“In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and the standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul– are the foundation of one’s spiritual life. Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes.”
– Nelson Mandela, from his book Conversations with Myself

Suggested practice time is 10 to 15 min 5 times a week.

This approach to mindfulness is an opportunity to sit down with yourself and observe your thoughts. Thoughts tend to arise in repetitive patterns. Once the thought patterns are noticed it is easier to see them as habits rather than believing them as being right or true.

The time you spend meditating is also a way of relating with yourself. You can begin to make friends with your personality and all the different aspects of your mind. You can begin tolerating and accepting the positive and negative parts of yourself. This is the same principle as when a partner pushes on us, and we can open and include the energy of the push without constricting.

In this view we find that it is helpful to categorize types of thought such as: judging, planning, desiring, fearing etc… Categorizing thoughts lets us see that we have habits of repetitive thinking. Once we realize that we think in habits we can make a choice to think differently and begin changing the habit. For instance, if I recognize that I am judging I can choose to be interested rather than thinking that I am right.

We work with two basic elements of attention – awareness and concentration. Awareness is the practice of seeing and being with what is arising in the moment – we are curious about what kind of thoughts are arising. Concentration is the practice of focusing one’s attention in a particular way so that our energy stabilizes in a contained process of attention. We use a three-part concentration to stabilize the attention – posture, space and breath.

When you first sit down, clarify your posture. The hips are higher than the knees so the pelvis is stable and tipped slightly forward bringing weight into the knees. Eyes are open and hands resting on the thighs.

Allow your inhale to enhance the uplifted nature of the posture, lengthening the back of the neck and out the top of your head. The exhale flows down toward the earth in the front of your body softening your chest and belly. Focus at least 3 breaths in this way to encourage a strong, uplifted feeling in the back and a soft, settled feeling in the front. There is no need to force this part of the concentration. You can suggest that the uplifted quality of the posture in the back is supported by the sense of centrifugal force activated by the earth spinning 1,000 miles an hour. The gravitational force supports the settled sense in the front.

Now shift your attention to the space behind you… (give this 3 or 4 seconds) and the space to the left… and to the right… and the space in front of you. Relating with the space can bring a sense of openness. There is also space inside your body.

Next bring your attention to the sensations of breath in your body. Don’t try to breath any particular way. Sometimes the breath is short and tight, some-times the breath is long and easy. Each breath activates a cascade of sensations; it is as if the universe is breathing you and you can go along with it.

Now that you have focused and stabilized your body and attention with concentration you can shift to awareness in order to observe habits and patterns of thought. Be curious and interested to see what kind of thought will arise and greet it with kindness, “Ah, hello judgment…” or “Yes, I am planning…” Then offer or release the thought out into the space. For an instant there might be a gap, a moment of openness and then another thought shows up. Or you can shift your attention back to posture, space and breath and stabilize your energy before you open to awareness again.

The art of working with yourself

The art of working with yourself is to find the rhythm in shifting between concentration and awareness. The invitation is not to indulge in the content or the story and not to push the thoughts away with concentration. The exercise is to notice how long to be with and acknowledge the thoughts and feelings before offering them out into the space and returning to the dignified posture.

Whatever comes up can be received with precision and gentleness. If the experience becomes too unpleasant or painful you can use other concentrations. You can use the loving-kindness prayer or a positive visual such as “If your hips were like the mountain...If your heart was like the ocean...Mind like the sky...” to change the feeling state in the body. You might ask, “If someone pushed on me right now, could I be a little more extended and a little more relaxed?” Allow the inquiry to adjust your posture. Then begin again with the movement between concentration and awareness.

You can use the Loving Kindness Prayer to end your sitting:

May I be happy so I can spread Happiness
May I be peaceful so I can spread Peace
May I be filled with Love so I can spread Love

(Now bring the faces of our loved ones before us and seeing them smiling, say for them…)

May they be Happy,
May they be Peaceful,
May they be filled with Love.
May they learn whatever lessons they need to learn as easily as possible.

(Letting our awareness radiate out over the entire universe)

May all beings be Happy,
May they be Peaceful,
May they be filled with Love

(Bring our attention back to our own hearts and say for ourselves)

May I be Happy,
May I be Peaceful,
May I be filled with Love

You could use a poem, like this one:

“As irrigators lead water where they want,
as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters
carve wood, the wise shape their minds.”

The Dammapada

Find more concentrations here.