The method that our teacher teaches us is as follows: Suppose you are going to work, when you wake up in the morning, you should first bring up mindfulness, and then brush your teeth and wash your face. Before you drive out, take a minute or two to cut off your wandering thoughts, bring up mindfulness, and then start to drive, ride, or walk.
Similarly, when you sit down at your office desk, take three to five minutes to cut off your wandering thoughts, cultivate mindfulness, meditate on non-self, generate bodhicitta, or take deep breaths to let go of some attachments, and then begin your work. That is, before doing anything, you can do this warm-up, even if it’s just half a minute or three minutes. This is an empirical method taught by our teacher. By doing so, you can gradually bring the realization gained through meditation into your daily life, that is, bring up your mindfulness before engaging in any activities. No matter what you are working on, as long as you are allowed to take a brief break — a time when you can relax without thinking or doing anything — that’s when you can start meditating. This applies to any situation. For example, after completing a task, you can meditate for a short while, perhaps for one or two minutes. With this habit, your meditation and work will be gradually integrated. Be like a man who’s fractured his skull, always careful in case someone will touch him.” That is, always be alert and vigilant. This is how a spiritual practitioner practices in daily life. They are very alert and careful, so as not to lose their mindfulness. Some people have lost mindfulness for a long while, yet still haven’t noticed. This indicates that they haven’t even started their spiritual journey. Or, after meditation, your mind may be still immersed in the eight worldly concerns, just as before. In such cases, even if you practice for ten or more years, you will not make significant progress, because once you return to daily life, all your worldly habits emerge, such as arrogant speech, harshness, or jealousy. Then, after meditation, it’s important not to give in to the tendency we have to solidify the way we perceive things. This refers to the ‘habit’ we just mentioned. Because you tend to solidify things — fixed beliefs, fixed habits. When you see something, you may naturally have a reaction, an emotion, and this emotion is exactly a solidified emotion. Some people tend to be gloomy, some tend to be jealous, some are greedy, craving anything they come across. These are solidified habits. When you do re-enter everyday life, let the wisdom, insight, compassion, humor, fluidity, spaciousness, and detachment that meditation brought you pervade your day-to-day experience. This clearly states that meditation will bring about wisdom, insight, compassion, humor, fluidity, spaciousness, and detachment. This is a prerequisite; if you haven’t experienced these during meditation, then it’s even more impossible for you to experience them in your daily life. So, we need to learn how to do so. What kind of experiences and signs do you have during meditation? When you mediate, if you lack the wisdom of non-self, compassion, humor… If you are not very obsessed with or attached to anything, you will have a humorous state of mind. Also, fluidity and spaciousness. If these states of mind or experiences arise during your meditation, then gradually, you will naturally experience them in daily life.