20 Mar Open Monitoring Meditation
In ?open monitoring meditation? we work on developing ?awareness of thinking.?
The key thing in this meditation is to be aware of our thoughts and feelings
and observe them without attachment. We try to observe the workings of our mind
in the objective and detached way a scientist would.
For most of us, separating the act of observing from analysing, judging and labelling
what we have observed is difficult. This is often described as like standing under
a waterfall having a cascade of thoughts, feelings and sensations come crashing down
on us. By practising open monitoring meditation we try to find a space behind the
waterfall which will allow us to observe the stream of consciousness pouring out
of our mind from a much more pleasing and less painful place. In fact many people
experience a sense of bliss when they find that space.
It’s like we are fish in a lake. All around us are thoughts and sensations waiting
for us to bite so they can hook us and reel us in. By just observing and not judging
we avoid being reeled in. We can explore the lake in peace.
Once we get good at focusing on our breath we can relax our attention a bit and allow
thoughts and feelings to come into focus and then we can just observe in a non-judgemental
way. As our awareness grows the amount of thoughts and sensations we notice goes up
until we notice our mind is rattling them off like a machine gun. The challenge is
just to observe non-judgementally and step out of the line of fire.
In the words of philosopher and spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti ?observation
without judgement is the highest form of intelligence.?
No Comments