After practicing with the initial instructions for at least a week, please give
yourself the opportunity to go a little deeper into your own experience. With
this new set of instructions we will begin moving from straight concentration
meditation to insight meditation. We will develop a clearer understanding of
what it means to be mindful. Then we will apply this understanding as we
continue to explore the breath.
CONCENTRATION AND INSIGHT MEDITATION
All forms of meditation require a certain amount of concentration. Concentration
is basically the ability to keep awareness focused on one object, such as the
sensations of breathing, a word, a colored disk or a candle flame. It is
sometimes spoken of in terms of one-pointedness of mind. Without concentration,
the mind would never settle down enough for us to begin to feel some peacefulness
and to begin to see what is actually happening in our experience.
So far we have been using awareness or mindfulness of the sensations of
breathing as a tool for developing a foundation of concentration. We bring our
attention to rest at one location, such as the tip of the nostrils. We notice
the physical sensations in that location that are associated with breathing. We
hold our attention there even if the sensations are so subtle that we believe we
are not noticing them. If our attention wanders away from that location, when we
become aware of it we gently bring it back to that location. Each time we bring
it back we are strengthening the power of concentration.
Although concentration is the foundation of most approaches to meditation, some
approaches rely almost exclusively on concentration while others simply use it
as a tool for developing awareness. Concentration meditation focuses on the
development of concentration and the cultivation of non-ordinary states of
consciousness. Meditation that focuses only on relaxation is primarily a
concentration meditation. Insight meditation uses concentration as a tool in
the development of awareness.
The distinction between concentration practice and insight practice is important
because it contributes to differing ways of relating to our experience.
Concentration focuses on stillness and shutting out sounds, thoughts, etc.
Although concentration can lead to deep experiences of bliss, this emphasis on
stillness can also lead to judging, impatience and resistance to the experiences
that are our lives. Insight practice focuses on an openness to and awareness of
the ever-changing nature of human experience, our thoughts and sensations and
our reactions to them. In insight meditation, once one learns the complete set
of instructions, then nothing is a distraction; each experience is simply
something else to be mindful of, something else that will bring us to the present
moment. Concentration practice doesnšt teach us how to carry the blissful
experiences into our everyday life when things are a struggle. Insight
meditation does.
MINDFULNESS
Concentration is a mental factor that allows us to hold our attention in the
present moment. Mindfulness is a mental factor that allows us to experience the
present moment. Like concentration, mindfulness can be cultivated or strengthened.
When a bell sounds, there is a moment in which it is recognized before the mind
says "bell" or "sound" or "loud" or "soft". That moment of recognition is
mindfulness. Mindfulness is sometimes called bare attention because it is bare
of three qualities. It is bare of judgment, decision-making and commentary.
Bare of judgment means that when an experience comes into awareness it is not
judged as right or wrong, good or bad; it is simply perceived. For instance,
when a bell sounds and mindfulness is predominant there would be a non-conceptual
recognition that hearing was occurring without any judgment about whether what
was heard was good or bad, loud or soft, etc. Just the experience of hearing.
Bare of decision-making means that we are not using the experience to try to
solve a problem. When a bell sounds and mindfulness is predominant, we are not
trying to decide whether it is the dinner bell or the door bell. There is
simply the experience of hearing the sound.
Bare of commentary means that we are not responding to a sense experience by
getting caught up in a story about it. For example, when a bell sounds and mindfulness is
predominant, we donšt start thinking about how much we enjoy, or dislike, the
sound of bells and recalling all of the other times wešve enjoyed, or disliked,
the sound of a bell.
Mindfulness is like holding something with an open palm as opposed to a clinched
fist. It is like viewing clouds from the perspective of the sky, simply noticing
them arising and passing through without any sense of them being good or bad
clouds. They are just clouds. Mindfulness creates a space in which we can see
things as they are, separate from our reactions to them. For example, mindfulness
gives us the ability to recognize that a repetitive sound is just sound and that
our irritation with it is a reaction, a judgment about how things should be.
By creating this space and allowing us to see the truth of our lives in each
moment, we develop a clear seeing and a wise understanding of how to respond.
Pain is an example. Our society is generally very averse to pain. Beyond a
natural reaction to avoid pain, we are trained to avoid any discomfort as soon as we can.
A consequence is that there is a great fear of pain. We are afraid of it because
we have never looked deeply at it to see what it actually is. If we meditate for
any length of time, we begin to be aware of the pain that is a frequent part of
our lives. Simply sitting still makes us aware of the discomfort that arises from
holding one position. And we begin to realize that we spend a lot of time and
energy every day trying to not experience these pains. If we settle down the mind
and bring mindfulness to these physical sensations that we call pain, we can see
that pain is actually made up of a variety of ever-changing sensations that are
experienced as unpleasant. We can also see that when we fear and resist these
sensations, they actually become more intense. So insight meditation, through
mindfulness, relaxation and kindness to ourselves and others, provides us with
a different way of relating to our experiences, a way that involves a lot less
struggle. But, we have to practice to learn to relate to our experience in this
way because we have years and years of conditioning that is pushing us to react
instead.
Mindfulness and Compassion
Mindfulness and compassion go hand in hand. How can we possibly see what an
experience really is while we are trying to push it away or trying to destroy
it? In order to truly experience what something is, the qualities of mindfulness
and compassion must work together. Our minds must be free of judgment,
decision-making and commentary and our hearts must be open, kind and accepting
of what is. But this only needs to happen one moment at a time.
Instructions for Mindfulness of Breathing for Insight Meditation
Note that these instructions begin in the same way as those for concentration.
When the change from concentration to insight practice begins, the instructions
have been italicized. The instructions for insight practice begin to bring the
impermanent or ever-changing nature of experience to our attention.
- Settle into your sitting position.
- Close your eyes completely (If you have been trained in other methods which instruct you to leave them partially open, that is acceptable.)
- Soften the muscles in your face and around your eyes, your shoulders, arms and hands, and your legs.
- Sit with an erect but relaxed posture.
- Focus your attention at the tip of the nose. (If you have been trained to follow the sensations of breathing in the abdomen or the chest, those are also acceptable locations.)
- Take one or two deep breaths to help settle the attention in the location where you are following the sensations of breathing. This may actually be the upper lip, a location just inside the nostrils or at the tip of the nose. Use this spot as the location for your attention during the remainder of the meditation.
- As the breath moves in and out of the body notice the sensations that occur in the spot where your attention is located. Do not try to follow or imagine the breath flowing in and out of the body, just notice the sensations where your attention is focused. Initially this may simply be an awareness of an in-breath and an out-breath, or if following the sensations in the abdomen the rising and falling of the diaphragm or the in and out of the abdomen.
- Sometimes it is helpful to silently count the breaths. Counting "one" on the in-breath, "two" on the out-breath, "three" on the in-breath, etc. up to ten. If the attention wanders completely away from the breath, when you notice begin again. When you are able to follow the sensations up to "ten", let go of the counting and simply continue following the sensations of the breath.
- Just try to follow one in-breath as clearly as you can, and then one out-breath. Don't get overly ambitious and expect yourself to follow more than one breath. Expecting to be mindful for more than one breath sets one up for discouragement. Expecting to follow one breath helps to train yourself to be present with each moment of your experience.
- When your attention wanders away from the sensations of breathing and you notice it, appreciate that moment of waking up and being mindful. There is no need for judgment. Just gently return your attention to the breath and continue to follow it. Each time you awaken like this and bring the attention back to the object of meditation gently and without judgment, you are strengthening the factors of concentration, mindfulness and kindness.
- When you are able to stay in contact with the sensations of breathing, you may notice when the breath is short and when it is long.
- As your concentration becomes stronger, you may follow the sensations from the beginning of the in-breath through the middle to the end and then you follow the sensations of the out-breath in the same way.
- As your awareness of the quality of each breath becomes clearer, you may also begin to notice for yourself whether the breath stays the same or whether it is constantly changing.
- Rather than trying to analyze the breath and the way that
it changes, allow the breath to reveal its nature to you as you meet it
with mindfulness, kindness and curiosity. There are many changeable
qualities of the breath that you may notice. These include:
How the length of the breath changes from
breath to breath.
How the quality of breath changes, perhaps
smooth and easy or sometimes ragged and difficult.
How the experience of the in-breath is
different from the out-breath.
Whether the temperature of the breath
changes within each breath and between breaths.
- Continue to follow the sensations of breathing until your meditation period is over.
- If at any time you become confused about the instructions, simply return to the point in the instructions where you feel most comfortable and confident.
- If you wish, you can take a few moments during the day to get in touch with your breath. This is a good way of helping yourself settle down and coming back to the present moment's experience.
Following your meditation period take a few moments to reflect on your experience. Do you now experientially understand the difference between concentration practice and insight practice? Continue to practice with these instructions until these issues become clear in your own experience.
© Phil Jones, 2005
