In mindfulness meditation, “we are only becoming familiar with the nature of our own minds.”  ~~~Yongey Mingym Rinpoche

When I started practicing mindfulness meditation almost thirty-years ago, I had high hopes. I was transitioning from outpatient drug and alcohol treatment into a more “unsupported” sobriety.  So, I was looking for a discipline that would help me maintain and build on my growing sense of wholeness and my developing skill in living a responsible and positive life.

Based on what I knew about mindfulness meditation, I thought it could help me look at my past and present life in a new, more down-to-earth, and sympathetic way,  just  like therapy had. I hoped it would further my healing and growth, and it has.  Therapy and mindfulness meditation also helped me to befriend myself a new. Consequently, I became a better friend to everyone.

Mind Yoga

In mindfulness meditation, we simply sit, or stand, or walk, or lie down, and from any of these postures, we notice what is happening in our bodies, minds, and emotions now. We rest our attention, without judgment of aggression, in the presence of whatever is happening now.

When our minds wander in meditation, we gently return to what’s happening now. We don’t give up on ourselves. We come back to where life is always lived, in the now. This helps us see all of ourselves, the shadow and the light.  The instructions invite us to neither reject nor embrace any of our parts, feelings, or thoughts.  It’s a very natural process that does not depend on special or blissful mind states or mental manipulations.

Know What is Happening as it Happens

Eventually, if we practice, this approach to meditation helps us  settle more comfortably into ourselves with tolerance and affection.  And our new found tolerance and affection begins to extent to everything else in the world. But it’s not a one off deal. Mindfulness meditation is a discipline and takes the right kind of gentle and persistent effort.  We don’t strain or push, but neither do we give up. Just as in yoga asana–our posture is always steady and at ease.  This is mind yoga.

Along these same lines, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a great teacher of Tibetan Buddhism said,

Doubtless, meditation is one of the most important and at the same time most confused subjects that we experience. It’s confusing because of our own expectations that the practice of meditation should bring about a certain sense of tranquility, equilibrium, and spiritual “high.”

I would like to emphasize that the practice of meditation… is no more and no less than working with yourself—sitting with yourself, alone, without entertainment…”
~~~Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

And , in harmony with Trungpa Rinpoche view on meditation is this quote from Sayadaw U Tenjaniya, a Burmese monk and skilled meditation teacher.

[When meditating] you are not trying to make things turn out the way you want them to happen. You are trying to know what is happening as it is.
~~~Sayadaw U Tenjaniya

These great teachers have informed and shaped my practice and my life.  I am deeply grateful to them for their instructions.  They and I are gently saying, that to practice mindfulness meditation is to simply relax and give your attention to what is, as it is, without judgment or struggle, right now.

This post is cross-posted at Yoga Sakti: yogasakti.com/post/mindfulness-meditation-is-mind-yoga