditation is the gateway to our comfort zone. It is a process that teaches us to let go of habitual clinging to and desire for the "things" of life that pollute our mind and, in the process, we reconnect with our true self. Our stable, calm, sure self.

We have allowed many of our skills to weaken, we have lost touch with our innate powers, and we have forgotten much of in-born knowledge of how to live happily; all because of dependence on so many external things.

Mindfulness meditation restores our capacity as powerful beings and refills us with stillness, compassion and empathy. In our daily lives we release the sparks of love and blessing that have the power to renew and revitalize the world.

Meditation in the Courtyard

Life comes hard and fast in the modern world and we need to be centered and ready for whatever comes our way. The martial artists of the Shaolin Temple in China get centered and ready for whatever their kung-fu opponents might do by meditating in the courtyard. Now you too can meditate in the courtyard to become centered and ready for whatever life brings your way.

Meditation in the Courtyard at Straw Valley

Sunday mornings: 10 to 11 AM

$7.00 per class

Classes open with an introduction to Qigong, the ancient Chinese healing movement practice, sometimes called Taoist Yoga. The formal period of meditation follows the energizing Qigong. Classes are designed to be suitable for beginners as well as for those with meditation experience.

Come benefit from mindfulness meditation in the beautiful, relaxing setting of Straw Valley. No need to pre-register. Just bring a yoga mat or cushion to sit on. Hope to see you there.

Bardo of Meditation

Meditation is a state of consciousness marked by an openness and a clarity of mind far different from anything we experience in our ordinary state of consciousness. This non-ordinary state is only found in the gaps between the thoughts and emotions that flood our mind almost continuously.

The intermediate period between thoughts and emotions provide a brief reprieve from stress and anxiety and offer a glimpse of the bliss to be found in the boundless state of just being. In the vajrayana traditions of India and Tibet, this intermediate period is known as the bardo of meditation.

A passage from the Tibetan Book of the Dead tells us...

Now when the bardo of meditation dawns upon me,
I will abandon the crowd of distractions and confusions,
Rest in the boundless state without grasping or disturbance,
And gain stability in creation and completion.

Creation and completion are two terms with specific meanings for vajrayana meditation. A simplistic explanation is that creation is the deliberate repetition of techniques that lead to mastering a new skill. Eventually we develop an adeptness that becomes an automatic ability, easily drawn upon whenever desired--the state of completion. Learning to ride a bicycle is a good example of the process.

To learn to ride means paying attention to all the details--pedaling to keep the bike moving; turning the handlebars to stay on the path; moving the body back and forth to maintain balance. But when we have mastered the bicycle, we can enjoy the ride without great effort. We can focus on the wind in our hair and the cooling breeze on our face without worrying about ending up in the ditch.

The same concepts apply to meditation. In the beginning, we pay great attention to breathing, to posture, to remaining awake to the enchanting stories of our thoughts. But when we have mastered entering the bardo of meditation, we can abandon the crowd of distractions and confusion and rest in a boundless state of bliss, experiencing life exactly as it is, one eternal moment at a time.

Live Life on Life's Terms

In his wonderful book, "The Miracle of Mindfulness", Thich Nhat Hanh writes...

"But active, concerned people don't have time to spend leisurely, walking along paths of green grass and sitting beneath trees. One must prepare projects, resolve a million difficulties, there is hard work to do. One must deal with every kind of hardship, every moment keeping one's attention focused on the work, alert, ready to handle the situation ably and intelligently.

Then how are we to practice mindfulness?

My answer is: keep your attention focused on the work, be alert and ready to handle ably and intelligently any situation which may arise--this is mindfulness. There is no reason why mindfulness should be different from focusing all one's attention one's work, to be alert and to be using one's best judgment. During the moment one is consulting, resolving, and dealing with whatever arises, a calm heart and self-control are necessary if one is to obtain good results. If we are not in control of ourselves but instead let our impatience or anger interfere, then our work is no longer of any value."
-- Thich Nhat Hahn, The Miracle of Mindfulness, An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation