Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Diana Taylor leads this 45-minute retreat session on developing a sustainable personal meditation practice. She opens by exploring the challenge of keeping the mind still when listening to music or engaging with the world—the tendency to constantly “do” something rather than simply “be.” She introduces the five Buddhist wisdoms as a framework: mirror-like wisdom (present without doing), equanimity wisdom (letting emotions be), discriminating wisdom (skillful analysis), all-accomplishing wisdom (right action), and emptiness wisdom. She identifies burnout’s antidote as cultivating the ability to rest in non-doing and equanimity. She then addresses misconceptions about music in Buddhist practice, explaining how it can support meditation through listening, performance, or as an offering made with compassionate intention. The session culminates in three practical themes: calming the mind through relaxation, clearing the mind through purification practice, and training it to be still with joy rather than rigid discipline. She closes with a guided meditation combining these three elements: progressive physical relaxation, visualization of white light purification, and resting as a body of light radiating compassion to all beings. Suited for practitioners seeking techniques to ground a daily practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 Ret..mp3
UUID: 1cdd2b2a-4338-4fe8-bf4d-93514a278230
Teacher: Diana Taylor
Collection: Retreat (Diana Taylor)
Date: 1997 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.0 minutes
Words: ~3,771
Be aware of your breath or any of those exercises. It’s just that this time we were using music. And because it’s music which has been written by a composer who is a very emotional person in any case, of course it’s the quality of that emotion. The romanticism of that period comes out. But even though we try to say to our minds, ‘Look, I just want you to maintain yourself as being still and being there’, The gross mind is always wanting to do something with this music, to understand what the composer is feeling or to look at the harmonic progression if you’re into that aspect of classical music or work with and do something with the emotions and how it reflects something in our own lives.
It’s just constant, the mind constantly wanting to do something with the material that’s coming into it. Sometimes that doing is very valuable. It is that doing which is part of the discriminating wisdom. But sometimes we get ourselves exhausted because there is so much of that doing. And yet to stop the mind from doing is incredibly difficult.
So if we want our minds to be calm and peaceful then somehow or other we have to remind ourselves that the mind doesn’t have to be doing all the time. There’s a time and a place when it should be doing. When we need to look at these emotions, when the images which come up give us a lot of insight into our lives and this is very helpful. So it’s not a matter of saying don’t ever do that’ but of saying ‘Okay, when is there space in my life when I am not actually doing anything. When I am simply being.
So this wisdom of the mirror like wisdom is this wisdom of simply being present where there is no doing whatsoever. No processing. No trying to make something of it. It is simply being there. Wisdom of equanimity when you’re saying, well I’m not following the emotions through at this particular time.
I’m just allowing these things to be present. The discriminating wisdom is the wisdom which is saying I’m going to do something at this particular moment. The other two, if you want the rest of the five wisdoms, is the all accomplishing wisdom which is the wisdom of skillful action. So that’s the doing in the external sense. And then there is the wisdom which is the wisdom realizing emptiness.
We can look at these five wisdoms but particularly those other three in terms of sometimes we need to focus in on one, sometimes we need to focus in on another. But very often and particularly if you’ve been working very hard or you’ve been through a very stressful period of your life, it becomes very important to just not do and to develop this wisdom of not doing anything, of simply being. And by listening to music or by saying, right, I am going to keep my mind on this particular one, then we realize just how unskillful we are at this not doing. It doesn’t mean to say you spend the rest of your life sitting on a cushion and totally isolated, but that you have the ability to do that whenever you need to. That’s all it means.
So if you want a solution to burnout, the solution to burnout is developing this ability not to do and also developing the wisdom of equanimity. The third solution to burnout, I suppose all the wisdoms are, but the other key solution to burnout is developing the wisdom of understanding emptiness. That’s a long story and it’s not the focus of this workshop. I’ll leave that one to later. Let’s take a break for some morning tea and get back here about twenty five to twenty Right, so there’s the wisdom realizing emptiness.
Wisdom realizing emptiness, that’s the combination of them. There is the all accomplishing wisdom which is the ability to act skillfully. And to do that of course you need the Wisdom Realising Emptiness. There is the mirror like wisdom which is that wisdom of simply seeing things without making discriminations whatsoever. It’s just being present.
There is the wisdom of equanimity which is about treating all things as being equal. So it’s about letting the emotions sit quietly, not getting caught up. That’s the negative emotions of course, not those other three that I mentioned before. Wisdom of equanimity and the last one is the discriminating wisdom, which is the sword of wisdom that we are more familiar with. Grief.
Yes. The sadness that yes, that awareness of somebody suffering. Morning tea time. I would like to say is a little bit about music and Buddhism because there are some Buddhists who are very strict in terms of their Buddhist practice I suppose is the way to say it. Was said to me, I was taking ordination, what are you going to do about your piano?
And I said, well what do you mean? And this person said to me, well once you take the vows, you’re not allowed to make music and therefore you have to get rid of your piano. And I thought about this because certainly in the vows it says no singing and dancing without attachment’. So it’s without the attachment that gives the let out. So of course I don’t play the piano with attachment.
But on a more general note than that, we’ve been making the offerings and we have the seven water bowls there. Then the last of those water bowls is music. When I’m filling up the water bowls I always enjoy doing the last one because that represents music. So music is not contrary to Buddhism at all. It’s a mistake to think that.
It’s certainly not conducive to single pointed concentration on emptiness because then it distracts the mind from that particular object of meditation. But you can indeed use music as your object of meditation if you choose to do so. You can use music to bring your mind down and to focus it so that it becomes calmer. So that then with your object of meditation, let’s say, the image of Śākyamūni Buddha, then your mind is more conducive to being focused in on that because the music has helped you to focus down on that. That use of music can either be in the actual performing of music yourself instrument.
Or it can be in terms of listening to music like listening to the CDs. The third way in which music can be a profound Buddhist practice is from the point of view of the performer who is creating a situation where people’s minds can become transformed through their performance. And performance which is done with that particular attitude and with the motivation to perform with that quality of compassion, that quality to allowing the music or I mean it can be any performance in this case, but allowing the music to transform the minds of the people who are watching or listening. That is a powerful act of compassion in and of its own right. So music does have a very important part to play.
But as I say, if you’re going to go off and do six months retreat trying to develop single pointed concentration, then it’s not wise to have a piano with you under those circumstances. So I sit in my railway carriage, now have a digital piano, put the headphones on and nobody hears me. So that’s just a little side point about the music. Oh and the other thing I wanted to say about it is that in the process of listening to music or playing music, Often I sit down just because that’s what I want to do and I talked to Geshe Doga about this one day because I thought maybe this is becoming too involved in the music. It’s taking over too much of my life.
He said just make an offering to the Buddhas. Have a picture of Tārā sitting on my piano and make it as an offering to the Buddhas. So instead of just filling up a water bowl and saying that’s music, for those of you who do perform in any way, when you’re performing also making this an offering and making an offering with that sort of joyful mind and great enjoyment of your music. Maybe one day I’ll do a workshop just on music meditation. I’ve done that before today too.
So what I want to do in this particular session is to start to bring together some of the things that we’ve been looking at yesterday and today So that we can begin to think about how each person can start to think how am I going to develop a meditation practice which is going to work for me. There are three major themes that I’ve tried to bring out and one is the importance of bringing the mind down, calming the mind down and finding ways to calm the mind down. Which we can call relaxation if you like, if you want a single heading for that. The techniques which bring the mind down and which calm the mind. The second one is the clearing and clearing of the mind if you like through the purification practices.
There are many purification practices but the one we did yesterday was the white light. And the third one is just training the mind to be quiet and to be still. And as I’ve said a couple of times, that training is not this rigid, stern, disciplinarian type of training but a very gentle training of the mind. It’s like the sort of training that you do when you’re developing any art form. That if you’re rigid and disciplinarian with it, if it happens to be piano, then you’re going to get RSI and you’re not going to enjoy the music.
But if you don’t have any discipline then you don’t develop the skillful techniques in order to play something like that particular nocturne. So in order to develop music, then we need to start with very simple things and It needs to be practiced on a regular basis. The child needs exercises which the child actually enjoys. Any of you who started learning music a long time ago like I did, when being forced into doing scales all the time and not having much to do with music is very soul destroying. So we need a quality of joyfulness in this practice as well.
And with that quality of joyfulness and the mind is happy, then the energy is there to continue with the practices. And then just gradually slowly slowly rebuild up. And as we build up then we can do more and more complex things. Our music becomes more and more skillful and it becomes closer and closer to what our goal might have been. And exactly the same with our spiritual goals.
We can put labels like emptiness, wisdom, compassion and we have some idea of what these goals mean. But we need to move towards them slowly. We need to have techniques which we can use with this quality of joyfulness in our mind, that we’re happy to use these techniques so that we do continue to practice them over a long term period. And then there’s the quality of staying with it, the quality of joyfulness which allows us to simply sit and allow the mind to be. Allowing the mind to become calm and to become clear.
Then amongst all that of course is the need to understand what it is that we’re doing, understanding the processes. That’s the analytical sorts of meditation. We haven’t done much in the way of analytical meditation in this workshop but there are many of those as well. So are there any questions at this point? Right.
Yep. Well, maybe one way of doing that is by imagining yourself in the presence of God. Imagine if God or Buddha or whatever label we happen to use appeared right here, right now, and with all that incredible quality of wisdom and quality of compassion. How we would simply be there within the presence of that energy. There would be nothing to do, there would be nothing to strive for because it is all there fully present for us at that particular moment.
So all the prayer that we do, all these preliminary practices that we’re doing, all this focusing in the mind, the calming and the clearing of the mind, is so that we can in fact abide within that presence. So this calming is to do with abiding within that presence, within that quality. Oh, definitely. Definitely. I mean, is what all this weekend has been about, to say, what techniques can I use to get that inner stillness happening?
And the Buddha taught many techniques. He said, look, these are techniques. The metaphor he said he used was that you need a boat to cross the river, but once you get to the other side you don’t stay in the boat. So we need these techniques to take us across the river which in this case is the distracted mind. Once we’ve got past the distracted mind then we don’t need those techniques.
The reality is we are sitting here with distracted minds. So we use the techniques. Any other questions? Yep? Yes, it does.
I don’t know exactly where anymore but I said I couldn’t say the verse anymore. At one stage of my life I probably could have but Yes, it’s a profound verse that. And often if I’ve been in retreat or doing meditations, verses like that come into my mind from my Christian background, all the hymns, because I used to play the organ at our local church so I knew all the hymns back to front. I knew most of the verses off by heart as well. Often these come up and at first I thought, well look I’m doing a Buddhist retreat, I shouldn’t be seeing love divine, love’s excelling or something like that.
And then I thought, well that’s a crazy attitude too because at that stage I was, on that particular occasion I was doing a Chenrezig retreat. I thought Chenrezig is the deity of love and compassion. And of course this is love divine, love’s excelling. Joy of heaven from earth to come down. So for that reason I see no conflict between my Christian background and my Buddhist background.
So the relaxation part we can think of also in terms of refuge. This is a word which often causes problems with when they come across Buddhism, saying, you know, what’s this refuge stuff? And I know, I thought, I’m not the sort of person who wants to run away from problems. And this refuge made me think about maybe all these Buddhists are just trying to run away from the realities of life and copping out. But the refuge is about bringing your mind in, helping your mind to be focused.
When we say in the refuge prayer, taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, we’re taking refuge in that energy of wisdom and compassion. In other words we’re bringing our mind into it. We’re bringing our mind into the wisdom which is the Dharma. We’re bringing our mind into being focused through the example of our teachers, through the lamas, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. So this quality of refuge, taking refuge, is a relaxation into this calm and clear mind.
So when we’re preparing our room and we’re making it nice and we’re lighting incense, putting up offerings, whatever it is that we’re doing, we’re creating a refuge at that point, a physical refuge. But also we’re creating a place where mentally we take refuge in that particular sense. So if you’re going off to yoga classes, you’re doing relaxation techniques, this is also part of the whole process. Relaxation is part of taking refuge. It’s another way of looking at the word relaxation.
I’m taking refuge in something which is wise, which is compassionate. If it’s not wise and compassionate, then we don’t really relax. That’s one way in which it’s connected. And then the purification is self evident. Having taken refuge in that, then we allow that to to simply wash through our mind, wash through our body if we need physical healing as well.
And then having done that, simply abiding in that. So there are many ways and many, many techniques that we can use. So it’s up to each person to use those techniques. So what I’m going to do is to simply use those three as part of one meditation. You get the feel for what it’s like to do it in this particular way.
You’re home, and in addition then perhaps you’d be lighting some incense or lighting a candle or putting some flowers on your altar. Something like that as well. So if you want to lie down to do this also, feel free to lie down if that’s going to help. So by relaxing the body physically then the physical tensions which create disturbance to the mind, we allow those to simply go. And notice also that as soon as you begin to settle yourself in this posture, mentally you’re preparing yourself to be calm and to be relaxed.
It’s one of the reasons why we establish a posture like that. Another reason why we establish the meditation posture is that that allows the energy to flow freely through the body. That’s all. There’s nothing else magical about it. And so relax the body.
I think we’ll do it from the head down again. Beginning with the crown of the head. Allowing that to be fully relaxed. All the little tensions through the scalp. Just relaxing those.
The forehead. Letting the forehead be smooth. Cheekbones and your jaws. Your eyes. There’s no straining.
Muscles at the back of your neck, behind your ears. Letting them soften. Balancing the weight of your head so that there’s a minimum of effort to keep it on top of your shoulders. It’s is helpful to have the tongue just touching the back of your top teeth, the front teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed.
And now your shoulders. Just letting your shoulders hang from your spine. Being aware of any subtle movements of muscles which necessary to just let those shoulders hang, shoulders blades loose. Your arms, biceps, forearms, and the many small muscles in your hand and wrist. Those tiny little bones.
Feeling more relaxed. Coming to the top of your chest. Being aware of its rise and fall as you breathe. Allowing that to happen naturally and within its own rhythm. Not being forced in any way at all.
Feeling the expansion in the top of your lungs as you breathe in. Collapsing collapsing as you breathe out. And moving down to the lower part of your chest and the diaphragm. Feeling that expansion as you breathe in which spreads right around the spine as the rib cage lifts. Imagining your chest is very spacious, very roomy.
The heart has got plenty of room. The huge muscle, which is the heart, can function with great efficiency. The whole circulatory system moving through every section of your body. Visualizing that. Visualizing it moving without any obstruction.
Visualizing it feeding and healing every section of your body. Coming back. Being rejuvenated by each breath that you take. The body functioning with perfect ease. No effort.
Coming down to the stomach, the abdomen. The large abdominal muscles hang loose. Giving space now within the abdominal cavity for the organs that sit there. The big bowels, the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the whole of the digestive system. All these being nourished by the circulation of the blood.
The blood in turn being fed by the digestive system. Everything working perfectly. Everything interdependent. The kidneys and the urogenital systems. That sense of everything working in perfect accord.
Relaxing your buttocks. Large muscles in your thighs. Lower parts of your legs, your ankles and your feet. Being aware now that with the body deep, pure, relaxed, the mind is also much more relaxed. From that relaxed mind then, allowing this white light of wisdom and compassion coming down through the crown of your head.
Into the spaciousness which is your body. So that any confusion, any disturbance, physical or emotional or mental is washed out through your body by this white light. Each time you breathe in the white light comes in. As you breathe out, any form of hurt, anger, fear, any ignorance, any pain comes out like black smoke, black creatures. Visualizing this.
The body being cleaned and the mind being cleaned. Now imagining this white light coming from below and filling you up as though milk is coming into you. Your body filling up with this white light And the more subtle forms of confusion and fear. The more subtle forms of pain float on top of this liquid that rises up through your body until it reaches the crown of your head and the blackness just disappears. Imagine yourself being filled in this way from the bottom up over and over again.
Now imagining the most subtle of the confusions and obscurations. The black ball of the heart. As you breathe in the white light explodes this black ball. That even the most subtle obscurations are gone from you. I am doing this over and over again so that the very finest of the most subtle obscurations also go.
In this way your body has become a body of light. Light radiates with no effort from your side. It radiates simply because that is the nature of light. As it radiates, it touches all beings in every direction. Through its very nature it transforms them.
There’s no effort from your side. You remain there being this body of light, radiating light, simply staying with that. Bringing your mind back to simply being this body radiating light. If there is any strain in radiating the light, then go back to doing the purification practices until that body of light remains steady with you and then you sit with that. Keeping your mind focused.
When there is any strain, going back to the purification practice until you are ready to be just that body of light again.