Wednesday Meditation

Our meditations are open to all students, everyone is welcome!

Meditation is from 8:00-9:00pm every Wednesday

In-Person Location: Hillel of San Diego — 5717 Lindo Paseo

Every Wednesday, Delta Beta Tau hosts public meditations and discussions. We begin with a guided meditation followed by a discussion based on a Buddhist topic. All are welcome!

Our intention for Wednesday nights is to provide a safe space of refuge for SDSU community members to breathe, reflect, listen, share, and connect. Topics are chosen based on what we believe could help those joining us find peace, awareness, and wisdom that may be beneficial for their everyday lives.

Meditation Script—Property of No One

PRIOR TO MEDITATION

A few things before we begin: Nothing is going to happen to you. You will not float away. You will not have any mystical/magical experiences. You will not think nothing. You will not stop your thoughts. We are just going to sit and breathe. Finding a position that is comfortable, closing the eyes if comfortable, mouth open or closed, whatever is comfortable. I’ll guide us as we begin and then settle into a bit of silence.

START MEDITATION, Hit bell 3 times slowly

Start with taking three deep breaths Eventually settle into a natural rhythm of the breath Gently guiding the attention and focus to the stomach or chest Breathing in feel them rise, breathing out feel them fall Simply continue this practice, expecting nothing but to sit and breathe

ALLOW TIME FOR SILENCE

As the mind wanders, recognize it...return attention and focus to the breath

ALLOW TIME FOR SILENCE

Breathing in, follow breath in, breathing out, follow breath out

ALLOW TIME FOR SILENCE

Letting go of expectations or judgements from the practice, just sitting and breathing

ALLOW TIME FOR SILENCE

And with the body still, speech quiet, and the mind beginning to settle, know what it is like to just sit and breathe. Knowing with each breath, there is nothing else to do, nowhere else to go, no one else to be, everything beautiful exactly as it is, sitting and breathing. Once again taking 3 deep breaths...

Hit bell 3 times slowly AFTER MEDITATION

Slowly opening the eyes, slowly beginning to move. Paying attention to how you feel now. Compare this to how you typically feel throughout the day. Notice the difference. Ask yourself how you prefer to feel every day for the rest of your life. Know that however you feel now, if it is quiet, calm, or still, it has nothing to do with anything I said, nothing to do with how you sit or the sounds around you. It has everything to do with your own mind, and you own mind’s reactions to the world around you. This is what the Buddha called Pratitya Samupattha, dependent origination. The word Buddha simply means awakened. He was a human being no different from anyone in this room who began to understand why he suffered. Why he got angry, sad, depressed, stressed, anxious. He began to understand the causal relationship of all phenomena. What this means for us is every day things happen and we react, more things happen and more reactions. The practice of meditation is simply learning what it’s like to respond to something quietly, peacefully, still. All we are working on is closing the gap to where the way we feel now is closer to how we typically feel. Meditation is free, it is simply sitting and breathing. Once we stop trying to change, control, manipulate everything around us, and we work on changing our mind and our reaction to the world around us life gets simpler.