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Dear friends, now I would like to 
address some commonly asked questions

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about guided meditation in Plum Village.

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The first question we might be asked is

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how do we apply
Plum Village guided sitting meditations

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so that we can benefit
from the meditations?

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You realize that on this app

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we have a number of guided
meditations for you to practice.

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The main thing to remember is 
not to try to use our intellect

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when we are practicing guided meditation.

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The words of the guided meditation
are there to touch seeds,

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we call them seeds.They are potentials
in the depths of your consciousness.

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When those seeds are watered 
by the words,

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then you can concentrate
on that particular feeling

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that comes up in association
with the word.

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If you try and think too much,
the guided meditation will not help you.

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In guided meditation images are 
usually more helpful than abstract ideas.

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So be aware of that.

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A word can water an image. You can
use the image in order to

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realize some insight that
you may not have ever had before.

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Every time you use a guided meditation,
the insight will be a little bit different.

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There is no perfect insight that goes 
with a particular guided meditation.

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The second question: what can we do if we 
don't understand the exercise,

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or we cannot experience the exercise.

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For example, we hear, 'Breathing in,
I feel joy', and we don't feel joy.

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So that is just an example.

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We should not ever try
to experience something,

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some words that we hear. If we 
don't have an experience we can let go,

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but the next time when you want
to do that meditation

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you may like to
prepare yourself a little bit.

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You may like to remember times
when you have felt a deep joy

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that came not from things
going on around you

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but came from your own consciousness.

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And you may remember
the incident or the event

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that triggered that sense of joy in you,
and you can feel that joy again.

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In our daily life,
it is important to recognize

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when we have moments of joy,

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and to help those moments of joy to last,

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because the depths of our consciousness
are like a ratatouille, like a stew,

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and we put many ingredients in that.
They all, the taste of each ingredient

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goes into the other ingredients.

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So that just by watering the seed of joy
every day in your consciousness,

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it will transform some of the suffering,

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by penetrating the suffering without you
having to make an effort to do that.

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What can we do when
we haven't realized the exercise

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but then the next exercise
is already coming?

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That is a difficulty
that many of us may experience,

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because everyone needs more time than
or a different amount of time

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for realizing an exercise.
So if you need more time, the best thing

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is to try to remember
the guided meditation,

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and then to practice it on your own.

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You may like to note it down,

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what the different stages
of the meditation are.

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And when you do it on your own,

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then you can take as long as you like
for each part of the exercise.

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Actually, that is really the way for you
to use these exercises on the app.

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It's not every time
to have to listen to the app,

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but be able to remember the exercises,

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and then practice them
for yourself in your own time.

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Are Plum Village guided 
meditations visualizations?

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What is meant by 'Breathing in,
I see myself as a flower,

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breathing in, I see myself
as a mountain', and so on?

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These are images. 'Flower' is a word,
and when you hear the word 'flower'

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and you let it sink into
the deep levels of your consciousness,

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then a flower image
will appear in your mind.

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The same is true of a mountain image.

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So you allow any image that comes up,
to come up of a flower.

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And going with that image
there is a feeling,

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The feeling going with the flower image
is a feeling of freshness,

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and the feeling going with a mountain 
image is a feeling of solidity.

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So the image and the feeling,
they go together,

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and they keep watering each other.

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So it's like a feedback.
You have the image and then the feeling,

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and the feeling leads
to the image again, and so on.

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Should we stay in one chapter, if you're 
using the book 'Blooming of a Lotus',

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until we understand before 
we move to another chapter?

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We need, if we're using
a book of guided meditations,

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what has helped me is to be able
to know all the guided meditations.

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And then, depending
on my state of mind, or my need,

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then I will choose the suitable 
guided meditation for that particular day.

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If there are days when I feel tired
and not so well,

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then I need to do meditations which
will help take care of my body,

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help relax my body, calm my body.
And in relaxing and calming my body,

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I will relax and calm my mind.
And when I feel strong and well,

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I will do some meditation like
a meditation on impermanence,

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to be able to see that
I am of the nature to die, and so on.

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But if I am not in good health and it is 
not so, or in my body or my mind,

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I don't want to do meditations
like contemplating my own death,

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or contemplating the death
of my loved ones.

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Why in Plum Village
is there such an emphasis

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on breathing and the body
in guided meditation?

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The breathing is the basis.

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The breathing is like if you have a truck,
and that truck can carry things.

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It can also be empty of carrying things.

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And it can take them
from one place to another.

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So the breathing is like that, it can take
your mind from one place to another.

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And the thing about meditation
is that sometimes,

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if we haven't got guidance
in our meditation

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our mind just goes along in one track.

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Or it's like a train.
The train goes from Bordeaux to Paris,

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and then it goes from Paris to Bordeaux.
It goes back and forth on the same track.

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But guided meditation is to try
and get our mind out of its normal tracks,

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and go in a different direction.

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So we need our breathing.
When we come back to our breathing,

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and just concentrate on our breathing,

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then we can let go of the 
normal ways of thinking that we have,

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and allow the meditation to guide us
in thinking in a different way

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or in feeling in a different way, which 
can bring us insight and transformation

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And the reason why we begin often 
with mentioning your body

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is because mind and body
are not two separate realities.

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In fact, what we do
is we alienate a little,

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we alienate our body from our mind,

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because we may feel that
our body is a source of suffering.

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So we take our mind out of our body,
away from our body.

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But in fact, our mind is not at its best
when it is separated from our body,

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it is not its true self
when it's separated from our body.

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So it's very important to bring
our mind and our body together.

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And that is what the breathing can do,

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because the breathing is a function of our
body and the breathing is also spirit.

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So, we feel our body.

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And we stay in our body.

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Throughout the meditation exercise.
And if at any point,

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you feel that your mind
is gone out of your body,

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then it's very important to open your eyes

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and bring your mind and your body
back together again.

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So, all meditation
in Plum Village is about,

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is meditation that is done with 
the mind and the body together.

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Thank you.