Grant Yourself A Moment Of Peace | Ajahn Brahm | 19 May 2020

This is from a series of daily meditation and Dhamma teachings offered by the monks at Bodhinyana Monastery to support the community during the Coronavirus pandemic.
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Very good, this is Ajahn Brahm back again with a little talk and a guided meditation.

And, what day is it today, it's the 19th today,
the 19th of May 2020,

and I'm not quite sure how long we're going
to be doing these talks during the week

because it seems to be that
Covid is getting better.

Actually not Covid is getting better,
Covid is dying out.

Poor Covid, may Covid die in peace.

But it's little talks to encourage people
to do more relaxation, more meditation,

more cultivating of good attitudes so that
we don't need to worry so much.

Over here, I have my little Gong Bonger
but sometimes I use this for another purpose.

It's remembering a very simple teaching of Ajahn Chah.

You know, Ajahn Chah, he was only past grade 4 at school,
there was no opportunity to do any more,

but some of the wise things he taught me
in such few words just meant so much and

I still practice them to this day.

He'd pick up a stick by the side of the road,

I remember him doing this when I was walking
back from alms round with him.

He picked up a stick at the side of the road
and he'd ask me, "Ajahn Brahm",

I wasn't Ajahn then, he'd call me Brahmavamso.
"Ajahn Brahm, is the stick heavy?"

and before I could open my mouth,
he threw it away,

and he said the stick is only heavy
when you're holding it,

when you're grasping it,
when you're attached to it,

when you're holding it.

When you put it down or throw it away
it's not heavy at all.

And that was such a simple teaching but
such a powerful one because so many of

my duties and responsibilities and burdens now,
oh they're just, sometimes they're so much

and the story I often tell which makes it
very clear and that's just the busyness of

a monk but am I really busy,
but anyway I gave a talk one evening,

it was in Singapore, a big talk,
a couple thousand people,

and at question/answer time,
a fellow at the back stood up by the microphone

and said Ajahn Brahm, it's all very well
for you to teach us like this how to relax,

how to let go, but you're a monk,
you're a monk, what do you know

about stress and busyness and responsibility?

He asked a question like that and of course
I was up to the challenge, so I thought, and I said

"listen, I got up at 4 o'clock this morning"
I said, and I listed to the best of my memory

all the things which I had done that morning
mostly for other people,

all fulfilling my responsibilities, my duties.
Talking, counseling, asking questions, so much work.

And this was, when he asked that question
it was about 10pm in the evening.

I've been at it all day doing my duties as
a Buddhist monk, as a teaching monk, and

after I finished detailing all my work he
got to the microphone again and he said

"Wow, wow, I never realized how hard
a modern-day monk has to work,"

he said "I am in the IT industry,
I thought that was hard work but I always

thought one day I'll become a monk.
Not now, I think I'll stay in IT."

I lost, I lost a possible monk, but never mind,
you do sort-of sometimes work hard but

only one thing in the moment.
That's why you learn how to throw things away.

I can go and pick up that thing afterwards
and carry it around if I need to.

That's one thing I learned - is how to let go.
And how do you let go?

It's sometimes so difficult, people ask me
- they've meditated, they're a Buddhist,

they like Buddhism, they get the theory
but how do you do it?

They say "how do I let go?"
They say they close their eyes,

cross their legs,
I was gonna say the other way around -

cross your eyes and close your legs,
anyway I won't go there anymore.

You close your eyes and you cross your legs
and then you just watch your breath or something -

they said they don't watch their breath
they watch all their problems or fantasies

or dreams of anxieties.
They say it's more peaceful having their

eyes open and not meditating.
They haven't learned how to let go.

And so it's one of the most important things in meditation
- to understand how letting go happens.

And because of that I like saying this
little story again, a little three-line poem

and I put this in the front of one of my books.
The three-line poem goes

"grant yourself a moment of peace;
just a moment of peace;

grant yourself a moment of peace and you
realize how foolishly you've scurried about,

like run around."

You need to grant yourself that
moment of peace first of all.

A lot of times people don't even
give themselves moments of peace.

They wait for someone else to give it to them.
Or they wait till it just happens

instead of giving yourself
that time to be peaceful.

Some people say "haven't got enough time!
I'm too busy! There's too many things to do!"

I've already mentioned that I do many many things.
You can always give yourself that time to be

peaceful because one thing I realized in life
- when you give yourself moments of peace

you get more work done.

Ever notice when you have a task to do,
an email to write, a report to deliver,

how much time you waste?
How sometimes you can be looking at a computer

and just the words just don't come up.
The ideas are just not there.

In other times and your your brain is alive
- it's powerful - all the words and ideas

come up and you can be innovative as well.

Any innovation which I have,
even some of the silly jokes,

some of them are original jokes, and then
when you do such things where did they come from?

They come from learning just how to be
alive to energize the mind and let these things occur.

But anyway, that I've noticed that there's
more innovation, there is more efficiency,

more stuff gets done the more peaceful you are
- so grant yourself a moment of peace is

not meaning that you're you're just copping out of life,
that you are just not being responsible.

Just learning how to balance your brain activity
between efficient work and peace, stillness.

You grant yourself those moments of peace,
moments to let go so afterwards you can perform.

I remember so many great examples.
You know one of the things I did pushing boundaries

a little bit was they asked me,
the group in Singapore years ago to actually

to take part in a little play, a Buddhist play,
about sort-of opening the door of your heart,

I forget what it was called,
I might have even been [???] but anyway that

I had to just do a little cameo performance,
to appear on stage and just give a little talk

for five minutes and then go back off again.
But I was very happy to help out, to try

an experiment making Buddhism more relevant
to people in our modern world and

to actually to reach them more.

So anyway as I went up there,
I came right from Perth,

arrived in Singapore early in the afternoon
for the matinee performance,

that's in the afternoon, and all the other
sort of performers and Buddhists

they all went off for dinner,
of course I didn't have any dinner,

so I just found a nice quiet place to meditate
because I was exhausted after a long aircraft flight,

had to get up really early in the morning in Perth,
five or six hours aircraft flight,

then going to the theater and then
just getting ready, asking what I'm supposed

to be doing and I'm waiting for my spot
and then coming on, performing and

then afterwards I was exhausted,
I was really tired,

so I just found a nice quiet place,
really quiet place in the theater,

crossed my legs, closed my eyes and
I granted myself I think about an hour of peace

while everyone else was out for dinner.
Oh that was just a wonderful hour.

Really tired first of all until
the energy started coming back.

I'm not afraid of tiredness.
I don't try and control tiredness.

I open my the door of my heart to tiredness.
I respect it - it's the way my body responds

when I have just been working too hard.
And then I respect that tiredness and

totally with that tiredness, that exhaustion,
I don't try and escape anywhere,

I get to know tiredness, it's one of
these things which I respect.

And then I'm with that tiredness,
and soon the energies in my body come back again

and then the energies come back in my body
and then my brain and they go off into my mind

and oh, then I'm really happy and just really alive.
And that performance in the afternoon,

in the evening sorry, second performance
that day when I gave a talk -

that was really really hot.
The word hot means it's really good,

simply because I know how to energize myself
by granting myself moments of peace.

It's going around, there's a time to scurry
but that's all we ever do in life

- our exhaustion knows no break,
we get tired and from tiredness we get anger,

ill-will, we say terrible things
to the people we love and should respect

simply because we're exhausted, so tired.

So by granting yourself moments of peace
it's like giving yourself a gift.

You want to try innovative ways.
If it's ever close to your birthday or

any other important day, go to the cupboard
and get an old box, get some gift wrapping paper

and maybe a bow and a little gift dedication card,
and then in that box put something really

really really important for you - a real gift -
something you would really treasure - peace.

Even write it on a piece of paper
"p e a c e - to me", your name,

with love from me, with your name again.
And then put that little piece of gift paper,

"peace to me with love from me",
put it in the box, put the lid on,

and wrap it as carefully as you possibly can
with beautiful gift-wrapping paper,

tie a nice little bow and put a little card,
"happy whatever, happy anniversary,

happy birthday, happy Mother's Day,
Father's Day or whatever day" to yourself

and then put it somewhere and then just go
and have your lunch or go to work or go

to sleep and when you wake up
the following morning - you find it!

Wow! Surprise! Someone's given me a gift.
And play the game as best you possibly can -

"wow I wonder what it is inside" and
when you open the parcel and you open the lid

you see a gift of peace from me with love to me.
Ohh, how sweet, what I've always wanted - peace.

You have to be willing to give yourself that peace,
like as a grant, as a gift, a permission,

just to let go for a few moments all the past
and future and all the other problems of life,

and give yourself that grant, that gift, of peace.

It's called learning how to let go.
So now let's give it a try for 15 or 20 minutes.

So if you'd like to cross your legs
if you're meditating on a chair,

oh not on a chair, sorry, on a cushion.

If you're on a chair, on a bed,
just get the posture which you can get

the most peace out of,
the most comfortable position for you.

And close your eyes.

Be aware of your body because you've
got to be kind to your body,

this is granting your body some peace.

Body, I feed you, I exercise you, I rest you,
now I'm going to give you the gift of peace.

Legs, please accept this loving gift
of peace which I give to you.

I give peace to my feet,
give peace to my calves, my knees,

or my ankles as well, to my thighs.

Just imagine that each part of your body,
accepting the gift of peace with a smile of gratitude.

Give peace to your buttocks -
sorry I have to squash you by sitting on a cushion.

Give peace to your lower back, your waist.

Waist, I grant you peace.

In the rest of your back as you move up the back,

may you all be peaceful, every muscle,

every bone, every ligament, every joint.

Imagine this is a gift you're giving to your body.

Just now, my shoulders, may you be at peace.
It's a little gift I give,

you may imagine in so many different ways,
like a golden light or a beautiful balm

which you rub into your tired and tense joints.

I give you peace.

Give that peace down your arms, elbows,
forearms and wrists and hands,

giving peace all the parts you visit and
peace to your neck, the throat,

face and brain and the ears and head.

Give peace everywhere.

Even your body can stop rushing around
trying to fix things.

We're all saying not trying to cure things,
we're caring for them. Caring in this moment.

Then you go to your mind.
Mind, I give you peace.

Don't try and concentrate, get rid of things,
please don't try to be mindful.

I give you peace instead.
Be peaceful with whatever you're experiencing.

A ceasefire on the spiritual assault of Nibbana.

Learning how to be with this moment
rather than wanting to be somewhere else.

Make peace not war with your mind, with your life.

And listen,
not with the ears on the side of your head,

listen with the ears inside your mind,

and hear the song of healing silence.

Give yourself the gift of silence as well as peace.

Give yourself the gift of freedom.

Don't try and keep anything.

This moment comes and it leaves.

Give yourself the gift of freedom,

of not needing to understand, just to be.

Give yourself the gift, the inner joy,
beautiful delight in the body which is at ease,

the mind which is silent, here,
doesn't need to go anywhere, it's peace.

It's getting close to the end of
this short guided meditation.

How are you? How do you feel?

If you don't want anything,
you know contentment itself.

The mind is peaceful, the body's relaxed.

You've given yourself these moments of peace.

Take more if you can.

If you need to share those gifts of peace
and kindness to the world now's the time to do it.

Very slowly open your eyes.

Now I'll give a closing blessing

[chanting]

May you all be strong, healthy and content.