Stillness
Our natural inheritance
“The mind in its natural state can be compared to the sky, covered by layers of cloud which hide its true nature.” – Kalu Rinpoche
You’re always meditating
Let’s extend last week’s discussion on meditation and perhaps do some more clarification. There are many causes that can bring us to this practice and a universe of takes on what it is, how to do it and what results to expect. My regular readers know what comes next. We’ll get down to the root and build up from there.
I’ve been teaching meditation for the past 10 years or so and when I ask my students what brings them to learn, the responses all revolve around one theme. Dissatisfaction. Last week we dug a bit into what is going un underneath that feeling but let’s just accept it as it is for now. “I have too many thoughts.” “My mind never settles down.” “I want to feel less stressed.” “I want to be more organized and productive.” “I want to be kinder to people.” Regardless of the root of these feelings the discontentment people feel brings them to the meditation cushion and that’s an amazing thing. We also discussed the central hypothesis of meditation last week, that one is complete and whole to begin with but led astray. The traditional analogy is that your mind is the vast open sky, illuminated by the sun. Weather rolls through, sometimes a light breeze on a sunny day. Sometimes vicious storms like what some people have experienced in Florida recently. No matter the intensity, it never lasts. The clouds never stay and the sky is unstained no matter how bad the storm was. Our minds are very much the same. That’s some great news! There’s nothing we need to do to improve the quality of our fundamental minds. I have more great news. You are always meditating! The catch is that the object of our meditation usually changes rapidly. A memory, an itch, whatever’s on the TV, what kind of coffee to order and 10,000 more things every day. Regardless if we are daydreaming, recalling a memory or planning for the future, the object of our meditation in that moment is the thought. Our thoughts can only happen in the present moment no matter the content. We are always paying attention to something even if that something appears to be mental “space”. It doesn’t matter if we can recall what our attention was placed on or even if it was a dream, we are practicing mindful awareness. Now we need to take those superpowers of a perfect fundamental mind and power of awareness and practice using them in a different way.
Practice practice practice
In my traditions there are two core types of meditation. Shamatha (calm abiding) and Vipassana (awareness). They are another duality that’s important to recognize. If we jump straight to awareness practice, our minds are likely to be too unsettled and will have difficulty staying directed. Calm abiding is necessary first. Only ever doing Shamatha is not helpful either like a stone sitting at the bottom of a river (as appealing as that might sound!). We settle, then we look. We settle again and then we look. Shamatha develops a working relationship with the wild horse of our mind and we ride together into the insight that Vipassana opens. Let’s settle.
There are countless versions of the meditation practice I’m about to describe, many very detailed and technical so I’m going to provide a very casual version here.
Physical
Find a place where you will not be disturbed for the duration of your practice
Sit upright cross-legged on a cushion or on a chair with your legs parallel and at a 90 degree angle, feet flat on the ground
Sit high enough so that your knees are below your hip-crease
Place your hands on your thighs, palms down
No need for any mudras or fancy hand positions
You should feel balanced over your center of gravity
Back strong but honoring the curves of your spine, relaxed chest & belly
Head balanced over your shoulders
Jaw relaxed, eyes OPEN
Our gaze is downward towards a spot 6 feet from us on the floor
Our focus is soft, on the space in-between our eyes and the floor
We will discuss the logic behind open eyes in the future, take a chance and give it a try. It’s important.
Take a few deep breaths and return to your normal breathing
Check-In
Check in with yourself. How’s your personal ‘weather’ at this moment?
Simply acknowledge how you feel, allow it to be
Core practice
Feel your body breathing
Feel the physical, kinesthetic sensation of your breathing, however and wherever you feel it
It may change over time, no need to manipulate it
When your attention is carried away into thoughts simply notice and return to feeling your body breathing
The contents of the thoughts do not matter
The quantity of the thoughts do not matter
The duration of the thoughts do not matter
Continue your allegiance to feeling the body breathing until the end of your session
So that’s it. Consistency is far more important than duration. Five minutes a day, every day can have a profound effect on the other 23:55. I know people have busy lives but this requires us to make it part of our self-care routine. We eat, sleep, clean ourselves (all to varying levels of effectiveness sometimes haha) and this practice should be integrated the same way.
Often when starting a meditation practice it can seem as though our mind is getting busier, like a waterfall of thoughts. The reality is that this mental activity was always there, it’s that now you are actually paying attention to it. We are giving ourselves a release valve for this pressure. We are giving ourselves the opportunity to avoid being carried away by our thoughts. In some ways we are giving ourselves more free-will (though this is far from the end of that story). Last week I mentioned the “laboratory of meditation” and this lab is where we can test the concepts we discuss here. Without a practice, all we’re doing is creating more mental noise. Intellect needs to become intuition in order to realize long term benefit.
Next Steps
I encourage all of you to at least try this practice. Even if you already have practices, give this on a try, as written. Different tools solve different problems. I also highly recommend finding a meditation instructor to work with. Someone with a background and other students you can speak with. Things can and will come up. Obstacles of all kinds though they are all workable. I am happy to answer questions directly if you have them as well. We can get a bit lost on our own. In the end, use your intuition. Your intellect. Your wisdom.
Talk to you all next week!
The Brimo