So now we do our meditation session.
So if you'd like to close your eyes.
With your eyes closed it's like you're not
drawn out into the world, you can stay
home in your body and in your emotional world.
Just in my position I have to do lots and lots of work
I'm really welcoming the help from the committee
and operations manager and other people
for next year, it's just what we have to do
but when I meditate I can close my eyes
and forget about all of that and just go
inside - first of all go inside my body,
I'm aware of how I'm sitting
to make sure it's a comfortable posture
as I feel it, not according to any books or
any recommendations by other teachers,
to be able to know yourself what you need.
And then I become even more specific.
I ask my legs - "legs, how are you?"
When I ask a part of my body how it is,
I'm more mindful, aware, so I can be very
conscious of any feelings in my legs and
if I need to move and adjust,
out of kindness I will do so.
And after I move I have mindfulness of
the new positions, see if it's better.
This way using the feedback for mindfulness
and the kindness and care I have for my own body,
I make sure my legs are in the best position.
Not only does this mean for a comfortable meditation
it's also most important development to get peace
inside the mind as well. Awareness and kindness.
Then I move up from my legs once they're comfortable
to my butt and once again I haven't got
my cushion in the proper position so I'm going to now
adjust the cushion underneath my butt.
That's good.
And once that's adjusted it feels good
then I go to my back,
give it a stretch as I usually do
and ask my back does it need any more adjustment.
Sitting on a chair you can lean back if you wish or you can lean forward
whichever is more comfortable for you.
It doesn't always need to be the same
every week or every time you meditate.
I ask my back - "back, what do you want? how do you feel?"
That's mindfulness, that's being sensitive to your back right now
and following those instructions until
you get as comfortable as you can.
You can't get full comfort but you can get pretty good.
And then to be aware of your shoulders,
and to relax your shoulders however you manage to do that.
And one way is to imagine those shoulders like a
bunch of strings on either side of your top part of your spine
and then be pulled, stretched, by invisible monsters.
Now you relax, let go,
nothing is being pulled or squashed or stretched,
the stress is going till the shoulders you
can feel them change and the awareness is
in one part of the body, you can see the
feelings change there and soon by
experience, often by trial and error,
you learn how to totally relax feelings in your body.
And then I go to my hands.
Where my hands are just defines where my arms are
so I look at my hands, make sure they're comfortable.
If anyone watched every week
my hands will be in a slightly different
position because every week is different
every time is different so make sure my
hands are okay, then I go back up to my
shoulders and on top of my shoulders
my neck, making sure the head is balanced
on top of the neck, not too far back,
not too far forward, not too far to the left or
the right and as often happens wearing
these robes sometimes I get the cloth
a little bit too tight which it is right now.
I'm just going to adjust my robe.
That's that much better.
Well also I'm aware of inside my neck in my throat,
I do have hayfever and every now and
again so I make sure that everything
inside is nice and relaxed
so I don't need to cough.
Just learning how to relax one part of the body
I use my mindfulness, I'm aware of just that
one area and see the feelings change.
I know what to do through experience of how to relax.
And then I move my attention to my face
especially the muscles around the eyes
and the mouth, sometimes they are tight
simply because they're expressing the
emotions inside - it could be tiredness,
it could be fear, could be anxiety, whatever,
could be happiness, but your face is what
shows other people your emotional world.
So I make sure everything is relaxed on my face.
Muscles around my eyes are just totally loose.
Around my mouth is also loose.
Been doing this so many years I know how to relax pretty quickly .
Muscles around my face.
When I do that it means the emotions are
also relaxed and positive, at ease, loose, free.
And before I leave my body I just watch
the whole of it, not as parts
but as a unified one organism
nicely relaxed as I check from the head to the toe,
from the toe to the head,
is anything in there which is tight, I loosen it
until I can feel what every Friday I teach here,
I call the delight of a relaxed body.
It's not 100% relaxed but it's so relaxed that my body feels at ease.
While you stay with that relaxed body
for a few more seconds
when my body is at ease
then I can let it go
and go to my emotional world, the world inside.
I look at what I call my peace-o-meter:
how peaceful am I right now?
I had quite a bit of work for the last hour and a half
so my mind is a little bit tired,
so my peace-o-meter is a bit not as peaceful as usual.
So your peace-o-meter, give it a reading from one to ten.
One is really peaceful, ten is agitated.
So you know where you are, how peaceful you are,
and now find out what is necessary, what is the cause,
for lowering the reading of your peace-o-meter?
For me it's just letting things be.
Giving up all past and all future
and being kind in this moment, allowing this moment to be.
When I smile at the present, the now,
the now smiles back.
I'm happy to be here.
And I know from so much experience that
now is where my future is made.
If I want to give a good talk later on I don't think about it,
instead I stay with this moment
be so kind to this moment, called now.
My peace-o-meter goes down more
more peaceful, more more relaxed,
more and more at ease.
I know a lot of the time it's not what I say how it is said,
where it comes from.
I make sure there's peace inside, acceptance, kindness.
Staying in this moment..
Sometimes I've seen people carrying heavy bags,
one in the left hand, one in the right hand.
Bag on the left hand, on the outside, most shopping bags have got
letters on the outside.
This shopping bag has the four letters P A S T. Past.
Because in that shopping bag you keep
all of your memories from the past, you carry them around with you.
No wonder you're tired.
In the right hand there's another
shopping bag with the letters F U T U R E. Future.
You also carry that bag around.
Those hands carrying really heavy loads,
no wonder people can get angry and negative.
Just tiredness that's all.
So now feel that shopping bag in the
left hand - that's the past.
Imagine lowering that shopping bag
to the ground - when it meets the floor
there's no more weight.
You can uncurl the fingers of your left hand and move them
up to your side so you can rest and
regenerate, have some peace.
The shopping bag in the hand hand, the future,
all your worries and concerns and anxieties,
also your hopes and dreams as well,
carrying them around incessantly, sometimes day and night.
Imagine lowering that to the ground.
When the bag of your future worries and concerns and hopes,
when that meets the ground, the weight disappears as well.
You can move your hand away, let go,
until your right hand and arm is
loosely by your side, relaxing.
When you let go of the past and the future
it's like you're standing in its place between them
with no weight, no burden.
Relax, you can pick up the past and future whenever you want
but not now during the meditation.
This is free time, because you deserve it.
We're staying here, opening the door of
your heart, your mind, to this moment
no matter what it is,
because the most important thing is to be here - right now -
keeping the past and the future on the ground.
You're in the present moment.
Your peace-o-meter should give a very low reading now.
And for many meditators, once they let go
they become aware of their breathing,
one thing which is always moving.
But as you are watching your breath
just imagine, visualize, as you breathe in,
breathe in peace, or health,
whatever you want to breathe in,
good spiritual peace, health, kindness
As you breathe out, breathe out, let go,
any attachments, tiredness, worries.
Let your out-breath carry it away
out of your mind, out of your body.
Out, breathe in peace, happiness, health.
Breathing in peace, and feel it come in.
Breathe out - let go.
Breathing in peace,
breathe out - let go.
Breathe in, no controlling.
Breathe out, letting things disappear.
I'm going to be quiet for five minutes,
when I start speaking again it'll be close to the end of meditation.
Sot it's getting close to the end of the meditation now.
How do you feel?
What's it like inside?
How peaceful are you and how relaxed is your body..if you can feel it?
Sometimes the body gets so relaxed that
it just disappears, it is with your mind
and that relaxes, it gets so peaceful,
so free, not a thought in your mind.
How blissful is that..
And also know what works, what works for you,
because every time you meditate we learn,
we learn and get better mindfulness and kindness,
for the feedback until we become in our own ways
expert in meditation.
I'm now going to ring the gong three times.
When the gong finishes sounding for the third time
please come out from the meditation.
[gong 1]
[gong 2]
[gong 3]
It's nice.. yeah..