Meditation is an act of focusing the mind to relax and improve awareness at the center of body. How do we relax the mind? It is the same way we prepare our mind before we sleep. However, we should not let our mind drift freely as usual, because we will fall asleep quickly. Both meditation and sleep is for relaxation. The difference is that when we sleep, we are unconscious and our mind is not at the center of body. When we meditate, we rest it at the center of body and are fully alert. To maintain our awareness at that point, we need to use the mantra and keep our mind at the center continuously and tenderly. If we loose our awareness point, we might have wandering mind or fall asleep.
Our mind is prone to wander easily. It drifts very fast such that we can’t trace its whereabouts if we don’t really do it intentionally. In daily life, we do multitasking. It shows that our mind moves so fast. If we slow it down and observe its movement, we will be able to see and understand it. Now close your eyes. Observe your center of your stomach while you take a deep breath and follow it into the stomach. Observe it slowly and with ease.
Talk given by Phra Nattawat at Meditation Class
January 10, 2015