Practitioners of meditation often report that it offers them a greater sense of peace and ease when dealing with life’s ups and downs. Undoubtedly, this generates more happiness and a lighter way of being in the world. They also notice improvement in their ability to focus. Improved concentration leads to clarity, mental stability, and insight. All of this sounds like a really good thing.
In order to cultivate peace and develop concentration, we’ve got to train our mental body. We’ll start with the lower mind – the aspect of the mental body that immediately recognizes the thoughts generated by the brain… lots and lots of them. The lower mind has a massive pool of thoughts to pull from—to mix and match, juggle, and sometimes even bombard you with, or so it feels.
It’s helpful to train the mind in a gentle and steady manner. How? By gently and steadily getting to know the mind – and a great way to do that is to simply observe it. Give it space and observe. The tip of the nose offers a wonderful vantage point for observation; a lovely place to rest your awareness as thoughts pass by.
We’ll work with this all week.
Happy meditating!
Tip of the Nose Meditation: Day 1