Transcript:
[00:00:00] Okay, so can everyone hear me if I speak this loudly?  
[00:00:11] Yes.  
[00:00:12] Okay.  
[00:00:13] Alright, so I think we'll go for 15 minutes.  
[00:00:19] Try to just follow my directions as I give them, as I guide you through it.  
[00:00:25] Try not to break meditation, okay?  
[00:00:28] So try not to move in any kind of gross way, try not to open your eyes, try not to  
[00:00:35] break your perseverance, your effort with this, okay?  
[00:00:45] So let's try a 15-minute session.  
[00:01:15] So we can begin with three very slow, deep in-breaths into any over-tension or stress  
[00:01:43] in your body.  
[00:01:57] Breathing in relaxation, without the tension.  
[00:02:13] Breathing out relaxation, without the tension.  
[00:02:33] Now you can begin the body scan from the top of your scalp, slowly, methodically moving  
[00:02:55] down the length of the body.  
[00:02:59] Everywhere the scan touches brings relaxation.  
[00:03:07] Your forehead becomes smooth, eyes become soft, jaws relaxed, mouth is in its natural  
[00:03:21] relaxed position, and a slightly upturned half-smile.  
[00:03:49] Continue moving the scan downward until you reach the soles of your feet.  
[00:04:17] Continue moving the scan downward until you reach the soles of your feet.  
[00:04:45] Continue moving the scan downward until you reach the soles of your feet.  
[00:05:13] Now with the body balanced and relaxed, check the quality of your mind.  
[00:05:37] If your mind is excited and racing, breathe in relaxation.  
[00:05:43] If your mind is sleepy and lax, breathe in attention and awakeness.  
[00:06:04] Remember to breathe naturally as you do when you sleep.  
[00:06:12] When the in-breath abdomen expands, out-breath begins to rise.  
[00:06:42] Let's have the body and mind balanced now, and move into the first stage of mindfulness.  
[00:07:12] Settle the body in its natural state.  
[00:07:18] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:07:31] Simultaneously, you would apprehend the feeling of hair moving across the hair in your arms,  
[00:07:41] the feeling of respiration in your abdomen, throat, mouth, nose,  
[00:07:47] the feeling of the floor against your backside.  
[00:08:10] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:08:20] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:08:40] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:09:00] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:09:25] If you become caught up in thinking, feeling, having opinions, beliefs, judgments, listening,  
[00:09:36] recognize that you have become distracted.  
[00:09:40] Return your attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:10:10] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:10:40] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:11:10] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:11:40] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:11:55] If you become caught up in thinking, feeling, having opinions, beliefs, listening, seeing,  
[00:12:05] recognize that you have become distracted.  
[00:12:08] Return your attention to the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:12:16] Finish the practice in silence.  
[00:12:46] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:13:11] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:13:41] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:14:09] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:14:37] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:15:05] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:15:33] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:16:01] Let your attention, your awareness, rest on the tactile sensations of the body as a whole.  
[00:16:30] Okay.  
[00:16:37] So what was that like?  
[00:16:40] What were your observations?  
[00:16:52] Monkey mind.  
[00:16:53] Monkey mind?  
[00:16:57] Keeps going away, I keep bringing it back.  
[00:17:03] Yeah, have you meditated much?  
[00:17:06] All the time.  
[00:17:07] And so like, what are their patterns?  
[00:17:10] So the way you're distracted?  
[00:17:14] No, well it's like most thoughts.  
[00:17:17] Once you have thoughts, you know, thoughts are linked by associations.  
[00:17:24] Then you think, oh, I'm not concentrating on my breathing anymore, so I go back.  
[00:17:29] And so then I try to let you do it.  
[00:17:34] How many times can I concentrate on my breathing in and out?  
[00:17:38] Yeah, so to clarify, you probably shouldn't do the counting on settling the body in its natural state.  
[00:17:53] You should wait to settle in the speech around the abdomen.  
[00:17:56] Because if you're counting, you're kind of going to be associated with like here, here, or something.  
[00:18:01] And with the body, it's diffuse across the body as a whole.  
[00:18:07] Other experiences?  
[00:18:09] What if you're not perfectly comfortable, like your hip hurts, or your ankle hurts against the floor?  
[00:18:15] What do you do about that?  
[00:18:17] So, do you meditate?  
[00:18:20] No.  
[00:18:21] Okay, so you want to experiment with different postures, number one.  
[00:18:25] So you'd want to actually, over the course of the seminar,  
[00:18:28] you might just experiment with prone, okay, lying prone.  
[00:18:33] You might experiment with sitting in a chair.  
[00:18:35] You might experiment with sitting on the ground, okay?  
[00:18:38] Just to see what resonates with you, and what's going to work best.  
[00:18:41] You might experiment with standing, okay?  
[00:18:44] Feeling kind of pain or discomfort, isn't it?  
[00:18:47] Yeah.  
[00:18:48] That's distracting to yourself.  
[00:18:50] Yeah, that's distracting.  
[00:18:51] Trying to get rid of all that.  
[00:18:52] Yeah, yeah.  
[00:18:53] Like, you want to.  
[00:18:54] Like, I bring this thing, because over the years I've learned that I just need extra cushion here,  
[00:19:01] and I need this certain kind of thing going on here,  
[00:19:04] and I need this blanket in between my ankle and my knee,  
[00:19:07] and I've got it all figured out, you know?  
[00:19:11] So that...  
[00:19:12] But you don't have this pain.  
[00:19:13] Yeah, yeah.  
[00:19:14] Because if you sit for 30, 40, 60 minutes, it's going to start...  
[00:19:19] If you don't have your body positioned correctly, you're going to start being in pain.  
[00:19:24] And that will pull you right out, of course.  
[00:19:27] It's tactile.  
[00:19:28] Yeah.  
[00:19:29] Yeah, it's overwhelming.  
[00:19:30] That's what...  
[00:19:31] Like, pain is why it's B, of course, right?  
[00:19:33] To draw your attention to it.  
[00:19:35] Yeah.  
[00:19:36] Yeah.  
[00:19:37] Like he said, it really helps to elevate your sit bones.  
[00:19:42] Yeah, that's very, you know, comfortable.  
[00:19:45] Yeah.  
[00:19:51] Yeah, if you don't have a cushion or something to sit on,  
[00:19:54] and plus if you injured your hips or your knees in any way,  
[00:19:57] you probably should start in the chair and see how that works for you.  
[00:20:01] Yeah.  
[00:20:05] What else?  
[00:20:06] I've never seen it as long as it really is to me.  
[00:20:09] Whenever we go into them, I've got to see at least two or three minutes,  
[00:20:13] and, you know, the bell rings.  
[00:20:16] Did anyone have the other end of that experience,  
[00:20:18] where it seemed like it was lasting forever?  
[00:20:25] Tell me not to make gross movements.  
[00:20:29] Yeah, when you're in pain, it starts to feel like every second is a minute,  
[00:20:33] and you're like, uh...  
[00:20:35] It's so interesting.  
[00:20:37] Yeah.  
[00:20:38] I spent, like, the first couple, two, three years,  
[00:20:41] like, I didn't think, it wasn't manly to, like, really, like, figure out my sitting,  
[00:20:46] and I figured I should just be able to be, like, get past the pain  
[00:20:50] and, like, disconnect from the pain,  
[00:20:52] so I sat in pain for quite a while before I finally figured out  
[00:20:56] that it probably wasn't working out well.  
[00:21:05] Anything else?  
[00:21:06] So these are, like, periods of just debriefing your experience, okay?  
[00:21:10] So, and it's very useful to do that,  
[00:21:12] because it's very difficult to learn how to meditate in a vacuum.  
[00:21:16] So talking and asking questions and getting feedback  
[00:21:20] and fleshing it out a little bit is an important process.  
[00:21:27] Usually what I do when I'm losing my concentration,  
[00:21:30] I say in my head, when I breathe in, I feel my breath,  
[00:21:33] and when I breathe out, I smile.  
[00:21:35] And focusing distinctly on that and that brings you,  
[00:21:38] well, brings you back to the center, so you can focus more.  
[00:21:41] Yeah, that sounds kind of like...  
[00:21:42] And even if you have to say it, like, 50 times,  
[00:21:44] it keeps you focused on that one specific spot.  
[00:21:47] Yeah, so that sounds akin to Thich Nhat Hanh's methodology.  
[00:21:52] Exactly where I got it.  
[00:21:53] Yeah, okay.  
[00:21:54] And it works really well, though.  
[00:21:55] Yeah.  
[00:21:56] Yeah, so for the purposes of just this seminar,  
[00:22:00] I would invite you to try this methodology.  
[00:22:04] Because what you're doing is fine, there's nothing wrong with it,  
[00:22:07] but it's mantra-focused, right?  
[00:22:10] It's a different kind of object.  
[00:22:13] So see if you can actually just attend to this classical methodology,  
[00:22:19] shamatha, like it's outlined in some of the classic literature,  
[00:22:23] and see if that works for you.  
[00:22:25] Or if it works for you in a different way.  
[00:22:27] Maybe it produces a different effect  
[00:22:30] than, like, another angle of mindfulness, in a sense.  
[00:22:38] Anything else?  
[00:22:41] Okay.