Obstacles Along the Way Part 2
Lesson 9 from: FAST CLASS: Meditation for Everyday LifeDavid Nichtern
Obstacles Along the Way Part 2
Lesson 9 from: FAST CLASS: Meditation for Everyday LifeDavid Nichtern
Lessons
Introduction - Why Meditate?
15:12 2How to Meditate - Taking Your Seat
12:59 3Placing Attention on Breath
04:32 4Labeling Thoughts as Thinking
06:35 5How to Meditate - Leaving Some Space
12:19 6Bringing Meditation Into Everyday Life
11:30 7Digging Into the Practice Part 2
05:51 8Obstacles Along the Way
08:29Obstacles Along the Way Part 2
08:59 10Body, Emotions, Mind, Stress, Anxiety
26:56 11Body, Emotions, Mind, Stress, Anxiety Part 2
06:28 12The True Meaning of Success
18:28 13The True Meaning of Success Part 2
03:40 14Developing Compassion for Ourselves & Others
04:39 15Compassion for Ourselves & Others Part 2
29:34 16Compassion and Mindfulness
26:27 17Compassion and Mindfulness Part 2
08:11 18Happiness and Joy
18:15 19Happiness and Joy Part 2
04:06 20How to Go Forward
10:59 21How to Go Forward Part 2
07:31Lesson Info
Obstacles Along the Way Part 2
So there is this notion of slowing time down and and experiencing time. Um not as something to just crank through and not something that's getting away from us but something that we're riding in a particular way that's a little bit interesting isn't how slowly time can go when you're doing your practice. And we haven't really tasted that yet as a group here because we're on tv. But otherwise I would make you taste it we just slow down. You'd be going like okay ring the bell and then you think oh well David must have fallen asleep on its watch stopped and you hope there is nothing more distressing in a meditation session than looking at the time keeper and seeing them fall asleep. You know they're not gonna remember to ring the bell on time. I'm gonna be stuck here forever. So we should invite Eddie the cockatiel in. Yeah tell us. Well it's funny you say that about Eddie because I do want to mentioned that as far as I'm concerned, a dog can do mindfulness meditation. And I've seen it ac...
tually with I used to have a dog named Leroy Brown and his mind is very scattered. You know, you know dogs that can be very scattered and defused just like us. And he's looking at this and smelling this and distracted by that. But if I hold a biscuit up he goes and he has one point in this, it's just for a dog body. It's easier to develop that you would use food as the object of the meditation. But you are training the dogs mind when you do that, right? If you don't just stuff it in, you hold it, they hold they're very alert for a moment, you know, and then you go through and then they're back to their distraction. So that principle is kind of the same for us where our mind is all over the place. But we don't need a biscuit, you wouldn't train a human being that way would be insulting, you know? But you would say you have the power yourself to bring your mind back. So a human being can be really really cultivate mindfulness. But so so a well trained dog has a lot of mindfulness. They're not just running all over the place. They can bring their attention back the same principle. So here's here's some of the obstacles that I just outlined physical discomfort for meditators. Sometimes it's just like God, my body is just killing me, you know? So we like to say that you can learn um how to work with your physical situation and shift your posture if you need to or find the right support with the cushions or just become acclimated to the posture. Sleepiness, laziness, restlessness, boredom, anxiety, dullness, depression, distractions, excuses resentment, craving anxiety, stress, mm longing, jealousy, pride and be These are the experiences we have that actually um kind of between us and the goal line actually. But instead of looking at them as obstacles that kind of keeping us from getting where we want to be. Those are very experiences from which we can learn. So that's transformative. When we talk about transformation, we're talking about actually changing, keeping the energy of something with changing the shape of it. That's what transformation means. Take a few breaths. Even if you take two or three mindful breaths, it can be very powerful. So we're gonna do a contemplative practice now and address what is considered one of the core values our virtues for, you know, somebody who's trying to develop themselves, why and that would be generosity. Right? You all agree that's a good, good virtue to have. When you see somebody that you say they're a generous person, we usually means something very good by that. So we're gonna close your eyes for a minute and we're going to think about the topic of generosity and maybe you first think about what, what does it mean to you to be generous? What's the meaning of that to you? What comes up for you when you think about generosity, about being a generous person, giving of yourself, what does it imply in terms of your relationship to other people? What's it like to be generous to somebody else? You can think of a specific situation maybe in which you felt you weren't generous? What did that feel like? How do you feel after that? How do you feel doing that? Think about something that you really covet in your life and think about giving it away. How would that make you feel? Think about whether it's easier to be generous to somebody that you really like? What's it like to be generous to somebody you don't like that much? What's the issue is there? Think about somebody you admire was really generous. What's the quality that they're embodying? Mhm. If your mind wanders doing this and you start thinking about other things, we're still sort of in that mindful domain where you bring your awareness back to this topic. That's the kind of mindful dimension of this practice. Keep coming back to what you're thinking about generosity. What what obstacle do you experience to being generous? If you think it's a good idea and you'd like to be more generous, what obstacles come up for you? What is a deterrent? What gets in your way? Think of somebody you know who's not generous in your estimation? how does that make you feel? How did they make you feel? Think about yourself, do you consider yourself kind of rich and full of resources and offerings? Or do you feel lacking and needing to hoard whatever resources you have, are you running out of or you? Re supplying us? You go and then think of an environment that you function in like a workplace or family situation, What would it be like? Just imagine it if everybody was practising generosity was more generous, would that feel like so these kind of practice you can just do on your own and kind of explore an area that you want to explore. In this case we're exploring something that we consider to be a virtue, positive kind of quality. So there's a lot of advantage to that because on some level, you know, these are things we're aiming for, whether we're aware of it or not as human beings, we're aiming for these kind of qualities. There's a so the universal good qualities
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