Very good.
So if you come to this Buddhist center,
If you don't become enlightened,
You find love.
Isn't that nice?
Actually,
Quite a few people have found their partners here.
So it's a bit dangerous place if you want to stay single.
So here we are.
Let us now start with some meditation,
Where we can go to the singleness of our hearts.
Because even if you're married and you have partners and friends and lots of other people,
When you close your eyes,
You're with yourself.
And some of us don't really know ourselves very well.
So we have to come in,
Come home and learn how to be at peace with this person inside.
So when we meditate,
We can't run away anymore.
We're facing up to this guy,
This girl we've known for such a long time,
This thing we've known,
And get to peace with them.
But first of all,
We have to get to a state of peace with our body.
It aches,
It's in pain,
I've got a bit of hay fever too,
So he's got a bit of a cough.
So you've got to be kind to your body.
So in these few moments,
You close your eyes,
Which gives your brain more space to be aware of the feelings in your body.
How does your body feel right now?
It is what I call the most prominent sensation in the body,
An ache,
A pain,
An irritation somewhere,
Which is stronger than all others.
So focus on that most prominent physical feeling and see if you can relax with it.
Be kind to that feeling,
Taking away the fear,
Loosening everything,
Expanding.
One very skillful means is to imagine that irritation or pain in a little box.
So the box just contains the feeling in your body.
And allow that box to expand,
Its sides get further and further from each other.
And with it,
The ache,
The pain,
The irritation also expands.
And just like anything,
The more it expands,
The more dilute it becomes,
Until it expands to the end of the universe and the irritation is gone.
So thin,
So dilute,
It's not discernible.
And once the most prominent feeling is gone,
Go to the next one.
And please,
During this meditation,
If you feel like coughing,
Please do so.
Just like me,
I'll cough when I need to.
Because the alternative is what we call in meditation the volcano effect,
Where you try and hold it back,
When it does blow,
My goodness it makes a huge noise.
And it also sprays people around you,
Which is not good for your health.
So just cough and avoid the volcano effect.
And just relax with your body.
We use mindfulness,
Which tells us how our body is feeling.
We use kindness,
Compassion,
To relax our body,
To soften it.
And the mindfulness reports back that yes,
The feelings in our body are getting more at ease.
It is our first exercise in using mindfulness and kindness together and seeing how it relaxes our body.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
When the body is nicely relaxed,
We can let it go.
And then put our main focus on letting go of the past and the future so we can remain in the present moment.
If you like,
You can use the two heavy suitcases simile.
Imagine you're carrying these two heavy suitcases.
The one in your left hand represents your past,
Full of all your memories,
Both good and bad.
You've been carrying that suitcase for such a long time,
Your arm aches and your shoulders hurt.
And the suitcase in the right hand represents your future with all your anxieties and fears and hopes and plans too in your right hand.
And your right arm is also tired through holding and carrying that future every minute of the day.
Now focusing on the suitcase in your left hand,
You lower that suitcase to the ground.
When it meets the floor,
The burden vanishes.
You let go of the handle,
Move your left arm to your side so it's hanging loosely,
Recovering.
And imagine the suitcase in your right hand,
Heavy,
A burden,
Full of your future.
Imagine lowering that to the ground.
And when it meets the ground,
The weight vanishes,
Uncurling your fingers from the handle,
Moving your right arm away from that suitcase containing your future.
Until your right hand is loose by your side,
Also recovering.
And there you stand,
Light,
Carrying no burden.
You look down your past and your future.
They are quite safe and you're standing between them,
Carrying nothing.
In this space between the past and the future,
We call the present moment.
A place of rest,
A place of peace,
A place of meditation.
No past,
No future,
Just now.
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