Working+draft

  Its nine o' five class ends in two minutes, youve been watching the clovk since eight thirty counting every second till the bell. When the bell rings relief does not come the anxious clench in your stomach has not subsided. Opening your planner you see you have two essays to right tonight, The clenching gets worse and you want to break down and cry in the middle of the hallway. Stress is one of the hardest problems most kids must attempt to overcome in highschool. It can become an allincompasing zone in which you can not seem to escape. Escape is possible thoughe, and it doesn;t involve anxiety medication or a therapist. Meditation is that profound releif. In the words of Paramahansa yogananda you "Learn to be calm and you will always be happy". Meditation takes on two main forms when it is generally discussed. The first form follows the Buddhist tradition and is known as mindfulness meditation. The second follows the Hindu tradition and is known as mantra meditation. Through these practices a person can obtain the calm needed for happiness. BEcause mindfulness meditation helps improve focus and reduce stress it is a great asset for high school students Buddhist meditation techniques at their core attempt to promote improved mindfulness. Mindfulness as defined by famous mindfulness meditation teacher j on Kabat-Z inn is " **  paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.    ”(wild mind) .  This practice involves the practitioner to pay attention to the selves on purpose. However, what must be understood is that the terms mindfulness and awareness can not be used interchangeably. For instance a person may be aware that they are doing a task with out being purposefully aware of that task. In order to cultivate mindfulness you must be purposefully aware of your point of meditation.   **     **   In this meditation lineage the point of meditation or what you are being purposefully aware of is your breath as you inhale and exhale. When a person is sitting being mindful of their breath their mind will inevitably wander. As the mind goes through normal thoughts and feelings such as anger, self pitty, fear etc, you must not let yourself become apart of those thoughts and feelings. The more you allow yourself to become apart of the emotions the more control it will have over your actions. Every person has scene a friend or acquaintance become so over come with emotion that they either lash out physically, or break down crying. The Buddha's original description of mindfulness preaactice is "one must begin by focusing the attention on the breathing and then go on to note all other physical and mental phenomena that arise,"(Gunaratana 69). This means that instead of indulging in each thought and feeling you must simply note that they are there. When a thought occurs in your mind, you cannot shun it away, if you do this the thought will still exists and will come back later in your meditation. What a pratictioner must do is watch the though as it goes through the mind and let it run its course. Eventually the thought will run out and we will not longer be reinforcing those ideas into our minds. Ram Dass describes his in his book __Be Here Now__ //a//s "youre standing on a Bridge watching yourself go by"(Ram Dass 108) This process of not indulging in the minds wanderings gives the practitioner space between themselves and their emotions. The more this is practiced the more emotions are something that occur to you and less something that you are. For instance a long time meditator may say anger is passing through me as opposed to I am angry. **    **   However, what must be remembered in this practice is that there is no good or bad. If you find that you are indulging in your thoughts you can not allow yourself to feel that you are a bad meditator or that it is a waste of time. Author Bhante Henepola Gunaratana writes "meditation takes gumption"(Gunaratana 7). This practice is so challenging because the most challenging thing in the world to face is yourself. If you judge yourself you are not being mindful and will not be able to acquire the benefit meditation delivers. On the other side you must also be weary of seeing your self as a higher being. Because meditation gives you calm space to be in, a sense of superiority can easily enter the mind when you come in contact with a person trapped in their emotions. What must be remembered is that this thought like all others should not be indulged in. Every person takes their own path to enlightenment and everyone must respect other peoples journey's.  **