Day 327/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

1:17:01

1:17:01

Day 327/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

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guided

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Meditation

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Everyone

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15 minutes of meditation advice/inspiration followed by 45 minutes of semi-guided meditation. There are some useful questions and answers at the end of the meditation practice. Ajahn explains the importance of combining mindfulness with kindfulness.

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Transcript

Very good. So it's almost 3 o'clock. Time for a nice meditation session, So welcome everybody to the ongoing meditation class. For those who come here for the first time, Who are doing the beginners meditation class, That is being held in the room to my right, This is the ongoing class. There are not a few people coming in so maybe I'll just pause for a minute and let's see the last people make their way into the hall. Okay, Excellent. So in the last week somebody sent an article to me, Some of you may have seen it, It was actually printed in the Guardian newspaper, Which was talking about some of the dangers of mindfulness meditation. Many of you may know that mindfulness was part of Buddhism, It's been taken out and made into a new age practice all by itself. And because it's a huge money maker for many people, Organizations, There are some people teaching this who really don't have much qualifications. And so sometimes people get into the difficult states of mind and these teachers do not know what to do. So you are fortunate, You come here to the teachers of teachers, The experts, The Buddhists, We invented this, So we know much more about it. So what sometimes happens to people when they're just doing mindfulness, The first danger is that people try and control their mind. Whenever you force anything, You're liable to get a lot of tightness and tension and that can cause a lot of difficulties. So here, I'm sure that you know, Those of you who've been here a long time or even just the last few weeks, You know we never force the mind in meditation. We don't use will power, We use wisdom power. Okay, Many of you have seen me do this before, But here again it fits in. How heavy is the glass of water? The longer you hold it, The heavier it feels. If you keep holding this for 45 minutes you'll be in pain. It's very, Very uncomfortable. This is not how to meditate, Holding the mind. How to meditate is letting it go, Putting it down, Being still. If you hold it, Yes, You will get tired, You will get emotional pain. You let things go and it becomes very peaceful and there's no danger at all. So much of the meditation, When you put it in the whole Buddhist practice of letting go, Of kindness, Then there's no danger whatsoever at all in any which way. So first of all, If you feel you're starting to get a bit tense, A bit tight, It means you're going in the wrong direction. If, For example, After you go home from the meditation class, People think you're worse than you were when you came in here, You're more of a pain in the backside than you were before you started meditating, There's something wrong going on there. And most of the time it's because you're forcing too much. Even people who have pain or headaches, Again it's because you're trying too much. Yes, There is sort of things like being able to watch the breath, But the only way you can watch the breath is never through force. So it's a beautiful way of letting go. Yes, You can sit perfectly still for 45 minutes, Through will power, But that doesn't get you anywhere. That is just like the guards at Buckingham Palace, Just standing perfectly still, I don't know for how long, And they don't even move. They can do that, But that's not called meditation, That's called control force. So that is not what's going to be helpful for meditation at all, That is dangerous. One of the reasons why from the very earliest time to seeing how your own mind works, Over 42 years as a monk, About 5 years before that meditating, See how your own mind works, You can see what mindfulness should be teaching everybody, You can see that when you try, Your mind gets stiff, It gets tense, You put pressure on it, And that causes the emotional aches and pains, Which when they get very, Very bad, Come up with like minor psychoses, And very debilitating states of mind afterwards, Anger, Whatever. So it's important to do the meditation right, Lots of letting go, And also lots of kindness. The kindness also is really, Really important, Because kindness is what softens anything which comes up. In the article that somebody was saying that when they started to meditate, They obviously resonated with something from their past which was quite painful and quite scary. The pain of the past, The scariness of the past, If we overreact to it, Can also cause us problems later on after the meditation, Which is one of the reasons why when we try and discipline it and say, You shouldn't be here, Get out of here, You don't belong, That actually reinforces those bad states of mind. So instead of reinforcing those bad states of mind by being afraid, Get out of here, You don't belong, We use this wonderful thing called kindness, Compassion, Which means whatever arises in the mind during the meditation, It could be some memory of a trauma from the past, You can really embrace it with the softness of mind. It's as if the past is punching you. If you're very, Very soft, Like a bag of mashed potatoes, You can punch that, Nothing breaks. It takes a punch, It's so soft and malleable. But if you punch one of the vases or vases, Wherever you came from, How you pronounce that, A little hard ceramic container will break straight away, It will shatter. If you're hard, You can't really take the so-called punch in this metaphor. If you're soft, It doesn't leave any mark at all. And this is actually what happens in the meditation. If you're hard, Tense, Even the small things which may come up in the meditation can actually almost damage you. It is the kindness, Compassion, Which makes you really, Really soft. And that compassion, That kindness also will overcome any fear which is happening. It feels so soft and so nice and so kind. Whatever happens, The door of my heart is open to everybody. Which means that whatever happened cannot scare you, It cannot harm you, It cannot do anything to you. We have all these old lovely stories of kindness in the jungles of Thailand. And in fact, Next week, On the 11th, What day is it today? The 6th, Only 5 days time, On Wednesday morning I'm going to Thailand, The following day meeting one of my old friends who spent some time in Bodhinyana monastery and he was a monk, Seeing him next Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, He was a monk who was meditating in the jungles many years ago. These are real jungles with real tigers and elephants and bears and snakes. And while he was meditating there, There was a noise in the jungle, Some big animal was coming and there was other monks there, They saw this. And it was a king cobra. And in that part of Thailand in the northeast, They used to give the king cobra a special name, A nickname, And it was called the one step snake. And the reason it was called the one step snake, Because if this king cobra bit you, You just have one step left in your life and then you'll die. His venom was very, Very powerful. So the one step snake, The king cobra came right up to this monk. He was sitting on the ground and the cobra raised its head, Opened its hood, Right in front of the monk's nose. What would you do if that happened to you? Forget about running. I've seen those snakes in the jungle. They are much faster than you. You'll never be able to outrun them. So what this monk did, Snakes right in front of his nose, King cobra, One step snake, One step and then you're dead if it bites you. This monk, Everyone saw it, Raised his hand and patted the cobra on the head. Saying in Thai, Because it was a Thai snake, Said it in English, Wouldn't understand, Thank you for visiting me, Patting a cobra on the head. Did the cobra bite him? Of course not, I'm going to see this monk on Thursday, Still alive, Very happy. So, With that simile, Kindness, Always told that in the jungles, You are kind, Real compassionate to all the animals and the animals will always leave you alone. In fact, They'll probably come up to you. Thai goes, Just under here, Can you scratch please? Scratch a little tiger under here. Whatever. But the kindness, Compassion protects you, It softens. Things can't harm you. Now in this metaphor, Things from the past, Sometimes can come up in meditation. Really bad memories like snakes from the past, Like tigers, Argh, Trying to bite you. If you don't have that kindness, People get very afraid, They get very tight and tense, And those things actually hurt you, They damage you. But if you have the kindness there as well, Nothing harms you. That mindfulness together with kindness is what will alleviate all those stuff which you read in that article in the Guardian newspaper about the problems of mindfulness. That is when you take something totally out of context, Focus on that and forget all the other supporting stuff which happens around you, Which we've had for centuries in Buddhism. That's why there's sometimes mistakes and people get damaged. So you're perfectly safe here and especially we don't teach mindfulness here. We teach kindfulness. A little invention of mind, You take mindfulness and you add kindness, You put those two together and kindfulness meditation changes a whole ball game. And it makes it incredibly safe, But not just to avoid the problems and make it safe. It also takes some meditation so much deeper. Even myself, Every now and again you're meditating, A little bit more kindness. Sometimes it's like, Well, I don't do this anymore. If you're making a curry, For me it's making the tea, If you're making some condensed milk, Is it sweet enough? No, It needs a bit more. Same basics, Always needs a bit more, Never less. Anyway, You're making a curry, Does it need more salt in it, Does it need more curry powder in it, Need more herbs in it? And you taste it to find out what it needs. And that's like meditation sometimes and it can always take some more kindness in your meditation. So that's what I'm doing sometimes, Meditating, It needs a touch more kindness. Some of the ingredients like you put into meditation. And it always works, A little bit more kindness and wow, You really take off into deep meditation. Which is why mindfulness and kindness is the key. So you're aware and you're kind to whatever you're aware of. You develop this beautiful state of mind, Of being aware, Of being soft and loving and compassionate to whatever you experience. A soft mind. So if I am kind to you, You guys are kind to me. I used to go into prison, There were some gorillas, There were some monsters in those prisons who've done terrible things. But because you were really, Really kind to them, There's no way in the world, They told me this, There's no way in the world anyone here will harm you, Because they got off on your kindness and gentleness. I was talking to some of the monks the other day. Once in the old Fremantle, Fremantle crematorium, Those of you who've been there years ago, They used to have this tiny little room, Big chapels now, They used to have this tiny little room where they used to do the cremations or just the services prior to the cremation. And once I was invited to do a bikie funeral. A bikie had died. These guys who came into the funeral, I was supposed to be contorted, They were all in their leathers and tattoos over them, And they were the big, Mean guys. You wouldn't like to be alone with one of them in the dark street of Northbridge on a Saturday night, Or actually in the any time of the day anywhere. They were really big and mean and powerful built men. But I was really kind to them, I was doing a funeral service with one of their mates because their mother was a Buddhist. And after the funeral, All these really tough guys, These mean, Nasty guys who were no scary, You silly, They all came up to me and said, Nice service, Sir. Very well done. Can I shake your hand? Well done, Sir. They all called me sir. They're bikies. Really nice people. When you're not on the other side. So anyway, Just a kindness, Compassion, Nothing can harm you. When you have that kindness and compassion in your meditation, Nothing actually harms you. You're perfectly safe and you get so peaceful and so still, And so wonderful, It feels good. So don't just be mindful, Be kindfull. And then anything you ever hear or read about people doing mindfulness meditation and seeing weird stuff, Bad memories and getting tense or not being able to breathe, That will never ever happen to you. Be so peaceful, So relaxed, That those things never occur. So remember, Don't just be mindful, Be kindfull. And I say this because some of you will help your friends meditate. You will teach them, You'll give them some advice. But please tell them to add the kindness into the meditation, The softness, And then the cobras of the mind will never be able to bite you. Just pat them on the head. Okay, So that's the instructions to begin with. I will be leading the meditation for the first 10 or 15 minutes and then I'll let you free as you go off and to do whatever you're doing. I was telling the other day that people were saying, Do you monks multitask? Yeah, Well some of you multitask. You meditate and you catch up on your sleep at the same time. That's called multitasking. So please don't multitask. Okay, So here we go. Sitting now, Close your eyes. With your eyes closed, Feel your body. I always like moving my body at the very beginning. Because I teach others, Sometimes I describe what I do and I have to understand more deeply why I do this. Why do I move? It's one thing to start to arouse mindfulness of my body. Because when I move it, Stop all thinking, Stop all fantasising, You're feeling your body move. And actually there was a Thai monk who starts his whole meditation moving the body, Moving your hands up this way all over the place. It means you have to be mindful of your body. It's a nice way of stopping thoughts at the beginning. So you can move your body. Fidget your bottom. Adjust your legs. Stretch your shoulders. Adjust your hands. Move the head up and down. And recognise as you do this, You'll be mindful of your body. You're doing this to find the most comfortable position of the body. You are being aware of physical comfort. You're aware of how comfortable or how uncomfortable your body is. Stay on that object. That is your first meditation object. The comfort or the tightness of your own body. If you want to scratch anything, Please do so. Cough, Please cough. If you don't want to let out wind, Please sit at the back. So no one is behind you. And still feel the body. And when you can't make yourself more comfortable through movement or scratching or coughing, Then develop the mindfulness. Take it to the next level by being aware of the part of your body which is the most irritating. That irritation could be full blown pain, Just dull ache or itch such as in your nose or your throat. Just be aware of that. Take that the object of your meditation, Of your mindfulness. And that kindness, Be kind to that feeling. Kindness is not trying to get rid of it. Kindness is being soft. Because you're not hard, You're not brittle, That pain doesn't have much effect. Hit a sack of potatoes or hit a vase, Totally different effect. So you're nice and soft to that ache, Irritation or pain somewhere in your body. And you find with kindness, The irritation, The pain, The tightness usually diminishes. If you feel some strain in the body, You can imagine like there's a string, Like a muscle being pulled at both ends. And you imagine letting go at both ends. You can visualize whether it's a muscle or a rope or string being pulled tight. And you imagine both ends being released. So that part of your body can be loose, With no tension in it anywhere, Nothing pulling at it or pushing it. If there's an ache or pain, It's like there's pressure on there. See if you can remove the pressure. Open the valves, Take it out of the box, Let it expand, Be free. There's no pressure you are putting on your body. That is also called kindness, Allowing it to be, Opening the door of your heart to that feeling in the body, The tightness, The tension, The pain, In one small area of your body. And be mindful of how that feeling relaxes, How the irritation lessens, The pain reduces. Your body is relaxing, Opening out. Whenever your body does relax, It has this beautiful feeling of relaxation which is extremely pleasant. So also be mindful of when your body is relaxed, And enjoy it, Because the enjoyment takes the relaxation deeper. So so so so so Once one part of the body is relaxed, Go to another part. By relaxing the body, You are learning how to maintain your mindfulness on something you're used to at first, Your feelings in the body, Maintain your mindfulness there, And also learning the kindness, It's the kindness which relaxes the body. Just like the pain doesn't bite when you're kind, That's why the snake doesn't bite when you're kind to her. So so so Once the body feels good, Let the body go, And do the same, Mindful and kind, To your mind, The object being just how peaceful or how agitated you are. You're preparing the mind for later on, Knowing how peaceful it is, And taking that peace deeper. Mindfulness gives you feedback. You soon learn when you're kind, Your mind relaxes. As it relaxes, The thoughts get so soft they vanish. So so so so so so So being aware, Focusing not on thoughts or dreams, But focusing on the underlying state of your mind, How peaceful, How agitated, And with kindness, Relaxing your mind. And then you come into this beautiful present moment, Just being here, Relaxed at peace. To stabilize the present moment, Just need that more kindness, More peace. So still be aware, Focus mindfulness on the peace in your mind, And how that peace increases, Or how it vanishes. Why? You learn how to increase peace of your mind. So so so so so As you settle down, It's quite natural to be aware of your breathing. It comes to you. Just be aware of it. Mindfulness and kindness, Settling the breath now, And I will now be quiet. So so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so Getting close to the end of the meditation now. Just know how you feel, How different this is than when you began, How much more peaceful, How much softer your mind is. And why? What worked and what didn't? As you learn from experience. I'll now ring the gong three times. Please listen to every sound from the gong after the third ringing come out. GONG Okay, That's using a little bit of kindness with your mindfulness. Like everything with practice really gets very deep. So we have a couple of questions, Have we? From overseas, See what we have today. You can see Saturday afternoon classes are streamed worldwide, Now we have three continents, One from USA, One question from Sri Lanka and a question from Germany. Hahaha. First of all from USA, I'm getting drowsy during meditation, I go to college and I'm often busy, How can I get rid of drowsiness during meditation, It's really bothering me. First of all, You are very busy, Fellow in the United States goes to college, So you have to be more efficient. So we do the one thing at a time practice. If you are listening to a lecture, 100% listen to lectures, Don't think about the girlfriend or the boyfriend or the party happening afterwards, Focus totally on the lecture. Later on when with your friends, Enjoy their company, Focus totally on their company, Don't think about the meditation or the lecture. When you're doing the assignment, Focus on the assignment, Not on what's coming afterwards. If you give importance to what you're doing in this moment, Focus on that, You find you don't waste your energy of your brain. Too often people do too many things at the same time. They're listening to a talk but they're planning where they're going to go afterwards. They are meditating but they're also working out their problems. They are eating and they are talking. See if you can do one thing at a time and you'll find then the energy which you have to use during the day is used wisely, You preserve it, You don't waste it. And in particular, Don't think about things you can't do anything about. That old simile of that Prime Minister of England, Who during the time of the Six Day War, 1968, Was asked, 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? In 1968 the problem is still there. Or is it a problem? Because this man said a problem is something with a solution. If there's no solution, It cannot be a problem. Very wise saying. If you're in the United States, Don't think about things which haven't got a solution. You're wasting your mental energy. If it has got a solution, Something you can do about it, Then it's a problem. Give it your energy. If you're wasting time, You can't afford to waste time, You haven't got enough energy. So I'm asking you to be more mindful of how you waste energy during the day. So then you're not so tired when you meditate. In Sri Lanka, I can't focus on the present moment during meditation. And even it affects me in my studies, The lessons don't go into my mind and I keep on forgetting things. Again, Because you're trying to focus on the present moment. Just try to focus on letting go of the past and the future. So you're focusing on letting go of the past and the future, So everything left, The only thing left is the present. If you try and focus on the present, There's too much force. So remember this path of meditation is a path of letting go of things, Not focusing on things. If you let go of everything else, The only thing left is the present moment. So if you follow the instructions like I said today, Add a bit of kindness to yourself during the day, Then the present moment is the only place you have. So you don't focus on it, It's your default state. So you just let go and that's where you are. Lastly, From Germany, Do you recommend a certain minimum time span and frequency of your meditation practice, Such as twice a day for one hour or less or more? No, I'm not a doctor who says take meditation one hour after lunch or after every meal three times a day. So that doesn't make sense to me, Never did. So it's like how many times do you eat a day? Sometimes many of you just eat just once because you don't feel hungry. If you don't feel hungry, Don't eat. So are you hungry for meditation? And after a while you feel that you really need to do some meditation because like if your tummy is empty, If you really need some energy, You go and have a cup of tea or coffee or fruit juice or something and you have something to eat, You feel this is the time to eat. How many times do you eat a day? Depends how hungry you are. How much energy you need in your body. And the same with your mind, Your mind also needs energy, It needs nutriment. And one of the things the mind needs is peace. If it doesn't eat enough peace, As it were during the day, It gets very cranky, It gets depressed, It just gets upset and angry. All signs of a mind which is not healthy. So if you give it peace, In other words meditating, You'll find it's really healthy and it's also very productive. In this world we all have our jobs to do, We all have duties, Me included, I have to perform, I have to produce, And so I have to make sure I use my mind efficiently. I realise that sometimes my mind is dull, It's not going to be able to write an email or do any calculation. So instead I meditate, You can feel that. You give my brain a big meal of peace and kindness. When I've had my meditation meal, Come out afterwards, You can do anything, You feel really, Really strong. So this is actually whenever you need it, You do it. Never think that you cannot afford the time. You haven't got enough time to meditate. The standard response to people who say, Well I'm too busy, I don't have enough time to meditate, Was this fellow who had a very, Very, Very busy job, But nevertheless he used to say, I always meditate one hour every day except when I'm busy. He meditates one hour a day except when he's busy. And he added, When I'm busy I meditate two hours. This little unexpected twist at the end of his statement was explained by the fact, If I'm busy, I've got to really perform to a high standard, Then I know I have to meditate more to get myself really, Really, Really peaceful. Like I was saying I think at the retreat last week, Because apparently last week, Was it last week? I think it must have been, You can tell me, Because I don't know these things too well. The Australian tennis open, Novak Djokovic won again. But this guy, When I think, Was it during the rain retreats, People showed me his articles about him, When he was playing at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, He would go to the Thai temple in Wimbledon, Very close by, I know it very well, I've given talks there before, Just literally round the corner from the All England Tennis Club. So just walking distance, So he used to go there every morning to meditate for an hour or two. That's why he won, That's why he's the number one tennis player, He meditates. He used to go to the Thai temple, Nice and peaceful and quiet, Especially every day, Because he really needed a big dose of peace to be able to perform well. So I'm sure he had very nutritious food as well, He was a sports scientist who was saying exactly what he needed to eat, Not too much, Not too little. And he knew, Not just the food, But his meditation, Stillness was also vitally important. So I'm sure because he was very busy during the Wimbledon tennis tournament, He meditated more. When you're busy, You meditate more. If you're not so busy, You don't have to meditate so much. Hee hee hee hee. Okay, Any questions from the people here? From. . . So yes? Questioner 1. Sometimes we get into the very deep meditation. The deep meditation is my favourite. Questioner 1. The feeling of the smell of perfume. Perfume? Okay. What happens, I can explain that very easily, Is when you start to get deep in meditation, Because you are energising your mind, When you get very peaceful and still, You're not wasting energy, Energy starts to go into the knowing mind. When that starts to really pick up energy, You can hear sounds so clearly. You can feel your body. People have sometimes the experience of like, Ants crawling all over their body, You can feel their body so sensitive. And they can also smell much more powerfully than they've done before. And it's not unpleasant because as the mindfulness increases in power, Which is what's happening, Your mindfulness is going up in its intensity, In its megawatts, In its gigawatts. And as it goes up, You can feel more, Smell more, And whatever it sees, Whatever it feels, Even tasting, It's more delicious, More beautiful, More fragrant. Those smells have always been there. But now you can pick them up. And they're beautiful, They're perfume, They're not stinky smells at all, They're lovely smells. And it's not really a smell which other people smell. Many people, Jasmine, Sandalwood, Whatever it is, Just these beautiful smells. And all it is, Is your mind is increasing in power. So that happens, Wonderful, Enjoy. It's particularly natural, You're not doing nothing wrong. It is a real smell which has been amplified. Your sound was a real sound, But if you didn't have that microphone in front of you, I would not have heard it. So the microphone is your mindfulness, Really strong. Real smell but so small, So slight, That normally you can't smell it. But now you can. Wow. That's why people have experiences like that. So often if you go outside after a good meditation, Wow, The trees, The bushes, Even the cars shimmering in the sunshine. It's gorgeous. Everything looks wonderful. It's a wonderful experience when the meditation gets going. Everything you see is joyful, Happy, Beautiful. It's part of the Course. Yes? Is there a way to boost the kindness? Is there a way to boost the kindfulness? Yes, Of course there is. Develop kindness, Get a pet, A dog and learn kindfulness from a dog. The dog was always kind to you. If you forget to feed it, Still be kind to you, It won't bite you, It will just lick you. It's incredible just how devoted and accepting and embracing the dog is. Or a cat, Or a little rabbit or something. Learn some compassion and kindness. If you haven't got a dog or a cat, You can get a girlfriend. That's a bit more sometimes they've got claws like cats. If you haven't got that, Do yourself, Look at yourself in the mirror and just be kind to yourself. Develop that compassion, Compassion to the day and compassion to yourself. This beautiful sense of, Ah yeah, I'm an old monk, Yeah I tell silly jokes, Yeah I repeat my stories again, But there's beautiful kindness to yourself, Softness. That's a wonderful thing to develop in our life, Opening the door of your heart, This beautiful smile to life. And then we do that and meditate, Oh, It takes off. It's one of the reasons why people's meditation doesn't take off. They've got mindfulness but no kindness. It's such a hard world sometimes, We've taken that hardness on ourselves and it's very hard to be kind to yourself. Kind to others, Kind to the cat. You learn from the cat or the dog how to be kind. Okay, So it is now gone. That's 4. 15, So thank you for the two questions from here and the questions from overseas. So now we can pay respects to Pudham and Sangha and we can do whatever we need to do.