Meditation isn’t really about getting rid of thoughts;
it’s about changing the pattern of grasping on to things,
which in our everyday experience is our thoughts.
Pema Chodron
Category: Meditation
New to Mindfulness Practice 11: Kindness, not judging
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way
— on purpose, in the present moment,
and without judgment.
Jon Kabat Zinn
New to Mindfulness Practice 10: Just watch
If you need something to do in meditation , then watch the breathing. This is a very simple process. When you are breathing out, know that you are breathing out. When you breath in, know that you are breathing in, without supplying any kind of extra commentary or internalized mental gossip, but just identifying with the breath.
Sogyal Rinpoche
New to Mindfulness Practice 9: See things when they arise
Understanding how our emotions have the power to run us around in circles helps us discover how we increase our pain, how we cause harm to ourselves. Because of mindfulness we see things when they arise…we can stop harming ourselves and harming others. We don’t buy into the chain reaction that makes things grow from minute to expansive – we leave things minute.
Pema Chodron
New to Mindfulness Practice 8 : Passing through the mind
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky.
Conscious breathing is my anchor
Thich Nhat Hahn
New to Mindfulness Practice 7: Drop the commentary
When we practice meditation, we express confidence in the simple yet powerful gesture of opening to whatever arises during our meditation session. We discover that the practice requires that we sit still on the cushion, letting go of our internal dialogue, opening to our world — very simply, very directly.
When we examine this experience of opening, we find that we are expressing a part of ourselves that we may tend to overlook: we are expressing our ability to trust ourselves completely. In order to open — in meditation and in life in general — we must let go of our familiar thoughts and emotions, we must step out from behind the safe curtain of our inner rehearsals and onto the stage of reality, even if it’s for just a brief moment. When we open on the cushion, we renounce our attachment to our emotional security blanket, over and over again. We drop our pretense and our story lines and stand naked in the midst of uncertainty — the very essence of confidence itself.
Michael Carroll, Bringing Spiritual Confidence to the Workplace
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