Friday Night Guided Meditation | Ajahn Brahm | 31 January 2020

So now we do our meditation session.

So if you'd like to close your eyes.

With your eyes closed it's like you're not

drawn out into the world, you can stay

home in your body and in your emotional world.

Just in my position I have to do
lots and lots of work

I'm really welcoming the help from the committee

and operations manager and other people

for next year, it's just what we have to do

but when I meditate I can close my eyes

and forget about all of that and just go

inside - first of all go inside my body,

I'm aware of how I'm sitting

to make sure it's a comfortable posture

as I feel it, not according to any books or

any recommendations by other teachers,

to be able to know yourself what you need.

And then I become even more specific.

I ask my legs - "legs, how are you?"

When I ask a part of my body how it is,

I'm more mindful, aware, so I can be very

conscious of any feelings in my legs and

if I need to move and adjust,

out of kindness I will do so.

And after I move I have mindfulness of

the new positions, see if it's better.

This way using the feedback
for mindfulness

and the kindness and care I have
for my own body,

I make sure my legs
are in the best position.

Not only does this mean
for a comfortable meditation

it's also most important
development to get peace

inside the mind as well.
Awareness and kindness.

Then I move up from my legs once
they're comfortable

to my butt and once again
I haven't got

my cushion in the proper position
so I'm going to now

adjust the cushion underneath my butt.

That's good.

And once that's adjusted it feels good

then I go to my back,

give it a stretch as I usually do

and ask my back does it need
any more adjustment.

Sitting on a chair you can lean back if
you wish or you can lean forward

whichever is more comfortable for you.

It doesn't always need to be the same

every week or every time you meditate.

I ask my back - "back, what do you want?
how do you feel?"

That's mindfulness, that's
being sensitive to your back right now

and following those instructions until

you get as comfortable as you can.

You can't get full comfort but you
can get pretty good.

And then to be aware of your shoulders,

and to relax your shoulders
however you manage to do that.

And one way is to imagine
those shoulders like a

bunch of strings on either side of
your top part of your spine

and then be pulled, stretched,
by invisible monsters.

Now you relax, let go,

nothing is being pulled or squashed
or stretched,

the stress is going till the shoulders you

can feel them change and the awareness is

in one part of the body, you can see the

feelings change there and soon by

experience, often by trial and error,

you learn how to totally relax
feelings in your body.

And then I go to my hands.

Where my hands are
just defines where my arms are

so I look at my hands,
make sure they're comfortable.

If anyone watched every week

my hands will be in a slightly different

position because every week is different

every time is different so make sure my

hands are okay, then I go back up to my

shoulders and on top of my shoulders

my neck, making sure the head is balanced

on top of the neck, not too far back,

not too far forward,
not too far to the left or

the right and as often happens wearing

these robes sometimes I get the cloth

a little bit too tight
which it is right now.

I'm just going to adjust my robe.

That's that much better.

Well also I'm aware of inside
my neck in my throat,

I do have hayfever and every now and

again so I make sure that everything

inside is nice and relaxed

so I don't need to cough.

Just learning how to relax
one part of the body

I use my mindfulness,
I'm aware of just that

one area and see the feelings change.

I know what to do through experience
of how to relax.

And then I move my attention to my face

especially the muscles around the eyes

and the mouth, sometimes they are tight

simply because they're expressing the

emotions inside - it could be tiredness,

it could be fear, could be anxiety,
whatever,

could be happiness,
but your face is what

shows other people your emotional world.

So I make sure everything is relaxed
on my face.

Muscles around my eyes
are just totally loose.

Around my mouth is also loose.

Been doing this so many years
I know how to relax pretty quickly .

Muscles around my face.

When I do that it means the emotions are

also relaxed and positive, at ease,
loose, free.

And before I leave my body I just watch

the whole of it, not as parts

but as a unified one organism

nicely relaxed as I check
from the head to the toe,

from the toe to the head,

is anything in there which is tight,
I loosen it

until I can feel what every
Friday I teach here,

I call the delight of a relaxed body.

It's not 100% relaxed but it's so
relaxed that my body feels at ease.

While you stay with that relaxed body

for a few more seconds

when my body is at ease

then I can let it go

and go to my emotional world,
the world inside.

I look at what I call my peace-o-meter:

how peaceful am I right now?

I had quite a bit of work for
the last hour and a half

so my mind is a little bit tired,

so my peace-o-meter is a bit
not as peaceful as usual.

So your peace-o-meter, give it a
reading from one to ten.

One is really peaceful, ten is agitated.

So you know where you are,
how peaceful you are,

and now find out what is
necessary, what is the cause,

for lowering the reading of
your peace-o-meter?

For me it's just letting things be.

Giving up all past and all future

and being kind in this moment,
allowing this moment to be.

When I smile at the present, the now,

the now smiles back.

I'm happy to be here.

And I know from so much experience that

now is where my future is made.

If I want to give a good talk later on
I don't think about it,

instead I stay with this moment

be so kind to this moment,
called now.

My peace-o-meter goes down more

more peaceful, more more relaxed,

more and more at ease.

I know a lot of the time
it's not what I say how it is said,

where it comes from.

I make sure there's peace inside,
acceptance, kindness.

Staying in this moment..

Sometimes I've seen people
carrying heavy bags,

one in the left hand,
one in the right hand.

Bag on the left hand, on the outside,
most shopping bags have got

letters on the outside.

This shopping bag has the four letters
P A S T. Past.

Because in that shopping bag you keep

all of your memories from the past,
you carry them around with you.

No wonder you're tired.

In the right hand there's another

shopping bag with the letters F U T U R E.
Future.

You also carry that bag around.

Those hands carrying really
heavy loads,

no wonder people can get
angry and negative.

Just tiredness that's all.

So now feel that shopping bag in the

left hand - that's the past.

Imagine lowering that shopping bag

to the ground - when it meets the floor

there's no more weight.

You can uncurl the fingers of your
left hand and move them

up to your side so you can rest and

regenerate, have some peace.

The shopping bag in the hand hand,
the future,

all your worries and concerns
and anxieties,

also your hopes and dreams as well,

carrying them around incessantly,
sometimes day and night.

Imagine lowering that to the ground.

When the bag of your future worries and
concerns and hopes,

when that meets the ground,
the weight disappears as well.

You can move your hand away,
let go,

until your right hand and arm is

loosely by your side, relaxing.

When you let go of the past and the future

it's like you're standing in
its place between them

with no weight, no burden.

Relax, you can pick up the past and
future whenever you want

but not now during the meditation.

This is free time, because you deserve it.

We're staying here, opening the door of

your heart, your mind, to this moment

no matter what it is,

because the most important thing is
to be here - right now -

keeping the past and the future
on the ground.

You're in the present moment.

Your peace-o-meter should give a
very low reading now.

And for many meditators,
once they let go

they become aware of their breathing,

one thing which is always moving.

But as you are watching your breath

just imagine, visualize,
as you breathe in,

breathe in peace, or health,

whatever you want to breathe in,

good spiritual peace, health, kindness

As you breathe out,
breathe out, let go,

any attachments, tiredness, worries.

Let your out-breath carry it away

out of your mind, out of your body.

Out, breathe in peace, happiness, health.

Breathing in peace, and feel it come in.

Breathe out - let go.

Breathing in peace,

breathe out - let go.

Breathe in, no controlling.

Breathe out, letting things disappear.

I'm going to be quiet for five minutes,

when I start speaking again it'll be
close to the end of meditation.

Sot it's getting close to the end of the
meditation now.

How do you feel?

What's it like inside?

How peaceful are you and how relaxed is
your body..if you can feel it?

Sometimes the body gets so relaxed that

it just disappears, it is with your mind

and that relaxes, it gets so peaceful,

so free, not a thought in your mind.

How blissful is that..

And also know what works,
what works for you,

because every time you meditate
we learn,

we learn and get better
mindfulness and kindness,

for the feedback until we
become in our own ways

expert in meditation.

I'm now going to ring the gong
three times.

When the gong finishes sounding
for the third time

please come out from the meditation.

[gong 1]

[gong 2]

[gong 3]

It's nice..
yeah..