Lesson 2: Basic meditation
Attention vs awareness
Attention: The part of the mind that you use to focus on an object Awareness: Everything else in the mind that you are not focused on, but that is in the background.
Example with vision: Look at something in front of you. The object that you are looking at is your attention. Everything that is blurry around it, but that you can still see, that is awareness.
Awareness is more important in the end. When our awareness is small, we feel restless and uncomfortable. This is where our mental suffering comes from because we are hyper-focused on one thing and cannot be relaxed in the spaciousness of our mind. Therefore, it is important to have a relaxed attitude to keep awareness spacious.
Open awareness
Let attention move freely between the senses. Notice sounds, sights and feelings especially (more easily noted than smells and tastes). Just explore the sensation that comes up and be curious. Example: You can for example listen to the sounds that you hear or your inner voice and explore these sensations of sound. After a while you might feel your body sitting on the chair and you can just explore the physical sensations of sitting.
Whenever you find yourself being distracted, notice what happens to the thought hen you 'wake up' from it. See how the thought just disappears in a space. If you feel like you need some grounding or have the feeling of nothing to do, you can use the breath at the belly as an anchor.
Labeling
An extra technique that you can add to this practice is labeling. The technique here is to name in your head the sensations that you are experiencing at the moment every couple of seconds. So if you are hearing a sound, you can label in your head 'sound'. Then when you get irritated by the sound, you can label 'irritation'. The goal with this is to create some distance between you and the sensations that you are experiencing.
Practice: Meditation exploring open awareness (10 min)
Boring!
Meditation can be very boring, especially in the beginning. What makes it worse is our expectations. We want to be happy and relaxed, but instead, we are angry and tense. Meditation is not about positive states!
Rather, it is about exploring and being with whatever is. We train ourselves to be more accepting of certain states and explore these states. In the end, we can be more accepting of these states in daily life. We do not react so angrily anymore, but are more aware and accepting of anger. Meditation will not get rid of negative states. It will give you the peace to just be with it. Therefore, if you are bored, try to explore and be with whatever is there. On top of that, boredom is usually aversion in disguise. Aversion to being in the present moment.
The best thing to do is to label the boredom and then investigate what sensations it consists of. Can you go deeper in the pure sensations of boredom? This will bring some challenging aspect into the meditation and helps with boredom.
Guided meditations
Lesson 2: open awareness
Lesson 2: open awareness (with music)
Link to SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/user-456383021
Concentration: Four-step transition (FST)
There is a better way to concentrate and that is using the FST. This restricts the space of attention bit by bit so that your mind does not race that much. The steps are the following:
Open awareness.
Body: Restrict your attention to all the sensations that you can find in the body.
Breath: Restrict your attention to all the sensations that come with the breath.
Breath at the nose: Restrict your attention to all the sensations around the nostrils. This area is about the size of a 2 euro coin, covering the upper lip and the nostrils. You want to get your attention perfectly still—experiencing the ever-changing sensations in this area.
You can spend any amount of time on each time, whatever you prefer. Once you're at the breath at the nose, then you've reached your final destination for the rest of the meditation session.
Stabilize: You can use labeling to stabilize your attention. Think "in" with the in-breath and "out" with the out-breath for a couple of breaths. You can come back to this technique whenever you're having difficulty staying with the breath.
Following the breath: You can play a little game to get yourself more engaged with the breath. It is very simple, just do the following during every breath cycle:
Try to find the exact moment the in-breath starts.
Try to find the exact moment the in-breath ends.
Try to find the exact moment the out-breath starts.
Try to find the exact moment the out-breath ends.
Low effort
Remember that we use intention to stay at the object. In the West, we try to force ourselves on stuff, but that does not work! A good indicator of how well you are doing is the spaciousness level. If we are at the first step of the FST then we are usually the most spacious and relaxed. We want to keep this level even at the last step of the FST. If you feel very restricted, then go back a few steps.
There is a joke that has to do with effort between a student (S) and master (M):
S: How long does it take for me to reach enlightenment?
M: About 10 years.
S: What if I try really hard?
M: Then it will take 20 years.
Practice: Meditation with the FST (10 min)
Summary of the practice
Optional: Do the seven point relaxation (2 min)
Use the FST/ Practice open awareness (the steps below do not apply for this)
Return with kindness when distracted
Use intention to stay on the meditation object
When you end up at the nose, use following the breath
Homework
Meditate for 10 minutes using the Four-Step Transition
Guided meditations
Lesson 2: basic concentration
Lesson 2: basic concentration (with music)
Link to SoundCloud
Insight timer
Further exploration
The Mind Illuminated - Culadasa
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