Day 106/365: 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

Okay,

Very good.

So welcome everybody to this afternoon's meditation class.

I started a minute ago but the microphone wasn't on and because there's hardly anybody in the hall it makes it very difficult for me to know that the microphone has not been switched on but now we're ready to go,

We're rolling with a full voice.

And so that over many years which I have been meditating and learning what to do and what not to do,

There's many beautiful,

Skillful means which I share with people on a Saturday afternoon which can help you get into a deeper meditation with less problems and less obstacles.

And so I just was contemplating over the last week at the monastery where I live where I do lots of meditation,

That there was one afternoon,

I was meditating but I was quite restless,

I couldn't really focus and it wasn't because I was not putting any effort in,

Because I don't put any effort in anyway,

I use my wisdom power.

And the wisdom power is always much more useful.

In other words,

Instead of forcing the mind to stay with something,

I can do that for even quite a while,

You get very tired afterwards and you get very tense,

It's not the right way to meditate.

Instead we use our wisdom power.

So what I do if there's any obstacle is to stop and feel what is going on,

What is the obstacle.

And this is just an example because the obstacle which I encountered when I was meditating one afternoon was indigestion,

Which I never even looked at.

It was there in the background but I was too busy just trying to relax the outer part of my body and not realising that inside someone,

It's not major indigestion,

A tiny little thing,

But that was stopping me coming into the present moment because it was unpleasant.

And it took me a while to find that out.

How did I find out what the obstacle was,

The little irritating feeling throughout my guts of indigestion?

How did I find that out?

It was very much like using the power of mindfulness together with kindness,

But what I mean by mindfulness and kindness was using the meditation which I've given the name to of the Emperor's Three Questions meditation.

I talk about that a lot,

I practise it a lot because it works.

When any time that I'm not well,

Tired or there's something there which isn't really working,

I try and do the Emperor's Three Questions meditation which is,

Now is the only time and the thing right in front of me is the most important thing in the world.

And the reason I was being restless is because my indigestion was calling for my attention and it wanted me to look at it,

But I was too busy wanting to go and do something else,

Wanted to relax and get this beautiful peace which I talk about,

To go even deeper and see the delightful breath and the nimittas and all of that.

So I was a bit impatient and reminded myself the best,

The fastest,

The most efficient way to meditate can be the Emperor's Three Questions.

So don't worry where I'm going to,

Not concerned where I've come from,

Where am I right now?

I make this present moment just so important and then now what am I aware of?

And it was quite surprising and I hadn't noticed before.

I came into the present moment,

What I was aware of was a tightness in my chest,

It was a feeling which as soon as I noticed it I could recognise the feeling of some sort of indigestion.

As a Buddhist monk sometimes we don't know what we eat,

Sometimes people are so kind they give us their very best,

But as many people give us their best and sometimes there are two different types of food,

Sometimes they don't get on together.

And sometimes you have indigestion but what I did was to focus my full attention on indigestion,

To actually to go towards it rather than try to escape from it,

To make sure that that was the most important thing in the whole world.

I was doing indigestion meditation,

In other words just being with what was the most powerful experience my body was showing me at that time.

And of course the third part of that Empress-3 Questions meditation was caring.

And this word caring,

The kindness,

Compassion,

Is such an important part of Buddhism.

Instead of trying to get rid of something,

Instead of trying to be negative towards it,

Instead of trying to cure it,

I cared for it,

Embraced it,

Let it be with me,

Saying that that irritation can be with me as long as it likes,

For the rest of my life if it needs to be,

It could even get worse,

I welcome you,

I literally open the door of my heart to you.

It's a wonderful thing when you do that 100%,

Because I've been meditating and practicing for many,

Many years,

I need to learn how to do that.

Sometimes it's scary,

Because sometimes those feelings can be quite intense.

But this particular time that feeling was not that intense but it was the obstacle which I had.

And just being able to notice it,

Because I have realised over many years of practice,

When I notice something and put my attention to it,

It's like you have some sort of power over it and you can lessen its pain,

Lessen its disturbing qualities,

Its obstructivity gets less and less and less.

It literally softens.

I don't do anything,

I just work there,

Accept and allow it to come to peace.

It's as if,

This is only a metaphor,

It's as if that it just wants me to look at it,

Wants some attention,

I give it some attention,

It relaxes and it stops causing me any disturbance.

And of course that's what I did and it's so fast that the obstacle just could relax,

Come at ease and the pain or the,

You can't really call it pain but the disturbing quality,

The harshness of it,

So I've softened and then of course I went into my very peaceful,

Delightful body and then into my mind and had a wonderful meditation and I have used that meditation of the Empress of Equation so often and sometimes people would ask,

When I'm sick,

How can I meditate?

Or when I'm anxious about the situation in the world,

How do I meditate?

Now when there's so many difficulties which I have to face,

How do I meditate?

Sometimes what cuts through a lot of the obstacles is the Emperor's three questions meditation.

Now,

The only time you ever have,

Sometimes people think like that,

Just as like a spiritual,

Look how good I am,

But you don't just think about it,

You practice it.

You are the present moment and you really get into it and when you're in the present moment,

You don't choose what object you're going to be looking at.

Whatever is right in front of you,

Whatever the body or the mind brings up to you,

That's what you observe.

By observing,

I don't mean with your eyes,

That's what you feel,

That's what you know,

That's what you perceive.

And when you are allowing these objects to come to you,

You're not choosing,

You're letting your mind and body choose what it wants to show you.

It normally shows you what's really important and if you are sick,

If you are tired,

You can actually know that tiredness.

Sometimes people say they're tired but do you really know what it feels like in depth?

You know that every time you're tired,

There's a different type of tiredness,

A different intensity,

A different texture of feeling and so that when you are allowing your body and mind to teach you,

It's happening right now and you're just being with it.

Of course,

Caring for it means you're not trying to get rid of it,

Not to count in the minutes,

When is this going to end because I want to get into my deep meditation.

You're not being irritated,

You're not being fed up with this feeling and you literally do say to yourself,

You know quietly,

It's not a word you say,

You don't get so noisy,

You just inside your head,

You just know that it doesn't matter how long this lasts,

How you're going to be with it,

Just be with these feelings,

Be with these experiences right now and caring for it.

The caring for it maintains its presence,

You're not trying to get rid of it,

You're not trying to go somewhere else,

You're not trying to supplant it with something else,

You're really being in it,

Getting to know it and as you are right there,

These things never last.

They're very,

Very nature,

The impermanent nature of all things.

The fact that these things,

They last for a while but then they just fade away.

This is what happens,

The feelings start to disappear,

They change and normally because you're not adding any negativity from your mind to what you're experiencing,

They usually change to something far more peaceful and so you just be with it and like it always tends to happen for me anyway because I really embrace it,

Let it be,

It changes to something much more peaceful and I just continue on with my Empress Vyaklesha's meditation,

Because another experience comes into my mind,

A more peaceful one,

A more calm one.

I just let my mind care for that,

Always caring for whatever comes in front of me.

It's as if these experiences which you have,

You have to learn from,

You can't cut the class,

You can't dismiss it and think you're better than this,

You can't say,

I'm in a rush,

I can't spend the time on this,

No.

You let your mind and body decide and you'll be the patient,

The selfless observer,

Just watching and as you watch without trying to get rid of,

Without trying to hold,

Just being like the passenger,

Just be like someone on a mountain just looking in the distance at all that is going on.

As you're just watching detached,

Not trying to make it happen,

Not trying to stop it happening,

But just letting it happen,

Then you find the mind gets so peaceful.

Having meditated for such a long time,

I realize what I'm actually doing is creating the causes,

Putting forth the nutriment,

The fuel,

The fertilizer of peace.

I'm making peace with this moment,

I'm being kind,

I'm being gentle and gentle always means patience as well.

I've only got this moment,

So what is time anyway?

So little by little we practice the Emperor's three questions,

Meditation.

Soon those beginning obstacles to meditation,

Which for me usually in the body somewhere,

Disappear.

Sometimes for some people,

Because I've talked to many people when they're meditating,

Doing interviews,

Getting some feelings of how they meditate,

Sometimes those feelings in the body are no more than emotional,

We call them scars or bruises,

I think would be a better word,

Emotional bruises are what's happened earlier.

Some of the times which we struggle to get through the day,

Some of the things which people say about us or the things we say about ourselves a lot,

Our self view,

Our ideas of our competence,

Some of those they just leave some tight space in the body,

As if we have our emotional world as recorded,

As like tightness,

Bruises in our physical body and sometimes those are the ones which stop us getting deeper,

Our body just can't vanish.

The reason is because it's bruises from life still kept in the body.

And so when you get to these stages of meditation,

Sometimes the body says,

You're not going deeper because you've got to deal with this and I see a part of my body and then I just go towards it,

Let it be.

It's the most important thing in the world for me because it's happening now and I'm kind to it,

I embrace it,

I let it be.

But not just to let him be with no warmth to it,

It's a beautiful warmth to it,

Just like I see a little kitten or a dog or like a bird who's been injured.

You try and give it as much kindness as you possibly can.

When you do that,

You can see just even the bird who is injured,

Its fear starts to disappear.

You're being kind to it,

You're its friend,

You're not its enemy.

And so these little bruises inside of me,

They're not afraid,

They open up,

They relax,

They're not healing to happen.

Basically they start to disappear,

You're soft to them,

The area softens and just this beautiful ease starts to happen.

And of course as you go deeper in the meditation,

Those Empress-free questions,

This is just what happens.

I know that often people used to ask me,

Yes I get to this stage of meditation,

What do I do next?

And I think,

You really haven't understood the teachings.

There is no next that you need to be worried about or even to plan.

The whole idea of this meditation is a journey,

We're your passenger.

You don't know what's going to happen next.

In fact some of the things which occur,

They just quite surprise you.

All you do is in this moment,

And I keep saying that your future is being made right now,

That's a very deep teaching.

And if you follow it by really being in this moment and just whatever you're experiencing,

Making it so important,

Is the only thing you have and being kind,

Caring,

You find that that makes a huge good karma,

Causes,

Fertilize the fuel for what's coming next.

You don't worry what comes next,

It surprises you delightfully,

Positively.

So you just stay like that,

Just watching this body,

Relaxing it and just,

Soon you just,

The body is fine,

It gets delightful.

That was such a surprise to see just how easy it is when you know this method,

Just how to take the body and make it all beautiful and happy and joyful and healthy.

Like healthy was almost like the by-product,

Very helpful by-product especially in these times.

But it wasn't why I was meditating,

It just happens.

And of course once the body is nice and relaxed,

It just disappears.

Business has been done,

It's finished.

It's lovely when things are finished because you can leave them alone and go inside where you really belong and inside the old peace ommeter,

Very useful teaching,

How peaceful am I right now?

Not judging it in the sense of good or bad,

But just knowing.

And knowing that once that sense of peace or not so peaceful is,

I'm aware of that,

It's happening now and I'm caring for it.

If I try to make myself more peaceful,

It just gets more agitated.

If I try to stop myself being agitated,

It gets even more agitated.

So I don't do anything except caring for this moment,

Just making this moment so important that it begins to relax and peace comes.

It's the nature of things.

What I'm doing is creating the causes,

The results come by themselves and the cause is just being aware in this most present moment,

Respecting whatever it is I'm experiencing.

It's giving this moment not trying to push it away,

Saying I'm better than this,

I deserve more.

It's never stigmatising what you're experiencing,

But accepting it as part of the path.

It's not this moment that is really important,

I wouldn't say,

It's not the content of this moment which is really important,

It's always what you're doing with it.

And if you can,

Just be caring and let it be,

You find it develops by itself.

It involves,

Goes inwards,

Turns inwards,

The outer sheaths,

The outer coverings,

Like the body vanish and the outer things like time vanishes.

Now the idea of time which people are so stuck in,

You escape from time.

What an amazing thing that is,

But that's a pretty accurate description of what happens when you leave time alone.

It disappears,

It's no longer a problem.

It actually no longer exists.

You're right in this moment,

Don't even call it a moment because time has no meaning and you go into the breath.

It's what happens.

If you're with the breath,

It's the most important thing in the world.

You just care for it.

It gets so delightful,

Like my body gets delightful,

Just with your breathing,

It's delightful,

Breath vanishes and it's at its own time.

It's not a stage of meditation,

It's a stage of letting go.

It's just part of the process of disappearance,

Of vanishing.

Because when the breath vanishes,

All you've got left is a beautiful joy,

Happiness.

Things are getting really simple now,

Simple but powerful,

Beautiful,

Beautiful nimittas.

If ever you get into those beautiful lights and the mind,

The nimittas,

Always remember the Emperor's three questions form of meditation.

Whatever that nimitta is,

Whatever you perceive it as,

However it looks like and however it is formed,

That's important,

Just leave it.

Don't think about it.

You will always remember these things afterwards.

All you need to do is just be there,

Allowing it to be and caring for it in this moment.

And if you do that,

Whoa,

It gets really powerful,

Very beautiful.

And of course,

You just let it involve even more,

Go deeper and deeper and deeper until you go to the world of the jhanas.

Great bliss,

Great stillness,

Long way away from your body,

Body you can't feel,

Sound you can't hear,

Thoughts,

Those disturbing thoughts,

Gone.

Silence,

Steep,

Stable silence of the mind,

Great joy,

It's the bliss you're experiencing and it doesn't move,

It stays.

And little by little,

That involves,

Goes from the first jhana,

What they call the second jhana,

Deeper and deeper and deeper into the stillness,

Into the emptiness,

Into the peace where you have vanished,

The great journey of deep inner peace.

So,

All starting by understanding that your indigestion is worth watching and not worth getting rid of.

You'll get rid of itself.

Your job is to care and to be in this moment and everything happens.

Okay,

That's a little description of how meditation works.

So for those of you who want to join in,

I will guide the first,

Say 20 minutes or so of this meditation class and after the guidance is finished,

About 20 minutes,

Then I'll just be quiet and then you also meditate and go as deep as you possibly can or rather disappear as much as you're able.

So closing your eyes to do the preliminaries of getting your body in a good position.

And I just check my legs.

This bit I do on purpose because it's important to be able to get my body just as best as possible before I start a real deep part of meditation.

Legs are pretty okay.

My butt.

Make sure it's comfortable on the seats.

Get my back nice stretch and then relax.

It's amazing I can feel just so much in my back.

It's all the muscles.

By the way,

I'm not sure what I'm feeling,

Whether it's a muscle or a tendon or a,

But I can feel.

I'm sensitive.

I can make sure that nothing is squashed or overstretched.

It's a comfortable position for my back.

It's a position I recognise as being suitable for my back.

I can keep it pretty still for the period.

I check my shoulders and loosen them.

I'm not a soldier on parade.

I'm not holding myself tight.

It's loose and free.

I like doing this because sometimes there's muscles in the shoulders.

You feel I'm holding them tight somehow and I just loosen both ends and it gets so at peace,

So free,

So comfortable.

It becomes a metaphor for what I do later on with my mind.

I don't pour myself into aspirations and goals.

I don't drag behind me any perceptions of failure or inadequacy or wonderful things which I've done.

All that baggage from the past,

That's what stretches my mind.

I let go of both ends,

Past and future.

So this moment can feel so free.

It's like the muscles in my shoulders.

I go down my arms to my hands.

Because I remember last night describing how my hands were,

They're different today.

The thumbs are touching,

The little fingers are apart.

Yesterday they were on top of one another.

I feel comfortable like this.

I never try to think of a perfect position,

Just a comfortable one.

I go up to my shoulders again on my neck.

Making sure my neck is comfortable.

I go up to my head and I go for a change to my ears.

The builders outside banging out in stakes.

This is happening right now.

It becomes the most important thing in the world to me when I'm hearing a sound.

I don't try and get rid of it.

I care for it.

It improves my questions.

It's what I understand Ajahn Chah meant,

It's not the sound disturbs you.

You disturb the sound by not caring for it.

And I go to my face,

Muscles around the eyes and the mouth.

Really loosen them up.

Feel them just,

They were tight,

A little bit tight before and I'm loosening their attention.

Just like getting the strings on the guitar and just loosening,

Loosening them as much as possible.

There's no strain on them.

All over my face feels free.

I've got my eyes closed,

I assume other people aren't really looking at me except the camera.

I don't care what I look like.

I care how I feel.

Feel free and easy and at peace.

Look at my whole body here,

From the head to the toes and in between.

Just checking I haven't missed anything which is going to cause me an ache or a pain.

My foot was a little bit squashed so I don't know how I missed that one.

Adjust it.

That's much better.

Checking my body,

Being aware.

Because of what I was talking about earlier.

There we go,

I had a bit of tightness in my belly and just burped it out.

I notice any tightness,

Anything which is not at ease in my body,

It's just the body comes and shows it to me.

It's here,

It's happening right now.

I'm going to be kind to it,

I'm caring for it.

Caring for this moment when it shows me.

Because I'm caring for a little bit of indigestion,

Tiny bit,

It's getting less,

I can feel it just disappearing.

You get agitated by it,

Of course it gets worse.

If you care in this moment,

It starts to disappear.

And it's replaced by this delightful feeling of body at peace and ease.

These are just the stages of meditation.

More and more delight as you go deeper and deeper.

So delight which makes me able to be at peace and meditate for long.

It satisfies my mind.

Just go to my peace-o-meter.

Just needs a little bit of time,

Present moment,

Caring.

I notice the peace gets deeper and deeper.

I'm not particularly choosing what I'm aware of.

Instead whatever is happening right this moment,

Right now,

Is what I'm aware of and I care for it.

I'm learning and softening,

Not giving things names,

Not writing an essay or taking notes.

All of that stuff which you do at school,

You go past that.

You just feel,

You know.

Sure enough,

I become aware of my breathing.

Just that part of the breath happening now.

I just care for this moment.

My breath is not that delightful at the moment.

Doesn't matter.

I accept you as you are breathing.

I'm not going to judge you.

I'm just going to let you be.

It will take you a little bit longer than usual I reckon for my breath to really relax,

To become so joyful.

I've got the time.

I've got the now.

So I'm going to be quiet for about 15 or 20 minutes now.

When I start speaking again,

You'll be close to the end of the meditation.

So enjoy the silence of now and care for this.

You're welcome.

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Coming close now,

Another couple of minutes to the end of this meditation.

Right now,

How do you feel?

What's the most important thing in your mind right now?

That which is happening now?

Which is where we can get the information?

What worked?

If you are peaceful,

What does peace feel like?

Different levels of peace,

A thousand different levels.

Each one more delightful than the next.

True place of rest and peace and happiness.

Your eyes closed,

Sitting in your house,

Your room,

Whatever.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Meditation when you need nothing.

Your body gets so relaxed and at peace.

What do you feel?

Does there health benefits?

So the body stays like this,

So comfortable and at ease.

Now I'm going to ring the gong three times as usual.

Please wait until the third ringing of the gong before you open your eyes.

Just allow the mind to come out of meditation gradually,

Gently.

Otherwise that Chancha would call it like putting hot water into a cold glass.

Last one up first.

GONG RINGS That was nice.

Thank you.

So we have three questions so far.

If any more questions come and there are time I'm very happy to answer more than just the three.

Because as I said last night,

In the normal times there's a lot of people here and after the questions from the internet they would actually come up and ask their own questions.

So I normally used to stay in care a little bit longer.

So anyway,

The first one from Poland.

Oh,

They're talking about WESAC next week.

Next week the Buddhist Society of Western Australia is doing our WESAC celebration on Sunday week,

That's May the 3rd.

All the program is on the internet,

But of course it will be online program.

Still we think no one will be able to really come here to celebrate,

Have to celebrate it at home.

Anyway,

How can lay people best celebrate the birth of the Buddha?

Should we make special intentions or should we sit?

Please answer slowly Ajahn,

Because English is not my first language.

How you can celebrate the birth of the Buddha is not just the birth,

It's the enlightenment of the Buddha and also the final passing away of the Buddha.

And each one of those occasions is a very beautiful thing to remember,

To imagine and it gives so much detail and inspiration.

Of course,

One of the best ways of doing that is to log into the BSWA website or other websites throughout the world who are celebrating the WESAC,

But not celebrating it with song and dance,

But celebrating it by taking precepts by virtue,

Celebrating it by meditating,

Finding peace and stillness and celebrating it by monks like myself,

Nuns,

Giving instructions,

Live streaming.

And that reminded me of just that little simile of when I bow to a Buddha statue,

And at WESAC there is like a bow to the Buddha.

The three bows which I do,

The first one is to virtue,

To like goodness,

Honesty,

Trustworthiness.

Other people can give you safety as you give them safety.

And that virtue is just so powerful,

So beautiful,

So well worth worshipping,

Very easy to bow and lower my head to my experiences and ideas of virtue,

My commitment to virtue.

My second bow,

My second prostration is to peace,

Beautiful peace of meditation,

Peace in this hall today,

There's no one here,

Peace in the world,

Peace in my monastery,

The Bodhinyana monastery,

Sometimes you're spending a bit more time there because I'm not travelling overseas,

And often I catch myself walking through the grounds and it's just so silent,

And I'm appreciating that peace even more.

Peace is a great cause of health,

A great cause of joy and happiness,

It's like the work is done,

You can relax.

And lastly the kindness and compassion,

Whatever peace which you feel inside your own heart,

You want to share that with others,

Whatever dharma,

Teachings,

Truths,

Which you've learned and known,

You want to share that,

It's a kindness,

A goodness towards others,

The caring,

That is my third object to which I bow.

So that is how I worship the Buddha,

Standing for virtue,

Peace and compassion.

So see what you can do to be virtuous,

Extra virtuous that day,

More time for meditation,

For peace.

It's one of the reasons why we celebrate it on a Sunday,

Celebrating on the 3rd of May,

Whereas the real Full Moon Day apparently is about the 6th or the 7th of May in the middle of the week.

But nevertheless we do it on Sunday because more people can follow.

But I'm also spiritual advisor,

Director,

I'm not sure what of other Buddhist societies,

So also doing something on the 10th as well.

So lots of talks for that particular week,

So you'll be able to tune in some way,

Some time and get a little bit of talk,

Inspiration to remind you of what's really important in this world,

Virtue,

Peace and compassion.

Now from next question from Sri Lanka.

Oh,

I've seen this question before,

I think it was sent to us in Serpentine.

Some monks in Sri Lanka say that they are Arahant enlightened and people question them,

If you're enlightened,

Why can't they do anything to overcome COVID-19?

Is that a reasonable question to throw at them?

Now one of the things is that people who claim Arahant as an attainment,

They're missing so much of what that word really means.

I think if you were listening carefully to the meditation instruction,

I'd say these are all stages of letting go,

Of disappearing.

Whether it's a monk or a nun who actually does become an Arahant,

They just disappear,

They vanish and sometimes you will never know that they are an Arahant.

Arahant is like an enlightened person.

And it's just one of those things that if they say they're enlightened,

It's almost 100% that they're not.

Enlightened beings don't take anything as attainments,

They don't add to their certificates on the wall which define their personality.

And so real Arahants,

You probably pass them in the street in Sri Lanka and they don't know just how peaceful,

Unless you're very sensitive,

And how just free they are.

And there's a wonderful nun,

Venerable Chikwang Sunim,

Who lives over in Victoria.

She was actually her teacher apparently who once told her when she was training,

Whenever you do become enlightened,

Don't tell anybody.

If somebody finds out,

You'll have to spend the rest of your life proving it.

So anyway,

But if you were enlightened,

Do anything to overcome COVID-19,

The purpose of being a wise,

Skillful monk or nun,

It's not to overcome things,

It's to understand them.

And the only thing we understand and with the understanding,

These things disappear and vanish.

It's not overcoming them like an army defeating the enemy,

It's understanding,

And without understanding the problem is solved.

I'm asked here from this group of questions from USA,

Ajahn,

You speak of the selfless observer,

I'm unsure I can distinguish between them,

I feel the observer is myself.

Does the observer always remain in deep meditative states?

That observer changes,

Or rather your perception of an observer changes.

And especially when you get into the states of the deep meditations,

Ajahn,

Because there are no states,

There is no separation from the observer and the observed,

That's how they sometimes call it,

Ekagata in Pali,

Means one pointedness of mind.

Even one pointedness is the usual translation,

The mind's one peak of mind.

You can imagine a great mountain,

Say just by Mount Fuji,

Outside of Tokyo in Japan,

A beautiful mountain coming to a peak,

Where everything just comes together and it just points at the top.

That point in the mind is one peak of experience.

And in there your perception is such that there's no observer,

No observer,

The two have come together.

You've got no space between you and what's being watched,

Or rather the awareness of what's being watched.

So all of these things,

They defy some of the descriptions which people say.

Maybe you feel the observer is myself,

But that's just tentative,

Don't rely upon that,

Because otherwise you get scared when your observer starts to disappear,

Or that particular perception of the observer disappears,

It's like you are being taken away,

You're vanishing.

And that just brings me out of that experience which is common when people start to get into deep meditation,

They're afraid.

They're afraid of letting go of that which they always assumed they was.

The doer,

Their will,

The will.

You always think you're in charge,

That vanishes,

That stops.

And this knower,

That also vanishes.

This is a letting go of everything,

Going,

Going,

Gone.

Just like we're talking about the last question about the way suck,

The birth of the Buddha,

It's also the final passing away of the Buddha,

Called Tathagata,

Thus gone,

Not going anywhere,

Just vanishing,

Disappearing.

And the simile which was used in the Buddhist texts,

In the suttas,

The most authentic and reliable teachings of the Buddha,

Was the one about the fire.

I adapt it slightly,

It's still valid,

About the flame.

The flame on a candle depends upon the wax,

The wick and the heat.

When any one of those three causes disappears,

There's no more wax left,

The wick is burnt out,

Or a wind blows out the heat,

And the flame disappears.

Where does it go?

Ask the Buddha to this fellow called Watchegata.

The flame doesn't go anywhere,

It just stops,

It just causes.

This thing which you call the observer,

It's just a process,

It's an effect,

It's not a real thing.

When the causes vanish,

So do you.

So,

I found a couple of questions here.

Have we got the time?

Good.

Can you please,

This is from USA,

From Boston.

Can you please elaborate on what it means to maintain an object of focus?

I've read your meditation daily for four years and recently came across shamatha meditation.

There's no difference between what I teach and shamatha meditation.

Shamatha is just samatha,

It's calming meditation,

It's peace,

It's stillness.

So this is actually how you become still.

To maintain an object of focus,

If you try and do that,

If that's coming from you,

You'll get tired and you won't be able to go deeply.

There comes a time you can't go any further because you've got so far based on a sense of will and self.

And to let that go now,

It just can't be done.

So instead we let go of the will very early on in the meditation.

We just notice this body,

We calm it down.

Empathy questions,

Now is the only time you have.

So how can you plan anything or do anything in meditation?

This thing now,

Whatever it is,

Is the most important.

If that changes,

Fine,

And you care for it.

The point is there you are developing the causes for calm and stillness.

This is how you do shamatha,

What creates it.

You don't do things,

Whatever you do disturbs.

And to do it visually,

It's an old simile,

I'm sure you may have seen this before.

Glass of water represents my mind.

I'm now going to shamatha it,

Keep it perfectly still.

You notice it's moving.

Why is it moving?

Because I'm paying no attention,

I'll be mindful on the water.

It's still moving,

Now I'll concentrate.

So I try and make a face just for fun.

Even if I concentrate,

Actually when I concentrate it moves more.

It's a very,

Very,

Very simple way of having this water in my glass be perfectly still.

You put it down and wait.

It didn't take long,

Now it's perfectly still.

There's no way I could ever hold it still.

When I let it go,

It becomes still because that's its default state.

Same with my mind.

When I try and focus it,

It runs away.

When I let it be,

It becomes still.

That's what shamatha is about.

The next question from Sri Lanka.

Should you forgive and forget if your partner of three years has cheated?

I'm trying to be compassionate but I'm anxious they will repeat the behaviour again.

Yes,

You forgive,

But you don't forget,

You can't forget.

You forgive,

You learn.

Why?

Why have they cheated and gone with another person?

So you find out why.

And then see if we can deal with that so it doesn't happen again.

So you don't forget these things and feel that you deny their existence.

You work with the failures of human beings and you find ways of stopping that.

Lastly,

Somebody don't say where from,

My mind is fuzzy more because I'm using my devices and browsing the internet much more than usual.

It's really affecting my meditation,

Making me struggle.

Any advice for me please?

Again,

It's to see if you can have a little bit of discipline.

By discipline I don't mean not looking at your devices at all,

But giving yourself a time of the day when you can check the emails,

Check the news,

But not just use the devices as an escape for you.

People escape to so many different places which are useless but we have to go there because we've got nothing else.

But when you learn how to meditate properly and the meditation is delightful,

Then it's like you have a choice,

Should I just check YouTube or something?

Or should I just,

I don't know,

Maybe I'm old fashioned YouTube,

Probably something more these days,

But,

Or should I just sit down,

Close my eyes and just be,

And allow stillness to come to me and delight and joy?

And it comes a time when your meditation gets strong enough,

There's no more contest.

The delight and joy and the peace are so much more delightful.

And you look at this news and how I was,

What was it,

Many many years ago when I was in Thailand,

You'd only see a newspaper,

No internet obviously,

No radio,

No TV in forest monasteries,

There was no electricity even.

So you'd only see a newspaper once every few years,

Honestly.

And then when I remember seeing this newspaper after about three or four years before I'd seen the previous one,

The news was the same.

It was just scandals,

Wars,

Governments telling lies,

Football,

Whatever,

Celebrities,

A new movie,

A new pop star,

Whatever.

It was the same stories,

Only with different people,

With different names,

But the same news.

So you look at the internet,

Same stories about COVID-19,

About governments,

About,

I don't know what else.

So is that really fascinating for you?

There's an opportunity instead to actually just to stop,

To slow down,

Spend more time in meditation,

Especially if you do the Empress free questions meditation.

It's so simple but so blooming powerful.

Now is the only time you have.

It's obvious.

Whatever's in front of you is important.

So that connects you with this moment without judging it and saying,

Oh,

I should be doing this,

I should be doing that.

Take away all those shoulds when you're meditating.

What's happening right now?

How do you feel?

Get to know this moment.

Really get to know it and be careful.

If you smile at the present moment,

The present moment smiles back.

It's a metaphor.

It means you're happy.

And all the satisfaction,

Joy you want is right there.

And then afterwards you come out and say,

What did I waste my time for?

Too much stuff on the internet,

Too much.

Instagram,

Emails,

Texting each other.

Why?

When all this happiness and beauty is there.

So anyway,

That's what happens.

Your mind does get fuzzy.

Too much information,

It's not really useful information.

It makes everything just no joy,

No happiness.

It weakens your mindfulness.

When your mindfulness is built on stillness rather than stimulation,

It's built on stillness,

Not stimulation,

Then you feel it's powerful and it's joyful.

And you see so much more.

You don't see what's on the internet.

You see what's in the leaves on the bushes outside.

You see the clouds rolling across the sky in the evening.

You can feel the wind and the earth underneath your feet.

You don't see those things on the internet.

You see those when you come out of meditation.

When your mindfulness is so clear.

So,

We can't just ramble on.

We can't really get off on this sort of stuff.

It's my joy and happiness and I try to share it with each one of you.

So anyway,

I think that's enough for today.

So,

Well actually I've got a couple more minutes.

So,

I'll give that little chance again.

I enjoy doing the chance.

It's a well wishing,

My energy sharing for all the beings,

Not just for watching through this camera before beings in the world.

Sābha Rōga Vinnimutto,

Sābha Sāntapa Vājitau,

Sābha Vairamatigando,

Niputochatuan Bawa,

Sābhitio Vīvāchantru,

Sābha Rōga Vinnāsātumāte,

Bawan Vantarayo,

Sukhidīgāyugopāvāpīvā,

Dhanhasīlidṣa Nīcāṃ uttapacchārīṇo,

Cattaro Dhamma Vatanti Ayurvāno Sukhaṃ Balaṃ There he goes.

You have a wonderful week.

Okay.

Thank you.

Reviews

One of the best from Brahm. He's so delightful and his practices are si centering. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🕉️