Guided Meditation With Ven. Pomnyun Sunim (June 28, 2020/S12)

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

I am from the North Korean region.

I am from the South Korean region.

It's really hard where I am in the Southern region of Korea.

I am sweating even though I am still sitting down.

I am sweating even though I am still sitting down.

I wonder what the weather in your parts of the world looks like.

I am sweating even though I am sitting down.

I have in front of me three questions from last week.

I have three questions from last week.

Let us look at the questions first.

I have three questions from last week.

Has it been that long I started doing meditation?

I have three questions from last week.

I wonder if there is a point in time when I should feel that meditation is helping me.

I have three questions from last week.

I know that the Venerable says we should not try to do well.

I have three questions from last week.

But shouldn't a part of meditation be that it helps me improve my life?

Yes,

We do engage in meditation to help our lives be more free and helpful.

But it doesn't come about automatically just because we desire it.

So we have to create the conditions upon which that improvement,

That helpfulness happens.

So what I am saying is just because you want to do meditation well doesn't mean meditation is going to happen well for you.

In order to have a good meditation.

You need to relax your body and mind.

Focus your mind at the tip of your nose.

And be awake to the breathing in and out of your breath.

If you lose that focus,

Regain the focus.

Do not try to do well in this.

And do not tense up and try to do well.

And do not despair and give up because you are not doing well.

Just do it consistently,

Constantly.

And then your peace will achieve,

Your mind will achieve a certain peacefulness.

In the beginning,

Random thoughts will try to distract you.

But the more significance you pay to it,

It will actually increase in its destructive ability.

And do not try to convey any meaning to those distractions.

Just focus on your breath and the power of this distraction will dissipate over time.

That's why I tell people do not try to do well.

Second question.

I try to follow random thoughts.

And there were times that my mind was running off here and there.

Then I came back to focusing my attention back on the breath.

Then I became aware how calm my mind has become.

It was as if I was observing these things happening all the while focusing and remaining focused on the breath.

The calm continued for a while.

And I'm still at that state even as I write this question.

Am I doing awareness the right way?

It's a little difficult to say whether this is the correct way of doing it or you're not in the correct way.

Because we're trying to move away from the performance-based perspective on how we evaluate what we do.

We're trying to move away from that.

And if you are,

Realize that you're tense and try to relax.

And if you are,

Allow that exertion to dissipate.

And examine yourself if you're feeling bored.

And if you are,

Allow yourself to move through that ennui and refocus on your breath.

So if we had to evaluate how well you're doing in meditation,

The best way is not to whether you are consistently being mindful or calm.

It's whether how you overcome these challenges and obstacles of various distractions,

Investigate and then refocus.

If you are not in the correct way,

Then you're not in the correct way.

But going back to the original question,

If we had to evaluate whether you're doing this well or not,

I think it's safe to say that you're on the right path.

And I encourage you to be consistent and constant in how you do this.

The third question.

I'm understanding meditation is to be awake to the inhaling,

Exhaling via the tip of my nose.

But sometimes when I meditate,

I inhale through my nose but exhale through my mouth.

Awakening means that I am awake to the breath of inhaling,

Exhaling.

Is it OK if I'm awake to the inhaling via the tip of my nose,

Exhaling via my lips?

Is this the wrong way?

It's not to be awake to a specific motion but to be awake to the current state as is.

So to be awake to the breath is not the smell or the sound or anything else of the breath.

It's the sensation of the breath that you're being awake to.

So remember when sometimes you want to check whether a person is alive or dead as the person is lying down,

Sometimes you put your finger up to the tip of your nose to see if you can feel the breath.

And it's the sensation of the touch of the air moving over your fingers that lets you know whether the person is alive or dead.

Yes,

Because we have a very sensitive sense of touch at the tip of our fingers.

And of course you can do the same thing to feel the breath through your nostrils if you place your finger nearby.

But you don't necessarily have to do that because there are other sensations to realize that you yourself are breathing if it's your own breath.

So sense the stars.

So another way to be a recognition of your breath is to focus on your belly and feel the rising and the pressing of the belly as you breathe.

This is a very important way to be aware of your breath.

The second way to be awake to your breath is to sense the breath through your respiratory organs,

All the way from your nose through the respiratory tracts into your body.

And the easiest way to be awake to your breath to feel that sensation is through your nose as it moves through your respiratory tracts into your lungs.

But if our ultimate objective is to be awake to the motion of the breath,

It's actually easier to feel the movement of your belly as you breathe.

But be mindful of the breath itself is not our ultimate destination.

That's the beginning,

That's where we start,

But our destination and objective is to expand the sensations and the awareness.

So what I'm saying is that being mindful of the breath as it moves in and out of your nose is the most useful way to start this journey.

And that's why it's the preferred method to start training,

To start introducing to meditation by focusing on the breath through the nose.

And if in the midst of practicing,

If your breath naturally comes in through the nose and leaves through your mouth,

All you have to do is just be aware that's happening.

As long as you don't hold the intent that you have to breathe out through your mouth.

And if you actually are aware that the breath is leaving you through the mouth,

You can just close your mouth.

Then naturally the breath will leave you through your nose.

And it's a natural way for your breath to come in through your nose and leave through your nose.

And recognize the breath is long or short or rough or calm,

It's not the how of you breathe,

It's being mindful to the fact that you're breathing in this way.

And as time goes,

Your body and mind will be relaxed and the breath accordingly will also be peaceful.

And at that point,

Actually it's easy to lose focus on the breath.

And random thoughts will distract you.

So it requires even more concentration and focus.

Until you focus so that you sense your way to even the minutest sensation of the breath.

At that state of concentration,

You'll be able to sense all the subtle sensations that are occurring in every corner of your body.

And you'll feel alive with the sensation that every single cell of your body is alive as well.

At that point,

You'll be very hypersensitive to all the subtle sensations throughout your body.

And you'll sense even a slight shift in your mind or emotion will affect the sensations.

And you'll see how your mind reacts to those sensations and your mind reacts with dislike or light to the subtle sensations it feels.

So in that state of calm and hypersensitivity,

You'll witness the interactions among your sensations,

Your mind,

Your feelings,

Your emotions,

How they affect each other.

In that sense,

Later on,

You don't have to be sitting down to experience this.

You'll be able to maintain this mindfulness as you move around.

And as you talk to somebody else,

As you engage in some labor,

Your mindfulness will stay and allow you to sense these interactions among the various attributes of your body.

And in that state,

You are mindful to the actual generation of certain emotions or sensations that you can see and allow it to dissipate,

Whether instead of suppressing or repressing it once they have ballooned.

Yes,

And you can see the difference between the two.

But if you are not aware of the difference between the two,

You will be able to see the difference between the two.

But since at this point we can maintain that mindfulness even while sitting down in the quiet,

That's why we have to practice.

Yes.

Now let us begin.

Strain your posture.

And relax your body and mind.

Close your eyes comfortably.

And do not try to intently shape your breath,

But allow your breath to come naturally and just be awake to it.

Breath comes in and breath goes out.

Sometimes the breath is long,

Sometimes it's rough,

Other times it's short.

Know that the breath is coming in and just observe it coming in long or coming in short or coming in however,

Just observe and witness.

You hear noises from outside.

Do not allow your mind to drift towards that noise.

You can't get rid of the noise.

Just be mindful of the breath even in the midst of those noises.

And there are various sensations happening throughout your body.

And there's pain,

There's ache,

There's itchiness.

Do not allow your focus to drift to those sensations,

But focus on the breath.

And sometimes you might feel drowsy.

But even in the midst of that drowsiness,

Maintain focus on the breath.

You'll be distracted by past memories or future plans.

But do not try to imbue them with any meaning.

Let them drift by while you maintain your mindfulness,

Your focus on the breath.

If you lose that focus,

Know that you lost that focus and regain the focus on the breath.

In the midst of relaxation,

Do it constantly and consistently.

If you lose that focus,

You will be distracted by the breath.

And do not exert and do not blame yourself for not doing this well.

Do not let your mind get in the way.

And just do it.

You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you How did it go?

Please upload your comments to the chat window.

And if you post your questions,

We'll try to address them next week as well.

Please upload your comments to the chat window.

And if you post your comments,

We'll try to address them next week as well.

Please upload your comments to the chat window.

Please upload your comments to the chat window.

We're going to have twelve meditation sessions from two o'clock to nine at night.

I hope to meet you next month.

The end of every day.

And there will be a Q&A session to address your difficulties or challenges you experience during meditation.

But those who want to participate must ensure that you have the wherewithal in your house to allow you to relax and concentrate on meditation.

And if you live by yourself,

Then you are eligible.

So you have to protect yourself,

Ensure that you are not disturbed inside your room and you provision the room so that you are able to have the condition to allow for meditation.

You have to eat lightly.

And you can't take any phone calls for five days.

We are going to follow the same exact rules that you would have followed if this was an offline in-person meditation event.

And if you live with your family,

You have to have a commitment from your family that will not disturb you while you are meditating inside your room.

Otherwise you have to go to a motel room for five days or go out in a tent in a camp with Wi-Fi availability.

There are people who want to do this with fellow practitioners.

You are allowed to do so.

However,

There can't be more than three of you in that group.

And if at all possible,

I want you to use the room to yourself.

Because due to the ongoing corona pandemic,

You should try to avoid living in the same quarters as others.

There are other terms and criteria for eligibility that we will be sending out via other communication channels.

Please take a look at it carefully before you apply.

Sometimes it is difficult to lose it by yourself to try to maintain that discipline.

That's why only apply if you feel committed and confident that you can maintain that rigor,

That discipline throughout five days.

So now we have a lot of comments that I see now on the chatting window.

I was perspiring a little.

My child perspiration and my extremities have swollen.

So there are many cases frequently when your hands kind of swell up because you have lowered them and blood kind of pools.

But it's not a huge issue.

Everybody who said they were distracted by their thoughts.

I was focusing really well today and the end came really swiftly.

I almost feel like I just woke up from a dream.

First time I actually made it to the end.

There's a lot of ache in my legs.

We still have many comments coming out.

I hope you have a good day.

We shall address your questions next session.

Thank you very much.

And with this,

Let us conclude.

We'll see you next week.

Thank you,

Jason.

Thanks Jason for your interpretation.