Day 328/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

15 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 talks about the importance of being kind to the body as a foundation to a strong meditation practice. Ajahn describes key factors that enable the most pleasant, amazing meditation experience.

Transcript

It's very nice again to see some of the people haven't seen for years and years and years, Some of the old members of our Buddhist Society, Which just goes to show that when you meditate you don't die. You know, It preserves your life, Aging stops. So this Saturday afternoon meditation is sponsored by the insurance companies, Which means the more people meditate, The less they have to pay out. It should be that way. It's not. But anyway, Welcome everybody. So once everybody is settled down, We can start a little bit of meditation. And if anyone is coming for the first or second time, Don't worry, I'll talk a little bit about meditation so everybody can understand the basics and enjoy how to relax the mind and relax the body. That's all this really is. And I was watching somebody showed me a email video that Anderson Cooper was over in the United States. He's apparently does, He's a TV star or something, United States. Sorry, 60 minutes, Was it? Rockstar? Not Alice Cooper, Anderson Cooper. Shows what you used to watch when you were a layman. This, I think it's a news reporter or something on CNN. He was doing some meditation for 15 minutes. This shows how popular it is. But over there you have to pay for it. Over here you get the best teachings and they're for free. But one thing which they were talking about is coming into this wonderful thing we call the present moment and just actually being here, Something very simple, But something difficult for people to do. Because our mind always runs away all over the place. And the method which many people will tell you is just when the mind wanders off, Just bring it back again. But it goes wandering off again. And then you bring it back again. And then it wanders off some more. And it becomes almost endless. It never seems to want to stay home. And the answer is, Why does it keep on wandering off? It is because it's not happy where it is. So in order to overcome the tendency of your mind to become restless, Thinking about the past, Worrying about the future, Or just fantasizing about things which don't really matter anyway, Instead of wandering off all over the place, That we can learn, Is Bianca going? Oh no, She's… instead of allowing it to wander out all over the place, You know, We can just allow it to come into this present moment and make this present moment a happy place to be. If this present moment is happy, It is comfortable, Then it's more likely that you won't go thinking of being restless, Then it's more like you'll get the benefits of being in the present moment for a long time, With no worries about the past or the future. Many people on weekends, They go down south, They go on bush, They go overseas, To get away from it all. But you don't really get away from it all, All those worries and concerns you take with you. So instead of actually paying a lot of money for going to those long distant places and going through all the airports and stuff, You can actually just learn how to come to a place like this and let go of all of your past and all of your future, To literally get away from all the things which worry and concern you, Which cause emotional fatigue. And if we can overcome that emotional fatigue, Then when our heart and our mind becomes happy and strong, A lot of the mental problems and the physical problems, They also disappear. So it's a wonderful thing to do, To remain in the present moment, Just to be, To get away from it all, By which I mean no past, No future, Just being right here. But in order to achieve that, To learn how to make this present moment happy and comfortable. So the first thing which becomes very obvious when I talk like this is to be able to sit in a comfortable position. So that you can sit in a nice chair, If you need some more cushions, We've got a heap of cushions in the back there, And sometimes people bring their own cushions. But whatever it is, To make sure you are sitting comfortably when we meditate. So you don't get extra points by sitting in full lotus with a straight back when it hurts like hell. It may look impressive but it's damn stupid. So instead of actually trying to look impressive, You feel your body. You become aware of it and you find out what is your best posture, What feels comfortable. Because if it doesn't feel comfortable, You will be fidgeting after a short while. So you find out the best comfort for your body and when you get that comfort for your body, You just relax and then you don't need to move or fidget. And sometimes people are so impressed, How can you sit for such a long time in meditation without moving? It's very easy when you're comfortable because you spend a lot of time looking at your body, Making sure everything is in its right place, Is comfortable and is even pleasant. And then the body can be still. And it's the same thing with your emotional world as well. To be able to remain in this present moment for long enough, The present moment can do its work and give you some peace and some happiness and some energy. We have to try and make this present moment a happy place to be. To be comfortable in this present moment. To actually learn to relax in this present moment. Literally to let it be. Not to be afraid of the present moment. Just to stay there and just enjoy the freedom of having no future, No past, Nothing to worry about for these few minutes. And once we can recognize the joy and the happiness of such a freedom, Freedom from the past and freedom from the future, Once we can start to recognize that, We do have the feeling of delight. This feels so peaceful, So nice, So joyful just to be without any place to go. And it's not a struggle. If you have to tense up to be in the present moment, If you have to hold it tight, If you have to fight to be in this moment, It will never be pleasant. It will never be comfortable. The only way to be in this present moment is literally to relax into it, To let it be, To stop fighting it. And you'll find the present moment just becomes your natural state. There's many other old similes. I'll tell this one again because I need to pour myself a glass of water. But in order to stop the water from moving, I haven't done this for a few weeks, I do it very often. In order to stop my glass of water from moving, From shaking, I can try and hold it still but just using effort never works. The harder I try, The more the water moves. So really all I need to do to keep this water perfectly still is not try and hold it still but to let it go, To put it down, Leave it alone. And what happens after a little while when you put things down, You leave it alone. The water becomes still all by itself. There's no way I could ever hold that glass of water that still. Same way with your mind. If you want to get the mind to be still in this moment, So it's not wandering around the past or the future thinking about all sorts of things, Which is like your mind shaking and moving. That's what thinking is, Just waves, Agitations of your mind. Holding it still doesn't work. Putting it down, Letting it go does. And there is a trick of meditation. You get into the present moment, This takes a while just to settle in, To leave it alone. Now one of the things which people often do, One of their big mistakes, Your mind is becoming still, You're in the present moment. Is it still yet? Yeah, It was still. Is it still yet? No, Not yet. Leave the damn thing alone. Stop interfering. So when you just stand back and watch, And then in this present moment, You'll find the present moment just stabilizes. It doesn't go anywhere. And all these things from the past and the future, Which cause people so much emotional tiredness, It's called emotional fatigue, All that vanishes. You have a whole 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes of just being here. And then there's another strange thing happens because sometimes people say, Well you're not doing anything, How can you ever expect to have progress when you're just sitting there watching this present moment? Isn't that boring? And the opposite is true. Because once you stay in this present moment, Things develop. Because especially what develops is when you stop wasting all of this energy, Thinking, Worrying, Trying to fix up a past which has already happened and can't be changed, When we don't waste all that energy, All that energy is free into this moment, Into this present. And you find you start to wake up. Your awareness, Your mindfulness increases in its strength and power. It does actually literally feel like you are waking up. Many people think they are awake. But after a deep meditation you are fully awake. You really got lots of energy. And strange things happen like what you see. The green gets more, Deeper green than you've ever seen before. The food tastes more delicious. Even the feelings in the body, You can feel them much more powerfully. It's like all your senses have been amplified. It's like you've been looking through the window of a car which has been dirty and now it's all clean, Everything is sparkly outside. That's what happens when the energy starts being released to go into mindfulness. You become more aware, Literally. And your mindfulness has more power. Which means you can go deep into this present moment and with more energy, With more power, You get this beautiful state of delight, Of happiness, Of joy, Of whatever you look at, Looks beautiful. And this is where the happiness comes up in the meditation. Where people can sit here for long periods of time, They're on retreats for hours at a time. Just perfectly happy in this present moment. Just even just blissing out because of stillness, Because the minds in the present moment are not doing anything. All the energy is free to go into mindfulness. And the mindfulness gets stronger and brighter, More awake, More happy, More joy. This is where you get the powerful meditations from. Simply by putting the cup down, Letting it go and just being rather than trying to do things. So there we go. That's a little introduction to the meditation today. So we're now going to start some meditation. So if you like to get yourselves comfortable in your meditation posture, No matter what that is. And again, We usually meditate for about 45 minutes on this class. So if you come to the beginner's class, Expecting 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, This is much longer than you expected. But don't worry about it. If during the meditation period you feel like you need to adjust the posture to move, Just to move very quietly, Just to change your bodily position, That's fine. And just relax for one or two minutes with your eyes open, Then close your eyes again and do another 10 or 15 minutes of meditation. So you can just build it up little by little. So those are the ones who haven't done long meditations before. So those of you who are ready, We can now start our meditation. I will guide the first 5 or 10 minutes and then I'll let you go to proceed in your meditation in your own way. Very good. So sitting down, Close your eyes. With your eyes closed, Even I've been meditating about 45 years now, I still, More than that, I still look at my body when I begin. To check I am in a good posture. And there are no rules which you have to keep, Except to be kind and be aware. I literally feel my body, Become aware of the feelings in my body as much as I can. And if I notice anything can be improved by just adjusting my legs or fidgeting my bottom or coughing or, Thank you, Or by just scratching, I do it. I don't just sit here and know and don't do something with the knowledge of how my body is. My whole aim now is to try and make it as comfortable as possible. So if I notice any tight pieces of clothing, I loosen them. Because I've got to be able to maintain this posture as much comfort as possible for the next 30, 40 minutes. And if it's comfortable, Then I won't be restless. And yet many people take this first part of meditation too much for granted. They want to go deeper quickly. It's just too much impatience. I stay with my body a long time. Because it's usually other aches and itches come up and I also deal with them. Because I know if I don't deal with them properly at the beginning, In the middle of the meditation or towards the end, They'll cause a lot of disturbance for me. Deal with them in the beginning and they're dealt with for good. And allows me to be free. I also develop the method of relaxing inner parts of my body. You know there's some aches and irritations, Even pains, Which no matter which way you twist your body, No matter how you sit, No matter how many times you cough or sneeze or scratch, They don't disappear. Maybe it's because they're inside of you. Maybe a stomach ache or a headache or some irritation in your throat. If you have one of those, Be aware of that feeling as much as you can. Let the awareness of that feeling fill your emotional screen, The world of your mind. Just to know it as thoroughly as you can. And once you're aware of those feelings of irritation or pain or ache, Notice how the feeling changes. Sometimes it gets more painful, Sometimes less. And then see if you can find out why the irritation or pain gets worse, Why it gets better. It doesn't disappear but it just gets less intense. Why? You'll find because you're looking at that irritation with fear, With trying to get rid of it, That's what makes it worse. If you give it kindness, Letting it be, It feels better. And this is how we learn. Mindfulness gives you feedback. You learn that simple things like letting things be, Kindness, Embracing these feelings rather than trying to get rid of them. You'll find from your own experience, You can relax and ease parts of your body the fingers cannot touch. Once the body is relaxed, Be aware of that general feeling of contentment. Same feeling when people go to places like Bali, They lay on the beach and they feel delightful, A body with no aches or pains. Or less than anyway. I call it the delight of relaxation. And you'll find that when you notice the delight of a relaxed body, The body relaxes even further. When the body is relaxed, It heals itself, Gives good energy, Health, Everything feels light, There's no tension left in the body, No pressure, Everything is open. When we transfer that same attitude to our mental world, We're aware of our mental world and how it always wants to go thinking and solving problems, Going off and changing a past which cannot be done. Thinking we may learn from the past, But you do not learn from the past, You learn from the present. Or worrying about a future which hardly ever happens. One of the great sayings of the Buddha, Whatever you think it will be, It will nearly always be something different. So we come to this present moment when you're not thinking of the past, When you're not planning or worrying about the future. You're not fantasizing in some dream world, When those three things are gone, What's left is called now. You're aware of the sound of the birds, The sound of the air conditioner fan, The feeling of the wind on your skin. You're alive. Here. Let this moment be. Put down the cup and stop holding things. Let it go and just be. Listen. Feel. Know. See if you can notice how you can feel the sound of how delightful it feels. Not to be burdened by your past. Not to be weighed down by concern about the future. And not to be disturbed by thoughts or fantasies. How free it is just to be here. No pressure on you to achieve anything. No need to get anywhere. Just be there. The longer you stay in this present moment, The easier it becomes. The mind wakes up. Just being in the moment. Some people prefer to be watching their breathing to anchor themselves in this moment. If you like you can try that. Just to know the breath as it comes in. Know the breath as it goes out. It's a means of giving you something in this moment to focus your attention on. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. When the mind does become peaceful, See if you can notice a delight. A happy mind. Because the wellness is increasing. The happier you are, The easier it is to stay in this moment. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. The feeling of the breathing. Getting close to the end of the meditation, How do you feel inside? How much peace? How much contentment can you feel right now? And why? This is where we learn from our own experience what meditation is and how it works. We feel for ourselves the benefits. I will now ring the gong three times to end the meditation. Please keep your eyes closed until the last ringing vanishes. Enjoy the very smooth transition using the gong to come out the meditation back into the world. If you realize that it is hoping that in the first elections that you will bring that There we go. Now, For those of you who don't know that this class is live streamed over to the world, We do have many people who actually tune in and meditate with us and we give them the opportunity to ask questions. Is there any questions on the internet today? No, Just questions from the box. So anyone who has a question, They can always put it on the box to ask it. And afterwards I'll ask for any questions from here. I'm very new to meditation. Last week I laid down and fell asleep. Is this meditation? Should I sit up rather than lay down? You can do meditation in the laying down posture, But it's good that if you lay down, You lay down in a position you don't usually fall asleep in. And sometimes the body is a bit tired or sick and when you learn how to meditate in a laying down posture, That's really useful for the times when, Like all of us, We'll be in hospital, We'll be sick, We'll be dying. It's wonderful to learn how to meditate in that posture as well. So personally, I never go to sleep laying on my back. It's always on one of my sides, The left side or the right side is how I go to sleep. So that I reserve that posture of laying down on my back for meditation, Which means psychologically when I lay down, I'm on my back, My mind knows that he doesn't want me to go to sleep. So I'm alert, Awake. If I turn around on my side, My brain knows, Okay, This is sleeping posture, So you go to sleep. So if you are going to use laying down for a posture of meditation, See if you can lay down in a position where you don't normally go to sleep and that helps. However, You may notice that even when people sit for Lotus, You know, Sit down whatever posture they still fall asleep. So sometimes it's not the posture, It's the fact that some people are very tired. And as far as I am concerned, I don't mind this simply because most people in our modern world suffer from what's called sleep deficit. I didn't mention emotional fatigue, You're so tired inside of us. So because you're so tired, It does happen from time to time, You fall asleep. If you fall asleep, It's not sort of bad, It's not deep meditation, It's not sort of the golden meditation to fall asleep. But all it is, Is the brain is tired and it's taking time out just to rest. So if you are tired and sleepy, Please, Number one, Do not fight the sleepiness. Second thing, Oh I shouldn't be sleepy, I should be awake. Please do not fight it. Just as much as you can, Be aware of the dullness of the sleepiness. And even if you really fall fast asleep, Just leave it alone. It's just a natural part of the brain wanting to just get some energy back. Then when, You know, That the sleepiness, You know, Or the full sleep finishes, Or when you just start, As long as you don't fight the sleepiness, You just know it as best you can and be kind to it, Be gentle with it, You will find that, As I said earlier, The energy starts going back into the mindfulness. When you're fighting, You lose energy. When you are still, Energy flows into the mindfulness, Which means you get less and less sleepy. It's a natural phenomena. If you fight, The sleepiness usually gets worse or it lasts a long time. If you relax and let things be, Then the mindfulness gets brighter and brighter and the sleepiness just vanishes and then you're very bright. So don't worry too much about sleepiness. In fact, On the retreats, I tell a story which is in the Buddhist scriptures, Which makes people very, Feeling okay with being sleepy. Because there was a story where the Buddha was walking with one of his attendants called Ananda and they came across a monk in the forest who was meditating, This was 2500 years ago, In a perfect posture. The legs beautifully crossed, One hand in the other hand, The thumb slightly touching, Straight back chin, Sort of tucked in slightly, Perfect posture, Sitting so still. And the Buddha turned around to his attendant and said, I'm worried about that monk. And sure enough, Two weeks later, That monk had disrobed, Got married. And then the same day, He came across another monk deep in the forest who was meditating really sloppily with his head going this way and that way, Just half asleep. And the Buddha turned around to his attendant and smiled, I'm not worried about that monk. And two weeks later, That monk was fully enlightened with all the psychic powers. So if you are sleepy today, Just give it two more weeks. And of course, When I first read that, Like other people read that, I wonder what the heck is going on, This doesn't make any sense. What was actually happening, The first monk was what we call control freak. Yes, You can hold your body perfectly straight and still from willpower, But you cannot sustain that, You're tiring out, That's not meditation. If you want to meditate like that, Just go to Buckingham Palace and you can see all these guards perfectly straight, Half an hour and now they don't move, But they don't get enlightened and they certainly don't have any psychic powers. It's just willpower, That's all. The second monk, He was letting go. Yeah, He was sleepy, But the Buddha knew the mindfulness would wake up because he was going about it the right way. He wasn't a control freak, He was just letting nature be and being kind to his tired old body and soon it vanishes. So this is actually how we deal with sleepiness, It's a part of the nature of our modern world, Simply because you all work too hard, Think too hard, Worry too much and your brain is exhausted. That's one of the reasons why you come here and you do feel sleepy, But don't worry, Just be kind to it, Be peaceful with it, Don't fight it and it vanishes all by itself. That's a wonderful thing to do. So there are some people who, Some injuries you've got in sports or in some injuries you've got in car crashes and all these other accidents which people have these days. Sometimes it's very difficult to sit meditation on the floor. This is why we do have these beautiful stalls which are very comfortable, Sometimes the chairs or sometimes people, They can go in the back and lean against the wall. The places against the wall are the first positions in any Buddhist temple which get taken up. That's why we have lots of pillars in many temples because many things you can lean against. That's really comfortable. But you sit as comfortably as you possibly can and if you just can't use those things, Then fine, Just lay down. I'd rather have people meditating and rather than laying down and not meditating at all. So yeah, Sure you can lay down if you really need to. And obviously if you've got lots of aches and tensions in the body, That's one of the most comfortable positions. But try and meditate in a posture where you don't usually fall asleep. And that usually overcomes the sleepiness. So thank you for that question, It's a very important question. And after a while you don't feel sleepy anymore. You meditate because you're really resting in the brain, You're not fighting it, You get energy coming up. And it often happens when people meditate a lot, They don't sleep that much because they don't need to. Because your brain is resting, You're not using it so much. Therefore, It doesn't need so much rest. You know, In bed at night. So it's a wonderful way of getting some energy and some sharpness in your brain. So any questions from the floor about this? Yeah, Thank you. I'm still nervous about anything you do and I still struggle. So I still find it a real struggle, Particularly when I have something stressful happening in my life. The time where I need the meditation and the release and the relief from what's going on. I start off trying to be in the present and I succeed. I don't know how long before I know it, My mind's wandered and I don't know how long I've been in that place. Whether it's 30 seconds, 5 minutes or whatever. So and I often think of your words, Pass, Suitcase, One in one hand, Etc. But it's still such a struggle for me. Okay, Number one, Please don't ever feel like it's a struggle. Because if it's a struggle, You're fighting too much, Just let it go. If the mind really wants to wander off, Let it wander off. There's these lovely little stories, There was this woman over here in Perth who told me she had a six year old son and one day her six year old son was very upset at his mummy and said something like, Mummy, I don't love you anymore, I'm leaving home. And now this mother was just, She was just an emotional genius. She really knew how to look after kids. So she said, Okay darling, I will help you pack. So the mummy and the little six year old went into the bedroom, Packed all the essentials of life like Spiderman costume, Teddy bears, Whatever else. A six year old is really, Feels really important. And before the kid left, She made his favourite sandwich for lunch. And there was the kid in the front door of the house with his mother and the mother kissed him goodbye, Have a wonderful life darling. And there he was carrying a suitcase in one hand and a brown paper bag with a sandwich in the other hand, Went to the end of the path, Opened up the gate and just went to the left down the street into his life. What a wonderful mother that was because he'd only got about 50 metres, Maybe 100 metres at most down the street before the six year old started to feel homesick. Turned around, Went through the gate, Down the path. Mother hadn't moved, Welcome home darling. Now that was emotional intelligence. You know the kid would come back but if you fight it and get angry about it, It just makes the whole situation worse. So you know the kid wants to go and leave, Okay bye bye, Have a wonderful life and the kid comes back again pretty quickly, Just like your mind. Your mind says, No I don't want to be peaceful, I've got to think about this important thing in life. Okay off you go, Pack its bags, Give it a sandwich, It won't go that far and it'll come back to you. You try and fight it, Say kid no you can't, You're too young to leave home, Blah blah blah blah. And of course what happens is, Everything gets very tense and unpleasant. So use this wonderful little psychology and if you've got something really really really really difficult to think about and the mind insists on thinking about, You're sitting there, Okay mind off you go, I'll be here when you come back. Just make peace because in meditation it's basically not what you're aware of, But whether you're fighting it or not. So just make peace with it, Just be kind to it, Just allow it to be. I constantly tell myself let it go. Yeah, So yeah, So eventually you get the, You know you make the mistakes, Plenty of time fighting your mind, It just makes it worse, Doesn't solve anything. And after a while you learn how just, Okay mind, If that's what you want to do, You can. You become a friend to your mind. I don't never treat my mind like a slave or like a maid or some, I don't boss it around, It's my friend. So say mind, If that's what you want to do, When you're finished we can come and meditate, Okay, Yeah sure, Deal. And if it's 30 seconds, So be it. Yeah 30 seconds or it's 30 hours, So be it. And then you're a friend to your mind. Because my first thought was how does that differ from when I'm not meditating if my mind's constantly in that space. Yeah, Well what it is is actually just aware you're letting it go. Thank you. Okay, Very good question. And after a while it's just so easy, Just the mind just, Okay no, I agree with you, Says the mind to you, I really need a break, Thinking about this is not working. So then it agrees with you, You don't fight it anymore. Okay, Any other questions, Comments? Really good questions today. Okay, So let's leave up for today, It's 4. 15 so we can, Those of you who are Buddhist or want to do some exercise, We can bow three times. I often say, Even if you're not a Buddhist, Bowing three times is good because it exercises your tummy.