Sunday Morning Meditation 23rd February 2025

Hello. Good morning to you all. So wonderful to see you.

Thanks for joining.

Teachings

So we’ve returned this morning to this practice of shamatha or calm abiding meditation, which is a practice of stabilising the mind; a practice of training

the attention, training in mindfulness, training in being more present, more centred.

So we’re working with the monkey mind, right? A monkey mind that jumps from branch to branch with all these distractions flitting around everywhere.

And so we’re giving the monkey a job to do. We’re sitting the monkey down and we’re saying, ‘Okay, I want you to watch this breath now; I want you to watch it closely. And then when that one’s gone, I want you to watch the next one. And don’t forget, you’ve got this’.

But then of course, what does the monkey do? Maybe watches a breath, maybe two if we’re lucky. And then something else catches the monkey’s eye: a thought, a sound, bit of pain in the body. And then he is off, right? Jumping from one thing to another, all over the place. We have to be like kind but attentive mothers, we know that our childlike monkey could get into some trouble if we’re not careful, if we’re not attentive, could really get into some trouble, cause some problems. And so we have to be attentive. We can’t just set the monkey down with the job and then leave it to it; it can’t be trusted. And so now we notice, right? We’re attentive, and now we notice the monkey is running around, started to pick things up, started to throw things around, started to cause some chaos in the mind.

And so how do we respond?

We don’t shout, we don’t grab the monkey by the neck, force him to sit down. You know that’s not going to work, right? You’re just going to cause more agitation. This agitates the mind even further.

And so when we’re distracted in our meditation, in our shamatha practice, we don’t get frustrated with ourselves. We do our very best not to get annoyed with ourselves, frustrated with ourselves. We don’t yank the monkey back, force it, try harder, clamp down. You don’t chain the monkey down to the ground. Those approaches don’t work, right?

So you sit the monkey down; you explain the job. Again, we’re going to watch this next breath with a gentleness, a kindness. A kindness and a gentleness, but there is diligence of course. We’re not slacking off in our attentiveness; we’re gentle, but we’re clear.

And we just keep doing it like this. Really bringing, bringing the monkey back, bringing the monkey back. Every time it gets up, starts wandering around again. Just bring it back. Bring it back all the time.

Understanding what is the reason for being so easily distracted. What is the reason that we are distracted by the sounds, by the thoughts and so on?

What is the reason there’s not much stability? Why we can’t focus our mind?

It’s because of a level of agitation, physical agitation. Hence, we might be moving around and shuffling our feet a bit and, and not really still in the meditation. And there’s mental agitation, which manifests as not much stillness in the mind, not much calm in the mind.

And so the the solution is to relax. The solution is to loosen up. Not force, not try harder, not put more effort.The more effort, the more we work at it, the more agitation we create.

So we relax, we loosen up. You become so relaxed that you’re not moved

by the distractions of the mind, not moved by the sounds; they’re not interesting enough because you are totally relaxed and totally present and mindful of what you’re attending to here: this being the breath.

And so we relax, we loosen up. And noticing the distraction is a good thing;

it means that you’re attentive; it means that you’re aware and you’re doing the meditation correctly. Some people think that if there’s a lot of distraction or if their mind keeps getting distracted, that they’re not very good at meditation.

‘Meditation’s not for me. I keep getting distracted. My mind’s too busy’. This is not true. Being distracted does not constitute a failure in the practice. So long as you’re aware, you notice the paranoid, restless monkey getting up, running around, and you bring it back.

This is the practice. There is no failure. It’s exactly what we should be doing.

The mind getting distracted is exactly what we should expect. And hopefully, if we’re aware of that and bringing ourselves back, that is exactly the practice. And so we do that, we find a balance; we relax to counter the agitation, but we need to be wary not to get too relaxed, too at ease, because then we fall asleep. So there is a balance to find, between being alert, but also being quite relaxed and quite at ease.

And in doing this, you know, we learn a lot about our mind. We learn a lot about ourself, about the movements of our mind, our tendencies for worry or upset, the fantasies and gossip that keeps us very active, right? Keeps the mind very busy. We learn a lot about how all that works. We learn to allow those thoughts and those distractions to arise and to pass without getting involved. And sometimes we do quite well, right?

Okay, we do five minutes, we’re focusing, it’s all right, it’s not too bad. We’re noticing the distractions, bringing ourselves back,10 minutes,15 minutes, focusing the mind. And then maybe we start to get bored, a bit restless after certain amount of time, whether it’s five minutes, whether it’s 15 minutes or whatever it is. It’s not very stimulating, the breath, not very exciting, not much happening. And so maybe we think, ‘Well, I guess I’m done, right? I’ll go and do something else now, something else that’s more interesting. But boredom in practice can be very, very interesting. If boredom is very strong in your meditation and it’s creating that intention to just get up and get off the cushion and move on, then it can be really interesting to get curious about it, to get comfortable with that boredom. What is so unbearable about boredom that I need to do something? What is it? What is it about boredom that makes it so that you just need to reach out for something? You know, can we learn in meditation to appreciate, to be with boredom. You know, ‘Can I get comfortable with being bored?’ Because boredom is one of those monkeys that causes a lot of issues for us in daily life. You know, when we’re bored, we reach for our addictions and our habits, right? And so it furthers the craving and attachment that we have to worldly pleasures and to entertainment.

We’re never okay to just be still, to be quiet, to be present. And the more we give into that boredom, the more we reach for something, then the more in our world that appears to us as boring, right? The more you just simply entertain each whim and each boredom, each desire. Then soon the TV is boring. Music is boring. Being at work is boring. Being at home is boring. Being on a walk is boring. Everything becomes unstimulating and boring.

And you wonder, what am I doing with my life? Right? I need something bigger, better. The more we give into that craving, even the greater, more entertaining things start to lose their fascination.

So boring is a quality of the mind. It’s not a reflection of the outer world, it’s a reflection of the mind. The trees don’t become bored with being trees. The mountains are not bored with being mountains. So here in the meditation when you are bored, it’s the same boredom that causes you

to reach out in daily life, to never be still, never be quiet; that causes you to get lost in the sea of craving and attachment, things never quite being enough.

And so where does that boredom come from? It comes from that same agitation we’re talking about. It’s a different expression of that same agitation, wanting to do, wanting to move, wanting to be active, to receive,

to be praised, to be entertained.

And so we learn instead to relax, relax and be with the boredom. There’s nothing to do. There’s nowhere to go. This is my activity and it’s complete in itself. We ease into the discomfort. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, befriend the boredom, tame it, get control over it, so that the boredom is no longer the thing that is controlling you and ruling your life. The boredom’s no longer the one calling the shots. And if we can get comfortable with it like this, in meditation, with there being a boredom and a restlessness, and actually it being okay that there’s a boredom and a restlessness, and… I don’t need to change it. It’s okay. I can leave it be.

We can then find a sort of beauty and a sophistication in the breath. And when you come out of the meditation, everything in daily life can have that same beauty and sophistication. You can have a sense of appreciation for even the more subtle, more boring things, if you like; they are no longer boring for you.

And then we’re never bored, right? And we can really appreciate a piece of music, some art, the nature around us, time with family and friends. It’s not that when we’re bored those things are unstimulating and we’re always reaching for something else. But if we cure that boredom and really find a sort of beauty and appreciation in the simplicity, then everything is wonderful. Everything is enough. It’s learning a greater contentment and appreciation for things.