Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Ajahn Brahm gives a quirky talk about coffins and their relevance to life not death. Ajahn teaches us how to accept our karma, the nature of life and face our fears, such as death and sickness. Ajahn talks about understanding them, learning from them and even accepting and loving them. Ajahn says “Loving doesn’t mean we like it, loving is opening the door of your heart to everything because this is life and we can always find a beautiful perception about anything.”

Ajahn Brahm reflects on the way to end conflict within yourself, between people and between you and your world. Ajahn tells us why we have so many conflicts and reveals how we can gain more peace and harmony.

Ajahn Brahm talks about devotional practises and rituals in Buddhism and how we must be very careful we are not devoted to the rituals themselves or in his words ‘not devoted to the container, but to the content’. Ajahn explains the importance of doing these practises with context that is an understanding of what the practise means and why you are doing it.  

Ajahn Brahm talks about the value of friendships and offers practical advice on how to strengthen and build up our friendships and create a sense of community. Ajahn takes a look at the Buddhist way of dealing with the loneliness in this world.

Responding to a request on how to deal with difficult people at work. Ajahn Brahm offers advice on how to develop tolerance towards difficult people, as well as towards the many other difficulties we face in life. Because as Ajahn points out difficulties and difficult people are part of life and therefore we have to learn to deal with them.

In response to a question on how to stop getting angry when watching sport, Ajahn Brahm gives an insightful teaching on the problems caused by our dysfunctional way of looking at winning and losing and modern society’s obsession with competitions and separating people into winners and losers.

Ajahn Brahm devotes this talk on the Buddhist attitude towards depression. Ajahn breaks this talk into what he believes are the three major causes of depression in our modern world:

1. Inherit negativity and fault-finding
2. Over indulgence in cravings
3. Some of the nature of our existence can be depressing

Ajahn kindly gives us the goods to help us overcome depression; our negative mind states.

Ajahn Brahm elaborates on one of the pillars of Buddhism: The Middle Way, pointing out that it is very easy to wander off on a path of too much harshness to your body and mind (asceticism) or too much indulgence. Ajahn starts off by reflecting upon his time as a young western monk in Thailand.

Ajahn Brahm reminds us that the core teaching of the Buddha is suffering and the end of suffering and in this talk he covers a trilogy of topics:

1. How to deal with disasters, such as a recent oil spill in California.
2. How to interpret this middle path as a way of dealing with the disasters of life, and the middle way between indulgence and asceticism.
3. How to apply the Buddhist teachings to your daily life.

Ajahn Brahm gives a guided meditation for advance meditators. Ajahn starts off by reminding us while meditating to stop trying to get somewhere and talks about the how the judgemental mind and conceit hinder our meditation progress.

Ajahn Brahm reflects upon people’s entanglement with possessions, views & opinions and the past & future. Ajahn explains why and how we get entangled, as well as why and how we can let it go, so that we can live a much more peaceful, free existence. In this talk Ajahn also advises us how to let go of grief.

Ajahn Brahm muses about a famous old saying coined by Thomas Gray: ignorance is bliss. Ajahn also looks at whether running away and ignoring the world brings peace and happy.

Should we follow tradition or change it? What are the advantages of keeping or changing tradition? What actually is the tradition we should follow anyway? And does it have a place in our modern world? Ajahn gives an in depth answer in this talk and advises us most importantly to search for truth and meaning.

Ajahn Brahm talks about the flip side of positivity and offers an even more skilful approach rather than just trying to be positive. Ajahn describes the highs and lows of life as being natural and not something that we should try and avoid, but things we should investigate with wisdom.

Is Buddhism an atheistic religion? Does it believe in a God? And what do Buddhists worship? Ajahn Brahm takes on this topic, pointing out the consequences of believing in a supernatural being and looking into who created our universe or world. Ajahn goes deeper by talking about meditation experiences (jhanas) and how the mind is chief and more powerful than anything else in the world. 

Straight from teaching a meditation retreat, Ajahn Brahm reveals ways of letting go. Ajahn offers a teaching on how to train your mind to let go, to be peaceful and happy. And reflects upon why we find it so hard to let go of our hurts and difficulties and how beneficial letting go is for us and others.

In the lead up to various elections occurring, Ajahn Brahm gives a talk on how Buddhist principles apply to governance, of not only a country but of societies, work departments, the family unit and our own life. Ajahn teaches us how to contribute to good governance on all levels in our society and get things done the Buddhist way.

Why is it sometimes so hard to be kind to the ones we love? Ajahn Brahm discusses how developing the mind with meditation can encourage and support the practice of kindness and understanding towards others.

Post Traumatic Stress can be overcome.  Ajahn encourages us to not make matters worse by adding to what, for a lot of people, is a time in their lives they can never forget.  Ajahn tells us, don't forget, rather forgive and open up our hearts, accept it for what it was and move on.

Ajahn took us through a body sweep before a 30 min guided meditation.  Ajahn then gave a talk on Post Traumatic Stress further encouraging us to open our hearts, accept and move on.

The entire evening was lightened by Ajahn Brahm's jokes and irrepressible sense of humour.