See below for a streaming audio version of a guided mindfulness of breath awareness practice. This is also available here for download.

This is the initial practice to given to beginning students of mindfulness meditation to begin to build concentration, presence and stabilize the mind. For many this is a lifelong practice.

Enjoy!

Shinzen Young, a wonderful teacher in the Vipassana lineage will be offering a non-residential meditation retreat in Broomfield, CO from February 14-16.

See this website for details on the event and how to register www.sierraretreats.org.

Forgiveness is at the heart of compassion for both ourselves and others.  We forgive ourselves a little bit each time we are able to bring our unconditional presence to whatever we have been avoiding in our lives, whether it is physical pain, a toxic relationship, an old emotional wound, anger or grief we never felt, someone who we feel has caused us pain, our perceived failures in our lives….it can look any way and there are so many things that we avoid in our lives.

The energy of forgiveness is spacious and soft, gentle and accepting. With the mindful approach we turn towards our pain, not away as is the habit for most.  I know that I am given so many opportunities to forgive in my mindfulness practice. Life gives us many opportunities as well. A re-occuring memory surfaces of how I hurt someone, or how I was hurt along with the inner dialogue and the painful contraction, perhaps anger or rage, perhaps sadness or despair.  We welcome all of it with open arms.  We let it into our awareness, even if just for a brief period. We are beginning to connect with the core experience of what we have avoided. 

If avoidance arises, how does it arise? It is part of the nature of the conditioned human mind that we avoid pain and seek comfort or pleasure. This is samsara, the endless cycle of suffering that mindfulness meditation is meant to be an antidote for. This avoidance can look many ways. Perhaps we are in so much pain we turn to food, to TV, to drugs or alcohol, to a new relationship, to pornography, or shopping to try and erase the pain. We bury it and it surfaces again and again. The compassionate way is to gentle turn toward our suffering and let it in little by little. Get to know it. Treat it as a welcome guest rather than a villain who we must keep out at all costs.

These memories and experiences in life and in our practice arise as doors opening, or brief and auspicious arising for opportunities to forgive ourselves and others.  We can begin this process by aligning our mindfulness or intention to open to the whole experience with this unconditional acceptance and take the experience however it arises, as sadness, rage, anger, joy, bitterness, despair, anxiety, excitement…..whatever it is we let it come, and we let go into it moment by moment, breath by breath.

Each time we begin our meditation practice we can set this intention for forgiving ourselves and others. I do this by repeating these phrases silently to myself from the Brahma Viharas on Conciliation and Atonement at the beginning of each formal practice period.

If there is any way I have harmed myself, either knowingly or unknowingly,
through action of body, speech, or mind, I ask forgiveness.
If there is any way I have suffered harm by reason of anything I have thought, or said, or done,
I forgive myself.
If there is any way I have harmed another, either on purpose or by accident,
by reason of anything I have thought, or said, or done, I ask forgiveness.
If there is any way another has harmed me, either knowingly or unknowingly,
through action of body, speech, or mind, I forgive them.

Often, there are interruptions to our practice, or at least our formal practice.

Interruption, does not mean we have to throw away the whole practice, or castigate ourselves. It is an unhelpful habit to think that ‘I am a failure’, and to somehow feel negatively towards ourselves because our formal practice has fallen away. Of course if this thought comes up, we can choose to let it go, rather than indulge it and show some self-compassion. We can pick up again at any time, whether this means practice of mindfulness meditation on the cushion/chair, or ‘practice in life.’

At any moment we can pick up again our chosen practice and give it our wholehearted effort, even if it has been 3 days, a week, a month or 10 years since we last practiced. In the Buddhist tradition there is a concept of Merit. Merit is accumulated as we practice and does not diminish over time. Our ability to sit with ourselves and all of our experiences and the spiritual strength we have developed will still be there when we come back to our old or new friend, mindfulness meditation.

Fresh start is a particular and very useful technique taught to me by one of my teachers from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. When we sit and things become chaotic, our thoughts are wild and out of control, our body hurts, we feel we are unable to attend to our breath for even a moment, we can just stop everything. As she would say ‘drop the whole project.’ Change your posture, relax, unfurl the legs, open the eyes look outward and just be. When we feel ready we can resume without any guilt, self-criticism and judgement. Using this technique is like hitting the reset button. We start all over again and only what is happening in the present is real, and that is what we choose to relate to.

Fresh start is a great perspective for life. At any moment we can just drop the whole project, letting go of fear, hatred, bored, excitement, worry, grief, guilty, anxiety, or any other experience. We don’t need to cling so tight. Just open the eyes and the senses, take in the outer world, your present experience and start again and again. Each moment arises and passes away.

In the Tibetan Lojong practice there is a slogan that I am particularly fond of it is just this:

Regard All Dharmas as Dreams

Dharma loosely translated can mean life lessons, or life path, or even ‘the truth.’ In this case it is often translated as meaning simply, life and the life events that occur for us. Regard these as a dream an, illusion, perhaps even death as a dream, lacking real substance. How do we adjust our values now, if we let go of the solidity and seriousness ‘our life?’

For me this statement adjusts my priorities – a view that includes the highest values being compassion in relationship and connection to my ’self’ and other beings, and acting in a way that reduces harm and suffering for all beings.

This slogan also begs the question: What is not illusory if this life is?

For those of you who are local I will be offering an introductory class on Mindfulness Meditation. This class will meet on Mondays for 6 weeks starting 4/28/08 from 5:30pm-6:45pm in Boulder, CO. This class will focus on developing core mindfulness skills, cultivating relaxation and stress relief, and be a great jumping off place for creating a home practice. For more information, see below. You may register by emailing me at David_Robbins@comcast.net or calling me at 303.225.2700. More info is also available on my website here.

Be Well,

David

Mindfulness Meditation for Relaxation and Stress Relief

Instructor: David Robbins, MA

Location: 2760 29th St., Suite 2C, Boulder, CO 80301

Ph: 303-225-2700
Email: david_robbins@comcast.net
Website: www.davidrobbins.org

Cost: $60 per person ($10/class)

Time: Mondays (6 weeks)
April 28 – June 9
5:30-6:45pm

Please contact David Robbins to register for the class (see contact info above.)

Course Description: The goal of this class is to teach basic skills to promote a stronger connection to one’s self and one’s present experience through guided mindfulness meditations centered on body, breath and the linking of the two. These mindfulness practices will include body scan, mindful breathing, Lovingkindness, and sitting mindfulness practice. Students will learn simple and powerful techniques, in a safe environment, that they can incorporate into a personal mindfulness meditation practice. Mindfulness meditation promotes relaxation and stress reduction, a better relationship with one’s body, increased concentration and attention, better memory, reduction of anxiety, and an overall sense of well-being.

Mindfulness meditation (or Vipassana) is originally derived from the Theravada lineage of Buddhism. It can be learned and utilized as a beneficial practice by followers of any (or no) religion. The practice will be offered to students as a secular practice. This is a beginning meditation class, no previous experience is necessary for this class.

Mindfulness Meditation: Paying attention to one’s experience, in the present moment, with a gentle, unconditional attitude of acceptance.

• Attention – focusing on our experience in the present moment
• Awareness – noticing where your attention is
• Attitude – gentleness, patience, acceptance

We will learn how to engage with our present moment experience through progressively learning mindfulness practices that include: sitting meditation – breath focus, body focus, body scan/awareness, Lovingkindness (Metta) practice We will spend most of the class actively engaged in learning and practicing various methods of mindfulness meditation with a period of discussion at the end of class for questions and reflection.

*Please bring a blanket or yoga mat to the class. Chairs will be provided. If you wish to sit on the floor please bring your own meditation cushion/bench, etc.

My teacher Shinzen Young offers a descriptive term for the qualities of undulatory energy that I talked about in my post entitled ‘Lifeforce Energy.’ He labels that kind of energy ‘Flow.’ Flow is a product of impermanence, in other words it is the process of phenonema moving and breaking up in the body-mind, and our experience of flow is the direct contacting of that constant change. This change is occurring whether or no we are paying attention to it, though our conscious awareness of flow can cause it to deepen and expand, or contract in our experience. The energy may expand and contract at the same time, or suddenly vanish. These movements in all sensory domains, when contacted with our mindful awareness are the heart of creation, the force from which life is infused with energy…Shinzen calls it the Great Unborn, taking those words from his teacher Sasaki Roshi.

Flow is an interesting experience to work with in our practice. I find that flow in the body is easiest to contact, though it can occur in our visual and auditory thought spaces (Image/Talk) and also in our emotional and physical body sensations (Feel/Touch). I’ve talked about these sensory spaces in more depth in other posts.

Flow is impermanence in action. We notice that as we pay attention to a phenomena, say thougths for instance, they do not remain stagnant, but instead change over time, maybe each minute, second, nanosecond…we start off thinking about ice cream and end up circulating through thoughts about how our ex broke up with us at an ice cream shop, and then begin to catalog our terrible memories of that person. A few minutes later we might be ruminating on the pain of being single, or the pain of being in relationship. One things leads to another and as the popular saying goes ‘the only thing we can count on is change.’

Whether it is the flowing energy in our physical body, pulsation of emotional energy in the emotional body, a flow of thoughts or a persistant physical pain all these phenomena have a certain dynamic energy that we can pay attention to and witness….Impermanence doesn’t have to be an abstract concept it is occurring every moment in our experience. If you become of aware of this flow of experience in any of the sensory domains pay deep attention to it an soak your awareness in. Even our experience as a human follows these same laws of impermanence.

One experience flows into the next until we cease to exist. Humans like all other phenomena have a beginning a middle and an end. In light of this awareness of our own impermanence and the impermanence of experience we realize how precious the present is and how unique each moment is. We can strive to experience fully the present moment as deeply and richly as possible.

Shinzen Young is offering introductory home-based Vipassana retreats through his website BasicMindfulness.com. These are retreats which you can do anywhere in the world as long as you have access to a phone with either a handsfree or speakerphone option. Previously, only those who had done a residential or non-residential in-person program with Shinzen could participate. He is now offering the intro program that will allow you to acquire the skills and languaging to do his other home-based retreat offerings. The next introductory series will be held in May. Check the web site linked above for details. I often participate in these home-based retreats myself and find them to be a good support for my daily practice. A listing of Shinzen’s residential and non-residential retreats can be found at Shinzen.org.

For those of you wishing to embark on the path of mindfulness meditation this is a good non-threatening way of receiving instruction from a wonderful teacher.

Some time ago I was working with anxiety in my meditation practice. I was at a time of transition, entering into a long term relationship in it’s beginning phases (exciting, but still somewhat stressful), juggling courses with working in my professional life and doing deep healing work on myself. These things added up to a lot of uneasiness and a low grade anxiety in day to day life. One day, when I happened to have a meeting with my meditation teacher, I was feeling particularly anxious and stressed. As was customary in these meetings we sat for a few minutes together at the beginning of our time together. I noticed the anxiety as a pulsating flow that originated in my heart center splashed out in vibratory waves over the rest of my body and dissipating out over my limbs before beginning again in a cycle that began at my heart. When I started speaking with D., my meditation teacher, I explained that I was feeling ‘anxiety’ during our sit. She asked about what i noticed and i explained the intense flowing and cascading energy I felt and how it was causing me to feel increasingly uneasy.

She gazed intently into my eyes and we sat in silence for a few moments. D. then said to me: : “That ‘anxiety’ is just your lifeforce energy.” I sat stunned for a moment. All of these years I had associated the feeling I was experiencing in that moment, particularly intense at that time and varying intensities throughout my life, as anxiety. It was my anxiety, it was bad and I had to get rid of it. I suddenly was crystal clear and sure that she was right and all these years i had made a major error in my view of what was going on. In the months that followed I began to notice that it was the thoughts that came with the feeling that were scary and uncomfortable. My aversion was mostly to these, but the feeling that I associated, or that co-occurred with these thoughts had been lumped into a general category of something bad and to be avoided. To think of this feeling as my ‘lifeforce energy’ completed changed how I related to it. Not only could I do nothing about this experience (if I wanted to remain alive , but I wanted more lifeforce in my life I wanted to increase my energy and live fully with my energy. This was a major impulse and intention in my pursuit of spiritual practice. Though D.’s comment had woken me up to how I had conditioned myself to be afraid of this feeling.

This insight completely changed how I approached my so-called ‘anxiety.’ Two things happened. When this feeling came up I would no longer label it as anxiety I would approach it in a friendly way and soak my awareness into it. Internally I began to say ‘yes’ to this experience, whereas I had previously always tensed and said a fully embodied ‘no’ to it. Now I found that if I was aware of what was happening in my body I would begin allow my experience, it became an ok thing to feel.

The thoughts on the other hand were scary, things like ‘You can’t do this, It will be too much,’ ‘You’ll never meditate correctly,’ ‘This is all a waste of time.’ I am aware, looking at these now in writing these seem like overgeneralized statements and not particularly scary at all. However, if these thoughts circulate in our minds without our awareness and are accompanied by the energetic undulations of our lifeforce energy…this formed a fear strong enough to be registered as anxiety by me. Awareness of the thoughts begins to allow them to be just thoughts and lose their attachment to the high energy of lifeforce. In my experience as we concentrate more an more on the thoughts with concentration and awareness, as well as equanimity they start to lose all power.

The energy inside the body, the lifeforce energy can then be savored. We can soak into it’s movement and organic power. For me, this energy was thought to be too intense initially. However, by our total mindfulness and soaking in of our awareness into the lifeforce energy that arises we can in fact become acclimated and begin to integrate higher and higher levels of energy. In fact, by engaging in practices like meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, etc. we are in fact conditioning our body-mind to handle more and more of the lifeforce energy inside of us, and more and more it can arise unhindered as this conditioning occurs. Of course, we will have to work through our fear and ignorance to get to that place where we encounter the lifeforce energy. It is important to know that much of our fear is not because this feeling is actually dangerous, in fact quite the opposite. The thoughts have made an incorrect or ignorant assessment of the situation.

Underneath our fears and anxieties is a wellspring of energy that if opened to and allowed to be in our bodies can have healing and purifying effects. Forgive me if I’m being repetitive, but I ask that you begin to look at this in your own experience. Feel the feelings and think the thoughts of anxiety and look at the different elements of this experience with your mindful awareness and notice what you find. Be open. Challenge your assumptions about your experience.

I’ve posted a letter from Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Sharon Salzberg asking for financial assistance for Stephen and Ondrea Levine. Both have serious medical concerns and find themselves in need of help. They have dedicated their lives as both Meditation teachers and educators around mindful relationship, and have done seminal work around the issue of death and dying/grief.

Stephen and Ondrea’s work has been life changing for many and very influential with many practitioners of Vipassana. Please read this and consider helping in whatever way you can.

Dear Friends,

We are writing to ask your support for two beloved friends of ours, Stephen and Ondrea Levine. They are currently facing significant difficulty. After a life-time of giving, they are now at a time to receive from those of us whose lives have been touched by their presence and teaching.

Their greatest needs are financial. Ondrea has Leukemia and the costs of her insurance and treatment have used up their savings. Stephen’s health is not good either, and he is too frail to travel or teach. When we heard about this, we felt moved to contribute to a fund set up for them, and to encourage others to do the same.

Stephen and Ondrea have been among our generation’s most important teachers, demonstrating and encouraging others to embrace the power of love and generosity. For three years, they ran a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week free phone line for those dying or in need of support. When the phone bills got too high, they sold their house to keep the project going. For decades they regularly corresponded with thousands people who were seeking spiritual guidance, giving freely to those in need, many of whom were sick or in the final years of their life.

The circle has now come around, allowing us the opportunity to give to these two life-long givers. We hope to raise several hundred thousand dollars in small and large donations to help them through this time.

Caring for friends and teachers is an essential part of any spiritual life. As we age, spiritual friends are more important than ever. Stephen and Ondrea have been dear spiritual friends to us and to thousands of others through their books, workshops, and correspondence.

If you are one of these people and are moved to give, below are three ways to donate to the Levine Fund at Bread for the Journey. Bread for the Journey informs us that donations are tax deductible.

With gratitude and love,
Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Sharon Salzberg

Mail: Send to: Bread for the Journey, 267 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, California 94941. In the letter, please enclose a note indicating that your gift is for the Stephen and Ondrea Levine Fund and in the note section of your check write “Levine Fund.” In honor of the immeasurable gifts Stephen and Ondrea have given to the family of the earth, Bread for the Journey has generously offered to manage the fund with 100% of your donation going to the Levine Fund.

Online: click here and designate the donation to the Levine Fund: http://www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=3583&isRecurring=&

Phone: call 415-383-4600 with a credit card number.

For questions and other means of giving, contact SorenGordhamer@gmail.com.
* Please feel free to post this letter on blogs or forward it to individuals or groups you know who may wish to hear news of Stephen and Ondrea.