MB 08L Meditation On Finding Our True Self (Live)

Meditation from the Thai Theravada tradition following a modernized interpretation of Boran Kammatthana. This live recorded track explains how finding the true self is not narcissism and is illustrated by the scriptural story of the 30 princes [bhaddavaggiya].

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

So we'd like to start by closing your eyes very gently,

Finding a comfortable position for yourself and realigning our mind with the place that feels most comfortable for us at the centre of ourselves.

Some of us might like to sit cross-legged for meditation,

In which case we'd sit with our right leg over our left leg,

Our right hand on our left hand,

The index finger of our right hand touching against the thumb of our left hand,

With our hands turned palm upwards in our lap.

If we're sitting on a chair,

Then we try to sit with our back relatively straight,

Again with our hands resting palm upwards in our lap.

And the way we close our eyes is as if we're almost half-closing them,

Closing our eyes in much the same way that we might close our eyes to go to sleep.

So we never squeeze our eyes closed and we make sure that there's no pressure around our eyes.

We take special care by scanning down through our body to be sure that each and every muscle inside us is as relaxed as possible,

Starting at the top of our head and scanning down,

Allowing a tighter relaxation to release any tension in the muscles of our body as we scan down through our face,

Our jaw,

Both shoulders,

Relaxing both of our arms,

Forearms and then our hands and fingers.

Swimming on down we relax all the muscles of our torso,

Chest,

Trunk and abdomen,

Both legs,

All the way down to our feet and our toes.

If there are still knots of tension remaining anywhere in our body,

Then we do our best to relax them as far as possible,

Allowing our body to feel as if it is light in weight,

Almost as if it is dissolving into the atmosphere around us,

So that we can turn our attention instead to relaxing our state of mind,

Which for practical purposes we can envisage as being the feeling inside us,

That sense of warmth and wellbeing in our space,

Something that we also need to let go of any mental tensions,

Any of the clutter still remaining in our mind,

Any unwanted thoughts from the past or plans for the future,

And to put ourselves in an appropriate state of mind for the meditation ahead,

We might try conjuring up a sense of happiness and joy in the mind,

That seems to completely fill every last molecule of our being,

Leaving no space in the mind for any other sort of thought.

When we feel relaxed and refreshed,

Both in body and in mind,

Very gently and using no effort at all,

We might imagine that inside our body is just an empty space,

Like a hollow cavity,

Or as if our whole body has been transformed into a sort of transparent bubble with nothing on the inside.

Within this empty space of our body and mind,

In order to act as an anchor for our attention,

We might conjure up a picture such as a bright shining sun,

A full moon,

A star,

Perhaps a crystal ball,

As if that object seems to appear inside the space of our body.

If you don't feel the need for something to anchor the mind,

You can just generally become aware of the space within yourself without visualising anything,

Just cultivating a sense of mindfulness and self-possession at the centre of oneself,

Balancing our sense of being relaxed,

But also alert within ourselves the whole of the time.

We find our mind wandering often to other things around us,

Perhaps distractions,

Each time we realise what's been as before.

If the inner object disappears,

We can conjure up a new one.

We should bear in mind that sometimes we tend to feel the object more than actually seeing it.

If the inner object changes at all,

We just allow it to do that.

There's no need for us to change it back.

We can allow our practice to become one of observation,

Simply observing without interfering,

As the inner object continues to transform on its own.

And the way we observe as a meditator is to maintain a light but continuous contact between our awareness and what is going on in our mind,

Observing without allowing any thoughts to arise in the mind,

Without any questions.

Once the mind starts to settle more and more,

We notice that from a first object in the mind,

There's a sense of expansion and opening up at the centre,

Which allows the inner object to expand outwards in size,

Expanding beyond ourselves,

Till the object seems to become so large in size that it extends over the horizon,

At which point a new object will come up in its place,

Often brighter and clearer than the last.

Often within our tradition they're described in terms of inner spheres.

Sometimes they can even come in the form of inner bodies,

Such as the astral body and many more in that sequence.

Within our tradition the great abbot of Vapaknam,

The originator of the tradition,

Talked about sets of inner spheres which are like inner dimensions of our own life,

Our own human condition,

But on a subtler level within ourselves.

For those who are really adapting meditation it's possible to study and learn from the inner life,

The feelings,

The mind,

The truth of each of these inner bodies and spheres,

To explore ourself on many levels,

Many dimensions.

The deeper we go then the more subtle these inner states become,

The closer they approximate to the truth,

The more accurately they align themselves with the real nature of life and the world,

To the point that we can actually start to break free of the inner taints,

Poisons,

Shortcomings,

Blind spots in our mind.

For now we try to strike a balance and poise for ourselves in meditation,

A sort of sweet spot for the mind,

Or entering upon the zone of our meditation,

Allowing us to delve deeper beyond the superficial thoughts in the mind.

In the meantime we generate a sense of positivity in the mind,

Something that arises spontaneously whenever our mind becomes quieter,

More free from thought.

We cultivate our mind in this way lightly and gently,

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

Until we come to the appropriate time.

We continue to keep our mind on track at the center of our body the whole time,

Lightly,

Gently,

Always remaining at the center of the inner experience we've built up for ourselves so far in the meditation,

Whether it be something we see or something we feel inside us.

Our attention wanders off onto other things,

Each time we realize we just bring it back again to the center of the body as before,

Whether it's a hundred times or a thousand times we have to do that.

Into my little building up a sense of familiarity with this point at the center of ourselves.

As thoughts arise in the mind we do our best to ignore them,

Only making use of the mantras,

The arahants,

If the thoughts are too many simply to ignore.

Little by little our mind will align itself with the deeper sense of self within us,

Wanting to learn about ourselves,

Wanting to appreciate ourselves on a deeper level.

Those who might not understand the real purpose of meditation might think that it's nothing more than navel gazing,

Or encouraging our own sense of ego,

Or even a form of narcissism.

But once we start to find that the mind can go deeper,

To appreciate the deeper layers of ourselves,

Then we start to see that meditation is a way to find out who we really are,

In order to go beyond our own shortcomings.

There's a story from the time of the Buddha about a group of thirty princes who were amusing themselves by playing hide and seek in a forest glade.

And those princes had all paired them self off with princesses,

And only one of the princes who was the odd one out,

Had no princess to pair off with,

Had brought along a courtesan.

And as they were playing hide and seek in the forest,

They left their jewels for safe keeping with the courtesan while they enjoyed themselves.

And while the princes and princesses were busy looking for each other in the forest,

The courtesan realized that if she ran off with the jewels,

She might never have to work another day in her life.

So thinking this,

She disappeared very quickly from the scene,

And it was only at the end of the princes and princesses game that they noticed her absence.

So at this point the princes were not so pleased about losing their jewels,

And this time the game of hide and seek became much more serious in its stakes.

In the course of their hunt for the courtesan,

They came across the Buddha sitting for meditation,

In the forest.

And when the Buddha saw the princes,

He asked them a very profound question.

Would you be better off looking for that courtesan or would you be better looking for yourself?

Do you really want to look for that woman or would you be better off looking deeper inside yourself?

Because the Buddha knew that those princes hardly knew themselves at all.

All they knew was their superficial self,

Their importance,

Their riches,

Their entitlement,

But they didn't know what lay deeper than that inside themselves.

Because those princes had latent wisdom within themselves,

This question triggered them to look deeper,

Triggered them to look beyond their physical self,

Deeper into the mind.

And very soon the Buddha had those princes meditating until all of them were able to attain their true selves inside.

The body of enlightenment inside each of them,

Which they never knew they had before.

So actually by looking deeper into ourselves we can release ourselves from a superficial self.

We can release the mind to go deeper towards the real true self,

Which is something that we share with all humanity in the world.

And it of a nature of wisdom and compassion and purity inside ourselves,

All the qualities arising from enlightenment.

So we continue to keep our mind at the trailhead of this peace,

This pathway towards the true inner self.

By maintaining our mind with lightness and gentleness at the center of our self,

Until we can touch upon a sense of lightness,

Expansion within ourselves that will allow the mind to go deeper.

We continue to cultivate our mind in this way,

Lightly and gently,

For a few more moments now in silence,

Until we come to time for some loving kindness meditation.

Thank you.

You you Continue to keep our mind on track at the center of our body all the time always at the center of whatever inner experience we have built up for ourselves as a result of the meditation so far today some of us the inner experience may take the form of some sort of inner illumination in which case we can place our attention very gently at the center of that brightness so gently that it expands outwards from that central point all on its own for others it may be more of a feeling like that of well-being again if we touch gently at the center of the feeling then the feeling will expand outwards spreading throughout our whole body for others it may be more like inner imagery objects in the mind large or small we place our mind at the center of the object then the objects will also expand in size just as if we were focusing in on them with a magnifying glass this way we allow the inner experience to become larger in size by a process known as the spreading of loving-kindness allowing that inner experience to extend throughout our body first of all with the affirmation that may I be well and happy,

May I be free from all suffering allowing those words of compassion to reach into the very fiber of our being to every cell of our body and then we allow the loving-kindness to extend outwards beyond ourselves like an aura or a halo extending around our body into our surroundings in all directions all around and however far it extends to every living being it reaches it does so with the same affirmation that may all those living beings also be well and happy free from suffering,

Live together in peace and harmony we extend our loving-kindness in this way initially outwards into the whole of the room in which we are sitting for meditation all the living beings therein,

All sentient beings those we can see,

Those we cannot see we extend loving-kindness to them all without exception wider still to the whole building outwards to the whole neighborhood almost as if we were extending our loving-kindness across a map seen in bird's eye view extending further outwards to the whole municipality town and county neighboring counties in all directions all around the whole country to all living beings in neighboring countries across the entire continent eventually to all the continents of the world to the point that our loving-kindness extends across the whole of the face of this planet bringing compassion,

Loving-kindness to all beings whether on the land,

In the air or in the sea,

Touched by our loving-kindness with the pure intention that all these living beings be well and happy,

Free from suffering live together in peace and harmony let world peace become a reality within our own lifetimes we can extend loving-kindness in all these great directions to the front and to the back right and left,

Above and below almost like beams of loving-kindness extending outwards limitlessly into the universe taking in all living beings wherever they are to be found without exception over the last few moments of our meditation we might also extend loving-kindness to particular loved ones toward whom we'd like to extend that sense of compassion,

Loving-kindness freedom from suffering toward those for whom we feel a particular debt of gratitude for those still living and even for those who have already passed trusting that the purity of our intention and good wishes can extend across the gulfs of space and time to reach those loved ones wherever they are to be found we extend our loving-kindness in this way for the last few moments of our practice until we come to the appropriate time you you

Reviews

Lately I have really been struggling with my practice. These sweet calming meditations seem to settle me down. Many thanks for all your practices that you share with us. They are so helpful. ☮️💖🙏🖖

Thank you