You are invited to come and practice mindfulness with the junior group of Xom Dua Sangha .

When: Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Where: Diệu Quang Temple
3602 W. Fifth Street, Santa Ana, CA 92703
714-554-9588

What: The practice program will include sitting meditation, walking meditation, reciting the five mindfulness trainings, dharma discussion, and zen songs. For further details please contact Hung (yrnehb@gmail.com or 714-351-2679) or Phuong (monipudo@gmail.com or 714-603-9990). We hope to see you there.

Reading material

THE ESSENCE OF MEDITATION

This is an excerpt from the book “Commit to Sit”

by Joan Duncan Oliver

Meditation simply defined, is a way of being aware. It lifts the fog of our ordinary lives to reveal
what is hidden; it loosens the knot of self-centeredness and opens our heart; it moves us beyond
concepts to directly experience reality. Although most Westerners conceive of Eastern meditation as something done cross-legged with eyes closed in a quiet unlit place, the Buddha taught there are four postures in which to meditate: sitting, standing, walking, and lying down. The main point is to learn to sit like a Buddha, stand like a Buddha, walk like a Buddha, to be a Buddha. Different Buddhist schools recommend a variety of meditation postures. Some emphasize a still, formal posture, while others are less strict and more focused on internal movements of consciousness. Many traditions advise an upright spine erect but relaxed; hands at rest in the lap; the belly soft; shoulders relaxed; chin slightly tucked; the gaze lowered with eyelids half shut [or closed]; the jaw slack with the tongue behind the upper teeth; the legs crossed. The common essential point is to remain balanced and alert.

Meditation is a means by which we familiarize ourselves with our mind, and this in turn leads to
a more clear tranquil awareness and wisdom. Everything is grist for the mill—-even those things
we find terribly unpleasant. Everything is meditated. Meditation is not about getting away from
it all, numbing out, or stopping thoughts. Meditation has the mind focus on an object. It can be a bodily sensations (most often breathing), a sound, smell, a mantra or gatha, visualization, and so on. The technique of mindfulness of breathing observes the breath by intently following the movements and physical sensations associated with each in- and out-breath. When distracted, simply bring the wandering mind back to your breathing. Gradually you relax into your breathing, noticing the tide of thoughts and feelings in you subside. As our awareness deepens you become the breath itself.

Mindfulness awareness is a key element in meditation. It is a knowing attentiveness to what is
being observed. Concentration is another key component. It is focused attention. Both stable
the mind, and in turn becomes the foundation for insight into what is going in your
mind-body. Concentration, mindfulness and insight help us not to be caught up in the
ever-running narratives and desires of the mind. They bring the mind home to a place of relaxed
nonjudgmental focused conscious awareness.

Mindfulness is the tool we use to bring the mind back home to the present moment. To what is,
just as it is, and to who and what we actually are. Through mindfulness we learn not to be
distracted by thoughts, feelings, memories—-our running inner dramas. Mindfulness frees us
from habitual patterns, allowing us to consciously choose how to respond to things rather than
blindly react. Concentration, mindfulness, and insight allows us to see the truth as it is, which
can set us free.