Hi friends,
When I first started meditating, my head might as well have been severed at the shoulders and floating above, jumping up and down in the clouds. What I mean to say is that my meditation practice wasn’t in my body, it was in my mind. As someone who had achieved most things in her life by the sheer force of thinking, I was surprised by how disconnected I was to my actual body.
While shamatha (calm-abiding) practice is a type of “mindfulness of body” practice (we’re focused on the breath), I do want to briefly touch upon the teaching at large as it can support us as we begin to settle into our meditation practice. Our last video on establishing our meditation posture was a good starting point, but let’s go deeper.
In this video, you’ll learn:
What is “mindfulness of body” as it emerges out of the Satipatthana Sutta
The three marks of existence (impermanence, suffering, and no-self) and how mindfulness of body offers an opportunity to develop insight into these teachings
Why mindfulness of body is where we begin our meditation practice
How and when to incorporate body scan and walking meditation
I’m including two guided meditations this week: a body scan and walking meditation.
