Day 324/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Fifteen minutes of meditation advice/inspiration followed by 45 minutes of semi-guided meditation. There are some useful questions and answers at the end of the meditation practice. Ajahn Brahm gives advice on how to find peace and stillness in meditation.

Transcript

Okay,

Welcome everybody,

Why don't you find a nice seat.

Welcome to this Saturday afternoon meditation class,

Always stream live all over the world.

And this is a class for the ongoing meditation for those of you who are coming for the first time to learn the introduction to meditation class.

That series of four talks,

Four lessons to kick start the meditation is being held in the room to my right.

So on the right over there,

That's the introduction to meditation class,

A series of four talks on meditation,

Guided meditations for those who've never meditated before.

This is the ongoing class.

So again,

Welcome everybody and in this class always focus just on one particular aspect of the meditation.

And which one to do today?

Oh,

You do like the thinking,

Which is always the problem for many people.

They start to meditate and maybe they get into it in the very beginning and then they start thinking all over the place,

Planning,

Worrying until after a little while the 45 minutes goes past and all you've really done is waste time thinking about all sorts of stuff.

And you never get the benefit of meditation,

The peace,

The clarity and the happiness which comes from a peaceful mind.

So there are many tricks to overcome the thinking mind.

First of all,

To remember that this is meditation time.

It's like a little determination,

A resolution.

I'm going to use this time for meditation and not for working out all my problems.

Because all your problems,

You can't work them all out.

You will die before they're all solved.

So it's a total waste of time.

So you might as well die,

You know,

With a bit of peace and smile in your face rather than having solved all the problems.

So you realize that this particular time,

Meditation is for the purpose of peace like resting your brain.

Your brain gets you so much that no wonder it gets tired and it gets tired,

It gets grumpy,

It gets depressed,

It gets sick.

It's just tiredness,

That's all.

So we're going to try and give importance to quietness,

To peace.

Rather than solving problems.

So we start off by just having a marketing campaign,

Just convincing ourselves that for the next 45 minutes,

Silence of the mind,

Peace,

No thoughts,

Hardly any thoughts is more important than solving problems.

The quietness of the mind is more valuable than thoughts.

And that you get far more wisdom,

Far more happiness,

Far more health by being quiet rather than thinking.

So understanding something like that and marketing yourself,

This is a time for silence,

For peace,

Peace is more important.

Otherwise you'll think,

Well I'll just do this thought first of all,

Then I'll start meditating.

And that means your meditation never starts.

Just this one thought,

It's really important,

I've got to think it through,

Find a solution.

No,

Leave it for later.

Because people always find if they develop a peaceful quiet mind first,

Really peaceful,

And then after the meditation,

They can solve problems very easily,

Very quickly in a shorter time.

If you have problems to solve in life,

Which we all do,

Decisions to make,

Meditate first,

Quiet,

Even think about those problems,

And then afterwards,

Afterwards it's much more clear,

The brain's got more energy,

You're more innovative,

Which means you can find really good solutions only after silence.

So many times I've mentioned that wisdom comes from silence,

Not through thinking.

Even little books which have got my name on it,

Titled Wisdom from Silence,

Because that's where the greatest wisdom comes from.

So give a lot of importance to silence and not to thinking.

And many of you may have gone to very,

Very quiet places in this world,

Gone out to the bush where there's no one around for maybe 100 miles in other direction,

And there you can just stop and everything becomes so still.

Or you go in caves.

I love caves because there it's cool and quiet.

And sometimes in a deep cave you can't hear like a thunderstorm going on outside.

It's totally quiet.

And I also recall one time in the wintertime in UK,

Visiting one of our monasteries many years ago,

And it was minus 26 degrees centigrade that night.

So getting up in the morning,

Being a visitor,

No duties,

I was asked to go for a walk in the forest.

Everyone thought I was crazy.

I said I'm not crazy,

I'm just English.

Mad dogs and Englishmen.

So I went out there,

Minus 26 degrees,

Or maybe it was warming up,

Maybe only minus 25 by then.

And just rugged up,

Walking in the snow,

And it was one of the most magical memories of my life.

Because there's no birds around,

They were all hibernating.

No animals in the trees,

They were all so fast asleep.

No aircraft in the sky,

I think the runways had closed.

There was no traffic on the roads.

There was no one out at all.

It was absolutely silent.

And when I stopped walking,

There was no sound at all.

Just like the whole universe stops.

It was silent.

Nothing moved.

And that was just so wonderful,

So silent,

So beautiful.

So this is called marketing.

The beauty,

The importance,

The power of silence.

Not just negatively bagging or putting down thinking,

But in its place,

Just rising,

Putting attention to incredible beauty and power of silence.

You can remember,

You can recognise,

And I'm sure you've all had moments where it's really been quiet and silent,

And enjoyed it so much.

So once you've motivated yourself,

The importance of silence,

Taking away any importance to thinking,

It's more likely your mind will become silent.

And how you do it next,

I gave an old simile of mine,

Of last night,

Of a guitar string.

And if any of you played a guitar,

Maybe a violin or a cello,

Any string instrument,

You know that that string has to be tight,

Has to be taught,

Has to be under stress to make any sound.

And if you take away the stress of a violin string or a guitar string,

Loosen both ends,

It makes no sound at all.

A tight string,

Something falls on it,

Bong.

A loose string,

Something falls on it,

No sound at all.

It cannot vibrate.

And in this simile,

That guitar string or that violin string represents your mind and impingements on it.

Someone banging the door or coughing,

Or like a thought comes up in the mind,

And it hits a tight,

Tense mind.

And of course,

It reverberates.

One thought leads to another,

To another,

To another,

And then you're off into fantasies,

The past or the future.

But if your guitar string,

The mind is perfectly relaxed.

Not stressed at all,

Then something happens,

And it doesn't echo at all.

The door bangs,

And as soon as the bang has gone,

It's silent again.

No thoughts.

Who did that?

They shouldn't be allowed in here.

We should have revolving doors,

Or we should just have to climb through a screen or something,

I don't know,

But no doors,

They're noisy.

We should screen people when they come in here,

Like in the airports.

If they've got a fever,

They're going to cough,

They can't come in.

Whatever it is,

The noise finished a long time ago,

But it continues to echo in our mind.

That's only because your mind is tense.

And so how do we stop the mind being tense,

To relax it like a loose guitar string?

Stop pulling at either end.

The I-2 ends of the mind are the past and the future,

Being pulled apart.

The past dragging you back into what happened earlier today.

What happened earlier this week?

The past drags you back.

So you can't go walking freely into the future.

The past is like this big backpack I see in these poor children taking to school.

So heavy.

And they're trudging up to school with this heavy backpack.

Oh,

In my day when I went to school,

The only thing we carried with us was a football.

Played more time playing football than doing our lessons some days.

But at least we were light,

Not burdened with the weight of the past.

That pulls you back.

So we let go of all the past at the beginning of the meditation.

And the other thing which is pulling you into the future,

Like being led,

Like a slave,

And the slave driver's got a rope around your neck,

And pulling you,

Pulling you,

Pulling you into the future.

That's called worry and fear.

What might happen next?

And so we take off that hope.

So nothing is pulling us into the future.

No fear,

No anxiety,

No plans.

Your future is being made right now.

Now is the only time you can do anything for your future.

So now is more important.

Don't allow the future to pull you.

Just relax.

And that's the best preparation for tomorrow.

Being peaceful now.

So you feel you're not being pulled in either direction.

You just stay here.

Relax in this moment.

If you have anything you want to achieve,

Goals you want to reach,

That is like another slave driver pulling you here,

Pulling you there.

You'd find another rope around your neck.

So no goals,

No aspirations.

All aspirations lead to desperation.

And finally,

Expiration.

The threespirations.

They're usually one after the other.

Aspiration,

When you get frustrated,

Desperation.

And lastly,

You give up,

Expiration.

The threespirations.

And anyways,

Don't aspire for anything.

Just be here and be content to be here.

Sometimes I look at myself,

Are you a stupid old monk?

And I look,

But I'm content to be a stupid old monk.

That's the difference.

And if you're content to be a stupid old monk,

Then you are free and you can enjoy your stupidity.

So be content in this moment.

Then you never go off into the future trying to change something or get rid of something.

And you never linger in the golden moments of the past,

Which weren't golden,

That's just a fantasy.

And that way,

Your mind not being pulled to the past or pulled to the future is not stretched.

Not being stretched,

It's got no stress.

Having no stress,

Something happens to it and it disappears straight away.

Back to silence,

Like a guitar string with no tension on it.

It makes no noise.

That is how to meditate.

So simple.

So you all know now how to meditate,

You don't need to come back again next week.

Is that right?

Anyway,

Just to say again,

If anyone's come in during my little monologue,

This is the ongoing class,

The meditation.

Those of you who are here for the first time coming to the introduction to meditation class,

That again is in the room to my right.

Please leave while there's still a chance because once we begin 45 minutes meditation,

If you haven't meditated for 45 minutes before,

You are going to be in trouble.

It's a long time.

So you have been warned.

Okay,

Here we go then.

So you're all experts.

So you get into your meditation posture as best you can.

And please make sure all your mobile phones are turned off.

Even better,

Just throw them in the rubbish bin,

Quiet forever.

There we go.

It's okay to sit down in against the wall on the chairs,

But please don't lie down on the ground.

So just sitting,

Your back should be upright.

Very good.

Here we go.

Close your eyes.

And the first thing we do once our eyes are closed is just to make that little resolution.

This is a time I put aside in my life for peace,

For relaxation,

Not for thinking or planning or working out problems.

This is for peace.

This is for peace.

This is for peace and silence.

Because you'll find if you tell your mind what you wanted to do clearly,

It usually does it.

In order for the mind to be calm and silent,

Make sure it doesn't have too many problems in its present moment to think about.

So we start by looking at our posture,

The way we're sitting,

On a chair,

On a stool,

On the ground,

In against the wall is fine,

But again,

Please don't stretch out on the ground in the sleeping posture.

And we begin by just looking at our body from within with our eyes closed.

How are your legs right now?

How do they feel?

Are your legs comfortable?

Can you make them more comfortable?

You can even try to move them to see if once you've moved them,

Change the position,

Whether they are better,

Whether they're more comfortable.

This is the beginnings of mindfulness.

Awareness of the feelings in your legs and the kindness which can move those legs to find the best position.

Once the legs are comfortable,

Move your awareness up to your bottom,

Your butt,

Because many times people get their butt in an uncomfortable position and it starts to ache later on.

So ask your butt,

Do you want to be moved?

And if it says yes,

Do so.

And then,

Move your attention up to your back.

So many people have back problems because they don't,

They're not aware of how they hold their back.

So with your eyes closed again,

Feel your back,

Just focus on that area and see how you can relax your back.

Once your back feels as comfortable as you can make it,

Then move to your shoulders,

Relax your shoulders.

Another place where people have tension because they don't know how to relax.

Mindfulness together with kindness,

Those two allow your back to relax.

When you move your attention up to your head,

Make sure that that is well balanced on top of the neck.

Little by little,

Stage by stage,

Not only are we checking our body slowly,

We're also building up our awareness.

As you move up,

Your awareness gets stronger,

It can literally experience much more.

As it gets stronger,

Goes up more,

Then the next scene is the front of the face.

To be aware of the muscles around the eyes and the mouth and to relax them.

So there's no tightness around the eyes or mouth.

If there is tightness there,

Be aware of that feeling and learn how to relax it,

Just sometimes by trial and error.

So mindfulness allows you to have feedback.

Once the body is relaxed,

On the outside,

By movement,

Now see if you can relax the body inside.

Have you got an irritation,

A pain or an ache somewhere?

A place inside your body which is tense?

If so,

Focus on that one area,

Zoom in on that area.

Now I look,

Now I'm mindful,

There's a very slight irritation in my colon,

In my guts.

So I'm zooming in,

Focusing in on that.

Once I can focus in on it,

I can relax it with kindness,

With letting be.

The mindfulness illuminates that area inside my body which I cannot do anything about by movement,

It's inside.

I'm aware of it,

Mindful of it and I've learnt how to relax from the inside.

Letting it be,

I feel just the ache,

The tension start to go.

Be relieved,

Making peace with that irritation.

A little bit until it gets less and less and less.

I'm focusing in order to relax my body deeply,

Building up more and more mindfulness,

More and more ability to let things be.

At the same time,

Just substituting these feelings.

So substituting thoughts with these feelings,

Blocking out the thoughts because I'm too focused on the feelings in my own body.

The thoughts lose their hold on me.

I'm feeling,

Knowing,

Being,

Rather thinking about stuff.

I'm still with my stomach,

Or my intestines,

Relaxing them,

Easing them.

You can choose any part of your body.

Aware,

Relax.

Until your body relaxes so deeply,

Like you've been in a spa bath,

You wake up first thing in the morning,

Totally relaxed and cozy.

Not an ache,

Not a stress anywhere in your body.

Aware,

When my body is relaxed,

When my body relaxes,

It feels really present.

Just like it is,

It's one of the reasons why people go to resorts,

Just to find this relaxation.

And they can do it right here,

Even in their home,

Through meditation.

The body feels really at ease and relaxed,

Open and free.

I just enjoy that relaxation of the whole body.

Not an ache or a pain to be found there.

There's still aches and pains,

Still carry on with this method.

If not,

If your body feels as relaxed as you can get it,

Then move now to your mind.

Remember that guitar string simile.

How tight is your mind right now?

How reactive is it to sounds and feelings and sound of the aircraft in the sky?

If your mind is really peaceful,

You don't react at all.

It's very tight,

All you act so much.

But just notice what I call the peace-o-meter.

How tight,

Agitated,

Or how peaceful and free.

You'll find that once you're aware of your peace-o-meter,

Which tells you how peaceful and agitated you are in your mind,

You get to know what I mean.

Then you'll find that things like contentment,

Letting things be,

Letting this moment be,

Letting the sound of the creaking,

The creak of the door just be.

Just content.

Your mind relaxes more.

And the thoughts get less and less.

So your mind is totally relaxed,

Like your body.

No thoughts come.

When you are peacefully enough,

That's usually a good time to invite the breath in,

To know the breath as it's coming in,

To know the breath as it's going out.

Just like watching the waves on the beach.

Just like swinging in a hammock back and forth with the breath.

There's nothing to solve,

No problems to finish.

Leave that till later.

This is rest time meditation.

And it helps sometimes to say to yourself as you breathe in,

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out let go.

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out let go.

As you're breathing in,

You feel,

You imagine,

You can visualize peace in whatever form you prefer.

Allow,

Visualizing that coming into your body and mind with every in-breath.

Peace.

And as you breathe out,

Breathe out let go.

Any tense,

Tension,

Tiredness,

Sickness.

Breathe that out with every out-breath and breathe in peace.

Now I'm going to be quiet until the end of the meditation.

This is just to get you going and now it's up to you.

Breathing in peace with every out-breath.

Breathing in peace with every out-breath.

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How do you feel?

How peaceful is your mind?

How relaxed is your body?

And why,

What worked and what didn't work?

So you learn from this meditation.

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