I don't know if I should say something beforehand about meditation before we get started because we can always talk about the topic of meditation a little bit.
Maybe that's useful just to get some background and things.
One of the things about meditation practice that I think often people get wrong is that it's supposed to be a pleasant experience.
It's supposed to enhance your life rather than detract from your life and make your life worse.
This is something that I think people often don't quite get.
They think that meditation is some kind of ascetic or yogic practice where you have to maybe sit in pain or you have to go through a difficult experience.
You have to have a dark night of the soul and that kind of stuff and then it can finally break through at the other end because bang,
Dark night of the soul and you kind of go through some difficult things.
But that actually is nothing about the dark night of the soul in the words of the Buddha.
There's nothing of that at all.
The way the Buddha explains meditation practice is to start off with sila.
It's part of what sila means basically,
Ethics and kindness and these kind of things.
I'll talk a bit more about that later on.
From that sila you feel good about yourself.
I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
If you live well you tend to feel good about yourself.
You don't feel,
Yeah,
I'm living well.
Not in a kind of egotistical sense but in a sense of just being quietly satisfied with your own life.
Because you are satisfied with how you live then when you close your eyes there's possibility for joy to arise.
When you start watching the breath you do your meditation practice regardless of what that meditation is.
Joy can often arise in the mind.
From the joy comes more joy.
From that comes tranquility,
Comes more happiness.
Eventually you go to samadhi and insight on all these kind of things.
What is so fascinating about this is that sequence is all about happiness.
If you start out your meditation practice with having a lot of suffering and pain and problems you're never going to get to the happiness.
The critical thing in the beginning is to find this middle way where we don't torture the body.
Nor indulgence,
It's not such a big problem when you meditate anyway because you're sitting with your eyes closed.
But not torturing the body is really the important thing.
When you forget that right and you find that where your body settles down and starts to disappear then the mind comes into the focus because the body disappears,
The senses disappear and then you get the attitude right.
You have to have a positive attitude.
If you have a negative attitude the meditation is not going to go very far.
Sometimes if you have a negative attitude go and have a cup of tea first.
Don't have a beer,
I don't know what you do,
Have a cup of tea instead.
And then come back later on when you feel better about things.
This is such a basic thing.
In many ways it should be so obvious.
The Buddha taught the middle way.
Have you heard anyone not taught him how to the middle way?
Everyone heard about the middle way?
That's really good,
They're really well educated.
The middle way means no torturing and yet that's what a vast number of Buddhists do.
They start off by torturing themselves and then they get nowhere.
They wonder what is going on,
They give up on meditation and they end up becoming Christians or atheists.
Certainly not Buddhists anymore because Buddhism sucks and Buddhism is really bad.
This is what happens.
Anyway let's try this out and see what happens.
So,
Hello.
Yeah,
No it's fine,
Please come in.
Okay,
So let's just start off by just,
First of all just close your eyes.
And you will notice that when you close your eyes you're already shutting so much of the world out that it already starts to make you peaceful because so much of the input you normally have is kind of let go of at this particular point.
And then always start the meditation off by feeling the body,
Making sure first of all that you are nice and comfortable.
Again this is really important to be comfortable,
To be at ease so the body can fade away during the meditation practice.
And part of the comfort of meditation is to be relaxed and to be at ease and not to have any tensions in the body,
But to kind of allow the body to feel good.
And then when the body feels really nice and really bright then it tends to fade away.
And that is what we are trying to do in the meditation practice.
To start off by just having a general attention on the body and feel if there is any problem anywhere,
Any tensions,
Any pains,
Any stress or whatever kind.
And just very gently have a positive attitude towards yourself,
A sense of compassion and kindness and care.
And as you do that you allow those tensions to go.
Okay.
Okay.
And the trick of this very beginning of the meditation is always just to have a sense of gentleness towards yourself,
Gentleness towards the body and to be patient.
To sit back with the right kind of attitude and allow things to release themselves.
And as you do so you start to feel this beginning of the pleasure of meditation practice.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
And please stay with the body until you feel completely relaxed.
One of the important principles of Buddhism is that the body and the mind are very much connected to each other.
If you relax the body you also relax the mind.
It is a mind that tends to control the body.
By focusing on the body you can let go of the control and relax everything.
So just allow things to be.
Be very gentle when you do this.
No force is required at all.
The fast part is always the patient part.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
And to be able to relax fully it is so important to have the right attitude to the present moment.
So sometimes you have to encourage yourself just a little bit.
Nudge your mind if you like in the right direction.
Sometimes just think what a wonderful thing it is.
To be able to sit down peacefully with a group of like-minded people.
And you can be absolutely assured that the people who come to an occasion like this,
They are good people.
They are people who are trying to do something good for themselves and good for the world around you.
And what a wonderful thing it is to be able to share the space with people like that in peace.
Do something good for yourself.
Do something good for the world.
And let her sit back with that beautiful thought in your heart and allow yourself to feel even more peaceful.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
And as your body relaxes properly you find that your mental content comes into focus.
Please don't try to control your mind.
Allow your mind to be.
Your job is to be the observer rather than the controller.
The less you control the more you just are the passive observer.
The better it is.
Imagine yourself a passenger on the train.
As a passenger on the train you cannot control the speed or anything else.
All you can do is look at the scenery as it passes by.
No control.
In the same way in the meditation practice you are like a passenger.
You are watching and observing things coming and going.
Thoughts,
Whatever else there is.
No control.
Just allowing it to be.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
If you get this part of the meditation right you will notice how delightful it is just to allow the world to flow by without controlling anything.
Allowing things to arise and pass away.
Whatever it is coming into your mind and then going out again.
No reaction.
No judgement.
Nothing is right.
Nothing is wrong.
As you do so the energy starts to accumulate in the mind.
Because you are no longer depleting the mind by doing too much.
Just feel that sense of freedom and delight that comes from doing absolutely nothing.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
And if you are able to feel the delight of just sitting still and peaceful like this then you are gradually turning the present moment into the pleasant moment.
And notice that as that happens mindfulness is drawn to the present moment.
Because wherever there is delight the mind is always drawn to that.
This is how mindfulness comes to be.
This is really the beginning of meditation proper.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Now we are getting close to the end of the meditation.
Before we get to the end I will ask you to review the meditation as it has happened so far.
How do you feel now compared to when you started out?
If you feel a little bit more at ease and peaceful.
If you find that your mindfulness has become more established.
If you find that even a degree of stillness in the mind.
Ask yourself why that is the case.
Try to understand the causality which is the meditation practice.
And as you do so you get insight into the process of meditation itself.
Okay.
So that's the meditation for now so please come out.
