Day 030/365: 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

So welcome everybody to today's meditation class.

There is two meditation classes,

Occurs every Saturday afternoon.

The series of four talks on the introduction to meditation,

The beginners class where people who haven't meditated before can learn the basics of meditation.

That class is being held in the room to my right.

So this is the ongoing class.

So those who come to the beginning meditation class,

It's the room to my right here.

Just go outside the door there and the first door is where that class is.

For those of you who haven't done meditation before,

This is a bit of a harsh introduction where we talk about deeper stuff and also sit for much longer.

So maybe a bit too much for a person.

So anyway,

For those who are here,

Every Saturday afternoon we talk about something about meditation.

Somebody was asking if we had any books,

This was from Malaysia,

On what they call in meditation the five hindrances.

So I don't know if we have any total books on the five hindrances.

We have some talks on them,

Lengthy talks which are online from the meditation retreats.

But basically these are things which are ways of looking at what stops you getting peaceful in meditation and which stops you seeing things clearly.

And the first two of those are probably the biggest,

That is the wanting and ill will,

Aversion.

What that really means is we don't actually see what we want to see,

We don't see what's there,

We see what we want to see and we refuse to see things which are nice to us.

Or maybe if there's any people coming to the introduction class,

The introduction beginner's class is in the room to my right over there,

This is the ongoing class.

Maybe Lin is outside,

Seeing make sure that people who are coming on the introductory class because this is a lengthy class,

A deeper class.

Okay,

Hopefully everybody knows what they're doing.

It's also if you're not used to sitting for 45 minutes,

Sometimes you disturb other people who are getting into deep meditation.

But anyway,

Basically it is called wanting,

You know the wanting or not wanting,

Whatever's happening there.

And that becomes something which disturbs the meditation.

A long,

Long time ago when I was under my teacher in Thailand,

He would often hold up his hand,

He'd wave it up,

He'd finally say it.

Well we'd say these days it's default state.

These outside,

I can look,

There's a wind,

It's windy afternoon,

So they are moving all over the place.

But if it's a calm day,

They would stop moving.

Same with your mind.

Your mind,

Its natural state is to be still and peaceful.

It only moves because something is making it move.

What makes it move is wanting something,

Which includes wanting something to disappear,

Wanting something to go,

Which is called the negativity.

So those are the main obstacles,

The main hindrances to deep meditation,

To any meditation.

When you want something,

You're creating business,

Something to do,

Somewhere to get.

And when we don't want anything,

Then we find that the mind becomes still all by itself.

It takes time because one of the other more refined parts of wanting is impatience.

And many,

Many people,

They like quick results.

These days if you want to watch a movie,

You can just download it online really quickly.

You don't even need to go to the movie theater.

You just do it,

Oh,

So simple.

Music,

The same.

So people have got the idea that meditation,

They want really fast.

But of course it takes time.

You can imagine that your car,

If you came here on a car,

As soon as you park,

You turn the engine off,

It doesn't go cold straight away.

It takes a while for things to cool down.

And that's the same with the mind.

It takes a while for your mind to cool down and become still.

So you have to give it that time.

Now,

Wanting,

Not wanting,

First two hindrances.

If you have been doing a lot of wanting and not wanting,

The residue of that is that you are tired.

So sometimes we sit down and if we get still,

We go to sleep or half asleep.

And that's just a case that you've been using your brain too much.

And if you fight that brain and say,

No,

I'm going to be awake,

You use all your willpower,

All you're doing is using more energy,

Timing yourself more,

Stressing yourself out,

Which means it doesn't really solve the problem.

So we just let sleepiness be.

As best we can,

We don't fight it.

If you fight it,

It lasts longer,

It makes it worse.

Then you don't want to be wanting or not wanting.

And then you find the mind,

Thislessness is just you have been agitated.

And if you try to do it,

You just put it,

You restlessness,

Which I give,

Which you may have done many times,

I hold up this water perfectly still.

And why this pain?

I'm really trying to hold it still.

Is it becoming still?

No,

It's moving.

So because I'm not focusing properly,

I'm now mindful and focused on really putting a lot of effort into holding this water still.

And when I try very hard,

It moves actually more.

And so frustrating trying to keep a glass of water perfectly still like this.

It's the wrong method.

So instead of trying to hold it still,

So easy to keep a glass of water perfectly still,

You just put it down.

Let it go.

Leave it alone.

And then you find the water becomes,

There is,

Perfectly still.

So easy to do.

That's how we overcome restlessness.

We put it down,

We let it go.

And very often I've taught that how you actually let go of the restlessness of the mind,

First of all,

Don't try and stop it.

Number two,

Don't encourage it.

Stand back from it.

Sometimes I say just imagine you're watching all this thought,

This restlessness from maybe a distance,

Two or three feet away.

You can imagine you're watching it on a screen.

But you're not in the screen,

You are watching the screen from a distance.

That means you don't get entangled in it.

When you get entangled in the movie,

When you get entangled in your thoughts,

You actually drive them,

You keep them going.

Your emotional investment in those thoughts,

Sometimes negative emotions,

Sometimes positive emotions,

Those emotional entanglement,

Investment in those thoughts,

Keeps them going.

When you take your emotional involvement out,

They're just thoughts,

You find just how stupid they are,

And then you find you can let them go very easily.

If you're watching a movie at home,

You watch it,

If you just stand back and just see how absolutely stupid it is,

Then you find it doesn't entangle you and you turn it off.

A soccer match,

A cricket match,

Look,

Sometimes you win,

Sometimes you lose.

You're just asking for trouble because you can't win every match,

Which means you'd always be suffering.

It's much better not to have any suffering at all.

By not getting involved.

It was one of the reasons I became a monk.

I supported this hopeless soccer team in London and they kept on losing and losing and losing.

And I realised that this is just driving me crazy.

So becoming a monk and not having anything to do with soccer.

Oh,

So much freedom,

So much happiness,

So much peace.

So not getting involved was much better,

But I was emotionally involved in it.

So this way when we can step back from these things,

Then we can actually become still all by itself.

That's how we overcome just those first four hindrances.

Don't want anything.

Things come up,

We let them be,

So we don't have any ill will.

We just allow restlessness just to disappear with a bit of patience,

Not interfering with it.

Sleepiness,

It disappears as well.

So we're left with the last one which is doubt.

Which is we always want to know the meaning of things but we try and find that meaning through thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking.

Trying to work it out,

Trying to philosophise,

Trying to find a rational meaning behind things when we haven't yet got enough data,

Enough experience to really understand what's going on.

So we overcome what they call the fifth hindrance by just not thinking about stuff,

Just being,

Just quiet,

Gathering enough data,

Enough experience of what peace actually is,

Of what makes meditation work.

And after gathering enough data,

Soon it's so obvious that much of our problems are because we fight the world,

That we expect things which the world can never give us,

That when we want something more,

We can never have any peace,

We can never enjoy what we already have.

Little things like that become so obvious to us and also we understand that how on earth can we make peace by making war with our mind and with our body.

So these are insights which come naturally.

The simile I often give,

Your mind is like a big lake in the mountains.

When there is the winds of wanting or not wanting,

That lake has so many waves on the surface,

Whipped up by the winds of wanting.

And if you look into that lake,

You cannot see the reflection of the moon and stars above.

But if the lake is perfectly still,

Because you don't want anything,

Nor do you not want things,

The wanting,

The wind of wanting has disappeared.

The lake becomes like a glass mirror which sees,

Has a beautiful reflection of the moon and the stars.

And actually that wasn't the Buddhist simile,

The Buddhist simile was almost even better.

It said when the water is so still because there's no waves on the surface,

Not wanting,

You can look and see all the fish and all the other animals which live in that water.

You can see right down to the very bottom,

To the stones and the gravel and the little plants on the bottom of the lake,

If it is perfectly still.

Because also when the water is still,

All of the mud,

The dirt or whatever,

All settles down to the bottom and it does become clear.

But if there's any movement in that lake,

Any wanting,

You look into that lake and you can't understand what's in there.

That simile of the Buddha,

That's understanding the nature of your mind.

If it's agitated,

Wanting something,

You look inside of it,

You can't see very much,

It's murky.

When it settles down and is still,

Then you can see all the amazing things which live and swim in your mind and which crawl and slither along its bottom.

Interesting stuff.

So those are the five hindrances in brief.

All coming down to a basic hindrance of wanting something.

Craving,

Desire,

Wanting.

So that's the five hindrances and that's for someone over in,

Where was it,

Over in Malaysia who wanted to actually have some sort of deeper understanding of the five hindrances.

So once those five hindrances have been dealt with,

Then there's nothing between you and stillness and the deepest of insights,

Da da da.

Okay,

So there we go.

Now we can do some meditation.

And in the meantime,

I have to say again,

If there's anybody here for the first time,

If what I just said made absolutely no sense at all because you've just come for the first time,

Then please go to next door.

Great teacher next door to guide you through the initial stages of meditation.

If you always go through the initial stages,

Then people who've been here for a while just get a bit bored.

I heard it before.

So always try and add a bit more depth in this class.

So we're going to do a 45 minute meditation until 4 o'clock.

So if you would close your eyes.

Uh-oh,

You're locked in,

You were warned.

No,

You can't get out.

Very good,

Closing your eyes.

I usually lead the first 15 minutes or so.

And then I like to just disappear as well.

Start with your body awareness.

Your eyes closed,

How are your legs?

Are they comfortable?

So you deliberately focus your awareness,

Your mindfulness to your legs.

Checking them out,

Making sure that they're in a position where they're not going to cause you disturbance throughout the meditation.

And then you check your bottom.

It's going to carry your weight for the next 45 minutes.

I'm going to adjust my cushion,

It's not in the proper place.

Once you've adjusted your bottom,

Make sure that the cushion's nicely under my butt.

There's no folds of clothing digging into you.

Okay.

And then you move up your back.

Or move up to your back,

I should have said.

Just checking out that it's comfortable.

People do have aches and pains in their backs because they're not aware,

Not mindful of their posture.

You check it out.

Okay.

Okay.

Once the back is relaxed,

Your hands and arms,

Where are they?

This also stops you just wandering off into thoughts.

You've got a job to do first.

Be aware of your body.

How do your arms feel?

Do they need to be adjusted?

Then go to your shoulders.

Relax your shoulders.

Sometimes people say how?

You be aware first of all,

Aware of the muscles,

The feelings in your shoulders.

Once you are aware,

Then just try to relax them.

Trial and error,

You usually find out what actually relaxes those muscles.

You'd be surprised to know,

Or maybe not so surprised,

That when you relax those muscles,

That is called letting go,

Letting be,

Kindness.

That's what it means.

Then you check your head,

Balance on top of the neck,

Making sure that's not too far forward,

Not too far back.

Lastly,

Muscles around the eyes,

Where emotions are displayed for others to see,

Mostly around the eyes.

Relax them.

And then you can be aware of your whole body,

Relaxed,

Ready to meditate.

Actually this is part of meditation.

And I always include the next step,

The deep relaxation of your parts of your body which the hands cannot touch,

Which you cannot alleviate through movement.

What part of your body is irritating,

Which is not at peace,

Which is maybe even painful?

You zoom in on that part of your body,

Focus on it.

So you fill your mind just with a tiny area of your body,

Feeling it.

And once you are aware of those sensations,

Unpleasant sensations,

Then by trial and error you'll learn how to relax those feelings.

What makes it better,

What makes it worse?

Your mind is now interfacing with your body.

And little by little you learn how to relax your body deep inside.

Now,

.

.

Once it's relaxed and at ease,

Take one last look at your body.

When you go to the world of your mind,

How peaceful are you right now?

Don't mean physically comfortable,

But emotionally still.

Or how agitated are you?

Imagining your mind like the lake,

Are there waves on the surface?

Is it choppy as they say?

Or are there just a few ripples?

Those waves,

Those ripples represent your thoughts.

When the lake is calm,

When there's no wind,

The waves get less and less and less.

No wanting,

Just being here.

Another way of looking at this,

There's no past,

No future.

When all of your past,

You're allowed to let go for a while.

You don't concern yourself about the future,

But just about the present.

There's no space for wanting to happen.

Wanting needs something in the past or the future to crave for.

Just come into this moment,

A place of freedom.

Right now,

It's here,

It's arrived,

All wanting,

Will not change this.

So we let things be right now.

Usually after a while you become aware of your breathing.

Just follow your breath as far as it will take you.

When you get really calm,

The breath vanishes,

You get these wonderful lights.

So just be in this moment,

Don't want things,

That stops the meditation.

Just be here,

Calm,

Free,

Having put down your glass.

I will now be quiet until one minute before the meditation ends.

We are all breathing.

Maintaining on us in space.

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Reviews

What a profound and easy-to-understand explanation of the 5 hinderances. I truly appreciate such teaching that helped me to be peaceful even with the loss of job among other difficulties in life... Thank you 🙏☮️

I keep repeating myself, but I love these talks and practices! I've learned to relax a lot more in my practice and not worry about achieving something. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️