mandala

Feelings as Objects of Meditation

2006-05-13T01:41:00.000+09:00

The task here is to mentally acknowledge each feeling at the moment it arises.

You have a lot of work to do if you want to deal with your feelings. You must understand the various kinds of feelings whether they are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

You must understand how they come to be, how they develop after their arising, and how they pass away.

Feelings arise whenever there is contact between the senses (eye, ears, nose, tongue and body) and objects outside.

Feelings must be understood for what they are.

Exercise: Mindfulness of Body in Daily Life

2006-04-24T22:56:00.000+09:00

Once you have developed some concentrated awareness with your body as an object of meditation, you must try to clearly understand what you are doing with your body every moment of your working day.

While walking, pay attention to the walking movements with as much detail as you can observe. Also be aware of yourself when the body sits, stands, reclines. Observe the movements of the body, whether in the act of looking at or looking around, whether bending or stretching, dressing, washing, eating, chewing, even when answering the call of nature...

The aim is to hold the attention steady on each event while it is actually present, but not to follow this event with imagined states which are not present. The aim is lost if the body does one thing and the mind thinks of something else.

Whenever you have a spare moment during the working day, use your body as an object of concentrated awareness.

Tags: mindfulness, awareness, body, daily life

Exercise: Mindfulness of Walking

2006-04-20T21:17:00.000+09:00

This exercise begins by standing at the very spot from where you begin walking.

Your body ought to be erect with the heels kept together. Look straight ahead - the eyes should look neither up nor down. Maintain this posture throughout the entire walking practice.

Follow your movements with mindfulness, instead of with your eyes.

While standing, acknowledge that you are standing by saying in the mind, "Standing, standing, standing, standing, standing".

Now being walking first by placing your attention on the heel of the right foot. Acknowledge the lifting of the right foot by saying in the mind, "Right". Push the foot forward and acknowledge mentally, "Going". Lower the foot and set it on the ground, mentally acknowledging, "Here".

The walking exercise consists of three phrases: right or left, going and here. Acknowledge each phrase as you walk mindfully concentrating on the movements of the walking process until you reach the end of your allotted walking space.

You stop with both feet together in the standing position, saying in the mind, "Standing, standing, standing". As you turn around by gyrating on your heel, acknowledge each phrase of the turning motion: the turning of the heel of one foot and the lifting and setting down on the ground of the other foot.

Acknowledge by saying "Turning". When the turn is complete, acknowledge the standing posture, "Standing, standing, standing". Then begin to walk again. "Left goes here, right goes here -------". This exercise should be done as slowly and as mindfully as possible.

If any feelings, thoughts, sounds, disturbances etc arise, you must acknowledge them as they come up. If you hear a sound, say "Hearing, hearing, hearing". If some thoughts enter your mind, acknowledge by saying, "Thinking, thinking, thinking". After acknowledging, turn your attention back to walking exercise.

Charity of the Week - The Hope Orphanage

2006-04-07T20:44:00.000+09:00

Being a little technologically challenged, we have no idea how to track visitors to this site. We have no way of knowing how many people visit this site per day, per week, or if there are any readers at all!

However, looking at the comments and donations to our featured charity, we do know that there are people out there who care. You care about your spiritual health [which is what brought you here in the first place] and you care about the welfare of others too. And that's all we need to know to keep us going.

So, Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Today, we'd like to take a break from the usual stuff and let you know where your donations, thoughts and prayers are going to [in case you didn't already know]: The Hope Orphanage in Timor-Leste.

The Hope Orphanage is our featured charity for a couple reasons:

Timor-Leste one of the newest independent countries in the world, and it's in Southeast Asia -- close to home and close to our hearts.

We are completely bowled over by their blog, voluntarily maintained by people like Jeremy.

The content is good, and so is the writing - Isa being the main correspondent.

Through the blog, we are able to track the children's progress, amongst many other things. Here's a little snippet:

Moses is a fan of action films (pretty much every kid at the orphanage is the same), football (the round-ball-type), and generally everthing else you could imagine a fella his age would be into.

The scar was donated by a soldier who left him for dead after removing his machete from his skull. Not the kindest introduction to human relations, but you would barely know today.

The picture above is from 2004. And here is our little bundle of energy (he's right in front, in bright red shorts!) with the other stars of The Hope Orphanage.

If you have a little spare time this weekend, add this link to your blog (or e-mail it to your friends, family and colleagues):

http://hopeintimor.blogspot.com

You may also copy & paste this code if you need a picture to go with it:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pickleshane/113642908/" title="the hope orphanage - timor leste"> <img src="http://static.flickr.com/40/113642908_70cd9bd84a_m.jpg" alt="hope orphanage" height="237" width="220" /> </a>

This is what it looks like:

Have a good weekend, and may you always have with you Still Thoughts, Wisdom, and Love.

Exercise: Mindfulness of Breathing

2006-04-05T22:53:00.000+09:00

Also known as anapanasati.

Choose a good time and place to begin your breathing exercise. Adopt a suitable posture.

Breathe calmly and naturally, being fully aware of your breath at all times - acknowledge the process by thinking: "Breathe In" , "Breathe Out".

If you find ideas and distractions creeping into your thoughts, try counting your breath movements: "Breathing in, 1, 2, 3, - " ... "Breathing out, 1, 2, 3, - " ...

As your concentration increases, drop the counting and acknowledge the breathing itself.

Fixate your attention at the point of your nostril where breath makes contact with the body.

Your breaths may become deep or shallow, slow or quick, depending on one's natural tendencies. Keep the body erect and the mind alert; be keenly observant yet as motionless as possible. As you master this exercise, the body begins to relax and the breathing becomes gentler.

While doing this exercise, try to forget all of life's daily affairs and not be conscious of oneself.

The only thing you need to be aware of is the breathing process, mentally noting the inhalation and exhalation of breath as it occurs.

The best time for anapanasati is early morning.

Tags: mindfulness, breathing, anapanasati

The Body as an Object of Meditation

2006-04-04T01:21:00.000+09:00

The goal of these meditation exercises is to realise the nature of the body and to be detached from the body;

to be neither attracted nor repelled by the body.

Most people identify themselves with their body.

However, at a certain stage of mental purity and insight, you will no longer care to think of yourself as a body. You no longer identify with the body.

You will begin to see the body as it is.

Vipassana: Insight Meditation

2006-03-31T00:57:00.000+09:00

Vipassana is seeing things as they are.

The path that leads to this insight is awareness. Or mindfulness.

We develop mindfulness by culturing the mind.

In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha offers four objects of meditation for consideration: body, feelings, thoughts, and mental qualities.

The basis of the Satipatthana practice is to use these four objects to develop concentration, mindfulness, and insight or understanding of yourself and the world around you.

Satipatthana offers the most simple, direct, and effective method of training the mind for daily tasks and problems -- the highest aim of which is liberation and salvation.

This method can be used anywhere at anytime, be it a busy office or in the quiet of the night.

The task is to develop awareness or mindfulness (sati).

Awareness is a very simple, very common and very familiar state of the mind.

In its elementary stage, awareness is paying bare attention to an object.

This means you simply observe an object without judging it or thinking about it.

So pick an object like what we previously discussed, and give it close attention without any judgement or any thinking.

Tags: vipassana, satipatthana, insight, mindfulness

Vipassana

2006-03-30T00:38:00.000+09:00

From Wikipedia:

Vipassanā is a Pali word meaning insight. While it is often referred to as Buddhist meditation, the practice taught by the Buddha was non-sectarian, and has universal application. It does not require conversion to Buddhism. While the meditation practices themselves vary from school to school, the underlying principle is the investigation of phenomena as they manifest in the five aggregates (Skandha) namely, matter or form (Rupa), sensation or feelings (Vedana), perception (Samjna), mental formations (Saṃskāra) & consciousness (Vijnana). This process leads to direct experiential perception, Vipassanā.

In a broader sense, vipassanā has been used as one of two poles for the categorization of types of Buddhist meditation, the other being Samatha. Samatha is a focusing, pacifying and calming meditation, common to many traditions in the world, notably Hindu Yoga, from which much of Buddhist terminology derives. It is used as a preparation for vipassana, pacifying the mind and strengthening the concentration in order to allow the work of Insight. This dichotomy is also sometimes discussed as "stopping and seeing."

In Buddhist practice, it is said that while Samatha can calm the mind, only Insight can reveal how the mind was disturbed to start with, which leads to prajna (knowledge) and jnana (pure wisdom) and thus can lead to preventing it from being disturbed again.

Tags: Vipassana, meditation

What's your personal object of meditation?

2006-03-28T20:58:00.000+09:00

Link.

What's yours?

SAMATHA: Concentration Meditation [5/5]

2006-03-28T18:55:00.000+09:00

Well. There is no part 5 to the Samatha series. Obviously I wasn't concentrating when I was planning out what to write. Shame on me.

I leave you with a picture of the stupas found on the highest level of the Borobudur Temple in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It's one of my favourite pictures.

I think of these stupas and of Borobudur in general when I'm practising Samatha. The ancient architecture is awe-inspiring, and the scenery, breathtaking.

Tags: Samatha, Borobudur, Yogyakarta

SAMATHA: Concentration Meditation [4/5]

2006-03-26T16:32:00.000+09:00

Here are some concentration exercises that you can develop as a formal meditation or as part of your day-to-day activities:

Health exercise: while walking back and forth, hold only these three ideas in the mind: happy, healthy, strong.
Keep repeating these words over and over; concentrate the mind on these words until you can feel the words physically in the body.

Thinking exercise: while thinking of a subject, hold the mind to that subject - and only that subject. Do not entertain extraneous or irrelevant ideas.

Daily routine exercises: when you read a book, keep both eyes and your mind on the book.
When you sweep the floor, keep the mind on the sweeping.
When you dictate a letter, keep the mind on the dictation and not the person taking notes.

Learn to concentrate on what you do from moment to moment. This is living in the present.

Live now.

Tags: meditation, exercise

SAMATHA: Concentration Meditation [3/5]

2006-03-25T19:38:00.000+09:00

Your first task now is to find a suitable object to concentrate on. In Buddhist meditation, there are about 40 objects [not ways or methods] of meditation that can be used to develop concentration.

You need not use all 40 objects -- select one which suits your temperament and mentality. If you haven't got a teacher to help select one for you, experiment and make the selection yourself.

Here are some guidelines to find yourself a suitable object for your concentration:-

1. The object must be neutral.

It mustn't evoke any feelings of lust, hate, etc. Otherwise your mind will be restless and agitated. What we want is a calm mind.

2. The object can be either internal or external.

Internal objects are inside you. e.g. breathing, loving-kindness, compassion etc.
External objects are objects outside of you. e.g. image of the Buddha, a flower, a mountain, a circle of light, a candle flame etc.

3. The object must be pleasing and acceptable to the mind.

If the mind constantly rejects the object, your concentration weakens.

4. An object that suits you at one time may not be acceptable at another time.

For example, after an outburst of anger, it is difficult to use loving-kindness as an object of your concentration. At such a time, the emotion of anger itself may serve as a better object of concentration.

Once you have selected the object, your task is simply to keep the mind tied to the object. The key to concentration exercises is to hold the mind to one object at the exclusion of all other objects.

By focusing the mind on the object, the mind slowly becomes calm and relaxed.

Tags: concentration, meditation

SAMATHA: Concentration Meditation [2/5]

2006-03-17T23:07:00.000+08:00

Samatha meditation allows the mind to reach various stages of mental concentration. Very high stages of said concentration is known as Jhana, or Zen.

Due to modern life distractions, unusually high stages of concentration are nearly impossible for us mere mortals. Most people have thoughts that jump from place to place, from the past to the present to the future. This is an enormous waste of mental energy.

If you can, train your mind to pay attention to each task from moment to moment... Whether you are reading, walking, resting, talking - whatever it is you do in your daily life, act with a calm mind. Pay attention to every action, and focus the mind on each task.

神 = Zen [Japanese for Jhana]

tags: jhana, zen

SAMATHA: Concentration Meditation [1/5]

2006-03-15T00:16:00.000+08:00

Samatha is a method of training the mind for those who'd like to develop their concentration. Samatha meditation is concerned with producing a ONE-POINTED MIND. One-pointedness is a state in which all your faculties and mental powers are focused and governed by your will-power and directed towards one point or one object.

A one-pointed mind is a unified mind, the opposite of which is a distracted mind. Ordinarily, the human mental state is scattered in all directions. When you fix your concentration on one object, you will then begin to know the true nature of that object. The process of concentration gradually modifies your mental state, until it reaches the stage whereby your whole mental energy converges towards one point.

The purpose of developing a one-pointed mind?
Calmness. Tranquility. Contemplation.

However, a calm mind is not an end in itself. It is a prerequisite to developing Insight.

Tags: Samatha, Vipassana, contemplation

What is this Meditation?

2006-03-13T23:40:00.000+08:00

This meditation is simply concentrated awareness. If you are interested in practising this meditation, then you must learn how to develop your concentration. This is known as Samatha, or Concentration meditation.

You must also learn how to develop your awareness or mindfulness. This is known as Vipassana or Insight meditation.

If you are interested in making use of the samatha meditation in your daily life, then you must learn how to apply concentration in your daily life. If you are interested in making use of this vipassana meditation, then you must learn how to apply awareness to your daily life.

Living-meditation is simply developing and making use of concentrated awareness in the common experiences and events of your daily life.

Tags: Samatha, Vipassana

Meditation - Sitting Posture

2006-02-27T23:02:00.000+08:00

For the next couple of weeks, we shall share with you about Meditation. To start off, this is what we've learned about Sitting Posture.

For sitting meditation, you might like to sit in the semi or full Lotus Position. If this posture is difficult, then sit on a straight-backed chair. Rest your legs on the ground without any strain. Sit comfortably erect without leaning back, or you might fall asleep.

Keep the body balanced in an upright position so you can remain steady but not tense or stiff. If the neck and spinal cord are not aligned properly, you may feel some pain after a few minutes.

Tags: meditation, posture

Forego everything...

2006-02-27T21:56:00.000+08:00

"Forego everything that you have thought meaningful, significant, up to now."

What is this Charity of the Week?

2006-01-03T01:50:00.000+08:00

It costs nothing to read the content on this site, except a little of your time each day (and perhaps an Internet connection).
If you have some spare change, donate to the Charity of the Week using this button , or by clicking on the link to the featured charity itself.

Before we place them right next to our mantra, we spend a good amount of time checking these people out to make sure they're not scams, and we personally donate to some of them as well.

The charities are randomly selected each week.

Tags: mantra, charity

Thank you

2006-01-02T17:47:00.000+08:00

Your kind contribution shall be donated to the Charity of the Week.
Thank you, and may you always have with you Still Thoughts, Wisdom, and Love.

~dhri

Your payment has been cancelled

2006-01-01T17:00:00.000+08:00

We hope you will continue to visit this site.
Thank you.

~dhri