From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IuiHG6XFU_Q

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

you

[Music]

this particular suit guy is very good

and is very interesting so I hope you

get a lot of out of it thus if I heard

on one occasion of venerable ananda was

living in a town near vesali now in that

occasion a householder dama sama had

arrived from possibly a puta for some

business or other then when a certain

monk in cuckoo butas park after paying

homage to him he sat down at one side

and asked him where does the venerable

Ananda live now venerable sir I wish to

see a venerable Ananda the venerable

Ananda is living near ghazali

householder when the householder Dhamma

sama had completed his business and

helped artillio puta he went to the

venerable Ananda after paying homage to

him sat down at one side and asked him

venerable Ananda has any one thing been

proclaimed by the Blessed One who knows

and sees accomplished and fully awakened

wherein if a monk abides diligent pardon

and resolute his unliberated mind comes

to be liberated and as undestroyed

taints come to be destroyed and he

attains the supreme security from

bondage that he not had not attained

before there is householder indeed one

such thing proclaimed by the

said one what is that one thing

venerable Ananda here householder quite

included from sensual pleasures secluded

from unwholesome states among enters

upon and abides in the first jhana one

of the things that happened in America

in particular is that the word jhana has

been misinterpreted and people are told

to not practice jhana the word jhana in

the sutras is mentioned about 10000

times so it seems to me that that isn't

the correct kind of thinking oh you

shouldn't practice jhana the Buddha

didn't teach jhana well yes he did

he taught mostly jhana but the

interpretation of john i by most people

is one pointed concentration or

absorption concentration which is what

the Buddha did not teach it gets

confusing because there's more than one

kind of jhana that's being taught the

kind of jhana that I teach is different

from the kind of jhana that everybody

else thinks about I'm hearing a backlash

on this

it's kind of a back hum and just a bit

sorry okay it's it's not quite loud

enough now visit is that loud enough

okay so cut it out the kind of jhana I

teach is what the Buddha taught and it's

by following the directions in the

sutras that you attained this kind of

jhana now the kind of jhana that has

been practiced before the Buddha came

around and by the Brahmins who were the

main religious group in India during the

time of the Buddha is one pointed

concentration it came from the Vedas now

what's all of this mean one pointed

concentration is this your mind is on

your object of meditation it gets

distracted immediately you let go of

that distraction and come back to your

object of meditation when you do this

what happens with your mind is the force

of the concentration that you would

eventually develop stops

inferences from arising and your mind

becomes absorbed in an object of

meditation and there's a lot of danger

in this kind of meditation I've run

across people that have had to be put in

mental Institute's because they were

doing wrong kind of concentration and it

just addled their mind so much that they

weren't reliable anymore what I teach we

call it

twin tranquil wisdom insight meditation

now this kind of jhana your mind is on

your object of meditation your mind gets

distracted you let go of the distraction

and relax the tightness in your head in

your mind caused by that distraction

when you let go of that tightness you're

letting go of craving what's the second

noble truth the cause of craving or the

cause of suffering is craving now almost

all people that are practicing different

forms of meditation are not recognizing

this tension and tightness so they're

practicing a kind of meditation that

will not lead to personality development

will not lead to the overcoming of

suffering

so there is a distinct difference

between what the Buddha was teaching in

the sutras and what most people are

teaching as the Buddhist meditation and

to be quite honest I listened to other

teachers give Dhamma talks and I get

bored with their talks because they use

a lot of words but they don't really say

anything they're not really teaching you

anything and that's not the Buddhist

style the Buddhist style was so that

your understanding can be so good that

you can change things for yourself and

it comes from that extra step of

relaxing it tranquilizes your mind what

happens when you relax and you let go of

that tension and tightness right after

that you'll notice that your mind is

very clear your mind is very bright your

mind is pure why is it pure because

you've let go of craving and that's the

cause of suffering so your mind becomes

pure when you let go of that craving a

lot of different kinds of things when

you're practicing meditation in this way

that occurred during your sitting for

one thing the force of the concentration

when you're doing this kind of sitting

does not suppress anything it doesn't

stop things from happening it doesn't

push down a lot of people when they're

teaching about meditation they say those

are the hindrances you have to push them

and down you have to push them away you

have to

them from just becoming a distraction I

have a friend that's been teaching

meditation for many many many years and

if you listen to him get in front of a

large group of people you can still hear

a little bit of fear in his voice he has

had trouble with fear since before he

started teaching and he even talks about

yeah I still have fear it doesn't bother

me so much anymore but it's still there

now is that purifying your mind that's

the real question if you're not able to

let go of the cause of suffering then

the suffering is not going to go away if

you can't recognize that suffering and

the cause of it there's no sense in

doing the meditation as far as I can see

I'm into very much end result now

there's a lot of meditations that are

very helpful in some ways but what's the

end result the end result that I'm

looking for is the cessation of

suffering and the Buddha is taught that

there's a right way to practice

meditation and a wrong way and the wrong

way of practicing is emphasizing

suffering the right way is learning how

suffering ceases

how it stops so what I'm going to be

doing during this retreat is showing you

a lot of different things that the

Buddha said about how to let go of

suffering and when you follow the

directions you don't add anything you

don't subtract anything you don't change

anything when you follow the directions

exactly precisely you will see a major

difference in yourself and it's nothing

that I'm doing that causes that to

happen what I'm doing is just telling

you what the Buddha said and it is

immediately effective one of the things

when it talks about the good qualities

of the Dhamma the second quality is

called a calico and poly a calico means

immediately effective how many people do

you know have been meditating for years

and they hit a wall and they just can't

go any deeper they can't go any further

and they get tired of it and they quit

meditating that doesn't happen with this

meditation why because it's immediately

effective every time there's a

distraction and pulls your attention

away from your object of meditation

you'll use the six artists on it you

recognize it you release the distraction

by not keeping your attention on it

don't make a big deal of any kind of

distraction

relax smile come back to your object of

meditation stay with your object of

meditation for as long as you can now

how is this immediately effective you've

let go of a hindrance you've let go of

the craving you've developed smiling and

having an uplifted mind a light mind and

you're bringing that light mind back to

your object to meditation and what

happens when you do that enough is the

hindrance goes away and when the

hindrance goes away you feel relief now

why do hindrances keep coming up because

you've done things in the past it might

be a past lifetime it might be in this

lifetime who knows it doesn't matter

what the cause is the reason a hindrance

keeps coming up is because you did

something in the past that made you feel

guilty and that guilty feeling makes you

take it personally this is me this is

mine I did that I shouldn't have done it

but I did it now I'm feeling guilty

because of it so every time you use the

six hours you're letting go of that

wrong opinion of a personal self being

you this is me this is mine this is

I am so every time you let go of that

craving you're letting go of that wrong

belief in a personal self and that's

immediately effective you went from

taking it personally to seeing that it's

not personal

it's just the thought it's just a

feeling so there's a lot of relief when

you let go of that right after that

relief you feel very strong joy now the

kind of there's there's five different

kinds of joy

the first kind of joy well the first

three kinds of joy can be experienced at

anybody at any time

the first kind of joy is like goosebumps

something really nice happens and you

get some boost pot so that's a good

feeling not nice the next kind of joy is

like a flash of lightning it's very

strong but it's only there for a short

period of time

now what happens after every kind of joy

that arises is right after that you feel

a sense of tranquility as as it gets

stronger the tranquility lasts longer

you feel more peaceful more calm more

balanced in your mind for a period of

time the next kind of joy is like

standing in the ocean and just having a

wave of joy come over you and then

another wave comes over you and you

might be able to sit for a few minutes

after that joy fades away where your

mind is really calm and it's quiet and

it's very very nice

now the last two kinds of joy only arise

through mental development the next kind

of joy is called uplifting joy this is

what you experience when you get into a

jhana this kind of joy you feel very

light in your body and light in your

mind and you feel yeah this is good this

is really a nice happy feeling I like

that and then that joy will fade away

now you you have to understand every

feeling that arises it's just a feeling

it's not my feeling sometimes people try

to hold on to a happy feeling because

they've had so much suffering in their

life you don't hold on to it you just

let it be there as long as it's going to

be you feel light in your body light in

your mind and you start going and this

is a reason that I really started

meditating this is good I like that but

you let it be there when that feeling

fades away you feel very strong

tranquility and you feel more

comfortable in your mind and in your

body than you've ever felt before just

at ease and that will last for a period

of time your mind becomes very unified

now I just described to you the first

jhana

now the last kind of joy that arises is

the awakening factor of joy

it's called all-pervading joy it doesn't

have the excitement in it of the other

kinds of joy you've experienced this

kind of joy is a real happy feeling and

your mind is very alert when this kind

of joys fades away the tranquility and

the balance of mind is very strong

excuse me

now getting back to the one pointed

concentration a lot of people especially

in this country will tell you that if

you get into jhana you cannot experience

Nirvana nirvana means no more fire

what's the cause of fire arising in your

mind craving Soni Bona is basically

saying no more craving for a period of

time

so when

you are practicing one-pointed

concentration not using the relaxed step

your mind can go very deep in

concentration but the force of the

concentrations stops things from arising

and that's why you can't attain nirvana

by doing that kind of meditation there's

a lot of people that are practicing oh

you do the jhana then when you get out

of the jhana you switch your meditation

over to straight Vipassana and then you

can attain nirvana well I've heard about

that for the last 35 years and I haven't

seen one person that's been successful

yet so I have my doubts as to whether

that really works but there's a lot of

attachments people think they're doing

the right thing saying the right thing

one of the phenomena that's starting to

happen now and it really does make me

happy is a lot of people are starting to

go back to the sutras and see what the

Buddha said instead of listen to what

somebody else said the Buddha said now

there's there's a lot of people that do

do teach meditation and they want to

teach from the heart which is all good

and well but I want to know what the

Buddha said about it I don't want to

know what somebody comes up with some

ideas I'm very traditional and I

understand that that's kind of a almost

a dirty word

but I am the most successful meditation

teacher that I know and that's not

bragging on my part that is just stating

a fact 50% of the people that are doing

retreats with me in Asia are successful

they are experiencing Nibbana to one

degree or another and they're starting

to be more and more happy all the time

and that's the whole point change your

perspective let go of your old ways of

thinking and have a lot of loving

acceptance of the present develop your

equanimity so that your mind has more

and more balance in it all the time and

the things that used to get you upset

it's not even worth mentioning anymore

so what

your mind becomes much more at ease and

you become much more skillful at solving

problems this is the advantages of doing

this kind of meditation and you are your

own teacher you're teaching yourself I'm

not the teacher you see me reading the

zhutka the Buddha is a teacher I'm a

guide my job is to keep you on the path

keep you going in the straight way so

you can have advantage for doing this

meditation and you can really benefit a

lot and nothing makes me happier than to

see people benefit from this meditation

believe me now sometimes when you start

to go deeper into your your meditation

there's different things that happen

when you come for the interviews that's

what I'm going to be questioning about I

don't care about the story of how you

got there I have very specific things

that I need to know I had one person

after the retreat they said that body

kept on interfering with what I was

trying to tell him and what he was

trying to tell me was a story and I

don't have time for stories I mean I see

everybody every day that's a lot of

hours of interviews plus I give a Dhamma

talk in the evening I'm busy I haven't

got time for a lot of stories

although I might give you a few well I

have enough time to show you how to how

to let it go but you got to do it

the thing with hindrances is they're

hindrances because they stop you from

staying on your object of meditation and

you have to learn that the hindrances

are not your enemy to fight with now

last night she was talking about pain

and she was talking about taking that

pain personally and wanting to get up

and run away from it and that doesn't

make it go away

that just postpones it a little bit we

have to learn to develop patience my

teacher

Lucille Ananda great monk absolutely

brilliant had the habit of telling me a

lot patience leads to Nibbana and I'm

patient as long as I get what I want

when I wanted so you have to be patient

and not just try to run away from things

when they first start to come up now in

in Malaysia there was 11 different

countries that people from 11 different

countries came to that retreat so that

was a real interesting time for me to

have that many

different ways of describing how things

work for them and I had to really stress

very much patience when hindrances arise

the six RS are not there to stop them

from causing pain the six RS are there

to let go of craving that's it the pain

will go away by itself when you use the

attachments what is an attachment its

craving it's taking something personally

it's making a big deal out of something

in your mind and trying to control there

is no control there's only observation

and allowing it to burn out by itself so

the more you're able to stay on your

object of meditation not with an iron

fist but just letting your mind stay

with your object of meditation without

trying to force it the more you do that

and use the six R's when your mind gets

distracted the faster your progress

becomes now at the first part of your

retreat you might be able to sit for

half an hour 45 minutes and your mind

starts to have a little bit of joy or

ice that's good but don't be attached to

it there's a lot more that's a lot

better and you'll see that for yourself

I don't want you to believe anything

that I say how many meditation teachers

have you

and say that check it out

see if it is if it's whether it's right

or not so the more you are teaching

yourself not to fight with entrances not

to try to control them to allow them to

be you start seeing that when these

hindrances arise they are teaching you

where your attachment is and how to let

go of that attachment by using the six

arts your mind will naturally start to

become more uplifted and happy as you

stop trying to make my mind be the way I

want it to be when I want it that way

there's nothing about making your mind

be anything there's only remembering to

observe how Minds attention moves from

one thing to another it's important to

see this because when you're able to see

how Minds attention moves you start to

see for yourself and teach yourself this

is part of an impersonal process I

didn't ask for this stuff to happen I

didn't want it to come up I can't make

it go away all I can do is observe how

this process works and as you can in

ually teach yourself about how this

process works you naturally start to

become more happy

you become lighter with your perspective

of things you become more accepting of

things instead of somebody coming up and

being extremely rude to you and you

getting mad at them you just let it go

not that important to get upset about

yeah but that no no good so-and-so said

or did this and I really hate that so

how much pain do you caused yourself

because I don't like it I am taking it

personally and that is a false belief

this meditation will show you how to let

go of that more and more so you develop

more and more balance with everything

every part of aspect of your life more

accepting don't resist or push soften

your mind and smile doesn't matter how

much pain comes up or what the reason of

the pain is the reason for the pain we

don't care about the reasons sometimes

we find out what the reason is sometimes

we don't it doesn't matter it's how the

process works that's the thing that's

important and you're going to hear me

talk more and more about dependent

origination and this is the process this

is how everything arises

as you get more and more educated with

how this process works you start to have

more and more balance in your mind and

you start seeing for yourself you make a

big deal out of anything you're going to

cause yourself suffering and until you

stop making a big deal out of it and

taking it personally you're going to

continue suffering and you can't blame

anybody else for your pain oh but he

said this and I don't like that whoops

who doesn't like it I don't who wants it

to be different than it is I wish they

hadn't said that so who doesn't like

that who wants it to be different who's

causing themself more and more pain

because you're making a big deal out of

it and taking it personally now the

thing with the Buddha's path that is

very important and it's not something

that is like very much in this country

and it's called morality but most people

in this country don't even understand

what morality really means it means

these five precepts that you take for

your daily life you keep them and your

mind will naturally become calm

now the first precept don't harm or kill

living beings on purpose second precept

don't take anything that's not given

don't steal anything how do you feel

when somebody steals something of yours

the third precept don't do any wrong

sexual activity what is wrong sexual

activity wrong sexual activity is sexual

activity with another person's mate or

with someone that is your mate that has

other relationships going sexual

activity with somebody that's too young

sexual activity that causes any other

person to have dislike come up in their

mind

so keeping sexual activity doesn't

necessarily mean that you have to be

married to have sexual activity but it

means that you don't cause anybody else

upset because you're having that

relationship the next precept is the one

that's probably the hardest don't tell

any lies a white lie is a lie

don't knowingly say things that are

false don't curse look at your mind if

you if you start cursing what what's

happening in your mind a lot of hatred

when I came back to Asia which was 15

years ago now I was absolutely shocked

to see television the language that they

were using on television cursing is

becoming okay the radio of cursing I was

absolutely shocked by that what is that

saying that's saying that people they're

giving their dislike and dissatisfaction

to everybody else around them in an

offensive way and don't do that that

makes other people upset and your mind

is upset your mind has hatred in it when

you're getting caught up in cursing

don't try to split groups one group from

another by saying well this group over

here they're saying this about you and

you come to this group and you say well

they're saying this about you doesn't

matter to let it go and don't gossip

what is gossip it's making up stories

that aren't true it's trying to cause

problems for other people

so these four different kinds of speech

are very important to keep now the fifth

precept don't take drugs and alcohol at

Dolomites I have some students that they

thought that that wasn't the right thing

so they had a glass of wine and then

they saw these are people that were

pretty advanced in the meditation but

they they drank a glass of wine and it

affected their meditation for three or

four days afterwards their mind got dull

and you say well if it's only one beer

it's only this little bit of wine but it

has a negative effect on your mind and

if you're serious about meditation

don't do it yeah but I need to relax

we'll go meditate if you need to relax

go have fun

go play with some kids if you need to

relax

any time you break one of the precepts

it causes hindrances to arise I've had

students for years that they would keep

the precepts while they were on retreat

when they got off they just went back to

the way they did things before and then

they'd come back for another retreat to

say you know this retreat is it's really

hard well yeah why because you break the

precepts you have that guilty mind you

know your mind knows when you break a

precept and your mind says I shouldn't

have done that

and then you come for a retreat and you

sit in meditation and you have these

entrances coming up and you have to go

through that to purify your mind so

after eight or nine days on a retreat

your mind finally has purified itself

enough it starts to go deeper and then

you're done with a retreat so keep your

precepts without breaking and of course

there's always these clowns that say

okay okay I'm going to keep all the

precepts how long do I have to do that

well my answer is the will for another

hundred years at least and we'll go up

from there it's important to keep these

precepts there's no God in heaven is

going to throw down a thunderbolt at you

because you broke a precept but you know

you've done it yourself you've taken

something that wasn't given and then you

can justify it all you want but that

doesn't mean that you haven't broken the

precept one of the things that happens

when people come to the center is

there's a lot of making up reasons why

things happening the way they're

happening and they look to put blame on

anybody else they're not taking

responsibility for themselves and that

turns into a problem for them

because they don't want to take

responsibility for their breaking their

own precepts they want to blame somebody

else because of this problem and

progress is very slow because of it the

reason that I have you doing the

precepts every morning is not some kind

of right and ritual it's a reminder to

keep the precepts and if you say

something that's not true you've broken

the preset it's going to affect your

meditation negatively all day until you

take the precepts the next morning so

when you realize that you broke the

precept right then stop what you're

doing forgive yourself for making a

mistake make a determination that I'm

not going to do that again and take the

precepts again that way you can purify

your own mind it's important to do that

as I was telling you this morning there

was a monk that when he first came to

the meditation Center he was doing great

he was sit in three hours and that's

when I could barely sit for two and by

the end of his retreat because he broke

one precept that he and he felt guilty

for it he couldn't sit more than 15

minutes now what why do you think that

is because he took it personally

he decided I know this is something that

I should follow but I'm not going to do

it and as a result that affected the

meditation in a negative way can't blame

me for that it's not my fault I don't

have anything to do with your keeping

your precepts all I can do is recommend

that it's

good thing and to do it all the time not

just while you're on retreat if you keep

your precepts for a year without

breaking them and you come for a retreat

your meditation is going to fly your

meditation is going to go very deep very

quickly why because you've kept your

precepts and that leads to strong

tranquility and equanimity

so the hindrances when they come up they

are your teacher and you're teaching

yourself about how to let go of these

hindrances you're teaching yourself

about the cause of the hindrances by

keeping precepts it's real important to

be careful about what you say okay

it doesn't mean you can't joke you can

but everybody knows that you're just

making a joke you're not breaking a

precept there's a story in one of the

commentaries about a monk went out on

arms round and he came back and he had a

lot of food in this bowl and one of the

monks was just going out on alms round

he said how's they all drowned today and

he said oh the the streets are flowing

with food that's not a true statement

right but it's it's a way of describing

if you're not trying to fool other

people you're not trying to get them to

believe something that you know is

untrue okay okay here quite secluded

from sensual pleasures secluded from

unwholesome States a person enters upon

and abides in the first channel which is

accompanied by thinking and examining

thought with joy and happiness born of

seclusion that is what the first jhana

is like you'll be able to stay on your

object to meditation for a period of

time without any distractions and you'll

be able to see when your mind starts to

move away and you'll catch it more

quickly and come back every time your

mind moves away from your object to

meditation you're not in that jhana at

that time

he considers this and understands that

thus the first jhana is conditioned and

you're directing your mind

it's Felician Allah produced you're

directing your mind to stay with one of

the objects of meditation whatever that

happens to be but whatever his condition

and volitional leap in produced is

impermanent subject to change subject to

cessation if he's steady in that he

attains the destruction of the taints

but if he does not attain a destruction

of the taints because of that desire for

the Dhamma that delight in the Dhamma

then with a destruction of the five

lower fetters he becomes one due to

reappear spontaneously in the pure boots

and their attained final knee bono

without ever returning from that world

now what are we talking about here if

you attain even the first jhana with the

tranquil wisdom meditation while you're

in that jhana your mind can all of a

sudden go very deep and you can become

an are hot just by being in the first

jhana doesn't happen very often I

granted but I have had students that

have been in the jhanas not all the way

up to the highest jhanas

and attained nirvana there was a nun

that came and she started practicing

with me she was am I on a nun and most

my Ayana teachers are very very severe

they don't like people that smile they

don't like people that are happy for the

most part and that's just a general

thing that I'm saying is not specific

everyone is like that but because it's

not no nobody is always going to be how

you describe but when she first came she

was so sour faced very serious had these

deep lines in her inner forehead and I

kept telling her she had to smile and by

the third day of the retreat she

actually heard what I said

and she started smiling and she said

does this mean I can have fun and I said

yeah and the next day she went into the

breakfast started eating staying with

the loving-kindness and her spiritual

friend and got into the first jhana

because of that and after that she was

Miss smiley she was smiling all the time

and being happy all the time and the

beep lines in her face the deep frown

lines were trying too hard they

disappeared is great it was really good

fun to see somebody get it

so please smile please smile all the

time

keep your mind like any time you get

serious guess who has an attachment

guess who's taking it personally

guess who's causing themself pain it's

okay to smile it's okay to laugh and it

is okay to have fun

you don't hear meditation teachers say

that very often I think I'm about the

only one I know of that says it

well meditation is supposed to be

serious well then be seriously happy

how's that keep your mind light whenever

you get serious about anything I am

there I want to control I want it to be

the way I want it to be and that's a

cause of suffering so this is an all the

time practice it's not just sitting and

walking practice and that's hard to get

across because an awful lot of people

when when the Chinese and Japanese

started coming over to this country and

in the 1800's there

their main focus in meditation was

sitting and that's why meditation is

called sitting because they just drummed

it into everybody that men do you have

to sit and that's when you're doing your

meditation but to be able to carry your

meditation with you all the time the

thing with the six RS that's very

important is to understand that's a way

you can let go of your suffering in your

daily activities and the more you smile

with your daily activities the better

your mindfulness becomes you're able to

see what your mind is doing in the

present and when your mind starts to get

serious and starts to pull down with all

of these problems well that's a time

that you use your six R's and smile into

that keep your mind light don't take it

heavily I've got to worry about this

well no you don't it's your choice to

worry about it whether you're going to

do it or not but oh this is so bad how

can I handle this how can I take care of

that well you can do it with a serious

mind that resists and wants to control

doesn't like the situation gets angry

pretty easy or not you can be very

accepting of whatever arises

it doesn't matter what the feeling is

like whether it is a mental feeling or a

physical feeling the thing is that when

you take it personally it makes your

mind have more and more craving in and

more and more desire to control and make

it be the way you want it to be and

honestly it doesn't work

it really doesn't the more you can allow

and just say okay you're there so what

it's alright it doesn't mean you don't

work if you have joints that need to be

straightened out that doesn't mean you

don't straighten them out it means you

don't have resistance to straightening

them out and you don't get into the

dislike of the sensation for it being

there

did you ask a sensation to come up

you're sitting in meditation and all of

a sudden you have a pain in your knee

did you say you know I haven't had any

pain in my knee for a while I might as

well have some now no you don't have any

control over that sort of thing what you

do have a control over is what you do

with that when it arises use the six

hours not as some kind of stick to beat

things away to stop them from happening

it's that's not what six hours are about

the six RS are very specifically right

effort is very specifically used to let

go of craving the cause of the suffering

and the six arse and right effort are

the same thing just a different way of

describing it it's just like the five

aggregates and four foundations of

mindfulness are different ways of saying

the same thing the Buddha was real big

on the five aggregates when he would

teach monks he would teach them about

the five aggregates because they

understood that later on he changed over

to doing the foundations of mindfulness

that was a later kind of teaching but it

was still the same thing the five

aggregates you have body you have

feeling that perception now perception

and feeling are conjoined always when a

feeling comes up you know whether it's a

pleasant feeling or a painful feeling

perception is a part of the mind that

tells you that okay you have the same

cara's you have thoughts you have I

generally have for beginners I talked

about thoughts more than anything thank

Aras and you have consciousness the four

foundations of mindfulness you have body

same as with the five aggregates you

have feeling same as with the five

aggregates you have consciousness same

with the five aggregates you have Damas

same with the five aggregates now isn't

that amazing well the four foundations

of mindfulness they're so important to

people that are practicing the vaasana'

but I found over the years that they

just talk about generally what the four

foundations of mindfulness are they

don't talk specifically about what they

are and the four foundations of

mindfulness in the sukkah is talking

about jhana practice but they've taken

that understanding away and say oh

that's just free pass on a-- but it is

describing all kinds of things about

jhana practice the way the Buddha taught

jhana

was that the four foundations or the

five aggregates whichever way you want

to say it is in each jhana while you're

actually in the jhana you're practicing

the four foundations of mindfulness and

there's more than one suta that agrees

with that so there's a lot of things

that are kind of misunderstood I don't

believe they're purposefully

misunderstanding

but there is a misunderstanding with the

different ways of doing the practice and

I am very much enthusiastic about

practicing what the Buddha is talking

about and specifically following what

the Buddha was talking about and it is

great fun for me to watch people start

to understand it's really nice

doesn't take that long from now until

the end of the retreat outside of being

your guide I am the educator and you'll

be a lot smarter about Buddhism by the

end of the retreat because you'll have

some of the direct experiences you'll

have some of the direct knowledge for

yourself

and again you're your own teacher I can

present ideas that the Buddha was

talking about you decide whether you

want to try it or not generally speaking

when you follow what the Buddha says it

works it works very well and it is

immediately effective I mean when you

have a hindrance arise and you let it be

there and you relax

that hindrance is not there anymore

that's immediate now when I'm talking

about the six ARS I'm talking about

words that you need to do not say over

and over again okay this is a list of

words to do recognize as soon as you

notice you're not on your object of

meditation you've already recognized it

you don't have to tell yourself I need

to recognize this and you let it be and

relax and smile and come back to your

object of meditation and stay there it's

a flow don't put any philosophy with it

this is a method and it works very well

and it works all the time

your job is to remember to do it so with

each of the jhanas that you'll go

through there's going to be a little

different kind of experience that you're

going to have and you can have the

experience of attaining Nibbana while

you're in each one of these jhanas like

I said I have had students that have

attained me bon a welder

they're using the sixers the thing with

the jhana that is not very well

understood because it's taken from the

beta Tech's is people think the only

time you can experience jhana is while

you're sitting now when you're walking

can you have joy can you have a peaceful

calm mind

and you have a mind that's very

collected and very at ease oh that means

you can be walking and being in the

jhana

it doesn't matter what you're doing what

matters is how you're using your

mindfulness keep your mind

keep your mind smiling that improves

your mindfulness so much it's

unbelievable and I can tell when you

come in for the interview whether you're

really smiling enough or not and I might

tell you you got a smile more why

because your mind's too heavy as soon as

you walk in it's like somebody bring

I'm led on it on top of their head and

pushing it down have fun with this

retreat in it I give you all permission

to have fun how's that

keep smiling as much as you can okay so

we didn't get very far on this suta but

we will in in the next one do you have

any questions are we going to have smart

people or dumb people yeah it doesn't

matter content doesn't matter that's

where people get a lot of confusion

because they want to follow it and see

what it is and that's distraction okay

I've had some students that they've been

real close to getting to Nibbana but

they kept on having a a memory of a past

lifetime and okay let's go see this for

a little while know the content of that

doesn't matter what matters is that you

recognize that your mind is distracted

let it be there by itself relax

smile come back you can get insights

into what what comes up but the insights

are always about the process of how it

came up and you might see well the

reason this came up was because of that

memory or whatever but you don't follow

that

that's for psychology that's not for the

Buddha's path the Buddha's path is about

how did this come up and it always comes

up in exactly the same way and that's

one of the things in Asia they really

don't like the idea when I tell them

that there's no difference between the

American mind and the Asian mind they

don't like that idea at all

but it's it's that your human being all

human beings mind works in the same way

exactly

and there's fascination with why

something arises and follow it to the

end and see if there's any resolution by

it but that's taking it personally and

we will let go of that idea now there's

some weird things that happen when you

start letting go and seeing the

impersonal nature of everything your

mind can have a lot of fear arise and it

starts throwing a temper tantrum just

like a little kid you're ignoring me

I've been in control how many lifetimes

and now you're not paying attention to

me anymore

you're telling me that that all the

things I've done in the past don't

it isn't really me it's a false belief

and your mind will throw up a lot of

fear and how do you get over that fear

you laugh at how crazy your mind can get

everybody is crazy

it's okay to be crazy because we all are

we've been taking things personally for

how many lifetimes how much pain have we

caused ourselves by taking it personally

by getting involved with a story and

trying to solve problems there's so much

benefit gained by keeping your precepts

without breaking them by smiling more by

seeing things that are impersonal

processes that we take as us how much

pain do we cause ourself and then you

start letting go of that and everything

changes yeah

[Laughter]

all Yaya but all beings want to live

they don't want to die in order to kill

there has to be dislike well we we

practice in such insect rescue a lot we

have some little devices that will just

go around the insect and close in on it

then we take it outside open it up and

let it go out we do that with wasps we

do that with ladybugs we do that with

all kinds of things that like to come in

now one of the things we have a lot of

wasps for we live a lot and I got into

the habit of catching them on the window

taking them and letting them go out but

as I'm letting them go out I tell them

to tell all our friends I let them go

free which sounds kind of weird except I

never get stung it does work

[Laughter]

well Asia hassle it has to do with your

intention when you stop intending to

kill then you're expanding the lifecycle

of other beings if you just go out and

start killing them you're shortening

that lifecycle you're shortening your

own light cycle now in Asia they have

and it's ant heaven in Asia and they are

really troublesome and they bite and

look smaller the ant is the bigger the

bite is so the Chinese have developed

this truck that should put around you

you just draw a circle around you and

the ants will cross that line there's

way of preventing them from bothering

you how mosquitoes are troublesome so

you sleep under a mosquito net you don't

have to kill them sometimes there is not

the intention to kill but something

bites you and you go like that to see

what it was and you accidentally kill

them your intention was not to kill now

there's a story about this one monk that

was blind and he had a string between

poles and he was walking back and forth

holding onto

a string and he was stepping on ants and

monks saw that and they went to the

Buddha to tattletale a little bit and

say he's killing these ants and the

Buddha said his intention is not to kill

he's not doing it on purpose he has no

mental hold on any of that so there's no

wrongdoing well if you kill anything on

purpose you don't have also mine let's

just put it that way okay

you

and we can get into a long discussion

about that but I'm not gonna mine comes

up with discursive God always how about

that don't make it a big deal just six

art continue on oh yeah

craving is not particularly strong it is

particularly persistent I mean you can

just barely have enough time to do the

six hours and come back to your object

before all of a sudden you're pulled

away again just play it as it's a game

don't make a big deal out of it well and

if you try too hard one of the things

that they started doing in Asia this

time was that every thought that came up

they were six arting as soon as they

came and they just had more and more and

more thoughts and they'd come to me it

talked to me about being tired it is

tiring to 6ar every little thing that

comes up you don't need to six are every

little thing that comes up if it doesn't

pull your attention away from your

object to meditation and these thoughts

come up ignore them if it pulls your

attention away now you use the six arts

yeah they're trying to hurt they have to

back off on that and what you have to

tell them to do is they need to smile

more it's really true some people will

come in and they'll be complaining about

oh my meditation is so active I have so

much problem in this and that you're not

smiling enough oh yes I am I smile all

the time no you don't if you smile all

the time you're not going to have these

problems come up you're taking it

personally you're trying to over control

and you can't do that you have to back

off well they don't understand what a

true smile is because I have a lot of

equanimity in my mind most of the time

but I'm also smiling in my mind most of

it so it doesn't have to be here but it

does have to be yeah

you'll start seeing them naturally you

don't have to force it you'll start

seeing them happen you'll see feeling

arise and then the craving and then the

clinging and then the bejeweled tendency

and then the suffering you'll be able to

see that and recognize it as you go

deeper in your meditation

it will start to come naturally

you have to be careful with your energy

if you start to get any tension or

tightness in your head while you're

doing that back off that's the key is

with anything if you have too much

tension or you you have tightness that

starts to happen and your mind starts to

do this you're putting in too much

effort too much energy and you have to

back off until there's balance with it

yeah they do

and that's what insights are all about

because you you'll be going along and

all of a sudden you'll just notice oh

that's how that happened

Wow that's really something it happened

because there was a contact there was

feeling there was craving and as soon as

the craving happened a sick start and

the other links didn't arise Wow isn't

that amazing that's why I wanted to call

this an oh wow meditation because

there's a lot of oh wow that happen yeah

to start off with

that's okay to stay with equanimity then

and when you're walking I want you to

walk at a normal pace please don't walk

slowly you're walking for exercise stay

with your object to meditation whatever

that happens to be the longer you sit

the more you need the exercise you have

to get to going up a hill or running

upstairs and downstairs that sort of

thing get your heart beating that's real

important but stay with your object of

meditation while you're doing it okay

anybody else like if I do let go to get

back the insight comes about the

endurance but not without trying or not

without like I'm not making any

psychological with the travel can't just

unravel right and then else has an

insight pretty much back okay that's

fine

see them in your mind see them in your

mind see them now you there's two

different kinds of visualization for

some people the visualization can be

seeing them like pictures or seeing them

like in a movie and that's very easy for

them that's one kind of visualization

the other kind of visualization of

seeing them is just knowing that that's

who you're sending it to so pick the one

that's easiest the visualization is not

near as important as the feeling of

loving kindness and the feeling of the

wish that you make for your friend

that's much more important than seeing

them

by Elmar and you'll see just have fun

have fun doing it

know that person that you're sending it

to and you sincerely do wish them well

and radiate that feeling to them okay

don't try too hard that's one of the

biggest problems that I have with people

who have done meditation before is

they're taught to try to art and it's

time you got to learn how to back off so

you had a question

so no no no no no it doesn't matter what

the content is I don't care

fuzzy is fine

well eventually yeah but stop trying to

analyze it

that's a Western disease and it's a big

problem

people can for years get caught in that

but when they finally start listening

and realize I mean last summer I had a

monk come he stayed for three months the

first month he did meditation he was

just great and then he got it in his

mind that I want to be an are hot so he

started wrong effort and he had a whole

month of restlessness every time he came

my mind is restless I'm running all over

the place you're trying too hard

back off don't get involved with it here

at getting involved with the content

every day for 30 days I'm saying the

same thing to it then he comes to me and

he's really peaceful and calm and he

said well I figured out I was trying to

so he was my patience teacher it's

amazing then I you can have yeah it's

amazing that I can say something a

hundred times and then you finally get

it and you come to me and you're really

excited you go yeah I just found this

out how good oh I don't but there is

some relief when they finally yeah

it'll cause it'll cause tense it'll

cause tension to arise in your mind when

you get it when you get into the deeper

state you don't have a body and that's

one thing that I fight with the people

in Asia because they're very body

conscious you don't have a body but if

there is some contact you can feel the

contact then you'll say oh I've got this

real pain in my backside or my back or

my knee and I keep saying you don't have

a body how can you have a pain there

it's all mental that's something I have

to talk with you personally about

because it depends on the situation

sometimes I'll just tell people it's not

really pulling your attention away from

your object let's stay with your object

just because those thoughts are coming

up doesn't mean you have to address

everyone so it's it's staying on your

object of meditation that is the key

even when your mind is mind is object

meditation okay

but I'll find out as the questions that

I ask I'll find out what's happening now

there are going to be some people that

are going to be coming in and they want

to sit in on the interviews if you want

a private interview tell me but other

than that I want people I want to deke

people how to give interviews so I I

started doing that what was it two years

ago and it's quite helpful I don't think

it's anything in particular but

everybody of stepless the club so

anything else going back to when we're

talking about precepts and thinking

about feed and bugs on the windshield

profanity and all the other stuff that's

significant we how to determine whether

pregnant forgiveness education is

appropriate

magic way if you feel guilty about it

you feel guilty about it that forgive it

now the forgiveness meditation when done

in an intensive way is a very very very

powerful meditation it is the most

powerful meditation that I teach you

don't have to do it for the whole

retreat unless I had one one student in

Malaysia that when he started out he was

really kind of wacko and he was taking

all kinds of drugs and he was bipolar

seven or eight bipolar whatever that

means but he was going through

personality shifts that were just

unbelievable and he would follow the

directions kind of for a little while

and then he'd start off and do what he

wanted to do so this progress wasn't as

fast as it could be but by the end of

the retreat he had started to settle

down and when somebody is taking drugs I

don't allow them to stop taking the

drugs and I tell that they have to go

see the doctor about that because they

can have shifts back into their old ways

of doing things if they get people like

to cold-turkey drugs and you have to do

it gradually you have to do it over two

or three week period not just stop

taking it all together because that your

body is used to it and you're addicted

to it be quite honest and then you go

through all these changes but he started

following the directions

even did a second retreat by the end of

the second retreat I actually told him

he didn't have to do any more

forgiveness unless there was something

came up that made his mind aight and he

was starting to do loving-kindness

meditation and doing quite well with it

so there's a lot of healing in doing the

forgiveness meditation a lot of healing

people that come and they tell me well I

can't feel any loving-kindness I just

don't know what it is okay let's do the

forgiveness meditation after two or

three days of doing forgiveness then all

of a sudden they have a breakthrough and

then I switch them over to

loving-kindness and they just zoom after

that so there was a lot of past old

situations that they were attached to

and the the way to let go of that

attachment is through forgiving

loving-kindness is forgiveness is part

of loving-kindness

well it depends it depends on them

entirely but what I have them start

doing is forgiving themselves for making

mistakes because we're so hard on

ourselves I mean we can do just

brilliant things all day and do one

thing that's questionable in your mind

then you start criticizing yourself for

it you have to be able to recognize that

release it relaxed smile and laugh

without dumb your mind can be but it

depends it's all individual there's

there's no set formula for anything and

when I have them doing forgiveness

sometimes I have them forgiving

themselves for making a mistake or

forgiving themself for not understanding

or forgiving themselves for causing pain

to themselves

those are real important aspects now

that there's a real big thing that's

happening in this country about well you

got to forgive but people don't know how

to forgive so they just say well you did

this to me I forgive you and then they

think they're done and the attachment is

still there so it still affects them in

a negative way they have to work until

they feel relief how long does that take

how well do they follow directions

but I've had students that have been in

a mental institute and I get them to

start forgiving and smiling and doing

all kinds of things they leave the

mental institute they don't have to be

in there anymore they don't have to take

such heavy drugs yeah

and it's their doing their own work

because they want to change come into a

retreat yeah

because because it is such a personal

thing you can't just say well just do

this and that'll work

it just it depends on what they're going

through and one of the things that the

forgiveness does is it helps you to let

go of your secrets now one of the

definitions of an Arad is a person that

has no secrets any secret you have that

you're keeping and you don't talk about

it

that's your attachment that's you're

holding on to an old action and taking

it personally and causing yourself a lot

of suffering

so it is kind of an individual thing so

one of the things that at the last

retreat I gave in Kuala Lumpur I started

talking to them about using forgiveness

with any kind of physical owie and you

stubbed your toe we cut your the burn

yourself whatever start forgiving right

then and then test on the forgiveness

the next time that happens don't forgive

and see how long how much longer it

takes to heal because it's amazing same

[Music]

right

the more you can forgive little things

as you're going along the easier it

becomes to forgive the big things when

they come and the faster you heal I mean

it's it's amazing I have a wood-burning

stove at home and sometimes I get burned

now when I when I start paying attention

to that and I start forgiving it by the

next day I don't even have a blister all

I have is a red spot two or three days

later it's all gone

then when I don't I've got a problem for

a week I have a blister and I have a lot

of pain so it's a difference of two or

three days or a week it's up to me

whether I do it or not so the more you

can remember to do the forgiveness with

your any kind of ally whether it's a

mental ally or a physical owie you do

the forgiveness the pain is going to

disappear more quickly

talk to me about it it depends where you

are see it's not a blank that I'm not a

1/1 horse bone hair or one point one

trick pony I have a lot of tricks so it

depends on the situation

but one of the things that it happened a

lot when I was in Asia because I was

running around barefooted

barefooted in the forest at night is not

a safe thing to do for your toes it's

really not because you wind up breaking

them and when I break a toe then I start

doing forgiveness every time the pain

came up after two or three days I'm not

even limping anymore or if I don't do it

then I have a couple of weeks of real

severe pain so it's always your choice

what are you doing with your mind when

this kind of problem arises when you

make it a big deal and you're

identifying with it you're causing

yourself more pain that's the truth when

you forgive it and use then

loving-kindness into it it has a

tendency to get less and even disappear

yeah

not as much as I am yeah when I first

got to Asia and what became a monk for a

couple of years I started being the

abbot of monastery and a lot of people

were really suffering very much because

in Malaysia there's there's three

populations in a maze in Malaysia

there's Chinese there's Malay and

there's Indian and they don't get along

very well and the Malay run the

government so they're always pushing

down the Chinese because the trainings

are ambitious people and the Chinese

were walking around with a lot of hatred

so I started teaching them about

forgiveness and I got criticized because

the Buddha didn't teach any forgiveness

well yeah actually he did and it's in

davinia

so there's no problem with it but I was

criticized because I was not teaching

straight Vipassana that's the only way

to attain nirvana you know that's what

they think but they're in Malaysia

because I started teaching

loving-kindness more and I refused to

teach straight Vipassana because I'd

already gone through the experience and

wasn't happy with it

the loving-kindness became very popular

and people started changing and and

starting to really become more

prosperous naturally and prosperous is a

word that doesn't necessarily mean

anything to do with money or material

things you have more friends when you

practice loving-kindness

datian you're more prosperous that way

things just happen more easily and

that's how you become more prosperous

it's real interesting to see some people

that break precepts how they are

continually having one drama after

another and people that keep the

precepts how prosperity and how things

are so easy to happen and you meet the

right people at the right time and you

get along with them and you have fun

with them that's really it's an amazing

thing to watch so I thought I was going

to get done at an hour and a half and

there it is two hours so why don't we

share some merit

you may suffer in one's feet suffering

free and the fear struck fearless beat

in the grieving pedal relief that may

all beings find relief now being shared

of this earth that we just acquired for

the acquisition of all kinds of

happiness may beings inhabiting space

and earth Davis and Nagas of mighty

powers share this narrative house

[Music]

you

you

[Music]

this particular suit guy is very good

and is very interesting so I hope you

get a lot of out of it thus if I heard

on one occasion of venerable ananda was

living in a town near vesali now in that

occasion a householder dama sama had

arrived from possibly a puta for some

business or other then when a certain

monk in cuckoo butas park after paying

homage to him he sat down at one side

and asked him where does the venerable

Ananda live now venerable sir I wish to

see a venerable Ananda the venerable

Ananda is living near ghazali

householder when the householder Dhamma

sama had completed his business and

helped artillio puta he went to the

venerable Ananda after paying homage to

him sat down at one side and asked him

venerable Ananda has any one thing been

proclaimed by the Blessed One who knows

and sees accomplished and fully awakened

wherein if a monk abides diligent pardon

and resolute his unliberated mind comes

to be liberated and as undestroyed

taints come to be destroyed and he

attains the supreme security from

bondage that he not had not attained

before there is householder indeed one

such thing proclaimed by the

said one what is that one thing

venerable Ananda here householder quite

included from sensual pleasures secluded

from unwholesome states among enters

upon and abides in the first jhana one

of the things that happened in America

in particular is that the word jhana has

been misinterpreted and people are told

to not practice jhana the word jhana in

the sutras is mentioned about 10000

times so it seems to me that that isn't

the correct kind of thinking oh you

shouldn't practice jhana the Buddha

didn't teach jhana well yes he did

he taught mostly jhana but the

interpretation of john i by most people

is one pointed concentration or

absorption concentration which is what

the Buddha did not teach it gets

confusing because there's more than one

kind of jhana that's being taught the

kind of jhana that I teach is different

from the kind of jhana that everybody

else thinks about I'm hearing a backlash

on this

it's kind of a back hum and just a bit

sorry okay it's it's not quite loud

enough now visit is that loud enough

okay so cut it out the kind of jhana I

teach is what the Buddha taught and it's

by following the directions in the

sutras that you attained this kind of

jhana now the kind of jhana that has

been practiced before the Buddha came

around and by the Brahmins who were the

main religious group in India during the

time of the Buddha is one pointed

concentration it came from the Vedas now

what's all of this mean one pointed

concentration is this your mind is on

your object of meditation it gets

distracted immediately you let go of

that distraction and come back to your

object of meditation when you do this

what happens with your mind is the force

of the concentration that you would

eventually develop stops

inferences from arising and your mind

becomes absorbed in an object of

meditation and there's a lot of danger

in this kind of meditation I've run

across people that have had to be put in

mental Institute's because they were

doing wrong kind of concentration and it

just addled their mind so much that they

weren't reliable anymore what I teach we

call it

twin tranquil wisdom insight meditation

now this kind of jhana your mind is on

your object of meditation your mind gets

distracted you let go of the distraction

and relax the tightness in your head in

your mind caused by that distraction

when you let go of that tightness you're

letting go of craving what's the second

noble truth the cause of craving or the

cause of suffering is craving now almost

all people that are practicing different

forms of meditation are not recognizing

this tension and tightness so they're

practicing a kind of meditation that

will not lead to personality development

will not lead to the overcoming of

suffering

so there is a distinct difference

between what the Buddha was teaching in

the sutras and what most people are

teaching as the Buddhist meditation and

to be quite honest I listened to other

teachers give Dhamma talks and I get

bored with their talks because they use

a lot of words but they don't really say

anything they're not really teaching you

anything and that's not the Buddhist

style the Buddhist style was so that

your understanding can be so good that

you can change things for yourself and

it comes from that extra step of

relaxing it tranquilizes your mind what

happens when you relax and you let go of

that tension and tightness right after

that you'll notice that your mind is

very clear your mind is very bright your

mind is pure why is it pure because

you've let go of craving and that's the

cause of suffering so your mind becomes

pure when you let go of that craving a

lot of different kinds of things when

you're practicing meditation in this way

that occurred during your sitting for

one thing the force of the concentration

when you're doing this kind of sitting

does not suppress anything it doesn't

stop things from happening it doesn't

push down a lot of people when they're

teaching about meditation they say those

are the hindrances you have to push them

and down you have to push them away you

have to

them from just becoming a distraction I

have a friend that's been teaching

meditation for many many many years and

if you listen to him get in front of a

large group of people you can still hear

a little bit of fear in his voice he has

had trouble with fear since before he

started teaching and he even talks about

yeah I still have fear it doesn't bother

me so much anymore but it's still there

now is that purifying your mind that's

the real question if you're not able to

let go of the cause of suffering then

the suffering is not going to go away if

you can't recognize that suffering and

the cause of it there's no sense in

doing the meditation as far as I can see

I'm into very much end result now

there's a lot of meditations that are

very helpful in some ways but what's the

end result the end result that I'm

looking for is the cessation of

suffering and the Buddha is taught that

there's a right way to practice

meditation and a wrong way and the wrong

way of practicing is emphasizing

suffering the right way is learning how

suffering ceases

how it stops so what I'm going to be

doing during this retreat is showing you

a lot of different things that the

Buddha said about how to let go of

suffering and when you follow the

directions you don't add anything you

don't subtract anything you don't change

anything when you follow the directions

exactly precisely you will see a major

difference in yourself and it's nothing

that I'm doing that causes that to

happen what I'm doing is just telling

you what the Buddha said and it is

immediately effective one of the things

when it talks about the good qualities

of the Dhamma the second quality is

called a calico and poly a calico means

immediately effective how many people do

you know have been meditating for years

and they hit a wall and they just can't

go any deeper they can't go any further

and they get tired of it and they quit

meditating that doesn't happen with this

meditation why because it's immediately

effective every time there's a

distraction and pulls your attention

away from your object of meditation

you'll use the six artists on it you

recognize it you release the distraction

by not keeping your attention on it

don't make a big deal of any kind of

distraction

relax smile come back to your object of

meditation stay with your object of

meditation for as long as you can now

how is this immediately effective you've

let go of a hindrance you've let go of

the craving you've developed smiling and

having an uplifted mind a light mind and

you're bringing that light mind back to

your object to meditation and what

happens when you do that enough is the

hindrance goes away and when the

hindrance goes away you feel relief now

why do hindrances keep coming up because

you've done things in the past it might

be a past lifetime it might be in this

lifetime who knows it doesn't matter

what the cause is the reason a hindrance

keeps coming up is because you did

something in the past that made you feel

guilty and that guilty feeling makes you

take it personally this is me this is

mine I did that I shouldn't have done it

but I did it now I'm feeling guilty

because of it so every time you use the

six hours you're letting go of that

wrong opinion of a personal self being

you this is me this is mine this is

I am so every time you let go of that

craving you're letting go of that wrong

belief in a personal self and that's

immediately effective you went from

taking it personally to seeing that it's

not personal

it's just the thought it's just a

feeling so there's a lot of relief when

you let go of that right after that

relief you feel very strong joy now the

kind of there's there's five different

kinds of joy

the first kind of joy well the first

three kinds of joy can be experienced at

anybody at any time

the first kind of joy is like goosebumps

something really nice happens and you

get some boost pot so that's a good

feeling not nice the next kind of joy is

like a flash of lightning it's very

strong but it's only there for a short

period of time

now what happens after every kind of joy

that arises is right after that you feel

a sense of tranquility as as it gets

stronger the tranquility lasts longer

you feel more peaceful more calm more

balanced in your mind for a period of

time the next kind of joy is like

standing in the ocean and just having a

wave of joy come over you and then

another wave comes over you and you

might be able to sit for a few minutes

after that joy fades away where your

mind is really calm and it's quiet and

it's very very nice

now the last two kinds of joy only arise

through mental development the next kind

of joy is called uplifting joy this is

what you experience when you get into a

jhana this kind of joy you feel very

light in your body and light in your

mind and you feel yeah this is good this

is really a nice happy feeling I like

that and then that joy will fade away

now you you have to understand every

feeling that arises it's just a feeling

it's not my feeling sometimes people try

to hold on to a happy feeling because

they've had so much suffering in their

life you don't hold on to it you just

let it be there as long as it's going to

be you feel light in your body light in

your mind and you start going and this

is a reason that I really started

meditating this is good I like that but

you let it be there when that feeling

fades away you feel very strong

tranquility and you feel more

comfortable in your mind and in your

body than you've ever felt before just

at ease and that will last for a period

of time your mind becomes very unified

now I just described to you the first

jhana

now the last kind of joy that arises is

the awakening factor of joy

it's called all-pervading joy it doesn't

have the excitement in it of the other

kinds of joy you've experienced this

kind of joy is a real happy feeling and

your mind is very alert when this kind

of joys fades away the tranquility and

the balance of mind is very strong

excuse me

now getting back to the one pointed

concentration a lot of people especially

in this country will tell you that if

you get into jhana you cannot experience

Nirvana nirvana means no more fire

what's the cause of fire arising in your

mind craving Soni Bona is basically

saying no more craving for a period of

time

so when

you are practicing one-pointed

concentration not using the relaxed step

your mind can go very deep in

concentration but the force of the

concentrations stops things from arising

and that's why you can't attain nirvana

by doing that kind of meditation there's

a lot of people that are practicing oh

you do the jhana then when you get out

of the jhana you switch your meditation

over to straight Vipassana and then you

can attain nirvana well I've heard about

that for the last 35 years and I haven't

seen one person that's been successful

yet so I have my doubts as to whether

that really works but there's a lot of

attachments people think they're doing

the right thing saying the right thing

one of the phenomena that's starting to

happen now and it really does make me

happy is a lot of people are starting to

go back to the sutras and see what the

Buddha said instead of listen to what

somebody else said the Buddha said now

there's there's a lot of people that do

do teach meditation and they want to

teach from the heart which is all good

and well but I want to know what the

Buddha said about it I don't want to

know what somebody comes up with some

ideas I'm very traditional and I

understand that that's kind of a almost

a dirty word

but I am the most successful meditation

teacher that I know and that's not

bragging on my part that is just stating

a fact 50% of the people that are doing

retreats with me in Asia are successful

they are experiencing Nibbana to one

degree or another and they're starting

to be more and more happy all the time

and that's the whole point change your

perspective let go of your old ways of

thinking and have a lot of loving

acceptance of the present develop your

equanimity so that your mind has more

and more balance in it all the time and

the things that used to get you upset

it's not even worth mentioning anymore

so what

your mind becomes much more at ease and

you become much more skillful at solving

problems this is the advantages of doing

this kind of meditation and you are your

own teacher you're teaching yourself I'm

not the teacher you see me reading the

zhutka the Buddha is a teacher I'm a

guide my job is to keep you on the path

keep you going in the straight way so

you can have advantage for doing this

meditation and you can really benefit a

lot and nothing makes me happier than to

see people benefit from this meditation

believe me now sometimes when you start

to go deeper into your your meditation

there's different things that happen

when you come for the interviews that's

what I'm going to be questioning about I

don't care about the story of how you

got there I have very specific things

that I need to know I had one person

after the retreat they said that body

kept on interfering with what I was

trying to tell him and what he was

trying to tell me was a story and I

don't have time for stories I mean I see

everybody every day that's a lot of

hours of interviews plus I give a Dhamma

talk in the evening I'm busy I haven't

got time for a lot of stories

although I might give you a few well I

have enough time to show you how to how

to let it go but you got to do it

the thing with hindrances is they're

hindrances because they stop you from

staying on your object of meditation and

you have to learn that the hindrances

are not your enemy to fight with now

last night she was talking about pain

and she was talking about taking that

pain personally and wanting to get up

and run away from it and that doesn't

make it go away

that just postpones it a little bit we

have to learn to develop patience my

teacher

Lucille Ananda great monk absolutely

brilliant had the habit of telling me a

lot patience leads to Nibbana and I'm

patient as long as I get what I want

when I wanted so you have to be patient

and not just try to run away from things

when they first start to come up now in

in Malaysia there was 11 different

countries that people from 11 different

countries came to that retreat so that

was a real interesting time for me to

have that many

different ways of describing how things

work for them and I had to really stress

very much patience when hindrances arise

the six RS are not there to stop them

from causing pain the six RS are there

to let go of craving that's it the pain

will go away by itself when you use the

attachments what is an attachment its

craving it's taking something personally

it's making a big deal out of something

in your mind and trying to control there

is no control there's only observation

and allowing it to burn out by itself so

the more you're able to stay on your

object of meditation not with an iron

fist but just letting your mind stay

with your object of meditation without

trying to force it the more you do that

and use the six R's when your mind gets

distracted the faster your progress

becomes now at the first part of your

retreat you might be able to sit for

half an hour 45 minutes and your mind

starts to have a little bit of joy or

ice that's good but don't be attached to

it there's a lot more that's a lot

better and you'll see that for yourself

I don't want you to believe anything

that I say how many meditation teachers

have you

and say that check it out

see if it is if it's whether it's right

or not so the more you are teaching

yourself not to fight with entrances not

to try to control them to allow them to

be you start seeing that when these

hindrances arise they are teaching you

where your attachment is and how to let

go of that attachment by using the six

arts your mind will naturally start to

become more uplifted and happy as you

stop trying to make my mind be the way I

want it to be when I want it that way

there's nothing about making your mind

be anything there's only remembering to

observe how Minds attention moves from

one thing to another it's important to

see this because when you're able to see

how Minds attention moves you start to

see for yourself and teach yourself this

is part of an impersonal process I

didn't ask for this stuff to happen I

didn't want it to come up I can't make

it go away all I can do is observe how

this process works and as you can in

ually teach yourself about how this

process works you naturally start to

become more happy

you become lighter with your perspective

of things you become more accepting of

things instead of somebody coming up and

being extremely rude to you and you

getting mad at them you just let it go

not that important to get upset about

yeah but that no no good so-and-so said

or did this and I really hate that so

how much pain do you caused yourself

because I don't like it I am taking it

personally and that is a false belief

this meditation will show you how to let

go of that more and more so you develop

more and more balance with everything

every part of aspect of your life more

accepting don't resist or push soften

your mind and smile doesn't matter how

much pain comes up or what the reason of

the pain is the reason for the pain we

don't care about the reasons sometimes

we find out what the reason is sometimes

we don't it doesn't matter it's how the

process works that's the thing that's

important and you're going to hear me

talk more and more about dependent

origination and this is the process this

is how everything arises

as you get more and more educated with

how this process works you start to have

more and more balance in your mind and

you start seeing for yourself you make a

big deal out of anything you're going to

cause yourself suffering and until you

stop making a big deal out of it and

taking it personally you're going to

continue suffering and you can't blame

anybody else for your pain oh but he

said this and I don't like that whoops

who doesn't like it I don't who wants it

to be different than it is I wish they

hadn't said that so who doesn't like

that who wants it to be different who's

causing themself more and more pain

because you're making a big deal out of

it and taking it personally now the

thing with the Buddha's path that is

very important and it's not something

that is like very much in this country

and it's called morality but most people

in this country don't even understand

what morality really means it means

these five precepts that you take for

your daily life you keep them and your

mind will naturally become calm

now the first precept don't harm or kill

living beings on purpose second precept

don't take anything that's not given

don't steal anything how do you feel

when somebody steals something of yours

the third precept don't do any wrong

sexual activity what is wrong sexual

activity wrong sexual activity is sexual

activity with another person's mate or

with someone that is your mate that has

other relationships going sexual

activity with somebody that's too young

sexual activity that causes any other

person to have dislike come up in their

mind

so keeping sexual activity doesn't

necessarily mean that you have to be

married to have sexual activity but it

means that you don't cause anybody else

upset because you're having that

relationship the next precept is the one

that's probably the hardest don't tell

any lies a white lie is a lie

don't knowingly say things that are

false don't curse look at your mind if

you if you start cursing what what's

happening in your mind a lot of hatred

when I came back to Asia which was 15

years ago now I was absolutely shocked

to see television the language that they

were using on television cursing is

becoming okay the radio of cursing I was

absolutely shocked by that what is that

saying that's saying that people they're

giving their dislike and dissatisfaction

to everybody else around them in an

offensive way and don't do that that

makes other people upset and your mind

is upset your mind has hatred in it when

you're getting caught up in cursing

don't try to split groups one group from

another by saying well this group over

here they're saying this about you and

you come to this group and you say well

they're saying this about you doesn't

matter to let it go and don't gossip

what is gossip it's making up stories

that aren't true it's trying to cause

problems for other people

so these four different kinds of speech

are very important to keep now the fifth

precept don't take drugs and alcohol at

Dolomites I have some students that they

thought that that wasn't the right thing

so they had a glass of wine and then

they saw these are people that were

pretty advanced in the meditation but

they they drank a glass of wine and it

affected their meditation for three or

four days afterwards their mind got dull

and you say well if it's only one beer

it's only this little bit of wine but it

has a negative effect on your mind and

if you're serious about meditation

don't do it yeah but I need to relax

we'll go meditate if you need to relax

go have fun

go play with some kids if you need to

relax

any time you break one of the precepts

it causes hindrances to arise I've had

students for years that they would keep

the precepts while they were on retreat

when they got off they just went back to

the way they did things before and then

they'd come back for another retreat to

say you know this retreat is it's really

hard well yeah why because you break the

precepts you have that guilty mind you

know your mind knows when you break a

precept and your mind says I shouldn't

have done that

and then you come for a retreat and you

sit in meditation and you have these

entrances coming up and you have to go

through that to purify your mind so

after eight or nine days on a retreat

your mind finally has purified itself

enough it starts to go deeper and then

you're done with a retreat so keep your

precepts without breaking and of course

there's always these clowns that say

okay okay I'm going to keep all the

precepts how long do I have to do that

well my answer is the will for another

hundred years at least and we'll go up

from there it's important to keep these

precepts there's no God in heaven is

going to throw down a thunderbolt at you

because you broke a precept but you know

you've done it yourself you've taken

something that wasn't given and then you

can justify it all you want but that

doesn't mean that you haven't broken the

precept one of the things that happens

when people come to the center is

there's a lot of making up reasons why

things happening the way they're

happening and they look to put blame on

anybody else they're not taking

responsibility for themselves and that

turns into a problem for them

because they don't want to take

responsibility for their breaking their

own precepts they want to blame somebody

else because of this problem and

progress is very slow because of it the

reason that I have you doing the

precepts every morning is not some kind

of right and ritual it's a reminder to

keep the precepts and if you say

something that's not true you've broken

the preset it's going to affect your

meditation negatively all day until you

take the precepts the next morning so

when you realize that you broke the

precept right then stop what you're

doing forgive yourself for making a

mistake make a determination that I'm

not going to do that again and take the

precepts again that way you can purify

your own mind it's important to do that

as I was telling you this morning there

was a monk that when he first came to

the meditation Center he was doing great

he was sit in three hours and that's

when I could barely sit for two and by

the end of his retreat because he broke

one precept that he and he felt guilty

for it he couldn't sit more than 15

minutes now what why do you think that

is because he took it personally

he decided I know this is something that

I should follow but I'm not going to do

it and as a result that affected the

meditation in a negative way can't blame

me for that it's not my fault I don't

have anything to do with your keeping

your precepts all I can do is recommend

that it's

good thing and to do it all the time not

just while you're on retreat if you keep

your precepts for a year without

breaking them and you come for a retreat

your meditation is going to fly your

meditation is going to go very deep very

quickly why because you've kept your

precepts and that leads to strong

tranquility and equanimity

so the hindrances when they come up they

are your teacher and you're teaching

yourself about how to let go of these

hindrances you're teaching yourself

about the cause of the hindrances by

keeping precepts it's real important to

be careful about what you say okay

it doesn't mean you can't joke you can

but everybody knows that you're just

making a joke you're not breaking a

precept there's a story in one of the

commentaries about a monk went out on

arms round and he came back and he had a

lot of food in this bowl and one of the

monks was just going out on alms round

he said how's they all drowned today and

he said oh the the streets are flowing

with food that's not a true statement

right but it's it's a way of describing

if you're not trying to fool other

people you're not trying to get them to

believe something that you know is

untrue okay okay here quite secluded

from sensual pleasures secluded from

unwholesome States a person enters upon

and abides in the first channel which is

accompanied by thinking and examining

thought with joy and happiness born of

seclusion that is what the first jhana

is like you'll be able to stay on your

object to meditation for a period of

time without any distractions and you'll

be able to see when your mind starts to

move away and you'll catch it more

quickly and come back every time your

mind moves away from your object to

meditation you're not in that jhana at

that time

he considers this and understands that

thus the first jhana is conditioned and

you're directing your mind

it's Felician Allah produced you're

directing your mind to stay with one of

the objects of meditation whatever that

happens to be but whatever his condition

and volitional leap in produced is

impermanent subject to change subject to

cessation if he's steady in that he

attains the destruction of the taints

but if he does not attain a destruction

of the taints because of that desire for

the Dhamma that delight in the Dhamma

then with a destruction of the five

lower fetters he becomes one due to

reappear spontaneously in the pure boots

and their attained final knee bono

without ever returning from that world

now what are we talking about here if

you attain even the first jhana with the

tranquil wisdom meditation while you're

in that jhana your mind can all of a

sudden go very deep and you can become

an are hot just by being in the first

jhana doesn't happen very often I

granted but I have had students that

have been in the jhanas not all the way

up to the highest jhanas

and attained nirvana there was a nun

that came and she started practicing

with me she was am I on a nun and most

my Ayana teachers are very very severe

they don't like people that smile they

don't like people that are happy for the

most part and that's just a general

thing that I'm saying is not specific

everyone is like that but because it's

not no nobody is always going to be how

you describe but when she first came she

was so sour faced very serious had these

deep lines in her inner forehead and I

kept telling her she had to smile and by

the third day of the retreat she

actually heard what I said

and she started smiling and she said

does this mean I can have fun and I said

yeah and the next day she went into the

breakfast started eating staying with

the loving-kindness and her spiritual

friend and got into the first jhana

because of that and after that she was

Miss smiley she was smiling all the time

and being happy all the time and the

beep lines in her face the deep frown

lines were trying too hard they

disappeared is great it was really good

fun to see somebody get it

so please smile please smile all the

time

keep your mind like any time you get

serious guess who has an attachment

guess who's taking it personally

guess who's causing themself pain it's

okay to smile it's okay to laugh and it

is okay to have fun

you don't hear meditation teachers say

that very often I think I'm about the

only one I know of that says it

well meditation is supposed to be

serious well then be seriously happy

how's that keep your mind light whenever

you get serious about anything I am

there I want to control I want it to be

the way I want it to be and that's a

cause of suffering so this is an all the

time practice it's not just sitting and

walking practice and that's hard to get

across because an awful lot of people

when when the Chinese and Japanese

started coming over to this country and

in the 1800's there

their main focus in meditation was

sitting and that's why meditation is

called sitting because they just drummed

it into everybody that men do you have

to sit and that's when you're doing your

meditation but to be able to carry your

meditation with you all the time the

thing with the six RS that's very

important is to understand that's a way

you can let go of your suffering in your

daily activities and the more you smile

with your daily activities the better

your mindfulness becomes you're able to

see what your mind is doing in the

present and when your mind starts to get

serious and starts to pull down with all

of these problems well that's a time

that you use your six R's and smile into

that keep your mind light don't take it

heavily I've got to worry about this

well no you don't it's your choice to

worry about it whether you're going to

do it or not but oh this is so bad how

can I handle this how can I take care of

that well you can do it with a serious

mind that resists and wants to control

doesn't like the situation gets angry

pretty easy or not you can be very

accepting of whatever arises

it doesn't matter what the feeling is

like whether it is a mental feeling or a

physical feeling the thing is that when

you take it personally it makes your

mind have more and more craving in and

more and more desire to control and make

it be the way you want it to be and

honestly it doesn't work

it really doesn't the more you can allow

and just say okay you're there so what

it's alright it doesn't mean you don't

work if you have joints that need to be

straightened out that doesn't mean you

don't straighten them out it means you

don't have resistance to straightening

them out and you don't get into the

dislike of the sensation for it being

there

did you ask a sensation to come up

you're sitting in meditation and all of

a sudden you have a pain in your knee

did you say you know I haven't had any

pain in my knee for a while I might as

well have some now no you don't have any

control over that sort of thing what you

do have a control over is what you do

with that when it arises use the six

hours not as some kind of stick to beat

things away to stop them from happening

it's that's not what six hours are about

the six RS are very specifically right

effort is very specifically used to let

go of craving the cause of the suffering

and the six arse and right effort are

the same thing just a different way of

describing it it's just like the five

aggregates and four foundations of

mindfulness are different ways of saying

the same thing the Buddha was real big

on the five aggregates when he would

teach monks he would teach them about

the five aggregates because they

understood that later on he changed over

to doing the foundations of mindfulness

that was a later kind of teaching but it

was still the same thing the five

aggregates you have body you have

feeling that perception now perception

and feeling are conjoined always when a

feeling comes up you know whether it's a

pleasant feeling or a painful feeling

perception is a part of the mind that

tells you that okay you have the same

cara's you have thoughts you have I

generally have for beginners I talked

about thoughts more than anything thank

Aras and you have consciousness the four

foundations of mindfulness you have body

same as with the five aggregates you

have feeling same as with the five

aggregates you have consciousness same

with the five aggregates you have Damas

same with the five aggregates now isn't

that amazing well the four foundations

of mindfulness they're so important to

people that are practicing the vaasana'

but I found over the years that they

just talk about generally what the four

foundations of mindfulness are they

don't talk specifically about what they

are and the four foundations of

mindfulness in the sukkah is talking

about jhana practice but they've taken

that understanding away and say oh

that's just free pass on a-- but it is

describing all kinds of things about

jhana practice the way the Buddha taught

jhana

was that the four foundations or the

five aggregates whichever way you want

to say it is in each jhana while you're

actually in the jhana you're practicing

the four foundations of mindfulness and

there's more than one suta that agrees

with that so there's a lot of things

that are kind of misunderstood I don't

believe they're purposefully

misunderstanding

but there is a misunderstanding with the

different ways of doing the practice and

I am very much enthusiastic about

practicing what the Buddha is talking

about and specifically following what

the Buddha was talking about and it is

great fun for me to watch people start

to understand it's really nice

doesn't take that long from now until

the end of the retreat outside of being

your guide I am the educator and you'll

be a lot smarter about Buddhism by the

end of the retreat because you'll have

some of the direct experiences you'll

have some of the direct knowledge for

yourself

and again you're your own teacher I can

present ideas that the Buddha was

talking about you decide whether you

want to try it or not generally speaking

when you follow what the Buddha says it

works it works very well and it is

immediately effective I mean when you

have a hindrance arise and you let it be

there and you relax

that hindrance is not there anymore

that's immediate now when I'm talking

about the six ARS I'm talking about

words that you need to do not say over

and over again okay this is a list of

words to do recognize as soon as you

notice you're not on your object of

meditation you've already recognized it

you don't have to tell yourself I need

to recognize this and you let it be and

relax and smile and come back to your

object of meditation and stay there it's

a flow don't put any philosophy with it

this is a method and it works very well

and it works all the time

your job is to remember to do it so with

each of the jhanas that you'll go

through there's going to be a little

different kind of experience that you're

going to have and you can have the

experience of attaining Nibbana while

you're in each one of these jhanas like

I said I have had students that have

attained me bon a welder

they're using the sixers the thing with

the jhana that is not very well

understood because it's taken from the

beta Tech's is people think the only

time you can experience jhana is while

you're sitting now when you're walking

can you have joy can you have a peaceful

calm mind

and you have a mind that's very

collected and very at ease oh that means

you can be walking and being in the

jhana

it doesn't matter what you're doing what

matters is how you're using your

mindfulness keep your mind

keep your mind smiling that improves

your mindfulness so much it's

unbelievable and I can tell when you

come in for the interview whether you're

really smiling enough or not and I might

tell you you got a smile more why

because your mind's too heavy as soon as

you walk in it's like somebody bring

I'm led on it on top of their head and

pushing it down have fun with this

retreat in it I give you all permission

to have fun how's that

keep smiling as much as you can okay so

we didn't get very far on this suta but

we will in in the next one do you have

any questions are we going to have smart

people or dumb people yeah it doesn't

matter content doesn't matter that's

where people get a lot of confusion

because they want to follow it and see

what it is and that's distraction okay

I've had some students that they've been

real close to getting to Nibbana but

they kept on having a a memory of a past

lifetime and okay let's go see this for

a little while know the content of that

doesn't matter what matters is that you

recognize that your mind is distracted

let it be there by itself relax

smile come back you can get insights

into what what comes up but the insights

are always about the process of how it

came up and you might see well the

reason this came up was because of that

memory or whatever but you don't follow

that

that's for psychology that's not for the

Buddha's path the Buddha's path is about

how did this come up and it always comes

up in exactly the same way and that's

one of the things in Asia they really

don't like the idea when I tell them

that there's no difference between the

American mind and the Asian mind they

don't like that idea at all

but it's it's that your human being all

human beings mind works in the same way

exactly

and there's fascination with why

something arises and follow it to the

end and see if there's any resolution by

it but that's taking it personally and

we will let go of that idea now there's

some weird things that happen when you

start letting go and seeing the

impersonal nature of everything your

mind can have a lot of fear arise and it

starts throwing a temper tantrum just

like a little kid you're ignoring me

I've been in control how many lifetimes

and now you're not paying attention to

me anymore

you're telling me that that all the

things I've done in the past don't

it isn't really me it's a false belief

and your mind will throw up a lot of

fear and how do you get over that fear

you laugh at how crazy your mind can get

everybody is crazy

it's okay to be crazy because we all are

we've been taking things personally for

how many lifetimes how much pain have we

caused ourselves by taking it personally

by getting involved with a story and

trying to solve problems there's so much

benefit gained by keeping your precepts

without breaking them by smiling more by

seeing things that are impersonal

processes that we take as us how much

pain do we cause ourself and then you

start letting go of that and everything

changes yeah

[Laughter]

all Yaya but all beings want to live

they don't want to die in order to kill

there has to be dislike well we we

practice in such insect rescue a lot we

have some little devices that will just

go around the insect and close in on it

then we take it outside open it up and

let it go out we do that with wasps we

do that with ladybugs we do that with

all kinds of things that like to come in

now one of the things we have a lot of

wasps for we live a lot and I got into

the habit of catching them on the window

taking them and letting them go out but

as I'm letting them go out I tell them

to tell all our friends I let them go

free which sounds kind of weird except I

never get stung it does work

[Laughter]

well Asia hassle it has to do with your

intention when you stop intending to

kill then you're expanding the lifecycle

of other beings if you just go out and

start killing them you're shortening

that lifecycle you're shortening your

own light cycle now in Asia they have

and it's ant heaven in Asia and they are

really troublesome and they bite and

look smaller the ant is the bigger the

bite is so the Chinese have developed

this truck that should put around you

you just draw a circle around you and

the ants will cross that line there's

way of preventing them from bothering

you how mosquitoes are troublesome so

you sleep under a mosquito net you don't

have to kill them sometimes there is not

the intention to kill but something

bites you and you go like that to see

what it was and you accidentally kill

them your intention was not to kill now

there's a story about this one monk that

was blind and he had a string between

poles and he was walking back and forth

holding onto

a string and he was stepping on ants and

monks saw that and they went to the

Buddha to tattletale a little bit and

say he's killing these ants and the

Buddha said his intention is not to kill

he's not doing it on purpose he has no

mental hold on any of that so there's no

wrongdoing well if you kill anything on

purpose you don't have also mine let's

just put it that way okay

you

and we can get into a long discussion

about that but I'm not gonna mine comes

up with discursive God always how about

that don't make it a big deal just six

art continue on oh yeah

craving is not particularly strong it is

particularly persistent I mean you can

just barely have enough time to do the

six hours and come back to your object

before all of a sudden you're pulled

away again just play it as it's a game

don't make a big deal out of it well and

if you try too hard one of the things

that they started doing in Asia this

time was that every thought that came up

they were six arting as soon as they

came and they just had more and more and

more thoughts and they'd come to me it

talked to me about being tired it is

tiring to 6ar every little thing that

comes up you don't need to six are every

little thing that comes up if it doesn't

pull your attention away from your

object to meditation and these thoughts

come up ignore them if it pulls your

attention away now you use the six arts

yeah they're trying to hurt they have to

back off on that and what you have to

tell them to do is they need to smile

more it's really true some people will

come in and they'll be complaining about

oh my meditation is so active I have so

much problem in this and that you're not

smiling enough oh yes I am I smile all

the time no you don't if you smile all

the time you're not going to have these

problems come up you're taking it

personally you're trying to over control

and you can't do that you have to back

off well they don't understand what a

true smile is because I have a lot of

equanimity in my mind most of the time

but I'm also smiling in my mind most of

it so it doesn't have to be here but it

does have to be yeah

you'll start seeing them naturally you

don't have to force it you'll start

seeing them happen you'll see feeling

arise and then the craving and then the

clinging and then the bejeweled tendency

and then the suffering you'll be able to

see that and recognize it as you go

deeper in your meditation

it will start to come naturally

you have to be careful with your energy

if you start to get any tension or

tightness in your head while you're

doing that back off that's the key is

with anything if you have too much

tension or you you have tightness that

starts to happen and your mind starts to

do this you're putting in too much

effort too much energy and you have to

back off until there's balance with it

yeah they do

and that's what insights are all about

because you you'll be going along and

all of a sudden you'll just notice oh

that's how that happened

Wow that's really something it happened

because there was a contact there was

feeling there was craving and as soon as

the craving happened a sick start and

the other links didn't arise Wow isn't

that amazing that's why I wanted to call

this an oh wow meditation because

there's a lot of oh wow that happen yeah

to start off with

that's okay to stay with equanimity then

and when you're walking I want you to

walk at a normal pace please don't walk

slowly you're walking for exercise stay

with your object to meditation whatever

that happens to be the longer you sit

the more you need the exercise you have

to get to going up a hill or running

upstairs and downstairs that sort of

thing get your heart beating that's real

important but stay with your object of

meditation while you're doing it okay

anybody else like if I do let go to get

back the insight comes about the

endurance but not without trying or not

without like I'm not making any

psychological with the travel can't just

unravel right and then else has an

insight pretty much back okay that's

fine

see them in your mind see them in your

mind see them now you there's two

different kinds of visualization for

some people the visualization can be

seeing them like pictures or seeing them

like in a movie and that's very easy for

them that's one kind of visualization

the other kind of visualization of

seeing them is just knowing that that's

who you're sending it to so pick the one

that's easiest the visualization is not

near as important as the feeling of

loving kindness and the feeling of the

wish that you make for your friend

that's much more important than seeing

them

by Elmar and you'll see just have fun

have fun doing it

know that person that you're sending it

to and you sincerely do wish them well

and radiate that feeling to them okay

don't try too hard that's one of the

biggest problems that I have with people

who have done meditation before is

they're taught to try to art and it's

time you got to learn how to back off so

you had a question

so no no no no no it doesn't matter what

the content is I don't care

fuzzy is fine

well eventually yeah but stop trying to

analyze it

that's a Western disease and it's a big

problem

people can for years get caught in that

but when they finally start listening

and realize I mean last summer I had a

monk come he stayed for three months the

first month he did meditation he was

just great and then he got it in his

mind that I want to be an are hot so he

started wrong effort and he had a whole

month of restlessness every time he came

my mind is restless I'm running all over

the place you're trying too hard

back off don't get involved with it here

at getting involved with the content

every day for 30 days I'm saying the

same thing to it then he comes to me and

he's really peaceful and calm and he

said well I figured out I was trying to

so he was my patience teacher it's

amazing then I you can have yeah it's

amazing that I can say something a

hundred times and then you finally get

it and you come to me and you're really

excited you go yeah I just found this

out how good oh I don't but there is

some relief when they finally yeah

it'll cause it'll cause tense it'll

cause tension to arise in your mind when

you get it when you get into the deeper

state you don't have a body and that's

one thing that I fight with the people

in Asia because they're very body

conscious you don't have a body but if

there is some contact you can feel the

contact then you'll say oh I've got this

real pain in my backside or my back or

my knee and I keep saying you don't have

a body how can you have a pain there

it's all mental that's something I have

to talk with you personally about

because it depends on the situation

sometimes I'll just tell people it's not

really pulling your attention away from

your object let's stay with your object

just because those thoughts are coming

up doesn't mean you have to address

everyone so it's it's staying on your

object of meditation that is the key

even when your mind is mind is object

meditation okay

but I'll find out as the questions that

I ask I'll find out what's happening now

there are going to be some people that

are going to be coming in and they want

to sit in on the interviews if you want

a private interview tell me but other

than that I want people I want to deke

people how to give interviews so I I

started doing that what was it two years

ago and it's quite helpful I don't think

it's anything in particular but

everybody of stepless the club so

anything else going back to when we're

talking about precepts and thinking

about feed and bugs on the windshield

profanity and all the other stuff that's

significant we how to determine whether

pregnant forgiveness education is

appropriate

magic way if you feel guilty about it

you feel guilty about it that forgive it

now the forgiveness meditation when done

in an intensive way is a very very very

powerful meditation it is the most

powerful meditation that I teach you

don't have to do it for the whole

retreat unless I had one one student in

Malaysia that when he started out he was

really kind of wacko and he was taking

all kinds of drugs and he was bipolar

seven or eight bipolar whatever that

means but he was going through

personality shifts that were just

unbelievable and he would follow the

directions kind of for a little while

and then he'd start off and do what he

wanted to do so this progress wasn't as

fast as it could be but by the end of

the retreat he had started to settle

down and when somebody is taking drugs I

don't allow them to stop taking the

drugs and I tell that they have to go

see the doctor about that because they

can have shifts back into their old ways

of doing things if they get people like

to cold-turkey drugs and you have to do

it gradually you have to do it over two

or three week period not just stop

taking it all together because that your

body is used to it and you're addicted

to it be quite honest and then you go

through all these changes but he started

following the directions

even did a second retreat by the end of

the second retreat I actually told him

he didn't have to do any more

forgiveness unless there was something

came up that made his mind aight and he

was starting to do loving-kindness

meditation and doing quite well with it

so there's a lot of healing in doing the

forgiveness meditation a lot of healing

people that come and they tell me well I

can't feel any loving-kindness I just

don't know what it is okay let's do the

forgiveness meditation after two or

three days of doing forgiveness then all

of a sudden they have a breakthrough and

then I switch them over to

loving-kindness and they just zoom after

that so there was a lot of past old

situations that they were attached to

and the the way to let go of that

attachment is through forgiving

loving-kindness is forgiveness is part

of loving-kindness

well it depends it depends on them

entirely but what I have them start

doing is forgiving themselves for making

mistakes because we're so hard on

ourselves I mean we can do just

brilliant things all day and do one

thing that's questionable in your mind

then you start criticizing yourself for

it you have to be able to recognize that

release it relaxed smile and laugh

without dumb your mind can be but it

depends it's all individual there's

there's no set formula for anything and

when I have them doing forgiveness

sometimes I have them forgiving

themselves for making a mistake or

forgiving themself for not understanding

or forgiving themselves for causing pain

to themselves

those are real important aspects now

that there's a real big thing that's

happening in this country about well you

got to forgive but people don't know how

to forgive so they just say well you did

this to me I forgive you and then they

think they're done and the attachment is

still there so it still affects them in

a negative way they have to work until

they feel relief how long does that take

how well do they follow directions

but I've had students that have been in

a mental institute and I get them to

start forgiving and smiling and doing

all kinds of things they leave the

mental institute they don't have to be

in there anymore they don't have to take

such heavy drugs yeah

and it's their doing their own work

because they want to change come into a

retreat yeah

because because it is such a personal

thing you can't just say well just do

this and that'll work

it just it depends on what they're going

through and one of the things that the

forgiveness does is it helps you to let

go of your secrets now one of the

definitions of an Arad is a person that

has no secrets any secret you have that

you're keeping and you don't talk about

it

that's your attachment that's you're

holding on to an old action and taking

it personally and causing yourself a lot

of suffering

so it is kind of an individual thing so

one of the things that at the last

retreat I gave in Kuala Lumpur I started

talking to them about using forgiveness

with any kind of physical owie and you

stubbed your toe we cut your the burn

yourself whatever start forgiving right

then and then test on the forgiveness

the next time that happens don't forgive

and see how long how much longer it

takes to heal because it's amazing same

[Music]

right

the more you can forgive little things

as you're going along the easier it

becomes to forgive the big things when

they come and the faster you heal I mean

it's it's amazing I have a wood-burning

stove at home and sometimes I get burned

now when I when I start paying attention

to that and I start forgiving it by the

next day I don't even have a blister all

I have is a red spot two or three days

later it's all gone

then when I don't I've got a problem for

a week I have a blister and I have a lot

of pain so it's a difference of two or

three days or a week it's up to me

whether I do it or not so the more you

can remember to do the forgiveness with

your any kind of ally whether it's a

mental ally or a physical owie you do

the forgiveness the pain is going to

disappear more quickly

talk to me about it it depends where you

are see it's not a blank that I'm not a

1/1 horse bone hair or one point one

trick pony I have a lot of tricks so it

depends on the situation

but one of the things that it happened a

lot when I was in Asia because I was

running around barefooted

barefooted in the forest at night is not

a safe thing to do for your toes it's

really not because you wind up breaking

them and when I break a toe then I start

doing forgiveness every time the pain

came up after two or three days I'm not

even limping anymore or if I don't do it

then I have a couple of weeks of real

severe pain so it's always your choice

what are you doing with your mind when

this kind of problem arises when you

make it a big deal and you're

identifying with it you're causing

yourself more pain that's the truth when

you forgive it and use then

loving-kindness into it it has a

tendency to get less and even disappear

yeah

not as much as I am yeah when I first

got to Asia and what became a monk for a

couple of years I started being the

abbot of monastery and a lot of people

were really suffering very much because

in Malaysia there's there's three

populations in a maze in Malaysia

there's Chinese there's Malay and

there's Indian and they don't get along

very well and the Malay run the

government so they're always pushing

down the Chinese because the trainings

are ambitious people and the Chinese

were walking around with a lot of hatred

so I started teaching them about

forgiveness and I got criticized because

the Buddha didn't teach any forgiveness

well yeah actually he did and it's in

davinia

so there's no problem with it but I was

criticized because I was not teaching

straight Vipassana that's the only way

to attain nirvana you know that's what

they think but they're in Malaysia

because I started teaching

loving-kindness more and I refused to

teach straight Vipassana because I'd

already gone through the experience and

wasn't happy with it

the loving-kindness became very popular

and people started changing and and

starting to really become more

prosperous naturally and prosperous is a

word that doesn't necessarily mean

anything to do with money or material

things you have more friends when you

practice loving-kindness

datian you're more prosperous that way

things just happen more easily and

that's how you become more prosperous

it's real interesting to see some people

that break precepts how they are

continually having one drama after

another and people that keep the

precepts how prosperity and how things

are so easy to happen and you meet the

right people at the right time and you

get along with them and you have fun

with them that's really it's an amazing

thing to watch so I thought I was going

to get done at an hour and a half and

there it is two hours so why don't we

share some merit

you may suffer in one's feet suffering

free and the fear struck fearless beat

in the grieving pedal relief that may

all beings find relief now being shared

of this earth that we just acquired for

the acquisition of all kinds of

happiness may beings inhabiting space

and earth Davis and Nagas of mighty

powers share this narrative house

[Music]

[Music]

this particular suit guy is very good

and is very interesting so I hope you

get a lot of out of it thus if I heard

on one occasion of venerable ananda was

living in a town near vesali now in that

occasion a householder dama sama had

arrived from possibly a puta for some

business or other then when a certain

monk in cuckoo butas park after paying

homage to him he sat down at one side

and asked him where does the venerable

Ananda live now venerable sir I wish to

see a venerable Ananda the venerable

Ananda is living near ghazali

householder when the householder Dhamma

sama had completed his business and

helped artillio puta he went to the

venerable Ananda after paying homage to

him sat down at one side and asked him

venerable Ananda has any one thing been

proclaimed by the Blessed One who knows

and sees accomplished and fully awakened

wherein if a monk abides diligent pardon

and resolute his unliberated mind comes

to be liberated and as undestroyed

taints come to be destroyed and he

attains the supreme security from

bondage that he not had not attained

before there is householder indeed one

such thing proclaimed by the

said one what is that one thing

venerable Ananda here householder quite

included from sensual pleasures secluded

from unwholesome states among enters

upon and abides in the first jhana one

of the things that happened in America

in particular is that the word jhana has

been misinterpreted and people are told

to not practice jhana the word jhana in

the sutras is mentioned about 10000

times so it seems to me that that isn't

the correct kind of thinking oh you

shouldn't practice jhana the Buddha

didn't teach jhana well yes he did

he taught mostly jhana but the

interpretation of john i by most people

is one pointed concentration or

absorption concentration which is what

the Buddha did not teach it gets

confusing because there's more than one

kind of jhana that's being taught the

kind of jhana that I teach is different

from the kind of jhana that everybody

else thinks about I'm hearing a backlash

on this

it's kind of a back hum and just a bit

sorry okay it's it's not quite loud

enough now visit is that loud enough

okay so cut it out the kind of jhana I

teach is what the Buddha taught and it's

by following the directions in the

sutras that you attained this kind of

jhana now the kind of jhana that has

been practiced before the Buddha came

around and by the Brahmins who were the

main religious group in India during the

time of the Buddha is one pointed

concentration it came from the Vedas now

what's all of this mean one pointed

concentration is this your mind is on

your object of meditation it gets

distracted immediately you let go of

that distraction and come back to your

object of meditation when you do this

what happens with your mind is the force

of the concentration that you would

eventually develop stops

inferences from arising and your mind

becomes absorbed in an object of

meditation and there's a lot of danger

in this kind of meditation I've run

across people that have had to be put in

mental Institute's because they were

doing wrong kind of concentration and it

just addled their mind so much that they

weren't reliable anymore what I teach we

call it

twin tranquil wisdom insight meditation

now this kind of jhana your mind is on

your object of meditation your mind gets

distracted you let go of the distraction

and relax the tightness in your head in

your mind caused by that distraction

when you let go of that tightness you're

letting go of craving what's the second

noble truth the cause of craving or the

cause of suffering is craving now almost

all people that are practicing different

forms of meditation are not recognizing

this tension and tightness so they're

practicing a kind of meditation that

will not lead to personality development

will not lead to the overcoming of

suffering

so there is a distinct difference

between what the Buddha was teaching in

the sutras and what most people are

teaching as the Buddhist meditation and

to be quite honest I listened to other

teachers give Dhamma talks and I get

bored with their talks because they use

a lot of words but they don't really say

anything they're not really teaching you

anything and that's not the Buddhist

style the Buddhist style was so that

your understanding can be so good that

you can change things for yourself and

it comes from that extra step of

relaxing it tranquilizes your mind what

happens when you relax and you let go of

that tension and tightness right after

that you'll notice that your mind is

very clear your mind is very bright your

mind is pure why is it pure because

you've let go of craving and that's the

cause of suffering so your mind becomes

pure when you let go of that craving a

lot of different kinds of things when

you're practicing meditation in this way

that occurred during your sitting for

one thing the force of the concentration

when you're doing this kind of sitting

does not suppress anything it doesn't

stop things from happening it doesn't

push down a lot of people when they're

teaching about meditation they say those

are the hindrances you have to push them

and down you have to push them away you

have to

them from just becoming a distraction I

have a friend that's been teaching

meditation for many many many years and

if you listen to him get in front of a

large group of people you can still hear

a little bit of fear in his voice he has

had trouble with fear since before he

started teaching and he even talks about

yeah I still have fear it doesn't bother

me so much anymore but it's still there

now is that purifying your mind that's

the real question if you're not able to

let go of the cause of suffering then

the suffering is not going to go away if

you can't recognize that suffering and

the cause of it there's no sense in

doing the meditation as far as I can see

I'm into very much end result now

there's a lot of meditations that are

very helpful in some ways but what's the

end result the end result that I'm

looking for is the cessation of

suffering and the Buddha is taught that

there's a right way to practice

meditation and a wrong way and the wrong

way of practicing is emphasizing

suffering the right way is learning how

suffering ceases

how it stops so what I'm going to be

doing during this retreat is showing you

a lot of different things that the

Buddha said about how to let go of

suffering and when you follow the

directions you don't add anything you

don't subtract anything you don't change

anything when you follow the directions

exactly precisely you will see a major

difference in yourself and it's nothing

that I'm doing that causes that to

happen what I'm doing is just telling

you what the Buddha said and it is

immediately effective one of the things

when it talks about the good qualities

of the Dhamma the second quality is

called a calico and poly a calico means

immediately effective how many people do

you know have been meditating for years

and they hit a wall and they just can't

go any deeper they can't go any further

and they get tired of it and they quit

meditating that doesn't happen with this

meditation why because it's immediately

effective every time there's a

distraction and pulls your attention

away from your object of meditation

you'll use the six artists on it you

recognize it you release the distraction

by not keeping your attention on it

don't make a big deal of any kind of

distraction

relax smile come back to your object of

meditation stay with your object of

meditation for as long as you can now

how is this immediately effective you've

let go of a hindrance you've let go of

the craving you've developed smiling and

having an uplifted mind a light mind and

you're bringing that light mind back to

your object to meditation and what

happens when you do that enough is the

hindrance goes away and when the

hindrance goes away you feel relief now

why do hindrances keep coming up because

you've done things in the past it might

be a past lifetime it might be in this

lifetime who knows it doesn't matter

what the cause is the reason a hindrance

keeps coming up is because you did

something in the past that made you feel

guilty and that guilty feeling makes you

take it personally this is me this is

mine I did that I shouldn't have done it

but I did it now I'm feeling guilty

because of it so every time you use the

six hours you're letting go of that

wrong opinion of a personal self being

you this is me this is mine this is

I am so every time you let go of that

craving you're letting go of that wrong

belief in a personal self and that's

immediately effective you went from

taking it personally to seeing that it's

not personal

it's just the thought it's just a

feeling so there's a lot of relief when

you let go of that right after that

relief you feel very strong joy now the

kind of there's there's five different

kinds of joy

the first kind of joy well the first

three kinds of joy can be experienced at

anybody at any time

the first kind of joy is like goosebumps

something really nice happens and you

get some boost pot so that's a good

feeling not nice the next kind of joy is

like a flash of lightning it's very

strong but it's only there for a short

period of time

now what happens after every kind of joy

that arises is right after that you feel

a sense of tranquility as as it gets

stronger the tranquility lasts longer

you feel more peaceful more calm more

balanced in your mind for a period of

time the next kind of joy is like

standing in the ocean and just having a

wave of joy come over you and then

another wave comes over you and you

might be able to sit for a few minutes

after that joy fades away where your

mind is really calm and it's quiet and

it's very very nice

now the last two kinds of joy only arise

through mental development the next kind

of joy is called uplifting joy this is

what you experience when you get into a

jhana this kind of joy you feel very

light in your body and light in your

mind and you feel yeah this is good this

is really a nice happy feeling I like

that and then that joy will fade away

now you you have to understand every

feeling that arises it's just a feeling

it's not my feeling sometimes people try

to hold on to a happy feeling because

they've had so much suffering in their

life you don't hold on to it you just

let it be there as long as it's going to

be you feel light in your body light in

your mind and you start going and this

is a reason that I really started

meditating this is good I like that but

you let it be there when that feeling

fades away you feel very strong

tranquility and you feel more

comfortable in your mind and in your

body than you've ever felt before just

at ease and that will last for a period

of time your mind becomes very unified

now I just described to you the first

jhana

now the last kind of joy that arises is

the awakening factor of joy

it's called all-pervading joy it doesn't

have the excitement in it of the other

kinds of joy you've experienced this

kind of joy is a real happy feeling and

your mind is very alert when this kind

of joys fades away the tranquility and

the balance of mind is very strong

excuse me

now getting back to the one pointed

concentration a lot of people especially

in this country will tell you that if

you get into jhana you cannot experience

Nirvana nirvana means no more fire

what's the cause of fire arising in your

mind craving Soni Bona is basically

saying no more craving for a period of

time

so when

you are practicing one-pointed

concentration not using the relaxed step

your mind can go very deep in

concentration but the force of the

concentrations stops things from arising

and that's why you can't attain nirvana

by doing that kind of meditation there's

a lot of people that are practicing oh

you do the jhana then when you get out

of the jhana you switch your meditation

over to straight Vipassana and then you

can attain nirvana well I've heard about

that for the last 35 years and I haven't

seen one person that's been successful

yet so I have my doubts as to whether

that really works but there's a lot of

attachments people think they're doing

the right thing saying the right thing

one of the phenomena that's starting to

happen now and it really does make me

happy is a lot of people are starting to

go back to the sutras and see what the

Buddha said instead of listen to what

somebody else said the Buddha said now

there's there's a lot of people that do

do teach meditation and they want to

teach from the heart which is all good

and well but I want to know what the

Buddha said about it I don't want to

know what somebody comes up with some

ideas I'm very traditional and I

understand that that's kind of a almost

a dirty word

but I am the most successful meditation

teacher that I know and that's not

bragging on my part that is just stating

a fact 50% of the people that are doing

retreats with me in Asia are successful

they are experiencing Nibbana to one

degree or another and they're starting

to be more and more happy all the time

and that's the whole point change your

perspective let go of your old ways of

thinking and have a lot of loving

acceptance of the present develop your

equanimity so that your mind has more

and more balance in it all the time and

the things that used to get you upset

it's not even worth mentioning anymore

so what

your mind becomes much more at ease and

you become much more skillful at solving

problems this is the advantages of doing

this kind of meditation and you are your

own teacher you're teaching yourself I'm

not the teacher you see me reading the

zhutka the Buddha is a teacher I'm a

guide my job is to keep you on the path

keep you going in the straight way so

you can have advantage for doing this

meditation and you can really benefit a

lot and nothing makes me happier than to

see people benefit from this meditation

believe me now sometimes when you start

to go deeper into your your meditation

there's different things that happen

when you come for the interviews that's

what I'm going to be questioning about I

don't care about the story of how you

got there I have very specific things

that I need to know I had one person

after the retreat they said that body

kept on interfering with what I was

trying to tell him and what he was

trying to tell me was a story and I

don't have time for stories I mean I see

everybody every day that's a lot of

hours of interviews plus I give a Dhamma

talk in the evening I'm busy I haven't

got time for a lot of stories

although I might give you a few well I

have enough time to show you how to how

to let it go but you got to do it

the thing with hindrances is they're

hindrances because they stop you from

staying on your object of meditation and

you have to learn that the hindrances

are not your enemy to fight with now

last night she was talking about pain

and she was talking about taking that

pain personally and wanting to get up

and run away from it and that doesn't

make it go away

that just postpones it a little bit we

have to learn to develop patience my

teacher

Lucille Ananda great monk absolutely

brilliant had the habit of telling me a

lot patience leads to Nibbana and I'm

patient as long as I get what I want

when I wanted so you have to be patient

and not just try to run away from things

when they first start to come up now in

in Malaysia there was 11 different

countries that people from 11 different

countries came to that retreat so that

was a real interesting time for me to

have that many

different ways of describing how things

work for them and I had to really stress

very much patience when hindrances arise

the six RS are not there to stop them

from causing pain the six RS are there

to let go of craving that's it the pain

will go away by itself when you use the

attachments what is an attachment its

craving it's taking something personally

it's making a big deal out of something

in your mind and trying to control there

is no control there's only observation

and allowing it to burn out by itself so

the more you're able to stay on your

object of meditation not with an iron

fist but just letting your mind stay

with your object of meditation without

trying to force it the more you do that

and use the six R's when your mind gets

distracted the faster your progress

becomes now at the first part of your

retreat you might be able to sit for

half an hour 45 minutes and your mind

starts to have a little bit of joy or

ice that's good but don't be attached to

it there's a lot more that's a lot

better and you'll see that for yourself

I don't want you to believe anything

that I say how many meditation teachers

have you

and say that check it out

see if it is if it's whether it's right

or not so the more you are teaching

yourself not to fight with entrances not

to try to control them to allow them to

be you start seeing that when these

hindrances arise they are teaching you

where your attachment is and how to let

go of that attachment by using the six

arts your mind will naturally start to

become more uplifted and happy as you

stop trying to make my mind be the way I

want it to be when I want it that way

there's nothing about making your mind

be anything there's only remembering to

observe how Minds attention moves from

one thing to another it's important to

see this because when you're able to see

how Minds attention moves you start to

see for yourself and teach yourself this

is part of an impersonal process I

didn't ask for this stuff to happen I

didn't want it to come up I can't make

it go away all I can do is observe how

this process works and as you can in

ually teach yourself about how this

process works you naturally start to

become more happy

you become lighter with your perspective

of things you become more accepting of

things instead of somebody coming up and

being extremely rude to you and you

getting mad at them you just let it go

not that important to get upset about

yeah but that no no good so-and-so said

or did this and I really hate that so

how much pain do you caused yourself

because I don't like it I am taking it

personally and that is a false belief

this meditation will show you how to let

go of that more and more so you develop

more and more balance with everything

every part of aspect of your life more

accepting don't resist or push soften

your mind and smile doesn't matter how

much pain comes up or what the reason of

the pain is the reason for the pain we

don't care about the reasons sometimes

we find out what the reason is sometimes

we don't it doesn't matter it's how the

process works that's the thing that's

important and you're going to hear me

talk more and more about dependent

origination and this is the process this

is how everything arises

as you get more and more educated with

how this process works you start to have

more and more balance in your mind and

you start seeing for yourself you make a

big deal out of anything you're going to

cause yourself suffering and until you

stop making a big deal out of it and

taking it personally you're going to

continue suffering and you can't blame

anybody else for your pain oh but he

said this and I don't like that whoops

who doesn't like it I don't who wants it

to be different than it is I wish they

hadn't said that so who doesn't like

that who wants it to be different who's

causing themself more and more pain

because you're making a big deal out of

it and taking it personally now the

thing with the Buddha's path that is

very important and it's not something

that is like very much in this country

and it's called morality but most people

in this country don't even understand

what morality really means it means

these five precepts that you take for

your daily life you keep them and your

mind will naturally become calm

now the first precept don't harm or kill

living beings on purpose second precept

don't take anything that's not given

don't steal anything how do you feel

when somebody steals something of yours

the third precept don't do any wrong

sexual activity what is wrong sexual

activity wrong sexual activity is sexual

activity with another person's mate or

with someone that is your mate that has

other relationships going sexual

activity with somebody that's too young

sexual activity that causes any other

person to have dislike come up in their

mind

so keeping sexual activity doesn't

necessarily mean that you have to be

married to have sexual activity but it

means that you don't cause anybody else

upset because you're having that

relationship the next precept is the one

that's probably the hardest don't tell

any lies a white lie is a lie

don't knowingly say things that are

false don't curse look at your mind if

you if you start cursing what what's

happening in your mind a lot of hatred

when I came back to Asia which was 15

years ago now I was absolutely shocked

to see television the language that they

were using on television cursing is

becoming okay the radio of cursing I was

absolutely shocked by that what is that

saying that's saying that people they're

giving their dislike and dissatisfaction

to everybody else around them in an

offensive way and don't do that that

makes other people upset and your mind

is upset your mind has hatred in it when

you're getting caught up in cursing

don't try to split groups one group from

another by saying well this group over

here they're saying this about you and

you come to this group and you say well

they're saying this about you doesn't

matter to let it go and don't gossip

what is gossip it's making up stories

that aren't true it's trying to cause

problems for other people

so these four different kinds of speech

are very important to keep now the fifth

precept don't take drugs and alcohol at

Dolomites I have some students that they

thought that that wasn't the right thing

so they had a glass of wine and then

they saw these are people that were

pretty advanced in the meditation but

they they drank a glass of wine and it

affected their meditation for three or

four days afterwards their mind got dull

and you say well if it's only one beer

it's only this little bit of wine but it

has a negative effect on your mind and

if you're serious about meditation

don't do it yeah but I need to relax

we'll go meditate if you need to relax

go have fun

go play with some kids if you need to

relax

any time you break one of the precepts

it causes hindrances to arise I've had

students for years that they would keep

the precepts while they were on retreat

when they got off they just went back to

the way they did things before and then

they'd come back for another retreat to

say you know this retreat is it's really

hard well yeah why because you break the

precepts you have that guilty mind you

know your mind knows when you break a

precept and your mind says I shouldn't

have done that

and then you come for a retreat and you

sit in meditation and you have these

entrances coming up and you have to go

through that to purify your mind so

after eight or nine days on a retreat

your mind finally has purified itself

enough it starts to go deeper and then

you're done with a retreat so keep your

precepts without breaking and of course

there's always these clowns that say

okay okay I'm going to keep all the

precepts how long do I have to do that

well my answer is the will for another

hundred years at least and we'll go up

from there it's important to keep these

precepts there's no God in heaven is

going to throw down a thunderbolt at you

because you broke a precept but you know

you've done it yourself you've taken

something that wasn't given and then you

can justify it all you want but that

doesn't mean that you haven't broken the

precept one of the things that happens

when people come to the center is

there's a lot of making up reasons why

things happening the way they're

happening and they look to put blame on

anybody else they're not taking

responsibility for themselves and that

turns into a problem for them

because they don't want to take

responsibility for their breaking their

own precepts they want to blame somebody

else because of this problem and

progress is very slow because of it the

reason that I have you doing the

precepts every morning is not some kind

of right and ritual it's a reminder to

keep the precepts and if you say

something that's not true you've broken

the preset it's going to affect your

meditation negatively all day until you

take the precepts the next morning so

when you realize that you broke the

precept right then stop what you're

doing forgive yourself for making a

mistake make a determination that I'm

not going to do that again and take the

precepts again that way you can purify

your own mind it's important to do that

as I was telling you this morning there

was a monk that when he first came to

the meditation Center he was doing great

he was sit in three hours and that's

when I could barely sit for two and by

the end of his retreat because he broke

one precept that he and he felt guilty

for it he couldn't sit more than 15

minutes now what why do you think that

is because he took it personally

he decided I know this is something that

I should follow but I'm not going to do

it and as a result that affected the

meditation in a negative way can't blame

me for that it's not my fault I don't

have anything to do with your keeping

your precepts all I can do is recommend

that it's

good thing and to do it all the time not

just while you're on retreat if you keep

your precepts for a year without

breaking them and you come for a retreat

your meditation is going to fly your

meditation is going to go very deep very

quickly why because you've kept your

precepts and that leads to strong

tranquility and equanimity

so the hindrances when they come up they

are your teacher and you're teaching

yourself about how to let go of these

hindrances you're teaching yourself

about the cause of the hindrances by

keeping precepts it's real important to

be careful about what you say okay

it doesn't mean you can't joke you can

but everybody knows that you're just

making a joke you're not breaking a

precept there's a story in one of the

commentaries about a monk went out on

arms round and he came back and he had a

lot of food in this bowl and one of the

monks was just going out on alms round

he said how's they all drowned today and

he said oh the the streets are flowing

with food that's not a true statement

right but it's it's a way of describing

if you're not trying to fool other

people you're not trying to get them to

believe something that you know is

untrue okay okay here quite secluded

from sensual pleasures secluded from

unwholesome States a person enters upon

and abides in the first channel which is

accompanied by thinking and examining

thought with joy and happiness born of

seclusion that is what the first jhana

is like you'll be able to stay on your

object to meditation for a period of

time without any distractions and you'll

be able to see when your mind starts to

move away and you'll catch it more

quickly and come back every time your

mind moves away from your object to

meditation you're not in that jhana at

that time

he considers this and understands that

thus the first jhana is conditioned and

you're directing your mind

it's Felician Allah produced you're

directing your mind to stay with one of

the objects of meditation whatever that

happens to be but whatever his condition

and volitional leap in produced is

impermanent subject to change subject to

cessation if he's steady in that he

attains the destruction of the taints

but if he does not attain a destruction

of the taints because of that desire for

the Dhamma that delight in the Dhamma

then with a destruction of the five

lower fetters he becomes one due to

reappear spontaneously in the pure boots

and their attained final knee bono

without ever returning from that world

now what are we talking about here if

you attain even the first jhana with the

tranquil wisdom meditation while you're

in that jhana your mind can all of a

sudden go very deep and you can become

an are hot just by being in the first

jhana doesn't happen very often I

granted but I have had students that

have been in the jhanas not all the way

up to the highest jhanas

and attained nirvana there was a nun

that came and she started practicing

with me she was am I on a nun and most

my Ayana teachers are very very severe

they don't like people that smile they

don't like people that are happy for the

most part and that's just a general

thing that I'm saying is not specific

everyone is like that but because it's

not no nobody is always going to be how

you describe but when she first came she

was so sour faced very serious had these

deep lines in her inner forehead and I

kept telling her she had to smile and by

the third day of the retreat she

actually heard what I said

and she started smiling and she said

does this mean I can have fun and I said

yeah and the next day she went into the

breakfast started eating staying with

the loving-kindness and her spiritual

friend and got into the first jhana

because of that and after that she was

Miss smiley she was smiling all the time

and being happy all the time and the

beep lines in her face the deep frown

lines were trying too hard they

disappeared is great it was really good

fun to see somebody get it

so please smile please smile all the

time

keep your mind like any time you get

serious guess who has an attachment

guess who's taking it personally

guess who's causing themself pain it's

okay to smile it's okay to laugh and it

is okay to have fun

you don't hear meditation teachers say

that very often I think I'm about the

only one I know of that says it

well meditation is supposed to be

serious well then be seriously happy

how's that keep your mind light whenever

you get serious about anything I am

there I want to control I want it to be

the way I want it to be and that's a

cause of suffering so this is an all the

time practice it's not just sitting and

walking practice and that's hard to get

across because an awful lot of people

when when the Chinese and Japanese

started coming over to this country and

in the 1800's there

their main focus in meditation was

sitting and that's why meditation is

called sitting because they just drummed

it into everybody that men do you have

to sit and that's when you're doing your

meditation but to be able to carry your

meditation with you all the time the

thing with the six RS that's very

important is to understand that's a way

you can let go of your suffering in your

daily activities and the more you smile

with your daily activities the better

your mindfulness becomes you're able to

see what your mind is doing in the

present and when your mind starts to get

serious and starts to pull down with all

of these problems well that's a time

that you use your six R's and smile into

that keep your mind light don't take it

heavily I've got to worry about this

well no you don't it's your choice to

worry about it whether you're going to

do it or not but oh this is so bad how

can I handle this how can I take care of

that well you can do it with a serious

mind that resists and wants to control

doesn't like the situation gets angry

pretty easy or not you can be very

accepting of whatever arises

it doesn't matter what the feeling is

like whether it is a mental feeling or a

physical feeling the thing is that when

you take it personally it makes your

mind have more and more craving in and

more and more desire to control and make

it be the way you want it to be and

honestly it doesn't work

it really doesn't the more you can allow

and just say okay you're there so what

it's alright it doesn't mean you don't

work if you have joints that need to be

straightened out that doesn't mean you

don't straighten them out it means you

don't have resistance to straightening

them out and you don't get into the

dislike of the sensation for it being

there

did you ask a sensation to come up

you're sitting in meditation and all of

a sudden you have a pain in your knee

did you say you know I haven't had any

pain in my knee for a while I might as

well have some now no you don't have any

control over that sort of thing what you

do have a control over is what you do

with that when it arises use the six

hours not as some kind of stick to beat

things away to stop them from happening

it's that's not what six hours are about

the six RS are very specifically right

effort is very specifically used to let

go of craving the cause of the suffering

and the six arse and right effort are

the same thing just a different way of

describing it it's just like the five

aggregates and four foundations of

mindfulness are different ways of saying

the same thing the Buddha was real big

on the five aggregates when he would

teach monks he would teach them about

the five aggregates because they

understood that later on he changed over

to doing the foundations of mindfulness

that was a later kind of teaching but it

was still the same thing the five

aggregates you have body you have

feeling that perception now perception

and feeling are conjoined always when a

feeling comes up you know whether it's a

pleasant feeling or a painful feeling

perception is a part of the mind that

tells you that okay you have the same

cara's you have thoughts you have I

generally have for beginners I talked

about thoughts more than anything thank

Aras and you have consciousness the four

foundations of mindfulness you have body

same as with the five aggregates you

have feeling same as with the five

aggregates you have consciousness same

with the five aggregates you have Damas

same with the five aggregates now isn't

that amazing well the four foundations

of mindfulness they're so important to

people that are practicing the vaasana'

but I found over the years that they

just talk about generally what the four

foundations of mindfulness are they

don't talk specifically about what they

are and the four foundations of

mindfulness in the sukkah is talking

about jhana practice but they've taken

that understanding away and say oh

that's just free pass on a-- but it is

describing all kinds of things about

jhana practice the way the Buddha taught

jhana

was that the four foundations or the

five aggregates whichever way you want

to say it is in each jhana while you're

actually in the jhana you're practicing

the four foundations of mindfulness and

there's more than one suta that agrees

with that so there's a lot of things

that are kind of misunderstood I don't

believe they're purposefully

misunderstanding

but there is a misunderstanding with the

different ways of doing the practice and

I am very much enthusiastic about

practicing what the Buddha is talking

about and specifically following what

the Buddha was talking about and it is

great fun for me to watch people start

to understand it's really nice

doesn't take that long from now until

the end of the retreat outside of being

your guide I am the educator and you'll

be a lot smarter about Buddhism by the

end of the retreat because you'll have

some of the direct experiences you'll

have some of the direct knowledge for

yourself

and again you're your own teacher I can

present ideas that the Buddha was

talking about you decide whether you

want to try it or not generally speaking

when you follow what the Buddha says it

works it works very well and it is

immediately effective I mean when you

have a hindrance arise and you let it be

there and you relax

that hindrance is not there anymore

that's immediate now when I'm talking

about the six ARS I'm talking about

words that you need to do not say over

and over again okay this is a list of

words to do recognize as soon as you

notice you're not on your object of

meditation you've already recognized it

you don't have to tell yourself I need

to recognize this and you let it be and

relax and smile and come back to your

object of meditation and stay there it's

a flow don't put any philosophy with it

this is a method and it works very well

and it works all the time

your job is to remember to do it so with

each of the jhanas that you'll go

through there's going to be a little

different kind of experience that you're

going to have and you can have the

experience of attaining Nibbana while

you're in each one of these jhanas like

I said I have had students that have

attained me bon a welder

they're using the sixers the thing with

the jhana that is not very well

understood because it's taken from the

beta Tech's is people think the only

time you can experience jhana is while

you're sitting now when you're walking

can you have joy can you have a peaceful

calm mind

and you have a mind that's very

collected and very at ease oh that means

you can be walking and being in the

jhana

it doesn't matter what you're doing what

matters is how you're using your

mindfulness keep your mind

keep your mind smiling that improves

your mindfulness so much it's

unbelievable and I can tell when you

come in for the interview whether you're

really smiling enough or not and I might

tell you you got a smile more why

because your mind's too heavy as soon as

you walk in it's like somebody bring

I'm led on it on top of their head and

pushing it down have fun with this

retreat in it I give you all permission

to have fun how's that

keep smiling as much as you can okay so

we didn't get very far on this suta but

we will in in the next one do you have

any questions are we going to have smart

people or dumb people yeah it doesn't

matter content doesn't matter that's

where people get a lot of confusion

because they want to follow it and see

what it is and that's distraction okay

I've had some students that they've been

real close to getting to Nibbana but

they kept on having a a memory of a past

lifetime and okay let's go see this for

a little while know the content of that

doesn't matter what matters is that you

recognize that your mind is distracted

let it be there by itself relax

smile come back you can get insights

into what what comes up but the insights

are always about the process of how it

came up and you might see well the

reason this came up was because of that

memory or whatever but you don't follow

that

that's for psychology that's not for the

Buddha's path the Buddha's path is about

how did this come up and it always comes

up in exactly the same way and that's

one of the things in Asia they really

don't like the idea when I tell them

that there's no difference between the

American mind and the Asian mind they

don't like that idea at all

but it's it's that your human being all

human beings mind works in the same way

exactly

and there's fascination with why

something arises and follow it to the

end and see if there's any resolution by

it but that's taking it personally and

we will let go of that idea now there's

some weird things that happen when you

start letting go and seeing the

impersonal nature of everything your

mind can have a lot of fear arise and it

starts throwing a temper tantrum just

like a little kid you're ignoring me

I've been in control how many lifetimes

and now you're not paying attention to

me anymore

you're telling me that that all the

things I've done in the past don't

it isn't really me it's a false belief

and your mind will throw up a lot of

fear and how do you get over that fear

you laugh at how crazy your mind can get

everybody is crazy

it's okay to be crazy because we all are

we've been taking things personally for

how many lifetimes how much pain have we

caused ourselves by taking it personally

by getting involved with a story and

trying to solve problems there's so much

benefit gained by keeping your precepts

without breaking them by smiling more by

seeing things that are impersonal

processes that we take as us how much

pain do we cause ourself and then you

start letting go of that and everything

changes yeah

[Laughter]

all Yaya but all beings want to live

they don't want to die in order to kill

there has to be dislike well we we

practice in such insect rescue a lot we

have some little devices that will just

go around the insect and close in on it

then we take it outside open it up and

let it go out we do that with wasps we

do that with ladybugs we do that with

all kinds of things that like to come in

now one of the things we have a lot of

wasps for we live a lot and I got into

the habit of catching them on the window

taking them and letting them go out but

as I'm letting them go out I tell them

to tell all our friends I let them go

free which sounds kind of weird except I

never get stung it does work

[Laughter]

well Asia hassle it has to do with your

intention when you stop intending to

kill then you're expanding the lifecycle

of other beings if you just go out and

start killing them you're shortening

that lifecycle you're shortening your

own light cycle now in Asia they have

and it's ant heaven in Asia and they are

really troublesome and they bite and

look smaller the ant is the bigger the

bite is so the Chinese have developed

this truck that should put around you

you just draw a circle around you and

the ants will cross that line there's

way of preventing them from bothering

you how mosquitoes are troublesome so

you sleep under a mosquito net you don't

have to kill them sometimes there is not

the intention to kill but something

bites you and you go like that to see

what it was and you accidentally kill

them your intention was not to kill now

there's a story about this one monk that

was blind and he had a string between

poles and he was walking back and forth

holding onto

a string and he was stepping on ants and

monks saw that and they went to the

Buddha to tattletale a little bit and

say he's killing these ants and the

Buddha said his intention is not to kill

he's not doing it on purpose he has no

mental hold on any of that so there's no

wrongdoing well if you kill anything on

purpose you don't have also mine let's

just put it that way okay

you

and we can get into a long discussion

about that but I'm not gonna mine comes

up with discursive God always how about

that don't make it a big deal just six

art continue on oh yeah

craving is not particularly strong it is

particularly persistent I mean you can

just barely have enough time to do the

six hours and come back to your object

before all of a sudden you're pulled

away again just play it as it's a game

don't make a big deal out of it well and

if you try too hard one of the things

that they started doing in Asia this

time was that every thought that came up

they were six arting as soon as they

came and they just had more and more and

more thoughts and they'd come to me it

talked to me about being tired it is

tiring to 6ar every little thing that

comes up you don't need to six are every

little thing that comes up if it doesn't

pull your attention away from your

object to meditation and these thoughts

come up ignore them if it pulls your

attention away now you use the six arts

yeah they're trying to hurt they have to

back off on that and what you have to

tell them to do is they need to smile

more it's really true some people will

come in and they'll be complaining about

oh my meditation is so active I have so

much problem in this and that you're not

smiling enough oh yes I am I smile all

the time no you don't if you smile all

the time you're not going to have these

problems come up you're taking it

personally you're trying to over control

and you can't do that you have to back

off well they don't understand what a

true smile is because I have a lot of

equanimity in my mind most of the time

but I'm also smiling in my mind most of

it so it doesn't have to be here but it

does have to be yeah

you'll start seeing them naturally you

don't have to force it you'll start

seeing them happen you'll see feeling

arise and then the craving and then the

clinging and then the bejeweled tendency

and then the suffering you'll be able to

see that and recognize it as you go

deeper in your meditation

it will start to come naturally

you have to be careful with your energy

if you start to get any tension or

tightness in your head while you're

doing that back off that's the key is

with anything if you have too much

tension or you you have tightness that

starts to happen and your mind starts to

do this you're putting in too much

effort too much energy and you have to

back off until there's balance with it

yeah they do

and that's what insights are all about

because you you'll be going along and

all of a sudden you'll just notice oh

that's how that happened

Wow that's really something it happened

because there was a contact there was

feeling there was craving and as soon as

the craving happened a sick start and

the other links didn't arise Wow isn't

that amazing that's why I wanted to call

this an oh wow meditation because

there's a lot of oh wow that happen yeah

to start off with

that's okay to stay with equanimity then

and when you're walking I want you to

walk at a normal pace please don't walk

slowly you're walking for exercise stay

with your object to meditation whatever

that happens to be the longer you sit

the more you need the exercise you have

to get to going up a hill or running

upstairs and downstairs that sort of

thing get your heart beating that's real

important but stay with your object of

meditation while you're doing it okay

anybody else like if I do let go to get

back the insight comes about the

endurance but not without trying or not

without like I'm not making any

psychological with the travel can't just

unravel right and then else has an

insight pretty much back okay that's

fine

see them in your mind see them in your

mind see them now you there's two

different kinds of visualization for

some people the visualization can be

seeing them like pictures or seeing them

like in a movie and that's very easy for

them that's one kind of visualization

the other kind of visualization of

seeing them is just knowing that that's

who you're sending it to so pick the one

that's easiest the visualization is not

near as important as the feeling of

loving kindness and the feeling of the

wish that you make for your friend

that's much more important than seeing

them

by Elmar and you'll see just have fun

have fun doing it

know that person that you're sending it

to and you sincerely do wish them well

and radiate that feeling to them okay

don't try too hard that's one of the

biggest problems that I have with people

who have done meditation before is

they're taught to try to art and it's

time you got to learn how to back off so

you had a question

so no no no no no it doesn't matter what

the content is I don't care

fuzzy is fine

well eventually yeah but stop trying to

analyze it

that's a Western disease and it's a big

problem

people can for years get caught in that

but when they finally start listening

and realize I mean last summer I had a

monk come he stayed for three months the

first month he did meditation he was

just great and then he got it in his

mind that I want to be an are hot so he

started wrong effort and he had a whole

month of restlessness every time he came

my mind is restless I'm running all over

the place you're trying too hard

back off don't get involved with it here

at getting involved with the content

every day for 30 days I'm saying the

same thing to it then he comes to me and

he's really peaceful and calm and he

said well I figured out I was trying to

so he was my patience teacher it's

amazing then I you can have yeah it's

amazing that I can say something a

hundred times and then you finally get

it and you come to me and you're really

excited you go yeah I just found this

out how good oh I don't but there is

some relief when they finally yeah

it'll cause it'll cause tense it'll

cause tension to arise in your mind when

you get it when you get into the deeper

state you don't have a body and that's

one thing that I fight with the people

in Asia because they're very body

conscious you don't have a body but if

there is some contact you can feel the

contact then you'll say oh I've got this

real pain in my backside or my back or

my knee and I keep saying you don't have

a body how can you have a pain there

it's all mental that's something I have

to talk with you personally about

because it depends on the situation

sometimes I'll just tell people it's not

really pulling your attention away from

your object let's stay with your object

just because those thoughts are coming

up doesn't mean you have to address

everyone so it's it's staying on your

object of meditation that is the key

even when your mind is mind is object

meditation okay

but I'll find out as the questions that

I ask I'll find out what's happening now

there are going to be some people that

are going to be coming in and they want

to sit in on the interviews if you want

a private interview tell me but other

than that I want people I want to deke

people how to give interviews so I I

started doing that what was it two years

ago and it's quite helpful I don't think

it's anything in particular but

everybody of stepless the club so

anything else going back to when we're

talking about precepts and thinking

about feed and bugs on the windshield

profanity and all the other stuff that's

significant we how to determine whether

pregnant forgiveness education is

appropriate

magic way if you feel guilty about it

you feel guilty about it that forgive it

now the forgiveness meditation when done

in an intensive way is a very very very

powerful meditation it is the most

powerful meditation that I teach you

don't have to do it for the whole

retreat unless I had one one student in

Malaysia that when he started out he was

really kind of wacko and he was taking

all kinds of drugs and he was bipolar

seven or eight bipolar whatever that

means but he was going through

personality shifts that were just

unbelievable and he would follow the

directions kind of for a little while

and then he'd start off and do what he

wanted to do so this progress wasn't as

fast as it could be but by the end of

the retreat he had started to settle

down and when somebody is taking drugs I

don't allow them to stop taking the

drugs and I tell that they have to go

see the doctor about that because they

can have shifts back into their old ways

of doing things if they get people like

to cold-turkey drugs and you have to do

it gradually you have to do it over two

or three week period not just stop

taking it all together because that your

body is used to it and you're addicted

to it be quite honest and then you go

through all these changes but he started

following the directions

even did a second retreat by the end of

the second retreat I actually told him

he didn't have to do any more

forgiveness unless there was something

came up that made his mind aight and he

was starting to do loving-kindness

meditation and doing quite well with it

so there's a lot of healing in doing the

forgiveness meditation a lot of healing

people that come and they tell me well I

can't feel any loving-kindness I just

don't know what it is okay let's do the

forgiveness meditation after two or

three days of doing forgiveness then all

of a sudden they have a breakthrough and

then I switch them over to

loving-kindness and they just zoom after

that so there was a lot of past old

situations that they were attached to

and the the way to let go of that

attachment is through forgiving

loving-kindness is forgiveness is part

of loving-kindness

well it depends it depends on them

entirely but what I have them start

doing is forgiving themselves for making

mistakes because we're so hard on

ourselves I mean we can do just

brilliant things all day and do one

thing that's questionable in your mind

then you start criticizing yourself for

it you have to be able to recognize that

release it relaxed smile and laugh

without dumb your mind can be but it

depends it's all individual there's

there's no set formula for anything and

when I have them doing forgiveness

sometimes I have them forgiving

themselves for making a mistake or

forgiving themself for not understanding

or forgiving themselves for causing pain

to themselves

those are real important aspects now

that there's a real big thing that's

happening in this country about well you

got to forgive but people don't know how

to forgive so they just say well you did

this to me I forgive you and then they

think they're done and the attachment is

still there so it still affects them in

a negative way they have to work until

they feel relief how long does that take

how well do they follow directions

but I've had students that have been in

a mental institute and I get them to

start forgiving and smiling and doing

all kinds of things they leave the

mental institute they don't have to be

in there anymore they don't have to take

such heavy drugs yeah

and it's their doing their own work

because they want to change come into a

retreat yeah

because because it is such a personal

thing you can't just say well just do

this and that'll work

it just it depends on what they're going

through and one of the things that the

forgiveness does is it helps you to let

go of your secrets now one of the

definitions of an Arad is a person that

has no secrets any secret you have that

you're keeping and you don't talk about

it

that's your attachment that's you're

holding on to an old action and taking

it personally and causing yourself a lot

of suffering

so it is kind of an individual thing so

one of the things that at the last

retreat I gave in Kuala Lumpur I started

talking to them about using forgiveness

with any kind of physical owie and you

stubbed your toe we cut your the burn

yourself whatever start forgiving right

then and then test on the forgiveness

the next time that happens don't forgive

and see how long how much longer it

takes to heal because it's amazing same

[Music]

right

the more you can forgive little things

as you're going along the easier it

becomes to forgive the big things when

they come and the faster you heal I mean

it's it's amazing I have a wood-burning

stove at home and sometimes I get burned

now when I when I start paying attention

to that and I start forgiving it by the

next day I don't even have a blister all

I have is a red spot two or three days

later it's all gone

then when I don't I've got a problem for

a week I have a blister and I have a lot

of pain so it's a difference of two or

three days or a week it's up to me

whether I do it or not so the more you

can remember to do the forgiveness with

your any kind of ally whether it's a

mental ally or a physical owie you do

the forgiveness the pain is going to

disappear more quickly

talk to me about it it depends where you

are see it's not a blank that I'm not a

1/1 horse bone hair or one point one

trick pony I have a lot of tricks so it

depends on the situation

but one of the things that it happened a

lot when I was in Asia because I was

running around barefooted

barefooted in the forest at night is not

a safe thing to do for your toes it's

really not because you wind up breaking

them and when I break a toe then I start

doing forgiveness every time the pain

came up after two or three days I'm not

even limping anymore or if I don't do it

then I have a couple of weeks of real

severe pain so it's always your choice

what are you doing with your mind when

this kind of problem arises when you

make it a big deal and you're

identifying with it you're causing

yourself more pain that's the truth when

you forgive it and use then

loving-kindness into it it has a

tendency to get less and even disappear

yeah

not as much as I am yeah when I first

got to Asia and what became a monk for a

couple of years I started being the

abbot of monastery and a lot of people

were really suffering very much because

in Malaysia there's there's three

populations in a maze in Malaysia

there's Chinese there's Malay and

there's Indian and they don't get along

very well and the Malay run the

government so they're always pushing

down the Chinese because the trainings

are ambitious people and the Chinese

were walking around with a lot of hatred

so I started teaching them about

forgiveness and I got criticized because

the Buddha didn't teach any forgiveness

well yeah actually he did and it's in

davinia

so there's no problem with it but I was

criticized because I was not teaching

straight Vipassana that's the only way

to attain nirvana you know that's what

they think but they're in Malaysia

because I started teaching

loving-kindness more and I refused to

teach straight Vipassana because I'd

already gone through the experience and

wasn't happy with it

the loving-kindness became very popular

and people started changing and and

starting to really become more

prosperous naturally and prosperous is a

word that doesn't necessarily mean

anything to do with money or material

things you have more friends when you

practice loving-kindness

datian you're more prosperous that way

things just happen more easily and

that's how you become more prosperous

it's real interesting to see some people

that break precepts how they are

continually having one drama after

another and people that keep the

precepts how prosperity and how things

are so easy to happen and you meet the

right people at the right time and you

get along with them and you have fun

with them that's really it's an amazing

thing to watch so I thought I was going

to get done at an hour and a half and

there it is two hours so why don't we

share some merit

you may suffer in one's feet suffering

free and the fear struck fearless beat

in the grieving pedal relief that may

all beings find relief now being shared

of this earth that we just acquired for

the acquisition of all kinds of

happiness may beings inhabiting space

and earth Davis and Nagas of mighty

powers share this narrative house

[Music]

you