From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=g4TBdHxJ-2M

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

foreign

now this is going to be more about the

um

dependent origination but this is going

to be

basically how the buddha came up

with the links of dependent origination

monks before my awakening

while i was still a bodhisattva

not yet fully awakened it occurred to me

alas this world has fallen into trouble

in that it is born ages and dies it

passes away and is reborn

yet it does not and it does not

understand the escape

from suffering headed by aging and death

when will an escape

be discerned from the suffering

that's better headed by aging and death

then it occurred to me

when what exists does aging and death

come to be

by what is aging and death conditioned

then the monk then monks through careful

attention

there came to me a breakthrough by

wisdom

when there is birth aging and death

comes to be

aging and death has birth as its

condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does birth come to be

by what is birth conditioned

when monks threw careful attention there

took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is habitual tendency

birth comes to be birth has habitual

tendency as its condition

so he's going through all of the links

by figuring out

how they actually work i mean he had a

brilliant mind

even to consider that how many people do

you know of

that even think about this sort of thing

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does habitual tendency

or

does habitual tendency come to be by

what is habitual tendency

conditioned then monks through careful

attention there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is clinging habitual tendency

comes to be

habitual tendency has clinging as its

condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does clinging come to

be

by what is clinging conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is craving clinging comes to

be

clinging has craving as its condition

now one of the things that's happened in

buddhism

when i was spending so much time with

straight vipassana

was people just thought that on the

night of his awakening it just

all came to him and this is showing you

how he actually saw

but he had to practice it he had to

practice

using the six r's so that he could see

and realize

exactly how it happened

pretty much by itself

so he he sat figuring all of this stuff

out

but he did not become awakened

right then he had to practice it before

he could see it

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

does craving come to be by what is

craving conditioned

then

through careful attention there took

place in me a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is feeling craving comes to

be

craving has feeling as condition

then monks it occurred to me when

what ex exists does feeling come to be

by what is feeling conditioned

then amongst through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is contact feeling comes to

be

feeling has contact as condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does contact come to be

by what is contact condition

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there are the sixth sense bases

contact comes to

be contact has the sixth sense basis as

condition then monks it occurred to me

when what exists do the six bases

sixth sense bases come to be by

what are the sixth sense bases

conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is mentality materiality

the sixth sense bases come to be

the sixth sense bases have mentality

materiality as their condition

and we'll i'll get to explain each one

of these links in a little bit

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

does mentality materiality come to be

by what is mentality

materiality conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom when there

is consciousness mentality materiality

comes to be

mentality materiality has consciousness

as

condition

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

does consciousness come to be by

what is consciousness conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom when there

are formations consciousness comes to be

consciousness as formations as condition

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

do formations come to be

by what are formations conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom when there is ignorance

formations comes to be

four nations have ignorance as their

condition

thus with ignorance as condition

formations come to be with formations as

condition

consciousness

and then it goes dot dot dot

with consciousness as condition

mentality materiality

comes to be with mentality materiality

as conditioned

the six-fold base comes to be with the

six-fold base as condition

with contact as condition

with feeling as conditioned

with craving as condition

with clinging as condition

with habitual tendency as condition

with birth as condition aging

and death sorrow lamentation

pain and despair

i always have this image of these

hellfire uh ministers and

yeah like that would read this

such is the origin of this whole mass of

suffering

and then it goes into the cessation

but keeping up with

bhikkhu bodhi he does dot dot dot

with all of this

but i'll read you the first paragraph

monks it occurred to me then monks it

occurred to me

when what does not exist

does aging and death not come to be

with the cessation of what

does the cessation of aging and death

come about

then through careful attention there

took place in me a breakthrough

by wisdom when there is no

birth aging and death does not come to

be

with the cessation of birth comes the

cessation of aging

and death now

actually according to what it said in

earlier suit about the two ways

this is the wrong order that it's talked

about

should be the cessation comes first

and then the origin

so

now we're going to go to another this is

called the analysis

of dependent origination

monks i will teach you dependent

origination and i will analyze it for

you

listen and attend closely to what i s

how i speak

yes venerable sir those monks replied

the blessed one said this

and what monks is dependent origination

with ignorance as condition

formation comes to be

with formations as condition

with consciousness as conditions

with mentality materiality as condition

with the six-fold base as condition

with contact as condition

with feeling as conditioned

with craving as condition

with clinging as conditions

habitual tendency as condition

with birth as condition aging and death

sorrow lamentation pain

grief and spirit comes to be

such is the cessation of this whole mass

of suffering

and what monks is aging

in death the aging of various beings in

various

orders of beings they're growing old

broken brokenness of teeth

grayness of hair we don't understand

that part

wrinkling of skin decline of vitality

degeneration of the faculties

this is called aging

the passing away of these various kinds

of being from the various orders of

being

they're perishing breaking up

disappearance

mortality death completion of time

breaking up of the aggregates

the laying down of the carcass this is

called death

thus this aging and death art

and this death are together called aging

and death

and what monks is birth

the birth of various kinds of beings

into various orders of being

they're being born descent into the womb

production manifestation of aggregates

the obtaining of the sense bases this is

called

birth also it is also

talking about the birth of action

in a practical way

so when you have

habitual tendency arise then you want to

do some kind of action right after that

because you get caught up in

in your emotional thinking last night he

was talking about

depression and what do you do when you

get depressed

you get into your poor me

and you try to control that feeling

with thoughts but it doesn't work

so then you do some kind of action and

what happens most often

is people say just leave me alone

and they go into a dark room and they

stay there for a period of time

or they walk around

with negative mental states they walk

around

with a

complaining and just not being

satisfied with what their life is like

so the question was how do you overcome

the depression first you have to

understand

how it works

a painful feeling arises i don't like

that painful feeling i have a story

about this painful feeling and get

caught up in trying to control the

painful feeling

with thoughts

now when you start to learn how to use

the six ours

what happens a painful feeling arises

graving is there and you relax right

then

when that happens you don't have

clinging or eyes

and if clinging doesn't arise habitual

tendency doesn't arise

and now you're starting to see that this

in fact

is a process and it's not

personally yours this isn't me

i didn't ask this feeling to come up

did i sit and sit down on a chair and

say you know

i have been depressed for a while

i might as well be depressed now no

it happens because there is

a process in mind

and it works exactly the way for all

human beings when you start seeing

that that feeling is not yours

personally

then you start losing all of this other

stuff that makes you feel

worse and worse

and i've seen in some

scientific papers that

people there's about 75 of the people

in this country that

have depression isn't that

strange how do you overcome depression

use the six hours learn to smile

learn to laugh help

other people

and this is important

my mother when i was growing up she ran

a nursing home

so i got to go up and help

and i got to meet some of the most

fantastic people

that were old that was their own only

problem they couldn't get around they

had trouble moving

so they were taken care of but

you go into a nursing home

and like this one man

john he was 103.

and i started asking him what did you do

with your life

you know what yeah i was an engineer

what kind of things do you work on oh i

helped build this

the panama canal wow

now when you talk to somebody like that

and you you find out

what they did in their life it's really

fascinating

and you're helping them

they're lonely they only see a very few

people

in the day so you get them to remember

their past

experiences and start talking to them

about it

and you find out the most interesting

things

they had a big problem with malaria

and he had malaria two or three times

while he was working on

the engineering of the panama canal

i talked to another lady she was

at one time a very famous

opera singer and she said she used to

sing in front of two or three thousand

people at a time

when you start extending yourself to

other people you don't have time

to be depressed it doesn't come up

because you know you're doing something

good for somebody else and you're

extending outside of yourself

what is depression really it's poor me

i don't like this feeling i don't want

this feeling

this makes me sad

well go make other people smile

why do i tell you i want you to smile

all the time

and give your smile away

because your extending outside of

yourself

and you start caring for other people

and it's easy to have

friends when you're smiling

and people when they see you they start

to perk up and go oh yeah here's my

friend

and you're helping them

you're helping them to overcome

depression

you can listen to their stories which

are

completely fascinating

and that helps their mind to be uplifted

they're not so caught up and i'm old i'm

useless

nobody cares about me but i went to the

nursing home every day

i got to meet some really fascinating

characters

ah but i don't want to do something like

that

i'd rather stay at home and be bummed

out

and then complain about the way the

world is

well go out and change it change the

world around you

radiate loving kindness

i used to spend after

i went to a meditation center i lived in

hawaii

and then i came back and i wanted to see

what it was like to be with somebody

that died

so my mother was very used to

being around people that died because

about once a week somebody in the

nursing home died

there was 50 people in the in the

nursing home that were being taken care

of so she would tell me in three or four

days this person is going to die

so i would go in and

i was a complete stranger to them i

would be radiating loving-kindness to

them

and i said are you christian yes

would you mind if i started reading the

bible to you

and i had some special

verses that i went to and one of them

was

in the bible it has

the precepts

so i would read the precepts to them and

i say you know this is pretty good stuff

and i would tell them you know it's it's

a good thing to repeat that every now

and then because it helps your mind be

uplifted

so i would do that every now and then

and i would get with some

people that had alzheimer's and they

just had no memory at all

and then i'd start talking to them if

they could talk

about some of the things that they did

and their mind came back

and i would share merit with them

and they would be really coherent for a

period of time

how do you help the world be a better

place to live

you be better you

give to other people that's what

generosity

is it doesn't necessarily mean material

things quite often material things don't

mean anything

but you give your attention

and you get them to start remembering

times when they were happy

times when they did things with their

family that was real special

and then as they get closer to death you

remind them

of those times

and well there's a there's a thing

in buddhism that says that

and right before you die you you start

to have

visions okay

and there's five different kinds of

visions

if you have anger in your mind

then you're going to have a vision of

fire

if you have greed in your mind

and and some some cultures

if you die on a bed you have to be

buried with it or you're cremated with

the bed and they want to be taken off

the bed so that

that can be used by somebody else

and then they would have a vision of

quite often it was a black hairy

ogre kind of vision

sometimes people that die have visions

of their animals

sometimes they have visions of people

in their family that had already died

sometimes they have visions of heavenly

beings

now if you're reborn with anger in your

mind you're going to go to a place

that's not going to be very pleasant not

necessarily a

a fire hell realm but it's going to be

some kind of hell realm

because that's the last vision that you

had

so as they were getting closer to death

and they could still

speak i ask them if they have any

visions do you see anybody around

this one man i was working at a hospice

too at the same time

this one man he started yelling no

no get away i don't want to be around

you

and i said what's happening he said this

black hairy

beast is pulling me away

so what did i tell him to do

take the precepts i undertake the

precept not to kill

i undertake the precept not to steal

and that is so wholesome that that

vision would

change to one of their family members or

even a heavenly like a chariot that

comes down

and if i could keep their mind uplifted

they would have a good rebirth

and i wanted to see if this was true i

wanted to see if these visions were real

or not so

i spent a lot i spent almost a year

just being with people as they were

dying sometimes the family would come

in as they were dying they didn't know

me from anybody so i'd get up and leave

but always right before i left i shared

my merit with them

and reminded them to think happy

thoughts

this one day this lady had

brain cancer and she was getting close

to death it was going to happen within

an hour or so

and even though she was in a coma

i still said that out loud

the family came i left

and i was walking down the highway down

the hallway and somebody tapped me on

the shoulder

i looked around

nobody's there as soon as they tap me

strong joy

and i i turned around and went back to

the room and that lady had just died

smiling

great stuff

you want to get over depression

go help someone else

practice your loving kindness the whole

time

that

is a major part of the buddhist teaching

don't be self-absorbed

find somebody else that needs help and

do it

now it was an interesting thing during

that time

i was i was making a hundred dollars a

week

take home pay hundred dollars a week

this was in uh

um 79 something like that a hundred

dollars a week went

went further than it does now

and i was staying at my mother's house

but i was giving her

half of what i was making so i gave her

fifty dollars a week

and there was a lady there that she had

a disease where her brain was shrinking

and she was losing her memory and i

thought

maybe we can get the circulation going a

little bit if she'd had some acupuncture

so i went to the family and i said i

want to take her

and get some acupuncture treatments to

save see if it can help her

and they said fine you can do that but

we're

not going to pay for it

so i did

35 a week

that's 85 right

i sent 10 a week to a monastery

in india that i wanted to see

grow i spent ten dollars a week

by just giving my mother a ten dollar

bill

that's a hundred and five dollars

i always had money in my pocket

i walked everywhere i wanted to go

and i was really healthy

and i took care of dama

i never got everything i wanted

but i got everything i needed

i was driving 35 miles a week

to teach a meditation class i had no

idea the day i was going to teach the

meditation class how to get there

but somebody would come along and say

i'm going to san diego you want to come

yeah sure great

i live like that for eight months

how do i do that

by helping other people to be happy

when you take care of dhamma dhamma

always takes care of you

i told other people about this and they

say it's impossible you can't

you can't live that way but i did

i was spending eight hours a day at the

nursing home

or if they were getting close to dying

at night

i would spend the whole night with them

so they weren't alone

sometimes the family could be there

sometimes they couldn't

i was

helping to start a hospice

and every now and then i would get some

extra money i would give it to them

i always had what i needed

and this is a principle that is real

i mean i lived it for eight months

i never went without the things i needed

i didn't always get what i wanted but

it's a nice way to live

and then i decided i was

going to come to asia

and ordain and i was i thought well i'll

just ordain for one year

and i immediately went to a meditation

center and

after that that's when i ordained and

then

after about

a year i decided now i better

i don't want to this robe quite yet

that was 28 years ago

and the meditation center that we have

we didn't borrow

any money to get the land

we we got a deal on the land we got 30

acres of land

for 25 000

it's a little bit different in

california i understand

and now the land has gone up

it's really getting kind of expensive

it's 800

an acre now

and we always

worried whether we were going to have

enough money for we paid quarterly

so it was about 875

a quarter we never

didn't have the money to pay for that

people started donating they wanted to

help

now we have

um a dining hall it's about this size i

think

it cost a quarter of a million dollars

i don't have any money

how did that get built when you take

care of

dhamma dhamma takes care of you

the next project was

building the meditation hall

somebody donated 45 000

to get it started

and it just happened

and it was about 200

000 by the time we were done 165 000.

we don't have any money how did that

happen

spend all my time helping

that's how it happens

a lot of people worry about their

finances

as soon as i became a monk i didn't even

think about money

i traveled all over the world how do you

do that

my family still doesn't understand how i

do it

well how can you travel like that

well somebody sends me a ticket and

invites me to come that's how i come

and they just kind of shake their head

and go that's impossible

i said well come and see our meditation

center

it's really pretty fantastic it's pretty

neat

this year somebody decided that

what we do we needed a little another

cabin

so they donated the money for the cabin

so as soon as we get back we're going to

start working on fixing it up and

putting electricity in and all that sort

of thing

they see the dharma as a valuable thing

and they want to support it

that's how we do that david is our

treasurer and sometimes we get

low on funds he starts worrying a little

bit and comes

and he comes to me and he said well we

only got enough money for one more month

because we have electricity bills and

food and

we have uh somebody that

we pay to help us because he's a

carpenter and

and a jack of all trades he's really

good

and i said that's okay i don't care

don't worry about it money will come

he did it one time and the next day

a friend in san diego sent us

or donated to us 10 gold coins

so we went from almost being broke oh my

god what are we gonna do

to heaven what fifteen thousand dollars

or whatever

it was and that's the way

it works don't worry about it

now he doesn't come and worry about it

as much as he did because he knows that

something's going to happen

because we spend our time on the

computer

giving retreats

on the by email and

writing and i spend

five or six months a year going around

the world helping other people

so when you take care of dhamma

and you extend to other people dhamma

takes care of you

and what's happening right now is in a

couple of different countries

people are starting to say well we want

a damazuka center

in our country so they're starting to

build damasuka centers

and they ask if it's all right

and then they say are you going to come

and visit well i have to if they're

going to do that

but the dhamma is growing at a very nice

pace i mean the dhamma

that is suta based

and it's starting to catch on

one of the things that happened when i

first came back to this country

is i stayed in washington dc

for about a year at a sri lankan temple

and that's where i met my sister kima

and she started thinking about ways of

advertising and get people all

enthusiastic because she saw the benefit

of doing this

and i told her you know

when i give a talk to a hundred people

if two people really understand

i consider that a very successful talk

and she's saying two people

it's got to be more than that and i said

i don't want to advertise

i want the dhamma to grow so it has

a good foundation a strong

foundation and now it's

it's happening the first two retreats i

gave was for one or two people

and look now

and i have complaints that we want to

have more people come to your retreats

i can only handle so many

but then we have people that are

successful with the meditation and

they're starting to teach too

and that's just great

as long as whoever starts teaching

teaches to smile

and the six arms

so the dhamma is growing at a very rapid

rate

right now

a lot of meditation centers they have

people that have gray hair that come to

the meditation but they don't have many

young folks

in indonesia

the there was there must have been a

dozen couples that had children

and came to me and they said

can you give a retreat for our kids

well yeah of course

so this this coming year

we're going to give a retreat for about

35 people under 20 years old

oh sometimes the families will come you

know

all the kids will come and mom and dad

are doing the meditation

and they have two or three kids there is

this one family that

was remarkable had a 12 year old girl

and a 10 year old boy came to the

retreat

the 12 year old girl became a sodapona

and she said am i the youngest person

that you've ever that you

taught and was successful and i said yes

and two days later her 10 year old

brother

and he was successful and became a

thought upon us so i told her she wasn't

the youngest anymore

but this can happen for any age

people i had i had one lady

81 years old

she it was not even a residential

retreat she went home

every night

and she got it

she became more than a sotapanna

it's amazing and

it's not because of me it's not

because of quote my teaching

it's because i found out the importance

of

reading the suttas

because they're really systematic they

give it to you

the way it should be given to you and

you start understanding it

and you start paying attention in the

last

three years people are

really starting to get it

and as i told you before and this is not

bragging on my part because they did all

the work

all i did was read a book to them

half of the people in

three different retreats

were successful they became at least

sowed upon us

that's remarkable

just because i'm willing to

read what it says in the suit

and you're starting to get it now some

people are being quite successful

great stuff really makes me

happy

so the whole thing

with depression

is you have to love

to learn not to be selfish

you have to learn to give

give kind words you know you go

you go in a line and the cashier is

there

and that's a hard job

and they have to be doing all this stuff

and some people are not happy with this

and

oh i gotta change this and i gotta do

that

and you you say something to them about

how you appreciate what they're doing

you're practicing your generosity

you're getting rid of the

self-centeredness that happens so much

in this country right now

and you're helping them

and they're happy when you leave

with other people right behind you for a

little while

then they'll get caught up in their old

habitual tendencies

but they were happy for a moment

because you took the time to appreciate

them

as a human being

that's how you overcome depression

smiling helping

other people to laugh

being with people when they're suffering

you don't even have to say something

sometimes

just being with them is enough

but what are you doing with your mind

you start radiating loving kindness to

them

whether they're strangers or not

everybody

that's a human being wants the same

thing

everybody they all want to be loved

so give it to them

that's how you affect the world around

you

that's what this teaching is about

in india during the time of the buddha i

think i might have mentioned this before

i've done it in a few retreats and i get

them mixed up whether i did it or not

the way they measured wealth was not by

how much money they could hoard and have

themselves

but by how much they gave

my mother was a pretty remarkable person

she

really had strong compassion

so for a few months

when when it got to be either

thanksgiving

or christmas for a few months before

that she'd start buying

two or three cans of food and putting

them in a box

and then somebody that had gone through

a rough time

we take the box

put it on the steps and walk away

help other people

one of the things that the buddha said

was

if you saw the advantage you get

by feeding other people you would

never eat alone

why are you in this country right now

there's plenty of food

but you're in this country right now

you're not in africa starving to death

because

in the past you shared your food

share it with everybody

when i when i was at a meditation center

right after

one of the teachers from india had left

every time we sat on a table with him

he would take food off of his plate and

put it on yours

what are you doing that for i can take

that if i want it

oh i like to give

so the more you can practice that the

more prosperous you become the more

uplifted you become

the more satisfied and content life

becomes

so you want to overcome something

as simple as letting go of depression

radiate loving kindness when you're

walking down the street

wish people happiness share your food

with other people

it's great fun

one of the hardest things i had to do

when i became a monk

was to accept whatever anybody gave to

me

it's easy to give

but as a monk i couldn't

refuse what somebody else gave me

it didn't matter whether it was food or

some people they know that i i like art

kind of stuff so they give me pictures

and they give me all

different kinds of clothes that give me

all kinds of things

as a matter of fact when i'm in

indonesia

people give me so much stuff

that we have to ship it by boat

to come back some of this stuff i buy

but a lot of the things people give

they see that i like something and

they're with me when i'm in a

a shop and they i

say well let's get these two

vases or something like that

and i have an attendant that has has

money

that they're taking care of and they

said go ahead and pay for that

somebody also come along and say no i

want to buy that for you

that sort of thing happens a lot

when somebody wants to give you a gift

and you turn your nose up at it it's

like you're slapping them in the face

i thought enough of you that i want to

give you a present

well i don't like that i don't want it

what how selfish can you be

well it doesn't match my other things

so what when somebody gives you

something

if you don't want it or you don't need

it or you don't have room to store it

give it to somebody else

you want to be prosperous it's

easy to be prosperous i'm one of the

most prosperous persons i know

and it doesn't have anything to do with

money

i mean i do travel all over the world

why because i give

and i i'm i'm a chronic giver

things don't material things don't

really hold that much of a

big deal to me somebody gives me some

fruit

i see somebody that would enjoy it i

give it to them

no problem i told you i have good food

karma because i give

food a lot

and i make sure that anybody that comes

to my center is going to get the kind of

food

that they can eat

so i'm taking care in a lot of different

ways

now all of this comes back down to

getting over depression do you see what

i'm saying

get out of yourself

and help somebody else to smile

and feel good

now there's there's a place in boulder

creek called

uh heart meth and they have these

machines that can measure the energy

when you're radiating loving kindness

and this this machine says that when you

start radiating loving kindness

the loving kindness affects everybody

around you for 500 feet

and i don't believe it

why

right after i became a monk my teacher

had a stroke

he was in half moon bay

and he was in the hospital and as soon

as i heard about that

i started radiating loving-kindness

when he got out of the hospital he wrote

me a note

he wasn't big on letters but that's the

asian way

and he thanked me for sending in

loving-kindness

how do you know

you affect the world around you by your

mental states

you indulge in anger

what are you doing to the world around

you

you indulge in selfishness

what are you doing with the world around

you

you indulge in happiness what are you

doing with the world around you

you can't blame somebody else for the

world condition

the world condition around you

is what you can affect so

affected in a positive way

this is one of the reasons that i'm

trying to get across to you that you

don't

just do this while you're sitting in

meditation

this isn't all the time practice

there's a a couple that

they were the ones that were

instrumental in me going to indonesia

the wife was indonesian and she married

an american

right before they got married

the man's father came to him

and he said do you want to have

a successful marriage where you're not

fighting and you're not

bickering because that happens a lot

and he said yeah what do i have to do

and he said

it's real simple everything

your wife says is right

and you let her be right even though

she's dead wrong

you don't fight with her about it you

let her be right

and then you can discuss what her ideas

are

they've been married seven years they

have not had a fight

in seven years

can anybody else say that that's married

i mentioned this at another retreat

and a man piped up and he said well i

want to be right some of the time

she's not always right so

he said how about if i'm right monday

wednesday friday sunday and she's right

tuesday thursday saturday

no you'll forget about that

let the woman be right it doesn't matter

that takes the confrontation out of your

relationship and it makes it

so easy

there's no complaining they sit down

and discuss things without

any emotional upset

sometimes they can agree sometimes they

can't and they agree to disagree

and they don't start complaining because

well you're doing it this way

no just let it go what difference does

it make

so there's a lot of

things that you can do

to overcome depression or

anger or dissatisfaction

you can overcome this easily

by not taking these things personally

somebody's else's opinion

even if they come at you with anger and

they come at you with dissatisfaction

they can do that and i can still be

happy

they say things that are incredibly

hurtful

they can do that that's their opinion

that doesn't mean it's right

and it doesn't mean that i have to

defend myself

but what do you do when somebody comes

at you like that

you start sending them loving-kindness

because you

see that they're suffering what's

compassion

seeing somebody else suffer and love

them

without any other conditions

just love them because they're there

radiate loving kindness

you'd be surprised how much better your

relationships become

when you can remember to do that

that's what being content is all about

what's the definition of contentment i

looked it up in the dictionary

being happy

why isn't life like that because we like

to take things

personally and we like to make things

complicated

and we like to make things be the way

we want them to be when we want them to

be that way

but that leads to suffering

and you're doing it to yourself

remember that's what a meditation

retreat is about

doing it so often that you can remember

to do it when you get off retreat

i had a one of my students in

malaysia was a school teacher

in malaysia they still use

a cane and the cane is

it's like almost like a whip and it's

really painful and it's okay

if the kids are misbehaving enough that

they get caned one or

once or twice

and she was assigned being the head

of discipline for the whole school

so these kids would get in a fight and

they had to come to her

and after she started practicing with me

and i started

telling her that she had to start

radiating loving kindness

there wasn't so many kids that were

coming to her

and they weren't afraid to talk to her

about what their problems were

and she would start teaching these kids

from

some of them six and seven years old on

up to

teenage she was teaching them

loving kindness and she changed the

whole school

and they started taking an interest in

learning not resisting

they'd find find some something that

they liked about the class and she

encouraged that

and as a result they became very

good students and they would go home

and they would tell their parents oh we

learned how to send love to other people

today

let's do that

you can affect the world around you just

by being

nice and helping other people and

radiating loving kindness to them

life starts to be fun

and the dhamma starts taking care of you

so you don't have to worry

you don't have to even think about

problems you can let it go

it's pretty amazing and quite often

something that i need i start thinking

about it before i can do anything or

tell somebody else that i'd like to have

that

they come and give it to me

when i was in australia i went there

and it was the shortest day of the year

there

and i went from malaysia where it was

like

oh it was probably 85

fahrenheit and i went to australia

and it was probably

40 and i was not prepared for cold

weather

i had on real light robes i didn't have

any socks

and as i was walking around i started

thinking

boy it would really be nice to have a

pair of socks my feet are so

cold and i finally got to this monastery

and the first thing

the head monk did was give me a pair of

socks

that's all right in a week i had a dozen

pair of socks

and literally i was walking around going

i don't need any more socks please

stop the socks

and to this day people still give me

songs

so i get to give socks away to other

people and quite often what you give you

get

so i keep having them come back

so practicing your generosity in all

different ways

is how you overcome

depression and you start getting more

healthy

keeping the precepts is real important

thing to do

it's real good because it's a kind of

protection

for you a lot of people come and they

say i want to teach this stuff

let what do i have to do to learn that

keep the precepts

be the example show

other people the compassion that you're

cultivating all the time

that's how you teach other people

people learn by example

especially children they see you

fighting with mom or dad

then all of a sudden they're fighting

with brother or sister

but they see loving and kind then they

want to get in the middle of it

i want some of that that's good stuff

and they start appreciating other people

around them

so this practice

is life changing

if you practice it

if you do it

you will be prosperous you'll get what

you need

not always what you want but what you

need

we started out with 30 acres we have 102

acres

because somebody donated the money to

get another piece of land

that's how it works

so the birth of action can be positive

or negative

depending on you and your perspective

and if you want to have a pure

mind you need to use the six

art

and you need to use the six r's all the

way down to

letting go of ignorance

then the ibana occurs

so the more you practice

this and use the six hours

during the day

when your mind starts to get tight

or you start to have an emotional thing

arise

you need to use the six r's

and you need to laugh

i have one student that is very highly

emotional

she comes running to me and she says

i'm so sad i

i really hurt a lot

what can i do with that so he said laugh

i can't laugh now i'm in pain

so i started laughing

i said listen to how ridiculous this is

you're taking all of these thoughts and

feelings personally

isn't that funny

and i keep laughing and before long

she's laughing and then she's not

emotional she's not in pain anymore

how do you affect the world around you

the whole thing with mindfulness is

remembering to do it

remembering the six hours remembering to

laugh at how crazy this thing

is every time it takes something

personally

that makes me mad isn't that funny

i mean really did you tell yourself

it's time to be mad now i'm gonna yell

at everybody

and i'm gonna make people hate me

because i'm so mad

isn't that funny how dumb can it be

it's not you it's not yours it's just a

crazy mind taking off

but practice makes perfect eventually

and the times when it's hardest to do

that

is when you really need to do it the

most

you want to overcome depression

see it's easy

it's not such a big deal ah but i have

chronic depression okay

then figure out how it works

help somebody else

that really has problems because

depression is a made-up thing in your

mind

it really is and something that you're

taking personally

help other people you stop thinking

about yourself

make other people happy figure out ways

to make them laugh

life starts to be fun then not only for

you but other people around you

i'd like to catch a hold of the guy

that said

that you're supposed to be serious life

is serious

i'd like to catch a hold of it and just

beat the heck out of him

wrong

okay i'm going to get off my soapbox now

so let's get back to the links of

dependent origination

and what monks is habitual tendency

now when i when i say habitual tendency

in this what i'm

doing is just

taking the uh

the practical aspects

that you can see and recognize but there

is more to this

than just the emotional

tendency it's also

wanting to uh

get into different

genres or a rupijanas they

you want to get rid of this kind of

existence for that kind of existence

and i've been around a lot of scholar

monks

and i asked them what's a better word

the word in pali is bhava

and what's a better word to describe

than

uh existence

how can you describe this better so they

start talking about using other words

and in my mind what i'm doing is

replacing what the word that they're

saying

existence

and change it to habitual tendency and i

listen to him go through the whole

definition of it

by just changing habitual tendency and

it works

and then i'll tell them well i agree

with what you're saying

what your definition is

and when i replace the idea of habitual

tendency it works too

and all of the scholars that i've really

talked to

about this they've all agreed yeah this

is a good definition

but it's not a complete definition

and i find that

okay because when you start thinking

about the emotional

habitual tendencies and how much pain

you cause yourself

because of trying to think pain away

it it's a practical

definition it's not going to be

100 percent correct but that's okay

because you need to have the kind of

language

that is easy to understand

now if i if i say existence

what does that mean you know

so

okay now and what monks

is clinging there are four kinds of

clinging

clinging to sensual pleasures

clinging to views now this is the one

that i

say this is your story your thoughts

your opinions your ideas

clinging to rules and

vows

there is a phenomena that happens with

monks

and some monks are really interested in

the rules of discipline and they're very

very

strict with them

and they get arguing with other monks

about

is this is really so or not

and they they start fighting because of

the rigidity of

it says it here it's this way and that's

the way it is

there's there's not an openness of

thinking

and people that take vows and they they

have their rights and rituals you have

to

do it this way if you don't do it this

way you're wrong

and that causes an awful lot of

suffering in your own mind when you're

over

rigid now when i talk about

and tomorrow i think i'm going to get

bring up a suta about

the eightfold path i change the words

instead of right

which is part of the definition of sama

i change it to harmonious

okay so you you're in harmony

with your opinions and ideas that means

you're not fighting with anyone

they can have a difference of opinion

they can say

you got to do it this way but if you're

in harmony

it's more peaceful it's more calm it

leads to more balanced mind

and as i said i'll do more of that

tomorrow

and clinging to

this as a doctrine of self but clinging

to

taking things personally

this is called clinging and what monks

is craving

there are these six classes of craving

craving for forms craving for sounds

craving for

odors craving for taste craving

craving for tactical objects

craving for mental phenomena this

is called craving now this is a

definition that's hard to understand

because of the way it's presented you

have six cent stores

okay every time one of those sense doors

arises

it causes a feeling to arise pleasant

unpleasant neutral

right after that is where that craving

is

and craving is always

i like i don't like

this is the start of suffering

this is where it's best if you can

remember

the 6r if you can't get caught up in the

other stuff

and then 6r but always when you let go

of the craving there is this moment

of no thoughts very

clear mind

one of the things that happens with six

ours because i talked about it so much

is that some people try to use six

r's to beat things away it's like it's a

stick

and then i don't like this feeling

6r6r6r but it doesn't go away

it's not supposed to go away it does

on its own

when you go deeper in your in your

practice you'll get to a place

where you'll see the very beginning of

something arise

and you six are right then and it keeps

arising

but you don't keep your attention on it

you keep your attention on your object

to meditation

then it fades away by itself you don't

use the six r's as some kind of control

to make things be the way you want it to

be

when you use that relaxed step

you might not notice it but right after

that

there is no thoughts for a short period

of time

and then you have to bring up something

wholesome

i've had a lot of students that after

retreat

they go home and they say well

this problem came up

and i released and i relaxed and i

released and i relaxed and it didn't go

away

well of course it didn't go away why

you're not doing using the formula

you have to use the whole formula for it

to work

lighten your mind smile

come back to something awesome

stay with the smile if that's the case

keep doing that wholesome thing

yeah but that pain is still there okay

then do it again but not immediately

you have to bring up the wholesome

nature abhors a vacuum when you

six are the craving is gone

right if you don't take that

craving free mind and bring up something

wholesome

then it's going to go back to that

unwholesome thing

so you have to use the whole formula

and it's not a control mechanism

but it didn't go away that pain still

stayed there

okay so what

if it pulls your attention to it do it

again

after you've come back to your object to

meditation

and develop the light mind

we cause ourselves a lot of problems

when we repeat

the thoughts why do repeat thoughts

arise

this is me this is mind i don't like

this

i want it to be different than it is i

want it to change the way i want it to

change

six r's aren't for that six r's are just

for

letting go of the identification even if

it's just for a short period of time

but you you use the six hours all the

way

coming back to an uplifted thought

coming back to a smile

that might not even stay for very long

before you bounce back to it

to that pain okay then do it again

don't keep your attention on the pain

because

that's how you make it bigger it grows

it gets stronger

so

be patient with the six ours

patience leads to nibana

and it does

and i'll be patient as long as i get it

the way i want it when i want it that

way

see how how your mind feels when you

laugh

light alert

the more you smile the more you laugh

the lighter your mind becomes

the more you have joy in your life and

life becomes fun

the person that does the interviews in

indonesia

she's just great she's she really knows

english well and she's really good at

translating and

she has to translate during the

interviews

and then that sort of thing so we're

waiting for somebody to come

we're always giggling and laughing about

nothing in particular

just because it's fun

and people walk into the room and they

hear us laughing and they start feeling

better right then

so we're teaching by example

it's really nice great fun to be around

her

and she's married and there's it's not

to do with anything except there's two

human beings that really appreciate

themselves and they say things that

we laugh with

i don't know if you've noticed but when

doug and i are in there

and david are in there we're giggling

and laughing about all kinds of weird

things

you can hear us laugh when before you

even open up the door

how can we do that because we're having

fun

life is fun we like to

be happy so we are

we practice it so

letting go of the craving is a major

thing

and the more you can remember to do that

without putting demands the thing your

reality be the way it's supposed to you

want it to be

or it quote should be that's that's

another word i want to take off that out

of the vocabulary should

because that's a judgment i should have

done it this way

well it's already done

it's gone why do you criticize yourself

with a should

no need

okay

and what monks is feeling there are six

classes of feeling

feeling born of eye contact

feeling born of ear contact

feeling born of nose contact

feeling born of tongue contact

feeling born of body contact feeling

born of

mind contact this

is feeling so there are six kinds of

feeling

one at each of the scent stores

and actually there's a suit that there's

a hundred and eight kinds of feeling

that's really getting picky

and what monks is contact there are six

classes of contact eye contact ear

contact nose contact tongue contact

body contact and mind contact

this is called contact

and what monks are the sixth sense bases

the eye base the ear base the nose base

the tongue

base the body base and

mind base

and what monks is

mentality and materiality

now listen closely to this so you really

can

understand feeling

perception contact

attention this is called

mentality

feeling is mental

not physical

feeling is mental

okay think about that for a little while

this is called mentality

the four great elements in the form

derived from the four

great elements this is called

materiality four great elements

earth element fire element

water element air element

okay every everything material is made

up of these in different degrees

that's what material form is

one of the things that's real

interesting during the time of the

buddha there was a lot of people that

were pla

practicing different forms of yoga

and they

didn't connect body and mind they got

their body their

their body in different postures and

they said it's all mental

but when the buddha came along and said

you can't have mind without body

that was pretty revolutionary at that

time

and when you

see that tightness in your mind and you

relax

you're relaxing your body but you're

also relaxing your mind

at the same time

interesting

okay and what is consciousness

there are these six classes of

consciousness

eye consciousness ear consciousness nose

consciousness tongue consciousness body

consciousness

and mind consciousness this is called

consciousness now in the dependent

origination

consciousness is the potential

for those to arise

and when it arises is when the six

that you have i and form and then i

consciousness arises so

you have this potential for all of these

different kinds of consciousness to our

eyes when there is

that contact

and what monks are formations

there are these three kinds of

formations

bodily formation verbal formation

and mental formation

okay and that has gravity in it too

and what monks is ignorance

not knowing what suffering is not

knowing the origin of the suffering

not knowing the cessation of the

suffering

not knowing the way leading to the

cessation of suffering

this is called ignorance

so now we've gone through all of the

sense they're all of the

links of dependent origination

and because there is the origin of

suffering

in every one of the lengths there is a

slight

bit of craving in that

so you have to keep your six hours going

until you attain nibana and then you

have

you get to a place where it's a

cessation of perception

feeling and consciousness

and that everything stops

just for a short period of time

when the cessation

feeling and consciousness arise it's

like a clean slate

and you can get to see how these links

arise

and how they cease

you get a great deal of relief

really like you you've you've been

carrying around a heavy weight your

whole life and you didn't even know it

and then all of a sudden it's not there

and it's like

oh yeah that's right

and then you have a lot of joy

and you feel so good you don't even

wanna you come and tell me

i say okay you've experienced this

and you don't even want to go back and

sit

i feel too good to do this

don't care still gotta go gotta

go back to work

so again this is how the whole process

works

it's all conditioned it all has some

craving in it

and when you get to the unconditioned

state

there is no more craving there is no

more ignorance

how do you describe nibana

i don't most of the time because it's

impossible

how can you describe an unconditioned

state

with conditioned words

now there is a thing in the angutra

nikaya that kind of gives you an

idea and

it it says that if you go to

by the ocean and you build a sand castle

that's like having

craving and all of the other stuff

and then a wave comes back

and it knocks it down now

all of those individual

pieces of sand are still there

but they can never be put together in

exactly the same way

the thing that holds us together and

and causes us to be reborn

continually is the craving

and ignorance that's what holds these

aggregates together

and when you become an arahat you don't

have that anymore

when you die as an arahat everything

just dissipates

and you will not be reborn again

think of that not being on the wheel of

zanzara anymore

sounds worthwhile

and the arahats are they're probably

some of the busiest people around

because they're spending all their time

helping

other people to get off of the wheel

now think about think about this

if you go up to an arahat and ask him a

question

he doesn't have any agenda

he doesn't have any craving he doesn't

have any ignorance

so the answer he's going to give you is

going to be

super clear it's just your ability

whether you can hear what they're saying

or not

it'd be nice to have one around don't

you think

i'm working on it why don't we share

some merit now

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fierce truck

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

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long britain

you