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Guided Meditation: Imagining Being Present

So, hello again and warm greetings on this beginning of the week. We're continuing with the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta^[1], the Buddha's core teachings on mindfulness practice. This practice aims at developing a great clarity of awareness—a lucid awareness that's very stable and very simple. In that clarity and simplicity, it allows us to see things clearly in such a way that liberation is within reach. It's a state of mind that's settled, composed, and some would say concentrated; very present, clear, and attentive to the flow of experience in the present moment. The text is all about the different exercises you can do to build up to that quality of clear attention in the present moment.

Many of us here in the West have learned certain aspects of this text, especially the ones that emphasize simple, non-reactive mindfulness and simple recognition of what's happening as it's happening in the present moment. Sometimes we get the impression that's all we're allowed to do. But in this text, there are other practices that can be done that contribute to developing the mind overall, so the mind can have the stability and strength to remain in the present moment and see clearly.

Surprisingly, one of those things we develop is our capacity for imagination. The word we're talking about right now is paccavekkhati^[2]. Paccavekkhati can also mean to review, with the word "view" implying a kind of seeing. Whether that reviewing is more mental consideration—thoughtfully bringing something to mind—or whether it's evoking the imagination to visualize something, depends on the individual practitioner. In a variety of ways and situations, the Buddha relies on or calls on very simple acts of imagination. He does that when he evokes metaphors for practice. In this next exercise, there's a beautiful metaphor. When we imagine a metaphor that speaks to something about what the meditation is going to be about, it kind of evokes those parts in our body, our mind, and our hearts.

It comes as a little bit of a surprise that imagination has a role, partly because in other places the Buddha clearly is critical of how we get caught in fantasy and false imaginations. But he uses a different word for that. He has a couple of words he uses that are more positive, which probably mean closer to "visualize" than simply "imagination."

This next exercise is used in this way. As a way of introducing it for the meditation today, I'd like us to engage in a simple act of imagination to support the meditation practice. It's not to imagine anything that's not present, so you don't have to worry about being taken off on some journey someplace with imagination, but it is evoking the imagination to support being here.

Taking a meditation posture. Lowering the gaze. Relaxing the eyes, relaxing the gaze. If it's comfortable, closing the eyes. And in a way that is comfortable for you, taking some deeper breaths. Maybe three-quarters full. Exhaling no longer than you normally would, but not so long that it's a strain. A delightful exhale.

Letting the breathing return to normal and just hanging out for a bit with the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. And if it's easy, relaxing the body as you exhale.

And then imagine yourself sitting in meditation. If you have an easy ability to visualize, visualize yourself sitting in meditation. It doesn't have to be exactly as you are, but in some way that the imagination, the visualization, or the reflection has some nice feeling to it, a nice quality.

You might also imagine in your mind's eye, with your eyes closed, the place where you're sitting. Letting your mind gently roam around left and right, up and down. Imagining and visualizing the location where you are.

And then again, within your place, imagine yourself in your meditation posture. Imagine that your body is beginning to relax. Whether it actually relaxes or not is secondary to simply imagining it. Maybe you remember a time when the body relaxed deeply, and you imagine that that's how you are now.

Imagine the relaxed way that you're safe here and now, surrounded by these few minutes of safety. Imagine what it would be like for your body to really feel itself in a safe place. What would relax in the body?

Imagine what it would be like if, in this imaginary meditation session, you felt content and at ease. Imagine the breathing, what it would feel like to breathe and sit here very contented, at ease with all things. Visualizing yourself meditating this way.

Imagining a feeling of contentment spreading through the body. Whether you're content or not is secondary to the gentle imagination that you are. For people who have a hard time visualizing or imagining, imagine that you're visualizing. Imagine that you're imagining. It's a very light touch, imagining you're sitting here in your meditation posture, breathing in a content way. Imagining what that would feel like.

And now, having spent some time imagining, let go of the imagination and let your awareness enter into your body as it actually is. Becoming aware of your embodied experience. As you exhale, calming the mind. Calming the thinking.

Centering your awareness on how your body experiences breathing.

As we come to the end of the sitting, notice if there are any ways that you are calm, calmer, more peaceful, or more settled from this meditation. If you're not, do you have more clarity about how you actually are? A simple recognition or a deep recognition. One way or the other, sitting quietly in your meditation posture, not moving, notice how you are.

To whatever degree there's a sense of stability, stillness, or non-reactivity to the world around you, imagine yourself being stable and non-reactive. Not closing down. Imagining that the people in your life are coming into your view, that you bring to mind those people you might encounter today, whether they're strangers, acquaintances, friends, family, or neighbors.

See if you can have them be present in the mind's eye while you are non-reactive, stable, steady, and maybe peaceful. Imagining that you offer a stable attention and a sense of non-reactive presence.

From this place, do you have access to any thoughts or imaginations of how good it would be if these people could be happy? Safe, content, peaceful, free? Imagine that's possible and wish that for them.

May they be happy. May they be safe. May they be peaceful. May they be free. And may this goodwill and well-wishing for the world spread out into the world through the day. May each of us live for the benefit of this world. May all beings be happy.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (25) Parts of the Body

In this journey through the thirteen exercises of the Buddha's discourse on the foundations for mindfulness, we've come now to the fourth exercise, which is a mindfulness or a reflection on parts of the body. All along, we've been doing mindfulness of the body and developing an embodied awareness. We've been mindful of ourselves in postures and mindful of ourselves in specific activities we do. Now the focus is on bringing more specificity to this mindfulness of the body by becoming aware, mindful, or focused on thirty-one different parts of the body.

The verb that's used for what we do—the activity—is a rich word with connotations that can mean to visualize or to see in the mind's eye. It could also mean to review or reflect on something, which has a double meaning in English as well. The word "view" means to look, and "reflect" has an association with seeing, such as when we see our reflection in the water or in a mirror. Exactly how the mind is engaged in considering this maybe depends on the person who does it.

Some people have a very strong ability to visualize, and some people don't. Some people have a strong ability to conceptualize what's being discussed without actually seeing it. There have been times where I had done visualization practices, and I never really felt I was particularly good at being able to visualize, but it made a huge difference to me when I started imagining that I was visualizing. Visualizing itself is a use of the imagination, but somehow when I imagined I was doing it, then I was able to kind of get into the ideas that were being held up in the imagination. It was also a much lighter touch in the mind for me. When I visualized, I found myself working too much, but when I was imagining myself visualizing, there was no work in just imagining it. It was more of an effortless place for me.

Exactly how this word—reflect, review, imagine, visualize—should be interpreted is very individual. You're allowed to do that because this practice is about what supports you to develop clarity, stability, insight, and a certain freedom. What we're seeing here is that the Satipaṭṭhāna uses a variety of different mental capacities, all for the same purpose of developing this lucid awareness.

We can start learning these different capacities and recognizing in which situations different ones are useful. To review some of the verbs that we've talked about so far: One is to know, like knowing we're breathing. The other is to experience, to feel the whole body. Then there's to relax or calm the bodily constructions. Then there's to know the different postures we're in, and to have full awareness or full comprehension while we're doing activities. We also talked about the refrain, the capacity to abide and observe. Now we're using a different mental capacity, that of reflection or visualization. Different people have different strengths in these different capacities, but they're all ways of engaging the mind.

Now, the thirty-two parts of the body. Actually, the text has thirty-one parts of the body. The later Buddhist tradition added the brain to the list, so there's thirty-two, but in the text, it's only thirty-one. This is a cherished practice for new monastics. Often in Thailand, when a person ordains as a monastic, this is the first practice they're given to cultivate.

This has a variety of different functions. One is that you're supposed to memorize the list and be able to recite it with ease. There's something about the act of memorizing and reciting things from memory that engages the mind in a very nice way. The heightened attention needed to memorize something begins to train the mind and supports it in having a heightened attention for breathing and present-moment experience. There's an overlap between the focused attention needed for memorization and the focused attention we need to practice mindfulness in the present moment. By memorizing, we're learning something about a slightly activated or energized mind that doesn't have to be tense or stressed, but shows us how to be present in a way that's not too lackadaisical, complacent, or lazy. There is a clarity and intentness in what you're doing. For new monastics, there is a lot of memorization. Some of that is not just to memorize the texts so you can chant them, but it's also training the mind, building up the strength of the mind that supports mindfulness practice and this heightened capacity of lucid awareness.

The thirty-one parts of the body engages the mind in a way that helps it get concentrated, and concentration is a very important part of mindfulness practice overall. We've started with mindfulness of the body, and now we're introducing something that supports many people to get more concentrated. We take the thirty-one parts of the body meditation seriously to develop that concentration so that when we continue with the Satipaṭṭhāna, we're supported by it.

The second thing this meditation does is give us a different orientation of how to experience our body than what we commonly do. Kind of unconsciously or subconsciously, because of our culture, advertisements, popular society, and family experiences, we often have a biased, partial self-image of ourselves in our body. This is not the full picture of what goes on. Not a few people have negative body self-images, are troubled by their body, or are overly focused on their body. Or they have positive views of their body and are focused on making themselves beautiful and just right. This focus on the body is a multi-billion dollar industry in this country, and it causes a lot of suffering and stress. It supports a certain kind of attachment, clinging, grasping, fears, and aversions. This practice breaks through that to offer a separate way of experiencing the body that is maybe a little more concentrated. It has a different orientation and perspective on the body, breaking up the solidity or the authority of these old body images that burden us or get in the way of the mind settling deeply down. It is an alternative way of being in the body from the inside out.

The third thing this meditation on the thirty-one parts of the body does is observe that these parts are said to be unclean or impure. The theory is that if you focus on the body this way, it breaks down not just the body image we have, but excessive attachment to the body. For people who are very attached to the body, seeing it this way can break the attachment. A lot of people in the West are very resistant to this idea of seeing the body as impure or unclean. In fact, for those who have seen the inside of the body, sometimes it seems quite beautiful to see the parts.

But imagine a person that you cherish and love, and you find their hair in your food, or their pubic hair in your food, or their snot. Or you find that their skin sloughed off and it's in the stew they made, or fingernails are in the food. I think for many people, the sense of body parts beginning to appear in their stew is a little bit repulsive. It's unclean; it's not quite right. You don't want to eat it. Even though it's beautiful when it's on the other person, something doesn't seem right about eating it if it's in the stew. So it's maybe something like that. There's some perspective that's not unhealthy that, if we're attached to the body, can help free it. It is using the imagination if it's needed for this purpose.

I'll give the list, and then I'll post the list for you so you can have it. I would encourage some of you to memorize the list and see if you can learn about this heightened attention that is useful for mindfulness. Head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, and skin. Flesh, tendons, bones, marrow, kidneys. Heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, and lungs. Bile, phlegm, pus, blood, and sweat. Fat, tears, oil, saliva, snot, the fluid of the joints, and urine. I left some out in the middle there: large intestines, small intestines, contents of the stomach, and feces. Sorry I didn't do it all on the list, but that's the list.

That's the topic for the next two or maybe three days. We'll practice with it and explore it, and hopefully you'll understand how, rather than being a distraction from mindfulness, you begin appreciating the wealth, the richness, and the range of how the mind is engaged to support the direction of becoming lucidly aware and present, the movement towards freedom. Those of you inclined, memorize it. This kind of memorization supports concentration and supports the practice of it.

Thank you.