Day 085/365: 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

Hello,

Welcome everybody to today's meditation class.

This is the ongoing class,

Those who come to the introduction to meditation class.

That is being held in the room to my right.

This is for those people who meditated before who can meditate.

We've got 45 minutes or 15 minutes or more,

Which is how long we meditate here.

Part of the meditation which we do here is learning how to make the mind peaceful and also letting the body become peaceful as well.

There is one type of meditation which every now and again I like to introduce,

Which is the body awareness meditation,

Learning how to relax the body.

Then afterwards we relax the mind.

It is a powerful meditation because it brings up the mindfulness of your body.

We also add this very important ingredient of kindness,

Compassion towards your body to learn how to relax it.

One of the stories which made me very interested in this type of meditation was one of the monks at Thar monastery in Serpentine.

One day he came up to me and he said his back was really,

Really sore.

He started going to see the doctors and physios and nothing was working.

Eventually when he got a proper CT scan,

The doctor found out that he had some congenital defect of his spine,

Which means that there is nothing they could do about it,

No operation possible.

He said the worst thing you can do for your particular condition is sit down on the floor for hours on an end.

He said,

I am a meditator,

I have got to do something to learn how to meditate.

The doctor gave up on him.

Then he found out a little book which somebody recommended,

Which was based on Buddhist meditation,

Of learning how to be aware of your body and to be aware of parts of the body which you think are impossible to be aware of.

He started this little technique by first of all stroking the muscles on either side of his spine,

Stroking them and then being aware of the sensations which arose.

As he kept stroking those muscles,

After a short while he could be able to feel those muscles without even stroking,

Without touching them.

He was building up awareness of that part of his body.

As the awareness of the muscles on either side of his spine grew,

Physiologically he would be saying he would be making neural connections in his brain to muscles which most people don't need to bother about,

Therefore we just don't know they are there.

By stroking them,

Massaging them,

He built up the ability to be aware of those muscles.

The next thing is using that awareness of those muscles on either side of his spine.

He could find out how he could stretch them,

Relax them and move them.

It was something which you need the mindfulness established first of all.

Once we have the mindfulness,

We know exactly what we need to do in our brain,

In our mind,

Just to be able to move those muscles.

After a while he could move them.

As he kept on moving them,

He was strengthening them.

As they got stronger and stronger and stronger,

Eventually those muscles became so strong,

Much stronger than a normal person,

That they compensated for the weakness in his bones.

So he could sit without any pain anymore.

That was a wonderful way of just showing how this mindfulness can actually lead to healthy bodily situations which other specialists can't help.

The interesting thing to me was to know how you can be mindful of parts of your body which most people think are impossible to feel,

To know.

This is one of the things which we do when we begin our meditation,

Sitting down,

Closing our eyes.

Because we are in a silent place,

A reasonably quiet place,

And because we got our eyes closed,

Can you imagine the increased capacity in your mind to be able to feel the sensations in the body?

If you think of your body like a computer,

So much of the power is spent in listening to sounds,

In seeing sights.

When all of that is taken away,

You've just got so much more space,

So much more capacity to be able to feel the body,

Which is why when you sit down,

Close your eyes,

You do become far more sensitive to the sensations in the body.

You can feel more.

Once you've started to build up the first degree of mindfulness on your body,

The second important part which is I always stress here every time on a Saturday afternoon,

Is learning how to be kind and add this beautiful sense of compassion to the part of the body which you're experiencing.

It's the same with actually the whole of life.

If we can add kindness,

Compassion towards any experience we have,

We find just like the body relaxes,

The life relaxes.

We start with our body.

When we feel any sensations in the body,

We add this compassion and kindness.

I know that sometimes when I taught this in Melbourne recently,

People said,

How can you be kind to a feeling?

You can be kind to a dog.

You can be compassionate to a little kitten like the kitten who came last night into our meeting or before the meeting.

It's easy to be kind to little animals,

But how can you be kind to a feeling in the body or part of the body?

With a little bit of practice,

It's not that hard to be compassionate and kind to your body.

In the same way,

You look at a being and you wish it this beautiful kindness,

May you be happy well,

May you be free of suffering,

In the same way that you can be kind to your feelings in the body.

Just a moment.

Bin,

Are you supposed to be doing the intro today?

Oh,

Yeah.

Okay,

We didn't know if you were coming.

Jacob's in there.

If you can come in there.

Come on.

Come on.

Very good.

Yeah.

Okay.

This is when you add the compassion and kindness to the sensations in the body,

You find the whole thing really relaxes.

You get this beautiful feeling of light,

No tension,

No tightness,

Openness,

And the sense of relaxation.

That sense of relaxation is naturally very pleasant because it's taking away this pulling and this pushing,

Which is the way actually that our mind or our brain tries to control parts of our body.

If you can only expand,

Relax,

Open up,

You find many of those bodily feelings which are very irritating can actually disappear.

I remember also a very similar technique was explained to me once,

Which I've tried and actually works,

Is when you do have a pain or an ache in the body or some sort of irritation,

You imagine putting it in a box.

The box is just big enough to contain the sensations of pain,

Irritation,

Whatever you're experiencing there.

Then you learn how to expand that box.

You imagine it getting larger and larger and larger and larger.

With it taking the ache,

The pain,

The irritation,

And expanding that larger and larger and larger,

Bigger and bigger.

As you do that,

You experience actually the sensation of pain,

Actually feeling like it's being diluted,

Like a hard lump of ice turning to water and water to steam and steam to vapor,

And this vapor just dissipating as it gets more diluted,

As it expands into the universe.

That which was once a hard knot of pain can hardly be felt anymore.

It's dissolved.

What's really happening there is the tightness and the tension which forms in the body around wounds,

Irritations,

Or whatever,

That tends to expand and just disappear.

Which means a whole part of that body relaxes.

You can actually feel it relaxing.

This is not just for the health and the comfort of your body.

Because once you do that to your body,

Then you do exactly the same thing to your mind,

To your mental world.

In the same way,

You know how to relax the body by opening things up,

Expanding things.

You can do the same in your meditation.

You may have a problem in your mind.

Just relax around the problem as if a little problem expanded into the whole universe so it dilutes.

Whatever it is,

To take away the tightness and the tension around the problems of your life.

Because just like a bodily irritation,

An inflammation is just often an overreaction of the body to protect that area which has been wounded.

In the same way that a lot of the pain and suffering of life is not actually the problem you have but the overreaction you have to the problems of life.

Learning how to expand,

Relax,

Just take away the controlling aspects of the mind,

That actually tends to bring this beautiful relaxation.

The way to do that,

Again,

Is being kind,

Being compassionate,

Just letting things be.

Just valuing experiences rather than trying to get rid of things.

By learning how just to be kind to the things you experience in the mind,

You find the mind really relaxes and the mind becomes very peaceful.

This is not a way of fighting the contents of your mind.

It's about being aware of them and being compassionate towards them.

Taking away this reaction of control or don't like or wanting to get rid of.

Literally making peace with the mind.

Making peace means the same as making peace with the body,

Feeling relaxed and open,

Sort of hardly any aches or pains in the body.

The same with the mind,

There's aches and pains in the mind.

Just like there's aches and pains in the body.

Aches and pains in the body because you're in a wrong posture and it's hurting you or because you haven't looked after your body and you're sick.

Those things exist in the body and the similar things exist in the mind.

The guilt,

The anger,

The negativity,

The disappointment,

The frustration.

In order to get some peace and to relax the mind,

In the same way the body relaxes and those irritations tend to ameliorate or even disappear.

In the same way we learn how to let go of this controlling in our mind.

This overreaction to what we have to experience in life.

Seeing things being kind.

We're using this combination of awareness coupled with kindness.

During this meditation you become aware of the bodily sensations first of all.

Be kind to them.

If you need to move,

Move.

If you need to scratch,

Scratch.

If you need to cough,

Cough.

Don't be a control freak when you're meditating.

As soon as the body is relaxed,

You can feel it relax.

That's the mindfulness telling you your body is at ease.

It's becoming calm.

It's becoming peaceful.

That feels really pleasant.

Then do the same thing to your mind.

You're aware of what's happening right now.

The contents of your mental world.

You're aware of that.

Now be kind to it.

You'll find just like that monk learned how to relax the muscles and expand them,

To move them in the back of either side of the spine.

He was very skilled at doing that.

He had to do that because there was no other option.

The pain was too great.

For you,

If you don't want to endure forever and ever the pain in the mind,

Learn how to be kind to whatever you experience.

Open up,

Relax,

Be kind.

You'll find that many of those inner problems disappear.

Your mind can relax.

You feel the same peace,

The same sense of happiness.

Peace and contentment that you do in the body when it's totally relaxed.

This is what we can do to the mind.

Don't look at meditation as getting the mind into a hard ball of concentration.

Look at meditation in terms of relaxing the mind,

Making peace with it,

Taking away the stress.

Eventually,

You'll find that that mind will go into a very,

Very deep state of meditation simply because,

As the Buddha said,

That craving is a cause of suffering.

Wanting things causes frustration in meditation.

Letting go of craving,

Letting go of things,

And being kind instead is a way to peace,

To freedom,

And this beautiful sense of inner happiness.

Just being kind and being mindful and applying that combination.

That's just the beginning of the meditation instructions.

So now,

If you are not already comfortable,

Please just change your posture.

Make sure you're nice and comfy.

We're now going to start our meditation.

The first thing we do is closing our eyes.

As I said earlier,

When the eyes are closed,

You've got more space in your mind to be able to be sensitive to your bodily feelings.

Remember reading a book on heart disease and saying that your heart,

Before it actually gets into really great difficulty,

Gives you many warning signs.

But people are just so unmindful of their body,

They don't notice them until they get the big heart attacks.

When you develop the sensitivity and mindfulness of the body,

You can feel what's going on and you know when to take action to avoid greater damage or stress.

Can you feel your bodily sensations now?

How are they?

What do your toes feel like?

Your feet?

As you sweep quickly up through the body,

You can do a slow sweeping if you like.

I'm going to do a quick sweeping up my body.

You know the feelings and sensations in these parts of the body.

I'm just so kind to them.

May all my toes be happy and well.

May my feet be relaxed.

They do so much work for me.

May my lower legs be comfortable.

When I ask that question,

Right now I can feel the toes digging into the calves.

I can adjust my legs.

That's what kindness means.

Not just thinking,

It means doing something when it's possible to lessen suffering.

May my knees be happy and well.

Notice the sensations in the knees.

Give them kindness.

Watch it relax.

May my thighs be at peace.

Even I thought my thighs were okay.

Still I can feel some tiredness and tension left over from walking.

Just by noticing those sensations and deliberately relaxing them with kindness,

Compassion,

You can feel the muscles just loosen off and things start to relax.

Just learning how to relax your own body.

With practice you get so skilled at this.

You are going to be healthy.

Live a long,

No pain for your life.

You know how to look after your body with mindfulness and kindness.

When I look at my bottom,

I meditate a lot sitting on the cushion.

The bottom can be quite sore.

Especially because I wear a robe,

There can be a fold of the robe,

You can dig into the flesh,

So being aware of the sensations in the bottom can make sure everything is in good order.

So I will avoid pains and disturbances.

It's also the attitude,

I'm being kind.

I'm actually caring for something.

I look at my waist,

My belt is a bit too tight.

So I loosen that now.

Making sure the waist and of course above the waist,

Your back is not too tight.

Sometimes when I meditate the body moves by itself.

I never order it around,

It just does it by itself.

The body actually knows what's most comfortable.

Even some of the organs in the body.

If any of you have irritable bowel syndrome or kidney disease or whatever,

Never underestimate the power of just putting your attention to that part of your body.

Being aware of any sensations,

Any sensations will do.

Then being kind to those sensations.

Almost like massaging them with your mind.

Just your mindfulness notices them,

Just relax.

They become more peaceful,

Less of an irritation,

Less painful.

That's what mindfulness and kindness do when they join together.

They relax things.

Even your arms and hands,

Making sure that they are in a good position.

You're kind enough,

Just ask your arms and hands,

Is there anything I can do for you to make you more comfortable?

Grab this beautiful compassion to mindfulness.

Lastly your head.

Sometimes people do suffer from neck ache.

A lot of times because their neck has been in a,

Or their head has been in an unfortunate position.

Looking up too much or leaning to the side,

Creating a strain on the muscles.

Feel your head balanced on the neck.

With this sense of care,

Of mindfulness and kindness,

You relax most of the head.

For meditators,

I always like people to finish off with the face.

Because the face is a mirror of your attitudes to this moment.

The muscles around the eyes are all screwed up tight.

It means you're fighting something.

If the mouth is turned downwards,

It means you're upset,

Irritated at something.

See what it needs to do for the muscles around your face to relax.

The eyes to be closed,

But naturally,

Peacefully,

Gently,

Comfortably closed.

The mouth is to be at ease.

If anything,

The corners turned up slightly.

It's peaceful,

Relaxed.

Mindful and kind.

Like some loving parent looking over their child.

You are that loving parent and your child is your body.

Mindfully and kind,

Relaxing it.

Hopefully by now,

You'll experience your body to be reasonably at ease.

It's a very pleasant feeling.

Pleasant feeling in the body,

Which always comes from relaxation.

Taking away tensions and tightness and controlling and fighting.

That's when the body can be let go of.

We can focus on its parallel,

Our mental world.

Are there any tightness in your mental world?

Anything similar to the pains and irritations in your body?

Be with that and give it kindness.

You're mindful of your mental state,

Of the sensations,

Of frustration,

Expectation.

If there's any negative emotion in your mind,

The way to overcome it is not fighting.

It is with kindness.

That's the only way to relax.

That tension in the mental world.

The fear in the mental world.

The aggression.

The fear is with kindness.

Whatever experience you have right now,

Imagine that like a being who deserves your kindness.

If it's a negative emotion,

The kindness will lessen it,

Will free it until it just gets so soft it vanishes.

The body is sometimes hard to deal with.

The mind responds even more well to mindfulness and kindness.

Of course,

Mindfulness has to be in this moment.

This is where the action of life is.

This is where the compassion,

The kindness is focused.

What's happening in your mental world right now?

Whatever it is,

May it be happy and well,

May it be free,

May it just be.

For I'm looking over it like a kind,

Gentle observer.

You'll normally find that whatever you're aware of begins to soften.

Hopefully your mindfulness can be aware of that.

Be aware of the changes in the quality of your mental world.

Shows you you're going in the right direction.

Be mindful of this moment and be kind to it.

You're not choosing what you're aware of.

You're choosing how you are aware of it.

You know that distinction and you know how to meditate.

Having got you started,

I'll now leave you alone to carry on the meditation from this beginning in whichever way you prefer.

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So in this meditation,

Hopefully you managed to appreciate the power of just letting the mind become still all by itself,

Understands the very fact that you try and do something,

That you try and control the mind,

You try and make it something.

This is what disturbs the mental process of peacefulness and calm,

The idea of compassion and mindfulness coming together that does actually have the effect of letting go,

Leaving things alone and that's allowing things to become still and peaceful all by itself.

It's just the nature of the mind.

And by learning how to meditate a lot,

You can learn just how to relax and lessen the stress in your life.

One of my friends told me a few days ago that they were checking on their stocks on the Australian Stock Exchange and they got a link there that somebody on the Australian Stock Exchange was giving advice on how to lessen stress in the business.

And they gave an example of somebody holding a glass of water and if you hold it for one minute,

Your arm aches and after five minutes,

You're in great pain and after 15 minutes,

You're in agony.

The reason is not because you've got so much water in your glasses because you don't know how to put it down when it gets too heavy.

That's my simile.

I've been using that for years.

It's nice to see it's got into the Australian Stock Exchange and telling the stockbrokers,

All these other people in the high stress business,

Learning how to do some simple meditation.

It's great to see that some of these teachings,

They get out there and they actually just,

They have an effect on places which really need them to have an effect.

Really sort of getting out there and helping people learn how to relax,

Lessen stress and be kinder,

More peaceful people.

And the meditation I did today,

I had a beautiful meditation simply because you know how to just let things be,

By being mindful,

By being kind.

All these stages of meditation which we sometimes talk about,

Whether it's anapanasati,

Watching the breath,

Whether it's satipatthana,

Being mindful and learning how to let these things disappear and be,

Or it's going into a nice deep state where you see these lights.

These are all natural effects of when you just leave things alone,

When things become still and peaceful.

Just the nature of the way the mind works.

If you leave it alone,

Really leave it alone and don't interfere,

Risk being mindful,

Being kind.

You'll find all those stages of meditation that just happen by themselves.

The body disappears,

Just all the thoughts vanish,

No need to do anything when you're not,

When you're just being kind.

All this of the inner conversation vanishes.

You're mindful,

You're kind in the moment and then the mind becomes so peaceful and still.

You can see the breath and the breath starts to get very comfortable and very soft and very delightful.

Then it so disappears and beautiful lights come in the mind.

This is just the nature of meditation.

When I talk like this,

Yes,

People say,

I want to have those beautiful lights,

I want to have the bliss.

But it only comes about when you know how to let go.

Today I was talking about how it works.

The most important piece of advice which I said before we started in meditation.

The most important thing is not what you're aware of in your mental world,

Not to choose what you're aware of,

But to choose the way you are aware of it.

To make sure that what you're experiencing,

You're choosing to be at peace with these things and being kind to them,

Being mindful.

That's the way that meditation happens.

Choose the way you're meditating,

Not what you're meditating on.

All those things,

The objects of the mind which come,

What we call the stages of meditation,

They just come in their natural course.

It's just the way things happen.

That's just how things are.

So,

Are there any comments or questions about meditation today or about meditation in general?

This is one of the observations which I've had over many years of teaching.

When you ask for questions,

People are silent.

I think,

My goodness,

They've all understood perfectly what I've just been teaching.

They're all enlightened,

At least very close.

Then I dismiss the class.

Then there's a whole line of people asking their questions afterwards.

So it means you do have questions,

But sometimes people are a bit,

Not embarrassed,

Afraid of asking those questions.

But certainly in our traditions,

Questions are encouraged.

Also,

The questions are making good karma,

Because your question will be listened to by everybody else.

Sometimes the questions you ask are the ones which everyone else was thinking about.

So you're making extra good karma.

Today,

Or rather yesterday on the way up here,

It's a long weekend.

I saw on the freeway that it's double demerits.

If it's double demerits this weekend,

It must be that it's also double merits.

It's double good karma because this is a long weekend for anybody who asks a question for the sake of the happiness of other people.

So please take the opportunity of double good karma points for asking your question.

Does that work?

I really try hard to get questions.

But anyway,

As you are meditating,

You'll find yourself,

Mindfulness is important.

As long as you know what mindfulness is,

It's the awareness of what's happening.

It's also the awareness of change.

So the awareness that your bodily state and your mental state are changing.

As the Buddha said in the scriptures,

The wholesome states are increasing and unwholesome ones are decreasing.

Then you know you're going in the right direction.

There's more peace,

There's more awareness,

There's more relaxation,

There's more health.

Bodily and mental health.

You're going in the right direction.

So carry on.

So the mindfulness shows you what's changing,

But it also shows you in which direction it's changing.

That's actually where through experience,

You'll find that that kindness,

That softness,

That letting go,

That moves everything in the right direction.

You start struggling,

You start controlling,

You start being aggressive and everything moves in the wrong direction.

Your mindfulness can pick that up very quickly.

That sort of sensitivity to the way that your mental world and your physical world are changing,

The sensitivity to that,

To see which direction it's going to,

And connecting that to your attitude of kindness or controlling.

When you connect the dots,

You'll find that letting go,

Being kind,

Being compassionate,

That is a way to relax both the body and the mind.

You'll find you become very skilled in having a body which is relaxed and a mind which is peaceful.

There's not much more you can do than that.

You'll save a lot of time by not needing to go to hospital.

You'll spend a lot of time by not having to fix up all the social problems when you're in a bad mood and you say wrong things to the people close to you.

You have a lot more freedom and peace in your life.

Remember,

Be mindful,

Be kind,

See the connection,

And then you'll have a wonderful time in meditation and life.

Whee!

At last,

Thank you.

Ah,

Is it hard for people who are more active or people who are more passive?

I'm a very active monk.

You ask the other monks who see me in the monastery.

Just this last week,

We were just working on the roof of the teacher's cottage in Jhana Grove.

I was getting in there and getting myself dirty and cutting out pieces of metal,

Enjoying myself.

I'm a boy.

I like fun like that.

That's what boys love doing,

Getting in there,

Getting muddy,

Getting dirty and making things,

Building things.

I was very busy this week.

It doesn't mean you don't get good meditation.

It's how you are busy.

That's actually the key,

Not if you're busy,

But if you are getting upset at being busy,

Getting frustrated at it,

Thinking,

I shouldn't be busy.

It's the attitude you have to things.

That's the problem.

Anyway,

Like a busy person,

A busy person,

I've got this definition.

I'm not a person who has lots to do,

But a busy person is someone who does too many things at the same time.

I quite like that idea.

If you do many,

Many things at the same time,

That's called being a busy person.

If you do one thing at a time and do it well,

You get actually more work done.

People look at you and they don't think you're busy.

The secrets of getting more things done without being busy.

Think about it and see if it works.

Yes,

Thank you so much.

That's double merit for you today.

See what happens.

You open up for other people to ask questions.

Yes?

Audience member – You were talking about mindfulness and who is being aware.

Yes.

Mindfulness and awareness and who is being aware.

This doesn't need to be a person who's being aware.

Awareness is there.

Awareness is a process.

You know awareness.

You can perceive mindfulness.

You can experience that.

That's the truth.

We had this other thing that there's someone on this side of awareness.

There's something you're being aware of.

In other words,

This subject and object thing.

This is actually a bit of philosophy.

This is one of the weaknesses of the language which we have developed.

The fact that we see things in the terms of the language which we use.

It's not a me and it's not a you.

It's always an us.

You've heard me say that many times in relationships.

It's not about me.

It's not about him or her.

It's always about us.

So it really isn't many,

Me.

There's no you.

There's only what goes on between us.

It's only when we somehow separate out what is actually real and say it's me and you and something in between us.

No,

It's just what's in between us is always really there.

It's only the relationship,

Not the people.

That's actually even theoretical physics you find that out.

There's no such thing as an atom or an electron or a fundamental particle apart from everything else in the universe.

So when we separate out,

It's me.

I'm the one who's being aware.

Then that is the philosophical error.

It's also the spiritual error as well.

I don't know where that one came from.

That's a weird question to ask after meditation.

But thank you for asking it.

I'll give you triple merit points for that today.

Okay,

Another one.

Yes,

Because it's being kind to yourself.

Being kind is the most important thing.

If you really need to scratch,

Scratch.

If you really think,

Ah no,

I don't need to scratch.

It's just a small thing.

You're also being kind to yourself.

It's just a compassion and kindness.

Compassion is just this goodwill.

This goodwill towards your cheek,

Which is what you were saying there.

You're just saying,

Oh yeah,

That's nice.

Yeah,

I need to scratch.

Okay,

Fair enough.

So it's the attitude which is most important.

Not so much what you do,

But why you do it.

Very good.

Thank you.

You've got a question?

No.

Thank you for those three questions.

Usually in Buddhism,

It's our tradition.

It's one of the old traditions of Buddhist culture,

Always to do things three times.

So we've had the three questions.

We don't want to spoil our tradition by asking a fourth question.

So now we can bow three times,

Of course.

Then we can go and have three cups of tea afterwards with three spoons of sugar and three biscuits.

Reviews

Each practice is such a delight. Such wisdom and insight from Ajahn Brahm! Sadhu. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️