Day 346/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

So just the usual announcements first of all for those who are coming to the introduction to meditation class series of four sessions this month being run by Dennis that will be held in the room to my right and over here we do the ongoing meditation where people who have meditated before can actually take the meditation a little bit deeper and when I was last week over in Indonesia I was mentioning a lovely little technique for meditation it doesn't change what you've been doing already but it just makes it a little bit more deeper and also it makes it very simple and that is applying a little story which I wrote first of all in the Opening the Door of Your Heart book about the Empress free questions I quote it very often and that Empress free questions I've been using for meditation teachings as well.

Those of you who don't know now the most important time the most important thing to do is to care and the most important thing is the person right in front of you and in meditation the thing right in front of you is whatever meditation object is right in front of your mind in this moment right now that is really important.

Sister you have to come up the top here this is Sangha so please up here yes come on out of respect for the the place that's much better very good you deserve very good and so the thing right in front of you whatever your meditation object is is the most important for example that you have like sleepiness you're dozy people's mistake in meditation is they don't think that is important they try to get rid of it they try to overcome it they try and discard it and that is what causes the sleepiness to last you're wasting energy you're not being mindful you're trying to get rid of something and go somewhere else and it's not letting go or you may have like a thought in your mind and you try and get rid of the thoughts you don't give them importance because you think that something else is more important which means you're doing something trying to get rid of something and that is why the thoughts go on and on and on and on you may later on in the meditation you may say be seeing the breath and you want another deeper objects such as these beautiful lights which appear in the mind and then your breath is not the most important object it's something in the future it destroys your meditation so if you are aware of whatever is happening right now whatever it is and give that importance it means you're not only mindful of it you're aware of it but the awareness deepens because it's essential it's vital it's important for you things which aren't important for you things which you try and get rid of it diminishes the amount of mindfulness you give on it you're not really paying attention to it because you're trying to get rid of it which is why we don't understand it a good example is with thinking which is one of the biggest obstacles to people they can spend years and years and years you know worrying about why when I meditate I'm always thinking I can't get rid of my thoughts I don't because you haven't really got to know your thoughts yet don't exactly know what they are because you're always trying to get rid of them so if it's right in front of you right now give it importance and once you really give it importance your mindfulness stays with it and what should you be doing with it developing it holding it still what no you're supposed to care for it and caring for it is this beautiful thing like you have like a glass you care for it make sure you don't damage it you look after it care for it give it the kindness as well the the the warmth when you care for something that thing usually stays with you you care for a cat cats are great you feed it once and they always come back to you we've got a car at our monastery and many people care for it which means why the cat gets very fat it has many breakfasts a day always pretends once it's being fed that the next micro comes along they forgot to feed me it's lying but it just wants some more food you know what cats are like if you care for them they hang around you the same with mindfulness if you care for what you're watching then you don't have any distractions you don't have any restlessness you become still with the object you're on right now so the meditation becomes quite easy when people ask watch how should I meditate what should I watch whatever is in front of your mind right now that's what you watch but then what should I do just care for it is that all yes because what happens you know if you follow those instructions you're sleeping so you're aware of the sleepiness it's important you don't try and get rid of it because you're not reacting to it your mind sort of recharges it's not wasting energy it recharges and recharges and recharges until the sleepiness vanishes by itself sleepiness dullness is low energy and you can't overcome low energy by wasting energy you have to conserve it keep it until it builds up naturally if you have thinking going on if you always try to run away from thinking you don't get to know it what it's actually happening there you don't understand it which means the thinking keeps going on so if there's a thought there give that whole thing importance and care for it see what happens he didn't get to know it and after a while you know when you really get to know what thinking is you will come to the great insight it's a complete waste of time and just that insight by itself that knowing is enough to dispel it they have this constant recurring theme in Buddhism especially in meditation this personification of stupidity control called Mara and this Mara was the being who was supposed to try and stop the Buddha becoming enlightened trying to distract him interfere him tempt him whatever and always does the same with meditators and the solution to overcoming this personification of all hindrances Mara is not to beat Mara up not to smash him in the mush that's why that mush is in English in the face no it's not to fight what it is is I know you Mara I know you thinking and just to know that thinking that's enough for the thinking to subside and disappear but if you try to get rid of it or you get so inside of the thinking so involved that you can't really see it you just like enmeshed in it like being lost in a forest in the jungle and you can't see one tree for another you're too deep inside of it of course you can't know it but when the thinking first starts if you just care it's important get to know it and after a while it vanishes just like sleepiness and then later on you may be watching something like the breathing which we always focus on at one part of the meditation because it happens naturally a person sometimes when they really be meditating a while they can watch the breath go in watch the breath go out but I can't make go any further you know I imagine Bob talks about these nimitta and these Jhanas the bliss better than sex yeah I'm into that but you know I haven't got that yeah I've got any bliss at all I'm bored stiff so what do you do if you just got the breath going on right now even if it's not so delightful it's happening now it's right in front of you give it importance and care for it as it is right now because if you're still with this meditation object which is happening right now you just don't disturb it by trying to get rid of it and move on to something else the very stillness transforms the meditation object because you are still your mindfulness increases and increases and increases the cause for increasing the power of mindfulness is nothing else than stillness the less you do the more powerful your mindfulness becomes and when your mindfulness becomes really powerful you can really see that breath so clearly but also the more aware you are the more your mindfulness increases the more happy you are when I woke up this morning oh I overslept because I've lost a lot of sleep in my travels in Indonesia a couple of nights hardly sleeping at all and working all day getting up at five going to bed at midnight really sort of hard work so when I woke up this morning I was very grumpy why because I was really low energy really tired and you know that it's very hard to be happy when you're very low energy but when you start getting your mindfulness coming up be still energy starts coming back you can see more you can be more clear when the mindfulness increases so does your happiness so when you're actually mindful of something like the breath don't try and get rid of it it's the most important thing in the whole world stay with it and then your awareness increases to more of the breath and also you become happier the delightful breath happens that way and you're still with the delightful breath you're not doing anything not going anywhere if this is what's in front of you right now the delightful bet it's the most important you're not looking at nimittas and jhanas enlightenment psychic powers whatever happens next you just want it could you just focus on what's happening right now this is important right now the only thing you ever have is the most important whatever's right in front of you you just caring for it and of course the bliss gets so strong that after a while you can't see the breath anymore you see the incredible beautiful lights and if you're seeing beautiful lights like somebody said last night they got to a stage and their lights look like a movie there is actually a stage in the meditation which I know really well in those early days yeah you actually lost you know the feelings of the body and the mind is making up scenarios like a movie is usually not very exciting but so quite delightful if that happens if that's happening right now you're seeing a movie in your head it's the most important thing in the world for you because it's right in front of your mind care for it and soon it settles down usually afterwards that's what brilliant nimittas come up wonderful lights and wonderful lights come up oh what should I do now I jump up and see this beautiful light in my mind I want to get into this jhana or that jhana no forget about anything in the future if that light is in front of you it's the most important thing in the whole world given importance nothing else matters be kind to it and then it develops so sometimes it's weird we think to get somewhere you have to do something but in meditation if you want to get somewhere you have to do nothing just to regard this moment as the most important just to care now the only time you have so simple but so powerful that's all you need to do I don't know why people keep coming back to learn so the instructions you will never need simple okay let's try it that that I did that at that I so anyway but it was of you who have come in late if you have come to the introduction to meditation class that is being held in the room to my right because people sometimes come in late here we're going to do a 45 minute meditation so it's going to go on for a while and if you never meditated before this is torture it's the sort of thing which they did in Guantanamo Bay sort of prolonged stress positions and we haven't got enough money to be sued so if you haven't meditated for 10 or 15 minutes before then please go next door otherwise you're going to be in great pain okay so I'm going to just lead the meditation in a normal way for the first few minutes and then it's going to leave you up to you so close your eyes with your eyes closed make sure you can feel your body and adjust it to get into the most comfortable position and please never look at the books and believe that this is the best posture for you because someone said it aligns all the energies and connects you with the earth just that's a lot of bullshit you feel your best posture you feel it right now if you're sitting on a chair do you need to lean your back forward to get away from the chair or lean it back what is the most comfortable for you find out do you need to wiggle your bottom to get a more comfortable position do you need to raise your feet by putting a cushion under your feet or raise your bum by putting a cushion under your bum we have the same size chair but you've got different sized bodies so adjust you're on the floor make sure the cushion of the sapphru if you're sitting on a sapphru is just the right place you and if you need to scratch scratch cough cough don't try and control your body instead be kind once you think that your body is comfortable now is the time to go deep into a relaxed body when I was in Indonesia I did a little debate wasn't much of a debate we agreed on too much with a Chan master in the lineage of the Dharma drum master Sheng Yan and when he said in his tradition the Chan tradition all you ever do is just relax so yeah that's what we do as well so see if you can relax the body a little bit more to be able to do that zoom in on the most irritating part of your body right now it may be your tummy if it's sick maybe your bowels if you've got IBS could be your legs if you've got an ache or an injury or for me my nose it's just really itchy and wants to sneeze whatever it is zoom in on that one irritating part of your body if you've got many irritating parts zoom in on the most irritating part which is what I mean by being mindful of it give it importance it's the most important thing for you right now this irritation do not try to get rid of it give it importance and care for it at the very least you get to know it when you run away from things you don't really understand them get to know it care for it and your awareness will be able to give you feedback like I say every week gives you feedback so you know whether that irritation is getting worse or getting better if that's what you're focusing on you will soon learn it's learning you learn how to ease irritations in the body so as you're mindful seeing the feedback you learn the response from your mind which makes it easy relaxed soothing calming for me that relaxed that attitude of mind is kindness letting it be just being warm to the irritations in my own body and I really keep my assumed in focus on that irritation until I really relax it ease it calm it soften it so that it's almost gone so for me I'm focusing just of my nose and calming down this itch which is a precursor of a sneeze it's the only thing in the world for me right now really important now being kind I know you Mara and the irritation is getting less and less and less you you once you relax one part of the body zoom in on another irritating part you really need to look after this body and relax it really deeply you can feel everything opening up no tension no squashing what you're doing is taking the pressure off the strain off your body I can feel parts of my body which was squashed opening up parts which were extended loosening both ends I feel really physically relaxed as such a pleasant feeling you you you you you you you you once the body is really relaxed so when I turn over to the mind how peaceful is my mind there's still thoughts going on that means I need to just relax my mind and I'm mindful of just how peaceful or how agitated I am and I learn from the feedback given by mindfulness how to make my mind more and more peaceful less agitated something you just need to get used to what is peace of mind what is agitation its opposite and then what you need to do to move the mind to more and more peace one of those things which leads to more and more peace is what I mentioned at the beginning whatever you are aware of right now whatever it is right now that's the most important type is your meditation object it is the most important thing in the world for you regard it as important and care see what happens I'm not going to be quiet you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you it is getting close to the end of the meditation now how was it?

And how is it?

How do you feel right now?

What worked?

What didn't?

I will now ring the gong three times as the third ringing of the gong you may open your eyes to end the meditation okay,

So here are some questions from Sri Lanka and from Turkey,

From USA Dear Ajahn Brahm,

How we go again in the context of meditation what exactly is right effort?

Generally effort implies the use of some force or will however you advise not to run after things and just wait in a moment,

Thank you It is the problem with the translations from the Pali into English the Buddha never spoke English,

He spoke in this language as dialect of Sanskrit and the word is like vayama,

If you have actually ever looked at this explanation one of the four types of right,

I'm not going to even call it effort because that sort of makes a person a bit confused is the effort to restrain,

To say no to things,

To abandon,

To let them go if they've already come up there the effort to see what's necessary for beautiful objects to appear in the mind and what's necessary to keep them,

What actually effort creates those four results and you find like striving,

Using force or will,

Creates the opposite Here you can maybe hold an object for a while but you get very tense and a person who uses will or effort that way can get so far in meditation but no further and you find they get to be control freaks and very unpleasant people to live with So when you get to right effort,

Basically what you do,

You have to go back,

This is in Sri Lanka go back a little bit to the second factor of the Eightfold Path where the motivation,

Where the effort is coming from where the effort is coming from,

The motivation is to renounce,

Abandon go of everything,

Including your will,

Renounce things and be kind,

Be gentle There's a source of things which the English word force or will implies no kindness,

No gentleness at all It's why we call the military the armed forces and this is totally the opposite of what Buddhism was suggesting So unfortunately that translation can be very confusing especially what,

From that wrong translation,

The next factor of the Eightfold Path,

Samma samadhi what people,

You've heard me say this before,

They call it right concentration which is a disgusting,

Terrible,

Very misleading word It's right stillness,

Not concentration because it's true,

Concentration is what you do with effort and concentration means that meditation retreats become concentration camps in both senses of the word So instead of concentration we use stillness and instead of effort,

It's the right letting go So if you want to get deep meditation,

That's what you need to do or rather what you need to not do people through years and years have been trying to get their mind to be still You might use all the effort in the world and you'll never find an escape from all that thinking And this is a very old simile I even did this in Indonesia a couple of days ago so please,

Those who've seen it before,

Please excuse me How could I keep a glass of water really still?

All the effort,

The will,

The concentration in the world will never keep this water perfectly still There's only way,

Only one way to keep this water perfectly still and that is no effort,

No will,

No controlling put it down,

Let it go and it becomes still all by itself So letting go causes stillness Use force or will,

Be still How many times do I have to tell you,

Water,

Be still?

It never gets still that way Next question from Turkey How to be silent and not respond without being unkind?

You can respond with body language,

Just with a smile And just a little smile is sometimes all the kindness people need So you don't need to respond to people with words because usually words are very difficult things and quite often we say the wrong words I often mean to say one thing and say another or I say a word and I intend it to carry one meaning and people misunderstand me and it says another meaning So words can be very,

Always have a life of their own When they're in your brain and you think about them they sound great,

But somehow or other when they go through your mouth and into somebody else's ears and gets processed,

It means completely opposite of what you intended That's why words are just very dangerous things You think you control those words you have them in your power but sometimes the words take off and cause you all sorts of trouble So you don't really control your speech sometimes it causes you too much problems So instead of responding with speech silence can be such a powerful tool and by not speaking,

By acting body language being kind even just the way you hold your body sometimes unkind people,

Ask an actor if you're trying to portray anger you've got to hold your body in a certain way If you're going to portray kindness,

Softness you hold the body in another way It's the body language stuff So if you can even portray kindness with silence it can be incredibly powerful But it's really hard for people to remain silent We always speak far,

Far,

Far too much and it's not necessary,

You don't need to speak to express your kindness,

Your love and your affection for someone just a little smile Some of the most loving gifts is the gift of silence And lastly from the United States,

USA I did some meditation before I went to sleep I woke up with eyes closed seeing a super bright light Brilliant,

I was scared,

Aww It went away after a while,

I wonder what that was I've never seen it while doing meditation only I saw it a few times during sleep after meditation That's a typical nimitta,

A super bright light And the reason why in the United States it happened when you went to sleep or just after you had a tiny sleep or you tried to get to sleep and then it just appeared was that when you were sleeping you weren't trying to meditate You were letting go,

You did the meditation and then eventually you got out of the way and let the meditation happen when you were going to sleep and nimitta came It happens very often because when people are meditating they're trying so much,

They're using force they're using willpower,

Trying to be still and they can't get there And then,

Okay,

So we go to bed,

We lay down number one is one of the most comfortable postures you can possibly have,

Laying down on a nice soft bed so you don't have to worry about aches and pains or stiffness which you do when you're doing sitting meditation And number two,

You're not trying to do anything It's one time in the life that most people know how to let go Not everybody,

Sometimes people carry their problems into bed with them For many of us,

We know how to let go in sleep So that should be a good lesson for you from the United States When you try to meditate,

You can't But when you let go of trying,

Let go of the will let go of the force which you did when you just laid down your body on your pillow then things happened And next time you see that super bright light please don't be scared Here it's powerful because you can't control it It's not yours,

It's not subject to your will That's why it's scary,

It's out of control,

Whoopee So it doesn't come from your will,

It comes from when your will starts to vanish That's why it's very scary because I can't do anything It's also in that particular place it's like you're vanishing that you don't exist Because a lot of times we measure ourselves by our will Big will,

Strong will,

People have big egos When the will vanishes,

The ego vanishes with it And that can be scary for people But next time don't be scared Just enjoy it,

See what happens next It's always very,

Very,

Very brilliant So I only saw a few times during sleep after meditation Yeah,

Exactly Next time see if you can just let go when you're meditating and see if it happens then I was saying to people,

I think,

On Thursday night in Denpasar that on some of the retreats which I give at Jhana Grove that people fall asleep when they're meditating and then when they go to bed after a full day's meditation they can't go to sleep,

They're awake all night And I said,

Well,

It's a problem,

That's the problem The solution is so easy When you're in the meditation hall,

Try to fall asleep Then you won't be able to When you're in bed at night,

Try to meditate and you'll fall asleep Problem solved You understand why?

Because what we're trying to do,

We actually stop it happening When we let go,

Things happen nicely Okay,

Any questions from the floor today?

Yeah?

It's a question of who we are,

We say we let go We say,

Look,

We're keeping our mind still And I think that would say,

We talk about like we are the passenger and looking for the bus driver and deep meditation,

Eventually we find that there's nothing there's no one there So who actually are we?

Who actually makes the distinction?

Say,

Look,

I let go,

I let go,

I let go Is that anything of the same?

No,

Exactly,

That's a very good question and the answer is very scary because it's not you The only reason you can meditate like this is because I brainwash you to do so Someone asked me,

Because we're having this discussion with a Mahayana chant teacher from a very famous lineage,

Dhamma drum and I was asked about the concept of like transmission in Theravada Buddhism because that's just a strong thing in Mahayana and also Tibetan,

The transmission from teacher to student So do you have that in Theravada?

You bet we have I've just been giving transmission to everyone here It's not in some formal ceremony It's just by the words,

By the teachings,

By the example There's new ideas,

Not even ideas,

Much deeper than ideas A different way of approaching something is actually put into your brain Brainwashing,

Conditioning,

If you want to call it that It really works Because why do I teach like this?

It's because my teacher Ajahn Chah taught like this But did he invent it?

No,

No,

That came from his teacher So there is a transmission which goes on all the way back to the Buddha the Buddha Gotama,

Where did he get that transmission from?

If you look at the Ghatikara Sutra,

You find that Gotama Buddha the person signified by the image behind me was a monk under the previous Buddha,

Under Kasapa So he got it from Kasapa So they all go back,

Back,

Back endlessly So it's from Master the Disciple That's the only way you can let go because you can't let go of yourself It's like a little metaphor which was from Oliver Twist,

Charles Dickens where this man,

Oliver Twist,

He gave him a pound note to pay off his bills or five pound note I think and his friend said,

Oh,

He's a real scallywag,

This Oliver I bet he won't come back,

If he comes back,

I promise I'll eat my own head And the idea of eating your own head You can say the words but when you start thinking about it it's an impossible thing to do,

You can't eat your own head The same way that you can't let go of yourself Impossible Which is why you need the input from outside That's what I've been doing,

That's why we need a teacher You've been taught Now you'll find letting go happens And sometimes I ask that question,

Who did that letting go?

And I was mindful and clear enough,

It was Ajahn Chah,

My teacher He did it for me Conditioning,

Yeah,

Conditioning,

Conditioning has to come from outside The Para Tagosa in Pali,

The words of another,

The transmission Yeah,

After a while it just happens And sometimes you say,

Who did that?

I didn't do it,

I wasn't there,

It wasn't me I didn't know who did it,

My teacher did it Apparently my mindfulness,

My awareness And then,

So who did it for Ajahn Chah?

His teacher,

Goes all the way back So anyway,

Nice question Obviously you probably don't understand a word of my answer But one day you will Unfortunately you've got no choice now,

You've been transmitted upon Yeah,

We always think it's me doing all this stuff I take no responsibility for my teachings It's a wonderful freedom,

We don't have to feel proud or upset It's not my job,

No one in here Any other questions before we finish off?

Okay,

Let's finish off now I can't stay very long,

This evening there was a big event off in Langley Park for the Mahayana group,

The Fo Guang Shan So I'll be leaving about 4.

30,

4.

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