Living Awake in the World by Gina Fennell

October 11, 2010

“Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.  The person, who practices mindfulness should be no more or less awake than the driver of a car, is as awake as a person walking on high stilts as any mis-step could cause the walker to fall.  Be like a lion going forward with slow, and firm steps.  Only with this kind of vigilance can we recognize total awakening.”  Thich Nhat Hanh

 

     Mindfulness meditation is a practice.  Also known as insight meditation it comes from the vipassana tradition originally taught by the Buddha.  To be mindful means to be aware of what is happening as it arises.  To see clearly the direct experience versus the conditioned, potentially deluded experience veiled by memories, judgments, learned behaviors and fantasies.  Naked attention to the moment to moment experiences of thoughts, sensations, emotions, actions and reactions as they occur.

     The formal training is done on the meditation cushion.  We develop concentration skills by constantly redirecting our attention to the foundations of mindfulness, beginning with observation of the breath and body.  Breath comes and goes, sensations, thoughts emotions come and go…we watch. When we find we are lost in thought, we come back to the breath and body.  Over time we open up our field of awareness and explore the underlying tone of each individual experience- pleasurable, unpleasant, perhaps somewhere in between. From there we begin to see our relationships to reality more clearly. 

     Our tendency is to push away the unpleasant and cling to the stuff we really like.  It is part of the human condition, probably even built in as some primal survival skill.  But what would happen if we didn’t run from every last itch, twitch or other uncomfortable sensation we experience on the meditation cushion or even on the yoga mat?  It is here that we begin to practice observing without reacting….witnessing whatever is happening in our awareness and allowing it to simply be.  No need to do anything about it, no need to “fix” it.

     From this place of awareness we may find some insight, or what one might say is waking up to the truth of the present time experience.  Mindfulness of the truth extends to all of our experiences, physical sensations, emotions, thoughts….everything, and not just on the meditation cushion.  The most important and necessary practice comes into our daily lives.  Once we see the truth we have freedom to choose to modify our preconditioned tendencies and relationships and create more skillful ones.

     Have you ever had physical pain that you couldn’t identify as an injury yet it was so deep and undeniable? Have you ever opened a bottle of wine, took a pill, or gone to the cookie jar because you were uncomfortable with the emotional residue from your day?  I have. What would happen if every time we encountered an unpleasant emotion like fear or sadness we chose to sit with it? Consciously choosing to deal with our relationships to pleasure and pain in the present moment instead of denying, medicating or burying it deep inside is where the inner revolution lies.

     To be mindful in a world that does everything it can to keep us controlled by paranoia, and the misidentification of desires as needs isn’t easy.  It takes training and practice paired with a whole lot of kindness and compassion for yourself and others.  But this freedom, it is available to each of us. 

Comments

There are currently no comments

Submit a Comment

Please be sure to fill in all information. Comments are moderated. Please no link dropping, domains as names; do not spam and do not advertise.