Each class consists of a concise yet thorough explanation of Mindfulness combined with practical exercises that you can also apply at home. The first class offers an introduction and the three successive classes provide for progressively advancing explanations and deepening mindfulness practice.
The ‘session notes’ below give a summary of the content of the classes. Please feel free to explore any of them and to use any of the audio albums as a support for your meditation practice.
Class 1/4 : Introduction
Basic mindfulness
- Definition (John Kabat Zin, Jan)
- The NOW versus past and present
- Definition: highlight “wat is”
- Basis attitudes 1&2
- openness, gentle curiosity, the beginner’s mind
- acceptance, surrender, letting go
- Exercise:
- Body scan level 1: filling the body with attention
- Mind mastery level 1: staying in the now
- Tackling misconceptions
- Mindfulness is not about emptying the mind
- Mindfulness is not becoming emotionless
- Mindfulness is not about being calm or any particular way
- Q&A: naming successes
Class 2/4 Review
- Introduction to the Neutral Observer: observation without judgment or interpretation
- The HERE versus somewhere else or absent
- Definition: review “what is” + higlight “concisously”
- Basis attitudes 3&4
- continuity (patience, perseverance)
- equanimity: direct perception devoid from partiality, judgment, interpretation, or evaluation
- Exercise:
- Body scan level 2: filling the body with awareness
- Mind mastery level 2: staying here and observing throughts
- Tackling misconceptions
- Mindfulness can significantly reduce stress but it is not about stress reduction
- Mindfulness is not escaping pain
- Mindfulness is not about being complacent
- Q&A: naming successes
Class 3/4
- Intermediate Neutral Observer: observation without interference
- Definition: review “consciously what is” + higlight “living”
- Basis attitudes 5&6
- empathy, compassion & detachment
- gratitude & detachment
- Exercise:
- Body scan level 3: filling the body with presence
- Mind mastery level 3: observing feelings and sensations
- Tackling misconceptions
- Mindfulness is not a technique
- Mindfulness is not a magic pill
- Q&A: naming successes
… to observe means to observe without the interference of one’s background, but one is the background – you follow?-one’s whole being which looks is one’s background – as a Christian, as a Frenchman, or as an intellectual. In observing one discovers this background and observing it without any choice, without any inclination, is tremendous discipline, – not the absurd discipline of conformity, imitation. Such observation makes the mind extraordinarily active, extraordinarily sensitive – and the whole of that is meditation. Not, `to observe you must meditate’, but rather it is in observing that all these things take place, and all this is meditation – not just some kind of control of thought …
Jidda Krishamurti (May 12th 1895 – February 17th 1986)
Talks in Europe 1967 | 1st Public Talk Paris 16th April 1967.
Class 4/4
- Advanced Neutral Observer: from judgment to discernment
- Definition “what is” + “for what it is”
- Basis attitudes 7&8
- loving-kindness
- right effort
- Exercise:
- Body scan level 4: filling the body with loving-kindness / light
- Mind mastery level 4: focus and concentration, through breath
- Tackling misconceptions
- Mindfulness is not religious
- Mindfulness is not withdrawing from life
- Mindfulness is not seeking bliss
- Q&A: naming successes