In this online Dhamma talk last Sunday, Bro Billy shared that we actually have two minds – the thinking mind (mano) and the emotional mind (citta). It is the emotional mind that want things, fears things, worries about things and most often than not, is dominating our life. He explained that the Buddha taught us meditation (bhāvanā) to train and sharpen the thinking mind to gain control over the emotional mind. When the thinking mind and emotional mind are unified, one experiences jhāna as a fruition of meditation.

He also talked about the Five Hindrances that corrupt the thinking mind, weaken our wisdom and disturb the mind during meditation and how they came about. He explained how the brain waves differ in the meditative state and the hypnotic state. The hypnotic state is often mistaken for samādhi or jhāna. He gave tips on the signs of self-hypnosis state and how to ‘reset’ our meditation practice and what not to do to avoid falling into this self-hypnosis state.

In the last part of the sharing, he cautioned that NOT all meditation practice leads to awakening. Which meditation practice leads to introspective mind? Which meditation practice may lead to self-hypnosis? To find out, click the link below and watch it till the end:
MEDITATION PITFALL – SELF-HYPNOSIS