From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ifMKRRzlY6A

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

okay the kind of instructions i'm going

to give you is for loving

kindness meditation

and the reason that i do that instead of

the mindfulness of breathing is because

just about everybody practices

mindfulness of breathing and quite often

people develop bad habits with that

breathing

and it's not following the directions

that are given by the buddha in the

suttas so it's easier just change your

meditation to loving kindness and it

helps open up your heart

when you practice loving-kindness

meditation the first five minutes i want

you to send loving and kind thoughts to

yourself

remember a time when you were happy

and when that happy feeling arises it's

a warm glowing feeling in the center of

your chest

any kind of memory to make that feeling

come up

you know on the retreat there was one

man that said i don't have any memories

that i really felt that kind of feeling

and i asked him

if he ever held a little puppy

and he said yeah i said how did that

make you feel and he said i felt really

good and happy i said that's it

that's the feeling you want

when you get that feeling

then you let go of the memory and just

keep that feeling going it's a happy

feeling

you make a wish

for your own happiness

now it doesn't matter what wish it is

that you make for yourself you want to

feel

the wish

if you know what it feels like to be

peaceful and calm

then make a wish to feel peaceful and

calm and feel that feeling and put that

feeling in your heart

and surround yourself with that feeling

or you will you know what it feels like

to be happy you can take that happy

feeling put it in your heart or joyful

or clear

whatever feeling you want

to wish for yourself if you had a very

active busy day

a feeling of peaceful and calm will help

your mind to

calm down

now

while you do this your mind is going to

wander

you're going to have thoughts coming

it's all right thoughts are not your

enemy

allow the thought to be there as soon as

you recognize that your mind is

distracted simply let go of that

distraction

let it be there by itself don't keep

your attention on it

and then

relax the tension and tightness

caused by that distraction tension and

tightness

occurs in your head

in your brain around your brain

there's

your brain has two lobes like this

and there's a

membrane that goes around both of those

lobes it's called the meninges

every time there's any kind of

distraction

that contracts a little bit

it gets tight and what you want to do is

recognize

that and let it go

when you let it go you'll feel like

there's a slight expansion that happens

in your head

right after you relax that you'll notice

that your mind is very peaceful

your mind is very alert and there's no

thoughts

at this time your mind is pure

bring that pure mind back to your object

of meditation

the feeling of loving kindness that

radiating happy feeling and then make

another wish for your own happiness put

that feeling in your heart and radiate

that feeling to yourself

it doesn't matter how many times your

mind pulls your attention away

as soon as you recognize it let it be

relax

smile a little bit

and come back to your object of

meditation

now this is a smiling meditation

and the reason that i want you to smile

is because they found out that when the

corners of your mouth go up so does your

mental state

when the corners of your mouth go down

so does your mental state

so put a little smile on your lips

a smile in your eyes even though your

eyes are closed you'll find out that a

lot of tension is released when you do

that

smile in your mind

smile in your heart

that's what smiling is

it's not just

a smile on the lips

you want to feel that happy feeling

if your mind wanders away 25 times in

the sitting and 25 times you recognize

it you let it be you relax you smile a

little bit and come back to your

objective meditation that is a good

meditation

it's not

a quiet meditation

it's an active meditation but it is a

good meditation because

every time you let go of a distracting

thought

and relax and come back to your object

of meditation

it's improving your mindfulness

it's approving improving your

observation

power

of how mind's attention becomes

distracted

when you're sitting in meditation please

do not move your body

don't wiggle your toes don't wiggle your

fingers don't scratch don't rub don't

rock back and forth don't change your

posture

you can move as much as he does

okay

so you sit very still

and when your attention goes to some

kind of sensation it can be a sensation

of

itching

a sensation of wanting to cough that

little tickle in your throat

the sensation of

it can be burning it can be painful it

can be any kind of sensation like that

as soon as your mind goes to that

sensation the first thing you do is

notice

that your mind is thinking

about that sensation

why does it have to come now why doesn't

it just go away

why does it have to bother my meditation

right now

so what you want to do is first let go

of your thinking about

the feeling

and relax slightly

next you'll notice there is a tight

mental fist wrapped around that feeling

you don't want it there

you want it to go away and the more you

don't want that sensation there the

bigger and more intense it becomes

now the truth is

when a sensation arises

it's there

and it's okay for it to be there why

because that's the truth when it's there

it's there

you have to be able to allow that

sensation to be there by itself

now

relax the tension and tightness caused

by that

smile and come back to your object of

meditation

now the nature of these kind of

sensations is that they don't go away

right away

so your mind will bounce back with it

fine

let go of the thoughts relax

allow the feeling to be there relax

smile and come back to your object of

meditation

as this happens over and over again you

start to be more and more familiar with

how that sensation rose

your mind was on your object of

meditation all of a sudden it's on this

itch or it's on this pain

how did it get there

it didn't get there

and just jump there

there is a process that happens

and it's very it is recognizable once

you get used to how your mind's

attention moves from one thing to

another

so you want to try to see how the

process works

not why does it have happen

not getting involved with trying to

control it

just observe

how this process works

relax into it smile and come back to

your object of meditation

after about five minutes then you send

loving and kind thoughts to a spiritual

friend the spiritual friend is a person

of the same sex

and they are

alive a spiritual friend is someone that

when you think of them and their good

qualities you deeply respect them

and you sincerely wish them well

so

you're radiating loving kindness to

yourself at right at five minutes and

then

you think of your spiritual friend

as i feel this happiness i wish this for

you

may you be happy

they have to be alive

and it needs to be a person of the same

sex

and then you continue on and try to see

them in your mind's eye

don't put too much emphasis on

being able to visualize that person some

people are very good at visualizing

seeing pictures when they close their

eyes other people are not the way they

visualize is with words

either way is fine

so what you want to do is

continue on

with your meditation

stay with your spiritual friend every

time there's a distraction let go of the

distraction come back to your spiritual

friend and smiling

when you picture your spirit spiritual

friend see them smiling and happy

that can help remind you to be smiling

and happy to

okay

so

the first five minutes send loving and

kind thoughts to your spiritual or to

yourself excuse me in the next 10

minutes send it to your spiritual friend

same spiritual friend the whole time

you

okay the kind of instructions i'm going

to give you is for loving

kindness meditation

and the reason that i do that instead of

the mindfulness of breathing is because

just about everybody practices

mindfulness of breathing and quite often

people develop bad habits with that

breathing

and it's not following the directions

that are given by the buddha in the

suttas so it's easier just change your

meditation to loving kindness and it

helps open up your heart

when you practice loving-kindness

meditation the first five minutes i want

you to send loving and kind thoughts to

yourself

remember a time when you were happy

and when that happy feeling arises it's

a warm glowing feeling in the center of

your chest

any kind of memory to make that feeling

come up

you know on the retreat there was one

man that said i don't have any memories

that i really felt that kind of feeling

and i asked him

if he ever held a little puppy

and he said yeah i said how did that

make you feel and he said i felt really

good and happy i said that's it

that's the feeling you want

when you get that feeling

then you let go of the memory and just

keep that feeling going it's a happy

feeling

you make a wish

for your own happiness

now it doesn't matter what wish it is

that you make for yourself you want to

feel

the wish

if you know what it feels like to be

peaceful and calm

then make a wish to feel peaceful and

calm and feel that feeling and put that

feeling in your heart

and surround yourself with that feeling

or you will you know what it feels like

to be happy you can take that happy

feeling put it in your heart or joyful

or clear

whatever feeling you want

to wish for yourself if you had a very

active busy day

a feeling of peaceful and calm will help

your mind to

calm down

now

while you do this your mind is going to

wander

you're going to have thoughts coming

it's all right thoughts are not your

enemy

allow the thought to be there as soon as

you recognize that your mind is

distracted simply let go of that

distraction

let it be there by itself don't keep

your attention on it

and then

relax the tension and tightness

caused by that distraction tension and

tightness

occurs in your head

in your brain around your brain

there's

your brain has two lobes like this

and there's a

membrane that goes around both of those

lobes it's called the meninges

every time there's any kind of

distraction

that contracts a little bit

it gets tight and what you want to do is

recognize

that and let it go

when you let it go you'll feel like

there's a slight expansion that happens

in your head

right after you relax that you'll notice

that your mind is very peaceful

your mind is very alert and there's no

thoughts

at this time your mind is pure

bring that pure mind back to your object

of meditation

the feeling of loving kindness that

radiating happy feeling and then make

another wish for your own happiness put

that feeling in your heart and radiate

that feeling to yourself

it doesn't matter how many times your

mind pulls your attention away

as soon as you recognize it let it be

relax

smile a little bit

and come back to your object of

meditation

now this is a smiling meditation

and the reason that i want you to smile

is because they found out that when the

corners of your mouth go up so does your

mental state

when the corners of your mouth go down

so does your mental state

so put a little smile on your lips

a smile in your eyes even though your

eyes are closed you'll find out that a

lot of tension is released when you do

that

smile in your mind

smile in your heart

that's what smiling is

it's not just

a smile on the lips

you want to feel that happy feeling

if your mind wanders away 25 times in

the sitting and 25 times you recognize

it you let it be you relax you smile a

little bit and come back to your

objective meditation that is a good

meditation

it's not

a quiet meditation

it's an active meditation but it is a

good meditation because

every time you let go of a distracting

thought

and relax and come back to your object

of meditation

it's improving your mindfulness

it's approving improving your

observation

power

of how mind's attention becomes

distracted

when you're sitting in meditation please

do not move your body

don't wiggle your toes don't wiggle your

fingers don't scratch don't rub don't

rock back and forth don't change your

posture

you can move as much as he does

okay

so you sit very still

and when your attention goes to some

kind of sensation it can be a sensation

of

itching

a sensation of wanting to cough that

little tickle in your throat

the sensation of

it can be burning it can be painful it

can be any kind of sensation like that

as soon as your mind goes to that

sensation the first thing you do is

notice

that your mind is thinking

about that sensation

why does it have to come now why doesn't

it just go away

why does it have to bother my meditation

right now

so what you want to do is first let go

of your thinking about

the feeling

and relax slightly

next you'll notice there is a tight

mental fist wrapped around that feeling

you don't want it there

you want it to go away and the more you

don't want that sensation there the

bigger and more intense it becomes

now the truth is

when a sensation arises

it's there

and it's okay for it to be there why

because that's the truth when it's there

it's there

you have to be able to allow that

sensation to be there by itself

now

relax the tension and tightness caused

by that

smile and come back to your object of

meditation

now the nature of these kind of

sensations is that they don't go away

right away

so your mind will bounce back with it

fine

let go of the thoughts relax

allow the feeling to be there relax

smile and come back to your object of

meditation

as this happens over and over again you

start to be more and more familiar with

how that sensation rose

your mind was on your object of

meditation all of a sudden it's on this

itch or it's on this pain

how did it get there

it didn't get there

and just jump there

there is a process that happens

and it's very it is recognizable once

you get used to how your mind's

attention moves from one thing to

another

so you want to try to see how the

process works

not why does it have happen

not getting involved with trying to

control it

just observe

how this process works

relax into it smile and come back to

your object of meditation

after about five minutes then you send

loving and kind thoughts to a spiritual

friend the spiritual friend is a person

of the same sex

and they are

alive a spiritual friend is someone that

when you think of them and their good

qualities you deeply respect them

and you sincerely wish them well

so

you're radiating loving kindness to

yourself at right at five minutes and

then

you think of your spiritual friend

as i feel this happiness i wish this for

you

may you be happy

they have to be alive

and it needs to be a person of the same

sex

and then you continue on and try to see

them in your mind's eye

don't put too much emphasis on

being able to visualize that person some

people are very good at visualizing

seeing pictures when they close their

eyes other people are not the way they

visualize is with words

either way is fine

so what you want to do is

continue on

with your meditation

stay with your spiritual friend every

time there's a distraction let go of the

distraction come back to your spiritual

friend and smiling

when you picture your spirit spiritual

friend see them smiling and happy

that can help remind you to be smiling

and happy to

okay

so

the first five minutes send loving and

kind thoughts to your spiritual or to

yourself excuse me in the next 10

minutes send it to your spiritual friend

same spiritual friend the whole time

you