Day 357/365: 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 and closing thoughts.

In this session, Ajahn Brahm talks about how to address the wandering mind in meditation practice.

Transcript

So this is the ongoing class where we usually sit much longer and also just usually emphasize one particular part of meditation in order to people to focus on something which is interesting and rather than a broader picture. But we'll just wait for another minute or two because I am a bit early. There's still a couple of people coming in. Okay, I just got past three o'clock. So as many of you will know that very often the biggest problem for meditators is the wandering mind, Where the mind, Instead of staying put on the chosen object you're aware of, It goes wandering all over the place and sometimes 15 minutes, Half an hour, Maybe the whole meditation period can be just lost. And just fantasizing, Dreaming, Planning or remembering something which you can't change because it was in the past and our mind wanders off. And many people just keep on saying if the mind wanders off, Just be aware of that and bring it back again, Then it wanders off again, You bring it back again, It wanders off again and bring it back again. It gets very frustrating after a while because it's always a wandering off and it's a constant battle to keep bringing the mind back again. And I always mention to people that that idea of bringing the mind back again is just a lot of controlling and it just makes the mind more stressed. So a long time ago I started using wisdom power rather than willpower. What wisdom power means is just asking why does the mind wander off? Why can't it stay put on something nice and peaceful like watching your breath or whatever? The reason is because you're not happy where you are. If you're really enjoying where you are and you're happy doing what you're doing, You find you don't need to wander off. If you're reading a really interesting book and you can't put it down, It's called a page turner because you have to keep on reading it to find out what happens in the end. If it's a movie which you really like, It transfixes your attention for a couple of hours. A football match if you're into sport, You can just watch that even though you died to go to the toilet, You just have to keep watching it because you're enjoying it. It's always that factor of enjoyment with what you're doing is the key to stopping the mind wandering off. So whatever you're experiencing in meditation, Whatever object of meditation, We have to learn how to put some happiness and joy into what we're doing. And to be able to do that, You know, You develop the idea of noticing the delight in what you're experiencing and in order to notice that delight, Again I've introduced that particular area of mindfulness, Being aware of the happiness in meditation from the very beginning. When you're sitting down and you relax the body, You know the body feels very happy and delightful when you're very relaxed. I don't know about you but I've been very busy today and just running around and doing stuff like lectures for a conference and a marriage just before this and all this other stuff which I have to do as a monk. So it's very wonderful for me to just be able to sit here, Close my eyes and do nothing. Now you may agree with that, How wonderful it is just to stop all this coming and going and just to rest. But a lot of times we take that peace for granted. Because we take it for granted, I mean you don't notice the delight in just the body which is resting. Because you don't notice it, Soon the mind wanders off somewhere else. So in meditation I start usually by relaxing my body really deeply before I start focusing on my mental world. And I notice when I relax the body very deeply, It actually feels delightful. There's a certain pleasure in bodily relaxation. I know that pleasure exists for everybody because every now and again I do go to Bali but not to rest by the beach, I have to teach retreats and give big talks and stuff like that, It's work for me. But you see people going there to Bali, Going on the beach and they lie on these reclining chairs by the beaches in these resorts. Why? They pay a lot of money for that. Because it's very delightful just to sit down there on the beach relaxing your body with not a care in the world. That's why people pay a lot of money for it because there's a pleasure there. And so I'm using that perception when I meditate. When you meditate you got your legs crossed, Or sitting on a chair, Your body is nice and comfortable, You don't have to do anything, And it's very very relaxing and it's very beautiful and very enjoyable. So I learn how to notice the delight when my body starts to relax. And I focus, I look for it. And when I started doing this, Something else which happened which was fascinating was that when I noticed how delightful relaxation is, My body relaxed even further. My body relaxed so deeply, More deeply than I could do through willpower. The delight, The happiness, Drew the body into deeper states of comfort and ease. And it's also because I was noticing the delight in the relaxed body, My mind never wandered. It was beautiful just to experience a body which was at ease with no aches and pains. And I parlayed that off into the relaxing of the mental world. Yeah, It's very simple to actually get peaceful in meditation for the first minute or two. But then you lose it as you start wandering off into the wandering mind. But if you can just notice the delight in the mind which is resting, Just in the present moment, The fact that, Wow, I've got nothing to worry about, All those fears and concerns about the future, All those echoes of the problems of my past, All of those are vanished for a short while. It is like getting away from it all on holiday somewhere. If you can recall that attitude, Then you can delight in the fact that being in the present moment is a place of great freedom and happiness. But you have to look for that delight. You have to deliberately seek it out. But once you have the delight of a peace in meditation, It takes a peace even deeper. It's an automatic process once you notice how delightful it is. So when one is meditating and the mind is just starting to relax the mental world, Oh what bliss, Oh so nice to be free of all of these thoughts which keep bothering me all the time, At last some peace. If you can notice that delight, You'll find not only will the peace remain there, But it will get deeper. And as it does get deeper, As the mind starts to become more and more still, It's natural for that delight to get stronger, Get more intense. Because you're delighting in what you're doing, You find that the mind doesn't want to wander. It's like watching a movie, Only more peaceful, More joyful. It's delightful to watch. And so by generating the perception of delight, You'll find the meditation just takes off. You don't wander away, You don't fall asleep because you're having too good a time. I remember as a young man, I used to go to all night concerts, All night parties sometimes. I never felt sleepy because I was enjoying myself. But when I started meditating and tried to meditate all night, You fell fast asleep. Why was that? The only reason was I wasn't delighting in the meditation. Once you started delighting in meditation, To see the beauty, The happiness, The sheer joy of peace of mind, Wow this is beautiful, This is wonderful. I valued it, I never took it for granted and because I delighted in it, It stayed with me. Whatever you find delight in will remain with you. But of course the problem with finding delight in things is we're such a negative mind, A fault-finding mind which sees the two bad bricks in the wall and never looks to the 998 good bricks. Even in meditation sometimes we just see what's wrong with our mind rather than what's right with our mind. Because we see what's wrong with the mind, That's why the mind starts wandering. So if you cannot just develop delight but develop this very kind, Positive, Non-fault-finding attitude of mind, Then you look at the mind, Whatever state it is, You can value it, Wow this is really good, This is wonderful, It's not the perfect mind but it's really good enough, Good enough for me to delight in and find beauty and you find then you can stay with anything. Because you remain with the object of your mind, It's very easy to get more and more delight comes up and the happiness just builds and builds and builds. That's one of the reasons why this type of meditation which I practice and which I teach is a very happy meditation. Sometimes you get so peaceful, So delightful, Some of the greatest joys in your life come from with your eyes closed, Just sitting very quiet. And then the mind never wonders. In fact sometimes the bell goes and you don't want to come out of meditation, You're having too good a time. If you're so still, So stable, Having so much fun, Even a bell goes and you don't want to come out. That is how stable the mind can be. It's all because you develop the perception of joy. It's there, But you've just got to look for it. Once you see it, It grows. As it grows, You get more peaceful. So that's just a little introduction today. So okay, So now we can actually start the meditation. Once again for those people who came in late, Those who are coming for the Introduction to Meditation class, The group of four lecturers, For those who are beginning to understand meditation, That is being held in the room to my right. This is the ongoing class for people who have meditated before and we're going to do our 45 to 50, 45 minute meditation. So those who haven't meditated that long before, You might be in trouble doing 45 minutes. So that's the room within the right, So here we're going to do the 45 minute meditation now. So if you'd like to get yourself comfortable, If you want some more cushions, There's some more cushions around the back there somewhere in the corners. Make yourself comfortable and now we'll actually start. You will need to sit on a chair, You can always sit on a chair. And over in the corners over there. So you close your eyes. With your eyes closed, You bring your attention onto the body. Just be aware of the physical feelings, The sensations of your body. And as you notice the feelings in your body, If any of those feelings are not there, If any of those feelings are telling you you should adjust your posture, To move your bottom, Move your legs, To scratch, To cough, Please do so. It's alright to move at any time in the meditation, Especially in the beginning, To make sure by adjusting your posture at the beginning, You don't need to adjust the posture later on. If you need to blow your nose, Cough, Please do so. Mindfulness should always be associated with kindness, With good old Buddhist compassion now to your own body. As the body relaxes more, There will always be some tight places in your body. This is a knot of pain, Irritation or tension anywhere in your body. Allow your mindfulness to focus there, To know it as well as you can. Once you know those feelings of tightness or irritation, Once you have an indicator, You can see what's necessary to relax the feeling of irritation or pain or discomfort. Mindfulness allows you to have feedback by the indicator in your car which tells you whether you are going fast or slow. Your mindfulness tells you whether you are tense or whether you are relaxing. You will find that things like letting go, Kindness, Are the things which relaxes your body. SO Amateur When the body feels relaxed, See if you can notice the delight of a relaxed body. The same reason why you like relaxing on a reclining chair or just lying in bed. When the body has no tightness, No pressure, No tension, The relaxation is a very beautiful feeling. See if you can get to know that feeling, Especially its characteristic of delight. You will notice that perception of delight will stop the mind wandering and will take relaxation to a deeper level. 2 seconds silence. . . . . . . . . When the body is really relaxed, Then you can focus on your mental world, Letting go of all past and all future, By being kind to the past, Being soft on the future. So you can just be in this moment, Delighting in being away from it all, Delighting in freedom, From having to control the world, Your world. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It is now getting very close to the end of the meditation. Please be aware of how peaceful you are. How delightful is this state of peace. Please look back to see what you did which worked. The last couple of minutes of the meditation. Where we review what happened and how we feel. It is where we learn from experience what is meditation and how to meditate. We learn by reviewing our own experience. I am now going to ring the gong three times. Open your eyes closed till the gong finishes. You may open your eyes. You may open your eyes. Very nice. I always encourage people when you come out of meditation to please smile. It is a way of taking some of that happiness and delight out with you. Because I am sitting up here looking at people. Not enough smiley faces. Okay, There is any questions because this is streamed overseas. We get some questions from overseas. So any questions from here about the meditation today? Noticing the delight of the mind keeps you very still. Okay, Let's see what we have over here. Oh yeah, That's maybe other questions. That's about meditation. I don't have holidays, I go overseas for work. Yeah, Let's see what we have over here. Okay, Two questions from Sweden and the Czech Republic. So first of all from Sweden, I am learning how to meditate from your books and talks. I have tinnitus, A high tone sound in the head that appears stronger when the mind slows down. It is a constant tone otherwise but when I do not think about it, I do not hear it. How not to think about it during meditation? The sound stands out during meditation. I try to embrace it, Do not chase it, I'll get rid of it, Thank you. There is a little technique which works very well. It's one of the other similes of watching a TV set. If you watch a TV set, You find that when you first start watching it, You can see the edges of the screen and you can see what's beyond the screen to the left, To the right, Above and below. You notice after a few seconds, The mind fits into the screen. You're not aware of the side of the screen, Nor are you aware of anything beyond the edges. Everything which is to the left, To the right, Above and below the screen vanishes from your field of vision. This is similar to whatever we keep in the center of our field of vision in our mind remains. What's on the edges, After a little while, Disappears. So if it is tinnitus, Then don't put that in the center of your screen, As it were, In your mind. You don't focus on the sound because if you focus on the sound, If it's a problem for you, It's right in the center and you find other things such as the peace, If you're watching the breathing, The breathing, All that falls off, You can't notice that anymore, All you have is the tinnitus. So you have the tinnitus there, But you're focusing on something else, Something in the center, Just the peace, The breath is a good thing to focus on if you have tinnitus, Feel the breath going in, Going out. At the beginning, You can hear the sound as well, But it's not in the center, It's on the edges. And as you focus in more and more on the breath, The tinnitus, The sound is further and further away until it literally falls off the screen. You don't know when it falls off the screen, But you're not hearing it anymore. It's the same little method which you use if you are meditating in a very noisy place. I remember once I did a two hour meditation opposite Hay Street Mall. There was something on the steps of one of the churches, Some protest for peace or something. And they wanted people just to sit meditation for a couple of hours on the hard pavement in the middle of Perth City. It was right opposite, I think it was called a time zone, You know we have these computer games and this music was blaring out. And I thought, Wow, This is really good. I can sort of test to see if this method really works. And it did work, Just focusing on your breath. And just first of all you could hear the sound, Hear the traffic, Everything. But it wasn't centered. My breath was in the center. And then just the breath filled up the screen and the sound vanished, It disappeared. So this is actually how we deal with any distractions, Especially with tinnitus. Have the idea that what you're aware of on your mind is on a screen, Just like watching a TV. First of all you can see what's to the left, To the right, Above and below. But as you focus in, All you see is what's inside the TV screen. Even the edges, The frame vanishes. And all you see is what's in the center. So tinnitus, Don't try and get rid of it. If you try and get rid of it, You're actually putting it in the center. It's important for you. Keep the breathing in the center, The tinnitus is on the edges. Until it goes so far away, It vanishes. It's hard to deal with distractions. It works brilliantly. Next question from Czechoslovakia or Czech. I have been able to relax the body which is nice. Brilliant. I like the way you say it is nice to relax the body. You're noticing the delightful feeling. Lately when my body is relaxed, I notice that my brows pucker and I did not do it. When I try to relax it, It relaxes but comes back in a short time. I can feel some pressure in the forehead. If you didn't do it, You're relaxing, Please let the body do what the body needs to do. If your brows are puckering, There's some reason your body knows that it does need to do that. Once, Teaching a meditation retreat, Somebody told me, They disturbed me and said, Please look at that lady over there. This lady was totally contorted. I've never seen a person meditating in such an uncomfortable posture which I thought. She was twisted around so much, I was really concerned for her well-being. If I tried to do that, I'd be really in pain. So I waited for her to come out of her meditation, Took her aside and said, Did you realise how you were meditating? I said, No, I was just sitting normally, Very peaceful, It's really nice meditation. And I tried to imitate, Just twist it around in a very, Very extreme way. That was only just a third of what she was doing. She said, Was I? I never realised that. And then sort of something clicked in me, I understood what was going on. I asked her, Did you have a car accident? Yes! She had a very, Very bad accident, Almost died, Was in hospital for weeks. I said, Okay, I know what's going on now. Because of that injury, When the body was very relaxed, When she had really let go, The body twisted around all by itself, Because somehow or other that's what the body needed, To be in that really extreme position, To get some healing energy passing through her injured body. And she told me she felt great after that. Really felt sort of much, Much healthier. And I've had many experiences like that, Seeing people meditating, Doing some very weird things with their body. And I asked them afterwards, How do you feel? And they always say, Wonderful. It is because your body, It's very wise when you get out of the way. It knows how to heal, It does it in very extraordinary ways. Moves this way, Moves that way, Gets hot in one place and not another place. And it does that because it needs to. So the most important thing you're saying here, Your body was relaxed which was nice, And then your brows puckered, And you did not do it. That's very typical. You didn't do it, The body did it by itself. And the reason is the body needed to. Why? Who knows. But you always feel so much better afterwards. So that's why I trust my body so much now. Whatever my body wants to do, I get out of the way and let it happen. You always feel so much better afterwards. So that's actually how. And you see that people meditating, Sometimes they start moving backwards and forwards, Sometimes their arms go out, Sometimes weird stuff happens. And you always ask afterwards how you feel. And they always say, Brilliant, That was such a nice meditation. The healing has happened. The other thing which often happens, Which is again very brilliant, Similar, You get hot spots in your body. Another lady who had a car accident, She had this heat in her shoulders and neck. Whiplash, The most common injury when you have a car accident. And when she was meditating, She didn't do this on purpose, She just noticed her neck and shoulders get really hot, Like they're almost in a fever. Just that part of her body, Nowhere else. And afterwards, She felt really, Really good. When you get out of the way, Your body can allow energies. In Indian tradition, We call it winds in the body. In Chinese, The chi, All goes into the right place. But sometimes when we're controlling, We get afraid, We're getting hot, This can't be right, I'm twisting, No, Come on, Correct your posture. You actually stop it happening. So this is one of the reasons why it only happens in meditation. This morning I gave a talk at the Cancer Wellness Association. It's a brilliant campus now in Cottesloe, Where they've got the old Cancer Wellness Association, Together with the Melanoma Foundation and the Breast Cancer Foundation, All operating together out of the same premises. And very often, I talk to people who have had breast cancer, Or have it right now, Or are afraid of getting it. So often it happens in meditation, Women, You meditate, You get really peaceful, Very calm. One of your breasts gets warm, You get a hot spot. And when that happens, Well done, Brilliant, You've had an incipient cancer, And you've zapped it before it gets too bad. Your body has self-healing. But sometimes, Which is so tense, We don't realize we're tense, But we are tense, And it stops all this natural healing happening. You're really relaxing, It's so soft, So open. Energy comes and it goes where it's needed. So if you ever have a hot spot, Especially women in your breast, Or anywhere else in the body, Well done, Brilliant. You have just done some self-healing. That's really inspiring when you know the sort of problems you've just avoided. Body has sent energy there, There's something going wrong there, Some sort of little imbalance, And you've sent energy there, And you've healed yourself. That's brilliant. Because you know, I'm incredibly healthy. I just remember the last time I needed to see the doctor was 23 years ago. Haven't had colds or flus. All the other monks in the monastery, They're always down with the flu this and the flu that. But when was the last time you saw me sick? Yeah, And he was going to be our secretary years ago. Because you know, When your body is very relaxed, It heals itself. Okay, Any questions from the floor? I said that, That's an old story, But I'll just add this here because I just remember one time I was sick about two and a half years ago. And I told this this morning at the cancer place, And so many of you have heard the story before, But it's a very brilliant story, When I had food poisoning two and a half years ago. And that's something which you can't avoid as a monk because they give you all sorts of food to eat. You don't really know what you're eating. And sometimes, Sooner or later, You'll eat something which doesn't agree with you. And you get food poisoning, Cramps in the tummy, And basically too lazy to go to a doctor. So instead, He used my meditation, Just really rested, Relaxed, And was mindful of this pain, Almost unendurable pain. If you've had food poisoning, It's really, Really strong cramps, It's agony. And I was moaning in my cave. You couldn't stop it, You know, Just nature, You just go, Oooh, Oooh. But, Much more than that, I just, Because you can't imitate real pain. But then I decided I was mindful of it. And with the awareness, You can relax things. The kindness relaxes things. And I'm very skilled at this now. I relax my guts. And I notice the awareness gives you feedback. And I notice the pain got a tiny bit less, And a tiny bit less, And a tiny bit less. And I was continuously doing this for 20 minutes. At the end of those 20 minutes, Everything had vanished. There was not even an irritation. It was just like the digestive tract were back to normal and healthy. That's all it took. It was real food poisoning. And the joke I usually say is I'm not quite sure what happened to the bacteria. Because bacteria causes food poisoning. It's not just imagination. It's something which is really causing havoc in your guts. So I imagined afterwards that because I was meditating, Being kind, At the end of that 20 minutes, All the bacteria had little tentacles crossed and they were all meditating very peacefully, Not causing me any problem in my digestive tract. I don't know if bacteria can meditate, But maybe that's the solution to what happened. I don't know, But certainly all the pain disappeared. So that's what meditation can do when you really relax, You have healing and you have incredible good health. Which is why I keep having to go to the Wellness, To Cancer Support Associations. I was only, The only religious person there yesterday for the opening and today simply because it works. Meditation, Mindfulness, Kindness, You get really healthy. So for the person in check, Great. Don't try and interfere with this. Your body knows what to do. As long as you don't do it, It happens automatically. Brilliant. Some healing, Something or other is happening there. Trust it. So any questions from people here? Okay, There will be a few questions afterwards. You'll be lined up asking the questions as usual, But for now we can just pay respects to the Buddha Dhammasanga and we can go and do what we need to do.