Guided Meditation with Ajahn Brahm (20071115)

[00:00:01] - [Speaker 0]
So you get yourselves comfortable today. Here's another meditation afternoon for those who've meditated before. If you come here to for the beginners introduction to meditation class, Actually, think I recognize everybody here. You're all the old timers. But if you come for the introduction to meditation class, that is the room on my right.

[00:00:26] - [Speaker 0]
This is for those who've meditated before because we do about a forty forty five minute meditation later on. And please make sure your mobile phones are turned off, so it's nice and quiet. But even though we ask people to do this and we turn off the mobile phone, there's always a dog which barks or there is somebody starts their lawnmower or some kids start their radios or CD players or whatever. There's always noise no matter where you go. So it's important to be able to learn how to deal with the distractions which happen in meditation from time to time.

[00:01:05] - [Speaker 0]
And the most important thing with distractions is usually that we take that distraction, we give it an importance which it does not deserve. Whatever you value and think is important, take center place in the screen that is showing attention field of attention. So if you can imagine that English phrase having a field of attention. Whatever you value actually takes center stage. And by saying value, whatever is the most important.

[00:01:36] - [Speaker 0]
So if you do hear the sound of sort of a dog barking or the sound of somebody moving or whatever, If you really think that's important, if that becomes a problem, it becomes a center of your field of attention, that's what you really focus on and everything else falls away, which means you lose your way in meditation. By giving it value, it has become a distraction. However, if gave it no value at all or gave it limited value, if whatever else you were watching was more important, then you wouldn't hardly hear the sound of the dog. And just saying this to a couple last night, he was saying, oh, his mind was so restless, he couldn't focus on his breath when he meditated. And because he was a Sri Lankan, I said to his wife, does he like watching the cricket?

[00:02:26] - [Speaker 0]
And of course, it was just a pretty sort of good gamble that he does because most Sri Lankans love the cricket. And so he said, yeah, he's always watching that cricket. And he said, when you go and talk to him during the middle of the game, does he pay you any attention? And she glared at him and said, no. And the reason is because once you're watching that cricket, you're just so absorbed in what's happening, you give that so much value.

[00:02:53] - [Speaker 0]
You just can't hear your wife, or you can't hear the telephone ring, you can't hear the dog bark, when you're really engrossed in that cricket match. Now, that was just an example of what we mean by focusing and how to overcome distractions in one's meditation. If you were meditating, you had enough focus, the same degree of focus as you do when you're, say, watching your favorite movie or a football match or whatever else you like to watch on that TV. If you had the same amount of attention and involvement in what you were doing, then you just wouldn't hear the dog, you wouldn't hear the neighbors, you wouldn't hear anything. In fact, if you were really involved with the meditation, you wouldn't even feel the aches and pains in your body.

[00:03:43] - [Speaker 0]
So what we're saying here is that one of the ways to focus in meditation is to give the object of meditation great value and take away the value from other things. So what does that mean in practice? It means we start meditating and, you know, you can what I have been doing recently is just to do a quick body sweep before you even start on present moment awareness and give that value. This is important, really. You want to do this.

[00:04:14] - [Speaker 0]
You have to do this. And if you do that body sweep meditation, feeling the sensations in your body and you really think that's important, you'll find you won't hear anything else. You know, that you won't get distracted. You only get distracted if the source of the distraction gets more value than what you were doing beforehand. So you put value into this.

[00:04:36] - [Speaker 0]
It's important to relax the whole body. And one of the reasons it does work is because people are very conscious of their physical health these days. And because physical health is important, it's high on the agenda of people, the very fact you're relaxing and dealing with the well-being and health of your body gives it extra importance, gives it high value, so when you're feeling the sensations in the body, it's a high value activity. It's important for you, So you tend not to be distracted by the sounds outside, or you don't be distracted by all the things which you are to think about later on, all your problems and concerns because the body is important. I'll put off those concerns till later on.

[00:05:17] - [Speaker 0]
Your mind doesn't wander because body awareness is given high value. And then when we start to go the deeper stages of meditation, you start to like present moment awareness right now. Hopefully by the time you've done a little body sweep that you really are in the present moment and the present moment has high value for you. It's part of my job to try and market the present moment to say how important it is, how valuable it is. Because if the present moment is very valuable for you, then of course you won't sort of be distracted by the past and the future.

[00:05:53] - [Speaker 0]
Same as the next stage of silence. The only reason why thoughts invade the mind and remain, why you keep on thinking of so many things is because you assume those thoughts are important. You give them a value they don't deserve. So this is really an interesting thought. I must follow this.

[00:06:14] - [Speaker 0]
I might get a solution to my problems. You give thinking far, far too much value. So instead of giving value to the thinking mind, you give value to the quiet mind, the silent mind, which is why I do all these little techniques to try and get you to understand what silence is so you value it. It becomes a high value experience. And when you really value that silence, the thoughts just can't come in.

[00:06:53] - [Speaker 0]
More that you can hear your wife, you know, when, you're watching a movie. No more than you can hear the dog, when you're really reading an important book. When you're really right there, because this thing you're doing is high value, other stuff just fades away. So you give high value to these things. When you go into something like the breath, again, you go to the breath too soon, you say, what's the big deal about the breath?

[00:07:20] - [Speaker 0]
It's just an ordinary thing. It's got no value to you at all. Which is why when people start to watch the breath at the beginning of meditation, maybe they do it for one or two times, then afterwards the thoughts, feelings, aches and pains, conversations happening around them are more important. So that's why you wander off from the breathing. But if you give that, the, sorry, if you give the breath very, very high value, this is really important, then you find it's easy to stay with the breath.

[00:07:51] - [Speaker 0]
That's why people in very difficult situations, if say you're going for an interview, or you've just been told you've got cancer, you're having an operation. Or when it's really important you meditate, you find you can meditate. When the activity is given high value, it's easy to do. So understand this, the value systems which we have in our mind dictate what our mind pays attention to. Not what we want to do, but what we give value to.

[00:08:21] - [Speaker 0]
There you have a good idea of how to stop the mind from missing out on the beautiful, peaceful path of meditation. You give value to what's going to give you peace. So the very beginning, it's important to give value to the body sweeping, to make sure the body is nice and relaxed. Then you give value to the present moment. It's important to be now.

[00:08:43] - [Speaker 0]
Forget about the past. Now is a place where the future is made. Give value to this moment. It's important. Then the present moment will stay.

[00:08:53] - [Speaker 0]
Give value to the silence of the mind. Silence is golden, and gold, the price of gold has gone up, so the newspapers say. So silence is very, very valuable. And you should know that because, gee, we go crazy with how much we have to think about. And just the beauty, the peace, the wonder of silence, it is such a valuable, valuable, valuable thing.

[00:09:16] - [Speaker 0]
So when you give value to it, it will stay with you. And when you start watching the breath, it's important the breath is what feeds you the oxygen which gives you life. It takes out all of the waste products of the respiratory system. And it's also a pathway which has been used for 25 centuries to deep stages of peace, for fulfillment and insight. So when it's really important to you, in other words, you give it value, it's easy to do.

[00:09:50] - [Speaker 0]
So in each stage of meditation, remember to give the object of meditation value, and then you find focusing is so easy. So there's another little trick of how to meditate, how to become enlightened in 12 easy lessons. Well, maybe twelve easy months. Well, maybe twelve easy years or at least 12 easy lifetimes. Being Buddhists and believing in reincarnation, we're very, very patient.

[00:10:21] - [Speaker 0]
So any comments or questions about that before we set off on our journey into inner space. Oh yeah, hi. Okay, well first of all just remember all the thoughts you've been thinking about all your life. They never ever got me anywhere. They usually get me into trouble more than anything else.

[00:10:51] - [Speaker 0]
And they're just so burdensome of having to think about these things. So first of all, see the danger, the negativity, the problem of thought. That's why many people actually come to learn meditating because they know they think too much and it gets them stressed out, some angry and get some crazy. So first of see the negative side of thinking. And it never really gets you into any insight, not any real deep knowledge or wisdom.

[00:11:21] - [Speaker 0]
It's always superficial. And then experience and notice the beauty of, and the peace, the happiness, the silence. Unfortunately, our modern societies, times of silence are very rare. So you forgot how beautiful, how wonderful, how refreshing silence is. Having a moment of peace reminds you from your own experience how silence is just so important.

[00:11:55] - [Speaker 0]
So use that double strategy by undermining the value of thought, by remembering just, you know, what sort ever got you? What's it done for you? Has it really ever given you anything really, really worthwhile? And then counter posing that with what silence has meant for you and how wonderful that has been. Another sort of very fascinating point is that you usually get many more insights, you solve more problems from a place of silence than you ever do through thinking things out.

[00:12:31] - [Speaker 0]
You know what it's like, you've got a problem, something to solve, and you think, think, think. Usually goes around in circles. Don't, you know, sometimes it's promising, you know, it looks like you're getting close to some solution to the problem, but you never really do. But if you're just quiet and silent, trust in that silence, it's amazing just how insights come up. Just like, you know, me on a Friday night, you know, you've got to give another talk.

[00:12:58] - [Speaker 0]
I don't know how many talks I've given here, and they're all put on the recorded. So many of you have heard all these talks, so you've got to try, well, I've got to do something new, different or rearrange something. But I always know that if I start thinking about what I'm going to talk about, it's just a waste of time. So I always like just to make my mind very peaceful and silent. From the side, you get much better insights coming up.

[00:13:24] - [Speaker 0]
So for me, is the best problem solver. Not thinking. So that's why I really value silence. So that's two things here. First of all, see the negative side of thinking and see the positive side of silence.

[00:13:40] - [Speaker 0]
Does that make any sense, John? Okay. So now we can go into the world of the silent mind. So if you're not sitting down already, please sit down, please wiggle about, fidget, scratch, whatever you want to do. Cough.

[00:14:00] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. So you can get into a calm, peaceful, beautiful posture before we begin the meditation. I go once again, and I think you're all here. If anyone's come for the introduction to meditation class, that's the room on my right. We're going to sit now for about forty five minutes.

[00:14:22] - [Speaker 0]
So when you're ready, just close your eyes. And with the eyes closed, bring attention to your body. We'll do a quick body sweep first of all. Start with your toes. How are your toes feeling now?

[00:15:11] - [Speaker 0]
If you like to wiggle them if you can't feel any sensations there, or press them against the floor so you can get a connection between you and that distant part of your body, your toes. Until you can notice a sensation in the furthest part of your body. And once you have awareness of a sensation around your toes, Then send kindness down to your toes. Send compassion, loving kindness. And feel those, that sensation, relax.

[00:15:57] - [Speaker 0]
And have a greater sense of ease. And you'll feel that as the sensation changes subtly. It feels more calm, more relaxed, more open, more soothed. You've added kindness to your awareness of your toes. Then you move up to the foot, sole, the uppers, the bones, the muscles inside your foot.

[00:16:38] - [Speaker 0]
You contact any sensation there. Can you feel anything down there? Once you have contacted the sensation, send loving kindness. May you be at ease. May you be comforted.

[00:16:57] - [Speaker 0]
May you relax. And with that intention of kindness, the result is sensations again change as they begin to tell you that things are relaxing and calming down. And you go around the heel to your ankles. You can go slower if you like, but I'm just going through this reasonably quickly today. Feeling any sensations in the heels and ankles, the back of your feet.

[00:17:41] - [Speaker 0]
When you notice the sensation there, it means you've made contact. Add kindness and relax all the feelings, all the sensations until the feet are like tingling with comfort, with warmth, with ease. The closest description I can give is a feeling when you wake up in the morning after a good night's sleep, cozy and comfortable. And now the whole of the bottom, the whole of your feet feel like that, at ease and rested. As you move your attention inch by inch up the lower leg.

[00:18:31] - [Speaker 0]
Noticing the sensations as you go up the leg. And adding kindness, which is the ingredient which relaxes and soothes and comforts all the muscles, the blood vessels, the bones, the skin in your lower legs. As you're doing this, you're building up your awareness and your ability to relax through kindness. You don't leave that part of the body till you feel it's relaxed to the max. And because this is an important thing which you're doing, you find you do give it value.

[00:19:21] - [Speaker 0]
You find you're focusing on this activity and can hardly hear the noise around you. There's not many thoughts in your mind, because this, relaxing the body, is more valuable. Feel those sensations in the lower leg until you can move up towards the knee. Many people have knee problems. Because we don't give these parts of the body quality attention.

[00:19:59] - [Speaker 0]
Now with your knee, notice any sensations there. Don't try and give the sensation a name. Just feel something around that area. And then send it kindness and care and comfort. Feel the sensations relax.

[00:20:27] - [Speaker 0]
Through the feeling, you can know that part of the body is actually relaxing. Your kind energy is going down to that part of the body, soothing and comforting everything. Stay with the sensations in your knee until they're tingling and warm and fully relaxed. And you start moving up your leg, your upper leg, your thigh. There's so many muscles which do so much work.

[00:21:08] - [Speaker 0]
Are you beginning to sense those sensations? What does it feel like in your legs? In your upper legs? When you contact any type of feeling or sensation, add the kindness, And the whole sensation will show you the muscles, the skin, the bones are all relaxing. Opening out, expanding.

[00:21:44] - [Speaker 0]
Like the thighs are sinking into the softest of cushion of cotton cushions, with no pressure or tension on them at all. If your whole lower legs and upper legs are all relaxed and at ease. Now you've built up your awareness and your kindness to start working on the more important parts of the body as you go up to your bottom, noticing a sensation, being with that feeling, and then being kind to it. Allowing the mind to instruct the muscles how to relax and be more at ease. And you go to your waist.

[00:22:54] - [Speaker 0]
It's not just the area on the outside of the waist. It's all the organs, the colon, other things inside that part of your body. What feelings and sensations can you pick up from your waist area, both at the surface and inside? When you've contacted a sensation, had kindness, metta, Just like a mother looks down on her sick child, the child feels better just because of care. And you find a feedback mechanism where the more care you give to those feelings around your waist, the more you feel relaxed.

[00:23:50] - [Speaker 0]
So the more you add care until you've relaxed so much. That area tingles with comfort. As you stay in that lower part of your torso with mindfulness and kindness, relaxing all the feelings before you move up the body, to your kidneys and liver, the intestines. You move up slowly. You pick up sensations, and you add kindness.

[00:24:40] - [Speaker 0]
It's important that you care for your body. Otherwise, it causes you many sicknesses, much pain and discomfort. Now you're deliberately pausing, contacting any feeling. If you can't contact a feeling, you can almost imagine something there. And once those lines of communication have been made, then you can be kind.

[00:25:14] - [Speaker 0]
Be soft. Be gentle. Wishing that part of your body ease, comfort, and health. You can feel that part of the body again start to relax and be at ease. You don't have to do this just because you're sick.

[00:25:43] - [Speaker 0]
Even when those organs are healthy, they still benefit from kind attention. We move further up the body, past the lungs and the heart. Noticing any sensations there. Adding the kindness until you learn how to relax, to relax a specific part of the body. And you feel it relaxing.

[00:26:24] - [Speaker 0]
You feel the sensations become more peaceful, more calm, more easy. You recognize what relaxation feels like. And you pause there, enjoying the feeling of comfort in your body. It is important. It brings you health.

[00:27:06] - [Speaker 0]
Move up the attention to the shoulders. Can you notice any feelings in the shoulders? Whatever sensations you notice there, add compassion. Feel everything relax. Everything relax.

[00:27:29] - [Speaker 0]
Come to deeper sense of ease. You move down your arms. Your upper arms first of all. Don't go too quickly. Can you feel any sensations in your upper arms?

[00:27:45] - [Speaker 0]
After a while you get good at this. Picking up sensations where you hardly ever thought any feelings were. Noticing those feelings, sensations, harming them by caring for them. And even places like your upper arms which you think are not important, relax and feel at ease. And your elbows should go down your arms.

[00:28:20] - [Speaker 0]
After a while of practice, you can feel the sensation, which is located around the elbow area. You have to notice the sensation first before you can do anything. Once you have the sensation, you have a measure of comfort. And you notice by just a small amount of care and kindness, that comfort grows deeper, more ease, more peace. So go to your lower forearms.

[00:29:01] - [Speaker 0]
Feel the sensation, sir. Comfort them, care for them. Until the lower part of your arms feels so nice, so warm, so cozy. Until you go to your hands and your fingers. There's so many nerve endings there, it's so easy to pick up feelings and sensations around your hands and fingers.

[00:29:35] - [Speaker 0]
Now you've made a bridge between your mind and that part of your body. Along that bridge, over that bridge, send kindness. My hands, my fingers, I wish you well-being. And feel those sensations relax. Feel the ease and comfort as you learn how to relax these parts of the body.

[00:30:15] - [Speaker 0]
You go up, back up to the shoulders. There's a great seat of tension there. So notice sensations there. Having noticed the sensation for a few seconds, send kindness to those muscles once more. Till the whole upper body and arms feel so comfortable.

[00:30:44] - [Speaker 0]
You relax them all. And then you go up your neck. You may have an irritation in your throat from a cough or soreness or whatever. Whatever sensation, even if it's unpleasant sensation, stay with it. Be kind to it.

[00:31:08] - [Speaker 0]
And the chances are it will relax. With mindfulness and kindness, you learned what relaxation is and how it happens. I like to expand those sensations. Having a bit of an itch on my throat right now. I expand it.

[00:31:43] - [Speaker 0]
And the bigger it gets, the less irritating it feels. It's like evaporating a drop of water, expanding it until it can hardly be seen. When it's concentrated at a point, that's when it's hard and a problem. In moving up to your face, What sensations can you pick up around your eyes and your mouth and nose? Add kindness to those feelings so your whole facial muscles all relax.

[00:32:41] - [Speaker 0]
And see how relaxed those muscles can become and what that feels like. Now you can go inside to your brain. Apparently the brain has no sensations, but just imagine them. Imagine a feeling in your brain. And calm that feeling down.

[00:33:19] - [Speaker 0]
Add kindness because your brain works so hard. And you just give this beautiful compassionate energy to your brain. You feel a greater sense of mental relaxation. Now feel your whole body completely relaxed as much as possible. Feel it tingling at ease.

[00:34:04] - [Speaker 0]
Through this exercise, not only have you relaxed the body, you've also learned how to focus in the present moment. Learn how to not be so caught up with your thinking mind. You're just with this body and its feelings. Now don't give importance to the body. Now your importance is just with this present moment, whether it's a sound, a feeling in the body.

[00:34:42] - [Speaker 0]
Whatever's happening now, contact it with your mindfulness so you know this moment. And then send kindness to it. Be kind to whatever you're experiencing now so the experiencing of now relaxes and becomes comfortable. Just being in the present moment and being kind to this moment, valuing the importance of now. And also value the importance of silence.

[00:39:37] - [Speaker 0]
You don't need to think. Instead, notice the space between your thoughts. Recognize it. Be familiar until you're at ease within with no thinking, with no words. Sending kindness to the silence, giving in the importance.

[00:43:09] - [Speaker 0]
When you're ready, you can pick up your breathing. Watch the feeling which tells you the breath is going in or the feeling which tells you the breath is going out. You contact the feeling of the breath. And once you've contacted that feeling, add kindness, add metta, So the feeling of the breath relaxes the same way you relax your body. How do you feel now towards the end of the meditation period?

[01:00:14] - [Speaker 0]
How does a meditation work today? This is a time to review all that's happened, especially to know what worked and what it feels like, to have a degree of peace, freedom, and kindness inside your heart. I'm now going to ring the gong three times. Please listen to every sound from the gong, and only when the last ringing of the gong fades away, only then come out from your meditation. Yes.

[01:01:58] - [Speaker 0]
Here we go. So every Saturday afternoon, and add something more, a little bit different. So that when you go home and meditate at home by yourself, there are a few more little techniques, a few more tricks of the trade, a few more different ways of adding and enhancing to your repertoire of meditative skills. So you just become like this person who goes to training to enhance their skills so they become much better at their job. But here, the job is actually learning how to relax.

[01:02:46] - [Speaker 0]
First, relax the body and using the similar skills to relax the mind. Even little things like learning how to be kind to your breath, adding that kindness makes a huge difference. So the breath starts to feel really nice and peaceful. And when it becomes peaceful, it's easier to give it value. Because what's nice, what's enjoyable, is obviously has an intrinsic value.

[01:03:14] - [Speaker 0]
And after much meditation, when you learn just how important meditation is, how just a few moments of peace is not a waste of time, but is an investment. It's resting the brain, resting the body, so you don't have to waste so much time, either with sickness or with the mental agitations which cause so much social and personal problems in your life. So half an hour, forty minutes meditation saves hours and weeks later on in your life, or later on in your day. So never think of meditation. Yeah, I haven't got time to meditate.

[01:03:57] - [Speaker 0]
If you're a busy person, you can't afford not to meditate. In other words, you need that skill of being focused, being rested. Otherwise, you just burn out and get angry and upset and get sick. So the more busy you are, the more you think you haven't got time, the more important it is to meditate and learn how to rest and use your body and your mind more efficiently. Okay.

[01:04:28] - [Speaker 0]
So now are there any comments or questions about the meditation we did today? Yes. Yeah. You just well, you're picking all that up. Very good.

[01:05:17] - [Speaker 0]
Excellent. So I don't have to repeat the question. It's nice, but it's in a very profound sense, whatever you're experiencing in that moment, that's what you are. So when you are thinking, are the thinker. When you are silent, you're the silent one.

[01:05:36] - [Speaker 0]
When you're paying attention, you're attentive one. But the power of attention is that, you know, you can find that you can focus this consciousness rather than being like out of control. In the same way you learn how to drive your car, you can actually focus the engine of the car, or focus the direction of the car, you can turn up constant streets and then announce a way to get here. You learn how to drive your car efficiently. And the way you have to pay attention.

[01:06:05] - [Speaker 0]
You learn how to focus the mind and focus the body so you can drive efficiently, rather than going on the wrong side of the road and getting into a problem with your partner or getting a problem with your body. So the idea of like paying attention is actually being a bit more efficient in the way you use your body and mind. But it's also, you can see focusing on the attention, focusing on the silence or focusing on the breath, paying attention to those things and letting the kindness. It's not you are any one of these things. It's just for whatever thing is at that moment, that's really what you are.

[01:06:42] - [Speaker 0]
You are the quality of your attention and what you're attending to. So that's what makes you feel I'm a peaceful person now. I'm a happy person now. Because you've paid that attention on peace, you've grown peace, you've grown happiness, and that's what you become. That's the question of our mister.

[01:07:04] - [Speaker 0]
Okay. Well, we ask a question again. Yeah. Okay. What?

[01:07:21] - [Speaker 0]
Okay. Who's the one who directed the attention on the feet? Well, actually the artist of that was me because I suggested it. So that's actually the culprit, if you like. Because a lot of the time, what we think of as will, you know, this is, I think, what you're asking, what is this will which drives attention here, decides to do this and decides to do that?

[01:07:44] - [Speaker 0]
If you look at what the process of will is, it's so heavily influenced, you know, by others, by the environment, by what happened before, by your training, by the culture in which you live, that sometimes, you know, you see that the will, the driving force, the choice behind, you know, your actions, paying attention or thinking or whatever, after a while of understanding and investigating, you find that it's not coming from you, it's just what we call the empty process of will. And it becomes very clear, as many people have heard me talk on this subject before, if you hypnotize, if I hypnotize John in the corner there, and I can make him do all sorts of, I can make him sort of dance on one leg all the way, because the other day we were looking at John Cleese's the Ministry of City Walk'. So I can get John, okay, it's not John Cleese, it's John Treasure. I can get him to do a city walk in front of everybody by hypnotizing him. And I ask him, why did you do that?

[01:08:46] - [Speaker 0]
And for him, it would appear that he freely chose to do a city walk. But everybody who saw him being hypnotized knows it wasn't him at all. It was a hypnotist told him to do that. And that's an extreme example, but it's very clear that even though what he takes to be free will has been conditioned into him. So it's a scary thing, but it's a very true thing.

[01:09:14] - [Speaker 0]
And you find this, that's why I talk like this at the beginning of the meditation. It's almost like to condition you, to train you, to be able to do it in this particular way. And then you can do it by yourself because you find that the joy, the happiness, the peace will drive the will. The mind wants to re experience what it found to be valuable, peaceful, content free, happy. It's the nature of your consciousness always to incline towards the happiness and the peace.

[01:09:48] - [Speaker 0]
However, that sometimes when it gets confused what really is happiness and peace, And we drive in towards things which aren't the real thing. But after a while, you know, using the influence of, say, the teacher, you experience peace and happiness for yourself, a much more valuable, truthful, realistic experience of peace and happiness in meditation. Once you have enough experience of peace and happiness in meditation, then the memory of that will drive the attention, will drive the whole meditation. So it starts coming from outside of you, and then it's your experience will take over. The same way that you've been taught so far in your life.

[01:10:34] - [Speaker 0]
It was the words of other people, your parents and your teachers drove you until you became mature enough to use your own experience to drive you. I don't know if that's clearer, but that was obviously a quite a deep question about the nature of the will, the driver of this process. Is that any clearer? Okay. Good enough for now.

[01:11:05] - [Speaker 0]
Okay. Is there any other questions about the meditation? Hopefully that you gained some new ideas on this meditation. The one to take away with you is like giving value. Just think, oh, what's really valuable?

[01:11:22] - [Speaker 0]
Just thinking or silence? And afterwards, I mean, you can think afterwards when you go home, but when you're meditating, give the full value to the silence, the peace, to the freedom. And then you won't be so obsessed with these random, useless, restless might.