Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Ajahn Brahm guides a meditation for approximately 30 minutes.

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

The Buddhist Society of Western Australia is delighted to have guest speaker Bhikkhuni Kusuma give a Dhamma talk. Bhikkhuni Kusuma talks about The Four Noble Truths, in particular the second noble truth, which says the cause of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness or suffering) is attachment. Venerable contemplates what attachment is, why it causes us suffering and how we can get out of suffering.

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

Never have you imagined that bananas could be so profound. 

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

It was Vesak day on Tuesday and Ajahn Cittapalo joined us at AMG.  Vesak Day commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha in the Theravada or southern tradition.  Ajahn having attended Vesak celebrations at Dhammaloka on Sunday, where many people took refuge by becoming Buddhist, noticed that for many, the five precepts are hard and fast rules.  Many of us do the same when we meditate.  We try too hard and become disenchanted when we fail.

Ajahn would never say that it is ok to consume alcohol, rather that we consider that we really should try to stop.  So it is with our meditations.  When random thoughts occur, we should simply let them come and go.  Don't get entangled, but don't try too hard and be overly critical that the thoughts continue.  Over time the ability to simply stand back in your mind and watch will grow and the thoughts will be come less frequent.  The same will happen with alcohol, each time we consume it, we consider it and do it less until we don't do it at all.

Ajahn tells us that our intentions matter more in all things.  When we meditate, it is our intention to gain a peaceful mind that matters.  Not being overly self critical for having thoughts.  Just as with the five precepts, it is our intentions that matter.

Ajahn led us in a body scan to relax us then a very peaceful silent meditation.

After the meditation Ajahn continued his talk on our intentions, cautioning us all to not be too critical of our efforts both in life and meditation.  After Ajahn concluded he joined the group in celebrating Vesak day.


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

Question and Answers session with Ajahn Brahm, Venerable Hasapanna and the Sangha panel. Followed by taking the three refuges and five precepts.

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

As a novice monk in Thailand, Ajahn Brahm often got sleepy during meditation and felt hopeless until one day he realised it wasn’t his fault. Ajahn Brahm teaches us to not blame ourselves because our difficulties are great learning opportunities.

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

Ajahn Brahm starts with the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism and explains how this is a road map finding happiness in life.

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

Ajahn Brahm reflects upon how for most of us, most of the time, happiness seems to be just over the horizon, but rarely here and now. He goes on to try to help us understand that the origin of suffering is in within ourselves, and our way of looking at life. And rather than thinking of happiness as being somewhere over the rainbow, it's here and now, when we know how to look at the present through the lens of peace, compassion and wisdom.

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

Ajahn Brahm talks to a crowd at the Buddhist Maha Vihara about how to develop mindfulness, how to develop it and the results of developing it. He also emphasises the need to combine compassion with mindfulness to make it effective for by oneself, and for others.

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

Often rites and rituals are performed without knowing their significance. Whether it is a marriage ceremony or the upcoming Vesak, Ajahn Brahm encourages us to dig deeper to know the meaning of ceremonies and to perform them with our heart.

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

Confronted with the recent revelations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, Ajahn Brahm responds by sharing ways in which people who have been abused as children may be able to deal with this hurt and pain. For more information on the Royal Commission go here: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/ This talk was given on 22^nd May 2015.

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

Who are you? Who do you take yourself to be? Are you there at all? Ajahn Brahm addresses one of the deepest question of all with insight and humour.

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

Ajahn Brahm gives a humourous and wise talk on how understanding impermance can bring peace in life.

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

Ajahn Brahm explains how the core teaching of Buddhism - the Four Noble Truths - are about finding progessively greater levels of happiness through the practice of the Eightfold Path.

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

An often funny but most of all relaxing evening with Ajahn Brahm.  Ajahn asks us to remember why the British Empire lost many of it's colonies. They stopped having "tea breaks".  They stopped taking a break, stopped taking a moment to relax both the body and the mind.  When we become stressed we become less efficient at everything.  Driving, working and even doing our domestic chores.  Stop, take 5 minutes and meditate.

It is very difficult to relax the mind if the body isn't relaxed first.  So take the time to look deeply into your body, asking silently each part of your body if it is relaxed.  If it isn't then focus on it and move it if you need to.  Scratch that itch, rub that nose but most of all, relax.  Then move onto the mind and simply observe.  Don't get tangled up in your thoughts, just let them come and go.  Relax.  Guess what, you are meditating.

Ajahn reminded us that organisations such as Google and Face Book now have meditation areas set aside for their employees.  This allows them to take a break, relax.  This improves efficiency greatly.  So we should take the time to relax, meditate, even for just 5 minutes a day.  Learn our bodies, get physically comfortable, then relax the mind.

Ajahn then guided us through a 30 minute meditation that is well suited to beginners, novice or advanced meditators alike.

After the guided meditation, Ajahn opened to Q&A.

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

Ajahn Vayama talks about the contribution of love to our wellbeing and to dealing with pain in our meditation. Ajahn looks at what we mean by ‘love’, as well as why our capacity to give and receive love effects our health and wellbeing. Ajahn explains that in Buddhism we are trying to move away from a narrow exclusive love to having a universal love for all beings because all beings need love. We apologise for the quality of this audio, this Buddha Dhamma talk was given in 2000.

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

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

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

Ajahn tells us that change is inevitable in all things, in all matters.  Meditation helps us learn how to deal with the changes in our lives, our
circumstances and ourselves.  Such change is not always to our liking or such that we can prevent.   Change happens.  Deal with it.  Rather than
become angry, distressed or sad, we meditate and deal with it in a calm rational fashion.

We had no new meditators on this occasion so rather than a full guided 30 minute meditation, Ajahn and the fifty odd people in attendance simply focused on a breath meditation with occasional guidance from Ajahn.  The experienced meditators amongst the group were encouraged to do their own thing.

After meditation Ajahn opened to, and answered well, a number of questions very relevant to meditation.


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

Sensual pleasures can be difficult to let go. Ajahn Brahmali teaches us how to gradually reduce our craving in a sustainable way by living well, being kind and practicing meditation.

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