From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HVixYumBEzc

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

today I want everybody to take the Five

Precepts the precepts are really

important when you're doing the retreat

if you break one of the precepts when

you're doing or retreat you will find

that you have exceeding amounts of

restlessness because you have a guilty

feeling for breaking the retreat

breaking the preset it will interfere

with your meditation a lot just a little

bit monks have more more precepts than

the mainland I have 227 rolled you've

got five but even though we have so many

rolls if we break one of those rules

while we're doing any

meditation our meditation is not very

good the precepts I'll give them to you

but I want you to understand that this

is serious stuff don't take the precepts

lightly and in your daily life and you

can keep your presets without breaking

them then your meditation will improve

very quickly if you insist on breaking a

preset you will have consequences from

that this isn't a threat in any way it's

just information so you know that you

are responsible for your own practice if

the practice is good it's because you're

keeping the precepts very well if it's

not good it's because you break free sex

the first precept is not to harm or kill

living beings on purpose and the key

here is on purpose you can be walking

down the street and you look down and

you've just smashed a bunch of ants what

was your intention when you were walking

down the street your intention was go to

go from one place to another

unfortunately you didn't look down and

see that there were some beings there

until it was too late you don't need to

feel guilty about that just try not to

do that in the future if you

intentionally hit or kill of mosquitos

any kind of bugs it will affect your

meditation very negatively

you will have a lot of fear horizon

you'll have anxiety anxiety arising

while you're doing

meditation and that's directly because

you killed a living being on purpose the

next precept is not to take anything

that's not given

this means material things don't take

something

we can say don't steal that's a little

bit closer to it actually you know how

it feels when somebody takes something

of yours well if you do that to someone

else that's how they'll feel your

prosperity will disappear when you take

things that are not given

and the things that you take will not

last for you they'll just disappear

or if not they'll break or whatever so

you don't want to break that reason the

next precept is not to have any wrong

sexual activity wrong sexual activity is

sexual activity with someone that's too

young still under the care of their

Guardians sexual activity with another

person's made sexual activity with

prostitutes

outside of these three roles you want to

look at any sexual activity that you

have that causes any other being to have

distress to have disliked then don't

that means forceful harmful things you

don't want to harm anyone

the next precept is probably the most

difficult precept to keep don't tell any

lies don't gossip

and what is gossip it's saying lies and

imagining bad things about other people

and spreading those those kinds of words

don't slander slanter means there's two

different groups and in one group by say

you know this other group they did such

ends up and they start to get angry and

then I go from that group to the other

group and I say they're really angry at

you because of such and such and they're

saying this and slander means splitting

apart so you don't want to do that and

don't use harsh language that means

cursing

using really rough speech

the speech we want to develop is the

kind of speech that it's soothing to

everyone's ears everyone can appreciate

it and they'll listen to what you say if

you start using curse words people will

turn off they don't like to hear those

kind of work look at your mind if you

use a curse word what is your real life

it's hard and that's exactly the

opposite of what the Buddha was teaching

the last precept is not to take any

drugs or alcohol adult life

you have no idea how many people will

come to me and say well just a glass of

wine with the meal it doesn't really

matter yes it does a little bit of pot

now and then is ok no it's not why

because it does your mind up and that

dullness stays for a long time I worked

with people that were alcoholics now

that's an extreme but even though they

haven't had any alcohol or any drugs for

a number of years when they start to sit

and do the meditation they're mine is

dull you take one glass of wine at the

start of the week at the end of the week

you start sitting in meditation your

mind is dull your awareness is almost

non-existent until you go through and

finally sharpen your mind so it's so it

wastes your time of mental development

if you take drugs or alcohol

when I was in Burma I started to catch a

cold so I went to somebody and they said

well here take an aspirin and I didn't

want to take anything I took the pill I

cut it in half I took half an aspirin

and it affected my meditation negatively

the whole day now this is aspirin people

pop aspirin like it's going out of style

and they don't notice that it does

change your awareness it changes the way

you're able to see things it does dull

your mind so you really want to develop

your mind so that it will become calm

and very alert as quickly as possible

taking drugs or alcohol leads to the

opposite direction and it does take a

period of time to overcome that you know

in a one-day retreat it's not enough

time to overcome taking drugs and

alcohol for a period takes longer than

one day to go through this so it's

really not recommended and all of these

precepts are recommendations that lead

to a peaceful calm mind you can break in

u.s.

one it's up to you nobody's going to sit

and throw down lightning bolts and zap

you if you break one of the preset but

if you break one of the precepts as soon

as you recognize that you've done that

forgive yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again with the

determination not to break them the

precepts are real interesting because

the more you keep your precepts without

breaking them the faster your mind

becomes calm I had a student in Asia and

Malaysia that she

wouldn't break the precepts for any

reason at all she was a very very good

kind person she spent a lot of time

helping other people and she wanted to

learn about meditation so I told her to

come for a retreat how she came i gave

the instructions she started sitting in

the morning in the afternoon that came

over to her and I said well after

meditation boy and she said God it seems

to be okay and I said I I asked her how

long she would city she said only 45

minutes and I say why are you sitting

for such a short period of time she said

I'm sitting on the floor and it kills my

means I'm not used to sitting on the

floor it means to sitting in chairs so

being an unattached monk I said well why

don't you sit in a chair then just don't

lean heavily into the chair you want to

sit if you're sitting in a chair you

want to sit with your back a little bit

straighter than normal you want your

chest to be up and open by your city and

it's easier to radiate the

loving-kindness that way

so she sat on a chair and her neck

sitting was for hours and she got into

the first stage of the meditation that's

remarkable for one day leave it's

remarkable the reason that she was able

to do that was because she kept her

presets without breaking and even if she

thought about breaking her precepts her

mind would just remote and say no I

can't do that so she kept the precepts

in her mind all of the time she had been

practicing a general kind of mindfulness

because she kept her preset so closely

and that kind of mindfulness it helps

you to see and know what you're going to

do before you do it and then you make

the conscious decision whether to do

that

action or not

when I give retreat every day we take

the precepts not as a right and ritual I

don't have you take it in poly I have

you take the precepts in English I want

you to understand what you're saying I

want you to pay attention to what you're

saying and follow those precepts now if

somebody about chance they break one of

the precepts I want you to come and tell

me and then we'll take the precepts

again right then otherwise your whole

meditation retreat is not very useful

your mind will become very agitated and

it gets more and more agitated as time

goes by when I was in Burma there was a

Korean mop that came to do a retreat and

he had been on my eye out of monk and he

became a terawatt about my eye on a

monk's have a tendency to eat in the

evening and one of the rules for the

tera vaada monks is you don't even need

so when he first came he could sit for

three hours every time he wanted to sit

no problem as he stayed there he started

eating an evening meal had gotten so

that he could not sit for more than 15

minutes just for breaking this one

little minor thing and that's what can

happen for you if you bring one of the

preset you feel agitated all the time

look at your precepts look at how you're

practicing your presents okay so I'm

going to give you the precepts now I

want you to repeat this after me I

undertake to keep the precept I

undertake a degree sense to abstain from

killing or harming living

on purpose to abstain from killing or

harming living beings on purpose I

undertake to keep the preset I undertake

to keep the precepts to abstain from

taking what is not given to abstain from

taking what is not good I undertake to

keep the freezer I undertake to keep the

preset to abstain from wrong sexual

activity to obtain from wrong sexual

activity I undertake to keep the priests

left I undertake to keep the precept to

abstain from telling lies to abstain

from telling lies heartbeat heartbeat

splendor slander and gossip and cos I

undertake to keep the freezer I

undertake to keep the precepts to

abstain from taking drugs or alcohol to

abstain from taking drugs and alcohol

okay now you're officially in the

retreat I want to give you the

instructions now this the

loving-kindness that I'm going to be

teaching you is probably different from

any other kind of

kind institute practice before so please

pay post close attention and follow the

directions as closely as you possibly

can don't add anything don't subtract

anything that is how you will get the

fastest progress in your meditation when

you practice loving-kindness meditation

you first start by sending loving and

kind thoughts to yourself you remember a

time when you were happy when that happy

feeling arises it's a nice warm blowing

radiating feeling in the center of your

chest as soon as that radiating feeling

arises then you let go of that past

memory and make a wish for your own

happiness may I be happy may my mind be

peaceful and calm

may I be filled with joy may I be clear

and observant whatever wish you make for

yourself you want to feel that wish you

know what it feels like to be happy you

know what it feels like to be peaceful

and calm you take that feeling and put

it in the center of that glowing

radiating feeling and put yourself right

in the middle of that and give yourself

a great big heart of hug while you're

doing this oh let's go back again you

don't make the wish over and over and

over again very quickly may I be happy

happy you do the wish one time bring

that feeling up put that feeling in your

heart you don't need to verbalize after

that there's any tension and tightness

in your mind realize when that feeling

starts to fade then you can make another

which it could be the same which over

and over again as long as it has meaning

for you and it's not turned into a

mantra or you can change it to another

which whatever wish you change it to you

want to feel that wish this is a feeling

meditation we don't make three or four

different wishes in a row and turn it

into a mantra that's a mental process

this is a feeling process

while you're doing this your mind will

begin to think about other things

welcome to the real world and that's

okay it doesn't matter as soon as you

notice that your mind is thinking about

something else let that thought be there

by itself now every time mines attention

moves from your object of meditation to

something else there is a tension and

tightness that arises in your head and

in your mind and sometimes in other

parts of your body you can be sitting

very nicely and all of a sudden you

notice that your hand is tightened well

let that go you can be sitting very

nicely and you can feel like you got a

tickle in your throat now you don't want

to cough but the more you don't want to

the tighter you get in your throat and

the more you're going to come

so what to do let go of that tension and

tightness in your head and in your mind

also let go of all those tight muscles

in your throat if you're going to call

let your body off automatically you keep

your up to your mind on your object of

meditation now it doesn't matter if your

mind wanders away 50 times and 50 times

you notice that your mind has wandered

away you let go of the distraction relax

and come back to the feeling of loving

kindness and radiating that feeling

that is a good meditation it's an active

meditation to be sure but that doesn't

mean that it's bad when you stop

meditating is when a thought arises and

you think it's so important that you

have to continue thinking it now you're

not meditating at all when you as soon

as you notice even if you're in

mid-sentence that your mind has been

distracted than let go of that

distraction right then relax the

tightness caused by that distraction

come back to the feeling of loving

kindness making a win for your own

happiness when you're sitting and

meditation please do not move your body

at all don't wiggle your toes don't

wiggle your fingers don't scratch don't

rub don't change your posture don't rock

back and forth sit still you can move as

much as those flowers

so

while you're sitting like this there can

be some sensations that arise itching

wants a cough for want to sneeze heat

vibration pain and as soon as that

arises you will notice the first thing

that mine does after it goes to that

sensation is it begins to think about it

jeez I hate that feeling when it's like

this I wanted to stop I wanted to go

away every thought about the feeling

makes the feeling bigger and more

intense so the first thing we want to do

is let go of the thoughts about the

feeling and relax the tension and

tightness caused by that mines movement

next you'll notice there is a tight

mental fist wrapped around that

sensation that is a version I don't like

it I don't want it to be there why does

it have to distract distract me now but

the truth is when a sensation arises it

is there that's the truth that is the

Dhamma of the present moment any time

you try to fight with the truth any time

you try to control the truth any time

you try to change the truth it's a cause

of suffering

so your job is to allow the truth to be

there without any resistance at all make

that sensation just like it's a bubble

floating in the air if the wind blows

one way that bubble will move that way

if the wind changes and goes the other

way the bubble will move again it

doesn't matter this is learning how to

lovingly accept whatever arises in the

present moment as you stop making a big

deal about a sensation it turns into

just a sensation and when it turns into

just a sensation it becomes much easier

to endure it doesn't bother you so much

now you relax and then redirect your

attention back to the feeling of loving

kindness and radiating feeling and

making a wish for your own happiness the

nature of these kind of sensations is

they don't go away right away so your

mind is going to bounce back to it what

you want to start to notice is how did

mines attention do that how did it go

from being on your object of meditation

to the sensation it didn't just jump

there by itself what happened first what

happened after that what happened after

that as you take an interest in how

mine's attention moves you'll begin to

see that there's a lot of little parts

that are put together to make this

movement occur as you bounce back and

forth between that sensation and your

mind or your object of meditation right

before here your mind gets really caught

up in your thoughts about it you'll

notice that something else happened

right before then so the next time you

see that you let go right then and relax

and you notice that you're not dragged

away for quite as long a period of time

as you begin to see how the process

works the amount of time that is

distracted becomes less the amount of

time that you're on your object of

meditation becomes more he eventually

will get to a place where that

distraction just doesn't arise anymore

and when that happens you have a strong

sense of relief

you want to sit radiating this loving

and kind feeling to yourself for the

first 10 minutes of every city after 10

minutes then you want to start sending

loving and kind thoughts to your

spiritual friend your spiritual friend

is someone of the same sex and they are

alive a spiritual friend friend is some

of someone when you think of them and

their good qualities you have a lot of

respect for them you really like them

you want them to be happy you really

like that you really sincerely do wish

them well the more sincere you are with

wishing your spiritual friend happiness

the easier it is to stay with that

friend without being distracted

so you're sending loving and kind

thoughts to yourself made my mind be

peaceful and calm as I feel this piece

in home I wish this feeling for you may

you be peaceful and calm you want to

take your friend and put them right in

the middle of that radiating calmness

and surround them with that feeling see

them in your mind's eye smiling that can

help remind you to be smiling and happy

too this is a smiling meditation you

want to smile with your mind smile with

your eyes even though your eyes are

closed put a little smile on your lips

have a smile in your heart anytime you

see that you're not smiling you can not

criticize yourself just start smiling

again you turn this into a game

don't be over serious with it anytime

your self critical that means you have a

version in your mind that means that

you're not being loving and accepting of

what's happening in the present moment

and that's what we want to practice

that's way we want our minds

again it doesn't matter how many times

your mind gets distracted what matters

is as soon as you notice that

distraction you let the distraction go

you let it be you relax your redirect

your attention back to your object of

meditation now your object of meditation

is your spiritual friend making a wish

where their happiness feeling that which

surround them with that feeling and give

them a heart hug again the more sincere

you really do wish them well the more

sincere you are the easier the

meditation become now if you start to

get sleepy and your mind starts to doubt

this is a process what happens is you

start to lose interest in sending loving

and kind

to yourself or to your friend and you

let your mind kind of ho-hum and before

long it gets kind of dreamy and before

long and gets kind of sleepy and then

your body starts to droop and then you

start nodding and you think oh no I want

to stay out my object of meditation and

you straighten up really really fast and

you let your mind just kind of do what

it's going to do after a minute or so

and now you're back down sleeping when

you're doing your sitting meditation you

want to sit with your back a little bit

straighter than normal so there's a

slight bit of tightness or tension when

you notice that when you notice that

your back is starting to slump that

means that the sloth and torpor is

coming

you let that be and relax right then you

won't get caught for near as long a

period of time now if the sloth and

torpor is really heavy and you'd set for

at least a half an hour then you can get

up and do your walking meditation now

the walking meditation is not for

entertainment to walk around and look at

this and that walking meditation is part

of the meditation and it's an important

part of the meditation you stay with

your spiritual friend you pick up

clothes where you can walk back and

forth and you walk to the end of that

walking space and stop and don't turn

around walk backwards you get to the end

of that walking space stop go forwards

stop walk backwards when you walk

backwards you have to pay more attention

and you start putting more energy into

watching the next time you go for your

sitting the sitting will

without Swapna portrait that's one of

the ways that you can overcome when

sloth and torpor comes in starts as a

feeling and it's not a particularly

pleasant feeling right after that

feeling there's created tension and

tightness I like it I don't like it mine

right after that there's all of these

dreamy kind of thoughts and your

habitual tendency when your mind dolls a

little bit you always act in this way

when you notice that your mind is caught

by the sloth and torpor the more

interest you take and see how the

process works and the more interest you

take in sending that loving and time

thought to your friend the faster it

will go away

now

don't get serious with this practice I

want you to smile I want you to have a

light like my mind it's alert mind

that's very clear and that means plate

if you see your mind distracts in one

way or another don't criticize it just

start playing with it make fun with it

laughs with it very important to do this

laughter is an amazing thing even when

you're just chuckling to yourself

because it changes whatever is happening

I am that into it's only that it changes

whatever arises from a personal

perspective into an impersonal

perspective and it's very much easier to

let it go so the more you can have these

little truffles about how crazy your

mind is the more balance you have

you're mine

the more sincere your smile really is so

this is an important aspect I had too

many years of too serious of practice I

know that that doesn't lead to what the

Muto is talking about having a mind that

is light with the sense of play in it

does lead to what the Buddha was talking

about because it changes your

perspective that's the first part of the

Eightfold Path

sit no less than 30 minutes when you're

sitting is good sit bounder we're not

going to have any bells here except for

lunch and when they give the down the

talk in the afternoon you're going to be

on your own time schedule you can be

sitting and you see that you're you're

in fact for a half an hour and is going

pretty well so just sit longer you can

sit for an hour even sit for two hours

you can sit for three hours it's okay up

to you when you get up to do the walking

meditation don't let your meditation

stop stay with your spirit of old friend

and you will start to see that you get

into the deeper states of the meditation

and you can continue on just like you

would with daily activities you can keep

your meditation going all the time any

time you see that you're not smiling

please smile together

anytime you see that your mind begins to

get serious that's telling you that

there is an attachment let go of that

and smiles

when you do you're walking meditation I

don't want you to walk super slow I want

you to walk in a normal pace just like

you do every day but stay with your

spiritual breath keep wishing your

spiritual friend happiness and feeling

that feeling and placing them in your

heart and radiating that feeling keep

the smile going

you

today I want everybody to take the Five

Precepts the precepts are really

important when you're doing the retreat

if you break one of the precepts when

you're doing or retreat you will find

that you have exceeding amounts of

restlessness because you have a guilty

feeling for breaking the retreat

breaking the preset it will interfere

with your meditation a lot just a little

bit monks have more more precepts than

the mainland I have 227 rolled you've

got five but even though we have so many

rolls if we break one of those rules

while we're doing any

meditation our meditation is not very

good the precepts I'll give them to you

but I want you to understand that this

is serious stuff don't take the precepts

lightly and in your daily life and you

can keep your presets without breaking

them then your meditation will improve

very quickly if you insist on breaking a

preset you will have consequences from

that this isn't a threat in any way it's

just information so you know that you

are responsible for your own practice if

the practice is good it's because you're

keeping the precepts very well if it's

not good it's because you break free sex

the first precept is not to harm or kill

living beings on purpose and the key

here is on purpose you can be walking

down the street and you look down and

you've just smashed a bunch of ants what

was your intention when you were walking

down the street your intention was go to

go from one place to another

unfortunately you didn't look down and

see that there were some beings there

until it was too late you don't need to

feel guilty about that just try not to

do that in the future if you

intentionally hit or kill of mosquitos

any kind of bugs it will affect your

meditation very negatively

you will have a lot of fear horizon

you'll have anxiety anxiety arising

while you're doing

meditation and that's directly because

you killed a living being on purpose the

next precept is not to take anything

that's not given

this means material things don't take

something

we can say don't steal that's a little

bit closer to it actually you know how

it feels when somebody takes something

of yours well if you do that to someone

else that's how they'll feel your

prosperity will disappear when you take

things that are not given

and the things that you take will not

last for you they'll just disappear

or if not they'll break or whatever so

you don't want to break that reason the

next precept is not to have any wrong

sexual activity wrong sexual activity is

sexual activity with someone that's too

young still under the care of their

Guardians sexual activity with another

person's made sexual activity with

prostitutes

outside of these three roles you want to

look at any sexual activity that you

have that causes any other being to have

distress to have disliked then don't

that means forceful harmful things you

don't want to harm anyone

the next precept is probably the most

difficult precept to keep don't tell any

lies don't gossip

and what is gossip it's saying lies and

imagining bad things about other people

and spreading those those kinds of words

don't slander slanter means there's two

different groups and in one group by say

you know this other group they did such

ends up and they start to get angry and

then I go from that group to the other

group and I say they're really angry at

you because of such and such and they're

saying this and slander means splitting

apart so you don't want to do that and

don't use harsh language that means

cursing

using really rough speech

the speech we want to develop is the

kind of speech that it's soothing to

everyone's ears everyone can appreciate

it and they'll listen to what you say if

you start using curse words people will

turn off they don't like to hear those

kind of work look at your mind if you

use a curse word what is your real life

it's hard and that's exactly the

opposite of what the Buddha was teaching

the last precept is not to take any

drugs or alcohol adult life

you have no idea how many people will

come to me and say well just a glass of

wine with the meal it doesn't really

matter yes it does a little bit of pot

now and then is ok no it's not why

because it does your mind up and that

dullness stays for a long time I worked

with people that were alcoholics now

that's an extreme but even though they

haven't had any alcohol or any drugs for

a number of years when they start to sit

and do the meditation they're mine is

dull you take one glass of wine at the

start of the week at the end of the week

you start sitting in meditation your

mind is dull your awareness is almost

non-existent until you go through and

finally sharpen your mind so it's so it

wastes your time of mental development

if you take drugs or alcohol

when I was in Burma I started to catch a

cold so I went to somebody and they said

well here take an aspirin and I didn't

want to take anything I took the pill I

cut it in half I took half an aspirin

and it affected my meditation negatively

the whole day now this is aspirin people

pop aspirin like it's going out of style

and they don't notice that it does

change your awareness it changes the way

you're able to see things it does dull

your mind so you really want to develop

your mind so that it will become calm

and very alert as quickly as possible

taking drugs or alcohol leads to the

opposite direction and it does take a

period of time to overcome that you know

in a one-day retreat it's not enough

time to overcome taking drugs and

alcohol for a period takes longer than

one day to go through this so it's

really not recommended and all of these

precepts are recommendations that lead

to a peaceful calm mind you can break in

u.s.

one it's up to you nobody's going to sit

and throw down lightning bolts and zap

you if you break one of the preset but

if you break one of the precepts as soon

as you recognize that you've done that

forgive yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again with the

determination not to break them the

precepts are real interesting because

the more you keep your precepts without

breaking them the faster your mind

becomes calm I had a student in Asia and

Malaysia that she

wouldn't break the precepts for any

reason at all she was a very very good

kind person she spent a lot of time

helping other people and she wanted to

learn about meditation so I told her to

come for a retreat how she came i gave

the instructions she started sitting in

the morning in the afternoon that came

over to her and I said well after

meditation boy and she said God it seems

to be okay and I said I I asked her how

long she would city she said only 45

minutes and I say why are you sitting

for such a short period of time she said

I'm sitting on the floor and it kills my

means I'm not used to sitting on the

floor it means to sitting in chairs so

being an unattached monk I said well why

don't you sit in a chair then just don't

lean heavily into the chair you want to

sit if you're sitting in a chair you

want to sit with your back a little bit

straighter than normal you want your

chest to be up and open by your city and

it's easier to radiate the

loving-kindness that way

so she sat on a chair and her neck

sitting was for hours and she got into

the first stage of the meditation that's

remarkable for one day leave it's

remarkable the reason that she was able

to do that was because she kept her

presets without breaking and even if she

thought about breaking her precepts her

mind would just remote and say no I

can't do that so she kept the precepts

in her mind all of the time she had been

practicing a general kind of mindfulness

because she kept her preset so closely

and that kind of mindfulness it helps

you to see and know what you're going to

do before you do it and then you make

the conscious decision whether to do

that

action or not

when I give retreat every day we take

the precepts not as a right and ritual I

don't have you take it in poly I have

you take the precepts in English I want

you to understand what you're saying I

want you to pay attention to what you're

saying and follow those precepts now if

somebody about chance they break one of

the precepts I want you to come and tell

me and then we'll take the precepts

again right then otherwise your whole

meditation retreat is not very useful

your mind will become very agitated and

it gets more and more agitated as time

goes by when I was in Burma there was a

Korean mop that came to do a retreat and

he had been on my eye out of monk and he

became a terawatt about my eye on a

monk's have a tendency to eat in the

evening and one of the rules for the

tera vaada monks is you don't even need

so when he first came he could sit for

three hours every time he wanted to sit

no problem as he stayed there he started

eating an evening meal had gotten so

that he could not sit for more than 15

minutes just for breaking this one

little minor thing and that's what can

happen for you if you bring one of the

preset you feel agitated all the time

look at your precepts look at how you're

practicing your presents okay so I'm

going to give you the precepts now I

want you to repeat this after me I

undertake to keep the precept I

undertake a degree sense to abstain from

killing or harming living

on purpose to abstain from killing or

harming living beings on purpose I

undertake to keep the preset I undertake

to keep the precepts to abstain from

taking what is not given to abstain from

taking what is not good I undertake to

keep the freezer I undertake to keep the

preset to abstain from wrong sexual

activity to obtain from wrong sexual

activity I undertake to keep the priests

left I undertake to keep the precept to

abstain from telling lies to abstain

from telling lies heartbeat heartbeat

splendor slander and gossip and cos I

undertake to keep the freezer I

undertake to keep the precepts to

abstain from taking drugs or alcohol to

abstain from taking drugs and alcohol

okay now you're officially in the

retreat I want to give you the

instructions now this the

loving-kindness that I'm going to be

teaching you is probably different from

any other kind of

kind institute practice before so please

pay post close attention and follow the

directions as closely as you possibly

can don't add anything don't subtract

anything that is how you will get the

fastest progress in your meditation when

you practice loving-kindness meditation

you first start by sending loving and

kind thoughts to yourself you remember a

time when you were happy when that happy

feeling arises it's a nice warm blowing

radiating feeling in the center of your

chest as soon as that radiating feeling

arises then you let go of that past

memory and make a wish for your own

happiness may I be happy may my mind be

peaceful and calm

may I be filled with joy may I be clear

and observant whatever wish you make for

yourself you want to feel that wish you

know what it feels like to be happy you

know what it feels like to be peaceful

and calm you take that feeling and put

it in the center of that glowing

radiating feeling and put yourself right

in the middle of that and give yourself

a great big heart of hug while you're

doing this oh let's go back again you

don't make the wish over and over and

over again very quickly may I be happy

happy you do the wish one time bring

that feeling up put that feeling in your

heart you don't need to verbalize after

that there's any tension and tightness

in your mind realize when that feeling

starts to fade then you can make another

which it could be the same which over

and over again as long as it has meaning

for you and it's not turned into a

mantra or you can change it to another

which whatever wish you change it to you

want to feel that wish this is a feeling

meditation we don't make three or four

different wishes in a row and turn it

into a mantra that's a mental process

this is a feeling process

while you're doing this your mind will

begin to think about other things

welcome to the real world and that's

okay it doesn't matter as soon as you

notice that your mind is thinking about

something else let that thought be there

by itself now every time mines attention

moves from your object of meditation to

something else there is a tension and

tightness that arises in your head and

in your mind and sometimes in other

parts of your body you can be sitting

very nicely and all of a sudden you

notice that your hand is tightened well

let that go you can be sitting very

nicely and you can feel like you got a

tickle in your throat now you don't want

to cough but the more you don't want to

the tighter you get in your throat and

the more you're going to come

so what to do let go of that tension and

tightness in your head and in your mind

also let go of all those tight muscles

in your throat if you're going to call

let your body off automatically you keep

your up to your mind on your object of

meditation now it doesn't matter if your

mind wanders away 50 times and 50 times

you notice that your mind has wandered

away you let go of the distraction relax

and come back to the feeling of loving

kindness and radiating that feeling

that is a good meditation it's an active

meditation to be sure but that doesn't

mean that it's bad when you stop

meditating is when a thought arises and

you think it's so important that you

have to continue thinking it now you're

not meditating at all when you as soon

as you notice even if you're in

mid-sentence that your mind has been

distracted than let go of that

distraction right then relax the

tightness caused by that distraction

come back to the feeling of loving

kindness making a win for your own

happiness when you're sitting and

meditation please do not move your body

at all don't wiggle your toes don't

wiggle your fingers don't scratch don't

rub don't change your posture don't rock

back and forth sit still you can move as

much as those flowers

so

while you're sitting like this there can

be some sensations that arise itching

wants a cough for want to sneeze heat

vibration pain and as soon as that

arises you will notice the first thing

that mine does after it goes to that

sensation is it begins to think about it

jeez I hate that feeling when it's like

this I wanted to stop I wanted to go

away every thought about the feeling

makes the feeling bigger and more

intense so the first thing we want to do

is let go of the thoughts about the

feeling and relax the tension and

tightness caused by that mines movement

next you'll notice there is a tight

mental fist wrapped around that

sensation that is a version I don't like

it I don't want it to be there why does

it have to distract distract me now but

the truth is when a sensation arises it

is there that's the truth that is the

Dhamma of the present moment any time

you try to fight with the truth any time

you try to control the truth any time

you try to change the truth it's a cause

of suffering

so your job is to allow the truth to be

there without any resistance at all make

that sensation just like it's a bubble

floating in the air if the wind blows

one way that bubble will move that way

if the wind changes and goes the other

way the bubble will move again it

doesn't matter this is learning how to

lovingly accept whatever arises in the

present moment as you stop making a big

deal about a sensation it turns into

just a sensation and when it turns into

just a sensation it becomes much easier

to endure it doesn't bother you so much

now you relax and then redirect your

attention back to the feeling of loving

kindness and radiating feeling and

making a wish for your own happiness the

nature of these kind of sensations is

they don't go away right away so your

mind is going to bounce back to it what

you want to start to notice is how did

mines attention do that how did it go

from being on your object of meditation

to the sensation it didn't just jump

there by itself what happened first what

happened after that what happened after

that as you take an interest in how

mine's attention moves you'll begin to

see that there's a lot of little parts

that are put together to make this

movement occur as you bounce back and

forth between that sensation and your

mind or your object of meditation right

before here your mind gets really caught

up in your thoughts about it you'll

notice that something else happened

right before then so the next time you

see that you let go right then and relax

and you notice that you're not dragged

away for quite as long a period of time

as you begin to see how the process

works the amount of time that is

distracted becomes less the amount of

time that you're on your object of

meditation becomes more he eventually

will get to a place where that

distraction just doesn't arise anymore

and when that happens you have a strong

sense of relief

you want to sit radiating this loving

and kind feeling to yourself for the

first 10 minutes of every city after 10

minutes then you want to start sending

loving and kind thoughts to your

spiritual friend your spiritual friend

is someone of the same sex and they are

alive a spiritual friend friend is some

of someone when you think of them and

their good qualities you have a lot of

respect for them you really like them

you want them to be happy you really

like that you really sincerely do wish

them well the more sincere you are with

wishing your spiritual friend happiness

the easier it is to stay with that

friend without being distracted

so you're sending loving and kind

thoughts to yourself made my mind be

peaceful and calm as I feel this piece

in home I wish this feeling for you may

you be peaceful and calm you want to

take your friend and put them right in

the middle of that radiating calmness

and surround them with that feeling see

them in your mind's eye smiling that can

help remind you to be smiling and happy

too this is a smiling meditation you

want to smile with your mind smile with

your eyes even though your eyes are

closed put a little smile on your lips

have a smile in your heart anytime you

see that you're not smiling you can not

criticize yourself just start smiling

again you turn this into a game

don't be over serious with it anytime

your self critical that means you have a

version in your mind that means that

you're not being loving and accepting of

what's happening in the present moment

and that's what we want to practice

that's way we want our minds

again it doesn't matter how many times

your mind gets distracted what matters

is as soon as you notice that

distraction you let the distraction go

you let it be you relax your redirect

your attention back to your object of

meditation now your object of meditation

is your spiritual friend making a wish

where their happiness feeling that which

surround them with that feeling and give

them a heart hug again the more sincere

you really do wish them well the more

sincere you are the easier the

meditation become now if you start to

get sleepy and your mind starts to doubt

this is a process what happens is you

start to lose interest in sending loving

and kind

to yourself or to your friend and you

let your mind kind of ho-hum and before

long it gets kind of dreamy and before

long and gets kind of sleepy and then

your body starts to droop and then you

start nodding and you think oh no I want

to stay out my object of meditation and

you straighten up really really fast and

you let your mind just kind of do what

it's going to do after a minute or so

and now you're back down sleeping when

you're doing your sitting meditation you

want to sit with your back a little bit

straighter than normal so there's a

slight bit of tightness or tension when

you notice that when you notice that

your back is starting to slump that

means that the sloth and torpor is

coming

you let that be and relax right then you

won't get caught for near as long a

period of time now if the sloth and

torpor is really heavy and you'd set for

at least a half an hour then you can get

up and do your walking meditation now

the walking meditation is not for

entertainment to walk around and look at

this and that walking meditation is part

of the meditation and it's an important

part of the meditation you stay with

your spiritual friend you pick up

clothes where you can walk back and

forth and you walk to the end of that

walking space and stop and don't turn

around walk backwards you get to the end

of that walking space stop go forwards

stop walk backwards when you walk

backwards you have to pay more attention

and you start putting more energy into

watching the next time you go for your

sitting the sitting will

without Swapna portrait that's one of

the ways that you can overcome when

sloth and torpor comes in starts as a

feeling and it's not a particularly

pleasant feeling right after that

feeling there's created tension and

tightness I like it I don't like it mine

right after that there's all of these

dreamy kind of thoughts and your

habitual tendency when your mind dolls a

little bit you always act in this way

when you notice that your mind is caught

by the sloth and torpor the more

interest you take and see how the

process works and the more interest you

take in sending that loving and time

thought to your friend the faster it

will go away

now

don't get serious with this practice I

want you to smile I want you to have a

light like my mind it's alert mind

that's very clear and that means plate

if you see your mind distracts in one

way or another don't criticize it just

start playing with it make fun with it

laughs with it very important to do this

laughter is an amazing thing even when

you're just chuckling to yourself

because it changes whatever is happening

I am that into it's only that it changes

whatever arises from a personal

perspective into an impersonal

perspective and it's very much easier to

let it go so the more you can have these

little truffles about how crazy your

mind is the more balance you have

you're mine

the more sincere your smile really is so

this is an important aspect I had too

many years of too serious of practice I

know that that doesn't lead to what the

Muto is talking about having a mind that

is light with the sense of play in it

does lead to what the Buddha was talking

about because it changes your

perspective that's the first part of the

Eightfold Path

sit no less than 30 minutes when you're

sitting is good sit bounder we're not

going to have any bells here except for

lunch and when they give the down the

talk in the afternoon you're going to be

on your own time schedule you can be

sitting and you see that you're you're

in fact for a half an hour and is going

pretty well so just sit longer you can

sit for an hour even sit for two hours

you can sit for three hours it's okay up

to you when you get up to do the walking

meditation don't let your meditation

stop stay with your spirit of old friend

and you will start to see that you get

into the deeper states of the meditation

and you can continue on just like you

would with daily activities you can keep

your meditation going all the time any

time you see that you're not smiling

please smile together

anytime you see that your mind begins to

get serious that's telling you that

there is an attachment let go of that

and smiles

when you do you're walking meditation I

don't want you to walk super slow I want

you to walk in a normal pace just like

you do every day but stay with your

spiritual breath keep wishing your

spiritual friend happiness and feeling

that feeling and placing them in your

heart and radiating that feeling keep

the smile going

you