Use Your Body To Concentrate

Guided meditation on following the breath with the right effort and establishing body-based concentration, led by Head Teacher Soryu Forall during the January 2022 retreat at the Monastic Academy in Lowell, Vermont.

Transcript

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Just do this action.

And any resistance to any experience that emerges as you do this,

Don't do that.

You have the ability to do something to do something that's an ability that you have.

You also have the ability to not do something.

The activity,

The action of resisting,

Don't engage in that activity.

Instead,

Put that very energy into what you are doing.

You have the ability to do something that you have not done.

If you are resisting,

If you're pulling on certain experiences,

Make sure that you have them or to make sure that they stay.

If you're pushing on certain experiences,

To make sure that you get rid of them or that they don't arise,

That you might call agitation or anxiety.

It's the wrong use of energy.

The wrong use of power.

And so,

Turn that very energy,

That very power,

Toward this one action.

By bringing all of your energy forth towards that action,

You naturally overcome stupor,

Lethargy,

Depression,

Stuckness,

And in that way,

You bring forth something that you're doing.

That's where your energy goes rather than fighting for or against certain phenomena.

This is the difference between right effort and right effort.

This is the difference between right effort and wrong effort.

In right effort,

We bring forth good states of mind,

Good qualities,

Good activities,

And we work to prevent negative one.

Wrong effort,

We are fighting for or against certain phenomena.

Mind is chief.

What we're doing makes the difference.

Therefore,

Do one thing.

Do not do one thing.

In this way,

You have a simple approach to overcome these inappropriate activities,

These inappropriate qualities,

That being stupor or depression and agitation or anxiety.

Do this with your body.

In that way,

Concentrate.

And do not resist.

Do not push or pull.

In that way,

Cultivate equanimity with the negative phenomena as they come and go.

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