TWIM Origin
Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi was the innovator of the Six R's methodology. The Six Rs is an internal part of TWIM as a distinctive method. Bhante spent decades of intensive meditation. He studied the ancient Buddhist texts and gradually formulated a sequence of actions that eradicates the causes of distractions. I was developed to simplify the actions described in early translations of "Right Effort", key principle in early Buddhist text. Right eEffort discribes not only how to meditate but how to deal with unpleasant mental and emotional states that arise in meditation and daily life.
Bhante discovered that the key of Right Effort was to consciously engage specific actions that changes unwholesome and punleasant mental states and feelings with wholesome and pleasant ones. He went on to explain that unpleasant thoughts and feelings were rooted in habitual endemic urges or craving. The goal of Right Effort was to learn how to recognize craving and next how to abandon or release it before it triggered ingrained compulsions that would inevitably lead to unpleasant consequences. |
Beginning instructions audio clip. (50 minutes)
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He taught that craving manifests as tension and tightness in the head, neck, and shoulders. Relax was the next step. By noticing tension or tightness in the body and mind, the manifestation of craving is abandoned by relaxing or softening the muscles in the head, neck, and shoulders. After relaxing, he advised smiling. He encouraged little smile on the corners of the mouth. "Smile with your heart, simile with eyes" he would often add. "This is a smiling meditation" he often said. Smile and make it sincere and keep smiling as much as possible.
Bhante taught that the root conditions and causes of unhappiness are not hard wired in the nervous system. He pointed out that it was conditioning or programming akin to asoftware virus that was the problem and that it can be deconditioned. He discovered that by applying effective meditation principles using the Six Rs, that habitual craving deconditiones in favor of pleasant and peaceful states of mind. When craving is arested, the mind is composed in stillness and balance. Only then it lets go and is liberated.
"TWIM is an "all the time practice" --Bhante Vimalaramsi
The Six Rs activates and balances the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) with the central nervous system (CNS). During meditation, the Six Rs may be activated every few minutes for beginners. The PNS becomes activated while resting, meditating, and during sleep. The PNS functions to maintain health with regulation of digestion, heart rate, breathing, the immune system, and overall bodily health. It decreases stress responses by releasing hormones like dopamine while inhibiting hormones, and chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol, trigger compulsions, anxiety, or anger and other stress reactions. The activation of the PNS has a feeling of relief, expansion, warmth, and calm. When the PNS is dominate, the "flight, fight or fornicate" default mode is temporarily offline ready to be triggered by perceived dangers, hunger, or sex.
There is a mental reset when the Six Rs are used in meditation and in daily life. People that use the Six Rs discover that wholesome mental states are the base conditions for emotional resilience and mental agility leading to liberation by direct insight. It culminates in the development and fulfillment of seven key awakening factors. These are the essential conditions for release for craving and the goal of meditation.
There is a mental reset when the Six Rs are used in meditation and in daily life. People that use the Six Rs discover that wholesome mental states are the base conditions for emotional resilience and mental agility leading to liberation by direct insight. It culminates in the development and fulfillment of seven key awakening factors. These are the essential conditions for release for craving and the goal of meditation.
Applying the Six Rs cultivates brain and heart coherence. It aligns the CNS and PNS in homeostasis. This is the optional functioning for biological conditions. The benefits of heart and brain coherence directly affects behavior:
1. Feeling whole and wholesome. 2. Feeling like you have a place the World 3. Feeling peace an contentment 4. Feeling free of stress 5. Feeling vitality and energized 6. Feeling spontaneous and creative 7. Feeling connected to people and nature 8. Being emotional resilience 9. Being intuitive 10. Being intellectually agile and clear The heart and the brain are deeply connected, and you can sense this connection by practicing heart-brain coherence techniques.Find more about the science and benefits of brain and heart coherence at Heartmath Institute and Alleviant Integrated Mental Health. AMAZON BOOK REVIEWS
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