Overview
My primary aim in this 90-minute workshop is to open the door to mindfulness through simple, accessible, and portable practices for novices. We will begin with a very short, guidance-free sit to prompt a discussion of what it is to sit in silence, what meditation is, and what mindfulness is. Before offering any definitions, I want to get a sense of the audience’s knowledge, experiences, and assumptions about mindfulness. I will also offer a brief account of my own contemplative journey to provide context for the approach I’ve taken with this workshop.
After our discussion of mindfulness, I’ll provide a quick overview of the three short practices we will be doing: six anchors practice, breath-focused practice, and a choose-your-own-anchor practice. We’ll then go through those three practices, following each up with a discussion. I will provide participants with recordings of these meditations (offered at varying lengths by adding more space between cues). I’ll host a short follow-up session and Q & A either with the group or during regular office hours. Each practice will have an “on-the-go” version and a more formal-practice version.
Agenda
| Activity | Time |
|---|---|
| Opening Silent Practice and Discussion | 7 - 10 Minutes |
| Discussion of Mindfulness | 10 - 15 Minutes |
| Practice #1: Six Anchors | 15 - 20 Minutes |
| Practice #2: Sitting Meditation on Breath | 15 - 20 Minutes |
| Practice #3: Chose Your Own Anchor | 10 - 15 Minutes |
| Closing Discussion and Q & A | 10 |
Opening Practice of Silence
Guidance Script
Let’s take a few moments to sit in silence together. You don’t have to do anything in particular - there’s no special way that you need to sit, breathe, think, or feel. Just sit, with your eyes closed if you like, and observe whatever you observe.
This is all the guidance I will offer as we then sit for three minutes.
Discussion Questions
- What came up for you as you sat in silence just now?
- Was that meditation?
- Was it a mindfulness practice?
What is Mindfulness?
Discussion Questions
- When you hear the phrase mindfulness, what do you think of?
- Are there activities that you engage in that are more mindful than others? More mindless than others? What are some of the qualities that make them so?
Talk on Mindfulness
In this workshop, we are going to consider a definition of mindfulness from the teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn:
Mindfulness can be thought of as moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, as non-reactively, and as openheartedly as possible. 1
Let’s take some time to go through this definition together.
First, is this different than the normal, everyday way of paying attention? If so, how?
To be mindful is to be in the present moment. To say that we’re in the present moment stands in contrast to saying that we’re in the past or in the future. But, what does it mean to be in the past or in the future? Can we really be anywhere other than right now?
Our bodies, of course, can’t be anywhere other than in the present. It’s our thoughts that pull us back into the past, or forwards into the future. We ruminate about something someone said to us last weekend or get anxious about an upcoming exam or date. But all of this is happening in our thoughts. From a neurological perspective, it’s the default mode network in the brain that’s responsible for this kind of mind wandering.
The practices we’re going to explore today all start with the body because our bodily sensations can only ever be in the present. Take a moment and just feel the sensation of your feet on the ground or your seat in the chair. Is your experience of those sensations in the past, the present, or the future?
Mindfulness is also non-judgmental. In the Buddhist tradition, they talk about reacting to experience with aversion or clinging. We push away experiences we deem unpleasant and cling to experiences we deem pleasant. As we start to pay closer attention to our reactions, we might become more aware of these judgements as they arise. To be clear, practicing mindfulness doesn’t mean that we apply effort to stop these judgements from arising. We just try to see with greater clarity what judgements arise and to not judge the judgements.
An attitude of open-heartedness is immensely valuable. We want to be open to whatever is arising in the present moment. As we try to do so, we will inevitable be swept away by our thoughts. More judgements might come up - “oh, I can’t believe I had that unkind thought about him!” There’s no right or wrong in mindfulness practice so long as we’re present with what is. Jon Kabat-Zinn quotes the novel Zorba the Greek and refers to this as living the full catastrophe.
The Guesthouse
One of my favorite poetic descriptions comes to us from the Sufi mystic poet, Rumi.
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Practice
Closing Discussion
Discussion Questions
- How did this experience with mindfulness fit with your expectations?
- How do you feel now?
- Which practices were you most drawn to?
Final Thoughts
As we wrap up, I want to remind you that the practice of mindfulness meditation is ultimately your own. What matters most is your experience. As we hear what others felt or didn’t feel, we might have the tendency to compare. The Buddha said that the comparing mind is the last thing to go on the road to enlightenment. When comparisons like this come up, see if you can just observe them the way you observed the breath.
You can do any of the practices we did today as quiet sitting meditations for any length of time. I’ll provide recordings of different lengths for you if you like having the guidance. A little bit of practice every day can have a profound effect. I used to beat myself up about not practicing enough. Whenever I did so, it became harder to practice. I only developed a daily (or daily-ish) practice when I told myself that even a few minutes counts.
In the Tibetan tradition, they suggest small moments, many times. You can find a mindful breath in the middle of a class. You can bring your attention to your feet as walk or even to the feeling of the air against your hands. Small moments, many times helps us to cultivate this practice of mindfulness in our day-to-day living.
The Pali word that we translate as mindfulness is sati. Sati means remembering. Like we discussed in the beginning, our bodies are always in the present, there’s nowhere else for them to be. All we have to do is remember.
Footnotes
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Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Some reflections on the origins of MBSR, skillful means, and the trouble with maps. In Mindfulness (pp. 281-306). Routledge. ↩