Talk: Meditation Is Not Just When You Sit

Ajahn Dhammasīha responds to a comment about integrating meditation into daily life.

Transcript

First be very careful to say the meditation is when you're sitting on the cushion.

If that's the attitude and you're in trouble,

The meditation is now.

The meditation is in this body and mind.

It's not on the cushion.

The body and mind,

They find itself in all postures and all activities.

Then what you said is just so important.

It's exactly why it has to be brought into daily life.

This is what you have the eightfold path for.

I didn't get that too much in this afternoon session,

But that is the whole point of the eightfold path.

There are path factors like white communication.

When you communicate,

Don't say,

Right now I have to do my emails,

Right now I have to answer the phone,

The phone is ringing,

So I can't sit on my cushion,

I can't meditate.

Instead say,

Okay,

I have to answer the phone,

I have to talk to another being,

I have to write my emails,

That is communicating with other beings.

So what I try to do now is practicing white communication.

You should know what are the four factors of white communication and of wrong communication.

There's not enough time to go into details there.

Then you apply that when you write emails,

You apply that when you answer the mobile phone.

You apply that when you put the comments on some website,

Or when you send an Instagram,

Or whatever you call that,

To this and that person.

That path factor has to be applied.

Then your work,

That is part of your white livelihood.

So you try to have a job which is not offending the presets,

Which is in line with the principles of Dhamma.

You plan your career in that area.

You try to bring that into your daily job.

That is part of the path factor,

It's very important.

White intention,

White thoughts.

Whenever you interact with beings,

Whenever you do your job,

Try to do your job with the intention of doing a service to someone.

It doesn't have to be something outrageous like saving other people's lives.

We all appreciate simple things.

If someone cleans something,

If someone at the bank does our transfers,

If someone is on the computer screen,

Even monasteries have bank accounts.

So practice these path factors.

They can be applied in daily life.

Whenever anger arises,

Practice white effort,

Abandoning that anger.

It can be done.

Are you too busy in your busy daily life?

Are you too busy to ever have anger rising?

The anger is quite capable to come however busy you are.

So that means you can also have thoughts of non-anger.

If it's possible to have thoughts of anger,

Why would it be impossible to have thoughts of non-anger?

That doesn't make sense.

So if you're not too busy to have thoughts of anger,

You can also have thoughts of loving-kindness while you're driving,

While you're shopping.

And the mindfulness,

You already said exactly the right thing,

That a large period during the day,

Mindfulness is not really operating.

So we have to gradually increase that.

I sometimes recommend to people,

And they have all their gadgets nowadays,

And just a program that you get a reminder once an hour,

Maybe four times an hour comes in,

Because they're constantly on their things there,

So they should actually see when the reminder comes.

Mindfulness.

Oh,

Mindfulness.

Oh,

Yes,

Yes.

What's happening?

What do I feel?

What kind of emotion is it?

Yeah,

Do you need another app in your heart?

This is what we're doing here.

You're all downloading the Dharma app into your heart.

So I hope there's no passing hours for the program.

I hope that we have sufficient bandwidth,

That it all gets through to you,

And that the app can do its job.

So it's a gradual training.

In the beginning it's just occasional moments of mindfulness.

Then they become more and more regular,

More frequent.

Then you can maybe maintain mindfulness for even a minute,

Even in a stressful situation on some level,

And then for longer.

Just occasionally become used to,

Even when you're quite busy,

Occasionally to just stop a little bit and just look around internally.

Not looking around externally,

But looking around internally,

Screen your mind a little bit occasionally,

And just within seconds what's actually going on?

What do I actually feel?

Is it a pleasant feeling,

An unpleasant?

What kind of emotion is there?

Is there aversion in my heart?

Is there stress,

Anxiety?

Am I relaxed?

Just to become used to occasionally just start screening that.

And then in this way you gradually increase that kind of mindfulness.

It's actually possible to,

If that quality is quite highly developed,

It's quite possible to be very busy and at the same time have an awareness.

Just like some people,

They can drive their car and smoke a cigarette and listening to the radio and talk to the person who is sitting next to them and then answer their mobile phone.

They can do all of that and they still have some idea about the speedo.

They still keep the speed limit roughly.

That shows that it's quite possible.

The mind can do quite a number of things.

You will not get the same level of mindfulness like when you're on a three-month retreat in silence and you're sitting hours of formal meditation throughout the day and you're just in nature and so on.

Obviously that will be usually a much sharper level of mindfulness,

More continuous.

But you have to do what is possible in that situation.

And quite a bit is possible.

I always tell people that Samadhi is not so easy in daily life.

That one is not so easy.

You can do a little bit and particularly you can try to have a good time of formal meditation at the same time of the day,

At least half an hour.

And that would be maybe an important part of your Samadhi practice.

But the other seven path factors in my opinion that are eminently applicable in daily life,

Even in the year 2015 in Brisbane,

When you're working in an office in the CBD.

Have a look at the Bodhi Tree.

Can you see the Bodhi Tree?

I can actually see it from your office.

Yeah,

If I go outside.

That reminds you.

So see the Bodhi Tree inside.

It's possible to do these path factors even nowadays in Brisbane in 2015.

So you have a very important insight there.

This is what has to be done.

Meditation is not when you sit on the cushion.

Meditation is your life.

As long as you're alive,

As long as you're awake.

The Buddha doesn't expect you to meditate while you're sleeping.

Although if you meditate a lot you will notice that even in your dreams there may be a dumber activity going on.

But certainly you can't expect people to meditate in dreamless sleep.

But as long as you're awake and aware,

Then there should be development occurring as much as possible.

You can't separate your life and the meditation.

Many people like to do that.

Here's my life,

The kids,

The jobs,

The duties,

The responsibilities,

The shopping,

My home,

My mortgage.

So now when I do meditation I go into a ten day retreat.

I leave the kids behind,

I leave the job behind,

I leave the house behind,

I leave everything behind.

I take a parenthesis about my whole life.

And now I meditate.

There's some imbalance,

It doesn't really.

.

.

You have to work with your life.

And the kids and the job and all this stuff,

That is your life.

So you have to apply these path factors in your life.

Never get into this trap to think that meditation bar the nights only on ten day retreat,

Only on your cushion.

That is a real severe limitation.

And Ajahn Chah was really good with that.

He instituted that also for the monks.

It was quite a bit of work.

And also in monks' life it's not like you can only sit on a cushion.

But he trained his disciples to use everything,

Washing a bowl,

Cleaning a kuti,

Concreting the foundation for the sala.

All of that can be used for applying and developing the path factors.

Okay,

So you better stop,

I'm sure.

You can't wait to rush out now and apply all these path factors into your life.

So the meditation doesn't stop when you leave here.

It only really starts.

Reviews

Thank you for the reminders about the Path factors in daily life.

Thank you 🙏

This is life changing. Being Mindful in all your activities. Mind to mind communication in your work in your interactions....Namaste

Thank you for the teaching. I found that a short moment of awareness increases my effectivity and resiliance on stressful days.

Interesting new perspective for me. Thanks

Beautiful, thank you.

Thank you for this helpful input Ajahn 🙇🙇🙇

Thank you for this reminder.

Thank you. A good reminder. As a professor, I do set an intention every time I teach to bring the dharma into the classroom, no matter what the content is. It's amazing how a class is transformed when it is imbued with mindfulness.. So easy to forget though

Humour , irony and lightness of touch but a very real message

Very insightful talk about applying the on the mat practice off the mat

Good advice thank you

Good analysis of the application of budhist principles in daily life...

Couldn't agree more.
You just can't leave all your existing life behind. Instead integrate all these new practices into it.

Love this! meditate everywhere.. Perfect for listening to on a bench in the middle of a city. Namaste

Moving to the rhythm of life 🙏🏼

Great insight. Simple. But takes you out of the rut of excuse.

Wise words. Helpful to me today. And every day.

Wonderful reminder that cushion time is just practice.