Hello. Tashi delek.
How to practice meditation regularly?
This is very, very important.
There's one funny, traditional example.
I don't know if I should tell you or not.
Maybe you already know it.
Did I mention it in the Joy of Living videos?
Anyway, I will tell you.
The example is about how to make your practice consistent.
The example is an old cow peeing.
When an old cow pees, there is not much at the beginning.
A little bit. Bit by bit by bit by bit. And then very long.
Not easily ending.
With one's practice, one also has to do like that.
Not too much at one time.
"OK. I'm gonna practice! Meditate three hours!
"It will be fantastic!"
Maybe today it will be fantastic.
Tomorrow you expect the same thing: "Fantastic! Three more hours!"
But that time it may not be too fantastic. Maybe just fantastic.
The next day, you are expecting another fantastic three hours,
but that time “fantastic” is gone. Maybe it's an "OK" three hours.
Then, after that, it's not even OK. It's a "not OK" three hours.
Then two hours. Then one hour. Then gone. Then no practice.
No meditation for many, many, many, many days.
It will become on and off.
This has become like a young cow peeing.
A young cow pees a lot and finishes soon.
Don't do it like that when you practice meditation.
How to practice?
You need to practice every day, bit by bit.
Another example is drops of water falling into a big container -
one, two, three, like that.
Even though the water is very little - just a drop -
in the end, even a big container will be full of water.
Practice should be like that.
So you need to build a habit to practice every day.
There are two ways to do it: formal and informal.
For formal practice, maybe you promise yourself,
"Everyday I want to practice ten minutes,"
or fifteen minutes, or a half hour, or whatever you can do easily.
Then, regularly you have to practice that.
The other is informal practice.
You can use many different methods.
You can meditate everywhere, anytime, right?
The main point here is:
why do we need this meditation like an old cow peeing?
It is because, in the beginning,
if we have big expectations about meditation, like,
"I want to meditate very well, fantastically. It will be nice!"
That expectation may become a problem.
Because of high expectations, you have strong attachment,
strong grasping, with your meditation experience.
Then meditation won't become good, because of high expectations.
To let go of high expectations, in the beginning
it is very important that you don't think your meditation is very nice,
or expect it to be fantastic. You want to meditate with good quality.
Don't think that. What you have to think is,
"I will try my best to meditate.
"I will use my effort, my wisdom, my knowledge" — whatever you have —
"with effort. In everything, I will try my best.
"Maybe my meditation will be good this time, or maybe no good.
"It's OK for me. What I have to do is try my best."
So you try your best and your mind is not too tight about the result.
This is very important.
This way you will have balance.
You try your best, so you will not become too loose.
But your mind doesn't fixate on the result.
You are accepting that meditation experience is also impermanent.
It may go up and down. In the beginning, it goes up and down,
but slowly it goes up and down less and less.
In the end, if you have direct realization,
then your mind goes beyond all experience.
Then, it's steady. It never changes.
Until then, step by step. You have to do it bit by bit.
Also, one thing that is very important
is how much we have developed our meditation.
How much we have developed our inner experience of meditation,
our realization of meditation. Sometimes we don't know.
If we meditate every day, how much are we progressing?
We don't know. But if you compare…
let's say, day one to day thirty, and every day you practice,
when you reach day thirty, if you look backward,
you might see the difference between day one and day thirty.
You might see improvement.
But if you practice day to day, every day, you might think,
“Still, I have not improved. Still, I am the same as before.”
You might think like that. That's OK. No problem.
Don't worry.
A very important thing is when you meditate,
at the beginning, don't expect too much.
The second important thing
is that you have to practice meditation bit by bit,
with formal and informal practice.
The third important thing is
when you meditate with informal and formal practice in everyday life,
don’t fixate your mind on experience.
Accept that experience is impermanent.
Real progress comes step by step. So, don't worry.
“Today I meditate. Tomorrow I'll become enlightened.”
If it doesn't happen like that, don't worry. It's OK.
Thank you.