Stop! | Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Brahm talks about the nature of meditation by using buddhist stories to show how we can learn to stop interfering with the natural process of the mind. But how can we stop? By not wanting to go somewhere else, but by stopping right here in the present moment and allowing ourselves to be still and grant ourselves the chance to rest the mind and body. This talk is part of an online retreat with the famous teacher Ajahn Brahm organized by the Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project.

Transcript

Before the talk this evening,

This morning for you,

This afternoon for me,

That sometimes when we have difficulties and problems in our meditation,

Just know how do we deal with them,

Solving the problems in meditation,

And also asking yourself,

Are they really problems?

Or is it just we're looking at things with too much negativity?

And sometimes when you find that,

Oh sometimes people they try and meditate and they think they can't do it,

And they're taking like a personal,

That they're not up to the task of meditating.

But then sometimes things happen,

One of my job is trying to encourage and inspire so that people can do things they never expected they could do.

Even for myself,

You know,

When I first started meditating,

Sometimes you could see some of these old monks and nuns,

They could meditate for hours so peacefully.

And I thought,

Oh I'll never be able to do that.

But just over those years,

The patience and the understanding,

Soon you just found out how you too can find that stillness and find just how you can make the body just so peaceful and light.

And so you can sit there for a long time without needing to move.

Of course,

When I first started meditating,

I thought that was impossible,

You can't do that.

But little by little I always find that the mind can sometimes be so small,

And it's just what it thinks is possible,

What it thinks it can do.

And little by little you find you just break those boundaries.

One of the great things is like using insight.

Now the insight,

A lot of times people talk about insight meditation.

There's no such thing as insight meditation against the calm meditation.

They always go together.

Indeed,

The function of insight is to overcome problems.

So you can find some peace,

Some tranquility and some joy.

And the joy strengthens the power of your insight.

You can see deeper,

You can see more,

You can understand more.

So little by little we practice both of these,

But especially when there's any difficulties in your meditation,

I love using things like insight just to see exactly what is going on,

What is that problem.

So little by little,

One of the problems,

I have not told the story yet on this retreat,

But it was an inspiring story for me.

On this particular retreat,

I'm sorry,

It wasn't a retreat,

Sorry,

This was in Thailand,

There was this young novice.

This young novice was listened to one of the talks by Ajahn Chah.

Many people might think,

Oh,

Ajahn Chah was always so inspiring.

He's always so amazing to listen to.

That wasn't always the case.

I remember sometimes Ajahn Chah giving a talk for three or four or five hours.

And when the talk was finished,

All these senior monks I thought better of,

They came out afterwards and said that Ajahn Chah is mad,

He's crazy or whatever,

Because they didn't really understand the talk.

And on that occasion,

Ajahn Chah wasn't really on song.

Just like everybody,

They can't always just be on the ultimate,

The highest performance level.

But on this other occasion,

Ajahn Chah was giving a talk and it went on for a long period of time.

And monks were understanding this.

Sometimes you get a little bit of wonderful teachings,

You know,

Maybe two or three percent or something,

But those wonderful teachings,

They were worth listening to the whole talk,

Because they actually explained so much of the Dharma you hadn't understood before.

But on this particular occasion,

He was giving a long talk and it wasn't the things which were said were important,

But it's actually the things which were experienced by this little novice,

Which made the talk really fantastic.

Because this little novice is maybe about 10,

11,

12,

13 years,

I don't know exactly the age,

But he wasn't sort of a mature novice or a monk yet.

In those days,

People would join monasteries for so many reasons,

And sometimes it was a social safety net for young beings.

At least they could be looked after,

Get food,

Might be abused,

And they could actually get a bit of an education and cared for.

And anyway,

This little novice apparently,

He told the story afterwards.

He was getting really bored as the talk went on and on and on and on.

And as he got more and more bored,

He started thinking and really thinking about the topic.

And he started thinking and repeating to himself,

When is Ajahn Chah going to stop?

When is he going to stop?

When is he going to stop?

And it became like a repetitious,

Like a mantra,

He was saying to himself,

When is he going to stop?

When is he going to stop?

When is he going to stop?

In these days,

Sometimes we sort of start thinking,

Are we there yet,

Mom?

Are we there yet,

Mom?

Are we there yet,

Mom,

When you're in a car?

And for him,

It was,

When is he going to stop?

All those monks,

They became monks or senior nuns.

They became this in order to become enlightened,

To get something.

But me,

I'm only here because I have to,

Got nowhere else to live,

It's unfair.

So this is from novice,

When is he going to stop?

When is he going to stop?

And then there was a time when this little novice had this insight,

Which changed the whole problem into something which he thought was a problem,

But now is something much different.

Instead of thinking,

When is he going to stop?

This novice changed it around.

When am I going to stop?

That's what this novice thought.

When am I going to stop?

And this little novice stopped.

When he opened his eyes again,

It was the morning.

He hadn't had a heart attack,

He hadn't fallen asleep.

He got so perfectly still when he said,

When am I going to stop?

This is when novice entered deep samadhi,

Ajana.

When he opened his eyes again,

All the monks had already departed after the end of the talk and they'd also had a few hours sleep and then they'd gone to the morning,

Arms around,

He'd be sitting there quiet for many hours.

He had stopped.

Because of that,

He opened his eyes and it was time to go for arms round or monks would be left for arms round,

But he didn't mind missing lunch that day,

For one meal of the day,

Simply because his mind was just so happy and joyful.

He got into his first deep meditation,

Simply because he'd used the insight,

When am I going to stop?

We stop.

In this present moment,

Stop wanting,

Stop complaining,

Stop thinking.

And when you stop like that,

The whole world stops for you.

You go inside the mind into a deep meditation.

Because that's again one of the great insights on how we meditate.

Stopping meditation.

Even for those of you who know the story of the Buddha,

That when the big elephant,

Nārī,

Sorry,

When Angulimala was trying to mow down the Buddha,

The reason was with Nārīgīrī the elephant,

He was fed sort of alcohol by somebody who wanted to kill the Buddha.

And the big elephant fed alcohol was drunk,

Was let loose.

Sorry,

I'm mixing up the metaphors again.

Angulimala was trying to kill the Buddha.

And as he was trying to kill the Buddha,

The Buddha was running away from Angulimala.

I have to do the Nārīgīrī story afterwards.

Angulimala was running after the Buddha trying to kill him.

And even though the Buddha was really quite old at this time,

He was in his 70s,

Late 70s,

When Angulimala tried to attack him.

And what happened was that Angulimala couldn't catch up with him.

This old monk just walking very peacefully,

Very calmly,

Exerted his wonderful power so that Angulimala could not catch up with him.

And so Angulimala shouted out at the Buddha with his sword raised high,

Stop monk,

Stop.

And what the Buddha replied was,

I have stopped,

You stop,

Angulimala.

And of course the Buddha was moving.

And Angulimala wondered,

What on earth do you mean,

Stop?

And so that became a powerful mantra for Angulimala to stop.

To stop not just breaking precepts by killing people,

But just by stop is what we call the outflowing of the mind,

The āsava,

Of wanting,

Desire and ill will to stop all of that.

Allow the mind just to be still in this moment,

To stop going into the future,

To stop going into the past,

To stop these thoughts talking to oneself,

To stop this fear which sometimes comes up,

To stop this judgment,

To stop and just be in this moment and see what happens next.

And of course Angulimala did that and soon he became not just a monk,

But fully enlightened.

And a great sort of example to people of what happens when you stop.

So because of that,

When people in the world say,

Oh,

You know,

They have crosses on churches,

They have the domes of mosques and the minarets,

But where do we have the articles of Buddhism,

Say in a city like London,

Where can you see Buddhism on the streets of Perth?

I say at every intersection where you see stop sign,

The little red signs telling the traffic stop.

When I see one of those I think,

Wow,

That reminds me of the Buddha telling Angulimala,

Stop Angulimala.

So if you want to,

You can actually see all these signs in the world and they can remind us,

They can give us the insight into just how to be peaceful,

How to stop.

When you stop trying to get somewhere,

Trying to go somewhere,

Trying to get rid of things,

When you stop,

Then you rest,

Energy comes back,

Mind becomes peaceful and eventually it becomes so peaceful,

It becomes energized and free.

It's one of those wonderful little mantras you can say to yourself,

Stop and see what it means.

When you use a word like a mantra in meditation,

It's a word,

It has a meaning,

But a lot of times people haven't explored the meaning that deeply.

Stop with thinking this means things finishing,

But then you start something else.

So stop everything,

Stop time,

Stop the mind thinking,

Close the eyes and stop sight,

Stop reacting,

Be peaceful,

Be still,

And see the whole world stop with you.

When it stops,

Then you have the time,

The space to see much more deeply into what really is happening in our mind and in our world.

So these are little tricks of the trainable insight to overcome properties of meditation,

Which even just,

I told the story to a gentleman who was wanting some advice in meditation this morning,

Just after lunch,

When I have my lunch,

There's no such thing as a free lunch for a monk,

You always have to give some teachings or blessing back or something,

I don't mind.

It's a good price,

Good lunch,

Good price,

Just give teachings anyway,

You don't do it for anything,

It's just a joy to give as people gave to you.

But anyway,

The stillness which comes from stopping,

And I told him about the story of the cup,

Which I've already told you this,

I'll do it very quickly,

How do you keep the water in this cup perfectly still?

Holding it never gets still,

Mindful,

Not still,

Focusing,

Concentrating,

Not still,

You put it down,

It becomes still all by itself.

Patiently,

You wait,

You become still,

It's not supposed to happen,

It's supposed to make things happen,

You find you allow things to happen,

You allow it to become still,

It becomes beautifully still all by itself.

And that Chancha would always say about the,

The only reason why a leaf moves is because the wind is blowing,

You stop the wind blowing,

You guard that little bush or that flower,

You guard it for long enough,

You know it will become still all by itself,

It will stop moving.

When things stop and the season becomes still,

It becomes fantastic,

Just what you see,

And how beautiful peace is,

And how energized it is,

And how positive it is.

So when I say that that's one of the tricks,

This when in meditation doesn't seem to be working,

Having problems,

Just remember to stop.

I don't mean stop meditating,

I mean to actually to stop reacting,

Make peace with things.

I will tell the story of Nadi,

Of Nadi,

Of Nadi,

Of the elephant,

Nadi,

The elephant in a moment,

But at the same time as learning how to stop and be still and peaceful,

It also reminded me of the first book which I wrote,

The Opening the Door of Your Heart,

Just know how that there was one,

It was a poem which I read a long time ago,

It's a Chinese poem,

I thought it was just so brilliant as a way of practice,

I wrote it in the book and I often remember it and talk about it to others,

It was like,

Grant yourself a moment of peace and you'll realize how foolishly you scurried about,

Be kind and you know the judgment of others was far too harsh and also to be silent and realize you talk too much,

Simple but especially like the first line of that little three stanza poem,

Grant yourself a moment of peace and I write this way,

It's like grant yourself,

Give yourself,

Give yourself permission to be peaceful and then you realize just how foolishly you scurried about in your mind.

So often I say to myself when I start meditating,

I don't do this as often as I should do because I used to do this so much a lot when I started meditating,

I sat down and said,

This is my meditation time,

It's not the time for planning things,

It's not the time for writing my autobiography or planning my talk,

It's not the time for figuring out how I can solve problems,

It's a time for meditating,

For being still,

For stopping.

So I said to my mind,

I'm going to grant myself half an hour,

I was only a young lay meditator,

Half an hour of peace.

This time I put aside for meditating and nothing else.

This is a time I put into my spiritual practice and when I sort of tell myself that as a resolution,

I begin the meditation,

It's like telling my mind,

This is what I would like you to do,

I'm giving yourself this opportunity for half an hour just to be still,

To be silent,

To be peaceful.

It's a gift I'm giving you and then the idea of granting yourself the gift of peace became,

I expanded that later on,

That sometimes when it's your birthday or when it's say Christmas coming up,

You want to give gifts to people and they ask you what do you want,

Personal,

Just for you,

Not for Anacampo,

Not for for Fennel Chanda,

Not for monasteries,

But what do you want is for you.

I often tell people what I really,

Really,

Really want is a gift of peace.

So you can get a little box and in that box just write down,

This is the word peace,

As beautifully as you can,

Put it in the box with some expensive gift wrapping paper on the outside a little ribbon and then you say it's to Ajahn Brahm or to Fennel Chanda or whoever else you want to give that gift to,

To Ajahn Chanda with love and respect from say from Rini and then she opens it,

Oh what's in here?

When you open it you find out it's a gift of peace.

It's only a word on a piece of paper but when you actually receive that gift you understand what that meaning of that gift really is,

Peace.

And then sometimes I tell people,

People are a bit depressed,

Having a bit of loneliness in their life,

I say do that to yourself,

Get a little box and do it any old time.

Actually whereas people,

Bless them,

They actually do this little exercise,

They write out peace very nicely or some image of peace and they put it in the box,

They just put wrapping paper around it,

Nice ribbon,

A nice greeting card and it's to me,

To me,

Emmy with love from me.

You open it up,

What you see inside is the gift you always wanted,

The gift of peace.

When you receive that gift of peace,

You're guiding yourself peace,

You make a little ceremony out of it,

It has more power,

It goes deeper inside of you,

Which means you can then maybe just sit down calmly in any place you can and then just enjoy that peace.

Sometimes meditation again,

People think you have to do it,

You don't do meditation,

You let meditation happen,

Let peace grow inside of you,

You grant yourself as a gift moments of peace.

Sometimes on my stage of monastic life,

When I say what am I meditating for?

And sometimes I honestly,

When I sit down,

I said this meditation I'm going to do next is a gift to the Buddha and all my teachers.

I don't really care if they appreciate it or not,

I don't really worry whether it's a deep meditation or not,

But the fact I'm doing this,

Not for myself,

It's not a selfish pursuit,

It is a gift to the people which I respect the most and as well people like the Buddha,

People like Anacarya and Sha.

So I dedicate this,

I don't dedicate merit,

The Buddha doesn't need any more good karma,

That's like giving a donation to Bill Gates.

This is a gift expecting nothing back in return out of my gift to the Buddha.

I sit down and it makes it much easier to get deep meditation and it's not for me if that's something else for the Buddha.

So that's another little way,

Grant yourself a moment of peace and you realize how foolishly you scold about.

And one of the other great similes I said I was to say about the,

I keep the edifice of Nadegiri and then that story Nadegiri again was intoxicated by one of the Buddha's enemies,

Was running down the street when the Buddha was coming on arms round and when the Buddha was coming on arms round the street was so narrow as it was in those days in the cities.

I still remember some of the streets in London just were so narrow but nevertheless they could get a horse passing by on either side and a car going passing by another is just too big the cars,

Well like in today's traffic but in those days of horses they could pass by pretty easily and people walking.

But in those narrow streets which you can maybe imagine 2,

500 years ago and the Buddha was walking with his monks in one direction this crazy intoxicated elephant was on the rampage in the other direction and they were about to meet one another all the villagers were running away jumping over the walls going inside the houses and they were warning the monks please get out of the way there's a raging elephant coming get out of the way now and all the monks except for the Buddha and Ananda all of those monks just ran away except for the Buddha and his faithful attendant the attendant stood in front of the Buddha let the elephant kill me I want to protect my teacher and the Buddha pushed him out of the way gently said I can look after this so this big elephant was charging towards the Buddha I do embellish the story but I think this is legitimate because it makes it more meaningful and still pretty accurate to what happened and so this huge elephant charging crazy mad and the Buddha did have immense psychic powers could have suddenly disappeared from that place and just gone to another place where he was safe he could have used great force and being able to to stop Angulimala or as I sometimes have mentioned he could have picked up Angulimala I'm fixing up the people again he could have picked up the elephant by the trunk and thrown three times around his head and thrown him over the Ganges but that might have hurt the elephant that's not the goodest way and he could have run away just like he ran away from Angulimala in a way which was not too fast not too slow so Angulimala could run as fast as he can could always see the Buddha but couldn't catch him stop Angulimala as I just mentioned but instead the Buddha just stood there with the elephant charged I don't know about you but sometimes I've seen such peaceful beautiful people in the world they're so kind they're so gentle there's no way you can harm them you're just looking at them or looking at animals in the wild beings who are just you can see their personality you can see them and they're all they need to do is to be protected you can't harm them just too soft and gentle there's too much kindness in there to harm them and the Buddha just showed that kindness to this rampaging elephant something like Nala Giri mad elephant the door of my heart is open to you totally open to you even if you want to pick me up and smash me against the wall you want to squash me with your feet I will never be angry at you I will never blame you dear elephant may you be peaceful may you grant yourself some peace and some kindness and forgiveness some beings in this world when they say things like that they really mean it the animals cannot harm you simply because you're too kind too soft and peaceful apparently just after a few minutes or a few seconds and when the big elephant had caught up with the Buddha the elephant bowed down to the Buddha and lowered his head and his trunk and the elephant was stroking this way the Buddha was stroking the elephant's trunk there they're angry there they're not a geary not a geary's intoxication vanished there simply because the Buddha was kind now you wonder why I tell that story because sometimes how you call that the Nala Giri strategy when people have lots and lots and lots of problems in their meditation you know people actually said this to me even though it's logically impossible this is how it feels instead they've got all the five hindrances at the same time in their meditation the mind is going crazy it won't stop it's just not peaceful I said remember that story it's like it's like you're being charged up by a mad elephant all the hindrances are white you can't find any peace then you say to your mind dear mind kind mind whatever you want to do to me is fine whatever you want to send me crazy you want to send me kill me or whatever dear mind I accept you the door of my heart is fully open to this moment or whatever happens you try that with sincerity you find all of those hindrances slow down and stop it was as if you built up the power of those hindrances simply because you don't understand them and how they work you allow them to be you don't sort of own them you're not afraid of them you give loving kindness towards them and that loving kindness is incredibly powerful how it reduces the impact of those hindrances of those departments to the point that they assume like the elephant bowing down before you you just broken they're there hindrances they're there wanting ill will sloth and torpor and restlessness and doubt you find that that is a powerful powerful way to overcome all problems in meditation you ask yourself what do you want nothing you don't want anything the hindrances lose their power I'm not watching anything it's the meaning of the door of my heart is open no matter who you are what you do what's happening it's beautiful sense of kindness kindness to yourself and the other little story which again I told today that's most fresh in my mind was sometimes your mind can kind of rebel it just had enough it doesn't want to do this anymore I'm not going to wash my breath I'm not going to sit down I'm not going to do this and the rebellious mind is overcome by understanding this story and I remember when I first told us there's two parts to the story again I told this this afternoon to somebody and I may have told it to you one of the first days of the retreat but then there was the story of the the young boy who's had an argument with his mother and told his mother you don't love me anymore I'm leaving and many of you know that story but when I told it to this woman from Singapore who was training as a therapist and she was staying in monastery for a couple of weeks in order to learn some more meditation when I told the story oh she was actually she was you might think it's disrespectful but I don't mind it was fun it's a great story and so when I was telling the story she was bursting up laughing and literally I mean literally rolling on the floor holding the tummy and because after some what do you react like that for that's a problem something so similar happened to me when I was a young girl I had an argument with my mother and I told her I was leaving home and she too helped me pack my bags she didn't argue with me she helped pack my bags but in this story the first boy where he was given some lunch by his mum his favorite lunch in Singapore his mother never had time to actually make a lunch for her daughter instead she gave her daughter 20 Singaporean to buy her own lunch and she didn't open the door and walk down the garden path in Singapore they opened the door and went to the elevator and then the little girl is just tall enough to be able to actually know she was tall enough to press the the button to take the elevator the lift down to the ground floor but she said she only got to the ground floor when she felt terribly homesick because her mother had treated her with such kindness she said if you want to leave home that's fine by me I'll help you pack your bag and look here's 20 for your lunch I don't want you to starve and please keep in contact she was so kind to the daughter who was going a bit crazy but when the daughter got to the ground floor show of the apartment block she already missed her her mummy and pressed the button to go back to the floor in which she lived when the lift doors opened of course the mother was still waiting she knew what would happen when the daughter would come back but the way she dealt with that problem was actually to let the daughter go you want to leave her I'm fine by me but you can always come back anytime you want that's actually how you deal with the mind if your mind has a problem it wants to go fantasizing about this it wants to get upset about that it wants to to dream about something else it doesn't want to behave be kind to your mind that's what you want to do fine by me and so you give your give your mind permission well if you go I'm not going to try and control you I'll be waiting for you when you come back that seems a bit counterproductive but it actually works if you try and keep your mind at home try and always to keep it in line always keep it on the breath or keep it in the present moment or keep it doing this or keep it doing that sometimes that is too much force and your mind would eventually rebel and give up meditation instead give it kindness and then you'll be surprised at how well that works kindness power meta power wisdom power is always far more effective than willpower in dealing with the problems of meditation and that's where you do get the insights into this the problems will come up when those problems do come up you always remember those are where you get your wisdom from your compassion from if you didn't have problems you'd have no down to grow mangoes in your garden it's the problems which give you that that power and happiness to understand life you can't understand it any other way that's how I understand life anyway the little insights one of the other great insights which is really powerful is that just remember that the buddha said no this is anatta no self so you think who's doing the meditation so who's responsible after a while you realize that you're not doing the meditation your teacher is and I don't mean this to brag about myself because this is how I was sick Ajahn Chardis is giving a talk this morning in Europe over zoom because so often that I don't know what I'm going to say next I try and disappear as much as I can to let go and allow the damages to come out it's not personal it's not coming from me when you actually learn how to trust in that and you do actually find that when you don't do things you don't own things there's nothing to feel guilty about there's no one to complain to you'll find that the mind becomes very peaceful there's no one here you learn how to disappear when you're meditating you don't own anything when you don't own things you can never lose anything something comes something goes that's the nature of our life we don't own it so we don't get upset when something disappears we know we don't own anything it's just no self we also know that we don't need to gain anything what do you want you don't want anything in the whole world because there's no owner you achieve anything when there's no one in there I always had this image of if you you win something you go on this podium and get these gold medals or silver medals or bronze medals from someone you've made it you're a winner but then as buddhism and meditation in the practice of the dharma we don't actually win anything there's no being in there to to no neck or head there to hang a gold medal on or a silver medal on there's no one to actually to to pin a button on to say you're a winner in fact instead of being a winner instead we prefer to be losers and this is one of the great insights years and years ago I don't want to be a winner anymore if you're a winner you accumulate too much stuff with the stuff comes problems of caring for and storing it and then there's people expect you to win again the next time so I don't want to be a winner I want to be a loser there's a loser what you're really losing losing possessions you're losing the past and the future you're losing just all of your conceit all of your who you think you are being a loser it can be very cool and that's actually what the buddha did no he came from a very wealthy family lost all of that he came from a very safe place he lost all of that he lost all of his even lost his first five disciples when he decided to look after his body and practice jhana meditations they came back again later had no possessions just his bowl and his rug and just he lost everything all his defilements all his hindrances all his fears all the past all the future all of the needing to do things all of the they need to have things everything which makes people work and hope and dream and be upset about in our world he lost all of that and when he lose everything you have nothing to fear anymore not talking about a buddha didn't own anything and i always say that because it's the word these days the biggest loser there was the greatest respect the buddha was the biggest loser the greatest respect to see someone like an agent he's a big loser too not the biggest loser that was the buddha i try to emulate my emulate my practice as much as possible in the same direction and also gives the same so i'm a loser too not a winner a loser lose as much as you possibly can of your mental problems emotional attachments desires conceits greed hatred delusion lose all of that when you do become a loser you see that those are the really happy peaceful people of getting vulnerable anything in this world and lastly because i value losing there's a great skillful solution to the problems of your meditation i always tell people who i teach meditation to please get lost get lost is a bad word to say to people when you explain what you really mean then get lost can be a great teaching to say let go of all the departments and become happy free disappear

Reviews

Wonderful, thank you.

Definitely a deep and inspirational teachings from Ajahn. Namaste 🙏

The stories you tell are helpful in my meditation practice. Thank you. 🧘🏽‍♀️

Gratitude 🙏🏾 V