Okay,
Ready to go.
So welcome everybody to the Saturday afternoon live streaming meditation from Dhammaloka Centre from the Main Hall.
And today because of government regulations that we can only do live streaming even though it is three o'clock in the afternoon,
There's no one in the hall except for the AV person.
So whenever there is any difficulties in life,
Sometimes being able to take a little bit of time out to relax,
To go inside,
I don't mean inside the house but inside the mind,
Is a wonderful way of dealing with the many crises of life.
We have a choice,
We do have that choice of either panicking,
Worrying,
And getting more stressed and being someone who makes a problem worse,
Or we have an opportunity to sit down,
Relax,
Be peaceful,
And then just wait and see what happens.
It's one of the stories I accumulated over my lifetime of that friend,
Who was a fellow school teacher a long time ago,
Who was in the British Army during the Second World War.
The story where he was on patrol in Burma and just a few soldiers,
And unfortunately stumbled into a huge number of enemy soldiers,
Totally surrounded,
Heavily outnumbered,
He thought he was going to die.
But his captain told everybody to go and sit down and have a cup of tea,
Relax,
And this young man at the time said this was the craziest thing he'd ever experienced at the time.
Here in the jungle in Burma in the Second World War,
About to die or get captured,
And all the head soldier,
The captain could think about,
Is sitting down and having a cup of tea.
But orders were orders,
And of course many of you know the story,
That while they were having a cup of tea surrounded by enemy soldiers,
The scout came back to tell them there was a way through,
The enemy had moved,
And they could find the gap between those surrounding enemy forces and escape.
All of them escaped without any injury,
Which is why he could tell me that story.
And I always recall that story.
Whenever there's any difficulties or problems,
And sometimes very serious problems,
What can you do?
Nothing,
Except sit down,
Have a cup of tea,
Relax,
Relax and wait until there's something for you to do.
And of course that's the story of many people's lives right now during the COVID-19 crisis.
You're stuck at home,
You can't go out,
Nothing to do,
So what to do?
And of course the old saying,
Well there's nothing to do,
Do nothing.
And many people say it's easier said than done to be able to sit down,
Even in a nice place like a monastery or for me a cave,
To be able to sit down and do nothing,
How do you do that?
And this is why we meditate.
We learn the art of doing nothing,
Of relaxing.
And sometimes we say,
Well how do you do nothing?
And sometimes you don't do nothing,
It's nothing doing.
In other words,
One stops this habit of human beings always to interfere,
Always to try and fix things up,
Always to try and cure things instead of remembering that caring is more important than curing.
Which means that when we do meditate,
We're learning how to sit down,
Relax our body and make our mind so peaceful,
It's as if we're doing nothing.
We're not trying to cure this problem,
We're caring for this moment.
And then you find you have enormous power,
Energy,
Wisdom and ability to make a better world for yourselves,
For those you live with and for others as well.
So what it means is that when you do start meditation,
In order to be able to do nothing,
We need to be able to relax our body and find some comfort,
Which is one of the reasons why we find a comfortable meditation position.
And you all have seen me meditating on cushions,
Sitting on the floor,
And that was only because that's how I was trained when I grew up,
That's how my body is,
For when from 23 years of age to 30 years of age,
We're living in Thailand at that time,
Then I never sat on a chair once.
And that's no exaggeration.
Not once sitting on a chair,
Always sitting cross-legged on the floor,
My bones,
My muscles got used to that,
That's how I grew up.
And I still recall the first time I sat on a chair,
I was on an aircraft,
Going from Bangkok to London,
And that was sitting on a chair,
Okay it was economy class,
But for me that was so weird,
Sitting on a chair for such a long time.
By the end of the journey,
Oh my legs ached so much,
I was just dying just to sit on the floor somewhere,
That was not allowed.
So it's just my body got used to sitting on a floor.
Many of you who are meditating,
You're watching me today,
You haven't got that upbringing,
So if you want to sit on a chair,
That's wonderful,
Please sit on a chair.
Sometimes people like to lie down,
That's fine,
As long as you have a lying down posture which is not the same as a sitting down posture.
In other words,
The lying down posture is not the same as your sleeping posture,
So that's the brain psychologically knows it is not the time for sleep,
It's the time for laying down relaxing,
But being aware.
So whatever the posture is,
To find out something which is comfortable for you,
And the reason is because it means you can relax the body and then have nothing to do with the body,
Just to relax it to the max.
Once that is relaxed,
The body feels at ease,
Then you can leave it alone.
You don't need to worry about it.
In fact,
It just looks after itself very well.
It's a way of like inaction on your body,
And it's a wonderful thing when you know how to relax your body,
Because then the body feels so wonderful.
It feels energized,
Peacefully energized,
But it feels it's not tired,
But it also feels that it starts to heal any tightnesses,
Tensions,
Aches,
Pains.
I've seen a lot of my own aches and pains disappear just by sitting peacefully.
Even some sicknesses disappear simply because the body is relaxed enough and energy can go to those places in the body which need the energy,
The natural healing energy of the body.
Sometimes we're so busy getting up,
Sitting down,
Going out the door,
Coming back in again,
Buying things,
Talking to people,
That we don't have enough relaxation of the body,
Deep relaxation to allow healing to occur.
So little by little,
By letting go of interfering with the body,
We do actually get much healthier.
Many,
Many times,
And I have mentioned this in the meditation classes,
Many,
Many times people go into deep meditation,
Maybe not that deep,
But at least the body is really relaxed and they're probably just watching their breath when they're doing the breath meditation or even deeper.
They feel like hot spots in the body where energy accumulates in a part of the body which really needs it.
And that's a common occurrence,
That part of the body,
Just one small part of the body,
Just is perceived to be warmer than the rest.
And it's just energy from the body going to that one place.
Other times people's body has moved during their meditation.
Sometimes they've twisted around because they've had some bad accident and the body needs to twist,
It does it by itself,
It needs to twist in order to get the energy in the right place,
The healing to happen.
Which is one of the reasons why people do teach meditation in many hospitals,
It really helps the healing process.
But all it really is doing is learning to look after your body so you can put it down,
Sit it down,
And it just disappears for a while.
So then you can start to relax the mind.
I should have said,
As I always say,
On these Saturday afternoon meditation classes,
That the body being peaceful is delightful.
And there's a delight in that peace which allows you to leave it alone and just enjoy just the happiness of a body which is just so relaxed.
And then you go into your mind and when you go into your mind you do the same,
Exactly the same relaxing the mind which is doing nothing again.
So your mind becomes so peaceful.
And when it becomes very peaceful,
It only becomes peaceful in the present moment,
Right now.
And it's in this present moment,
Right now,
That all of your worries and bad memories of the past disappear.
To relax the body we have to come into the present moment,
Which is a beautiful place to be.
It's a place where you're not afraid of what might happen next.
It's a place where all the tightness,
The tension,
The burdens of the past are also let go of.
You're free.
It's like an escape,
A way out for 45 minutes,
If that's how long you're going to meditate,
Which is what we're going to do in a few minutes time.
It's a way out,
An escape from the heaviness,
The burdens,
The worries and the bad memories of the past.
It's a circuit breaker in time,
So we can stop being a prisoner of time and being free,
Free in this moment.
And it's a weird thing in the present moment you feel it's such a short period of time,
Squashed between the huge past and the eternity of future.
But actually when you get into the present moment,
It's like,
I'm not sure if any of you remember seeing the Doctor Who series,
Because I remember that when I was a kid,
And that's 45 years ago.
And in Doctor Who you go into this small little box and inside it opened up this huge area,
I think it's this TARDIS time machine.
And that's like the present moment.
You go into this present moment,
Right into it,
And it's huge in there.
It has all the space you could ever want.
And this is what happens because you got rid of time,
And time which is the barriers which confine us sometimes.
Those barriers just disappear and the present moment is infinite.
You just hear,
No future,
No past,
But the eternity of now.
Eternity,
That's just the word I try to grab,
But it's just the no boundaries of now.
And in there of course is a great sense of freedom.
And because it is in the present moment,
You don't have to aim for anything.
The future has just disappeared.
There is no arrow to shoot your hopes you once at.
And because the past has vanished,
All bad memories,
The memories just can't reach you.
You let go of the past and you've abandoned the future for a while.
And this is what we do in meditation,
Come to this beautiful present moment.
It's very,
Very delightful.
It's a happy place to be.
And when you're in a happy present moment,
Also your mind gets even more peaceful.
Because there is no baggage from the past,
There's nothing to worry about what happened,
Who did it,
Who's to blame,
How can I fix this up so that next time it doesn't happen,
All your hopes,
Dreams and fears of the future will disappear.
And you're in this moment,
Which means that you are so more free,
You're relaxing and resting.
Now in this time of when our lifestyle has changed immensely,
Just even so far,
And we're not quite sure where our lifestyle is going to go after the COVID,
We eventually will pass.
And sometimes the planning and worrying,
It just causes us to be even more sick.
It's wonderful to be able to be a person who can relax so much,
Can rest so much,
Can respect the present moment more than all the fears of the future,
Which means you are a peaceful person.
You're finding something very useful to do in the so-called lockdown.
Lockdown?
I call that freedom.
Just being confined in one space,
If you know what that space is,
It's huge.
Being in the present moment and being silent.
In the silent,
This present moment is so much you can listen to,
You can hear,
You can feel,
So much more you can know when you're not so tired from running backwards and forwards in your life.
So this present moment and the meditation is a wonderful opportunity,
Not just to relax,
But to become alive,
To become energised and clear and really mindful and perceptive and happy,
Really appreciating the happiness of just being and not going anywhere and not dragging anything from your past.
Now is where your future is made.
So I invite everybody to join me in this 45-minute beginning guided meditation.
In about 20 minutes I will leave you alone just to be peaceful and then I will end the meditation when I start speaking again.
I invite you all to come with me on this journey into the present moment,
Relaxing,
Delighting in now and just seeing how beautiful this moment can be.
So invite you all to get into your meditation posture,
Whichever that is.
And as always,
Close the eyes.
It's easy for me to close the eyes in this hall,
There's no one to look at,
Except for the audio-visual operator.
As I close my eyes,
It's like closing my mind to the world,
Because when I close my eyes I could be in a hall of 10,
000 people or I can be in a forest where there's only animals.
Closing the eyes equalises things.
You disappear from the world.
And when the eyes are closed,
I train myself,
Got into the habit of feeling my body with my mind.
How am I?
How is my posture?
Even this hall I can feel a little bit warm,
But that's nothing.
I can feel my legs and my butt and my back.
I give it a rough check through before I become more meticulous.
I have to do this because mindfulness takes a while to strengthen.
When my mind is not obsessed or taken up with visual data,
It starts to get more space,
Especially for the physical feelings in my body.
The mindfulness gets stronger.
So now I can become much more aware than even a minute ago of the feelings in my legs.
I start down there asking my legs how they feel.
It's my way of establishing a connection between my brain and the feelings in my legs,
And it starts a long way away from my brain.
I ask my legs,
How are you?
And I listen attentively.
And if my legs have any tightness,
Tension anywhere,
If there's something I can do to lessen that tightness,
That tension,
That pressure,
I will do so.
Just a short adjustment.
Sometimes it hardly makes a difference,
But the legs know that I care,
That I'm on their side.
That by itself creates a sense of relaxation.
Even parts of your body can become tense.
And just focusing on them,
Caring for them,
Relaxes them,
Even without touching them.
And I learned over many years how to relax every part of my body,
And especially relaxing my legs.
If I find any part which is tight,
It's like the muscles are being pulled apart,
Stretched under strain,
And I let go of both ends of that muscle.
Imagine not pulling it,
Not stretching it,
But letting it be,
Until I can feel the corresponding feeling of relaxation.
I'm doing this in the muscles just below my knees.
I don't know why,
But they're a bit tense and I'm relaxing them.
Already they feel much more at ease.
And only when my legs are comfortable,
The best I can get,
Do I move on.
Move on and up to my butt.
It's now sitting on a cushion.
Had a bit more chance to get a good posture beforehand today.
My butt feels pretty good.
But if I want to,
And I think I will,
Just adjust it a tiny bit.
Yeah,
That's better.
Really being meticulous,
Really careful and caring to the feeling in your butt,
So it can be comfortable for the rest of the meditation,
Without you needing to worry about it,
Or be disturbed by it,
Or have pains interfere with your peace.
And from there you go to your back.
Many times I like stretching my back,
Just as animals do in the forest.
Good stretch,
And then relax.
And the back feels good.
I have a quick scan up and down,
Making sure it's okay.
Many,
Many years ago I had a very bad back injury.
It's bent over for about six months.
People can remember that.
Just a bit of exercise and relaxation,
And I overcame that.
The back was back to normal again.
Just doing building work.
So that was a cause.
Anyway,
My back now feels nice and strong,
Pain free.
So I move up to my shoulders.
Relax those shoulders.
Know that sometimes those shoulders get tense when you've got something to do,
Something to perform,
You're worried about what people think of you,
You're doing an exam or you're doing a test or something.
Feel those shoulders tense.
Please know that,
Especially those of you meditating at home,
No one's watching you at all.
So you can really just take it easy and relax those shoulders.
So you're not carrying any burden at all.
You've got nothing to do,
Nothing to perform,
No one to impress,
No task to fulfil.
You're free just to be.
No one is judging you.
You can't lose anything.
It's a beautiful feeling of safety.
You have nothing to protect.
You're free.
Just contemplating like that,
Even my shoulders become nice and loose.
They feel good.
I go down my arms to my hands,
Always making sure my hands are in a good position.
Otherwise you tend to fidget your hands during the meditation.
So I give them just the best position I possibly can,
Which today is a very traditional right hand over the left hand thumb slightly touching in the lap.
I don't always meditate like that but today it feels good.
When my hands are comfortable I go up to my neck to make sure that my head is properly balanced on top of the neck.
Not too far forward,
Not too far back,
Not to the left,
Not to the right.
And I can feel that.
It's the minimum pressure on my neck muscles.
It feels I can hold this for a long time,
Which I will.
Comfortable,
Effortless.
Then I look at the feelings inside my throat.
I do have allergies inherited from my father who had bad asthma.
So my throat is often itchy,
Today it feels pretty good.
I just relax everything in there.
Be kind to it.
Not afraid,
Not tense,
So I can relax.
Then I go up to my face,
Relaxing the muscles around my eyes and around my mouth.
So my face feels free and open.
Not afraid,
Not anxious,
Not trying to put on an image of anything,
Just totally relaxed.
I've got to know those muscles,
Especially around the eyes,
What it feels like when they're totally at ease.
It's feeling almost like freedom.
Around the mouth as well.
Everything relaxed to the max.
Lastly,
I look at my whole body,
Having relaxed part by part,
Aware of the body as a unit.
I do one thing,
Sitting here,
Having been cared for for about ten minutes.
And the body responds by being so at ease.
And I look for the delightful feeling of relaxation.
A certain type of pleasure where everything is loose and free.
Compare it to when you first wake up in the morning,
You don't have to go to the toilet.
You feel so relaxed in your bed.
And I stay with the delight of relaxation for a minute or two.
So it always takes me into a deeper relaxation.
It makes my mind happy,
Content.
My mind doesn't want to think about anything or wander off because it's just too nice,
Too happy,
Too delightful.
Just being here in this moment with the feeling of delightful relaxation.
And then I move on to relaxing my mind.
Look at my peace-omitor.
I'm mindful of the amount of peace or agitation I have inside.
I just adjusted my robe.
Now I go to my peace-omitor.
Getting a number from one being really peaceful to ten which is agitated.
Be honest.
You're not trying to impress anybody.
If you fool anyone,
You're only fooling yourself.
Just know.
Know what makes you more agitated.
Know what makes you more relaxed inside,
More peaceful.
You can feel peace.
It's a very delightful experience.
Especially when that peace gets more and more close to that one level of peace.
You should begin to notice the insight that when you wander off to the past or the future,
You're just agitating your mind.
You stay in this moment,
The peace increases.
You're going inside.
You're being here,
Being now.
And soon the peace becomes so delightful,
Interesting,
Captivating that you can't say anything.
No more than you can say anything when you're listening to a great piece of music.
You're silent inside because your mind is satisfied and content with the joy of even this stage of meditation.
Present moment and silent.
Soon you'll be able to be aware of your breathing.
It's not that you look for your breath,
It's like the breath comes to you.
It's a natural breath,
Not forced.
It's like you always breathe when you're not watching.
The lungs know how to do the breathing,
You don't need to tell them what to do.
The breath being very peaceful.
If you wish to make it more enjoyable,
You can imagine if you're breathing in,
Breathing in energy,
Peace,
Health,
Anything positive,
Breathe it in.
As you breathe out,
Breathe out,
Let go.
Let go of any worries,
Concerns,
Illness,
Tiredness,
Breathing in peace,
Energy,
Breathe out,
Let go.
Don't force it,
So the mind can relax.
Breathe in beautiful breath.
Breathe out beautiful,
Out breath.
Sometimes it's like sitting by the beach alone,
Just watching the waves slowly come in and then fall away again.
Slowly come in,
Breath coming in,
Slowly going away.
You're just sitting there,
Effortless,
Enjoying this moment.
The waves of breath coming into your body and then receding.
There can be big waves of breath,
Short little waves of breath.
Let your body decide.
Your job is just to do the watching,
To be the passive observer.
In this moment,
There's no need to take mental notes,
Anything important you will remember later.
Now we are silent.
Listening to our teacher,
Which is nature,
Not talking back at her.
Breathing in and breathing out.
I will now be quiet until five minutes before the end of the meditation.
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