90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

[DeeBee]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Daily Dharma
The Five Skandhas
Nothing exits by itself alone.

If I am holding a cup of water and I ask you, "Is this cup empty?" you will say, "No, it is full of water." But if I pour out the water and ask you again, you may say, "Yes, it is empty." But, empty of what?... My cup is empty of water, but it is not empty of air. To be empty is to be empty of something.... When Avalokita [Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion] says that the five skandhas are equally empty, to help him be precise we must ask, "Mr. Avalokita, empty of what?"


The five skandhas, which may be translated into English as five heaps, or five aggregates, are the five elements that comprise a human being.... In fact, these are really five rivers flowing together in us: the river of form, which means our body, the river of feelings, the river of perceptions, the river of mental formations, and the river of consciousness. They are always flowing in us....


Avalokita looked deeply into the five skandhas... and he discovered that none of them can be by itself alone.... Form is empty of a separate self, but it is full of everything in the cosmos. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.


- Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding

[nancy]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Hi all

I have been doing 20 minutes a day but today I decided I should just shoot for at least 10 and did 15 in the end. It went pretty well. Mind still wanders but that's part of the process.

I also got the book recommended by WIP, Emotional Alchemy, and have been reading it. Some of it is new to me but a lot is familiar. I guess I have read a lot of books! It's about intersection between Buddhism/neuroscience/cognitive therapy. It seems to me that the book Feeling Good is a bit easier to understand than this bookand gets a lot of the same points across. Still, I am glad to read it because some of the neuroscience elements are new to me. Also Emotional Alcehmy is really giving me more reason to practice meditation. I think this is probably the solution to depression.

I get this whole idea that emotions are things you should not try to avoid, which really runs counter to why we drink. You fully experience them but meditation helps you to avoid reacting inappropriately to them. After reading a lot about this for a few years, I do believe we are capable of experiencing a hell of a lot more than we think we can. And practicing meditation regularly should help. We observe and we don't judge. Things come and go.

Nancy

[A Work in Progress]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

DB, that is wonderful, the way you described your experience of the guided meditation... and by "wonderful" I am talking not so much about any of the sensations you noticed, but the WAY that you DID notice them. That's fantastic. Regardless of what "happens" during a meditation session, the task we undertake is to notice all of it. We are taking the "observer stance" or, as I like to call it, "occupying the observer seat." It's like being on one of those fishing boats that have elevated chairs to sit in; we are sitting (mentally) in a "position" or "stance" from which we observe everything. If our minds are agitated, we notice the agitation. If our minds are calm, we notice the calm. If our bodies feel heavy, we notice the heaviness. If we are full of judgments about our own practice, we observe and notice the judgmental thoughts. If we have an itch on our head, we notice the sensation of "itch" and the strong desire and impulses to scratch. If our breathing is deep, we notice the deepness. If we notice that we have lost our focus, and have been pursuing a train of thought, instead of paying attention... we notice that we have again woken up and we take the observer seat, again!

Nancy, those are wonderful observations. That is exactly how it works for me, too. Not avoiding the unpleasant emotions (or the experiences that we know will bring them about), recognizing that we certainly can and will survive them... and not reacting impulsively to them. Neither hiding from them, nor becoming caught up in them. Meditation practice helps tremendously with that, because that is exactly what we do, over and over again, while sitting meditation... !

[peacenik]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

oh dear, i fear i'm not going to sit today...maybe later as i'm off to spin class and then away for the night to go to a friend's play...i need to get back into focus. vacation threw me off a bit...part of the learning process is to be able to sit and live life...will work on it.

cheers!

[A Work in Progress]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Good morning, meditation buddies! Who is still with us? Anybody checking into the Tricycle site (DB I know that you and I are)... what do you think?

This morning while I was getting some coffee, moving into the day, I realized I was feeling really tense and revved up about nothing in particular. Just a sort of angst and anxiety. What I did was something I remembered reading about in an article written by a really wonderful teacher whose name I unfortunately cannot remember (!): anyhow, he said that in his opinion the two most important ways to bring and keep a sense of peace, and an attitude of mindfulness, in every day life are these:

1. Slow down. Whatever you are doing, just slow down the pace a bit, so that everything feels less frantic. I am a person who chronically moves fast from one thing to another, trying to get tasks done and behind me, rushing through life. When I slow down, I am much better able to wake up to what is really going on, and to (mostly) feel less anxious and pressured.

2. Reconnect with the physical sensations in our bodies. It's a shift of attention, from whatever the chatter might be, going on in our brains/minds, to a focus on whatever can be felt throughout our bodies. It helps us detach from the (for me) often negative thinking loops that spontaneously arise in our minds, contributing to anxiety and overall distress...

The cool thing is that these are things we can do anytime, anywhere. They don't require us to find a quiet place to sit down for 20 minutes... just some minor, but significant, shifts in how we are moving through our lives...

[DeeBee]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Wip, I notice that when I slow down I actually become faster, more economical with my actions and my thoughts become clearer thereby accomplishing what ever it was I was doing a lot quicker.

I am ejoying the Tricycle site -- it has so much info and so easy to use. Unfortunately I find that I just don't have as much time as I'd like to peruse the site. It's great that they e-mail the daily dharma through so that I get to read it early in the morning before my work day begins.

Nancy, I really connected with your statement "We observe and we don't judge. Things come and go." This is something I am trying very hard to work on. Something simple, I will notice a lady in the check out line and she might be dressed funny, be overweight, have a plumbers bum showing and normally I would judge her without even knowing who she is, what her circumstances are -- now that I am mindfull of doing this I am amazed at just how "judgemental" I really am. This will take a lot more than just practice to get right.

I look forward more and more to my time to meditate -- it's becoming less of a chore and more of a treat:-)

[DeeBee]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

March 2, 2009
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Being in the Moment

It is often the case that whatever we are doing, be it sitting, walking, standing, or lying, the mind is frequently disengaged from the immediate reality and is instead absorbed in compulsive conceptualization about the future or past. While we are walking, we think about arriving, and when we arrive, we think about leaving. When we are eating, we think about the dishes and as we do the dishes, we think about watching television.
This is a weird way to run a mind. We are not connected with the present situation, but we are always thinking about something else. Too often we are consumed with anxiety and cravings, regrets about the past and anticipation for the future, completely missing the crisp simplicity of the moment.
--B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up

[nancy]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Hi!

I am still on board. I did 15 minutes this morning. I still am peeking at my watch but otherwise doing ok.

Unfortunately, some of the thoughts I have are about achieving something with meditation and I know that is not supposed to be the aim. So I just refocus on the breath. But I am just so excited about what I read about the benefits of meditation and the prospect that I might actually be aware in life and not caught up in thoughts, that I can't help but think of progressing and achievement. Sigh.

I am doing this along with reading Emotional Alchemy.

Nancy

PS I haven't been going to the Tricycle website much, not sure why.

[peacenik]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

i go to audio dharma, but the tricycle website seems to get lost in the shuffle. i've been busy taking placement tests for school and am starting to think about how i am going to cram everything into my days when i am really busy. i am going to have to drive 100 miles a day once school starts and wonder if there is anything meditative i can do as i'm driving. i guess like walking meditation.
i'll look into it.

sat for about 15 minutes this morning and felt anxious and really excitable...spring fever maybe!!??

peace all

[A Work in Progress]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

DeeBee;561034 wrote: Wip, I notice that when I slow down I actually become faster, more economical with my actions and my thoughts become clearer thereby accomplishing what ever it was I was doing a lot quicker.

Nancy, I really connected with your statement "We observe and we don't judge. Things come and go." This is something I am trying very hard to work on. Something simple, I will notice a lady in the check out line and she might be dressed funny, be overweight, have a plumbers bum showing and normally I would judge her without even knowing who she is, what her circumstances are -- now that I am mindfull of doing this I am amazed at just how "judgemental" I really am. This will take a lot more than just practice to get right.

Re: slowing down: yes, Deebs, it's amazing, isn't it? I guess it is partly because I am paying attention more when I have slowed down, and I really get things done instead of missing things and needing to go back...

Judgmental thoughts: here's my take on that. The more we pay attention to our judgmental thoughts WITHOUT then going into another layer of judging (being mad at ourselves for having "bad" thoughts), the more we are on the right track. This practice is more about acceptance, than about change. It may very well be that, for many of us, judgmental thoughts will always arise... but the secondary layer of judging, or being harsh with ourselves for having had those thoughts, is unnecessary. We are human, and our brains will typically produce all kinds of thoughts we would not necessarily want appearing in cartoon bubbles over our heads! The trick is to relax about it, and not take it too seriously... and that applies very much to thoughts and desires about alcohol, as well. If we notice that these thoughts have arisen, and if (when we notice this) we can relax about it, perhaps even be a bit amused by our scheming minds... then we can much more easily move on, instead of obsessing about drinking-or-not-drinking, and instead of getting all scared or angry because here we are, thinking about drinking, or craving a drink, again.

[A Work in Progress]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Hi, Peace! The Zen masters would say: "when driving, JUST DRIVE!" But that does not mean, don't be mindful... sometimes I focus my attention on the feeling of the steering wheel against my hands; sometimes I do what I call a "sensory inventory," which is deliberately looking around and noticing, and mentally noting/labelling/describing whatever I can see: the other cars, the colors of the cars, how many people in them; the different shades of colors; any odors in the air; whatever I can hear, moment-to-moment....

Nancy, yeah, I get it about the "thoughts about achieving something." Of course that can give rise to a complicated philosophical discussion. But it doesn't need to... for me it is essential just to detach from my own thoughts, recognize them for what they are (they are only thoughts), and let go. Sometimes when I am sitting meditation I will notice I am thinking about how much this will enhance my life, if I keep doing it; sometimes I will notice that I am thinking that this practice is a total waste of time. These two types of thoughts are of equivalent value and significance, so far as my meditation is concerned. I observe them, and let them pass away, without getting engaged with the ideas that they represent.... (and that's exactly what you are doing, when you let them go and re-focus on your breath, as you pointed out!)...

[DeeBee]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Hi there Meditation Budds,

This morning I listened to another guided meditation from the audio dhama website -- this time I listenend to a body scan by Ronna Kabatzknick. I am finding the guided meditations really helpfull in teaching me how to do it for myself. It's all very well reading about how to meditate but when I sit down I can't remember half of what I read and then get fidgity, loose focus and get dispondent. The other thing I like about the guided meditation is that I can choose one according to how much time I have and then I don't have to use a timer which I find sometimes intrusive.

Doing the body scan this morning was interesting. I sat up straight on a dining chair instead of lying on the floor, as Ronna was getting "us" settled down and guiding us through being mindful of our breath and letting go of any anxiety we've got I felt my heart palpatate (just slightly) which reminded me how it has been happening frequently lately but I keep "forgetting" about it -- pushing it to one side and not taking any notice of it. This morning I was mindful of the feeling of my heart palpatating, and the more I felt it, acknowledged it the less of a problem it felt.
I have so many interesting thoughts whilst sitting but my problem is I can never remember them afterwards. Even as I was being guided throught the body scan i would think to myself oh YES, I get that, and I'll try and hold onto the thought so that I can think about it some more later but I can never remember.
I find that coming here straight after sitting to record my thoughts and feelings does help me remember some of it.

Peace, I was sitting here thinking about you driving long distance each day and something I tried the other day which I found interesting was to travel with the radio off. The radio is always on in my car, at home or in the office that I think I miss out on a lot of "quiet".

I like your take on judmental thoughts Wip and I'll take it one step further and say that at least I am not passing judgement verbally anymore. For e.g sitting in a resturant, I'd notice someones outfit and say to a friend, "just look at what that womans wearing". Now if I have the thought I'm trying to take it to the next step and look for something positive about that person.

[peacenik]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

good idea dee! i am a public radio junkie...quiet would do me a word of good, especially with all the insanity in the world right now.
and the judgemental thoughts idea, i always hated when my mom would do that and learned early that i didn't want to be "like that", but have found myself being judgemental around my daughter. we will laugh at someone's clothes or hair and try to brush it off with "oh we are terrible", but that isn't doing her, me or the targeted person any good at all, is it? i am definitely going to stop that...what am i teaching her when i am being a judgemental jerk!?

i'm off on a hike, will do walking meditation...it is supposed to be 70 degrees f here today!!!

peace!

[peacenik]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

yes wip, just drive!!!
i think i am going to apply the quiet that dee spoke of and scanning and mantally noting my surroundings (not much to scan in western nebraska though, let me tell you;0)!!!

[nancy]

90-Day Meditation Practice Challenge!

Instead of doing breathing alone today, I did a body scan with guided audio. I found it really great. I did notice that I barely feel anything in my toes and ankles, and I feel a ton of tension in my neck, arms and hands.