Welcome to this guided meditation on the five aggregates.
And today we're going to look at the five aggregates and looking for the eye within these five aggregates,
The way that the suttas teach us to see them.
And we'll start with some loving kindness.
And when we have gotten our minds collected to a settled place,
I will help you and guide you through looking at these five aggregates.
So let's begin by relaxing the body,
Getting comfortable in your seat,
And begin to release any tension from the top of the head.
Just intentionally softening any tension in the face,
The eyes,
The mouth,
And putting even a little smile on the lips.
And then softening the shoulders,
Letting the hands relax,
Maybe folding them one over the other.
Then allowing the hips to relax,
The legs,
And the feet.
And then just imagining any tension melting away from the whole body into the ground.
Just leaving you like little ripples.
And we'll begin by bringing up some loving kindness for ourselves.
And you can make a wish in your mind saying,
May I be happy.
And as you bring up this wish,
Feel a soft golden glow in your heart and embrace yourself with this feeling of loving kindness and good wishes for yourself.
And you can say any phrase at all that you wish for yourself.
May I be peaceful,
Allowing each phrase to bring up that warm feeling of loving kindness.
Just letting your body bask in this feeling.
Let your mind stay with it as long as it can.
Smile with the feeling.
And if the mind wanders away,
Just recognize that mind is no longer on the object of loving kindness.
Release the mind from that distraction.
Let the distraction be there by itself.
And then relax the tension in the mind and in the body.
Smile and come back to the warm glow of loving kindness.
Let yourself be here,
Smiling with the loving kindness.
You can bring up a phrase for yourself any time that you wish.
Just wishing goodness and kindness for yourself.
May I be healthy.
And then just basking in that feeling of those good and wholesome wishes for yourself.
Remembering the smile.
And then let's just make one more wish for ourselves.
Letting your mind think of any phrase that you will benefit from right now.
May I be free from suffering.
May I have forgiveness in my heart.
May I be strong.
You take care of yourself and wish anything at all that you need.
And just bathe in this feeling of loving kindness for yourself.
Just be here in that glow.
That glow might be in your heart,
Might be around the body.
You may even feel this feeling beyond the body.
Wherever it is,
Is fine.
We're not trying to control anything.
Just watching this feeling.
Being in this feeling.
Now let's bring up the feeling of loving kindness for a spiritual friend and share it with this person.
And just bring to mind the first person who comes to your mind.
Who makes you feel happy.
Someone who's really there for you.
Someone who's really helped you.
Whoever that is,
Put that person into your heart.
See this person happy and smiling.
Make a wish for them and say,
May he or she be happy.
And surround them with this warm,
Loving glow from your heart.
See and feel them smiling back at you as you radiate this feeling.
And be in this glow,
The two of you together in this loving kindness space.
Again,
Remembering that if the mind wanders,
You recognize.
You release the distraction.
Let it be there.
No need to push it away.
Relax tension.
Smile and come back to sharing loving kindness with your friend.
And just be here and feel this loving kindness.
And if the feeling for your friend starts to fade,
You simply bring up another phrase.
Another good wish for them to be.
To be happy.
To be well.
To be free of pain and sorrow.
And as you bring up that wish for your friend,
See their smile.
Feel their happiness.
And just allow them to be in your loving kindness.
Now let's share this loving kindness with more living beings.
So let's imagine the whole world in front of us with all beings here.
Human beings,
Animal beings.
And any other living beings that may be here.
Whoever comes to mind,
Allow the feeling of loving kindness to move forward and affect any living being in front of you.
Whoever comes to mind,
Then smile with it.
Imagine that from the top of your head,
There's a golden light of loving kindness.
And this is spreading out in all directions,
Forward,
Backward,
To the right and to the left,
Above and below.
And you are glowing this loving kindness to all beings in this world,
Into the universe,
And even to other realms.
All beings.
And you have good will,
Loving kindness for all beings.
Just for a moment,
Just feel this illumination in your mind.
As we go on into exploring the aggregates,
Your mind may feel bright and collected now.
Just take a moment to notice the quality of the mind.
And let's invite this contemplation in for looking at and looking for the I within these aggregates.
We'll start by looking at the body.
You can visualize your body.
And the first contemplation to explore is the thought of thinking,
I am the body.
As you look at this and say,
I am the body,
Where in the body would you find yourself?
Look at how the body has changed over the years.
And let's look at the thought,
I own the body,
Or I possess the body.
If you look at your body,
See how it just came to be.
It was born into this shape.
It came into this world.
And over the years,
It changed the way it wanted to change.
Was there any control in this change?
The body just did what it had to do.
You couldn't have said,
I want to be six feet tall.
The body is exactly the way it was meant to be.
So ask yourself if there's any control over the body.
See the body.
See how it moves and changes.
See how it ages.
See how sickness arises again with no control.
And even see how health arises with no control.
The body is just the body.
There's no I in the body.
Observe this.
Now let's move on to looking at feeling.
All day long,
We have feelings arising in the body and in the mind.
And one of the contemplations is thinking,
I am the feeling,
Or I am a feeling.
And if you see how feeling changes all day long,
As you're exposed to the elements,
To interactions,
To your day,
Feeling arising and passing away,
Is there a constant I in this feeling?
Look at one feeling and see that it's just feeling.
Relax from the identification with that feeling.
And another contemplation is,
I possess the feeling,
Or I control feelings.
Bhante used to say,
If you ever get depressed,
Did you ask yourself or say,
Hey,
I'd like to be really depressed today?
No.
Feeling arises on its own,
Passes away on its own.
We don't control feelings.
We don't own feelings.
Notice how feelings come into being through contact,
Through all the various eye contact,
Ear contact,
Nose contact,
Et cetera,
That you come into contact with each day,
Bombarded with contact,
Leading to feeling arising and passing away.
See that there is just feeling.
There is no I before feeling.
There is no I with feeling.
And there is no I after the feeling.
Just let it go and let feeling be there.
Now let's move on to perception.
And we can also look at perception as concepts.
And perception and concepts happen so quickly that there's really no time to think about it when it arises.
The moment you see something,
Your perception,
Concepts,
Has a hold on it.
It has already named it.
It already has an opinion about it.
And yet,
As we contemplate this,
We can identify with perception,
With our beliefs and think that we are these concepts.
We are these perceptions that we have about the world.
And likewise,
We can also think that we control them,
That we possess our perceptions of things,
That we own them.
But in the silent mind,
See how quickly they arise.
The moment you see something,
Perception arises.
It's just there.
There's no I in perception.
There's no controller in perception.
It simply arises because of past conditioning,
Causes and conditions that make us perceive things a particular way.
So just see how perception is not me,
Not myself,
Not mine.
Now we will move on to looking at formations.
These are some of the little seeds in the mind.
And we're actually going to call them intentions here for this contemplation.
These are some of the things also we can take very personally and think that I am these intentions,
These volitions within my mind.
We're always tending towards something,
Whether it's wholesome or unwholesome.
And on some level,
There's identification with this,
With our intentions.
But looking now,
See how these intentions are just happening on their own,
Without any control.
They are part of this impersonal soup within the mind,
Just ready to come to life.
We don't control them.
We can't say,
I want to have these kinds of intentions or those kinds of intentions.
They just arise and come through us.
See how there's no I in these formations and intentions.
See how there's no control over these intentions.
There's just intentions.
Observe as they arise and pass away.
Now finally,
Let's look at consciousness.
When you have an I and color and form,
I consciousness can arise.
When you have the ear and a sound,
Ear consciousness can arise.
With the nose and odors,
Nose consciousness arises.
With the tongue and flavors,
Tongue consciousness arises.
With the body and tangibles,
Body consciousness arises.
With the mind and mind objects,
Mind consciousness arises.
Notice right now in the mind how consciousness arises on its own.
There is no doer there and no controller there.
Any of these consciousnesses that come about in the day or in the meditation,
See how they just happen.
You have,
There's no you to have a choice about it.
You open your eyes and whatever is there is there.
There's no owner of it,
No controller of it.
Every consciousness comes about because of past conditioning.
See it as it is.
This is not mine.
This I am not.
This is not myself.
Be free of consciousness.
Be free of the aggregates.
Just observe all of it arising and passing away without the I,
Without control.
I am not the aggregates.
I don't control the aggregates.
I am not in the aggregates.
I am not separate from the aggregates.
There is simply body arising and passing away,
Feeling arising and passing away,
Perception arising and passing away,
Formations or intentions arising and passing away.
Consciousness arising and passing away.
