Hello again,
I hope you’ve been well.
This week, we’re going to be getting into the quality of precision. We’ve set out on our journey and we’ve began to discover the spaciousness of being gentle with what arises, but where are we now, and where do we want to go?
Precision is the balancing quality to gentleness, which helps us to tune into the present with clarity.
A good metaphor for this might be to imagine you are tuning a musical instrument. You might solely focus on tuning your instrument individually so that you can produce the sounds you’re interested in making or you might tune in a way that also encompasses the greater context of other musicians, sounds, and atmosphere. In either case there are principles for tuning your particular instrument.
The Open Air series and the tradition that precedes it is pointing you towards mindfulness meditation practice as the way of discovering what it is to tune in precisely; to see what is arising, here and now, without bias or judgement.
I remember a time when I was trying to communicate the benefit of a regular practice to my girlfriend. I was using the terminology and context that with my own interests, I would have been receptive to; citing scientific research, talking about neuroplasticity, and delivering the “training-analogy” in terms of going to the gym and getting stronger.
It wasn’t landing. Thankfully, my mindfulness practice has cultivated this quality of precision, and through tuning in and changing my approach, I was able to find a much stronger reception. I changed my approach and talked in terms of putting on makeup. There’s an overall structure and form that is practiced simply due to the medium of practice, and additional consideration invited by what people who have gone before have found to be effective. In the end, you have to practice, there’s an artistic element and a methodical element, and with practice comes benefit.
I wouldn’t have got there without taking the time to be precise about what was happening and what I was doing - tuning into the present.
Overall, I’ve found precision to be an excellent counterpart to gentleness.
When it comes to our mindfulness meditation practice, there are many ways we can encourage and develop our ability to be precise without losing sight of gentleness.
Firstly, there is the precision of actually practicing. Actually getting to the chair or cushion and sitting for 20 minutes a day can be difficult! But without practice we’re not going to discover for ourselves what benefits there are. If you miss a day, that’s okay, but be precise about getting back on the horse!
Then, when we’ve found our seat; to remember the instructions. This is another way to encourage precision. The instructions are precise and following them is too. Whenever we are lost and no longer with the breath, we can remember to return to the felt sensations of breathing.
In terms of the way in which we place our attention on the breath, we are with the felt-sensations of breathing rather than thinking about them, and we can return to the same sensations of breath for the duration of one sitting session. For example: if we start the session feeling the breath through the rise and fall of our chest, to remain with those sensations as our anchor for the whole sit.
We can also bring precision into how we are relating to thought. Firstly we ensure we are labelling thoughts as ‘thinking’ when we’ve been distracted. We can return to the breath without labelling, but labelling adds an extra dimension of precision to our return to awareness.
Another layer of precision is to ensure we’re not suppressing thoughts - we are allowing thought to arise naturally and when we notice we have lost our breath, then we label thinking.
Finally, and I mentioned this last week, but I’ll mention it again: if we notice our labelling of thoughts as harsh, we can label a second time, with gentleness.
I have found precision to be a really powerful quality to lean into through meditation practice, and it’s benefits have reverberated through the rest of my life with real impact.
I wish you good luck practicing with precision this week.
To end, I’ll leave you with a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh:
“If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life.”
