Bless Yourself with Meditation: Selections from “Coloring Our Lives” by Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan), Part 2 of 2

“Don’t make meditation a kind of work; it’s just a relaxation time. Tell your mind it has nothing to do, and to just sit there relaxing. And if you cannot sit too long, you can lie down and rest. Make it pleasant.” “Make it pleasant at first. Don’t make it too hard for the mind, because he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like working. And if you’re too serious, the mind will rebel, thinking, ‘I don’t like that. I’d like to have fun; I’d like to go out; I’d like to have music or coffee with friends. I don’t want to sit here.’” “First relax the mind. Most often, all of us are very hurried to become a Buddha, and that’s why we have problems. We struggle between the soul and the brain. The soul wants to meditate; the brain wants to play.”

“Sometimes the mind tricks us a lot. And if we don’t have someone to encourage us or to hold hands, we cannot continue so fast. That’s why we need a teacher and friends, fellow initiates. Then we can talk out the problem with them, and sometimes they help.”

“We’re the top of physical creation. We don’t know if we’re the top of the universe yet. Maybe not, but at least here, we’re the top of creation. So we must carry on our life as dignified as a human being should be, and not be fearful of everything and stupid and in misery, especially when we have the treasure inside that we can always use.” “That’s the only purpose of meditation: that you know yourself and know what true happiness is, not because the Master says so and you have to obey the Master. You obey the Master because it’s good for you, but you must know why. You must know it’s for you, not for the Master.” “It’s an honor, it’s a privilege, and it’s the best fortune of our life to be able to know such a secret. It’s not being forced, it’s not a bargain, and it’s not an obligation. It’s the best of all privileges, the best of all luck, in thousands or millions of lifetimes, that we’re being so easily shown such a door to liberate ourselves of all misery. So work on it. That’s all there is to it.”