🌈 967 – Sun 28 May 08:05 2023 – Step 1 to Enlightenment!
London
Woke up very early probably around 4 am.. Had been to bed late last night watching but still up early. Yesterday I had come back from the Vipassana mediation retreat of 10 days and learned and practiced mediation on its original from Burmese teachers, the Dhamma meditation kept the original from the time of Buddha, this is the only technique which is still not been corrupted or added with other things.
Dhamma means ‘to uphold’, and it is based upon the actions and teachings of the Buddha. Somehow it upholds the natural order of the universe just. by observing your own breath.
Let’s do it in steps as it is laid out exactly by the Buddha to make it easier to understand and follow. If you continue to read this blog every day I will put it in steps. These are the steps to follow to get liberated or one to become conscious or enlightened or one to become a Buddha!
Step 1 – Sit in your comfortable position aiming to get your back straight preferably sitting on the floor with legs crossed and close your eyes and focus on the area below your Nose and upper Lip. All you are is a breath of air going up and down. You are not your thinking mind nor your physical body, you are just a breath of air. If the mind wanders with thoughts just bring the attention back to your breath and the place from where you breathe. (Click here for step 2 – which will follow tomorrow)
Let me make it clear the first step to liberation as Buddha did was to observe one own breath. No breath will be the same. One is long, or short, or deep or short but none will be the same unless you consciously try. If the mind is uncontrollable with thoughts, then try taking a breath and pausing on the top, and then release the air and pause on the bottom for a couple of times and the mind will stay and start again just observe the air going in and out… In and out.. in and out… it comes in naturally and it goes out naturally.
Again all you have to do is to observe the breath as it is. Not as you want it to be. The air is going in and coming out. Going in and coming out. If thoughts bother to pause the air to control the breath when the mind is back, start again observing in and out.
You will be knowing yourself by observing your breath. The thoughts which are coming and going are your memories and stuck energy inside your mind of past. All the junk will come on the top and you should have no judgment but can say interesting, I have never thought of this for a long time and here it is now, the mental movie will play, as soon as you become aware that you are thinking, you need to bring the awareness back to the breath.. All I am is this breath of air going in and not and I am not my thinking mind.
All you are so far is I.. I .. I .. Mine.. this is mine.. I am .. I. I. I.. this is mine, that is mine.. give me mine.. All mine.. my house, my gold, my bank account.. Mine.. Mine.. eat eat.. mine.. Huahh… Huahh.. I am that greedy human! Mine.. Minee…. All mine!!!! Mine……. (shout, south, shout)
No, it is not you. You are just a breath of air in the dark infinite and when the sun is out otherwise the darkness. Of course, lights are invented by the human for comfort.
Do not verbalize any God or Goddess of your liking or imagine anything. The original technique given by Buddha was to just observe the breath. If you verbalize and visualize you will be corrupting the technique and making it your own. You can do it, it is up to you but it won’t be the original from least one that we know got liberated and he insisted not to! If someone is sitting on one bank of the river and another person crossed the river and went to another side and saw that side, no matter how much you sit on this side and pray, pray, and cry unless you go there you won’t see what the other side is and the guy who went and saw another side is giving instructions to cross so this is what it is and the bridge between 2 banks is the breath and observing only breath not visualising
or verbalising. The breath is connected to the known field of your physical structure to an unknown field in which things are happening naturally and this is one activity of the body that happens intentionally and unintentionally.
You will be removing all your gross mental chatter and will become subtle and subtle and the technique will take you to the place where you will experience the subtler truth pertaining to your mind and mental content at the experiential level. Then the time will come when you will explore the entire field of mind and matter(physical body) where you will be able to transcend that field and experience something that is beyond mind and matter that cannot be expressed but only witnessed i.e., the ultimate truth makes you realize the truth about yourself. “Know thyself” – Observing breath is only the first tool in the whole process!
The mind which observes the breath, and is aware of the thoughts and observes it without any judgment, and let it pass is an equanimous mind. Equanimous means having emotional stability and composure, particularly in times of high stress.
It is 11:14 AM now.. Sunday near Stockwell, London. Sun is shining so bright and 19 degrees, there was a false fire alarm a few min ago in our building, I ran down and the brigade was there, checked and obviously it was a false one. Just got back up and I will go hit the gym for a quick workout before I start enjoying my long bank holiday weekend. I won’t be writing anymore today. I wish you all the best with your practice!
3 things I feel grateful for today
What would it take for me and for you to have a relaxing, relaxing, relaxing yet a productive day today filled with love, gratitude, compassion to every living and non living thing comes in contact.. bye! have a nice day. Ash