Tashi delek!
What makes meditation?
So today is about...
Many people think... or many people ask me about
what meditation is and how do I know I'm in meditation.
And also, particularly, some people say,
"Oh, I'm meditating all the time. When I walk, I'm meditating.
"When I sing, I'm meditating. When I cook, I'm meditating.
"When I do exercise, I'm meditating."
On the other hand, some people say,
"I want to meditate, but I cannot meditate.
"I have so many thoughts and so many emotions."
Something like that. So there are two extremes there.
So the real meditation is what? What makes meditation?
It's the awareness. The presence of awareness.
That's why we say,
"The essence of meditation is recognizing awareness."
So whether your mind is at peace or it's calm,
whether you are relaxing or not, that's not the issue.
Though you may not experience peace, you may not experience relaxation,
if you recognize awareness, if you have the presence of awareness,
you are in meditation.
So normally there's what we call
"the experience of meditation," and "the meditation."
The experience of meditation is peace, joy, happiness, bliss,
clarity, non-conceptual state of mind, and so on and so on.
All these are the experiences of meditation.
But these are not meditation.
These come as a byproduct of meditation.
But what is the real meditation? Awareness. The presence of awareness.
So if you have presence of awareness,
then whether you have thought or no thought, it doesn't matter.
Even if you have thoughts, if you know you are having thoughts,
then still you are in meditation. So normally we say,
"If you can see the river, that means you are out of the river."
So if you fall into the river, and are carried by river,
then you cannot see the river.
So if you see the river, that means you're out of the river.
And, at the same time, you don't have to stop the river.
You don't have to block the river. Likewise, in our mind,
there are thoughts and emotions, just like a river.
Coming, coming, going, going, coming, going.
So if you see the thoughts and emotions, that is the awareness.
So that awareness is the essence of meditation.
And if you don't have many thoughts and emotions in your mind,
your mind is just quiet and calm,
if you know you are calm and quiet, that is meditation.
But maybe your mind is relaxed but you don't know,
you are out... not thinking much.
You don't know where you are. You are totally lost.
That's also not meditation.
So in other words,
the main important aspect of meditation is awareness,
the presence of awareness. Somehow, as we say,
"the view and the motivation change the quality of meditation."
So if you don't know about awareness
and if you don't have the motivation to be present to awareness,
then even though you look like you're resting —
maybe you go to spa and massage, you're relaxed,
but that's not really meditation.
So by having this awareness, you will really be yourself.
You can really free yourself.
The awareness is like a lamp: it illuminates darkness.
This awareness is like space.
Thoughts and emotions are like clouds, a storm, a rainbow, like that.
These thoughts and emotions are like clouds, storms, rainbows.
They can come, they can stay, they can go.
They arise in space, stay in space, and dissolve back into space.
So they don't change space. They cannot.
Even a hurricane or a tornado cannot change space.
Space cannot change. So awareness cannot change.
But we don't know our awareness. That's the issue. That's the problem.
So the essence of meditation is not getting lost.
What is the meaning of not getting lost?
The presence of awareness. So recognize awareness.
Be present to awareness. That's all. It's very simple.
So, now you know meditation.
The most important part of meditation you already know.
Very good. Thank you.