This week our topic was how the practice of reflection can deepen understanding and unlock insights about ourselves and the world.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. - The Buddha

Aha!

A few years ago, I was walking around the block to take break from my home office. It was a bright, warm day in late spring and I was taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the neighborhood. I started thinking about something Alan Watts said about how nothing is static, everything is changing, from rapid to glacial. So there's no such thing as a "cat", fixed and stable, only "catting", a fluid process. Looking around, I began to feel the "treeing", "squirrelling", "peopling" going on. Suddenly I realized there was "Kenning"! Not a fixed and solid "Ken" but a flowing, unfolding process. A "Kenning".

This was an "Aha!" moment, when my mind jumped from being gently absorbed in thinking about the point Watts was making to something more: a fresh understanding, more than just a concept.

Have you had this experience? In the shower, while walking, daydreaming?

Reflective Meditation

Reflective meditation is disciplined way to to tap the creative power of these Aha! moments.

Reflection Definition: Serious thought or consideration (reasoning).

Thinking that is:

• Coherent: lucid, consistent, ordered
• Fluid: moving freely, open, not rigid or stuck
• Absorbing: all other concerns are set aside

Same as contemplation? No: contemplation doesn't typically include reason and logic.

Contemplation Definition: A form of...meditation in which a person seeks to pass beyond mental images and concepts to a direct experience of the divine.

Two Phases

One: Becoming absorbed in coherent and fluid consideration of an object such as a theme, situation, question.

Two (optional): Holding any insight that arises, without further analysis or reasoning, in the mind. This could be called concentration or contemplation.

Absorbed

To be absorbed is to be in a state of flow.

In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described the qualites of this experience, including:

• The activity is performed as an end in itself, not for any other purpose.
• The goals are clear and feedback is immediate.
• The challenge of the task is perfectly balanced with the person's abilities.
• The activity requires a complete focus of attention...leaving no room in the mind for anything else.

So maybe don't reflect on transposing Chopin's Sonata #2 for piano to kazoo and bongo :-)

Insight

Insights run from the small and subtle to the obvious and dramatic. They always create a new relationship between the person and the theme, situation, or question being reflected upon.

Thoughts are the fossils of the living reality of life's experiences. They freeze the flow of direct experience, shattering the stream into the illusion of an experiencer who stands apart from an experienced object...

Reflective meditation can bring us closer to the stream, to a more true understanding of reality.

It can lead to newfound trust, confidence, and energy.

Themes

• Who am I?
• What is the nature of change and impermanance?
• The interdependence of all beings.

Guidelines

1. Select a theme, situation, or question.
2. Notice when attention wanders or clarity fades, then gently return to the object of reflection.
3. If insight arises, drop the analysis and rest in a state of openness. Sustain a calm focus on the insight, letting it reveal itself or deepen.
4. If the mind begins to wander, either gently wrap up the session or start a new cycle of reflection.
5. Optionally, do some writing or other form of expression that captures the essence of your insight.

See Simple Meditation & Relaxation

Tips

• Might use the 5 W's to inquire: Who, What, Where, When, Why?
• Might compare and contrast - how is it like X? Different from X?
• Might use the senses - if X was a smell, what would it be? If X was an object, what would it feel like (texture, weight, temperature)>

Let's Practice!

For simplicity, we'll use a specific question.

First, a simple VOICE (Voice Of Innate Clarity Exercise) shift.

• The self can be thought of as a collection of voices, e.g., the voices of Kindness, Irritation, Tenderness, Suspicion, Confusion, and Clarity. Each one is responsible for that energy or role (all day, every day, nothing else).
• We usually wander through these voices and many others over the course of a day (or hour or even minute).
• For this reflection exercise, it will be helpful to come from the voice of "Noticing".

Here's how:

1. I'll ask to speak to the voice of Noticing.
2. You'll shift your position slightly (doesn't matter how, wherever you move to is where Noticing is sitting).
3. I'll ask who I'm speaking to, and you'll answer: The Voice of Noticing.
4. I'll ask what you do all the time, and you'll answer (hint, it's easy: To Notice).

Remember:

• As silent meditation, notice distractions and return to reflecting on the question.
• If an insight arises, drop the reasoning and rest with it, holding it in your attention.

Now the question for reflection:

As the voice of Noticing, what takes her/him/NAME away from the present moment? What pulls her/him/NAME out of the here and now?