Day 345/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

1:13:22

1:13:22

Day 345/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

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guided

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Meditation

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Ajahn Brahm delivers 15 minutes of dharma talk/meditation advice and inspiration, followed by 45 minutes of semi-guided meditation (about 20 minutes guided meditation and about 25 minutes of silent meditation). After the meditation practice, there is a Q&A session with the community. Ajahn Brahm explains the importance of kindness in meditation.

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Meet your Teacher

San Francisco, CA, USA

Transcript

Welcome everybody to this afternoon's meditation. For those of you who have come to the introduction to meditation classes, They are held in the room to my right, Between here and the reception area. This is the ongoing class for those people who are just that far from enlightenment. So I just need that final push. In other words, You've meditated before. Okay, Introduction to meditation class on the room to my right. Very good. Some more. This, Okay. There's someone in there in a few moments. So usually on this class we say something about meditation as we go along and give another aspect of meditation every Saturday afternoon. Just because somebody was talking about the old Vipassana and Samatha meditations, That's a traditional, They call it a distinction but really it is the same. What Vipassana means is like having some insight into what's going on. What Samatha means is developing the calmness of the mind. Really the truth of the matter is that the two always go together. In other words, As you calm the mind down, You see more deeply. As you see more deeply, You should be able to become calmer. Because that's the job of calm, Is actually to see deeply. And the job of seeing deeply is to make things more peaceful in your meditation. So as we're meditating, The usual way of present moment awareness, Of silence and watching the breath and getting full awareness of the breath, There are times when it doesn't work or there's obstacles, So you just sometimes just can't do it. And of course what many people do is they just try harder. And trying harder is not the right way. In actual fact, The harder you try, The more restless you become. Because the path of meditation, If you call it the path of stillness, You can understand when you try, You're actually agitating the mind. You're stirring everything up. So it's bound to get worse. The problem is that usually whenever we have problems in our life, Or in our world, We just give it a bit more effort and push through. That works in life, But it doesn't work in meditation. So we have to find a more wise way of dealing with the problems. Which is why when we come across any problem in meditation, It's great to look with insight into that. What's going on? What's the real problem here? And it's the insight is the way we go past the problems in our meditation. So when we have some meditation and we start getting some, We say our mind is restless. Instead of saying, Come off it mind, Just be still and grab hold of the mind as if you're throttling it, You find with insight that's not the right way. That just makes your mind even more agitated and upset. Instead, I often give the simile for those of you who have had children, If your child is in bed at night and for some reason cannot get to sleep, How do you go into your child's room and help it get to sleep? Don't take it by the throat and throttle it and say you get to sleep or else you're going to be in big trouble, I'm going to hit you if you don't go to sleep in 5 minutes. Because of course that will never get your child to go to sleep, It just gets more wound up. And of course sometimes that's what we do when we have a problem in our meditation, Sometimes we throttle our mind, Come on mind, Behave or else. As if you are going to hit your own mind and smash it because it doesn't do what you want. When you put it that way, You can see what the problem is. I mention this because I've done that in my early years as a meditator. Of course it didn't work but at the time I couldn't see why I wasn't applying insight into the path of meditation. So you look at these problems as if you stand back and say, What's going on? Why is this not working? You find the reason why the mind is restless is because it's agitated. And if it's agitated, The best thing to do is to calm it down. So you use all your calming strategies which you use for other things in your life. Like calming down your child. You just soothe it. If you had a child, What do you do? You just go to its bedside, Your daddy is here, You start stroking it kindly, Softly, Gently and then your child goes to sleep. In the same way, That's how you use any restless mind. Okay mind, You're restless, That's alright, I'm here, Calm down, It's okay. And then the mind actually does calm down. So there is a little insight which gives you an idea of how these processes work. At the same time you get the underlying cause for these symptoms. Restlessness is a symptom, The cause is you're getting too involved, You're too agitated. You've got to calm the agitation down. Or if there's any sort of external difficulties like you've got aching legs or you've got aching back or you've got a cough or you've got a snuffly nose or there's dogs next door, They haven't barked yet but I'm sure they'll bark soon. And then, Ah, This is a big problem. And sometimes you think, Okay, Let's go and call the council and just drop in those neighbours who always bark, Who's got dogs who bark on a Friday night when we're meditating on a Saturday afternoon. Maybe we should have a collection of double glazing on these windows. Let's say triple glazing so it's completely soundproof. Whatever it is, You start trying to solve the problem in a way which makes more agitation, It's not insight. But what the insight really is, Is when you have these disturbances and you realise these are physical disturbances and you're allowing them to disturb your mental process. You're saying, I don't want the pain, I don't want to hear the dogs, Dogs shouldn't be allowed to bark. That's what dogs do, They bark. I never see the dog yet which doesn't bark, Sometimes. It's just what bodies do, They ache. I've never seen a body yet which doesn't ache and get in pain. That's what throats do, They get itchy and coughy. I don't think there is a throat which doesn't cough from time to time. It's the nature of things and the insight says, Well this is our nature. Why don't I just leave it alone, Allow it to pee? And the insights into the obstacles, Which are the external obstacles to meditation, You realise that the problem is not out there, The problem is how we respond to the obstacles of life. What Ajahn Chah said, It's not the sound that disturbs you, It's you that disturb the sounds. It's like an insight into how it all works, How meditation works. I don't know, You might go to some beautiful mountain in the middle of the Himalayas to meditate and you're up there being quiet, Just about to get into enlightenment and you see this party of trekkers come and disturb you. Or you go in a deep cave, A deep hidden cave under the Nalabhar and you find a Channel 9 crew in there sort of doing some documentary on caves, Wherever you go, And I've done this many times, You just can't get away from people from noise and irritations. What you can do is get away from this little voice inside which doesn't like things. That is the insight which solves the meditation problem. You're calming your mind down. You can't calm the world down outside. Certainly you can calm your own mind. You can be still inside. That silence which I talk about, The second stage of meditation, It's not silencing the world outside, You just can't do that. All you can do is you can silence your response to the world. Shhhh. The dogs might be barking but you're silent. The cars might be screeching outside and your mind is just listening without moving. Everything inside gets still. Even in Hay Street Mall, I remember sitting for two hours once in Hay Street Mall, Opposite the mall, By that, What's that, Methodist, The old Methodist church there. Many, Many years ago there was supposed to be a demonstration about the situation in Burma which I joined into. It was a peaceful demonstration, You can't be more peaceful than that, Just sit in meditation for a little while. I just sat on the pavement there with a few other people. I thought it was a nice test in the middle of the city, You know, The traffic is light. I think it's called Time Zone, One of those arcades some time ago where you can play video games. It was just opposite where we were sitting. There's huge blaring noise coming out. I thought, This is a really great place to meditate. See if you can, Not disturb the noise. So I ended up just sitting there for a couple of hours on the pavement, Sort of perfectly still, Wonderful, Nice experience, Just to test myself out what you can do. So you can do that by not disturbing the noise. That's insight, Which means the whole problem disappears. And of course the other biggest problem which people have these days is sleepiness. Sitting there and they get so dull and sometimes even people have snored. If someone snores, Don't disturb the snoring. Poor thing, They must be very tired. Let them go to sleep. But as for you, The way to overcome your snoring is actually just to have insight. What's going on? How is my mind dull? A lot of time, It's very obvious why your mind is dull. Because you're tired, Because you've been running around. That's very common on a Friday night, Not so much on a Saturday afternoon, Because many of you haven't been working this morning, You can take a bit of time out and have a break and have a good rest this morning. If that's not the case and you have had a busy week and you haven't really overcome your tiredness, You were up late last night, You're going to be tired. Insight says, This is nature, So let it be. Don't fight and make war, Which is unwholesome karma. When you make peace with things, The tiredness doesn't last all that long. When you fight it, It lasts longer and longer and longer. Just like the coalition of the willing in Iraq goes on and on and on and on and on. Instead of fighting a war with your mind, Leave it alone, Let it be. You'll find it's amazing how quickly it sorts itself out. So this is actually how we use insight. What's going on and why? What's the cause of this? So don't just act on symptoms. Like a good doctor, We find the underlying reason, Why we have obstacles in our meditation. And later on, As you go more deep in meditation, You get beautiful mind states. Your insight says, Why can't I go deeper? A lot of it is because you want to go deeper. And that wanting, That anticipation or expectation, That is disturbing and agitating your mind. And the insight which is saying, That's what the problem is. So you just give up all wanting. You just contend to be where you are, No matter where that is. Fully happy just to be here in this moment. What happens next is the future's problem. Now I'm peaceful enough, Oh isn't this nice? So when you take away the wanting, The expectation, The anticipation, You see that with the insight, Those things which you want to come all by themselves. You understand the nature of the mind, How it works. The more you do, The more you expect, The more you plan and want, The more your mind becomes disturbed. Becomes disturbed by the wanting. You see that and you say, Ah that's the problem. So you just abandon the wanting, The expectations, The plans, The anticipations, All the fears, You just stay in this moment. And my goodness, The meditation just goes deeper all by itself. And the insight comes, This is a natural process and you're just the observer. Just like the similes which I've given, Just like going on an aircraft, As soon as you get on your seat, You just sit down and relax. You can't tell the plane when to take off, You can't tell the pilot which way to go, You can't tell the engines to fly faster, Completely out of your control. You just sit down and do nothing. And soon the aircraft gets to your destination. That's what meditation is like. Sit down and do nothing and the meditation flies by itself. So these are insight practices. As you see deeply into what's going on and why, How the whole thing works, What the obstacles are, When you see the obstacles, They're so easy to overcome. Okay, That's a bit of insight into the practice of meditation. Any comments about that? Okay, Just to make again the announcement. This is the ongoing meditation class. For those of you who come into the introduction to meditation class, That's in the room to my right, You can still go in there because now we're going to meditate for about 40 minutes. This is the ongoing class for people who have done meditation before, A reasonable amount of it. We're now going to sit for 40, Or 45 minutes. So are you ready? Let's go. For those of you who are been sitting a long time, If you wish to get up and stretch your legs, Now is a good time to stretch your legs, To move things, To scratch things because now we're going to sit down and remain still for the next 40 minutes or so. I knew those dogs will part sooner or later. Okay, So sitting down, Close your eyes, Relax the body. I don't spend too much time talking about physical posture, Which one is the best, Because there is no perfect best posture for everybody. The older you are, The more damage is done to the body, You've got to find the posture which is suitable for you. How you put your legs, How you put your feet, Your hands, Your back, You feel the right posture rather than follow some book. You sit down and think, Is the best I can do? If you can do better, Just move the shoulders or the legs or the butt, Just to get it in the best possible position. Okay. Even though a minute has gone past, Keep looking at your body. It takes time to build up sensitivity to the physical feelings. And also it's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. It's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. It's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. It's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. It's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. It's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. It's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. It's a great exercise in patience, Allowing this meditation to work rather than forcing it and rushing it. When the body is set up, Then we put our attention in this present moment, The first stage of meditation of letting go of moving backwards and forwards in time. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. We disregard the past, Disregard the future and make present moment our main focus. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. Once one has present moment awareness, They're deepening into silence. And washing the breath. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Knowing it as it goes in, Knowing it as it goes out. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. Allowing the breath to be one's vehicle. That's very close to the end of the meditation now. Before we finish, We ask ourselves how we feel. How deep into stillness have we gone? And what does it feel like? This is where we get insight into the nature of peace, Of stillness, The inner contentment developed by meditation. This is where we get insight into the nature of peace, Of stillness, The inner contentment developed by meditation. This is where we get insight into the nature of peace, Of stillness, The inner contentment developed by meditation. This is where we get insight into the nature of peace, Of stillness, The inner contentment developed by meditation. This is where we get insight into the nature of peace, Of stillness, The inner contentment developed by meditation. This is where we get insight into the nature of peace, Of stillness, The inner contentment developed by meditation. Now I'm going to ring the gong three times. Please listen as usual to every sound from the gong. When the last sound from the gong disappears, Come out from your meditation. GONG There we go. Hopefully this session, Like all the sessions here on a Saturday afternoon, Give you another angle on meditation and how this one, Using the insight during meditation, Can actually solve the problems of meditation and get you deeper and deeper and deeper into the still states of mind. Always understanding there's a cause for things. So instead of just looking at the symptoms, If the meditation is not going well, Go deeper. Always ask the question, Why? What's happening? Sometimes I give an assembly like your meditation hits the brick wall and instead of just bashing your head against the same spot in the brick wall, Just stand back a bit. It's always the case if ever I hit a brick wall in the meditation practice, I just stand back and I see just to the left is a door going through, Just to the right is a ladder going over the wall. It's just sometimes when one's got a narrow vision, All one can see is just a part of an obstacle and you can't see your way around it. We use force and it hurts us and makes us frustrated. We use wisdom as always a way around the obstacles one faces in meditation. And the insight builds that skill base. As you learn from previous experiences, Just how to deal with each and every one of the obstacles which come up in meditation. Then you become a very skillful meditator. A meditator who can see these obstacles when they come up and exactly what to do, Skirt around them and get into ever and ever deeper states of meditation peace. So you become more efficient because you recognize the obstacles and you use the insight into those obstacles or wisdom to get around them. It's a common saying in meditation that wisdom power is always stronger than will power. So does anyone got any comments or questions about the meditation today? Can people with severe mental disorders learn how to meditate? It depends what those mental disorders are. If it's schizophrenia usually that's the one which we say no. Simply because especially when you get into deeper states of meditation, The mind objects become prominent and too prominent and some of those mind objects which come up in schizophrenia are completely dysfunctional. It just amplifies the delusions rather than just transcends them. So that's the one type of person, One type of mental disorder usually very careful of. And again, As you know the diagnosis of schizophrenia is just again a rule of thumb. There's all sorts of different levels of schizophrenia, Types of schizophrenia and everyone is slightly mad. In other words, Each one of us has got some tendencies towards that but if they're very very strong, It does make us socially dysfunctional. So again it has to be on a case by case basis. If someone is going through treatment because of schizophrenia, That's a good sign that it's severe enough, Meditation is not really a good thing at that time. Maybe later on if there's a medication and a person has enough awareness, Then fine they can meditate. But those are the ones we're a bit concerned about. Other than that, Everyone can meditate. That's the only mental disorder which you look at it very carefully. You don't say you can't meditate. I know some people who have schizophrenic tendencies and I know actually one monk many years ago and I won't say who it is but he was a monk at my monastery and he had some schizophrenic tendencies but not strong. He had become a great monk. I'm very very proud. I remember Ajahn Jhana, When I was talking about him he said, No you can't ordain him, It's too dangerous. I said, No let's give him a try. You can't ordain him as a monk and he did very very well. So again case by case basis, Very severe schizophrenia, You've got to be careful. And again it's a type of meditation you do as well. You know the type of meditation which I teach is a very very gentle type of meditation and I think it's very powerful too. It's one of the best ways of getting into deep states of mind. If you do a very tough meditation, Like for example you decide you're going to sit for an hour no matter what and just force yourself through pain or force yourself through any mental disturbance and that can create mental problems. So remember that meditation is all about lessening stress, Not making more stress for yourself. So if ever it happens, On a Saturday afternoon, For one reason 40 minutes is too much for you, Then stop and get up and go out. Because if you force yourself, That gives you that sort of tightness and stress and a lot of mental disturbances, Like use the simile of the robe. If I keep pulling this robe and stretching it like this, It's not that old so it's not going to tear I hope. But one of these days if I keep stretching it like this it's going to tear. If you keep using that force on your mind, Something's going to break sooner or later. And what's the problem then? When you really force the mind through willpower, You may be able to enjoy it for a while, But after a while something's going to snap. And that creates some of the mental problems. So there are some types of meditation I've seen taught by unskillful teachers and they say, Just sit through the pain, Just bear with it. Get up and don't care whether you're sleepy or not, Force your mind. Like the very aggressive types of meditation, They're the dangerous ones. The gentle one here, Just softly, Just being the moment, You can't go wrong with that one. I've been teaching meditation for I don't know how many years. I haven't had a casualty, Not one in all those years. I've got a perfect track record. But I don't intend to ruin my track record now. Everyone gets nice and peaceful. Yes? Yeah. Yeah, That's one way. Yeah, That's one way of doing it. But it's still the same metaphor that can hold. You want to get to peace, You're in un-peace. How do I get? Is this obstacle thinking or whatever? So remember that many metaphors can be used. And these are just like frameworks. Some metaphors are very useful at this time, Some metaphors are useful at another time. That's why one of the great metaphors is you don't actually go anywhere, You go into where you already are. So you've got this obstacle, Yeah, Embrace that obstacle. Don't do anything, Let it be. And then that's a wonderful way of overcoming the obstacles of meditation. But if you have another metaphor, Say you want to be with the breath, And you're sort of with all the thoughts and thinking, How do I get there, What's the obstacle? So another way is actually seeing that there is an obstacle. This is a Buddhist-like hindrances, Five hindrances between me and the peace. How do I get there? And again, It's always having this wider view and seeing there is ways around. So sometimes you see what you're actually doing, You're making that obstacle harder. So both metaphors work. So it's just different way. A lot of times when we meditate, We try and get some sort of plan, A map, So we can actually know how we can move from left to right, Or in and out, Or on or backwards or whatever. And the different metaphors which we give are just like plans which we can use. And some plans are usual. When you want to get through, That's the one way around it. You just stay where you are, Who cares. And then whatever you thought was an obstacle just disappears. So for example, There's sleepiness. If you think sleepiness is an obstacle, Then you've got to find a way past it. It's not just sleepiness, It's sleepiness, Leave it alone, It's not an obstacle. Because you don't fight it, Then it disappears. You transcend the obstacle that way too. Basically, If it works, Go for it. If it doesn't work, Find another way of looking at it. Yes, In the back? Yes, I think you're meaning the subconscious, In other words, A lot of stuff which goes on in our mind, We just cannot see. And a lot of times it's because we're either going too fast or our mind isn't clear enough, Our mindfulness is too hazy. All meditation does is, After a while it makes the mind very alert and sees things which you normally miss. And so it actually reveals the subconscious. The unconscious mind, I think we really mean the subconscious, This is what can be made conscious if you're aware enough, What's available to be seen, To be known, To be perceived. And that becomes possible for you to know. So meditation actually wakes you up, That's why the word Buddha is like the awakened one. It makes the awareness stronger and the consciousness sees more. So that's what meditation does. I've called that the power mindfulness and super power mindfulness, Where you can actually see much more. You look at the carpet and you see all the different colours in there. Wow, So much going on, I miss that so often. You go outside and you can see so much more in the trees and the bricks and the road even. And it becomes incredibly beautiful, Simply because your mind is opening up and can allow more information, More detailing. And then if you turn that mind on itself, You can actually see just how your mind works. What was once subconscious beneath the radar now becomes accessible to your consciousness. Okay, So there we go, It's now quarter past, So we can now break for a cup of tea. Or if you want to ask questions personally, You can come up. We now pay respect to Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha and then we can actually break. Again, Tomorrow is Waisak day, So those who want to come for the day, You can see all the posters all over the place saying what's going to happen. So that's tomorrow, The biggest day of the Buddhist year.