Who has the power? Dominating thoughts don't have to win

Joseph Goldstein says, "The very fact that we are not very aware of our thoughts and how they come into being allows them to dominate our lives...Mindfulness breaks the grip our thoughts have on us, allowing us to more often choose whether to act on them or not."

One meditaters comments on the benefits of meditation

When asked what the benefits of meditation are - what better to hear than someone's experience:

"The practical elements of mindfulness - as in the meditation - is very useful and grounding. Doing it everyday makes it a lot easier to apply the learnings from meditation to every day life. Particularly the case of the meditation called 'exploring difficulties'. I found it very difficult to do this meditation well while actually meditating but it was very useful when I was actually experiencing a difficulty in real life. As soon as I started to the Exploring Difficulty meditation and it really cut through the tendency to spiral and helped the emotion to dissipate. Even though I was only being aware of the feeling and not trying to make it go away. It just meant that I was left with the issue at hand and not the layers upon layers of thinking that I'd added to it."

Anonymous meditator

'What is meditation?'.- 5 minute explanation

I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what meditation is!

I always struggle to sum it up in 5 mins so here is someone (Mingyur Rinpoche) who can.

1 wk til Vipasanna. 1 wk into the sabbatical: The great, the good, the hard and the sucks!

The practice: I'm up to 2 hours practice at 5.30am and what can I say - its a cross between a delight and a mission. So a bit like life really! Delight because its two hours to just be. Not do. Or try to be someone different, better. Just be. And all I need to do to 'be' is breathe, watch my thinking and learn about my relationship with my mind. By doing this, one of the things that is happening is that I'm also building up the ability to bring my attention to where I want it to be. During the practice this is on the breath but in life - wow, this is a powerful tool. To be able to pay attention - in the moment - and get the most out of it - it is like time is eternal. It doesn't rush past, I'm not feeling like I'm missing out. I'm there with it - the good, the bad and the ugly. Not always, of course, but the more time I spend meditating, the longer my life feels! That doesnt mean I recommend 2 hours a day - just 10-15 mins can make a difference and 40 mins was really good too.

So - back to the mission part of Vipasanna prep. It hurts. After 1.5 hours, the ankles and knees start to hurt. And this is where  it gets interesting. In life, we want to avoid pain - or any uncomfortable feeling actually. We try to change the situation. Or we avoid it with a drink, a fag, a chocolate bar, a distraction. The challenge is that when we avoid the feeling, we stay on the run. The alternative is to let ourselves experience the emotion. Pain is often temporary, it changes in nature and we have a choice - believe it or not - of how we want to relate to it. I wrote about pain the last blog post so for more on this - go back one blog!

The pros of solo travelling: I've spent six days alone (bar a few day trips) and I'm really enjoying it. In some ways this worries me! Will I get too used to this? But mostly I just think that the gift of time to unwind, and then unwind some more and then realise you can unravel because you don't have to go back (for a while) and I feel free to create, think, question, explore in a way that I rarely get time to. Its space.

I've also met cool people and as is common when travelling, I've spent time with people that I wouldn't normally. They have been great and interesting and add a lot of colour to the trip.

I also realise human tendencies such as being judgemental and making comparisons. I notice when I do this now and there is a lot said about this in the books and videos I have been watching. It seems it is one of the curses on our happiness. I've had a lot of space in this trip to explore why we 'compare' and here's what I've come to understand: 

There are a million ways that we can  compare ourselves to others and millions of people to compare ourselves to. Every minor victory 'I'm better at this or that' - I'm so glad I'm not like them etc - is a bit like gambling. You do feel like you 'win' some but it's set up for you to lose in the end. The very act of gambling, or judging, means that you will always feel inferior because there will always be someone that does something better, has more etc. It's the act of feeling like you need to compare or judge to justify your self worth that keeps you from feeling worthy. So the solution? Find happiness in what other people have and in what you have in turn. Acknowledge judgements when they come - as they surely will - but just register them as thoughts that don't define who you are. Number the judgements if that helps. It reminds you of how fleeting thoughts actually are if you just let them come and go and not set up home. In time, they will quieten, reduce or even stop. And ultimately - work on accepting yourself for who you are. The good, the bad  - oh and the sucks. 

So the sucks is that my ears got infections so no hearing aids for one week. Which means travelling around Thailand with partial hearing. Bit like having ear plugs in all the time. Ho hum.

Deep breaths and letting it be...I'm sure compared to 10 days of silence, this will seem easy!

Ps if you are interested in some of the material I'm reading/watching while on sabbatical and want to learn more about mindfulness, happiness, Buddhism, insight meditation or yoga then keep an eye on the resources page where it says 'new'. There will be three books, a few great videos etc that I will upload when next in an Internet cafe.

Vipassana - Explained in more depth

What is Vipassana? In more depth...


For more detail on the practice of vipassana - see the notes below from a talk by the teacher, Mr S. N. Goenka taken from this website (where you can also look up where Vipassana courses are taking place worldwide): http://www.dhamma.org/en/art.shtml

Everyone seeks peace and harmony, because this is what we lack in our lives. From time to time we all experience agitation, irritation, dishar­mony. And when we suffer from these miseries, we don't keep them to ourselves; we often distribute them to others as well. Unhappiness permeates the atmosphere around someone who is miserable, and those who come in contact with such a person also become affected. Certainly this is not a skillful way to live.

We ought to live at peace with ourselves, and at peace with others. After all, human beings are social beings, having to live in society and deal with each other. But how are we to live peacefully? How are we to remain harmonious within, and maintain peace and harmony around us, so that others can also live peacefully and harmoniously?

In order to be relieved of our misery, we have to know the basic reason for it, the cause of the suffering. If we investigate the problem, it becomes clear that whenever we start generating any negativity or impurity in the mind, we are bound to become unhappy. A negativity in the mind, a mental defilement or impurity, cannot coexist with peace and harmony.

How do we start generating negativity? Again, by investigation, it becomes clear. We become unhappy when we find someone behaving in a way that we don't like, or when we find something happening which we don't like. Unwanted things happen and we create tension within. Wanted things do not happen, some obstacle comes in the way, and again we create tension within; we start tying knots within. And throughout life, unwanted things keep on happening, wanted things may or may not happen, and this process of reaction, of tying knots—Gordian knots—makes the entire mental and physical structure so tense, so full of negativity, that life becomes miserable.

Now, one way to solve this problem is to arrange that nothing unwanted happens in life, that everything keeps on happening exactly as we desire. Either we must develop the power, or somebody else who will come to our aid must have the power, to see that unwanted things do not happen and that everything we want happens. But this is impossible. There is no one in the world whose desires are always fulfilled, in whose life everything happens according to his or her wishes, without anything unwanted happening. Things constantly occur that are contrary to our desires and wishes. So the question arises: how can we stop reacting blindly when confronted with things that we don't like? How can we stop creating tension and remain peaceful and harmonious?

In India, as well as in other countries, wise saintly persons of the past studied this problem—the problem of human suffering—and found a solution: if something unwanted happens and you start to react by generating anger, fear or any negativity, then, as soon as possible, you should divert your attention to something else. For example, get up, take a glass of water, start drinking—your anger won't multiply; on the other hand, it'll begin to subside. Or start counting: one, two, three, four. Or start repeating a word, or a phrase, or some mantra, perhaps the name of a god or saintly person towards whom you have devotion; the mind is diverted, and to some extent you'll be free of the negativity, free of the anger.

This solution was helpful; it worked. It still works. Responding like this, the mind feels free from agitation. However, the solution works only at the conscious level. In fact, by diverting the attention you push the negativity deep into the unconscious, and there you continue to generate and multiply the same defilement. On the surface there is a layer of peace and harmony, but in the depths of the mind there is a sleeping volcano of suppressed negativity which sooner or later may erupt in a violent explosion.

Other explorers of inner truth went still further in their search and, by experiencing the reality of mind and matter within themselves, recognized that diverting the attention is only running away from the problem. Escape is no solution; you have to face the problem. Whenever negativity arises in the mind, just observe it, face it. As soon as you start to observe a mental impurity, it begins to lose its strength and slowly withers away.
A good solution; it avoids both extremes—suppression and expression. Burying the negativity in the unconscious will not eradicate it, and allowing it to manifest as unwholesome physical or vocal actions will only create more problems. But if you just observe, then the defilement passes away and you are free of it.

This sounds wonderful, but is it really practical? It's not easy to face one's own impurities. When anger arises, it so quickly overwhelms us that we don't even notice. Then, overpowered by anger, we perform physical or vocal actions which harm ourselves and others. Later, when the anger has passed, we start crying and repenting, begging pardon from this or that person or from God: “Oh, I made a mistake, please excuse me!” But the next time we are in a similar situation, we again react in the same way. This continual repenting doesn't help at all.
The difficulty is that we are not aware when negativity starts. It begins deep in the unconscious mind, and by the time it reaches the conscious level it has gained so much strength that it overwhelms us, and we cannot observe it.

However, someone who reached the ultimate truth found a real solution. He discovered that whenever any impurity arises in the mind, physically two things start happening simultaneously. One is that the breath loses its normal rhythm. We start breathing harder whenever negativity comes into the mind. This is easy to observe. At a subtler level, a biochemical reaction starts in the body, resulting in some sensation. Every impurity will generate some sensation or the other within the body.

This presents a practical solution. An ordinary person cannot observe abstract defilements of the mind—abstract fear, anger or passion. But with proper training and practice it is very easy to observe respiration and body sensations, both of which are directly related to mental defilements.

Respiration and sensations will help in two ways. As soon as a negativity arises in the mind, the breath will lose its normality; it will start shouting, “Look, something has gone wrong!” And we cannot scold the breath; we have to accept the warning. Similarly, the sensations will tell us that something has gone wrong. Then, having been warned, we can start observing the respiration, start observing the sensations, and very quickly we find that the negativity passes away.

This mental-physical phenomenon is like a coin with two sides. On one side are the thoughts and emotions arising in the mind, on the other side are the respiration and sensations in the body. Any thoughts or emotions, any mental impurities that arise manifest themselves in the breath and the sensations of that moment. Thus, by observing the respiration or the sensations, we are in fact observing mental impurities. Instead of running away from the problem, we are facing reality as it is. As a result, we discover that these impurities lose their strength; they no longer overpower us as they did in the past. If we persist, they eventually disappear altogether and we begin to live a peaceful and happy life, a life increasingly free of negativities.

In this way the technique of self-observation shows us reality in its two aspects, inner and outer. Previously we only looked outward, missing the inner truth. We always looked outside for the cause of our unhappiness; we always blamed and tried to change the reality outside. Being ignorant of the inner reality, we never understood that the cause of suffering lies within, in our own blind reactions toward pleasant and unpleasant sensations.
Now, with training, we can see the other side of the coin. We can be aware of our breathing and also of what is happening inside. Whatever it is, breath or sensation, we learn just to observe it without losing our mental balance. We stop reacting and multiplying our misery. Instead, we allow the defilements to manifest and pass away.

The more one practices this technique, the more quickly negativities will dissolve. Gradually the mind becomes free of defilements, becomes pure. A pure mind is always full of love—selfless love for all others, full of compassion for the failings and sufferings of others, full of joy at their success and happiness, full of equanimity in the face of any situation.

When one reaches this stage, the entire pattern of one's life changes. It is no longer possible to do anything vocally or physically which will disturb the peace and happiness of others. Instead, a balanced mind not only becomes peaceful, but the surrounding atmosphere also becomes permeated with peace and harmony, and this will start affecting others, helping others too.

By learning to remain balanced in the face of everything experienced inside, one develops detachment towards all that one encounters in external situations as well. However, this detachment is not escapism or indifference to the problems of the world. Those who regularly practice Vipassana become more sensitive to the sufferings of others, and do their utmost to relieve suffering in whatever way they can—not with any agitation, but with a mind full of love, compassion and equanimity. They learn holy indifference—how to be fully committed, fully involved in helping others, while at the same time maintaining balance of mind. In this way they remain peaceful and happy, while working for the peace and happiness of others.

This is what the Buddha taught: an art of living. He never established or taught any religion, any “ism”. He never instructed those who came to him to practice any rites or rituals, any empty formalities. Instead, he taught them just to observe nature as it is, by observing the reality inside. Out of ignorance we keep reacting in ways which harm ourselves and others. But when wisdom arises—the wisdom of observing reality as it is—this habit of reacting falls away. When we cease to react blindly, then we are capable of real action—action proceeding from a balanced mind, a mind which sees and understands the truth. Such action can only be positive, creative, helpful to ourselves and to others.

What is necessary, then, is to “know thyself”—advice which every wise person has given. We must know ourselves, not just intellectually in the realm of ideas and theories, and not just emotionally or devotionally, simply accepting blindly what we have heard or read. Such knowledge is not enough. Rather, we must know reality experientially. We must experience directly the reality of this mental-physical phenomenon. This alone is what will help us be free of our suffering.

This direct experience of our own inner reality, this technique of self-observation, is what is called Vipassana meditation. In the language of India in the time of the Buddha, passana meant seeing in the ordinary way, with one's eyes open; but vipassana is observing things as they actually are, not just as they appear to be. Apparent truth has to be penetrated, until we reach the ultimate truth of the entire psycho-physical structure. When we experience this truth, then we learn to stop reacting blindly, to stop creating negativities—and naturally the old ones are gradually eradicated. We become liberated from misery and experience true happiness.

There are three steps to the training given in a meditation course. First, one must abstain from any action, physical or vocal, which disturbs the peace and harmony of others. One cannot work to liberate oneself from impurities of the mind while at the same time continuing to perform deeds of body and speech which only multiply them. Therefore, a code of morality is the essential first step of the practice. One undertakes not to kill, not to steal, not to commit sexual misconduct, not to tell lies, and not to use intoxicants. By abstaining from such actions, one allows the mind to quiet down sufficiently in order to proceed further.

The next step is to develop some mastery over this wild mind by training it to remain fixed on a single object, the breath. One tries to keep one's attention on the respiration for as long as possible. This is not a breathing exercise; one does not regulate the breath. Instead, one observes natural respiration as it is, as it comes in, as it goes out. In this way one further calms the mind so that it is no longer overpowered by intense negativities. At the same time, one is concentrating the mind, making it sharp and penetrating, capable of the work of insight.
These first two steps, living a moral life, and controlling the mind, are very necessary and beneficial in themselves, but they will lead to suppression of negativities unless one takes the third step: purifying the mind of defilements by developing insight into one's own nature. This is Vipassana: experiencing one's own reality by the systematic and dispassionate observation within oneself of the ever-changing mind-matter phenomenon manifesting itself as sensations. This is the culmination of the teaching of the Buddha: self-purification by self-observation.

It can be practiced by one and all. Everyone faces the problem of suffering. It is a universal malady which requires a universal remedy, not a sectarian one. When one suffers from anger, it's not Buddhist anger, Hindu anger, or Christian anger. Anger is anger. When one becomes agitated as a result of this anger, this agitation is not Christian, or Jewish, or Muslim. The malady is universal. The remedy must also be universal.
Vipassana is such a remedy. No one will object to a code of living which respects the peace and harmony of others. No one will object to developing control over the mind. No one will object to developing insight into one's own nature, by which it is possible to free the mind of negativities. Vipassana is a universal path.

Observing reality as it is by observing the truth inside—this is knowing oneself directly and experientially. As one practices, one keeps freeing oneself from the misery of mental impurities. From the gross, external, apparent truth, one penetrates to the ultimate truth of mind and matter. Then one transcends that, and experiences a truth which is beyond mind and matter, beyond time and space, beyond the conditioned field of relativity: the truth of total liberation from all defilements, all impurities, all suffering. Whatever name one gives this ultimate truth is irrelevant; it is the final goal of everyone.

Preparing for a Vipassana Meditation Retreat...

In a month’s time I am doing a Vipassana meditation in Thailand. This is a 10 day silent retreat and a significant undertaking for the mind and body. You don’t read, exercise, speak to any one, communicate in any way, or really do anything except meditate – either on your own, with the group, or while eating or listening to one of the daily lectures.

I thought it would be an idea to document my preparation and my experience for those who are curious about it and/or might be thinking of doing it themselves. Below is an introduction to Vipassana, a rough schedule of what I will be doing and some info about what I’m doing to prepare for it. I will put regular updates on my blog about my prep and then put an update once I have done the retreat.

What is vipassana?

Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation.

Vipassana is a process of self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the interconnection between mind and body through paying disciplined attention to the physical sensations of the body, the condition of the mind and the interplay between the two. It is a form of a mental training – in the same way as preparing a marathon is physical training for the body. The process of the 10 day meditation is used to develop a healthy mind.

The next step is to develop some mastery over the mind by learning to fix one's attention on the natural reality of the ever changing flow of breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. By the fourth day the mind is calmer and more focused, better able to undertake the practice of Vipassana itself: observing sensations throughout the body, understanding their nature, and developing equanimity by learning not to react to them. Finally, on the last full day participants learn the meditation of loving kindness or goodwill towards all, in which the purity developed during the course is shared with all beings.

For more detail on the practice of vipassana - see the notes below from a talk by the teacher, Mr S. N. Goenka taken from this website (where you can also look up where Vipassana courses are taking place worldwide): http://www.dhamma.org/en/art.shtml

There are no charges for the course – not even to cover the cost of food and accommodation. All expenses are met by donations from people who, having completed a course and experienced the benefits of Vipassana, wish to give others the opportunity to benefit from it also. Men and women are separated and the courses get booked up far in advance and people from all over the world sign up for any remaining places.

What does it involve?

Generally – this is the programme of vipassana meditation retreats:

4:00 a.m.           - Morning wake-up bell

4:30-6:30 a.m. - Meditate in Dharma Hall or in your room

6:30-8:00 a.m. - Breakfast break

8:00-9:00 a.m. - Group meditation in Dharma Hall

9:00-11:00 a.m. - Meditate in Dharma Hall or in your room according to teacher’s instruction

11:00 -12 noon - Lunch break

12 noon – 1:00 p.m. - Rest, private Q&A session with teacher

1:00-2:30 p.m. - Meditate in Dharma Hall or in your room

2:30-3:30 p.m. - Group meditation in Dharma Hall

3:30-5:00 p.m. - Meditate in Dharma Hall or in your room according to teacher’s instruction

5:00-6:00 p.m. - Tea break

6:00-7:00 p.m. - Group meditation in Dharma Hall

7:00-8:15 p.m. - Teacher’s Discourse in Dharma Hall

8:15-9:00 p.m. - Group meditation in Dharma Hall

9:00-9:30 p.m. - Open Q&A session in Dharma Hall

10pm                - Lights out

Why am I doing it?

I heard of this practice about 5-6 years ago and was curious about it but it wasn’t until I started to learn about mindfulness based approaches that I thought I might actually do the retreat. Now,  I am about to take a 3 month sabbatical and will be travelling to Thailand so this seems like a good time to do the retreat. I will also be starting a masters or diploma in teaching mindfulness based approaches in October (if they accept me) – so I plan to do some extended meditation before starting this.

More specifically though, I have a great curiosity about the connection between mind and body, how the mind works, how meditation can be used as a tool for understanding the mind, and with practices which help people to live in the now, get the most from their experience and be happy (content).

How am I preparing?

I currently have been meditating for about 40 minutes every morning but I met a friend the other day who said that I will need to do some more serious preparation and it is quite a serious undertaking. He was meditating 4 hours a day before he did it and still found it very hard. It is not just the meditating that is a challenge. You have to wake up early. You probably won’t be sleeping in a deluxe, double bed with extra thick cushions, food will be restricted (you eat what you are given) and you don’t communicate or have any type of stimulus (except for the talks twice a day). I.e. no phone, no facebook, no talking to friends or anyone, no exercises, no TV etc. Ouch. So – as of one month before I’m waking up at 6am and meditating for 1.5 hours every day.

As I get closer, I will gradually do more, eat a bit less, and cut down on stimulus like checking my phone/facebook regularly. Time for a change of routine!

Jon Kabat-Zinn from the Mindfulness in Society conference

I had the pleasure of meeting Jon Kabat Zinn at the conference last week. He did several talks and led a full day practice and dialogue. Here are my 'take aways' from his talks.

'Something is happening and that something is nothing.' Jon was commenting on how the hotel staff must have  seen the group! One day we did a whole lunchtime in silent meditation which must have seemed quite strange from the hotel staff's point of view. What were we all doing? We must be crazy, or in a trance. Even reading my notes, it is easy to see how meditation and its lessons could seem weird, obvious, not particularly significant, only for hippies. As you can imagine, for me, there is an ocean of truth in every bullet.

• MBCT and MBSR courses are a 'lab'. You don't need books. You do the experiments on yourself. You don't ask the experts. You become the scientist of your own body, mind and heart.
• The 8 week course is planting a seed. Nothing may happen for you while you are doing the course. But it might plant a seed. It is important for the teachers not to be attached to the outcome of what happens in the course. It is just about being connected to whatever happens.
• Meditating in a group is important because it is liberating. It is talking about the interior. It normalises what we think - because we know other people are thinking the same. We think we are a mutant and it is only us experiencing these things. Hearing about it from a group - you start to see patterns and your build the capacity to 'hold' these patterns. To see the patterns. You don't need to see it. It is enough to be aware of it.
• There is an idealisation of what mindfulness will become. It is not going to change everything.
• If you can learn to deal with a mind state like boredom, then you can deal with any mind state. The 'curriculum' is whatever bubbles out of the human experience.
• Why do we have to do 45 mins of meditation each day - that is a lot! If you ask a lot, you will get a lot. If you ask for a little, you get a little. In 45 minutes, that is enough to get bored, be in pain, experience the challenge of the human condition. You get all of that to work with in the meditation. Whatever comes up is what is 'on the curriculum'.
• Mindfulness is about paying attention, choosing to pay attention and keep the attention where you want it to be. Meditation is a cultivation tool that you already have. 
• Non-judgement doesn't mean not judging but to be aware of that judgement. We can watch the whole thing. We can hold the whole thing in our attention - including our judgement.
• We are always trying to be someone we are not, to get somewhere, to be someone. Then we will be okay! But we take our minds with us.
• Mindfulness is not a state.
• Be - it is the best education
• Thinking is a narrative, not actuality.
• Mindfulness = heartfulness. Mind and heart are the same words in Pali.
• Relationality is important - it is about us and not now.
• Waiting suggests expectations - so just be. Let go.
• Walking meditation mirrors our mind wandering - we are not trying to get anywhere. We are where we are. Here. Now.
• Sit as if there was no yesterday and as if there is no tomorrow.

Shauna Shapiro - from the Mindfulness in Society Conference

In March 2013, the Mindfulness in Society conference took place in Chester, UK. Here are some 'take aways' from Shauna Shapiro's key note presentation.

Intention is important - what intention do we have? She gave a nice anecdote about the first presentation/talk she did on mindfulness and she felt really nervous about doing it, whether she would be 'good', 'accepted' and Jack Kornfield said to her, 'Why are you here?'. That reminded her that what she wanted was to be of benefit. Intention isn't a destination, it is a direction.

With intention goes attention and attitude. There is a great quote she gave, 'The most important thing is to remember the most important thing.

We have 12,000 - 50, 000 thoughts a day and apparently, our mind wanders 46.9% of the time. Our repeated experience shapes our mind - our neuroplasticity. It's not just about what we practice when we meditate, its what we practice in our lives. Mindfulness offers us a choice point - we can create highways through repeated thinking - but there is also a choice to create a country path, into a lane, into a road - and so it builds. Mindfulness helps us to stand back and witness rather than be immersed in the drama of our story.

What you practice makes you stronger. Mindfulness is about acceptance, openness, kindness, curiosity, non-striving, letting go, trust, compassion. She gave a nice anecdote about a nun that had said that she said thank you for everything that happened to her. Good or bad. Not because she wanted it to be happening. But because it was already there and its about how you approach that reality.

Some people feel worried that mindfulness will make us passive and calm and don't want to feel that because they are passionate and have strong feelings. Acceptance is about that moment - you are accepting what is here now because it is here now.

Our minds can be a great cause of suffering. Christopher Gremer said, 'The unstable mind is like an unstable camera, we get a fuzzy picture. Shauna gave a quote that 'suffering = pain x resistance'. If pain is 100 and resistance is 100 you get 1000 units of suffering. If you can have the pain, and not resist it then suffering is 0. You still have pain but it can be our minds, our thinking, rumination, that lead to more suffering - and more disconnection from our experience.

In 2012 they did a study (Shapiro, Jazzeri, Goldin) that showed that mindfulness improves self-efficacy, happiness, academic performance, ethicial decision making and reduces cognitive rigidity. There is a danger that we will lose the transformational side to mindfulness as it moves into the mainstream. It may be misunderstood. It may be understood only superficially. Mindfulness can also be another self-improvement project and we can beat ourselves up using it. It is not about that - the intention is self-liberation.

Interconnectedness is a crucial part of what is being developed in mindfulness. The word compassion is incomplete if it doesn't include yourself.

Emo Philips said: 'I used to think that the mind was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realised who was telling me that.'


Reflections on the overall conference...

What struck me from the beginning was how the conference embodied 'mindfulness'! I don't know why I was surprised but I had only explored mindfulness on my own, with friends with mutual interests or with my MBCT group. To be around 300-500 people, and being asked at the beginning of the conference, before the first key note speech, to close my eyes and take a breathe, and feel the seat I was sat on, took me by surprise. It was a great start.

Throughout the conference we were reminded to breathe, to take note of the pressure we might feel to see, hear lots of things, or to meet lots of people - or how nervous we might be because we don't know anyone and others all seem to know each other. There was a gentleness, a kindness, a humbleness to the whole event.

Bringing mindfulness to schools - a TEDx talk

What on earth is mindfulness and why is it being trialled in some schools?

Check out this short video by Richard Burnett on the Mindfulness in Schools programme called .b In just a few minutes he gives a summary of what mindfulness is, a quick exercise to demonstrate it, and talks about why it is so important to help children.

Here is a quick summary:

• It's a worthwhile life skill which will help them best use the lens through which their experiences are being filtered - through the faculty of attention.
• Their mental health and happiness (as per all of ours) is shaped by what they pay attention to - where they put their awareness 
• Learning how to direct their attention and awareness to their senses (their experience) will help them to deal with anxiety and stress
• It will help them to notice when thinking changes to ruminating in a negative way
• It will help them to pay more attention to positive things (which tend to slip off our minds like teflon) as opposed to negative things (which snag our attention like velcro!).

Have a watch and see what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mlk6xD_xAQ

Why meditate? A 5 minute explanation

Check out this 5 minute video for a quick explanation of vipassana meditation. Vipassana means seeing things as they really are and the vipassana meditation is a 10 day silent meditation. Why would anyone want to do that!! Check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlsYahpsXBQ

If you want to read more about vipassana meditation then you can find an engaging description here plus information on where you can do vipassana meditation for free worldwide.

http://www.dhamma.org/en/art.shtml

10 Minute Explanation of Mindfulness

Watch this Ted Talk for a quick, clear, engaging explanation of what mindfulness is! To see more from Andy Puddicombe, check out http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/how-to-meditate.aspx

Learning 'Not to think about it'

What do you do when you have something on your mind that you just can't stop thinking about? Even if you don't want to and you say to yourself - 'right - I'm not going to think about it anymore!' - it just seems to come back to you and stay there - like a song that you get stuck in your head which you can't seem to get rid of.

I read an answer to this challenge yesterday. It's a rather annoyingly simple and yet challenging answer:

"We have to learn the paradox that to want not to think about something is in fact to be thinking about that something: and that as long as we think that it is an effort to discard undesirable thought or habits we make it an effort". (The Dhammapada, pg 31)

Wow! Annoyingly true. Here is what I understand this to mean: when we want or don't want something this implies that we have thought about it (in order to judge it as good and therefore something we want, or something bad and that we don't want). If we are then 'not wanting' then we are thinking. If we 'don't want to think' then we are in fact thinking. When the thought comes into our minds, if we put more thought into it like saying to ourselves 'I don't want to be thinking about this' then we are doing just that - we are thinking about it. So - how do we get out of this loop? Well, the answer to that is to not resist that the thought comes - unfortunately - we don't have that kind of control. Instead, we have to let the thought come but then not give it any attention by thinking about whether we want the thought to be there or not. We just watch it/be aware of it and then it is likely to pass. 

This is a surprisingly obvious thing to do and yet it is so difficult because we are not used to understanding how our thinking works. It takes us on a journey all the time from one thing to the next without us really paying much attention to who or what is in control. By meditating, we learn to watch thoughts come and go and not get sucked into them and be carried off on a train of thought from one thing to the next. Quite cool when you think about it! 

'Coming to Our Senses' with Jon Kabat Zinn

This video may seem from the start to be slightly old fashioned music and images, but don't be put off. Once Jon Kabat Zinn starts talking (which takes a few minutes as there is an introduction by someone else) - it is a captivating, succinct and poignant summary of mindfulness and particularly 'coming to our senses'. Well worth a watch if you have any interest in mindfulness.

My favourite point he makes is about being in the shower. Where are you when you are in the shower? Think about your shower today. Where were you? Were you having an argument with a co-worker? Were you in a meeting about something which is taking up a lot of thinking at the moment? Were you planning your day?

This is just a small example to illustrate auto-pilot. What about the sensation of the water as it hits our skin? The sensation of warmth or cold (depending on how you like your showers!). What about just experiencing that for a moment and being where you are - IN THE SHOWER! There are lots of things to enjoy and experience about every moment of our day - including what we might consider small things like having a shower. But if we can't have one for a while, we soon appreciate them. What about appreciating it as we experience it? Imagine how great the day could be if we spent more time experiencing what we was actually happening in each moment and less time in the past or future which doesn't exist anymore/yet.

Learning presentation skills

What make Jon Kabat Zinn such as great speaker? Here are some of the things he does during the presentation to make it engaging: 

• uses poetry and quotes to add 'colour' to the talk
• puts learning point into an everyday context
• engages with the audience and asks people to do things
• asks questions and put your hands up
• speaks clearly, good pace and is calm - as well as very well timed!
• uses humour

Practice makes perfect!

'I can't meditate!' Thank god! That's where all the Learning is!

When people who don't meditate talk about trying to meditate - the most common thing I hear is - 'I tried meditating but I can't do it. My mind is all over the place. I can't stop thinking.'

That's what I used to say too. Ironically - THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT! Little did I know that that was what was meant to happen and that all of the learning comes from that very experience. The fact that the mind jumps around like a monkey is one of the reasons for meditating. Not to stop it initally - but just to notice that that is what the mind does.

At some point you will notice again and 'wake up'. And then it may wander off again. At some point, you will notice and 'wake up'. And on, and on. The thing is - you do wake up. At some point in trying to meditate - there are moments of awareness. And this is all that you need to experience at the beginning. You 'woke up' and realised that your mind had gone off and you weren't 'here'. That's a pretty cool start to meditating.

The problem is - people think that they are meant to sit there and be fully present the whole time they are sitting, without their mind going anywhere. And they judge themselves as having 'failed' if they don't/can't do that. In fact, noticing/being aware of the nature of the mind is one of the main reasons to meditate. While meditating we can begin to notice or be aware of the types of thoughts that come to our mind - perhaps about the past or about the future. We can begin to realise how our thoughts jump from one thing to the next. We can see how much we judge ourselves (for example, thinking 'I can't meditate - my mind is going everywhere' - is a judgement, and our minds judge quite a lot!).

So next time you try and meditate - don't expect to 'achieve' anything more than focusing on the breath and congratulating yourself every time you notice that your mind wandered rather than punishing yourself every time that it does. Perhaps acknowledge the thoughts that distracted you from breathing - recognising whether they were about future, past, judgements etc and then go back to focusing on the breath.

It might not feel relaxing - but contrary to popular belief, the point of meditation is not to get relaxed either. The point to meditation is to BE and accept whatever comes (including accepting the nature of our monkey minds). Perhaps you can meditate after all - congratulations!

If you are interested in reading more about mindfulness and meditation and the point of it all then perhaps go to the 'Are you new to mindfulness' page.

What's in it for me?

I was having dinner with some good friends the other night and one of them asked me 'what is mindfulness?'. In attempting to explain it, we kept coming round to the same questions: Why do you do it? What do you get? What is the point?

This really is one of the nuances of mindfulness - you don't do it with the goal of achieving any particular state - for example, to relax or to get happier. If you do, this can be counter to the principles of the practice - which is about non-doing, non-striving. Just being. The whole point of it is to accept the now, accept the present and not strive in that moment to make it anything other than what it is. So there is a point to it, but you are not practicing to achieve a state of being...Rather you are just being - full stop.

The raisin exercise helps to make this clearer. Get a raisin and put it in your hand and look at it. Don't think about it. Just look at it. Then smell it. The aim isn't to think about the smell. Just smell. Squish it in your fingers. Feel it. Hold it up the light. Check out the colours. Put it on the  tip of your tongue. Taste it. Put it in your mouth without chewing. Feel the saliva. Crush it between your teeth and feel your taste buds buzzing. Chew. Swallow. You are experiencing a raisin - without thoughts or judgments - just awareness of different aspects of the raisin. This is a meditation practice. You aren't making the raisin be anything more than it already was - but is probably tasted stronger, sweeter, felt squishier and looked more interesting than it normally does - because you were more aware of it than you would be if you ate it the normal way. Probably several at a time in a bun or a cake with lots of other ingredients.

There are, of course, numerous benefits of meditating - including feeling more relaxed and being happier - and these are well documented, but you don't meditate to achieve them. Instead, they are potential by-products of the practice. As Eckhart Tolle says: 'Do not be concerned with the fruits of your action - just give attention to the action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord.' (Practicing the Power of Now, E. Tolle, pg 48).

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66719390@N08/7000816209/">SueKing2011</a> via <a