Mindfulness of breathing at the London Buddhist Centre

Buddhists have been practicing mindfulness for more than 2,000 years. Matthieu Ricard, the happiest man in the world (measured in a laboratory!) is a Buddhist monk. For some reason, I’d never visited a Buddhist centre, so I decided to rectify this last week and paid a visit to the London Buddhist Centre in Bethnal Green.

London Buddhist Centre

The LBC run drop-in lunchtime classes (donation only) Monday-Saturday. I took the newcomers class with Subhadramati, a Buddhist Order Member who has been practising meditation for more than 25 years. We were led to a shrine room, a quiet room with a beautiful gold statue of the Buddha in a seated meditation pose.

Shrine room

Subhadramati began the class with a five minute introductory mindfulness practice. We sat cross-legged on chairs or cushions, and Subhadramati invited us to become aware of our posture, the weight of our bodies, and the contact of our limbs and feet with the floor. We then brought our attention to our breath, noticing the flow of air in and out of the body. It always amazes me that such a simple practice can be so effective in just a couple of minutes: as my breath became deeper and my body remained still in a seated pose, I felt a sense of calm and focus that can be really hard to locate when I’m travelling around central London!

We then progressed onto the formal Buddhist practice of mindfulness of breathing. Mindfulness of breathing has four progressive stages:

1. In the first stage you use counting to stay focused on the breath. After the out-breath you count one, then you breathe in and out and count two, and so on up to ten, and then you start again at one.

2. In the second stage you subtly shift where you breathe, counting before the in-breath, anticipating the breath that is coming, but still counting from one to ten, and then starting again at one.

3. In the third stage you drop the counting and just watch the breath as it comes in and goes out.

4. In the final stage the focus of concentration narrows and sharpens, so you pay attention to the subtle sensation on the tip of the nose where the breath first enters and last leaves the body.

We spent around five minutes on each stage, punctuated by the sound of a Tibetan bell at each interval. What I particularly loved about this practice is that it is very easy to relax into: there are no complicated breath techniques, it is just a case of observing what is happening in the body, and watching the flow of the breath. Also the four different stages provide a point of focus, which prevents the mind from wandering…which is something that I’ve definitely experienced with other practices!

At the end of the practice, Subhadramati explained that mindfulness of breathing is one of the two main Buddhist practices. The other is ‘loving kindness’, which is designed to help the practitioner develop a more compassionate attitude towards themselves and others. At the LBC lunchtime sessions they practice mindfulness and loving kindness on alternate days throughout the week.

Would I recommend mindfulness of breathing at the LBC? Absolutely. I’m hoping to try out the loving kindness practice soon!

Monet and mindfulness: the garden at Giverny

Claude Monet, Irises, 1914-17

For my first post on mindfulness in London, I decided to look for a non-traditional way of practicing mindfulness. I used to work near the National Gallery, and always loved visiting its grand rooms full of beautiful paintings on my lunch break.

So, what does visiting a museum have to do with the practice of mindfulness? To practice mindfulness is to fully engage with the present moment in a spirit of non-judgemental curiosity, to bring a heightened sense of awareness to your current physical and mental state and your immediate external environment.

Adults in western society typically spend the majority of their time analysing the past or planning for the future. To practice mindfulness is to consciously step outside of these thought patterns and engage with the present moment in order to enrich our current experience.

Looking at a beautiful painting is a fantastic way to practice mindfulness: particularly paintings that allow us to reconnect with nature. Philosopher Alain de Botton even argues that in a secular society art and culture could replace the role of organised religion, in providing us with a chance to think, reflect and understand life better: watch his ‘Sunday Sermon’ here.

Room 43 of the National Gallery houses paintings by French impressionist Claude Monet. Monet’s water lillies are particularly good subjects for mindfulness: they are colourful, peaceful, natural and beautiful – a sight for sore eyes after staring at a computer screen all week.

Monet created many works throughout his life, but in 1883 when he moved to a house in Giverny with a huge garden and water lily pond, he began to focus almost exclusively on paintings of water lilies, irises and a Japanese bridge that he had built especially for the garden.

Claude Monet, The Water-Lily Pond, 1899

In his book on Monet, Christoph Heinrich describes Monet’s relationship with his garden: “It was his peaceful realm, a place of meditation, hot in the sun, with dragon flies flitting about and frogs plopping into the water if they were disturbed where they rested amid the reeds.”

Not all of Monet’s garden paintings are on display at the National Gallery: quite a few of them are currently in US galleries. Of the paintings that are in Room 43, my favourite is Water-Lillies, Setting Sun, but I would recommend that you visit the gallery and decide which one you like best!

Claude Monet, Water-Lillies, Setting Sun, 1907