Медитация 1

[Speaker 1]
Let's meditate. So, first meditation step, turn off your cell phone. That's the second one.

Blow your nose. Cough. Okay, that's finished.

And relax your forehead. And relax your lips. Especially the corner of your mouth.

Relax your fingers. Pull in your stomach just a little bit. Straighten your shoulders.

Pull your hands back just a little bit. And make your eyelids soft. And then come to your breath.

And watch your breath. Try to count to ten breaths. Count number one on the exhale.

And then the second exhale is number two. And if you think of something else before you reach ten, start over again. And we'll stay here for a few minutes.

Then please invite your heart teacher to come and sit in front of you. It could be someone who's alive now. It could be a historical person like Buddha or Jesus.

It could be someone you haven't met yet, but you can imagine them. And they happily come and sit in front of you. Then bow down to them by thinking about one of their good qualities.

Something you would like to learn from them. Then make them an offering in gratitude. It could be filling the sky with flowers, like Samantabhadra.

It could be some beautiful thing you've seen or heard in the last few days. Don't think of something you've done in the last few days that you're not very proud of. Or maybe said something to someone negative or thought something.

Then just literally open your heart to your teacher. Show them so you can clean it. Then think of something beautiful you've done in the last day or two.

Or something beautiful you've seen somebody else do. The hard work that the staff is doing here all year, and especially these last few weeks, is something very beautiful you can rejoice about. Then ask your teacher to teach you.

Keep teaching. When you ask, it means that you're open to learning and changing. And then ask your teacher to stay with you.

Without their influence, you just would continue the way you are. Then please start to think about the last few days. And make a list of all the things you've done to take care of yourself.

You've fed yourself. You put clothes on yourself. You put yourself in a car and got your body here.

You are working to support yourself, to have a place to stay, to have food, and to do the things you want. All this intense effort towards yourself, to be happy, take care of yourself. Try to count the ways you are taking care of yourself in the last few days.

Now try to get in touch with the feeling of love that you have for yourself. It's very, very strong. There are many bodies in this room, human bodies.

And you choose one, and you comb its hair, and you buy it clothes, and you make sure it's fed. You have a strong bias, and a strong self-love. Some of it's healthy, but compared to the love we have for others, it's overwhelming.

It's 99% of our attention is spent trying to feel good ourselves, trying to take care of ourselves. So don't judge it, but try to become aware of it and observe it. Try to recognize it, how much emotion, how much strength you put into taking care of yourself.

Now think of a Buddha, and they say that Buddha loves you many thousands or millions of times stronger than you love yourself. So the love you have for yourself, taking care of yourself, making the bed for yourself every night, to sleep in, feeding yourself, making sure you look good, that overpowering love is not 1% of the love that a Buddha has for you personally. So try to imagine someone who can watch you all day, wherever you are.

Someone who can hear your thoughts all day, and knows all of your faults, and still has this love for you, which is millions of times stronger than the strong love you have for yourself. Then bring your mind back to the teacher sitting in front of you, and realize that they have this kind of love for you, much stronger than your love for yourself. And thank them.

Ask them to come in your heart and stay there. And their body starts to rise, still seated in meditation position, and it comes slowly up, and gets smaller and smaller, and turns to sit in the same direction as you, and comes down on the top of your head, only as large as your thumb. And then you ask that teacher to come into your heart, and they shrink to the size of a pea, and they melt into the top of your head, and they come down the central channel, just in front of your spine.

You can track them along your spine, you can feel them coming down slowly into your throat, into your upper chest, and finally into your heart. And then they start to get smaller and smaller, almost as if they're staying inside a crystal globe, tiny, until they reach the size of a grain of sugar inside your heart. And it's easier to picture them and keep them there if you picture them very small.

It helps your mind focus. And they're smiling and they're happy, and they love you, and they will stay in your heart all day, protect you, guide you, love you. Then come back to your breath.

Count three long exhales. Don't open your eyes yet. Don't move yet.

Three long exhales. On the exhale, send that good karma seeds out to all the people in this world that they have a good day. It's Earth Day.

And then you can open your eyes. Stretch. Take a stretch.