WEEK 4
Meditation Practice
So now you have experienced what an eight minute practice feels like, we’re going to take it back to a five minute daily practice with 10 minutes of Breath Awareness and Loving-Kindness on Sunday — again, just do roughly 50:50 of each type of meditation. Make sure you do the full 10 minutes (e.g. by setting an alarm — it doesn’t matter if you do a little more of one type than the other).
Monday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Tuesday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Wednesday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Thursday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Friday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Saturday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Sunday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness + 5 minutes Loving-Kindness
Monday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Tuesday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Wednesday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Thursday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Friday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Saturday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness
Sunday — 5 minutes Breath Awareness + 5 minutes Loving-Kindness
Mindful Living Practice — Speak Only Kindness
Refraining from unwholesome speech (such as lying, gossiping and saying mean things) is another moral practice that will support our meditation and help free us from suffering.
One of the reasons Vipassana (the style of meditation I practise) is introduced via a 10-day silent retreat is because, when you are silent, it is impossible to cause harm through your words! However, back in the real world, silence isn’t a great strategy if you want to have friends or maintain relationships or get anything done!
What we can do though is commit to speaking from the heart and refrain from unwholesome speech — lying, gossiping and harmful words. Wholesome speech includes only telling the truth (including not hiding the truth or only telling half-truths), not telling lies (even little white ones), not gossiping or speaking about anyone who isn’t with you, and not saying anything with the intention of causing harm.
This is actually harder than it sounds — once you’re aware of unwholesome speech as a concept, you’d be surprised how often you catch yourself gossiping about a colleague, or telling a fib to your kid to make your life a little easier, or saying something to your partner to make them feel guilty for not helping you with the cleaning.
This week, focus on speaking only kindness and see if you can catch yourself when you are about to say something that is harmful or unwholesome. Pretty quickly you will notice how much more peaceful it feels to only speak truth and kindness.
As an aside, sometimes the kindest thing you can do is to tell the truth about how much someone’s behaviour has hurt you — although this may upset them, as long as the intention you speak your truth with is not malicious, this is still speaking kindness.
One of the reasons Vipassana (the style of meditation I practise) is introduced via a 10-day silent retreat is because, when you are silent, it is impossible to cause harm through your words! However, back in the real world, silence isn’t a great strategy if you want to have friends or maintain relationships or get anything done!
What we can do though is commit to speaking from the heart and refrain from unwholesome speech — lying, gossiping and harmful words. Wholesome speech includes only telling the truth (including not hiding the truth or only telling half-truths), not telling lies (even little white ones), not gossiping or speaking about anyone who isn’t with you, and not saying anything with the intention of causing harm.
This is actually harder than it sounds — once you’re aware of unwholesome speech as a concept, you’d be surprised how often you catch yourself gossiping about a colleague, or telling a fib to your kid to make your life a little easier, or saying something to your partner to make them feel guilty for not helping you with the cleaning.
This week, focus on speaking only kindness and see if you can catch yourself when you are about to say something that is harmful or unwholesome. Pretty quickly you will notice how much more peaceful it feels to only speak truth and kindness.
As an aside, sometimes the kindest thing you can do is to tell the truth about how much someone’s behaviour has hurt you — although this may upset them, as long as the intention you speak your truth with is not malicious, this is still speaking kindness.
If you can, see if you can keep up the mindful living practices from the last few weeks too. If you need a reminder, I’ve popped them below.
Week 1 -- Don’t Scratch the Itch
Week 2 — Non-Harm
Week 3 — Non-Stealing
Week 1 -- Don’t Scratch the Itch
Week 2 — Non-Harm
Week 3 — Non-Stealing