Week 1 Homework
Start reading The Issue at Hand by Gil Fronsdal. It is free online or you can buy it from Amazon. Most of the chapters are just 1 or 2 pages. Read the first 4.
Sit relaxed and alert for 5 minutes or more everyday and practice these 2 types of meditation:
#1 Concentration
Anchor your attention on some aspect of your breathing like the feeling of air entering and leaving your nostrils or the rise and fall of your belly as you breathe in and out. Each time you become distracted by thoughts, emotions, sounds, etc., simply return your attention to that anchor with good humor. The more quickly you learn to return to the achor without chastising yourself for getting distracted, the quicker you will develop concentration.
Ways to maintain focus on your anchor while doing breathing meditation:
- counting exhales from 1 to 9 then repeat, on distraction start at 1 again
- say to yourself "breathing in" on inhale & "breathing out" on exhale
- mental noting: when distracted by a thought say to yourself "thinking, thinking", distracted by a sound "hearing, hearing", by a sad memory "sadness, sadness", etc then return gently to focus on your anchor
If anchoring in your breathing process is too hard, try finding an anchor in your hearing or vision.d
#2 Lovingkindness (friendliness, goodwill, wellbeing)
To support and deepen every aspect of practice, we practice an attitude of friendliness toward ourselves and others using lovingkindness meditation. Sometimes dismissed as inconsequential, this meditation is an advanced and essential mindfulness practice.
Rest assured you don't need to feel loving, kind, or friendly to do this meditation and develop an attitude of friendliness.
The traditional targets of lovingkindness:
- Yourself
- A benefactor, perhaps an older relative, for whom you already feel very well disposed
- A neutral person, perhaps a clerk at a store or a bus driver, someone you see frequently but with whom you do not have only a casual relationship
- Family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, the local community
- All beings everywhere
One at a time, visualize each of these groups and offer them phrases of lovingkindness. Some traditional phrases:
- May you be peaceful
- May you be safe
- May you be healthy & strong
- May you be at ease in the world
- May you be happy
Feel free to use your own words, however, do not get too clever. This is not the place for "May my partner actually listen and hear me." Keep it simple and kind -- purely positive.
Traditionally, lovingkindness meditation is considered an important way to protect yourself from harm.