Dr. Charles Tart
Mindfulness
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
Lecture 5, Part 6 of 18 parts. To start class from beginning, click here.
CTT: Now having said that by way of review, let’s try a little Vipassana for a few minutes.
I’m going to suggest relaxed Vipassana. You’ve just heard some specifics and details of creating spaciousness and ironing out the kinks in your flow and all that. I don’t want you to now sit and think “I’m going to create the perfect space and no kinks!” Just be curious as to what actually happens in your experience. Use the flow of the dominant sensation in your body as a convenient point to focus around so you don’t just drift away down Association Lane. But don’t try to do it perfectly. Don’t do it tensely! That way lies madness!
So we’ll sit for five minutes.
[Begin exercise][Put a minute or two of practice between each of the following instructions]
Just be relaxed and curious about whatever body sensation is strong. Look at it to see what it is. Let it do what it wants to.
[Continue exercise]
If you find you’ve drifted way off from body sensation, just gently come back.
[Continue exercise]
If you find yourself talking to yourself in your head about what a sensation is like, it’s all right. Just gently bring your attention back to the sensation itself. Focus on sensing the actual feelings rather than secondary things like talking about them, thinking about them
[Continue exercise]
We’ll end now, so come back to sensing, looking, and listening. You’re in this room, attentive, curious, keeping a little bit of attention in the body, that grounds you here, mainly having an attitude of curiosity about what’s happening.