Day 048/365: 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 to our Buddhist Society,

Saturday afternoon happy hour and a quarter,

Where we do some meditation.

And we usually have to state the same announcement every week,

Is that this is the ongoing class of meditation.

Those who have come for the introduction to meditation class,

That is in the room to my right.

This is the,

That's the beginning meditator,

This is the extreme meditating class.

Is that the right thing to do?

Not extreme?

Okay.

This is the ongoing continuing class of meditation,

Where it means that people have meditated before,

They know roughly what to do,

It is just giving a little bit of extra information here and there,

And sitting with other people who have got the basics down,

And can now sit for,

We sit here for about 40-45 minutes.

So it's a bit longer meditation class.

And on this meditation class,

First of all we have to know how to sit comfortably,

And of course to be able to sit comfortably,

We first of all need to be kind to our body,

So it can relax and be nice and peaceful.

Because when it's relaxed and peaceful,

It's also comfortable.

Then we do the same thing for our mind,

To make that peaceful,

And when that becomes peaceful,

And then it doesn't go to sleep,

We may feel tired at first,

But just wait for a few minutes,

And the energies start to come back,

Because we're not wasting energy,

Our energies of our mind are going into mindfulness,

Into knowing,

And that means that the knowing gets brighter and brighter and brighter.

In other words,

One feels that one is getting more energized,

Which is an important part of the meditation,

Because with the energy,

Things look more beautiful,

More happy,

More delightful.

It's one of those parts of meditation that from just relaxing and just not doing too much,

It means that the mindfulness starts to increase in power.

Instead of running on dead batteries,

Which is sometimes we're always just rushing around,

Just trying to do this,

Trying to do that,

But we're really tired,

We have our energies really strong.

When the energies are really strong,

Not only do we have lots of awareness,

But also lots of happiness as well.

And that's one of the important parts of the meditation,

To be able to create this beautiful joy and happiness.

And it's a joy and happiness which is born of peacefulness.

When you're really peaceful,

It's something which is very,

Very delightful.

When I was young I used to like rock music,

And then later on some more refined jazz music,

And then afterwards I started liking classical music,

And the music was getting more and more refined,

More calming every time.

And then eventually the music of being in nature and quiet places,

And then the music where everything stops,

Absolute silence,

Which is beautiful.

And sometimes that our appreciation of life gets deeper and deeper and deeper.

The appreciation of things,

Not things which are there,

But when things are more empty.

For example,

When you come into a room,

What do you notice when you come into a room like this?

A lot of times you notice the people and the things and the walls and the floor,

Obviously the statue behind me draws one's attention.

How many times can you notice what's in between all of this?

The space,

The emptiness,

And in fact everybody should realize that it's the emptiness in this room which is far greater,

Takes up more space than people and things.

So after a while instead of looking at the things,

We look at what's between the things,

Look at the spaces,

The emptiness.

And once we start to be able to notice that,

We can notice things like silence,

When one thought stops and another one hasn't begun yet,

And the beautiful spaces which are there between things.

So that is where we can change our perceptions instead of looking for events,

Experiences and stuff,

Look at what's around all of that,

What embraces all of that,

What's between all of that.

And there'll be a silent mind.

So eventually we start being aware of our body,

Aware of our mind,

Relaxing,

And as the mind wakes up and gets a bit more mindfulness and energy,

Then we find that we can be very aware and delighted and satisfied with silence,

When nothing moves.

That silence has always been very refreshing,

Regenerating.

That's one of the reasons why it's important to have that.

If we don't regenerate and sharpen up our mindfulness,

As a simile which somebody,

If they listen to this,

Is very,

Very rapt,

We're saying it's like taking a chainsaw about a gentleman who joined a logging company,

They gave him a chainsaw and he was paid for however much he cut in a day.

The first day he cut a lot,

Very strong man,

The second day he cut less,

Third day less,

And he wondered why,

He was getting paid less money every time.

And the boss said,

Well look,

Your chain is very dull,

You should sharpen your chainsaw.

He said,

But I don't have the time to do that,

I've got to work so much.

And because he thought he didn't have time to sharpen the chainsaw,

Of course he had less results,

Less productivity and more tiredness.

So if you are going to do any cutting with a chainsaw,

You have to take time off to sharpen it,

Otherwise you are wasting time.

And it's the same with your meditation.

If you are just using your mind and your brain,

And you're not taking up time to sharpen it by relaxing and being peaceful,

Of course you're not going to be very productive,

You're not going to be very happy,

You are going to be stressed,

Which is why the meditation is important to have silence.

And in the silence,

That is where we grow and become more aware and more happy,

And happier,

And happier.

That's how meditation works.

So,

Just to make that announcement once again,

Those coming to the introductory class for meditation,

The class for where you first learn about meditation,

The introductory class,

That is being held in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing class where we are going to be sitting for 45 minutes.

So if you haven't gone through the introduction to meditation class,

Now is your last chance,

Because we're going to sit for about 40-45 minutes without moving.

And sometimes that's what they do in Guantanamo Bay,

It's called prolonged stress position,

And we don't want to sort of be sued for torture.

So please,

If you don't know how to sit comfortably for 45 minutes,

Your last chance to escape.

Okay,

Enough.

So,

If you'd like to get yourself in a meditation posture,

If not already?

And,

Close your eyes.

And with your eyes closed,

Bringing our awareness into this moment,

Into the here and now.

And relaxing our body.

I experience my legs.

Sometimes mindfulness is a very popular word these days,

But to start off being mindful,

It helps asking a question.

If somebody asks me how I feel,

Then I can look at my body and give an answer.

But if I'm not asked that question,

My mindfulness may go somewhere else.

So I ask my own body,

I start off with my legs.

Legs,

How are you?

And that is the trigger,

If you like,

Which gets my mindfulness looking at the condition of my legs.

If they're well crossed,

If they're comfortable,

If I can sustain that position for the 40 minutes,

And if I feel that maybe it does need some adjustment,

Then I will adjust,

As I'm going to do.

And then of course I also adjust my buttocks to make sure that they are comfortable.

And it's not just getting a good posture,

It's the whole attitude behind this,

Being aware and being kind,

Kindfulness,

Which allows me to develop these important qualities,

Which will take me into a deep meditation later.

And I check my back to be aware of how the back is positioned.

I don't follow what it says in books or what other people say works.

I fear it for myself.

And I experiment.

Sometimes it's okay to lean back on a chair.

Sometimes you sit on a chair,

You lean forward.

Sometimes you slump.

Sometimes you curve your back.

You find the best position for you.

So it's not perfect companies,

They keep search for this place.

Once the back is well positioned,

Then my hands are just aware of them.

And if necessary,

I adjust them.

And my neck,

I've got the shoulders first,

So relaxing my shoulders because they can be quite painful if they start off being stressed and tight.

I loosen them.

My neck,

I make sure my head is well positioned on top.

Sometimes the position of the head will cause neck ache.

If not that,

Sometimes there's irritations in the throat caused by allergies,

Or just a virus of cough.

I make sure I look at that with accent.

And then I go to my head,

To my face to begin with,

Becoming aware of any tightness around the eyes,

Or tightness around the mouth,

Relaxing it.

Mindfulness allows you to have feedback,

So I can see how I'm relaxing more or tensing up more.

I'd like to go to a couple of inches behind my eyes and between my ears,

Where my brain is supposed to be.

I just imagine that area,

And imagine that,

Relaxing,

Taking a break,

Not having to do any work.

Once my body is relaxed,

I just check the whole thing,

The unit,

So my body can feel the delight of a relaxed body.

When I'm ready,

Then I relax my mind,

Become aware of my peace-o-meter,

Which tells me how agitated or how peaceful I am.

Usually just to get the awareness focused on the peace-o-meter,

You give a number from one to ten how peaceful you are.

Really peaceful is one,

Agitated is up there,

Eight,

Nine,

Ten.

It's just a skillful means,

A trick,

To get you to be aware of how peaceful you are.

Once you have a relaxed body and a peaceful mind,

The meditation becomes very easy,

You can lay a good foundation.

But if the mind isn't that peaceful,

We try this,

We try that to find out what makes the mind more peaceful.

Sometimes if your mind is full of ideas and it's really thinking about so much stuff,

You may find that all of those disturbing thoughts are all about the past and the future.

So you imagine that exercise of the two heavy shopping bags,

One in the left,

The P-A-S-T,

The past,

Written on the outside,

Carrying all the weight,

Your burdens of what's happened to you,

The one in the right,

F-U-T-U-R-E,

The future,

That carries all the weight of fears and anxieties as well as hopes of dreams.

You carry it around for far too long,

So you imagine yourself gently lowering each suitcase or shopping bag to the ground,

Noticing when they go to the ground,

The weight vanishes,

Allows you to move your hands up and away so they can rest.

You feel safe letting go of the past and the future,

Cos they're right by your side,

You're not holding them,

You put them down,

You're resting for a while,

So that you can regenerate,

Re-energise,

Recharge,

And you're standing in the place between the past and the future.

That's where you're standing,

Between the two bags.

It's called the present moment,

The now.

And then you go back to your peace on the other,

It should have actually calmed down quite a lot.

If it is,

Then just notice what you're aware of right now.

A lot of times it's your breathing,

It's the one thing which continues to move.

So if you're aware of your breath,

Great,

If you're not,

Invite the breath in,

Don't focus on the breath,

Be more kind,

Don't grab it,

Just be a friend,

Treat it nicely like a friend or a slave or a maid or a servant.

As you breathe in and breathe out,

In order to make it a little bit more interesting,

As you breathe in,

You can say the word,

Breathing in peace,

Actually not say it but think it,

Even not to think it but picture it.

What does it mean for you,

Peace?

You visualize it,

Not as a thought but as an emotion,

What does peace mean?

When you breathe in,

Breathe it in,

Breathe in peace,

And breathe out whatever you wish to let go of,

Any pain,

Any sickness,

Any tension,

Any disease,

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out let go.

Just one breath at a time,

Always in this moment,

And being kind to your breathing,

Being kind to whatever object comes in your mind.

Mindfulness without kindness doesn't really stick,

You lose it,

But when you generate as much kindness as you do mindfulness,

Not just aware through force,

It's like you enjoy being with this object,

The breath,

It's bringing in peace and health to your body,

It's taking away all this used products,

Toxins,

It rejuvenates the body,

Just as peace can rejuvenate the mind,

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out let go.

Just like when my body relaxes,

It feels delightful,

Just breathing in peace,

Breathing out let go,

Not doing very much,

Keeping the silence,

Then my mindfulness starts to get stronger,

Easier to see the breath,

The breath becomes more delightful.

Once you get to the delightful breathing,

Breathing in just so nice,

So by,

Breathing out so beautiful,

Then you know that you have enough stability,

You can really start letting go,

The mind doesn't want to go anywhere,

It's satisfied and content with the delightful peace.

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

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So it's getting close to the end of the meditation.

How do you feel?

Has your peace improved since we began?

Are you more aware?

More rested?

More relaxed?

I'm knowing the gong three times.

When the gong finishes sounding for the third time,

Release the signal to come out of your meditation.

Very good.

Very good.

So we have some questions from overseas and from Melbourne as well.

First of all,

First of all,

And then it gives the time for the people here if you have a question to get your mind ready to ask questions,

But first of all from Melbourne.

How can I detach from things that bring so much joy such as music and dancing?

Well,

When you get to my age,

Dancing is not so much an option.

You have to detach from it.

But joy such as music and dancing,

You're not going to be meditating for all the time,

So if you wish to have some music and dancing,

Fine,

But there are times when you just really want to relax and be peaceful and you'll find that it will enhance your ability to enjoy your music and dancing in the same way that I mentioned,

Just sharpening the chainsaw means you can use it with a bit more ability later on,

More effectiveness.

So just learning how to be peaceful,

Learning how to rest,

And you can enjoy music,

Food,

Dancing,

Whatever.

It is what happens is that because the one relaxes the mind,

The mind becomes more empowered so what you hear,

You can hear more deeply.

Food tastes more delicious.

And the story told us over in Bangkok a few days ago when I was there.

After one retreat,

My own personal retreats over in Bodhinyana monastery,

I just,

First meal I had after meditation retreat,

I just ate obviously,

But I had nice meditation at the end and then had first meal,

It was a breakfast,

Baked beans,

And I just put one bean in my mouth,

Just a single bean,

I couldn't believe how tasty it was,

Just one bean,

I don't know if you've had a baked bean,

The tomato sauce is just so powerful and the texture of the bean was just neither hard nor soft,

It just almost melted in the mouth,

But not just like butter,

But it had this beautiful texture to it and the flavour,

Everything was so amazing,

Just one baked bean almost blew my mind.

Wow,

I never tasted a baked bean like that ever before,

I lingered on it as it just went into my mouth and I just,

Oh,

And I don't know just where it came from,

I asked,

It was from the can,

A baked bean themed can,

But it was delicious.

And of course,

I know where this all comes from,

This happens many times,

You get very peaceful and still,

You can appreciate things more.

And so even if you think you like music and you get joy out of it,

You get your mind very empowered and if you want music,

You can enjoy it far more.

And it's also,

You can just enjoy even the most amazing music,

Which is silence,

Nothing is better than silence.

And anyway,

And dancing,

Yeah you have to just do some exercise,

Great,

But even the abilities which you learn in meditation,

Just learning how not to plan,

Not to worry,

Not to be anxious,

To be very aware of your body,

Even the beginnings of meditation,

Being aware of your feet and your muscles as you move,

If you're going to be dancing,

You have to be incredibly aware,

So many muscles,

But also as many dancers told me,

You have to just really practice,

Practice,

Practice,

But when you actually do that dance at the highest level,

You have to just disappear.

You don't do the dance,

The dance just takes over and does you,

You vanish,

You disappear.

And it's always in the present moment,

No control,

No willing,

Just totally letting go.

The sorts of things you use in meditation will enhance your ability to dance at a very deep level,

But after a while,

Especially if you get old and you get tired,

Learning how to be still,

You won't always be able to dance,

Sometimes you get sick,

Bedridden,

You can always meditate,

So you've got a source of joy which enhances everything,

The ability to meditate.

Next one from Jolanda from the Netherlands,

And from the Netherlands,

By meditating the energy rises up like water when the spring rises up.

When out of meditation,

Soon after it floods away so quickly,

Is there a way to prolong the energy longer?

Is Jolanda a girl or boy's name?

Girl's name.

Okay,

So if you want to preserve the energy longer,

Become a nun.

But anyway,

If you can't do that because you've got kids and other commitments,

Obviously when out of meditation it floods away so quickly,

So anything precious we have to sort of look after and then it will flood away but it won't flood away so quickly.

It's like if you've got a payday,

You've got your money for all that hard work of a month's salary,

You know you've got to make it last for the month,

You don't just go off and say,

Wow,

Look how much money I've got,

I just spend it all and the next few days you've got nothing to eat.

So same with meditation.

You get some energy,

Preserve it,

Don't waste it,

Keep it inside,

Enjoy,

It's something valuable.

Unfortunately,

The peace and energy and happiness,

We take it for granted.

Once it's there,

We think,

Oh great.

So remember the old emperor's ring story about the emperor,

A young kid,

When things were going well,

He'd always have parties,

When things weren't going well,

He'd stay in his room and get depressed.

And the ministers came along and they said,

Well we can't tell the king what to do,

He just won't listen,

He's a king.

And so what we'll do,

We'll use a little trick,

They got him a ring.

On the outside,

It was written the words,

This too will pass.

So we saw that every day,

This too will pass.

So when things were going,

Terrible in this kingdom,

Economy just not going well,

Just the government not doing its job,

The walls being built,

Elections being called,

Whatever is going on,

Whatever was happening was instead of getting depressed,

He realized it's going to pass so he kept on working,

Gave him like hope whenever it was almost impossible,

He kept on going,

Which means the bad times never lasted so long.

He never got depressed and gave up.

And so when your meditation floods away,

Don't give up meditation.

And more importantly,

When things were going well,

He still worked hard.

This is one of the problems here.

We get energized,

We feel happy because we just meditated and we think,

Ah,

Everything's been solved now.

Instead,

We enjoy it but we don't take it for granted.

We keep on meditating,

Keep on preserving our mindfulness,

Keep on even not wasting these things.

So it lasts for a long time.

Anyway,

How can meditation help to gain self-confidence so as to interact normally with people and live a normal life?

There is no such thing as a normal life.

Everybody's lives are totally unique.

But to gain self-confidence,

What it means to have a source of inner happiness.

When you have a source of inner happiness,

You're not depending,

Not dependent on other people's liking you or disliking you.

So first of all,

You've always got this beautiful happiness inside.

So at night,

You can say to yourself,

Good night,

Have a wonderful night,

Me.

In the morning,

You can smile at yourself,

It gives you the confidence.

There is this one person in this world who really likes you,

And that's you.

And then afterwards,

When you're happy,

You don't ask,

You don't depend on what other people say to you or do to you because you've got your own inner sense of joy and happiness.

And of course,

That makes you free to interact with other people,

Not asking for anything back in return.

And when you don't ask for anything back,

You get so much back in return.

To interact with other people,

Just what do you want out of other people?

You say,

Well,

It's nice to have some friendship,

But it doesn't work out,

That's okay.

And that type of not demanding and lack of anxiety,

Because anxiety is what you want,

What outcomes you want from the future or from other people,

Then you can interact normally with people and live a much better than normal life.

I don't know because I live in monasteries,

But I just see a lot of the world,

Normal life is not that good.

It's much better than a normal life.

So you get self-contact,

You interact with other people and live a much better than normal life.

Just go off the scale of happiness and contentment and confidence.

Whatever that means,

You can just enjoy yourself and be content and easily satisfied.

Okay,

Any questions from here?

And now,

You know what happens when we come in here and now?

Where are we?

Here and now,

Put it together,

But put it down the other way,

Now and here,

We're nowhere.

Isn't that wonderful to be nowhere?

And also to be a nobody,

It's much nicer being a nobody.

You know why?

Because nobody is perfect.

It's true,

Isn't it?

So why do you want to be a somebody?

Be a nobody,

Then you're automatically perfect.

And self-confidence.

How can other people sort of judge you?

It's hard to judge yourself.

Are you a good person?

I don't know.

Are you a bad person?

I don't know.

You go to some places and think,

Oh,

I jump on,

You're just a holy man,

I go to other places,

You've taken away my children to be nuns and monks,

You bad teacher.

That's what happened.

We had these two German monks,

Once over in Germany,

Once over with me,

And when their mum and dad came,

They've only got two kids.

And their mum told me,

She said,

I don't mind you,

Well I do mind,

But I can accept that one of my kids,

One of my sons becoming a monk,

But both of them,

Can't you leave me one?

So both her children became Sangha members so they weren't too happy with me.

But you can still be happy no matter what.

Be confident and ah,

Normal life,

You make your life.

I don't know how many people fit in.

I don't fit in.

Not into my robe anyway,

Sometimes it's a bit,

Some adjustments to be made.

Well,

You're just who you are,

So you're content in your own skin and happy to be who you are and then you get your confidence so no one can judge you,

Which means that people can't upset you.

People are telling me to interact normally with people,

Live a normal life,

So many people,

The way they interact together,

Well it's so critical.

That's one of the problems,

Small little things go wrong and they make it a big thing of it.

Okay,

One story I haven't told for a while and that was the story of this gentleman.

He was,

Oh he was backpacking many years ago through Europe and in those days when he went backpacking,

He went to restaurants to get jobs as either a cook or a waiter or just washing the dishes because if you get a job in the restaurants,

You know you usually get a few tips if you work hard and also you get free food.

So all he needed to have was just a place where he could sleep at night and he would have free food and save enough money to go on to his next destination.

And he was in Europe,

In Austria,

In Vienna and he was at a restaurant,

He was just washing up,

Waiting when they needed extra help and just saving a bit of money,

Just he could eat whatever food and it was leftover or any food he wanted.

And then one day it was the owner of the restaurant sort of called a meeting of the staff and he said,

There's been sort of a mistake,

Mistakes happen,

We've ordered too much sauerkraut,

Heaps of it and I can't send it back.

So any of you workers who want free food,

It has to be sauerkraut.

Breakfast,

Lunch,

Dinner,

Evening supper,

Sauerkraut,

Anything else you have to pay for.

And this backpacker,

Yea,

He can't do that to us,

This is unfair,

This is not what I signed up for.

I know that some people,

People like Amanda's monastery,

He would love that job,

He loves some of the sauerkraut but,

You know,

Eating sauerkraut,

Breakfast,

Lunch and dinner and supper and nothing else,

That's not what he signed up for so the Americans started getting very angry,

Poor backpacker.

They can't do that to us.

And at that point,

The cook,

The old cook took him aside and said,

I'm going to teach you the difference between an irritation and a problem.

And the old cook said,

See these numbers on my arm,

I was in Auschwitz.

He said,

Many of my relations didn't survive.

And he said,

When I got up in the morning,

I didn't know whether I'd go to bed in the evening or not.

But I survived.

Being in Auschwitz,

That's a problem.

Eating sauerkraut is only an irritation.

If you know the difference between a problem and an irritation,

How many times do we just get irritated at small things?

Is it really a problem?

Or is it sometimes that our tolerance needs a little bit of expansion?

So interact normally with people who live a normal life.

I think when we're a bit more tolerant and just to take a bit more irritations in life,

They come,

Then you can interact with other people.

Some people will say,

Oh,

Ajahn Brahm,

You're not serious enough.

So I give a very serious talk.

This happened to me once,

I was in Singapore,

Very early on.

The person said,

Oh,

I just saw these simple talks about opening the door of your heart and the two bad bricks,

Yes,

I know,

But what about the deep stuff?

So do you want deep stuff?

I said,

Yeah,

I don't like just the ordinary stuff.

So I gave him a very deep talk.

The next day he told me,

I didn't like that either,

I couldn't sleep all night.

Do you know that world?

You do it one way and people complain,

You do it another way they complain,

Or whatever happens,

They complain.

So because of that,

Self-confidence,

Right,

People complain,

People don't complain.

Welcome to normal life.

In other words,

You have the self-confidence and you become like the lotus.

You know the simile of the lotus?

They can urinate on the lotus,

They can pee all over it and does it retain the smell?

Or the liquid just falls off it and it still smells as fragrant as the lotus.

Or they pour Chanel No.

5 over the lotus and once the Chanel No.

5 just drips off,

Does it smell like Chanel No.

5?

No,

It still smells like a lotus.

And that simile means that whatever people say about you,

It all drips off and nothing sticks.

Oops,

Let it go,

It's all right down there.

Nothing sticks to my table.

So what that means is you get confidence.

You are not dependent upon the judgments of others.

You are dependent or you have this inner confidence because you know who you are,

You are not perfect but you are good enough.

So that's where you get your self-confidence from instead of worrying about what other people say about you.

And that means that you are free.

Anything else?

Got a question?

Going,

Going,

Gone.

Okay,

So I do,

So I do.

Okay,

So now I respect the Buddha Dhamma Sangha.

And then,

I know you haven't got a question because you said you didn't have any questions so I suppose there will be no one actually in front of me afterwards in my dreams.

Okay,

So now I respect the Buddha Dhamma Sangha.

Okay,

So now I respect the Buddha Dhamma Sangha.

Reviews

Ajahn Brahm is a true delight. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️