Mindfulness: A practical guide to peace in a frantic world by Williams Prof Mark & Dr Danny Penman

Author:Williams, Prof Mark & Dr Danny Penman [Williams, Prof Mark]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

easily we get sucked into their

drama.

Sounds and

Thoughts

Meditation3

Settling with breath and

body

Find a sitting position, in

Find a sitting position, in

which the spine can be self-

supporting, with your back

straight but not stiff.

1. Sit as described and with

your shoulders relaxed,

head and neck balanced

and chin tucked slightly

in.

2. Bring your attention to the

movements of the breath

in the body for a few

minutes, until you feel

reasonably settled. Then

expand your attention to

take in the body as a

whole, as if the whole

body

were

breathing,

helping you to be aware

of all the sensations in the

interior landscape of the

body.

3. Spend a few minutes

practising mindfulness of

the breath and body in this

way, remembering that in

the practice that follows

you can always come

back to the breath and

body to anchor yourself if

your mind becomes too

distracted

or

overwhelmed.

Sounds

4. Now, when you are ready,

allow the focus of your

attention to shift from

sensations in the body to

hearing – open to sounds

as they arise.

5. There is no need to go

searching for sounds or

listening out for particular

sounds. Instead, as best

you can, simply remain

open, so that you are

receptive to awareness of

sounds from all directions

as they arise – sounds

near, sounds far, sounds in

front, behind, to the side,

above or below. In this

way, you are opening to

the whole space of sound

around

you:

the

‘ s o und s c a p e ’ . Perhaps

notice how the obvious

sounds can easily crowd

out the more subtle ones;

noticing

any

spaces

between

sounds

–

moments of relative quiet.

6. As best you can, be aware

of sounds simply as

sounds, as raw sensations.

Notice the tendency we

all have to label sounds

as soon as they are

received

(car,

train,

voice, air conditioning,

radio), and see if it is

possible simply to notice

this labelling and then

refocus,

beyond

and

below the label, on the

r a w sensations of the

sounds

themselves

(including

the

sounds

within sounds).

7. You may find that you are

thinking about the sounds.

See if it is possible to

reconnect

with

direct

awareness

of

their

sensory qualities (patterns

of pitch, timbre, loudness

and duration), rather than

their

meanings,

implications or stories

about them.

8. Whenever you notice that

your awareness is no

longer focused on sounds,

gently

acknowledge

where

the

mind

has

moved to and then retune

the attention back to

sounds as they arise and

pass away from moment

to moment.

9. Then, after you have been

focusing on sounds for

four or five minutes, let go

of your awareness of

sounds.

Thoughts

10. Now shift your focus of

attention so that your

thoughts are centre-stage

in awareness – seeing

them, as best you can, as

events in the mind.

11. Just as with sounds,

where you were noticing

their arising, lingering and

passing away, so now, as

best you can, attend to

thoughts that arise in the

mind, noticing when they

arise, seeing as they linger

in the space of the mind

(like

clouds moving

across the sky of the

mind). Eventually, see if

you can detect the moment

when they dissolve.

12. There is no need to try to

make thoughts come or go.

In the same way that you

related to the arising and

passing away of sounds,

just let thoughts come and

go on their own.

13. Just as clouds moving

across a vast spacious sky

are sometimes dark and

stormy, sometimes light

and fluffy, so thoughts take

different

forms.

Sometimes clouds fill the

entire sky. Sometimes they

clear

out

completely,

leaving the sky cloudless.

14. Alternatively, you could

pay attention to thoughts in

the mind in the same way

that you would if the

thoughts were projected

on the screen at the

cinema

–

you

sit,

watching, waiting for a

thought or image to arise.

When it does, you attend

to it, so long as it is there

‘on the screen’, and then

you let it go as it passes

away. Notice when you

get drawn into the drama,

finding yourself up there

on the screen.

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