Day 135/365: 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

Very good.

It's when we meditate we come closer and closer to enlightenment.

Now that the first stage of enlightenment,

You know what that's called?

Someone who's entered the stream.

So now that we're live streaming,

We're all entered the stream.

And if you want even a worse joke,

This came from one of our anagarikas.

He said the other three stages of enlightenment are the once returner,

The non-returner and teen-returner.

That's not what it's supposed to be.

But anyway,

It's a good joke.

So anyway,

The four stages.

Once returner,

Non-returner and teen-returner was a joke.

Anyway,

Behave yourself,

I jump on.

So this is meditation.

It's not torture.

It's not concentration camp.

This is stillness.

This is peace.

This is calm.

This is kite.

When you get the right attitude to meditation,

Everything else usually falls in line.

So it's not like disciplining yourself in some boot camp.

That's why we leave all our shoes outside so it can't be boot camped.

They're not allowed boots in Buddhist temples.

So this is nice and soft,

Clean,

Calm and kind.

So just closing your eyes and being soft to your poor old body.

I remember someone,

A hundred years old,

And their marvelous quote,

Katie give us some advice on your hundredth birthday,

Was,

If I would only known a long time ago that I was going to live so long,

I would have taken much better care of my body.

So your body may have to last quite a few more years.

So you better look after it.

So look after it now by being sensitive to your physical body.

How does it feel?

What's it like just with your eyes closed,

Just feeling the sensations in your body,

Just getting in contact with it,

Being mindful of it,

Having some body awareness?

You may notice an ache or a pain or an irritation.

You can do something about it,

Do it,

Cough,

Sneeze,

Scratch,

Adjust the legs,

Fidget.

Just get your body just as nice and comfortable as it can,

Out of compassion.

So again,

You're not like soldiers in Buckingham Palace,

Sitting perfectly still.

You're not kind to your body.

And then it becomes still all by itself naturally.

And spend a few more moments,

A couple of minutes at least,

Being mindful of the physical feelings in the body and being kind to them.

Because the combination of mindfulness and kindness is what causes the peace and stillness of meditation.

And your awareness of the bodily feelings should show you that they become more comfortable,

More relaxed,

The kinder you are to them.

And if there's any internal irritation or pain,

What I do is to focus on that feeling,

Even though it's sometimes unpleasant,

Focus on it and be kind to it.

Like the story of the monster in the Emperor's Palace in my book,

Opening the Door of Your Heart.

You give it kindness and the monster gets an inch smaller,

Less ugly,

Less sweaty,

Less offensive,

Less of a problem,

Through kindness.

So we're not fighting the problem,

We're making peace with it,

Embracing it,

Being kind.

And once the body has settled down,

We can let the body go.

We can think of it as not my business for the next 25 minutes.

It looks after itself.

Our job now is to look after our mental world,

To calm that down,

To relax it.

In the first part of our mental world we relax.

It is the tendency to linger in the past,

Sometimes a long time ago,

Or the tendency to be anxious and fearful of the future.

So we let all that go,

No past,

No future.

Our job now is to be in the moment,

In the present.

Just like when you're on holiday.

When you're on holiday you don't think about the work you've left behind at the office.

You don't think about what you're going to have to do when you go back.

Holiday is for relaxing,

For letting go of all the burdens and responsibilities of your life.

It's what I like to call playtime,

Like at school,

The recess.

We're not studying anything.

You're just enjoying the moment,

Enjoying the present moment.

Just being here.

Embrace this moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Just embrace in this moment,

What's it like to be now,

When you have no past and no future to worry about?

It's like coming home,

The only place you can find any rest or peace.

Just listen to the birds,

Feeling the body,

Just being here.

We are not going anywhere.

Nor are you tied to some painful event of the past.

You're totally free in this moment,

Like you were when you were very young.

Not working,

Not doing,

Not achieving anything,

Putting all that aside and just being.

Nothing more than that,

Just being here.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

Embrace the moment.

And see if you can go deeper by developing a silent mind.

To be able to feel without trying to give things a name,

Without having to describe it in words.

You feel it,

You know it,

Before the words try and come in.

A deeper layer of truth is found in silence.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

If you value thinking,

Thinking becomes more important and obsesses the mind.

If you value silence,

If you give that more importance,

Silence soon spreads in your mind.

Whatever you feel is more important is what will remain in your mind.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

Calm the inner commentary.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as a friend.

Just know the breath as it comes in.

Be with the breath as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

And if you do want to observe your breathing,

Invite the breath in as it goes out.

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

Don't open your eyes yet.

Just be mindful of how you feel inside,

Especially see if you could notice how much peace you generated in your mental world,

How much sense of freedom,

Even how much inner happiness called peace of mind.

Please know the strength of those qualities.

They show you what meditation can produce and why.

I'm now going to ring the gong three times.

Please listen to every sound from the gong.

And when the gong finishes resounding for the third time,

That is the cue to come out of your meditation for the third ringing of the gong.

Please listen.

Reviews

Feeling peaceful as always meditating with Ajan Bhram 🧘🏻‍♀️🙏💖