Videos

About Buddha: Life of the Buddha

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This is a brief video biography about Buddha. The Buddha has inspired so many around the world to find peace and happiness through meditation and his teachings, but who is the Buddha and what happened in his life that made him become the Buddha, the ‘Awakened One’?

Buddha was born around 2,600 years ago. He was born into a royal family and was given the name Prince Siddhartha Gautama. He lived a protected and carefree life of luxury, until one day he came face to face with the harsh realities of life: old age, sickness and death. These three sights were to change the course of Siddhartha’s life.

Embarking on a spiritual quest to find liberation from the sufferings in the world, Siddhartha finally discovered the truth of suffering and how to end it. He achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, India, and from that moment on was known as the Buddha, the ‘Awakened One’.

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Reincarnation, Rebirth, Life After Life & Past Life Evidence

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Life after life, reincarnation and rebirth are fascinating concepts. In Buddhism, life after death is a readily accepted concept, but is it really true? How do we know if we have had multiple lives? In this episode: I share a personal account of a family member who had what appears to be a past life recollection, I explore some of the scientific studies of Dr Jim Tucker where children have remembered their past lives, I introduce some of the surprising results of past life regression therapy by Dr Brian Weiss, I consider how near-death experiences may support the concept of multiple lives, and lastly, I explain how the Buddha discovered the important connection between karma and rebirth and how that impacts on a Buddhist’s life today.

Rebirth is an interesting topic and there are many people who believe in it. Before coming to Buddhism I was on the side of being neither a believer nor a non-believer. I was looking for more proof that it was a possibility. The books I mention in this video really helped me to open my eyes to the possibility of rebirth:

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Calm Abiding Guided Meditation – Breath as the Meditation Object

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In this video I will lead you through an easy fifteen-minute guided meditation on your breath. This meditation is ideal for beginners (and even experienced practitioners) who have trouble concentrating on their breath. When it comes to meditation, our biggest distraction is our thoughts. This breathing meditation, called Qualified Rounds of Breath, is designed to use our tendency of having thoughts to our advantage. Here, we concentrate on our breath but deliberately generate thoughts to aid our meditation. This meditation also helps us to breathe in something positive and breathe out something we really need to let go of.

This should not be seen as a replacement of the more traditional Theravada Buddhist meditation technique of simply concentrating on the breath, but merely as an alternative for when our minds are especially active or when we are in need of something a little more inspiring.

This meditation can also be used as an effective form of therapy for dealing with day-to-day problems. When something happens during our day which gives rise to feelings of anger, resentment, stress or worry, it can be difficult to put the brakes on these emotions and we can find ourselves overwhelmed and unable to enjoy the rest of the day. This practice gives us a mechanism to change our mental patterns and encourage wholesome thoughts and eliminate the emotions that are troubling us.

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Calm Abiding Meditation Instructions – Breath as the Meditation Object

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This is a great breathing meditation for beginners. Usually, meditating on the breath is not interesting enough to hold our attention, but this meditation makes it much easier. When we’re trying to establish one pointed concentration we need to have something to keep our busy – and often distracted – mind captivated. This calm abiding meditation technique, called Qualified Rounds of Breath, allows us a bit of creativity so we can make the breath more interesting.

When we meditate on our breath, our biggest obstacle is thinking about other thoughts. Since our thoughts are often so fascinating, especially compared to the plain and humble breath, thoughts always triumph in this battle for our attention. But this technique will help us to hold our attention on the breath much longer, as it uses our very tendency of having thoughts to its advantage. This is also an extremely therapeutic meditation technique as it allows us to breathe in something new and breathe out something we really need to let go of.

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Calm Abiding Guided Meditation – Body as the Meditation Object

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In this video I will lead you through a guided meditation on the practice of Calm Abiding meditation. In this practice we use our body as our object of meditation. We shouldn’t be in a rush to meditate on our breath. Instead, meditating on our bodies can help us gain more stability before we move … Read more

Calm Abiding Meditation Instructions – Body as the Meditation Object

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Practising meditation is the best gift we can give ourselves (and those around us). In this video I give detailed instructions on how to practice Calm Abiding meditation using our bodies as our object of meditation. This is a very good grounding meditation that helps us gain more stability before we move onto meditating on … Read more