Weathering The Storm

0:00 Welcome to another night of meditation in Rolling Stone. Have you been meditating at home? No? Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:16 So when was the last time you meditated? Last week? How about you? Yeah, I listened to some tapes. Oh, that's nice. How about you too? Yeah, I do it every day. Every day? Oh, that's very good. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 0:16 Highlight the passage at 0:16

0:40 So we all come here to... I think the main thing when you come here is to actually do the meditation itself. All the words that we use to try to give you tips and tricks about how to meditate are kind of like... Report an error in the passage at 0:40 Highlight the passage at 0:40

1:07 They're like the pointers, you know, they're pointers. They're pointers but they're not the actual experience. But the pointers are a good thing in a sense because they give you this information so you can know what you're looking for while you're meditating. Report an error in the passage at 1:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07

1:38 So some of the things we like to say is a peaceful mind. A peaceful mind. A peaceful mind. The one thing that's been in my head over the last couple of days is this idea of Report an error in the passage at 1:38 Highlight the passage at 1:38

2:36 about this man who was having so much pain like so much pain in his in his lower back it was so painful that the doctors allowed him to have any medicine that he wanted since I don't know someone told me like a couple of days ago that they're giving people fentanyl in the hospital and apparently it was meant to be you lose your your sense of will So, that kind of means that you're kind of in a euphoric state. So, this man here that was in so much pain, he was allowed to use whatever drug to get away from it. Report an error in the passage at 2:36 Highlight the passage at 2:36

3:21 But instead of using medication, he used meditation. He used meditation. And he used the meditation in such a way that he was able to forget about the pain in his body. Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

3:47 And because of this, the doctors and the researchers at the hospital that were so interested in it, that they went to the source. Who was teaching this method? So they went to the Dhammaloka Center in Nallamara to listen to Ajahn Brahm give a talk about meditation. Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

4:17 So they were wondering, you know, what is this kind of miracle that this man has been able to use to escape from his pain? And the miracle, so-called miracle, is the meditation. meditation Report an error in the passage at 4:17 Highlight the passage at 4:17

4:31 So I've been thinking about that recently and you can kind of sense that as meditators we can engage with our meditation practice to the point where we can forget about everything. Report an error in the passage at 4:31 Highlight the passage at 4:31

5:01 And, yeah. So just think about that. It's like, oh, that's amazing. You can engage. Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? It is. I think it is amazing. Yeah. It's like you can get engaged. You can engage your mind to a point where nothing can kind of get to it, even the pain in the body. and Report an error in the passage at 5:01 Highlight the passage at 5:01

5:34 Just to take it a little bit further, another thing that I was thinking about recently is when you're meditating, you can compare your meditation, what's happening in your meditation to the things that you do in your life, in your daily life. You can compare the two. is like, okay. Report an error in the passage at 5:34 Highlight the passage at 5:34

6:05 Okay, I'm like meditating, I meditate, like I do my meditation and then I can compare it to like eating a meal. You know, what's better? You know, what's better? And sometimes, yes, eating a nice meal is good. You know, it's tasty or whatever. But then when you're meditating and your mind's engaged and you ask yourself, what feels better? Report an error in the passage at 6:05 Highlight the passage at 6:05

6:34 And to me, to me, it's always the meditation. And kind of like, and then you can sort of like take it further to like, you know, your daily chores. Like watering the garden or writing checks to pay the bills or going online and seeing what's happening in the world. You do that. And then you go and do your meditation. And then you experience both. And then you weigh them out. And you say to yourself, what is better? Report an error in the passage at 6:34 Highlight the passage at 6:34

7:15 What feels better? What experience is better? And to me, it's always, not always, because sometimes you have terrible meditations, but for the most part, just sitting peacefully. is a lot nicer than all those other things that we do. Report an error in the passage at 7:15 Highlight the passage at 7:15

7:35 This is a skillful way to make a judgement to see how beneficial this meditation practice is for you. And it's, I think, yeah, so. So there's something for each and every one of us to contemplate, especially when we do this half an hour meditation. When you're sitting down, you ask yourself, what I'm doing now, is it better than some of the things that I do in my life? Report an error in the passage at 7:35 Highlight the passage at 7:35

8:18 And how we do it as well, like I was saying earlier, just having this this this This type of mind, when we're meditating, to be engaged with our meditation. Just to be with whatever is happening in this moment. Report an error in the passage at 8:18 Highlight the passage at 8:18

8:51 And, you know, so what do we do? How do we meditate? All we do is we close our eyes, we close our eyes, and we are just engaging. We're just engaging with the present moment and sometimes as meditators we kind of ask ourselves what is the correct way of meditating? Am I meant to be thinking about some sort of teaching or am I meant to be focusing on parts of my body? Report an error in the passage at 8:51 Highlight the passage at 8:51

9:34 Am I meant to be reciting the teachings? And sometimes when we're meditating we kind of get confused on what is the correct way to meditate. And I've always kind of found that if we're able to engage with our meditation, Like what is happening in front of us. It kind of feels, it kind of feels that we are doing the correct thing. Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

10:14 It feels like the engagement in the meditation practice feels like we're meditating correctly. Because the truth is, it's like we do not know. We do not know. So we come here to meditate, right? And the truth is we do not know what we're getting out of it. Right? You don't really know what you're going to get out of it. The results are uncertain. The future is uncertain. Report an error in the passage at 10:14 Highlight the passage at 10:14

10:45 What you're going to get is uncertain. We don't really know what it is. But I think like I've been saying before, it's just being able to just having this engagement with the moment. Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

11:10 So as you're doing this practice, you kind of ask yourself, you want to know whether you're doing it correctly or not. And I think that's the thing for meditators. Sometimes we're meditating and we're just a little bit too restless or we're restless and we're thinking. Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

12:20 humans we have to deal with anger, we get angry. Somebody said something and we're just carrying it in our mind. We're meditating and we're trying to learn how to be engaged with the moment to be able to let go of these things, but instead we don't do that and we hold on to the grudges and the arguments in our head. Report an error in the passage at 12:20 Highlight the passage at 12:20

12:43 And when we're going through those things, we can understand we're not meditating correctly. The things that we are putting in our heads is stopping us from experiencing a mind which is Settled, a mind which is empty, a mind which is kind of free from those things. So in a sense, yes, meditation is about being able to free yourself from those things that cause you trouble, but also understand that the troubles that we experience in life are things that are always going to be there. Report an error in the passage at 12:43 Highlight the passage at 12:43

13:30 And with the help of the meditation, all we're using the meditation for is to try to manage these things. And manage these things so we can understand when these things do arise in our minds in the future, we are more readily, more kind of skilled at dealing with these things or understanding these things. Report an error in the passage at 13:30 Highlight the passage at 13:30

14:00 And because of this understanding, we can live life easier. I think there's a beautiful thing when it comes to trying to use understanding to accept situations. And I think a nice example is we have somebody staying with us at the moment. and and and If you don't know his history or what he's done or what's going on in his mind, then I think you can be kind of like judgmental about this person because they just do things which is kind of strange and weird and all that kind of stuff. Report an error in the passage at 14:00 Highlight the passage at 14:00

14:50 But then once you get to know the person, you understand where they're coming from, why they act in a certain way, What makes them think in this or that way? You get to a point where you can have an understanding of them. And because you understand them, you can accept them. And it's sort of the same with your mind. The things that happen in our minds when we're meditating, those things are just a part of having a human mind. Report an error in the passage at 14:50 Highlight the passage at 14:50

15:22 Like this, the anger, the sleepiness. Report an error in the passage at 15:22 Highlight the passage at 15:22

15:57 I like to say in the monastery, it's like, don't worry about it, you know, don't worry about it. We have these ants like crawling everywhere, you know, in the kitchen. I'm like, sometimes it's like the best answer to the, the best way to solve the problem is to don't worry about it. Report an error in the passage at 15:57 Highlight the passage at 15:57

16:17 So, so, so yeah, sometimes it's, it's actually a good thing. It's just not to, to, to worry about things. it. Report an error in the passage at 16:17 Highlight the passage at 16:17

16:26 And then when you're kind of like, you're not worrying about things, and when you're meditating, and you can start to engage in this moment. Always coming back to this, you know, engage in this moment. Like the present moment, a moment where there's a few distractions. Report an error in the passage at 16:26 Highlight the passage at 16:26

17:22 Just bringing it back to the beginning of this talk is that the guy who was trying to escape from his pain and not using medication but using the meditation and he was able to engage in his mind in such a way that he was able to kind of like escape from it or get away from it. and is Ajahn Santutthi Satsang with Mooji yeah just only just for the mind it has a it has a lot of like really good benefit and good benefits and I like to Report an error in the passage at 17:22 Highlight the passage at 17:22

18:17 So I've been practicing for a long time And one of the things that I've noticed is that with the meditation practice, like being in the present moment, being silent, being still, what you're actually doing is you're actually creating, you're becoming like a more peaceful person. A peaceful person. You don't really get rattled. People call me fat all the time. You think I cry over it? Report an error in the passage at 18:17 Highlight the passage at 18:17

18:51 Not really. Report an error in the passage at 18:51 Highlight the passage at 18:51

18:57 In the back there, they call him a giraffe because he's so tall. Does he whinge and whine? No. Report an error in the passage at 18:57 Highlight the passage at 18:57

19:10 And what I've noticed is, over time, because you've created this peacefulness within you, Like parts of you have become more peaceful over the years. And that's like, there's almost like something that you can always like fall back to or go back to, you know what I mean? And it's just, yeah, it's just like developing these new kind of personality traits that you can use in your life. Report an error in the passage at 19:10 Highlight the passage at 19:10

19:45 You know, like, it's like, what type of person were you before you meditated? Oh, I was like... angry person or something. Or worry too much or something like that. And that's like something that you created since you were young and you developed it over time. And that's how you are today. How you are today didn't happen Report an error in the passage at 19:45 Highlight the passage at 19:45

20:09 So you develop these kind of like personality traits but coming here Report an error in the passage at 20:09 Highlight the passage at 20:09

21:18 The storm will eventually pass and everything will be okay again. And that's the same, you know, with your mind. It's like this ability to just keep quiet with whatever's happening in your mind. You don't need to add anything onto it. You don't need to change it. You're just keeping quiet. You're weathering the storm. And then eventually, those emotions, those whatever you're going through calms down. Report an error in the passage at 21:18 Highlight the passage at 21:18

21:47 And what you're left with is just this, like, peacefulness. And then you're left with this peacefulness and you're engaging in it. You're engaging in it. And it's sort of like the more you engage in something, that's kind of who you become. Yeah. And that's how we kind of just become different people over time through the meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 21:47 Highlight the passage at 21:47

22:18 This is where I would like to stop the talk and we can actually do the meditation instead of talking about it. So Report an error in the passage at 22:18 Highlight the passage at 22:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

23:42 first of all, make sure you are comfortable. We Report an error in the passage at 23:42 Highlight the passage at 23:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

24:29 close our eyes and Report an error in the passage at 24:29 Highlight the passage at 24:29

24:46 we are aware of what's happening now and Report an error in the passage at 24:46 Highlight the passage at 24:46

25:04 try to be engaged with whatever's happening now. Report an error in the passage at 25:04 Highlight the passage at 25:04

25:23 there's no need to do anything special or anything difficult when we meditate meditation should be a very easy thing to do and Report an error in the passage at 25:23 Highlight the passage at 25:23

26:03 remember meditation doesn't change you immediately is one of these things that that change you over time so really you can't see much result Report an error in the passage at 26:03 Highlight the passage at 26:03

26:24 From one sitting. Report an error in the passage at 26:24 Highlight the passage at 26:24

26:31 But if you kind of add this into your life for a long, long time, then you can definitely see the changes that it makes to you. I Report an error in the passage at 26:31 Highlight the passage at 26:31

27:04 think there's a joy. There is a joy that comes from knowing how to meditate correctly. Report an error in the passage at 27:04 Highlight the passage at 27:04

27:21 Because as meditators, I think one of the struggles is to figure out, is to find out how to meditate properly. But once you figure that out, there is a joy that comes with the fact that you've kind of figured it out. So that's also a part of our journey. Report an error in the passage at 27:21 Highlight the passage at 27:21

28:00 As meditators, is how do we meditate correctly? So Report an error in the passage at 28:00 Highlight the passage at 28:00

· · · silence, 2 minutes

30:17 remember, you don't have to exert yourself when you're meditating. Report an error in the passage at 30:17 Highlight the passage at 30:17

30:27 You just have this natural engagement, an effortless engagement with what's happening now. You're Report an error in the passage at 30:27 Highlight the passage at 30:27

30:51 just knowing this moment for this moment. Report an error in the passage at 30:51 Highlight the passage at 30:51

30:58 And you're not trying to do anything else. And Report an error in the passage at 30:58 Highlight the passage at 30:58

31:05 that's the type of attitude that you carry through your meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 31:05 Highlight the passage at 31:05

31:18 It's like weathering the storm, allowing things to pass, being engaged with what's happening without reacting, without talking. Because, you know, if you react, you talk. Report an error in the passage at 31:18 Highlight the passage at 31:18

31:46 We've done this in life. It sometimes makes things worse. Report an error in the passage at 31:46 Highlight the passage at 31:46

31:56 So we just allow our meditation to flow and go in whichever direction it wants to. And Report an error in the passage at 31:56 Highlight the passage at 31:56

32:11 the funny thing is, if you allow it to go and flow to wherever it wants to, it will eventually find its way home. It will come back. Report an error in the passage at 32:11 Highlight the passage at 32:11

32:31 to the present moment you'll come back to a place where the mind is free from the trouble or from whatever it's nagging us or on our minds or which isn't peaceful it'll Report an error in the passage at 32:31 Highlight the passage at 32:31

32:59 find its way away from those things and back home back home to where The mind is free from those things. The mind is quieter. The mind is spacious. And the mind is engaged. And it's joyous. It feels joyful because it knows how to meditate. So Report an error in the passage at 32:59 Highlight the passage at 32:59

· · · silence, 7 minutes

40:31 you may have some difficulties arising to the point where you don't like the meditation. You're having anger towards your meditation. So one Report an error in the passage at 40:31 Highlight the passage at 40:31

40:57 of the things that we learn as meditators is learning to be at ease with the emotions, the mind states that we do not like. It's learning how to be at ease. Learning how to calm down the dislike. Because dislike is quite a hard, quite a hard, like almost ill-will, ill-will based kind of emotion or mind state. Report an error in the passage at 40:57 Highlight the passage at 40:57

41:49 That's where it comes from. So when that arises, we're learning how to calm it down. Learn how to be at ease. You get to the point where you can feel, where you can understand that you're at ease with the things that you don't like to see in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 41:49 Highlight the passage at 41:49

42:28 And that's like making progress. You're making progress and it Report an error in the passage at 42:28 Highlight the passage at 42:28

42:47 just allows you to Report an error in the passage at 42:47 Highlight the passage at 42:47

42:54 Learn how to be a little bit more tolerant to your meditation practice. So Report an error in the passage at 42:54 Highlight the passage at 42:54

43:21 whenever that feeling of dislike arises in our minds towards something that's going on, we try to calm it down. We try to be at ease with what is happening. Instead of Report an error in the passage at 43:21 Highlight the passage at 43:21

43:54 growing the dislike we're trying to do the opposite and that way our meditation the feeling that we get from it can be calmer so Report an error in the passage at 43:54 Highlight the passage at 43:54

· · · silence, 6 minutes

49:57 we're going to end this meditation and I hope you had a nice peaceful good time and what I'll do now is I'll hit the gong I'll sound it three times. In my opinion, it's one of the nicest gongs that I've heard. And I actually quite enjoy it when I hear it every time. I don't know about every time. It really depends on my mood. But yeah, it's actually quite a nice sound. Report an error in the passage at 49:57 Highlight the passage at 49:57

· · · silence, 1 minute

51:47 Meditation. How Report an error in the passage at 51:47 Highlight the passage at 51:47

52:01 was it? Any complaints? I'm Report an error in the passage at 52:01 Highlight the passage at 52:01

52:10 open to complaints. Just one complaint. Report an error in the passage at 52:10 Highlight the passage at 52:10

52:20 Does anybody have any questions? Any questions? Yes. So maybe a bit of advice for this would be good. I had a friend that said quite some awful things to me today. So I did a few things to deal with it. I meditated. won't complain. Report an error in the passage at 52:20 Highlight the passage at 52:20

· · · silence, 1 minute

52:46 I sought advice from other friends and family members. But do you have any other advice on how I can deal with that hurt? Yes. Report an error in the passage at 52:46 Highlight the passage at 52:46

52:59 How do you deal with hurt in general? Well, I cried to begin with. Because we've been friends for over 10 years. And it kind of just came out of nowhere. It's almost like that shock. I physically felt that. Report an error in the passage at 52:59 Highlight the passage at 52:59

53:16 I don't think there's one simple answer to that question. It also really depends on how do you deal with tough times in your life. Are you resilient? Are you able to deal with other things that happen to you in your life? And if you're able to do that, then you can kind of trust in your own ability to kind of overcome things. Report an error in the passage at 53:16 Highlight the passage at 53:16

53:41 things and And just know eventually these things will pass away. I mean, it hurts. Report an error in the passage at 53:41 Highlight the passage at 53:41

53:53 You probably don't know why they said it. It's like, you know, who's right, who's wrong? You know what I mean? Yeah, so, I mean, yeah, I think just let it pass and then see what happens. I don't know whether you want to save the friendship or not. hurts. Report an error in the passage at 53:53 Highlight the passage at 53:53

54:17 Yeah, because you've known this person for a long, long time and I don't know how they feel towards you. So yeah, these are like difficult times and things that we go through in life and they are very overwhelming. They are very overwhelming, yeah. We get consumed by them and it just seems like this is how we are for now. Report an error in the passage at 54:17 Highlight the passage at 54:17

54:46 But then we understand like through time, you know, maybe next week or a couple of days you'll start to feel better. And these things are kind of left in the past. And usually when the emotions are taken away and you have clarity of mind, then you can kind of have better judgment or better thinking towards the person. Report an error in the passage at 54:46 Highlight the passage at 54:46

55:18 There's a different one, yeah. There's a difficult one, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 55:18 Highlight the passage at 55:18

55:29 But mums are the best. I've done terrible things to my mum and she's always forgiven me. I wasn't always a monkey, no. Report an error in the passage at 55:29 Highlight the passage at 55:29

55:47 Anyways, any more questions? Okay, alright, so... So just let you know that there will be Ajahn Jaya. Who knows Ajahn Jaya? You know Ajahn Jaya? Ajahn Jaya will be here next week teaching the class. And I'll be coming back the following week. So I'll see you then. Thank you, Ajahn. Okay. Okay, bye-bye. Report an error in the passage at 55:47 Highlight the passage at 55:47