So,
This weekend we're going to talk and practice a little bit on very basic Buddhist meditation.
Now,
How many people here are not Buddhists?
How many people here never meditated?
Oh.
How many people here don't know anything about Buddhism?
So basically.
.
.
Traditionally,
Buddhist meditation is divided into two levels.
That of getting the mind more calm.
And more single-pointed working on the attention.
It's funny,
I'm waiting and thinking,
Oh,
I mustn't talk too much,
Wait for the translator.
And the other one is then,
Once the mind has become settled and single-pointed,
To then develop the quality of insight,
Of beginning to examine the very fundamentals of the mind.
So we don't have very much time this weekend,
But we will basically explore these two avenues.
Now,
The point is,
Of course,
That Everything which we know,
Everything which we experience,
We only experience because we have a mind.
Because we are conscious.
I mean we have ears and eyes and nose and so forth,
But.
.
.
If they are not connected to consciousness,
Then they don't function.
We could be like a corpse.
And so everything which we know coming to us from the outside,
Impinges on our,
You know,
Eye conscious,
Ear conscious,
Nose conscious,
Etc.
But then it's picked up immediately by the sense consciousnesses and interpreted by the mental conscience.
So if I look at these flowers,
First there is the input,
Just of the flowers,
But then immediately the mind clicks in with,
Oh yes,
Look,
They're roses,
And then whether one likes roses or doesn't like roses,
Or comparing it with other roses one has ever seen,
And so forth.
It's because we have this consciousness that we are able to perceive and think about roses,
Right?
Okay?
So first of all,
The outside,
We only can experience anything which appears to us to be outside because of our sense consciousnesses.
But also inside.
Constantly.
We are.
Talking to ourselves.
Constantly,
We have a commentary running the whole time.
Endless chatter,
Chatter,
Chatter,
Chatter,
Chatter.
I think most people are not really as conscious of this until they try to meditate.
Once you start to meditate,
You realize how extraordinarily noisy our minds actually are most of the time.
It's like having a television on.
The whole time and you can't turn the volume down.
What's the speak of turning it off?
It's just playing the same old stuff.
And usually as we begin to become more conscious of our mind's contents We realize usually it's the same old.
The same old soap operas,
You know,
Just being replayed,
Endless replaying of the same old stuff.
Oh,
Not that one again.
And What to do?
Normally we just go along with the mind.
And we are not even conscious of the fact that we're not in control.
That actually our mind is totally out of control.
If our mind was in control.
Then we could every morning wake up and say,
OK,
So this morning I will be,
I will be,
Let's see,
I will be happy,
I will be peaceful,
Centered,
Patient,
Kind,
Compassionate,
And totally unfazed by whatever happens.
And so it would be.
I mean,
Very few people wake up in the morning and think,
Well,
Today I think I'll be.
.
.
Grumpy,
Irritable,
Stressed out,
And depressed.
Why not?
No,
We wouldn't want to be like that.
So why are we like that?
Why do we get worried?
Why do we get upset?
Why do we get hurt?
Why do we feel jealous?
Why do we get angry?
Why do we get consumed by desires and greed and passions?
Those feelings upset our mind and make us feel uncomfortable.
We don't want them,
But we have them.
And the reason is that our minds are totally out of control.
And normally,
Because it's like a raging river,
Traditionally,
From a traditional society,
Imagine what they would say nowadays.
2,
500 years ago they were comparing the ordinary mind to a turbulent waterfall.
Unstoppable.
Crashing down.
And so even if you think of it as a turbulent river,
The point is that we're carried along by that river.
So.
.
.
The problem is that we have our mind.
.
.
And we take our mind with us everywhere.
We can't get away from our mind.
Even when we're asleep,
We dream.
And our mind is again giving us messages.
How to get beyond the mind?
You know,
I mean,
If you go to India,
You can go to Japan,
You can go to Africa,
You can go to anywhere.
Take your mind with you.
Same old mind.
Yabba yabba yabba yabba yabba and so it behoves us.
As human beings.
To deal with this most intimate instrument which we have.
And learn how to.
.
.
Become the masters instead of the slaves.
Of our own mind.
