Insight Meditation 16

CAUTION: Development of skill in this technique involves 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 appropriate training in softening, samadhi and insight.

The MIDL Method of Relaxing the Frontal Lobes is the skill of abandon all mental participation through relaxing the effort that underlies mental stances. 

There is a direct correlation between mental activity, such as thinking, as well as held mental postures, and the experience of tension in the area of the frontal lobes. It is the effort held in this area that you relax.

When relaxing the frontal lobes, it is helpful to borrow the method of Lengthening the Out-Breath through the nose by picturing the in-breath filling your frontal lobes, and the out-breath deflating them like a balloon. 

Once you can feel the deflation/relaxing of the frontal lobes you can abandon all imagery. With practice you will be able to abandon all effort in the frontal lobes without the aid of breathing.

Step 1. Learn to Soften the Frontal Lobes.

1. Take your meditation posture.
2. Ground your awareness within the experience of your body as it sits.  
3. Take a slow breath in through your nose and picture the frontal lobes of your brain as if they are filling with air.
4. Let a slow breath out through your nose and picture/feel your frontal lobes deflate/relax.
5.  Observe any feeling of mental relaxation/release. 
6. Allow the breath to draw in to fill your frontal lobes with air, then as it goes back out slightly lengthen that out-breath, slow it down, feeling the frontal lobes relax.
7. Notice the increased relaxation effect. 
8. Keep repeating this process and learn what it means to relax all mental participation with any thoughts that are present.

Step 2: Combine the Five Softening Doors.

1.  Take your meditation posture.
2. Ground your awareness within the experience of your body as it sits. 
3. Practice the first four softening doors and learn to combine them as one.
4. Practice re-engaging the diaphragm and filling your body with each breath.
5. Feel the relaxation inherent within the deflation of the out-breath.
6. Add the lengthening of each out-breath through your nose in alignment with each deflation. Feel the increasing relaxation and mental abandoning.
7. Add the relaxing of your eyelids aligned with the slow breath out through your nose. Feel the increasing mental and physical relaxation.
8. Picture each inbreath filling your body, head and frontal lobes of your brain.
9. Feel your frontal lobes deflate with each slow out-breath. 
10. Mentally and physically abandon all effort with each deflation.

• Observe the effect on your mind while individual practicing the first four softening doors. 
• Observe the effect on the intellectual function of your mind and the closing down to pure awareness when all five softening doors are combined together. 

1. Take your meditation posture.
2. Ground your awareness within the experience of your body as it sits. 
3.  Caution:  Bring a difficult memory to mind and observe within your body, breathing and mind.  
4. Observe any tension with your mind, the response within your body and the acceleration of the thinking process. 
5. Notice its unpleasantness, sense of unease (vedana) as a flavour or taste of the physical response.
6. Take slow softening into breaths from your belly moving upwards.
7. Picture each inbreath filling your body, head and frontal lobes of your brain.
8. Feel your frontal lobes deflate with each slow out-breath. 
9. Mentally and physically abandon all effort with each deflation of your body.
10. Repeat this process, learn to observe the physical response to the difficult memory (kaya) as a reflection of your mind (citta). Learn to separate out the feeling tone (vedana) and observe what happens when you soften your relationship towards the underlying vedana.

• Observe the fading of emotional charge against the difficult memory when all five softening doors are applied to it as one softening skill.

You are ready to progress to Insight 17: Learn to Decondition Mind when:

• You understand how to combine and apply the five softening doors as one to completely let go in the face of the unpleasantness of difficult memories.

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