Mindfuling: Recent Episodes
P.M. Cheevers
Mindfulness Meditation is not a thing — it is an activity of doing. It is a key to an eight faceted practice capable of freeing us from discontent. Being mindful is being deeper than the ocean, stronger than practiced aversion, quicker than chronic bad habits, and easier than pie!
In a very real way, instrusive sounds are gifts when practicing! Hear it and practice being with the conditions you can't control. This dosn't mean you don't at times wisely adjust conditions, like turn down the AC when it not needed etc.
Hot enough for you? Cold enough? Is it now enough for you!? What is the story and what is the reality? Practicing with extremes requires you to notice them first, last and always. Put another way be actively mindful. Being with the sensation of extreme heat is a relatively easy practice, object, to be with. Recognizing when pain has been approached and adjusting is the wise thing to do. Often a simple adjustment is part of the practice not the end. Note: this recording has more wind buffeting noise than usual so adjusting your bass or volume is recommended.
Practice where you actually are. Understand you will have to adjust your expectations to match your likely conditions, quickly and openly to maintain the relaxed and awake quality of being. It's good to practice in relatively novel spaces.
www.ssimc.org for online meditation class info.
It has been a busy spring, this longish episode does some catching up! Its not a riddle! Not a puzzle! Sometimes a question but without a logical, linear sort of answer. The more you wisely practice, the more you wake uP.
rss link to the newish Now, Dhammapada podcast mentioned
Keywords: paradox, mindfulness, breath, body, koan, view
Practice in your car. No waiting. No shopping. For real, all the sounds and sights and barks are a part of the mindfulness.
* For my new Dhammapada centric podcast Now, Dhammapada (mentioned at the end of this episode) try here:
awakewax.substack.com
Soon, you should be able to find it on your favorite podcatcher ***
The object of light. Photons. Object with which you make contact. Collect your attention, bring it back to the light. Artificial or natural. Work with the available visibly changing. Yes, blink! Energizing...
Keywords: Change, meditaton, mindfulness, blink, shadow
Understanding the difference, the conditions of your practice, compared to not practicing with the podcast. Also very different than being in a class. Mindfulness of body, often is the place to begin and end, regardless of conditions. What to try, when you have too much energy or perhaps too little energy whist sitting. Awake AND relaxed. Not sleeping. Not hyper alert. Mindfuling...
Practicing outside is different. Especially in the Fall. What is available, obvious? Work with it. Practice every day, not like this but like with what you really have going on. Sound meditation. Awake. Standing is wakeful.
Keywords: Lite, Light, Dressed, Cold, Cool, Sound,
Can you be mindful while walking the dog? What are you doing? Pretty complicated if you... are trying to do too much. Simplify and pay attention to your companion. Walking the dog is doing something very complicated compared to sitting and you are likely very connected to a very different sort of being with a very different set of interests! Amazing.
Keywords: Canine, coffee, walk, nosey, tension, attention, mindfulness, woof
Prpacticing standing meditation outdoors is just awesome. Real and
potentially confusing. Keeping it relatively still you will see a crazy mind, becalmed over time! Even
amidst a pandemic there is great flexibility being developed.
Keywords: Insight, Presence, conditions, mindfulness, sound, heartmind
Picking blueberries mindfully and listening to someone pick blueberries in your space/time are very different activities...
Keywords: Mindfulness, insight, outside, blueberry, cultivation, practice, relaxation, wakefulness, sweet
Listening outside, a lot to contact with the shifting weather. Sound is a type of contact and with a podcast we can share this slice but there is more...
Keywords: ambient, rain, sound, feel, object, collecting attention,
Practicing awareness of sound outside sitting on a bench. Sitting differently than you might usually sit, on a bench, matters. Working with what actually is and focusing attention. Simple practice, but not easy...
Cultivating ease and awareness from a relatively still body to a body in contact to a body investigating with the same sort or ease and awareness allows a peaceful seeing and perhaps knowing.
keywords: body, sound, field, bird, contact, movement, conditions and investigation
Working with the pleasant sonic conditions is not the same as just enjoying. Awake and relaxed in a collected moment to moment presence is practiced.
Keywords: Mindfulness, sound, birds, dinosaurs, distraction, pleasant, noise, rooster, flicker, cardinal
Ambient object. Spring is a doodling. Being outside being with what ya got. Not a listening and flowing more of an active movement to moment hearing and let-go-ing into hearing. Again and again. Quite rich in these New England conditions. Bright red cardinals, deep blue jays, the swoosh of automobiles in the distant wash. Oh, and surprise a canine bell! Standing. Wet wooshes.
Keywords: mindfulness, roosters, loud sounds, unexpected, change, totality, standing, posture
Practicing outside in the snow. A very fluffy marshmallow world is one way of describing these conditions. So, I work with what I got. You? Probably different for you but you do have conditions. Perhaps subtler. A fan. Contact is the object.
Keywords: epidermis, body, mindfulness, clear, intention, crunchy, future, past, ease, wakeful
Walking outside after a snow storm. Formal meditation, under these conditions, the sound of walking is really prominent. We can work with this. Not an exploration, it is a focused easeful practice that is appropriate for these conditions. Listening as a podcast your practice will be a bit different but you can still use sound as an object.
If the timing is right an online retreat opportunity: February 14, 9am - 12pm EST, please go to www.ssimc.org/registration for more info. Perhaps I will see you there!
keywords: mindfulness, meditation, northeast, snow, weather, body, owls, presence
Mindful of a cold, wind-licked body. For a little bit. Easy to notice and to be with, but ya don't have to make yourself ill. If your inside this practice of weather upon the body may be more difficult but less uncomfortable. Inside you can safely stay with the practice. Outside in relative challenging conditions less time can be the wise practice.
Keywords: awareness, foundational, wind, weather, mindfulness, snow, crunch, quick
An edited recording of an online (errr, pandemic still raging) class concerning Wise View offered on the day of the storming of the US Capitol by the profoundly deluded. The Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path and a whole lot of examples of how to get to know discontent and its HUGE range. Guided meditation occurs deep in the recording.
Keywords: Buddha, outrageous, reality, life, conditions, don't like, ssimc, knowing, ignorance, experience, story, dukkha, sukha, sedition, cat, dog
Not present in the relaxed sense of awareness is a hallmark of being in anticipation. There is a feel, a feeling-tone to anticipation. It is a form of disconnect and discontent when it persists. Notice how it feels in the body, in the mind and in the heart and just being with the breadth is known for its peace. Anticipation happens, but you have a choice in how much it occupies your heartMind.
Keywords: COVID, mindfulness, meditation, practice, breathe, body, awareness, holidays
Ever fresh is this practice. Regardless of conditions. Time disappears. The story recedes. Ease of body, mind, heart in parity. Awake. A different kind of sitting is this meditation. Wakefulness. Tired happens but Pandemic Fatigue is optional.
Keywords: Meditation, quiet, language, refrain, sensations
Not simply thinking better. Not simply calming down. Not just after working out. Insight into the workings of your mind. Your heart. Your body.
Keywords: Basketball, rest, clarity, sitting, quiet, open, eyes, quiet
Sound concentration out in the woods. Many distractions may present. Can't control the world, shouldn't expect sameness.
Keywords: Nature, standing, sound, variables, distraction, fascination, present
Using the sound of Fall as an object. Outside meditating. Standing, maybe sitting. Keep it coming back to the sound that is available. White Oak, Red Oak, Blue Jays and combustible engines. It's all good, as they say and it is if you keep it simple, present and wakeful.
Keywords: Tree, Forest, Tradition, Quercus, Leaves, Bell, Acorns, Doggos
Practice daily a little bit. A pop song's timing, what will fit comfortably on the B side, or even the A side. You have to get regular, daily. Gradually this will grow in time and maybe even frequency. Eventually you will WANT to practice intensively for hours of the days but start slow and steady. Meditate. You don't have to turn it into a big production to get started but eventually don't be surprised if your sitting for sides of long players, CD lengths even, Operatic Cycles...
Keywords: Ramones, Wire, Buzzcocks, Breath, anapanasati, Buddha
Outside and going easy on the knees but still in a squat and listening to the leaves fall down. Soft gaze, not scanning, relaxed and at ease in and width. A short practice.
Keywords: knees, earth, close, easy, fall, listening to what comes and goes, traffic, crickets, birds, outside, connected
Pain is inevitable for all but the tiniest fraction of humans. Get to know it through practice, s l o w ly, over time and it does not get worse. It doesn't morph into suffering. But you have to practice when the pain is relatively low but a real physical experience.
Keywords: dukkha, mindfulness, meditation, cabinetry, caffeine, allergies, foggy, neti, sensation, foundation, breath
The option other than "thinking" your way out of anxiety takes practice. Mindfuling is that practice.
Keywords: Dog, Past, Obsessions, preparation, overdoing-it, meditation, breath, body, posture, ease, awareness
Gathering your attention with the help of light. Using the sense door of sight encounter light, and notice when you have started to leave the light. Not a figuring, out or in.
Keywords: Concentration, sight, definition, phenomena, ease, insight, ssimc, classes
Ah, to sit outside. How divine, under a majestic oak tree, to meditate. But then— that sound, that sound and that sound. Working with what is in the available ambience of your now.
Keywords: mindfulness, presence, concentration, nature, ambience, ease, acorn, dog, practice, fear, cyber security, business, bitter, quercus, pendunculate oak
Getting to know a bright light for upping energy while meditating. A lot like a hazy star. One astronomical unit— how sun centric we be... And then there is the sense of smell. An olafactory object of encounter and a concentration practice very wave-like.
Keywords: Wildfire, weird weather, global warming, light meditation, headaches, smell, Concord grape, fruit, incursion, grape vines, sublime, candy, nature, jelly, preserve
Using sound as an object of meditation. Collecting your attention, the calming that comes about, is more about your HeartMind settling.
Keywords: hen of the woods, focus, sound, attention, union, reality, ambient environment, traffic, voice, language
Went looking for some delicious mushrooms in the forest, didn't find any but I did find a brighter present in the rain. Noticing and practicing while limiting distraction. Practicing walking meditation designed to awaken not entertain.
Keywords: Hen of the wood, mushroom, rain, walking, forest tradition, oak, simplicity, adjustments, white pine, change
How to practice with excitement. How to practice wisely when not excited. How to practice across all conditions. The posture taken depends on many things, but often a walking meditation can be a great "posture" with which to practice when excited.
Keywords: Daily Meditation, simple, body, path, conditions, auctioneer, chill
Standing meditation is the way to practice when certain conditions are present. Its not all about sitting this practice, this regular practice of meditation.
Keywords: Standing, Body, Gaze, sway, energy, awakening, appropriate posture, sloth, torpor, tired, spent
A practice where the guidance is mostly before the sit. So in this episode a whole lotta "silence" is recorded as we practice. This is a closer simulation to what you should be working towards daily — practicing without recordings of any sort. Really get to know the heartmind, the machinations of your being that occur, and see really see those movements. Awareness is bigger than mind...
keywords: practicing, self, others, insight, pandemic, tinnitus, sitting, meditation, prompts, breath, zen, online
We practice everyday, gradually, getting steadier with what is, mindful of the body, able to see the patterns of mind, of action, steady with even subtle, even strong triggers or events. Equanimity becomes a known.
Keywords: Eight Fold Path, mindfulness, rabbit, bunny, corona, covid, anger, sadness, reality, control, knowing, breath awareness, space, time, options, No!, prat fall
This idea of emptying your mind and not doing anything is mostly a misunderstanding of what meditation is pointed towards. Practice and know. A whole lotta breath awareness as an object and focus is practiced and a whole lotta pandemic context brought in and befriended.
Checkout www.ssimc.org for online classes that may be available amidst the pandemic
Keywords: breath, breathe, ease, relaxation, mind, isolation, ideal, concepts, mindfulness, insight, sati, buddha,
Pandemic Practice on forest's edge location. Sound rich. Mindfulness. From despair to natural relaxation.
Keywords: Stupidly, opening up, contained, COVID, ssimc, stay-at-home, ease, Spring, antibody, string of time, zoomed, sight, sound
A bit of a raw field recording, sheltering-in-place and all that and a body and a flow of sound. Stay at home. Stir-crazy.
Keywords: raw, virus, pandemic, reality, soundfield, soundrich, wind, rain, worldwide, ease, presence, social distancing, hunker down
the link: www.patreon.com/mindfuling
Awareness of aspects of fire is a practice. It can be a practice that focuses on just the sounds of fire. There are lots of different sounds of fire. Listen. Practice. Wakeup.
Hey, announcing that I now, pretty much have a Patreon page. What is Patreon? Its a platform through which I can share a whole lot more of the dhamma in different forms if you are interested. Click here to go there!
Keywords: meditation, mindfulness, awareness, fire, elemental, burn, waveform, change, carbon, pratyahara, sense contraol, yoga, buddha, peace
Conceptually simple, practically not so simple. Mindfulness of breath, of body. Its not one and done. Intention and practicing. Remembering and reminding. Cultivating wakefulness. Contact. You being you.
Keywords: Body, mind, heart, lunar new year, awake, meditation, practice, relaxation, seeing, buddha, sensation, ssmc
Mindfulness meditation by way of breath and sound and oh, what sounds you will hear! Thanks John and Yoko! Merry New Year.
Mandolin, this is the way, I have spoken, Mandalorian, Lennon, Ono, breath awareness, vipassana, insight, synphonia, Metta, Goodwill, Lovingkindness, clarity, ssimc, buddha
Practice, guided for letting go and practicing, practicing beyond the limits of sound, and mantra. TM. Nick Cave. Into My Arms. Ghosteen. Greed. Fear. Delusion. Peace. Connection. Beatles. Release the Bats. Birthday Party. The Bad Seeds. Evolution. Root poisons. The Way. Insight. Buddha.
Statues and trappings associated with religion can really and does really impede individuals from learning and practicing meditation. For some the trappings are a delightful trapping that attracts them to such a degree that they think the statues and writing and incense are the practice. Just practice. Focusing on the felt sense of the body is a great cleanser of all those thoughts. Turn off the podcasts and practice, most of the time. Gulp!
Keywords: Religious Gulp, mindfulness, sensations, standing, sitting, lying down, Awake, easeful, Buddha, Gotama, Therevada
Some guided sound field encouragement. Body can fail you now. Deep fake. What is real. What is practice. Frosting and pie.
Keywords: Mindfulness, meditation, body, foundation, contact, sensation, robot, deep fake, ai, hemisphere
How to practice mindfulness meditation with guidance amidst the distortion of life. How to understand what it is you are not getting when you practice via podcast. Noise. Cancelation. Relief. Mind. Play!
Here is a link to the to be staged "Play" from the Mindfuling... DIY book.
Keywords: Body, Concentration, Serenity, Papanca, Discontent, Happiness, Barnstable Comedy Club, Thespians, Mindfulness,
Practice a bit. Stay with it, let go of the habit of trying' to figure it out whilst practicing. I know, it is so nice to figure stuff out but, but that is not what you are doing. Its what you are doing most of your non present time! Stand, sit, practice. RIP Grumpy, clearly not dead...
Keywords: meme, tardar sauce, cat, meditation, foundational, stand, dhammapada, sati, appamada, contact, nibbana, awake, silence, concentration, samadhi, happiness, grumpy cat, pain, suffering, posture
Not just relaxing and zoning out. Not just 10% happier. Active concentrated awareness that is responsive, even when the doggo makes it presence felt. Respond.
Keywords: awareness, compassion, mindfulness, cake, icing, ache, suffering, relaxation, patting, need, reality, book, requirements, canine
Conditions and context matters to discerning accurately. It ain’t as simple as speaking objectively truthfully no matter what. Moment to moment, how do you practice, how do you keep sharp and relaxed and relaxed and...
Keywords: April fools, change, suffering, discontent, practice, fun, meditation, mindfulness, skillful, speech, culture, spring
Practice daily, don’t count on another or a special time or mood. Practice, get to know the present. Simple but not easy to maintain so practice. Practice. And practice.
Keywords: Mindfulness, meditation, awareness, awake, daily, story, vortex, busy, excuses, extra, hibernation, torpor, sleep, awake
Practicing with what you got and letting go and placing awareness in your consciousness. What is really going on. Dropping the story overlay. The weather is happening — so use it. Practicing awareness.
Keywords: Sensation, first foundation, cool, tingle, pressure, safe, core, peace, daily, really, Marvin Gaye
Excerpt from a sitting, guided, and a long talk on Change, TS Eliot, Bowie, discontent, but mostly that olde reliable change.
Keywords: eightfold path, discontent, meditation, mindfulness, concentration, intent, memory, story, ego, timeless, New Years, breath, dhammapada, bhikkhu Thanissaro, Buddha, distillation, path, four noble truths