Day 024/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

I always have to say that because sometimes people come in for the first time and they get a bit shocked having to sit for such a long period of time.

So for today's little pre-talk,

It's always the ability,

Like I was saying last night,

To disconnect from the past and disconnect from other things in your life so that you can get some peace in your mind.

Each one of us is always really busy,

Lots and lots of things to do and my life is no different than that.

But I know that the only way to find peace of mind is to be able to,

As soon as you close your eyes when you sit down,

That metaphorically you close your mind from the past,

You close it from the future and you close it from all the other little things which you have to do in life,

The things you worry about.

And for some people,

If you cannot even find a quiet place,

This is reasonably quiet,

Everyone else is meditating in this room,

So it's kind of easy.

But sometimes you may be in an aircraft,

You may be in a busy,

Noisy place,

But still you can create what I call little bubble around you.

I always remember some years ago,

You know all my stories because I talk so much and you've been here for many years and I've only been alive so long so some of the stories get repeated,

In fact usually they all do eventually.

But one time when I was invited to a,

Almost like a,

Not really a political event,

But it was about the students in Burma who'd been massacred basically by the government at the time and the Burmese community,

Wanted to do a Buddhist silent protest so they wanted to have a meditation aton in I think the West Lee Church opposite Hay Street Mall and they invited me to go there and I thought this is an interesting thing because I'd be sitting for two hours off in a very,

Very noisy street,

Can you do that?

I always like to test out to see what I teach others you can do yourself.

It's easy to meditate in a forest monastery or in a cave like where I live,

But can you meditate literally on the sidewalk of a very busy street?

So you went there in two hours and you could do it very easily.

And the way we do that is just make a little bubble around ourselves.

Now use your powers of imagination,

Visualisation and when you put a little bubble around yourself,

All those noises,

There was the cars,

The pedestrians,

There was a time zone right opposite blaring out,

I don't know if you can call it music but it was certainly loud noise,

Blaring it out,

But you create a little bubble around yourself and not allow that noise to penetrate the bubble,

Just that visualisation was enough to keep most of that out and I do the same with past and future as well.

So disconnect it,

Pull out the plugs,

Turn off the past machine,

The future machine so that during the meditation it's not there.

Of course to be able to do that,

You have to take away the importance of all those business and problems and difficulties.

That is crucial because as long as you think it's really important then you will not be able to push it out or to exclude it from your bubble.

You'd always say,

No,

This is so important,

I have to think about this,

I have to work it out.

And one of the insights which I would encourage you to also have to appreciate,

At least to have some faith in,

Is that thinking about a problem usually doesn't get you a solution.

You think,

Think,

Think,

You just get more tired.

But by putting the problem aside,

Laying it on the back burner as it says and not focusing on it and getting your mind peaceful,

Getting your mind recharged and clear,

Then you can find solutions much more easily.

So the first way of learning how to let go,

If you like,

Of those problems so you can get into a bubble of peace when you start meditating is actually to take away the importance of thinking.

Just stop believing in it so much,

Stop trusting that that is a way to find solutions to problems.

And see if you can discover for yourself that the silence,

The letting things go,

That is a way you find many more solutions and much better solutions as well.

And even if you don't find a solution from silence,

At least you keep your poor brain a break and get some peace.

Just that amount is worth it.

Even if the problems come back to you afterwards and you haven't got any solutions,

At least you've had half an hour,

45 minutes of peace and that is worthwhile.

So once you take away the importance from all these thoughts which come up into the mind,

Then you can make this little bubble and all those thoughts,

Those worries about the future,

They are all sort of outside.

And to make it even more,

I haven't said,

I used to say this every week about three months ago,

Haven't said it for a while,

But you always remember if you are concerned about your future,

Your future is made right now.

This is the only time you have to do anything for your future.

So if you really,

Really want to have a good future,

Please put all the attention in the present moment right now,

The place where it's made.

And as for the past,

You're creating the past right now as well.

In this moment,

Soon it will be your past.

So the past which is already gone,

You can't do much to change that.

But you certainly can make a beautiful past by putting some more attention in your present.

It's here you're making your history.

So there you realize,

I'm not going to go thinking of solving the problems of the past,

They're insoluble,

Not worrying about the future,

What I'm going to do next.

I'm going to be peaceful still right now and see what happens.

Now,

One of the other stories which I keep on repeating but it's a powerful one,

Was I learnt this when I was still a teenager.

And when I had to do my final exams at the age of 20 years of age,

Still only 20,

Okay I wasn't a teenager but I learnt this before this,

That instead of,

We had 3 hour exam in the morning,

3 hour exam in the afternoon,

This was at Cambridge,

Final exams,

Everything depended upon it,

And 6 days in a row,

Monday,

Tuesday,

Wednesday,

Thursday,

Friday,

Saturday,

Just one whole block of exams,

6 days without any break.

And I do remember lunch time,

One hour between exams.

But I was smart,

Maybe because your back was against the wall,

Because you had to,

You did it.

Didn't have any lunch,

Big breakfast,

Big dinner in the evening when I was 20,

Didn't have any lunch,

Went to my room,

Sat down and meditated.

And this is how,

You had to let go of your problems.

Just done a 3 hour exam in theoretical physics,

Quantum mechanics,

Astrophysics,

That's heavy stuff.

And after 3 hours of that,

Your brain hurts,

It's tired,

It's exhausted.

And so the only thing I could do,

I needed the rest,

I needed to recharge.

Thinking and worrying was not going to allow recharge of the brain.

So I could make that little bubble in this moment.

For me,

I was excluding the morning exam,

Excluding the afternoon exam,

In this bubble of my lunch hour,

So like I didn't have any exams at all.

Of course they tried to get in but I kept them out so I could relax in this present moment and get my energy back physically and most importantly intellectual energy back.

You know when you're tired,

You've been thinking too much,

You're so low energy in your brain.

I'm not talking about your body,

Your brain is not clear.

And it's often that when people have got low brain energy,

That's when they get crazy,

They get cranky,

They say the wrong things simply because you're just tired.

You don't have to take it personally,

It's just you're tired,

It's the tiredness talking,

Not you.

And all you need to do,

You feel that low energy of the brain.

For me,

45 minutes time I'm going to do another exam,

Really important.

I've got to get myself together quickly.

Because I had to get myself together quickly.

I knew if I let my mind think about all the problems facing me in the afternoon exam,

If I started thinking about all the problems,

All the mistakes I did in the morning exam,

I would just,

I would really mess up big time in the afternoon.

I'd be tired.

I would not be clear enough to actually perform to my potential.

So what I did was forget about the future,

Forget about the past.

Go right into this moment and realise,

No,

I'm going to let all those problems go.

And just in this bubble of now,

In this bubble of now,

I could be peaceful and I energise.

It's wonderful to be able to do that.

That's why I say,

I got this from my friends about a few days after the exams had finished,

I got a reputation,

The only student who went into the afternoon exams,

Final exams with a smile on their face,

They thought I was cheating,

They thought I'd somehow found out what the papers were,

I knew all the answers before I had.

It wasn't actually cheating,

It was just I was relaxed,

Energised,

Because I knew how to put the problems aside.

You all have different problems.

You're not doing examinations,

Most of you anyway,

You're far too old for that.

But you also got the other examination,

The tests of life,

All those stuff,

Those decisions you've had to make,

The problems you've had to solve,

All the difficulties in your family,

In your life,

You've been doing the examination of life beforehand.

Now you have your break called meditation.

And you need to get your act together because as soon as the meditation is finished,

You're going to have more tests,

More examinations in your life,

More problems,

More challenges,

More people messing around and messing around with you.

So you better pass those examinations coming just when we leave here.

The only way you can do that is bubble them off.

So you're inside,

This moment,

Inside your body,

Inside your mind,

And all these other really important things don't come in.

You do that because that's the best way of solving them.

The best way of doing well in the Athan examination was not to even think about it and not to allow the past to come in and tar you also,

To get a bubble.

And even if there's sounds,

I create bubble.

So the sounds are outside.

You know here in the afternoon sometimes people decide to actually fix up their motorbike,

Vroom vroom,

Vroom vroom,

Just in one of the rooms behind here.

Or someone has a coughing fit all over the place.

Or someone bangs the door,

Something happens.

So you can still do the bubble to actually to stop those sound distractions coming in.

Because this little bubble just around you,

Don't extend the bubble to include the sound.

It's outside of you.

It's at a distance.

You know what happens when I do that,

Create this experience little bubble in my meditation.

When there is a sound,

It does appear like it's much further away than it really is.

You change your perception,

It's not inside your area of concern.

It's way outside,

Which means that it's just doesn't really impinge upon you.

And if you can actually do that,

You find that the sounds do not really disturb you.

And that gives you this great beginning of the meditation.

So you don't waste your time with the lingering problems from the past,

With the lingering problems,

Or not the lingering problems,

But the fears and concerns and worries about what's happening next.

All of that you can push aside,

You can let it go in this bubble of now.

And that gives you the opportunity to start meditating.

In other words,

To start,

As I say,

Feeling the body,

Relaxing with the body,

Getting the delight of the body.

Just at that stage,

I always meditate my body,

It's so relaxed.

It's not totally relaxed,

It's always an ache or pain in the sun,

But it actually feels delightful.

This part of the body feels like it's just been soaking in a bath for an hour,

Really really free of tension and tightness.

It's delightful.

Because when the mind feels delightful then you find that it's very easy to pay attention to it.

And basically the delight in meditation pulls the attention onto it,

Which means you don't wander off anywhere,

You stay stable.

And then,

What I always like to do is to focus on this thing called peace of mind.

A lot of people write books about peace of mind and they search for peace of mind.

I ask you to be aware of peace of mind,

Investigate in your own mental experience with your eyes closed,

Your body is relaxed,

What is peace of mind?

And sometimes we can only know it by its absence,

I call it agitation,

Disturbance,

Restlessness.

Often I visualize it like waves on a lake.

That's the disturbance,

A lack of peace.

Because you've all had physical experiences in the physical world of peace,

Going off into the bush where it's just so absolutely silent,

Like I've gone into snow fields and nothing is moving.

You've always had times,

Caves are great for silence,

You've always had times you understand what peace is outside and the external silence,

That peace where nothing is moving,

You can actually use that as a metaphor for the peace of your mind,

When nothing is moving,

Everything is really quiet,

Powerfully quiet.

And then once you have that feeling of peace of mind,

Once you know what peace of mind is,

You can be aware of it.

I'm not saying you have total peace of mind,

Like there's not total silence in this room,

But there are spaces where it is silent,

You can experience it.

These moments or these glimpses of peace of mind.

Once you're mindful of those,

Once you know what you're mindful of,

Then it's very easy to actually to increase and deepen this peace of mind.

Because you start to understand what disturbs the peace and what builds it up and makes it stronger.

And after a while,

You're not focusing on the breath,

You're not doing sort of any passing or samatha or anything,

You're just watching peace at the beginning of the meditation,

Getting it growing stronger and stronger and stronger.

And it is very delightful to be peaceful,

To feel your mind stable.

And that's when I encourage people to start watching the breathing,

The classic breathing meditation,

To knowing the breath as it goes in,

Knowing as it goes out.

When people ask me,

How do you do that?

Do the preliminaries first and the breath will come to you.

Where do I watch the breath?

Do the preliminaries first of all.

And you know the breath,

It doesn't matter to know where am I supposed to watch it,

You just know it.

Natural,

Automatic,

Without you having to interfere with the peace process.

That means you really get into the meditation.

And after a short while,

Your breathing gets very very beautiful,

Very delightful,

Then you're just off into some nice meditation.

Just delightfully just watching the breath,

Happy as anything,

Still maintaining the bubble so all those problems and difficulties you're going to face afterwards,

All the struggles you've been through are all just way beyond that bubble,

You can have some peace,

You deserve it.

And afterwards you'll find solutions to some of those problems and difficulties which you could never really.

.

.

You see them,

It's called insight,

And thereby insight into all sorts of things,

Thereby your problems,

Find solutions and also you have 45 minutes of peace.

So that's the introduction,

So now we can actually do it.

So please get yourselves comfortable and close your eyes and we can now begin the meditation.

And again this is the ongoing meditation,

If anyone's come to the introduction to meditation class you can still go in there,

That's in the room to my right,

This is the ongoing class.

When I should announce that I do have an appointment after this class at 4.

30,

I won't be able to answer many questions,

I have to go to some other appointment,

Leaving at 4.

30.

So if you'd like to start by adjusting your posture,

Knowing how you are sitting and see if you can make it more comfortable.

It's amazing how people assume they are comfortable.

I like to move first of all,

To find out,

Moving my bottom on the cushion,

Checking it out,

Can it be adjusted?

Finding,

Make sure my legs are comfortable.

So I know I've got to sit like this for 45 minutes and if I'm heedless,

One of the things,

The last words of the Buddha,

Don't be heedless.

If I'm not paying attention,

If I pay attention but don't act on the information my mindfulness gives me,

I'm stupid,

I'm not going to pay for it.

So make sure my legs are comfortable.

Make sure my back is in its good position,

So easy to get back pain,

Because of bad posture.

I move it,

Stretch it,

Mindfulness gives me feedback.

Move it this way,

Is it better?

No,

It's worse,

So move it back again.

Then I find the optimum position.

Check my hands which define how my arms are situated,

By your hands right now.

Make it so they too are really comfortable.

Don't take anything for granted with posture.

Loosen my shoulders,

Relax my facial muscles,

Keep checking and if my body is telling me,

Now I go on to what I call the deeper relaxation,

Focusing on just one part of the body which is still irritating,

Painful,

Still not peaceful,

Itchy,

Whatever.

Zoom in on it,

This is just focusing on a small area,

Feeling those sensations as fully as possible.

One of the great ways to overcome thinking is focusing on feelings in the body.

That's why the Buddha always prays what he called kaya gata sati,

Mindfulness of the body,

In this particular case the feelings of the body.

So I focus,

Fill my mind with those feelings and because it's an irritating feeling or itchy one,

I know it is a problem,

Therefore it's easy to focus on it.

And I use my mind and every time I change the attitude of my mind,

The sensation of tightness,

Pressure,

Ache changes.

Sometimes it gets more intense,

Sometimes it starts to disappear.

This is where the feedback gives me the opportunity to train my mind.

And I discover when I let go,

When I am kind,

When I am soft,

When I make peace,

When I develop contentment with these sensations,

Then they lessen in intensity.

They get less of a problem and I learn from this simple training,

A bit more letting go,

A bit more contentment,

They get less intense.

Carry on this way,

It doesn't matter how long it takes.

I train myself to take a feeling in the body and relax it totally away.

Aware,

Getting feedback,

Does it make it better,

Does it make it worse?

Getting that connection between the mind and the body.

When the mind is peaceful,

The bodily pain tends to dissipate.

I continue focusing on this first small area.

Always one area,

The most tense,

Painful area has been dealt with.

It feels relaxed as much as you can.

It may not be perfect but it should be better.

Then go to a second area,

If there is such a one,

Feel it relaxing.

If there is any heaviness to it,

Imagine it getting lighter,

Fluffier,

Aerated,

Whatever.

If it's tight,

Imagine loosening anything which is pulling on it.

If it's under pressure,

Imagine it's like being in a vice and you're loosening,

Unwinding the vice to open it up so it's not squashed anymore.

Just imagine those things and see if the feedback from mindfulness shows you it's working,

You're relaxing part of the body.

And I don't stop until my body feels really open,

Comfortable.

For me,

Until I can perceive the delightful feeling of a relaxed body.

Open everything up,

Loosen all the muscles,

Take away any tension and any tendons,

Expand things.

While you are focusing on those feelings in the body,

You do loosen the grip of thinking on you.

You've got something to focus on instead,

Dealing with the comfort,

The physical comfort of your posture.

There comes a time when I realize dealt with the body enough.

Now I've got to work with my emotional world.

So I focus on the mind.

What do I mean by the mind?

That particular quality in my own mind called peace,

Stability,

Coolness,

As opposed to agitation,

Irritation,

Argument,

The opposite of peace.

I look for that and I develop the perception of what peace is.

Even a neurologist would say every time I look for it,

I strengthen those synapses,

Those neural connections.

So I become more aware of peace every time.

I get to know it.

Once I'm looking at the right thing,

It's easy to manipulate it.

I notice what makes a restlessness grow,

Two different attitudes of mind.

Personally I found letting go,

Contentment,

Kindness,

Being happy to be here,

Is what makes peace grow.

I spend a few minutes just developing the underlying state of peace in my mind before I go on to the breathing.

Whenever you want to start watching the breath,

You can start by breathing in peace without letting go.

Please put all of your attention on the breath.

Make a bubble around it so all your past and future can't come in.

Just have your breath in your bubble,

Nothing else.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

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I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

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I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

Getting close to the end of the meditation now,

How do you feel?

How peaceful are you?

How free from the past and the future and all your problems.

How wonderful it is to take a break,

A refuge inside of yourself of peace.

Oh no,

Ring the gong three times.

After the third ringing of the gong,

You may open your eyes.

Good,

There we are.

Very good.

So are there any questions from overseas today?

No questions from overseas.

Okay,

So any questions from here?

Just to make another announcement because many of you like coming to the sutta class,

Which because last Sunday was the fourth Sunday and it was also Vaisak day,

We didn't have a sutta class,

Tomorrow with the second part of the dependent origination sutta.

There will be a sutta class tomorrow at 3pm for those interested.

Okay,

So any questions from the floor here about the meditation today?

Yes,

Harry?

Oh,

Where is he?

When you talk about having a variation in meditation sometimes,

If you say we meditate on the beach and there's nice calm waves,

When you get into the reasonably good meditation,

Is it okay to be aware of the sound of the waves rather than the general breathing and the full change?

Sometimes you can start like that and gentle sounds are the sound of the waves,

But then eventually to get really peaceful you have to somehow transcend those sounds,

Which is one of the problems with sound,

They can get you so far,

They can't really take you into the deep silences of the mind.

And that's why sometimes people ask,

Can you meditate to music?

Of course you can get some very soft music and what that does,

It's so delightful,

It blocks out the thoughts.

That's one of the reasons people love music,

Because they go into a world where their problems and their fears are just overwhelmed by the beauty of the melody.

But it won't get any further.

Sometimes I tell people,

If you're really stressed out,

Come home from work and you're just really tired,

It might be a good beginning of your meditation,

5,

10,

15 minutes of just some soft music,

Just to relax you.

Then afterwards turn the music off and then you can do some nice deep meditation once you're genuinely relaxed.

Unfortunately you cannot turn off the sound of the waves,

They're always going to be there,

Which is why sometimes for me the beach is a noisy place.

People say,

Oh it's so peaceful there,

Compared to Hay Street Mall,

Yeah,

It is peaceful,

But compared to my cave,

The beach is such a noisy place.

So it depends.

Thank you.

Yes.

In the Out of Disappearing,

At the end of the first chapter you talk about meditating on suffering,

Sort of going straight over single pointed and silence.

On first look I thought,

How can this be,

You're bringing all the stuff into the bubble that you want to normally keep out of the bubble,

All your problems.

But having tried it a couple of times,

It really worked.

It was incredibly painful,

Mulling over the suffering,

But it worked.

Any suggestions on how to improve it and not make yourself miserable?

How did it work,

What happened?

One of the deepest meditations I've had,

Two or three times.

Okay,

So sometimes what that really does,

It's when you look at something with a bit of negativity,

It just turns your mind away from it.

It gives rise to this little quality called Nibbidar,

Which you turn away from all that stuff.

And you realize,

Well,

There's nothing really there for you.

You put your hand in the fire a few times and you never do it again.

So that's just learning how not to put your hand in the fire.

What it's doing for you is encouraging you to let go.

If you look at the past,

It's such a pain in the past.

Look at the future,

That's just not very much fun.

And then the mind will quite naturally go into the present moment and go to places which it is peaceful.

It certainly reinforces a desire to get some peace,

Some silence,

Some freedom.

The old simile is that sometimes this world is like living in a prison.

You don't know what you've been done to be sentenced here,

But here you are.

You don't realize this is a prison called life.

But seeing this problem,

Sometimes you realize it's a prison and it makes you motivated to walk through the cell door into freedom.

The cell door of our prisons is never locked.

You can push it open and walk out any time you want,

But you don't,

You're too afraid to walk out.

So when you realize how terrible it is inside the jail,

Then perhaps you might walk out.

Thank you.

Okey dokey.

Very good.

Okay,

Because I've got to go a little bit earlier today,

I'm going to go to the Bhuddha Dhamasanga and then if you need to say anything,

Please keep it brief and you can have a chat until 4.

30.