“Mindfulness is often likened to a mirror; it simply reflects what is there.”
~Larry Rosenberg
We are now asking you to sit or walk for 20 minutes a day!
Seated practice
This week we ask you to open your awareness to include a broader spectrum of what shows up on the cushion. While you are still focusing (and returning to) the breath, you are allowing for greater awareness of what draws you away, particularly the feeling tone of what draws you away. Is a sound, sensation or thought pleasant, unpleasant or neutral?
Our emotional world is driven by an interplay of sensations in the body and thoughts in the mind: thoughts trigger sensations, which trigger more thoughts and so on. We are not interested right now in the content of the thoughts so much as our emotional response to whatever is arising (including thoughts) in the moment.
As we begin to open to the complex world of emotions and thoughts, it is helpful to be familiar with what is classically referred to as the “hindrances:”
The Hindrances
1) Restlessness (worrying, remorse, agitation)
2) Sloth & Torpor (sleepiness, boredom)
3) Desire (wanting, attachment)
4) Aversion (anger, frustration, irritation, fear)
5) Doubt
Remember to honor these hindrances as guests—we aren’t denying or pushing them away but we also aren’t letting them decide who we are, take over our house and run the show.
Gatha Walking
Gatha Walking is simply a meditative walking practice in which we use a “gatha” or verse as the focus of our meditation. The gatha we are offering in class is from Thich Nhat Han:
When I walk the mind will wander.
With each sound the mind returns.
With each breath the heart is open.
With each step I touch this earth.
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