Buddhist Society of Western Australia

This is the last dhamma talk given by Ajahn Brahm for 2016 in the hour leading up to midnight. Ajahn Brahm gives a dhamma talk and then guides the audience in meditation to bring in the new year, 2017.

This is the last dhamma talk given by Ajahn Brahm for 2016 in the hour leading up to midnight. Ajahn Brahm gives a dhamma talk and then guides the audience in meditation to bring in the new year, 2017.

In his last dhamma talk for 2016, Ajahn Brahm asks us to reflect back on the year. Have you lived up to expectations? Have you set your goals for 2017? Have you written down how you intend to improve yourself and your life? Ok, now throw it in the bin! That's right, if you want to be happy the best way to do it is to lower your expectations to the point where you are happy with yourself and what you have right now. So stop judging and start loving with your imperfections and those of others too!

Having just returned from a pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy sites in India and Nepal, he talks about the spiritual dimension of pilgrimage. This is not just a travelogue, but rather talking about the ancient tradition of pilgrimage - something Buddhists did before any other religion got the idea - as a source of inspiration to propel us along the path towards Awakening.

Ayya Vayama discusses how to relate to various kinds of thinking through mindfulness and understanding.

Ayya Vayama discusses how to relate to various kinds of thinking through mindfulness and understanding.

Ajahn Brahm starts this dhamma talk with the humourous story about the monk and the tiger, which explains why monks don't run. He goes on to talk about the benefits of humility and learning from our mistakes. And also he talks about generating energy, especially when we start to get tired.

Getting calm and peaceful in meditation is nice and a good outcome from meditating, but as Ajahn Brahmali explains, the aim of meditation is to get in touch with something very profound inside of us and to transcend this world. Ajahn Brahmali talks about how to give rise to a sense of joy and happiness in meditation that can take us to a higher level in meditation.

Ajahn Brahmali discusses the place of Buddhism in the context of modern secular society. This talk looks at how as Buddhism comes to the West that it offers an opportunity to look at Buddhism in a historical context and to see what is the essence of Buddhism and what are the cultural accretions that form around that essence. He goes on to also talk about how there is a risk of Western culture diluting the essence of Buddhism. This is what Ajahn Brahmali identifies as "secular Buddhism" developing in the West, which has some useful practices and some that are potentially harmful to the essence of Buddhism.

Ajahn Brahm tackles the morally complex issue of euthanasia with fine-tuned Buddhist wisdom.