Morning Mindfulness Meditation Series 4 with Beryl Bender

Meditation is essential. It isn’t a practice that you have to “add” to your list of things to do. It is a skill that needs to be learned, and once learned, it can be practiced anywhere, any time and can bring clarity, focus, awareness, and presence to every aspect of your life.

This course is about the study of the mind, your own mind. “The mind is the forerunner of everything”, is the opening line of the Dhamma Pada, a collection of the Buddha’s teaching. If you want to understand the mind, you need to sit down and observe it. This means liberating the attention from its capture by the constant undercurrent of noise that goes on in the head and redirecting it to focus on what is actually arising in the field of Consciousness in this moment. What is your actual experience, in this moment? Basically, it means learning to tell the difference between being lost in thought – which is where we are most of the time - and being here, present, awake!!

Why do we want to be here? Because it is the only place to be – good, bad, or indifferent, this moment is not a mistake – it is all we have, and either we embrace it and learn from it, or we stay trapped in suffering. This is not a self-improvement course, and mindfulness meditation was not “invented” as a stress management tool. Yes, you will inevitably have insights that help you to grow and evolve. And yes, you will learn to down regulate and quiet the noise in your head that generates so much stress. But the focus of this teaching is on the study of your own mind. Learn to use mindfulness to help you gain insight into who you truly are, and bring better health and greater ease, awareness, and joy to your life.

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