The ultimate goal of meditation
The ultimate goal of meditation is twofold:
1. It allows us to have a happiness independent of conditions and circumstances
2. It gives us a perspective from which we can optimally respond, take care of conditions and circumstancesSource: The science of enlightenment audiobook (Shinzen Young)
Sounds nice, maybe it’s even true that it’s possible to achieve this? I don’t know. I’ll let you know when I get there. 
Filed under: meditation, teachers | Leave a Comment
Tags: meditation, goal, happiness, unconditional
Meditative lawn mowing
Kudos
After some years of reading books, listening to audio, trying out courses,… I finally found a meditation style that feels right to me. Roughly a year ago @C4Chaos told me about meditation teacher Shinzen Young and my practice has benefited from it ever since. I listened to his audiobook “The science of enlightenment” which cleared many doubts in my mind about meditation. I read the PDF files on his site, watched most of the stuff at his YouTube accounts and for some months now I maintained a formal practice for at least half an hour on most days. I usually start with focussing on the breath, followed by a combination of Focus In and Focus Out (or what is known as the “all senses” focus space).
Beginner’s mind
Funny enough, this is more or less what I had been doing all along before I knew about Shinzen’s approach. But the difference now is that I have more confidence about my practice and I feel far less frustrated when my mind keeps wandering or when I keep nodding off (I switch to ‘louder’ labeling in that case). I now know and (more importantly) experience for myself that I’m cultivating concentration, sensory clarity and equanimity. Best of all: it’s starting to carry over to my daily life activities. I even manage to objectively approach my emotions in difficult conversations more and more. I can’t always pull it off, but I can notice my progress and that’s highly motivating.
Focus and relax
On a lighter note I’ve started to enjoy chores around the house more. Yesterday when mowing the lawn, I was practicing focus on all senses when I decided to play with the labeling a bit. In stead of noticing things ‘randomly’ as I usually do. I decided to narrow down the focus for each ‘grasslane’. So while mowing one lane I was focussing on Touch: noticing my hands on the lawnmower, my feet stepping in the grass, the wind touching my hands and face, my posture, sensations in my muscles … Then I turned the lawnmower for the next lane and focussed on Sight: the machine, the grass, my hands, the surroundings. Then Sound: all the different layers of noise of the machine, the wind blowing in my ears, the silence when I shut down the lawnmower to remove the grass. And so on with the other labels. This focussing on one area at a time brought all kinds of new things to my attention. It was a great way to get things done without getting stuck on autopilot and letting all those boring old mindrecords play on repeat.
I just love it when I can see practical down-to-earth results like these. 
Filed under: meditation, self-observation, teachers | Leave a Comment
Tags: chore, daily life, meditation, Shinzen Young
