Contacting the tangible
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 11 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores a physical warm-up for meditation followed by a grounding meditation. Link to led meditation on video. Grounding meditation When a Zen monk dressed in black robes walks slowly down a gravel path, he is practising walking meditation. He feels the contour of the rock pressing though his sandals; the sensations of his robes fluttering about him in the breeze, deliberately sensing everything tangible in his experience. Moving slowly helps him limit the amount of information coming in, thus he can pay close attention to the details of his experience, sink deeply into what he is experiencing and come into an intimate relationship with the world around him.[1] Grounded in our present moment experience in this way, life tends to be pleasurable; of course, the monk spends long hours sitting in zazen[2] without moving, which requires great discipline. In most secular mindfulness eight-week courses,[3] body awareness is central. The idea of mindfulness is introduced as coming into more intimate contact with our experience; in week one people practise the ‘raisin exercise’, spending five minutes or so investigating every aspect of the experience of a raisin; putting it into their mouth, sensing its texture; its smell; its taste; savouring how it feels in their mouth, and so on. The theory is that our western lives are so driven, we are so obsessed with ‘doing’, that much of the time we run on ‘automatic pilot’, ceasing to notice just what we are experiencing, and missing a large part of our lives. We might imagine that we are getting things done and this may sometimes be the case, but certainly on automatic pilot we abandon a level of colour and richness to our lives. The eight-week course encourages us to wake up from automatic pilot and purposefully bringing awareness to our present moment experience, while holding back from making judgements about it, thus experiencing the ‘being’ mode, where our life is grounded in lived experience. In this way mindfulness gets our mind back on our side. In this way Buddhist and secular mindfulness practice begin with an attempt to ground ourselves in our experience; that is, in the experience of sensation. A feeling of grounded-ness is the effect of being in touch with the tangible, leading to an increasing feeling of confidence. Meditation is the most efficient way of working on the four foundations. In meditation we cease doing our normal activities, retiring to a quiet place where we won’t be disturbed, in order to look carefully into our...
Mindfulness and Conditionality: the body
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 14 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores the way in which the Buddha’s teaching on Conditionality; that all phenomena arise in dependence on (multiple) conditions applies in the case of the Buddha’s central teaching on mindfulness: namely the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. In this case we see how the body conditions the other Foundations: namely feeling, mind (including emotions) and views, in a manner similar to the cognitive model from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This excerpt follows on directly from The Satipatthana Sutta. ii The Cognitive Model Although the principle of Conditionality is explicit in Buddhism, we can see it operating implicitly in other fields, such as in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT is a psychotherapeutic intervention which looks at what can be observed and worked with on the ‘surface’ of our experience, rather than focusing on our internal states. It’s cognitive model[1] identifies four factors that influence moods, such as from depression or anxiety, and which, when changed, will change the mood. Environment–a mood can be changed by altering ones’ ‘psychosocial’ (physical or social) environment. To improve one’s mood one might choose to socialize with people who are positive and cheerful, or to tidy one’s flat. Biology / ‘Physical reactions’–a mood can be changed by altering ones’ bodily state, by taking better care of it, exercising more, getting better sleep, eating more nutritious food, and so on. When a depressed person takes exercise, thus generating greater vitality in their body, it is natural that their mood will lift to some extent. Thoughts–a mood can be changed by altering one’s thoughts, by consciously cultivating more balanced (less catastrophic) thoughts; one puts one’s thoughts ‘on trial.’ Behaviours–a mood can changed by looking for the effect of one’s behaviour on one’s mood and acting accordingly; if acting in a more friendly manner, even when one does not feel like it, improves ones’ mood then one should do that. iii Conditionality at work between the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Correlation between the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and the Cognitive Model Although the foundations are presented in a linear fashion, one after the other, in the Satipatthana Sutta they don’t stand from in isolation and the real juice occurs in the interplay between the foundations. If we are to understand how mindfulness works, we cannot treat the foundations in isolation, but need to see clearly how they are affected by each other. Perhaps as they both concern the human being and its’ situation it is not surprising that the four foundations and the four central aspects...
Super Relaxation Week
Three principles behind relaxation Following on from the YouTube sessions on stimulation which I taught six months into the pandemic and which featured the ideas of Wim Hof, I taught three sessions on relaxation. I called these ‘Super Relaxation Week.’ The sessions are available below: Day 1 This session contains a led semi-supine relaxation from the Alexander Technique. Day 2 In this session Nishpara, a yoga and meditation teacher who has worked with me at the Manchester Buddhist Centre, leads a very detailed body relaxation and breath meditation. Day 3 In this session I review three principles behind relaxation and introduce the Super Relaxation Week worksheet. Download it...
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