Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond – A Meditators Handbook

Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond – A Meditators Handbook
Ajahn Brahm is among a new generation of Westerners who have studied, practiced, and mastered an important range of Buddhist teachings and now offer them to sincere practitioners across the modern world. In Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond you will find a thorough set of teachings for developing and deepening meditation, aimed particularly at attaining absorption, or jhana samadhi, and opening to the insights that can follow from it. Ajahn Brahm offers a careful and subtle understanding of how to transform initial difficulties and how to incline the mind toward rapture, happiness, light, and the profound steadiness of jhana. Then he turns this concentrated attention to illuminate the emptiness of self that brings liberating understanding.

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Freedom: The Path To Happiness

Freedom: The Path To Happiness
Ajahn Brahm: For those abused and wronged is happiness actually possible? Attachment to painful emotions, such as grief, anger, bitterness, the notion of a wounded self with a distinct identity: all these can become a perpetual prison.

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We all Make Mistakes.

We all make mistakes from time to time. Life is about learning to make our mistakes less often. To realize this goal, we have a policy in our monastery that monks are allowed to make mistakes. When the monks are not afraid to make mistakes, they don’t make so many.

–Ajahn Brahm, from Opening the Door of Your Heart (Lothian Books)

James: (I am not a teacher and the following are my thoughts and mine alone). I have often found that perfectionism is a common obstacle to many people. Striving for perfection is in my view another form of desire because we refuse to accept that we are already perfect as all has Buddha nature. Perfectionism asserts that mistakes are negative and signs of failure.

In reality we can not make progress without making mistakes. If we adjust our lives so that we won't make many mistakes then we greatly hinder our chances and opportunities to peel away the layers of karma to reveal the perfect jewel of enlightenment. Not to mention loosing out on a lot of the joys of life out of a fear of making mistakes. But guess what?--everyone makes mistakes and suffers pain.

Even Buddha suffered aches and pains after his enlightenment. He understand that, "Enlightened people do not cease to experience the pain of existence. They only stop creating illusions that amplify that pain and cause new suffering." However, If we compare ourselves say to advanced students or the great teachers then we will come up feeling inadequate and get discouraged to where it would be easy to give up the Dharma thinking we will never become who they are.

The key I think is to set modest goals and realize that the middle-path isn't a short-cut or express lane but rather a journey that will most likely take many, many, many lives to fulfill. There is no reason to be discouraged by this, however, because instead it takes the pressure off of feeling like we have to realize enlightenment in this life, which often brings frustration, low self-esteem and discouragement. Of course we should strive to do our best and live the Dharma as best we can but mistakes will happen and that is simply apart of the journey. Step by step, moment by moment, enlightenment unveils itself.

When we refuse to accept imperfection then we set ourselves up for disappointment and suffering. On the contrary when we accept that things don't have to be perfect to be good or beneficial then we can stop worrying so much and enjoy being perfect in our imperfections!! I think that is one of the reasons why the teaching on the present moment is so important because it is keeping goals realistic. Thus the teaching of "before enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water and after enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water."

Before enlightenment perhaps we chopped wood and carried water with a constant thought stream of self-judgments such as: "I should be chopping wood faster," or "Look at how much water is splashing over the side of the bucket, I must be worthless at this job." Little perhaps do we realize that like a famous story goes--the water splashing over the side of the bucket could be watering flowers down below, flowers that we did not notice because our focus was on trying to be perfect.

After enlightenment chopping wood and carrying water is perfection already expressed because the focus is no longer on doing the task perfectly but on simply doing and fully experiencing the task itself as it unfolds.

~Peace to all beings~

Mindful Content Kindness - Ajahn Brahm

Mindful Content Kindness - Ajahn Brahm
jahn Brahmavamso (or known as Ajahn Brahm) was born in London in 1951. He regarded himself a Buddhist at the age of 17 through his reading of Buddhist books while still at school. His interest in Buddhism and meditation flourished while studying Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. After completing his degree and teaching for a year, he travelled to Thailand to become a monk. He was ordained in Bangkok at the age of 23 by the Abbot of Wat Saket. Subsequently, he spent 9 years studying and training in the forest meditation tradition of the revered Venerable Ajahn Chah.

In 1983, he was asked to assist in the establishing of a forest monastery near Perth, Western Australia. The monastery, Bodhinyana Monastery, has approximately 20 resident monks. Ajahn Brahm is currently the Abbot of that monastery. He is also the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of W.A, the Spiritual Advisor to the Buddhist Society of Victoria, and the Spiritual Director of the Cittabhavana Buddhist Hermitage in Bundanoon, N.S.W.

Ajahn Brahm also regularly visits prisons in WA to teach Buddhism and meditation. A widely travelled speaker, Ajahn Brahm conducts meditation retreats frequently both in Australia and in some Asian countries.

TPB

Ajahn Brahm Dhamma Talks

Ajahn Brahm Dhamma Talks
Talks about buddhist wisdom and every dag problems. Ajahn Brahm teaches us how to deal with difficult emotions and to learn how to experience more positive emotions, more often. Do we have a right to believe anything? Do some beliefs have priority over others? How do beliefs arise in the mind and how accurately do such 'intellectual fermentations' actually mesh with an Ultimate Reality? This is for all thinking people! Enjoy!

TPB

Ajahn Brahm`s Dhamma Talks

Thanks to Thor my God of Thunder friend for this link.

Ajahn Brahm`s Dhamma Talks
Most Buddhist writers are not often lighthearted or zesty, but the British-born monk Ajahn Brahm is a delightful exception. Even though meditators are taught to not expect anything, since that represents an attachment, meditation should bring you joy and bliss, according to Brahm. The bliss states of meditation (jhanas) are little-taught, so this book is an addition with value in a crowded niche. Trained in the Thai forest tradition by the Buddhist master Ajahn Chah, Brahm is a clear communicator of the ineffable. He is able to write about a variety of mental states and visualizations with precision and discrimination, drawing on his own experience. He is step-by-step systematic, which helps demystify what happens in meditation. Also useful is the specificity with which he describes the kinds of problems meditators encounter and what to do to resolve them. Meditation is difficult to teach on the page, but Brahm, who began life as an academic at Cambridge, fulfills his calling as teacher. He projects both energetic conviction and calm equanimity. The promise of bliss he describes in this excellent manual is elusive, but remains a compelling goal.
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