This page contains the meditations and a short summary of proceedings from the study day on the 25th May entitled “Accepting/acknowledging and letting go/releasing”. The day consisted of practising and discussing the various techniques to help us with our basic mindfulness practice of being aware of what is happening as it happens, acknowledging everything that is taking place and releasing/letting it all go.
Practice 1 – “The awareness body scan” – a 45minute body scan to give us an opportunity to become aware of all the sensations of the body and of the judgements made by the mind about those sensations. In a sense it is about developing a complete awareness of body and mind together.
Practice 2 – “The Yes/No meditation” – a 28minute practice in which two states of mind are compared; the first when the mind is resisting thought and the second when the mind is open and receptive. It’s a practice that is intended to help us to remain open to all experience and to demonstrate how much easier that is than being closed to new experience.
Summary of the morning – a 7minute recording of a summary of the mornings practices and discussions. No summary was made of the afternoon’s discussion and recordings as the meditation practices are self-explanatory.
Practice 3 – “The Unacceptable Thought meditation” – a 27minute meditation about how to deal with difficult thoughts (with thanks to Stephen Levine).
Practice 4 – “The Letting go meditation” – a 30minute meditation on the theme of letting go. Thanks again to Stephen Levine from whose book “Who Dies?” these last 2 meditation practices were derived.
