From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=K6-lpiMwx9E

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

[Music]

okay

last week

i did a suit to number 13

which was the

the greater discourse on the mass of

suffering

this week i'm going to do suta number

14. which is the shorter discourse

on the mass of suffering

now an interesting thing that happens

with the suttas

when you have a greater greater

discourse it's not very long

but when you have a shorter discourse

it's quite a bit bigger and why that is

i haven't been able to figure out

anyway

that's what i heard on yeah

okay says if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in masakian

country

of cape bellavatu in nigrodis park

then mahanama the sakian

[Music]

mahanama when the buddha's father

died mahanama took over for him

so mahanama the sake went to the blessed

one

after paying homage to him sat down at

one side and said venerable sir i have

long

understood the dhamma taught by the

blessed one thus

greed is an imperfection that defiles

mind

hate is an imperfection that defiles

mind

delusion is an imperfection that files

defiles mind

now again

every time you hear

greed hate and delusion

that is another way of describing

[Music]

craving

now in uh in the zen

tradition they call that the three

poisons

but to be quite honest it's not three

poisons it's one

so there is a problem

with that if you don't really understand

that greed hatred and delusion

is another way of describing craving

yet while i understand the dhamma taught

by the blessed one thus

at times states of greed hatred and

delusion

invade my mind and remain

i have wondered venerable sir

what state is still un abandoned by me

internally owing to which at times these

states of greed hate

and delusion invade my mind and remain

good question

mahanama there is still a state

unabandoned by you

internally owing to which at times the

states of

greed hatred and delusion invade your

mind and remain

for were that state already abandoning

you

internally you would not be living the

home life

you would not be enjoying sensual

pleasures

it is because that state is unabandoned

by you internally

that you are living the home life and

enjoying

sensual pleasures

even though a noble disciple has seen

clearly

as it actually is with proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great it is the danger in them

as long as he still does not attend

attain to the rapture and pleasure that

are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful than that

he may still be attracted to sensual

pleasures

but when a noble disciple has seen

clearly as it actually is with proper

wisdom how sensual pleasures

provide little gratification

much suffering and much despair

how great is the danger in them

he attains to the rapture and joy

that are apart from the sensual

pleasures apart from

unwholesome states and to something more

peaceful than that

that's why he is no longer attracted to

sensual pleasures

now what are we talking about here

getting into a jhana

when you experience the drama and you

stay

in that state your mind is pure

how do you get to a pure mind

by using the six r's

and developing your mind so that you can

be in

a jhana even while you're doing your

daily activities

an awful lot of people have the idea

that

jhana

uh suppresses

the hindrances

but when you're practicing twin

like i'm teaching you

you can practice staying in

a jhana the whole time

if you're practicing one pointed

concentration that does suppress the

hindrances

while you have this deep concentration

so the genre is not about concentration

it's about understanding the different

levels of

wisdom and how

you can keep that level with you all the

time

but you have to do a few things

one you have to start smiling

more why

because the smile

improves your mindfulness

and again mindfulness is remembering to

observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another

so you can see a hindrance when your

mindfulness gets a little bit weak for

whatever reason

you can start seeing a hindrance arise

to create hate and delusion the craving

and you can use the six r's to let that

go

to purify your mind

this is one of the reasons that i spend

so much time

trying to tell you about

using the sick the six arms

in your daily activities

you're going to become much more aware

when you keep your precepts without

breaking them

and when your mindfulness gets weak

you'll

recognize that more quickly

and let go of that when you use the six

r's

so there is actually a method to my

madness

as some people think i am really mad

because i keep on talking about the same

thing over and over and over again in

different ways

i'm trying to get you to realize that

you

cause your own pain you cause your own

suffering

and the way to overcome that suffering

is by using the six hours

and changing your perspective

so you're able to see when an emotional

state

starts to come up

and the more you use the six hours with

your daily activity

the deeper your sitting practice becomes

because you're used to keeping them

keeping

the six r's active

so it's a real important thing for you

to realize

that the more you use the six r's

the more you smile and have an uplifted

mind

the less suffering you actually cause

yourself

so keeping that smile means keeping your

mind uplifted

and you become much more aware that

when that hindrance arises

you can see it more clearly

more quickly and let it go by using the

six hours and relaxing that tension

and tightness that

greed hatred and delusion

you're letting it go much more quickly

and this leads to an uplifted mind

all the time

before my awakening while i was still

only an unawakened bodhisattva

i too clearly saw as it actually is with

proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great is the danger in them

but as long as i still did not attain

to the joy and happiness

that are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful than that

i recognized that i still could be

attracted to sensual pleasures

but when i clearly saw as it actually is

with proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great is the danger in them

and i attain to the joy and happiness

that are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful

now there's something more peaceful that

is talking about here

is getting into your equanimity

i did it when you get

into equanimity you start to become

disenchanted with sensual pleasures

how in asia being there for 12 years

i learned that all the asians are very

very attached to food

and they have their favorite foods and

they get excited and their mouth starts

to get saliva

in it and they really they look forward

to being able to eat this

delicious food

well that's part of greed isn't it

and if it doesn't meet their standard

for the quality of food then you get

into

the hatred the aversion the

dissatisfaction

and you're identifying with those

thoughts

and feelings and causing yourself a lot

of suffering

so the more you can really

practice with your daily activities

using the six hours anytime your mind

starts to stray

and get involved in thinking about this

and that

and getting involved with it

and making a big deal out of whether you

get it or you don't get it then

your six ours are your savior

if i can use that word i know it sounds

kind of christian

but they save you from the suffering

that you get

involved with when there is strong likes

and dislikes

and it saves you from the worry and

dissatisfaction

of the first noble truth

sometimes you get what you want and

you're really happy

other times you get what you don't want

and you're

really sad but you're identifying with

this you're taking it personally

and the second noble truth is the cause

of the suffering

and the cause of the suffering is always

the craving

and that taking it personally

many people ask the question about

why am i on the wheel of sansaro

what caused me to be there and the thing

that causes you to be

in this in the autumn a wheel of sansara

that

life death cycle is

because of making a big deal out of

things

taking it personally getting

upset because it doesn't happen the way

you want it to

or it happens too much the way you want

it to

and

that guilty feeling

or remorse

is why the karma

keeps you bound to

the will of sansara the life and death

cycle

the more you can use the six hours with

your daily

activities

the more familiar you become with

how the suffering arises and you start

gaining

more and more balance in your mind

you start gaining more dis-enchantment

and that's not a bad thing it doesn't

mean that you can't

enjoy things

you can see a beautiful flower

or a piece of artwork that you very much

like

and you could admire it and stay

with it without thinking about it

then when you're done

looking at it when you walk away you're

not thinking about

what you had seen but you're staying in

the present

with what there is that arises next

the disenchantment takes the

unwanted excitement

out of life

but you can still very much admire when

i was in uh

when i was in india i went to the

allura caves where there was some of the

most fantastic

uh stone architecture the stone carvings

that i'd ever seen

and i very much admired them

and i stood a long time looking at them

as soon as i walked away they weren't

there anymore

everything changed and then there was

other things that caught my attention

so it's it's a real necessary thing

that you continue

to use your six r's

with your daily activities

and you'll you'll start to notice that

the things that used to bother you that

somebody else did continually

they don't bother you so much anymore

you're changing your perspective

why you get excited about that it's no

big deal

okay and as as you continue

doing that all life becomes

easier excuse me i've got to take my

coat off it's starting to get warm in

here

there

okay and what is the gratification

in the case of sensual pleasures

mahanama there are these five

chords of sensual pleasures

now this too is a danger in the case of

sensual pleasures

a mass of suffering in in

in the life to come

having sensual pleasures as its cause

sensual pleasures as its source sensual

pleasures as

its basis the cause being

simply sensual pleasures

now the the difference between what

almost

all of the other meditation teachers are

teaching you

is this one step of

relaxing letting go of the tension

and tightness in your mind

and in your head when you relax the

tightness in your head

there's a feeling of expansion and

very deep peace but strong

awareness

you're very alert

if you don't use that step of relaxing

you're bringing the craving back to your

object of meditation

so you're not purifying your mind

and this is a major thing

there are a lot of people that do some

meditation in one way or another

and they kind of complain about hitting

a wall

they went so far and that's as far as

they're they're

going to go with that meditation

with what i'm showing you about using

the relaxed step and the six

hours is that there's no more walls

you can continually go deeper and deeper

in your meditation

now i i have a lot of students that have

been doing meditation

for many many years

and

they had had before i started teaching

this

they had complained about just going so

far

and they got into a rut they got into

the

idea that this is where they're going to

go for their meditation

sometimes they do a meditation for one

month sometimes

one month a year sometimes it was two

weeks for a year

but they got into a rut of

expecting the meditation just to go this

far

and then they they came and started

complaining to me about it and i

started showing them how to use the 6rs

and i don't hear that sort of thing

so often anymore i don't hear the

complaint that they're they're stuck in

the rut

and they just go so far and there's

nothing else to see

now when you get into let's say

neither perception or non-perception

your mind is a very quiet space

but there are still some things that can

arise

and you need to teach yourself

not to make a big deal of what it is

that arose

now i've i've had some people tell me

how bored they

are because they're watching nothing

and what is the cause of that

they're bored because their mindfulness

went away they're taking it personally

they're expecting something else

and they don't see this expectation as a

hindrance

which it is

and they'll cut their meditation short

i had one student that she was a great

meditator

getting up to that realm

and then she would

sit for about an hour in neither

perception or non-perception where there

is

no problem at all and then she started

getting hit

with the boredom and she would break her

sitting and get up and start doing stuff

she did this for about three years

and i was trying all different ways to

get her

to understand there's still

more that's deeper than what she had

expected

and i was trying to get her to realize

that

uh she just

expected to get to this state there was

nothing that for her to see

so well i've got other things i'd rather

be doing

finally i had to threaten her

and tell her i wasn't going to be her

teacher anymore unless she started

following what i was telling her

that she had to sit for

three hours or longer

and i gave her one chance

i said it's either that or you can go

find another teacher

and she did it

and she was amazed at how much more

she understood the meditation

she was amazed at

the use of the six r's

and she was seeing how the boredom

is just another form of a hindrance

so

there is no wall that you're gonna hit

except the walls that you put up for

yourself

well i sit every day i sit for two hours

and it's always the same

well i'm sorry it's never the same

it's always different

everything in life is part of

impermanence it's changing

it's a little different and you have to

have this quiet mind to be able to see

that difference

and how you can have all of a sudden

your mind gets to a certain place and it

just takes

a step down and goes deeper and and

you're you're shocked when you see

that well

why did that happen

because you let go of your expectation

you let go of

thinking that things are always going to

stay the same

so it's it's pretty amazing to watch

when people come to me and then they'll

say

you know i finally started sitting

longer and there's a lot more to see

i had no idea

yeah that's really true

now mahanama

on one occasion i was living at rajaga

on the mountain of vultures peak

on that occasion a number of

nigantas living on the black rock

on the slopes of issagilli

we're practicing continuous standing

rejecting seats we're experiencing

painful racking piercing feeling due to

exertion

i don't know if you've ever tried doing

a

standing meditation if you do a standing

meditation you need to be standing

by something so you can put your hand on

it

and keep your balance because it's very

easy to lose your balance

when you're doing the standing

meditation

and i did that in

i think i was in thailand at the time it

might have been malaysia i'm not sure

but i've been standing for about an hour

without moving and there's real

burning in the feet that start to happen

and it gets quite unpleasant

and while i was doing the standing

meditation

there was it was a non-poisonous snake

but a snake started to come up my leg

and i wasn't particularly uh

enthusiastic about that happening

so i bent over and i put my hand down

like this and i said

no you you have to go someplace else

and the snake turned around and left

not a pleasant experience so i decided

that if i was going to do a standing

meditation i would do it inside rather

than outside

anyway there are a lot of

painful racking piercing feelings due

to the exertion of standing in one place

and not moving

then when it was evening i rose from

meditation and went to the nigantas

there

i asked them friends why do you practice

continuous standing

rejecting seats and experience painful

racking piercing feelings

due to exertion

when this was said they replied friend

the niganta naputa

is omnipotent and all

seeing and claims to have complete

knowledge and vision thus

whether i am walking

pages stuck together standing

asleep or awake knowledge and vision

are continuously uninterruptedly

present in me he says

thus nigantas

you have done evil actions in the past

exhaust them with the performance of

piercing

austerities and

when you are here and now restrained in

body speech

and mind that is doing no

evil actions for the future

so by annihilating with

asceticism past actions

and by doing no fresh actions

there will be no consequence in the

future

so that's how they thought they were

purifying themselves

by doing this practice now every 10

years

all of the holy men get together along

the ganges

and for about i guess it's about

two months something like that

they get together and discuss their own

practice and show off their practices

and i i haven't seen that personally but

i saw

newsweek that they were doing a story on

that and they

showed a guy that had been standing on

one leg

only he had this other leg pulled up

into his groin area and he'd been doing

that for a month

and he thought he was going to become

awakened because of that

because of the extreme pain that

happened

he didn't break that

even when he slept he slept

in a standing posture

that's what it said in in the newscast

i'm not sure whether that's really true

or not

so that was that was why

they were doing these austerities you

hear austerities of people laying down

on nail beds

and uh

on the hottest day of the year they put

fires all around them and stayed in the

middle

so that they suffered and then when it

was cold season they would go up into

the mountains and

and stay with nothing but a loin cloth

in this cold shadowy place

and they think that they can get

awakened by causing these kind of pains

so that they can go beyond the pain

that doesn't work

but that's their belief

with no consequence in the future there

is the destruction of action

with the destruction of action there is

destruction

of suffering

with the destruction of suffering there

is the destruction of feeling

with the destruction of feeling all

suffering will be exhausted

this is the doctrine we approve and

accept and we

are satisfied with it

so what's the buddha gonna say to that

been there done that doesn't work

and some some of these guys with their

austerities they

they hold their hand up above their head

all the time and after a period of time

the blood starts to settle and doesn't

go up into the hand anymore

and it gets extremely painful

and if they bring their their hand down

it's the blood getting to the

uh to the arm that's

really very very painful tried it for

about

one day

decided that doesn't work

but i'm somebody that doesn't

particularly like to have

pain that's why

when i tell you to sit you can sit on

the floor if you want

and i told this to a lot of people in

india they're used to sitting on the

floor

and they can sit for 15 or 20 minutes

and then they start moving around

because it's uncomfortable so i say well

don't sit on the floor sit on a

cushion or sit on a chair

and they have this idea in india

that if you sit in a chair you can't

meditate

and they were completely surprised when

they didn't have

a lot of pain and they could sit still

for longer and longer periods of time

and they felt like they were progressing

in the meditation

and they were

when i was told by my

teacher that i should be sitting more

than four hours without

moving and i started doing that

there was such extreme pain it was

unbelievable

and that would last for an hour hour and

a half sometimes two hours

and then that pain would go away and i'd

be able to sit

for even longer without any pain

but then i would finally get up

and start walking very very slowly

because the pain had come back there was

just a short period of time that there

was no pain

maybe an hour or so and then the pain

came back

and i i couldn't see the advantage of

continually sitting in this pain

this is why i have big problems with my

legs right now

because of

sitting and forcing myself to sit

when i was sitting on the floor

i was forcing myself to sit for long

periods of time and i'd develop blood

clots

of which there's still after 20 years of

trying to fix it there's still

problems with my legs

anyway

when this was said i told them but

friends

do you know that you existed in the past

and that is not the case that

you did not exist

no friend but friend

do you know that you did evil

actions in the past and did not abstain

from

it from them no

friend but friends do you know that you

did such and such

evil actions

no friend but friends

do you know that so much suffering has

already been

exhausted or that so much suffering has

still

to be exhausted

or that when so much suffering

has been exhausted all suffering

that will have been exhausted

no friend but friends do you know

what the abandoning of unwholesome

states is

and what the cultivation of wholesome

states is here

and now so he asked him all these

questions

are you taking this on blind face

or do you know from your direct

experience

and they didn't know from their direct

experience they were just believing

what their quote guru said

now this is one of the reasons that i

try to tell you

and when you're in retreat over and over

again

is that you don't need

a guru

you are your own teacher

you're teaching yourself

what wholesome is when unwholesome is

you're teaching yourself more and more

clearly

how this process of what we call

life actually works

and you're teaching yourself

so you don't have to blindly follow

what the guru says

a lot of people they get very caught up

in their loyalty to the guru

and i'll do anything that he says

but is there advantage to that

it might be the right path you're on it

might not be

how do you know you know

through your own direct experience

that's what the meditation is here to

teach you

how to teach yourself

when you see that you're causing

yourself pain and suffering

what's the best way to let it go

laugh

sorry you just heard a bill

is is is that

one of the ways that you can let go of

your pain and suffering

well yeah along with

using your six arms

so i try to encourage you to with your

daily activity

i want you to smile more

and i'm not talking about smiling with

your lips

i'm talking about smiling in your mind

lightly lightly

smile with your mind

that improves your mindfulness

you see more and more clearly when a

hindrance starts to arise

you can let it go without getting

involved with it

now a hindrance is a hindrance because

you you break this simple

recommendation and you take it

personally

and that causes more and more suffering

you start to teach yourself

more and more clearly the need to

keep your precepts without breaking them

i know one man that he said when he was

very young

a kitten got run over by a car

but it was still awake and he thought

that it was compassionate

to kill the chicken or kill the kitten

so he took the kitten to a bucket of

water

started to put the kitten in the bucket

of water and got scratched very

very deeply

but he still carried on with that belief

and to this day he is suffering

because of that identification

with the wrong belief in a personal self

so the more you can

keep your precepts and you will start

teaching yourself more and more

about the

necessity

of keeping your precepts

the closer you keep your precepts when

you start sitting in meditation your

mind goes very deep very quickly

and that's one of the advantages of

keeping that

so so friend it seems that you do not

know

that you existed in the past

and that is not the case that you did

not exist

or that you

did evil actions in the past

and did not abstain from them

or that you did such in such evil

actions

or that so much suffering has already

been

exhausted or that so much suffering

still has to be exhausted

or when that so much suffering

has been exhausted all suffering

will have been exhausted

or what the abandoning of unwholesome

states

is this is pretty amazing

and what the cultivation of wholesome

states is here and now

that being so those who are murderers

bloody handed evil doers

in the world when they are reborn among

human beings

go forth into the homelessness as

nigantas

fran gotema pleasure is not to be gained

through

pleasure pleasure is to be gained

through

pain interesting idea

so i had one student

that he called me up one time

and he started telling me about how he

was suffering with his hindrances and

how

he really got into the pain of it

so i told him oh good

you want pain now what i want you to do

is i want you to take your shoes and

socks off

i want you to walk outside and find a

nice sized

tree and kick it as hard as you can

with your toes

then you're gonna know what pain is

and when i told him to do that he

started laughing at how absurd it was

and as soon as he left he didn't

have the hindrance

it faded away and i told him now you use

your six arms

and he was very thankful for that that

lesson

i was i was really anxious to see if he

would do it

but you gotta sometimes you have to

recommend

as a guide you have to recommend some

things that are

completely bizarre

so that you can see whether the person

is willing to do it or not

or they'll use that as a lesson

to

[Music]

see the absurdity of the whole thing

for when we're pleasure to be gained

through pleasure

then king bimbasara

would gain pleasure since he abides in

greater pleasure

than any general than any

than than a venerable gotama excuse me

surely the venerable nagantas

this is a sect

that's still alive in

in india and they they really do get off

on causing themselves all kinds of

severe asceticism and it's very painful

the things that they come up with

when it comes time they have certain

times of the year that they stop eating

and then they start eating after a

couple of weeks and then they eat

uh one meal one

go to one place for alms around

and eat one small bowl of rice or

whatever is

is offered and then they start working

it up

to two places then the three and

up to seven and they gain back their

strength

but it's a very painful kind of practice

not highly recommended

surely the venerable negotias have

uttered those words rashly

without reflection

rather it is i who

taught to be asked

who abides in greater pleasure

king bimbasara or the venerable gotama

surely friend gotama we utter these

words rashly

in without reflection

but let that be now we ask the venerable

gotama

who abides in greater pleasure

king bimbasara magadaha or the venerable

gotama then fringe

i shall ask you a question in return

answer as you like what do you think

friends

can king bin basara of manga davai

magdaha abide without

moving his body or uttering a word

experiencing the peak of pleasure

for seven days and nights

interesting question no

venerable sir can king bimbasara of

magatapa

abide without moving his body

or utter a word experiencing the peak of

pleasure

for six five four three

two one day and night

no friend but friend

i can abide without moving my body or

uttering a word

experiencing the peak of pleasure

for one day and night

for two three four five six

nights for seven

days and seven nights

what do you think friends that being so

who dwells in the greater pleasure king

bimbasaram

or i now he's talking about getting into

nirota samapati

and this is a state that has no

consciousness in it

so this is like the highest kind of

relief

that you can experience

and when you sit for a long period of

time

and you come out of that state

it's like you've only been sitting for

10 or 20 minutes

and your mind is

exceptionally clear and bright

and alert and the radiance that comes

off of your face

is very bright

it's quite an interesting experience

i'm not saying that i have that

experience i'm just saying it's an

interesting experience

i asked uh one of my teachers

deepama why do you do that

why do you sit for seven days without

moving

and she said one word

relief think of all the relief

of not having thoughts distracting you

not having any disturbance distract you

and your body is very well

healthy

makes me think i want to have that

happen right now

maybe we'll try

but your mind is so clear it's like

your mind got erased

from all the things that are worldly and

bothered you

now you sit in this state for a long

period of time

it is the highest pleasure that you can

experience

okay

that being so the venerable gotama

abides in greater pleasure than the king

bimbasara of magda

that's what the blessed one said

mahanama

of the the sakeans was satisfied and

delighted in the blessed one's words

an interesting thing with uh

mahanama

as the king's father was dying

on his bed they were looking for

somebody to take his place and they were

thinking maybe it was

uh devadatta would take his place

but instead of being there with the

is his fa his father

uh he went to a pleasure garden and he

started drinking alcohol and

gala venting around

and then came back just as his father

was dying and his father

saw what a mess he was and he declined

to

allow devadatta to

become king

mahanama at that time was

with the buddha the whole time that the

buddha was with his father

he was a monk he had ordained

and after the king's

father died the buddha said we have to

we have to find someone to take his

place

that is very moral and

upstanding and that people would follow

him

as long as he was doing wholesome things

and they couldn't think of anyone

and then the buddha gave the suggestion

that

mahanama disrobe and take over

as the king of the realm

and he did so you hear

stories about mahanama and other suttas

that is so that you understand that

he was now king and he

he ruled very righteously

over over the realms that

that he had his kingdom

story along alongside

uh

so you have some information about who

some of these

different people are then

let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shared all grief and

may all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have just acquired for the

acquisition of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

[Music]

so i have a good week keep your

six hours rolling along okay

thank you one day thank you thank you

thank you

you

[Music]

okay

last week

i did a suit to number 13

which was the

the greater discourse on the mass of

suffering

this week i'm going to do suta number

14. which is the shorter discourse

on the mass of suffering

now an interesting thing that happens

with the suttas

when you have a greater greater

discourse it's not very long

but when you have a shorter discourse

it's quite a bit bigger and why that is

i haven't been able to figure out

anyway

that's what i heard on yeah

okay says if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in masakian

country

of cape bellavatu in nigrodis park

then mahanama the sakian

[Music]

mahanama when the buddha's father

died mahanama took over for him

so mahanama the sake went to the blessed

one

after paying homage to him sat down at

one side and said venerable sir i have

long

understood the dhamma taught by the

blessed one thus

greed is an imperfection that defiles

mind

hate is an imperfection that defiles

mind

delusion is an imperfection that files

defiles mind

now again

every time you hear

greed hate and delusion

that is another way of describing

[Music]

craving

now in uh in the zen

tradition they call that the three

poisons

but to be quite honest it's not three

poisons it's one

so there is a problem

with that if you don't really understand

that greed hatred and delusion

is another way of describing craving

yet while i understand the dhamma taught

by the blessed one thus

at times states of greed hatred and

delusion

invade my mind and remain

i have wondered venerable sir

what state is still un abandoned by me

internally owing to which at times these

states of greed hate

and delusion invade my mind and remain

good question

mahanama there is still a state

unabandoned by you

internally owing to which at times the

states of

greed hatred and delusion invade your

mind and remain

for were that state already abandoning

you

internally you would not be living the

home life

you would not be enjoying sensual

pleasures

it is because that state is unabandoned

by you internally

that you are living the home life and

enjoying

sensual pleasures

even though a noble disciple has seen

clearly

as it actually is with proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great it is the danger in them

as long as he still does not attend

attain to the rapture and pleasure that

are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful than that

he may still be attracted to sensual

pleasures

but when a noble disciple has seen

clearly as it actually is with proper

wisdom how sensual pleasures

provide little gratification

much suffering and much despair

how great is the danger in them

he attains to the rapture and joy

that are apart from the sensual

pleasures apart from

unwholesome states and to something more

peaceful than that

that's why he is no longer attracted to

sensual pleasures

now what are we talking about here

getting into a jhana

when you experience the drama and you

stay

in that state your mind is pure

how do you get to a pure mind

by using the six r's

and developing your mind so that you can

be in

a jhana even while you're doing your

daily activities

an awful lot of people have the idea

that

jhana

uh suppresses

the hindrances

but when you're practicing twin

like i'm teaching you

you can practice staying in

a jhana the whole time

if you're practicing one pointed

concentration that does suppress the

hindrances

while you have this deep concentration

so the genre is not about concentration

it's about understanding the different

levels of

wisdom and how

you can keep that level with you all the

time

but you have to do a few things

one you have to start smiling

more why

because the smile

improves your mindfulness

and again mindfulness is remembering to

observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another

so you can see a hindrance when your

mindfulness gets a little bit weak for

whatever reason

you can start seeing a hindrance arise

to create hate and delusion the craving

and you can use the six r's to let that

go

to purify your mind

this is one of the reasons that i spend

so much time

trying to tell you about

using the sick the six arms

in your daily activities

you're going to become much more aware

when you keep your precepts without

breaking them

and when your mindfulness gets weak

you'll

recognize that more quickly

and let go of that when you use the six

r's

so there is actually a method to my

madness

as some people think i am really mad

because i keep on talking about the same

thing over and over and over again in

different ways

i'm trying to get you to realize that

you

cause your own pain you cause your own

suffering

and the way to overcome that suffering

is by using the six hours

and changing your perspective

so you're able to see when an emotional

state

starts to come up

and the more you use the six hours with

your daily activity

the deeper your sitting practice becomes

because you're used to keeping them

keeping

the six r's active

so it's a real important thing for you

to realize

that the more you use the six r's

the more you smile and have an uplifted

mind

the less suffering you actually cause

yourself

so keeping that smile means keeping your

mind uplifted

and you become much more aware that

when that hindrance arises

you can see it more clearly

more quickly and let it go by using the

six hours and relaxing that tension

and tightness that

greed hatred and delusion

you're letting it go much more quickly

and this leads to an uplifted mind

all the time

before my awakening while i was still

only an unawakened bodhisattva

i too clearly saw as it actually is with

proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great is the danger in them

but as long as i still did not attain

to the joy and happiness

that are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful than that

i recognized that i still could be

attracted to sensual pleasures

but when i clearly saw as it actually is

with proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great is the danger in them

and i attain to the joy and happiness

that are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful

now there's something more peaceful that

is talking about here

is getting into your equanimity

i did it when you get

into equanimity you start to become

disenchanted with sensual pleasures

how in asia being there for 12 years

i learned that all the asians are very

very attached to food

and they have their favorite foods and

they get excited and their mouth starts

to get saliva

in it and they really they look forward

to being able to eat this

delicious food

well that's part of greed isn't it

and if it doesn't meet their standard

for the quality of food then you get

into

the hatred the aversion the

dissatisfaction

and you're identifying with those

thoughts

and feelings and causing yourself a lot

of suffering

so the more you can really

practice with your daily activities

using the six hours anytime your mind

starts to stray

and get involved in thinking about this

and that

and getting involved with it

and making a big deal out of whether you

get it or you don't get it then

your six ours are your savior

if i can use that word i know it sounds

kind of christian

but they save you from the suffering

that you get

involved with when there is strong likes

and dislikes

and it saves you from the worry and

dissatisfaction

of the first noble truth

sometimes you get what you want and

you're really happy

other times you get what you don't want

and you're

really sad but you're identifying with

this you're taking it personally

and the second noble truth is the cause

of the suffering

and the cause of the suffering is always

the craving

and that taking it personally

many people ask the question about

why am i on the wheel of sansaro

what caused me to be there and the thing

that causes you to be

in this in the autumn a wheel of sansara

that

life death cycle is

because of making a big deal out of

things

taking it personally getting

upset because it doesn't happen the way

you want it to

or it happens too much the way you want

it to

and

that guilty feeling

or remorse

is why the karma

keeps you bound to

the will of sansara the life and death

cycle

the more you can use the six hours with

your daily

activities

the more familiar you become with

how the suffering arises and you start

gaining

more and more balance in your mind

you start gaining more dis-enchantment

and that's not a bad thing it doesn't

mean that you can't

enjoy things

you can see a beautiful flower

or a piece of artwork that you very much

like

and you could admire it and stay

with it without thinking about it

then when you're done

looking at it when you walk away you're

not thinking about

what you had seen but you're staying in

the present

with what there is that arises next

the disenchantment takes the

unwanted excitement

out of life

but you can still very much admire when

i was in uh

when i was in india i went to the

allura caves where there was some of the

most fantastic

uh stone architecture the stone carvings

that i'd ever seen

and i very much admired them

and i stood a long time looking at them

as soon as i walked away they weren't

there anymore

everything changed and then there was

other things that caught my attention

so it's it's a real necessary thing

that you continue

to use your six r's

with your daily activities

and you'll you'll start to notice that

the things that used to bother you that

somebody else did continually

they don't bother you so much anymore

you're changing your perspective

why you get excited about that it's no

big deal

okay and as as you continue

doing that all life becomes

easier excuse me i've got to take my

coat off it's starting to get warm in

here

there

okay and what is the gratification

in the case of sensual pleasures

mahanama there are these five

chords of sensual pleasures

now this too is a danger in the case of

sensual pleasures

a mass of suffering in in

in the life to come

having sensual pleasures as its cause

sensual pleasures as its source sensual

pleasures as

its basis the cause being

simply sensual pleasures

now the the difference between what

almost

all of the other meditation teachers are

teaching you

is this one step of

relaxing letting go of the tension

and tightness in your mind

and in your head when you relax the

tightness in your head

there's a feeling of expansion and

very deep peace but strong

awareness

you're very alert

if you don't use that step of relaxing

you're bringing the craving back to your

object of meditation

so you're not purifying your mind

and this is a major thing

there are a lot of people that do some

meditation in one way or another

and they kind of complain about hitting

a wall

they went so far and that's as far as

they're they're

going to go with that meditation

with what i'm showing you about using

the relaxed step and the six

hours is that there's no more walls

you can continually go deeper and deeper

in your meditation

now i i have a lot of students that have

been doing meditation

for many many years

and

they had had before i started teaching

this

they had complained about just going so

far

and they got into a rut they got into

the

idea that this is where they're going to

go for their meditation

sometimes they do a meditation for one

month sometimes

one month a year sometimes it was two

weeks for a year

but they got into a rut of

expecting the meditation just to go this

far

and then they they came and started

complaining to me about it and i

started showing them how to use the 6rs

and i don't hear that sort of thing

so often anymore i don't hear the

complaint that they're they're stuck in

the rut

and they just go so far and there's

nothing else to see

now when you get into let's say

neither perception or non-perception

your mind is a very quiet space

but there are still some things that can

arise

and you need to teach yourself

not to make a big deal of what it is

that arose

now i've i've had some people tell me

how bored they

are because they're watching nothing

and what is the cause of that

they're bored because their mindfulness

went away they're taking it personally

they're expecting something else

and they don't see this expectation as a

hindrance

which it is

and they'll cut their meditation short

i had one student that she was a great

meditator

getting up to that realm

and then she would

sit for about an hour in neither

perception or non-perception where there

is

no problem at all and then she started

getting hit

with the boredom and she would break her

sitting and get up and start doing stuff

she did this for about three years

and i was trying all different ways to

get her

to understand there's still

more that's deeper than what she had

expected

and i was trying to get her to realize

that

uh she just

expected to get to this state there was

nothing that for her to see

so well i've got other things i'd rather

be doing

finally i had to threaten her

and tell her i wasn't going to be her

teacher anymore unless she started

following what i was telling her

that she had to sit for

three hours or longer

and i gave her one chance

i said it's either that or you can go

find another teacher

and she did it

and she was amazed at how much more

she understood the meditation

she was amazed at

the use of the six r's

and she was seeing how the boredom

is just another form of a hindrance

so

there is no wall that you're gonna hit

except the walls that you put up for

yourself

well i sit every day i sit for two hours

and it's always the same

well i'm sorry it's never the same

it's always different

everything in life is part of

impermanence it's changing

it's a little different and you have to

have this quiet mind to be able to see

that difference

and how you can have all of a sudden

your mind gets to a certain place and it

just takes

a step down and goes deeper and and

you're you're shocked when you see

that well

why did that happen

because you let go of your expectation

you let go of

thinking that things are always going to

stay the same

so it's it's pretty amazing to watch

when people come to me and then they'll

say

you know i finally started sitting

longer and there's a lot more to see

i had no idea

yeah that's really true

now mahanama

on one occasion i was living at rajaga

on the mountain of vultures peak

on that occasion a number of

nigantas living on the black rock

on the slopes of issagilli

we're practicing continuous standing

rejecting seats we're experiencing

painful racking piercing feeling due to

exertion

i don't know if you've ever tried doing

a

standing meditation if you do a standing

meditation you need to be standing

by something so you can put your hand on

it

and keep your balance because it's very

easy to lose your balance

when you're doing the standing

meditation

and i did that in

i think i was in thailand at the time it

might have been malaysia i'm not sure

but i've been standing for about an hour

without moving and there's real

burning in the feet that start to happen

and it gets quite unpleasant

and while i was doing the standing

meditation

there was it was a non-poisonous snake

but a snake started to come up my leg

and i wasn't particularly uh

enthusiastic about that happening

so i bent over and i put my hand down

like this and i said

no you you have to go someplace else

and the snake turned around and left

not a pleasant experience so i decided

that if i was going to do a standing

meditation i would do it inside rather

than outside

anyway there are a lot of

painful racking piercing feelings due

to the exertion of standing in one place

and not moving

then when it was evening i rose from

meditation and went to the nigantas

there

i asked them friends why do you practice

continuous standing

rejecting seats and experience painful

racking piercing feelings

due to exertion

when this was said they replied friend

the niganta naputa

is omnipotent and all

seeing and claims to have complete

knowledge and vision thus

whether i am walking

pages stuck together standing

asleep or awake knowledge and vision

are continuously uninterruptedly

present in me he says

thus nigantas

you have done evil actions in the past

exhaust them with the performance of

piercing

austerities and

when you are here and now restrained in

body speech

and mind that is doing no

evil actions for the future

so by annihilating with

asceticism past actions

and by doing no fresh actions

there will be no consequence in the

future

so that's how they thought they were

purifying themselves

by doing this practice now every 10

years

all of the holy men get together along

the ganges

and for about i guess it's about

two months something like that

they get together and discuss their own

practice and show off their practices

and i i haven't seen that personally but

i saw

newsweek that they were doing a story on

that and they

showed a guy that had been standing on

one leg

only he had this other leg pulled up

into his groin area and he'd been doing

that for a month

and he thought he was going to become

awakened because of that

because of the extreme pain that

happened

he didn't break that

even when he slept he slept

in a standing posture

that's what it said in in the newscast

i'm not sure whether that's really true

or not

so that was that was why

they were doing these austerities you

hear austerities of people laying down

on nail beds

and uh

on the hottest day of the year they put

fires all around them and stayed in the

middle

so that they suffered and then when it

was cold season they would go up into

the mountains and

and stay with nothing but a loin cloth

in this cold shadowy place

and they think that they can get

awakened by causing these kind of pains

so that they can go beyond the pain

that doesn't work

but that's their belief

with no consequence in the future there

is the destruction of action

with the destruction of action there is

destruction

of suffering

with the destruction of suffering there

is the destruction of feeling

with the destruction of feeling all

suffering will be exhausted

this is the doctrine we approve and

accept and we

are satisfied with it

so what's the buddha gonna say to that

been there done that doesn't work

and some some of these guys with their

austerities they

they hold their hand up above their head

all the time and after a period of time

the blood starts to settle and doesn't

go up into the hand anymore

and it gets extremely painful

and if they bring their their hand down

it's the blood getting to the

uh to the arm that's

really very very painful tried it for

about

one day

decided that doesn't work

but i'm somebody that doesn't

particularly like to have

pain that's why

when i tell you to sit you can sit on

the floor if you want

and i told this to a lot of people in

india they're used to sitting on the

floor

and they can sit for 15 or 20 minutes

and then they start moving around

because it's uncomfortable so i say well

don't sit on the floor sit on a

cushion or sit on a chair

and they have this idea in india

that if you sit in a chair you can't

meditate

and they were completely surprised when

they didn't have

a lot of pain and they could sit still

for longer and longer periods of time

and they felt like they were progressing

in the meditation

and they were

when i was told by my

teacher that i should be sitting more

than four hours without

moving and i started doing that

there was such extreme pain it was

unbelievable

and that would last for an hour hour and

a half sometimes two hours

and then that pain would go away and i'd

be able to sit

for even longer without any pain

but then i would finally get up

and start walking very very slowly

because the pain had come back there was

just a short period of time that there

was no pain

maybe an hour or so and then the pain

came back

and i i couldn't see the advantage of

continually sitting in this pain

this is why i have big problems with my

legs right now

because of

sitting and forcing myself to sit

when i was sitting on the floor

i was forcing myself to sit for long

periods of time and i'd develop blood

clots

of which there's still after 20 years of

trying to fix it there's still

problems with my legs

anyway

when this was said i told them but

friends

do you know that you existed in the past

and that is not the case that

you did not exist

no friend but friend

do you know that you did evil

actions in the past and did not abstain

from

it from them no

friend but friends do you know that you

did such and such

evil actions

no friend but friends

do you know that so much suffering has

already been

exhausted or that so much suffering has

still

to be exhausted

or that when so much suffering

has been exhausted all suffering

that will have been exhausted

no friend but friends do you know

what the abandoning of unwholesome

states is

and what the cultivation of wholesome

states is here

and now so he asked him all these

questions

are you taking this on blind face

or do you know from your direct

experience

and they didn't know from their direct

experience they were just believing

what their quote guru said

now this is one of the reasons that i

try to tell you

and when you're in retreat over and over

again

is that you don't need

a guru

you are your own teacher

you're teaching yourself

what wholesome is when unwholesome is

you're teaching yourself more and more

clearly

how this process of what we call

life actually works

and you're teaching yourself

so you don't have to blindly follow

what the guru says

a lot of people they get very caught up

in their loyalty to the guru

and i'll do anything that he says

but is there advantage to that

it might be the right path you're on it

might not be

how do you know you know

through your own direct experience

that's what the meditation is here to

teach you

how to teach yourself

when you see that you're causing

yourself pain and suffering

what's the best way to let it go

laugh

sorry you just heard a bill

is is is that

one of the ways that you can let go of

your pain and suffering

well yeah along with

using your six arms

so i try to encourage you to with your

daily activity

i want you to smile more

and i'm not talking about smiling with

your lips

i'm talking about smiling in your mind

lightly lightly

smile with your mind

that improves your mindfulness

you see more and more clearly when a

hindrance starts to arise

you can let it go without getting

involved with it

now a hindrance is a hindrance because

you you break this simple

recommendation and you take it

personally

and that causes more and more suffering

you start to teach yourself

more and more clearly the need to

keep your precepts without breaking them

i know one man that he said when he was

very young

a kitten got run over by a car

but it was still awake and he thought

that it was compassionate

to kill the chicken or kill the kitten

so he took the kitten to a bucket of

water

started to put the kitten in the bucket

of water and got scratched very

very deeply

but he still carried on with that belief

and to this day he is suffering

because of that identification

with the wrong belief in a personal self

so the more you can

keep your precepts and you will start

teaching yourself more and more

about the

necessity

of keeping your precepts

the closer you keep your precepts when

you start sitting in meditation your

mind goes very deep very quickly

and that's one of the advantages of

keeping that

so so friend it seems that you do not

know

that you existed in the past

and that is not the case that you did

not exist

or that you

did evil actions in the past

and did not abstain from them

or that you did such in such evil

actions

or that so much suffering has already

been

exhausted or that so much suffering

still has to be exhausted

or when that so much suffering

has been exhausted all suffering

will have been exhausted

or what the abandoning of unwholesome

states

is this is pretty amazing

and what the cultivation of wholesome

states is here and now

that being so those who are murderers

bloody handed evil doers

in the world when they are reborn among

human beings

go forth into the homelessness as

nigantas

fran gotema pleasure is not to be gained

through

pleasure pleasure is to be gained

through

pain interesting idea

so i had one student

that he called me up one time

and he started telling me about how he

was suffering with his hindrances and

how

he really got into the pain of it

so i told him oh good

you want pain now what i want you to do

is i want you to take your shoes and

socks off

i want you to walk outside and find a

nice sized

tree and kick it as hard as you can

with your toes

then you're gonna know what pain is

and when i told him to do that he

started laughing at how absurd it was

and as soon as he left he didn't

have the hindrance

it faded away and i told him now you use

your six arms

and he was very thankful for that that

lesson

i was i was really anxious to see if he

would do it

but you gotta sometimes you have to

recommend

as a guide you have to recommend some

things that are

completely bizarre

so that you can see whether the person

is willing to do it or not

or they'll use that as a lesson

to

[Music]

see the absurdity of the whole thing

for when we're pleasure to be gained

through pleasure

then king bimbasara

would gain pleasure since he abides in

greater pleasure

than any general than any

than than a venerable gotama excuse me

surely the venerable nagantas

this is a sect

that's still alive in

in india and they they really do get off

on causing themselves all kinds of

severe asceticism and it's very painful

the things that they come up with

when it comes time they have certain

times of the year that they stop eating

and then they start eating after a

couple of weeks and then they eat

uh one meal one

go to one place for alms around

and eat one small bowl of rice or

whatever is

is offered and then they start working

it up

to two places then the three and

up to seven and they gain back their

strength

but it's a very painful kind of practice

not highly recommended

surely the venerable negotias have

uttered those words rashly

without reflection

rather it is i who

taught to be asked

who abides in greater pleasure

king bimbasara or the venerable gotama

surely friend gotama we utter these

words rashly

in without reflection

but let that be now we ask the venerable

gotama

who abides in greater pleasure

king bimbasara magadaha or the venerable

gotama then fringe

i shall ask you a question in return

answer as you like what do you think

friends

can king bin basara of manga davai

magdaha abide without

moving his body or uttering a word

experiencing the peak of pleasure

for seven days and nights

interesting question no

venerable sir can king bimbasara of

magatapa

abide without moving his body

or utter a word experiencing the peak of

pleasure

for six five four three

two one day and night

no friend but friend

i can abide without moving my body or

uttering a word

experiencing the peak of pleasure

for one day and night

for two three four five six

nights for seven

days and seven nights

what do you think friends that being so

who dwells in the greater pleasure king

bimbasaram

or i now he's talking about getting into

nirota samapati

and this is a state that has no

consciousness in it

so this is like the highest kind of

relief

that you can experience

and when you sit for a long period of

time

and you come out of that state

it's like you've only been sitting for

10 or 20 minutes

and your mind is

exceptionally clear and bright

and alert and the radiance that comes

off of your face

is very bright

it's quite an interesting experience

i'm not saying that i have that

experience i'm just saying it's an

interesting experience

i asked uh one of my teachers

deepama why do you do that

why do you sit for seven days without

moving

and she said one word

relief think of all the relief

of not having thoughts distracting you

not having any disturbance distract you

and your body is very well

healthy

makes me think i want to have that

happen right now

maybe we'll try

but your mind is so clear it's like

your mind got erased

from all the things that are worldly and

bothered you

now you sit in this state for a long

period of time

it is the highest pleasure that you can

experience

okay

that being so the venerable gotama

abides in greater pleasure than the king

bimbasara of magda

that's what the blessed one said

mahanama

of the the sakeans was satisfied and

delighted in the blessed one's words

an interesting thing with uh

mahanama

as the king's father was dying

on his bed they were looking for

somebody to take his place and they were

thinking maybe it was

uh devadatta would take his place

but instead of being there with the

is his fa his father

uh he went to a pleasure garden and he

started drinking alcohol and

gala venting around

and then came back just as his father

was dying and his father

saw what a mess he was and he declined

to

allow devadatta to

become king

mahanama at that time was

with the buddha the whole time that the

buddha was with his father

he was a monk he had ordained

and after the king's

father died the buddha said we have to

we have to find someone to take his

place

that is very moral and

upstanding and that people would follow

him

as long as he was doing wholesome things

and they couldn't think of anyone

and then the buddha gave the suggestion

that

mahanama disrobe and take over

as the king of the realm

and he did so you hear

stories about mahanama and other suttas

that is so that you understand that

he was now king and he

he ruled very righteously

over over the realms that

that he had his kingdom

story along alongside

uh

so you have some information about who

some of these

different people are then

let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shared all grief and

may all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have just acquired for the

acquisition of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

[Music]

so i have a good week keep your

six hours rolling along okay

thank you one day thank you thank you

thank you

you

[Music]

okay

last week

i did a suit to number 13

which was the

the greater discourse on the mass of

suffering

this week i'm going to do suta number

14. which is the shorter discourse

on the mass of suffering

now an interesting thing that happens

with the suttas

when you have a greater greater

discourse it's not very long

but when you have a shorter discourse

it's quite a bit bigger and why that is

i haven't been able to figure out

anyway

that's what i heard on yeah

okay says if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in masakian

country

of cape bellavatu in nigrodis park

then mahanama the sakian

[Music]

mahanama when the buddha's father

died mahanama took over for him

so mahanama the sake went to the blessed

one

after paying homage to him sat down at

one side and said venerable sir i have

long

understood the dhamma taught by the

blessed one thus

greed is an imperfection that defiles

mind

hate is an imperfection that defiles

mind

delusion is an imperfection that files

defiles mind

now again

every time you hear

greed hate and delusion

that is another way of describing

[Music]

craving

now in uh in the zen

tradition they call that the three

poisons

but to be quite honest it's not three

poisons it's one

so there is a problem

with that if you don't really understand

that greed hatred and delusion

is another way of describing craving

yet while i understand the dhamma taught

by the blessed one thus

at times states of greed hatred and

delusion

invade my mind and remain

i have wondered venerable sir

what state is still un abandoned by me

internally owing to which at times these

states of greed hate

and delusion invade my mind and remain

good question

mahanama there is still a state

unabandoned by you

internally owing to which at times the

states of

greed hatred and delusion invade your

mind and remain

for were that state already abandoning

you

internally you would not be living the

home life

you would not be enjoying sensual

pleasures

it is because that state is unabandoned

by you internally

that you are living the home life and

enjoying

sensual pleasures

even though a noble disciple has seen

clearly

as it actually is with proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great it is the danger in them

as long as he still does not attend

attain to the rapture and pleasure that

are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful than that

he may still be attracted to sensual

pleasures

but when a noble disciple has seen

clearly as it actually is with proper

wisdom how sensual pleasures

provide little gratification

much suffering and much despair

how great is the danger in them

he attains to the rapture and joy

that are apart from the sensual

pleasures apart from

unwholesome states and to something more

peaceful than that

that's why he is no longer attracted to

sensual pleasures

now what are we talking about here

getting into a jhana

when you experience the drama and you

stay

in that state your mind is pure

how do you get to a pure mind

by using the six r's

and developing your mind so that you can

be in

a jhana even while you're doing your

daily activities

an awful lot of people have the idea

that

jhana

uh suppresses

the hindrances

but when you're practicing twin

like i'm teaching you

you can practice staying in

a jhana the whole time

if you're practicing one pointed

concentration that does suppress the

hindrances

while you have this deep concentration

so the genre is not about concentration

it's about understanding the different

levels of

wisdom and how

you can keep that level with you all the

time

but you have to do a few things

one you have to start smiling

more why

because the smile

improves your mindfulness

and again mindfulness is remembering to

observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another

so you can see a hindrance when your

mindfulness gets a little bit weak for

whatever reason

you can start seeing a hindrance arise

to create hate and delusion the craving

and you can use the six r's to let that

go

to purify your mind

this is one of the reasons that i spend

so much time

trying to tell you about

using the sick the six arms

in your daily activities

you're going to become much more aware

when you keep your precepts without

breaking them

and when your mindfulness gets weak

you'll

recognize that more quickly

and let go of that when you use the six

r's

so there is actually a method to my

madness

as some people think i am really mad

because i keep on talking about the same

thing over and over and over again in

different ways

i'm trying to get you to realize that

you

cause your own pain you cause your own

suffering

and the way to overcome that suffering

is by using the six hours

and changing your perspective

so you're able to see when an emotional

state

starts to come up

and the more you use the six hours with

your daily activity

the deeper your sitting practice becomes

because you're used to keeping them

keeping

the six r's active

so it's a real important thing for you

to realize

that the more you use the six r's

the more you smile and have an uplifted

mind

the less suffering you actually cause

yourself

so keeping that smile means keeping your

mind uplifted

and you become much more aware that

when that hindrance arises

you can see it more clearly

more quickly and let it go by using the

six hours and relaxing that tension

and tightness that

greed hatred and delusion

you're letting it go much more quickly

and this leads to an uplifted mind

all the time

before my awakening while i was still

only an unawakened bodhisattva

i too clearly saw as it actually is with

proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great is the danger in them

but as long as i still did not attain

to the joy and happiness

that are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful than that

i recognized that i still could be

attracted to sensual pleasures

but when i clearly saw as it actually is

with proper wisdom

how sensual pleasures provide little

gratification

much suffering and much despair

and how great is the danger in them

and i attain to the joy and happiness

that are apart from sensual pleasures

apart from unwholesome states

or to something more peaceful

now there's something more peaceful that

is talking about here

is getting into your equanimity

i did it when you get

into equanimity you start to become

disenchanted with sensual pleasures

how in asia being there for 12 years

i learned that all the asians are very

very attached to food

and they have their favorite foods and

they get excited and their mouth starts

to get saliva

in it and they really they look forward

to being able to eat this

delicious food

well that's part of greed isn't it

and if it doesn't meet their standard

for the quality of food then you get

into

the hatred the aversion the

dissatisfaction

and you're identifying with those

thoughts

and feelings and causing yourself a lot

of suffering

so the more you can really

practice with your daily activities

using the six hours anytime your mind

starts to stray

and get involved in thinking about this

and that

and getting involved with it

and making a big deal out of whether you

get it or you don't get it then

your six ours are your savior

if i can use that word i know it sounds

kind of christian

but they save you from the suffering

that you get

involved with when there is strong likes

and dislikes

and it saves you from the worry and

dissatisfaction

of the first noble truth

sometimes you get what you want and

you're really happy

other times you get what you don't want

and you're

really sad but you're identifying with

this you're taking it personally

and the second noble truth is the cause

of the suffering

and the cause of the suffering is always

the craving

and that taking it personally

many people ask the question about

why am i on the wheel of sansaro

what caused me to be there and the thing

that causes you to be

in this in the autumn a wheel of sansara

that

life death cycle is

because of making a big deal out of

things

taking it personally getting

upset because it doesn't happen the way

you want it to

or it happens too much the way you want

it to

and

that guilty feeling

or remorse

is why the karma

keeps you bound to

the will of sansara the life and death

cycle

the more you can use the six hours with

your daily

activities

the more familiar you become with

how the suffering arises and you start

gaining

more and more balance in your mind

you start gaining more dis-enchantment

and that's not a bad thing it doesn't

mean that you can't

enjoy things

you can see a beautiful flower

or a piece of artwork that you very much

like

and you could admire it and stay

with it without thinking about it

then when you're done

looking at it when you walk away you're

not thinking about

what you had seen but you're staying in

the present

with what there is that arises next

the disenchantment takes the

unwanted excitement

out of life

but you can still very much admire when

i was in uh

when i was in india i went to the

allura caves where there was some of the

most fantastic

uh stone architecture the stone carvings

that i'd ever seen

and i very much admired them

and i stood a long time looking at them

as soon as i walked away they weren't

there anymore

everything changed and then there was

other things that caught my attention

so it's it's a real necessary thing

that you continue

to use your six r's

with your daily activities

and you'll you'll start to notice that

the things that used to bother you that

somebody else did continually

they don't bother you so much anymore

you're changing your perspective

why you get excited about that it's no

big deal

okay and as as you continue

doing that all life becomes

easier excuse me i've got to take my

coat off it's starting to get warm in

here

there

okay and what is the gratification

in the case of sensual pleasures

mahanama there are these five

chords of sensual pleasures

now this too is a danger in the case of

sensual pleasures

a mass of suffering in in

in the life to come

having sensual pleasures as its cause

sensual pleasures as its source sensual

pleasures as

its basis the cause being

simply sensual pleasures

now the the difference between what

almost

all of the other meditation teachers are

teaching you

is this one step of

relaxing letting go of the tension

and tightness in your mind

and in your head when you relax the

tightness in your head

there's a feeling of expansion and

very deep peace but strong

awareness

you're very alert

if you don't use that step of relaxing

you're bringing the craving back to your

object of meditation

so you're not purifying your mind

and this is a major thing

there are a lot of people that do some

meditation in one way or another

and they kind of complain about hitting

a wall

they went so far and that's as far as

they're they're

going to go with that meditation

with what i'm showing you about using

the relaxed step and the six

hours is that there's no more walls

you can continually go deeper and deeper

in your meditation

now i i have a lot of students that have

been doing meditation

for many many years

and

they had had before i started teaching

this

they had complained about just going so

far

and they got into a rut they got into

the

idea that this is where they're going to

go for their meditation

sometimes they do a meditation for one

month sometimes

one month a year sometimes it was two

weeks for a year

but they got into a rut of

expecting the meditation just to go this

far

and then they they came and started

complaining to me about it and i

started showing them how to use the 6rs

and i don't hear that sort of thing

so often anymore i don't hear the

complaint that they're they're stuck in

the rut

and they just go so far and there's

nothing else to see

now when you get into let's say

neither perception or non-perception

your mind is a very quiet space

but there are still some things that can

arise

and you need to teach yourself

not to make a big deal of what it is

that arose

now i've i've had some people tell me

how bored they

are because they're watching nothing

and what is the cause of that

they're bored because their mindfulness

went away they're taking it personally

they're expecting something else

and they don't see this expectation as a

hindrance

which it is

and they'll cut their meditation short

i had one student that she was a great

meditator

getting up to that realm

and then she would

sit for about an hour in neither

perception or non-perception where there

is

no problem at all and then she started

getting hit

with the boredom and she would break her

sitting and get up and start doing stuff

she did this for about three years

and i was trying all different ways to

get her

to understand there's still

more that's deeper than what she had

expected

and i was trying to get her to realize

that

uh she just

expected to get to this state there was

nothing that for her to see

so well i've got other things i'd rather

be doing

finally i had to threaten her

and tell her i wasn't going to be her

teacher anymore unless she started

following what i was telling her

that she had to sit for

three hours or longer

and i gave her one chance

i said it's either that or you can go

find another teacher

and she did it

and she was amazed at how much more

she understood the meditation

she was amazed at

the use of the six r's

and she was seeing how the boredom

is just another form of a hindrance

so

there is no wall that you're gonna hit

except the walls that you put up for

yourself

well i sit every day i sit for two hours

and it's always the same

well i'm sorry it's never the same

it's always different

everything in life is part of

impermanence it's changing

it's a little different and you have to

have this quiet mind to be able to see

that difference

and how you can have all of a sudden

your mind gets to a certain place and it

just takes

a step down and goes deeper and and

you're you're shocked when you see

that well

why did that happen

because you let go of your expectation

you let go of

thinking that things are always going to

stay the same

so it's it's pretty amazing to watch

when people come to me and then they'll

say

you know i finally started sitting

longer and there's a lot more to see

i had no idea

yeah that's really true

now mahanama

on one occasion i was living at rajaga

on the mountain of vultures peak

on that occasion a number of

nigantas living on the black rock

on the slopes of issagilli

we're practicing continuous standing

rejecting seats we're experiencing

painful racking piercing feeling due to

exertion

i don't know if you've ever tried doing

a

standing meditation if you do a standing

meditation you need to be standing

by something so you can put your hand on

it

and keep your balance because it's very

easy to lose your balance

when you're doing the standing

meditation

and i did that in

i think i was in thailand at the time it

might have been malaysia i'm not sure

but i've been standing for about an hour

without moving and there's real

burning in the feet that start to happen

and it gets quite unpleasant

and while i was doing the standing

meditation

there was it was a non-poisonous snake

but a snake started to come up my leg

and i wasn't particularly uh

enthusiastic about that happening

so i bent over and i put my hand down

like this and i said

no you you have to go someplace else

and the snake turned around and left

not a pleasant experience so i decided

that if i was going to do a standing

meditation i would do it inside rather

than outside

anyway there are a lot of

painful racking piercing feelings due

to the exertion of standing in one place

and not moving

then when it was evening i rose from

meditation and went to the nigantas

there

i asked them friends why do you practice

continuous standing

rejecting seats and experience painful

racking piercing feelings

due to exertion

when this was said they replied friend

the niganta naputa

is omnipotent and all

seeing and claims to have complete

knowledge and vision thus

whether i am walking

pages stuck together standing

asleep or awake knowledge and vision

are continuously uninterruptedly

present in me he says

thus nigantas

you have done evil actions in the past

exhaust them with the performance of

piercing

austerities and

when you are here and now restrained in

body speech

and mind that is doing no

evil actions for the future

so by annihilating with

asceticism past actions

and by doing no fresh actions

there will be no consequence in the

future

so that's how they thought they were

purifying themselves

by doing this practice now every 10

years

all of the holy men get together along

the ganges

and for about i guess it's about

two months something like that

they get together and discuss their own

practice and show off their practices

and i i haven't seen that personally but

i saw

newsweek that they were doing a story on

that and they

showed a guy that had been standing on

one leg

only he had this other leg pulled up

into his groin area and he'd been doing

that for a month

and he thought he was going to become

awakened because of that

because of the extreme pain that

happened

he didn't break that

even when he slept he slept

in a standing posture

that's what it said in in the newscast

i'm not sure whether that's really true

or not

so that was that was why

they were doing these austerities you

hear austerities of people laying down

on nail beds

and uh

on the hottest day of the year they put

fires all around them and stayed in the

middle

so that they suffered and then when it

was cold season they would go up into

the mountains and

and stay with nothing but a loin cloth

in this cold shadowy place

and they think that they can get

awakened by causing these kind of pains

so that they can go beyond the pain

that doesn't work

but that's their belief

with no consequence in the future there

is the destruction of action

with the destruction of action there is

destruction

of suffering

with the destruction of suffering there

is the destruction of feeling

with the destruction of feeling all

suffering will be exhausted

this is the doctrine we approve and

accept and we

are satisfied with it

so what's the buddha gonna say to that

been there done that doesn't work

and some some of these guys with their

austerities they

they hold their hand up above their head

all the time and after a period of time

the blood starts to settle and doesn't

go up into the hand anymore

and it gets extremely painful

and if they bring their their hand down

it's the blood getting to the

uh to the arm that's

really very very painful tried it for

about

one day

decided that doesn't work

but i'm somebody that doesn't

particularly like to have

pain that's why

when i tell you to sit you can sit on

the floor if you want

and i told this to a lot of people in

india they're used to sitting on the

floor

and they can sit for 15 or 20 minutes

and then they start moving around

because it's uncomfortable so i say well

don't sit on the floor sit on a

cushion or sit on a chair

and they have this idea in india

that if you sit in a chair you can't

meditate

and they were completely surprised when

they didn't have

a lot of pain and they could sit still

for longer and longer periods of time

and they felt like they were progressing

in the meditation

and they were

when i was told by my

teacher that i should be sitting more

than four hours without

moving and i started doing that

there was such extreme pain it was

unbelievable

and that would last for an hour hour and

a half sometimes two hours

and then that pain would go away and i'd

be able to sit

for even longer without any pain

but then i would finally get up

and start walking very very slowly

because the pain had come back there was

just a short period of time that there

was no pain

maybe an hour or so and then the pain

came back

and i i couldn't see the advantage of

continually sitting in this pain

this is why i have big problems with my

legs right now

because of

sitting and forcing myself to sit

when i was sitting on the floor

i was forcing myself to sit for long

periods of time and i'd develop blood

clots

of which there's still after 20 years of

trying to fix it there's still

problems with my legs

anyway

when this was said i told them but

friends

do you know that you existed in the past

and that is not the case that

you did not exist

no friend but friend

do you know that you did evil

actions in the past and did not abstain

from

it from them no

friend but friends do you know that you

did such and such

evil actions

no friend but friends

do you know that so much suffering has

already been

exhausted or that so much suffering has

still

to be exhausted

or that when so much suffering

has been exhausted all suffering

that will have been exhausted

no friend but friends do you know

what the abandoning of unwholesome

states is

and what the cultivation of wholesome

states is here

and now so he asked him all these

questions

are you taking this on blind face

or do you know from your direct

experience

and they didn't know from their direct

experience they were just believing

what their quote guru said

now this is one of the reasons that i

try to tell you

and when you're in retreat over and over

again

is that you don't need

a guru

you are your own teacher

you're teaching yourself

what wholesome is when unwholesome is

you're teaching yourself more and more

clearly

how this process of what we call

life actually works

and you're teaching yourself

so you don't have to blindly follow

what the guru says

a lot of people they get very caught up

in their loyalty to the guru

and i'll do anything that he says

but is there advantage to that

it might be the right path you're on it

might not be

how do you know you know

through your own direct experience

that's what the meditation is here to

teach you

how to teach yourself

when you see that you're causing

yourself pain and suffering

what's the best way to let it go

laugh

sorry you just heard a bill

is is is that

one of the ways that you can let go of

your pain and suffering

well yeah along with

using your six arms

so i try to encourage you to with your

daily activity

i want you to smile more

and i'm not talking about smiling with

your lips

i'm talking about smiling in your mind

lightly lightly

smile with your mind

that improves your mindfulness

you see more and more clearly when a

hindrance starts to arise

you can let it go without getting

involved with it

now a hindrance is a hindrance because

you you break this simple

recommendation and you take it

personally

and that causes more and more suffering

you start to teach yourself

more and more clearly the need to

keep your precepts without breaking them

i know one man that he said when he was

very young

a kitten got run over by a car

but it was still awake and he thought

that it was compassionate

to kill the chicken or kill the kitten

so he took the kitten to a bucket of

water

started to put the kitten in the bucket

of water and got scratched very

very deeply

but he still carried on with that belief

and to this day he is suffering

because of that identification

with the wrong belief in a personal self

so the more you can

keep your precepts and you will start

teaching yourself more and more

about the

necessity

of keeping your precepts

the closer you keep your precepts when

you start sitting in meditation your

mind goes very deep very quickly

and that's one of the advantages of

keeping that

so so friend it seems that you do not

know

that you existed in the past

and that is not the case that you did

not exist

or that you

did evil actions in the past

and did not abstain from them

or that you did such in such evil

actions

or that so much suffering has already

been

exhausted or that so much suffering

still has to be exhausted

or when that so much suffering

has been exhausted all suffering

will have been exhausted

or what the abandoning of unwholesome

states

is this is pretty amazing

and what the cultivation of wholesome

states is here and now

that being so those who are murderers

bloody handed evil doers

in the world when they are reborn among

human beings

go forth into the homelessness as

nigantas

fran gotema pleasure is not to be gained

through

pleasure pleasure is to be gained

through

pain interesting idea

so i had one student

that he called me up one time

and he started telling me about how he

was suffering with his hindrances and

how

he really got into the pain of it

so i told him oh good

you want pain now what i want you to do

is i want you to take your shoes and

socks off

i want you to walk outside and find a

nice sized

tree and kick it as hard as you can

with your toes

then you're gonna know what pain is

and when i told him to do that he

started laughing at how absurd it was

and as soon as he left he didn't

have the hindrance

it faded away and i told him now you use

your six arms

and he was very thankful for that that

lesson

i was i was really anxious to see if he

would do it

but you gotta sometimes you have to

recommend

as a guide you have to recommend some

things that are

completely bizarre

so that you can see whether the person

is willing to do it or not

or they'll use that as a lesson

to

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see the absurdity of the whole thing

for when we're pleasure to be gained

through pleasure

then king bimbasara

would gain pleasure since he abides in

greater pleasure

than any general than any

than than a venerable gotama excuse me

surely the venerable nagantas

this is a sect

that's still alive in

in india and they they really do get off

on causing themselves all kinds of

severe asceticism and it's very painful

the things that they come up with

when it comes time they have certain

times of the year that they stop eating

and then they start eating after a

couple of weeks and then they eat

uh one meal one

go to one place for alms around

and eat one small bowl of rice or

whatever is

is offered and then they start working

it up

to two places then the three and

up to seven and they gain back their

strength

but it's a very painful kind of practice

not highly recommended

surely the venerable negotias have

uttered those words rashly

without reflection

rather it is i who

taught to be asked

who abides in greater pleasure

king bimbasara or the venerable gotama

surely friend gotama we utter these

words rashly

in without reflection

but let that be now we ask the venerable

gotama

who abides in greater pleasure

king bimbasara magadaha or the venerable

gotama then fringe

i shall ask you a question in return

answer as you like what do you think

friends

can king bin basara of manga davai

magdaha abide without

moving his body or uttering a word

experiencing the peak of pleasure

for seven days and nights

interesting question no

venerable sir can king bimbasara of

magatapa

abide without moving his body

or utter a word experiencing the peak of

pleasure

for six five four three

two one day and night

no friend but friend

i can abide without moving my body or

uttering a word

experiencing the peak of pleasure

for one day and night

for two three four five six

nights for seven

days and seven nights

what do you think friends that being so

who dwells in the greater pleasure king

bimbasaram

or i now he's talking about getting into

nirota samapati

and this is a state that has no

consciousness in it

so this is like the highest kind of

relief

that you can experience

and when you sit for a long period of

time

and you come out of that state

it's like you've only been sitting for

10 or 20 minutes

and your mind is

exceptionally clear and bright

and alert and the radiance that comes

off of your face

is very bright

it's quite an interesting experience

i'm not saying that i have that

experience i'm just saying it's an

interesting experience

i asked uh one of my teachers

deepama why do you do that

why do you sit for seven days without

moving

and she said one word

relief think of all the relief

of not having thoughts distracting you

not having any disturbance distract you

and your body is very well

healthy

makes me think i want to have that

happen right now

maybe we'll try

but your mind is so clear it's like

your mind got erased

from all the things that are worldly and

bothered you

now you sit in this state for a long

period of time

it is the highest pleasure that you can

experience

okay

that being so the venerable gotama

abides in greater pleasure than the king

bimbasara of magda

that's what the blessed one said

mahanama

of the the sakeans was satisfied and

delighted in the blessed one's words

an interesting thing with uh

mahanama

as the king's father was dying

on his bed they were looking for

somebody to take his place and they were

thinking maybe it was

uh devadatta would take his place

but instead of being there with the

is his fa his father

uh he went to a pleasure garden and he

started drinking alcohol and

gala venting around

and then came back just as his father

was dying and his father

saw what a mess he was and he declined

to

allow devadatta to

become king

mahanama at that time was

with the buddha the whole time that the

buddha was with his father

he was a monk he had ordained

and after the king's

father died the buddha said we have to

we have to find someone to take his

place

that is very moral and

upstanding and that people would follow

him

as long as he was doing wholesome things

and they couldn't think of anyone

and then the buddha gave the suggestion

that

mahanama disrobe and take over

as the king of the realm

and he did so you hear

stories about mahanama and other suttas

that is so that you understand that

he was now king and he

he ruled very righteously

over over the realms that

that he had his kingdom

story along alongside

uh

so you have some information about who

some of these

different people are then

let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shared all grief and

may all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have just acquired for the

acquisition of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

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so i have a good week keep your

six hours rolling along okay

thank you one day thank you thank you

thank you

you