Recordings from Ajahn Brahm’s One-Day Meditation Retreat on the 18th of October 2014 at the Halton Peel Buddhist Society, Mississauga, Ontario Canada.
The first talk is an introduction to meditation with an emphasis on the initial preparation.
Some highlights of Ajahn’s teachings:
1. The heart of the Teachings is the same attitude towards meditation and life.
2. Samatha and Vipassana are both sides of the same coin. Ajahn tells the story of Sam and Vi up Meditation Mountain, with their dog Metta.
3. The two different types of meditation are Second Noble Truth (craving leads to suffering) meditation and Third Noble Truth (letting go of desire leads to stillness of the mind) meditation. “If you’re suffering during meditation, you’re wanting something.” “We meditate to let go, not to attain something.”
Teaching retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMF9LRKQg8g (YouTube Channel: urbanbuddhistmonk)
The second recording, ‘The Symbol of the Lotus Flower’, expands on the topic of meditation. Ajahn Brahm gives this talk about the simile of the lotus applying to the practice of meditation.
The third recording is questions and answers. Ajahn answers questions about body-scanning (awareness of feelings in the body), letting go of oneself, and a question about attachment arising “naturally” (which Ajahn argues, is actually unnatural).
The fourth recording is a Dhamma talk on ‘What is Right Livelihood.’