Day 145/365: 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

So now is the time just to meditate and to let all the past,

All the future go and have a bit of peace and quiet.

So please,

If you get into your meditation posture which can be on a chair,

It can be on a cushion,

Wherever you are comfortable,

Close your eyes and prepare to take off into inner space.

I've just come back from Malaysia,

Singapore teaching retreat,

One of the questions was,

When you meditate,

In which way should you face?

And the answer is inside.

Face inside,

Inside the body first of all.

Feel all the sensations in the body,

Get to know your body.

Strange thing to say but so often we're so busy running around,

Planning,

Doing our jobs,

We forget to be aware of the body in which we live.

As soon as you bring your attention onto your body,

You can feel a bit of ache here,

A pain there,

In somewhere else.

All these are pretty easy to fix up.

So if you find this tension in your legs,

Then move them,

Just adjust them.

If there's an ache in the bottom because of the pressure on the cushion or the stool or the chair,

Then fit it to get into the maximum comfortable position.

If you need to cough,

Please cough,

Sneeze,

Sneeze,

Thank you.

It's nice that someone's listening and follows my instructions.

So being aware of your body and being kind enough to relax it.

I always like to go a little bit deeper into my body because there's parts inside which might be tight,

Tense or aching.

And I like focusing on them and relaxing them.

Just the will to relax is all I need.

And I can feel the body opening up,

Tightnesses being loosened,

Tensions being released.

So even the inside of my body can start to relax and feel peaceful.

Mindfulness,

The awareness of the body gives the opportunity for feedback.

You actually notice the body getting more relaxed or maybe more tense.

It's going more tense,

You're going in the wrong direction,

Stop and turn around.

If you're going more relaxed,

Carry on and see how relaxed you can get your own body.

Just carry on being aware of your body.

Don't allow the awareness to slip away.

Feel the body,

Relax it until it feels delightfully relaxed.

Just like you've been sitting up by the beach,

Just swimming in the pool,

Relaxed,

At ease,

Comfortable.

If you can,

Notice the delight of a body which is no longer tense,

Of muscles which are not tight,

Of a body which feels open and free.

It's a certain type of pleasure which you deserve to recognize,

The delight of a relaxed body.

When the body is as comfortable as you can make it,

Then let the body go and start to relax the mental world,

The world of your thoughts and emotions,

The inside of you.

And to do that,

We begin by deliberately letting go of all past and future,

The place where most of our business lies.

And to do that,

You can follow this technique which I encourage often.

I imagine that you've been carrying two heavy suitcases,

Sometimes I say shopping bags but because this is the holiday season,

Many people may have been travelling.

You're carrying two heavy suitcases,

One in the left hand,

One in the right hand.

And they really are so heavy that your shoulders hurt and your arms ache.

Imagine this,

Imagine that the suitcase in your left hand is full with all of your memories,

Both good and bad.

It represents your past.

You've been carrying it for so long,

It makes you hurt.

The suitcase in the right hand carries your plans and anxieties,

Your dreams,

Your fears,

Everything to do with the future is packed in that bag.

And that is also incredibly heavy and you've been carrying it for too long,

It makes you hurt too.

And you look in your imagination at the bag in your left hand,

Representing the past and you imagine yourself lowering it to the ground,

Slowly.

And when it meets the ground,

The weight disappears.

You move your hand away from the handle of the past until your arm is resting loosely by your left side.

Then you focus on the bag in the right hand,

Representing the future,

Lowering,

Lowering,

Lowering that to the ground.

When that meets the floor,

The weight vanishes.

Move your right hand away from the handle so your right arm can also rest.

You've let go of all of your past,

Your memories,

Everything which has happened to you.

In there is also anger about who did what to you and guilt for what you did.

All that is in the suitcase called the past which you put down on the ground.

You've let go of to rest.

And the suitcase that was in your right hand is also now on the floor.

All those fears,

Worries about what might happen next,

You've let that go too.

And you're standing on this incredibly wonderful place in between,

In between the suitcases of past and future,

Called the present moment,

Just now.

And you're permitted,

You're allowed to be here for the next 30 minutes.

Just being here with no past and no future.

Just this moment,

In this body,

In this mind,

In this temple,

Just being here.

And be careful,

Don't pick up the past.

Don't pick up the future.

Like you've got two guards on your mind,

Two policemen.

If the past comes or the future comes,

You stop it.

So you can just stay in this moment.

The only place where you can find peace,

The only place you can find truth and meaning and love,

Right in the heart of now.

You're facing inside.

Just like you are mindful of the body and relaxed the body,

Be mindful of this present moment and relax her too.

So you're not tightening up,

Rejecting,

Fighting this present moment.

Instead you're just making peace with whatever you experience,

Being kind and being gentle to this moment.

That's all we do in meditation,

Just making peace with every moment,

Being kind to whatever we experience and being gentle with the passing of time.

Nanḥ.

.

.

.

When you go deep into this moment,

You find some silence.

You don't need to think,

Just to know.

To know without describing,

Not planning what you're going to do next.

Just being in this moment,

You'll find everything becomes quiet.

There's no inner commentary.

Then if you wish,

You can become aware of your breathing.

Just know the breath as it comes into your body.

Know the feeling as you exhale.

Not doing these breathing in and breathing out on purpose.

Just knowing,

Knowing the natural breath.

And if it helps,

As you breathe in,

You can say to yourself,

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

As you breathe in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing out,

Let go.

We're getting close to the end of the meditation now.

How peaceful have you become?

How mentally relaxed are you?

These are the indicators of meditation.

Feeling the body is an indicator of good health.

The mindfulness of your mental world,

The relaxation of peace,

The freedom,

Is an indicator of your mental well-being.

By training this way,

Not only can you be healthier physically,

But more at peace,

More happy inside your heart.

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

Please don't rush to open your eyes.

Enjoy these last moments.

Only when the last ringing vanishes,

Only then come out from your meditation.

GONG There we go.

It's really amazing.

Reviews

Perfect way to start the day. Thank you! ☮️💖🙏🖖

Wonderful! Thank you.