Session 034: Key to Success in Meditation - Bhante V's 6 R's

Key to Success in Meditation - Bhante V's 6 R's

Dhamma Talk + Guided Meditation Session 034: Aug 26th, 2020, by Sophia Ojha Ensslin and Cristof Ensslin

Banner Photo by Davies Designs Studio

Please scroll below the video to download handout and read text.

Video Recording of Dhamma Talk and Guided Meditation (Sophia):

Handout

This week we have prepared a multi-page handout for you. It is posted left/below as blog content. Plus, you can download it as PDF by clicking on the following button:

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Introduction

During the last eight months we have been meditating weekly together. And you have also been doing your daily practice at home  - I am assuming you are. So how is your meditation practice unfolding for you? Or what has it unfolded for you? What have you noticed about yourself in the last eight months? This is a self-introspection practice that I invite you to take a few moments today after our session and journal a bit about. Take 10 minutes to do that.

Where Are We At?

No matter what your progress has been, we know that there is more. All we have to do is look at our day to day life and look at how we deal with challenges and problems that come up. Are we getting upset? Are we getting frustrated by the way things are or by the way people are behaving? Are we getting sad, stressed or in any way out of balance in our day to to day life? Or are we more patient of ourselves? Are we more at ease when things change? Do we see other people's behavior with compassion and can we forgive those we love for things done or said? That is an indicator of our current mental state. That shows us how our meditation has helped us. And that also shows us that there is more work to be done.

We have come across a new monk whom we didn't know about a week ago. In fact, we have known him for less than a week and starting with his first teaching, we have been blown away. He taught us something that we have been missing in our meditation practice and he put it in a way that has helped us understand things better. His name is Bhante Vimalaramsi and his youtube channel has a lot more of what we are sharing here: https://www.youtube.com/c/DhammasukhaOrg

So what did he teach us? Okay, let me start by briefly giving you context on what we have been doing in our meditation session:

Now in our classes, we have mainly focussed on breath awareness meditation. We have also briefly spoken about mantra meditation, gratitude meditation and loving kindness meditation. But mostly we have dealt with breath awareness.

It basically starts off like this:

1. Close your eyes, get comfortable in the body, and relax the body by gently scanning the body from top to bottom.

2. Now bring awareness to your breathing. It can be the whole breathing or just an area where you can feel your breath, for example the nostrils or the chest/abdomen.

3. When a thought arises, which inevitably it will, don't follow it, acknowledge it, let it be and

4. Then come back to your breath - your object of meditation.

Now this is all good and it works. But there is one key part that is missing - relaxation and smiling.

The 6 R’s of Bhante Vimalaramsi

Bhante Vimalaramsi (aka Bhante V; ‘Bhante’ is a formal way to address a senior monk) teaches us that whenever we notice that a thought has arisen and it starts to take our mind's attention away from the meditation object, then we recognize it and then relax and smile. Then only come back to our meditation object. The relaxing and smiling is the key. What it does is it loosens our mind's from the grip of the thing that took its attention, improves mindfulness and it brings joy into the mind. And this joyful mind state is what you bring back to the meditation object. That's essentially creating a wholesome state of mind. And that is what the meditation practice is all about - it's about creating a wholesome state. A wholesome state is one where you are free of the 5 hindrances (sensual desire, ill will, restlessness, sloth and torpor and skeptical doubt). 

So that's the key thing - to relax and smile.

Why is that important? He says that whenever a hindrance arises, there is a tightness in the body or mind. Smiling relaxes that tension. Otherwise, what we have been doing is, when we notice that there is a thought arising, we acknowledge it and bring the mind back to the meditation object. This also brings back the distracted, ruffled mind back to the meditation object - this can get very tiring very soon and if you have noticed, either your mind just gives in and follows the next distraction or gets super tired and falls asleep because that was just too much work. If you've felt that in your meditation practice, add the relax and smile aspect of Bhante's teaching and see what happens.

1.         Recognize

2.         Release

3.         Relax

4.         Re-Smile

5.         Return

6.         Repeat

See details on his website: https://www.dhammasukha.org/the-6rs.html

I will let Bhante V share this in his own words. See his video on YouTube from 0:46 to 5:31 (https://youtu.be/8u1JtRBJzqg?t=46) or watch it embedded here:

Now let’s practice together.