Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Brahm guides us through a gentle meditation which emphasizes kindness and compassion as a way to deepen contentment and stillness, allowing ourselves to be at peace with whatever we experience. This gentle relationship to experience helps us to relax our body and as a consequence our mind as well.
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Transcript

Meditation is,

As you haven't done any meditation before,

It's not to be looked upon as something difficult.

Looked upon as relaxation,

Learning how to do nothing,

Learning how to chill out,

Learning how just to be.

So please do not regard meditation as another thing which you have to learn,

Develop,

Another thing you have to try and achieve while you always do your failure again if you don't get somewhere.

Meditation is not about getting somewhere,

It's about being here.

It's not about wanting something more,

It's about being content with what you have and where you are.

It's about learning how to make peace with this moment.

So open the door of your heart to what you're experiencing right now.

Be very gentle,

Which also includes patience.

Patience is not waiting for something to happen,

Patience is waiting in this moment.

So such an easy thing to do,

So please don't make it complicated.

So I will give the instructions like guided meditation for the first twenty minutes and then I will be quiet for a little while and then after the quiet time is completed,

Then there's the opportunity I will just wrap up the meditation and then after I start the talk.

So first of all just please go nice,

Very good.

Okay,

So here we go on our little guided meditation for half an hour.

It might not be what you heard before but if it was what you heard before you would be learning anything new.

So every time you teach a meditation this way or that way you get another angle on the meditation process and you put them all together and you find underneath all types of meditation there's a common theme of letting things be,

Relaxing,

Learning how to make or allow the mind to be still.

So we start off by closing our eyes.

And with your eyes closed first of all make sure all your mobile phones are turned off.

If your mobile devices go off just when someone's about to get enlightened this afternoon your mobile device makes such bad karma.

In its next life it will be reincarnated as a parking meter which is the lowest form of life next to speed cameras for electronic high-tech equipment.

So please out of compassion for your iPhones or tablets,

Whatever you have,

Please turn them off.

So now see if you can turn off your wandering mind as well.

Put it in,

Not the right mode,

The meditation mode.

The whole purpose of the next half an hour is learning how to relax,

To make peace,

To be free.

So we start by looking at our body,

Our posture.

There is no magic position for your body which is the best for every meditation.

In fact you find out in every meditation what is the best position for you and you adopt that position with awareness and kindness.

So you start with your legs,

Just a little bit of carefulness with how your body is positioned.

You don't need to open the eyes but how do your legs feel right now from your toes to your thighs?

And feel quite free to move them to find the best position for you.

First of all you may not be in the most comfortable position so you move them,

Adjust them.

Just like when you are looking through a telescope you have to adjust the lens to focus it,

To get it just right.

So you're aware,

You move,

You're aware until you get the feedback which comes from mindfulness to get the best possible position for your body.

That's mindfulness together with kindness.

And once you feel that your legs are in the best possible position you can leave them alone.

And then you bring your awareness up to your bottom,

Your buttocks,

First against the chair seat.

How do they feel?

Do you need to wriggle to fit it,

That bottom to try and get it more comfortable?

If you need to please do so.

And once you've adjusted the position you're mindful again,

Is this more comfortable?

Mindfulness gives you feedback so you can adjust more until you find the optimum position.

Sometimes people who are not particular in adjusting their posture get aches and pains which disturb the meditation better.

So once the bottom is well adjusted then you're aware of your back.

It does not always need to be straight,

You can be leaning back.

In fact for most people the most comfortable healthy position for the back is leaning up 15 degrees to the vertical which is the almost exact angle of the backrest of your chair.

The reason why chairs have that backrest leaning backwards at that angle is just the evolution of furniture.

These are the ones which work,

Which become most popular with self.

So it's quite okay if you wish to lean back on the chair.

But if you find it more comfortable leaning forward,

Fine it's up to you.

So to trial and error through adjustment,

Always mindful,

Aware of those feelings.

And not stopping the movement until you might leave feedback from mindfulness indicates this is the best possible position,

Now this time for you.

And then you look at the position of your hands.

You feel it.

Many people fidget their hands,

They do it so often they think it's normal but it's irritating,

Disturbing if you're trying to be still in meditation.

So see if you can get your hands in the best possible position to begin with.

They don't have to be on the knee or in your lap,

Wherever your hands can feel comfortable,

That is where you put them.

And to know the best position again you're aware of the feelings in your hands and as you move you see which position is the best for you right now.

Once you find the best position you leave it there.

Such a simple method but highly effective in relaxing your body.

Then you move your awareness up to your shoulders which is a seat of great tension for many people.

And in order to relax those shoulders just telling them to relax often doesn't work.

So instead you can imagine your shoulders consisting of many,

Many bundles of string which have been stretched like elastic,

Pulled on both ends until it's stressed.

If you imagine that visualize the muscles in your shoulders have been pulled at both ends.

And then you imagine you visualize letting go of both ends,

Releasing and pulling and stretching.

So the muscles can relax,

Can become loose,

Not pulled,

Not stretched,

Not squashed.

Let go off so they can relax into a natural comfortable state.

And after the muscles in the shoulders are being relaxed can you feel them,

Can the feedback of mindfulness indicate you are actually relaxing something?

Your shoulders are getting more peaceful,

More comfortable.

This is the job of awareness and kindness.

Awareness checks you are going in the correct direction of relaxation.

You'll find that what does relax your body is this beautiful kindness opening the door of your heart and spine.

And then you can move your attention up from your shoulders to your throat.

If you've got an itchy throat it's quite alright to cough.

If you try to stop the coughing it usually gets worse.

If you allow yourself to cough whenever you need to you'll find that you'll cough less.

The mindfulness will show you that controlling it makes irritations worse.

Opening the door of your heart and letting it be makes a mess.

At the same time you're relaxing what could be an irritating neck cause-wise.

Then you move your attention up to your head.

To be able to relax the head and find its best position sometimes you can experience moving the head left,

Right,

Forward,

Back until you notice which is the best position for your head upon your neck.

And I also encourage to be aware of the muscles around the eyes.

How tense or how loose they are.

Once you're mindful of that feeling around your eyes it becomes quite simple to relax those muscles,

To loosen the tightness and tension.

The reason why the muscles around the eyes can be important because fear,

Desire,

Many emotions change the tone of the muscles around the eyes.

So by relaxing those muscles you're relaxing the longing or the fear.

It feels good.

When the muscles in the face and the whole rest of the body have been dealt with one by one,

Relax as much as you can.

Then you find the body feels at ease,

It feels comfortable.

Sometimes it even tingles with what I call the delight of a body that's been relaxed part by part.

At the same time you're redeveloping awareness,

Otherwise known as mindfulness,

Together with kindness.

So there are two qualities which really are essential on the path of meditation,

Mindfulness and kindness.

And then once the body is,

What you think is relaxed,

Then just check your body again.

It may be just one part of the body inside,

It might be your lungs or your heart or your bowels or some other ache or pain somewhere inside the body,

Which doesn't get relaxed by moving because it's deep inside,

A wound,

An injury,

A disease.

So as you look at the body,

See if you can notice the most irritating or painful part of your body and focus in on it,

Zoom in on it.

And once you have awareness of an irritating part of your own body,

Then you can try kindness.

The awareness of that pain again gives you the feedback.

So you can see if the pain or the irritation,

The ache gets less,

More gets more.

If the irritation gets more,

You obviously keep going in the wrong direction.

If the irritation gets less,

If the pain is alleviated,

You go in the correct direction,

Carry on.

And this is how we learn.

We know it's the right way because mindfulness tells us it's getting better.

And with this little training,

You'll find you can take any part of the body which is aching,

Which is in pain,

Which is unbalanced,

And you can relax it so if you want.

Thereby healing many painful injuries or even diseases,

Mindfulness and kindness working together to relax the body and allow it to heal.

So once the body feels good,

Relax as much as you can.

Then let it go and move your attention,

Your mindfulness to your emotional world,

To your mind.

And ask yourself a simple question,

Am I peaceful or am I agitated?

Give it a number from one to ten.

Five is average,

One is really peaceful,

Ten is very agitated.

Give yourself an honest number.

The reason I ask this is because when you are looking at how peaceful or how agitated you feel,

It is becoming mindful of what I call the peace-olitor,

Just like you have a speedometer on the car which tells you how fast you're going,

Or a thermometer in the room to say whether it's hot or whether it's cold.

Once you have the peace-olitor in your mindfulness's view,

You know how peaceful or how agitated you are,

Then the next step is to what do I need to do to be able to move that needle of my own peace-olitor closer to one?

What makes me more peaceful?

What makes me more agitated?

Again mindfulness gives you the feedback.

If your mind becomes more peaceful,

You usually find it's because you're not trying to force it,

Control it,

Strive for something,

Not just makes you more agitated,

But instead you're being content and kind,

Opening the door of your heart to this moment no matter what it is,

Making peace with it,

Being kind and being gentle.

That you will find makes even your mind become more and more peaceful.

You will also find that when you start thinking about the past,

Worrying about the future,

That needle goes up,

Gets more agitated,

And when you just rest in the present moment,

Accepting this moment,

You'll find you become more and more peaceful.

And you can feel that peace,

Because this is what you're aware of,

Your peace-olitor.

And throughout the meditation,

Always be aware of how peaceful you are growing,

Or how agitated you are becoming.

So to check to make sure you're on the correct path.

Meditation's nothing to do with agitation,

Stillness is peace.

So in order to develop that peace,

We watch how mindful of the peace-olitor,

And how to be that needle closer and closer to one.

As you are aware of peace,

Get more and more calm.

You may become aware of your breathing,

Breath coming in,

Breath going out,

But don't force awareness on the breath.

If you go looking for the breath and focusing on the breathing,

You will find that the peace-olitor goes closer up to take,

Not disturbing,

Agitating the light.

So instead,

Just allow the breath to come in.

Let the breath go out.

Your job is not to do the breathing,

Nor to tell the breathing how to go in and how to go out.

Your job is to calmly watch as the breath goes in and out.

How to make it more interesting.

As you breathe in,

Imagine you're breathing in energy,

Health,

Freedom,

With every inflate.

As you breathe out,

Imagine breathing out any toxins,

Any ill health,

Any past or future,

Any negativity.

Breathing out,

We let go of all that's troublesome and negative.

As you breathe in,

You breathe in energy,

Health,

Peace.

Breathing in peace,

Without let go.

Breathing in peace,

Without let go.

Breathing in peace,

Without let go.

I'm now going to be quiet for a few minutes.

If I start speaking again,

I'll be closer to meditation.

Hang tight.

Okay.

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Reviews

Incredible, as always! Endless gratitude to Ajahn Brahm and the nun’s project, and of course all involved in any capacity. 🙏🏼

A brilliant meditation for beginners and the more experienced alike. I really loved this one. 🙏

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ThankyouandBless 🧸🧸🧸

Ajahn Brahm is a delight. Very nice calming meditation. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️