Hello everyone and welcome.
In this talk I would like to discuss the intention and the purpose behind why we are practicing meditation.
In contemporary society today we have available to us a wide variety of meditative techniques and methods,
And many of which I am unfamiliar with,
But I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of the meditation tools available to us today are built upon the intention of cultivating inner peace.
So I will speak about that which I am familiar,
And that is the ancient tradition of Buddhist meditation.
The Buddhist path is considered what is called the satirical tradition of ancient India,
Or a liberation seeking tradition.
Of what are we trying to become liberated from,
The Buddha said,
Our own suffering.
So the Buddha taught that we suffer because we don't see clearly.
As a result of our conditioning,
In his words,
We have dust in our eyes.
And as a result of the dust that we've accumulated within our eyes,
We don't see clearly and truly understand the ultimate reality of this embodiment.
And as a result thereof,
This leads to what is referred to as dukkha,
Suffering or unsatisfactoriness.
So the intention of the Buddhist path and of Buddhist meditation is to lead us to the cessation of suffering,
And in turn,
Inner peace.
Now many meditative techniques,
Including certain Buddhist techniques,
Give rise to deep states of inner peace.
But many of these techniques available to us that give rise to inner peace are based upon conditions.
For example,
We may be practicing meditation,
And when we're practicing meditation,
We feel at ease,
We feel peaceful.
But when the meditation bell goes,
And we have to return to the world of relationship,
To our jobs,
To life off of the cushion,
We might begin to notice that that inner peace disappears rather quickly.
So in other words,
That inner peace is based upon conditions.
When I'm meditating,
I'm peaceful.
But when I'm not meditating,
I'm not peaceful.
Now there is nothing inherently wrong with these techniques that give rise to inner peace based upon conditions.
And in fact,
They are a necessary step in training the heart mind to develop the ability to find unconditional inner peace.
And that unconditional inner peace is the ultimate intention and goal of the Buddhist path.
So as a result of training the mind through methods of mindfulness,
We begin to develop an ability to objectively observe the mind and the body,
To gift ourselves the ability to sit in the seat of witness consciousness and study the mind and the body without having to get involved.
As a result of those experiences of objective introspection,
We begin to understand the true nature of the mind and the body.
We see it for what it really is,
As opposed to seeing it based upon how we've been conditioned by society,
By our educational system,
By our family,
Through no fault of anyone's.
And as a result of developing and cultivating the ability to rest in the seat of the impartial witness,
We begin to remove this dust that has fallen into our eyes.
We begin to see clearly what's actually going on,
And it is these insights,
This wisdom,
That arises as a result of our meditative efforts,
That leads to a true understanding of the way things actually are,
And in turn to the cessation of suffering and to inner peace that is unconditional,
An inner peace that doesn't change based on what happens outside of us,
Whether things are going our way or in our favour or not going our way.
We begin to move beyond the duality of good and bad,
Pleasant and unpleasant,
Likes and dislikes.
We see through the preferences of the mind,
And this is the unconditional inner peace,
An unconditional happiness that the Buddha said is available to all of us through our own efforts.
But he also said we must be patient.
In the Buddha's first sermon to his monastics,
He taught that patient endurance is a supreme practice for freeing the heart from unwholesome states.
And this is vitally important.
In a fast food culture,
The mind wants results quickly,
And especially if we're suffering and the mind is seeking peace,
We want to get away from our suffering now,
And we want peace immediately.
But as we will begin to see together upon this meditative journey,
It is that wanting to get away from that which is uncomfortable and to get towards that which feels pleasant,
That is the true source of our suffering.
So this is the intention and the purpose behind why we're practising at least Buddhist meditation.
It's to develop a deep sense of inner peace that is not based upon conditions,
But an inner peace that arises as a result of intuitive insights.
But before we can get there,
We must train the mind patiently.
We will use techniques that do give rise to inner peace,
An inner peace based on conditions,
And we will see how that changes when we are no longer applying the technique.
But these techniques are imperative and are a prerequisite to leading us to the cessation of suffering,
Unconditional inner peace and happiness as a result of insight.
So we will train the mind in methods of mindfulness,
Mindfulness of the body,
Mindfulness of the breath,
Of sensation,
Of mind states,
Of phenomena such as sounds and smells,
Tastes.
And those moments of mindfulness,
What are referred to as sati in the ancient language of Pali,
Gradually become a steady stream of mindfulness referred to as a state of samadhi or concentration.
And once we've trained the heart-mind over days,
Weeks,
Months and years,
We will gift ourselves the ability to rest upon that platform and to sit within the seat of witness consciousness and to observe objectively the psychophysical phenomena that compose this embodiment and this life.
This is the intention behind our practice.
I wish all of you all the best on your journey and I look forward to practicing with you.
With Metta.
