We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss today.  We continued to focus on the tactile field of the body.  We drew our practice inspiration from B. Alan Wallace’s Minding Closely:  The Four Applications of Mindfulness.  Like last week we included two practice periods and a walking meditation.

Alan teaches an approach to meditation which is informed by a traditional saying in the Buddhist contemplative tradition:  “Good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end.”  These “goods” can be explained by three aspects of successful practice. Good in the beginning refers to our motivation.  We start each session by generating our highest aspiration for the practice.  Good in the middle refers to maintaining a continuity of focused attention. Good in the end refers to dedicating the value of our practice to the achievement of everyone’s most meaningful aspirations.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss today.  Today we focused our practice on the tactile field of the body.  We drew our practice inspiration from B. Alan Wallace’s Minding Closely:  The Four Applications of Mindfulness.  Like last week we included two practice periods and a walking meditation.

Alan writes about settling the body, breath and speech into their natural states.  He describes this as a process of  balancing three essential qualities:  relaxation, stillness and vigilance.  We could observe the process of our bodies settling by consciously feeling  specific areas – feet, legs, torso, arms, neck and head – relaxing.  Aaaah, if you’re reading this right now you can take some deep breaths and feel what I’m describing.

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We had the fourth meeting of our four week Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.  During the month of November we’re focusing on the basics in order to help each other build a personal practice.

We attended to the four foundations of mindfulness:  body, feeling tone, emotions and thoughts.  We enhanced our concentration by sensing into these areas to allow what may be calling out for healing to arise in our awareness.  We enriched the healing experience of meditation by opening to a sense of a healing quality might answer a particular call.   An experience of physical tension could be soothed with relaxation.  General anxiety could be assuaged with peace.  Feeling a sense of heartache could be met with love.  A busy racing mind could be quieted with calm.  In each part of the journey we paused long enough to recall the last time we experienced the healing quality.  We enriched the memory by activating it with as many senses as possible.

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We had the third meeting of our four week Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss today.  During the month of November we’re focusing on the basics in order to help each other build a personal practice.

We began with a body scan and revisited the six points of posture.  Bringing awareness to feeling sensation in the whole body and then different body parts helps to calm and center our minds.

We brought a sense of being safe, satisfied and connected into our awareness.  We shared a comfortable, warm and safe room.  For the moment, our basic needs were substantially met.  We were among accepting, supportive people with whom we could share a sense of connection.  These are the three states that give rise to “homeostatic equilibrium.” This state is the foundation for an experience of well being, an ability to cope and an instinct to heal.  Dr. Rick Hanson describes this as the brain being in the “Green Zone.”

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We had the second meeting of our four week Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.  During the month of November we’re focusing on the basics in order to help each other build a personal practice.

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We had the first meeting of our four week Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.  During the month of November we’re focusing on the basics in order to help each other build a personal practice:  alone and together!

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided meditation to explore the sense of self adapted from Dr. Rick Hanson‘s book, The Buddha’s Brain: the Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided meditation to deepen concentration adapted from Dr. Rick Hanson‘s book, The Buddha’s Brain: the Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided meditation adapted from Dr. Rick Hanson‘s book, The Buddha’s Brain: the Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom.  We explored a gradual expansion of focus from the area where we felt the breath most distinctly, to feeling all parts of breathing, to the whole body and finally on the faculty of being aware itself.

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