Meditation Lecture

 Meditation Lecture

Thank you Marvin for asking me to share my journey in Meditation

I feel Buddhism is a spirituality not a religion.  I feel and have gained personal spiritual enrichment through the practice of mediation and that is what I will share today.

More common in present days, churches incorporate the practice of meditation.  I am still active in holding mediations in the labyrinth at my church in Durham where I lived before Candler and visit regularly. 

It is now more confirming and I am more inspired to share my own journey in Buddhism because of the recent media coverage of the 

Thai monks completing their walk for peace from Fort Worth to Washington D.C.

I began my practice when I moved to Ventura, California twenty years ago.  I went to a Vietnamese temple twice a week for group meditation.

 It is easier to acquire the discipline of meditation in a group.  

I lived in Thailand in the 80s and taught school there. I revisited Thailand in 2014. I was staying in a treehouse with my sister and early in the morning, we would hear the monks do their morning chantings. 

We followed the chant and found 

Wat Rampoeng 

finding out later that this is one of the premier places in the world for foreign meditators. 

I decided to do a vipasana the following year, a ten day retreat wherein you are silent the whole time except for daily reportings to a monk.  The meditators work their way up to doing 12 hours of meditation daily. Conscience walking and sitting 

I have now completed ten consecutive years of Vipasssanas. 

The daily schedule is 

Five Two and a half hours meditation sessions with breaks of breakfast lunch and reporting to one of the monks in the afternoon.  And as all monks do we fasted after noon.  

Fasting was difficult at the beginning. 

story of stealing cabbage 

In the daily reportings, the monk gives instructions of walking steps and breathing points. To concentrate on your breath helps one release the monkey in the brain and be in the present moment.  The Thais have a saying:

“Don’t feed the monkey in the brain”

My second year my reporting monk asked me how many breathing points I had done. I responded I had done all 12 she responded there are 24

“Learn by doing” and working up to twelve hours of meditation daily is the goal. 

One begins each set of meditation with

prostration bowing to the monk or nature or God

Six walking steps beginning with step one and gradually reaching step six

Sitting and concentrating on the breath

Working up to the 28 Breathing points that scan the body from top to bottom

And the benefits?

The head monk at the Wat Rampoeng said the true route to happiness is through meditation

I have very little anger in my life. 

Dali lama says that meditation changes your brain. He speaks of not having anger and that the practice of meditation gives one mental happiness. Reading about the research on meditation benefits, I find others have felt the benefits I have felt. 

Happiness comes from 

“loving kindness”

to self and then to your fellow human beings and the world. Buddhism has many precepts to follow to guide you and your life. One of the precepts is 

“right speech”

so one key thing I have learned from studying Buddhism and my meditation practice is to try to have right speech, I try to speak right speech  with no negativity. 

Expressing gratitude and forgiveness and loving kindness

I used to feel as if my mind was like a hamster going around a wheel. I would try to analyze and find answers for problems. 

Now I feel more relaxed and let solutions run their own course. Letting go of controls. 

I feel like I live more in the 

present. 

It  may sound like a small benefit but I do not forget where I leave things because I feel I am conscious in the present moment. 

I have a saying 

“Walk to be here not to be there”.

One of the gifts of my vipasanas is that it slows me down to make note of everything in my life.  I tend to literally walk slower and will let go of something in my life if it rushes me, takes me away from enjoying the present moment.  I have learned to say to people when I am not sure I wish to make a commitment, that it is a possibility.  This made an impression in my life from one of my monastic monks in the temple when he responded to my question if I could leave a day early from one my vipasanas, 

“it is a possibility.”

We only have the present

The past is only a memory

The future is our imagination and projection. 

Letting go of attachments

One reason I go on these long retreats is that toward the end of my ten days I 

feel the presence of those who have passed on like my parents 

During an early morning meditation, I felt my mother lying beside me and many other feelings of their presence. So the comfort meditation has given me to heal my grief is a huge benefit. 

My parents have come to me vividly in dreams when I am in the temple whereas I do not dream of them outside of the temple.

I went February of last year and had a dream of my childhood home and again my mother and father were present. Last November when I went, I had the exact same dream. I believe this not to be a coincidence.

Toward the end of my last visit one of my monestic teachers asked at every daily reporting how many hours have you done?  I told her this time that I felt I was meditating all the time. She smiled and said that is the point to reach this level of meditating. 

It is important to incorporate meditation into your daily life and routines. 

 by trying to be present with your activities, like washing the dishes or going for a walk. 

Starting with a daily practice of ten minutes a day is beneficial.  

To continue a daily meditation practice, it allows us to keep clarity, consciousness and awareness to live our best life.  

And now we will do a seven minute mediation. 

We will Meditate now

One minute of Prostration

Three minutes of walking

Three minutes of sitting 

May all who suffer 

Be free from suffering

May all who have fear

Be free from fear

May all who have sorrow

Be free from sorrow

May all obstacles

Be away from your path

May all ailments cease

May no danger come to you 

May you have a happy and long life

May all beings be well and happy

Saadhu  Saadhu Saadhu 

 Notes from Prah Ajahn Sukito

Wat Rampoeng 

 November 25

I arrived on 11/25 and attended Dhamma talks given by Prah Ajahn Sukito.  This was my choice to attend not as an old student but a new student in order to hear his talks along with the new students.

11/26

Prah Ajahn Sukto’s first talk was on the precepts of Buddhism.  He gave us a handout this day.

11/27

Prah Ajahn Sukito shares his belief that positive energy is in the space of Wat Rampoeng because of the generations of meditators.

As meditators, we can share this energy like water being poured.  This reminds me of the love water I have been doing in my teaching career as part of the Green Circle to teach altruism to children.  There is the same ritual in Buddhism, water is poured from one container into the other during chanting and as one pours the water, one expresses good will to others in their mind.  Body and mind can be used to share energy.  When one is “awake” one can choose happy or sad.  If the mind is awake, one can choose the feeling.  This feeling lives only in the present moment, the rest of the time past and future are only thoughts.  

We have the ability to change our habits.  What ever we are now is from our memory of our past.  We live only by habit.  If we gain a new direction from our meditation experience, we learn how our body and mind can be free.  This comes with less attachment, our new knowledge becomes wisdom and stays with us forever.  Otherwise when our mind is unclear, we have doubt. 

11/28 Buddha Day

There is no reporting on this day to our assigned monks, my monk being my beloved Bhikuni Agga Nani.  Buddha day occurs every full, half and new moons as a reminder of Buddha’s teachings and the precepts, the rules of Buddhism. The main Buddha Day occurs once a year.  He speaks of the different rules for women and men, for instance women cannot step on the stupa as in the foot of the pagoda.  On the other hand there are extra rules which show more respect to women because of motherhood.  As meditators, we only follow the first four precepts, no stealing, lying, sex and killing including small insects.  There are 270 precepts for monks, the main ones cannot be broken and if so, the monk is asked to disrobe.  But if others are broken, the monk can make a confession to a fellow monk and be forgiven.  If a monk chooses to disrobe and choose to enter normal life, he or she may choose to return to being a monk up to seven times.  Rules are there to give the monk direction.  For example, one rule is to not touch a woman but if a monk is helping a woman from a fall, compassion presides over rules.  A monk must practice being non self.  For example, if a monk says “I” want to be enlightened, one cannot be enlightened with this self centered expression.  

Whenever one is unhappy, it means there is some kind of attachment.  Only a clear consciousness can be attentive to a healthy mind and body.  

On Buddha Day, it is a time to give blessings to others.  

First, to our parents regardless of whether they have passed away or not

Second, to all others 

Third, to self, family and friends

Forth, to all divas and mothers 

The blessing wish is for all to have a healthy body, mind and life style.

As we make these blessings, we hold a candle, flowers, and incense and walk three times around the pagoda. 

As Prah Ajahn Sukito is explaining our blessings given first to our parents, I think how not a coincidence that I had this special dream about my mother this morning.  

11/29

Prah Ajahn Sukito explains the value of breathing. He talks about first before beginning to breathe into the points, scan the whole body. Scan the body as you breathe into the whole body.  Breathe with the awareness not to feel any anger, trying not to distinguish thoughts, not to like or dislike.  Anger causes fear.  First love your self and then love others.  It is important that one must be healthy first before one can love another.  Happiness comes from unconditional love.  If one complains and does not hold positive energy, this causes unhappiness.  Clarity comes from meditation and is the route to less suffering.  It is easier for a monk to gain less suffering because of the rules he follows for direction.  It is difficult to end suffering but we can work toward less suffering.  Less suffering comes through loving and less desire and less attachment.  There must be the right kind of desire which includes love. There must be this right kind of desire without hurting others, the right kind of desire includes love and compassion. 

11/30

Meditation helps you keep a positive consciousness.  There is an awakening when you come to the temple without the temptations of the outside world.  This is why it is so very important to continue meditation after you leave the temple.  It is important to make time for meditation in your daily life.  To continue a daily meditation practice, it allows us to keep this clarity, this consciousness and awareness to live our best life.