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Introduction to Insight Meditation, Session 4: Mindfulness of Consciousness
by Philip L. Jones
I. Beginning
Meditation - Mindfulness of Feeling (10 min)
A.Review
the instructions (see handout)
II. Discussion
(10-15 minutes)
A.Questions
from previous session and from week's practice
III. Progression
of Practice
A.As
I mentioned last week, the meditation instructions focus on more subtle
aspects of our experience each week.
B.Last
week we moved from physical sensations to feeling (ie, whether things are
experienced as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral)
1.Feeling
is important because we tend to try to hang onto things that are pleasant
and we tend to try to push away, or get away from, things that are experienced
as unpleasant.
a.When
we try to hang on, or push away, we create more stress in our lives.
b.The
alternative presented by insight meditation is to learn to be present for
whatever life presents.
C.With
each of these objects of meditation (sensations, feeling, consciousness
or mind states and thoughts), part of the process is finding that we don't
have to immediately react. Finding that when we can see the sensations
or feeling as just sensation or feeling then we have a choice about how
to respond.
1.If
we can simply be present for the experience in that moment, if we can open
to it without holding on or pushing away, then we can get a taste of the
freedom and peace that is waiting there for us all of the time.
D.One
teacher (Matt Flickstein) describes our usual lives as being similar to
living in a room that has black paper over the ceiling that blocks out
the light above it.
1.Each
time one brings mindfulness to an experience, each time one is present
for something that one would normally push away or hang onto, it is like
poking a pinhole in the black paper.
2.With
each pinhole a little bit of light shines through.
3.The
more pinholes one creates, the more light shines through (
the more peace and freedom one experiences).
4.And
then eventually, when the conditions are right, a big piece of the black
paper falls down and then the light really shines through.
5.So,
although it may not seem significant, each time we open to an experience
and just let it be, we are letting a little more light into our lives.
E.Tonight
we will broaden this effort to include consciousness or mind-states.
IV. Mindfulness
of Consciousness
A.Consciousness
is simply the awareness that arises when a sense object comes into contact
with a sense organ.
1.The
sense organs in this tradition are thought of as including the eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, body(touch) and mind.
2.Sense
objects are those things that stimulate each of these particular organs.
3.Consciousness
is simply the pure white light of awareness that shines on this object
when it enters the field of the sense organ.
a.An
analogy is a motion detector with a light attached to it. When an object
moves in the sensory field of the motion detector, the light comes on and
illuminates it.
B.Because
consciousness is neutral, we can only know it through the mental factors
that occur with it, for instance consciousness with joy or consciousness
with hatred.
C.So,
Consciousness can have lots of different qualities:
1.It
can be consciousness with an emotion, such as joy, anger, lust, fear, etc.
2.It
can be constricted consciousness or spacious consciousness.
D.One
of the mental factors that arises with consciousness
is volition or choice, a choice of how to respond to contact with the sense
object.
1.How
we respond can lead to more stress or less stress.
a.If
we try to hang onto something or to push it away, we are setting ourselves
up for more stress.
b.If
we can simply be present with it, by being mindful of it, then we can experience
greater peacefulness in our lives.
V. Questions
& Discussion (5-10 min.)
VI. Meditation:
Mindfulness of Consciousness (10-15 minutes)
A.Focus,
simply being aware of the mind-states, noting them (without labeling)
VII. Questions
& Discussion (5-10 minutes)
A.Were
you able to notice the differing mind-states or the way consciousness changed
when different objects came into awareness?
B.Any
questions or comments?
VIII. Investigating
Consciousness
A.In
order to clearly understand what type of consciousness is present, it is
important to investigate it with one's awareness.
B.In
this situation, investigation is not an analytical tool, but rather just
a process of being curious and noticing
C.We
can investigate the different types of consciousness not only by paying
attention to consciousness and its mental factors but also by looking through
the lens of mindfulness of physical sensations and mindfulness of feeling.
1.For
example: If there is a constricted, an angry mind-state, what does that
feel like in the body? Is there tension, tightness, rigidity or relaxation?
What is the heart rate like when there is an angry mind-state? What is
the breathing like?
2.What
is the feeling associated with that angry mind-state, is it pleasant, unpleasant
or neutral?
3.Can
you really get into the experience and know it?
IX. Meditation:
Mindfulness of Consciousness (10-15 minutes)
A.Focus:
Investigating/opening to the different mind-states
X. Questions
& Discussion (5-10 minutes)
A.Were
you able to notice the differing mind-states or the way consciousness changed
when different objects came into awareness?
B.Any
questions or comments?
XI. Wholesome
and Unwholesome Mind-States
A.As
we begin to have more awareness of our consciousness, we can also reflect
on the fact that some mind-states bring more happiness, more peacefulness
into our lives while others bring more difficulty.
B.States
of generosity, kindness, joy have different effects on us than states of
greed, fear, anger and aversion.
C.As
you investigate, or open, to the different mind-states and actually let
yourself experience deeply what they are like, it will become more apparent
whether they lead you to peace or to difficulty.
D.Part
of what we are doing as we investigate and open to these mind states is
we begin to see how they create the stress in our lives.
E.What
we will also begin to see is that we can feed and cultivate our state of
mind.
1.If,
when anger arises and we are clear that anger is present, we buy into the
angry thoughts then we are actually feeding the anger.
2.The
same is true for kindness or generosity.
3.It
is important to differentiate between the power we can experience when
we see that something wrong is occurring and anger in which we are blaming.
We can exercise our power against an injustice while also maintaining a
stance of kindness.
F.There
are also meditations that we can do which actively cultivate states that
bring peace and joy into our lives. One of these is called "metta" or loving-kindness.
XII. Lovingkindness
(Metta)
A.Aquality
of unconditional acceptance and openness
1.Different
from passionate love which is conditional
a."I'll
love you as long as you love me."
2.Different
from sentimentality (sweet, nice and no pain -- denying reality of pain)
B.Lovingkindness
in insight meditation
1.Loving-kindness
begins with the way we relate to our own experiences.
2.Wecondition
our mind-states and thoughts by how we respond
a.Aversive,
judgmental reactions lead to more judgments and more thoughts.
(i) These
reactions put more energy into the mind-state or thought process, thus
creating more of what we are hoping to avoid and keeping us stuck in that
spot.
b.Responding
with loving-kindness to our mind-states and thoughtsallows
us to see them clearly and to let the energy be freed up.
(i) This
is something you can actually experience when you are stuck on something
and then finally can relax into it, letting it be.
C.Metta
meditation
1.Metta
meditation was originally taught as a way of helping people open up to
fear.
2.It
is a little different than the mindfulness practices that we have been
doing, as the object of meditation is a phrase.
3.By
repeating these phrases to ourselves, we are actually doing a concentration
practice that settles the mind, while also cultivating a tendency to respond
with more gentleness, more kindness.
4.The
phrases are simple
a.May
I/you be safe from inner and outer harm
b.May
I/you be happy and peaceful
c.May
I/you be healthy
d.May
I/you live with ease of well being.
XIII. Questions
& Discussion (5-10 min.)
XIV. Metta
Meditation (15-30 min.)
XV. Closing
quote from Galway Kinnel
The
bud
stands
for all things,
even
for those things that don't flower,
for
everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though
sometimes it is necessary
to
re-teach a thing its loveliness,
to
put a hand on the brow
of
the flower, and retell it in words and in touch,
it
is lovely
until
it flowers again from within, of self-blessing
--
excerpted from Galway Kinnel, "Saint Francis and the Sow", Mortal Acts,
Mortal Words, Houghton Mifflin, Co., 1980.
XVI. Handouts
A.Mindfulness
of Consciousness
B.Loving-Kindness
(Metta) Meditation (Loving-Kindness by Sharon Salzberg, Shambhala,
1995, pp. 29-32)