A: The essential part of the mindfulness practice is interest in how our lives really are. Sitting and walking meditation are not extreme asceticism, it's just slowing down enough to understand how we suffer as a human being on this planet. We are learning how to directly experience as much of our life as we can. By applying a non-judgmental attention to our moment-to-moment experience, we start to understand that life is a stream of changing pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings that we have very little control over. We learn that it is the resistance to the changing nature of life itself-- to pain appearing or pleasure disappearing--that causes us so much suffering.

We are learning how to change our relationship to pain from one of resistance to wise attention or compassion. We aren't deliberately subjecting ourselves to pain, we are learning to explore what the experience of what we call "pain" really is, free from any previous ideas about it. Mindfulness practice isn't an endurance test, it's finding a way to be free from the fear of the experience of pain in this human world of constant change.

An example of an "unavoidable" unpleasant bodily sensation while sitting may be a "pain" under the left shoulder blade. Instead of moving immediately to avoid the experience, we would encourage bringing an interested, non-judgmental attention to those sensations. We often discover that what we call "pain" are changing sensations such as tightness or throbbing from which it is not necessary to run away if we see them clearly. Then there is less fear of "painful" sensations because we understand how to experience them.

We are basically trying to sit in a position in which we can keep as still as possible, so that there is enough stillness of mind to see our experience clearly. We are not aiming at reinforcing resistance to pain, but understanding how to bring a wise, compassionate awareness to pain. If someone has trouble "sitting like a Buddha" we suggest that they sit on a bench or in a chair. Lying down meditation is also an important mindfulness practice, especially for those with chronic pain or when we lie down at night to go to sleep.

As people practice mindfulness over some years, a meditation teacher can help a student understand where their "edge" is with physical or mental pain. Our practice will naturally extend to more and more areas of our human experience that we were previously unable to experience fully. Whether "sitting like a Buddha" or sitting in a chair, whether lying down or sitting outside, what matters is the relationship of wise attention and compassion that we bring to our experience. -MMS