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Day Retreat: Freedom Beyond Selfing
When we practise mindfulness meditation, we begin to notice more clearly the stream of thoughts that circle endlessly in the mind. These thoughts tend to gather around the assumed centre of a fixed, solid, and unchanging self. Yet, with practice, this sense of self starts to appear less concrete and moreas a construction of thoughts and assumed beliefs. We begin to recognise what Tara Brach calls “selfing” – the habitual pattern of thought that orbits around the idea of a separate self. It often carries the flavour of inadequacy and the restless urge to be elsewhere, to become someone different, or to trade what is unpleasant for what is pleasant. Meditation invites us into a freedom beyond this selfing, rather than through it. True freedom is not found in striving to become what we imagine we need to be. It is also not about getting rid of the self or stopping thinking. It is discovered by seeing the whole cycle of selfing for what it is: the arising and passing of conditioned phenomena. The freedom we long for is not a special or added state, but the simplicity of a mind released from excesssive preoccupation with the identified self. In this release, the self becomes “decentred” – no longer a concrete starting point – and from here, genuine freedom and peace are possible. If you would like to explore the theme of the retreat further you can listen to this talk by Tara Brach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D5l24xTY8o
Meet the instructor
Paul McNamee
Paul is a psychology lecturer, curriculum designer and mindfulness course facilitator. He has worked on the design and delivery of mindfulness and wellbeing courses for a number of years and co-authored ‘The Mindful Heart’ a resource book for teachers introducing mindfulness in the classroom. He is passionate about how an understanding of mindfulness and traditional insight meditation practices can give us a deeper sense of connection and oneness with nature. He believes that in this process both our sense of isolation and mental suffering can be relieved as well as helping to inspire action that heals our connection with the earth.
Patrick Jones - Course author
