From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gqm_76gGAmc

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

if you're wondering why I have different

colors on my road this road is 15 years

old I use it every day in history to get

we had to replace the panel

how many people in here have practice

meditation

can anybody here give me a definition of

what meditation is

quietly

everybody else

practicing concentration that's called

producing thoughtful encouraging

awareness

okay I'm gonna give you a definition

meditation is

about ready to give another definition

meditation is watching how my attention

moves from one thing to another and

seeing that as an impersonal process it

sounds like a lot and I'll explain it in

just a moment

there is basically two kinds of

meditation that are being taught in the

world 95 or 98 percent of the meditation

that's being taught is a one pointed

absorption kind of meditation I don't

teach that act I teach a serenity

insight kind of meditate

I also teach you to laugh and smile very

much

now what's the difference between

absorption concentration and serenity

and safe meditation most people when

they're practicing meditation their mind

is on the object of meditation I don't

care whether if you're looking at a

candle or you have your breath or you're

practicing a mantra or whatever that

happens to be your mind is on your

object of meditation and there is a

distraction the distraction can be a

sound or thoughts whatever when you're

practicing absorption concentration you

let go of that distraction and

immediately come back to your object of

meditation is that the way most of your

practicing okay

this is an absorption kind of

concentration I also call it one

pointedness what happens when you do

that and you start to go deep into your

practice your mind starts to focus very

deeply just on one thing and what

happens after that is you start

experiencing very strong tranquility a

lot of peace that sort of thing

if somebody comes and walks into the

room and makes a noise it makes you

start off now with the one pointed

concentration what happens when you're

doing this is the force of the

concentration stops things from rising

when you get to a certain glow now the

things that it stops from arising in

Buddhism we call these hindrances

there's five entrances must I wanted my

hatred diversion I don't want it

sleepiness and dullness restlessness and

anxiety and doubt these five hindrances

when they arrive they stop you from

meditating that's why they're called

hindrances okay

when you practice one pointed

concentration the force of the

concentration stops these from arising

so your mind doesn't have any

distraction

now what is the difference between what

I'm showing you right now and this one

pointed concentration these serenity

meditation your mind is on your object

of meditation and it gets distracted st.

you let go of the distraction that's the

same now you add one extra step in your

meditation and that is releasing the

tension and tightness in your mind and

in your body when you relax that tension

and tightness in your mind and in your

body you are letting go of what the

Buddha called

craving craving always manifests as

tension and tightness in your mind and

in your body by adding this one extra

step in your meditation

it changes your entire meditation it

stops from going like this to being a

more and more aware of everything else

that's around you I know these kinds of

meditations very intimately have been

practicing meditation

five years and the first 20 years I was

practicing a form of one-pointed

concentration when I was told to do the

meditation they never mentioned anything

about the tension and tightness that

happens in your mind and in your body

you see we keep on going like this in

your brain you have to lowers everybody

knows this now there's a membrane that

goes around each load and where these

membranes come together they get stuck

and that's what you can call attachment

when you practice let's say mindfulness

of breathing you're told

put your attention on your nostril tip

or your upper lip or put your attention

on your abdomen it doesn't matter where

they say to put it but you focus very

deeply just on the sensation of the

breath when the Buddha started talking I

started teaching the meditation he gave

very clear instructions and the last

part of the instructions are the key to

the Buddhist meditation

the first sentence of the instructions

it says

when the meditator brings in long he

understands he breathes in love and when

he breathes out loud he understands I

breathed out long the second it says you

understand when you breathe in short and

you understand when you breathe out

short this is the instructions of the

Buddha gate

this is the breathing mindfulness of

breathing practice did you hear me say

nostril tip upper lip following the

breath all the way in and all the way

out or abdomen no because that's not in

the instruction the key word in the

instruction right here is you understand

that means you know when you take a long

breath then when you take a short breath

you know when it's fast and when it's

slow you know when it's deep and when a

cello you know what the breath is doing

but it doesn't stay focused on the day

the actual part of the meditation comes

now

that was the preliminary part it says he

trains thus he's talking of two monks

when he says this that's why he said he

the meditator trains those on the

in-breath you experience the entire body

doesn't say a body of breath the entire

physical body on the out-breath to

experience the entire physical body now

this is the interesting one the

meditator trains thus I shall breathe in

tranquilizing the bodily for nation

shall breathe out tranquilizing the

bottling formation

what does that mean now when I was in

age of the bodily deformation was very

clear to people from the top of your

head down I come back to this country

and people tell me that their body is

from here down and mind is from here up

but that's not true this is part of your

body do now getting back to the brain

and how this works

that with this membrane that comes

around your brain every time there is

any kind of disturbance the sound

thought the sensation that arises in the

body anytime there's something that

pulls your mind away from your object of

meditation this contracts and you're so

used to it having a contraction around

your brain that you don't really notice

it everybody here has tightness in their

head right now and they don't notice it

you have to intentionally look for this

tightness and relax it

when you do that you'll find that your

mind becomes exceptionally clear

exceptionally bright and pure why is

that because that tension and tightness

in your head around your brain is

craving you need to be able to recognize

this craving

when you let go of the tension and

tightness in your head you feel your

mind you feel the tension release and

there's kind of an expanded feeling very

pleasant actually

and then you notice that you don't have

any thoughts you don't have any

distractions you just have this pure

mind and you bring that mind back to

your object of meditation so this is a

very important step to add to your

meditation and a lot of people they kind

of grumble and say well I'm doing this

man

for so long that means I'm going it

wrong if I didn't have this extra step

no you were just doing this other kind

of meditation and I'm trying to

encourage you to try relaxing the

tension and tightness and see what

happens for yourself

now we have

I'll finish with the instructions on the

in-breath to tranquilize the bodily

formation type this around your brain on

the out-breath you tranquilize your

bottle information the tightness around

your brain any kind of distraction that

holds your mind away from the breath and

relaxing then you let go of that

distraction how do you let go of the

distraction say it's a thought how do

you let go over the top by pushing it

away by trying to force it to stop that

doesn't work

you've noticed that your mind is

thinking this or that the content of the

thought doesn't matter you don't keep

your attention on that you let that

thought be there and think itself now

you relax the tension and tightness

caused by that thought and you're going

to love this one I teach people to smile

when you're sitting in meditation I want

you to smile and you need to bring up a

smile and come back to the breath and

relax it and repeating this over and

over again what's the big deal about a

smile well there's a lot of tests that

are being done right now on smiling and

laughing they're finding out that

there's all kinds of wonderful things

that happen in your body and in your

mind when you do this years and years

ago there was a test I think it was

University of Minnesota I'm not sure but

it's been so long ago I can't remember

positively that they didn't test on the

corners of your mouth when the corners

of your mouth go down so that your

mental state when the corners of your

mouth go up so does your mental state

what's the point of learning and

meditation where your crowning creating

two cuts in your mind and in your body

what's the point of doing that that's

exactly the opposite of what you want

from the meditation you want this to

happen you want to be able to let go of

things I teach loving-kindness

meditation loving-kindness meditation is

very interesting because you're

radiating a happy feeling for someone

else to explain depth and a bit

I tell everyone that the meditation is a

smiling meditation and an interesting

thing about meditation is that it's not

just about sitting like a rock moving

meditation is watching how minds and

tension moves from one thing to another

now

when you add a smile into this you start

to develop a habit of having a light

night and eventually joy starts arising

okay so you want to do that's nice to

have joy every now and then but joy is a

mental factor that's really important in

your daily life as well as in your city

when you have joy in your mind your mind

is very uplifted and your mind is very

alert and their mind is very agile so

you can see when you start to have

thoughts that pull that feeling down and

you get caught in the mud so the more

you develop having an uplifted mind the

easier it is to recognize when you're

getting caught by an attachment what is

an attachment

attachment is any kind of thought or

sensation that arises that you take

personally what do I mean by take it

personally you're sitting or you're

walking around and all of a sudden you

get angry whose anger is that it's fine

I'm mad I don't like this did you ask

that anger to arise is it yours really

or is it because conditions were right

to have anger correct

what you do is what happens in the

present moment dictates what happens in

the future this is karma

anytime you try to fight with the truth

the truth is when I'm angry I'm angry

right anger is there that's the truth

anytime you try to control the truth

anytime you try to make the truth being

anything other than it is you can look

forward to a lot of suffering

why because I'm Matt who's Matt ah who's

Matt whose anger is its mine and it

hurts

now somebody says something to you and

you have anger or rice and then you take

their anger and you make it your anger

and then you throw it back up now you're

at war you're fighting

and you start saying something that at

the same time that this other person

taught is talking to you you don't hear

what they say because you're paying

attention to what you say now this goes

on for a little while and they

eventually they mean what happens in

your mind what do you think about what

they said what I said what I should have

said I'm right they are wrong

and a little while later just packets on

a tape deck same bucks same order same

words now when you have anger and you

are identifying with that anger and

you're thinking about what they said and

what you said and all the rest and you

get into a car and you start to drive

are you driving how do you think

accidents happen

but you're not paying attention to what

you're doing while you're doing it

because you're thinking about something

else and your mind is a thousand miles

away you're not really paying attention

now I'm going to give you a definition

for compassion compassion is see another

person in me allowing them to have their

own pain give them the space to have

their own pain and love them

unconditionally

so somebody comes up to you and they're

angry and they start saying things that

are rather hurtful you can take that

pain make it your pain and throw it back

and be at war or not it's your choice

when you start to look at somebody else

that's angry you start to see how much

pain they are experiencing you know what

it's like to be angry your blood

pressure gets up and you get red in the

face sometimes you even get black you

get so angry and all of your muscles are

tense and tight and you're not really

conscious of that they see and later you

wish oh I shouldn't said that that

person that was really lean but it's

already gone now you have guilt on top

now when you see somebody else is angry

and you recognize them as being

suffering the way they are and do allow

them the space to be angry but you don't

pay attention to what they're saying

because it's all rubbish anyway you

start sending them kind and loving

thoughts it takes two to tango it takes

two to fight if there's only one person

fighting that fight goes away pretty

quickly

then one of two things will happen

either they will walk away shaking their

head grumbling and you know how painful

that is

or they'll settle down then you can

start discussing what the problem is

either way when they walk away your mind

is alert your mind is ready for whatever

else there is that's going to happen

when you hold onto your anger that

you've been fighting with going back and

forth the next person you see what do

you talk about what a turkey that person

was how much you dislike them how much

you disagree with them and that type

mind is incredibly painful

everybody you see the rest of the day

you start going leaping alone I'm in a

bad mood I don't want to be doing any of

this stuff leave me and you you're not

very compassionate towards anybody else

especially yourself and then you get

home at night and you tell everybody in

your family that they don't want to talk

leave me alone I just want to go lay

down and go to bed but your sleep isn't

very good you wind up tossing and

turning and then you wake up the next

day groggy now there you can hold a

grudge because of some anger the point

what I know one lady that could hold a

grudge for two weeks she made everybody

else around her supper because she held

a grudge because of something that

happened two weeks ago

when you add this extra step of relaxing

and letting you know that tension

and tightness and you get this mind is

very bright and very clear and pure and

you come back and smile and you stay

with your object of meditation when

you're doing your daily activities

whatever you're doing at the time but

the smile is absolutely important the

more you can smile into what we're doing

the more uplifted your mind become the

more uplifted your mind becomes the

easier it is to recognize when it gets

pulled down and you went won't get

caught for as long

see the Buddha was very much interested

in teaching universal truths

and one of the universal truths that he

taught is called right effort right

effort is this there's four parts

recognizing when your mind has an

unwholesome state in letting go of that

unwholesome state and relaxing bringing

up a wholesome state what's awesome

state Smike

and if you're sitting in meditation your

object of meditation and keeping that

meditation keeping your mind smiling all

the time or as much as you can the

buddha was very much interested in

showing us how to have an uplifted mind

all the time there's a word that is

going around and that has been for as

long as I've been meditating and has

used a lot with a lot of different

teachers be mindful

what's it

what's it mean to be mindful we all use

a word we've all heard the word right

what's it mean

being mindful means remembering to

observe how my attention goes from one

thing to another

that's mindfulness remembering to

observe doesn't have anything with

anything to do with changing anything

for making anything different it's just

observing your city and all of a sudden

sadness arises the new aspects happens

to arrives

they came up because it was time for it

to come up conditions were right for it

about there is an attachment now

the question with meditation is not why

did this sadness arise we don't care

about the content of a feeling when it

arises or an emotion I should say what

we're doing is we're starting to observe

how your mind went from being on your

object of meditation to being said how

did that happen

not why did it happen not getting

involved in trying to control not trying

to force anything away this is just

observing this I was over here and now

I'm over there how did that occur now

we're made up of five different things

we have a physical body we have feeling

I'm not talking about emotion feeling is

pleasant feeling a painful feeling and

neither painful nor pleasant feeling

that's all it is then we have perception

perception is the part of the mind names

things you look at this and your mind

says that's let's cut

that's a glass that part of your mind

that named it is perception

it also has memory involved

you have thoughts and you have

consciousness now when a painful feeling

arises it doesn't matter whether it's a

physical painful feeling or a mental

painful feel

our habit is to try to think the feeling

away

I don't like this evidence or this pain

physical sensation I don't like it I

don't want it to be there every thought

about the feeling makes the feeling

bigger and more intense today we have an

amazing amount of people in our culture

that's taking drugs for depression

how does depression work painful feeling

arises there's the perception of that

painful feeling the naming of it and

then there's these thoughts wishes

was feeling

why doesn't it just go away and leave me

alone now the more you have thoughts

about that feeling the bigger and more

intense that feeling becomes until it

turns it into an emergency and you can't

stand it and you need to do something

about it what our culture says right now

is take drugs that's what you need and

then you walk around spaced out for a

little while cause you took some drugs

that have these side effects that aren't

really very nice rather than to look at

how this process works

dealing arose right after the feeling

there is craving and can indict this

this is the I like it I don't like it

much when it's a pleasant feeling I like

when it's an unpleasant feeling I don't

like but it's his tightness right after

that we have what arises is called

clinging

clinging is all of your thoughts all of

your opinions all of your ideas all of

your concepts all of your stories about

why you don't like that deal right after

that you have your habitual tendency

every time this kind of feeling arises I

have these thoughts I always treated in

the same way and then you have a birth

of action of trying to push your way and

then you have sorrow and lamentation and

pain and grief and despair and that's

suffering why does this arise like that

because that's the true nature of

everyone's mind and what our habitual

tendency is is to try to think feeling

the feelings are one thing and thoughts

are something else

never the to show me so what do we do we

have this painful feeling we have this

craving arise we have all of these

thoughts about the first thing you do is

you let the thoughts be

you don't keep your attention on the

content of the thoughts that those

thoughts be there by themselves

then you'll notice that there's a tight

mental fist wrapped around that feeling

it's a painful feeling that I don't like

okay it's a painful feeling but the

truth is when a painful feeling arises

it's there that's the truth anytime you

try to control the truth make the truth

be anything other than it is and you try

to change the truth you can look forward

to more and more suffering that feeling

gets bigger and more intense because

you're trying to control a feeling with

bugs and you're trying to control your

concepts about that feeling and how it's

yours and you don't like it with this

cleaning so you need to allow the space

for that painful

to be there it's alright for that

painful feeling to be there it has to be

alright because that's the truth now you

see this tension and tightness in your

head in your mind and in your body

and you relax

now bring up a smile and come back to

your object of meditation if you're

sitting loving-kindness or mindfulness

of breathing whatever it doesn't matter

and stay with that

this process works for everybody in the

world if you're a human being it works

for everybody in exactly the same way

that was one of the real revelations

that I have please don't sit like that

this is one of the revelations I had

when I was in Egypt it's not Asians

everybody's mind works the same way is

it that we're human beings

there is no different

painful feeling arises craving horizons

cleaning arises habitual tendency arises

birth of action arises and all of the

pain and sorrow and lamentation arises

after that how do you let go of this

process how do you let go of this pain

by allowing the space for that pain to

be there without resisting it you see

the Buddha found out something that was

really really

and that is you need to lovingly accept

what arises in the present moment it

doesn't matter whether it's painful or

not and that means letting go of that

tension and tightness in your head when

people are practicing absorption

concentration and one-pointed

concentration let's say I have a ball in

my hand where somebody throws me a ball

that's better

and I catch it and I let it go that's

like letting go of the clinging all of

your thoughts and opinions but they're

still tension holding those hand up

that is like letting go of the craving

so how do you do that how do you let go

of crazy first you have to recognize

what it is and where it is it always

manifested when you get into the habit

of relaxing the tension and tightness

all of the tension in the rest of your

body starts to disappear

okay

it sounds pretty good so far huh

one of the reasons that I really like to

teach loving-kindness meditation is

because the smiling is so very important

you have to put a little bit of smile

while you're sitting but the smile is

not only here the smile is in your eyes

you'd be surprised how much tension you

hold in your eyes and you let that go

and smile with your eyes you smile with

your mind you smile it's not just this

although this even when you don't feel

like smiling and you smile it has

definite advantages to it this is stupid

I have not got a smile

now there's another part of this and

that is when you have a real attachment

really angry at somebody if you see how

attached your mind is and how dumb it is

to be attached to this anger is not even

yours and you laugh with yourself

you go from I've met and I don't like it

too

it's only this anger you see the

difference I am that it's only that okay

when you laugh at how crazy your mind

can be welcome to the human race we all

freezing and it's okay to be crazy when

you laugh it changes your perspective

from a personal perspective I am that to

an impersonal perspective it's only that

and nobody wants to really hold on to

that kind of an unwholesome state so you

go okay well let it go we don't need

that one I've had students that have

come to me and they were going through

heavy-duty emotional stuff and they come

crying and it's not it doesn't matter

whether it's a man or a woman they come

crying and they're they're nervous and

are anxious and oh this is a most

terrible thing and they say well okay

why don't you smile into it I'm not

gonna do that and you know their

suffering and their attachment to that

makes me laugh and when I start laughing

then they start laughing and all of a

sudden they're not attached to it

anymore they've let go of that suffering

they've let go over that pain we need

did mine this is really important now

I've gone to a lot of meditation

retreats I've done oh I think it's

somewhere between 12 and 15 I really

honestly don't know the number because

it's not important enough to remember

three months retreats I did an eight

month retreat this is silent retreat I

did it two year retreat the only person

that I ever talked to was the teacher I

didn't talk to anybody else

when I started noticing that people are

practicing meditation and you see them

sitting very tight job brownies I go up

to them and I go anybody home

why are you causing yourself I love this

country

why are you trying so hard see this

stuff is simple

smile more black mark you have this

uplifted mind you have a mind that's

really alert and light starts to be more

and more fun the kind of meditation that

I'm showing you right now has this

relaxed step in it and then you use that

relaxed step over and over again you are

letting go of the craving the cause of

the suffering you see all through the

store here you see a hand that's going

like this

that's the Buddha's hand sometimes

there's a implement and sometimes

there's not but when they're going like

this what the Buddha was talking about

is there is suffering there is suffering

in life does anybody not agree with that

so this is a universal trip there is

suffering he didn't focus on this I

freaking you just staining yeah

sometimes it's

there's a cause of suffering what's the

cause of suffering craving that tension

and tightness in your head and in your

mind

and when you relax that the third noble

truth is there is the cessation of

craving and the fourth noble truth

there's a way to practice

every time you smile you are practicing

the entire Eightfold Path at that time

every time you let go of that craving

you are practicing the entire Eightfold

Path at that time simple the stuff is I

didn't say it was easy

hmm there's a difference especially when

you have an intention now I told you

before about the five hindrances that

arise the greedy mind that the aversion

- dull minds maybe mine restless mind

anxious mind doubtful mind these arise

because in our past we broke precepts

what are the precepts the first precept

is I undertake to abstain from killing

or harming living beings on purpose I

undertake the precept to abstain from

taking what is not given

I undertake the precept to abstain from

wrong sexual activity that needs a

little discussion in 20 minutes I

undertake the precept to abstain from

telling lights slandering which means

dividing one group from another this is

the one that this next one is very

important because I hear it so much on

TV you can't see if I can't see a movie

without it happening you can't listen to

the radio without it happening and

people walk around cursing all the time

you abstain from cursing why

what kind of mind are you developing

when you curse at a Virgin Money you

start using speech that is very pleasant

and kind

refrain from cursing and the last part

of this precept is you abstain from

gossip let's gossip talking about

somebody when they're not there and

making up stories about it

the last one there's going to be some

resistance not taking any drugs or

alcohol but a glass of wine

dollar day I can tell you I have 2

if you're wondering why I have different

colors on my road this road is 15 years

old I use it every day in history to get

we had to replace the panel

how many people in here have practice

meditation

can anybody here give me a definition of

what meditation is

quietly

everybody else

practicing concentration that's called

producing thoughtful encouraging

awareness

okay I'm gonna give you a definition

meditation is

about ready to give another definition

meditation is watching how my attention

moves from one thing to another and

seeing that as an impersonal process it

sounds like a lot and I'll explain it in

just a moment

there is basically two kinds of

meditation that are being taught in the

world 95 or 98 percent of the meditation

that's being taught is a one pointed

absorption kind of meditation I don't

teach that act I teach a serenity

insight kind of meditate

I also teach you to laugh and smile very

much

now what's the difference between

absorption concentration and serenity

and safe meditation most people when

they're practicing meditation their mind

is on the object of meditation I don't

care whether if you're looking at a

candle or you have your breath or you're

practicing a mantra or whatever that

happens to be your mind is on your

object of meditation and there is a

distraction the distraction can be a

sound or thoughts whatever when you're

practicing absorption concentration you

let go of that distraction and

immediately come back to your object of

meditation is that the way most of your

practicing okay

this is an absorption kind of

concentration I also call it one

pointedness what happens when you do

that and you start to go deep into your

practice your mind starts to focus very

deeply just on one thing and what

happens after that is you start

experiencing very strong tranquility a

lot of peace that sort of thing

if somebody comes and walks into the

room and makes a noise it makes you

start off now with the one pointed

concentration what happens when you're

doing this is the force of the

concentration stops things from rising

when you get to a certain glow now the

things that it stops from arising in

Buddhism we call these hindrances

there's five entrances must I wanted my

hatred diversion I don't want it

sleepiness and dullness restlessness and

anxiety and doubt these five hindrances

when they arrive they stop you from

meditating that's why they're called

hindrances okay

when you practice one pointed

concentration the force of the

concentration stops these from arising

so your mind doesn't have any

distraction

now what is the difference between what

I'm showing you right now and this one

pointed concentration these serenity

meditation your mind is on your object

of meditation and it gets distracted st.

you let go of the distraction that's the

same now you add one extra step in your

meditation and that is releasing the

tension and tightness in your mind and

in your body when you relax that tension

and tightness in your mind and in your

body you are letting go of what the

Buddha called

craving craving always manifests as

tension and tightness in your mind and

in your body by adding this one extra

step in your meditation

it changes your entire meditation it

stops from going like this to being a

more and more aware of everything else

that's around you I know these kinds of

meditations very intimately have been

practicing meditation

five years and the first 20 years I was

practicing a form of one-pointed

concentration when I was told to do the

meditation they never mentioned anything

about the tension and tightness that

happens in your mind and in your body

you see we keep on going like this in

your brain you have to lowers everybody

knows this now there's a membrane that

goes around each load and where these

membranes come together they get stuck

and that's what you can call attachment

when you practice let's say mindfulness

of breathing you're told

put your attention on your nostril tip

or your upper lip or put your attention

on your abdomen it doesn't matter where

they say to put it but you focus very

deeply just on the sensation of the

breath when the Buddha started talking I

started teaching the meditation he gave

very clear instructions and the last

part of the instructions are the key to

the Buddhist meditation

the first sentence of the instructions

it says

when the meditator brings in long he

understands he breathes in love and when

he breathes out loud he understands I

breathed out long the second it says you

understand when you breathe in short and

you understand when you breathe out

short this is the instructions of the

Buddha gate

this is the breathing mindfulness of

breathing practice did you hear me say

nostril tip upper lip following the

breath all the way in and all the way

out or abdomen no because that's not in

the instruction the key word in the

instruction right here is you understand

that means you know when you take a long

breath then when you take a short breath

you know when it's fast and when it's

slow you know when it's deep and when a

cello you know what the breath is doing

but it doesn't stay focused on the day

the actual part of the meditation comes

now

that was the preliminary part it says he

trains thus he's talking of two monks

when he says this that's why he said he

the meditator trains those on the

in-breath you experience the entire body

doesn't say a body of breath the entire

physical body on the out-breath to

experience the entire physical body now

this is the interesting one the

meditator trains thus I shall breathe in

tranquilizing the bodily for nation

shall breathe out tranquilizing the

bottling formation

what does that mean now when I was in

age of the bodily deformation was very

clear to people from the top of your

head down I come back to this country

and people tell me that their body is

from here down and mind is from here up

but that's not true this is part of your

body do now getting back to the brain

and how this works

that with this membrane that comes

around your brain every time there is

any kind of disturbance the sound

thought the sensation that arises in the

body anytime there's something that

pulls your mind away from your object of

meditation this contracts and you're so

used to it having a contraction around

your brain that you don't really notice

it everybody here has tightness in their

head right now and they don't notice it

you have to intentionally look for this

tightness and relax it

when you do that you'll find that your

mind becomes exceptionally clear

exceptionally bright and pure why is

that because that tension and tightness

in your head around your brain is

craving you need to be able to recognize

this craving

when you let go of the tension and

tightness in your head you feel your

mind you feel the tension release and

there's kind of an expanded feeling very

pleasant actually

and then you notice that you don't have

any thoughts you don't have any

distractions you just have this pure

mind and you bring that mind back to

your object of meditation so this is a

very important step to add to your

meditation and a lot of people they kind

of grumble and say well I'm doing this

man

for so long that means I'm going it

wrong if I didn't have this extra step

no you were just doing this other kind

of meditation and I'm trying to

encourage you to try relaxing the

tension and tightness and see what

happens for yourself

now we have

I'll finish with the instructions on the

in-breath to tranquilize the bodily

formation type this around your brain on

the out-breath you tranquilize your

bottle information the tightness around

your brain any kind of distraction that

holds your mind away from the breath and

relaxing then you let go of that

distraction how do you let go of the

distraction say it's a thought how do

you let go over the top by pushing it

away by trying to force it to stop that

doesn't work

you've noticed that your mind is

thinking this or that the content of the

thought doesn't matter you don't keep

your attention on that you let that

thought be there and think itself now

you relax the tension and tightness

caused by that thought and you're going

to love this one I teach people to smile

when you're sitting in meditation I want

you to smile and you need to bring up a

smile and come back to the breath and

relax it and repeating this over and

over again what's the big deal about a

smile well there's a lot of tests that

are being done right now on smiling and

laughing they're finding out that

there's all kinds of wonderful things

that happen in your body and in your

mind when you do this years and years

ago there was a test I think it was

University of Minnesota I'm not sure but

it's been so long ago I can't remember

positively that they didn't test on the

corners of your mouth when the corners

of your mouth go down so that your

mental state when the corners of your

mouth go up so does your mental state

what's the point of learning and

meditation where your crowning creating

two cuts in your mind and in your body

what's the point of doing that that's

exactly the opposite of what you want

from the meditation you want this to

happen you want to be able to let go of

things I teach loving-kindness

meditation loving-kindness meditation is

very interesting because you're

radiating a happy feeling for someone

else to explain depth and a bit

I tell everyone that the meditation is a

smiling meditation and an interesting

thing about meditation is that it's not

just about sitting like a rock moving

meditation is watching how minds and

tension moves from one thing to another

now

when you add a smile into this you start

to develop a habit of having a light

night and eventually joy starts arising

okay so you want to do that's nice to

have joy every now and then but joy is a

mental factor that's really important in

your daily life as well as in your city

when you have joy in your mind your mind

is very uplifted and your mind is very

alert and their mind is very agile so

you can see when you start to have

thoughts that pull that feeling down and

you get caught in the mud so the more

you develop having an uplifted mind the

easier it is to recognize when you're

getting caught by an attachment what is

an attachment

attachment is any kind of thought or

sensation that arises that you take

personally what do I mean by take it

personally you're sitting or you're

walking around and all of a sudden you

get angry whose anger is that it's fine

I'm mad I don't like this did you ask

that anger to arise is it yours really

or is it because conditions were right

to have anger correct

what you do is what happens in the

present moment dictates what happens in

the future this is karma

anytime you try to fight with the truth

the truth is when I'm angry I'm angry

right anger is there that's the truth

anytime you try to control the truth

anytime you try to make the truth being

anything other than it is you can look

forward to a lot of suffering

why because I'm Matt who's Matt ah who's

Matt whose anger is its mine and it

hurts

now somebody says something to you and

you have anger or rice and then you take

their anger and you make it your anger

and then you throw it back up now you're

at war you're fighting

and you start saying something that at

the same time that this other person

taught is talking to you you don't hear

what they say because you're paying

attention to what you say now this goes

on for a little while and they

eventually they mean what happens in

your mind what do you think about what

they said what I said what I should have

said I'm right they are wrong

and a little while later just packets on

a tape deck same bucks same order same

words now when you have anger and you

are identifying with that anger and

you're thinking about what they said and

what you said and all the rest and you

get into a car and you start to drive

are you driving how do you think

accidents happen

but you're not paying attention to what

you're doing while you're doing it

because you're thinking about something

else and your mind is a thousand miles

away you're not really paying attention

now I'm going to give you a definition

for compassion compassion is see another

person in me allowing them to have their

own pain give them the space to have

their own pain and love them

unconditionally

so somebody comes up to you and they're

angry and they start saying things that

are rather hurtful you can take that

pain make it your pain and throw it back

and be at war or not it's your choice

when you start to look at somebody else

that's angry you start to see how much

pain they are experiencing you know what

it's like to be angry your blood

pressure gets up and you get red in the

face sometimes you even get black you

get so angry and all of your muscles are

tense and tight and you're not really

conscious of that they see and later you

wish oh I shouldn't said that that

person that was really lean but it's

already gone now you have guilt on top

now when you see somebody else is angry

and you recognize them as being

suffering the way they are and do allow

them the space to be angry but you don't

pay attention to what they're saying

because it's all rubbish anyway you

start sending them kind and loving

thoughts it takes two to tango it takes

two to fight if there's only one person

fighting that fight goes away pretty

quickly

then one of two things will happen

either they will walk away shaking their

head grumbling and you know how painful

that is

or they'll settle down then you can

start discussing what the problem is

either way when they walk away your mind

is alert your mind is ready for whatever

else there is that's going to happen

when you hold onto your anger that

you've been fighting with going back and

forth the next person you see what do

you talk about what a turkey that person

was how much you dislike them how much

you disagree with them and that type

mind is incredibly painful

everybody you see the rest of the day

you start going leaping alone I'm in a

bad mood I don't want to be doing any of

this stuff leave me and you you're not

very compassionate towards anybody else

especially yourself and then you get

home at night and you tell everybody in

your family that they don't want to talk

leave me alone I just want to go lay

down and go to bed but your sleep isn't

very good you wind up tossing and

turning and then you wake up the next

day groggy now there you can hold a

grudge because of some anger the point

what I know one lady that could hold a

grudge for two weeks she made everybody

else around her supper because she held

a grudge because of something that

happened two weeks ago

when you add this extra step of relaxing

and letting you know that tension

and tightness and you get this mind is

very bright and very clear and pure and

you come back and smile and you stay

with your object of meditation when

you're doing your daily activities

whatever you're doing at the time but

the smile is absolutely important the

more you can smile into what we're doing

the more uplifted your mind become the

more uplifted your mind becomes the

easier it is to recognize when it gets

pulled down and you went won't get

caught for as long

see the Buddha was very much interested

in teaching universal truths

and one of the universal truths that he

taught is called right effort right

effort is this there's four parts

recognizing when your mind has an

unwholesome state in letting go of that

unwholesome state and relaxing bringing

up a wholesome state what's awesome

state Smike

and if you're sitting in meditation your

object of meditation and keeping that

meditation keeping your mind smiling all

the time or as much as you can the

buddha was very much interested in

showing us how to have an uplifted mind

all the time there's a word that is

going around and that has been for as

long as I've been meditating and has

used a lot with a lot of different

teachers be mindful

what's it

what's it mean to be mindful we all use

a word we've all heard the word right

what's it mean

being mindful means remembering to

observe how my attention goes from one

thing to another

that's mindfulness remembering to

observe doesn't have anything with

anything to do with changing anything

for making anything different it's just

observing your city and all of a sudden

sadness arises the new aspects happens

to arrives

they came up because it was time for it

to come up conditions were right for it

about there is an attachment now

the question with meditation is not why

did this sadness arise we don't care

about the content of a feeling when it

arises or an emotion I should say what

we're doing is we're starting to observe

how your mind went from being on your

object of meditation to being said how

did that happen

not why did it happen not getting

involved in trying to control not trying

to force anything away this is just

observing this I was over here and now

I'm over there how did that occur now

we're made up of five different things

we have a physical body we have feeling

I'm not talking about emotion feeling is

pleasant feeling a painful feeling and

neither painful nor pleasant feeling

that's all it is then we have perception

perception is the part of the mind names

things you look at this and your mind

says that's let's cut

that's a glass that part of your mind

that named it is perception

it also has memory involved

you have thoughts and you have

consciousness now when a painful feeling

arises it doesn't matter whether it's a

physical painful feeling or a mental

painful feel

our habit is to try to think the feeling

away

I don't like this evidence or this pain

physical sensation I don't like it I

don't want it to be there every thought

about the feeling makes the feeling

bigger and more intense today we have an

amazing amount of people in our culture

that's taking drugs for depression

how does depression work painful feeling

arises there's the perception of that

painful feeling the naming of it and

then there's these thoughts wishes

was feeling

why doesn't it just go away and leave me

alone now the more you have thoughts

about that feeling the bigger and more

intense that feeling becomes until it

turns it into an emergency and you can't

stand it and you need to do something

about it what our culture says right now

is take drugs that's what you need and

then you walk around spaced out for a

little while cause you took some drugs

that have these side effects that aren't

really very nice rather than to look at

how this process works

dealing arose right after the feeling

there is craving and can indict this

this is the I like it I don't like it

much when it's a pleasant feeling I like

when it's an unpleasant feeling I don't

like but it's his tightness right after

that we have what arises is called

clinging

clinging is all of your thoughts all of

your opinions all of your ideas all of

your concepts all of your stories about

why you don't like that deal right after

that you have your habitual tendency

every time this kind of feeling arises I

have these thoughts I always treated in

the same way and then you have a birth

of action of trying to push your way and

then you have sorrow and lamentation and

pain and grief and despair and that's

suffering why does this arise like that

because that's the true nature of

everyone's mind and what our habitual

tendency is is to try to think feeling

the feelings are one thing and thoughts

are something else

never the to show me so what do we do we

have this painful feeling we have this

craving arise we have all of these

thoughts about the first thing you do is

you let the thoughts be

you don't keep your attention on the

content of the thoughts that those

thoughts be there by themselves

then you'll notice that there's a tight

mental fist wrapped around that feeling

it's a painful feeling that I don't like

okay it's a painful feeling but the

truth is when a painful feeling arises

it's there that's the truth anytime you

try to control the truth make the truth

be anything other than it is and you try

to change the truth you can look forward

to more and more suffering that feeling

gets bigger and more intense because

you're trying to control a feeling with

bugs and you're trying to control your

concepts about that feeling and how it's

yours and you don't like it with this

cleaning so you need to allow the space

for that painful

to be there it's alright for that

painful feeling to be there it has to be

alright because that's the truth now you

see this tension and tightness in your

head in your mind and in your body

and you relax

now bring up a smile and come back to

your object of meditation if you're

sitting loving-kindness or mindfulness

of breathing whatever it doesn't matter

and stay with that

this process works for everybody in the

world if you're a human being it works

for everybody in exactly the same way

that was one of the real revelations

that I have please don't sit like that

this is one of the revelations I had

when I was in Egypt it's not Asians

everybody's mind works the same way is

it that we're human beings

there is no different

painful feeling arises craving horizons

cleaning arises habitual tendency arises

birth of action arises and all of the

pain and sorrow and lamentation arises

after that how do you let go of this

process how do you let go of this pain

by allowing the space for that pain to

be there without resisting it you see

the Buddha found out something that was

really really

and that is you need to lovingly accept

what arises in the present moment it

doesn't matter whether it's painful or

not and that means letting go of that

tension and tightness in your head when

people are practicing absorption

concentration and one-pointed

concentration let's say I have a ball in

my hand where somebody throws me a ball

that's better

and I catch it and I let it go that's

like letting go of the clinging all of

your thoughts and opinions but they're

still tension holding those hand up

that is like letting go of the craving

so how do you do that how do you let go

of crazy first you have to recognize

what it is and where it is it always

manifested when you get into the habit

of relaxing the tension and tightness

all of the tension in the rest of your

body starts to disappear

okay

it sounds pretty good so far huh

one of the reasons that I really like to

teach loving-kindness meditation is

because the smiling is so very important

you have to put a little bit of smile

while you're sitting but the smile is

not only here the smile is in your eyes

you'd be surprised how much tension you

hold in your eyes and you let that go

and smile with your eyes you smile with

your mind you smile it's not just this

although this even when you don't feel

like smiling and you smile it has

definite advantages to it this is stupid

I have not got a smile

now there's another part of this and

that is when you have a real attachment

really angry at somebody if you see how

attached your mind is and how dumb it is

to be attached to this anger is not even

yours and you laugh with yourself

you go from I've met and I don't like it

too

it's only this anger you see the

difference I am that it's only that okay

when you laugh at how crazy your mind

can be welcome to the human race we all

freezing and it's okay to be crazy when

you laugh it changes your perspective

from a personal perspective I am that to

an impersonal perspective it's only that

and nobody wants to really hold on to

that kind of an unwholesome state so you

go okay well let it go we don't need

that one I've had students that have

come to me and they were going through

heavy-duty emotional stuff and they come

crying and it's not it doesn't matter

whether it's a man or a woman they come

crying and they're they're nervous and

are anxious and oh this is a most

terrible thing and they say well okay

why don't you smile into it I'm not

gonna do that and you know their

suffering and their attachment to that

makes me laugh and when I start laughing

then they start laughing and all of a

sudden they're not attached to it

anymore they've let go of that suffering

they've let go over that pain we need

did mine this is really important now

I've gone to a lot of meditation

retreats I've done oh I think it's

somewhere between 12 and 15 I really

honestly don't know the number because

it's not important enough to remember

three months retreats I did an eight

month retreat this is silent retreat I

did it two year retreat the only person

that I ever talked to was the teacher I

didn't talk to anybody else

when I started noticing that people are

practicing meditation and you see them

sitting very tight job brownies I go up

to them and I go anybody home

why are you causing yourself I love this

country

why are you trying so hard see this

stuff is simple

smile more black mark you have this

uplifted mind you have a mind that's

really alert and light starts to be more

and more fun the kind of meditation that

I'm showing you right now has this

relaxed step in it and then you use that

relaxed step over and over again you are

letting go of the craving the cause of

the suffering you see all through the

store here you see a hand that's going

like this

that's the Buddha's hand sometimes

there's a implement and sometimes

there's not but when they're going like

this what the Buddha was talking about

is there is suffering there is suffering

in life does anybody not agree with that

so this is a universal trip there is

suffering he didn't focus on this I

freaking you just staining yeah

sometimes it's

there's a cause of suffering what's the

cause of suffering craving that tension

and tightness in your head and in your

mind

and when you relax that the third noble

truth is there is the cessation of

craving and the fourth noble truth

there's a way to practice

every time you smile you are practicing

the entire Eightfold Path at that time

every time you let go of that craving

you are practicing the entire Eightfold

Path at that time simple the stuff is I

didn't say it was easy

hmm there's a difference especially when

you have an intention now I told you

before about the five hindrances that

arise the greedy mind that the aversion

- dull minds maybe mine restless mind

anxious mind doubtful mind these arise

because in our past we broke precepts

what are the precepts the first precept

is I undertake to abstain from killing

or harming living beings on purpose I

undertake the precept to abstain from

taking what is not given

I undertake the precept to abstain from

wrong sexual activity that needs a

little discussion in 20 minutes I

undertake the precept to abstain from

telling lights slandering which means

dividing one group from another this is

the one that this next one is very

important because I hear it so much on

TV you can't see if I can't see a movie

without it happening you can't listen to

the radio without it happening and

people walk around cursing all the time

you abstain from cursing why

what kind of mind are you developing

when you curse at a Virgin Money you

start using speech that is very pleasant

and kind

refrain from cursing and the last part

of this precept is you abstain from

gossip let's gossip talking about

somebody when they're not there and

making up stories about it

the last one there's going to be some

resistance not taking any drugs or

alcohol but a glass of wine

dollar day I can tell you I have 2