Day 097/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

And there was a request to do a little letting go meditation.

Letting go is a great way of meditating.

The first trick in letting go meditation,

If you haven't seen me do this before,

It is how heavy is my glass.

The longer I hold it,

The heavier it feels.

After three minutes my arm starts to ache.

After five minutes I'm in pain.

After ten minutes I'm in agony and a very stupid monk.

I've got this down pat now,

You can probably say it yourself.

So,

Why am I stupid if I keep holding this?

Because all I need to do is put it down for thirty seconds,

Maybe a minute at the most and rest my arm.

And once my arm is rested and it feels good,

I can pick it up again and it feels light.

It really does.

Because you've rested,

The burden disappears.

You can hold it again until you feel tired,

Then you can put it down again and rest.

This is actually how we deal with stress in modern life.

How you can be a high achiever without getting sick.

Simply because you can work hard and when you get tired,

You can put things down and rest.

Thereby re-energizing your brain.

So afterwards it can work efficiently.

It's just basic stress management.

And you know it doesn't matter how heavy your cup is.

This is not the cause of stress,

How heavy is a cup.

The cause of stress is,

When you feel tired,

You don't know how to let go.

So that's why a little bit of meditation,

Learning how to let go of things,

To put them down,

Is one of the great keys to meditation.

And of course,

One of the reasons why we can't let go is because,

No,

This is my glass.

This is my water and no one can take it from me.

In the ancient story of the way they used to catch monkeys in the jungle,

With hardly any effort required,

They would just take a coconut and they would drink the coconut water and maybe eat some of the soft flesh inside.

And they would just make sure there was a hole in the coconut,

Just big enough that an average-sized monkey could just put his paw or her paw inside the coconut.

And just fit it in but not too big.

And they would tie that coconut to a tree and they put a banana inside that coconut.

And they would go home,

Have dinner,

Have a nice rest.

And in the morning after a leisurely breakfast,

They would go and find that coconut and of course,

A monkey had found that banana.

But the hole was just big enough,

He could just put his hand in.

But he couldn't put his hand out holding a banana.

So the monkey couldn't get the hand out.

And so when the hunter came and the monkey saw the hunter was coming,

All the monkey needed to do was just to let go of the banana,

Take his hand out and run away.

But can the monkey let go of the banana?

No,

It struggles even harder to try and get the hand out with the banana but it's impossible.

And that's how the monkey gets caught.

Because it doesn't know how to let go of the banana.

Because it's my banana.

And that's one of the problems.

It's always my worries about the future.

It's my problems of the past.

It's my thoughts which are really important.

That is why they are hard to let go.

That's why we call all these past and the future and all these fantasies and thoughts,

We call them minefields.

Because,

Ok,

You leave now,

They're minefields,

They blow you up.

In other words,

They destroy your peace and happiness.

So the trick in letting go is to realise this is none of my business.

Now you do that sometimes at work.

Maybe,

I'm sure some of you do that.

Someone asks,

Can you come and help me?

No,

No,

None of my business.

Or there's some other stuff which happens in life.

None of my business.

If you could only say that to your past,

None of my business.

It's all finished,

I can't do anything with it now.

So it's done.

And all of your future,

That's none of my business.

So that's how you can let go of the past and the future.

As for all these thoughts which come up in your mind,

They're not my thoughts,

I never ask them to come in.

Must be somebody else's who put them in there.

So that Ajahn Brahm again,

Brainwashing me.

So it's none of my business.

So all the thoughts,

All the emotions,

All the worries of the past,

All the worries of the future,

You can say to these things,

None of my business.

When they're not mine,

They're so easy to let go.

You ever notice,

Yeah,

Sometimes you see a traffic crash and think,

Oh,

Poor person in the car.

You don't worry so much as if it's your car which gets damaged or scratched.

You don't worry so much,

Yeah,

It's sad when you hear someone's got cancer.

You don't worry so much and lose sleep when they say you've got cancer.

So wouldn't it be wonderful if someone tells me,

Ajahn Brahm,

You've got cancer,

It's terminal,

I say,

None of my business.

You can let it go.

In other words,

You can learn how to be peaceful with no worries.

As for where many people worry about the future,

They worry about this,

They worry about that.

But there was a saying of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

Which reflects an even greater saying which I often bring out of Harold Macmillan during the first conflict,

One of the first conflicts between Israel and the surrounding nations,

The Six Day War.

When there was a war going on and the journalist asked him,

What do you think about the problem in the Middle East?

He said,

There is no problem in the Middle East.

What do you mean there's no problem in the Middle East?

There's a war going on as we speak.

And this great statesman said,

Sir,

A problem is something with a solution.

There is no solution in the Middle East,

Therefore it's not a problem.

And that was very wise.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama said,

If you can do something about it,

It's worth worrying about.

If you can't do anything,

Then don't worry.

In much of life,

You can't do anything.

Why worry?

It's just a waste of valuable time.

If it's a solution which you can see to a problem,

Then it is a problem.

If there's no solution,

You are wasting your energy and time when it could be better used on something where you can make a difference.

So this is another way of learning how to let go of so much in this world.

Because so much in this world,

You can't really make that much difference.

So why not let it go and have 40 minutes of peace?

Sometimes you get brainwashed into your heads that letting go is being irresponsible.

They keep on saying,

Don't just sit there,

Do something.

But seeing just how much when we do things and get involved,

We create more of a mess.

You ever notice that when you get involved,

It gets even more tangled?

This great monk Thich Nhat Hanh,

He turned that around and said,

No,

No,

No,

He said,

Don't just do something,

Sit there.

Turn it around,

It's wonderful when you turn these things around.

In other words,

Let it go,

Let it be and then see what happens.

So when you look at what does it mean,

Letting go,

How can we do that in meditation?

Already given the simile,

You're holding on to something,

Stop holding it.

You can imagine when you're meditating,

Some of you,

That you are driving your car,

Because that's something we all do.

Well,

You do,

I don't.

And when you're driving your car,

You're holding on to the wheel,

You're controlling it.

See if you could let go of the wheel,

Take your feet off the pedals and just let go and see what happens.

But sometimes,

Like me,

You may not be the driver,

But you're not the back seat driver,

I'm the passenger seat driver,

Telling people which way to go.

But sometimes you just don't even give instructions to the driver.

You shut up and enjoy the scenery.

That's why it's lovely being a passenger.

You can look around and see the beautiful river swan,

You can go and watch the,

See the ocean if you're going down the ocean roads,

You can look at the hills,

Look at the scenery,

It's wonderful being a passenger.

You can totally let go.

To be able to let go also takes a lot of trust.

Trust that if you let go of the wheel of the car,

You stop,

Don't hold on so much,

That everything will be alright.

That's why a lot of times we let go a little bit,

See what it's like,

Realise this is peaceful,

This is wonderful,

And that encourages us to let go a little bit more.

And that's even more peaceful and then we can let go some more.

Until we can become like,

Sometimes I remember having to go to this travel agent in the shopping centre in Mirabukkha.

I don't like going to shopping centres at all,

It's not a place a monk should be,

Because every time I go in the shopping centre dressed like this,

They think I'm doing some special promotion,

Or some big piece of me claiming the free gift,

Not quite sure what shop it is,

But when you're dressed a bit strange,

They think there's some sort of promotion going on.

But anyway,

I remember seeing a couple of times,

People carrying their babies,

Mothers carrying their babies in the shopping centre,

Just in their arms.

A baby in one arm and a sort of shopping trolley or a big bag in the other arm,

With a baby fast asleep.

And I've noticed,

My goodness,

That baby is so trusting of the mother.

If I was fast asleep,

If I was being held in somebody's arms with all these people in the shopping centre,

I'd be terrified my mother's going to drop me.

There's so many people,

She can't pay too much attention,

People are banging into her all the time.

But the mother,

Or the child trusts his mother 100%,

It totally lets go and falls fast asleep.

That just shows us how trust can allow you to really,

Really let go.

So the first way of letting go is none of my business,

Doesn't belong to me.

Second one is learning how to trust.

To trust that when you let go,

Everything will be fine.

In fact,

Everything will probably be even better.

When you stop trying to control,

Things flow much more easily and more still.

I remember one of the stories of Ajahn Menindo who told me this.

I remember this story because I read in the newspaper that there was some beach somewhere,

Where two men recently in Western Australia were swimming and they got caught in the rip and they got drowned.

And this monk,

He was from New Zealand,

And he said that he went home to visit his family.

And one of his friends said,

Let's go for two or three days,

We go,

They call it tramping in New Zealand,

Like hiking.

In the wilderness area,

The guy would carry the food and then Ajahn Menindo would carry the tent.

So they're walking in this wilderness area,

And it's one of these warm days,

Really hot and sweaty.

They came to a beach,

One of these pristine empty beaches,

Like some place out of paradise,

No one around.

Let's go for a swim.

So they also took their clothes off and went swimming.

You should do your research before you try this because it was one of those beaches with a bad current.

It was a very dangerous beach,

Many people had drowned.

And he got caught in that current.

He wasn't a strong swimmer,

He'd been a monk for too long.

But he remembered letting go.

That saved his life.

Instead of struggling against the current,

Which would have won anyway,

He just totally relaxed and allowed that current to take him a long way from the shore,

Really a dangerous long way from the shore,

Where the current lost its force.

Once it lost its force,

Once you could actually do something effective,

That's when he started swimming.

When he got back to the beach,

That's why you could tell the story,

Totally exhausted.

He only just made it.

But because he let go at the right time,

He didn't waste his energy.

If he'd have fought that current,

He'd have probably got taken out to the same place,

This time exhausted.

Because he just let the current take him.

And that took a lot of courage.

And then started swimming,

It saved his life.

That's why this letting go business is so wonderful.

It can save your life when you can relax in situations where the best thing to do is to do nothing.

If you've never done nothing before,

You don't know how to relax,

You don't know how to let go of controlling,

You won't be able to do that.

You'll die.

That's why this letting go is wonderful.

So you sit down,

You let go of your body.

To let go,

You've got to prepare it first of all to let go,

Just like you park your car,

You've got to make sure you don't just leave it somewhere with the doors open,

The keys in,

And you should say let go,

Let go,

Let go.

No,

No,

You just lock it up,

Make sure it's in a good place where you're not going to get a ticket when you go back.

And you can walk away knowing it's safe.

You can let it go.

Same with your body.

You put it in a comfortable position when you meditate,

On a chair,

Cushions,

Leaning against the wall,

Wherever it is,

Once it's comfortable you can let it go.

You can trust it's going to be okay.

That trust is important.

Otherwise you'd always be a little bit afraid that someone's going to steal something from you or someone's going to harm you,

Which is why worry means you can't let things go.

The baby can go to sleep in its mother's arms in a shopping mall.

Because it trusts its mother.

You can trust your body,

You can just let it go.

And it vanishes.

And then you trust your mind.

Trust your mind that it knows what to do.

You know,

My mind is much smarter than I am.

In other words,

I just say,

Hey you hard mind,

Off you go.

And I don't drive my meditation.

Sometimes I used to imagine that.

Imagine that me,

This driver of my mind,

Of my life,

And for meditation I imagine this steering wheel and these pedals.

If you're sort of an IT guy,

Imagine the mouse or whatever else it is,

And you know,

You turn off the mouse or you put it in the drawer,

Lock the drawer,

So you can't do anything.

This is the sort of thing which you do.

This little imagination,

So you totally let go of controlling.

That's what we're letting go of.

And we freewheel.

And we see what happens.

Yes,

Sometimes you do get a bit tired and dull,

First of all.

That's part of the course.

But just hang in there.

Because the tiredness is just,

The only way you need to be aware,

The only way you're used to being aware is with effort.

Now you just let go.

The mindfulness disappears for a while,

But then it comes back again.

You're aware.

And as you are aware,

It's an awareness without control.

You just see peacefully.

Like an observer rather than a pilot.

A passenger,

Not a driver.

And this is where you can let go and be really,

Really peaceful.

So this is one of the great keys to meditation.

Learning to let go of the wheel.

Don't be a driver.

Okay,

So I can keep talking for too long,

But I will now let go of my voice.

And we can now do some letting go meditation.

Basically the same old meditation,

But just from a different angle.

And for anyone who's come for the Introduction to Meditation course,

The Introduction to Meditation course is being held in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing experts,

Only a few inches away from enlightenment course.

Well,

Not really,

But you know what I mean.

Because we're now going to meditate for about 40 minutes.

So those are the introductory course,

That's in the room to my right.

This is the ongoing course for those who have a reasonable idea of what they're doing.

I said that actually,

Many of you may think you might go to the next class.

But no,

You know what you're doing roughly.

That's good enough.

So if you're right now to get yourself comfortable in a nice position,

And then we can start the meditation.

Here we are sitting down,

Eyes closed.

Before you leave your car,

You have to make sure everything is locked,

It's in a safe place,

You're not going to get a ticket.

So make sure your body is comfortable.

You'll never make it perfect,

You can never get the perfect place in the car park.

It's good enough.

Be aware of your body,

Got to be aware first of all.

Sometimes I ask myself,

What is the most prominent sensation in my body?

What feeling stands out above all others?

And I usually address that sensation.

And usually just lessen that sensation just by moving,

Loosening my belt,

Just adjusting my legs,

Or scratching my nose,

Whatever is needed.

When the most prominent sensation is dealt with,

Then I go to the next most prominent sensation.

Relax that.

As I talk every time I'm here,

If that sensation is inside your body,

A place you can't scratch or you can't massage,

You can still know that area of your body and you can still send compassion and kindness there.

And that is very effective.

I've been doing that for many years.

You can relax inner parts of your own body,

Just by being aware and by being kind.

It's like being kind to someone who's afraid.

Your kindness softens them and their pain lessens.

Just knowing someone is kind to them.

Even parts of your body are like that.

Just you being aware,

Paying attention to them,

Not being angry at your pain,

But being kind to it.

Being friendly.

Close away some of the tension.

Now when the body feels as comfortable as you can get it,

I let it go.

You see it's no longer any of my business.

I look after your body so many minutes of the day.

Now I've looked after you for the first five minutes of this meditation.

Cared for you,

Trying to make you comfortable.

That's enough.

Now body you're on your own.

I let it go.

No longer trying to control this body.

No longer trying to do anything,

Driving it or whatever.

Now I go to my mind.

I can see just how I control my mind,

Sending it here,

Sending it there,

Trying to make plans,

Trying to figure out problems of the past.

I can imagine myself at the wheel of my mind,

Directing it,

Or sometimes at the computer screen,

Clicking the mouse to the future of the past,

Trying to find solutions,

Thinking.

All coming on the screen that is my consciousness.

Now I turn off my computer.

Take my hand off the mouse.

And let things go.

I've got to trust that what happens when I let go is going to be alright.

That's my job to convince you.

You can let go.

But things get much better.

When you do let go,

Allow yourself to get down,

Allow yourself to.

.

.

All sorts of things might happen.

Trust it.

Letting go will soon create peace.

You no longer have any plans of what you're going to do in this meditation.

No goals.

No this is how I meditate.

Everything gets let go of.

No plans,

No guidebooks,

No instructions.

Let go and be.

Don't give any orders.

Sometimes it helps not to judge.

Not to say good or bad.

Not to say sleepy or aware.

Just to be.

And accept this level of being no matter what it is.

And if you get into a riptide of thinking,

Don't fight.

Let it be.

And taste the peace,

The freedom of not having to be in control.

Be careful not to judge,

Make all these assessments.

This is what should be happening,

This is what shouldn't be happening.

That's dangerous now.

That will start you controlling again.

Just let this moment be.

Or as I said in my book,

Open the door of your heart to this moment.

No matter what it is.

Whether you are wonderful or whether you are dull or whether you are evil or whether you are so happy.

This moment,

The door of my heart is open to it.

With unconditional awareness.

Just knowing this moment.

Not discriminating good moments and bad moments.

This moment has a right to be.

Respect it.

You are letting go.

If you can notice peace when it comes.

It encourages you.

You are in the right direction.

Notice stillness.

This wonderful quality of mind.

When all the agitation starts to settle down.

The waves on the lake that are your mind start to calm.

The lake becomes glassy smooth.

Notice that it encourages you.

Many thoughts of the past.

None of my business.

Any anxieties of the future.

None of my business.

Not mine.

Nobody else's problem.

Not mine.

Not mine.

The only thing you ever really own is this moment.

The past is a debt.

You don't own it.

The future is alone.

You don't own that either.

All you own is right here.

Any thoughts you have.

Not mine.

These are thoughts which just come into your mind but you don't own them.

They don't reflect who you are.

You can let them come if you want and let them go.

Open both doors of your mind.

The door which allows things in and the door which allows things out.

Just like the wind.

You never know where the wind comes from.

You never know where it goes.

You just know it as it's brushing past your face.

You can't keep it.

You let it come.

You let it go.

Just like thoughts in your mind.

Just like the wind.

Leaving no trace.

We put light into our hope at least at this time.

We're engrossed in this moment because touch can go beyond all of us.

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At Ajahn,

How to avoid running away from present moment during meditation?

Very nice question,

Gosei.

I hope I pronounced your name correctly.

How to avoid running away from the present moment is to become more friendly to the present moment.

If you are a really good friend to someone,

Then when they see you on the other side of the road,

They'll probably risk their life in the traffic and cross over to meet you because you're a great friend,

You've had wonderful times together.

That's what happens with me in the present moment.

As soon as I'm meditating and this is anthropomorphizing,

Making these experiences in a person's which is fine,

It gives a good explanation of what's happening.

Whenever the present moment sees me coming,

Ajahn Brahm,

We've had such wonderful times together.

Oh,

Do you remember that time in Bodhinyana monastery when we spent hours together?

Oh,

We had such a great time.

So much so the present moment comes seeking me out and won't let me go.

In other words,

If you have an attitude to the present moment of friendliness,

Having great times in the past together,

The present moment will never run away or you won't run away from it.

You hang out together because you're the best of friends.

The usual problem with meditators,

And it's not my own meditation,

I've been teaching this for a long time now,

Is you see that most people try and control the present moment just like you're the mother-in-law and the present moment is your daughter or son-in-law.

As soon as they see you coming,

Oh no,

Mother's coming,

I'm going out for the weekend.

What is because you've been too controlling and not enough loving.

So if you can actually love the present moment,

No matter what the present moment is,

It's beautiful opening the door of your heart,

Unconditional love,

Acceptance,

Unconditional mindfulness,

Aching,

Pain,

Hot,

Cold,

Sleepy,

Blissed out,

Whatever the present moment is,

You're fine.

So you accept,

Be with it,

This beautiful sense of respect.

Because sometimes we can respect the present moment when things are going well when we're happy,

When we're peaceful,

When we're healthy.

That's not good enough.

You got to respect the present moment even when it's having a painful time.

If you respect it in all situations,

To be able to love someone,

Also say in marriages,

The old days,

In sickness and in pain,

In restlessness and in sloth and torpor,

Is that what we say,

Buddhist marriages?

But you know what I mean,

This is unconditional love for the present moment and then it stays with you.

The reason it runs away is because you've been treating it like a slave,

Like a maid,

Putting in a cage and trying to keep it there.

That's why it keeps running away.

Always say that if you want to have a bird in a cage,

Always leave the cage door open so the bird can go off and fly away if it wants to.

And if your cage has got really delicious food,

Lots of nice things and it's very comfortable in the cage,

With the door open,

The bird will always come.

It will always come back and stay in there because it likes being in the cage.

And the cage door is open,

It's got freedom.

But if you keep the bird in the cage and the door is always locked,

Sooner or later,

It will happen that you leave the door open,

The bird will fly away and never come back again.

That's like mindfulness running away.

You've controlled it,

You've tried to keep it in the cage.

And you know,

One moment,

Lack of mindfulness,

Cage door open,

When your mindfulness of the present moment just goes,

Can't find it.

It's escaped from you because it didn't like you.

If that cage is beautiful,

Comfortable,

Really lovely food and water,

Then you find the bird stays.

Ellen from United States.

Ajahn Brahm,

Usually I can get into good meditation but occasionally,

Like now,

Despite doing everything you suggest,

I feel my body is just resisting so much.

Maybe it's better just to stop,

Get up and try later.

Is that a good plan or should I just continue on loving my unrelaxed body and mind?

I would actually say just continue on loving your relaxed body or mind and just accept that that's part of having a body or mind.

Sooner or later,

When you get started to get older,

Ellen,

I don't know how old you are now,

But you're certainly going to get older than you are today.

And it gets even harder to be with a body which is relaxed.

It's always going to have some aches or pains or dullness.

Sometimes it's good just to be with it,

This wonderful unconditional mindfulness.

Not just aware if you're peaceful.

Yes,

I'll be mindful of you if you're peaceful,

If you're calm and if you're nice and bright and happy.

Yeah,

I'll be mindful of you then.

The nice test is to have unconditional mindfulness.

You can be mindful of your body even when it's aching,

Even when it's tired,

Even when it's hot.

You can be mindful of your mind even though it's running all over the place.

This unconditional mindfulness is something which I said last night.

About mindfulness and drawing a circle.

And inside the circle,

All the things you love being mindful of,

You know,

Peace,

A kind body,

A healthy body,

It's nice,

It's easier to be mindful of that.

How about extending the circle?

It's bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger,

The circle,

So you include more things inside.

Even the things you first of all found uncomfortable and unpleasant,

Like a restless body,

An unrelaxed mind.

See if you can include that in your circle.

To be able to love that,

Include that into your circle of acceptance and then you can be mindful of it.

So that's a little practice you can do,

Ellen.

In your meditation,

Imagine that circle.

Inside is the meditations you like,

Meditation you find easy,

Meditation you say are good meditations.

Expand the circle.

So all those things you thought,

Yeah,

They're not really good,

They're not really bad meditations.

That comes in too.

And keep expanding that circle,

It's so big,

Even those things which once you call bad meditations are now included in.

That poem I tried to remember last night,

I actually saw it,

It's on our website.

They drew a circle which shut me out,

Heretic,

Rebel,

One to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win,

We drew a circle which pulled them in.

So your bad meditations,

Drew a circle to pull them inside.

And then when you include them,

You'll find you can meditate with anything.

Find peace.

Thank you,

Ellen,

For United States.

I hope I answered your question.

If I didn't,

Please don't put me outside of your circle.

Don't shut anything out.

Okay,

So any questions from the floor?

Yes,

We have a question from Richard.

Yes.

What is the Buddha meant by visitors to the mind?

I can't remember that particular quote.

So I don't know what the Buddha meant by it.

But I know what I can mean by it.

Visitors to the mind.

Every moment something visits my mind.

But when I call it a visitor,

It means it's not a resident.

So visitors can come and visitors can go.

And so the residents,

They have to stay,

They've got rites of lodging in that place.

So I can't get rid of them.

But if it's a visitor,

I can let it be.

It's just like we were talking the other day at monastery.

But over in Heathrow airport,

If ever you go there,

You'll find you have like EU residents,

Including UK residents,

And everyone else is called aliens.

I don't know why they call them aliens,

Because I was expected to see people with tentacles and bug eyes lining up to go in from outer space.

They are aliens.

So visitors to your mind,

Call them aliens.

In other words,

They're not mine,

Nor are they my business.

They're just visitors.

And if they're a visitor,

Then you can let them go very easily.

You can give them a visa to stay for one minute and then they have to leave.

Do not give them extensions.

So your mind can be nice and empty.

And all that ever stays in your mind are residents.

And choose a residence to be mindfulness,

Peace,

Joy,

And the visitors.

Do I think,

I was reading the newspaper today,

Do Tony Abbott's tow back policy.

I've heard them all.

Come on mind,

Come on thoughts,

Go away,

Out you go,

You're illegal.

You're not supposed to be here.

So don't give your bad thoughts or your restless thoughts asylum in your mind.

I get into trouble with this because I'm sure there's quite a few other people who have different ideas,

But you can get the idea in meditation.

Okay,

We have a question there,

Very good.

Yes.

I am a little confused about breathing meditation and when I want to do loving kindness or impermanent or another subject.

How can I thinking about loving kindness and generating this loving kindness in myself and same time I am focusing in my breathing.

This too is different,

I am a little confused.

How can I thinking about loving kindness and same time breathing,

Which one I have to focus?

Sorry,

Thank you.

So,

In meditation,

The best teaching is not to focus on anything.

Just be in this moment,

If the breath comes up,

Fine.

If you're aware of your body,

Fine.

If you're aware of the sound of someone coming in late or those beginners making a noise as they did just before 4 o'clock,

It doesn't matter.

Whatever comes into your mind is okay.

Be the breath,

It can be something else.

The most important thing is your attitude towards it,

Make peace,

Be kind,

Be gentle with it.

So it's the attitude you have to what you're aware of,

Which is crucial in meditation.

What you're aware of is not so important as how you are aware of it.

So if you are watching your breath,

Be kind to your breath.

Look at your poor old breath,

It's been coming in and out of you without a rest.

Some people have holidays,

We're going to have Christmas soon and most people aren't working,

Except monks like me.

But many of you have a break,

But your breath never has a holiday,

Never has time off.

It's been going in and out of your body ever since you came out of your mother's womb.

Thank you breath.

So when you respect the breath like that and are kind to it,

My breath,

Okay,

You can go in whatever way you want,

You can go in through my left big toe if you want,

You can go in hard,

Soft,

Long or short,

I don't care,

But I love you,

I care for you.

Then just like holding a baby,

The mother never drops the baby,

They never leave the baby in the shop,

Go back home and think,

I'm missing something,

Oh yeah,

I left my baby in the shopping mall.

They never do that,

But why do they do that?

Because they love the baby.

If you love your breath,

You never drop the breath somewhere and think,

Where did my breath go?

It will always be with you because you have the attitude of kindness and love towards your breathing.

Yes,

You want to come back with another question,

Please do so.

In your book about meditation,

You mentioned about loving kindness,

You say imagine some friend or cat,

Remember?

The my little cat,

Yes.

My question is,

How can I imagine that one and same time breathing?

You can't.

So do one thing.

If you're doing that type of meditation,

You're doing breath meditation,

If you're doing breath meditation,

You're not doing body awareness meditation.

So these are little trainings you can do when you're doing push ups,

You're not doing like walking,

You know,

Different exercises for different times.

But the best meditation when I was teaching here today is you don't choose what you're doing.

You sit there and you're just kind,

You let go.

And all these things,

The nice thing about the breathing,

Which I've mentioned,

It comes up by itself after a while.

You don't even need to choose to look at it.

As everything settles down,

You let go of the body,

The body settles down and disappears,

The past and the future vanishes from you so they don't take up all of your attention.

And the thoughts have settled down so you're not in the realm of thinking about this and imagining that.

And the only thing left which is moving is your breathing.

You're sitting perfectly still,

The mind has got no past and future.

The thing which is happening which takes your attention,

Is your breath because it's the only thing left.

That's why the Buddha taught the breath meditation because it happens naturally.

You don't even choose to look at it.

You let go,

You let go,

You let go,

You let go.

Then the breath is there.

And that stays for a while until you let go of the breath,

It gets so smooth,

So peaceful that the breath disappears.

And when,

Sometimes people who just think they have to do breath meditation,

Think,

Ahh,

I've lost my meditation.

You haven't,

This is nature,

Carry on.

Because after the breath disappears,

That's when you see these beautiful lights,

The nimittas.

So this is all part of the course,

This is just what happens.

So your job is to be a passenger,

Not even choose what meditation object I'm going to be aware of.

Just to be there and be still and watch all these objects come to you.

As in the retreats,

I used to call it like flying Buddha air.

On Buddha air,

You sit down and all these amazing flight attendants come to you.

And they present you,

Here,

Madam,

Here's the breath.

You don't even go looking for it,

It's served up on the plate.

Come later on,

Here's nimittas,

Thank you very much.

You don't go looking for them,

They come to you.

Here's ajanas,

Oh thank you very much,

That's a very good offer on Buddha air.

Later on in the flight,

They come with enlightenment.

Just last before you land,

They sort of offer up psychic powers,

Special offer,

Just for this month only.

You want levitation,

Meeting minds?

So all these things,

They just come to you.

You don't go searching for them.

That's when you fly Buddha air,

Which departs from Dhammaloka Buddha Centre in Nollamara at 3pm every Saturday afternoon,

One flight a week.

Ok,

You can tell I spend too much time in airports.

Ok,

So thank you for listening everybody,

We better go and do something,

Because over time,

You squeeze an extra 10 minutes out of me,

But I will not be charging you extra.