Day 349/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Brahm delivers 15 minutes of dharma talk/meditation advice and inspiration, followed by 45 minutes of semi-guided meditation (about 20 minutes guided meditation and about 25 minutes of silent meditation). After the meditation practice, there is a Q&A session with the community.

In this session, Ajahn Brahm talks about how meditation practice and relaxation can help the body and the mind.

Transcript

Very good.

And for those of you who are cold,

You can come and sit in the hot seat.

Or what often I ask people to do,

Because there's air cons and there's fans and stuff,

There's always going to be parts of this hall which are hotter and parts which are cold.

So you can always find that part of this hall your favourite place,

Which is just not too hot,

Not too cold.

And that's where you can find in this hall here.

Just like in places like our monastery,

Just the cats,

You always know where the coolest place is during the hot weather.

That's where the cat sleeps.

And the cold weather,

The warmest place,

That's where the cat is.

So they move around to find the best place,

So that's what we should do as well.

So don't just sit here and just complain,

Oh it's too cold.

We just move a little bit over there out of the wind,

Of the air cons or whatever,

And you find it's just nice for you.

Okay,

I think most people are here now.

So,

First of all the usual announcement that if you've come for the first time here for the Introduction to Meditation class,

That class is being held in the room to my right.

And that's where people prepare themselves by having shorter meditation sits,

Not going so long,

And giving more basic instructions so that people who've never meditated before can actually get the introduction into the basic ways of meditating.

And here is where we continue on from those basic classes,

So that people can sit,

First of all for longer periods of time,

For about 45 minutes,

And also to get some other instructions about what to do while you are meditating.

And of course there's many,

Many different things to say about the meditation.

But one of the things which comes to mind today,

If anyone ever feels ill or sick,

When you're meditating,

There's a lot of things you can do by yourself,

In order to not,

Don't ever think of it as overcoming any sicknesses,

But just alleviating it and helping the whole process of your body dealing with the symptoms.

And,

You know,

One of those is to be able to be so aware of the body that you can learn how to relax the body.

Okay,

Here's one of those great anecdotes,

And again,

Usually I say these anecdotes on retreats,

So those of you who come on the meditation retreats would have heard these anecdotes before.

That was of the monk who had the pain in his back because he had congenital defect in his spine.

And how he overcame that was a very brilliant process.

You saw it in a book somewhere.

But how he overcame that was becoming aware,

Mindful,

Of muscles on either side of his spine which most people aren't aware of.

So the first exercise he had to do was actually to take his fingers,

Or a couple of fingers,

And actually stroke those muscles on the back and do that as a regular exercise until after many,

Many weeks that he had awareness of those muscles.

Any neuroscientist knows that when you have awareness of a particular part of the body,

When you touch part of the body,

You actually build up neural connections.

So after a while you can feel that muscle without needing to touch it.

And of course,

You know,

There's much of our body which we're just not aware of because we don't need to be.

So he learned just by some practice how to feel those muscles.

Once he could be aware of those muscles on either side of his spine,

Just like you're aware of your knees or how cold or hot the skin is,

Once he was aware of that,

Then it was a trial and error to learn how to move those muscles,

How to stretch them,

How to let them go.

He learned,

Again,

He can't teach that,

Just try a bit of this,

Try a bit of that,

Try a bit of something else,

And he could actually move those muscles at will.

That took him another few months.

And then afterwards,

The last part of the therapy,

If you wish to call it that,

Was regular exercise of those muscles.

You know,

I can just move my arm up,

Move my arm down,

I don't know where I learned that,

But you can do that.

And that's what he did with his muscles on either side of the spine.

Stretch them,

Relax them,

Stretch them,

Relax them,

Stretch them,

Relax them.

And of course,

If you do regular exercise like that,

The muscles become strong.

And now they are so strong that they fully compensate the weakness in the spine.

Problem solved.

And that was a wonderful little example of how,

With a little bit of mindfulness,

A bit of experimentation,

Trial and error is the best word,

Mindfulness giving you feedback,

You know,

You can feel those muscles,

You know,

They've stretched,

They've loosened,

They've stretched,

They've loosened.

And because of that very simple exercise,

Took a long time,

Commitment,

Eventually he can now just move those muscles whenever he wants.

Exercise.

Now that's the same with people who have other little aches and pains in their body.

You know,

Things they're like,

Irritable bowel syndrome,

Or,

You know,

Other sort of aches and pains,

Even arthritis.

Interestingly,

Because apparently this little method helped and actually cured a lady of arthritis over in Eastern Europe.

But,

How we do it,

We feel our body.

If there's any problem there,

A wound which needs to be healed,

An ache,

A pain,

Or in this particular case,

Say,

Irritable bowel syndrome or something,

You focus on that.

And you just learn,

Once you're aware of it,

Once you can feel it,

Then we learn just how to move it around,

To relax this,

Relax that.

And once you can learn how to do that,

To relax this,

Relax that,

Then you can actually have this ability just to take part of the body and just to ease it off.

Find out what to do in order to ease that irritation in the bowel,

That ache and pain,

That inflammation just in an arm,

Or you have a sore stomach.

Because I say this because it's just what I was talking about before I came in here,

That,

You know,

As a monk,

You're not really supposed to ask for special foods,

Or,

You know,

Say what you like.

That was what I was told by Ajahn Chah,

You just eat it and just,

You know,

See what happens.

But every now and again after so many years,

That you tend to get sort of sore tummies.

And so I was in Indonesia once,

And,

You know,

Very tight schedule.

I don't know what I ate,

But it was something which was really irritating.

And this particular time I managed to get to the room,

To the toilet,

Before you threw up.

And they were very,

Very sick.

And you only had about three or four or five hours of sleep,

And then up early in the morning and take a flight to the next destination.

You know,

Because there's no island hopping in Malaysia,

No,

Sorry,

In Singapore,

In Indonesia,

To see as many sort of places as possible to give talks.

Very tight schedule.

So I knew that,

You know,

You just felt so sick,

That how am I going to get some sleep tonight and to be ready for the next day?

And so,

You know,

You did this meditation stuff.

So,

You know,

After,

You know,

Evacuating my stomach as much as possible,

You know,

By vomiting many times,

Then you lay down in bed and still felt the queasiness,

You know,

In your stomach.

And then we just learned how to relax it,

Relax it,

Relax this.

Once you can feel it,

And then,

You know,

You learn a little bit of loving kindness,

A bit of letting go,

Relaxation,

So that even with a really sore tummy,

You can get about four hours of sleep.

And you woke up,

As soon as I woke up,

I have to know,

That's good enough,

Then straight to the toilet,

To get rid of the rest of it.

And that's a wonderful way to have a very deep,

Peaceful sleep,

Because you know how to work your body,

With some mindfulness,

And know how to relax things.

So a lot of times that has really helped me over my life as a monk,

And of course,

Hopefully it can help each one of you.

And it's not only for good health,

It's actually just,

It goes to the heart of what this meditation really is,

The awareness and the kindness,

Which brings around some stillness to your body,

Relaxation,

Peace to the body.

And once you can get still and peaceful,

It's not a lazy state,

It's not like an inner state,

It's not like you should be doing something,

It's a very positive thing,

Doing nothing.

Because what happens is that the body has a chance to do its stuff,

To be able to relax.

And that's where we have what in the meditation retreat I call the hot spot syndrome.

When you're meditating this will only happen if you get very,

Very peaceful,

And then you find part of your body,

For what you think is an inexplicable reason,

Gets very warm.

And it could be in your stomach,

It could be in your chest,

It could be in your back.

And so those hot spots,

Sometimes people say,

What the heck are they?

And that's all that the body's innate wisdom,

When you let it do its job,

It will send energy to where it's needed.

Here are the,

All the classic stories of people who had,

What's really common,

It's apparently,

Is just this hot spot in the shoulders,

The neck,

Because whiplash injury in cars,

Because many people have car accidents these days.

And so this particular injury,

Whiplash,

Yeah you can do some exercise,

You can take medication,

Do some good sort of physical therapy,

But then sometimes people are meditating,

And then what happens is they get these hot spots in their neck.

And afterwards,

I always ask them,

How do you feel?

Great,

Feel so relaxed up there,

Exactly,

Because what's happened is the energy of your body,

You can call it chi,

In,

That's so the Chinese and India is called,

What are the winds of the body?

They go there and they just do their job to heal it,

Once you get out of the way,

Once you let it happen.

Or that the other time,

Which you may see in meditation,

If you do some long meditations,

Sometimes your posture changes.

It's one of the reasons I say,

You don't need to force a posture to be like this or to be like that,

Just get comfortable and let the body do the rest.

And know sometimes that people will twist around.

Again,

That's classic case,

One of these retreats,

This was in North Perth,

And the Redemptorist Monastery,

We used to use that for our retreat center,

And this lady was so twisted around,

That when I was alerted,

One of the people just told me,

Look at her,

She is going to probably have to go to hospital,

You know,

Twisted around like that.

So I waited for her to come out of her meditation and asked her,

How are you?

I feel fabulous,

She said.

And then,

You know,

A little bit of questioning,

She had been in a very,

Very bad car accident,

Lucky to come out alive,

And so many injuries there,

But what her body needed to do,

Needed a twist in a way which I cannot demonstrate,

I have to go to hospital,

To allow to see energies to actually open up and just to get a channel through there so her body could heal.

And all the time,

You know,

Your body,

Your body's own wisdom,

It's just so immense that sometimes we block it,

This can't be right.

So you're twisting around,

Now come on,

Get straight up,

You're bending down,

Now straighten up.

And we interfere a lot with our body.

So a lot of times if we can just learn how to let go,

Just to be aware,

Don't mean being asleep,

Be aware but don't control.

And then we find our body learns how to move itself this way and that way,

So it can just deal with the many difficulties which the body sometimes faces and just overcome them if you have got no other thing to do.

And it's wonderful to be able to do that.

And the same time,

It teaches you the importance of how to be aware and how to relax,

How to let things go,

Not to be so stressed.

And of course,

I often use a simile of guitar string and the guitar strings stretch so tight that something hits it and of course it makes a sound.

Bah,

If you loosen both ends,

So there's no tension on it at all,

Both ends are loose,

Something hits it,

Makes no sound at all.

And that's called like the secret of resilience.

You know,

We have many things hit us in life,

Metaphorically and also literally.

And why do we sort of react so much?

Because we're so tight,

So stretched,

So stressed.

And if we can lessen both ends,

Relax,

Let go.

And then you find life throws things at you,

Makes no sound at all.

It doesn't create a problem.

And you find that sometimes if you're really on edge,

You really come here because you really want some meditation,

You had a really difficult day,

And then you're so tight and tense that somebody bangs the door or they make a big loud cough or something and that really upsets you.

It's not the door which was the problem,

But your guitar string,

Your mind was just so tight that the smallest thing just makes you upset.

So this is when we learn how to relax and loosen up.

Not only do we get really good health,

But also we tend to get not so much anger,

Not so much fighting the world,

Because we don't have to.

The world doesn't make such a huge impact on us.

So that way we get quite peaceful,

And then we take it even deeper.

The same ideas,

The same method,

Just first with your body and then just with your emotional world.

I always say that many people say,

Let go of the past,

Let go of the future.

Those are the past and the future,

That's what stretches your guitar strings.

All the stuff which happened to you in the past,

Like this big heavy weight pulling you one way,

And this fears of the future,

The prayers pulling you the other way,

The past and future stretching out so tight.

So we let those things go,

And then it's peaceful.

We're in the present moment,

But if you've still got a very tight mind,

Small thing,

And of course it disturbs the present moment,

And you're not comfortable there.

So a little bit of relaxation,

Mindfulness gives you that feedback you can feel.

You know what works,

What doesn't work.

And little by little,

Taking time,

Because this is not just 30 minutes,

45 minutes and you're enlightened,

This is a life's work.

But of course it's really worth it,

Simply because it does give you really nice health,

Good wisdom.

It's not just wisdom which you can write books about,

It's not just so you can show how smart you are over a cup of coffee and win the arguments.

This is about learning how to be in good physical health and good mental health.

They can be peaceful.

Wise,

Happy,

Good health,

Learning how to be aware and let go.

And really great things happen,

Deep in meditation.

Okay,

Now I'm watching the breath,

Now what should I do?

Oh come on,

Same thing all the way,

Just be aware and let go.

But,

But,

But,

If I,

I've got so far,

If I let go now it will all fall apart.

If you try and control it all falls apart.

So learning how to relax,

How can you relax if you're controlling?

But learn how to let go,

Let it be,

And you'll be surprised just how the mind reacts into going deeply,

Deeply peaceful.

The body opens up and gets very,

Very peaceful and healthy.

And everything else works.

It's great because it's not that something,

Somebody promises you something,

You know,

After you die.

You know,

You feel it right now.

And for those of you who know a little bit of basic Buddhism,

Not basic,

The Pali,

That's what it means,

The Sandhitika.

You can experience it right now in this life.

Don't have to worry if you're back in the correct course.

So you go to the right heaven after you die.

You don't know.

So I know some people go to every church.

You know,

That's called spreading the risk.

But here we don't do that.

We just learn how just to,

To be in this life,

What works,

What makes us peaceful,

Relaxed,

Healthy,

Happy.

And from there,

You know you're going in the right direction.

Okay,

So there we go.

So now we can actually do some meditation.

Again,

I will usually lead the first part of the meditation.

And you don't have to follow me all the way,

But just for most people it gets you into the beginnings of the meditation so you don't wander off all over the place mentally.

And secondly,

For those of you who don't want to listen to what I'm saying because you've done it many times before,

You just need to have the opportunity,

You don't need to listen,

You don't even need to put earplugs in,

You just say,

I'm not paying attention.

You can do that.

I remember this man who said,

It took me about three or four years of marriage,

But now I can hear my wife without listening to her.

That's what he said to me.

So you can do that,

You know,

To a wife,

You can certainly do that to me.

So during guided meditations,

You can just zone out.

Okay,

It works both ways by the way,

It's not sort of sexist.

So anyway,

If you'd like to get yourself close your eyes.

You want to zone out for me?

No worries.

So with your eyes closed,

Just develop some basic awareness of your body,

How you're sitting.

It's a bit of awareness,

A bit of kindness.

The awareness and the kindness together create wisdom.

Knowledge does not create wisdom.

If you go by knowledge,

You probably think that you have to sit cross-legged and fall out of straight back,

Not moving.

Chairs are only for the namby-pamby cream puffs,

That's what some people say,

Which is a lot of rubbish.

You feel your body,

You know what is the best posture for you.

Maybe no other person sits in a posture like that in the whole world,

Doesn't matter,

You feel this is right.

It's okay to lean against a pillar,

Against a wall,

Against a backrest,

It's okay to lean up forward.

Soon you find out what your body requires.

If you're aware and you allow that awareness to give you the feedback and you trust that more than some expert.

And then to refine the awareness and kindness of your body by legs.

Be aware of your legs.

And when some people say,

How are you mindful,

What is mindfulness,

Just ask a question.

Legs,

How do you feel?

Soon as I ask that,

I get an answer.

Knees,

How are you?

And then I listen for the answer,

Another metaphor for mindfulness.

And I'm aware,

It is how my knees feel.

And if there's a problem,

I just deal with it.

I don't just ignore it and just try and hope it goes away or be a tough guy.

I've seen too many of my friends,

Tough guys,

Just have problems with their knees or their,

I don't know what else,

Backs,

And have to go hospital.

I'm really aware and kind,

Sensitive to all the messages which my own body is sending to me and I take action.

Once my legs,

Including my feet,

Are all just pretty good.

Then go to the butt,

Bottom awareness,

Simply because a lot of times that people don't pay enough attention.

So they sit and have to squirm or fidget later on.

And then I go up to my back.

Once my butt is comfortable,

I checked it out.

Back,

How do you feel?

Do you need to be adjusted?

Just like that monk learned how to stretch muscles which I don't even know exist.

I feel just what needs to be made aware of.

Move it this way,

Move it that way.

Every time I learn more awareness,

More understanding,

More knowledge of how my back feels and how to keep it comfortable.

I'm aware till I get it in just the right place.

Once I'm aware of that,

Then I can let it go,

Knowing I have been mindful and kind,

Cared for it with wisdom.

Then hands,

Making sure those hands are just nice,

Good place.

And again I don't follow the books and the photos,

Whatever,

My hands can feel comfortable down there.

Up to my shoulders.

Just adjusting my robes so there's no tight pieces.

First of all they feel okay but then later 15,

20 minutes in they start to hurt.

So make sure from the very beginning everything is checked out and the shoulders are nice and loose.

Just like that guitar string,

Nothing pulling either end.

And you're aware of that,

You're aware that things are nice and loose.

Best they possibly can.

Don't force it.

Awareness and kindness is not raising the bar too high.

Then go to my throat.

It's amazing,

The irritations in the throat which cause coughing.

You know you can just,

You're not suppressing,

It's understanding how the irritations work.

What makes them worse,

What makes them better?

Just relaxation,

Kindness,

No fear,

Letting it be,

Opening the door of your heart to this feeling.

All these words saying the same thing.

And I can feel the throat relax.

And then lastly to my head.

Balance on top of the neck.

Just feel it,

It's just nice.

And the muscles around the eyes and the mouth.

It's pretty easy to manipulate those.

Squash them up,

Relax them.

It's easy to know how to do that because you've learned from the feedback from mindfulness.

So you can take awareness of your facial muscles,

Feel them,

Loosen them.

So the whole thing is nice and relaxed.

So you relax your body,

Stage by stage.

Not perfect but not bad,

Better than it was before.

And now it carries on part of the instructions at the beginning.

See if you can go quick,

Scan through your body and find out the part which is the most irritating.

The pain,

The tightness,

The irritation.

Instead of allowing it to drive you crazy,

Just be with it.

Not trying to get rid of it.

The monster in the Emperor's palace,

Welcome monster,

Thank you for coming to visit me.

And the monster gets an inch smaller.

That's a classic awareness and kindness metaphor.

If it's not kindness,

It's just get out of here,

You don't belong,

It gets worse.

So your own mindfulness giving you feedback on an irritation could be a headache,

A stomachache,

A pain in your body.

It teaches you this is where you get much more wisdom than any book or lecture.

Learning from the nature of your own body.

Stay with that most irritating feeling in your body.

Learn from it,

Mindfulness,

Feedback,

Kindness,

Patience too.

Through experience,

Things easing,

Relaxing,

The irritation getting less.

And all the time you're not doing anything,

You're actually just leaving it alone and letting it heal.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

And if you stay with that long enough,

Watching your peace on the tail,

Playing around,

Experimenting,

Trial and error.

Until you're aware enough,

What makes you peaceful?

This real peace,

It will start giving energy to mindfulness,

It will start to become less sleepy,

Less dull.

And then,

Those of you who like to watch the breath,

Be aware of your breath with ease.

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

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

You're close to the end of the meditation period.

How do you feel as we assess the feedback from mindfulness?

You don't need to give things names,

But you know it's peaceful,

You need to be fully relaxed,

At ease,

Or opposite,

At least from now.

And that's how we learn and develop.

We're going to ring the gong three times.

At the end of the third ringing of the gong,

That's the time we advise to come out for meditation.

Gong.

There we go.

You can get yourself comfortable if you're not comfortable.

We have some questions from the internet because I,

This is the overseas people who watch this live.

From USA,

UK and Norway.

Can the mind be trained in the same way as the body,

Strengthening certain aspects that compensate for weaker parts,

Such as strength and mindfulness by meditation?

Would that simply be more thinking?

It's,

If you,

That is your intention to do that and you're always just checking up on it,

Of course,

It's just too complicated.

But you know the truth of the matter is yes,

Of course the mind is trained in the same way as the body.

But it's you know,

You exercise certain muscles,

You know the kindness muscle,

The letting go muscle,

The awareness muscle,

For want of a better word,

As you become more aware,

More kind,

More ability to let go,

Know what relaxation is,

Yes,

That does actually grow quite strong.

So,

But again don't think about it,

Just do it.

How does one use individual dhammas as medicine during meditation?

It's,

You don't use them because that's more like more,

More doing stuff.

Just,

You just learn just how to let go.

If there is,

After the meditation,

Things like impermanence,

Things arise,

You know,

It's not me,

Not mine,

Not a self,

So just let it go.

It makes life much easier if a person really understands that very deeply.

From Norway,

When I meditate I become aware I'm supposed to be relaxed,

Making my heart beat faster in response,

How do I calm it down?

The supposed is a problem there.

You're aware that I'm supposed to be like this,

I'm supposed to be like that.

So who said you're supposed to be like this?

So just,

You're supposed to be healthy,

I'm supposed to be happy.

That makes you miserable trying to be happy.

If you stop trying to be happy,

Then you are happy.

It's the cartoon you have over in Jhana Grove.

Somebody sent me to,

Sent this to me,

Great little cartoon,

I want to be happy,

I want happiness.

And there was a cartoon first,

This really angry guy going to the monk,

I want happiness.

And the monk takes one look at that problem number one,

I.

They go over the sense of self,

Just part of nature,

Just,

Just let that I go.

So he scrubs out the I and then the sign reads,

Want happiness.

Second problem,

Want,

So he scrubs that out.

And then he holds up the sign,

Happiness,

And then the smiley.

You see,

I want is the problem.

In Dhamma that's no craving.

So this is saying with,

I become aware that I'm supposed to be relaxed.

If you're supposed to be this,

You're supposed to be that.

That's not relaxing,

Just relax.

In other words,

Wherever you are,

Oh okay,

Because she's not here.

The,

One of the,

The young women,

The first woman who got a grumpy license.

When she was on a retreat and she said,

I know I'm supposed to be happy,

But I feel miserable.

And when everyone says,

Oh you're supposed to be happy in meditation,

I feel such a failure.

And I look at everybody else,

Everyone else is smiling,

And I stand looking at you,

You're smiling,

That makes me sick.

Well,

And I said,

Look,

You know,

Come on,

You don't have to be happy.

You don't have to be healthy.

Just whatever you are.

And so she started to get it,

But then what I did,

I went into the office,

Which is,

If you've ever gone on any of these retreats at Jhana Grove,

And apparently there's another weekend retreat coming up next weekend,

There's still some places there,

That's actually an Appy teaching retreat.

So there's still some places available apparently on the internet,

You're booking quickly.

And anyway,

So they were just trying to get,

Trying to be happy.

So I went into the office,

Opened up the computer,

Quickly got onto the computer,

And typed up the very first grumpy license,

And it was on letterhead.

I don't know too much about computers,

But I could do that pretty quickly.

I got Gothic scripts.

Now just like if you get your qualifications,

You know,

As a dentist,

Or as a sort of a degree or something,

You just,

You just,

There's Bodhinyana monastery,

This license grants to the following,

And I'll put a name down there,

Permission to be,

To be grumpy,

At any time,

For any reason or no reason whatsoever,

For the rest of her life,

To the coming of Maitreya Buddha,

Signed Ajahn Brahm.

Or whatever,

I just made it up.

But the point was,

I was giving her permission to be miserable.

And as soon as I gave it to her,

She was laughing her head off,

And that was the end of her misery.

She was getting so upset,

Trying to be happy,

And so tense,

Trying to relax.

I'm supposed to relax,

And you're going so tense,

Trying to relax.

Stop trying to relax.

I give you permission from Norway,

That you can be as tense as you possibly want.

When I give them the permission,

Then of course they stop trying to be something different.

And they're trying,

They're wanting,

The thing which causes them the stress,

That vanishes.

And then they're happy,

No stress.

As I was talking last night,

I gave a talk of Buddhism and dogs,

Because this is the year of the dog,

Chinese year of the dog.

So I'm just now looking after dogs,

This last couple of days.

So dogs,

They can go to sleep.

Has anyone told a dog how to relax?

They're really good,

They just go and sit there and just,

They do it.

I'm supposed to relax,

That's not how dogs feel.

You know,

One of the great things about dogs,

They never feel guilty.

They're sleeping all day,

They feel quite okay with that,

They don't need permission.

However,

People do.

They're not supposed to be lazy.

How many of you can have a lazy day without feeling guilty?

It's a guilt.

Very good.

So it's a guilt which is a problem.

I'm supposed to be this,

I'm supposed to be that.

That is a problem.

So this is actually,

When you're meditating,

For goodness sake,

When you're meditating,

Freedom.

The two types of freedom.

Freedom of desire,

No one's telling you what to do.

Or the freedom from desire.

You're not telling yourself what to do.

Freedom from desire,

Just be.

Relax.

Easy.

Should be the easiest thing in the world.

But anyway,

That's the problem I suppose.

Anyway,

So there we go,

That's hopefully asking some of these questions.

The one from the UK before,

How does one use individual Dhamma's medicine during meditation?

Use these things,

Start the meditation,

During the meditation,

Don't use anything,

Just let it go,

Relax.

At the end of the meditation you can assess whether it works or not.

But don't go thinking and doing this and doing that and doing something else in the middle of the meditation.

That just interferes it.

And you know it can be trained the same way as a body,

Back to the US one,

Is because it works,

If it works.

That's how the training works.

You train,

You train yourself how to walk,

Train yourself how to play football,

Train yourself how to dance or whatever.

And how you do that is,

You get some feedback.

Little by little,

That's how we learn.

So we learn how to relax,

How to be peaceful,

How to be healthy.

Don't get told by others,

Just learn from your own experience.

Be aware and feel.

It's very powerful.

Okay,

Any questions from the audience here?

Wow,

You're all so amazed that nothing comes out of the mouth.

Wow,

That's really dumbfounded,

You made you speechless.

Okay,

Let's quit while I'm ahead.

Okay,

So let's pay respects to Buddha Dham Sangha and then I'm sure there'll be a big line of people here asking their questions.

Here we go.

Excuse me,

I did forget one thing,

That the audio-visual team here,

The ones who record this,

Make sure everything is working,

They need some more assistance to keep this thing going for the next year.

So if you've got any skills at all,

Oh,

An audio-visual.

And please see one of the AV people such as,

What's her name again?

Nicole,

Yes.

So very good.

So make some loving kindness,

Some metta,

Some good karma,

So that we can continue this organisation.

Very good.

So have a nice day,

Week.

If you want to book on the retreat for next year,

Oh no,

For the retreat for next week,

Sorry,

That is online.

Reviews

I will practice and exercise that part of my body that I realized the blockage resides. Thank you for such wonderful insights and guidance 🙏🙏❤️❤️