From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vCceNFc7QKo
Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.
[Music]
all right welcome everyone my name is
karuna and i'm honored to be joined by
delson armstrong
we're here at damasuke meditation center
and we'll be answering some frequently
asked asked questions about the twin
practice
so to start out delson
this question comes in all the time i
have a knot in my forehead
and it's kind of a headache is that
tension or what should i do with the
tightness that i'm feeling
yeah this is a common occurrence
especially when you're trying too hard
in the practice
so when you get attention in the
forehead that means that you're starting
to tend towards or you're already at one
point at concentration
and you're trying too hard to stay with
your objective meditation
rather than allowing it to be collected
around that object
so as soon as you notice that tension
what you have to do is pull back your
attention pull back the
the
it's really the craving for staying with
the object pull that back
relax use the six r's
and come back with a more open and
collected mind
right yeah i know that can be
challenging because you want to stay
with the object
but it's more of releasing the
hindrances until your mind stays on its
own right you're not forcing your mind
to stay exactly because the moment you
start to force your mind on the object
you're also suppressing the hindrances
and when you do that
it might feel good for some time but
then later on the hindrances will come
back with full force
and you won't be able to have the
uh
ability to to recognize them and let
them go
when you do it in the practice itself
all you're doing is you're observing the
object of meditation and you're
six-houring any time your mindfulness
your attention sways away from the
object
so if you try to push
and pin down the attention on the object
of meditation that is wrong practice
that is wrong effort all you're doing is
you're observing and then relaxing the
mind around that object
and keeping it there just watching it
don't have to do anything else as soon
as you see that the attention has been
fully away from the mind
from the object of meditation
then you use the six r's and you come
back
so
when you do feel tension take that as a
sign of you're pushing too much you're
trying too hard and recognize that use
the six hours pull back and just gently
softly stay with the object and
meditation
okay thanks that's helpful
so related to the above when i six are
the feeling of tension in my forehead
it just won't go away
uh i really want to get rid of it
that's exactly it you really want to get
rid of it that's craving that's longing
that is counterintuitive to how the six
r's work
if you try to do the six r's if you
force the six r's if you push the six
r's you're not actually doing the six
r's
so you notice the tension there
okay you recognize the tension is there
take your attention away from it bring
it back to the intention of relaxing
which keeps the mind tranquil keeps the
mind serene
smile return to your object and repeat
again if the tension arises what you
have to notice is when you relax it's
opening up that tension it's letting it
go
and it might become softer and it might
come back up again
as a hindrance but it'll become weaker
how do you know if you're doing it
correctly you know you're doing it
correctly if it becomes weaker and
softer and finally fades away
if it becomes stronger if it becomes
more tense then you know you're pushing
too much and you're trying too hard and
instead of using the 6rs as a way of
letting go of craving you're actually
infusing craving by saying i want the
6rs to work in this way
that's not going to happen you just have
to
let it go
using the six r's watch
the melting away of the tension stay
with that
stay with the smile and stay with the
object returning to the object
it might come back up again all you do
is
let it go again and it'll become less
and less
painful less and less tense and
eventually it will go away
yeah another thing i know that's common
is people will
run the first four r's say and they'll
forget about returning to their object
uh and bonte often says this is like
trying to bake a cake while you're
missing an ingredient or something right
so you have to use all six yeah a lot of
times people try to modify it and they
say well i can just recognize and i can
release and i can return
but they forget the two crucial steps
that relax and the re-smile there's a
reason why we do that process in the way
that we're doing that process
because it's fulfilling right effort
when you recognize you immediately have
mindfulness you're
you're recognizing that there is a
hindrance present but you have
equanimity you're not fighting it you're
not pushing it you're not pulling it
you're not doing anything with it you're
just saying okay here is a hindrance
you release your attention away from
that hindrance
and then you relax the mind and the body
you relax that tension
every time you relax that tension you
are letting go and abandoning craving
and you experience this very vast open
spacious
mind that's like a cloudless sky
once you have that you've experienced
some form of a mundane mini nibana
but that's not the end then you bring up
the enlightenment factor of joy by
coming back to your smile you uplift the
mind which makes it easy for it to be
naturally collected around its object
once you smile and when you return
then you fulfill that whole process of
right effort by first generating a
wholesome
thought or wholesome state of mind
and then
returning back to it you're maintaining
the awareness and attention
to that wholesome state of mind which is
the loving kindness
all right another very common question
is people who say i can't bring up the
feeling of loving kindness or keep it
going what do you suggest for them
yeah so for that i would say stick with
the smile for a little bit use the smile
so sometimes people might not be able to
feel
the loving kindness in their heart and
won't be able to feel in their chest but
as soon as you use the smile you become
joyful you become uplifted you become
happy
and then that immediately starts to
bring up the feeling of loving kindness
so if you stay with the smile and make
it just a smiling meditation
for
most of the day you'll start to see that
your mind becoming uplifted starts to
remember moments that can generate
loving kindness starts to
recall things with gratitude or just has
a more lighter mind that's the whole
point and that's how the loving kindness
comes up
so sometimes what will happen is on
retreat for example
somebody might come up and say you know
i just i'm not feeling it and i don't
know what's going on and i'm not feeling
this loving kindness and things like
that there's two things that can be done
one is
either there is a block
so that block can be dealt with through
through forgiveness practice and that's
a separate set of instructions
where you come up with
by using certain statements
what is that block
secondary secondly you can use intuition
to ask why is the loving kindness not
coming up and it might either tell you
that that block is there and you can
secure it or it might tell you that you
need to forgive this person or the
situation or yourself
and that really frees up
the flow of loving kindness
finally what happens is on retreat
sometimes when people don't feel it
we could recommend them not to meditate
for the half of the day and just go out
uh you know if you're in in the retreat
center and if there's like nature around
just go walk in nature
or spend time at the park or at a lake
or something that where you know you can
just have fun and enjoy yourself
that keeps a light mind that keeps an
uplifted mind and what you realize is
later on like bonte will say that he'll
recommend this and then later on people
will come up and he'll say so how was
the meditation
and they said we didn't meditate we were
just doing this and that and we were
having a good time and smiling and
laughing
and exactly that's the meditation
having an uplifted mind having a light
mind is a result of that smile as a
result of laughing as a result of
keeping things light-hearted and that
really starts that flow of love and
kindness
yes something that helped me that you
mentioned in your guided meditation was
that there's different ways to bring up
the feeling and three of those being
gratitude
then picturing either a baby or a cute
animal was another and then also the
phrases may i be happy maybe free from
suffering so there's different ones that
might resonate with different people yes
absolutely
so another question is people are kind
of skeptical of the smiling a little bit
they said does smiling really work oh
absolutely absolutely it works
there's been research done where they
they basically
what it is is you take a pencil
and you grip the pencil with your teeth
and you hold on to it and basically what
that does is it creates a curvature
upward curvature of the mouth
and that basically tricks the brain into
thinking that you're smiling and so it
starts to release all of these feel-good
chemicals
and you suddenly feel happy
so research has already proven
that when you smile
it creates this feedback loop effect
where when you smile you feel happy and
when you're happy you smile
so the smiling absolutely works the more
you smile the more mindful you are as
well
so a lot of times people will ask the
question
you know i might be driving to work or i
might be on the computer or i might be
having dinner or i might be doing this
and i just don't have time to meditate
or how can i keep the loving kindness
going
if you can smile you can meditate like
monte says and that's really true i mean
the smile suddenly keeps you rooted in
what's happening in the present
and that's really the whole process of
mindfulness is to be able to observe
how your mind's attention moves
and the smile helps you to keep that
awareness open keep the mind free keep
the mind soft
and so the power of smiling cannot be
um
talked about enough you know there's
always an emphasis on smiling right
yeah and i mean obviously we're not
talking about
a massive
smile just the corners of the mouth is
all it really takes to uplift your mind
and that's a good point that you bring
up because it's not not just bringing up
the corners of the mouth but the smile
also happens in the mind and in the
heart which means
uh you know you could have like a little
buddha smile all of the images you see
of the buddha he's he has a little with
a smile and if you have that and you
maintain an uplifted mind you maintain a
a very free and open mind then you're
smiling in your mind if you have
naturally loving kindness towards
yourself and you accept yourself then
you you're smiling with your heart
so if you do these three things
you're good to go
yep
yeah another thing i wanted to add funny
enough there's been a lot of studies on
people who have had botox
and they physically couldn't stop
smiling and they've been shown to be
happy for that reason not because of the
botox specifically there you go yeah
that's important don't go for water
but yeah and fake it till you make it
really does seem to apply to the smiling
a little bit yeah
so do you use the 6rs to
get rid of a hindrance
or how do you use them exactly
i i get the i get the feeling that that
question comes from a slight aversion
because to get rid of a hindrance means
that you really don't like that
hindrance being there in your mind and
you're using the six r's with that
intention of aversion
if you have the equanimity to be able to
say here is a hindrance
so you have the right attitude of saying
you're recognizing a hindrance is there
you're not saying oh i really don't like
this hindrance here or if it's sensual
craving oh i really like this here
you're just noticing it you're
recognizing it and then you use the
release step to take away your attention
you
relax
you re-smile and return
and then you repeat whenever the
hindrance arises again but the whole
point is the six hours allows you to let
go of a hindrance it doesn't allow you
to get rid of it because as soon as you
use the words like get rid of as the
question implies
that means you really don't like it
being there
right first you have to change the
perspective on that and say it's only a
hindrance
the hindrance is just
a really good thing to show you where
your attachments lie
that's one of the things to understand
about a hindrance is it's it's a teacher
it's a teaching tool
it shows you okay this is where the mind
has its attachments
this is where the mind gets you know
disturbed
and once you are
able to recognize that and let that go
then you're actually doing right effort
then you're actually doing the
meditation process which includes that
wisdom and inside part of the whole twin
process
yeah i guess instead of thinking about
it like a six are this and six are that
boom boom boom uh it's helped me to more
think about it as relaxing into the
hindrance a little bit and then not
keeping attention on it yes repeating
the other r's yes
do you use this uh we just did that one
how long should i do the release and
relax step
when i 6r a minute seconds
how long does that process take well
what i'll say is the whole six hour
process is like a wave so
it's not like you have to like really
focus on am i recognizing you don't have
to focus on did i release brightly did i
relax correctly
or did i did i smile uh did i
uh return properly all of these things
you have to let go of and just
do it
like nike says just do it you know it's
just basically
seeing that they're in the seeing of the
hindrance you're recognizing so you
don't have to say now i'm recognizing
you don't have to be like okay recognize
and you have to be like okay now i'm
going to release okay now i'm going to
relax okay now i'm going to
smile now i'm going to return and so on
all you have to do is just
let the process unfold naturally so
if you're doing it correctly it should
take no more than a few seconds a couple
of seconds
would be ideal because all you're doing
is you see the hindrance you take your
awareness away from it you relax you
smile you return
it's a matter of three to four seconds
at the most
right yeah ponte uses the phrase rolling
your arms rolling the r's yeah yeah
that's a good way of putting it because
it is really a rolling if you just take
a pause and wait in one place
then you're giving the opportunity for
the hindrance to arise again and then
there's an opportunity for doubt to
arise and it'll be like okay i think i
made a mistake here let me do it again
you know just do it
do it with uh rolling the rs just
smoothly do it and then if it comes up
again do it again if the hindrance comes
up again do it again that's all you have
to do
don't have to overthink it you don't
have to even think about it just allow
it to happen
yeah and i feel like the other
potential uh pitfall for folks is trying
to 6r too much you're not off the object
it's just a thought that's part of it
just comes up but it hasn't taken you
away and people try to 6r everything
yeah that's one of the instructions i
get for people in the beginning is
don't worry about any background
thoughts that you might have you know
when you're first starting out
meditating there'll be all kinds of
thoughts percolating up but they won't
be grabbing your attention they won't be
pulling your attention away you're just
sort of aware with your mindfulness that
there is this
mental energy going on in the back
in the form of those thoughts
only when your mind's attention is
completely off its object
and now it's looking at that background
thought saying oh i'm taking this as an
object i'm really interested in this
that's when you 6r that's when you
recognize
that there is
no longer mindfulness of the object of
meditation and you use the rest of the
six r's you just
bring it back so it's like an anchor
you're just bringing it back to
the object of meditation
the other thing is
when you do the six hours too many times
what you're doing is you're creating all
of this energy you're creating all of
this restlessness in that process now
you know you don't even give the mind
the opportunity to actually return
properly
to its object of meditation and you just
immediately recognize oh here's a
thought let me let me six r that
so you're not actually doing the
meditation at that point all that's
happening is the mind is getting
scattered and
it's actually becoming
worse than rather sharpening the
mindfulness
another question here i get sleepy while
meditating what's your solution
yeah so sleepiness uh right off the bat
i would say are you getting enough sleep
i mean this is something i commonly hear
and and practitioners sometimes doing
retreat want to be very gung-ho about it
and be like you know what i'm here to
meditate so i'm going to just forego my
sleep and and or sleep less and meditate
more and no no no you need to have a
balance
you have to eat properly at the right
times you have to have enough sleep
whatever that means for you you have to
have enough sleep obviously you don't
want to oversleep because that can
create slot and torpor
but you want to be able to have
sufficient sleep so that when you wake
up you don't feel groggy and you're
ready to take on the day now in the
meditation itself there is a slot
intorpor that arises and there's
different ways to deal with it number
one is sometimes the mind
is dull because there's not enough
joyful interest in the object of
meditation
so just bring up a little intention of
joyful interest and what that does is it
kind of focuses like a camera lens it
kind of focuses the attention a little
more
so the energy rises up a little bit more
and the dullness
and the sleepiness goes away
if that doesn't work and the sleepiness
continues on then there are other
recommendations practical
recommendations that the buddha has
given
go out into natural light or turn on you
know the light as as much as you can and
meditate or
go to a shade where there is where you
can see a lot of light but you're not
directly in the light and you can just
use that as a way to keep the mind
active keep the mind energetic rather
than dull
if that doesn't work then go for a walk
or go for a run that really energizes
the body
if that doesn't work wash your face you
know just with cold water and ultimately
if that doesn't work take a nap
you know you might need a 20-minute nap
15-20 minute nap it really does wonders
and then come back do a little bit of
walking meditation and then come back
and sit and see how the mind is then
no red bull or no
i wouldn't recommend it i'm not a big
fan of that okay
i don't drink caffeine at all by the way
yeah
i mean it's not it's not a bad thing but
uh you know people drink coffee in the
morning and that's fine or they want to
drink green tea or whatever it might be
what i do is compassion meditation
that's my that's my pick-me-up
first thing in the morning
awesome
uh
how much attention should be on
visualizing the spiritual friend
versus watching the feeling
yeah so
that's a good question i mean it's
really a balance uh you're you're really
staying with the object which is really
the loving kindness so some people like
to really take it to a whole other level
and really visualize their friend there
and you know their features and it's
like they're almost here in front of
them and things like that that's all not
necessary even if you just have the idea
that your spiritual friend is there and
you're sending it out
so it's more like 70 percent feeling
the loving kindness and 30 spiritual
friend is here
i'm used to watching my breath as maybe
people from coming from vipassana shall
i synchronize the breath to making the
wishes for loving kindness
no
not at all uh this is not a breathing
meditation
and more importantly this is not a
verbalizing thinking meditation
so the verbalization is used in such a
way that it brings up the feeling you do
the verbalization and you allow the
feeling to come up so this is really a
feeling meditate and feeling meditation
it's
it's really feeling that warm energy of
loving kindness in your chest
or later on when it comes into the head
then you're radiating it but
this is really all about
just keeping your mind
and your attention on that feeling it's
not about the thinking it's not about
the breathing if you synchronize the
breath then you're no longer actually
using the feeling as the object now
you're using your attention to stay on
the breath and if you're synchronizing
and controlling it
there that is miles and miles away from
what twim is all about
i can't really do the loving kindness
and would rather go back to breath
i used to do a lot of breath
yeah i noticed that sometimes people
have this they have certain kinds of
tendencies or certain kinds of practices
that they've done in the past related to
the breath and that's really just an
attachment to that practice
and one of the recommendations i have
when people come to learn this practice
the twin practice or they come on
retreat is just for that duration of the
retreat just let go all of those
practices and just really
sincerely
wholeheartedly try this practice and see
if it works for you
so i would say
majority of the time
don't focus on the breath don't go back
to the breathing practice make an effort
i mean you don't have to strive and push
hard but make an effort to just see for
yourself how this loving kindness
meditation works
and if you do want to use the breath
then there is
a recommendation of how to use the
breath and it's not done in the way of
you know controlling the breath and
things like that it's really in the same
way as twin which is
you're watching how mind's attention
moves with using the breath as a as a
reminder as sort of like an anchor but
in itself it doesn't make it
concentrated
but i i would rarely give that kind of
instruction or any recommendation
because
primarily for my own self and from my
own experience
the meta meditation or the brahmavihara
meditation has worked wonders
so
uh and a lot of people who
who have gone to do breath in the past
and then moved on to do loving kindness
they find that they drop that practice
completely and they're just good with
the loving kindness so it's just a
matter of really letting go of those
clinging to old practices and making an
effort to really pay attention
and really make the
determination
to to try this practice
right
yeah most people progress quicker with
the loving kindness
and to be quite honest i haven't met
someone who wasn't able to get the
practice
after trying it and i've been on a lot
of retreats here
yeah
what if i have a lot of doubts about the
practice that's a big hindrance yeah
doubt is a big one and it really depends
on the situation i mean if you have
doubts in terms of the instructions then
you approach or you send an email to
one of the guides or the teacher or if
you're on retreat
ask the teacher and ask them okay i just
wanted to clarify the instructions with
you and then go and do them
but in the practice itself while you're
sitting down and you have a doubt like i
was mentioning earlier like
am i recognizing correctly or am i doing
this correctly all of those things
see them as hindrances and just let them
go by seeing them as hindrances means
you're recognizing them taking your
attention away from them and relaxing
and then smiling and returning that's
all you have to do
so if you have doubts about am i 6r
incorrectly
six are that too
which means that if you have an idea
that oh i don't think i did the
the relaxed step correctly or i don't
think i
you know returned properly if you have
doubts like that then do another cycle
by letting go of those kinds of thoughts
and coming back to your object
i think it's often talked about that
there's three
big doubts a doubt in the teacher the
teaching and and one in the taught and
oneself yeah and i thought about the
fact that when we're doing in the
morning we
uh take refuge in the buddha dhamma and
sangha
and each of those is an antidote to each
one of those doubts yeah that's a great
way of putting it that's that's
absolutely so because
you're making a determination to say
when i take refuge in the buddha i'm
taking refuge in in the teacher i'm
trusting the teacher
when you make a refuge take a refuge in
the sangha
or the dharma rather
then you're making an effort to say and
a determination to say okay i'm ready to
really take on this practice
and then with the sangha
it's really
not only just a community
with you at the retreat or whatever it
might be but in your own self
in your own mind in the the ability and
capacities of your own mind
and so one of the one of the things
about the hindrance of doubt is it can
arise
because in the past you have come up
with where people have doubted you or
you've doubted yourself
you have to let go of that and if it
requires some kind of forgiveness
practice to be able to forgive that you
might want to do that for a day and then
come back to the practice and you'll see
you have greater levels of
self-acceptance and it's much easier
than to just do the process rather than
questioning it every step of the way
yeah i remember when i was starting out
my biggest doubt was you know all these
other people have gotten it but i don't
think i can get it yeah and it's i think
everyone
maybe not everyone has that just this
idea of oh well you know i'm somehow
special and i'm the only one who really
can't get this yeah
yeah and i've come across people like
that and that that's really coming from
some level of uh you know there's
different kinds of conceit and one of
the conceit is like
i feel inferior in some way and that's
just a level of insecurity that you have
to see as a hindrance
and just let go of and trust in yourself
trust in the practice trust in the
teaching
when i pick a spiritual friend
does he or she have to be perfect
or kind of a saint
yeah that's a good question i mean some
people like to use uh well when mother
teresa was alive
as a spiritual friend or the dalai lama
and things like that i mean you know of
them but you don't know them personally
the way i like to bring up a spiritual
or recommend that people bring up a
spiritual friend is
think about somebody who naturally
uplifts your mind think about somebody
who naturally brings a smile to your
face when you when you think about them
you're naturally at ease
of course there are certain parameters
to the spiritual friend they have to be
of the same gender they have to be alive
and they can't be you know a family
member so
so once you fulfill those and then you
think about somebody who just naturally
uplifts the mind
just stay with them
how strong does the feeling of meta have
to be to progress in the practice
don't yeah i would say to
this that don't worry about
the strength of the feeling so long as
you can feel something you're on the
right track
sometimes the method will change in the
sense that it might become
larger it might become more radiant it
might become more intense or whatever it
might be
just allow that feeling to do what it's
doing but so long as you can notice a
feeling that's that's all that's
required
once i get a feeling of meta do i keep
repeating the phrases
no
you repeat the phrase only one time
and then after you repeat it just allow
the feeling to come up from that phrase
sometimes the meta will dissipate and
disappear and some people what they like
to do is use the phrase again as a way
of guiding them at the back into their
uh into their awareness
and that's fine but what you're going to
find eventually is when you progress in
this practice the verbalizations drop
altogether and the feeling just
naturally flows
with your intention
so you don't need to say the
verbalization over and over again
because the moment you do that then that
becomes a mantra meditation that becomes
a thinking meditation
and that's not what we're doing here
we're just using that as a tool to bring
up the feeling let go of the
verbalization and rest your awareness on
the feeling itself
i'm feeling some joy now what to do next
i'm very happy to hear that that's very
good
if you're feeling joy let it be there
the main thing that you have to
understand is
things will happen in the meditation
where you start to actually experience
different factors
of the jhana and that can include the
joy you know the sukkah and things like
that
but don't allow the mind to deviate from
it meaning deviate from the object of
meditation and then don't mistake the
joy
for the lovingkindness so my caution
there is
okay you experience joy that's a
wonderful thing but don't get detracted
from staying with the loving kindness
there is a difference between the
feeling of joy and the feeling of loving
kindness the feeling of loving kindness
is soft it's gentle it's very
warm and and welcoming and so on
the feeling of joy that you experience
especially as a factor of the first
jhana and the second jhana is more
exuberant
it's more vibrant it's more energizing
and so you feel something else and
you'll feel it in the background you'll
feel it as a a rising of a giant state
but don't think that now you need to
shift your attention to that let your
awareness and let your attention
be on the object love and kindness and
stay with that and the joy will you'll
see if what happens is if you stay with
the joy instead
eventually two things can happen
because of your intention or your
attention to stay there
your
your feeling of joy will actually become
even more elevated and it can become
uncomfortable and people have done this
and they feel different things like they
might even start to feel anxious because
the joy becomes so energizing
or the second thing is if you try to
make that joy the object of meditation
the joy will fade away and then you will
think
mistaking the joy of loving kindness
that you're not able to bring up the
feeling of loving kindness so let it be
there it's a wonderful thing that the
joy is there but it will dissipate on
its own just let it do its thing it
might just glide out it might just slide
up and then glide through and then
dissipate on its own but all throughout
that process
if your mind is on the feeling of loving
kindness then you're on the right track
okay so i feel like my hands or parts of
my body are missing
the body is very calm
what does this mean what do i do
so this means that you're getting into
the third jana the third jana is really
where the mind becomes
very tranquil
and at this point the joy completely
dissipates
and what is left is the sukkah that we
talk about
and the sukkah is the
feeling of happiness in the body the
feeling of comfort
the feeling of
relaxation and tranquility in the body
and so what's happening is because your
mind is getting calmer and calmer you're
starting to lose
feeling in the body and it doesn't mean
you lose feeling in the sense that if
somebody touches it you won't feel it if
a fly lands on your hand you might feel
it and so on but this is a sign that
you're getting into the third genre and
let it be don't don't make a big deal
out of it don't put too much attention
on it notice it that it's a factor but
stay with the loving kindness
okay
and then
also the feeling of loving kindness has
moved up to my head
what do i do now
okay so when the feeling of
loving-kindness moves up to your head
you also want to notice a few other
things
number one is
how long were you able to stay with the
feeling of loving-kindness
and was your mind able to quickly
recognize when it got distracted
so the times in between when it got
distracted and you were with your loving
kindness are shorter but the times where
your mind was unloving kindness are much
longer and when i say longer i'm talking
five 10 15 minutes at a time it becomes
it becomes undistracted
this is a sign along with the fact that
you start losing complete awareness of
the body and you're just starting to see
the loving kindness in your head
this is a sign that
you are in the fourth jhana and at that
point
the teacher will say congratulations you
have now become an advanced meditator
and they will give you further
instructions
which are known as breaking down the
barrier which is an intermediary
practice you do it only one or two sits
maybe just one sit
and then you'll give you'll be given
further instructions of how to radiate
the loving kindness
in six directions six individual
directions and then all at the same time
and what is the purpose of this breaking
down the barrier
practice it's it's a it's a process of
basically you're going what happens in
breaking down the barriers is you you
are introduced to three other
spiritual friends so you have like four
categories
uh three spiritual friends because you
already did one spiritual friend before
four relatives or four family members
four people that you know but not so
much you know somebody who might you
know at work but you're not really
friends with them or it could be your
delivery guy or somebody you meet at the
store or the store clerk or whatever it
might be that you just have a friendly
interaction with but not necessarily
know them as a friend
so four of those people and then
the difficult people the people that
might be considered enemies or people
who might have a difficult time with you
or things like that and what that's
doing is really starting to soften the
mind even further getting it ready to be
able to radiate it indiscriminately in
all directions to all beings so it's a
gradual process of
actually making the loving kindness even
sharper and stronger but not in the way
you think which is it becomes intense
but rather making it so that it doesn't
have any judgment
and it can be sent out
without any kind of prejudice without
any kind of
has it has a hesitation
or apprehension of who you want to send
it out to
and what does it mean to radiate the
brahma viharas and how do you do that
yeah before i go on i also want to make
people understand that when you're able
to do that part of the practice
you're able to then send it out to
whoever whoever you want in other words
while we're talking right now we could
be radiate radiating loving-kindness to
each other
when i go
away from here and i meet somebody else
i can be radiating loving-kindness to
them and you can be reading
loving-kindness to that person as well
so this process
enables you to be able to
send it out to whoever you want and
whoever you meet
but ask the question of the the
radiating process of how do you radiate
first of all you send it out in
individual directions for about five
minutes at a time
and
that process is not pushing
and there's no specific direction in
other words you can do it in whatever
random order you want it's not like you
need to do it in this direction and then
another direction next and then a
specific way of doing the directions
personally what i do is i send it out in
front back
right left down up but somebody could
send it front
left right
down up whatever you want to do you do
and when you're radiating what that
means is you're not even radiating from
the head
by the time you start radiating you're
going to get into what is known as the
arupa-janas
and what that means is you're no longer
feeling your body
now you're in the mental realm now
you're in the process of mind
so you're you're basically thinking of
this direction or you're you're
imagining or visualizing this direction
however where you want to do it
and you have the intention and the
feeling of loving kindness and your
attention towards that direction
leads that loving kindness in that
direction and that's all it is so you're
just observing the loving kindness flow
in this direction and then after five
minutes
you notice loving kindness flow in the
backward direction and so on and so
forth so radiating does not equal
pushing out the loving kindness
radiating equals
looking at a direction
or feeling a direction and observing the
experience of loving kindness or any of
the brahmaviharas flowing in that
direction of your attention
it's really hard for me to send loving
kindness to each direction
sometimes i get a headache
yeah if you're getting a headache then
that means you're pushing too hard
or you're pushing in other words
there is a tendency for people when they
begin
to get this practice and they
immediately think okay now i'm going to
send loving kindness here and the
tendency is to feel like a pressure here
in the front and the forehead thinking
okay that means loving kindness is
flowing or feeling
a pressure in the back thinking now the
loving kindness is flowing from here or
the right or the left or
bottom and up
but like i said it's not about feeling
it in the head
it's not about radiating it from the
head it's just you're in the mind now
and you're observing the feeling of
loving kindness so when you notice
there's a headache when you notice that
there's tension when you notice that
there's pushing going on pull back
six are that relax
feel the tension dissipate and melt away
and just have the intention of sending
in this direction and just observe and
watch
okay
so you're and when you're
pointing it in a direction
it's not like you're necessarily
visualizing it going out right you're
just kind of knowing it's going in that
direction and then you bring up the
feeling and just kind of let it do its
thing on its own exactly and you know
the thing is people kind of get creative
some somebody had once asked me like can
i visualize like sort of like a
lighthouse where it's just radiating in
this direction in this direction i said
okay if that works for you that's fine
the whole point is to
be able to ultimately radiate in all
directions now if you're going to
radiate in all directions and if you're
doing it in the way of pushing in one
direction imagine the kind of headache
you would have
when you direct when you're radiating in
all directions
so when you're radiating in all
directions it's just an experience of
like
you're not even in a bubble it's just an
experience of expansion of loving
kindness it's just an experience of
this this fear or this radiance just
going on and on and on and on there's no
pushing going on it's just happening
it's just flowing
do i keep sending loving kindness no
matter what feeling comes up
okay so i i have to break down that
question because if it means no matter
what feeling is coming up uh that could
be a painful feeling that could be a
pleasant feeling that could be a neutral
feeling and if that feeling distracts
you from that loving kindness
you sex art
and you come back to the feeling of love
and kindness but eventually what you
will notice is if you're doing the
practice correctly when the arupa jhanas
the loving kindness does change but you
don't have to change it you don't have
to push it you don't have to do anything
with it it will change on its own
that feeling will turn into compassion
and there will be a certain quality to
that compassion later on it will change
to joy and there will be a certain
quality to that it will change later on
to equanimity and there'll be a certain
quality to that equanimity
and then finally you let go of all
brahmaviharas and you stay with mind
which has become completely tranquil
and this is what we call the quiet mind
but nowhere in that process are you
trying to push that to happen you're
just observing how it naturally unfolds
that's one thing to remember the second
is yes you continue to radiate
but if the feeling whatever the feeling
is distracts you so much
that it takes your attention away from
it then you 6r and then come back and
continue radiating
i think stillson that was really helpful
my pleasure
[Music]
[Music]
all right welcome everyone my name is
karuna and i'm honored to be joined by
delson armstrong
we're here at damasuke meditation center
and we'll be answering some frequently
asked asked questions about the twin
practice
so to start out delson
this question comes in all the time i
have a knot in my forehead
and it's kind of a headache is that
tension or what should i do with the
tightness that i'm feeling
yeah this is a common occurrence
especially when you're trying too hard
in the practice
so when you get attention in the
forehead that means that you're starting
to tend towards or you're already at one
point at concentration
and you're trying too hard to stay with
your objective meditation
rather than allowing it to be collected
around that object
so as soon as you notice that tension
what you have to do is pull back your
attention pull back the
the
it's really the craving for staying with
the object pull that back
relax use the six r's
and come back with a more open and
collected mind
right yeah i know that can be
challenging because you want to stay
with the object
but it's more of releasing the
hindrances until your mind stays on its
own right you're not forcing your mind
to stay exactly because the moment you
start to force your mind on the object
you're also suppressing the hindrances
and when you do that
it might feel good for some time but
then later on the hindrances will come
back with full force
and you won't be able to have the
uh
ability to to recognize them and let
them go
when you do it in the practice itself
all you're doing is you're observing the
object of meditation and you're
six-houring any time your mindfulness
your attention sways away from the
object
so if you try to push
and pin down the attention on the object
of meditation that is wrong practice
that is wrong effort all you're doing is
you're observing and then relaxing the
mind around that object
and keeping it there just watching it
don't have to do anything else as soon
as you see that the attention has been
fully away from the mind
from the object of meditation
then you use the six r's and you come
back
so
when you do feel tension take that as a
sign of you're pushing too much you're
trying too hard and recognize that use
the six hours pull back and just gently
softly stay with the object and
meditation
okay thanks that's helpful
so related to the above when i six are
the feeling of tension in my forehead
it just won't go away
uh i really want to get rid of it
that's exactly it you really want to get
rid of it that's craving that's longing
that is counterintuitive to how the six
r's work
if you try to do the six r's if you
force the six r's if you push the six
r's you're not actually doing the six
r's
so you notice the tension there
okay you recognize the tension is there
take your attention away from it bring
it back to the intention of relaxing
which keeps the mind tranquil keeps the
mind serene
smile return to your object and repeat
again if the tension arises what you
have to notice is when you relax it's
opening up that tension it's letting it
go
and it might become softer and it might
come back up again
as a hindrance but it'll become weaker
how do you know if you're doing it
correctly you know you're doing it
correctly if it becomes weaker and
softer and finally fades away
if it becomes stronger if it becomes
more tense then you know you're pushing
too much and you're trying too hard and
instead of using the 6rs as a way of
letting go of craving you're actually
infusing craving by saying i want the
6rs to work in this way
that's not going to happen you just have
to
let it go
using the six r's watch
the melting away of the tension stay
with that
stay with the smile and stay with the
object returning to the object
it might come back up again all you do
is
let it go again and it'll become less
and less
painful less and less tense and
eventually it will go away
yeah another thing i know that's common
is people will
run the first four r's say and they'll
forget about returning to their object
uh and bonte often says this is like
trying to bake a cake while you're
missing an ingredient or something right
so you have to use all six yeah a lot of
times people try to modify it and they
say well i can just recognize and i can
release and i can return
but they forget the two crucial steps
that relax and the re-smile there's a
reason why we do that process in the way
that we're doing that process
because it's fulfilling right effort
when you recognize you immediately have
mindfulness you're
you're recognizing that there is a
hindrance present but you have
equanimity you're not fighting it you're
not pushing it you're not pulling it
you're not doing anything with it you're
just saying okay here is a hindrance
you release your attention away from
that hindrance
and then you relax the mind and the body
you relax that tension
every time you relax that tension you
are letting go and abandoning craving
and you experience this very vast open
spacious
mind that's like a cloudless sky
once you have that you've experienced
some form of a mundane mini nibana
but that's not the end then you bring up
the enlightenment factor of joy by
coming back to your smile you uplift the
mind which makes it easy for it to be
naturally collected around its object
once you smile and when you return
then you fulfill that whole process of
right effort by first generating a
wholesome
thought or wholesome state of mind
and then
returning back to it you're maintaining
the awareness and attention
to that wholesome state of mind which is
the loving kindness
all right another very common question
is people who say i can't bring up the
feeling of loving kindness or keep it
going what do you suggest for them
yeah so for that i would say stick with
the smile for a little bit use the smile
so sometimes people might not be able to
feel
the loving kindness in their heart and
won't be able to feel in their chest but
as soon as you use the smile you become
joyful you become uplifted you become
happy
and then that immediately starts to
bring up the feeling of loving kindness
so if you stay with the smile and make
it just a smiling meditation
for
most of the day you'll start to see that
your mind becoming uplifted starts to
remember moments that can generate
loving kindness starts to
recall things with gratitude or just has
a more lighter mind that's the whole
point and that's how the loving kindness
comes up
so sometimes what will happen is on
retreat for example
somebody might come up and say you know
i just i'm not feeling it and i don't
know what's going on and i'm not feeling
this loving kindness and things like
that there's two things that can be done
one is
either there is a block
so that block can be dealt with through
through forgiveness practice and that's
a separate set of instructions
where you come up with
by using certain statements
what is that block
secondary secondly you can use intuition
to ask why is the loving kindness not
coming up and it might either tell you
that that block is there and you can
secure it or it might tell you that you
need to forgive this person or the
situation or yourself
and that really frees up
the flow of loving kindness
finally what happens is on retreat
sometimes when people don't feel it
we could recommend them not to meditate
for the half of the day and just go out
uh you know if you're in in the retreat
center and if there's like nature around
just go walk in nature
or spend time at the park or at a lake
or something that where you know you can
just have fun and enjoy yourself
that keeps a light mind that keeps an
uplifted mind and what you realize is
later on like bonte will say that he'll
recommend this and then later on people
will come up and he'll say so how was
the meditation
and they said we didn't meditate we were
just doing this and that and we were
having a good time and smiling and
laughing
and exactly that's the meditation
having an uplifted mind having a light
mind is a result of that smile as a
result of laughing as a result of
keeping things light-hearted and that
really starts that flow of love and
kindness
yes something that helped me that you
mentioned in your guided meditation was
that there's different ways to bring up
the feeling and three of those being
gratitude
then picturing either a baby or a cute
animal was another and then also the
phrases may i be happy maybe free from
suffering so there's different ones that
might resonate with different people yes
absolutely
so another question is people are kind
of skeptical of the smiling a little bit
they said does smiling really work oh
absolutely absolutely it works
there's been research done where they
they basically
what it is is you take a pencil
and you grip the pencil with your teeth
and you hold on to it and basically what
that does is it creates a curvature
upward curvature of the mouth
and that basically tricks the brain into
thinking that you're smiling and so it
starts to release all of these feel-good
chemicals
and you suddenly feel happy
so research has already proven
that when you smile
it creates this feedback loop effect
where when you smile you feel happy and
when you're happy you smile
so the smiling absolutely works the more
you smile the more mindful you are as
well
so a lot of times people will ask the
question
you know i might be driving to work or i
might be on the computer or i might be
having dinner or i might be doing this
and i just don't have time to meditate
or how can i keep the loving kindness
going
if you can smile you can meditate like
monte says and that's really true i mean
the smile suddenly keeps you rooted in
what's happening in the present
and that's really the whole process of
mindfulness is to be able to observe
how your mind's attention moves
and the smile helps you to keep that
awareness open keep the mind free keep
the mind soft
and so the power of smiling cannot be
um
talked about enough you know there's
always an emphasis on smiling right
yeah and i mean obviously we're not
talking about
a massive
smile just the corners of the mouth is
all it really takes to uplift your mind
and that's a good point that you bring
up because it's not not just bringing up
the corners of the mouth but the smile
also happens in the mind and in the
heart which means
uh you know you could have like a little
buddha smile all of the images you see
of the buddha he's he has a little with
a smile and if you have that and you
maintain an uplifted mind you maintain a
a very free and open mind then you're
smiling in your mind if you have
naturally loving kindness towards
yourself and you accept yourself then
you you're smiling with your heart
so if you do these three things
you're good to go
yep
yeah another thing i wanted to add funny
enough there's been a lot of studies on
people who have had botox
and they physically couldn't stop
smiling and they've been shown to be
happy for that reason not because of the
botox specifically there you go yeah
that's important don't go for water
but yeah and fake it till you make it
really does seem to apply to the smiling
a little bit yeah
so do you use the 6rs to
get rid of a hindrance
or how do you use them exactly
i i get the i get the feeling that that
question comes from a slight aversion
because to get rid of a hindrance means
that you really don't like that
hindrance being there in your mind and
you're using the six r's with that
intention of aversion
if you have the equanimity to be able to
say here is a hindrance
so you have the right attitude of saying
you're recognizing a hindrance is there
you're not saying oh i really don't like
this hindrance here or if it's sensual
craving oh i really like this here
you're just noticing it you're
recognizing it and then you use the
release step to take away your attention
you
relax
you re-smile and return
and then you repeat whenever the
hindrance arises again but the whole
point is the six hours allows you to let
go of a hindrance it doesn't allow you
to get rid of it because as soon as you
use the words like get rid of as the
question implies
that means you really don't like it
being there
right first you have to change the
perspective on that and say it's only a
hindrance
the hindrance is just
a really good thing to show you where
your attachments lie
that's one of the things to understand
about a hindrance is it's it's a teacher
it's a teaching tool
it shows you okay this is where the mind
has its attachments
this is where the mind gets you know
disturbed
and once you are
able to recognize that and let that go
then you're actually doing right effort
then you're actually doing the
meditation process which includes that
wisdom and inside part of the whole twin
process
yeah i guess instead of thinking about
it like a six are this and six are that
boom boom boom uh it's helped me to more
think about it as relaxing into the
hindrance a little bit and then not
keeping attention on it yes repeating
the other r's yes
do you use this uh we just did that one
how long should i do the release and
relax step
when i 6r a minute seconds
how long does that process take well
what i'll say is the whole six hour
process is like a wave so
it's not like you have to like really
focus on am i recognizing you don't have
to focus on did i release brightly did i
relax correctly
or did i did i smile uh did i
uh return properly all of these things
you have to let go of and just
do it
like nike says just do it you know it's
just basically
seeing that they're in the seeing of the
hindrance you're recognizing so you
don't have to say now i'm recognizing
you don't have to be like okay recognize
and you have to be like okay now i'm
going to release okay now i'm going to
relax okay now i'm going to
smile now i'm going to return and so on
all you have to do is just
let the process unfold naturally so
if you're doing it correctly it should
take no more than a few seconds a couple
of seconds
would be ideal because all you're doing
is you see the hindrance you take your
awareness away from it you relax you
smile you return
it's a matter of three to four seconds
at the most
right yeah ponte uses the phrase rolling
your arms rolling the r's yeah yeah
that's a good way of putting it because
it is really a rolling if you just take
a pause and wait in one place
then you're giving the opportunity for
the hindrance to arise again and then
there's an opportunity for doubt to
arise and it'll be like okay i think i
made a mistake here let me do it again
you know just do it
do it with uh rolling the rs just
smoothly do it and then if it comes up
again do it again if the hindrance comes
up again do it again that's all you have
to do
don't have to overthink it you don't
have to even think about it just allow
it to happen
yeah and i feel like the other
potential uh pitfall for folks is trying
to 6r too much you're not off the object
it's just a thought that's part of it
just comes up but it hasn't taken you
away and people try to 6r everything
yeah that's one of the instructions i
get for people in the beginning is
don't worry about any background
thoughts that you might have you know
when you're first starting out
meditating there'll be all kinds of
thoughts percolating up but they won't
be grabbing your attention they won't be
pulling your attention away you're just
sort of aware with your mindfulness that
there is this
mental energy going on in the back
in the form of those thoughts
only when your mind's attention is
completely off its object
and now it's looking at that background
thought saying oh i'm taking this as an
object i'm really interested in this
that's when you 6r that's when you
recognize
that there is
no longer mindfulness of the object of
meditation and you use the rest of the
six r's you just
bring it back so it's like an anchor
you're just bringing it back to
the object of meditation
the other thing is
when you do the six hours too many times
what you're doing is you're creating all
of this energy you're creating all of
this restlessness in that process now
you know you don't even give the mind
the opportunity to actually return
properly
to its object of meditation and you just
immediately recognize oh here's a
thought let me let me six r that
so you're not actually doing the
meditation at that point all that's
happening is the mind is getting
scattered and
it's actually becoming
worse than rather sharpening the
mindfulness
another question here i get sleepy while
meditating what's your solution
yeah so sleepiness uh right off the bat
i would say are you getting enough sleep
i mean this is something i commonly hear
and and practitioners sometimes doing
retreat want to be very gung-ho about it
and be like you know what i'm here to
meditate so i'm going to just forego my
sleep and and or sleep less and meditate
more and no no no you need to have a
balance
you have to eat properly at the right
times you have to have enough sleep
whatever that means for you you have to
have enough sleep obviously you don't
want to oversleep because that can
create slot and torpor
but you want to be able to have
sufficient sleep so that when you wake
up you don't feel groggy and you're
ready to take on the day now in the
meditation itself there is a slot
intorpor that arises and there's
different ways to deal with it number
one is sometimes the mind
is dull because there's not enough
joyful interest in the object of
meditation
so just bring up a little intention of
joyful interest and what that does is it
kind of focuses like a camera lens it
kind of focuses the attention a little
more
so the energy rises up a little bit more
and the dullness
and the sleepiness goes away
if that doesn't work and the sleepiness
continues on then there are other
recommendations practical
recommendations that the buddha has
given
go out into natural light or turn on you
know the light as as much as you can and
meditate or
go to a shade where there is where you
can see a lot of light but you're not
directly in the light and you can just
use that as a way to keep the mind
active keep the mind energetic rather
than dull
if that doesn't work then go for a walk
or go for a run that really energizes
the body
if that doesn't work wash your face you
know just with cold water and ultimately
if that doesn't work take a nap
you know you might need a 20-minute nap
15-20 minute nap it really does wonders
and then come back do a little bit of
walking meditation and then come back
and sit and see how the mind is then
no red bull or no
i wouldn't recommend it i'm not a big
fan of that okay
i don't drink caffeine at all by the way
yeah
i mean it's not it's not a bad thing but
uh you know people drink coffee in the
morning and that's fine or they want to
drink green tea or whatever it might be
what i do is compassion meditation
that's my that's my pick-me-up
first thing in the morning
awesome
uh
how much attention should be on
visualizing the spiritual friend
versus watching the feeling
yeah so
that's a good question i mean it's
really a balance uh you're you're really
staying with the object which is really
the loving kindness so some people like
to really take it to a whole other level
and really visualize their friend there
and you know their features and it's
like they're almost here in front of
them and things like that that's all not
necessary even if you just have the idea
that your spiritual friend is there and
you're sending it out
so it's more like 70 percent feeling
the loving kindness and 30 spiritual
friend is here
i'm used to watching my breath as maybe
people from coming from vipassana shall
i synchronize the breath to making the
wishes for loving kindness
no
not at all uh this is not a breathing
meditation
and more importantly this is not a
verbalizing thinking meditation
so the verbalization is used in such a
way that it brings up the feeling you do
the verbalization and you allow the
feeling to come up so this is really a
feeling meditate and feeling meditation
it's
it's really feeling that warm energy of
loving kindness in your chest
or later on when it comes into the head
then you're radiating it but
this is really all about
just keeping your mind
and your attention on that feeling it's
not about the thinking it's not about
the breathing if you synchronize the
breath then you're no longer actually
using the feeling as the object now
you're using your attention to stay on
the breath and if you're synchronizing
and controlling it
there that is miles and miles away from
what twim is all about
i can't really do the loving kindness
and would rather go back to breath
i used to do a lot of breath
yeah i noticed that sometimes people
have this they have certain kinds of
tendencies or certain kinds of practices
that they've done in the past related to
the breath and that's really just an
attachment to that practice
and one of the recommendations i have
when people come to learn this practice
the twin practice or they come on
retreat is just for that duration of the
retreat just let go all of those
practices and just really
sincerely
wholeheartedly try this practice and see
if it works for you
so i would say
majority of the time
don't focus on the breath don't go back
to the breathing practice make an effort
i mean you don't have to strive and push
hard but make an effort to just see for
yourself how this loving kindness
meditation works
and if you do want to use the breath
then there is
a recommendation of how to use the
breath and it's not done in the way of
you know controlling the breath and
things like that it's really in the same
way as twin which is
you're watching how mind's attention
moves with using the breath as a as a
reminder as sort of like an anchor but
in itself it doesn't make it
concentrated
but i i would rarely give that kind of
instruction or any recommendation
because
primarily for my own self and from my
own experience
the meta meditation or the brahmavihara
meditation has worked wonders
so
uh and a lot of people who
who have gone to do breath in the past
and then moved on to do loving kindness
they find that they drop that practice
completely and they're just good with
the loving kindness so it's just a
matter of really letting go of those
clinging to old practices and making an
effort to really pay attention
and really make the
determination
to to try this practice
right
yeah most people progress quicker with
the loving kindness
and to be quite honest i haven't met
someone who wasn't able to get the
practice
after trying it and i've been on a lot
of retreats here
yeah
what if i have a lot of doubts about the
practice that's a big hindrance yeah
doubt is a big one and it really depends
on the situation i mean if you have
doubts in terms of the instructions then
you approach or you send an email to
one of the guides or the teacher or if
you're on retreat
ask the teacher and ask them okay i just
wanted to clarify the instructions with
you and then go and do them
but in the practice itself while you're
sitting down and you have a doubt like i
was mentioning earlier like
am i recognizing correctly or am i doing
this correctly all of those things
see them as hindrances and just let them
go by seeing them as hindrances means
you're recognizing them taking your
attention away from them and relaxing
and then smiling and returning that's
all you have to do
so if you have doubts about am i 6r
incorrectly
six are that too
which means that if you have an idea
that oh i don't think i did the
the relaxed step correctly or i don't
think i
you know returned properly if you have
doubts like that then do another cycle
by letting go of those kinds of thoughts
and coming back to your object
i think it's often talked about that
there's three
big doubts a doubt in the teacher the
teaching and and one in the taught and
oneself yeah and i thought about the
fact that when we're doing in the
morning we
uh take refuge in the buddha dhamma and
sangha
and each of those is an antidote to each
one of those doubts yeah that's a great
way of putting it that's that's
absolutely so because
you're making a determination to say
when i take refuge in the buddha i'm
taking refuge in in the teacher i'm
trusting the teacher
when you make a refuge take a refuge in
the sangha
or the dharma rather
then you're making an effort to say and
a determination to say okay i'm ready to
really take on this practice
and then with the sangha
it's really
not only just a community
with you at the retreat or whatever it
might be but in your own self
in your own mind in the the ability and
capacities of your own mind
and so one of the one of the things
about the hindrance of doubt is it can
arise
because in the past you have come up
with where people have doubted you or
you've doubted yourself
you have to let go of that and if it
requires some kind of forgiveness
practice to be able to forgive that you
might want to do that for a day and then
come back to the practice and you'll see
you have greater levels of
self-acceptance and it's much easier
than to just do the process rather than
questioning it every step of the way
yeah i remember when i was starting out
my biggest doubt was you know all these
other people have gotten it but i don't
think i can get it yeah and it's i think
everyone
maybe not everyone has that just this
idea of oh well you know i'm somehow
special and i'm the only one who really
can't get this yeah
yeah and i've come across people like
that and that that's really coming from
some level of uh you know there's
different kinds of conceit and one of
the conceit is like
i feel inferior in some way and that's
just a level of insecurity that you have
to see as a hindrance
and just let go of and trust in yourself
trust in the practice trust in the
teaching
when i pick a spiritual friend
does he or she have to be perfect
or kind of a saint
yeah that's a good question i mean some
people like to use uh well when mother
teresa was alive
as a spiritual friend or the dalai lama
and things like that i mean you know of
them but you don't know them personally
the way i like to bring up a spiritual
or recommend that people bring up a
spiritual friend is
think about somebody who naturally
uplifts your mind think about somebody
who naturally brings a smile to your
face when you when you think about them
you're naturally at ease
of course there are certain parameters
to the spiritual friend they have to be
of the same gender they have to be alive
and they can't be you know a family
member so
so once you fulfill those and then you
think about somebody who just naturally
uplifts the mind
just stay with them
how strong does the feeling of meta have
to be to progress in the practice
don't yeah i would say to
this that don't worry about
the strength of the feeling so long as
you can feel something you're on the
right track
sometimes the method will change in the
sense that it might become
larger it might become more radiant it
might become more intense or whatever it
might be
just allow that feeling to do what it's
doing but so long as you can notice a
feeling that's that's all that's
required
once i get a feeling of meta do i keep
repeating the phrases
no
you repeat the phrase only one time
and then after you repeat it just allow
the feeling to come up from that phrase
sometimes the meta will dissipate and
disappear and some people what they like
to do is use the phrase again as a way
of guiding them at the back into their
uh into their awareness
and that's fine but what you're going to
find eventually is when you progress in
this practice the verbalizations drop
altogether and the feeling just
naturally flows
with your intention
so you don't need to say the
verbalization over and over again
because the moment you do that then that
becomes a mantra meditation that becomes
a thinking meditation
and that's not what we're doing here
we're just using that as a tool to bring
up the feeling let go of the
verbalization and rest your awareness on
the feeling itself
i'm feeling some joy now what to do next
i'm very happy to hear that that's very
good
if you're feeling joy let it be there
the main thing that you have to
understand is
things will happen in the meditation
where you start to actually experience
different factors
of the jhana and that can include the
joy you know the sukkah and things like
that
but don't allow the mind to deviate from
it meaning deviate from the object of
meditation and then don't mistake the
joy
for the lovingkindness so my caution
there is
okay you experience joy that's a
wonderful thing but don't get detracted
from staying with the loving kindness
there is a difference between the
feeling of joy and the feeling of loving
kindness the feeling of loving kindness
is soft it's gentle it's very
warm and and welcoming and so on
the feeling of joy that you experience
especially as a factor of the first
jhana and the second jhana is more
exuberant
it's more vibrant it's more energizing
and so you feel something else and
you'll feel it in the background you'll
feel it as a a rising of a giant state
but don't think that now you need to
shift your attention to that let your
awareness and let your attention
be on the object love and kindness and
stay with that and the joy will you'll
see if what happens is if you stay with
the joy instead
eventually two things can happen
because of your intention or your
attention to stay there
your
your feeling of joy will actually become
even more elevated and it can become
uncomfortable and people have done this
and they feel different things like they
might even start to feel anxious because
the joy becomes so energizing
or the second thing is if you try to
make that joy the object of meditation
the joy will fade away and then you will
think
mistaking the joy of loving kindness
that you're not able to bring up the
feeling of loving kindness so let it be
there it's a wonderful thing that the
joy is there but it will dissipate on
its own just let it do its thing it
might just glide out it might just slide
up and then glide through and then
dissipate on its own but all throughout
that process
if your mind is on the feeling of loving
kindness then you're on the right track
okay so i feel like my hands or parts of
my body are missing
the body is very calm
what does this mean what do i do
so this means that you're getting into
the third jana the third jana is really
where the mind becomes
very tranquil
and at this point the joy completely
dissipates
and what is left is the sukkah that we
talk about
and the sukkah is the
feeling of happiness in the body the
feeling of comfort
the feeling of
relaxation and tranquility in the body
and so what's happening is because your
mind is getting calmer and calmer you're
starting to lose
feeling in the body and it doesn't mean
you lose feeling in the sense that if
somebody touches it you won't feel it if
a fly lands on your hand you might feel
it and so on but this is a sign that
you're getting into the third genre and
let it be don't don't make a big deal
out of it don't put too much attention
on it notice it that it's a factor but
stay with the loving kindness
okay
and then
also the feeling of loving kindness has
moved up to my head
what do i do now
okay so when the feeling of
loving-kindness moves up to your head
you also want to notice a few other
things
number one is
how long were you able to stay with the
feeling of loving-kindness
and was your mind able to quickly
recognize when it got distracted
so the times in between when it got
distracted and you were with your loving
kindness are shorter but the times where
your mind was unloving kindness are much
longer and when i say longer i'm talking
five 10 15 minutes at a time it becomes
it becomes undistracted
this is a sign along with the fact that
you start losing complete awareness of
the body and you're just starting to see
the loving kindness in your head
this is a sign that
you are in the fourth jhana and at that
point
the teacher will say congratulations you
have now become an advanced meditator
and they will give you further
instructions
which are known as breaking down the
barrier which is an intermediary
practice you do it only one or two sits
maybe just one sit
and then you'll give you'll be given
further instructions of how to radiate
the loving kindness
in six directions six individual
directions and then all at the same time
and what is the purpose of this breaking
down the barrier
practice it's it's a it's a process of
basically you're going what happens in
breaking down the barriers is you you
are introduced to three other
spiritual friends so you have like four
categories
uh three spiritual friends because you
already did one spiritual friend before
four relatives or four family members
four people that you know but not so
much you know somebody who might you
know at work but you're not really
friends with them or it could be your
delivery guy or somebody you meet at the
store or the store clerk or whatever it
might be that you just have a friendly
interaction with but not necessarily
know them as a friend
so four of those people and then
the difficult people the people that
might be considered enemies or people
who might have a difficult time with you
or things like that and what that's
doing is really starting to soften the
mind even further getting it ready to be
able to radiate it indiscriminately in
all directions to all beings so it's a
gradual process of
actually making the loving kindness even
sharper and stronger but not in the way
you think which is it becomes intense
but rather making it so that it doesn't
have any judgment
and it can be sent out
without any kind of prejudice without
any kind of
has it has a hesitation
or apprehension of who you want to send
it out to
and what does it mean to radiate the
brahma viharas and how do you do that
yeah before i go on i also want to make
people understand that when you're able
to do that part of the practice
you're able to then send it out to
whoever whoever you want in other words
while we're talking right now we could
be radiate radiating loving-kindness to
each other
when i go
away from here and i meet somebody else
i can be radiating loving-kindness to
them and you can be reading
loving-kindness to that person as well
so this process
enables you to be able to
send it out to whoever you want and
whoever you meet
but ask the question of the the
radiating process of how do you radiate
first of all you send it out in
individual directions for about five
minutes at a time
and
that process is not pushing
and there's no specific direction in
other words you can do it in whatever
random order you want it's not like you
need to do it in this direction and then
another direction next and then a
specific way of doing the directions
personally what i do is i send it out in
front back
right left down up but somebody could
send it front
left right
down up whatever you want to do you do
and when you're radiating what that
means is you're not even radiating from
the head
by the time you start radiating you're
going to get into what is known as the
arupa-janas
and what that means is you're no longer
feeling your body
now you're in the mental realm now
you're in the process of mind
so you're you're basically thinking of
this direction or you're you're
imagining or visualizing this direction
however where you want to do it
and you have the intention and the
feeling of loving kindness and your
attention towards that direction
leads that loving kindness in that
direction and that's all it is so you're
just observing the loving kindness flow
in this direction and then after five
minutes
you notice loving kindness flow in the
backward direction and so on and so
forth so radiating does not equal
pushing out the loving kindness
radiating equals
looking at a direction
or feeling a direction and observing the
experience of loving kindness or any of
the brahmaviharas flowing in that
direction of your attention
it's really hard for me to send loving
kindness to each direction
sometimes i get a headache
yeah if you're getting a headache then
that means you're pushing too hard
or you're pushing in other words
there is a tendency for people when they
begin
to get this practice and they
immediately think okay now i'm going to
send loving kindness here and the
tendency is to feel like a pressure here
in the front and the forehead thinking
okay that means loving kindness is
flowing or feeling
a pressure in the back thinking now the
loving kindness is flowing from here or
the right or the left or
bottom and up
but like i said it's not about feeling
it in the head
it's not about radiating it from the
head it's just you're in the mind now
and you're observing the feeling of
loving kindness so when you notice
there's a headache when you notice that
there's tension when you notice that
there's pushing going on pull back
six are that relax
feel the tension dissipate and melt away
and just have the intention of sending
in this direction and just observe and
watch
okay
so you're and when you're
pointing it in a direction
it's not like you're necessarily
visualizing it going out right you're
just kind of knowing it's going in that
direction and then you bring up the
feeling and just kind of let it do its
thing on its own exactly and you know
the thing is people kind of get creative
some somebody had once asked me like can
i visualize like sort of like a
lighthouse where it's just radiating in
this direction in this direction i said
okay if that works for you that's fine
the whole point is to
be able to ultimately radiate in all
directions now if you're going to
radiate in all directions and if you're
doing it in the way of pushing in one
direction imagine the kind of headache
you would have
when you direct when you're radiating in
all directions
so when you're radiating in all
directions it's just an experience of
like
you're not even in a bubble it's just an
experience of expansion of loving
kindness it's just an experience of
this this fear or this radiance just
going on and on and on and on there's no
pushing going on it's just happening
it's just flowing
do i keep sending loving kindness no
matter what feeling comes up
okay so i i have to break down that
question because if it means no matter
what feeling is coming up uh that could
be a painful feeling that could be a
pleasant feeling that could be a neutral
feeling and if that feeling distracts
you from that loving kindness
you sex art
and you come back to the feeling of love
and kindness but eventually what you
will notice is if you're doing the
practice correctly when the arupa jhanas
the loving kindness does change but you
don't have to change it you don't have
to push it you don't have to do anything
with it it will change on its own
that feeling will turn into compassion
and there will be a certain quality to
that compassion later on it will change
to joy and there will be a certain
quality to that it will change later on
to equanimity and there'll be a certain
quality to that equanimity
and then finally you let go of all
brahmaviharas and you stay with mind
which has become completely tranquil
and this is what we call the quiet mind
but nowhere in that process are you
trying to push that to happen you're
just observing how it naturally unfolds
that's one thing to remember the second
is yes you continue to radiate
but if the feeling whatever the feeling
is distracts you so much
that it takes your attention away from
it then you 6r and then come back and
continue radiating
i think stillson that was really helpful
my pleasure
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