I just come back from teaching back-to-back retreats in Malaysia and I'm there in KL,
Another four-day retreat in Penang.
And one of the comments somebody made over there,
They'd been meditating for a long time now.
And at last they understood the word compassion.
So for the first time they said they've ever meditated,
They were compassionate to their body and compassionate to their mind.
And had just a very peaceful and beautiful meditation.
And they said thank you.
And it's one of those little questions which stuck in my mind and thought why can't people be more kind to their body and kind to their mind when they meditate?
Why is that,
Especially if they're traditional Buddhists,
Who understand that the Buddha's supposed to be a really,
Really compassionate being,
Supposed to be kind.
So there's no place in Buddhism for aggression,
Especially not aggression towards yourself.
So when you are meditating,
Please be kind to yourself.
Kind to yourself obviously means that if you need to move your body during the meditation,
Move it.
Kindness also means that setting yourself up in a good position to begin with so you don't need to move.
And that's why we have chairs in this meditation room here.
That's why we have stack of cushions and that's why we have many wall spaces.
And you can see there's many people already got the wall spaces.
They're always the number one spot on the floor in any Buddhist temple,
The ones next to the wall,
Because it does sometimes feel nice to be able to just lean backwards.
So whatever it is,
Make sure that your body is comfortable before you meditate.
And also if you possibly can,
You come into a place like this,
Make sure you look after your body before you come here.
In other words,
You've been to the toilet,
You've relaxed,
You haven't just rushed in here,
Turned up at the last moment,
Come in running around expecting the body to be still.
It does take a time to calm down.
So be kind to your body.
And then even more importantly,
Be kind to your mind.
And being kind to the mind means don't go around pushing it,
Trying to get to all these amazing stages of meditation.
Sometimes people get quite deep in meditation but because they try so hard to go to the next level,
They never enjoy themselves,
They never get the peace.
They're so hard upon themselves,
So high achievers,
They can never enjoy anything.
What would make most meditators so happy,
To them,
Know I can do better.
And that's sort of an idea which we call spiritual materialism.
It's just the same as you do in this life,
Always trying,
Working hard for the bigger house,
The better car,
The bigger TV screen or whatever else you want in life.
So instead of doing that,
We learn this approach of compassion to our mind.
Be kind,
Give it a break,
It's doing its best.
And you find if you're kind to your mind,
It doesn't matter if you're asleep,
Be kind to it.
It doesn't matter if you're restless,
Be kind to it.
It doesn't matter if you're thinking all sorts of stupid thoughts,
Be kind to your mind.
And if you are kind and compassionate to it,
Then you find you automatically let it be.
You don't do anything,
Because real compassion and kindness loves the world for what it is.
Real compassion and kindness loves yourself for what you are,
Doesn't try and change you.
And that not wanting to change yourself,
Not wanting to change the moment but be with the moment is the key to letting go.
In other words,
To be able to let things disappear,
You have to let them be.
You have to be kind to them.
So it's a very beautiful and easy way of meditation.
So you don't have to do anything,
You just sit there when you meditate,
Just letting things be.
And all these beautiful stages of meditation,
All these wonderful drinks of cool water,
They just come to you.
I never asked for this.
Because you meditate,
You're a good monk.
You're just kind,
You don't have any desires at all,
And beautiful cool water,
I don't even need to pour it out.
I probably won't even need to drink it,
Someone else will drink it for me.
No,
I'll drink this.
So what that means is just a lot of times you're letting go.
Oh,
You are going to let me drink it,
Thank you so much.
So that means that everything comes to you.
So this is a time just to relax and make peace and just allow the meditation to happen.
Now there are stages in meditation,
As I keep on talking about,
And stages which I write about in books,
That's just like in a map.
You do need to know where you are and where you're going and where you come from.
It gives you a sense of where you are,
Of location.
And where you are meditating,
You find these stages of meditation happen quite naturally.
You just sit there and when you create the causes,
The results happen.
And your job in meditation,
Your effort and your skill is just to create causes and let the effects happen by themselves.
Many teachers when I was young used to always use a simile of growing a garden or growing a tree.
Because there were meditators who grew up in nature in the forests of north and northeast Thailand.
And so you just put the seed in the ground,
You make sure it's set off in a good way and then you just protect it.
You don't make it grow,
You just care for it,
Nurture it and mostly with growing a garden or growing a tree is just to keep people from interfering with it or keep animals from interfering with it and it grows by itself.
That's very very much the way meditation works.
You just put the causes into place.
You've got the seed there,
You've got the ground,
The water and your job basically is to protect it.
And in meditation what you really got to protect your mind from is yourself.
You're always getting critical,
Interfering and that's why compassion is the beautiful protector of the mind.
Because compassion protects the mind from aggression,
From criticism,
From guilt,
From fear and from worry.
This is what compassion could do for you.
It's a great protector.
Just like you put some wire,
Wire screen or wire mesh around a plant to keep the kangaroos from eating it over in Serpentine in our monastery.
Same way you sort of protect the trees by guarding it with some wire,
Same way you protect your mind by guarding it with compassion.
This beautiful beautiful compassion which makes your mind safe,
Content and you find in that safety,
That contentment,
That patience,
You find your meditation just grows and it grows really really well.
And it grows incrementally like any other tree.
Little by little sometimes you think you're not making any progress but you are,
The tree is growing.
It just needs a bit more patience,
A bit more time and you'll see your meditation getting deeper and deeper and deeper.
That's usually what happens.
So make sure you put the causes into place.
As long as the causes are in place you know the effects must happen.
That's the nature of meditation.
Any comments or questions?
Okay,
We'll get going.
So if you'd like to assemble yourself in your meditation posture,
Whatever that happens to be for you.
And with your eyes closed,
Bring attention onto your body.
Increasing the sensitivity you have to your posture.
Okay.
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And if you're aware of your body,
If you want to adjust anything,
Please do so.
And relax the body inside to any irritations or tensions by applying mindfulness and kindness to that feeling inside your body.
At the very least you can relieve it.
You can lessen the tightness and maybe even see the pain or the irritation disappear.
So mindfulness and kindness coupled together.
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And when your body is relaxed,
Spend that amount of time preparing your body.
Then you can start the meditation proper with present moment awareness and silence.
But always being kind and compassionate to whatever you're experiencing in this moment.
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Close,
Close the meditation now.
How do you feel?
What's it like?
Just linger on the experience of peace,
Which is there at the end of every meditation.
Great peace or small peace.
There is always some peace there.
And understand the cause,
Where it came from,
So you understand the result.
I will now ring the gong three times.
Please listen to every sound of the gong and when the last resonance vanishes,
Then come out from your meditation.
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It's not just Nambi Pambi Kri Puff meditators class,
It's not just for those people who aren't tough guys or tough girls.
This is the best way to get into deep meditation.
We use wisdom power,
Not will power.
We use this beautiful softness and compassion rather than aggression.
And you find that it makes a much,
Much deeper,
More peaceful meditator and it avoids all the dangers.
So no questions?
Okay,
So finish early.
So let's now pay respects to Buddha Dhamasanga.
It's only five minutes early and we can have a cup of tea.
All right,
Happy New Year to everybody.
