Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

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Meditation at the Deepest Levels

Meditation at the Deepest Levels

In 2007 M. A. Singer’s The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, opened up a whole new, deeper perspective on why consciousness or pure awareness is the root of self. Even in a Buddhist  “no-self” view, Singer’s inquiries leave us with a great deal to unravel.  Here are some reasons why Singer’s believes that deep meditation is the highest form of pure awareness in the self as the observing being.

  1. Deep meditation, beyond the experience of single-pointed concentration, bring you into an experience where you are observing/experiencing consciousness or awareness itself.
  2. This deep meditative experience is consciousness pointed back to itself. It is ultimate you!
  3. As inner and outer worlds integrate into a single state, you “see” the true nature of self.
  4. Because only deep and prolonged meditation can focus consciousness on our true nature, it is the “highest state” of being.  The observing self is the seat of consciousness, your root of all being.
  5. Romana Maharshi’s question of “Who am I?” is fused within this deep meditative state.
  6. There are no more emotional projections, unending cognitions, rising and falling emotions, incessant evaluations, cravings – just inner peace with observation of the true self. A “felt sense” of safety.
  7. For some this deep meditative experience is the source of special spiritual experiences.
  8. The non-attachment to “people, places, and things” allows us to let go of all judgments.
  9. Our sensory contact with objects, phenomena, experiences is at rest. We no longer have to desire or fear what comes next in life. Just radically accept the now.
  10. Welcoming impermanence and change without ego infections bring us joy and happiness.
  11. This you as watcher is the state of your intuitive self, and may be the path to connection with boundless emptiness in space and time.  It may be your connect to great wisdom.
  12. With these new perspectives on personal experience, you suffer less, have more joy, and may attain both personal happiness and great enlightenment.
  13. Perhaps these are the experiences so valued by Buddha, Christ and Maharshi. This ultimate formlessness may be discomforting for some who may not yet be ready for it. You are the change that so often in the past has caused great suffering.  In deep meditation, you learn to allow it all.

For more information refer to Singer, M. A. (200-7). The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself.Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, pp. 31-38.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

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New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

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Interoception and Your Inner Self-Helper

Interoception and Your Inner Self-Helper

Interoception (sometimes called neuroception) is a sensory experience, in which you feel sensations in your body (viscera, heart, throat, etc.) that may be warning signs of limbic surveillance or inner continuity of your inner self-helper – that part of you and your brain that hopes to help you in whatever the situation you are experiencing. Interoceptive awareness is one of the most important mindfulness skills to practice.  In the following meditation, we will visit your interoceptive self and augment its power by repeated the practice. In neuroscience a common understanding is that the larger number of neurons activated in more and more brain areas implies the variant of power (potentiation); more neuron firing in more brain areas results in a more significant life experience. This is one reason why PTSD is such a devastating disorder, and why it is NOT easy to treat successfully. Also, let us not forget the ultimate power of LOVE; people gives their lives for it, and people kill others over it. Let’s get into the practice.

  1.  Sit in a comfortable meditation posture, and close your eyes if you prefer to. If you like you eyes open, gently fix attention downward toward the floor and hold a gentle gaze.
  2.  Now take a few very deep and very slow breaths, in and out. Track the feelings/sensations of the movement of your  breath into and out of the body. Focus attention on this for a few more deep, slow breaths.
  3. Now fully engage your imagination and follow the next few steps. Try to think less, and try to just BE more so.
  4. Focus full attention into your heart area and the viscera below it. See if you feel any form of sensations – even the most tiny sense of kinesthetics. Be with that feeling, and try to keep your mind on it without lots of thinking.
  5. Please do your best to accept that this inner feeling (no matter how slight) is the home of your inner self-helper. it is your intuitive area.
  6. Now our work begins: Using your mind’s eyes, is there a color to this feeling? Focus on it.
  7. Does the feeling inside your body have  any shape? If so, what shape is it? See it, and feel it.
  8. How large or small is the area you feel it in?
  9. How about texture? Is there a discernable texture to your inner sensations?
  10. Is your feeling more hard or more softer?
  11. Does your inner feeling produce a memory of any sound or sounds?
  12. Now focus your energies on making that inner feeling stronger so it can have power to protect you.
  13. Now focus on making that feeling larger – feel your self-helper power This is your self-protector.
  14. Stay with the experience for a few minutes of silence. See what happens.
  15. Become aware, really aware of this feeling. Befriend it fully!

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

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New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

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Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Trauma

Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Trauma

In line with the thousands of studies now available supporting the use of mindfulness-based interventions in depression, anxiety, chronic pain and addictions (via emotion regulation and interoception), this post will review recommended mindfulness interventions for trauma and PTSD. The post will note information from two recent books on this topic. Also recognize that meta-analytic research in 2004, 2010, and 2014 have found that mindfulness-based interventions improve depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and emotion regulation. These are common conditions co-occurring with addictions and trauma. Such interventions may be carried out as part of various Western therapies: cognitive, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, dialectical-behavioral, and even psychodynamic.

Follette, Briere and others (2015, 2018) note the many benefits of using mindfulness-based skills as part of trauma therapy. Here is their summary. Mindfulness interventions when implemented by a mindfulness practitioner:

  1. Improves compassion, self-compassion, and radical acceptance;
  2. Improves the negative effects of deprivation, oppression, loss, and harm;
  3. Enhance contemplative responses;
  4. Integrates trauma-informed care with yoga and meditation;
  5. Clarifies emotion mind from reasonable mind;
  6. Empowers personal embodiment and being with one’s conditions;
  7. Expands loving kindness;
  8. Enables effective use of RAIN skills;
  9. Softens harsh, self-critical views of self;
  10. Reduces over-identification with traumatic experiences;
  11. Softens anger and blame;
  12. Brings people to the present – leaving “stuckness” in the past;
  13. Reduces apprehensions about the future;
  14. Strengthens meta-cognitive awareness of thoughts and images as triggers;
  15. Improved emotion regulation – less reactivity and impulsivity;
  16. Teaches breathing retraining for vagal and para-sympathetic activation;
  17. Teaches thoughts and emotions are only thoughts and emotions – not the self;
  18. Improves one’s sense of well-being and happiness; and,
  19. Often enhances self-esteem and empowerment.

Davis (2016) adds the following mindfulness-based effects:

  1. Improves balance in mind-body-heart (soul;);
  2. Empowers better stress reduction practices;
  3. Reduces the personal struggle to control cognitions, emotions, and behaviors;
  4. Enhances one’s observational capacities to just be present and “see” via mindful abiding;
  5. Allows people to recognize experience and life as pleasant, neutral/boring, and unpleasant as norms; and,
  6. Enhances the ability to be grounded when triggered.

For more information refer to Follette, V. M. , Briere, J. et.al. (2015, 2018). Mindfulness-Oriented Interventions for Trauma: Integrating Contemplative Practices. New York: Guilford Publications. See also Davis, L. (2016). Meditations for Healing Trauma. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

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Meditation on Ecodharma and Buddhist Ecology

Meditation on Ecodharma and Buddhist Ecology  

  1. Sit calmly and begin to breathe in and out deeply and slowly.
  2. Open your eyes to see and appreciate the natural environment you are in.
  3. Close your eyes now if you wish to do so.
  4. Know that this nature – the sky, clouds, stars, father sun, mother moon, especially the trees – is your natural environment of being in this life.
  5. This biosphere is our sacred ground, from which we all arise and to which we all fall at our end.
  6. Mother earth and the surrounding universe deserve our deepest respect.
  7. In Asia, forest monks have ordained old, wise trees to spare them from the wrath of consumerism.
  8. Know that ecodharma is an activist Buddhist program aimed at protecting nature and the earth.
  9. We are living and dying in a vast ecological man made disaster, escape from which requires that our species survives AND that the earth survives as well.
  10. Our survival depends upon a healthy, breathing, cleansing earth and atmosphere.
  11. Now take a few minutes in your own silent solitude to contemplate deeply what has been noted above. Pause.
  12. Recall that The Buddha was confronted by the devil-like Mara. This was an attack on his hard-won enlightenment. The Buddha touched the ground with his fingers and hand to re-establish his connection to mother earth, and his enlightenment survived all challenges.
  13. So today, we should all touch the earth gently with respect – we can touch earth with our fingers, hands, feet, heart, soul, and self.  We may even wish to prostrate ourselves on mother earth to show our deep love and respect.
  14. The Buddha was born, lived, became enlightened , and died (parinibbana) in the gracious company of trees.
  15. Thich Nhat Hanh noted that our caring for and being with the earth is a way of reconnecting with interbeing of all living things.  This great teacher also advised us that to walk and live on Pure Land requires that we love the earth.
  16. Soto Zen founder Eihei Dogen noted that rivers, mountains, and “the great wide earth” as well as “the sun and the moon and the stars” are all part of our personal enlightenment in our minds.
  17. Take a few more minutes to contemplate these teaching. Pause.
  18. Today’s bodhisattva have become an ecosattva to help save the world and humankind – the greatest and most noble act of active compassion and love.
  19. We must be fearless as we confront the extremes of “conspicuous consumption” and its destruction of the earth and all living things. This deadly competition may kill all of us in the future.
  20. Contemplate on this: What will you do very soon to join this battle to save mother earth and the human race as we know it? Pause.

For more information refer to https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/growing-buddhist movement… https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/trees-meditation-teaching... https://tricycle.org/magazine/100-best-climate-solutions… https://tricycle.org/magazine/love-letter-earth… Retrieved 4-21-18

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

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Healing Meditation for Destructive Emotions

Healing Meditations for Destructive Emotions

Based on the mountain of research supporting the use of regular meditation practices and yoga, it is safe to say that Buddhism and its practices have merged with modern scientific investigation. From the early days of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (the MBSR of Jon Kabat-Zinn) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (the DBT of Marsha Linehan), clinical and scientific mindfulness/meditation practices have advanced into successful interventions for a plethora of psychological and physical conditions. Among the thousands of studies, most are of “good enough” quality regarding designs and controls. Buddhism and science recommend that we evaluate by direct observation of outcomes and not solely by traditions in both research opinion and the sutras. According to The Dalai Lama in his Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, the primary purposes for both Buddhism and science is the improvement of cherished human life and the experience of personal happiness.  Since our mood, happiness and perhaps long-term health may depend on how we react to emotions, strong mind training is required. When we experience pleasant feelings (sukkah vedana), we are happy. When we experience unpleasant feelings (dukkah vedana), we are unhappy. We chase happiness, but we find endless cycles of ups and downs, the samsaric cycles.  The goals of better health and emotional happiness can only be met by deeper understanding of how the human mind works and how to work with our destructive human emotions. The Buddha pointed out that reactions to our impermanent feelings cause us harm.

According to Josh Korda’s Unsubsribe: Opt Out of Delusion, Tune in to Truth, goals of improved human existence and enhanced happiness cannot occur when we use meditation for escaping our pain and suffering. This spiritual bypassing (simply a more sophisticated way to self-medicate pain) may bring us short-term relief, but it always brings long-term stuckness. No matter what form of meditation we practice (Anapansati, Vipassana, Samatha, Metta, or Mantra), the goal is NOT to escape suffering but to be one with it and understand its deeper meaning and possible benefits. Thus meditative bliss alone fails to bring true, deep relief from personal emotional suffering. We do not heal by way of avoiding difficult emotional realities in our lives. True liberation comes from not being impulsively reactive to emotional responses to objects and experiences in life. Best to be with all your feelings and emotions in meditation to “see” why they are there and what you can do to befriend them.  The painful emotions in meditation have the potential to become our allies, but we need to stop spiritual bypassing and self-medication to get there.  You need to make your own judgment here; if you feel that you are too fragile emotionally to be with your emotional experiences, DO NOT DO IT.

Now we will select a meditation form and become fully aware of emotions/feelings; we will simply be with them no matter if pleasant or unpleasant. We will be one with them to get to know them better. According to A. Brahm’s Bear Awareness: Questions and Answers on Taming Your Wild Mind, all meditation forms in regular practice ultimately lead to equanimous and happier experiences. The single binding force is to “let go” and be with whatever comes up. Letting go of conditioned reactions can be a struggle. Let us practice!

  1. Practice of Anapansati – Breath Meditation. Simply practice breath awareness deeply enough until your body awareness is reduced or eliminated. ALLOW full mindfulness attention to any difficult emotions that arise. Be with them to understand them. Work at befriending them. What could you learn here? How might your pain help you?
  2. Practice of Vipassana – Insight Meditation. Through the regular practice of Insight Meditation we become more aware of the ultimate truth about life. Strong attention points our awareness to impermanence, suffering as a fact, interdependent origination (nothing arises from nothing), and The Eight Fold Path to enlightenment. Once we are into this practice deeply, we experience insights, inner peace, and joy. What do your insights teach you about your suffering?
  3. Practice of Samatha – Equanimity Meditation. Here meditation brings on a  state of inner calm and peace – sometimes perfect stillness. In this personal and private experience of quietude, we may be ready to discover arising insights about life and mind. In such a state of equanimity, allow yourself to be with your emotions as they arise.
  4. Practice of Metta – Loving Kindness Meditation. Wishing well to ourselves and all others as the root of this meditation practice brings peacefulness, inner quiet, and deep insights. We directly experience joy while we practice. Apply self-compassion to your suffering.
  5. Mantra Meditation – Six-Beat Mantra of Yig Drug. Say the following mantra to yourself as you meditate in any form you wish: OM, MANI, PADME, HUM. Continue! Now shift to a modern mantra, a modified Louise Hay mantra – “I now choose to love and accept myself.” Continue! Now as you say this to yourself in your meditation, slowly and firmly complete the Thymus Thump practice. See what happens.

For more information refer to The Dalai Lama (2017). Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics. Boston: Wisdom Publications. Korda, J (2017). Unsubscribe: Opt Out of Delusion, Tune in to Truth. Boston: Wisdom Publications. Brahm, A. (2017). Bear Awareness: Questions and Answers on Taming Your Wild Mind. Boston: Wisdom Publications. Hay, L. (1984). Heal Your Body: The Mental Causes of Physical Illness. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House -eventually.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!