MA 13 Unburdening The Mind From Stress & Depression

So,

If you like to close your eyes very gently and find a comfortable position for yourself in meditation and we take a few deep breaths to ourselves.

Breathing into the full extent of our lungs and then breathing slowly and smoothly out again.

Once again,

We breathe the cool refreshing air from around us.

As we breathe out,

We may feel that we're letting go of any worries and concerns which we previously had in our lives.

From there,

We take a few moments to adjust our posture and to make a scan down through the whole of our body,

Relaxing each and every muscle as we go.

So relaxing the muscles of our forehead,

Our eyebrows and eyelids.

Double checking to make sure that the way we've closed our eyes is as gentle as possible.

Never squeezing our eyes closed,

Closing our eyes in just the same way we might close them to go to sleep.

Allowing the muscles of our face to become soft.

Relaxing our jaw,

Taking special care not to clench our teeth together.

Relaxing our neck and letting our shoulders drop to their natural height.

Relaxing our arms,

Forearms and then our hands and fingers.

So that even the way our hands rest in our lap is as light and gentle as possible.

Continuing on down,

We relax all the muscles of our torso,

Chest,

Trunk and our abdomen and relaxing both legs all the way down to our feet and our toes.

Till at a certain point,

We feel satisfied that no remaining part of our body has any sort of tension anymore.

If we do notice anywhere where tension still lingers on,

We do our best to relax it as far as possible.

Almost to the point that our body seems to melt away into the atmosphere around us.

So we have no more worries about our body anymore,

Allowing us to turn our attention inward to focus instead on the feeling inside us.

A sense of warmth,

Well-being,

Inner space that by any other name we could call our state of mind.

In order to empty up a space inside ourselves for the meditation,

We put aside any worries about our studies,

Work,

Friends,

Family,

Any regrets from our past or any plans for the future so that we are settled a hundred percent in the present moment and on the task in hand.

And to set the scene for our meditation,

We conjure up a sense of happiness and joy in the mind.

If that doesn't come naturally to us,

We can maybe cast our mind back to a time in our lives when we felt truly happy.

Conjuring up that same feeling all over again until we have a warm,

Fuzzy feeling inside us.

We allow that feeling to grow and spread inside ourselves,

Until there's no space left inside us for any other sort of thought.

And when we feel relaxed both in body and in mind,

Very gently using no effort at all,

Imagine our whole body to be nothing but an empty space or a hollow cavity with no organs or tissues,

Muscles,

Or bones.

Or instead you might imagine your body to have been transformed into a sort of transparent bubble with nothing on the inside.

When you're ready again,

Very gently using no effort at all,

Remember back to that picture of the bright shining sun,

Which you had a few moments ago,

Maybe yellow or golden in color white or red.

Doesn't matter if the actual picture is not as clear as you normally see it with your eyes.

Even if it's fake,

Accept it anyway.

There may be some people who feel the warmth of the sun,

But don't actually see it again.

You can use that tactile sense of warmth as the object of your meditation.

And in this case,

We allow that bright picture or that feeling of warmth to make its way gently downwards inside the space of our body,

Almost as if we were gradually breathing it down to the deepest point of our breath or gently swallowing the object down into the very pit of our stomach.

And once the bright object or the sense of warmth reaches that point at our abdomen,

There's no need for us to move it anywhere else anymore.

We maintain it gently with a feather-like touch at the very center of ourselves.

If we find our awareness wandering away onto other things,

Sounds around us,

Distractions around us,

Each time you realize we just bring our attention back again to the center of our body as before.

The inner object disappears,

We can conjure up a new one,

It's not a big deal.

When we're new to meditation,

We'll find our mind wanders often,

But each time you bring it back,

It'll become a little bit easier to keep it in place the next time around.

Until before long,

We'll find that our awareness is spending more time centered than it is wandering,

At which point we'll start to have a intuitive feeling of the mind being able to stay at the center almost by second nature.

As for the possible problem of there being thoughts in the mind,

The thoughts are at a low level,

You can generally get away with just ignoring those thoughts by not encouraging the thoughts.

And we'll find that one thought will no longer lead to a second or a third,

It will die down into silence.

For some of you,

It may be that the thoughts don't just go away quite as easily as that,

In which case you may need to take it to the next level by making use of that mantra,

The thought blocking strategy I taught you earlier,

Which is to hear the sound of the words sama,

Arahang or equivalent,

Coming up as if you hear them like a silent music coming again from the source of the sound at the center of your body.

Sama,

Arahang,

Sama,

Arahang,

Sama,

Arahang,

Over and over again,

Lightly,

Gently,

Continuously,

Until at a certain point in your meditation,

You'll start to find that the thoughts have died down,

Or you may find yourself forgetting the mantra because it's not necessary to you anymore.

So if that happens,

Then just be content to remain in silence with nothing but that inner object at the center of yourself.

For those who are making progress,

You start to find that even though you started out with a particular object,

Very similar to the one you planned to imagine,

As the meditation progresses,

The inner object will start to change on its own,

Maybe changing in shape,

Size,

Color,

Or intensity,

Still remaining at the center of yourself but changing in its appearance.

Some people experiencing this sort of thing imagine that they have somehow failed in the meditation but on the contrary,

It's a sign of progress.

And what tends to happen is that as the inner object changes,

Then the byproduct is this some subtle sort of unburdening of the mind along the way,

Or many other things which were causing upset to the mind before,

Or just generally burdening or cluttering up the mind,

Gradually let go of little by little,

Leaving nothing but the pure nature of the mind itself,

A sense of clarity,

A sense of transparency,

A sense of inner radiance,

A sense of wisdom,

Which is experienced as a deeper sort of understanding or gut feeling,

Not thoughts from your head but rather a sense of knowing that arises from within,

As if you knew it all along but had somehow overlooked it before now.

So if we are able to practice meditation regularly,

Then it will increase the benefits experienced as a result of the meditation.

Generally what I recommend for those who feel that meditation is doing them some good is to try to find a little time each day to sit down in a quiet place,

Place where you're not going to be interrupted,

At a time of the day when you feel enough energy not to fall asleep and just meditate for 20 minutes.

Relaxing the body,

Relaxing the mind,

Focusing inwardly on your inner object and using the mantra if necessary to overcome any thoughts in the mind.

If you meditate each day,

Then you'll notice that little by little your progress in the meditation will move gradually forward.

Of course there will be good days and bad days,

But on that roller coaster of life,

The general trend will be towards a more stable sense of happiness in your life and less reflexive response to the ups and downs of life around you.

So although meditation is something which healthy people can practice,

For those who are suffering from clinical conditions,

Maybe depression,

Stress,

Even ones that they are taking medication for,

If they are able to practice meditation alongside their general treatment,

Then generally it will help their convalescence,

Help their prognosis because it's like instead of just dealing with illness from the outside,

You are actually helping your own case by working with the illness from the inside.

There are some sorts of meditation where there are less than beneficial side effects,

But most of these are to do with focusing outside of yourself.

So it's of hypnotic fusions with meditation.

And if you emphasize the center of the body down at the number seven,

Which I showed you earlier,

Then generally it's a very safe form of meditation,

Which a person,

No matter what their mental health can get some benefit from without any adverse side effects.

So we sit just for a few more moments in silence,

Lightly,

Gently,

Keeping our mind on track at the center of our body by means of our inner object,

Keeping our mind free of thought by means of our mantra if necessary.

And we continue to meditate in this way just for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time.

Okay.

Picking up.

Thank you.

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