Hi everybody
As I profited a lot from Daniel Ingrams work and the participants of this forum, I wanted to start also contributing something. So that is why I come up, very likely premature, with some technical tips and tricks that I gained (mostly the hard way) during the last years, mainly while on one of three retreats (each 2-3 weeks) I did...
I am still on beginner level, so please be very skeptical! But sometimes the slow learners make the better teachers, that makes me find the courage to share with some that did help me quite a bit.
I want to divide the hacks into the ones specifically for (A) walking meditation, (B sitting meditation, (C) chores/everyday-tasks meditation. This post/thread starts with walking meditation, with which I had the most confusion and trouble. If I find the time, I will write down the other two soon, where I probably have less to contribute. In case, one can find them by clicking on my other "recent contributions".
First various disclaimers (that you might want to skip ; ):
- I did some lurking here and general internet-nerding into different approaches, but maybe I overlooked that there are existing threads on those techniques. Please link them in the comments!
- Also please apologize if I come up with established practices without naming sources (most possibly I did not came up with anything original, but it is really hard to keep track of sources, and sometimes it even seems to be your own idea, even though you just forgot that you read it somewhere some time ago). In case, please hint to them in the comments!
- Keep in mind, that you will likely pay a price for each hack and shortcut, at least with your time you loose by (1) reading a lot, (2) trying this and that and again another variation, and (3) even when finally settling on a method, (4) you loose even more time because you need longer to override your older methodical habits. And don't get me started on the many doubts and rethinking, that steals you precious capacity and nerves, especially during a retreat. So if the final technique is not a lot(!) more efficient and just objectively better, it will not be able to outweigh those aforementioned costs.
- Finally, most advanced people keeps saying that many ways lead to Rome, that it is not about intellectual understanding but insight through unreflected repetition, and - probably most underrated - that "to give yourself up, to surrender the ego" is critical step in the journey, something that is harder to achieve (or to let go ; ) if you establish the habit of always keeping on strategically reflecting on the methods/techniques (if in general or just now this or that might be better suited or clever to vary from the script).
Especially on a retreat it might be a better strategy to "leave your critical mind at the door" and just stubbornly and plainly unreflected dump follow the instructions, even it does not seem maxed out in its efficiency. Something I personally surely still am on the loosing side : / - And, besides the above, of course, the particular hacks below could be very shortsighted (thus good now, but you get stuck with them on the long run), or it might be even a complete delusion that those greenhorn alternations to long established practices are helpful at all.
Thus please contribute your thoughts or - even more important - critique! Also, If you have similar experiences with your "hacks", and they are not that big to legitimate an own thread, feel free to share here : ) - These "little hacks" were developed based mainly on vipassana Mahasi /noting style, which I got trained in during my three retreats, but they do not seem to fit into the noting forum category, because my deviations do not have much to do with noting itself. Also, most tricks are that basic, so they might be helpful for other schools of meditation as well if you are on a beginner level.
Second quickly on the relevance of doing walking meditation, please skip if you are already on board:
- Even if your school of meditation does come only with sitting and/or only everyday-mindfulness, you might consider to try out walking meditation and make 10-20 Minutes of it a habit before sitting or chores, because from my experience it has the following benefits. Technically, these benefits should be there in both methods, if you are either just being aware or if you are formally noting the steps (or even the up to six partial movements that the Mahasi noting traditions divide the step into and let you do each of those partial movements conduct in a non-fluent way, each as a really separated mini-action to note):
- control- and concentration-wise it fills a gap between the sitting-mindfulness and everyday-mindfulness, because it is more standardized as various actions and tasks (open eyes, a lot of brain needed for controlled action), but less static as sitting (allows for closed eyes, more subtle investigation possible), this makes for an interesting zone in-between that you can practice and compare (open eyes and motoric, but as less variation in the movement and visual field as possible)
- as you use the steps and/or sensations of the foot soles touching the ground, you get away from the breath as sole anchor or main sensation to hold you into awareness/mindfulness, so you can compare and also have some variation - which leads me to another important comparative advantage:
- it gives you much more endurance, especially if you want to meditate all day (as on retreats!). Not only your knees, back and shoulders will thank you, but also possibly your lung/nose, because (at least for me) sometimes the over-concentrated observation of the abdomen or nostrils can cause a sore feeling there, and in case of the abdomen even a feeling of overstretching during in-breath.
Third, now to the "hacks" for walking meditation:(for the following five recommendations, I think it is not important if you are just beeing mindful of the steps/walking, or if you are doing formal noting meditation)
a) "The advantage of the short-sighted"
If you have glasses like me, take them off for walking meditation! I found that the blurry vision (I mainly see colorful blobs) makes the brain less prone to the things you see (wood or tile pattern of floor, spots on wall, objects in the room) so that what you see blurry does way less trigger a chain of associative thoughts. (Classical reduction of input through one of the most intense one of the 6 sense doors). And as the way in a room is short and the floor is flat, there is no risk of tripping or any other disadvantage to it.
It seems obvious, but never saw someone else doing it (in my retreats, everybody with glasses kept them on, or only got rid of them for sitting meditation with eyes closed, where it makes no difference and is mere comfort on the nose).
b) "The wall grounding"While in a room, one mostly maxes out the walkway and ends at a wall, where you have to turn. That is a necessary constraint - or something you can use to boost your being in the here and now!
Especially at the beginning, I was able to get into some states that had some depth, but with walking it was mechanic, shallow, tiresome, etc. Even when I already was using all the time "two anchors" (later more of that).
What helped me instantly getting more concentration and mindfulness was: When after a turn I had the wall in my back, instead of immediately start the walking back (the way I just came), I did lean back onto the wall, with the open palms of my hands on the wall - kind of "grounding over hands on the wall".
To the already used anchor sensations of (1) the sole of my foot (and possibly (2) a deep breath) this added two things or had two effects:
To have two stable points (feet on ground and back leaning at the wall)
- first of all allowed for a break of maintaining body balance for some seconds, (relaxing helps, and perhaps it also freed some mind capacity for mindfulness?). but more important:
- second, better results I got with putting my palms flat at the wall: The sensation of the cold and hard and stable wall on both of my palms (combined with the feelings of both feet on the ground), made for a powerful feeling of grounding of my body in the here and now (and worked even when tired, not motivated to formal noting, not concentrated etc).
In particular, my arms where anyways mostly behind my back during walking with the fingers entangled in the one of other way to have the arm muscles relaxed, so in order to move to much, I just let the fingers loose, turned the palms towards the backside and kind of "squeezed the hands between my butt and the wall" - that pressure of my body on the hands made for an extra intense grounding ; )
I don't know why this was so powerful, perhaps because of the lot of nerves in our hands? Like in the nostrils, that are because of exactly that used by some traditions for tracking the breath?
If I think about it, it might be a lost opportunity that nobody did yet come up with more techniques that do make use of the hands for vipassana (or else, please let me know!).
c) "The cinema-turn"While walking in a controlled environment, so a small room or a meditation hall, you necessarily need to turn 180 degree every so and so (mostly between 10 or 20?) steps.
(if one is not using a treadmill - haha, just spontaneous thought, but that might be a cool experiment ; )
While it was easier for me to stay mindful/aware during the walking, even quite for a long time as you tend to walk veeery slowly, each turning at the end of the walkway threw me off/out of mindfulness and into "being the visual sensation" at least for the minimum of a split of a second.
Just some speculation about the reasons, that you may skip:
My explanation for the effect is that it seems to be easier to stay mindful when the field of vision is not changing rapidly, so if you stare blankly into one direction and move slowly(!) forward, objects just get bigger and the angle changes. But each turn necessarily throws new objects sideways into your peripheral vision, which seems to make your brain really trying to grasp the new environment with as much of capacity as possible. Even if it is the 100th time the same fucking wall that rotates in front of your eyes ; )
The same effect but even more sever and at first inescapable is walking through a door, where brain science seems to have proven long time ago, that walking through doors makes your brain clear your short-term memory to make space for all the new impressions (since stone-age maybe, because a stark contrast of inside vs. outside the cave/hut)?
But there were was one trick that helped me to achieve staying completely mindful after a while for most of the turns while walking: The cinema modus, as I call it.
It is basically that you try to perceive your visual impressions not as the 3-Dimensional surrounding of the room, but you imagine it to be a 2-Dimensional screen, that is bent all around you (for example in approximately arm-length). So to say, that you kind of lean back into the back of your head like you would do watching a movie. And you will want to foster all the effects, that you normally don't want to have during audio-visual entertainment, where in particular:
- you sometimes automatically pop out of the illusion of the 3-Dimensions and realize it is just on a 2D-screen,
- (at least I while watching movies) quite regularly leave focusing the main action and look around in the scenery, but trying to also not loose the peripheral vision of the main action, or even zoom completely out to let the whole scene impress me without focusing anything particular. But most important:
- tell yourself that this your vision is just on a boring movie screen, and that you are not interested in watching it anymore. So you just have to stoically endure it, as the input still hits you, but you take no interest in it anymore.
Like if you don't want to leave the cinema during a boring movie: You perhaps know the - then unwanted - effect from boring or absurd movies, that you can get thrown out of the illusion of the story in the 3 Dimension behind the screen, and suddenly you persistently stick back in the "real reality", where even when there is rapid action on screen, you are effortlessly aware that this is just a stable (and now boring) screen and your brain kind of ignores the 2D-changes on the screen, as it has decided that all that change on the screen are not relevant new information for you and the "real world" (and during walking meditation, the relevant "real" world is not primarily your vision (or hearing) but primarily your legs and feet, and then your feelings and thoughts. The other sense just also happen, but they should not throw/drag you out of mindfulness).
d) You are not your "bone&meat robot"I developed the previous cinema-trick inspired by (or perhaps due to a misinterpretation of?) one recommendation, that was something like: "Ask yourself if the mind goes to the body( /foot), or the body comes to the mind (/foot)".
I interpreted that quite literally and realized, that I am only mindful when I stay in my head and the signals (especially bodily senses) come one after the other to the mind. But I loose mindfulness in the instant that my mind goes out into a body part, or is sucked even out of the body by some object I see or something I hear. Then, at least for a moment, "I" get kind of unconscious and I become that sensation or the body part or even the seen object outside, and often the following chain of associative thoughts ("becoming" something else is meant only half metaphorically, as nothing else, not even I myself, exists for me in that moment. Faszinating, that we popp back after some time and do not get lost forever without consciousness).
So I tried to literally lean back in my head and tell myself: "Hey boring visuals and noises and boring body, I have no interest in you - if you want my attention, you have to come to me, because I am not longer coming to you!"). Particularly on the walking meditation, I tried hard to tell myself (which is standard recommendation it seems): "I am not the body, this is just my body" and really tried to perceive my body (or specifically my legs and feet) as a tool, that my mind can control and use, like a robot out of bone and meat, but with that I don't associate my identity with any more.
- Personal annecdote, that you might skip, that it worked: At one particular moment I remember that something "switched" in my mind, and I (or my "spacial feeling of identity") was suddently out of my body and stable locked in the back of my head - and from there watching my body like a videogame character on a screen. What made it more significant was, that my body, prominently my hands and legs and feet, felt and looked(!) about 90% smaller than just the moment before. And that the feeling was really to not look directly out of your eyes, but a bit more distanced, it felt as if I was looking from the back of the head through the eyes (which could be the same reason why the body looked smaller now?).
Furthermore, I always tried to keep the "who is coming to whom" in the new direction, thus not to "fall out" with my vision into the object (here for example my feet walking) but to let the input come to me, so even my visual input had to first hit the eyes and then additionally travel some distance more after the eye to the back of my head.
I might come back to that "who is coming to whom" with sitting meditation, as the distractions tend to be even more tempting when there is less action of your body and your mind is not busy coordinating steps and maintaining the upright balance while walking. Or perhaps this "who comes to whom with mind and body" is plain mainstream ?
e) The "sneak up on mindfulness" methodIf you are not using noting, or if you find it hard to get into the quite artificial feeling, very slow and pronounced walking with up to six partial movements in which they subdivided each single step, I found something very helpful to get into it, that I named the "sneak up method": Not metaphorically, it is literally just sneaking. This has two advantages:
1.
You will find, that the "artificial walking from Mahasi noting" is actually quite natural/instinctively done while sneaking and avoiding noise: You naturally move not only slowly, but will hold and pause movements even during a step. You automatically will get a very slow, quite refined and - if you really put life-and-death-effort into it - a clears separation into partial movements of your foot/leg: The pattern tends to naturally be similar to the "maximum 6 partial movements for one step" walking of noting meditation (where you first take your heel up and shift part of the wait forward on the other foot, but the toes still stay with some wait on the ground, and where you in the end get your foot on the ground with the toes first as a separate step).
2.
I found the sneaking mindset can rapidly(!) bring you in a highly concentrated but not focused but mindful state. Of course you can use any suspense by imagine yourself into a scene of your favorite spy-, action- or even horror-movie, but hear me out for some considerations for fine-tuning:
For example imagine that you are right now beamed or transferred back in time into a hunter-gatherer scenario somewhere in a dense forest/jungle. You are alone out there. All your senses are automatically on high alert. You can not stay and hide, because waiting will just make you run out of energy, so you have to be on the move. That makes you sneak really quiet and cautiously. Of course you try to make each step as quiet as possible - not for one but for two motives: At the very same time you search for some drinking water and possible fruits or smaller animals as prey, and at the same time you might be potential prey for bigger animals! Try to keep both in mind, because from my experience they are slightly different stimuli that combine well:
- a) You get into the hunting instinct, this tends to give you a more narrow focus, that is more concentration than mindfulness. If you are already enough in access concentration, and you tend to "be sucked into the objects that you see", try to not to focus on things that get into your visual focus, by broadening you visual field as many degrees outward and up and down as possible like you watch out for sudden movements). This can be done by the thought, that in a jungle, you do not spot an little animal by focusing into random directions, but by having an openness for sudden movements (and sounds), especially in your peripheral vision. So try to stare into blank and watch out for movements (even if none should be there in your very controlled little walkway in a closed room).
- b) Also you get into the being hunted alertness, this tends to especially sharpen your peripheral vision and sudden noises (is there a tiger behind the bushes?). This would be good on its own, we would not need the hunting instinct. But as this tends to trigger caution and fear, it tends to get more mind-game going (thoughts become more power to lead you out of mindfulness), so I don't overdo it and keep a balance between hunting instinct and alerted caution.
Of course, this fantasy scenario is partially (hunting instinct) not within the buddhist core values or vegan/vegetarian idealism. If that is even in fantasy a problem, for example this more civil scenario might be an alternative:
- Try to imagine yourself as a child that wants to sneak up to the kitchen, were you know some cookies must be hidden, while your disapproving parents are taking a nap close by. Try to keep both in your mindfulness at the same time: To watch your step to not cause any noise to wake them up, but also to have a broad vision of the whole room in the search of the cookies. Because you search for something particular you might tend to focus to much, so try to reduce movements of your head and eyeballs and try to perceive the whole field with peripheral vision (imagine that even movements of your neck and eyeballs could potentially cause a noise that gives you away with the hand in the cookie jar).
Of course all this fantasy thing is silly, but if you are stuck in boring walking routine, I recommend to try it out to get energized for mindfulness again ; )
Well, I hope that everybody that spent their time reading that long will get something useful out of it for themselves - or at least might contribute in the comments by correcting me or adding in some way for the benefit of myself and all other potential readers. Thank you in advance : )
