12 Guided Meditations with Deep Reflections. In Brief. For the Experienced Meditator
Title and Brief Outline of the Guided Meditations
In Alphabetical order
1. Calm/Insight – Inseparable Experience
Calm contributes to Insight. Insight contributes to Calm. These are the two ‘eyes’ of meditation. One without the other makes us half blind.
Teaching in the Dharma hall in Sarnath, India. Annual retreats given in India between 1974 and 2020.
2. Connection and Disconnection. Mutually Dependent
Healthy connection supports empathy, love and deep experiences. Empathy is not at the expense of all disconnection. We practice disconnecting from problematic state of mind to dissolve their influence. Liberating truth does not depend on connection nor disconnection.
3. Freedom from Dependency on Pleasure and Pain
The mind can live in the daily grip of pleasure and pain, as if nothing else mattered. The pursuit of pleasure invites pain, soon or later. Awakening is the release from the grip of this duality.
4. Meditation on Freedom
Freedom from the problematic past. Freedom to be grounded. Freedom to act wisely. All other freedoms seem superficial. Such freedom does not depend on being in the past, present or future.
5. Meditation on Neither Here. Neither there. Neither in-between.
We live in the spell of fixations about what is here with us, what is there outside of us and what is in between – going back and forward between the two. What matters abides unbound to here, there or in between.
6. Mind-Body is Not Me, Not Myself, Not Who I am.
We gave attention to the body. The body then becomes an object of interest. Same with all states of mind. An object of interest cannot be myself. Just as the clothes on the body are not me, not myself, not who I am.
The Delusion of Thinking that meditation must go beyond thought.
The desire to go beyond thought or let go of thought is a thought (stream of words, idea, view). Thought neither gets in the way, nor reveals.
8. The Emptiness of Past, Present and Future
Past depends upon past and present view. Present depends upon past and present. Future depends upon past and present. Three fields of time are empty of any substances, any self-existence. Freedom does not depend on time.
9. The Fallacy of the Wandering Mind
The issue of the wandering mind issue is often the mantra of meditators. Where can the mind wander to? ‘Wandering mind’ depends upon desire to be with on object of interest. Wandering mind and desire dwell mutually dependent.
10. The Minor Detail of Birth, Aging, Pain and Death
Do human beings make far too much fuss about these four stages of life? The four stages are presentations in the field of experience. An awakened view shrinks the stress of the stages due to expansive realisations.
11. The Powerlessness of Now
What power does the so-called Now have? Does it have the power to hold your attention? Does it have the power to reveal love and understanding? If not, where is the power in the Now? Does much projection go into the Now? Do you want to be stuck in the Now? If so, why?
12. Towards an enlightened life
Deluded mind thinks ‘I must get rid of my problems. Then I will be happy.’ This view support sleep walking through daily life. Happiness reveals feeling alive including facing challenging problems. An enlivened life abides close to an enlightened life.
MAY ALL BEINGS KNOW AN ENLIGHTENED LIFE