Meditate Upon Polar Opposites | Atisha's 7 Point Mind Training

The overactivity of the mind is a kind of sickness but we never question it as a norm. Everyone is running around with a mind out of control but no one pays attention to take charge of it. Atisha's 7 Point mind training is a series on learning how to bring order back in the mind.

Today we practice a breath meditation technique: Observing the gap in the breath.

Transcript

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this morning life meditation session with me,

Dhyansay.

If my hand continuously did that all the time,

What would you say?

You would say it needs some fixing.

It is there is something wrong,

There is some sickness.

When I want to use my hand,

I can go and grab it.

But if there is nothing to grab and my hand constantly goes there and tries to grab,

That is nothing less than sickness.

If you observe your mind,

It is doing the same all the time.

All the time it is going there and trying to grab something.

Even when there is nothing to grab,

Even when you have no excuse that you are working or you are utilizing your mind for something in an act,

Why is this happening?

Why your mind is constantly grabbing something?

And more importantly,

How have we learned to just live with it like that?

We have also accepted this as a normal,

As a new normal,

Because it wasn't like this all the time.

When we were children,

There was more calm,

There was more peace.

We were not aware that we were aware.

We were less crazy in the head.

But as we are now,

If you observe your mind,

You will see that it is constantly active,

Constantly doing something,

Constantly making random movements.

And this must stop.

This must be put to its right place.

This is sickness.

This sickness we are carrying as a normal,

All of us,

In our lives.

And since the person on the right and the person on the left all are carrying the sickness where the mind is constantly trying to grab something when there is nothing to grab,

This is what needs to be trained.

And what we are going through in this series is 7-point mind training given by Ahtisha,

Which is a training for this wonderful thing called mind.

Mind is not an enemy.

Mind is the most sophisticated mechanism that we have.

This is the source of our experience of this world.

It is like a Rolls Royce engine but used like a cheap car,

Used in a very cheap way,

Used with the wrong fuel,

Used with the wrong tuning,

And everything looks wrong or everything feels like it needs to be fixed.

We are on somewhat the closure of this 7-point mind training.

We are on point number 7,

Which is to perfect what we have learned so far in this mind training towards love,

Towards compassion,

Towards emptiness,

And putting the mind in its right place,

In its right tuning,

In its right training so that we are the masters of the mind and not the other way around.

Let us go through the sutras.

The first sutra of the day,

Meditate constantly on those who have been set apart.

Ahtisha says meditate on those who have been set apart.

So he is talking about meditate on polarities.

He is saying meditate on the two extremes that we carry in us.

Not just meditate on love,

But also meditate in the times when hate arises in you.

When you are in love,

Observe,

Be aware of what is going on in these moments of love,

But more importantly,

When you are in deep hate,

Also observe.

There is so much to learn about yourself,

About your mind,

When you are in deep hate,

To see,

Observe this hatred.

When you observe two things happen,

You learn about yourself,

You learn about the functioning of the mind,

And also this hatred slowly starts to disappear because you see there is no point of it.

You see that this is arising out of nowhere.

And another revelation you will notice is that both love and hate have the same energy source.

It is the same energy which goes into love,

Which goes into hate.

That is why the person you love the most is also the person you hate the most.

Depends on the situation,

Depends on the moments,

But it is the same energy.

So by meditating on these two polarities,

What Atisha is teaching,

Is pointing at,

Is to learn this one source from the mind,

Is to understand the mind,

Is to let go of hatred and take this energy which is manifesting into these polarities towards something that is more favourable,

Towards love.

And the same in all other polarities when you are happy or when you are sad.

When you are happy,

Observe.

When you are sad,

Go deep in observation of the sadness.

We are so involved in sadness that we never observe it.

Next time when sadness arises,

Don't condemn it.

Don't try to overcome this by putting yourself into some kind of intoxication,

Drowning yourself in alcohol.

Observe this sadness.

Observe what this sadness is all about.

Not the context of the sadness,

But the sadness itself,

The feeling itself.

And you will slowly learn about your mind and you will see it's the same energy that is there in happiness.

And then slowly over time with this observation,

You will build the choice,

You will build the mastery to choose between sadness and happiness.

Then you cannot blame on the situation.

Then the sadness and the happiness are your choice because you see that the source is you and it's the same energy which is happiness,

Which is sadness.

Same is joy,

Sorrow.

When you find something beautiful,

When you find something ugly,

Just observe yourself in these polarities and meditate on these polarities to understand the nature of your mind,

To understand the nature of your energies and to realize that you are the creator,

You are the master,

You have the choice.

And then execute that choice rightly.

The next sutra,

This time practice what's most important.

Atisha must have been a funny man because he has given this point so many times,

So often in his sutras,

But he still wants to test the student.

He still wants to ensure that do you remember the most important.

And in this moment I ask you,

In these last 32 days of going through 7 points of mind training with Atisha,

Do you remember what is the most important?

Always remember that the most important is your awareness.

Awareness in silence is the most important learning out of this entire training.

Don't misinterpret.

If Atisha would be alive today,

He would say,

Don't even interpret.

Because the minds are so sick that forget about misinterpreting,

Every interpretation that we make is a sort of a misinterpretation.

So mind has to become healthy again,

Mind has to be put in its right place first before we can even have the option to interpret and misinterpret.

There are some more last sutras which we will cover in tomorrow's session.

For today's session let us practice a wonderful meditation technique using our breath,

Which is to meditate over two polarities of the breath and then allowing these polarities to become one.

What are the two polarities in our breath?

The inhalation and the exhalation.

That is one context of meditation and the other one which is even more powerful is that after inhalation,

Before exhalation,

There is a point,

There is a gap.

There is when you inhale,

There is this gap number one after inhalation and you exhale.

In this gap you are thrown into pure awareness.

For a very brief moment there is no thought.

The mind is put in its right place.

Everything else is less important and you are aware.

If you pay attention to this awareness,

You can enter the emptiness.

And the other polar opposite which is after exhalation,

Before inhalation.

Gap number two,

After exhalation,

Before inhalation.

That is the second gap,

The second pause in our breath where you again are aware.

Then there is no thought.

Again there is an opportunity to dive into the emptiness.

First of all,

We will focus on gap number one for a few moments,

For a few minutes trying to bring the awareness,

Hold it on gap number one and then we will bring the awareness to gap number two.

Then there will come a point when we will combine these two gaps where in your entire breath you will constantly have the remembrance and the feeling and the sensation of the gap and not two gaps,

Only one gap.

And that is the point of transformation.

That is the point where you actually enter meditation,

Where the breath is going on,

The body is still,

The mind is at rest calm or not calm.

But you are aware constantly of this one gap which in physical breath comes after the exhalation or after the inhalation but is actually one gap and that one gap you remain aware of that for rest of the meditation until I ask you to even leave that and stay only in silence.

Let us practice that.

Let us move into meditation,

Into this breath meditation by closing our eyes,

Taking a posture that is comfortable.

The back straight,

Shoulders down,

Head relaxed and a gentle smile on your face.

Exhales inwards towards your breath.

Breathe naturally and give yourself time for the awareness to come to your breath.

Start observing your breath.

As you observe your breath,

Pay attention to gap number one.

After inhalation,

Before exhalation.

Keep on breathing normally without exaggerating the pose or the inhalation or the exhalation.

Awareness in gap number one,

After inhalation,

Before exhalation.

That small pause where breath takes a turn.

Be aware of that pause.

Awareness only on the pause after inhalation.

Pastorthis is Peter P Breathe normally without exaggerating your breath.

Breathe.

And shift your attention on gap number two.

Pause number two.

After exhalation,

Before inhalation.

After every breath,

Before every breath that you take.

Awareness more and more on this gap after exhalation,

Before inhalation.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Now shift your attention to this gap number one,

Number two,

Number one.

Number one,

Number two.

After inhalation,

Gap number one,

Attention on gap number one.

After exhalation,

Second gap,

Attention on the second gap.

Always keep your awareness and attention on these gaps,

On both these gaps.

Remain aware of both.

The gaps in your breath.

Notice these two gaps merging into one.

And all along your breath,

All along your breathing,

You can feel this gap and hold this gap in your awareness.

Breathe.

Let go of all focus.

And simply remain aware and silent for the next minutes.

Breathe.

Breathe.

No focus.

No effort.

Only silence and awareness.

If you wish to stay longer in this meditative state,

Keep your eyes closed and sit as long as you like.

Or very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes,

Maintaining a sense of awareness,

Centeredness,

Silence.

In this remembrance of the gap,

In your breath,

The entry into emptiness,

Into a state of no mind.

And take this taste to your day while you are going through different situations,

Observing yourself and your mind in polar opposites in contradicting situations.

Make that observation,

Learn from it.

I will see you tomorrow at 7am Central European Time.

Good night.

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