Day 028/365: 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

Good,

Welcome everybody to today's meditation session.

Is there a minute or two to go before we actually start?

But make a usual announcement.

You have to do this because sometimes people get confused where the introduction to meditation class is and where the ongoing class is.

So hopefully you all know by now that this is the ongoing meditation class.

It's not the introduction to meditation class.

The introduction to meditation class is especially designed for people who are meditating for the first time where it's more comfortable,

The meditations aren't so long and the basic instructions are given.

And that allows this class to be used for deeper meditation instructions and also to meditate a bit longer for those who have been here a little bit more time.

So if you have come for the introduction to meditation class,

The introduction to meditation class is in the room to my right between this hall and the.

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Still some more people coming in.

So those coming to the introduction to meditation class,

Anyone coming to the introduction to meditation class,

Is in the room to my right,

This is the ongoing class.

Okay,

Done that enough times.

So today I've had a lot of questions recently about people who have meditation experiences and in their body just pins and needles,

Shaking,

Energy surges,

All sorts of stuff which happens in the meditation when they start getting peaceful.

So I wanted to answer what's going on here and also the remedy for it.

And the monks of Bodhinyana Monastery have heard me teach this many times and I give it a little simile just so that people can understand it and reference it.

It's called like the leaky bucket meditation.

Just like you are carrying a bucket of water from one place to another and it leaks and so the water drips and gets all over your clothes or on the floor and of course the bucket is supposed to stay.

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So the water is supposed to stay in the bucket,

It's not supposed to go in the clothes and the bucket is leaking,

The water is going on to the wrong place.

And how that describes a specific phenomena in meditation is that sometimes you get quite peaceful,

You know,

In your meditation you're watching the breath or however you are meditating,

You get peaceful,

You get some joy coming up and you get rushes of energy.

That energy in meditation is natural,

It's good,

It's par for the cause but if that energy gets really quite big which happens commonly and you still have awareness of your body,

It goes into your body instead of staying in the mind where it belongs.

Two parts of you,

Your mind and your body,

They are separate.

The five senses defines your body,

Seeing,

Hearing,

Smelling,

Tasting,

Touching.

The mind is the knowing,

Totally separate.

Here in this meditation we calm down the five senses,

That's how we close our eyes,

That's why we're quiet,

That's why we just get relaxed in our body so the body calms down and doesn't disturb us and today everything is nice and quiet and because it's still it vanishes.

It's the nature of our brain,

Of our sensory apparatus,

If nothing moves it just goes into its default state like a computer,

It just turns off,

The screen goes blank.

So the five senses disappear and then the mind emerges.

If that energy comes and it just goes into the mind,

Great,

You have wonderful meditation,

These beautiful lights,

These nimittas which I talk about and also the great bliss.

But if you still have awareness of your body,

In other words that bliss comes up and you're still,

You can feel your body,

Especially feeling the body,

That fifth sense of physical sensation,

Then it means that that energy has got another place to go into your body and it goes into your body and it's not unpleasant but it is disturbing.

It's a good energy in the wrong place.

And so if that happens to you,

You know,

There's a mistake there and people get quite concerned what's going on,

That the body does not feel ahh usual and sometimes they get scared.

Anything that happens,

Energy rushing up through your body,

Pins and needles,

Even physical shaking,

Anything like that,

That is good energy but in the wrong place.

And the reason why that happens is because one doesn't pay enough attention and care in the beginnings of the meditation just to let the body disappear,

Which is one of the reasons why I put a lot of attention in the beginning of the meditation,

And those who come regularly know that relaxing your body,

If you relax the body and don't rush too far ahead of yourself,

Relax the body so there's hardly an ache or a pain there,

That assists the disappearance of the body.

If there's nothing going on there,

There's no business to be done by itching,

Scratching,

By moving,

Adjusting,

Nothing to be done there,

It makes it so easy for the body to vanish.

It can just be with the mind.

Also,

The type of meditation which we're doing,

Once that body has been dealt with and the worst part of it,

Just aches and pains,

Itches and stuff,

Have been settled,

Then when I ask you to just calm your mind and start watching the breathing,

The breathing is like a stepping stone from awareness of the five senses,

Seeing,

Hearing,

Smelling,

Tasting,

Touching,

To awareness of the mind.

It's like crossing a stream too wide to jump over in one leap,

So you go into the middle where there's a stepping stone,

And you just land on that and from there you go over to just the mind.

This ordinary world,

This is one part,

The stepping stone is the breath.

In other words,

The only physical sensation which you are focusing on is the breathing and nothing else.

So that's one of the reasons why we take out the breath and we focus on it.

And you all heard me talking about what focusing is,

A good metaphor for that,

The screen,

Whatever's in the center of the screen,

Even without any willpower or choice,

You tend to focus into the middle of the screen.

I've done this many times,

Just messing around asking you,

Focus on my nose,

Just look at my nose,

Really focus on my nose,

And after a short while the mark sitting to your left,

My right,

Disappears.

It falls off the screen.

Naturally the mind zooms in to what's in the center of the screen.

That's how TVs work,

I've done that stimuli too often.

You focus on the middle and everything on the edge and beyond the edge vanishes.

So naturally when you're watching your breathing,

Focus in on that breath,

Zoom in on it so it takes up the whole of the screen of your awareness.

So you're not really aware of sounds,

They're way over there somewhere.

And even feelings of the body you're not aware of,

You're focusing on the breathing.

One big mistake in meditation which causes a leaky bucket is we've been taught,

Some of you,

And it's very,

Very unskillful teaching,

Watch your breath at the tip of the nose.

And what they do is they watch the nose,

Not the breath.

And anyone who does that,

You're going to get a leaky bucket.

The reason is because you're not really aware of the breathing,

You're aware of your nose,

The body,

Which means that when the meditation does get deep and you do get energy coming up,

You've still got awareness of the body and then just the energy goes into the wrong place.

So for goodness sake,

Do not watch the tip of the nose or even the belly.

Watch the breath.

The breath is not the nose.

The nose is not the breath,

They're different.

So for those of you who want to understand what I mean,

I've often given this little exercise,

I'm not going to ask you to do it,

But you can understand from just my description why I do this.

I ask meditators,

Sit down,

Close your eyes,

Breathe in and out three times,

At the end of the third breath,

Open your eyes.

Simple instructions,

Anyone can do that.

After they open their eyes,

They'd watch three breaths.

How?

I don't tell them to watch the tip of the nose,

I tell them just to watch the breath,

One,

Two,

No,

In,

Out,

In,

Out,

In,

Out,

And at the end of the third,

Out breath,

Open your eyes.

You know the breath,

Don't make it unnatural.

Nobody I've ever come across,

When I tell them just to watch the breath,

In,

Out,

In,

Out,

In,

Out three times,

Nobody actually watches at the tip of the nose.

They don't focus there,

They just focus on the breath,

Something natural and easy,

Uncomplicated.

So we watch the breath,

Not the nose.

And just enough so you know the breath is going in,

You know the breath is going out.

That's important because it takes you away from your body.

You're not watching this body,

You're watching the breath,

Not the body,

The breath,

Two different things.

So once you watch the breath,

Then it means you let go a lot of the body,

Feelings,

All you have is the breath,

Not the body.

And you stay there for a long time,

It does become very peaceful,

Very joyful,

Which is why you can stay there for a long time without any effort.

You don't have to try in meditation.

It should become natural,

Comfortable,

Easy.

It's supposed to be relaxing.

People come and meditate to let go of stress,

Not make more stress.

And if you do it correctly,

And it's a huge stress reliever,

You just really let go into just knowing the breath,

Going in and out,

It becomes very beautiful and then the breath starts to become so smooth that there's hardly any difference between an in breath and an out breath.

It's just a flow of breath,

Soft and peaceful.

The reason why it becomes soft and peaceful is because you've been sitting still for quite some time,

But the moment when you really start getting deep into meditation,

You haven't been using too much oxygen,

Your metabolism has gone down,

Your engine is purring in neutral rather than roaring in fourth gear.

You're relaxing,

Which means you don't need much oxygen,

Which means you don't breathe so much,

Which means that the in breath and the out breath are very smooth,

Which means that it becomes very even.

Not,

Ah,

Ah,

Ah,

But just like that,

You can hardly hear it,

Just very smooth.

And because it becomes smooth and easy,

That's when the breath vanishes.

Nothing is happening,

Just like not clicking the mouse,

Not touching any of the keys on your computer for a few minutes and the screen goes blank.

Five senses have gone.

Then you get your mind.

This is how we cross from the world of five senses to the mind,

Stepping stone being the breath.

So then when you do get the energies coming up,

Which will happen,

The reason why the energies coming up,

Said this many times but this describes it the very,

Very best way,

Another way of looking at your mind,

Two parts to it,

The knower and the doer,

We do so much.

We think too much,

We plan,

We argue,

You know,

We just try and control,

Which is what arguments are,

Trying to control the truth to fit what we want to see and little by little we use up our mental energy with reacting.

And so we're trained as monks not to react but to let go,

Not to plan,

Which we're looking at in the future,

But let things be right now.

Let it be.

It's passive.

So passive that the energy starts going into the other half of the mind called the knower,

Awareness,

Mindfulness if you like.

And because you don't do and react,

That mindfulness gets all of the energy,

It becomes empowered.

This is where the energy comes from,

From stillness,

The stillness of the doer,

Not reacting,

Being totally passive,

Letting things be,

Not controlling,

Not reacting,

Not trying to remember things,

Which is another activity of our mind,

Just being,

Just is the important word,

Nothing else except just to be.

Then you find energy starts to come up and sometimes that energy can be huge.

And if that energy comes up and you're still aware of your body somewhere,

It will automatically leak to that,

Like a short circuit,

The electricity will go on the easiest path and you know,

You lose it all.

But if you really let go of the body and you followed the instructions,

When that energy comes up,

It stays in the mind,

That's where you get these beautiful lights,

These nimittas,

Powerful ones,

Really strong energy.

But at that time you don't know where your body is,

You don't care where your body is,

Your body is perfectly safe,

You're aware of that sixth sense,

The mind.

And that's where the meditations get very powerful.

But if you still let the,

You know,

Worried about your body,

Where's my legs,

How's my butt now,

What's happened to my,

The ache in my back?

If you have the energy,

The awareness of the body,

The energy will just go there instead.

It is the phenomena which,

You know,

In the Hindu type of meditation is called Kundalini,

Very similar energy,

But in Buddhist meditation we find that that is missing out,

Energy going into the wrong place.

Yeah,

It's really interesting and cool and just powerful,

But it's not really the right place for that energy.

That energy belongs in the mind.

If you can keep it there by letting go of everything,

Then you'll find meditation is powerful and you get wonderful effects,

Really incredible states of mind.

But most importantly you don't have the leaky bucket anymore.

So I mentioned that,

It may not apply to you,

But one day it will.

And as many people listen to these talks on the internet,

And I keep getting many,

Many emails or people talking about this,

And here is another case of the leaky bucket again.

I just had quite a few of these recently,

So I thought I'd address it here once and for all,

So now I can actually just tell people,

Listen to the,

Our website.

It's much better than actually talking to people for hours and hours and hours.

So there we go,

The leaky bucket.

So we're now going to do a little bit of meditation,

But I'll give the announcement again as I have to do every time.

If you've come for the introductory to meditation class,

Please remember that's in the room to my right.

We're now going to do 45 minutes meditation,

Which is a lot for many people.

And it means that if you can't do the 45 minute meditation,

If you think,

Oh it's a bit much,

When you get to move and go out,

Come in,

You're going to disturb other people.

People when they come in and out of these doors,

They always bang them.

So it's good that you can sit for 45 minutes.

And also remember that on this afternoon,

A sunny afternoon,

Please don't lay down on the floor,

Just sit.

If you can't sit on the floor,

Then lean against the wall,

Can't lean against the wall,

Which is the best seats in the house next to the wall,

Get on a chair,

Get some stools or something,

But no please laying down on the floor.

Okay,

Great.

So here we go.

See even monks,

We sit on chairs as well,

There's nothing wrong with that.

That's why I like taking this monk with me,

To teach by example.

Thank you,

Venerable Buddha.

So sitting down,

Closing your eyes.

Bringing awareness onto your body first of all.

As I say,

It really is important not to rush and think,

Ah my body's okay,

I want to go to the deep stuff.

In all parts of life,

Preparation is so important.

You do painting,

Painting a wall in the house looks so easy.

The skill of a painter is not how they wield their brush,

But the meticulous attention to the detail of preparation.

That is what makes a great painter.

The hours they spend just preparing the surface.

So you prepare your body,

The surface on which the mind's meditation will be played out.

So I just get into the habit which I teach you,

Checking my legs first of all.

No,

Just cursory,

Just how are your legs,

Okay,

And then go onto the next one.

People in our modern world rush too much.

Slow,

Methodical,

Careful,

That's the key to deep meditation.

So I'm still staying with my legs,

Feeling them,

Checking them out.

It does take me a minute or maybe longer sometimes to really feel my legs,

To allow those sensations to register in my mind.

Once they've registered,

Can I make them more comfortable?

Do I need to move?

Actually the answer is yes,

For me,

I'm going to move.

That feels a bit better.

Once my legs have been dealt with,

Then I move my awareness to my butt,

My bottom.

Making sure it's comfortable.

I really am aware,

Focusing just on the buttocks and the sensations there.

Really getting to understand and know them.

And with practice you get to know,

Sensation may be okay now,

But you know from experience that's going to ache or hurt later on.

Or it's going to cause you those pins and needles when your leg feels numb.

Mostly because you didn't check your butt.

And then once your bottom has been looked at and adjusted,

Then your mindfulness goes up to your back.

There's a huge area there.

So make sure your back is comfortable.

Not comfortable,

So it's comfortable for a few minutes and you have to move again.

It's a type of comfort which you can maintain for the time of 40,

45 minutes.

It's a different ball game when you have to keep things still for such a long time.

You really have to be careful.

And mindful.

And be willing to adjust,

To try moving this way,

Moving that way and find the best position.

If you just stay there and say,

Oh this is good enough,

There may be a better posture which you missed out on.

Which means you're going to be disrupted by back pain.

It's also you get to know your back.

The more times you do this,

The more times you deliberately are aware of the feelings in the back.

They say that you make connection,

Neural connections in your brain.

So it means your awareness of your back generally in other situations increases.

You're more body aware which means you injure yourself less and your health improves.

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Once your back has been adjusted,

Feels good,

Then again check your hands.

The position of your hands define your arm position.

So see if you can put your hands in a position where you do not need to fidget them.

They're comfortable.

Once they are comfortable,

Go to that special position of the back called the shoulders.

Because people are often tense in their shoulders.

They don't spend enough time being aware of how their shoulders feel and how you're holding them.

And if you've been here many times before,

You know my little method,

Imagine all these strings in my shoulders all pulled tight,

That's stress.

Imagine all those strings pulled really tight and then I let go of both ends of every string.

When that string becomes loose,

I imagine that and my shoulders follow suit.

Just relax,

Become loose too.

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Once my shoulders are relaxed,

I move up to my head.

Feeling whether it's well balanced.

So moving up through the body slowly stops you wandering off into thoughts and fantasies.

Keep your attention on your body,

It's important.

You feel your head,

Not too far forward,

Not too far back.

Muscles around the eyes.

Can you be aware of the feeling of muscles?

Once I'm aware of those,

It becomes so easy to relax.

Make everything loose.

Because any psychological stress,

To me anyway,

As you can see it around me,

The muscles get tense,

Tight.

Just loosening the muscles around the eyes correspondingly lets go of anything I'm concerned about.

That's why people's emotions are played out on the facial expressions.

I re-loosen those eyes and my mouth,

Letting tight on my face.

That's good posture.

And I like just to check before I move deeper into relaxation.

Check my whole body,

Imagine it's just one unit,

One thing,

Indivisible,

Sitting here.

Just ready,

Good posture,

Ready for meditation.

At the same time I spend a few minutes really building up my mindfulness.

Really building up my ability to relax and let things be.

And just avoiding the mind wandering off places,

Being focused.

And then I look for part of my body inside,

Usually in my torso,

But sometimes in legs and head.

A place which is irritating.

Irritating throat if you have a cough,

Or sinuses if you've got some hay fever or a cold.

And there are so many people,

Bowels,

If you have irritable bowel syndrome or stomach ache,

Anything inside,

The part which is most irritating,

You focus in on it.

Really get to know it.

And once you get to know that irritating feeling,

Then you have power over it.

Knowledge is power,

This is a different adaption of that old saying.

You know the feeling,

You know how it changes.

Especially how it responds to the attitude of your mind.

Trying to get rid of it,

Being afraid of it,

Makes you tense and the ache,

The pain,

The irritation gets worse.

If the mind looks at that ache,

That pain,

The irritation in the throat or in the belly and says,

Let it be,

Opening the door of my heart to that feeling,

Embracing it,

Being one with it rather than against it.

Then those types of attitudes,

If they are real,

Not just plain,

You'll find the ache,

The pain,

Starts to diminish.

Only a little bit at first,

But seeing the ache,

The pain,

Relax,

Diminish,

Gives you the encouragement to carry on.

And you can take that so far,

That ache,

Pain,

Sicknesses can be totally vanished.

The power of the mind on that part of the body which really needs attention.

Because people find it difficult to sustain attention anywhere,

That's why they've lost that ability to look after their own health.

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Once you relax that part of the body,

You can always go to another part if you wish,

But many people just by this time want to go on to the mind.

If your body really is at ease,

So it's not going to disturb you,

Then go to your mind.

The peace-o-meter,

Not the best word but good enough.

How peaceful are you?

How agitated?

This is pointing your attention directly at your mind.

Once you get used to watching this peace-o-meter,

You can tell straight away if you're ready to go on to things like prayer,

So you really need to calm down some more.

If you go too soon,

You're going to start sleeping or wandering off.

So you create more peace in your mind first.

Little things,

No past,

No future.

In this moment please.

Past you can deal with later,

Future is your later,

So don't look at it now.

The best way to prepare for your future is to put your attention in the place where your future is being made,

Now.

In the present moment awareness,

You will notice that that peace-o-meter,

The needle goes more and more and more towards peace.

And you get to feel peace,

To understand it,

Get to know it.

So later on during the meditation,

Anything which moves that needle in the opposite direction gets you more agitated.

You know that something is going wrong,

You've lost the path.

But when it creates more and deeper peace,

This peace which you're looking at right now,

You know you're going in the correct direction,

Carry on.

And when you feel calm enough,

By which I mean there's not that many thoughts going on.

What thoughts they are is just so soft,

Like ripples on a lake,

Not waves.

There's still waves on the lake which is your mind,

Just calm down some more before you go on to something like the breathing.

If you're already pretty calm,

Not many thoughts,

You're in the moment,

Then you can go to your breathing.

Are you breathing in or are you breathing out?

Right now.

You'll know that knowledge which tells you what the breath is doing in its cycle,

That is called awareness of the breath.

You stay with that.

If the thinking isn't totally subdued,

You can breathe in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

You have to imagine peace,

Not just say a word.

Words have no power if you don't give a meaning to them.

Breathe in peace,

Feel it,

Know peace.

Imagine it coming into your body and mind,

Every in-breath.

Let go,

Anything worrying you,

Past,

Future,

Sickness,

Tiredness.

That goes out with every out-breath,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

When the awareness gets strong,

You just need to be aware of your breathing,

That's all.

No need for breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go,

Just notice the breath.

Allow the mind to settle on it.

Be a friend to the breath,

Not a master or a mistress.

Treat the breath with kindness.

Let the body vanish.

Similarly,

If the screen focuses on the breathing,

Everything else is on the edge until it falls off the screen.

I'm now going to be quiet until the end of the meditation.

Breathing out,

Breathe out,

Let go,

Breathe out,

Let go,

Just notice the breath.

Your breath will rise toumbles and dramatic nor will you ever walk away.

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So this is where many meditation problems can be solved.

The adhita,

I call it these days programming mindfulness.

And programming mindfulness is where you tell yourself at the very beginning,

When I get to this stage,

I'll give more kindness to save my breath.

You say that at the very beginning and it happens automatically.

If you're a psychologist you know the power of that,

You know,

Just auto-suggestion.

So that's a wonderful way of doing things.

And the other thing is you always see a general principle that the reason why you wander off anyway is because you want something.

And so always in another adhita is just to make sure that when you are meditating,

Always keep a little eye out for the big enemy,

I want.

If you don't want anything,

If you really are peaceful and happy to be here,

Then things develop.

You wander off,

You want something,

You're cruising but you're not really content.

You want somewhere else,

That's where the mind moves.

So there's a few tricks there,

Two tricks of the trade,

And then after a while,

You know the mind does focus.

It doesn't focus because you tell it to,

It's a natural occurrence.

When you're not doing anything,

When you don't want anything,

Then you go in.

And the in,

Going in,

In,

In,

In,

Never onto another stage,

In,

In,

In,

Is a path to meditation,

Happens naturally.

So even if you know like you get to the beat of meditation,

You know,

This stuff shows up again.

And you know,

You want to be doing that,

You want to manage your focus,

You have all the ingredients,

A little meditation,

And it's such a distraction.

But that is something which really does bend to the programming of your mindfulness.

It happens regularly.

Beginnings say,

Look,

This has happened too often.

When I get to that stage,

This is what I'll do.

I just let it be,

I'll be kind,

Open the door,

This is good enough for me.

You know all the tricks but you put those instructions in at the beginning.

And then it will just,

You go past there.

The block will be transcended.

If you try to do anything at that time,

You make it worse.

Did you have a question?

No.

Okay,

We'll do the ones from overseas.

Very good.

Okay,

From Germany,

UK and Vienna.

How can I meditate without being in the head so much?

I'm always thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

What can I do?

Again,

One of the great methods of that is substitution.

So you're not thinking,

You're feeling.

Two things are totally different.

So you feel your body at the very beginning.

You get to know it.

The mindfulness of the body is a substitute for thinking.

You're coming to real life.

If you're always thinking so much,

You're in Germany,

Go out into the forest and get wet.

Take your shoes off and get your feet all dirty.

Feel instead of thinking.

The world of thoughts,

Ideas is a totally different world than the world of reality.

It's like a second level,

The way we interpret the world rather than the way we experience it.

So that's always really,

Really,

Really,

Really good.

You know,

Sort of,

You were at our conference last year,

Chris,

Where one of the psychologists over in Sydney was making a fortune doing nature therapy.

What a great way to make a fortune if you've got the qualifications to convince people.

Just taking any people with depression,

Anxiety,

I don't know what sort of other stuff they had,

It's okay,

Get in the car and we go to like the beach or go to the forest,

Go to the cliffs,

Just have a walk in nature for a while.

And does that work?

Simply because in nature,

Especially the gorgeous parts of nature,

It just takes your thoughts away.

Not take your breath away,

Take your thoughts away.

You see the waves just crashing against the rocks.

You can't think,

It's just too beautiful.

You see the forest and the birds,

Just the rain falling down,

You're getting soaking wet.

You don't think,

You feel.

So that's one great way to become more feely feely.

The other thing which I noticed,

Just look back,

I used to like classical music later on in my life as a student before I used to like rock music,

But then I became more interested in classical music.

Why?

So as I was meditating more,

I noticed that when you listen to classical music,

You couldn't think.

If I started thinking I missed too many notes,

I was actually totally quiet,

My mind was peaceful because the music was dominating my thoughts,

Pushing them out,

As nature does too.

So that's not deep meditation,

Listen to classical music,

But it is a way of subduing just the power of your thoughts.

So you're listening,

You're feeling the rain dripping just on your hair if you've got any.

The same way that you start to feel the breath,

Rather than think about it.

You feel life,

You get to know it,

You listen.

Rather than thinking,

As you listen to the space between my words.

So we stop thinking.

UK,

You meditate when you are ill.

Yes!

If you're ill at night time and you can't sleep,

That's a brilliant time,

You've got nothing else to do.

Watching the movies is no good.

So,

But the meditation has to be,

Not just trying to watch the breath,

There's no breath because you've got sinus,

Is make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle.

The attitude you have to whatever it is you're feeling.

That's an answer which I made a long time ago.

Can you meditate when you are sick?

Especially when you're dying,

Really sick.

Of course you can.

But if you think meditation is watching your breath and getting into jhanas,

No way.

It's learning how to be with the sickness,

Making peace with it.

Because a lot of time when we're sick we make war,

We're trying to escape,

Overcome it,

Get rid of it,

Whatever it is,

Too much aversion.

Obviously it's natural to be averse when you're hurting like hell,

You can't sleep,

You're tired.

But make peace with this moment.

Don't fight it.

Be kind to it.

Again,

Opening the door of your heart to this infection.

It's nature,

It's part of life,

Just be with it.

So try to escape and be gentle.

With the gentleness I add the patience.

This too will pass.

And it always does.

As my master Ajahn Chah famously said to me when I had typhus fever,

You either get better or you die.

It doesn't last forever.

It's a joke but it's very powerfully true.

Sicknesses,

No matter how bad they are,

Don't last.

If you think it's going to last forever it's unendurable.

But the light at the end of the tunnel,

As they say,

See there is a light at the end of the tunnel,

Any chance.

Then it allows you,

It doesn't matter,

Just be in the moment,

It'll go.

It always does.

So of course you can meditate but you don't.

Cross your legs if you've got broken legs.

You lay in your bed,

Make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle with every moment.

It's just a powerful teaching because we all get sick,

I get sick sometimes.

I wake up in the middle of the night and it's too early to get up,

Too late to go to sleep.

What do you do?

Nothing,

Just make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle,

Just let it be.

Then you really relax.

And that number one helps the sickness,

And number two usually go fast asleep.

From Vienna,

How long and how often should we meditate?

Thank you for your advice.

This is such a broad question.

A rule of thumb is how often do you eat?

How often and how long you eat,

A rule of thumb,

That's how often you should meditate.

If you eat three times a day,

Meditate three times a day.

If you eat a lot,

Then meditate a lot.

If you meditate a lot,

Eat a lot,

That's me.

No,

I'm only joking.

But the reason we say that is why?

Because why do you eat to keep healthy?

It's also enjoyable eating,

You know,

If you get nice food.

So that's why we meditate,

Because it's good for our mental energy and mental well-being.

Food is for your body,

Meditation is food for the heart,

For the mind.

And how much should you meditate?

How much should you eat?

Enough to feel healthy,

Calm,

Peaceful,

Alert,

Distressed,

You've got lots of work.

The fellow,

The last little quote before I finish off,

The fellow over in the United States used to tell me,

He meditates one hour every day,

Every day one hour,

Except when he's busy.

And when he's busy,

He meditates two hours every day.

So this is like the unexpected twist.

Meditate one hour every day except when he's busy.

Oh yeah,

I can relate to that,

You don't meditate at all when you're busy.

No,

When you're busy you meditate two hours,

Because you need more energy,

More mental energy and clarity when you're busy.

That's when you're busy,

You meditate more,

Not less.

If you're running a marathon,

You know,

You've got to have a lot of energy in your body,

The right foods,

So you've got to eat more and more carefully if you've got a lot of work to do.

If you're going to go over a long distance in your car,

You fill the gas tank up as much as you can.

Especially in Australia,

You put a few jerry cans in the back in case you run out in the desert.

That's what we do when we're busy,

We meditate more,

Not less.

Okay,

Any other questions from the floor before we finish off?

Thank you from Germany,

UK and from Vienna.

Okay,

Let's go now.

Okay,

Thank you.

Reviews

Excellent session. Very helpful to my understanding. Metta 🙏

I love how there is a more casual atmosphere in these practices. Don't have to sit so rigidly, just relax and breath. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️