Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

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

March 28, 2015 By Admin

Meditations Beyond Mindfulness:

Concentration, Contentment, and Loving Kindness

I have written various entries on concentration meditations in prior posts.  Yes, concentration meditation is beyond pure mindfulness meditation.  Here I will present briefly two other forms of meditation that are quite intentional and also beyond mindfulness: contentment and loving kindness meditations. Let’s begin with intentional meditation of contentment.

Contentment implies you will NOT live a life of greed and passionate materialism; instead, you will be satisfied by meeting the basic requirements for living a reasonable life.  Although the actual meaning of a “reasonable life” may vary among different individuals, it generally means meeting the basic necessities of life.  Even that goal may vary considerably among various people and groups.  However, it also means that you will NOT live a life of craving materialism and competitive wealth-hording.  You may work hard to get ahead within your own definition of a reasonable life, but you will not cling to rampant materialism or harm others in the process.  Remember that liberation from craving and avoiding will end much of your personal suffering.  Discontentment often leads to thoughts, words and deeds that harm others for the personal goal of self-interest.   Desiring and craving for something to be different sets up your mind to be discontented.  Now into the meditation on contentment.

MindfulHappiness-Meditation

Contentment Meditation:

In a sitting or lying down position take a few calm, deep, slow breaths with intention to relax your body and mind.  Find your physical comfort on the pillow or mat.  Be that comfort, and allow your mind to slow and calm.  Concentrate deeply on the following steps. One way to concentrate is to contemplate in a single-pointed manner and go deeper and deeper in concentration as time moves on.

1) Look deeply into your personal meaning for contentment.  What does it include, and what feelings are generated by this process?

2) Work on withdrawing your consciousness away from things, possessions, money, etc.  Just rest, breathe, and allow the mind to withdraw.

3) Sit with the proposition that personal contentment is simply being satisfied with whatever the present moments brings to you – even in this meditation.

4) Focus deeply – really concentrate – on the possibility that you need NOTHING more than your experience in the present moment, here NOW.

5) Consider the wholesomeness of being content.  As you contemplate this, what thoughts, words and actions come to mind?  Focus on these.

6) Consider what The Buddha said – “Contentment is the highest wealth.”  Cut your craving energies, and let go – let go into total satisfaction right here, right now.  Notice!

7) Now reflect mindfully on this experience for the next 5 to 10 minutes.  Just be. Just contemplate. Gently return if/when your mind wonders.

gorgeouschakra

Loving Kindness Meditation:

Another way to meditate beyond mindfulness is to concentrate deeply on your spiritual attributes and loving kindness.  Sometimes people include spiritual attributes as part of “right concentration.”   So concentrate deeply (contemplate in a deeper and deeper manner) on your spiritualiity: what does this mean to you?  Certain spiritual attributes guide the way toward wholesomeness in life, and wholesomeness allows more loving kindness.

1) Settle yourself for another meditation period.  Prepare yourself for meditating on the spiritual aspects of mindfulness, wisdom, energy, faith, and concentration.

2) Meditate in deeper concentration on the personal experience of mindfulness. What is this experience like for you?  Be in it now.

3) Meditate in deep concentration on what wisdom means to you.  What is wisdom like as an experience?

4) Now move your meditation to the experience of energy.  Get yourself into the inner experience of energy; do deeply inside yourself to connect with that spiritual energy.  Concentrate deeply on this.

5) At this point move your meditation object to your personal meaning of faith.  Concentrate deeply on what your experience of faith is.

6) Now we will end with a deep contemplation on what your experience of concentration is. Yes, concentrate deeply in your meditation on the experience of concentration.

7) Lastly, we will end our meditation with loving kindness – this time just for yourself.  Since this meditation practice has already been taught many times in prior posts, here I will simply offer you some choices regarding what words you may use. Of course, you can make up your own words based on your needs.


LoveandKIndnessMeditation_MindfulHappiness

The most common themes is – may I be safe, healthy, free from suffering, happy and live with ease.

  • Or you could say – may I be free from fear, doubt, anger, resentment, restlessness, boredom and other afflictions.
  • Or you could say –  may I be at peace, with compassion, feeling secure, with understanding, and determined.
  • Or you could say – may I be happy, happy, happy, happy, happy.  Hope this improves your sense of wholesomeness and inner peace.

For more information refer to Gunaratana, B. H. (2009). Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English: An Introductory Guide to Deeper States of Meditation. Boston, MA.: Wisdom Publications, pp. 23-57. 

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, ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Featured, Meditation, Mindful Awareness, MIndfulness, Practices Tagged With: CONTENTMENT MEDITATION, LOVING KINDNESS MEDITATION, MINDFULNESS.DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Making the Best of the Holidays Thanks to Sounds True, we have many good suggestions for making the most of the holidays.  It is a norm for the holidays to be happy and joyous, and it is a norm for many people for the holidays to be filled with emotional and behavioral challenges.  To reduce […]

The Meaning of the Present Moment in Mindfulness & Meditation Many mindfulness and meditation experts have commented on the meaning of the present moment.  Below I have noted some of the ideas presented by Eckhart Tolle.  In some cases I have added my own interpretations. What is the Present Moment?  What is the experience about? […]

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 […]

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, […]

 Poem on the Wind   I am quite pleased with my experience on BEING in the wind today.  This poem will suggest that you allow the wind to be a metaphor – even a fantasy – that allows your pain and suffering to be swept away by the endless, gentle, blowing wind of nature. We […]

  Mindfulness – Self-Kindness Practice Befriending the self is one of the most difficult things for Americans to do.  It is probably true that self-kindness is difficult for most people; however, the current rampant criticism (I am right! You are wrong!) and extreme greed manifesting in the United States tends to produce two opposite extremes: […]

Using Lectio Divina to Improve Your Self-Esteem LectioDivina is an ancient form of Christian (Benedictine) meditation. This meditative prayer is sometimes called “Sacred Seeing.” Lectio Divina follows specific steps as a process: lectio or reading a passage; Meditatio  or meditating on the passage or image; Oratio or praying (I add – in your own way); […]

Finding Your Seat with Your Demons and Dragons: Resolutions You may think the creation of the Gestalt-like therapy activity of sitting in different chairs and acting “as if” the you in that personality-chair is the source of your responses is a relatively new psychotherapy intervention.  However, some roots of this process may go back as […]

Mindful Observation  Through Mindful Breathing The following guided meditation is a combination meditation from Asanga’s Grounds of Hearers, Jam-Yang-Shay-Pa’s concentration meditation on the breath, and the Anapanasati Sutta. These guided meditation instructions have been simplified and combined for contemporary use by lay meditators. Observation of Observation – Mindfulness in Breathing Contemplate breathing in and out with complete […]

Trauma: Object Relations Therapy Object relations therapists, D. W. Winnicott especially, have presented a logical analysis on how to provide object-relations-oriented therapy to people suffering from the effects of psychological trauma. Such attachment-based trauma therapy provides support and healing from trauma, loss and long-term trauma-effects.  The interventions below combine the best of object relations therapy, […]

Mindfulness Skills and Psychotherapy Outcomes There are at least ten good reasons why mindfulness training and regular practice may improve psychotherapy outcomes. These reasons assume the training is presented by a well-trained clinician-mindfulness practitioner. Of course improved outcomes also depend upon the client’s motivation and energy to actually practice mindfulness skills on a regular basis. […]

Self-Medication:  Is Your Hand-Held Device a  Dopamine Device?   Mindfulness Activities: Here is a simple activity that may inform you about your personal level of addiction to your digital/electronic devices. Simply click the link below to download the PDF Worksheet;   answer each question according to your personal opinions.  Dr-Anthony-Quintiliani_HandHeldDeviceActivity Be sure to complete the meditation activity […]

My third posting on self-medication- Comes from the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont. Now we will turn our attention to how people become habituated to self-medication to obtain brief moments of joy and/or to avoid emotional suffering.  Recall that self-medication becomes a habit (dopamine released in reward centers of the […]

Emptiness – Meditation Practice The Brahma-Viharas (higher abodes) include four powerful meditation practices ( Loving Kindness/Maitri or Metta; Compassion/Karuna; Sympathetic Joy/Mudita; and, Equanimity/Upekkha) that involve boundless radiation outwardly all the way into the infinite universe. These boundless or infinite space meditations, working with deep absorption and projecting kindness outwardly, may lead to positive changes. Experienced […]

How to Find & Choose an Effective Therapist Recently The Harvard Health Newsletter posted some interesting questions to ask while seeking out a psychotherapist. I will add a few more details and areas of inquiry in this post. Keep in mind that these questions and inquiries do not mean you will be happy and improve […]

How We Make Habits – An Understanding Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha reportedly taught how humans make habits.  The insights of this earliest Buddhist Psychology sheds shame on the West, with its almost-the-same version of this view in the 20th century. One must wonder if B. F. Skinner or N. Chomsky knew about Buddhist […]

 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 […]

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 […]

  The Tao of Nature I have two interesting stories about nesting robins.  These stories tell of the bonds of birds and their young, and how intelligent these birds can be. The first story happened to me abut 15 years ago. The second story happened today, July 27, 2017. Story 1 I was working in […]

Expanded Lectio Divina for Self-Development In this post I will provide an expanded version of this process by combining information from Origen,  the Carthusian  Monk  Guigo II,   and  Augustine of Hippo.   The presented process of 12 steps may be used  to enhance internalization of sacred writing and/or to support internal healing of the participants. […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

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

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

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

Copyright © 2022 · Mindful Happiness