Meditation is the practice where we learn the art of being aware in order to capture every thought, feeling, desire, and bodily sensation like a camera captures a photo. This practice grounds us in the present, breaks our tendency to identify with our thoughts, feelings, desires, and bodily sensations, and enables us to relate to the world and our very own self with wisdom and compassion.
Meditation sits are roughly 20 to 30 minutes, all framed with a specific intent for the practice. The approach is mainly vipassana, with some modern mantra-based meditation sprinkled in.
Vipassana means vi(clear)—passana(seeing). We practice Vipassana by taking a comfortable position, and then through the guidance of a trained teacher, we learn to capture our experiences without ascribing values or judgments to them. Put differently; we learn to see our experiences develop, pass by, and eventually dissipate, as weather patterns do a mountain. Often our meditation sits will begin with the use of breath as our anchor.
Contemplation is the practice where we learn to (re)imagine our story in order to heal and grow. We live our lives through the interpretive lens of the various stories we tell ourselves. The stories we nest ourselves in powerfully bring us either the ongoing experience of turbulence, isolation, and shame or the ongoing experience of rest, belonging, and wholeness. Through contemplation, we begin to (re)write the stories in which we inhabit the world, others, and our very own self. Contemplation sits are 20 to 30 minutes, all framed with a specific intent for the practice. The approach will be primarily classical Metta based contemplation and seek to cultivate a holistic love for all beings and things. As the writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky so beautifully articulates: “If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.” (The Brothers Karamazov, 319).
Metta means loving-kindness. We practice Metta contemplation by taking a comfortable position. Then, through a trained teacher's guidance, we visualize acts of love, often beginning with the visualization of someone we admire (the lover) expressing love to someone or something (the beloved). We then turn that expression of love from the person we admired (the lover) towards our self, as the object of that love (the beloved). Being met with love, we then visualize ourselves taking the seat of the lover and begin to expand what and who we hold in the seat of the beloved.
