Insight Meditation 07

CAUTION: These investigations involve intentionally triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or with appropriate training in softening, samadhi and insight.

To develop insight into habitual tendencies of your mind and observe the constructed nature of thinking patterns and their relationship to bodily sensations (kaya), feeling tone (vedana) and heart/mind (citta) as an autonomous, conditioned process. 

In this meditation you ground awareness within your body and relax control, in order to allow the habitual mind to produce thinking in order to observe its constructed (sankhara) nature. 

Conditions:

This meditation is best practiced after a busy or overstimulated day so that your mind will be triggered to remember the past or plan for the future.

Step 1: Allow your mind to wander.

After preparing your attention as per the instructions in Preparing Your Attention for Insight, be aware of the touch of your hands, relax your mental grip and allow your mind to wander and think to answer the below questions. 

Step 2: Take interest in any thinking patterns or memories.

As you relax your mind may start remembering something from the past or thinking about something in the future. you can encourage this thought process and then gently soften to allow your mind to run with that memory/thought. See if you can notice the causal links as one memory/thought creates the conditions for the next.

Step 3: Notice your bodies response to the thinking or memory.

Notice any changes within sensation within your body as a reflection of that thinking or memory such as tightness around the base of the throat, chest or belly and the effort of your mind to continue keeping it within your attention.

Step 4: Notice any feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness.

Observe any feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness that arises within your body as a reflection of this thought or memory and any associated liking of disliking of that feeling.

Step 5: Apply the GOSS to the effort to like or dislike.

GOSS: Ground > Observe > Soften > Smile. 

1. Ground: be aware of the experience of your body to establish mindfulness.
2. Observe: observe the reaction within your body, noticing its autonomous nature.
3. Soften: gently relax the underlying effort of your mind to attract or resist.
4. Smile: smile with your eyes into the subtle pleasure of letting go of that effort.

Repeat again at Step 1.

Investigation:

Take interest in what is driving your thinking patterns like remembering, worrying, planning, fantasising etc. and use a simple label to describe it. Observe the feeling or pleasantness or unpleasantness underlying that emotion and see what happens when you soften into it.

You are ready to progress to Insight 08: Past, Present & Future when:

• You understand thinking patterns as an observable, impersonal experiences that are simply produced as a protection mechanism of the mind.

Please note that the recording and video for the practicality of instruction uses kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within the body) as a foundation for enquiry for practical reasons rather than access unification or jhana.

• SoundCloud: Guided Meditation.
• Insight Timer App: Guided Meditation.

The experience of pleasantness or unpleasantness and the sensate quality of emotions can all be observed within your body as reflections of thinking and your current your state of mind. 

During this meditation your task is to observe thinking patterns and to develop sensitivity to the reflection of your mind within your body and its relationship to the quality of the thinking pattern present.

This is done by bringing awareness to this sensate quality as it arises and 'rubbing' awareness on the experience as if you are 'feeling' it through touch. 

This will allow you to observe your relationship towards these thinking patterns and to soften into that relationship in order to decondition habitual defensive responses within your mind by applying the GOSS Formula with an emphasis on accessing the pleasure of letting go.