VEDANA TETRAD MEDITATION FORMAT 1
- Structured Anapanasati sit exploring how feelings condition the mind
1. Take a few minutes to arrive generally in your body and set mindfulness to the fore. Connect with a kind quality of attention that has an intention of letting things be known as they are, free from judging and trying to force a change in condition (letting go of any obligation to make it better or worse)
2. 5-10 minutes breath awareness (instructions 1 & 2)
3. 5-10 minutes body awareness (instructions 3 & 4)
Then, continuing with an overall awareness of breath and body as a foundation, train yourself:
4. For 5-10 minutes noticing feelings of free flowing pleasurable energy in the body (piti) from and contentment/bliss (sukha) that arises from the meditative process of letting things be as they are, as they arise and abide and fall. When there is no particular sensation of piti or sukha just sit with that overall breath/body awareness being open to any small sensations of pleasure that can be seed forms of piti and sukha (practice not grasping for pleasurable experience but simply being mindful and recognizing it when it is there and letting it inform and radiate into your overall experience and letting it fade when it naturally does so)
5. For 5-10 minutes generally noticing how feelings (painful, pleasant and neutral) condition the mind (see the handout provided for more tips on this)
The led sit from Wednesday night might offer some reminders on how to bring piti and sukha into awareness.
VEDANA TETRAD MEDITATION FORMAT 2
- Less structured Anapanasati sit exploring how feelings condition the mind
Follow steps 1-3 above and more simply just notice as you are breathing and aware of the body as a field of sensations:
*The difference between a quality of attention that allows experience to freely arise and fall without contracting around any part of that experience.
*Just sensing it nakedly, vividly, directly. What is the feeling tone of allowing this free flow of experience?
*Noticing what it's like when we do contract around, hold on to or resist experience and when that happens asking, "what is the feeling tone associated with this tightening?" Noticing how bringing a non-reactive awareness of that feeling in the body (painful, pleasant or neutral) might change our experience
CORE READING
* Sattipatthana reading by Analayo sent out with email
WEEK THREE RESOURCES
* Talk from May 20th Part One
* Talk from May 20th Part Two
* Rosenberg reading sent out with email
* Questions to ponder:
1. What in your experience informs you as to the difference between allowing experience to flow freely and contracting around experience?
Can you tell the difference? How does that manifest in the body?
2. In meditation what responses have you noticed to pleasure and pain in the body? To neutral vedana (feeling)?
3. What comes up for you with the suggestion that we could learn to notice the chain reaction and learn from it without perpetuating it? Does that sound do-able? Is it something we even want to do?
(isn’t perpetuating our chain reactions pleasurable?)
Links for folks who want to download MP3 files
http://www.archive.org/details/AnapanasatiWk3LedMeditation
http://www.archive.org/details/AnapanasatiWk3TalkPart1
http://www.archive.org/details/AnapanasatiWk3TalkPart2
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