Dear Friends,
There have been times, when I’ve mentioned to friends or co-workers that I practice meditation and mindfulness, that I get the reply, “Oh, I could never do that – I can never stop thinking.”
Jill addresses some of misconceptions we might have about thinking and meditation in the talk Mindfulness of the Mind.
Many meditation instructions, especially when we are first starting, begin with the invitation to settle with the body or breath as an anchor, and when we notice that the attention is no longer on the anchor to return to the anchor. This is a very useful skill to give us some stability and steadiness from which we can learn more how this body/heart/mind work. But that’s not all there is to being mindful. Jill explains:
There’s a very common misperception that real mindfulness, real meditation is focusing attention on the breath and sort of locking it there, which means that any experience that is not the breath is wrong or bad and shouldn’t be happening. And so with that belief in the mind we end up struggling with our experience, constantly dragging the attention back to the breath, back to the breath, back to the breath. Trying to ignore any other sensations in the body that might be calling our attention, and definitely trying to get rid of any thinking or emotional responses that might be happening.
I can understand where this misperception comes from because most beginning instructions on insight retreats do start with being asked to bring awareness to the breath, and we’re told when the mind wanders bring it back to the breath. I gave similar instructions myself on day one. But what perhaps isn’t made explicit is that the point of those instructions is to help develop stability of mind, non-distractibility.
And then when we have some degree of stability, we open up the mindfulness, until, ultimately, no experience is left out.
Even if you have never been on a meditation retreat before, you probably have experienced moments of stability. I often notice the mind quiets and settles when I’m in nature, or working in the garden, or doing yoga or qigong.
I will sometimes remind myself of what that experience feels like – watching the sun set on the lake, smelling the earth as I tend to the garden, and so on – so that I can have a little confidence going into practice (or starting my day or going to the next meeting, etc.) that settling, ease, and stability are possible. This helps me set an intention in my practice. Stability of attention may or may not arise today – but if it does arise, I will be more attuned to the felt-sense of it.
When there is some measure of stability, we are invited to start to open up the attention beyond the anchor to include whatever is most predominant – body sensations, sounds – even thoughts, emotions, and mind states. Whatever the experience is, we know it as it is, without needing it to be a particular way. This is often called an open awareness practice.
In the guided meditation Jill leads (from about 16 through 29 minutes in the recording), she uses some noting phrases, which can be helpful as a way to encourage the attention to be with the experience without getting caught. When thinking arises, we can note “thinking” or “planning” or “remembering”. Just like sounds, thoughts will arise and pass away on their own. The idea is to notice without getting into the story. (And when we notice that we got into the story, we just begin again.)
The recording ends with instructions on a walking meditation with rotating through the senses – noticing body sensations, hearing, seeing for different passes along the walking path. So that might be that something fun to try too.
Sometimes I’ll even do this style of walking in more informal situations – like when I’m walking the dogs. And in the times I’m being less mindful in the walks, maybe my dogs are doing what Mark Doty describes in “Golden Retrievals” – “My work: / to unsnare time’s warp (and woof!), retrieving, / my haze-headed friend, you.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47252/golden-retrievals
What are your thoughts about thinking or the open awareness practice?
With gratitude,
Andrea
AG
First of all, I have finally caught up to you. I find myself, for a variety of reasons, chronologically challenged these days ( am i the only one? ) and three days simply evaporate and I truly cannot figure what happened to the time. Ie, suddenly I realize I am four days behind on your excellent teachings.
This teaching opens a cool thought for me. I had a mild epiphany. Meditation is all about moving into the Innerverse – the deep stillness in the aquifer of my self. But there is another direction – out into the Universe. Of course, you have already mentioned this in a previous post. Spaciousness. The movement outward. Jeanne has talked of this many times. But I am not sure I really took it in.
I am a noviciate in many modes of practice and I would put a plug in for the many other technologies that get us to the place of awakening.
A technology is a system of ideas that has a practical purpose ( awakening being a practical purpose ). I am a member of the float society that has four pods down on Idyllwyld. ( IF you haven’t done this I would highly recommend it ) Sensory deprivation while floating in the pitch black opens the individual sentient being to the wide expanse of endless space. i was a fan of psychedelics for awhile there. Plant medicines open whole vistas of clarity. Tantric love with a like minded querent is a touchstone to eternity. Yoga… wow! Johann Sebasian Bach. Golden Retrievers ( loved the poem…. a real poem with metaphors and imagery and word play )
My latest excursion has been into the realms of Hypnosis. In trance, with a dedicated guide I found myself far, far out in the outer stratosphere looking down on myself & on this transitory realm from great effortless distance . Pure Upekkha. Dispassionate. Detached. In love with the whole planet, with little Saskatoon down there in the snow, with my middle-aged self – with my anxious fretting over the details of my all-too-impermanent drama. Tethered in trance to AS who I trust with my very soul , floating out there in the ether, no longer imbricate with my all-too-fleshly body.
Should we go in? Or should we go out? The Mind has no dimension. It exists outside of the time-space continuum.
Different technologies to get to the same place… the one and only place. The True Dharma is not multifold. It is one. How we get there is not so important as we might think.
What I take from this teaching is Spaciousness. Not looking in but emanating out – even while ensconced on the cushion in the confines of a sacred space in my little spare room with the cot and medicine buddha on the sock drawer and my cat Botticelli yowling for his supper.
RND
I appreciate your exploration of the Innerverse and Universe with us here.
I also agree there are many technologies available in this exploration of awakening. I shall have to try a Float session some day!