Day 014/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Class,

There's still a couple of minutes before three,

So we'll just wait for the last strikers to come in.

Very good,

I think that's most people.

And just to make the announcement,

As I have to do every Saturday afternoon,

For those people who are coming to the Introduction to Meditation class,

The series of four lectures,

For those people who haven't meditated before,

That course is being run in the room to my right over there.

And this is the class,

The ongoing class,

For those who have meditated before because we're going to sit meditation a bit longer.

So this is the more people coming in.

So this is the ongoing class.

So those people who have not meditated before,

There's a class over there.

Anyway,

So in meditation sometimes people keep arguing about inside meditation and calm meditation and you should know that there is no difference between the two of those according to the Buddha and according to the wise teachers.

People always like to segregate something out almost to make it their type of meditation is the best and don't follow anybody else's type of meditation.

But you'll find that whenever you're meditating,

To be able to get peaceful,

You do need a lot of insight,

A lot of wisdom on the path of meditation.

And I'm going to emphasize that wisdom part of this meditation today because even when you meditate to the very end,

I always ask you to please spend a few minutes assessing how you feel,

How far you've come and just what worked and what didn't work.

And what happens there is you've had the data,

You've done the experiment from a science background of half,

40 minutes meditation and after that 40 minutes meditation you look back and you find what's happened and what worked,

What doesn't work.

That is actually how we arouse some wisdom.

Yeah,

You may have been restless and thinking a lot and you can actually feel the result of that afterwards,

The mind is not peaceful.

And other times you have a really good meditation and you find you've been peaceful,

It's worked.

You ask why?

So this is where you don't just meditate and enjoy the peace,

You also find out the causes of these things and that is what wisdom is,

Finding out why these things happen,

Why they do not.

And one of the ways you can develop that wisdom in your meditation is just a very,

Very simple teachings and this is going back to traditional Buddhist teachings of the Four Noble Truths.

You have something called the Second Noble Truth taught by the Buddha that wanting is the cause of suffering.

And sometimes people read these teachings of the Buddha,

They listen to the sutras and it just gets stored in one part of the mind and meditation is another compartment of the mind and those two never join.

But if you use your understanding about basic teachings it makes a lot of the problems in meditation very easy to understand why.

If you are suffering,

The meditation is not working,

You're restless,

You don't feel peaceful,

You feel frustrated,

You feel disappointed,

Why?

It is because you've been wanting something.

Now that is one core teaching which I put into practice when I employ my wisdom to develop peaceful deep states of stillness.

I understand if ever there is a blockage in the meditation,

You know you're sort of letting go and somehow it doesn't work,

The mind isn't still,

It starts thinking about something,

I stop myself and say,

What is it you want?

And I identify that because there must be some wanting somewhere which is why the mind doesn't become still.

And to add to that little teaching,

Yesterday evening,

The very end,

Just before everybody finished I reintroduced one of Ajahn Chah's teachings on meditation where he put his hand up and he'd wave it up and down and he said that this represents a leaf on a tree and the leaf on a tree is only moving because the wind is blowing.

If the wind would stop blowing then the leaf would move less and less and less until it was perfectly still because the stillness of a leaf is its default position,

Its natural state.

It only moves because of the wind,

Something outside of it making it move.

Ajahn Chah would actually say that is how meditation works.

Your mind only moves because something is making it move outside of itself.

The natural default state of the human mind is to be still.

You can only let it be still.

He said that wind which makes your mind move is the wind of wanting something.

So whenever you want something you are like blowing on the leaf making it move.

You are making your mind move.

So this is some insights and wisdom you soon get.

The Buddha actually said that wanting is a cause of suffering,

Letting go of wanting leads to enlightenment.

So once you understand that and you apply it,

Your insight,

Your wisdom really takes your meditation to much deeper levels.

Because people in this world,

They want too much even in meditation.

They want to be peaceful and if you want to be peaceful you'll never get peaceful.

You want to actually get rid of the thinking.

If you want to get rid of the thinking you will think some more.

You want to get rid of the cough in your throat and it will get worse.

All this wanting stuff is what causes the stress in the body and the mind which causes the lack of peace and stillness and comfort.

So this is insight.

You find this out because cause and effect.

If you want something in your meditation you are mindful enough to see you are wanting something and you can see how it disturbs the mind.

Your content which is the opposite of wanting,

Contentment,

This is good enough.

Then you find the mind gets very peaceful all by itself.

All these amazing states of meditation which comes when you meditate for a long time,

Things I rarely talk about here,

Things like the jhanas and nimittas,

If you want them,

No way they are going to happen.

If you let go of wanting then they come to you.

That is the way of meditation.

So the insight actually sees all these little things you want and want to get rid of or want this and want that.

In the spiritual world we call that spiritual materialism.

Spiritual materialism is the same which drives you in your life,

Wanting to get the promotions,

Wanting to get the degree,

Wanting to get the certificates,

All because you think that's getting on in the world by gaining attainments.

But in meditation that means more wanting.

Here we just really are letting go of stuff,

No wanting.

And you find that's an incredibly powerful way of meditating.

Sometimes there used to be these little mantras,

Mantras is a set of words,

Whenever you get to the breath stage,

Sometimes people would add a word to the in-breath,

Add a word to the out-breath.

You've heard me say here before that one of those which I found very useful teaching in the West is as you breathe in you say,

Breathing in peace,

Breathe out,

Let go.

But in Thailand they used to have this other word which was breathing in you say,

Pour,

Breathing out,

Deep,

Pour,

Deep,

Pour,

Deep,

Pour,

Deep.

There's a few times over there and that means good enough.

So you breathe in good,

Breathe out,

Good enough,

Good enough,

Which means it stops you wanting things.

So it's good enough.

So if it's good enough,

It means you don't strive,

When you don't strive,

You don't put tension in your mind.

When you don't put tension in the mind,

When it's good enough,

The mind relaxes,

It doesn't have to do any work,

It feels some peace.

When it feels some peace,

It doesn't need to think to try and attain all these things you have for your goals.

One of the reasons when I was in Phuket last week teaching retreat,

I said,

Everybody,

These were mostly Singaporeans,

You have your list of things to do on a week or on a weekend.

I'm sure you have all your list of things you have to do this weekend.

Number one on the list should be N-O-T-H-I-N-G,

Nothing.

So get that out of the way first of all.

So first tick box you have to do this weekend,

Nothing.

And when you do that,

And it takes a long time to finish off that,

When you really have done nothing long enough which can take all weekend,

Then you can do all the other stuff.

I've been teaching this a long time now to learn how to just relax and don't do things.

Sometimes that's very hard to do because sometimes you may be trying to practice this and your husband or your wife says,

Darling,

What are you doing?

I'm doing nothing.

Oh great,

Come and help me.

So these days I've given these other skillful means.

If you want to really relax at home,

You're in the garden,

Don't tell your wife,

Oh,

I'm doing nothing.

Tell her I'm watching the trees grow.

So watching the trees grow,

You have to be very still,

It takes a long time to watch the tree grow.

It does grow,

You know.

You know it grows.

But you have to be very patient to see that little moment when it jumps up a millimetre.

So if you really want to have some peace in life,

Go into your garden or go into a park and when someone says,

What are you doing?

Don't say doing nothing.

Say,

I'm watching a tree grow.

Good excuse for the same thing of doing nothing.

But when we do nothing,

When it's good enough,

We don't try to attain things.

Only then can we relax and find some peace.

So for goodness sake in meditation,

Don't make meditation another work job,

Another thing to do,

Another chore to complete.

This is the opposite of all of that.

This is learning how to do nothing,

Not to want for nothing,

To make peace with whatever you're experiencing.

Then if you get insight into what I mean,

It's so powerful.

If you're sick,

Don't want to be better.

Just be sick.

If you're tired,

Don't want to be energized.

Just be tired.

Make peace with these things.

And then you'll find,

You'll get by experimenting like that,

You will find everything relaxes,

Energy starts to come up,

Healing happens and all those things was trying so hard to achieve and they never got anywhere,

Just more stress.

All those things which try and promise to give you,

Which never does give you,

Letting go,

Provides.

The peace,

The health,

The deep stillness and the great wisdom in how to have peace and stillness at any time,

At any place,

In any physical condition,

Just by not watching anything,

Just by making peace with this moment.

You have more peace than you could ever dream of.

So simple.

That's the insight,

The wisdom which comes through meditation.

So don't try and get things,

Just let go.

Don't want anything.

Whatever happens to you in the next 40 minutes,

Make peace with it.

Okay,

So that's the instructions today.

So now we're going to do some meditation and again for those people who came in late who were supposed to go to the Introduction to Meditation class which is in the room to my right,

Now's your last chance to go because now we're going to meditate for about 45 minutes,

Which may be a long time for some people if you haven't meditated that long before,

But if you can handle it,

Great.

So here we go.

So sitting in your meditation posture.

When you close your eyes,

One of the many reasons we close our eyes is because it does allow you to be more sensitive to the feelings in your body.

You can know your posture with much greater fullness.

Your mindfulness is not divided between seeing and feeling.

And as you become aware of your body,

You become sensitive to its feelings,

You may perceive that you do need to adjust your posture.

A leg may need to be moved,

A bottom to be adjusted on the chair or the cushion,

A back to be straightened or to be loosened,

Shoulders to be relaxed,

Hands to be adjusted and even to cough or to sneeze or to scratch.

This is a time when you are aware of your body and you do whatever is necessary to bring it to a better state of comfort.

So you feel your way into the best posture,

You don't think you are waving.

And once you have made your body comfortable by moving and adjusting,

Now you will be able to notice that some parts of your body which are still irritating,

They still command your attention and it is hard to let them go because they are itchy,

They are painful,

They are irritating.

Now we deal with them.

We are aware of those feelings in our body.

Once we are aware of them,

We have a sense of being able to see them,

Watch them,

Experience them change.

Sometimes the tension gets tighter,

Sometimes looser,

Sometimes the irritation gets more intense,

Sometimes it softens.

Why?

Use insight,

Wisdom to see what makes the tension,

The tightness,

The pain,

The irritation worse.

What eases it makes it more comfortable.

By mindfulness of those feelings,

By observing them change,

We can notice that controlling them,

Being afraid of them,

Trying to get rid of them makes them worse.

Being in peace with them relaxes them.

Being kind,

Opening the door of your heart to them and the irritation gets a little bit less.

You want something and the body tightens.

You let go of all wanting and discontent,

Making peace.

You find the problem starts to disappear.

You are learning the second and third Noble Truths.

Carry on relaxing your body for about 3 or 4 or 5 minutes even,

Until your body is really relaxed.

I relax my body until it feels really different.

Real light of relaxation.

It feels a certain pleasure when there is nothing tight or irritating anywhere in my body.

Nothing is being squashed or pressurized.

There is no tightness.

I am not pulling on anything.

Deliberately let everything become loose.

It is like the feeling of being in a hot bath or waking up first thing in the morning,

Comfortable.

No tension or pressure on anything in your body.

Relax the body to that depth.

When you are discovering the wisdom,

The letting be leads to happiness.

What controlling and striving promised you and never given,

Never delivered,

Letting go provides peace,

Happiness,

Stillness.

Not knowing anything about you.

C gaps.

.

.

.

When the body is really relaxed,

When we're really relaxed,

Then you can let it go.

It won't cause you any problems for the whole 45 minutes.

It also means you've developed enough mindfulness and letting go,

To be able to relax your mind.

If you go to the mind too quickly,

You'll never be able to let go of the past,

The future and all the thinking.

You haven't done the preliminaries properly.

Then the same,

The same techniques you use to relax the body,

You use to relax the mind.

Don't want anything.

Just let it be.

Know how you feel right now in the mind.

Especially be mindful of what I call the peace meter in your mind.

Like the dashboard of a car has all these dials.

There's one in your mind called how peaceful you are or how agitated you are.

See what you need to do to move that dial away from agitation to deeper and deeper peace.

You go to the fundamental part of meditation.

More agitated you are,

That's the cause of thinking or going off to the past or future.

If you get stillness,

Peace,

You don't need the past or future anymore.

The present moment becomes an incredibly pleasant place to stay.

You don't need to think,

You just are.

So be aware of the underlying mental state of agitation or peace.

See what you need to do to move that dial further and further into peace.

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Thank you.