Guided Meditation

0:02 Okay, can we start? Is it? Yeah? Okay, can we start? Okay, great. Thanks. So let's start then. Just to inform anyone that the introduction to the meditation class is next door. So if anyone is here for the first time or just starting out, that's usually where you want to go first of all. Otherwise you might get a shock if you come in here straight away. Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:25 You never know what's going to happen in here. So things change over time. So just to give a little bit of introduction as usual and just having said that the... Introduction is over there. It is basically exactly the same thing that happens here. It's just a different group, that's all. Basically everything is just introduction because it is really always the simple things in meditation that need to be kind of re-emphasized and brought back again and again. Report an error in the passage at 0:25 Highlight the passage at 0:25

0:57 Then after a while they start to sink in and you start to understand how they actually work. And that's kind of how it is with meditation. It's not complicated. It just takes time to get used to the ideas and knowing how to deal with them in a way that actually is conducive to peace and all those positive things. Report an error in the passage at 0:57 Highlight the passage at 0:57

1:17 So one of the really interesting things about the way meditation is explained in the suttas, sutta is the word of the Buddha, how he talks about this. And this is found in the very famous sutta on the mindfulness of breathing, special teaching given by the Buddha purely on mindfulness of breathing. And in there he says that you start off by establishing mindfulness. And then when you have established mindfulness, then mindful you breathe in, mindful you breathe out. Report an error in the passage at 1:17 Highlight the passage at 1:17

1:54 And that is the entire, really, entirety of the instruction. At the very beginning of the military. And then it goes down and becomes more and more profound. But that beginning point is incredibly important. And what is so fascinating about that is that there's nothing there that says you should focus on the breath or bring the attention to the breath or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:54 Highlight the passage at 1:54

2:17 The idea is just you are mindful and once you are mindful then you breathe in, then you breathe out. Being mindful. And the point is that Once you are mindful, then the attention on the breath is like automatic, because the breath is in the present, you are in the present, the two come together, you will, by definition, be aware of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 2:17 Highlight the passage at 2:17

2:41 That's just the way it is. And this is kind of really important and interesting, because the... Very common vocabulary that is used in the modern world when it comes to meditation is to focus on the breath. But actually this is more like being with the breath. You are mindful and the breath is there. It's a sense of being with rather than focusing on. And so that kind of gives a different idea, a different slant, a different kind of... Report an error in the passage at 2:41 Highlight the passage at 2:41

3:11 A way of thinking about this that I think is far more conducive to peace and relaxation because you're not really doing anything. You are the famous passenger on the train rather than the conductor or the driver of the train. You're sitting back, relaxing, enjoying the scenery. and that is the other Other point of this that is emphasized by the Buddha in so many different places in the suttas, that meditation should be an enjoyable process. Report an error in the passage at 3:11 Highlight the passage at 3:11

3:39 It should be something that you should be sitting and enjoying the scenery. You shouldn't be going through Ajahn Brahm's famous toxic dump waste sites or whatever it's called. Report an error in the passage at 3:39 Highlight the passage at 3:39

3:51 That's not what you want to go through. You want to go through the beautiful scenery, the mountains with the glaciers on the top, the sun just coming up behind the mountains. That's what you want to see in your meditation. Not literally, but metaphorically. If you see it literally, it's very interesting, of course, but this is a metaphorical meaning. So that's what you want to do. Report an error in the passage at 3:51 Highlight the passage at 3:51

4:12 And that comes about by very simple means of enjoying meditation. I always say that when you come to a place like this, you enjoy the atmosphere. You come here, you just enjoy being part of this place. It's like a spiritual sanctuary in the middle of Perth City. What a wonderful thing that is. And just by learning to enjoy the place, you are already kind of on the right track. Report an error in the passage at 4:12 Highlight the passage at 4:12

4:41 There's many ways of doing that. We can just use the idea of enjoyment, of kind of feeling the atmosphere or whatever. But you can also think of it in terms of your kalyanamitas, your good spiritual friends. Everyone who is here is like a spiritual friend. Everyone who comes here is a good person. Everyone who comes here has good intentions. Report an error in the passage at 4:41 Highlight the passage at 4:41

5:02 There's no point in coming here if you have bad intentions. If you had bad intentions, you know what I mean? You wouldn't want to be here. It doesn't make any sense. And so you come here and you think, wow, I'm here with my kalyanamittas, my good spiritual friends, with the other group of people with similar ideas, similar aims in life. Report an error in the passage at 5:02 Highlight the passage at 5:02

5:22 What a marvelous thing that is. This is one of the ideas that Buddha recommends in the suttas for building up a sense of... Good feeling and happy feeling. This idea of good spiritual friendship. That is part of the atmosphere here. It's part of that spiritual friendship that is built up over a certain amount of time. It's a particular perception, a way of thinking about the people around you and the place that you're in. Report an error in the passage at 5:22 Highlight the passage at 5:22

5:51 That's one way. Another way of enjoying the place and that is not kind of a standard way perhaps is the idea of having a sense of gratitude. This amazing buildings that are here, this amazing place, this organization that is being run. It has taken a long time to build it up. This has happened over decades. The hard work of many, many people. Hard work of many people still carrying on in the present day. What a wonderful thing it is that people make use of their life to build up something positive like this. Report an error in the passage at 5:51 Highlight the passage at 5:51

6:25 Something very... conducive to harmony in society, to building up good qualities in individuals in society. Thank you everyone for doing this, all these spiritual friends around us. And by using your perception in these very simple ways, you can gain that sense of ease, a kind of baseline of gladness in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 6:25 Highlight the passage at 6:25

6:50 And when you have that gladness in the mind, instead of being grumpy and down and... Report an error in the passage at 6:50 Highlight the passage at 6:50

7:03 enjoyable the breath should be something that is pleasant to watch something enjoyable to watch and it's not that hard to see the pleasure side of the breath yeah the breath is kind of has a usually a very nice quality to it if you just allow it to be and you don't force it too much Report an error in the passage at 7:03 Highlight the passage at 7:03

7:22 So remember the advice of the Buddha. Just be mindful. And then breathe. And that is like being with rather than focusing on. That's kind of a very nice way of thinking about the breath. And then when you are with the breath, you need to enjoy that situation. If you don't enjoy it, it's not going to work out. And some of those ideas I just mentioned are ways of learning to enjoy what you're doing. Report an error in the passage at 7:22 Highlight the passage at 7:22

7:48 Enjoy just being here. Enjoying the breath itself. And then you are on the right track. It's very simple. It's really, really simple, everything with meditation. It's just a matter of gently nudging the mind, guiding the mind in the right way. Not really doing very much, but a slight altering of your perceptions and the way that you see things. Okay, that is all for now. Report an error in the passage at 7:48 Highlight the passage at 7:48

8:15 Let's try to do some meditation together. Report an error in the passage at 8:15 Highlight the passage at 8:15

· · · silence, 3 minutes

11:37 Okay, so the meditation then starts with the... Allowing the mindfulness to arise. It doesn't start with the breath or start with any other meditation object, but it starts with giving rise to mindfulness. And that happens simply by sitting back and waiting and allowing kind of the world to fade away. Again, this idea of just trying to enjoy the sense of being still and peaceful and not having to do anything and having... Report an error in the passage at 11:37 Highlight the passage at 11:37

12:13 The sense of positive perception about what you are doing now, doing something that is truly meaningful, something that truly has a goal and a purpose compared to so many of the other things in life that don't really go anywhere. And once you appreciate what you're doing, once you wait for the noise of the world to fade away from your mind, This is an exercise in patience, an exercise in just waiting, allowing things to gradually fade away. Then the clarity of the mind should gradually arise. Report an error in the passage at 12:13 Highlight the passage at 12:13

12:53 It's just a matter of waiting, gently nudging the mind, enjoying what you're doing and just waiting for the results to happen. And then eventually when the mindfulness arises, that is really when the meditation As the Report an error in the passage at 12:53 Highlight the passage at 12:53

· · · silence, 12 minutes

25:38 world starts to fade into the background, try to see if you can bring some positivity, lightness and brightness to the meditation. Especially if you feel a bit of dullness or whatever, this brightness can make all the difference for whether the meditation works or not. And it's very simple. A simple thing like just enjoying being here. A sense of feeling the atmosphere of goodness and kindness. Report an error in the passage at 25:38 Highlight the passage at 25:38

26:13 That is often enough. A feeling of appreciation of being part of this broad thing we call Buddhism in the world. These remarkable teachings by this amazing spiritual master. A feeling of gratitude for being able to enjoy what has been done by others over a long period of time all of these things are The most important of all is to enjoy the breath meditation itself, seeing the positive in the breath, seeing its Smoothness, seeing its gentleness, its coolness, its regularity, seeing how it calms you down and brings about these positive qualities. Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

27:02 And this can only really happen if you are at ease with the breath, if you are standing back from it, just enjoying it from a distance, as if you are observing something on the horizon far away, something that you do not control, but just enjoy. Report an error in the passage at 27:02 Highlight the passage at 27:02

27:21 Okay, Report an error in the passage at 27:21 Highlight the passage at 27:21

· · · silence, 27 minutes

54:48 so now if you wish to spend a few moments reviewing your meditation and asking yourself how did you get to this point, if you feel more positive, more uplifted, more mindful, more whatever, why is that the case? How does the process actually work? Report an error in the passage at 54:48 Highlight the passage at 54:48

· · · silence, 1 minute

56:22 Okay. So there you are, that's the meditation for today. And if you have any comments or questions or anything you'd like to ask about, this is the opportunity. Report an error in the passage at 56:22 Highlight the passage at 56:22

· · · silence, 1 minute

57:10 Okay, everyone okay? Yeah, everyone good. All right, so we have a couple of questions from outside. So we have one question from Germany, first of all. So, dear Ajahn, during meditation and in daily life, I'm overwhelmed by extreme sadness. What can I do? I'm severely ill, no healing. Sadness makes life and meditation hard. Report an error in the passage at 57:10 Highlight the passage at 57:10

57:38 Help. Okay, so maybe I think it is reasonable to think that your sadness is related to your ill health. Maybe that you see no way out. You don't see any kind of... You know, purpose or aim or movement towards anything positive, maybe that's why you feel inside. And I think one of the things you have to somehow shift your perceptions and you have to understand that your future is not really... Report an error in the passage at 57:38 Highlight the passage at 57:38

58:15 It's not about your health. It's about something much greater than that. And your future really is not determined by the external things or by the nature of your body and these kind of things. Your future is determined by how you live your life. If you live your life well, then you're going to have a good future. Report an error in the passage at 58:15 Highlight the passage at 58:15

58:34 And this is true both within this present life because at the end of the day what your life is is more your mind than your body. And you can have a very happy mind even if your body is in a bad place. So by living well, simply by having compassion and kindness for the world, even if it is only a mental compassion because you can't do much with your body, still it is going to lead to a... Report an error in the passage at 58:34 Highlight the passage at 58:34

59:02 And if you... too much into the idea that having an ill health means you have no future if you buy into that you're going to be sad but if you don't buy into that you can change that whole outlook and if you have an idea Report an error in the passage at 59:02 Highlight the passage at 59:02

59:28 this life then of course your future lives very much depend on how you live this life and again even with a physically physical body that is in a very bad shape you can still create all that good kamma all those good circumstances the good mind states that makes for a good life in the future So Buddhism is very optimistic in that sense. We're not kind of trapped by what is happening in the present. Report an error in the passage at 59:28 Highlight the passage at 59:28

1:00:02 It's the same thing about everything that happens in the world. Sometimes people get sad and depressed about what's happening in the world. They think there is no future. But your future is not determined by what happens in the world. Your future is determined by how you live your life. Live your life well. You're going to have a good future regardless of what happens in the world. This is this incredibly positive message. Very optimistic. And so we can bypass all the issues both with the body and with the world around us if we know how to develop the mind in the right way. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:02 Highlight the passage at 1:00:02

1:00:36 And so try to see this in this particular way. This is an aspect of what in Buddhism we call right view, seeing the world rightly. The more you see the world rightly, the less grounds there is for sadness if you live well, if you live in a good way. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:36 Highlight the passage at 1:00:36

1:00:55 So just gradually, gradually, see if you can change your perception in that way. Okay, second question. Achieving material goals only exacerbate the self. Paradoxical to the spiritual life. How can one be present in material life? So I would say don't have too many material goals. Make your goals largely... Report an error in the passage at 1:00:55 Highlight the passage at 1:00:55

1:01:24 Spiritual ones or psychological goals, if you like, where your goal is to live well. Your goal is to live with a sense of kindness and compassion in the world, a sense of generosity, a sense of understanding, and then the whole thing kind of changes around. If you are materially successful, okay, that's fine. If you're not, okay, still that's fine. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:24 Highlight the passage at 1:01:24

1:02:13 I don't really recommend people to have material Report an error in the passage at 1:02:13 Highlight the passage at 1:02:13

1:02:21 because it depends on so many factors outside of you. However, the spiritual goals depend only on one person, that's you. And so for that reason you can actually reach those goals. That is what is kind of nice and beautiful about the spiritual path. So that's what I would say. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:21 Highlight the passage at 1:02:21

1:02:41 If you live your life well, if you have good spiritual goals that you achieve, then the material side of life tends to look after itself. It just happens. And that's kind of the good thing with that and how those things kind of go together. So, anyone else like to say anything? Everyone else? Too happy to speak, is that right? Whatever it might be. Anyway, I wish you a wonderful day and a wonderful rest of the weekend. This is pay respect to the Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:41 Highlight the passage at 1:02:41