Why don't we start with some breathing meditation.
And before that I'll just lead you through a little bit of a body relaxation.
So you can relax your body a little bit.
Then we'll set our motivation and then we'll do some breathing meditation.
There's many different kinds of breathing meditation.
This particular way we're going to do it is more for developing concentration and for relaxing the mind.
And so we'll just breathe normally and naturally,
But keep our attention on the breath.
And simply be aware of the breath coming in and the breath going out.
All the sensations that you have,
Why that's happening.
It doesn't sound too difficult to do,
Does it?
Just wait.
Our mind likes to run all over the place,
Isn't it?
It's like monkey mind here and there,
In the past and the future,
Everywhere,
But where we are.
So I think one thing that's very good in this meditation is,
First of all,
To be interested in the breath.
And second of all,
To develop a sense of contentment.
So to be content to sit here and breathe.
Most people in our country,
In our world,
Are not content.
And I think especially as Americans we're taught that we should be doing something,
Right?
Like making money or burning petrol.
We should be doing something.
So just to sit here is kind of un-American.
It's like people say,
Get a life.
What are you going to do?
Just sit there.
One of my friends,
She's a Buddhist,
She wrote a book that says,
Don't just do something.
Sit there.
So this is what we're trying to do in the Dharma,
Is to develop a sense of contentment with who we are without feeling like we have to run around and do things all the time.
So developing a sense of contentment with simply breathing,
Developing contentment to simply be who we are at this present moment without feeling like we have to be somebody else or do something else or have something else.
But just what we are is good enough.
And I think that's a real sense of happiness.
That's a real sense of peace.
It doesn't matter whether you have,
Are,
And do a lot of stuff.
If there's no contentment in their mind,
There's no peace in the heart.
So I think to learn to be content,
To be able to sit here,
Is a great privilege actually.
And a great practice.
And especially because we tend to have this overactive critical mind.
Have you ever noticed that?
That somehow in our educational system we're taught to think in a very critical way and the more you can criticize somebody the more intelligent you are.
We see it in the media a lot.
All these talk shows and stuff.
Let's just criticize people.
And so we just get in a very bad habit of being very critical of others and of course of ourselves as well.
And so sometimes we sit down to meditate and the critical mind just has a heyday.
Oh,
You're not even breathing right.
Look at that.
Everybody else is in samadhi.
You're distracted.
Yeah,
Right.
You know,
Oh I can't sit still.
Squirm,
Squirm,
Squirm.
So we criticize ourselves,
We criticize other people.
And there's not much peace in the heart.
There's not much joy in the life when we have those kind of mental habits.
So that kind of stuff will sometimes come up when we're meditating.
And it's good just to notice it.
You know,
Okay,
There's my habitual critical mind.
Let's push the pause button on that one.
Yeah,
I've played that tape before.
You ever notice that you have the I Hate Myself tape series in 108 volumes?
Yeah,
Which video of I Hate Myself do I play today?
And it's just like,
Look,
You know,
Turn them all off.
Just sit here and breathe.
And I think that's quite a practice.
Quite something that's wonderful to do.
