Friday Night Guided Meditation

0:00 Thank you so much, Bill. That's wonderful. So many opportunities to do good. It's amazing. I didn't know we had so many opportunities in this Buddhist society. That's marvelous. So grab the opportunity if you have a chance. It's a nice thing to do. Support the Buddhist community. Bring the Dhamma out into the world. Do this wonderful thing which Dhamma is about, which is about helping people to become more happy, reduce the suffering, become more peaceful, more compassionate, more kind, more mettā. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:27 All of these wonderful things, isn't that great? If we, all of us, can have a part in that, how wonderful that is. And it all starts, or it doesn't really start, but meditation is an important part of that, so let us do some meditation together. Report an error in the passage at 0:27 Highlight the passage at 0:27

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:17 Okay, so let us, as always, just get back into this nice routine. It's good to have a... An idea, a certain sequence in which you do things, it allows you to calm down in a gradual and systematic way. And when you close your eyes, one of the great advantages of that is that you feel the body so easily. Report an error in the passage at 1:17 Highlight the passage at 1:17

1:43 The body becomes very prominent and so it's an opportunity to just adjust yourself to make sure you have a good posture. Remember the best posture is the posture where you are at ease. The best posture is not full lotus necessarily, can be, but wherever you are at ease is the best posture. You want the body to fade away. Report an error in the passage at 1:43 Highlight the passage at 1:43

2:06 So give yourself a bit of time. Just to feel the body and to allow those pains and problems, just to remove those from the meditation equation. Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:21 And give yourself time to settle down properly. It's always important to take this very gradually, not to go to the meditation object, breath or whatever, too soon. But to allow the process to almost take a course of its own. It's almost as if all you have to do is to wait. And as you wait in the right way, with a sense of mindfulness, with a sense of directing the mind towards good qualities, it's as if the meditation happens by itself. Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

3:57 Just wait, sit back, enjoy the good company, enjoy the idea of Being in the presence of these marvelous teachings of the Buddha and then allow the process to happen. Report an error in the passage at 3:57 Highlight the passage at 3:57

· · · silence, 4 minutes

7:46 And just feel that sense of waiting in the present, not really looking for anything, not wanting to go anywhere, just waiting to see how things unfold. And even that idea of just waiting peacefully. Report an error in the passage at 7:46 Highlight the passage at 7:46

8:09 It's itself a kind of delightful state. There's no doing, there's no trying, there's no achieving. There's still waiting, sitting back and allowing things to be. Every part of this meditation, if you get it right, has a kind of benefit that is good to look out for. It encourages you to do more meditation in the future. So enjoy the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 8:09 Highlight the passage at 8:09

· · · silence, 3 minutes

11:09 And as your mind gradually comes into the present, the breath is already there. You don't go looking for the breath, you just wait for the breath to be there. And when the breath is there, it is like you are with the breath. You don't focus on the breath, you are with the breath. It's a bit like going for a walk in nature, and you can feel the nature around you, the peace, the greenery, the sense of life, whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 11:09 Highlight the passage at 11:09

11:44 You feel the nature, but you don't focus on it. It's the same with the breath. You are in its presence, you are with it, but you don't force the mind onto it. And in this way, the meditation grows very naturally and easy. No force, no... Contraction of the mind that makes it unpleasant, but an open kind of awareness where the breath is just there. Report an error in the passage at 11:44 Highlight the passage at 11:44

· · · silence, 16 minutes

28:07 Okay, so coming close to the end. Before we come to the end, just take a few moments to review the meditation. If you do feel a bit more peaceful and calm, just ask yourself why that may be the case. What have you done or what have you not done? Thank you for that to happen. Report an error in the passage at 28:07 Highlight the passage at 28:07

· · · silence, 1 minute

29:05 Okay, that's the end of the meditation for now, so please sit comfortably and we'll start the talk in a minute. Report an error in the passage at 29:05 Highlight the passage at 29:05