Learning to Love Ourselves: An Orientation by Brother Phap Dung | #9

(bell)

How many of you have meditated before? Most of you

that's why you're here

So this activity of stopping and reflecting

is part of the human journey

right? it is an evolution of our species

we've come to a point now

where we're kind of conscious.
homo conscious

homo sapien. we're kind of

aware of our situation

so we're very blessed to have an
opportunity

to kind of stop and look at ourselves

and reflect

look at our situation

So hopefully this week stuff will come up

things will be revealed and you'll have some insights

that's what's wonderful about being human

that you're going to have
some moments of, aha!

Ok! (laughs)

so that's our hope for people

and our society

Find relief, is one thing,
finding de-stressing

is one thing

finding calm and peace is nice too

but the best is when you realize something

you have insight

so it's not just to stay calm and peaceful

because sometimes it won't be like that

in fact, it won't be like that forever

but the thing that is the most rewarding
and doesn't leave you

is when you have an insight

about yourself and about your journey

so that's what we do here in the monastery

the place for us to understand
our situation, our lives

our relationship, ourselves

as well as what's happening with the world

and so on. our relationships

So it's just a little kind of sharing
about what we do here

and my brother and I both we do it full time

so we're like professional
basketball players

you guys are visiting and
you're learning the game

but we do this as our lives

and we're not better than you

it's just that we've done it
a little bit longer

so let's sit comfortably, we'll listen
to the sound of the bell

just to take a moment

we've been on the road,
we've been on the plane

now we're sitting and just take a moment

and do a check in. My brother will invite
3 sounds of the bell

and you'll hear a lot of this

and every time you hear the
sound of the bell, it's just a check in

it's just to stop and check in

and one bodily sensation that you can
immediately return to is our breath

so right away you check in with
this in breath and this out breath

so you check in the quality of that breath

then you check in with your body

the breath helps us bring awareness
back to our body

so every time you hear a bell
or the clock chiming in the dining hall

or on your own even

remember it's to stop and just check in

with our breath, with our body

and if you stay long enough you can check in with your feelings

the sensation of your mind

how do you feel? if you're anxious,
if you're a little anxiety

you feel calm, so we train to
get used to that

so your week here

you should try to have more time
of this checking in

so my brother will invite the bell

and when you hear the bell

let the reverberation connect
with that reverberation

so we can close our eyes

and each one of us we have an energy

we also have a rhythm from
our bodily function

our heart especially
So we also have a rhythm

and our breath is a rhythm

so when you hear the sound of the bell
think of synchronizing

Ok? So our bodies sometime have tension

so with each in and out breath

we synchronize. and the out breath
you let go

out breath you relax, let go

so your body can help guide your mind

feel more at ease in your body

and with each sound.
my brother will invite 3 sounds

with each sound, the check in

checking in, we can feel the
quality of our breath

the quality of our bodily presence

embodying as well as our awareness
of our feelings, sensations

and just recognize it, whatever that is

breathing in, I enjoy my in breath

breathing out I enjoy my out breath

(bell)

we're gonna open our eyes just to check out there.

Anybody have a aha moment?

do you see, recognize something?

can someone... can share it? did you noticed anything?

I noticed my feeling yeah, anxiety and tension

yeah

where was it? around.. oh

wonderful... that's a... that's great

that's a aha. okay

why am I holding this fisk? anyone else?

recognize? anything?

yeah you see.. you recognize something?

just a situation that I can't control it

ahhh wonderful, yeah feeling uh

is it let it be? let it be, haha

thank you for practicing

so that's the, basically what we do here in the monastery is to stop and learn to

check-in with ourselves, society and the way it's structured out there

it doesn't really... it's not very conducive to uh you know moments like that

so it's not very productive. It's uh... we...

so you come to the monastery, you become less productive and more

I don't know what's the inverse of productive

is to...

can come back and stop and take care of ourselves

and recognize the wonderful things that are happening as well

so in a practice is to have pain, to have suffering, to have stress, to be overloaded

to be... burnt out. this is uh

you know that, that happens and to all of us. Even to us in the monastery.

But because we have community and we know how to practice

and we can also have recognized

that there are beautiful things happening as well and they can coexist

so you don't have to like