So, first two days I was like on a vacation: listening to Buddhism teaching, as I had learned about them before, in India, living in conditions as I was used to, eating food that I enjoyed so much and sitting in meditations like I had sat before, only a bit longer. I thought it was really wrong place to have come and nothing serious would work out from it.
However, third day brought in changes… for my mind. The instructor recommended for better concentration of the mind to try to not get distracted by any thoughts/sounds/sensations/pain/other, which meant we should keep sitting in the same meditation posture we took in the beginning of the session no matter what. We should listen to our breaths: inhale and exhale either underneath our nostrils or by rising and falling of the abdomen. The important thing is to direct the mind there, to breathing and to avoid regulating breaths, but we should really listen to their flow, in and out, rising and falling. Whenever we feel itching, we should ignore it. If it comes to a strong and annoying sensation, we may redirect our attention there for a moment and get back to breathing, noting: rising, falling, itching, rising, falling, itching, – do it for a couple of times to acknowledge the itching sensation by the mind and let it go getting back to the rythme of inhales and exhales only.
The same relates to feeling pain in legs, or thoughts raising on our minds, or mosquitos biting us…We only acknowledge those and let them go: rising, falling, thinking, rising, falling, rising, falling. OR Rising, falling, hurting, rising, falling, hurting, rising, etc…
This way we are supposed to keep doing the meditation by means of keeping our minds in the present moment, and the only thing which is in the present is our breathing. All the rest is either in the past or in the future. Everything else besides for breaths we note, acknowledge and let it go. Thoughts, painfulnesses, irritating noises – all those appear and our mind hurries to react to that in order to escape from the training process that we do for it. We want to calm it down, while it is actually eager to find and catch any opportunity to avoid being set quiet. And this is true: for a couple of times I opened my eyes to see what was itching as if some fly or a mosquito was moving on my leg, and there was nothing!
Итак, первые два дня я чувствовала себя как на каникулах: слушала буддистские учения, о которых знала уже с моего курса в Индии, жла в условиях, к которым была уже привычна, ела еду, которая мне очень нравилась, сидела в медитациях, как умела делать это и прежде, только теперь чуть подольше. Я уже и праыда посчитала, что это место было неверным выбором для такой штуки как випассана, и что ничего серьезного из этого не выйдет.
Однако, третий день принес изменения, для моего ума. Ведущий порекомендовал для лучшей концентрации ума попытаться не отвлекаться на различные звуки/мысли/ощущения/боль/другое, что означало, что несмотря ни на что нам следует сохранять ту же позу, в которую мы сели в начале медитации.
Continue reading “Vipassana Part 2 | Випассана Часть 2”