Ideas to help quite the mind

Ajahn Brahm’s Retreat Discussion about how to quite the mind

Video Transcript:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haWd-1Ia3d0

Understanding Silence Through Pauses

Understanding what I mean by silence. So as I am speaking, some of you have heard this before but please don’t interrupt and spoil it for other people because as I’m speaking I’m going to ask you also not just to listen to what I’m saying but to listen to the reaction in your mind what’s happening inside of you as I’m speaking because as I’m talking you will begin to notice some pauses between my words.

In those spaces what was going on in your mind? there it was again, you were silent. You were aware without a thought going on in your head. That’s why it’s a very skillful reflective trick.

Now is the first time many people have realised, oh, I can be silent. There it is again. and it’s beatiful. It’s profound. It’s deep. And somehow or other you know there is so much freedom and meaning to be found in that silence.

So by giving you a taste of that silence now you understand its value. Now you have to increase its length of time. So you are more and more and more silent. It’s lovely isn’t it?

So once you start to value the silence and take the value off the thinking you find that there’ll be many many more moments of silence throughout your day. Silence will grow on you, literally. Until you-know, you only think when you really have to and when you don’t, you won’t.

Using Mantras to Quiet the Mind

The related technique which helps you remain silent is actually doing what we call little mantras. A mantra is a group of words you say to yourself over and over and over. It’s what the Buddha said in the Sabbasava Sutta [?] of like substitution, substituting one thing for another

So the thinking goes on and on and on, so you want to substitute a thought, yes this is a thought, a mantra, which you say to yourself but a very simple thought. Instead of having the thoughts go all over the place take one set of words, a mantra, a thought, and keep repeating it again and again and again because it blocks out the other thoughts.

Now many of the mantras which I heard as a young monk, yeah they didn’t really work and one of the reasons why they didn’t work was because of the way it was used. It’s not just repeating the mantra over and over and over again. It’s important if you’re using mantras to make the mind silent, to put spaces between the words.

Examples of Mantras

Now there are many many different mantras and I’ll just mention the one I was talking about last time I was overseas, the old Tibetan mantra, the old “om mani padmi hum” mantra which I thought was the most famous, I knew that as a kid. So you can use that if you like.

If you’re a die-hard Theravada you can use sort-of the “Namo Buddhaya”, that’s the Indonesian greeting. Na-mo Budd-haya. That means homage to the Buddha. Or, I don’t know, you can make up your own mantras if you like, but the important thing, that’s just the Theravadan, Namo Buddhaya say, if you’re doing mantra remember to put spaces between the syllables.

The Importance of Spaces

NaMoBuDaya

If it’s om mani padmi hum - ommanipadmihumom because the spaces are more important than the words. If you’re very restless, and thinking alot, lots of things worrying about, close up those spaces, ommanipadmihumommanipadmihum

But as you settle down, increase the spaces. ommanipadmihum

And the more you quieten down, the more you lengthen the spaces between those words. ommanipadmihum

Until those spaces get so long you don’t need to say the words anymore. It’s a way of learning how to be silent inside. How to stop this terrible thinking mind.

Using Mantras as a Circuit-Breaker

And if you ever get upset, angry, anxious or whatever you’ll always find that there are so many thoughts going on in your head and it’s great to find this circuit-breaker, this switch, you can just switch to try and stop all these crazy thoughts, and that’s one thing you can do. Get your mantra, if you’re getting really crazy - om mani padmi hum, om mani padmi hum, om mani padmi hum, om mani padmi hum, om mani padmi hum, om mani padmi hum, ommanipadmihum.

It’s like going down the gears in a car whose breaks have failed. It works.

So - that’s how you can learn how to be quieter by using that little technique. You can make up your own mantra, most important part is putting spaces between the words. And getting to know that silence, getting to respect it, getting to value it, and after you value it, it grows.

The Fear of Silence

Now there’s also the problem which I mentioned last night in brief which is an important part of meditation it’s an important part of the spiritual path - fear. You know it’s amazing how many people are afraid of silence.

When we first came over here to this part of the bush we had this beautiful land opposite where our monastery now stands, it’s very quiet. And sometimes we had visitors coming in and as soon as they came in they raised their voice. They spoke louder than necessary and I’ve seen that many times in quiet parts of the world people actually raise their voice or are almost shouting.

And I was really wondering - what is the psychological they don’t need to speak so loud. And after a little consideration you realise that the silence was so threatening to them, they needed to destroy it with loud talking, more than is necessary. Because silence is a bit scary if you’re not used to it.

So to understand how to overcome the different fears which happen in meditation I say in every level, every stage of meditation, I describe there are three levels and this is a wonderful little insight in