Jun 152012
I had intended to do this weekly; however, it seems that monthly works better. I am trying to keep a good flow on the site without impeding other blogs. So here is the next installment of the virtual meditation group.
This is the next lesson from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “Letting Everything Become your Teacher; 100 Lessons in Mindfulness”, which I hope will inspire your practice.
In part your vision is molded by your unique life circumstances, by your personal beliefs and values. Another part will develop from your experience of meditation practice itself from letting everything become your teacher: your body, your attitudes, your mind, your pain, your joy, other people, your mistakes, your failures, your successes, nature – in short all your moments. If you cultivate mindfulness in your life, there is not one thing that you do or experience that cannot teach you about yourself by mirroring back your reflections of your own mind and body. Source Kabat-Zinn J., Letting Everything become your Teacher; 100 Lessons in Mindfulness, 2009, Delta
It would be great if some of you would take part and we could have a discussing on how we are getting on with our meditation using the forum. I would be interested in any comments. Click here to follow the link, then click ‘Practice’ and ‘Meditation in every day life’.
10 comments on “Meditation in Everyday Life 3 – Anantacitta”
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Wow its a new look sec bud Uk. Good work Anantacitta. I haven’t yet had a look all over but this looks much more enticing, though i have to admit that i was totally happy with the look of the first version. Clear, uncluttered and simple is an aesthetic i like very much. I never bother to join up on sites that are cluttered. This one is nicer than the first one of course.
Its all very well to say let everything be your teacher but its one of those things that sounds deceptively obvious. I am sure most people haven’t a clue how to go about letting everything be your teacher. If it was easier, we would all learn much more and much faster from our mistakes than we do.
I must get around to reading one of jkz’s books. Does it matter which one i start with. I want to know what his method of teaching or learning or practising meditation is, especially if he ever talks about doing it in a clinical setting.
Hi Andrea
Thanks for your kind comments. I was keen to revamp the website; although the first site looked fine the template I was using had some limitations. This one means more information can be put on the sidebars.
I think that what Kabat-Zinn may be saying is that every experience in life is a learning experience. This certainly strikes a cord with me. I quite often find myself becoming angry especially driving through the West Midlands traffic, with lots of crazy drivers. It struck me that all I was doing was winding myself up. One can only do something about ones own behaviour not that of others. I hope that if I meditate long enough I develop equanimity.
With warm wishes
Anantacitta
Please go to the Forum, Practice, Meditation in Every Day Life, for further discussion.
I don’t want to go to the forum practice for further discussion. I can’t see the point of the forum when the discussion topic is here.
Yes it strikes a chord with me. In fact i’ve already learnt this point. I’m just saying that for those who haven’t learnt this point, its not that easy. Its one of those lines that sound obvious but are not. You have to find a way to think it through via your own experience. I can’t explain this properly but i have noticed this with other simple sounding admonitions. Eg take responsibility. I am sure i thought i knew what this meant before i “really” knew what this meant after someone said something that really jogged my thinking along. When i discovered this, i realised that most other people didn’t know what it means either. You can tell by the way they complain about stuff.
So that’s all i was saying. It sounds good but its frequently not understood. Otherwise we’d all be learning much faster.
Hi Andrea, is this any help?
I’ve learned a lot from neuroscience about how the brain works and this is helping me work much more effectively with my experience.
For example, I gave up smoking when I understood that “I want to smoke” and “I don’t want to smoke” were both me but contradicted one another, because they were two different brain configurations . When I came to remember both, whether I was having a cigarette or not, I could see them as brain configurations, not ‘I’ per se.
If this is applied to “I want to meditate” and “I’m resisting meditating” they can become two points of view that I can work with rather than warring with one another. It is easy to miss that it is me who is resisting as well as me wanting to meditate. What’s the story behind that? “I’m tired” ? “I don’t feel like it”? Sometimes I need to listen to that; sometimes I need to hear that it’s like a child who doesn’t want to go to bed and work gently with it.
I also like the new look of the site “sec bud uk”
Tony
This two-brain-configuration makes a lot of sense and it’s clearly been a very useful insight for you. Anything that overcomes the power of nicotine is very powerful indeed. I wonder if you were able to stop smoking at once, or if you needed to mobilise the insight over time, like applying the brakes intermittently on a long gradient?
I’d be interested in your comments on the right-brain-left-brain ideas discussed by Robert Ellis in his review of Master and His Emissary on his moral objectivity website, if you have any of course, and find time to read the review.
Peter
Hi Andrea,
I talk quite a bit about this in the meditation classes I teach. For my practice and that is all I can realistically talk about I do notice occurrences during and out of meditation, in my every day life. I would agree that it does sound obvious but is not. Humans have a capacity to delude themselves, and are able to convince themselves they are acting skillfully when they might not be. I sometimes laugh out loud when I notice the way I react to certain stimulus. It is a bit like falling into the same muddy puddle, again. I think with practice of meditation it becomes harder to fool yourself. I have found that I am very strongly faced with what is actually happening, in my mind and my actions. The process is without doubt my own, but I also think having good friends who can help support my practice is very beneficial. For me meditation is gathering the disparate parts of myself in one place. I can say I have benefited greatly from meditation and have grown in understanding. I would definitely say this is an ongoing process and I am learning all the time.
With warm wishes
Anantacitta
Anantacitta
In the spirit of helpfulness I would like you to set out what, for you, are the characteristics of a good friend. Perhaps you could list them, drawing on the qualities of the friends you already have perhaps, and noting any gaps in the qualities they bring to helpfulness.
I know from our occasional exchanges with each other that there are things you find very unhelpful, like sharp criticism, or over-long commentaries.
It would also help if you could list the kind of behaviours in friends that are particularly helpful in supporting your practice, and as explicitly as possible. For example, “I like it when people sit with me, but I’m more comfortable with two or more others than with one other, and I prefer it if they are women, or men, or people I don’t know professionally etc” (I’ve made these up to illustrate whart kind of detail might be helpful).
Another example might be, “I’m not keen on guided meditations, especially guides who suggest altering the depth of breathing, or who go mechanically through the Immeasurables, or talk in a strange ‘spiritual’ tone of voice”. I’ve described my own dislikes here, for what they’re worth.
Peter
Anantacitta I can resonate with this
“I think that what Kabat-Zinn may be saying is that every experience in life is a learning experience. This certainly strikes a cord with me. I quite often find myself becoming angry especially driving through the West Midlands traffic, with lots of crazy drivers. It struck me that all I was doing was winding myself up. One can only do something about ones own behaviour not that of others. I hope that if I meditate long enough I develop equanimity.”
But I can also resonate with what Andrea wrote about being responsible
” take responsibility. I am sure i thought i knew what this meant before i “really” knew what this meant after someone said something that really jogged my thinking along. When i discovered this, i realised that most other people didn’t know what it means either. You can tell by the way they complain about stuff. ”
So it is one thing to know this as an idea but to really understand and to put in practice maybe is more difficult than one think. I know that I am not good at it. I know that I should be more mindful but I don’t have a habit of being it in practice and I am not really sure I know what it means on the level that Andrea point to. So getting friendly feedback from Secular Buddhists may help a lot.
Hi Natural
Is not appropriate responsibility making the choice of doing what’s best for the situation at hand rather than doing what’s best for oneself and doesn’t every experience in life afford as that choice?
Here’s a bit of friendly feedback for you, Natural Entrust.
I notice that you ‘know that you should be more mindful’. Where does this idea you’ve formed come from, that you ‘should be’ something that you ‘know’ you’re not?
It seems to me that when you ‘know’ your not mindful you’re as mindful as you could possibly be in that moment.
And in this moment too, reading these words, you are present…..
And in this, where there is no ‘should’ and no ‘should not’, crowding out presence, and letting in fear.