From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kkJOEPJB2HE

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

it's my pleasure this evening to invite

you to come and visit us and also to

introduce you to the venerable that are

here with me our teacher is most

venerable Bond TV malorum see he's maha

tara means that he's in over twenty year

monk he originally i'm going to

introduce briefly also venerable KU

Celinda and he is from busan Liana and

he is from Sri Lanka and he has taught

at the University of parody Nia and at I

think he taught some at Colombo to write

down in Colombo and also in in Sri Lanka

this is and also at the Sri Lankan

international buddhist academy thats up

near candy it's in place called palak le

we are a meditation center concentrating

principally on that and Monty V mola Ram

day we call him Ponte and you may also

refer to him as Bond TV or Bunty and he

is the person who is going to be giving

a talk to you tonight and he actually

has about thirty nine years experience

in his meditation practice he started

back in 1974 he was born in New York he

lived for a time in Chicago and then

after 12 years old he grew up in

California Escondido and then he went

over later and he went to Asia and spent

about 12 and a half years or so but he's

going to be talking to you tonight about

a subject that we were asked to talk

about which is basically a discussion

about the difference between rebirth and

reincarnation which are not the same

thing and we hope that you will join in

questions and answers and have a

discussion with us after he finishes the

initial talk it's a real interesting

discussion because Tibetans very

strongly believe in reincarnation and

they have the Dalai Lama and when he

dies then the next one then they have to

go out and look for him and give him

tests and that sort of thing and they

claim that he's the reincarnation of the

last Dalai Lama actually that is coming

from the brahmin hindu tradition it's

not Buddhist at all reincarnation is

talking about having a permanent soul or

self that gets reborn every time over

and over and over again so they're

talking about having a permanent kind of

arrangement where you never die rebirth

on the other hand is somewhat different

and when you start to learn about

meditation you start to see that

everything is in a state of change its

flux it's always arising passing away

arising passing away of everything and

rebirth is birth death birth death birth

death that is continually happening now

I teach meditation and I teach people

how to eventually see that consciousness

is not just one thing consciousness

arises and

passes away very quickly now when you're

practicing meditation what will happen

is you at first have this very strong

belief in a personal self this is my

feeling those are my thoughts as you

practice with meditation the little

brochure that you got this three folds

is the instruction in how to exactly

practice this practice you first

recognize that your mind gets distracted

once you're sitting in meditation then

you release that distraction you don't

keep your attention on it next you relax

the tightness caused by that now you

bring up something wholesome and you

smile and this is an important part of

the meditation and then you return to

your object to meditation and stay with

your object of meditation as long as you

can we call that the six R's

now when you start to get a little bit

deeper and you start to become more

familiar with how your mind's attention

moves and you can let it be and relax

and smile and come back to your object

of meditation you're actually starting

to become more familiar with the process

of consciousnesses arising and passing

away you start to see that one you have

no control over what consciousness

arises now

in in buddhism there are what we call

$0.06 doors the eye the ear the nose the

tongue the body and mind in order to see

you have to have a good working eye it

has to hit color and form when the good

working eye hits color and form

eye-consciousness arises okay and that

happens with the ear and sound that the

nose and odor the tongue and flavor like

that now these are individual

consciousness the consciousness is that

arise you don't have one continuous

consciousness like right now you're

hearing and you're seeing me at the same

time it seems but there is arising and

passing away of both of these things

that's happening very quickly that was

about a hundred thousand arising and

passing away of the ear consciousness so

you can see that this is happening very

fast when you practice meditation you

actually can become so clear and aware

in your mind that you will see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away birth death birth death birth

death

the reincarnation is the idea that you

are continually having the same

consciousness run and wander through the

rounds of rebirth and the reason

consciousnesses arise is because of your

good or bad actions

and that again is a Hindu idea with

rebirth you're seeing the birth and

death of consciousnesses arising and

passing away very quickly there is a

continuum that happens and that becomes

that that is caused by your past actions

in other lifetimes even how when you are

sitting in meditation and you feel like

moving what is what is the cause of that

did you bring up that feeling and are

that thought and say well I haven't

moved for a while I should be moving or

if you're sitting and you have a pain

arise did you ask that pain to come up

nobody's going to do that to themselves

it arises because conditions are right

for it to arise now what I'm talking

about is Karma and this is a lot

different way of looking at Karma then

you probably normally hear because of

past action this arises in the present

moment what you do with what arises in

the present moment dictates what happens

in the future

that's Karma

so when you start practicing meditation

and you start seeing how Minds attention

moves from one thing to another to

another to another and you start

relaxing and letting that be and letting

it go and not trying to make your mind

become concentrated but you allow your

mind to become collected as you do that

more and more you start to see

everything is impermanent everything is

in a state of change sit still

can you well the earth is moving around

can't sit still this way you have

molecules and atoms going all through

your body moving around and things

moving around them it's impossible to

sit still everything in the universe is

in a constant flux it's in a constant

state of change the only thing that's

permanent is impermanence

because of this you start to see for

yourself that there is an arising and

passing away of phenomena continually

over and over and over again it's not

the same

it's individual consciousnesses arising

and passing away now when I when I teach

meditation I generally ask people to

come at this to the center for about two

weeks of practice after the first week

they generally like 80% of the people

that come they will start to see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away and you see that for yourself

and you start knowing that this is not a

philosophy like reincarnation is but

this is actually seeing the things that

as they actually work and the more

clearly you see these things arising and

passing away the more you start to

realize that everything is like we're in

a holographic universe there is an

observer there is something that

cognizes what do you cognate what's

happening in the present moment what's

happening in the present moment is

continual arising and passing away of

phenomena

it gets real interesting when you start

practicing meditation because you don't

have to believe anything that said all

you have to do is practice and you'll

see it for yourself now the thing with

karma is pretty amazing a lot of people

they really get caught up and oh that's

happening to me because my karma is bad

or good or whatever you have things that

you have done in the past that are good

and you have done some things in the

past that are not so good and when the

conditions are right for that karma to

arise it will arise by itself and what

you do with that in the present moment

if it's anger if it's frustration if

it's some kind of attachment that you're

holding on to it can be emotional

attachment it can be physical attachment

whatever if you take that personally and

you say this is my feeling this is my

thoughts this is my sensation this is

who I am you're not seeing things very

clearly now when I just talked to you

about using the six hours there's a step

in there that's called relax what does

that mean the relax

step is the way that you see and

recognize craving when it arises

in your mind and in your body the Buddha

talked about Four Noble Truths there is

suffering in life there is a cause of

suffering craving there is a cessation

of suffering there is a way to let go of

that suffering so when you are learning

how to practice meditation you sit very

calmly very relaxed way you close your

eyes and what I teach is called

loving-kindness meditation where you

wish happiness for yourself and other

beings and then your mind starts to go

like this and get tight and then all of

a sudden you have thoughts arising and

that turns into opinions and concepts

and ideas and stories about why that

feeling and why that craving arose and

right after that is where your emotional

habitual tendency arises now your made

up of five different things you have a

physical body there is feeling feeling

is not emotion feeling is pleasant or

painful or neither painful nor pleasant

it's just a feeling it's a nice feeling

it's not a nice feeling it's kind of

neutral then you have perception

perception is your part of your mind

that names things now you look at this

and the part of your mind that said this

is a book that's perception it also has

memory in it

you have thoughts you have consciousness

you're made up of these five things

everybody is now when a painful feeling

arises it doesn't matter whether it's a

physical painful feeling or a mental

emotional painful feeling the first

thing that we try to do is control that

feeling with our thoughts but thoughts

are one thing and feelings are something

else

the more you try to think the feeling

the more intense and bigger that feeling

becomes

and this is our habitual tendency this

is what we get caught in doing over and

over and over again is we try to think

our feeling away we try to control our

feeling with our thoughts and that just

causes suffering to arise and when you

do that when you try to control your

thought your your feelings with your

thoughts your taking it personally

you're saying this is my feeling and I

don't like it and I want it to stop and

I'm depressed and I don't like it or I'm

angry and I don't like it you're trying

to think you're feeling so how do you

overcome that problem by recognizing

that there's tension and tightness in

your head in your mind see that you're

thinking about a feeling and let those

thoughts go what do I mean by let them

go don't keep your attention on the

thoughts anymore then you relax the

tension and tightness caused in your

head in your mind now there is a

membrane that goes around your brain

it's called the meninges every time you

have a thought every time a feeling

arises every time a sensation arises it

causes tension and tightness around your

brain that tension and tightness is

craving craving always manifest as I

like it if it's a pleasant feeling I

don't like it if it's a painful feeling

and that is the very start of your

identification with this thought or

feeling this is where you start saying

this is me this is mine this is Who I am

but the truth is you didn't ask this

stuff to come up came up by itself you

can't control it while it's there and

you can't make it go away when you want

it to go away so it's not yours it's

just a feeling and the more you learn

how to relax that tension and tightness

in your head and feel that openness that

happens when you let go of that tension

and tightness you'll notice right after

you do that there is no thoughts your

mind is clear your mind is very alert

your mind is very bright and your mind

is pure why is it pure because you have

let go of craving craving is the cause

of suffering nobody wants to suffer so

how do you let go of it first you

recognize that it's there and don't keep

your attention on it if you keep your

attention on your thoughts to try to

control your feelings you are going to

suffer immeasurably more and the more

you try to control your thoughts with

their your feeling with your thoughts

the more intense that feeling becomes

until you start getting frustrated you

get angry you get depressed and then you

say does everybody else around you leave

me alone I'm depressed don't bother me

now I can tell you exactly precisely

exactly how depression arises and it's

pretty simple painful feeling arises I

don't like that painful feeling that's

the craving I have my opinions and

thoughts and ideas and story about why I

don't like that have you ever noticed

when you get upset you have a lot of

repeat thoughts and it's just like they

was on a tape deck same thoughts same

order over and over and over again that

says you have craving in your mind at

that time right after this story about

then you get into your habitual tendency

every time this kind of feeling comes up

I have these kind of thoughts and I try

to control my feeling with my thoughts

and the feeling gets bigger and more

intense and you suffer why are you

suffering a couple of reasons one you're

taking it personally who's thought is

that who's feeling is that did you ask

it to come up did you tell yourself you

know I haven't been depressed for a long

time I might as well get depressed right

now it doesn't happen that way it

happens because of past actions and what

you did with that when it arose

like most people you try to think you're

feeling away it doesn't work but you

keep trying to do it thinking that

there's going to be a different end

result but there's not you just get more

and more depressed and then you say oh I

got to go to the doctor and I got to

talk to him about this and he's going to

give me some drugs that's not going to

help learning how this process works

works 100% of the time becoming more

aware of how your mind works

how you see the arising and passing away

of these phenomena this birth death

birth death birth death this is rebirth

so when you become more familiar of how

this process works you're able to see

that when you let go of the craving and

you let go of that tightness in your

head in your mind your mind becomes

clear and that leads to real true

happiness and contentment the thing with

what you did in the past dictates what

happens in the future or what happens in

the present and that dictates what

happens in the future if you resist if

you fight with if you try to control you

can look forward to this kind of painful

thing coming up over and over and over

again

and it's your choice you can allow that

to happen or not if you see in the

present

that you have frustration anger anxiety

depression fear whatever the catch of

the day is and you start to allow it to

be and relax and smile and wish somebody

happiness you are changing in a positive

way the whole point with Buddhism is

learning how to allow these changes to

happen in a positive way and as you

become more and more aware of how you

cause yourself suffering and you let go

of that suffering you become more

content with all of life everything in

life becomes easier it's pretty amazing

to watch sometimes when when you begin

practicing meditation we have you

practice your five precepts what are the

five precepts the precepts are not

Commandments they're suggestions that if

you follow these five things life will

become easier

don't kill or harm living beings on

purpose don't take anything that's not

given don't steal don't have any wrong

sexual activity wrong sexual activity

means sexual activity with someone

that's too young still under the care of

their parents or someone that's married

not to tell lies even little white lies

not to curse not to Pit one group of

people against another not to gossip and

what is gossip it's talking about

somebody that's not there and you're

making up stories about them that aren't

necessarily true and don't take any

drugs or alcohol that dull your mind now

these five precepts if you keep them you

will start to notice that your mind

becomes real clear and bright and it's

easy to meditate when you break a

precept you will notice that your

meditation doesn't work so well because

you have hindrances that arise

now when I say meditation I'm not

talking just about sitting I'm talking

about all different aspects of your life

because meditation is not just about

sitting like a like like a stone Buddha

image it is about living and being aware

of what you're doing in with your mind

in the present moment so when you begin

to practice the meditation the way that

I suggest you first start out by

learning how to smile and that sounds

really odd but you smile with your mind

you smile with your eyes a little smile

on your lips a smile in your heart carry

it with you wherever you're going send

that smile to someone else

send that happy feeling to someone else

and the more you keep practicing this

without breaking the precepts the faster

your progress and the meditation becomes

it's pretty amazing when I first started

doing the meditation way back when it

took a long time to figure out what the

meditation was before I found out what

it wasn't but as I started to realize

more and more of what the Buddha was

actually trying to teach us it doesn't

take very long for you to understand

yeah this is good this works and it's

right when I was practicing in Burma

they said well you have to do a few

3-month retreats three-month retreat and

Burma is you get up at 3 o'clock in the

morning and you do your sitting

meditation and walking meditation

alternately until 11 o'clock at night

and then you go to bed and get up at 3

o'clock and start all over again try

that for three months sometimes I did it

for eight

so it's a pretty odd it's pretty intense

but I've since learned that there are

other ways of doing the meditation that

are much easier and it's immediately

effective when you recognize that your

mind has gone to something unwholesome

and you let it be and relax and smile

and come back to something that is

wholesome you have let go of craving you

have gone from an unwholesome state to a

wholesome state and sometimes a blink of

an eye and that's what is immediately

effective it really really does work

this way and when I was in Thailand they

were talking about going into very high

states of different kinds of they call

them jhana which they define as levels

of concentration and they say if you

want to practice with the Thai it'll

take about 15 years to be able to get

into this deep state of concentration

and then I went to Sri Lanka and they

started talking about that and they say

well it'll take about ten years for you

to get to that level of concentration

because of my going back to the original

teachings and seeing what the Buddha

said when you come for a retreat it

might take three days to get to that

same level they're talking about if you

follow directions the way that they're

given

okay so I've been talking for a long

time do you have any questions that you

want to talk about

I love this stuff you know in Asia I

spent most of my time teaching in

Malaysia and they are Chinese and

they're Chinese

educated which means they never ever

come up with a question for a teacher

whether they understand it or not but

there's one section in the suit does you

know what I'm going to do and it says

it's talking about karma and how karma

works and it says if you want to be

reborn stupid then never ask any

questions if you want to be reborn

intelligent then ask a lot of questions

when I was with my my teachers I would

drive them crazy because I was always

asking questions and one of them one of

my teachers said in your next lifetime

if you don't get attained Nirvana now

you're going to be reborn smarter than

Einstein because you asked so many

questions but an unwholesome thought is

any thought that you take personally

this is me this is mine this is Who I am

when in fact you didn't ask it to come

up it's going to be there as long as

it's going to be there it's going to go

away by itself what you need to do is

not keep your attention on it and

identify with it let's say you have a

thought

of a painful relationship that you're

going through right now and your mind

just goes root and you start thinking

about it now who brought that up whose

thoughts are those whose feelings are

those who doesn't like it who wants it

to be different than it is I do I want

it to be different than it is I don't

want this pain to be there now this is

unwholesome because you're taking it

personally now when you're practicing

meditation of course your mind is going

to bit get distracted you're going to

have thoughts coming up if you have a

very active day you're going to have an

active mind when you sit down to

meditate only natural so you let it be

you recognize that your mind has become

distracted you let it be you relax by

not keeping your attention on it and not

and not keep your attention on it and

then you bring up something wholesome

what's wholesome smile okay how's your

mind feel when you smile lighter not

tight and you bring that mind back to

your object of meditation which is

wishing yourself happiness or wishing

somebody else happiness now the nature

of these kind of things is they don't go

away right away so you have to do it

again and then you have to do it again

but you have to understand that these

kind of distractions are not bad they're

not something that makes you want to

fight with it so you can control it the

truth is

that when a hindrance arises it is

teaching you where your attachment is

where you're causing yourself pain and

every time that hindrance comes up again

and again it's key it's showing you the

same lesson over and over again as you

relax into it allow that to be there

without keeping your attention on it and

then putting your attention on happiness

and wishing other people happiness that

hindrance eventually starts to get

weaker and weaker because you're not

pushing against it anymore you're not

trying to fight it and eventually that

hindrance just doesn't have enough

strength to arise anymore

when that happens you will like it I

guarantee you feel immediate sense of

relief right after that very strong joy

arises this kind of joy is called

uplifting joy it only happens through

mental development there's other kinds

of joy that happen at other times but

this only happens through mental

development and you feel really light in

your body and you feel really light in

your mind and you start going this is

such a happy feeling that's what I've

been looking for I want some of this to

stay around it's really good but

eventually that feeling will fade away a

little bit and you will get a very very

strong sense of tranquility and you'll

feel more comfortable in your mind and

in your body than you've ever felt

before

just ha really good

well it's going to everything is

impermanent so it's going to last for a

little while

but you see these hindrances when they

come up and you deal with them this way

by not getting involved with your

thinking about and trying to control and

that sort of thing you're learning

lessons about how you cause your own

pain and how to let go of that pain and

you can take these lessons with you into

your daily life now everybody has a

hindrance arise once in a while in their

daily life anger comes up because

something happened you didn't like it

that's a hindrance now you get to work

with that let it be relaxed and smile

and come back and wish happiness and

that's how personality development

occurs in Buddhism the things that used

to bother you really a lot eventually

you'll get to a place where your mind

has balance in it and that doesn't mean

that you're not going to have some roles

some good stuff and bad stuff come up

you will but instead of being in the

roller coaster ride I like this I don't

like that I like this I don't like that

you're going to start having more like

waves happening and you gain more and

more balance in your mind as you go

along but you have to learn the lessons

of how you cause your mind upset before

you can learn how to have balance

so this is going to last for a little

while and then it's going to go away and

then another hindrance is going to come

up and the hindrances are your teachers

they're showing you where your

attachments are if you don't take them

personally if you don't grab on to them

and say this is me this is mine this is

Who I am if you start relaxing into it

and letting it be and not being so

caught up in the emotion of the moment

then you're opening yourself up to more

and more equanimity more and more

balance in your life and as a result

there's a lot more contentment now I

looked up the word contentment

contentment means happy and it's not the

giddy kind of happiness this is just a

deep happiness and you feel like you're

learning something that you've never

understood before Buddhism is very much

about how mind works

how how does this process work and as

you go deeper and deeper into it you

become quite intelligent I've I've had a

lot of students especially in Malaysia

where they the a lot of Christians would

come and they would have discussion with

Buddhist and the Christians would always

say why does it seem that Buddhists are

always always so smart so because they

became Buddhists but that's not the real

answer the real answer is they're

starting to see how everything really

does work and that makes you more and

more intelligent you don't get so caught

up in emotional distraction and dislike

and all of the things that cause your

mind to fly away you don't get so caught

up in them anymore

and it gets more and more easy as you

begin to keep your precepts without

breaking them seeing the advantage of

doing this practicing your generosity a

lot of people they hear you got a

practice giving and they start thinking

well this guy is trying to get into my

my pocket he wants me he wants to have

me give him some money

monks don't need money we do fine

without it

how do you practice generosity there's

three ways you practice generosity you

practice generosity with your body

helping other people with your speech

saying things that make other people

happy and smile and your mind it's great

fun to go into a restaurant or go into a

food store and be in line and there's a

little baby right in front of you that's

being bored and crying and just

generally causing people havoc around

them and to start sending them loving

and kind thoughts and all of a sudden

they feel that and it's like they got

woken up and they'll start looking at

you and they'll start smiling at you

what a great way to practice your

generosity you're giving away kind

thoughts and kind feelings to other

people and that's the first part of

meditation it's not just about sitting

this is part about it it's living it is

real important the more you can remember

to send loving and kind thoughts to

everybody else around you the more you

affect the world in a positive way and

right now to be quite honest this world

needs a lot more positive energy than it

has so much fear so much anxiety oh

what's going to happen the world's going

to end people come and ask me whether

I'm bothered by it as and

oh why am i bothered by that doesn't

mean anything I'm not going to worry

about what's going to happen tomorrow I

want to be happy right now and focus on

that now that's not suppressing anything

that's not pushing anything away that is

spending time where you help other

people by wishing them happiness

now when the the tsunami hit Sri Lanka a

few years ago a lot of people on the

internet were oh they're really

bemoaning the fact it's such a terrible

thing what can we do we do were were so

far away we can't help all we can do is

be sad because these this tragedy

happened to other people and kheema came

to me and said what can we do for these

other people I said what you do is you

start getting on the internet and

talking to all these different groups

and start sending loving and kind

thoughts to all of those people that are

suffering do you think it doesn't do

some good I know it does everybody is

looking for some of the same stuff

everybody wants the same thing I want to

be loved so practice your generosity and

give it to them as much as you can

remember during the day

so the more you can practice this the

easier it becomes the more happy you

become and your happiness starts to go

off and be get involved with other

people and they become happy and you

start affecting the world around you in

a positive way you're worrying you're

being Restless your anxiety your fear is

not helping anybody including yourself

that's just reaction that's an action

that you do over and over and over again

that you're causing yourself problem and

you keep doing it because all of these

different situations say oh you got to

fear more this Obamacare is going to

take all your insurance away and then

you're going to really suffer get away

from me with that kind of stuff

you start wishing other people happiness

you go to hospitals and wish people

happiness you are affecting them in a

very positive way

I've seen amazing miracles occur by

going and visiting somebody in the

hospital that's really sick and watching

them change from being having extreme

pain and dissatisfaction to smiling and

being happy that's a miracle and you see

you can see those things happen all the

time so any other question yes

by practicing what I just told you it's

going to come there's going to be times

when your mind is going to be get caught

come come and practice with me for two

weeks I'm being serious

you'd be surprised at the personality

difference because what I show you is

what the Buddha said and then you get to

see for yourself whether it's true or

not

color shoes it helps so much that it's

unbelievable why what happens when you

have a test coming up and you know you

really have to study hard because you

haven't been hitting the books all that

much and you're getting down too close

to the time of the test and then you

really start cramming and then you start

worrying about oh I don't know whether

I'm going to do good on this and all of

a sudden you're not doing you're not

studying anymore you're worrying about

what the outcome is going to be and then

you have to go back and reread what you

just got through reading because you

didn't get all of it what this practice

does is it helps you to be very

systematic and efficient

now that worry you know we start

thinking about something else and all of

a sudden you're only half here and half

over there

what is worry first it's a painful

feeling that arose then there's I don't

like that feeling and then there's

getting into and taking that feeling

very personally and having your ideas

and concepts about it and then your

habitual tendency about trying to

control it and causing yourself a lot of

suffering when you see how that process

works and you start letting it be and

relaxing then you're going to start

staying on your object of meditation and

it becomes fun if you don't have fun

with your studies then it's time to find

another way of studying so you do have

fun with it it's fun to learn new stuff

and the more fun you have learning it

the faster you learn the better your

grades become the more efficient you

become with what you're doing in the

present moment when you start to get

serious about stuff you're just putting

roadblocks in your way when you start to

worry about oh I don't know whether I'm

going to do this very well or not what

kind of fun is that when you have fun

it's real easy to understand what you're

doing while you're doing it if you're

not having fun in that class think about

another one

it's got to be fun if it's not fun why

are you doing it the whole thing with

the buddha was heaven uplifted mind what

does that mean

having a mind that has fun in life with

everything no worries no anxieties no

depressions having an uplifted mind

having fun learning new things

it really does work that way okay

ghost

there's the suits no such a thing as

reincarnation first thing there are

people I'll give you an example of what

happened to me when I was in Asia for a

while I went to a graveyard and I spent

the night at a graveyard

and there were energies around that were

real that came into my mind while I was

sleeping

if you don't want that sort of thing to

occur you start practicing

loving-kindness wishing yourself

happiness wishing other beings happy and

you put a bubble of loving-kindness

around you and if there is a troubling

energy you put a bubble of

loving-kindness around it and radiate

that loving-kindness it will not bother

you guaranteed I had to learn that the

hard way I'm kind of a fanatic in some

ways because I'll keep doing so the same

thing over and over again

until I learned from it and what I would

do is I spent about three weeks every

night going to the cemetery for the

whole night and these beings would come

into my mind and some of them would try

to scare me and some of them would try

to do other things and finally when I

started seeing that if I put

loving-kindness around me then there was

no more trouble and I had a good night's

sleep there is no more fear there's no

anxiety of these other beings that would

cause problem there is no more concepts

you know every thought you have is a

concept what is a concept this is a

table right where's the table is it the

top is it the legs is it the bracing

where is the table it's made up of a lot

of little things that we put together

and say this is a table now to have

these kind of concepts means that we

have to have certain kinds of conditions

to arise in order for that concept to

arise what the Buddha taught was how to

get into the unconditioned mind or state

the unconditioned state if there's no

conditions how can you talk about it

when all you have is concepts and words

to try to describe it but there is

extreme amounts of relief and the

personality change becomes quite

noticeable when you get to the first

stage of this unconditioned State you

know ever have any doubt as to whether

this is the right path or not no more

doubt will ever arise in your mind you

won't believe that rights in which

rituals will lead to an unconditioned

State and you start seeing for yourself

that everything is impersonal

it is part of an impersonal process when

you get to the third stage you will not

ever again have lust or hatred arise in

your mind never again now that's a

pretty radical personality change and

the last the last stage of the awakening

is called becoming an are hot you let go

of wanting to be reborn in one realm or

another you let go of restlessness never

coming up in your mind again or the

sleepiness and dullness you'll never

have any pride arising in your mind and

you won't have any ignorance now a mind

that doesn't have any craving or

ignorance and ignorance is defined as

being able to see and understand the

Four Noble Truths the way they actually

are if you don't have any craving or

ignorant arise anymore there is no

suffering

and there's a lot a lot of relief in

that and that happen in this lifetime

absolutely yes I've been around a lot of

monks that say there's no sense in even

trying to get to this kind of state it

won't happen well I'm here to tell you

it can happen it does happen for some

people it's pretty amazing to watch

anyway any other last question yeah

no more questions

the chair Samaritan this is something I

always do after the end of a talk may

suffering ones be suffering free and the

fear struck fearless be may the grieving

shed all grief and may all beings find

relief may all beings share this merit

that we've thus acquired for the

acquisition of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

divas and Nagas of mighty powers share

this merit of ours may they long protect

a Buddhist dispensation sadha side to

side

it's my pleasure this evening to invite

you to come and visit us and also to

introduce you to the venerable that are

here with me our teacher is most

venerable Bond TV malorum see he's maha

tara means that he's in over twenty year

monk he originally i'm going to

introduce briefly also venerable KU

Celinda and he is from busan Liana and

he is from Sri Lanka and he has taught

at the University of parody Nia and at I

think he taught some at Colombo to write

down in Colombo and also in in Sri Lanka

this is and also at the Sri Lankan

international buddhist academy thats up

near candy it's in place called palak le

we are a meditation center concentrating

principally on that and Monty V mola Ram

day we call him Ponte and you may also

refer to him as Bond TV or Bunty and he

is the person who is going to be giving

a talk to you tonight and he actually

has about thirty nine years experience

in his meditation practice he started

back in 1974 he was born in New York he

lived for a time in Chicago and then

after 12 years old he grew up in

California Escondido and then he went

over later and he went to Asia and spent

about 12 and a half years or so but he's

going to be talking to you tonight about

a subject that we were asked to talk

about which is basically a discussion

about the difference between rebirth and

reincarnation which are not the same

thing and we hope that you will join in

questions and answers and have a

discussion with us after he finishes the

initial talk it's a real interesting

discussion because Tibetans very

strongly believe in reincarnation and

they have the Dalai Lama and when he

dies then the next one then they have to

go out and look for him and give him

tests and that sort of thing and they

claim that he's the reincarnation of the

last Dalai Lama actually that is coming

from the brahmin hindu tradition it's

not Buddhist at all reincarnation is

talking about having a permanent soul or

self that gets reborn every time over

and over and over again so they're

talking about having a permanent kind of

arrangement where you never die rebirth

on the other hand is somewhat different

and when you start to learn about

meditation you start to see that

everything is in a state of change its

flux it's always arising passing away

arising passing away of everything and

rebirth is birth death birth death birth

death that is continually happening now

I teach meditation and I teach people

how to eventually see that consciousness

is not just one thing consciousness

arises and

passes away very quickly now when you're

practicing meditation what will happen

is you at first have this very strong

belief in a personal self this is my

feeling those are my thoughts as you

practice with meditation the little

brochure that you got this three folds

is the instruction in how to exactly

practice this practice you first

recognize that your mind gets distracted

once you're sitting in meditation then

you release that distraction you don't

keep your attention on it next you relax

the tightness caused by that now you

bring up something wholesome and you

smile and this is an important part of

the meditation and then you return to

your object to meditation and stay with

your object of meditation as long as you

can we call that the six R's

now when you start to get a little bit

deeper and you start to become more

familiar with how your mind's attention

moves and you can let it be and relax

and smile and come back to your object

of meditation you're actually starting

to become more familiar with the process

of consciousnesses arising and passing

away you start to see that one you have

no control over what consciousness

arises now

in in buddhism there are what we call

$0.06 doors the eye the ear the nose the

tongue the body and mind in order to see

you have to have a good working eye it

has to hit color and form when the good

working eye hits color and form

eye-consciousness arises okay and that

happens with the ear and sound that the

nose and odor the tongue and flavor like

that now these are individual

consciousness the consciousness is that

arise you don't have one continuous

consciousness like right now you're

hearing and you're seeing me at the same

time it seems but there is arising and

passing away of both of these things

that's happening very quickly that was

about a hundred thousand arising and

passing away of the ear consciousness so

you can see that this is happening very

fast when you practice meditation you

actually can become so clear and aware

in your mind that you will see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away birth death birth death birth

death

the reincarnation is the idea that you

are continually having the same

consciousness run and wander through the

rounds of rebirth and the reason

consciousnesses arise is because of your

good or bad actions

and that again is a Hindu idea with

rebirth you're seeing the birth and

death of consciousnesses arising and

passing away very quickly there is a

continuum that happens and that becomes

that that is caused by your past actions

in other lifetimes even how when you are

sitting in meditation and you feel like

moving what is what is the cause of that

did you bring up that feeling and are

that thought and say well I haven't

moved for a while I should be moving or

if you're sitting and you have a pain

arise did you ask that pain to come up

nobody's going to do that to themselves

it arises because conditions are right

for it to arise now what I'm talking

about is Karma and this is a lot

different way of looking at Karma then

you probably normally hear because of

past action this arises in the present

moment what you do with what arises in

the present moment dictates what happens

in the future

that's Karma

so when you start practicing meditation

and you start seeing how Minds attention

moves from one thing to another to

another to another and you start

relaxing and letting that be and letting

it go and not trying to make your mind

become concentrated but you allow your

mind to become collected as you do that

more and more you start to see

everything is impermanent everything is

in a state of change sit still

can you well the earth is moving around

can't sit still this way you have

molecules and atoms going all through

your body moving around and things

moving around them it's impossible to

sit still everything in the universe is

in a constant flux it's in a constant

state of change the only thing that's

permanent is impermanence

because of this you start to see for

yourself that there is an arising and

passing away of phenomena continually

over and over and over again it's not

the same

it's individual consciousnesses arising

and passing away now when I when I teach

meditation I generally ask people to

come at this to the center for about two

weeks of practice after the first week

they generally like 80% of the people

that come they will start to see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away and you see that for yourself

and you start knowing that this is not a

philosophy like reincarnation is but

this is actually seeing the things that

as they actually work and the more

clearly you see these things arising and

passing away the more you start to

realize that everything is like we're in

a holographic universe there is an

observer there is something that

cognizes what do you cognate what's

happening in the present moment what's

happening in the present moment is

continual arising and passing away of

phenomena

it gets real interesting when you start

practicing meditation because you don't

have to believe anything that said all

you have to do is practice and you'll

see it for yourself now the thing with

karma is pretty amazing a lot of people

they really get caught up and oh that's

happening to me because my karma is bad

or good or whatever you have things that

you have done in the past that are good

and you have done some things in the

past that are not so good and when the

conditions are right for that karma to

arise it will arise by itself and what

you do with that in the present moment

if it's anger if it's frustration if

it's some kind of attachment that you're

holding on to it can be emotional

attachment it can be physical attachment

whatever if you take that personally and

you say this is my feeling this is my

thoughts this is my sensation this is

who I am you're not seeing things very

clearly now when I just talked to you

about using the six hours there's a step

in there that's called relax what does

that mean the relax

step is the way that you see and

recognize craving when it arises

in your mind and in your body the Buddha

talked about Four Noble Truths there is

suffering in life there is a cause of

suffering craving there is a cessation

of suffering there is a way to let go of

that suffering so when you are learning

how to practice meditation you sit very

calmly very relaxed way you close your

eyes and what I teach is called

loving-kindness meditation where you

wish happiness for yourself and other

beings and then your mind starts to go

like this and get tight and then all of

a sudden you have thoughts arising and

that turns into opinions and concepts

and ideas and stories about why that

feeling and why that craving arose and

right after that is where your emotional

habitual tendency arises now your made

up of five different things you have a

physical body there is feeling feeling

is not emotion feeling is pleasant or

painful or neither painful nor pleasant

it's just a feeling it's a nice feeling

it's not a nice feeling it's kind of

neutral then you have perception

perception is your part of your mind

that names things now you look at this

and the part of your mind that said this

is a book that's perception it also has

memory in it

you have thoughts you have consciousness

you're made up of these five things

everybody is now when a painful feeling

arises it doesn't matter whether it's a

physical painful feeling or a mental

emotional painful feeling the first

thing that we try to do is control that

feeling with our thoughts but thoughts

are one thing and feelings are something

else

the more you try to think the feeling

the more intense and bigger that feeling

becomes

and this is our habitual tendency this

is what we get caught in doing over and

over and over again is we try to think

our feeling away we try to control our

feeling with our thoughts and that just

causes suffering to arise and when you

do that when you try to control your

thought your your feelings with your

thoughts your taking it personally

you're saying this is my feeling and I

don't like it and I want it to stop and

I'm depressed and I don't like it or I'm

angry and I don't like it you're trying

to think you're feeling so how do you

overcome that problem by recognizing

that there's tension and tightness in

your head in your mind see that you're

thinking about a feeling and let those

thoughts go what do I mean by let them

go don't keep your attention on the

thoughts anymore then you relax the

tension and tightness caused in your

head in your mind now there is a

membrane that goes around your brain

it's called the meninges every time you

have a thought every time a feeling

arises every time a sensation arises it

causes tension and tightness around your

brain that tension and tightness is

craving craving always manifest as I

like it if it's a pleasant feeling I

don't like it if it's a painful feeling

and that is the very start of your

identification with this thought or

feeling this is where you start saying

this is me this is mine this is Who I am

but the truth is you didn't ask this

stuff to come up came up by itself you

can't control it while it's there and

you can't make it go away when you want

it to go away so it's not yours it's

just a feeling and the more you learn

how to relax that tension and tightness

in your head and feel that openness that

happens when you let go of that tension

and tightness you'll notice right after

you do that there is no thoughts your

mind is clear your mind is very alert

your mind is very bright and your mind

is pure why is it pure because you have

let go of craving craving is the cause

of suffering nobody wants to suffer so

how do you let go of it first you

recognize that it's there and don't keep

your attention on it if you keep your

attention on your thoughts to try to

control your feelings you are going to

suffer immeasurably more and the more

you try to control your thoughts with

their your feeling with your thoughts

the more intense that feeling becomes

until you start getting frustrated you

get angry you get depressed and then you

say does everybody else around you leave

me alone I'm depressed don't bother me

now I can tell you exactly precisely

exactly how depression arises and it's

pretty simple painful feeling arises I

don't like that painful feeling that's

the craving I have my opinions and

thoughts and ideas and story about why I

don't like that have you ever noticed

when you get upset you have a lot of

repeat thoughts and it's just like they

was on a tape deck same thoughts same

order over and over and over again that

says you have craving in your mind at

that time right after this story about

then you get into your habitual tendency

every time this kind of feeling comes up

I have these kind of thoughts and I try

to control my feeling with my thoughts

and the feeling gets bigger and more

intense and you suffer why are you

suffering a couple of reasons one you're

taking it personally who's thought is

that who's feeling is that did you ask

it to come up did you tell yourself you

know I haven't been depressed for a long

time I might as well get depressed right

now it doesn't happen that way it

happens because of past actions and what

you did with that when it arose

like most people you try to think you're

feeling away it doesn't work but you

keep trying to do it thinking that

there's going to be a different end

result but there's not you just get more

and more depressed and then you say oh I

got to go to the doctor and I got to

talk to him about this and he's going to

give me some drugs that's not going to

help learning how this process works

works 100% of the time becoming more

aware of how your mind works

how you see the arising and passing away

of these phenomena this birth death

birth death birth death this is rebirth

so when you become more familiar of how

this process works you're able to see

that when you let go of the craving and

you let go of that tightness in your

head in your mind your mind becomes

clear and that leads to real true

happiness and contentment the thing with

what you did in the past dictates what

happens in the future or what happens in

the present and that dictates what

happens in the future if you resist if

you fight with if you try to control you

can look forward to this kind of painful

thing coming up over and over and over

again

and it's your choice you can allow that

to happen or not if you see in the

present

that you have frustration anger anxiety

depression fear whatever the catch of

the day is and you start to allow it to

be and relax and smile and wish somebody

happiness you are changing in a positive

way the whole point with Buddhism is

learning how to allow these changes to

happen in a positive way and as you

become more and more aware of how you

cause yourself suffering and you let go

of that suffering you become more

content with all of life everything in

life becomes easier it's pretty amazing

to watch sometimes when when you begin

practicing meditation we have you

practice your five precepts what are the

five precepts the precepts are not

Commandments they're suggestions that if

you follow these five things life will

become easier

don't kill or harm living beings on

purpose don't take anything that's not

given don't steal don't have any wrong

sexual activity wrong sexual activity

means sexual activity with someone

that's too young still under the care of

their parents or someone that's married

not to tell lies even little white lies

not to curse not to Pit one group of

people against another not to gossip and

what is gossip it's talking about

somebody that's not there and you're

making up stories about them that aren't

necessarily true and don't take any

drugs or alcohol that dull your mind now

these five precepts if you keep them you

will start to notice that your mind

becomes real clear and bright and it's

easy to meditate when you break a

precept you will notice that your

meditation doesn't work so well because

you have hindrances that arise

now when I say meditation I'm not

talking just about sitting I'm talking

about all different aspects of your life

because meditation is not just about

sitting like a like like a stone Buddha

image it is about living and being aware

of what you're doing in with your mind

in the present moment so when you begin

to practice the meditation the way that

I suggest you first start out by

learning how to smile and that sounds

really odd but you smile with your mind

you smile with your eyes a little smile

on your lips a smile in your heart carry

it with you wherever you're going send

that smile to someone else

send that happy feeling to someone else

and the more you keep practicing this

without breaking the precepts the faster

your progress and the meditation becomes

it's pretty amazing when I first started

doing the meditation way back when it

took a long time to figure out what the

meditation was before I found out what

it wasn't but as I started to realize

more and more of what the Buddha was

actually trying to teach us it doesn't

take very long for you to understand

yeah this is good this works and it's

right when I was practicing in Burma

they said well you have to do a few

3-month retreats three-month retreat and

Burma is you get up at 3 o'clock in the

morning and you do your sitting

meditation and walking meditation

alternately until 11 o'clock at night

and then you go to bed and get up at 3

o'clock and start all over again try

that for three months sometimes I did it

for eight

so it's a pretty odd it's pretty intense

but I've since learned that there are

other ways of doing the meditation that

are much easier and it's immediately

effective when you recognize that your

mind has gone to something unwholesome

and you let it be and relax and smile

and come back to something that is

wholesome you have let go of craving you

have gone from an unwholesome state to a

wholesome state and sometimes a blink of

an eye and that's what is immediately

effective it really really does work

this way and when I was in Thailand they

were talking about going into very high

states of different kinds of they call

them jhana which they define as levels

of concentration and they say if you

want to practice with the Thai it'll

take about 15 years to be able to get

into this deep state of concentration

and then I went to Sri Lanka and they

started talking about that and they say

well it'll take about ten years for you

to get to that level of concentration

because of my going back to the original

teachings and seeing what the Buddha

said when you come for a retreat it

might take three days to get to that

same level they're talking about if you

follow directions the way that they're

given

okay so I've been talking for a long

time do you have any questions that you

want to talk about

I love this stuff you know in Asia I

spent most of my time teaching in

Malaysia and they are Chinese and

they're Chinese

educated which means they never ever

come up with a question for a teacher

whether they understand it or not but

there's one section in the suit does you

know what I'm going to do and it says

it's talking about karma and how karma

works and it says if you want to be

reborn stupid then never ask any

questions if you want to be reborn

intelligent then ask a lot of questions

when I was with my my teachers I would

drive them crazy because I was always

asking questions and one of them one of

my teachers said in your next lifetime

if you don't get attained Nirvana now

you're going to be reborn smarter than

Einstein because you asked so many

questions but an unwholesome thought is

any thought that you take personally

this is me this is mine this is Who I am

when in fact you didn't ask it to come

up it's going to be there as long as

it's going to be there it's going to go

away by itself what you need to do is

not keep your attention on it and

identify with it let's say you have a

thought

of a painful relationship that you're

going through right now and your mind

just goes root and you start thinking

about it now who brought that up whose

thoughts are those whose feelings are

those who doesn't like it who wants it

to be different than it is I do I want

it to be different than it is I don't

want this pain to be there now this is

unwholesome because you're taking it

personally now when you're practicing

meditation of course your mind is going

to bit get distracted you're going to

have thoughts coming up if you have a

very active day you're going to have an

active mind when you sit down to

meditate only natural so you let it be

you recognize that your mind has become

distracted you let it be you relax by

not keeping your attention on it and not

and not keep your attention on it and

then you bring up something wholesome

what's wholesome smile okay how's your

mind feel when you smile lighter not

tight and you bring that mind back to

your object of meditation which is

wishing yourself happiness or wishing

somebody else happiness now the nature

of these kind of things is they don't go

away right away so you have to do it

again and then you have to do it again

but you have to understand that these

kind of distractions are not bad they're

not something that makes you want to

fight with it so you can control it the

truth is

that when a hindrance arises it is

teaching you where your attachment is

where you're causing yourself pain and

every time that hindrance comes up again

and again it's key it's showing you the

same lesson over and over again as you

relax into it allow that to be there

without keeping your attention on it and

then putting your attention on happiness

and wishing other people happiness that

hindrance eventually starts to get

weaker and weaker because you're not

pushing against it anymore you're not

trying to fight it and eventually that

hindrance just doesn't have enough

strength to arise anymore

when that happens you will like it I

guarantee you feel immediate sense of

relief right after that very strong joy

arises this kind of joy is called

uplifting joy it only happens through

mental development there's other kinds

of joy that happen at other times but

this only happens through mental

development and you feel really light in

your body and you feel really light in

your mind and you start going this is

such a happy feeling that's what I've

been looking for I want some of this to

stay around it's really good but

eventually that feeling will fade away a

little bit and you will get a very very

strong sense of tranquility and you'll

feel more comfortable in your mind and

in your body than you've ever felt

before

just ha really good

well it's going to everything is

impermanent so it's going to last for a

little while

but you see these hindrances when they

come up and you deal with them this way

by not getting involved with your

thinking about and trying to control and

that sort of thing you're learning

lessons about how you cause your own

pain and how to let go of that pain and

you can take these lessons with you into

your daily life now everybody has a

hindrance arise once in a while in their

daily life anger comes up because

something happened you didn't like it

that's a hindrance now you get to work

with that let it be relaxed and smile

and come back and wish happiness and

that's how personality development

occurs in Buddhism the things that used

to bother you really a lot eventually

you'll get to a place where your mind

has balance in it and that doesn't mean

that you're not going to have some roles

some good stuff and bad stuff come up

you will but instead of being in the

roller coaster ride I like this I don't

like that I like this I don't like that

you're going to start having more like

waves happening and you gain more and

more balance in your mind as you go

along but you have to learn the lessons

of how you cause your mind upset before

you can learn how to have balance

so this is going to last for a little

while and then it's going to go away and

then another hindrance is going to come

up and the hindrances are your teachers

they're showing you where your

attachments are if you don't take them

personally if you don't grab on to them

and say this is me this is mine this is

Who I am if you start relaxing into it

and letting it be and not being so

caught up in the emotion of the moment

then you're opening yourself up to more

and more equanimity more and more

balance in your life and as a result

there's a lot more contentment now I

looked up the word contentment

contentment means happy and it's not the

giddy kind of happiness this is just a

deep happiness and you feel like you're

learning something that you've never

understood before Buddhism is very much

about how mind works

how how does this process work and as

you go deeper and deeper into it you

become quite intelligent I've I've had a

lot of students especially in Malaysia

where they the a lot of Christians would

come and they would have discussion with

Buddhist and the Christians would always

say why does it seem that Buddhists are

always always so smart so because they

became Buddhists but that's not the real

answer the real answer is they're

starting to see how everything really

does work and that makes you more and

more intelligent you don't get so caught

up in emotional distraction and dislike

and all of the things that cause your

mind to fly away you don't get so caught

up in them anymore

and it gets more and more easy as you

begin to keep your precepts without

breaking them seeing the advantage of

doing this practicing your generosity a

lot of people they hear you got a

practice giving and they start thinking

well this guy is trying to get into my

my pocket he wants me he wants to have

me give him some money

monks don't need money we do fine

without it

how do you practice generosity there's

three ways you practice generosity you

practice generosity with your body

helping other people with your speech

saying things that make other people

happy and smile and your mind it's great

fun to go into a restaurant or go into a

food store and be in line and there's a

little baby right in front of you that's

being bored and crying and just

generally causing people havoc around

them and to start sending them loving

and kind thoughts and all of a sudden

they feel that and it's like they got

woken up and they'll start looking at

you and they'll start smiling at you

what a great way to practice your

generosity you're giving away kind

thoughts and kind feelings to other

people and that's the first part of

meditation it's not just about sitting

this is part about it it's living it is

real important the more you can remember

to send loving and kind thoughts to

everybody else around you the more you

affect the world in a positive way and

right now to be quite honest this world

needs a lot more positive energy than it

has so much fear so much anxiety oh

what's going to happen the world's going

to end people come and ask me whether

I'm bothered by it as and

oh why am i bothered by that doesn't

mean anything I'm not going to worry

about what's going to happen tomorrow I

want to be happy right now and focus on

that now that's not suppressing anything

that's not pushing anything away that is

spending time where you help other

people by wishing them happiness

now when the the tsunami hit Sri Lanka a

few years ago a lot of people on the

internet were oh they're really

bemoaning the fact it's such a terrible

thing what can we do we do were were so

far away we can't help all we can do is

be sad because these this tragedy

happened to other people and kheema came

to me and said what can we do for these

other people I said what you do is you

start getting on the internet and

talking to all these different groups

and start sending loving and kind

thoughts to all of those people that are

suffering do you think it doesn't do

some good I know it does everybody is

looking for some of the same stuff

everybody wants the same thing I want to

be loved so practice your generosity and

give it to them as much as you can

remember during the day

so the more you can practice this the

easier it becomes the more happy you

become and your happiness starts to go

off and be get involved with other

people and they become happy and you

start affecting the world around you in

a positive way you're worrying you're

being Restless your anxiety your fear is

not helping anybody including yourself

that's just reaction that's an action

that you do over and over and over again

that you're causing yourself problem and

you keep doing it because all of these

different situations say oh you got to

fear more this Obamacare is going to

take all your insurance away and then

you're going to really suffer get away

from me with that kind of stuff

you start wishing other people happiness

you go to hospitals and wish people

happiness you are affecting them in a

very positive way

I've seen amazing miracles occur by

going and visiting somebody in the

hospital that's really sick and watching

them change from being having extreme

pain and dissatisfaction to smiling and

being happy that's a miracle and you see

you can see those things happen all the

time so any other question yes

by practicing what I just told you it's

going to come there's going to be times

when your mind is going to be get caught

come come and practice with me for two

weeks I'm being serious

you'd be surprised at the personality

difference because what I show you is

what the Buddha said and then you get to

see for yourself whether it's true or

not

color shoes it helps so much that it's

unbelievable why what happens when you

have a test coming up and you know you

really have to study hard because you

haven't been hitting the books all that

much and you're getting down too close

to the time of the test and then you

really start cramming and then you start

worrying about oh I don't know whether

I'm going to do good on this and all of

a sudden you're not doing you're not

studying anymore you're worrying about

what the outcome is going to be and then

you have to go back and reread what you

just got through reading because you

didn't get all of it what this practice

does is it helps you to be very

systematic and efficient

now that worry you know we start

thinking about something else and all of

a sudden you're only half here and half

over there

what is worry first it's a painful

feeling that arose then there's I don't

like that feeling and then there's

getting into and taking that feeling

very personally and having your ideas

and concepts about it and then your

habitual tendency about trying to

control it and causing yourself a lot of

suffering when you see how that process

works and you start letting it be and

relaxing then you're going to start

staying on your object of meditation and

it becomes fun if you don't have fun

with your studies then it's time to find

another way of studying so you do have

fun with it it's fun to learn new stuff

and the more fun you have learning it

the faster you learn the better your

grades become the more efficient you

become with what you're doing in the

present moment when you start to get

serious about stuff you're just putting

roadblocks in your way when you start to

worry about oh I don't know whether I'm

going to do this very well or not what

kind of fun is that when you have fun

it's real easy to understand what you're

doing while you're doing it if you're

not having fun in that class think about

another one

it's got to be fun if it's not fun why

are you doing it the whole thing with

the buddha was heaven uplifted mind what

does that mean

having a mind that has fun in life with

everything no worries no anxieties no

depressions having an uplifted mind

having fun learning new things

it really does work that way okay

ghost

there's the suits no such a thing as

reincarnation first thing there are

people I'll give you an example of what

happened to me when I was in Asia for a

while I went to a graveyard and I spent

the night at a graveyard

and there were energies around that were

real that came into my mind while I was

sleeping

if you don't want that sort of thing to

occur you start practicing

loving-kindness wishing yourself

happiness wishing other beings happy and

you put a bubble of loving-kindness

around you and if there is a troubling

energy you put a bubble of

loving-kindness around it and radiate

that loving-kindness it will not bother

you guaranteed I had to learn that the

hard way I'm kind of a fanatic in some

ways because I'll keep doing so the same

thing over and over again

until I learned from it and what I would

do is I spent about three weeks every

night going to the cemetery for the

whole night and these beings would come

into my mind and some of them would try

to scare me and some of them would try

to do other things and finally when I

started seeing that if I put

loving-kindness around me then there was

no more trouble and I had a good night's

sleep there is no more fear there's no

anxiety of these other beings that would

cause problem there is no more concepts

you know every thought you have is a

concept what is a concept this is a

table right where's the table is it the

top is it the legs is it the bracing

where is the table it's made up of a lot

of little things that we put together

and say this is a table now to have

these kind of concepts means that we

have to have certain kinds of conditions

to arise in order for that concept to

arise what the Buddha taught was how to

get into the unconditioned mind or state

the unconditioned state if there's no

conditions how can you talk about it

when all you have is concepts and words

to try to describe it but there is

extreme amounts of relief and the

personality change becomes quite

noticeable when you get to the first

stage of this unconditioned State you

know ever have any doubt as to whether

this is the right path or not no more

doubt will ever arise in your mind you

won't believe that rights in which

rituals will lead to an unconditioned

State and you start seeing for yourself

that everything is impersonal

it is part of an impersonal process when

you get to the third stage you will not

ever again have lust or hatred arise in

your mind never again now that's a

pretty radical personality change and

the last the last stage of the awakening

is called becoming an are hot you let go

of wanting to be reborn in one realm or

another you let go of restlessness never

coming up in your mind again or the

sleepiness and dullness you'll never

have any pride arising in your mind and

you won't have any ignorance now a mind

that doesn't have any craving or

ignorance and ignorance is defined as

being able to see and understand the

Four Noble Truths the way they actually

are if you don't have any craving or

ignorant arise anymore there is no

suffering

and there's a lot a lot of relief in

that and that happen in this lifetime

absolutely yes I've been around a lot of

monks that say there's no sense in even

trying to get to this kind of state it

won't happen well I'm here to tell you

it can happen it does happen for some

people it's pretty amazing to watch

anyway any other last question yeah

no more questions

the chair Samaritan this is something I

always do after the end of a talk may

suffering ones be suffering free and the

fear struck fearless be may the grieving

shed all grief and may all beings find

relief may all beings share this merit

that we've thus acquired for the

acquisition of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

divas and Nagas of mighty powers share

this merit of ours may they long protect

a Buddhist dispensation sadha side to

side