From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=996afHNbbG0

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

so

now you've gone through the hardest day

of the retreat

from here on out it gets much easier i

promise

the more that you smile

and i mean all the time smile when

you're

when you're taking a shower when you're

eating when you're

going for a walk smile

and this will improve your mindfulness

now mindfulness is

remembering to observe how mind's

attention

moves from one thing to another

how your attention goes from being on

your object to meditation to thinking

about something else

when your mindfulness is good

you won't get caught for near as long

with

the chatter and

the wandering mind

there's a lot of studies that are going

on on smiling right now

and they're all saying basically the

same thing

see if if you have a little smile on

your

lips and i don't mean a big toothy grin

just a little smile and a smile in your

mind

your mind has the idea

that it's happy and it becomes happy

the sharper your mindfulness becomes

the faster your progress in the

meditation becomes

now this is this is for real

so i want you to smile i don't care what

you're doing

whether you're washing your hands or

going to the toilet

or taking a shower smile

all the time

you'll see the advantages of this

very quickly

now what happened today was because

this year you're only a day out from

being in the world what happens now

or what happens today is

your mind keeps wanting to do that go

out and think about this

and that and wonder about this and that

and you're not able to stay on your

object of meditation for very long

that will change as you smile more

and you have a lot of hindrances that

arise

that may not take your mind away from

your object

of meditation take your mind away from

the loving kindness

why do you have hindrances

arise now that's a question that doesn't

get

asked very often what is a hindrance

what's the cause of the hindrance

the cause of the hindrance is

in the past you broke precepts

you know what the five precepts are

uh lust

hatred sloth and torpor

restlessness and doubt

whenever these things come up into your

mind they're going to

stop you from meditating you're not

going to be on your object to meditation

at all

and you're going to get caught up in

your thoughts and desires and all kinds

of

problems

now in the morning i am having you

recite the precepts every morning

not as a right and ritual

but do it with awareness

do it with paying attention

that you don't want to break these

precepts

because as soon as your mindfulness gets

weak

a hindrance is going to come up

now what are you supposed to do when a

hindrance comes up

we have this method of meditation

called the six r's

you recognize when your mind is not on

your object of meditation

you release the distraction

now what does that mean it means

that you don't keep your attention

on whatever it is that's distracting you

you let it be there by itself

then you relax the tightness caused by

that

then you bring up something wholesome

smile

then you direct your mind back to your

object of meditation and stay with your

object to meditation for as long as you

can

at first it's difficult

but it will get easier as you smile more

and you start

improving with your mindfulness

one of the questions that i was in asia

for

12 years and i went to many

famous meditation teachers

and i always asked the same question and

i never really got an

answer

and that is what is craving

now there's a lot of talk about craving

and you have to let go of the craving if

you want to attain nibana

but what is it what is craving

now you have five aggregates you have a

physical body

you have feeling this is not emotion

this

is just feeling

if it's a painful feeling your mind says

that's painful

if it's a pleasant feeling your mind

says that's pleasant

or if it's a neutral feeling your mind

just doesn't much

pay much attention to it to be quite

honest

okay you have

perception

perception and feeling are always

together

always so if you have a pleasant feeling

arise your mind says that's pleasant

and this is where the start of your

conceptual

thinking is

you have thoughts and you have

consciousness

now when

oh let me go back and tell you all about

craving

the craving is the i like it

i don't like it mind that's when we

start taking things

personally

and this is this is a false belief

why do hindrances arise why does

grieving arise

because in the past you broke a precept

and you felt guilty about it

and that guilty feeling is the craving i

like it or i don't like it

this is me this is mine

so how do you

recognize craving when it arises

that's the question isn't it

because we're supposed to one we're

supposed to already know what craving is

but nobody ever gives us a good

definition

so they tell you well it's desire it's

wanting something to be in a particular

way

and that's a surface way of looking at

it

but when you start seeing it's the i

like it i don't like it mind

and every time that arises you have

tension and tightness arising in your

head

in your mind

okay so the way you recognize craving

is by the tightness that's in your mind

how do you let go of craving

relax let it be there by

itself and just relax into it

now you your brain

is is two parts like this and you have a

membrane that goes around your brain

it's called the meninges

it's just basically a bag that always

stays the same size

but when

craving arises any kind of thought any

kind of

feeling any kind of sensation that

arises

it causes your brain to expand a little

bit

against that membrane and it causes

tension and tightness

in your head in your mind

now a lot of i have a lot of

students that have practiced with

goenka

and the hardest thing for me to do

is to get people that have practiced

with going to style meditation

is stop trying to push and make

mine be the way you want it to be to

stop trying to over

focus this

is another advantage of the smile

because it helps you to lighten

your mind and that will help you be more

aware

of when it arises

so as soon as that

distracting thought is noticed

and you don't keep your attention on it

but you come to relax

as soon as you relax that tension and

tightness you're going to notice

in your mind your mind is very clear

your mind is very bright

and your mind is pure

why is it pure because when you let go

of that tension and tightness you have

let go

of craving

and that's why your mind is pure

you don't have thoughts of me and my and

i

so it's a real interesting phenomena

that

every time you have a thought every time

a sensation

arises i don't care if it's mental or

physical

tightness occurs in your head

and you need to relax

if you notice it and you try to make it

stop

you're putting wrong kind of energy in

and it's going to cause

so much more pain and suffering

so you have to back off

don't try so hard

now on this retreat there's three things

i want to happen for you

one i want you to smile now every time

you see a buddha image

he has a little smile on his face

why because the artist is trying to show

you

that he has joy in his mind

so i want that to be for you too

i want you to laugh now i don't mean

laugh out loud but laugh

with yourself when you get caught by

a disturbance of some sort

don't try to fight it just laugh with it

what happens when you laugh

is you go from let's say there's anger

in your mind at the time

i'm mad i don't like it

i want it to stop i i i

that's taking it personally

and when you laugh you go from

taking this feeling personally this

is me to

it's only this feeling of anger

it's not mine did i sit

and tell myself you know i haven't been

mad for a while i might as well be mad

now

and then come up with a reason to be mad

no what you have to do

is laugh with it and as soon as you

laugh you stop

taking it personally

and do you want to carry anger around

with you all day

no you want to let it go just let it be

there by

itself

so it's a real necessary part of the

practice

to laugh a little bit

and i want you to have fun

now i know you never hear that sort of

thing with other meditation teachers

but it's a real

necessary part of the practice the more

fun

you have with the meditation the faster

you learn

it's like when you were in school you

had a favorite

favorite class

what kind of grade did you get in that

favorite class

got a good grade right why because it

was

fun and you enjoyed it

that's what i want you to do with the

meditation

and it will come the more you smile the

more you'll see

the more fun it is and you're going to

you're going to learn more in this

retreat

than you've ever learned before

now one of the things i want you to

realize

is that you are

your own teacher

you're going to be able to recognize the

hindrance

and when you let it go and smile and

come back to your object to meditation

you're teaching yourself how to purify

your own mind

hindrances when they come up are

not your enemy they're not something to

fight with

it's just a distraction

and this is teaching you

how to recognize

that false belief in a personal self

and you're going to see that well it's

just this thought it's just

this feeling it's not mine and you let

it be

very quickly and you relax into that and

smile and come back

now the six hours i don't want you

saying each r in your mind and trying to

make it be

that way make it a flow

you don't have to tell yourself you're

recognizing it when you have a

distraction you already know you're

distracted

you don't have to say it and then you

keep your

uh let your attention go

and not keep your attention on what that

distraction

is and relax and smile

and come back let it roll together

okay

so this is a very uh necessary

part of the practice every time you use

the six r's you are

practicing the entire eightfold path

at that time

there's a lot of people that talk about

the

four noble truths and the and

uh the path leading to the cessation of

suffering

what is the path leading to the

cessation of suffering

it is the six hours

okay this will lead you all the way to

our

hardship

so you want to be able to

recognize as soon as you're as you can

that you're distracted away from your

object and meditation

let it be relax smile

come back stay with your object to

meditation for a long period of time

as long as you can don't hold on to your

object of meditation and try to make it

stay with you huh there went a deer

bambi just walked by

so you don't fight with anything you

don't resist

anything you soften your mind

smile bring that back to your object to

meditation

so you don't resist you don't push you

don't try to control

you just notice that your mind is

distracted okay

fine it's gonna be like that for a while

and you'll get used to that and you'll

get used to being

able to recognize it and don't make it a

big deal

don't make it some kind of major

problem that you have to overcome and

control

and that's kind of what goenka students

did is they they would focus on

something

and they would keep it in their

attention and it would get bigger and

more intent

and the it became

very painful

this meditation does not want we don't

want you to have pain

we want you to learn how to relax and

let go

of it and how to have

fun

make everything part of a game

don't be over serious with anything

okay keep your mind light

don't criticize yourself because you're

not going to be perfect with it

okay now another thing that i want you

to

to understand is

you're with your object a meditation

and

there's thoughts that come up but they

don't pull your attention

away from your object to meditation

ignore those thoughts they'll fade away

by themselves without any problem

only when your mind gets pulled away

from your object to meditation

then you use the six hours to come back

okay

i've had a lot of students come to me

and they'd say

i ask how their meditation is is going

and they say oh it's a horrible day

today my mind was so active

i couldn't even use the six hours before

my mind got distracted by something else

and you know what the solution to that

is

you're not smiling enough

and why do i say that because your

mindfulness is such that you're getting

involved with the hindrance

and causing yourself a lot of pain

so smile now you smile in your mind

you smile with your eyes even when your

eyes are closed

because sometimes you start squinting a

little bit

when you're trying so just relax

smile with your eyes

little smile on your lips a little smile

not a big

toothy grin and smile in your heart

keep your heart soft

i don't care how many times your mind

gets distracted

that doesn't matter what matters is

what you do with the distraction as soon

as you recognize it

and that is that let the distraction be

by

itself don't get caught up in thinking

about

stuff

let it be relax

smile come back to your object to

meditation

stay with your object of meditation as

long as you can

this is a real simple meditation

now i spent 20 years with

vipassana meditation where i didn't

learn very much

of this stuff

and i went through a lot of suffering

because of that

i want you to make life

into a game don't be serious

with anything if you have repeat

thoughts you have craving in your mind

so don't criticize yourself because you

got caught by it

just recognize this well that's part of

your learning process

you are teaching yourself

how to do this by

repetition over and over and over again

of using the six r's

and it's okay to do that if you

criticize yourself

and tell yourself you just don't

understand and i'm starting to get

frustrated

who's getting frustrated who's not

staying on their objective meditation

who's causing themselves pain

you can't blame anybody

out here for your pain

you cause it yourself

and you'll start to see that before long

now i'm used to people being very

having very fast progress

and i am teaching a form of vipassana

but this is tranquil wisdom

meditation

so what i want you to start

realizing is that you

don't have to always push

yourself to get results that you want

actually you cause yourself a lot of

pain when you do

that you will get a headache

anytime there's tension here

there is craving here

so what to do

now if you have a kind of entrance

that keeps coming up and

and there's all kinds of problems with

that

then i'm gonna i'm gonna let you know

what uh the buddha suggested

now he was traveling around the buddha

was traveling around

and he his uh cousin

was anaruda

who was had just become a monk and he'd

been trying real hard to follow what the

buddha was talking about

and he asked anna ruda a question

well you were

well you abide thus diligent ardent

and resolute have you attained any super

mundane

states a distinction of

knowledge and vision worthy of noble

ones

a comfortable abiding

what is a comfortable abiding it

is experiencing jhana

what is jhana jhana is a misunderstood

word

that's always thought to be

concentration and one pointed

concentration

that is not the definition of jhana

the definition of jhana is a level

of your understanding

of how this process works

and when you get into a

jhana it is a

superhuman state it's not

the way normal people think

because you have more equanimity in your

mind

and you have better understanding of how

this process

works than normal people

normal people get real caught up in

emotional

nonsense and it is nonsense

but as you continue on you're going to

teach

yourself how that causes you pain

because you're taking it personally and

how to let it go

by using the six r's

venerable sir as we abide diligent

hearted and resolute

we perceive both radiance of mind and

the object of meditation

soon afterwards the radiance and the

object of meditation

disappear but we have not discovered the

cause

for that so they're talking about

at first the meditation can be very nice

and peaceful and then all of a sudden

hindrances come up

and they've been they haven't figured

out how to how to let those go yet

and the buddha said you should discover

the cause for that

anaruda before my awakening while i was

still

only an unawakened bodhisattva

i too perceive both radiance

and object of meditation soon afterwards

the radiance and

object of meditation disappeared

now this is the key this is you have to

understand the buddha

when he was only a bodhisattva he didn't

have any teacher around he didn't have

anybody he could talk to about this

he had to figure it out for himself

so what he did was he said i thought

what is the cause and condition

why the radiance and object of

meditation

have disappeared he asked himself

a question

now when you when you have a hindrance

and it's real hard to let go of

ask yourself

why is this happening what am i doing

that's causing this pain to arise

you're asking your intuition

for the answer

and when you ask your intuition a

question like

that you will get an answer

then you can adjust your meditation and

your meditation will

mellow out and become quieter

and easier

then i considered thus

doubt arose in me and because of doubt

my collectedness fell away

when my collectedness fell away

the radiance and the object of

meditation had disappeared

so what this is saying is

when a hindrance pulls your attention

away

and it doesn't go away

ask yourself

why what's the cause of this

you only ask one time you go back to

your your meditation

the answer will come very quickly

now i'll give you a for instance of that

i worked at a meditation center

i was kind of the handyman kind of guy

fixing this and that the place was

falling apart

from neglect a lot of it

and somebody came

and they wanted to do a meditation

retreat

but the teacher came to me and said he's

going to be alone and i want him to sit

with you i want you to sit with him

so he won't be lonely so he'll he'll be

able to

go through the practice

so i'm thinking well that's why i'm here

i want to learn as much about meditation

as i can

so yeah okay good and i got

restless after a couple days of sitting

i was very restless

and i'm not prone to restlessness

i'm more prone to dull mind

for whatever reason

so i asked myself this question and this

i

i was thinking myself you know this is

really weird

i'm not prone to having a really

restless mind

why am i having it now this is odd

so i went back to sitting

and my intuition said you're thinking

about all the jobs you need to do

when you get off retreat and i was

and that's why my mind was restless

because i was thinking about that

not staying on the object of meditation

so as soon as i recognize that i went

yep that's right

now i'm going to stay with the

whichever meditation i was doing i think

it was probably

mindfulness of breathing at the time

and my mind just settled right down

and i didn't have any problem with that

for a period of time i always had

hindrances coming up

but the way i was taught to get rid of

the hindrances was to suppress

note it until it goes away

forced my mind to stay on the object of

meditation

and that was wrong effort that was wrong

energy so i had problems with hindrances

for years because i didn't have anybody

explain to me

how hindrances actually occur

now the whole reason that we're here

is because we have

done hindrances in the past

it might be 500 years ago it might be 20

minutes ago

but anytime we break a precept we feel

guilty

even when you say something like a

little white lie

you your mind says i shouldn't have said

that

very quietly it'll say that

and then you're going to have

restlessness coming up because of

that because of the guilty feeling

so if you have a big hindrance and

sometimes they can be

quite strong

ask yourself why don't ask me

why it's happening i don't know you

you know i mean i know

i i see you i i see you're smiling my

smiling face and that's great

only you know what you're doing

to cause yourself that suffering

so this is why you're going to be more

and more aware

of the necessity of

keeping the precepts

all the time now you've only got five

precepts

and that's a piece of cake there's only

five things

i have 227 of them

so i have to be much more careful with

precepts

anyway

now i want you to sit no less

than 30 minutes

and when your sitting is good

sit longer

okay

any time you get involved in a hindrance

and you start thinking about it

and trying to solve the problem and all

of that

you are feeding that hindrance

so it will get stronger and last longer

and you're doing it to yourself

now the the nature of this kind of

practice

is i don't care what other kind of

practice you've done

let it go don't add anything to this

practice don't subtract anything

just simply follow the directions as i

give them to you

and as the buddha gives them to you

because you're going to be hearing more

and more of this all the time

so it's a real important thing that you

remember

the six r's and use the six r's anytime

there's a distraction

don't criticize yourself if you

criticize yourself

guess who has craving in their mind

guess who is causing themselves pain

so you don't do that you be kind to

yourself

you be gentle to yourself

just because something doesn't work the

way you think it should

is no reason to criticize yourself

okay

just 6r and do it again

if a feeling doesn't go away

after you've six hard and gone back to

your object to meditation

your mind will go back to that again

then you need to six-hour it again

in the same way

everything that

brings up wholesome mind

has to do with letting go

of grieving

and that means

noticing that slight tension and

tightness

in your body in your mind

as soon as you let go of this tension

here

your mind is going to become very bright

and very alert

then you have to bring up something

wholesome

a smile

a joy a laugh

and bring that mind to your object to

meditation

now i've had some students that were go

inca students and after they did a

retreat with me

they went to a goenka retreat

and they got kicked out of the retreat

because they were told they can't smile

while you're doing the meditation

smiling helps your mind be more alert

smiling helps your mind to be more

uplifted and you're going to start

feeling lighter and more joy

as you do that more

so it's a real necessary part of the

practice

and the more you lighten your mind

the more you're gonna understand how

this process

actually does work

so turn it into a game that you play

with all life is supposed to be a game

that

you play with i don't know who told us

we're supposed to be serious

and worry and anxiety and fear

and all of these other nonsense things

we don't have to have those

the reason we have them is because in

the past we broke precepts

and this is the result

so what you do with what arises and the

present

dictates what happens in the future

if you fight with what's happening right

now if you

really get in and try to control and

make it stop and make it be the way you

want it

to be

you can look forward to having a lot of

pain and it's going to keep coming back

until you change

now the thing with buddhism that is real

important that you

need to understand is

this is all about change

you hear you hear the buddha talk about

everything is impermanent everything is

in a state of change and it is

but what you do with what arises in the

present

if you use the six r's

your mind is going to understand

more deeply how this process works

and you're going to be teaching yourself

buddhism

you won't notice it as as that

we don't put a label on it this is the

buddha

i i use the buddha as an example

a lot but i also explain what he's

talking about

which is not something that you get

i gave a talk to about a hundred

mahayana monks and i would say something

i was in south korea

at the time and i would say something

and the translator would say that monk

just said well

that's mahayana

so when i heard that i stopped my talk

and i

said i am not

a mahayana monk i am

not a vadriana monk

i am not a teravata monk

i am a buddhist monk and they all got up

and laughed and clapped

and being a buddhist monk doesn't mean

that i

blindly believe anything that that might

be interpreted that the buddha said

i don't i'm going by my own experience

i'm not attached to being a buddhist at

all

and i've i've been a monk for 35 years

and i'm not attached to it

so it's not like you're going to be uh

a christian and say well it says in the

bible this and it says that

no that's not what we're doing we're

teaching

how mind works

without dogma

i've had some some students that were

muslim

and they were real afraid that i was

going to teach them something and i said

no i'm just teaching you how your mind

works

well when we get done with retreat can

we still do our prayer

prayers five times a day i said that's

up to you

i don't care

that's fine you're

in charge of your own happiness you're

in charge of your own pain

what i'm interested in showing you

is how the process works so you can let

go of the pain

and you can be more happy all the time

i have people that write to me after

three or four years of doing a retreat

and tell me how happy they still are

well they took it to heart

great didn't say anything about the

buddha

didn't mention it

and is okay

so

getting back to some practical things

about the

retreat i want you to go to bed

around ten o'clock

sleep until five o'clock

and get up and come into

the meditation hall before 5 30

so you can do your chanting and

and reciting of the precepts and taking

the refuges and that sort of thing

sit until

breakfast time which is seven o'clock

go in and have your breakfast

right after breakfast take a half an

hour or so

and brush your teeth

and do do personal things whatever it is

we're gonna give you some small jobs

but we want you to one be smiling all

the time

and do 6r

anytime there is a distraction i don't

care what you're doing

this isn't all the time practice

at nine o'clock i want you to come down

to

the gazebo down below

and then i will talk with each one of

you individually

this is every day

uh lunch is going to be closer to 11

30.

and then take an hour rest after that

if you want to lay down lay down if you

want to sleep sleep it's up to you

and then there's walking and sitting

until tea time

which should be six

six o'clock

don't talk

then there's going to be a dhamma talk

and sometimes they last a long time

sometimes they don't it depends on how

wordy my mind gets

but when you're doing your walking stay

with yours your object of meditation

whatever that happens to be

now there's some people that have that

are here that have

taken retreat before and their

object to meditation is going to be

different than yours if you're just

starting out

but i'm just gonna talk

about using your spiritual friend

now if you've been here before you know

to do the six directions

and don't do the individual people

so do you understand what a spiritual

friend is

as someone of the same sex

they are alive and you have a lot of

respect for them

you sincerely do wish them well

stay with the same spiritual friend all

the time

when you're walking walk with your

spiritual friend

now walking is a little more difficult

at first

than the sitting because you're used to

walking and thinking this and thinking

that and

just generally distracting yourself

but when you see that's happening don't

make a big deal

out of it just 6r

and come back to your friend

okay and walk for 15 minutes or

20 minutes something like that but

walk at a normal pace i don't want you

walking slowly

you're walking for two reasons

to develop your mindfulness more clearly

while you're walking

and to get exercise

as you sit as you begin to sit longer i

might tell you to walk faster

or i'll tell you to run up and down

stairs or do something like that

so that i don't want you walking super

slow

there's no real advantage to doing that

the longer you sit the more exercise you

need

so you get more blood flowing and that's

a necessary part of the practice

but stay with your object to meditation

while you're doing

it okay

now before you go to sleep at night

there's two things that i want you to do

the first is i want you to make a

determination

that you're going to wake up at exactly

the time you specify don't make it the

same time

every night don't just say i i want to

wake up at five o'clock

and try to hit that but change it so

459 or 501 something like that

every night make it a different time

and try to hit that you probably won't

very

very often but that's okay

this kind of determination is very

helpful

later on in your practice and it takes a

while to be able to do it

so i get you started early

and the second thing i want you to do is

make a determination

to wake up smiling and happy

wake up with a light mind

and the more you can do that

then keep it going for the rest of the

day

okay

so i want you to have fun i want you to

smile a lot

i want you to laugh

odd meditation teacher

or night

so do you have any questions

i want you to feel the wish for their

happiness

put them in the middle of the wish

okay but don't hang on to them too tight

we yeah our friends smiling and things

like that

no you're feeling the happiness

going to them you put them in the middle

of that feeling

and just feel that

a lot of people teach loving kindness

where

you have to visualize and it gets

misunderstood

a lot people put way too much energy and

trying to visualize

and they wind up

real sad knowing who

you send that loving kindness to is

enough

too many times people try to

see them like they're in a picture or

they have a very sharp memory of it

but it doesn't last very long

but knowing who you're sending it to

if you see them fine if you don't

find

so you want about 70 of your attention

on the feeling of radiating loving

kindness

you want about 25 of your attention

on making a wish feeling the wish

and sending that wish to your friend

only about 5 of your attention on trying

to see your friend

that's why just saying their name can be

enough

of a visualization it doesn't have to be

very it's not very

important

you barely need to visualize your friend

at all sometimes

a picture of them that they did

something and you laughed with them

might come up

okay fine but don't keep your attention

on that keep your attention on

the feeling of loving kindness in your

heart

making a wish and feeling that wish

and putting your friend right in the

middle of that

that is the kind of visualization that i

that i like to teach okay

there are some forbidden words when you

come and give

talk to me about your meditation

one of the forbidden words is but

if you have a butt

then you want to argue with me about it

i don't have time to argue

get your butt out of the way

and the other word is

i'm bored

now who's bored

who has a feeling come up and they don't

like it and they try to make it stop

who doesn't have any mindfulness at that

time

who's blocking themselves from going

deeper

but i'm bored

go through it six are it

don't make it a big deal it'll disappear

very quickly when you do that

and as you go deeper you're going to

understand

all of this stuff that i'm talking about

today

you're going to understand it personally

much more deeply because

you are teaching yourself

how your mind works

okay anything else

for the third time this

is something that i recite at the end of

every

every uh talk so

you can read it out loud may

suffering ones be suffering free and the

fierce drug fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and not as a mighty power share

this merit of ours may they long protect

the buddha's dispensation

decided

you

so

now you've gone through the hardest day

of the retreat

from here on out it gets much easier i

promise

the more that you smile

and i mean all the time smile when

you're

when you're taking a shower when you're

eating when you're

going for a walk smile

and this will improve your mindfulness

now mindfulness is

remembering to observe how mind's

attention

moves from one thing to another

how your attention goes from being on

your object to meditation to thinking

about something else

when your mindfulness is good

you won't get caught for near as long

with

the chatter and

the wandering mind

there's a lot of studies that are going

on on smiling right now

and they're all saying basically the

same thing

see if if you have a little smile on

your

lips and i don't mean a big toothy grin

just a little smile and a smile in your

mind

your mind has the idea

that it's happy and it becomes happy

the sharper your mindfulness becomes

the faster your progress in the

meditation becomes

now this is this is for real

so i want you to smile i don't care what

you're doing

whether you're washing your hands or

going to the toilet

or taking a shower smile

all the time

you'll see the advantages of this

very quickly

now what happened today was because

this year you're only a day out from

being in the world what happens now

or what happens today is

your mind keeps wanting to do that go

out and think about this

and that and wonder about this and that

and you're not able to stay on your

object of meditation for very long

that will change as you smile more

and you have a lot of hindrances that

arise

that may not take your mind away from

your object

of meditation take your mind away from

the loving kindness

why do you have hindrances

arise now that's a question that doesn't

get

asked very often what is a hindrance

what's the cause of the hindrance

the cause of the hindrance is

in the past you broke precepts

you know what the five precepts are

uh lust

hatred sloth and torpor

restlessness and doubt

whenever these things come up into your

mind they're going to

stop you from meditating you're not

going to be on your object to meditation

at all

and you're going to get caught up in

your thoughts and desires and all kinds

of

problems

now in the morning i am having you

recite the precepts every morning

not as a right and ritual

but do it with awareness

do it with paying attention

that you don't want to break these

precepts

because as soon as your mindfulness gets

weak

a hindrance is going to come up

now what are you supposed to do when a

hindrance comes up

we have this method of meditation

called the six r's

you recognize when your mind is not on

your object of meditation

you release the distraction

now what does that mean it means

that you don't keep your attention

on whatever it is that's distracting you

you let it be there by itself

then you relax the tightness caused by

that

then you bring up something wholesome

smile

then you direct your mind back to your

object of meditation and stay with your

object to meditation for as long as you

can

at first it's difficult

but it will get easier as you smile more

and you start

improving with your mindfulness

one of the questions that i was in asia

for

12 years and i went to many

famous meditation teachers

and i always asked the same question and

i never really got an

answer

and that is what is craving

now there's a lot of talk about craving

and you have to let go of the craving if

you want to attain nibana

but what is it what is craving

now you have five aggregates you have a

physical body

you have feeling this is not emotion

this

is just feeling

if it's a painful feeling your mind says

that's painful

if it's a pleasant feeling your mind

says that's pleasant

or if it's a neutral feeling your mind

just doesn't much

pay much attention to it to be quite

honest

okay you have

perception

perception and feeling are always

together

always so if you have a pleasant feeling

arise your mind says that's pleasant

and this is where the start of your

conceptual

thinking is

you have thoughts and you have

consciousness

now when

oh let me go back and tell you all about

craving

the craving is the i like it

i don't like it mind that's when we

start taking things

personally

and this is this is a false belief

why do hindrances arise why does

grieving arise

because in the past you broke a precept

and you felt guilty about it

and that guilty feeling is the craving i

like it or i don't like it

this is me this is mine

so how do you

recognize craving when it arises

that's the question isn't it

because we're supposed to one we're

supposed to already know what craving is

but nobody ever gives us a good

definition

so they tell you well it's desire it's

wanting something to be in a particular

way

and that's a surface way of looking at

it

but when you start seeing it's the i

like it i don't like it mind

and every time that arises you have

tension and tightness arising in your

head

in your mind

okay so the way you recognize craving

is by the tightness that's in your mind

how do you let go of craving

relax let it be there by

itself and just relax into it

now you your brain

is is two parts like this and you have a

membrane that goes around your brain

it's called the meninges

it's just basically a bag that always

stays the same size

but when

craving arises any kind of thought any

kind of

feeling any kind of sensation that

arises

it causes your brain to expand a little

bit

against that membrane and it causes

tension and tightness

in your head in your mind

now a lot of i have a lot of

students that have practiced with

goenka

and the hardest thing for me to do

is to get people that have practiced

with going to style meditation

is stop trying to push and make

mine be the way you want it to be to

stop trying to over

focus this

is another advantage of the smile

because it helps you to lighten

your mind and that will help you be more

aware

of when it arises

so as soon as that

distracting thought is noticed

and you don't keep your attention on it

but you come to relax

as soon as you relax that tension and

tightness you're going to notice

in your mind your mind is very clear

your mind is very bright

and your mind is pure

why is it pure because when you let go

of that tension and tightness you have

let go

of craving

and that's why your mind is pure

you don't have thoughts of me and my and

i

so it's a real interesting phenomena

that

every time you have a thought every time

a sensation

arises i don't care if it's mental or

physical

tightness occurs in your head

and you need to relax

if you notice it and you try to make it

stop

you're putting wrong kind of energy in

and it's going to cause

so much more pain and suffering

so you have to back off

don't try so hard

now on this retreat there's three things

i want to happen for you

one i want you to smile now every time

you see a buddha image

he has a little smile on his face

why because the artist is trying to show

you

that he has joy in his mind

so i want that to be for you too

i want you to laugh now i don't mean

laugh out loud but laugh

with yourself when you get caught by

a disturbance of some sort

don't try to fight it just laugh with it

what happens when you laugh

is you go from let's say there's anger

in your mind at the time

i'm mad i don't like it

i want it to stop i i i

that's taking it personally

and when you laugh you go from

taking this feeling personally this

is me to

it's only this feeling of anger

it's not mine did i sit

and tell myself you know i haven't been

mad for a while i might as well be mad

now

and then come up with a reason to be mad

no what you have to do

is laugh with it and as soon as you

laugh you stop

taking it personally

and do you want to carry anger around

with you all day

no you want to let it go just let it be

there by

itself

so it's a real necessary part of the

practice

to laugh a little bit

and i want you to have fun

now i know you never hear that sort of

thing with other meditation teachers

but it's a real

necessary part of the practice the more

fun

you have with the meditation the faster

you learn

it's like when you were in school you

had a favorite

favorite class

what kind of grade did you get in that

favorite class

got a good grade right why because it

was

fun and you enjoyed it

that's what i want you to do with the

meditation

and it will come the more you smile the

more you'll see

the more fun it is and you're going to

you're going to learn more in this

retreat

than you've ever learned before

now one of the things i want you to

realize

is that you are

your own teacher

you're going to be able to recognize the

hindrance

and when you let it go and smile and

come back to your object to meditation

you're teaching yourself how to purify

your own mind

hindrances when they come up are

not your enemy they're not something to

fight with

it's just a distraction

and this is teaching you

how to recognize

that false belief in a personal self

and you're going to see that well it's

just this thought it's just

this feeling it's not mine and you let

it be

very quickly and you relax into that and

smile and come back

now the six hours i don't want you

saying each r in your mind and trying to

make it be

that way make it a flow

you don't have to tell yourself you're

recognizing it when you have a

distraction you already know you're

distracted

you don't have to say it and then you

keep your

uh let your attention go

and not keep your attention on what that

distraction

is and relax and smile

and come back let it roll together

okay

so this is a very uh necessary

part of the practice every time you use

the six r's you are

practicing the entire eightfold path

at that time

there's a lot of people that talk about

the

four noble truths and the and

uh the path leading to the cessation of

suffering

what is the path leading to the

cessation of suffering

it is the six hours

okay this will lead you all the way to

our

hardship

so you want to be able to

recognize as soon as you're as you can

that you're distracted away from your

object and meditation

let it be relax smile

come back stay with your object to

meditation for a long period of time

as long as you can don't hold on to your

object of meditation and try to make it

stay with you huh there went a deer

bambi just walked by

so you don't fight with anything you

don't resist

anything you soften your mind

smile bring that back to your object to

meditation

so you don't resist you don't push you

don't try to control

you just notice that your mind is

distracted okay

fine it's gonna be like that for a while

and you'll get used to that and you'll

get used to being

able to recognize it and don't make it a

big deal

don't make it some kind of major

problem that you have to overcome and

control

and that's kind of what goenka students

did is they they would focus on

something

and they would keep it in their

attention and it would get bigger and

more intent

and the it became

very painful

this meditation does not want we don't

want you to have pain

we want you to learn how to relax and

let go

of it and how to have

fun

make everything part of a game

don't be over serious with anything

okay keep your mind light

don't criticize yourself because you're

not going to be perfect with it

okay now another thing that i want you

to

to understand is

you're with your object a meditation

and

there's thoughts that come up but they

don't pull your attention

away from your object to meditation

ignore those thoughts they'll fade away

by themselves without any problem

only when your mind gets pulled away

from your object to meditation

then you use the six hours to come back

okay

i've had a lot of students come to me

and they'd say

i ask how their meditation is is going

and they say oh it's a horrible day

today my mind was so active

i couldn't even use the six hours before

my mind got distracted by something else

and you know what the solution to that

is

you're not smiling enough

and why do i say that because your

mindfulness is such that you're getting

involved with the hindrance

and causing yourself a lot of pain

so smile now you smile in your mind

you smile with your eyes even when your

eyes are closed

because sometimes you start squinting a

little bit

when you're trying so just relax

smile with your eyes

little smile on your lips a little smile

not a big

toothy grin and smile in your heart

keep your heart soft

i don't care how many times your mind

gets distracted

that doesn't matter what matters is

what you do with the distraction as soon

as you recognize it

and that is that let the distraction be

by

itself don't get caught up in thinking

about

stuff

let it be relax

smile come back to your object to

meditation

stay with your object of meditation as

long as you can

this is a real simple meditation

now i spent 20 years with

vipassana meditation where i didn't

learn very much

of this stuff

and i went through a lot of suffering

because of that

i want you to make life

into a game don't be serious

with anything if you have repeat

thoughts you have craving in your mind

so don't criticize yourself because you

got caught by it

just recognize this well that's part of

your learning process

you are teaching yourself

how to do this by

repetition over and over and over again

of using the six r's

and it's okay to do that if you

criticize yourself

and tell yourself you just don't

understand and i'm starting to get

frustrated

who's getting frustrated who's not

staying on their objective meditation

who's causing themselves pain

you can't blame anybody

out here for your pain

you cause it yourself

and you'll start to see that before long

now i'm used to people being very

having very fast progress

and i am teaching a form of vipassana

but this is tranquil wisdom

meditation

so what i want you to start

realizing is that you

don't have to always push

yourself to get results that you want

actually you cause yourself a lot of

pain when you do

that you will get a headache

anytime there's tension here

there is craving here

so what to do

now if you have a kind of entrance

that keeps coming up and

and there's all kinds of problems with

that

then i'm gonna i'm gonna let you know

what uh the buddha suggested

now he was traveling around the buddha

was traveling around

and he his uh cousin

was anaruda

who was had just become a monk and he'd

been trying real hard to follow what the

buddha was talking about

and he asked anna ruda a question

well you were

well you abide thus diligent ardent

and resolute have you attained any super

mundane

states a distinction of

knowledge and vision worthy of noble

ones

a comfortable abiding

what is a comfortable abiding it

is experiencing jhana

what is jhana jhana is a misunderstood

word

that's always thought to be

concentration and one pointed

concentration

that is not the definition of jhana

the definition of jhana is a level

of your understanding

of how this process works

and when you get into a

jhana it is a

superhuman state it's not

the way normal people think

because you have more equanimity in your

mind

and you have better understanding of how

this process

works than normal people

normal people get real caught up in

emotional

nonsense and it is nonsense

but as you continue on you're going to

teach

yourself how that causes you pain

because you're taking it personally and

how to let it go

by using the six r's

venerable sir as we abide diligent

hearted and resolute

we perceive both radiance of mind and

the object of meditation

soon afterwards the radiance and the

object of meditation

disappear but we have not discovered the

cause

for that so they're talking about

at first the meditation can be very nice

and peaceful and then all of a sudden

hindrances come up

and they've been they haven't figured

out how to how to let those go yet

and the buddha said you should discover

the cause for that

anaruda before my awakening while i was

still

only an unawakened bodhisattva

i too perceive both radiance

and object of meditation soon afterwards

the radiance and

object of meditation disappeared

now this is the key this is you have to

understand the buddha

when he was only a bodhisattva he didn't

have any teacher around he didn't have

anybody he could talk to about this

he had to figure it out for himself

so what he did was he said i thought

what is the cause and condition

why the radiance and object of

meditation

have disappeared he asked himself

a question

now when you when you have a hindrance

and it's real hard to let go of

ask yourself

why is this happening what am i doing

that's causing this pain to arise

you're asking your intuition

for the answer

and when you ask your intuition a

question like

that you will get an answer

then you can adjust your meditation and

your meditation will

mellow out and become quieter

and easier

then i considered thus

doubt arose in me and because of doubt

my collectedness fell away

when my collectedness fell away

the radiance and the object of

meditation had disappeared

so what this is saying is

when a hindrance pulls your attention

away

and it doesn't go away

ask yourself

why what's the cause of this

you only ask one time you go back to

your your meditation

the answer will come very quickly

now i'll give you a for instance of that

i worked at a meditation center

i was kind of the handyman kind of guy

fixing this and that the place was

falling apart

from neglect a lot of it

and somebody came

and they wanted to do a meditation

retreat

but the teacher came to me and said he's

going to be alone and i want him to sit

with you i want you to sit with him

so he won't be lonely so he'll he'll be

able to

go through the practice

so i'm thinking well that's why i'm here

i want to learn as much about meditation

as i can

so yeah okay good and i got

restless after a couple days of sitting

i was very restless

and i'm not prone to restlessness

i'm more prone to dull mind

for whatever reason

so i asked myself this question and this

i

i was thinking myself you know this is

really weird

i'm not prone to having a really

restless mind

why am i having it now this is odd

so i went back to sitting

and my intuition said you're thinking

about all the jobs you need to do

when you get off retreat and i was

and that's why my mind was restless

because i was thinking about that

not staying on the object of meditation

so as soon as i recognize that i went

yep that's right

now i'm going to stay with the

whichever meditation i was doing i think

it was probably

mindfulness of breathing at the time

and my mind just settled right down

and i didn't have any problem with that

for a period of time i always had

hindrances coming up

but the way i was taught to get rid of

the hindrances was to suppress

note it until it goes away

forced my mind to stay on the object of

meditation

and that was wrong effort that was wrong

energy so i had problems with hindrances

for years because i didn't have anybody

explain to me

how hindrances actually occur

now the whole reason that we're here

is because we have

done hindrances in the past

it might be 500 years ago it might be 20

minutes ago

but anytime we break a precept we feel

guilty

even when you say something like a

little white lie

you your mind says i shouldn't have said

that

very quietly it'll say that

and then you're going to have

restlessness coming up because of

that because of the guilty feeling

so if you have a big hindrance and

sometimes they can be

quite strong

ask yourself why don't ask me

why it's happening i don't know you

you know i mean i know

i i see you i i see you're smiling my

smiling face and that's great

only you know what you're doing

to cause yourself that suffering

so this is why you're going to be more

and more aware

of the necessity of

keeping the precepts

all the time now you've only got five

precepts

and that's a piece of cake there's only

five things

i have 227 of them

so i have to be much more careful with

precepts

anyway

now i want you to sit no less

than 30 minutes

and when your sitting is good

sit longer

okay

any time you get involved in a hindrance

and you start thinking about it

and trying to solve the problem and all

of that

you are feeding that hindrance

so it will get stronger and last longer

and you're doing it to yourself

now the the nature of this kind of

practice

is i don't care what other kind of

practice you've done

let it go don't add anything to this

practice don't subtract anything

just simply follow the directions as i

give them to you

and as the buddha gives them to you

because you're going to be hearing more

and more of this all the time

so it's a real important thing that you

remember

the six r's and use the six r's anytime

there's a distraction

don't criticize yourself if you

criticize yourself

guess who has craving in their mind

guess who is causing themselves pain

so you don't do that you be kind to

yourself

you be gentle to yourself

just because something doesn't work the

way you think it should

is no reason to criticize yourself

okay

just 6r and do it again

if a feeling doesn't go away

after you've six hard and gone back to

your object to meditation

your mind will go back to that again

then you need to six-hour it again

in the same way

everything that

brings up wholesome mind

has to do with letting go

of grieving

and that means

noticing that slight tension and

tightness

in your body in your mind

as soon as you let go of this tension

here

your mind is going to become very bright

and very alert

then you have to bring up something

wholesome

a smile

a joy a laugh

and bring that mind to your object to

meditation

now i've had some students that were go

inca students and after they did a

retreat with me

they went to a goenka retreat

and they got kicked out of the retreat

because they were told they can't smile

while you're doing the meditation

smiling helps your mind be more alert

smiling helps your mind to be more

uplifted and you're going to start

feeling lighter and more joy

as you do that more

so it's a real necessary part of the

practice

and the more you lighten your mind

the more you're gonna understand how

this process

actually does work

so turn it into a game that you play

with all life is supposed to be a game

that

you play with i don't know who told us

we're supposed to be serious

and worry and anxiety and fear

and all of these other nonsense things

we don't have to have those

the reason we have them is because in

the past we broke precepts

and this is the result

so what you do with what arises and the

present

dictates what happens in the future

if you fight with what's happening right

now if you

really get in and try to control and

make it stop and make it be the way you

want it

to be

you can look forward to having a lot of

pain and it's going to keep coming back

until you change

now the thing with buddhism that is real

important that you

need to understand is

this is all about change

you hear you hear the buddha talk about

everything is impermanent everything is

in a state of change and it is

but what you do with what arises in the

present

if you use the six r's

your mind is going to understand

more deeply how this process works

and you're going to be teaching yourself

buddhism

you won't notice it as as that

we don't put a label on it this is the

buddha

i i use the buddha as an example

a lot but i also explain what he's

talking about

which is not something that you get

i gave a talk to about a hundred

mahayana monks and i would say something

i was in south korea

at the time and i would say something

and the translator would say that monk

just said well

that's mahayana

so when i heard that i stopped my talk

and i

said i am not

a mahayana monk i am

not a vadriana monk

i am not a teravata monk

i am a buddhist monk and they all got up

and laughed and clapped

and being a buddhist monk doesn't mean

that i

blindly believe anything that that might

be interpreted that the buddha said

i don't i'm going by my own experience

i'm not attached to being a buddhist at

all

and i've i've been a monk for 35 years

and i'm not attached to it

so it's not like you're going to be uh

a christian and say well it says in the

bible this and it says that

no that's not what we're doing we're

teaching

how mind works

without dogma

i've had some some students that were

muslim

and they were real afraid that i was

going to teach them something and i said

no i'm just teaching you how your mind

works

well when we get done with retreat can

we still do our prayer

prayers five times a day i said that's

up to you

i don't care

that's fine you're

in charge of your own happiness you're

in charge of your own pain

what i'm interested in showing you

is how the process works so you can let

go of the pain

and you can be more happy all the time

i have people that write to me after

three or four years of doing a retreat

and tell me how happy they still are

well they took it to heart

great didn't say anything about the

buddha

didn't mention it

and is okay

so

getting back to some practical things

about the

retreat i want you to go to bed

around ten o'clock

sleep until five o'clock

and get up and come into

the meditation hall before 5 30

so you can do your chanting and

and reciting of the precepts and taking

the refuges and that sort of thing

sit until

breakfast time which is seven o'clock

go in and have your breakfast

right after breakfast take a half an

hour or so

and brush your teeth

and do do personal things whatever it is

we're gonna give you some small jobs

but we want you to one be smiling all

the time

and do 6r

anytime there is a distraction i don't

care what you're doing

this isn't all the time practice

at nine o'clock i want you to come down

to

the gazebo down below

and then i will talk with each one of

you individually

this is every day

uh lunch is going to be closer to 11

30.

and then take an hour rest after that

if you want to lay down lay down if you

want to sleep sleep it's up to you

and then there's walking and sitting

until tea time

which should be six

six o'clock

don't talk

then there's going to be a dhamma talk

and sometimes they last a long time

sometimes they don't it depends on how

wordy my mind gets

but when you're doing your walking stay

with yours your object of meditation

whatever that happens to be

now there's some people that have that

are here that have

taken retreat before and their

object to meditation is going to be

different than yours if you're just

starting out

but i'm just gonna talk

about using your spiritual friend

now if you've been here before you know

to do the six directions

and don't do the individual people

so do you understand what a spiritual

friend is

as someone of the same sex

they are alive and you have a lot of

respect for them

you sincerely do wish them well

stay with the same spiritual friend all

the time

when you're walking walk with your

spiritual friend

now walking is a little more difficult

at first

than the sitting because you're used to

walking and thinking this and thinking

that and

just generally distracting yourself

but when you see that's happening don't

make a big deal

out of it just 6r

and come back to your friend

okay and walk for 15 minutes or

20 minutes something like that but

walk at a normal pace i don't want you

walking slowly

you're walking for two reasons

to develop your mindfulness more clearly

while you're walking

and to get exercise

as you sit as you begin to sit longer i

might tell you to walk faster

or i'll tell you to run up and down

stairs or do something like that

so that i don't want you walking super

slow

there's no real advantage to doing that

the longer you sit the more exercise you

need

so you get more blood flowing and that's

a necessary part of the practice

but stay with your object to meditation

while you're doing

it okay

now before you go to sleep at night

there's two things that i want you to do

the first is i want you to make a

determination

that you're going to wake up at exactly

the time you specify don't make it the

same time

every night don't just say i i want to

wake up at five o'clock

and try to hit that but change it so

459 or 501 something like that

every night make it a different time

and try to hit that you probably won't

very

very often but that's okay

this kind of determination is very

helpful

later on in your practice and it takes a

while to be able to do it

so i get you started early

and the second thing i want you to do is

make a determination

to wake up smiling and happy

wake up with a light mind

and the more you can do that

then keep it going for the rest of the

day

okay

so i want you to have fun i want you to

smile a lot

i want you to laugh

odd meditation teacher

or night

so do you have any questions

i want you to feel the wish for their

happiness

put them in the middle of the wish

okay but don't hang on to them too tight

we yeah our friends smiling and things

like that

no you're feeling the happiness

going to them you put them in the middle

of that feeling

and just feel that

a lot of people teach loving kindness

where

you have to visualize and it gets

misunderstood

a lot people put way too much energy and

trying to visualize

and they wind up

real sad knowing who

you send that loving kindness to is

enough

too many times people try to

see them like they're in a picture or

they have a very sharp memory of it

but it doesn't last very long

but knowing who you're sending it to

if you see them fine if you don't

find

so you want about 70 of your attention

on the feeling of radiating loving

kindness

you want about 25 of your attention

on making a wish feeling the wish

and sending that wish to your friend

only about 5 of your attention on trying

to see your friend

that's why just saying their name can be

enough

of a visualization it doesn't have to be

very it's not very

important

you barely need to visualize your friend

at all sometimes

a picture of them that they did

something and you laughed with them

might come up

okay fine but don't keep your attention

on that keep your attention on

the feeling of loving kindness in your

heart

making a wish and feeling that wish

and putting your friend right in the

middle of that

that is the kind of visualization that i

that i like to teach okay

there are some forbidden words when you

come and give

talk to me about your meditation

one of the forbidden words is but

if you have a butt

then you want to argue with me about it

i don't have time to argue

get your butt out of the way

and the other word is

i'm bored

now who's bored

who has a feeling come up and they don't

like it and they try to make it stop

who doesn't have any mindfulness at that

time

who's blocking themselves from going

deeper

but i'm bored

go through it six are it

don't make it a big deal it'll disappear

very quickly when you do that

and as you go deeper you're going to

understand

all of this stuff that i'm talking about

today

you're going to understand it personally

much more deeply because

you are teaching yourself

how your mind works

okay anything else

for the third time this

is something that i recite at the end of

every

every uh talk so

you can read it out loud may

suffering ones be suffering free and the

fierce drug fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and not as a mighty power share

this merit of ours may they long protect

the buddha's dispensation

decided

you