Vipassana Meditation: Day 2 - Evening Discourse

Vipassana is the most powerful ancient technique for attaining mastery of the mind. Taught by the Buddha, Vipassana meditation is arguably the most famous & effective form of meditation. Retreats are held in cities and towns all over the world & have been instrumental in the transformation & healing of countless millions of people.

During the retreat, you will be guided to practice the foundational techniques of Vipassana, and follow the core principles of the philosophy.

Transcript

So the Buddha gave us a perfect technique.

I couldn't believe my luck when I first found this technique.

I knew something magical must exist and a way to be able to get into deeper states of consciousness reliably.

And there it was.

It works.

Millions of people can verify that it works.

It's just whether we're willing to put in the work to make it work for us.

We're only a couple of steps in,

But even now we have a technique that can reliably take us deeper into states of consciousness that we couldn't access before at will.

If we're willing to put in the time,

The time on the clock,

Then we can get there step by step.

So now the real question is,

Are we willing to put in that time on the clock?

Are we willing to sit through whatever it is that we need to sit through to be able to get to those heightened states of consciousness,

To be able to purify our minds and clear them so that we can focus?

We're all here together to do it.

And we're all sitting here looking like we're meditating.

But it's only us individually that can decide whether we're actually going to be meditating while we're here,

Whether we use those 120 hours to actually put the time in building this skill.

From this point forward,

That's the most important thing.

There are other teachings that are going to be added on top of this.

But ultimately,

If there weren't,

It wouldn't make any difference because we could use this for the whole 120 hours,

And it could take us somewhere wonderful.

Within the Buddhist teachings,

What we're practicing right now is the technique that most arahants,

Liberated beings practice,

Or people who are ready to become arahants.

Because it directly takes you towards supernormal states of consciousness to help to eliminate any illusion and help you to gain clarity.

What he gave to the rest of us sinners and dummies was vipassana after that,

Which can take everyone to liberation.

So if there are a few secret arahants sitting here,

Then this is the technique for you.

You don't need anything else.

There's a few things that we run into on the way to that path,

Though.

A few of them are pain,

Boredom,

Tiredness.

Pain we'll address tomorrow because we're going to go into the world of sensation,

And we're going to start digging in to the sensations of the body,

Directly accessing the unconscious mind,

Instead of just looking at our unconscious conditioning.

But today,

Let's talk about tiredness and boredom.

Obviously,

Sitting here for long hours,

It's easy to get tired,

Easy for the mind to start falling in and out of consciousness.

And you may have noticed yourself nodding off while sitting there.

It's not a problem at all.

One reason is just because we're doing so little that the body naturally relaxes,

Wants to go to sleep.

Another reason is that it's one of the tricks that the mind is using to be able to throw us off balance.

And we need to learn to be immune to it,

Just like we're immune to all the other tricks.

It's one of those things that the mind can always use if it wants to win,

If it knows we're always going to give into it.

If you're immune to the pain,

You're immune to everything else,

And you can sit there happily meditating,

But every time it makes you tired,

You fall asleep,

Then it knows it's got a trump card to play whenever it wants.

When it wants to win,

When it wants you to enter your unconscious state again,

All it has to do is flip that switch,

And it's got you.

Whenever we start approaching deep meditation,

It will flip that switch.

It will take us out of consciousness.

So in the beginning,

We have this recovery position that we talked about,

Or you can go into child's pose as well.

Put your head down on the mat.

Let yourself relax as much as you need to.

Let your body recover.

But eventually,

We do want to face off against this tiredness.

Eventually,

We want to sit there.

We want the tiredness to come up,

Because how are we going to learn to deal with it if we never face it?

So next time it comes up,

It's an opportunity for us to face that one thing and learn to be immune to it.

And now that we've started to gather our focus a little bit,

It's good to look at everything that comes up like this.

When tiredness comes up,

When boredom comes up,

When distraction,

When pain,

When memories,

When thoughts,

It's an opportunity for us to face each of these things individually and see how we do against them.

Maybe we don't win so easily at first,

But the more we face them,

The more we're going to come out on top.

It's as simple as that.

Boredom is a little bit different,

Because boredom can just be a distraction and a way to throw us off.

But it's also entering a specific state of consciousness that we actually want to go into,

Because as we start to calm the mind,

And as we start to become less reactive to all of the stimulus,

External and internal,

Then we have a lower level of activity.

And this is what we usually read as boredom.

Nothing's going on.

I'm sitting here.

Now I'm calm.

So what?

Now what do I do?

Start twiddling our thumbs,

Wanting to walk around,

Wanting to write,

Wanting to read,

Wanting to dance,

Wanting to do something else other than sit here and do nothing.

The whole point is we're not meant to be sitting here and doing nothing.

We're meant to be sitting here and being very active.

We're meant to be consciously controlling the movement of our mind.

So we shouldn't forget that that's an activity.

We're not simply resting here.

We are actively using our mind.

We are focusing it on a certain position.

We're focusing it on the breath.

If we're entirely focused on that,

There's no space to be bored,

Because we become absorbed.

And I'm sure some people here have touched even the lower levels of absorption so far.

And as you start to become absorbed,

Entirely focused on an object,

In this case the breath,

Then you start to enter the bliss states.

You have a bright,

Clean mind.

And it feels great.

So we can only be bored if we're not focused on an object of awareness that helps to control our mind.

And that's what we're doing.

We're not focused on an object of awareness that helps to purify the mind.

But luckily,

We are focused on an object of awareness that helps to purify the mind.

So we have an option to move towards that.

And so what boredom really is,

It's a gateway between the mundane and the supramundane,

Between the normal and the supernormal,

Supernormal states of consciousness.

And we need to be willing to walk through that desert for a while to be able to get to the oasis.

We need to be able to sit there with our boredom and focus.

Because there is activity,

There's just not gross activity that entertains us.

And so we're learning to become sensitive to lower level activity.

Our mind is sharp enough that we're no longer affected by gross activity.

But it's not sharp enough that it's started to be able to directly perceive subtle activity.

And so that's where we are.

We're in that space,

The twilight zone.

We want to make it through.

And if we keep on focusing,

We will make it through,

Just like we made it there.

It's inevitable.

If you take a sword and you hold it against a whetstone,

Then it's going to get sharper.

And that's all we're doing.

We're taking our mind and we're holding it against something subtle.

And it will get sharper.

It will get more focused.

So all we have to do is give ourselves the time to practice and have the patience and the willpower to be able to push through it.

Luckily,

We all developed the willpower yesterday to be able to do that.

So it should be easy.

And we've got about 100 more hours to practice.

So we've got everything we need.

The Buddha said something that I absolutely love.

And I always come back to it in my mind and repeat it to myself and other people,

Which is that any phenomenon fully understood from the beginning to the end is empty.

As we start to be able to turn our minds towards anything,

In this case,

The mental conditions,

The unconscious programming we become aware of,

As we start to watch them and understand them from the beginning to the end,

They're empty.

There's nothing in them.

It's only when we start a cycle and we don't finish it that we don't understand it to completion.

Whereas if we go the whole way around a few times,

We realize that it's nothing.

It's impermanence.

It's made of nothing.

The Buddha had three words to describe this.

I'm sure you've all heard them.

Anicca,

Anatta,

And dukkha.

Impermanence,

Non-self,

And suffering.

Or,

As it's sometimes translated,

Unsatisfactoriness.

He said those are what all phenomenon are made of.

Suffering is how it's usually translated,

But unsatisfactoriness is more complete,

Because not everything is so acute that it's suffering,

But it's unsatisfactory.

It doesn't fulfill us.

And the Buddha said the only thing that will fulfill us is attaining the unconditioned state,

Nirvana.

So not getting stuck into perceiving this causal chain that's just one domino knocking against another,

But being able to go deeper with our consciousness and perceive the truth behind everything.

And the avenue he gave us to do that was the body,

The breath,

The mind,

The body,

Us.

All we have to do is turn our focus inward,

Sharpen our mind enough,

And start to slowly perceive deeper and deeper layers of truth.

And we can get to that unconditioned state.

That's what we're going to do over the next few days.

But we just want to watch out for our triggers to come back up.

Now that we start to go deeper into consciousness,

There will be different layers of triggers that start to come up,

Different layers of stimulus and sensation.

And some of them will actually start to be pleasant,

So they'll distract us in a completely different way.

We might find as our mind starts to get refined and sharper that we start to have very creative and interesting ideas.

We start to be able to perceive feelings within the body that are appealing feelings,

No longer painful ones.

That happens because as our mind becomes finer,

The contents of our mind become finer as well.

But there's still distractions.

And if we get caught in fixating on them,

Then we simply don't go any deeper into consciousness.

So something might come up that fascinates you.

Wonderful.

Be fascinated.

But be fascinated for a few seconds,

And then come back to the practice.

Otherwise you're going to be training your mind to be able to use these things to trick you.

It's like the fable of the wind and the sun,

Which I'm sure everyone knows,

But just in case you don't,

It's about a man who was walking up a mountain and a competition between the wind and the sun.

The wind said that she bet she could get the man to take his jacket off quicker than the sun could.

And the sun said that she didn't agree.

And so the wind gave it a try and started blowing at this man on the mountain.

And all the man did was he held the jacket tighter.

And then the sun said,

It's my turn.

So the sun started shining and made it super hot.

And the man took off the jacket.

Sun wins.

Your mind is going to do the same thing.

Our mind's been blowing hard at us,

Wanting to throw us off balance because we're so used to being distracted.

But now we've got the technique to be able to hold on,

To be able to focus.

Once our mind knows it can't throw us off balance with brute force,

It will start to want to tempt us and coax us into getting thrown off balance,

To give us nice shiny things to look at so that we get distracted and we don't go any deeper.

And it can still keep a modicum of control.

So we want to be aware of that.

Make sure that we stick with the practice regardless of whether we're feeling good or we're feeling bad.

Whichever way the pendulum is swinging,

Remember it's the practice that will keep us going deeper.

All these benefits will come anyway.

They'll just be byproducts of the practice.

We'll start to experience wonderful things,

But they will come because we're sticking to the practice.

And if we deviate,

Then our mind will become gross again.

And then we'll lose the ability to hold that state.

So we want to watch out for that.

Other things that can come up that are less pleasant on the surface are deeper sensations and potentially even trauma that we have trapped inside of us.

Because as we start to sharpen our mind,

Obviously our mind becomes more sensitive,

More sensitive to everything,

Including the reality within.

So we might start to feel strong sensations in our body.

We might start to feel strong reactivity towards our history,

Our memories,

Thoughts,

Complexes that can come up.

Because they're things that were deeper inside of us,

So we couldn't be aware of them before.

But as our mind becomes sharper,

We start to develop the ability to be able to be aware of them.

So now they'll come up.

Another reason they come up is because we've cleaned the surface of our mind.

And as we start to clean the surface of our mind,

Then all the dirt we've got underneath will also start to get drawn out.

We've cut the grass,

And now we're about to dig into the garden.

And so we're going to see what else is underneath the surface and what's ready to come up.

If it starts to come up,

Then just remember exactly what we talked about on the first day.

If there is a storm,

It's happening inside the sea.

How can a storm damage the sea?

So just let it come up.

It's just poison we're drawing out of the body and out of the mind.

Let it come up.

Focus on the breath,

Sharpen our awareness,

And don't react.

It's as simple as that.

Whatever it is that we face.

If we feel absolutely overwhelmed at times,

Which can happen,

Then just take a break.

But all I'd say is,

Take a break after giving yourself five minutes to sit and face whatever it is that's come up.

If something difficult comes up,

Don't give up immediately.

Say,

OK,

This is difficult.

Maybe I can't deal with it.

But let me at least sit here for another five minutes to see if that changes.

To see if that impermanence comes into play.

Maybe it changes,

Maybe it doesn't.

And then after five minutes,

If you need to,

Change your posture,

Get up,

Walk around,

Take a break,

And then come back when you're ready to practice.

But don't get lost in a drama or a story about the situation.

We're going to start practicing standing meditation and walking meditation.

So that when we do get up and we need to change position,

We have the tools that we need to be able to carry our awareness into that situation,

Into that condition.

So even if we do need to go for a walk,

Then go for a walk mindfully.

Carry that mindfulness into everything we're doing.

Walking meditation is less intense than seated meditation.

So maybe something that overwhelmed us while we were sitting is entirely manageable while we're walking.

A note on standing meditation is that if you're tired,

That's a great thing to do.

Because you'll find that the body becomes more full of energy as you stand and meditate.

It starts to collect it and draw it in.

And it can wake the mind up.

So after tonight,

We'll start integrating standing meditation in.

And you'll have a long session in the afternoon tomorrow where you can practice it.

And you can see what the boundaries and effects of that are.

It's an interesting form of meditation actually.

Because it brings up an entirely different set of sensations,

An entirely different form of focus.

Very different from laying meditation,

Very different from sitting.

And as we start to integrate it,

We can see how each of these different postures can be used at different times to be able to meet our mind correctly.

Someone who might find sitting meditation quite difficult might find standing meditation much easier and more suited to them.

And it also allows us to be able to give some time for the body and the mind to recover.

If our legs and our knees are full of pains,

Then a bit of time standing can just help us to relax and ease it out of us as we go deeper into focus.

So a little bit more about the 10,

000 photos that we were talking about today before we finish.

Like I was saying,

It's the trick to mastery.

If we can take a look at the world around us,

If we can take this skill and apply it in the areas of life that matter to us and use this ability to refine our consciousness regardless of what we're doing,

Then we start to deeply understand the fundamental nature of anything we're doing.

Obviously,

The core of that is deeply understanding ourselves,

Deeply understanding ourselves through meditation and being able to understand others and the world because of that.

Because the deeper we go within,

The deeper we can see our patterns,

The deeper we get down towards universal truth.

Because as a lot of people like to say in these communities here,

We're all one.

On the surface of things,

It might not look like that and that might just be a concept to most people who say it.

But as we start to go deeper and deeper into ourselves,

We get to a point where there is a fundamental layer of interconnectivity,

Where the universal truths inside are exactly the same as the universal truths outside.

And we can get to that level of awareness.

We can get to it in 10 days for sure,

Just to be able to glimpse that and to be able to feel it.

So that's the core of the skill.

But then if there are activities that we engage in,

They shouldn't be separate from us using this skill.

Like I said,

These are natural human skills.

The Buddha was just so damn clever that he turned them into a method,

Into a very simple method for us to be able to pick up on and apply to our lives.

And so we've got that now and we can do it.

When we go back to doing anything,

We can focus our mind and we can start to understand the minute details of it.

How do we do that?

We might not know how to break down the specific skill that we're talking about in our lives,

Because you'll find that you can do it simply by focusing on your breath and narrowing down your area of awareness.

And doing that whilst taking part in an activity will give you access to a different layer of that activity than you otherwise had.

Just like it gives you access to different states of consciousness and the different mental contents that come along with that,

Those will be accessible when you use that in your life.

And then when we sit down to practice it on the mats,

We already have this refined consciousness.

We've already been walking through our day with heightened awareness,

So by the time we sit on the mat and we're fully focused on practicing the skill,

It's actually a natural switch.

It's no longer a battle where we need to win a piece of ourselves over to be able to engage in it with us.

We've already trained ourselves to do it correctly.

It's like having a horse,

A very powerful horse that could ride us anywhere we want to go.

But we've let the horse become master of the house,

And every time we take it outside,

It tries to jump on top of us and ride us somewhere.

That would just be useless.

We can't carry the horse,

We're not strong enough.

The horse doesn't get anything out of it,

We don't get anything out of it.

Whereas if we reset the balance and we're the one who rides the horse,

Then we can work in harmony with it to be able to achieve great things.

The Buddha said that there's nothing more harmful to a human being than an untrained mind.

And he said there's nothing more useful to a human being than a trained mind,

Nothing more powerful.

What our minds can do when they become trained is amazing.

It's inconceivable.

I've seen some people do some amazing things with their minds.

When I was living like a monk and was deeply in practice,

I perceived some things that I didn't even know were possible.

And there are others much deeper in meditation than me.

So as we start to tap into this and go deeper into it,

We have a bright future of discovery ahead of us.

We just have to be willing to be explorers and be brave enough to push it to its limits to be able to find out where it actually goes.

Don't put a ceiling on what the practice can do.

Just continue to push it and see what happens.

And I guarantee you it will astound you.

So let's practice some standing meditation now.

Let's get that down.

So by the time that you do it alone tomorrow,

You have a comfortable and strong position.

And also because we want to sit for a long time seated tonight when it comes to the long session.

So let's just work out some of that tension that we have in our legs so everybody can sit for a long time and we can focus together.

If anyone needs to go to the bathroom,

We'll take a quick break.

Do it now and we'll start again in five minutes.

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