Willow Is Not Real

Willow is a dog. When I first met Willow she was introduced to me as a house pet that needed to be penned in during a meeting because she was so excitable. Her keeper gave the visitors two options: 1. have her in the bedroom where she would bark and bark and bark. 2. Let her come in where she would jump up on us and run around in circles. Willow is an Australian Shepperd and can only relax after herding you like a sheep. We chose the bark-free option since we were about to have a meeting and needed to hear each other. And besides, we all needed to sit in the same room together so we were easy to herd. My experience of her was that she was an uncontrollable, scraggly looking, utterly annoying ... dog.

I have never considered myself a dog person. I was a cat person. I was annoyed at the dog before I even got to experience its excitable nature mostly because I identified myself as a cat person ... and definitely NOT a dog person.

As it turned out my relationship with Willow started to change. To make a long story short I ended up volunteering to help take care of Willow on a part time basis as Willow's owner was in need of some support. After spending several days a week with Willow something eerie started to happen. I was beginning to act like a dog person. I was picking up poop, talking to the dog like a person, looking up dog training resources and last but not least .... I was starting to feel some real affection towards her. Now when I go a few days without seeing Willow I start to miss her. I have become a dog person. I am not sure what happened to me. I was cat person you know!

So what does any of this have to do with mindfulness? Well if you watch how you identify yourself as something ... a friend, lover, single person, whatever, you will also notice something else. Things change. The identities we label ourselves and others with are not fixed. When we fix a label on ourselves we often try to maintain it as real and permanent. Upon closer examination things are freer than that and if you watch ... you might just notice yourself becoming something you never thought you could be ... and thank goodness for that freedom.

Victorious Practice

To practice mindfulness you start by bringing your attention to one thing. By sitting and bringing your attention to the breath fully for a moment you are practicing awareness. When you extend that awareness to the next breath, that is further awareness which we call ... mindfulness. Practicing with the breath is an important practice because it is bringing us into focus with the primary sensation of life-giving breath.

Once we can appreciate and relax with this basic sensation of breath then we can extend our awareness to the environment. Mindfulness is not sensory withdrawal. You may need to practice in a quite place at first, yet once you connect with your meditation object or the object of mindfulness then you can afford to relax and let more of the environment into your field of awareness. If you become distracted by thoughts that seem to stem from the sense objects or from past and future concerns, include that in awareness as well. See the thoughts and once you have included then in your awareness, then return to the primary sensation of breath or your meditation object.
 
In order to practice you need to include your experience of the world of the senses and of thoughts while also training your mind to come back to your chosen meditation object. That is what is called practice. After your formal practice session you can work with any experience of the present moment. Feel free to reflect on future goals or past experiences as well, yet from the point of view of greater mindfulness and awareness. There are no experiences or thoughts that need to be excluded from your awareness. Seal everything that comes up with awareness, and come back to your chosen object of meditation. If you can practice mindfulness this way then it is impossible to "fail". With the right view on practice, it is always victorious.

Mindful Hypothesis - A Guided Contemplation: Part 1 of 2

 ~part 2 of this post:http://amindfulnessblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/joy-pain-and-joy.html

The Mindfulness Hypothesis: The causes of happiness and suffering come from within your own mind, and understanding them allows you to determine the result yourself.

My teacher often describes the path of meditation and wisdom he is presenting as a science of mind. In science we often start with a hypothesis about nature which we wish to test. If we observe a cloud in the sky and infer from observation that the sun's heat has something to do with the formation of the cloud, then we devise an experiment to see if this is so. Taking a scientific approach means that we don't just accept things as they appear or as we infer them, rather we form an hypothesis and then test it first. If our hypothesis stands up to reason and experimentation, then we can take it be true. This can be repeated over time as other insights come to light and our hypothesis can be challenged again. New information can shed further light on old knowledge, which is often expanded upon or sometimes deemed no longer true. Physical science, however, is generally focused on the external world and the rigors of modern science often require large samples of data under the right conditions to verify these physical truths.

From: http://chemistry.about.com/od/imagesclipartstructures/ig/Science-Pictures/Titration.htm

We can look at mindfulness with a similar approach, yet also understand that the approach of physical science need not apply in its entirety to our approach of working with and understanding our mind. There are plenty of studies which will tell you that meditation is good for you and that mindfulness is an important part of modern approaches to health and healing, yet what we need as individuals is more specific to ourselves and our own mind and life. We may find that a study with a sample size of 1000 other people we have never met will not help us understand our own life and mind directly. In order to do that we need to be the scientist and the subject in a study with a sample size of one. Others may help us confirm the results, but working with our own mind is a practical form of inner science specific to ourselves.

This leads us to a mindfulness hypothesis. If we were to take the perspective that our own experience of mind and life is of primary importance in determining happiness or suffering, then how would we go about seeing this mind and directing it to get the results we want? First of all we need to be willing to test the hypothesis that happiness comes from within, and the same with suffering. You could observe your experiences through time, today and throughout life to see if this is true. How many things, relationships and events happen outside of ourselves that lead to a lasting experience of happiness? How many things, relationships and events that happen outside ourselves are there that lead to a lasting experience of suffering? Once you have looked into this you could test another hypothesis. What if our experiences of happiness and suffering actually originated within? How often have our own mental attitudes, events or emotions been responsible for joy in our lives or for periods of happiness? What kinds of internal qualities and experiences of mind have lead to positive outcomes? How often have our own mental attitudes, events or emotions been responsible for unhappiness our lives or for periods of suffering? What kinds of internal qualities and experiences of mind have lead to negative outcomes?

If you go through this process it is quite possible that you might come to a certain conclusion that points to the power of your own mind to create your experience of the world. Yet, don't take my word for it. Please test it for yourself. And if you do come to that conclusion then maybe we could think of the implications or come up with another hypothesis. If it does stem from mind, then how do I take care of it, and how do I direct it?

Follow up post to this article:
http://amindfulnessblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/joy-pain-and-joy.html

Own Your Mind - A Contemplation

I was just reading from my teachers book "Rebel Buddha" and one line in particular really hit home. He says that sometimes we are too polite with our suffering or our confusion. Sometimes we need to question its authority over us and stage a rebellion. In order to stage that rebellion against suffering and confusion within our own mind we need mindfulness. Mindfulness is the key to reclaiming our mind and heart. We are often getting guests coming to visit in the house of our mind. Mr. Anger comes in without even knocking the door and the he stays around and wears out his welcome. Why do difficult emotions get away with that? Based on what I'm reading it seems like they get away with it because we let them. You may know from the Buddhist teachings or other wisdom teachings that in order to have a healthy relationship with your mind, it is important not to suppress emotions and I would have to say yes I do think that is true. However, we also need to stop entertaining them as if they were special guests as well.

My teacher uses the analogy of mindfulness as being a person in a house who can lock all the doors. When Mr. Anger arrives to pay a visit we can see him coming. Then we can unlock the door and invite him in, hear what he has to say. That seems fine enough. Then its time for the guest to leave. Because we have seen him coming and mindfully let him in, we can also mindfully say goodbye and let him out. We may not want Mr. Anger in at all, yet if mindfulness is our householder then it seems that we can. We can see it clearly, listen and let go. We don't need to be too polite and offer him drinks and snacks and let him bully us into keeping him as an overnight guest! That would be way too polite.

Mindfulness for Goofballs

I was talking to my co-worker this morning about this blog as I was handing her the keys to the cabinet and, with my hand gesturing, managed to throw the keys on the floor at her feet.

I had a flash of feeling somewhat hypocrital given the topic of discussion. Yet when I reflect on it, feeling hypocritical about that kind of experience is also something worth looking at. Often we have the idea that when we practice something we should get better at it right? Sometimes we expect others who practice yoga or meditation to be peaceful, elegant and kind all the time. This must be based on some kind of fantasy or mental projection which is good to notice as well. Do you ever find yourself judging someone for not living up to your expectations? It happens so quickly that we don't often notice it right away. I noticed it this morning in relation to myself yet we can do it quite quickly towards anyone or anything. The interesting thing is that we often believe our judgements without looking at them closely. So today my question is "Is it really true that because I practice and teach mindfulness that I should never drop a set of keys?". Well it's a good thing that assumption doesn't hold up to analysis because if it did, I would have given up on myself a long time ago.

The Hooker

Do you ever feel like you are hooked by something? One of the things people notice when they start practicing mindfulness and meditation is the contrast between the glimpses of being or being present and the experience of a lot of mental activity or even inner turmoil. This is actually a really good sign of practice when we start to notice what is going on in our mind and our thoughts.

One of the key experiences here, and a sign of practice, is noticing when you are hooked. When you are caught in a thought process or emotional story in your mind and cannot seem to remain present to the situation around you, or to the person you are talking with, it is often because we are mentally hooked by something. If mindfulness is our intention yet we are struggling with what we often call "distraction" then observing that contrast and being able to see it should be regarded as a sign of practice. Not noticing when we are doing this is a form of ignorance.

I saw my yoga teacher Don Stapleton demonstrate his practice of this recently at Kripalu Centre. He was giving a talk on Self Awakening Yoga and started off by saying that he felt behind in the course curriculum and that he felt he needed to "unhook" from the expectation of getting everything done. He kindly asked us all if it was ok for him to do that so he could present from a place of experience. We all gladly accepted. What I observed there was very encouraging. We might think of our teachers as people who don't get hooked but that would an unrealistic and unfair expectation to make of any human being. What Don demonstrated, however, was mindfulness in action. He was able to identify what was grabbing him internally and see it, communicate it, and release it. That's a skilled way of dealing with being hooked by an expectation and very brave on his part to communicate that with the students. I learned a lot about practice in that moment.

So if we if we tend to get hooked, then what is causing this? What is "the hooker" that is preventing us from living in the now and acting from a place of authentic being? I would say that if you are seeing it and responding to it in the way that Don was then there is no hook preventing you from being present. I think it's an important point. How we deal with our minds and what we consider "distraction" will determine the results.

In the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, the master Tilopa said to his disciple Naropa “You are not bound by appearances, but by clinging; So cut your clinging, Naropa!” So what gets us hooked is not what we often blame it on. We often have all sorts of things to blame our discomfort on which appear to be outside of us or sometimes it's what we think of ourselves. Yet what is the real 'hooker" in this situation? Is it some kind of clinging in the mind? It helps us to see how we attach or grab on to thoughts and expectations around what we see and experience.

So when we can see our minds then we can see when we are being hooked. Once we see that we can relax. We can take a breath see the thoughts and emotions that are grabbing us, and let them go. Like Don demonstrated, what is grabbing us and preventing us from moving forward is also an important stepping stone. In this way, what is grabbing us is also our path to freedom from this. The ability to free ourselves in this way comes from a familiarity with what is going on in our minds. So mindfulness of mind can lead to a greater mindfulness of the our entire inner and outer world, right in this very moment.

Take A Leap

Take A Leap - Winter Solstice Poem 2010.

Caught between
the jaws
of past and future
clinging thoughts
a dream
stepping off
the round stone
of the last thought
a leap
into
awake.

http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=153368