Week Three - Mindfulness of the body

Mindfulness of the Body

continuum of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant
Reactions of attraction, aversion, and ignorance
Training our ability to stay centered
Moving from good/bad to descriptive (long, hot, sharp, red)
Practice time (intention, Anapana Sati, open to mindfulness of the body)

Intro
We are not the body. The conscious "I" self lives in the body. It is our home. This is important to remember, and even more important to realize and understand. We often identify with the body, and we usually feel that the events that happen to the body (root canal, hunger, thirst) happen to 'us'. Although this is our experience most of the time, it is fundamentally untrue. We, as pure awareness, exist independently of the body. Many of us have glimpses of this, but find that it is not our standard day to day experience.
Our standard experience is, that what happens to our body, happens to us. If the body is in pain, we are unhappy, afraid, or angry, if the body experiences pleasure, then we are happy. It doesn't have to be this way, but most of us have our emotions and our sensations all wrapped up together. The result is that we get stung twice. First by the unpleasant sensation, and then by the suffering that we add by wanting it to be different. We end up living with constant, low level suffering. Sometimes its a little worse, and sometimes its a little better. However, this subtle dissatisfaction with the way things are is almost always with us. Of course, mindfulness meditation practice is one of the best ways to investigate the subtle expectations which perpetuate our unhappiness.

The continuum of sensation and our reactions to them
The mind usually places the sensations in one of three categories. These three categories are pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. These three categories lie on a continuum, starting at very pleasant, moving through mildly pleasant, to neutral, and then on towards increasing level of unpleasant. Of course we react to each of these categories in a different way. We feel greed in relation to the pleasant, hatred in relation to the unpleasant, and ignorance in relation to the neutral. Of course, most of life has a messy melange of sensations, and the untrained mind ends up confused.


Learning to observe the body
Observing the body objectively takes practice. It is not something that we are well practiced in. We are very good at quickly interpreting bodily signals and reacting in such a way as to assure survival. This is useful for survival, but, as noted before, not very good for living a happy life. The practice which we undertake in order to learn this objectivity is called Scanning The Body.

*The body scan takes place in a seated position, or while lying on the back.
*We begin at either the top of the head, or at the soles of the feet. Starting at the head is easier, and recommended for beginners.
*Ground yourself with intention setting and mindful breathing.
*Direct your attention to the top of your head, and notice the sensations
*Observe equally the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations.
*Allow you attention to flow down the entire head, face, neck and shoulders.
*Work you way down the arms, attend to everything.
*Spend enough time with the hands and fingers to notice everything.
*Come back to the shoulders, and work your way down the torso.
*Make sure to fully notice the sex and eliminative organs.
*Stay present to the legs, and take enough time with the both feet, noticing each toe.
*Upon finishing, center your attention with your breath in your belly.

If you notice your mind wandering, simply bring it back, and continue from the last place that you remember scanning. If you notice yourself forming opinions, or interrupting in any other way, (judgement, storytelling) bring yourself back and continue.