9 Meditation: Four Mind Changings

2020-09meditation4_thoughts mind changins. [00:00:12] Let’s begin by taking comfortable posture, taking three deep breaths…

[00:00:24] With each outbreath, release any tension in the body, and the mind…

[00:01:08] Now, for a full minutes let’s do full body awareness, resting our attention in the tactile sensations of the breath throughout our body… With each out breath relaxing more and more… Letting all other stimuli: sounds, thoughts, sensations, arise and pass, we maintain our attention… on the tactile sensations of the breathing…

[00:02:56] Without controlling the breath, letting it to be natural, follow it from the beginning when there enters your body, all of the cycle until it goes out… Maintain your attention in this flow of inbreaths and outbreath…

[00:04:55] Don’t get fixated in one point, diffuse your attention throughout your body…

[00:05:03] And feel the whole inbreath, and the whole outbreath…

[00:08:44] And now with the relatively relaxed and calm mind, we direct our attention to the reflection of the first of the four thoughts that turn the mind towards liberation… First, we reflect on the precious human life, how difficult it is to obtain it and how easy it is to lose it… We reflect on all the opportunities and freedoms that we already have in our life… In the fortune we have to be here and study and practice Dharma teachings… Study the path that can led us to the liberation of suffering and to genuine happiness… I appreciate the fact that you are alive, that you have these precious human body…in which you can meditate…

[00:11:35] Appreciate your senses, that you have eyes, perceive… ears for listening… tongue that allows you to taste food… nose that allows you to smell. And then you can also touch and have tactile sensations… So appreciate that you can breathe. that you can move from one place to another… Most of the time we leave these things for granted and we don’t appreciate them… Be gratefull for having this body, for being alive, for being able to travel and coming to retreat…

[00:14:14] And now appreciate all those things that have happened in your life, and the good things are happening right now in your life… Appreciate your friends, your family, your teachers… Your community. appreciate that you’re able to dedicate time to practice meditation… You have intelligence, knowledge, love, compassion and other talents… Appreciate them…

[00:16:04] I’ll try to reflect on how rare is that everything you have… not many people have those opportunities… Also animals don’t have the same mental capacity… and the opportunity to practice Dharma… So I think how fortunate you are, to have free time, to have and enter in contact with dharma teaching to be able to take time from your life to practice.,,.

[00:17:19] And now reflect on the second thought: impermanent, how our life is impermanent. The only certain thing we know is that we are going to die… Now, we don’t know when or how this is going to happen.,, That our body is changing, aging and will eventually get ill and die… That the same will happen with the people we love, those around us… and all our possessions. Everything is changing and subject to desintegration… Notice in your own body how with each inbreath something changes…Nothing remains in the same way. Everything is changing moment by moment....

[00:20:10] Reflect also how in your life many things have changed… Remember how sometimes you suffered, some times you had good moments or is all gone…

[00:21:14] Make the resolution to use the short or long time that you still have this life, to use it in the best possible way… to make good use of your time in retreat or when you come out of retreat… And how can you focus on what is really meaningful… and that which has lasting benefit…

[00:22:44] Now reflect on karma, cause and effect… and recognize how when cause and conditions come together, our result is certain to happen… See how everything in the Universe… your environment, your relationships with others… there are always relationships that are seen interdeendence…

[00:23:48] Recognize how everything that happens around us influence our experience…

[00:24:32] Reflect on all the causes and conditions that have to come together for you to be here, for you to have this human body, for you to have this opportunities…

[00:25:04] Recognize that everything you experience, is the result of many causes and conditions…

[00:25:53] Now reflect on your behavior and your actions… Recognize that everything you are and you have are experience in the present is a result of your actions of the past…

[00:26:37] And knowledge that you’re in charge of your future, that everything you’re doing in the precedent will determine how your future will be…

[00:27:11] Recognize that the only thing you going to take with you when you die, is the result of your actions…

[00:27:24] So motivate yourself to use this time to calculate causes and conditions that will lead you to enlightenment, to genuine happiness, to liberation from suffering… Actions that can benefit those around you…

[00:28:12] Now let’s reflect on the fourth of the four thoughts: the suffering of Samsara… recognize that suffering is produced mainly by the mind…

[00:28:46] Now reflect on the suffering of suffering… All the unavoidable things that we tried to avoid…we want to remain healthy and young… we don’t want to get old and die… but all of this will happen…

[00:29:25] You can’t avoid getting ill, having physical pain, aging, dying…

[00:29:43] You can’t avoid these things and you perceive them as being sources of suffering…

[00:30:10] And it will also happen to all those around you, your loved ones are also aging, they are going to get ill, they’re going to die… they suffer for many other reasons too.

[00:30:50] Now reflect on the suffering of change… Think of a person that makes you happy and see how this feeling of happiness comes with great expectations and attachment…

[00:31:27] We also want things to remain in a certain way, like they are now… And we expect that things change in our benefit…

[00:32:03] We suffer when we lose something, we are attached to… We suffer and we don’t get that which we desire… We suffer when we get what we don’t want…

[00:32:30] Every time there’s a big change in our life, we suffer… When we have to let go of things we gave for granted… Because everything is always changing… No more expectations and attachment, we have to situations, objects or persons, we live to experience the suffering of change…

[00:33:41] Now reflect on the suffering that it is old pervasive… Reflect on all the things that make you happy: your house, your job, your wife or spouse, your relatives, your friends, your possessions… And even you have all these things there is still a feeling, that things could be bare, that your life still incomplete, that something’s missing…

[00:34:37] There is that sense of dissatisfaction continuously… deepen your experience…

[00:35:03] And for this reason, motivate yourself to develop a renunciation, renunciation to suffering, to live in this way with attachment, with expectations, with aversion… Recognize that everything changes and that our expectations rarely match what really happens…

[00:35:42] Reflect on that no matter where you look for happiness in Samsara, outside of yourself there is no lasting happiness that can be found…

[00:36:05] I’m tried to connect with that feeling of wishing to be free of Samsara, and realize lasting happiness, genuine happiness… By recognizing your own true nature…

[00:36:49] And lastly, develop love and compassion… understand that this wish of being free from suffering, from finding genuine happiness, this is also true for everybody else, all sentient beings…

[00:37:16] Generally, the wish that everyone can find genuine happiness, that they can be free of suffering and the causes of suffering…

[00:37:28] Generate in your mind the thought: May all beings find happiness and the causes of happiness… May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering… Recognize that this training you are doing in balancing your mind, cultivating shamatha and vipassana, developing compassion and loving kindness, and living a more conscious ethical life, has an impact in the world. And that you are doing this not only for your benefit, but also for the benefit of others, for those around you, who are also suffering, and who wish to be free from suffering also journey for genuine happiness.

[00:38:51] With all this in mind, join your hands at the level of your heart, and dedicate this practice so that you can continue making the best use of your time in retreat, for cultivating your mind and developing concentration, calm biding, developing wisdom, compassion, loving kindness.

[00:39:21] That you can continue all the way in the path until you are free from suffering, completely liberated, and then you can continue further on the path to enlightenment… Ding…

Transcribed by: Miguel Angel de Anquin