Vipassana meditation (mindfulness meditation) is the practicing egoless awareness. As you are able to achieve a penetrating gaze of mindfulness (and this takes practice!) the ego can be eradicated. This does not mean you no longer exist!

At the beginning, the ego is in full command of the meditator’s body and mind.With further meditation practice, however, the mindfulness watches how the ego functions and as it penetrates to the roots of how the ego functions, the habits of ego weaken and mindfulness extinguishes these causes of suffering, one by one.

The confusion at the beginning is usually: “Well, if mindfulness is egoless awareness, but the ego is in full control, how do we get the mindfulness in there strong enough to even begin?”

There is, in every moment, always some mindfulness present. The trick is to gather sufficient mindfulness to be effective and the easiest method at the beginning is to simply weaken those habits of ego that are most harmful. In that way, mindfulness has less resistance to battle and clarity of mind, peace of mind, comes much faster.

What habits of ego are the most harmful?

As you sit and watch your ego function, you will quickly realize that greed and hatred are the primary habits of the ego process. Both ‘grasping to’ (greed) and ‘rejecting against’ (hatred) are always present in the ego, and the stronger they are, the more trouble mindfulness will have.

You can check this out easily, yourself. If you sit down to meditate when you are in the midst of some emotional drama, a very strong obsessive attachment, you will find it very difficult to meditate. When your mind is so caught up in its latest scheme to finally make it rich, you will spend your entire meditation period making plans and not meditation at all. Ego is in control.

Since life is short, and your meditation moments are rare, it is good to develop the intention not to waste this precious time.There is a Buddhist tradition that has developed a fabulous tool which allows you to set these barriers to peace of mind and mindfulness aside temporarily, so that you can pursue the great goal of removing the roots of suffering from your mind forever.

You see, although it seems we can do two things at once, in fact, it’s just that the mind does one thing at a time very fast. So fast we cannot see the space between the two things. But you can use one idea to cancel out another because of this: basically, you can’t be developing negative habits while you are developing positive habits. They cannot occupy the same space in your mind.

This is not ‘conditioning’ the mind, or self-hypnosis or ‘thinking positive’. This is training the mind, taking control and putting yourself in the saddle on your wild mind. This is like taking medicine that will relieve your symptoms temporarily so that you can work on the illness itself.

First of all, you begin by eliminating all thoughts of self-hatred as well as self-condemnation. You first allow good feelings and good wishes towards oneself. Many Eastern meditation teachers have been shocked at the level of self-hatred Westerners have, so this is absolutely crucial to your well-being.

Then you let good feelings and wishes flow out to those closest to you, from your family, loved ones, and on out to friends and acquaintances. Gradually you allow yourself to send a flow of those same beneficial vibes to your enemies and to all beings everywhere including animals. This alone, even without deeper meditation, can be a powerfully transformative exercise for your own well-being.

Sit in a comfortable position in a quiet place and say the following sentences to yourself, really feeling the intention.

• May I be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to me. May no difficulties come to me. May no problems come to me. May I always meet with success. May I also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

• May my parents be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

• May my teachers be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

• May my relatives be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

• May my friends be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

• May all indifferent persons be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

• May my enemies be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

• May all living beings be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

Take three deep breaths and lay aside all your worries just for the period of meditation. Just sort of drop them in a pile and tell them to sit quietly for a bit. If they should come back into your meditation, just look at them for what they truly are: distractions. Look at the thought, label it “thinking” and let it go back to its place. Refuse to ‘play’ in that moment.

This practice of Universal Loving-Kindness is recommended for just before you sleep and just upon arising. It helps you sleep well and prevents bad dreams. In the morning, it makes you more friendly and loving during the day.

Always keep in mind that you practice loving-kindness for the healing of your own heart and mind, in the same way that you practice meditation for your own attainment of peace and liberation.

The more you practice loving-kindness within your own mind, you naturally behave in a more loving way towards others, without prejudice or hatred. Your very behavior actually helps others to behave in a similar way, which reduces their paind and suffering.

True compassion is loving-kindness in form for one who does not really have loving-kindness is of no help to anyone elseAlways recall that your thoughts are what are transformed into speech and also into action in order to get the results you expect. If any of your thoughts, words or actions cause harm to yourself or other or even to both, then stop and ask yourself, “Am I really mindful of loving-kindness?”.

As a result we highly recommend quite strongly that a person practice loving-kindness before you start ones serious practice regarding meditation. Say the proceeding passages with extreme mindfulness and with deep feeling.

As you recite these phrases, feel really authentic loving-kindness inside of yourself first and after that share this with others, for you cannot share with others that which you don’t have inside yourself.

Remember, however, these are not magic formulas. They just don’t work by themselves. If you use these that way, you will simply waste time and energy. However, if you truly take part in all these phrases and invest them with your own loving energy, they are going to serve you nicely.

Give them a try. Find out for yourself.