Day 078/365: 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

Okay,

Well we might as well start now at three o'clock and welcome to this afternoon's meditation session.

And again this is the ongoing class for those who have meditated before.

It usually begins with about 15 minutes focusing on some subject concerning meditation and continues with a 45 minute sitting and that will be finished with a 15 minute further discussion or questions and answers as required.

And I know that sometimes that people find it hard to sustain their attention on one thing for long periods of time and that's an essential part of meditation.

If the mind wanders backwards and forwards,

It tires the mind out.

In the same way that if you sort of run backwards and forwards,

You know,

Doing this and doing that after a while,

Your body becomes worn out.

And the mind can be looked upon in a similar way.

If you're always having to think about this,

Work out that problem with running around backwards and forwards.

There's no way that the mind can rest.

So in the same way the body can rest when it's still,

You put in an armchair on a bed or sit somewhere and you can just keep it still for a while,

Then the body can relax.

In the same way we've got to try and find a way to keep our mind still so it doesn't sort of keep going backwards and forwards.

But we have to keep it still in a pleasant position rather than holding it forcefully still.

Because even keeping the body forcefully still,

There's no relaxation there,

There's no sort of regeneration of the body's energies.

So we find a way of meditation to sustain our awareness,

To keep it still,

At the same time just do it gently.

And that is a trick of meditation.

And the way that is achieved to sustain attention on one thing for long periods of time is to gradually bring the mind into stillness,

To little by little to take away the more extreme forms of agitation in the mind and then go to the less powerful forces of agitation and little by little calming the mind down stage by stage.

And it's because of knowing just the way this mind works,

The major thing which causes the mind to wander backwards and forwards is one's perception of time and one's attachment to things of the past and one's fear of things of the future.

The attachment to the past means that somebody said something to you which you didn't like and you can't let it go.

Some event happened earlier today and we can still not forget it.

And after a while we can find that it's not that hard to let go of the past.

All we really need to do is number one say it's allowable,

Number two that it's a very pleasant thing to do.

And knowing it's allowable,

It's okay,

Nothing's going to go wrong.

In fact your life is going to become even more successful when we let go of this past means we know we can be free.

I often describe the past as like a prison whose cell door is open.

In other words you can actually leave whenever you want.

You not sort of have to stay in that prison of the past.

So what we need to do is to know that it's possible to let go of the past and then just to do it and to be able to let go of the past we need something else which is more pleasant.

And so the other place is the present moment.

When we stay in that present moment it means the past is gone.

And as far as our fear of the future is concerned,

Because people always plan and worry about what's going to happen next and where they're going to go,

Whether it's all going to work out correctly,

Whether they're going to make a fool of themselves,

Whether it's all going to get there on time,

All that worry about the future,

What's going to happen next,

Can be overcome by just remembering what I say every week that now this moment,

This present moment is the place where your future is being made.

So by staying in this present moment it means that you are doing your very best to create a pleasant,

Healthy,

Successful future by focusing on where the future is being made.

I keep saying this because this gives you the incentive,

The reason to be in the present moment,

Which means that you are not going to have to keep wandering into the past and the future.

And so after a while you can sustain your attention in this present moment.

Sustaining this attention in the present moment means you've let go of a lot of mind movement,

A lot of remembering the past,

Worrying about the future,

Which causes the mind to be tired.

That's just the same way the body gets tired when you move around,

So the mind gets tired when you move into the past and the future and backwards and forwards.

So that first level of rest is to let go of past and future and sit comfortably in the present moment.

Now what happens when a person first decides to stay in this present moment is it's a bit uncomfortable for a person,

It's almost like you have to hold yourself there because the mind just wants to follow its old habits and go to past and future,

To worry,

To plan.

But our job is just to hold the mind there as gently as possible in that present moment,

But enough to keep it there until the mind settles in this present moment.

Because after a minute or two it settles in this present moment and it's as if the mind recognizes,

Yeah,

It's not a bad place to hang out,

In fact it's very pleasant.

The simile which I developed to explain this experientially is this present moment is like a seat on a long journey of your life where you can actually sit down and rest,

In other words a place where you don't have to keep going backwards and forwards on the journeys of your existence.

It's a seat,

It's some place where you can rest,

The only place where you can rest on a journey.

And the problem is that present moment when you first sit on it,

It's like a cold hard stone lumpy seat.

So it's a place you can sit down but it's not that comfortable.

However,

If you remain sitting on that seat,

Just miraculously the longer you sit on it,

The more comfortable it becomes.

So the seat evens out so it's not lumpy,

It gets softer,

It gets warmer and if you stay on that stone seat long enough,

It becomes like the most pleasant of sofas.

And that's what the present moment does.

At first when you are in the present moment,

It's not that comfortable.

But if you continue to stay on that present moment,

The longer you stay,

The more comfortable it feels.

All that's really happening there is because you're still,

Because you're resting,

It's just the pleasure of rest.

That the fact that when you're not having to go around doing this and doing that,

It's such a relief,

The mind starts to enjoy,

The mind starts to appreciate,

The mind starts to respect,

Just the ability to stay in one place in the present moment.

And it's that joy and happiness which comes with each of these stages of meditation which really is the glue which can sustain your attention in that one place.

So after a while,

Just bearing with in the beginning and realizing it's going to get easier and more pleasant,

The longer you stay in this present moment,

Present moment,

Then you will soon find that it's so easy to do.

And it just becomes natural,

You don't have to force yourself,

The present moment becomes so comfortable,

You like being there.

And the reason that many of you come every week for the meditation and you meditate at home is because it is a pleasant experience,

Just being in the present.

You're staying in one thing,

It's a place you can rest.

And then when you're sort of comfortable in the present moment,

That's okay.

The next level of agitation which happens in the mind is this thinking.

And that thinking is obviously what can sometimes trigger off you going into the future and the past again.

The thinking starts to create all these problems which need to be solved from your history,

Which starts to create all these fears and plans for the future.

And the next thing we have to somehow overcome is this thinking mind,

So we can sustain our attention in silence.

And for many people they think that it's almost impossible to be silent.

But I think that each one of you have meditated long enough.

You know it is possible,

You can be silent,

You can just hold your attention just in what I call the place before thoughts arise.

You're about to sort of say something inside your head,

The word is about to come but just at that point before it comes is a place of knowing,

A bit of silent knowing,

Where you can experience but no name comes up in your head.

It's like that silent knowing.

And at first holding the mind in that place before the words begin in your head is sometimes you feel a little bit unnatural,

Sometimes you feel it's a bit uncomfortable.

But you just stay there for a little while,

Because the longer you hold your mind in that space between the thoughts,

In that calmness before the mind starts sinking again,

The longer you hold it there,

The more pleasant it feels.

Which means that after a few,

Maybe a couple of minutes,

The mind recognizes silence is so wonderful that that sustains the attention on the silence.

Not because you're forcing,

Not because you have some idea it's bad to think and think it's naughty and you feel all sort of guilty if you start thinking.

It's not through fear and not through that strictness of meditators,

But it's just being there long enough and seeing just how enjoyable it is and allowing that pleasure of silence just to take you into long periods of a mind which hardly thinks at all.

And here the mind is resting even deeper.

It's not just going to the past and future.

It's not creating all these labels and all these arguments and concepts based on the first words which come up in the mind.

You hold it the very before the thought begins.

That's why we call it sub-verbal or pre-verbal consciousness.

Once you get used to that,

You've got the basic ingredients of what we call mindfulness in meditation because mindfulness is awareness.

The only awareness which is really worth anything is the awareness right now in this moment and the awareness which is before thought.

Because you can think about something and give it a name,

But that's not the thing.

That's just a word.

You can either watch the words,

The labels,

Or you can watch the thing.

You can actually go to the museum and you can read the description of the exhibit or you can just look at the exhibit.

You can look at the brochure or you can actually look at the thing itself.

It's up to you which one you want to do.

You can read the menu or you can eat the food.

Which one do you want to do?

Understand what I mean.

The menu is all these thoughts.

The food is the experience itself.

So we get this beautiful silent mind.

We stay there.

Now sometimes people experience dullness when they first get into that silence and that present moment awareness.

That is par for the course because it's just the mind recognizing that it's tired.

But all one needs to do is to remain there,

Try to do as least as possible in just the same way when you keep your body still,

After a while the energies come back.

If you keep your mind still,

It does become energized.

Little by little the mind wakes up and has huge stores of energy.

Mindfulness gets strong.

It's an important part of the meditation.

If you're going to take the meditation more deep,

You have to have that strong mindfulness to know exactly what's going on inside.

It literally is turning up the lights inside of your mind.

At an earlier or later period,

Sometimes people even try and make them do that that way.

They get a bit restless.

And so it's easier,

It's helpful for a person to get them something to do,

Something just to hold on to while they're going into this present moment awareness and silence,

Which is why we've introduced the breath sometimes earlier that it would happen naturally.

So you get to a certain point in your meditation and you think,

Well look,

If I'm not going to have something to focus on,

I'm just going to wander around and all this other stuff is just going to keep coming up and start causing me agitation again.

So instead of having anything to think about,

We wonder,

We contemplate,

Not contemplate,

We focus on our breathing.

The feeling of the breath as it goes in,

The feeling of the breath as it goes out,

Just that much.

And again,

Just like all those other two stages of meditation,

The first time you watch the breath it is uncomfortable.

Stay with it.

Even though it's uncomfortable at first,

If you just stay with it and hold it there for a little while,

It becomes more pleasant.

It's just what happens in life.

Even when you sat on your chair when you first came in here,

It was not comfortable,

Now you are comfortable on your chair,

On your cushion,

You settled in.

So all settling in takes a little bit of time.

So even when you're with your breath,

At first it's not comfortable,

Doesn't matter,

Settle in there and after a couple of minutes you find your breath is very comfortable.

And if you have taken the awareness of the breath not too soon,

If it's too soon you won't be able to hold it.

You do that present moment awareness and silence enough so you can hold the breath and it doesn't want to go anywhere.

Your mind just stays with it.

And there are of course a few extra little tricks to be able to remain with the breath.

And the main trick is the kindness.

What many meditators,

Their mistake is that they assume that they are in control of the breath and literally they regard their breath as a slave.

Some servants they can order around and because the attitude they have to the breath when you start doing breath meditation is one of a master or mistress onto their servant,

The relationship means the first opportunity your breath is going to run away.

It doesn't like you because you don't treat it well.

So if instead you change your attitude towards your breath as not one of a master with their slave but as a friend,

A friend with a companion,

This is almost like a being,

You anthropomorphize the breath as if it was an obeying who served you,

Looked after you and you have so much gratitude and so much respect and so much love for your breath.

You literally stay with the breath as you would stay with a good friend.

You hang out with her,

You spend time with him because you love each other's company.

And when you get to that attitude,

Of course it's extremely easy to stay with the breath for long long periods of time.

And because it's a very pleasant experience.

Now you're really getting into the meditation.

Being able not just to look at the breath for six or seven breaths in a row,

Not just for a minute,

But sometimes 10,

15,

20 minutes,

You're with the breath,

Not missing any breath.

Why?

Because it's fun to do.

And you feel this great feeling of peace inside of you.

And that feeling of peace,

That feeling of clarity,

That feeling of mental joy,

Again is what keeps you sustained on that breath.

And at the same time,

Not only does it serve to sustain your attention on the breath for a long period of time,

It also serves the purpose of increasing the energy flowing into your mind.

Because you're not having to do so much,

Because the mind is in sort of frantic with all its responsibilities,

The past and the future and all these jobs you have to do,

All these lists of stuff,

You've let all that go,

So you feel totally free.

So by sustaining your attention on the breath,

It is like moving your body to a place of vacation,

To a resort,

To a holiday,

Where you can really relax,

Not just for an hour,

But for seven days,

A fortnight or whatever,

You can really get into it.

And so as you learn how to meditate in this way,

You sustain your attention on these things.

And after a while,

The mind gets more and more peaceful,

You re-energize the mind,

The mindfulness increases,

And with it the peace,

The enjoyment and the beneficial results.

So sustaining the attention on one thing is important,

It's an essential part of meditation,

And that's how it works.

Bear with it at the very beginning,

It will get easier to do.

And once it really gets easier to do,

Then sustaining your attention is the simplest thing in the world.

Why?

Because it's so much fun to do.

So that's just a little piece of information on sustaining attention.

So now we can actually start the meditation,

And again once again,

Say every week,

This is the ongoing class,

So those people who came in late who are looking for the introduction to meditation class,

That's being held in the room to my right.

So if you're not used to sitting for 45 minutes,

It might be too much for you.

Because now we're going to start about a 45 minute meditation period.

So if you'd like to get yourselves comfortable,

Sitting on your chair,

Your cushion or whatever,

And then we can begin.

So you close your eyes.

Where we do long sits,

45 minutes or longer,

Just spend plenty of time at the very beginning making sure your posture is just right.

How you make sure the position of your body is correct for you is by feeling it from inside.

By closing your eyes,

You're giving more space in your brain to feel the sensations of your body.

When the brain is mostly taken up with sights and processing the visual images,

It doesn't have the time,

It doesn't have the space.

So now with your eyes closed,

When I become quiet,

You'll have more space just to feel the body.

As you feel the body,

If you see anything,

Feel anything which is uncomfortable,

Please move.

As you adjust the body to find your individual perfect posture.

We'll give you some room if you for the night is okay?

Okay.

.

And don't move away from the body yet.

They still have things to tell you on how to be more comfortable.

If you want to adjust the body,

Please do so.

This is any irritation inside,

An ache or a pain which cannot be overcome through movement.

Put your mindfulness inside that feeling as if you are right in the middle of it.

From the middle of it,

Spread out this beautiful forces of kindness.

Kindness,

Compassion,

Softness,

Less than the tightness which contributes to the pain.

Being kind relaxes and much of the irritation,

Not all of it,

But much of it can vanish,

Giving you more comfortable to begin your meditation.

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It's getting very close to the end of the meditation now.

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How do you feel?

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Reviews

I have listened to some meditations where they say to sit through the pain don't move don't adjust. But I like Ajahn's advice better... Move and get your body comfortable so you have a more comfortable and deep meditation. Thank you very much once again. ☮️💖🙏🕉️