Boredom is a common experience that comes up from time to time during meditation practice. When the mind is so used to being stimulated all the time, paying attention to the breath going in and out of the body over and over again can feel quite dull.
So the mind rebels against this monotonous, mundane experience by either distracting itself with thoughts and fantasies, or shutting down by falling asleep.
But it is precisely in this non-doing, uneventful state that we train our mind to settle down in relaxed alertness and really pay attention to each moment of our experience.
And this is when we realise that without needing to change or add anything to our experience, there is already so much to notice about what is happening in the here and now.
Taking interest in our meditation means that we intentionally bring an investigative attitude and a whole lot of curiosity into the practice of paying attention.
This is meant to be a study of what is real and what is true.
We approach our meditation like a scientist who doesn’t hope for a particular outcome to their experiment. With keen interest, we just watch and observe from moment to moment, objectively and impartially.
We cut through layers of unnecessary perceptions and stories that the mind produces and arrive at an understanding of how each moment presents itself to us.
In this Take A Pause session recorded on 27 October 2024, the TAP community cultivated interest in our practice by paying attention in open awareness with curiosity, and then investigating the body and the breath.
We closed the session by sharing a reading from Sylvia Boorstein’s Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There.
TAKE A PAUSE MINI RETREAT
with Erin Lee
Cultivating Love & Compassion
WHEN: Sunday 16 February 2025, 10 am - 1 pm SGT
WHERE: Yoga Seeds, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Singapore
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