Alright,
So today I have a very interesting form of meditation that I would like to experiment with today.
Most forms of mindfulness treat thoughts like a distraction to the practice.
So for this meditation,
We're going to use thoughts as the object of the meditation instead of a distraction.
We will cultivate an open sky like awareness with curiosity and acceptance.
We will watch our thoughts come and go like clouds in the sky or objects in a river of consciousness.
A particular metaphor I found helpful is treating each thought like a bubble in a pot of boiling water.
The bubbles are born on the surface of the pot and then quickly rise to the top before evaporating.
So let's start by generating some mindfulness.
Let's bring ourselves here to this moment,
Letting go of the past and future.
And you can use whatever anchor you found helpful or you find helpful,
Such as sounds.
These sounds right now in the background of my voice,
They can also be body sensations or the breath.
I'll be silent for a few moments here as you can generate some mindfulness and then we will begin the thought meditation.
If you would like to continue with your anchor,
Feel free to pause the meditation right here and give yourself as much time as you would like to cultivate more present moment awareness.
And if you'd like to continue,
Here we go.
We are going to go back to our thoughts.
They're going to be the center stage,
What we notice on our mindfulness meditation today.
And we're just starting to notice them as they come and go without pursuing or rejecting them.
Just being there,
Just watching,
Just noticing a useful metaphor that one of my teachers used Eckhart Tolle is just staying aware and notice,
See if you can predict which thought will come next without chasing them.
But again,
Letting them come to you.
If you would like to use the metaphor of clouds in the sky or objects on a river of consciousness or bubbles in a boiling pot of water,
Whatever works best for you.
Before I'm silent for another minute or two so you can get into this exercise,
You may want to choose labels for any thought patterns that you notice,
Such as judging or fantasizing,
Obsessing,
Appreciating,
Criticizing,
Whatever it is,
You can notice them and label them silently before letting them go.
If you'd like.
As you're in this practice,
Remember that the particular labels or themes that you notice don't matter.
They're just stories.
You just notice them and label them.
You can even give the greatest hits of funny label.
You can see the humor in this,
Such as,
Oh,
That's the messed up.
I messed up again theme,
Or the no one likes me theme.
Or I can't stop thinking about that theme.
Whatever it is.
As you develop some concentration or mindfulness in this exercise,
You'll notice that it can be quite fascinating just to watch the stories.
The mind generates the thoughts around them and how the thoughts are not reality.
This is one of the primary Buddhist teachings and mindfulness that thoughts are not reality.
Unfortunately,
Most of the time we're bought,
We're blindly believing all these thoughts and stories,
Which is why this practice can be so powerful.
As one Zen master said,
Life is like a silent film on which we write our own commentary.
Let's come back to our metaphor.
Each thoughts are just bubbles in a boiling pot of water of the mind.
Seeking the refuge in the sky like quality of mind.
The river of consciousness.
Also see if you can notice the difference between noticing the thought and being stuck in it.
Noticing the bubble,
Noticing the object in the river of consciousness,
Noticing the cloud versus being stuck in it.
It's a very crucial yet subtle difference or subtle yet crucial difference.
And as we continue to practice this exercise,
Our ability to notice the thoughts without being stuck in them will sharpen,
Will deepen.
Giving us more mastery and power over our own minds.
As another Zen master said,
The mind can be an excellent servant,
But a terrible master.
This way we can learn to be more in control of our own minds patterns instead of being stuck in them.
So before we wrap up this exercise for today,
This beautiful special exercise,
Feel free to come back to your anchor,
Whether it was sounds,
The breath,
Body sensations or anything else that resonates personally for you as an anchor.
See if you could really notice that difference again between being in the thoughts and being aware of them.
It can be easy to forget one of the most robust findings of mindfulness research is that it isn't about the object of awareness during meditation that creates the curative,
The salutary impacts on the brain.
But it's about the act of attending itself.
The act of coming back to noticing.
That's what creates neurogenesis.
That's what weakens the amygdala's constant firing.
That's what creates relaxation and wellness,
Well-being.
So I'll be quiet here to wrap this up for one more minute as you rest with your anchor.
Thank you so much for listening.
Feel free to give me any feedback.
Enjoy.
Namaste.
Thank you.
Thank you.
