Discovering Buddhism - How To Meditate (2 April 2015)

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0:34 Okay, so we'll Report an error in the passage at 0:34 Highlight the passage at 0:34

0:43 start with a little bit of a meditation. We'll start with a meditation practice, the same meditation practice that we've been doing for the week. I'm Report an error in the passage at 0:43 Highlight the passage at 0:43

1:02 going to set the timer. Report an error in the passage at 1:02 Highlight the passage at 1:02

1:08 so, just... Get comfortable in your meditation posture, whether you're on the floor or on the chair. Report an error in the passage at 1:08 Highlight the passage at 1:08

1:21 Follow all the points. We'll start with motivation and then we'll do the prayers together. Maybe we can get our books ready so that it's all set. On page 34 we'll do refuge and the seven limb prayer. We'll skip. Report an error in the passage at 1:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21

1:50 We'll skip the four Report an error in the passage at 1:50 Highlight the passage at 1:50

1:59 immeasurables. So we'll do refuge in bodhicitta and then the seven limb prayer. Report an error in the passage at 1:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59

2:08 And then we'll do the nine round breathing and you can do it at your own pace. And then after you finish the nine round breathing, you just finish to the end of the meditation just using your breath as the object of meditation. So just to review the nine round. Breathing quickly, there's three channels in the body. One goes from the center of the brow, kind of like a hook, around in front of your spine down to about four finger widths below the navel. Report an error in the passage at 2:08 Highlight the passage at 2:08

2:41 That one's about the size like your finger, little finger. The two side channels start from your nostrils. They're the same length and they go up and they follow. Report an error in the passage at 2:41 Highlight the passage at 2:41

3:02 the end, being the same length, they end slightly below the central channel. So we have a vajra fist, what we call vajra fist. Report an error in the passage at 3:02 Highlight the passage at 3:02

3:13 your ring finger and just close your fist and then we do three breaths in through the left channel and then out through the right channel so you can actually block your nostril and breathe the breath would be relatively even in and out imagine that you're breathing in white light Report an error in the passage at 3:13 Highlight the passage at 3:13

3:52 So you do that three times and then you switch hands. You start with the opposite side. So you're breathing in through the left like this. You start and then through the right, you use your right hand on the left nostril. And so same visualization, you're purifying as you exhale all attachment and desire. Report an error in the passage at 3:52 Highlight the passage at 3:52

4:14 And then you just keep your hands like on your knees. Report an error in the passage at 4:14 Highlight the passage at 4:14

4:35 they kind of curve up and go into the central channel you imagine it going up and out through place at the center of your forehead and that purifies ignorance and you do that three times and then you can after you do that just go right into watching your breath either Just the sensation at the tip of your nose or in your abdomen or just watching it moving in and out from your body, whichever one that you were using for homework. Report an error in the passage at 4:35 Highlight the passage at 4:35

5:08 Okay, so let's see. I'm going to just do 15 minutes, so I hope we have time to do a little bit of breathing. Okay, let's see. I'm Report an error in the passage at 5:08 Highlight the passage at 5:08

5:33 not sure if it's going to ring the bell or not. Okay, so first, you know, we've done our prostration and we've made ourselves comfortable on our seat. The next thing we do is to motivate. And you think, you know, my life has been spent trying to gain happiness and not suffer. But no matter what I do, it never quite... Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

6:06 Ends the suffering. There's always some dissatisfaction, even subtle. No matter what I do, no matter what I get, no matter what happens, there's always a little bit of dissatisfaction or there's little problems and just never really finding that lasting happiness that we all want. Report an error in the passage at 6:06 Highlight the passage at 6:06

6:34 And so now we've had an... Excellent opportunity to all come together to meet the Dharma which is like a proven method that people from the past have used to actually end suffering, end their suffering completely and to be able to achieve that happiness that we've been looking for, the lasting happiness. Report an error in the passage at 6:34 Highlight the passage at 6:34

7:05 just like ourselves, all the other friends and people. Acquaintances, strangers, everybody, even our enemies, are all in the same predicament as we are, creating endless suffering and only wanting happiness. And so in order to help them, we progress on our own paths to ending our own suffering so that we know exactly how it's done, so that we can help others to do the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 7:05 Highlight the passage at 7:05

7:41 And so by engaging in this class and doing the meditations and practices with that idea in mind in order to benefit not only ourselves but primarily others because others is responsible for all of what we have and our very existence is totally dependent on others. And so to repay that kindness we engage in these practices in order to help. Report an error in the passage at 7:41 Highlight the passage at 7:41

8:13 Help them to achieve their aims, to find lasting happiness. So we'll do refuge in bodhicitta. go for refuge until I'm enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I'm enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. Report an error in the passage at 8:13 Highlight the passage at 8:13

8:43 By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I'm enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. Then the seven limb prayer and maybe we could say each line slowly enough so that we can kind of visualize each one a bit. Report an error in the passage at 8:43 Highlight the passage at 8:43

9:13 Reverently, I prostrate with my body, speech and mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, actual and imagined. I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginningless time and rejoice in the merit of all holy and ordinary beings. Please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of Dharma for living beings. Report an error in the passage at 9:13 Highlight the passage at 9:13

9:43 I dedicate my own merits and those of all others to the great enlightenment. So now you can begin in your own meditation doing the nine round breathing, starting first with the left hand to the right nostril and then we'll do the reverses. So Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

10:17 when you finish just go right into your breath meditation, your breathing meditation. Report an error in the passage at 10:17 Highlight the passage at 10:17

· · · silence, 11 minutes

21:00 So we had more time than I expected. That was good. So, just a little check-in with everybody. How's it going? We had two weeks now to primarily practice on watching the breath at some point of your choice. Report an error in the passage at 21:00 Highlight the passage at 21:00

21:23 So, did people find their spot and kind of stay with it and try that? And how is it working? You notice a little bit of improvements along the way? Some days are better than others, I'm sure. Report an error in the passage at 21:23 Highlight the passage at 21:23

21:44 I always forget to blow my nose. Maybe visualizing the air going through might help to open them up. I always forget to blow my nose. Report an error in the passage at 21:44 Highlight the passage at 21:44

22:10 Yeah, yeah, it's hard, it's hard when you have sinus problems, but you can do it as a visualization too, it doesn't have to be the actual breath and you can even visualize, you don't need to put your hands up, you can visualize breathing in through the left and, you know, it's like the white pure energy comes in, all the gray smoke of anger, all the gray smoke of attachment, all the stuff, all the... Report an error in the passage at 22:10 Highlight the passage at 22:10

22:38 I thought, Report an error in the passage at 22:38 Highlight the passage at 22:38

23:13 well, why would we start with the breath? most everybody try it, at least a part of the time? good. um... Report an error in the passage at 23:13 Highlight the passage at 23:13

23:16 breath an object, you know, to develop concentration. Report an error in the passage at 23:16 Highlight the passage at 23:16

23:47 What do you think about bodhicitta? You know, because it's a function of the body, it has to do with the body, like if you meditate on your body, you know, it's easier to keep your concentration sometimes than if you meditate on something that is, you know, a visualization of something, you know, because it's grosser and there's more to watch, in a sense, that way. Report an error in the passage at 23:47 Highlight the passage at 23:47

24:42 The breath is uniquely tied to the mind. The way it's described is the breath is like the horse and the mind is the rider. Report an error in the passage at 24:42 Highlight the passage at 24:42

25:00 When you get into other parts of Buddhism, often the breath is called wind. So you have wind and mind are the two things. And the mind rides on the wind. Report an error in the passage at 25:00 Highlight the passage at 25:00

25:22 And so even like hatha yoga teaches a lot of how to control the breath and use it to calm the body and mind. So there's a lot of practicality to it. And the main thing is that you can only breathe in present time. Report an error in the passage at 25:22 Highlight the passage at 25:22

25:44 You know? You can't... I'm just going to need your Well, that's your mind, but your breath is in present time. So if you focus on your breath, you're in present time. Because you can think about it, which isn't your breath, and you can remember it, which isn't your breath. So it's a way to focus that helps to keep you in present time. Report an error in the passage at 25:44 Highlight the passage at 25:44

26:17 And it kind of slows the mind from wandering so much. And it's just... Report an error in the passage at 26:17 Highlight the passage at 26:17

26:39 even by watching the breaths. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

26:43 know and it's it's It's just it's a good object especially to begin with when we get into higher levels of meditation like when you Later in the classes we'll talk about calm abiding and actually there's nine stages to accomplishing calm abiding. When you get into the higher stages, maybe around level four or so, it's a good time, you know, if you get to that degree of concentration and you're really wanting to attain shamatha or calm abiding, then what you need to do is you need to shift to a more subtle object. Report an error in the passage at 26:43 Highlight the passage at 26:43

27:25 Because the mind that you're aiming at is a more subtle mind. Right now we're kind of working with our grosser minds, watching the breath. But that's where the training starts. And then later when you get pretty good at concentration and you go, well, I'm going to go try calm abiding, then you need to change to a mental object as opposed to a physical object. Report an error in the passage at 27:25 Highlight the passage at 27:25

27:53 And so that's more subtle and that allows your mind to become more subtle and to touch the more subtle parts of your consciousness and of your awareness which brings you closer to actually who you are. Report an error in the passage at 27:53 Highlight the passage at 27:53

28:12 But for the now, breath is good. So last week we talked about some of the main distractions. I mentioned other distractions like pain and that kind of thing, but I didn't really say too much about it because we were running a bit short on time. Other distractions Report an error in the passage at 28:12 Highlight the passage at 28:12

28:49 could be pains or even unusual experiences like a dream-like state or feeling like you're leaving your body or just different things like that. that could be a distraction also in addition to pain for For beginners, it's usually a physical pain that's because we're not accustomed to sitting. But as we sit and as we go further with it and as we kind of let ourselves push through a bit of that discomfort, it becomes easier and easier. Report an error in the passage at 28:49 Highlight the passage at 28:49

29:31 When I started... Doing Buddhist classes and I try to sit cross-legged, I think my limit was maybe five or ten minutes before I had to start jostling around and bring up my knee and doing all that kind of thing. So you develop some skill in sitting. So when you have these distractions, then you don't want to completely lose your object of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 29:31 Highlight the passage at 29:31

30:03 But you want to do your best to try to bring your mind back. And sometimes you have to let go of the object and just deal with the distraction. And then as soon as you've cut it, then bring your mind back. Some of the physical sensations, pain or itching, the first thing to do is just sit and just watch it. Report an error in the passage at 30:03 Highlight the passage at 30:03

30:28 Try not to put too much into it. Just observe it and let go of it and bring your mind back to the object. Sometimes that's all it takes. Report an error in the passage at 30:28 Highlight the passage at 30:28

30:45 If the pain's from sitting and it's not too severe, you can try checking your posture. Sometimes you've slouched a little bit. or you know shoulders you've tensed up in your shoulders or your abdomen and you can just relax it and will take care of it. If you need to make adjustments to your posture in the middle of a concentration meditation, or actually any meditation for that matter, try to do it gently and quietly. Report an error in the passage at 30:45 Highlight the passage at 30:45

31:26 quietly, movements so that you kind of maintain that calmness of mind through it. Report an error in the passage at 31:26 Highlight the passage at 31:26

31:37 minute that you make those adjustments, as quick as you can, you go back. You don't want to put a lot of story onto it. Oh, I shouldn't have done that because I did, you know, and if I didn't do all this stuff and I did blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just like, okay, pain in the knee. Or you can label it sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

32:06 You just look at it, you say pain, then you go back to your object. Sometimes that's all you need to do. Excuse me. If it's a major pain. Report an error in the passage at 32:06 Highlight the passage at 32:06

32:23 period and it's major and it could be from sitting or maybe even not even sitting maybe a headache comes up and so then you can actually make the pain your object of meditation for a few minutes and let yourself go into it and watch it Report an error in the passage at 32:23 Highlight the passage at 32:23

32:41 when you go into it and watch it, can see that usually it's changing. And when you actually go in to find it, often it will kind of move so that you're not exactly getting the spot. Report an error in the passage at 32:41 Highlight the passage at 32:41

33:00 Sometimes you'll notice it might be warm or cold or throbbing and it may change. Maybe for one minute it'll be warm and then it'll cool off a little bit, it'll move a little bit. So just notice it and usually a lot of times that just... putting your attention and kind of watching it and looking at it. Report an error in the passage at 33:00 Highlight the passage at 33:00

33:25 So the idea here is not to turn our meditation into observing pain, but to use techniques and antidotes to things that will disrupt our meditation so that we can bring our attention back to focusing on our object. Report an error in the passage at 33:25 Highlight the passage at 33:25

33:53 You can also visualize that your insides are hollow. And Report an error in the passage at 33:53 Highlight the passage at 33:53

34:02 so you imagine all of your internal organs dissolve into light and then they absorb into empty space one by one. And then you focus on your skin just made of light. So you have a light, empty body. Of course, there's no room for pain there. Report an error in the passage at 34:02 Highlight the passage at 34:02

34:25 Actually, sometimes they have a specific meditation. Sometimes they call it empty body or hollow body. So what you do, you feel just a feeling of lightness and the lack of solidity because the pain is just something that's gotten so tight it's become beyond the normal solid. It's like this rock. So sometimes all you have to do is just be able to open that up. Report an error in the passage at 34:25 Highlight the passage at 34:25

34:54 With light or breath or something. So then some of the things that will work for all of those would be just breathing into it, whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 34:54 Highlight the passage at 34:54

35:12 You can use your breath to bring in energy and light to relieve it. Or you can think that, well, since I have this pain, I'll just take it on for all beings. Report an error in the passage at 35:12 Highlight the passage at 35:12

35:30 Who are suffering with the same kind of pain. Or you can imagine that you take it on for all the other meditators in the world who are having the same little issue with their hip going on so that they don't have to suffer. So you make the pain at least worthwhile. And often it just dissipates it. And then you just go back to your object. They're like little ways to turn things around in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 35:30 Highlight the passage at 35:30

36:00 Your mind does have control over your body. As much as we might think it doesn't right now and how much it looks like it doesn't right now, it does. Report an error in the passage at 36:00 Highlight the passage at 36:00

36:13 And so we need to just begin to train that. Report an error in the passage at 36:13 Highlight the passage at 36:13

36:20 So you can take on the pains for all other beings. You can take it on something for a friend, you know, whatever, and put it into that spot in your body and just... Report an error in the passage at 36:20 Highlight the passage at 36:20

36:32 Or you could see the distractions like clouds. And this is like a part of, almost like what we'll be doing for meditation this week. But see the distractions like clouds in the sky. And that everything's always changing and moving and they arise and they fade away. And so you could just be real gentle and relaxed and easygoing with it. Report an error in the passage at 36:32 Highlight the passage at 36:32

37:03 Of course, like I said, with any of these antidotes for it, you just as soon as possible always go back to your object because we don't want to distract ourselves and play with pains. The object is to follow our breath. And sometimes if you just put more attention, like say I always point here because this is what I picked for the nostrils. Report an error in the passage at 37:03 Highlight the passage at 37:03

37:35 More attention here and hold it tighter. Your mind, the more able you are to concentrate on one point, it won't notice the other points. It's like your mind will get more concentrated there. It doesn't matter what's going on in your body anymore because you won't notice it. It's like distracting ourselves from painful experience or painful emotion by eating. Report an error in the passage at 37:35 Highlight the passage at 37:35

38:21 more on something like eating her food and and the headache she didn't notice Report an error in the passage at 38:21 Highlight the passage at 38:21

38:35 Those kinds of antidotes for the other problems. Now there's five obstacles that they talk about in meditation and they're illuminated in different ways. Report an error in the passage at 38:35 Highlight the passage at 38:35

38:50 One of them they kind of call the five blocks to a meditative state of mind and the other one is the five obstacles to calm abiding. The Five Obstacles to Calm Abiding comes with eight antidotes. Report an error in the passage at 38:50 Highlight the passage at 38:50

39:10 Each one is a little different focuses. The five blocks to a meditative state of mind actually come from the Pāli Canon, which is like some of the very early books. Report an error in the passage at 39:10 Highlight the passage at 39:10

39:28 I'll just list them first and then just briefly mention about them. The first one is sensual desire. The Report an error in the passage at 39:28 Highlight the passage at 39:28

39:43 next one is feelings of malice. Report an error in the passage at 39:43 Highlight the passage at 39:43

39:52 Then there's drowsiness and dullness, Report an error in the passage at 39:52 Highlight the passage at 39:52

40:04 restlessness and regret. And Report an error in the passage at 40:04 Highlight the passage at 40:04

40:13 then the fifth one is unresolved doubts or uncertainty. Report an error in the passage at 40:13 Highlight the passage at 40:13

40:25 So sensual desire, we probably all know what that is. The mind wanders off to pleasant things or, you know. Whatever is pleasant, a person, a thing, you know, it could even be a nice experience in meditation. So we could be, that could be one of the blocks. So feelings of malice, that would be holding feelings of ill will towards someone, being upset with somebody, running through the, oh, they did this, oh, really, blah, blah, blah. Report an error in the passage at 40:25 Highlight the passage at 40:25

41:05 I mean, all that kind of... All that kind of mental activity just totally will disrupt any meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 41:05 Highlight the passage at 41:05

41:20 So it's good. If you're going to try and do a meditation practice, try to learn to be satisfied, to reduce your desires, to learn forgiveness. Report an error in the passage at 41:20 Highlight the passage at 41:20

41:35 Patience and patience with yourself because sometimes the things just don't go away just really quickly just because we hear about them. Holding feelings of ill will. That kind of thing will come up when you start doing meditation sometimes. Drowsiness and dullness. Sometimes they call it sloth and tupper. Report an error in the passage at 41:35 Highlight the passage at 41:35

42:01 Tauper, is really... Basically, the mind is dull. It doesn't have energy and it just can't hold on to the meditation object. It could be sleepiness. It could be just dullness. There's a quality of the mind where the mind is just not sharp. Report an error in the passage at 42:01 Highlight the passage at 42:01

42:32 That comes up a lot when we talk about the obstacles to calm abiding. One, when we get into more subtler states of meditation, there's like subtle dullness that actually is a big hindrance and can be a big problem. Report an error in the passage at 42:32 Highlight the passage at 42:32

42:55 Anyway, so dullness, not necessarily sleepiness. So Report an error in the passage at 42:55 Highlight the passage at 42:55

43:04 like if you're looking at a point and feeling at a point, it would be just kind of like there's a veil. Between you and that point, maybe you can see through a little bit, but it's not sharp. There's not a sharp attention at the air. It's just kind of vague. It's kind of a dullness. Report an error in the passage at 43:04 Highlight the passage at 43:04

43:32 Restlessness and regret. Restlessness is just another word for excitement. Your mind jumps from one thing to another and regrets. Report an error in the passage at 43:32 Highlight the passage at 43:32

43:49 That'll come up, regret for what we've done in the past. Those all are obstacles. And so with any of these, if we have those kinds of things, we need to work on resolving them in some way. And the more that we can resolve any of those, say, regrets or holding animosities or feelings towards others. Report an error in the passage at 43:49 Highlight the passage at 43:49

44:21 And our desires, the more that we can subdue those, the more able we're going to be able to focus when we do our meditations. Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:31 And then unresolved doubts or uncertainty. And that's a big one. It's like you're sitting there and you're doing your meditation and you go, Oh, I don't know, am I doing this right? Oh, I don't think it's ever going to work. Oh, I don't know why I'm even trying. crying, you know, people, so. It's like you doubt yourself, you doubt the process. That can actually cause you to stop if it's a strong enough doubt. Report an error in the passage at 44:31 Highlight the passage at 44:31

45:06 So that's one to really be careful about. Report an error in the passage at 45:06 Highlight the passage at 45:06

45:13 Wondering if you're applying the antidote right, not being sure, just general uncertainties. Report an error in the passage at 45:13 Highlight the passage at 45:13

45:23 So those are basically the five. five blocks to a meditative. Report an error in the passage at 45:23 Highlight the passage at 45:23

45:36 any questions about any of that far? Report an error in the passage at 45:36 Highlight the passage at 45:36

45:50 wait, you know what, can we pass, you know, because when there's questions and we don't have the mic, you never know what the question is you listen to the, I think everybody's here today, though. Report an error in the passage at 45:50 Highlight the passage at 45:50

46:09 Recording out to anybody? Is it working? Oh, Report an error in the passage at 46:09 Highlight the passage at 46:09

46:27 okay, good. Oh, now you got me up on too high. I Report an error in the passage at 46:27 Highlight the passage at 46:27

46:35 was just curious how the mental restlessness and regret are related. The other four are very close. They have malice and ill will, unresolved doubts or uncertainty. They all seem very similar, but I don't see how mental restlessness and regret seem to be two separate categories. Report an error in the passage at 46:35 Highlight the passage at 46:35

46:54 Well, yeah, but I mean, you know, it's just that they both act to cause our mind to jump around, you know. And they reinforce each other, right? Yeah, yeah, because see, the other drowsiness and dullness is like, kind of, it drags your mind down, so you're not able to be sharp. This one, these restlessness and regret kind of bring your mind. Report an error in the passage at 46:54 Highlight the passage at 46:54

47:27 out and it's like here all over that's what that's what it is it's like just kind of the grouping to to like the antidotes for them talked about the antidotes the in the other class you know you want to maybe Meditation on death and impermanence or something like that in order to calm your mind down do any of the other Report an error in the passage at 47:27 Highlight the passage at 47:27

48:10 Oh, well, I mean, there's a number of them. You can use your breath to try to bring your mind back into focus. Holding the object tighter, you can... Report an error in the passage at 48:10 Highlight the passage at 48:10

48:28 right, let me think, let me think. We're doing restless ascent. So you can, you can. Check your posture. Sometimes when you have too many extra thoughts, because it's not necessarily restlessness and regret, but when your mind is kind of like wacko and it's going out all over the place, sometimes your head will move up. Report an error in the passage at 48:28 Highlight the passage at 48:28

48:51 So if you bring your head down, you kind of bring your level of your eye down, what you want to do is you want to try to begin to calm yourself. And so like in the opposite, if you're drowsy or dull, Maybe your head is too low, you're looking down too much or it's even sinking, so you might want to raise your head up. Report an error in the passage at 48:51 Highlight the passage at 48:51

49:19 Sometimes with restlessness you want to maybe make it a little darker or move your center of focus for a while at a lower spot in your body. That will help to cut, you know, you can see your mind, your restless mind wrapped up in a little white and red egg and like go down into here for a little bit, for a few breaths. Report an error in the passage at 49:19 Highlight the passage at 49:19

49:55 And if you're dull, you want to see it go up out into space where you can pick up the energy and bring it in. So, I guess you missed last week. Oh, that's right. That's right. And I sent the recording really late because we had all kinds of obstacles, technical difficulties. We had obstacles. So the list of things that I sent you on email, that actually has all the antidotes. Report an error in the passage at 49:55 Highlight the passage at 49:55

50:33 Because unfortunately we had... Report an error in the passage at 50:33 Highlight the passage at 50:33

50:50 list up to the point where where we began to copy so it has like all of the antidotes on it I think that's where we were yeah Report an error in the passage at 50:50 Highlight the passage at 50:50

51:05 The obstacles are there. Was it on one of the summary sheets? Oh, it was like the people that missed the class, usually I send out a recording and the first 45 minutes didn't get recorded so I just kind of sent that little bit of the outline to kind of fill in for what was missing. Report an error in the passage at 51:05 Highlight the passage at 51:05

51:38 So, any other questions? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 51:38 Highlight the passage at 51:38

51:53 Maybe we could take like a break. We'll take a five minute break. And during the break, what I'm going to do when we come back from the break. Report an error in the passage at 51:53 Highlight the passage at 51:53