Mindfulness Meditation

See also MBSR and MBCT. With some application, we can learn how to undo certain unproductive or unwholesome behaviours, by re-conditioning or re-programming our mind, via a process of Mindfulness Meditation.

Meditation, or Mindfulness Meditation, is universal in its benefits.

Aside from benefits at a neurological level, I would recommend anyone to pursue a path of mindfulness, whether or not they are suffering from depression, anxiety, alcoholism, addictions etc.

The mind is a powerful tool, and if we do not learn to control it, someone else will control it for us. Meditation is like a pilot's guide, only we are both the pilot and the craft!

Teachers

Although I have been practising meditation for nearly ten years, I would certainly not class myself as an expert.

If anything, I find it more difficult to relax these days than I did when I first began to learn my own practice.

What I have been able to do, however, is learn to practice at home as well. In the same sense as prayer, meditation can be applied in any environment, given the right training.

Thankfully, there are plenty of leading thinkers, and authors on the subject, to whom you can refer for further information. Feel free to learn a bit more about a couple of teachers here:

Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Sumedho
Ajahn Amaro
Ajahn Sucitto
Thich Nhat Hanh
Jon Kabat Zinn

Vipassana

One of the key teachings in Theravada Buddhism, in meditation, is the practice of Mindfulness.

Vipassana is another term for 'Insight Meditation' or arriving at self-knowledge and understanding via a meditation practice.

Meditation techniques can vary, but most use a focal point, or focus of attention, such as a mantra, or the breath; namely focusing or bringing into conscious awareness, the process of our breathing, which so often we perform unconsciously.

At Sunyata we are aiming to become a branch monastery of the Thai forest tradition of Therevada.

As such, we practice Vipassana or 'Insight Meditation' on weekend retreats, on practice days, and on regular evenings during the week, where members of the lay community, or 'Sangha', are invited to come along and practice both yoga and meditation.