2020-2022

Śamatha (Shá-ma-ta)/Mindfulness
Meditation

In order to be able to focus enough to meditate, one, especially a modern of the

20th or 21st C. who was raised with little focus, self-awareness or objectivity,
particularly those who have habituated emotional lability and discursive
rumination (such as from compulsory public primary school, watching television
or using smartphones from an early age), should first practice interiorly focusing
on single and simple concepts, such as a material thing (e.g., a color, a shape, a
number, the image of an animal), for significant periods of time, i.e., at least ten
minutes. Then one should practice focusing on nothingness, which is the basis of
some schools of Buddhist meditation. All acquired skills or insights of meditation
are milestones which should be remembered and become absorbed into your habit
of practice as “second nature.”

Clinical Psychology Acronym R.A.I.N. for Mindfulness (in general; not as

meditation)
● R: Recognize — Recognize your thoughts, cognitions, emotions, affect,
feelings, desires, urges, cravings, influences, seemingly-automatic
inclinations or pulls toward action (which leads to the beginning of a
physical movement), sensations and any other internal, mental or perceptual
phenomenon or stimulus.
● A: Allow/Accept — Allow/Accept all stimuli as they are.
● I: Investigate — Investigate all stimuli with very gentle attention.
[“Investigate” is a strong word for this mental behavior that should be
endeavored very delicately.]
● N: Non-Identification — Practice a state of non-identification with the
stimuli.

States & Aspects of Mindfulness

 ● Mindfulness (in general; not as meditation): “Mindfulness means paying
attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and without
judgment.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn
● Mind-LESS-ness is the opposite of mindfulness. It is the state when you are
not paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, internal experiences, etc. It
leads to and encompasses not having awareness of your mind or of your self
as a defined entity. It entails the experiences of daydreaming and driving
amnesia, i.e., when you forget that you are driving a car because you were
“on auto-pilot” so well.
● Mindfulness Meditation is the application of the meditation style that is the
mechanism of trying to process mental and emotional stimuli in the least
stressful way possible. It is the process of objective and detached
observation of thoughts and feelings. This in turn decreases the frequency
and intensity of thoughts, emotions and other stimuli, allowing you to relax.
● Empty Mind: Thousands of years before the Buddha, the Mahabharata
described a meditator as one who is “like a log, he does not think.” Empty
Mind is when you do not experience thoughts/cognitions,
feelings/emotions/sensations, or any other stimuli. Mindfulness is the tiny
spans of time in your mind that are not infiltrated by any stimuli (thoughts,
feelings, etc.). Mindfulness is conceptually distinguished as “empty mind”
when the meditator is not experiencing or processing any thoughts, actively
or passively, but rather is just experiencing nothingness in their
consciousness.
● Flow, as opposed to empty mind, is maintaining mindfulness while thinking
and doing. It is having thoughts mindfully or performing actions mindfully,
as opposed to trying to experience empty mind, such as when meditating.

Mindfulness Meditation Instructive Outline

1. Focus Your Mind
2. Focus Your Awareness on Stimuli
3. ★ Objectively Observe Stimuli
4. Do Not React to Stimuli
5. Ascribe No Essence or Appearance to Stimuli
6. Let Stimuli Flow Naturally
7. ★ Practice Nonattachment/Detachment to Stimuli
 8. Practice Non-Identification with Stimuli
9. Maintain Empty Mind

A Note on the Name “Mindfulness” Meditation

● The word “mindfulness” with respect to this type of meditation is used with
reference to all stimuli, particularly sensory information and immediate
recognition of verbal thoughts, mental images and urges.
● A mediocre goal of most (arguably not all) Hindu and Buddhist meditations
is to achieve an empty mind, i.e., utter dissociation, viz., to not think, to not
perceive any mental stimuli, appearances, occurrences and to not perceive
any sensory information. Vipassana has been proudly adopted and
enthusiastically popularized (outside of the arenas of mediation and Eastern
philosophy and religion) by modern psychotherapy. Modern psychotherapy
did not name it mindfulness meditation but it is the only name they call it,
unless of course one such adherent describes its history. Thus everyone
outside of the arenas of meditation and Eastern philosophy and religion who
have been exposed to it likely first learned of it with this name.
“Mindfulness meditation” can be a misleading name for it. It can act as an
impediment to the practice, and thus, to success in the practice, and thus, to
success in its ultimate goal. The point of mindfulness meditation is to make
the thinking and feeling aspects of the mind operate as little as possible; to
eventually not operate at all. In the meditation, one is not supposed to
remain focused on mental stimuli, i.e., mental appearances, occurrences
(selfsame), viz., all that which derives from an internal source, whether
thought, preliminary thought-content, conceptualized or realized feeling, or
urge. To concentrate on such things longer than one is supposed to (viz.,
longer than it takes to notice it and dismiss it by the methods of the
meditation), is counterproductive to the meditation. Of course some
attention and mental work is necessary for novice and intermediate
meditators. In the mediation, that which one is supposed to be focused on is
sensory information, i.e., that which derives from the external environment,
including that which is inside the body, such as the breath. In the meditation,
one is supposed to only sense external things, such as bodily sensations of
touch (which includes the physical feelings of the breath) hearing, scent,
taste, etc. (sight for proficient practitioners: vipassana is a closed-eye
 meditation because sight information is a strong antecedent to thoughts and
urges, but not for very proficient practitioners who can overcome stimuli
triggered by objects perceived by sight). Much emphasis should be placed
on the early method, step or aspect of the meditation, in which one is
supposed to focus on physical sensations. Sometimes I might call it
“sensation focusing.” Calling it this can help facilitate—especially if using
its name as an aid (akin to a mantra) during meditation or as a mantra—this
early method, step or aspect of the meditation, especially for beginners.
Remember that vipassana is only meant to begin one’s journey to an empty
mind and make way for one to efficiently implement another type of
mediation; sensing external information is supposed to eventually be
discarded too.

Mindfulness Meditation Instructions

I. Procedural Steps
1. Start by FOCUSING YOUR MIND on your breathing or on your physical
sensations (such as itches, how your clothes feel against your skin, the
feeling of the seat/chair/cushion/mattress against your body, any tension in
your muscles, a tickle in your throat, pain, discomfort in your feet or back,
etc.).
2. Then try to increase your AWARENESS of all your “stimuli,” i.e., thoughts,
emotions, desires, urges, cravings, pulls, influences, physical sensations
(such as those listed in Step 1), changes in attention, seriousness, certainty,
or any other internal, mental or perceptual phenomenon, experience or event.
Notice all your stimuli. Focus on the most prominent one every moment.
Some mindfulness meditation instructors and instructions teach that you
should return you focus back to your breath or to the part of you body, or a
mental faculty, on which you are focusing on at that moment (such as in the
technique called body scan). Teaching others to focus or concentrate on
things is a typical tactic to teach beginners of mindfulness meditation but it
is not mindfulness meditation per se, it is concentration meditation.
Mindfulness meditation does not necessarily require a strong faculty of
concentration but it is very helpful. If you can utilize the skill of mindfulness
without concentration, you have a truly strong skill of mindfulness.
Concentration is not mindfulness. Mindfulness is the catching of every new
 thought, seemingly-automatic inclination or pull toward action (which leads
to the beginning of a physical movement), or other stimulus. For learners of
all levels, you may try exclusively using mindfulness in place of
concentration by catching every new thought, seemingly-automatic
inclination or pull toward action (which leads to the beginning of a physical
movement), or other stimulus, and tackling it immediately, tackling it from
gaining any “ground,” i.e., not letting it grow or develop into anything more
than it already is, any larger or more powerful stimulus than it already it
when it first comes into your consciousness.
3. ★ [1st of 2 Main Points] Then, one at a time, OBJECTIVELY
OBSERVING the stimuli—meaning, imagining them/viewing
them/“looking at” them without any personal opinion, judgment, bias,
feeling or interpretation of yours; try to “see” them in a purely
factual/empirical/scientific way…
4. WITHOUT REACTING to them (the stimuli/thoughts/feelings/etc.),
WITHOUT ADDING OR ASSOCIATING any other thoughts or feelings to
them and WITHOUT PUSHING AWAY OR DENYING any other thought
or feeling that follows them.
5. [Emptiness/Formlessness] Do not, or try to not, apply, ascribe or attribute
any ESSENCE or APPEARANCE to any stimulus, e.g., when you hear a
cricket’s chirp, try to not imagine a cricket or ascribe the sound to a cricket,
or when you hear the sound of an airplane or a car, try to not imagine or
identify the objects from which such sounds usually come. Is it possible to
get to such an advanced level of apprehending emptiness that you can hear
words in your primary language and not think of the meaning of them, but
instead, just hear them as raw, meaningless sounds? (Does essence or
appearance encompass lexical meanings?)
6. Let all stimuli come and go NATURALLY until eventually, with practice,
they come no more.
II. Instructional Points of Emphasis
7. The goal is to not be swayed in thought, behavior or emotion. The goal is
achieved passively and indirectly by using a particular MECHANISM,
mindfulness meditation—passively observing and minimally analyzing
stimuli (e.g., thoughts, etc.). How this appears outwardly is with stillness.
How this appears inwardly is as EMPTY MIND or BLANK MIND—the
 state when there are no stimuli to observe or process. A silent nothingness in
your consciousness between stimuli; a lack of thoughts and feelings that
slowly grows between other thoughts and feelings.
○ Reiteration/Emphasized Points: The goal is to not let anything impact
you or have any influence over your thinking pattern, behavior or
affect (i.e., mood). To remain detached, objective and unaffected. Let
nothing derail you from your purposeful pursuit of mindfulness,
stillness (along with comes a neutral or pleasant mood). This is done
by observing your thoughts objectively and not identifying with them.
Be not involved with your thoughts. Separate yourself from them.
View them at a distance, like a scientist unbiasedly observing
reactions in an experiment. When not observing stimuli, the
consciousness is described as Empty Mind or Blank Mind. Having no
thoughts is the ultimate goal of meditation in general, as espoused in
the Hindu traditions before the Buddha.
○ A way to get to EMPTY MIND is with MINDFULNESS
MEDITATION. Mindfulness meditation is conducive to and yields
empty mind. With the practice of mindfulness you can increase the
durations of empty mind—the tiny periods of time between
thoughts/cognitions (including the thoughts/cognitions that are
brought to your consciousness by emotions or physical sensations).
Mindfulness is the activity/process/mechanism/model that you
effortfully employ with your mind to process stimuli in the most pure
and honest way you know how: by (1) employing attention,
objectivity and truthful observation and by (2) maintaining a high
degree of detachment and nonidentification with the stimuli. Empty
mind is the tiny spans of time in between the content of your mind
(i.e., the stimuli). The human consciousness is a receiver, like a radio
antenna. When there is no signal (i.e., no thought or feeling), there is
no event; like a radio tuned to a station without sound. Empty mind is
the receiver without any signal. It is the tiny spans of time in which
you DO NOT ENGAGE with any stimuli
(thoughts/feelings/emotions/sensations/etc.).
8. ★ [2nd of 2 Main Points] The point is to DETACH from all thoughts,
emotions, desires, urges, cravings, pulls, influences, physical sensations and
 any other internal, mental or perceptual phenomena or stimulus. This is the
practice of NONATTACHMENT.
○ This is attained just by viewing stimuli without applying any personal
feelings, opinions or judgments (i.e., objectively); with a matter-of-
fact and indifferent attitude and an objective, uninvested, removed,
perspective.
○ In clinical psychology, nonattachment is used in the cognitive
psychotherapy technique cognitive reappraisal: detach from the
stimulus, re-appraise it objectively.
9. Another important point is NON-IDENTIFICATION which means that your
thoughts and feelings DO NOT REPRESENT YOU, THEY ARE NOT
YOU; they are only things you experience. This is a very important concept
in cognitive-behavioral theory and therapy within clinical psychology.
○ Do not identify with your thoughts, feelings, urges, etc. They are only
things that enter your consciousness, your mind; they are not you nor
do they represent you.
10.Remember to focus on the thoughts, behaviors, cravings or desires you do
NOT want, the things you want to avoid, such as eating, drinking alcohol,
smoking cigarettes, doing drugs, watching TV, having sex, being lazy, etc.
○ Do not focus on your goal (or the desired future version of yourself),
such as ABSTAINING from food, drink, drugs, laziness or any other
object of craving or desire.
11.The more you “look at” that which you want to get rid of (e.g., a disturbing
thought, suboptimal behavior, craving, urge or desire) and try to view it
without adding feeling or denying its existence, the less power it will have
over you and the more easily it will float away, out of your mind.
12.“Looking at” such abstract, immaterial things such as vague stimuli is
difficult or even impossible at first. When trying to observe, view or “look
at” a stimulus that has no apparent quality, assign it a quality. Identify and
specify any barely-perceivable qualities, attributes or characteristics it might
have. If it has none, give it some. Give it qualities, such as mass, weight,
color and density. Try to identify and specify where it is located in your
mind or body. If it has no place, give it a place. Assign it to a location within
your mind or a place where you might be slightly able to feel it (in your
mind, body or head). Identify and specify a context or how it is related to
 other stimuli or to objects of your own being. If it has no such relations,
assign it a context as it relates to or is associated with other stimuli or to
objects/items of your mind/consciousness. In summation, specify (or give)
invisible stimuli identifiable qualities/attributes/characteristics, specify their
(or assign them) locations, and specify their (or assign them) relationships
with other stimuli or with objects/items in your mind/consciousness, in order
to observe them better and thus be able to manage them better (or at all).
13.Some instructors do not justly express the magnitude and implications of the
potential that mindfulness has over cravings and urges. Some utilize
umbrella terms to the exclusion of key concepts, e.g., all the examples of
stimuli or targeted objects. When you are instructed to concentrate on
“thoughts” or “feelings,” concentrate on whatever it is you are trying to
overcome: the particular, undesirable thing, stimuli or obstacle. Purposely
and actively concentrate on what you are trying to abolish. It must be a very
singular/individual and very specific, targeted problem, e.g., a craving, urge,
desire, pull, influence, mental image, thought, fact, piece of knowledge,
pain, physical sensation, etc.
14.With practice one can increase the duration of tiny periods of mindfulness,
that is, the gap between thoughts, the tiny spans of time in which you do not
engage with any thought/cognition, emotion/emotional feeling,
sensation/physical feeling.
15.Regarding the common recommendation for meditation: “Let your thoughts
flow naturally and do not try to stop them, eventually you will stop
thinking,” the assertion of the latter clause will almost never occur for most
people. At a certain point you need to try to stop your thoughts and your
changes in faculties and attributes, but not forcefully but rather, by trying to
still your mind, keeping it focused on an empty state (or at least return your
attention to your breathing or to the maintenance of your mindfulness) and
to keep new thoughts from entering the forefront of your conscious mind—
not necessarily “large” or “loud” thoughts like the ones beginner meditators
have when starting a meditation session (unless that’s all you have as
thoughts), but rather, the calmer, “smaller,” lighter” thoughts that meditators
have after some success at meditation. Stop thoughts and changes in
faculties and attributes, e.g., like attention, only to maintain empty mind or
to return your attention to your beathing, to keep your attention on empty
 mind. It is expected that most people will always, at least, have rumblings of
cognitions. You must also suppress such rumblings, as well, in order to keep
them from becoming full-fledged thoughts or cognitions. Rumblings of
cognitions may also be described as pre-formed cognitions or precursors to
cognitions. They cannot even be identified from each other as distinct
stimuli because they are not fully conscious. They all “appear” to be like the
bubbles of boiling water at “the bottom” of the vast darkness of your empty
mind—looking like the same thing but each being pushed “up” from
separate and distinct unconscious cognitions, feelings, sensations or other
stimuli. At times, such rumblings will instantly grow into a full-fledged
thought, image or other actualized cognition, occurring in the forefront of
your conscious mind. For early beginners, do not suppress any cognitions.
Only do so when you are confident that you are not purposely blocking
personally problematic stimuli that you want to get rid of, such as disturbing
thoughts, thoughts of urges or cravings, or any stimuli that are challenging
or threatening to your well-being—that which you have identified as such
and make a target of in your mindfulness meditation practice—but rather,
just blocking pre-conscious or nascent cognitions (i.e., the rumblings) from
becoming full-fledged, conscious cognitions.
16.Effortfully concentrate on nothingness. Keep your attention on empty mind.
○ While sustaining empty mind, apply a constant state of vigilance to
immediately recognize stimuli (e.g., thoughts) or their precursors in
order to stop them immediately, before they either become full-
fledged stimuli or lead into or trigger another stimuli.
17.Referring to experiences of the state of mindfulness, to the gap between
thoughts when you practice mindfulness meditation, to the tiny spans of time
in which you have no thought and you recognize no stimulus, to those times
in which you do not have a conscious cognitive or behavioral event, to the
experience of empty mind, to knowing only your blank consciousness—not
thinking of it, just experiencing its nothingness: Do not engage it. Just think
of it. Come to know it. Keep it in your mind as the only thing in your mind,
the only thing you think of. If you must, imagine it just a little (as a black or
white void, an empty darkness or a full brightness), just for a fraction of a
second, just enough to keep it in the forefront of your consciousness.
 Imagine it as often as is helpful without becoming depended upon—but for
only a split second at a time.
18.When you are effortfully concentrating on nothingness and your mind pulls
you toward the mental behavior of the default mode network, resist the pull.
Utilize nonattachment for the pull. Your mind has an urge or desire or
tendency to relax and fall back into the state of the default mode network.
Objectively observe that desire, that pull into the relaxing and natural state
of the default mode network and target it (the desire, the pull) as an object of
desire in order to let its demand or attractiveness be decreased down to
nothing.
19. ★ [Effective Shortcut] I think I am both sensitive-to-nuances enough and
articulate-about-cognition enough to write the following. In my opinion
based on my experience of mindfulness meditation, forgetting is a close
relative to, if not identical to, empty mind. By the terms forgetting (as
distinguished from the event, occurrence or instance of forgetting a piece of
information), and “forgettingness,” and forgetfulness (as distinguished from
forgetfulness in the sense which is used to generally characterize a forgetful
individual), I mean a state, an experience, a constellation of stimuli and
changes in faculties and attributes. Whether or not empty mind and the state
of having just forgotten something are the same manifestation of two
different mental mechanisms (mindfulness meditation and the instance of
forgetting), effortfully concentrating on nothingness (i.e., maintaining empty
mind) can be easily achieved by utilizing a shortcut or heuristic that is
already familiar to us, the sensation of forgetting something. Forgetting (the
state) is already a canalized route in your minds, your beings or your
consciousness that you can utilize to apprehend empty mind more
thoroughly and consistently, more durably. Concentrate on any slight
psychosomatic or synesthetic sensation from having just now forgotten a
thought or cognition. Better yet, try to forget something (or wait til you
forget something), such as a less than full-fledged thought, and maintain the
resultant sensation. Recognize, observe and feel the sudden, intractable and
magnetic void of forgetting. Feel the sensation of a cognition going
overboard on a ship in a storm (your mind) and your not being able to pull it
back up no matter how hard you try. Feel the sensation of losing a cognition
at the event horizon of a black hole (within your mind) and trying to go after
 it to no avail and instead your nearby thoughts get pulled into it. When you
forget something, what does it feel like in your body? Notice any physical
sensation in the tissue of your brain, such as a reverberation, and any
reaction in your skin or muscles, like an utter stillness and a sensitivity to
slight movements. When you forget something you or your mind
automatically or purposefully tries to recall it repeatedly. The cognition may
be a novel one or a recycled one. It may be a full-fledged thought, a half-
fledged thought, a nuanced conceptualization, a recognition of an
apperception or assimilation, an analysis, a synthesis, a precursor to a
thought, a pre-formed rumbling of associated ideas, etc. Ripples might seem
to emit from the place in the space of your mind where the thought was,
where it disappeared, and where you are trying to remember it. You are
there. Your consciousness is focused on that point. Try to feel and fully
fulfill the reverberations that are the rippling waves of the state of
experiencing the intractable and magnetic void of forgetting, as your mind
continues to fail to recapture the thought. By jumping onto the “surfboard”
that is your conscious awareness, you can ride the waves of the rippling void
long-term, conquering the hardest task of mindfulness meditation:
maintaining focus on nothingness.
20.Be so attentive to the incoming or developing new thoughts or stimuli so as
to scrutinize them instantly upon manifestation. Notice not only the
beginning of every thought and stimuli but also the beginning of every time
your attention is being led away as if by no stimuli but rather an automatic
and initially unconscious reason. Intercept every thought, other stimuli and
attention change. Attention changes occur from thought to thought; interest
is based on the stimuli relative to the meditator. Intercept as soon as you can,
between initial conscious conception and the consequential thought that it
leads to, i.e., a secondary and apperceived, triggered, STIMULATED
thought or stimuli (i.e., stimuli of the stimuli) about it.
21.Any and all of the Virtues, such as courage, patience and compassion, can be
made manifest simply by (1) deciding to exhibit the virtue (setting a goal)
and (2) applying a moment of mindfulness meditation. Remember to use
mindfulness not to directly carry or facilitate the goal but rather to use it to
annihilate the obstacles to the goal. Any realistic goal (barring ones entailing
smaller, prerequisite sub-goals) is immediately before us, in front of us,
 present and accessible. Usually, the only things stopping people from
attending to such a goal are abstract obstacles between them and the goal.
Many, if not all, abstract obstacles can be overcome. Obstacles may be
slight, such as idiosyncratic misinterpretations, misconceptions, any element
comprising non-actualization or philosophical disorder, or they may be
somewhat more durable such emotional hang-ups, fears, neuroticisms, etc.
○ Decide the goal, e.g., have courage to fight, as needed, when
aggressed upon.
○ Observe the obstacles to the goal, fear, fear of permanent injury, fear
of disfigurement, images of your potential, future pain, injury or
disfigurement, self-doubt, schemas or beliefs about yourself, poor
self-worth, misconceptions or misinterpretations solely based on
intimidation triggered by the aggressor and potential assailant (e.g.,
“you are weaker or less skilled than the aggressor”—instead let
mindfulness allow you to consider other possibilities, such as, “he’s
posturing or overcompensating”).
i. Apply mindfulness to them, i.e., turn on, start, ignite your
mindfulness meditation practice, toolkit of programming, and
focus it in the obstacles, i.e., attend to the obstacles with
objective observation and and non-identification (in this case)
or nonattachment (in other cases).
22.Sometimes when mindfulness is difficult to maintain because you have an
excess of mental energy and your focus is being tested to its limits (in the
case when without maintaining mindfulness you would have racing
thoughts) you can actually feel or sense a scanning sensation or even a
distinct motion in your mind scanning back and forth or up and down
looking for a thought or some other stimuli to locate, lock on to, and pay
attention to. In the analogy of the mind as an analog radio, that motion is the
motion of the tuning component (represented in the display areas of radios
as the line that is usually red or black in color that is in front of the printed
frequency numbers which indicate the radio station) that is controlled by the
tuning knob. The person controlling the tuning knob searches back and forth,
scanning for a radio frequency that has an audible signal, and he stops when
a station with good reception is found. Sometimes you may notice when you
become a little sleepy, and your mind has become calmer, that your mind
 stops scanning and you may find yourself suddenly dropped into a state of
mindfulness, or a state that more easily allows mindfulness.
23.A sign of success of mindfulness meditation is when, upon completion of
the mediation session (or the few moments of successfully achieved
mindfulness meditation) you think back and try to remember the last few
minutes or moments, that there are no distinct thoughts or stimuli available
to recall, that there is no data to recall (except perhaps your efforts to
maintain the mindfulness or perhaps pre-formed thoughts or indistinct,
amorphous cognitions), that you have had an empty mind.
24.Particularly focus on silencing the internal speech or the verbalizations in
your mind, your “inner monologue.” When this is done, allowing the mind
to wander with images and nonverbal thoughts is a substantial relief.
25.Refrain from impeding your breath. Release control of the breath. Let
yourself breathe as if you are sleeping.
26.Nonconceptuality (not clinging, not pulling, not pushing
conceptions/thoughts/stimuli/appearances) is the primary aspect for
Shamatha/mindfulness meditation.
27.Consistent, maintained recollection (remembering at every moment) is the
primary mode or mechanism for Shamatha/mindfulness meditation.
28.For consciousness efficacy, mental health efficacy,
self-control/continence/self-discipline, cultivate:
○ Focus/Concentration/Attention
○ Introspection/Interior Reflection/Self-Reflection
○ Mindfulness/Perception
○ Objective observation
○ Non-attachment
○ Non-identification
○ Awareness
○ Acceptance
29.Cultivate rigpa (present awareness, self-awareness and presence of mind)

Mindfulness Meditation Instructional Script

● Though the script refers mostly to thoughts, and to a lesser degree feelings,
the words “thought” and “thoughts” (as well as “feeling” and “feelings”) are
used as umbrella terms referring to any internal stimuli and can be
substituted with other concepts such as cognition, emotion, affect (i.e.,
mood), feeling (emotional or physical), desire, urge, craving, pull, influence,
sensation or any other internal, mental or perceptual phenomenon, stimulus,
experience or event. A more accurate umbrella term is “stimulus,” but it it
not used in the script in order for the script to be more user-friendly or
understandable as this script is meant for general audiences.
● Mindfulness meditation, as the Buddha taught, is most optimally utilized to
target cravings, urges or desires.
● Adapted from Sam Harris’s teachings.

Close your eyes.

Breathe through your nose.
Think about your breath.
Hear it.
Feel it.
Feel it in your nose.
Feel it in your chest.
Feel it in your back.
Breathe naturally.
Do not control your breath, let it be; you may have large breaths and
small breaths.
Breathe.
Imagine the predominant thought, emotion or sensation you are
currently experiencing.
Visualize it.
Observe it objectively, and all the thoughts or feelings that follow it.
Observe the speed at which your thoughts flow.
Observe the connections your mind makes between each thought.
Observe how each of your new thoughts begin.
Observe how each thought changes or morphs into a new thought, or a
similar thought, or a very different thought.
Observe how each thought ends.
 Let each thought flow away and end naturally.
Observe every thought as they are.
Observe how they morph into other thoughts and then end.
Do not try to change or challenge them.
Do not deny them.
Let them flow naturally, without your control.
Do not engage or interact with any thought; just observe each of them.
Give them their due time then let them pass.
Do not grasp at any thought.
Do not push away any thought.
Let your thoughts be as they are.
Do not add any new thoughts.
Do not take away any thoughts.
Visualize how the thoughts develop, how they change, then how they
end.
Any sliver of a free moment, in which you have not engaged with any
thought, is mindfulness.
Do not consciously direct your mind; just maintain this state, the state
in which you observe your thoughts without interacting with them.
Do not internally speak to yourself.
Do not intentionally try to make your mind empty; just be aware of
your thoughts and feelings.
Accept an empty mind when you no longer have thoughts or feelings.
Do not fall back into mindlessness, in which you cannot control your
thoughts.
Do not automatically or intentionally edit your thoughts; just accept
them as they are.
If a thought makes you feel a certain way, do not encourage the
feeling, just feel the feeling as it is, as it exists in the present moment.
Give any feeling its due time, then let it pass naturally.
Do not grasp at or push away any feeling.
Do not grasp at or push away any thought.

Mindfulness & Dzogchen Meditation Prompts

● Mantras
 ○ ★ Mindfulness Meditation Primary Mantras
■ “Objective Observation of All Stimuli”
■ “Nonattachment”/“Detachment”
○ “He is like a log, he does not think.” —The Mahabharata, referring to
a meditator
○ “Awareness”
○ “Empty Mind”
○ “No Self”
○ “I am not what I think I am.”
○ “I am a consciousness.”
○ “I am merely a receiver.”
○ “I do not exist.”
○ “I am nothing.”
○ “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.” —The Buddha,
Discourse on the Not-Self; referring to the Five Aggregates
○ “This I am not.” —The Buddha, Discourse on the Not-Self; can be
used for referring to thoughts and other stimuli
● Pay attention to keeping an empty mind. Keep your attention on maintaining
empty mind.
○ If you must, imagine empty mind just a little (as a black or white void,
an empty darkness or a full brightness), just for a fraction of a second,
just enough to keep it in the forefront of your consciousness. Imagine
it as often as is helpful without becoming depended upon—but for
only a split second at a time.
● Forgetting Shortcut; What it feels like to have just forgotten something and
trying to retrieve it.
● Where in your body do you notice the thought/feeling/sensation/stimuli?
● What is the texture of the thought/feeling/sensation?
● Examine the thought/feeling/sensation/stimuli deeply, down to as fine as
possible. What are its smallest units? What is it made of?
● Consider how short a pleasurable experience lasts, how short satisfaction
lasts. Consider how much satisfaction decreases after engaging with the
object of desire, how you will be craving for it again soon after, how you
will have destroyed your record of self-denial, abstinence and nonattachment
for a dopamine spike lasting one-third of a second.
 ● Consider your state after engaging with the desired object or action. Try to
fully summon, imbue within yourself or adopt it before engaging with the
desired object or action, the craving, e.g., try to feel the (post-engagement
feeling or state) satisfaction, or the guilt or the neutral state you usually feel
after (engaging with or giving into the craving) eating candy, punching
someone, having an angry putburst, masturbating, having sex, etc.

External, Instructive Sources

● Article on How to Meditate by Sam Harris: https://samharris.org/how-to-
meditate/
● 9-Minute Guided Mindfulness Meditation Video by Sam Harris:
https://youtu.be/tw7XBKhZJh4
● 30-Minute Guided Mindfulness Meditation Video by Sam Harris:
https://youtu.be/XoUBqZZgUEI

Prominent Mindfulness Science Experts:

Search their names for mindfulness-related videos, apps, podcasts, books, etc.
Search YouTube in particular, for videos.
● Lama B. Alan Wallace
● Bhikkhu Bodhi
● Sam Harris, PhD - Neuroscience & Meditation
● Judson Brewer, MD - Psychiatry: Applied Mindfulness
● Robert Wright, PhD - Evolutionary Psychology: Naturalistic Buddhism &
Mindfulness Meditation