Oct. 17, 2017 Group Meditation Part 1 of 2

This 30-minute mindfulness meditation was given October 17, 2017 by Freeman at the Boundless Love Project’s Group Meditation. After doing this meditation, we suggest you listen to the talk, “Being Mindful and Skillful with Physical Pain,” which happened afterwards.

PLEASE NOTE:

1. This is a more advanced, intermediate-level meditation. It is helpful if you have experience with breath meditation, sensation meditation, and bare awareness meditation. It is also helpful if you have developed a concentration-based meditation to the degree that when you fully place your attention on the chosen anchor, you gain a sense of peace, ease, calmness, and balance in the mind.

2. This meditation aims to compassionately expand your comfort zone. It is best to do this meditation when you are fresh, alert, and awake.

Meditation details:

• In this meditation, we start to examine sensations, the mental thoughts triggered by them, and our reactive habit patterns to all of the sensations and thoughts.

• This meditation helps us distinguish between physical pain and psychological suffering. Our ego mistakes the psychological suffering that arises with physical as one and the same. As we develop the capacity to distinguish between the two. Once we can distinguish them more clearly, we have the ability to shed the psychological suffering caused by delusional stories in the mind. The end result is we suffer a lot less.

• This meditation trains us in being loving and compassionate to ourselves, while also developing courage and curiosity. Although the meditation encourages us to feel unpleasant sensations, it does not do this in a punishing, harmful manner, but in a way that will allow you to know the truth, see more clearly, and become free of suffering. As the wise one’s say, “the way out of suffering is through.”

• 30-minutes long.

After listening, be sure to listen to the talk, “Being Mindful and Skillful with Physical Pain,” which is part 2 of this group meditation.