We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.  We’ve been working with the four foundations of mindfulness:   awareness of the body, feeling tone, thoughts, emotions and then all phenomena.   We drew our practice inspiration from B. Alan Wallace’s Minding Closely:  The Four Applications of Mindfulness. 

We included two practice periods and a walking meditation.

We continued to practice with the second application:  mindfulness of feelings.   We explored the way sensory experience evokes feeling and feeling often triggers an impulse to avoid or cling to feeling.  We systematically scanned areas of the body to enhance and focus perception.  I find it fascinating to observe the way my mind responds by recalling associations from past experience, imagining or rerunning scenarios from current life or planning the future.  These “mind moves” happen lightening fast.  They also seem to have a life of their own once they get going.

Continue reading →

We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.  We’ve been working with the four foundations of mindfulness:   awareness of the body, feeling tone, thoughts, emotions and then all phenomena.   We drew our practice inspiration from B. Alan Wallace’s Minding Closely:  The Four Applications of Mindfulness.  We included two practice periods and a walking meditation.

Yesterday we continued to practice with the second application:  mindfulness of feelings.  We established a foundation of bare attention while settling our bodies, minds and speech.  Then we focused on sensation perceived through the five sense fields:  the visual – what you can see, the auditory – what you can hear, olfactory – what you can smell, gustatory – what you can taste and the tactile sensation – what you can feel throughout your body.  We explored the feelings arising in response to these perceptions:  pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.  Alan encourages students to follow the links between sensation, feeling and the impulse to respond by avoiding what’s unpleasant or holding on to what is pleasurable.  He also suggests noticing whether it is possible to find a direct experience of “I, me or mine” in these direct experiences.

Continue reading →

We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.  We’ve been working with the four foundations of mindfulness:   awareness of the body, feeling tone, thoughts, emotions and then all phenomena.   We drew our practice inspiration from B. Alan Wallace’s Minding Closely:  The Four Applications of Mindfulness.  We included two practice periods and a walking meditation.

For the past weeks we’ve been focusing on the first application:  mindfulness of the body. We’ve been practicing the ability to sustain “bare attention” focusing on the “tactile field” of the body.  Yesterday we began to practice with the second application:  mindfulness of feelings.  We established a foundation of bare attention while settling our bodies, minds and speech.  Then we engaged our faculties of imagination, memory and intelligence to cultivate loving kindness.

Continue reading →