Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Each year we are blessed with a visit and teaching by Bhante Nissarano. Bhante is based in Sri Lanka, visiting his home city of Perth once every year or two. On such visits, Bhante is usually in high demand, so we at AMG are very grateful for his time.

Bhante started the night by encouraging us to make our bodies physically comfortable first. If our body isn't comfortable our mind will not relax, let alone get comfortable. Bhante continues to encourage us to do our physical exercise first and then to work with our minds to further relax the body. Only after we are relaxed and comfortable can we then move onto relaxing the mind. For some the breath is neither exciting nor important enough for us to use as a meditation object. Bhante suggests that we encourage our minds to be positive and use "giving" to bring our emotions to a positive position. Bhante encourages us to find a positive mind state as a habit, not just for our meditation but our daily lives.

Bhante then guided the group through a 30 minute meditation suited to all, beginners to experienced alike.

After the meditation Bhante opened the floor to "comments, questions or complaints". Bhante then related an occasion when he did get a complaint from a meditator. Bhante used this example to encourage us to look at why this has happened. Once we identify the reason we can then deal with it and move onto thoughts and emotions that help us enjoy our lives.

Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon.