Day 029/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

1:15:17

1:15:17

Day 029/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

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guided

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Meditation

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This is a guided meditation with Ajahn Brahm. About 15 minutes of Dharma talk/meditation advice and inspiration. About 20 minutes of guided meditation and about 25 minutes of silent meditation practice. These are followed by a Q&A session/closing thoughts after the meditation practice.

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Transcript

Little people who have meditated many times before, Who have completed the Introduction to Meditation class, So that we can go deeper into this meditation. So if you come here for the first time, The Introduction to Meditation class, The Introduction class is in the room to my right over there, The Introduction class. This is the ongoing class. There's always two classes here every Saturday. The Intro class is to the room on the right. It's important you remember that because sometimes if you come here and I have to teach at a deeper level, Otherwise people get bored, Which means you don't get the basic instructions and you go away thinking this meditation is incomprehensible and you have to meditate for 45 minutes and you think, Wow, This is too much for me. But we do have the Introduction class for a purpose. One of our problems of course is that just like human beings, We do have pride and conceit and there's even the thing called spiritual pride. Yeah, I'm as good as anybody else. If they can sit for 45 minutes or so can I, And it hurts like hell. In fact that whole idea of pride and trying to achieve things and trying to be as good as other people is one of the great hindrances to your meditation. We don't judge each other after meditation. That's just against the whole purpose of meditation. The whole purpose of meditation is not trying to achieve things, It's trying to be free of all of those ideas of being better or being worse or being the same. Transcending that and learning just how to be in this moment as we are, What we are, Without any judging. And in fact this judging mind creates all of our problems in meditation. As soon as you have a judging mind when you meditate, You think, Ah, This is not peaceful enough. I need to be more peaceful. Or I am stupid, I should cut that out. I am thinking and thinking is bad. That sort of judgment will just make you more tense. It gives you something to struggle against or to strive for. In other words, The struggle against, To push against something, Striving for, To pull yourself somewhere. That's another word for stress. So instead of judging, And from the judging we got business after we make an assessment, What we need to do next, We have instead loving kindness, Acceptance, Embracing. The door of my heart is open to this moment, Even if I am fast asleep, Even if my mind is all over the place, We are kind rather than controlling. It's such an important thing to understand in meditation. When you are controlling, Trying to get rid of things, Trying to retain things, That should be obvious, That's stress. That's what you do in the office when you go to work. That's what you do in your whole life, Trying to get ahead. So much so that when always trying to get ahead, There's one young man, I'm looking at him right now, He caught me out once and I don't mind admitting my stupidity and my mistakes. I was carrying a bundle of documents going to the office just before this meditation class and he shouted out at me, How are you today Ajahn Brahm? And with great stupidity I replied, I'm getting there. And with great wisdom he responded, Exactly where is it that you are getting? Uh oh, You caught me out. So nowadays when people say, How are you Ajahn Brahm? When people always say, I'm getting there, I'm saying, I'm being here. Which is totally different. So in meditation, Stop trying to get somewhere. Because when I thought, Where am I actually getting? Yeah, Okay, I'll do that photocopying, I'll follow those things and I have something else to do. The only place I'm getting to is my coffin. So anyone ever asks you where you're getting to, You say, Oh, I'll get into my coffin. It may be a long journey, A short journey, With all sorts of interesting stupidity in between. But that's the only destination which we go to. So before we get there, Why don't we be here instead of going places? So to be here we don't judge, We don't say, This isn't good enough, I want something more. That's part of pride, Always wanting to be better, To improve. Meditation, No spiritual pride. Wanting to be here, This is good enough. The door of my heart is open to this moment. I'm just going to be here. And I'm going to be happy to be here. And you know, It is a lot of happiness just to be here. I do a lot of work, It's not an easy life being a monk. Very lots of responsibilities and duties. I just came back from Canberra on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Over there, Next Monday going to Hong Kong. Oh, I work harder than. . . I'm not going to say that, I'm going to jump. But I take many opportunities when you're not travelling just to be here. This is the place where I love to be, Right here, Right now. You know sometimes, Is it hot today? Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you too tired? Is the cushion too hard? Do you want the cushion to be sort of massaged to get nice and soft for you? Look, There's no end to improving things. The only end is in accepting things. That's one of my Master Ajahn Chah's sayings, That he wanted to end things. He liked endings, Completions, Not beginnings. When the work is done, Like you probably enjoy Friday afternoon, If you do five days a week, You enjoy endings. How can you end by just saying that this is good enough? And the classic story if you haven't heard this, How to find some peace in meditation or in your life, Even though there's still more stuff to be completed. That was the story of a monk in South Thailand, Maybe 40 years ago, Building a bee call and it came to the meditation retreat, A three month retreat, And he sent all the builders home, Go! It's meditation, Three months, So don't want any noise. So this hall was half finished. And a few days later this person came to visit and asked the obvious question, When is your hall going to be finished? And the monk said, It is finished. At which the man said, Are you crazy? There's no roof above the building, There's no glass in the windows. There's cement bags and rubbish all over the place. What on earth do you mean that the building is finished? At which the monk said, Sir, What's done is finished. And he went off to meditate. And that really hit me hard, That's how I meditate. There's lots of stuff which still needs to be done. Matters which we'll pick up later on after meditation. So right now, In your life, What's done is finished. So then you have permission to take a break and just to be instead of going somewhere. Happy to be here in an incomplete hall according to how other people feel, But for you it's finished, It's done. Now you can have a break, That is meditation. So what do we mean by that? It's not obvious already. All your past, What's happened to you last week? What happened to you earlier on today? What happened to you just half an hour ago? Whatever that was, It's finished. So you can have a break, You don't need to think about it and keep bringing it up and keep opening up your computer. Just your brain is finished. And of course, What hasn't happened yet, Who knows? Later on we have an ATM at five o'clock. Who knows? We may not even get there. It may be some meteor in outer space is on its way. Zero point, It's going to be Nollamara. We're all going to be wiped out at five minutes to five, Mr. President. You don't have to worry about anything. I like thinking like that because you don't know what's going to happen. So no past, No future, What's done is finished, The future, Mystery, I don't know what's going to happen with it. So don't even worry about it. And that is how to meditate. You don't get anywhere, You stay here. Many people ask me, They say, Meditation? I've been meditating for months, I'm not getting anywhere. Sadhu, Sadhu, Well done. And they think I'm crazy. They think that meditation is supposed to get somewhere. Big mistake. The job of meditation is not to get anywhere, It's to learn how to be here. Not going places, Being here. Because once you be here, Instead of going places, Once you don't judge, Then you find things happen. You go in. When you are being here, You're not moving, You become still. And when you become still, The mind opens up. And then you want to watch the breathing so easy. You're not going anywhere, You're not doing anything, There's no business, You're free. And then the happiness, The energy builds and builds and builds. We waste so much of our mental energy going places and then coming back again. We waste so much time just doing things, Correcting things. But when you learn how to be here, Instead of going places, Just being here, Then you find peace gets deeper and deeper and deeper. You start to experience what peace really is. Peace upon peace upon peace. Just like building a house out of bricks. I've built huts out of bricks, Holes out of bricks, One brick after another after another, One brick at a time. And after a while you've got your house, Monks kuti, Made of bricks. That's how you get deep meditation, Made of many, Many moments of peace. This moment peace, This moment peace, Another moment of peace. And soon you've got your house of peace, Deep meditations. All constructed, Not of trying to get somewhere, But making peace with as many moments in a row as you possibly can. This moment make peace with that. Next moment make peace with that. This moment more peace. Peace upon peace upon peace. That is a path of deep meditation. You don't do one thing earlier on, Another thing later on. It's not like different methods for different times. It's just the same attitude, Making peace. Making peace with this moment. Making peace with this moment. Making peace, Not doing things. What's done is finished. So leave it alone for the next 45 minutes. So that's the little intro talk. So now we do need to sit up if we're meditating in here, So you can't lie down. You want to lean against the wall somewhere, So that's why you need to be able to meditate for 45 minutes. The intro is in the room next to there. You want to lean against something, That's fine, But you've got to be sitting up. Okie dokie, So here we go. So 45 minutes meditation and then afterwards we'll have a few Q&As. So closing your eyes. Now remember, Finishing off all of your business. You tidy everything away. Close to shut down your tablet or computer. Turn off the lights. Lock the door of your office and you walk out free. And if you have this damn iPhone, Just leave it in the office. Turn it off, Turn it mute. It's not so important that you have to keep checking the emails or text messages. So you can have some personal free time. Free time from all the jobs that you think you need to do. Once done, It's finished. So instead, We've got something as simple as the comfort of our own body. You're going to meditate for 45 minutes, But again in the decent posture to begin with. And when you are building up in the beginning of mindfulness, Start with your legs. How comfortable are your legs? You choose to point your mindfulness, Your awareness to one part of your body, Your thighs, Knees, Calves, Ankles and feet, Really becoming aware of them, To check that they are truly comfortable. If you're just sitting for a few seconds, It doesn't matter, But to be still, Physically still for 45 minutes, You have to be in a very good posture. Otherwise you get aches and pains, Numbness, Which will disturb the meditation. Do you need to move? If so, Do so. Don't take it for granted. I often move, And I'm going to move now, The beginning of the meditation, To adjust my legs to a better posture. That feels better. I keep my awareness on my legs. And then I move my attention to my bottom. You notice people fidgeting during meditation. The only reason is because they don't put their bottom in a good position to begin with. You'd think it's, We don't pay enough attention. So really be as aware as you possibly can of the feelings in your bottom. If necessary, Moving, Adjusting, Checking there's no folds of clothing digging in to your flesh. And don't rush, Be patient. This is not just for physical comfort. It's training the mind to be aware of the feelings in your bottom and later elsewhere. And also not rushing, Slowing down. Landzberg. . . . It's got no stress, No strain on it. You can try leaning backwards, Leaning forwards, But be aware of the feelings in the back. You should be able to pick up any tension which will cause pain later on. Your mindfulness on your body, On part of your body, Checking, Careful, Meticulous. Just like a dancer is aware of their body, Or an athlete is not aware of their body and use it wrongly, They injure themselves. So be aware how our body feels, How its positioned, What its posture is, And when it's comfortable, When it's good, Only then can you move on. Move on to your hands and the connected arms. How do they feel? Feel them as fully as you can. Sensations, Tingling, Heat in your fingers. The sensations in your arms. And ask, Is this position able to be sustained for another 40 minutes? If not, Move it now. And then check your shoulders. Relax. I used to get some tension, Some tightness in my shoulders, But not now. I visualize the shoulders having all these muscles and sometimes I imagine them stretched like a string being pulled on both ends. And then I let both ends go. I imagine letting them go. And with it, The muscles relax in my shoulders. They're really loose and comfortable. And then check my head. Not too far forward, Not too far back, Not leaning to the left or the right, Just nicely balanced. Getting neck pain is a lot of torture. It's only because we're unaware of how we hold our head. When my head is well balanced, Lastly, Just a little idiosyncrasy I have, Of just checking the muscles around my eyes and my mouth as well, Making sure that there is no tightness or tension, Especially around my eyes. When you're aware, You have feedback. And the feedback tells you, You've loosened those muscles. You feel that, Which means you now have control over those muscles. You can loosen them at will, Which means you're letting go. And then I look at my whole body. I spent about ten minutes just checking the posture. At the same time, Because my mindfulness has been focused, Been trained on bodily feelings, I've also weakened the obsession with thinking. I've been feeling instead, I've been being kind in the moment with something which is real, Not imaginary thoughts, The reality of a body. It keeps me healthy, It keeps me peaceful. And then I go into this other little exercise before I let my body go totally. I go to one part of the body which is aching, In pain, Irritating. And I zoom in on it, Otherwise known as focusing, Zooming in, Until all that's in my field of attention is that irritating or achy feeling. I'm aware of it. I notice how it changes. The irritation gets more intense, Sometimes it softens. I also know why that happens. It's the interaction between my mind and that part of my body. I give it fear or control, It gets worse. I look at that irritation with kindness, Just letting it be, Not pulling or pushing at it. And it gets less intense. From the mindfulness and the feedback, That's where you get wisdom, Learning how to relax your own body. And I do that. And I feel the irritation get less and less and less. This is how I recommend to help with cancers, Irritable bowel syndrome, Any aches or pains anywhere. You have some power when you train your mind to be aware and to let it be. It works. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. And I relax my body to the max. I want your body to be relaxed. Then you can move to your mind, A world of emotions. And just ask yourself, How peaceful am I? To answer that question, You have to be aware of what I call the peace-ometer, That part of your mind which indicates whether you're agitated or at peace. And how much at peace? How peaceful are you? And your mindfulness goes to the peace-ometer. Stay with that peace-ometer and notice how the interaction between your attitude and the amount of peace is crucial. If you try to get something, Attain something, Get rid of something, You'll find you get more agitated. If you start dredging up the past, Looking for the future, You lose your peace. You're aware of something important. And you see for yourself how to be more peaceful. No past, No future. What's done is finished. Not going anywhere. Being here. Just being here. This is good enough. This is enlightenment, Stillness. For me it happens naturally. You can be aware of your breathing. Know as it goes in, Know as it goes out. The only thing left which is moving when you're peaceful. If you wish, Breathe in peace, Breathe out, Let go. I'm now going to be silent until a couple of minutes before the meditation. I'm going to be silent until a couple of minutes before the meditation. I'm going to be silent until a couple of minutes before the meditation. 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I will now ring the gongs three times to end the meditation. There we go. Okay, We've got some questions here from overseas. Okay, We have one from Denmark, I trust that's Denmark in Europe, Not Denmark next to Albany, California and from Santa Barbara. It's from Denmark, Due to traumas I seem to be lost in anxiety. I meditation try to accept but can't seem to keep up the courage and happiness. What directions can I make use of? If you go online, I did give a talk even recently on how to deal with traumas and of course with that the anxiety which is a symptom of the trauma, It's very much based on the opening the door of your heart similarly. It's used, I mention this a lot in the Association of Survivors of Torture and Trauma in Australia. So it actually works. So it's not the right time to mention that meditation, But you'll find it online. So if you do have a trauma from the past, Or it can be, I don't know what the trauma is, It could be a car accident or whatever, Then please learn how to accept and embrace. Don't try and get rid of it. Make peace with it. Don't make war with it. The full details I'm sure you'll find online. And well, It's all traumas today. From California, What is the kind for response to traumatic memory servicing during meditation? Is it better to end the meditation or continue to sit with kindness to the emotion? First of all, One of the reasons why it comes up, Two reasons, It could be that you are wandering, That instead of enjoying the peace of meditation, You go and search for something to disturb yourself. So similar when you're in your home having a peaceful afternoon and you get bored and go looking at the TV, See what's on, Checking your emails, Just because of boredom, Something to do, Because we're afraid of peace. So sometimes we bring up those past memories because we don't know how to sit with peace. We're bored, Discomforted, Which is one of the reasons why if you do have some peace in meditation, Please learn how to develop the joy and the delight of peacefulness. It's so beautiful, So wonderful, Having a great time, So you don't need to disturb yourself and not for something else. You appreciate and value silence, Then you don't disturb it. But it can also be that there has been repressed stuff, Stuff you push down and now your mind thinks it's a time to deal with it. So if that's the case, Just let it come up. But as I said last night in the talk, I gave an entanglement. Don't get entangled in the past. Look at it, This is not me, It's a person a long time ago and you just look upon it as if you're looking at a distance. So you can, Just like I said with the simile last night of climbing up the pyramid in the middle of the jungle, So you're above the tree line, You can look down upon that experience without being enmeshed and entangled in it. That gives you great perspective, Enables you to let go more. So there's two types of responses. First of all, Check, Make sure that you're not dragging out these memories because you are not, Don't know how to deal with peace and stillness because you don't know how to appreciate delight in peace. Always trying to do something instead of do nothing. I always mention this on the weekends. It's weekend, Enjoy, Don't have a plan of what I'm supposed to do. I'm going to do this, Then I'm going to do that, Then I'm going to do this, Then I'm going to read a book, Then I'm going to mow the lawn, Then I'm going to, For goodness sake, That's how you live all week, When you go to work, Learn how to relax, Learn how to do nothing and appreciate the great art and skill of doing nothing. And then when you can appreciate nothing, Then these thoughts come in, Before they really grab you say, Oh no, Not now, I'm enjoying myself. And the other thing, It can be that it is something which has been suppressed, Let it come up but keep a distance from it, See it with perspective and then it will come up and go like a cloud in the sky. And lastly, From Santa Barbara, My breath becomes really slow while meditating, Am I doing it wrong? No, From Santa Barbara, That's great, That's what's supposed to happen. Well done, Your breath is going very slow. It is natural because you don't need so much oxygen, So your body is breathing slowly because it doesn't need to breathe fast and that is a sign you're not metabolism, You're metabolising so much, You're being very calm, It's also a sign you can't be thinking too much. Because thinking, That creates, That uses up so much energy when you think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, So much energy is used up by the brain. So if your breath goes very slow, That's a really good sign, You can't be thinking too much. You're calming down, Excellent, Go even further and see if you can get the breath to stop. At the conference I was in on Tuesday, There was a doctor, And it's a person from palliative care, Giving a sort of a seminar to the monks and nuns in the Australia Sankhya Association, Telling about how they know, No not palliative care, Organ donation, When you can actually give your organs, When they know that you're dead. And they said, One of the things is, Your breath has stopped. And they said, But you have to take the organs when your body is warm. And I thought, Uh-uh, Because that's what happens in deep meditation. You get so still, Your breath is not going anywhere, It's absolutely nothing, Because you don't need the breath, You know, Because you're so incredibly peaceful and still. And the only difference, This is in meditation science, The difference between a dead body and someone in deep meditation, In a dead body you are cold. If you're meditating in the jhanas, You are still warm. That's the only difference. Oh my goodness, Please, If I'm not breathing and I'm nice and warm, Please don't take my organs yet. Try some other method to determine whether I'm dead or not. That's what happens, Honestly this happens, You get so still, That you don't actually breathe. And that, You know the old story, I won't tell you the story of one of the members here, I've been here for a long time, But this was Ajahn Chah, One of his stories. When he had his stroke, You know, He couldn't really talk, And people wondered, You know, Was he still there? Was he still Ajahn Chah? Or was it just, You know, There's one way that he couldn't communicate out, But he knew exactly what was happening. And one of the events which really convinced everybody that he was still at Ajahn Chah meditating, Was many nights, You know, He would actually stop breathing. And this particular story was told by a couple of monks who were there at the time, And they said, He stopped breathing and the medic on duty, You know, Because the King of Thailand, He, The former king, He sort of paid for a medic to be on duty, Eight hour shifts. And the medic on duty that night got freaked out when Ajahn Chah stopped breathing. And they went, Leave him alone, He's only meditating. He said, No, He stopped breathing, That's death. If you don't do something quick, There's no oxygen going to the brain, You get permanent brain, He's already got strokes, I don't know what more you can do, But he will die. And so, Freaking out, And it's very hard for monks to explain to doctors, You know, What's really happening. And this was like a very highly trained medic, And he was paranoid, You know, You get in trouble with the King of Thailand if Ajahn Chah die. So they came to this wonderful compromise. It was very interesting, He wasn't breathing for a couple of hours, So the medic would take blood samples every few minutes to make sure the blood was well oxygenated. You can see there, It looks red or something, The haemoglobin is there, Whatever, But very easy to check there's enough oxygen there. Every few minutes he would take the blood sample. And it's always well oxygenated. So he thought, Well, If there's oxygen in the blood, You can't have any brain damage. How that oxygen was getting into the blood, He couldn't figure out. But at least there was oxygen there all the time. And the blood was circulating, The blood hadn't stopped. It was circulating and there was plenty of oxygen in it. So they let him just stay like that, Because there wouldn't be any brain damage or organ damage, Enough oxygen there. When an organ needed it, It was there, But just let it pass through because they didn't need it. So that's what happened, He wasn't breathing at all, Still warm. So please, If it's one of the meditators, Regular Dhammaloka, Especially one of the monks or nuns, Please don't take the organs yet. Otherwise I might come out of my meditation, I've only got one eye left and my kidney's already gone. Hey, Put it back again. So anyway, That was a bit of, It's very rare that happens, But it's a bit of fun and games. Okay, So those are questions from overseas. It comes really slow, Excellent. Don't be afraid, It's supposed to happen. But it's really good you ask those questions because there's a lot of times when people don't understand the process of meditation, Something happens, It's really good stuff, But people get scared because they haven't heard it before. Like the ordinary person in Singapore years ago, He said, Ah, I was meditating, I couldn't feel my hands anymore. That's what's supposed to happen, Your body's supposed to disappear, Well done. But he freaked out and he stopped, He came out of meditation because he thought that was weird. He didn't understand that's what's supposed to happen. Body vanishes, Ah, And if you're anywhere near my age, When your body vanishes it's so beautiful, No aches, No itchy nose, No sore bum, Nothing, Ah, Bye-bye body for a while. So if it starts to disappear, Go for it, Brilliant. So don't be afraid. So thank you for asking those questions. So any questions from the members here? Okay, So I will finish now. There's a reason for that, It's because in 45 minutes we're going to have the exciting, The amazing, The Annual General Meeting of Our Border Society of Western Australia. So it gives you an opportunity to find out what we've been doing the last 12 months. So ask any questions and actually to, For those of you who don't know what goes on, You can find out. We are very open, Ask any questions, Very transparent, There's no hidden agendas anywhere so you can come and see. You all know me, You can ask any questions, But they can ask our committee as well and find out who the committee is who's been running this place for your benefit for the last 12 months. That's going to happen at 5 o'clock. So you can have a cup of tea, Those of you who want to stick around for the ATM, 5 o'clock. So that's now pay respects to the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha. Thank you.