November 12, 2014 By Admin

Advanced Meditations on Perception -Part 2

Advanced Meditation Practices on Perception

As the Sutra story goes, the Buddha instructed Ananda to visit the ailing venerable Girimananda, who was very, very ill. In an effort to help the ailing man, the Buddha told Ananda to guide him in the Ten Meditation on Perceptions (on sensory input and the objects of mind). According to the story, Girimananda improved after the meditations.

We begin with basic instructions on how to meditate. Be in a quiet place, both inside and outside. Sit in a stable and somewhat comfortable posture, while keeping your back straight. Bring your attention to the present moment directly in front of your eyes – here, now. Without controlling the breath, bring your full attention to it as you breathe in and out; notice the breath as it passes at the nostrils, the chest, and in the belly. Just notice your breath as it moves in and out, long and short, shallow and deep – just be with it as it is now. Be gentle with yourself, and remain in a positive and peaceful state. Do not judge or evaluate anything. Just be one with the breath!

The Ten Meditations on Perception deal with the five aggregates of attachment, desire and, clinging. These are of form, feeling, perception itself, volitional actions, and overall consciousness – all of which are impermanent in nature. These are difficult meditation to practice. Do your best without becoming discouraged or afraid of the deeper meanings of these meditations.

1) First meditate on the reality of impermanence and the five aggregates. Focus attention without evaluation on each aggregate – form, feeling, perception, volitional actions, and consciousness.

2) Now meditate on the realization of no-self (no authentically real ego, I, Me, Mine in the realities of atomic time and space). These are simply defensive ego-constructs to separate us from others and the world as a whole. Work on meditating on all sensory inputs and experiences as simply happening but without self-attachment to the experiences. This can be the most difficult meditation to practice.

3) Meditate on unattractiveness of the body and its self-consciousness of parts. All parts of the body, including mind, will decay and deteriorate over time; as they decay, they become more gruesome, even ugly. Decaying body and mind is not a pretty sight to behold. Notice your own defensiveness here, and how it relates to protecting your ego-self from dying off into impermanence of form.

4) Now meditate on the dangers of illness to both body and mind. This is the ultimate decaying and impermanence as it may lead to illness even the death of the living body.

5) Meditate on abandoning all thoughts and perceptions of you harming others – both things and sentient beings. Abandoning harmful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors will lead to more compassion, caring, and kindness. As the next unhelpful, harmful thought arises, abandon it. Observe your reactions to people, places, and things you do not enjoy or like. When we abandon these unhelpful processes, we reduce the level of negativity in ourselves and in the world.

6) Meditate on dispassion – that is the energy placed in attachment, desire, and clinging. Be at peace inside as you work on letting go of cravings, especially cravings for material acquisitions. Let go, let go, let go! Practice being satisfied with what you have now, not waiting to be happy with some future acquisition of something concrete or emotional.

7) Meditate on cessation, or the absolute liberation of your mind-body from suffering. If there is no attached craving, there is no emotional disappointment. Wanting, desiring, attaching, craving, and clinging are all causes and effects of human suffering. Cessation brings freedom and liberation from suffering. It will also open you up more peace and happiness.

8) Do your best to meditate on letting go of your personal delight in being in experiences you find pleasurable. This does not mean you should not enjoy happiness when it exists. It does mean you should practice letting go of craving for happiness and sense-pleasures as a way of being, as a way to create happiness. All life experience, both pleasant and unpleasant, are impermanent experiences – they always change in one way of another. You cannot hold on to pleasant life experiences – just be with them fully when they occur.

9) Meditate on the actual impermanence of all conditioned experiences and phenomena. If you become effective here, you will notice that your suffering decreases dramatically. This, itself, is part of the path to liberation and realization. This is also a most difficult meditation to practice.

10) End your Ten Meditations on Perceptions with mindfulness on the breath. Just simple mindful awareness of your breath, in and out, short and long, shallow and deep, into and out of the body, the arising and falling away of the breath experience – as simply impermanent. Rest yourself in the reinforcing rapture and deep peace of pure awareness on the breath. Appreciate the breath for keeping you alive here now.

Hopefully you will have the self-discipline and motivation to practice these perception meditations. They will be most helpful to you on your own personal path to enlightenment.

For more information refer to Gunarantana, B. (2014). Meditation on Perception: Ten Healing Practices to Cultivate Mindfulness. Boston: Wisdom Publications. Also The Girimananda Sutta from Bhikku Bodhi (2012) in The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Arguttara Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 1411-15.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

Helping Professions and Emotional Balance Helping professions must practice to achieve emotional balance. Working conditions for the helping professions have become more and more difficult over time, especially with the advent of so called “helpful technologies” and ever-increasing governmental/funding requirements for documentation. When I started in the (behavioral health) field of clinical psychology and addictions […]

More Characteristics of Happiness – Happiness #4 Here I will continue my posts about the common characteristics of happiness. Here is the list. Keep an Open Mind – Maintaining an open mind opens up doorways to interesting things in the world, some of which may help you to become happier. Also, open-mindedness reduces inner tension […]

Mindfulness-Based Emotion Regulation The following emotional regulation practices (also called emotional balance skills) have been supported by over 2500 years of mindfulness training and current psychological research on human emotions. These practices/skills are to be practiced before they are needed, and directly applied when they are needed. Here is the list. 1) Practice noticing and […]

Beads: Significance in Spiritual and Religious Practices The significance of religious and spiritual practices in the world is enormous. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist practitioners make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s population. The CIA estimates are that Christians (33%), Muslims (23%), Hindus (14%) and Buddhist (7%) make up the majority of religious followers. […]

Chronic Pain and Doing Body Scanning Although doing body scans cannot fully relieve your pain, it may help you manage it better. If your pain is serious and chronic you need to work with a qualified pain management professional, who will use both psychological and medical interventions. Note that a recent issue of Consumer Reports reviewed […]

Using Lectio Divina to Enhance Your Happiness Lectio Divina is an ancient Christian (Benedictine) meditation; it is a form of meditative prayer called “sacred seeing.” We will use a modified version of the process here. Follow the steps noted below. Sit quietly in meditative form, calmly abiding yourself here now. After a […]

Winnicott’s Ideas – Best Possible Clinical Alliance To develop and maintain a strong clinical alliance it is best to follow some of the well-known clinical advice on this topic. Rogers, Kohut, Winnicott and many others have suggested just how to do so. Here are some general clinical recommendations for enhancing the clinical alliance. Develop authentic […]

Interpersonal Mindfulness Various forms of mindfulness-based compassion training help us to care more about the needs, happiness, and health of other people. However, direct applications of interpersonal mindfulness activates these influences into direct action on behalf of others. Thus, if lucky, we learn to care more about others and less about ourselves. The self-centered ego […]

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy “gems” In my opinion there are about eleven such “gems” in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Use of these interventions in various types of psychotherapy may improve clinical outcomes beyond insight. Although these curative interventions have often been associated with treatment of psychological trauma, object loss, and inner conflict, they may also be useful in the […]

Laughter to Support you in Suffering As we all know life is filled with joy, suffering, and neutrality or boredom. This is THE WAY IT IS! Or, as a very good old friend often reminded me: “It is what it is!” In Buddhism we preach a middle way in various areas of practice; the same […]

Mindful Happiness Book Review The Awakened Introvert: Practical Mindfulness skills… By Arnie, Kozak, Ph.D. Dr. Kozak begins his book noting the processes of mind that often cause people to suffer. Critical judging, unhelpful story telling, over-attending to past suffering or losses and angst about possible future realities (the brain’s default mode), and auto-pilot inattention to important […]

Mindful Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Earth Protectors The Standing Rock Sioux earth protectors are fighting earth destruction, environmental degradation, oil profiteering, and corporate greed. Yes, I suppose finding huge reserves of crude helps many people become employed in the Dakotas. This is important. But other earth-wise activity (more solar for example) would be far […]

Self-Reality Checks Are Needed in Your Mindful Clinical Practice It is highly important for helpers working in the co-occurring conditions field to become keenly aware of their own realities in practice and life that impact clinical effectiveness. Below I have listed four areas that show up in clinical surveys and added four more that I […]

Effective Clinical Supervision Perhaps other than the mental health status of the therapist and her/his ethical clinical skills, there is no more important variable in successful clinical work than effective CLINICAL supervision. I emphasize “clinical’ because in today’s bureaucratic systems, so much supervision tends to be about required procedures like utilization level, reporting requirements, and documentation for services […]

Building Emotional Resilience On a personal note, right now I am suffering. Its April 15th and I have a terrible viral infection (sore throat, chest congestion, and fever). I feel weak and miserable. Perhaps all that frigid air we endured in New England this Winter also kept infectious “stuff” under control for a while. However, […]

Buddhist Thought on Joy and Suffering 1) You actually DO have some control over your emotional destiny. 2) The core “conceptual” view of reality is that your inner emotional experience – especially negative afflictive emotional states related to people, places and things you REACT to – are perceived as totally true. 3) In a non-conceptual […]

Using Creativity in Clinical Supervision Effective clinical supervision is a combination of hearable direction about clinical practice, gentle-direct leadership, clinical “Know-How,” evidence-based skills, complex psychodynamics, and the willingness to work with others on their developmental processes. There are risks involved. I have provided clinical supervision and consultation to other clinicians for 43 years without a […]

Polyvagal Interventions for Anxiety S. Porges and his Polyvagal Theory may provide innovative interventions for both anxiety and depression. Many people become trapped in ruminating about the past or worrying about the future; they cannot seem to keep their mind and body in the present moment. Some strong, fear-based, bodily defenses may not respond well to […]

Insights – Vipassana Mediation There will be future, more advanced vipassana meditations posted on the site. For now, however, we will end this series with a final post about the insights often experienced via vipassana meditation. We learn via experience about impermanence, suffering and its causes, no-self, emptiness and many other things – or, perhaps, […]

Meditation for Managers and Helpers Let’s Talk – Contact Me – Click Here I am a Licensed Psychologist-Doctorate and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor with 35 years of clinical experience in community clinics, schools, professional organizations, and universities (OSU, UVM, etc.). I have been the past Clinical Director of Howard Center, and Past President […]