Day 050/365: 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

I do start a little bit early,

Two minutes.

And I say that because sometimes people when they try and come on time and I've already started,

It's nice to keep that sense that people don't have to rush but nevertheless they can still be on time.

But anyway,

That usual announcement,

I'll say again,

Anyone who's come for the introduction to meditation that is being held in a room to my right.

I don't mean that little room over there with the IT fellow in there.

Is that the introduction to meditation people's room in there?

Can I say the room to my right?

It doesn't mean that little room.

It means outside of the next room over there.

Because sometimes I'm amazed that people sometimes come into this room,

Sometimes by mistake and they sit for 40 minutes.

I could never do that when I was just a lay person.

It took a long time to learn how to relax the body and meditate for long periods.

You can do 40 minutes here,

Which is a lot.

Here come others coming in.

Very good.

Okay,

So it's now three o'clock so I shall start.

So again once more,

Anyone who's come for the introduction to meditation class that is being held in a room to my right,

This is the ongoing class.

So after about 15 or 20 minutes of some basic little instructions,

Then we have the opportunity to meditate for about 40-45 minutes and followed by a question and answer session.

And I know that sometimes it's hard to get questions from people here,

So one thing you can always do is to,

During the week,

You can actually even just write the questions down on a piece of paper and just give them to the gentleman inside the IT room or the computer and whatever and then they can actually have them ready for the afternoon session.

Simply because sometimes people,

Number one,

They may feel embarrassed to ask a question and number two,

They may feel that their question is not important or number three,

Sometimes you forget all your questions when you're being peaceful,

Which is an important point to notice that when you do get into some nice quiet meditation,

You don't need questions answered,

Which starts to indicate that many questions which people have,

It's not something which gives them answers,

It just is a result of a restlessness of a mind and that once the mind becomes still and peaceful,

You can see the answers for yourself.

You don't need to have them put into words,

But they're very clearly in front of you.

And this is one of the reasons why meditation,

If there is any holy book or holy dogma or texts in Buddhism,

You'll find that they can be found in the stillness of meditation.

This is where,

If you like,

The Buddha got all the Dharma from.

And so the real reverence should be to stillness and peace.

So there you can actually read the whole teachings and experience of what the Buddha found.

So because of that,

We learn just how to make our mind as peaceful and still as possible,

Awake.

Some people have the idea,

The misconception that when you are still,

That you make your mind blank,

Which means that there's nothing happening there at all and you could not be further from the truth.

The experience of meditation is that from stillness you get a lot of energy.

And real mindfulness,

Deep mindfulness,

Is a very alive state,

Full of beings,

Full of energy,

Full of power.

And we have to be patient and do it properly for that.

With such powerful penetrating minds,

It's very easy to just look and see the answers to some deep problems.

But if you think about it,

You tend to waste a lot of energy.

You just make yourself depleted in the power of your mindfulness,

Which means that sometimes you can waste hours and hours and hours and hours trying to find answers to problems.

Instead you just quiet and still and the answers just come to you so clear and so penetrating,

So deep,

Which is one of the reasons why we have this amazing power of meditation,

That you basically just see the Dhamma,

See truth,

See freedom for ourselves.

So when we do meditate,

We have to somehow or other get a reasonably peaceful body.

But there are times when our body is just sick,

It's aching,

It's got these pains,

Which we cannot sort of overcome,

Even through this meditation.

But what we can do,

We can go inside of them.

And this is where using the simile of the zooming in on Google maps,

Focusing into the center of things,

It means what's on the edge just falls off the screen.

Just go deep,

Deep,

Deep,

Deep,

Deep into stuff.

And then you find the aches and the pains,

They're not right deep inside of you,

They are actually peripheral.

And telling that anecdote of,

I mentioned it to a nun the other day,

Of all those mosquitoes on you in Thailand,

Unbearable having to sit for a couple of hours with your teacher Ajahn Chah,

Who didn't get bit half as much,

Not even a quarter as much,

But it was so unbearable until,

You just should have really got up and run away or something,

But pride kept me sitting there.

And then just the only alternative was to go inside.

So you use that image,

For me it was the image of focusing in on something,

Going in,

In,

In,

In,

Until you got to the point where you couldn't feel your body.

So it disappeared.

And it's not an amazing thing,

Well it's an amazing thing,

It's not a sort of supernatural thing,

People do that when they're watching the TV.

They've got an amazing movie on or something and when they're watching that,

They can't even be aware of the aches and the pains on them.

Which means that their feet,

Their legs go asleep,

It's only when the movie's finished,

Oh,

Well they really need to go to the toilet,

They're busting to go to the loo,

And then only afterwards,

Oh,

I really need to go.

But when you're actually right there,

Focused on something else,

Something more enjoyable,

You find that it blots out.

The aches and the pains,

Which is one of the reasons why that we can meditate sometimes with any condition,

Just going inside and inside and inside and inside.

And have that feeling,

Not to get rid of things,

But to go inside of things.

Once you can go inside of things,

You find,

This is,

Mabhajan Chaudhary,

With the story of how he overcame his malaria fever once and forever.

When he just had this really strong fever and instead of trying to escape from it,

Just go right inside of it.

And so like the eye of a storm in the middle of that,

There was no movement of the air.

For him,

In the eye of a fire,

He says,

Like a blazing fire,

Getting hotter and hotter and went right into the centre of it,

Where it was cool.

And it got hotter and hotter,

It exploded.

And that was the breaking of the fever.

And the last time he had malaria.

All those,

Be careful about following that,

Just because you think you've got the power to do it.

But nevertheless,

There is that possibility.

And there is also,

It describes the way of a meditator,

Go inside of stuff.

So you go inside of your body.

Not physically,

But just getting inside of this pain,

This ache,

This whatever,

Go inside,

Don't be afraid.

It's a fear which blocks you.

And inside it's very peaceful,

Very still.

And there you go into your mind.

When people say,

Well,

What the heck is the mind?

What's inside of your body,

If you like,

To visualize it that way.

Where you don't feel aches and pains in the body.

You just know this mind.

You know a mind by,

You know a garden by what's inside of the garden.

You know a forest because there's trees and bushes and the usual animals in the forest and the birds.

You know a mind by what's inside of it.

You know the fears,

The anxieties,

The emotions,

The thoughts,

The will.

And all of that defines what we mean by a mind.

And so we go inside of that.

And we get to know all these emotions and especially all these fears of the past and the future.

I always say there are two types of meditation.

Second noble truth meditation,

Third noble truth meditation.

Second noble truth in Buddhism is wanting something,

It's the cause of suffering.

You know you got to want something when you're out there in the world.

But when you're meditating it's like a no-wanting zone.

So you just sit there.

If you don't want anything in the whole world,

You're happy to be here.

You don't want anything else.

This is aching,

Painful,

Dull,

May not be going the way you would prefer it,

But it's here.

You've arrived in this place,

In this moment,

No rest.

And when you arrive in the present moment,

There's no place to go.

To go somewhere you need a map of the future,

Perception,

An idea of someplace else to go.

I think many of you know by now,

Wherever you go it's all the same.

If you stay here,

Then first of all it doesn't feel that good,

It's enough.

Because you suppress if you like this wanting,

This thought-finding mind,

It's always thinking that somewhere else is better or trying to overcome your fear of this present moment by just going off into your database of memories,

Some real,

Some fantasy.

You let go of the past,

You let go of the future and you're here.

And this is where the mind starts to energize and starts to wake up.

Often said on retreats,

The word for waking up in Pali,

Bhujati,

The awakened one is the Buddha.

It's the term,

Not enlightened but awakened.

I like that meaning because it shows you,

What does it mean that being awake,

Really mindful,

Powerfully mindful.

You're not sleepy and don't stumble into things,

You're really alive,

Very awake.

And that's the idea of learning how to energize the mind in this present moment.

You can see just,

Present moments right now,

There's a place where there can't be any wanting,

There can't be any ill will,

There can't be any comparisons,

No judging.

Judging means you have to judge between something and something else.

You've just got this moment.

So you really get into this present moment,

A place,

You know it's a present moment,

It is no wanting,

No other place you're going to,

No history,

No place where you came from.

If you're a prisoner of history,

You're judging yourself who you are or what the doctors and the psychs and parents and other people have said about you.

That's being judged and imprisoned by the past and the future,

It's totally open to you.

So we don't plan,

We stay in this moment and just experiment and see what happens if you just stay here.

And all that thinking,

What is that thinking anyway?

What is the reason why people meditate?

They don't need to think,

But still they do.

Why?

It's their addiction to escaping from this moment,

Doing something,

Filling in the moments.

Instead of that,

We empty out these moments,

Being here,

Finding out what it's like just to be,

Experiencing,

Not taking it because somebody says it's a nice place to be,

Not trying to prove something to others,

Not getting any certificates or any commendations from this Buddhist society,

Not having a record of how many times you've come to a retreat and how many hours you can sit and what level of meditation you have,

That is counterproductive.

This is not about achieving things,

This is about letting go of as much as you possibly can.

The more you let go,

The lighter you feel,

The higher you fly when you have the least baggage.

So this is where we learn just how to make peace with this moment,

To be with this moment,

Have this wonderful kindness opening the door of your heart to this moment,

The unconditional mindfulness,

Kindness,

Being here and smiling at this moment.

It may not be the best,

But this is where you learn.

Life is never the best.

If you're looking for something like the best,

Spend all your time,

What Ajahn Chah used to say,

Like looking for the tortoise with a moustache.

There's no such thing as a tortoise with a moustache.

I saw her say something like that and some smart aleck goes on the net and finds out this weird species of tortoise which does have a moustache,

But that's not the point.

The point is you're looking for something which basically doesn't exist.

So what waste of time that is.

So in this journey,

We just see what's right here,

The truth of now,

Be with it,

Be kind to it,

The truth of kindness and unconditional mindfulness and see what happens next.

That's where the mind becomes empowered,

Wakes up and all the other wonderful states of meditation,

The beautiful breath,

The delightful breath,

Feels so good,

Going deep into the world of the nimittas,

The lights,

The body is just receding away from you,

Like sounds hundred miles away,

Just feelings of the body,

You can hardly feel it anymore.

Sometimes before the body disappears,

People have this interesting phenomena of like this surface of the skin becomes just so sensitive,

Like ants crawling on you,

Like tingly feeling.

All that is is that the sense of touch is really being empowered,

You can really feel,

But then it will soon disappear and you won't feel the body at all.

You just go inside and when you go inside,

That's where you get to the beautiful world of your mind.

You don't train your mind,

You just let it be and just see just how easy it is to come to a state of stillness and how powerful you feel these things,

An emotional,

Experiential just experience of what stillness really is and how powerful it can be,

And how it puts all other things in perspective and how you bliss out.

Not because you're being irresponsible,

Because afterwards you do have power,

Clarity,

To make whatever decisions you need to make in your life,

To look after your body,

To help others,

A great source of wisdom and energy and clarity,

Simply by encouraging stillness and being here and patience to allow this moment to reveal her secrets,

To open up and see the beauty of what's inside,

The profound Dhamma.

So that's just the introduction.

So if you haven't already got into a comfortable meditation position,

Please do so now.

And just once again for those who have come to the Introduction to Meditation class,

That is being held in the room to my right,

This is the ongoing class.

So so so so so so When the body is relaxed,

Check again,

Starting with your legs.

You find you can always relax a little bit more.

That extra bit of kindfulness,

Looking a bit deeper with the intention of bringing comfort and ease to your body.

It helps the body just relax and if ever you find it difficult to sleep at night,

This is what you can do.

Parts of the body relax to the max,

Feel them and learn from your own experience how to take something like your left calf,

Feel it.

Find out why it is tense and why it relaxes.

You find you can relax it,

The feeling of ease,

Comfort increases.

You get to know how this works.

It is a letting go.

We have to learn that from your own experience,

From the feedback which comes from mindfulness.

I sweep out my legs,

Willing to pause if I need extra attention on one area of the body.

Experience the sensations in my butt pressing against the cushion.

Just a little bit of kindness relaxes that feeling.

Move up to my back,

It needs a stretch.

And my back feels comfortable.

And then go on,

Go on to my shoulders,

Loosening them,

Freeing them from any pulling or squashing.

So I feel light and easy.

I go down my arms,

To my hands,

Feeling.

Seeing if there is something I can do to relax.

Move this way and move that way,

See what works.

Go to my neck.

First of all making sure my head is not too far forward or too far back.

It's balanced.

If you have any irritations in my throat,

Just relax them.

To my head,

Relaxing the muscles around the eyes and the mouth.

I can feel the high humidity making me sweat.

Reminds me of Bangkok or Singapore or Malaysia.

That's something which I cannot fight.

So I just make peace with that humid air against my skin.

Make peace with it.

My guts are behind my eyes,

My brain.

Having to process so much information,

Make decisions.

Look at my brain.

I'd rather imagine it.

Give it kindness and respect.

So you can take a break.

The next half an hour brain,

You can relax.

You don't need to figure out anything.

I'm going to use another part of the knowing.

I'm going to use the mind.

And when the body is just there,

Relax,

At ease.

I still need to adjust.

There's not a competition of who can be the most physically immobile.

So you can move whenever you wish.

Whenever it's the most reasonable,

Wise thing to do.

And whilst my body is at ease,

I know because I'm used to this and it feels comfortable.

It feels delightful,

The delight of a relaxed body.

It's also great for the health.

And go to my mind.

First of all,

My peace-o-meter.

How peaceful am I now?

You start your mindfulness of the peace-o-meter by just giving it a number,

1 to 10,

Just because we're used to numbers.

Are you really peaceful or very agitated?

You don't think one is superior than the other.

You just know.

And then discover,

By trial and error,

What makes you more peaceful.

What moves the needle of your peace-o-meter closer to one?

What agitates you?

Why?

And as we learn,

We find it's pretty simple once we know the wisdom power behind making peace with this moment.

And we also get to know what peace feels like,

Not as an idea or a source of frustration when you can't get peaceful.

Sometimes peace is not stopping the thoughts.

That just makes you tired with a battle against your mind,

Trying to stop this thought and trying to stop that thought.

You don't get peace by fighting battles.

And after a while,

When you find some peace,

Then it's easy to be in this moment,

Just being here.

You can change at any time.

You can change your posture.

You can change your meditation object.

As long as you're peaceful,

Stay here.

Stay here because it's peaceful.

It might not be the most comfortable,

But it's all you have.

This is good enough.

And if,

Like most,

Not everybody,

You become aware of your breathing,

As long as the breathing is happening in this moment,

Just follow her.

Be a friend.

Just breathing in peacefully,

Breathing out,

Letting go.

Be here and be very quiet.

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Reviews

It's so good to relax into the body and just let go. Thank you for sharing all these practices. ☮️💖🙏🕉️