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Attentive or mindful?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Being attentive seems to be a skill. Attentive (or mindful) of what though? I would suggest the moment AND any attendant arisings. Though it is true that being in the 'I AM' moment largely negates the arising, many of us still practice.
This is where Buddhist techniques come in:
- Slowing down physical actions to half speed
- Return to the breath
- Focus on internal mantra
- Softening the physical beings sensations
- Letting go of the tightening around [insert concept sphincter]
- Metta projection
- Awareness remembrance
- Returning to the moment
etc.
What techniques are you presently finding useful?
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When I am mindful, I am simply involved in the experience of the here and now.
Actually, I am one with the experience, and metta projection is part of that process.
It is when I stop being mindful that I drag myself back by return to the breath, softening the physical sensations, letting go of the tightening around [wherever I happen to be tightening], and returning to the moment.
Focus on mantra is a pause from the here and now...
@Lobster
What techniques are you presently finding useful?
I try to live & practice, one breath at a time.
My attention on the feel of my breath is regulated to not be so strong as to dominate any of the other sense gate data and not to be so soft as to have me forget what I am doing.
This balance offers the band width of my sense gates as wide a reception as possible, just as due diligence limits our conditioned behaviors chances of obscuring it.
It also offers a remarkable potential of bliss for so simple a practice.
Recently I found that I was too focused on measurable achievement and progress in meditation, which I suppose could be read as being too 'tight' around my expectations. I've mostly let go of this, but have lately found that my mind is too unfocused and wandering. So now I'm trying to return to the breath with a bit more effort. Not sure if I'm on the right track or not...
For me too. It's what allows me fully to participate in the here and now for the rest of the time. My "keep it simple, stupid" version is reminding myself to take time to smell the roses
Each breath is beautiful and interesting the more we observe and appreciate it. Unlike the human psyche which tries to color everything either good or bad. The breath is natural, and anything that is natural is uniquely beautiful. You have to learn to appreciate things as they are to really see it.
Right now I am recognising the habitual negative emotions arising as they do, every month; I see, perceive, know and understand that it it not "I" who generates these thoughts and feelings, but the natural, physical, biological and hormonal transformations going on, within me.
I cannot prevent them.
That is to say, perhaps I could - but it would involve either ingesting drugs pharmacists, doctors and so-called experts insist I should take (because to them, of course, PMS/the menopause are conditions requiring treatment, rather than being the natural processes they really actually are) or purchasing herbal remedies which sadly, are beyond my pocket...
so I have to contend with being more mindful, more present, more attentive, without the aid of any harness or safety net....
And sometimes, I confess, it's a struggle.... particularly when those around me are at their frustrating worst....
Vizualising buddha helps to come back to the moment, for example:
Imagine buddha sitting infront of the bodhi tree meditating, with a little smile,
this helps me to keep my mood/mental acitivy more staibel and calm in many situations.
When you are in trouble or suffer, you can imagine him tuching the ground with his hand, it reminds you to Stay in the moment and you can handel things in a better way.
Its maybe little bit weird, but it helps.
That's an interesting technique.
You will see Chogyams correct size advice on this page . . .
http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/2011/10/28/what-kind-of-buddhist-was-steve-jobs-really/
In a similar way @Namada has described an inspirational visualisation or inspiration that I believe can be very helpful for some. Tightening around one way for all can be limiting some peoples resources. The use of visualisation that @Jeffrey calls the tantric 'mandala', where the Buddha is present as an experiental correspondence is related to this . . . Useful.
The use of 'returning to the breath' that @how mentions should not be underestimated for both its simplicity, availability and all the way and beyond practicality.
Yes, the breath is ever-present and available, very simple and useful. Maybe the challenge is remembering to do it!
As for sphincter control, body scans are now very popular. As one of my teachers used to say, "Alert yet relaxed".
I can't remember where / when I learned to just pay attention to the things around me, but just being mindful when the trains go in the near distance or dogs or cats or birds are heard or kids playing outside, etc. has really made me see just how scattered my thoughts have been for who knows how long. I don't know that I come very close to actual meditation when I lie down to at least practice a little more intense mindfulness. It really has been a head-turner for me, and in conjunction with my EFT and NLP makes it that much richer.
Nowadays, when I'm driving, I pay more attention to the periphery, birds or insects flying nearby - I remember clearly yesterday, how a little bee landed on my windshield wiper right in front of me, and was able to look at his little body very closely, and noticed his 'fur'. He was very small and I wondered if he had been affected by the air pollution, etc.
Yes, it's something about really noticing, being interested in the detail of the present.
Just like a cat
I focused on breathing - until there is no need to be aware anymore- just emerged into nothingness - just a moment of stillness. When I became unmindful again - i'll just go back to breathing again and experience the here and now. There is no destination, nothing to expect in the future or past. It is just the quality of "just now"
I am seeing a good impact of simply stilling the body. If alone it takes 20 minutes to reach the state and one can slip from it but can regain it again in the same time frame. If practising with a group it takes a bit longer. The best part is you dont need a bija/mantra, any external objects to develop insight about, whatever tools you need are with you.
What does ones nostrils smell of? What lets go of the out breath?
What thinks between thoughts?
Who ate the inside of the easter egg first?
Good plan