as Dennis said, I just uh...

interrupted meditation retreat down at our retreat centre, Jhana Grove

and to come and give this talk this evening

uh... the retreat finishes tomorrow evening

so obviously my mind has been full of talks on meditation and

so I thought I'd drag one of those talks out

and recycle it today. recycling is all the rage

uh... but not just to recycle it because it's an interesting aspect of how

not just to meditate

but just how to let go of difficulties in your life. This is the talk on the four

ways of letting go

and this is straight from the Buddha's teaching of how the first teaching of the Buddha

It's part of that teaching

but also it's the case that number one, no matter whether you meditate or you don't meditate

whether your a Buddhist, a christian, a muslim, a hindu or whatever

each one of us has from time to time to learn how to let go

because sometimes that not being able to let go, carrying around

the bad memories of the past, the bad feelings of the present, the fears of the future

not being able to let them go

causes us so much pain and suffering and not just us pain and suffering

it causes all the people who have to put up with us

a lot a pain and suffering. So the very least for the compassion of your family

and the people you work with

please train your mind to be able to let go, to be peaceful and happy

and so that's one of the reasons that I decided to be happy

out of compassion for all the people who have to put up with me

that's a very good reason

so

you learn

something in buddhism called how to let go

and by learning how to let go, it doesn't mean you let go all the time and become

a monk or a nun,even if you do become a monk or a nun, you still have to work hard

you have to keep your responsibilities

you can't just let go all

the time, but it's a very beautiful

part of your repertoire, that you know at any time, in any situation you've got

something to do which most of the other people can't do

you just let things go

and let things be

simple things

it always surprises me

why it is?

that someone hurts you

they cheat you

they let you down

they say terrible things about you

big time

what can't you just let it go?

because if you don't let it go, that person

continues to hurt you

continues to harm you

it's a really weird thing isn't it?

they've hurt you once

because you attach to it and carry it around

they hurt you again

and again

and again and again

every time you think of it

they're hurting you one more time

when you look at it that way, it's totally unreasonable, illogical

one of most foolish thing you could ever do

is to get angry at someone who hurt you

'cause when they hurt you

and you get angry

they're hurting you twice over

so some hurts you

can't do anything about it, let it go

it's gone

you let it go and they can only ever hurt you

once

and then you let it go, so easy

to do

when you realize, how you let these things go?

not only of that

sometimes we have all these fears of the future. I don't know some of you

probably

if you haven't yet one day you're going to doctor and say you've got breast

cancer

you've got prostate cancer

you've got a lung cancer

you've got some sort of cancer

there's a whole variety of cancers now, just like whole variety of music when I was young

you can only get one brand

so this is the choice you have these days

when you have any of these

diseases

what do you do

you worry yourself sick

you're already sick enough

and now you worry yourself sick even further. This is a totally daft and stupid thing to do. So

why can't you

let go of the future

enjoy this moment

and as I said I actually never said that this evening. Strange I used to say

this every week

in meditation

where is your future made?

when is the only time you can do anything about your future?

right now

this is the place

your future, peace, health and happiness is being constructed

so every time you worry about your future. uuuh what's going to happen to me?

i'm going to die

ur actually neglecting the place you could do something

which is right now?

so if you can just make peace, be kind, be gentle. If you can just let go of the future and the past?

and just be now

your gonna be a very healthy, happy, successful person

and people sort of, do bad things to you. Just let it go

why should I allow those people to control my happiness?

or it's one of my favorite sayings goes

you know you get these calendars used to get a calendar. we've run out of them

every year the buddhist society, makes a calendar

and they try and put some of Ajahn Brahm's sayings on that calendar

and the one saying I like the most which never gets on that calendar

is

this one

why seek for revenge

because you know that karma will get the bastards anyway

I don't know why that never gets on that calendar

it's a good one isn't it, you don't have to do anything karma will sort it out

leave it alone, you let it go

trouble is we all know it's reasonable thing to let it go. it makes a lot of

sense

but you

can't do it

which is why, we teach the four ways of letting go?

instead of saying let go, how do you let go? tell me how to let go.

and now the Buddha

is going to tell you. how to let go, with the four ways of letting go

the first way of letting go

it was starting off with

an old experience with my teacher Ajahn Chah, a long time ago

he was real walking back from alms round and a great teacher, they always find an

opportunity

to sort of

you know give you some teaching

but not these teachings with so many words and big concepts

just simple down to earth teachings which once you hear you think

correctly, that's really good

and you remember it

and it changes much of your life

what he did on this occasion walking back. He picked up this stick. There's forest all over

the place

picked up a stick. Turned around and says

Brahmavamso, is this heavy?

is this heavy?

not now

I'm very careful. I didn't throw that too far. I wonder what's gonna bust

it's only heavy

when you hold it

but if you let it go

it's got no weight at all.

profound

simple

and unforgettable

so what heavy things have you got in your life right now?

job, cancer

relationship problems

money problems

is that heavy?

it's only heavy when you hold it

so why on earth can't we let it go? why can't we thrown it away?

at the retreat

i told all those people

who are still worried about their family

worried about their job

to actually to get a stick

in the forest, in jhana grove

and either get a pen or carve

my family on the stick

look at that stick. that's my family

and thrown it as far as you possibly can.

so your free for nine days.

and you can change that if you put my job

you can put, you know my husband, my wife

my kids

my life, throw it away

because what that does

it gives you

an understanding, the first way of letting go is chucking things out

because you live such complicated lives

you have so many things in your basket

and that means

you can not travel lightly

on the journey of life. imagine

a big back pack, you see all these backpackers in perth

I used to go backpacking, my backpack was really small these days they have huge

backpacks

just wonder what they got in, in there. what do you actually need it in there?

probably got their computer

they didn't have computers in those days, just go to a box as a phone, if you wanna read that.

have your own phone but you were very light

in those days

they get big backpacks

imagine you've got a big backpack on

and it's really heavy. It's full of all these not just

clothes but rocks

heavy granite rocks and you

walk through life with this and you just don't know how to take it off and put it

down

your gonna get very tired

your gonna get very sick

your gonna have no happiness, at all and your gonna be so grumpy cuz every

moment of your life, your exhausted

do you feel exhausted?

in your mind

why?

because you've been carrying too many things

in the backpack

around your mind

so we actually look in that back pack. what can I throw away?

this is the first way of letting go.

see what you can? jetison see what you can throw away?

it's amazing you can throw away many many more things

then you could imagine

and

nothing goes wrong

if you throw away all this concern about your future and past

actually nothing goes wrong

that's the first big stone to

get it out of your backpack and throw away

it don't know about your history

has it been a good history

or bad history

I haven't got a clue, cause I threw my stone a long time ago

so you're free of your past

The past is a prison

It's a cell with an open door

you can walk out at any time you like

but a lot of times

just like people who have been in prison a long time

they'r just a bit afraid of leaving

they've been used to that prison cell

so much so

it's hard

to walk out

but once they have the courage to let go of the past

just like the prisoner walking out for the first time. freedom!!!

ahhh!!

I feel so good and so happy

this big burden

this big pain, this big rock

I've let go of

isn't that

wonderful

so see if you can look, at your past

even get a stick in the forest

write my past on it

and throw it as far, or even better get a rock

spray-paint past on it and throw it in the river

and let it sink

with no trace left behind