One of the most common ways of meditation is known as " mindfulness meditation"This form of meditation is usually used by people who need help coping with stressful situations, or those who are exposed to a lot of negative emotions. Many of us succumb to anger, frustration, resentment, envy - symptoms of the complex and stressful world in which we we live, but all this is just an illusion that needs to be overcome through the practice of awareness meditation.

We must learn to cope with negative emotions and not allow them to cloud our feelings and judgment. Otherwise, we risk harming our mental and physical health. With the help of awareness meditation, a person begins to realize his place in this world, make better decisions, and endure stressful situations and problems without avoiding or denying them. Knowing ourselves better through awareness meditation, we understand more how our body and mind are connected together, and by opening ourselves from this side we are able to become nobler, kinder, learn to forgive and empathize.

All types of meditation require us to relax our body and mind, and enter a state of inner peace. Special meditative music helps many people with this. To begin mindfulness meditation, sit with your back straight and legs crossed, then spend some time focusing on your slow and even breathing, allowing the music to bring you into a state of deep calm.

You must allow your thoughts to flow through your mind like a river, seeing the positive and negative aspects of your life as one, feeling them diminish in size and importance until they finally become a stream of emptiness, in a comfortable, dark and warm space. You must tell yourself not to judge others, and to look at life as an ever-changing stream of reality. You need to remember that you can return to this simple, calm and comfortable space whenever you want.

Focus on your breathing for a while, use the inhalation and exhalation as an example of how things come and go - the inhalation becomes the things you have learned, accepted, developed. With each exhalation, release your tension, frustration and regret. Remember that just as we need to inhale and exhale, we need to rise after falling, get back on our feet and move forward without falling into despondency, depression and despair. After some time, you can simply relax and enjoy the alienation and emptiness that comes with deep, quiet meditation.

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Awareness of death gives us the strength to live on. Paulo Coelho
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Mindfulness Meditation - Article from Cerveau&Psycho #41

The review article “La méditation de pleine conscience” was published in the journal “Cerveau&Psycho” No. 41, 2010. Since the journal is largely devoted to neuropsychology and clinical psychology, the article pays much attention to the neurophysiological aspects of meditation and its medical applications. Below is a slightly abbreviated translation...

Mindfulness meditation.

To be fully aware of what is happening in the present moment, to be aware of your feelings, emotions, thoughts: this approach to life, which has its origins in Eastern wisdom, has in recent years gained the attention of neurophysiologists and psychologists, since it develops a state of mind that allows you to cope with stress and depression.
Freeze and observe with closed eyes everything that happens inside (your breath, sensations in the body, an endless stream of thoughts) and outside (sounds, smells...). Just observe, without judging, without expecting anything, without stopping anything from coming to mind, but also without clinging to what has already come. This is all! It's simple! This is mindfulness meditation. And this turns out to be much more effective than our mind, accustomed to controlling everything, could imagine.

What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a state of consciousness that occurs when we specifically direct our mind to what is happening in the present moment. This is attention directed at the momentary experience, without filtering (everything that happens is accepted), without evaluation (does not decide whether what happens is good or bad, whether it is desirable or not), without expectation (does not look for something special).
There are 3 fundamental aspects to mindfulness. The first is the maximum opening of the field of attention to personal experience, including everything that happens in the mind, second by second: the perception of the respiratory rhythm, bodily sensations, everything that falls into the field of vision or hearing, the emotional state, thoughts that come and leaving... The second is a rejection of the tendency to evaluate and control everything that happens, an orientation towards the present moment. And, in the end, mindfulness is a “non-processing” state of consciousness in which one does not try to analyze, put into words, but rather tries to observe and experience what is happening. Mindfulness is a state of consciousness that anyone can spontaneously experience. Some questionnaires allow you to assess a person’s ability to experience this state: one of the most developed is the MAAS (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale) […] The questionnaire offers statements like: “I often break or drop objects because I am not paying attention or thinking about other things.” , “I find it difficult to concentrate on what is happening at the moment,” “I often walk quickly to a destination and then don’t remember what happened around me along the way.” These questions explore our ability to be “present” or “absent” in the present moment due to preoccupation, inattention, or goal-seeking. But the ability to be mindful can be trained, and it appears that by “training the mind” in this way certain psychological benefits can be achieved. A method of “training the mind” is mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation.
A state of mindfulness is the goal of numerous ancient meditative practices and modern psychotherapeutic approaches. For example, meditation has been at the core of Buddhist philosophy for over 2,000 years. In the Christian West, the word “meditation” has existed for many hundreds of years and means “long and in-depth reflection,” “a focused way of thinking.” This practice can be called analytical, and its analogue exists in the Buddhist tradition. But there is another type of meditation, more contemplative - simply observing what is. The first meditation is an action, even if only an action of the mind. The second is pure presence, but an awakened presence, “sharpened” (to feel without interfering). It is this second type of meditation that has been of interest to the world of psychotherapists and neurophysiologists for several years. By the way, the word “meditate” is close to the Latin mederi - “to care for, to heal.”
Mindfulness meditation is, in a sense, the first case of a truly “global therapy,” in the sense that it has absorbed various components: Eastern roots and Western systematization. North American, to be precise, since the first researchers who brought meditation into scientific psychology, and laid the foundation for its modern brilliance, were the American psychologist Jon Kabat-Zinn, and the Canadian psychiatrist Zindel Segal.
In its modern form, training in mindfulness meditation most often takes place in a group, in accordance with fairly formalized recommendations, classes last 8 weeks, one 2-hour lesson per week. During the classes, participants learn various meditation exercises, which they then have to practice on their own at home. In addition to the formal exercises, there is a set of informal practices that consist of trying to pay attention to small everyday activities: eating, walking, brushing teeth, all in a state of full awareness, trying not to think about anything else, and not to do anything else at the same time. Ultimately, as the participant masters the program, he is encouraged to make mindfulness a regularly practiced part of daily life, a normal psychological attitude towards all events. We are talking, for example, about using the minutes of waiting for transport to focus on breathing for a few seconds. Or about developing the habit of accepting manifestations of negative emotions (after a conflict or difficult situation) instead of avoiding them at all costs, escaping into work or entertainment to “clear your brain.”
In this sense, mindfulness meditation differs markedly from practices such as relaxation: we are not trying to calm raging painful emotions or mask them, but are trying to accept them without exaggeration. One might say that this is a form of “ecology of the mind,” since many of our psychological difficulties stem from an unsuccessful strategy to rid ourselves of pain forever (by denying or avoiding it). No matter how strange it may seem to us, abandoning this strategy is often a faster and more reliable way to alleviate suffering. On this occasion, Nietzsche said, “The worst of human illnesses arise from the ways in which people have overcome their misfortunes.”

What is the effectiveness of mindfulness practice?
Today we have a significant amount of research that meets all the requirements of evidence-based medicine (the presence of a control group, a random sample of participants, measurements before and after sessions, etc.), confirming the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation for various medical and psychological problems. These studies were conducted in various fields: such as stress management, cardiology, chronic pain, dermatology, respiratory diseases; The participants in the experiments were representatives of various groups (patients, students). A study by Canadian psychologist Michel Speck from the University of Calgary conducted with cancer patients demonstrated noticeable and objectively measurable improvements in the patients' mood, a decrease in stress-related symptoms, including a decrease in the feeling of fatigue. Another study conducted by Natalia Moron in Pittsburgh on individuals suffering from chronic lumbago (low back pain) showed an increase in tolerance to pain and physical activity (immobility of patients aggravates the symptoms of lumbago) as a result of the practice of meditation.
In psychiatry, special attention is paid to programs that link mindfulness meditation and cognitive therapy (we are talking about). This approach has proven effective in situations that often confuse the therapist: for example, preventing relapse of depression in patients with 3 or more previous episodes.
Thus, a study by John Teasdale from the University of Oxford found that cases of new attacks in patients suffering from chronic depression were much less common in people who had undergone meditation training (), and in those cases when attacks did occur, they occurred after a longer period of time . To be fair, to date, mindfulness meditation has only been proven to be effective as a means of preventing recurrent bouts of depression. The use of meditation in the acute stages of depression remains questionable.
How can we explain the health effects of mindfulness meditation? It seems that the mechanism operates on 2 levels: on the one hand, cognitive regulation (the patient learns to monitor the emergence of negative thoughts and does not allow them to develop, does not get involved in the endless cycle of “chewing” them); on the other hand, emotional regulation (regular mindfulness practice allows you to develop the ability to calmly accept negative events, learn to retreat and change in the face of painful emotions). It is known that in most cases of psychological suffering, whatever its nature, “chewing” negative thoughts and the inability to cope with emotions are factors that aggravate the situation. In this vein, mindfulness represents a truly promising modality that complements medication and psychotherapeutic tools.

Neurobiological basis of mindfulness.
Meditation has an effect on brain functioning. Compared to relaxation techniques, the practice of meditation activates to a much greater extent the paralimbic areas of the brain associated with the autonomic nervous system (i.e., automatic, not subject to volitional control), interoceptive awareness (awareness of the state of internal organs), and bodily sensations . As psychiatrist Katya Rubia from the University of London has shown, during meditation the fronto-parietal and fronto-marginal areas of the cerebral cortex, associated with attention management, become active.
Mindfulness practice, as has already been emphasized, leads to improved emotional control, the neurological mechanisms of which we are only beginning to explore. After just 8 weeks of meditation practice, people prone to bouts of bad mood show weaker activation of areas of the brain responsible for speech (Broca's area and Wernicke's area) and increased activity in areas associated with the processing of interoceptive information (from receptors in the internal organs). This shows that attacks of sadness are “digested” by meditators on a bodily level, and their severity decreases (unlike patients who received therapy on a rational, verbal level and did not meditate). Mindfulness meditation practitioners learn to consciously accept the bodily manifestations of sadness without actively seeking “solutions” (which sometimes leads to unhelpful rumination).[…]
Regular meditation practice results in positive modifications in the electromagnetic activity of the brain, as measured by encephalography. Neuroscientist Antoine Litz of the University of Madison found an increase in the rhythm of gamma waves (associated with the control of attention and conscious activity) in the left prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain responsible for positive emotions. It has long been known that pain tolerance is higher in experienced Zen meditation practitioners (the practice of Zazen (meditation in Zen Buddhism) is close to mindfulness meditation). Neuroscientist Joshua Grant of the University of Montreal recently discovered that this ability is associated with thickening in the anterior cingulate cortex and somatosensory cortex, two areas involved in the experience of pain.

How to interpret these observations? Perhaps these areas develop to cope with the unpleasant sensations that arise as a result of prolonged exposure to uncomfortable zazen positions (feelings of pins and needles and stiff limbs). In any case, we are talking about changes in the anatomy of the brain: this is a manifestation of the phenomenon of “neuroplasticity”, when “training a good mind” (in Buddhist terms, but psychotherapy also sets itself similar tasks) leads to a change in the structure of the brain, which, however, is true for any training.
Can meditation help with infections? No matter how strange it may seem, the answer will be yes. Physiologist Claude Bergman showed that after an 8-week course of meditation, the body increases the production of antibodies to the influenza virus after appropriate vaccination. This can be explained by the fact that meditation activates the left prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for positive emotions, and the connection between positive emotions and immune responses has been shown in numerous studies.

Awareness and the fight against certain diseases
Another study showed that patients suffering from psoriasis recovered faster if they attended sessions at the same time as treatment. And here we can trace the neuro-immune connection between mindfulness and health: stress stimulates the production of a cytokine (a molecule that acts in the immune system) that is involved in skin diseases.
[…] We are all, to one degree or another, capable of spontaneously experiencing a state of awareness. Those who have this natural ability to a greater extent are characterized by reduced activity in the areas of the brain responsible for self-awareness, i.e. for thinking about yourself. These areas are especially active in people suffering from depression because they tend to ruminate on negative thoughts about themselves for a long time.

Fashion for awareness.
Likewise, individuals with advanced mindfulness skills show reduced activity in the amygdala, an area associated with emotional anxiety; this area is abnormally active in states of anxiety and depression. Bergman found that individuals predisposed to experiencing a state of mindfulness had less activation in the right amygdala, which neuroscientists associate with the experience of unpleasant emotions. Thus, in a state of mindfulness, we are more likely to not focus on ourselves, and to remain in emotional balance.
For a long time, meditation was only part of the sphere of spiritual practices and methods of self-development, but now, in the form of mindfulness meditation, it has penetrated into the field of psychiatry and neurophysiology (the term “meditative neuroscience” is already in full use). Meditation has received unprecedented attention from the media. What is the reason for this success? Maybe it provides answers to the most fundamental needs of society? Contemplation, self-deepening, peace, unhurriedness, flow... Our living conditions are such that we are deprived of all these riches, we are increasingly in a hurry, interrupted, and worried. Perhaps meditation practices can make us feel our presence in this world...

Alexey Ezhikov, based on his own experience and research on the neurobiological foundations of consciousness, spoke about how to approach meditation (also known as “mindfulness practice” or “mindfulness”) if you are a rational and practical person. If you believe him, this is a very rational and practical activity, and here's why.

Alexey Yozhikov,

in everyday life - business consultant in digital industries; at leisure - author of the telegram channel @illusioscope

How was meditation recognized in the West, and does it have a future in Russia?

Today, Western science is doing a good job of ridding meditation of its connection with esotericism. This is valuable because meditative practices again became popular in the 60s in the United States, when many actively began to study Eastern religious experience. In post-war America, it was primarily an attempt to escape from the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism into the ideal and bright world of New Age brotherhood. During that period, the term “meditation” acquired a specific esoteric and “spiritual” connotation. However, over time it turned out that meditation practice retains its own value.

Meditation today is approached using modern methodological scientific apparatus.

Since we, Russian-speaking Internet users, are the heirs of Western culture (from writing and religion to philosophy and ethics), there are no obstacles to meditation working for us. After all, it has been known to man for thousands of years, including in the Western tradition (for example, as a method of spiritual comprehension in hesychasm). So, if today we continue to introduce meditation into a scientific, secular, skeptical context, there is every chance for its popularization.

What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness?

Awareness is an instantaneous state, the ability in a given moment “here and now” to perceive, observe what is happening around and within oneself. This condition can happen to each of us from time to time in the normal flow of life, in the background.

Meditation is a mindfulness practice for which a specific period of time is allocated. Let's say the next ten minutes. It does not matter how many times during this time the practitioner finds himself in or out of a state of awareness.

Why do we need this?

We have defined that meditation is a practice. Question: practice of what? Everyone finds their own meaning in it. Specifically for me, in this part of my life, meditation is the practice of separating the inner “observer” from the rest of the personality. In the ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) model of behavioral psychotherapy, this “separation” or “defusion” is one of six key principles.

A person’s personality is formed from infancy as a consequence of the socio-cultural environment and the actions of the person himself, which, as it seems to us, he can influence. However, there are studies that indicate that we commit actions before we are aware of them. This especially applies to children, because they have no gap between the stimulus and the moment of decision-making. The child is completely in the flow of internal experiences and external influences, which intertwine and flow into each other. In this flow, a personality is formed, and we get used to the concept that it is real. What is my “I” - an objectively existing interweaving of memory, emotions, mind, intentions, thoughts.

The idea of ​​the illusory “I” is not esoteric at all. We can verify this by turning to the works of modern neurophysiologists (“The Illusion of Self” by Bruce Hood, “Brain Science and the Myth of the Self. The Ego Tunnel” by Thomas Metzinger). And Stanislas Dehaene (“Consciousness and the Brain”) was looking for neuronal correlates of consciousness: the activity of which groups of neurons or other events in the human brain correlate with the subjective and objective presence of consciousness?

I like the global workspace theory proposed by Bernard Baars and developed by Stanislas Dehaene into the NGRP theory - neural global workspace.

According to this theory, things are as follows. The brain has certain patterns of mental activity. Many groups of neurons activate and inhibit each other's activity, together responsible for different cognitive processes. Some patterns are responsible for attention. Some are for visual perception. Some are for preserving events in memory.

There is also a global workspace - a kind of center, a “theater stage”. Some processes that “need it most” can enter the “stage” and combine into a conscious experience. The remaining processes at this moment remain unconscious. At the next moment in time, other processes may appear on the “scene” and combine into another experience. We believe that there is an “I” that experiences one thing or another (depending on the focus of attention). But in fact, our brain is an orchestra without a conductor, which sounds constantly, and in which musicians are constantly changing.

In the ordinary flow of life, we do not realize that “I” is not our emotions, thoughts or memory. By practicing mindfulness and separating the inner “observer,” you can see this for yourself. And even in the fact that there is no separate “I” at all, as modern neurophysiologists and all classical Buddhist canons claim.

Many of us want our lives to seem full of meaning and happiness (no matter what we mean by that), we want to experience certain emotions more often, and we want to cope with everyday difficulties more easily. Mindfulness solves these problems.

In the practice of mindfulness, Hebb's rule comes into play. Once aware of itself from the outside, the brain forms some new neural pattern. Later, it begins to activate independently more and more often, and this does not require conscious effort. For example, once you begin to recognize and name your emotions at a high level (“I’m furious right now” or “I’m panicking”), after a few months it becomes much easier to notice and name mild irritation or fear. After a few years, change your attitude towards them and transform irritation into enthusiasm, and fear into an exciting feeling of the unknown.

Mindfulness to develop proactivity

Stephen Covey, a popular American speaker and consultant, proposed “proactivity” as one of his “seven habits of highly effective people.” Unlike children's “reactivity,” a direct response to external and internal stimuli, “proactivity” is a conscious reaction to any influence. A reactive person is in an unbroken flow of “stimulus - reaction”. A proactive person has short periods of conscious choice of response to a stimulus.

From the work of Daniel Kahneman, we know that there are two structures that make decisions. “System 1” decides very quickly to reduce cognitive costs and is responsible for actions that are good enough to survive. "System 2" is a more modern invention, it is necessary for us to thoroughly analyze and select the best solutions. “System 1” in the normal life flow almost always takes precedence over “System 2” because it requires less energy.

Awareness helps to “give voice” to those structures of the psyche that can “know something better” in a given context than “System 1”. The moment of mindfulness provides them with an “inner space of silence” to assert themselves. At this point, we step out of the influence of our ancient animal structure and allow some kind of internal discussion to happen, rather than immediately following the lead of whoever “cried louder” and found himself on the stage of the global workspace.

For example, if your boss tells you off, you feel angry. By reacting reactively, you will tell him to go to hell - and, most likely, you will be fired. However, if you practice mindfulness, you have a chance to have a moment of choice between stimulus and response: you can tell yourself that you are irritated, but also notice that the other person is also affected by emotions. This will allow you to have a conversation that is more effective for you in the context of your long-term goals.

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https://t.me/booksfromouterspace

Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is one of the types of emotion regulation. The principle is simple: you take an unpleasant affect (or situation) and find positive aspects in it. Or some other, initially invisible facets.

The ability to cognitively reframe bad emotions is useful, but not easy. Good CP skills reliably reduce the risk of PTSD, anxiety and depressive disorders, and also help to look moderately optimistically at this world that is sliding into the abyss.

On the other hand, there is evidence that in depression (probably not only) CP works the other way around: positive events and emotions are distorted.

How meditation helps you relax

Another type of meditation involves working with thoughts. The easiest way is to imagine that you have a blue sky in your head, and your thoughts are clouds that come and go. You don’t reach for them, developing judgment after judgment, but you don’t try to “put a damper” so that thoughts don’t come. You don't judge them as bad. This practice of non-judgmentally observing the contents of the mind allows you to often experience moments of awareness and pay attention to them. That very moment of returning “damn, I’m lost in thought again” is a moment of pure awareness.

The tangible result of this practice is that it becomes easier to fall asleep in situations where the brain randomly grinds some kind of chewing gum of thoughts, not allowing you to relax. Then you can use the skill of observing the contents of the mind and at the same time counting backwards, for example, from 1000.

How to learn meditation and understand that “this is it”?

Most common ideas about meditation are associated with taking some kind of motionless poses (if you look at meditation from the outside) or with feelings of “bliss”, “peace”, “serenity” (if you imagine meditation from the first person). All of them are not true.

If you sit down at 12:00 with the decision that you are going to practice mindfulness, and at 12:15 you get up and say, “Thank me for practicing mindfulness,” that means you have been meditating—no matter what happens in that time. If during these fifteen minutes you go somewhere and try to do it consciously, you are still meditating.

Any meditation is a journey in which we do not know what we will meet along the way. You can monitor the sensations in your body, but you cannot say for sure what exactly you will feel and what thoughts will come. This does not play any role and will not make any difference to the practice of mindfulness at a particular time.

Any person has been in a moment of awareness many thousands of times in his life, and any of our readers has this skill. This is what is inherent to us, and not what we need to discover in ourselves. If we simply begin to inhale and exhale and monitor our breathing, feeling the temperature of the air we inhale and exhale with the inner surface of our nostrils, this already allows us to take the “theatrical stage” of the global workspace away from the chewing gum of automatic thoughts and return to presence in the present moment.

“It is said that a conventionally “wrong” meditation is one in which you become attached to some sensations, experiences, thoughts, the search for truth, or even a feeling of serenity. Do you meditate to understand something about yourself? You risk becoming attached to the idea that you are meditating in order to understand something about yourself. At this point your meditation becomes wrong. If you become attached to the fantasy that in the bustle of the world around you you want to find an island of serenity within yourself, then you become attached to this concept.

For me, proper meditation is simply the practice of nonjudgmental observation. The object can be anything. The object may not exist at all. “Wrong” meditation is meditation that contains evaluation in itself. When you practice mindfulness with the goal of becoming more aware, you run the risk of becoming attached to the concept of mindfulness itself. Or to the desire to become more aware. And then meditation becomes “wrong”.

If previously people escaped to newspapers and TV, today we escape to social networks, scrolling the feed even before going to bed. At the same time, there are almost no moments left to be inside oneself. However, if we give mindfulness practice even 10 minutes a day, we have a lost opportunity to simply be present within ourselves and explore the stunning depth of what opens up to us.

We know very well what life is like on a well-trodden track, on “autopilot”. The usual morning routine, shower, coffee on the go, kiss your neighbors, going to work, checking email, liking on social networks, work... Almost always, with rare exceptions, the “autopilot” is on. More often than not, we are controlled by others.

This state is also called the “trance of everyday life”, a state in which our attention is narrowed to primitive “yes-no”, “can-not” and “good-bad”. Few of us consciously give our lives to the control of others; rather, this is how it turns out. Somehow it just happened, and it seems like we didn’t do anything about it.

That's it: we didn't do anything, we just lived unconsciously. Mindfulness is a state of consciousness that is the opposite of “autopilot”

When we direct attention to ourselves, we become aware of ourselves and can manage ourselves and our lives. Sounds tempting. Shall we try?

RESULT: AUTHENTIC PRESENCE
We often face complex tasks that cannot always be solved on autopilot. Negotiations and presentations, projects and innovations that can change our own lives and the lives of loved ones. Talking to a child is also a difficult task.

What is needed for full awareness:

• see- first of all, people and their conditions;
• hear- everything that is said and how it is said;
• feel - attitudes and emotions, your own and those around you;
• feel- our strength and confidence in what we do;
• realize- your thoughts and choose the most correct ones;
• know- the situation in general and the state of affairs in particular.

We are able to control our perceptions, thinking and actions

The goal and result of mindfulness is true presence, a state of focus and full inclusion that in itself commands respect and attention. Next we need to act, and act actively. Mindfulness meditation makes it possible to get out of the trance of everyday life, turn off the “autopilot” and be an included participant or leader in the process.

KEY IDEAS OF MINDFULNESS PRACTICES
A few important ideas that describe the essence of mindfulness practices:

• a person in his normal state is not a very conscious being; more often we live on “autopilot”;
• we are able to control our perceptions, thinking and actions;
• non-judgmental observation of what is happening in the mind and in the external world allows you to objectively and adequately perceive what is happening;
• awareness allows you to more meaningfully respond to the challenges of life, makes life rich and successful;
• mindfulness develops through gradual, daily, regular practice.

Mindfulness develops through gradual, daily, regular practice.

Basic tools for increasing awareness:

• breathing meditation;

ATTITUDE WITH YOURSELF IN MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
In order to actually practice mindfulness, there are several important conditions. Mindfulness involves receiving real, truthful information about ourselves and the world. Therefore, how we treat ourselves and the experience we gain in meditation is extremely important. Here are the key principles of mindfulness:

Non-judgmental . Observe what you experience as it is, without classification as “good” or “bad,” “pleasant” or “unpleasant.”

Non-aspiration . Allow yourself to experience whatever happens instead of setting goals and trying to achieve them.

Adoption. Acceptance does not mean humility and submission; it is acceptance, not denial, of how you feel right now. Acceptance comes first and change will come later.

Patience. It takes time for changes to appear. You need to try over and over again to do what you have to do, as flawlessly as possible, without paying attention to the disappointment and irritation that not everything turns out perfectly.

Changes take time and practice to manifest.

Confidence. Trust yourself as you practice, allow your inner self to guide you.

Beginner's mind. Develop a “beginner’s mind” as opposed to the usual “expert” filters. In the open “beginner’s mind,” as opposed to the “expert mind,” there is a huge number of possibilities.

Letting go. Let go, there is no need to hold on to anything. There is no need to cling to pleasant experiences and push away unpleasant ones.

Interest. Be curious about your experience: How am I feeling now? What are the thoughts in my head right now? What's going on in my body?

Kindness. Bring warmth and compassion into your moment-to-moment experience. Be aware of your experience - not only with your mind, but also with your heart.

Bring warmth and compassion into your moment-to-moment experience

Some points may seem strange (how is this non-judgmental, we always evaluate), but these are really important things in the process of meditation. These conditions are the essence of mindfulness practices. Whether to use it or not is up to you to decide, but try it first. The criterion here is the result, and everything else is a waste of time and words. Try doing the practice this way!

A FEW FACTS ABOUT MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
1. Mindfulness meditation develops the ability to manage attention, thinking and emotions.

2. Mindfulness meditation is clarity and full contact with reality, it is inclusion and true presence.

3. During meditation, you can simply sit on a pillow or on a chair; the recommended duration of meditation is from 2-3 to 20-30 minutes.

4. Mindfulness meditation has its roots in Buddhist contemplative practice (where it is called shamatha-vipassana), its essence is attention and self-awareness.

5. Mindfulness meditation is a scientifically based technique that has been successfully used in medicine, business, education and social work for more than 30 years.

THREE LEVELS OF MINDFULNESS MEDITATION PRACTICE
The skill of meditation develops gradually, over several months, with regular practice.

LEVEL 1. A combined meditation of “concentration” and “mindfulness (clear mind).” We learn to connect with ourselves, develop clarity and sensitivity, train attention, achieve calmness and confidence.

LEVEL 2(after 1-2 months of practice). We explore our defense mechanisms. We understand how we close ourselves off from the world, how fears and behavioral strategies arise, and gradually we begin to manage them.

LEVEL 3(after 3-4 months of practice). We develop connections with the world and relationships with people. We learn empathy, understanding other people, open and clear communication with others.

CHOOSING A LOCATION FOR PRACTICE
You can practice mindfulness wherever you can breathe. Only at the very beginning, to master mindfulness meditation, you will need a quiet space. Therefore, it is better to start mindfulness meditation in specially equipped classes with an instructor, or at home, sitting on a cushion or chair in silence. After just a few weeks of practice, stability will appear and you will be able to continue practicing anywhere.

You can practice mindfulness wherever you can breathe.
Halls, passages, recreation areas and parks are good options for meditation. If you have no choice, start right where you are!

Consciousness is all there is. Manifesting itself in different ways, it does not cease to be Consciousness.

This article is for those who are seriously interested in self-knowledge. First, preparation - theory, then practice - meditation on pure consciousness and a couple more techniques.

Most people, or rather almost all, are absolutely convinced that this world is real. However, the ancient scriptures state that this world is like a dream, a mirage or a hallucination, and this is also stated by the enlightened sages of all times and peoples. Further analysis of this topic, and especially your independent honest research (including attempts to perform the suggested meditation), can greatly upset you, because the illusions in which you have been involved for a very long time, and which you consider to be the truth, will be destroyed, which is not always the case. Nice. In any case, read the page carefully and understand: if your roof goes, which cannot be ruled out, then there will be no one to blame. I also recommend reading other articles on the self-knowledge site, some of which I provide links to right here, they can clarify many points and deepen your understanding.

Theory of Pure Consciousness

So let's start from the beginning: Originally and always there is Pure Consciousness. Everything else, when it exists, is only a fleeting imagination (fantasy, appearance, manifestation) of Pure Consciousness, that is, it does not have real existence, although it consists of the same “material” - Consciousness. Fictional things are not reality because they do not have independent existence. You can close your eyes and imagine anything you want (whether asleep or awake, it doesn’t matter), and even experience it with vivid, believable perceptions, but can you call this illusion reality just because there are realistic perceptions there?

It should be noted that everything I say is only, that is, a way of describing. No one has ever spoken the Truth; It can only be pointed out through concepts. Therefore, the words “Pure Consciousness” do not convey the Truth, but only direct attention. Accordingly, there is no need to believe in concepts (which is what almost all “thinking beings” do), they are just pointers. The purpose of meditation is to comprehend That which is beyond limited words and concepts. In other words, the highest goal of meditation is.

When I say “Pure Consciousness,” I mean that Being that cannot be described in words, which we all are, whether we know it or not. This Being does not have any physical or spiritual characteristics and does not contain duality, therefore it is conventionally called Pure Consciousness, Brahman, the Unmanifested, and other words. When It manifests itself (as if awakening, emerging from a static non-dual state), it looks like. Nevertheless, at the same time It does not cease to be Itself.

Atman(jiva, individual consciousness, soul) - this is the same Pure Consciousness, only aware of itself. That makes all the difference. Pure Consciousness does not contain duality, it is “unmanifest”, so it is not aware of its existence, unlike the jiva. This can be compared to the ocean: the ocean is one, it is all water, which is non-dual (there is nothing but water), but when waves (jivas) appear on the surface of the ocean, the appearance of separate beings is created and self-awareness arises. This individual self-awareness is like the reflection of a wave in the ocean water. Then further Games of Consciousness occur, which I have already written about. When the wave calms down and “goes back into the depths of the ocean,” to where there is no surface wave movement, self-awareness gradually disappears, which, by the way, happens every night during deep sleep.

Thus, from this example we can see that in fact nothing but the ocean has ever existed, that the apparent multiplicity of waves is only a temporary manifestation of the ocean, which has absolutely no independence in its manifestation, and is manifested only on the surface. The ocean does not cease to be an ocean because of this, it does not lose its non-dual essence. The same applies to Consciousness - it always remains Consciousness, manifesting “on the surface” as a multitude, but at the same time always remaining non-dual (one) and unmanifested in its depth. This vision of truth is called awareness of what really is. And the proposed meditation will help you get closer to this truth.

Blind faith and exposing lies

Let's move from abstractions to specifics. Take your own life.

What can you be absolutely sure of right now and at any other time? Meditate on this. Be honest with yourself. This is your search, there is no point in messing around: you are doing it for yourself. Take your time. This meditation is the key to self-knowledge. Moreover, this is the only reliable key. This is the key that unlocks the door of Truth.

Just ask yourself: “What do I know for sure? What is true for me at any given time? What can I be absolutely and always sure of? " and find it. Even if it takes you your whole life. Of course, if you are interested in the truth. Because, in fact, most people are not interested in the truth. Even those who supposedly will be completely satisfied and will give up their search as soon as they find health, success, love or some other worldly or “highly spiritual” things. If they find it.

So, what is absolutely irrefutable for you at any moment, including the moment now? What is constant and absolutely obvious? What is there not the slightest doubt about?

As you honestly explore these questions, many dubious and outright false answers will be eliminated. In fact, you have to clear away a mountain of lies that began to exist from the very first moment of the emergence of illusory duality. You will have to throw a bunch of beliefs and assumptions about yourself into the trash. Review and get rid of all these “beautiful and dear to the heart.” Destroy blind and false faith. Burn a lot of meaningless assumptions in the fire of awareness. Remove dubious guidelines and false authorities from your life, including the authority of your own mind. Discard a lot of philosophical and religious dogmas, systems and worldviews. And even question your own-separate-independent existence.

The price of Truth is all these illusions that seem to be the reality in which we are accustomed to living, and which we have not questioned for a long time.

The end result of this practice of exposing lies is the disappearance of the belief that illusions are reality and, on the other hand, the realization that I Am Consciousness. For now, this is probably just a concept for you, and it only points the direction, serves as a guide. But even this conceptual understanding is extremely useful, as it brings us closer to the truth, allowing us to already have “one foot there.”

Self-discovery can help a lot in this process. Of course, other techniques and meditations proposed in the article can help a lot, as well as advanced level techniques. The main thing in this matter is a sincere search, honesty with oneself and the willingness to part with illusions for the sake of comprehending the truth and gaining (awareness) of one’s eternal nature of pure consciousness.

Two simple facts

Sooner or later you will find that all you can absolutely confidently declare to yourself at any moment is “I am, I am the perceiving consciousness”. It is simply the feeling of one’s own being, the knowledge that “I exist, perceive, am aware.” This is fact number 1, the most important. In addition to this "I Am", you can also say that there is, and this is fact number 2, less significant. That is, in fact, you can only be sure of two things: “I Am” and “There are perceptions.” The belief that some perceptions(and this can be any thoughts, emotions, beliefs, feelings of being someone or something, etc.) are true - it's just blind faith. You can't prove it. Give it a try. And you will always return only to this simple and absolute fact: “I Am.” The rest is temporary and unprovable. And therefore it is doubtful. Which means there is no point in believing it. At least by doing meditation, we will not blindly believe in unprovable things.

Let's go a little deeper. This paragraph is for very advanced seekers who are willing to risk even the firmest belief (in the reality of this world) for the sake of comprehending the Truth. We are talking about the unprovability of what is happening, about the doubtfulness of the existence of the universe. Do you think that this whole “objective world” is really objective? Do you think that all these things happen to you as an individual being (human) in this “outer world”? And that this world is really real? And that all these “other people” are also real, also separate and freely (or not so freely) thinking beings? What makes you think so? After all, you can’t prove to yourself that this is so. But you think you can. Even if you no longer trust your own changing perceptions, you think something like this: “ other people see the world and its objects the same as I see, which means this world is really real.” And everything would be fine, but the question is: who are these “others”? Can you prove to yourself that they are real? Think back to your dreams at night: there were also many “others” who confirmed the reality of your dream by interacting with you, and this was extremely really, is not it? You had no doubt about the reality of the night’s dream and its characters, just as you now have no doubt about the reality of “waking.” But in the morning you woke up, and where did these others, who were supposedly real people, disappear? Where did the “reality” that you perceived and that they confirmed go to? Was this real? Or was it a fleeting illusion, a fantasy, a mirage, despite its absolute realism? So how can you prove to yourself that what is happening now is real? Be honest with yourself: no way. And this brings you back again and again to two simple facts of which you can always be sure: “I am” and “There is a stream of unprovable perceptions.” Everything unprovable is discarded, and only the undeniable “I Am” remains - the sense of being, presence, awareness. That's the point.

I Am Pure Consciousness. Meditation

This meditation technique involves focusing attention on an idea. "I Am Pure Consciousness", which can be reformulated in any other suitable way, for example, “I Am Brahman”, “I am neither body nor mind”, “I am That”, “I am the soul”, “I am pure awareness”, etc. Everyone can choose the formulation that is closest and most understandable. The main thing here is not the verbal expression, but its meaning. Words are just pointers, it is important to understand this.

How does it work and why? In other words, can such an affirmation lead to truth? With this meditation, the mind focuses on the highest and purest idea that is possible within the framework of concepts. This idea is even higher, not to mention other gunas. Pure Consciousness is beyond the gunas, and the practice of identifying oneself with Brahman will gradually remove other, contradictory concepts. This will purify the consciousness sufficiently to not only identify oneself with Brahman at the level of thought, but also to see and realize this true identity.

To illustrate, here is a short parable showing how this works. There was a certain king who once, apparently, had too much alcohol, and it “got into his head” that he was a beggar. He felt like a beggar and walked around his estate in search of the king to give him alms. Of course, it looked strange: a king looking for himself in order to receive alms. And then someone said to him: “So you are the king himself!” He didn’t believe it right away, he started feeling himself, examining himself, muttering, “Am I a king? Am I a king? Hmm, I'm wearing royal clothes. I guess I’m a king...” Then he went to the mirror and, seeing his reflection, remembered that he was a king. Thus, a reminder of one’s true identity leads to research and analysis, through which awareness of the true state of affairs is achieved.

The Yoga Vasistha says, “What you identify with, that is what you become.” Identifications can be roughly divided into more true and less true. For example, the closest to the truth is identifying oneself with the soul (jiva, atman), which, in fact, is no different from Pure Consciousness, except for the presence of self-awareness. Less true identifications would be with mind, mind, and body respectively. That is, identification with the body is the most false identification. To consider oneself a human being is a total identification, a totality of lies. It will be useful to study the article, it will help in meditation. Also read and don't fall for it.

Once again I want to emphasize that meditation on “I Am Pure Consciousness” is not just an affirmation, not just muttering, not just a mantra, it is constant direction and return of attention to Truth, which a person may not be aware of at first, but which he explores, studies, analyzes, examines from different angles, persistently making his way through the various garbage of the mind. And this is achieved through careful and conscious repetition of a phrase like “I am Brahman” or any other suitable one with the same meaning.

This meditation can eventually become “background” and constant, regardless of what else you are doing. The purer the mind, the easier it is for consciousness to enter and remain in a state of self-awareness. Don't limit yourself to a few minutes or even hours a day, try to be aware of yourself as pure consciousness constantly, continuously. Don't worry if it doesn't come easy at first, just every time return attention to the source of attention itself- Pure Consciousness.

Concentration of consciousness on oneself (pure consciousness) is the highest meditation, the purest method of self-awareness.

Meditation plus exposing lies

You focus your attention on the idea “I Am Pure Consciousness,” and soon you notice that various things pop up in your mind, both outright meaningless garbage and ideas that contradict what you have been holding. The garbage is simply ignored and you return your attention to meditation. And contradictory ideas are immediately questioned, questioned: “Is this provable now?” If it's not provable right now, what's the point of believing it and paying attention to it? You know that there are only two things that can be easily proven at any given time: “I Am” and “There is a stream of perceptions,” and since the contents of the stream of perceptions are doubtful, they are not worthy of engaging your attention, so you return to the original irrefutable “I Am.”

Use the practice of exposing lies (“Is this provable right now?”) whenever a thought that contradicts the idea of ​​“I Am Pure Consciousness” comes to your attention. In this way, you will return to pure consciousness meditation almost immediately without getting caught up in endless thoughts and false concepts.

For example, you hold with your attention the thought “I Am Pure Consciousness,” and suddenly the thought “The Bible says that I am a servant of God” comes. You see that the idea “I am a servant of God” does not correspond to the idea “I Am Pure Consciousness”, and therefore you ask the question: “can I now prove to myself that I am a servant of God?” Perhaps further analysis will look something like this: “In order to prove this, there must be God nearby, whom I must see, and I must also very clearly feel like his slave, unquestioningly fulfilling his will, and being crystal clear about this. But since none of this happens, I cannot prove to myself that I am a servant of God, so for the moment this idea can be left aside and return to meditation on pure consciousness. In the same way, you get rid of a huge number of other things (concepts, ideas, beliefs, misconceptions, etc.) that cannot be proven, but in which you were previously accustomed to blindly believing. Discarding all these unprovable things, you constantly return to two simple facts - “I Am” and “There are perceptions of a dubious nature” - and continue to meditate on pure consciousness.

For the purpose of meditation, it is better to declare as a lie everything (that pops up in the mind) that cannot be proven right now, than to consider as true something that seemed to be a fact earlier, but cannot be proven in the present. Thanks to the principle “everything that cannot be proven right now is a lie,” you will discard everything that is doubtful, leaving only what you are absolutely sure of and what is always true. This is the purest form of meditation.

And don’t let the large number of distracting thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and other rubbish scare you. All these things are perceived only because they reflect the light of your consciousness, without which they do not exist. In other words, the flow of perceptions reminds you that there is a consciousness that perceives it, and this consciousness is you. So just direct your attention to yourself.

If something is not clear

Keep it simple. If you feel that some material, advice or situation is not clear, return to the essence of meditation. The essence of meditation is this: Keep your attention on the idea “I Am Pure Consciousness”, and when you notice that your attention has gone to something else, simply return it. This is all. The rest is just clarifications and additional recommendations that may help.

As already mentioned in the article “The Nature of the Soul”, the only function of the soul is to perceive. When attention is directed outward, external objects are perceived. When attention is directed inward, self-awareness arises. This meditation aims at self-awareness. To do this, attention must be withdrawn from external objects (such as the body, mind, emotions, desires, and everything else, including perceptions received through the body) and directed inward, to oneself, to the very fact “I am, and I am aware” .

Become aware of the fact of awareness(I'm aware that I'm aware) and then become aware of yourself as pure consciousness.

Just be this self-awareness, this is the experience of one’s nature of pure consciousness (at the soul level). That's the whole point of this meditation. A formulation like “I Am Pure Consciousness” is needed only to direct attention in the right direction, and for nothing more. This is not an affirmation for the mind or subconscious, it is a tool like a mirror that allows the conscious mind to properly direct its attention to look at itself.

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