How to practice and apply Plum Village guided meditations| Sr Chan Duc

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

about guided meditation in Plum Village.

The first question we might be asked is

how do we apply
Plum Village guided sitting meditations

so that we can benefit
from the meditations?

You realize that on this app

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

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

when we are practicing guided meditation.

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

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

When those seeds are watered 
by the words,

then you can concentrate
on that particular feeling

that comes up in association
with the word.

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

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

So be aware of that.

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

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

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

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

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

or we cannot experience the exercise.

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

So that is just an example.

We should not ever try
to experience something,

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

but the next time when you want
to do that meditation

you may like to
prepare yourself a little bit.

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

that came not from things
going on around you

but came from your own consciousness.

And you may remember
the incident or the event

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

In our daily life,
it is important to recognize

when we have moments of joy,

and to help those moments of joy to last,

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

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

goes into the other ingredients.

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

it will transform some of the suffering,

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

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

but then the next exercise
is already coming?

That is a difficulty
that many of us may experience,

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

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

is to try to remember
the guided meditation,

and then to practice it on your own.

You may like to note it down,

what the different stages
of the meditation are.

And when you do it on your own,

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

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

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

but be able to remember the exercises,

and then practice them
for yourself in your own time.

Are Plum Village guided 
meditations visualizations?

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

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

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

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

then a flower image
will appear in your mind.

The same is true of a mountain image.

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

And going with that image
there is a feeling,

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

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

So the image and the feeling,
they go together,

and they keep watering each other.

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

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

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

until we understand before 
we move to another chapter?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I will do some meditation like
a meditation on impermanence,

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

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

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

or contemplating the death
of my loved ones.

Why in Plum Village
is there such an emphasis

on breathing and the body
in guided meditation?

The breathing is the basis.

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

It can also be empty of carrying things.

And it can take them
from one place to another.

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

And the thing about meditation
is that sometimes,

if we haven't got guidance
in our meditation

our mind just goes along in one track.

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

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

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

and go in a different direction.

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

and just concentrate on our breathing,

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

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

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

And the reason why we begin often 
with mentioning your body

is because mind and body
are not two separate realities.

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

we alienate our body from our mind,

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

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

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

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

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

And that is what the breathing can do,

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

So, we feel our body.

And we stay in our body.

Throughout the meditation exercise.
And if at any point,

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

then it's very important to open your eyes

and bring your mind and your body
back together again.

So, all meditation
in Plum Village is about,

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

Thank you.