Mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness in meditation

While travelling, I have taken time to read through a book Bhikku Analayo, a Buddhist monk, writing on the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha's most famous teaching on meditation and mindfulness.

Mindfulness has become quite a trendy topic in the Western world. It came directly from exposure to Buddhist meditation practices and the rise of Goenka's Vipassana meditation methodology to enter into Western ideas of stress reduction, health treatment related to stress, and generally improvement of life quality.

Mindfulness, or 'sati' in Pali means to pay attention to what is going on: to watch and observe. It is link to sampajana - which means to understand something in context. Through observing carefully what we are doing, to watch our reality in slow-motion, we often find that we have built up stress and anxiety unnecessarily and that by concentrating the mind we can untangle that process.

In this morning's meditation I started off observing the breath - anapanasati. It is the most classic of Theravadin meditations. The breath is relatively crude and obvious, it is easy for everyone to observe, and it is both physical and linked to our state of calm or anxiety. Any changes to mental states change the breath and vice versa. From breath meditation I moved to body meditation. I could observe how I was sitting, how my body was feeling, where there were any issues of tension and my posture. I could focus on sitting, sitting up erect, and the movement of the body in responding to the need to breathe.

Then my mind was off to do emails. Emails are not actually part of meditation. I went back to the breath. Ok, Then my mind started back to emails. In meditation, if stuff comes up, you can put it away, but usually it is worth understanding why it came up.

Observation 1: I was not being diligent with my mindfulness meditation so my mind wandered. Observation 2: I like to feel stressed about work - it is more habitual and fun for my mind to worry about stuff that has not happened than to attend to my real moment of awareness in the hear and now.

I then recognised that there was a cause for the shift of my mind and there was a response by the mind. The cause I could identify. The response had happened without my intention. By clarifying my intention my mind came back to the mindfulness meditation. I realised how everything we do goes through a cycle of cause and response. The only question is: Is this the right response? The appropriate response? The beneficial response?

Responses are taught from experience and habit. Many are good for us. Many are not. Mindfulness means also easing off autopilot and paying more attention to your options. I came back to meditation on the body. I felt a sense of revelation - a sense of turning worry into something much more useful and liberating.

I did get the emails done. The real emails were not like the worried ones in my head. They were compassionate and considered.

Yoga is about making the effort to be real with yourself. Tapas - is the practice of effort and intensity of yoga. Using the right amount of effort for your needs. Atapi is a meditation concept of diligence - we don't get anywhere by being sloppy and habitual. Change and understanding happen by being present. This is your party, step up to the plate of your reality. It is a worthy goal.

Namaste