Friday Night Guided Meditation

0:00 And thank you for those lovely announcements. Sometimes I wonder, you must get stressed out, each one of you, by listening to all those things you're supposed to be going to. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:16 So many things which are on offer for you, this event and that event. One of the nice things about all the events and ceremonies which we do here, the best thing about all those ceremonies is learning how to meditate and be peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 0:16 Highlight the passage at 0:16

0:33 Sometimes recently when there was an international organization, we're holding a seminar on peace. I said, what do you mean a seminar on peace? Well, you know, you get these professors and experts teaching us about peace. Wouldn't it be better instead of listening to shut up and everyone be quiet and find out what peace is? Why do we need to explain it? Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

1:03 Sometimes it reminds me of how far we've come away from peace in our world. We need to be explained what it is, rather than listen and hear it as it is. It's one of the things I've seen in my life, how peace gets more and more remote from people. You can't just sit down somewhere without someone asking you what you're supposed to be doing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03

1:28 But anyway, we'll say more about that later. But right now... Report an error in the passage at 1:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28

2:00 I think it's true that each one of you can resonate. With whatever peace which I develop inside my mind. And when we all resonate with the feeling of peace, not the words of peace, but what it actually is, then the effect of that peace and that stillness can be far more powerful. We can even relax and be still. So let's get started. If you're not already sitting, whoever you are, It's okay to sit on a chair if you need to. Sit on a cushion, sit on a stool, sit on a chair. Report an error in the passage at 2:00 Highlight the passage at 2:00

3:11 What happened to the armchair? Oh, the armchair's over there. Your seat's over there. Okay, next time. Report an error in the passage at 3:11 Highlight the passage at 3:11

3:23 So however you can be comfortable, that's the best. Report an error in the passage at 3:23 Highlight the passage at 3:23

3:47 And when you're sitting down, the first thing which I advise... It's to bring the attention to the comfort of the body. In order to be calm, quiet, still, peaceful, it's nice if the body is not causing problems. Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

4:11 So I'm getting old now. So the first thing I always do when I start meditating is feeling the body. Letting my mind know each part of the body, starting from the very bottom of the body, The feet, going up the legs, to scanning upwards. And as I scan upwards through my own body, it's an opportunity to check that everything is properly positioned and comfortable. Report an error in the passage at 4:11 Highlight the passage at 4:11

4:50 And that means that by the end of the scanning body awareness meditation, my body feels so relaxed. At the moment it's not. Because I haven't even started yet. So now, I start with my feet. Can you feel any sensations in your feet, say in your toes, or the balls of your feet, or the heels, or the skin on your feet? Report an error in the passage at 4:50 Highlight the passage at 4:50

5:27 How are they? Report an error in the passage at 5:27 Highlight the passage at 5:27

5:31 Often when I'm sitting cross-legged on the floor, that sometimes... A toe, a big toe may be squashed under the weight of the other foot. I'm always aware of that. Now I check my feet. One of those toes is a little squashed but not too much. I don't need to adjust it. Report an error in the passage at 5:31 Highlight the passage at 5:31

5:59 I will always be willing to adjust because I know that kindness and that mindfulness together are what makes. The meditation is powerful. When the meditation is powerful, you can feel its beauty and you can see its great results. Report an error in the passage at 5:59 Highlight the passage at 5:59

6:28 So how does your feet feel? Are they relaxed to the max? Report an error in the passage at 6:28 Highlight the passage at 6:28

6:38 And it often learns and practices quite regularly actually. When I'm aware of things like the muscles in my feet and I can relax them at any time, Report an error in the passage at 6:38 Highlight the passage at 6:38

6:55 Then the feet become calm, peaceful, healthy and never cause me any problem. You become like a dancer, so aware of where your feet are that they are not in any danger. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:17 And I can feel those feet. They're much more relaxed than when I started. Kindness and attention work. Then I move it further up my body to my ankles. Report an error in the passage at 7:17 Highlight the passage at 7:17

7:35 People can so easily trip or hit their ankles or fall down. In order to protect yourself from any injury, once you're aware of the feelings in your ankles, any old injuries can disappear and a new caring mindfulness can be established. So your ankles feel great. I move up from my ankles to my... I can feel the calves of my legs and even though as a monk, a senior monk or some people might say an old monk, I do not have to do much exercise. Report an error in the passage at 7:35 Highlight the passage at 7:35

8:26 Nevertheless, I can feel those muscles of my calves and relax them to the max. Report an error in the passage at 8:26 Highlight the passage at 8:26

8:38 And honestly, because as a monk I can't lie, it's against one of my precepts. Report an error in the passage at 8:38 Highlight the passage at 8:38

8:46 I can feel those muscles and they do relax just by paying attention to them with an attitude of kindness, almost gratitude. Thank you for looking after me. And I can feel the feelings in the knees. A lot of people have problems with their knees. As I often say on a Friday night, I used to drive a motorbike when I was a student. I used to go hiking and just fall down cliffs. Report an error in the passage at 8:46 Highlight the passage at 8:46

9:24 I've had my share of injuries, but my knees are just so healthy. There's no ache or pain in there at all. Report an error in the passage at 9:24 Highlight the passage at 9:24

9:39 I kind of feel all the channels through my knees are open. So there's a self-healing and a peace growing through my knees. From Report an error in the passage at 9:39 Highlight the passage at 9:39

10:00 my knees I go up to my thighs, big muscles. They feel quite at ease. Report an error in the passage at 10:00 Highlight the passage at 10:00

10:13 If I feel there's anything which needs to be done to make them more relaxed, I will endeavor to do that, making sure that any feeling which may become painful or sharp later on is relaxed until it disappears fully away. Report an error in the passage at 10:13 Highlight the passage at 10:13

10:39 I'm relaxing my body part by part. I've done this for so many years. You know how it's done. Sometimes even just imagining everything opening up, relaxing, expanding, works. Report an error in the passage at 10:39 Highlight the passage at 10:39

11:02 I can feel the special feeling of relaxation. The best I can describe it as a tingling feeling. A tingling feeling of my body reacting to the awareness and kindness which I'm giving it. It feels good. Report an error in the passage at 11:02 Highlight the passage at 11:02

11:24 And from the thighs I go to my butt. In my butt, also the anus, make sure that there's no indigestion or anything there. Report an error in the passage at 11:24 Highlight the passage at 11:24

11:43 And if ever I do have an indigestion problem, I just look at that part of the digestive tract, which is a little bit sore, and give it kindness. Report an error in the passage at 11:43 Highlight the passage at 11:43

12:03 I enjoy and I'm kind of surprised. It always works. You feel a little bit of tightness somewhere, a bit of an ache somewhere, and give it kindness. And the intensity of the problem gets less and less and less until it vanishes completely. Report an error in the passage at 12:03 Highlight the passage at 12:03

12:23 I'm relaxing my own body. Report an error in the passage at 12:23 Highlight the passage at 12:23

12:31 Then from my bottom, I go up. I'm going to go up just a digestive track this time. And as I go up, if I do feel anything, Report an error in the passage at 12:31 Highlight the passage at 12:31

12:46 Which is an inflammation or which is a little bit of pain. I want to stay there for a little while. This is where I'm focusing my attention and relax it. Sometimes imagining those muscles expanding. Report an error in the passage at 12:46 Highlight the passage at 12:46

13:09 As they expand, it's not spreading the pain or the discomfort further. It's diluting it. Diluting it until it's not so intense. Report an error in the passage at 13:09 Highlight the passage at 13:09

13:22 Not so powerful until it's soft, like taking an ice cube, which is hard, and melting it, expanding it, vaporizing it, until it becomes just a cloud in the sky. Not hard at all. I go right up my body, and if I come to any part again which is painful or tight, I pause there, stay there. Report an error in the passage at 13:22 Highlight the passage at 13:22

13:58 Give it kindness. Opening the door of my heart to whatever I'm feeling. And then the pain changes. The discomfort alters. And I can't even call it discomfort anymore. I'm relaxing my whole body. Report an error in the passage at 13:58 Highlight the passage at 13:58

14:21 And you go way up to the stomach and the lungs. Report an error in the passage at 14:21 Highlight the passage at 14:21

14:29 But also I mention places like the woman's breasts. Too many ladies have cancers there. If I can do anything to help, I will. And this is how I help. I'm asking you to be aware of any discomfort in those areas and give it lots and lots and lots of kindness. Report an error in the passage at 14:29 Highlight the passage at 14:29

14:59 I often say that's what I learned from my mother when I was playing soccer in the streets in the poor suburbs of London. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

15:11 If I fell over and hurt my knee, scraped the skin off the surface of my knee, I would go right into my mother in pain. And she would kneel down and she would kiss that wound. She'd always call that kissing it better. Report an error in the passage at 15:11 Highlight the passage at 15:11

15:32 I don't know how it worked, but it always would work. And all the pain disappeared. And the wound never got infected. Report an error in the passage at 15:32 Highlight the passage at 15:32

15:45 I just went back and played more soccer. Report an error in the passage at 15:45 Highlight the passage at 15:45

15:52 So relaxing every place which needs a bit of kindness. Report an error in the passage at 15:52 Highlight the passage at 15:52

16:01 And then from the stomach to the lungs, the lungs to the heart. I'm giving kindness to my own heart. Sometimes it misses out because we think that's the source of kindness, not the recipient of kindness. I Report an error in the passage at 16:01 Highlight the passage at 16:01

16:30 get to my neck, you know, the shoulders. I don't know why, but that's always tense for me. So I just relax all those shoulders, let them go. Any tightness, I kind of expand, so it gets loose. I don't care if the body droops, if it doesn't look good, because it feels good. I allow my mindfulness to go right down my arms, past my elbows. Report an error in the passage at 16:30 Highlight the passage at 16:30

17:17 To relax them I often ask my own fingers. It's a question I put into words and ask them, do you need to be moved? Do you need adjustment? Report an error in the passage at 17:17 Highlight the passage at 17:17

17:44 I know how my fingers feel when they need adjusting. I'm willing to do that. That much relaxes everything. And then lastly from my fingers I go back to my shoulders and neck, making sure my head is rightly balanced on top of the neck, not too far forward, not too far back, not to the left or to the right. Report an error in the passage at 17:44 Highlight the passage at 17:44

18:18 And then the muscles in the front of my face, I relax them. They do get loose, they feel loose. Report an error in the passage at 18:18 Highlight the passage at 18:18

18:34 I relax my whole body. from bottom to top. Once it's relaxed, I just notice that feeling of the whole body being relaxed and no tension on it at all. Report an error in the passage at 18:34 Highlight the passage at 18:34

18:56 And I keep noticing that until I feel... This always happens for me and I hope it happens for you too. When the whole body gets so relaxed, I can feel the pleasure of relaxation. Report an error in the passage at 18:56 Highlight the passage at 18:56

19:16 It actually feels good. My whole body is so at ease. Of course I know that that's the best possible antidote to ill health. Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

19:31 It doesn't just feel good, it does me good. Report an error in the passage at 19:31 Highlight the passage at 19:31

19:37 And I've done the preparation for some deep meditation. Body relaxed. Feel the pleasure of relaxation. And the body is still. Report an error in the passage at 19:37 Highlight the passage at 19:37

19:57 A lot of times this is done naturally, don't even decide to do it. But you soon come to what I call the present moment. You're not thinking about the past or the future. Like last week, you put all those suitcases down, the suitcase which you keep carrying containing your past, and the suitcase we always carry containing our future. Report an error in the passage at 19:57 Highlight the passage at 19:57

20:29 Our plans and fears and expectations. So you're carrying nothing to do with past and future. You just have what's happening right now in this moment, nothing more. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:52 And if you can really get into the present moment, you'll find your present moment is very silent. Report an error in the passage at 20:52 Highlight the passage at 20:52

21:02 You can hear sounds, but you don't give them names. You Report an error in the passage at 21:02 Highlight the passage at 21:02

21:13 go to the still awareness of the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 21:13 Highlight the passage at 21:13

21:21 You let that develop. It becomes so beautiful. I'm not going to say anything for the next few minutes. I can't. To Report an error in the passage at 21:21 Highlight the passage at 21:21

· · · silence, 4 minutes

25:33 go really deep. Don't do anything. Let this moment be. How Report an error in the passage at 25:33 Highlight the passage at 25:33

· · · silence, 2 minutes

27:33 do you feel now? What Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

27:42 does it feel like inside? Can you notice the body and even more refined the mind? Report an error in the passage at 27:42 Highlight the passage at 27:42

28:03 The body can disappear. You hardly have any feelings of it at all. And it feels great. The mind, if you go very still, becomes luminous, like a light shining in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 28:03 Highlight the passage at 28:03

28:30 Surely we have to come out of meditation to gain as much insight from it as possible, just Report an error in the passage at 28:30 Highlight the passage at 28:30

28:43 by looking, not judging, but just knowing. And Report an error in the passage at 28:43 Highlight the passage at 28:43

28:54 when you're ready, open your eyes. Report an error in the passage at 28:54 Highlight the passage at 28:54

· · · silence, 1 minute

29:28 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 29:28 Highlight the passage at 29:28