Hello,
Dear friend.
In this example,
I want to explain exactly what we do during meditation and illustrate what an agitated mind is.
Once,
While I was in Thailand creating this course for you,
I walked past rice fields and noticed water that had pooled near the field,
Forming a small pond.
As I got closer,
I saw that the water was crystal clear,
Super transparent and calm.
I could even see the bottom and various creatures peacefully swimming there.
It struck me that everything was in such a harmonious natural state,
Which is essentially where our consciousness should often reside,
In a tranquil state,
Just like this pond.
The water was gently flowing,
Things were happening very very slowly,
But everything was in harmony,
Almost as if everything was exactly as nature intended.
Then,
I picked up a stick and stirred up all that harmony,
Dragging it a couple of times across the bottom,
And suddenly,
The entire earth began to rise to the surface.
It became clear to me what happens when we're under stress,
Especially while living in the city.
Something similar occurs.
In our minds,
Due to stress,
Everything starts to rise to the surface.
We become more vulnerable and distracted by the speed,
Noise and other irritants.
We get easily triggered and we react,
Causing all those impurities buried deep within our consciousness.
By the way,
We have quite a lot of them,
All kinds of mental pollutants,
Like anger,
Regret,
Guilt,
Self-criticism or any irritation,
To bubble up again,
Just like the murk in the pond.
And the more stress we experience,
The more of this murk surfaces.
When I looked at the pond,
I noticed that there was no trace of clarity amidst that murk.
In such a state,
It's hard to even imagine what pure consciousness is.
The murk simply prevents us from seeing and feeling it.
As I gazed at the pond,
I observed that the murk started to spread further and further,
Expanding and increasing,
Just like we,
Humans,
Tend to do.
So what do we need to do?
What are we actually working on?
We observe how that clarity manifests,
How everything gradually calms down.
The murk settles down after a while.
This analogy applies to our minds when we sit down to meditate,
Observing all the mental impurities.
Just like with the pond,
I stood there and simply watched the murk,
Doing nothing,
And it gradually settled.
We allow this to happen.
If we start getting agitated again,
Even during meditation,
Reacting to past mental impressions,
To sounds,
To any unpleasant sensations,
Or to anything we don't like,
The process of reacting begins anew.
It's like stirring with the stick again,
And the murk rises to the surface,
And we find ourselves trapped in the illusion again.
The more we react,
The more murk there will be,
And the more we remain in ignorance,
Avidya,
Unable to see what lies beyond that murk.
With experience in mindfulness,
We dive deeper into the murk,
Into those mental impurities,
Going straight to their root for deep cleansing,
So there's nothing left to rise to the surface.
Only with a clean,
Clear and calm mind can we dive deep and see those impurities without reacting to them or stirring them up again.
Because if we revert to the old ways,
We become stressed again,
And the mind becomes tense and agitated.
Eventually,
We start to get irritated,
React,
And once again,
Trap ourselves in ignorance.
With practice,
We can observe how these impurities dissolve naturally through non-attachment – virāga in Pāli or vairāgya in Sanskrit.
By the way,
We have an audiobook on our website about the Indian philosophy of non-attachment – vairāgya.
This is a natural process.
If we don't react,
Then ignorance,
Meaning the impurities,
Slowly evaporate.
If we accept them and let them be,
We can notice how one unpleasant state transitions to another,
All coming to the surface in the form of thoughts and physical discomfort.
The key is to not react.
Our task in this course is precisely to observe the breath.
First and foremost,
We need to calm the mind,
Enter a peaceful state,
And learn not to attach to it.
This is crucial,
Because only with such a state,
With concentration,
Samādhi,
Meaning with an attentive mind,
Can we move forward on the path.
So here's our task.
Remember,
By calming the mind,
While we simply observe the breath,
It will automatically calm down.
In other words,
Without diving into various illusory mental states of the past or the future,
We stay as much as possible in the moment and do what we're doing right now.
If the breath comes in,
It comes in.
If the breath goes out,
It goes out.
Remember,
We're just with the breath.
The breath is our best friend,
We're one-on-one with the breath.
Aside from the breath,
Nothing else exists for us in meditation.
Besides all of this,
I want to convey more deeply how things are for an ordinary person in our time,
Expressing it in a more visual and simple language so that everyone can understand the cause and effect relationships of an inattentive,
Anxious person.
We are currently in the 21st century,
Where the court has become a smartphone screen,
Continuously scrolling through newsfeeds,
New photos and videos.
You,
My friend,
May not even realize it,
But some people spend half a day or even longer glued to their screens,
Chatting,
Liking others' posts and living other people's lives,
Admiring how beautiful you are.
Have you ever thought about how much attention is wasted?
Answer me,
Where are you truly in this game?
Okay,
Truly.
Just look at how short your concentration has become.
Scrolling through feeds,
You can only manage a like,
But how about picking up a book?
Or starting to study yourself,
Diving deep,
Immersing yourself in something completely without getting distracted as quickly as you're used to?
Some of my friends claim they love multitasking,
Acting like they're multitaskers and brag about it,
Saying it's a good thing,
But that's not true.
In such a fast-switching mode,
From one task to another,
Your internal battery drains and in the end,
It feels like nothing significant was accomplished.
Most multitaskers abandon their tasks halfway through because they lose interest in continuing.
That's where the Anapanasati course comes in handy for you,
Working on concentration through mindful breathing.
With this practice,
You'll be able to dive into one task,
Enjoy the process because you'll be aware of its details,
And you'll be able to immerse yourself deeper into any task and finally see it through to completion.
Finally,
Engage with another audio recording to enhance your journey.
Once you've done that,
You can move on to the audio meditation.
That's it.
Whenever you're ready,
Feel free to dive into the next audio recording and keep moving forward.
