When it's done it's finished. Meditation allows us to leave the things that have happened in our busy lives and be peaceful, be calm. Forget about what's happened before and just be in this moment. Sit down, close your eyes and relax. Many of us don't give ourselves that opportunity to let it all go. We wake in the morning full of beans and by the end of the day we are mentally tired. We need to train our minds to let the day go. Meditation allows us to do this.
Ajahn guided us in a thirty minute meditation well suited to people learning to meditate.
After the meditation Ajahn related a story about the growth of a fire tree at Bodhinyana Monastery. He had watched the tree grow for many years and wondered why, given the care it received, that it hadn't seemed to grow. Ajahn continued his training in Wat Buddha Dhamma Buddhist Monastery in Wisemans Ferry, New South Wales for five years. On returning to Bodhinyana Monastery, he was quietly walking past the fire tree and wondered how it was faring. He was surprised to find that it was now an enormous mature tree. Just as Ajahn didn't notice the slight growth of the fire tree, when we begin to meditate, we often don't see or rather, notice any progress. Each time we meditate, be it for five minutes a day or half an hour each week, we are retraining our minds and this has a cumulative effect. One day we will sit down and realise that we can let it all go just as easily as sitting down.
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Ajahn Santutthi says that meditation is like marinating an olive. It takes time for the olives to become delicious. In the same way, it takes time and patience for our mind to settle down.
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Ajahn Santutthi talked to us about finding the calm in the storm of our minds through meditation. Over thinking can lead to us becoming anxious, we need to live in the moment, not dwell on the past, nor worry about our future.
When we over think, dwell in the past or worry about the future we don't live in the present. Our minds become tired and so do our bodies. Meditation can help us clear our mind, live just in this moment and recover some of our energies.
After his talk, Ajahn led us in a guided meditation for approximately 45 minutes.
Ajahn Santutthi teaches us how to prepare our mind for meditation practice and how to overcome mental negativity. Ajahn discusses how being content leads to a peaceful mind.
Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.
Ajahn Santutthi teaches us how to calm the mind and encourages us to be patient and aware of how things unfold in the mind.
Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.
Ajahn Santutthi shares his experience on how the Buddhist teachings have helped him in his many years as a monk. Ajahn points out that monks and laypeople both wish to overcome suffering and difficulties in life and that this is what the monks learn to do in the monastery and one of ways you do this is to change the way you see things, situations and people.
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Ajahn joined us again this week at The Armadale Meditation Group. He suggested that we spend much time in our busy daily lives collecting rubbish within our minds and meditation is the means to get rid of it, empty the garbage.
Ajahn then guided us through a meditation with relaxation of our bodies first. The focus of our meditation was our breath or breathing. Ajahn then opened the floor to questions. Following Q&A Ajahn told us of his recent visit to Thailand were he met with Ajahn Gunhah, the original happy monk.
Ajahn explains to us our compulsion to own everything. We see the news, read the newspaper and engage in discussion, we involve ourselves so much that we own it. We need to have the courage to say "this is not my business". We need to leave it all behind before we meditate.
Ajahn then guided us through a 30 minute meditation well suited to beginners, encouriging us to free ourselves from the compulsion to "own it" with the small mantra of "this is none of my business".
Ajahn then gave us a dharma talk on love and kindness followed by a Q&A.
