Finding space today to return to my notes from previous retreats including the three universal characteristics that are threaded through everything:
- impermanence, change - unsatisfactoriness, our vulnerability in this life - no fixed 'self' (which follows from the characteristic of impermanence, and leads to the insight of no fixed 'others' also...) These characteristics are relevant everywhere and participants will meet them in various guises during an MBCT course. We begin to turn some light on them, because, with patience and practice, seeing more clearly the way things work can free us from all sorts of tangles. Taking the first of the three, here is a lovely reflection on change from a practice guided by Joseph Goldstein: 'An important aspect of our experience is opening to the understanding of change. We can see change happening on every level of experience. We can see it in the birth and death of stars and of whole galaxies. We can see it in the rise and fall of civilizations. We can see the change in our environment, the change in the seasons, change in the daily weather patterns, and as we come in closer to our own personal experience we see change on every level of our bodies and minds. The body ages and grows older. Thoughts arise and pass away, emotions come and go. Different sounds appear and disappear. Change is so pervasive and so commonplace that we've mostly stopped paying attention to it, and yet this insight into change, the direct perception of change in our lives is the gateway to greater ease and freedom. We see that emotions come and go and we are less likely to be swept away by them. We see that certain sensations in the body, even if they're uncomfortable, will arise, be there for some time and change in some way. We see the fleeting nature of thoughts and we have a greater ability to discern which ones we want to follow and which ones to let go of.' Joseph Goldstein, 'Everything Changes' Mindfulness Meditation on Insight Timer.
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While preparing for teaching session 8 of the MBCT course I saw these 5 tips for practising mindfulness throughout the day...
5 tips for learning how to practice mindfulness in daily life from Larry Rosenberg: 1. When possible, do just one thing at a time. 2. Pay full attention to what you’re doing. 3. When your mind wanders from what you are doing, bring it back. 4. Repeat step three, several billion times. 5. Investigate your distractions. Also a great longer read bringing together wisdom on this from many different mindfulness teachers: https://highexistence.com/how-to-practice-mindfulness/amp/ |
AuthorI'm Claire - and I (re)learn something every day from practising and teaching mindfulness... Archives
March 2022
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