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

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

[Music]

recognize when you've become

and let go of your thoughts

relax

[Music]

now return to the peace that this moment

provides

[Music]

and repeat it now recognize

[Music]

so some of you are

new to this practice but regardless

this first piece of advice

is for everyone

now that you are here

and the retreat will start

i want you to take

everything that's on your mind

and leave it in a box

okay

any other kinds of techniques that you

guys have done any kinds of meditation

practices you've done

for the next 10 days

just leave it in a box

and just completely

try this practice

wholeheartedly

the main part of this practice is to

first and foremost keep

smiling

whatever it is that you're doing

keep smiling

when you wake up first thing in the

morning

resolve to yourself the night before

that you will wake up with a smile on

your face

and keep that going

when you wake up resolve the night

before that you will wake up at a

certain time

so if you're going to wake up at let's

say 5 30 try to wake up at 5 25 see how

well the mind is able to wake up

at that time this will be very helpful

at a future period

a couple of

things to take into account this is a

silent retreat

so that means that you want to be

in noble silence

both verbally and

mentally

be practical

if you need to communicate with someone

about something regarding your

let's say you sign up for a yogi job and

you have something that you need to

communicate

obviously communicate that

but don't try to start conversations

keep absolute silence as best as you can

don't even have dhamma discussions

because that is going to get in the way

of your practice and another person's

practice

so keep

your experiences to yourself

now for those of you who haven't done

this practice before i'll give you the

instructions

this is a feeling

based meditation

it's a somatic meditation

which means that

while you are staying with

loving-kindness you're not using

verbal phrases in your mind over and

over again

you're actually feeling the loving

kindness in your heart

in your chest

so when you

start the meditation you want to sit

comfortably

you can sit in a chair you can sit on

the floor on a cushion

keep yourself steady and comfortable

and when you start the meditation keep

your eyes closed start with a little

smile on your face

a little smile in your eyes

on your lips

in your mind and in your heart keep

things relaxed

the smile is very essential because it

allows you to keep things light

here you are on retreat this is not

military camp

there you are on vacation relax take it

easy

enjoy yourself

leave the world behind for the next nine

or ten days

so it starts with the smile

once you have this smile

bring up a wholesome

memory or a wholesome image

so anything that makes you feel uplifted

imagining holding a baby in your arms

and looking at that baby smiling back at

you

or holding a little puppy or a little

kitten

or some kind of memory that you had from

childhood something that makes you feel

uplifted something that

brings up that warm cozy fuzzy feeling

in your

center of your chest

once you feel that

let go of the image

or you can use verbalizations or in

tandem

you could say in your mind may i be

happy may i be well

may i be filled with loving kindness may

i be at peace

allow that to start the process of

loving kindness

once you feel that warmth in your heart

let go of that and let the awareness

your attention

bask in that feeling rarely stay with

that feeling

imagine it like a candle flame that's

just

radiating outward and stay with that

there's nothing else for you to do but

just stay with that feeling just relax

into that feeling

don't push

don't try so hard to bring up the

feeling

don't do anything except

stay with feeling

whatever effort that you think you need

to do

do that by half

and make adjustments accordingly

because there are a couple of things

people do initially

they try too hard

and they try to bring up the feeling and

it causes tightness and tension

which is a manifestation of craving

or they're not able to accept the moment

as it actually is

they're not able to

feel like they deserve loving kindness

they don't feel like they deserve to be

happy

let go of all of those notions and just

stay with the feeling

so you want to stay with this feeling

for at least the first 10 minutes of

the sitting you want to sit for at least

30 minutes

first 10 minutes you're sending

loving-kindness to yourself

then you bring up a spiritual friend

spiritual friend is somebody that is

alive

somebody of the same sex

somebody you admire somebody you think

about

that brings a warm feeling in your heart

somebody that brings a smile

to you

it could be the dalai lama it could be

uh you know nobel prize winner it could

be anybody who you

admire or it could be your best friend

but as long as they are alive and of the

same sex

stick with them just one spiritual

friend

you can if you're a visual person

imagine them in front of you while

you're meditating smiling at you and

them receiving the loving kindness from

you

you have a heart-to-heart connection

you're sending out the feeling of

loving-kindness and they are receiving

it

stay with that feeling

it's more about 80 percent the feeling

and 20

visualizing the spiritual friend

if you're not able to visualize the

spiritual friend

just have them in mind and keep them in

your heart

and know that they are feeling the

loving-kindness as they're basking in it

in your heart

so for the duration of the practice this

is what you do

for the next 20 minutes of that

30-minute sit

and inevitably

you will meet with distractions

it's a part of this meditation

distractions are your friends

distractions are

your teachers

they help you see where your attachments

lie where your aversion lies where your

identification lies

so see them and acknowledge them welcome

them

no problem don't push them away don't

resist them don't do anything with them

there is a way of approaching hindrances

or distractions

that allows you to acknowledge them let

them go

and then develop wisdom

and that is the process of the

six hours

recognize release

relax

re-smile

return and repeat

so what does it mean to be distracted

what does it mean that when a hindrance

is present

when you are with the feeling of

loving-kindness when your awareness is

resting on that loving kindness

you are on your object of meditation you

are meditating

there may be thoughts in the background

little wisps of thoughts and images in

the background

but so long as your awareness is with

the loving kindness

you are fine

you are distracted when your attention

is fully away from the loving kindness

which means now you are thinking about

something else

and your awareness is no longer on

loving-kindness

now it could be that you are

no longer with your spiritual friend no

longer with loving kindness

and you are

in la la land of distractions whatever

those distractions are

and those distractions can last for a

minute two minutes five minutes 10

minutes 30 minutes doesn't matter

however long you've gone away you've

gone away

but the key

is to recognize oh i am no longer on my

object of meditation

this is the first step

recognizing

when you recognize that you are

distracted

now you can release that destruction

when you release that distraction you

relax the tightness

and tension in the mind and body

tightness and tension is a manifestation

of craving

of

what's known in pali as tanha thirst

there's so many different definitions of

craving it's the i like it mind i don't

like it mind

i am this mind or whatever it might be

but it's basically

a

reaction to things

in the present moment

where the mind is discontent with what

is arising

so when you're six houring you're

recognizing your mind got distracted

you're releasing your attention from

that and you're relaxing the body

and what does that feel like

when you clench your fist

there's tightness and tension there

but as soon as you let go

there's relief

this is an intentional practice of

relaxing that tightness in the body

the tightness arises as a result of

reacting

with craving

so that tightness has to be let go of

this is what's known as tranquilizing

formations

when you intentionally relax you are

deconditioning the mind from reacting in

such a way

that it identifies with the process and

gets attached to it

you're de-conditioning your mind from

that

and by relaxing and then re-smiling and

returning which i'll get to you're

reconditioning your reactions into

intelligent wise and compassionate

responses

so you relax the tension

and you come back to the smile

remember you started this meditation off

with a smile

the smile allows your mind to be open

uplifted light

very spacious

this meditation is not about being one

pointed singly focused on one thing

the meditation is more about

this is the object of loving kindness

and this is your awareness

orbiting the loving kindness keeping the

spacious the mind spacious keeping the

awareness

open

so that insights arise so that if

hindrances arise you're able to

recognize them release them relax the

craving

and then come back to the smile now if

you're already smiling that's good if

you're not smiling notice that bring up

the smile

and then return to

return to the loving kindness

that doesn't mean you have to restart it

means

start from wherever you left off before

you got distracted

so if you were staying with your

spiritual friend

stay with your spiritual friend

and then repeat whenever you get

distracted

now it's not like you have to say oh

here i am recognizing here i am

releasing here i am relaxing here i am

re-smiling here i am

returning

just

do it

right

just let it be like a wave

in about three to four seconds you just

recognize release

relax

re-smile

return

and stay with the object of meditation

so this is how you deal with hindrances

this is how you deal with distractions

what you are doing by doing so is

developing wisdom developing clarity

developing

mindfulness

what is mindfulness

you hear this thrown out a lot

mindfully eating mindfully walking

mindfully taking a shower mindfully

doing this and that

what does that mean

oftentimes it's about staying with

whatever it is that you're doing

but here the definition of mindfulness

comes from the original pali for

mindfulness

which is sati

and sati comes from the sanskrit smriti

which means

memory

meaning you are remembering something

you are recalling something and what is

it that you are remembering and

recalling

you are remembering to observe how your

mind's attention moves from one thing to

the other

that's it

so

you're staying with your object of

meditation you're resting your awareness

on the loving kindness

now you observe that it is no longer on

the loving-kindness this is mindfulness

developing this clarity develops wisdom

you're teaching yourself

how your mind works

and in doing so you are reconditioning

the way the mind responds to situations

so we'll get we'll unpack this more as

we go on

in the next nine or ten days

but right now just understand that you

want to keep your mind light you want to

keep your mind uplifted

keep your mind

clear with the smile

stay with the feeling

all throughout the day

now that's the sitting practice

there is a walking practice to this as

well

and it's not about walking slowly trying

to pay attention to how the foot makes

contact with the earth and all of these

things

it's about mindfully walking

which means you're staying with your

spiritual friend

as you're walking walk at a normal pace

walk you know with your eyes in front of

you so that you're seeing what's going

on so you don't get distracted

but don't get distracted by other things

around you don't get distracted by the

birds don't get distracted by the dogs

or anything else

just walk

and allow the mind to rest in that

feeling of loving kindness

when you're walking normally your mind

is occupied by all kinds of thoughts and

ideas aren't they

there's always some kind of rumination

going on

so what you're doing here is you're

replacing all of that rumination

that process of thinking about this or

that

by letting your mind stay on one object

which is the feeling of loving kindness

to your spiritual friend this is the

walking practice

when you notice you get distracted you

do the same thing

recognize you got distracted

release your attention from that

relax

re-smile and return

keep going

now for those of you who have already

done this practice before and are

radiating in the six directions

what you want to do is start with loving

kindness

and then allow the mind and to

go to compassion joy equanimity and so

on

so always start the practice until i

give you further instructions as we do

the interviews

start with the loving kindness allow the

mind to really

be acquainted with loving kindness

radiating in the different directions

each single individual direction and in

all directions at the same time

and allow the mind to gradually

go into the different brahmaviharas

and of course you know the 6r when you

have the 6r

so

are there any questions

yeah loving kindness is

friendliness loving

is wanting happiness for another

individual

wanting happiness for yourself

and wanting happiness for another

individual compassion is something else

entirely which we'll get into later

but the feeling of compassion sorry the

feeling of meta the feeling of loving

kindness

is the feeling that you have for your

best friend right somebody that you

admire somebody that you see

and when they

you know you you just want the best for

them you always think the best for them

there's no malice

behind your thoughts about them you

always want the best for them

so loving kindness is just

feeling good for yourself wanting good

for yourself

and wanting good for another being

so you start the practice off with

loving-kindness

and we'll talk about the others as we

gradually get okay let's share some

merit

may suffering ones be suffering free may

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief may all beings

share this merit that we have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

many beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

[Music]

recognize when you've become

and let go of your thoughts

relax

[Music]

now return to the peace that this moment

provides

[Music]

and repeat it now recognize

[Music]

so some of you are

new to this practice but regardless

this first piece of advice

is for everyone

now that you are here

and the retreat will start

i want you to take

everything that's on your mind

and leave it in a box

okay

any other kinds of techniques that you

guys have done any kinds of meditation

practices you've done

for the next 10 days

just leave it in a box

and just completely

try this practice

wholeheartedly

the main part of this practice is to

first and foremost keep

smiling

whatever it is that you're doing

keep smiling

when you wake up first thing in the

morning

resolve to yourself the night before

that you will wake up with a smile on

your face

and keep that going

when you wake up resolve the night

before that you will wake up at a

certain time

so if you're going to wake up at let's

say 5 30 try to wake up at 5 25 see how

well the mind is able to wake up

at that time this will be very helpful

at a future period

a couple of

things to take into account this is a

silent retreat

so that means that you want to be

in noble silence

both verbally and

mentally

be practical

if you need to communicate with someone

about something regarding your

let's say you sign up for a yogi job and

you have something that you need to

communicate

obviously communicate that

but don't try to start conversations

keep absolute silence as best as you can

don't even have dhamma discussions

because that is going to get in the way

of your practice and another person's

practice

so keep

your experiences to yourself

now for those of you who haven't done

this practice before i'll give you the

instructions

this is a feeling

based meditation

it's a somatic meditation

which means that

while you are staying with

loving-kindness you're not using

verbal phrases in your mind over and

over again

you're actually feeling the loving

kindness in your heart

in your chest

so when you

start the meditation you want to sit

comfortably

you can sit in a chair you can sit on

the floor on a cushion

keep yourself steady and comfortable

and when you start the meditation keep

your eyes closed start with a little

smile on your face

a little smile in your eyes

on your lips

in your mind and in your heart keep

things relaxed

the smile is very essential because it

allows you to keep things light

here you are on retreat this is not

military camp

there you are on vacation relax take it

easy

enjoy yourself

leave the world behind for the next nine

or ten days

so it starts with the smile

once you have this smile

bring up a wholesome

memory or a wholesome image

so anything that makes you feel uplifted

imagining holding a baby in your arms

and looking at that baby smiling back at

you

or holding a little puppy or a little

kitten

or some kind of memory that you had from

childhood something that makes you feel

uplifted something that

brings up that warm cozy fuzzy feeling

in your

center of your chest

once you feel that

let go of the image

or you can use verbalizations or in

tandem

you could say in your mind may i be

happy may i be well

may i be filled with loving kindness may

i be at peace

allow that to start the process of

loving kindness

once you feel that warmth in your heart

let go of that and let the awareness

your attention

bask in that feeling rarely stay with

that feeling

imagine it like a candle flame that's

just

radiating outward and stay with that

there's nothing else for you to do but

just stay with that feeling just relax

into that feeling

don't push

don't try so hard to bring up the

feeling

don't do anything except

stay with feeling

whatever effort that you think you need

to do

do that by half

and make adjustments accordingly

because there are a couple of things

people do initially

they try too hard

and they try to bring up the feeling and

it causes tightness and tension

which is a manifestation of craving

or they're not able to accept the moment

as it actually is

they're not able to

feel like they deserve loving kindness

they don't feel like they deserve to be

happy

let go of all of those notions and just

stay with the feeling

so you want to stay with this feeling

for at least the first 10 minutes of

the sitting you want to sit for at least

30 minutes

first 10 minutes you're sending

loving-kindness to yourself

then you bring up a spiritual friend

spiritual friend is somebody that is

alive

somebody of the same sex

somebody you admire somebody you think

about

that brings a warm feeling in your heart

somebody that brings a smile

to you

it could be the dalai lama it could be

uh you know nobel prize winner it could

be anybody who you

admire or it could be your best friend

but as long as they are alive and of the

same sex

stick with them just one spiritual

friend

you can if you're a visual person

imagine them in front of you while

you're meditating smiling at you and

them receiving the loving kindness from

you

you have a heart-to-heart connection

you're sending out the feeling of

loving-kindness and they are receiving

it

stay with that feeling

it's more about 80 percent the feeling

and 20

visualizing the spiritual friend

if you're not able to visualize the

spiritual friend

just have them in mind and keep them in

your heart

and know that they are feeling the

loving-kindness as they're basking in it

in your heart

so for the duration of the practice this

is what you do

for the next 20 minutes of that

30-minute sit

and inevitably

you will meet with distractions

it's a part of this meditation

distractions are your friends

distractions are

your teachers

they help you see where your attachments

lie where your aversion lies where your

identification lies

so see them and acknowledge them welcome

them

no problem don't push them away don't

resist them don't do anything with them

there is a way of approaching hindrances

or distractions

that allows you to acknowledge them let

them go

and then develop wisdom

and that is the process of the

six hours

recognize release

relax

re-smile

return and repeat

so what does it mean to be distracted

what does it mean that when a hindrance

is present

when you are with the feeling of

loving-kindness when your awareness is

resting on that loving kindness

you are on your object of meditation you

are meditating

there may be thoughts in the background

little wisps of thoughts and images in

the background

but so long as your awareness is with

the loving kindness

you are fine

you are distracted when your attention

is fully away from the loving kindness

which means now you are thinking about

something else

and your awareness is no longer on

loving-kindness

now it could be that you are

no longer with your spiritual friend no

longer with loving kindness

and you are

in la la land of distractions whatever

those distractions are

and those distractions can last for a

minute two minutes five minutes 10

minutes 30 minutes doesn't matter

however long you've gone away you've

gone away

but the key

is to recognize oh i am no longer on my

object of meditation

this is the first step

recognizing

when you recognize that you are

distracted

now you can release that destruction

when you release that distraction you

relax the tightness

and tension in the mind and body

tightness and tension is a manifestation

of craving

of

what's known in pali as tanha thirst

there's so many different definitions of

craving it's the i like it mind i don't

like it mind

i am this mind or whatever it might be

but it's basically

a

reaction to things

in the present moment

where the mind is discontent with what

is arising

so when you're six houring you're

recognizing your mind got distracted

you're releasing your attention from

that and you're relaxing the body

and what does that feel like

when you clench your fist

there's tightness and tension there

but as soon as you let go

there's relief

this is an intentional practice of

relaxing that tightness in the body

the tightness arises as a result of

reacting

with craving

so that tightness has to be let go of

this is what's known as tranquilizing

formations

when you intentionally relax you are

deconditioning the mind from reacting in

such a way

that it identifies with the process and

gets attached to it

you're de-conditioning your mind from

that

and by relaxing and then re-smiling and

returning which i'll get to you're

reconditioning your reactions into

intelligent wise and compassionate

responses

so you relax the tension

and you come back to the smile

remember you started this meditation off

with a smile

the smile allows your mind to be open

uplifted light

very spacious

this meditation is not about being one

pointed singly focused on one thing

the meditation is more about

this is the object of loving kindness

and this is your awareness

orbiting the loving kindness keeping the

spacious the mind spacious keeping the

awareness

open

so that insights arise so that if

hindrances arise you're able to

recognize them release them relax the

craving

and then come back to the smile now if

you're already smiling that's good if

you're not smiling notice that bring up

the smile

and then return to

return to the loving kindness

that doesn't mean you have to restart it

means

start from wherever you left off before

you got distracted

so if you were staying with your

spiritual friend

stay with your spiritual friend

and then repeat whenever you get

distracted

now it's not like you have to say oh

here i am recognizing here i am

releasing here i am relaxing here i am

re-smiling here i am

returning

just

do it

right

just let it be like a wave

in about three to four seconds you just

recognize release

relax

re-smile

return

and stay with the object of meditation

so this is how you deal with hindrances

this is how you deal with distractions

what you are doing by doing so is

developing wisdom developing clarity

developing

mindfulness

what is mindfulness

you hear this thrown out a lot

mindfully eating mindfully walking

mindfully taking a shower mindfully

doing this and that

what does that mean

oftentimes it's about staying with

whatever it is that you're doing

but here the definition of mindfulness

comes from the original pali for

mindfulness

which is sati

and sati comes from the sanskrit smriti

which means

memory

meaning you are remembering something

you are recalling something and what is

it that you are remembering and

recalling

you are remembering to observe how your

mind's attention moves from one thing to

the other

that's it

so

you're staying with your object of

meditation you're resting your awareness

on the loving kindness

now you observe that it is no longer on

the loving-kindness this is mindfulness

developing this clarity develops wisdom

you're teaching yourself

how your mind works

and in doing so you are reconditioning

the way the mind responds to situations

so we'll get we'll unpack this more as

we go on

in the next nine or ten days

but right now just understand that you

want to keep your mind light you want to

keep your mind uplifted

keep your mind

clear with the smile

stay with the feeling

all throughout the day

now that's the sitting practice

there is a walking practice to this as

well

and it's not about walking slowly trying

to pay attention to how the foot makes

contact with the earth and all of these

things

it's about mindfully walking

which means you're staying with your

spiritual friend

as you're walking walk at a normal pace

walk you know with your eyes in front of

you so that you're seeing what's going

on so you don't get distracted

but don't get distracted by other things

around you don't get distracted by the

birds don't get distracted by the dogs

or anything else

just walk

and allow the mind to rest in that

feeling of loving kindness

when you're walking normally your mind

is occupied by all kinds of thoughts and

ideas aren't they

there's always some kind of rumination

going on

so what you're doing here is you're

replacing all of that rumination

that process of thinking about this or

that

by letting your mind stay on one object

which is the feeling of loving kindness

to your spiritual friend this is the

walking practice

when you notice you get distracted you

do the same thing

recognize you got distracted

release your attention from that

relax

re-smile and return

keep going

now for those of you who have already

done this practice before and are

radiating in the six directions

what you want to do is start with loving

kindness

and then allow the mind and to

go to compassion joy equanimity and so

on

so always start the practice until i

give you further instructions as we do

the interviews

start with the loving kindness allow the

mind to really

be acquainted with loving kindness

radiating in the different directions

each single individual direction and in

all directions at the same time

and allow the mind to gradually

go into the different brahmaviharas

and of course you know the 6r when you

have the 6r

so

are there any questions

yeah loving kindness is

friendliness loving

is wanting happiness for another

individual

wanting happiness for yourself

and wanting happiness for another

individual compassion is something else

entirely which we'll get into later

but the feeling of compassion sorry the

feeling of meta the feeling of loving

kindness

is the feeling that you have for your

best friend right somebody that you

admire somebody that you see

and when they

you know you you just want the best for

them you always think the best for them

there's no malice

behind your thoughts about them you

always want the best for them

so loving kindness is just

feeling good for yourself wanting good

for yourself

and wanting good for another being

so you start the practice off with

loving-kindness

and we'll talk about the others as we

gradually get okay let's share some

merit

may suffering ones be suffering free may

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief may all beings

share this merit that we have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

many beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation