Vipassana [mindfulness] meditation class @SABS Part 7

Lesson 7, July 5, 2013. 

Bro. KC started the class by checking with the yogis if they have any question or experience to share pertaining to their formal or informal practice?

1. How to apply mindfulness in busy life?

  
Even when you are busy you are still doing something at any single moment. Pay attention to whatever you are doing e.g. attending a meeting, being engaged with a client, talking on the telephone, performing some other work, driving, doing household chores, etc. Just as in formal practice, focus on the primary object [task/activity at hand] and pay attention and attend to the secondary objects e.g. bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings [pleasant, unpleasant and neutral], mental states and sensing [seeing, hearing, thinking, etc.] accordingly as they occur.

Remember, this being the informal practice of mindfulness the level of mindfulness we can realistically maintain is general mindfulness [touch and go] and not continuous mindfulness which yogis can generate in the formal practice of mindfulness meditation.

2. What if we fall asleep especially after a meal when we do formal sitting meditation?

Teacher advised us to do walking meditation after a meal. This helps us with our digestion too.

3. Yogis who have learnt other method of meditation prior to this tend to go back to their old habits when they try to practise what they learn in this class. How to overcome this?

Whilst practising what you learn in this class, if the old habit occur, be mindful of its occurrence then go back to the current method learnt. Persist with this practice and eventually the new practice can become a new nature. This is akin to reconditioning to the method we now learn.

We went on to do 25 minutes of walking meditation, followed by 20 minutes of sitting meditation.

After the two practices, the teacher asked if the class would like to share their experience and questions :

1) What if mind wander off during walking meditation?

Acknowledge [be mindful and accept] that the mind had wandered off. After that it is helpful to pause and direct attention to the mind with the intention of having the mind cleared of any irrelevant thoughts. Once that is done, note the intention to resume walking before resuming the walking meditation.

2) Overcoming sleepiness during sitting meditation.

Two yogis shared that they managed to overcome sleepiness by putting more effort on observing the primary object of rising and falling of the abdomen. 

3) How to deal with body pains in sitting meditation?

A better way to deal with body pains is to observe the nature and intensity of pain sufficiently without resisting and rejecting it. In other words, acknowledge [be mindful and accept] it sufficiently and then redirect attention to the primary object of rising and falling movements of the abdomen. Yogis can also note the resulting unpleasant feeling. After that yogis can check the mind to observe if the mind is rooted in hate e.g. aversion, resentment, etc. which is unwholesome or rooted in non-hate e.g. equanimity which is wholesome before redirecting one's attention to the primary object of abdominal movements.

4) Questions were also asked about the terms vipassana, satipatthana, metta and samatha.

A short translation of vipassana is insight. It can also be defined as seeing things [mental and physical phenomena] as they truly are and not what they appear to be. Or seeing things according to their true nature. The term satipatthana comes from the discourse taught by the Buddha i.e. Satipatthana Sutta in which vipassana meditation is based. We can also call the meditation you are learning Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation.

Due to time constraint the teacher was not able to fully answer the questions
pertaining to the above mentioned terms. He will resume answering during the next session.