Any other additional comments or observations you wish to share?
Nope!
Hurray!
What would you like to see or have had more of or less of? What ways can this training be improved?
MORE OF THESE QUESTIONS. I realize writing and discussion isn't how everyone learns, but I really truly LOVED the questions posted on the discussion board. I know I didn't respond to the board personally, but I did respond in here, and when there were lots of questions for me to answer and lots of things for me to think about, that's when I felt I got the most out of my learning on this journey. Maybe it's because that's just how I learn best, but I truly felt the most connected to this process when I was answering questions as opposed to writing yoga routines and exploring the foundations of mindfulness. Or I'm just a big nerd. :) I feel I would have gotten more out of it at the end of each month if there were additional questions to answer based on what we had studied that month as opposed to writing a guided meditation/asana/savasana practice.
I would have also appreciated going into the distance component knowing exactly how much would have been expected of us each month. It felt at times were were eased into it the first few months, and then things started to get a wee bit crazy with so much walking meditation/sitting meditation for long periods of time. I felt guilty because I mostly did seated meditation (and towards the end, speed walking meditation) and would do it either/or, not both/and. But at the same time I guess it's all a part of keeping it mindful and being in the present moment... also learning that life sucks ;)
I really did appreciate, though, how Frank was sooooo responsive and so participative in my journey. I loved his comments on my entires, I loved our phone calls, and I really loved how available he made himself to me (and I'm sure everyone else). I don't think I ever had to wait more than a day or two for a response to a question or an email and that's always really appreciated as a student. I adore insanely compassionate, knowledgeable teachers who can make things reeeeeally easy for me to understand... because sometimes I need things dumbed way down :)
I do feel it was worthwhile to take it. While I haven't found the time to really use it as a yoga and meditation instructor, I do plan on implementing mindfulness based practices with clients and staff alike and feel it's proven itself to be invaluable to me as a social work practitioner.
Tell me a bit about your overall feelings and experience of this training and of the practice of mindfulness.
I'm going to save my feelings for question 12 as I feel that part ties in more with what's asked in the next question.
While I don't really have much to say on the day to day experience of micro practices and sitting and bells of mindfulness (as I've said it already in a previous question) but I think that I am really starting to like the person I've become and will continue to become as a result of this training. In my day to day life there isn't much of a change, but in my overall life, I do think this training has helped me overcome a lot of obstacles.
For example, it has revolutionized how I am as a social worker and social work practitioner. I am such a different worker now that I was last year. I'm not sure if its because I got into the area of the field I wanted to be in (mental health) as opposed to being in the area I was before (child welfare/protection) but I can so much better handle the daily stressors of my job, the nature of my job, and my clients. I find myself to be more patient, more compassion and empathic to the needs of my clients AND myself (my self-care has skyrocketed. That's a friggen first). I also find that because I do take the time to slow down and observe that my thinking is clearer. I have the ability to quickly diffuse potentially stressful and dangerous situations. In dealing with clients, advice and counseling phrases have come out of my mouth that I didn't even remember I learned! I've also found myself to be more resilient. December was a difficult time for our team, as we were dealing with a severe staff shortage, the death of a coworker, Christmas preparations and then the death of a client. Looking back, I'm not sure how I got through all of that, plus the death of a friend, an extremely busy concert and rehearsal schedule, and teaching, but I did. I knew going into the month I'd have to be absolutely present, and for the most part, I think I did a good job.
I try not to pat myself on the back too much cuz I realize next month it could be even worse and I could lose my shit, but I do think this training has taught me the importance of being absolutely present in every moment of the day.
What has been the greatest challenge for you in practicing mindfulness yoga?
Getting time to sit. We were told at the beginning of our journey to "just sit" and to stop making excuses. While I understand that, when my life got extremely crazy it was hard for me to "just sit" as "just sitting" meant a half hour where I could be sleeping, cooking, or cleaning. It was getting to the point where I just felt anxiety towards sitting, and didn't look forward to it, and overall hated what I was doing. The thought of withdrawing from the training didn't enter my mind, but I knew that in order to finish I'd have to restructure both my mind and how I viewed mindfulness. It also helped having a very compassionate teacher to help me through the process and make the work load a little easier for me... and peer support from other friends doing the training too was always wonderful to have!
I did learn, however, the difference between making up excuses and not having any time. I would say the excuse making occurred more in my beginning months of practice. Towards the end, my life was so insanely busy I think trying to cram one more thing in would have landed me in hospital. I would prefer to not be the first yogini to end up in the ER because she sat on her meditation cushion, yannow?
Describe the function and purpose of micro-practices and bells of mindfulness.
Micro-practices and bells of mindfulness have definitely been the heart of the past six months for me. I feel as if I have gotten more out of these than I have meditation. Their function serves as a reminder (and sometimes, a reality check!) throughout my day as I do daily activities and go about my life, to refocus and regroup, become aware of my breath, and perhaps slow down. My micro practices are things I do every day - such as shower, brush my teeth, cook, wash dishes, and my bells of mindfulness are random events that happen throughout the day - text messages, sirens, etc, that remind me to pause for a moment and breathe. They're the heart of my practice as a yogini.
Define in your own words: impermanence, not-self, emptiness, suchness. Why does the Buddha stress awareness of impermanence, and how does it relate to other concepts?
Impermanence is the knowledge that everything around is is constantly changing. Nothing ever is static, or remains the same.
Not-self is how we as humans, should strive to exist - not limiting our identity by the use of labels, but rather recognizing that we are subject to change, evolve, and devolve. We aren't really anything. We just are, and we just exist. Anything else is a label that we or society gives ourselves.
Emptiness is going to be a bit harder for me to describe. It's not the feeling of being alone or socially rejected or isolated as we know this word to be. I think really it's recognizing that we are free of thoughts, free of desires and wants and anything else that can bring about dukha in our lives.
Suchness is being able to recognize what comes and goes, and noticing the little things and the big things all around us. To me, it's the essence of mindfulness.
I think impermanence is stressed so much because it really is the basis of everything. While things are here, they might not be here tomorrow, whether that is material possessions, loved ones, enemies, jobs, beliefs, even countries and cities. Because we as humans have a natural tendency to cling to all of these abstract and physical objects, labeling them as "mine" or "ours", we create dukha for ourselves, as if these objects go away, we are left with a sense of longing or bereavement. If we can recognize that while we have these things in the present moment, and we might not have them tomorrow, we can begin to free ourselves from dukha as we've recognized that things can change.
What are the qualities of mindfulness?
I would say not trying to achieve something, not being so goal-oriented, just observing things as they are and being unattached to outcomes. Not being judgemental, being accepting, loving kindness, the ability to observe and let go, and being generous, open, and trusting. Patience.
Reading over the list I just compiled, I feel like I have a long way to go, especially when it comes to patience, trust, and letting go.
What are mental formations? How do we work with them in meditation and asana practice?
To me, mental formations are our personal roadblocks. They are the stories that I create in my head which convince me if I can or can't do something. They play a huge component when I'm doing unkind things to myself, like self sabotage. When I'm working with my (mental health) clients, I call them self fulfilling prophecies. I think they encompass a broader scope than that though. Mental formations may also start out on a positive note (as in being in love in a new relationship) and soon these feelings of love can slowly start to spin out of control and within two weeks you have already planned your wedding and named your children and sent them off to university. When he failed to return your phone call after your second date.
Either way, mental formations lead to suffering, which is something we want to be free from in our lives.
In meditation and asana practice I observe them when they start, and I encourage my students to do the same. If I feel my mind spinning out of control I try to redirect and return to my breath. Sometimes I can. Sometimes I can't. Sometimes I do feel the need to let them spin out of control because that in and of itself detoxifies my mind. I don't know... I guess sometimes I feel that if I just observe and notice and go back to my breath I end up burying feelings and emotion? I don't want to do that, because when I do, I feel like I'll explode. And that's not pretty.
How would you describe the subtle distinction between sensation (feeling) and emotion? Why did the Buddha teach that it is so important to learn to observe sensation?
I would have to say that to me, a sensation precedes emotion. Say I feel something that causes me discomfort - whether it's a headache, a sore muscle, or even a heartache. That's a physiological sensation. Once my brain notices these physiological sensations, it interprets this sensation based on what is going on in my environment. So if it's a headache, I may interpret the throbbing pain in my head is related to stress, anger, sickness, grief, etc. If it's a sore muscle, I may conclude that I am feeling discomfort in my muscles because I am being held too long in a yoga posture. If I feel a sort of pain or hallowness in my heart I might attribute this to sadness, emptiness, anger, etc. To me I think emotions are responses to physiological stimuli. I could be way wrong though. But this is how it all makes sense to me.
The Buddha says we need to learn to observe sensation because if we don't observe the sensation for what it is (a physiological response) our minds can interpret this response and let it turn into something bigger than what it really is. Considering the muscle soreness from holding a posture longer than I normally do. If I don't know that the discomfort is just discomfort, my mind will tell me it's the instructor's fault for keeping me here this long. My mind will then tell me that they're an awful teacher who likes to do nothing but torture their students, and go on and on, possibly psychoanalyzing said teacher as a control freak, linking them to all sorts of behavioural and personality disorders, and so on, and so forth. That is the reason we need to keenly observe sensation - if we don't we end up allowing our emotions to control us all of the time.
Describe each of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Include an enumeration of the "contents" of each foundation (for example, in the First Foundation, "Body in the Body", the two "contents" are the breath and the five elements) and briefly give instruction on how to practice with each Foundation.
(I'm inwardly groaning as I type this because I feel like this is all I've been doing the past six months :P)
So as the question states, the First Foundation of mindfulness is, indeed, the contemplation of the body. Some of the objects we focus on in this foundation (contents) is obviously the body, and positions and postures of the body as well. When practicing the First Foundation, really try to be in your body and out of your brain whether you are in a quiet, seated pose, or are in a vigorous asana class. Observe the muscles stretching. Observe the difference between pain in pain and pain in discomfort. Observe if you are standing evenly on all four corners of your feet; if your ears are in line with your shoulders. Be aware of your breath and how it can change the timbre of the pose you are in - what happens to the body as you inhale and exhale into the posture.
The Second Foundation of mindfulness is the contemplation of the feelings (not to be confused with emotions). In this contemplation, we focus on identifying the roots of feelings (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral) and the feelings themselves. In practice, we can identify our feelings as they come up as we sit, or move in and out of postures. In our practice, we can identify if a pose or a thought feels pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral to us. We can notice if we let go of that pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling or sensation or if we cling to it, developing an emotional response to it.
Being aware of the mind is what the Third Foundation of mindfulness is all about. It's a natural progression, as we've already started with the body and sensations. Our mind is what interprets the sensations our bodies experience. The mind takes these pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings and develops stories, which potentially leads to suffering on our parts. Two of the observations we can focus on in contemplating the mind are anger and desire, both which obviously lead to suffering. In our practice, we can use the Third Foundation to observe what our mind is telling us. Are we letting thoughts of anger and desire control us? Are we becoming angry at having to hold a pose longer than we usually do? Are we clinging to feelings of relief when the teacher tells us to release the pose? We can sit with these feelings and observations, just seeing them for their true nature, training ourselves not to spin stories out of them and make them into being more than what they actually are.
The Fourth Foundation invites us to become aware of the objects of the mind. Two of the things we can contemplate in this foundation is observing mental formations, and bringing about peace in our lives from these observations. In practice, we can use these mindfulness trainings to observe our mental formations for exactly what they are, and by understanding the true nature of our feelings, we can begin to let go. We do not have to continue to spin stories to contribute to our suffering; we can just observe and sit with them and let them go, allowing us to cultivate a peaceful heart and peaceful mind. In practice, I usually remind myself to breathe through any sort of strife, or any sort of self-congratulatory thoughts (example, when I finally was able to do near standing splits in Natajarasana) and try not to cling to that one moment - knowing full well the next day I might not even be able to hold my balance in prepping for Natajarasana.
How are the Five Precepts (the Mindfulness Trainings) understood to be different than such codes as the Ten Commandments? Don't forget to give a very brief explanation of each of the Five Precepts.
The biggest difference between the five Mindfulness Trainings and other sorts of religious dogma such as the Ten Commandments is that they are merely suggestions laid out by the Buddha to help us ease suffering in our lives. They are very open to suggestion, debate, and interpretation. Bud never tells us what we should do, or how we should do it, but lays down for us suggestions as to how we might try to live our lives. I feel in doing this he allowed for people to be able to practice mindfulness no matter where they came from, what language they spoke, what social class they were a part of, or whether they were male, female, or transgendered, gay, straight or pansexual, or whatever religion they are currently a part of. The path of mindfulness can really work as a compliment to any sort of belief system.
The first training invites us to become aware of the delicacy of life, of death caused by destruction of life and suggest we shouldn't condone any act of killing in our world, our thinking, and in our lifestyles. Bud isn't necessarily telling us that we all must be vegan or vegetarian, because the simple act of plucking an apple from a tree does kill the apple. None of us could survive if we didn't kill something for a source of our food. Even as I type this, I'm currently taking antibiotics and antivirals to kill an infection so that I can function better as a person. I think though, that the Buddha just really wanted to make us think about how interconnected all of us are to the world - everything we do has a reaction that stems from it.
The second Mindfulness Training invites us to cultivate compassion and live our life in such a way that we respect others and do not try to advance ourselves using human suffering. To me, this means we need to be more socially aware of where our food and material needs come from.
The third training is about sexual misconduct. The Buddha encourages us to have loving relationships with each other and to not abuse or misuse sex, as it can lead to suffering. He also mentions child abuse in this as well. He invites us to be committed in our relationships so as to help our children, our loved ones, and the broader community.
The fourth training encourages us to practice Right Speech and to cultivate active listening. It also reminds us to not gossip, to be truthful, and to not say anything damaging to another person or about people in general. We are also told to try to resolve conflicts in peaceful ways.
The fifth Mindfulness Training talks about using mindful consumption. This is probably the broadest of all the trainings. It talks about ingesting things mindfully. While the Buddha does state we shouldn't use alcohol or other sorts of intoxicants as it betrays us and our ancestors, he also states we should not view forms of media that can lead to mental or emotional toxins as well. Bud talks about both food and material possessions, as gluttony in both areas can lead to suffering in ourselves, and also leads to suffering in society, as too much of both contributes to sloth, greed and other unwholesome actions in the broader community.
Discuss the Noble Eightfold Path (what are its eight limbs?) and how does it relate to the Threefold Training?
The Noble Eightfold Path (NEP), like most ideas laid out by Bud, is a tool used to help us end our suffering. We can group these eight ideas into three areas: wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental development (which are the Threefold Trainings).
Under the wisdom category, we have Right View and Right Intention. Right View encourages us to see things as they really are. Everything just "is". Any sort of reaction we have to the "is" is our brain processing the "is" and making a story to go along with it. Right Intention, to me, is what we do to ourselves to add to our suffering. With Right Intention, we can recognize desires, feelings, and how we get sucked up into them, and can make an intention to not be pulled by feelings and desire. Did that make sense?
Under the category of ethical conduct, we have Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. Right Speech is pretty self explanatory: just don't say harmful things. Think before you speak. Silence is golden. Don't lie. Right Action encourages us to respect all sentient beings - do not kill, respect the bodies of others, respect our own bodies, and respect the nature of things as they are. Right Livelihood means to earn out living in an honest way, and not in a way that could be contributing to the demise of the Earth, or what I like to call the Greater Good (broader society). So perhaps not being in a position working for a company that manufactures guns and weapons which are sold to child soldiers in Somalia.
In mental development, we see the limbs of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. Right Effort, to me, is the act of putting forth effort (duh) to live your life in a mindful way. I guess to prepare the mind for this practice of mindfulness? Right Mindfulness gets into the actual cognitive practices of our mindfulness practices. Following the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (as we've been studying these for the past six months), we can learn to train our minds to see things as they are and not get carried away. In Right Concentration, we learn to develop the mind that helps us follow all these eight limbs! We do this through meditation, and by concentrating on good thoughts and good actions.
I'm sitting here and trying to talk about how these are related to each other but the only question I have running through my mind is how aren't these related to each other? Over the past six months I guess I've just been able to really learn to see how everything is inter-related, inter-being, and inter-are. We can't really take a single limb of the Eightfold Path out, but at the same time, if we did remove one limb, it would be ok because, to me, each limb stresses the importance of recognizing things as they are, respect for everything, and living life in such a way that we create nothing harmful with our words, actions, and thoughts. I might be way out to lunch with that statement, but in reading over everything I just wrote I believe that these tools really are just suggestions as to how we can live our life with minimal suffering - which probably answers my question as to how they are all related to each other.