Mindfulness Guard of Body

In the Asheyana path, Calm Abiding practice is supported by one's work with the Eight Renunciations, having developed some space of mind in stepping back from bivalent perceptions.

Having worked with Calm Abiding within the context of the first Foundation of Mindfulness, Mindfulness of Body, one can begin to work with this extension to the practice, "Mindfulness Guard of Body."

The purpose of this Mindfulness Guard is to highlight particular qualities both conducive to progress along the path and available within the aspect of one's experience related to Mindfulness of Body, within and beyond the context of formal practice.

During a session of Calm Abiding, one begins to focus on the second Point of Practice, that of the Physical Body:

• • Drawing back from evaluations or judgements of one's Physical Body, one simply connects with the basic feeling of the Physical Body--feeling the stability and buoyancy of the back, feeling the natural weight of the organs.

• • If one feels sensation arising naturally and uncoerced in the Physical Body--painful, pleasurable, remarkable, or ordinary--one asks, "how is this not Bliss arising within Emptiness?"
    
    

  • The purpose of the inquiry is not to make oneself feel something that is not there. The purpose of the inquiry is to look directly at one's felt experience and to consider for oneself whether Bliss arising within Emptiness is truly the 'signal' within one's felt experience and whether additional interpretations--painful, pleasurable, remarkable, or ordinary--are merely interpretive 'noise.'

• • Keep attending to the naturally and uncoerced arising sensation with a light touch as is bearable. Return again to the question, "how is this not Bliss arising within Emptiness?" Does the feeling relax over time into vibration and warmth? Or does the feeling tighten into "for me," "against me," or "not me" ?

• If one becomes distracted or drowsy during this Mindfulness Guard of Body practice extension, one briefly returns to the general Calm Abiding instruction until they are ready to continue working with this Mindfulness Guard of Body practice extension.
  
  

Following a session of Calm Abiding, one can extend Mindfulness Guard of Body into daily life by:

• Bringing the Mindfulness Guard of Body developed during practice to one's basic activities of standing, walking, sitting, or lying down, and changing from one posture to another.
  
  

• Bringing the Mindfulness Guard of Body developed during practice to one's familiar activities of bathing, dressing, eating, drinking, using the toilet, exercising, speaking, and so on, as well as transitions between activities.
  
  

• Bringing the Mindfulness Guard of Body developed during practice to unfamiliar activities or states such as trying a new food, meeting a new person, visiting a new location, allowing thirst or hunger beyond what is one's usual limit, during sickness, and so on, as well as transitions between activities or states.

• When one feels sensation arising naturally and uncoerced in the Physical Body--painful, pleasurable, remarkable, or ordinary--one asks, "how is this not Bliss arising within Emptiness?"

• If one becomes distracted or drowsy during this Mindfulness Guard of Body practice extension, one can return to the mindfulness and awareness of daily life until they are ready to continue working with this Mindfulness Guard of Body practice extension.
  
  

  • Notice if one's habits of body in daily life reflect one's Mindfulness Guard of Body in meditation practice--Be curious what might explain the difference between the two.
    
    

By practicing "Mindfulness Guard of Body," one can begin to see through direct experience how one's interpretation of natural and uncoerced bodily sensation can itself affect one's experience of bodily sensation. One can also begin to see for oneself the possibility that what underlies natural and uncoerced bodily sensation can be described as Bliss Arising within Emptiness.

The fruition of Mindfulness Guard of Body is called Gesture of Body--gracefully inhabiting the body, with body held neither too tight nor too loose, with light attention to the body as a source of gentle bliss, fully embodied such that the body appears vibrant and well-composed in stillness and movement.

May these words help the dignified Asheyana practitioner to blissfully extend the Gesture of Body, with full mindfulness. May it be of benefit.