By George A. Boyd ©1995
Excerpted from Light on Meditation
The beginner in meditation needs to understand what is "inside" and what
is "outside,"and how to cognize the internal stimuli of meditation. A
typical beginner's self-exploration program may comprise the following:
External Environment (Sensory Field)
- Focus attention on the sensation of sight. Give full attention to
each object.
- Focus attention on the sensation of sound. Listen intently to the
actual sounds in the environment without naming them.
- When eating, focus attention on the sensation of taste. Taste the
food as it is, without labeling it "good", "bad", "salty", "bitter",
etc.
- Go into a field of fragrant wildflowers and focus attention on the
smells. Alternately, you may sample the aromas of essential oils in
a boutique or health food store. [Use oil-based fragrances only, not
alcohol-based perfumes for this exercise]. Pay attention to the experience
of smell, the feelings created in your body, the impressions that arise
in your mind.
- Feel the sensations arising from the sense of touch, and other deep
sensations from the body. Paying attention to sensations arising in
this fashion [from within the body] in the present time constitutes
the first practice of Vipassana.
Internal Environment (Body Awareness)
- Focus attention on the skin, muscles, tendons, joints and bones.
- Focus attention on the internal organs: bladder, large intestine,
small intestine, kidneys, spleen, stomach, liver, gall bladder, heart,
lungs.
- Focus attention on the glands: gonads or ovaries, adrenals, pancreas,
thymus, thyroid, pituitary, pineal.
- Focus attention on the peripheral nerves, spinal cord, medulla oblongata,
thalamus, cerebral cortex.
- Focus attention on the whole body sitting, breathing. Focusing attention
on the fontanel, sense the whole body as a unitary organism.
Aside from the concept of "inside" and "outside", there is also the idea
of "conscious" and "unconscious". Typical practices to make this concept
real to the meditator include:
Differentiating conscious from unconscious (exercises)
- Scan the body starting with the feet and so on up to the head with
the eyes closed. Notice if any area of the body is "dark" and which
are "light."
- Once light and dark areas are cognized, a second practice is to move
the attention from the light area to the dark, and notice what arises
from the dark space. Then, move your attention back to the light space
again.
- Once you can do this readily, sustain your attention in a dark space
you select for a period of about five minutes. Notice muscular tension,
heat, pain, swelling, emotional irritation or discomfort, and memories
that may arise from the dark space. Then, move your attention back to
the light space again.
- Again move your attention into the dark space and notice what sensations
are arising in your body in the present time. Different sensations,
feelings, memories will arise at different locations, and pass through
awareness in the present time. You will note each of them as they arise,
and pass on to the next. This Vipassana practice of watching the stream
of consciousness within your body enhances the faculty of mindfulness.
[Mindfulness is the ability to be inwardly aware of your present
time experience.]
- Practicing mindfulness, sustain your experience in the dark area until
you feel a physical and emotional release. You will feel this as a letting
go of tension in the muscles and a letting go of an emotional burden,
often expressed as a sigh. These releases are fundamental units of psychological
process work. [If you are in therapy, learning this basic meditation
will help you focus on and work through your issues].
Meditation must begin in the Conscious mind, as that is the field of
the mind readily accessible to each person. It is through the Conscious
mind that material from other strata of the mind must be ultimately utilized
in the waking state. Therefore the meditation beginner may proceed from
this basic ground state of the mind into progressively deeper explorations.
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