Day 061/365: 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. And as usual to announce this is the ongoing meditation class. Those who are coming to the introduction to meditation class starting today, That's in the room to my right, Taken by James. This is the ongoing class. And I know that when I was very young I had learned about many, Many different types of meditation from all the different traditions. And there's one type of meditation which was especially popular and well developed in the Tibetan meditation tradition of creating inner heat. And seeing as it's cold today, That might be something worth doing. However it takes many, Many years of practice so it's a bit of a waste of time. You're not going to be able to do that now. Probably by the time you're able to get that inner heat and get rid of all the cold, It'll probably be the hot season and a total waste of time. So let's put that one aside. But I always remember the stories of that, If you don't know those stories, Because they had to develop this in monasteries in the north of India, Simply because it was just so cold. They didn't have heaters. The poor monks had to be in their monasteries and if they wanted to be a hermit, They had to go out into the caves and the caves had no air cons. So they had to just make their own heat. And so they would develop this type of meditation which was actually getting into still states of mind and getting to a place where you could almost imagine fire and focus on that, Develop a state of heat inside the old body. And I always remember the tests they had to pass before they said they'd mastered this type of meditation. And I always remember this and whenever I feel cold, I remember this and I never feel cold again. They used to have to go out in the middle of the night in the snow fields, In the middle winter, Okay? And they'd have to take off all of their clothes, So no robes, Just bare skin, And sit in the snow next to this lake which was freezing. They were allowed a blanket though, After the blanket had been dipped in the water. And there they were sitting, Freezing blanket soaked with cold freezing water and they had to dry three blankets in one night to pass the test. And when I start thinking of that, Never ever do I feel cold. So anyway, If anyone wants to learn that type of meditation, Please this evening, Maybe at midnight, Come and I'll get some blankets for you soaked in water. But no, We don't need to do that these days. These days we just learn how to meditate because we live in Australia. Sometimes it's a bit chilly but it's not that bad. I know that a lot of times it depends upon one's perceptions, Like everything else in meditation. It depends how you perceive. If you really want to perceive the world, It can be extremely cold. If you want to perceive the world as hot, You can perceive it as hot. There's been many experiments done in psychology which can do just that. Even in a very, Very cold morning you can close your eyes and perceive that it's hot and the mind is so strong your body will start to perspire. That's how strong the mind is. Perception rules the mind, Which is one of the reasons I was saying to someone earlier. A lot of times one can look at meditation just as a training, A working with what we call perception, Is how we look upon our body, How we look upon our mind. By training our perception we can have a very, Very peaceful, Deep and very wonderful meditation. What do I mean by training our perception? We train it to look and recognize such things as peace and stillness. It's quite remarkable, You say peace, You say stillness, How many people really know what they're supposed to be looking at? We have to train our perception to recognize these things first of all, What they are. Once you can recognize these things as peace and stillness, Then you can stay with them. As you stay with them, They actually grow in their strength and power and you find, Yes, Now you have peace, Now you have stillness. You need to recognize these things first of all. Even simple stages of meditation, Because maybe I've been meditating for such a long time now, That you tend to forget what it's like when you start meditating. And I keep on telling people, Just as basic meditation training, Just let go of the past, Let go of the future, Being the present moment. And I was again reminded just a few weeks ago when someone said, Well, What is the present moment? In the present moment, What am I supposed to watch? You say the present moment, Yes, But what am I supposed to watch now? But what am I supposed to watch? And it was trying to get the person to actually perceive and to make this thing we call a pleasant moment, It's just the right word, Isn't it? Pleasant moment, Present moment. I know it's a slip of the tongue, But it's also a slip of perception as well, Because the present moment is pleasant. So to get this present moment, To be able to actually to see it as clear as if you are seeing a person or a wall or a tree, Something which you can know and know what this present moment actually is, So that you can perceive it, You can notice it. And of course, Once you can perceive and notice it, Then actually you can start to remain with it for long periods of time. You can actually get to be in the present and know what it feels like. It can become an object of your awareness. When I say just watch the present moment, The mind knows exactly what to do, Goes there and stays there. It's like an old friend. But when we haven't had those perceptions before, We don't really know what they are. They take a bit of training to actually get that into your mental vocabulary so that you don't mention present moment and the mind knows exactly what it is and just goes into there and stays there. So sometimes we do have to have all these different tricks, Skillful means we call them in meditation, How to be in the present moment, How to develop that perception. And of course one of the best ways of developing present moment awareness is to go out in nature to listen to sounds, To be aware of feelings on your body like the cold or the heat or the wind or the pressure of the chair on your bottom. Those physical feelings, They are all indicating the present moment. Just like a flower lives in a garden, Feelings in the body, They live in the present moment. They're here because feelings in the body, They don't usually leave a residue. It's here, You can feel the cold and afterwards it's gone. Another cold moment comes. The fly lands on your skin and as long as it doesn't bite you, Australian flies don't usually bite, They land on your skin, You feel it, When it flies off, No residue left. So those sorts of feelings get you into this present moment. So if you meditate, Always find trouble getting into the present moment, Just go to the beach and take your shoes off and just feel the sand under your feet. Go into the bush and just feel or listen to the sound of the birds. Go into anywhere which is bringing you out of your head into the reality of hearing and especially feeling on the body. That brings you into this present and then after a while you see what has this in common, Feeling the wind on your face, Feeling the water at the beach between your toes. What has those things got in common? You understand what they have in common is presence. It's something which is here. It's not a memory, It's not a dream of the future, It's here. That gives you the perception of what present moment really is. And further off you develop the perception of silence. And again, That was something which many people have told me when I've been teaching meditation around the world, They find it hard to get their head around. They think, Look, If I stop thinking then I'm asleep. No, When you can stop thinking and you're still aware, That's called the silent awareness. So you know but it hasn't got this inner conversation going on inside of you. It's a knowledge without giving things names. And after a while people get to understand that and that is a wonderful perception for us to develop until we get so used to the silent awareness of life. Imagine we can just go out anywhere into the world, Especially when we're by ourselves. And the world may be noisy but inside our head we're silent. And that silence means that number one, You can go to sleep well at night because a lot of times what stops you sleeping is all this garbage going on between your ears when you're trying to go to sleep. There's no noise left at all, You're aware, Silent, You soon fall asleep when you want to go to sleep. It also means you can listen much more when people are talking to you, When there's silence inside the head. You can hear everything, Just like a dry sponge can soak up all the water but a wet sponge can only soak up only half as much water. So when the mind is fully clear and peaceful, Not a word going on between the ears in your thinking, It's silent awareness, It's amazing just what you can absorb. And that is very very important for people who are like students because if you're studying, It's a lot of work and if you can absorb information very quickly and retain that information too, That means you can get more work done in less time and have less stress in your life. And it's a very simple technique to learn how to have silence in the mind when you're reading a book, When you're listening to a lecture or when you're just looking at something on the computer screen. And after a while we can develop the perception of silence. As soon as, Say, A meditation teacher says, Just be silent, The mind knows exactly where to look and what to do. It has that perception clearly in its mind. So the perceptions which I am encouraging in the last six months or so is actually for much longer than that but really putting a lot of emphasis on this, Is the perception of delight and happiness with a relaxed body and a relaxed mind. When you are relaxed, You're sitting in an armchair after a hard day's work, You had your cup of tea or coffee or whatever it is, You haven't got the TV on and your body feels good or you may just be on a deck chair in the garden on a warm afternoon, Just relaxing, The body feels good. You may have just been fortunate enough to have a massage or been to a spa, Everything is nice and loose, The body feels delightful. That perception of a delightful, Relaxed body, Again, Is something which is quite important in meditation. If you can develop that perception of a relaxed, Peaceful body, What it means is your mind will go there again many, Many, Many times. You know why we are meditating, To get this delightful feeling in the body where there is hardly any sort of aches or pains. I just remember this morning, Because every morning, On Saturday morning, We go on an arms round and it is very cold this morning and when we go on arms round, You would know we don't wear any shoes, We walk barefoot for an hour through the streets of Perth. And of course you get a bit cold but it doesn't really matter because after about 15 minutes you can't feel your feet anyway. Now that's only a joke. But afterwards, The sampop who accompanies us, Washes the feet in warm water and it is so nice, It would be really cold and you would get this beautiful warm foot bath afterwards. Remember those times maybe you have been in cold countries and after a walk you sat down and soaked your feet in warm water. It feels so relaxing and delightful. All the tightness of the cold vanishes and things get free. It's a pleasure of relaxation. That pleasure of relaxation, That perception of that pleasure is really important. Because that means that when you are meditating you start developing that delight in the body. It may not be perfect relaxation, Some of you are getting old, There is always going to be a few aches and pains but this is minimal aches, Minimal pains and that is a relief, That is a blessing. It's delightful. So beginning meditation actually is like sitting here. The reason why that perception of delight is important is because that stops you wandering away, Thinking about all sorts of things. It's the delight in this moment keeps the mind still. Without that delight, It's natural, You can't stop it. The mind will go thinking about this, Thinking about that, It's escaping, Looking for pleasure anywhere else. The pleasure is there in the moment if you can only perceive it. Once you perceive it, You stay there, The pleasure actually grows. And that's precisely also what one does when hardly relaxing the body, Feeling delightful relaxed body, Then one goes into relaxing the mind. You find that in the present moment it is delightful, This being here. And I try to market this again and again, All that stuff about the future, Such a worry. Somebody called our monastery on Friday and said there was an asteroid heading for earth, You better watch out. Of course, It missed. Again, Nothing ever exciting happens to monks. Anyway, It missed. But why do they call you up in the first place? You know, If it's going to hit, It hits, If it doesn't hit, It doesn't hit. It's a waste of time worrying about it. But sometimes we just love worrying about things. Why is that? Because why can't we just stay in this present moment, Enjoy where we are now, Because there's a certain delight and happiness in worry. The same as a delight and happiness in searching through the past. Because you know, During the, When the past is actually happening, You can't really control it. But when you're out of the past, You can sort of pick and choose and think, I should have said this and then that would have happened. But it is still so much of a waste of time. But if you can be in the present moment and see the delight in the present moment, Not only just perceive what the present moment is, But perceive it as delightful, As happy. What a wonderful freedom that is, To have no past to worry about, Have no future to be anxious about. You are like totally free. Have you ever just even imagined, Just like being just like a hermit? A hermit in a nice cave somewhere in Australia, Warm, Plentiful supply of food, With no worries at all in the world. No assignments to hand in for your PhD. No worries about how you're going to pay your bills. No worries about health, Old age or family, Just perfectly free. Imagine that, Just being on some mountain somewhere. Just totally free of all past and all future. Having not a worry in the world, Not one worry about anything. How would that feel? Can you actually understand this is just so delightful. It's a delight of contentment, Perfectly apiece, Nothing missing, Nothing to do, Nothing to achieve, Nowhere to go. That's what I mean about the perception of stillness. The perception of peace. You find that in the present moment. That's part of what the present moment is like. It has an element of the delight of peacefulness. And that's even more so when your mind becomes silent. See if you can develop the delightful perception of a mind which has got nothing to talk about. It's as silent as the vast inner parts of Australia where you can go and there's not a sound of anything for miles and miles. Perfectly still. Those are delightful experiences. Now once you start to develop the perception of such delight, The delight in present moment, The delight in silence, The delight in stillness, Your mind won't wander anywhere. It enjoys every second of those experiences. And when you see it, Even there may be some noise but you can see a little bit of stillness inside that noise, Your mind will incline towards that. And incline towards what is delightful just the same way a man will incline towards a beautiful girl walking past. You can't stop yourself. This is what will happen to the mind when it sees the delight in silence. And the mind will go towards that silence, Stay there, And the silence and the delight will grow and grow and grow. We're developing the perceptions of real delight, The stillness of silence, Which is what meditation is all about. And quite frankly this is just what the Buddha said and what monks and nuns, Meditators who go very deep will always say to you, It's the highest delight of all, The delight of stillness of silence. When nothing moves, When everything has stopped, That is the biggest happiness you can ever experience in this world. Try and see. So that is just a little introduction of playing with some perceptions. And if you have skill in your perceptions, Then you'll have very easy time when you're meditating. So we can start now by sitting down. If you're not already doing so, Get your body nice and comfortable. And I should announce once more that this is the ongoing meditation class. If you come to the series of four lessons, The introduction to meditation class, That is happening in the room to my right. And also please make sure your mobile phones are all turned off if they're not already. So there's no disturbance. And once again, Sit comfortably, That comfortable position can be anywhere on a chair, On a cushion, On a stool, Wherever you can feel comfortable and at ease, Sort of. Again the eyes closed, Bring attention onto your body, Get in touch with the feelings and sensations on the body, The aches and the pains, Tightnesses, The stress, The knots inside your body. Be aware of them. If you can do something about them, Do it, Untighten the belt. If you want to loosen the button, If you want to fidget your bottom, Please do so. Make sure your feet are comfortable on the floor. And don't just spend a few seconds on this. Spend a couple of minutes or more with your body. We neglect our body so much, As we're so busy doing other stuff, Which means our body gets sick. So please spend maybe five minutes of quality time, Full awareness with your own body. You find you can always relax it a little bit more. There is always something else you can do to make it that little bit more comfortable. Check your shoulders to make sure they are nicely relaxed. Don't hold them tight. Let them droop. Making sure that your face is relaxed. You just have to look at other people to see the tension, The tightness in the muscles around their eyes and their mouth. So just be aware of your face and see if you can just loosen up a little bit. To get the facial muscles as relaxed as you possibly can. See if you can notice a certain type of pleasure, A delight, Of the facial muscles when they're relaxed. A little tingling feeling of pleasure. Things aren't tight anymore, They're loose at ease and that feels pleasant. You may have some other tight parts in your body, Aches, Irritations or pains. It may be inside your body, Places where your hand can never reach. Just be aware of those feelings, Be mindful of them. It takes a few seconds to establish that awareness of an ache or a pain or irritation deep inside of you. Once you have perceived that inner place of stress, See if you can relax it. The mindfulness gives you feedback. You can notice the feeling inside of you, The irritation, The pain, The ache, Get worse or better. Find out what causes it to get more tense. Find out what causes it to relax. The attitude which causes relaxation is actually called compassion, Kindness. And as that ache, The irritation inside of you gets less, The inner part of you relaxes. That too feels delightful. Developing the perception of delight in relaxation. When the body is really relaxed, Then you can let it go. Do the same with the mental world. Beginning by developing the perception of the present moment. All your past, What happened a second ago, To as far back as you can remember, All of that falls off your radar screen as they say. All of the future, Even what's going to happen later on in the meditation, Let alone what happens after, All of that disappears in your field of perception. All you've got left is life as it happens, Present moment. It's an amazing thing called now. In this present moment, See if you can develop the perception of the delight in the present moment. Just the pleasure of just being without the burden of the future and past. Same beautiful pleasure you had when you were a child. No future, No past. Just now, Just being. If you are successful in developing the perception of pleasure in the present, The present will stay with you easily. This next part means being Joe. . . As the mind settles down, It becomes more peaceful. See if you can perceive the silence when one thought has finished, Another thought has yet to arise, Where you are aware, But no words inside your head. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. See if you can develop the perception of delightful silence. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. You are aware and silent. How delightful that is. So getting close to the end of the meditation now. Can you perceive peace in the delight of a still mind? Enjoy the deep relaxation at the end of the meditation. Enjoy the deep relaxation at the end of the meditation. I will now ring the gong three times. Please listen to every ringing of the gong. When the last sound disappears, That is the signal to open your eyes and end the meditation. When the last sound disappears, That is the signal to open your eyes and end the meditation. When the last sound disappears, That is the signal to open your eyes and end the meditation. When the last sound disappears, That is the signal to open your eyes and end the meditation. When the last sound disappears, That is the signal to open your eyes and end the meditation. Very good. I know that's one thing which happens when we meditate with perceptions. Sometimes when we learn how to train our perceptions in a new way, Sometimes we just take off the shackles of our perception. Just we have been trained in our schools and our culture and by our peers to perceive things in only one way and not other ways. And here we're learning how to perceive peace and delight in relaxation which not many people know about. He's seeing this as part of the world and a very beautiful part of the world. It's part of the meditation world. And there is another thing which happens, Which somebody was asking me this morning. Sometimes when you get into a very still state of mind, You perceive some weird stuff like your body turning around or your body expanding or your body, Like Anacchaan Chah described once, Exploding. Now this is nothing which is real. All this is, Is just the mind is playing around. It's like the perception is free. Very similar to when you have a son or a daughter and they leave home for the first time, Maybe just stay with some friends or maybe going to university. In the first couple of weeks they really play around. They're free from mum and dad for the first time. They go a bit wild. Sometimes it's similar to what the perception does. I remember people telling me that sometimes they feel they're rocking backwards and forwards when they were meditating, They were perfectly still, They weren't moving at all. That's what it felt like for them. Other people think they're ballooning out or they're rising into the air. They're not levitating, They're just sitting on the ground. This perception is starting to have a bit of fun. And even sometimes people have these very interesting and weird visions when they're meditating. Some people tell you that no, Don't get into that. But I say, Oh no, Enjoy yourself. Meditation can sometimes be a bit boring. When you get the interesting stuff, You're having a good time. Nothing to be afraid of. Those experiences, They disappear by themselves usually after a few minutes. You think you're expanding and after a while it just disappears. You find you're the same old size as when you began. Sometimes you feel that you're turning around, You come out of meditation, Sitting in exactly the same position, You haven't moved. This is just the way the mind just starts to have a bit of fun. And you just enjoy that and just like many other things in meditation, Just let it be. It vanishes by itself and afterwards usually the mind gets very, Very still and very peaceful. It's just a stage of meditation. I used to give it the words, Like, Perception gets its wings, It can fly off and do weird stuff instead of always being so controlled. Now it can be a bit free. And after a while it just settles down. When it settles down, It gets even more still and more peaceful. It's a stage in meditation. So don't be afraid of it. Most of meditation, You just sit there and let things happen and see what happens next. You don't need to be afraid of anything. It's very safe, Very peaceful and very interesting and a lot of fun. Okay, Hopefully that developing the perceptions of delight helped you in today's meditation. Are there any questions you have? No questions from the. . . Yes? Aunty, I've been thinking a lot about this idea of perceptions and the perception of bracedness. Yeah, Go on, That's fine. Bracedness in the world, You know, You're running around and you're basically braced against the danger out there, Whatever it is. You come into sitting meditation in this hall and you carry that in your body. And you know, You're talking about letting go. You know, The metaphor is a clench fist versus an open hand. And I guess that's what happens in meditation. My question to you is that as you move from bracedness to letting go of control or letting things be, Do you think to what extent is the deepening of that a natural inclination towards metta and loving kindness? In deep stillness, Does metta, Loving kindness towards oneself arise spontaneously and to others as well, Spontaneously? Indeed, This is where metta, Letting go, Stillness all merge. I was watching a couple of documentaries recently, People have been sending me these. There was one of an Indian lady had a near death experience. And she went through the light, Which is the same as the image you have in deep meditation, To the realm of pure love and deep peace, Great stillness, Great pleasure. I know that very well in deep meditation. But what is always interesting to me is how some people say deep bliss and some people say all embracing love, Unconditional love. And you can see that these things all come together there. The deepest meaning of love, I'm talking about the very deepest meaning of love. The deepest meaning of metta is letting go, Peace, Stillness, All embracing, Unconditional. All of those things are all pointing to the same thing. The metta, The love we know in real life is only a fraction of the real thing. And the stillness you have in meditation, You get really still, You go wow, What you're feeling just maybe at the end of this meditation is nothing like the powerful stillness in the deep meditation states. So you can actually see yes, It does arise naturally because it is the same thing. It is the stillness. That's why when you do this meditation, It's not just making yourself relaxed and enjoying the delight of a relaxed body. You're getting incredible insights into the nature of the mind and also the nature of truth. Everyone likes to receive love and give love but what actually is it? And to see this beautiful unconditional which is letting things go. Unconditional love means not controlling, Letting things be, Not interfering, Which is stillness, Which is peace. Bhante, Most of the time people experience that unconditional love in relationships if they've got a halfway decent relationship. If you do meditation in regular places and go to deep places in meditation, Is it expected that that will spill over past the two of you out into the world so that you begin to extend that deep sense of compassion that you would normally share with just a couple of people, Maybe family and friends, Outwards? Of course that happens. That's why some people ask most, Don't you miss relationships? No, We have a much broader relationship than most people do. Why love just one other person when you can love hundreds and thousands? I mean that, If you can get your head around what I'm saying. No, I believe you actually. I think that you have more intimacy with people in the world than a lot of… Yeah, But it's also the, Again, It's often heard me say it's extending that love towards oneself as well. Be at peace with oneself. You know you're at peace with oneself when there's no business. The past and the future are very easy to let go when you're at peace with yourself. And I like that word you used earlier, Just about bracing. We brace against the future as well. We're just so scared. We brace about the past, All these memories of God, What did I do? I don't want to face that one again. We just open up totally to those things, You let them go, Forgiveness, Letting it be. I said a nice little tale, You know, Because you're a psychologist, It's a nice little skillful means to give forgiveness because people find it hard to forgive others. So I developed this last night. If you don't find it hard to forgive other people, Go into a forest, Find a crooked tree and forgive it for being crooked. Now you do that because what you're doing there, You see just how stupid it is not forgiving people for being just who they are. Because the crooked trees, As you heard me say many times, They're the beautiful ones. The ones which are straight and perfect, They're just so boring and they're plastic, They're not real. But in a forest, Because I live in a forest, There's never any tree which is perfect, Except that one over there, That's made out of paper, That's a fake. It's got no brown leaves on it. Then slowly work up the hierarchy until we get to the husband and the wife. Exactly, The crooked tree is beautiful, You can forgive that because it's nature. So then you start forgiving your husband, Your wife, Because they're crooked too. Some of them are very bent, But you know the more bent ones are the most beautiful ones. And then alas of course, That crooked bent damaged goods which is me, No one's self. Everyone is damaged goods, Otherwise you wouldn't be beautiful. So if you have trouble forgiving and letting go of the past, Go and find a beautiful crooked tree, See all its faults and forgive it. And then you'll find it's much easier to forgive other people. You make the association. 24 hours. I can't do more of that. Sitting meditation, It depends how much time you let me. Sorry? Oh jeepers, Just about everything. Such as answering people's questions on their marriage, On their kids, Doing admin work, This place, We have to run it. Selling myself to raise funds for our nuns monastery, Even building the stuff, I was wheel bearing concrete on Friday. So all this sort of stuff, Which you do, Talking to people, Being kind, Eating, Sleeping, Those things we do. But when I say 24 hours, It's because the essence of meditation is learning how to make peace, Be kind, Be gentle, Do whatever you're doing. So if I'm talking to someone, I'm just being at peace with that situation, Not trying to get rid of you because I'm busy doing something else. Making peace, Being kind, Being gentle with whatever I'm doing at any time of the day. Even when I'm sleeping, I'm just making peace, Being kind, Being gentle to my body and mind. So I can count that as meditation too. It's not what you're aware of or not what you're doing, But how you're doing it and how you are aware. That is the most important thing in life. When you're fixing your motorbike, How are you fixing it? Are you fighting it? Are you struggling? Are you trying to get this done to try and do something else? Are you actually being here, Enjoying just fixing up the motorbike, Being patient, Being kind, Having a good time? You're stuck in the traffic going to work. How are you stuck in the traffic? That's the reason for stress, Is just we keep fighting against things. We don't make peace, We make war with life. We're not kind, We struggle and force and accrue and quite violent to ourselves. The way we push ourselves, So that violence causes all sorts of trouble. So make peace, Be kind, Be gentle in every moment of your life. And for those of you who don't know, That is a very good translation of the second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. Make peace, Be kind, Be gentle. Dhamma sankapa, Awayapada sankapa, Ahingsa kasankapa. Just to impress you, To show that I know what I'm talking about. I don't make it up. Somebody else made it up before me. That was called the Buddha. Okay, Okay we can finish off now because it's 4. 15. So pay respects to Dhamma Sangha, If you wish, You don't have to. And then we can do what we need to do.

Reviews

Just wonderful! I'm impressed and enjoyed it very much. Love to all

Delight in the silence. My silence is full of bird songs right now but I felt great peace and truly love the quiet and mindfulness. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️

Is Perception reality ? Or we train our perception to be very close to reality? 🧘🏻‍♀️🙏