Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Open Awareness Meditation

I recently attended a "Mindful Awareness & Serenity" workshop session with Bhante Aggacitta over the weekend.  One of the key takeaway from the workshop is open awareness or dynamic serenity. It is best to do this meditation with eyes open using the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and contact to be aware of the present moment. We can be aware of present objects through the five senses. However, the mind (sixth sense) can take in past, present, and future objects.  Because the monkey mind can propel us into daydreaming, we can make use of this meditation to help anchor our mind to the present moment. Here are the tips to ensure that happens - free & easy, touch & go. Free & easy means letting the mind go free to wander from one sense base to another, with both the mind & body totally relaxed. Touch & go means moving on and not hanging on to any of the five senses. Another interpretation mens see & see only, hear & hear only.... and so on. Which also means no labelling of any of the five senses, or the mind can easily wander off to create stray thoughts to frustrate our meditation practice. Do not allow the mind to pull our consciousness back to the past or dwell on the imaginery future because thinking of the past & future is just a delusion.       

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