Day 036/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

1:14:58

1:14:58

Day 036/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

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guided

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Meditation

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Experienced

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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

Very good, So welcome everybody to today's meditation class at Dharmaloka Buddha Centre. And if you want to know that there is concurrently a beginners meditation class, Introduction to Meditation, For those who have never meditated before. So those who haven't meditated before, You'll find this class is a little bit more complicated, We meditate for far longer. So if you're coming here for the first time, For the first lesson of the Introduction to Meditation class, That is in the room to my right. Okay, Are you going to go? I think I might go over there. This is the ongoing class here. So on this class, Very good. Otherwise, You sit here for 45 minutes and it's really a bit difficult for those who haven't meditated before. Just the rooms are right over there. Good. And so for the ongoing class, As always I mention, There are some more people coming in. These are probably the ones going to. . . Ah, Maybe, Okay. Where's Buddha? Where's the gorgeous come in here? Okay, Good. Maybe Anushka? Would you tell these people? It's the beginners meditation class, The other one, Because I think these people are coming into the wrong place. So the introduction meditation class, The room to my right. This is the ongoing class. Yeah. So, Bhe, Okay. Ah, Yeah, Come here. This is the ongoing class, The introduction meditation class, The room to my right. Otherwise, I'll be torturing people again to big trouble because we sit meditation for 45 minutes here, It's a long time. Okay, And you have the PA system is in the next room, Is it? No, It's in the chairs. Oh, Some chairs, Okay. Sometimes we have the PA system from here goes into there, Disturbs people. There was one time when I was teaching a retreat, Buddhist retreat in the Redemptorist monastery in North Perth. And as we were giving the talk about meditation on a Sunday morning, The priest came running in from the church next door. The handless mic, Which was on a Wi-Fi system, Was actually radio system, Was also going into the church as well. So during his sermon, They were listening to a sermon by Ajahn Brahm at the same time. He managed to get in there. Anyway, So the ongoing meditation. When we meditate over here, There will always be disturbances, The way we deal with disturbances, We don't focus on them, We don't give them importance. Because we don't give them importance, You will find they will eventually disappear. And the simile is whatever you put in the center of a screen dominates. If you watch a TV, And sometimes I have to watch a TV when I'm on the back on an aircraft, Watching the safety demonstration on the back of the TV, I notice that when you look at that TV screen, That when you first open your eyes and see it, What you see is the upholstery of the chair in front of you, The little plastic edge of the screen. But after a few seconds, You find that you can't see the upholstery of the seat in the back, You cannot see the edges of the screen, Your mind fits almost perfectly into the screen. There are some more people coming in. Peter, Could you just direct them, If they're coming to the Beginner's class, Please, In the class over there. Yeah, The Introduction class is over there. They can see in this room, They can't see in the other room. Okay. So anyway, We try our best. So what's in the center of the screen dominates. So during the meditation, If people are coming in, Going out, Or if there's any disturbance, Don't make that disturbance the center of your screen on which you are focusing. This is a simile, A metaphor. And the other thing, Of course, Is please turn off all your mobile devices. So when you're focusing, You begin to meditate, You can see so many different things, Feel so many different things, Hear so many different things. But what you put in the center is what will dominate. So you'll say, Watching the feeling in your body, And there may be a sound outside, Somebody may be coughing, Or a door banging, Or a sound saying, A police siren, Just on Maudy Drive. Don't make that important. Just imagine that you're listening to that, And it's at a distance, But your main focus is on your meditation object. All you focus on in the center will eventually dominate, And all the other sounds will eventually disappear and vanish. If you start complaining, Worrying, Thinking about what's on the edge of the screen, In other words, You drag it into the center, Oh, Why are they making that noise? Why are they coming in late? Why is people coughing, Or whatever it is, Is disturbing you? If that comes in the center, Then everything else falls off and you get into a very negative state of mind. So put the main meditation object into the center. And that also is a way of overcoming the thoughts which come into the mind. There's the thoughts coming into the mind, Which is one of the main distractions when you start meditating. Those thoughts, If you put them in the center of your screen, In other words, Make them the most important, What you're focusing on, You will find those thoughts will be endless. So instead you may have the main meditation object, The feelings in the body, Or later on the breathing or whatever, Then make sure that is in the center. The thoughts, Yeah, You can just hear them in the background, But they're not the main important thing which you're focusing on. So this way we can go deep in meditation. We're not trying to get rid of the thoughts. If you try and get rid of the thoughts, You bring them into the center and they just never disappear. Put them out on the edge, Main object in the center, And just like zooming in on Google Earth, After a while what's on the periphery tends to fall away. So that's what we call like a focusing. Don't focus with too much effort because that again makes you too tense. The trying will tire you and you're already very tired. What happens in our meditation is because we're focusing on something very simple, Something which doesn't generate any sort of emotional baggage, Just being in the body with the breath or whatever, Then you'll find that the mind becomes calm, You don't have much to do. And that's the important part of the meditation process because when you don't do very much, You restore the mental energies in your brain. You become awake, You become alive, Simply because you're not wasting energy, You tend to grow in mental energy. This is not something which you do through effort, In fact the doing the effort saps that energy. This is what happens quite naturally, Quite automatically, Simply because that you are doing nothing, You are resting. If you're using say a mobile device and it's always on, Of course you'll need recharging. But if you just keep the thing turned off and get the charger on it, Then of course it builds up in energy. Your mind is not the same but it has some similarities. The more you do, The more you struggle, The more you plan, The more you carry the past around with you, Then the more you'll tire yourself out. So what we do, We just let all that disappear and just relax into this moment, Really relax, Let this moment be. Keep this quiet moment in the center, All the disturbances, Just like a long distance away. You're in a little bubble of the present moment, Quiet, Calm, Just with yourself. And then after a little while, You find you start to get energized. You know you get energized because the mind becomes much brighter, Clearer, Your mindfulness is increasing. The mindfulness increasing means you can feel more, You can hear more, You can know with much greater clarity. The dullness lifts. And that becomes the important part of the meditation. So then if we invite people to watch something like the breathing, It's so easy to watch because you've got such strong mindfulness that you can't miss the breath, It's just happening all the time. But because we are tired or we're distracted by other things, It means that sometimes that we can't see it. Or if we do see it for a little while, It doesn't really grab us because we're not awake enough to be able to really notice it. And as we develop our energy of the mind, The clarity of mindfulness, It is also what happens is whatever we see, Whatever we hear, Whatever we feel becomes delightful. We start to understand the pleasure, The delight of meditation, Where you can be watching a breath and it's not at all boring, It's incredibly beautiful. You may think this is weird but you'll experience this after a time. Where everything, And after meditation you go outside and you see the grass is more green than you've ever expected to see before. It's just like the poem by William Blake, To see a world in a grain of sand, A heaven in a wild flower, To see infinity, To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, Eternity in an hour. This is what you can see just in something that's usually insignificant when the mind becomes empowered, Mindful, Strong, Joyful, Which is the natural result of meditation. It's not something you do, It's what you can't avoid. Then you know the meditation is really growing deep. So that's what's going to happen here. So, Having said just a few words, Once again if anyone's come in while I've been talking, Focusing, This is the ongoing meditation class. So if you come for the introduction to meditation class, That's now happening in the room to my right. Because now we're going to be meditating for 45 minutes, Which is a long time, If you're just starting out. I will be guiding the first 15 or 20 minutes and then afterwards I will just be quiet and the meditation will finish when I ring the gong. That's how you know it's finished. Okay, So let's get started. You can sit in your meditation posture as comfortably as you can. And with your eyes closed, Bring awareness to your body, Just to know how is my body sitting right now. And is it comfortable? If it's not comfortable, Just adjust the body. Fit it. It's fine to be able to sit on a chair, On the stool, Cushion, Wherever you can find some comfort. Sitting down. One way of being mindful, Of beginning mindfulness, Is to ask a question of the area where you want mindfulness to settle. So you ask your legs as if they were human beings, A part of you. Ask your legs, How are you? How are you down there? Are you comfortable? And you'll find that when you ask a question like that, The mind will notice the sensations and feelings which will tell you, Give you the feedback whether you need to adjust the position of your legs. Even on a chair, It may mean you just move the knees apart, Push the feet forward or tuck them in. You find the best position for you. Don't just assume that it's already the best position. Move, Adjust, Fit it until you can find the best possible position. It's like tuning a car, Getting it just right. It's not just for the sake of your pain-free meditation, It's also a preliminary exercise in awareness and compassion, Being kind to your legs. So you're looking after them, Make sure they're in a good space, A good position. And once your legs are comfortable, Then you move to your butt. If you want to fidget it on the chair, Especially if it's on a cushion, Make sure the cushion is not too far forward, Not too far back. Use the stool to make sure that stool is just right. And once you feel that the butt is comfortable, Then you move to your back. Back, How are you? Slowly stretch, Relax, Lean back on the chair, Lean forward. How is your back? It's amazing, When you ask a question you can actually get an answer, You feel adjustments are needed. Being aware of your posture does save a lot of physical problems and the pain which comes from those physical problems. Once the back feels okay, Don't just think it's okay because that's what you've read in the book, Feel it. Become sensitive to your own bodily sensations in this moment. And if it is painful or stiff, Then move it. It's important, This is your body. And then where you put your hands, How are your hands now, Where are they? Are they comfortable? You can maintain this position for the next 40 minutes. It doesn't matter where your hands are, They can be on your knees, On your lap, Wherever, As long as they're comfortable. And then ask your shoulders how they are. I separate out my shoulders from the back because that is an area where people do have aches and pains and it can be such a biting pain that it can disturb the meditation. So how are your shoulders now? Be aware of the feelings in that part of your body. And if there is some tightness there, Just learn how to relax that tightness. What do I mean? You can imagine both shoulders to be a bunch of strings, The muscles, That are being pulled at both ends, Stretched under stress. And just by visualizing, Letting go of both ends of each set of strings, Letting go, You'll find in many cases the real muscles also become looser. The awareness gives you feedback, You can see if it's working or not. If it is, Relax as much as you can so you can loosen the tension in your own shoulder muscles just because you decide to. And then sweep the attention up to your neck and throat. Keep me aware of any feelings there, You always have a little bit of hay fever. So just release the irritation, Do whatever is necessary to be comfortable. Because I'm aware, I get feedback whether the cough helped, And even more than coughing, Is to even will that part of your body to be soothed. Sometimes there's people giving care and kindness, That takes away a lot of the pain and the irritation and the overreaction which causes irritation. You let things be and they get at ease. And lastly I move up to my face. It's well known facial recognition that you can read a person's emotions by their face. But especially I notice around the muscles, Around my eyes, Forehead, That when they are tight it tells of some problem, Some anxiety or some memory or something which I need to do. So I feel those muscles with my mind, Become aware of them and learn how to relax them. To relax all the muscles and I can feel them becoming at ease. Nothing is pulled, Everything is loose. The mindfulness offers the opportunity for feedback, A little bit of trial and error, Trying this, Trying that, Until you learn how to relax your own muscles and bring your body to a state of peace, Comfort, Ease. So having gone through the body part by part, Now you become aware of this whole body sitting here. Each part looked after. When I do this my body always feels really grateful and relaxed, Ready to go in meditation. And then spend just a few more moments with my body as I let it go. And now I go to my emotional world, The mind, A world of thoughts and plans and memories. When I look at something which I've called the peace-ometer, To know what I mean you ask yourself, Am I feeling at ease, Peaceful or am I feeling agitated, Restless? And to make it very clear, Give it a number from 1 to 10. One means really peaceful, 10 means really agitated. So give it a number right now. And again it doesn't matter what that number is. What was important, You were looking, Being aware of this quality of your own mind called peace or lack of it. How peaceful are you? You're watching, You're mindful, You're aware. Keep your awareness on how peaceful you are and see if you can notice what disturbs your mind, What moves the needle of the peace-ometer closer to 10, What moves in the opposite direction makes you more peaceful. Mindfulness gives you the opportunity for feedback and you learn. What makes your mind peaceful? What agitates it? First of all you'll find dragging up the past just agitates the mind, You'll find no peace there. And for those of you who think, Well the past, I've got to resolve it, Not now. You learn more from the present moment than you'll ever learn from the past. Or you may think there's many things I have to do afterwards. Now is where your future is being made. This moment is the only time you have to do anything. So if you care about your future, Put your mindfulness on the present, The place where it's being built. Letting go of past and future is a wonderful cause of the mind becoming more and more peaceful. Check it out. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Once the mind is peaceful, You may want to invite your breathing into your mind. Are you breathing in or are you breathing out? As you breathe in, Imagine breathing in peace, Quiet, Stillness. As you breathe out, Let go. Breathing in peace, Breathe out, Let go. Keep that in the center, Everything else, Any sort of stray thoughts, Sounds. Keep them on the edge of the screen that is your field of attention. Little by little, You'll find those disturbances will fall off the screen. Just be there for watching your breathing. At first, Just ordinary. Later, Seeing more detail of your own breath. And later still, Very joyfully, Happy, Just watching your breath coming in and the breath going out, Perfectly content. I'm now going to be quiet until the end of the meditation. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. It's getting close to the end of the meditation now. How do you feel? How peaceful are you? What is peace? What's peace like as an experience? How pleasant is peace? I'm now going to ring the gong three times to end the meditation. When the last sound of the gong disappears, Then you may open your eyes. Okay. Okay, So at the end of the meditation we usually have some opportunities for questions. I wish you a cold. I'm hot. Anyway, Never mind. So three questions here. First of all, From England, US and US. These talks, Instructions are streamed live all over the world and some people, Even in the United States, Crikey, Must be in the middle of the night. Anyway, First of all from UK, When we don't bring negative thoughts to the centre but they don't go away, Should we meditate for longer or meditate more often? After meditation we often creep back very quickly. You know that sometimes that once the meditation starts to get joyful, In other words, You're in this present moment just now, Notice most negative thoughts about the past, About the future, What might happen later on or what went wrong beforehand. In the present moment it's not that negative. Of course you can make some negativity around the present moment, You stay there long enough and soon it becomes very pleasant and very happy, This present moment. So that's one of the reasons why, Just stay there long enough, Be patient, And then the present moment gets delightful. When it's delightful, The delight just chases away the negative thoughts. Somebody was asking me at the Cancer Wellness Group on Tuesday to use music. Why does music sometimes work to dispel negative thoughts? It is because the experience I used to have, I used to go to concerts when I was a young man, Classical concerts especially, And then the music was just so enjoyable, It just satisfied the whole of your mind that you didn't even think. And in fact many people were sitting in the audience and they were just totally silent. They would not turn to their friend and say, Wow, This is an amazing concerto. They would just be so quiet because to say anything would miss just the flow of this incredible music. So it taught me one of the reasons why music was satisfying because it blots out other thoughts, Especially negative thoughts, The joy, The happiness, The sheer pleasure and inspiration of great music, Means you can't think. So what happens here is the same with the meditation. If the meditation gets very peaceful, Very joyful, Then the thoughts can't get a handle on your mind, They can't get a grip there. They may come through but they won't stop. You're having too good a time. So that's one of the reasons why just stay in the present moment, Stay in the centre, Look at the peace-someter. After a while the mind gets really peaceful and then thoughts, Negative, Positive, Any old thoughts just can't get in there. It's just peace is just too nice. I often see that people just sitting by the beach watching these days, Watching the waves go in and go out, Or just sitting, Just having a cup of tea in our retreat centre, Just watching the trees grow. Sometimes it's so peaceful there you just can't think, Negative or positive thoughts. And the reason is it's a joy which comes up. Give it a time and you have some beautiful thoughts, Beautiful experiences, Just being. Why do you want to disturb it by thinking about it? Or the old simile which comes to mind now, There was this is a simile from the Taoist tradition. Nauru had a monastery, Every evening would go for a walk with one disciple, Only one, And maybe an hour or two walk sometimes. But there was a golden rule, During the walk no one was allowed to speak. It had to be a silent walk. And on this occasion he had a new young man, A new disciple, And they went for a walk through the forest, Up into the mountains, To a ridge in the mountains, And it just happened that evening was the most magnificent sunset. It was gorgeous. And this young man forgot the rule and he said to Lao Tzu, Wow, What an amazing sunset! At which Lao Tzu turned around and went back to the monastery. It never scolded him then because Lao Tzu was keeping this rule. And then when he got back to the monastery that's when he said, That young man you can't ever go on a walk with me ever again, Ever, For life. And they thought that was a bit tough, Banning him for life. So they said, Why? What's wrong anyway with saying what a beautiful sunset? And this is the meaning of the story. Lao Tzu replied, When that young man said, What a beautiful sunset, He wasn't watching the sunset anymore. He was just watching the words. Even if you think, What a beautiful sunset, You're not watching the sunset. You're watching the description, The commentary, The thoughts about it, Not the sunset. If you understand that, You understand why. You don't need those thoughts. They actually take you away from the beauty of life. Anyway, From US, What should one meditate in the midst of bullying and belting by people giving what appears to be unlimited power to do harm to reputation, Etc. The little guy. What one should meditate in is, This is from the US, Is migrating to Australia or something. Get away from all this other stuff. The midst of bullying and belting by people giving what appears to be unlimited power to do harm to reputation, Etc. Sometimes if you can stand up for the rights, Just to be the whistle-blower, Be the person who goes to the police, Or who goes to the newspapers, This is the United States. If you can stand up, It's an amazing thing to do. There's many people who have done that, Who people like Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks in the United States, Who during the apartheid, When the black Africans weren't allowed to sit in the white part of the bus, She sat down and refused to move. That's just a simple thing, An act of refusal to accept intimidation by people who appear to have unlimited power. What they did was just to stand there. And she became a very icon of the rights movement in the United States. She also became a Buddhist as well. That's one of the reasons I tell that story, Rosa Parks. So what to meditate on in the midst of bullying and belting by people given what appears to be unlimited power is in the middle of it, If you can escape, Now escape obviously, And if in the time of it, This too will pass, If you can't escape, And then afterwards save your energy from making sure it doesn't happen again by other actions. Anyway, That's not really a meditation question, That's something which unfortunately in our world sometimes we do get people being really badly mistreated. But you see that just karma comes around and in the end they get put in prison. Anyway, When I meditate, Another one from the United States, There's always a light show going on behind my eyes. This can become distracting, Any ideas? These are love light shows. When I was a young man, I used to go to these rock concerts and you always used to love the light shows which went on. And even just recently, Just a few days ago, There was the Blue Blood Moon or something, I went out, They didn't seem to be all that much, But anyway it was a light show, So people liked light shows. So if there's a light show going on behind my eyes, Enjoy it. At least you don't fall asleep. But anyway, It depends exactly what it is. It becomes distracting, It's only distracting if you try to get rid of it. If it's the most dominant part of your meditation, Just use that as your meditation object, The light show. And if it is a light show, If it's moving too much, Moving too fast, Just learn how to relax and then it won't move so fast. Number two, Look for the most beautiful part of that light show. And learn to focus, Put that in the centre of your screen. Example of that, They call this Nimittaland, If I'm understanding your question correctly. When you have these lights come up in the mind, One of those lights was just seeing this beautiful scenery, Grass, Flowing water, Trees, Flowers, Beautiful summer's day. And that's what you saw which was nice but it was a bit distracting. But I had enough understanding how this works to look for the most beautiful part of that scene. And the thing which drew my attention was basically the vision, Seeing a dew drop sparkle on the tip of a leaf. There's a little twinkle there. And I've had enough trained now to let the mind, Quite naturally attracted to that twinkle, Just go, Focus in on it, Zoom in on it, And everything else just started to fall away. And as you zoomed into it, This very beautiful nimitta came up, Incredible source still, Wonderful light, Simple. So if you want to know more about that, There's one of those books which I wrote which in particular had a lot of instructions on these things we call nimittas, Which is the lights which usually come up when you're peaceful in meditation. And if they come up at the very beginning of the year, Maybe you may be able to use them, But if they come up when you're very, Very peaceful, They're really the best and they're wonderful to actually learn how to deal with those and to take them deeper. But that's a little book which I wrote, Mindfulness, Wisdom Beyond, Available in the United States. You'll find the information in there. So no need to be distracting, If that's the dominant thing, Just let it be, And just that's your meditation object. Just really just go for it. Anyway, Those are some questions from overseas. Now of course we have the people who are here in Perth. I always remember that once somebody, They always complained they could never get a question answered because the ones from overseas took priority. So they were actually sitting in one of the chairs over there, They got out the little iPhone and they typed in a question and they said they were from Perth, But because it was from over there it had priority. So are there any questions from people here who would like to just answer? Yes. So could you have the pay? Very good. You mentioned a book, I was just reading today about the five hindrances. The first one, You say that people don't realize sometimes they're feeling a stabbing pain, Whether they're meditating or thinking about the breath is a hindrance as well, The kamachandra. I think so it's the difference between thinking of the breath and watching the breath. Okay, The thinking of the breath is giving a commentary to it and just with that thinking the commentary becomes preferences, Just like you have a commentary between say the English cricket team and the Australian cricket team depending on where you come from. Oh, That wasn't a no ball, That was legitimate, That's unfair. It depends if you're watching a German football team play the French football team, It depends where you come from. That was not a goal, That was offside. You see the commentary adds another layer of delusion onto what you're experiencing. So just take away the commentary, Just go to the raw experience. When you say or even think what a beautiful sunset, You're not experiencing the sunset anymore, You're watching the words. So after a while we learn just to watch the breath, Be with the breath, Without any words at all. It's not that hard to do and you know the usual demonstration of how easy it is to stop having a commentary. There it was again. You were silent in the pauses between my words. It's a nice little trick, You can use that for other people and if ever you describe what meditation is, Very simple and very effective. People actually experience silence, Hey, I wasn't thinking, I was aware, No commentary. Any other comments or questions from here? Okay, So we can finish off now, It's 4. 15 and then afterwards any questions you can come up and ask them personally of any of the three wise monks who are here today. Not wise guys, The wise ones. Okay, I just found out.