Our Practice
Mindfulness plays a central role in the teaching of Buddhist Meditation where it is affirmed that "correct" or "right" mindfulness is the critical factor in the path to liberation and subsequent enlightenment.
Described as a calm awareness of one's body functions, feelings, content of consciousness, or consciousness itself, it is the seventh element of the Noble Eightfold Path the practice of which supports analysis resulting in the development of discernment. A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilization must be combined with a liberating mentality.
Mindfulness practice, inherited from the Buddhist tradition, is increasingly being employed in Western psychology to alleviate a variety of mental and physical conditions, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety and in the prevention of relapse in depression and drug addiction.
Links to other information you may find useful in your practice
The practice
The practice of anāpānasati varies. Typically, one begins by sitting in a comfortable position, with the back and neck straight, in a comfortable and peaceful environment.
The meditator should breathe naturally, without attempting to change the length or depth of the breath.{Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta No. 118, Section No. 2, translated from the Pali} If the breath is short, the meditator should simply observe that the breath is short. If the breath is long, the meditator should simply observe that the breath is long.
While inhaling and exhaling, the meditator practises:
- training the mind to be sensitive to one or more of: the entire body, rapture, pleasure, the mind itself, and mental processes
- training the mind to be focused on one or more of: inconstancy, dispassion, cessation, and relinquishment
- steadying, satisfying, or releasing the mind.
Tutors will explain that, in an untrained mind, thoughts constantly arise, disturbing the focus. They arise and fall away, like waves in an ocean. If one disregards them, they slowly wither and disappear. On the other hand, if one pays them attention, one is soon lost in a web of thoughts.
In this tradition there are two types of thoughts: thoughts from the past and thoughts about the future. These may bring happiness or sadness. It is said that, when left unattended, the mind will flit from one thought to another, wandering aimlessly.
Practitioners are tutored to avoid their practice being disrupted by passing thoughts and to nudge themselves into concentrating on their breathing once again.
A popular non-canonical method used today, loosely based on the Visuddhimagga, follows four stages:
- counting each breath at the end of exhalation
- counting each breath at the beginning of inhalation
- focusing on the breath without counting
focusing only on the spot where the breath enters and leaves the nostrils (i.e., the nostril and upper lip area).
Below are helpful links to some of the teachings of the Buddha.