Guided Meditation: What Is the Mind? #7 [rebroadcast]

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<v Speaker>Find yourself in a quiet place now, if you can.

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<v Speaker>Fine to sit on a chair or on a cushion.

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<v Speaker>You're in a seat, put your legs straight out and down, crossed.

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<v Speaker>If you're on the floor, it's good to elevate your spine.

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<v Speaker>Sitting on some kind of cushion.

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<v Speaker>It's a few inches thick, place your hands on your knees, one hand atop the other in your left.

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<v Speaker>Thumbs touching.

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<v Speaker>A little space between your arms to let air circulate around your body.

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<v Speaker>Try to adjust your spine.

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<v Speaker>The most important aspect of the meditation posture.

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<v Speaker>Straight spine.

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<v Speaker>Just tilt your spine forward and back until it feels like your spine is aligned.

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<v Speaker>You feel not just comfortable, but alert.

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<v Speaker>Posture supports focus.

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<v Speaker>And then you can tilt your head down slightly.

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<v Speaker>Maybe four feet in front of you.

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<v Speaker>And your eyes can half close or almost all the way close.

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<v Speaker>To let just a little light in.

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<v Speaker>Just this however you like.

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<v Speaker>Your eyes nearly closed makes you sleepy.

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<v Speaker>If you're distracted, you can close your eyes fully.

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<v Speaker>And try and relax the muscles in your shoulders.

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<v Speaker>Your face.

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<v Speaker>That good qualities lie at the core of our being, that they are our very nature.

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<v Speaker>And that we can see these qualities in others.

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<v Speaker>Our natural good qualities can be strengthened and even perfected in ourselves.

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<v Speaker>Just by letting go of the disturbing mental habits, letting the natural clarity and warmth of our mind shine through.

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<v Speaker>Attach your mind to your body.

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<v Speaker>Trying to put all your focus on your breath.

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<v Speaker>Coming in and out of your nostrils.

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<v Speaker>Or with the rise and fall of your abdomen.

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<v Speaker>Just for two minutes to help stabilize the mind.

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<v Speaker>But as it does, focus on the mental aspect of perception.

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<v Speaker>Notice how your mind is able to differentiate experiences.

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<v Speaker>Notice how the mind perceives sounds of the traffic outside.

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<v Speaker>Airplanes in the sky.

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<v Speaker>Now it wraps it in a little package.

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<v Speaker>Puts a mental label on top of it.

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<v Speaker>That the experience seems separate.

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<v Speaker>Clearly identified.

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<v Speaker>And it's the same thing with feelings in your body.

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<v Speaker>You might feel some pain or discomfort.

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<v Speaker>Feel warm or cold.

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<v Speaker>Focus on the perception aspect of your experience.

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<v Speaker>How something without a label gets that label attached.

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<v Speaker>How your mind divides phenomena from each other.

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<v Speaker>How the continuous experience of thought gets broken into discrete parts, and we can say that is a memory.

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<v Speaker>It's a plan.

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<v Speaker>It's a feeling.

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<v Speaker>Try that yourself just for thirty seconds.

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<v Speaker>Quietly look at the perception aspect of your mind.

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<v Speaker>Just how whatever arises in your mind colored with liking.

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<v Speaker>Disliking.

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<v Speaker>Unpleasant feeling.

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<v Speaker>Feeling neutral.

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<v Speaker>Might feel completely indifferent.

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<v Speaker>It's something just in the background.

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<v Speaker>You might feel an annoyed, negative feeling.

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<v Speaker>The sound is interrupting your concentration.

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<v Speaker>Distracting you.

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<v Speaker>You might feel pleasant with the voices in the distance.

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<v Speaker>Give you a sense of camaraderie.

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<v Speaker>Remind you of positive past experiences.

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<v Speaker>That sound of voices in the distance.

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<v Speaker>The same with your body.

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<v Speaker>What mean is any sensation in your body you don't like?

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<v Speaker>You don't want to continue.

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<v Speaker>You don't want to return.

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<v Speaker>You feel warm and comfortable.

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<v Speaker>Maybe something you like.

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<v Speaker>It's pleasant.

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<v Speaker>If this experience of meditating is something you're enjoying.

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<v Speaker>You might have a pleasant feeling associated with it.

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<v Speaker>If it's difficult, it might feel unpleasant.

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<v Speaker>Again, for a minute on your own.

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<v Speaker>Anything arise in your mind naturally?

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<v Speaker>Pay attention to the feeling that's associated with any perception, any sound, any thought, any body sensation.

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<v Speaker>Notice how some of the thoughts and feelings that occur in your mind are stronger.

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<v Speaker>How part of your mind doesn't just experience the thoughts and perceptions, but actually creates an intention to act.

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<v Speaker>For a minute again, whatever appears in your mind arise.

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<v Speaker>Notice how there's a component of volition.

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<v Speaker>Try to let the thoughts and feelings and perceptions become a little distant, and let the space itself in which they appear dominate?

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<v Speaker>Let's just examine it with some curiosity, some open-mindedness.

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<v Speaker>Does this space of consciousness seem to have any color to it?

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<v Speaker>Is it dim or is it bright?

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<v Speaker>Is it colorless or does it have a hue?

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<v Speaker>Is it pure darkness?

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<v Speaker>Does the space stay the same?

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<v Speaker>Or does it change?

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<v Speaker>Does the space of our mind have a size?

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<v Speaker>Is it contained within our skull?

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<v Speaker>Is it contained within our whole body?

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<v Speaker>Or does it expand out?

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<v Speaker>Does it encompass parts of the room or the vehicle that you're in?

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<v Speaker>Does the space of your mind seem to even overlap with others?

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<v Speaker>Look at how objects appear within the mind.

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<v Speaker>It's as if whatever it is, whatever texture and color and shape that the mind has.

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<v Speaker>It gets sculpted into the form of whatever you're perceiving through your eyes or your ears, or your imagination and memory.

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<v Speaker>How you can experience moments of consciousness that have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

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<v Speaker>But these moments of consciousness, they have a beginning part that touches the past, and an end part that touches the future, and then some middle.

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<v Speaker>And so if it has a duration, it can be sliced in half.

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<v Speaker>And so keep doing that.

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<v Speaker>And as you do, you find the paradox at every moment can be sliced forever, and that there's no real past.

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<v Speaker>It's gone.

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<v Speaker>There's no real future.

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<v Speaker>It's not here yet.

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<v Speaker>By chasing this paradox, you can arrive at the incredible, mysterious phenomenon of the present.

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<v Speaker>So for a moment, try to let go of any thoughts and feelings and perceptions.

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<v Speaker>In this present moment, nature of your mind without thoughts has a clarity to it.

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<v Speaker>And it has a knowing aspect.

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<v Speaker>A deeper way of knowing, a direct way of knowing.

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<v Speaker>The subtler aspect of your consciousness.

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<v Speaker>Even as it gets elaborated through thinking and planning, interacting with others, work.

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<v Speaker>And remain aware.

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<v Speaker>The awareness underlying the grosser aspects of experience.

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<v Speaker>You can see, you can cultivate the underlying joy.

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<v Speaker>And a deeper sense of presence in everything that you experience and do.

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<v Speaker>And so we dedicate any good that we've accomplished through meditating together like this.

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<v Speaker>Touch with this deeper aspect of our awareness.