Sit comfortably in the correct posture as much as possible. Paying particular attention to the positioning of our spine and our head. So then doing the nine round breathing exercise to establish a calm neutral mind. So now try to recognize right now that in this very moment, but in every moment of my existence, it is my mind that is experiencing everything, knowing everything. It is my mind that right now is or depending on my mind, I have a sense of self.
Depending on this mind, I’m experiencing this body. Depending on the mind, I’m experiencing my world. Without the mind, nothing could exist. And with every moment of mind, every moment of experience, there is the experience of happiness or suffering. Understanding this, it’s obvious that if I want less suffering, more happiness, now and in the future, I have to work with my mind.
There’s there’s no other possibility. And if one starts to understand because the mind is not physical and because the mind is in fact formless it is indestructible. It will never come to an end. So in order to work within my mind, I need a perfect method. That can only come from a perfect source, and that is the pure, enlightened mind of the Buddha.
So that’s why we entrust ourselves to the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings, the great practitioners of those teachings. So So as a way to help us generate that state of mind, we think of the Buddha appearing directly in front of us, all seated on a lotus, sun and moon with a whole body of golden light. We think of the Buddha as the embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge, the embodiment of all our teachers of the past, present, and future. Think the Buddha is appearing to remind us of our Buddha nature, encouraging us to realize it. At the same time, we think of all sentient beings surrounding us, trying to have that awareness that I’m intimately connected to all of them through their kindness.
I’ve depended on them each and every sentient being countless times for every aspect of my existence. There’s no way to understand, encompass the the kindness, the help, the support I’ve received from sentient beings in beginningless saṃsāra. But at the same time, a sense that, like myself, all these beings are trapped in cyclic existence. But unlike myself, most of them are experiencing far greater suffering than myself right now and with far less ability to do anything about their suffering at the moment. So I think that if I can free my mind of confusion, awaken my Buddha potential, then I’m in a position to really help them, to repay their kindness, helping them become free of suffering, helping them to realize their Buddha potential.
So this is what I’m going to do. Best thing for me, best thing for all sentient beings. So achieving enlightenment is all about understanding the mind. And so for this reason I’ll do this meditation. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the supreme assembly.
By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. So think the Buddha is very pleased with your motivation, and because of this, the Buddha now comes to the crown of one’s head, turning to face the same direction as oneself. So then from one’s own side make a heartfelt request to the Buddha for one’s mind to be free of all obstacles or hindrances to meditation in general and all hindrances to being able to recognize the conventional nature of one’s own mind. So think the Buddha happily responds to this request by sending a powerful stream of blissful white light and nectar from his heart down into us. And this causes all those hindrances to leave one’s mind in the form of black liquid.
And that black liquid pours out from the lower part of your body dissipating, becoming completely non existent. And your whole being is flooded with this blissful white light energy. Then think that spontaneously from the Buddha’s heart blissful golden light and nectar pours down into oneself, blessing one’s mind to be able to meditate correctly, single pointedly, so that one will be able to actually be able to directly perceive one’s mind and concentrate on it. So now having prepared the mind in this way, make strong determination that I am going to be really focused for the rest of the session. I’m going to be really mindful in order to detect the different kinds of hindrances.
I’m not going to give in to them. I’ll let go of them immediately. I’m gonna put that effort in because this time is so special, so rare, so precious, so meaningful. I I can’t waste it. I’ve dedicated it to all beings.
So having prepared the mind, now just focus on your body in a very simple way. Just observing it as this very solid physical phenomena. Occupying a particular position in space. It has a particular shape, dimension, weight, solidity. Just focus on those things.
Don’t have to analyze them. Just concentrate on that simple sense of your body as this physical entity Experiencing different sensations, hot and cold, and so on. So now as you experience the body as this solid entity, try to get some sense that there is this process of knowing your body. There is your body sitting here, but there is the knowing of your body, the experiencing of your body. So try and see if you can get a sense of the difference.
There is the body and the knowing of the body. So then try and change the focus away from your body to that which is knowing your body. Try and focus more, well, less on your body and more on the process of knowing your body. Your mind is that formless, non physical, space like experience that arises moment by moment of knowing the body. Just try and focus on that.
If that gets confusing or you lose the focus, go back to focusing on your body strongly for a while, and then, again, try and catch that sense of that which is knowing the body. What is knowing your body isn’t something physical. It has no shape, no color, no dimension. It is like space. Formless.
There is this formless process of knowing. Try and focus on that. So now just consciously we will change our object to focus on. We can probably all hear the sound of the air conditioner. So just for a little while, for a short time, just consciously focus on that sound.
So that sound is being made by an electric physical machine. The sound itself is something physical. Separate from me. So there is that sound. And then there is my mind knowing that sound.
Or we could say the knowing of the sound is my mind. There’s the sound and the knowing, the experiencing of it. That knowing, that experiencing is my mind. Try and focus on that. Don’t focus so much on the sound, but the knowing, the experiencing of the sound.
Check how that knowing, the experiencing of the sound, exists. But that existence has no shape. Check. It has no color. It has no dimension, no weight.
As you’re trying to do this exercise thoughts might be arising oh this is too difficult, it’s very confusing, I don’t understand’, or this is very interesting’. So as those thoughts arise also try to be aware there is the thought and the knowing of the thought. Try and focus on the knowing of the thought. Try and focus on that space between the thoughts, that mere clarity, which is the mind. So bring the meditation to a conclusion by trying to make a strong determination to be more and more mindful in daily life, that underlying all one’s experiences of this and that, good and bad, underlying the experience of the body, underlying the experience of even the most fundamental sense of self I have, underlying all that is mind.
Mind is giving rise to all of it. And that mind is like space. It’s it it is not physical and therefore indestructible. It will never end. Experience will always arise.
So I have to use this precious time to ensure that the experiences that arise will be more and more in the nature of happiness and less and less in the nature of suffering. So then recall the Buddha on one’s crown. Imagine the Buddha very pleased with your efforts, and the Buddha shows this by dissolving into blissful golden light so that that light can pour down into you, blessing your mind to be able to actually, at some point, directly perceive the mind itself. Through the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhimind not yet born arise and grow.
May that born have no decline but increase forevermore.