Day 088/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

This track includes several tools to help strengthen your meditation practice. About 15 minutes Dharma talk/meditation advice and inspiration; about 15 minutes of guided meditation; about 30 minutes of silent meditation practice; and a Q&A session/closing thoughts after the meditation practice.

Transcript

Welcome everybody to the regular Saturday afternoon meditation session.

And as usual,

Those who are coming for the introductory class in meditation,

People who haven't meditated much before,

That class will be to the room in my right.

And it does seem that this is also going to the beginners class as well.

So all of those of you in the beginners class,

This is your lucky day.

You are now going to learn some wonderful things about meditation and now the sound has turned off.

But just trying to find the switch which isolates the beginners class from the enlightened meditators.

So you're all enlightened,

That's the only reason you come into this class.

Okay,

So here we go.

This is the meditation class here and every week we introduce a different aspect of meditation.

And so we don't go to the basics,

We just have some aspect of meditation to enhance the meditation practice of those who have already meditated a significant time.

And also we will be sitting here for around about 45 minutes.

In other words,

It's a long meditation session which is why those who haven't sat for such a long time,

It's usually better to get the body used to sitting still in the other class.

And one of the ways to get the body sitting still is again not through effort but all these other wise,

Skillful means.

One of those skillful means is bringing some happiness into the heart at the beginning of the meditation.

You'll actually find that if the mind is negative,

Miserable,

It's very difficult to keep the body still,

Let alone the mind still.

So a very useful meditation practice is to bring up some happiness at the very beginning of your meditation.

And one way of doing that is to remember all the goodness you have done,

All the kindness,

Bring up all the memory of your good karma.

This is one of the Buddha's own pieces of advice.

He called it Chaga Nusati,

To recall your kindness,

Your generosity,

Basically your good karma.

And if you do that at the beginning of the meditation,

It uplifts you,

It makes you feel good,

It makes you feel you're a very worthwhile,

Wonderful person,

It accesses the pure heart inside of you.

Once you access that pure heart inside of you,

It gives you this boost of energy,

Basically you enjoy being here.

Because one of the reasons for restlessness,

In fact you may call it the fundamental reason for restlessness,

Is you always want to be somewhere else.

You're not happy here,

That is the reason why the mind goes somewhere else while the body is never content just to be here and sit here.

So by bringing up some wholesome good joy,

It's very easy for the body to be still and the mind to be still also.

So it's a way of deliberately thinking of all the good one has done in one's life.

And that also helps later on in the meditation to avoid an obstacle which I alluded to last night in my talk,

The lack of self-esteem.

And that is an important obstacle to meditation sometimes.

You come to a point in your meditation,

You're getting peaceful,

It's working,

You're getting happy,

But you think,

No,

I don't deserve this.

Basically you stop yourself going deeper in meditation.

Really because you think you don't deserve it.

Especially in our Western societies,

People receive so much criticism,

So much fault finding,

There's very few people who really feel they're worthwhile and because of that when you get some of the great benefits of meditation,

The great payoffs of meditation,

Often we think,

No,

No,

That's too much for me.

Other people may be but not me.

So in order to avoid that trap,

That obstacle,

Just by bringing up some memories of your good karma at the beginning of the meditation,

Inspiring yourself,

Will stop that obstacle if it ever comes up.

You realize,

Yes,

I do deserve to be peaceful.

I do allow myself to be happy.

It's all right to be still.

And that boost of energy and confidence actually works.

It's also very wholesome energy which is not a sort of happiness which excites you but a happiness which settles you down.

Yes,

You've done a good job,

Yes,

You've had a good year,

Yes,

You've done so well so far in your life.

It gives you the sense of satisfaction which will bring you enough peace at the beginning of your meditation to take it into even a deeper state of peace.

And similar to remembering all of your good karma which you've done so far,

Remembering some of the goodness you have done to bring you that joy at the very beginning of your meditation,

Similar to that is another skillful means which I use every now and again which is deliberately recollecting the most peaceful time of your life so far.

Each one of us has had a few moments in our life,

Hopefully more than just a few but at least a few where maybe just on some holiday or by the beach or in the mountains or by a lake somewhere.

And you remember that you sat down on some bench by a lake and you realized you don't want to be anywhere else in the whole world at that time.

You're so at peace,

So calm,

So free.

It could be one of our monasteries or some spiritual place somewhere in the world,

The time when you felt the most peace.

And what do you do by just recollecting that memory?

An echo of that peace comes back into your mind and from that echo of peace in your mind you can build on that and take the mind into a very deep meditation.

In fact,

A good way of doing that is to not just think about what's the most peaceful time but visualize it with as many details as you possibly can conjure up.

So in the mind you think of that beautiful place and then you fill in the details.

Where was that?

What time of the year?

What time of the day?

Were you alone or with people?

Were you sitting on a chair or on the grass,

On a rock?

Was it warm?

Was it cold?

What was the scenery like around?

What was there in the morning?

What was there afterwards in the evening?

Because the more times you build up detail of the most peaceful experience you've ever had in your whole life,

The more mental effort you put in to picturing that most peaceful moment,

The more you are reinforcing the memory of peace,

The more it is establishing itself in your mind.

Until after a couple of minutes,

It's not good to use the mind forcefully like that for too long,

After a couple of minutes you can let go of that memory and the details disappear.

But the peace of that time,

At least a significant portion of it remains in your mind.

You take some of that peace and then you begin your meditation and your way ahead simply because you have that seed of peace in the mind from the very beginning.

And that's a skillful means which is very helpful for everybody to use because everybody has had times of peace.

And it's also,

It just instructs the mind what this peace actually feels like and what it is.

I want you to understand what the goal is,

This peace,

This stillness,

This calm,

It makes it very clear to you what the path to such a destination must be.

You cannot get to a state of peace by fighting,

By struggling with any form of negativity.

If you remember that time when you were the most peaceful,

You'll find it's a time when you just let go of everything,

Your life wasn't perfect,

You still have many duties and jobs to do,

But for that time of perfect peace you totally forgot about all the plans of the future and all the problems of your past.

You really were on holiday from time.

And at that time when you were the most peaceful you've ever been,

You realized that yes,

The past was a very deep letting go and it worked.

This is what happens when you let go of craving and struggling and anger,

Fighting,

You just let things be.

You just merge in this moment.

You also notice at such times that you're probably very,

Very silent.

The reason why you weren't thinking,

Why you were silent because you're enjoying this moment so much.

When you're really enjoying the contents of the present moment you just don't want to spoil it with thinking.

If you think a lot it means there's not so much joy in this moment.

The more joy there is,

The more appreciation of peace,

The less likely is there to have thoughts which drag you backwards and forwards.

So from that memory of the most peaceful time in your life so far,

You also get a lot of understanding of the path into peace.

So keeping that feeling of peace in your mind from the beginning,

You'll find the mind will not stray along those paths which destroy the peace,

The path of struggle,

The path of judgment,

The path of thinking too much.

You will take that peace,

Protect it and make it stronger and deeper.

That's why just getting a memory of peace at the very beginning shows you the direction and keeps you on the path.

So that's just a little bit of advice about empowering or purifying the mind by the remembering of some of the good karma you've done and all the kindness and generosity you've done in the past.

And also giving that feeling of self-worth,

Yes you do deserve to get into deep meditation,

It is okay for you to have happiness and peace.

And then remembering some of the times you've given yourself some peace,

Some deep peace,

Remembering what it was like so it shows you again what you should do or rather not do to get into the deep places of meditation again.

That's the beginning of advice.

So now we can start our meditation.

So those of you who are not already sitting down or on a chair or cushion or whatever,

Please get your body nice and comfortable.

And again this is the meditation,

The ongoing class,

Those of you who are here for the first time,

Please remember that this is going to be a 45 minute meditation so if it's a newcomer's please come to the room next door which is the introduction to meditation class.

So sitting down,

Close your eyes.

And with the eyes closed,

First of all just bring the attention to the body.

No matter what you're going to do,

The body has to be looked at first of all.

It's your vehicle,

Before you go on any journey to any destination you have to check your car,

Your vehicle.

So make sure the body is comfortable.

To be able to do that you have to start establishing the quality we call mindfulness,

This awareness focused on one part of the world.

This is focused on your body and the bodily feelings.

When you focus on the body excluding everything else,

Because you literally have more space in your brain to deal with the sensations of the body,

You can see them more clearly.

When you see them more clearly you'll be able to understand that some of these sensations in the body are telling you you're in an uncomfortable posture,

That you should move.

So move,

Adjust the body.

And don't be careless.

Adjust the body once,

Adjust the body twice,

Three times,

Doesn't matter how many times because you care for your body.

That carefulness and caring is what will take you into the very deepest of meditations.

If you think you're going to just force your mind through the body,

It will never work.

It's not force which works.

You have to cooperate with the body rather than treating it like a slave.

So be kind to your body.

Can you scratch something,

Move something,

Cough to make things more comfortable?

If so,

Do so.

As I say that sometimes when you've paid attention to your bodily feelings and everything you can do with your posture has been done,

There always remains those tummy aches,

Those headaches,

Those imitations deep inside which you cannot lessen just through movement.

Instead you lessen their irritation by focusing on them and giving them kindness.

You learn how to relax the inner parts of your body.

The mindfulness,

That will show you those feelings changing.

Mindfulness gives you feedback and you will discover if you are looking at those irritations,

Aches and pains with compassion then the irritability lessens.

You recognize that as relaxation,

Easing off.

You will find,

You will have the insight from the feedback which mindfulness gives you that kindness,

Compassion is the key to relaxing the inner parts of your body and bringing the irritation to peace,

Lessening the pains,

Relieving the aches deep inside your own body.

Can't do it just in a few seconds.

Sometimes it takes minutes but it's worthwhile.

Mindful of your body sensations,

Being kind to them and seeing how relaxed your body can become.

Can't do it just in a few seconds.

You.

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When the body is really relaxed,

And if you want to do that recollection of the most peaceful time of your life so far,

Where was it?

What were you doing?

What was the weather like?

Was it outside or inside?

Was it warm or cold?

What time of the day?

Were there other people around?

Trees,

Grass,

Mountains?

Keep filling in the details of the most peaceful time in your whole life so far.

Keep focusing,

Filling in the details until you start to feel some of that peace again.

The mind remembers.

It's a beautiful sense of just not wanting to be anywhere else.

Perfectly content,

At peace with yourself and the whole world,

If only for a few minutes.

The most peaceful time of your life.

If you were inside,

What was on the walls?

What was on the floor?

What could you see or did you have your eyes closed?

Why did you feel so peaceful then?

Where did that beautiful sense of ease and openness and freedom feel so settled?

Where did that come from?

The time of your most peaceful experience so far.

How beautiful that was.

Now you can leave aside the details and carry some of that peace into the beginning of the meditation.

This present moment awareness,

Being at peace right now.

No past,

No future.

Just being here.

Enjoy the peace of now.

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Getting very close to the end of the meditation now.

How do you feel?

How has your mind developed?

How much more peace?

Sense of contentment?

Sense of freedom do you feel?

And why?

What path did you come along to reach here?

What worked?

I will now ring the gong three times as usual.

When the gong finishes sounding for the third time,

Come out from your meditation.

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Very good.

Okay.

So now I have a few questions and if you now know that this class is streamed live over the world,

We always get a few questions.

Today's questions actually come from Europe.

Professor Lin from Bulgaria and Neelu from Romania.

So the first one from Bulgaria,

How to overcome the overwhelming habit of constantly thinking and rethinking about one's life,

The dialogues in one's mind,

Which makes meditation almost impossible.

The thoughts which come in your mind,

The only reason why they continue is because you give them value,

Because you've convinced yourself they're important and they're going to solve important problems in your life.

But when you stand back and examine all the thoughts you've ever had in your life,

How many of them have truly worked and fulfilled their promise of solving your difficulties and problems?

And how many of those trains of thoughts have just led to other thoughts and more thoughts?

They haven't solved problems,

They've made more problems.

It's one of the reasons why the Buddha said that we look upon thoughts not as our friends,

But as something which obstructs the clarity of our mind.

And when we're still,

That's when we see more,

That's when we understand more.

The simile which is a very common simile which I use for meditation is the simile of the lake.

If there are waves or ripples on the surface of the lake in the forest,

And it does not reflect the full moon and the stars above,

The image is distorted.

If the lake is perfectly still,

We call it glassy still,

Then the reflection of the moon and stars is perfect because there's not a ripple on the surface of the lake.

And that simile is about your mind.

If there's a ripple of thoughts in your mind,

It can never reflect the truth of things.

You always get distorted images of life in yourself and your problems.

When your mind is perfectly still,

Then it has a perfect reflection which you can trust.

To show I don't make these things up myself,

That is the Buddha's teaching of samadhi,

Patiya,

Yadapu,

Dhyana,

Dhasana.

From stillness the mind can see things as they truly are.

When it's thinking,

The mind isn't still.

And what you think is true is distorted truth.

So the overwhelming habit of constantly thinking is overcome first of all by taking away the value of that thinking process and valuing stillness much more.

And it is not constant thought.

For those of you who have listened to me before,

And if any of you ever teach meditation to your friends,

There is this very skillful teacher's trick to show that people are not constantly thinking.

You have many moments of awareness with silence.

And to prove it,

We do this little exercise where I ask the audience,

As I hope you will if you ever teach meditation,

I ask the audience not just to listen to what I am saying but also to listen to the reaction you have in your mind as I am speaking.

Because as I am speaking,

You will begin to notice some spaces between my words.

In those gaps between my words,

What was going on in your mind?

You were silent.

You weren't thinking because you never knew when I was going to start speaking again.

It's a little trick which we use to make people aware what we mean by silent awareness.

You are not constantly thinking.

The trouble is we give thoughts so much importance,

That's all we notice.

It's very similar to when you look around this room,

You see people,

You see chairs,

You see carpet and ceiling,

Monks,

Buddha statue behind,

Very few people notice the space in this room which is far greater in volume than the people and things in this room.

The space was between you and the next person.

So you don't notice thoughts,

You notice what's between those thoughts when one thought finishes and another thought hasn't arisen yet.

There is a silent mind.

And that's what that little exercise teaches people how to focus on.

So number two,

You actually understand what silence actually is.

And it's there very often in people's life,

You just don't notice it when you are not thinking.

You haven't looked out for the spaces between your thoughts.

So that's the second trick of stopping this thinking mind,

Is seeing it's not constant at all.

There are spaces,

Notice those spaces.

And what happens when you start noticing the spaces between thoughts,

The silence in the mind?

It's not only promising a much wiser appreciation of yourself in the world,

It's also incredibly pleasant.

Wasn't that nice?

No words,

The mind being still.

So thirdly,

The sheer pleasure of stillness is what will stop the mind thinking.

And you get into meditation a lot and notice the quiet,

The quiet spaces in your mind.

It's such a much more pleasant place to hang out,

But after a while you only think when you really have to.

You think reluctantly.

And most of the wisdom of your life will come from the silence,

Not from the thoughts.

That's where you get the answers to the problems of life,

Not by thinking about them,

But by shutting up and seeing.

That's where you get so wise.

You all know that we're always talking when other people are talking.

One person may be talking with their mouth and you're talking inside your head,

Which is why you never listen,

Which is why you never understand even the people you live with.

You're constantly talking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

Never listening,

Never seeing.

If you want to understand life,

You've got to listen to her first,

But you cannot talk back at her,

Listen to life in silence.

That's amazing information you get.

Sometimes when people come and ask me questions afterwards,

Or they have interviews whenever,

Sometimes that's what I've trained myself to do.

You talk,

I listen,

And I really mean I'm silent,

I'm not thinking inside.

It's amazing what you can pick up when you're totally silent.

Some people think it's some psychic powers,

I'm reading people's minds,

You're not,

You're telling me I'm just quiet enough to be able to listen.

That's where you get wise.

So that's actually how to overcome the overwhelming habit of constantly thinking.

Some very powerful little tricks there.

You keep doing that and sooner or later you take away the value and importance of thinking,

You enjoy the peace much more and sooner or later you'll spend more time in silence.

You'll have a much happier life and you'll be able to solve many more problems.

And the next question from Neelu from Romania.

You said many times that not the external events disturb you but you are disturbing them.

How could a gentle and peaceful human being disturb the noisy,

Rude and aggressive world outside?

How do you disturb it?

This world is just noisy and aggressive,

That's its nature.

It's like when the dog barks.

What do you expect of a dog?

That's the nature of dogs to bark.

When the crows caw,

Caw,

Caw,

That's their nature,

That's just what crows do.

That's the nature of human beings,

They're noisy and disturbing,

That's their inherent nature.

So what we mean by disturbing the external world is the dog barks woof,

Woof,

Woof.

And as soon as it stops barking,

The barking carries on inside.

Stupid dog,

Why did they bark?

We should get double glazed windows,

Soundproof the hall,

I'll give a donation,

I'll collect some money so we can make it silent.

Maybe I know someone in some barking gang,

I'll get a contract out on that dog next door.

Okay,

We'll shoot him but it's for the benefit of all the meditators in here.

We wish it a happy rebirth anyway but you can think like that.

The dog's finished barking a long time ago but it's still barking in your head.

That's what the meaning of that word being barking mad.

We still keep going on and on and on.

That's what we mean by disturbing the world.

So when you can't change anything,

Sit down and be still.

And much of the world you just cannot change,

You can't even change yourself for goodness sake.

But how do you think you're going to change other people?

What do you do to you?

You can't start changing yourself first before you change the world by not disturbing the world.

So you sit here just like last night.

This is one of the reasons why.

There used to be a sign here,

No mobile phones.

Last night during the meditation,

Two mobile phones went off and they said,

Why can't we tell people that you've only got three strikes and you're out,

And the first time your mobile phone goes off you get shot.

That would stop people.

But no,

If you shoot someone that's more noise,

Bang,

And it sort of gets worse and then the car comes and there's all sorts of stuff.

That's really disturbing.

So instead the mobile phones go,

They only last a few seconds.

And you know,

Has that ever happened to you?

It never happened to me because we don't have mobile phones as much.

It's a very peaceful life.

I recommend it.

But if you've got a mobile phone,

I'm sure those people who've got mobile phones,

There's always been one or two times,

It's very embarrassing.

It's gone off when it shouldn't have gone off,

When you thought you put it on silent mode but it's gone off.

It happens,

Doesn't it?

The more people you have in this place,

The more likelihood of it happening.

This is the world,

That is life.

So if a mobile phone goes off,

As soon as it stops,

It stops in my mind as well.

It's gone,

Finished.

You don't disturb it.

It's the same with your body,

Sometimes it aches.

My knee aches a day.

And I looked at it,

See,

Can I relax it?

No,

I can't relax it.

So I just left it alone.

So I didn't disturb my knee.

My knee never disturbed me.

We had a truce,

Which means we didn't have a war during my meditation.

So I go,

Oh,

It hurts,

It hurts,

It hurts,

I must move.

No,

It's just my knee hurts,

That's fine.

That's why we don't disturb the world.

So yeah,

Sure the world is going to be noisy,

Rude and aggressive sometimes but that's the nature of the world.

So someone can be aggressive at you.

You just in one ear,

Out the other.

If they're violent,

You learn how to run.

As fast as you can.

Or give them compassion,

Whatever it is.

It's an amazing story,

It's what you can do to calm people down in aggressive situations.

One of the great skills is speaking slowly and with a low tone.

It's amazing how that can diffuse sort of aggressive situations,

Just the way you use your voice.

Because in aggressive situations,

If you start speaking very fast and very loud and very high pitched,

See what that does to you.

It's terrible,

Isn't it?

That's the way you can calm situations.

Now don't sort of get caught up and speak loudly and stuff with other people with a high pitch.

Blow the pitch,

Speak slowly.

It's amazing just how that can diffuse aggressive situations.

So that's why you don't disturb it.

You leave it alone and it all settles down.

So that's what we mean.

And that's only how gentle and peaceful human beings disturb the noisy,

Rude and aggressive.

It's because sometimes you're not gentle,

You're not peaceful.

That's why you're disturbed.

If you really are gentle and peaceful,

You don't disturb the world at all.

The dogs next door,

They're allowed to bark.

People's mobile phones are allowed to go off.

Please don't feel upset or embarrassed about it.

Please try and be kind there,

Don't do it again.

And that way we're not disturbing the world.

You really are gentle,

You're not peaceful,

You're very peaceful.

As the Buddha said,

He said,

The world argues with me but I don't argue with the world.

That's what he meant.

Okay,

So those are the questions from overseas,

A long way overseas from Europe.

Is there any questions from home?

Okay.

Your left arm got distorted.

Don't worry,

We've got good rehabilitation facilities here in Perth.

We'll send you to Australia.

Sometimes you get weird experiences,

Meditation.

That's one of the talks I gave in the last retreat,

Experiencing weirdness in meditation.

I love weirdness.

The stranger the experience,

The more I enjoy it and I say boring life as a monk.

So anything weird which happens,

Any nice weird visions or stuff going on,

That's really cool.

So if you've got something really weird,

Enjoy it to the max.

And the thing is,

It all goes back to normal again afterwards,

Back to your normal boring life.

So your arm's okay now?

Is it still distorted?

Unfortunately it's back to normal again,

Never mind.

Maybe next time you can do better.

Okay,

Let's get out of here.

It's going late,

It's almost 20 past.

An extra four minutes of time here but no extra charge.

I'm going to play a space of Buddha Dhamma Sangha.

Reviews

Such joy. Sadhu! ☮️💖🙏🕉️