Mastering the weapon

For those of you who have been learning the “weapon” of Mindfulness, here are the final instructions. DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE FIRST DONE THE PREVIOUS LESSONS! That’s cheating and you are only defrauding yourself.

Sorry to disappoint you, but the final stages are simply an extension of the previous ones (25 and 50 count experiences.) Stage 3 is a 100 count experience. Go through the same process as before, doing the 100 a few times to become aware of the nature of your thoughts. There will be, as before, a pattern to them. Now, think those thoughts in advance and enter into the experience of counting, slowly and deliberately, 100 breaths.

Once you have done this a couple of times (yes, it does take a while!) now you are ready for the final steps to very real control of your attention. The next to last step is to do a 200 count experience. This is a difficult thing to do as it will take you over an hour (at 3 breaths per minute anyway.) NOT 100×2 but 200 straight through. You will likely experience a significantly quiet mind. Or you may fall asleep… As always, you will experience random thoughts but they will tend to only appear in your awareness and not fully attended to.

Once you have done 200 straight through go back to 100 counts. Now, though, you may engage with a thought, turning towards it rather than back to the breath. The nature of these thoughts may seem random but the “voice” is actually the voice of your Wise Mind, and THAT is one that is worth listening to, attending to. Before starting an experience you can ask your Wise Mind a question and then listen during the experience for the answer. The answer may not be in a form you expect. It may be another question, or just a seemingly random thought. Follow it. Don’t worry about the count or even your breath, but always be able to turn back to your breath.

And there you have it. Weaponized Mindfulness. I dare anyone to seriously pursue this learning and then tell me that their anxiety, depression, or impulsivity has not diminished in some worthwhile way. Not eliminated, just better. Maybe much better. Beats the hell out of the alternative.