Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Ven Sangye Khadro spends the opening of this 66-minute weekend workshop establishing that correct motivation is the foundation of meditation practice. Using concrete examples—a politician’s self-interested charity, meditation pursued for profit—she shows how Buddhist karma depends on intention, not actions. She introduces three levels of motivation: personal mental transformation, helping people in your circle, or enlightenment to benefit all beings. She then leads a detailed breath meditation with full-body relaxation, practical instruction on handling distraction, and the Buddha’s guitar-string analogy for balancing mental effort (neither too tight nor too loose). She normalizes old traumas surfacing during meditation as self-healing opportunity rather than failure, and closes with a dedication of merit. Geared toward meditation newcomers.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 2005 02 12 MW.mp3
UUID: a6757a7d-94fe-48e1-abf2-2942840e9903
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: How to Meditate Weekend (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Date: 2005-02-12
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 66.1 minutes
Words: ~6,500
So this session we’ll do another have another go at that kind of meditation that we were just doing, meditation on the breath. And but before we get into that, I would like to talk about another thing that is mainly from the Tibetan tradition as far as I understand. The idea of motivation, having a positive motivation for doing meditation and starting the meditation with that. And this isn’t just to do with meditation, but it’s to do with our life in general. So it’s based on it’s based on the Buddhist idea of karma, which is that whatever we do, all the things that we do are the causes is for results or consequences.
So we do something and as as a result of what we do, there will be consequences or results or effects that we will have to experience. So that’s the basic principle of karma. Action karma means action, and so karma is also called action and result or cause and effect. So the idea is we do something, then that leads to results or consequences. And there are various factors that determine what kind of results or what kind of consequences come from the actions that we do.
But the main factor, the most important factor is our motivation, why we do what we do. So that’s actually even more important than the things that we do. So like for example, the act of giving. Giving is generally a good thing to do. There are people who need things and, you know, there’s lots of needy people, people who are poor, people who are hungry, people who are sick, people who are dying, and so on.
And so they have needs, and and providing for their needs, giving to them a good thing to do. It benefits them. But then when it comes to the act of giving, that can be motivated by different reasons, different factors. People may have different motivations for giving. And it’s possible that a person could do an act of giving but with not good motivation.
For example, a politician. Okay? So there may be a politician or someone who’s trying to get into politics, somebody who wants to win an election. And so that means they have to they have to get people to vote for them, and to get people to vote for them, they have to become well known to people and liked and respected by people. And and not I’m not saying, you know, politicians are necessarily bad people, but but sometimes, you know, the the reason for wanting to get into politics, wanting to be in a position of power and authority may be mixed up with ego, with desire for fame and power and control and also greed.
There’s a big salary involved. And so it’s possible that a person could want to win an election and be be in a political position for the wrong reasons, for selfish, egotistical reasons. So so such a person may may do an act of giving, like give a large donation to a hospital or to charity or to, you know, the Alzheimer’s Association or something like that that needs that needs donations. And the reason, the motivation behind this act of giving is not really the wish to help. It’s not really compassion for the people that are gonna be the recipients of this.
Maybe the person doesn’t really care about them, but their their reason is to get votes so that they’ll get into power and be able to do what they want and so on. And so even though the act of giving itself is a positive thing, but because the motivation for it for doing it is is is not really a positive one, then it becomes kind of tainted, contaminated, not completely good, not completely pure. And then the results of that will be mixed as well. There will be good results because people do benefit from the act of giving, but because of the motivation in a person’s mind, that being sort of corrupt mixed with ego and greed and so forth, then and then the results of that will will be something problematic. And so so according to this idea of karma and the law of cause and effect, it said that we have to be very careful about the motivation that we have for the things that we do.
And so when it comes to doing things like meditation or learning Buddhism or doing volunteer work, service work, work that is helpful for others, it’s important that we check our our motivation, why we are doing it, and try to make sure our motivation is a positive one and not something mixed mixed with more negative egotistical, self centered attitudes, which is possible. It is possible that a person might want to learn meditation, want to learn Buddhism, or some other spiritual tradition with the wrong motivation, thinking, oh, you know, Buddhism and meditation are very popular these days. If I learn if I learn about this, if I get good at it, I can write books and sell lots of books, make a lot of money. I can become a teacher, go on a lecture tour, charge money, make lots of money, become famous, popular, and, you know, then that come with that will come, you know, power and control. And and so that is possible.
I actually did hear about somebody, some western person who was talking about that, who had gone to Dharamsala and learned learned some things about Buddhism and then was planning to to teach courses, seminars, and make a lot of money. He was talking about what he was gonna do with the money that he earned. So it is possible. Possible to have the wrong motivation, the wrong reason. And so this is something we have to be careful about.
We have to check our our mind, our reasons for why we wanna meditate. And and so going back to what I was talking about earlier, that according to Buddhism, the real purpose of doing meditation is to transform our mind, to work on our mind, to recognize and work on and decrease the negative aspects of the mind. These are the things that are, you know, associated with greed, hatred, ignorance, other kinds of negative emotions, and so to overcome those, to free ourselves from those, and instead to increase the positive aspects of the mind, which would be things like compassion and love and patience and generosity and wisdom and courage and those aspects of the mind that bring peace, happiness, benefit for ourselves and others. So so the very bare minimum motivation that we should have for doing meditation should be that, the wish to work on our mind to overcome the negative aspects of the mind and increase the positive of the mind. But then if on top of that, because Tibetan Buddhism is Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna means the great vehicle, and this form of Buddhism has as its goal the benefit of all beings.
That’s why it’s called a great vehicle, just like a great big huge ocean liner or, you know, airplane that is able to carry lots and lots of passengers. So the the idea of the great vehicle is, you know, there’s room for everybody. We put we we bring everybody with us to enlightenment, not just thinking in terms of our self, our own enlightenment, our own benefit, but wanting to benefit all other people, all other beings as well. And so so in this tradition of Buddhism, the reason for practicing meditation and doing spiritual work, spiritual study, and working on ourselves and so on is is the benefit of others, ourselves and others. It’s not that we exclude ourselves, but we don’t just think of ourselves alone, like, narrowly thinking just my benefit, my happiness, my freedom from suffering, but we think about others.
So whatever work we do on ourselves, whatever study we do, learning and progressing on the path and so on, we’re thinking in terms of benefiting others. We’re doing this for others as well as for ourselves. So if we can bring that into our our motivation for practicing meditation, if we can think I’m meditating not just for myself, but so that I can be more helpful to others. And the ultimate goal that we can achieve by practicing meditation is enlightenment, becoming a Buddha, which means being a being someone who has no negative thoughts or feelings or attitudes at all. No anger, no hatred, no selfishness, no greed, no ignorance.
It’s totally free of all that’s negative and totally perfect and all that’s positive, all the positive qualities like love and compassion and so on. So we have that ability. That’s our Buddha nature, our Buddha potential. We have the ability to do that, and and that’s sort of the ultimate long term goal of meditation, achieving that state. And the reason for achieving that state is it’s the best thing we can do for others.
We’ll be able to help others in the best possible way. And so if you if you are able to accept that idea idea and feel comfortable with that idea, then you can think that that’s the reason for doing meditation, is to become enlightened, to help all living beings. But if, you know, it’s difficult to accept that, you’re sure if that’s really true, if it’s possible, and if or if that’s really what you wanna do, that’s okay. You can still have something similar to that in your mind. You can think, well, I don’t know about reaching enlightenment, but I do there are people in my life.
I have my family. I have my friends, people I work with, neighbors, people I deal with, and I I wanna be able to help those people. I wanna be able to bring good energy into my relations with others, love and compassion and unselfishness and be helpful to them and not cause them unhappiness and problems, bring more suffering into their lives. So so even if you can feel that way, that you just wanna be be able to bring more good energy into your interactions with other people and be less likely to do things that would hurt them, cause them problems, then that’s that’s a very positive motivation. So and also helps us to get beyond just thinking of me, myself, my benefit.
So that’s what we call altruism. The altruistic motivation is thinking of others, thinking that what we’re doing, we’re doing not just for ourselves but for others as well. So it’s it’s recommended that when we when we do meditation, each each time we practice meditation, and we can also do this in other things that we do in our life, even ordinary things like eating and sleeping and drinking tea and going to work and going to the gym and going swimming and whatever we do. If if we if we can try to think of benefiting others. Yeah.
We should have the wish to benefit others and think that we’re doing these things so that we can be more helpful for others. So, like, even eating, which we have to do every day. If we can think that we’re eating not just to, you know, satisfy our taste buds or fill our own stomachs, but to think, you know, we’re eating to have the energy so that we can give to others, do things for others. So then even something like eating can become something beneficial, not just for ourselves but for others, and also part of our spiritual practice, spiritual growth. So let’s do meditation and start with a positive motivation.
Thought we’d try turning the lights off. See if it makes it more quiet, more conducive. Okay. So again, check the position of your body and the most important thing to observe is your back, keeping your back straight. Initially, it may feel somewhat uncomfortable to keep your back straight, but that that’s probably because you’re not used to doing it.
You may be more accustomed to slouching, not having a straight back. So then it may feel odd or uncomfortable to have a straight back. But if we keep doing that, if we make a habit of that, then it will become more comfortable, more natural. So other than the muscles that you need to keep your back upright, let the other muscles in your body relax. Don’t tense any of your muscles.
Let them all be relaxed. And let your breathing be natural. Don’t breathe in any irregular way, unnatural way. Just let your body breathe as it normally does. You may find the rate of breathing slowing down when you’re meditating as you become more calm.
Your breath rate may slow down, and that’s normal. Just let that happen. And think about why we’re doing this meditation. And try to generate a good reason, an altruistic reason for doing it. If you can think in terms of becoming enlightened, fulfilling our highest potential so that we can be of the greatest benefit to others, be most helpful to others.
So if you’re comfortable with that idea, then you can bring that into your mind. But if that seems too much, too big, and if you’re comfortable with the idea of just being more helpful to the people in your life, people you are already in relationships with and people you meet and interact with, if you would like to be able to bring more positive energy into your interactions with others and that you wanna work on your mind to be able to do that, and then think that that’s your reason for doing meditation. And even if you feel not capable of really helping others at this point in time, if you feel like that you you just have so much work to do on yourself, on your own mind before you can really help others, then that’s okay too. As long as you understand that the reason for doing meditation is to work on the mind, reduce the parts of the mind, the aspects of the mind that are negative, disturbing, problematic, confusion, and so on, and increase the more positive qualities of the mind. So to make your mind better, more positive, less negative.
So even thinking that that’s your reason for doing meditation is still positive and the right reason. So bring into your your mind one of those reasons for doing meditation. Think that’s why I’m going to do meditation now. Then before we do the breathing meditation, this time we’ll do relaxation of our body because sometimes we may be holding on to tension in our body without even knowing it. And if we’re not fully relaxed, it’s hard to have a really good meditation.
So it’s important to be relaxed. And, also, doing this can help us to just bring our awareness more inside of ourselves rather than outside of ourselves as as is our usual habit. So what I’ll do is I’ll mention different parts of the body, starting with the head and going down. And as I mention each part of the body, put your awareness there at that place, that part of your body, and just do the best you can to relax, let go of any tension you have that part of the body. So first, feel the top of your head.
Relax any tension you may have there. Then relax your forehead. Let your forehead be smooth, not wrinkled with worry lines. Let it be smooth and relaxed. Then relax your eyes, the muscles around your eyes and behind your eyes.
But still good to keep your eyes open a little bit to prevent sleepiness. Now relax your face, all the muscles in your face. Let your face face be smooth and relaxed and a little bit smiling. Then relax the sides of your head, right and left sides. Then relax the back of your head.
Now go inside of your head. Relax your skull, your brain. If there’s any tension inside of your head from thoughts, worries. Just let them go. So right now, we don’t need to be thinking about or worrying about anything, so you can put all of that aside.
Just let your whole head be clear, relaxed, free of tension as much as you can. Relax all the cells, molecules, atoms, tiny particles that make up your brain. Let any tension melt and flow away. Now relax your neck, the muscles in the back of your neck, also the front of your neck, your throat. Relax your shoulders.
Relax the upper part of your back, shoulder blades, muscles. That whole area become loose and open, relaxed. Let the relaxed feeling continue to travel down your back. Relax the middle part of your back, the lower part of your back. Just let any tension you have in your back melt and flow away.
Now feel your chest. Relax your chest. If there’s any tightness there, let it go. And then go inside of your chest. Relax your lungs.
Relax your heart. Then let the relaxed relaxed feeling continue to move down through the front of your body, middle of your body. Relax all the organs, all the muscles in the middle part of your body, the abdominal area, the digestive system. If there’s any tension at all in that area, do your best to let it go. That whole area be open, relaxed.
Relax the pelvic area. Relax your hips. Then let the relaxed feeling move down through your legs. First, relax the upper parts of your legs. Relax your knees.
Relax the lower parts of your legs. Relax your ankles and your feet, the soles of your feet, upper parts of your feet, and your toes. Then feel the upper parts of your arms. Relax any tension. Relax your elbows.
Relax the lower parts of your arms. And relax your wrists, hands, and fingers. And now put your awareness on your breathing, either at the nostrils or on the abdomen. Abdomen moving in and out with each breath. Just do the best you can to be aware of each breath coming in and going out.
It’s normal to have other thoughts, memories, images in your mind, or to feel sensations in your body or sounds that can distract your mind away from the breath. So that’s normal. Don’t be surprised if that happens. But if it does happen, once you realize your mind has been distracted, it’s not watching the breath anymore but is paying attention to something else. As soon as you notice that, gently disengage your mind from the other object, bring it back to the breath.
So do that with patience and kindness to yourself, not feeling frustrated and angry at yourself. So just keep bringing your mind, your awareness back to your breath whenever it wanders away. And if you find it helpful to count your breaths, then you can do that up up to five or up to ten, whichever you prefer. And remember that whatever happens in your mind, thought, memory, image, emotion, sensation, these experiences are just temporary. They can be compared to clouds that come and go in the sky.
Our mind is like the sky, clear, spacious. And then the thoughts, emotions, memories are like clouds passing through the sky. They come. They last a moment or two. They go.
They’re not permanent. They’re not always there. So just notice them. Be aware of what happens in your mind. You can make a mental note if you wish, like thinking or hearing or feeling some sensation in the body.
You can just kinda make a mental note about what you notice, what happens in your mind, but then let it go. Don’t continue to hang on to it or pay attention to it or get all involved with it. Just do the best you can to let it go. Let it drift away, and then bring your mind back to the breath. So ideally, when we meditate, we should try to be as relaxed as we can, physically relaxed.
That means not holding on to tension in our body. And so to be physically relaxed, you can do like what we did at the beginning, kind of going through and relaxing. Or you may know some other other method, other technique for for relaxing. So as much as possible, try to be relaxed physically. And then also mentally, having a relaxed mind, which is probably more difficult than having relaxed body.
Mind is always more difficult to deal with in the body. Buddha used the analogy of a of a stringed instrument like a guitar. He said that we should tune our mind in the same way that we tune the strings of a guitar. If if the string of a guitar is too tight, if it’s wound too tight, then it makes this really awful sound, doesn’t make the right note. And then if we turn it the other way and it’s too loose, then again, it makes a really awful sound.
So to tune the strings of a guitar, you have to keep going back and forth with the key until you get just the right amount of tension so that the string makes the right sound, very beautiful, sweet sound. So the Buddha said, in in a similar way, we need to tune our mind and not have a mind that’s too tight or too loose. So too tight, that can happen if we we’re trying too hard to have perfect concentration and no distractions, no other thoughts, no other emotions, nothing happening, just, you know, really perfect concentration. So so if we do that, you know, if we’re trying too hard, pushing ourselves too hard, being too tight, too tense in our mind, then that actually has the result of causing our mind to be more agitated, agitated, more thoughts rather than, you know, fewer thoughts. So it leads to agitation, to excitement, to, you know, not not really the right state of mind.
So that’s something to watch out for, something to be careful of. And one sign of that or kind of way that we might know if that’s happening is if I guess it comes it relates to expectation. If we have the expectation that when we meditate, there should not be any thoughts, there should not be any distractions, there should not be anything else happening in our mind, just perfect concentration. So some people might meditate with that sort of expectation, like I was talking about before, you know, like my mind should just become completely calm and peaceful when I meditate, and then they get surprised when they find that that doesn’t happen, and instead there’s all kinds of thoughts. So we have to have correct expectations, realistic expectations as to what’s actually gonna happen in our mind when we meditate.
So if we if we have the right understanding, the right expectations, then we just know that there will be thoughts and that there will be other things coming up. And sometimes, you know, it can be really surprising, really shocking even, what comes up in the mind when meditating. You can remember something that happened thirty years ago or fifty years ago that you don’t even remember. Yeah? And that memory can come up in your mind when you’re meditating.
Or you can have some very bizarre things that happen in your mind when you’re meditating, some really weird thoughts. Sometimes they can be even kind of scary or disturbing. So try not to be surprised if that happens. It’s better to have the kind of expectation that that will happen, that can happen. And it’s normal.
It’s not like there’s something wrong with you, you’re going crazy. It’s completely normal. I mean, one one reason it can happen is because we just have a lot of unresolved stuff in our mind, stuff that may have happened in our life, earlier in our life, in our childhood even, that we didn’t resolve, we didn’t know how to We just try to push it down, shove it under the carpet, shove it in the closet, you know, hoping it would go away if we don’t think about it. And but, you know, there’s stuff there that that hasn’t been resolved and needs to be looked at, needs to be resolved. And so so it’s completely normal that that stuff would come up when we’re in a relaxed, calm, clear mode.
So don’t be surprised if that happens. And in fact, meditation can be used as a way of resolving these old unresolved problems so that we can let go of them and not have them continue to sort of haunt us. So so when thoughts, emotions, things come up in the mind, it’s good to like, don’t just, you know, think, oh, I shouldn’t think anything, I shouldn’t have any experiences. Let them come. Let them happen.
But try not to be caught up in them. Because a lot of the distractions, a lot of the things that happen in our mind when we’re trying to meditate are things which are not really very important, a lot of trivial stuff. You know? Like just re experiencing things that happened earlier today, yesterday, you know, just kind of going over those things again and again. And a lot of that’s not important.
We remember nice experiences that we had, a nice meal in a restaurant or a movie that we saw or music we like to listen to or some beautiful place we went to. So a lot of it is just trying to relive old, pleasant experiences. And there’s nothing really very important there, nothing to look at. So with those kinds of thoughts or we think about the future. Okay.
Tonight, I have to meet so and so at such and such a time. And or, oh, I wanna cook lasagna for dinner. So on the way home, I’m gonna stop you know, or next week when you go back to work. You know, those kinds of thoughts about the future which, you know, aren’t really that important. When we’re meditating, we shouldn’t be sitting there, you know, making a shopping list and planning the meeting we have to, you know, do on Monday morning or whatever.
So those kinds of thoughts we should just let go of. Meditation is not the time to be doing that stuff. Even if it’s something that seems like, you know, it is important, we have to do it, but do it at another time, not when you’re meditating. So, you know, give yourself another time to do that stuff. So a lot of the stuff is is kind of trivial and not really very important.
But then, occasionally, there will be something that comes up that that is more important, like like I say, some old unresolved problem in a relationship or something or something that happened as a child or or or whatever. And and so if that happens when we’re meditating, then there are different things we can do, different ways we can handle it. One is, like, if you really wanna work on concentration, you really wanna develop your ability to concentrate and stay focused, then you can say to yourself, not now. You know, I I really wanna stay with the breath or I really wanna stay with whatever else I’m meditating on, and this is not the time to be looking at that. So so give yourself another time to look at it later.
Know, say to yourself, okay. I realize this is something important to look at, but not now, and make plans to spend some time looking at that, dealing with that later at another time. So you can try that, but that may not work. This problem may be very strong and very determined to have you look at it, and so you put it aside and it comes back, and you put it aside and it comes back. So it just keeps coming back.
It won’t go away. And I think of that as maybe something like a baby crying. Yeah? If if there’s a baby in the house, whether it’s your baby or somebody else’s baby, and the baby is crying and you’re sitting in your room trying to meditate, the baby’s not gonna stop crying if if, you know, nobody goes to see what’s wrong with it. There’s something happening right now in this moment that the baby needs or that needs to be taken care of.
And so you can say to the baby, Stop crying. I’ll come and take care of you in ten minutes or fifteen minutes when I finish my meditation. That’s not going to work, the baby is just going to keep crying. So the most compassionate thing to do is to stop your meditation and go and look after the baby and whatever the baby needs, take care of it. And then when the baby’s quiet again, then you can go back to your meditation.
So so things that come up in our mind can sometimes be a bit like that. They can be a bit like a baby crying. It needs it needs attention. It needs attention now, and it’s not gonna stop asking for attention until we give it attention. So sometimes you you may have that experience, that when you’re meditating, something comes up, it’s very strong, very powerful, and it really needs your attention.
And so if it won’t go away, if you can’t just put it aside until later, it keeps coming back, then the most compassionate thing and possibly the wisest thing to do is to give it your attention at that point in time. Just say, okay, what’s going on here? And there’s different tools, different methods you can use to work with it. Buddhism is full of these methods, like trying to figure out what what is what is this all about? What’s going on here?
It could be anger. It could be fear. It could be sadness. It could be grief. It could be attachment.
So just trying to figure out what what is the nature of this particular state of mind. And then there are different methods you can use depending on what it is. If it’s sadness, or if it’s anger, if it’s fear, worry, or whatever. There’s different ways you can work with that. I don’t have time to go into all of that now, but just to give you some idea.
So it’s it’s kind of self healing, using meditation as self healing or self therapy to deal with a particular problem or issue. And in some cases, you may be able to deal with it fairly quickly, resolve it fairly quickly, let go of it, go back to your meditation. But in other cases, it may be something that takes a lot more time and a lot more energy to work on. May have to do it over a number of sessions or a number of even years to resolve certain things, very painful problems from the past. But that’s okay to do.
In fact, it’s good to do. In fact, we need to do it because those things aren’t gonna just go away by themselves. So just trying to shove them under the carpet, trying to ignore them, deny them, not look at them isn’t a way of solving them or healing them. Yeah. So so it’s okay to use meditation to do that.
And then, you know, once we do resolve something that’s from the past, then we’ll be able to progress in our meditation. Otherwise, that that becomes like an obstacle. Like, for example, once Lama Yeshe said that if we have any unresolved problems with our parents, with our mother and father, and we and we just try to meditate and not deal with those problems, we’re not gonna really make progress in our meditation. Yeah. So he gave that example, but I think the same can be said for any kind of unresolved problem we may have in a relationship or even with our with ourselves, you know, for hating ourselves.
We have a conflict with ourselves. So just trying to put that aside, ignore that, not deal with that, and think that we can get somewhere in our practice of meditation and our spiritual practice, it’s not gonna work. So we actually do have to find ways of resolving these things and get getting beyond them in order to really make progress in meditation. But, again, meditation itself is a is a method we can use to deal with that. So anyway, we should try not to be too tight in our in our mental state when we’re doing meditation.
Too tight is like, you know, trying to not think about anything or not have anything come into our mind other than what we’re focusing on, what we’re meditating on. So that isn’t the right attitude. That isn’t the right state of mind to have. And then the other extreme would be being too loose, too slack. So that’s when we just have no concentration at all.
Our mind is just all over the place, and we’re not even trying to focus, to bring it back to the object of meditation. So that also isn’t the right state of mind. So somewhere in between those two, too tight and too loose, somewhere in between those two is a state of mind that is relaxed. That means not too tight, but at the same time, alert alert and as focused as possible, as focused as as we’re able to manage. So this is something nobody can really tell you how to do that.
Something you have to come to on your own, something you have to work out on your own, and it’s possible it could take a long time to do that, even many years of practice to find that right state of mind, that right balance between being too tight and too loose. And again, remember that the whole purpose of doing meditation is to work on the mind, to to work on the mind so that it so that we are able to reduce anger and the other disturbing emotions, disturbing negative attitudes in the mind. We’re able to release those and be free of those so that they’re not so dominant in our mind anymore. And and and and to increase positive aspects of the mind, being more loving and more kind and compassionate both to ourselves as well as to others. So we also have to remember the importance of being kind to ourselves, patience, wisdom, and so on.
So decreasing the negative and increasing the positive aspects of the mind, that’s the purpose. And if we keep that in mind, you know, remind ourselves again and again of that. So it’s not to become some sort of super being, you know, who has this great concentration and powers and, you know, all these kind of things, but it’s to it’s to work on ourselves, to work on our mind, to heal our mind of the painful things, the negative things that are there, and increase the the good things, the positive things that are there. So not too tight and not too loose. Does that make sense?
I mean, it sounds, you know, not too difficult to do, but when we actually try to do it, it can be quite difficult to do. It’s something to work on. Okay. So so let’s we’ll have a break now for lunch. And, actually, before we before we stop, before we break, let’s dedicate.
This is another tradition we have in in Buddhism, making a mental dedication of our efforts during meditation, whatever good energy or insights we may have experienced during the meditation. So feel confident that we have actually created some positive energy here. And I’m saying that because sometimes we can be kind of hard on ourselves and think, oh, I I did that that was really lousy. I couldn’t concentrate. I my mind was all over the place, or I was falling asleep, or I was restless.
I couldn’t sit still. So sometimes we judge ourselves or we judge the quality of our meditation and feel that, you know, it was, you know, just really bad and maybe even a waste of time. But we have to remember that just making the effort to meditate, just just trying to sit still, trying to keep our mind still, trying to focus our mind, especially if we do it with a positive motivation, with the wish to to improve ourselves and be more helpful to others. So we definitely did something good. We created some good energy.
So we need to feel confident in that. And then and and also feel good about the fact that we did it, sort of a a sense of rejoicing, a sense of joy. I did something good. And that’s not feeling proud or egotistical. It’s just an acknowledgment that we made some effort to do something positive, and just making the effort itself is something positive.
So we need to to feel good about that. And then and then remember the motivation we had at the beginning, which was to benefit not just ourselves but others as well. So mentally dedicate or share the positive energy that we have just generated in in this morning’s session. Dedicate it that it will be helpful to others, to as many other people and beings as possible. So may this positive energy be shared with others.
May it help those who are in pain physically or mentally, who are troubled, confused, frightened. So may it bring peace to their minds. And may it help the minds of all people be free of negative thoughts like hatred and anger and harmfulness, the wish to do harmful things to others, the wish to control, abuse, manipulate others, and so on. So may all those kinds of thoughts and attitudes disappear from everybody’s minds, and instead, may everyone’s minds be filled with positive and beneficial thoughts and attitudes such as kindness, caring, helpfulness, wanting to help others and not harm them. So in that way, may everyone everywhere be able to get along peacefully, harmoniously.
May there be an end to fighting, war, conflict, terrorism, violence. May everyone live in peace, harmony, and joy with each other. Okay. So let’s have a break for about an hour and meet again at one fifteen. So enjoy your lunch.