MA 52 Candlelight Meditation

Meditation from the Thai Theravada tradition following a modernized interpretation of Boran Kammatthana. This track premiered in front of a live audience of 100 at the Outdoor Candlelight Event at Azusa CA on 23 September 2023, takes the metaphor of a single candle being added to others brightening up the world as a metaphor for bringing out inner peace for peace in the world as more and more people gather to meditate together.

Transcript

Now, If you'd like to start by finding a comfortable position for yourself in meditation, With your right leg over your left leg, Your right hand on your left hand, The index finger of your right hand touching against the thumb of your left hand, With your hands palm upwards on your lap. If you prefer, You can sit on a straight back chair, But remember to sit upright, Again with your hands resting palm upwards in your lap, The index finger of your right hand touching against the thumb of your left hand, And find a position by which you feel alert and yet relaxed, Not leaning too far forward nor too far back, Not leaning to the right nor to the left. Find a position of poise for yourself, Make sure your breathing and your circulation are natural and unimpeded, And adjust the position of your body to minimize any possible aches or pains. Make sure you're sitting comfortably, As comfortably as possible, And relax every muscle of your body, Relax every muscle, Starting with the muscles of your forehead, Your eyebrows and eyelids, Making sure your eyes are only very gently closed. Never squeeze your eyes closed, But close your eyes gently in just the same way that you close your eyes to go to sleep. Make sure there's no heaviness on your eyelids, And if you do notice that your eyes are closed too tightly, Or if there is heaviness on your eyelids, Then you may need to open your eyes and close them again more gently. So close your eyes in just the same way you would close them to go to sleep. Then we do what's known as a body scan, Scanning down through the whole of our body, Relaxing each and every muscle as we go. So we might start by relaxing the muscles of our face, Relaxing our neck, Our shoulders, Both arms, Down to the tips of our fingers, Relaxing our chest, Trunk and the muscles of our core, Both of our legs, Right the way down to the tips of our toes, So that all the way from the top of our head, Right the way down to the tips of our toes, There's no remaining part of our body with any sort of stress or tension anymore. If we do notice any tension remaining in our body, Then we do our best to relax it completely. Because if our body is completely relaxed, We'll have the feeling as if our whole body seems to melt away into the atmosphere around us, We'll have no further worries about our body anymore. Once our body is completely relaxed, We can turn our attention to relaxing the mind. The easiest and most efficient way to relax the mind is to forget temporarily about all possible worries and concerns in our everyday life, No matter whether it be thoughts of work, Friends, Family, Studies, Finances or any other thing. Think about your future and don't think about your past, But keep your mind entirely in the present moment, Making the mind radiant, Light, Spacious and refreshed. Radiant like the morning sun, Light like a feather, Spacious like the ocean and refreshed like a flower bud in the early morning dew. We might imagine that we are meditating right out in the open, With no walls to enclose us, Just empty space right outwards to the horizons in all directions. We might imagine that we are sitting outside under the starlight, With a sense of freedom and also safety. We feel alone but not lonely. And within us we might conjure up a sense of happiness and joy in the mind, Perhaps casting our mind back to a time in our life when we felt truly happy, As if that feeling were composed of tiny particles of happiness and joy, Completely filling the mind and allowing that feeling of joy and happiness to leave the mind feeling refreshed inside and cherishing that feeling of happiness and joy for a few moments, As if all the happiness radiates outwards from the center of the body. And when we feel relaxed both in body and in mind, Very gently, We allow our attention to settle and center to a point somewhere in the middle of our stomach, As if the center of our stomach was just an empty space, A hollow cavity, Without any muscles or tissues, Without any organs or bones. And now very gently, Again without any effort at all, In our mind we may picture something bright, Whatever comes easiest to us, Perhaps a picture of the bright shining sun, As if the picture of the sun is shining from the center of our stomach, A sphere of light shining from inside us, And we imagine that object with a light and gentle attention, As continuously as we can, For as long as we can, Without letting the mind wander anywhere else. The mind wanders to sounds around us, To the sensations in our body or to the thoughts in our head, As soon as we realize we bring our mind back again to the center of our body and continue as before. Our mind may wander a hundred times or a thousand times, But we should pay no attention to how frequently our mind tends to wander, It's our job merely to bring our mind back again to the center of the body and continue as before. If our inner object disappears, Then we can conjure up a new one, We don't need to worry whether we see the object clearly or not, We just make do with the object even if we cannot perceive it clearly, Even if it's only partly visible, Even if it seems to be in shadow, Even if it's not as clear as seen with the naked eye, We take it as it comes because the way the mind sees things on the inside is not quite the same as the way the eyes see objects in the outside world, With the mind the way we see objects starts out rather vague and becomes gradually clearer as time goes on, At the same time we avoid entertaining any thoughts in our mind, Thoughts in the mind keep spinning like the proverbial hamster wheel and it may be necessary for us to make use of the sound of that traditional mantra, Soundly repeating to ourself the words sammang, Arahang, Sammang, Arahang, Sammang, Arahang, Over and over again, So the sound of the mantra seems to come like a silent music from the very center of our body, Sammang, Arahang, Sammang, Arahang, Sammang, Arahang, Over and over again, Making sure our attention is only very light at the center and we should be certain that we don't use too much effort when we're meditating, If we use too much effort when we're meditating or even too much enthusiasm, What we'll find is that there be a certain degree of stress that returns between our eyebrows or across our shoulders, If we find such tension creeping up on us and we try to loosen up a little bit more, We try to relax more as we imagine our inner object, However if we find ourselves daydreaming or if we feel sleepy in our meditation, Then perhaps we need to keep the mind a little bit more firmly at the center of the body, Whatever the case we always keep our mind with the bright object at our center, Observing the bright object as continuously as we can for as long as we can, Without letting our mind wander anywhere else, Observing the object without entertaining any thoughts in the mind, At the same time we don't let ourselves get elated by the pleasing things that arise in the mind and we don't let ourselves get disappointed or frustrated by the lack of these, We don't try to fight anything that comes up in the mind, At the same time we don't have any expectations about what we might see in the future, We simply rest our mind observing at the center of the body as continuously as we can for as long as we can, Always keeping the mind at the center of what we can perceive, The center of the bright clear sphere of light or the feeling that such an object exists inside us if that's what we prefer, We continue in this way lightly and gently for a few more moments now in silence until we come to the appropriate time, We continue to keep our mind on track at the center of the body the whole the time, Lightly gently and continuously with our inner object while keeping the mind free of thought and eventually as we train the mind little by little, Always bringing the mind back to the center when it wanders, The things that we see in the mind and the things that we feel will become gradually clearer, Almost like a person who holds a camera with a steady hand will get much clearer pictures than a person who holds a camera with a hand that shakes, In the same way as our mind becomes more still or firmly established at the center, The images and feelings that come to us via the mind will become clearer to us, However the strange thing is that the more firmly the mind becomes established at the center, The fewer will be the number of thoughts in the mind, The number of thoughts in the mind will become less and less until eventually there are no remaining thoughts in the mind anymore and the mind comes to what is known as a standstill at the center of the body, So a standstill means that the mind rests inside the body without any further thoughts, Some people assume that the mind is nothing without thinking but if we reach this point in our meditation then we'll start to find out that in fact the mind without the thought is much more powerful than the mind caught up in concepts, The mind that is free of all thoughts can start to draw upon consciousness at a deeper level, Consciousness which we could equate with the gut feeling or an intuition which we might call the inner wisdom of the mind, So once we switch on to these things then it will be like illumination within ourselves by which we'll start to unravel the mysteries of our life and the world around us, Because wherever there is light then there is also knowledge, Wherever there's knowledge no ignorance can creep in, All the unwholesome influences in our mind whether it be greed or hatred or delusion no longer have a place to invite themselves anymore because once we've understood the reality of the world through our inner experience then there's no going back to being our former deluded self because we've already had first-hand experience of the true nature of the world, So for now each their own meditation for a few more moments in silence, Cultivating the mind at the center with the bright object and the sound of the mantra if necessary for a few more moments until we come to time for some loving kindness meditation, So we continue to keep our mind on track at the center of the body the whole of the time, Reconnecting with that sense of inner peace or inner illumination that we have built up for ourselves during the meditation so far today, The idea with meditation is always that we first discover inner peace inside ourselves through the practice of meditation, That once all the emotions start to settle then the mind will have the chance to become more settled still and reconnect with the peace energy that already exists inside of us and then when the mind is still and bright and pure then we can bring the peace on the inside outwards for peace in the world, Just as we might bring a single candle light along to a place where it can join with many other candles to light up the whole of the world, But once the mind has become absorbed by that source of pure energy on the inside we imagine that the energy radiates outwards in all directions all around, We gently visualize the pure energy taking the form of a crystal sphere growing larger to cover our entire body, Reaching out to our whole family, Our neighborhood and everyone in the world, No matter who they may be we emanate a positive intention with an expansion of that peace energy full of love and compassion towards all and we might make the intention inside our mind that those who are undergoing suffering may become free of sadness and pain, For those already experiencing happiness may they be happier still, We can imagine that we also emanate a positive intention to everyone in the country neighboring countries, All continents, The entire globe and beyond, Wishing everyone everywhere be well and happy, Dwelling in peace, Even in the darkest night the starlight can shine through, Even in troubled times there can be a silver lining, Where even crisis can bring forth resilience and growth, Even when things around us have gone awry, Yet our mind can re-engage with happiness through the practice of meditation, So we make the wish to ourselves that may all human lives be filled with empathy toward one another, Freedom from stress and anxiety, Freedom from worry and irritation, Freedom from sickness and danger, We share this peace energy for the benefit of our ancestors, Family members and friends, Whether they are still with us or whether they have passed on, May they all feel cleansed by hope and joy, While being sheltered against sadness, Sickness, Sorrow or danger, May all sentient beings be free from distress, And may the growing stream of pure energy dispel any harmful elements from the world, Extending outward to the planet as if the whole earth could become refined and pure and crystal clear, And may all the things that disrupt the unity in our world be overcome so that all conflicts can come to an end, Leading the whole world into a new era of integrity that emerges from that pure energy, May the world be free from harm and aggression, And may this pure energy protect the world from all physical and mental impurities, So as we sit for the last few moments of our meditation together, We can make good wishes for ourselves or others, For a few more moments now in silence.

Reviews

Thank you teacher for another amazing practice. I can take these lessons with me during unguided sits. Lovely. ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷🕉