Day 365/365: Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm

Good.

So please find a comfortable seat.

And again for those who are here for the introduction to meditation class,

There's no introduction class today,

Fifth Saturday,

So we'll be starting again next Saturday,

But you're welcome again to find a comfortable place to sit and to see what happens here.

And many of you will understand that today I have a cold and nevertheless that never stops you from being able to meditate,

Being able to start to go inside your body,

Inside the mind,

In order to sort of do your own little bit of healing.

And this is something which I always want to share with people,

Just how,

Just because you don't feel 100%,

Just because you may be getting old even if you're on your deathbed,

Nevertheless,

By the way,

I'm not on my deathbed,

I'm a long way from it,

But when actually being in bed is the most dangerous place,

People say that more people die in Western Australia falling out of bed than they do with shark attacks,

Which is one of the reasons I sleep on the floor.

It's a much safer place to sleep.

But anyway,

Back to being serious,

Sort of,

That when you are a little bit sick or ill,

I just even naturally,

Even when I was a young meditator,

Just close your eyes and just go inside and just understand how it feels,

Not to try and overcome or defeat or fight,

But really get to know the feelings in the body.

Because once you get to know the feelings of the body,

You go inside those feelings of the body,

You zoom in on it.

Of course,

The natural response is to find a place where you can't experience that tiredness,

That heaviness,

That discomfort.

But to me,

That fighting or rather trying to escape just makes it worse.

I always like to just go inside and be with things instead of trying to find a place where they're not.

I know that sometimes people say,

Oh,

Just this spirituality,

Meditation,

Or being a monk is just escaping from the real world.

And actually,

It's not an escape.

It's actually going inside of it,

Get to know it.

And that's where you find the escape,

Not by going somewhere else,

But going where you are,

Deep inside,

And there to find exactly what's going on.

And with that understanding and that knowledge of how your body works,

How this mind works,

It's pretty simple,

Just to be able to have a sickness and just be with it,

And it doesn't tend to last that long.

But one thing,

Please,

If ever you do see me cough or sneeze sitting here,

Please don't give me any medicines,

Because it happens once you're all very kind and caring.

What happened once when I really sneezed,

And I did make that announcement,

That afterwards people lined up all these different bottles of medicines,

Which they said was really important and it helped them,

And I literally had so many medications,

And out of kindness I took some of each,

And then I was really sick.

So as monks,

We're well looked after.

So we have a big medicine cabinet if we need anything.

But anyhow,

Just learning how to be and understand.

Sometimes it's an opportunity for me to understand my body.

And even just a few minutes ago,

Just noticed,

If ever I could even,

Especially with this stage of a cough,

Even the slightest bit of excitement,

And I start coughing,

Very peaceful,

And then there's no irritation at all.

You can actually see just how the mind creates this little bit of tension,

And that little bit of tension sets off a little chain reaction where the irritation gets a lot worse.

So sometimes it's wonderful not to actually to take medication,

And not always,

I get in trouble,

Peace and wonderful,

Not always,

But sometimes so that one can learn how to be really,

Really peaceful and get to understand things.

And the type of meditation which you teach every day is what you do all the time.

Same type of meditation,

Being with your body and relaxing it.

It's not just relaxing your body,

It's also relaxing your mind as well.

And sometimes,

Surprising,

Even say,

Relax your body.

Sometimes giving some counseling to a few people,

Say,

Relax your body.

And they were honest enough to tell me,

I don't know how to relax the body.

You may be taught in a gym class when you're young to actually to strive and to go for it,

To do exercises,

But to relax?

Has anyone taught you how to relax your body?

And how to relax the body,

To relax the body,

To relax the mind?

That is something which is a skill which we all need.

To be able to relax the body,

We've got to know the body first of all,

Really get to know it so well,

And that's the job of mindfulness,

Just being aware.

And as we're investigating our body,

Being aware of it,

We find that we learn just what makes the body more tense,

What takes away the relaxation,

And what makes it so sharp that,

You know,

In my condition,

I'll have a little cough.

So when we learn how to relax the body,

We can have some incredible,

Wonderful results.

We feel the body,

The aches,

The pains,

All tend to vanish.

When the body relaxes,

We also find,

I never sort of studied Chinese medicine or Indian medicine,

But I was always fascinated in the Indian type of medicine,

Where they said there was winds flowing through the body.

And when any of those pathway to the winds going through the body get blocked,

That's where one kind of sicknesses.

And so the job,

Even as a meditator,

As a Cambridge train meditator,

Is to allow those blockages to open up and to flow.

In other words,

Nothing is stopped,

Everything is opened and free.

So that idea of opening up the body,

And sometimes you can feel that.

You can feel there's a blockage there,

A tightness,

And you open it.

Instead of usually out of fear,

We close off,

We scrunch up whenever we're afraid.

But when we have some confidence,

We open up,

And then things flow through the body.

And I find that's usually when healing happens.

And sometimes that healing is not what you do,

But what you experience when you are relaxed.

Sometimes when you are meditating,

It does happen that,

You know,

You're very peaceful,

Having a wonderful time,

But then you feel hot spots in the body.

And the hot spots in the body is,

You know,

From all that I've seen and heard and experienced,

Those are when hee,

Hee,

Hee,

Hee,

Very good,

Never mind.

Whenever it goes off like that,

We can't find the right button because we get too tight.

This,

Okay,

Yes,

Great,

Hee,

Hee,

Hee,

Hee,

Hee,

Okay,

Hee,

Hee,

Hee.

But whenever we relax,

Then we find that things flow through the body.

And hot spots are just almost like an accumulation of energy.

The body knows that it has to heal a particular part.

And the energies of the body,

The winds or the chi,

Whatever you wish to call it,

Tend to accumulate at that point.

And you feel warm.

And people who have those hot spots in their body,

Always,

The real ones,

Is when you are reasonably peaceful in meditation.

Your body is relaxed.

You're in this moment just about.

And these things happen and you always feel just so relaxed afterwards.

So much so that if we have like a hot pack on our body,

You know,

Just to try and get some healing.

But the real natural heat stimulating the energies of the body to heal themselves is far,

Far more effective.

So if you feel any hot spots in any part of your body,

During the meditation at that time,

It's wonderful,

The healing is happening.

But even more than that,

Sometimes I don't know how exactly the body works,

But I do know that if you give it the opportunity to heal itself,

It's amazing what it will do.

And sometimes people,

Sometimes their arms lift up.

And sometimes,

What the heck,

It's only when you're in very deep meditation.

Why did that happen?

And all of this is some sort of energy being released.

Sometimes that people twist around.

And when they twist around,

All that is too,

It's usually the case.

All the times I've witnessed this.

I've been teaching meditation over 40 years.

Actually,

If you take the time when I was sort of teaching,

When I was a school teacher,

50 years now probably.

But anyway,

As you relax,

Sometimes the body twists around,

Often because people have had sports injuries or car accidents,

Whiplash,

And then the body twists around to allow these channels of energy to open up and healing to happen.

I've seen this so many times.

So when those things happen,

This is the body learning how to do the job itself.

But if you get in the way,

You interfere,

That is when you spoil the body's natural ability to heal.

But anyway,

Once the body is relaxed,

You get to know it,

And if you notice these effects occur,

They may not be planned,

Unexpected.

Even you may not have realized there was a problem in that part of your body.

But the body knows before you ever will,

And something happens,

And you just witness it as the,

What do you call it,

It's just the observer,

The silent watcher,

Someone who can know without disturbing the whole process.

Like sometimes I'm trying hard to find similes,

Just like a detective,

Like a spy who can follow someone and they don't know that they're being followed.

So your mindfulness is like that spy.

You're following this body,

You're following the mind,

But without interfering with the natural course of the body and the natural flow of mental stuff.

And that way,

When you can watch without interfering,

It's amazing what you can find out about the nature of your body and the nature of your mind.

When you do things like that,

It's easy to relax the body and also to relax your mind,

So that when the mind becomes more relaxed,

You can feel just how to heal the mind,

Not just heal the body,

And heal the mind of some of the trauma of the past,

The bad memories of the past,

Which tend to sort of make us look at the future in a negative way.

We have been wounded in the past and we overprotect that part of our mind in the future.

It's called fear anxiety.

Little by little,

When we understand the past,

We heal the past,

Then the anxiety of the future is also transcended,

It vanishes.

So this is how we learn by being a silent observer,

Someone who watches without being seen to be a watcher.

See if you can understand that.

So now we can start our meditation,

And I can be nice and quiet.

Instead of talking,

We can actually do the meditation as well.

So if you'd like to get into the meditation posture,

If you're not already in it,

It is quite okay to meditate on a chair.

Oh,

That's one of the best postures over there,

Unless she's asleep.

It's just sitting against the walls,

Getting a nice back rest and out of sight.

Anyway,

So now if we can sit down,

Close our eyes,

And get ready for the meditation.

And that's my Anupana Sati,

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Let go.

Don't do that.

So,

With our eyes closed,

We become aware of our body.

At first,

With no will to change anything,

Just to know,

To gather information,

A silent observer,

Just knowing,

Knowing how you feel.

But trying to avoid the judgmental mind,

Which says good,

Bad,

Comfort,

Uncomfortable,

Painful,

Just to know first of all.

Just a non-judgmental mindfulness.

Once we gather the information about how our body feels,

In the gathering in the mindfulness,

We notice just how the way we look with our mind and our body affects the body.

Every time we have any fear,

The body tenses.

And excitement tightens the muscles.

Every time we go off into the past,

Sometimes if it's a pleasant memory,

It could be an escape.

But,

Soon we have to come back,

Find out what's going on,

While we've been away.

And even the future,

Be careful.

Because if you go off into the fantasies of the future,

You're neglecting the health which you can only gain in the present moment.

Now is where your future is being made.

Now is the only time you have.

So getting to know my body as it is now.

I go through a little relaxation method,

Scheduling if you like,

Starting with my feet.

If I don't go through these parts methodically,

I tend to miss too many,

Assuming that all is right in the feet,

When I could have been a little bit more careful.

So I just check on my feet.

If they are comfortable,

Fine.

And move up to my calves.

Feeling them.

Just even the experience of any physical sensations in the calves,

Just staying with those,

Naturally there's a relaxation happening.

I can experience them getting looser,

Not being pulled apart,

Which is the way I view stress.

String pulled on both ends.

I let go of both ends.

And the stress is relieved.

Imagine feeling the knees.

Imagine them just on soft cushions.

So there's no tightness,

Nothing being pulled or squashed anywhere on my knees.

On my thighs.

Huge muscles.

Feeling like a throb.

Sometimes it's hard to find names for the experiences in parts of your body.

No need to.

Just know the feeling.

Experiencing it.

Relaxing.

Loosening.

Feeling more free.

More open.

What I can recognize is common to all types of stress.

A pulling apart,

A squashing,

A forcing,

A pushing and a pulling.

All of that I can see disappearing,

Little by little.

It's my thighs.

I can feel them relaxing.

I really get to know what relaxation is.

Same with my butt.

Sitting on the cushion.

Relaxing it.

Now I can feel again the throb of the blood going through.

Just relaxing everything.

Making peace.

The feeling of safety.

Of even joy.

The joy of peace.

I move up my body,

My waist.

I can feel sensations around the waist and inside.

Any time I feel there's a tightness,

I learn how to listen.

Just even my mind interacting with my body.

Without fear.

Without control.

I trust my body.

It knows how to be healthy.

It's only when I get in the way and mess things up,

That I get sick or tight.

I go up my body,

Between my chest and my waist.

Feel,

Experience and let go.

And all the while as I scan my attention up my body,

I'm willing to pause however long it takes.

If I feel any place which is tight,

Which is achy,

I pause and let my even attention,

My kindness,

Do its work of loosening.

Taking off pressure,

Unsquashing things.

So that part of the body is loose and light.

I'm past my chest.

I find a bit of a tightness in my lung.

All that coughing.

I thought it was in my throat but it's a few inches down.

So I'll stay there for a while.

When you put your attention to a place,

Some healing happens.

You can carry on and go up to your neck,

Into your shoulders.

Loosening as you go.

Down your arms and elbows and hands.

Feeling,

Experiencing,

Relaxing.

And once you're finished with your hands,

Whatever position it happened to be,

As long as they are at ease,

That's fine.

Go back up to your shoulders and neck and throat.

Go ahead,

Relax it.

Making peace,

Being kind.

Always in the moment,

Letting go of the past.

Not rushing forward into the future,

Just being here.

Being aware and being kind.

Up to your face.

Relaxing all the muscles around the eyes and the mouth.

Even though my irritation is still in my throat and the top part of my lungs.

Just relaxing my face helps relax the irritation in my throat.

Because the muscles around the eyes and the mouth are a sign of the tension or the fear,

The tightness in the body.

And once my face is relaxed,

I just go this couple of inches behind to my brain.

All that hard work,

Decisions and stuff,

Which my brain has had to perform.

It's tired.

So I imagine taking my brain,

However I imagine it to be,

And putting it into a little bed,

Tucking it in,

Giving it a rest.

Just imagining that is a way to lessen all that neural excess activity.

Give your brain to have a break,

A rest,

Some peace.

So you don't need to think so much.

And then just look at my whole body,

Sitting here.

And that she feels relaxed.

And out of many years experience,

You know what relaxation is.

It's not just a word anymore.

It feels so beautiful.

Your body at ease,

Even though there's a little irritation in the center.

It's my little cough.

It's fine.

Stay there if you wish,

Or you can go on to your mind.

Peace on the turf.

How peaceful are you?

How irritated?

That's part of your mind,

Not your body.

See if you can give it a number,

One to ten.

One is peaceful,

Ten is agitated.

Even if just imagine a little meter with a needle in the center,

Goes up and down like a thermometer or speedometer.

Imagine just what you need to move that needle down,

Closer to what?

What makes you peaceful?

What relaxes your mind?

What makes you peaceful?

What makes you peaceful?

What makes you peaceful?

What makes you peaceful?

And if the breath does come up,

Just breathing in peace,

Without let go,

And see if you can watch the breath without interfering.

I'll be quiet now until the end of the meditation.

Bless you.

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