Day 143/365: 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

Okay,

So now we can do a little bit of meditation in order to slow down and come to an inner state of peace.

So just close your eyes.

Once your eyes are closed,

You are not wasting so much space in your brain for seeing things.

Instead you can feel things,

Feeling the body,

Feeling yourself sitting on your chair or your cushion,

Coming into this moment with the bodily sensations.

And maybe an ache or discomfort,

If possible,

Move your body,

Adjust your body,

This is simple kindness.

To see if you can get into the most relaxed position,

A position which you can maintain for the 30 minutes of the meditation.

If there is any tightness,

See if you can loosen the tightness.

If part of your body feels like it is being stretched,

Let both ends go so the body can feel like it is sinking into the softest of cushions.

There is no tightness,

There is no pressure.

You are not being a control freak in your body,

You are just being this kind friend to your body.

Sometimes we exploit our body,

Pushing it,

Making it go here and do this,

Now is the time to be kind,

As compassionate as you possibly can be to this body in which you live.

So staying with your body,

Is there anything you can do to your body now or for your body to make it more comfortable?

Scratching,

Coughing,

Sneezing,

Sometimes we just don't spend enough quality time with our body which is why we get sick.

Feel your body,

Get to know it,

Get to know it.

When you really get to know your body and befriend it,

It is amazing that you can just gaze at any part of your body and just add that wonderful ingredient of compassion and everything relaxes,

Gets loose and easy.

This is a classic psychology technique,

Mindfulness together with compassion,

Relaxes and heals,

Loosens and frees,

So the body feels at peace,

Relaxed,

Open,

A body that is not afraid,

It just is,

Loose,

At ease with itself.

I sometimes compare that feeling to the feeling when you first wake up in the morning,

You don't need to go to the toilet,

You're cozy,

You're relaxed,

Which is why you just want those extra few minutes,

The body is at peace.

See if you can recreate that same feeling by relaxing all the muscles,

The bones,

The blood vessels,

Everything in your own body,

Relax a lot.

This is the beginning of meditation,

A soft,

Open body at ease.

That is the best posture,

Holding something tight is wrong posture.

Once the body is reasonably relaxed,

You feel you've done enough,

Then you can do the same to your mental world.

Have no tight spots,

Nothing pushing or pulling you or burdening you,

Any heavy weights you've been carrying,

Put them down.

All the burdens and the problems and difficulties of your life,

They don't belong in meditation.

You take them off your back and lay it down on the ground so you can rest,

You deserve to rest.

Those problems and difficulties in your life,

You'll be able to pick them up afterwards with greater resilience and maybe more wisdom to be able to find solutions.

Keep carrying them around on your back,

You just get tired.

To help you can imagine the two shopping bags similarly.

Imagine you've been to the shopping centre and you're walking out with these two really heavy bags and it's still a long way to your vehicle in the car park.

You look down the shopping bag in your left hand,

On the outside are in the words P.

A.

S.

T.

Passed,

The letters.

Because that shopping bag in your left hand represents all the things which have happened to you,

Good and bad,

Which you've been carrying around for too long.

The shopping bag in your right hand has the letters F.

U.

T.

U.

R.

E.

,

Future.

And that's also very,

Very heavy.

It's filled with all of your anxieties and fears,

Your plans and your dreams as well.

Because you carry them around for too long,

That's why you hurt,

You ache.

Focusing on this imaginary shopping bag in your left hand representing the past,

You imagine yourself leaning to the left so that you can lower that shopping bag onto the floor.

When it does reach the floor,

The burden disappears.

It allows you to move your hand away from the handle,

Straighten your back so your left arm and hand are hanging loosely by your side,

Relaxing,

Recuperating,

Re-energising.

You've let go of the past.

You imagine the shopping bag in your right hand representing your future,

So heavy to carry all the time.

You lean to the right this time so that you can lower that shopping bag containing all your anxieties and fears and hopes and dreams,

All the plans.

You lower that to the floor too.

When it meets the floor,

There's no more weight.

Move your hand away from the bag,

Straighten the back so the left arm,

The right arm is hanging loosely by the side as well.

You've let go of the future.

You're free for this time of rest,

Not carrying the burden of your past,

Nor picking up the burden of the future.

You put both of those down,

Let them go and you're standing right in the middle between the past and the future,

A place called the present moment.

In meditation first we recognize what the present moment means.

Then we become familiar with it,

We understand what it means because we've been there many times.

Then you can relax in this moment.

You stay here,

You hang out in the now,

Letting go of all past and future.

Please don't pick them up.

You deserve to rest.

Just be now.

It doesn't matter what you're aware of as long as you're not picking up the past or running off into the future.

And in this moment see if you can notice the pauses between your thoughts.

It is like you're listening,

Not talking to yourself.

Noticing the silence between my words.

It's like you've been driving a car,

That car is you.

Now I'm asking you please take your hand off the steering wheel,

Take your feet off the pedals and stop controlling.

Just be doing absolutely nothing.

Then you'll find you'll be far more silent.

Take away all judgments.

Oh this is good meditation,

This is bad meditation.

Just be noticing this moment without grading it good or bad.

Just knowing.

See if you can develop contentment,

Just being so happy to be here.

See if you don't want to be anywhere else in the whole world,

Not with any other people or any other things.

You're just so happy just to be in this moment.

See if you can develop that 100% contentment being here.

It's not a bad place to hang out in the moment in silence.

All you ever want is right here.

Peace,

Freedom and happiness.

Thank you.

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

How does your body and mind feel?

Know the quality.

Especially check how free,

Relaxed and peaceful one is.

If you ever want to know what peace of mind is,

Just like this,

Amplified many times.

Just be happy to be here,

At peace for this moment.

Nothing missing,

Nothing to get,

Still.

We are going to ring the gong three times.

Please listen,

Wait,

Don't rush.

When the last ringing of the gong fades away,

Only then open your eyes and come out of the meditation.

When the third ringing starts to fade.

When the last ringing starts to fade.

When the last ringing starts to fade.

Reviews

One of my favorite shorter sits. Lots of silence but also very gentle cuing. Soooo good. Thank you. AJAHN.☮️💖🙏🖖🪷