This page contains the talks, meditation practices and other information related to the introductory and deepening insight meditation courses from 2021 and 2022 starting with the introductory talk and a basic “Coming to Rest” meditation practice.
Other pages on this website that are relevant to this course include “Ways of looking,” “Emotional Realisation” and “How to meditate in silence“.
INTRODUCTORY TALK FROM TUESDAY THE 2ND FEBRUARY 2021.
“COMING TO REST” meditation practice from Tuesday the 2nd February 2021. A basic insight meditation practice designed to allow the mind and body to rest in an open and receptive state – just under 30mins in length.
SESSION 1 – HOW TO STOP TRYING.
You can find a description of techniques, to help us to come to rest and observe our experience, in the “Ways of Looking” page on this website. Please also remember that you learn and insight arises from your own mind as you begin to practise these meditation techniques. You are your own teacher.
Practice 1 – Coming to our meditation practice, settling and being aware of our intentions, our motivations and allowing ourselves to rest in the moment. A 28min meditation practice recorded on Tuesday the 9th February 2021.
Practice 2 – Releasing the desire to achieve, attain an outcome or hold on to anything in our meditation practice and being with our experience just as it is. A 29minute meditation practice recorded on Tuesday the 9th February 2021.
Practice 3 – “Letting go of any hope of achieving anything” practice. A 30minute practice recorded on Monday the 30th August 2021 in which participants are invited to come into a deep sense of relaxation and let go of any sense of trying to attain any outcomes from their meditation practice.
Practice 4 – Being with the experience of our 5 external senses and the activity of our minds. A 29minute practice in which participants are invited to open all of their senses including that of awareness of the mind and rest with all that they experience. Recorded on Monday the 30th August 2021.
SESSION 2 – STAYING OPEN.
Staying open to whatever arises during meditation requires considerable practice since our every instinct is to avoid the unpleasant and unwanted in our minds. If we are going to practice insight meditation successfully it is essential that we learn to do this otherwise we will be distancing ourselves from much of what resides in the mind and rendering ourselves unable to learn from it.
There are a variety of techniques that can help us to remain open of which the first 2 are maintaining an open posture and using the sense of opening as the body breathes in.
Practice 1 – Staying open using the breath. A 30minute meditation practice recorded on Tuesday the 16th February 2021.
When difficult thoughts and feelings arise in the mind we can help ourselves to remain open to them by connecting with the sense of space that awareness brings. This enables us to view them as if from a distance and to develop a sense of perspective that otherwise can disappear when the mind constricts around difficulties. We can also use an open questioning technique such as saying “What is this?” to ourselves during meditation practice to help us adopt an attitude of curiosity and interest to whatever is arising. A curious and interested mind is much more likely to remain open than a mind that wishes to reject and suppress.
Practice 2 – Staying open when things are difficult. A 28minute meditation practice recorded on Tuesday the 16th February 2021.
Practice 3 – Resting in a state of openness to whatever arises. A 32minute meditation practice in which we start by letting go of any expectations, settle into an open body posture and then use a variety of techniques to enable the mind to remain open even when difficulties arise. Recorded on Monday the 6th September 2021.
Practice 4 – The unacceptable thought meditation – using compassion to help us to remain open even when he most difficult thoughts and feelings arise. A 28minute practice recorded on Monday the 6th September 2021.
SESSION 3 – THE POWER OF SILENCE.
It is very easy to allow ourselves to be guided through a meditation practice following the voice of a facilitator and gently ignoring what may be arising for us in favour of the words that are being given to us. Silent meditation practice, that is without the support of someone guiding, allows us to experience what is arising in our own minds as it is in the moment that it arises. Silent practice should become an essential part of our insight practice thought not necessarily the whole of our practice. In this session we have a chance to experience sitting in silence and then to explore the role of compassion, particularly self-compassion, as another component of our insight training.
Talk on the importance of being able to meditate in silence.
Practice 1 – Sitting in silence. A 25minute sitting practice in which participants are guided through the process of settling, grounding and resting and then invited to meditate in silence for the remainder of the practice. Recorded on Tuesday the 23rd February 2021.
Practice 2 – Flower of love and compassion practice. A 24minute sitting practice in which participants are invited to experience the power of their own innate sense of love and compassion. Compassion practice is important in the development of insight as it softens the mind enabling practitioners to be more open and accepting of whatever is arising into awareness. Recorded on Tuesday the 23rd February 2021.
Practice 3 – Conceptual proliferation – sitting in silence and observing the flow of thoughts through the mind and the processes of association, analysis and explanation. A 21minute meditation practice recorded on Monday the 13th September 2021.
Practice 4 – Softening and opening the mind through self-compassion. Realising the innate beauty and the capacity to be kind, loving and compassionate that lies within us all. Recorded on Monday the 13th September 2021.
SESSION 4 – RECOGNISING CONCEPTUAL PROLIFERATION.
During the course of our daily lives there is a strong tendency for our awareness to become drawn at any moment into the associations, reactivity and the stories that a simple stimulus, such as any thought, sight, sound, smell, taste or body sensation, might trigger for us. Our minds readily become entangled in a web of increasingly complex mental activity that is sometimes called conceptual proliferation. It is a process of amplification and fabrication that ensnares the mind in associations and stories in ways that are not helpful, that lead us to ruminate and sometimes to become obsessed and caught up in seemingly simple events. When we practice mindfulness our intention is to stay at or in contact with our basic experience which can be the breath, sound or any sensation arising through our 5 external senses. This enables us to let go of the grosser levels of the self-based narrative and proliferation of thought that characterises conceptual proliferation and begin to experience both the clarity of the present moment and the peacefulness that naturally arises as the mind releases thought and quietens. Realising conceptual proliferation and allowing the mind to quieten through basic mindfulness practice is the start of our process of gaining insight. Only as the mind becomes calmer and more peaceful can we begin to look deeper into the process that determine our reality.
Practice 1 – Staying in contact. A 28minute practice in which we sit in awareness and as best we can observe the activity of our minds letting go of distracting thoughts as and when they arise. Recorded on Tuesday the 2nd March 2021.
Practice 2 – Being with feelings. Recognising conceptual proliferation and releasing thought enables us to become less caught up in intellectual activity and to begin to be more aware of our feelings. As we connect more with our feelings we can begin to see that insight meditation is a feeling, rather than a thinking, process. This 25minute practice is designed to help us practise the art of being more aware of our feelings whilst letting go of our intellectual thought processes. Recorded on Tuesday the 2nd March 2021.
As we progress further in our insight meditation we will increasingly practise connecting with our feelings and exploring a world of cognition that involves feeling rather than intellectual thought.
PRACTICE MEDITATIONS (more meditation practices that can be used to support the first 4 sessions of this course).
Recording 1 – Attitudes to teaching and learning – you are your own teacher, always check everything that you are told against your own experience in meditation practice, avoid seeking security in a “teacher” and always be prepared to return to basics especially when you are feeling confident and secure in your practice. A brief 6minute talk to stress these points.
Recording 2 – The cycle of thought and being the observer. A 30minute meditation in which we practice observing and familiarise ourselves with the part of our mind that is capable of observing.
Recording 3 – The feeling body scan. A 33minute body scan in which we observe the feelings and emotions that we have in association with the physical sensations that are arising as we scan through the body.
Recording 4 – The old friend. A 30minute meditation in which we practise being kind, caring and loving towards our minds, our moment by moment experience and ourselves by using the analogy of the way we might feel towards an old and very dear friend.
Recording 5 – Observing our thoughts with kindness. A 30minute meditation practice in which we are invited to observe the arising and passing of our thoughts with an attitude of kindness and caring.
Recording 6 – Love and Forgiveness towards ourselves. A 25minute meditation practice which invites us to look at ourselves and regard what we observe with kindness, caring and compassion.
Recording 7 – Basic self-compassion practice. A 31minute meditation practice to help us generate feelings of compassion towards ourselves.
SESSION 5 – WHO AM I? – AM I MY THOUGHTS OR THE OBSERVER OF THOSE THOUGHTS?
When we rest our awareness on the breath (or on an external meditation support) and return to it every time our mind drifts away we begin to see that one part of the mind is capable of observing what the rest of the conscious, active mind is doing. The term observer or witness describes what is our natural capacity for self-reflective awareness – simply meaning our awareness of what we are thinking and feeling at any one time. At first it can be difficult to observe what the mind is doing because we get caught up in thinking very easily but as we continue to practice the ability to observe becomes clearer and more stable. At that point we can begin to look more closely at the mind and ask questions of ourselves – “Who am I – am I my thoughts or that which is capable of observing them?”
To answer this question requires looking deeper into the mind through feeling rather than thinking. In this we are beginning to leave behind not only the tendency to be caught in conceptual proliferation but also the superficial reactivity of many of our feelings and emotions. In other words we delving deeper into our feeling mind and allowing ourselves to experience deep seated attitudes, insecurities and fears arising from our conditioning. In the 2 basic insight meditations from this session we first practice being the observer and then consider the nature of that observer.
Practice 1 – Being the observer. A 26minute practice in which, after settling, grounding and coming to rest, we are invited to observe the flow of thought through the mind and notice how it feels to be the observer. Recorded on Tuesday the 6th April 2021.
Practice 2 – The nature of the observer. A 27minute practice in which we are invited to gently begin the process of looking into the nature of the observer and to notice how this feels. This is followed by the question “Where in the mind does the sense of me or I reside?” Recorded on Tuesday the 6th April 2021.
SESSION 6 – TUESDAY THE 13TH APRIL 2021 – THE EGOCENTRIC PREFERENCE SYSTEM.
Brief talk – On answers, questions and concepts – how we use them in insight practice. An 8minute talk on formulating appropriate questions to use in our insight practice and on the use of concepts.
In the session we are introduced to the concept of the Egocentric Preference System (EPS) as a useful tool in our insight practice. The EPS describes our individual system of judgement and preference as being part of our sense of self. As such it provides us with a way of looking at how one aspect of the sense of self is constructed. This will be covered in more detail in next week’s session.
Practice 1 – Observing judgement. A 28min practice in which we observe the judgements that we are making as we rest in our experience and in which we ask ourselves “Who is making the judgements?”
Practice 2 – From where do the judgements that we make arise? A 28min practice in which we reflect on our own personal preference system and begin to consider how that system comes into being.
SESSION 7 – EXPLORING OUR CONDITIONING.
Brief talk – On the technique of feeling into the components of our sense of self when we meditate. An 8minute talk on the manner in which we feel into our sense of self, the difficulties that can arise and how we can deal with those difficulties when they arise. Recorded on Tuesday the 20th April 2021.
Practice 1 – From where do the judgements we make arise? A 30minute practice in which we carefully and gently reflect on the past events of our lives feeling into the judgements that we are making and feeling how those judgements arise. Recorded on Tuesday the 20th April 2021.
Practice 2 – Feeling how we define ourselves in relation to the present. A 28minute practice in which we carefully and gently reflect on the roles that we have in our present lives and feel into their origins and meaning for us. This practice ends with a period of self-compassion to remind us that to gain the full benefit from these meditation practices we must be kind and caring to ourselves. Recorded on Tuesday the 20th April 2021.
At this point in our insight practice we are beginning to feel deeply into our minds and to challenge many of the assumptions that we have lived by and with for most of our lives. It is inevitable that at times strong feelings and emotions will arise and that sometimes we will become conscious of long suppressed memories. To help us deal with these there is a need to practise self-compassion and to have support mechanisms in place should we feel the need to talk things over with other people. You should feel free to contact me using the highlandmindfulness@gmail.com email address if you would like help of any sort, at any time during this course.
SESSION 8 – HOW DOES THE SENSE OF SELF ARISE?
Arriving at the point when we begin to feel the fluidity of the sense of self and realise that it is not fixed or permanent in any way is an important step in our insight practice. Reflecting in meditation on the manner in which the sense of self arises from moment to moment leads to the realisation that much of what we think of as me is constructed by the mind in response to the conditioning events of our life. Whilst this can result in a sense of freedom – “I don’t have to be me anymore” – and other realisations there are much greater insights to come when we begin to look more deeply into the nature of our existence.
Practice 1 – Feeling into the sense of self. A 32minute meditation in which we come to rest in open awareness and are invited to feel into the sense of self noticing as we do so how it feels. Is it solid? Does it vary? Reflecting on how the sense of self feels during our normal activities we ask ourselves when it feels fixed and strong and when it feels soft and open? Recorded on Tuesday the 27th April 2021.
Practice 2 – Feeling how our sense of self is constructed moment by moment and realising that we do not need to be bound by our conditioning. A 28minute practice in which we rest and reflect on how our conditioning has created our sense of self and that we do not need to be bound by the idea of who we think we are. Recorded on Tuesday the 27th April 2021.
The next 3 sessions will be given over to practising these meditations and to consolidating the progress that we have made before we look more deeply into the manner in which we interact with the world and challenge assumptions about the nature of our reality.
PRACTICE MEDITATIONS.
Recording 1 – Challenging our self-critic. A 32minute meditation practice in which we are invited to gently and kindly look at our self-critic and to reflect on how it feels to us and consider from where the values that it uses to judge us have arisen. How difficult does challenging the self-critical side of your nature feel? What if anything is revealed to you as a result of this challenge?
Recording 2 – Practising self-compassion 1. A 33minute self compassion practice – learning to be your own best friend.
Recording 3 – The possessive nature of the self. A 31minute meditation practice in which we examine the nature of possession – of objects and of people – and feel how the sense of possession arises with and from the sense of self.
Recording 4 – Practising self-compassion 2. A 30minute meditation practice in which participants are invited to come to rest in and with their experience by saying Yes to whatever arises.
SESSION 9 – THE TROUBLE WITH SKIN.
This session is all about the sense of separation that we feel between ourselves and other people and between ourselves and the rest of the world including every other living thing. Based on what we have already experienced with regard to our sense of self we can say that our sense of being separate from others is a construct of the mind, derived from our habitual ways of thinking, feeling and acting. The sense of a me inside produces what is known as duality, that is, the experience of an external, objective world outside us. We spend our time identifying with things outside us – money, possessions, career etc – that we think can provide security and happiness. This activity naturally reinforces the sense that there’s a “me” separate from others. The solution to this is to see through the illusion of separation. I am not inside, peering out at an external world but rather I am what the whole world is doing, right here and now. The realisation of non-separation frees me to live in a way that contributes to the well-being of the whole, because I no longer feel apart from that whole. Moreover it enables me to begin to see how duality is at the root of our suffering and how we can gradually progress towards release from that suffering.
Practice 1 – Awareness has no boundaries. A 28minute meditation in which we are invited to come to rest in awareness and then allow awareness to expand outwards through the body, into the space around us and out into world. The questions is asked “Does awareness have any boundaries?” Recorded on Tuesday the 25th May 2021.
Practice 2 – Feeling the boundaries of love. A 28minute meditation in which we are invited to experience the feeling of the love that is innate in all of us. As we allow love to be felt and to develop inside us we can begin to feel it flowing and radiating out from us to other people and ultimately to all other living things. The question is “Where are the boundaries between ourselves and others?” Recorded on Tuesday the 25th May 2021.
SESSION 10 – THE DIFFICULTY WITH EXISTENCE.
When we look at the world in which we live it appears as if everything exists through its own separate nature or essence that makes each thing what it is, including our sense of self. To conceive of people and things existing in and of themselves, through their own core nature is called inherent existence. When we look at ourselves we refer to my mind and my body, as if there exists a separate self somewhere. The self is seen as the owner of the mind and body, which of course are both transitory, whilst the self is viewed as an underlying, unchanging essence or core. However, when we search for such an independent self within or even apart from the mind and body we cannot find anything. Our sense of self is a conceptual construct that we mistakenly believe to have its own intrinsic nature.
Objects of every kind such as apples, cars, people and more subtle things such as thought, feelings and sensations, are conventionally identified or located by characteristics that are relative to other characteristics, such as large is to small, hard is to soft, coarse is to subtle and so on. When we contemplate how an apple comes into being we realise that it does not create itself or exist in itself but rather is dependent on the sun, the rain, the earth in which apple trees grow, the insects that pollinate the flowers and many other things. The existence of apples is dependent on a great many factors and conditions. This dependence on other things is known as dependent arising or co-dependent origination. Everything arises in dependence on everything else and there are no independent, self-existing objects that can be found to exist. There are no self-established things.
Despite intellectual recognition of this and the fact that we know everything changes, we have a deep-seated tendency to assume falsely that people and things have fixed, inborn natures that make them what they are. To see through this delusion is very important because it is the fundamental error that leads to the continual grasping and aversion that underlies all of our suffering. Realising the lack of inherent existence and the nature of dependent arising frees us from the view of being a separate, contained self in a world of separate, contained people and things. It frees us from constant grasping after security and happiness whilst seeking to suppress everything that gives rise to unhappiness, conflict and fear.
Recording – Short talk on inherent existence and dependent arising. 11minutes.
Practice 1 – Resting in the unknown. A 32minute meditation practice in which we open our awareness to the whole of our experience – external and internal senses plus the sense of self – and come to rest as best we can in “basic” consciousness. Recorded on Tuesday the 1st June 2021.
Practice 2 – Opening to our experience with love. A 28minute meditation practice in which we are invited to open to our experience with love, welcoming whatever arises and reminding ourselves of the truth that lies within the “Guest House” poem by Rumi. Recorded on Tuesday the 1st June 2021.
SESSION 11 – EMPTINESS.
We suffer in life because we grasp after things believing that they are fixed, substantial, real and capable of being possessed by our self. When we discover that things do not exist the way our grasping self supposes they do, we give ourselves the chance to be free of suffering. When we realise that everything around us is connected, that nothing exists independently and of itself and that everything is an expression of one seamless, ever-changing world, we arrive at what is called the concept of emptiness.
The true meaning of emptiness is often misunderstood. It is not complete nothingness, it doesn’t mean that nothing exists at all and it is not some kind of heaven or separate realm apart from this troubled world. Whilst nothing we experience stands alone and no individual person or thing has any permanent, fixed identity, everything taken together becomes what is sometimes referred to as “interbeing.” This term embraces the true meaning of emptiness with its sense of connection, compassion and love. Another way of expressing this is to say that the realisation of emptiness awakens qualities of mind such as clarity, equanimity, compassion, joy and love that are innate within us. The mere intellectual reading of emptiness fails to appreciate the joyous practical quality of emptiness in spiritual life.
It’s important to differentiate the emptiness experienced through insight meditation with the emotional expression of sadness or depression. In common speech “emptiness” is not a happy word and it is difficult to use it without feeling the underlying sense of loneliness or separateness that it contains. It can be helpful to look for alternatives that express more of the positivity of the realisation of “emptiness” and various words have been suggested, for example, spaciousness, connectedness, suchness. What is definitely not useful is the word “voidness”. The realisation of emptiness is the recognition of something that has the potential for becoming, for the arising of something that has form from that which is formless.
Some people think that a meditative state without thought or activity is the realisation of emptiness. Such a mental state should be treated like all mental states as being temporary and not ultimately conducive to attaining any realisation. Emptiness is, in fact, not a state of mind at all. It is the felt expression of the true nature of all things including the mind. Whether the mind of the meditator is full of thoughts or empty of them, this true nature holds. The reason why we meditate on emptiness is because it is only when we can open our minds to the realisation of the flux and fluidity of the ultimate that is ungraspable and inconceivable that we can relax into clarity, equanimity, joy, love and compassion.
Practice 1 – Progressing towards the recognition of emptiness. A 32minute practice in which we progressively observe our body sensations and our thoughts before feeling into the sense of self and allowing our mind to slowly settle into the recognition of emptiness. Recorded on Tuesday the 8th June 2021.
Practice 2 – Resting in the experience of not knowing. A 25minute practice in which we simply come to rest with a feeling of not knowing. Allowing our minds to be open to whatever arises and letting go of any desire to search for meaning or reach any goal. Recorded on Tuesday the 8th June 2021.
SESSION 12 – WHO CARES?
When things seem difficult or resistance arises always go back to basics.
Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose, to the present moment, with openness, curiosity and a willingness to be with whatever comes up. The mindful practice of accepting things as they are, in this moment, without judgment, doesn’t mean you agree with the way things are, nor does it imply a lack of motivation for change. Insight practice builds on basic mindfulness meditation by providing us with a framework for personal growth and transformation firmly based on what we learned when we were complete beginners.
Many of the difficulties that arise during insight practice stem from forgetting or ignoring basic mindfulness practices, resisting the need to go back to beginner’s mind and trying to make fast progress. Insight meditation practitioners often seem to want to force change and try to make things change more quickly than the natural arising of wisdom allows. This leads to difficulties in the practice and to what are sometimes referred to as the side effects of meditation. What follows is a description of the difficulties that I have observed in myself and that others have expressed to me: –
- Indifference and nihilism. “If everything is an illusion and if I don’t really exist what does anything matter. I can do what I like when I like.” It’s easy to over stress the illusionary nature of reality and to overinterpret ideas of unreality to the extent that it can seem as if nothing really exists. Not only is this a dangerous exaggeration of insight teachings it is simply not true. If I bang my hand on my desk right now it hurts me physically. If someone behaves rudely and thoughtlessly towards me it hurts me emotionally. This world, which we sometimes refer to as conventional reality, definitely exists because it hurts. What we discover through insight practice is that though this world exists there is the potential for other realities. What we refer to as ultimate reality exists concomitantly with conventional reality. Moreover, as the realisation of the lack of separation develops together with the realisation of our complete dependence on everything else in this reality the natural response is to feel love and deep compassion for all things not to feel isolated and indifferent.
- Depersonalisation. “I don’t know who I am anymore.” Deep meditation on the nature of self and the sense of self as it manifests during daily life can result in a disturbing sense of depersonalisation meaning that all immediate sense of identity is lost. When this occurs in a controlled and supportive meditative environment it can be highly beneficial leading to rapid transformation but when it occurs suddenly and out with the supportive structure of a course or retreat it can be very destructive. All insight practitioners should have the support of a group and an experienced practitioner with whom they can discuss any difficult feelings that arise.
- “The dark night of the soul” – anxiety and depression. “I am useless. All I ever experience is the emptiness and the sadness of my life and when I look into my mind I see nothing but suffering”. This tends to occur when preparations for insight practice have not been thorough. Particularly in people who have a history of mental illness it is extremely important to ensure they have attended at least one beginner’s mindfulness course and have an established personal mindfulness practice. Many of the issues that have been reported to arise during insight practice have occurred in people who have little or no experience of mindfulness and have been persuaded to try insight practice with no preparation or previous experience.
- Arrogance – “I am an advanced practitioner and I operate at a level of consciousness that is above everyone else’s and I understand what reality is.” It’s not uncommon for practitioners to get caught up in their “ego” and to believe that they have reached a state of enlightenment and then to tell everyone else all about it. What happens is that our sense of self is extremely subtle and as one teacher told me “You don’t really expect your mind to give up all of its defence mechanisms, its conditioning and its habitual patterns of thought that have been built up over 50+ years in a couple of days do you?”. Insight is developed over many years, strong feelings of the sense of self take time to weaken and dissipate and what gradually replaces them is a sense of humility. One of the main characteristics of a dedicated insight practitioner is humility because they realise how much they don’t know. Let go of the tendency to compare yourself with and judge others and understand that wisdom is innate in everyone.
In order to avoid difficulties arising during your insight practice always maintain as best you can the characteristics of beginner’s mind – curiosity and interest in what is arising with a sense of open mindedness and joy in being able to practice. Return to basic mindfulness practices on a regular basis and ensure that you have an experienced insight practitioner or a group of fellow practitioners to whom you can talk if you run into problems.
“Who cares” talk. 20minute talk from which the above summary is taken.
Practice 1 – Progressing towards a sense of openness in meditation. A 30minute meditation in which we settle and ground ourselves and then gradually allow body and mind to come to rest in an open and receptive manner – allowing everything that arises in our experience to be seen and felt. Recorded on Tuesday the 15th June 2021.
Practice 2 – Releasing our assumptions and opening the mind. A 26minute meditation in which we use the breath to initiate the process of releasing all the assumptions and preconceptions that we have about ourselves and letting go of the concepts that we use to describe our world. As our minds open afresh we can begin to allow what is innate within us to arise and be experienced. Recorded on Tuesday the 15th June 2021.
DEEPENING MINDFULNESS.
SESSION 1 – RETURNING TO THE SENSE OF SELF.
In sessions 5-8 above we looked at the sense of self in a generalised way concentrating on the feeling of a sense of presence or feeling of self. In seeking to deepen our practice there is a need to look at the sense of self in much greater detail concentrating more on the individual building blocks of self. This allows for a much more thorough “demolition” job or to put it more gently, a full and detailed structural survey. Doing this will not only help us to realise the processes of construction of the self but also give us deeper insights into our conditioning. So we are starting these deepening insight sessions by returning to the sense of self and taking a little more time to explore it more throughly. If we don’t realise the sense of self fully before we explore the mind further everything that arises will be seen to be distorted through the “lens of self”.
Practice 1 – Feeling into the nature of the sense of self. A 30minute practice recorded in the Chapel of the RNI on the morning of Thursday the 16th September 2021. In this meditation we are invited to settle and ground ourselves and come to rest before gently exploring the sense of self to see what its components are.
Practice 2 – Softening the sense of self with compassion. A 28minute meditation recorded in the Chapel of the RNI on the morning of Thursday the 16th September 2021. In this meditation we are invited to look at the judgements and comparisons that we make particularly with regard to ourselves and others and to open to these with self-compassion.
Practice 3 – Feeling into the nature of the sense of self. An alternative 30minute meditation to practice 1 above but recorded with the online group in the evening of Thursday the 16th September 2021.
Practice 4 – Softening the sense of self with compassion. An alternative 29minute meditation to practice 2 above recorded with the online group in the evening of Thursday the 16th September 2021.
Exercise – What does the sense of self consist of and how does it arise? Contemplate the various possible components of the sense of self looking at, for instance, the identities that we assume in relation to our roles in society including our jobs, our hobbies and groups of which we may be a part. Consider the processes that are involved in producing and reinforcing these identities looking, for instance, at the judgements and comparisons that we make with others, the conditioning to which we may have been exposed, our body image and so on. Reflect on how this may determine our view of ourselves – who do we think that we are and what sort of person do I think I am – and what we feel is our place in society? Ask yourself how your sense of self arises from moment to moment and how the feelings that you have about yourself come into being? Who or what defines who you are? On what basis do you make judgements about yourself?
Please be aware that this exercise is primarily a feeling exercise that should involve meditating on the questions that have been posed. It’s important to see through meditation practice how you feel about the roles that you play in your life and then to allow the feelings to feed through into intellectual thought. Your feelings will guide you to find what is most important and lead you to a realisation of the emotional processing that is taking place in the mind from which intellectual understanding can arise.
