Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 113-minute session, Ven Thubten Dondrub teaches the foundational practices of Buddhist meditation, moving from philosophical grounding into concrete techniques for developing concentration. He begins by establishing the Mahāyāna framework—understanding that all sentient beings have been our mothers across infinite lives and deserve our compassion—and uses this to generate bodhicitta, the motivation to achieve enlightenment in order to liberate others from suffering. He then walks through essential preparation: correct posture (spine straight, eyes slightly open), the nine-round breathing exercise (imagining white light in, black smoke out), and the mental setup needed before practice begins. The core teaching focuses on concentration meditation (Samādhi) and how to work with two main obstacles: sinking (dullness and sleepiness, which requires energizing the mind with bright thoughts like one’s precious human rebirth or Buddha nature) and scattering (distraction by pain, sounds, and especially thoughts—both negative and virtuous—which must be released immediately and replaced with antidotes like remembering impermanence and death). Throughout, Dondrub stresses that success in meditation depends on understanding Buddhist teachings deeply, living ethically, and maintaining realistic expectations: a good meditation is not a blissful experience but honest work with the mind, and even struggling effort creates powerful karmic imprints for future practice. Aimed at newcomers and serious students alike.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013 11 19 DB How to Meditate Week 3.mp3
UUID: 38f93ee1-fbd5-4636-a402-75e6f9f516e3
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB How to Meditate (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2013-11-19
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 113.5 minutes
Words: ~12,911
Welcome everyone to our third class on how to meditate. So before we start, I’d just like to do a little bit of housekeeping. So there’s just a couple of people I’d like to check if they are here. Is someone called Steven? Is are they here?
Steven? Does anyone know if Steven was here last week? Okay. David? Somebody John?
Michael Reid? Someone, Sasha. Not not you, Sasha. Another Sasha. Oh, okay.
Alright. Gary. Alright. Ray. Right, Ray.
And Jeanie? Oh. Oh, I bet you’re yes. And who enrolled Right, so in the Buddhist tradition meditation has very specific purposes. Its ultimate aim in the Mahāyāna tradition is to bring well, it’s to not only free us from suffering by eliminating the causes of suffering from our mind, but to help us achieve the true nature to realize the true nature of our mind, our Buddha nature, and achieve enlightenment.
And the purpose for achieving enlightenment is so that we can help every sentient being to become free of suffering and for them to be able to achieve enlightenment. And the reason to do that is twofold because sentient beings are suffering and they’re immensely kind. We totally depend on them. So I talked about that to some extent last week. Well, anyway, say it again.
Our very existence depends moment by moment. If you check this life, every moment of our existence, we depend on so many people directly, but those people depend on other people and they depend on others going so indirectly, we depend on everyone and not just human beings, but for our food we depend on all the different kinds of animals and insects and so on. So and this goes back into time and so directly, indirectly, just for our mere existence, we depend on others, on their kindness. But for every good thing that happens to us, for all the good qualities and skills we develop, again, all of these things can only happen depending on others directly and indirectly. So they are immensely kind.
And especially what is emphasized in the Mahāyāna tradition is how every sentient being has been our mother because we’ve had beginningless rebirths, infinite past rebirths. So where we’ve had mothers, so we’ve had an infinite number of mothers. So who are these infinite past mothers? All sentient beings. So this is something that’s very much emphasized to be aware of in the in the Mahāyāna tradition how quite literally every being that we meet, human, nonhuman, actually has been our mother.
And so is no different in a sense in their kindness than the mother of this life. We are we are all just one family. And, of course, it if that if that is true, it also follows that every sentient being has been our father. Every sentient being has been our brother and sister, best friend, has saved our life. Every sentient being has saved our life in the past.
Every sentient being has sacrificed their life for us in the past. Any wonderful thing you see another or hear about that a sentient being has done for someone else, every sentient being has done for us at some point and will do so again in the future. So they’re immensely kind, but sadly, they’re all suffering. Being trapped in cyclic existence, trapped by ignorance and disturbing thoughts and negative karma. The vast majority of these kind beings are experiencing far more suffering than ourselves right now with right now far less ability to make sense of their suffering, to reduce it, modify it, transform it, eliminate it.
Thinking about those things more and more strongly, we can develop what is called bodhicitta the mind that wants to achieve enlightenment in order to perfectly, not just partially, temporarily, but completely, totally, everlasting, perfectly repay the kindness of all beings. And that means enlightening all sentient beings. To enlighten them we have to first achieve enlightenment. So to achieve enlightenment that involves following the path and following the path involves working with our mind in every possible way to reduce the negative and reduce, eliminate the negative aspects and cultivate, fully develop the positive aspects. And the most profound way, the most direct way of doing all of that is through the practice of meditation.
Because that is what meditation is. It is the method of directly cultivating, transforming the mind. So with this bodhicitta motivation we can try and develop that or at least some version of it right now. We can have the wish to understand how to meditate in order to engage in it, in order to really awaken our mind to realize our true nature so that we can help every sentient being realize their true nature. So if you’d like to join in, there’s the traditional prayer on the top of page sixteen.
And the tradition is as we say this prayer, we think of the Buddha in front of us as our source of refuge, inspiration and guidance. And at the same time, we try to have a sense of sentient beings surrounding us. So at least we try to think of our mother of this life on our left, our father on our right. And then behind us, we try to think, remember all the rest of our family, all our friends and helpers. In front we try to think of those who dislike us, who may have harmed us, not to generate negative thoughts towards them but to realize that ultimately, finally, they are no different than all other sentient beings.
So they are suffering, so they deserve my compassion, not my aversion. So at least we try and think of those people. But as much as we can we also try to open our hearts, our minds to an awareness and concern for all other beings, at least the human beings of this world, but we can also try and think of the animals who are also immensely kind to us. We depend on them. But also all the other different kinds of sentient beings of cyclic existence.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, the supreme assembly. By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. So if you find it helpful, imagine the Buddha in front of you is very pleased with your motivation and shows this by now coming to the crown of your head. And when directly above your crown, imagine that the Buddha dissolves into blissful golden light so that that light pours down into you, blessing your mind. So then to make this time of listening to the Dharma as effective as possible we can spend a little bit of time doing the nine round breathing exercise.
So firstly we can start by just sitting comfortably in the correct posture, the Vairochana posture as much as possible. So just placing your legs in whatever way is comfortable, but particularly paying attention to the positioning of your spine so that it’s as straight as possible. Your upper body is positioned so that you’re not leaning forwards or backwards or to either side. You can raise your shoulders up and back a little bit and then relax them and then straighten your head. Tuck your chin in slightly to position your head properly so that it’s not tilted down or lifted too high.
Also place your right hand on top of the left with the thumbs lightly touching Resting your hands in your lap close to your body, but so your elbows and upper arms are not touching the sides of your body just a little bit away. Relax your jaw, have your mouth lightly closed and the tip of your tongue resting at the top of the back row of teeth. Sorry. At the back of the top row of teeth. You can have your eyes closed but it is much better to meditate with your eyes just a little bit open.
Just very slightly directing your gaze just a short distance down in front of you but without actively looking. So then just for a very very short time place your awareness at the crown of your head and then just move it down through your body just for a very short time this time not over a long period just to fine tune your posture. And you may notice different points of tension as you move your awareness down through your body. And you might start to be aware that that tension tends to exist because one is unconsciously pulling inwards and holding on as one does that. So simply by being aware of that process we can start to gently let go of it.
So now move your attention away from the awareness of the body to your breathing and we do the nine round breathing exercise. But this time as we do it, we can add another aspect which is with each in breath in the cycle, imagine as you are breathing in and you focus, we start as we breathe in through both nostrils, but we focus on being aware of the breath coming in the left nostril for the first three breaths. So with those three in breaths, focus on imagining as you breathe in and being aware of the breath that you are also breathing in this blissful white light. You can imagine it coming from the Buddha, this perfect source. And that white light as you breathe it in brings great calmness and clarity and stillness to the mind.
And then with the out breath, where you focus on the breath going out the right nostril for the first three breaths, Imagine that you breathe out any agitation existing in your mind right now, all disturbing thoughts, all negative imprints, all negative habits and instincts and so on all suffering and confusion Imagine you breathe all of that out in the form of black smoke with each out breath. And that smoke just completely disappears. So you do that for three breaths. Breathing in white light through the left nostril. Black smoke out the right nostril for three breaths.
Then the next three breaths you reverse it. Breathing in the white light through your right nostril. All negativity is in the form of black smoke out your left nostril. And then for the final three breaths of the cycle breathing in the white light through both nostrils. Breathing out all negativities in the form of black smoke through both nostrils.
Okay. Thank you. So tonight I particularly want to talk about, as it says in the outline, about concentration meditation or placement meditation. But just briefly again just to recapitulate a few points. So the very basis of Buddhism is an understanding that we have a mind.
Our mind is the basis of all experience, particularly every experience has an aspect of either being something pleasant or unpleasant. It has a quality of either being suffering or happiness. And what the Buddha discovered, the most simple discovery, discovery of the Buddhism is that the source of our suffering doesn’t lie in the external world but in our mind. And specifically the source of our the very root of our suffering lies in what are called well in Sanskrit they are called klesha which are translated as either delusions, afflictions or disturbing thoughts. And the three principal ones are anger, afflicted desire and attachment. Afflicted desire and attachment are like a little team that go together, and the very root of all suffering: ignorance.
When those are active they are suffering and they lead us to create the causes of more suffering. We act on them, negative imprints. Those negative imprints ripen as more suffering. And the Buddha discovered that the real source of happiness lies within our own mind, specifically the positive mental factors particularly of wisdom, compassion, loving kindness and so on. These are the true source, the actual source of happiness.
When those mental factors arise, there is happiness, and we act on them and create the causes of more happiness. And all of those virtuous mental factors are a reflection of the true nature of our mind because our mind in reality is complete, pure and perfect. We have this Buddha quality within us. But that Buddha quality is obscured by ignorance and all our disturbing thoughts. So the whole purpose of Buddhist practice is to get rid of those obscurations so that we have not only have less suffering, we don’t have any suffering, and more than that we awaken to the state of enlightenment which not only does not cause or lead to any suffering to anyone, it leads to all sentient beings experiencing perfect happiness.
So learning to meditate which is how to really effectively work with the mind is really important. It’s vital. If one believes the Buddha’s teachings it’s absolutely vital. However much we do it and however well effectively we do it, that much we will free ourselves from suffering. That much we will create the conditions for genuine happiness and well-being.
So what we need to do is to get into the habit of learning to meditate and practicing meditation as much as we can or at least establishing some kind of regular continuity of Dharma practice. And as I was trying to say, started to say last week, Dharma practice I’m sorry, not Dharma practice, but meditation practice needs to be done for it to really work, especially when we’re looking at it from a Buddhist perspective. It needs to be in the it’s it’s not something that is done in isolation, which is what a lot of people are doing these days. You know, people do yoga classes, they do meditation classes, or they just meditate at home. But it’s just something that is done for a short time, but it’s not really an integral integrated with a real understanding of what it actually exists for, what its purpose is.
So to do it properly in the Buddhist context, we really need to know the Buddhist teachings as much as possible. Right? And also we need to receive teachings like I’m trying to do a little bit in a simple way here on how to meditate the actual techniques themselves. So we need to understand the Buddhist path as much as possible so that we know how to meditate, why to meditate, and we have the proper motivation to meditate. And we can sustain the practice by knowing how vital it is.
Because if we don’t understand those things, then we won’t meditate much. We won’t meditate very effectively, and we will tend to give it up. Because although I shouldn’t emphasise this, maybe I shouldn’t even say it at all, real meditation is, involves hard work. One or two people wrote down saying I find it very difficult to control my mind. I find it almost impossible to control my thoughts.
I find it even difficult to sit still. But this is usually the case for most people unless they have very, very strong imprints from past lives, most of us find it difficult to sit still and also to sit comfortably. It’s very painful sitting this way. That’s why most of you are sitting in chairs, but I would encourage you to try, especially when you’re meditating, to sit on the ground. I’m not trying to embarrass you or make you feel guilty or give you a hard time and all those things but it is good to try and put that effort because yeah anyway There’s all sorts of reasons to sit in the actual position and put up with the pain.
Really. It’s great purification really. Great purification of putting up with that all of that somehow. Yes. So the the body gives us lots of problems, difficulties, but also for sure our mind gives us lots of problems.
It’s not easy. Concentrating the mind doesn’t come naturally. Our mind since beginningless time has naturally been uncontrolled. This is another way of looking what the Buddha’s teachings are about. The Buddha is telling us that The uncontrolled mind is the source of our suffering, whereas when we learn to control our mind, that’s when real peace and contentment starts to come.
The more we are able to really control our mind, which I and I don’t mean by that, like really giving our mind, you know, repressing things in our mind, but learning to to work with our mind in a in a wise, compassionate way so that we can pacify all this this stuff going on. When we the more we learn that, then there is real there is some real genuine peace and contentment right now and it is the basis to be able to create the cause for everlasting peace and contentment. Knowing the teachings is an important aspect of learning to meditate, especially when we come to the other type of meditation which is analytical meditation which is very much emphasized in the Tibetan tradition, especially the tradition that has followed at Buddha House which is what is called the Gelugpa tradition established by Lama Tsongkhapa in the fourteenth century. It’s the tradition that His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, is most associated with. Okay.
So that’s one thing. To know the teachings more and more. To put effort into learning those. That’s really important. But also another aspect in establishing a Dharma practice, sorry, a meditation practice so it will be effective is integrating meditation with one’s daily life.
If lead a life which is extremely busy and stressful and full of anxiety and also involves a lot of, from the Buddhist point of view, not so virtuous actions, but we also then meditate. These two things are just fighting each other. Right? We need to harmonize the two. In other words, to use this horrible expression, our lifestyle should harmonize with what we’re trying to do in meditation.
So what we’re trying to do in meditation is at the very least subdue the negative tendencies within us and cultivate the virtuous positive ones. But if in our daily life we’re doing the opposite, we’re just creating problems for ourselves. You know? It’s like someone who, I don’t know, I think there’s some fairy tale story about this of someone, you know, who, well, you know, you can knit something all day long and then, you know, at night you unravel it. And then you knit it again the next day and then unravel it.
It’s crazy. Either if you’re gonna start knitting, just keep knitting. Or if you if you’re gonna unravel it, then don’t start knitting in the first place. What’s the point? I’m sure there’s some other more modern examples because no one knits these days.
Anyway, something, you know, like typing something in the computer and then wiping it out. If you’re going to wipe it out, why do it? It’s crazy. So leading a berserk and somewhat negative lifestyle is and then being interested in meditating is kind of schizophrenic. Although it’s better than just leading a negative lifestyle, I suppose.
At least we’re trying to modify a bit. But it’s a bit more consistent and effective and energy saving if we take an interest in meditation and see its benefits that we try to live a life that is, you know, I’m sorry, this is a very unpopular word these days, but a virtuous life. Yeah. And And a life where we’re not doing lots and lots of things very speedy, which unfortunately is what modern life has become. You know, I’ve been involved in Buddhism for what?
I met met the Dharma in nineteen seventy well became it positively in nineteen seventy six. So that’s what? Forty seven years. Thirty seven years. Thirty seven years.
Thirty seven years. So in that time, life has become so much more speedier. People’s lives are so much more frenetic. It’s just crazy. And are people happier?
I don’t think so. People may some people may have a lot more money, a lot more possessions, but and we all we have we live in a society producing all sorts of wondrous time saving devices. But do we have any more time than in the past? I think we have less time somehow because we’re busy with so many time saving devices. And they all break down.
And it takes a lot of time fixing them up or getting to know how to work them. Anyway yeah. But life seems very much more frenetic with and not much happier, maybe even less happy in some cases in some in some ways. I mean, there’s so so many stories about work stress in an Australian life that so many people suffer from stress at work, working so many hours and there’s so much it seems there is so much more, competition between people at work. So life is so much more stressful.
For what? So, it’s really yeah. Taking care of the mind is incredibly important. Keeping the mind calm, relaxed. Anyway, think about it.
Because also stress in the mind affects the body. That’s why if one learns to meditate well, it really depends. There’s other factors like our past karma, but can really help our health. If one is able to keep a calm mind, if one gets sickness, then there can be less pain and one can maybe overcome sickness more quickly, more easily with a calmer mind. I mentioned when doing that, checking the body, doing the body awareness and noticing tension in the body.
Why does that tension in the body exist? Well, course it exists mostly because of tension in the mind. Because there’s some tension in the mind, you know, the body, you know, tightens up. So if we can relax the body, it you know, one starts to relax the mind. If one relaxes the mind, the body will relax.
You know, these two things are different, but they’re very much interconnected, interdependent. And just sitting properly helps to relax everything. Alright? So in order to develop the ability to concentrate the mind, is, as I said last week, by holding the mind on one taking one object, deciding to keep the mind placed on one object, and and to holding it there for as long as possible, that requires a certain amount of mental energy. And so the more energy mental energy we put into do doing that, there is less energy available to feed the disturbing thoughts.
So we have to make this decision, am I going to feed the disturbing thoughts or am I going to keep my mind on the object? And what helps us keep our mind on the object is, as I tried to say last week, understanding the value of doing so. Understanding why you know, what the benefits are of keeping the mind on an object, even a simple object like the breath. So by knowing that the object takes on an interest or the practice, the training, the exercise, the effort of keeping the mind on the object becomes something interesting and worthwhile. And so the more interesting, the more worthwhile, the more we will enjoy it and we will have the energy to stay with the object and less interest in everything else.
So then the mind starts to become focused, concentrated. And, of course, the other aspect is the motivation. And so the stronger our motivation is, the clearer it is, the more all encompassing and positive the virtuous the motivation is, then that helps as well. So there are some other just general factors I want to mention first that help with meditation in general and concentrating specifically since this is our topic now and I’m actually on the topic so quickly. This is amazing.
Because what happens so you have to know your object before you sit down. You need to know what object I’m going to meditate on or concentrate on. It’s good to know why I’ve is chosen one has chosen that object, what the benefit is to meditate on that object. One reason to choose the breath as a thing to meditate on, to concentrate on, is simply because it’s there. Unless we’re dead, we’re breathing, so we don’t have to create the object.
Whereas other many other meditation objects are something that one has to create. So that requires extra effort such as if one can learn to concentrate by, for example, visualizing an object such as particularly in the Buddhist tradition visualizing the Buddha. But to visualize visualizing doesn’t come or visualizing virtuous objects at least doesn’t come easily to people. It’s not easy to just be able to create an image of the Buddha. So that require you know?
And then concentrating on it is another job. So there are two jobs, visualizing something and then concentrating on it. Whereas with the breath, it’s already there. Same with focusing on the body. The body is we’ve already got a body.
We don’t have to create one. It’s there. We just have to observe it. So focusing on the body and on the breath are two of the easiest objects to use for meditation. But the body is a good is that practice is good just for relaxing and calming the mind down a bit.
It’s not a particularly good object for more advanced meditation because it is a very external thing. And what we’re trying to do is bring the mind inwards more and more because that just itself when we take the mind out, you know, this leads the mind to be more agitated. We need to sort of figuratively bring the mind inside. Right? And then then kind of lock it in there so it doesn’t go out.
So anyway, what we’re trying to do in in developing concentration is place the mind on the chosen object which is either neutral or preferably a virtuous object and then we have to try and keep it there and that means being aware or mindful is the term mindful of the different hindrances. And so when one notices the hindrances one has to let go of them. And that requires effort. Hindrance comes, you notice it, then you have to let go of it and bring that you have to place the mind back on the object and keep it there. Then another hindrance becomes.
You have to notice that and deal with it. Take the mind back to the object. So basically, that’s what meditation practice is, learning to do that. And if you read if you’re all good boys and girls and did your homework and read about developing single pointed concentration, I’ll just talk about this just very briefly because it helps to get an understanding of what concentration is. There is a state of mind that we can achieve if we put effort into it which in Sanskrit is called Samādhi which is translated as single pointed concentration.
When Samādhi or single pointed concentration is actually achieved, what happens is that you are able to as a result of training, which takes a long time, but as a result of that training over a long period of time, which requires a lot of effort, once you’ve achieved Samādhi, when you sit down to meditate, you place your mind on the object, and it stays there effortlessly for as literally as long as you like. Not just, you know, a minute, an hour. It can stay there for ten hours, ten days, ten weeks, ten years if you like, quite literally. And this is not made up. This is a scientific reality achieved by many, many people.
And also what happens with Samādhi is, as I mentioned, when we go to sleep our sense consciousnesses shut down. And this is what happens when one achieves Samādhi. All the sense consciousness is shut down completely and all that is left is the mental consciousness, but it’s completely awake. It’s really totally alert. And also what happens when you achieve Samādhi is that your ordinary breathing stops because your mind becomes so subtle, so peaceful that this ordinary breath you would think if you put your hand or a piece of paper under a person who had achieved Samādhi you wouldn’t be able to feel their breath at all.
They would appear to be dead. Except they don’t go horrible looking and all that stuff. Quite the opposite usually. I don’t know, maybe some of you may have read or remember about when was it? Maybe it was probably three years ago now.
There were articles that appeared in newspapers all over the world about a young boy who was found sitting in the forest in Nepal. And the villagers discovered him, and they used to check him out. And they discovered that he sat there without moving, not breathing, not eating, not getting up to go to the toilet for days and weeks and months. And they they started to gather around and just sit there and watch him. And then the word spread and thousands and thousands of people from all over Nepal came to watch him.
And then international people with long range cameras stalked him out and sat to see if it was a big cheat and everything. A friend of mine who’s lived in Nepal for many years, some of her friends went with their giant cameras and checked him out. And he was there for months and not moving. He was only about sixty he was actually a monk from the Tibetan tradition who’d left his monastery and just gone into the forest and just sat under a tree and achieved Samādhi. And when you have Samādhi, you don’t need to eat or drink or breathe or go to the toilet.
And you just bliss out. Because in that state, the mind is in a state of incredible bliss, continuous bliss. But that, believe it or not, is not the purpose of achieving Samādhi. The purpose is developing a concentrated mind so that one can meditate on the Buddha’s teachings and eliminate suffering. But to achieve that state it takes a lot of time and effort.
But, we but anyway, the mind can be concentrated if we work at it. And the more we work at it, the more our mind will concentrate. And the more our mind concentrates on the the one object, the more that agitation will decrease. And the more that agitation in the mind, the disturbing thoughts subside, the less confusion, the less suffering, the more happiness there is. And because also as that declines, because there’s using this rough analogy, if you take water that is clear and still, it is able to act like a mirror and reflect things accurately.
So the analogy is that the agitated mind, you know, the still mind is like a mirror. The mind is what knows. When the mind is not agitated it can do its job properly which is to know to have direct unmistaken insight. Now that’s what we’re trying it may sound kind of a boring state to have, but it’s actually what we are you know, the Buddhist tradition is aiming for us to achieve. This unmistakable insight into our true nature, into the true nature of everything.
In that state, when we’re actually experiencing things as they are, not thinking about things, not conceptualizing about them, but actually experiencing things as they are. There is no suffering. There is just pure bliss. No confusion. And when one is experiencing things as they are, there is no fear, no worry, no anxiety, no stress, no anger, no aversion.
There is only joy and love and compassion, etc, etc. A pretty good state to be in. In fact, the best. So the more we concentrate the mind, the less we the more we reduce all that negativity, the more our well-being is enhanced. So we all need that.
You know, while that’s happening, our love and compassion can’t happen much. The more that is reduced, the more our love and compassion, wisdom, clarity, kindness, etcetera, are able to to function. When they’re functioning, we’re okay and we don’t harm others. When this is happening, we’re not okay and we’re harming others. No one’s okay.
So when do when do I have to stop? Eight thirty? Eight thirty. Never. I’ve lost track.
Okay. So some some basic things about meditation. Very, very general things to help when we’re actually meditating apart from the things I mentioned last week about having an altar, doing the preliminary practices. I won’t review that. I’ll leave that.
I’m sure you all remembered it. Of course, you could always listen to the talk again by downloading it. You all have the information, right? So just also the food we eat also affects our ability to meditate so one has to check. So generally if one eats a lot and the food is very heavy Oh, okay.
Go back. The two kinds of hindrances we have to deal with in order to concentrate our mind more and more. As I mentioned last week, there’s two major categories. One category is sinking which refers to the mind becoming dull, sleepy, bored. So the energy of the mind declines.
So it sinks. Right? So in that state one can’t concentrate properly. And the other main kind of hindrance is called scattering where the mind moves away from the object altogether. Because with sinking your mind can be on the object but it becomes very unclear because you lose energy.
Right? So to avoid the so the in dealing with as one develops more and more concentration The nature of the hindrances we experience change. But the very first hindrance, generally speaking, that people have to deal with with trying to meditate is the obstacle of sinking. And particularly because there’s gross sinking and subtle sinking. So the the major obstacle to deal with at first is gross sinking where the mind becomes really dull and in some cases one just completely falls asleep.
Because you see this in meditation also you can see it in as I’m giving my talks people nod off. My talks are so stimulating that they send people to sleep well after a few minutes. So, and the point is, this may be happening to some of you tonight, as that occurs, you’re hardly aware of It’s because it’s so nice, you know, and just And you go away and you want to go away, you know. You want to drift off into this lovely state. But that is really not good if one wants to learn to meditate.
This is creating the cause to be reborn a chicken basically, where the mind isn’t operating very well at all. True. It’s true. This is what the lamas say. They say and they mean it.
They mean it. I don’t know if you’ve ever befriended a chicken. They’re very cute, but they’re not very bright. Yeah. So by eating so you don’t want to meditate soon after straight after you’ve eaten.
It’s best to wait a little while when you’ve digested your food. You don’t want to eat a lot or really heavy food. So if you’re really keen to improve one’s meditation, become a good meditator Although good meditator, that’s a stupid term. Anyone who’s meditating, that’s good. So they’re a good meditator.
But if you know what I mean, if one wants one’s meditation to be effective, then one has to be trying to deal with all the obstacles and so check what one eats. There are foods that create wind which is an obstacle to meditation. You don’t want to be burping and passing wind from various orifices as you’re meditating. Because that becomes an obstacle. So one can check what creates these things for you.
Some foods tend to make one sleepy or so on. Some foods tend to make one agitated so one can check those things to avoid them. Also they say it’s good to wear a sort of loose fitting clothing. You don’t want it too tight. You don’t want to be cool when it’s too hot.
Hot weather of course is quite an obstacle to meditating because in hot weather the mind tends to become it’s much easier to fall asleep. So you want to have something a little bit cool if possible. Also you want to meditate in quiet place if possible. This is these days a very difficult thing to do. But this is why in the good old days meditators went off into forests and up into mountains in caves to meditate because there’s no one around.
I don’t know if you’ve had the experience if you can check, like, when we’re living with people, like in a house or just well, as we do in cities with people all around, we’re not really aware of other the effect of other people’s minds. But I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of, like, wherever you live, for some reason, everyone goes away for a while and there’s no one around. And there’s a completely different quality to the environment then. Not only is it quieter, there’s some other aspect, some intangible thing, some kind of stillness. And I think it’s partly because one isn’t picking up the mental agitation of other people.
Because, you know, our mind does go out and influence other people subtly. So that’s a great benefit of meditating. It’s a great offering to other people if we have a calm mind. You know, with a calm mind, we we don’t you know, our negative thoughts and feelings don’t arise so quickly and often. We’re able to detect it anyway.
With a calm mind, our positive qualities can manifest more easily. But also just that calm mind itself doesn’t send out negative stuff into cyberspace or whatever you want to call it. I remember many years ago just to get distracted here not really, just to illustrate something. I lived at Nālānda Monastery in France for ten years. Nālānda Monastery, as far as I know, I think is the first or certainly one of the very first monasteries established in the Tibetan tradition for Western people.
And it was a complete monastery. There are things that are called monasteries that aren’t really monasteries, but this was an actual monastery where only monks lived. And it was created by Western monks for Western monks. Anyway, we had a rule where all the monks, every monk who lived there, had to cook for all the other monks. We took it in turns, cooking lunch for everyone.
Some people were very good cooks. Some people were very bad cooks. Some people had no idea how to cook. Some people loved to cook for the other monks. Some people hated to cook for the other monks.
Mostly most monks liked and were okay. There were occasional monks who didn’t take it well at all. And I remember one time when I was the director of Nālānda, I think I was the director at the time. Doesn’t matter. There was one young monk who got rostered, and I think he thought, you know, monks don’t cook.
You know? This was beneath his dignity as a monk. So he was very upset about having to cook. So he had all the doors in the kitchen closed, and he didn’t want anyone walking through because we had a habit, the monks, because there were two doors and it was you would walk through diagonally to get outside. So some monks didn’t mind this.
Some monks really minded their creative thing being interrupted by monks walking through in the middle of their creative cooking creations. So I remember doing that one day as this young monk was cooking. And he didn’t say anything. It was completely quiet in the room, and I never said anything because I was just wanting to quickly walk through. But I felt like I’d almost walked into a metal wall or something.
The vibration this monk sent out was amazingly bad. Sorry. That was a long story about a very small thing. But, but the point is I’d never felt anything quite like that. Never noticed something like that before, where it was so obvious someone’s mind without I didn’t even see him.
I didn’t even look at him. So he didn’t give me a dirty look as far as I know. Maybe like into the bench he gave me a dirty I don’t know. But he never said anything. But and you could say I just projected something, but I wasn’t even thinking.
I was just kind of busy about something, you know. But I felt this kind of wow! Got out of there as quickly as I could. So and I became aware. Wow, we do this to each other all the time.
When we’re in a bad mood, we just send all this stuff out to other people. Wouldn’t it be nice if we did the opposite? And we can. So we learn we need to learn to meditate to subdue our mind. Oh, no.
No. That’s not possible. No. No. No.
The other thing is to sleep well so that when you meditate you can have a clear mind. It’s only twenty past, I’ve got ten minutes. So just quickly So with dealing with the distraction of sinking, some of these things I mentioned help with that in a general way. We eat, what we wear, whether keeping cool or warm, not being sleepy or it’s not good to meditate like if you come home from work really stressed out and totally agitated and really tired. It’s no point trying to sit down and meditate then.
It’s better to relax a bit in some other way first and then meditate. And that’s why it’s good to meditate first in the morning when one wakes up refreshed. And if one gets into the habit of meditating early, then one will wake up refreshed rather than waking up feeling really exhausted and tired. But anyway, what what is really important at at the at the beginning of the meditation when having done the preliminaries of prayers and things and establishing a good motivation and calming the mind when one actually starts focusing on the particular object just before one does that. Firstly, it’s really important to consciously make this determination to be concentrated.
I am going to concentrate on this object. This is the object, and I’m really going to concentrate, and I’m really going to avoid the distractions, the the hindrances. One has to consciously put that imprint by thinking that. Yeah? Cultivating that thought.
And then having done that, one focuses the mind. And so when a hindrance of of of sinking occurs, one has to try and catch it straight away, recognize, oh, my mind is losing energy. I’m getting dull and sleepy. One has to be able to recognize it for what it is and by recognizing it then having the courage not to follow it. Because like I said, you know, most of the time when that state starts we don’t even recognize it and so it takes over the mind.
We just follow it. But even if we recognize it, if we think, oh it’s so nice or oh it’s too hard to counteract it, then again that energy increases. So if we can catch the distract not the distraction the hindrance as quickly as possible, if we catch it very very quickly it hasn’t got much energy so it’s easy to let go of it. Or it’s going to be as easy as it ever will be. But if if one had can’t do that, then one has to try and apply some antidote.
So the antidote, as the word antidote implies, you have to do something very opposite to what is going on. So when the mind is going dull and sleepy which means there’s a whole lot of blackness and darkness going on because actually the definition of sleep is concentrating on darkness. That’s what sleep is concentrating on darkness. So one has to try and think of something light. Quite literally one can try and visualize some light.
So one very specific technique in the Tibetan tradition but it probably only works if one has some natural ability to visualize, but you imagine a little bright light in your navel, right in the center of your stomach at the level of your navel, and you imagine this little bright light shoots up the center of your body like zoom and comes out the crown of your head and then explodes like a rocket. Like a what do you call them? Firecracker. Skyrocket. Skyrocket is the word.
Yeah. Kaboom. With this bright light. So to kind of wake you up like that. Or something like that.
That is an actual technique you can try. Or one can try and think of something that makes the mind light or happy. Because when the mind is going dull, the mind becoming a little bit down in a sense. Going towards being a little bit depressed or can become depressed. Not necessarily.
So it’s good to think of something bright that makes the mind happy. So you do that but you only do that for a short time in order to counteract that tendency for the mind to be dull and sinking. And once one realizes that’s been counteracted you let go of thinking of this jolly subject and then place your mind back on the object whether it’s the breath or visualizing the Buddha or whatever it is. So in the Tibetan tradition one of the topics one can think about that supposedly can make the mind happy as long as one knows how to think about the topic is how one has a precious human rebirth. Having met the Dharma, all the conditions to practice, how rare such a rebirth is, how incredibly meaningful because it’s the opportunity to achieve liberation, enlightenment.
If we think about that properly, understand it, it can make the mind extremely happy. And when the mind is happy, the mind is energized. You can’t be happy and low energy mental, know, happy and good and high energy, not not berserk energy, go together. Right? Or thinking about one’s Buddha nature.
I mean if one doesn’t believe one has got it, that it doesn’t help. But if one has some faith, having heard the Buddha’s teachings, that we have Buddha nature, that no matter what particular state of mind we happen to be in now, what negative things we may have done in this life that we may feel guilty about, nevertheless this doesn’t negate the fact that our true nature is pure and perfect. We have this undeclining wonderful Buddha nature. So if we reflect on that, that can help raise the spirits, mind, make the mind figuratively speaking, light, bright, a little bit happy. So that can counteract that mindset of sinking that is kind of getting dull and sleepy and so on.
You don’t want to think about something that makes you happy that is an ordinary thing like your favorite movie star or, you know, you you know, who what people are gonna give you for your birthday party. You don’t think about those things. That’s worldly stuff and related to attachment. That’s just pure distraction. Right?
One has to think a virtuous thought related to the Dharma, the Dharma teachings. Right? Yeah? Okay. But as I said, some of the main antidotes to this sinking is really having the right motivation at the beginning and that determination understanding how important it is to train the mind, work with the mind, having that conscious decision to not get distracted, not give in to the hindrances.
All of those things and sort of ensuring that one is sitting down to meditate in a basically good state of mind, one isn’t tired already, having done all that preparation. All of those things. All of those things really help to counteract this problem of dullness or sinking. And it’s also important to remember that we all differ and some people don’t have much problem with this, some people have a lot of problems with this, some people have this problem for a long time, some people have it for a short time. It doesn’t really matter.
There’s no point comparing oneself with other people. Really, that’s completely irrelevant. We all have completely different karmic histories, karmic personalities and we have to deal with ours, not what’s going on with other people. We have and only we really have a chance to know our mind. No one else does.
And so we have to be honest with and just persist. Some people say: Oh, I have so many thoughts. I can’t meditate because I have so many thoughts. Or it’s too painful or I can’t sit still. But we just have to deal with it because through the power of familiarity if we persist these things will decrease.
Definitely guaranteed. And even reducing these things a little bit is beneficial. It’s beneficial now but the effort put into this process is creating very strong karmic imprints. So that even if we don’t become a very successful meditator in this life, we are at least creating the cause to be able to meditate more easily in our future lives. We will be drawn to meditation in our future lives, and we will be able to do it much better in our next life than this life.
That’s also guaranteed. Okay. I’ll I’ll stop here for the time for the time being. Just just maybe one or two questions if people have any questions. Seems like I would say he is, but he’s in a different category than us anyway.
Has been meditating for at least fourteen lifetimes, but probably a lot longer than that. But yeah, I would say probably that actually there are people who in this life will never be able to meditate. Unfortunately. This is a karmic result of what they’ve done in the path. That’s why, you know, having met the Dharma, you know yeah.
So that’s why even if one has some interest, just that you know, people will never have any interest. Some think this is completely ridiculous. Meditation is just I mean Yes, yes, yes. I’m in the category of no talent for it. And then there are people who have lots of talent for it.
Just do it. I mean, you just like I said, through the power of familiarity, one however much effort we put, some result comes. And that result is really positive now, but especially it’s the positive result in the future will be far, far greater. Yeah. I’ve many people like my dharma friends, you know, and monks and nuns, I I have this wonderful book I edited called what is it called?
Spiritual Friends. So I edited this book and it’s Yes, so most of the monks and nuns, people who became monks and nuns in that book. They didn’t become monks and nuns in that book. But that was a bit of a joke. Sorry.
Who recorded in that book. Most many of them had a strong interest in meditation that drew them to looking for meditation traditions and blah. Me? No. Not at all.
I wasn’t interested in meditation and when I tried it total disaster. Not interested. But that’s what the Buddhadharma is about. You have to work with your mind. If you don’t, it’s a disaster.
If you do a little bit, the disaster decreases. There’s really no choice. If one starts to understand the Buddha’s teachings I always believed I’ve got a mind. I didn’t need the Buddha to tell me that. Maybe he told me it in past life.
Anyway. And it becomes obvious, you know, my mind is berserk so I have to do something about it. There’s no choice. And also the mind changes and sometimes a meditation session can go very well or for a long period it can turn into a disaster. Because things are ripening.
Not that in the Christian tradition there is a lot of actual meditation the way it’s done in Buddhism but certainly they are working with the mind in another way. Anyway, there’s this saint called what’s his name? Saint who? Saint, saint. He wrote a text called The Dark Night of the Soul.
Saint John of the Cross. Yeah. So where he I haven’t read it, I’ve read bits about it and so on, where I think he makes the point that everyone genuinely following a spiritual path very strongly and sincerely, they can be going on very well, developing, developing, And then there’s a point you reach, or you can reach many, where things seem to go horribly wrong. The dark night of the soul. Yeah?
And the only thing is you keep going. So just with that, and it’s the same for us ordinary dodos doing a little bit of practice. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s difficult, maybe it’s always difficult, but there’s no choice. You just keep doing it. Yes.
And we live a life. Our society has created a society that makes that more and more the case. That’s what I’ve been saying. No. Well to some extent, but I mean, like in Tibet, there’s things in that environment which are very conducive to meditating, to practicing Dharma.
It’s a very amazing place to be at. You know? It’s very amazing. Even now, even though so much well, the last time I was there was eighty six. But even then and it’s, you know, it’s been destroyed so much more now.
But there’s there’s some phenomenal aspects to that environment. But also the culture was I mean you many people sorry do you want your cup of tea otherwise I’ll keep talking for but just quickly. Many people, you know, Westerners attracted to Buddhism, not just Westerners, many, you know, Chinese people and whatever who get attracted to Buddhism, tend to glamorize Tibetan Buddhism. Everyone’s holy. Everyone’s perfect.
My teacher, Lama Soparimsheb, made this joke many years ago. He said, all you westerners think even the mice in Tibet meditate. You know? This is not the case. You know?
Tibet was completely corrupt. You know? It was awful. I mean, that’s why you know? Anyway, horrible things happen.
But there were also these amazing, amazing beings and still are truly mind boggling great people, beings. What am I trying where am I? Oh, I lost my point in all that. Oh, the culture. Yes.
That that yeah. It it’s there’s there was hardly anything like, Tibetan literature is almost ninety five percent Buddhism. There is there’s there’s no novels, no ordinary literature. I’m not saying that’s a good or a bad thing, but there’s there were no distractions. There was hardly anything else.
Not that everyone was interested in the Dharma, but it made it so much easier. There was hardly you know, even in medieval Europe, there was hardly a situation like there was in Tibet where so much the whole culture evolved revolved around Buddhist practice, supporting monks and monasteries and and so on. You know, I I don’t know what the percentage would be, but, you know, Tibet made a large amount of butter. Most of it was offered in for for butter lamps, not for eating. I mean, they also ate it, you know, especially in their butter tea.
But a lot more went into offering lamps to the Buddhas than to drinking or for your toast and Vegemite. I mean, yeah. You know, it was a very simple I mean, I don’t mean this in an insulting way, but a so much more simple society than ours where it was so much easier to direct the mind in positive ways. And where that was truly admired, you know, meditators were heroes. Here we have drunken footballers.
Sorry. Who are the heroes? These people were really meditators and monks and were highly, highly admired. Tea break. This time during these talks is ridiculous.
I haven’t even started. That’s true. I thought I was doing well tonight. Oh, sorry. I haven’t even Okay.
So just quickly, the other category of obstacle hindrance to deal with is called scattering. So as I mentioned briefly last week, that takes three main forms. There’s scattering due to being distracted by pain in the body. Right? Okay.
Scattering due to being distracted by different external sounds. But the main form of this scattering is our own thoughts. So one thing regarding pains and external sounds well not just pain sometimes you know some kind of pleasant feelings can arise in the body and one can get distracted by those. So one thing to check on, understand is that the right now we can’t stop these sensations in the in the in the body arising and we can’t stop external sounds. But we do have a choice to some extent of how much we pay attention to them.
Right? So again, it comes down to this question of which is more interesting. The object of meditation or this sensation in the body? The object of meditation or this sound? That’s why we have to feel, understand that the object of meditation is really interesting.
And it’s interesting because it’s going to lead to calming the mind which brings every kind of benefit. Calming the mind is going to lead to being able to subdue my negative thoughts which are the source of suffering to myself and others. It’s going to lead to being able to develop my good qualities which are the source of happiness to myself and others. It’s going to lead to good rebirth, liberation, enlightenment. So it’s, you know, just working out which is more interesting.
And particularly in the case of sounds, just check how there is a difference between hearing something and listening to it. So right now, you know, when one achieves Samādhi you don’t hear sounds. You literally don’t hear them. You could have, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know what the latest rock and you know, don’t even have rock and roll anymore.
What do you have? Anyway, some horribly loud music blasting right next to you. If you have if you went into you wouldn’t hear it at all. You could sit down next to in the middle of a, you know, twenty thousand people consort, you could sit down and go into Samādhi and you wouldn’t hear a thing. Right?
But, right now we can’t stop hearing things but we don’t have to listen to them. Right? We don’t have to pay attention. We don’t have to listen. So one shouldn’t give oneself a hard time that one is aware that a pain or some sensation is happening in the body But one has some choice, some degree not to pay attention to it.
We don’t have to give ourselves a hard time that I can hear the bird chirping as I’m meditating. But we don’t so we can’t stop hearing it until we’ve got Samādhi. But we do have some ability to stop paying attention to it. Right? And that means the principal focus is the object we’ve chosen.
Another thing in dealing with pain which is usually a much bigger obstacle than experiencing flashes of bliss going through the body which don’t often happen is that one can try this experiment, this technique that is used where, you know, when we experience pain, what we just naturally tend to do, of course, we tell ourselves, oh, this is pain. This is terrible. Oh, pain, pain, pain. And that just not only does it continue it but it tends to increase it because we focus on it and we affirm, we tell ourselves that it is pain. We label it pain.
And as soon as we label something, it becomes whatever we label it. Whatever we can by labeling I don’t mean just saying the word. Why we say this is good or bad or this is pain or pleasure is because we conceive it as that. And once we’ve done that, it becomes that for us. So the more we focus on that, we maintain it, increase it.
What we can try to do, this is what the great meditators are able to do, is instead of experiencing it, thinking of it as pain, one just tries to think of it as a sensation. It’s just a sensation. That’s all it is. It’s not not a pain. It’s just a sensation.
And the other thing one can try is also as a way to not be distracted or to deal with that distraction of pain is to try and locate it. Where is it actually occurring? Very, very specifically because often you can’t find that. You can’t actually specifically find it. You’ve a pain in your knee but where?
So one can try those things. Also one thing one can check is that because a lot of pain that occurs in the body due to meditating is because especially if one is sitting in the traditional posture on a cushion because one has placed the body in that posture, this causes the subtle energies, the wind energies in the body to move in ways that normally they normally don’t and that causes because it isn’t moving in certain channels, that energy gets blocked and where the energy is blocked because it hasn’t moved in that way before or very often the pain occurs. And so when one stops meditating and stands up that pain which could have been incredibly intense during the session has just gone in a flash. So this shows that that pain isn’t a sign that one is doing some damage to the body. So in one sense we don’t have to worry about it.
Because one of the reasons pain becomes very painful is because we see it as a sign that something terrible is happening to me. And so we worry and that makes the pain even more painful. But if we can understand that it’s just pain, it’s just pain, nothing to worry about, it’s okay, then we can begin to cut through it. But if, for example, when you stand up after meditation and the pain continues, that is an indication that one is maybe doing some harm to the body. So in that case, one should move to reduce the pain.
The trouble is once one moves, then you move again and again and again and it becomes very distracting. But if one has to move, what we should try to do when we move is to do it mindfully rather than just kind of, oh, the pain gets, you know, unbearable and you just kind of uncontrollably move and rearrange the body very roughly, one should think now I’m going to move. Going to which is what I’m going to do now rearrange my leg so it’s not so painful. And now I’m comfortable. So now I’m taking my mind back to the object.
So try and do it mindfully. Okay. So those are some ways to deal with, those sounds and, and, pains in the body. The main thing so this is a big topic and I haven’t left time for is the the thoughts. So again, if one is really careful and mindful, then as soon as a thought arises which is not the object of meditation it’s important to try and catch it immediately because if we can catch it immediately it’s relatively easy to let go.
But if we don’t, then the thought takes over. We feed it. We unconsciously feed that thought. It gets energy. It gets power.
It starts to take over the mind. So then that becomes difficult to remove or just let go of it. What we need to do is apply the antidote. So one needs to learn all the antidotes. So that takes a lot of time and energy actually.
But there are some general antidotes one can learn. One of which, of course, is one general antidote to all disturbing thoughts which are based on either anger or attachment is impermanence. We should remember, you know, as soon as thoughts arise we should and remember one thing I should try and make clear is that the thoughts which are distracting are not just necessarily negative thoughts. Even positive thoughts in this context are distracting. For example, if one is the object of meditation is watching the breath and you start thinking about the Buddha, That’s a very good thing to think about in general.
But in this context it’s negative. It’s a distraction. It’s not good to do. Right? Or you might start actually spontaneously, you know, previous meditation teachings you’ve been trying to visualize the Buddha.
It’s never happened. Now you’re vision you’re meditating on the breath. Suddenly the Buddha appears vividly before you beautiful, golden, shining. That is a distraction. Get rid of it.
Anything which is not the chosen object is a distraction. The Guru appears before you and starts teaching you on emptiness. This is a distraction. Definitely. Yeah?
But but you say, oh, but this is much more important than the breath. No. The mind we will never master the mind if we just bounce from this to that. The whole practice is we’ve chosen to concentrate on the mind to keep the mind sorry concentrate the mind on the breath for example. So the only way to subdue the mind is to keep the mind on the breath.
So even virtuous thoughts are distractions and have to be let go of. For sure negative thoughts have to be let go of, but even the good ones in this context. So one way to deal with these is to remember impermanence and death that particularly I’m going to die. I could die at any time. So how can I waste my time being distracted by this thought?
You know, I can think about it plenty of other times. I’ve thought about this millions of times in the past. I don’t have to think about it now. I’ve set aside this time to do this. Right?
And this is going to lead to this good thing. So let go of it. So yeah. So and whatever if one’s whatever one’s involved thinking about good or bad related to aversion or attachment, also remember what this thing I’m attached to, it’s all impermanent. It’s not going to last.
So why waste time on it? This thing that is upsetting me, you know, I’m getting angry because of this upsetting person, situation, problem, blah blah blah, but it’s also all impermanent, so forget it. And I’m going to die, so let’s forget it. You know? And this time is so rare to meditate.
So back to the object. So I think that’s all I’ve got time left for at the moment. Yes. But in the Lamrim teachings, the teachings on the graduated path by studying and meditating on these topics one learns gradually all the different antidotes to whatever problems these distracting thoughts that occur in meditation. But the main thing to emphasize now is that it’s important to deal with it and as quickly as possible try and cultivate a thought opposite to that or an antidote that is the opposite and then bring the mind back to the object.
Another technique you can use as a general technique for all of us who we can all say that we’re all beginners in this practice is that it’s always good you start off visualizing the Buddha in front of you and then you imagine the Buddha comes to the crown of your head and stays there during the meditation. Right? So you think the Buddha is sort of creating this protective environment in which you can meditate. This very embodiment of pure wisdom and great compassion and total purity is there above the crown of your head creating this incredibly peaceful environment. And the Buddha is constantly blessing your mind.
Right? That’s a given. But then when a distraction comes and you don’t know the actual antidote, then one antidote you can use is to remember the Buddha you focus consciously think of the Buddha on the crown of your head and you imagine that the Buddha sends this intense rays of light or nectar to eliminate the obstacle, the thought. It just, you know, instantly dispels it from your mind. So you imagine that happening very, very strongly.
And then having done that, again, you forget the Buddha and bring your mind back to the topic. So that’s what one has to do. You’ve got the topic, the object, you place your mind on it and then you try and keep it there. But you need to practice this mindfulness of knowing what is happening with your mind, whether it’s good or bad. And if it’s bad, meaning there’s a distract there’s a hindrance of sinking or scattering, one has to have the energy, the courage, the compassion, the wisdom to deal with it and having dealt dealt with it bring the mind back And that and one has to keep doing that throughout the session.
Yeah? That’s what it is. So it’s not the mindset should be not trying to get into some amazing meditation state and experience because that’s something that comes after a lot of work. The mindset should be, I am just going to deal with whatever hindrances come because they will. Because that’s the state of mind we have right now, a mind that goes like that.
And in a sense, that’s okay. We’re all in that boat. In another sense, it’s not okay because because our mind’s like that, we’re suffering. But we’re all in that state. We’ve been in that state for since beginningless time.
Is not unfortunately going to go away overnight. So that’s okay. We’re just going to work on it. That’s the mindset. So a good meditation is not having some amazing blissful experience.
A good meditation is that one worked on the mind. Even if there was a huge amount of agitation going on the whole time, but one was consciously trying to deal with it. That is a fantastic meditation. Whereas someone who can just because of maybe some past influences or because they’ve got a naturally blank mind, they just sit there and they go into a kind of a peaceful state. That look maybe looks like a good meditation, but maybe in the long run it’s not because they’re not actually going anywhere with it and not learning anything.
Right? Do you see what I’m saying? Am I making sense? Right? Good.
And just in conclusion, the other thing is what is really, really important to to do, to try to have a a mindset at the beginning of doing this without expectation because expectation itself becomes a hindrance. Expecting that some particular thing is going to happen is a hindrance because, you know, you’re waiting for that thing to happen. Meantime, other things are happening but you don’t appreciate what they are. They may actually be very good things but because that’s not what you were expecting you don’t really understand it and appreciate it. But the mere expectation itself is an obstacle and leads to disappointment.
Because we never usually get what we expect. That’s one thing. And the other thing to have is the mind, the mindset that isn’t disappointed. There’s no expectation, no disappointment, no judgment that this was bad. Yeah?
It’s it’s good. We did it. I sat there. I had this good motivation and I I I did the meditation. So it is a good meditation.
There’s no reason to be disappointed. This itself has made a very positive imprint in the mind. Really! There’s a big difference between having just a berserk mind and having a berserk mind where one is conscious for the first time of having berserk mind because most people have berserk minds and they have no consciousness that they have berserk minds. So even being conscious that one has a berserk mind is a step forward.
But on top of that, one has this conscious motivation to deal with this berserk mind in a good way, in a wise, compassionate way, not only for one’s own sake, but for the benefit of others. And one does it, one tries. One may not be very successful, but one is trying. That is great. No reason to feel disappointed.
This is having incredible long term effects on the mind. Just the mere trying because we haven’t done anything for most of our lifetimes. So just the mere starting is having tremendous imprints in our mind that have huge consequences in the future. This is very important to know. This just doesn’t come from Mickey Mouse me.
I’m repeating what great lamas say. Great practitioners. That’s all I can do. At least I do know something that the great practitioners said. Yeah, I can do that.
Okay, thank you very much. So we can dedicate the merit of this time. Oh, no. We didn’t meditate, did we? Oh, we did a look.
We had we were gonna meditate on the breath. This is what we were supposed to do, but there’s no time. I’m really sorry. But it’s your homework, but you know what to do. The homework is to watch the breath.
So you just breathe in and out. Don’t change your breathing. Just observe it. Just observe it. So you there’s your there’s the breath as the object.
You place your mind on being aware of your breath coming in and going out. Particularly just trying to notice the subtle sensation in and around your nostrils as the breath comes and goes. You don’t make it up. If you can’t feel it, you can’t feel it. Doesn’t matter.
Really doesn’t matter. If you can feel it a little bit, you can notice it. That’s okay. If you can experience it a lot, you can experience it a lot. But you just try to be you just stay with that experience and you try and let everything else which is not the awareness of the breath go away.
Past, present, future, sounds, body sensations, thoughts, just not important. Right? Just the breath. And you get distracted or, you know, sinking or distraction, you notice it, you bring your mind back or you apply the antidote bring the mind back. And to help that you can count the breaths So one in breath, one out breath.
This is through both nostrils in and out. So that’s one breath. So try and count eleven breaths. And the point is not to get to eleven. The point is to notice one breath as much as you can without expectation or disappointment.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t even get one breath fully observed. The point is to try to do it as well as possible. So you start counting breath in and out one but then your mind goes and you’re asleep or the mind’s got into the fridge so you have to start the count from one again. Because anyone can count. I hope you can all count to eleven.
So sitting there with your eyes half closed counting to eleven, you know, this is no big deal. The idea is to try and count the breaths that you are fully aware of without any of the stuff going on. So one has to be very honest. No. Usually they say twenty one but and I don’t think that or it is twenty one is significant because if you can count twenty-one, actually do twenty-one breaths consciously, that is the first level of achieving Samādhi.
There are nine levels of achieving Samādhi. When you can actually keep your mind on your breath for count of twenty one breaths, you’ve got to the first stage. So no one, if they’re honest, can do that straight away. If you cheat, it’s very easy. Okay, now we dedicate.
Is that kind of clear? I’m really sorry. I just can’t believe these talks. I say so little. It takes in such a long time.
Anyway we can dedicate the merit if you would like to join in. This is on page sixteen. Due to 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 bodhi mind, not yet born, arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore.