Day 052/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Very good.

So welcome one and all to the ongoing meditation class.

This is the class where people have already learned the basics of meditation and they come here to extend their meditation deeper,

Longer.

So those who have come to the introduction to meditation class,

That's being held in the room to my right.

And so for this class today,

Talking something about the,

Just because somebody mentioned it earlier,

What to do when we have like thoughts come up into our mind.

And especially what most people mean is like negative thoughts because when good thoughts come into the mind,

They actually quite like those and they allow them to exist for a while.

What happens if thoughts come up which are quite disturbing?

And you may find that the more you try to get rid of them,

The more that they get stronger and stronger and stronger and it just becomes quite frustrating.

So it's much better to understand where those thoughts come from.

And just once one understands their source,

Then one can understand just how they can be dealt with.

So first of all,

It's what you were doing before you started meditating.

Where you came from,

If you just had a difficulty finding parking and you got frustrated because somebody took the car park space before you,

Or on the way you were speeding because you were late and then you got caught by the police,

Some negativity and some stress which you had before you arrived will affect you when you start meditating.

If you had a nice peaceful time beforehand,

Then it's easy to stop the thoughts,

You get very peaceful pretty quickly.

It's the same similarly as if you're riding a bicycle and say a dog runs in front of you,

It's pretty simple that you,

If you're not going too fast,

To put on the brakes and stop because the momentum,

Your speed,

Is not that strong.

Have you got listening to.

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Oh no,

You're getting another chair over there.

By the way,

For those coming to the introduction to meditation class,

That is being held in the room to my right,

This is the ongoing class.

And so if you can,

Only just going very slowly before you start meditating,

It's easy to stop the mind and become very peaceful.

However,

If it is the case that you have been running around really fast,

Doing many,

Many things,

You are like one of these road trains,

You see up on the Great Northern Highway or somewhere,

Just three or four trailers linked together full of many,

Many heavy loads.

It does mean you put on the brakes and it takes a long time to slow down,

Your momentum is too great to slow down immediately.

And so you can understand that when you start meditating,

You know it's like the truck of your mind.

If it's been going very fast,

If it's very heavy,

Very burdened,

Of course it will take a long time to actually just slow down.

But if you've been going very peacefully and very calmly before you start meditating,

It's reasonably easy to slow the mind down.

So,

First of all,

What you do before you start meditating is important.

And number two,

That's once you have sort of the mind,

You're sitting down and you're watching the mind,

You'll find that just like anything else,

The mind,

The only reason why it has thoughts is because it's agitated.

The thoughts aren't really the problem,

That's the symptom of a mind which is not peaceful.

If your mind is peaceful,

Of course it doesn't have thoughts.

If the mind is satisfied,

It hardly thinks at all.

And examples of that,

You may go out to the ocean,

Sit on a cliff or just on the beach and watch the sunset,

It satisfies the mind,

It's beautiful,

And it's comfortable,

It's safe,

Which means that you don't think so much.

You find it pretty much peaceful.

It's one of the reasons why people do like to go to nature because it does slow the mind down.

So,

If you can have some happiness in the meditation and realize that just the mind,

The thoughts are just the symptoms of unhappiness and not being content,

This is where we can deal with our mind by having some contentment.

This is good enough.

This is where the simile of remembering some of the most wonderful memories,

The times when you're so happy,

So content,

I don't mean just when your football team won the grand final or something,

I mean when you're just so peaceful,

So happy,

The sort of time when you,

If we're asked by someone,

Is there anything else I can get,

You say,

No,

Right now I'm in the place I want to be in this moment with the people I like and this is,

I don't want to change anything in this moment.

I just want to be right here with the people I like or alone in that calm,

Peaceful place,

Those moments of deep inner contentment which don't come often enough but I'm sure everyone has had one or two of those moments in life.

We are totally peaceful,

Content,

Just happy with what you have,

Just for a few moments,

Maybe longer if you're fortunate.

In those moments again,

There's no need for thoughts and they don't need to be moments of absolute outer perfection,

It's just our mind becomes so at ease and content even with little things.

So what we're saying here is that learning just how to be happy in this moment,

Content,

Is not perfect but it's good enough,

The this is good enough mantra.

So you're happy to be here.

Your mind may be thinking,

May be disturbed,

It may be tired,

It may be just all over the place.

That's good enough for me.

And when you say that good enough and you start trying to get somewhere else to change things,

To get rid of things,

Make things different,

Expel stuff you don't like,

To be like the inner pest exterminator,

Trying to get rid of random thoughts which causing you trouble.

Instead,

If you make peace with things,

Allow them to be,

Then your mind becomes still.

It's like you're not dealing with the surface phenomena of the waves in a lake,

You're going deeper into what causes those waves to be there in the first place.

The way the mind reacts and doesn't see the beauty,

The peace,

The calm in life,

In this moment,

Sure it could be better,

But this is good enough.

When one has that sense of contentment,

It's as if the very thing which rocks the body of water to create the waves is removed.

The waves remain but they get less and less and less,

And calmer and calmer and calmer,

And we have this patience which goes along with making peace,

And you find the mind starts to calm down all by itself.

You don't make the mind calm,

You let the mind become calm.

It is to reinforce that with Ajahn Chah's old message.

When he would teach meditation again and again and again,

Lifting up his hand,

Waving up and down,

Saying that this is a leaf on a tree,

I'm just watching the little flags flutter outside.

Actually the flags only flutter because there's a wind blowing.

And if the wind stopped,

Just now stopped,

The flags would still flutter,

But less and less and less until they became perfectly still.

It is similarly that the fluttering of a leaf on a tree,

Or the fluttering of the flags in front of me,

It's no mistake or fault of the flag.

Something outside of it is making it move.

The fact you have thoughts in the mind,

Agitations,

Disturbances,

When you're trying to meditate,

Is nothing to do with any fault in your mind.

There's something outside which is making your mind move.

And that's called the wind of wanting to be somewhere else,

Wanting to get rid of things,

Wanting to achieve things,

And to go from here to some other place you think may be better.

If you can let go of that wanting,

That discontent,

That trying to achieve things,

And instead just be here,

With this is good enough.

We make peace with this moment.

We make peace with our thoughts.

We are kind to them,

Caring for them,

Not curing them,

Being gentle and patient,

And that's the fastest way for the thoughts to come to their natural state of stillness.

The mind becomes still all by itself.

You are just a passenger,

Just a person who watches,

Not the person who does stuff.

It's an automatic process.

Just like that article I read in an aircraft a few years ago,

About the aircraft of the future,

Where in the cockpit,

They'd only have two beings in the cockpit,

The pilot and the dog.

That's all to be allowed in the cockpit.

The job of the pilot,

The only job he'd have,

Would be to train,

Sorry,

The only job the pilot had would be to feed the dog,

And keep the dog happy.

The only job of the dog would be to bite the pilot if he touches anything and interferes.

An automatic process.

In this particular case,

Your mind,

Automatic,

Let it go,

Stop doing stuff,

Stop trying,

Stop trying to get things happening,

Achieving things,

Instead let go and just let the mind be.

That is how the mind becomes still.

It totally undermines the causes of all thinking.

Thinking is a sign of disturbance on the mind,

Wanting something,

Wanting to get rid of things,

Wanting to solve a problem where no problem is there.

Little by little,

When we make peace,

This is good enough,

We find the thoughts stop.

They weren't ours anyway,

So they're not ours to control and to stop.

It just makes life more complicated if we go down that path.

It's there we just stand back and watch,

Uninvolved,

And soon peace starts to solidify and get deeper and deeper.

So that is how thoughts come to an end.

And afterwards when we've rested,

We get out and do stuff in our world,

Which is our duty.

We know how when we need to rest,

We can sit down or even lay down,

Wherever,

And just let the mind be.

Just be the witness,

Just the passenger,

Just the person who watches as the mind becomes peaceful.

So that's how we meditate.

So,

Now it's the first 15 minutes of ganpas,

Which is usually the introduction to set the mood.

So if you want to stretch,

If you need to stretch,

Or just to move,

To scratch,

Whatever,

And then get yourself into the good position,

And then the meditation can begin.

And again,

As before,

For those people who came in late,

This is the ongoing class,

Those who've come to the introduction to meditation class,

That is again in the room to my right.

So,

Closing your eyes.

And bringing your awareness to your body to begin with.

Just making sure that your body,

Its position is sustainable for the next 45 minutes.

And start with your legs.

Just focus on one part,

Zoom in to make sure that everything is okay there.

Just like you park your car to make sure that the brakes are on.

Just focus on one part,

And then make sure it's in the park,

And the doors are locked,

Windows are locked,

You've got your keys.

We check things one by one in life,

And we do the same with our body,

Checking from the feet,

To the calves,

To the knees,

To the thighs.

When you just ask a question of your own body,

Buttocks,

How do you feel?

Straight away you become aware of feelings and sensations in that part of your body.

Asking a question of a particular part of the body establishes mindfulness of that part of the body.

You feel it.

You don't need to rush,

Just linger to make sure that it's in a good posture.

Then you go up to your waist,

Feeling.

When you become more and more aware of your own body,

You get to know your body really well.

You know when it needs to be stretched,

When it needs to be slumped,

When you need to lean forward,

When you need to lean back.

This is not wisdom you learn from books,

It's from mindful experience.

The more aware you are when you experience your own body,

The quicker you understand.

You can experiment.

Sometimes you come across a tension,

An ache,

A pain in your body.

You just zoom in,

Focus.

And as you zoom in,

You get to know that part,

Especially what makes it worse.

What makes it more painful,

More of an obstruction?

And what eases that feeling?

What lessens it?

The experience that you feel it.

You become skillful in relaxing and making peace with your own bodily feelings.

Sometimes you have an ache or a pain which you'd rather not have,

But it's there,

Painful,

Irritating.

Instead of running away,

You run towards,

Find out what the problem is.

Sometimes just a bit of kindness.

Just like when my mum would kiss a wound which I got playing football on the streets.

There's no analgesic antibacterial stuff in my mother's saliva,

But just her kindness took away the pain.

Your own kindness can take a part of your body,

Focus on it,

And ease the pain away.

And go up to my shoulders.

I learned how to just loosen the tightness.

These are muscles which are pulled apart sometimes.

That's called strain,

Stretch,

Stress.

And I just imagine just loosening,

Loosening the tightness by letting go of both ends.

Or like a guitar string,

Just turning the screw to loosen the tightness and tension on both ends.

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I check my arms and my hand.

I go methodically and slowly.

It's not wasting time.

It's actually making sure the body is well set up and developing this mindfulness,

This awareness,

Which can focus and which can relax through letting things be.

I don't control my body,

That makes it worse.

I understand my body.

I'm kind to it.

And I go up to my neck,

Making sure the head is not too far to the left or the right.

That will make a neck ache at the end of the meditation.

Inside,

Any irritations,

Just release any tightness as best I can.

And that just relieves,

Reduces the irritation,

Which causes coughs.

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Into my head,

Around the eyes and the mouth,

Relaxing all the muscles.

And then just noticing my whole body sitting here at peace.

Sometimes it takes a while to slow down,

Give it the time.

And then I just look at my mind.

Just notice how many waves,

Thoughts,

The strength,

The power of those thoughts.

But don't take too much attention on the thoughts,

Go underneath them.

Just like the waves are caused by something moving underneath or by the wind.

Winds are wanting.

Instead of wanting to stop and change and get rid of,

I make peace with my thoughts.

I'm kind to any irritation.

I find the most effective way of doing that is just disengaging,

Standing outside,

As it were.

It's a metaphor.

Just watching as if it was somebody else's body and mind.

I'm not the owner,

Just a visitor.

And I just watch the mind become peaceful.

Later on,

Faith will come up.

But all the time,

Just don't force,

Don't resist.

It's in this moment,

Just be making peace,

Being kind,

Being patient and gentle.

I will now stop talking until we come towards the end of the meditation.

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It is getting close to the end of this 45 minute meditation session.

It is not finished yet.

How do you feel?

How relaxed is your body?

How peaceful is your mind?

When the body is at ease and the mind is reasonably still,

Thoughts don't have any place where they can grab a foothold.

They just slide over you and the peace becomes so delightful.

Nothing can disturb you.

The mind,

Not you,

In the sense that a natural phenomena resists disturbance and delights in the peaceful mind.

I will now ring the gong three times to signal the end of this meditation session.

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There we go.

So let's see what we have for questions.

Any questions from the floor before we begin?

Okay,

We'll try these ones first and then see.

From USA,

How can we interrupt the self-generating nature of chronic rumination once we begin meditation,

Especially when we mistakenly justify the negativity in our mind?

I was just yesterday talking about negativity and just seeing that as a result of a lack of peace,

A lack of energy,

Just running too fast.

So there is a self-generating cycle,

The old vicious cycle as they used to call them,

That once you are negative you tend to think a lot,

Once you think a lot it keeps the negativity going.

And so that how do you create an interruption there,

Even just negativity,

Seeing something beautiful in this world,

Going out into a delightful part of nature,

A walk by a river or just sitting by the ocean or going up for a walk up into the mountains,

A place where it is still,

Listening and feeling the breeze on your face,

Taking your shoes off and just walking on the grass or even on the road and feeling.

So you are becoming real,

Aware and it's amazing just many of those things are just delightful.

You are not trying to protect your body out of fear because you might catch something,

You might wound something,

You are much more alive.

And doing things like that means that interrupts your rumination,

Your little bird just starts singing,

I don't know what they are doing but sometimes that stops you thinking,

It's more delightful than the thoughts.

And finding something which is delightful actually interferes with the negativity.

And then once that delight and negativity stops,

You find some peace,

So be careful not to actually to go into the same cycle again of negativity,

Of always looking at the two fabrics in the wall or the things which are wrong in life,

It doesn't help at all.

So the thing to do is to learn how to be peaceful.

So justify the negativity in our mind,

Oh you can't justify,

It's no one's fault.

How can you be negativity at a dog for barking?

That's what dogs do,

They bark,

Woof woof.

How can you be negative for a,

What else happens,

Raining when you are having a ceremony tomorrow?

That's what things do.

How can you be negative about politicians calling elections?

That's what politicians do.

Is that all getting negative,

Will that stop these things happening?

No,

But why do we do this?

And that negativity is as if we are afraid of peace.

And any time there is an opportunity to let go,

We disturb the peace.

This is what Ajahn Chah would always say,

It's never the sound disturbs you,

You disturb the sound.

Interesting.

But anyway,

We disturb the negativity.

It's not the negativity disturbs you.

So just leave it alone,

Okay negativity can be negative,

It's not my problem.

And then you find the negativity is like being unplugged,

It's losing its source of energy and power.

The reason is you get negative about being negative,

Afraid of being afraid,

It just keeps building up and building up and building up.

So this is where we justify the negativity in our mind.

So how do we interrupt the self-generated nature of chronic rumination?

Go on to nature,

Start off with a great more happiness,

Positivity in one's life,

It's out there and don't think you have to be negative.

Don't allow the noise to disturb you because you don't disturb the noise.

Anyway,

From a guy called Vincent,

Deep in our mind is a problem of our life that presents beyond our awareness.

How to contemplate vanishing it for not float onto meditation.

A problem in our life is there.

So that presents beyond our awareness,

If it's underneath your awareness,

Wonderful.

It can be somewhere else,

So you can have some freedom.

The whole point of meditation,

People asked me years ago,

You're just meditating to escape.

Yes,

You understand,

This is the art of escaping.

So please come with us and escape from the suffering and the problems of our world.

But Ajahn Brahm,

You're just running away,

Yes,

Come run away from the bushfires and the snakes and the troubles and problems of life.

But Ajahn Brahm,

Isn't that just,

What about other people?

Yeah,

I'm escaping but I'm asking you to come with me to escape together.

Many people don't like to escape.

The problem of our life that presents beyond our awareness is usually underlying fear.

What might happen next?

What's happening now?

I never said it today so far but here it comes.

Now is where your future is being made.

So if you make this present moment peaceful,

Beautiful,

Positive,

What have you got to worry about?

You're doing the very,

Very best you can,

Making peace,

Being kind,

Being gentle right now.

So whatever's happening next,

Wait for it to happen.

Cross that bridge when you come to it,

Don't anticipate it.

So the more you can stay in the present moment making plans,

Yeah,

Sort of make plans,

We always try and change those plans because to adapt to the unpredictable nature of the future.

The problem of life that presents itself beyond our awareness,

How to complete vanishing it,

For not float onto our meditation.

Just let it float onto your meditation,

See what it is and see if it's just nothing there at all.

Let it come,

Let it go,

Let it disappear.

Be in this moment and not hold onto things.

Can meditation be used to induce deep sleep?

How can I do that?

No,

Apparently listening to my talks can induce deep sleep.

But why is it deep sleep when we ever do meditation retreats?

It happens so regularly that when people meditate a lot of meditation retreats,

They fall asleep.

You can see them there,

Their heads down,

Sleepy.

And they complain,

I jump around just when I meditate,

I just fall asleep if I go.

But then they come to me the following day and say,

And I couldn't sleep all night when I was in bed.

And so I had this wonderful,

What they call Eureka moments,

The light bulb flashed and said,

Ah,

The answer's obvious.

When you're in the meditation hall,

Try to fall asleep.

And then you remain awake.

And when you're in bed,

Try to meditate and you'll fall asleep.

Okay,

This is actually,

This is not such a joke.

Because why is it that you're in the bed and you can't go to sleep?

Because you're trying to fall asleep,

You're trying to do something,

You're not learning how to let it go,

Just make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle.

So when you say,

I'm trying to fall asleep,

Say,

No,

No,

Your meditation,

Just let go,

Relax,

Be peaceful,

Be in the present moment.

But if you say,

Oh,

I've got to go to sleep soon,

Oh,

I've got to get up early in the morning,

Oh,

I'm not going to have enough sleep,

Oh,

When you think of the future like that,

Of course you get stressed out.

So,

How do you induce deep sleep?

You're just learning how don't induce it at all.

Just be in this moment.

You're asleep,

You're awake,

Who cares?

Let the body be.

When it needs to sleep,

It will fall asleep.

When it needs to be awake,

It can be awake.

So one of the things which I learnt to do as a Buddhist monk was,

We're always supposed to,

They said,

If you're sleeping,

Sleep on your right side.

That was how the Buddha was supposed to sleep,

So I went into that training.

But then also sometimes when you're meditating a lot,

You wanted to rest laying down.

So I decided to actually to have,

When I fall asleep,

I always go on my right side when I first go to bed and fall asleep.

But when I wanted just to relax and just do like lying down meditation,

I'm not really aiming to go to sleep,

I just lay down on my back.

When I lay down on my back,

It's not my sleep position.

I've been doing that for such a long time,

Psychologically,

When I'm laying on my back,

It's as if my mind understands my body position,

This is not sleep time,

This is meditation,

Relaxation time.

When I go to my side,

Train myself,

The body goes,

Ah,

This is meditation,

This is sleep time.

So it goes to sleep,

Different postures for different activities.

And it's the same that in your house or home or wherever you live,

If you can have a place where you meditate,

So when you're in a corner of a room,

That's your little holy space,

Meditation place.

So don't meditate on your bed,

Because that's sleep place.

So it gets the mind confused,

Should I be meditating,

Should I be sleeping,

Just changing positions.

There's a place in life where you eat,

There's a place in life where you talk,

There's a place in your house where you meditate,

And don't mix them up.

And then it means bed is not where you meditate,

Bed is not where you work out the problems of the world or your life.

Never take one of these into your bed with you,

Because otherwise you're just working or just answering messages or something while you're in your bed.

I just made a,

Actually it happens anyway,

But in the cave where I live,

Never take any work into that cave.

That is work-free zone.

I've got a tablet and write emails and stuff,

But never ever in my cave.

That cave,

Anything like this is verboten,

Is not allowed.

Any work,

No way.

So I'm fortunate to have a cave like that,

But for you,

At least your bed,

Your bedroom,

Whatever,

A little area,

That's where you rest and sleep.

So don't mix things up.

Anyway,

Any questions from the floor?

Any questions from the cushions?

Any questions from the chairs?

Going,

Going.

Living in the present moment and,

Okay,

Gone.

Okay,

So for those of you who do come to the sutta class,

Even though it's going to be a big festival tomorrow,

There will be a sutta class from 3 to 4.

And that's going to be the bahiya sutta.

And even though people say,

Ah,

Jai Brahm,

You're working too hard,

What you're doing during the day is just all rituals and fun and games and fundraising and all that sort of stuff.

So I want you to do the sutta class just to end the day with some really nice dhamma.

Okay,

So there is a sutta class tomorrow from 3 to 4.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.