MB 39 Peace Energy Paves The Way To Transcendental Progress

I hope you'd like to settle yourself now for some meditation and make sure you're sitting comfortably enough to be able to sit for a long long time without having to move around too much close your eyes gently,

As softly as you can as usual we take a few good deep breaths to ourselves breathing intentionally deep,

So that we can relax the mind as well as the body we breathe not only for relaxation,

But also to bring the awareness gently back to the body allowing our breath to become softer as we relax and the position we adopt should maintain our back fairly straight and our neck upright sometimes we assume our body is relaxed,

But when we come to check we find there are still places where tension lingers on we take a few moments to examine every single part of our body to make sure there's no remaining tension that might encroach on our little bubble of relaxation we relax our shoulders,

From there we continue to relax our arms,

Down to our hands and our fingers relaxing our torso and legs,

Down to our feet and our toes and we'll find that if we can get the body to loosen up,

Then the mind will loosen up as well there are many signs that we need meditation in our lives and most of them are to do with the calming of the mind it may be because you're anxious about the past or because you worry about the future you may feel guilty when you're not busy or you may still be trying to multitask in spite of all the mistakes you're making you may worry about good experiences coming to an end or you might simply want to live life more mindfully but whatever your motivation from here on in we're going to let go of anything that's still on our mind by not thinking of those things so you can imagine that your mind is slowing down,

Becoming softer even if it's not yet quite still so with the consciousness inside the body,

Put aside any worries or concerns in the mind and conjure up a sense of happiness and joy inside the mind like tiny particles completely filling our body and mind from there we imagine that inside our body is just an empty space and within the space of our body,

In our mind's eye at least we conjure up a picture of the sun shining perhaps the full moon,

Star,

Crystal ball,

Whatever comes easiest to you in order to come to the center,

We just reach with our awareness nuzzling and nestling our awareness up against the feeling inside the body center so we allow our awareness to gravitate down towards the abdomen not rushing but reaching with the awareness towards the center of the body which is like a point of reference or an anchor for the mind that from now on will help prevent the mind from wandering the bright object at our center may be shining bright like a spotlight or a bright sphere or it may be vaguer than that in the beginning the imaginary inner object may be more of a feeling than something we see we may feel the presence of that bright ball of light rather than seeing it and whatever form the object takes,

We stay with it graciously accepting any form it may take in the meantime our awareness continues to nuzzle and nestle up against the center of the bright sun inside us and we observe as if actually inside the sun rather than looking down at it we accept it as it is while bearing in mind the success factors that tell us the best way to observe in meditation namely the 4 Cs,

Concentration and comfort imbalance,

Consistency and checking afterwards to confirm that we are on the right track we remain with this bright inner light we have uncritically for now during the meditation itself we suspend judgment allowing the awareness to remain unperturbed at the center the longer the mind has an unbroken connection with the center,

The more we can connect with the profound sense of peace that comes from inside if our mind slips outside the bright center,

Then that sense of peace will diminish in the meantime we keep bringing our awareness back whenever it's distracted in order to merge with the bright light if the mind wanders,

We check in again with where the mind is bringing it back to the center point or at the center of the bright light if necessary in the meantime we keep the mind neutral and free of questions or commentary if any new experience arises,

We notice it and know more,

We accept the experience as it is we maintain an observant mind that just accepts what the experience is there's no need to find an explanation for everything,

We just observe and accept and if we should have thoughts in the mind,

We do our best to ignore them or at least not to elaborate on them and that's why one of those people who has so many thoughts that it's impossible to avoid getting entangled in them in which case you may need to make use of the traditional mantra,

Hearing the sound of the words samma arahan,

Repeated over and over again in the mind as if the actual source of the sound is down there at the center of your body along with the inner object so samma arahan,

Samma arahan,

Samma arahan lightly,

Gently and continuously with a special lightness of touch,

Maintaining our inner object whether it's something we see or something we feel always at the center of whatever is there,

Even if it's darkness we can be at the center of it the important thing is the lightness of touch,

We continue to maintain our attention on track in the center of the body each to our own meditation for a few more moments in silence until we come to the appropriate time to begin with the meditation don't forget if the mind wanders off onto other things each time you realize simply bring your attention back again to the center of the body as before in the meantime we continue to keep the mind in stillness at the center and as the peace energy keeps flowing in we begin to notice a feeling as if we are becoming lighter feeling light is an indicator that peace energy is continuing to accumulate in the mind because energy unlike matter has no weight if we have a lot of peace energy our bodies will naturally feel less solid little by little even without intending it we feel as if we are becoming lighter this energy lightens up our sense of being leaving us with a feeling of weightlessness and transparency that spreads throughout our body and connects even beyond the limits of our body and we will feel its expansion in spite of the novelty of the experience we maintain a mind free of questions or commentary we don't encourage a skittish mind because a skittish mind is unable to connect with the peace energy meanwhile we remain at the soft nucleus of the inner experience for a few more moments in silence so little by little we continue to connect with a positive feeling inside ourselves as the mind slows down gradually slowing down to touch the center space little by little it will feel natural for the mind to remain still especially immersed in the peace energy when the mind slows down we can more easily touch that peace energy each time our mind awareness touches at the center the energy inside us will start to flow pervading us with that tide of peace energy we might not yet see the energy but the feeling will be clear and the feeling of that peace energy continues to feed into our meditation of course the subtle changes in the mind are not yet awakening or enlightenment but yet the merit energy being gradually accumulated paves the way toward transcendental attainment without this energy we can't go any deeper in our meditation which is why we need to remain present allowing ourselves to be filled to the brim with this peace energy so we bide our time as the mind gradually fills with peace energy a process that may require our patience in the meantime we rest the mind emotionally in order to connect with the stream of energy peace energy on the level of the mind has several transformative effects including cleansing the mind of greed,

Hatred and delusion raising the quality of the mind,

Bringing happiness,

Stabilizing the mind making the mind more flexible and radiant,

Increasing the potential of the mind allowing better decisions to be taken,

Allowing more insightful analysis and ensuring that our thinking becomes more thorough and comprehensive,

Noble and deep for all these benefits we first need to allow the peace energy to kick in if we try to get ahead of ourselves when we don't have enough peace energy then we won't get too far eventually in our meditation we'll end up getting stuck so let us remain in the center for a moment absorbing the peace energy with the mind that has standstill before long the sense of lightness will gradually dawn on us although some might dismiss merit energy and happiness as a lower path the importance of their groundwork should never be underestimated whether it be finding the center within yourself or balancing body and mind realizing the limitations of the physical existence,

Sparking joy in life or sharing that joy with others all of these stages of the path are,

Apart from being a pleasure in and of themselves are slowly paving the way through the accumulation of peace energy towards higher transcendental attainments the nature of these so-called lower pleasures is to lead you towards the transcendental without losing or abandoning the sense of comfort and well-being that you've already discovered in your meditation so even while in the midst of a meditational lightness and joyousness in life you'll start to recognize the mundane world as somehow incomplete something in the conventional assumptions about life and the world that is off or doesn't click for us at root the thing holding us back from an accurate understanding is our own egoic structure the false identity,

The fictitious self the presence of craving and the sense of being unsatiated seems to be what is ruining the world so we suffer from egotistical attachment to the self,

Attachment to our body attachment to family or friends or society sometimes we are able to sidestep these forms of attachment but we are still attached to a sense of craving for results in meditation because the process we're talking about here is something that's ingrained in every single fiber of our being but with the help of our newfound meditational calm,

We can slowly pull back,

Open and part the veil of delusion and in this respect the effort to succeed in meditation and success itself are sometimes as different in nature from one another as a rainbow is different from the rain shower that caused it to provide the missing pieces in our understanding,

We have to rise above the craving the craving to have,

The craving to be or craving not to be in other words the mind needs to be neutral but comfortable if your mind is truly neutral you'll have the feeling if I see something in my meditation that would be good but if I see nothing in my meditation that would also be good especially when there's a feeling of expansion in your meditation without any anticipation of what will happen next you'll also find that any day when you feel happy all day long and there's nothing to annoy you then you'll be able to meditate particularly well without the temptation to try to possess enlightenment or grasp at it we need to go beyond the craving the Buddha referred to as the second noble truth or grasping,

Tanha that never-ending thirst for more of everything and all consuming and self-perpetuating assumption that makes us believe we need more which explains why everyone in the world seems to be busily consuming and eating up the whole world the tendency to grasping has created a deluded identity in every person that makes them believe they have the right to destroy natural resources,

To quench their unending thirst for more this tendency to greed ingrained in the mind of every person would gradually be uprooted and cleansed by meditation as our meditation dovetails gently from the warm fluffy feeling to a change in the way we look at the world that aligns more closely with reality there are many paradoxes surrounding the art of meditation some examples of this are the gateless gate and non-duality,

Zen,

Koans like that or one hand clapping but no less confusing for the conceptual minds the paradox of benefiting without benefit being something we can own which is particularly true for meditation there is also a paradox to gain benefit when the benefit is no longer personal or egotistical so from its roots in the feel-good merit energy,

Meditation starts to have a permanent transformation in the way we see the world even as merit energy that keeps on running through you,

It allows us to see through the delusions in the illusions of self and have greater potential to be present there is more inspiration and energy throughput available to us as we meditate more deeply and there is greater merit energy that we are able to access through our body-mind structure no longer feel caught up by identification with dramas,

With the many problems that people find themselves in it offers us a greater scope of compassion,

Love,

Creativity,

Lightness,

Harmony and joy because it's not stuck in a web of delusion propped up by fear all of these things become more accessible to us a lot of the concerns around death will have fallen away by now because what we have already experienced in meditation is a death of the ego in a way which is why they call it to die before you die and so now that that has been experienced,

So much more of life is available because if you aren't afraid of death,

Then you aren't afraid to live either it gives us the ability to co-exist with paradox life no longer needs to make conventional sense because once you've been through this process of transformation everything makes sense in this new very different way there is more magic in life,

The magic of paradox is alive and well because now you've seen through what everyone else has ever told you about what you are and who you are you perceive more clearly than previously that you're overcoming the limited myopic human consciousness of the egotistical structure from this stage forth beyond all these limits,

You'll find yourself empowered positively integrating body,

Emotions and spirit in alignment that renders life much more positive where you can wake up every day and jump out of bed and feel happy and make your way through everyday life with a bounce in your step fully realizing now how merit energy can pave the way toward transcendental progress in our meditation we focus our mind in this way for a few more moments in silence until we come to the appropriate time you you