Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Ajahn Brahm gives a guided meditation and talks about how to avoid distractions.

Ajahn Brahm challenges the benefits of planning and offers a humorous teaching on how wonderful life is when things do not go according to plan. He points out that when you have plans things go wrong and when you don’t have plans things go interesting.

Ajahn Brahm talks about how inspiration can energize our meditation practice and allow us to go beyond the boundaries we normally set for ourselves. Ajahn says inspiration is one of the most important parts of the spiritual life because it is difficult to be kind, generous, loving, forgiving and so on without authentic examples of great acts of generosity and kindness. It is inspiration which encourages us to add our own acts of beauty to this world and those acts spread inspiration to others and make this world a beautiful place.

How many times have you been disappointed? Why is it that sometimes we look at life and feel disappointed? Ajahn Brahm takes a look at what is the cause of our disappointments and says the first reason is because we expect so much of each other, of life and of ourselves. Ajahn offers some practical advice for dealing with disappointments and unreasonable expectations from within and without.

Venerable encourages us to relax physically as much as possible before we start to meditate, explaining that meditation is not a chore.  Venerable then gives a guided beginners meditation.  Following meditation Venerable gave us a talk and encouraged us to not foster negative thoughts to meditation, thus making it a chore but rather, to be as kind to ourselves as possible right from the beginning, no matter how long we meditate for.

Ajahn Brahm gives a talk about the Theravada Tradition also called the Forest Tradition. Ajahn Brahm reveals the lessons we can learn from nature and points out that part of the Theravada Tradition is to learn much of our understanding and wisdom by living in the forests, within nature.

Ajahn Brahm gives a talk on the practice, challenges and benefits of seclusion, such as retreats. Ajahn explains why people find it so hard to stay by themselves and why he never feels lonely. Ajahn reflects upon how monks and nuns are not escaping life, we are. He points out that living as a hermit, monk or nun forces you to learn about yourself and to develop a relationship with yourself, because you can’t escape yourself. Whereas always needing people, television, radio and busyness is a form of escapism.

Ajahn Brahmali talks about understanding the allure and danger of sensual pleasures and alternatively cultivating the deeper sense of pleasure to be found in the spiritual path.

Ajahn Brahm teaches that  being in the present moment brings peace and contentment. We apologise the recording is missing the very start of the meditation.

Ajahn Brahm talks about the core Buddhist values of virtue/ goodness, peace and compassion/ kindness and how these form the basis for skilful interaction with others and are the guiding principles to everything he does in life.