Day 361/365: 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 the delight of being in the present moment during meditation practice.

Transcript

So welcome to the very advanced meditation class.

I know some of you have come into the advanced meditation class a long time ago,

So it must be very advanced by now.

But the point is that this is the class for those who have been meditating before.

So if you are coming to the Introduction to Meditation class,

Which is for those who are just beginning the journey on meditation,

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

I'm a very good teacher over there.

Actually,

Who's teaching over there?

That must be good anyway,

I'm sure.

So welcome everybody.

And on these ongoing classes,

These ongoing classes,

We do a longer meditation,

Which is for 45 minutes,

Which when,

If I'd have done that when I first started meditation,

Had to sit meditation for 45 minutes,

I'd have headed for the door halfway through,

Because it was just too tough.

So little by little,

We gradually increase our ability to sit for long periods and also increase our ability to enjoy that time,

To make it calm and peaceful.

Because otherwise,

You've got the physical problem of sitting for long periods,

But you've also got the emotional inner problem,

What am I going to do?

And sometimes people go off and they think and think and think for all that time and it's pretty much a waste of time.

So here we learn how to relax our body and calm our minds.

So in order to again relax the body,

That is obviously first,

And I usually do a guided meditation,

Just awareness of your body,

Relaxing your body just to get to understand our body and the combination of awareness and kindness,

The kindfulness,

Which learns how to relax the body,

Make it nice and easy,

So the body just basically doesn't cause you any problem anymore.

It's just like if you have kids and you want to sort of say watch a movie or listen to some music,

You've got to let the kids settle down in bed first of all,

Get them nice and calm and peaceful.

But if you have kids,

You don't tell your kid,

Kid,

Shut up,

I'm going to meditate now,

I'm going to watch a movie,

Don't you say a word.

If you do that to your children,

Of course,

That means they're hyper tense.

So in order to calm your kid down before you meditate,

Nice kid,

Mummy's just downstairs,

Everything's all right,

Just go to sleep,

Nice calm words.

And that's how you calm your body down.

Nice knee,

I know you might be hurting but everything's okay.

You don't need to go to hospital after the meditation,

That's never happened here so you'll be fine.

So just be nice and kind to your body.

If you're kind to your body,

Then it relaxes.

When it relaxes,

Then everything tends to balance and if you're comfortable.

And then we go into our inner world which is the really interesting part of your mind.

Now one of the reasons we do this is because when we first go inside,

Past and future and all that sort of stuff,

Your past and future,

You had to keep on saying this,

But the past is totally dead.

You can't resurrect the past,

It's gone,

It's finished.

It doesn't matter what you did or who did it to you,

It's done,

It's finished.

So all the thinking about it doesn't make any sense.

Even if somebody has hurt you in the past,

Every time you remember it,

You allow them to hurt you again.

They cheated you,

Every time you think about it,

They're stealing your happiness and peace once again.

So we made this beautiful decision,

The past is gone.

You're not going to learn much from the past,

You're going to learn much more from the present moment,

From now.

That is where learning happens.

That is where your future is made.

It's the only time we really have,

So we focus in this present moment.

But it's not enough just to focus in the present moment in your mind,

Because otherwise it's boring or nothing much going on,

Which means after a while you go wandering off into fantasy land,

In your own database,

Just like apparently on the computers you've got this huge memory of all these other places you may have visited before,

All the other fantasy worlds you want to go to next.

And we go off into our brain database,

Just to play around,

To distract ourselves,

That's a waste of time to.

Instead we just pause in the present moment,

And we allow the present moment to open up to us.

And as it opens up more and more,

It becomes more and more delightful,

And happy and beautiful.

The present moment is a pretty lovely place to hang out when you stay there long enough.

So you're in this moment,

Just being right here,

And very often people start washing their breathing.

It just happens naturally,

Why does the breath come up?

Why do we always talk about doing the breath meditation?

The reason is this,

Is because when the body starts to disappear,

Your reasonably quiet place,

So not worried with sound,

Your eyelids are closed,

So you're not worried with facial data,

The body relaxes,

So that's nice and peaceful,

All the five senses are being calmed down.

So soon the five senses are just humming in the background,

But they're not really intense.

And that gives the opportunity for the mind to start to take over,

The sixth sense.

The five senses,

Seeing,

Hearing,

Experiencing,

Touching,

And the sixth sense,

The mind.

And this is basically what we're doing.

The five senses are being calmed down,

Allowing the sixth sense to get strong,

The mind.

You're beginning to know,

Instead of feel.

And there's some interesting things happening there,

Because as the energy goes into the mind,

Instead of the other five senses and reacting to those five senses,

You get energized.

And that's a wonderful thing to start to do,

Because when you get energized,

Your mind and mindfulness starts to see things really beautifully.

It's an amazing thing that sometimes the negativity of life is because we're tired,

Because we're burnt out,

Because we have no energy left.

But once you learn how to meditate,

The energy comes up,

The mind becomes more positive,

You can see the beauty in anything,

And especially the breath.

The breath looks pretty beautiful.

See from the very beginning of an in-breath.

Ah,

That's nice.

To the end of an in-breath.

Oh,

That's so beautiful.

And then the first out-breath,

Part of the out-breath appears,

And goes all the way through to so many different sensations until the out-breath fades away.

You've got this beautiful pause.

When you're not so bothered about finances,

Business,

Cars,

Travel,

Appointments,

Deadlines,

When you let all that go,

Then you can hear the sound of the birds.

You can actually feel the relaxation of the body.

And you can even understand just the breath from beginning to end.

It's quite delightful.

Now once you get to the delightful breath,

You've already hopefully got the message that what happens when you start to relax,

Things get delightful,

With your body relaxing.

I do that first of all.

You relax the body,

Close your eyes,

Just allow the body to just really relax to the max.

On a chair,

Stools,

Cushions,

Leaning on the back against the walls.

Those are usually some of the most important places which people take up on a meditation hall,

So they can lean back.

When your body is really relaxed,

It feels delightful.

The pleasure of just,

Oh this is nice.

And I encourage people to notice,

Be aware of the pleasure of relaxation of your own body.

And number two,

When your mind relaxes,

You've got no burdens,

No worries.

You've let go of the past and the future and you're happy just to stay in this moment,

Enjoy this moment,

Like you're on holiday,

Nothing to do in the whole world,

At peace,

Free.

Now when you can start to experience the delight of a relaxed mind,

It feels good and the breath becomes like a person sitting by the beach,

In a secluded beach,

Just watching,

Just watching the waves come in and the waves go out.

Watching the breath come in and the breath go out.

No mobile phones,

No disturbance,

Nothing to do in the whole world,

Just simply sitting under the shade of a nice palm tree,

Just watching the waves come in and the waves go out.

Ahh,

What bliss.

Waves of breath come in,

Waves of breath go out,

Nothing to do in the whole world.

Once it starts to get delightful,

Then that becomes so easy to watch,

Because you don't want to be disturbed,

You're enjoying it,

It's fun,

It engages the mind with the object,

The delightful breath.

And sometimes people say,

Yeah,

Well,

What do I do next?

Oh no,

You're enjoying when you're on a holiday.

Do you ever think when you're on a holiday,

Think what should I do now?

Enjoy your holiday for goodness sake.

Really get into it,

Make the most of it.

You don't think about what project you're going to do when you get home and go to work.

No,

You're just on holiday,

Away from it all.

So when you're just watching the breath come in,

The breath go out,

What do I do?

Just enjoy.

Which is another word for just doing nothing,

Relax,

Let it be.

But when one lets it go and doesn't interfere with it,

Just enjoy it.

Things start to change.

Stillness is where things develop and go deeper and deeper.

The breath becomes really delicious.

And because you don't have to do anything at all,

When your car is in the garage,

The engine does not need to turn on.

You are not metabolizing.

You hardly need to breathe at all just to get the basic functions,

Just ticking over is all you need.

So your breath,

Your need for oxygen is just so little.

So your breath becomes so light,

So soft,

Almost imperceptible.

You're just enjoying every moment of this very subtle peaceful breath.

And of course,

The joy starts to take over.

The happiness gets really nice.

And that's when people start to see these lights which come up in the mind.

The nimittas.

That was the word which the Buddha gave to these things at this stage of the meditation.

What is happening?

What is happening is your five senses are getting so soft.

Obviously seeing is pretty much turned off as soon as you close your eyes.

The hearing,

If you do hear someone bang the door,

It's like a hundred miles away.

If you do hear someone cough,

It's just almost not a distraction at all.

And feelings in the body,

The only feeling you have is this breath.

Things are getting so soft and quiet with your five senses.

All the energy is going to the sixth sense of mind.

And that is what produces these beautiful images,

These lights in the mind.

You don't make them happen,

You're just sitting there and you just see.

Beautiful,

Almost like images in the mind.

Now,

With those nimittas,

Those images in the mind,

They can be many different types.

If you have a very pure and peaceful and good mind,

You've been well behaved all week.

When you see these nimittas,

They're pure and they're beautiful.

However,

If you have been a scallywag,

You know what a scallywag means?

I was trying to find out the derivation of scallywag but I could not find it.

Anyway,

But it was a word we use often in the monastery,

Just like a bit of teasing.

People are being a bit naughty or doing something,

Which they could have done it better.

So anyway,

If you've done anything which was a bit selfish or insensitive to others or to other beings in this world,

Sometimes your mind is a bit dull.

But if you've really been a kind,

Good,

Selfless,

Helpful,

Always looking after others,

Always saying kind words to others,

Then when these nimittas come up,

Oh,

They're beautiful,

Are they beautiful scenery or beautiful light?

Now first thing with these nimittas,

You know they're coming up because they're always very joyful,

Mind is delightful,

And when they come up,

It's because the five senses have just been,

Have been softened so that they,

I don't like the word suppress because that's too forceful.

They've been let go and allowed to calm down.

It's almost like again the simile of sending kids to bed at night.

You don't suppress the children,

You just calm them down and they go to sleep by themselves.

So the five senses really get still and disappear and the mind is left.

Again,

Those first usually nimittas which come up,

They may be complicated nimittas.

Complicated means instead of just the most usual,

Just a single light in the most basic shape,

Which is usually just a circle like a disc.

That's the most refined of nimittas.

But it could be like scenery.

And if you see scenery,

There's always,

It's always pleasant scenery,

Something very beautiful like seascape or rolling hills,

Or I don't know,

Maybe things which have a spiritual meaning to you like a beautiful monastery or mountaintop or whatever.

But it's complicated because there's more than one image there,

More than one colour there.

If that's what happens to you,

Then go to the most beautiful.

This,

One of the things,

I have to do personal stories because that's the only thing which I can,

I don't like talking about other people's experiences,

Even mine sometimes,

But anyway,

Here we go.

One of these times I saw this,

These rolling green hills with this beautiful river in the bottom of the valley,

And it was all this blue sky with the little cotton wool clouds wafting over the sky.

And it was just an idyllic,

Comfortable scene.

That was like what one saw in this state of nimitta.

And,

But I had enough understanding,

Insight,

I don't know from where,

To be able to know what to do with this.

As I surveyed this scene in my mind,

There was one tree which had some leaves and I could see things sparkling on the tips of the leaves.

The morning dew in the sunshine was sparkling.

So,

Straight away you allow your mind to zoom in on the most beautiful part of that image.

And as you zoomed in onto that one leaf of one tree in that sort of meadow,

That hillside,

As I zoomed into it,

You can just see that little sparkle obviously got bigger and brighter.

And the sparkle,

That was what turned into the simple beautiful nimittas,

Just a beautiful radiant disc of light.

Beautiful is one thing.

Other people have these nimittas where they're moving all over the place.

So,

If it's moving all over the place,

That means your mind is a little bit too active.

So,

Relax,

To the max.

Don't try and stop things,

Otherwise they go faster.

Just soften,

Slow down.

Whatever you're watching,

Give it time to start to stop.

So it can get very intense.

And the usual sign that these are nimittas is the colours which you see and not what you see in the real world.

So the blues are more intense blue,

Usually more blue than blue,

More yellow than yellow,

White,

Yes,

But a clarity of whiteness which you'll never ever see,

No matter what soap powder you use.

Whiter than whiter than white,

Very beautiful.

And this is a clarity of perception which happens in these places.

Beautiful,

Still,

The reason I say this,

Some people say,

Ajahn Brahm,

You're going too far,

We can hardly watch the breath for a few minutes without wandering off into fantasy land or falling asleep.

No,

Because people do experience these things,

I want you to know what to do when they happen,

Exactly what they are,

So you don't get afraid and you don't get over-excited.

You just be peaceful.

Let them be and let them develop and get more and more enjoyable,

More and more beautiful,

And as these nimittas really start to develop,

Whoa,

Now you're really enjoying the meditation.

The five senses get further from you,

You can't really sort of even sense them anymore.

Yeah,

Maybe there's a sound but it really is a long way away,

Straight away it's just,

You're really back into just your meditation object.

No force,

Effort needed,

Just the nimittas,

Enjoyable,

So enjoyable,

They just pull you in.

And as you're watching them they get brighter,

Stabilize them,

Enormous happiness,

Enormous energy,

Enormous power,

Effortless.

Those are the signs of the nimittas.

And just let them be and see where they go next,

Into jhana land.

Wow,

You're really flying.

But anyway,

That's a whole other subject.

And often I really get into this,

So sometimes when I start talking about it,

Go way over time.

So I better stop now,

I've already gone five minutes over time,

So we can actually try and see if these things happen.

Eventually they do.

See what happens next.

So anyway,

Again,

For those of you who come to the Introduction to Meditation class,

That's happening in the room to my right,

This is the ongoing class,

Or rather I should say,

In-going class,

In,

In,

In.

And just have different,

Every week,

Different instructions about different stages of meditation.

Okay,

Great,

So off we go.

Those of you who have been sitting and want to just stretch a bit,

Most welcome to do so.

Everybody nice and comfortable.

Oh my goodness.

I can't,

A lot of people wear blankets.

If you guys weren't here,

I'd be taking my robe off,

It's so hot.

Anyway,

Anyway,

I'm not really comfortable there.

So you close your eyes.

And it doesn't matter how inspired you are or just how great a meditator,

You always have to make sure you check the basics.

If you've got a Ferrari car,

Not just an old bomb of old Holden or something,

You still have to check that everything is just ready before you take off.

So I check my body first of all,

Starting with my legs.

The mindfulness technique,

Asking a question,

Legs,

How are you doing down there?

I listen for the answer.

If my legs say,

Oh,

They could do better,

Now's the time to actually to make those final adjustments.

It's better.

But how are you?

Back,

Including the waist.

Again,

I still like to do a stretch.

I feel so good,

Free happiness.

Nice little stretch,

That's good.

Check my hands,

Make sure they're there,

Okay.

So in each stage I just focus exclusively on that one part of my body to give it individual attention,

Full focus on my hands,

Just with the intention of finding out if I can make them more comfortable.

When I've completed that job and the hands say,

Great,

I'm fine,

I go up to my shoulders again,

Making sure they're comfortable,

And the neck.

Head balanced on top of the neck,

Not too far to the left,

Not too far to the right,

Not forward,

Not back.

And into my face,

Making sure all muscles are relaxed around eyes and mouth.

And lastly,

Looking at my body.

My body as a whole,

Not just individual parts,

But the whole body,

Sitting here on my cushion,

Relaxing it as much as I possibly can.

Sometimes imagining I'm in a hot bath,

Soaking away all the aches,

The pains,

The stresses of the day.

If you prefer,

Just on some quiet beach in Bali or somewhere,

Cable beach,

Just in the shade,

Feeling the light breeze from the ocean,

Imagine the air come to the ocean.

There's not a worry in the world,

Nothing to do,

This is your holiday.

The body relaxed.

And as I feel the relaxation of my own body,

I start to notice the delight of a relaxed body.

Pleasure,

When the body is not under stress,

Not having to walk and carry burdens.

There's just in a position where I can maintain this without worrying about it for half an hour or more.

A body which is enjoying tranquility.

Once I start to be mindful of that delight,

The relaxation goes deeper.

The delight in a relaxed,

Peaceful,

Tranquil body takes the relaxation to another level.

And I allow that to happen.

My body deserves to be relaxed.

And the enjoyment is both a means and an end to that deep relaxation.

When I feel that I want to move to the mind,

I ask my peace-ometer,

That little measuring stick which tells me of how peaceful or how agitated I am,

Like a thermometer,

Like a speedometer.

I just check my peace-ometer.

Honestly,

Because I don't divulge the readings to anybody,

I just know,

Am I peaceful or am I agitated now?

I don't blame or judge,

It's just the nature of the mind is sometimes peaceful,

Sometimes disturbed.

So once I get a measure of how peaceful or how lack of peace I have,

Then I know from experience of watching my peace-ometer,

What are the causes which relaxes my own mind,

Which allows the reading of my peace-ometer to go closer and closer to one?

And of course I'll give you those answers.

It's when you let go of the past and let go of the future.

When you're content and easily satisfied just being here.

This is good enough for me.

When you open the door of your heart to this moment with respect and care,

When you smile at this moment,

Then the mind becomes peaceful.

I feel my own mind becoming more and more calm.

Until it gets to that point where the breath starts to appear,

Just the breathing.

If I go to my breath too soon,

When my mind is still agitated,

Can't hold the breath,

It just disappears.

But if you calm the mind down first,

Then when you start being aware of your breathing,

It's quite easy to do.

Moreover,

It becomes almost effortless.

But I still use the kindness to go with my breathing.

Regarding my breath,

There's a dear old friend,

Which I'm now going to hang out with for a long time.

There's my breath and my awareness.

Sometimes breathing in peace,

Breathing out let go.

If you suffer from heat,

Breathing in cool,

Breathing out heat.

It's amazing when you do this properly with full attention,

Real focus.

It's amazing just imagining your breathing in cool air,

How that does affect the body,

It does calm down and get cool.

Breathing out excess heat.

Never underestimate the power of the mind to visualize,

To imagine,

And that the distance between imagination and reality is hardly much at all.

The main thing I'm watching is just my breathing.

Not wanting anything in the world,

Just relaxing with my breath until it's delightful.

Right now I just stay with that delightful breath.

It's only a matter of time when limitants start to appear.

But I will now be quiet and let you meditate.

One or two minutes before four o'clock I will ring the gong.

Oh no,

I won't ring the gong yet.

I will just announce I'm going to ring the gong,

Start speaking again,

And at four pm,

Ring the gong.

I'll now be quiet.

I'll be quiet.

I'll be quiet.

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It's getting close to the end of this meditation period.

How still is the mind?

How still is your awareness contented just with the inner world,

And the inner world peaceful and sublime?

And how calm and relaxed is your body,

Sitting here minding its own business?

What worked this meditation,

What didn't work,

Is always learn.

Especially when things worked,

Learn what you did,

Or what you didn't do.

I'll be renounerving the gong three times to end the meditation today.

Here we go.

So first of all,

Are there any questions from our local audience?

Yes.

Thank you,

Ajahn.

When I'm meditating I can get onto the breath,

But it's not a delicate breath,

It's a very rough breath.

It becomes very,

Very powerful.

How can I make it a delicate breath?

You don't make it,

You just almost be kind to it,

Just care for it,

Just rough old breath.

When I go into prisons I see some rough gentlemen and you look at them and you just bring out the really soft caring side.

How you look at that,

See if you can look at it with kind eyes,

Smile at the roughness,

And then soon you find your own skilful means,

How to take a rough breath and make it beautiful.

And be patient,

Give it a time.

It's almost like your breath,

I don't know what it's been up to,

Maybe you have hay fever or something,

You've had to force the breath a bit to get enough air,

Busy day,

Body needing more oxygen.

So the breath is doing its best.

So I say,

Okay breath,

I'll give you time.

When I'm kind to my breath,

The whole breath becomes kind to me,

It's like we relax.

So try that.

Look at all these different parts of your body,

Even like your breath,

It's like different beings,

Independent of you,

Not part of you,

But just like a little dog or a cat you may have at the home.

And your job is just to befriend them and nurture them.

And you get to know them so well that you're friends,

You relax in each other's company.

Okay,

Thank you for that.

So a few questions from overseas,

From Victoria and Algeria and from Perth.

First of all from Bandura,

Victoria,

In the past I saw a ball of energy and I felt hot in my face.

I stopped meditation because my face was getting hotter,

Just wondering if you could advise what would be.

What is happening there is,

It could be like nimittas occurring,

Balls of energy,

But you've still got the body awareness.

And it's nice if you sort of follow instructions,

Get on to sort of just to get the body just so relaxed,

The body disappears and get into the mind,

Relax everything.

And so that when you start watching the breath and then the breath gets very peaceful,

Then when balls of energy start to appear,

It's like they're inside your mind,

They're not in the body anymore.

And it's an energy which really does belong inside of you,

Not outside.

It's just this is the old,

I just coined this term,

Leaky bucket.

In other words,

You take a bucket and it's got water in it,

And if it's leaky,

You carry it,

It just goes all over your clothes and wasted on the floor,

The water doesn't stay in the right place.

And that energy which you get in deep meditation should really stay in your mind,

Not in your body.

And so if you feel like a face which is really warm,

It really is your face being very warm,

Then it's,

You know,

They haven't really disconnected from the body yet.

So,

But again,

Not enough information there.

If it was a ball of energy,

Were really peaceful,

The mind was very still,

And it could just see a ball of energy and it's almost like thinking,

Being a ball of energy like that,

It must be sort of warming my face,

But it's not warming your face at all.

So it's not hot at all.

I say that because sometimes some of these lights,

Instead of seeing it as heat,

As intense light and thinking that if I keep looking at that nimitta,

So intense,

I will go blind,

Like looking at the sun.

And of course,

You know,

Stupid Ajahn Brahm,

It's a mental image,

You can look at that as long as you like,

You don't go blind,

Your eyes are closed.

So because of that,

It was a fact that,

You know,

I was looking at a pure mental image and just imagining it was bodily and thinking those stupid thoughts,

But if it feels hot on your face,

Just check,

Is it really hot on your face?

Or is that just how one perceives?

You're seeing it as a mental image.

But anyway,

To try and let the body go as soon as possible,

It looks after itself so well.

Every time when I just go to the body,

It's always irritating,

I leave the body alone,

Go inside,

The body just is fine when I don't interrupt it.

So see if you can leave that body,

I don't mean that floating outside your body,

Not that sort of stuff,

But the body just vanishes,

You can't feel it anymore.

And when those lights appear,

You don't feel hot in the face,

You haven't got a face,

You haven't got a body,

You're in the world of the mind.

So five senses have got subdued.

And from Algeria,

After a long meditation I feel happy for the rest of the day.

Great!

However,

The next I feel sad and more tired than before.

Well,

You should meditate every day,

That means you'll always be happy.

Is this normal with meditation?

Do you have any advice to avoid the negative effects?

Usually,

I must admit it doesn't have negative effects for me.

It's just,

Yeah,

You feel really happy for the rest of that day,

But it doesn't mean you don't meditate that evening or that following morning and you still keep up that meditation.

Living in the present moment,

You don't compare it,

You don't compare today till yesterday.

So,

You know,

You don't even think,

Oh,

I want that beautiful peace again,

That causes sadness.

But I think it may be that more tired than before,

Are you really more tired than before,

Are you measuring that against how energised you feel when you are just after a nice,

Good,

Deep meditation.

So it's great you feel happy for the rest of the day,

Keep on going,

But it could also be that you are misusing that happiness.

You've got lots of good energy now,

Great meditation,

So you can do all these works and just really active and very energetic,

But sometimes you're misusing that energy,

So just go in peacefully through the day.

You've still got lots of energy and happy,

Get a lot done,

But don't be so forceful.

And then when the energy runs out,

You're just still pretty peaceful.

So to me,

Never any negative effects from the beautiful energies.

Of course you can't always get those beautiful energies,

I told this story so often,

I think even last week,

About the,

Did I tell you here,

About the migrant,

Came to Australia,

Was a doctor,

Qualifications not recognised,

So had to get a job in a building site,

The labourer,

Worked so hard on Monday,

Tuesday,

Wednesday,

Every evening,

Came home,

Wife said,

How'd you go?

Oh,

Really good,

I worked very hard,

How much did you earn today?

He said,

Nothing,

I didn't get anything.

Thursday the same,

Worked really hard,

Still didn't get paid,

And so he didn't want to go to work anymore,

He said,

Oh,

In Australia,

They just abuse migrants,

They just take advantage of us,

I worked really hard,

I got nothing for it.

Then on Friday he went to work,

And even just halfway through the day,

The boss gave him a big pay packet and sent him home.

He said,

See you on Monday,

He said,

I finally figured out how it works in Australia,

From now on,

I'm only going to go to work on Fridays.

You understand that?

We want it every day to be payday.

You can't have everyday payday,

Sometimes you've got to work,

Create the causes,

And when you've got enough credit,

You get the cheque.

And lastly from Perth,

Do you have any advice how I can overcome anxiety during meditation?

First of all,

Just relax the body,

Because anxiety is manifested in your body.

This is just,

I haven't heard many other psychologists or psychiatrists talking about this,

But it's just obvious.

When you're meditating,

When you're observing your body and your mind and how it interacts,

If there's any anxiety,

Any fear,

You feel it in your body.

If you feel tired,

You can feel it,

I can feel the tiredness in the body if it's really tired.

If you're very anticipating something,

You can feel it in the body.

So instead of worrying and being too concerned about what it's like in the mind,

In my emotional world,

I just really notice how it just appears on my body.

And I've used that obviously for anxiety,

There's a tightness in your chest usually.

So get to know when you have anxiety during meditation at any time,

What does it feel like?

And I don't mean just,

Well,

It's tight,

I mean what does it really feel like?

Really get to know it,

How it changes,

Whether it just comes from nowhere,

When it first arises,

Where is it in the body,

Is it in the tummy,

Is it in the breast,

Is it just below the navel,

To the left,

To the right,

Is it spread out or is it just confined in a certain area,

Is it like burning or just squashing,

Get as much information as possible about it,

Really know it.

Once you really know it,

You're mindful of it,

Then you learn how to relax it.

Like that extreme case of that dental student over in Adelaide,

Parents are over here,

And when she had anxiety disorder,

A really powerful anxiety disorder,

Bedridden,

Said get to know it,

The whole story I'm sure you know,

I've told it many times,

But you've got to know it,

Get your hand and just massage it.

Relax all that anxiety all over you,

Just really just let it totally disappear in your body.

She could do that because we don't have to sort of massage things and then just whatever massage you do.

Then after you've massaged it enough,

The whole body is relaxed and the trick is that the connection to the mind anxiety,

Even the body relaxation tells the mind to relax,

And so the mind relaxes,

Anxiety is gone.

She's got such a cool way of overcoming her anxiety,

So from bedridden,

She's gone out and got her first class honours degree in Dentistry.

So she was so pleased with that little piece of advice.

So know anxiety as a physical feeling,

Not as an emotion.

If you're really skilled,

You can deal with emotional world,

But at the beginning,

Get to know it in your body and know how to just relax those feelings in the body,

To ease them off so the physical manifestation of anxiety is dealt with.

When that relaxes,

So is the anxiety gone.

It's a lovely method,

You can use that for so many other parts of dealing with the emotional world,

So that even pain.

Pain is the physical part,

The mental part,

Get to know the two different ones and see how they're interconnected and how the physical part,

That goes,

The corresponding emotional part also goes.

Okay,

So any other questions from here,

From the floor?

Going,

Going,

Gone.

Very good,

Okay.

So now I can pay respects to the Buddha,

Dhamma,

Sangha and then we can do what we need to do.

Oops.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.