Meditation Quotes Status

But there are problems. Some are afraid to try, confused by the many approaches available.

Which are really mindfulness?  

Which fit my beliefs, or my religion?  

Are some in conflict with what I hold as true?

For those who have chosen an approach, questions may persist. 

I’m frustrated by long sessions.

Am I practicing the right technique?  Is there something better?

This is distracting.  I can’t focus.  It takes too long.  I don’t know if this exercise is working.

Over the decades I have developed an approach that addresses these problems, both for those new to mindfulness and those who want to enhance what they already practice. I call this approach MINDFULNESS — Progressive Integrative Training  (M-PIT).   My goal has been to maximize success and emphasize the following:

1. The Eye of Mindfulness.

Mindfulness is typically presented in terms of four defining exercises: body scanning meditation, breath scanning meditation, focused attention meditation, and open monitoring mindfulness meditation. I combine all four into the Eye of Mindfulness, our home exercise. Again and again we return to this exercise after exploring others.  Central to the Eye of Mindfulness is the core exercise of mindfulness proper (often called “open monitoring”).  In our perspective, all relaxation, all meditation, and all mindfulness ultimately ends with open monitoring, a calm and accepting awareness of the world as it is.

2. Complimentary techniques and the Mindfulness Universe.

I Teach a variety of complimentary or companion approaches, presented as different ways of attending mindfully, that is with focus and acceptance. Some are body-oriented, including progressive muscle relaxation, yoga stretching, t’ai chi, breathing, and autogenics. Others are cognitive and emotional, including imagery, contemplation, loving/kindness meditation, gratitude meditation, and prayer. Students have an opportunity to select exercises to do before practicing the Eye of Mindfulness as a warmup, or to do after as a way of exploring and expressing mindfulness. Complimentary approaches enable the student to more richly understand the nuances of mindfulness. They provide ways of enduring “dry periods” when mindfulness seems not to be working.

In a sense, my combination approach isn’t exactly new. People have combined mindfulness with other exercises and activities for millennia. It is surprising that an exercise that can be defined with fewer words than a proper pushup has inspired such a variety of training formats. Precede mindfulness with yoga and breathing. Combine mindfulness with loving prayer and imagery. Practice mindfulness alone, without warmup. Practice in groups. Practice with one-minute sessions. Practice with eight-hour sessions. Practice after an inspirational story, poem, or song. Practice during communal feasts. Practice after fasting.

In spite of this diversity, little has been written about the different effects of combinations. Perhaps this is the result of not having a formal tool for providing practitioners with feedback enabling them to compare approaches, a telescope for peering into the skies of mindfulness.  Perhaps what is lacking is a universal map, one not locked to any specific tradition or religion.

We can learn something about telescopes and maps by considering the science of astronomy and it predecessor, astrology. This is a story worth telling.  Without the telescope, we did not know about galaxies. Indeed we harbored many simplistic and mistaken notions about the heavens as a giant glass dome (or turtle), the flat earth, or the circling of the sun around the earth.  A telescope is of limited value without a map,  Early maps of the heavens were astrological constellations of centaurs, crabs, fishes, and the like based on poetry and superstition. Without powerful observational tools or maps, ancient astrologers could go only so far. For example, exploring what we now know to be the center the center of the Milky Way galaxy, astrological-based maps pointed to the constellation Sagittarius, a mythical horse with a human head.  This anyone could see with the naked eye. No telescope needed. And astrological maps offered a sort of guidance. Those born under Sagittarius were likerambunctious horses, energetic and impulsive. Astronomers now have modern telescopes and maps of the sky and have discovered something astonishing about Sagittarius. At its center is what is perhaps the most remarkable “star” in the night sky — Sagittarius A*, an enormous black hole about 4 million times the mass of the sun. Indeed, this star is responsible for the creation of our galaxy, most of the stars in our night sky.

5. Keep it interesting.

An essential feature of mindfulness is viewing the world in a way that is fresh and new, with curiosity and interest. This can be a challenge when one is required to practice a handful of tradition-prescribed exercises. Or tack is to keep practice ever fresh and new, and to cultivate nurture curiosity and interest by continuously exploring new complementary approaches. For us, mindfulness is not a static ritual, but an adventure, an evolving practice guided by the M-Tracker.

The Mindfulness Universe

M-TRACKER 7