We may wonder why is it that we meditate? It seems like such a simple activity as sitting and watching the breath rise and fall would have very little benefit in our lives. But the practice we do on the cushion is our practice for what we do off the cushion in our lives. One example from the cushion is when we take note of those mental and physical aspects (pain for example) that pull our attention away from the breath.
Our practice on the cushion is to sit and with awareness notice the rising of the breath and falling of the breath. Eventually our mind moves away from attention to the breath and to another “more interesting” or compelling thought or sensation.
When we become aware that our mind and awareness have moved away from the breath we simply drop the thought and come back to the breath. We do this over and over again. This meditation technique is used most commonly with the many random thoughts that arise during the sitting meditation. Mind just likes to think!
Periodically a sensation or thought is so attractive, repulsive, or compelling that we become lost in the sensation of the sense experience or the content of the thought. Or the thought may have an emotional basis that it keeps recurring over and over again during our sitting. When this occurs we can apply a different technique. When a thought or emotion is so compelling that it either recurs or that we are lost in the content over and over again, we can apply the technique known as known as “noting”. This noting is applied by giving the thought or sensation a name such as anger, craving, anxiety, or we can merely mentally note the quality of the physical sensation such as tightening in the chest, tension or tightness in the head or arms or abdomen when this thought or sensation arises. In practice it may work like this: Let’s say the emotion of fear arises and pulls our attention completely away from our meditation object (the breath for example). We notice fear has arisen because of some tightness of other physical experience. At that point we can make the mental note that “fear is present” or “this is fear” or “fear is like this”!
The value of noting technique is that it moves the mind’s attention away from the content of the thought or aversion to the actual physical sensation and into the direct experience of what is happening. As we sit and note this new subject of awareness, we have a direct experience of arising, manifesting and disappearance, a
direct experience of impermanence. When this emotion subsides (as it will) we return to simply watching the rising and falling of the breath or to another object of awareness
A deeper practice of noting involves mindfulness of the quality of the mind that is noting. So that when we sit in meditation and notice that anxiety is present a deeper practice involves us noting the quality of mind that is noting the anxiety. Is the quality of mind one that is pushing the anxiety away; the quality of the aversion? Or can we practice so that when we notice anxiety has arisen the quality of mind that is noticing anxiety is one of equanimity, clarity, and peaceful observation.
Our practice is not to reject thoughts or to have an aversion towards thoughts or pain. Our practice is to see clearly that aversion has risen, and do so with awareness that is open and accepting of all thoughts that arise pass through the mind.
This practice of noting is to be used off the cushion. With practice, when anger, craving, anxiety, fear or any afflictive motion arise, our mindful awareness notices that these afflictive emotions have arisen. We often notice this in the tightness in our bodies. When we can stay with noticing that these emotions have arisen and notice the physical sensation of these emotions, we are being mindfully aware of the present moment. When we are mindfully aware we are no longer in the content of the emotion and are in a much better place to make choices from a place of clarity.
So this week our practice on/off the cushion is to notice the moment the sensations of emotion arise, and where in our bodies we notice them. At that moment if we can stay with the experience we can watch the emotion rise and fall away.
We can take this to a deeper level of practice and notice what is the quality of this awareness? Does the awareness of the sensation of fear have the quality of aversion, resentment, or anger toward yourself? Or can we notice the fear with peace and equanimity. The fear (anxiety, craving, anger, etc) may still be present but we see with clarity that all of this can be noted from a place of acceptance and non judging. We can note the fear without pushing the fear away. We can accept that fear is present and “it’s like this”. It isn’t agreeing or liking it; it’s simply being aware.
Try this with small things first; perhaps an episode of impatience. We simply note from our own direct experience “impatience has arisen” or “this is impatience”. Then if you would like to take this to a deeper level you can note; what is the quality of this noting? Go deeper into the experience of noting to see if there is judging hidden within your noting that impatience has arisen.
Our practice of Mindfulness leaves nothing un-‐examined and yet it is present with a compassionate acceptance of what is arising, manifesting and falling away. Judging is just another manifestation of “me and mine”-‐ the root cause of suffering.
Please Note: This practice is not about intellectualizing and continually noting everything that comes. Our practice is not to become a robot logging in each experience into our database. It is about paying special attention to those experiences (emotions, compulsions, sensations, etc) that pull us out of the present moment and into a reactive nonaware state.
Have a peaceful and mindful week! May you be well, happy and peaceful. Floyd
