Day 089/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Welcome everybody to this ongoing class of meditation.

For those of you coming to the introduction to meditation class,

This series of four lectures where we introduce people to the basics of meditation,

That class is being held in the room to my right and all those people there,

We welcome you because apparently the voice is going all over there too.

So if you would like to please adjust the knob.

Very good.

So now this is for those,

The ongoing class,

So if you've meditated before then this is a place for you.

If it's the first time,

The room to my right.

Very good.

Otherwise you sit for 40 minutes and there will be torture.

You'll be screaming by the end of it.

In Guantanamo Bay,

That's prolonged stress positions.

That's what they do to these terrorists to get the information out of them.

So anyway,

Oops,

There we go,

In a room next door.

It's really lovely to see people beginning to meditate.

It really does so much for people's lives,

Makes them relax and makes them clear.

And to be able to learn how to meditate,

Especially learn how to meditate quickly is a very important skill.

There are times in your life you really need to be peaceful and be peaceful very quickly.

And so that fast meditation is where one can just close the eyes,

No messing around.

So you actually tell the mind,

No,

You can't go thinking of the past and the future,

You can't go doing all of this other stuff like taking notes,

You've only got a certain amount of time.

And you'll find that actually you can meditate very deeply,

Very quickly if you have to.

A lot of times we've got a lazy mind,

A mind which,

Yeah,

We've got 45 minutes,

Yeah,

If it works,

It's fine,

If it doesn't work it's fine,

Which is wonderful,

It really relaxes you.

But sometimes a little bit of focus,

A little bit of energy,

A little bit,

Yeah,

Let's really do this properly is a very,

Very good way to start the meditation.

And it's not so much effort to try and get some place,

It's the effort to be aware and to be silent.

It's not the effort to do,

But the effort to stop.

It's a very,

Very subtle point.

So we put this awareness,

This mindfulness inside of us and we remember the instruction very clearly.

If you see yourself mind going off into the past,

Stop it.

This is not the time for the past.

If you see yourself planning the future,

It's not the time for planning the future.

This is the time you give to yourself for meditation.

You set aside this time just for meditation.

It's not even a time for working out the philosophies of life,

It's a time to be still,

To meditate,

To make the mind peaceful and clear.

And if you psych yourselves up by giving yourself the direction,

What the purpose of the meditation is at the very beginning,

It makes it much easier because you don't waste so much time.

It is not a doing,

But it is a clear instruction to the mind to stop doing all this stuff and remembering that instruction.

There's a part of meditation which I have been emphasizing,

I've just come back from Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

I was emphasizing what we call this programming of mindfulness which is where at the beginning of the meditation you put some instructions into the mind.

Usually I do this once the body is pretty settled,

It's calm and before I let the body go,

I just give myself the instructions,

The basic instructions of what to do in meditation which is usually what not to do.

In other words,

If you tend to be thinking too much,

Think,

Think,

Think,

Think,

You give yourself instructions.

During the meditation I will make no comment.

During the meditation I will make no comment.

During the meditation I will make no comment.

Always try and repeat it to myself three times,

Pay full attention,

In other words really listen to what I'm saying and then I'll let it go because if you give yourself clear instructions in simple words and you pay attention to those words,

That means that it has an imprint in your brain,

It means that the subconscious remembers it and when you start to think,

Coming inside you say,

No,

Stop.

So it's programming in the ability of the mind to stop,

To let go,

To restrain when you do all these things which can very easily waste your time.

So you can do that when you start meditation.

Give yourself a few clear instructions and the skill is,

It works if you give very clear instructions.

Now you may be a manager at work or you may be telling someone else what to do.

How many times has somebody told you what to do and it's really unclear,

What do you want me to do?

And of course if that's how you give instructions,

They're not clear,

It's ambiguous,

It could mean one of three or four or five things and you don't want to know what to do,

Of course you can't follow those instructions.

But if in this meditation you give yourself very simple and clear instructions,

Then the mind will have to listen to it and it will follow it.

So if it's thinking is a problem,

Now what I would say in my own words,

And don't repeat my words,

Make up your own words,

During this meditation I will not think,

During this meditation I will not think,

During this meditation I will not think.

Very clear statement,

I know what it means and when I let it go I just carry on meditating,

That really helps stopping the thoughts coming up.

So it's an effort to say no,

An effort to restrain,

An effort to let go,

An effort to sort of not go into these places which are okay to go to when you're out there working in the world,

This planning and remembering or thinking.

But in meditation,

No,

I will stay here,

Calm,

Peaceful with the present moment,

With the silence,

With the breathing.

And by giving yourself correct instructions like that,

It is an effort and you can get into the meditation pretty quickly that way because you really have to,

You don't have any choice.

It's a very clear instruction and you go very fast,

Very deep.

And it's very wonderful to be able to do that.

There's many occasions where I've had to do that.

Again I was talking to one of our members,

I recently went over to,

Again,

Part of the Kuala Lumpur trip,

Doing this meditation day retreat with some execs and realizing that there's going to be no possibility for any rest whatsoever.

And so the only way to cope with nothing but four and a half,

Three quarter hours of interviews,

One after the other without a break,

Not even having time to go to toilet,

Was to actually get your mind really,

Really focused.

So now because I'm skilled at doing this,

I could meditate only for a few minutes and really get the mind so focused and so energized,

There was no problem at all.

So when you really have to,

You can.

But the trick is don't put the effort into doing something.

Put the effort into letting go.

So you're not going to pick up anything.

And if you do find that during the meditation you start,

Well,

Yes,

You let things go,

You're peaceful,

You're kind,

Things start to get still and calm.

But then during the middle of the meditation you start picking up things and you start thinking about things and you start planning and all this other stuff which goes on in your head.

If that starts to happen,

Again,

Tell yourself,

No,

This is not the time.

There are other occasions when I can use my brain for all this other stuff but this is meditation time.

This is sacred,

This is holy,

This is time for peace.

Let it go.

It's why that we can revere a place,

This is not the place for thinking things.

Even somebody again in Kuala Lumpur,

They told me that when they were in the temple they were thinking all these really bad thoughts.

I said,

Well,

In the temple are they bad thoughts or outside the bad thoughts?

They said,

Oh,

Outside it's okay because that's out there in the world but inside the temple I felt very bad having bad thoughts inside the temple.

You know people feel like that.

So great,

Make use of that idiosyncrasy of the human mind.

When you come to places you really worship and revere you act in a different way.

So outside there,

When you come outside those doors,

Yes,

You can think about the past and the future.

Yes,

You can start to work all the philosophies of life out but when you're in here,

This is the place you leave your shoes,

You revere,

You worship,

This is a holy place.

So just allow that holy place attitude to sink into your mind so when you meditate,

Wow,

I shouldn't think that thought here in the Buddhist temple,

Wow,

I shouldn't be remembering and planning so much.

Just give you the incentive to actually to have a peaceful and still and beautiful mind.

And again,

As I always say,

Once you get to the stillness and the beauty of the mind,

Once the mind starts to get happy in the stillness and in the present moment,

Then you don't need to have all those instructions anymore.

You get to that tipping point of meditation where the meditation is so delightful,

So happy,

You just love doing it and the stillness grows deeper and deeper from that point.

So even once you get to that point,

Then you really let go and it becomes just like the snowball rolling downhill.

It gets bigger and bigger,

More and more peaceful,

More and more still,

More and more happy.

It's just all the instructions are basically getting to that point and then you let go.

Okay,

That's enough instructions for the beginning.

And once again,

Those people who come here for the first time,

Who come to the Introduction to Meditation course,

That course is being held in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing course.

We're now going to be sitting in meditation for about 45 minutes.

So those who have never meditated before,

It might be a bit tough.

So anyway,

That's the warning.

So now if you'd like to,

If you haven't done already,

Sitting down,

Closing your eyes,

Getting your posture as best you possibly can.

And paying awareness,

Mindfulness onto the bodily feelings.

And as you become aware of your body,

You may notice parts which need to be adjusted or changed.

Please don't resist.

Change your posture.

Adjust your legs or the position of the bottom on your chair or the back of the shoulders.

See if you can find the most comfortable position possible.

If you want to scratch,

Scratch,

Cough or sneeze,

Just do that.

Just being with the body.

And when the body feels relaxed,

When you feel that you've spent enough time with the body,

If you go too fast,

The body will ache later on.

When it's the right time,

Let the body go.

We focus on the present moment.

No past,

No future,

Just now.

Reminding yourself this is not the time for dredging up the past,

Or planning the future.

It's not the time for solving problems,

It's a time for peace.

And peace will only be found in the present moment.

But we are here today.

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On the present moment we move to silence,

Eventually onto our breathing,

Always resisting and saying no to the mind which goes sinking or wandering off,

Until we can focus on our breathing and it's delightful.

Then we can take the guards off our mind.

We're focused,

Happy,

Then meditation will develop.

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As always,

Listen to the gong and let the third ringing take you out from your meditation.

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