MEDITATION TECHNIQUE
Buddhist meditation, as taught by us in this retreat, is not a mystical practice. This technique of meditation is for people who are living a secular life as householders, who go to work, have responsibilities, and who are involved in various social relationships. What such people need is freedom from stress, and freedom from worries and anxieties of life. They need peace of mind, healthy relationships, self-confidence, success in life, and efficiency at work. This means learning to gain control over the emotional disturbances that prevent them from thinking clearly or acting rationally. These problematic emotional disturbances come in the form of anger, lust, worries, fears, and anxieties. The form of Buddhist meditation we teach helps one free the mind of emotional disturbances and to think clearly and act rationally.
It involves a systematic technique of consciously purifying the mind. All impurities arise from self-centered emotional states. The pure mind is the tranquil mind. When the mind is purified, one experiences an inner happiness, a physical comfort, and a kindness and compassion that one has never experienced before. The happiness that we refer to is not a state of emotional excitement, but a tranquil state of the mind. The kindness and compassion we teach is not based on attachment, it is a state of unselfishness. As we understand it, emotional excitement is not true happiness, and attachment is not true love. Happiness and kindness are attributes of the pure and tranquil mind.
Therefore the aim of this method of meditation is to cultivate a relaxed body, and a calm mind, resulting in the experience of happiness and a kindness of heart.