Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Christele teaches the fourth and final session of a four-week introduction to Buddhist meditation, focusing on the practical obstacles encountered during practice and their antidotes. After guiding students through correct posture and a breath-awareness meditation, she facilitates small group discussions where practitioners share real problems—distractions, physical pain, emotional turbulence, family interruptions, and drowsiness—and exchange practical solutions. She then covers Buddhist teachings on the five main obstacles to calm abiding meditation: laziness, forgetfulness, mental dullness, mental excitement, and failure to apply or over-apply antidotes. For each, she offers specific methods: returning to the breath when excited; recalling impermanence to settle the mind; adjusting posture and light for drowsiness; scanning the body to release physical tension. She emphasizes an attitude of befriending obstacles rather than resisting them, and stresses quality over quantity in practice, patience, and avoiding comparison with others. The session concludes with a guided analytical meditation on compassion, extended to all beings.
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File: Christele – DB09_HowtoMed_wk4.mp3
UUID: 219d6c78-0f59-4d83-bf10-5db88a4039e9
Teacher: Christele
Collection: How to Meditate (Christele)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~6,756
Sorry. Just to get your attention. Okay. Last session tonight, session four. And then next week, we’ve got video night.
I don’t know. Is it? Maybe you can adjust the volume control if it’s not loud enough. Is that okay? Is that okay?
Oh, yeah. More light. Yeah. Good idea. Thanks.
It’s the last one on the right. Last? Last one. Master volume control. I think it’s okay anyway, no?
Everybody can hear well or? No, I think that’s okay, Sapho. Okay. So last week we talked about analytical meditation and we learned that the goal of this meditation is to realize the ultimate nature of the mind. With analytical meditation, our conceptual understanding will eventually turn into a direct non-conceptual experience.
We also learned that analytical meditation cannot exist without concentration or stabilizing meditation. And then we talked about analytical meditation and that this meditation uses stabilizing and analytical meditation and that it’s a powerful way to discover our own Buddha nature. Tonight, we are going to talk about the common problems and the obstacles that we can or may encounter when meditating, and we will talk about the antidotes, and we will also talk briefly about the attitude of meditation. So that’s the plan for tonight. Like last time, setting the scene, we’re going to start by short breathing meditation to bring our mind here at Buddha House and then motivation, refuge prayer and we’re going to do a stabilizing meditation and we’re going to do another one tonight.
It’s one to develop mindfulness. I will go through that with you. And then question from last week. There was a question about the meaning of the mantra of Śākyamūni Buddha. So I’ve got some answers.
And also, I was thinking to do some small groups and talk about what kind of problems you encounter while doing your meditation at home and how you overcome them. So just a small group discussion, and then we can just write everything on the board, what you encounter and how we overcome that. And then we’ll tell you about the common problems and the antidote according to Buddhist teaching and the attitude of meditation. And then we’re going to finish with a stabilizing meditation followed directly by analytical meditation on compassion tonight. Then dedication, and there’s no homework actually tonight.
The last session, so there’s no homework. Is that okay? Yeah. Yes. And it’s going to be Kathleen McDonald, How to Meditate.
And I still need to choose the exact topic because there’s a few CDs in this pack, that should be very interesting. She wrote an excellent book on how to meditate, a very practical one, so I thought that would be a good video to watch. So okay. So we’re going to if you can adopt your meditation posture. And I’m going to guide you through it like last time.
Okay. Yeah. No problem. Yeah. And I’ve got a handout for people who were not here on session number two.
Okay. So you’re sitting on a chair, feet flat on the floor, buttocks to the back of the chair. If you’re sitting on the floor, legs crossed in vajra or full lotus posture. Each foot is placed sole upward on the thigh of the opposite leg. An alternative position is a half lotus, your left foot on the floor under the right leg and the right foot on top of the left thigh.
Or just simply cross your legs with both feet on the floor. Your hands loosely on your lap, the right hand on top of the left hand, palms upward with fingers aligned. The two hands are slightly cupped so that the tips of the thumbs meet to form a triangle. Relax your shoulders and your arms. Do not press your arms against the body.
Allow some air to circulate. Your back is straight, slightly upright. Relax your muscles. If you’re sitting on a chair, the back should not touch the back of the chair. Your eyes.
Slightly open them, allowing some light to come in. Direct your gaze downwards. Do not focus on anything. Relax your jaw and your mouth. Your lips are touching.
Your teeth are slightly apart. The tip of your tongue touches the palate behind the upper teeth. Your neck is bent forward a little. Your nose is in line with the navel. Spend a few minutes to go through this posture up and down.
Feel that you are aware and awake. Feel the weight of your body, its substance, and earthly character. Become present in the moment and place where you are. Just breathe a few times deep in and out. Every time you breathe out, let go of all the tension you hold in your body and your mind, all the worrying about the future.
Just let it go. When you breathe in, you breathe in, just breathe, nothing else, no thoughts, no emotions, no opinions, just breathe. When your mind is calm, settled in the present, create an altruistic motivation for the meditation session and for listening to the teaching. Think that you are meditating tonight and you are here tonight, not just for your own individual benefit, but you are taking the time now to develop your mind to reach the state of enlightenment where you can most skillfully benefit all beings. And if you wish, you can join me in reciting the refuge prayer.
I go for refuge till I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly. Through my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge till I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. Through my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge till I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly.
Through my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the happiness that is free from suffering. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
Make sure that you are still sitting in the correct meditation posture. Go again through the seven points before we start meditating. Make sure your back is straight, that your muscles are relaxed, your lips are touching, the tip of the tongue touches the palate behind your upper teeth. Your neck is bent forward a little. Your sitting posture should be firm, stable, and relaxed, expressing a body language of purposefulness.
The following meditation is to develop mindfulness. It is an essential technique for any meditation practice and also for general balance in our daily life. Use your breath as the anchor of your attention. With the corner of your mind, be aware as the different mental and physical sensations arise. Merely observe without getting involved.
It might be helpful to label the sensation. Like thinking, tingling in the foot, hearing, thirsty, and so on. Be aware of your labeling, especially if labels become judgments like doing badly, doing well, bored, and so on. If you notice you begin to get into a story, just let go of the process by returning to your breath. As your mindfulness becomes more subtle, you’ll be aware of the beginning, duration, and cessation of the sensations.
Just spend some time to observe with the corner of your mind the different mental and physical sensations arising and use your breath as the anchor of your attention. How was it? Everybody understood what had to be done, or was it clear? Okay. Questions from last week, and last week was the meaning of Śākyamūni Buddha mantra.
I found is that it means What were you saying, Sapho? What did you say? Sarah Clay was saying it. It means wise one, great wise one to the wise one of the Shakya clan. That’s what it means.
I mean that’s what I’ve found but that could be a question for Geshe-la to have the exact meaning. Okay. That’s what I found. Any question from last week or from your homework or reading? Reading?
No? Good. So maybe we can divide this group of five, four or five and then you can share with each other your experience in trying to meditate each day or every second day or once a week since the last class or the beginning of this module and what kind of problems you encounter and what are the solutions that you find to overcome these problems. Is that okay? I love this bell.
Are we ready or you need more time? Or It’s working. It’s good. Need more time or okay. Good.
Who wants to start? Group over there? What are the common problems that you shared with your group? Distractions. And what was the solution to the distractions?
Did you find any solution to overcome? So bringing the mind back to the object and patience. Okay? Patience of meditation. Pain?
So yes, that’s distraction. Any solutions for that? What did you say? Well, it is a solution, I must say. Okay, I’m not going to write that on the board.
So what was the other one you said? Yoga, okay. Exercise. Yeah, but what do you do when you’re in the middle of your meditation, you’re going to get up and do yoga? Walk through the pain?
Breathe through it. Breathe through it. Yeah. So was it a problem for all the groups? Like, was it a problem, the physical pain for most of you?
No? My experience is I’ve had, like, pins and needles and knee injuries and some back pain sometimes, but I’ve found since finding a really good posture Yep. Has actually helped alleviate a lot of that. I would say completely fine. Yes.
Okay. Oh, that’s good. So going through the posture, so adjusting your posture when you’ve got physical pain, that’s the solution. And the posture has been experienced throughout, I mean, it’s been about three thousand years around, so it is a purpose for this posture. Yes.
No, I agree. It makes a big difference. I’ll wait half an hour, and I’m gonna take the Panadol beforehand. Okay. Just that thing about, is this a practical time for me to be doing meditation?
But does it affect your mind when you take Panadol? It doesn’t for me. No. So I get So not like Codral or not this kind of thing? Yeah.
So I guess for me, it’s if I’m already in physical pain, it’s not related to meditation. Yeah. That’s yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Breathe through or I might Mhmm. Awake after that. Okay. Yeah. But if it works for you, yes.
And you’re right, if it’s not related to the meditation and you’ve got a physical problem, that’s a solution. As long as that doesn’t affect your mind too much and you go through that step. So that’s another distraction. Yeah. Emotional pain.
And what’s the solution you did you find a solution for that? Meditating on it. Sorry? So feel it. So just observe.
Observe and feel. Any other one? So the problem is distraction. It’s Yeah. But if the problem is emotional pain when I’m doing Oh, okay.
Sorry. Yeah. Is to stay with the breathing. So bring your It’s going a hundred miles an hour. So it’s excitement.
Like oh. So what do you do? You give up. That’s Try to pull you up. So mine bring my okay.
So that’s Yeah. I know. I’ve got the same problem. So what do you do? Everyone’s in bed now.
So you do it in the evening? Yeah. Okay. And if I squeeze one in the morning, it’s February just not really short. And what do you do when he wakes up and you’re meditating?
Do you get angry or you stop or you no? Okay. Good. Yeah. I know.
You find the right time. That was one of the biggest problems. Yes. I think being flexible is really good. Don’t give up because you can’t find the same time of the day.
Find the time Yeah. When when you’ve got family, you don’t have much choice. So it’s like you develop faith about your meditation, the purpose of the meditation? Well, you’ve got more faith in the purpose of meditation than watching TV, basically, that the result would be greater. Oh yeah.
But that’s motivation. Means you need to be motivated. So that’s more in general, motivation, benefit. Discipline. But how do you do to actually discipline yourself to do it?
Do you have any Oh, I have a regular time each day. So you keep a diary? Keep a regular I don’t keep a diary, but I keep a regular And it’s just really easy to pick up that phone and ring your friends. I just go and do it. No.
So it’s not the top priority? Yes. That’s right. But yeah. It might it might come after the washing out, the cleaning, and all the other things you’ve got to do.
Yeah. As a family and friends actually could be problems. Now that’s your turn. Is that what you said? Anything else?
Okay. So everybody more or less experiences the same problems. Okay. Good. I’m going to keep that.
I’ll get to the right side because I want to keep the Yeah. At least it works. Okay. Lama Thubten Yeshe, who is a calm abiding meditation expert, says that it’s natural to face obstacles whenever we try to achieve anything worthwhile in our life, and meditation is no exception. We saw in this group that there are obstacles, that’s for sure.
The obstacles to meditation can be difficult to recognize. Dalai Lama said that to meditate we need two factors. We need mental alertness or sharpness, and we need stability. And the possible obstacle for mental alertness is laxity. There’s lacking in firmness and rigor and the obstacle to stability is excitation.
So it’s a form of mental distraction. We need to check if these factors are within us and for this we need introspection and mindfulness. Mindfulness is that which focuses on the object. It ties the mind to the object. It is that which does not forget the object.
Introspection or vigilance or awareness is to check if the mind is still tied up to the object. Buddhism describes five obstacles to calm abiding, but that could also be applied to analytical meditation because we need the concentration meditation in analytical meditation. So I’ve got a handout for you after. Five obstacles and eight antidotes. The first one, and I think you did mention it, is laziness.
You did mention it. So to overcome laziness, and you did mention it also, so that’s great. The antidote refers to the delight or joy in the practice of concentration that arises from its benefits. So that’s a long term goal to keep in mind. Faith will lead to aspiration, makes more sense, aspiration or interest and this will enhance perseverance or what they call joyous effort.
So the mind will take delight in virtue or in the meditation. And this will also lead to pliancy. So that’s the four antidotes to laziness. Any question on that? But the perseverance, I mean it’s a form of discipline.
Yes, it doesn’t come from somebody telling you you need to do that. It’s actually think about it and you meditate or you think about the advantages of meditating. The second obstacle is forgetfulness which is forgetting the object of meditation and you did mention distraction, the forgetfulness. And the antidote is mindfulness. That’s number five.
Which is to keep the mind on the object. The third obstacle is laxity, mental dullness. So your mind is too much inward. Did anybody say anything about No. There was nothing about laxity or mental dullness, feeling sleepy or Yes.
You did? Okay. That’s the opposite of excitement and actually I’m going to put excitement here because that goes with it. Three is actually laxity and excitement. The mind is too much outward.
And here the antidote is introspection And I am going to develop these two a bit more because they are pretty important. Or conscious alertness? Do you want me to write it? Vigilance. Vigilance is too long a word for me.
So the function of introspection is to observe whether or not the mind is abiding stably on the object of meditation. If mindfulness is doing its job, which is not forgetting the object, making sure that mindfulness is doing its job. That’s when we talked about the car going at fifty kilometers per hour. And Are these five obstacles to meditating or five obstacles That’s of calm abiding. But most of them can be applied for the analytical meditation.
I mean all of them. Introspection identifies when laxity or dullness are on the verge of arising. Okay, so what do we do here? So let’s say we’ve got mental excitement. So during meditation, the mind can be very restless.
I think everybody did experience that and our attention can be distracted by other things. You know, we can think about what we’re going to cook tonight or what the kids are doing or et cetera. And this tends to happen when we are feeling excited and happy. That could happen when we’re not happy too. So our thoughts can go to people we love and are attached to, good experiences, places, movies, conversation we had, et cetera.
Usually what we do, we do not try to control these thoughts in normal life, you know. We just let them run because most of them make us feel good and they make us feel happy, alive. Talking about positive thoughts here, not the negative ones and because of this, this mental wandering is a deeply ingrained habit. So these feelings of happiness or excitement, because here it’s actually taken in the terms of the positive, they are not stable. We try to generate these feelings by constant search for comfort, satisfaction and this is what keeps us usually busy.
But as long as we are busy running in circles on the surface of the mind, we will never penetrate its depth and we will never develop concentration. We saw that in the first session that we always run after quick fix and happiness. So there’s a number of methods to counteract this excitement. But it’s harder when you do that, to actually meditate when there’s a problem because it actually demands much more concentration and discipline. Yes, because you feel good or you think you feel good.
Can’t stop focusing on the main object of meditation. For example, let’s say you do analytical meditation on the precious human rebirth and you get too excited. Your mind is distracted. So what you do is you stop your analytical meditation and you go back to your breath. So that’s what yeah.
So go back to the breath and focus your attention firmly on the breath. And when your mind is calm, you can go back onto the object of meditation. In my head, I’m actually saying focus on the breath. So is that a distraction? Is that what?
You’re putting a label on it, so that’s okay. That’s what we did in this meditation, the first one, actually. It depends. Depends. When you say focus on the breath, what are you trying to focus on when you say that?
The breath. Yeah, but the sensation of the air through your nose or? Yeah, yeah. But do you try to count? If you do the counting, you can’t count and say focus on the breath at the same time.
You can’t do two things. But can’t thinking is okay because it does focus you on the breath. And it might take some time to actually for you to go back to really focus on your breath, but if you can’t, you’ve got more chance of doing it, I think. You can follow the air going in and out. There you go.
So you did manage to calm your mind. And what you can do and it was the next thing I was going to say is just observe whatever thoughts or feelings arise without getting involved. And you just regard them as just waves in your mind and you just let them go. So you can imagine them as clouds in the sky. So focus on the breath can just be like clouds.
So the counting is good? Counting. Yeah. That’s the one object of meditation. Yeah.
Yeah. I’ll let that not last. Well, you can concentrate on that hearing, hearing, hearing. So once you manage to regain control over your mind, go back to the object of your meditation. So basically, I mean it’s called the second object of meditation.
You’ve got one main object, which if you do the analytical meditation, the precious human rebirth is going to be your first object of meditation, meaning you’ve got your excitement coming on and you want to calm your mind. So that’s your second object of meditation. And that’s okay because that’s going to happen anyway. Just think it’s normal and bring it back gently. I think it’s when you’ve got resistance and you go, Oh, I shouldn’t do that.
It shouldn’t happen. That’s when you’re really going to make it harder. I find that the excitement is not too good to deal with, but the other one really tired. I mean, I find that Well, I’ve got some antidote for that. I’ve been asleep just before and my body actually moved and then I’ve jolted back.
And all of a sudden So you were not counting. Yeah. It just automatically went to the counting. You lost your object of meditation. We’re going to talk about that.
The second one you can do for excitement is if you are familiar with analytical meditation on death, impermanence and suffering. You can briefly go over these points quickly and I can assure you that it’s going to decrease your excitement. Just think quickly about death, impermanence and suffering. So it’s a good way to do it. It helps also to recall your motivation and to strengthen your determination.
It also brings your mind back to the reality of life, that it’s impermanent and this opportunity that you have might be finished soon. So, just following the pleasure of this life is not going to get you anywhere. We have done it many times, it never brings satisfaction, only suffering. That’s a very good way to do that. If mental excitement is a recurring problem, check your posture.
The spine should be straight and the head tipped slightly forward with the chin tucked slightly in. The mind tends to be restless when the head is raised too high. So that can cause mental excitement. So just bring it down a bit. Also, you can reduce the amount of light in the room, maybe it’s too bright.
Patience is essential in dealing with a busy mind. Don’t be upset with yourself if you can’t keep your attention on the object of meditation. It takes time and persistent practice to learn to slow down and gain some control over the mind. Just be easy on yourself. Is that okay?
Any question on this point? I guess if you’re way too excited. I would advise you to stop and to seek advice from an experienced teacher in meditation. But I think it’s better to stop until you get some advice from a very experienced meditation teacher. Maybe And if you do very short meditation, like three minutes, does it come back?
Doing this increases my feeling of not being happy? And it doesn’t. If it did, I would absolutely stop. No. You need to seek advice.
I mean, I always seek advice. Yeah. Whatever. But specifically in relation to meditation. Mhmm.
It’s I mean, it can stir up lots of things in meditation. Mhmm. Maybe it was And if you’re not careful, you can really get into a circle of yeah. You can get obsessive thoughts, I guess, out of it. Mhmm.
And then it’s very hard because you habituate your mind thinking this way. No, I mean, in that case they do advise to stop and to seek advice. So that’s the opposite of excitement. So it varies from a dull, listless state of mind to near unconsciousness. Sorry.
I’m looking at you. You see, this is a common problem, so don’t worry about it. So it relates to another habit, you know. Usually when we close our eyes, it’s to fall asleep. We relax our mind, our body and here we go.
So the first one, check your body. Right. Yep. And the environment. Make sure your back is straight and your head is not bent forward too far.
Okay? Open your eyes halfway and meditate with your gaze directed on the floor in front of you and increase the light if you need to. Increase the light if you need to. And the second one, you could visualize bright light above the crown of your head which opens up and becomes like space and concentrate on this experience for a while and then return to your meditation. And usually that should lift you up.
The third solution is to think of the Three Jewels which is the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and the precious human rebirth. You need to be familiar with these points because you need to be able to go quickly through it so it will lift you up. So that should lift your mind and if really nothing works, get up, water on your face and go back to your meditation or stop. Because if you get into the habit of falling asleep during your meditation, that’s what you’ve been training yourself to do. So it’s better to get up, go for a little walk, water on your face, and then come back.
And really, if you can’t come back, you’re still too sleepy, you want to stop. Do you have any long term or, like what do you that means that you’ve got lots of awareness of your eye consciousness. Can’t kind of thing. So you’re very visual. I don’t know what to say.
I mean, you could ask Geshe-la. When you’re able to, but if it works for you, I mean And I can’t have bright light. I have to have a quiet light. Yes. So where are we?
Okay. So fourth obstacle is the non-application of the antidote. When you are affected by mental dullness and excitement. So the antidote is application. This one’s pretty easy.
Easy to say, not easy to do. And the fifth one is over-application of the antidote. So the antidote is to maintain a sense of equanimity, neutral state. It could happen that you apply the antidote when you don’t need to, but then you end up with over-application and that will distract you from your aim basically or that will not achieve your aim of the meditation. So you need to be very careful not to over-apply them.
It is hard. I mean it is already hard to recognize that. So that comes with time and practice that you are able to actually see them. First of all, you need to recognize them which is hard sometimes to recognize them. Sometimes you might go ten minutes without Oh, I’ve been excited.
I’ve been thinking of something else. So it takes some time for these two here to do. Better go and apply antidote a, b, and c, and then I go off for another five minutes to find it That’d be an over-application. Yes. That’s a good example of over-application.
Here we go. Thank you, Emile. Okay. You’re right. In extreme cases.
Yeah. Okay. So I’m going to talk about physical discomfort because I think it’s a very big obstacle and that we fall into I mean physical discomfort is going to agitate your mind. Usually we’ve got aversion for discomfort. We don’t like it and we want comfort.
That could be an excitement, looking for comfort. Meditation will flow mostly if the body is relaxed and comfortable and often it’s very difficult to get to this stage where your body doesn’t bother you during your meditation. So the method to remove this discomfort, there’s a few on top of the Panadol. The most effective solution is to recognize Much of the physical tension is usually linked to unresolved emotional problems, like fears, worries and anger. So the most effective solution is actually to recognize these problems and to settle them in meditation.
A shorter method is also to sweep the body, making sure that you’ve got the right posture. And also, you can concentrate briefly on each part of your body and just relaxing each part of your body. And you can imagine that the tension simply dissolves when you do that. So you just scan your body and relax each part. And another method is to breathe deeply and slowly.
And with much concentration, imagine that the tension or pain leaves your body with each exhalation and you can even imagine black smoke coming out of your body and that’s all the tension and all your pain. And there’s other methods but they’re a bit more advanced. So if you’ve got pain and discomfort, it’s okay to change to a more comfortable position but however, it is useful to observe the pain before you do that. So the mental perception, the consciousness, and try not to react to them, not to be fearful of it. So instead of giving the label pain, just see it as a sensation, another type of energy because if you notice when you’re in pain, usually we make a big scenario of, I’m in pain.
That shouldn’t happen to me. Why? Why? And there’s actually, you’ve got much more mental discomfort from it than the physical discomfort. I know.
Well, it took me a long time to move from the chair to the floor. And even it was like one minute on the floor, can’t do it, you know, and all this denial. That shouldn’t happen to But that’s okay. Just observe that and, you know, apply the antidote, and if it doesn’t work, just move, you know. Yes.
I mean, I’ve got more about pain if you want, if you want to know more. I don’t know about pain. We can keep that for the meditation day because already I’m twenty to nine and there’s a meditation that I’d like to do and there’s more to go through that. I can tell you more on the meditation day. Another obstacle can be that you have strange images and sensations arising during meditation and this is a normal reaction.
This is your mind adjusting to a new activity. So do not get attached to them, do not reject them. Just observe and let them disappear of their own accord. However, if disturbing experiences occur frequently and you are unable to free yourself from them, it is best to discontinue your practice until you receive advice from a meditation teacher. So basically, regarding the obstacles, I mean befriend them.
They train you. They help you to develop your mind. So don’t see them as an obstacle but as a way of actually training your mind. They will help you to develop qualities by knowing how to deal with them. And this is normal to have all these obstacles.
Okay. I’ve got a bit more regarding the attitude of meditation from Jampa Gendun. Is that okay? Or yep. Okay.
So when we meditate, we pay attention to quality, not quantity. We want quality. It is better to do a short session more often than a big session once a week or one or two hours. The result depends on the mindset of the meditator. So we need to create the kind of practice that will fit our circumstances and bring the result we want.
So if it’s better to meditate for you in the evening when your kids are in bed, well, that’s what we need to do at this point of your life. So it’s important to don’t push yourself. There should be no pushing to make things happen, to attain some preconceived state or other. Don’t strain. Just create the proper mental and physical conditions.
Implement the instructions correctly and be alert. The result will come. It’s like if you bake a cake, you follow the recipe and you put the ingredients and then you’ve got a cake. Don’t rush. There is no hurry so take your time.
Don’t compare. There are differences between people in everything we do. There is no benefit in comparing yourself with other people. Don’t give any importance to unusual physical or mental experiences. In meditation, bodily energies are flowing more freely and repressed material of the mind has an opportunity to surface.
Focusing on them is of no value and is only a distraction. Be gentle with yourself. View problems within your meditation as a challenge, as opportunities to learn and grow and be patient. Anything really valuable takes time. Okay?
Any questions? No. Good. We have time for meditation. Is that okay if I go a bit like five ten minutes overtime like ten to nine, ten past nine or everybody wants to leave at nine or I mean I can do it for nine o’clock sharp.
There’s no problem but Okay. Anyway, you can leave whenever you want. And if you leave before the end of the session, don’t forget to dedicate. So we’re going to finish with meditation on compassion. So just take some time to focus on the seven points posture.
Make sure your back is straight and relaxed. Your eyes slightly open, allowing some light to come in. Relax your jaw and your mouth. The tip of the tongue should touch the palate behind the upper teeth. Your head is bent forward a little, your nose in line with the navel.
Feel the weight of your body. Its substantial, earthy character. Become present in the moment and place where you are. Just spend a few minutes to focus the attention on the breath. You can focus on the sensation of the breath flowing in and out of the opening of the nostril, or you can count your breath coming in and out.
Let all thoughts go like clouds in the sky. If distraction arises, be aware of them without getting involved and without judgment, and just bring back your mind, your attention to the breath. Think that you are meditating not just for your own well-being or peace of mind or good reputation, but you are taking the time now to meditate and develop a compassionate mind to reach a state of enlightenment where you can most skillfully benefit all beings. Start by imagining all living beings around you. Your mother is on your left, your father on your right, and other relatives and friends are behind you.
Visualize in front of you, those you dislike, who have hurt you, your enemies. And extending in every direction right to the horizon are all other beings. Feel that they are here, in human form, sitting quietly like you. Stay relaxed. Don’t feel tense.
Imagine that a sense of harmony and peace pervades everyone. Consider how nice it would be for yourself and others if you were able to love all these beings. Consider that everyone wants to be happy and to avoid suffering just as you do. They are all trying to make the best of their life, even those who are angry and violent. Now generate a feeling of love in your heart.
You can do this by thinking of someone you love and letting your natural good feelings for this person arise. You may like to imagine your love as a warm, bright light, not physical, but pure, positive energy glowing in your heart. Before you can truly love others, you need to love yourself. Loving yourself means accepting yourself as you are, with your present faults and shortcomings, and recognizing you have the potential to free yourself from all your problems. So really wish yourself all the happiness and goodness there is.
Imagine that the warm energy in your heart expands until it completely fills your body and mind. Now let your love flow out to others. Start with your family and close friends sitting near you. Imagine the warm, luminous energy radiating from your body, touching them, and filling their bodies and minds. Think and feel sincerely.
May you be happy. May all your thoughts be positive and all your experiences good. May you be free of problems, sickness, and sadness. May your lives be long and peaceful, and may you quickly reach enlightenment. Then turn your attention to the people in front of you, those you have difficulty with.
Contemplate that they also need and deserve your love. Imagine your positive, loving energy flowing out from your heart to these people. Wish them to be free of the confusion, the anger, and self-centeredness that drives them to act the way they do. Really want them to find peace of mind, happiness, and finally enlightenment. Extend your love to all of them.
Continue sending it out to all the other people around you. Love is an unlimited spring of good energy, so you shouldn’t worry that it will run out. Completely open your heart and imagine your love flowing in every direction, reaching all the beings who are lonely, sick, angry, confused, oppressed, frustrated, frightened. Their suffering disappears and their minds become peaceful, clear, and full of pure happiness. Wish them to have every good experience from the satisfaction of ordinary needs and desire all the way to enlightenment.
Concentrate on this feeling of love as long as possible. You have the potential to love everyone, even those who annoy or hurt you, and those you don’t even know. Generate a strong wish to work on your own anger, impatience, selfishness, and the other problems that prevent you from having such love. Keeping your mind open and trying to overcome ego’s prejudiced attitude will leave much space in your heart for pure universal love. And through this, happiness for yourself and others will develop.
I did go a bit quickly to finish at nine. I even changed the meditation. This one was very long on the compassion, so it was quite a lot. It’s a lovely meditation to finish the session. Do you want me to do a quick conclusion or?
We need to dedicate first, so So basically, tonight we talked about the common problems and the antidotes and the attitude of meditation and that we really need to work to befriend these obstacles because they help us to train our mind. So next week, is it next week? Yes. As I said, we will watch a DVD on How to Meditate from Kathleen McDonald. Just did one of her meditations tonight.
So before we leave, meditations, prayers, just remember your motivation at the beginning of the session and why you came here tonight to meditate and listen to the teaching. Whatever your goal was, just dedicate the positive energy that you have created tonight towards this goal. And we can read the dedication prayer. Due to the merits of this virtuous action, may I attain the state of the Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the supreme bodhicitta that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen not diminish, but increase more and more.
Thank you. If you’re missing information from the other sessions, just let me know.