Monday, November 28, 2011

Meditation and Non-Meditation

Extract of a Transcribed Teaching Given by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche in January, 2004

Tonight we will talk about calm abiding meditation, or shamatha [Skt]. The title of the lecture series is "Meditation and Non-meditation," and it seems that these two are contradictory to each other. But if we really understand what meditation is we will see that they are the same.
The Tibetan word for calm abiding or shamatha is shi-ne. The first syllable is shi, which means to pacify. What does "to pacify" mean? We have no control over our usual mind, the mind in which we experience suffering and the mind that behaves like a crazy monkey. Shi refers to pacifying our mind - we gain control of it and pacify these undesirable qualities like wildness.

The second syllable, ne, means to abide or to rest. This means that we can harness our mind toward whatever purpose we desire. If we want our mind to stay, our mind stays; and when we want our mind to do something, it does something. We have complete control over our mind. That is what is referred to byne. We are talking about gaining control or freedom over our mind. We could ask the question, isn't it usually the case that we do have control or freedom over our mind? No, there is no such control or freedom. Even though we don't wish to become angry, we become angry. Even if we think that getting angry is not good, anger arises. In the same way we do not want to become sad or depressed, we do not want to be tense in our mind, but all of this happens anyway.
In particular, our mind creates a lot of problems where there are none.

Monkey Mind

If we brought a crazy monkey in here and let it roam about, it would do two types of things: it would create tasks for us where there were no tasks to begin with, and it would create problems where there were no problems. The monkey would create messes where there were no messes. It would come and tear down the artwork from the shrine and mess up all the offerings. It would pull down all the ornamentation, and mess up all the cushions, scattering them all over the place.
But the monkey doesn't need to do any of that. It would be fine for the monkey to come in and sit on a really comfortable cushion and just relax there. If the monkey got a little bit thirsty, it could maybe go up to the shrine and drink some water; there's plenty of it there. Aside from that the monkey really doesn't need to do anything.

This is similar to what our mind does. Our mind becomes upset over very small issues; it takes a small issue and turns it into a very big issue and we become more and more tense about it. Why does this happen? It happens to us because we bind ourselves up with our own fixation, and because we do not know how to relax. During my talks on loving-kindness and compassion, this principle of how we make minor issues into major ones was illustrated by the example of the placement of the cup.
When we are working, we become fixated over the small problems in our job, and that occupies all of our attention so that we completely miss the big problems. When we are studying, if our mind is tightly fixated we will not be able to learn very well because there will not be any space in our minds for new information to come in. When we drive a car, we are always thinking about who is in front of us and how we can get in front of them, and how the time is running out. [Rinpoche acts out being very anxious and in a hurry.] If we drive like that it is very easy for us to get into accidents; we will turn our cars where we should not turn them and it will take us a longer time to get where we want to go. In this way we behave like a crazy monkey.

To give another example, we could take how we view our own faces. Many people have a lot of fixation and become very tense about their own face. [Rinpoche acts out again.] "I need a nice face." We look with this tight and fixated mind into the mirror. Even if there is nothing at all wrong with your face, if you look at it with this attitude for long enough, eventually you would find something wrong with it. You would find that you have a slightly crooked nose, or that one cheek is bigger than the other, or something like that. And you get more upset about it, and more fixated about that "problem." In terms of your own perception, that "fault" would become bigger and bigger and bigger. After about a month of doing that, you would look at yourself in the mirror and think, "My nose is extremely crooked," even though it isn't crooked at all. You would become very embarrassed with yourself, and you wouldn't want to go out where people would see you. You might even want to stop talking and communicating with people because you would think everyone was looking at your crooked nose, even though they weren't looking at it at all.

Even though none of these things were true, from the perspective of our own perception we would see ourself as unattractive, and in that way our mind would have made a problem where there was no problem at all. We should understand that that is what is happening here. If we understand that, this is what's known as precise knowledge, or prajna [Skt.].
There are a lot of things our mind does to us in the same way and there is no good reason for them other than being a creation of our mind. But we always believe our mind and think that our mind is one-hundred-percent true. Perceptions are created by the mind, the mind believes those projections so it becomes like a circle. That is the way it is, mind ends up believing in its own perceptions.

Pliable Mind


When we meditate on calm abiding, or shamatha, we make our mind more pliable, and thereby gain control of it. We bring strength to our mind, just like exercising. If we exercise and eat vitamins at the same time, that will bring forth the natural strength that is in our body. If we bring forth the strength that is naturally present in our body, the illnesses that we may currently be suffering will be removed and our good health will help us prevent future illnesses from arising.
This approach of exercising and taking vitamins in this way is much better than taking medicine for illnesses that we have, because, for example, if we take medicine for an illness connected to our lungs, that might harm our liver and our kidney. If we take medicine to work on our kidneys, that might harm other parts of our body - the medicine does not bring forth the natural strength and potency that is available in our body in the first place. This is why we practice shamatha, calm abiding: to bring forth the potency and strength that is in the mind in the first place.

Further, when we practice this meditation we awaken what is called "inner peace," an inner peace that does not depend upon outer causes and conditions. If we try to depend upon outer causes for peace, this is similar to taking medicine for the fast relief of an illness.
If we are particularly stricken by a cup, and fixate on that, that might make us feel good in the short term. But if that cup breaks, it causes a lot of suffering for us. If we play video games or other such entertainment, then temporarily it is very pleasant. But if we have strong fixation towards it, it causes us suffering when it gets broken, and getting broken is the nature of such machines because they are compounded phenomena.

These are some general ideas about why it is important to practice meditation, shamatha.
It is very important for us to understand these general ideas before we learn the actual practice.
For instance, if we are shooting a gun, we need to know what and where the target is. Otherwise we will not know where the bullet is going to hit. In terms of the practice of shamatha, there are two essential points: the key points of body and the key points of mind.

Mind and Body

In the early stages of the path of meditation, when we haven't achieved a high level of realization, our body and mind relate to each other in the manner of support and supported. Our body functions as the support for our mind, which in turn is supported by our body.
If we compare this view to what modern scientists are saying these days, it is very similar.
In Buddhism we talk about three different qualities that make up the more subtle aspects of the physical body, which relate to our meditation. They are called channels, winds and essences.

Modern science talks about neurons, brain waves and cells. The neurons are parallel to the channels, the brain waves are parallel to the winds, and the cells are parallel to the essences.
In addition, what modern science says about what happens in the whole body is similar to the Buddhist presentation. The body is like this cup, and the mind is like the water inside it. Until we attain liberation, for as long as we move the cup, the water will be moving inside. If we drink the water, we will drink our mind [laughter].
In this state, the body and mind go along together, in very similar continuam. Our body goes from the stages of the body of the present life to the body of the intermediary state, between death and the birth of our next life, and then it becomes the body of our next life. Our mind goes right along that same continuum as well. This is the presentation according to the Buddhist teachings.


Seven Points of Posture

When we meditate there are seven key points to our body posture that are very important. The first point is to cross the legs - just how basically all of you are sitting right now. This is very good posture. If you are able to assume what is called the vajra posture, more commonly known as the lotus posture, this is the number one way to sit with your legs. However, we should pay heed to what our body is telling us; if it hurts us a lot to sit in that posture and if we try to force ourselves into it, even though we don't want to sit that way, then that really can hurt us a lot. So we should not do it. Even if we are sitting in a regular cross-legged fashion, if our legs get sore it is no problem to extend them. Also we can sit in a chair.

The second key point of posture is to put our hands in the posture of equipoise, with our left hand underneath and our right resting on top of it, or with our right hand underneath and our left hand resting on top of it. The most important point is to rest them in a relaxed way. We can also rest our hands on top of our two knees. Some people have short arms and it is not comfortable for them to rest their hands on their knees, so they can rest them further up their thighs.

The third key point of posture is to relax our shoulders appropriately. There should be some space between our torso and our upper arms. If we relax our shoulders evenly and have our hands on top of our knees, there will naturally be a space between our upper arms and our torso. If we have the posture where our hands are in front of our navel, we can extend our upper arms slightly so that there is slightly more space between them and the torso. These are like the wings of a vulture.
One time while I was traveling in France walking through a park, I came across a person sitting down in the park. He was thrusting his arms out every few seconds. This person looked up and saw me, spoke to me and asked if I were one of those Buddhist monks who meditates. I said yes. The person asked me if I was having any difficulty with meditation, and I said no, no problem really. This person responded, "Well, when I meditate, it's kind of hard for me,

because you have to do this with your arms, right?" I said, "No, I've never heard of that technique, where did you learn it?" The person said he had read it from a book. So I asked him what it said in the book, and the person told me it had said that your arms should be like the wings of a vulture [laughter]. Maybe it's because Tibetan vultures are different from French vultures [laughter]? Just joking.

The fourth key point is the most important point of all: sitting with a straight back. We should not slouch over like this. If we try to over-extend our back, then we will fall backwards. So we should sit with our back straight. It is no problem if we end up leaning back or forward a little bit, and we should keep our mind relaxed and not be too fixated about it. We do not need to get caught up in the more subtle points of whether we should be sticking our chest out or in or anything like that.

The fifth key point is to bring the jaw inwards slightly taking the general weight of our head onto our jaw, letting our jaw absorb the weight of the head. We let the weight of our head rest so that our jaw is slightly pressing down against our Adam's apple. If we wanted to turn our head from side to side it would be completely ready to do that. Some people have a tendency to lean back with their head, or forward, or side-to-side or what have you, but we should have our head in a central place.

The sixth key point of posture is that our mouth should be relaxed in a way that our upper and lower teeth are not touching each other, and our upper and lower lips are not touching each other - there is a slight space in between. We can be breathing through our mouth, breathing through our nose or breathing through both.

The seventh key point is to rest our eyes in the way that they naturally are. We can have our gaze going slightly downward, it can be going directly outward or it could be slightly upwards. It is actually better to shift our gaze from time to time. If we try to keep our gaze in the same place for a long time, it tires us out, so if we shift our gaze occasionally, that keeps things fresh. It is okay to blink when we meditate.

Non-meditation

This completes the body posture. From among all these key points it is important to keep in mind that relaxation in our body is very important. We should sit with the muscles in our body relaxed. Let's try this together, just practicing the body posture. We don't need to meditate.
Sit up straight, with your body relaxed in general, and relax your mind as well. You do not need to think of anything in particular - we're just sitting with our body relaxed and our mind relaxed. We're not talking about meditation yet. We are just going to sit with our body and mind relaxed, just like we had finished a long job that made us tired. [Rinpoche leads the participants through this practice.]

When we have finished an intense workout or exercise, and we have worked really hard, we are tired, and are completely relaxed in our body. Let's just sit together like that. [All sit.] That's all. How was that? Were you able to relax? Good.
This relaxation is meditation. But I did not instruct you to meditate. But it is said, non- meditation is the supreme meditation. Therefore we don't need to meditate. We relax our body and we relax our mind.

We experience these states of relaxation in our body and mind frequently in our everyday life. Why doesn't that benefit us when that happens? Because we do not recognize that it is happening. Just now we relaxed while knowing we were relaxing. This is what is known as mindfulness. Therefore, if we relax, mindfulness comes right along with it. Usually, we tire ourselves out and then relax after that, but we do not realize that we are relaxing - our attention is always facing outward, looking at other things.

Here we are relaxing in our body and mind while being aware that that is what we are doing. By being aware that we are relaxing when we are relaxing, we come to gain control over our mind. So that's easy, right? It is very easy. You do not need to do anything. You do not need to meditate. You do not need to create anything. You do not need to work hard. Therefore it is easier than sleeping! When we want to sleep, we need to make our bed and make sure there's a nice pillow and then finally we lay down and relax. When we relax in this way what is our mind like? Our mind is relaxed and comfortable but still we cannot identify it; we can't point at our mind and say "this is my relaxed mind" or "this is my comfortable mind." This meditation technique that has just been described is called shamatha or calm abiding meditation without object.

Beginners probably would not experience that type of meditation for more than two, three or five seconds, but that's fine. We should practice in short segments many times. If we set out a very large container and put it in a place where it could catch drops of water, these single drops of water will cause the whole container to become full. In the same way, if we practice in short segments many times, our meditation will improve. We shouldn't think thoughts like "I need to sit for a long time," "I need to stop my thoughts," because thoughts will happen and we cannot stop them. We can't shoot our thoughts, we can't burn our thoughts, and even if we set off a bomb, that will not stop our thoughts. That is the nature of mind. We do not need to stop our thoughts. What do we need? We need mindfulness. The main point about shamatha meditation is mindfulness, or, in other words, awareness.

That's why we can say that when there is mindfulness, there is shamatha, there is meditation; but when there is no mindfulness there is no meditation. We are not saying that when there are thoughts there is no meditation, and when there are no thoughts that is meditation; it's not about that at all. The point is whether there is mindfulness or not.

So meditation in this way is extremely easy, but there is one difficulty: it is so easy that it is hard. It's hard because we don't trust it. We are always thinking that meditation must be referring to something very special. [Rinpoche demonstrates in an amusing "blessed out" kind of way] Relaaaxed! Peeeace! Opennessss! Niiice! This is not meditation.
Our expectations about meditation bind our minds. This way of meditating is so close to us that we do not see it. It is just like the design on this cup I'm holding. If we put the design right in front of our eyes we won't be able to see the details. Meditation is like that. Therefore, for beginners, it is a little bit easier to do a meditation that is a little bit difficult.

Meditation

Now I will give you a difficult method of meditation [laughter]. This one relates to the collection of consciousnesses that we have. Buddhism teaches about six different consciousness: the eye consciousness that sees form, the ear consciousness that hears sounds, the nose consciousness that smells, the tongue that perceives tastes, our body consciousness that perceives tactile objects, and our mental consciousness that perceives thoughts. The reason why all of our disturbing states of mind, our suffering and monkey-like behavior, happen is because of this very collection of consciousnesses that has six different parts.

We can see how, from the mere perception of a form, we have attachment, we feel anger, jealousy, fear, and all kinds of different disturbing emotions. To give a little example: If we said to someone else, "He-hey!" and that person said, "He-hey!" right back to us then we'd be happy about that. But if we said, "He-hey!" and the person just looked at us and frowned, that would make us sad and upset, and become a difficult experience for us.
This is what happens in relation to forms, and it is the same with sound. If someone says, "You're good!" that makes us happy; if someone says to us, "You're bad" then that upsets us. The same is for tastes: when we taste delicious foods, that makes us have a pleasant feeling in our minds; and when we taste food that is not delicious, it makes us upset in our minds.

What would happen if we eat hot chili? Are hot chilis tasty or not tasty? [Various lively responses from the assembly; Rinpoche laughs.] How many people think they're tasty, raise your hand. Ah, me too! How many people think they're not so tasty? Hot chilis themselves cannot say anything about their being tasty or not tasty; they have to depend on the people tasting them. It is actually the exact same way for all things in the world - good and bad are created by our own mind.
If tasty or not tasty were qualities that existed within the hot chili itself, then it would be tasted in exactly the same way by everyone. So if the hot chili actually existed as "tasty," then it would have to be perceived as tasty by everyone who ate it. But because those qualities do not exist in the chili itself, then for some people hot chilis are tasty, for others they are not. It is the same for smells, tangible objects, and so on.

When some people who are immersed in meditation consider the thoughts that arise from seeing forms, hearing sounds, smelling smells, and so forth, they think that these thoughts harm their meditation, are enemies to their meditation. But for those who really understand the essential point of meditation, all of those thoughts can become supports and aids to our meditation.





For more about Mingyur Rinpoche see: tergar.org

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Stop and Notice by Ajahn Sumedho

Attentive, openness….. getting the feeling for this receptivity, openness …not doing anything, you know, like concentration is…you feel you have to concentrate on the breath or on the body or on Nimita or Kasina so that is kind of concentration where you put your attention on one thing and this is concentrated but it is in an open way, receptive, relaxed, attention…a receptive state of being….conscious. And that is where you recognise the sound of silence. When your caught up in thinking or concentrating or thinking-analyzing things or on objects so then you know you become involved with the conditions, you become the conditions themselves. This way you can get perspective on the conditions. So in this kind of practice many people say “I lead such a busy life, I don’t have time to practice meditation” So when can see meditation as something you got to do and you have to have the right conditions and then you don’t have time to do that, you get busy…and remember this is a busy world we live in! there is always more and more to do.

You know the more, now that you have washer, dryer, dishwasher, perfect kind of Hoover, air conditioned, central heated, Mercedes Benz car…laptop computer (laughs) and your still busy arent you? time saving devices…it’s parkinsons law that you fill up time you know, where those Korean Bhikkunis having to wash there robes in a cold mountain steam and there whole life is around meditation…but anyway its societies like THIS….just to recognise living in London, its like THIS which is not a criticism but acknowledging the way it affects you. You can always imagine a better place than your in. Establishing awareness, here and now Dhamma…its not when you can move out of London and move to a better place than the one your in…its more opening to the present moment its like THIS.

So then in daily life no matter how busy you are, i encourage you to take time and stop being caught in the momentum of busyness because its easy to do that….you gotta do this or you gotta do that – you gotta telephone somebody and then send an email, answer an email – i get email’s all the time you know, i don’t answer a lot of them. Im not going to be intimidated by this crazy world im living in.

In your life just take time to stop, just this sense of stopping and opening when you find yourself in that moment – oh im caught up, this thing, the next thing and the next thing……just say to yourself STOP and relax and open – try to listen to the sound of silence. And even if you cant notice it, just that stopping just being caught in that momentum of busyness of compulsion, you know that compulsive busyness…one thing to the next and notice how thought is always one thought to the other its a dualistic world, a conditioned world that we bind ourselves in – going from one thing to the other, until we get tired and go to bed – we get up and then we do this and we do that, running around one thing after the other..now thats going from one condition to another, to another, to another then the thinking is like…even though its nonsense is going from one though to the next and then we have our own obsessions our own karmic obsessions you know, where we worry about this and you know…we get caught up in our own particular conditioning and programming – worry worry worry – meeting the deadline – DEADLINE its always like this and just noticing this feeling just by observing this in myself – this sense of feeling there’s always something else, something I have to do, something that needs to be done!

So then the stopping and reflecting just stopping and being the KNOWER of this feeling – not trying to suppress it but recognise it – that recognition of that compulsive momentum…..well thats Paccuppannadhamma – its like THIS …this feeling of rushing…of going onto the next thing – meeting the deadline, so much to do, so much pressure, its like THIS. Now staying with that, even for a moment is better than not doing it at all – just being a helpless victim of compulsive habits, until you burn out – break down (laughs) so its running like a motor car until it just breaks down, not reading the signs. You see in your life, your the one has, this is your life – don’t be intimidated by it or just become a victim of habits.

So even in monastic life, get into compulsiveness – I was a very busy person before i was a monk – going through University and graduate school with this incredible pressure and it conditions you to do that, even when its not necessary. You become conditioned to this compulsive momentum. So even in bring that into monastic life i had to tell myself…sometimes you have to do anything…going nowhere, doing nothing – i just kind of say that to myself and I have this kind of relief because it kind of stops this blind momentum of compulsive busyness.

Then with the sound of silence as you develop that like counting to five, sometimes i get caught into this compulsive busyness – i just suddenly see it and become very astute in recognising this habit and then I would say to myself – doing nothing, going nowhere, being nobody – Sound of Silence 1, 2…..Im still with the sound of silence because im counting…. at the same time ..1,2,3,4,5 that was a way of just stopping and suddenly you notice there is a change or i would be carrying something, some resentment towards somebody and feel really annoyed or averse to somebody in the monastery and then I would recognise and then counting to five and the sound of silence – sometimes i couldn’t even remember who i was angry with – who was i so annoyed with? It would take me a while to remember….where before when your angry with someone…whatever your doing, your carrying it around – you go into your kuti …nah, nah, blah (moaning sounds) that person and you go out into the garden – nah, nah, blah you go into the Ashridge, Little Gaddesden etc and your carrying this person all the way, have you ever done that ?

Then your remembering the sound of silence…boost it up to 10 – you know you don’t need to make this into a big project, so you have to stop everything and go off to a monastery and sit and meditate – you can do this in your office or in your car…..just a way of stopping and cultivating this and after a while the accumulative effect is very good…so if you think “I dont have time to meditate im just too busy” …”I have too many responsibilities” be aware of that…this kind of attitude – too busy too many responsibilities – its not that your trying to suppress that feeling but recognise it rather than just being propelled into it blindly and keep you going until u burn out and faint with exhaustion and maybe take to drink or drugs – but this is much better…its skillful.

You know meditation is really learning to understand the human mind – learning to live in the sense realm, the conditioned realm without becoming a victim of conditioning. Most people are victims of there conditioning. You get born into this family and you get all there problems, your parents, your ancestors – you inherit all there prejudices, phobias, biases, tendencies and then you get conditioned into your school and achievement and deadlines, tests, examinations, tests – on and on like this – so we’re easily programmed, we become programmed and become creatures of habit and some of the habits can be good habits – habits are not always necessarily bad but even good habits are not liberating – so just recognising the conditioning, the thinking process.

Emotional habits, this is not an attack on habits – the conditioned realm is like THIS – you don’t live just in the unconditioned then destroy all the conditions. The unconditioned then gives you the freedom from the conditions, this does not mean you don’t experience the conditions – it just means you have freedom and you are no longer blinded and caught in habitual behaviour when you realise the unconditioned….the deathless – there is the unborn. So there is the unconditioned, if there was not the unconditioned there would be no escape from the conditioned – but there is the unconditioned and therefore an escape from the conditioned. That escape from the conditioned is mindfulness, but escape from the conditioned does not mean turning your back on it or destroying it – its in just recognising – most human beings do not recognise the condition as that, they become identified, attached, habituated victims of the conditions. We have delicate natures, we’re frightened, we have neurotic problems about ourselves, self aversion, feeling of being unloved, unwanted, not appreciated, not good enough…..then it goes the other way maybe we’re feeling megalomania, arrogant conceited, thinking your better than others but those people are harder to teach – the ones that actually believe they are the best.

But when your self critical and discourage yourself its kind of going in the right direction but with the wrong interpretation. You know, when you see your faults and see weaknesses and inadequacies in yourself and you kind of discourage yourself at least your aware of suffering but the interpretation of it is wrong . It is always from “its me, its MY problem” “im not any good because of this…” “I cant do that…” The right way to see it, is to see conditions as conditions then any sense of self – whether “im the best” or “im the worst” is conditioned and that awareness of it is just enough – thats the escape, not a matter of anhiliating the self, its just letting go of it. So even if forget all this and you get caught up for months in a whirlpool of compulsiveness and suddenly you will remember and STOP … make it something simple like this….4 letters. Just by saying that to yourself you begin to be aware of this compulsive momentum of habit.

Its like a stop sign, your in a rush to go somewhere – appointment or deadline to meet – urgent meeting and your slightly late and your in a rush and the traffic light goes into red “whens it going to change!” when your in that state it seems forever – its never going to change. You want to get to the office and your late and the traffic light turns red – “whens it going to change” “I think its stuck” its like an eternity…….”for the rest of my life i will be stuck” thats what it seems like. Compulsive momentum, this restless feeling, its really unpleasant….wanting to push against anything because you want to get somewhere so your body is here and want to get into the office – your mind is already in the office! but due to circumstances your body has to stop. These are moments just to observe this, this restless, compulsive pushiness of the mind. Then if you can stop and notice the sound of silence. If you do then count, the kind of counting that helps you sustain your attention on it – otherwise its so easy the compulsive energy can be so strong it can be hard to get a perspective on it – you recognise then are propelled right back into it again. Thats why we use words like “calm down”, “going nowhere, doing nothing” the sense of just stopping and resting just for a few seconds is better than not doing it at all.

So do not make grandiose determinations that you can never fulfil – just doing the best you can, and when you have that moment – no matter how many times you fail and get whirled away by pressures and habits , that one moment you suddenly realise don’t disparage yourself but just be grateful for that – so more and more you are beginning to cultivate and develop awareness. So not just being compulsive about being aware…that doesn’t work, you grasp the idea of mindfulness and then your “gotta be mindful, gotta be mindful” and then when you do something like drop the cup, break the very valuable antique vase – oh! im heedless “meditation is doing me no good because i break things, im clumsy” so then you start disparaging yourself. STOP determined not to follow that with self hatred, self criticism, despair, aversion, its like THIS…your not completing the habitual pattern.

The self view is you try to be mindful and you make some blunder and then you “oh, i cant do it, im so heedless and clumsy” blah blah blah….stop doing that. Determined not to disparage yourself, no matter how many Antique vases you break, start always in the present – its HERE and NOW and be grateful for this moment of suddenly realising – capturing yourself at this moment – at this moment you are not caught in that momentum, compulsion. Gently tell yourself to relax and open yourself for just a few seconds, at least your breaking through, breaking the spiral and momentum. Then as you recognise the value of that more and more your not just creating ideas about meditating and failing and not being able to do it and you create another habit based on the self view “I can meditate at Amaravati, but I cant in my house or in London…” “I got some really good Samadhi at Amaravati [Monastery] but I lost it” dont believe that, different place….. its a different situation…Amaravati [Monastery] is like THIS, where you live is like THIS, where you work is like THIS.

Ajahn Sumedho
Transcribed by James Ball





     
For more on Ajahn Sumedho see: www.amaravati.org