MA 05L Meditation On Wisdom For Life (Live)

So if you'd like to start by finding a comfortable position for yourself in meditation,

Some of you might prefer to sit cross-legged on a meditation mat with your right leg over your left leg,

Or you can sit on a straight-backed chair.

In either case,

Your right hand should rest on your left hand and the index finger of your right hand should touch against the thumb of your left hand with your hands resting palm upwards on your lap.

Close your eyes very gently,

Just as if you are only half closing your eyes,

Similar to the way you might close your eyes just before going to sleep.

There's no need to squeeze your eyes closed and make sure there's no pressure around your eyes,

Because if your eyes are closed in a gentle way then the rest of your body will follow suit.

In any case,

At the beginning of a meditation,

Generally we scan down through the whole of our body,

Making sure each and every muscle is relaxed.

From the top of our head down through our face,

Relaxing the muscles there,

Our jaw,

Our shoulders,

Both arms and our hands and fingers.

Continuing on down,

We relax all the muscles of our torso,

Especially the muscles across our tummy,

Before relaxing both legs all the way down to our feet and our toes,

Till our body is comfortable enough for us to forget about it,

Allowing us to turn our awareness inwards to focus instead on the inner feeling within our body,

A sense of warmth and well-being and inner space that we would normally refer to as our state of mind.

In order to relax our state of mind further still in preparation for the meditation ahead,

We allow our mind to fill with a sense of happiness and joy,

Allowing our mind to feel refreshed,

Pure,

Clear and bright,

Free of any sort of worries whatsoever,

Letting go of them all completely,

Forgetting about all the things in our everyday lives,

So that our mind can become completely still.

And at this point we might imagine that inside our body is free of any organs or tissues and muscles or bones,

Or as if inside our body is just a hollow cavity,

Rather like a transparent bubble with nothing on the inside.

And we allow the focus of our attention to come back within the space of this empty body of ours,

Somewhere inside us that feels for us like the point of greatest contentment,

Without worrying too much about the precise position where we've focused our mind.

Allow our attention to rest at the point that feels the most comfortable for us,

The place that feels the easiest.

And later as the mind relaxes further,

Then the mind will find its way to where it really needs to be.

But in the meantime,

If we get the place just right,

We'll feel as if the solidity of our body is melting away into the atmosphere around us,

Dissolving into a feeling of lightness,

Or as if we were sitting alone in empty space,

As if our body has disappeared altogether,

Leaving just a feeling or a sense of awareness.

And people don't know what to do next when they reach this point in their meditation,

Where the body seems to have disappeared.

In fact,

All that needs to be done is to continue to rest the attention at whatever point feels the most comfortable for us,

Starting off with the mind located there,

And as body and mind come more into balance,

Then we'll start to realize that the mind is automatically realigning itself with the actual center of the body.

Especially when starting out,

Some people find it helpful to anchor the mind by imagining a bright clear object,

Possibly the size of a pinpoint,

Or like a star in the sky,

As if that image appears at the point inside ourself where the mind has come to a standstill,

In which case we should keep the object in mind,

Gazing at it continuously and softly,

Never attempting to stare at it,

As if we were looking at it out of the corner of our eye,

Almost unintentionally.

And if we can observe it gently in this way,

Without using too little or too much effort,

Before long the image will start to become clearer all on its own.

However,

If we use too much force,

Then it will disappear.

We use too little effort,

Allowing ourselves to become distracted,

And we'll find that the image will also disappear.

So either way,

Too much effort or too little,

The inner object will disappear.

So our task in learning to meditate is to find the optimum amount of effort by which we can hold the object in mind the whole of the time.

And this is the real skill that we have to build up and work upon in the course of our meditation.

All we have to do is simply allow our mind to remain free of thought,

At the center of ourselves.

Free of thought means maintaining a state of mind without any questions or doubts arising in the mind,

Almost as if we were an inanimate piece of putty,

Unable to think,

Or like someone who's never had any thoughts on their mind before.

Such freedom from thought is an invaluable aid to our meditation progress.

If you find that you're unable to think,

Then this will stand you in good stead,

All the way from starting out in meditation to much more advanced stages.

This is because the sort of inner experience arising in meditation comes from a place in the mind that's beyond conceptual thinking.

It's the sort of knowledge that arises from a mind that is free from thought,

A sort of knowledge that is pure and bright,

More intuitive in nature,

A knowledge that arises almost directly from the mind,

Rather different from the modes of learning that we're normally used to,

Where we have to study and memorize,

Read and write,

To increase our knowledge.

The sort of knowledge we're talking about is the wisdom that comes independent of thought.

In fact it can only arise when the mind is completely free of thought,

From a mind that is at a standstill,

And it's a sort of wisdom that arises along with a sense of inner brightness in the mind,

Almost as if that brightness allows us to see more than before,

Uncovering the hidden truths within the mind,

Helping us to understand more accurately about the realities of life in the world,

The sort of knowledge that we can acquire from the inside,

So it's not something that we need to use our unusual study skills to develop.

The starting point for us is to focus our attention anywhere within the body,

And later when the mind becomes settled,

It will make its way to the actual center of the body all by itself.

As the mind approximates more closely to the center,

It will give us a feeling of being alive and awake on the inside,

A completely different set of feelings than we'd normally encounter in the mundane run of events in our life.

Using only a very gentle attention to keep the mind in place,

Almost like an intention on the off chance that it will bring our mind closer to the center of the body.

But once we start to recognize a sense of what it feels like to be at a standstill with the mind at our center,

It'll be easier for us to return to that point and stay there the next time round.

But for now we keep our mind on track at the center of ourself,

While keeping our mind also free of thought if possible,

Applying our mind lightly and gently at the center of ourself for a few more moments in silence until we come to the appropriate time.

We continue to keep our mind on track at the center of the body the whole time,

Lightly,

Gently and continuously.

For some of you it may be best to imagine a visual object at your center,

For others it may be better simply to rest the attention at the center of yourself while observing whatever arises spontaneously.

If you're imagining an inner object it may be something like a bright sun,

A full moon,

A star or a diamond,

Or it might be something simpler like a flower,

Because any image can serve as a point of reference to anchor the mind at the center of the body.

When imagining the object we need use only the very gentlest of effort.

If you find you haven't yet struck the right balance when focusing,

Perhaps using too much or too little effort,

Then your body will tell you about it.

Too much effort and you'll end up with tensions across your eyebrows or across your shoulders,

Or you might even end up with a headache.

If you find that your fingers are curling up or your abdomen is tense,

Then it's likely that you're trying too hard,

Where if you succumb to boredom or you find yourself looking at the clock,

Then again these are signs that you haven't struck the right balance.

There's no need to struggle on if you have these sort of symptoms,

But rather readjust your technique,

Relax yourself and find a sense of ease in your meditation.

Find a way of meditating that you feel you enjoy,

Where you're enjoying the journey more than thinking about the destination.

Once you're back on the right track,

The telltale signs will be a sensation of bodily lightness and of expansion within yourself.

Your mind will feel light,

Pliable and easy to work with,

And you'll feel that time passes more quickly than it really does.

You may feel that you don't want the meditation to come to an end,

Or as if you'd like to extend the length of your meditation,

Almost as if you're glued to your meditation mat.

When your meditation is going well,

Your body will automatically set itself up into a position of poise,

Where the body seems to inflate itself into the most elegant and upright of postures.

You'll feel contented with your meditation,

Almost with a smile on your face.

And all these are indications that you're on the right track with your meditation technique.

On the contrary,

If the more you meditate,

The more upset or depressed you feel,

Then this would show that we've not done the right adjustments on our mind before meditating.

If you feel meditation is causing you to age prematurely,

Then you need to recalibrate your meditation technique.

But in the meantime,

Don't lose confidence of success in your meditation,

And train yourself continuously while being observant of all the things that are happening.

And in the meantime,

Don't lose confidence of success in your meditation technique,

And train yourself continuously while being observant of all the things which aid or obstruct your progress.

Once you've found the right balance,

Body and mind will become clear and bright.

Simply putting our mind at the center of the body will cause the mind to feel as if it can go deeper,

Connecting with the pure elements inside ourselves,

And we will be able to meditate more easily.

So all we need to do is train ourselves continuously and avoiding any lethargy that might put us off getting down to meditate in earnest.

And if ever we have a day when our meditation seems to be going particularly well,

Then we should extend the length of time for our meditation,

Because it's on that sort of day that all the effort we've invested up until now has been made worthwhile.

So we should continue our meditation if we feel our meditation is going well,

And shouldn't limit ourselves to fixed ideas about the length of time we need to meditate.

Because if we can make some sort of breakthrough in our practice,

It will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

But instead of just remembering the experience,

We should also try to remember the method by which we reach that experience on any particular day,

So that we can retrace our steps on subsequent meditations.

So the secret of meditation is to adjust whenever we feel that we have strayed from the path,

While keeping the mind radiant the whole of the time.

If we feel sleepy,

Fatigued or tense,

We find ourselves on the brink of nodding off,

Then we should try to catch ourselves just at that point.

If we feel aches and pains,

Then we just change posture.

If the stream of thoughts in the mind is unending,

We can either use the mantra or just open our eyes and close them again softly.

But in the meantime,

We practice our meditation and try to make meditation a habitual part of our daily routine,

In order to touch upon the transformative inner experiences that lie within.

So for now,

Each to our own meditation practice,

In silence for a few more moments now until we come to the appropriate time.