Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Venerable Nitho expands on the ground work laid in week 1.  Venerable gives us real world examples of how remaining calm and composed can benefit both the meditater and those around us.  Including wildlife.

This is Week 1 of 4 beginners meditation with Venerable Nitho.

Venerable Nitho explains what meditation can help us to achieve.  Venerable uses his own life experience to help explain why he meditates and what we can achieve by practising.

Ajahn Brahm explains how meditation helps us relax by using humour and stories.  As well as
humour he tells us stories help dissolve the five hindrances or blocks to meditation which
reduce depression, anxiety and anger by developing positive emotions and gratitude.
The results are an increase in satisfaction, contentment and fulfillment.

Responding to two requests about how to deal with the ending of relationships, Ajahn Brahm gives a unique talk on when and how to end relationships in a way that is skillful and compassionate.

Ajahn Appichato leads a guided Saturday afternoon meditation.

Ajahn Appichato discusses how our personal karma works within ourself and the people we are connected with.

We all have to bear with difficult and challenging circumstances in life. Ajahn Brahm talks about the quality of endurance: the dumb sort of endurance, and the wise sort of endurance which is what we should cultivate.

Responding to a request, Ajahn Brahm talks about loneliness which for many people is a big problem. Ajahn Brahm talks about what loneliness is, what its causes are and how to overcome it.

Whilst the practice of meditation is very important, so too is the basics of how we relate to the people in our lives every day. The quality of the relationships that we develop with our family, work colleagues and the people we meet with every day is going to have a strong bearing on the quality of our minds and the quality of our lives, so it pays to give wise attention to this according to Ajahn Vayama.

Too many people are trying to improve themselves, and underlying this attitude is a non-acceptance towards ourselves, and relentless perfectionism that tends towards makes ourselves miserable. Whilst it may be counter-intuitive to people in the West, the path to self improvement begins with accepting ourselves just as we are. Through learning to be at peace with ourselves, we heal the inner conflicts and begin to grow.

Ajahn Nyanadhammo gives a talk on speculation (in Pali 'papanca') and how it ties up so much of our mind's effort, and yet so rarely correlates with reality - and so often gets us in to trouble!

Ajahn Vayama puts a Buddhist slant on the saying "Seeing is believing", but drawing out the powerful role of perception in skewing what we sense and understand reality.

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.

The last guided meditation class of the year - New Year's Eve - for 2016. 

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!

Ajahn Brahm gave a sound introduction to meditation for the beginners that were present on Tuesday 27th, along with his customary jokes and stories.  He guided us through meditation then regaled us with a story "Old Monks Don't Lie" to guide us away from the arrow of wanting.

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.

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.