Day 338/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Hello and welcome once again to the ongoing class on meditation.

For those who are coming for the introduction to meditation class,

That is in the room to my right,

Other way in here.

This is the class where we do much more meditation than the other classes.

And we usually start off with about 15 or 20 minutes,

A little bit of instruction on something to do with meditation.

And as many of you know,

I just returned from a visit to UK.

And one of the events which I did there was a talk in Euston for meditation group where I started in Cambridge many,

Many years ago.

I saw some old friends I haven't seen for 35 years which is very nice.

But also in that particular group,

The meditation we did,

I mentioned in passing in some of the talks,

There was Anupana Sati which is meditation on the breath.

But there was a variation in the way that the breath was counted.

And so I thought just for a bit of variety,

It would be nice to maybe teach that here on a Sati because it's been very successful and these meditators have been going for all that time,

30,

40 years,

Got the nice little center out in Wales and one in Manchester and got a very strong group.

And the only difference with the meditation we teach here and that type of meditation,

First of all I have been stressing for many years now just to get the present moment awareness and silence,

At least some of that before you start watching the breath as a preparation.

And I have taught that because I had noticed in many people that if you go on to the breath too soon,

That it's hard to be able to watch it.

It just disappears.

But this is an alternative because you start with the breath but you have more things to do with the breath.

In other words,

You make it a little bit more interesting so that the mindfulness can grow with the breath without the mindfulness discerning the breath onto thoughts,

Dreams,

Fantasies or whatever.

So it's a very good way of anchoring the mind on the breath by doing some what's called counting.

And if you want to mess around with this,

Sometimes it is fascinating and also useful to have a few more different varieties of meditation.

Many of you have heard the counting method which I have been using for many years,

Breathing in one,

Breathing out one,

You count that to yourself,

Two,

Two,

Three,

Three,

Up to nine,

And then up to eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

I have mentioned that many times so I won't go into detail here.

In this particular group,

What they did was to do a longish breath,

A natural breath,

And then to that length of breath,

Sort of count the number six.

So you breathe in and you go one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Aiming to finish on the number six.

So in other words,

You are timing the breath to the count of six.

And then as the breath goes out,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

And breathing in again,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Breathing out,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

What that does means that during the whole breath,

Instead of just noting in breath,

Out breath,

You have to note to yourself,

In your mind,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

And because you have got something to do right throughout one in breath and right throughout one out breath,

It means it is very hard for the mind to wander off somewhere.

It just doesn't have the space to start thinking about what you are going to do later on this evening or what happened to you earlier today or any other problems you might have in your life.

Just within one in breath and with one out breath,

Just counting one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

And six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

Gives you something to occupy your mind during the space of one in breath.

And it also means you are actually focusing just on a narrow area of experience,

Just the in breath and just the out breath.

Once you have done that for maybe only about three or four minutes,

Sometimes five minutes,

Then using the same spacing between one and two,

Two and three,

Four and four,

The same rhythm if you like,

Then you extend the count to nine.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

Nine.

So it's an unnaturally longer breath.

And then nine,

Eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

So an unnaturally longer out breath.

And you just do that for a few minutes as long as it is not too uncomfortable.

And then you go back to the sixth breath again,

Breathing in one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

End of in breath,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

End of in breath,

And you do some unnaturally long,

Short breaths.

As you breathe in,

One,

Two,

Three,

Then stop,

And then breathe out,

One,

Two,

Three,

Two,

One,

One,

Two,

Three,

Three,

Two,

One,

Unnaturally short breaths.

Again it does give the mind something to occupy it.

Then you go back to your natural breath,

Using the sixth breath,

Breathing in one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six 1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1.

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1.

Until you really relax on that.

And doing that little method,

It just gives you,

Again,

An interest,

Something else to watch instead of just breathing in,

Breathing out,

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

And because the mind has that little bit of extra interest,

It's more likely to stay there.

Which is something to do,

A little task to complete.

And of course,

Being people educated in western schools,

We like doing tasks and completing those tasks.

And maybe do that for 10 minutes or so,

During that cycle,

For timing the breath to the count of 6,

Or rather timing the count to the average or longish average breath to 6,

And then extending it to 9,

Back to 6,

Down to 3,

And then back to 6 again.

And by that time,

Hopefully,

That you've got enough awareness of the breath,

You can let go of the counting and just feel the breath,

Without any counting,

You just know the breath going in,

Breath going out.

And then it just goes back to the normal method of meditation which we use.

So it's a little bit of extra to get the mind interested.

Because that's one of the hardest things in meditation,

Is actually to get to that stage where you do have awareness of the breath and awareness of the breath is reasonably easy.

What you are doing there is you are suppressing the tendency of the mind to go thinking about all sorts of different things,

To be aware of other things apart from the breath,

In other words,

To have a restless distracted mind,

Which is focusing on one thing.

And of course,

Once you have that awareness of the breath,

And it's pretty much in mind,

You can watch every breath go in,

Every breath go out,

Breath go in,

Breath go out,

And of course the next stage,

Often happens naturally,

You just fill the whole mind with the breath.

So it's like you have a screen,

There's many sort of corners which are blank and that can be filled with thoughts,

With sounds,

With other feelings in the body.

But now you fill the whole screen of the mind with the breath.

So all you have in your consciousness is just the feeling of the breath going in,

Going out.

We call that the experience of the whole breath,

Completely knowing the breath.

And that just pushes out all other distractions.

And again,

Not just the distraction of thoughts about the past or the future,

About fantasies,

But also pushes out the sounds outside of you.

And so you are so focused on this breath,

You can't even hear the sound of the car sort of reversing outside.

You can't hear the sound of someone turning on a radio in the house next door.

Nor can you hear someone coughing and you can't feel the sensations in your body because you are filling the mind with one thing.

Once you get to those stages of meditation,

Meditation really takes off.

It becomes very peaceful,

Very beautiful,

And you get into these very,

Very nice,

Deep states of meditation which I rarely talk about on a Saturday afternoon,

But I go into great detail talking about them in the retreats.

And if you want to find out more about those very deep states,

You can actually listen to some of the retreat talks.

Or that book which I wrote,

Mindfulness,

Bliss and Beyond.

But a lot of time people have a problem,

How do you get to that stage?

Where you start having full awareness of the breath.

And that little technique of counting the breath can be very helpful.

Because what it does,

It gives you something to hang on to when you are watching the breath.

For many people,

When the mindfulness isn't very,

Very strong,

If you haven't done enough present moment awareness and silence,

So you don't really know how to do those present moment awareness and silence bits,

You go straight on to the breath,

There is not enough there to grab hold of the mind.

It's not interesting enough.

Obviously,

If you have done present moment awareness and silence,

The mind is so still,

That it's so sensitive that it can actually see that breath.

In the talks which I was giving in London and also the retreat which I gave prior to going over there,

I just used the analogy of the lights in the room.

If you turn the lights down at night,

You can hardly see anything.

If you turn the lights up slightly,

Maybe you can see silhouettes,

But still it's in black and greys and whites,

Because there is not enough light for the eyes to see colour.

You can only see greys and silhouettes.

You turn the light up even more and then you can see more detail.

So what you see is more interesting and you can grab the mind as you start to see the features of a person's face,

The colour of their clothes,

The colour of the carpet,

But if you really turn the light up very,

Very strong,

You know,

To like search light intensity,

It's amazing what you can see.

I know because I travel around a lot,

When I shave in the morning,

In the bathroom,

In Bodhinyana monastery,

It's just this natural light there and it's in the morning.

So I can't really see my stubble,

Which is very helpful because I can finish shaving early.

But in some of these hotels which I've been in,

The mirror is so clear and have the light positioned in exactly the right place.

So no matter how many times I drag that shaver across my chin,

There's still stubble left.

I can see it all because it's very,

Very bright light.

I don't know,

It's probably the same with women doing their make-up in the morning.

Please never do your make-up in sort of bright light,

Otherwise you'll spend hours there.

It's never perfect.

You see too much.

So you can understand that to be able to see the breath,

And the breath is a very subtle object.

If you got even the average amount of dullness,

You can't hold it,

There's nothing there to grab,

You can't see enough of it.

Which is why we have these little support systems like counting the breath.

And you might try that,

It's only about 10 minutes.

Sometimes it can be a bit tiring at first because you got to do something,

You got to exercise the mind.

Like any other technique,

Once you get used to it,

It becomes almost second nature and it means you can get more attention on the breath.

The thing with the counting,

Never do it for too long.

If you do too much of the counting while you're meditating,

You'll just get another headache.

It's like being back at work,

Being back at the office on your computer screen,

Always doing something.

And of course that will never give you the peace,

The relaxation which meditation is supposed to give you.

So don't do it for too long,

Maybe 10 minutes at most.

And it gives a lot of variation there.

Remember that first of all,

Your longish,

Natural to longish breath and count 6 to that length of breath,

And then from 6 to 1 with the out breath.

Then using the same space between 1 to 2,

The same timing,

Extend the breath longer to the count of 9 and 9 to 1.

And then go back to the 6th breath,

Then go back to the short breath to the count of 3.

And then back to 6 and then drop the counting altogether.

So you can actually keep awareness of the breath.

Very simple technique but it's still going after 35-40 years.

I'm very surprised how successful they have been and how it's all Westerners,

How many of them are doctors and professors and they're doing very,

Very well in their life and they use that as their meditation technique.

That's what I started with when I was at Cambridge and it certainly worked for me.

I dropped it when I learnt other ways of focusing on the breath.

But still,

It's an interesting technique,

A one I have just introduced here to give you variety.

So any questions about that?

Is it quite clear about the counting of the breath?

So you may give it a try today and see what happens,

Who knows.

When you first do something,

It has the novelty factor which makes it interesting but it also has the unusual factor which makes it a little bit hard to do.

But if you want to play with that,

Fine.

If you want to do the ordinary meditation method,

That's also fine.

No comments,

Questions?

Ok,

Let's get going then.

So as always,

Close the eyes and spend a minute or two resting your awareness on your physical body.

Giving time for that awareness to grow so you can notice your posture.

How do you feel?

Are the legs comfortable?

Is the bottom properly situated on your cushion or on the chair?

Mine isn't.

To check that the back is comfortable,

There is no tension in the shoulders.

The hands are well positioned.

There is no best position for your hands in meditation.

There is all sorts of different positions.

They call them mudras in Pali or Sanskrit.

So it doesn't matter how your hands are positioned as long as they are comfortable.

And they can be left alone without needing to fidget them.

And the head is also relaxed.

There is special attention around the eyes and the mouth.

Because that's where you'll find that there is excess effort.

If those muscles are screwed down tight,

It does mean you are trying too hard.

So when the body is relaxed,

Especially the facial muscles,

Then there is a good chance the mind can also relax.

Relaxation has to happen before there can be any peace of mind.

So just linger on the body a tiny bit longer.

It's worthwhile.

It's okay.

.

And then when the body is truly relaxed,

Bring your attention to your,

I'm going to go in this method to your breathing.

Just breathe natural breaths.

And with that natural breath you experience,

Try and fit in the count of 1 to 6,

Without breath 6 to 1.

Keeping the breath natural to a little bit long.

You may take a few breaths before you can get the timing right.

1 to 6 and then 6 to 1,

Within each in breath,

Within each out breath.

Let's see if you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then go back to the natural breath for 1 to 6,

6 to 1.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

Now try a deliberately short breath to the count of 3.

From the out breath 3 to 1.

You might feel a bit uncomfortable at first,

This effort is required.

But it tends to make you focus on the breath and allow you to wander off.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then go back to the breath which is 6 long.

And then you can average to a slightly long breath to the count of 6.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And then you can extend the breath to the count of 9.

And when you're ready you can let go of the counting.

Just to know the whole in breath and the whole out breath.

As you come back to the usual meditation we teach here.

If you want to carry on further with the counting please do so.

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So getting close to the end of the meditation now.

It's time just to reflect how you feel.

Just to notice what this meditation has done for you.

To what state of mind has it led?

For it's in the feeling of peace and freedom and contentment,

The inner happiness of the mind.

We understand the results of this meditation.

We also look back to see what worked for us this time.

So we don't meditate just to experience a peace.

We learn how that peace comes about.

What attitudes,

What strategies work for us.

So our meditation grows better and more peaceful by this last few minutes reflection.

Now I'm going to ring the gong to end the meditation.

So please listen as usual to the three ringings of the gong.

When the third sound from the gong disappears,

Open your eyes to come out from the meditation.

GONG So hopefully those of you who experimented with the counting method of my first meditation instructions as a young 18 year old.

Hopefully that will give you a bit more understanding of how meditation works,

Another little technique or tool you can employ.

Sometimes there's all these different tools of meditation.

When you understand the goal of the meditation to keep the mind still,

To arise that feeling of peace and clarity,

The energy of the mind.

You can understand just how there's never two types of meditation or three or four or five or six or seven.

There's all different techniques to take the mind on the same journey,

The same goal.

These are just different ways of doing it.

And you can use all sorts of different techniques,

Especially at the early stages of meditation.

To find some one thing to put one's attention on,

Without the ability to sustain the attention on a simple object.

And again the breath is one of the best objects to sustain one's attention on.

Simply because it is a gentle,

Natural rhythm which calms down the more you watch it.

The more the breath becomes subtle,

The more it demands ever greater mindfulness to keep in track.

So the breath meditation leads to the increase of mindfulness,

The stillness of the mind,

Stage by stage,

Gradually.

That's why it's the best meditation taught by the Buddha.

So,

Is there any comments or questions about the meditation,

Especially the counting?

Did you find that difficult or was it easy to do or any problems?

Are there any questions about the meditation today?

Yes,

It's a good question.

I meant actually to say that.

You can start that counting.

Don't do it for too long at first.

That's why I led you through that sort of counting,

Just because that's about the right amount of time,

I think for me.

A little bit longer,

A little bit shorter.

You can just go off to the breath.

If you find you start wandering away from the breath,

You can come back and do a bit of the counting again.

Just to focus again on the breath.

It just gives you an anchor onto the breath when you are not that still yet.

So sure you can do it again.

But also please remember the first time you do these things,

It's always more interesting and easier to do.

After a while you get a bit too used to the thing and you get lazy and sloppy with it.

That's why the new methods usually work really really well the first few times.

Because they are interesting and they are fascinating and they are new.

After a while,

Then you have to try a new tool.

That's why I remember teaching Michael a long time ago.

He said it's great to have these little tools.

You use one for a while and when it gets a bit rusty and dull,

Put it aside and do one of the other methods.

When that gets a bit rusty and dull,

Then do another method.

Keep rotating them and then you can actually have the benefit of variety and newness.

You find that the mind will grab onto these things until it learns how to just really understand and hold onto the breath.

So the great little techniques.

I was actually quite surprised to see how many of those people I knew a long time ago were still doing that.

Still practicing the same method.

Obviously they must be getting something out of it.

They are mostly all intellectuals from Cambridge University.

That's where the whole group was centered.

They obviously had very intellectual,

Big thinking minds.

It really worked for them because it stopped you thinking.

You had to focus on the breath and you couldn't use your thinking mind.

In the end,

The best part of the meditation is to get past that and go to the breath.

Get the breath really peaceful and nice.

Get to the full awareness of the breath and the beautiful breath.

That's where you really take off your meditation.

All the different techniques all come together.

The mind starts to get lots of peace and happiness and joy.

You start doing that,

You get energy and you get this wonderful sense of inner freedom.

That's what meditation is supposed to be working towards.

It doesn't really matter what technique you use to get there.

As long as you get to the beautiful,

Peaceful,

Sharp awareness of the mind.

That was still a question that so many people were asking me.

Again when over in the UK,

Is there any difference between Vipassana and Samatha?

You had to keep on telling the same old story.

No,

There's no difference between Vipassana and Samatha.

I don't know how many times I told the story of Mr.

Samatha and Mrs.

Vipassana.

I told this story during the retreat.

Mr.

Samatha and Mrs.

Vipassana,

This wonderful married couple,

That's just their first names.

That's what people like,

They always ask the question.

Mr.

Samatha and Mrs.

Vipassana got different names.

Were they really married?

So yeah,

That's their first names.

Mr.

Samatha and Mrs.

Vipassana decide to walk up a hill on a nice weekend afternoon.

Mr.

Samatha wanted to go up there for the peace and the calm,

Which is on top of the mountain,

It's a long way away from the town with all its noise.

So Mr.

Samatha went up the hill for the peace and quiet.

Mrs.

Vipassana went up there for the beautiful view,

Because on top of the mountain you can see for miles around,

It was so beautiful.

So Mrs.

Vipassana went up the hill for the view.

And they held hands as they walked up the hill together,

And sure enough when they got to the top,

Mr.

Samatha experienced and enjoyed the beautiful peace and quiet up there.

But he had eyes,

So he enjoyed the view as well.

He saw the view.

And Mrs.

Vipassana,

She went up there for the view.

And she just enjoyed that view so much.

The scenery laid out in front of her was so delightful.

But she also experienced the peace as well,

Because the peace and the view coexist on the top of the mountain.

So it doesn't matter if you think you're doing Samatha.

If you're going up there for the calm,

You'll see the view.

If you think you're doing Vipassana,

You're just going up there for the inside,

So you'll experience the peace.

So basically there's no difference there.

Just the Samatha and Mrs.

Vipassana,

They all go together.

And actually they take their dog up there too.

And the dog is Metta,

Metta dog.

So if you think you're doing Metta,

Because Metta dog always wags its tail wherever it goes.

It all goes up to the same place,

Because on top of the hill,

There's not only peace and beautiful view,

There's always wonderful feeling of love and joy.

So the dog always goes up there as well,

Because he loves it up there.

And he nicks everybody on top.

So Mr.

Samatha misses Vipassana and the dog better.

Basically the same practice.

So any comments or questions about that?

For the second time,

Any comments or questions?

For the third time,

Going,

Going,

Gone.

Okay,

I think there's an announcement,

There's a weekend retreat coming up soon,

Isn't there,

Bianca?

June 1st,

When is the registrations going?

Next Friday,

Registration for the weekend retreat at St.

Joseph's Beachside Resort Centre in Rockingham,

Or Safety Bay.

So anyone who really wants to go further in meditation,

Just in the 40,

45 minutes,

You can start getting into it,

But then you've got to go home and do all this other stuff.

So those of you who want to take the meditation further and deeper,

You can do one of these retreats.

That's an easy retreat if you haven't done one before.

Starts on a Friday evening.

I think it's usually soup,

So you can go straight for work.

You have some soup there and you've got showers and stuff there.

So you can go straight for work,

Friday evening,

Holiday Saturday,

Sunday morning.

At what time do you usually finish?

It's Sunday,

1 o'clock,

2 o'clock,

3 o'clock?

About 3.

30 on a Sunday.

So it's a nice weekend by the seaside.

Beautiful weather this time of year.

And that's,

Is this just the one we're going to be teaching there?

Don't know.

Aha!

Maybe I was teaching it,

Maybe you're teaching it,

Bianca.

That's what I would be teaching.

Okay,

So we can pay respects to Pudavasanga and have a cup of tea.