~ Postures

The Buddha said meditation flows through all “four postures” of walking, standing, sitting and lying down. The sage Patanjali defined good meditation posture as the position in which you can happily stay still and steady. Notice how striving to find an imaginary perfect posture is just a nagging, unpleasant, mind-game. Experiment with different positions, especially if you struggle with pain during much of the session, or if pain persists after you move out of your chosen posture. It is not necessary to use the same position in every session.
With acceptance of the body and mind as they are in the moment, an ease and stillness can begin to develop.

Reclining Posture

For many people, lying down is the position most suitable for being relaxed, open and still. This relaxed stillness makes it harder for the controlling mind to dominate and therefore leaves more space for a deeper and more fluid awareness to come through. If possible, lie on a soft surface.

1. Lying on the back ~ it may help to raise the knees or lower legs, with cushions or folded blankets.
2. Feel free to lie in the position most comfortable for you

Sitting Posture

Hands rest comfortably on knees or lap. Chest is open, with shoulders relaxed down and back. Chin is slightly tucked in, allowing the neck to be straighter than usual. Top of hips is slightly rolled forward, so that abdomen opens and spine is supported and straight. Angling the cushion or the seat of the chair can help hips to tilt forward. If sitting on cushions, experiment to find the best height. Some people need to sit directly on the floor without a cushion, and some people need several cushions stacked up.

Sitting in a chair:
With feet resting firmly on floor or cushions, sit upright and without leaning on the back of the chair if possible. Propping the back two legs of the chair up on small supports helps hips roll forward, and keeps the front edge of the chair from cutting off circulation through the backs of the legs.

Sitting on the floor:
1) "Japanese style" ~Kneel with the buttocks resting on a cushion or bench. Make sure not to put too much weight on the knees.

2) "Thai" or "Sri Lankan style" ~Sit on cushion or floor, and bend one leg across the front with the knee pointing out to the side. Bend the other leg to one side so that the knee points to the front and the foot points behind you. As with other cross-legged positions, please alternate legs in alternate sittings: if the left leg is in front in one sitting, then have the right leg in front in the next sitting.

3) "Burmese style" ~Bend both legs, with knees pointing out to the sides, and with both lower legs and feet resting on the floor, one in front of the other. Alternate which leg is in front, if possible.

4) "Lotus style" ~Same as "Burmese" but with one or both feet and lower legs crossed on top of the opposite calf or thigh.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Silence

To find out what is really going on in our experience, we need the ability to be truly quiet.

Retreats provide an opportunity to learn the inner and outer silence that leads within. Silence is probably the single most important element of the retreat environment.

You can nurture the noble silence in these ways:

At all times keeping strict silence in and around the meditation hall:
-reducing personal sounds such as coughing, jangling jewelry, beeping alarms, banging cushions around as you set up your seat, and rustling clothing, water bottles, or other belongings.
-eliminating physical contact with others in the hall respects the group silence.

During mornings and full-retreat days keeping strict silence everywhere:
-speaking only when necessary with teachers during interviews and group discussions, or with managers if any practical need arises.
-experimenting, if one wishes, with reducing eye contact with others, except during teacher interviews.

This noble silence does not need to isolate us. With time, most people notice that silence allows a deeper appreciation of the simple things in life, as well as an unusual depth of connection with others. Enjoy the freshness of moments of relative inner silence, such as any time you remember to return from a daydream to the present moment. Often those with the most resistance to silence in the beginning turn out to be the ones who love it the most. If you find that you are letting silence turn into a depression or a shell-like avoidance technique, then please shake yourself out of it with a walk in nature, an interview, or a rest.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Why Vipassana (Vipasyana)?

We all come to retreat for different reasons. Some come out of curiousity; or because depression, suffering, or loss has awakened a need for something deeper in life. Perhaps time seems to be flying by, and life with it. Or perhaps even within relative success or happiness, a search has been sparked for greater understanding of, and intimacy with, the way things really are. Perhaps wonder or amazement motivate us to learn more about what it is to be alive.
Whatever brought us to retreat, we can learn simplicity, honesty, and gentleness.

Calmness
The first focus is to gather the scattered mind somewhat, so that instead of one hundred directions and distractions, there are just a handful!

Mindfulness
Then we begin to be able to observe the basically unexplored experience of our human body and mind.

Gentleness and clarity
Continued practice allows this awareness to be more and more honest and kind. Judgment and flattery, especially of ourselves, are seen for what they are: habitual viewpoints with little relevance and much inertia.

Continuity of awareness
Gradually, as we each begin to let meditation take root deeply within ourselves, our previously rather mental and self-conscious version of awareness gets strength from deeper levels of our beings.

Untying knots
We more often catch ourselves in the middle of habitual reactions, and are able to see them more clearly, take them more lightly, be less driven by them.

Wisdom
At times, as habits lose permission to reign over us, a surprising and simple wisdom has a chance to be heard. The more we listen to and flow with that fresh and unobtrusive voice, the more we sense that fulfilment is nearer than near.

Vipasyana (vipassana in the Pali language of the ancient Buddhist scriptures) is translated from Sanskrit in many ways, such as "insight," "clear seeing," or even "mindfulness." For a different perspective, we can break the word down into its root components:
vi means "behind" or "before"
pasya (or passa in Pali) means "to see"
na means "path" or "method"
Thus, vipasyana offers a method of seeing from behind the reactive mind, seeing from further in towards the source of life, gradually allowing that source to take over one's being.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ One-pointed Concentration

Returning attention again and again to a fixed, relatively unchanging object sharpens and strengthens our ability to pay close attention to life.
With concentration on seeing, the object is visual, and the practice is to see while being awake to the fact that seeing is taking place.

1) Choose an object that you like or love: a photograph of a loved one; a beautiful stone, dried flower, or leaf; a candle; a piece of jewelry....nothing too large. Stay with the same object in each sitting.

2) Place your object far enough away so that the neck is not strained.

3) Rest the eyes while seeing: practice relaxation whenever tension in the body-mind becomes noticeable. If there is pressure on the eyes, unusual visual effects, such as seeing colors or losing focus, may occur. Blinking the eyes helps. Notice how little effort is needed for vision to "happen."

4) Neither fight with nor entertain any images that seem to appear in the object.

5) Sometimes it can be useful to pinpoint the vision on a tiny detail of the object.

6) Beginning meditators may notice that their power of concentration, or energy to keep returning to "just seeing," runs out after ten or twenty minutes. In that case, take a mental break, while maintaining physical stillness. After a few minutes, begin again the practice of continually returning the attention to simple seeing.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Basic Instructions

I. To begin with, invite your body to be as comfortable and relaxed as possible, lying down or sitting on a cushion, bench, or chair. To help yourself fully arrive here, breathe out two or three times as profoundly as possible. Let the in-breath happen by itself. Then just let the breath be: short, long, shallow, deep. Notice that the experience of the breath and body are not separate.

II. Enjoy the luxury of simply being: perhaps it is enough to be a human on the earth, with no need to compete, to “get it right,” to do or add or remove anything.

III. Relax into the back of the body as if it is a comfortable sofa. In an atmosphere of gentleness, tune into hearing. Allow sounds near and far to be received by a fluid attention. Notice the brilliant precision of attention, how clearly and immediately each sound is known and released. Notice if any image comes to match a sound—a mental picture of a bird for a birdsong, for example. Is it possible to know the difference between the image of a bird and the simple sound? Notice if any other reactions come in response to the sounds—the body tightening or the mind judging and commenting. These reactions are interesting in their own right, but for now open yourself again and again to the naked sounds themselves.

IV. Whenever you remember, relax into the back of the body and allow attention to receive direct experience.

V. With the sounds more in the background, let this same receptive attention open to the body: its weight and posture, movements and textures, warmth and coolness. Let the experience we call “body” just float in relaxed attention.

VI. Bring softness into first the head, then the chest, then the belly. Where can you connect most easily? Let about 25% of your attention rest in that place, while also staying open to sounds, thoughts, and the whole body. All else being equal, the lower belly is preferable. Every time you notice that the attention has wandered, gently rest back ”home” in your chosen place.

VII. The opposite of what most of us are used to, this training of the mind is simple but not necessarily easy. The training is two-fold:
~Remembering to soften and let attention receive experience.
~Remembering to connect to direct experience. The connection between the receptivity of attention and the aliveness of experience empowers our innate potential for wisdom.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Gentleness

Metta (maitri in Sanskrit) can be translated from Pali as gentle, friend, or lovingkindness.
Cultivating lovingkindness is a crucial counterpart to other spiritual practices such as concentration, awareness, equanimity, and investigation.
Traditionally prescribed to relieve fear for those who walked through jungles and slept in caves, metta practice is an antidote for negativity, whether self-hatred, anger, insecurity or resistance to change. Diligent metta practice brings easy sleep, pleasant dreams, protection from danger, a radiant face, a serene mind, and an unconfused death.

~ The formal practice
Formal metta practice taps into the power of intention, the ability of the mind to set itself moving in a particular direction. The metta practices mentioned below use the silent repetition of words expressing love to self and others. It is not important to feel anything special, but rather to connect again and again to the meaning of the words. Once the following methods are familiar to you, you may experiment with a focus other than words, such as visualization or the simple sense of love.

Start by making yourself comfortable. If you normally sit on the floor, try sitting in a chair or leaning against the wall. With the first few breaths, receive a sense of your body, heart, and mind as they are right now. Some people find it helpful to bring attention to the chest and breathe "through" the heart area.

~ Forgiveness
Sometimes it is helpful to clear space for metta with a short forgiveness offering. Silently reflect on and then repeat these or other similar words:
If I have caused any living being harm, intentionally or unintentionally, I ask forgiveness.
If any living being has caused me harm, intentionally or unintentionally, I offer forgiveness. (Some people feel more comfortable saying, "I offer peace.")
If I have caused myself harm, intentionally or unintentionally, I forgive myself.

~ Loving oneself
The traditional ways to cultivate metta start with oneself. The Buddha said, “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

To begin the metta practice, dig deeply to find your deepest wishes. Take your time to find your own words in your own language to express two or three or four of these deep wishes. Some of the traditional phrases are: "May I be safe. May I be free from suffering. May I be happy." You can also use single words such as "peace," "love," or "liberation."

Connecting to the meaning, repeat the words slowly, perhaps in rhythm with your breath, for at least 5-10 minutes. Feel as if you have all the time in the world. Once you find the right words, remain with the same words throughout the meditation.

Note that at times it might be helpful to focus lovingkindness on oneself throughout the entire meditation period. However, for some people, it is easier to offer self-acceptance rather than love: "May I accept myself completely. May I accept that I am okay as I am." Or visualize someone who has helped you, but with whom you don't feel tension, and imagine that person sending lovingkindness to you.

~ Three ways to expand the focus
After focussing metta on yourself, you can continue with one of three formats.

1.- Expanding circles
Feel the life in the space just around and including you. Direct the wishes you had for yourself towards these living beings. Mosquitoes, pigeons, trees, human beings, ants, and you. Visualize and/or get a sense of the whole space or of individuals in the space one at a time.
For several minutes or more, offer lovingkindness to all the beings in the hall, room, garden, or landscape. For example: "Just as I wish to be liberated, may all beings in this hall be liberated."
"May all beings in this hall be happy."
Or: "May we all be liberated...."

After several minutes, again expand your sense of the moment to include a broader area, offering lovingkindness to the surrounding ashram or neighborhood or ecosystem.
Then expand your awareness periodically to embrace the town, the state or province, the country, the planet and the universe. If you prefer, instead of referring to political boundaries such as states and countries, visualize natural "boundaries"--the forest, the river system, the mountain range, the plains, and then the continent or island you happen to be sitting on.

2.- In each direction
A second way to practice metta is mentioned frequently in the ancient texts. Once you have spent some time directing lovingkindness towards yourself, you can send it out to all beings in each of the directions one by one: north, south, east, west, above, and below.
Visualize and/or get a sense of all beings to the north receiving your friendship as you repeat, "May all beings to the north, be liberated." Lastly, allow the loving intention to spread out in all directions.

3.- Individuals
A third way to practice metta is to focus on specific individuals, as usual starting with yourself.
The second person to send metta to is called the benefactor, someone who has helped you, and whom you love and respect--preferably someone who is presently alive, and with whom you are not sexually involved. It may be a teacher, friend, or even someone like the Dalai Lama whom you may not know well.
The third individual to receive your well-wishing is a person about whom you feel neutral. It can be difficult to think of such a person, since we usually jump to conclusions about others as soon as we meet them. Think of a bus driver, someone you have seen walking down the street, or a bank teller.
The fourth person is someone with whom you feel some tension. If it is too difficult to send well wishing to this fourth person, then return to one of the previous steps for a while.
With each person, visualize and/or get a sense of her or him, as you connect to the meaning of your chosen words.

~ Creativity
Once you have become familiar with the suggested forms of metta cultivation, you can be creative and find your own forms.
You may find it more effective to start with what is easier and move towards what is more difficult. For example, if sending love to yourself is excruciating, you can break from the usual pattern and begin with a benefactor or friend. If while sending love to a large group you become distracted, then return to a smaller group for a while.
However, metta has a healing power that may be beyond your expectations. Each time you practice, go to the edge of what is comfortable for you and see what happens.

Brahma Vihar
Boundless Resting Places
Divine Abidings
Limitless States of Mind

1) Lovingkindness ~ Metta
The near enemy is desire; far enemy is hatred.
“May you be free from danger and fear.
May you be peaceful, happy, and free from suffering.
May you live with ease.”

2) Compassion ~ Karuna
Near enemy is pity; far enemy is cruelty.
“I care about your suffering.”
Other phrases are similar to Metta.

3) Appreciative Joy ~ Mudita
Near enemy is exuberance; far enemy is envy.
“May your happiness and joy never leave you.
May your good fortune ever increase.”

4) Equanimity ~ Uppekha
Near enemy is indifference; far enemy is restlessness, agitation, etc.
“I wish for your happiness but cannot make your choices.
I will care for you but cannot keep you from suffering.
May we be undisturbed by comings and goings.
May we accept things as they are.
All beings are the owners of their actions. Their happiness or suffering depends upon their actions, not upon my wishes.”

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Tonglen meditation

Tonglen means "sending and receiving" in Tibetan.
We practice being revolutionaries of peace, welcoming the difficult and letting go of the wonderful.

Pema Chödrön on tonglen in her book Start Where You Are:

. . . this making friends with ourselves—it’s the key to a more sane, compassionate planet. . . . Any gesture of gentleness . . . , of honesty . . . toward yourself . . . will transform how you experience the world. What you do for yourself, you’re doing for others, and what you do for others you’re doing for yourself.

p. 37
If you’re willing to drop the story line, you feel exactly what all other human beings feel.
This practice cuts through culture, economic status, intelligence, race, religion.

p. 38
Completely reversing the logic of ego, which is to say reversing the logic of suffering, . . . you are essentially breathing in the cause of suffering . . . , which is fixation. . . .

p. 39
You need to work with both . . . the immediate suffering of one person and the universal suffering of all. . . . Not theoretical, not narrow.

p. 40
The idea is to develop sympathy for your own confusion. . . . It’s extremely insulting to ego.

p. 41
The things that really drives us nuts [crazy] have enormous energy in them. That is why we fear them.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Walking Meditation

Simplicity ~ just a human being walking on the earth slowly, quickly, or as you wish.

Attention ~ as fluid as the movements
~ not anticipating, expecting, or fixating, holding onto
sensations.
~ not fighting against thoughts, images, feelings.
~ curious about what is called “walking”
~ all the many muscles, movements, textures…

Rhythm ~ one step at a time, as if you have all the time in the world as if being moved by the earth.

Centered ~ delicately connected to feet, legs, belly, or whole body while also open, spacious, allowing sounds, sights, mind to happen in and around.

Transparent ~ nature happening
“inside” as well as “outside”.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Walking in nature

At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled
after a night of rain.
I dip my cupped hands. I drink
a long time. It tastes
like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold
into my body, waking the bones. I hear them
deep inside me, whispering
oh what is that beautiful thing
that just happened?
Mary Oliver

The Buddha taught that simply being in nature--along with meditation, discussion, study and other well-known methods--was one of the great supports for the Path of Awakening. Silent walks through surrounding areas allow us to refresh the spirit of natural calmness, interest and awareness that brought us to retreat. With the evidence of interconnectedness gently present around us, we can begin to experience our own participation in the web of life.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Feeling-tone (vedana)

Usually translated as “feeling” or “feeling-tone,” the word vedana is a subtle, quick and tricky aspect of human experience. It is the way we take in experience, the way sights, sounds, smells, tastes, physical sensations, and thoughts get immediately filtered as pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. A subjective response called vedana gets mixed in to the experience. We don’t just see color, we automatically see a color we like, or don’t like, or don’t care about—a color that is good, bad or unimportant. We may even be surprised if another person experiences the same color differently.

This filtered reaction called vedana has deep roots in hidden “survival strategies,” the ways we blindly try to manipulate the world with aggression, seduction, and shutting down or ignoring.

~ Our practice is to give attention to pleasant feelings without desperately trying to make them last when they go away.

~ Our practice is also to give attention to unpleasant feelings without struggling to get rid of them when they come.

~ We can also learn to give attention to neutral feelings without being bored or restless.

~ Notice how feeling-tone affects and is influenced by experience of the environment, physical sensations, thoughts, and moods. An unnoticed unpleasant vedana that persists for half an hour can create a bad mood that lasts all day. Conversely, a good mood can make us more likely to give our attention to experiences with pleasant vedana, to notice what we like, to think optimistically, etc.

Letting various vedana come and go by themselves and simply staying aware of them without getting caught up in them, we weaken the forces of greed, hatred, and delusion that are the causes of all suffering.

Our practice then leads directly to an abiding happiness and peace.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ Consciousness

In English we often do not have precise words for the more subtle aspects of human experience. Therefore, the word consciousness is used to translate different Sanskrit words, and means different words in different contexts. In Buddhism, consciousness or chitta refers to the basic “lens” through which we know or experience everything.

When we try to turn our attention toward consciousness, we don’t find a thing. Consciousness has no location, shape, taste or color, yet it reveals everything. We cannot experience consciousness as an object in the same way that we know objects such as physical sensations, sounds, and thoughts. We can ask questions and be willing to leave those questions unanswered for years: what allows me to hear that sound? Who knows that experience of itching or remembering or joy?

If we want to experience consciousness directly, we need to take the emphasis off the objects, and pay attention instead to the simple fact that they are known.
When the mind is undistracted, consciousness appears clear and unobstructed. The undistracted mind knows things directly and immediately. Thoughts about objects are distinct from the direct knowing of them.

Some people learn to be aware of chitta. It can be freeing thus to see clearly the deepest “programming” of the ego, etched into the lens of chitta, and to know that we need not be dominated by that conditioning.

Similarly, we can bring attention to the sense of “I”, to the sense of “witnessing” our experience. While it may be helpful to focus inwardly in this way, we can investigate even further: What gives life to this potential for knowing? From where does this individual consciousness receive its energy? We say “I see” or “I think”. But who or what is actually doing the seeing and thinking?

The Buddha’s teaching is about not clinging to anything, no matter how refined or subtle it may be. If we cling to neither to objects nor to the knowing of them, then what? What stands revealed when there’s no clinging to anything at all? This experience of peace is what the Buddha called “the sure heart’s release.”

It is important to know that many spiritual teachings use the same English word, consciousness, to refer to this fountain of peace beyond chitta. This experience is available for each of us, at any moment. That is why each moment is worthy of our attention.

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )

~ The five precepts

The five precepts guide us to live well, with gentle respect for ourselves and for others, whether the spiritual life is young and fragile or mature and sturdy.

A literal translation of the precepts is

~I take upon myself the path of learning to refrain from harming living beings.
~I take upon myself the path of learning to refrain from taking what is not given.
~I take upon myself the path of learning to refrain from misusing sensual pleasure.
~I take upon myself the path of learning to refrain from speaking carelessly, wrongly or harmfully.
~I take upon myself the path of learning to refrain from the state of carelessness and indolence caused by alcohol and drugs.

In addition to letting go of harmful tendencies, the precepts can also inspire us to cultivate beneficial qualities

~Protectiveness of all living beings
~Generosity of heart, mind and action
~Gentle wakefulness in sensual and sexual life
~Skilful, kind speech
~Clear, alert states of mind

TOP (Open Dharma instructions ~ www.opendharma.org )