10 observations / experiences

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Er... That probably sounds good to geeks... Yet, it has a point there...

Anyway, back to my story. I started this journey about 5+ year ago...

To learn about meditation and start doing it.

And I've had a wonderful one. Many experiences, many great moments...

Probably too many to count...

In this short sharing... I only pick 10 experiences, observations during the journey and share with you.

And I hope it can inspire you doing something like I'm doing now. Meditate...

Let's get started...

(01) Okay... But even before starting meditating, the question of "So, what is meditation?" certainly got me.

I started by reading quite many books about meditation.

And what did I get?

OVERWHELMED
with too many information about this one word "meditation".

The issue is I couldn't really get clear answers about: What meditation is? Where to start? Which type of meditation is suitable for me?

Even I got warning that meditation might make me ill-metal (and actually, that is true. There are risks meditating).

In more details... these are what I got.

Many types of meditation

• Every religion has its own meditation mechanism (that you may not be aware of it)
• Mostly it is samatha meditation, in which you use a mechanism to "nail" your focus on one specific thing for 30 minutes, 1 hr or more

Many types of meditation

• You may pray or think about your God during that period of 30 mins or 1hr or more.
• And if you can "nail" your thought to that (don't let any thoughts coming in between... or at least try not letting it coming), after 30 mins or so, you'll certainly get a calm and peaceful feeling which you can't miss that, an inner peace filling up your body and mind.

That is samatha meditation, in which you would focus on one specific thing for a period of time.

The other type is Buddhism meditation. It's quite a very big one topic with a lot of types, mechanisms, practices.

Basically, I was overwhelmed with too many things... And what is the right one for me?

Buddhism or non-Buddhism meditation?

Samatha or Vipassana?

Zen or Tibetan meditation?

Koan or breath counting?

And the enlightening moment... A very brief one that the books say it would change your life forever.

However, it's not that easy to experience that enlightening. Some ones only need 7 days, meditating. Some others would take years or the whole life or many lives.

Lesson learned: Meditation is a big one area. And it's my responsibility to select what is right for me. Just have to work on that.

(2) So, what is right and what is wrong for me?

I learned that there is no such thing right or wrong. And you may not agree with that.

Yet, for me, I realized that no right, no wrong. It is just whether it works for you or not.

And that's once I realized I have to be very open to this world.

Open to the differences. Open to things I don't know. Open to things I don't like.

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And only from that opening mind, I can start to accept.

Accept things as they are. Accept people as who they are. It's very important.

And the best way to know what works for you is to do it. And see if it works for you. Simple, right?

(3) Just do it mind-set...

The myth: You have to have a master, before you can really start meditate.

My understanding: Not really a must to have a master to begin.

Yet, ultimately, you will need to have a master, a great one, later on.

I learned it from the stories of Monk Thich Thanh Tu or Monk Thich Thanh Nghiem.

Both have started meditating from book and self-practise in 3 years in the forest. And both have advanced to become great monks, great persons.

Then, I can clear my doubt about whether I can start without a master. I don't have to meditate to become a great monk. But I would love to become a great person after all.

And all I have to do is to really start...

(4) And the next thing I learned is that there are three types of wisdom.

Wisdom: knowledge, thinking, and doing

Knowledge is what we learn from schools, teachers, parents, friends, books, talks from great people, etc.

The point is knowledge is somewhat "external", not really "your knowledge" yet.

And with your thinking power, that is when you can use the knowledge you have learned to rationale whether things are right or wrong, good or bad, etc.

And the last wisdom is doing. Only through really doing, experiencing things, you gain real lessons. You use both knowledge and thinking to make it work, in real.

And I believe, only through doing, and direct experiencing things, you can turn "external knowledge" into "your real knowledge". And that's the ultimate goal for really knowing things.

In meditation, knowledge is important, thinking is also important. But people usually stop or are stuck at those. Too much knowledge or thinking stops us to move forward, prevents us from really advancing on the meditation journey.

Yes, lacking of doing would not get you there. So, don't let too much knowledge and thinking stop you.

That's the lesson for meditation practice. And it is the same for everything. You have to balance and practice all three types of wisdom, in order to really master something.

(5) The power of the breath

Firstly, you need to stop and remember one thing. Your breath is your life.

Without food, you may survive in 20-30 days. Without water, you may survive in matter of days. Without breathing, how long do you think you can survive? Matter of minutes, right?

But most of the time, we don't really notice that we're breathing.

As the old sayings, the past is over, the future is not here yet. We only have the Now here with us. And most of the time, we only live with the past or the future and forget the present.

Believe it or not, that's the root of all issues.

This is not an easy thing to understand and easy to always remember. But, remember we only have "present" as a big gift of this life.

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And our breaths are the means to help remind us the present every second. If you can agree with that, you'll start seeing things a lot more beautiful around you.

And by practising going back and being aware of each and every of your breaths, it'll prepare or build the behaviour to help you bring your focus back to anything you would like to focus in your daily life.

Isn't that cool? I learned that it is one of the very powerful things meditation can give you.

(6) What is the biggest thing in the world?

I learned this from one story told by Monk Ajahn Brahm, one of my favourite monks in the world.

Once asked about what is the biggest thing in this world among little kids. Several answers were given. The first one is "father"... Right, he is always the biggest in one of the kid's eye.

The next one came up with the answer of the mountain. Yes, that's very big. Mount Everest, right?

But there is a brilliant answer... It's the eye. If father and mountain are that big, and the eye can contain them all, the eye is much bigger. It can contain everything in this world. So, it's the biggest thing. A brilliant observation, don't you agree?

And if we move one step further, our mind is even bigger than that with the "sum" of all senses, not just seeing.

It is our mind - the biggest thing. And that's the reason we have to re-condition our mind. It is to "recondition" the world.

Then, if you believe so, you have to give your mind regular breaks. And meditation is the means to do that.

(7) An old story

Everyone knows this old story. The setup is for the donkey to walk forward. The donkey even tries to run fast to catch the carrot. And he will be exhausted after all, without being successful catching the carrot.

We may find ourselves in the same situation in this life. We try to catch many things in this life which we may call it success (money, title, asset, ...) The problem is that it seems never enough and it burned us exhausted.

Did you find yourself in this situation?

Going back to the story, once getting exhausted, the donkey suddenly stops. And that's when the carrot, by inertia, automatically gets its way into the donkey's mouth.

And yes, just once you stop, that's once you see and learn a lot. Don't you see it?

What is happiness?

• Certainly, not by controlling, possessing...
• We can't have all we want. Fortunately, we can learn how to "control" our mind and go beyond greediness, hatred, stupidity.

Pursuing happiness

• Happiness needs a lot of dropping, accepting the reality, and letting go...
• It starts with giving and our generousity...

And meditation is the means to stop, think, and start dropping.

(8) Doing the right thing?

I also learned this from Monk Ajahn Brahm.

That is we always try to do the right thing. Yet, at the same time, we non-stop argue what is the right thing that we may not have the same answer for everyone.

So, how do we solve this? While there is no absolutely right thing, there are things harmful to people and there are things not. You'll need to do the latter one.

Connecting your acts with intuition, feelings,... Need to be congruent... with calmness, clarity, and inner peace...

Always build your acts from the base of an open heart, ethics, generosity, integrity, harming nobody thoughts

Meditation purifies your body and mind, helps bring back your intuition.

(9) What is required for meditators?

Patient and Discipline

(10) Meditation in a nutshell: Comfortable, relaxing, and aware

Very simple, right? But believe me, it may take you your whole life to master it. And if you can be that comfortable, relaxing and aware in any moment, you're meditating. It doesn't need that you have to sit meditating or walk meditating.

And there are risks as well, doing meditation.

To prevent those risks, you will need to always remind yourself to do it from the base of an open heart, ethics, generosity, integrity, harming nobody thoughts.

And it is just the start for me... It is going to be a lifetime journey for me.

In brief, meditation is the means to

• Allow my mind take real great rests
• Bring back my calmness, inner peace
• Give me greater clarity and greater sense of what's happening around me
• Connect me to my intuition, feelings
• And from all of these, I will understand things, accept things as it is, and letting it go. That brings me closer to happiness, I believe.

What else about meditation?

• 20 mins meditation daily in 6-8 continuous week: Reduce stress, vulnerability, depression, angriness. Increase focusing energy.
• 10,000 - 60,000 hours to reach to absolute samatha level.

Anyway, how to start?

Just have to ... start. Just do it.

Remember this: Wisdom includes knowledge, thinking, and doing

And this... Meditation in a nutshell: Comfortable, relaxing, and aware

And you can always do it in the office, lunch time or any 5-10 minutes that you can find yourself a quiet moment and place.

It is easier with group, of course...

Goodbye and good luck.