Guided Meditation with Ajahn Brahm [20101023]

ABGM_20101023

Transcription

The meditation on metta is a wonderful meditation because one of the reasons why people don't have a soul mind is because they're not kind enough to their mind. And I was mentioning this morning just the importance of kindness, not just as a thought, as an action. They do give yourself a bit of a break. You know, you don't force yourself to look upon your body and mind like a good friend, and therefore you can just work together in a sort of a kind, compassionate way. And metta meditation is actually learning how to generate this feeling of goodwill towards all beings. I remember that book which I wrote, opened the door of your heart and the definition of a metta as to be able to open the door of your heart no matter what you're experiencing, no matter what's happening. This beautiful, unconditional goodwill. Though sometimes you may have been lazy today, and many people, they think they need to be punished. Let's not forget it. Give yourself goodwill. Even if you've been lazy, slack chewing biscuits in your room, whatever you've been up to. Give yourself a break. And as a matter of other people, have been creating all sorts of noise, banging and and whatever else they've been doing. May they have happiness and well-being as well. So this beautiful sense of matter is in irrespective of what people have done or what you have done, to give yourself goodwill and give yourself goodwill to even this Mo, no matter what this moment is. How are you experiencing this moment? You may be dull, you may be restless. You may be just frustrated. Give metta to every moment of this retreat. In other words, wish this moment well. If you can do that, you'll have a very peaceful and wonderful retreat. The Metta meditation usually is how we can deliberately have practice to generate metta, to recognize it and develop it even further. So in metta meditation, sometimes people do just a few words they say over to themselves again and again and again. May all beings be happy and well. May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings not be separated from the things which they enjoy. May I be free from suffering. May I be free from things which irritate me. May I be happy. May I be at peace. Whatever words you use. And sometimes people repeat that to themselves again and again and again. But the important thing with a meditation like that, when you repeat phrases or words yourself over and over. Is to listen to the spaces between the words. May I be happy and well. Give the words a chance to work. May all beings be free from suffering. Could you find words have power? And if you pause a little while to listen to that power, you understand when you say. May all beings be free from suffering. The mind starts to generate metta, the word. I just see the switch. Which one turns to flicks to turn on the lights. Is the light in the match to get the metta started? It's just the catalyst which starts to generate what Metta truly is. May I be happy and well may all beings in this great universe. Be free from fear. You listen to the feelings which come after the words and that's what matters. I encourage people if you want to use these simple words which you say to yourself again and again and again. There's many different forms of meditation, many little verses which one says over to oneself again and again and again. But those verses are there just to cultivate this feeling of metta, to make all beings be happy in the world. And I feel it inside when that feeling disappears. May all beings be happy and well. May it all beings be happy and well. I listen afterwards until that feeling is very, very, very strong. And that's the feeling of metta, which is what one generates in metta meditation. Now the feeling of metta is incredibly pleasant once you get it going. It is so nice to have metta towards a whole world. Now, once it gets to a certain stage, it is self-sustaining. You don't need to say anything anymore. You just think matter. You are matter. And it goes to all beings irrespective. Now, if you want to take the matter further, it gets so much petty circus, so much happiness and joy. You start to bliss out thinking, may all beings in this great universe, they all just have joy and peace and freedom from all the problems which beset us. May people be living in harmony and peace and comfort, and it give you so much happiness that joy starts creating these beautiful lights in the mind is limited. It is sitting there pressing out his great metonym. It has come up beautiful, lovely, and it's so easy to focus on them and to go deeper into the channels because you're generating bliss. Happiness. As I kept on telling the monks during the. Three months retreat, which is finishing tomorrow morning. Suki? No, sir, Moriarty said the Buddha many times. And that happiness from that bliss. The mind becomes very still. So we generate the bliss, the happiness of matter. And then the mind is incredibly still. And then all these limiters and genres, they just happen. So that's how we do Metta meditation. Are you sitting down there? It all keeps me happy and well, hearing what Metta is the sort of the resonance which happens after you say the words. It all beings be at peace. You mean it? Yes. Beautiful feelings afterwards. Keep on saying that. Dwell on those feelings until they get very, very strong and self-sustaining. And it says like lighting a fire, you have to light the fire, and sometimes you have to strike the match several times. Once the fire gets established, it just takes off. Yes. Beautiful. Metta, you have a wonderful time. Metta meditation and it's very powerful as well. Let's have some meta stories. One of my favorite meta stories of this are. This monk is one of the famous Thai forest monks, and he was, uh, wandering through the forest and jungles, and he came to the village late in the afternoon. He announced to the headman that he was going to stay there that night. And so the headman said, oh, great, great. Having a forest monk, are we going to come this evening to listen to a dharma talk? And following morning we'll feed you. So they made an arrangement. In two hours time they were going to come and listen to a talk. So two hours. What did he do? He just sat under a tree to meditate. But he realized after a couple of minutes, he sat under the wrong tree. There was a big ants nest close by. And these red ants, first one started crawling up his foot and then up his left when they started biting him. And then a second, then a third and ten and 20 biting him. He was a tough man. He just sat there. And this is actually what happened. Somehow or other, the mindfulness gets lost and the next thing he knew, he was running away. He would never knew actually how he'd actually changed from sitting posture to running posture. He noticed escaping. And when he caught himself running away, he stopped himself and said, look, I'm a forest monk. I shouldn't be running away from this. So instead he turned around and he saw already where he was sitting was swarming with his thousands of red ants. They said, I'm going to sit right in the middle of it. They don't make monks like that these days. Those were there. And he sat right in the middle of this warming red hand. And of course, they called up him and they started biting him again. But this time he changed his meditation from the breath of meditation to metta meditation. It all beings be happy and well, especially the red ants. If you're really hungry, you know, try. The arms are nice and soft. You didn't really say that I made that one up. But once he started doing metta meditation, after a couple of minutes, the ants stopped biting him. They're still crawling over him, being irritating him, but they stopped biting him. And then after another couple of minutes, he had this amazing sensation. Instead of the ants crawling up the ass recording down. And it is giving loving kindness to all beings. And the last ant caught off his foot. He finished his wonderful deep meditation, now born of metta loving kindness, and after two hours had finished, he opened his eyes, because that's when the lay people were supposed to come, and sure enough, he heard them coming. But they're actually making a strange noise because they were dancing. I was wondering, this is a very strange custom in this village. When they come and visit a monk, they dance on the way to visit him. And then he realized why they were dancing. Because they were bitten by this red ant he saw all around him just was a huge millions of these red ants all around him, except for one meter circle around him, which, like a no man's man, he realized his red hands were protecting him. That's what he thought. They left a meter circle around here with no ants at all. And all the ants were around him protecting this wonderful man. And that's what happens when you have loving kindness meditation. The animals actually look after you and protect you, and they stop biting you. So I'm not sure whether many flies around at lunchtime here. Were there any flies at lunchtime? Not yet. No. There probably will be the later part of this retreat. It's time to come out. So when the flies come out, flies the door of my heart. May all the flies be happy and well. And you'll find you'll be going around with this ring of flies around you. But not close to them. Protecting you and looking up. Because that's what loving kindness is. Not so lovely stories about loving kindness and the power of it. It really works.