Session 02: Mindfulness of the Body

One of the most useful pieces of guidance in relation to Mindfulness is:

"Do nothing with your body but relax." —Tilopa Tibetan teacher in 11th century

When we start to relax, we start to feel our bodies. We start coming home.

So as you've been doing, find yourself a way of sitting, a posture that supports being alert, and that within that alertness, you can relax some. (pause)

And as a way of beginning, a little bit of exploring, I'd like to invite you to take your hand and put it in front of you. And take a look at your hand, and turn it around and, for these next few moments, just notice what it looks like visually to you, and whatever thoughts come up about your hand's functions, whatever history you have with your hand, feelings about your hands. (long pause)

You might even mentally whisper the word "hand."

And keeping the arm up then close your eyes and just begin to gently move the hand back and forth in front of you, moving slowly enough that you can really feel the sensations of your hand moving through space. Feel the sensations within the sensation. And just aware of the aliveness that's here. And you might even pause the movement and, just feeling from the inside out, sensing, is there any shape or boundary to the aliveness? (pause)

Sensing the difference between any idea of hand and these direct sensations, the experience that's right here. (pause)

Allow yourself to gently lower the hand. Just rest. (Longer pause) You can bring the same quality of inside-out attention to the whole body. And we'll scan through the body, relaxing, waking up the awareness inside the body.

You might begin at the brow. Let the eyes be soft. Let the brow be smooth. Just relaxing the eyes, and feeling the tingling and vibrating, perhaps the light and darkness at the lids. (pause)Sometimes, if you imagined smiling into the eyes, with the corners of the eyes up a bit, you can sense even more relaxing and ease, and even more sensation and aliveness.

(pause) With the jaw, be relaxed. You might sense that half smile at the mouth, perhaps the inside of the mouth smiling. And again, with that relaxed attentiveness, feeling the sensations in the tongue, gums, inside the lips. Feel in the mouth. (pause)You might let the awareness fill the shoulder area. Relaxing, perhaps letting the shoulders relax back and down a bit, and feeling the shoulders from the inside out.

Perhaps there's a natural dissolving, like ice to water, and water to gas. (pause)With interest, sensing the aliveness and space inside the shoulders, (pause) the movement of sensation.

(pause)You might feel the hands from the inside out again, letting them rest in a very easy and effortless way, (pause)perhaps softening a little. And then bringing that intimate attention, to feel the life of the hands, tingling, perhaps vibrating, pulsing maybe. (pause)

You might notice that if you soften even more, there's more of an experience of aliveness. (pause)

You can bring the same intimate attention throughout the whole body, letting the chest be open. And just feeling the chest from the inside out, feeling the heart, feeling the movement of sensation throughout the whole chest area. (pause) Relaxed and present, bringing a curious and gentle attention to what's here. (longer pause)

Relaxing the area of the belly, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly-- this breath, (pause) and now this one, and again. (pause) Sensing how you can experience awareness deep into the torso. (pause)

Just as a cup can be filled with water, this body can be filled with awareness. (pause)

Sensing the aliveness sensations through the whole pelvic area, and down through the legs and the feet.

So you might be aware of the pressure and warmth where your feet are, and feeling them from the inside out. (longer pause) And widening the lens of attention to include the whole body now, simultaneously sensing this body is a field of sensation. (longer pause)Letting everything be just as it is. (longer pause)Sensing the possibility of resting in a vast, open awareness, (pause) experiencing this play of life, this changing dance of sensation. (longer pause)

Thank you Jack and Tara for these meditations, which I’m now sharing as part of teaching the practices of mindfulness to those interested in discovering their own path in life.

Yesterday morning my partner and I over breakfast were joking about being mindful in the toilet, as I’ve put a little mindfulness book of quotations in the bathroom and we were coming up with a new mindfulness practice with a catchy sound bite to go with it sit ‘sit while you shit’ ‘learning to let go or just go with the flow,’ etc. And I was telling her about a student who didn’t have time to sit because their life was so busy with their career that they felt couldn’t take even five minutes to meditate or be mindful.

And then she came up with a solution to sit in the morning while the kettle boiled and you know what they say about a watched kettle…

However, it was a practical solution in our multitasking world and not necessarily one that distracted from the other. Yes, there is the noise or sound of the water heating up to the boiling point when steam begins to rise and eventually the kettle begins to whistle getting louder and louder, or it switches itself off before it blows it top, and then things quieten down again. You can imagine it like an argument or an orgasm, the difference being one tends to leave a bitter taste in your mouth, whereas the other leaves at least one person feeling satisfied.

Have you heard the one about the chicken and the egg? If you haven’t let me know and I’ll share it later.

Now the really important thing is to be able to notice when things start to heat up too quickly so that you’re able to control your body. And this really comes down to being aware of what’s going inside your body and to be able to control it rather than be controlled by it so as not to flip your lid, and say or do something you may live to regret and that’s what we’re going to talk a bit about and experience today: slowing down so we can feel the sensations in our body that subconsciously tells us what’s coming so that we can let some things pass, other things go and learn to observe sensations in our body rise and fall away again so we can move on and not stay stuck.

 So last week we explored using the breath as an anchor or way of coming into presence. And in this session, we'd like to extend the training to the teaching about mindfulness of the whole body.

Mindfulness of the Body is also known as the first foundation of mindfulness.

"There is one thing that, when cultivated and regularly practiced, leads to deep spiritual intention, to peace, to mindfulness, and clear comprehension to vision and knowledge, to a happy life here and now, and to the culmination of wisdom and suffering. And what is that one thing? Mindfulness centred on the body." (the Buddha.)

So why do we have to be awake in the body?

Well if you’ve had the experience of your mind and body being in the same place at the same time, you’ll know what a wonderfully conscious feeling that SENSE OF BEING PRESENT in the body is.

Or some of you may have been present at the death or birth of a loved one and remember what that felt like.

And if you look at that word re-member what it reminds us of is that The Body Keeps the Score. All our experiences both past and present, perhaps even future are stored in our bodies and every now and again the parts of the body where these memories are stored resurface or are triggered by something happening in the present. So it’s important to be present and recognise what we’re remembering about the past or perhaps anticipating about the future is happening in our bodies at this moment and when we recognise and bring mindful awareness to whatever is happening we can handle the ten thousand joys and sorrows or natural shocks that flesh is air to.

You might take a moment to think of moments perhaps outside in nature, or moments with a loved one where there was a real sense of intimacy and connection and what that felt like and where you felt it in your body.

Or you might remember a moment where you felt a real sense of peace or moments where you really felt yourself moving with a sense of flow as if you were part of something moving through and along with you. In each one of these experiences, the common thread is you were present in your body to experience it, to register what was happening.

And if this experience of being in the same place at the same time in mind and body hasn’t happened to you yet it will. It’s a beautiful and truly liberating sensation because it lets us know that we are more than our thoughts.

A personal anecdote.

I remember being in a bar in Paris and feeling this sense of being right where I was and telling the person I was with You don’t understand, I’m really here,

And her telling me she understood and me saying no but you don’t understand I’m really here and her saying I know,

And she did because she had experienced it that feeling for herself.

That sense of presence is wonderful but it is not something we can hold on to and of course, there are other experiences that we don’t always want to hold onto either.

moments when you were really suffering-- moments that were really difficult, when you were in a lot of conflict with another person, or fear, or self-aversion experiences of suffering are that we're, in some way, disconnecting or dissociating from our body. At war with ourselves.

A personal anecdote

I remember a time where I was under an extreme amount of stress, most self-inflicted because I wasn’t asking for help but trying to cope on my own and put on a brave face. In fact, I’m not sure I knew how traumatised my body was.

My flatmate overdosed and I had to deal with the shock of seeing the body and later that evening going to the police station in god knows what kind of state I feel something come over me and turn to my left and there I see him walking along the footpath in one of those B&W coats from the 80s. And I remember feeling this sense of relief that all this was a dream and he wasn’t really dead.

Of course in the next second, I was back in this body and he was still dead but whether what I saw was his ghost or a figment of my imagination or created by my brain I cannot say. I was completely disconnected from my body or this reality and in some other realm. who knows maybe the realm of the dead with no sense of fashion. but the point is I wasn’t aware or in control of what was happening to me.

The body is the energetic substrata of every other experience of emotions, thoughts, perceptions. They're all experienced on a physical level. Everything arises from what we touch, or smell, or see, or hear. So it may just have been the body’s way of offering me some relief by letting me experience that nightmare as a dream.

If we scan our bodies and ask how awake am I my body from the neck down? you’d be surprised by the variety of responses,

A simple instruction from one Buddhist teacher was, don't do anything that takes you out of your body. And if we sit still and close our eyes and say, I'm not going to do anything that takes me out of my body just for a moment, right now, let’s see what happens.

So sitting quietly with that single intention see what happens.

Now, how many of you found that, given that instruction, you left more?

How many of you felt, actually, the intention had you stay more?

It can cut both ways.

Sometimes just giving yourself that instruction, helps you feel more into what’s happening in the body. And other times, you start noticing how quickly the mind wanders off. Well, for most people, without the intention to be here, we're leaving all the time.

It’s like trying to teach a puppy to sit.

And it's absolutely natural. We all do it. And why? It’s part of our survival instinct to flee what is threatening and hold on to what feels good to us. But to really inhabit this body means to be willing to, to be surrendering into what feels out of control. So our organism tries to control, and it creates a body/mind split.

If we think about in terms of our evolution and our rise to the top of the food chain it’s not because we’re the strongest or fittest it was because of our collective learning, cognition. So we take refuge in our mental control towers. And, for many people, that's exacerbated if what’s happening feels beyond our control. When things are emotionally challenging, even traumatic the tendency is to dissociate and try and escape from our bodies if we can.

It’s this fight, flight, freeze response.

It's also exacerbated-- this body/mind split, taking refuge in the mental control tower-- by our culture, that our body's this object to be manipulated. You know, we want ourselves and the world to look and be a certain way and when it isn’t we just swipe. We don’t like how we look we use makeup. We sculpt and manipulate our bodies. We try to fix or medicate them to fit into what is culturally fashionable. Our minds and bodies become secondary products for the labour and leisure industry. So we’re subtly removed from inhabiting and listening to what our bodies are telling us to being told what to do by the tyranny of the majority, our globalising culture.

Of course, we like to be one step ahead so we try to figure things out, try to plan ahead. we take all the innate knowledge in our bodies, our instincts, our gut feelings and ignore them because the computer says so.

There’s so much info. or noise in our system now that the inner dialogues and demands get so loud, we put in earplugs too, avoid people, the natural world. And so you get the idea. We're further and further disconnected, shut off from this living being, this living planet.

So what happens when we leave like that? Well, first of all, there's a lot of fatigue and exhaustion. So anyone who's dissociating a lot-- who's leaving their bodies a lot-- is going to also have fatigue because it takes energy to push away and leave. Does that make sense? So there's that fatigue. And then, even though we're dissociated, some part of us still knows something within us needs attention. So there's anxiety about what we're not paying attention to.

We can't dissociate without having that anxiety and fatigue. And we often end up developing these escape habits that aren't so healthy in many ways to self-soothe or numb ourselves. Sometimes we leave by numbing with food or drugs. Sometimes we leave by obsessing. Sometimes we leave by being locked into judgment and negative thoughts about ourselves and others.

We get cut off from our heart because when we leave, we're not feeling this domain that allows us to experience warmth and tenderness and openness, where we feel a connection. We get cut off from our belly, which is really the centre of feeling authentic power, and from the pelvic region, the creativity and sensuality of our lives-- our sexuality. Finally, when we're dissociated, we're living in a virtual reality. We're not getting the messages of our body's intelligence and our heart's wisdom. So instead, we're reacting to the world out of fight, flight, freeze mode. We're just-- we're in reaction, and we're reacting in unwise ways.

And, as well exemplified by a story of these two hunters that were out hunting, and one hunter, all of a sudden, falls to the ground and it turns out his friend has had a heart attack. So he panics and he calls up, you know, 911, and he's, emergency, emergency. And the woman that's speaking to him says, calm down, calm down. First, make sure that he's dead, and then there's a shot heard in the background. And then he goes back to the phone. OK, now what do I?

So we’ve looked at what we’re missing out on and the suffering that happens when we’re not present in our bodies but what we’re here to explore is how to practice reconnecting.

So how do we do that? In the last session, we used the breath,

And for some, the breath doesn’t work that well or it could trigger traumatic memories in the body but it’s important that we have some sort of sensory anchor, meaning, feeling, touchpoints in the body, or feeling the breath, or it could be sound.

Anything that helps us to come out of that mental control tower where we're lost in a virtual reality so that we can come back to it over and over again.

And a powerful question is really to keep asking, well, what is the difference between being in our thoughts and being right here in this living reality?

Behind the practices of reconnecting re-inhabiting the body, that’s really essential - that it's gentle, that it's slow, it's with interest, with care and forgiveness when we leave again and again.

Our anchor is there to remind us when we’ve left and it gives us a place to come back to and start again.

And one of the most powerful ways of coming back to our bodies is through doing a body scan and feeling things from the inside out.

And there are all the different ways of scanning and feeling, from the inside out, the movement of sensation. Noticing where sensation is, noticing the different qualities of sensations so that you are able to name what's being experienced.

To be able to know burning, squeezing, twisting, heat, cool-- just to be able to sense that.

To really begin to ask those questions.

And there are really two main questions that we're asking, which is what is happening inside me? This is the wing of interest, curiosity. What is it really like right now?

And then the second question is, and can I be with this, or can I let this be? And those questions, if we ask regularly, begin to develop this habit of staying with what we previously have been leaving.

and just by asking notice what happens. What is happening inside me? and Can I be with this?

One of the things I'm aware of when we talk about mindfulness of the body is, it feels very self-centred. But we're not talking just about our own bodies. Our Earth would not be suffering the way it is if we were awake in our bodies. And the more we connect in a visceral way with the aliveness here, the more our sensitivity and perceptiveness and care widens out, so we're able to really feel what's going on in the bodies of others.

And we're able to feel the struggle of other beings that, like us, want to live fully and don't want to be polluted or oppressed or, in some way disrespected. We sense the needs of our Earth, our larger body. So it's a very powerful practice that we're doing, in the sense of bringing into awareness, what needs to be attended to. It's part of the healing of our world.

I was thinking yesterday morning while talking to my partner over breakfast that just because I can imagine something and can create it, doesn’t mean I should because I can. Because I can, was the response of a wealthy American when he was asked why did he want to build a replica of the Palace of Versailles.

The Palace of Versailles was the royal residence, of Louis XIV,  known as the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years is the longest recorded of any monarch. In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's France was a leader in the growing centralisation of power.[2] until the start of the French Revolution in 1789, under Louis XVI.

For that wealthy American, the economic crash happened as it did in Ireland and a lot of people lost their livelihoods and homes. It was a real wake-up call for us all but what I noticed also was a growing sense of community once again. Much like what I feel is happening again due to the current health crisis we’re and I think there’s a real opportunity to learn from this and takes what’s positive from this and create some positive changes in our lives if and when this global crisis passes. And one of the main teachings of mindfulness is that whatever is happening now will not last forever, because change is part of nature, and culture and nature are in a symbiotic relationship. Now we can’t stop nature from changing but we can change our cultural relationship to nature by re-inhabiting our bodies and sensing how our bodies are dependent on sustaining a healthy environment and not just doing or creating what we want because we can.

I think we’re learning to appreciate just how precious how enjoyable the simple things in life are like being able to go for a walk in nature, to the sea, the mountains, whatever or spending time with loved ones, having friends, and even an online community at this time. Because we’re social creatures with very simple physical needs at heart and "There is more than enough for our needs but never enough for our greed." (Richard Rohr)

“The planet does not need more ‘successful’ people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.” ~ David Orr

Our society really is more disembodied than ever. And I find the words of Thomas Merton very poignant on this. He says the rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone and everything, is to succumb to violence.

And on that note, I’d like to share something from my peer group of meditation teachers from around the world whom I spoke with yesterday, that touched me. Most of them elderly and still working in difficult circumstances.

An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans by Kristin Flyntz
Stop. Just stop.
It is no longer a request. It is a mandate.
We will help you.
We will bring the supersonic, high speed merry-go-round to a halt
We will stop
the planes
the trains
the schools
the malls
the meetings
the frenetic, furied rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you from hearing our
single and shared beating heart,the way we breathe together, in unison.
Our obligation is to each other,
As it has always been, even if, even though, you have forgotten.
We will interrupt this broadcast, the endless cacophonous broadcast of divisions and distractions, to bring you this long-breaking news:
We are not well.
None of us; all of us are suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the earth did not give you pause.
Nor the typhoons in Africa, China, Japan.
Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India.
You have not been listening.
It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time, hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way, buckling under the weight of your needs and desires.
We will help you.
We will bring the firestorms to your body
We will bring the fever to your body
We will bring the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs that you might hear:
We are not well.
Despite what you might think or feel, we are not the enemy.
We are Messenger. We are Ally. We are a balancing force.
We are asking you:
To stop, to be still, to listen;
To move beyond your individual concerns and consider the concerns of all;
To be with your ignorance, to find your humility, to relinquish your thinking minds and travel deep into the mind of the heart;
To look up into the sky, streaked with fewer planes, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, smoky, smoggy, rainy? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
To look at a tree, and see it, to notice its condition: how does its health contribute to the health of the sky, to the air you need to be healthy?
To visit a river, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, clean, murky, polluted? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy? How does its health contribute to the health of the tree, who contributes to the health of the sky, so that you may also be healthy?
Many are afraid now.
Do not demonize your fear, and also, do not let it rule you. Instead, let it speak to you—in your stillness, listen for its wisdom.
What might it be telling you about what is at work, at issue, at risk, beyond the threats of personal inconvenience and illness?
As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about quality of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky, and all of us who share this planet with you?
Stop.
Notice if you are resisting.
Notice what you are resisting.
Ask why.
Stop. Just stop.
Be still.
Listen.
Ask us what we might teach you about illness and healing, about what might be required so that all may be well.
We will help you, if you listen.

D.H. Lawrence in the 1920s, "vitally, the human race is dying. It's like a great uprooted tree, with its roots in the air. We must plant ourselves again in the universe."

The good news is we can replant ourselves and our bodies, reconnect with the earth. I think of much of this training as a coming back and reconnecting with the life that's here. And we practice with a very gentle, mindful presence re-inhabiting these bodies, and including the different sensations-- the unpleasant and pleasant-- that move through us. So we're learning to stay. We really learn to stay. We don't have to keep distancing ourselves from ourselves. We can be here. Present for the present that is life with every breath we take, every move we make.

 BASIC MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: BREATH AND BODY (7/8 MINUTES)

Finding a sitting position that allows you to be alert—spine erect but not stiff—and also relaxed. Closing your eyes and establishing a simple sense of presence. [Short pause.] Now, allowing your awareness to scan through your body and, wherever possible, softening and releasing obvious areas of physical tension.

[Long pause]

You might take a few very full breaths, and then allow your breath to be natural. [Short pause.] Bringing your attention to where you most easily detect the breath, or perhaps where it’s most pleasurable ... letting this place of experiencing the breath be your home base, an anchor to the present moment. Noticing this breath ... right here.

[Short pause]

If the breath is not a good home base for you, you might instead anchor your attention in the sensations in your hands or the sensations of your whole body sitting here. [Short pause.]

Now, with a relaxed, interested attention, discovering what the sensations of the breath or your chosen anchor feel like, moment to moment.

[Pause]

Where is your attention now? Each time you notice that your mind has wandered off is a moment of mindfulness. Gently bringing your attention back to the inflow and outflow of the breath or your chosen anchor ... offering a relaxed, wakeful presence.

[Pause]

Now, scanning your body and noticing if any particular sensations are strong, and calling your attention.

[Short pause]

If so, allowing the breath or your home base to recede to the background and bringing an interested, kind presence to the sensations.

[Short pause]
What do they feel like?

[Short pause]

You might be aware of heat or chills, tingling, aching, twisting, stabbing, vibrating ... With a soft, open awareness, feeling the sensations as they are ... noticing ... are they pleasant or unpleasant? As you fully attend to them, do they become more intense or dissipate? Noticing how they change.

[Short pause]

When the sensations are no longer a strong experience, returning to mindfulness of breathing or your chosen anchor.

[Long Pause]

If you find it difficult to stay with strong sensations, you might breathe with them, letting the breath help you find some balance and openness in the midst. It can also be helpful to name
the sensations, seeing if there is a word that describes your experience: tightness, ache, heat, pressure ... There is no need to strain or to run through a mental thesaurus to find the “right” word. Notice what word arises in awareness and mentally repeat it to yourself in a soft tone, letting the naming be soft in the background, five percent of your attention, with 95 percent on the actual experience.

[Longer Pause]

You might ask yourself: What is happening inside me right now? Noticing any sensations that are predominant ... and then ask: Can I be with this? Directly feeling the flow of sensation, subtle or strong, letting life be just as it is.

[Pause]

Now, returning to your home base—the breath or anchor of particular sensations. Offering a calm, steady attention ... If, during this last minute or so, strong sensations call your attention, letting your primary anchor recede, and bringing a full attention again to what’s arising ... naming what you notice, offering your presence. If nothing strong is calling your attention, continuing to rest with your home base ... relaxed and alert.

[Longer Pause]

Sensing the breath in the foreground, still aware of the field of sensations in the background. You are learning to be centred, balanced, and present for the breath and the living world of sensation ... wisely aware of this changing life.