Mindful Sound

A couple years ago, I was driving home from work.  I was going through a particularly busy street, and rolled my windows down.  I took in all the sounds around me... the sound of the tires of cars driving by. The sound of engines. The pauses between these sounds. Birds chirping in the nearby trees.  Voices of pedestrians in the distance.  It felt really good... and in that moment I felt like I would as if I were meditating.
I was meditating... in a way.

Years later I came to read a passage from someone, perhaps it was Bhante Gunaratana... or Seikida Katsuki.  I can't recall. But what they said was... something like this:
A man wakes up at night and hears a dog barking in the distance. He is upset because the sound is annoying to him.  But if he were to take in the actual sound, without a label of whether it's nice or not, he would hear how beautiful the sound is. The pauses, the changes.

They described that even that sound would be meditative.

Later I did read some in Mindfulness in Plain English by Gunaratana, and found that it was referred there as well, as well as other Vipassana teachers.  They teach that if you are meditating, and concentrating on your breath, but you become aware of sounds... to stop focusing on your breath and start focusing on the sounds.  Follow them. Listen to them. Listen for the pauses, the changes.

Sound, like breath, is a good way to enter the present moment and to reach a meditative state.  It's funny because many years ago, I studied under a Tibetan monk - and he told us that we need to have a special meditation place... and it's impossible to meditate where there is distraction and noise.  This seems very logical. He even went so far as to suggest some people should move from where they live... after all, "who could meditate under a freeway?"

But as he said it, I knew he was wrong.  I could feel it's inaccuracy.  If it where as he suggested, then those who couldn't relocate were doomed.  Yet there are very meditative people who live in very inharmonious locations.  The sound itself, that noise, is only a distraction if you label as so.  Without the label, the sound, the noise can become the object of meditation itself.

Another organization that I'm very close to, teaches that modern music is a source of darkness.  While I never really agreed with their assessment, I did see that anything that uplifts the ego is a detriment and in many cases, music can do that (modern or otherwise.)  But then I also realized later that if you deconstruct the audio tones you hear, as just sounds and listen to each sound - you can find it becomes yet again, the object of meditation.

The point?  Sound is amazing, and a great object of meditation.  Don't be discouraged if you live in a noisy place, or not - you can use the detriment of "noise" to your advantage.

Breath in Meditation

Every meditation practice I have experienced (Tibetan Buddhist, Zen, Western Mysteries, Hindu, New Age, Vipassana etc.) there is certainly in the least a phase of the meditation dedicated to one's own breath.  In some cases, the entirety of the meditation might be on the breath, in other cases, it might be a preliminary to another meditation - but it's always there.

Bhante Gunaratana speaks to why the breath is a useful tool in meditation:

Breathing is a non-conceptual process, a thing that can be experienced directly without a need for thought. Furthermore, it is a very living process, an aspect of life that is in constant change. 

The breath moves in cycles--inhalation, exhalation, breathing in and breathing out. Thus it is miniature model of life itself.

 In Hinduism, the breath is referenced in: Bhagavad Gita, IV:29.  In this passage it speaks of offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath and so forth.  Paramhansa spoke often of the breath.  In his teachings the breath itself was a way in which to make spiritual progress.  He referred to a state of breathlessness... which was an equalibrium of breath.  It wasn't a state of "holding" or "restraining" one's breath - but a natural cessation of breath.  There's more on this perspective at: http://www.ananda.org/meditation/free-meditation-support/articles/go-deeper-into-meditation/

I remember meditating one time, when I was studying some works by a Zen teacher.  In my meditation my mind was wondering and I heard a television program my son was watching... it was distracting but I heard these words from the show: "What a noisy gate."

I came to accept that as a truth.  My mind was noisy.  The gate, is like an aspect of the mind.  It observes itself and all the thought activity going in and out of the gate.  Likewise, the gate is also like the breath... moving in and out.  When the breath is subtle - barely moving, then the gate is fixed - i.e. no noise.

Awareness of the Day: I'm kinda a dick

After my morning meditation, I realized something.  I'm kinda a dick to people online.

I've been getting into petty arguments and stupid online discussions that just get into name calling.  My opinionated ego has been running rampant and it's time to get some control over it.

Getting Back Into Meditation

I have been very negligent on my practice.  It's been (according to my meditation app) over 30 days since my last meditation.

I started having issues with my practice around the tail end of 2012.  At that time my mind was more materially focused. I was looking to leave my job at the time, so I was studying and interviewing.  My meditation practice slipped.  I ended up with a new job in December of 2012.  But my meditation practice didn't kick in.  Instead I preoccupied my time with learning the new job.

Meditation and work shouldn't be incompatible.  But for some reason I couldn't get myself to sit in the morning or at night.

About 3 or 4 months ago, I returned to the Ashram (Ananda LA) and began my meditation practice. It lasted about 3 weeks... and I was back to slacking off again.

Well today is the start of my current attempt to reset my meditation practice.

Rather then just strictly doing the the techniques of Anada (Paramhansa Yogananda), I have been reading Bhante Gunaratana's work "Mindfulness in Plain English."

So this morning I spent 30min in meditation.  It wasn't perfect. My mind was all over the place. I'm not sure if I got more then 10min of pure meditation, or if I even got pure mindfulness. It seemed I was chasing my tail the whole time.  But it's a start.

It's relearning all over again.

The first 20min of my meditation this morning, I spent in mindfulness meditation... meaning, I watched the breath.  The last 10min, I did some Hong Sau meditation.

The mindful meditation on the breath was, as mentioned, not very pure.  I found my mind constantly leaving concentration.  I was thinking about work, then a computer game, then something else.  I would bring the mind back when I realized where it was - but there was significant lag between the wandering mind and my realization it's off target.

I had more focus in Hong Sau.  Possibly because it's more visual, or possibly due to the first 20min priming my concentration.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a practice of watching our mind and body.  In this state we strive to be completely honest with ourselves.  

In a deluded state we ignore the negative aspects and focus on the positive.  But we don't grow in such a state.  

With mindfulness we can overcome our problems.  

For example, if we had an issue with Greed, we can't overcome it without finding it in ourselves and going down to it's roots.  Mindfulness is a way to do that.  It is a practice we can use to track down the problem to the root cause.

Meditation

Mindful meditation is a explicit form of mindfulness.  You sit and contemplate/meditate on the mind stuff's floating around, finding a way to the root cause and removing it.

Mindful Living

Mindfulness should not just be thought of as a formal meditation practice only.  It should also be considered throughout the day.  Driving to work, eating your food, walking, listening - all can be done mindfully.  Listening and observing each moment.

Result

The result of this is a peaceful state of mind.  We also grow spiritually.  We can't overcome a problem without first recognizing it.  Now that we recognize it, we can focus on it.  As we put our mind on something we can clearly see it and thereby find a solution.  

The initial goal might be "Be a better person," or "overcome anger" but the ultimate goal is going beyond all our faults.  

My Opinion on the Benefit of Mindfulness

My personal opinion as that a process such as this, will free the mental blockages in finding God.  Granted, that isn't a Buddhist viewpoint necessarily - but it's my personal take.  

7 Mental Factors

In Vipassana (and possibly other Eastern Schools) there are seven categories of "mental factors" that are ways in which we apprehend the quality of an "object" within the mind.

The seven categories of Universal Mental Factors, are:

1. Feeling
2. Contact
3. Perception
4. Mental Formations
5. Concentration
6. Life Force
7. Awareness

Why Break these up?

Why do Buddhists break these up into categories? Why not just treat it as one lump of "mental stuff" or "feelings?"  

The answer lies in the solution to delusion.  In insight meditation of Vipassana, and the meditation practices of other Buddhist groups - there is a goal to resolve delusion when it arises.  Without categorizing, it makes this very difficult to find the source.  

Vipassana and it's relation to Zen and Tantra

In reading "Mindfulness In Plain English," by Henepola Gunaratana, he speaks about how different forms of Buddhism handle the ego and drive towards enlightenment.

He summarizes Zen as a two stem process... One stem being the sitting down and dropping the mind immediately.  The other stem being the Rinzai school approach, which is the offering of a Koan to a student, along with strict discipline.  The koan is a question without direct answer, and the student is disciplined for an answer to it.  The result can be pure awareness.

He summarizes Tantra as a practice of pure awareness by destroying the ego through a set of visualizations... The student is given a object of meditation (a Tantric Deity for example) and by becoming that, their ego is lost.  

Lastly, he summarizes Vipassana as a process of mindfulness of awareness through a slow but steady examination of one's own existence.  

As he writes about Vipassana:

Vipassana is a gentle technique. But it

also is very, very thorough. It is an ancient and codified system of sensitivity training, a set of exercises dedicated to becoming more and more receptive to your own life experience. It is attentive listening, total seeing and careful testing. 

We learn to smell acutely, to touch fully and really pay attention to what we feel. 

We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them.