Essay About Moments Of Calmness And Contemplation Of The Body

Insight Meditation
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Buddhist meditation practices often emphasize mainly concentration,
particularly on a certain person, place or thing. They teach the mind to
focus on one point or object, which achieves strength of concentration. The
results are peaceful states, and in some very rare cases are said to create
supernormal powers. That is no wonder why many people steer in that
direction, in hopes of achieving “superpowers”. Insight meditation is quite
different however, and although some degree of concentration is needed, the
meditator focuses more on mindfulness of the situation.
Insight is defined in the dictionary as “the capacity to discern the
true nature of a situation”. The basis of insight meditation is the four
foundations of mindfulness. They include contemplation of the body,
contemplation of feelings, contemplation of the mind-state and contemplation
of mind-objects. To achieve mindfulness one must try to be aware of these
foundations as they exist in their bodies. For example to be mindful of the
body, it is necessary to be aware of breathing in, breathing out, posture,
bodily movements inwardly and outwardly etc. One must be conscious of
mind-objects such as desire, and understand hoe feelings like that come
about and how they are eliminated.
To understand mindfulness as simply as possible, one can look at the
difference between an unmindful person and the opposite. Everyday we see
people who are unmindful of their actions, unmindful of their movements.
Someone on the street who steps into a large puddle is unmindful of walking,
such as someone who slips and falls. The state of mind of this person is
unclear and possibly confused.
We can compare this to ourselves in everyday life. Almost everybody
has moments of calmness and moments of panic in their lives. When we are
calm and composed, our minds are bright and clear, and our actions involve
more thought. If we were to take a long walk on a desolate beach, with not
a single soul around, we would have a higher