Mindfulness Meditation
We can’t control everything that happens to us in life, but as the old saying goes, the only thing we can truly change is our attitude. The mind is a powerful thing, but through centuries-old practices, we can learn to detach ourselves from negative emotions to better deal with personal struggles and grievances. For more than 2,500 years, Buddhist teachings have helped individuals work through loss, fear and anxiety. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of working toward a stable and calm mind, even in troubled times. The benefits of meditation not only help our minds, but also our bodies.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche comes from a long distinguished lineage of Buddhist meditation masters. “Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. Just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount,” he explains. To get started, he suggests creating a favorable environment to make it easier to practice. There should be a sacredness about one’s place of meditation. Mindfulness meditation is best undertaken in a place of silence that is not too disturbing. Some people create special alcoves in the home with candles, plants, yoga mats and fountains, where they can be at peace to meditate each day. Others retreat to their gardens, an uplifting place of respite. Another group of people prefer the company of other like-minded individuals at a special meditation center.
In that comfortable place, one should begin mindfulness meditation with the proper posture. It seems that lying down would be the most comfortable position, but that is not how meditation works. A meditation teacher will instead instruct pupils to sit upright, with hands resting palm-down on the thighs and hips straight. Some people who meditate sit on a zafu or gomden cushion on the floor, with their legs crossed. Others prefer to sit upright in a chair, with their feet touching the ground. “The energy flows better when the body is erect,” explains Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, “and when it’s bent, the flow is changed and that directly affects your thought process.” This posture will help meditation pupils remain awake, even though they are very calm.
Relaxation meditation can help people who struggle with addiction, compulsiveness, stress, anxiety, depression, jealousy, negativity and anger. “Each meditation session is a journey of discovery to understand the basic truth of who we are,” explains mindfulness meditation instructor Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. “In the beginning the most important lesson of meditation is seeing the speed of the mind. But the meditation tradition says that the mind doesn’t have to be this way; it just hasn’t been worked with. What we are talking about is very practical. Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. And because we are working with the mind that experiences life directly, just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.”
Beth Kaminski is the co-author of Curing Your Anxiety And Panic Attacks which detailed anxiety therapy as well as tips on the various medications for panic disorder available at anxietydisordercure.com.
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