Day 020/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

This track includes several tools to help strengthen your meditation practice. About 15 minutes of Dharma talk/meditation advice and inspiration. About 20 minutes of guided meditation and about 25 minutes of silent meditation practice. These are followed by a Q&A session/closing thoughts after the meditation practice.

Transcript

Very good.

So welcome everybody to quiet time at Dhammaloka Center,

Where we can do some nice little meditation to get our minds really really peaceful.

All the words and instructions you can give are nowhere near some peace,

Tasting freedom.

But before I begin I must say that this is the ongoing meditation class.

Those coming for the beginners meditation class,

A series of four lectures for those who are starting their journey of meditation,

That is in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing class,

We're going to be sitting later on after I shut up,

Of about 40-45 minutes.

So if you never meditated that long before you're going to be in big trouble.

So while you've got the chance,

Better get to the room next door.

You were warned.

But anyway,

For those who can do the long meditation,

Fine.

It's wonderful to do longer meditation because you can really really get nice and peaceful.

I thought that was Lin over there,

Walking to the beginner's meditation class.

She's been here for over 30 years.

For those of you who really want to get in some nice deep meditation,

Obviously the longer you meditate,

If you get it right at the beginning,

The easier it becomes.

In other words,

You build up what you might call the momentum of peace.

The momentum of freedom,

Momentum of letting go.

You build it up and so after a while that momentum starts to get very strong and it's that just pushes the mind into more and more stillness.

Because letting go is the key,

As you all know for meditation.

Everybody not just myself keeps on on saying to let go,

Let go,

Let go.

But the important thing is to just know what it means and how it works.

And there's,

To go into some deep teachings,

There's this great saying,

Which I only usually employ this on meditation retreats.

And it's from one of the Buddhist commentaries on meditation called the Visudimaka.

In a way it says,

The path is,

The path to freedom,

To enlightenment,

The path of meditation,

The path is,

But no traveler on it is seen.

A wonderful little saying,

No traveler is seen on this path.

You can't travel the path.

You have to disappear and let the path happen without you,

Without you controlling,

Without you giving orders,

Without you trying to let go.

Which is a big problem.

We all know to let go,

We try to let go.

So how can you do that?

How can you not be a traveler on this path?

So you try and make some nice similes.

One of those similes is because this is something you've just been doing to get here.

You're driving in your car down the freeway or down some other highway.

And what letting go means is taking your hands off the steering wheel and your feet off the pedals in the busy traffic.

Can you do that?

That's what it feels like,

Letting go.

Because if you're driving the car in the busy traffic,

Quite rightly,

Now don't actually do this,

It's only a metaphor okay?

This is not advice.

Don't go get into a crash and sue the Buddhist Society of West Australia.

Ajahn Brahm said this and it's recorded so you can prove that this is actually what I said.

This is just a metaphor,

A simile because what happens that you feel you're going to crash,

It's all going to go wrong,

You're going to lose control of your vehicle if you don't keep your hands on the steering wheel,

Feet on the pedals.

Fair enough.

But that is,

It wouldn't,

It's not a good idea in busy traffic but it's a great idea in the busy traffic of your mind to be able to take your hand off the steering wheel and feet off the pedals on the things which exercise control over your mind and your meditation.

To see if you,

The driver,

The traveler can disappear and vanish.

Because if you,

The driver,

Vanishes then there's no one there to do anything.

When there's no one there to do anything,

You are still,

Nothing can do any stuff.

And yeah you're moving,

Your mind is thinking you might be tired,

There's activity but there's no one there to keep the foot on the accelerator.

What it means is just the speed at which you're going gets slower and slower and slower because of friction or whatever it is that you get slower and slower until you eventually stop.

You get to this wonderful place of stopping,

Of peace,

Of stillness because you are not doing anything anymore.

You are letting go of controlling and doing by imagining that there's no one there doing anything.

That's one simile of learning how to let go.

Another simile which is also very helpful which I was teaching somewhere recently was doing some play-acting,

Role-playing because ever since I remember going to primary school and you had to do this role-playing,

Pretend you're a tree and all the five,

Six year old kids will put their hands up and sway in the wind.

You can actually role-play,

Imagine these things but for meditation I don't want you to be a tree.

When you close your eyes,

Imagine you're a Buddha,

Sitting,

Meditating,

You've already become enlightened,

You've done everything you need to do.

There's nothing else you should require.

You are fully complete,

No more need to do any work,

You don't need anything at all.

You sit here and imagine you're a Buddha.

Nothing to do,

Nowhere to go.

All that does,

That allows you also just to vanish.

So you automatically let go because that's what a Buddha does,

Just let's go.

So those are a couple of ways which actually helps learning just to do that,

Letting go,

To feel it and we practice that at the very beginning.

This is why I've developed over the last few years,

Relaxing your body first of all because you always notice how tight and tense people's bodies are in this modern world.

The item is to let go of your body.

You can't just do it straight away,

To let go,

To let go and just be loose,

To be relaxed.

Now I know that I get a lot of criticism sometimes because say you're a monk,

You should wear your robes properly,

You should sit up straight,

You should be like some army officer.

This is not the army in Buddhism.

So we relax,

We're loose and in fact I still remember going to give a talk one evening,

I think in some executive group in Netherlands and in that particular executive group,

There was one lady came afterwards and said,

Very impressed with your talk on letting go and he said,

Just the way you dress is just exactly your message,

Let it go,

Your robe slipped off,

It was all loose and she said,

That compares that I was brought up in a Catholic convent and that was so strict and the nuns there were so tight,

Everything was held perfectly rigid and he said,

Yeah that's the difference between Buddhism which is about letting go loose,

No sense of self,

Not trying to present an image,

Letting go,

Just being.

If things want to fall off,

Let them fall off,

Let them go,

Instead of trying to hold on to things and protect things and keep things.

So letting go,

So we start that off with just our body,

Keep our body loose and the great thing about starting letting go on your body is you can feel its results almost immediately,

You got a tight part of the body,

You relax it and that tightness,

That stress which causes aches and pains and eventually sicknesses,

Disappears.

You can actually feel the body relax.

And number two,

When your body does relax,

It feels really pleasant,

Very nice having a loose body.

I give all these similes trying to compare the relaxed body to when you're on the beach,

You know,

On holiday somewhere,

Relaxed,

Not a care in the world,

Everything just gets really loose and free and easy.

Or you wake up in bed in the morning,

A Sunday morning you don't have to go to work and you don't have to go anytime so you snooze in the bed there and it's just so comfortable and cozy and warm and your body is actually pretty relaxed in your bed on a Sunday morning if you don't have to go to work,

Like I have to go to work every day.

Life as a monk sucks,

No holidays,

No superannuation,

No retirement,

No.

.

.

It's actually very nice being a monk.

But anyway,

When you enjoy what you're doing,

Who wants to retire?

But anyway,

So you're relaxed,

Your body is really free and it feels good.

You have done some letting go there.

The opposite is trying to control your body,

Make it really tight.

Now when it's really tight and controlled,

You can feel the tightness,

Attention in there.

It's the opposite of what meditation is supposed to be,

Be giving a sense of freedom and ease.

Everything is loose,

Let go,

Relaxed and healthy and pleasant.

So beginning of meditation I lead people into this really letting go of holding on to the body.

You always give that simile of a rope being pulled tight at both ends.

That's what it feels in my body sometimes.

You're holding things so tight,

There's tension in your body,

Just like the tension in a rope being stretched.

And you imagine just letting go of both ends.

The rope gets really loose and free of tension and as many parts of your body like that.

Or the other one,

You got pressure on you.

Something is pushing you,

Got like a heavy rucksack or backpack on your back and it's really holding you down.

You got heavy bags,

There's pressure on you and you learn how to relax that pressure,

Let go.

So there's no pressure on your body at all.

Everything expands and that is a letting go.

And later on,

Once you do that on your body,

You get these wonderful metaphors which you apply to your mind,

To your mental world.

So often your mind is like being stretched by your goals and aspirations,

Pulling at your mind,

Creating tension in there,

Trying to be something else,

Trying to do something else,

Trying to be better.

That's like tension on your mind.

So,

Letting go,

You just let your mind be as it is,

Not trying to get anywhere.

That's one of the nicest things about doing the role playing as a Buddha.

Nothing to achieve anymore,

It's all done.

Just relax and enjoy the meditation.

So that gives you,

You got nothing to do,

Nothing to change,

Nothing to achieve.

Takes the stress off your meditation so you can enjoy it.

Or just the pressure,

Sometimes the pressure on your mind is just too strong.

Just let the mind imagine,

It's expanding,

There's no pressure on it,

It can just go wherever it wants.

No force,

Nothing pulling or pushing at you,

Letting be.

And then,

That type of freedom which you do on your body first of all,

Then you apply to your mind,

Gives this incredible peace.

There's nothing forcing you anymore,

Nothing actually putting stress or suffering on you.

Just relax and just be.

And after a while,

That being just relaxes so much,

That eventually just gets so still,

You disappear.

And you're really,

Really peaceful.

And it doesn't stop there.

Peace gets deeper and deeper and deeper.

I was talking to a lady who rings me,

It's meditation counselling,

She called me up and she was saying she had such a deep state of peace the other day,

Said,

Yeah,

It's like that,

Really so incredibly peaceful,

But it's not the end.

Later on you'll have a peace which is bigger than the deepest peace you've ever experienced.

And that's not the end either.

Then it gets even more peaceful than extreme peace.

It keeps going on and on and on.

And when you start to explore just how peaceful peace can be,

It keeps going.

That's the interesting part.

You're just let go,

You haven't done anything.

And these things start coming to you.

That's how meditation works.

Da da da.

So,

It will not work if I don't shut up.

So now I'm going to be quiet and let you experience to see if what I said works or doesn't.

So here we go.

So Bronwyn,

If the baby does cry a bit too much,

Probably have to take it outside and sit outside.

Who knows?

The baby could be a,

Oh come on.

It could be a future Buddha.

So here we go.

So,

Closing your eyes,

Relaxing the body.

I know some traditions keep their eyes open but I can't understand why they do that.

Because if you are distracted by visual phenomena,

You don't have as much mindfulness to fill your body.

So I put my whole mindfulness focused on how I'm sitting right now,

My body.

Basically asking my body,

How are you?

I'm not going to be focusing too much on talking.

Main focus is on feeling my body.

Making sure everything is in the correct position.

And I even move my body because sometimes I cannot assume that I've got in the best position.

So I move my back to the left,

To the right,

Backwards and forwards,

Just to check that I'm in the best position.

Always like checking my legs and my feet because a lot of times people get aches and pains in that area of the body.

Making sure that my legs and my feet are comfortable.

Not just ordinary comfort but the comfort which I know you can sustain over the period of meditation.

Wrong term comfort.

Also check my head,

Especially the muscles around the eyes and the mouth.

Because they tell me if I'm tense,

Those muscles get very tight.

If I'm focusing too hard,

I can feel actually in the forehead those muscles tighten up.

If I'm trying.

So I become aware of the muscles in my face.

It's a very very accurate indicator of whether I'm relaxed or whether I'm tense.

And it's very powerful because once you're mindful of something,

Once you know it,

It's so easy to manipulate it.

As soon as I become aware of the muscles around my eyes,

Mouth and forehead,

It's so easy to loosen them.

Because the awareness allows you to have feedback.

You see,

Experience the sensations changing.

Some muscles in my face,

Just as an example.

I can know what to do to tense them up.

I can feel them tensing now.

I know what to do to relax them.

This thing which is actually letting go.

Kindness.

Not forcing.

Until those muscles in my face come to a very comfortable,

Natural default position.

So by movement I get my body into the most comfortable position.

And I feel what that comfort is.

I'm mindful of comfort.

Physical comfort.

And if any time during the meditation,

I find that my body is aching or painful or needs a cough,

At any stage I allow my body to do that.

Yes,

It does disturb the meditation,

But not changing posture,

Not coughing,

Will disturb my meditation more.

Once my body is as relaxed as I can make it through movement,

Now I do the deeper relaxation.

I focus on some part of my body which is irritating.

This afternoon it's my throat.

There's a slight itch there.

You can maybe be your stomach,

Maybe your legs,

Your bottom,

Wherever there's an irritation,

A tightness,

A tension.

Zoom in on that air of your body.

And as you become aware,

Mindful,

Feeling fully that part of your body which needs some relaxation,

You feel the sensation as totally as you can.

You experience the sensation changing,

Getting worse,

Getting better.

And you join the dots as they say between the attitude of your mind and the change in that sensation.

Learning from your direct experience that when you let things be,

When you stop controlling,

Holding,

When you are kind,

When you open the door of your heart to this feeling,

It gets less irritating.

You get the wisdom,

The insight in how to zoom in to a part of the body which needs some relaxation and ease away the irritation,

Even the pain.

If your body has some tightness and tension,

Some sickness which is been there a while,

It may take some time to relax it all away but it can be done.

So not only is this giving you greater physical health and physical peace of the body,

But you are also training these two important qualities necessary for deep meditation,

Mindfulness and kindness.

You are generating them on your body first of all.

Being mindful means zooming in just onto one important part which is causing a problem,

Kindness,

Letting it be,

With a smile,

With joy.

Okay,

Good,

One more time.

Once that part of the body which you first zoomed into is not a problem anymore,

Find another part of your body which needs some relaxation.

Focus or zoom into that part of the body,

Feel the tightness,

The tension,

See what you need to do to release that tightness and tension,

To relax.

Sometimes if it's say my knees,

I imagine my knees just resting on a soft cotton cushion and sinking into the softness of these cushions.

Relax into the max.

I don't stop until my whole body feels really really relaxed.

If for some reason I can't sleep at night,

This is what I do,

Relaxing my body in this meditation.

Now if I've gone through and relaxed all of the tight spots it's so easy to fall asleep.

Feeling your body.

It also serves a purpose of giving your mind something else to focus on,

The feelings in your body rather than stay in its normal place of focusing on your thoughts.

You is your body,

Not your fantasies.

Body feelings are real.

It's very pleasant when your body relaxes.

When you are mindful of the deeply relaxed body and the pleasure,

The pithi sukha,

As they say in Pali,

Of a tranquil body,

The relaxation goes even deeper.

Once your body is as relaxed as you can make it,

Then you go onto your mind,

Your mental world,

Which is also stressed,

Bruised,

Tired,

Because of all the stuff you have to endure in your emotional world.

So the first thing is to feel the mind,

Especially feel how peaceful it is,

Or how agitated it is.

Peace of mind.

You can have some idea what that means.

Be mindful aware of that.

Once you focus on the correct thing inside,

You learn how to manipulate it,

How to move the mind to deeper and deeper states of peace.

Forget about the thoughts and concerns.

They're in the background.

They are symptoms.

They're not the main cause.

Feel how peaceful your mind is.

See what you need to do,

Or rather not do,

To let that peace get stronger and stronger.

When we practice,

It's the quality of your mind you get used to,

That you can focus on very easily and quickly.

Peace.

Once you know it and focus on it,

It's so easy to develop it.

Peace.

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I would like to meditate like that.

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Reviews

Felt very peaceful during this meditation. Enjoyed the stories on out of the body experience. Thank you 🙏

I keep repeating myself but am so pleased with these teachings and practices. What a joy. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️