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Mindfulness in Plain English

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• Us humans suffer from chronic tension
  • In the forms of anger, blocked up feelings
  • We tend to just say “what if’s”
• We categorize things into good, ok, and bad, and preserve the moments based on our interpretation of them
  • Good and bad events are responded to, while we fail to acnkowledge and immerse ourselves in the neutral events
• Suffering means the deep, subtle sense of dissatisfaction that is a part of every mind moment, resulting directly from the mental treadmill
  • Buddha says that the essence of life is suffering
• When we are hungry, we are satisfied when we eat because we relieve our tensions and feel relaxed
• We can learn to control our desires but not be controlled by them
• A well-disciplined mind brings happiness
  • Meditation helps purify the mind from psychic irritants like greed and jealousy, allowing us to live in tranquility and awareness
    • Personal transformation
• In buddhism, faith somewhat resembles confidence in something, and morality is our personally chosen good habits we follow

2 - Clarifications

• Jhana is a state of extreme tranquility, a form of pleasure that lies above what can be experienced through consciousness
  • Once you reach Jhana, you will practice repeating it for the rest of life
  • Vipassana meditation also seeks awareness

1. Meditation is just a relaxation technique
   • Can be more
2. Meditation is going into a trance (semi-unconscious state)
   • Vipassana meditation requires complete consciousness
3. Meditation is mysterious and incomprehensible

• We can understand meditation in the sense that we understand how to walk
  • We understand the effects and purpose, but not the super specifics of it
    • We can only learn as we do it
• Learning to look at each second as if it were the first and only second in the universe is essential in vipassana meditation.

4. Meditation is practiced to become psychic
   • The goal is liberation
5. Meditation is dangerous
   • Everything is risky, but sometimes we need to uncover our repressed memories and feelings to reach new heights
6. Meditation is for holy figures rather than average people
   • People who meditate can have lots of life

• Levels of morality
  1. Simply following rules
     • Requires little meditation
  2. Obeying rules even if no on were to judge us
     • Internalizing rules, we are our own judge
  3. We create our own paths dictated by mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion
     • Requires real intelligence and awareness
     • Coming up with solutions to ongoing problems
       • just like if we let our unconscious mind work through things?

7. Meditation is escaping from reality
   • Being aware is the opposite; meditation goes past the barrier of pain and suffering to see and accept our true selves
8. Meditation is selfish
   • Trying to become less selfish isn’t selfish
9. Meditation involves thinking about heavy thoughts
   • Just a byproduct
   • Vipassana is seeing your life unfold from moment to moment without biases. What comes up, comes up. It is very simple.
10. Meditation will eventually cure all problems in a few weeks

Meditation Definition

• Buddhist meditation entails concentration and awareness
  • Concentration is used as a tool to reach ultimate awareness

Meditation versions

1. Forcing someone to solve an impossible riddle or undergo a painful experience so they can only flee towards concentration and awareness
2. Tantric buddhism relies on our meditation of a buddhist entity

• Vispanna is a gradual exercise of awareness where a person’s attention is directed to intensely examining certain aspects of their existence
  • Attentive listening, mindful seeing, careful testing
• By meditating and practicing mindfulness, we truly see and understand life
• “Never mind what I have been taught. Forget about theories and prejudices and stereotypes. I want to understand the true nature of life. I want to know what this experience of being alive really is. I want to apprehend the true and deepest qualities of life, and I don’t want to just accept somebody else’s explanation. I want to see it for myself.”
• In vipassana bhavana, bhavana means to cultivate, and vipassana means in aspecial way
• This special way of seeing life cultivated by vipassana meditation is referred to as mindfulness
• We tend to not realize the change happening in our lives and view non-permanent things as permanent
  • As a result, before we know it, we age and wonder where our days of youth went
• Vipassana meditation helps us acknowledge when our thoughts and feelings arise with clarity

4 - Attitude

• The result of meditation depends on one’s attitude

Rules

1. Don’t expect anything
   • Sit back and relax, follow the flow and don’t be anxious
2. Don’t strain
   • Stay relaxed, there’s no need to force the process
3. Don’t rush
   • Patience is key
4. Don’t cling or reject anything
   • Be willing to simply observe
5. Let go
   • Flow with the changes and loosen up
6. Accept everything
   • Previous negative experiences, personal flaws, respect everything that enters the mind
7. Be kind to yourself
8. Be skeptical and curious
9. View problems as challenges
   • Solve, not run
10. Don’t ponder
    • Not everything needs to be solved, and sometimes, reasoning just gets in the way
11. Don’t compare yourself to others
    • We must learn to examine this behavior, and replace it with another by noticing similarities to promote kinship
    • We become more understanding or disappointed

5 - Practice

• Seeing things as they are also means to view things with wisdom
  • No biases or opinions
• Feeling, contact, perception, attention, concentration, life force, and volition are all mental factors
• It’s important to separate our different feelings
• The mind and body are separate but are interconnected
• If we get rid of our roots for negative behavior, we won’t be able to experience such emotions
• People who speak with resentment cannot be mindful

Goal

• Reaching the perfection of all noble and wholesome qualities in our subconscious mind. We can achieve this by:
  • Purification of mind
  • Overcoming sorrow and lamentation
  • Overcoming pain and grief
  • Treading the right path leading to attainment of eternal peace
  • Attaining happiness by following said path

Practice

• It’s important to not constantly move positions, as it breaks concentration
  • Plan how long you want to meditate for and stick to it
• Our minds are like cups of muddy water, so we must sit still to achieve the bliss of meditation
• A mental object like our breath is important for focusing
• Take 3 deep breaths, then start to breath normally and effortlessly
  • Pay attention to the feeling of the rims of the nostrils as you breathe
  • Pay attention to the pauses between exhaling and inhaling
    • Simply focus on breathing, and nothing else
    • Breaths will initially be short, but will become longer as we become more relaxed

Wandering Away

Whenever we stray away, bring it back mindfully. We can do this by:

1. Counting until we are focused on our breath again
   • Count 1 while inhaling, 2 while exhaling
   • count to 10s in between inhaling and exhaling
   • count every shift in breathing, or every cycle of breath
2. Don’t wait to notice the pause in between breathing phases
3. Fixate your mind where the inhale and exhale breaths touch, as if it was one action
4. Focus on nostril rims
5. Only notice the entering and exiting of things, not the contents

Third Sign

• Eventually, there will be another object other than our breathing that acts as an object for meditation
• By keeping the bare minimum amount of attention on it, it will change often
• When concentrating on simply the present moment, which is known as momentary concentration
  • To do this, we must find something to concentrate on in that moment, and concentrate with a pace
    • Once we obtain this degree of meditation, it can be used to focus on other present experiences
      • Such momentary concentration is vital for isnight meditation
        • Now are we able to venture off into different thoughts, as our breath acts as a home base
• As we become more mindful, we are less resentful for change, and our greed/dissatisfaction is replaced by impermanence and selflessness.
  • Become more mature, calm, and peaceful
• Note the calmness from inhaling and exhaling

6 - Body Position

• Postures are not mandatory, but it speeds progress and development
• Helps provide stability, promotes immobility

Rules

• Sit with back straight, with the head in line with the rest of the spine
  • The spine is sturdy, while the rest of the body is loose
• Sit on a chair or cushion, but not too soft/hard that it promotes sleeping/pain
  • Blanket, pillow, etc
• Clothing should be loose and soft that doesn’t cause numbness or blood constriction

Ways to fold legs

1. Native American style. Your right foot is tucked under the left knee and left foot is tucked under your right knee.  
2. Burmese style. Both of your legs lie flat on the floor from knee to foot. They are parallel with one in front of the other.  
3. Half lotus. Both of your knees touch the floor. One leg and foot lie flat along the calf of the other leg.  
4. Full lotus. Both knees touch the floor, and your legs are crossed at the calf. Your left foot rests on the right thigh, and your right foot rests on the left thigh. Both soles turn upward.

• Hands are cupped and rest on your lap under navel, palms upwards
  • Wrist bent by thigh
  • Loose neck, shoulder, arms, diaphragm expanded, chin up, eyes closed/fixed on nose

7 - Mind

• Rise and fall of abdomen, parts of contact with cushion
  • Buddha recommends to first focus on breathing before other physical and mental phenomena
    • Our breath is easily alterable, so being able to control it takes concentration and awareness
    • A process that happens in the present
      • Find a point where you can feel both inhale and exhale to act as a vantage point for seeing your breathing
      • Let it breathe naturally
• Our breaths are complicated
  • Inhaling and exhaling, length of breath, depth of breath, smoothness of breath, the stages of a breath
    • correlate it to your feelings
  • Just note it then go back to focusing on the actual feeling of breath
    • Don’t focus on a previous breath, or antipicate an incoming breath
      • Form a total awareness of only the present
• Focus on inhale and exhale of nose
  • There is a difference between being aware of a thought and thinking a thought, and we need to be able to concentrate to notice this difference
  • Consciousness cuases tension
• Deep concentration slows down the thought process, and speeds up awareness, allowing us to more intricately examine our thought process
• An elephant is our mind, the rope is mindfulness, and the post is our object of meditation

8 - Practice

• Set up a schedule
• When dealing with a busy mind, it’s best to simply let it settle
  • Let unconscious ideas come and go as we acknowledge it in silence and tranquility
  • Focus on your breathing, and acknowledge things that pop up when they do
• Sit in a quiet and alone place
  • Sit whenever you feel like it, meditation and your schedule should not be a burden
  • Meditate before starting the day
  • Meditate at night to clear the mind
  • Don’t spend too much time meditating or you will neglect the rest of your life (start 20-30 mins)
  • After a year, we should be able to spend an hour
• Be self-disciplined/patient

9 - Exercises

• Meditating is pretty daunting at first
  • “I am about to tread the very same path that has been walked by the Buddha and by his great and holy disciples. An indolent person cannot follow that path. May my energy prevail. May I succeed.”
• We need to remove our ego (greed, hatred) to be mindful
  • Consider the compassion phase of the 6 phase meditation, where you banish such ego feelings in yourself and others

Prior to Meditation

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May I be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to me. May I always meet with spiritual success. May I also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May I always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.
 
May my parents be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.
 
May my teachers be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.
 
May my relatives be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.
 
May my friends be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problem,s and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.
 
May all indifferent persons be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.
 
May all unfriendly persons be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

May all living beings be well, happy, and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, and wisdom.

• It may be hard to wish your enemies well, but if your enemies were to be well, happy, and peaceful, they would no longer be your enemies
  • Wishing bad onto others reflects back onto ourselves

10 - Dealing with Problems

• We can use autosuggestion to deal with problems
  • Convince yourself it isn’t there or that it is pleasant
  • On the contrary, Buddha wants us to examine it to death, to truly understand such feelings and dissassemble it until it no longer controls us
• Buddhism recommends to spend time on dealing with unpleasantness, as some pain is unavoidable

Pain

• First get rid of/mitigate pain, and use the rest as an object for meditation
  • Relax muscles of pain and become one with the pain to the point where you are free from the pain
  • By relaxing the body, we work towards also relaxing the mind

Sleeping Legs/Odd Sensations

• Observe it and watch it pass away

Drowsiness

• Find out why you’re drowsy
  • Such awareness will counter drowsiness

Unattentiveness/Lack of COncentration

• Don’t meditate after some stimulating experience (movies)
• Resolve conflicts before meditating

Boredom

• Practicing mindfulness should not be boring
  • If it is, you need to try harder
• Ponder upon the idea of boredom and learn more about it

Fear and Restlesness

• Being overwhelmed by emotions means that we have to keep working on improving our mindfulness
  • Observe without getting involved
    • Helps you learn about the impermanence of such negative states

Trying too hard and discouragement

• We just need to wait for results to come, there is no need to push ourselves or be down on ourselves
  • Pushing through any resistances to meditation helps train our mindfulness

11 - Dealing with Distractions

• When you find yourself, estimate how long you have been distracted for, then go back to focusing on your breathing
• Cravings and desires also count as distractions
• Deep breaths can help reset focus
• Counting
• Replace unskillful thoughts (greed, jealousy), with skillfull thoughts (generosity, compassion, wisdom)
  • Think the opposite
• Remember the purpose of your meditation session
• Meditation is a way of training ourselves to deal with distractions
  • Use them as temporary objects of meditation
    • Ask questions like:
      • What is it?
      • How strong is it?
      • How long does it last?
  • Forcing such thoughts only makes them harder to get rid of
• Main goal of meditation is to partake in uninterrupted mindfulness
  • View things before we conceptualize them
    • When we hear a dish drop, we focus on our imagination reenacting the event, rather than the auditory cue we hear (which is the only 100% sure thing we know of)
    • Don’t think of “I”, “me”, etc when meditating
      • Prevent associations

13 - Mindfulness

• Pure awareness is mindfulness
  • ex) That is a dog in front of me
    • The emotions and perceptions that come after is thinking, not mindfulness

Characteristics

• Mindfulness is nonjudgemental observation of complete acceptance
  • Awareness of change

Activities

1. Reminds us of what we are supposed to be doing
   • Going back to our breathing after being distracted through awareness of our distracted state
2. See things as they are
   • Simply unbiased
3. Sees the true nature of things
   • All conditioned things are inherently transitory, everything is unsatisfying, there is nothing permanent
4. Promotes change
   • We can get rid of our negative traits by acknowledging them and replacing them

14 - Mindfulness vs Concentration

• Mindfulness notices things while concentration helps us focus on said things
  • Mindfulness is simply looking at something, so there is no room for desires and aversions to occur
• Concentration is a strong tool, but it is up to us to use it on what is most important
• It’s importance to have a balance to prevent overconcentration or a monkey mind
• Put emphasis on concentration until we no longer have a monkey mind
  • It’s also important to adapt

15 - Meditation in Daily Life

• Eventually, a pivotal moment can occur when we start being mindful in everyday life
  • To promote this, don’t think that your meditation session ends after you get off of the cushion
• We can practice our mindfulness skills while walking
  • Practice intaking the sensations of walking while blocking out any other thoughts
• We can be mindful of things like our posture, simple activities that we may not have paid much attention to before
• We can use random gaps of time in our day to meditate
• It should be a goal to apply mindfulnes into our every day life

16 - Personal Benefits

• By seeing the effects and lack of need for things like greed, we are free to get rid of it on our lives
• We are able to be more appreciative of a realer present
• When seeing our life progress, instead of feeling anxious, we can be joyful of the vibrance of life
  • It’s just reality
• By intensely observing such negative aspects of life, we understand the unsatisfactory nature of existence
• When truly examining ourselves, there is no self. We are subject to constant change, and our identity is just a result of all that change.

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