MA 57 Overcoming Inner Chaos

Meditation from the Thai Theravada tradition following a modernized interpretation of Boran Kammatthana. This studio-recorded track of 29 May 2024, in the course of a guided meditation, explains how, the fast-paced world causes inner chaos, but meditation can restore peace - and through global coherence engender a new level of harmony in the world.

Transcript

So,

Make a start by allowing yourself to get comfortable.

Find a relaxed posture that will allow you to close your eyes for a time.

And when you're ready,

Let's begin to relax.

If you're sitting on a chair,

Then place the soles of your feet flat on the floor,

With your hands palm upward in your lap,

The index finger of your right hand touching lightly against the thumb of your left hand.

Begin by taking a slow,

Deep breath in,

Inhaling slowly.

And then gently release your breath as you breathe out,

Letting your breath help you to soften,

Help you to relax.

Once again,

Taking a slow,

Deep breath to fill your belly with air.

And then slowly exhaling and releasing,

Letting go of any stress or tension,

Letting go.

So,

You allow a wave of relaxation to move down from the top of your head to your forehead,

And down to your eyelids,

Relaxing the muscles around your eyes,

Down through your facial muscles,

Letting these waves of relaxation,

Of peace and calm,

Relax your jaw,

Allowing your lower jaw to drop just a bit,

Relaxing your mouth,

Your lips,

Your tongue,

Your throat.

Taking in a slow breath as you release,

Relaxing even more.

This sense of ease and of peaceful relaxation begins to move down your neck,

Soothing,

Healing,

Relaxing all the muscles,

All the tension draining from your face,

Down your neck,

To your shoulders.

Our shoulders are where we carry our burdens.

And so,

Just for now,

We relax our shoulders,

Let them drop.

You may even want to shrug your shoulders slightly to loosen them and allow energy to flow,

So that they too are soothed and relaxed,

Letting go of any tension or stress.

We continue by relaxing all of our back muscles,

Including our spinal column,

Loosening,

Relieving any tension,

Letting go of all the stress just for now,

Allowing ourselves to go a little bit deeper,

To relax more completely.

And we'll start to notice that the deeper we relax,

The better we feel.

So,

Letting go,

We allow that flow of peaceful relaxation to move down through our arms,

Our elbows,

To our wrists,

Into our hands,

Through to our fingertips.

So,

We engage with this peaceful feeling.

And every time as we accumulate meditation experience,

We'll be able to go a little bit deeper in the time available.

We may even begin to feel some of the tingling in our fingers or heaviness in our arms that may even begin to feel some of the tingling in our fingers or heaviness in our arms that relaxation brings.

And with each breath that we take,

It releases us a little bit further into relaxation.

So,

A sense of ease is a key to accessing deeper meditation.

So,

We allow ourselves to relax even more deeply.

Again,

Taking in a deep breath,

Relaxing our chest,

And allowing that warm,

Soothing sensation to move down into our core.

Waves of relaxation and healing moving down through our body.

Soothing and serene.

Further down through our hips,

To our thighs,

Relaxing and feeling the deep peace within our body.

We allow the waves of relaxation to move down into our knees,

Caressing our knees and soothing them.

Down to our shins,

Our calves,

Our ankles,

And finally to our feet.

Feeling the healing warmth,

Releasing tension,

Releasing stress out of our feet,

From heel to toe.

So,

We allow ourselves that sense of healing relaxation and peace.

And now,

We just take a moment to attune ourselves.

To the sense of deep peace and calm,

Before we go a little bit deeper in the relaxation of our mental state.

And to help us relax the mind,

We might try imagining that we are calling back to ourselves,

All the pieces of ourself.

Pieces that we've left out there with other people,

Or things,

Ideas,

Situations that are ours.

Any part of us that we have given away,

Or maybe left behind.

We just imagine that all these parts are coming back to us.

Coming home,

Calling them back,

Welcoming them home.

We are remembering ourselves,

Becoming whole.

At the same time,

We release ourselves from all parts of other people,

Things,

Ideas,

Situations that do not belong to us.

Anything that we might have picked up that is not ours.

We simply release them so that only our own energy flows around us and through us.

And we might imagine ourselves all alone in nature,

Perhaps on the edge of a quiet,

Peaceful lake,

Surrounded by tall majestic trees.

We might imagine that the sky is just beginning to lighten with the golden colors of sunrise,

As it promises to be a beautiful new day.

An entirely new beginning for ourselves.

And we might feel the freshness of the morning as we gaze out at the peaceful lake.

It's calm and quiet and peaceful,

Hardly a ripple in the water,

As the surface reflects the beauty of the awakening sky above.

We allow our mind to become as quiet,

As calm,

And as peaceful as that body of water.

As the sun begins to peek over the horizon,

We see glitters of light,

As if someone had sprinkled golden petals across the water.

So we attune ourselves to this calm,

Relaxed,

Peaceful scene.

We allow our conscious mind to be captivated by it,

As we start to engage with our subconscious mind.

So we continue to gaze at the beautiful picture in our mind's eye,

As we become still and quiet,

Allowing that sense of peace to fill the whole of our body and mind,

With tiny particles of calm and peace.

And at this point,

We'll start to feel the solidity of our body melting away into the atmosphere around us,

Dissolving into a feeling of lightness,

Or as if we are alone in empty space.

We may feel as if our body has disappeared altogether,

As if all that's left is our feeling of awareness.

Some people don't know what to do next when they reach this point in their meditation,

Where their body seems to have disappeared.

But all we need to do is to rest the attention at whichever point feels the most comfortable for us,

Starting off with our mind there.

Once body and mind come into balance,

We'll start to realize that the mind is automatically realigning itself with the actual center of the body.

Some people find it helpful to imagine a bright,

Clear object about the size of a pinpoint,

Or like a star in the sky,

As if that image appears at the point where the mind has come to a standstill.

We should keep such an image in our mind,

Gazing at it continuously and softly,

But never attempting to stare at it,

Almost as if we were looking at it out of the corner of our eye,

Almost unintentionally.

If we can observe it gently in this way,

Without using too little or too much effort,

Before long the image will become clearer on its own.

However,

If we use too much force,

It will disappear.

If we use too little effort,

Allowing ourselves to become distracted,

Then we'll find that the image will disappear.

So either way,

Too much effort or too little will cause the image to disappear.

And finding the optimum effort,

By which we can see the object the whole of the time,

This is the real skill which we have to build up and work on in our meditation.

As for the possible problem of there being thoughts in the mind,

If the thoughts were at a low level,

You can generally get away with just ignoring these thoughts,

By not encouraging the thoughts.

Then we'll find that one thought will no longer lead to a second or a third,

But it will die down into silence.

For some people it may be that the thoughts don't go away quite as easily as that,

In which case you may need to take it to the next level.

By making use of that mantra,

The thought-blocking strategy I taught earlier,

Which is to hear the sound of the words sammah arahang,

Sammah arahang,

Sammah arahang,

Or your own equivalent,

Coming up as if you hear those words like a silent music,

With the source of the sound at the center of your body,

Sammah arahang,

Sammah arahang,

Sammah arahang,

Over and over again,

Lightly,

Gently,

Continuously,

Until at a certain point in your meditation,

You start to find that the thoughts have died down,

Or you may find yourself forgetting the mantra,

Because it's no longer necessary to you anymore.

So if that happens,

Then just be content to remain in silence,

With nothing but the inner object at the center of yourself.

We continue in this way with our inner object,

And the sound of the mantra too if necessary,

Each to our own practice for a few more moments in silence,

Until we come to the appropriate time.

So if we find our mind wandering away from the center of the body,

We bring it back again each time.

If thoughts return,

We do our best to ignore them,

And let the mind settle down into silence.

Meditation is an important resource to everyone in the world,

And the biggest clue to the value of meditation comes from the word enlightenment,

Which means light that comes from within.

It just becomes a question of how to access that inner light,

And learning how that inner light can change us.

Because every moment of every day,

We are transforming whether we know it or not,

And whether we like it or not.

It's just a case of whether it's a beneficial transformation or not.

Every moment's experience leaves an imprint on the quality of our body,

Spirit and mind.

And whether these imprints are good or bad,

They ingrain the habits and values that lead our lives towards their destiny.

However,

Meditation gives us some control in the destiny we choose for ourselves.

We learn that deep inside us,

Every single one of us has a point of peace,

A point of light,

Which can transform us personally for the better.

It can transform us relationally,

And it can transform the world around us.

Most people overlook that point of peace and light,

Because of the digital overload of our modern world.

All their thought moments are filled,

24-7 with inner chaos,

Fueled by our fast-paced lives.

People without meditation become habituated to more and more inner chaos,

More and more of a frenetic feeling within,

Because our world has become so imprinted by stress and anxiety,

Without a single moment of respite the whole day long.

But meditation allows us to be intentional about habituating ourselves instead to inner moments of calm.

We need to be intentional about creating those moments where we can come back to our center,

And come back to that place of peace within.

Because if we don't,

Then our bodies,

Our brains,

Our relationships,

And our world are going to devolve into a state of chaos.

Meditation offers us a path by which we can find a way out of that chaos.

It lays out the path by which we can reach that central place of peace within ourselves.

Meditation changes us personally.

It's our own path to enlightenment.

It leads us to that point of light,

To the love and the peace and compassion deep within us.

And when we begin to change,

We actually begin to change the people around us as well.

What researchers call the process of coherence or energetic vibrations,

Just by our peaceful presence,

That allows other people around us to begin to transform as well.

And by extension on a global level,

When we get enough people attuned to this sense of peace within themselves,

Global coherence patterns will change as well.

And when there are enough people tuning in to that inner peace,

Love and compassion,

We begin to change our world.

But it takes intention.

It takes practice.

It's not something that just happens by itself.

We need to mold ourselves to that peaceful inner experience.

And the more experience we have of meditation,

The more we will be able to tap into that inner light,

That place of peace at the center,

And the more we'll be able to extend peace to the whole world.

So our meditation is important in today's world,

Because today's world is so full of the opposite,

Of the chaos and the fast pace of constant distraction.

Only through forging our path on the inward road toward peace,

Can we sidestep the inner chaos so rife in the world.

So with this thought in mind,

We continue to practice our meditation for a few more moments in silence,

Until we come to time for some loving kindness meditation.

Once the mind has absorbed the source of pure energy,

We continue by imagining that the energy radiates outwards from our center in all directions.

So we gently visualize the pure energy taking the form of a crystal sphere,

Growing larger to encapsulate the whole of our body,

Reaching out further to the whole of our family,

Our neighborhood,

And everybody in the world.

No matter who they are,

We emanate a positive intention with a growing pure energy full of love and compassion towards all.

For those with suffering,

May they be free from sadness and pain.

For those with happiness,

May they be happier still.

We might imagine that we also emanate a pure energy that we also emanate a positive intention to everyone in the country,

Neighboring countries,

All continents,

The entire globe and beyond,

Wishing everyone everywhere to be well and happy,

Dwelling in peace.

So we make the wish to ourselves that all human lives be filled with empathy toward one another,

Free from stress and anxiety,

Free from worry and irritation,

Free from sickness and danger.

We share this peaceful energy for the benefit of our ancestors,

Family members and friends,

Whether they are still with us or those who have already passed on.

May all of them feel cleansed by hope and joy while being sheltered against sadness,

Sickness,

Sorrow and danger.

May all sentient beings be free from distress.

May the growing stream of pure energy dispel any harmful elements from the bodies of all sentient beings on the planet,

As if the whole earth were being refined and turned pure and crystal clear.

And we emanate the positive intention that unity and harmony,

Will emerge in this world with freedom from harm and aggression,

Making the skillful wish that this pure energy protect the world from all physical and mental impurities,

As we sit a little longer in silence making wishes for ourselves or others for the last few moments of our meditation together.

Reviews

Peace instead of chaos. I often struggle to quiet my mind so I just keep practicing. Thank you for these lessons ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷🕉