Living Silently Within The Moment

0:01 Okay, so we're here again for another meditation session. And it's always, meditation is something that we do time and time again as practitioners. So in a sense, we know what to do. yeah and the The main objective is to sit quietly for however long you sit. Sometimes it's half an hour, 45 minutes. That's the time when we can learn how to let go of the things in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:41 minutes and it's Report an error in the passage at 0:41 Highlight the passage at 0:41

0:51 I think a nice reflection is learning how to let go of the backpacks. of the past or the future and sometimes when we look at the past we look at certain things that slow down the progress and sometimes when we can visualize carrying a backpack of just thoughts about the past or thoughts about the future or thoughts about anything really That just puts weight into the backpack and the weight of the backpack will slow any walker down. So in a sense, when you look at the progress of meditation, the lighter your backpack is, the easier the progress happens. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:51 So just have that understanding. My meditation is a time when... We allow ourselves to let go. Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:07 Outside of meditation, we have responsibilities as human beings. Some of us are parents. Some of us have jobs. Things of that nature. So you have to pick those things up. You have to use your brain. And that's life. That's life. We have to do these things. Sometimes when we think about the letting go, we think about, oh, we should let go of everything else. We can let go of our hygiene, so we don't have to take a shower. Report an error in the passage at 2:07 Highlight the passage at 2:07

2:47 Or we just let go of our responsibilities as a friend or as a husband or as a wife. Sometimes we think like, okay, we've come across this meditation and we're supposed to let go of everything. Report an error in the passage at 2:47 Highlight the passage at 2:47

3:36 So we come here to learn how to meditate, to sit for half an hour, and our main objective when we sit down is to let go of the world outside, is to let go of the thoughts that are connected to the world. And in a sense, you know, we could do that wholeheartedly. If we could do it mindfully, then... Then the stillness and the peace and the ability to be in the present moment is a lot better in terms of how we live our life outside of the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 3:36 Highlight the passage at 3:36

4:17 If we live a life where we are just a bit sloppy, a bit slack, we don't do things wholeheartedly, we're wasting a lot of time. We're taking that kind of approach into our meditation and when we're meditating with not building that mindfulness up throughout the day, then our meditation becomes sloppy. Report an error in the passage at 4:17 Highlight the passage at 4:17

4:48 It becomes dull, it's very hard for you to focus and you don't really know what to do. Report an error in the passage at 4:48 Highlight the passage at 4:48

4:59 So that's how we can approach this meditation, is how we live our day. What do we do in our day and how do we live it? And I think a great example is, I always just go back to Ajahn Brahm. When he was younger, he had this ability to just be very mindful in class. And he would just listen to what the teacher would say and he would remember it. Report an error in the passage at 4:59 Highlight the passage at 4:59

5:30 And when it was time to do the test, he didn't have to study that hard, but he was able to answer the questions. And you could kind of see by the success he had with his meditation practice that that kind of attitude that he had towards life helped him. Report an error in the passage at 5:30 Highlight the passage at 5:30

5:50 Just this ability to be mindful. And when we look at mindfulness, how does that relate? To the meditation practice. And one of the ways it relates to the meditation practice is this stage that we always talk about the present moment awareness. Report an error in the passage at 5:50 Highlight the passage at 5:50

6:12 I'm pretty sure you've heard that from many monks or from many teachers or from fellow meditators is this present moment awareness. And when you think about it the present moment awareness It's not only something that you practice in your meditation, but it's something that you can practice throughout your day. Report an error in the passage at 6:12 Highlight the passage at 6:12

6:41 From the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to sleep. And usually, if you can kind of live by that principle, just being in the present moment, your mind is automatically kind of silent. because the thoughts are not wavering, it's not thinking about the future and thinking about the past and just thinking about unnecessary things. Report an error in the passage at 6:41 Highlight the passage at 6:41

7:12 So you can just remember that having these excessive thoughts is just like putting more weight into your backpack which slows down which slows down the progress of the the progress of the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 7:12 Highlight the passage at 7:12

7:30 Just having that understanding that when you meditate, this is the time where I give myself the freedom or I give myself just the ability to not hold on to anything. Report an error in the passage at 7:30 Highlight the passage at 7:30

7:51 It's the time when I meditate for the next half an hour, it's the time where I have no responsibilities. I can let go of the world. Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:02 It's like, Just for half an hour. I don't need to think about who I am. I don't need to think about how old I am. I don't need to think about my health problems. I don't need to think about what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't need to think about anything. And that's like the kind of approach that one can take into their meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 8:02 Highlight the passage at 8:02

8:36 It's like, just to make it like, just to make, just to kind of bring it in line with the Buddhist teachings, like, sometimes when we talk about mind, like the teaching of mindfulness, there's like, mindfulness is like, just being mindful, like the present moment awareness, like just, like listening, and when you're, this is a mindfulness, the quality of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 8:36 Highlight the passage at 8:36

9:09 And then the other part of mindfulness is to remember the instructions. To remember the instructions. So that is quite important. And how does this remembering the instructions, where does that come in? That comes in from just understanding how to meditate. Why are we meditating for? Report an error in the passage at 9:09 Highlight the passage at 9:09

9:39 And that is to, like I was saying before, is just to let go. Let go, forget about things for the next half an hour. And, yeah. And it's like, okay, it's like, okay, so what can we use in the present moment to kind of help keep our mind here? Report an error in the passage at 9:39 Highlight the passage at 9:39

10:05 And we talk about, we talk about, I like to talk about like, Just bringing your mind into this moment. And in this moment, when your eyes are closed, you can feel that you're in this moment. There's a sense of silence in the present moment. And sometimes you can use your body to help anchor the mind in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 10:05 Highlight the passage at 10:05

10:34 So when it comes to sitting down, You can feel the sensations in your body. We like to call that the body sweeping meditation. You might focus on like a stiffness in the back or you might want to do a body sweep where you start from the bottom of your feet and work all the way up to your head. And that will just give the mind something to occupy itself which is closer To the present moment. Because this body is here. The body doesn't live in the past. The body doesn't live in the future. Report an error in the passage at 10:34 Highlight the passage at 10:34

11:17 So sometimes as meditators, when we see our minds just wandering, we can use the body to bring it back into the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 11:17 Highlight the passage at 11:17

11:28 So that's one way. And another way that is quite obvious is just the silence that we always have around us. I think human beings are naturally silent. It's just we live in the modern age where everything is just so busy with TVs, radios, newspapers, Google, and just talking to people. Just talking to people, interacting. We live in that kind of world. Report an error in the passage at 11:28 Highlight the passage at 11:28

12:08 But naturally, if you look at human beings, we're kind of beings of nature. There isn't much difference between humans and nature. We come from nature, we kind of belong in nature, and we're not that kind of complicated or troubled humans. humans. We're just We're just a being of nature, in a sense. And what can life itself, what can you use in life itself to provide you anchors of being in the present moment? Report an error in the passage at 12:08 Highlight the passage at 12:08

12:58 And one of those anchors is just silence. We can just be here. And that's meditation. Report an error in the passage at 12:58 Highlight the passage at 12:58

13:15 You don't need to search so far for the silence. Report an error in the passage at 13:15 Highlight the passage at 13:15

13:26 It's just right here, in this moment. And as a meditator for many years, a lot of the kind of... When you meditate, you're kind of like... you don't need social so far for the silence Report an error in the passage at 13:26 Highlight the passage at 13:26

13:44 There's a sense that you have to be doing something, which is fair enough. Because sometimes if you don't give your mind a direction, your mind can just wander off and never stop thinking. And it just gets worse and worse and worse. Report an error in the passage at 13:44 Highlight the passage at 13:44

14:02 Meditation can work wonders for the mind, but it can also send the mind in a direction where it's going to crash. and they're kind of like um so you know Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

14:14 Crash and burn. Report an error in the passage at 14:14 Highlight the passage at 14:14

14:47 I'm pretty sure that throughout the day you've had moments where you just sat by yourself. You didn't have to think of anything. Where does your mind wander? Or you can just look at what you have in front of you. Look at your surroundings. Look at your senses. Look at what you're paying attention to. Report an error in the passage at 14:47 Highlight the passage at 14:47

15:10 And if we want to, we can always find that silence. It's right here. Report an error in the passage at 15:10 Highlight the passage at 15:10

15:21 It's always here, isn't it? And as a meditator, this is where we stay. This is our home. The silence is our home. And the more we stay here, that's all I can really say about the meditation practice, is just staying with the silence. And you don't need to be expecting anything from your meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 15:21 Highlight the passage at 15:21

15:54 Just be content and thankful that you're able to be in the silence. Report an error in the passage at 15:54 Highlight the passage at 15:54

16:04 Whatever you're looking for in terms of the meditation practice, all those things will happen without you asking for them to happen. Report an error in the passage at 16:04 Highlight the passage at 16:04

16:18 Some people, they want to learn how to meditate to alleviate mental suffering. Ajahn societies or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

16:59 Learning to live more silently within the moment and just having a little bit of trust in that and through time you can see how the silence helps us with our wellness. Report an error in the passage at 16:59 Highlight the passage at 16:59

17:24 So like with any, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, we have a pain in the leg or something, we take Panadol. and that gets rid of the pain and sometimes when we look at our minds we can look at it in a different way and it's like okay how do I kind of alleviate the stress that I have in life and meditation it gives us this kind of medicine we take the medicine of silence to alleviate the stresses that we may have in our life and if you if you Report an error in the passage at 17:24 Highlight the passage at 17:24

18:03 Like, just to drive the point further is like, you know, the Buddha, the Buddha, you know, the Buddha, or the Buddha, all his wisdom, all his wisdom, like the Buddhism, you know, the reason why we're kind of here, it all came from silence, if you think about it. Report an error in the passage at 18:03 Highlight the passage at 18:03

18:32 This is where it came from. Like, the Buddha sat... Under the rose apple tree to attain the deep meditations. All the great masters, they've got their wisdom through silence. And I'm pretty sure if you have a good meditation, it's usually a meditation that is based on the amount of silence. silence that you had in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 18:32 Highlight the passage at 18:32

19:09 So something as simple as silence, which is available to us in every moment, can lead to powerful things, you could say, or lead to good things. Report an error in the passage at 19:09 Highlight the passage at 19:09

19:34 So I think that's a nice way to stop this teaching. is now we can go into a little bit of silence so Report an error in the passage at 19:34 Highlight the passage at 19:34

· · · silence, 2 minutes

21:35 we can just close our eyes and Report an error in the passage at 21:35 Highlight the passage at 21:35

21:42 just get into a comfortable position and Report an error in the passage at 21:42 Highlight the passage at 21:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

22:23 it's just time to experience your your body and your mind it's Report an error in the passage at 22:23 Highlight the passage at 22:23

22:49 time to just tell yourself you give your self permission to Let go of the future. Give yourself the permission to let go of the past. Report an error in the passage at 22:49 Highlight the passage at 22:49

23:13 It's a time where you can partake in a silent way of living. Just Report an error in the passage at 23:13 Highlight the passage at 23:13

23:45 experiencing silence is a way to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 23:45 Highlight the passage at 23:45

24:09 being silent without having any expectations for things to happen in Report an error in the passage at 24:09 Highlight the passage at 24:09

24:30 a sense we kind of understand that if we if we do good then good things happen and for the mind being silent or having a silent experience is a good thing Report an error in the passage at 24:30 Highlight the passage at 24:30

24:58 and the outcome of that is good things happen so Report an error in the passage at 24:58 Highlight the passage at 24:58

· · · silence, 2 minutes

26:58 we can just use our bodies if we need to to help the mind have something to pay attention to sometimes Report an error in the passage at 26:58 Highlight the passage at 26:58

27:20 we can just feel the weight of our bodies or Report an error in the passage at 27:20 Highlight the passage at 27:20

27:30 if our minds are peaceful we can We can see Report an error in the passage at 27:30 Highlight the passage at 27:30

27:43 or place attention on our breathing when Report an error in the passage at 27:43 Highlight the passage at 27:43

27:53 things go quiet. The breath is right in front of you. The rhythmic, the rhythm of the breath is quite easy to be with when everything goes quiet. And Report an error in the passage at 27:53 Highlight the passage at 27:53

28:35 as you're meditating You're letting go, letting go of your thinking, which is the main thing. Thinking, you can, you know, we talk about thinking in many different ways. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, sideways thoughts, thoughts that live up in the air, thoughts that live up and down in the ground, thoughts that live anywhere, but at the end of the day, thoughts are thoughts are thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 28:35 Highlight the passage at 28:35

29:16 We're just letting go of thoughts, letting go of the thinking mind when we're meditating. And we're just experiencing life in a very simplistic way, organic way, a very natural way. It was a way of just... Report an error in the passage at 29:16 Highlight the passage at 29:16

29:51 Just, we just, we're just silenced. Silence. Silence where there's no gender, no status, no nothing really. Everybody's equal. Everybody's the same when we tap into this silence. Questions? Report an error in the passage at 29:51 Highlight the passage at 29:51