Threefold Mindfulness Meditation

This 15-minute meditation will guide you through the three stages of calming the mind, observing the mind, and analyzing the mind.

Transcript

Welcome to this 15 minute guided session of threefold mindfulness meditation.

Part one of this threefold mindfulness meditation is about calming the mind.

You can do this by focusing on your breath and following a specific breathing pattern.

The pattern consists of inhaling for two seconds,

Holding your breath for two seconds,

And then exhaling for ten seconds,

Followed by a pause for two seconds,

And then you repeat.

Inhale for two,

Pause for two,

Exhale for ten,

Pause for two.

The metronome will help you to stay on count.

In,

Pause,

Out.

In,

Pause,

Out.

In,

Pause,

Out.

The mind is a lot like a jar of murky water.

Constant agitation and movement of the jar causes the water to remain murky,

But when you can keep the jar still for long enough,

The sediment will settle to the bottom and you will have a jar of clear water.

In order to be able to gain insight into the nature of your mind,

You must learn to calm the mind before it becomes clear.

For part two of the threefold mindfulness meditation,

We will focus on observing our thoughts,

Our emotions,

And physical sensations.

Meditation can help you to change the way you perceive and react to the moment to moment events as they unfold.

This shift takes place when you go from thinking to simply observing.

By observing,

You learn to create a space or a gap between stimulus and response.

That's observing your physical sensations by scanning your body from head to toe.

What does your head feel like?

What do you feel in your neck muscles,

In your upper back or shoulders,

Your lower back?

Do you feel any discomfort?

What do you feel on your legs where you're sitting,

Where your legs are interacting with the chair or the cushion or the floor or your feet?

Are they going numb?

These are the physical sensations that you can observe.

For a moment,

Not trying to change them,

Only practice observing them.

If you do experience any kind of discomfort,

Practice observing and notice how a simple shift in weight can alleviate the pain or discomfort you may be feeling in your legs or in your lower back.

Notice how impermanent physical sensations can be.

The whole intent of this section of the meditation is to practice shifting from the thinking mind that's always making meaning to the observing mind.

This is where we learn to create that gap or that space between what happens and how we react to what happens.

It's inside of this gap that we find all of our power to choose,

To have the freedom to choose how we will respond to events as they unfold.

Habitual reactivity is when you react to an event without even having the time to decide how you want to react.

There is no freedom in habitual reactivity.

It's in the space or gap between what happens and how you react to what happens that you have the freedom to choose.

When you get distracted or carried away with a thought making meaning,

Bring your awareness back to the simple art of observing.

It's by sitting here and practicing observing,

Observing our sensations,

Our thoughts,

Our reactions,

In a neutral and non-judgmental way that we create the separation between stimulus and reaction.

Part three of the threefold mindfulness meditation is about analyzing.

All things have causes and conditions.

What are the causes and conditions of the things that we observe?

If you can find those causes and conditions,

What are the causes and conditions of the causes?

If you're dealing with a specific emotion,

Such as anger,

We don't get rid of anger by pushing it aside.

We allow it to be,

We experience it,

We embrace it and we analyze it.

What are the causes and conditions of the anger I'm experiencing?

Now remember,

You are not your emotions,

You are not your thoughts.

Through observation,

We've noticed that all things are interdependent,

All things are impermanent,

Meaning all things are changing.

What does this knowledge imply about our sense of self,

The sense of self that seems and feels so permanent and so independent?

If I am not my thoughts,

If I am not my emotions,

I am not my physical sensations,

Then what am I?

Now see what some of these things have done and worked on,

Something has worked up You You You As we end this meditation Please come back again tomorrow and practice calming the mind Observing your senses and your thoughts and emotions and then analyzing to find the causes and conditions of the things that you experience Thank you for joining until next time

Reviews

Noah is the best. His podcast and books are perfect for my worldview. Deeply appreciate. Always want more.

Great session to remind me who I am and what matters to me. Helped calm me and humble me.

Excellent back to basics!!

Excellent guided meditation. Divided into three seamless sections that teaches you to explore the mind. Very well done.

I love the three phases, and the breathing at the start is wonderful with the metronome. I wish the first section was longer. A 10~5~5 version would be amazing.

"If I am not my thoughts, if I am not my emotions, if I am not my physical sensations, then what am I?" - - - ThreeFold Mindfulness

Clear and systematic. Proper preparation seems seldom emphasized, and sessions are often focused on brevity. Glad to discover this session. I also enjoy Noah's "Secular Buddhism" podcast.

Thank you Noah for this meditation. I appreciate your podcast, I'm so happy to have discovered this meditation on here. I come back to it again and again.

A great meditation - thank you. I couldn’t follow the breathing pattern... other meditations prescribe a rigid breathing pattern too but surely there isn’t really a “one size fits all” when breathing? I can’t physically breathe in enough air in 2 seconds to then take 10 to exhale it. Once I established a pattern that worked for me (in for 8, pause for 2 then out for 16) it was fine.

So incredibly helpful

I've come back to this meditation after a bit of a gap and it suddenly feels more helpful than ever. Thank you 🙏

Just what I needed

Interesting exercise. Not perfect recording but nice commentary during the exercise.

After listening to Noah Raschetta speak on secular Buddhism and mindfulness on a few podcast as well as his own, I needed to check in today and find balance!

This is one of my favorites. Deep but not too new age-y.

Always grateful to be able to calm my mind.

This was very, very helpful. I have a hard time hearing certain ranges so at times the music overpowered the spoken words. It would be helpful to soften it. I will return to this again and again. Thank you.

Great guidance. Could have stayed with that for a long time.

Great for beginners. Breathing is a bit awkward, and this forces you to focus on it. After focusing on breath, then observe your physical and emotional state. Finally, analyze and understand. Why am I angry? Because of my spouse? Why did my spouse yell at me? What was her state?

Not an easy feel good meditation. Rather, solid practice at mindfulness.

This might have been too big of a "mind blown" type of meditation to do right before bed. Haha! I loved the focus on breath, though that exact pattern was uncomfortable for me. I adapted it to allow more time for inhalation. Wonderful meditation! Thank you!