Try to be friendly toward your experience. Of course the attention wanders. Try not to take it personally; it’s not your fault. That’s just what the untrained mind does. It will take some time and perseverance to train the attention to stay with the chosen object of awareness.

Mindfulness of the Mind: Process. A guided meditation instruction from Refuge Recovery, Pg 242.⁠

Learning to enjoy the absence of pleasure and pain is key on the meditative path. ⁠

'Mindfulness of the Feeling Tone' is a guided meditation instruction from Refuge Recovery, Pg 239.

⁣As you continue to direct mindfulness to the present-time experience, the next level of practice is to bring attention to the different parts of the body.⁠⁣

Mindfulness Meditation Instructions Pg. 236 of Refuge Recovery ⁠⁣

Meditation is the cornerstone of our path.

‘Mindfulness of Breath and Body’ meditation instruction from Refuge Recovery, Pg. 236

While you are training the mind in present-time awareness of the breath, with the mind’s almost constant wandering and returning, it is important to bring a quality of kindness and understanding to the practice. Try to be friendly toward your experience. Of course the attention wanders. Try not to take it personally; it’s not your fault. That’s just what the untrained mind does. It will take some time and perseverance to train the attention to stay with the chosen object of awareness. It is necessary to be patient and kind to yourself in the process.⁠

⁠

Easier said than done. But when you get caught (judging yourself, being too critical, or doubting the process), attempt to bring a friendliness to your relationship to the thoughts. And then simply redirect the attention back to the breath.

‘Mindfulness of Breathing’ meditation instruction from Refuge Recovery, Pg. 233

Life doesn’t have to be so unsatisfactory. This is the good news: there is a cause to our confusion and suffering—it is our relationship to craving—and that cause can be altered to bring about a different effect. Notice that here, we don’t say it’s craving itself that’s the problem. That’s just a natural phenomenon of the conditioned heart- mind. No, the problem lies in our addiction to satisfying the craving. We all experience craving. When we have a pleasant experience, we crave more of it—we wish for it to increase or at least to last. When we have an unpleasant experience, we crave for it to go away. We feel the need to escape from pain, to destroy it and to replace it with pleasure. This is especially true for the addict, who has set in motion a long-term habitual reaction of avoiding pain and creating pleasure with substances or behaviors he or she became addicted to.⁠

Noah Levine, author of Refuge Recovery, discusses the path of heartfulness. "As we walk the path of Refuge Recovery, we gradually uncover a loving heart. Everyone has the ability to recover, love, forgive, and be compassionate. Ability is our birthright. The only issues are desire and willingness."

Noah Levine, author of Refuge Recovery, discusses the eighth factor of the eightfold path: Concentration | Meditations.

The eightfold path:

• Understanding

• Intention; We renounce greed, hatred, and delusion

• Communication/Community

• Action/Engagement

• Livelihood/Service

• Effort/Energy

• Mindfulness/Meditations

• Concentration/Meditations

Noah Levine, author of Refuge Recovery, discusses the seventh factor of the eightfold path: Mindfulness | Meditations

The eightfold path:

• Understanding

• Intention; We renounce greed, hatred, and delusion

• Communication/Community

• Action/Engagement

• Livelihood/Service

• Effort/Energy

• Mindfulness/Meditations

• Concentration/Meditations

Noah Levine, author of refuge recovery, discusses the sixth factor of the eightfold path: Effort | Energy.

The eightfold path:

• Understanding

• Intention; We renounce greed, hatred, and delusion

• Communication/Community

• Action/Engagement

• Livelihood/Service

• Effort/Energy

• Mindfulness/Meditations

• Concentration/Meditations