Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

February 28, 2015 By Admin

Advanced Meditations – The Middle Way

Advanced Meditations – Middle Way -Wisdom Path Between Extremes

These meditation practices are advanced, and combine complex ideas from Nagarjuna (Indian Master), T’ong-Kha-Pa (Tibetan Master), and The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso).  In keeping with the mixed secular nature of my meditation center, I have decided to present these complex MindfulHappiness_TheMiddle_002 (1)ideas with several of my own contemplative meditation practices (Christian meditation, Thomas Merton, and multi-level Lectio Divina formats).  Such an integrative combination of ideas and approaches best fits the integrative nature of my meditation teaching.   In summary, the ideas come from the foundations of Tibetan Buddhism, the guided content of the meditations comes from me, and the style of meditation comes from Christian contemplative traditions.  The practice of meditating on the middle way is quite serious, and requires three major changes in one’s life.  These changes are: renunciation of samsara, altruistic awakening of compassion (Bodhichitta and Bodhisattva stages), and holding correct Buddhist views (causes and effects, dependent origination, non-duality, wisdom, no-self, and ultimate emptiness of all phenomena).  In turn, these practices and beliefs require compatibility with the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-Fold Path, and the three jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha).  The Four Noble Truths note the presence of suffering via dissatisfaction and impermanence as well as the cessation of suffering (happiness), while the Eight-Fold Path guides the meditator to ultimate enlightenment (complete understanding to nirvana).  The Buddha reminded us that the ultimate wisdom to attain enlightenment already lies within us (and that it also may be ultimately empty).  The mantra – Om Muni Muni Mahamuniye Svaha  – translates into “The able one, The great able one” who becomes enlightened.  The Dalai Lama reminds us that there are many paths to these ends – Middle Way, Great Middle Way, Great Seal, Great Perfection and others all lead to the same ends: renunciation, compassionate actions, and correct view.

Meditation Practice on Renunciation

Using Christian contemplative meditation – repeatedly bringing attention back to and deeper and deeper into concentration on the object of meditation – let’s begin our practice.

1) After settling into a comfortable meditative state, contemplate deeper and deeper on the conditioned cycles of short-term joy and general suffering via repeated conditioning from impermanent sensory experiences we attach to. Here we are clinging and attaching to anything that satisfies us, and avoiding anything that causes us pain. This extreme seeking/attaching/avoiding way of life ends up with us simply suffering.

2) Contemplate deeply on how you grasp and cling to impermanent people, places and things.

3) Contemplate deeply on how you avoid experiences (people, places, things) that may bring suffering and pain.

4) Contemplate deeply on why you cannot simply be content with whatever arises and falls away in your life.  It is all impermanent.

Meditation Practice on Compassion

1) Contemplate deeply on how your own soft-heartedness and loving kindness feel in your body.

2) Using body, speech and mind – contemplate deeply on the last time you used compassionate action to reduce the suffering of others.

3) Contemplate deeply on non-duality and interconnection of all things – and why this should help you be more compassionate.

4) Work hard to develop self-compassion now. Contemplate deeply on how your own self-compassion feels right now, right here.

Meditation Practices on Emptiness

1) Contemplate deeply on what emptiness means to you – remember it has nothing to do with nihilism.

2) Contemplate deeply on the last time you experienced a glimpse of emptiness in personal experience.

3) Contemplate deeply on why/if the idea/experience of emptiness causes discomfort in your mind and body.

4) Contemplate deeply on how you may utilize ultimate emptiness as a way to experience less suffering and more happiness.

Now take a few calm, deep, slow breaths and return your attention back to the group or your environment (if meditating alone).

I hope this advanced meditation helped to bring you closer to your personal goals and to attaining a glimpse of enlightenment.

For more information refer to The Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) (2009). The Middle Way: Faith Grounded in Reason. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 119-147.  Also refer to The Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)  et.al. (2011). Meditation on the Nature of Mind. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

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

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

Filed Under: Featured, Meditation, Meditation Activities, The Middle Way Tagged With: MEDIATION, THE MIDDLE WAY.MINDFUL HAPPINESS

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Self-Care as Ritual Self-care for Americans is often considered a luxury.  Due to our technological demands and addictions (Demons as they are), and the slow slipping of our economic structures, we are often at the mercy of the bottom line at work. Over-paid CEOs and CFOs and their many assistants eat up so, so much […]

Practice Approaches to for Mindful and  Enhanced Emotion Regulation Brought to us by way of  The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Mindful Approaches for Enhanced Emotion Regulation; here are some approaches to practice. 1)In some ways you could understand the progression from auto-pilot mind to greater stability and equanimity of […]

Meditation Process in Chan Buddhism Chan Master Changlu’s The Deportmant for Sitting Meditation  (12th century China) is a clear and helpful set of instruction. 1) It begins with the making of a personal vow for great compassion, personal liberation, and samadhi – all for the purpose of delivering sentient beings from their suffering and to their […]

Happiness #5 – Last Post on Characteristics This will be my last post for a while on the important topic of happiness.  Here I will hit a few highlights about simple joy and lasting inner experiences of true happiness. Simple Joy – We experience simple joy in simple experiences, small sometimes subtle events in our […]

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 […]

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 […]

Honoring First Nation – Native American Spirited-Wisdom American First Nation or Native American People (according to how they wish to be named) have  a strong spiritual traditions honoring life, the earth and the heavens.  Naming these wise peoples is a problem; out of respect one would call them First Nations, Native American, or a specific […]

Spirit Wars and “Spiritual Warfare” This post will discuss the topic and personal strategies.  Most content will relate to both physical realities and metaphorical meanings and categories. Since a person viewing their self as fighting a spiritual war most likely holds onto certain parts of self in this endeavor, it is highly unlikely that the […]

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 […]

Helper Burnout in Today’s Healthcare System Helper burnout is a very common problem in all healthcare services and at all levels of professional training and experience. Helpers from recovery-oriented peer counselors, state employed case managers, and licensed counselors/therapists all the way to physicians are reporting record high levels of reactive stress and compassion fatigue. Psychiatrists are […]

Looking at Early Judeo-Chrsitian Meditation Practice An early description of enlightened liberation in Buddhist meditation practice reads like this: Birth is destroyed, the spiritual life has been lived, what had to be done has been done. There is no more coming back to any state of being.  Ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose, darkness […]

What Consciousness Really Is Considering that we have been to the moon and back, and more recently surveyed important moons of Saturn, science is still a very long way from understanding how the human brain works – and even further away from having a clear, agreed-upon interpretation of human consciousness.  Consciousness is the “stuff” of […]

Mindful Walking Meditation: How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh – A Powerful Short Book of Wisdom In my opinion, Thich Nhat Hanh and The 14th Dalai Lama are the two most important and wise teachers of mindfulness, meditation, compassion, and Buddhism in the 21st century.  Below I will offer my interpretation of Thich Nhat Hanh’s […]

Mindfulness, Movement, and Meditation Practices Meditation Master Thich Nhat Hanh offers some of the most helpful mindfulness, movement, and meditation instructions available today.  His themes here are about reducing your suffering, increasing your satisfactions, and expanding your happiness as a result. Please do not note that “I do not have time to do these things!” […]

Gurdjieff’s The Fourth Way Meditations: A way of Being and Knowing Although Gurdjieff developed a whole way of being and knowing, including attentional practices, dance/body movements, group processes, and meditations here I will focus only on some of the suggested meditations.  In particular, I include the meditations noted by his primary student (J. DeSalzmann, 2011). […]

Very “SAD” Facts about the Addictions Field A recent issue of the Addictions Professional presented very disturbing news about how clinicians in the field are doing.  NOT WELL! Addictions clinicians treat people with addictions but mainly people with co-occurring disorders – addictions with trauma, depression, anxiety and/or eating disorders.  Often there is also a co-occurring medical […]

Mind Training Over Our Impulses Mindful awareness of our impulses is a very important pathway to improved emotion regulation and, perhaps, more happiness in life. It can be unusually helpful to people suffering from anxiety, depression, and substance misuse. Vedana refers to the feeling tone in our body.  It is one of the foundations of mindfulness […]

Helper Self-Care is Important In the most current issue of The National Psychologist (July-August, 2019) an article linked helper effectiveness, risk management, and clinical outcomes to helper self-care. To make a long story shorter, I will simply paraphrase and re-word the suggestions.  These recommendations support YOUR emotional survival and successful risk management as a helper as […]

Inner Workings of Self-Medication Process   To continue our discussion about the self-medication process we will first turn to the human brain.  The human brain is the most complex system known to science.  Here, my comments will be basic.  Self-medication often has roots in the quality of our earliest childhood experiences (attachment and object relations with […]

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 […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

ENLIGHTENMENT PRACTICE MINDFULNESS TRAINING MINDFUL MEDITATION MEDITATION VERMONT CONSCIOUSNESS BREATHING PSYCHOTHERAPY WALKING MEDITATION MINDFULNESS THERAPY. MEDITATION PRACTICE EMPTINESS BUDDHISM MBSR THICH NHAT HANH SELF CARE PRACTICES TRAUMA CLINICAL SUPERVISION MINDFUL TRAINING ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER SELF ESTEEM VIPASSANA HAPPINESS SELF DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI WISE MIND COMPASSION JOURNALING ACTIVITY SUFFERING MINDFUL HAPPINESS ANTHONY QUINTILIANI BRAIN VIPASSANA MEDITATION ADDICTION SELF MEDICATION MINDFUL TRAINING EXERCISES ACTIVITIES COVID-19 SELF COMPASSION

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2022 · Mindful Happiness