Is mindfulness medition focus or ain't it???

[JonW]

As practice deepens and becomes more grounded, I find that I'm less and less rigid about how I meditate. If anything, my practice now involves what Kabat-Zinn calls "choiceness awareness". That's to say, I tend to meditate on what arises in the moment. I might be meditating on the breath, then I'll hear a bird singing in the garden, and so my focus will shift to the raw sensation of that sound. A lot of the time, I meditate to ambient music. I once tried meditating to The Ramones' debut album. It was an interesting experience but not one I'll be repeating in a hurry. No offence to Joey, Dee Dee et al.
Cheers,
Jon, Hove

[piedwagtail91]

As practice deepens and becomes more grounded, I find that I'm less and less rigid about how I meditate. If anything, my practice now involves what Kabat-Zinn calls "choiceness awareness". That's to say, I tend to meditate on what arises in the moment. I might be meditating on the breath, then I'll hear a bird singing in the garden, and so my focus will shift to the raw sensation of that sound. A lot of the time, I meditate to ambient music. I once tried meditating to The Ramones' debut album. It was an interesting experience but not one I'll be repeating in a hurry. No offence to Joey, Dee Dee et al.
Cheers,
Jon, Hove

thats more or less where i'm at, choiceless awareness, except for the next few weeks when i should do the homework the 4 i'm guiding through the course are doing.
i tried music as it seems quite popular on the forum .
i found an instrumental version of My Chemical Romance, Welcome to the Black Parade, but my mind just kept putting the words in.
i kept coming back to the 'raw sound' for 4 songs and then gave up.
i know my limits

[JonW]

Ambient music works for me. Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Stars Of The Lid, Harold Budd, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Kyle Bobby Dunn, John Foxx, Gas, Carbon Based Lifeforms…lemmy know if you wanna borrow the magic stick. 8GB of top-notch ambience on that…every one of toe-tapper.
Wilde, Hove

[piedwagtail91]

I'll have to Google those . But thanks!

[Gareth]

Stars Of The Lid is a wow from here too. It takes about 20+ plays of any of the tracks for them to even register but when they do...wow.

Go and try some Julianna Barwick too Jon; it's much the same as above. Truly beautiful stuff though. I can highly recommend the Nepenthe album.

[JonW]

Thanks Gareth. Am liking the sound of Barwick. Right up my strasse.
Cheers,
JW

[piedwagtail91]

this http://theenergyproject.com/blog/more-mindfulness-less-meditation
links to a post on the everyday mindfulness facebook page.
the final two paragraphs answer my question!

There’s a difference between mindfulness meditation and simple Mindfulness. Mindfulness isn’t a practice separate from everyday life it just means becoming more conscious of what you’re feeling, more intentional about your behaviours and more attentive to your impact on others
It’s not about what we’re able to do with our eyes closed. It’s being more self-aware in our everyday lives, and to behave better as a result.
That’s mindfulness in action.

[paulpsych]

Hi
I do mindfulness meditation daily, and I learned TM some years ago so sometimes I alternate the two. My experiences of the two types is quite different. TM is an automatic self-transcending technique and very easy to do. I remember when I was first taught it, it brought about an immediate state of deep relaxation and my breathing shallowed to such a state that it felt like it would stop. But in the end, deep relaxation was all I really experienced so I turned to mindfulness in order to explore deeper levels of thought and conciousness. Mindfulness definitely requires more effort but I find it more fulfilling

[wingfin]

I just joined this forum and I just read this question, even though it is more than a month old. Here is my take: I was initiated into TM in 1970 and as a student, the cost was $30.! I have done TM off and on my whole life. I have been to Retreats, called residence courses and have gone for a year here and there without ever missing a twice daily 20 minute regimen. I even lived in the basement of a TM center. I have undergone "checking" many times by a TM teacher. This is how I practiced it and was taught it: The Beatles, when they were with Maharishi, wrote a song that says it best: "I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in and keeps my mind from wandering, where it will go..."
TM is supposed to be "effortless", so once the mantra is planted in the mind during initiation, it is always there and it just comes in a very subtle manner--it's not something you forcibly try an stay with. In other words to start, you just sit comfortably and observe how thoughts naturally arise in the mind, and when you do, you just gently bring your attention to the mantra. the mantra can be very subtle. The mind wanders off in thoughts and when you realize this has happened, you just come back to the mantra. So, the mind wanders a lot, but thoughts slow down and become more subtle too, just like the mantra, and little by little, the mind settles down and I find that I get to a point of more and more calm. The breath slows down more and more until sometimes the breathing is very shallow, and even stops momentarily.
Now, I have read some very distasteful things about Maharishi, namely a book called "Call No Man Master", by Joyce Colin-Smith published in 1988. She was his personal secretary in England way back in the early days. She claims that he had some distasteful characteristics, like fooling around with the young female devotees. That and the reason the Beatles left the movement was because he hit on Mia Farrow. Not that sex is bad, but it just seems rather base for a person that is enlightened to be so lustful.
All that being said, I have simply substituted the breath for the mantra, but more than that, I don't just let my mind wander off--I try to keep my attention on my breath, or on bodily sensations with SOME effort. The effort is gentle and not forced, simply, when I realize my mind is overcome with thoughts, I gently bring my attention back to the breath or my interior sensations.
It is a subtle thing and not a black and white issue (I see it as a grey scale). I don't try and control the breath in any way (except when I begin I will usually take some slow deep breaths to settle down.) I usually go back and forth between the breath, even if it is stopped (dont worry, it will start again quite naturally), interior bodily sensations, and thinking). I am meditating now for 30-40 minutes.
So, I do try to stay with present moment awareness, but not in a harsh or rigid manner. There is more to say, but I hope this helps. I hope you get this post.

[paulpsych]

Thanks for that - very interesting!