Как выполнять ежедневную практику 05 — Совершенное тело и ум (1998, Нью-Йорк), занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
So, get into a position which is comfortable for you. And it doesn't have to look great, as long as it's comfortable. And then watch your breath.

Watch your breath means be very quiet and observe the feeling of the air moving inside of your nostrils, especially in the front. So, watch the sensation of the air coming back and forth and touching the inside of your nose.

[Speaker 2]
Concentrate on that and don't let your mind go elsewhere. The next step, we're talking about the warm-up, the preliminaries, is to go for refuge.

[Speaker 1]
In this case, it would mean thinking about how this meditation might help you to stop all the negative things in your life. If you could learn to meditate properly, it could help you stop all the bad things that ever happened to you in your life.

[Speaker 2]
So, think about that for a few minutes.

[Speaker 1]
The next step in meditation is to think of someone you'd like to dedicate meditation to, someone who's having a problem, physical or mental problem, someone you know, and dedicate this meditation to them. The next step is to invite a holy being to be with you and whatever being you can think of that fits you, invite them to come and be with you as you meditate. Invite them to come in front of you.

Imagine that they are sitting in front of you, right across from you, and that they're going to help you meditate. The next step is to think what makes them holy, why you think they're holy, and try to think of some good thing about them that you would like to have, something about them that you would like to learn how to be like that.

[Speaker 2]
And then you bow to them in your mind.

[Speaker 1]
Next, you make them some offering and think of something beautiful to offer them, like the best things, I think, are things which nobody owns, like if you've seen a sunset recently, or early spring flower, or the clouds that you saw today, or something of beauty, and then offer it to them in your mind. Next step is to think of something negative that you did today, or you said to someone today, or some negative thought you had today, and to look at it, and then purify it from yourself, which means to think about how you might be able to stop that in the future, or some small thing you could do to stop acting that way. So pick something specific that happened today that you're not happy with, and something you'd like to improve, and think about it.

Now, next step is to think of something good you did today, something you said or thought about the day that was very sweet, and something very good, and remember it. Try to remember the details of it, and be happy. Then in your mind, ask for teachings, whether it's understanding the formal teachings you're receiving, or whether it's getting inspiration from someone that you know, or finding that you're able to hear teachings in what people say to you, and things like that.

[Speaker 2]
So request that. And then lastly, pray for the long life and the continued presence of your teachers and your Dharma friends, the people around you that help you on your path. That completes the preliminaries, and then this is a good time to shift around or move if you have to, and when you're ready, go back to the breath, feeling the breath inside your nose.

Try to be very quiet now.

[Speaker 1]
Then tonight we'll do a special meditation, it's called DE BU LAM PA BYAS PA, and it means we're going to try to visualize what it would be like, or how we want ourselves to be at the end of the path. What would you like to be when you finish Buddhism? What would you like yourself to be like?

It's a very important practice to visualize it, physically and mentally. So we're going to go through a meditation of trying to picture what you want to be like when you finish your Buddhist practice. At the end, what would you like to be like?

So first try to get an outline. We'll work on the physical body. What would you like to be like, physically?

Assuming that you could become anything that you want, if you practice well, then what's your main body going to look like? What will you be like? Try to get the silhouette of that person, what they look like.

You can be anything.

[Speaker 2]
Buddhists can look like anything, and imagine what you would like to be like. Now try to picture what your face looks like, what the eyes look like. It's the outline of the eyes.

Now try to do the hair. Now the rest of the face. Now fill in the colors of the eyes and the face and the hair.

Now the shoulders and the chest. Now the arms and the hands. Then everything from the waist down.

Then dress yourself as you will be.

[Speaker 1]
Then try to make sure you feel what it's like to be inside of that body. You're not just watching it. You're inside of it, and it's alive, and it's warm, and it's breathing.

[Speaker 2]
What it feels like to have a body like that.

[Speaker 1]
Try to imagine what the things look like to a Buddha. Like if a Buddha were in this room, what would everything look like?

[Speaker 2]
Would it look different to them? Then finally try to imagine how you think.

[Speaker 1]
How do you feel towards other people? What does it feel like to have real compassion about all the people you see in this room?

[Speaker 2]
Then just enjoy being them and thinking like them.

[Speaker 1]
When your mind wanders, then bring it back. We'll spend maybe five, ten minutes like that.

[Speaker 2]
Every time your mind wanders to something else, then bring it back to how it feels when you reach the end, and that you're feeling that right now. Don't forget how you look. Stop there and relax.