Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Ajahn Brahm gives us the means to practise the art which we call meditation. During these four ‘Introduction to Meditation’ sessions Ajahn expands on the different types of meditation, their purpose and the way to practise them.

Part 2 –In this session Ajahn Brahm talks about some of the difficulties you might encounter in mediation, such as the wandering mind. We apologise for the quality of this audio.

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Ajahn Brahm gives us the means to practise the art which we call meditation. During these four ‘Introduction to Meditation’ sessions Ajahn expands on the different types of meditation, their purpose and the way to practise them.

Part 1 - Ajahn Brahm begins by teaching us to meditate on the breath which he says is used to carry people into very relaxed, peaceful and clear states of mind and is a very old type of meditation used by the Buddha himself.

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Dennis Sheppard, former president of BSWA, shares his experience of stillness. He also shares the teaching of several teachers including, Ajahn Brahm, Ajahn Chah and the Buddha.

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Believe it or not the mind is naturally still, says Ajahn Brahm. It only moves because we want something or want to get rid of something. Ajahn teaches us how to relax and be kind in order to still the mind.

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Ajahn Brahm talks about the reasons why the monks live simply and do simplistic retreats and how hard it is in religious life to keep things simple. Ajahn points out this is similar in our world culture, in that we can’t allow things to be, just simplicity and instead we complicate things. Ajahn talks about how we are afraid of simplicity and how we complicate things because we think it will solve our problems.

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Ajahn Brahm guides a meditation for approximately 30 minutes.

Sol spoke to us on meditation by relating his own experience over many years.  He explains meditation in a way that is different to what we normally hear from our regular Monks.  His experience ranges from a rock star to a monk and now a high school teacher.  He has dealt with his own health issues as well as the issues we all face throughout our lives.  He explains how he used meditation to simply accept those circumstances and issues for what they are, then move on.

Sol then led us through a very relaxing 30 minute meditation after which he gave a dharma talk.  At the end of the talk, he opened the floor to questions.

Relax, it's all out of control.  It's ok.  It doesn't matter so much what happens to us, it matters how we react to it and how we accept it.

Ajahn Brahm offers a talk on finding ways of creating harmony in this world. Ajahn describes how all we need for harmony in our divided world is to see some commonality which we have, because when we see what we share together and what is in our interest then harmony flows very easily. Ajahn points out that competition is one of the greatest causes of disharmony and offers advice on how we can create a balance between competition and cooperation in order to have a more peaceful and prosperous world.

This Buddha Dhamma talk and question and answers session was given in Malaysia during 2005.

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Change is inherent in all things, but we take stability instead as the truth.  Ajahn Brahm explains how if we fully understood the Dhamma, the truth, and the nature of impermanence we would become enlightened. Ajahn says because we don’t want to see it or we think it’s so apparent, we take it for granted and we don’t notice it. Ajahn Brahm looks at the element of impermanence or change in all levels of our experience such as our internal and external world. This Buddha Dhamma talk was given in 1994.

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You can never know another person, so how can you judge? What’s important is how you relate to others and to know that the only person you can change is yourself. All that matters is what you do now, such as showing kindness, compassion and forgiveness to yourself and others. Venerable Hasapanna explains how Buddhist practise is continual day to day training of the mind through practising; keeping the precepts, living in the moment, mindfulness, stillness, meditation and so on and it doesn’t just happen overnight.

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