Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

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

March 10, 2015 By Admin

Meditations on Emptiness

An Advanced View on Meditations on Emptiness

An earlier post on the Dalai Lama’s book, Meditations on the Nature of Mind, ended with suggested meditations (my own themiddleway-faithgroundedinreasonpersonal contemplation’s) about emptiness.  I will first review those contemplations.  Contemplate deeply on what emptiness means personally to you.  Contemplate about a time when you received a glimpse of personal emptiness.  Contemplate on your experience to see if it was positive, neutral, of negative (happiness, neutral or suffering).  Why do you think you experienced it the way you did?  Contemplate on ways you may be able to use the experience of emptiness to reduce personal suffering and increase personal happiness.  Please do these four contemplations one after the other before you attempt to contemplate of what follows here.  I created these suggested contemplations after my own long meditation practices on emptiness.  Keep in mind that Lord Marpa noted a very long time ago that only fools think emptiness is the same as nihilism.  It is not nihilism.  Also remember that when your mind shifts away from the object of your contemplation (emptiness) gently return attention back to the object, AND each time try to go deeper into concentration on your contemplation.

What follows here is a compilation of various insights about meditation on The Middle Way and on emptiness.  Some come from The Dalai Lama; some come from T’song-kha-pa; some come from Nargarjuna; some come  from Chandrakirti; and, somemindful_happiness very far less exquisite ideas come from me.  My effort here is to make the wisdom of the wisdom leaders more pragmatic and practical for us today, in our world as it is now.  A key concept in the process of becoming enlightened is that we do it more for the sake of others.  Thus, the bodhisattva/bodhichitta compassionate action ideals are seriously pursued.  Our practice is based on the desired unification of two important bodies: Dharma and Form.  The Dharma refers to the body of emptiness and other ultimate realities, and the form refers to the body of Buddha.   Pursuit of Buddhist Dharma and the experience of emptiness connect us to the pure path of liberation.  Wisdom about no-self, impermanence, dependent origination, karma, causes and effects, interconnectedness, conventional vs ultimate truth, and ultimate emptiness of intrinsic existence of all phenomena – all lead the way to liberation and enlightenment.  They all lead us from conceptual knowing to experiential knowing, and from the Samara world of conditioned sense pleasures and suffering to wisdom.  In many respects to practice a wisdom-informed life IS to move along the path, The Middle Way to complete realization.  In the final analysis of emptiness, there lies a clear implication that there is no such reality as an object becoming established on its own.  Therefore, there can be no-self nature, thus no-self.  What appears to be middleway-emptiness-Mindful-Happinessconcrete in nature is actually made up of totally dependent arisings.  One may experience a contradiction here; if we are the Buddha already, does it matter if it is just emptiness?  The answer to this inquiry is far more complex than it sounds.  Only our thoughts and our minds perceive the concrete self-phenomena as existing in and of their own. The correct view of it all suggests that there is no thought or cognition about Dharma (even if we study it); it is more about post-perceptual experiences and understanding via pure wisdom experiences. T’song-kha-pa noted that in the “profound Middle Way” there is NO independent, intrinsic, concrete self or things.  It is pure wisdom of experiential awareness.

Now on to the contemplation practices.

Again, I am creating these on my own as means to experience some glimpse of emptiness in meditation.

  • 1) Contemplate about your own compassionate actions for the benefit of others.  When you feel/experience being deep enough into contemplation, add the experience of emptiness to this process.  Be mindfully aware of what happens in the experience?
  • 2) Contemplate deeply in the ultimate wisdom that there is no intrinsic existence in any phenomena, including your own contemplation right now.  What happens in your experience?
  • 3) Contemplate deeply about how your own life is conditioned via sense pleasures and avoiding suffering.  Go even deeper, and contemplate the factors of non-existence (emptiness) in this process. What happens to your experience at this point?
  • 4) Contemplate deeply on the experience of experiential awareness now.  Continue until you are experiencing just experiencing without conceptual or cognitive awareness.  Now what happens to your experience?
  • 5) Lastly, contemplate deeply on what experiential insights may have been found via your four experiential contemplations.  Shift gently to cognition now, and note what the insights are.

Now take a few deep, slow, calm breaths and bring your experiential self back into awareness.  Be aware! Move your body slightly before you attempt to stand up.  Think about what you might wish to share with others.

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 and others). (2011). Meditation on the Nature of Mind. Boston: Wisdom Publications, pp. 126-139.

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: Activities, Emptiness, Featured, Meditation, Meditation Activities, The Middle Way Tagged With: DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, MEDITATIONS ON EMPTINESS, MINDFUL HAPPINESS

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Basic Self-Compassion Process Practice: To practice self-compassion as needed, follow these specific self-compassion steps. Sensitize your mindfulness skills to become aware of your immediate experience of suffering. Hold a strong intention to respond with self-kindness. Use self-talk to be kind to yourself. Begin by softening your body. Relax your muscles, tendons, joints. Hold a natural […]

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 […]

The “I AM THAT” Meditation Elena Brower’s new book, Practice You: A Journal (Sounds True, 2017) has many thoughtful suggestions on how to connect with the true inner self, and – more importantly – how to improve your self-views and the experience of your deep inner self. Below I have modified her presentation of the “I Am […]

The Great Mother of Gratitude Meditation Sit in silence and take a few very slow, very deep breaths in and out. Relax within your personal comfort with eyes opened or closed. If you prefer your eyes to be open, hold you head level and gently gaze down a few feet in front of you. Continue […]

Vipassana Meditation -No-Self   Journey 3 In this third vipassana meditation I will guide you on a meditation dealing with the experience of no-self.  No-self is a highly advanced experience in Buddhist meditation and wisdom practices, and it is, perhaps, one of the most misunderstood concept and experience. Along with impermanence, dependent origination, typical reality […]

 A Practice To  Help Prevent Alzheimer Disease Kirtan Kriya meditation is part of the ancient Kundalini yoga tradition.  Current clinical research dealing with prevention of Alzheimer disease supports its use in medical meditation.  As G. Harrison (The Beatles fame) noted: As you move attention beyond yourself, you may find peace of mind is there.  Sanskrit root […]

A major part of suffering comes with the inability to shift unhelpful, negative focus on troubling thoughts and feelings.   This cognitive reality is common in all the major mental health problems people suffer from: anxiety, depression, trauma, substance abuse, and eating disorders. Due to the lack of “wise-mind” skills most people suffering from these […]

Setting Emotional Boundaries from Work to Life Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC Sometimes setting emotional boundaries from the psychotherapy room to your life outside of work can be a difficult thing to do. Shifting from “experience near empathy” (Kohut), “unconditional positive regard” (Rogers), “hovering attention” (Freud), “the holding environment” in “intersubjective space” (Winnicott),  and compassionate […]

Intervention Skills to Calm Your Anxiety It is estimated that approximately 40,000,000 American suffer from an anxiety disorders, especially generalize anxiety and panic disorder. Sometimes general “talk therapy” fails to help improve your condition; you may need cognitive-behavioral therapy with research-based mindfulness skills or dialectical behavior therapy.  CBT, MBSR, ACT and DBT are the evidence-based, […]

An Advanced View on Meditations on Emptiness An earlier post on the Dalai Lama’s book, Meditations on the Nature of Mind, ended with suggested meditations (my own personal contemplation’s) about emptiness.  I will first review those contemplations.  Contemplate deeply on what emptiness means personally to you.  Contemplate about a time when you received a glimpse of personal emptiness. […]

Drink a Cup of Tea with Thich Nhat Hanh According to the article “A Perfect Cup of Tea” by Noa Jones, The Great Meditation Master offers this sage advice about the best way to enjoy a great cup of tea. I suppose if you would rather drink coffee, the same suggestions may apply. Recognize that […]

Loving Kindness – An Alternative Version The writings of Thich Nhat Hanh offer a different version of Loving Kindness Meditation or Metta (Pali). This version may be influenced by Buddhaghosa in Visuddhimagga (or The Path to Purification,  fifth century system of The Buddha’s teachings). The reality of no-self, or a static, permanent and inherent self is a core […]

Self-Help Journaling – Two Methods Generally there are two forms of self-help journaling: writing about worries and concerns OR writing about joy and happiness. In my more than 35 years of clinical experience I have not found the former to be very helpful. Most people stuck in negative mood states are not easily able to […]

Mindful Happiness:   Joy is Within Reach – It is Up to You to Choose It! We all live in a very troubled world with lots of greed, hate, warfare, and danger. Many of us use distractions (addictions, cell phone habits, eating, gathering, games, etc.) to make it through the days. This is true!  However, […]

More Psychoanalytic Gems – In an earlier post, I noted a list of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Gems, including a later post on D.W. Winnicott’s approaches to building a therapeutic alliance.  My general aversion to this form of therapy has more to do with its slowness and high costs than to its effectiveness. It is effective!  However, […]

Counseling/Psychotherapy with Self-Compassion Please begin by ending all conversations, and PLEASE shut-off your phones and/or laptops.  Simply be for a moment in the quietude of your inner self. Please close your eyes if you wish to do so. Contemplate the sacred nature of your profession – saving lives, reducing suffering, being a constant object, practicing […]

Advanced Practice in Tara Brach’s RAIN Protocol So often we humans find ourselves in a state of limbic disarray, with ego defenses stimulating our need to protect ourselves from others – even from ourselves. We feel something is very wrong in this moment, and we allow separateness to pull us into a frenzied effort to […]

A Tribute to Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) Recently Ram Dass died at his home in Maui. He was 88 years old.  He was born into a well-off Boston family, and enjoyed materialism in his early professional years.  When completing a Ph.D. in Psychology at Stanford University he was still into material things. His spiritual awakening […]

Mindfulness and Concentration –  Experience Differences In this post I will explain some basic differences between mindfulness and concentration, both of which are required for effective meditation practice.  This will be the first of three posts dealing with what mindfulness and concentration are, how to experience them briefly in a body-based activity, and how to […]

Your  Regular  Practice:   Impact  on  Yourself  From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Compassion Training:  Here is a quick self-assessment process to see if your regular compassion practice has had positive effects on you.  Review the questions below and decide  what  your  answers are. I hope you have noted pleasant […]

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

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

Copyright © 2023 · Mindful Happiness