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Stowbridge Retreat 1st Day - First Dharma Talk
Pebble meditation utilizes six pebbles as friends to help cross from the shore of sorrow to the shore of well-being. While one pebble is named concentration and another giving, four specific exercises are practiced to restore flowerness and cultivate solidity:
- Breathing in, I see myself as a flower; breathing out, I feel fresh.
- Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain; breathing out, I feel solid.
- Breathing in, I see myself as still water; breathing out, I reflect what is real.
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Breathing in, I see myself as space; breathing out, I feel free.
Inviting the bell involves waking it up to avoid doing violence to it, breathing in and out three times to calm the body and mind, and listening to the sound as the voice of the Buddha calling us back to the land of bliss.
Walking meditation is the practice of walking in the land of peace and joy in the here and the now. One method involves saying “yes, yes” to recognize the precious conditions of happiness available, such as sunshine and loved ones, and “thanks, thanks” to express gratitude. Another method applies the images of flower, mountain, water, and space to the steps, focusing on the soles of the feet massaging the earth with no intention to arrive. Eating meditation requires switching from the mode of thinking to the mode of being. By looking deeply at food, such as an orange or a string bean, it reveals itself as an ambassador of the cosmos. Chewing is done without thinking, allowing the collective energy of mindfulness to penetrate and nourish.
The Art of Mindful Living involves resisting long-standing habit energies and cultivating mindfulness to reclaim liberty. Meditation is not a battlefield of good fighting evil, but an organic process where negative formations like hate are transformed into love. This is achieved by “changing the peg,” where a positive mental formation is invited up to replace a negative one, similar to changing a television channel. Mindfulness has two aspects: first, to recognize and get nourishment from the healing elements within and around us; and second, to embrace and transform pain and suffering. Stability and freedom are the two characteristics of nirvana cultivated through these practices.
