From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lzcch--l4gk

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

this is from the

indiana san mita

and this is how the buddha figured out

the links of dependent origination

monks before my awakening

well i was still a bodhisattva not yet

fully awakened

it occurred to me alas

this world has fallen into trouble

in that its born ages and dies it passes

away and

is reborn yet

it does not understand this escape

from suffering headed by aging

and death now

when will an escape be discerned

from this suffering headed by aging and

death

now what the buddha was actually doing

was asking

himself these difficult kinds of

questions and then trusting his

intuition to give him the answer

don't sit with your legs crossed please

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does aging and death

come to be

by what is aging and death conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom when there

is birth aging and death comes to be

aging and death aging and death

has birthed as its condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does aging and death

come to be

by what is birth conditioned

then monks through careful attention or

took place in me a breakthrough

by wisdom

when there is habitual tendency

birth comes to be birth has habitual

tendency as condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does habitual tendency

come to be

by what is habitual tendency conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is clinging

habitual tendency comes to be

habitual tendency as clinging as

its condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does clinging come to

be

by what is clinging conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is craving clinging comes to

be

clinging has craving as its

condition

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

does craving come to be by what is

craving

conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

when there is feeling craving comes to

be

craving has feeling as its

condition

then it occurred to me

when what exists does feeling come to be

by what is feeling conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place

in me a breakthrough by wisdom

now you see each one of these links has

wisdom

in it and that's the definition of

wisdom

is the links of dependent origination

and how they work

when there is contact feeling comes to

be

feeling has contact as its condition

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

does contact come to be by what is

contact conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place

in me a breakthrough by wisdom

when there are the sixth sense bases

contact comes to be

contact has a sixth sense basis as its

condition

then it occurred to me

when what exists do the sixth sense

bases come to be

by what are the sixth sense bases

conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

when there is mentality materiality

the sixth sense bases come to be

the six plant spaces have mentality

materiality

as it as their condition

then it occurred to me when what

exists does mentality materiality come

to be

by what is mentality materiality

conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

when there is consciousness mentality

materiality comes to be

mentality materiality has consciousness

as

its condition

then it occurred to me

when what exists does consciousness come

to be

by what is consciousness conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there are formations consciousness

comes to be

consciousness has formations as its

condition

then it occurred to me when what exists

do formations come to be by what are

formations conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is ignorance formations comes

to be

formations have ignorance as their

condition

thus ignorance

with ignorance as conditioned formations

come to be

with formations as conditioned

consciousness comes to be

with consciousness as conditioned

mentality materiality comes to be

with mentality materiality as condition

what's next the six-fold base

comes to be with the six-fold base as

condition

contact comes to be with contact as

condition feeling comes to be

with feeling as conditioned

with craving as condition

with with clinging as condition

habitual tendency comes to be with

habitual tendency as condition

comes to be with birth as condition

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair

comes to be such is the origin of this

whole mass of suffering

origination origination monks

in regard to things

unheard before that arose in my vision

knowledge wisdom and true knowledge

and radiance

now we're gonna go into the cessation

then monks it occurred to me

when what does not exist

does aging and death not come to be

with the cessation of what

does the cessation of aging and death

come about

then through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom when there's no birth

aging and death does not come to be

with the cessation of age of birth

comes a cessation of aging and death

then monks it occurred to me

when what does not exist

does birth not come to be

by the cessation of what

does the cessation of birth come about

when through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

then there is no ex habitual

tendency birth does not come to be

with the cessation of habitual tendency

comes the cessation of birth

when there is

no clinging

ex habitual tendency does not come to be

with the cessation of clinging

comes a cessation of habitual tendency

when there is no craving clinging does

not come to be

with the cessation of craving

comes the cessation of clinging

when there's no feeling craving does not

come to be

with the cessation of feeling comes the

cessation of craving

when there's no contact feeling

does not come to be

with the cessation of contact comp

cessation of feeling

now i've been talking about seeing

the slightest little movement of mind's

attention and relaxing

and staying with the quiet mind

what am i talking about i'm talking

about

the cessation of suffering

when there are no sixth sense bases

contact does not come to be so it was

said

with the cessation of the sixth sense

basis comes the cessation of contact

when there's no

mentality materiality the

the sixth sense bases do not come to be

with the cessation of this of mentality

materiality comes the cessation of the

six-fold base

when there is no consciousness

mentality materiality does not come to

be

with the cessation of

consciousness comes the cessation of

mentality materiality

when there's no formations

consciousness does not come to be

with the cessation of formations

comes the cessation of consciousness

when there's no ignorance formations do

not come to be

with the cessation of ignorance comes

the cessation

of formations

thus with the remainderless fading away

and cessation of ignorance compensation

of

formations with the cessation

of formation comes the cessation of

okay with the cessation of consciousness

cessation of

with the cessation of mentality

materiality cessation of

with the cessation of the six-fold base

cessation of

with the cessation of contact cessation

of

with the cessation of feeling cessation

of with the cessation of craving

cessation of

with the cessation of clinging cessation

of

with the cessation of the habitual

tendency cessation of

with the cessation of birth cessation of

sorrow lamentation pain grief and

cessation cessation

thus monks in regard to things unheard

before that arose in me

vision knowledge wisdom true

knowledge and radiance

so this is the buddha spent quite a

while

going over this and

because he did that why didn't he become

enlightened right away

because he knew it intellectually

he had to see it for himself

and when he did

then he became a buddha

so he had this knowledge

this is how it works now you have that

knowledge

this is how it works now you have to 6r

and purify your mind enough

until you become successful with the

practice

and attain nibana

it's pretty easy and straightforward

so there was a question that that came

up

at one of the interviews today

and

everybody says find

the right teacher for you

and the buddha told us how to do that

47

62

too far

[Music]

okay this is what you look for in

teacher

okay this is what the buddha says

monks one who does not know and see

as it really is aging and death it's

origin cessation

and way leading to the cessation

should search for a teacher in order

to know this as it really is

and then he goes through all of the

links of dependent origination

their origin their cessation and way

leading to the cessation

that's how you should search for a

teacher in order to know

this as it really is the links of

dependent origination

is the backbone of the teaching

it's the thing that keeps everything

right

i studied a lot with a lot of different

teachers

and they were very big on saying

that if you really want to understand

dependent origination it's

really really complicated

wrote a book on dependent origination

and at the start of his book he said

this

is really really complicated

and as you read what he had to say it

was

really really complicated

but the thing is

this is a practical way of

looking at how mind

works this is practical

and it's not that hard to understand

when you're seeing it

for yourself

but he was taught and a lot of the

teachers before

him was taught that it was very very

difficult

and if you look in the visuti maga

it tries to break it up into three days

the past the present

and the future

and that really complicates things

and one of the things that uh

buddha goes has said about dependent

origination

it was like carrying the weight of an

entire ocean

on your head that's how difficult it is

but as you start to

understand you're not going to see

all of the links at once

i had a student years ago

she played for the

london symphony orchestra

and she was talking about giving up

doing

that because she wanted to understand

dependent origination

and i told her no don't do that

there's nothing wrong with you

being creative with your instrument

and there are artists that that kind of

try to do the same thing they think that

well

if you're going to do the meditation you

can't be creative anymore

well the creation of the artistry that

comes out of you

from doing the meditation you become

much better

and more more and more creative

when you're doing the meditation

you do it with joy in your mind there

was a

artist that we had come from colombia

and he was very famous i mean he was

selling stuff all over the world

but he was only using

brown black

white and

gray that's the only four colors he was

using

and it was kind of depressing and i

asked him

when did this start to happen for you

that you were just using these down

colors

and he said well two years ago my wife

was she had cancer and she died

and ever since then i've just been able

to use these colors

because that's the way he was seeing

the world it was seeing in browns and

blacks and whites and grays

after a short retreat i don't i don't

even think it was a full

10 day retreat i think it was seven days

he went home and he started

taking pictures of his artwork

and all of a sudden there's these

yellows and greens

and blues and reds and it was wonderful

people that are depressed

generally just see depressing colors

and i had another student that she

that's the only color she had in her

wardrobe

she showed me all of the different

things that she had and it was like

depressing just looking in

at her wardrobe

and i told her no no more

there's two things that you have to do

one

she read five newspapers a day which is

i don't know how anybody could get

through that

and she had all of these depressing

colors

so i told her i told her she she

couldn't do the retreat

until she went out and got some color

and she got some yellows and greens and

happy

colors and

when she started sitting all of a sudden

she started progressing

very fast and she didn't feel

so depressed anymore

and getting her to stop

reading five newspapers

i can't even get through one

in malaysia they had

one one day a week i think it was on a

wednesday

they had one page that was happy news

and that's better than looking at the

comics for crying

out loud some of the stories that you

get to read

be careful what you put in front of your

mind

uplifting happy

is what you want to develop

and it makes it a lot easier to smile

and it makes it a lot easier

to have fun

so it's a real important aspect of the

teaching

yes this can be incredibly complicated

if you make it that way but what's your

perspective

when you first start you really all

you're going to see

is feeling craving clinging habitual

tendency birth

and sorrow and lamentation

and all of that stuff

but as you start using the 6rs you start

being able to recognize these things

especially the craving had that tension

and tightness in your mind

now if you don't if you let go of the

craving

then clinging won't arise and if

clinging won't arise

your emotional habitual tendency won't

arise

and if that doesn't arise there's not

going to be any birth of action

and there's not going to be any sorrow

lamentation pain grief or

despair

but as you go deeper you'll start seeing

well there's some how contact works

now actually when

you're doing the meditation you don't

see

sixth sense stores you only see one cent

store at a time

right so you can take that one out

you see mentality materiality

so that

is recognizable

the consciousness

that's right before mentality

materiality

is the potential for the consciousness

to arise

but there has to be something

that uh connects with it

that is a mentality materiality

and then you'll see the contact and if

you'll see the feeling but

when you notice each of

these links there is a tiny

bit of the four noble truths in it

okay there

is um

the contact

and one of the scent stores arises

that's the mentality materiality

and then the feeling and then

the craving and then the clinging and

as you keep

getting more and more quiet

with your mind

then you're starting to

let go of these lengths of dependent

origination

until finally

there's not even any consciousness that

arises

so feeling perception and consciousness

disappear and you don't even

know that you're in that state until you

come out

when you come out depending on the

sharpness

of your mindfulness

you're going to see little tiny bubbles

dots slashes dashes whatever you want to

call them everybody sees in a little

different way

but there's this arising passing away

very

very very quickly

and that is the links of dependent

origination

so what happened when you got into

the cessation of perception feeling and

consciousness

it's like on the blackboard you just

cleaned it off

there's nothing and then when you see

these

little tiny links starting to come up

you're seeing how

dependent origination arises and

as you go deeper into

the uh

into the different levels

of awakening you'll see it

more and more clearly

now when you get to be this octagon

you're gonna see twice as many little

bumps

so it's you're going through dependent

origination a couple times

and when you get to be in onagami you'll

start to see it

three times and you'll start recognizing

more and more

of dependent origination with your daily

activities you'll see how it works

there's a lot of oh wows that happen

and when you get to be an arahat you see

it

completely clearly

with deep understanding

so that's why in burma the the

uh sayadaw that was teaching

just reciting dependent origination

over and over again forwards and

backwards in whatever ways they did it

[Music]

he had a lot of people that were

successful by doing that because of

their understanding

of this backbone

the essence of the buddha's teaching

each link has the four noble truths in

it

and when you let go of one condition

then the other conditions don't arise

behind it

so you you get to have a good deep

understanding of how this process

works

now

there's another section of this

it's at the start

and

the buddha said i will teach you the

wrong

way to practice and the right way to

practice

listen to that and attend closely

yes venerable sir the monks replied

and what monks is the wrong way

with ignorance as condition formations

come to be

with formations as conditioned

consciousness comes to be

why is this the wrong way because you're

just looking

at how all of this causes

more and more pain as you go through all

of the links

and what is the right way with the

remainderless fading away

and cessation of ignorance

cessation of these other things arise

so that's the third noble truth that's

what he was trying to get across

all the time with his teaching

focus on the cessation of suffering

the meditations that cause pain

to arise a lot don't allow that kind

of understanding because when the pain

starts coming up that's that hooks your

mind in

that's there's just a version there

there's just

this

unclear feeling because there is no

letting go of grieving

when i was in uh florida

and i was teaching quite a bit going to

well every every day i went to a

different prison

and i i was teaching them meditation

and that sort of thing and

the one the man that was inviting me to

do all of this with him

arranged that we would give a one-week

retreat

at the prison it started at eight

o'clock in the morning and went to eight

o'clock at night

and they started to really

understand now these are people that are

murderers and

and thieves and nasty people

to start off with and the first thing i

had them do

when we when we gave a retreat was they

had to smile

for one day all the time

and i told them that they had to laugh

now they wanted to learn uh

mindfulness of breathing because

everybody wants to learn mindfulness and

breathing

and i told them no i want you to learn

how to lovingly accept whatever arises

in the present

and there was this guy

that he was always getting thrown in the

hole because he was beaten up on the

on the guards and stuff because they did

nasty things to him

so he would get even and then he'd get

thrown in the hole

and i i started

taking him as my project for that one

week

and i talked to him a lot about how

anger causes all kinds of problems for

you so don't

don't get into that wish

other people well and

gratitude

so right near the end of the retreat

the guards decided that they were going

to cause him some problems

so they went into his cell and just

threw out

everything that he is

everything he had in in the cell

and it was real special to him a lot of

that stuff because

it was notes and letters from

from their loved ones and that sort of

thing and they just threw them out

and they were watching real closely

because they thought they were going to

get to beat him up with sticks and stuff

and he just stood there and watched him

and he was smiling

and as they walked out

he said i sincerely

wish you a good day

and they didn't the guards didn't know

what to do with that

they were ready to get into some

heavy-duty action

and he changed his personality in a

short period of time it was only about a

month

so much that before

being in solitary confinement

now he was able to get outside and work

in the garden

and he started really liking that and

and he was

always talking to the other inmates

about

it's better to be nice and gentle than

it is to be rough and

harmful

and some of the some of the inmates

understood it so well

that they actually were starting to get

into genres

now this is absolutely unheard of

in the prison system

the prism's prison system is supposed to

be

difficult and it's it's a matter of your

perspective you want to make it

difficult you can do that

and get beat up all the time and stabbed

and all of this kind of stuff you can do

that

if you want or not

and they actually started asking me to

send them

some of these books

and right after i left the area

i moved here to missouri

the reason i moved here was somebody

donated

1200 acres of land to me

and

i decided not to take it after being

there for a little while

because it was deep in the forest

and just to get some say a loaf of bread

and

and a gallon of milk

sometimes it would take five hours

to get there and back because trees fell

down

and then you had to you had to have a

chainsaw with you

and cut it and get it off the road so

you could continue on

and it was just too difficult to build

anything there

because it was so deep in the forest so

i gave that one up

then we got this piece of land

anyway

uh

one of the teachers was a zen

teacher

and he was

he was teaching before i came along

and the way he was teaching all of the

inmates and he did this just about every

time he talked about meditation

and he would slap his hand down on

the ground and he'd say

life is suffering

and after i heard that for a few times i

started going

well there's more to that than just

life is suffering i said

why don't you direct your mind to

the cessation of the suffering

and that went around went along real

well they

they liked that and they were real

sad when i left but right after

i left the

uh chaplain arranged for all the people

that were doing meditation

to have their own

area of their own building to be

in now the thing with being

in the prisons is everybody's yelling

they're making a lot of noise

and they wanted quiet time

so they finally got a a building that

was reasonably quiet that they could sit

in meditation

and i've since heard that it's become

more and more popular

all through florida

and there were some times

when i first came here i went to

uh

now uh the

high security prison polo potosi

that's what it is

and this is where there's really nasty

guys that have been

there for a long time and they've been

working out and they're

they're like super muscle men and that

sort of thing and

when i went in there and talked to them

about loving kindness i said

you know you guys got it made

you got a place to stay you got clothes

you got food you don't have to work

you have a lot of time that you could be

doing the meditation

i said maybe i might even think about

doing something wrong so i could have

that

kind of thing and they said oh you don't

want to be in here

i said i believe you because they have

they have gangs and stuff and they

they're they do all kinds of nasty

things occasionally to each other

but i proved the point

that even

people that are thrown in jail and

they're very

nasty people to start off with

they know that they're suffering and

they want to find some way out of the

suffering

so they paid attention

and i i guess i was we did

uh six or eight

retreats there

which was

the

the head counselor

and the guy that was running the

the prison they called me in

two or three times and said what are you

doing with these people

the people are walking around smiling

i said yeah

isn't it great and they said we don't

trust that

why why are they smiling they're they're

figuring they're gonna

do something and they're real

that and i said no no you watch

so after about a year of this kind of

practice

uh i left and came here

and uh

they're still carrying on now and

they're they are

following more and more of the buddha's

teaching

so that

when you teach by example

that's when people start to notice

i have one student that she is a born

again

she'll get somebody and she'll start

talking and she'll talk for two hours

and they walk away exhausted because

they have

given too much at one time

but they seem to be catching on in india

they sent her to india because there's a

big need for real buddhists

a lot of the buddhist monks in india

are nuts not real buddhist monks

and they're more interested in getting

money and that sort of thing than they

are teaching

but she's she's starting to make it more

and more

popular and they're they're putting her

on um

radio and

television for a short

short little burst of buddhism

so she

is the thing

that

made her a special

student was her understanding of

dependent origination

she re she saw the

uh the truth of it and she just keeps

going delving deeper and deeper and

deeper

into it and i was at a thai

conference where there was 300 thai

and i took her with me

and one day i went in had some breakfast

and i didn't see her

and i'm thinking oh we got to be careful

with this

ty don't like the idea of women being

educated

not in buddhism the monks really don't

like that

and she got a hold of one of these big

monks that's

really really popular

and she's telling him how dependent

origination

works so i saw that she was

waving her hands and doing her teaching

and i thought

oh boy i gotta go take care of this this

is not good

and as soon as i walked up to the monk

he turned away from her stared me

straight in the face

and he said why

are you teaching the higher

teaching to this woman

and i said because she understands it

and he got mad and walked away

but i get criticized for teaching the

proper thing

in the proper way isn't that something

was she in rose at the time yeah

she was in in purple groups

and the thai don't like that idea

because purple

is purple is supposed to be royal colors

anyway

i i get accused of being a sexist

and i'm not a sexist i teach everybody

the same

she's more sexist than i am

and i told her that and she she had to

agree with it

but there are certain rules that we have

to follow

and she was a seminary

and that meant that she

was offering whatever food was offered

she would

bring it to me and take care of my

sandals when i took them off she would

put them in

some place where they wouldn't get get

stolen which happens every now and then

and uh

the women bikunis who are

not very well educated at all in

buddhism

they're more interested in

saving animals and things like that

they would see that she was taking care

of me

and they thought that i was really a bad

person

because

they try to gang up on me and say why

are you making her do that i'm not

making her do it

if you were if he she was a male

she would be doing exactly the same

thing that's the advantage of a monk

having a seminar to help with things

that needed to be done

so

and whenever i ordain anyone whether

it's a female

or a male i become their

spiritual father

and if they have any kind of problem at

all

i will help solve it

sometimes there's medicines that need to

be

i need to make sure that they have the

right kind of medicines if they

need it or

sometimes it's it's foods sometimes

someone

some uh ladies will come and be

salmoneri and they're they're

very much vegetarian so we have to make

sure that they have the right kind of

food and they don't get sick from it

so

i take care of them that's my

responsibility

to them and i take care of

the big coonies as well as ubiku

or or not bikunis the

salmoneri as well as a salmonera

i treat them in the same way

and

[Music]

it's not very well

organized in this country

many of the women they want to become

bikunis and be

equal to the monks

well when i became a monk i was a junior

monk i wasn't

equal to a sayada

and i had to do all kinds of stuff as a

young

monk

and i was oh i was supposed to always be

at the end of the line for food

and sometimes when we got they got to

the end of the line there wasn't much

food left

sometimes it was just rice

okay so

over a few days you you that there's

other kinds of food that are left over

that you can get

into so you can have a balanced meal

so

one of the hardest things for me to do

when i first became a monk

was to accept accept stuff that was

given to me

because a lot of the stuff i didn't want

i didn't need i don't want to carry this

stuff around

with me

but i learned that

i could accept with this hand

and find somebody that needed it with

this end so i would just switch over and

give it away

i don't care about material things not

so much

and i

taught david over a period of time that

you don't need to worry about where

money is coming from

money comes when it's needed

and there were times that he would come

and he would say

uh you're only you only have enough

money for two months

and then you're gonna have to sell this

place

and i'd say ah okay

so what and then

a very short time later somebody would

send a whole bunch of money so that we

could continue on

and now people are starting to send on a

regular basis

we don't ask for anything we don't ask

them for money

or donations but we allow them

to give if they see that there's an

advantage of

what's being taught here

as a monk my only

concern is teaching dhamma

that's all i'm interested in

i'm not as a

real strong educated person

but

because of the direct practice that i

have

i sound like a real educated person

when i was going to school i had

dyslexia

and they didn't know what dyslexia was

when i was going to school

because i went i went to school in the

50s

and they'd write something on the board

and the only way i could get it

correctly

was copy it on a piece of paper i had to

do it letter by letter

because the letters got jumbled up and i

couldn't

couldn't differentiate to this day

if i'm writing something i have real

trouble between b's and d's

and that's why i have a

software that that reads back whatever i

type

and then when i hear it i know that

there's a mistake okay i can fix that

one then

but just looking at things

even when i'm reading sometimes the

words

start moving around

and i'll read them in the wrong order or

whatever

it's kind of weird

but this is why i started

reading the sutes out loud to people

because i wanted to overcome the

dyslexia

and it worked for the most part

i still have days when everything gets

moved around a little bit

but anyway

so i wanted to give you this

in in this book here in the sam

yutnikaya

there are 84 discourses

on dependent origination

and it's real interesting the

the different stories that there there

is and about

a lot of the different uh

sutas and dependent origination

and just remember that the

the backbone of the teaching is

dependent arising

and as you

start going

deeper into your practice you will

understand this

more and more easily as you go

okay so do you have any questions

do you have a box of those books here

can we yeah

we got some somewhere i think they're in

the library

i don't know in the dining hall dining

hall

yeah okay

back there

can you remind me what it means for

strength

of the senses or something like that

you you haven't figured that out yet

sitting with your eyes closed

yeah that works real good when you're

doing your walking meditation

close your eyes

yes it's basically the same thing

it means seeing the sense door and not

getting

start thinking about that

that's what it actually means letting go

of distractions of thinking about

while you're at one of the scent stores

pay attention to what that scent store

is doing

can you tell me exactly

how the ear works

why

well why don't you use that

as an object of meditation and try to

see

how it happens what happens first what

happens after that what happens after

that

do that with all the scent stores that's

being restrained at the scent store

it's paying attention to the sense door

without a lot of

thinking about and distraction

it all comes down to distractions

okay

and being able to see how the process

works i know exactly how

every hindrance

arises what happens first what happens

after that i can tell you exactly

but that comes from

watching it closely

okay and not in a book

no no from direct experience

yeah so meditation

um you can actually

zero in on every specific sense but you

can choose a different one to observe

well as it comes up you don't

just pick one and say i'm just going to

watch this all day

right you have to have sharper

mindfulness that's why i

try to get you smile

it sharpens your mindfulness up so much

that you're able to see

tiny little movements

and see how it actually occurs

i don't know if this question makes

sense but

formations are only potential for them

to arise

just like consciousness is just

potential

body speech and mind but that has to

have something

to kick it off

it seems to me like consciousness really

is like a flashlight

just lighting things up but there was no

there's nothing to light up

until there's namarupa yeah

it happens really fast

well yeah but so

you can see it another question

um we have consciousness

um gender

in general and then the contact is a

reference to

a specific consciousness from each sense

base

but we have we have consciousness

preceding

a six percent spaces

well what does it say

with um

the first part of

the uh destruction of

suffering how did all those

consciousnesses arise

you have to have you have to have a good

working eye

there has to be color and form

and then that eye consciousness arises

and it's the same with every one of the

scent stores

they happen fast

but the the magnificent thing about

dependent origination

after you attain nibana is you're seeing

each one of those

links arise and pass away very quickly

you're seeing each one so

when you're at uh

infinite consciousness and you start

seeing individual

consciousnesses rise and pass away

that's

that's pretty good because that's a

hundred thousand arising passing away of

ear consciousness

it happens really fast and you get to

see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away

but when you get to neither perception

or

non-perception and you get into the

quiet mind

you start seeing individual links

that means one twelfth of one

consciousness

so you're really making your

mindfulness sharp to be able to see this

and you have to be just with it without

of course it's without thinking

thinking is so slow is unbelievable

that's why the intellectuals they think

they're really hot with

i understand nobody's teaching no they

don't

because they don't they don't even

they're not even able to recognize the

hindrance when it comes up and

catches them

but what happens when you start doing

the practice you get to see that pretty

quick

and you start seeing more and more

subtle differences

it's one of the reasons why it gets to

be fun

because you can see this stuff on your

own

that's why you have oh wow it's because

you finally

realize it you go oh wow look at that

let me shut my question about

consciousness so um

depend uh link um number three

consciousness that includes all the

subjects of consciousness

in order for eye consciousness to

arise you have to have good working

eye you have to have color and form

and then the eye consciousness arises

well that's the answer to what you're

asking

when you get deep enough in the

meditation it will make more sense

and you'll see subconsciousness

consciousness

um it's the potential but it has to have

something that causes it to arise

that's why it's only the potential for

the consciousness to arise

when you light a match there's

is the fire there before the light

before you strike the flint

but it's there as soon as you strike it

yeah there's nothing there you can see

but something happens after

yeah you will eventually

see the formation

but the brilliance of this is not

the seeing of that it's the equinimity

that you get

and the non-identification

that you get with it seeing that there's

nobody there

yeah there's no it's just stuff it's

part of a process that's all it is

that's all dependent origination is is

part of a process

computer robots

and what the granularity was

well it's real interesting when you're

able to start seeing this on your own

but you're teaching yourself all along

to be able to do it

and that's where the fun comes in

because you're doing it yourself

and then you run across somebody that

has about the same experience it's real

fun to talk about it

okay so why don't we share some merit

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 being shared as merit that we

have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

davis and nagas a mighty power share

this merit of ours may they long

protect the buddha's dispensation

assad

[Music]

you

this is from the

indiana san mita

and this is how the buddha figured out

the links of dependent origination

monks before my awakening

well i was still a bodhisattva not yet

fully awakened

it occurred to me alas

this world has fallen into trouble

in that its born ages and dies it passes

away and

is reborn yet

it does not understand this escape

from suffering headed by aging

and death now

when will an escape be discerned

from this suffering headed by aging and

death

now what the buddha was actually doing

was asking

himself these difficult kinds of

questions and then trusting his

intuition to give him the answer

don't sit with your legs crossed please

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does aging and death

come to be

by what is aging and death conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom when there

is birth aging and death comes to be

aging and death aging and death

has birthed as its condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does aging and death

come to be

by what is birth conditioned

then monks through careful attention or

took place in me a breakthrough

by wisdom

when there is habitual tendency

birth comes to be birth has habitual

tendency as condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does habitual tendency

come to be

by what is habitual tendency conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is clinging

habitual tendency comes to be

habitual tendency as clinging as

its condition

then monks it occurred to me

when what exists does clinging come to

be

by what is clinging conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is craving clinging comes to

be

clinging has craving as its

condition

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

does craving come to be by what is

craving

conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

when there is feeling craving comes to

be

craving has feeling as its

condition

then it occurred to me

when what exists does feeling come to be

by what is feeling conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place

in me a breakthrough by wisdom

now you see each one of these links has

wisdom

in it and that's the definition of

wisdom

is the links of dependent origination

and how they work

when there is contact feeling comes to

be

feeling has contact as its condition

then monks it occurred to me when what

exists

does contact come to be by what is

contact conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place

in me a breakthrough by wisdom

when there are the sixth sense bases

contact comes to be

contact has a sixth sense basis as its

condition

then it occurred to me

when what exists do the sixth sense

bases come to be

by what are the sixth sense bases

conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

when there is mentality materiality

the sixth sense bases come to be

the six plant spaces have mentality

materiality

as it as their condition

then it occurred to me when what

exists does mentality materiality come

to be

by what is mentality materiality

conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

when there is consciousness mentality

materiality comes to be

mentality materiality has consciousness

as

its condition

then it occurred to me

when what exists does consciousness come

to be

by what is consciousness conditioned

then monks through careful attention

there took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there are formations consciousness

comes to be

consciousness has formations as its

condition

then it occurred to me when what exists

do formations come to be by what are

formations conditioned

then through careful attention there

took place in me

a breakthrough by wisdom

when there is ignorance formations comes

to be

formations have ignorance as their

condition

thus ignorance

with ignorance as conditioned formations

come to be

with formations as conditioned

consciousness comes to be

with consciousness as conditioned

mentality materiality comes to be

with mentality materiality as condition

what's next the six-fold base

comes to be with the six-fold base as

condition

contact comes to be with contact as

condition feeling comes to be

with feeling as conditioned

with craving as condition

with with clinging as condition

habitual tendency comes to be with

habitual tendency as condition

comes to be with birth as condition

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair

comes to be such is the origin of this

whole mass of suffering

origination origination monks

in regard to things

unheard before that arose in my vision

knowledge wisdom and true knowledge

and radiance

now we're gonna go into the cessation

then monks it occurred to me

when what does not exist

does aging and death not come to be

with the cessation of what

does the cessation of aging and death

come about

then through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom when there's no birth

aging and death does not come to be

with the cessation of age of birth

comes a cessation of aging and death

then monks it occurred to me

when what does not exist

does birth not come to be

by the cessation of what

does the cessation of birth come about

when through careful attention

there took place in me a breakthrough by

wisdom

then there is no ex habitual

tendency birth does not come to be

with the cessation of habitual tendency

comes the cessation of birth

when there is

no clinging

ex habitual tendency does not come to be

with the cessation of clinging

comes a cessation of habitual tendency

when there is no craving clinging does

not come to be

with the cessation of craving

comes the cessation of clinging

when there's no feeling craving does not

come to be

with the cessation of feeling comes the

cessation of craving

when there's no contact feeling

does not come to be

with the cessation of contact comp

cessation of feeling

now i've been talking about seeing

the slightest little movement of mind's

attention and relaxing

and staying with the quiet mind

what am i talking about i'm talking

about

the cessation of suffering

when there are no sixth sense bases

contact does not come to be so it was

said

with the cessation of the sixth sense

basis comes the cessation of contact

when there's no

mentality materiality the

the sixth sense bases do not come to be

with the cessation of this of mentality

materiality comes the cessation of the

six-fold base

when there is no consciousness

mentality materiality does not come to

be

with the cessation of

consciousness comes the cessation of

mentality materiality

when there's no formations

consciousness does not come to be

with the cessation of formations

comes the cessation of consciousness

when there's no ignorance formations do

not come to be

with the cessation of ignorance comes

the cessation

of formations

thus with the remainderless fading away

and cessation of ignorance compensation

of

formations with the cessation

of formation comes the cessation of

okay with the cessation of consciousness

cessation of

with the cessation of mentality

materiality cessation of

with the cessation of the six-fold base

cessation of

with the cessation of contact cessation

of

with the cessation of feeling cessation

of with the cessation of craving

cessation of

with the cessation of clinging cessation

of

with the cessation of the habitual

tendency cessation of

with the cessation of birth cessation of

sorrow lamentation pain grief and

cessation cessation

thus monks in regard to things unheard

before that arose in me

vision knowledge wisdom true

knowledge and radiance

so this is the buddha spent quite a

while

going over this and

because he did that why didn't he become

enlightened right away

because he knew it intellectually

he had to see it for himself

and when he did

then he became a buddha

so he had this knowledge

this is how it works now you have that

knowledge

this is how it works now you have to 6r

and purify your mind enough

until you become successful with the

practice

and attain nibana

it's pretty easy and straightforward

so there was a question that that came

up

at one of the interviews today

and

everybody says find

the right teacher for you

and the buddha told us how to do that

47

62

too far

[Music]

okay this is what you look for in

teacher

okay this is what the buddha says

monks one who does not know and see

as it really is aging and death it's

origin cessation

and way leading to the cessation

should search for a teacher in order

to know this as it really is

and then he goes through all of the

links of dependent origination

their origin their cessation and way

leading to the cessation

that's how you should search for a

teacher in order to know

this as it really is the links of

dependent origination

is the backbone of the teaching

it's the thing that keeps everything

right

i studied a lot with a lot of different

teachers

and they were very big on saying

that if you really want to understand

dependent origination it's

really really complicated

wrote a book on dependent origination

and at the start of his book he said

this

is really really complicated

and as you read what he had to say it

was

really really complicated

but the thing is

this is a practical way of

looking at how mind

works this is practical

and it's not that hard to understand

when you're seeing it

for yourself

but he was taught and a lot of the

teachers before

him was taught that it was very very

difficult

and if you look in the visuti maga

it tries to break it up into three days

the past the present

and the future

and that really complicates things

and one of the things that uh

buddha goes has said about dependent

origination

it was like carrying the weight of an

entire ocean

on your head that's how difficult it is

but as you start to

understand you're not going to see

all of the links at once

i had a student years ago

she played for the

london symphony orchestra

and she was talking about giving up

doing

that because she wanted to understand

dependent origination

and i told her no don't do that

there's nothing wrong with you

being creative with your instrument

and there are artists that that kind of

try to do the same thing they think that

well

if you're going to do the meditation you

can't be creative anymore

well the creation of the artistry that

comes out of you

from doing the meditation you become

much better

and more more and more creative

when you're doing the meditation

you do it with joy in your mind there

was a

artist that we had come from colombia

and he was very famous i mean he was

selling stuff all over the world

but he was only using

brown black

white and

gray that's the only four colors he was

using

and it was kind of depressing and i

asked him

when did this start to happen for you

that you were just using these down

colors

and he said well two years ago my wife

was she had cancer and she died

and ever since then i've just been able

to use these colors

because that's the way he was seeing

the world it was seeing in browns and

blacks and whites and grays

after a short retreat i don't i don't

even think it was a full

10 day retreat i think it was seven days

he went home and he started

taking pictures of his artwork

and all of a sudden there's these

yellows and greens

and blues and reds and it was wonderful

people that are depressed

generally just see depressing colors

and i had another student that she

that's the only color she had in her

wardrobe

she showed me all of the different

things that she had and it was like

depressing just looking in

at her wardrobe

and i told her no no more

there's two things that you have to do

one

she read five newspapers a day which is

i don't know how anybody could get

through that

and she had all of these depressing

colors

so i told her i told her she she

couldn't do the retreat

until she went out and got some color

and she got some yellows and greens and

happy

colors and

when she started sitting all of a sudden

she started progressing

very fast and she didn't feel

so depressed anymore

and getting her to stop

reading five newspapers

i can't even get through one

in malaysia they had

one one day a week i think it was on a

wednesday

they had one page that was happy news

and that's better than looking at the

comics for crying

out loud some of the stories that you

get to read

be careful what you put in front of your

mind

uplifting happy

is what you want to develop

and it makes it a lot easier to smile

and it makes it a lot easier

to have fun

so it's a real important aspect of the

teaching

yes this can be incredibly complicated

if you make it that way but what's your

perspective

when you first start you really all

you're going to see

is feeling craving clinging habitual

tendency birth

and sorrow and lamentation

and all of that stuff

but as you start using the 6rs you start

being able to recognize these things

especially the craving had that tension

and tightness in your mind

now if you don't if you let go of the

craving

then clinging won't arise and if

clinging won't arise

your emotional habitual tendency won't

arise

and if that doesn't arise there's not

going to be any birth of action

and there's not going to be any sorrow

lamentation pain grief or

despair

but as you go deeper you'll start seeing

well there's some how contact works

now actually when

you're doing the meditation you don't

see

sixth sense stores you only see one cent

store at a time

right so you can take that one out

you see mentality materiality

so that

is recognizable

the consciousness

that's right before mentality

materiality

is the potential for the consciousness

to arise

but there has to be something

that uh connects with it

that is a mentality materiality

and then you'll see the contact and if

you'll see the feeling but

when you notice each of

these links there is a tiny

bit of the four noble truths in it

okay there

is um

the contact

and one of the scent stores arises

that's the mentality materiality

and then the feeling and then

the craving and then the clinging and

as you keep

getting more and more quiet

with your mind

then you're starting to

let go of these lengths of dependent

origination

until finally

there's not even any consciousness that

arises

so feeling perception and consciousness

disappear and you don't even

know that you're in that state until you

come out

when you come out depending on the

sharpness

of your mindfulness

you're going to see little tiny bubbles

dots slashes dashes whatever you want to

call them everybody sees in a little

different way

but there's this arising passing away

very

very very quickly

and that is the links of dependent

origination

so what happened when you got into

the cessation of perception feeling and

consciousness

it's like on the blackboard you just

cleaned it off

there's nothing and then when you see

these

little tiny links starting to come up

you're seeing how

dependent origination arises and

as you go deeper into

the uh

into the different levels

of awakening you'll see it

more and more clearly

now when you get to be this octagon

you're gonna see twice as many little

bumps

so it's you're going through dependent

origination a couple times

and when you get to be in onagami you'll

start to see it

three times and you'll start recognizing

more and more

of dependent origination with your daily

activities you'll see how it works

there's a lot of oh wows that happen

and when you get to be an arahat you see

it

completely clearly

with deep understanding

so that's why in burma the the

uh sayadaw that was teaching

just reciting dependent origination

over and over again forwards and

backwards in whatever ways they did it

[Music]

he had a lot of people that were

successful by doing that because of

their understanding

of this backbone

the essence of the buddha's teaching

each link has the four noble truths in

it

and when you let go of one condition

then the other conditions don't arise

behind it

so you you get to have a good deep

understanding of how this process

works

now

there's another section of this

it's at the start

and

the buddha said i will teach you the

wrong

way to practice and the right way to

practice

listen to that and attend closely

yes venerable sir the monks replied

and what monks is the wrong way

with ignorance as condition formations

come to be

with formations as conditioned

consciousness comes to be

why is this the wrong way because you're

just looking

at how all of this causes

more and more pain as you go through all

of the links

and what is the right way with the

remainderless fading away

and cessation of ignorance

cessation of these other things arise

so that's the third noble truth that's

what he was trying to get across

all the time with his teaching

focus on the cessation of suffering

the meditations that cause pain

to arise a lot don't allow that kind

of understanding because when the pain

starts coming up that's that hooks your

mind in

that's there's just a version there

there's just

this

unclear feeling because there is no

letting go of grieving

when i was in uh florida

and i was teaching quite a bit going to

well every every day i went to a

different prison

and i i was teaching them meditation

and that sort of thing and

the one the man that was inviting me to

do all of this with him

arranged that we would give a one-week

retreat

at the prison it started at eight

o'clock in the morning and went to eight

o'clock at night

and they started to really

understand now these are people that are

murderers and

and thieves and nasty people

to start off with and the first thing i

had them do

when we when we gave a retreat was they

had to smile

for one day all the time

and i told them that they had to laugh

now they wanted to learn uh

mindfulness of breathing because

everybody wants to learn mindfulness and

breathing

and i told them no i want you to learn

how to lovingly accept whatever arises

in the present

and there was this guy

that he was always getting thrown in the

hole because he was beaten up on the

on the guards and stuff because they did

nasty things to him

so he would get even and then he'd get

thrown in the hole

and i i started

taking him as my project for that one

week

and i talked to him a lot about how

anger causes all kinds of problems for

you so don't

don't get into that wish

other people well and

gratitude

so right near the end of the retreat

the guards decided that they were going

to cause him some problems

so they went into his cell and just

threw out

everything that he is

everything he had in in the cell

and it was real special to him a lot of

that stuff because

it was notes and letters from

from their loved ones and that sort of

thing and they just threw them out

and they were watching real closely

because they thought they were going to

get to beat him up with sticks and stuff

and he just stood there and watched him

and he was smiling

and as they walked out

he said i sincerely

wish you a good day

and they didn't the guards didn't know

what to do with that

they were ready to get into some

heavy-duty action

and he changed his personality in a

short period of time it was only about a

month

so much that before

being in solitary confinement

now he was able to get outside and work

in the garden

and he started really liking that and

and he was

always talking to the other inmates

about

it's better to be nice and gentle than

it is to be rough and

harmful

and some of the some of the inmates

understood it so well

that they actually were starting to get

into genres

now this is absolutely unheard of

in the prison system

the prism's prison system is supposed to

be

difficult and it's it's a matter of your

perspective you want to make it

difficult you can do that

and get beat up all the time and stabbed

and all of this kind of stuff you can do

that

if you want or not

and they actually started asking me to

send them

some of these books

and right after i left the area

i moved here to missouri

the reason i moved here was somebody

donated

1200 acres of land to me

and

i decided not to take it after being

there for a little while

because it was deep in the forest

and just to get some say a loaf of bread

and

and a gallon of milk

sometimes it would take five hours

to get there and back because trees fell

down

and then you had to you had to have a

chainsaw with you

and cut it and get it off the road so

you could continue on

and it was just too difficult to build

anything there

because it was so deep in the forest so

i gave that one up

then we got this piece of land

anyway

uh

one of the teachers was a zen

teacher

and he was

he was teaching before i came along

and the way he was teaching all of the

inmates and he did this just about every

time he talked about meditation

and he would slap his hand down on

the ground and he'd say

life is suffering

and after i heard that for a few times i

started going

well there's more to that than just

life is suffering i said

why don't you direct your mind to

the cessation of the suffering

and that went around went along real

well they

they liked that and they were real

sad when i left but right after

i left the

uh chaplain arranged for all the people

that were doing meditation

to have their own

area of their own building to be

in now the thing with being

in the prisons is everybody's yelling

they're making a lot of noise

and they wanted quiet time

so they finally got a a building that

was reasonably quiet that they could sit

in meditation

and i've since heard that it's become

more and more popular

all through florida

and there were some times

when i first came here i went to

uh

now uh the

high security prison polo potosi

that's what it is

and this is where there's really nasty

guys that have been

there for a long time and they've been

working out and they're

they're like super muscle men and that

sort of thing and

when i went in there and talked to them

about loving kindness i said

you know you guys got it made

you got a place to stay you got clothes

you got food you don't have to work

you have a lot of time that you could be

doing the meditation

i said maybe i might even think about

doing something wrong so i could have

that

kind of thing and they said oh you don't

want to be in here

i said i believe you because they have

they have gangs and stuff and they

they're they do all kinds of nasty

things occasionally to each other

but i proved the point

that even

people that are thrown in jail and

they're very

nasty people to start off with

they know that they're suffering and

they want to find some way out of the

suffering

so they paid attention

and i i guess i was we did

uh six or eight

retreats there

which was

the

the head counselor

and the guy that was running the

the prison they called me in

two or three times and said what are you

doing with these people

the people are walking around smiling

i said yeah

isn't it great and they said we don't

trust that

why why are they smiling they're they're

figuring they're gonna

do something and they're real

that and i said no no you watch

so after about a year of this kind of

practice

uh i left and came here

and uh

they're still carrying on now and

they're they are

following more and more of the buddha's

teaching

so that

when you teach by example

that's when people start to notice

i have one student that she is a born

again

she'll get somebody and she'll start

talking and she'll talk for two hours

and they walk away exhausted because

they have

given too much at one time

but they seem to be catching on in india

they sent her to india because there's a

big need for real buddhists

a lot of the buddhist monks in india

are nuts not real buddhist monks

and they're more interested in getting

money and that sort of thing than they

are teaching

but she's she's starting to make it more

and more

popular and they're they're putting her

on um

radio and

television for a short

short little burst of buddhism

so she

is the thing

that

made her a special

student was her understanding of

dependent origination

she re she saw the

uh the truth of it and she just keeps

going delving deeper and deeper and

deeper

into it and i was at a thai

conference where there was 300 thai

and i took her with me

and one day i went in had some breakfast

and i didn't see her

and i'm thinking oh we got to be careful

with this

ty don't like the idea of women being

educated

not in buddhism the monks really don't

like that

and she got a hold of one of these big

monks that's

really really popular

and she's telling him how dependent

origination

works so i saw that she was

waving her hands and doing her teaching

and i thought

oh boy i gotta go take care of this this

is not good

and as soon as i walked up to the monk

he turned away from her stared me

straight in the face

and he said why

are you teaching the higher

teaching to this woman

and i said because she understands it

and he got mad and walked away

but i get criticized for teaching the

proper thing

in the proper way isn't that something

was she in rose at the time yeah

she was in in purple groups

and the thai don't like that idea

because purple

is purple is supposed to be royal colors

anyway

i i get accused of being a sexist

and i'm not a sexist i teach everybody

the same

she's more sexist than i am

and i told her that and she she had to

agree with it

but there are certain rules that we have

to follow

and she was a seminary

and that meant that she

was offering whatever food was offered

she would

bring it to me and take care of my

sandals when i took them off she would

put them in

some place where they wouldn't get get

stolen which happens every now and then

and uh

the women bikunis who are

not very well educated at all in

buddhism

they're more interested in

saving animals and things like that

they would see that she was taking care

of me

and they thought that i was really a bad

person

because

they try to gang up on me and say why

are you making her do that i'm not

making her do it

if you were if he she was a male

she would be doing exactly the same

thing that's the advantage of a monk

having a seminar to help with things

that needed to be done

so

and whenever i ordain anyone whether

it's a female

or a male i become their

spiritual father

and if they have any kind of problem at

all

i will help solve it

sometimes there's medicines that need to

be

i need to make sure that they have the

right kind of medicines if they

need it or

sometimes it's it's foods sometimes

someone

some uh ladies will come and be

salmoneri and they're they're

very much vegetarian so we have to make

sure that they have the right kind of

food and they don't get sick from it

so

i take care of them that's my

responsibility

to them and i take care of

the big coonies as well as ubiku

or or not bikunis the

salmoneri as well as a salmonera

i treat them in the same way

and

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it's not very well

organized in this country

many of the women they want to become

bikunis and be

equal to the monks

well when i became a monk i was a junior

monk i wasn't

equal to a sayada

and i had to do all kinds of stuff as a

young

monk

and i was oh i was supposed to always be

at the end of the line for food

and sometimes when we got they got to

the end of the line there wasn't much

food left

sometimes it was just rice

okay so

over a few days you you that there's

other kinds of food that are left over

that you can get

into so you can have a balanced meal

so

one of the hardest things for me to do

when i first became a monk

was to accept accept stuff that was

given to me

because a lot of the stuff i didn't want

i didn't need i don't want to carry this

stuff around

with me

but i learned that

i could accept with this hand

and find somebody that needed it with

this end so i would just switch over and

give it away

i don't care about material things not

so much

and i

taught david over a period of time that

you don't need to worry about where

money is coming from

money comes when it's needed

and there were times that he would come

and he would say

uh you're only you only have enough

money for two months

and then you're gonna have to sell this

place

and i'd say ah okay

so what and then

a very short time later somebody would

send a whole bunch of money so that we

could continue on

and now people are starting to send on a

regular basis

we don't ask for anything we don't ask

them for money

or donations but we allow them

to give if they see that there's an

advantage of

what's being taught here

as a monk my only

concern is teaching dhamma

that's all i'm interested in

i'm not as a

real strong educated person

but

because of the direct practice that i

have

i sound like a real educated person

when i was going to school i had

dyslexia

and they didn't know what dyslexia was

when i was going to school

because i went i went to school in the

50s

and they'd write something on the board

and the only way i could get it

correctly

was copy it on a piece of paper i had to

do it letter by letter

because the letters got jumbled up and i

couldn't

couldn't differentiate to this day

if i'm writing something i have real

trouble between b's and d's

and that's why i have a

software that that reads back whatever i

type

and then when i hear it i know that

there's a mistake okay i can fix that

one then

but just looking at things

even when i'm reading sometimes the

words

start moving around

and i'll read them in the wrong order or

whatever

it's kind of weird

but this is why i started

reading the sutes out loud to people

because i wanted to overcome the

dyslexia

and it worked for the most part

i still have days when everything gets

moved around a little bit

but anyway

so i wanted to give you this

in in this book here in the sam

yutnikaya

there are 84 discourses

on dependent origination

and it's real interesting the

the different stories that there there

is and about

a lot of the different uh

sutas and dependent origination

and just remember that the

the backbone of the teaching is

dependent arising

and as you

start going

deeper into your practice you will

understand this

more and more easily as you go

okay so do you have any questions

do you have a box of those books here

can we yeah

we got some somewhere i think they're in

the library

i don't know in the dining hall dining

hall

yeah okay

back there

can you remind me what it means for

strength

of the senses or something like that

you you haven't figured that out yet

sitting with your eyes closed

yeah that works real good when you're

doing your walking meditation

close your eyes

yes it's basically the same thing

it means seeing the sense door and not

getting

start thinking about that

that's what it actually means letting go

of distractions of thinking about

while you're at one of the scent stores

pay attention to what that scent store

is doing

can you tell me exactly

how the ear works

why

well why don't you use that

as an object of meditation and try to

see

how it happens what happens first what

happens after that what happens after

that

do that with all the scent stores that's

being restrained at the scent store

it's paying attention to the sense door

without a lot of

thinking about and distraction

it all comes down to distractions

okay

and being able to see how the process

works i know exactly how

every hindrance

arises what happens first what happens

after that i can tell you exactly

but that comes from

watching it closely

okay and not in a book

no no from direct experience

yeah so meditation

um you can actually

zero in on every specific sense but you

can choose a different one to observe

well as it comes up you don't

just pick one and say i'm just going to

watch this all day

right you have to have sharper

mindfulness that's why i

try to get you smile

it sharpens your mindfulness up so much

that you're able to see

tiny little movements

and see how it actually occurs

i don't know if this question makes

sense but

formations are only potential for them

to arise

just like consciousness is just

potential

body speech and mind but that has to

have something

to kick it off

it seems to me like consciousness really

is like a flashlight

just lighting things up but there was no

there's nothing to light up

until there's namarupa yeah

it happens really fast

well yeah but so

you can see it another question

um we have consciousness

um gender

in general and then the contact is a

reference to

a specific consciousness from each sense

base

but we have we have consciousness

preceding

a six percent spaces

well what does it say

with um

the first part of

the uh destruction of

suffering how did all those

consciousnesses arise

you have to have you have to have a good

working eye

there has to be color and form

and then that eye consciousness arises

and it's the same with every one of the

scent stores

they happen fast

but the the magnificent thing about

dependent origination

after you attain nibana is you're seeing

each one of those

links arise and pass away very quickly

you're seeing each one so

when you're at uh

infinite consciousness and you start

seeing individual

consciousnesses rise and pass away

that's

that's pretty good because that's a

hundred thousand arising passing away of

ear consciousness

it happens really fast and you get to

see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away

but when you get to neither perception

or

non-perception and you get into the

quiet mind

you start seeing individual links

that means one twelfth of one

consciousness

so you're really making your

mindfulness sharp to be able to see this

and you have to be just with it without

of course it's without thinking

thinking is so slow is unbelievable

that's why the intellectuals they think

they're really hot with

i understand nobody's teaching no they

don't

because they don't they don't even

they're not even able to recognize the

hindrance when it comes up and

catches them

but what happens when you start doing

the practice you get to see that pretty

quick

and you start seeing more and more

subtle differences

it's one of the reasons why it gets to

be fun

because you can see this stuff on your

own

that's why you have oh wow it's because

you finally

realize it you go oh wow look at that

let me shut my question about

consciousness so um

depend uh link um number three

consciousness that includes all the

subjects of consciousness

in order for eye consciousness to

arise you have to have good working

eye you have to have color and form

and then the eye consciousness arises

well that's the answer to what you're

asking

when you get deep enough in the

meditation it will make more sense

and you'll see subconsciousness

consciousness

um it's the potential but it has to have

something that causes it to arise

that's why it's only the potential for

the consciousness to arise

when you light a match there's

is the fire there before the light

before you strike the flint

but it's there as soon as you strike it

yeah there's nothing there you can see

but something happens after

yeah you will eventually

see the formation

but the brilliance of this is not

the seeing of that it's the equinimity

that you get

and the non-identification

that you get with it seeing that there's

nobody there

yeah there's no it's just stuff it's

part of a process that's all it is

that's all dependent origination is is

part of a process

computer robots

and what the granularity was

well it's real interesting when you're

able to start seeing this on your own

but you're teaching yourself all along

to be able to do it

and that's where the fun comes in

because you're doing it yourself

and then you run across somebody that

has about the same experience it's real

fun to talk about it

okay so why don't we share some merit

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 being shared as merit that we

have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

davis and nagas a mighty power share

this merit of ours may they long

protect the buddha's dispensation

assad

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you