Let Things Be

0:00 All right. Okay, so, we're just here again for another night of extreme boredom. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:18 Another night of, just basically, just being able to let things be. So, in a sense... Report an error in the passage at 0:18 Highlight the passage at 0:18

0:31 Our meditation, it really does come from how we live our day. If you have a nice relaxing day where your mind isn't troubled by too much, nothing is triggering you, you're not getting angry, you're not getting depressed, you're staying away from the news. Report an error in the passage at 0:31 Highlight the passage at 0:31

0:58 So, um, so... So when these things happen, you can start to see your mind. Your mind isn't so kind of up and down. But in a sense, it's kind of in a stable place. Report an error in the passage at 0:58 Highlight the passage at 0:58

1:12 So when we talk about meditation, it's also how we feel and what's going in our minds throughout the day. And usually, when you meditate, there isn't really nothing special that you get asked to do. To make all your kind of thoughts or troubles disappear. Report an error in the passage at 1:12 Highlight the passage at 1:12

1:37 You can kind of understand that when you are having a difficult day, I don't know, something may be happening in your life, and then when you go to meditate, you'll start to feel and see in your meditation that your meditation is difficult as well. Disappear, yeah Report an error in the passage at 1:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37

2:01 So there is a connection with how you live your life and how your meditation is going. So if you had a good day today, or you don't even need to have a good day, but have a day where you're just stable, you're stable, you're peaceful, you're stable, you're peaceful, and your mind is okay. So when you meditate, You're bringing that kind of energy, that kind of mind state, that kind of space into your meditation practice. So in a sense, meditation becomes quite easy. Report an error in the passage at 2:01 Highlight the passage at 2:01

2:43 And then when you have a day like that, and then when you sit down, you can just kind of enjoy the calmness, the quietness, the stability that you've developed during the day. So that's what I say when meditation becomes enjoyable. It's almost like effortless. Effortless, where you're sitting down and you don't have a worry in the world. Report an error in the passage at 2:43 Highlight the passage at 2:43

3:17 You can have a little bit of worries, you know, everybody worries a little bit, but you're not really affected by it. And you can feel within your kind of being that you don't have any troubles in your life. Isn't that nice? Report an error in the passage at 3:17 Highlight the passage at 3:17

3:40 So that's how, in a sense, the experience of meditation, when it's getting better, you can sit down and just be with your own mind, be with who you are, and you are at peace with anything and everything that's going on. And that's the other thing, I think the other thing with meditation is, Report an error in the passage at 3:40 Highlight the passage at 3:40

4:06 It gives you the opportunity to reflect on what is going on in your mind. Sometimes in life we're just too busy and we're very good at distracting ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 4:06 Highlight the passage at 4:06

4:24 We're like the experts of distracting ourselves. We can just go through life without really understanding how we feel inside. ourselves. Yeah, like... Report an error in the passage at 4:24 Highlight the passage at 4:24

4:35 How our minds are kind of like operating. So with the meditation, the meditation allows us to see kind of who we are. Because what happens is all the distractions have been taken away from you and all you're left with is your own mind. Report an error in the passage at 4:35 Highlight the passage at 4:35

4:56 And that's all you see. And that's all you hear. And that's all you think about is yourself. And it's during those times What is peace and what is not peace? That's how our minds operate. operate if you look at your mind Report an error in the passage at 4:56 Highlight the passage at 4:56

5:36 From time to time, you can see, okay, sometimes I feel good, and sometimes I feel bad. You know, the mind's not that kind of complicated. Report an error in the passage at 5:36 Highlight the passage at 5:36

5:47 So, with, I think, with the practice of meditation, one starts to, I think one starts to learn that the mind in itself is automatically looking for happiness. Yeah. So the mind wants happiness. The mind wants inner peace. The mind doesn't really want trouble. Because I can, like, if I ask you the question, if I ask you the question, do you like trouble in your life? Report an error in the passage at 5:47 Highlight the passage at 5:47

6:20 Do you like stress in your life? And the answer is no. So the mind kind of knows that. So the thing with meditation is that it puts you in a situation where you're just facing your mind and for the half an hour, You cannot move. You cannot pick up your phone and get distracted. You cannot call up a friend. Or, you know, it's 2 o 'clock in the morning, you're hungry, you pull out a pizza from the freezer, heat it up and eat it. Report an error in the passage at 6:20 Highlight the passage at 6:20

6:55 You can't do that. Huh? You can't do that. So you're just faced with your mind. Yeah. You're faced with your mind. And sometimes it's not pleasant. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:41 Like suffering in front of it. So in a sense the mind will find a way to get away from that suffering when it's meditating. And when we learn how to get away from that suffering, that's when we find peace. It's just in the same way in life when you go throughout your day and you're not having a good time. Report an error in the passage at 7:41 Highlight the passage at 7:41

8:09 You're suffering a little bit. So you'll find something. To overcome that suffering. Whether it's a movie, repairing coffee machines, or anything really to just take your mind away from the issue at hand. But you can kind of see that in life you can do that. In your daily life you know how to find ways To get away or to not face your suffering. So in the same way, we kind of get that idea. We're trying to do that with our meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 8:09 Highlight the passage at 8:09

8:56 Because in meditation, we will suffer. And in meditation, we can't pick up our phone. We can't pick up our phone. In meditation, we can't call our friends. Report an error in the passage at 8:56 Highlight the passage at 8:56

9:06 In meditation, we can't open the fridge at 2 o 'clock in the morning and heat up the pizza to eat. So in the meditation, what do we do to find that peace? Report an error in the passage at 9:06 Highlight the passage at 9:06

9:19 And the mind kind of starts to understand that, hey, this kind of suffering or this kind of anxiety or whatever we're going through, we can start to understand that we do not need to hold on to these things. We do not need to carry them around. Report an error in the passage at 9:19 Highlight the passage at 9:19

9:43 Yeah, and then... When you can start to see that, okay, I don't need to hold on to the depression, or I don't need to hold on to the anxiety. So, you know, what does the mind do? It learns how to let it go. And the letting go is sort of like, you could say, is like picking up a phone and getting distracted. Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

10:09 But with the phone, it doesn't really bring you any kind of peace. But with the letting go, within the meditation, you're kind of... Letting go of the suffering and you're left with an empty mind, an empty mind, a quiet mind. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:32 Sometimes it's like, what's the definition of an empty or quiet mind? For me, it kind of changes every time, but it's kind of obvious. Empty mind, quiet mind is like, oh, there's nothing going on and stuff like that. But then at the same time, you can kind of look at the empty mind and quiet mind. Which is a mind which is kind of stable as well. It's the stability of the mind. It doesn't get too high. It doesn't get too low. Report an error in the passage at 10:32 Highlight the passage at 10:32

11:01 You know, because sometimes when we're high, you know, we're just really excited or we get angry. We're just angry or we get really low. And we kind of, there's a certain feeling that comes with that. Like the depression is like, oh, you know, we're just so sad. We're just dragging our heels kind of through life and we just get excited. You know, excitement's great. You know, we're happy, we're bubbly, we're talking to everybody. Report an error in the passage at 11:01 Highlight the passage at 11:01

11:31 But then, you know, that kind of disappears as well. So what happens is we know as human beings what these things are. You know, we know how it feels like from an emotional level and we can understand it. with our minds what we are going through what does anxiety feel like what does excitement feel like but in life you know we haven't really explored the area of what peace feels like peace Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

12:07 quietness of mind a mind which is kind of like free from troubles really not getting worked up over things a mind that can be calm A mind that can be stable. Do we know what that feels like? We know what everything else feels like, but do we know what this feels like? Report an error in the passage at 12:07 Highlight the passage at 12:07

12:30 Do we understand it through our experience? And probably in our lives we don't really have the time to dedicate ourselves to the meditation to kind of understand what this peace is. Understand how it feels like. And understand what the experience is like living with a peaceful mind. So that's what we're doing here. Report an error in the passage at 12:30 Highlight the passage at 12:30

13:05 We're learning how to develop a peaceful mind. Report an error in the passage at 13:05 Highlight the passage at 13:05

13:18 It's nice. Peaceful mind. Yeah. That's what we're doing. Report an error in the passage at 13:18 Highlight the passage at 13:18

13:31 Yeah, so that's what we're doing here. We're learning how to develop a peaceful mind. So we're meditating. You're just there with your eyes closed. Report an error in the passage at 13:31 Highlight the passage at 13:31

13:43 And with your own mind, and you're just working with your own mind. And just like when I first started, it was always like kind of, you know, everybody has a reason. Like everybody has a reason. Sometimes like it's because they want to overcome something or they're too distracted in life or something. Report an error in the passage at 13:43 Highlight the passage at 13:43

14:08 Like usually when people meditate, it's kind of like they want to kind of fix themselves up. And I kind of, that's one of the reasons why I started to meditate as well. But then I kind of had the, for some reason I kind of knew intuitively that meditation could help me in terms of like, you know, just being a better human being on the inside and just, you know, being more stable, more accepting of oneself. Report an error in the passage at 14:08 Highlight the passage at 14:08

14:40 You know, all those kind of nice words that you like to hear. So I kind of knew that this is what meditation can give to me and it's something that I was looking for. So when we come into the meditation with that kind of mindset that we are doing this to get some sort of benefit, whether it be peace or whatever you want from this meditation practice, that gives you the kind of energy. Report an error in the passage at 14:40 Highlight the passage at 14:40

15:14 That gives you the effort to be able to put time into this practice because this practice needs time for it to work. So, yeah, it just needs time. Just repetition. Just keep on coming back to the meditation posture, closing your eyes, and just being in the present moment and just feeling that peace. Report an error in the passage at 15:14 Highlight the passage at 15:14

15:49 And, you know, we have people come here. Meditation isn't just like a four-week course. If it was a four-week course, then a lot of you people wouldn't be here. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

16:03 It's more of a kind of lifestyle. Like drinking coffee every morning. Report an error in the passage at 16:03 Highlight the passage at 16:03

16:14 Meditation is like that. We meditate every day. And then slowly we start to see the benefits of the meditation. And like, just quickly, it's like, after a while when you kind of add meditation into your life, meditation can become like a place where you go to to just calm down from your day. It's quite a nice thing to do. I mean, you know, some of us, you know, we sit in front of the television or we don't really do anything kind of peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 16:14 Highlight the passage at 16:14

16:50 to relax. Meditation is a very peaceful thing to do because you don't have anything to distract your mind and that's kind of a nice thing to do is like yeah meditation on a Thursday but then meditation as a daily practice just giving ourselves that that opportunity that time that space to go to a place where our minds can just get some release release from the world it's like finally finally i don't need to think about anything finally i can rest finally i can relax Report an error in the passage at 16:50 Highlight the passage at 16:50

17:38 So this is like, you know, the benefits and what you can look for when you kind of value the meditation. And you can see the benefits that it gives you in your daily life. And yeah, we'll just end my talk on that. And we can start a guided meditation. All right. Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

· · · silence, 1 minute

19:17 Let's close our eyes. And Report an error in the passage at 19:17 Highlight the passage at 19:17

19:37 we can just experience the peace. Report an error in the passage at 19:37 Highlight the passage at 19:37

19:56 Peace is not very far. You don't need to go looking for it. Report an error in the passage at 19:56 Highlight the passage at 19:56

20:06 But instead... kind of, it's about there for you. It's there in this moment. Report an error in the passage at 20:06 Highlight the passage at 20:06

20:21 Sometimes peace is an attitude. Just have a peaceful attitude to this moment. Report an error in the passage at 20:21 Highlight the passage at 20:21

20:46 you can just start to see Report an error in the passage at 20:46 Highlight the passage at 20:46

20:52 Having this attitude of peace. when you're doing nothing Report an error in the passage at 20:52 Highlight the passage at 20:52

21:00 is quite a relaxing thing to do. Report an error in the passage at 21:00 Highlight the passage at 21:00

21:08 we're always trying to look for ways to... Report an error in the passage at 21:08 Highlight the passage at 21:08

21:22 This is the Report an error in the passage at 21:22 Highlight the passage at 21:22

21:30 way to do it. Report an error in the passage at 21:30 Highlight the passage at 21:30

21:36 Just try to have a peaceful attitude to this present moment. And then if you do that, it becomes a peaceful experience. Report an error in the passage at 21:36 Highlight the passage at 21:36

· · · silence, 1 minute

23:21 So we just have an attitude that says everything is okay. Report an error in the passage at 23:21 Highlight the passage at 23:21

23:49 Ajahn Santutthi das remembers content with the moment. Report an error in the passage at 23:49 Highlight the passage at 23:49

· · · silence, 1 minute

24:54 As we're meditating, we're not, we're not. We are not controlling the mind. We just don't allow the mind Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

· · · silence, 1 minute

26:12 So, you know, like I was saying earlier, sometimes... what you see in your mind Report an error in the passage at 26:12 Highlight the passage at 26:12

26:28 something on pheasant Report an error in the passage at 26:28 Highlight the passage at 26:28

26:33 want to get away from. Report an error in the passage at 26:33 Highlight the passage at 26:33

26:37 But it's there, and it's not going anywhere. Report an error in the passage at 26:37 Highlight the passage at 26:37

26:46 just allows you to www.ajahn Report an error in the passage at 26:46 Highlight the passage at 26:46

27:21 .com difficult sensations or thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 27:21 Highlight the passage at 27:21

27:21 See through these things and onto the other side where the quietness of mind lies. And Report an error in the passage at 27:21 Highlight the passage at 27:21

27:35 that's how you let go. That's how you let go of whatever you want to let go of. By going to that quietness of the mind. And Report an error in the passage at 27:35 Highlight the passage at 27:35

27:59 it's that quietness of the mind. It's how we kind of perceive it. It's kind of important. Report an error in the passage at 27:59 Highlight the passage at 27:59

28:11 Sometimes we have to just try to look at it with an attitude of peace, silence. Report an error in the passage at 28:11 Highlight the passage at 28:11

28:32 Adding the peace to it, it becomes a peaceful experience. Report an error in the passage at 28:32 Highlight the passage at 28:32

· · · silence, 1 minute

29:34 That's more than you can ever ask for, is a peaceful experience. And that's all we kind of... The aim to be as meditators is Report an error in the passage at 29:34 Highlight the passage at 29:34

29:52 to uncover or discover where that peace is or how we get there and whether we manifest it or whether we get lucky or whether it just comes along. We can just be with it. We can just be peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 29:52 Highlight the passage at 29:52

30:28 That's all you ever need. That's all you ever need. You just hang out. You just hang out here. Report an error in the passage at 30:28 Highlight the passage at 30:28

· · · silence, 1 minute

31:19 You start to discover that this peace is the best medicine for all things in your life. This Report an error in the passage at 31:19 Highlight the passage at 31:19

· · · silence, 13 minutes

44:31 is the time if you have questions you want to ask about meditation, usually when people have difficulties or want to clear something up, anybody Report an error in the passage at 44:31 Highlight the passage at 44:31

44:48 has a question. Report an error in the passage at 44:48 Highlight the passage at 44:48

44:54 Can I just talk about what you were talking about before? before the meditation? Yeah. So you were talking about distraction of the mind, right? And you were talking about mixing the coffee machine. How about when it comes to art? Because for me, that's a form of meditation. Would you call that still distraction? Report an error in the passage at 44:54 Highlight the passage at 44:54

45:14 mmm that's a good question yes I would actually yes because like Report an error in the passage at 45:14 Highlight the passage at 45:14

45:26 Because you're doing, you might be in the moment, you might be focusing. You're not distracted. That's a nice thing to be, you know, just being able to just be focused on the task for many hours. But you're still doing something, you know what I mean? You're doing your artwork, your... Is that painting? No, because it's interesting because I know that I was distracting myself when I was doing something. Report an error in the passage at 45:26 Highlight the passage at 45:26

45:56 I used it as a form to sort of process through an emotion, right? Yeah. So I understood what you said, but I just know that there are forms of meditation through practice, whether it be sand or whatever. So just a question in general, really. Yeah, I think these things are kind of like skillful means, you could say. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:21 You could take, for example, in a life of somebody living in a monastery. It's a very quiet place and there's very few distractions and you can't really go anywhere. It's almost like a voluntary prison. Report an error in the passage at 46:21 Highlight the passage at 46:21

46:39 But sometimes Report an error in the passage at 46:39 Highlight the passage at 46:39

46:51 you might have all the nice conditions. No one is distracting you. You have all the time in the world. You have really good instructions with your meditation and you've been meditating a lot. and somehow you just get like get into it into a rut really like I was like it's not feeling good negativity and sometimes it's kind of good to find things to do to just take your mind away from things like you said for yourself like doing the artwork and for up for us as people living that kind of lifestyle where you always have to look at your mind mind Report an error in the passage at 46:51 Highlight the passage at 46:51

47:36 Ajahn Report an error in the passage at 47:36 Highlight the passage at 47:36

48:03 talks about the power of meditation. Yeah, you can't like, say artwork or whatever you're doing, some people call it meditation, but are you becoming peaceful? Is there peaceful feelings arising? And I think, no, not really. Because the peace that you get from sitting down with your eyes closed is unique to everything else. Report an error in the passage at 48:03 Highlight the passage at 48:03

48:28 So, you know, there's no cheat. Sorry, there's no cheat in meditation. Yeah, because it's a It's a little bit of a fine line, I feel like, you know, because you are distracting yourself, but there is a form of meditation at the same time, right? Yeah. I think mechanism was a great word, so thank you. It's sort of assisting. It's sort of like, it's also like, the big, there's like the huge word in our practice called mindfulness, and like doing like physical activity or even studying or those kinds of things. Report an error in the passage at 48:28 Highlight the passage at 48:28

49:04 If you do it, Report an error in the passage at 49:04 Highlight the passage at 49:04

49:36 You can stay, you could say, on the task at hand. You're doing the same thing with your meditation. Because a lot of times with the meditation, it's like the mind can just run off quite easily, right? And one of the reasons is because the mindfulness hasn't been kind of strengthened in your daily life. Report an error in the passage at 49:36 Highlight the passage at 49:36

50:00 So your mindfulness is strengthened through your daily life. When you're sitting, You should be able to kind of stay with the silence, stay with the present moment naturally without the mind running off too much. And what I've learned over time with the meditation practice is a nice thing to kind of like reflect upon is the noise, you can say the thoughts is like noise in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 50:00 Highlight the passage at 50:00

50:29 And when we start off, the noise will turn a full ball. It's full ball, right? And then over time, you know how to turn that knob down. So you might be thinking, but it's not distracting. You can still be at ease, you can still be peaceful. So don't get it, like, sometimes we think peace is no thought, no nothing. Report an error in the passage at 50:29 Highlight the passage at 50:29

50:54 But yes, eventually you will get there. But you have to understand, it's more like a gradual, a gradual... quietening of the mind yeah and that's a nice thing to experience from time to time is we don't get too caught up caught up in our thoughts because our thoughts are just too noisy we learn how to meditation is learning how to turn it down you can kind of see it in that way Report an error in the passage at 50:54 Highlight the passage at 50:54

51:23 Any Report an error in the passage at 51:23 Highlight the passage at 51:23

51:27 more questions? Comments? Complaints? Report an error in the passage at 51:27 Highlight the passage at 51:27

51:37 And, you know, it's good to laugh. Good to laugh and have a good time. Yes, we're not kind of like serious monks and we're depressed and unhappy. We have to understand what life really means. No. You've got to have a little bit of light-heartedness in your life. Just lift yourself up, have a laugh, be happy. Report an error in the passage at 51:37 Highlight the passage at 51:37

52:06 When you can. And we all know that's a good thing. And meditation is encouraging good things. It's just not only peace, but it's the other qualities that we can have access to in life. Anyways, that's enough talking. Any more questions or comments? No? No? Okay. That's enough talking. Talk too much. Report an error in the passage at 52:06 Highlight the passage at 52:06