::How To Meditate I - What is Meditation ::

First (of six) in a series of videos on how to practice meditation without the requirement of religious dogma or
spiritual mumbo-jumbo. This video discusses both
the meaning of meditation and the foundations
of meditation practice.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hLvU7ppM4vE?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

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บทสวดกรณียเมตตสูตร แบบเพลง Karanīya Mētta Sutta (Kindness Prayer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxPyyCvynLA&feature=youtu.be

 

Guided Meditation - Blissful Deep Relaxation
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=meditation+in+you+tube&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

 

รัตนสูตร, รัตนปริต, RATANA SUTRA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne-JqQgJACU

 

Four Ways of Letting Go | by Ajahn Brahm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USC5MJVZLy8

 

Ajahn Brahm - Freeing Our Minds From The Mental Prisons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg_FsPEwOB0

 

How To Be Positive | by Ajahn Brahm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H94Dz4Iq2d4

 

Impermanence: Everything Will Be Alright | by Ajahn Khemavaro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtVTw9g55kU

 

Meditation Kamma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M5Fxmq5c9s

Uploaded on Jul 16, 2008

Meditation Kamma - Ajahn Brahm

 

MEDITATION MADE EASY
BY AJAHN BRAHM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WltdjIYRnVk

ลูกศิษย์หลวงพ่อCha

 

Why are we here? Why are we born? | by Ajahn Brahm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RrCjzi74BA


Published on Jan 10, 2015

This talk by Ajahn Brahm gets to the heart of the existential quest: What are we here? What were we born for?

 

Ajahn Brahm - Introduction to Meditation October 18, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMF9LRKQg8g

 

If you do not like any of these please feel free to erase.Thank you sir.

 

Ajahn Jayasaro

Samadhi - 13 Min
http://www.thawsischool.com/downloa...u_little_bang/2013-05-05_01 Samadhi_13min.mp3

Letting Go - 57 Min
http://www.thawsischool.com/downloa...ittle_bang/2013-05-05_02 Letting Go_57min.mp3

 

Basic Breath Meditation Instructions
by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1993
The technique I'll be teaching is breath meditation. It's a good topic no matter what your religious background. As my teacher once said, the breath doesn't belong to Buddhism or Christianity or anyone at all. It's common property that anyone can meditate on. At the same time, of all the meditation topics there are, it's probably the most beneficial to the body, for when we're dealing with the breath, we're dealing not only with the air coming in and out of the lungs, but also with all the feelings of energy that course throughout the body with each breath. If you can learn to become sensitive to these feelings, and let them flow smoothly and unobstructed, you can help the body function more easily, and give the mind a handle for dealing with pain.

So let's all meditate for a few minutes. Sit comfortably erect, in a balanced position. You don't have to be ramrod straight like a soldier. Just try not to lean forward or back, to the left or the right. Close your eyes and say to yourself, 'May I be truly happy and free from suffering.' This may sound like a strange, even selfish, way to start meditating, but there are good reasons for it. One, if you can't wish for your own happiness, there is no way that you can honestly wish for the happiness of others. Some people need to remind themselves constantly that they deserve happiness — we all deserve it, but if we don't believe it, we will constantly find ways to punish ourselves, and we will end up punishing others in subtle or blatant ways as well.

Two, it's important to reflect on what true happiness is and where it can be found. A moment's reflection will show that you can't find it in the past or the future. The past is gone and your memory of it is undependable. The future is a blank uncertainty. So the only place we can really find happiness is in the present. But even here you have to know where to look. If you try to base your happiness on things that change — sights, sounds, sensations in general, people and things outside — you're setting yourself up for disappointment, like building your house on a cliff where there have been repeated landslides in the past. So true happiness has to be sought within. Meditation is thus like a treasure hunt: to find what has solid and unchanging worth in the mind, something that even death cannot touch.

To find this treasure we need tools. The first tool is to do what we're doing right now: to develop good will for ourselves. The second is to spread that good will to other living beings. Tell yourself: 'All living beings, no matter who they are, no matter what they have done to you in the past — may they all find true happiness too.' If you don't cultivate this thought, and instead carry grudges into your meditation, that's all you'll be able to see when you look inside.

Only when you have cleared the mind in this way, and set outside matters aside, are you ready to focus on the breath. Bring your attention to the sensation of breathing. Breathe in long and out long for a couple of times, focusing on any spot in the body where the breathing is easy to notice, and your mind feels comfortable focusing. This could be at the nose, at the chest, at the abdomen, or any spot at all. Stay with that spot, noticing how it feels as you breathe in and out. Don't force the breath, or bear down too heavily with your focus. Let the breath flow naturally, and simply keep track of how it feels. Savor it, as if it were an exquisite sensation you wanted to prolong. If your mind wanders off, simply bring it back. Don't get discouraged. If it wanders 100 times, bring it back 100 times. Show it that you mean business, and eventually it will listen to you.

If you want, you can experiment with different kinds of breathing. If long breathing feels comfortable, stick with it. If it doesn't, change it to whatever rhythm feels soothing to the body. You can try short breathing, fast breathing, slow breathing, deep breathing, shallow breathing — whatever feels most comfortable to you right now...

Once you have the breath comfortable at your chosen spot, move your attention to notice how the breathing feels in other parts of the body. Start by focusing on the area just below your navel. Breathe in and out, and notice how that area feels. If you don't feel any motion there, just be aware of the fact that there's no motion. If you do feel motion, notice the quality of the motion, to see if the breathing feels uneven there, or if there's any tension or tightness. If there's tension, think of relaxing it. If the breathing feels jagged or uneven, think of smoothing it out... Now move your attention over to the right of that spot — to the lower right-hand corner of the abdomen — and repeat the same process... Then over to the lower left-hand corner of the abdomen... Then up to the navel... right... left... to the solar plexus... right... left... the middle of the chest... right... left... to the base of the throat... right... left... to the middle of the head...[take several minutes for each spot]

If you were meditating at home, you could continue this process through your entire body — over the head, down the back, out the arms & legs to the tips of your finger & toes — but since our time is limited, I'll ask you to return your focus now to any one of the spots we've already covered. Let your attention settle comfortably there, and then let your conscious awareness spread to fill the entire body, from the head down to the toes, so that you're like a spider sitting in the middle of a web: It's sitting in one spot, but it's sensitive to the entire web. Keep your awareness expanded like this — you have to work at this, for its tendency will be to shrink to a single spot — and think of the breath coming in & out your entire body, through every pore. Let your awareness simply stay right there for a while — there's no where else you have to go, nothing else you have to think about... And then gently come out of meditation.

With deeply appreciated from Basic Breath Meditation Instructions

 

A Guided Meditation
by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1999
Sit comfortably erect, without leaning forward or backward, left or right. Close your eyes and think thoughts of good will. Thoughts of good will go first to yourself, because if you can't think good will for yourself — if you can't feel a sincere desire for your own happiness — there's no way you can truly wish for the happiness of others. So just tell yourself, "May I find true happiness." Remind yourself that true happiness is something that comes from within, so this is not a selfish desire. In fact, if you find and develop the resources for happiness within you, you're able to radiate it out to other people. It's a happiness that doesn't depend on taking anything away from anyone else.

So now spread good will to other people. First, people who are close to your heart — your family, your parents, your very close friends: May they find true happiness, as well. Then spread those thoughts out in ever widening circles: people you know well, people you don't know so well, people you like, people you know and are neutral about, and even people you don't like. Don't let there be any limitations on your good will, for if there are, there will be limitations on your mind. Now spread thoughts of good will to people you don't even know — and not just people; all living beings of all kinds in all directions: east, west, north, south, above, and below, out to infinity. May they find true happiness, too.

Then bring your thoughts back to the present. If you want true happiness, you have to find it in the present, for the past is gone and the future is an uncertainty. So you have to dig down into the present. What do you have right here? You've got the body, sitting here and breathing. And you've got the mind, thinking and aware. So bring all these things together. Think about the breath and then be aware of the breath as it comes in and goes out. Keeping your thoughts directed to the breath: that's mindfulness. Being aware of the breath as it comes in and out: that's alertness. Keep those two aspects of the mind together. If you want, you can use a meditation word to strengthen your mindfulness. Try "Buddho," which means "awake." Think "bud-" with the in-breath, "dho" with the out.

Try to breathe as comfortably as possible. A very concrete way of learning how to provide for your own happiness in the immediate present — and at the same time, strengthening your alertness — is to let yourself breathe in a way that's comfortable. Experiment to see what kind of breathing feels best for the body right now. It might be long breathing, short breathing; in long, out short; or in short, out long. Heavy or light, fast or slow, shallow or deep. Once you find a rhythm that feels comfortable, stay with it for a while. Learn to savor the sensation of the breathing. Generally speaking, the smoother the texture of the breath, the better. Think of the breath, not simply as the air coming in and out of the lungs, but as the entire energy flow that courses through the body with each in-and-out breath. Be sensitive to the texture of that energy flow. You may find that the body changes after a while. One rhythm or texture may feel right for a while, and then something else will feel more comfortable. Learn how to listen and respond to what the body is telling you right now. What kind of breath energy does it need? How can you best provide for that need? If you feel tired, try to breathe in a way that energizes the body. If you feel tense, try to breathe in a way that's relaxing.

If your mind wanders off, gently bring it right back. If it wanders off ten times, a hundred times, bring it back ten times, a hundred times. Don't give in. This quality is called ardency. In other words, as soon as you realize that the mind has slipped away, you bring it right back. You don't spend time aimlessly sniffing at the flowers, looking at the sky, or listening to the birds. You've got work to do: work in learning how to breathe comfortably, how to let the mind settle down in a good space here in the present moment.
(cont.next page)

 

When the breath starts feeling comfortable, you can start exploring it in other areas of the body. If you simply stay with the comfortable breath in a narrow range, you'll tend to doze off. So consciously expand your awareness. A good place to focus first is right around the navel. Locate that part of the body in your awareness: where is it right now? Then notice: how does it feel there as you breathe in? How does it feel when you breathe out? Watch it for a couple of breaths, and notice if there's any sense of tension or tightness in that part of the body, either with the in-breath or with the out-breath. Is it tensing up as you breathe in? Are you holding onto the tension as you breathe out? Are you putting too much force on the out-breath? If you catch yourself doing any of these things, just relax. Think of that tension dissolving away in the sensation of the in-breath, the sensation of the out-breath. If you want, you can think of the breath energy coming into the body right there at the navel, working through any tension or tightness that you might feel there ...

Then move your awareness to the right — to the lower right-hand corner of your abdomen — and follow the same three steps there:
1) locate that general part of the body in your awareness;
2) notice how it feels as you breathe in, how it feels as you breathe out; and
3) if you sense any tension or tightness in the breath, just let it relax ... Now move your awareness to the left, to the lower left-hand corner of your abdomen, and follow the same three steps there.

Now move your awareness up to the solar plexus ... and then to the right, to the right flank ... to the left flank ... to the middle of the chest ... After a while move up to the base of the throat ... and then to the middle of the head. Be very careful with the breath energy in the head. Think of it very gently coming in, not only through the nose but also through the eyes, the ears, down from the top of the head, in from the back of the neck, very gently working through and loosening up any tension you may feel, say, around your jaws, the back of your neck, around your eyes, or around your face ...

From there you can move your attention gradually down the back, out the legs, to the tips of the toes, the spaces between the toes. As before, focus on a particular part of the body, notice how it feels with the in-breath and out-breath, relax any sensation of tension or tightness you might feel there, so that the breath energy can flow more freely, and then move on until you've reached the tips of the toes. Then repeat the process, beginning at the back of the neck and going down the shoulders, through the arms, past your wrists, and out through your fingers.

You can repeat this survey of the body as many times as you like until the mind feels ready to settle down.

Then let your attention return to any spot in the body where it feels most naturally settled and centered. Simply let your attention rest there, at one with the breath. At the same time let the range of your awareness spread out so that it fills the entire body, like the light of a candle in the middle of a room: the candle flame is in one spot, but its light fills the entire room. Or like a spider on a web: the spider's in one spot, but it knows the whole web. Be keen on maintaining that broadened sense of awareness. You'll find that it tends to shrink, like a balloon with a small hole in it, so keep broadening its range, thinking "whole body, whole body, breath in the whole body, from the top of the head down into the tips of the toes." Think of the breath energy coming in and out of the body through every pore. Make a point of staying with this centered, broadened awareness as long as you can. There's nothing else you have to think about right now, nowhere else to go, nothing else to do. Just stay with this centered, broadened awareness of the present ...

When the time comes to leave meditation, remind yourself that there's a skill to leaving. In other words, you don't just jump right out. My teacher, Ajaan Fuang, once said that when most people meditate, it's as if they're climbing a ladder up to the second story of a building: step-by-step-by-step, rung-by-rung, slowly up the ladder. But as soon as they get to the second story, they jump out the window. Don't let yourself be that way. Think of how much effort went into getting yourself centered. Don't throw it away.

The first step in leaving is to spread thoughts of good will once more to all the people around you. Then, before you open your eyes, remind yourself that even though you're going to have your eyes open, you want your attention to stay centered in the body, at the breath. Try to maintain that center as long as you can, as you get up, walk around, talk, listen, whatever. In other words, the skill of leaving meditation lies in learning how not to leave it, regardless of whatever else you may be doing. Act from that sense of being centered. If you can keep the mind centered in this way, you'll have a standard against which you can measure its movements, its reactions to the events around it and within it. Only when you have a solid center like this can you gain insight into the movements of the mind.
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With deeply appreciated from http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/guided.html]A Guided Meditation

 

Eight-Form Moving Meditation
Background

Dharma Drum’s Eight-Form Moving Meditation was developed by Master Sheng Yen of Dharma Drum Mountain as a means of allowing people living stressful and busy lifestyles to enjoy some of the benefits of Chan meditation. The system, based on many years of practice and personal experience, has incorporated the essence of Chan meditation into a series of simple physical exercises. In addition to physical exercise, practice of the Eight Forms helps you relax your body and mind, so that you can develop a healthy body and a balanced mind.

Dharma Drum’s Eight-Form Moving Meditation is a set of easy-to-learn exercises that can be practiced almost anywhere and at anytime. This system of “meditation through motion” is beneficial to both body and mind, and once acquired through diligent practice, can be performed whether walking, standing, sitting or reclining, so that you are always mindful of being relaxed in body and mind. By practicing the Eight Forms, you will always be composed and at ease, and at every moment enjoy the bliss of meditation and the joy of the Dharma.

"When true wisdom arises it comes undetected and unannounced. Like the melting of ice under hot water, it occurs without self-consciousness on the part of the ice."

Master Sheng Yen





Sincerely appreciated from http://chancenter.org/cmc/chan-practice/moving-meditation/ or

http://chancenter.org/cmc/

 

When The Mind is at One Point

When The Mind Is At One Point, There Is Nothing That Cannot Be Accomplished

Questions and answers between Master Ling Yuan (Master Sheng-yen’s master) and Master Xuyun in a seven day winter retreat,1947.

Grand master (Xuyun) asked me (Ling Yuan): “What method are you using?” I (Ling Yuan) said: “Reciting Buddha’s name and investigating Ch’an. Both Ch’an and Pure Land are practiced.”

Question: ” How can you be investigating Ch’an when you are reciting Buddha’s name?” I said: “When I recite the Buddha’s name, there is this doubt of who is reciting Buddha’s name hidden in my consciousness. So even though I’m reciting Buddha’s name, I’m also investigating Ch’an.”

Question: “Are there wandering thoughts or not?”
Answer: “When the right thought(method) are brought forth, often wandering thoughts are there along with it. However, when the right thought is put down neither are there wondering thoughts, pure and at ease.”

Grand master said: “This pure and at ease state is laziness, (You’re already off the method.) like a rock soaking in cold water. If one is like this, even if he practice for one thousand years it is still useless. One must bring forth the right thought with a bold and persevering mind investigating till the end and really see through just who is reciting the Buddha’s name. Only then can the investigation be shattered. You should really practice with great determination.”

Question: “I have heard that grandmaster had entered samadhi for eighteen days in Chung Nan Mountain, was there a mind to enter? or no mind to enter?”
Answer: “If there is a mind to enter samadhi then one cannot be in samadhi. If there’s no mind to enter samadhi then it’s like a statue made out of wood or mud. When the mind is at one point, there’s not a thing that cannot be accomplished.”

Question: “I want to be like grand master and enter samadhi, please teach me.”
Answer: “Then you must watch the Hua to.”

Question: “What do you call this Hua to?”
Answer: “Hua is actually a wandering thought. You’re actually talking to yourself. Before the wandering thoughts arise, one must illuminate on them. Look to see just what is the original face? This is called looking at Hua to. If the wandering thoughts have already arisen, you must still bring forth the right thought so the evil thoughts will perish by itself. If one goes around with the wandering thoughts, then sitting meditation is useless. However if one bring forth this right thought and its not serious or firm enough, then the Hua to is powerless and wandering thoughts will surely arise. When practicing, one needs to have a bold and persevering mind similar to the situation when your parents have died.(and you have countless things that you have to do.) The ancient ones said: “It’s like guarding the emperor’s palace; closely guarding on the top of the palace wall,” or “If you haven’t endured the bone chilling winter, how do you expect to smell the scent of plum blossoms.” (These words are always said by the grand master in seven day retreats.) If there are neither wondering thoughts nor the Hua to, then sitting there with an empty mind is like a rock soaking in cold water. One can sit until the innumerable Kalpa and still be useless. If you want to investigate Ch’an, then this is the only way. If you don’t want to do it this way then don’t investigate Ch’an. One has to have this bold and persevering mind, like one person fighting off ten thousand people; going straight forward without regressing and letting loose. Reciting Buddha’s name should be like this, reciting mantras should be like this. The mind of birth and death is firm and determined, day by day increasing. If one can be like this, the practice will progress.

(The above article is a dialogue between my master, Master Ling Yuan and his grand master, Master Xuyun. It was recorded down by Master Ling Yuan as “The Elder Grand master’s Dharma Discourses” in the Chinese book “The Collection of Master Xuyun’s Dharma Talks,” pages 177 to 178.)

Sincerely appreciated from When The Mind is at One Point When The Mind is at One Point