I agree. I’ve always meditated on the breath only and coming back to the breath when I notice ‘a story’ in my head. Very freeing to meditate on that little monkey and practice not letting him grab me.
I have found this guided meditation very helpful. I am very struck by Mingyur Rinpoche saying “mind and body together” and keeping this in mind seems to help my meditation. Is this something we should always remember at the beginning of a practice and during the practice? Is it just relevant to meditation on thought or for all practices? Thank you, Lynda
Yes I also loved this guided meditation. Was feeling pretty stressed at the start, but suddenly in the middle of it, I found myself smiling, and wanting to laugh out loud at the wonderful sense of peace I was experiencing! Thank you so very much for this.
my awareness can not catch up with my thought. It is always half a mile behind. Awareness is like a police coming when everything is over. can see ones thought simultaneously like seeing a movie.
What a very neat trick! 🙂 when mingur Rinpoche said “watch your thoughts” the thought I was experiencing dissolved, I couldn’t watch it because it wasn’t there! I became the watcher. Then later attention was caught again in thinking g and there came the memory ” watch your thought” again it dissolved…. I’m very grateful! I’ve never actually experienced that before….. I can see that if I practice like this I will become more familiar with the watcher than the thinker…..
Taking the break for open awareness is a wonderful way to re-boot my practice. With all the practices, this re-boot seems to allow me to get my body, breath, eyes, muscles, all back in the right place.
Love this guided meditation. I was able to relax deeply, to watch my thoughts, and then at times they would seem to disappear, and sometimes, I would, sadly, lose awareness of being aware and be startled by Rinpoche’s voice.
It is 1:00am in Wisconsin, USA and I couldn’t sleep. I chose this guided meditation as an activity during my wakefulness. I agree with the above- it felt like a neat trick! I, too had used form, breath, body sensation, sound as ways to bring awareness. I had the sensation of my thoughts being clumsy and like a chunky piece of furniture that I stepped around. Gratitude
It is very useful being guided in alternating the thoughts-watching with the open-awareness, so I spend more time on the open-awareness than I would have done; it is good to know clearly what the teaching is on the alternating timings. I am struck by how many anxious thoughts I have about Am I doing it right, Have I understood, Why can’t I do better after all these years, etc etc. But that is a useful insight in itself, i.e. how anxious I get. And I am seeing those anxious thoughts; I am aware of them, which is ‘good’ though that is another judgement obviously.. Sometimes I look at the thought and it escapes me and there is no thought, but less often than when I used to do this sort of practice which was quite a long time ago really – and that shows me the need for me to practise more ‘in this way’ – though then I could make myself anxious about ‘trying’ to develop the ‘right’ sort of mind rather than just being more free.
I get so tired watching my thoughts that after the first time in the meditation instruction when I watch my thoughts I start to find against getting sleepy. I then focus only on not falling asleep while sitting, then I give up and decide to get a nice nap. I never managed to get 20 minutes. I did not find a way not to take a nap. I did not get so tired on meditating on sound, objects…
Mingyur Rinpoche is so good at reassuring us that we can learn this – reducing our stress at possibly doing it wrong
I agree. I’ve always meditated on the breath only and coming back to the breath when I notice ‘a story’ in my head. Very freeing to meditate on that little monkey and practice not letting him grab me.
I have found this guided meditation very helpful. I am very struck by Mingyur Rinpoche saying “mind and body together” and keeping this in mind seems to help my meditation. Is this something we should always remember at the beginning of a practice and during the practice? Is it just relevant to meditation on thought or for all practices? Thank you, Lynda
What a great way to relax. Thank you
Yes I also loved this guided meditation. Was feeling pretty stressed at the start, but suddenly in the middle of it, I found myself smiling, and wanting to laugh out loud at the wonderful sense of peace I was experiencing! Thank you so very much for this.
my awareness can not catch up with my thought. It is always half a mile behind. Awareness is like a police coming when everything is over. can see ones thought simultaneously like seeing a movie.
What a very neat trick! 🙂 when mingur Rinpoche said “watch your thoughts” the thought I was experiencing dissolved, I couldn’t watch it because it wasn’t there! I became the watcher. Then later attention was caught again in thinking g and there came the memory ” watch your thought” again it dissolved…. I’m very grateful! I’ve never actually experienced that before….. I can see that if I practice like this I will become more familiar with the watcher than the thinker…..
Taking the break for open awareness is a wonderful way to re-boot my practice. With all the practices, this re-boot seems to allow me to get my body, breath, eyes, muscles, all back in the right place.
Love this guided meditation. I was able to relax deeply, to watch my thoughts, and then at times they would seem to disappear, and sometimes, I would, sadly, lose awareness of being aware and be startled by Rinpoche’s voice.
It is 1:00am in Wisconsin, USA and I couldn’t sleep. I chose this guided meditation as an activity during my wakefulness. I agree with the above- it felt like a neat trick! I, too had used form, breath, body sensation, sound as ways to bring awareness. I had the sensation of my thoughts being clumsy and like a chunky piece of furniture that I stepped around. Gratitude
It is very useful being guided in alternating the thoughts-watching with the open-awareness, so I spend more time on the open-awareness than I would have done; it is good to know clearly what the teaching is on the alternating timings. I am struck by how many anxious thoughts I have about Am I doing it right, Have I understood, Why can’t I do better after all these years, etc etc. But that is a useful insight in itself, i.e. how anxious I get. And I am seeing those anxious thoughts; I am aware of them, which is ‘good’ though that is another judgement obviously.. Sometimes I look at the thought and it escapes me and there is no thought, but less often than when I used to do this sort of practice which was quite a long time ago really – and that shows me the need for me to practise more ‘in this way’ – though then I could make myself anxious about ‘trying’ to develop the ‘right’ sort of mind rather than just being more free.
I get so tired watching my thoughts that after the first time in the meditation instruction when I watch my thoughts I start to find against getting sleepy. I then focus only on not falling asleep while sitting, then I give up and decide to get a nice nap. I never managed to get 20 minutes. I did not find a way not to take a nap. I did not get so tired on meditating on sound, objects…