Experiencing Contentment

0:01 So welcome to the meditation class. So how many beginners do we have here? One. So everybody's like experienced meditators? Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:15 I've done it over the years. Over the years? I used to do it at Amla quite a lot until COVID and then they went to the Zoom. But I haven't done it since COVID. Report an error in the passage at 0:15 Highlight the passage at 0:15

0:25 So yeah, I've been teaching this class for a long, long time. So usually I tend to find something to say. And it's always geared towards the meditation practice. And you know, the human mind, the kind of human mind that we have. And basically just working with what we have. Working with the ingredients of our own minds and not expecting too much from them. Report an error in the passage at 0:25 Highlight the passage at 0:25

1:00 It's sort of like... If you have carrots in your mind, just expect to have carrots in your mind. If you have happiness in your mind, you can expect to have happiness in your mind. If you have a mind that thinks a lot, you can expect to have a mind that thinks a lot in the meditation practice. Because the mind travels with you wherever you go. So the world that you're living in, like how you use your mind, That is what you're going to take into your meditation practice. But the beautiful thing about a meditation practice is that it gives you the opportunity to place your mind in a different place. Report an error in the passage at 1:00 Highlight the passage at 1:00

1:51 Because in life we place our minds in all sorts of places. I heard someone bought a TV today. but they call it like a smart television so you can watch all sorts of channels and stuff like that and you know in life some of us we place our attention on the TV Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:31 You might learn a little bit about the world and so on and so forth. And that's just the results of placing your mind in front of a TV. You only can get whatever the TV has to offer. So in a way when we're talking about meditation we are putting ourselves in a posture where it offers us something different. Report an error in the passage at 2:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31

3:01 Something that we probably don't really experience in our lives. And the thing that we can get from the meditation practice is a sense of peace. The reason why I laugh is because that's what I always say. So you get a sense of peace. It's simple. Simple but profound. It's profound because It's something that's so simple that can give you so much contentment in life. So much inner satisfaction. Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:42 Just being able to experience moments of peace in one's meditation practice leads to a feeling of being content. like in a Report an error in the passage at 3:42 Highlight the passage at 3:42

4:01 in I think We're coming against like spiritual fullness, you know, like you're full of like spiritualness kind of thing, like peace, calmness, you know, all those sorts of those things. And like I was saying before, you know, it's like what you place your attention on, what you expose yourself to, that's the result that you would get. Report an error in the passage at 4:01 Highlight the passage at 4:01

4:33 Yeah. And, you know, when you go to work, you can't really expect to have a peaceful mind when you're working because work requires something different from you. You've got to deal with people, you've got to solve problems, etc., etc. So you kind of understand that in life, when we're looking for peace, cetera. Report an error in the passage at 4:33 Highlight the passage at 4:33

5:03 There's certain areas where you can go to to find peace. And another example for us human beings to be able to find peace is to be with nature. And that's kind of proven. Scientists talk about it. Doctors. We know that in our own lives when we're fortunate enough to have a holiday, NWA will drive down south or we go wherever and we just like to spend time with nature. And what's the reason why we like to spend time with nature? Report an error in the passage at 5:03 Highlight the passage at 5:03

5:42 It's because it brings us to a peaceful state of mind. It's nice to be out in nature. It's peaceful amongst the trees, animals, etc. It has that kind of effect on our minds. And in the same way, meditation... has that type of effect as well. And the reason why it has that effect on the mind is because we are taking ourselves away from the world, from the world for a period of like half an hour. Report an error in the passage at 5:42 Highlight the passage at 5:42

6:20 So, we kind of like to say the way to peace is the way of letting go. We like this idea of letting go, you know. Letting go. And meditation is like, for the next half an hour, you give yourself the opportunity to let go of everything. No responsibilities. Yeah. That's cool, isn't it? For half an hour, you don't need to work. So you can be in the moment. Report an error in the passage at 6:20 Highlight the passage at 6:20

6:52 You know what I mean? For half an hour, you don't need to be a parent. You don't need to look after two naughty boys. Or you don't need to go, I don't know, what else do you do? For half an hour you can let go of the world and just be in this moment. And being able to let go of the world and just being in this moment where your mind isn't stimulated by anything. Report an error in the passage at 6:52 Highlight the passage at 6:52

7:19 It's not stimulated by seeing things, it's not stimulated by hearing things, it's not stimulated by touching things. It's taken itself away from the world physically and metaphorically. And when one can expose themselves to that experience long enough, then one can feel the peace. One can experience the peace. So meditation, it offers us a different type of peace. Report an error in the passage at 7:19 Highlight the passage at 7:19

7:57 And, and, and, um... And when we're meditating, we're kind of trying to use our minds and with the ingredients that we have within our own minds. It's kind of like a, I don't know, it's not a tricky thing, but it's... Report an error in the passage at 7:57 Highlight the passage at 7:57

8:19 it's not so difficult to be peaceful yeah because sometimes I've been around meditators for a long time and and over the years what I've learnt is Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

8:36 After practicing for a long time, they still find it difficult to be peaceful. And when I look at the mind, the mind is kind of broken up into two parts. There's the wholesome states of mind and the unwholesome states of mind. So you have the good and the bad. That kind of thing. You have happiness, unhappiness. You have stress, no stress. You have anxiety, no anxiety. Report an error in the passage at 8:36 Highlight the passage at 8:36

9:16 And we can experience that in our lives. I'm pretty sure we have moments in our lives where we're a bit stressed. We understand how that feels. We process it. And in the same way, when that stress disappears, we understand what a mind feels like when it's free of stress. www.ajahnantutthi Report an error in the passage at 9:16 Highlight the passage at 9:16

10:09 .com After meditating for some time, we can kind of guide our minds. We want to guide our minds towards the wholesome side, towards the good side. We want to guide our minds towards contentment. We can feel the contentment. We want to guide our minds towards the peace. We want to guide our minds to just like feeling of, just like, just having a good sense of well-being. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:49 This is so important. I mean, it's a very little kind of adjustment that we do with how we use our minds, but it holds great benefit when we're meditating. Because meditation is like, we always kind of, Look at meditation as an activity that we get involved in and the results, they come naturally. So we come here and we want to look for peace in our lives. And in order for us to get peace in our daily lives, we meditate. We meditate in a manner where we're letting go. Report an error in the passage at 10:49 Highlight the passage at 10:49

11:30 We're meditating in a manner where we're trying to put our minds into a place where it's peaceful and calm. and we don't expect anything else but that Report an error in the passage at 11:30 Highlight the passage at 11:30

11:42 And that's why we meditate. We meditate just for that. And I think like, you know, I think humans are a little bit too serious. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:11 You know, we walk around with heavy heads, don't we? I'm pretty sure we walk around with heavy heads. All of us. And that's probably the way the human mind is kind of wired. Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

12:25 And that is our reality, but there's also the other side as well. Like the inner happiness, the contentment, you know, the joy. And we're just trying to turn our minds a little bit when we're meditating. And trying to just hang out in those areas of the mind where it makes us feel good. Because we know what it is like to feel good. Report an error in the passage at 12:25 Highlight the passage at 12:25

12:52 We have happiness in our lives. We have joy. We have peace. We have kindness. But humans, I don't know, we don't spend too much time in those areas. We just walk around with heavy heads. And I think there's some truth to that. But, and that's fine, that's how a human kind of, that's how we are as humans. But at the same time, we can just enjoy what else, we can also enjoy what else the human mind has to offer. Report an error in the passage at 12:52 Highlight the passage at 12:52

13:28 And that's the wonderful thing about meditation, is that we can grow these things that makes us feel better as human beings. Report an error in the passage at 13:28 Highlight the passage at 13:28

13:40 So that is almost like a little trick. What makes meditation enjoyable is when you're sitting down, you kind of look for the happiness. If you're going to look for anything, look for the happiness. Look for the peace. Look for the contentment. And like I said before, that's all you need to do. You're not expecting anything else. Report an error in the passage at 13:40 Highlight the passage at 13:40

14:10 www.Ajahn Santutthi .com I'm not saying this is how it works, but it's my experience of meditating for many years and just working with the mind. Because if you can understand our lifestyle as a monk, our lives are so boring. It's boring. And we spend a lot of time meditating. Report an error in the passage at 14:10 Highlight the passage at 14:10

15:09 And can you imagine, like, if you spend so many hours sitting on your bum with your eyes closed and you're just meditating with like a heavy heart for many, many years, I mean, it's not very beneficial. So we kind of learn, like as meditators, we kind of learn from our experiences that, you know, meditating with a heavy heart. Report an error in the passage at 15:09 Highlight the passage at 15:09

15:37 For a long, long time, it's not going to really help us out. So we kind of meditate differently. And what I've learned over the years is that you can just shift your mind a little bit and just go to the places where you actually feel better. We all have that place. We all have those emotions. We all always have that space in our own minds. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

16:04 So just to, what is it? To save you the suffering that we long-term meditators go through, I'll give you this tip tonight. Report an error in the passage at 16:04 Highlight the passage at 16:04

16:18 So yeah, just give it a go. You know what I mean? Just give it a go and see what happens. Alright, okay. So what I'll do now is we'll guide you in the meditation and we'll sit for half an hour. And then if you want to, we'll open up for some questions. Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

16:47 Meditation is usually done with our eyes closed. And we just try to get into a very comfortable position. And Report an error in the passage at 16:47 Highlight the passage at 16:47

17:23 we just remember that we are letting go closed Report an error in the passage at 17:23 Highlight the passage at 17:23

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17:33 go of of our of our world basically and Report an error in the passage at 17:33 Highlight the passage at 17:33

17:42 we're sitting with our eyes closed with with no no responsibility nothing to think about no problems to solve nothing to worry about we can worry about stuff later we can solve problems later we can think about the future later but for now we Report an error in the passage at 17:42 Highlight the passage at 17:42

18:10 can give ourselves that That freedom not to use our minds. We give ourselves that freedom to let go of our life and be in the stillness and the quietness of now. Report an error in the passage at 18:10 Highlight the passage at 18:10

18:41 The more quiet your mind can be is an indicator. That you have let go of your life for the duration of your meditation. But afterwards you pick up your life again. You live your life as best as possible. Report an error in the passage at 18:41 Highlight the passage at 18:41

19:06 So this is how we kind of add peace to our lives. Add kind of just a more relaxed kind of mind. A more mind which is at ease. We do that by meditating, by letting go of our responsibilities so Report an error in the passage at 19:06 Highlight the passage at 19:06

19:48 we can just be here with the present moment, just Report an error in the passage at 19:48 Highlight the passage at 19:48

20:18 to understand that being in the present moment is a nice place to be. Report an error in the passage at 20:18 Highlight the passage at 20:18

20:28 It's such a peaceful experience to be in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 20:28 Highlight the passage at 20:28

20:47 Sometimes as meditators we kind of get it wrong and we want to wait for the miracle to happen. But you're missing out on all the pleasantness, which is the journey. You've got to think of it as a pleasant journey that you're embarking. And Report an error in the passage at 20:47 Highlight the passage at 20:47

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22:07 that's all we do when we meditate is to... Just be with this moment and just know that it's actually quite a nice moment to be in. There's nothing too hard about meditation. Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:35 It's actually a nice relaxing activity or thing to do. And Report an error in the passage at 22:35 Highlight the passage at 22:35

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24:28 a way to develop contentment in your meditation practice is when you're meditating, Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

24:43 Just take away all your biases. Take away your kind of judgment on the meditation practice. Take away the things that you want to get from your meditation. And just meditate for the sake of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 24:43 Highlight the passage at 24:43

25:10 And that's how we become content. Because the meaning of contentment is not wanting anything. It's to be okay. with the experience that we're having now so Report an error in the passage at 25:10 Highlight the passage at 25:10

25:28 when we can think like that we're not worried about results you know you know we come here and it's almost like we do something and we get peace because we're doing something we don't think like that we don't worry about results we don't worry about what we're going to get and that's how we can develop this contentment That we all talk about in the meditation practice. So Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

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28:42 remember, when we're meditating, it's a time where we try not to think too much. In a sense, we tell ourselves it's a time to let go of our thoughts. We Report an error in the passage at 28:42 Highlight the passage at 28:42

29:07 kind of train ourselves or instruct ourselves in this manner until it becomes A habit, in a sense, you know, they always, people like scientists and stuff, they like to talk about developing new habits. Report an error in the passage at 29:07 Highlight the passage at 29:07

29:35 It's always developing new habits to make our lives better, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So in a sense, we're doing the same thing with Report an error in the passage at 29:35 Highlight the passage at 29:35

29:53 our meditation practice. Our meditation time is to get into the habit of, giving yourself this space where you don't need to think or even lessen the thinking because sometimes we need to think about something we're worried or it's super important and that's okay sometimes the mind certain things need your attention so you give it your attention but when your mind is free free-ish in a sense Report an error in the passage at 29:53 Highlight the passage at 29:53

31:14 our future meditations. Report an error in the passage at 31:14 Highlight the passage at 31:14

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35:08 Look for that niceness. There's always a niceness in the moment. It's Report an error in the passage at 35:08 Highlight the passage at 35:08

35:19 not very far from our awareness. Sometimes we think we need to dig a deep tunnel through a mountain, through granite rock to find that niceness. But it's not the case. Sometimes the niceness is almost like Report an error in the passage at 35:19 Highlight the passage at 35:19

35:52 Ajahn and looking at something different. Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

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36:27 You know, the heavy... Ajahn ways that I spoke about and all we need to do. Report an error in the passage at 36:27 Highlight the passage at 36:27

37:05 meditating because we have to. I Report an error in the passage at 37:05 Highlight the passage at 37:05

37:11 don't know why some people meditate. So we Report an error in the passage at 37:11 Highlight the passage at 37:11

37:19 try to make, you know, life is too short to dwell or to have a heavy head. So we try to make the most of it. Report an error in the passage at 37:19 Highlight the passage at 37:19

37:38 Try to flip the script to what our habits are and make the most of our experience. And just knowing that we just need to... Tilt our heads and our experience becomes better. The Report an error in the passage at 37:38 Highlight the passage at 37:38

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50:32 gong three times and then you can all come out of the meditation. Wake Report an error in the passage at 50:32 Highlight the passage at 50:32

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51:40 up. Any Report an error in the passage at 51:40 Highlight the passage at 51:40

51:55 comments or questions? Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:00 Usual chance. Report an error in the passage at 52:00 Highlight the passage at 52:00

52:10 So, okay. Nothing, no questions. I was just thinking of something that I would probably like to share with you. Report an error in the passage at 52:10 Highlight the passage at 52:10

52:26 And, you know, we kind of like our experts, right? We like experts. So, you know, whenever we get sick, we go to the doctor and we say, Doctor, Doctor, I've got something wrong with me. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the doctor just gives you a whole bunch of pills. And you don't know what are in the pills. Report an error in the passage at 52:26 Highlight the passage at 52:26

52:50 They have this ingredient, that ingredient. But, you know, it's meant to help you. You take the pills, you're... blood pressure goes low and your cholesterol goes low it lowers as well but you actually do not know what you are putting into your body you just take it on faith and trust that these doctors are correct So that's why we do these things. Report an error in the passage at 52:50 Highlight the passage at 52:50

53:17 and then also the point i'm trying to make is um when it comes to the meditation you know You come and see the monks or you come and see the meditation teacher and you want to find ways to add peace into your lives and then the meditation teacher will teach you a few things and then out of trust, because they're meant to be like experts or something like that, out of trust you follow their instructions. Report an error in the passage at 53:17 Highlight the passage at 53:17

53:54 If you follow the instructions, then the results, they bear fruit. The results of the reason why we come here is basically just peace of mind, peace throughout the day. Report an error in the passage at 53:54 Highlight the passage at 53:54

54:08 I'd just like to quote my teacher, Ajahn Brahm, who is a well-respected meditator, and who has who has um who has you know traveled quite far along the path of meditation and experience some things that you know that you experience towards the end of like a meditation journey you know we at the beginning and we're at the middle and some of us get to the end but but not very many of So, luckily, we have some examples. Report an error in the passage at 54:08 Highlight the passage at 54:08

54:54 In this life. And my teacher Ajahn Brahm, he basically says, you know, if you want to get to that peace, it's a path of like no craving, a path of no wanting. Report an error in the passage at 54:54 Highlight the passage at 54:54

55:17 Yeah. So, and that's pretty much it. So when you're meditating, You're not wanting anything. And sometimes as meditators, we want something. In the back of the mind, we want or we do not want something. We don't want the thinking mind or we want the peaceful mind and all those kinds of things. But the way to get to that peace is to meditate with a mind that is not looking for it. Report an error in the passage at 55:17 Highlight the passage at 55:17

55:55 Just being able to be here. and just wait patiently and then eventually these things will arise so that's like it's kind of counterintuitive it kind of defeats the purpose of why we're trying to do something but we are doing something we're just sitting patiently and just allowing these things to come and that's how you find peace okay Report an error in the passage at 55:55 Highlight the passage at 55:55

56:24 Any questions, comments? No? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 56:24 Highlight the passage at 56:24