Mindfulness Meditation

Mind precedes all. It is with mind that we create the desire and the will to do good or bad things. If you do with an ill mind an act, the result will come after you just like the wheel of the chariot following the Ox hoof and are always a burden to the Ox. On contrary if you do good with a kind mind then the result will follow you just as the shadow never a burden but always there with you.

Of course people will disagree on the above. When you look around the world it can be seen clearly that actions today are those done with ill mind full of hatred, and yet one does not see the doer being impacted. But then milk will not become curd the moment it is milked from the cow. So there is a gap in the action/result phenomena.

Our mind has three powers that weigh on us, Greed, Hatred and Delusion. Due to this overwhelming greed and hatred driven by delusion all things are happening. You see it happening all over the world.

But a few wise not just from Asia but more from West are coming to Asia trying to find and experience this over 2600 year old wisdom as stated by the Buddha. Of course the teachings of Buddha are far and wide and deep and I am not going to talk about it here.

If mind is the key to all of these things, then by getting the mind to be free of those things that make one bad is the way forward. In humans or any other animals things that burden us have three levels,

1. Deep seated and would come to surface at times.
2. Those that are churning in the mind and yearning to come out.
3. Those that have come out and well manifested

In the third group are things like wanting to steal, to kill, to tell lies, frivolous talk, loose talk and hate talk. Through virtue or restraint one can control all that and they are of body and verbal. The second lot which are churning inside and trying to come out can be restrained with concentration. The third lot is the hardest and often one is not aware of such things. This can be eradicated in step by step method through Mindfulness Meditation.

For success in Mindfulness Meditation, virtue plays an important part though not necessarily a must. There are cases of men and women who despite not being of virtue still found the true happiness in the end during the days of Buddha 2,600 years ago and might well be there even now. Mindfulness Meditation leads to wisdom of knowing things as they are and not the way one perceives those to be, permanent, of giving happiness and of self. That meditation also helps one to be in control of the churning things through concentration.

The way to do mindfulness meditation is through breathing. Sad thing is people think that I breathe. If I am breathing, then when I go to sleep then I will not remember to breathe. So breathing is involuntary and is not of any self.

There are two ways of concentrating on the breath one is directly by focusing ones attention on nostrils or the area of the upper lip where the wind will strike. The other is to pay attention to the movement of the belly, its movements of out and in. When you inhale the belly moves out and in exhalation moves in. The selection is up to each person depending on which is more prominent. Of course the belly is a larger area when compared to the little area on upper lip and the tip of nostrils. But it is up to each person to select the location.

Try to do this exercise initially may be for jut 5 to 10 minutes only and the steps are,

1. Do it in a place where there is no noise like your room or even in your office if you can fin d solitude for a brief moment.
2. Sit on ground cross legged or if that is difficult on a chair with you back upright, head slightly lowered but not too much and feet on ground and with your right palm placed over the left palm. In short sit in a comfortable way but with upright back.
3. Try to drive the images and sounds that disturb by closing your eyes and bringing inner concentration of the body. Then slowly bring your mind to concentrate on the breath either at the nostril/upper lip area or the abdomen.
4. If at the nostril/upper lip area try to observe the feelings when air touches the upper lip or outside of nostrils. It is not easy and will take many sittings to find concentration. Of course do not force the breath but let it happen and you place your attention and observe the out and in breath. Your mind will often wonder away and you will not be aware. But as soon as awareness comes, bring the mind back to the nostril/upper lip area.
5. If you are concentrating on the belly then observe the outward and inward movements as they happen by placing your mind attention to the belly.
6. Gradually keep on increasing the time of meditation till you can reach say one hour per sitting. Development of concentration will ensure that you will not be even aware that an hour has passed

Perhaps I should give a simile here. Supposing there is a hunter in a jungle and seeing an Iguana chase after it to kill the animal. The Iguana runs into an anthill which has 6 apertures. If the hunter wants to catch the Iguana then he should first block 5 of the openings and pump smoke through the last aperture. Then the Iguana will come out through that aperture and the hunter can catch the animal.

Similarly we too have 6 apertures namely eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind through which we transact with the external world. Now the person meditating will close first five, shut the eyes and try as far as possible to not hear, not taste, not touch and not to smell but keep the mind alert. With the alerted mind he/she will focus on the breath.

I presume this is enough for now and do let me know how you are progressing and all things that you observe. Gradually keep increasing the duration based on the success.

With METTA