Translator: Wang
Press: Machinery Industry Press
In this era of efficiency, busyness has become our normal state. Everyone wants to finish this and that. We have to watch mobile phones when we eat, listen to music and watch videos when we exercise, and even watch stickers and brush our circle of friends when we go to the toilet. Our times are full of more and more tasks.
Strangely, although we are doing more and more things, our anxiety and stress are getting bigger and bigger. We are used to bringing the anxiety and pressure brought by work back to the family and passing on the negative emotions to the family. A little thing will become the fuse of a quarrel. This makes the whole person feel very tired and it is difficult to live.
We are getting busier and busier, and time is getting more and more crowded, but we forget to "empty" ourselves and leave more space for our hearts. When we squeeze time, we think it will make us more efficient and have more time to rest, but in fact we squeeze our own hearts.
Mindfulness: Now is a Flower provides a simple and effective solution to the busy mental illness of modern people, that is mindfulness meditation. Through mindfulness, we can improve our quality of life, thus improving our family, social relations and our relationship with ourselves. Secondly, at a higher level, we can reconnect our inner wisdom and vitality, thus regaining control of our lives.
In fact, there are many good books about meditation and enlightenment in history, but most of these classics are far from our present life, so many modern people miss them. The author of this book, Joe Kabajin, is a western meditator. He brought the ancient wisdom and methods of mindfulness into our lives in simple language, which made more people understand mindfulness and benefited a lot from it.
Forty years ago, Kabajin and several colleagues began to teach patients to practice mindfulness in the basement of Massachusetts Hospital in the United States, and used mindfulness to alleviate physical and mental diseases. Nowadays, both the medical profession and the general public have realized that patients' diseases are often the result of the interaction of psychological, physiological and social factors.
But in the 1970s, doctors often thought that patients only needed to heal their bodies and get rid of the disease. At that time, Kabajin treated patients with the concept and method of "mindfulness" with the mysterious meaning of eastern religions, which was easily regarded as crooked ways and inaction. So you can imagine how difficult it was for Kabajin to stick to his own ideas.
Later, at his insistence, not only did the western mainstream not resist using mindfulness to improve the psychological state, but modern eastern Renye Fang was also affected, and more people began to pay attention to the psychological practical value of mindfulness.
Professor Kabakin has profound knowledge of modern medicine and psychology, as well as meditation experience. He believes that the cure of diseases can never be separated from the understanding and cultivation of life.
At present, a large number of research documents show that mindfulness meditation is helpful to treat psychosomatic diseases such as chronic pain, anxiety, dermatosis, depression recurrence, insomnia, substance abuse, alcohol dependence, eating disorder, heart disease and cancer. Moreover, in cultural circles, mindfulness has gradually become a part of mainstream culture. 2065438+In February 2004, Time magazine published a cover story entitled "Ideological Revolution", introducing mindfulness training popular among engineers and executives in Silicon Valley.
The book tells all aspects of mindfulness with seemingly casual prose, such as how to practice mindfulness in life, what obstacles there are in practicing mindfulness, etc., and combines stories and life examples to make people feel bored at all. The author goes to great lengths to dedicate this book to those who don't want to take structured courses, don't like being taught obediently, but are very curious about the relevant content.
Next, I will first show you what mindfulness is and what prevents us from practicing mindfulness, and then I will tell you how to practice mindfulness in our daily life. Finally, I will systematically talk about how to practice formal mindfulness meditation. In the last part, you can have a simple meditation experience under the guidance of my audio.
The word mindfulness comes from the eight principles of Buddhism, and it talks about eight ways to reach the highest ideal state of Buddhism, including: mindfulness, mindfulness, righteousness, righteousness, mindfulness, mindfulness, and positive definition. Mindfulness here refers to knowing yourself, but in the author's view, mindfulness is a way of life and a way to help people focus on the present. People can rest through mindfulness, bring themselves closer to their inner self, and cultivate a lifestyle that focuses on the present and inner feelings.
Kabajin believes that there are three main points in mindfulness practice: conscious, present and judgmental.
Next, let's learn these points one by one. First of all, mindfulness requires consciousness.
In other words, when you focus on mindfulness, you are awake, and you should put your consciousness into the practice of mindfulness. At this time, you should not let your consciousness go elsewhere, nor do it in a daze.
Conscious mindfulness also means that mindfulness needs deliberate training. For example, people sometimes joke, why spend money on going to the gym? If you go to the construction site to move bricks every day, you can still get all your muscles and get paid. Might as well go to the gym to move bricks! But in terms of effect, the two are actually very different! If the purpose of your fitness is to exercise your muscles, moving bricks can't effectively exercise your muscles, and you may accidentally hurt yourself. But going to the gym for deliberate training is different. You can make a step-by-step plan according to your physical condition, which can effectively track the effect of your training. Observe your progress, your strength is gradually increasing, and you will know exactly where you are exercising.
Mindfulness is like deliberate training in the gym. When we practice mindfulness, we are consciously, soberly and systematically exercising our consciousness.
Second, mindfulness needs to pay attention to the present. The key to focusing on the present is to accept the present and not expect it to be different. The pain of many people stems from not accepting the present and wanting to deny it. For example, people who are seriously ill will have several stages of psychological change. The first stage is to deny that you are unwilling to accept that you have this disease and feel that the hospital has done something wrong. This mentality of not accepting reality for a long time means that you can't get immediate and effective treatment, so you may miss the best treatment time.
Accepting the present does not mean compromise, but means that we can clearly see what is happening. Only by seeing it clearly can we cope better. Mindfulness meditation is to bring us back to the present and give us a chance to feel everything in the present and be with ourselves. After practice, you will gradually feel that your senses have become more acute, and you can better perceive the changes in your body and feel what emerges from your heart.
The third point of mindfulness is concentration without judgment.
When you start mindfulness, it's easy to judge yourself, for example, I meditated well yesterday, but I'm not in the state today, which is really bad, or I always feel uncomfortable in some parts, which is really bad. ...
Please observe your heart carefully. There is always a judgment, right? People always take them with them, because they are either comparing with the past, others or their own inner expectations. In fact, these are all out of worry, worry that they are not good enough, worry that they are not loved, and worry that something bad will happen.
Our thinking will affect our experience, but these thinking are not completely correct, because our thinking is limited and shaped by our past. If we don't realize the characteristics of thinking, then we will let thinking control us, control us, and let us get farther and farther away from ourselves and the truth. As long as you are familiar with the defects of this cognitive model, you will be more tolerant of yourself and others. Only with an inclusive heart can you enter the world of mindfulness.
So let's sum up, Kabajin believes that to really practice mindfulness, we should pay attention consciously, focus on the present and practice without judgment.
Then why is mindfulness easier said than done? It seems that you can learn mindfulness as long as you learn to breathe easily, but many people seem to have only scratched the surface of practice and can't really appreciate the benefits of mindfulness. What prevents us from mastering the essence of mindfulness step by step?
The first reason that prevents us from practicing mindfulness is that we are too persistent to let go, so that we are "trapped" by our own thoughts.
It is said that there is a way to catch monkeys in India. The hunter will dig a hole in the coconut so big that the monkey can put his hand in it. Then they drilled two holes on the other side, put on wire and fixed the coconut under the tree. Finally, the hunter stuffed bananas into coconuts and hid them.
If the monkey runs to reach for the banana, it will be caught. Why is this happening? Because this hole can be reached with empty hands, but the fist can't be taken out. As long as the monkey puts down the banana, it won't be caught. But in fact, most monkeys won't let go. We humans are actually like monkeys catching bananas. We are trapped by some obsession, reluctant to let go, but often lose something more precious.
We will encounter many complicated things during the day. Some things make us afraid, some things make us angry, and some things make us excited. But we need to realize that these things are only external, they will appear and disappear. If we are too obsessed with these things and their influence on us, we will form obsession. A person who doesn't know how to let go and who doesn't know how to let go of himself can't return to his inner self, so he can't really enter the world of mindfulness.
When practicing mindfulness, many people sit there, close their eyes and breathe, thinking that they have nothing to think about. Actually, I still have a lot of persistence in my mind. While telling myself to practice in the present, I am also thinking about the unsatisfactory work today, worrying about the mortgage to be repaid soon, and thinking about the quarrel with my boyfriend or girlfriend yesterday.
People who don't know how to let go of their obsession can't learn mindfulness. You should consciously tell yourself that in the ten minutes of mindfulness, these things can have nothing to do with me for the time being, and I just need to be with me.
Besides the above reasons, the reason that prevents us from learning mindfulness is that we don't believe in ourselves.
Mindfulness practice is to trust and recognize your current feelings. Some people blindly follow the authority of teachers, but don't trust their feelings and intuition. They believe that the teacher must be a wiser person, so they think we should imitate him and regard him as a model of perfect wisdom.
For example, in mindfulness practice, your teacher says it's over here, but you still have a strong impulse not to end it. If you force yourself to stop following the teacher at this time, this attitude is completely contrary to the spirit of meditation. The spirit of meditation emphasizes being yourself and understanding what it means to be yourself in practice.
Whoever imitates someone is going in the wrong direction. For example, today you heard a friend say how to study hard, so you should follow suit. Tomorrow you will hear another friend say that mindfulness is the best way, so you should follow suit. Then you just wear shoes that are suitable for others, so you always feel uncomfortable walking. Please remember: you can't be someone else. Your only hope is to be a better yourself. No matter how good a teacher or book is, it can only be a guide, a road sign and a suggestion. Please believe how you feel at this moment.
Mindfulness needs this kind of trust in yourself, and you need to firmly believe that things can develop naturally within a reliable and orderly framework. In mindfulness practice, it is very important to cultivate a trust mentality, because if we don't trust ourselves, we can't really go in, see ourselves inside and believe what we see.
Therefore, in the next mindfulness practice, when you try to realize your obsession, put it down, and start to believe in yourself and your feelings, then you will gradually learn how to practice mindfulness and be with yourself.
Practicing mindfulness is a process of repeated tempering. You have to endure the "high temperature" and you have to be tempered. But if you persist, you will become more peaceful and your heart will be in order. Such psychological changes will naturally affect your life, and you will find fewer conflicts. And all this, if you don't hone it repeatedly and face up to your inner darkness and fear, you can't get it.
This is why we should integrate mindfulness into our lives and why we should spend time doing formal meditation exercises every day. This is a way to pause, a way to "remind" us, a way to nourish our spiritual level.
Above, we talked about three main points of mindfulness practice: conscious, present and uncritical, and two main reasons that prevent us from practicing mindfulness: being too persistent and not believing in ourselves.
When you know the essence of mindfulness, you can try to imagine it in your mind, when you are sober, uncritical, but not obsessed with living in the present and trusting your feelings. What will you become? I believe that when you live with these consciousnesses and integrate mindfulness into your life, you will find your own treasure.
Next, I want to tell a simple fairy tale called Water of Life. After listening to this story, you may have a deeper understanding of how to live with mindfulness.
This is the story of three princes. The two brothers are greedy and selfish, while the little prince is kind and simple. The old king is in critical condition. When all three people were sad, a mysterious old man appeared in front of them. After knowing the reason of their sadness, the old man said that a magical "water of life" could save their father. "If the king drinks the water of life, he will recover. But this kind of water is very hard to find. "
The eldest prince was the first person to set out to find the water of life. He has wishful thinking in his heart, hoping to please his father and get the throne. He got on his horse and was stopped by a dwarf soon after he set off. The dwarf asked him where he was going. The big prince was preoccupied with his journey. He proudly told the dwarfs to leave here. The eldest prince thinks he knows what he is looking for, so he naturally knows how to get there. As a result, the eldest prince accidentally walked into an extremely narrow intersection, which put him in a dilemma.
The eldest prince didn't come back for a long time, and the second prince also set out to find the water of life. He also met the dwarf and treated him with the same arrogance and rudeness. As a result, like magic, the two princes were stuck in a narrow intersection and could not advance or retreat.
Thus, the little prince also embarked on a journey to find the water of life. Similarly, he met the dwarf and asked him where he was in a hurry to go. The little prince thought he didn't know what he was doing, so he stopped his horse and told the dwarf that his father was very ill and he was going to find the water of life, and admitted that he didn't know where to find it. The dwarf listened and said, "I know where I can find this kind of water." He told the little prince where the water of life was and how to get it. The little prince listened carefully and remembered every word the dwarf said, so he found the water of life. He finally set foot on a road paved with gold, married a princess, became a "king" and owned his own kingdom.
This story is told because Kabajin advocates that readers should not only study mindfulness as an exercise, but also take mindfulness as a philosophy of life and bring this attitude into life. For example, in this story, we can see that the big prince and the two princes in the story live very smartly. They seem to have a clear purpose, but in fact they are very arrogant and stupid. They live in anxiety. However, the little prince looked for the water of life with a humble heart from the beginning. He can look inward, see his confusion and helplessness, and then accept this part and ask for help. Finally, he found the real precious wealth in life and became the king of his own kingdom.
In fact, the attitude of the little prince is very similar to the principle of mindfulness without judgment. We don't need our limited experience to judge the unknown. Let's live in the present and become a gift of life. And if we can't live in the present with mindfulness, we will be "stuck" by life, and once we live in the present with no purpose and humility, life will give us the most precious reward.
When you integrate mindfulness into your life, you will have your own "kingdom" like a little prince and find the treasure of life.
Of course, it is not easy to do this. We need to change and practice bit by bit. If you feel deeply enough about mindfulness practice, you will find that you can feel the power of mindfulness anytime and anywhere. It will help you to reinterpret your life, and be truly live high, instead of being here and having your heart elsewhere. You will find that even the things you do every day, such as eating, washing dishes and sweeping the floor, will become more vivid, vivid and real.
The author Kabajin also gives a very vivid example in the book, telling readers how he tries to live with a mindfulness attitude in his life. Kabajin has a cat, and his wife is responsible for feeding the cat, but every time after his wife feeds the cat, she doesn't clean the cat bowl immediately, but puts the tableware such as the cat bowl directly in the sink. This habit makes him feel uncomfortable. Every time he sees the cat bowl in the sink, he gets angry and blames his wife. He feels that his words have never been listened to by his wife, nor have they been respected by her. His wife thought his reaction was ridiculous and lost such a big temper over a cat bowl. So, they always quarrel about this little thing.
After practicing meditation for a period of time, Kabajin found that his way of thinking in life had also changed unconsciously. When he saw the cat bowl in the sink again, he "rubbed" and got angry, but he wouldn't get angry with his wife immediately, nor would he immediately come to the conclusion that "my wife doesn't respect me at all". He observed carefully and felt his anger. Then he found that when he saw the cat bowl, the first thing that came out of his heart was a slight disgust, and then he felt offended. It was the feeling of being offended that made him angry.
Then, he tried to keep a slight dislike. He continued to stare at the cat bowl in the sink. After noticing all kinds of thoughts emerging in his heart, he suddenly realized that it was not the cat bowl itself that drove him crazy, but the frustration he felt in the relationship between husband and wife! He was angry because he felt that no one listened to him and his wife didn't respect him. This is actually not directly related to the cat bowl!
Then he remembered that his wife and children thought his opinion was reasonable and would respect it. So he asked himself, is it really because my wife always puts the cat bowl in the sink, so she never listens to me? After denying the idea, Kabajin found that the cat bowl in the sink no longer made him angry so easily.
Therefore, from Kabajin's story, we can see that the key point of practicing mindfulness in life is to "slow down", realize your feelings and ask yourself where this feeling comes from.
Next time, when you have negative emotions, you can also try mindfulness practice: when you feel emotional, don't attack immediately, pause, say nothing or do nothing. You can observe your emotions. In your mind, think of mindfulness as a pot, put all your feelings in it, feel them and boil them. You don't have to take immediate action, just put them in the pot of mindfulness, and it will boil them, so that you can digest and understand those emotions more easily.
Then you need to encourage yourself to realize. Look at how your inner feelings and opinions are formed, and you may find that your original view of things is not comprehensive. It turns out that many of the reactions you are used to can't stand scrutiny. There are many unpleasantness and contradictions in life, which can be avoided through Vipassana awareness. This kind of exercise will help you understand yourself from a new angle and free you from the old habit pattern.
Formal mindfulness practice is not as casual as mindfulness practice in daily life. It has stricter rules.
Formal mindfulness practice has the most common forms of meditation, besides meditation, there are walking meditation, standing meditation and lying meditation. Except for their different forms, they are basically the same in technology. Next, let's learn about these different forms of meditation, and then I will focus on how to meditate.
Meditation is meditation, and meditation is meditation. Standing meditation is mindfulness in a static posture, while lying meditation is focusing all your attention on your body and feelings in a lying posture. Whether it is meditation, walking meditation, standing meditation or lying down, it is all about cultivating the mind.
Let's learn meditation first. In meditation, practitioners only pay attention to walking itself. You can focus on the whole step, or you can pay attention to your breathing while walking. In meditation, you should walk aimlessly. Usually walk back and forth on the path, or walk in circles. No destination will make it easier for you to stay here and now. Since it's the same everywhere, why do you have to go somewhere? The challenge of meditation practice is, can you devote yourself to this step and this breath?
Next, let's learn meditation. The best learning object for meditation practice is trees. You can stand by a tree and stand quietly like a tree. Imagine your feet rooted in the ground and your body swaying gently in the breeze. You just stand still and feel your breath, or close your eyes and feel the nearest tree.
Finally, let's learn about lying meditation. In these different forms of exercises, when practicing meditation and rest, you need to completely relax your muscles without making any effort to support your body. Then you need to focus on your whole body. You can feel your body from head to toe, and with breathing, you radiate heat to the skin all over your body.
When practicing recumbent meditation, you can also pay attention to your body systematically and scan your body systematically: you feel all parts of your body in a certain order and then relax them. You can go from head to toe, or from foot to head, or from left to right. You can also focus on a specific part of your body at will, or only those parts that feel obvious, such as upset stomach or sore shoulders.
In addition to different postures, mindfulness can also be distinguished by different images, such as internalizing the image of mountain to meditate, which is called mountain meditation; With the help of the image of the lake, it is called lake Zen. All natural images, such as trees, rivers, clouds and the sky, can help you meditate. Image itself is not fundamental, but it can be deepened and better used in your meditation effect.
Next, let's talk about the process and key points of meditation in detail.
If you are listening to books in a relatively quiet place, you can also practice with our stereo.
First, we choose a quiet and undisturbed place. If you are cautious, you can also choose a place where you think there is some obvious "magnetism". You can try several places in a space and find a place that makes you feel most comfortable and suitable for mindfulness.
Sit down after choosing a place. You can sit cross-legged, or you can sit in a chair with your feet on the ground naturally and smoothly. Your sitting posture should make your body exude an attitude from the inside out. This attitude is that you fully recognize and accept anything that will happen at any time in the future. This attitude is like a mirror. You are open-minded, and you reflect everything peacefully and naturally. This attitude is included in the sitting posture you choose.
But also be careful not to spend too much thought on the position and sitting position. Maybe there is an obvious "magnetic attraction" somewhere indoors or outdoors, but as long as you have this attitude, no matter where you sit and what posture you use, you will be as comfortable as ever. Only by combining body and mind and not clinging to a certain model can we really sit still.
After sitting down, you can put your palms up on your knees or your palms down. Different postures of hands contain different energy. You can try to put your palm on your knee, feel the energy in your body, then turn it over and put your palm on it. If your perception is sensitive enough, you will definitely feel the change of energy in your body.
After you put down your hand, you can use your breath as an anchor to feel the inflow and outflow of breath. Let's inhale and exhale slowly together, and then inhale and exhale, so that we can concentrate on inhaling and exhaling, and then inhale and exhale.
After breathing is stable, you can gradually expand the scope of consciousness and begin to consciously perceive the thoughts, feelings, impulses and everything that emerge in your mind. At this time, you should remember that we are conscious, non-judgmental and focused on the present. When your thoughts run away, you should take your attention back and go back to breathing. Because breathing is always in the present, returning to breathing means returning to the present.
There is an image metaphor. Think of your idea as heavy traffic on the highway. You notice cars passing by one after another, but you don't follow any of them. You stand where you are, observe the busy traffic, and notice that many ideas come out.
If you want to make your mindfulness strong enough to clearly accommodate complex consciousness without being lost or tempted, it will take you a long time to practice. For many people, it may take several years, and it must be supported by strong practice motivation and a lot of practice. You just started practicing mindfulness. You don't need to push yourself to a certain state. You just need to put your heart in the present and feel it. Just start practicing, you don't need to set it for a long time at once, just practice every 5 minutes.
The end of a complete formal meditation is also crucial. Many people think of the end, and mindfulness will become lax. How to deal with the ending is very important. In meditation practice, especially when you don't use audio to guide yourself, when you feel the first thought of stopping, and many impulses to stop later. Just breathe with every impulse for a while, and then ask yourself, "Who has practiced enough?" Try to find out what the meaning behind these impulses is, fatigue, boredom, pain or impatience? Or should it be over? Whatever it is, don't habitually end it immediately, and don't continue practicing mechanically. Stay in these impulses and breathe with them for a while or even longer, so that the end of meditation will always be in your consciousness, just like other moments in meditation.
If you feel ready to finish, you can take a few more deep breaths. Then move your body slightly, move your fingertips, move your feet, feel the chair and the solid earth, and then open your eyes when you are ready to finish meditation.
When we consciously and uncritically focus on the present, return to the present again and again, and see the present, then we are closer to our hearts and our happiness. Today, we know that in the study of mindfulness, we have made clear three main points of mindfulness: being conscious, not judging, and focusing on the present. We also know two factors that hinder us from practicing mindfulness: too deep obsession and distrust of ourselves.
Clear the key points and obstacles of mindfulness practice, and more importantly, we really need to use mindfulness to integrate the spirit of mindfulness into our lives. So we learned the practice of mindfulness. First of all, we learned to live with mindfulness. I told a fairy tale that the little prince looked for the water of life and became king. Then it tells the story of the author Kabajin's cat bowl, and at the same time leads to the main point of our practice in life, that is, to slow down. If you carefully observe your life, you will find that opportunities for mindfulness are everywhere in your life. We can do mindfulness when we are angry, so that we can see things from different angles. When eating, do it with your heart, just focus on eating and feel the taste of food, and you will have a different experience.
When you spend more time with yourself, consciously and without judgment, live in the present. You will find less stress, less anxiety and more pleasant feelings. You will have a chance to see the beauty in yourself.
Finally, we simply learned what meditation, standing meditation and lying meditation are, and then I told you the process and key points of meditation in detail. Mindfulness practice needs long-term and bit by bit, just like a garden needs long-term and careful care to make flowers fill the courtyard instead of weeds. Meditation is to cultivate the mind and awaken our hearts. In this way, no matter where we are, this garden will always be with us.