So anyway for the talk just to warm people up.
They're one of the good friends, disciples, followers from Canada.
I'm sure is listening and if not listening now
will get hold of the talk later on.
They're very, very devoted disciples, very wonderful people too.
But they asked me that they've been trying to encourage some of their friends
to do some meditation.
But then some of the friends equate meditation to mindfulness practice.
And sometimes you see the people who practice mindfulness
that sometimes they get into difficulties and problems.
Sometimes it's just like people who have Covid 19 vaccine.
Sometimes they have problems only it's a tiny, tiny sort of proportion.
I think somebody said that
you've got more chance of having a problem with a Covid vaccine.
The chances of that are just more remote than winning the Lotto.
It's just like people surfing,
some people who surf on Western Australia get eaten by sharks
that doesn't really stop people surfing.
But even with mindfulness practice
sometimes there's some problems there.
You know, it doesn't need to be. It's much safer than surfing,
but it's also much more healthy.
And one of the reasons why any problems exist in the first place
is that this thing called mindfulness has been just almost like titrated
and just taken away from its context in other forms of Buddhist practice.
And when it's by itself it misses out
on some of the wonderful safeguards which are always there.
And to make a point, when I first went to teach meditation overseas.
I think it was over in Malaysia. Malaysia is a Muslim country,
there's a lot of Buddhists over in Malaysia as well.
And over there they were very keen on doing all the parts of Buddhism
especially meditation practice.
when I talked to them I was stunned, I was surprised!
Because they were complaining
that meditation gave you "Samadhi headache!"
They called samadhi means like, well it actually meant over there,
concentration. It really means stillness.
"Meditation headache?"
I couldn't understand that. I've been meditating for years by that time.
How many years of, crikey! About 30 years probably.
I never had a headache by meditating.
Actually I use meditation to overcome headaches.
I use meditation overcome headaches, indigestion, scrub typhus fever.
That's a pretty big one. And all these other stuff,
even injuries, bruises and stuff if we fell over.
And it's amazing I thought,
meditation is there to help your health
not to create more headaches and problems.
What on earth have you been doing?
And of course, it was a meditation which was being done,
which has a lot of problems if you compared it with
traditional Buddhist meditation.
The meditators there were struggling and striving
and trying to get something.
And you find whenever you want something,
try to get something and strive something;
I'm going to do this. I'm going to make sure it works.
I'm going to be ...
My own story...
I'm still a lay person,
we started doing some meditation and it was the Vesak time.
This was celebrating the birth enlightenment, passing away of the Buddha.
And when I heard the story of the Buddha's enlightenment.
What I heard was that the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree
and he made a resolution, a determination.
"I'm gonna get enlightened.
Right here, I'm not gonna move.
Even if my blood dries up and my bones turn to dust.
I'm not gonna move from this seat until
... until I get full enlightenment".
Being stupid at the time I thought that was really cool.
So you know what I did?
I went back to my room, I put a little couple of cushions out,
(Laugh)
stupid young man, I was about 18 at the time (laugh)
You know, 18 year old men.
Any 18 year old man here?
Don't admit it. Don't admit it.
Come on, you're not 18 you're much older than that.
I said 18 not 80.
So I sat down on that cushion I made a resolution.
I'm as good as the Buddha.
That was in India, he didn't have an education.
I thought like that, really arrogant.
You know my maximum amount of time I could meditate for at 18
was about 20 minutes and that was pushing it,
25 sometimes on a good meditation.
So I sat down and said forget about all of that,
I'm not going to move. Now I've got to get enlightened,
I want to get it out of the way, I've got many other things to do in my life.
I sat there and made the resolution I'm not gonna move
until I get perfect enlightenment or
you always gotta have an alternative or
my blood dries up and bones turn to dust.
I actually made that resolution, honestly I did.
It was hell. After half an hour
I meant to get to half an hour, my bones were just ... they were burning in pain,
my back was aching, every muscle was on fire.
No, I'm not enlightened yet, carry on.
[Laughter]
You know, I got about between 35 and 40 minutes.
I couldn't stand it any longer
and I opened my eyes and you know I wasn't enlightened!
And my blood hadn’t dried up yet, my bones hadn't turned to dust.
I was really stupid!
But later on, instead of just running because of arrogance
and meditating just because I thought I was so good.
I had a marvelous teacher like an Ajahn Chah.
And he kept on saying not just once but
many, many, many, many times. Probably a thousand times
in the nine years which I meditated with him.
He said you meditate to let go of things not to gain things.
And I didn't understand a word of it when I first heard it.
I realized that was some of the most wonderful advice he could ever give.
You want to get something,
something you want to aim for, to strive for, you get very tense.
But if you want to let go of things you get lighter and lighter
and the path becomes so easy and peaceful.
And that becomes another reason why many people,
if they don't understand what meditation or mindfulness is,
they want to get something,
always be the tension, the tightness there.
And a lot of times you can't get
what you think you want or you think you need.
You don't need very much.
But every time we think we need this
and when you're fighting you'd always get injuries,
or sometimes they call collateral damage.
And that's actually what happens when people are just mindful.
So as soldiers they can shoot more accurately and kill people.
When they're mindful so they can win more arguments in debates.
When they're mindful so they can make more money
on the stock market or whatever.
If you're trying to get something
you'll find that's not really Buddhist meditation,
it's not mindfulness.
When you're trying to let go of things, to simplify your life,
to make your life more peaceful, more at ease.
We always know in spiritual life you keep on saying
how much do you really need
to be healthy, to be happy, to have a wonderful life?
How much do you really need?
If you want to know, next time you go to Bodhinyana monastery,
go and ask to have a visit to my home where I live.
Hands up now, how many of you have actually been into my cave?
I've got to put my hand up as well cause I've got to be honest I've been in there.
Is it big? (Laughter)
It's big in peace. It's big in freedom.
It's a tiny little cave and that's all I need, I got a toilet around the back
but it's about three meters, it's like a dome
three meters... no, three meters diameter and that's semi dome.
And in that cave I've got a bed, meditation cushion,
a blanket and water, a flashlight and a clock, a little Buddha statue.
And I do have I must admit electricity
that's just to light the way and a...not bamboo, a cork floor. That's it.
You know it's really easy to clean,
it doesn't take that long but it's also the simplicity of it.
What do you need?
So a lot of times even in life when we simplify things
we find that life is much more peaceful.
And even in meditation, if you want to get things
then there's no end of getting more things.
How many more things do you want?
How rich do you want to be?
Have you noticed really rich people, they always have to keep on working?
You know Elon Musk, he's got enough money now
he should be able to retire. He has to work!
So how much money would you want?
Apparently that somebody won the lottery on Friday.
Anyone here?
If it was you, now being that wealthy is just really a burden,
it causes you so much suffering.
I remember, I don't mind saying, meeting this guy
he was the CEO of Tropicana resort and lots of other businesses over in Malaysia
and he invited me to his house. No, I can't say houses... mansion, huge thing.
But what really I...was really struck me that going into his residence
there were like two guards with machine guns at the gate,
it's like going into Buckingham palace where they have these household guards.
And so, why do you need guards with machine guns?
I've got no guards with machine guns in front of my cave. (laughter)
Is because there's a lot of fear when you have many things.
If you only have a few things or old things you don't have to be afraid at all.
I learned that from my father, strange enough,
because where he lived was in a very small council flat in London,
like government sponsored housing for the poor.
But it was very... we had a very happy time there,
but often I just asked him "why don't we lock the door when we go out
aren't you afraid of burglars?"
You know what my father said, he said: "No, I'm not afraid of burglars
in fact I'm quite hopeful a burglar might come in
take pity on us and leave us something." (Laughter)
So at least you didn't have to worry about anything.
Not worrying about anything, great peace and happiness, contentment.
So that's also one of the reasons
when you're not worrying about attaining things or losing...oh no
attaining, getting things but you're more happy
with emptying out your mind.
then actually you're meditating in a proper way.
And where that comes from if anybody wants to check me out,
that comes from the second factor of the eightfold path,
meditation is a whole path eightfold path.
Meditation ... the deep meditations are the last factor.
Mindfulness is the seventh factor.
The second factor is of the right ways of what we call right motivation.
Ajahn Brahmali kept calling it intention
but I prefer motivation, where you're coming from,
not what you're trying to achieve.
Because the right motivations are three right motivations for meditation.
If you do your mindfulness practice
with these three motivations you're really safe.
The first motivation is called nekkhamma.
It's a Pali word it means letting go, renunciation,
giving up, simplifying.
I knew that was... that's really Buddhist,
we are supposed to live simple lives.
Very few people live simple lives these days.
But we really try as best we can as monks and nuns
to live simple as we possibly can.
It's really strange isn't it that you know, sometimes I go off
I used to go overseas..
I used to go overseas and sometimes you know what would happen?
People buy you business class tickets, honestly they did.
I did this ... what was it called, a keynote address at conferences.
I used to go to conferences, a keynote address at the 2018 I think it was
World Computer Conference in Dejun, South Korea.
That was a really good gig,
the World Computer Conference
and I'm not just giving a small talk, giving the keynote address.
That's after all these politicians and dignitaries and stuff gave
and then I had to set the tone of the conference.
And I did really well. You know that's where they brought...
they offered this business class ticket on Singapore airlines
all the way to South Korea and back, nice hotel.
And they gave 2000$ to the Buddhist Society
just for a quarter of an hour's talk.
So what we call a nice little earner for our BSWA. (laugh)
But then you know you go on business class
and they ask how much do you earn? Nothing!
How much money have you got? Zero.
What's a poor person doing travelling on business class,
no money in the bank anywhere.
So I like those like contradictions in life
and what is a person who...
I don't know much about computers, do I? (laughter)
When anything goes wrong you have to ask somebody else,
what's gone wrong?
What are you doing dude? Do the keynote address
in front of all these computer wizards? They asked me that.
And I gave the answer that in life
you don't have to know very much to actually to innovate.
In fact the more you know, the less you see.
And you're trained always to see things in the same way.
A narrow course of mind.
And as a monk you can actually do all sorts of weird stuff,
like meditate and see things in a different way.
To innovate means being still,
letting everything go and seeing things afresh.
And of course, we all know in economies,
innovation is a key to success.
Not doing things in the same old way but doing things in a different way.
And look at this place I mean Buddhist Society Western Australia.
As far as I know it's one of the biggest Buddhist societies in the world.
It's because this is how we practice, innovation, doing things differently.
But anyway back to mindfulness when we learn how to let go of things.
The other thing in right motivation is letting go
and then the second factor of right motivation is kindness, compassion.
and that was something I often say this to people
that was something I thought was obvious if ever you read
the life story of the monks and nuns in the time of the Buddha.
Compassion was really important, being kind to all beings.
This is one lady, I think, she didn't say where she was from.
There's still a lot of people who have discriminatory minds
and she was a Buddhist but she said something happened last week.
She said her son came out and said he was gay.
" Oh! Ajahn Brahm, what should I do?"
Because there's some societies where that's still regarded as terrible
and I said look, you probably chant this every day as a Buddhist,
"may all beings be happy and well."
I think you chanted that here just before I came in.
Gay people, lesbians, transgenders, L G B T Q I A plus.
Aren't they beings?
Do they deserve kindness, compassion, empathy
just like everybody else? What's the problem?
And the fact that she didn't realize
she'd be chanting and part of the chant, may all beings be happy and well.
Even Donald Trump, Mr. Putin.
Who else is in the black books? May they all be happy and well, come on.
Because there's something powerful which I saw in this type of Buddhism
when you give happiness to your enemies
then your enemies are not your enemies anymore.
It's weird but they become soft and peaceful.
And where this comes up, Why I wanted to bring this up was
you know sometimes when I think this BBC article I read a long time ago,
so one of the problems with mindfulness
they get you to actually just allow things to be.
That's not good enough.
Because sometimes what comes up
is some of the past traumas which people have.
And those past traumas if it's just being aware of them,
you can't hold them, you can't handle them,
they're just really painful.
And that's where a lot of times people just have almost psychosis
with this mindfulness practice.
But what's the difference between how we do things
in Buddhist mindfulness practice?
If something comes out from the past and it's really a bad memory,
very awful memory, difficult memory,
something very hard for you to hold. How can we let go of that past?
With kindness.
It's a strange thing to say but I've said this so many times before
if you are meditating and you know your mind just wanders off to the past
where something really hard happened to you
or a repressed memory comes up into your mind
and it's a painful memory. What do you do with it?
And if you try and get rid of it, you give it anger, ill will.
You don't want to face it, it often gets much worse.
So there's something else you can do with it
give it kindness.
Give you yourself kindness. Give whoever did that to you kindness.
And here we go again with this simile, it's such a beautiful simile.
The last time I gave on the retreat which I did after Easter
I remember after doing this simile
everyone was looking at me, just blown away
even though they heard before. Many actually were teary afterwards.
There was that simile of that... that group here in Perth
called ASSETT - Australian Society Survivors of Torture and Trauma.
And one day they invited me to go and visit their center
do a blessing or something. I said: "Yes, sure."
because many of them actually came here
and I didn't know why. Why did you invite me?
And they said because a couple of their key strategies - they learnt here.
Which ones? And when they told me
oh it's just it's an emotional deep right inside me, really high,
make me incredibly happy. That's why I love telling that story.
They said the one story which worked the best.
It was kindness.
What do you mean kindness?
It's that old story of telling what my father told me.
My father teaches... pictures a lot in this talk this evening.
My father used to tell me just "Son, wherever you go,
whatever you do, however you turn out in your life.
He said to me when I was about 14 year old.
And it's so uncertain in life. He said "whatever you do,
the door of my house will always be open to you."
And of course his house was a council flat with hardly anything in it.
But you know that sometimes somebody says something
maybe here, maybe a friend, maybe something you read or hear.
It's so you know this is important.
And I remember that as a 14 year old boy
that this is important. I don't know why I can't understand it
because you know boys emotions are not very developed.
But I remembered it enough that when I became a monk.
And one of the nice things about being a monk or a nun, you have time,
you have time to really figure out your emotional world and what it means.
And that was one of the unfinished business
I had from my father - he died when I was about 16.
What did he really mean by that?
And of course, you've heard me say this before
it became the title of my first book.
What he meant was not his house, he meant his heart.
He said whatever you do, however you turn out,
whatever happens to you,
the door of my heart will always be open to you.
When I realized that was just me that hit me so deeply.
It was the first expression of unconditional love
that I could really understand. And it made so much sense to me
and of course, a father to his son was, you know, so powerful.
I wish I'd understood that when he said it to me
how powerful it was.
And of course that story, which I can see you're looking at me,
and it's meant something to you already.
That meant something to a couple of psychologists,
psychiatrists who would come here
and then work with people who had been very badly abused overseas.
And people who had survived somehow.
When I heard some of their statements I don't know how
they could survive some of that abuse, physical, emotional
in some of these regimes overseas.
But anyway they'd made it to Australia physically safe,
emotionally still in the torture chambers,
still being raped, beaten for no reason.
I've had a very simple life so I can't really understand
how they must have felt and how they survived is beyond me.
But now they're here, they're still carrying that huge burden
and how they overcame that burden.
And that's because I developed that story and taught it
that gives me so much joy. How they overcame that was
they decided to incorporate that as one of their strategies.
But when a person feels safe, you can't force anything,
you can't say now do it. It has to be when you're ready.
And they would sit down in a comfortable safe place,
the safety was important
and then they closed their eyes and then they imagine a heart in their chest
and it was a Valentine's day heart not a real heart.
If you've seen real hearts in medical books
they're not beautiful at all, got tubes all over the place.
But the Valentine's day heart as everyone knows
imagine a Valentine's heart in the center of your chest
with two big doors. The two doors open out
and the nice part of you, the part of you
which you can respect and love and live with happily,
all the nice times you remember,
the joyful times that people who care for you and love you
and the wonderful experiences you've had in your life
all those little beings which bear your name at different ages, that's inside.
That's you, you can very easily live with.
Then what happens next is you look outside,
outside of your own heart, is these little beings,
you were in the past, young girls, young boys
who were treated just so painfully. The physical abuse is only
a fraction of it, the emotional - Why?
That just makes it just so hard to bear.
You kept all those beings outside of your own heart
and they were you. So, imagine a ladder
coming from your heart going down to the ground
and seeing all these people who were you
and you're inviting them up.
I don't, I won't judge who you are what happened to you,
no matter who you are, come in.
And to actually to do that,
it's just one of the most courageous things you could do.
Invite those little beings you're trying to just forget.
Trying to ignore, trying to cover up,
trying to get out of here, get away,
you don't belong with me. You're just so painful.
You allow them all to come up one by one
so little beings who have been alone
and separated out of your heart for so many years
and you embrace them. They're in your heart now, not out.
That's a huge change and they said that worked amazingly.
And some of those women who've gone through that
would come here on a Friday night.
I remember speaking to them, seeing them and it just blew my mind.
They told me what they've been through and you look at them now.
Wow! they were just some of the amazing heroes.
So strong, they were like saints. They said that's who I am!
And they don't traumatize themselves with that anymore.
That's an extreme, I mean you've been through some,
we've all been through some pain and difficulty in our life.
There's things we'd rather forget.
Why don't we invite that in instead,
you embrace that that's who you are, it's your life
and something happens, what happens,
I keep on saying the same old stories but they're powerful.
What happens is the old story of the monster in the emperor's palace.
Monster came in the emperor's palace. Get out, you don't belong.
Who do you think you are, coming in here.
and the empress, she was wise.
Because she was also a member of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia
she'd come every Friday night. So when she went back to the palace
she saw this big monster in there, really ugly, really frightening.
What she said to the monster was "welcome, thank you for visiting.
is there anything, anyone got you anything to drink yet? Anything to eat?
What can we do for you?"
She'd turned such kindness to monsters
and what happened? This is based on a Buddhist story.
Every thought, deed, act of kindness
and the monster grew an inch smaller,
an inch kinder, a little bit more... more civil.
And they kept on with the kindness so much,
- this is the shortened version of the story -
That soon the monster, who was so ugly and big
and frightening and violent soon became so small
that one more act of kindness
and the monster vanished completely away.
And that's in the Buddhist suttas,
that the Buddha said we call that "anger eating monsters."
The more anger you give it, the more negativity you give it,
the bigger it gets. There's so much of that in our world.
But here I'm just saying in you, get out of here bad memory
you don't belong and the bad memory gets worse.
It takes a lot of guts and training but if you do the kindness;
"welcome, welcome bad memory. Thank you for coming to visit me".
Give kindness to it, kindness to yourself
because so many times when you have a memory which is embarrassing;
maybe you're ashamed of, when you actually feel about it,
it's a human being, you make mistakes;
please be kind to yourself.
Forgive yourself, care for yourself.
Other people who have hurt you
I don't know why they hurt you. You don't know why they hurt you.
Maybe they thought they were doing the best thing for you, I don't know.
Maybe they had other sort of things they were thinking about at the time
or maybe they were drunk or they're in drugs or whatever.
Sometimes if you can somehow put yourself in their position a little bit.
Why do they do that? What was their cultural training, why?
If you give kindness to people who've hurt you,
it means you're not so vindictive. There's no wanting to
sort of harm them back or want you to harm yourself.
So when you give kindness to the negative things of your past.
You find all those psychosis, traumas, the bad memories,
the stuff which you can't get out of your head,
stop you sleeping, stop you enjoying your life
because you keep remembering all these bad things.
You know, after a while they gets so soft, so peaceful,
you can let them go.
It's weird but you overcome negativity with kindness.
There's an amazing beautiful ability in each one of you
to be soft and gentle.
And if you're soft and gentle to your past;
The negative to the past can't stand it, it vanishes.
So when we do mindfulness we don't just be aware of the stuff.
we know the strategies.
If you get a bad feeling from the past
you can first of all you say
okay, I'll just let that go because I'm not ready for it yet.
But there comes a time when you are ready for it,
have all these strategies on how to deal with it.
Another strategy how you deal with some of the negativity of the past.
You know, every bad feeling you have in your head, in your mind,
has a corresponding feeling in your body, a physical feeling.
I already mentioned that at the beginning
when you are mindful of the body and relaxing the body
I was talking about like the head.
If you are negative you can read on a person's face.
Muscles tighten up, these other muscles loosen up
and that's actually pretty much universal.
You know indigenous tribes in the middle of the Amazon somewhere
you can still read their emotions on their facial features.
So, all of those negative emotions from the past
or fears of the future,
that's also written on your body somewhere.
And that's one of the reasons why
if you do have some anxiety or fear or whatever,
by doing some meditation practice, it's not that hard to overcome that.
And it just amazes you how easy it is and how effective it is.
And of course the one I'm going to bring up now was...
she's not here this evening thank goodness,
otherwise people get embarrassed.
But this was a lady who had very bad anxiety.
So much anxiety she couldn't get out of bed,
afraid even to go through the door out into the world.
And she was in Adelaide, a university student
and being in university she had free medical care.
Great psychologists, psychiatrists, every possibility and drugs and stuff.
Nothing worked.
So she was like bedbound; an anxiety which no one could cure.
But fortunately her father, no, not father... uncle.
Uncle comes here. So uncle said go and ring up Ajahn Brahm.
Love it whenever she called me up
and she told me what was happening with her
and that's where mindfulness practice
but not just mindfulness. I said that's not enough.
But first of all I said: "When you have an anxiety attack,
a panic attack - you're bedridden - where on your body do you feel it?"
I wasn't asking about her mind, her emotions
because that was just too strong for her to really get to know.
"Where do you feel it on your body?" she said: " In my chest."
I said "It's not good enough, I want know exactly where?"
She was studying dentistry so part of science,
I want coordinates from your navel, your belly button,
I want centimeters, millimeters even
to the center of the feeling in your chest
and how far does it extend? is it circular?
or is it ovular? or is it a square?
I want you to describe it to me accurately with dimensions.
Is it more to the left more to the right or really central?
And give me a call in three days.
I mentioned that because I wasn't just,
well part of it was I was very busy (laugh) I got to be honest
but it's also I just wanted her to do something.
You know, one of the terrible things if you're in trouble
with either bad feelings in meditation or other stuff.
When people tell you what to do,
they're taking away your... almost like your sense of being
an owner of your problem and your body.
You give up ownership of the disease or the problem to some experts.
I didn't want that to happen. So this is your body,
it's your emotions. So you tell me, I'm not gonna control you.
So after three days she called
and I was really amazed at the descriptions she gave.
and I said: "Well, exactly that's where it is.
How does it feel ?
Is it burning or is it aching, does it change?
is it the same all over, whatever?
"Oh, I don't know." "Give me a call in three days."
Which she did, she gave another really amazing explanation
of what it feels like, sensations in the body
when you have a panic attack. "Great!" I said now
that's making her mindful, that's just the awareness part of it.
A lot of times that's what people do when they practice mindfulness
they get to know these things but no more.
And then the extra part which is the important part was,
well, now you know, when you have a panic attack,
where it is, what it feels like.
Now I said I want you to get your hand when you have...
she's in bed get your hand and massage that area
with your hand as kindly as you possibly can
with much compassion and gentleness as you possibly can.
And I said to her if you can't do it
ask your boyfriend to do it for you. I don't think he'd mind
and give me a call in three days and she did that.
It was beautiful, because this is one of those times again
which really makes me feel wonderful how meditation works.
And I asked: "Did you follow my instructions?" She said: "Yeah."
What happened when you massage the panic attacks in your chest?
So I massage them and massage and massage them
and then the feeling in the chest sort of got loosened and relaxed
and eventually the feeling in the chest went away.
And I said:" Well, when the feeling in the chest went away,
what happened to the anxiety, to the panic?"
And that's one of those beautiful moments when she paused.
it's when the light bulbs went on when the eureka moment happened.
She said:" Well, when the physical feeling vanished so did the anxiety."
Now you know how to overcome your anxiety.
Deal with the physical manifestation, the physical counterpart.
Once that disappears also the emotional,
the inside part also turns off and vanishes.
That was wonderful lovely lady.
I think it was two weeks as she was back in classes again,
out of bed and graduated with first class honours in dentistry.
And then just her boyfriend she married.
And one of nice things people think that Ajahn Brahm's not a romantic
but they got married in the sunken gardens in UWA.
And who do you think gave the blessing there?
Had to have me go there.
I didn't find it out until later on. She was so impressed
that she actually nominated me for Australian of the year.
I didn't get it but I could understand. She was just wow, this really works.
But this is actually just an example of how we deal with negativity,
not just a mindfulness,
not being aware of it, she was totally aware of it
but also what to do with it when it comes up.
Give it compassion and kindness.
The right motivation in Buddhism is,
it is letting go, being kind, being gentle.
And if you do your mindfulness practice with those things in mind.
You will find that when something comes up which is a bit negative.
Ahh, some bad memory from the past has come up ahh...
and you can actually be soft with it and kind with it
and it just melts it all away.
So that's something which we can do
and it's powerful stuff as well.
Those little stories which I mentioned there,
they're real stories and it happens.
And my own little stories
you know every time if I have sicknesses and stuff
it's not just emotional problems, physical problems.
I keep telling monks, it's an old joke.
I keep telling the monks that you know
my 70th year on planet earth now, in August I'll be 70.
So I kept on telling them " Monks, I'm getting old."
And they said: " No, you're not getting old."
and I thought they would say that because of kindness.
They said: "No, no, we're not saying that out of kindness to you.
We're saying that out of truth. You are old, you're not getting old.
You've already arrived."
But I don't know where I was going with this one but anyway...
So many times in my life, you have sicknesses
and some of those sickness which I've had
you try and take medicines and stuff
and quite honestly these days I much prefer doing kindness
to any sicknesses which I have. Awareness and kindness.
Looking at my body, where's the problem?
you may have... like the time which I had food poisoning,
real food poisoning in my ... in my cave.
I was screaming, no one could hear me
because these were like cramps which food poisoning gives you
Agh! and then it just ... Agh!
Totally involuntary I couldn't do anything with it.
And then I knew no one could hear me
because that's the point of having a cave
two doors, it's underground.
Well I can't hear what's going on outside
which is wonderful, but they can't hear what's going on inside
which is a difficulty sometimes.
So anyway, I did my ... same as I teach other people,
sit there being mindful and being kind.
Those two are very, very, powerful.
I think the last talk I gave here about opening the lotus, wasn't it?
Remember that's the sun has light and warmth.
That's what opens lotuses up, the light and warmth of the sun.
The light stands for mindfulness, the warmth stands for kindness.
Those two go together and they're incredibly powerful.
I was just kind to the cramps in the tummy.
So kind to them every time they repeat it
ah, ah, ah ... maybe 2 or 3 minutes before you had a cramp.
but every time that the cramp got less.
My awareness was sharp enough that you could feel it
just less painful, because I was kind to it.
Next one was less painful, next time was less painful,
next time was less painful. Only a tiny bit less painful
but I could perceive that because I was aware.
I wasn't trying to think I'm gonna die what should I do.
But I was being aware of it and then it got so soft
and after 30, 40 minutes it just vanished completely.
That was weird even I was really struck by that
because usually food poisoning you just gotta go to doctor.
I don't know what you gonna do
but this is much better than going to a doctor.
And then just after meditating nice and peacefully.
It never came back again. It's weird but it's so true.
I'm sure many of you may have had examples like that.
So the mindfulness with the kindness
put those two together and it is really powerful.
And not just powerful, you find your awareness get stronger.
That's the part which most mindfulness teachings
the worldly stuff, they don't really mention that.
That's where your mindfulness, awareness gets really so strong.
I have to invent words for this because no one else does.
Like, powerful mindfulness and superpower mindfulness
and mega-power mindfulness.
That's what it feels like, I do not take drugs.
But sometimes people asked: "What drug are you on Ajahn Brahm today?"
Because you're so happy and joyful and healthy.
"What's going on?"
This is natural, you're empowering your awareness.
And your awareness after a while gets incredibly strong.
That's when if any of you like food, I don't know about you.
You're going out for a meal after the talk tonight?
Maybe you didn't have a meal before? or if you really want to enjoy food
meditate here first of all and then go out
and you will find you don't have to spend a lot of money on an expensive restaurant.
Just go around the corner to, what was it, McDonald's
and you just bite into that whatever you're biting into
and it taste out of this world.
It's nothing to do with the hamburger or whatever else you're eating.
But everything to do with your mindfulness being so strong, so powerful.
That hamburger tastes like it's been made at a 5 star,
no, not five star, six star restaurant.
It's not what's in what you're seeing.
It's not what's seeing what you're eating.
It's everything what's in your mind, your mind is clear, sensitive.
And if you hear any music, wow! it thrills you
because you're picking up everything.
which is being... being there in the sound and this is what happens.
This life as a monk. I love this, you have so much joy.
At night time, right now, in Serpentine
you look at the stars in the evening. Absolutely thrilling, they're gorgeous.
You just look up and you just can't take your eyes away.
The dawns it makes... it just amazing. Who wants a tv?
Who wants anything? You want to watch that.
Who wants to go to a museum when that's happening right there
it's for free. And so, so much of the world of life
becomes so sensitive and so amazing, it's so beautiful.
You get a huge amount of happiness and joy
when your mindfulness gets really strong.
And even you, sometimes you meditate, you look at the carpet.
Have you ever noticed how beautiful that carpet is?
Am I going crazy?
The point is that when your mindfulness gets strong.
Every shade of those light blues and dark blues
and reds and yellows and whites
and the way that they interact together and the texture of that carpet.
It just really comes out and blows your mind, becomes beautiful.
Free happiness in the ordinary.
And if that carpet looks beautiful.
You look at your old grandma. She's gorgeous.
And I'm not joking. That's what happens.
Superpower mindfulness and you see beauty in so many things
in your past, in your future,
in people you live with, in your children, in your partners
in your grandparents, in your monks and your nuns,
in your politicians, in the police who stop you.
You know sometimes I just wonder,
you know, people like being around monks
that's what you do anyway because you come every Friday night.
But why?
I always remember that one politician
apparently she's still in politics that's Alannah MacTiernan.
Years and years, about 20, 30 years ago or something.
She was in politics and we went to see her for something
and afterwards you know, after we talked to her about something,
she had some really wonderful advice.
And as she got off her seat instead of letting her secretary
take us to the door, she escorted us to the door with kindness
and she said "you know I really enjoy people like you coming to my office."
and she meant it with sincerity.
I always wonder why did she say that.
This is because, the monks and nuns are kind.
Well, generally we have something to complain about but we don't do:
"Hey! why are you doing this, why are you doing that? We... Blah, blah, blah..."
I just could feel the kindness there, the gentleness, the beauty, the peace.
So that's what happens when you're mindful and kind.
You make friends in the weirdest of places.
So anyway that's the talk for this evening.
The mindfulness by itself, I agree can have some problems.
But you add the kindness, you add the rest of the factors like
we're doing this not to get things but to let go of things.
We're doing this out of kindness and gentleness.
If that motivates your life, wow!
Meditation is so beautiful.
Thank you for listening.
(Audience) Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu
I always say when people try and do something and they don't do it properly
if you're gonna clap, clap.
(Audience) clapping
But anyway, thank you.
First of all any questions from the people here?
(inaudible from audience)
Q-Ajahn, how do we apply a loving kindness in a not for profit organization?
Yeah, again that Buddhism is one of the few non-profit religions
because we don't believe in prophets.
You know, Jesus was a prophet, other people are prophets
but we don't have prophet in Buddhism, we're really non....
Okay, it's an old bad joke but never mind.
How to have loving kindness?
I think because I have met many millionaires in my life
and I just... when I once I was... okay don't mind saying.
At a state dinner once over in Canberra I went to the toilet.
In male toilets, you know, for urinals, you just had one next to the other
and so I went in there and the fellow was in the next urinal to me
was uh... sorry, yeah that's right Lachlan Murdoch,
he is Rupert Murdoch son, Dr. Murdock.
And as soon as I saw his badge Lachlan Murdoch I thought
if only I had a donation envelope. (laugh)
But that... like one of the people I think I quoted recently
which was the head of the Changi airport corporation many years ago
and it was the day before he was opening terminal 3, no 4,
terminal 4 in Singapore. And he was next to the head of
Keppel Shipping who was the highest paid CEO in Singapore.
So these were... actually Buddhists. And he said
"how do you do loving kindness and put Buddhism into your business?"
I remember the head of the Changi Airport Corporation,
he said "people go to work every morning and expect to be happy."
But how many go to work in the morning
with the resolution to make someone else happy today?
So that's why you don't feel any happiness,
you expect someone else to make you happy,
but you don't go to work with the main desire of
"I'm gonna make someone happy today."
So just changing a person's attitude a little bit .
I don't know where you work,
I work in BSWA so I often go to work on a Friday night.
I'm gonna make somebody happy tonight. So you put happiness in there
instead of expecting happiness to be given to you.
You become proactive so that's one way
in any organization you can actually put some joy and happiness in there.
It's wonderful when that happens.
Human beings are just gorgeous people.
And they just need to touch that goodness.
I just remember just...
because I don't know why I got involved in Curtin university of all places.
But I was given the John Curtin Medal there once,
and so often I go there for one reason or another.
But it happened over here. There was a Sri Lankan woman and
she would come here, not that often because she was very busy
looking after two children. And her husband
was actually working two jobs to get enough money,
because the wife was actually doing a training in nursing at Curtin university.
And unfortunately that one night, double job, not enough sleep,
he crashed the car and killed himself.
It was a tragedy, you know, just trying to work too hard.
And the wife, the two kids, no way she could pay the tuition fees at Curtin.
So, I got on the phone to the vice chancellor, Jeannette Hackett.
She became a good friend.
I confessed this that on one occasion, she was just retiring
"Ajahn Brahm, I just loved my association with you" she said.
She said "I'm going to give you a hug."
You're not supposed to do that to a Buddhist monk
but she was too fast for me. (laughter)
It's only once.
But anyway, I called her up I said "Look, this is real tragedy."
She said "What is it?" And because they know you,
you can actually get straight through to them
and I said "Look, any chance of getting a scholarship for her?"
" Leave it with me." she said.
And of course, they got the scholarship for her
and so everything paid for in Curtin university.
And just I think the locals over here we try to help her.
Some donations for her costs of living and stuff.
And eventually when she graduated as a nurse from here,
she came up, I remember, just came up and said thank you
and that basically saved her life.
Unfortunately couldn't save her husband's life but at least could save her.
So you know, these people you may think are they just big bosses somewhere.
They like doing good things as well, kind things.
They don't like being exploited you give them an opportunity
to do something good and they will just...they will run for it.
Anyway all the good people I've seen in life here,
give them an opportunity and they love doing great stuff.
Q - Okay, from Hong Kong, I'm very sensitive to smell
halfway through the meditation I smell cigarette smoke and drain smells.
Is it desirable for me to deal with them, ie. to close windows halfway through?
Sometimes that's why people used to light incense in temples
because when hygiene wasn't that good you need smelly incense.
I don't know why in Hong Kong, halfway through meditation
I smell cigarette smoke.
You know, sometimes you can turn the sense of smell off.
In other words you're just going inside the body
and the joy of peace is so strong that you don't hear things,
you can't be disturbed by something like smell.
So if you go deeper quickly then you won't smell anything at all.
and I don't know where you're meditating
if those cigarette smoke and drain smells are there anyway
just try and meditate somewhere else which hasn't got those smells.
Is it desire for me to deal with them close windows halfway through?
No, close the windows before you start
and then you won't have those cigarette smoke and drain smells.
From Poland, "When we meet a person who is saying or doing awful things to us
how we can still be kind to that person
when they continue to be in our life and do us harm?"
If they're saying things and then, are they really doing you harm?
This is one of the reasons why, when I complained
to my teacher, Ajahn Chah, about the mosquitoes.
they were really doing us harm, you know, biting us all over the place.
And who knows that, you know, he said they don't have malaria
just need one, just one and that's it.
But anyway so when I asked Ajahn Chah can we have some mosquito repellant
or some coils or some protection mosquito nets.
He said "No!"
That's how kind he was, I thought.
But then what he really meant was "No, from now on" he said
"you'd call the mosquitoes your teacher, Ajahn Mosquito."
That was hard but it was beautiful, you learned so much from that.
So, you meet a person who's saying and doing awful things to us
see if you can protect yourself however much you can
and also be kind. If it's still too difficult to be kind to them.
There's an old saying in Chinese "to love the tiger but at a distance."
So you can move away from it a little bit.
If they are doing awful things to you again
sometimes you have to call the police if they're really doing your physical harm
but sometimes if not. Okay here's another story.
This is after about being here nine or ten years.
I've been here now 37 or 38 years in Australia, in Perth.
But anyway, this woman came to see me once
and just after one of the talks, just before this hall was made,
we had our talks in the community hall. And she came and said:
" I've just come to thank you for saving my marriage."
And I asked her what have we done and then she told her story.
This is not an example to be followed
but this was the days when there was very little support
for women suffering domestic violence.
She said her husband was being violent to her regularly.
She said she came to this place not to learn Buddhism
but at least when she was here she felt safe.
A couple of hours when she wasn't being hit.
That was really extreme, I never knew anything about that.
But she said she kept on coming here
and she learned the kindness and just focusing on the positive,
the watering the weeds and not the ... Sorry, no, I got that wrong didn't I?
Yeah watering the flowers not the weeds.
And she said she practiced, that took her seven years.
And she got these little meditation stools you see them in the back over there.
she said: "you see this meditation stool, she said he made this for me today.
that's why I need to come and thank you."
She said if he made something like this four years ago it'd be to hit me with.
And it was really gross but then I saw her she was this really beautiful woman.
You know, not just like a supermodel but just her eyes and her goodness
she was like a saint
and she said now my husband's totally changed
he's kind to me because what she did,
every time he said something abusive or did something abusive,
she totally ignored that. How she could do that?
Immense endurance!
Every time he did something good and kind and wonderful.
She really let him know he was appreciated.
The extra hug, the extra kisses, oh! thank you so much.
She really reinforced the positive behavior in her own husband.
And then she showed me "he's in the back here,
over there that's him." And two lovely children.
She earned those.
You shouldn't have to earn your happiness in life.
But I don't know know why she married that man but she totally changed him.
He came down to the monastery as well, wonderful guy.
So it's possible but that's going a bit far because of physical abuse.
But she did it, good on her.
From Bangalore, "Respected Ajahn, how does one investigate the I or me
who is meditating, watch his feelings, thoughts, breaths, ect...
It seems to be a perceiver as long as there's something to perceive?"
You don't go thinking and trying to perceive these deep teachings,
you let these deep teachings come to you.
So, in other words things start to disappear, you relax to the max.
You don't try and contemplate things, you see things.
That's how this works and how it works
many of you've heard this simile before I'm going way over time again.
The old tadpole and the frog simile.
Tadpole can't understand water,
can contemplate water, think about water, investigate water.
Tadpole will never know what water is,
no more than a fish can know what water is.
The reason I said tadpole instead of fish because one day tadpole grows into frog
and frog grows arms and legs and frog doesn't know what they're doing.
And they jump out the water one day.
Now when water has vanished.
Now the frog can understand what water was.
The same way we go so deep in meditation
and soon we don't have our body, don't have our mind, have nothing left.
Now you understand what you thought you were.
You don't do this with philosophy.
Philosophy gives you, please excuse me, gives you headaches.
Seeing gives you truth.
From Melbourne, "Dear Ajahn, when worldly pleasures disappear there's sadness
but when happiness experiences in deep meditation disappears
no such sadness can be felt. Is this correct?"
The deep meditation disappears no such sadness can be felt.
No, because it's a happiness of contentment.
Contentment means you're happy, no matter what.
It's contentment of having no desires, the freedom from wanting.
You don't want anything then suffering starts to vanish.
From Indiana, "Ajahn Brahm, I lost my 15 year old to suicide in December.
What would the Buddha say to do to lessen this kind of suffering?"
Just to understand that your son will come back again.
Suffering is not the end of all life.
Sorry no, that's the wrong answer as I'm getting tired.
Suicide is not the end of all life.
Many times people who commit suicide they come back again pretty quickly.
So, the person made a mistake, big mistake.
So next time they can come back,
if life is more meaningful
then who would ever want to commit suicide?
And I remember just when I was in Singapore
there was one kid just jumped off the balcony
of one of this big apartment blocks killed himself.
But the suicide note was in the front page of the Straits Times.
And it was just whoa! It made many people wake up.
He said "All I wanted was more time with my parents".
And of course, you can understand what that means.
Many times the parents are working so hard
because they want to get the best education
the best this, the best that for their kids.
All the kids really wanted was just time.
If they had a father like my father,
who just spent so much time with us.
He wasn't wealthy at all, he was really poor.
He gave me so much inspiration.
That's what children want, they want time with the people they love.
Lastly, another one from India
"Which is better to meditate, a place with noise and comfort for meditation
or place of seclusion with difficult conditions?"
Ah, the best of those is a place with comfort and seclusion.
In other words it just changes things.
Noise and comfort for meditation or place of seclusion with difficult.
If it's noise it's very easy to stop noises these day,
just get noise canceling headphones.
Can you do that?
The most important thing with whatever you experience,
comfort, noise, difficult conditions.
I've meditated so much
really places you should never be able to meditate in.
Sometimes I do that to test myself.
I mentioned I think last time in Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Now right in the place where people are welcoming the visitors.
"Hi! Hello, nice to see you. How've you been?
Why are you waiting for so long?"
Right there just sat down close my eyes and meditate for an hour,
very beautiful meditation.
Or uncomfortable, in Hay street mall.
Years ago, well might as well mention this.
Years ago, the Burmese community were doing a little...
bring people's attention to the troubles in their land.
It's happening all over again now.
At that time they invited me just outside of... that church there ...
anyway, one of those church, to meditate for two hours.
And that was on the hard pavement,
no cushions and right opposite I think it was called Time Zone, whatever,
They made big noise like people play video games
and big noise just blasting out and traffic going past.
This is really cool.
I like challenging myself and so yeah, lovely meditation for two hours.
It can be done
but it's better to find a nice quiet place and comfortable place.
So I wouldn't go trying to meditate outside of or inside a parliament house.
Which is sometimes noisy or where else is noisy in this world?
I don't know, anyway but yeah it can be done.
So learn in the easy places
and then you can progress to the hard places if you need to.
Thank you again for listening. Sorry for going on a bit long.
So now we can bow three times to Buddha Dhamma Sangha
And then those of you who still want to carry on
you can ask more questions in a few moments.
And again my apology for not being able to speak to you before the talk.
We were just having an important little committee meeting.
So sometimes we have to look after the...
the Buddhist Society of Western Australia's administration
So sorry about that, doesn't usually happen.
Araham Samma Sambuddho Bhagava Buddham Bhagavantam Abhivademi
Svakkhato Bhagavata Dhammo Dhammam Namasami
Suppatipanno Bhagavato SavakaSangho Sangham Namami