I'm Bassem.
Thank you for joining me.
And so now,
We'll open up this conversation for comments or questions if you have any.
Try to maintain this inner connection,
Inner awareness.
One drop at a time will fill the bucket,
The Buddha said.
In other words,
Success in meditation is due to consistency.
Consistency is the secret to meditation.
Meditating now and then,
Once in a while,
Is not meditation.
It's fine,
Of course.
You might use meditation for improving the quality of your sleep or relief from stress or anxiety.
That's fine.
But that's not meditation.
Meditation is a way of coming back home to yourself,
Knowing yourself,
Not as a body,
Not as a mind,
Not as an identity,
But as a reality.
That's what meditation does.
Regularity and consistency of practice will help you to release your outwardly centered attention,
Allowing it to come back within yourself.
And you will be able to live in this way,
Inwardly centered,
Outwardly capable,
Creative and happy.
You're happy because you're home inside yourself.
You're no longer living as if a stranger estranged to yourself in your own body.
The way to build regularity of practice is to practice.
You don't begin with discipline.
Discipline is a product of doing.
So you don't start with regularity of practice.
You start with practice and build regularity.
It's a psychological difference that makes all the difference.
When I started with meditation,
My starting point was misery.
I already understood that I was unhappy and that I was miserable.
And from the first time I tried meditation,
As much as I hated it,
I knew that here was a practice that was going to be my guide in the world.
When I had no guides,
That was going to be my support.
When I had no support,
I knew that this was it.
So I was motivated by this deep understanding.
I saw that this was my chance,
Peace and happiness.
And I began meditating daily,
45 minutes each session,
Morning,
Evening.
I had no guidance.
I just discovered this meditation technique in a magazine article and it was well explained,
Well articulated,
Easy,
Broken into four parts over a 12-month period.
And I practiced like a man who knew his house was on fire.
While my friends were out building their businesses,
I would be in my room,
Honing in my practice.
Duration,
How long to sit for,
Is important,
But it's less important than consistency.
So you might only sit for five minutes.
But if you sit daily for five minutes,
Before you know it,
You'll be sitting for 20 minutes and half an hour and an hour,
Because it grows quickly.
Once you understand meditation,
What it is,
What it isn't,
What it does,
And what specific a human condition it treats,
Then meditation is a very simple practice.
It's a practice of looking inward consistently.
So twice a week is not meditation.
Once a month is not meditation.
Daily,
Morning,
Five minutes.
Evening,
Five minutes.
Tomorrow,
Five minutes.
Evening,
Five minutes.
Meditation doesn't know any holidays until a time comes when attention,
Which,
As part of the human condition,
Is focused outside of ourselves,
Has been released,
And it has come back home within the self.
Then meditation is not needed,
Because your life has become a meditation.
Until that happens,
Daily meditation,
One drop at a time,
Will fill the bucket.
So if you start with five minutes,
That's fine.
But you will find out very quickly that five minutes is not enough for you.
And so increase to 10 minutes.
But if you increase to 10 minutes,
Don't go back to five minutes.
Keep stretching the envelope.
There's no point in sitting for an hour if you're daydreaming,
And you don't know what you're doing.
Millions of people practice meditation around the world.
Daily meditators are one in a million.
Patrice says,
Sometimes I feel so relaxed that I fall asleep during meditation.
Any suggestions on how to not fall asleep?
The frequency of that point when we fall asleep and meditation are very similar.
Sleep can also be due to fatigue.
And if that's the case,
There's nothing you can do about it.
Sleep can also be due to what is called an emotional anesthetic.
Maybe there have been some difficult experiences in childhood,
In which case sleep is a way of avoiding releasing those experiences.
So what do you do?
You try to stay tall.
You don't meditate in bed.
You don't lean against a wall.
You can sit in a chair and you just persist,
Continuously bringing your attention back to your breathing.
One of the fundamental problems with meditation is lack of understanding.
People have no clue what they are doing.
They don't know what meditation really is and what it isn't.
They don't know what it's supposed to do.
Specifically,
They don't know the human condition that meditation treats.
And the second problem,
They double.
They try this technique and then that technique,
And then they do that and they do that and they do that.
Meditation,
You choose one technique that you decide you're going to work with and you take it to the end.
And the third problem with meditation is all the myths and misconceptions about it.
People think meditation is about quieting the mind.
Not even the greatest meditator,
Most renowned meditator of all time,
The Buddha himself,
Succeeded in such an impossible feat.
And so if you are a beginner meditator and you've heard that meditation is about quieting your mind,
And there you are sitting there,
You sit for 30 years trying to quiet your mind,
And your meditation practice has been hijacked by a silly idea.
Meditation has nothing to do with quieting the mind.
In fact,
Meditation has nothing to do with the mind at all.
Meditation is about awareness.
As you cultivate your awareness,
The mind,
It is transcended.
The mind just drops.
You don't try to stop what does not exist.
The mind does not exist.
A distinction has to be made between the mind and the brain.
The brain is a biological organ.
You can't live without it.
But the mind is a psychological process that is the product of experience,
Your type and memory.
It isn't a limb that you were born with that you have to amputate.
It is a fiction.
It is a mirage.
It is a person.
Understanding what meditation is,
What you're doing,
What specifically meditation treats in terms of the human condition and why you should be interested in it,
Is fundamental to building a successful daily practice.
When you understand that nothing in the world can free you,
Can make you happy,
Can give you the love that you're seeking,
And that only by coming back home to yourself will you be freed from this illusion,
And that meditation is the way,
Then meditation becomes a very compelling argument.
The case for meditation becomes obvious.
But when you think that traveling to another country is going to make you happy,
Meditation is not a compelling value proposition.
When you think a woman is going to make you happy,
Meditation is not compelling.
When you think fame is going to be your savior,
Meditation is not compelling.
It's only when you understand that the world cannot make you happy,
That's when meditation becomes compelling.
It doesn't mean you leave the world,
You stop to experience,
You stop to work,
You stop to live.
It doesn't mean that at all.
It means now your living has become free from expectation.
When you know you are inwardly abundant,
You no longer live as a beggar.
That's the only thing that changes.
Your attitude,
Your motivation changes.
Choose one meditation.
Don't dabble.
Don't be in the business of meditation.
Either be a meditator or wait until your life reaches a point where you have no choice anymore.
Don't be a dabbler.
Ask yourself,
What are you really trying to do?
You're trying to do these things in order to be happy.
Ask yourself,
What's the nature of your unhappiness?
And what do I need to do?
Meditation creates the right condition for happiness.
Just meditate.
Does the daily meditation need to be the same time each day?
None of that has an effect.
None of that helps.
But if it helps you to meditate the same time of the day,
Then it's a good idea.
If you have to schedule it in your calendar,
It's a good idea.
See whatever works for you uniquely.
But it's not because sunrise is a better time to meditate than sunset or sunset is a great time.
All of that is business.
Meditation business.
It doesn't matter what time you meditate.
Just meditate.
Don't let time stop you from meditation.
But if time can help your meditation,
Then it's a good idea.
Nine o'clock every day or eight o'clock or six o'clock.
Don't be a dabbler.
Choose your meditation and then stick to it.
You can try different types of meditations.
Counting breath is a good idea to start.
Mantra meditations may be the right thing.
The one that I shared earlier is Anapanasati.
Easy.
Sit.
Watch your breathing.
Relax.
When your mind wanders,
Come back.
If it was good enough for the Buddha,
It certainly has been good enough for me as a way of starting also.
The world does not need less meditators.
Peace to you all.
May we all come out of the suffering of our mind.
All suffering is mental.
It's quite a remarkable realization.
Freedom from suffering is not an idea.
Happiness is real.
Release from tension is real.
And yet,
It's the rarest thing in the world.
Take care,
Everyone.
I wish you well.
I wish you peace.
Good night.
