Any time, any place

Sometimes there is no chance to sit in the corner of a room to "officially" practice the "makes me feel like I'm actually practicing" sitting position. Sometimes you just gotta make the most of any situation, position and time........like "family time" while getting a head and neck massage by my new best friend.

Applying pressure to certain acupoints in the neck and skull trigger full-bodied pleasure, joy and relief, which then become supports for other jhanic factors to become established. Any time, any place, any way to make the mind more malleable and pliant. From malleability and pliancy, causes and effects are known, arisings are known, passings are known, cessation is known.

Bubbapapasatisutta

                           

Mindfulness of In-&-Out Breathing(while baby is in the room)

"Now how is mindfulness of in-&-out breathing developed & pursued while baby is in the room so as to be of great fruit, of great benefit?

"There is the case where a father, having been passed the baby by a tired mum, in the rumpus room, the living room, the room where mother is not, sits down folding his legs crosswise, holding his body erect, and setting mindfulness to the fore.  Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out alternating with eyes open and eyes closed.

" Breathing in long, he discerns, 'I am breathing in long' while baby plays; or breathing out long, he discerns, 'I am breathing out long while baby plays.' Or breathing in short, he discerns, 'I am breathing in short while baby plays'; or breathing out short, he discerns, 'I am breathing out short while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the entire body while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body while baby plays.'  He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication while baby plays.'

"He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to rapture while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to rapture while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to pleasure while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to pleasure while baby plays.'  He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to mental fabrication while baby plays.'[4] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to mental fabrication while baby plays.'  He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming mental fabrication while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming mental fabrication while baby plays.'

"He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the mind while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the mind while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in satisfying the mind while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out satisfying the mind while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in steadying the mind while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out steadying the mind while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in releasing the mind while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out releasing the mind while baby plays.'

"He trains himself, 'I will breathe in focusing on inconstancy while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out focusing on inconstancy while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in focusing on dispassion [literally, fading] while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out focusing on dispassion while baby plays.'  He trains himself, 'I will breathe in focusing on cessation while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out focusing on cessation while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in focusing on relinquishment while baby plays.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out focusing on relinquishment while baby plays.'

"This is how mindfulness of in-&-out breathing is developed & pursued so as to be of great fruit, of great benefit ....while baby plays.

Inspired by the original.

While baby sleeps

So I'm all about bringing baby into the "practice" so that there exists no interruption to such a notion. But if you do have a free moment/s, please do take advantage and sit for a whatever period mum/baby/body/mind/life/universe allows you to. I find noting out loud really works wonders. It breaks down the usual habitual framed portrait we call our "self/selves" into the brush strokes, paint hues and canvas. While baby sleeps, or mum has taken charge, go frickn sit!***


***Reminder to self.

Baby dissolving

Being with baby is a given when mum wants a rest. So many acts can be performed in the name of "practice" at this time. Noting silently as baby plays about,  noting out loud to verbalise your presence to baby, playing with the periphery as baby pillages about, lulling baby to sleep with an established sleep mantra. What it all boils down to is 'paying attention' to what is occurring in the very moment continuously, witha momentum, no gaps, filling the gaps, making the gaps part and parcel of a "practice" or as I think should be referred to as "living". That re-orients well. 

When there is an object that pulls our attention hither and thither,  it is mental habit that has created that "object" to be co-pulled to. We can use that object as a means to see how the field of experience takes "shape", shifts about, becomes segregated, parts ignored, parts overlayed with projection, proliferation city. We can get curious to see how the field of experience plays out like so, knowing causes and effects. 

Just becoming curioius as to how "objects" of mind take shape,  stay (more like morph and shift about) then drop away to be replaced by other "objects" seems to lead to understanding of the hows of our dissatisfaction with the "world" we've created. In seeing the causes, we can in a sense interrupt this life-long habitual energy to give shape to "things". In doing so, we can see it all drop away suddenly. The field of experience opens up to become (or not become or neither) a sensate soup of immediate directness, unnamed and without "shape".

Luca seems to dig it when I'm blissing out on his presence dissolving/blending in, disappearing into/of/? the field of experience. Baby is dissolving. 

Movin, movin, movin!

If we have a belief in place that says our best, more progressive practice be relegated to a sitting position, then that is probably how it will play out. Our locked in thought loops condition how the field of experience plays out. Views give shape to the "world" and the "objects" within "it" and the reactions to those "objects" as well.

We can hack those locked in thought loops,  change them, flip them, shift them, ignore them or watch them disintegrate and free up the field of experience as a result.

Even a moment of trying to put baby to sleep is a moment of "practice". A mantric sound repeats and hones the ability to direct attention, which is a valuable ability to hone. A pliant, malleable mind fabricates with ease, and sets it up to cease as well.


My mantra of directed concentration has cemented from baby's birth as "movin, movin, movin". Not much else works. As Luca drops into lalaland, I hone a valuable skill.

"The more concentrated the yogi, the faster the progress." KF.