Day-to-day mindfulness
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 4 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores day-to-day mindfulness. It follows on from ‘Mindfulness of Breathing: focus on detail.’ Day-to-day mindfulness The Mindfulness of Breathing develop awareness within the most conducive conditions; that mindfulness can then be applied to our day-to-day activities. In terms of mindfulness of the body we need to try and preserve the principles we learned in the Grounding Meditation, by attending to the state of our body and looking after it as we go about our daily business. Our body needs to be a vehicle that we are looking after, that will thus support our mind and emotions in their activity to bring about happiness. It is helpful if we are mindful of our body as we go about in the world, by moving in a way in which our spine is balanced and takes our weight as we move, and by minimizing the amount of muscular tension employed in our bodily activities. Our bodily use would be inspired by ideas developed by F. M. Alexander in the Alexander Technique; ideally, we would retrain ourselves to move naturally, as children and animals do, with grace and poise; at the very least, we would look after our body through regular trips to the gym or through taking Epsom salt baths. Other aspects of day-to-day mindfulness might include organizing our lives better so that for instance we know where we have left our car keys, as outlined in Maitreyabandhu’s Life with Full Attention. In general, any mental action or remembrance that helps us avoid unnecessary suffering is an aspect of day-to-day mindfulness. Certainly, it can help our mind feel more secure, and thus reduce mental suffering, when we ‘spell out’ to ourselves our situation; where we are, what we are doing, how we are feeling, and so on. This activity of ‘noting’ is a key tool in Theravada Buddhist meditation where the practitioner endeavours to make everything more conscious and it certainly has its use, although it does not cover every aspect of practice. In day-to-day mindfulness there is a sense in which we need to be appreciating our surroundings for the experience they have to offer, as illustrated in the ‘raisin exercise’ commonly used in week one of a secular mindfulness course. We come out of automatic pilot and consciously experience what is in front of our noses, thus maximizing the pleasure of sensory experience, though not at the expense of other sources of happiness–for ourselves or others. Mindfulness of the body’s posture and physical movement The monk...
Intention, Motivation, Acceptance, Reinforcement
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores further ways in which the Four Foundations of Mindfulness condition each other: such as through the processes of intention, motivation, acceptance and reinforcement. It also explores how the Foundations combine: for instance as sources of tension, relaxation, and so on. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: views. ix Secondary conditional relations These twelve ‘processes’ illustrate the primary processes in play between the four foundations. For completion, it is important also to extend the Conditionality model to include all the ‘secondary’ processes that exist between the foundations and the primary processes associated with them. Here are some examples; INTENTION Intention is the process by which emotion is conditioned by the presence of views. Views—–Intention—–>Emotion Our emotion—in the sense of our wanting—can be quite vague; we vaguely want to amass pleasurable experiences and to avoid painful ones. The clearer our view is about what will bring us happiness, the more we can form an intention. For instance, we might be clear that it will be beneficial to us to meditate at 7am every morning and might set an intention to do just that. This intention will condition our emotion to do so. However, although on the surface we might think we have set a clear intention, other views lurk beneath the surface, such as the unarticulated view that ‘comfort is the way forward.’ This view sets up a countervailing intention that leads us to want to stay in bed. If that intention is the stronger, then we stay in bed. Intention that leads to happiness An Enlightened person who holds Right View[1] possesses Skilful Intention because their views always lead to emotions which bring about happiness, for instance loving kindness. However, short of Enlightenment a person will exhibit unskilful emotions, which is evidence that they do not possess Right View and that their intentions consequently are not always skilful. Such people need to make a conscious effort to make skilful intentions and stick to them, if the world is to be as happy a place as it might be, and they do so by examining their views, conscious and unconscious. Intention that leads to suffering Obviously, an intention that leads to suffering is one that arises from a wrong view about what pursuits will lead to happiness. Although we might make an intention to do something skilful, like quit smoking or meditate regularly, we often fail, due to our subconscious intentions to do something...
Mindfulness and Conditionality: mind
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 16 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores the way in which Mind conditions the other Foundations of Mindfulness, including the poorly understood concept of worldly and spiritual feeling: which can be roughly correlated with conscience or lack of it. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: feeling. vii Mindfulness of mind conditioning happiness / Awakening Mind When we are trying to transform our mind to be sources of happiness, we need to bear in mind that it will always affect the other foundations. When the condition of mind is in place—as it always is, it will always affect body, feeling and views, contributing towards Awakening or suffering in the future, through the processes of manifestation, ethical feeling and reflection. Body and feeling come in the category of experience; we are presented with them as experience in each moment, and as such in that moment there is nothing we can do about them, but experience them. Mind and views, on the other hand, are not experience as such, because we can choose to develop one mental state (or view) instead of another, as we do when we meditate (or reflect). Mind and views are responses to experience. We saw in the previous section how an appropriate response to ethical feeling depended on correctly identifying worldly and spiritual feeling. This could only be achieved once we had correctly identified the skilful and unskilful mental states that fostered them. Once a worldly feeling has been identified the mental state which opposes its progenitor needs to be developed; the pain of seeing our enemy is caused by the mental state of aversion, hence the mental state of loving kindness needs to be developed to counteract it, and thus alleviate the pain. Likewise, if we identify a worldly feeling of bliss as originating in a mental state of unawareness, we need to cultivate mindfulness until our unawareness becomes painful to us. By being aware of the effect of our body, feelings and views have on our mental states (as a source of happiness and well-being for ourselves and others) we aim maintain these in the best state we can. These are the conditions for happiness and suffering concerning mind. MANIFESTATION Firstly, there is manifestation. Mind and Body are interconnected, and so our mental and emotional states will manifest[1] tangibly within the body, and the world (through the operation of karma). Mental and emotional states —–Manifest—–> Body / World An angry state of mind will be apprehended as tension in...
Mindfulness and Conditionality: feeling
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 13 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores the way in which feeling (vedana) conditions happiness / Awakening. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: the body. vi Mindfulness of feeling conditioning happiness / Awakening Feeling When we are trying to transform feeling into a source of happiness, we need to bear in mind that when the condition of feeling is in place—as it always is, it affects body, mental states and views, contributing towards Awakening or suffering in the future, through the processes of expression, emotion and acceptance. EXPRESSION Firstly, there is expression. Feeling is expressed in the body; this is helpful to Awakening when it aids awareness of feeling, unhelpful when it is simply indulgent. Only mindfulness will help the monk discern that which will drive him towards Awakening and it is here that he places his attention and his effort. How might feeling affect the body? Firstly, we need to remind ourselves that feelings are expressed in the body. Feeling —–Expression—–> Body We need to ask ourselves; ‘Does that expression of feeling in the body lead to happiness or not?’ Expression that leads to happiness When we experience a feeling of pleasure or pain that feeling is often expressed in some way through the body, for instance in laughing or crying. When then should we laugh and when should we cry? We should laugh or cry when it helps us connect with how we are feeling, when it helps us to know how we are. Sometimes we need to have a good cry to connect with feelings which are present, but buried (and affecting us all the same). It is about sensing the tone of our grief, or joy; Does it feel like we are connecting through expressing it or are we only escaping? When we sit in meditation we are looking to be still and stable in our posture, though by sitting naturally, not rigidly. We try and set our body up to be as comfortable as we can, perhaps aiding this by doing bodywork beforehand. And whenever we experience physical pain or discomfort, unless we sense it may lead to injury, we try not to move. The principle behind this injunction is that in meditation we are trying to gently and kindly turn towards our experience, and that includes feelings of whatever kind. We are looking, over time, to deal with them rather than avoid them; this also applies to pleasant, joyful feelings. We seek to make our mindfulness and meditation...
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...
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