Day 076/365: 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

Now is the time for our ongoing meditation class. So this is the class for the super-duper experts, The Olympic athletes of meditation, The elite of the elite. This is actually the class for those who meditated before. So those of you who have come for the first time, The meditation, The introduction to meditation class, This is being held in a room to my right. This is the ongoing class for those who meditated before and the main difference is that on this class we only focus on a small part of meditation, Not the general overall picture and also we meditate for 40-45 minutes which is much longer. And on the first 15 minutes, We always talk something about meditation and somebody was asking me earlier about the posture and I was saying there is nothing magical about sitting on the floor or even having a straight back. He said, This is not important, Your physical position. What's really important is your attitude to meditation. And of course you have heard me say many many times, I need to keep saying it again and again and again, The important thing is like kindness, Attention and gentleness, Making peace, Being kind, Being gentle. So this is what you do with your body, First of all to make sure your body is comfortable because the comfort of your body is an expression of your, First of all your awareness, You are actually sensitive to the needs of your body, You are aware of it. I do remember just the first years as a monk in Thailand because we would go barefoot without shoes on, Barefooted, I was going to say barefooted. Which one is it, Barefooted or barefooted? Because there was two of them, Two barefoot, Anyway, Without shoes all over the place. And you were always cutting your feet or stubbing your toes. So it had plasters and ointment all over your feet and cuts and scars. When my teacher saw this, He said, You Westerners have got stupid feet. It was a wonderful way of looking at it because I always saw that other parts of my body were stupid but never thought that feet could be stupid. It was a very wonderful way of thinking about it, Your feet were stupid. In other words, You weren't aware of that part of your body so you kept on injuring it. And some of you have got stupid backs. No wonder they keep on getting aches and pains. So in order to get rid of the stupid feet and the stupid back or the stupid whatever else you, Pains and aches you get in your body, We first of all pay attention to our body, The different parts of our body, Having paid attention to those parts of the body, And we are kind to those parts of the body. Being kind to those parts of the body means if they do need to be adjusted, We adjust them. So you don't need to sit full lotus or broken glass on the floor. You don't prove anything to yourself except sometimes your stupidity. If you want to sit on a chair, Wonderful, Sit on a chair. And one of the reasons why chairs are designed like that, Is because we have had chairs in our cultures for I don't know how many thousand years and over those thousands of years, The design of chairs has evolved to actually to be quite comfortable. Otherwise they just don't get sold. So your chairs, The way they are just tilted backwards slightly is because of comfort and also I was reading an article which somebody sent me from a scientific journal, The most comfortable posture for your back, This one is about 15 degrees from the vertical, Leaning back slightly, Just like your chairs over there. So they are the best posture. You don't need to take your back away from the chair, Lean back until it feels comfortable, If that's what you want, If that's what feels good for you. So what we are saying here is your attitude which you begin with the way you sit is also the attitude which you have when you start to meditate. You are working with your body, Making it peaceful, Making it kind, Not trying to control it and having it in this ideal posture, What you think is important is not the outside, It's the inside, Your attitude, This attitude to be attentive and to be kind and that is exactly what you do when you are meditating. It doesn't matter if you are tired, If you are restless, If you got these great lights going in the mind, If all these amazing insights come up, That is not as important. You are playing this with seriousness as your compassion, As your attentiveness to the whole process when it happens. So your job just in the same way, You feel your body, How can this body be more comfortable? You feel it, That's mindfulness and you are kind to it. I can see my body is aching but I am not going to move it, That's stupidity. It is aching, It's in the wrong position, Therefore I move it and get comfortable and that's exactly what I do with my mind. I look at my mind when I start meditating, How is my mind? I am attentive to it, If it's tired, I know it needs a rest, I don't work it too hard, I am patient. If it's restless, Again a lot of times it's because you have been working very hard, You need time to allow it to slow down. Or if it's really restless, It's sometimes because you are not content enough, You are just wandering here and there trying to find a more comfortable position for your mind. So you are kind to it, You know exactly what to do, Just the same way, I know if I am aching this way, I have to move that way. If I got sort of an ache somewhere, I can sort of scratch, I can itch it, Itch in my throat, I can cough it out. I know exactly what to do to calm the problem down, To settle it. That's how I deal with the mind as well. I am attentive and I am kind to my own mind, To find out how it needs to be adjusted so it can be comfortable and just like you adjust your body, Make it comfortable so it can stay in the same position for the 45 minutes. So when you meditate, You maybe say on the breath, How can I adjust my attention with the breath so it can stay comfortable for 45 minutes? So you don't feel this so called mental ache and pain which drives you away from the meditation object. So the breath is actually comfortable, So you want to stay there, So it's fun to stay there. So this is how we adjust our meditation and again it's not what you are aware of, But actually how you are aware is the most important. So as we are meditating, We have this awareness together with compassion at all stages and just as there is no perfect posture, Each one has to find their own posture. So there is no perfect mind state, All the mind states you are in, Whether it is clarity, Whether it is peace, Whether it is restlessness or dullness, Each one of those mental states is karmically produced. That's what it is, You can't choose to get rid of it, All you can choose is to be kind to it, To make peace with it, To be gentle with it, That's all you can do. That's the only thing you are supposed to do in meditation. So the same way that we set up our bodily posture, The same way we set up our mental posture, This ability to hold whatever we have in our mind without causing too much negativity, Mental pain or mental disturbance. So we can hold things and keep it still. And if you know how to keep your mental posture still, Of course then all of the deep meditations just happen by themselves, Which is always the reason why I say this is a process, You just keep driving that car and eventually you reach the destination. Even that's not the best of similes because this is a passive journey in meditation. In the rest of your life you drive your vehicle, You control it, You direct it to get where you want to go. In meditation you are the passenger, You are the passenger on the bus, On the train, On the aircraft. You just strap yourself in, Look out the window and enjoy the flight. You will find the more that you relax in meditation, By relaxing it means you are not controlling things, The more you let go which means you are not driving things, The more you renounce, Which means you are renouncing your will, Renouncing your desires to try and get somewhere or be something. The more you renounce, Let go, Give up, The more peaceful you get because there is this will, Driving, Doing things, Controlling things, That is the problem. That's what stops you being peaceful. As Ajahn Chah would often say, Your mind is like the leaf on a tree, It only moves backwards and forwards because of the wind. When the wind disappears, The leaf on a tree moves less and less and less until it starts moving at all and becomes absolutely still. That's the nature of a leaf, To be still. It only moves because of external forces. So your mind is like that, It only moves because of external forces. And after a while you see those external forces, Your will, Your choice, Directing, Wanting, That sort of stuff is what moves the mind. So if you cut that out, How do you cut that out? Just by kindness, By attention. You don't cut the will by more will, Saying I am going to be still. That just makes more agitation. It's the kindness, The attention, The gentleness, That's what stops things. That's what letting go is all about. That's what making peace is all about. The kindness, The gentleness, The acceptance. The acceptance of this moment, Not trying to change it, Not trying to drive it to some other place. Acceptance, Being with and then after a while you find everything slows down and becomes still. And then you have the experience of meditation. The amazing states of stillness and peace and happiness which come with that peace, Which is just wonderful to behold. It relaxes you, Energizes you and gives you a great insight into how happiness, Inner happiness, What sometimes people call peace of mind, Contentment, Is right here in the middle of where you already were. All you need to do is to be more fully where you already were. Just to be here, Not trying to get anywhere, Just to be here and be more deeply here and more deeply, Deeply here in every moment. That's called the path of stillness. That's the path of peace. That's your mental posture which corresponds to the physical posture. And then you can hold that posture physically and mentally for long periods of time with utter contentment, With no disturbance. That's our path of meditation to get the correct mental posture. Okay, So I have said those opening few words. Again, For those people coming to the introduction to meditation, The first class is in meditation. If you come to the introduction of meditation, That class is being held in the room to my right. The introduction to meditation class, The room to my right. This is the ongoing class for people who meditated before because we're going to be sitting for about 45 minutes. So if you come to the introduction class, That's the room to my right. This is the ongoing class. We're now going to meditate for 45 minutes. So if you like to get yourself comfortable, Remember it doesn't matter how you're sitting, The most important thing is you're being kind and paying attention to your body and getting this beautiful comfortable posture, Not the ideal posture in thought but the perfect posture in experience. So sit down, Closing your eyes, Bringing full attention, First of all, Onto your body. Instead of thinking what the perfect posture should be, Just think how you can make yourself more comfortable. And adjust the body accordingly so you don't have a stupid back or a stupid bottom or stupid arms. Each part of your body informs you how it could be more comfortable and you take account of that advice. Act accordingly and care for your body. You're going to have to sit still for about 45 minutes. It's a long time. So it's worthwhile investing one or two minutes so the following 43 minutes can be ache-free. And don't rush the physical posture. You're establishing both mindfulness and kindness. And your own body is a tool to establish these meditation qualities, Awareness and kindness. Until you get this posture for your body which is comfortable, Which you feel you can maintain throughout the whole of this meditation without needing to move. A sense of openness, No tightness in the body because there is a tightness anywhere. That's going to be a pain later on. Everything is as loose as you possibly can make it. No tension, No knots, Relaxed and free. And you carry on experiencing that physical posture just a little bit longer. There might be minor adjustments needed. The bodily posture is as good as you can possibly make it. Then set up the mental posture. A state of mind where you can relax for 43 minutes. A state where you don't have to wander just like your mind doesn't have to fit you backwards and forwards. A state of mind where you can just be here still for all this long time. I think you can probably understand that that mental posture requires mindfulness. So you haven't got a stupid mind, You are aware of the mind. You are kind to it. Treating your mind like a friend. Just establish this mindfulness and kindness to whatever you are experiencing inside every moment. Just establish your mental posture with no tightness or tension. The tightness and tension is all this desire and wanting. The knots are all this ill will, I don't want. Release all of that. So you can develop this really comfortable mental posture which can accept anything that your mind throws up in the next 40 minutes. You can make peace with everything. It's kind to the whole mental world with all the beings which inhabit your mental world. All beings in my meditation be happy and well. Just set up your mental posture. You are in the present moment right now. Your posture is good to mean the present moment will stay with you. If you have kindness and awareness and you respect this moment by which I mean whatever you are hearing, Feeling, Knowing, Whatever is happening right in this moment, If you are attentive to it and kind to it, It will stay. Thank you. You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Eventually you find silence and after silence you can go into your breathing. Whatever the object always make peace, Be kind, Be gentle. And maintain the proper mental posture. You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Getting close to the end of the meditation now. Just how do you feel? What's it like inside your mind? If you have peace, What does peace feel like as an experience? Why is it happiness to be at peace? I will be Nerving the gong three times to end the meditation period. Please listen to every sound from the gong. Only when the last ringing vanishes, Only then come out from your meditation. Please listen to every sound from the gong. Please listen to every sound from the gong. Okay. When you experience peace in the mind and you know what it feels like, You know how delightful peace of mind is. Why many people search for that throughout their whole life. And the few people who do find peace of mind usually find it in places like this. The real peace of mind, Not the fake stuff which lasts only for a few seconds or minutes. That deep peace of mind where everything is just so tranquil, You're just so happy to be here. Where you wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the whole world, In this moment, Watching your breath or just experiencing peace itself. The most interesting thing is to recognize where this peace of mind comes from. It is as if it doesn't come from anywhere, It's always there. You just need to unwrap it as it were. Just like you unwrap a present. You see that sometimes the presents which people get these days, You take off the wrapping paper, This brown paper inside. You take off the brown paper, Then there's a box. You take off the box, Inside is another package. There's so many wrappings in modern things, Presents today. It's just like that peace, That peace of mind is like wrapped up with so many things. Your job in meditation is not to think you haven't got peace of mind. It's just like to uncover it in this moment, To take away all these wrappings of time, The past and the future, All these wrappings of your thoughts. Take all these wrappings of sounds and feelings in the body, Just to go right inside. And inside you find the present, The beautiful peace of mind. So it's there all the time, So you don't have to do anything or go anywhere. So I've been teaching this meditation for such a long time. It's hard for people to get their heads around simply because they think that to get peace of mind you have to do something. But every time you do something you destroy peace of mind. How can you make peace by fighting a war? How can you get still by doing things? It's just a matter of letting go, Of making peace, Being kind, Being gentle and being patient as well, Giving this process the time for it to work. And if you are meticulous about making peace, Being kind, Being gentle, Yes you do have to establish mindfulness to be alert, To be aware. So you know what you are doing and you are making peace, You are being compassionate, You are being gentle. As long as you have enough awareness to know that you are not interfering, You are letting things be, Then the whole process works. You just sit there and these states of mind come to you. You don't go chasing them, They come right to you. I remember one occasion once in monastery in Thailand, Some of the monks in those days were just so little of anything of food, Of drinks, Of comfort. But whenever a monk was staying up all night to make their robes, Especially for the dyeing of the robes made out of jackfruit dye, There was one occasion you could have some tea, Some coffee and you take it to the dyeing shed and because you are staying up all night you needed some stimulants to keep you awake and also to keep you aware because you are boiling things on a fire. I remember just this group of monks were having all this tea and coffee. We used to get up at 3 o'clock and that day I woke up at quarter to 3 in the morning and I thought, Should I go over and get myself a cup of coffee? And I thought, No, That's craving, That's desire. So I got up and walked over to get my cup of coffee. And when I got to the dyeing shed, There we go, That's what happens when you follow your desire. The place was deserted but everything was warm, They must have just finished and packed up. So I went back to my hut and then to the morning chanting and after the chanting was finished. The monks who were at the dyeing shed, They said, Where were you at 3 o'clock in the morning? I said, I was just walking to the dyeing shed to get a cup of coffee. And it was really strange because at 3 o'clock we all walk into your hut to bring you a cup of coffee. They just went on a different route. If I hadn't followed my desire, The cup of coffee would have come to me. And that was like a wonderful little lesson. Just let things be and things come to you in the same way that if you just let things be in meditation, All these beautiful states of meditation, Even the breath, It just comes to you. You just sit there, Stop your desiring and craving and want to be somewhere else. Because that's what causes stress. That's what makes the mind move. I'm wanting to be somewhere else, Wanting to get the state of meditation, Not wanting to be where you are. That's the problem we're trying to overcome. This there we get beautiful contentment, Peace of mind, Just being happy to be here. Once you start to learn that trick, Then you find meditation is so easy. You sit here and all these things, They come to you. It's a beautiful way of meditating. You find not only do you understand what peace of mind is, You understand how it's generated, How you can relax to the max, Sitting here and enjoying all these beautiful states as they come to you. And they all come because the still mind becomes a happy mind. Peace is the source of inner energy. As long as we can develop that peace, The energy improves and improves and improves, The mindfulness gets stronger. You don't make the mindfulness stronger, You just sit there and watch the mindfulness get stronger once you realise you're not wasting energy by fighting your inner world. The energy gets stronger, The mindfulness gets clear and as the mindfulness gets clear, You can let go even more. And as you let go even more, The mindfulness gets stronger, Then you can let go even more thoroughly, The mindfulness gets stronger. You get this beautiful feedback cycle where the mindfulness increases and increases, The peace gets more and more deep and you enjoy the great benefits of meditation. Not only do you experience peace of mind, But peace of mind is always a great benefit for your health. It gives you more freedom in your body and I can't resist telling the other story which I told last night and also this morning at the dana. It must be because this one guy developed very very good loving kindness meditation. If you didn't hear the story last night, He told me that he was sitting outside an ATM in Europe and he was actually developing loving kindness towards the ATM machine. He said first of all, He thought this had some sort of connection with the ATM because the first time he walked past it, He said, The ATM sort of heard a sound like a gurgle. He thought, Oh the ATM likes me. So he was sitting outside and he decided to give loving kindness towards the ATM and sure enough, A 20 euro note came out. He said it was true. No one had pressed any buttons, No one had been there for 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes beforehand. So of course, He took the 20 euro note out. So that's the power of meditation and loving kindness. So if you want to see how good your meditation is today, Go and stand outside an ATM and say, May all ATMs be happy and well. I really love you and make peace with you and are kind to you and see what happens. Who knows? It might be a test of your meditation. Okay, It's a great story. He said it was true. Even if it wasn't true, It's a good story anyway. Anybody got any comments or questions about the meditation today? Any meditation questions about? Yes? How do you fight it? You don't fight it until the drowsiness disappears. Good, Yeah. Okay, You should be able to come back to the breath. You can't fight drowsiness. You can see it was the heat, There's a cause behind it. There's nothing wrong with you. It's not saying, I'm a terrible meditator, I get drowsy. You know, You're born in Scotland, Your genes aren't used to this type of heat. Same as if some of these Sri Lankans or Thais meditated in Scotland and they wouldn't be able to meditate. They wouldn't be drowsy, They'd be restless, Shivering, Shivering, Shivering. So it's just the external conditions. So what you did was the only thing you can do. You can't fight the heat, All you can do is make peace with it. And after a while the mind calms down and the body accommodates to the heat and the drowsiness disappears. Oh yeah, When I was in Thailand, My goodness, It wasn't just hot, It was humid, We were malnourished, We were sleep deprived, You know, It was just a really weird lifestyle. When I look back upon it, Of course you were, You became very strong physically, But it was very hard to keep the mind still. So what I used to do, Being stupid, I would fight the drowsiness. And when I fought that drowsiness, You did have a strong will, Especially as a young man, You break through the drowsiness, You'd be restless, You couldn't stop thinking. So what you did next, You calmed the thinking down, Calm it down, Calm it down, Then you fall asleep again. And then it was just the pendulum, From restlessness to dullness, You couldn't find that beautiful middle way which we call meditation. And then I realised what I was doing after many years, Because I was fighting the drowsiness, Number one, Drowsiness means you have got little mental energy and you were fighting, You were wasting energy. That's why it lasted a long time. And then if you did break through because you were really fighting, That warrior, Just like a soldier when they leave the army, They can't stop fighting. They can't just come back into the world and live a normal life, Because they've been warriors for years, They've been fighting in wars. You know, That's one of the biggest problems when war finishes. What do you do with the soldiers? How can you rehabilitate them, Get them back into so-called normal life? So as soon as I came out of my sloth and torpor, I was still a warrior, A fighter, That's why I was restless. So the solution after a long time was just to relax, Let the sloth and torpor be. So I wasn't wasting any energy, So the energy, Because I wasn't fighting, The energy started coming back. It didn't take that long. The dullness sort of lifted like the mist in the morning. I decided to become more aware, Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, And then when the dullness finished, It wasn't restless anymore, It was just peace. It's just a brilliant thing to understand, You don't fight dullness, You make peace with it, You are kind to it. That's what I'm saying, It's not the dullness or the restlessness, It's the posture, It's like how you are dealing with that. It's not you have to sit with the straight back to one side or full lotus or half lotus or whatever, That's not what meditation is. Whatever posture you have, How you can be comfortable with that, How can you make peace with that? How can you make peace and comfort with dullness? Yeah, Lying down posture works. I've been in some amazing meditations laying down, But usually the trick is, And I teach this on, Especially on retreats, There is a posture where you go to sleep. Some people go to sleep on their back, Sometimes on their front, Sometimes on the right side, Sometimes on the left side. You find that's the posture where you start going to sleep. I usually go to sleep on my right side, Probably I train myself because that's what a monk is supposed to do, Like the Buddha always went to sleep on his right side. I turn over during my sleep but that's how I start going to sleep. So if I try to meditate on my right side, Psychologically my body would know this is sleep time, I just fall asleep. So if I do meditation, I like to lay down on my back. I don't usually fall asleep on my back. On my back that's how I meditate. Or there is another posture on my side but with my elbow propping my head up, That's quite uncomfortable. So I usually go on my back if I want to do meditation, Lying down. So you find a posture where you don't normally go to sleep. And then you do meditation that way. And then you find you don't go to sleep because the body says, This is not the way I go to sleep, So it must be something else I am supposed to do, And that's your meditation. Especially when you are sick and you get old, You've got aches and pains all over the place. Then sometimes laying down is the only thing you can do. And also if you are in hospital, Especially you are dying, Most people die when they are laying down. So it's nice to be able to meditate just when you are dying. Make it nice and peaceful. I have compassion for those medics trying to keep you alive. Just let go, Make peace, Be kind, Be gentle. Okay, Thank you for that question. Any other questions anyone has? You got one, Jay? Questioner- Could you comment a little bit about the goal of silence in meditation? Ah, Silence in meditation, That's almost like part of insight but it's also part of calm. You see that whenever the mind is moving and agitated, It actually generates these words and these ideas and these thoughts. Thinking is a sign of an agitated mind, Which is why when you are really agitated, Things are really upsetting you, People think a lot. When they are really content and they are very peaceful, You hardly think at all. In meditation, There is no thoughts going on at all. And that's that inner silence. And that silence, You always notice is such a holy place and I mentioned that sacred silence, Which is why you go to quiet places like monasteries, Where you go to the bush or deep caves, It's silent, Nothing moves there. And you know that that's really powerful. So the silence is also a place where you get huge energies, Huge peace. But what's more important, When you are silent, You see things more clearly. So the words are just one step removed from reality. The silence is where you experience reality. The difference between the commentary and the reality. If you don't want to understand what I mean, You go watch a cricket match on the TV or a soccer match or a tennis match and listen to it with the commentary on and then turn the commentary off, Turn the volume down and just listen to it as it is. Well, This one occasion when I was on an aircraft and one of these aircraft had this big screen, They had screens coming down from the roof and there was a movie on. I didn't take the headphones but I will always remember this movie, It was called Armageddon. And people were really getting into this movie but because I didn't have the commentary, I was watching it in like silence, You can see this incredibly stupid movie. And it was absolutely ridiculous and I enjoyed it because I was laughing so much when everybody else was on the edge of their seats. I will never forget ever this one sequence where the spaceship was going to some sort of comet or some meteor which is about to strike the earth. And it sort of, Instead of landing, It sort of struck this mountain with craggy rocks and it turned over, There was sparks and there was flames and it was careering down places and then it came to a stop and it careered down something else. Imagine like a road crash on the sort of run of the freeways here and this is a road crash happening for about three minutes without stop, Banging this and crashing and sparks all over the place. And then it finally came to a halt and it was silence for about five seconds and then just this hand appeared and then someone pulled themselves out of the wreckage and there was the hero, Perfect hair, No sweat, No cuts or soot at all. It was actually totally crazy, I burst out laughing. Now that's what happens when you turn off the commentary because there is no music, There is no sort of thing to try and get the emotions going on. And it was just, You saw it as it truly was, This totally ridiculous fantasy. And that's actually the difference between thinking about things and being silent. You see a totally different reality. So that's one of the great things with silence, It's in silence you get insight, Not through thinking about things. Is that the sort of question you are asking? Is that good enough? Okay, Thank you so much. Okay, So there we go, You got an extra five minutes out of me for no extra charge. We are supposed to finish at 4. 15, It's 4. 20. Because of the great compassion of the Buddha, We don't charge you extra for the extra five minutes, Not like the government, They will charge you, On the banks especially, They charge you for everything extra. So let's pay respect to Dhammasang so we can go.

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All about being kind to yourself. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️