Introduction To The Middle Way Meditation
Introduction to the Middle Way Meditation in a simple format where anyone can enjoy whether you are new or veteran to meditation. It is design to help one gain contral and clarity of the mind so that it helps improve the quality of life in daily living. Enjoy! Background Music Song: ปิดงบบุญของชีวิต Composer: ตะวันธรรม Performed: ปัญจสิกขะ Courtesy of: วัดพระธรรมกาย
Transcript
Hello everyone,
Thank you for listening to my audio.
In this audio,
I will teach you an introduction to meditation.
Before we gonna start,
Allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Venerable Pitsit Jitta Suttho.
I am a Buddhist monk from Thailand.
I had practiced meditation for many years.
Thus,
I would like to share my knowledge with you and if it helps,
Please feel free to share.
The meditation that you are about to learn in this audio is called the Middle Way Meditation,
Also known as Dhammakaya Meditation in Thailand.
The Middle Way Meditation that you are about to introduce to is very simple.
Even a child can practice.
So let us begin to our introduction.
The aim of practice meditation is to focus the mind at one single point.
For the Middle Way Meditation,
We focusing the mind inside our body.
The best place to focus the mind is around your abdomen,
Which is called the center of the body,
Also known as center of gravity in scientific term.
So when we meditate,
We focusing the mind inside at the point called center of the body.
It is around two finger width above your navel.
If you feel it is quite difficult,
You can start at any point at the moment.
Once the mind begin to adjust and relax,
Finding the balance,
Soon it will come to the center of the body by itself because it is considered as the home of the mind.
Kinda like when you are traveling,
You can go anywhere that you like,
But when it comes back home,
You know the direction already without having to looking at the map.
It just like that too,
When the mind are finding the balance,
It will come back to its own home.
So,
Our job in the practice of meditation is to maintain the mind inside ourself at this place,
Center of the body.
The foundation for the Middle Way Meditation are relaxation and mindfulness.
The relaxation could be start by sitting position.
Whether you are sitting on the floor,
On a chair,
On a sofa or on a couch.
But all in all,
The relaxation that we are talking in here are come from the feeling of lightness,
Emptiness,
Clear,
Feeling like your body are not the concern anymore.
That's the relaxation that you should start with and maintain from the beginning until the end.
Next is mindfulness.
Mindfulness here is your self-awareness.
Aware that what you are doing and being in here at the moment.
That's when you maintain your mindfulness during meditation.
It must be from the beginning until the end.
If somehow you meditate,
But you do not remember at any moment while you are meditating,
That's a sign that you are falling asleep or losing your focus.
So throughout your meditation,
You must maintain the balance of mindfulness and relaxation.
If you get the right balance,
You will feel content,
Feeling just right,
Feeling like you want to stay in this position as long as you can without wanting to do anything else.
What would happen if you are losing your balance?
Well everyone,
First of all,
If you are having too much mindfulness over relaxation,
You would feel uncomfortable.
Those who putting a lot of effort,
Even though you try to relax,
But you don't really know because it becomes deep habit inside you,
In everything that you do.
You would have something like this,
For example,
Why it's so long?
When is it going to be over?
How long has it been passed and you want to open your eyes and feeling like you want to move or adjust,
Feeling like you are unable to rest.
This is a sign that putting too much mindfulness or having a lot of effort,
Try to focus and still your mind is not relaxed anymore,
Right?
Next if you are having too much relaxation over mindfulness,
You could falling asleep because you are relaxing too much or having wandering thoughts,
Your mind losing focus.
Therefore,
If you have such a sign that I mentioned,
Please start over.
This is starting in the wrong direction.
If it is start correctly,
You would be content,
Feeling like you want to continue.
If you imagine yourself when you are reading the book that you enjoy,
You forgot the time.
That's the sign you gain comfort and focus doing what you are loving to do.
Meditation should start like that.
Next what would happen when you finding yourself the balance in meditation?
In order to help you focus,
The middle way meditation introduced two methods of practice.
The first one is called visualization.
You visualize something simple,
Something that doesn't make you think or create emotion,
Something that you are familiar with,
Such as the sun,
A moon,
A star,
Or the crystal ball or any object that you prefer at the moment.
A face of the person that you love or thinking of is not a good recommendation.
It would create thought or sometimes even emotion during meditation,
So it would disturb your inner peace and focus.
The benefit of using this method is,
If you have wandering thought,
For example,
You may be listening to this audio at the moment,
But your mind could be thinking of other places like at your work,
At your home,
At your friend's house.
It doesn't really matter what you are thinking of,
But you are losing focus.
That means the mind is not within you anymore.
So in order to recall your mind back,
You lightly imagine the sun inside yourself.
The moment when we visualize,
It brings back our mind automatically.
Where you focus,
It just stays right there.
And as you visualize,
You can let it stay or let it go.
When you feel that your awareness is within you,
That's good already.
But the better you maintain it,
The better your mind stays.
But if you feel tension or feel uncomfortable,
That means trying too hard.
So be careful,
Maintain the balance of mindfulness and relaxation.
Once the mind gains the balance,
It stays.
This method helps you to bring the mind back to yourself when you are losing your focus or the mind is wandering outside where you want it to stay.
As for the case that many people also having problem,
Which is having thoughts disturb their focus or inner peace,
The second method introduced in the Middle Way meditation is called Mantra.
It is more like a repeating words.
You can use your own mantra while you are practicing your own meditation.
It could be something like this.
Breathe in,
Breathe out,
Or peace in,
Peace out,
Or stay and still.
Choose your own mantra is also a good start.
But in case if you're wondering what mantra that I use,
I learned from my master in Thailand.
He taught us to use this mantra as our meditation practice.
Samma Arahang Samma Arahang Samma Arahang Samma Arahang is a Pali language.
An ancient language used in Buddhism now exists only in the scripture.
It's loosely translated as the right path or correct path to be away from defilements or what trouble the mind.
You can choose to use mantra synchronized with your own breath while you are reciting it.
Continue reciting at your own pace without putting too much effort and continue until the sound of the mantra in the mind begin to fade away.
You recite them in your mind so that way it won't disturb making the sound when you meditate with many people.
And this is how you use the mantra to help you calm your mind down and free yourself from the thought.
During the meditation,
You have an option to use both methods at the same time or choose either one as you like.
You can start off at however you feel at that moment.
You have your own choice to choose.
The method of meditation is a tool that helps you focus the mind.
Once the mind begins to focus,
That is good already.
So you can start using at any method as you like.
It doesn't require.
But in case if you feel that you just want to sit still and relax already,
You can also do just that.
But remember,
The place where you focusing the mind should be inside yourself at the center of the body or around your abdomen.
And last but not least,
How do you know if you practicing correctly or not?
My master taught me and everyone in the temple that receiving happiness every time we meditate,
Even just for a moment,
This is confirmation that we are practicing correctly.
All right,
Everyone.
Now that you know how to meditate,
I hope you can enjoy practice meditation and come back again for new audio file.
If you enjoyed,
Don't forget to share and recommend to anyone.
See you again in the future.
