“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation is a powerful means of transforming all that you see, hear, and feel… but the presence we develop has a strong effect on those who spend time around us as well.

When you truly develop mindfulness… your very presence becomes powerful.

Your sight becomes more than seeing.

So how do we begin to practice meditation?

How do we develop powerful presence, and sight beyond sight?

In this article, I will be sharing 3 classic meditations for building mindfulness.

But before we get to the meditations, it is important to note that you can do each in one of two ways:

• Receptive:  This is noticing what arises… letting go of any clinging or resistance to it… and just continuing to pay attention.
• Expressive:  This is focusing on one set of feelings, sounds, or images in a peaceful way… and bringing your awareness back to it any time it drifts.

Now, for the Classic Three:

1. Focus on your Feelings:  Pour all your awareness into the sensations in and around your body.  This can be done receptively by paying attention to all the sensations that arise in the body (some may seem ‘physical’, and some may seem ‘emotional’).  This can be done expressively, by focusing on a certain set of sensations, and bringing your attention back to it again and again.  One example of this is call Metta.  During a Metta meditation, you focus on feelings of loving kindness, and imagine sharing those feelings with specific groups of people (your friends, your family, your sangha, everyone in your city, etc.), or with all sentient beings on the planet.
2. Focus on your Hearing:  Pour all your awareness into the sounds you hear.  This can be done receptively by noticing all the sounds that arise internally or externally, being sure to allow them to arise and subside however they will.  Or it can be done expressively through repetition of a sound or phrase, internally or externally.  This is also known as Mantra meditation.  If your awareness drifts from your Mantra… gently bring it back.
3. Focus on your Sight:  Pour all your awareness into the images that you see.  This can be done receptively by noticing all the things you see around you, or focusing on all the images that arise inside your mind.  It can be done expressively by focusing on a single internal image, and bringing your awareness back to it again and again if it drifts.  This is also know as Yantra meditation.

The time for practice is very flexible.  You can use anyone of these 3 for just 1 minute, or you can play with one for several hours.  Set a time frame for practice that is comfortable for you… and then start to expand on it.

Playing with any one of these three meditations will have powerful results… you will notice your ability to simultaneously focus and let go gets better and better… and you might also notice your senses improve as well.

When we pay more attention to our senses… we start to experience them all with more clarity!

In addition to the benefits already mentioned, any one of the receptive meditations is ideal for use with the exercises from A Course in Miracles.

A Course in Miracles:  Day 21

The game for Day 21 is:

I am determined to see things differently.

Today, we are taking the last exercise from ACIM a step further…

We will be using the introspective attention to thoughts and feelings again with this game.

1. Start by repeating the idea to yourself:  “I am determined to see things differently.”
2. Then close your eyes and let images, sounds, and feelings arise as they will (using the receptive version of any or all of the 3 Classic Meditations).
3. After a few moments of pure mindfulness, start to search for specific memories or thoughts that bring about anger.
4. Pick one of these thoughts that invokes anger, and say “I am determined to see this person (use their name) differently” or “I am determined to see this situation (say it specifically) differently”
5. You can also specify a particular aspect of a particular person:  “I am determined to see this impatience in Bob differently”
6. Spend a minute or two doing this with whatever thoughts arise… whether they seem huge or inconsequential.

You will want to play this game 5 times, today, and spend at least a minute on it each time.

Just a little bit of practice can have profound results in your life.

How does all this work together?

These Classic Meditations, and the exercises from A Course in Miracles are methods of clarifying our minds and our souls.

They challenge us, and awaken us progressively!

Or as the Buddha said:

“The stages of the Noble Path are: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.”

-Siddharta Gautama

Or if you want to keep it as simple as possible… keep lovingly bringing your awareness back to what you are doing… then you will truly begin to see.

keep smiling,

Ben

Tagged as: A Course in Miracles, Meditation, mindfulness