It’s been almost 3 weeks since I returned from the 9-day Sutta Retreat by Ajahn Brahmali, held at Jhana Grove in Perth, Australia. Seems a little behind time in this fast-paced world to only write about this after almost 3 weeks, but I believe in allowing time to integrate my experience, and hence the blog post now.
I’ve been following Ajahn Brahmali’s teachings since my brother introduced me to his online retreat during the pandemic, and attended his in-person 5-day retreat in Bintan with Buddhist Fellowship Singapore. I was really excited this time to be able to attend another longer retreat, this time in Perth and at Jhana Grove.
Jhana Grove is a dedicated meditation retreat centre nestled amidst the rolling hills of the Darling Range, adjacent to the Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine. Both Jhana Grove and Bodhiyana Monastery are headed by Ajhan Brahm, a well-respected monk who set up the monastery almost 40 years ago. The teachings of Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Brahmali are largely based on Theravada Buddhism teachings, with a focus on Early Buddhism Texts of the Pali Cannon.
I love going to silent retreats even though I am an extrovert. Since I started on the path of yoga, I am also deeply attracted by silence and the inner peace it brings. Silent retreats are a wonderful way to place yourself in a context of external silence in order to journey into an inner silence.
The retreat started on a Friday evening, 5pm. By then most of us have checked in, freshened up and ready for a meal. We then met with the facilitator Lay Har, and Ajahn Brahmali at 8pm for a first meeting where ground rules which were more like suggestions were made. One of the funniest things I heard was the rule set by Ajahn Brahm for his retreats: “Everything on the retreat programme is optional, except for 2 programmes: Breakfast and Lunch.” That pretty much sets the relaxed atmosphere for the retreat. With that, we retreat back to our rooms and had an early night. I had slept at 2am the day before, to catch a 7am flight so I was desperately in need of the bed.
Our daily routine was a meditation session at 5am, followed by a Metta Chant at 6am. We continue to meditate until 6.45am, followed by breakfast. There are 2 sutta sessions in a day, where Ajahn Brahmali goes through the selected suttas based on a theme. The theme for this retreat is “Freedom”.
Freedom as a concept is steeped in the Buddhist and Yogic, Vedantic paths. Many words are used for this concept: Nirvana, Moksha, Nibanna. We think we have the freedom of choice, freedom to do what we like, but in fact this freedom is a limited and narrow view, often within the confines of material and physical dimension. What Buddha tried to find was the freedom beyond senses, body, mind, and ultimately beyond karma - which keeps us in the endless cycle of birth and death, i.e. samsara.
Ajahn Brahmali included close to 40 excerpts from relevant suttas in this retreat and it was a joy to go through them line by line. I love Ajahn’s clear-cut style of teaching, and his timely pauses for us to reflect on what the Buddha said.
Some of my favourite suttas and themes taught during the retreat:
AN 8.6: “Worldly Conditions”
The Eight Worldly conditions that occupy unlearned persons’ minds:
Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain. These qualities among mankind are impermanent, transient, and perishable.
An intelligent and mindful person knows these things, seeing that they’re perishable. Desirable things don’t disturb their mind, nor are they repelled by the undesirable.
Both favoring and opposing are cleared and ended, they are no more. Knowing the stainless, sorrowless state, they who have gone beyond rebirth understand rightly.”
AN 10.62: “Craving”
"It’s like when the heavens rain heavily on a mountain top, and the water flows downhill to fill the hollows, crevices, and creeks. As they become full, they fill up the pools. The pools fill up the lakes, the lakes fill up the streams, and the streams fill up the rivers. And as the rivers become full, they fill up the ocean. That’s the fuel for the ocean, and that’s how it’s filled up. In this way, when the factor of associating with true persons is fulfilled, it fulfills the factor of listening to the true teaching. When the factor of listening to the true teaching is fulfilled, it fulfills the factor of faith … rational application of mind … mindfulness and situational awareness … sense restraint …the three kinds of good conduct … the four kinds of mindfulness meditation … the seven awakening factors. When the seven awakening factors are fulfilled, they fulfill knowledge and freedom. That’s the fuel for knowledge and freedom, and that’s how it’s fulfilled.”
MN 20: “How to Stop Thinking”
Now, suppose that mendicant is focusing on some other subject connected with the skillful, but bad, unskillful thoughts connected with desire, hate, and delusion keep coming up. They should examine the drawbacks of those thoughts: These methods are progressive; each one assumes that the former method hasfailed. ‘So these thoughts are unskillful, they’re blameworthy, and they result in suffering.’ As they do so, those bad thoughts are given up and come to an end. Their mind becomes stilled internally; it settles, unifies, and becomes immersed in samādhi. Suppose there was a woman or man who was young, youthful, and fond of adornments. If the carcass of a snake or a dog or a human were hung around their neck, they’d be horrified, repelled, and disgusted. In the same way, a mendicant … should examine the drawbacks of those thoughts …
AN 10.219: The Body Born of Deeds
“This heart’s release by love should be developed by women or men. For neither women nor men take this body with them when they go. The mind is what’s inside mortal beings. They understand: ‘Whatever bad deeds I have done in the past with this deed-born body I will experience here. It will not follow me to my next life.’ The heart’s release by love developed in this way leads to non-return for a wise mendicant here who has not penetrated to a higher freedom. They meditate spreading a heart full of compassion ... They meditate spreading a heart full of rejoicing ... They meditate spreading a heart full of equanimity to one direction, and tothe second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of equanimity to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will. They understand: ‘Formerly my mind was limited and undeveloped. Now it’s limitless and well developed. Whatever limited deeds I’ve done don’t remain or persist there.’
The complete list of Suttas shared in the retreat can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qjz3iuIpuMp0Fs_nH2cRYjhDGuJ-2TRl1gENIlGRnhw/edit?usp=sharing
In my early years of practice, it has been a lot of cognitive understanding, and less emotion and reflection. After about 10 years on the spiritual path, I finally come to realise that it is my heart that is more in need of a spiritual practice… and I have neglected it. Over-reliance on the mind at first felt refreshing and enlightening as the intellect is satisfied, but over time, I felt that my heart did not open nor soften as quickly or deeply as the intellect pursuit.
During this 9-day retreat, Ajahn Brahmali focused on the basic foundations of Buddhist meditation. We often think there are different methodologies in meditation, but Ajahn pointed out quite succinctly that all we need actually is kindness based on strong ethics. Kindness, purity of heart and strong ethics are the foundations that build wisdom to discern greed, hatred and ignorance. There is no need to over intellectualise philosophies and theories… granted, there is a need to understand for the intellect to be convinced but beyond a certain point, there cannot be real understanding but there needs to be experience.
And one experiences with the heart, not the mind.
I left the retreat with a deep profound silence deep within that I can access when I am mindful and not distracted. It was peaceful and tranquil, unshaken, untainted.
My takeaways from the retreat:
- The importance of keeping our hearts soft, always act with kindness and generosity. The act of kindness and generosity always begins with showing kindness and compassion to ourselves.
- The acts of kindness and compassion must bring you joy when you do them. If they are not, then do not force yourself. This is an underrated point which deserves to be emphasised repeatedly, especially in an Asian context when we have been socially conditioned to give out of obligation to family, elderly etc. If we are unhappy, annoyed, frustrated with the ‘obligated’ acts of kindness, we are developing nothing except ill-will within ourselves.
- If the spiritual goal is to dissolve our egos, then the use of will to reach this goal is an act of irony though there are nuances to how this can be executed. If a choice appears, one may choose the choice of strengthening the ego, or to weaken the ego. If the choice is made with shear will, intellect, it can backfire as it is the ego that wants to dissolve the ego. I.e., do not use the “self” to reach the “non-self”
- When we understand impermanence deeply, we are filled with gratitude for every moment that we have in our lives, including our healthy bodies, our minds, our relationships and our resources. With gratitutde, the heart lightens and softens.
As ever, I am grateful to be on the spiritual path, first through the teachings of Yoga and Vedanta and now expanding into Buddhism. I am grateful that I had the time to understand the nature of my body through facing cancer, and having the opportunity to heal and strengthen it with yoga asana practice. The spiritual path is a joyful one, and may every step brings me closer to the divine bliss of freedom.
