ABSTRACT
The sitting practice is introduced in a way that builds upon the foundation of skills and attitudes participants have developed via the body scan and mindful movement. A typical sitting practice seeks to cultivate awareness using a particular sequence of 'objects' of attention. In a mindfulness sitting practice, focus is directed towards a suitable sense-based anchor such as the breath. This chapter gives an overview of intentions common to all MBP sitting practices and then briefly summarises how specific intentions may be linked to particular formats. The common and more specific learning intentions are intrinsically interrelated, but it is helpful to track the evolution of the learning intentions in the sitting practices and note how this maps onto the developing themes of the curriculum. An important consideration concerns the use of the breath as the anchor in sitting meditations. Open-awareness practice enables participants to perceive and feel both the space within which experience arises and the experience itself.
