Welcome to the Jays Meditation – Habarana.
Jays Holiday Meditation Centre offers on-going retreats for male and female | local and foreign travelers throughout the year, under the guidance of Most Venerable Sri Lanka and Chinese Buddhist Monks.
Jays Holiday offers a supportive, comfortable, and peaceful surrounding environment for meditation training and practice. The meditation method involves both Samatha and Vipassanâ meditation techniques, drawing from the lineage of the Most Venerable Sri Lanka and Chinese Buddhist Monks. During retreats, daily interviews and dhamma talks are available in the Sinhalese and English medium.
The citizens of the world are welcome to come and discover the fountain of wisdom within themselves through Vipassana (Insight) and that without any charges whatsoever!
What is meditation?
Why We Should Meditate?
Meditation is knowing the mind, shaping the mind, and freeing the mind. So knowing the mind is understanding how the mind is working. If we do not know our minds we are really just like machines. Therefore it extremely important to know and to understand how our minds work.
And when we know the mind, then we can shape the mind. Shaping the mind is developing mastery over the mind. If we do not develop mastery over the mind what happens is that we become a slave to our own mind. Then thoughts and emotions control us and that results in more and more suffering. When you learn to shape the mind then you can achieve a mind that is free. So the importance of meditation is learning to achieve a mind that is free, a mind that is happy, a mind that is peaceful, a mind that has loving-kindness.
Experience the present moment
mindfulness helps us to experience the present moment, the here and the now. It is funny to think that most of the time during the day we either live in the past, thinking about what has happened, or we live in the future, dwelling on what is going to happen. But the past and the future are not real – only the present is real. So it shows that human beings, because of their lack of awareness, are living in an unreal world which does not correspond to reality.
Now please realize that being in the present doesn’t mean that we don’t have to use thoughts about the past and the future. Sometimes we have to plan about the future. If you did not plan about the future, you would not have come here. And if you forget the past you will not be able to go back to your home!…
Thoughts
One thing we can discover is that our thoughts arise mechanically. They just pop up. Take what is happening now. You are listening to me but you are absorbed in the thoughts that are going through your mind. You don’t want these thoughts to arise but they just pop up; and then we do something very interesting: some thoughts we allow just to arise and pass away, while others, we get hold of them, we identify ourselves with them. They can overwhelm us, they can control us.
So this is one of the things that we can discover with awareness, that when thoughts arise, without getting hold of them, if you can just allow them to go away then there is no problem. This is one aspect for us to learn about and explore.
Know what is happing
And as the whole emphasis is on mindfulness, what is very important for you to remember is that whatever is happening in our mind and body when we are practicing this technique, we should learn just to know, just to be mindful, just to be conscious of what is happening.
So when you have thoughts please don’t consider them as a disturbance or as a distraction, but rather be aware that you are having thoughts. If you are hearing sounds just know you are hearing sounds. If you are feeling different sensations in the body, whatever sensations you are experiencing, just know that you are experiencing those sensations. So you know these things are happening, you become mindful of these things and then just come back to your breath.
There is no need to have a battle when you are meditating using this technique. I often say that you have enough battles in life, please do not make meditation into another battle! The whole idea of meditation is to experience freedom, to experience joy, to experience lightness, to be free of suffering…..
Life becomes your teacher
I have had the good fortune to meet many masters, many gurus, many teachers from many traditions. Do you know which master, which guru has most inspired me? It is life itself. Life is our best teacher. So thanks to the Dhamma, when you realize the importance of the Dhamma, life becomes your teacher. And sometimes life can be a very hard teacher, but it is always a good teacher. It can indicate to us what we are really are.
Modern Texts on the Practice of Meditation
Mindfulness in Plain English by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana
Timeless Wisdom by Sayadaw U Pandita
Excursions into the Thought-world of the Pali Discoursesby Ven. Analayo
Meditation Teachings from Mitirigala/Meetirigala by Ven. Dhammajiva
Buddhist Meditation by Francis Story (Anagarika Sugatananda)
Beginning Insight Meditation by Dorothy Figen
The Four Sublime States by Nyanaponika Thera
Anapana Sati: Meditation on Breathing by Ven. N. Ariyadhamma
One Tool Among Many by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Protection through Satipatthanaby Nyanaponika Thera
The Foundations of Mindfulness: An introduction and translation by Nyanasatta Thera
Facets of Metta by Sharon Salzberg
22 Talks on Meditation and Dhamma by Sister Ayya Khema
Farewell Night Desana by Ven. Acariya Maha Boowa