Day 023/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

This is a guided meditation with Ajahn Brahm. 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

Welcome everybody to today's meditation class.

As usual,

Those people who have come for the introduction to meditation class that's being held in the room to my right,

This is the ongoing class for the slow learners.

People have been here for years and years and years and years.

It's something they call remedial,

Isn't it?

So anyway,

It's a nice place to come start the afternoon to do some meditation and thank you for braving the weather.

And again,

I'll give a few little lessons off the cuff on meditation and afterwards we'll do a meditation about 45 minutes or more.

And often when I do the guided meditation,

I talk about learning how to relax the body,

You know,

The two ways of relaxing the body,

First of all just by movement,

Adjusting the posture so you're comfortable and then by this wonderful inner method where you can just focus,

Zoom in as I say on a part of your body and learn,

Train yourself how to relax.

It's like any other training,

Like seeing a kid walk or using your hands or if anyone has had an accident,

Learning how to,

Through rehabilitation,

Learning how to walk again.

You get the feedback,

You do something,

You fall over,

That's wrong,

You do something again.

You learn that balance because you're aware,

You get feedback,

Aware,

You get feedback,

You train.

Like doing a sport or learning how to play a piano or something.

So it's the same whole process.

The awareness of a particular task,

Not being distracted with something else,

Keeps you on the subject,

You learn how to relax your body.

And it's got this extra benefit that you become healthy and relaxed.

But the main purpose of it is that you can develop this awareness and this ability to train using the feedback from awareness.

And of course meditation is a training,

So training how to be peaceful.

And so in any training,

A bit of trial and error sometimes,

We focus on a certain area.

If you're training to be a tennis player,

It may be your backhand this week,

So you've got to focus on that.

Forget about everything else,

Focus on just maybe the swing or the uplift or whatever.

So you focus on this one thing and that means that you can get some feedback and you learn little by little.

Yes you make mistakes but every time you make a mistake you learn that's wrong,

Every time you're successful you learn that's correct and this is the way you train.

And often of course the more time you spend training the better you get at it.

As many people keep saying that if you do so many hours,

I forget what the number is,

A thousand hours or ten thousand hours or a hundred thousand hours of any sort of training,

Whether it's piano or whether it's soccer or whether it's meditation,

Then you become really expert at it.

So we keep on at this mindfulness giving us feedback to train our mind,

Not train our body to hit an ace on the tennis court,

Not training our fingers to be able to play Chopin,

But to be able to train our mind to be able to be still,

Which is one of the greatest things you can possibly train for.

And so the mindfulness and the awareness,

Especially the kindness is what relaxes things,

You learn that at the beginning.

And it means that those two faculties of mindfulness and learning how to let things be,

You know,

Get established at the beginning.

And the extra part of this is as many people keep saying,

Thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

How can I get beyond the thinking?

And it's something which is in the Buddhist texts,

You know,

The Kaya Gata Sati,

Mindfulness of the body should be really done first of all.

And that mindfulness of the body is feeling sensations in the body.

What that actually does,

When you feel sensations in the body,

It actually just pushes out the thoughts,

Focusing on this feeling,

That feeling,

How to relax,

It starts feeling good,

The pleasure means it's good to stay with the feelings in the body.

And after a while it's relaxing,

It feels good,

It means that you're pushing away all the thoughts and after about 5,

10,

15 minutes,

The thoughts,

They've got no power over you anymore.

Now you've broken their hold on you for this period,

Which means that the rest of the meditation is not that hard to keep reasonably thought free.

And if you do have thoughts,

They are very,

Very weak and you can just see them quickly and just know,

I don't want to go there,

Go there later.

But in this particular case,

We can just be peaceful.

But again,

Once we get to that peaceful state of meditation where the thoughts are very weak,

The mind is reasonably peaceful,

To take the meditation further,

And it's always the case that I like to get people to watch the breath.

And it's not just I like people to watch the breath because that's a preference in me,

It's what the Buddha kept on teaching and it's also what happens naturally,

The breath comes up because it's moving.

And so we do focus on the breath and to get people used to the breath,

Again I introduced types of mantras,

There's all types of mantras which we've been experimenting with to help you become aware of the breath,

Basically to make it interesting.

Instead of just watch the breath,

Breath go in,

Go out,

In,

Go out,

You know you soon sort of either fall asleep or go wandering into some thought land.

Instead of actually wandering or falling asleep,

To make the breath interesting,

You can actually do these little mantras with the breath.

In Thailand,

They always used to do butho,

Butho with the breath but that never worked over here.

So I tried some new mantras.

The next type of mantra which those of you who've been here a long time,

I did the breathing in,

Think to yourself shut,

Breathing out up,

Shut up,

Shut up,

Which I thought should be very useful but too many people laughed and never take it seriously.

So I put that one aside and the one which is settled on after many many years which seemed to work was when you breathe in,

You breathe in some positive thing which you really really really need in life.

So you breathe in like peace.

If you're sick,

Breathe in health.

If you're really weak and tired,

Breathe in energy.

And when you do this,

You don't just say it,

You know breathing in energy,

You actually imagine,

You visualize,

You feel,

Not just a word.

Word doesn't have enough power unless you really feel that word.

What does energy mean?

And you really get your head into this,

What energy is and you breathe it in with every in breath.

And with the out breath,

Ooh,

With the out breath,

I said that when I came in here,

It reminded me of all those meditations you did on the top of the mountains,

In the middle of the wilderness,

In the snow covered peaks,

Where the wind would howl and whistle.

You were way up high,

No one around,

Where the great monasteries were,

In the howling winds and the mist.

We don't have any mist,

That's the only trouble but the wind reminds me of these great places of solitude.

Anyway,

Going back to the breath,

So you imagine this beautiful energy or if it's just peace,

You feel what peace is,

You've had peace before,

You should know what peace is,

You imagine it,

You feel it,

You visualize it.

Some people are great at visualizing and they can actually do a picture of peace and they can imagine that peace,

That picture just coming into their minds.

So that's just,

You know,

Whatever it is you want,

If you're sick,

You know,

And they know what sickness is,

It's really heavy,

Painful,

Irritating,

You can imagine like health,

Whatever you imagine health to be for you,

Imagine that,

You can imagine just like kids,

Just playing around,

Jumping up and down,

So much energy and health and fitness,

Imagine that essence coming into your body with every in-breath.

And when you breathe out,

Whatever you want to let go of,

You know,

Breathing out sort of like the tiredness,

As you've been working through hope,

Imagine breathing out and all leaving you,

Imagine what tiredness feels like or imagine it,

Visualize it,

The more you can actually paint a picture of it,

The more it's effective.

Or you know,

If you do have any sicknesses,

Cancers or other diseases,

Breathing it out with every out-breath,

You can imagine it just leaving you,

You're breathing in health or peace,

Whatever,

Because that makes it more interesting for you because there's many positive things you want to breathe into your life,

Many negative things you'd love to actually to let go of and imagining that,

You know,

Because the mind does have power and visualizing it,

Number one,

It actually works,

You do actually get better health,

You do actually get rid of many of the pains and problems of life,

But more than that,

It actually ties you to this rhythm of the breath and after a while you don't need those words anymore,

Those mantras mean that you have the breath in mind and you know you have it in mind because the breath becomes so peaceful and satisfying,

Delightful,

Great word,

But satisfying means when you're satisfied you don't need anything else,

Which means you don't go wandering around looking for something else to fill your mind up,

To fill up your time,

You're satisfied just watching the breath go in and go out and it's not that strange for modern people to find satisfaction in simple,

Rhythmical processes and I often remember myself and sometimes I see other people sitting by the ocean on a beach or on a rocky shore,

Sitting on the ocean and just watching the waves come in and the waves go out,

Especially if it's a quiet day,

Not like today when it's whole sort of breakers coming in,

Just waves coming in,

Waves going out,

Waves coming in,

Waves going out,

Nice and peaceful.

So if you can actually do that,

Then that's watching Rodney,

See if his method works,

You reckon that's going to work Rodney?

Okay,

We'll see how much a great of an engineer you are,

But this is waves coming in,

Waves going out and people feel very happy watching that,

It is an activity but it's very soft and very gentle,

Which is why you can just sit by the beach and watch that and you're not thinking about things,

People say their mind goes blank,

It's not blank,

It's just occupied with a very simple rhythm.

One of the other reasons I think the breath works at this stage is there is,

I thought about this a long time ago,

In the very earliest times of your life,

When you're in your mother's womb,

You're in here and that rhythm of your mother breathing,

That particular length of time for the in breath and the out breath,

Reminds you of a great time of security,

Even when you're a small baby feeding on your mother's breast,

Feeling her tummy go in and go out.

I often thought that that must have given you a sort of a sense,

That rhythm,

A sense of security,

A sense of safety,

A sense of comfort from the earliest times of your memory.

So the rhythm of the breath is associated deep inside with something which is comfortable.

And so because of that,

After a while it's not that hard just to stay with a delightful breath and it is satisfying.

Now the whole point with this type of meditation,

The more simple you make it,

The better.

At first obviously it's great to have a few mantras,

You know breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

But after a while let them go until you just watch the breath and it's satisfying so it means you don't wander off anywhere.

You're happy,

You're fulfilled just watching this breath.

And because it's more simple,

That's when it gets more refined and the satisfaction really starts to take off and it's just happiness.

You really are content just watching this breath.

And the contentment is important because the whole part of meditation is learning how to be content,

Content upon contentment upon contentment,

Just happy to be here.

And when you're happy to be here,

That means you're not moving,

Going anywhere,

Planning things,

Thinking about stuff,

You're just really content.

And I always ask people,

When was the most happiest time of your life?

And all those years you've lived and a lot of times you'll notice the happiest times of your life were often the times of the greatest contentment.

Not really sort of seeing beautiful scenery or going to see the Great Wall of China or even having sex or watching a great movie or watching your soccer team win the cup or whatever.

A lot of times the happiest moments people remember are times of great contentment which shows you just how powerful contentment is as a force of joy.

So after a while we're so content watching this breath,

The joy really brings up and it's a really deeply content moment.

And in meditation that can really take off into deep,

Deep,

Deep states of meditation.

But hopefully you'll find that out for yourself.

But you won't find that out if I keep on talking.

So now I'll stop and we'll allow you to do some meditation.

So if you'd like to get yourself in the meditation posture,

Well done Rodney,

It worked.

Until somebody tries to get in.

So here we go.

And again this is the ongoing class,

Anyone coming for the introduction that's next door.

Here we go.

So closing your eyes.

Freaking here,

Stay still.

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So we look at our body first of all,

How it is sitting.

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And if we want to adjust our posture we do so.

We feel our legs and we ask can they be adjusted so they can be more comfortable of a comfort that can be sustained for 45 minutes.

It's very different than just 5 minutes of comfort.

You want this to last,

So find a really good posture.

Make sure your bottom,

Which takes a lot of pressure,

Is well adjusted on the seat.

You can move the cushion a bit further underneath your bottom,

Move it back.

Find that beautiful place,

The best place where you are well supported but comfortable.

Make sure your back is as comfortable as you can possibly get it.

An article once taught me that the most comfortable posture is actually to lean back on the chair.

Other people might prefer to lean forward,

It's up to you,

Find out.

And your hands and arms,

Especially your hands which define where your arms are,

Make sure they are comfortable so you don't need to fidget them.

Lastly,

Your neck and head,

Make sure that's all relaxed.

Once the body is comfortable through movement,

Then to train yourself to focus,

Zoom in on one part of the body which is irritating or painful or aching.

Focus exclusively just on that one little area.

See if you can maintain your awareness there.

Make it interesting by noticing how the feeling of irritation or pain changes.

And what makes the irritation pain less?

Once one part of the body is relaxed,

Then work on another part.

Because this is relaxing and easing the tensions and strains in the body,

Taking off the pressure and also is developing the strength of your awareness and your skill in letting things be,

Which is the cause of things to relax.

When the body is really relaxed,

Then we can focus on our mind,

Our emotional world.

See how peaceful you can make your mind.

You can't be focused on how agitated or peaceful it is.

And learn to train more,

To make it more peaceful.

We are understanding the attitude of mind which calms the emotional world down.

Letting be,

Being kind,

Opening the door of your heart.

Letting go.

Letting go.

Letting go.

Letting go.

Letting go.

And soon you become aware of your breathing.

As you breathe in,

Breathe in peace.

Visualize it,

Feel it.

Breathe out,

Let go.

The more you give,

The letting go,

A character of being,

Fleshing out,

The more effective it is to let go of anything you're concerned about.

I will not be quiet.

Thank you.

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Getting close.

The end of the meditation now.

Just know how you feel.

Know why.

You're having the calm three times.

Very good.

Yes,

Thank you.

So questions from overseas first.

Okay.

First from Germany.

How can we deal with dullness,

Drowsiness during meditation when the posture becomes slack and stretching isn't appropriate?

What is the middle way my right posture in sitting?

This is strange thing that's happened to me,

Happened to many people.

I let my body look after itself.

If the body becomes slack and it starts to droop,

I just let it droop.

Let the body make its decisions.

And many,

Many years ago,

I thought,

Never fight dullness.

If you do,

You waste what little energy you have.

Just make peace with it.

Be kind to it.

Learn from it.

Be with it.

Because you're not wasting energy by fighting,

You're making peace.

The energy starts to come back.

And there I was,

The mind was brightening up,

The dullness was disappearing.

Then the body straightened up all by itself.

And I was aware enough to notice that I never did anything.

The body straightened up without me telling it to.

And that just showed us how a lot of this body is autonomous.

It knows what to do.

And it can actually choose the posture it wants,

Especially with the back,

It just straightens.

So if you do have dullness and drowsiness during meditation,

I've said this many times,

I used to fight,

Never got anywhere.

If I did break through the dullness and drowsiness,

It was restless.

Realizing I didn't understand what the cause was,

What the solution is.

Just be still.

Accept,

Don't fight,

Be kind,

Open the door of your heart to the dullness.

And it gets less and less and less and less.

And eventually it disappears.

And the posture is not really important.

Your body will choose the right posture.

How do I handle distraction during sitting meditation?

If you're distracted by things outside of you,

It was always the case,

The old story,

Where we had lots and lots of noise in this monastery while I was meditating,

Went to complain to Ajahn Chah and he said,

It's not the noise distracts you,

It's you who distract the noise.

And now he gave you power,

That there was something you could do to actually to let the distractions be.

So one of the things you can do is what I've been talking about the last few weeks,

You can make the distraction the most important thing in the world.

In other words,

Let that be your objective meditation and just relax with it,

Be with it.

Because I've often said it's not what you're meditating on,

Which is important,

But how are you relating to that object?

If a distraction you're trying to get rid of it,

Then that really disturbs the meditation.

If the distraction is such that you're trying to fight it,

You get tense.

If you let it be,

The mind becomes very peaceful and still and soon the distraction vanishes by itself.

I often wonder why it is that sound distracts people when they're meditating or when they're watching the movie on the TV,

They can't hear the sound at all.

Same sound.

So this other way of dealing with distractions is learning how to focus in on something.

Because the simile is if when you're watching a TV,

A movie on the TV,

When you first turn it on,

You can see the edges of the screen and beyond the edge of the screen.

But after a few seconds,

You're actually looking in that screen and your mind fits into that screen.

You're actually just seeing the screen and nothing else or inside the screen.

And you can't notice the edges.

Next time you're watching the TV,

A movie,

A sports match or a documentary,

Just observe the fact that once you start watching,

Your field of attention just goes in and fits right in that screen and you can't see the edges.

That is actually the other way to deal with distractions.

You fit the mind into things like the breath,

Especially when it's the life that it fits in and what's beyond the breath,

You just can't even be aware of.

Even if it might be distracting at normal times,

You can't distract it.

So focusing is one way and the other way,

Just let the distractions be,

Let them be your object of meditation,

Be with them.

Because what's most important in meditation is not what you're aware of but how you are aware of it.

Next question from Estonia,

I've been meditating for two years,

Mostly using your channel for teaching and guided meditation.

Can I progress like this or do I need a real environment of people around me?

Does Ajahn Brahm need to know that he is my teacher?

I don't need to know,

Please don't tell me otherwise it gets me more and more worried,

More and more people,

You know,

Sometimes I'm supposed to look after.

But no,

In Estonia,

Just actually listen to these guided meditations is more than enough.

Cyber teachers and the main teacher is again,

Will never be me,

I only just start you off and then you learn from your own experiences.

You just get going and when the meditation starts to take off,

That is what you learn from more than anything else.

Teachers just start you off and the rest is up to you.

And lastly from Ireland and India,

Two questions,

Two people.

How does one deal with anxiety and depression while meditating and after meditating?

Anxiety while meditating is very unlikely you get anxiety while you are meditating but if there is anxiety,

There is that type of fear,

Anxiety,

Just when it's actually starting to work,

When it's starting to get somewhere.

And it's the same anxiety and fear of a person who's about to be released from a prison,

Into happiness,

Weird but we're so used to the prisons of our life that when we're about to be released into the sunshine,

Into the peace,

Into the happiness,

We're not quite sure about that.

So we go back into our comfort zone even if our comfort zone is painful and unpleasant.

So if you do get that type of anxiety during meditation,

Just go one step further into that different environment,

Just check what it's like outside of that particular prison.

Now you can always come back inside again.

It's hard to break out of prison but it's very easy to break back in.

So you can get back into your anxiety really easy but just go a little bit out and see what happens.

You can always come back in again so you feel that bit of safety.

If it's other types of anxiety,

Chronic anxiety,

Psychological anxiety,

Again come into the present moment.

Because all anxiety,

All fear is about what you think is going to happen next in the future.

And sometimes if we can just focus in our present moment,

The old present moment awareness,

Let go of the past,

Let go of the future and then you find anxiety's got no place,

It can really get into you and mess you around.

When it comes to depression,

Again depression,

It is similar,

Not the same as the dullness and drowsiness but it has similar qualities.

And with dullness and drowsiness,

The more you fight it,

The more the dullness grabs hold of you.

And the same sometimes with depression.

With depression you feel yucky.

Get yuckiness as the object of your meditation,

Just be with it.

Because the point is that the less you do,

The more your energy starts to come into your mind,

The more you recharge when you are still.

So it doesn't matter what you're still with,

If it's depression,

Feeling yucky,

Feeling great,

Be with it if you can.

Okay,

It's not the most pleasant thing to be with,

But be still with it and little by little,

Level by level,

Inch by inch,

It starts to become energized.

Your mind gets this energy and once it gets energized,

The depression disappears,

Depression is low energy.

You look at the leaves outside,

They're all dull,

You taste your food,

There's nothing taste to it,

Everything has just got no energy behind it.

And when you actually energize your mind,

Everything becomes actually beautiful.

The opposite of depression,

You become very high,

Naturally,

You can sustain it.

So that's,

And after meditating,

If your meditation is really,

Really bright,

Then that energy lasts for a long time.

And so depression basically is,

Hardly ever comes up,

And then you got high energy.

You know exactly if you do get tired,

Exactly what to do,

Sit down,

Be quiet,

Be still and the energy comes back inside of you,

You get recharged.

With anxiety,

You just learn in meditation to be in the present moment,

So you're actually not worrying about the future.

And if you do think about the future,

As I've often said in my talks,

If you think about the future with a negative mind,

Otherwise known as fear,

Anxiety,

Thinking about all the things which might go wrong,

Then you actually make those things happen most of the time.

Fear brings about what you're afraid of a lot of the time.

You create it.

The thing you're most afraid of actually happens to you when you cultivate that fear.

When you cultivate the opposite,

Which is hope,

Looking on the future with a positive mind,

All the good things which might happen,

Then it's more likely the positive things will happen.

Story which I've been saying in the last month because somebody told me about this from the Cancer Support Association.

One lady 25 years ago when I first went there,

She had cancer,

Was in remission,

Everything was fine,

But she was a case because she always was worried,

She was so anxious,

What would happen if the cancer came back?

She'd been through very difficult treatment,

Very,

Very unpleasant,

Very scary,

About to die but she got through it and she recovered.

But she was left with this fear,

I don't think I want to do this again.

What would happen if it did come back?

And all their counsellors and psychologists couldn't help them and I came along,

Just had a very simple story with a simple punch line,

What would happen if it didn't?

And she got that straight away.

Instead of thinking what would happen if the cancer came back,

She just thought what would happen if it didn't come back?

And it never came back.

She keeps coming back to the Cancer Support Association when I give a talk,

But the cancer hasn't.

And that,

You may think that is just a small thing,

You may think that's Ajahn Brahm just not being serious enough,

Not being deep enough,

But that is incredibly powerful.

I've noticed that,

How the mind creates the future.

So if you keep worrying,

What would happen if it came back,

What would happen if it came back,

What would happen if it came back?

You get so tense,

So worried,

You're making the possibility of cancer coming back,

You know,

You increase the probabilities,

Because if you have tension,

Unhappiness,

Stress,

But just thinking what would happen if it didn't come back,

It relaxes you,

You're open,

Good energy,

Good immune system,

Chances are it doesn't come back.

You're increasing the possibility or the probability of being healthy when you're thinking the future with a positive mind.

So that's actually how one deals with anxiety after meditation as well.

By remembering what anxiety is,

What would happen if something bad happens,

Instead what would happen if something good happens?

That's the way to overcome it.

Simple but hardly effective.

Okay,

Any questions from people here?

Questions are free,

You don't have to email a question in,

Because some years ago I got a question,

They said they're from South Africa,

But actually it was somebody sitting over there,

And they said,

We never get a chance to answer a question here,

Or get the questions from overseas,

They really want to ask the questions.

So when I was answering someone else's question,

They were getting into their smartphone,

And they were asking a question and sort of pretending they're from South Africa or somewhere,

So I get answered.

So you don't need to do that,

Just put your hand up.

Okie dokie,

So let's finish off now,

We'll just post back,

We'll put it down,

We'll sign and then we'll finish.

One moment,

Just power first of all.

Okay,

I'm booked.

I love UN panel.

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Reviews

Thank you for continuing to share these wonderful practices. Truly delightful. ☮️💖🙏🕉️