Mangala, A Discourse on Blessings :Chanting is a way of Meditation Practice

Our morning meditation began with chanting the Mangala Sutta. It is one of the techniques to gain a state of mindfulness.The principle consists of 38 necessary habits to learn and apply in daily life to receive blessings in our business and family endeavour. Phra Arjan Sawang Kalayano from Sisaket Province, who is the project leader, smartly led the chanting. 

The following website gives you the Mangala  Sutta.

http://www.arrowriver.ca/dhamma/bless.html

After the chanting, we proceeded to a walking meditation on the route in front of the Centre as far the same distance as we took yesterday. But, in this morning, pieces of stone on the road are sharper than yesterday because of last night rain.

The monk spoke less as usual. Because he, most of the times, emphasised the action. He told us to begin the practice called " Jong krom" or walking meditation and led us to walk slowly on our routine path which is about a kilometre and back to the centre. Finally, he told us to stop and stand still for a while. Standing in front of the Centre building this morning

I was more relaxed and more peaceful than how I felt in yesterday practice. I felt the time today moved faster than yesterday. 

While we were practising our walking meditation, I heard noise from the bird that has come to follow us every morning since our first jong krom lesson, praised us in his language.The flying animal said, "Patibat Dee Laew, Patibat Dee Laew...!!!"

At the end of the session, Phra Arjan told us the right action of making a better gesture of a "wai" (ไหว้) to give thanks to the fundamental principle of the meditation before ending the morning practice. "Raise both index fingers to touch your forehead right between your eyebrows and the gesture will be a right one".

This morning we practised how to behave yourself, how to cultivate good actions - the mindful actions.

In short,we have practised many aspects of Mangala sutta.

Maditation class from a forest monk

Sunday of May 15, 2016

After the morning prayer on the agenda at 05.00 hours, we listened to a short exciting and useful talk by the project leader on his tudong experiences. We then had a sitting meditation practice and later on took a mindful morning walk for a kilometre towards the canal in front of the centre and back. While we were making our mindful walking the monk told us how to behave ourselves - how to manage our physical positions and our minds and breaths, here and there once in a while. He spoke less but chose to emphasise critical procedures. When he came near me, he showed us how to manage our hands. He told us to take it easy by just hanging our hands down beside our body relaxingly. "Do not hold them up like that will make you feel stressed," he said."Then bring one hand to put above the other in front of your stomach". He showed us how to do it. When he placed one hand on the other, he said, "ngab (แงบ) like this". It was an impressive expression. When I followed his explanation, I was surprised to find out I was more comfortable!

After breakfast, we continued the today lesson by chanting two important prayer s. The first is on the Eight Noble Paths.The second is on the Anapanasati which is a method of meditation. Both prayers are long,  and they take times and are hard to follow.

I think we should do each prayer separately so that we can understand the concept and the details of practices more quickly, especially for senior followers.

The links below show you more details of The Noble Paths and the process of Anapanasati.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapanasati