“The body is our house—and how we live in it and where we occupy it are uniquely ours, as well as being part of the common human experience. The body is a treasure trove and an exquisite vehicle for our practice of waking up and being with what is.” ~ Jill Satterfield

 

“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.” ~ Sakyong Mipham

Physical meditation practices, sometimes called “moving meditations,” utilize kinesthetic awareness and the five senses. The practice of yoga asana is a moving meditation. Breath exercises prepare the mind to turn inward to develop concentration. Through concentration comes meditation. For many it is helpful to move the body and the breath before coming to a seat. Some techniques in this course invite you to observe sensations of the body, while others are an invitation to use the senses to focus attention.

 

“Plato likened the human mind to a ship on which the sailors had mutinied and locked the captain and the navigator below in the cabin. The sailors believe themselves to be perfectly free and steer the ship as they feel like at each moment. First one sailor steers for a while, then another, and the ship travels in erratic and random directions since the sailors can neither agree on a goal nor navigate the ship toward it if they could agree. The task of a human being, wrote Plato, is to quell the mutiny, to release the captain and the navigator so that there can be the freedom to choose a goal and to steer consistently and coherently toward its attainment. Only in this situation when one is free of the tyranny of the whim of the moment can there be real freedom.” ~ Lawrence LeShan

Mind practices are structured meditations that create the conditions to gradually educate the mind to come to one-pointed focus. While mind practices tend to be traditional seated meditations, many of these meditations can (to a certain extent) also be practiced while moving through daily life.

 

“An awake heart is like a sky that pours light.”
~ Hafiz

There is a long-standing tradition of meditations that expand our capacity to care for and love ourselves and others. These meditations include cultivating love for the God of our own understanding. Traditions known for these practices are Christian or Gnostic Mysticism, Bhakti Yoga and Sufism. These practices also often include mantra, chanting, ritual and prostration. 

 

“As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality.”
~ Adi Shankara 

Meditation in action refers to how we exercise our creativity. Action oriented meditation goes beyond ritualized forms of meditation. Some seemingly mundane forms are through acts such as doing the laundry, the dishes and yes, even taxes. Can we perform any act as if this moment is all there is?

 

“Once there was a man who was so troubled by the sight of his own shadow and so disturbed by his footsteps that he decided to get rid of both. His method of escape was to run away from them, so he got up and ran. Each time he put his foot down, there was another step, and his shadow had no difficulty in keeping up. He blamed his failure on not running away fast enough. So, he ran quicker and quicker until finally he dropped dead. The man did not realize that if only he found some shade, his shadow would vanish, and that if he sat down quietly, there would be no footsteps. Meditation means finding that quiet, shady place where we no longer run away from shadows or footsteps. Peace can be attained by “taking the one seat.’”
~ Chuang Tzu, 3rd century BCE Chinese Sage 

The essential feature of this branch of meditation is to develop the capacity to listen and remain open. With an alert mind, the meditation is about perceiving and responding to events as they occur. There is an immediacy with the present moment and less attachment to the stories of past and future.