Introductory Talk on TWIM to Zen Community in Netherlands

Gracias. Good. Hello everyone. Thank you all for being here. I'd like to introduce you to the practice that I do and some of us do here. It's known as TWIM. That's Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation. And that's just a fancy way of saying Samatha Vipassana. That is to say, we are using mindfulness of our thoughts and our experiences mentally with a calm reflection. That's the way I understand it.

And the whole process of meditation is to collect the mind around an object. And that object can be anything. In the Pali Canon, there are different kinds of objects of meditation. Sometimes people use the breath. There are recollections of the Buddha, of the Dhamma, and the Sangha that help the person become joyful when they use that as an object for meditation.

Some people use the visualization of the decaying process of a body, and that helps to start to de-identify with the attachments to the body, and so on. And so the Buddha prescribed different kinds of meditation techniques, depending upon a person's temperament and their personality. For some people who were very much attached, for example, to the body, attached to the senses and so on, he would prescribe things like the recollection of the body in various forms of decay, or being mindful of the internal aspects of the body, realizing that this is all just an impersonal process. Y para otros que fueron especulados en la naturaleza, que tenían a la mente de la mente, y así on, él sometimes prescribed breath meditation porque es una buena forma de centrar la mente, let's say, alrededor de la mente.

Pero generalmente, lo que hemos visto es que el brahmaviharas son muy efectivo en la mente de la mente. A few reasons. Number one, it feels really good, and because of that it keeps the mind happy. It keeps the mind uplifted. It keeps the mind enthusiastic about the practice. And it's much easier for a mind to focus on something that it enjoys, and it is constantly in of interest to the mind, rather than just simple breath. Now, it's not to say one is more effective than the other. It's just that en nuestra experiencia, lo que hemos encontrado es que cuando se trata de TWIM, los brahmaviharas help one to start to first and foremost let go of a lot of the hindrances that might arise, especially ill will and aggression and so on and so forth.

And what you will find if you continue to progress in this meditation is that the brahmaviharas start with loving kindness. Loving kindness is a feeling of warmth. It's a feeling of being content with yourself, really loving yourself, being kind to yourself, and ultimately sending it out to a spiritual friend. Eso es una forma de decir que se ve y comprende el otro siendo sufrimiento, y comprende que es su responsabilidad de que el sufrir, pero que tú eres ahí para esa persona, en apoyarlos, en ayudarlos. porque no es no sentido para que alguien no se quede de la herramienta que pudiera tener y la manera que pudiera aprender a que la persona. Si lo hagan para alguien, no es sentido.

No sería necesario para que alguien se quede de la herramienta. Entonces, se gradúe en mudita, que es conocido como empatía de la joya. And this is a joy that you feel when, for example, a colleague gets a promotion or your child graduates from high school or college, or any kind of wholesome celebration of another person's success. That is really one of them. And these are graduated processes that happen through longer and longer periods of meditative practice. And finally, there's equanimity.

Equanimity is generally understood as being non-attached or detached from your environment. But I would go a little farther than that and say it's not necessarily just detachment, but it's accepting what is arising, whether it's good or bad. That's really the true meaning of equanimity, is not to have indifference or aversion towards the unwholesome or the negative events in your life, but accepting the reality that this is what it is and not becoming affected by it, letting the mind see it as it is. This is what's known in Pali as yatha bhuta dassana, that is to say, seeing reality as it is without any attachment, without any kind of identification.

That's just a brief introduction into the Brahma Viharas. But coming to the practical aspect of it, I want to introduce you to the actual meditation practice. And this first part of the meditation, which we'll do together, is coming from the Visuddhimagga. But regardless of where it comes from, it's a very effective practice in helping to uplift the mind, in helping to keep the mind collected, in sharpening one's mindfulness.

And the way you start off with is, you can start off with phrases. You can say in your own way, may I be happy, may I be at peace, may I be free from suffering, and really feel it. And the way it instructs it for beginners is you feel that in the center of your chest. You feel that warmth in your heart. Y es solo una mente que es todo aceptable de lo que es. Y se sienta bien a la persona. Se sienta feliz por la persona, solo por el sake de ser feliz. No hay condiciones. Así que puedes usar las frases como "May I be happy", "May I be at peace", "May I be at peace, may I be at peace, may I be at peace, may I be at peace". Pero lo que también ayuda es usar una especie de formación de imagen.

Y lo que significa es pensar en una muy feliz memoria en la presentación que tuvimos en el pasado. No necesariamente una memoria relacionada a la six-sense base, no relacionada a la sensual reales, pero solo algo que es muy puro y hermoso, algo que puts un smiley en tu face naturalmente. También puede ser una visualización de algo que te hace feliz. Like the image of holding a very cute baby in your arms, or the image of kittens, or a puppy, or whatever works for you. Just let that feeling arise.

And when that feeling arises, you feel it in the center of your chest. You feel that warmth, and you allow the mind to rest in that. So there's nothing else that you have to do except be observing, be mindful, be aware of that feeling of loving kindness towards yourself. And in that process, you do it for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, then you think about a spiritual friend that you want to send that loving kindness to.

So generally speaking, this spiritual friend will be of the same sex, of the same gender. They should be alive, so they should be somebody who you know personally. It would help actually if it was somebody you personally admired, somebody who you think of that automatically puts a smile on your face and you have really good wishes for them. It should not be a family member at the moment. In terms of the beginning part of the practice, es que es una espiritual fiendas. Later on, a partir de la progresación hay instrucciones donde puedes hacer esto a diferentes familiares y diferentes personas en tu vida, dependiendo de quiénes son y qué relación hay con ellos. Pero para el objetivo de esta meditación, el básico es sentir la en tu corazón, allow la awareness de esa en tu corazón. Y luego, después de 10 minutos, send it out a una espiritual friend.

Or when it comes to ill-will, now that's the thing with loving-kindness. The whole point of loving-kindness is that it's an antidote to ill-will. But there might be things like the distraction again of the clock, or maybe somebody clears their throat and you get distracted and the mind gets irritated. That's a form of aversion, a form of ill-will.

When you think about doubt, that's again like things like, what am I doing here? Am I doing the practice correctly? You know, is this right for me? All kinds of thoughts like that. When it comes to restlessness, there is a certain kind of agitation in the mind. There are lots of background thoughts that might be stirring in the mind as you're meditating. And what can happen is that the attention becomes scattered and goes to those thoughts. And then that restlessness then drives forward the mind, and you're no longer with your object in meditation.

Sloth and torpor is because of lack of energy, lack of interest in your meditation object. And sloth and torpor, really, is where the mind starts to feel very dull. It's like a very sort of sleepy state, not necessarily that you fall into sleep, but more so that the mind will be just lethargic. It will be slower. You won't be able to focus, collect the mind as best as possible. So whatever hindrances arise, let them be there. That's the first thing you need to understand: hindrances are actually good, because they are your teachers. They provide you, and they shed a light on where your attachments lie. ¿Qué es lo que se puede ver?

I just want to go through the process of the six R's so I mentioned recognize and what recognize means is let's say you are medicating and you have the feeling of loving kindness and all is well and the mind is resting and that loving kindness is aware of that loving kindness and everything seems to be flowing and then suddenly the mind kind of deviates and you're not even en el momento de pensar que la mente está a deviantar y pensar en algo así como lo que voy a hacer para la cena, lo que voy a hacer mañana, o lo que voy a hacer mañana, o lo que es realmente funcionando, lo que es todo esto, y todo tipo de cosas, as tu atención becomes attracted a esos pensamientos, entonces ya no se medica, ahora tu mente es distraída, lo que te lo hará?

Use mindfulness to recognize that you were distracted. What this does is, in that process of recognizing that the mind was distracted, it stops the distraction right there and then. Now that flow, that energy of the distraction, no longer starts to flow through your mind once you have recognized it. Then the second R is release. Release means your awareness and your attention was deviated from the loving kindness, and now it's on the distraction. You are releasing your awareness and attention away from that distraction, and you're bringing it back to, let's say, the present moment. That is to say, you're bringing it back to the awareness of your mind and body as it is right now. That then brings us to the third step, which is actually very crucial, and that step is relax. So this comes from the understanding in the suttas of tranquilizing the bodily formations and tranquilizing the mental formations, you see.

Without complicating the subject, formations are essentially the effects of our thoughts or our verbal actions or our physical actions, and they are these tendencies that arise in the mind to give rise to certain kinds of thoughts, to give rise to certain kinds of intentions and ideas and concepts. So if you feed into the ill will against the hindrance, or if you feed into the attention to the hindrance, then what you're doing is you're strengthening certain kinds of formations, certain kinds of habits, to be continuing to be distracted. Whereas if you make that change by relaxing those formations and letting them go, then you're allowing the mind the space. And really what you're going to find is, if you're doing this practice correctly, when you do the relax step your mind feels very spacious. It feels like an open sky without any clouds, and this is really what one can call the mundane nirvana, the mundane nirvana, which is to say the cessation of any kind of suffering. En ese estado de la pureza, no hay sufrimiento, no hay identificación.

Entonces, cuando estás capaz de relajar, teniendo relajado, se ve que la mente está relajada. Y en lo que está haciendo, la mente naturalmente brilla este smile. Y ese es otro crucial paso. Ese es el siguiente R, que es el re-smile. So what that means is, in the beginning of the meditation, along with, let's say, using verbalizations or using positive imagery, you also use a small Buddha smile. If you see the Buddha, most of the images of the Buddha, you'll see him smiling. And when he's smiling, it's because he's teaching us that this meditation, this life of the Dhamma, this practice of the Eightfold Path, culminates in a transcendental kind of happiness. Y el smile es un reflejo de eso.

Así que ponen un poco de smile cuando se medita, cuando se medita, cuando se medita. You can smile with your eyes, smile with your heart. Ahora, lo que pasa es que cuando se te distrae, te stop de smile, usualmente. Y te vas a encontrar en el proceso de reconocer la distracción, dejando la mente y relajando la atención y relajando la mente. You then bring your attention back to your mouth and really intend that smile. And by using that smile, you bring up, you use that as an anchor to bring up the loving kindness again. And that is to return back to your object in meditation. So that's the next R in that process.

The final step in the sixth R process, the sixth R, is repeat. And that's basically any time you get distracted again, you repeat that whole process. Now, why is it that the six R's are crucial and emphasized? They're not just something that's made up. They've been formulated in this way to best assimilate it in your mind and best to be able to exercise it in the effective manner. Pero hay una ruta en el Dhamma cuando se trata de las seis R's, y la manera de explicarlo es que no necesito que lo entiendas ahora mismo, pero si tienes algún tipo de entendimiento de los factores, algún tipo de entendimiento de las Noble Truths, algún tipo de entendimiento del verdadero effort, vas a entender el contexto de cómo se usan las seis R's.

1 y 2 Y finalmente, go from wrong collectedness or medication to right meditation, the way that it's been prescribed by the Buddha, let's say. And right effort has four components to it. So the six R's are intertwined within these four components of right effort. The first effort within this right effort process is to prevent unwholesome states from arising. So unwholesome states are hindrances, distractions, things that no quieren estar en tu mente ahora porque estás tratando de enfocarte en el objeto de meditación. No quieren que te enfoques en la mente, no quieren que te enfoques en el sentimiento del amor y lo dejes en la felicidad y lo dejes en la consciencia de la sensación de la mente.

Pero si notas que la mente está demasiado concentrada, demasiado enfocada, then you just relax and you recognize that there was a hindrance. So when you do that, when you recognize that there was a hindrance, you have prevented the unwholesome states from further arising. This is what I mean when I say that when you recognize, you stop that energy and flow of those hindrances, of those distractions. The second part of right effort is to abandon those unwholesome states. That happens when you release your attention from those unwholesome states, release your attention from those distractions. In releasing your attention, you're abandoning those unwholesome states, and then by relaxing you're tranquilizing any of the effects mentally speaking, through formations that arose due to the attention to those hindrances. Then you manifest, or you generate, a wholesome state.

That is the third right effort. And the way you manifest that is through the smile. Like I said, the smile is your anchor point in which you're able to bring up the loving kindness. Again, it's a reminder. The more you connect your smile with loving kindness, the easier it's going to be for you in the practice to be able to just smile and reignite your loving kindness. So this is the third right effort, of generating that loving kindness. Después de regresar a tu meditación, que es prestar la atención al amor, y al amor, y al amor, es el cuarto aspecto, que es decir, el mantenimiento de esos estados. Y luego repetir ese proceso, que te ayuda a seguir activando el effort cada vez que estás distraído.

So this is one way to contextualize the six R's through the Dhamma. Another way is to understand it from the seven factors of awakening. As we understand the seven factors, they are mindfulness. They are discernment, or you could say it's known as dhamma vichaya, which is to say a mind that investigates different kinds of states. But the way I like to translate it is discernment of states, just being understanding of what state has arisen.

That gives rise to energy, which is to say this joyful interest in the practice, a certain level of enthusiasm in the practice, which gives rise to natural joy. That joy then gives rise to tranquility. From that tranquility, you have collectedness of mind, which is actually the meditation. From that collectedness, you have equanimity, which is what I was talking about earlier, which is to be able to see things as they really are without having an agenda, without having an intention, without trying to control the situation, without trying to hold on to the situation or whatever it might be. So that is true equanimity.

So now you understand these, let's say we just listed out these seven enlightenment factors. Now I can contextualize the six R's through this process of the enlightenment factors. For example, when you recognize that there was a hindrance, you bring back the mindfulness. You bring back the awareness, the observation of your object of medication. Cuando lo que hace eso, también estás discerrando o investigando tu mente para ver que la mente no es no más en su objetivo de meditación, ahora está atendiendo a una hindrances, está distraído. En reconocer que cuando lo que hace el esfuerzo de liberar la mente y la atención de la hindrances y traerlo, entonces está utilizando la energía. So, that is to say, you become more interested in the actual practice and you use the energy or you use the effort to make that practice stronger, so to speak.

You make that effort to return to an object by first releasing your awareness. Then that gives rise to joy. But here it's a little different. First you relax, which gives you the tranquility. Once you have that tranquility, there is a joy that naturally arises. So what I like to say is there's an interconnection between being relaxed and being joyful. When you are relaxed, it's easier for joy to come out. And when you're truly joyful, you're actually relaxed enough. There is an interconnection, an interdependency between the two. So even though first you relax, what will naturally arise is a tendency to smile, which is then that activation of the joy factor. So you're activating the tranquility factor, and then the joy factor.

Then making the effort to return this mind back to the object of meditation gives rise to natural collectedness in mind, which is the meditation. And when you're aware of this and you repeat that process, you're practicing equanimity insofar as not getting caught up in the hindrance. Not beating yourself up, not hating yourself, not being angry, not being upset that you are distracted. Remember what I said: hindrances are your teachers. They will help you to identify and understand where your attachment is lying so that you can let go of this. Finally, I want to contextualize the 6R's through the understanding of the Four Noble Truths.

So as we understand the Four Noble Truths, the First Noble Truth is that there is suffering. There is dukkha, and this suffering can arise in a myriad of ways. It can arise through physical suffering. So while you're in meditation, you might have pain in your knees, pain in your back, pain in your shoulders, and that can distract you from the meditation. So my recommendation is, from the get-go, find a posture that is most comfortable for you. That's the kind of physical suffering that is experienced even outside of sitting. You might stub your toes somewhere, or you might get sick or ill or have a disease or whatever it might be. And then there's mental suffering that can arise through anxiety, grief and depression and so on and so forth.

And this kind of suffering is avoidable. In other words, physical suffering might be there. But if you add onto it the mental suffering, it only just makes it worse. So you stub your toe, you have a knee pain. The more you think about it and the more you have this mentality around it, then you're adding mental suffering to it. You take that out of the equation and you forgive yourself for stubbing your toe, and you move on instead of perpetuating all of this mental and conceptual proliferation.

So the first Noble Truth is very simple, that there is suffering. The second Noble Truth is that there is a cause for suffering. And as we understand in the traditional formula of the Four Noble Truths, that cause is craving. But I'm going to broaden that understanding because technically speaking, from the Pali, El segundo Noble Truth es Samudaya, y Samudaya esencialmente significa la causa, que hay un tipo de causa, y sí, puede ser craving, pero si se va a pasar, se va a pasar en un diferente modo. El tercer Noble Truth es que hay una cessación de sufrir, y esa cessación de sufrir es por la causa de sufrir, que puede ser craving, pero puede ser algo más, como hablamos un poco más.

Y este 8-fold path, como ya dije, es el 8-fold view, el 8-pointión, el 8-speech, el 8-behavior, el 8-likelifedad, el 8-effort, el 8-mindfulness y el 8-collectiveness. I'll go very briefly into what those eight steps are, but essentially right view arises with the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. Right intention is having a mindset that is filled with loving kindness and compassion and filled with a mind that lets go, doesn't hold on to things. And so that's the true meaning of renunciation, accepting everything as it is without holding on to it, without trying to change it. Right speech is essentially not having false speech, not using harsh speech, not using abusive speech, and so on and so forth.

So there's an acronym that one uses, which is to think before one speaks. And so T-H-I-N-K. And what that means is T stands for timely. Is it the right time to speak what you want to say, or is it the wrong time? H, is it honest? Is it truthful? Is it rooted in the truth? Is it intentionally wholesome? Is your intention to harm, or is your intention something else that is wholesome with your speech?

N is for: is it necessary for the other person to know this right now? Is it necessary for you to speak this right now? And K is: can it be said with kindness? Can it be said with love and kindness? If you meet all of these parameters, only then would you want to speak. Otherwise, we have a holy or peace, right? So from that right speech, you have right action. And that's essentially not harming individuals with intention, not intentionally harming or killing living beings.

That is not indulging in sensual and sexual misconduct. Broadly speaking, sensual misconduct is becoming attached to the senses. So if you have wrong intention where the mind becomes attached to the senses, that gives rise to a mind that attaches itself and then can start to behave in an unwholesome manner. Y finalmente, no indulgen en intoxicación. Y eso significa no indulgen en cosas que pueden dullar la mente, cosas que pueden excitar la mente y agitar la mente. Y eso es parte de la actitud de la actitud. That is to say not killing, not intentionally harming beings, not having sensual misconduct, and not indulging in intoxicants.

Then you have the right livelihood, which is to stay away from certain things that can harm other beings. So, not trading in poisons, not trading in people, not trading in meat, not trading in alcohol, and not trading in weapons. y eso es lo que puede hacer que no se pierda en la vida de los seres humanos. y cómo la atención se mueve de un objeto a la otra. Cuando tienes esa mente, tienes que poder hacer ejercicio meditación. Es decir, la rechagnación step es básicamente la mente. Es decir, poder observar que la mente es distractible o poder observar que la mente es collected en esta forma. Así que eso es todo sobre los cuatro foundations de la mente.

La mente puede usar el cuerpo, la mente, la phenomena, y así, y así. Then collectedness is really this process of collecting the mind around a meditation object. In this case, that is the brahmaviharas, or in this case, loving kindness. Now, this is the whole of the Eightfold Path, and that whole of the Eightfold Path is the Fourth Noble Truth. So coming back and returning to the Four Noble Truths, I want to help you understand how the 6R's help you to be able to fulfill the Four Noble Truths. In recognizing that there is a hindrance or unwholesome state arising, you recognize that there is suffering arising. In seeing that the attention to that hindrance is making that hindrance grow, you are understanding the second Noble Truth, which is the samudaya, the cause.

Craving is one aspect of it, but on a broader level, some of that means cause. And attention is a fuel for growth of wholesome states as well as unwholesome states. So if your attention remains on the hindrance, it will continue to grow. But if your attention remains on loving kindness, that will continue to grow. So in recognizing and being able to release your awareness of that hindrance, you are understanding the First Noble Truth, that there is suffering present in the form of this hindrance, and the cause of it is this undue attention to that hindrance. In relaxing, you are letting go, and you are experiencing in that moment of relaxing, as I said, the state of mind that is pure, the state of mind that is experiencing this mundane vibana.

Es en el centro de la path. Es solo por el "right effort", como he dicho, que se puede ir de la "right path" a la "right path". Y así, esto es una manera de entender los 6R's. Ahora, para terminarlo, voy a revisar y revisar con ustedes, again just for the moment so that it's implanted in your head: you use love and kindness as your anchor, as your meditation object. When, because as soon as you have your attention on them, now you're distracted, but if there's no fuel. Y ya está listo el objetivo de los problemas de los problemas.

Anytime you get distracted again, so shall we share some merit so we can do it. May suffering once be suffering free, and the fear struck fearlessly. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired through the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sala, sala.