Guided Meditation

0:00 For those of you who've got good memories, remember Ajahn Chitamala, he was my second monk for many, many years. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:09 I must admit, can I please confess my faults? I said, I didn't know where you'd gone. I thought you may have gone into the introduction to meditation class. Report an error in the passage at 0:09 Highlight the passage at 0:09

0:24 No, okay, I've got a lot to say. Excellent. Report an error in the passage at 0:24 Highlight the passage at 0:24

0:31 I'm being cheeky. So anyway, welcome everybody. It's all right. Report an error in the passage at 0:31 Highlight the passage at 0:31

0:34 And in this guided meditation, and not just guided meditation, but giving some more hints about how meditation works, one of the things which has come to my mind, I'm sure I've told you many times, was that when I was a young layperson learning my meditation, someone always told me, at the beginning of the meditation, how do you feel? Report an error in the passage at 0:34 Highlight the passage at 0:34

1:00 At the end of the meditation, how do you feel? And every time I asked that question, I always, every time, saw there was some improvement. And sometimes a great deal of improvement. You know, it was not just huge events which made that meditation grow and get better and better and better. It was always starting with the ordinary things, being able to be more aware, and why the awareness could grow. Report an error in the passage at 1:00 Highlight the passage at 1:00

1:34 Why, when I started meditation like everybody else, you had thoughts come into the mind and some of those thoughts would be disturbing. What do you do about that? Many times people gave me some good advice and sometimes some bad advice. The bad advice part was when they said, fight it. And I was meditating to relax, to feel a sense of peace. Report an error in the passage at 1:34 Highlight the passage at 1:34

2:04 Ease, comfort, not to actually to do what else you do in life, fighting all the time, like playing a sport, pushing your body, like doing intellectual stuff, which is pushing the brain. I didn't want to push anymore. I wanted just to be and be still and be comfortable, be at ease. Exactly what was happening right now, I was not going to judge. I was going to be with it so I could get to know it. But it was more than just getting to know the content of this present moment. Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:45 As you got to know the content of the present moment, because you weren't fighting it, because you were not waging a war with your mind, what happened was you always got more and more and more and more peaceful every moment. Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

3:04 Okay. And as we're getting more and more peaceful every moment, you notice that at the end of the meditation I'd always ask, okay, half an hour of meditation, 45 minutes of meditation, how do you feel now? Your body, how relaxed is it? Your mind, how relaxed is it? And if at the end of the meditation your body is still stiff and tense, It's not really a good meditation. It's something which you're not doing. But right now, just to prove it to myself, I look at my body. Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:43 I came in here ten minutes before the three o 'clock. I look at my body. It's just been sitting here. How does it feel? When I was just watching everybody come in, I was also being very aware of my body and learning how to relax it. Report an error in the passage at 3:43 Highlight the passage at 3:43

4:01 Do you know how to relax? If I relax, please excuse me again, I often repeat these stories, but I was aware of my shoulders right now. I don't know why, but it's so easy for me to notice any tightness and tension in my shoulders. So as I'm aware of that now, I deliberately make a kind of resolution, like a plan, a determination. Report an error in the passage at 4:01 Highlight the passage at 4:01

4:31 I'm going to relax my shoulders. And over many, many times, many minutes of my life I've learned how that relaxation happens. Report an error in the passage at 4:31 Highlight the passage at 4:31

4:46 The one thing with mindfulness, if it's focused on one part of your body, say, if it's focused on that part, you can be aware of changes. I soon learn how to relax. Report an error in the passage at 4:46 Highlight the passage at 4:46

5:03 If I get it wrong, then the body continues to be more tight. You can feel that so easily. This is the feedback which mindfulness gives you. When you do the meditation and you're looking for that feedback, you can actually see what works and what doesn't work. Report an error in the passage at 5:03 Highlight the passage at 5:03

5:29 And so soon you learn how to do something like... Just to relax your shoulders. I'll just do that now and you can see the muscles. I'm not making this up. I can feel my muscles start to relax more and more and more. Just in my shoulders. I know how to relax. I've learned how to do it. And all of that feedback which you get from mindfulness teaches you how to become very skilled in bodily relaxation. Report an error in the passage at 5:29 Highlight the passage at 5:29

6:03 From that bodily relaxation, it's pretty much the same how you also relax your mind. I know that sometimes people try and stop thoughts. I don't try and stop any thoughts. Again, I'm being honest to you. I relax my brain. And when my brain relaxes, it doesn't want to think. It's not stopping. I haven't got some vigilantes. Report an error in the passage at 6:03 Highlight the passage at 6:03

6:34 panties in my brain and every time I think a thought, bad monk, you're supposed to be teaching people, bad teacher. I don't ever practice like that. That doesn't cause relaxation. I'm just with my mind. Report an error in the passage at 6:34 Highlight the passage at 6:34

7:00 I'm its friend. I'm not just saying this. Please. I understand it's through that friendliness, through that kindness, through that softness, your brain relaxes, your body relaxes. You don't need to think. You just are aware of peace with whatever's happening. And if whatever's happening is not pleasant, then what do you do? Report an error in the passage at 7:00 Highlight the passage at 7:00

7:37 I've always noticed, even when I've been very, very, very sick, if you are at peace with your body and your mind in this present moment, even when you're sick, you can relax your body so much, you can get very, very, very still. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

7:59 And many of you have been listening to me for years. And of course, I love telling the examples. In the time when I had scrub typhus fever, which was symptoms so similar to typhoid, and nothing was working. In a hospital bed, absolutely no energy, and just in fevers. And nevertheless, because I was an experimenter, as a young man, as a physicist, you always know. Report an error in the passage at 7:59 Highlight the passage at 7:59

8:44 Give it a try, see what happens. And you could relax to the max. And those were some of those wonderful experiences where you are sitting in a hospital in the middle of a fever. Sorry, I made a mistake there. I wasn't sitting in a hospital. I couldn't sit. I was laying down, the closest I've ever been to dying. Report an error in the passage at 8:44 Highlight the passage at 8:44

9:08 And as you were laying down with a fever, nothing was working. Having been in that hospital about three or four weeks, just relaxing the body so much that you disappeared. You went into a nice deep meditation. Report an error in the passage at 9:08 Highlight the passage at 9:08

9:25 And because of that, it was kind of like a little proof. It is possible, no matter how healthy or sick your body is, you can always relax, always make peace with your body. And after a while, because you make peace, the body vanishes. Report an error in the passage at 9:25 Highlight the passage at 9:25

9:54 I've told many times to the monks on meditation retreats the story when, as a layman over in UK, it was so hard to find places to meditate or teachers who could instruct you in meditation. Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

10:18 I remember once going to a weekend meditation retreat in a Zen monastery. I still remember its name, Throssell Hall in Northumberland in UK. No one ever taught me what you're supposed to do in Zen meditation. We just sat and sat watching. I was asked to keep my eyes fully open. And to watch the wall right in front of me, which was a simple whitewashed wall, not looking through a window, just looking at a white wall in front of my eyes. Report an error in the passage at 10:18 Highlight the passage at 10:18

11:05 No instructions, no expectations. I should have known what was going to happen. I had enough knowledge about how the brain works. Because the white wall was boring, Nothing was happening, it wasn't changing. My brain realized it wasn't dangerous, so it was not interesting. Report an error in the passage at 11:05 Highlight the passage at 11:05

11:34 It was only after a few minutes, the wall vanished, which was really weird. Normally, I would have got scared, like you're losing your sense of sight. It was just there one minute, and the next minute, there was nothing there. Not blackness, but the sight, the sense of sight had turned off, even though I had my eyes fully open. Report an error in the passage at 11:34 Highlight the passage at 11:34

12:07 It wasn't dangerous. I knew the people there, they were trustworthy. Because I wasn't afraid, because I didn't overreact, when the sense of sight vanished, I just contemplated, not thinking with words. Just allowing that experience to persist and after feeling, why? Keep it very, very simple. And I soon realized that this is with all the senses of your body, whether it's sight, sound, smell, taste or touch. Report an error in the passage at 12:07 Highlight the passage at 12:07

12:50 If there is a continuity, a constancy of that experience, it doesn't get better, it doesn't get worse, it just stays like that. Even if it's unpleasant, after a while it's not interesting to the brain. The brain is very efficient. If there's something the brain can do, it will stay there. If nothing moves, that vision of that whitewashed wall was persisting, not getting more white, not getting less white, it has to vanish. Report an error in the passage at 12:50 Highlight the passage at 12:50

13:33 Just like the... The ambient noise next to a busy street, after a while the noise vanishes. It's not interesting, it's not important. The brain has developed enough to be efficient, so if things are dangerous, yes, you will get even more mindful. If things are just, they've been experiencing that for long enough, that perception will disappear. Report an error in the passage at 13:33 Highlight the passage at 13:33

14:08 The best thing I got from that retreat, only weekend retreat, seeing through experience how your senses turn off. Report an error in the passage at 14:08 Highlight the passage at 14:08

14:22 And as you're sitting here, some of you may be very sick, some of you may be very sore, some of you may just want a bit of peace from your body. Report an error in the passage at 14:22 Highlight the passage at 14:22

14:34 And so can you feel any part of your body which is disturbing you? It won't be quiet. It's an ache, it's a pain, it's a discomfort. After a while, if that discomfort doesn't get more acute, more sharp, if it's just a dull ache somewhere, after a while that dull ache has to disappear. Report an error in the passage at 14:34 Highlight the passage at 14:34

15:04 It's the nature of the body to do so. That's why you can go to sleep sometimes with a bruise or with an ache somewhere. So the idea of the beginning part of meditation is to relax enough so the body has got no sharp feelings. If it has got a sharp feeling, to relax it enough, it's not so pounding on your brain. Report an error in the passage at 15:04 Highlight the passage at 15:04

15:37 The senses have relaxed. That's one of the reasons why we ask everybody to sit in a comfortable position. If it's even in a chair, even in the armchair, you have to get here very early to get the armchair. But there's nothing wrong with that. It's comfortable. And in that, your body can feel so at ease, it can disappear. Imagine what happens when you're sitting here in meditation. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

16:15 The legs disappear, your butt, you can't feel it anymore, your back. There's no sense pain or sense trouble which impinges on it disappearing. Report an error in the passage at 16:15 Highlight the passage at 16:15

16:36 And your shoulders, like my shoulders, I relaxed them a few minutes ago. I can't feel them anymore. My arms and hands, it's pretty easy to relax them. Report an error in the passage at 16:36 Highlight the passage at 16:36

16:50 Neck, head, face. So your whole body is not disturbing you. It's been fed, it's been washed, it's been relaxed, so it can disappear for a while. And once your body has disappeared, the sight has turned off, you can still hear my voice, I hope, but after a while I will stop speaking and you'll have silence. Report an error in the passage at 16:50 Highlight the passage at 16:50

17:21 Yes, you'll still be able to observe, or rather perceive, the sound of the air-cons, or the sound of... The traffic in the distance, but it doesn't disturb you. And after a while, those perceptions of noise disappear or whatever just fell over lasts for a second and it disappears. And then you have the comfort of inner body and the senses are not demanding your attention anymore. Report an error in the passage at 17:21 Highlight the passage at 17:21

18:08 When they don't demand your attention, what happens next? Do you fall asleep? Some people can when they start the training. But for most people, once the sight is easy to shut off, you just close your eyes. Once sound and physical sensations disappear, the other two senses of smell and taste, they're very easy. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:40 To be quiet and to shut them off. And then those five senses have been tranquilized. They're still, but you're still very much aware. What are you aware of? It's kind of interesting when you first start to turn away from the five senses to discover what's left. Report an error in the passage at 18:40 Highlight the passage at 18:40

19:07 What's left is what we call the sixth sense, the mind. And as you become aware of that sixth sense of mind, it becomes easy to watch and also becomes very beautiful. So once the five senses have been calmed down, you're relaxed, you're comfortable, you're not fighting, you've let go enough, they're just not calling on you to do anything. Report an error in the passage at 19:07 Highlight the passage at 19:07

19:39 Then you start to become aware of your mind. I know that sometimes if we do something like a breath meditation, we teach you how to just watch the breath go in, go out, go in, go out. Report an error in the passage at 19:39 Highlight the passage at 19:39

19:57 After a while, that's all you see, just the breath and nothing else in your body. And after a bit longer, what you're actually watching changes. Report an error in the passage at 19:57 Highlight the passage at 19:57

20:10 It's not the physical feeling of the breathing, it's the mental perception of the breathing. For those of you who know Ānāpānasati, that's when the first four stages of Ānāpānasati have been gone through. And then you start to go to the next four steps of Ānāpānasati, which is when you are noticing the breath with pity, with sukha, with bliss. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:43 And what's happening there is you're not feeling the breath anymore. You're knowing the breath. You're experiencing it through the sense of knowing, through the sixth sense. The other five senses have been subdued. And this becomes where one experiences joyful experiences of meditation. And I really sort of emphasize the joy, the happiness of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 20:43 Highlight the passage at 20:43

21:24 You haven't gone into the very deep meditations yet, but you're on your way. When you start to be meditating and it really feels good inside, because it feels good, you never have to put attention on anything. The experience draws your attention to it. You can hardly resist because of that. The mindfulness becomes natural, automatic. It becomes strong because the enjoyable experience keeps your attention there and satisfies you enormously. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

22:21 This was supposed to be just to talk about meditation. It's also the guidance, which I hope many of you close your eyes. And allow it to happen. And Report an error in the passage at 22:21 Highlight the passage at 22:21

22:42 I don't care what you think you are watching. If the mind is starting to become beautiful, enjoyable, in this moment, and you don't want anything in the whole world, because this moment is more than beautiful enough, you Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

23:07 carry on. And you will find, if the mind does wander off and start thinking, start planning, Then it will disturb the meditation. You'll find that the meditation will lose its joy. It will be losing its shine. And then that's the point when you can very easily wander off, become disturbed, and the aches and the pains in the body could return. Report an error in the passage at 23:07 Highlight the passage at 23:07

23:45 All the problems and difficulties in thinking might return. Report an error in the passage at 23:45 Highlight the passage at 23:45

23:55 Just be here in this moment. Be still. Be still and enjoy the stillness. I'm now going to be quiet. I can't resist. I will ring the gong at the end of the meditation period. End Report an error in the passage at 23:55 Highlight the passage at 23:55

· · · silence, 31 minutes

55:16 of the meditation. How do you feel compared to when you began? How Report an error in the passage at 55:16 Highlight the passage at 55:16

55:37 at peace is your body? How Report an error in the passage at 55:37 Highlight the passage at 55:37

55:51 relaxed is your mind? The Report an error in the passage at 55:51 Highlight the passage at 55:51

56:23 gong. Let the sound of the gong carry you out of the meditation. Thank Report an error in the passage at 56:23 Highlight the passage at 56:23

· · · silence, 1 minute

57:58 you. Are Report an error in the passage at 57:58 Highlight the passage at 57:58

58:11 there any comments now? Usually the time now is four o 'clock. So ask questions on the meditation. Sometimes, because the meditation makes you very peaceful, You may have had questions to begin with. Once the meditation is complete, those questions kind of vanish. Report an error in the passage at 58:11 Highlight the passage at 58:11

58:45 So if there's anything from the computer, first of all, and sometimes people put questions on there at the beginning. Report an error in the passage at 58:45 Highlight the passage at 58:45

58:59 Here we go. Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

59:03 Thank you. Questions. Today we've got a question from Kazakhstan, from Germany, and from the UK. First of all from Kazakhstan. Dear Ajahn Brahm, in the Thai forest tradition, Ajahn Man's lineage, they practice the recitation of the word Buddha. How should this be practiced to ideally achieve samādhi? These mantras which you can chant, that's for a stage in the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 59:03 Highlight the passage at 59:03

59:47 You need to chant Buddha, oh Buddha. but it should get slower. And after a while, you can soon realize you don't have to do any chanting anymore. Report an error in the passage at 59:47 Highlight the passage at 59:47

1:00:05 The mind is peaceful and still. It's just the beginning part of the meditation to get the mind calm, just like just watching the breath go in and go out. After a while, the breath has done its job. When you're aware in this moment, you don't even need to name anything, to say anything to yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:05 Highlight the passage at 1:00:05

1:00:35 Chanting of Buddha is a stage in the meditation. You get beyond that, deeper, more powerful. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:35 Highlight the passage at 1:00:35

1:00:45 From Germany, how does one find peace when the body is in pain? Thank you for that question. It's kind of almost unbelievable until you do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:45 Highlight the passage at 1:00:45

1:01:02 You let go of fighting. The usual reaction to pain is to want to get rid of it. Sometimes you can have enough inspiration to literally let it be. You don't try to get rid of it. Instead, you are with it, being in harmony with it, not fighting. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:02 Highlight the passage at 1:01:02

1:01:35 And then the pain... The pity is sort of constant because it doesn't get worse or get better. Soon it disappears. Believe it or not, that's what happens. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:35 Highlight the passage at 1:01:35

1:01:50 From UK, I've been thinking a lot about impermanence recently. Is there a way to incorporate this into meditation practice? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:50 Highlight the passage at 1:01:50

1:02:00 Thinking, no. Do not incorporate thinking into your meditation practice. Disturbed, you're thinking all sorts of... Different ways. If you wanted to use things like impermanence, that particular word, anicca, I love the way that Ajahn Chah used to explain it to me. It's not just impermanence, that's just one part of anicca. It's also uncertain, not predictable. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:00 Highlight the passage at 1:02:00

1:02:44 And that's kind of one of the best ways I liked to actually to understand anicca and make use of it in the meditation. You're watching this moment, you just don't know what moment is going to come next. You can't predict it. That's one of the reasons when it first happens to you, it comes and blows your mind why you can have pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:44 Highlight the passage at 1:02:44

1:03:16 One moment, literally, unendurable, and bliss the next. It makes no sense, but I'm very happy that that's possible. If it does ever happen to you, that it's not as if you want to investigate anymore, you're just so content and happy that the bliss has replaced the pain. I think many of you know that story in my life. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:16 Highlight the passage at 1:03:16

1:03:53 Just one day, you may think it's a small thing. I had a very, very, very terrible toothache. So bad, there's no way I could sleep. No way I could wash my breath. There's the pain, the aching, the throbbing in my jaw. I'm trying everything to get past it. And nothing, nothing was working. And so when... Report an error in the passage at 1:03:53 Highlight the passage at 1:03:53

1:04:23 It was a simile which I remember Ajahn Chah again teaching that sometimes it's like you cannot go forward, you cannot go backwards, you cannot stay where you are. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:23 Highlight the passage at 1:04:23

1:04:36 Everything is unendurable. So now what to do? And the only words which came up was that wonderful word, let go, let go. I had no choice, so I let go. And the result was amazing. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:36 Highlight the passage at 1:04:36

1:05:04 Again, I'm not just making these stories up. When you let go, the first time I really let go, the pain vanished, the bliss replaced it. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:04 Highlight the passage at 1:05:04

1:05:22 Imagine, you're just desperate for one moment, and the next moment you're blissed out. Where on earth did that pain go? I don't care. I'm just happy it's gone. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:22 Highlight the passage at 1:05:22

1:05:38 And of course, once it happens once, you know, you know, that that possibility is always there. than even pain, is anicca. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:38 Highlight the passage at 1:05:38

1:05:55 Why? Because his energy are uncertain. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:55 Highlight the passage at 1:05:55

1:06:03 Okay, now for the people in the audience here. Have you got something you'd like to ask, a question? Ajahn Report an error in the passage at 1:06:03 Highlight the passage at 1:06:03

1:06:22 Brahm, you were talking just now about the pain, how it vanishes. I would like to add in, I hope I can explain it, I mean, phrase it properly. You see, the Buddha was telling us, the mind is a forerunner of all states. So, Ajahn Brahm, if we have problem, whatever problem this thing, say cancer or tumor, if the mind, we keep focusing on it, Report an error in the passage at 1:06:22 Highlight the passage at 1:06:22

1:06:55 So it stays or it may become worsen, you know, if fear arises. Is that Ajahn Brahm? Say like in meditation, the mind, we don't focus on that, you know. We focus on the meditation, this thing, and we don't give it the energy, you know. So it slowly can fade down, isn't it? That's one good one. Just one moment. You know this book I read, Ajahn Brahm, I think a lot of people have read it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:55 Highlight the passage at 1:06:55

1:07:27 It's by Mahāsi Sayadaw, a Burmese high monk. The book is called Dharma Therapy. In the book, it gives cases of people who've got tumor, got all problems. If they can meditate for more than say each day, about say 15-20 hours for Yes, Report an error in the passage at 1:07:27 Highlight the passage at 1:07:27

1:08:00 I have mentioned many times I've seen not tumours burst but tumours shrink and fade away. It's weird but this is what happens. days, and they can see the tumor burst. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:00 Highlight the passage at 1:08:00

1:08:18 Sometimes they do the CT scans and the tumor is getting smaller. The tumor doesn't burst, it vanishes, disappears. I would not say that if I didn't have that experience, there's no other explanation. But it's all, it's not that you have to meditate for so many hours every day. It's more like the quality of the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:18 Highlight the passage at 1:08:18

1:08:49 And just how you act afterwards and before. The point is, never be stressful in your practice of meditation. Don't say, oh my goodness, I haven't only done 12 hours today, not 14 hours. That just makes the tumours worse. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:49 Highlight the passage at 1:08:49

1:09:11 Just let go of time. Disappear, the body is just a body. If it works, it works. If it doesn't work, it's still worthwhile doing. And then after a while, the tumour's gone. It's weird. That's what happens. It comes back to our mindset, Ajahn Brahm. We don't give power to the thing, you know, the problem, the tumour. Exactly. Any other questions? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:11 Highlight the passage at 1:09:11

1:09:39 Thank you very much. No, thank you, Eddie. Any other questions from here? Okay, you got your hand up first, yes. In Report an error in the passage at 1:09:39 Highlight the passage at 1:09:39

1:09:54 the meditation state, there's often music coming. And do you treat music the same as addressing a thought and letting it go? Okay, first of all, it depends, again, what type of music. And I say that because sometimes these things which happen in meditation, when you go deep, what we call nimittas, usually, 99 % of the time, You see them as beautiful lights in the mind of colors which don't appear in the world. Beautiful, deep, amazing colors. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:54 Highlight the passage at 1:09:54

1:10:42 And sometimes you give them a label like a blue or white and a yellow, but a deeper yellow than you've ever seen before. In some cases, I remember one lady, she was a professional musician, classical musician. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:42 Highlight the passage at 1:10:42

1:11:02 And she said that when she was getting very still, she heard these beautiful sounds, simple, very deep, like otherworldly. If that's what you hear, beautiful, just leave them alone, let them be, let them stay with you. If it's something like a Led Zeppelin, then no. A lot of that goes on as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:02 Highlight the passage at 1:11:02

1:11:34 Okay, I had a question just behind you. Okay, there we go. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:34 Highlight the passage at 1:11:34

1:11:43 Ajahn Brahm, is physical, getting back to Eddie's stream, but is physical and emotional pain the same in the space, like when you're deep? It's one affects the other. And sometimes addressing the physical pain, that's sometimes a job of doctors. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:43 Highlight the passage at 1:11:43

1:12:08 The emotional pain, that's your job. And you can actually, by addressing the emotional pain, the physical pain goes to a much more powerful therapy. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:08 Highlight the passage at 1:12:08

1:12:25 As Eddie said, the mind is the most powerful part of you. And by messing around, experimenting with that pain and discovering what's possible, it is mind-blowing. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:25 Highlight the passage at 1:12:25

1:12:44 It shouldn't happen. But it's there. The tumor's gone, disappeared. The body's healthy. And I love it when there's these mysterious things happen in meditation. Because, you know, like most monks, I know Ajahn Chaitamala, because I know him very well. You're a rebel. And I'm a rebel. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:44 Highlight the passage at 1:12:44

1:13:13 And I just remember just some of these stories of people doing these crazy things in meditation. Don't do it just because you're a rebel. Just know that sometimes there's a limit to what we know about our bodies and minds. And that was that story of Gary. He was a guy who didn't meditate that much. But one afternoon, nothing on the TV, told his wife he's going to his bedroom to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:13 Highlight the passage at 1:13:13

1:13:44 After an hour, hour and a half, he hadn't come out. So his wife went into the bedroom to check on him and found he was still in his meditation posture. He never sat that long before, but he couldn't see any breathing. So she called 000. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:44 Highlight the passage at 1:13:44

1:14:06 The ambulance came. The ambulance came into the room. They used whatever machines they had to check if he had any pulse. It was zero. His heart wasn't beating, he wasn't breathing. So they put him straight into the ambulance and rushed him to Charlie Gardner's hospital. It was a Sunday afternoon and there was hardly anybody there that afternoon. Many years ago this was. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:06 Highlight the passage at 1:14:06

1:14:42 But the doctor on duty, thank goodness, his parents had migrated from India. To Perth. And his parents had told this young man, you know, a doctor, that, you know, sometimes there have been cases in India of people going to such a deep meditation that their bodily functions, such as breathing and heartbeat, cease for a while. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:42 Highlight the passage at 1:14:42

1:15:18 The other thing, which I love saying, It was that the doctor noticed there was one thing which was not usual when a person dies and that was his body was still warm. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:18 Highlight the passage at 1:15:18

1:15:38 And anybody who knows the suttas, the teachings of the Buddha, knows the Mahavedala Sutta, the Majjhima. That's where the Buddha said the difference between somebody being dead And somebody being in a deep meditation, he said, in a deep meditation your body remains warm. It doesn't cool off. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:38 Highlight the passage at 1:15:38

1:16:04 So please, if you ever see Ajahn Chaitamala and he's really still, but his body is warm, please don't cremate him yet. So Report an error in the passage at 1:16:04 Highlight the passage at 1:16:04

1:16:23 this guy was still warm. So that kind of intrigued the doctor. And in those days, I checked this out, that the doctor decided to use the defibrillators on him, the electric shocks, trying to get that flat lines on the screens to actually to show a spike, to get his heart going again and his lungs to start again. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:23 Highlight the passage at 1:16:23

1:16:56 Nothing worked. For a long time, until he decided, this is what he tells me, he decided to come out of his meditation. And then beep, beep, beep. He wasn't dead in a deep meditation. And he never felt any of the electric shocks of the defibrillator. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:56 Highlight the passage at 1:16:56

1:17:27 And I remember I asked him, Was there anything unpleasant in that experience? He said, no, no, no, no. It was just blissed out all the time. What was the most unpleasant experience? Report an error in the passage at 1:17:27 Highlight the passage at 1:17:27

1:17:45 And he said, the only unpleasant experience was the scolding he got from his wife on the way home. They let him walk home. It wasn't that far, where he was living, to Charlie Gardner's. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:45 Highlight the passage at 1:17:45

1:18:05 And he didn't stay overnight to do anything. The doctor said, you're fine, you're healthy. I love stories like that. I'm telling that as accurately as I possibly can. And it's what his wife said, what the doctor said. The doctor was so stunned that this was actually real. I don't know what report he wrote. Sometimes doctors, when anything is weird, they don't like to write so much. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:05 Highlight the passage at 1:18:05

1:18:36 much they get in trouble. You're making it up, aren't you? No! Report an error in the passage at 1:18:36 Highlight the passage at 1:18:36

1:18:42 So anyway, this is kind of what can happen to you, even all the pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:42 Highlight the passage at 1:18:42

1:18:52 You're not aware of anything except inside, the bliss state, and that's precisely how the Buddha described his deep meditation. Ajahn Brahm, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:52 Highlight the passage at 1:18:52

1:19:17 certain Yes, you have a question, comment? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:17 Highlight the passage at 1:19:17

1:19:19 ...sort of styles or, you know, teachers of meditation will sometimes encourage people to, you know, if you're meditating on the breath, for example, to direct some attention into who is it that is aware of the breath or sounds, you know, who hears sounds, which I guess ultimately has the intent of trying to produce, you know, that realization of no self. Do you see any value in that or is it something that... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:19 Highlight the passage at 1:19:19

1:19:48 It has to happen on its own. I see value in it, but the best value is when it does happen on its own. And the reason I say that is because the deeper you get in meditation, you know, you leave, you can't feel your five senses, and you go in these deep states of meditation like that guy, missed out for a while. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:48 Highlight the passage at 1:19:48

1:20:14 It's what happens afterwards. Because after you emerge from a deep state of samādhi, of stillness, then your mind is so powerful. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:14 Highlight the passage at 1:20:14

1:20:27 And I say powerful, I've told many stories about that. You know, sometimes, I told that story I think yesterday, that when you get into a deep meditation, and I went walking, you know, in, this was when I was a layperson, you know, In Cambridge Botanical Gardens I saw this clump of bamboo which looked incredibly beautiful. It was so beautiful that I was standing watching it and I thought if somebody saw me, I was a very, very, very hairy student at that time, sitting there just watching this clump of bamboo. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:27 Highlight the passage at 1:20:27

1:21:10 They would have thought I was on some drug and taken me to a hospital. So, of course, I was not having any drugs. So I decided to sit on a bench and watch it. And I sat on that bench and watched that Kampabambu for almost 50 minutes every day. One day I went somewhere else. Out of the nine days, eight days, just watching that Kampabambu. And I never finished with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:10 Highlight the passage at 1:21:10

1:21:40 It was gorgeous. But then what happened was I had a free afternoon. So I went on my bicycle to visit the most beautiful clump of bamboo in the world. And it wasn't beautiful at all. I was really disappointed, shocked. The same clump of bamboo, but the shine on it, the glaze, the beauty of it, I couldn't see anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:40 Highlight the passage at 1:21:40

1:22:09 And I realized that beauty was not inherent in the bamboo. It was my mind. It was clear, powerful. And you could see and keep your attention on that easily for such a long time. Now if you want to find out who's actually watching this, you need that degree of power in your mind to keep your mind still without thinking, being able to watch something and understand it. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:09 Highlight the passage at 1:22:09

1:22:42 How on earth could a clump of bamboo be that gorgeous? After a while you realize it's not in the bamboo, it's the power of your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:42 Highlight the passage at 1:22:42

1:22:54 Thank you. That's what you realize. Also, any disease which you have, zap, zap, zap. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:54 Highlight the passage at 1:22:54

1:23:05 It's amazing what you can do. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:05 Highlight the passage at 1:23:05

1:23:13 It's really good to see you again, Elizabeth. Thank you for being here. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:13 Highlight the passage at 1:23:13

1:23:24 Anything else? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:24 Highlight the passage at 1:23:24

1:23:29 Okay. Let's finish off. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:29 Highlight the passage at 1:23:29

1:23:37 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:37 Highlight the passage at 1:23:37