The Little Handbook of Mindfulness

Copyright © 2023 by Dr Tan Seng Beng.

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Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Mindfulness of the Body

Mindfulness of Feelings

Mindfulness of Mind

Mindfulness of Thoughts

Foreword

The world today is fast-paced, chaotic, stressful and full of distractions. Our minds become cluttered, and our attention is pulled in a thousand different directions.

Mindfulness has emerged as a powerful tool for navigating the complexities of modern life and rediscovering inner peace. In essence, it teaches us to let go of the past and future thoughts and to live in the present moment. It focuses on being aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. One of the fundamental aspects of mindfulness is the art of paying attention. You will explore how to cultivate a non-judgmental attitude. It is useful to integrate mindfulness into all aspects of life-relationships, work creativity and day-to-day challenges.

I was exposed to the concept of mindfulness by Dr. Tan Seng Beng. It has been a liberating and transformative experience. I am more calm and it allows my internal unproductive chatter to go by without much notice. I have had the privilege and honor of working with Dr. Tan Seng Beng, consultant palliative medicine physician. He is very caring and compassionate, and has acquitted himself as an excellent physician. He has a je ne sais quoi that gives him an aura of calmness that is testimony to the power of mindfulness. Dr. Tan has authored books on mindfulness and written numerous papers on this subject. He is certainly an authority on mindfulness and is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience. I am confident that this book will help a lot of people on the path towards greater self-discovery, inner peace, and profound transformation.

Remember, mindfulness is not a destination but a journey – a lifelong journey of self-discovery and growth.

Best wishes

Ganesalingam Kanagasabai

Preface

It was a serene afternoon when I first met Master Cheng Yen, a compassionate spiritual leader, at Hualien many years ago. Little did I know that this encounter, near the bustling Tzu Chi University canteen, would set me on a profound journey of self-discovery and healing. Master Cheng Yen spoke to me and a group of aspiring doctors, emphasizing the importance of using our hearts in our practice, to become great healers. These words resonated deeply within me and planted a seed of mindfulness that would eventually blossom into a transformative force in my life.

Fifteen years ago, upon returning from a sojourn in Singapore, I found myself with newfound time and a keen desire to explore the realms of mindfulness. As I delved into its practice, I noticed a remarkable phenomenon: my stress levels began to plummet, gradually fading into the backdrop of my existence. This newfound sense of inner peace and clarity fuelled my determination to delve even deeper into the art of mindfulness.

An inspiration arose when I attended the International Palliative Care Congress at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal many years ago, where I was introduced to a large hall filled with thousands of healthcare providers, all gathered to listen to a talk on mindfulness in the palliative care setting. During the talk, the speaker guided all participants in practicing a brief mindfulness exercise. The hall was filled with a profound sense of stillness and silence. The experience was nothing short of awe-inspiring, as it showcased the immense potential mindfulness held for healthcare professionals and patients.

Inspired and deeply moved, I returned to Malaysia with the idea of integrating brief mindfulness exercises into my clinical practice. Driven by the aspiration to alleviate suffering at the end of lives and explore the intricate relationship between mindfulness and suffering reduction, I dedicated myself to research in the field. It became evident that practicing mindfulness not only allowed me to navigate the intense emotions of my patients without becoming overwhelmed or emotionally drained, but also assisted patients and their family members in lessening their distressing symptoms.

As my understanding and experience with mindfulness deepened, I felt compelled to share this invaluable practice with others. Through lectures, workshops, and personal interactions, I introduced mindfulness to medical students, doctors, patients, and their family members. Witnessing the positive impact it had on their lives was a humbling experience, igniting a passion within me to spread the teachings of mindfulness even further.

Over the years, my journey led me to publish several papers on brief guided mindfulness and write books on the subject, all aimed at disseminating the knowledge and techniques of mindfulness to a wider audience. I have had the privilege of running mindfulness workshops and presenting my research findings at conferences around the world, contributing to the growing body of evidence supporting the efficacy of mindfulness as a healing tool.

In 2022, I joined Subang Jaya Medical Centre and initiated a Mindfulness Clinic, where I endeavour to alleviate the suffering of patients with serious illness and their family members through the healing power of mindfulness. It is my deepest aspiration to bring a quiet mindfulness revolution within the Malaysian healthcare system and beyond, helping practitioners and patients alike to embrace this simple practice for holistic well-being.

This little handbook is a culmination of my personal experiences, research, and interactions with many individuals who have found solace, peace, and healing through mindfulness. It serves as a practical guide, offering simple techniques and exercises that can be seamlessly integrated into the fast-paced modern world.

May this handbook find its way into the hands of those seeking inner peace and stillness in the hustle and bustle of daily life, those wishing for a moment of clarity amidst difficulties. May it inspire and empower you to embark on your own journey of mindfulness, unlocking the extraordinary potential that resides within you. May you, like sunflowers, turn towards the radiant light of mindfulness, standing quietly and peacefully amidst nature, casting seeds of awareness and joy, contributing to a mindfulness revolution that blossoms in hearts far and wide.

With deep gratitude and sincere intention,

Dr Tan Seng Beng

15 June 2023

Introduction

Mindfulness trigger

Mindfulness trigger is something that can remind us to come back to the present moment. It can help us to ‘wake up’ from our automatic pilot. It can be something as ordinary as our usual daily activity, a pause, a person, difficulties or something natural. The more triggers we have, the more we can be reminded to be mindful. We can start with one trigger at first, then slowly adding more to our list. Maybe one day we may notice that everything can be a trigger. The whole world is reminding us to become more mindful. The whole world becomes our teachers. So, let us start our mindfulness journey together. Let us ‘wake up’ from our automatic thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. And let us dedicate ourselves to ‘wake up’ more people in the world.

Examples of mindfulness triggers

70090.jpg Daily activities – waking up, breathing, looking in the mirror, brushing teeth, washing hands, washing face, dressing, eating and drinking, walking, opening door, driving, using the toilet, going to sleep

70090.jpg Pause – mindfulness bell, sticky notes, phone ringing, traffic light, traffic jam, queue, lunch break, computer loading, waiting for the elevator

70090.jpg A person – a mindfulness teacher, a mindful person, the cashier, mother-in-law

70090.jpg Difficulties – moments of stress, pain, nagging family members, talkative clients, angry customers, sickness, loss

70090.jpg Nature – the sun, clouds, flowers, trees, falling leaves, wind, rain, the moon

Mindfulness bell

Mindfulness bell is one of my favourite mindfulness triggers. It is a free application that rings the bell at selected interval. Whenever I hear the bell rings, I will pause for a while, breathe, and come back to the present moment. Sometimes the bell rings during my clinical ward round, helping me to remain fully present for patients. In this way, even if I am seeing someone with strong emotions, the bell helps me to remain calm and stress-free. It is a wonderful reminder for me to come back to myself and to come back to life here in the present moment. You can download the application from Google Play Store and use the bell to return to your breath. And practice until every sound you hear becomes a mindfulness bell.

Smiling to the cashier is just another way to come back to the present moment since many of us visit the convenient store many times a week. Other than smiling to the cashier, we can also smile to our family, friends, colleagues, strangers, or even stray cats on the street. Who knows, one day we may make all the cats happier. Nature is another good reminder. There are so many things in nature that we can use to come back to the present moment. One of them that I use frequently is rain. Rain not only reminds me to retrieve my laundry, it also reminds me to live in the now.

Mindfulness is inherent in all of us

Mindfulness is a universal capacity that is present in all of us. The moment we pause, smile, come back to the present moment, and pay full attention to what we are seeing or doing, then we are inviting mindfulness to the centre stage of our mind. When we see a flower, if we pay full attention to the flower, then, we are being mindful of the presence of this wonderful flower. Mindfulness makes us alive. When our mind is running on automatic pilot, we are living in a state of unawareness. No matter how wonderful our life is, we won’t be able to appreciate these wonders. But when we are mindful, we are fully present to life in all its splendour – the fresh morning air, the smell of flowers, the green grasses, the rain, the sun, the blue sky, and the smile of a child. These are all miracles in life, but we need to be fully present to appreciate them. And when we start to appreciate them, not only we will become fully alive, they will also become fully alive. The whole world will start to wake up; wake up from automatic thoughts; wake up from unthoughtful speech; and wake up from violence in all forms; wake up to thoughts of compassion; wake up to thoughtful speech; and wake up to love. In writing this book, I wish to share with you how to practice mindfulness in daily life. I wish that by practicing the exercises in this book, you can be free from all forms of stress and suffering one day. And I would like to make the same prayer as Shantideva, an Indian scholar, with a little modification, just a little: For as long as human beings remain, may ‘we’ abide mindfully to dispel the misery of the world!

What is mindfulness?

From the landmark definition of mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction), mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally. Shapiro broke down the practice of mindfulness into three components: intention, attention, and attitude. First, we need the intention to be mindful (paying attention on purpose). Second, we need to pay full attention to what we are doing (paying attention in the present moment). Third, we need to adopt a mindful attitude (paying attention nonjudgmentally). Apart from a non-judgmental attitude, there are many other mindful attitudes, such as openness, curiosity, kindness, gentleness, non-reactivity, non-striving, non-attachment to goals, acceptance, patience, and letting go. As you begin to practice the exercises in this book, slowly these attitudes may begin to emerge in you. You may realize that, oh, these are all inherent in you too! This is sometimes called the basic goodness in you. This is the fundamental nature of your mind. Chögyam Trungpa called this brilliant sanity. The original state of your mind is brilliantly sane. There is no mental health issue. There is no anxiety, no depression, no psychosis, no stress, no suffering, and no unsatisfactoriness. It is fully open, crystal clear, and kind, but you cannot recognize your original state because you are lost in your automatic thoughts. The moment you start to practice mindfulness, hopefully you will start to experience glimpses of brilliant sanity. And hopefully one day you will be fully awake to this original goodness in you, so you can become a lamp for those who are in darkness, and a guide for those who have lost their direction.

The original taste of mindfulness

Mindfulness is just like food. There are many flavours you can try. But you should not miss out the original taste. Of course, it is good to learn mindfulness the MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) or the MBCT (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) way, but somehow it is incomplete if you don’t get to savour the original taste. The original taste of mindfulness comes from The Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness – the source of all mindfulness teachings. What are the four foundations? The body, feelings, mind, and thoughts. And what is mindfulness from the original teaching? Mindfulness comes from the Pali word ‘sati’, which means awareness, attention, or becoming aware. The moment we are aware, mindfulness is there. The moment we pay full attention to what we are doing, we are practicing mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness is the training of our attention. Just like when we go to gym to train our muscles, mindfulness practice trains our attention muscles. The more we train, the more we are able to remove our attention from unwholesome experiences. The more we train, the more we are able to put our attention on wholesome activities. So, it is definitely worthwhile to train our mind. And why is it so important to train our mind? A trained mind has the capacity to pause, to look at a situation from multiple angles, and to choose what is the best response. An untrained mind reacts automatically to situations. It doesn’t think. It just reacts. It’s called habits. So, what are the goals of practicing mindfulness? There are five goals from the original discourse.

The goals of practicing mindfulness

Mindfulness is the direct way:

70090.jpg To purify our mind from negative mental states

70090.jpg To overcome our sadness and grief

70090.jpg To relieve our physical and mental suffering

70090.jpg To help us to see things as they truly are

70090.jpg To remove all our dissatisfaction in life

These are the five goals. We should practice mindfulness to benefit ourselves and others, and not to achieve some selfish goals or harm others. Of course, we can practice mindfulness to relax our body and reduce our stress, but the ultimate goal should be to help ourselves and others to achieve the five goals mentioned above.

Right and wrong mindfulness

The first thing we should remember when we practice mindfulness is to do no harm. We should never practice mindfulness with a corrupted intention, like hurting someone mindfully. We should always cultivate an altruistic intention. Cultivating mindfulness with a corrupted intention is wrong mindfulness; while cultivating mindfulness with a pure intention is right mindfulness.

The ice-cream analogue

There is a big difference between learning and practicing mindfulness. Learning mindfulness is like you go to an ice-cream shop looking at all the ice-cream through the glass without tasting them. Practicing mindfulness is like you are holding the ice-cream and tasting it. Oh! This is the actual taste of an ice-cream. No matter how much you learn about what’s an ice-cream, once you taste it, you don’t need any explanation anymore. You have the direct experience of what’s an ice-cream. Going one step further, living mindfully is when you are tasting all the different flavours of ice-cream rather than just trying the vanilla flavour only. And when you drop your ice-cream, that is the opportunity for you to put all your mindfulness practices into good use. That is practicing mindfulness during difficulties. But hopefully you don’t drop your ice-cream immediately after you pay your money.

Tai Chi versus MMA

There was this video that went viral on the internet about a Tai Chi master who fought with an MMA fighter. The Tai Chi master was defeated within seconds. This points out the importance of actual combat experience. Just like the only way to learn how to fight is by fighting, the only way to remain mindful during life difficulties is to practice mindfulness during difficulties. There is no way around it. Difficulties are inevitable in life. Yes. Some difficulties can be removed. But for the unremovable difficulties, how ready are we to face them, to sit with them, and to respond to them with kindness and curiosity, without being knocked out by them within seconds?

Build your foundations of mindfulness

Before we talk about applying mindfulness during difficulties, we need to build a strong foundation for mindfulness first. Just like a building without a strong foundation can tumble easily, a tree without strong roots can topple during a storm, a makeup without foundation can be awful, practicing mindfulness without a foundation can be shaky. We can be knocked out easily by life situations. So, what are the four foundations?

The four foundations of mindfulness are mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind, and thoughts. Just as the practice of mindfulness can be broken down to the three components of intention, attention, and attitude, the traditional way of practicing mindfulness can be divided into four components – making effort, paying attention, knowing clearly, and letting go of negative mental states.

First, you make an effort to practice mindfulness. Your effort should be balanced, not too forceful, not too slack. Just like the guitar, it won’t be able to produce nice music if the strings are too tight or too loose. Second, you pay full attention to what is happening in your body and mind. Just like a farmer tending to his cows, he just watches the cows grazing on the open field from a distance. There is no need to get involved. Anyway, you are not the cows. No need to interpret what you are experiencing. Just observe the cows from a distance. Third, you clearly know what you are watching and doing. You clearly know things as they truly are, not what you think they are or what you want them to be. This clear knowledge complements your attention like how the yeast makes the dough rise in bread baking. Without the yeast, the bread won’t be that delicious. Fourth, as you make effort to pay attention to clearly know things as they are, and not what you want them to be, then you are already letting go of all your negative mental states, naturally.

In the following exercise, I will give you an example on how to practice mindfulness the traditional way. I will use the example of sweeping the floor because if you can practice this exercise regularly, you will make your wife or husband very happy. Even if you are not married, you can still make your parents very happy. A good mindfulness exercise is supposed to make yourself and others happy.

The four components of practicing mindfulness

The four components of practicing mindfulness are essential mental qualities in establishing mindfulness. Although these four components may not be mentioned explicitly in all exercises that follow, all four are required to practice mindfulness correctly. They correspond to the cultivation of the following four faculties – making effort (devotion), paying attention (mindfulness), knowing clearly (insight), and letting go of all negative mental states (concentration).

The four components of living mindfully

The four components of living mindfully are four extended practices of mindfulness that allow us to integrate all the mindfulness exercises into our daily life. They are crucial to help us live mindfully. Sometimes they are called the four refrains because they appear repeatedly after each mindfulness exercise in The Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. What are the four?

70090.jpg Paying attention internally, externally, and both

70090.jpg Paying attention on the arising, the passing away, and both

70090.jpg Paying attention non-reactively and continuously

70090.jpg Paying attention independently, without clinging to anything

Paying attention internally means paying attention to what is inside, such as our own body, feelings, mind, and thoughts. It can be called internal mindfulness. But what does paying attention externally mean? Paying attention externally means paying attention to what is outside, such as others’ body, feelings, mind, and thoughts. For example, instead of judging others, we simply pay attention to what others are doing. Just as when we are sitting down at a food court waiting for our food to arrive, we can observe how others are sitting, standing, walking, talking, or eating without judging them. If we find ourselves judging others because they are talking too loud or eating horribly, just bring our attention back to observe them without judgment. This is called external mindfulness. Mindfulness of both means being aware of our own experiences and the experiences of others, being aware of what is inside and what is outside, and eventually going beyond the division.

The second component of living mindfully requires us to pay attention to the changing nature of our experiences. For example, when we pay attention to our breath, we observe the arising of each in-breath, the passing away of each in-breath, and both the arising and the passing away of each in-breath. In this way, we gain the practical experience of the impermanent nature of the in-breath, Similarly, we can observe the impermanent nature of the out-breath, posture, activity, feelings, thoughts, and so on. Once we clearly know the impermanent nature of all our experiences, we no longer believe in the value of holding on to these experiences. We become disenchanted. We experience dispassion. Through dispassion, our mind can be liberated from the grip of holding on to experiences. Our mind can become free.

The third component of living mindfully is paying attention non-reactively and continuously. Paying attention non-reactively is sometimes called bare attention. It means paying attention without reacting or judging. We observe without getting involved. We don’t make a whole story out of what we observe. No mental comments. If we notice any comment, we come back to our bare attention. The continuity of mindfulness can be established in many ways. We can practice mindfulness bit by bit regularly, like five minutes a day. The trick is the regularity of the practice. If we practice regularly, no matter how short the time we spend in practicing, sooner or later it will become a habit. And mindfulness will arise spontaneously. We can also make use of mindfulness triggers to remind us to practice. Another way is to pay attention to the full length of the practice, like if we spend five minutes in practicing mindfulness, we pay attention to the full five minutes from moment to moment. One more way is to make use of mental noting. For example, when we breathe in, we make a silent note ‘in’. And when we breathe out, we make a silent note ‘out’. These notes help to anchor our attention to our breathing. Once our attention is strong, then we can drop the notes.

The fourth component of living mindfully is paying attention independently, without clinging to anything. Paying attention independently means observing objectively without being affected by our own thoughts and emotions, in other words, independent from our own preconceived ideas and feelings. Without clinging to anything means not holding on to any experience as ‘my’ experience. Just experience. But not ‘my’ experience. No ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘mine’. It is like living mindfully in the absence of any sense of self.

Practicing mindfulness and living mindfully

Now that we have talked about the four components of practicing mindfulness and the four components of living mindfully, let us have a look at the relationship between the two. The two can be combined into one. It is like integrating the practice of mindfulness into our life. First, we make effort to pay attention internally, externally, and both. Second, we practice paying attention to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and continuous mindfulness. Third, we clearly know the arising, the passing away, and both the arising and passing away of things. As a result, we let go of all negative mental states so we can pay attention independently, without clinging to anything.

Remember, all four components of practicing mindfulness are needed in every exercise that we are going to do in this book. And all four components of living mindfully are required to extend the practical aspects of every mindfulness exercise in this book to our daily life. The first four are mental qualities essential to establish mindfulness. The second four serve to integrate the practice of mindfulness into our life because they expand the scope of practice spatially (internal and external), temporally (arising and passing away), and psychologically (non-reactively and continuously), leading to psychological freedom (abiding independently and without clinging).

Mechanism-based practice of mindfulness

How to choose which foundation of mindfulness to start with? In the original teaching, there are some recommendations based on personal characteristics and current mental states. These recommendations can be our guidance but they are not fixed prescription. We have to find one foundation that is most suitable for ourselves at that particular period or at that specific point in time. Otherwise, we can also start with the first, followed by the second, third, and fourth systematically.

Formal and informal mindfulness practices

While formal practice refers to dedicating a specific amount of time to practice mindfulness, such as sitting down to practice mindful breathing for five minutes or lying down to scan our body parts for twenty minutes, informal practice refers to being mindful when we are going through our daily activities, such as eating, drinking, talking, washing dishes, sweeping the floor, driving, and so on. Both are important and complementary. The former helps us to cultivate the practical aspect of mindfulness in a controlled environment – in vitro mindfulness. The latter weaves our mindfulness practices into our daily life – in vivo mindfulness.

Growing sunflowers

Practicing mindfulness is like growing sunflowers. The instructions and exercises in this book are the seeds of sunflowers. But we cannot expect them to flower overnight. We need to water the seeds regularly. Not only that, we need to ensure they receive adequate amount of sunlight and not plagued by pests. Remember, old habits die hard. We have been reacting towards situation automatically most of our life. It is not possible to change our habitual reactions overnight. Change takes time. We need to water the seeds of mindfulness little bit by little bit. I repeat, the secret is little bit by little bit. Some people attend a retreat to practice mindfulness intensively, but when they come back, they stop practicing. That is not very helpful. But if we cultivate mindfulness little bit by little bit consistently, one day, mindfulness will become our new habit. It will arise spontaneously. Our mind will be blooming with sunflowers, every day. So, don’t expect anything in the beginning. Just practice, practice, and practice.

The habit loop

In order for us to form new habit, understanding how the habit loop works can be very useful. The habit loop consists of three elements: a cue, a routine, and a reward. The cue is something that triggers the routine. For example, when I walk past a fast-food restaurant, I may crave for a frozen drink. The cue can be the location, the sight of the restaurant, or a preceding action such as feeling thirsty immediately after exercise. The routine is the behaviour we wish to change. In this case, it is walking into the restaurant, queuing, and paying for the drink. The reward is the pleasure and satisfaction when I taste and enjoy the perfectly icy and refreshing drink. Sometimes we know what we do is not healthy, but it is difficult to stop doing things that we have always done. We need to know how to break the habit loop.

From this little poem, clearly, we can see that it is difficult to change old habits. But don’t be too hard on ourselves. Give ourselves time. To break the habit loop, first thing first, identify the cues, the routine, and the reward. Then, try the following tricks.

For example, let us say if we want to reduce our social media use, we can remove all the social media apps from our phone (remove cues). Every time we want to browse them, we need to download the apps and create new username and password (make it difficult). Once we use them, we punish ourselves by mopping the floor for one hour (punish our action). As for forming good habit, let us say if we want to live mindfully, we can use a lot of mindfulness triggers (make cues obvious). We can practice five minutes a day (make it easy). Once we practice, we immerse ourselves in the joy of being in the present moment (celebrate our action). On average, people take around eight weeks to form a habit. But of course, it also depends on the frequency of cues, the level of difficulty of the routine, and the intensity and meaning of the reward. So, if we don’t find ourselves feeling better after practicing mindfulness, it’s ok. Change takes time. We just need to do it, again, and again, and again. Don’t expect any quick fix. After all, mindfulness is not supposed to make us feel better, it helps us to change our relationship to whatever experiences that may arise, good or bad. If we feel good after one exercise, it is ok. It is a side effect. If we feel bad after repeating the same exercise, it is still ok. It is also a side effect. The secret of mindfulness is not to feel good, but is to practice, practice, and practice.

Mindfulness exercises

From the original teaching on mindfulness, there are thirteen exercises. The first six exercises (breath, postures, activities, body parts, body compositions, and the ultimate nature of the body) belong to the foundation of the body. The seventh exercise is from the foundation of feelings. The eighth is from the foundation of mind. The ninth to the thirteenth exercises (difficulties, self-obsession, bad habits, waking up from difficulties, the diagnostic formula) are exercises for the foundation of thoughts or reality since thoughts are the source of reality. The exercises in this book are more than thirteen, but they all are developed from the thirteen original exercises.

Similarly, exercises from the modern mindfulness programmes can be traced back to the thirteen exercises. Raisin exercise corresponds to mindful eating, which is part of mindfulness of activities. Body scan corresponds to mindfulness of body parts. Breath corresponds to mindful breathing. Movement corresponds to mindfulness of activities. Breathing space is a combo of all four foundations. Walking correlates with mindfulness of postures. Breath and the body correlate with mindful breathing. Pleasant and unpleasant events diary correlate with mindfulness of feelings and mind. It is a good exercise to capture the abstract nature of mental activities. Lake and mountain exercises are another two exercises about mindfulness of mind. Lovingkindness exercise is related to mindfulness of feelings. Sounds and thoughts belongs to mindfulness of bad habits. We will find out why later. Choiceless awareness is another combo of all four foundations. Sitting with the difficult matches mindfulness of difficulties and waking up from difficulties. RAIN is from waking up from difficulties.

The mindfulness ladder

The thirteen original mindfulness exercises can be illustrated by a mindfulness ladder with increasing complexity. Although we can perform the exercises based on our personal characteristics, current mental states, systematically or even randomly, the sequence of the exercises reveals a progressive complexity. The first step of the ladder is the breath. The breath is an ideal starting point because it serves as an anchor for our attention when our attention power is not strong.

From the breath, we proceed to our postures which include paying attention to our whole body. Subsequently, this whole-body awareness extends to every activity we go through during the day. Next, we become aware of the different body parts, whether we are staying still or moving. Going further, we become aware of the compositions of all body parts, leading us to become aware of the fact that all the elements and compositions of our body are subjected to various diseases, death, and decay – the ultimate nature of the body.

Having grounded our attention by establishing mindfulness of the body, we move on to mindfulness of feelings by first paying attention to the three affective qualities of pleasure, pain, and neutrality. Then, we differentiate these three affective types of feelings based on their ethical qualities, whether the feelings are the wholesome type of feelings or unwholesome feelings.

Then, we go on to pay attention to the mind. We start by paying attention to the ordinary states of mind, followed by paying attention to the more focused states of mind. After that, we are then ready to establish the fourth foundation of mindfulness – the thoughts or reality of our experience. We observe the difficulties or hindrances we face while we practice mindfulness. We observe how we can be obsessed with the different aspects of our experiences, how we react automatically due to our habits, and how to wake up from our autopilot. These exercises culminate when we become aware of the diagnostic formula underlying all stresses and suffering, including the methods that lead to the complete freedom from all misery in