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All the Unpopular Buddhist Topics: Introduction & Guided Meditation - Ajahn Nisabho

The following talk was given by Ajahn Nisabho at The Sati Center in Redwood City, CA on January 07, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

All the Unpopular Buddhist Topics: Introduction & Guided Meditation

Introduction

Welcome everyone. Rob, I so appreciate the community you've created and just the invitation to spend time with everyone talking about what's become my favorite title for any retreat I've given, which is "All the Unpopular Buddhist Topics." It is great because I get to talk about these things as a monk. So it's very nice to see so many here for that.

The flavor of the Sati Center's offerings seems to be a bit more intellectual than I usually get to speak on. Hence the handout, which I've pasted a link to in the chat for those who want it. I think it also might have gone out in an email, and please feel free to look at that, but I'll also be screen sharing, which is a new thing I usually don't do. So forgive me if this format of a slightly more intellectualized Dhamma talk or morning is something I sort of stumble through.

Just as an outline of the general schedule: we'll begin with a bit of introductions and a guided meditation. From 9:30 to 10:00 will be a talk on death contemplation and rebirth. From 10:00 to 10:20, we'll have a Q&A, and then a brief break for about 10 minutes from 10:20 to 10:30. From 10:30 to 11:00, the talk will be on Buddhist cosmology, which is a wild world, and a guided four elements meditation from 11:00 to 11:20. Then a 20-minute talk on body contemplation, which is my personal favorite, and a bit more Q&A in closing. So don't worry about all that. In the meantime, if any of you need to turn your Zoom screens off, wander away, or use the restroom, please feel free.

Guided Meditation

Okay. So, I thought we could begin with a meditation for about 20 minutes with everyone. Set your body erect and draw the lower spine, the lumbar, in like a spring to support the whole vertebrae, the back. You can move awareness slowly up the spine, one vertebra at a time, like you're stringing pearls. Consciously allow the weight to transfer down the back of the body, and allow the front of the body, the lungs, to open and the breathing to slow.

Allow the awareness to come to the top of the head and press it up against the sky. Lower the chin slightly. Notice any tension in the eyes or the forehead and soften it. In the mouth and tongue, soften it. Smile on the inside of the mouth. Soften any tension in the belly, and allow breathing to just deepen and slow into a natural rhythm. Allow yourself to center, just making sure you're coming into this with a sense of kindness and playfulness, considering the mind a bit like a puppy: when it wanders off, just gently bringing it back. But beginning just by acknowledging whatever's there. It's welcome in this moment, it's fine. Just sit in the center for a time.

Now, imagine you're in a white room with no windows, no doors, nothing on the walls. Just a white bed in the middle of it—a hospital bed. You are dressed in a white gown, lying on it. You're dying. You know this for certain. Perhaps there are just a few hours left. You've said goodbye to everyone you needed to say goodbye to. You've gotten closure on everything you needed to get closure on. No one else is coming into this room. There's no door. It's just you here lying, knowing that this is nearing your death.

Begin by just relinquishing all your possessions: your house, the car, clothes, any special items. You'll be leaving them all behind soon. The moment of death is getting closer. Can you let them go, give them back? You won't be seeing them again. Can you feel a lightening and a peaceful brightness in the space in your mind where they were? It's almost time.

Next, think of the fact that it's getting even closer now. It's almost time. Your death is almost here. Can you think of letting go of those closest to you, of the people you know, and of your identities that are wound up with them? Can you let go of your role as a mother, a father, a son, a worker, a brother, a sister, an extrovert, or an introvert? You need to let it all go now. You won't be seeing any of them again. It's okay.

The time is coming, so can you let go even of your name? You won't be needing it anymore where you're going. You said your goodbyes, it's okay.

It's almost time. So can you relinquish now even your body? Give it back, let it go. You'll have to leave it behind now. And can you feel with each letting go a sense of light or brightness? What was it you were so afraid of? Can there be gratitude for all the teachers who gave you this beautiful death, the ability to move through this with grace? It's gratitude. Care for all those who were in your life, even as you let it go. Any moment now.

We'll sit together with that sense for another few minutes. Letting go, giving back, lightening, gratitude, spaciousness, relinquishment. Or whatever else is coming up for you. And if it's too much, then you can return to your normal object.

...

Slowly coming back. Take note if indeed what came up for you was a sense of lightening and spaciousness, just note the difference. That feel of letting go. The nimitta¹, sign of letting go. Patinisago², relinquishment. If there were any unresolved stories or relationships that intruded, you can take note of that. And just allow the heart to kind of rest and taste the sense of space and light that's there once the hand releases what it's holding.

Post-Meditation Reflections

People can come out of meditation now. Slowly open your eyes. That meditation can be very intense for some people, so if you need to take a moment, you can do so. It's definitely brought people to tears before. It's Ajahn Brahmali's³ guided sit and I think it's a very meaningful one to do sometimes.

If some of the things that I was mentioning about it being peaceful were not your experience at all, don't worry. That's just fine. But it can be a useful tool, if it was helpful, to come back to once a month or once every two months, to see what's waiting for you in that room and in the heart. Some people find it's most effective if they imagine themselves in a forest grove or a quiet moonlit field instead of a white room. I think my mom was exasperated that there was no one there around her. She was like, "Where is everyone?" [Laughter] So, that was quite good.