Guided Meditation

0:05 Okay, so another Saturday at Dhammaloka and we are all here to meditate, which is I think one of, it's an easy thing to do. Does everybody agree? Meditation is an easy thing to do? Report an error in the passage at 0:05 Highlight the passage at 0:05

0:31 And Report an error in the passage at 0:31 Highlight the passage at 0:31

0:36 so I'm just trying to, And one of the things about the meditation practice is that, I think it's a path where you discover how to meditate by yourself. It's almost like a DIY kind of approach, where you get a few instructions, the monks and all the nuns tell you what to do, and then you're off on your own. Report an error in the passage at 0:36 Highlight the passage at 0:36

1:10 And you're actually doing the meditation. You're not paying somebody to meditate for you. Like, you know, if you want something in life, like you want a tradie to come and do the plumbing, you pay for it and they get the job done. Or if you want some food, you go to a restaurant, you pay the chef and the chef will give you a plate of food. And if you want to meditate and get the jhānas, you go to a monk and pay him some money and he'll give you the jhānas. Report an error in the passage at 1:10 Highlight the passage at 1:10

1:38 is... Report an error in the passage at 1:38 Highlight the passage at 1:38

1:41 But no, it doesn't work that way. So instead it's more of a DIY kind of approach. And yeah, it's kind of nice. Has anybody DIY'd anything in here? I'm pretty sure you have. We all have done a little bit of DIY. I think... think... Report an error in the passage at 1:41 Highlight the passage at 1:41

2:04 Australia is kind of like a society, a culture where we like to do things ourselves and it goes to show we have all these things at our disposal to fix our homes, to do our gardens or to do whatever. And through this process of actually getting something done, say whether we're looking after a garden, planting some vegetables, Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:34 Or painting the house or laying some plasterboard or whatever. Fixing a lock, using some WD-40. There's always like a learning experience that happens without you getting instructions from anybody. It's almost like you're learning about how to do things yourself. And you can kind of see, you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:34 Highlight the passage at 2:34

3:03 You can kind of see, if you are a little bit of a gardener, you get taught a few tips. You know, the soil has to be good. You've got to plant the plant in the right place. You've got to water it. And you don't really get step-by-step clear instructions on how to do these things. But instead, you just get like an overall kind of pointers. Report an error in the passage at 3:03 Highlight the passage at 3:03

3:32 And then you go off on your own. And some of us do well. Some of us can plant vegetables really well. And some of us fail. And yes, that's just a part of it. And it's also the same for the meditation practice. You know, when we're practicing, some of us fail, but at the same time, some of us do well. Report an error in the passage at 3:32 Highlight the passage at 3:32

4:00 And in a sense, it's kind of the same. When you're meditating, when you come here and when you listen to the few instructions, you kind of really don't know what to do with them. But instead, you just give it a go. You kind of DIY the meditation practice. And how do you do that? You do that by just sitting down and putting time into it. Report an error in the passage at 4:00 Highlight the passage at 4:00

4:30 Putting the minutes, putting the hours, putting the days, putting the months, putting the years into the practice. And over time, even though you may have failed growing those tomatoes or have done a pretty bad job at painting your house, but if you continue doing it, if you try to paint, And in the same way, with this meditation practice, eventually you'll get it right. Report an error in the passage at 4:30 Highlight the passage at 4:30

5:15 And the way you get things right is through this ability of the human mind to learn, to learn through... Report an error in the passage at 5:15 Highlight the passage at 5:15

5:32 To learn through observing. It's sort of like, let's say if you're a mother and you have a child and a lot of the times you really do not know what to do to look after a child. You don't know whether the child is hungry, you don't know whether the child is cold or you don't know whether the child is distressed. Report an error in the passage at 5:32 Highlight the passage at 5:32

6:02 But because you care for the child, you observe what the child is going through, you know how to kind of act appropriately to help the child out. So the child can have a more comfortable, more healthier life. And in the same way, when we look into our minds and we see what's in there and we try to look for the things, We try to look for the things that kind of bring peace into our minds. And even though we do not know what kind of lives in our minds, through this meditation practice, through observing what is going on, the mind will show you what lives in it. Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

6:55 The mind will show you what lives in it. And another factor, another factor I think, which goes back you go back to how a mother kind of cares for her child the other factor that makes it kind of successful that the child grows up to be a happy kid to be healthy to be sort of mentally stable is the amount of care a mother or a father puts into looking after that child the more love and the more care that parents give their babies is It's understandable that when that baby grows up to a young child, to a teenager, they'll be mentally stable, you know, they'll be happy inside. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:47 And in the same way, this idea of caring that we have, if we can just switch that onto our minds and care for the mind in a way where we want to see it, We grow up to be a healthy mind. We care for our mind when we look at our meditation. We want to use that care to find out what works for us to have a peaceful mind. Report an error in the passage at 7:47 Highlight the passage at 7:47

8:16 And having that kind of intention when we're meditating, to even try to have a peaceful mind, to have a peaceful mind, It gives us this kind of, like our mind kind of searches for it automatically. It searches for it automatically when we have our eyes closed. Our minds are naturally searching for the peace. It's naturally searching for the stillness. Report an error in the passage at 8:16 Highlight the passage at 8:16

8:58 And how does that come to be? How does that come to be? So the thing with the meditation practice is that when we're meditating, a lot of us will have difficulty when it comes to experiencing peace or stillness in the mind. Usually what happens is that we may have some sort of, they call it in Buddhism, hindrances. Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:34 That block the mind from being still. And the hinges are common and they're common. And one of the hinges is like the hinges of sleepiness. We all know what that is. We're sitting here and the mind is kind of nodding away. And if we reflect on that, we can understand this sleepiness, like this sleepiness is blocking us from becoming peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

10:04 Because when you're sleepy, you're not peaceful. And in the same way, another hindrance is the thinking mind. We don't feel peace when the mind is thinking. Have you ever, I'm pretty sure you've experienced that. When your mind, when you're settled and you're meditating and you look at your mind carefully. Report an error in the passage at 10:04 Highlight the passage at 10:04

10:35 And what you're seeing are thoughts, and that's all you see, the thoughts. And the thoughts don't really give you that sense of peace. It doesn't show you what stillness is. So when you're experiencing these things, you can understand that these are hindrances that block the mind to even be in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

11:03 So the question is, How do we get our minds into this present moment? And there's a lot of, I think there's like a lot of approaches that one can take. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:21 And I think we talk about taking an approach of having like care and kindness towards our meditation. meditation, what that does is it gives us Like a softness towards our own mind. A tolerance towards whatever is happening. Which means if you're a mother caring for a child and the child's just bawling its eyes out. Report an error in the passage at 11:21 Highlight the passage at 11:21

12:03 Do you get flustered? Or do you stay calm? out. Report an error in the passage at 12:03 Highlight the passage at 12:03

12:14 Why are you staying calm is because you care. And usually when the baby's crying, another good thing is you try to soothe the baby. You know, you soothe. And how do you soothe the baby? You don't smack it. You don't shout at the baby. You don't have anger towards it. But instead, you have a sense of kindness, a sense of care. Report an error in the passage at 12:14 Highlight the passage at 12:14

12:45 You know, mothers, they sing to their babies. Dads will probably, I don't know, what do dads do? But they do something, you know, talk nicely to the kid or to the child, and the child settles down and the child calms down. And in the same way, you know, when we are looking at our minds and we are just seeing difficulty, Report an error in the passage at 12:45 Highlight the passage at 12:45

13:13 We can try to learn to look at that difficulty in a way where it's coming from care. It's coming from patience. It's coming from a sense of trying to soothe the restlessness so it calms down. Or try to even soothe the sleepiness, being patient with it and allowing the mind. To just wake up by itself. And I think, as meditators, we do have that experience when it comes to sleepiness. Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:51 When our minds are dozing off. You know, sometimes we try to fight it. Or sometimes we don't want it there. But with a little bit of wisdom, we understand that this is just a part of having a human mind. Being sleepy is normal. And in meditation, being sleepy is allowed. So you just allow yourself to be sleepy. You're caring for the mind. Report an error in the passage at 13:51 Highlight the passage at 13:51

14:23 You're soothing the mind in a sense because you understand how it works. And when you allow the mind to just be, you're not complaining, you're not controlling it. The sleepiness, it vanishes. It vanishes. And what appears in the mind is the mind that brightens up. It almost feels like it has woken up. Report an error in the passage at 14:23 Highlight the passage at 14:23

14:51 It feels like it's aware, it's meditating. And in the same way, you know, when you come across some sort of discomfort, because meditation, if you're meditating well, it's actually an enjoyable thing to do. Report an error in the passage at 14:51 Highlight the passage at 14:51

15:12 It's a peaceful thing to do. You can sit quietly. Sometimes it's not perfectly quiet, but it's quiet enough. You don't have thoughts which are too irritating or you don't have thoughts which are annoying you too much. They're almost like light clouds. You can imagine light clouds. Moving through the sky, not really affecting the beautiful sunset, opposed to having dark grey thunderclouds just with lightning bolts, tormenting your mind. Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

16:06 And when you're meditating, you really don't want to be in those states. You want to be in a state of mind, Where the mind is peaceful, where the mind is enjoyable. And we all can get there. We all can get there by the simple fact of just caring for the moment, waiting in the moment. And almost like learning about the mind as we're meditating. We learn what the hindrances are. Report an error in the passage at 16:06 Highlight the passage at 16:06

16:44 And we learn when the hindrances aren't there. Those basically are the two things that you see when you're meditating. There's nothing else to it. And after a while, when we've meditated for a long, long time, we can start to distinguish what is a disturbance. And, you know, we understand the disturbances. Report an error in the passage at 16:44 Highlight the passage at 16:44

17:11 But the lovely thing I think over time is that you start to distinguish what the peace is, what the stillness is and when we meditate and we can hang out in those still peaceful states of mind for a long time and even these peaceful We become peaceful people. We move through life without... Causing too many ripples, we create happiness for one another. And when we get to this place in our meditation practice, we can tell ourselves, you know, confidently that we are enjoying our meditation. Report an error in the passage at 17:11 Highlight the passage at 17:11

18:04 Our meditation is peaceful. And it's something. It's peaceful. And it's something that we are happy to go back to. It's something that we are happy to spend a lot of time doing. It's one of the nice things about this meditation practice is that it kind of is so simple. It's so simple, but it can give us enough peace and even enjoyment. Report an error in the passage at 18:04 Highlight the passage at 18:04

18:45 That we are able to give up a lot of things. We can give up some of even our bad habits of wasting time watching movies or something like that. Or spending too much time on the phone. Sometimes the reason why we distract ourselves is because we don't have something else in our meditation to distract us. Report an error in the passage at 18:45 Highlight the passage at 18:45

19:12 To kind of keep our mind meditating. And the one thing that keeps our mind meditating is to find some sort of enjoyment there, some sort of peace. And that's one of the nice things about, I think that's one of the nice things about the way Ajahn Brahm has taught meditation over the years or even taught Buddhism is that he's always taught it in a sense. Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:46 That it is a path of happiness, the path of practicing Buddhism and even the path of meditation. And that's something that I think we can kind of keep in the back of our mind, is this idea of happiness. We do things in life because of happiness. We eat certain foods. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Report an error in the passage at 19:46 Highlight the passage at 19:46

20:24 No part of this recording may be reproduced to distinguish what What a happy state of mind is and what an unhappy state of mind isn't. And because we want to be happy instinctively, we'll start going to the happy places in the mind. And that's one of the nice things about meditation is that somehow, somehow automatically the mind finds the happiness in the stillness. Report an error in the passage at 20:24 Highlight the passage at 20:24

21:15 And that's where I would like to end the talk. And we will start to meditate for a long, long time. How long do you want to meditate? Six hours? All right. Report an error in the passage at 21:15 Highlight the passage at 21:15

21:33 Get really comfortable because we're going to be sitting here for six hours. Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

21:40 All right. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

21:44 So usually it's about a 45-minute sit. So get yourself comfortable. It's not going to be perfect. It could be a rocky ride. But like I said, just try to be comfortable and watch your mind. And eventually you'll start to see what the mind has to offer. You'll see the peace. You'll see the restlessness. Report an error in the passage at 21:44 Highlight the passage at 21:44

22:13 You'll see everything. And understand the mind intuitively wants the happiness. And eventually it will start sticking onto the present moment. It will start sticking onto the silence because it understands that is where the happiness lies in the meditation practice. So we'll close our eyes. So Report an error in the passage at 22:13 Highlight the passage at 22:13

22:54 we'll just guide you slowly for maybe five, ten minutes and Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:29 just feel the comfort in your body. Sometimes Report an error in the passage at 23:29 Highlight the passage at 23:29

23:40 if we just... Report an error in the passage at 23:40 Highlight the passage at 23:40

23:45 Shift our bodies into place or give it a little wiggle. It kind of brings our mind into this moment. It kind of sets our mind up for the meditation. I'm Report an error in the passage at 23:45 Highlight the passage at 23:45

24:16 going to be here for the next 45 minutes. It's a long time. Report an error in the passage at 24:16 Highlight the passage at 24:16

24:27 So we have to do this gently. Report an error in the passage at 24:27 Highlight the passage at 24:27

24:48 And meditation becomes easy when you have a gentle approach. Report an error in the passage at 24:48 Highlight the passage at 24:48

25:08 And one of the ways to be gentle is to allow things to be. Report an error in the passage at 25:08 Highlight the passage at 25:08

25:17 And just remember that things disappear. Report an error in the passage at 25:17 Highlight the passage at 25:17

25:25 So if you allow the discomfort to be here, eventually that'll disappear. Or whatever the other five vingences you may have. Or maybe some of us don't have any at all. And we're already able to sit peacefully. Report an error in the passage at 25:25 Highlight the passage at 25:25

26:12 And the peace, it's already here. Report an error in the passage at 26:12 Highlight the passage at 26:12

26:22 That's the nice thing that I've been thinking about, is that we don't need to wait to be older to become peaceful. We can become peaceful now. Report an error in the passage at 26:22 Highlight the passage at 26:22

26:42 And the peace is already here. We Report an error in the passage at 26:42 Highlight the passage at 26:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

28:02 can experience the freedom of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 28:02 Highlight the passage at 28:02

28:12 It's characteristic, so it's... It's like it's free of stress. Report an error in the passage at 28:12 Highlight the passage at 28:12

28:28 It's free of overthinking. Report an error in the passage at 28:28 Highlight the passage at 28:28

28:40 It's not sleepy. Report an error in the passage at 28:40 Highlight the passage at 28:40

28:46 It's not being troubled by much. Report an error in the passage at 28:46 Highlight the passage at 28:46

28:55 That is a mind which is experiencing some sort of freedom. Report an error in the passage at 28:55 Highlight the passage at 28:55

29:12 And when we meditate, all we're doing, it was just hanging out, hanging out in this. and freedom. Report an error in the passage at 29:12 Highlight the passage at 29:12

29:30 hanging out in the freedom and learning how to enjoy it. Report an error in the passage at 29:30 Highlight the passage at 29:30

· · · silence, 1 minute

30:32 The Dhamma teaches us, it helps us throughout years of practice, being virtuous people, letting go, trying to understand life for what it is. And if we've been practicing well, Report an error in the passage at 30:32 Highlight the passage at 30:32

31:08 We can experience the Report an error in the passage at 31:08 Highlight the passage at 31:08

31:19 culmination of our efforts in our meditation practice and it allows us to find that place in our minds where you can kind of say it's a stress-free zone. Report an error in the passage at 31:19 Highlight the passage at 31:19

31:49 a stress-free zone and Report an error in the passage at 31:49 Highlight the passage at 31:49

32:00 we're just hanging out here enjoying it after Report an error in the passage at 32:00 Highlight the passage at 32:00

· · · silence, 4 minutes

36:29 a while you should be able to see where the silences live in your mind we've been quite long enough to be able to observe to be able to learn as we go along and we'll see that Report an error in the passage at 36:29 Highlight the passage at 36:29

37:03 There are quiet pockets in our minds. Report an error in the passage at 37:03 Highlight the passage at 37:03

37:15 They're the places where the mind's in the present moment. It's the places where the mind is stress-free. There's no anxiety, no depression, no anger, no craving. There are places in the mind where None of those things live. Report an error in the passage at 37:15 Highlight the passage at 37:15

37:51 And we've been sitting long enough to be able to observe the mind and we're able to go to those places which are free from the things that block our minds to become peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 37:51 Highlight the passage at 37:51

38:22 Sometimes they may seem ordinary. You may question them. Is this really peace? Is this really stillness? Report an error in the passage at 38:22 Highlight the passage at 38:22

38:39 But if you look carefully, you can see that these places are free from depression, free from anxiety, free from overthinking, free from sleepiness, free Report an error in the passage at 38:39 Highlight the passage at 38:39

39:01 from cravings or distracting thoughts. thoughts as ordinary or mundane as it may seem you can understand that these are the places in the mind where stillness and peace grows and Report an error in the passage at 39:01 Highlight the passage at 39:01

39:33 if we hang out in these places in our minds long enough the the tree of peace will start to grow ever so slowly Report an error in the passage at 39:33 Highlight the passage at 39:33

39:55 But you'll start to see he gets, he puts out a green shoot and then you see stem. And then one day you'll be sitting under a tree of peace and stillness. Report an error in the passage at 39:55 Highlight the passage at 39:55

40:19 Something as mundane as a seed can become a beautiful Bodhi tree. We Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

· · · silence, 28 minutes

1:08:48 can end the meditation. So what I'll do is I'll hit the gong and we can come out. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:48 Highlight the passage at 1:08:48

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:09:34 Okay, how was it? Was it okay? Was it too bad? Okay, anybody have any questions? No? Questions? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:34 Highlight the passage at 1:09:34

1:09:54 Ooh, somebody's got a question in the back. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:54 Highlight the passage at 1:09:54

1:10:02 A challenge I'm having in my meditation at the moment is that I am finding that while I'm able to have... Some pretty deep insights into how to address my problems. It's often the case that when I'm not in a state of meditation that it's hard to recall on them. The best way I would describe it is like as if I've discovered that the toolbox of these solutions is not one that I'm inventing. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:02 Highlight the passage at 1:10:02

1:10:31 It's something I've actually found is inside and has always been there. When dealing with life outside of meditation it can be like I can't see where the toolbox is and I'm just curious on how to kind of bridge that gap between knowing what I need to do versus actually doing it. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:31 Highlight the passage at 1:10:31

1:10:56 Yeah, it just really depends on if you're talking about if you're getting yourself into situations where you're starting to get angry or Report an error in the passage at 1:10:56 Highlight the passage at 1:10:56

1:11:08 You're depressed or you're being anxious and I think there's a number of reasons why those things happen. Sometimes it's environment. It's like who you hang out with, where you work, those kinds of things. Those kinds of things kind of like trigger or causes these discomforts to happen. happen and so Sometimes if those things happen, a good way to kind of deal with them is to kind of change the environment that you're in, the people that you're around and those things. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:08 Highlight the passage at 1:11:08

1:11:47 So you kind of move, in a sense, you move away from some of the causes that kind of trigger the negative mind states. So that kind of thing helps. But if you find yourself... In situations where you are being triggered or the anger is coming up or whatever, sometimes we have to accept it and understand that that's a part of life and understand that these things, they don't last forever and that we can kind of find ways to just move away from these things, wait it out and these things will kind of disappear. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:47 Highlight the passage at 1:11:47

1:12:28 And it's almost like I like the idea of, I remember doing this first aid course and they were talking about snake bites and the indigenous people, when they would get themselves into a situation like this, whether it's a poisonous insect, a snake or whatever, they don't have modern medicine to kind of deal with a snake bite. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:28 Highlight the passage at 1:12:28

1:12:55 They don't have hospitals, they don't have doctors. So what do they do? They will find a cool place, a cool shaded place, sit down and wait it out. And eventually the poison or whatever that's in their body will just leave the body and they will be okay. And in the same way, when we kind of have these triggers where we see ourselves getting into these negative states of mind, as sometimes you know we don't try to make it worse like we don't want to get into arguments or or we don't want to add any more to the depression or we don't want to overthink on our anxiety so in a sense it's good to try to stop that from happening trying to restrain yourself and what i mean is like okay you're getting angry but you're angry with yourself you don't get angry at the other person yeah Or you're getting anxious, you're thinking about the future, you're worried about stuff, and you can kind of see your mind just spinning out of control. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:55 Highlight the passage at 1:12:55

1:14:09 So you try to stop it. You don't add too much onto it. And when you kind of limit these things, it's a lot easier for them to kind of disappear. disappear and Report an error in the passage at 1:14:09 Highlight the passage at 1:14:09

1:14:26 Calmful mind state starts to reappear again. But the other thing is, if you meditate well, if you become a peaceful person, then usually you carry that peacefulness into your life. And even though you may have things that trouble you, the peace within kind of absorbs all that. It absorbs all that. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:26 Highlight the passage at 1:14:26

1:14:55 Almost like a larger part of you, in a sense. The piece is like a larger part of you, in a sense, where if you can look at your mind as a big bowl of liquid, you could say, and if you become a meditator, the liquid in the bowl is a lot more in there. Like maybe it's three quarters full. If you're really good at meditating, it's really full, the liquid of peace in that bowl. And whatever you kind of add to it kind of dilutes and you can still manage to stay peaceful throughout the day. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:55 Highlight the passage at 1:14:55

1:15:42 But if you have that bowl and the amount of liquid in that bowl is only a very little, say just the bottom part, it's just the little bit amount of peace that you developed and you just drop a little bit of, anxiety into there or a bit of depression or whatever and it just takes over so so so So if you do develop a lot of peace in your practice of meditation, you can rest assured that That will carry over into your life and it will help you. Yeah. So what that sounds like to me is that perhaps the biggest problem isn't so much the challenge that we're facing, but actually the choice in it. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:42 Highlight the passage at 1:15:42

1:16:42 And I think the best way for me to kind of explain that is if we're making the choice between, say we're deciding how to get to work, Report an error in the passage at 1:16:42 Highlight the passage at 1:16:42

1:16:55 We can just go on desire or we can go on making a choice and it could be oh I don't want to cycle I want to drive and that is actually a choice that has a consequence of you're getting less physical exercise you're actually not like when you're run by that kind of desire it kind of obscures some of the outcomes when it's running purely on that and in this kind of scenario it's kind of looking like well what What are these choices that I'm actually making and what instead of looking at the most objective like because we all have to deal with delusion and we're all developing ourselves mentally like we can't always be perfect in that and it's just like what can I do about the situation or what can I do or like what where does this all lead to in the end really. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:55 Highlight the passage at 1:16:55

1:17:48 I like to I like to say like like a peaceful person has less problems in their lives yeah. It's somehow that peacefulness allows you to relate to the world that you're living in in a way where you don't allow it to affect you too much. And you can be in the world but not suffer like other people who do not have the peace in their hearts. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:48 Highlight the passage at 1:17:48

1:18:22 I think how I understand that is From my understanding, at least, a peaceful person, when presented with the present moment, there is the opportunity to make choices there. And it's not a problem because they don't have to mull over it. It's like the understanding of what each action will lead to makes it very obvious what choice to take. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:22 Highlight the passage at 1:18:22

1:18:46 So it's not like you have to ruminate and actually solve anything. It's kind of that understanding leads to almost a very automatic automatic decision making. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:46 Highlight the passage at 1:18:46

1:19:03 Anything else? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:03 Highlight the passage at 1:19:03

1:19:21 Is it like chronic back pain? So Report an error in the passage at 1:19:21 Highlight the passage at 1:19:21

1:19:29 I think we try to get as comfortable as possible. So if you can sit in a way where you don't have any back pain, that's the best thing to do. So if you need a more comfortable chair or sitting on the ground or something like that because back pain can actually, it just can be quite disturbing to the meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:29 Highlight the passage at 1:19:29

1:19:59 So you might have to, I don't know, you might have to, I suffered from back pain before and I know how debilitating it can be. So you try to fix it if you can. Is it like chronic? Yeah, and then you kind of hear stories from Ajahn Brahm where people with chronic pains, they can use the meditation to kind of escape it, in a sense. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:59 Highlight the passage at 1:19:59

1:20:25 They can go deep into the mind, really. Okay, Report an error in the passage at 1:20:25 Highlight the passage at 1:20:25

1:20:35 any more questions? I can take it online, yep. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:35 Highlight the passage at 1:20:35

1:20:46 Is it like sadhika? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:46 Highlight the passage at 1:20:46

1:20:59 Dear Ajahn, do we keep coming back to breath no matter what emotion, feelings and thoughts appear? What is next after? Do you have specific tips for active thoughts and feelings? So usually what I say for this is that it just really depends on the strength of the thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:59 Highlight the passage at 1:20:59

1:21:22 Sometimes the thoughts are just too strong that... It takes away our ability to bring our mindfulness back to the breath or back to the present moment. So when you find yourself in a situation like that, I think the better thing to do is to accept, to allow things to be, to embrace those thoughts and those feelings. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:22 Highlight the passage at 1:21:22

1:21:56 At the moment, when that happens, they're just too strong. And a lot of us have probably experienced that when we have something pressing to think about, something really important, and we decide to meditate. And usually our minds will be just focused on this thought or focused on this problem that we want to solve. And we've tried. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:56 Highlight the passage at 1:21:56

1:21:59 you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:59 Highlight the passage at 1:21:59

1:22:24 time and time again to let it go or go back to the breath or go back to the present moment. So what do you do? You just allow it to be. Allow it to be and allow it to stay there for as long as possible and usually Report an error in the passage at 1:22:24 Highlight the passage at 1:22:24

1:22:56 Usually you'll solve the problems or that thought doesn't become important to you anymore and it'll just vanish and disappear. And once the mind is calm, is kind of calm and there's not too many distracting thoughts, it'll be easier for you to guide it. It'll be easier for you to guide it onto the breath, easier for you to guide it back to the present moment. And we all understand that. You know, when we meditate and... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:56 Highlight the passage at 1:22:56

1:23:23 Our minds are fairly peaceful. There's nothing grabbing at it too much. It's easier for us to guide it. So in a sense, meditation practice is knowing when to get involved and knowing when to stay away. But then, I think if you meditate for a long, long time, you kind of develop the practice of just staying away completely. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:23 Highlight the passage at 1:23:23

1:23:53 Yeah, you don't really get involved. You just allow the mind to flow, to flow and to grow. And the magical thing is that it kind of like deepens by itself without you needing to do too much. And if you think about it, when people ask, Ajahn always gets this question, you know, Ajahn, do you get deep meditation? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:53 Highlight the passage at 1:23:53

1:24:22 Ajahn Brahm, do you get deep meditation? Do you get the jhānas? And Ajahn Brahm says, I don't get deep meditation. When Ajahn Brahm disappears, that's when the deep meditation happens. So what that is basically saying is that when he stops trying, when he stops doing anything, he's just sitting there and just allowing the meditation to deepen by itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:22 Highlight the passage at 1:24:22

1:24:50 It just happens. And I think that's the lovely thing about it. It's a lovely thing about this practice. It's like a lazy person's way to meditate. Because we don't have to try too hard. We don't have to try at all. You know what I mean? You don't have to watch the breath. You don't have to push away any thoughts. You don't have to crush your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:50 Highlight the passage at 1:24:50

1:25:20 Imagine doing all those things. You just tire your mind out. After five minutes you'll be like, oh, I'm just so tired. It feels like I've run a marathon. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:20 Highlight the passage at 1:25:20

1:25:31 So wouldn't it be easier to just sit back and relax? Imagine that you're kind of on the beach enjoying the sunset and just allowing things to be. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:31 Highlight the passage at 1:25:31

1:25:47 And just basically enjoying how easy and effortless the meditation practice can be. I Report an error in the passage at 1:25:47 Highlight the passage at 1:25:47

1:26:01 wonder why fear is not one of the hindrances. I find that it is a big hindrance in meditation. Do you have any tips? Thank you. Sometimes I try to think about the hindrances in a funny way. I was just thinking about it earlier. If the Buddha was alive today, what would he call the five hindrances? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:01 Highlight the passage at 1:26:01

1:26:23 Mobile phone, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and all these kinds of things. And I kind of like to, like when we kind of look at the hindrances, one of the thoughts that came up to my mind is we can kind of see it in a way where it's something that's blocking, blocking us from having peaceful states of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:23 Highlight the passage at 1:26:23

1:26:57 Yeah, just put simply, that's what it means. And I was trying to convey to you that, you know, when you, like just the simple ones, like feeling sleepy. When you're feeling sleepy, do you feel any peace? Not really. You don't feel any peace at all. Or if you're just worried about something, your mind is just focusing on the worrying and you don't see or feel any peace at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:57 Highlight the passage at 1:26:57

1:27:31 So basically whatever is there in front of you that is blocking you from... That peace and stillness, that is a hindrance. That is a hindrance. But it's just wrapped up in a different form. And, yeah, so even fear, you know, fear... I'm not really a feared type of person. I'm not worried about if the world's going to explode or if... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:31 Highlight the passage at 1:27:31

1:28:01 I'm not worried about these kind of things. So I don't really know what it kind of means to... To feel fear in one's meditation. But I know about other things that block my ability to be peaceful. So we just kind of understand these things, they're just mere blockages. And when they're not there, peace of mind should be there. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:01 Highlight the passage at 1:28:01

1:28:28 Yeah, that's an easy way to understand it. Dear Ajahn, we all have responsibilities, taking care of parents, children, pets. How to continue having these responsibilities, calling for monastic life? Yeah, that's an interesting question. I think one of the beautiful things about monastic life is that it gives you the causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28:28

1:28:54 To allow the mind to kind of meditate in a peaceful environment because everybody's living in harmony. We're kind to one another. We don't take revenge on each other. We don't stir each other up. So our minds are relatively peaceful, which is a nice thing because it does help. It does help. It's hard to meditate with a stressful mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:54 Highlight the passage at 1:28:54

1:29:21 or is you know So environment, being in a monastery, it really helps because of the way we live. And when you're trying to transition as you are, talking about it here, taking care of parents, children, pets, you try to, I think, try to gear your life around the dharma in a sense where... How you relate to your parents, you're relating to them in a way where it creates harmony. Or your children, your pets, how do you deal with them so your mind could be a little bit less stress-free? Report an error in the passage at 1:29:21 Highlight the passage at 1:29:21

1:30:05 And that, I think, is a good way to add the causes of... of Like a stress-free, harmonious life for your practice. So I think it is possible. Yeah, it is possible that you can generate and create the right environment in your own homes that would help you in your meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:05 Highlight the passage at 1:30:05

1:30:52 Yeah. And that's it. There's no more questions. Any more questions? No? Okay. Okay. We can go now. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:52 Highlight the passage at 1:30:52