4. Day 1, afternoon

This morning we had a look at some aspects of Vipassana meditation practice. Last night we had a look at the formal instructions for the sitting meditation practice and for the walking meditation practice. This afternoon we are going to have a look at the third main section of our meditation practice here at the monastery, which is awareness of our daily activities.

4.1. Awareness of daily activities

The importance of continuing our mindfulness practice between the periods of formal walking and sitting meditation practice cannot be overemphasized or stressed enough. In fact, one of my teachers used to say, awareness of the daily activities is the heart and soul of the meditator. Fail- ing to observe an activity during the day, one ceases to be a meditator. Without constant awareness during these periods, there is little chance of developing enough stability or concentration, that will allow wisdom to unfold naturally by itself. It is really the difference between those meditators who see the dhamma, who see the truth for themselves inside their own mind and body, and those who don’t.

Walking meditation practice and sitting meditation practice needs to be backed up by awareness during our daily activities. During our meal times, during our chore times, while we are having a rest, while we are taking a 64 bath, while we are walking to the viewpoint or we’re having hot chocolate, all of those things. We need to keep some awareness about us. We need to keep our awareness in the present moment so that when we do sit, when we do walk, we can go quite quickly into the present moment. We go faster, we go deeper. Our meditation becomes more consistent. Our practice is more continuous. So I urge and encourage you, during the periods when we’re not walking and sitting, please try to maintain your awareness in the present moment, internalizing your awareness, bringing yourself back inside the body as much and as often as you can. This will be very beneficial for your sitting meditation practice. If you can maintain your awareness in your daily activities and in the walking meditation, if you can do that really well, when it comes to your sitting meditation your mind will drop in quite quickly. More quickly than it would have before.

It is simply cause and effect. Vipassana insights are conditioned phe- nomena. The causes and conditions need to be continuous. We need to keep rubbing those sticks. Don’t let there be any breaks. If you’re letting there be breaks in your stick rubbing, then the sticks cool down. The friction isn’t created. There’s not enough warmth to start a little fire by rubbing the sticks together. Our meditation is the same. We need to be as continuous as possible. The faculty of mindfulness becomes powerful and constant through uninterrupted noting of our daily activities. If we fail to do this, there will be wide gaps in our mindfulness. The schedule is like it is to allow us to practice as continuous as possible. The largest gap throughout the whole day, apart from sleeping time, is two hours between sittings. We try to keep you sitting, then walking or daily activities. Try to maintain continuity in your meditation practice. There are many new things to discover when you manage to do this. Doing things slowly, will help us. Slow down into the present moment. We perform our activities slowly. It helps us to observe.

The Buddha has given us seven different sections under the heading of sati-sampajana or mindfulness and clear comprehension. These are given in the satipatthana text under the section of body. That’s where we start our meditation practice. We are becoming aware of the physical sensations created in the body when the breath flows in and out. The physical sensations are one type of body experience. We are also paying attention to the postures 65 of the body. The walking, standing, sitting and lying down. And we’re paying attention to the breath that flows in and out. So we’re paying attention to the body in various ways.

During the walking meditation, we particularly pay attention to the soles of the feet and our legs as we’re walking back-and-forth.

During the daily activities our main focus of concern is the whole body. The whole posture of the body. We’re paying attention to the whole body and understand, when it’s sitting, we know that it’s sitting. When it’s walking, we know that it’s walking. When it’s standing, we know that it’s standing. And when it’s lying down, we know that it’s lying down. We understand that the body transitions between those four postures throughout the day and we are observing that. Always noting, keeping our awareness inside, «Okay, now it’s standing. Now it’s walking. Now it’s sitting.» Have a look! In our daily activities we use this mindfulness and awareness to observe the postures that are occurring in the present. Just be aware how your body is disposed at the moment. We bring our attention to the body, inside, make sure our awareness doesn’t leak outside through the eyes and the ears. We keep bringing our attention back to the body as we move around through the monastery. Try to keep your awareness inside. Try to keep present.

If you notice that your mind is wandering into the stories of the past, make a note of that, ‘remembering, remembering’. Step back from those stories! See that the mind is wandering around in the past. There are good memories and there are unfortunate memories. Sometimes we can get upset, sometimes we get happy when these memories come up. Just make a note of them and step back from them. Stop identifying with them. Allow them to arise, we don’t get upset by them, but just make a note, «this is what this actually happening in the present moment». There is some remembering going on. And that’s it!

Maybe your mind goes into the future a lot. Maybe you are a planer. Planning is occurring. Just make a note of that. Be sure to step away from it. If you find yourself getting caught in the stories of your mind, make a note, you are getting caught. We go into the past all the time. We go into the future all the time. It’s okay. The mind does this. This is its normal state. But we just want to watch it and observe it. We need to keep up with it. We 66 need to be able to note and be aware what kind of mental states are arising in the moment. And we step back from them. We note them, we know them and we let them go.

We note when the body is standing. There’s many opportunities for standing during the retreat. We stand and wait for food sometimes. We stand and wait to come into the door sometimes. We stand on the walking meditation path. If our sitting becomes uncomfortable, we can stand up for a few minutes and then sit down and again. Try to catch all of these standings. When you’re standing in the shower, at the bathroom. Be aware of that. Try to maintain continuous awareness of what body posture you are standing in.

4.2. Wise attention

Use the faculty known as yoniso manasikara or wise attention. It’s a mental state. Wise attention is the ability to have a look at the reason. Why? Why are we doing the things that we are doing? Why are we standing now? Why are we sitting now? Why are we walking? Why are we lying down? What is the purpose of this? We start to examine why we go into those four postures and why we come out of those four postures. Why is it necessary to continuously change posture? Why do we have to keep moving all the time? After we’ve been walking, we have to sit down. After we’ve been sitting for a while, we have to stand up. When we have been standing, we want to lie down. Been lying down for a while, we have to stand up again. Try to examine your own body and see the reason, why we change postures all the time. This mental state, this ability to see the reason why, to see our own motivations, to see our own intentions is a mind state that leads us out of samsara. It’s a very important mind state in the practice of the Buddha’s teaching. Yoniso manasikara. Manasikara means attention. Yoniso means ‘coming before’, attention as to ‘before states’. Attention to reasons. Reasons why we do the things that we do.

The Buddha teaches us, «there is suffering». It’s the first noble truth. There it is! He says, «I cannot see any single dhamma, that leads more surely to right view then this one.» If we want to attain right view, the first factor of the noble eightfold path, we want to see things as they really are, we’re going to need to employ, we’re going to need to develop yoniso manasikara. 67 Sometimes we have a reason, sometimes we know why we do what we do. It’s not a completely undeveloped faculty. It’s very under-used. We don’t often challenge ourselves for the reasons why we’re doing what we’re doing. When we start to have a look, we will start to understand what motivates us. We start to see it’s the sense of being. This craving to be is manipulating the mind and body process. So it gets what it wants. It does what it can always trying to take some advantage.

The Buddha also says in the Sabasava sutta: «The destruction of the taints is for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know and does not see.» Does not know and see what? – Yoniso manasikara. When one attends unwisely, unarisen defilements arise and arisen defilements increase. When one attends wisely, unarisen defilements don’t have a chance to arise and arisen defilements cease. So combined with right effort – right effort is the effort to remove defiled, corrupted, imperfected mind states of greed, hatred and delusion – when we’re trying to remove these from the mind, to note, know them and let them go, it’s very important that we use yoniso manasikara, this wise attention. It will bring us to the reasons of why we are trapped in the mind states that we are trapped in. We’ll start to understand what motivates our suffering, while we see suffering, while we experience suffering. So the abandoning of sensual desire, the abandoning of being, the abandoning of ignorance – these three taints or these three asavas – are removed through yoniso manasikara. Unwise attention is the root of the rounds of samsara. Not paying attention to the present moment and to why we’re doing what we’re doing is the fuel of samsara. That’s why we keep manifesting as mind and body process in various places and various ways. Wise attention is at the root of liberation. Liberation from the rounds of samsara. And it leads to the development of the noble eightfold path. In fact, the venerable Sariputta answers the venerable Mahakolita’s question about right view by saying: «Friend, there are two conditions for the arising of right view. The voice of another and wise attention. These are the conditions for the arising of right view.» So we can start to understand things from listening, like we do today. But we come to an even better understanding of things if we start to investigate for ourselves. When we start to see really what is going on in this mind and body creation. The arising of right view, 68 the destruction of defilements is all conditioned by this activity called yoniso manasikara.

So we use this yoniso manasikara in our daily activities, combining it with the four postures of the body. We use it, we pay attention to it. What is it? It’s mental advertency. Turning your mind! We are turning our focus on to the reasons, our motivations. We’re not just blindly following on what our mind wants to do. We start to have a look at it. Have a look at the reasons! Why? Are we guided by some selfish idea? Are we being guided by an unselfish idea? Are we guided by something wholesome or something unwholesome? What is motivating us?

Wise attention or proper attention, adverting our attention, adverting our mind so that we can see causes. We want to see causes! We are looking at the effects in our meditation practice. The effects are obvious to us when awareness and wisdom are present. That’s what we are noting. The effect of things as they are arising and passing away. Yoniso manasikara goes a little deeper. It sees the causes, the reasons and the motivations for why we do what we do. Unwise attention can lead us to believe things are all permanent, things are all satisfactory and that all belongs to me, it’s all self. This is vipalassa sañña or a perversity of perception. Vipassana gives us exactly the opposite experience. Things are impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self.

We change the body. I would like you to really have a look at this on the retreat. Have a look why we are changing the body all the time! We are moving it around. Why do we need to adjust our shoulder sometimes? Why do we need to wiggle a little bit? Why do we need to wipe the sweat off our face? – It is to cure suffering. That’s the reason why we’re doing everything in our life. To try and escape from dukkha. The Buddha points it out to us very clearly. Here’s the problem. There is dukkha occurring. If we don’t see that dukkha occurring, then our daily life is simply about curing our dukkha. From morning through the afternoon into the evening. We’re spending the day trying to cure ourselves from what is very natural – dukkha arising. When we wake up, when we eat, when we wash our body. So have a look at when suffering is felt. See it in your sitting meditation practice as well. See if you can feel it arising and the need to twist or change or move or drink water. It’s the reason why we do everything that we do. When we are 69 sitting already for 20 minutes in meditation, we start to become a little bit uncomfortable. We feel like we need to change. Why? Why do we need to change? Have a look at the reason! Are you trying to cure suffering? Are you trying to remove the suffering? This is what we have been doing all our lives. When we are unmindful, the suffering manifests, we move our body to try and cure it in some way. And then the suffering disappears. Then it arises again because it’s continuous. It’s continuously arising. That is what having a body is. We have taken rebirth in the sense sphere world. We are sense sphere beings endowed with this body. We have this thing, these four elements combined together and consciousness is addicted to it. Addicted to the pleasantness and unpleasantness that arises through the six doors. It believes it is this body. It has come to a conclusion that it is somebody. – A very interesting conclusion.

The correct practice when you start to feel something uncomfortable, when you want to move in sitting meditation is to make a note before moving as to why you want to move. Try to become aware of what actually is going on. When we are unmindful, we are trying to push away, we are trying to escape what is unpleasant and we are trying to replace it with something that is pleasant. Sometimes it’s just as easy as stretching your leg. If I am unmindful I just transition from one mind state of disliking to another mind state of liking. I am pushing away the unpleasant and I am seeking the pleasant, the new posture. This is just reacting to what is there. This is not seeing things clearly!

When we see things clearly, when we are meditating and the body starts to become uncomfortable, we make a note of it, we make a note of the sensation that is occurring in the moment, we make a note of the unpleasantness of that sensation occurring in the moment – there is two things going on there: one of them is physical, the body sensations are physical; the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the situation is mental – mind and body arising together in the present moment, consciousness that is there knowing that, witnessing that, observing that.

Become aware of the aversion that starts to arise in the mind before you move. If you can note the unpleasant state that you’re sitting in before you change your posture, if you can note and know it, you can free yourself 70 from this aversion state. You can go to the new posture but you have not reacted, you make the change. But don’t get excited about the new posture thinking, «oh, I am comfortable and happy now». You’ll make a note of that as well. In that way you’ll be noting exactly what is going on. You are not just reacting to unpleasentness. That is normally how we function. Something unpleasant is happening, we try to escape it! We can escape with mindfulness and awareness and wise attention. That’s the skillful way. That’s the appropriate strategy to use. If we don’t have this ability, then our only option is sensuality. A little bit of suffering, find some sensual objects to satisfy us. Find something nice to eat, touch, listen, turn on the TV or computer, watch something, touch somebody, to go to new places and get new nice eye impressions, get fresh delight into the eyes, ear, tongue, nose and body doors. That has been our only escape up until now. Unpleasantness occurring, do something nice. That’s what we do moment after moment.

When we start examining our daily activities, when we get up in the morning after the bell rang, why do you wash your face? I want you to pay attention to that early-morning activity. Why do we need to go to the bathroom early in the morning? Make a note of that. – It is to cure suffering! The bladder is full. It’s starting to feel uncomfortable now. When having a shower, why do you do that? Why is it that you need to wash your body so regularly? – It’s to cure suffering. The body has become unbearable. It’s sticky and all hot. The only way we can cure that is by having a shower. If we don’t know how to be mindful and aware of what’s going on, we can get caught up in the unpleasantness of the situation!

There is unpleasantness arising continuously. All we need to do is to be aware of it. When we are aware of it, the unpleasantness falls away. There is just what is. We don’t find anything unpleasant anymore. We are able to use our mindfulness and awareness to note it, to see it really as it actually is, to not get trapped and caught in whatever that physical sensation is. We can move beyond it.

So when changing from posture to posture, do not dislike the old position and start to like the new position. You don’t want those mind states coming up. Unpleasantness, disliking. «I have to sit on a stool.» And then liking. We are trying to watch our reaction process of liking and disliking. 71 What’s fueling it? What’s behind it? – Pleasantness and unpleasantness.

Try to maintain your awareness in the present, until another pain or discomfort comes along. And then see what happens. You will have to change that as well.

4.3. Labelling technique

So we look at all the activities we go through whilst we are here. We have a look at the most simple things. Our daily postures, our daily movements, our eating. In an aid to help us with this meditation, we can use the technique of labelling. Using very soft, little words to keep us in the present moment if necessary. When something is occurring, we can just put a little label there. To make us aware of the fact that hearing is taking place, we can just make a note ‘hearing, hearing’. ‘Seeing, seeing’. ‘Smelling, smelling’. ‘Thinking, thinking’. ‘Remembering, remembering’. ‘Planning, planning’. All these little things. Just watch the mind and make a note of what’s going on. We are stepping back and watching the mind spinning and turning by itself. It will keep thinking. It’ll keep manifesting various thoughts in the past and future. Just keep watching them. Just keep observing them. Don’t get caught by them. We are not going into the story that keeps arising. We are stepping back. Meditation is the practice of stepping back from the events that are occurring in our lives. Stepping back and having an objective view of them. When we step back like this, we disconnect from them. We have stopped identifying with them. We don’t take the event or experience as being me or mine so strongly anymore. The me and mine, the identification with the events, the identification with the physical sensations in the body, the identification with the mental states, the emotional states, the thought patterns – we start to let go of them, stop identifying with them.

You will find the less you identify, the less you suffer. The more you identify, the more you suffer. You can get yourself into a real state, spinning around, worrying, freaking out, just by being in a mind state, just by owning that mind state. Just by thinking that that mind state is somehow important. – Dependently arisen, conditioned phenomena, that doesn’t have an owner, that arises and passes away. Why do you give so much attention and care to a mind state? It’s not you! It’s not yours! It doesn’t belong to you! So drop it! 72 You don’t have to hang on to things. You don’t have to be the owner of your crazy thoughts, your unbalanced emotional states. They are not you! They have never been you! They do not belong to you! But we have been identifying with them for a while now. And you know the mind states that cause you the problems. Those mind states that take you into depression, anxiety, stress, worry, fear, concern. All these mental states are fine when they’re just noted, known and let go of. They will arise! It’s the nature of having a mind and body! Mental states do come and go! Allow them just to arise and pass away. Don’t get entangled in them. Don’t take every thought that comes into your head as mine. Don’t take all of those things literally or personally. They are not yours! They are very, very impermanent mind states that are arising and passing away. They don’t belong to anybody. It’s conditioned phenomena. It’s sankharas.

4.4. Karma

Sankharas have arisen because conditions are in place. That’s the only way old karma can manifest. We have all done billions and billions of old karmas in the past. Karma is done through body, speech and mind. Intentional activities. Intentional activities that give a resultant, that give a result known as kamma-sati or karmic energy. That karmic energy remains latent. It remains unproductive until the conditions are in place for it to manifest. Billions and billions of karmic intentions we have done in the past. Whatever is set up in the present moment, will allow that karmic intention to manifest as a fruit. If the conditions are not in place, the fruit can’t grow. All our karmic intentions are like a mango seed which has not been planted yet. We cut open a mango seed, you can have a look inside, there’s no mango tree in there. And yet there exists in that mango seed the potentiality, the possibility, the latency of a mango tree arising from that seed. But there needs to be the right conditions in place. There needs to be good earth, some water, some good sunlight, maybe a gardener around. If all the conditions are in place, then the latency that is in that seed, will have the potential to give its fruit. It will start to grow a tree. It will start to give us some fruit. But only if the conditions are in place. Our situation is very much like that. Karmic energy is manifesting in the present moment bubbling up manifesting as mental 73 and physical phenomena, arising and passing away in the present moment. This is an experience of samsara, this is dukkha. The Buddha said, there is dukkha. Have a look at it! When this mind and body process is unable to be aware of itself, then it starts to subjectify the experience. The mind and body process is either aware and present of the moment, free from a state of duality of me, mine and I and the other. Or it is not present and unaware in the moment, not free. We have a choice in each moment. We can be aware and free or we can be unaware and trapped in the conditioned phenomena identifying with it. When we’re identifying with that phenomenon, that is called dukkha. The first noble truth. There is dukkha. The Buddha’s teaching is all about removing dukkha. It’s all about understanding dukkha. Understanding craving, the cause of dukkha and relinquishing and letting it go.

In your daily activities, you can choose a few activities in the beginning and a few things you do regularly. For example drinking water. Try to make each drink of water a mindful experience. Don’t just grab the bottle, open the lid and throw it down. Try to have a look before you start to drink the water. What’s the condition of the mind? Is there any suffering there? Is there thirstiness? Make a note of thirstiness if it’s there. ‘Thirsty, thirsty’. And you’re going to reach for the bottle, just be fully aware, watch your hand, move it deliberately, touch the bottle, bring it back, open the lid and intending to drink, drinking, tasting, feel the sensation in your mouth of the liquid. What does it feel like? Is it hard? Is it soft? Is it heavy? Is it smooth? Is it pleasant? Is it unpleasant? Does it make you want more? Does it cure the suffering, the thirstiness, you were experiencing? Neither like it nor dislike it! See it for what it is!

We spend much of our day going through curing suffering. Why do we perform these activities? Why do we eat? What is it about eating that has got us so fascinated? Are we eating really just to survive? Or is it some kind of enjoyment process? Is it some kind of fun? Are we eating to cure suffering? When we are mindful of the eating process, that is the conclusion that you will come to. You will come to understand, «Oh, this is why we have to eat». If we don’t eat, a great suffering is coming. People tend to get upset if they haven’t been eating for a few days. They become unbalanced. Very uncomfortable. We start looking at that. How important is eating? Why do we do 74 it? Why do we normally do it? Normally it is some kind of sensual pleasure activity. It’s become a social activity. We eat even when we’re not hungry.

Don’t rush through your activities. «Oh, I do this quickly and then I want to go to do meditation.» The meditation is in the daily activities. The more attention you can pay to them, the deeper your sitting meditation will go and the better you can take the meditation back into your daily life as well. We’re not only meditating by sitting still and walking very slowly. We are meditating on our other activities.

When you’re going to turn the body, intending to turn, make a note before you turn it. When you hear a sound and then instantly you want to look finding out what it is, make a note, why you are doing that. Why are you turning your head? What is it that is so interesting and requires your attention right now?

When we go to sit down after walking, when we come back to the hall, just stand a moment in front of your mat and slowly lower your body down. Try to follow the whole transition from the walking path into the sitting meditation. There really shouldn’t be any gaps. Sometimes people just rush to the toilet after the walking meditation and think, «oh I should quickly go back to the sitting meditation». This breaks the whole process of awareness. Examine that for yourself.

Why do we go to the toilet? Why do we put on clothing? Why do we eat? Why do we drink? Why do we turn our head? Do we enhance our sense of identity, our personality when we go shopping for clothes? Or do we use clothing wisely, to protect and cover our body. Why do we use clothing? – To cure suffering! If not we would be really cold. That is why we have to use clothing. Or we use appropriate clothing when it’s really hot. We are curing suffering. That is what clothing is for.

Why do we go to sleep at night? Curing suffering! Why do we eat during the day? Curing suffering! Why do we drink during the day? Curing suffering! Why do we change postures continuously throughout the day? Because we are curing suffering. We need to be able to see this for ourselves. Just listening to it isn’t enough. When you see how the mind is maneuvering and manipulating itself, so it gets what it wants, it’s always seeking some kind of happiness. Unfortunately it doesn’t know the way to happiness. The 75 way to happiness is contentment. Contentment with whatever is occurring in the present moment that leads to happiness. That is the condition for happiness. The proximate cause for happiness. Being content with whatever is right now. That makes us happy. When the mind is happy it becomes concentrated. The concentrated mind sees things as they really are.

So make sure you’re becoming content whilst you’re here on the retreat. Put in some effort to make your mind content. Don’t struggle with the frustrations. I know it’s hot. We know that you are tired. We know that you’re exhausted. Frustrated. «What am I doing here, sitting on the floor, listening to this guy? What are we doing?» Try to see the mind making excuses. Try to witness the mind as it comes to whisper: «Don’t do this. You shouldn’t be doing that. The beach is better for you.» Try not to listen to that. Don’t get caught in it. Don’t believe the whispers. That is what crazy people do, listening to the whispers in their head. Don’t get caught by that stuff. It’ll make you quite agitated. Whatever is arising, note it, know it and let it go. Here it’s a radical change in viewing the body and mind process as we’re normally doing. We don’t normally spend our lives looking at what we are doing in this way. We are always seeking and searching for something pleasant out in front looking for the new enjoyment. A new toy to buy, a new restaurant to go to, a new piece of clothing to climb into. All those things. We are looking for those continuously.

They never bring satisfaction. They never bring happiness. Because searching is not contentment. When we are searching and seeking for something, trying to get more and more of something, it means we’re not content with how things are. We’re unable to just rest with what is. The mind is wanting. Have a look at that wanting mind. Have a look at the mind which has a little bit of aversion towards the unsatisfactory present moment. When we start reacting to it, there is disliking and we have to change our posture, we have to have a drink, or we have to go to the bathroom, or we have to lie down. All these things are the results of not seeing clearly what’s going on. These activities are just what occurs when we are not being mindful.

Of course, you still have to sleep. You still have to drink. No-one is suggesting that you don’t. Just do it with some attention to the present moment as to why you are doing it. That is a shift in your experience. If you feel any 76 itching sensations or feel uncomfortable pains or any kind of sensations you find unpleasant, make a note of that. Don’t get caught up by them. «My poor knee. Oh my knee.» Stop identifying with it! It’s not yours! It’s not you! It’s just a physical sensation. It may be unpleasant, that is something else. If you see it clearly, the unpleasantness disappears, the sensation will still be there, whatever it is, the sensation in your back, in your knee, the sensation of hunger. Whatever sensation it could possibly be. If you just note it and know it, you can step out of it. It’s still there but the unpleasantness associated with it disappears. It turns into a neutral feeling.

This is how we begin to manage ourselves, we can manage our lives. We are learning a technique here, the method and techniques of managing our own mind when we find that our mind is getting into a state of unpleasantness, when we are getting into an aversion state or a craving state. We’ll be able to note that. «Hm, danger is there. Suffering is occurring.» You can step out of it. As soon as you see it, it’s no longer suffering. If you’re still in it, there’s a lot of suffering in there. If you’re still identifying with the experience or the event, dukkha is your companion. If you’re noting and knowing, letting the conditioned phenomena arise and pass away without identifying with it, then you’re free in that moment!

Our mediation practice is to free the mind, moment after moment after moment. So that we become skillful at it. Like learning to play the guitar. We try and make some effort. At the beginning stages it’s difficult but after a few days you start to play a few accords. Meditation is a practicing event. We are practicing meditation! It doesn’t happen immediately. It takes practice. Bringing our minds into the present moment when our mind is in a state of stress. This is a good starting point. When you find yourself worrying, freaking out, maybe you don’t understand the meditation, what we’re doing here. – If that’s the case come and talk to me, maybe you’re expecting something to happen, you’ve heard people talking about meditation and all the wonderful results and you think you just need to sit down and it’s going to happen to you. Maybe you think sitting on the floor cross legged with your eyes closed is somehow miraculously giving you a great deal of pleasantness. If you are thinking in that way, you may be quite surprised after a couple of days. There’s not a great deal of pleasantness of sitting there on the floor. Meditation 77 is mind work. We train the mind. We’re training it to endure, to have some skills in dealing with this dukkha that arises.

The Buddha’s first noble truth: There is dukkha. That’s all we need to understand. If we understand dukkha, we have understood the world. Nothing becomes a problem for us anymore. Because when we see dukkha, we also see the cessation of dukkha. We see them at the same time. We see the craving that causes dukkha and we see the mindfulness and wisdom and the other factors, that cause freedom from dukkha. The noble eightfold path and the four noble truths manifest in the present moment together.

When you see dukkha, you also see the cause of it occurring right there. And when you see dukkha and its cause, immediately the mind snaps out of it and goes into cessation. It ceases! And we see the cause of that cessation is our meditation practice. The noble eightfold path is the cause of cessation.

We can make our choice in the present moment intelligently. We have the ability to monitor each moment. So make the effort. Here we have a special training facility where you can keep your mind in the present moment as continuously as possible so you can see these things happening in real-time. Once you have seen it, once you have broken through this, it is a lifetime lasting insight. It will affect and change your mind and perception. It will be a shift. This is called evolution. This is the purpose of our species actually. This is why we are here. This is what humans are meant for. We are meant to evolve. We are meant to be coming out, evolving. Meditation is the practice of evolution. The evolution of our species. Two and a half thousand years ago this technique was discovered where beings can escape from samsara, the rounds of rebirth, the continuous arising and passing away of mental and physical phenomena that believe they are somebody. It’s all manifesting right in front of us! Luckily the Buddha broke through that. He saw the patterns. He saw the framework, the structure and he gave us the teaching, pointing out where the problem is and he pointed out the techniques that we need to use so that we can overcome the problem. And people have been doing that very successfully for two and a half thousand years.

Unfortunately for us, it didn’t kind of make it to where we were born and grew up. It’s taken a while to get over to the western side of the planet. 78 But this century and last century it’s starting to make inroads. The teaching is starting to spread into the western hemisphere. So now it’s our opportunity to do the practice. Take advantage of this unique situation. This unique opportunity to become deeply in touch, not only with a wonderful spiritual teaching, but also with your own mind. We’re starting to work out what this mind is and what its reactions are.

When we start to see it, we start to release our identity with it. Our identity crisis will start to abate, start to be let go of this identity, this personality that we have created for ourselves. It’s being reinforced by the social institutions which we live in. You’ll start to see it crumble before your very eyes. You’ll start to see it crumble through your insight. The sense of self will start do dissolve and when it starts to dissolve, a lot of freedom arises.

What replaces the sense of self? When the sense of self starts to go down, it’s replaced by love and compassion, metta and karuna. That’s what replaces the sense of self. So don’t think that you’re going to be empty. Actually there’s a great deal of bliss and a great deal of love that arise in the heart in the person whose sense of self is being diminished. When you’re very selfish, you don’t have much love and compassion. When your sense of selfishness starts to go down, your sense of love and compassion for others starts to go up. You will start to see that. When we start to let go of our selfishness, we start to broaden our interests.

I really would like you to become aware of your various activities throughout the day. When you’re having your meal, listen to the food reflection. Look into your bowl. See the food that is there. Hold the spoon. Pick it up. Fill the food in your mouth. What are you doing? You’re putting food into your head! What for? Is it for your enjoyment? Pay attention to that. You’re not talking to anyone while we’re eating. We are not distracted by any screens. Be aware of the arm as it’s bending putting the food into the mouth. Feel the warmth, the temperature in your mouth. Feel the softness, the greasiness, oiliness, the crunchiness. Feel that! Feel what it’s like to swallow. How far down can you follow the sensation of swallowing? Look at the pleasure that arises. Is there some happiness? Is it pleasant? Is liking occurring? Try to capture all the experience of eating! Try to see exactly what is going on. We can also pay attention to our thoughts in our daily activities. Look 79 at our intentions, look at our ideas and imaginings. We’re not getting sucked into them either. Look at the planning. Look at the remembering. If you’re imagining something, make a note, ‘imagining’. If you’re thinking about something, ’thinking’. If you’re remembering, ‘remembering’. If you’re planning, ‘planning’. Try to keep on top of exactly what’s going on in the present moment. Where is your mind at the moment?

We are trying to keep our awareness in the present and internalizing our awareness so that we have a continuous awareness of the body at this stage in our meditation. But there will be thoughts coming up as well. If they come up, we make a note of them and we return to the awareness of the whole body in our daily activities.

It’s the same with our sitting meditation. We are watching the breath as it flows in and out. That’s our main object. That’s what we should be pay attention to 90% of the time. But if there is some other object, sound or something comes to interfere, we make a note, ‘hearing’. That’s what’s happening. Hearing is occurring. This body is hearing some sound. That’s all. Don’t get caught in the sound. Don’t get caught in the story of that sound. Who is making that sound? When will they stop that sound? We don’t go into stories when we hear a sound. We just make a note that hearing has occurred and come back to our main object. So we try to keep our awareness and attention on the main object.

We will be talking about that more tomorrow morning. We will go into some further instructions about the walking meditation and the sitting meditation.

For now I encourage you to keep your mind in the present moment and internalized during the daily activities. It makes up the third part of our meditation retreat. We do sitting meditation, walking meditation and the daily activities. They all will contribute to your success and your unfolding of insight. May it happen swiftly for you!