We had the Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.  We continued working with the four foundations of mindfulness inspired by the teachings in B. Alan Wallace’s Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness.

We started by establishing awareness in the sensory field of the body.  During this time we were reminded to sense into the earth element.  After a period of walking meditation, we shifted attention to the domain of mental experience: ideas, thoughts, images, desires, emotions and aspirations. Alan encourages students to notice the movement of the mind – like the wind in its many directions and forces.

In his book,  Alan observes how our feelings are aroused by sensory experience, thoughts, and memories.  They always change depending on context, our life circumstances.   We do our best to navigate life’s sea of change.  We all want to be happy.  Alan asks:  what is the true source of happiness?  He draws from Buddhist teaching which distinguishes between “mundane” and “genuine” happiness.  We seek happiness in the every day concerns of acquiring material goods, pursuing sensual pleasure and seeking praise.  We avoid loss, pain and blame.  All of these pursuits are dependent on many circumstances beyond our control.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday. We continued working with the four foundations of mindfulness inspired by the teachings in B. Alan Wallace’s Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness.

We practiced with the third application: mindfulness of thought. We started by establishing centered awareness in the sensory field of the body. Then we shifted attention to the domain of mental experience: ideas, thoughts, images, desires, emotions and aspirations. Alan encourages students to experience the more nebulous, boundaryless nature of our minds.  He says the space of experience precedes any other space we can perceive.  He asks some provocative questions:

Is the space of your mind susceptible to outside influence? Might it contain events that are accessible to you and others simultaneously?  Perhaps the spaces of our minds interpenetrate.  To test with experience, release all grasping on to your own psych, fixated upon “I, me, and mine.” . . .  The psyche is a tiny cell in which to be confined – the substrate [“space of the mind”] is infinitely spacious.

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What a joy to return to our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss!  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 practiced with the third application:  mindfulness of thought.  We started by establishing centered awareness in the sensory field of the body.  Then we shifted attention to the domain of mental experience:  ideas, thoughts, images, desires, emotions and aspirations.  Alan encourages students to observe how these formations arise and then dissipate. “No matter what arises within this mental space, simply attend to it and observe its nature – remaining alert, nonreactive.”

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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 focused on the elemental sensations of the earth, water, fire and air in our bodies.  You can feel them as solidity, firmness, wetness, fluidity, heat, warmth, expansion and lightness.  Then we observed the reflexive way sensations evoke feelings:  pleasant, unpleasant and neutral tones.  We explored how feelings evoke thoughts and the nature of thoughts.  We “self-identify” experience as “I, me or mine.”  If we stay with experience long enough, inevitably we observe the whole process arise, persist and then dissolve.  We see that there is no “there – there.”  This is a direct experience of the truth of being:  impermanence.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 used Alan’s guided meditation On the Elements:  earth, water, fire and air.  We directed our attention to the tactile experiences of solidity, fluidity, relative heat and coolness and lightness and movement.  In studying these experiences we investigated whether they were stable and unchanging.  Alan asks:

As you attend to all the subtle and coarse movements within the field, is there anything that suggests ownership? Or are these merely emergences of motion, arising within a tactile field to which you have privileged access?

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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 used Alan’s Mindfulness of the Body practice in which we scanned the body’s tactile sensations in three dimensions.  We used the in-breath to enhance our awareness of feeling in the area of focus and then moved to a different location with the out breath.  Body scanning is a common stress reduction technique.  This approach is unique in the way it expanded focus in three dimensions.  This novelty helped students enhance and sustain their attention.

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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.

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