Day 060/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Good morning.

Welcome everybody to this Buddhist Centre for the ongoing meditation class.

Those who are coming to meditation for the first time,

The introduction of meditation class is in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing class where we put one aspect of meditation,

Focus on it so that we can develop our meditation deeper and deeper and deeper.

And of course one thing which has been coming up when I teach meditation is what to do when we have wandering thoughts.

And the common advice is always to bring the mind back onto your meditation object and then you go wandering off again and you bring it back again,

It wanders off again,

You bring it back again and it sometimes becomes endless and you get very tired and frustrated.

Why is it that I can't be peaceful and still?

Why is it that these thoughts keep coming in to bother me?

And there's a general principle of meditation.

Instead of just banging your head against the wall,

Just stand back and look to see if there's a door a little to the left or a ladder to the right.

I remember once someone showed me a documentary of some immigration detention centre they put in the bush somewhere and unfortunately the Governor had this amazing gate,

Totally high quality,

High tech gate so people can't come in and out but they ran out of funds so they couldn't actually complete the fence on the other side of the gate.

So it was just a gate there without any fence but the gate was pretty impressive.

But of course what's the use of a gate without a fence to actually join that gate?

So just people walked around the gate.

So it's the same with sometimes we have these blocks in meditation and instead of just bashing our head against that gate trying to find a way through we just look to the left,

Look to the right,

We use what we call wisdom,

Not force.

So when we look at say thinking,

Instead of just keep trying,

Bringing the mind back again,

It goes off again,

We should ask the question why?

What is the cause for these thoughts coming up in the first place?

And the cause for the thoughts coming up in the first place is always that you are discontent,

You're not happy where you are,

This is an escape,

It's called restlessness,

You try and pick up a thought,

Something just,

There's something to do.

And so the antidote is not just putting the mind back onto your meditation object,

The mind is actually changing the attitude which you have to meditation to something which is going to generate a bit more contentment and happiness.

So literally you don't need to have any thinking.

And the way to actually generate more happiness to start off with is actually sit in a happy position.

In other words,

Don't just force the body into some posture,

You think this is the magic posture for meditation,

Looking in the books and trying to imitate His Holiness the Dalai Lama or somebody else,

No.

You find the posture which is happy,

Peaceful content for you.

And when you do relax the body,

Please see if you can learn how to perceive and get to know the happiness of a body which is relaxed and at peace.

Sometimes we take these moments of contentment so much for granted we don't really notice them,

Therefore they disappear.

If you really did have something valuable,

Say you just got three thousand dollars today in cash,

You may have sold something and it's in your purse,

You would look after your purse so well you'd always be checking it because it's valuable,

You don't like to lose it.

So if you have some little happiness in your meditation,

You treat it with value,

Then of course you won't want to lose it,

It will be there for you for a long time.

So we start to develop this perception of happiness even with the body.

I don't know about you but sometimes we have to walk around,

Run around,

We're doing so many things and now you can sit still,

You can relax your body.

At last you don't have to run around doing things.

Oh,

What a relief.

The body can relax.

And when it relaxes,

It starts to feel this joy,

This delight of relaxation.

And if we can learn how to focus on the delight of relaxation,

Even in the body,

When the body is relaxed,

It's sitting down there,

Nothing really going on,

That is delightful.

It's not that you just notice this thing,

When you really notice it,

It actually grows,

It's just like you see a flower in the garden.

Once you first spot it,

Oh it's a beautiful flower then,

You can look upon it and see its beauty.

Other times we're so busy we walk right past it without hardly noticing it.

So when we see the flower of delight in a body which is relaxed,

We can actually see it more clearly,

It grows,

It becomes more prominent.

What we're doing,

We're learning to focus on the delight of peace.

And that's really important because once the body is relaxed and we can let it go,

Then we start to relax our mind.

When the body starts to get peaceful,

When it starts to get relaxed,

We're just sitting here and everything is nice and peaceful,

That too has a delight,

Has a flavour of happiness which we really need to notice because if we notice how happy peace is,

We won't need to think anymore.

Basically we're having too good a time.

The thoughts are just distractions,

Get out,

I'm enjoying myself.

In the same way,

If you listen to fine music,

If you like listening to music,

You'll find that you don't think while you're listening to that music which is one of the joys of listening to fine music.

It's so enjoyable,

It keeps your attention,

Hardly a thought comes into your mind.

Or some people just like to find a quiet place on a cliff or by the ocean somewhere and just look at the view.

The view is so attractive,

It fills the mind with delight that again,

You don't need to think.

If you can contemplate why some of the peaceful places in the world are so delightful,

It's not just the beauty of the view,

It's the fact that they stop you thinking and all your worries and concerns all tend to disappear.

Not that you force those worries to disappear,

They go by themselves.

Remember many people,

They go and find a nice quiet place by the ocean,

Especially this time of the year,

It's not too hot,

Not too cold,

So you don't get too many people out by the beach,

Especially if it's in the morning or the evening,

You sit down and it's just so beautiful,

You should be able to notice that you're not thinking that much.

Why?

It's because the mind is being satisfied with the delight of a beautiful scenery,

Maybe the sunset over the Indian Ocean.

And the same way,

If you can develop a delight in the perception of peace and stillness,

It's so nice just to be here with nothing to do.

You'll find the thoughts,

They don't come up.

The reason why there is so much thinking is we haven't developed that delight enough,

That inner happiness.

So meditation is not just about focusing on something and holding it there,

It's also developing the delight,

The perception of delight in the peaceful mind.

Stillness is delight for the magical.

Remember all the stories and memories of great stillness which I remember in nature.

One of them many years ago I was visiting a monastery in the south of England during the winter time,

That night before they showed me in the newspapers minus 26 degrees centigrade.

The whole place was blanketed with snow.

And only,

They say,

Mad dogs and English monks go out in that cold morning snow.

But I went out there,

Totally rugged up and of course no one else,

I think it was a Sunday morning,

Maybe about 6 o'clock,

No one else would go out that time of a Sunday morning even in summertime,

Let alone in the dead of winter.

I remember walking in this forest and there's no other footprints in the snow.

Nothing was moving,

There was no wind to rustle even a leaf,

No animals were around,

They too were hibernating.

All human beings were in their houses tucked up in bed or in front of a fire.

It was like I was the only human walking on the planet.

And when I stopped,

Everything stopped.

There's not a sound,

Nothing moved.

Perfect silence.

Wow!

That was incredible.

The delight,

The sheer depth of pleasure of a really still morning in the snow.

Or you may have been up in the mountains and again no wind,

Perfectly quiet.

The other place I like to go is in the deep caves.

Because even in especially noisy places like the tropics,

A place like Thailand or Sri Lanka or Burma,

You go in these deep caves and there again there's no sound at all.

There's something magical,

There's something delightful in that.

That's the sort of delight in meditation to start to notice.

The delight of walking in a forest when nothing moves.

Wow!

You all recognise that,

That's why you're quiet.

And you understand that when we perceive that,

We see it in our meditation and that is what stops us sinking.

So don't try and keep putting your mind back here,

Pulling it there.

That actually creates more thoughts.

That actually is the problem.

So don't try and control the mind.

Just recognise the delight of peace,

How wonderful it is.

And even if there is some thoughts going on there,

The thoughts that you can see in the background,

In the spaces between the thoughts,

See underneath them all,

There is that quietness,

You can almost touch it,

It's there.

All you need to do is to recognise that yeah,

There is some silence and peace there.

So turn the attention away from this thinking,

Don't even consider it to be a problem.

It's just like the waves on the surface of a mountain lake.

You just need to wait.

Don't disturb the lake,

Just to wait.

And soon those waves get less and less until there is no waves left,

Till the mountain lake is perfectly still.

You can even imagine that as I've been teaching many people over the last couple of weeks.

Just imagine your mind like a lake and all the thoughts are just waves and ripples on its surface.

You can see between the ripples there is stillness.

Just be quiet,

Be calm and just let your mind become still.

Don't even put attention on the waves,

On the thoughts.

Put the attention on the stillness,

The background on which these waves,

These thoughts play out.

And then your mind too will become still.

All that thinking is not necessary anymore.

You don't decide to stop thinking.

Just the thinking vanishes by itself when you don't give it attention.

Instead give attention to the stillness.

So this is a little method and it's so beautiful.

When you are still,

Please value it.

It's incredibly powerful.

Don't take it for granted.

Deliberately develop the perception and appreciation of stillness and then the mind will stay there,

Happy for long periods of time.

So there we go.

Now,

Before we start meditation again,

Those of you who've come for the introduction to meditation,

The class,

When you learn meditation for the beginning,

That class again is in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing class for the experts,

Those who know how to meditate for a long time because we're going to meditate for 45 minutes which is a long time.

So if you've come for the introduction to meditation class,

This is a class for those who are beginning their journey in meditation.

Please to go to the room on my right there,

They'll be waiting for you.

This is the ongoing class.

Okay,

So here we go.

So it's a 45 minute meditation now.

You don't need to think about anything.

I will ring the bell when it's time to ring the bell.

So if you'd like to get yourselves comfortable again,

If you want to move,

Make sure you're really comfortable,

Please do so.

Get yourselves really just nice and then close your eyes.

Okay.

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With your eyes closed,

Please put your attention down in your body,

Sitting here.

If you need to move any part of your body,

Please do so.

This is making final adjustments to get your body really relaxed.

So don't think you're going to fight through pain and just bear with it.

That's not the way of meditation.

Always be kind to your body.

If you're kind to it,

Relax it,

You'll find the body is so at ease,

You have the delight of a relaxed body.

If you need to move any part of your body,

Please do so.

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Once the body is relaxed,

Can you notice the delight,

The ease,

That particular pleasure of a body which is relaxed and at peace?

Just happy to be here.

Your body may not be totally relaxed,

It's more at peace than nearly every other time of the day.

Then you can let it go,

Attend to the mental world.

Look at your mind,

Imagine it like a lake,

A lake high in the mountains.

And all of the thoughts,

The emotions,

All just like waves on the surface of this lake,

All caused by the wind of wanting something.

When the wind stops,

We want for nothing,

The waves get less and less.

Even though we may not be still yet,

You can almost taste and feel the delight of a still mind.

Notice that delight,

Value it,

And thoughts just don't come in.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

The beauty of a peaceful mind.

Your thoughts do come in your mind,

Don't bring the mind back,

Just remember the stillness,

Remember it.

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Getting very close to the end of the meditation now.

It's the time when we reflect how we feel,

How much peace is there in the mind,

And why.

What did you do,

Or more importantly,

What did you not do which created a state of mind you are experiencing now?

This is where we learn,

Not from the words of a monk like me or some book,

We learn from our own experience what meditation is and how it works and how delightful it can be.

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I'm now going to ring the gong three times to end the meditation session.

Please listen to every sound from the gong and let the last ringing of the gong take you out from the meditation at the end of the third ringing of the gong.

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There we go.

Now as usual this one is always streamed live.

So we have a few questions from overseas,

One from Dubai,

One from Perth,

And then one from USA.

See how well regarded this is.

Question one from Dubai,

It is very easy to see the wholesomeness of anger in meditation and in daily living,

But craving desire is much more difficult to overcome.

Anger feels uncomfortable but not in the case with desire.

How should I deal with this?

Even in meditation you'll find whenever you want something,

Whenever you crave for something,

That stops you being peaceful.

There's standard peaceful advice which we always give to people on meditation retreats from my master Ajahn Chah.

We meditate not to get things,

Not to attain things,

But to let go of things.

Because all attainment,

All trying to get somewhere is wanting,

It's a type of craving.

So in meditation you should be able to see that wanting something,

Craving and desire is actually again what creates those waves in your mind which you recognise as thoughts.

When you're wanting something that stops you being at peace,

It stops you being still.

You can actually see the craving and desire is the enemy.

The anger usually comes after craving a desire,

When you get frustrated,

You don't get what you want.

So anger is usually secondary,

Craving and desire is primary.

And if you actually trace back whenever you have any anger or frustration,

It's always because you wanted something to begin with and you did not get it.

So craving and desire is easier to see if you trace things back,

It's easier to see if you trace things back.

And that is the very thing which you have to notice and not indulge in when you are meditating if you want to find some peace and stillness.

The opposite of craving and desire is letting go,

Letting things be,

Being happy to be here,

Being content,

Opening the door of your heart to this moment without any judging,

Without any discrimination.

This is called love,

Metta.

Love doesn't desire anything,

It just lets things be.

And gentleness,

All those things,

The great words which we keep talking about,

That is the opposite,

So you see that in your meditation.

You notice when you're letting go,

Being kind,

Being gentle,

Making peace,

Opening the door of your heart,

You could notice that because that creates the stillness and the craving and desire creates all the restlessness and stops you developing the peace and beauty in the light of meditation.

So if you see what desire actually does,

That is the problem,

That creates the difficulty.

To Satyamaya from Perth somewhere,

To stop thinking when we are meditating,

Do I focus on the breath or be aware of the thoughts?

Thank you.

No,

You do neither.

You're not just being aware of the thoughts,

You're not focusing on the breath,

Focus on the stillness as I was saying today.

So don't go,

What it actually means is,

In meditation it's not what you're aware of,

You're not focusing on the breath,

You're not focusing on the thoughts,

You are focusing on how you are relating,

Reacting to the thoughts,

How you are relating,

Reacting to the breath,

How you are relating or reacting to when somebody coughs,

That is the cold face of meditation,

That's where you should be paying your attention to.

It's not what you are watching or observing but how you are observing it.

If you're observing the thoughts with I want to get rid of you or I really like you,

You're going to not have any success in meditation.

If you're looking even something like the breath,

I want to make you this way or that way,

You won't get anywhere in the meditation.

Don't worry about the object which you're watching,

Pay attention to the how you are watching it.

Meditation like the rest of the life is the relationship problem.

It's not you and your thoughts,

It's not you and your breath,

It's not you and your sleepiness but how you relate to it.

So our job in meditation is to relate with kindness,

The great compassion,

Opening the door of your heart to whatever you're experiencing,

Making peace with it,

Being kind to it,

Being gentle.

And if you know that,

You know the skill of meditation.

You may be sleepy,

You may be restless but when you notice what I said today,

The stillness which is how you relate to things,

Just relate to it from a point of stillness,

Just make peace with it,

Don't do anything.

Be calm and all these things settle down all by themselves.

You don't focus on the breath,

You don't focus on the thoughts,

Both are wrong.

Focus on how you're relating,

Reacting to those thoughts and just make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle.

If you're focusing on anything,

Focus on the stillness.

And lastly,

How do you find peace,

This is Josh from USA,

How do you find peace when your mind is conditioned out of habit towards anxiety,

That peace is so hard to find?

Okay,

Conditioned out of habit,

When the habit is again the way we react to things,

The way we have our buttons pushed,

That's the usual way they say of habitual tendencies.

And those habitual tendencies are not that hard to overcome through what I call the last month or two,

Kindfulness.

What kindfulness means is you are aware of the processes of your mind and you are kind to them.

So you see anxiety coming.

When you see anxiety coming,

You see it very early,

It's very much like a train which is running along the tracks at 80 miles per hour,

100 miles per hour,

It tries to put on the brakes and it takes a kilometer or two to stop because it's got such heavy momentum.

But if you can catch the train when it's just coming out of the station,

Half a kilometer an hour or whatever,

You can put on the brakes and stop pretty quickly.

If you can catch things early,

They're pretty easy to stop.

So the thing with habits is to catch them earlier and earlier and earlier by your mindfulness.

You see anxiety is about to come and I'm putting myself in that situation,

Either physical location or the thoughts which I'm developing in my mind,

I know if I'm going to carry on like this,

It's going to be a full anxiety.

You catch yourself earlier,

Catch yourself earlier.

And the other thing is the kindness.

When you're kind,

When you tense up,

You're afraid,

Which is obviously what anxiety is,

You find the mind does get very brittle.

Kindness makes you very soft.

Imagine throwing the ball at a glass.

A glass is so hard and brittle,

A ball would actually break this.

And the bottom of this is not a real one,

It's just foam.

If you throw a ball at foam,

It doesn't break at all because the foam is soft.

And this is actually what we mean by kindness.

Kindness makes it very soft.