Joy Meditation

(Buddhist value: The children learn to spread joy around them) Imagine a feeling of joy. You feel an opening in the top of your head. You feel joy floating in through the opening in the top of your head. It fills up your head and neck. It fills your shoulders and arms. The joy floats down into your chest and your heart. Your heart is so full of joy. The joy gently floats on into your stomach and on into your back. It floats into your legs and feet. Every part of your body is full of joy. You are so full of joy, it begins to spread out beyond your body. It spreads out to everyone in our classroom. It reaches beyond the classroom farther and farther until it spreads over the whole of Singapore. It spreads out to the whole earth, and continues to spread out even further into the universe — beyond the planets, beyond the stars, farther and farther. The whole universe is filled with your joy.

From - Guided Meditation for Primary Students

Lotus Meditation - Part 2

You 11 stand beautifully above the muddy water, not dirtied by the mud from which you grow. You are white, fragrant and beautiful. Everyone who saw you marvelled at your beauty! Your determination to grow out of the muddy pond reminds them of the Buddha and his journey towards Enlightenment. The Buddha, like a lotus, is determined to grow out of the muddy surroundings, that is the defilements and sufferings of life. He has done all that is to be done and he is showing us that we can all do it too. We may have defilements but we all have the potential of growing out of our defilements and achieving wisdom, like the Buddha. You are a beautiful white lotus flower, and your role is to remind people to rise above their defilements and sufferings, just as you are arising above the muddy water and not dirtied by the mud from which you grow.
From - Guided Meditation for Primary Students

Lotus Meditation - Part 1

(Buddhist value: Like a lotus flower that grows out of the mud and blossoms above the muddy water surface, we can rise above our defilements and sufferings of life) Imagine that you are a lotus seed buried beneath a muddy lotus pond. There is mud all around you, and you can feel them clearly. Above you, above this muddy pool of dirt, mud and filth, are sunshine and air. You are not disheartened as you begin your journey towards the surface. With a determined heart, you begin to wiggle in the earth. You grow roots deep, deep into the mud. Your little stem grows up slowly. Suddenly, “pop” you are out of the mud! Your stem grows higher and higher, taller and taller. You rise up slowly, fighting against the muddy water. All of a sudden, you are out of the muddy pond! You reach up towards the warm sun, shining down on you. Your lotus bud begins to grow on top of your stem. It expands and grows larger and larger, finally bursting into full bloom. A white lotus flower.
From - Guided Meditation for Primary Students

When you go out of the monastery the mind - Part 2

In sitting meditation don’t worry about if the objects are very clear or not. Watch the mind follow the awareness. Of course, it is better if the objects are clear, but that will follow later.e kilesa when they know that you are meditating, they stay away from you. ey say: Okay, meditate now! But when you don’t, they come and attack you when you least expect it! So watch out always, watch the mind carefully.If you can watch the mind, watch it in real life situations where it is more natural.If the mind is not strong enough then return to your ordinary practice. See how different the mind feels when you are in your room, in the Dhamma hall or the dinning hall.Samadhi is good for developing wisdom (panna). It is not good only for sitting practice; you must have it at all times if you can, and investigate things.Viriya is a mental thing, not posture. When you are dying your body has no control, it’s the mind that stays mindful.Sitting and lying meditation is good exercise for viriya because you have to apply more viriya without the support and aid of posture, but you must not keep falling asleep!When you are not doing sitting meditation, and you don’t have the support of the posture but instead you are sitting on a chair or lying down, the mind relaxes and you need to try mentally harder to keep your mindfulness.If your viriya is really strong, no matter how your posture is, it doesn’t matter. You can be upside down!Keep kilesa noted regularly, don’t let it accumulate. Keep relaxed, check for tension now and then, check your emotions.Are they involved? Are you in control? Don’t panic if you are not, just relax and get in touch.e Buddha is not the statues and images in the pagodas that people go and visit all day long. e Buddha is inside you.Just observe whatever the mind can be aware of at the moment, see how it goes to objects how it feels, be aware of it. When it gets stronger it will be aware of many objects.Save your energy to last you until the end of the day. Never think like: ‘In the morning it is best, let’s put all the effort then.’ Just practise. Save your energy to go through the whole day, until the end of it.e mind needs to slow down, become stable.
from - Contemplation of the Mind

When you go out of the monastery the mind - Part 1

When you go out of the monastery the mind has a lot more stimulation
from a lot of different places and people. So you have to be more mindful then.When you can practise outside as well as you practice inside the monastery then you know that your practice is good.Even in the midst of crowded noisy places you can stay calm, in touch with your mind.e watching of the mind becomes a strong habit.Note your feelings too. Are you feeling isolated, lonely, is that wisdom, is that kilesa?When you are out always watch kilesa arising. Stay close to yourself.When people talk to you speak slowly and mindfully so that they slow down too. It takes a greater effort, so try relentlessly. Keep to yourself as much as you can especially when it’s difficult.When you go back to your country, it’s like, ‘my friends, my room, my clothes, my familiar hangouts, my possessions, my family.’ So you forget the whole thing.But that is when you must understand the nature of the mind. Out there in the real world your concentration is useless. Mindfulness is what will show you how things are.Keep the mind interested inwardly not on the road. When you go out the mind starts partying: ‘I’m going to break free now!’ It tells you: ‘Okay, just a little of a much needed break’! And out it goes for the whole trip!You might find it ‘being cold.’ Just keep up your viriya (effort), keep trying again and again.You are not meditating in order to calm down the mind but to observe it. To look and see why is the mind like this now and how was it different before. So that wisdom arises from this watching. You get to know what’s happening in the mind.
from - Contemplation of the Mind

PRATYAHARA - Part 2

BD shows the Control of the Mind, improving slowly at first, afterwards more quickly. It starts from at or near zero, and should reach absolute control at D. EF shows the Power of Observation of the contents of the mind, improving quickly at first, afterwards more slowly, up to perfection at F. It starts well above zero in the case of most educated men. The height of the perpendiculars HI indicates the dissatisfaction of the student with his power of control. Increasing at first, it ultimately diminishes to zero.} course the unhappy youth spends a disgusted week in thinking of little else. It is positively amazing with what persistence a thought, even a whole train of thoughts, returns again and again to the charge. It becomes a positive nightmare. It is intensely annoying, too, to find that one does not become conscious that one has got on to the forbidden subject until one has gone right through with it. However, one continues day after day investigating thoughts and trying to check them; and sooner or later one proceeds to the next stage, Dharana, the attempt to restrain the mind to a single object. Before we go on to this, however, we must consider what is meant by success in Pratyahara. This is a very extensive subject, and different authors take widely divergent views. One writer means an analysis so acute that every thought is resolved into a number of elements (see "The Psychology of Hashish," Section V, in Equinox II). Others take the view that success in the practice is something like the experience which Sir Humphrey Davy had as a result of taking nitrous oxide, in which he exclaimed: "The universe is composed exclusively of ideas." Others say that it gives Hamlet's feeling: "There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so," interpreted as literally as was done by Mrs. Eddy. However, the main point is to acquire some sort of inhibitory power over the thoughts. Fortunately there is an unfailing method of acquiring this power. It is given in Liber III. If Sections 1 and 2 are practised (if necessary with the assistance of another person to aid your vigilance) you will soon be able to master the final section. In some people this inhibitory power may flower suddenly in very much the same way as occurred with Asana. Quite without any relaxation of vigilance, the mind will suddenly be stilled. There will be a marvellous feeling of peace and rest, quite different from the lethargic feeling which is produced by over-eating. It is difficult to say whether so definite a result would come to all,
or even to most people. The matter is one of no very great importance. If you have acquired the power of checking the rise of thought you may proceed to the next stage.

from - THE WAY OF ATTAINMENT OF GENIUS

PRATYAHARA - Part 1

PRATYAHARA is the first process in the mental part of our task. The previous practices, Asana, Pranayama, Yama, and Niyama, are all acts of the body, while mantra is connected with speech: Pratyahara is purely mental. And what is Pratyahara? This word is used by different authors in different senses. The same word is employed to designate both the practice and the result. It means for our present purpose a process rather strategical than practical; it is introspection, a sort of general examination of the contents of the mind which we wish to control: Asana having been mastered, all immediate exciting causes have been removed, and we are free to think what we are thinking about. A very similar experience to that of Asana is in store for us. At first we shall very likely flatter ourselves that our minds are pretty calm; this is a defect of observation. Just as the European standing for the first time on the edge of the desert will see nothing there, while his Arab can tell him the family history of each of the fifty persons in view, because he has learnt how to look, so with practice the thoughts will become more numerous and more insistent.
As soon as the body was accurately observed it was found to be terribly restless and painful; now that we observe the mind it is seen to be more restless and painful still. ("See diagram opposite.") A similar curve might be plotted for the real and apparent painfulness of Asana. Conscious of this fact, we begin to try to control it: "Not quite so many thoughts, please!" "Don't think quite so fast, please!" "No more of that kind of thought, please!" It is only then that we discover that what we thought was a school of playful porpoises is really the convolutions of the sea-serpent. The attempt to repress has the effect of exciting. When the unsuspecting pupil first approaches his holy but wily Guru, and demands magical powers, that Wise One replies that he will confer them, points out with much caution and secrecy some particular spot on the pupil's body which has never previously attracted his attention, and says: "In order to obtain this magical power which you seek, all that is necessary is to wash seven times in the Ganges during seven days, being particularly careful to avoid thinking of that one spot."
from - THE WAY OF ATTAINMENT OF GENIUS