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Establishing a Mindfulness Practice: Class 2

Last week, I had a co-teacher with me on the monitor, Kirsten. She'll be back next week. Last week we talked about wise understanding and wise intention, and how those two factors help us with our practice.

For those of you who weren't here, this is week two, and tonight the topics are concentration, mindfulness, and the five hindrances^[1]. This is a lot, and I will not be talking in detail about these things; I'm sort of going to try and just introduce these concepts to you. I'll be doing more classes throughout the year and we'll go into more depth. This series is sort of a jam-packed jubilee of all the most important components of a practice in my view. It's a nice introduction, but don't feel like you need to learn everything right away. Next week we'll be talking about actions that support joy in our practice, and the week after is about sustaining practice with wise effort.

Settling Meditation

Let's settle. Let's find our bodies. We'll do just a three-minute little practice here.

Just finding some deeper breaths. Maybe helping the mind orient to being in the body, in this present moment, in this room with these people. Right here, work is done. Just helping yourself take that in—that you chose to be here and you get to just be here with your whole body.

With that in mind, taking a few deeper breaths. Inviting yourself to give yourself permission to just be for two more minutes. Just to be here until everything settles and catches up, to be in the same place at the same time.

[Meditation ends]

Just take a moment to notice what changed. What's different from just that three minutes of sitting? Acknowledge for yourself if anything settled, or maybe if something became more pronounced. Just acknowledging the impact of the practice for yourself.

The Five Hindrances

I want to start by talking about the five hindrances. What happens that gets in the way of your practice? What do you notice that impacts your ability to practice mindfulness and to sit on a cushion? If you try and sit down and meditate, what happens that makes it hard?

(Audience members share: agitation, strong emotions, planning, boredom, seeking distraction, bodily discomfort, a sense of having so much to do, resistance, tightness in the neck and shoulders, and sleepiness.)

I'll name the five hindrances for you, and try to pick one or two that feel like they fit with what you described. They are typically listed as:

1. Desire: Lust, wanting, craving.
2. Aversion: Hatred, not liking, not wanting. "I don't like this, get this away from me, make this stop."
3. Restlessness and worry: This includes bodily agitation (where you can't settle) and mental worry.
4. Sloth and torpor: In the body, this is tiredness, where you can't stay awake or attentive. In the mind, it feels drifty, hazy, and sleepy.
5. Doubt: "Am I doing it right? Should I do a different practice? What's the point? I can't do this, my mind won't let me." All of these are connected to doubt.

The things that come up for you generally fit within these categories. You have normal minds with normal problems. The same problems have been experienced by meditators since the Buddha taught. These are energies that happen in the mind, and they are really helpful things to learn how to work with and recognize. It's sort of like noting your cognitive distortion of the day in cognitive behavioral therapy.

It's also helpful because if we know we have certain tendencies, we can try to do things to balance them. For example, if we know we tend to be restless, worried, and unable to sit, we might consider walking or doing yoga before we meditate. We might think about a transition between being busy and when we sit. We might also think about the time of day we're sitting; for some people, it's much easier to sit in the morning before they've fully launched into their day.

Greed, desire, and lust are polar opposites to aversion, hatred, and not liking. One thing to look at in your body is if there's leaning forward or leaning back. It's a very visceral thing that starts to happen with aversion and desire. Let's do a short exercise. Just close your eyes, tune in, and notice your body as I say a few words:

Ice cream. Dogs. Driving fast. Going to a party with lots and lots of people. Being alone. Milk. Water. The color purple. The color orange. A rainy day. A warm sunny day. A really hot day.

What did you notice in your body? Could you feel a sense of shifting when you heard something you liked or didn't like? How did you feel that in your bodies?

(Audience members share experiences of leaning in, tensing up, relaxing, and experiencing changes in temperature.)

Your body knows. We can recognize if we're liking or not liking by tuning into our body. Sometimes our body can tell us before we can know mentally.

Mindfulness

Now, let's talk about mindfulness. There really isn't anything you can do, and there isn't anywhere you can go, that mindfulness won't support you. It is applicable everywhere. When the Buddha teaches mindfulness, he talks about being mindful walking forward, walking backwards, standing up, sitting down, laying down, in every posture you can imagine, eating, going to the bathroom. Mindfulness everywhere, all the time.

Here's a quote by Anne Cushman: "If I view everyday chores as tasks to rush through on the way to something more important, they become a crushing waste of time. But from the perspective of Buddhist teaching, each of these activities is a golden moment, an opportunity for full Awakening."

There are awakening poems of monks and nuns who woke up doing simple everyday tasks. Patācārā^[2] woke up while pouring water. So awakening doesn't have to happen with your eyes closed, sitting still. It can happen in the midst of your everything.

Another quote I'll share is by Sayadaw U Tejaniya^[3]: "When the mind is not mindful, it feels like a homeless person—very insecure, very unhappy. When you are mindful, you feel really at home. So mindfulness is my home. When you are not mindful, you are on the road to nowhere." [Laughter]

There is an automatic pilot that happens in our brains when we aren't mindful, where we just start to eat and go. We're driving and we're not really paying attention. We're putting things down, forgetting them, leaving our keys, and just getting busy consuming.

Mindfulness is a collection of different qualities that we're cultivating. Together, when they're all mutually working, they provide the raft that helps us stay afloat and not get lost. One of the classic definitions is that mindfulness is paying attention on purpose, in the present moment. We can't be mindful in the past or in the future. We can only be mindful here and now.

It is possible to be aware that we're thinking as we're thinking. Mindful of breathing as we're breathing. It's an experience, it's not conceptual. So mindfulness is this awareness and connection to what's happening in the present moment.

Our attitude also matters. We want to cultivate an attitude that is kind, allowing, and open. If we are forcefully demanding, "pay attention, pay attention," that introduces a hindrance—an aversive, critical mind—to the mindfulness. We need to start learning to tune into how we are being aware and what our relationship is to what's going on.

Practicing mindfulness helps us grow wisdom. It's an applied wisdom that learns to discern and see what's happening with clarity. It's akin to the wisdom in our body that knows a hot stove is hot and tells us to take our hand away. It's the kind of wisdom that helps guide us through life. It helps us meet our experiences without reactivity. We can choose to respond versus react. It slows things down, gives a little bit of space, and allows mindfulness to go deeper into seeing the true nature of what's happening.

Concentration

Building our moment-to-moment mindfulness will help us with concentration practice. It will help us develop a mind that is more calm, centered, and intimate with our experience.

The word "concentration" is a difficult word for many of us because we associate it with contraction. We think, "I have to work really hard." But if we engage with mindfulness or meditation in that kind of way, we get exhausted and brittle.

Relaxed concentration is connected; it comes with a feeling of flow. As we establish mindfulness, the concentration begins to come. Everything with concentration has a quality of wholeness. We're not trying to get rid of anything. If we're focused on the breath, it's more like the breath just gets closer and closer. It starts to fill up the mind because the mind is so interested in it. It's a very relaxed way that the mind becomes deeply intimate and connected with the experience of breathing.

Growing Mindfulness in Daily Life

I want to shift to talking about a few things that are helpful for growing mindfulness. One is being mindful of our bodies. Everything we experience through the body is something that's happening right here. Building our awareness of our body as we move around is a great gateway back to the present moment. Having a practice of noticing your feet every time you get up and walk somewhere helps you stay with the continuity of mindfulness. If you ever are struggling to get out of a lot of heavy thinking, use your senses—sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. These are great doorways into the present moment.

Another thing is to start to notice choice. By being mindful, you start to grow your capacity to make choices. It can be fun to ask yourself, "If I'm mindful here, what might my choices be?"

Another helpful way to build non-reactivity is to look for opportunities in your life where you have mild discomfort. If you start to feel a little bit uncomfortable, just hang out with it a moment longer than you normally would before you move. Practice lingering a little longer with an itch, and notice what happens if you bring an attitude of allowing or accepting instead of aversion. We grow a very quick habitual response to move away from unpleasant experiences. This is just playing with your edges and learning about that for yourself.

You can also choose a daily activity, like brushing your teeth, making your bed, or making coffee, and make it a habit to do that activity very mindfully. It's also nice to practice mindfulness in nature, tuning into how you're coming into an environment and impacting the creatures there. Having a meditation buddy who you text when you sit can also support your practice.

Guided Meditation: The BELLA Practice

I'm going to share a practice to use when working with the hindrances. It uses an acronym to help us remember: BELLA.

In your practice right now, just noticing if there is a hindrance present already—greed, desire, aversion, restlessness, worry, sloth, torpor, or doubt. If one is not present now, maybe think about one that comes up for you that won't overwhelm you to pay attention to.

B - Be with it (Let it be): When a hindrance comes up, the most useful thing we can do first is to let it be. Open up around it and notice how it manifests. It doesn't mean giving in to it or letting it dictate what you do, but it means not acting or reacting to it. Give the hindrance some room, some space.

E - Examine: Freedom requires us to have wisdom. Being able to work with the hindrance requires us to understand it. Examine it. Recognize the physical component of the hindrance and how it feels in the body. Recognize the energetic component, the emotional component, and the cognitive component (the way it affects how we perceive and think). It also has a motivational aspect, motivating us to do something. Get to know it physically, energetically, emotionally, cognitively, and motivationally.

L - Lessen: When you feel like you've gotten to know it, lessen the impact of the hindrance by relaxing. Relaxing the mind and the body starts to soften the intensity of it. Maybe directing your awareness toward the breathing, if that is a soothing, relaxing experience for you. If not, is there some part of your body that feels really neutral that you can pay careful attention to?

L - Let go: When it's not serving us, when we can't really benefit from being with it anymore, it can be time to say, "Enough for now." How do we let go? Maybe we need to recognize a belief that's unhelpful and fueling it, so we shift our view. Maybe we need to practice with non-identification: "It's just a feeling, it's just a thought, it's not who I am." Maybe it's already softened so much with the relaxing that that's all we need to do. If it's really strong, you might need to get up and go for walking meditation or do loving-kindness.

A - Appreciate: The last part of the practice is to appreciate. In the course of this short practice, was there wisdom that grew? An insight that came? A lessening, or a change in your relationship with the hindrance? Appreciating whatever is skillful and supportive is very helpful. It might just be, "I really appreciate that I'm trying. I really appreciate that I sat here with this as best I could." That is enough to appreciate.

I'm going to allow five minutes of silence for practice in whatever way feels supportive to you. You can continue with the BELLA practice or you might choose an anchor for your awareness, like breathing or sound. Just see if you can rest a little bit with not having to do, just being with.

If you are finding it difficult to settle the mind because we've just been looking at a hindrance, a concentration practice could be to count your breaths. As you breathe in, count "one," and as you exhale, count "two," up to ten. At ten, you let go and start at one again. If you get lost, just start at one. It's a practice that can help settle the mind.

[Meditation ends]

Checking in, noticing the mind, noticing the body. Just noticing if there's any desire, any aversion, any sloth or torpor, any restlessness, worry, or doubt. Maybe just bow to yourself for seeing into your experience in this way.

Reflections and Q&A

What was that like for you, that guided practice?

(A student shares that during the examination portion of working with restlessness, they noticed a faster heartbeat and tension, but also energy, playfulness, and excitement. This perspective shift allowed it to dissolve rather than pushing it away.)

(Another student shares realizing that their restlessness stems from anxiety. During the "Appreciate" phase, they realized they appreciated the restlessness because it brought them to meditate.)

(A student shares that they could not stop thinking about a recipe for turkey sweet potato chili. Rather than trying to push it away, they decided to go with it and watched themselves making it, finding that to be a meditation in itself.)

There's something really important there. There was a lot of trying to make it go away in the beginning that created tension and stress. Giving it some space—while staying mindful that thinking is happening—is helpful for the tension to recede. It is a delicate thing to do, and you do have to notice if the desire is growing, but it helps avoid growing aversion.

(Another student shares feeling disabled and frustrated when trying to count breaths because thoughts keep starting.)

That sounds like aversion toward the thinking itself. In that case, you would practice with noticing the aversion. Instead of staying focused on the thinking, look at the aversion. Feel that first. Be with it, examine it. It can be hard to stay with those feelings, as our awareness gets tight. It can be helpful to physically invite it to open up, sitting back and relaxing. Then, the letting go might mean letting go of wanting to count, or letting go of trying to make yourself stop thinking. Finally, even if everything isn't the way we want it to be, we can appreciate that we got to see the hindrance and practice with it.

What we're doing here tonight is growing our wisdom. When we grow that wisdom and really turn toward our experience in this way, we grow our faith. We practice with the teaching, we notice our own process, and we have a little more faith in the Dharma, the Buddha, and the Sangha. Having moments where you see things shift helps when doubt arises. It supports us in our efforts to keep sitting back down on the cushion.

Would anyone be willing to share a moment where they felt like they gained some faith or confidence tonight?

(A student shares that in examining their desire, they imagined what it would be like if they had the thing they wanted, and realized they would still be sitting there meditating, so it didn't really matter.)

(Another student shares working with aversion toward uncomfortable experiences of loss. They shifted to appreciating the fact that they even had an experience worth losing, finding gratitude in that.)

I appreciate your wisdom and sharing your beautiful hearts.

Closing Meditation

Just noticing how you're feeling now. A sense of appreciation, warmth, or connection for showing up for others. It's a gift.

May this practice be of benefit for you. May you notice the benefit and appreciate the benefit. May you share that benefit directly and indirectly with others. May the benefit of our practice together benefit all beings everywhere.

Thank you.