Day 124/365: 30-Minute Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Enjoy a 30-minute meditation with Ajahn Brahm. Ajahn Brahm is a popular Buddhist teacher to a growing international audience of people keen to learn meditation and develop a deeper spiritual understanding. He is also the founding father of an emergent Australian forest tradition of Buddhism.

Transcript

Ok,

Very good,

Now I am raring to go,

Rather raring to stop.

Because now is the time for meditation,

This beautiful path of finding peace inside.

Strange thing that people look all over the world for peace.

They can travel to resorts,

They can go to beaches,

They can go into the mountains,

Into the jungles.

Oh,

Isn't that wonderful?

Thank you.

The best place you can find peace is not going anywhere but going inside,

Deep into what the Buddha called the cave of the mind,

Going deep within,

Where the world of the past and the future of thoughts and even mobiles phones cannot reach you,

Where you can find stillness,

Emptiness,

Peace.

So close your eyes,

Where we take off into inner space,

Into the quietness inside.

Close your eyes,

With the eyes closed,

Start to experience sensations in your body.

Very often we are running backwards and forwards,

Doing so many things,

We don't pay enough attention to our body.

Now you have nothing to do except to feel how you are sitting and to ask,

Am I comfortable?

What's it like here sitting?

It's not just being mindful,

It's also being compassionately mindful.

And now all your kindness is going to your own body.

Little body,

How can I make you more comfortable right now?

Does the leg need to be just shifted slightly?

The back just wiggled to get it nice and comfortable.

Are your hands at peace wherever you got them?

How is your head?

When you take care for your body,

Deliberately trying to make it more comfortable,

It means you can sit in a more peaceful posture,

One which does not give you trouble for the 30 minutes of the meditation.

Don't just be kind for a second,

Continue the kind awareness for maybe one or two minutes at the beginning of each meditation.

In that way,

Not only are you setting the mind in a right attitude,

But you're also making it most so easy for the body to attain deep states of peace.

In fact,

The body will just disappear,

Leaving your mind free.

Remember this is not trying to get somewhere,

It's trying to be deeper into where you already are.

It's going in and in,

Starting into this body.

The next journey is into the center of time,

By which I mean this present moment,

Focusing in the now where life actually happens.

All past,

All future,

All these heavy burdens,

We just let go,

Put down,

Leave aside.

Don't know where you've come from,

What you've been doing,

Don't know whether you've had a very heavy day or very light and jubilant day.

Either way it doesn't matter,

Because you're going to let go of everything concerned with the past.

Whether pleasant or unpleasant,

The past is a burden,

Like a backpack full of heavy things.

Now you're going to take it off,

Put it aside so you're free.

The future is like other bags you hold in your hands,

Like the shopping,

Because it's food for tomorrow,

Clothes for next week,

Or the shopping for the future which you carry,

You're going to put that down too.

So you can let go of all past and all future.

Letting go,

Letting go,

Letting go.

Until you just focus in this moment,

First you have to recognize what the present moment is,

Become familiar with it,

And then you find you're comfortable just staying here.

To assist the process of settling in the moment,

Please put value into the now.

The now is important,

It's the only place where peace can be found.

You deserve that peace.

Once the present moment is more precious than your past or your future,

Then the mind will settle in this present moment.

If you think the future or the past is more important,

There's no way you can settle in the now.

So give importance,

Value,

Make the present moment the precious present.

Just being in the moment,

Making peace with whatever you're experiencing now,

If there's a sound or a feeling in the body,

See if you can put peace,

Kindness between you,

The observer,

And whatever you experience.

So you look through each experience in the moment through the beautiful glasses of peace,

Embracing,

Being with,

Never against.

As the mind settles in the moment,

Soon it will settle so closely to the now.

There is no room for inner speech.

When you say something,

It's usually about what has just happened.

You're in the past.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

When there's no time,

Speech disappears.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

When there's no time,

Speech disappears.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

Speech disappears.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

Speech disappears.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

Speech disappears.

Paying attention to calming the inner speech,

You don't need to say anything.

You don't even need to give things a name.

Just know without words the content of now.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

Speech disappears.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

Speech disappears.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

Speech disappears.

When in the moment,

There is no time,

Speech disappears.

When the mind is poised in the moment,

It might be a good time to start focusing on your breath,

To use the experience of breathing as a vehicle to go deeper into the moment.

Now we just notice one thing,

The sensation which tells you whether the breath is going in or the breath is going out.

It doesn't matter where that sensation is located,

Doesn't matter what that sensation is.

What tells you about the breath is what we focus on,

Surrounded by silence,

Just that part of the breath happening in the moment.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Just embracing this breath,

This moment,

See if you can let go of all kinds of thoughts or control.

Imagine yourself just floating into meditation,

Like being in a stream,

A stream which goes within,

Just being held by the current of peace so you don't need to swim or struggle at all,

To completely let go,

Let go of the controller.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

Now we notice another thing,

The sensation which tells us whether the breath is going out or not.

So how do you feel now without opening your eyes?

Just check the amount of peace you have inside.

Just look at the amount of contentment you feel and with it the ease of a calm mind and a still body.

There is a certain happiness which comes with stillness,

It's called inner happiness.

Now it's not just a word,

It's a feeling,

An experience,

The inner peace.

Now we're going to ring the gong three times.

Just wait until the last sound from the gong vanishes.

When it disappears,

Then it's a sign to come out for your meditation at the end of the third gong.

Reviews

I love these simple practices. Gentle, some humor, lots of peace. Thank you. ☮️💖🙏🖖🪷

So lovely and insightful, thank you!! 💫🙏🏻✨😊