2019 Day 2 MN 138 UK Retreat-sfqIaLlLesI.en.vtt.txt

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

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

this is called the exposition of a

summary that's what I heard on one

occasion the blessed one was living in

Swati in jeta's grove anathapindika's

park there the blessed one addressed

amongst us monks then I will survey

replied the blessed ones that this monks

I shall teach you the summary and in

exposition listen and attend closely to

what I shall say yes venerable sir the

monks replied the Blessed One said this

monks a monk should examine things in

such a way that well he is examining

them his consciousness is not distracted

and scattered externally nor stuck

internally and by not craving and

clinging he does not become agitated if

his consciousness is not distracted and

scattered externally nor stuck

internally and if by not craving and

claiming he does not become agitated

then for him there's no origination of

suffering that is what the Blessed One

said having said this the sublime one

rose from the seat and when

to his dwelling this is where the monks

made a big mistake because they didn't

ask him what what what I'm talking about

what does this be and you remember what

I said yesterday about not asking

questions what happens to you if you

don't understand what's being said this

diamond talk is not worth anything to

you ask questions

then soon after the Blessed one that

gone the monks considered now friends a

blessed one has risen from this seat had

gone into this dwelling after giving a

summary and briefly without expounding

the detailed meaning that's a problem

isn't it and do you understand what this

said explain it to me then explain it to

me okay that's why you should ask ok now

who will expound this in detail then

they consider the venerable maha katrana

is praised by the teacher and esteemed

by his wise companions in the holy life

he is capable of expounding the detailed

meaning suppose we went to him and asked

him the meaning of this

then the monks went to the venerable

maha Kshama and exchanged readings with

him witnessed courteous and the amiable

talk was finished they sat down at one

side and they told him what had taken

place

adding let the venerable market Rama

expound it to us the venerable Monica

China replied friends it is though a man

meeting heartwood seeking heartwood

wandering in search of heartwood thought

that heartwood should be sucked for

among the branches and leaves of a great

tree standing possessed of art wood

after he had passed over the route in

the trunk so it is with you venerable

sirs that do you think I should be asked

about the meaning of this after you had

passed the Blessed one by when you were

face to face with the teacher for

knowing the Blessed one knows seeing he

sees his vision his knowledge he is the

Dhamma he is the Holy One

he is the seer the proclaimer the

elusive eater meaning the giver of the

deathless for the lord of the dominant

that tatata that was the time when we

should have asked the Blessed One the

meaning as he told you so you should

have

surely friend Kijana knowing the blessed

one no see he sees his vision his

knowledge he is the dumb he is the Holy

One is the seer the proclaimer the

elucidate er of meaning the giver of the

deathless recorded the Dhamma that the

target to that was the time we should

have asked the Blessed One meaning as he

told us so we should have remembered it

yet the venerable maha Kijana is praised

by the teacher and esteemed esteemed by

his wise companions in the holy life the

venerable maha Kijana is capable of

expounding the detailed meaning of this

summary given and briefed by the Blessed

one without expound the expounding the

detailed meaning let the venerable maha

jhana expound it without finding in

troublesome

then listen Prince and attend closely to

what I shall say yes friend the monk

replied the venerable maha katrana said

this how friends is consciousness called

distracted and scattered externally here

when a monk has seen a form with the eye

if his consciousness follows after the

sign of form is tied and shackled to it

by gratification in the sign of the

forms his fettered by the federal grant

occasion in the signing of the forum

then his consciousness is called

distracted and scattered externally what

does that mean when is when the sight

arises and you take it and you make a

big deal out of it and their mind become

scattered you start thinking about it

and then you start thinking about other

things and all of a sudden you're not

paying attention at all now this happens

with all of the sense doors anytime you

make a big deal out of anything anytime

you you think god this is I really like

this you're caught by you have craving

you have attachment and the more you

make a big deal out of something the

longer it's going to stay and the more

distraction you're going to have because

of it it works that way now especially

it works with meditation pain sometimes

some meditation pains can come up and

they can be pretty intense and the more

you make a big deal out of having that

pain and not liking it and you can't

stand it anymore and you have to break

you're sitting you can look forward to

having that pain coming up often many

times

they have been doing meditation for a

lot of years and my for about 20 years I

was doing de pasamonte straight the

possum aha see States its mozzies I

adore style and what they told us to do

was when a pain arises you put your

attention right in the middle of that

pain and you quote see its true nature

you know what happens when you put your

attention right in the middle of the

pain it gets real big and intense and

they seem to think that it's a good

thing to have that kind of pain

your mind is hard like a rock because

you have a version to pain pain by

nature you just want to push it away but

there is attachment there and that's not

something that they really recognize so

well it is very important to let go of

first your thoughts about the

distraction and relax then notice the

tight mental fist around that

distraction and

let it go the tight mental fist is a

version so relax everything about the

Buddhist practice is about doing this

with the practice not this everything is

about letting it be it's about using the

six artists

if you remember the definition of

mindfulness mindfulness is remembering

to observe how minds attention moves

that's what we're talking about right

here your attention moves to the form

and then you start writing it or

disliking it whatever the case may be

but you're not seeing that there is

craving there you're not noticing

craving when it comes up and because of

that you get caught by thinking having

opinions having ideas liking disliking

and then you get into your old habitual

tendency of when this kind of thing

arises I always do this habitual

tendencies are where your emotional

outbursts come from okay

now let's say you have depression that's

always a good one

how does depression our rights what

happens first what happens after that

what happens after that if you are not

aware of this as a process then you

start taking it personally and you start

to fight with a feeling and you try to

control the feeling with your thoughts

and that just causes more and more

suffering what if what is the very start

of depression feeling arises and it's

not a pleasant feeling I don't like that

and right after that you have all kinds

of thoughts and opinions and ideas and

stories about this depressing feeling

and then you get into trying to control

the feeling with your thoughts you think

that this is you this is yours

this is who you are and feelings are one

thing and thoughts or something else the

more you try to think of feeling away

the bigger and more intense of feeling

becomes

it's really kind of an amazing process

and it's easy to recognize but because

of your old habitual tendency of trying

to think of feeling away instead of

letting go of your thoughts about the

feeling and relax and allow that feeling

to be there by itself it can last for

years and always you caught in the same

way anytime you try to think of feeling

away because in yourself more suffering

it doesn't work and that's how you

become distracted and scattered because

you're trying to control whatever arises

with your thoughts and you can get real

attached to trying to handle it that way

and that's like the the same that

Einstein you try to do the same thing

over and over in the same way and expect

a different result well don't do that

that's why it's so important to really

recognize that your mind is distracted

release the distraction

don't hold on don't make a big deal out

of whatever is pulling your attention

away you're gonna hear that a lot don't

make a big deal out of it it's just a

thought it's just a feeling

is it yours did you ask it to come well

why take it personally why try to

control it why try to make it be the way

you want it to be it doesn't work so you

let it be by itself

come back to your objective meditation

your object of meditation when you're

doing your daily activities can be

smiling to stay with this final and I'm

left with it

keep your mind not lifted and then that

feeling that was so troublesome is it's

just a feeling I don't need to hold on

to that let's let that one know so your

habitual tendency is where your

emotional upsets really take hold in

Pali they call it bhava and bhikkhu

bodhi says it's existence and he says

it's other things but my teacher was

Lucille Ananda he was a very very famous

Burmese teacher and I had a long talk

with him about the definition of bhava

and he started agreeing with me when I

started saying habitual tendency because

habitual tendency that is a practical

way of

at how you caused yourself suffering and

how you get caught with this up for me

that's making a big deal and then trying

to control the feelings with your

thoughts and the more you try to control

the feelings with your thoughts

the bigger and more intense of feelings

become now when I was doing so much

mojave style meditation I had a

meditation mean that was really truly

remarkable and it lasted for about 15

years because I always treated it in the

same way because that's what I was

taught to do I it's like somebody took a

knife and they went like this and then

they turn the blade and I'd be sitting

and then I could hardly lift my hat my

hand up off off my leg it was so intense

eventually my mind started developing

some of the equanimity for it and

eventually it went away by itself but

I'm here to tell you you don't need to

do that for 15 years

with how this process works what happens

first what happens after that what

happens when you start seeing this as a

process and you start seeing that is

part of an impersonal process you're

gonna start losing the attachment to it

you're gonna stop taking it things so

personally there's some people that they

have really really heavy-duty anxieties

and anxiety attacks and these kind of

things I was teaching and this lady came

and she sat down right in front and get

out she started an anxiety attack and

she was hearing me talk about what you

do when you have this kind of feeling

arise and she thought well let's see

what this mock says is ready now

whenever she had anxiety attacks before

she would freak out for a little while

and then she would go run to her room

and she would stay in her room for three

or four days and then the anxiety went

away and she was she wasn't gonna

interrupt the talk that I was giving and

she thought well let's see if what this

monk is showing me is

is real let's see if it works and she

said she broke down in sweats and she

really wanted to get up and run away be

by herself but she started using the

Sixers and she said after two minutes it

went away that anxiety went away imagine

that would and I said after the dhamma

talk i was she was taking me back to

wherever this game and she was telling

me about it he said do you have any

anxiety now said no so now you know what

to do with anxiety arises yeah I think I

see the biggest problem that we have is

taking things personally and then trying

to control your feelings with your

thoughts and it doesn't work but we keep

doing it over and over again we keep on

causing ourselves so much suffering

because of our ritual so when I was

talking with Lucille Anandi about

habitual tendency he started agreeing

with it and he really he started

teaching that way because it is

something that's very practical

something that you need to understand

the nonsense thoughts moves through our

minds it's just one of my other teachers

used to call it rubbish nonsense stuff

that we take personally and then we

don't like it and then we fight with it

and then we throw it on other people and

get in fights with them about it what if

what is that don't need to do that

see yesterday when I was talking about I

want you to have fun I'm being serious

if you don't have fun with life why

it's like when we were kids we were four

or five six years old everything was

great fun it was it's really nice and

then all of the sudden we get to a

little bit older and then everything

gets serious Wow who's the one that made

you serious why'd you do that to

yourself you don't need to the more you

have a light mind the better your

mindfulness becomes the more you smile

the better your mindfulness be uplifted

and you'll see that your mind does not

become so described distracted and

scattered and things that used to bother

you very heavily now they're not going

to anymore

so with every one of these sets doors

seeing forms with the eyes the hearing

sounds with the ears smelling odors with

the nose

tasting things with the tongue feeling

sensual are the feeling tangible things

with your body or with might treat them

all in the same way yes your minds gonna

pull your attention away so let it be

there so what

sometimes you do happen to have a

tendency to think that this is real

important and I have to do it this way

or else well you know when you start

doing more loving kindness when you

start staying with your spiritual friend

for longer periods of time one of the

things that's going to happen for you is

you're going to start to be more

organized you're going to be more at

ease with whatever you're doing while

you're doing it

every time that you stay with your

spiritual friend for a minute two

minutes three minutes now your mind is

going to start to develop more and more

imbalance and this happens at every

level of meditation now I teach jhana

but I teach Jonah

Vipassana at the same time

that's the way it says you do it in the

suitcase it's real important that you

understand that the Jama practice is not

an absorption where you just stay on one

thing this is a no we're kind of jhana

that you're practicing and Jonna is a

word that has been misunderstood for Oh