Godwin

Meditation in Everyday Life

Godwin:

I like to welcome you to this one day meditation. I like to offer some suggestions about the practice today.

Feeling Happy

The first suggestion I like to offer is that every one of you should feel happy that you are able to come here. Today is a holiday and after working very hard for some days, the fact that you have decided to come, you should really feel happy about yourself. Usually we feel bad about ourselves but it is also very important to feel good about ourselves. So I like to emphasize this point, just to feel good about yourself that you are able to come here for meditation.

Feeling Grateful

The next suggestion is try to feel grateful that you are able to come. I know some who want to come today but for different reasons they are unable to come. You should feel grateful that you are able to come and that you are here, present.

Quality of "Just Knowing"

As I have been saying, in meditation a very very important aspect is the practice of awareness, mindfulness, just knowing what is happening. So in this one day meditation, we will try to develop this very important quality of just knowing whatever is happening in our mind and body from moment to moment as far as we can. And even if it is unpleasant experience, even if it is something you consider strange, just to know that it is happening rather than be worried: Am I doing it rightly? Is it normal to experience these things? It is not necessary to have such thoughts but just knowing that this is what I am feeling, this is the sensation I am experiencing.

Loving Kindness

Another important aspect related to this is to be mindful, to be aware with loving kindness, just knowing what is happening with friendliness. It can be like a mother who is just watching, observing her only child with friendliness. So let us learn today to watch, to observe, to find out, just to know what is happening in our mind and body like a mother watching her only child, with friendliness, with gentleness, with openness.

Learn to Slow Down

Related to mindfulness is another suggestion I like to offer, is let us learn to slow down today. I know in Hong Kong you have to move very fast because the speed here is very fast. Today we will make it a point to learn to relax and just to do things very slowly. Slowly and also in a very relaxed way.

Practice of Silence

Another suggestion I like to offer is the practice of silence. I know it is very difficult for some people to be silent because it is a very very strong habit that we have. So today let us make an effort just to be silent with ourselves and you will see a connection between awareness, mindfulness, and silence. The more aware you are, the more silent you become and the more silent you become, mindfulness will come naturally. You'll enjoy the space that silence creates in your mind.

Learn to Be Alone with Ourselves

Another aspect of silence is learning to be alone with ourselves. So today, please try to be silent and just being alone with yourselves. As I said in one occasion in one of the talks, we have become so dependent on external things, so today we will try just to be friendly and to see whether we can be in our own company and enjoy our own company. Learning to be our best friend. So it is very very important to make this connection with ourselves where we see ourselves as our best friend, the most precious friend we have, we try to make a connection with oneself.

Develop Self-confidence

So today there will be some group discussions. So any problems, any difficulties you have, we can discuss the problems or difficulties you may be experiencing but still it is very very important in meditation to be self reliant, to have our own methods. The Buddha said self-effort is the best effort and being self-reliant. Another very important suggestion I like to offer is that we will try to develop self-confidence today. To have self-confidence that you can handle whatever is arising in your mind and body. In meditation, this is very very important, to have this self-reliance, to have this self-confidence, just to know what is happening in the mind and the body and then learning from them, being open to them. So today we will try to be like children, trying to learn, making discoveries about what is happening in our mind and body. It is very very important to have this childlike quality and learning, finding out, being curious about what are happening in our mind and body, which are something we take for granted. So see meditation as a voyage of self discovery and if you can have this openness, then we can learn from any experience we are having today. As I said, it can be pleasant, it can be unpleasant but learning to ask the questions: What I can learn from this? What does it show to me? And so this kind of attitude to meditation is very very important.

Don’t Expect to Achieve Something Special

One last suggestion is: please do not have much expectation that you are going to achieve something very special. Meditation is nothing special. It's just being open to ordinary things. It's nothing extraordinary. Please remember that. Please realize that. This is something beautiful about meditation. So it is not results that we are going to achieve but the practice itself, that is the result, knowing what is happening is the result, not what comes after. Please remember this. Maybe in this culture there is lots of emphasis on being goal oriented, of achieving result. So in meditation, the result is the practice. This is what is very very interesting about the meditation. So the result is just being open, knowing what is happening from moment to moment. So you are experiencing every moment.

These are some very practical suggestions I like to offer you for today. So as you can see from the program, there is yoga, there is walking meditation, there is standing meditation, there is group discussion, chanting, there will be so many things happening today. So let see everything as part of the practice. Even when we have lunch, let us learn to make it part of the practice. I will tell you how to eat our lunch with a meditative mind.

Sitting Meditation

Let us now do our sitting meditation. So those who like to stand and move your body before the sitting, you are free to do that.

Now please sit in a comfortable position

Now please close your eyes and please spend some time just learning to relax yourself, just to relax your body. Just to feel comfortable with yourself.

Now please spend some time feeling happy you are meditating now. Feeling good about what you are trying to learn.

Now what you are going to do in the present meditation is something very very simple. So until you hear the bell, just know from moment to moment what you are hearing, the thoughts that you are having, the sensations you are experiencing in the body. So it is something very simple that everyone can do. What is important is to be alert, to be awake, to be present, to be alive from moment to moment. If anyone becomes sleepy and drowsy, please open your eyes.

We hear sounds, we have thoughts, we experience sensations, we may be having emotions, just knowing from moment to moment all these things that are happening. Making friends with them, learning to say O.K to them.

If you are having any unpleasant sensations in the body, just be open to them, make friends with them, just to be aware of them.

It's like learning to say O.K to the noises that you are hearing.

Do you know each thought that arises and passes away in your mind ?

(Bell)

For more talks and instruction by Godwin, visit the BuddhaSasana website