Day 086/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

So I just come back from teaching a retreat over in Thailand.

And like many people throughout the world,

One of the most difficult parts of meditation is getting started and getting into a peaceful state of mind.

And once you're into a peaceful state of mind,

It's pretty easy to stay there.

But actually getting there is one of the hardest.

And it's just like going to Bangkok.

If you've ever been to Bangkok,

There are these long tail boats which go up and down the river,

Chau Payar.

And I remember as a young monk going on,

They're like taxi boats.

So it's a great way of getting into and up and down the city without getting caught in the traffic.

So I remember going on one of those boats once with another monk,

But when it sort of docks,

You have to jump off pretty quickly and jump on pretty quickly,

Because if you hesitate and you jump,

It's already moved off,

You end up in the river.

And I remember one monk,

I jumped off pretty quickly and smartly,

As I was told you had to,

But this other monk hesitated.

And I saw him going down the river,

He was separated,

Didn't know where to go next,

So I was looking for him the rest of the day.

But he had to be very quick to jump on.

And that's part of the simile this afternoon.

If you're really going to get into some nice meditation,

You've got to jump on quickly into the boat which leads to peace and quiet.

You don't mess around too much at the beginning,

Sometimes you just lose an opportunity to get peaceful and quiet.

The boat has left the dock and you can't get back on it again.

So it is important at the very beginning,

Preparation,

Reminding yourself,

This is my meditation time.

And it's not the time to think about your problems and work out all your plans.

You have to sort of set the scene first of all before you meditate.

Because yes,

We all have unfinished business to do,

We all have many things which we have to do when we leave here.

There's so many things we can think about,

Contemplate,

Plan or work out.

You can even philosophize about the meaning of life but this is not the time to do so.

In meditation it's a time we put aside for one thing and one thing only and that's the stilling of the mind,

Making it nice and peaceful and calm.

And if one remembers that that is the main purpose,

What is setting the mind up in the right direction from the very,

Very beginning,

So one doesn't really waste too much time.

So that's actually helpful at the beginning of the meditation to almost make a resolution,

Determination to set the scene,

To tell the mind,

Mind this is my meditation time.

Yes,

I've got many things to think about,

Many things to do but not now.

This is that time I put aside for one thing and one thing only and of course to convince yourself you deserve to have a rest.

Not only do you deserve to have a rest for the sake of your health,

Both physical and mental,

But also to convince yourself it is actually worthwhile to be able to get some stillness,

To get some peace because once the mind has rested,

Once the mind is still,

Its ability to figure out problems,

To work out what needs to be done is actually enhanced.

Time spent in meditation is not time lost from the time you have to work and to solve the problems of your life.

Meditation is to be looked upon as an investment,

An investment in building up the mental energies so when you come out of meditation,

You can actually use your mental faculties with far greater efficiency.

Some people keep saying,

Oh,

They've got no time to meditate,

They're so busy.

I say,

Yes,

If you're so busy,

You have to meditate because you've got no time to waste,

You have to use your brain efficiently.

I think everybody knows that sometimes when we're very busy,

Our mind gets scattered and because it gets scattered,

It never really focuses on one thing long enough to actually get things done.

And so if we can just remember that instead of just running around,

Backwards and forwards,

Doing things inefficiently,

Making mistakes,

Bumping into things metaphorically,

Instead we just stop for a while,

Say,

Yes,

This is important to be peaceful,

To be quiet,

To be still.

And once we are peaceful,

Kind and quiet and still,

When we come out afterwards,

Whatever we need to do in life,

We can do efficiently,

Focused,

Without being scattered,

We get more done in less time.

So it's an investment in the efficiency,

In the efficient use of your brain.

So these are just little marketing strategies,

If you don't mind the expression,

To convince yourself,

It's worthwhile to dedicate the whole meditation time to silence,

To peace,

To stillness,

And to push aside all this work of solving problems and doing things for a later time.

And if you can do that at the very beginning,

You soon sort of get into a state of peacefulness.

And once you can feel that state of peacefulness,

You can get a feeling for it,

Connect to it,

And then it is usually so delightful,

It's very easy to maintain that peace and stillness,

Simply because it is just nice to stay with and the mind very easily stays with that which it feels comfortable,

Beautiful,

Nice.

So if you can get into there quickly,

Recognize it's peaceful and still,

Then it's easy to stay.

But when I was in Phuket,

People were saying again,

Again,

Again,

They had trouble calming their mind because this was a retreat for the first few days for new meditators,

Some had never meditated before in their lives,

And how to try and take them into a place where they could be comfortable,

Peaceful and still.

And one of the different techniques which I was trying to teach them because the wandering mind thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

They could hardly stop thinking,

Was actually to use the mantra technique.

A mantra technique in meditation,

It's only something used at the very beginning of the meditation,

It's like a group of words which you say to yourself over and over again,

And what it does,

It substitutes a group of words for you thinking about all sorts of things in your life.

So instead of thinking about past and future and business and relationships and all the jobs you need to do and working out the problems of your life,

We put just a group of words which we link together as a mantra,

We say that again and again and again,

So it literally blocks out the ability to think about all sorts of things.

And because the group I was teaching,

They're not just Theravadan Buddhists,

They're Buddhists from all sorts of places,

I decided just to introduce to them the very famous Buddhist mantra,

It's a Tibetan mantra,

But who cares what the mantra is because it's the way you use it,

Which was most important,

The old Om Mani Padme Hum mantra.

What I was saying,

That when you start meditating,

If you can't stop thinking,

What I wanted you to do,

I said,

Is to chant that mantra to yourself,

But most importantly with spaces in between the syllables.

And that was the most important part.

For those of you who die hard Theravadas,

You can do Namo,

Tassa,

Bhagavata,

If you like,

But the important thing is to put spaces between each syllable,

Na,

Mo,

Ta,

Sa.

But with Om Mani Padme Hum,

You chant to yourself the Om,

Leave a space,

Mani Padme Hum.

Because when you chant that to yourself,

Silently inside your own head,

You chant that to yourself,

It means it blocks out all of the thoughts.

You can't be thinking and keep reciting the mantra to yourself at the same time.

And as the thoughts get less,

You extend the spaces between the words.

So you may start with Om Mani Padme Hum and then you extend the spaces,

Om Mani Padme Hum.

And the most important part of that mantra is the spaces.

Because when you have those spaces,

Then you can notice the beauty of that silence,

The joy of it,

The delight in it.

And once that perception of that silence is established,

You can drop the mantra.

It's as if the spaces between the words take up all of the mind's attention and the words are not necessary anymore.

It's as if those words,

Those little syllables,

That they are just there as packaging for the silence.

Like whenever you get any gift,

It's always packaged in a box with paper on.

That's what those words are there for,

A package.

And what they contain is the silence which comes afterwards and which is there before.

So use as a mantra to get to that silence.

But the most important thing is remembering the spaces in between.

And I had great success in the retreat I was teaching over in Thailand.

By getting people to do that recitation,

The beginning of the meditation,

Again first of all,

This is my meditation time to convince the mind,

Psyching the mind up that this is what the whole purpose of this 40,

45 minutes is for.

And then sort of doing a little recitation to yourself and noticing,

Deliberately putting spaces between the syllables so that those spaces would increase.

You get to have the perception of silence of peace and that perception of silence will become so attractive that after a while the mind will turn to that and the whole mantra will drop away.

You wouldn't need to keep saying it anymore.

So that is a skillful means of stopping that thinking mind especially the very beginning of the meditation to get on the boat of meditation as quickly as possible.

And once you have that silence,

You have that peace in the mind,

Then of course you can really take it much,

Much deeper.

Because I've taught here many times before,

As you do get into a silence,

It always will be in the present moment.

Present moment usually comes first but if you just jump to the silence of the mind,

You do the two things at the same time.

You're present and you are silent.

And then once you are silent there,

Then usually the things like the experience of the breath come up quite naturally,

Simply because that when you are silent,

When the body is still,

There's nothing much happening.

And the only thing which is really moving is the breath going in and out,

In and out,

In and out.

And so number one,

It's the only thing left when everything settles down and disappears.

And number two,

It is naturally a very calming and reassuring rhythm,

The rhythm of your breath.

I worked out some years ago that one of the reasons why the rhythm of the breath is reassuring and comforting is probably because of some subconscious memory of the early months of our life,

Either in our mother's womb or on her tummy,

Maybe breast feeding and feeling the rhythm of her breathing up and down.

And so that particular rhythm of the breath is not too fast,

It's not too slow,

It's comforting,

Reassuring,

Which means the mind has no trouble staying on that breath,

Keeping with it because it's a delightful place to be.

It's a reassuring rhythm.

And so usually that's what happens as one goes into that silence,

The next thing which happens is just the breath is there and you're aware of it.

And then just the breath settles down,

That's where you get into the deeper meditations.

But most important thing is no matter where you are in that meditation,

It's the sense of peace,

The sense of delight,

The sense of contentment which comes up at every stage of the meditation which is really deepened as one meditates.

So don't just say you're doing the breath meditation,

Don't just be aware of the breath.

Be also aware of the sense of peace and comfort and contentment which is there when you start watching the breath with a degree of mindfulness.

It just is a beautiful place to stay.

And so by developing from the very beginning,

This is my meditation time,

This is what I set aside for peace,

For stillness,

For contentment.

Then what you set out to do,

You're achieving in greater and greater degrees as you meditate.

You're feeling yes I'm getting somewhere,

I'm being peaceful,

I'm being still,

I'm getting this beautiful sense of contentment in my meditation.

And if you keep on the lookout for that sense of contentment,

Peace throughout the meditation,

You'll be able to find it and once you start noticing that,

That is really the boat which you jump on,

Which takes you into deeper meditation.

It's a boat of peace,

Contentment,

Stillness.

That is the most important thing.

All of the other objects,

You might actually say,

And this is quite a profound,

A secondary.

Whether you're watching the breath,

Whether you're doing a mantra,

No matter what you think your object is,

The most important thing which you are developing is this feeling,

This perception of peace,

Contentment,

Stillness.

So keep that as the main object.

And the other ones are secondary.

The present moment awareness or the silence,

The mantra,

Watching the feelings in the body,

Watching the breath,

These are all secondary.

The main object which one should start to perceive is this feeling of peace,

This feeling of contentment,

This feeling of stillness.

And that will take you into a very,

Very deep meditation.

Okay,

So that's just a little introduction,

Just to get people settled in and to give a little bit of direction.

And of course,

Every time I'm here,

I try to give a slightly different angle on the meditation.

So by coming here regularly,

You get more and more angles on the same thing,

So your repertoire of skillful means increases as you develop your meditation practice.

So there we go.

And before we actually begin our meditation now,

Once again,

Anyone here who is coming for the introductory meditation class,

That is in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing class because we're now going to be meditating for 45 minutes.

Haven't done that before,

Sometimes it's a bit tough.

So,

Off we go.

So if you'd like to get yourselves ready,

And we can start our meditation in a few moments.

So here we go.

So get yourselves comfortable in your own meditation posture.

Okay,

It doesn't need to be on the floor,

Chairs are fine.

If you haven't got a degree of comfort in your body,

Your body is going to disturb you,

Take away all of your attention and stop any peace,

Stillness and contentment from arising.

It's great to be able to sit on the floor,

But if it's painful,

Sit on a chair.

Once the body is reasonably settled,

You can tell your body and mind that this is my meditation time.

It's a period I set aside in my life for one thing and one thing only,

The development of peace,

Stillness,

Contentment.

I'm not going to use this period for working out the problems of my past and figuring it all out.

No,

I'm going to use this time for planning what I'm going to do when I leave here or later on.

No,

I'm not going to use this time for dreaming,

Fantasizing or philosophizing,

Nor for working out the meaning of life.

It's just for stillness,

For peace,

For contentment.

That is the purpose of this 45 minutes.

It's not work time,

It's rest,

Freedom,

Peace time.

Can you tell yourself that?

Pay full attention.

Because when you instruct the mind with full attention,

You'll find the mind will comply.

A lot of the time,

My mind just needs to be told what I want it to do and it will act accordingly.

A lot of the time it's confused,

It doesn't know what I want it to do.

That's why it will get restless.

So give it clear instructions.

For the mind,

The next 45 minutes,

Our main task is just to be peaceful,

To be content,

To experience stillness.

And that will linger in the mind for the period of the meditation.

And then look again at your body,

To make sure the body is content,

Is peaceful and can be maintained in stillness.

Just by observing the body,

Adjusting it when necessary,

Being kind to it.

So you learn from experience that to keep the body comfortable for long periods of time,

It has to start off being comfortable.

A little ache or an irritation at the beginning can very easily grow into a huge pain which is unendurable through the middle of the meditation,

Forcing you to move.

Get it right at the beginning and it's right throughout the period of meditation.

So I always like to spend a little bit of time with my body at the beginning.

It also helps me establish my mindfulness in this present moment.

It also helps me start generating this feeling of care,

Compassion,

Kindness,

Focus within,

To my own body and mind rather than to other people.

It's a time for metta,

For love towards one's own body and mind.

Relaxing to the max,

Till everything settles down.

Then if you'd like to try the mantra method,

You can just recite to yourself your favourite mantra,

This group of words,

Not too long,

Whether it's om mani padme hum or buddhaṃ savanāṃ kacchāmi or namo tasā,

Whatever.

As you recite these words to yourself,

This phrase to yourself over and over and over,

Please put the spaces between the syllables,

Om mani padme hum or buddhaṃ savanāṃ kacchāmi.

In the spaces,

That's where the meditation grows.

When silence,

Present moment awareness,

When that degree of mindfulness is established,

Then the mantra has done its job.

You can go towards your breath,

If the breath doesn't happen naturally,

And continue the meditation as usual from there.

The next word is the word of the word.

When silence,

Present moment awareness,

When that degree of mindfulness is established,

Then the mantra has done its job.

Then in the spaces,

That's when silence,

Present moment awareness,

When that degree of mindfulness is established,

Then the mantra has done its job.

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It's actually amazing just when you really get into meditation you actually can think outside the box and you have all these amazing ideas and if I was into business I'd make a fortune by now all the ideas which I've come up with which some people actually put into practice so remember it gives you innovation but I better sort of get the right idea because everyone else is coming out and it's 4.

18 so it's 3 minutes past the time so it's enough for this afternoon and so if you want to come back the next time I'll be here next week,

Saturday afternoon but that will be the last one for 3 months so happy meditating and we can pay respects to the Buddha,

Dhamma and Sangha just the 3 bows and then we can go and do whatever we need to do