5 Things To Make Your Mornings Better | A Monk’s Perspective

[Music] so what is the morning routine for buddhist monks this is a question that i get asked often apparently there is a big trend regarding productive morning routines minimalism and for me i don't know too much about that but really for monks we've been doing this for the last 2 600 years and for us we it's not trendy it really is just a lifestyle that we use to train ourselves and it's been going on for centuries and i just want to reveal some of the things or give you tips of some of the things that we do to prepare in the morning so of all the morning routines out there i feel like there's one key difference that what we do the monastery and what people are now using as a morning routine so hopefully i can make it clear and can share that with you but in no particular order i'm just gonna share with you five things that we do in the morning to train ourselves and how we get prepared for the day and hopefully it helps so let's go when people are starting a morning routine of course they try to get up early and then they go right away but for buddhist monks same thing in that we wake up early so around 4 4 30 to get a head start and then before we even get out of bed one thing we do is just keep your eyes closed no rush yet and take the time to breathe that's it breathe your mind is already still from the night's sleep so take advantage of that again lay in your bed breathe close your eyes breathe again and place your mind at your center our minds can wonder because it's the getting ready for the day not yet bring it to your center bring it here we're not thinking about what we're gonna do today yet we're not thinking uh or making plans yet we're not worrying about what happened yesterday it already passed so we're not going backwards and we're not going forwards for now just be here place your mind and just rest take a deep breath and then the second part to that is we reflect on death and that may sound morbid but it's not again don't take good or bad don't judge it as good and bad but it's just a training where maybe we forgot this but today is not guaranteed today is not promised and if you saw a video that i released a couple days ago we were making a meditation hall you saw how the workers the local workers along with the lay community and the monks worked together to develop this meditation hall and this process took us close to almost a year and one of the workers who worked with us was unfortunately involved in an accident and he lost his life and by the time we released this video he was no longer here and also with the covet pandemic people are facing a lot of death and again today is not guaranteed we do not know how long we're going to live a hundred the 100 year mark is not guaranteed so again with that we just wanna come from uh seeing things as it really is out of a gratitude and just know that today is a brand new day everything in the past gone but this moment gives us a new opportunity to develop ourself cultivate ourselves and in buddhist lens to make more merit which means to do more good what a wonderful opportunity so because we wake up every day over and over and over and over again it can get old and we can get mindless but before we even start the day train yourself bring your mind back to this present moment and like i said reflect on death this day is not promise and how lucky and how fortunate i am to be alive start there that is the beginning of a morning routine make your bed in this video i talked about how making your bed or not making your bed develops your habits and what it reveals about you and how it affects your life so if you have not seen it please feel free to take a look many people are starting to understand the importance of making their beds which is a great thing so continue to do that the piece however that i would like to add is don't make your bed just to make the bed but use it as a training for monks in the monastery we only have three items i have my blue mat i have my robe uh what you see as my blanket and then the other set of robes as my pillow that's it and when we wake up just having that three item i still use it as a training to purify my mind and get everything organized do it in a mindful way with intention where use it as this making my bed it's just not another act but it's really training again it's preparing me for the day and making your bed is so important because it seems very insignificant but again this insignificant thing this very small thing is what allows the big things to happen so it trains you of how to follow through it gives you a win in the morning and you kept your space clean another way again like i said of practicing your mind so immediately when you wake up then put your bed away neatly gently and get rid of the bad habit and this is not where i wake up very early and then i sleep in my bed until 12 p pm that's not how that works but the training is really when it's time to get up we get up we fold it we keep it nicely we take care of our room and then we're done we're on to the rest of the day finish your task cleanly and then let's move on to the next not a lounge area so this is part of the training and part of our morning routine chanting and meditation this is so key and part of our training for buddhist monks and we do this every single day i'm tired yes it is not easy i went to bed late uh yes it is not easy i have a lot of work yes it is not easy and every single day we still do it because we want to take full advantage of this space this is where our mind has not interacted with outside world yet it's more calm it's more still so automatically then we go into chanting to get it even more still and slowly when you start chanting chanting and then you get into the rhythm it slows your mind down even more and then after that then we go into meditation and meditation for us is so key because all the dirt all the emotions all the heaviness all the thoughts and the stories the drama that we have in our minds we just allow it to settle down and this is the grounding process this meditation cultivate this new energy this pure energy when you're first starting you may be tired because it's early and it's in the morning but by the time you're finished it's like the gas in the car and now you're not on empty you have this new energy you have this new inspiration you have this new motivation to keep you going and more importantly you are grounded you're not flustered within the day how many of you have woken up where uh you're late and then immediately you have to get dressed and you're on to the day and then when you interact with other people then you can get into conflict because your mind is not ready it's not grounded but take this time because you're prepping yourself for the day slow down and the model or the sharing from our master he says that stillness is the key to success and we tend to think that we should wake up we should go fast and do more and get more okay that's one one way of looking at it but if you really understood it from a wisdom lens it's just ground yourself slow down get as clear as possible and prepare yourself so when you're out in the world you can see yourself others and your situation clearly and when your lens has been cleaned and it's clear you are ready and have set yourself up to be more successful to be more protected and grounded and ready for the day so this is one of the tips do an act of generosity so for us the way we practice generosity is giving an opportunity for the laypeople to do alms offering you see us in the morning very early sometimes it's hot it's raining it's cloudy it's wet does not matter but every single day we go out there and i know it may be strange from the westerners point of view of you're just there to go take how how is that giving but for us i remember someone reached out to me i think they're from a different country in europe and she's like i've never seen monks i've never interacted with them and what you guys do as an arms offering to give to monks i wish i had that and i want to practice an act of giving and then i don't have that opportunity so again very foreign concepts but the idea behind that is for us is going out there we give the laypeople an opportunity to train themselves they prepare the food they offer the best that they have and by doing this act of giving giving to the monks they actually release themselves of greed and this is one way that they get to purify their minds and going on arms rounds to me is so beautiful because we get to see the interaction the heart of the lay people and the fact that they come out every single morning train themselves to give is just absolutely beautiful so again the monastery it's a symbiotic relationship we support the lay community spiritually we provide the dhamma we give them that kind of support and talk about the spiritual life and then for the lay community is it's reciprocal in that they care for the monks via material needs and it's a relationship where it supports one another but for monks that is our way of giving participating and contributing to the sankha and to the community at large so for those out there at home who do not have this opportunity do a version for yourself at home one of the things when i did not have access to monks to give was i after every single meditation i would offer a dollar i went to the bank cash this 100 bill into one dollar bill each and each day after my meditation when my mind was still when it was bright i would donate this one dollar put it in a cupboard put in a drawer and then make a resolution for your life and then at the end of the month the end of two months then i would go and offer and donate this another option would be making breakfast for your partner for your children i'm getting them ready for school or maybe feeding your pets cleaning the house but there are so many different ways that you can give and for us even before we have breakfast and for the lay people even before they have breakfast we do an act of generosity give of your resource give of your time give up of your dharma and your wisdom there's many ways of giving but each day train yourself to give that is part of a morning routine do chores so in thailand for us or in the monastery what we do is called rabbun and rabbun is really just daily chores and we have two types the first one is individual chores so we clean our rooms we clean living areas next to our room we set up for breakfast but different things that we can take care of ourselves for for me is since i'm still a new monk a younger monk my duty is the bathroom and i think it's wonderful training so i have no complaints with that the second types of chore that we do is the group chore and that's typically in the afternoon so why is doing chores in the morning so important why that is important is because the chore that we're doing is very simple it keeps us in the moment we just pay attention to the tasks at hand it connects our hands back to the earth and we doing this activity gets us out of the thinking part this is again another form of training in mindfulness and being present in this moment so this is an addition to the other morning routines again to help us to cultivate that mindfulness practice this is a bonus tip that i don't think anyone has talked about but what will help you to prepare for the morning is start the day before and one thing that you can start is regarding dinner do not have such a heavy dinner because many people will have dinner as the biggest meal and then when we have such a big dinner then when we're sleeping we don't get that quality rest because the body is digesting and it's working overtime when the body is supposed to be resting and recharging it's actually spending that energy to digest the food that you just ate so again to prepare for the night before for buddhist monks for us we don't eat dinner one because we do not need that much energy our time is spent on meditation so we eat breakfast we eat lunch and then for the rest of the day our stomach is empty and when it's time for us to go to sleep it's so much easier i remember before coming to the monastery i always had issues sleeping because one other reason maybe because i would have big meals and then when it was time to sleep i would have all this energy and then my body would have to burn it off but now that we have nothing in our stomach then it's easy i'm already tired i go to sleep within minutes and then i wake up refresh and it supports my rest of the day so give that a try just be mindful of how much you eat the night before experiment with it and then just taper off if it's uh too much and if it's not enough then add a little bit more but experiment and try it out so what is the key point and why am i even sharing this and really is because many times when people talk about morning routines it comes from a space of just productivity like i said in the other videos where people are wanting to 2x and 3x and 1000x and it's just a lot and it affects your mental health so be very careful but in the monastery i'm sharing is because why we do things is with intention and the intention for us is really using everything in the morning as a way to train our minds we follow the precepts we do our meditation in order to cultivate the wisdom and when your mind is bright stable clear neutral and healthy then automatically productivity comes motivational comes inspiration comes you're positive and you're relaxed but i think many people use it as a way to get results but for us it's no use it to train your mind so you can develop wisdom this wisdom can then be used to teach yourself to apply the information and knowledge that you know to fix your old habits and continuously improve your life but the mind for us is the forerunner it sets the tone for everything that we do so get your mind very still and very bright the second thing that i would want to add about the morning routine is the purpose is to get our mind still not to wake up early to get our mind racing again and many people will ask me uh venerable nick can i wake up very early and then i want to watch the news and then i wanna uh read the what's on the stock market i wanna see what bitcoin is doing i wanna and then they just wanna engage more i'm gonna listen to talk radio i'm gonna watch a movie and no for us no if you're doing that that's that's okay but i'm just sharing from uh the training of the monastery and for us is the purpose of a morning routine is to utilize that time get your mind very still and do activities where you're not thinking just get still let everything settle down because when we wake up that early and already get our mind thinking and already frantic you're not setting yourself up as properly experiment with these kind of activities for you but just keep in mind that the activities that we do should not make us think more it's to get us out of our heads and the intellect part and then again the training to access what access the wisdom which is the inner well don't go on google but you know to find information because it's an endless web of information but get still so you can access this this is the real inner internet and in this ocean you can find all the answers just get as still as possible and set yourself up and the best way you can to prepare for the rest of the day because it's hard out there once you leave your house it gets very chaotic it's very noisy and this is the preparation for that so i hope you can use this information to develop a morning routine or tweak the morning routine that you already have some people will then ask me or will tell me now i don't have enough time i don't want to do that or it's not so important but okay sure um and many people will play these kind of games with themself use excuses and okay sure you can try that route but for me then i want to go a different angle and really is talking about children for parents out there because it's difficult we're stuck in our habits to look at ourselves and to change ourself because we're used to it so now let's talk about your kids yes i'm gonna go there we're gonna talk about kids and the kids that i work with back home as the therapist again at the group home working with foster kids many of them would have behavioral issues emotional issues and that's why we were there to help to stabilize them to teach them coping skills and tools to regulate what was the problem many of the time the issues was that the kids did not know how to emotionally regulate their distress tolerance was very little or none in some cases it felt like but developing the foundation is key and i would say yes does it take time is it difficult of course but it's an investment and it's worth investing in because if we cut this corner the effects will be felt later well i don't have time now well you're going to have to make time you're going to have to make time because the kids will not develop these skills of how to self-regulate then when they're out in the world that it's full with social media and a lot of noise and peer pressure then they fall and they collapse because they have not been able to develop that foundation and then you're going to need to get them the support emotional support that they need later so you will take the time so why i'm sharing this again is because this is important it's just the same reason when people talk about their health i just don't have time i don't have time to meditate i don't have time to exercise i don't have time to eat healthy okay sure no time no time yeah but when you're sick and you have to go to the hospital and your body shuts down you will make time that's just how it is so be proactive use the wisdom and take the time and nurture that and develop this or you'll have to take the time later and going backwards re training yourself to undo a habit is not easy so when you are here in this moment hopefully you can utilize this morning routine and combining with the intention of training yourself for mindfulness grounding meditation get still and clear so then when you interact with the world you're so much stronger and well prepared so i know this is a very big tangent but for me i think it's important and it's a necessary conversation for us to have because time at and time again uh we're faced with this issues and people are coming to us and they're struggling because the foundation is not there and when anything happens out in the outside world to them and they feel like their their wall their coping skills is not strong enough and this is why and i hope this perspective and sharing you with the intention of the morning routine helps you and your life so let's take a breath that was a lot and if you have to replay and look at it one more time or take notes feel free to and use each other for support we also have a reddit community and just help one another and as always from thailand thank you and i hope you guys are all safe and sharing all my blessings with you so thank you so much have a good day [Music]

Channel: Nick Keomahavong

Views: 409,506

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Keywords: a day in the life of a monk, monk, monks, buddhist monk, life of a monk, monk life, the life of a monk, effective morning routine, monk morning routine, buddhist monk morning routine, morning routine of monks, morning routine buddhist monks, the daily life of a buddhist monk, monk life morning routine, morning routines for monks, buddhist monk making bed, morning schedule of buddhist monks, early morning routine monks, best morning routines monk, mental health morning routine

Id: 3PyhXlHDkNI

Length: 27min 5sec (1625 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 29 2021