3 Overcoming thinking - Ajahn Brahm

very good welcome to the second day full day at Club Med serpentine blues club meditation and I hope you enjoy the it is club meet somebody actually once showed me the schedule they have you know the other Club meets the car better train Ian and I couldn't believe how stressful it was people on holiday and they have to get up early morning for yoga and then they have their breakfast and then they have scuba diving and then they have all these other activities throughout the day and then after dinner they have a night club and they must get so tired after one day at Club Med so they're supposed to be holiday for goodness sake why do people have to have so much activity to enjoy themselves and so this is the real Club Med the club meditation where you can really get away from it all instead of just getting Wars the same whenever you go on holiday and so here we're trying to get away from whatever this thing is it all they have a bit of peace and quiet and to be able to relax so you've got your nice beds you've got your nice food you've got your entertainment in the evening care of ajahn Brahm the comedian and all this other sort of stuff and it does mean you can learn how to relax and be peaceful and quiet and a lot of times you know that it happens naturally now sometimes people think that they are doing the meditation they got to work hard get up early do this and do that we know the truth of it is it just happens quite naturally that especially you know you got some monks and nuns meditating here they tend to drag you along with them into peace and quiet because this is old story from the time of the Buddhist one of my favorite stories of this elephant and his elephant was a really nice elephant he belonged to the king now in those days elephants were like yo Mercedes or BMW you know that's what you used to travel around the place with so if you had a really good elephant that was lightening or having like a Ferrari car or something somewhat no your prized vehicle and said it's really nice elephant and always be very obedient and very compliant until one day the elephant started getting a bit cranky they did wouldn't do you know what he was told I would not sort of go where he was asked to go and start to really mess around just like when the elephant keeper was cleaning up you know behind the elephant that's when the elephant would poo all over the elephant keeping if you seen how much an elephant poos that's a lot of poo ah so the people looking after the elephants or the elephant must be sick it must have some sort of virus or something that it's misbehaving it's not its usual character and they took the elephant doctor there so it was a girl anything they took the elephant doctor there and they tried everything and nothing worked and then they maybe thought it was the elephant equivalent of menopause you know what it is like sometimes and it would then edifis that have rhythm and it was just they couldn't figure out what was wrong with this elephant and so in the end code of this story the buddha's previous life he was a minister and he said i'll check this out so what he did was actually go to the elephant store and just stay there overnight trying to find out what's going on in the middle of the night he was woken up the minister there was some sort of weird sound behind the elephant stall in the middle of the night now if you woke up in the middle of the night and you heared weird sounds from behind your cottage would you go outside to check or would you hide under your blankets number one don't have anything to fear round here i jumper arms here so you're perfectly safe guaranteed money-back guarantee and you don't pay any money anyway except the deposit which is a donation but you can get that back if you really want to but you're perfectly safe so he decided to go and check it out so he crept round the back of the elephant store and what he found there there was a gang you know these bad people know robbing and and extorting money from others they were meeting that every evening because it was quiet to plan all the stuff they were going to do that evening and he realized the cause of the elephants problems because the elephant was actually picking up on what they call the bad vibes of these these crooks and gangsters even though the elephant couldn't understand know the English or whatever language they were saying stay to pick up sort of the the character of these bad people and night after night after night the elephant had picked up this bad character and had started to become a bad elephant himself or herself and the minister just had all those gangsters arrested the next night and told the king and he replaced them with monks so the monks had to meet there every evening know do some meditation a bit of chanting discussing of abdominal and stuff like that and after a few days the elephant came back to his normal character just because of the good influence of others and that's a very powerful story which the Buddha said is a story about the nature of the mind psychology if you hang around and associate with peaceful people you become peaceful yourself no matter what happens is one of the reasons why people like coming to stay at Buddhist monasteries or nunneries because now they sort of they link into the peaceful and kind energies of the monks and nuns and so you come and stay in the monastery and you get calm and more peaceful or more kind but the problem is is when you come and stay with us we get more agitation please don't build too many guest quarters a damansara but anyway we're gonna thank you it's a nice peaceful state so a lot of time just being here and getting off on the atmosphere that is sometimes more important and all the effort and the tricks of the trade which you do you just you get drawn into peacefulness and quietness just because of the nature of the place and the nature what people are doing here so first thing to talk about today is look you don't have to worry you're going to get peaceful anyway whether you like it or not we do like it it's very wonderful but the next thing I wanted to talk about is yeah you know that it's nice for you to think you're doing something and so in order for you to have the impression you're doing something I give these talks and they're what and the talk I'm going to give today's I mentioned this yesterday just I was flagged I was going to talk about thinking and how we can overcome what probably the biggest problem in people's meditation you know how to overcome transcend this moment is always thinking and sometimes people keep telling me oh they can't meditate I'm always thinking thinking thinking thinking about something thinking about anything but I'm always thinking and I can't stop thinking and that becomes one of the biggest obstacles to being a meditator they cannot stop thinking but the truth of the matter is it's very easy to stop thinking and a lot of people do it quite naturally very often they stop thinking and there is a classic example a demonstration which I love doing on every retreat to show you how easy it is to stop thinking and what it feels like when you stop thinking because at least you can recognize yes it is possible I can do it for many people that is an amazing to realize yes they can stop thinking it is possible and they've actually experienced it and the the little our demonstration is to ask you that when I am speaking to also be aware of the reaction to my words inside your mind so don't just listen to what I'm saying also to listen to just what it does to you inside your mind because as I am speaking it's always your mindful inside a little bit as I am speaking you will begin to notice something strange that between my words there are long gaps in those spaces between my words what was happening in your mind you assignment you are aware but not a thought was going on in your mind you can do it and this is what it feels like being aware hearing the sounds of the birds without a thought going on in your head easy isn't it now just carry on for another two hours now now you know what silence is and how beautiful it feels now we have to try and understand why is it that we keep destroying this silence with all these thoughts and you realize you're all old enough now to realize the 99% and I'm being quite generous 99% of your thoughts a total rubbish is one of the reasons why that people come and ask me and John Baum you've been a monk for many years you got good meditation people really respect you can you read minds and my answer is if I could I wouldn't read yours if you're buyed really worth reading is it sort of a great work of art or is it just one of these really pulp fiction novels you get in sort of in a secondhand shot which nobody else wants to even open up the front cover of I think you know your mind we're not interested there's this rubbish straws which have a bit abide and that's a good thing to remember because one of the first important means of overcoming your thoughts is realizing just how what a waste of time they are you don't get wisdom through thinking if you think you don't get wisdom you get headache look wisdom and solving problems now you've all got problems to solve decisions to make in your life I have that bodhinyana monastery jhana grow nuns monastery and all these other places over eastern old places I got to make decisions for but I learned a long time ago don't think to find a solution because all really the great answers of life even the great answers to your worldly problems come in silence that is where the greatest answers come from and the great example of that and I always like telling anecdotes to flesh out these these methods and to show they actually do work if any of you go walking down by the lake over there in that lower garden there is a tree over there a Bodhi tree dedicated to nobody nut you know she died a long time ago but she was a senior social worker and I don't mind telling stories now that people are dead because I sometimes get upset at me when I say about the stories when they were alive they're just like funny stories I tell stories about myself when I'm still alive another funny and just make people laugh I don't care I'm not embarrassed by this particular girl she was a senior social worker in Perth and one of her jobs no she told me that she had to make these decisions when maybe one of the parents was single and maybe a drug addict should I take the children into care should I separate a mother from her children because a mother is incapable looking after them this is a tough decision to make because if you keep the children with their parents and her parents are just aren't capable you know it hurts a child to be separated from their parents but then it harms a children to be with their parents and such a very heart-wrenching decision someone has to make it and she was a one who had to make those decisions so in a really really high-stress job even made a mistake she destroyed a life but poor kid a notion there kept her with the parents and sometimes the parents would kill the kid so it was a very very tough decision she had to make so she booked into coming on one of the retreats came late as usual no high-stress jobs she said that she was trying to tie up all the loose ends and of course you know you can't tie up all the loose ends there's too many of them so she did as much as she could right that's the level o'clock in the evening I'm going to the retreat so he know she arrives really late midnight or something and she has been following my teaching for a long time she knew what to do and now she rested for the first couple of days and then just got into a meditation slowly she didn't sort of go for broke the first few days she relaxes I keep telling you to do and I just know have a nice walk so I will sit outside and have a cup of tea explore the grounds walk over to Bowden yharnam monastery when you sort of you get into the the quietness and the peace then your mind will want to meditate you don't have to force it don't fight it for goodness sake so she did that after a few days she settled down and then she started getting into our meditation and when she came want the interviews towards the end of the retreat she that was amazing the experience she had she got really peaceful very quiet she totally forgot about all the problems she had at work days ago and she was nice and peaceful and quiet and then from within that silence all these solutions came to the problem she had at work she did she didn't think about it they just came straight up to her they bubbled up from who knows where and she immediately opened her eyes got out a piece of paper and wrote them down know so that when she went back to work in a few days time she could actually action those great ideas and when she came to me she said those are such brilliant solutions I could not have thought those solutions I had to just be quiet and let the solutions come to me and I thought what a wise woman that was that is how you find solutions to many of the problems you face in life that's how I find solutions two problems which know as manager of buddhist organization the CMO the chief monk officer of virginia no modesty it would never so where you find sort of solutions by not thinking about getting nice and peaceful then ideas come up and they're really good ideas when they come from the silence I trust that so much now it's a really really difficult decision I've got to make a decision about something and it's really crucial I make sure I stop thinking about it and then later on answers come try that and you'll find how effective it is and how it means you can have no stress and still be a highly effective in whatever career you're following now I mention this because it means that you don't need to think a lot of times people say but I've got to work out this answer it's important for my family for my career for my business for my monastery I've got to work this out if it's really important then shut up and be sited and then the greatest ideas they come to you you can't think them out and this is one of the reasons why this is one of my famous demonstrations what is this does anyone know you are now to speak don't need noble silence now what is this which I am holding up tell me something about it would okay that's a start it's wood what else can you say about it use hit a bell that's his function yes anything else tell me some more about this like in a test of school you going to describe what this is what is it yeah what else it's more than is yeah you said it cylindrical yes what else can you see here some of you've done this with me before what happens is when you start seeing about it you give it a name I won't you've given it a name a lot of people think they finish with it there's a stick for banging the Bell nothing that's all it is and because they think that's all it is they don't go any further it's much more than a stick for banging the Bell it's also as much if you think it's only a stick for back of the barrel there's other uses which you can have even imagine so what happens is when we start looking at something we have names for it that's what was called thoughts it's cylindrical yes wooden is brow it's carved at the end and it's light or whatever you think it is those are all the names what's very interesting exercise is to look at something like this bit of wood until you've exhausted all your names and you can't think of any other name to call this but you can still see more and more and more what's happening inside this piece of wood you know the thoughts are so superficial who's this person holding up the piece of wood it's a John Brown is it who is algebra anyway so sometimes you give it a name we think we know it but he don't their names are what cover up the truth it's not what we feel the truth you had to get underneath the thoughts underneath the names to find out what this actually is I told people recently when I was teaching a retreat in Penang that when I was at university there was many societies I joined and one was the Astronomical Society always love stuff like that and I had learned the names of the stars and the constellations that nowhere there was a galaxy or supernova and I knew all those words when I went to Thailand and I saw this guy at night I couldn't see the Stars anymore what I could see with the names and everyone else was saying how beautiful it was and I couldn't see the beauty all I could see was like little labels next to every star and it took me years you know I had to do this deliberately to forget the names to an active it was that of will so now I can look at this mm I don't know which one is which and I can see how beautiful they are how often is it the names obstruct the beauty they hide the truth which is one of the reasons all our thoughts are just playing with names with words with descriptions Gong Bona ajahn brahm an Alpha Centauri now when you can stop all those names the thoughts stop and you can start to see things again you can appreciate the beauty of the forest you don't have to know what species is which you can just enjoy it now this is one of the reasons why that I'd be marketing the importance of silence overthinking if you want to appreciate things if you want to see deeply into things or find answers the problems in life don't assume that you'll get this we're seeking many people who have trained they're thought to be far sharper more powerful them I thought would ever be and the great intellects the great philosophers now you may have met some of them and they are totally stupid got no understanding at all about life the great thinkers but they're not wise so here we're going to try and be silent instead of thinking our way through problems so what how do we do that it's not that hard first of all we take away the importance of thinking so when it a thought comes oh that's not important I think about that tomorrow oh that's not really going to get me anywhere so first of all please lessen the value of thoughts and increase the value in silence because whatever you find valuable is what you will keep if you had sort of or if someone was giving me a thousand dollar donation and they gave it to Dania to keep until we can text take it into town I hope she would after that I hope you wouldn't just leave it hanging around anywhere for anybody to take if it's really valuable she should look after it because it's valuable it supporters a thousand bucks now what's more important silence for a thousand dollars when you really value silence you never put it away somewhere and lose it and don't forget where it was you'd look about it like I was saying I can other-- and her child I've never known a mother take her baby into the shopping mill leave it in some shop and go home so God would never leave the baby now was it in the Baker's was in the bank where did I leave my baby they wouldn't do that would they because the baby is so valuable for them that they would always look after it and keep it and they wouldn't lose it if you can look at silence like your baby caring for it you wouldn't drop it you wouldn't lose it it will be there with you all the time why because it's valuable and precious for you so number one convince yourself that silence is really valuable but even so people just can't stop thinking and I was wondering why is it that you know even though that silence is just so gorgeous it's so beautiful and it's so it's so pregnant with all sorts of wisdoms it's great for your health to get so many benefits with the silence why is it the people keep destroying the silence now you all notice how quiet places like this are and I was surprised when I first came to Australia and came to this quiet forests I would always walk in his forests you know in Australia with reverence and respect to the silence I wouldn't like to destroy and if I was with anyone I'd always whisper to them because I didn't want to destroy the silence but when I saw some other special young people come into the forest they wouldn't just talk in an ordinary voice they would actually talk in a loud voice no actually shouting in the silence until I realized the reason they're doing this they were afraid of the silence because silence can be very scary at times so after a while if you want to enjoy the silence of your mind you got to face that fear of silence leave it alone you don't need to control it it is perfectly safe and embracing I think one of the reasons why it's scary is because it's incredibly powerful it empowers your body it empowers your mind it empowers your wisdom and empowers your health and quite naturally we're afraid of things which are more powerful than us even if they are kind of benevolent still we're afraid of them because they're big so if you can recognize that silence is very powerful but it's also very benevolent and friendly to you then you can overcome your fear to stay with the silence a little bit longer until you can get so used to the silence you don't need to destroy it anymore so the silence can stay with you you just don't need to think it stays with you quiet and the other reason why we think too much and it's also the reason why many of you fall asleep when you're meditating even though you've had enough sleep already because no it's to two days already now you should have had God is getting close to topping up your sleep requirements but you'll find the next day the day after which you feel still felt get sleepy when you're meditating and it's not physical tiredness it's again boredom I know what boredom really is what boredom really is now is your mind is trying to run away from you that's why we think any think to run away and this is where I come to my little simile which I developed over a few years of the coffee shop the simile the coffee shop goes like this now those of you have come to every retreat you are going to hear the same story again and again and again until you understand it when you understand it you don't need to come to a retreat anymore you become enlightened so your penance for coming every time is to hear the speech but so anyway this is a coffee-shop simile someone gives you a chord in the afternoon and say are you free this afternoon come from a cup of coffee it's okay I'm free this afternoon and then they tell you we are going to go to Gloria Jean's not dome not coffee bean not Starbucks we're going to go to Gloria Jean's because I like Gloria Jean's I know you don't like Gloria Jean's by the way that this should be sponsored by Gloria Jean's I expect a free cup of coffee the next time I go there for sponsoring Gloria Jean's coffee shops and I should get sponsorship as a monk you know because I know this is actually recorded and you do go sort of online overseas and many people actually listen to my talks how many the talks in nollamara how many people actually download them it's not thirty forty thousand that's some number so imagine we can get sponsorship I could sort of open up my robe and underneath the road was really good Gloria Jean's we can make a lot of money for the pudding society that way you can finish off the dama seven as well she nowhere is a talk a job mom only uses Gillette razor blades the possibilities are endless anyway so she said I want to go to Glory jeans I don't want to go to those other coffee shops because I don't like them and you are going to have a latte not a cappuccino because I know you just know like your cappuccinos but I like that taste and you're going to have one too and you're not going to have one of those muffins those blueberry namby-pamby muffins you're going to have a Anzac business biscuit because it's like exactly suit so we're going to have a biscuit and that's what you're going to win we're not going to sit out in the front where you like City I'm going to sit in the back we're not going to talk about your stupid Buddhism we're going to talk about politics oh that I like talking about politics we're going to stay there for an hour and a half because that's how much time I have but I now not two hours one hour and a half okay now if someone invited you for a cup of coffee and they told you where you're going to go what coffee you're going to drink what are you going to eat what you're going to talk about where you're going to sit and for how long would you want to go with them course not you make up some excuse I just remembered oh I'm terribly sorry I've got to go to the dentist this often and it slipped my mind I'm terribly sorry anything to get out of going with such a control freak and so you get out of that and a few minutes later you get a call from somebody else so how you feed this afternoon and you say now I've got to go the dentist and so I'll such a shame now that coffee shop you keep on liking now I'd like to try that and you say those lattes are that coffee shop er to die for I don't really like that is but you know you praise them so much maybe I like to have one as well and you know you want to always talking about this Buddhism and meditation business now maybe they can tell me some more about Buddhism and we can sit wherever however long you want to sit if someone is kind to you like that and interested in what you're interested in you probably say hang on I just cancel the dentist's appointment I'm coming you'd want to go with them because they're kind and they're interested in what you're interested in and you go and stay there and you spend all afternoon there three four or five hours because you're hanging out with a good friend now hopefully you under can understand that similarly if you haven't heard it before if you heard it before it's reinforcing something very important you sit down on your your mat or on your chair and you tell your mind like mine we are now going to watch the breath none of the loving-kindness meditation not going to do we pass no within this weeping you're going to watch the breath because that's what I want you to watch and you're going to sit there for one hour not half an hour not an hour and a half one hour and you're going to sit on the floor not on the chair because I want you to learn how to sit on the floor and you're not going to wander around anywhere okay because I want you to stay with a breath okay and of course when your mind hears that you know so I'm really busy I got to go I've got got all this important thing I got to think about anything to get away from you now that is one of the main reasons why people have a restless mind because your mind is trying to escape from you if it can't escape through thinking you will escape through sleepiness all of that first of all sleepiness is because you are really tired but there once a tiredness is over the boredom is just trying to escape from yourself because you haven't got a good relationship with your mind you and your mind will just be fighting each other for far too long so that's where it's good to be kind when you're kind or you're saying there it's ok thoughts if you want to think yeah you can think off you go have a nice time you don't control your mind you're kind to it and if anyone has problems with restlessness all the tiredness in the next seven days try this very powerful method ask your mind what do you want to do mind not what I want you to do but mind what do you want to do and if your mind says how I just want to think about you know business fine please go ahead mind if I say I want to think of romantic fantasies yes go ahead and night whatever you want to do then you will find something amazing happens it's like reverse psychology if you are kind to your mind you might go thinking about something for a few minutes and then it'll come back to you say why thank you so much how what do you want to do is it all right mind if we can just maybe watch the breath for a few minutes you know the air okay you are nice to me I will be nice to you it's just the relationship problem that's what it is if so sometimes I ask people to do this now yeah you don't know what to do ask your mind mind what you want to do and sometimes I want to go for a walk so you take your mind for a walk in the grounds and I'm going to come back what do you want to do now I like a cup of juice so give yourself a cup of juice then your ask your mind what you want to do now I said no actually I want to meditate now and if you are working with your mind you find it's never Restless you're working with it rather than against it and you find you have far more time on your cushion or on the walking path if you work with your mind and you have that experience of that second woman who goes to the coffee shop with their best friend and you're sitting down on your meditation cushion and imagine hey let's meditate together and you meditate for five hours geez five hours I can only do half an hour how many times you've been with a good friend and time just flies past and you don't notice a time passing I give you talk without at that time already that's actually what happens with that friendliness to your own mind so don't own the mind your mind is not a slave it's not a maid you can boss her out because you've been bossing it around for too long that is why keeps running away from you with restlessness fantasies sleepiness these are all ways of escaping escaping from what or from whom escaping from you that's what it is so please admit it and when you're kind your mind doesn't want to escape from you at all it hangs out with you and it loves your company which means it stays hours you spend together no restlessness no sleepiness having a wonderful time together that is a meaning of that simile so I found that my old story fifth year as a monk over in Thailand six here I found the perfect monastery I've never found a more perfect monastery than this number one it was up in the north of Thailand it had good temperature for a change now really nice and cool now when Danny you said yesterday is it too cool in this hall in the evening time should I turn up the heater and I said look I was born in England my like cold it's never cold enough for me I like cold it's really nice cold so I said you don't need to do that I'm very very happy being cold so this was up in the mountains in the north of town at last it was a cool place I could meditate it and number two for an Englishman it was smack bang in the middle of a tea plantation now that was like heaven for me I had much tea as I could ever want to drink as an Englishman all for free really good stuff as well because they got the best for me in a middle of this big tea plantation had caves and everything so to me and it was a I didn't know why it was abandoned there's no monks staying there when I asked some villagers this is perfect why aren't there any monks staying here and I remember the answer they gave me so it was too quiet there's really quite interesting because a lot of bugs they like to do things and for me now I wanted it quiet and it was abandoned because it was too quiet and I'd loved that place I was there heaven for me I must mention the the traffic problem it was a traffic problem there there was a road just you could see it from the monastery one car a week he would come out at the Bing up the post and no any other sort of stuff and then take down some of the produce do know get some bit of money for the villages and you have to be the right time looking in the right direction to be able to see the traffic problem and then one of amazing so paradise that was one car no aircraft or anything so that was paradise for me and so I thought wow this is it I can have a really lovely time and it was a lovely time for the first week or two and then I started thinking and I was only a young man at the time so you know I didn't really know how to deal with this you know what I did when I started thinking I started to try and stop the thoughts come and stop it what's the best come on what your bliss and that just made the thoughts worse and worse and worse and they kept going faster and stronger and more weird and soon I was starting to think I don't mind telling the story I started to think of old girlfriends I wonder if she's still available now shut up a job rub your back wonder where she is now Oh what's your breath and all these really weird force now I like being a bug but you know like you want to meditate but still these thoughts come in and you know they're uninvited and get out of here and they come in even stronger you know what I mean now you're trying to get rid of those thoughts which come into your mind all sorts of stupid ones but you know you can't get rid of them and I was fighting and fighting and fighting until I just got exhausted and he was so frustrated now if ever you come across that frustration during this retreat remember this is what you're supposed to do but I just couldn't stand it I didn't know what to do I just could not get these stupid thoughts out of my head so I went to there's no other monk there to talk to I was too embarrassed to talk to the lay people about what I was thinking so I went into the shrine about the Buddha statue I just asked for some sort of inspiration and the inspiration came and it was do a deal make it make an agreement and the agreement was this that I would meditate on my breath you know for most of the day but I would give myself a time like a naughty monk time 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. every afternoon I could think whatever I wanted I was not going to try and stop it or criticize it sexual fantasies romance anything I would let happen from 3 to 4 so I thought okay mind if you want to do that theta 4 is your your your naughty time if you want to call it that whatever you want to think about you can think about it and I won't stop you I would let you let it happen I I promise to the Buddha I won't stop it from 3 to 4 the rest of the time you behave now you know that sound is so reasonable and logical to me at the time and I tried that you know it was just still such a fight you know trying to sort of keep these thoughts out and so when it got to 3 o'clock I was really tired so I just learnt against the wall you know and put my feet out because they were just aching and I said right now I'm going to keep my bargain mine for the next hour you can think anything you want and I won't try and stop you at all the weirdest sexual fantasies old girlfriends whatever you want to think about off you go and for the next hour no joke no exaggeration the next hour I washed every breath without missing one I couldn't believe it now I give you permission to think fantasies or whatever I know what you do is watch your breath but that taught me a great lesson the fighting that was what was feeding those fantasies and thoughts trying to get rid of them was giving them more power and the sooner okay let them go you can do whatever you like I love you mind you can do whatever you like and then the mind actually stayed with me for one whole hour no problem at all of course that's not what I expected but that's how you learn how this mind works if you are kind and friendly to your mind instead of trying to control it and being cite some US Marine boot camp master to your mind try to Train it come on sit up straight come on stop moving gilad there's push your legs properly put your leg back have you ever been to retreats like that I used to go to a treats like that I went to this retreat once in the Zen monastery where the guy came around in the back with a stick that was that was scary that was personally really early for Sunday morning about five o'clock in the morning and I was only a student you know you know young people are not genetically wired to get up that time in the morning and this guy came in behind with a stick and anybody who was nodding whack ah they that the teacher told you doesn't really hurt it just wakes you up yeah sure I didn't believe it at all but I never got wet because you know I've always had really good karma in my life I've always been very lucky person because no what happened was the guy sitting next to me got wet and that was enough for me but right I was not gonna but at all that really sadly like it hurt but that sort of stuff this that's not wisdom at all that's just total control and out of fear so instead of doing that I don't control my mind I'm kind to my mind now we love each other very much you know we hang out together for hours having wonderful times that is how you overcome thinking compassion and kindness softens the mind gets you a good relationship so you can hang out together you don't need to think as most of you you're thinking just about all of it is just escaping and you always I say what am i escaping from escaping from you because you know you haven't understood who you are you don't really like yourself you're always afraid of you who you think you are you always been told ever since you were a kid you're not good enough you're not beautiful enough you're not clever enough you're not tough enough if you're a kid you're not rich enough you're not something and when you take all these boxes you know you can go to Cambridge and you have girlfriends you still just a few more boxes you're not enough yet and it's endless trying to tick the boxes to be good enough now your meditator okay you've got your business is successful you've got a nice family you know you're happy and now meditation not good enough for the ease come on you're good enough I give you permission to say to yourself you're a good enough meditator and why don't you know you're good enough then meditation happens you're at peace with yourself when you're pleased with yourself you have peace when you have peace you don't need to think you don't need to think isn't that nice a beautiful silence so the next thing which happens I want to say about thinking once you get to know the silence it becomes so attractive you get hot this light you know people tell me with heroin or with anything else which is no very very addictive and attractive silence is addictive right then it is so nice your mind remembers it recalls it the next time is any bit of silence your mind leaps to it and just hold on to it and doesn't let it go you become very very protective of your inner silence and you get to love it now sometimes people say isn't that attachment yes of course it is attachment it's good to be attached to some things as I keep telling people if you are on the back of a motorbike please be attached do not let go ah further sometimes it's good to be attached and this is one of the good things to be attached to to silence because what you're really doing you're getting attached to this vehicle of silence which is going to take in two incredible beautiful happy states of meditation going to give you immense wisdom great good health and all these amazing gifts of no meditative life all comes when you get attached to the silence of the mind so doing know today in the next days when silence comes don't be afraid of it don't try and destroy it guard it it's like a precious jewel until you realize it really is something fantastic all the wisdom all the great insights or the great happiness is that's where they come from from the silence of the mind and it's always there for you and after a while if you're kind to the mind the mind will share with you it's silence and you'll hang out together for a long time with no effort at all it's like a thought comes they're not interested you're hanging out with the silence just like your husband maybe watching the soccer match you say you know dinner's ready later you're enjoying what you what's happening and it's more important and that means the silence stays with you and you get this incredible wonderful stage of meditation silence and you find yes I can actually meditate I can be silent now I know how to do it to be friends with your mind another control freak that is the key so again if anything is happening today just wash yourself mind what you want to do if mind says yeah I want to go to bed yes okay off you go take a bigger risk as the mountains like a shower but you had one ten minutes ago what the heck have a shower it's not against the rules so that means you're actually working with your mind rather than against it and after a while when you're friends with your mind your mind offense with you you can hang out and you're silent you don't need to escape anymore so there we go that's what about thinking and how to stop it so have a wonderful time now we have our interview times if you've got other whole list now must stay with the interviews you

Channel: BSWA Retreats 2011-15 & Media

Views: 34,594

Rating: 4.9100347 out of 5

Keywords: Ajahn, Brahm, retreats, video, talks, questions, and, answers

Id: nlB3uksRV8M

Length: 51min 15sec (3075 seconds)

Published: Sat May 10 2014