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

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

[Music]

so you all have a good week

good week yes and everybody sat every

day

almost even got in a

couple two-hour sittings well good

okay are you ready to start

okay so

today i was going to do suit the number

140

the dot 2 v bonga sutta

the exposition of the elements

now this is a long sutta i'm probably

not going to get through it but there

are some points in it that are very

important that you understand

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was wandering through the

maagadahan country and eventually

arrived at raja gaha

there he went to the potter bhagawa

and said to him if it's not inconvenient

for you bagawa

i will stay one night in your workshop

it's not inconvenient for me venerable

sir

but there is a homeless one already

staying there

if he agrees then stay as long as you

like venerable sir

now there was a clansman named pukusati

who had gone forth from the home life

into homelessness

out of faith in the blessed one

on that occasion he was already

staying in the potter's workshop

then the blessed one went to the

venerable pukusati and said to him

if it's not inconvenient for you monk

i will stay one night in the workshop

the potter's workshop is large enough

friend

let the venerable one stay as long as he

likes

then the blessed one entered the

potter's workshop

preparing a spread of grass at one end

and sat down holding his legs

crosswise setting his body erect and

establish mindfulness in front of him

then the blessed one spent most of the

night seated in meditation

and the venerable pukusati also spent

most of the night seated in meditation

then the blessed one thought

this klansman conducts himself in a way

that inspires confidence

suppose i were to question him

so he asked the venerable pukusati

under whom have you gone forth monk

who is your teacher whose dhamma do you

profess

friend there is the recluse gotama the

son of the sakeans who went forth from

the sakian plan

now a good report of that blessed goat

to my has been spread

to this effect that the blessed one

pages got stuck is accomplished

fully awakened perfect and true

knowledge and conduct

sublime knower of worlds incomparable

leader of persons to be tamed

teacher of gods and humans awakened and

blessed

now this particular it's called agatha

it's uh the whole suta

is the good qualities of the buddha

dhamma

and sangha

and one of the advantages of

saying this the good qualities of the

buddha

is that it overcomes fear if you have

any fear arising in your mind

then you start

reciting the good qualities of the

buddha

and the fear will go away

now i had one student that she came to

me

and she said she can't really meditate

because she's afraid to close her eyes

so i had her saying this

before she sat and

after she sat i had her repeating it

now this is suit to number 140

section number six in case you're

looking for it

i did this

particular suta

uh

there's uh you know the the mala beads

that you can use they're counting beads

there's 108 of them

and when you do it correctly it comes

out exactly right

if you make a mistake then you've got to

start all over again until you can get

it correct

now i did nine

times a day nine

repetitions of this sutta

and generally speaking it takes about

15 to 20 minutes to go through that

but i went through nine rounds

nine times in about 10 minutes

because i became so familiar with it i

could just go right through it

my my collected mind was very very

sharp

so this

helps your mind settle down when you

think of the good qualities of the

buddha and

i i uh if if you have the time

to go through it and learn it i

recommend that you do it in pali

the way they do it in sri lanka is they

just go

nine times around

if you do it the burmese style

[Music]

then you do it forwards and backwards

nine times

and that's the way i was doing it

and it does help you overcome any kind

of

restlessness fear anxieties

any sadness it helps a lot with that

when you think of the good qualities of

the buddha so it can be an aid for you

if you run into problems with your

meditation you can do that for a little

while and it will help

i have gone forth under the blessed one

that blessed one is my teacher i profess

the dhamma of that blessed one

now he'd never met the buddha

he was a king of a minor realm

and gave up his kingdom

and became a monk now he was going for

the first time he was going to

go look up the buddha and study with him

but monk where is the blessed one

accomplished and fully awakened

now living there is friend

a city in the northern country named

sawatee

the blessed one accomplished and fully

awakened is now living there

but monk have you ever seen that blessed

one

would you recognize him if you saw him

no friend i've never seen the blessed

one before

nor would i recognize him if i saw him

then the blessed one thought this

clansman has gone forth from the home

life

into homelessness under me

suppose i were to teach him the dhamma

so the blessed one addressed the

venerable puku-satiras

monk i will teach you the dhamma listen

and attend closely to what i shall say

yes friend the venerable pukusati

replied the blessed one said this

monk this person consists of six

elements

six bases of contact 18

kinds of mental exploration

and he has four foundation

the tides of conceiving do not sweep

over

one who stands on these foundations

and when the tides of conceiving no

longer sweep over him

he is called a sage at peace

one should not neglect wisdom these are

the foundations right now

one should not neglect wisdom that means

understanding the

the lengths of dependent origination and

how they work

should preserve truth

should cultivate relinquishment

this is actually meaning the six ours

letting go of craving

and should train for peace

this is a summary of the exposition of

the

six elements

mock this person consists of six

elements so it was said and with

reference to what was this said

there are the earth element the water

element the fire element the air element

and the space element and the

consciousness

element so it is with reference to this

that it was said monks

this person consists of six elements

monk this person consists of six bases

of contact

so it was said

and with reference to what was this said

there are the base of eye contact the

base of

ear contact the base of nose contact the

base of

tongue contact and the base of body

contact

and the base of six mind context excuse

me

so it was with reference to this that it

was said monks

this person consists of six bases of

contact

monk this person consists of 18 kinds of

mental

exploration so it was said

and with reference to what was this said

on seeing a form with the eye

one explores a form with the eye

productive

of joy one explores a form

productive of grief one explores a form

productive of equanimity

on hearing a sound with the ear

unsmelling an odor with the nose

i'm tasting a flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

one explores one of these

uh sense doors productive of

joy one explores these scent stores

productive of grief one explores the sun

stores productive of equanimity

so it was with reference to this that it

was said monk

this person consists of 18 kinds of

mental exploration

monk this person has four foundations so

it was said and with reference to what

was this said

there are the foundation of wisdom

the foundation of truth

the foundation of relinquishment

and the foundation of peace

so it was with reference to this that it

was said

monks this person has four foundations

that's a little bit different than what

most people think of as a four

foundations

one should not neglect wisdom

should preserve truth should cultivate

relinquishment

cultivate the sticks ours

letting go of craving

this is real important

of you can't say one one

foundation is more important than the

others

but the start of the relinquishment

of craving

is something that has to be done often

every time your mind gets distracted you

use a six

hours and come back and you can see

right behind me

we have release relax

re-smile return

repeat

so it's a real important that you

understand

that it's not a sometime practice

you find your mind wandering during the

day just thinking this and that

that there's just nonsense thoughts

use the sex ours and come back

to the smile smiling

during your daily activities improves

your mindfulness

improves your ability to see

clearly

how mind's attention distracts itself

and you let that go and relax

too many times we get involved with our

thoughts

and it mostly has to do with

uh it has to do with

uh

emotional things

which is your habitual tendency

getting caught with likes and dislikes

right now because of the

election that's about to take place an

awful lot of

people get very opinionated one way or

the other

and they start arguing with each other

and then when the

argument is done they go away and then

they keep thinking about it

now one of the things that the buddha

said

that's very important to remember

it is what you think and ponder on

that's the inclination of your mind if

you keep thinking about

one one person or the other and how

you're going to vote and how everybody

else is dumb

because they don't see your point of

view you keep thinking

about that your mind is going to keep

bringing it up

and that takes away from your happiness

you are causing your own pain

by being over

opinionated and

thinking about it over and over and over

again

an awful lot of people are suffering

because of that right now

so don't add to that

relax into that let it be it's not that

important

it's important in a mundane way

but it's not important for your

happiness

it takes away your happiness

you've already made up your mind how

you're gonna what you're gonna do

how you're gonna vote so you don't need

to think about it anymore

you know what you're gonna do so why get

caught up in

talking with other people about it and

getting caught up in likes and dislikes

and then having those same thoughts come

over again

and again and again and cause yourself a

lot of suffering

i just had some people visiting here and

one of the persons was very much

into her disliked

dissatisfaction aversion hatred

because of one person or another that

they had opinions about

and she caused herself immeasurable

amounts of pain

so don't do that to yourself

you've already made up your mind so you

don't need to think about it again and

again

and again that's restlessness and then

you throw a virgin

on top of it so what good is that

one of the things i told this couple

that came is

i don't want you watching tv i don't

want you listening to the radio

i don't want you reading

newspapers because all that does is

make your mind get more opinionated and

you rethink

thoughts over and over and over again

i had one lady that

she read five newspapers every day

outside of a waste of time because

there's not much you really learn

in the newspapers uh

the weather you can learn a little bit

from the comics that's

that's about it so why do you need all

this other stuff

put into your mind so you think about it

the rest of the day

you're causing yourself suffering when i

got her to stop reading the newspapers

all of a sudden she started smiling a

lot more

when i first came back from asia

by the first year or so

everybody that i was teaching i said i

don't want you to read anything

i don't want you to read books i don't

want you to read the newspaper

i don't want you looking at the news

the only thing that's allowable for them

is what i told them

was listen to dhamma talks that i had on

tape

and practice meditation

after a year then i started giving them

little booklets to read about the dhamma

but submerge yourself in the dhamma

and you will be a lot happier

so

so it was said and with reference to

what was this said

how monks does one not neglect wisdom

there are these six elements the earth

element the water element

the fire element the air element the

space

element and the consciousness element

we'll get more into that in a little bit

what monk is the earth element the earth

element

maybe either internal or external what

is the

internal earth element whatever

internally belonging to oneself is solid

solidified

craved and clung to

that is head hairs body hairs tails

knees tails teeth

skin flesh spiny sinews

bones bone marrow kidney heart

liver diaphragm spleen lungs large

intestine

small intestines contents of the stomach

and feces

order whatever else internally belonging

to oneself is solid solidified craved

and clung to

this is called the internal earth

element

now both the internal earth element and

the

external earth element are simply earth

element

and that should be seen as it actually

is with proper

wisdom thus this is not

mine this i am not this is

not myself

now one of the things that you have to

understand

about dependent origination

is is that it's showing you that there

is

no self everything

is an impersonal process

anytime you get caught up in your

opinions and ideas and

uh arguments and whatever

whose opinion whose idea whose argument

is it oh it's mine

and i'm right and they're wrong

but as you see here

there is no part in your body that's you

now i've gone to a few autopsies

and they start cutting it open and

pulling out

the different organs and weighing them

and that sort of thing

well am i my heart am i my brain

where am i

it's just a bunch of parts that are put

together it's no difference between your

body and an automobile where is the

automobile

is it the the

windshield is it the steering wheel

is it the motor where is it

it's a bunch of little parts put

together

and it's the same with your body and

we're going to go through more

parts of your body

and you have to understand when we start

taking these things

personally

we have opinions about them

and those opinions can be right or wrong

it doesn't matter to be quite honest

when we take these things personally

and try to control them

we are causing ourself a lot of

suffering

now if you have lust coming up in your

mind

the way you overcome this is by

looking at these different parts

as if they're just separate in a in a

bowl where are you

in any of these different things

i used to tell my college students

they're of the age where the hormones

are pretty strong

and they see a lot of beauty around and

they get

thinking about it

so they get distracted very easily

so i told them that anytime they saw a

beautiful person walk by

turn them inside out tell me which part

of their body

is really worth lusting after

oh you have a great set of intestines

your liver is wonderful

what's beautiful about that

your body hair or your head hair is oh

it's so beautiful

okay you drop some of your head hair and

soup and then you start eating the soup

and tell me how beautiful the hair is

or you leave it in a bowl for a little

while and smell it

all the perfume that you've been putting

on your hair

disappears very quickly and hair

actually does not smell good

so why do you take it personally

it's up to you

but anytime you spend an over amount

of time

with your thinking about the different

body parts

uh you'll start to get repulsed by it

you start to go ah

i don't want to be thinking about this

this puts your mind

into balance this particular kind of

meditation

is specifically for monks

so they don't have lust arising

when they're dealing with

a different people

so they keep equanimity in their mind

they don't get distracted

so

when one sees it thus as it actually is

with proper wisdom

one becomes disenchanted with the earth

element

disenchantment is a higher

degree of equanimity

now the more the stronger equanimity

comes into your

daily life the more balance you have

the less likely you're gonna have in

getting caught up in disagreements and

arguments

that just won't happen so much it's not

that important

when you get into disenchantment

even things like your favorite foods

where you used to see it and your mouth

would start watering like pavlov's dog

now when you have this enchantment it's

food

yes it's a food that i've enjoyed in the

past

i like this food but there's no

attachment in it

there's no excitement that emotional

hit of adrenaline doesn't happen so much

i have some students that

i call them adren adrenaline junkies

because they get excited about all kinds

of stuff

and then

they get into their emotions and they

start identifying with those emotions

and it's just a big round

uh circle of dukkha

that you get caught up in

so the more you become disenchanted the

less excitement there

is in your mind with that

adrenaline taking off because i like

this part

this is wonderful this is great stuff

when you get to a certain place of

disenchantment your mind

gets into

dispassion so even the slightest

little craving that starts to come up

doesn't cause

excitement to arise in your mind

and a dispassionate mind is very very

close

to a mind that experiences

nibana

and what monk is the water element

the water element may be either internal

or external

what is the internal water element

whatever internally belonging to oneself

is water watery craved and clung

to that is bile

phlegm pus blood sweat

fat tears grease spittles

not oil of the joints urine

or whatever else internally belonging to

oneself

is water watery craved and clung to

that's called the internal water element

now tell me what's pleasurable

about the smell of oh let's say

pus

or phlegm or bile

a lot of these things

that keep your body functioning

really are not pleasant

it's necessary

so you don't like to identify with that

that puts your mind in a state of

balance

instead of a state of lust

or turn somebody inside out and say oh

your pus is really gorgeous

that gives you an idea of your body is

made up of this stuff

what is desirable about it

now this is given to monks this is

this kind of meditation at least the way

the burmese taught it

and that's how i learned it is through

the burmese takes 165 days

of going over and visualizing bowls

of these different body parts

any time i got to the liquid body parts

my mind just oh it repulsed

don't like that at all

and eventually i devein developed a very

strong case of

[Music]

disenchantment

where are you in any of these

different body parts are you there

that was a question that i looked at a

lot

while i was watching the autopsies

because the body was being taken

taken apart

where am i am i in the brain

no the brain is just

a big glob to be quite honest

am i there where is it

where am i

when you start seeing it in this way you

start looking more and more

closely at the impersonal nature of

everything

every part of your body

of all of the characteristics

impermanence suffering

and the impersonal nature the impersonal

nature is the hardest one to really

apply to your daily activities

it's easy to see how things are changing

all the time

but we have a very strong attachment

because of craving

we have a very strong attachment

to the other parts of our body this

is me this is mine this is who i am

and because of that we get caught up

more

and more in the suffering we cause

ourselves

immeasurable oceans and oceans of

suffering

do we do it on purpose no

it happens by itself when the conditions

are right

for it to occur but

craving is such a big thing

that it takes a lot of practice to be

able

one to recognize it as the i like it i

don't like it mine that's a start

of your false belief in a personal self

and to be able to see it

as it actually is it's only this

it's only that it's not me it's not mine

it's not who i am

in the chichaka suta

it repeats that over and over and over

again with all the different parts of

links of dependent origination

it's really quite amazing

and if you listen very attentively

to that suta and see how it applies

and don't get caught up just because it

has a lot of

repetition in it don't get caught up in

a like and dislike or oh i've heard that

before

i have some students that have heard it

maybe 50 times

and they still get insights from it

that suta is very very powerful

and i highly recommend anybody that

wants to do it

to memorize that suta

and you'd be surprised how you

use that suta with your daily activities

to help put yourself

in balance

now the thing with the water element

let your mind be like water

when water is blowing down a creek

and it comes across a boulder or a log

what does it do does it try to push it

out of the way

so it can keep going in the way that it

they will

the water wants it to be going or does

it simply

allow it to be and find a way to get

around it

without taking it personally without

fighting anything

that's why drops is so important

don't resist or push

soften your mind with everything

and smile into it

when you use drops

and

you'll find that your mind starts to get

into a state of equanimity that's

very nice and you stop

taking this kind of stuff

so personally

that's another way of practicing six

hours

relax into it

stop taking things personally

stop involving yourself with the

emotional i

like this i don't like that

the buddha comes across it comes once

every few hundred thousand or million

years it depends on

the situation

you don't realize how lucky you really

are

to be born so close to the time of the

buddha

we're still living in the buddha era

it might not come around again for

well a few hundred thousand years a

million years who knows

when conditions are right another buddha

will appear

so how lucky can you be

you have this dharma

and it's in reasonably good shape

especially when you add your relaxed

step in it

you use the six r's

take advantage of this

i get a lot of uh

[Music]

comments about the buddha

didn't tell you to smile

well he told you to be happy

what is the expression of happiness

smiling and how much are they finding

these days

that a smile affects

your mood it affects the way you see the

world around you

so the more that you can smile the

better your mindfulness becomes the

easier it is to see when you get caught

the easier it is to let go of that

attachment

let your mind be like water

don't resist or push anything out of the

way

don't suppress anything

now one of the definitions of an

arahat in the anguttara nikaya

is he is a person that doesn't

have any secrets

now what does that mean really a person

with no secrets

well i don't have any secrets except

when you broke a precept and you kept

that

personally and it affects the way you

see the world around you

you did something in the past

and you were embarrassed

or you were shocked at the behavior and

you don't want anybody to know that you

did something like that

when you let go of that secret all of a

sudden

everything becomes more clear

more alive

and when you let go

of the secrets

it's easier to attain nibana

means fire so it's letting go

of the fire

uh buddhadasa he was a

thai monk that really affected all of

thailand

because he went around teaching what the

buddha taught

and he did a lot of studying in the

suttas and that sort of thing

and he presented the dhamma in a way

to the the monks who had been getting

into

magic thai magic

it's an undercurrent of buddhism in

in thailand and a lot of people

they they put a lot of

faith in their thai magic

to manifest things and do things like

that

[Music]

and it was during the i i i guess

uh buddha dasa started teaching that

around the 40s

1940s 45

and in the 50s and 60s

and he got people back on the path

of real buddhism

buddhism has its ups and downs

during the time of

buddhigosa who wrote the visudi maga

during that time the monks have gotten

very relaxed they didn't do any

meditation they didn't study

they just went around and did their like

the tie did their tie

magic and

uh astrology

astronomy not astronomy uh

astrology yeah okay

but when he came around he started

saying well the buddha said this and

these the buddha said you need to

practice your generosity

and you need to practice keeping your

precepts

and it was like brand new ideas

now when you keep your preset your mind

starts to be like water

your mind will settle down

your mind will be very collected you

won't have a lot of

distractions

and your meditation is going to be very

good because you won't

have the secret of

whatever it is sometimes the secrets

are not even breaking the precept

sometimes it's just a secret

that you said something or did something

that it wasn't

actually breaking a precept but you feel

embarrassed about it and you don't want

to tell anybody about it

secrets cause you to be hot

because of the craving because you're

taking it personally

so make your mind like water

don't hold on into anything

the second step of the six hours the

release step

is extremely important

an awful lot of people get involved in

uh whatever thought comes up whatever

memory comes up

and they get caught in thinking about it

well that means they have that secret

and they're caught by it and it takes a

while to purify

that the six

r's are the purifying factor of the

eightfold path

sometimes it takes a long time to let go

of some things

now we do a lot of teaching of

forgiveness

and forgiveness is a very powerful tool

of learning

how to have a clear

uncluttered mind uncluttered from past

experiences

fast uh from past being embarrassed

or being shy and not telling somebody

anybody else about what you've gone

through

and that clouds the way you see the

world around you

and when you let that go when you let go

of that

attachment that craving

it becomes much more clear

and alert your mind becomes much more

alert

so it's a make your mind

like water

water doesn't let anything obstruct it

it just keeps on running and finding new

places to

explore as it were but not being

attached to anything

not trying to control anything

one of the biggest problems with craving

is you're trying to hide something

and not let it go what are you trying to

hide

whatever it was that caused that craving

to

stay there you took it personally

you you did something or said something

and you wish you hadn't done it

and then you just kind of oh slough it

off

and think about something else for a

little while

and then you forget about it but then

when you're coming up to the meditation

and the six

hours

why do you think you have such a busy

mind

what's happening here

there's attachment in your mind what is

the attachment it's a craving

it's a secret that you don't want to

tell anybody else

now sometimes women will come to me and

they'll

be very embarrassed because they had an

abortion

and they felt incredibly guilty

so i work with them with forgiveness

and before long they can let go of that

guilty feeling

and that just opens up huge amounts of

space

in your experience so you see

things more clearly you're not looking

through the embarrassment

of a past experience

that's what forgiveness does it's a mind

that has acceptance in it

it's a mind that says okay that happened

fine you don't have to feel guilty about

it anymore

but the thing with secrets is you need

to tell

somebody else what your secret is as

soon as you tell

them it's not a secret anymore

and you're able to let go of

that block that's stopping you from

going deeper

make your mind like water

and the way you do that is by letting go

of secrets

letting go of that embarrassment

or that shyness or that

guilty feeling whatever it is that

causes that

so keep your mind like water

let your mind flow around those

things if it starts to block what

happens if a rock gets in the way

does a water start complaining about it

where it just says it hits hits the rock

and says oop

can't go that way gotta go now go around

and the water will start looking for

another way to go

keep your mind loose like that

and your meditation will get very good

very quickly

now this everything is interrelated with

the things that i'm talking about

if you can let go and let your mind be

like

water that means your

mindfulness gets better

and the whole reason for your smiling

you start seeing oh that's why he wants

me to do it all the time

because it makes that difference

it makes a difference in the way you see

the world

and the way you affect the world

so i start you off with the meditation

in an easy way smile

all the time smile why

improves your mindfulness improves your

mindfulness then you can see

how an obstruction how some kind of

distraction

causes your mind to get caught and then

there's a lot of suffering

so when you improve your mindfulness you

see

that distraction quicker

and you let your mind flow around it

without getting caught up in it

and when you don't feed

something it gets weak and goes away

you feed your mind with or you feed your

distraction

with your thoughts about it and getting

caught up in it

and feeling guilty and ashamed and

whatever

word you want to put on it

but when you keep your mind like water

you can see that it's there you don't

keep your attention on it

you relax you smile smile

and bring that clear

light mind back to your object of

meditation

and sometimes during your daily

activities your object of meditation is

smiling

when you smile you are practicing the

entire eightfold path

at that time

every time you use a six hours you're

practicing the entire eightfold path

at that time

see how all of this stuff is

interconnected

and i wish it would be taught more

by the people that are teaching

meditation

but there's a lot of

there's advantage to doing all kinds of

meditation

it's not a right and wrong kind of thing

it's just what is the end result

of your practice does it lead to your

happiness

and the happiness of others around you

or not

does it lead to being able to see

hindrances and let them go or not

that's what meditation is it's not

just about sitting in one place at a

time

and allowing your mind to be

quiet for a period of time but when you

come

out of the meditation does your mind

have that same degree

of quietness does your mind

just start humming around thinking this

and that and liking this and hating that

if you practice the six hours a way that

i keep

stressing you will have personality

change

you will start to let go

more and more of

distractions and things that have caused

you

upset in the past

letting go of the lust and the hatred

and the restlessness and the doubts and

the

dullness of mine

letting go of all of those things

more and more clear

your mind becomes

different

uplifted

you become kinder you become more gentle

naturally

there's no i'm supposed to be this way

or i'm supposed to be

that way i had somebody

get get in touch with me and she said

you had a student that was followed you

for a lot of retreats and now she became

a christian

what are you gonna do about that i said

what should i do about it that's her

choice

yeah but she'd become a sodaponder so

does that mean that exclusive from

excludes

every other religion because she became

a sodapana

don't care if you're a jew i don't care

if you're a muslim

it doesn't matter it's the letting go

of these attachments that cause

us so much suffering and pain

and spending time on helping people to

be happy

that's the job of the buddhists help

others be happy

help others to lessen their suffering

okay i only got as far as the water and

i see i've

gotten to my hour

i i'm much more i'd take a lot more time

to give

dhamma talks

and it didn't used to be like that it

used to be

that i would give a a talk for

oh about 45 minutes

and then i got invited to be

at this one big monastery in kuala

lumpur

and the head monk was kesri damananda

and he gave

two hour dharma talks

now he asked me to come and be

at that monastery because he was getting

old and every

friday he gave a two-hour dhamma talk

and he said i want you to give a dhamma

talk every other week

so i had to give a two-hour dominant

talk every other week and i got in the

habit of doing that

and i came here after being

in asia for so long

and giving long diamond talks i came

here and everybody complained

when it was more than 15 minutes

they had an attention span that was

two minutes at the most before they got

distracted

and all the complaints i had

i said well if you really listen to what

i'm saying

you'll see that i repeat myself a lot

so the the it can sink in you don't have

to memorize what i'm saying

you hear it enough and you start doing

it naturally

enough for yourself then you're

you're teaching yourself

i'm not your teacher you teach yourself

at the rate that you need to understand

things

you might take a lot longer to

understand

some things and other things all of a

sudden they just come to you

now these are insights and they happen

all the time

the idea of insight meditation is almost

absurd

and this rigid well it's got to be

there are these 16 different inside

knowledges that you have to attain

before you can attain nibana actually it

was

why it was 11 12

and then after you had that experience

then you had more inside knowledges

but the reason i wanted to call this

meditation when i first got back from

asia i wanted to call it the oh

wow meditation because there are so many

insights that you get

i got talked out of it

still i might go back to it i don't know

[Laughter]

got talked into to twim

tranquil wisdom insight meditation

which is okay i guess but oh wow

makes it is makes it sound more exciting

so do you have any questions

you have to un unmute yourself if you

have a question

thank you for your talk it's nice to see

you this week oh thank you

i have a question um the genres are also

impersonal

like when the conditions are right okay

arise

in our practice right meaning that

eventually we will

we should also grow disenchanted with

janus and stop trying to

have genetic experiences it's not that

you grow and

disenchanted with the doctor the jhana

the donna becomes more disenchanted

now what i mean by that is

every level of jhana has equanimity in

it and it gets to be finer and finer as

you go deeper and deeper

and then when you get into the deeper

kinds of

jhana practice and the

arupa-jhana practice

then that disenchantment just kind of

takes over for the equanimity

and your mind doesn't get so excited

about things

and your mind stays more in balance with

things

so it's just different degrees of

equanimity that grow into disenchantment

okay thank you okay

okay susan hello bhante thank you for

taking my

question and i appreciate the duration

of time that you give

the dharma it's totally appreciated the

duration

so the question is you mentioned

we are lucky to be within the time of

the buddha

yes that's like six isn't that about

16th century

away is this considered still close to

the

buddha time i asked this because some a

talk mentioned that

people who are further away from the

time of the buddha is less i mean

miscourt is less pure

or less lucky or less pure than the

people within

the time of the buddha well

see a buddha era

lasts this buddha era lasts about 5 000

years

we're about halfway through this buddha

era

okay and the dhamma

will start to be watered down

and people won't be experiencing

uh nibana as much

and it will get to a period of time

where it's

even one rule for the monks

is not not remembered anymore

and that's the end of the buddha era

the closer you can be reborn to

the time of the buddha the more

you're actually

liable to have good experiences

from your understanding and practices

thank you i take away from what you just

said we are only halfway

from the buddha era right okay

wow we are lucky then thank you i'm very

lucky

may ask a question yes

uh thank you for your time i've been uh

with your practice for about five years

i've emailed with david a lot i've never

actually spoken to him or you

um he's a really good teacher because he

says the same thing over and over again

um but i had a question about what i

think is the eighth genre it's it's a

it's a place that i get to frequently in

my meditation

it's it's it's similar to it in that

it's a dreamlike state it's

consistent it doesn't come and go it's

always there i've had lots of phenomenon

as i've developed

that you know you're feeling smaller

larger shrinking

dissolved whatever they all go away

after a few sittings

but this one's always there and i would

really describe it as sort of a trance

state

but i'm aware the whole time a minute

and the descriptions of the eighth genre

that say

you're not aware of it when you're in it

sort of have me make me wonder if what

i'm experiencing is actually that or

something else

if that makes sense well

you know you're talking about the asiana

as neither perception or non-perception

right yes sir okay

do you have thoughts at that time

sometimes

you're not in the jhana at that time

okay

the quiet mind

doesn't have any distractions or

disturbances

you know you're in that genre

because your mindfulness is very good

now if you get to a place where there is

nothing i mean you don't even know

you're

you don't know in anything at all you

don't know you're

in this state until you come out of it

this is called the cessation of

perception feeling and consciousness

so you don't know you're in it till you

come out when you come out

you have different things that can

occur and that that is

the beginning of having uh

a nebonic experience

is there a name for this sort of

trance-like place

or is that just something that maybe i'm

just excited

if it if you're in a trance you know

you're in a trance

i have a feeling that you've been doing

a lot of

uh one pointed types of concentration

and when you get into certain

levels of trance-like

levels you know you're in that trance

but there's no distractions at all

now what that says to me what you're

asking

is that you've been doing not enough

one smiling not enough

another thing using the six arms

you still have some craving that's

pushing things down

and causing you to get in a translight

state

okay thank you okay

so i highly recommend that you start

uh using the six hours more

okay it'll become more clear to you then

thank you anybody else

bunty there's no one else may i go again

yes of course so bunty please correct me

if i'm wrong when i'm doing my

meditation

then when thoughts come so i realize i

recognize

and then and being chinese what i see

i i see it as if i'm in the river and

the thought come

like a like a cops or a one of the

chinese

sea creature a sea turtle if it's very

exciting thought it's like a sea dragon

so i i lift it i look at it and then i

put it back

down into the river and it swims away

and as it swims away i smile because i

say

to the thought method to you and that

makes me smile

and zoom the meditation goes on deeper

to

a quieter place correct me if i'm wrong

with this

uh 6r that i think i'm doing

you you do better by not even

recognizing what it is just that it's a

distraction

and then allow it to be relaxed

which is something you didn't say

and then smile you don't need to say may

you be happy

and visualize a turtle floating away

just allow it to be as soon as you

relax step your mind becomes clear

there's no visualization in your mind at

that time

your mind becomes very bright and your

mind becomes

pure because you have let go of craving

then smile and come back to your object

of meditation

you're adding things into the meditation

that's going to slow down your progress

to it so it's almost no progress

at all thank you thank you i

have to practice 6r more correctly then

yes

may i ask you a question i was waiting

for you to ask

[Laughter]

so you mentioned today we are in the

buddha era

yeah another quote i wrote down from you

is submerge yourself in the dhamma and

you will be a lot happier

oh yeah so we have a family of

five cats a mother and four for kids

and i wonder if playing your dhamma

talks

out loud is something that will

penetrate in their mind consciousness

and help them

in their yeah of course i'll tell you

i'll tell you a story

i had a dog his name was smiley

he was half pit bull

and half black lab

he started list he started laying down

at my feet when i started giving

dhamma talks and he would listen the

whole time

and there we had a infestation of

fleas so we didn't want him in the house

anymore

but when i started giving a dhamma talk

he would stand outside the door

and bark so much that you couldn't hear

the dhamma talk

so he had to let him in

and he insisted to listen i mean he was

really

quite unique that way

and we had another dog that was a little

bit smaller

we called her silky because her her

fur was just like silk it was really

amazing

and she didn't care about the dhamma

talk so much but she liked being around

people that chanted

so if she she heard she was outside and

she heard that there were chanting going

on she'd yell until she got back

got in in the same room with them she

liked the chanting

so yeah it can be a great advantage

to those animals

and that will help them so in the

buddhist

idea what i've read and heard several

monks and nuns say is that

having an animal form is not very

conducive for their progress

and of course their mind works in a

different way

they go more on feeling than they do

actual words

and uh

it's very hard to get reborn

out of the animal realm

like cats they they like to go around

they kill mice and they kill

other animals around and that killing

keeps them in the animal realm

but this dog that i was talking about

he had a sense of fun

and he was really

excited when he'd go outside he'd start

chasing the

butterfly shadows

and one day he jumped up and he grabbed

a butterfly

and he had this quizzical look on his

face

and then he opened up his mouth as the

butterfly flew out

he wouldn't kill

he was very gentle that way

[Music]

so when he died he

uh was reborn

in in a heavenly realm as a human being

sometimes he would take on the form of a

dog and then everybody would go around

saying what's this dog doing here

why is he here and then he'd

change into the human form

but it's kind of unusual to see

uh an animal take that big a leap

and be reborn in the deva loka and the

thing the reason

that i see that happening was because he

he

liked the dog the domino talks so much

our cats too yeah

yeah they'll get in the comfortable they

they look like they might be sleeping

but they're not really

they're listening and they like the feel

of the dharma talks

and that that calms their mind down and

your voice is quite soothing

so it helps well i don't know about that

to me my

voice is very harsh but

that's that's because i'm listening to

myself from the inside

not not on the outside

thank you bundy okay anybody else

should we share america yeah in a minute

i would give people a chance

i'm hi bondi yeah i hope you are up

um i have a question um

i often hear that people say when

someone goes to hire jhanas they

recommend

recommend them reading the our tamsaka

sutra

what is your thought or do you have any

recommendation about that to draw

reading that

well

there's a lot of sutas that you can read

that are very good

for that my favorite

is the anupada suta number 111

in the magiman nikaya because that

explains what each one of the jhanas

is and the experiences you have while

you're

you're in that genre

what about the um avatar sutra

i'm not as familiar with that one

okay

yeah most of the uh people that they

talked

was mainly from mahayana and adriana

traditions but i don't know how it is

taken into

trouble i'm not theravada i'm sutta vada

sure uh

the thing with mahayana and vajrayana

is they have a tendency to change things

from

the tranquil wisdom meditation to

one pointed kinds of concentration

and they don't have the letting go

of craving in it

and that makes me uh

suspicious of

that that teaching if it doesn't have

letting go of craving in it

that means they're still bringing

craving back to their object of

meditation

and when they do that that gets on a

different path than the buddha taught

right now they often say that this is

the first apparently sutra that

buddha taught to his disciples but

apparently is above

the understanding so he's basically try

to

tune it down and dial it down and start

basics basically but

um it explains all the realms of heaven

realm in other realms basically but i

don't know how appropriate would be your

body

it's it's hard to to judge

but when you are doing a practice

and this is the thing that got me

absolutely convinced that this

is the practice that i needed to be

doing

was that i would read a suta

then i would go off and practice and if

i had an

experience that was pretty well

described in the

suta then i took that suit to the mean

i'm on the right path

does that happen when you do that other

suta

do you feel like you're on the right

path when you do it or

is it just that you hit a wall

after a period of time and then you

don't progress

that has never happened when i was doing

this kind of meditation i still go

through

progress right now when i'm doing the

sitting meditation

i still have insights i still have

different uh observations

that are occurring and this is

after what 45 years of doing the

meditation

right so yeah thank you

decide for yourself is basically what

i'm saying

okay thank you one other question i

guess um

you were talking about explaining to

people about

election and other stuff and i have

something in my mind for the last

couple of years about i mean i brought

up a little bit about

that to um david but

recently this idea of engaged buddhism

is basically taking really on a stage

and

spreading mindfulness and it's one thing

sitting and do my meditation of course

in my

comfort zone and at home but then

interacting into

uh society and i guess

how to engage in a way that

is um wholesome but also spread

mindfulness kind of like buddhism and

activism rather than

being passive and staying in my own

comfort

well you natural you naturally

do that sort of thing when you're

practicing twim

you're using the six r's you're going

through

personality development and other people

notice that you're acting in a more kind

and gentle way

or you're acting in a more balanced way

then they'll ask you about it this idea

of engaged uh buddhism

uh it's kind of gimmicky i i don't go

along right

as much as i do with the scent of

following the sutas themselves

but that's me

and i think if you're happy with what

you're doing

and it leads to your having more

happiness

and clarity of mind then

continue on with it if you're satisfied

with it

as i said i'm not a teacher i'm i'm just

a guide

and the guides

their job is

to make sure you're staying on the

eightfold path

thank you thank you so much

have a beautiful week yeah you have a

good week yourself

thank you anybody else

okay then let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share that we've thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

davith and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhists

dispensation

you all have a fun week century

sunday thank you very much oh you're

very welcome

thank you thank you

[Music]

so you all have a good week

good week yes and everybody sat every

day

almost even got in a

couple two-hour sittings well good

okay are you ready to start

okay so

today i was going to do suit the number

140

the dot 2 v bonga sutta

the exposition of the elements

now this is a long sutta i'm probably

not going to get through it but there

are some points in it that are very

important that you understand

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was wandering through the

maagadahan country and eventually

arrived at raja gaha

there he went to the potter bhagawa

and said to him if it's not inconvenient

for you bagawa

i will stay one night in your workshop

it's not inconvenient for me venerable

sir

but there is a homeless one already

staying there

if he agrees then stay as long as you

like venerable sir

now there was a clansman named pukusati

who had gone forth from the home life

into homelessness

out of faith in the blessed one

on that occasion he was already

staying in the potter's workshop

then the blessed one went to the

venerable pukusati and said to him

if it's not inconvenient for you monk

i will stay one night in the workshop

the potter's workshop is large enough

friend

let the venerable one stay as long as he

likes

then the blessed one entered the

potter's workshop

preparing a spread of grass at one end

and sat down holding his legs

crosswise setting his body erect and

establish mindfulness in front of him

then the blessed one spent most of the

night seated in meditation

and the venerable pukusati also spent

most of the night seated in meditation

then the blessed one thought

this klansman conducts himself in a way

that inspires confidence

suppose i were to question him

so he asked the venerable pukusati

under whom have you gone forth monk

who is your teacher whose dhamma do you

profess

friend there is the recluse gotama the

son of the sakeans who went forth from

the sakian plan

now a good report of that blessed goat

to my has been spread

to this effect that the blessed one

pages got stuck is accomplished

fully awakened perfect and true

knowledge and conduct

sublime knower of worlds incomparable

leader of persons to be tamed

teacher of gods and humans awakened and

blessed

now this particular it's called agatha

it's uh the whole suta

is the good qualities of the buddha

dhamma

and sangha

and one of the advantages of

saying this the good qualities of the

buddha

is that it overcomes fear if you have

any fear arising in your mind

then you start

reciting the good qualities of the

buddha

and the fear will go away

now i had one student that she came to

me

and she said she can't really meditate

because she's afraid to close her eyes

so i had her saying this

before she sat and

after she sat i had her repeating it

now this is suit to number 140

section number six in case you're

looking for it

i did this

particular suta

uh

there's uh you know the the mala beads

that you can use they're counting beads

there's 108 of them

and when you do it correctly it comes

out exactly right

if you make a mistake then you've got to

start all over again until you can get

it correct

now i did nine

times a day nine

repetitions of this sutta

and generally speaking it takes about

15 to 20 minutes to go through that

but i went through nine rounds

nine times in about 10 minutes

because i became so familiar with it i

could just go right through it

my my collected mind was very very

sharp

so this

helps your mind settle down when you

think of the good qualities of the

buddha and

i i uh if if you have the time

to go through it and learn it i

recommend that you do it in pali

the way they do it in sri lanka is they

just go

nine times around

if you do it the burmese style

[Music]

then you do it forwards and backwards

nine times

and that's the way i was doing it

and it does help you overcome any kind

of

restlessness fear anxieties

any sadness it helps a lot with that

when you think of the good qualities of

the buddha so it can be an aid for you

if you run into problems with your

meditation you can do that for a little

while and it will help

i have gone forth under the blessed one

that blessed one is my teacher i profess

the dhamma of that blessed one

now he'd never met the buddha

he was a king of a minor realm

and gave up his kingdom

and became a monk now he was going for

the first time he was going to

go look up the buddha and study with him

but monk where is the blessed one

accomplished and fully awakened

now living there is friend

a city in the northern country named

sawatee

the blessed one accomplished and fully

awakened is now living there

but monk have you ever seen that blessed

one

would you recognize him if you saw him

no friend i've never seen the blessed

one before

nor would i recognize him if i saw him

then the blessed one thought this

clansman has gone forth from the home

life

into homelessness under me

suppose i were to teach him the dhamma

so the blessed one addressed the

venerable puku-satiras

monk i will teach you the dhamma listen

and attend closely to what i shall say

yes friend the venerable pukusati

replied the blessed one said this

monk this person consists of six

elements

six bases of contact 18

kinds of mental exploration

and he has four foundation

the tides of conceiving do not sweep

over

one who stands on these foundations

and when the tides of conceiving no

longer sweep over him

he is called a sage at peace

one should not neglect wisdom these are

the foundations right now

one should not neglect wisdom that means

understanding the

the lengths of dependent origination and

how they work

should preserve truth

should cultivate relinquishment

this is actually meaning the six ours

letting go of craving

and should train for peace

this is a summary of the exposition of

the

six elements

mock this person consists of six

elements so it was said and with

reference to what was this said

there are the earth element the water

element the fire element the air element

and the space element and the

consciousness

element so it is with reference to this

that it was said monks

this person consists of six elements

monk this person consists of six bases

of contact

so it was said

and with reference to what was this said

there are the base of eye contact the

base of

ear contact the base of nose contact the

base of

tongue contact and the base of body

contact

and the base of six mind context excuse

me

so it was with reference to this that it

was said monks

this person consists of six bases of

contact

monk this person consists of 18 kinds of

mental

exploration so it was said

and with reference to what was this said

on seeing a form with the eye

one explores a form with the eye

productive

of joy one explores a form

productive of grief one explores a form

productive of equanimity

on hearing a sound with the ear

unsmelling an odor with the nose

i'm tasting a flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

one explores one of these

uh sense doors productive of

joy one explores these scent stores

productive of grief one explores the sun

stores productive of equanimity

so it was with reference to this that it

was said monk

this person consists of 18 kinds of

mental exploration

monk this person has four foundations so

it was said and with reference to what

was this said

there are the foundation of wisdom

the foundation of truth

the foundation of relinquishment

and the foundation of peace

so it was with reference to this that it

was said

monks this person has four foundations

that's a little bit different than what

most people think of as a four

foundations

one should not neglect wisdom

should preserve truth should cultivate

relinquishment

cultivate the sticks ours

letting go of craving

this is real important

of you can't say one one

foundation is more important than the

others

but the start of the relinquishment

of craving

is something that has to be done often

every time your mind gets distracted you

use a six

hours and come back and you can see

right behind me

we have release relax

re-smile return

repeat

so it's a real important that you

understand

that it's not a sometime practice

you find your mind wandering during the

day just thinking this and that

that there's just nonsense thoughts

use the sex ours and come back

to the smile smiling

during your daily activities improves

your mindfulness

improves your ability to see

clearly

how mind's attention distracts itself

and you let that go and relax

too many times we get involved with our

thoughts

and it mostly has to do with

uh it has to do with

uh

emotional things

which is your habitual tendency

getting caught with likes and dislikes

right now because of the

election that's about to take place an

awful lot of

people get very opinionated one way or

the other

and they start arguing with each other

and then when the

argument is done they go away and then

they keep thinking about it

now one of the things that the buddha

said

that's very important to remember

it is what you think and ponder on

that's the inclination of your mind if

you keep thinking about

one one person or the other and how

you're going to vote and how everybody

else is dumb

because they don't see your point of

view you keep thinking

about that your mind is going to keep

bringing it up

and that takes away from your happiness

you are causing your own pain

by being over

opinionated and

thinking about it over and over and over

again

an awful lot of people are suffering

because of that right now

so don't add to that

relax into that let it be it's not that

important

it's important in a mundane way

but it's not important for your

happiness

it takes away your happiness

you've already made up your mind how

you're gonna what you're gonna do

how you're gonna vote so you don't need

to think about it anymore

you know what you're gonna do so why get

caught up in

talking with other people about it and

getting caught up in likes and dislikes

and then having those same thoughts come

over again

and again and again and cause yourself a

lot of suffering

i just had some people visiting here and

one of the persons was very much

into her disliked

dissatisfaction aversion hatred

because of one person or another that

they had opinions about

and she caused herself immeasurable

amounts of pain

so don't do that to yourself

you've already made up your mind so you

don't need to think about it again and

again

and again that's restlessness and then

you throw a virgin

on top of it so what good is that

one of the things i told this couple

that came is

i don't want you watching tv i don't

want you listening to the radio

i don't want you reading

newspapers because all that does is

make your mind get more opinionated and

you rethink

thoughts over and over and over again

i had one lady that

she read five newspapers every day

outside of a waste of time because

there's not much you really learn

in the newspapers uh

the weather you can learn a little bit

from the comics that's

that's about it so why do you need all

this other stuff

put into your mind so you think about it

the rest of the day

you're causing yourself suffering when i

got her to stop reading the newspapers

all of a sudden she started smiling a

lot more

when i first came back from asia

by the first year or so

everybody that i was teaching i said i

don't want you to read anything

i don't want you to read books i don't

want you to read the newspaper

i don't want you looking at the news

the only thing that's allowable for them

is what i told them

was listen to dhamma talks that i had on

tape

and practice meditation

after a year then i started giving them

little booklets to read about the dhamma

but submerge yourself in the dhamma

and you will be a lot happier

so

so it was said and with reference to

what was this said

how monks does one not neglect wisdom

there are these six elements the earth

element the water element

the fire element the air element the

space

element and the consciousness element

we'll get more into that in a little bit

what monk is the earth element the earth

element

maybe either internal or external what

is the

internal earth element whatever

internally belonging to oneself is solid

solidified

craved and clung to

that is head hairs body hairs tails

knees tails teeth

skin flesh spiny sinews

bones bone marrow kidney heart

liver diaphragm spleen lungs large

intestine

small intestines contents of the stomach

and feces

order whatever else internally belonging

to oneself is solid solidified craved

and clung to

this is called the internal earth

element

now both the internal earth element and

the

external earth element are simply earth

element

and that should be seen as it actually

is with proper

wisdom thus this is not

mine this i am not this is

not myself

now one of the things that you have to

understand

about dependent origination

is is that it's showing you that there

is

no self everything

is an impersonal process

anytime you get caught up in your

opinions and ideas and

uh arguments and whatever

whose opinion whose idea whose argument

is it oh it's mine

and i'm right and they're wrong

but as you see here

there is no part in your body that's you

now i've gone to a few autopsies

and they start cutting it open and

pulling out

the different organs and weighing them

and that sort of thing

well am i my heart am i my brain

where am i

it's just a bunch of parts that are put

together it's no difference between your

body and an automobile where is the

automobile

is it the the

windshield is it the steering wheel

is it the motor where is it

it's a bunch of little parts put

together

and it's the same with your body and

we're going to go through more

parts of your body

and you have to understand when we start

taking these things

personally

we have opinions about them

and those opinions can be right or wrong

it doesn't matter to be quite honest

when we take these things personally

and try to control them

we are causing ourself a lot of

suffering

now if you have lust coming up in your

mind

the way you overcome this is by

looking at these different parts

as if they're just separate in a in a

bowl where are you

in any of these different things

i used to tell my college students

they're of the age where the hormones

are pretty strong

and they see a lot of beauty around and

they get

thinking about it

so they get distracted very easily

so i told them that anytime they saw a

beautiful person walk by

turn them inside out tell me which part

of their body

is really worth lusting after

oh you have a great set of intestines

your liver is wonderful

what's beautiful about that

your body hair or your head hair is oh

it's so beautiful

okay you drop some of your head hair and

soup and then you start eating the soup

and tell me how beautiful the hair is

or you leave it in a bowl for a little

while and smell it

all the perfume that you've been putting

on your hair

disappears very quickly and hair

actually does not smell good

so why do you take it personally

it's up to you

but anytime you spend an over amount

of time

with your thinking about the different

body parts

uh you'll start to get repulsed by it

you start to go ah

i don't want to be thinking about this

this puts your mind

into balance this particular kind of

meditation

is specifically for monks

so they don't have lust arising

when they're dealing with

a different people

so they keep equanimity in their mind

they don't get distracted

so

when one sees it thus as it actually is

with proper wisdom

one becomes disenchanted with the earth

element

disenchantment is a higher

degree of equanimity

now the more the stronger equanimity

comes into your

daily life the more balance you have

the less likely you're gonna have in

getting caught up in disagreements and

arguments

that just won't happen so much it's not

that important

when you get into disenchantment

even things like your favorite foods

where you used to see it and your mouth

would start watering like pavlov's dog

now when you have this enchantment it's

food

yes it's a food that i've enjoyed in the

past

i like this food but there's no

attachment in it

there's no excitement that emotional

hit of adrenaline doesn't happen so much

i have some students that

i call them adren adrenaline junkies

because they get excited about all kinds

of stuff

and then

they get into their emotions and they

start identifying with those emotions

and it's just a big round

uh circle of dukkha

that you get caught up in

so the more you become disenchanted the

less excitement there

is in your mind with that

adrenaline taking off because i like

this part

this is wonderful this is great stuff

when you get to a certain place of

disenchantment your mind

gets into

dispassion so even the slightest

little craving that starts to come up

doesn't cause

excitement to arise in your mind

and a dispassionate mind is very very

close

to a mind that experiences

nibana

and what monk is the water element

the water element may be either internal

or external

what is the internal water element

whatever internally belonging to oneself

is water watery craved and clung

to that is bile

phlegm pus blood sweat

fat tears grease spittles

not oil of the joints urine

or whatever else internally belonging to

oneself

is water watery craved and clung to

that's called the internal water element

now tell me what's pleasurable

about the smell of oh let's say

pus

or phlegm or bile

a lot of these things

that keep your body functioning

really are not pleasant

it's necessary

so you don't like to identify with that

that puts your mind in a state of

balance

instead of a state of lust

or turn somebody inside out and say oh

your pus is really gorgeous

that gives you an idea of your body is

made up of this stuff

what is desirable about it

now this is given to monks this is

this kind of meditation at least the way

the burmese taught it

and that's how i learned it is through

the burmese takes 165 days

of going over and visualizing bowls

of these different body parts

any time i got to the liquid body parts

my mind just oh it repulsed

don't like that at all

and eventually i devein developed a very

strong case of

[Music]

disenchantment

where are you in any of these

different body parts are you there

that was a question that i looked at a

lot

while i was watching the autopsies

because the body was being taken

taken apart

where am i am i in the brain

no the brain is just

a big glob to be quite honest

am i there where is it

where am i

when you start seeing it in this way you

start looking more and more

closely at the impersonal nature of

everything

every part of your body

of all of the characteristics

impermanence suffering

and the impersonal nature the impersonal

nature is the hardest one to really

apply to your daily activities

it's easy to see how things are changing

all the time

but we have a very strong attachment

because of craving

we have a very strong attachment

to the other parts of our body this

is me this is mine this is who i am

and because of that we get caught up

more

and more in the suffering we cause

ourselves

immeasurable oceans and oceans of

suffering

do we do it on purpose no

it happens by itself when the conditions

are right

for it to occur but

craving is such a big thing

that it takes a lot of practice to be

able

one to recognize it as the i like it i

don't like it mine that's a start

of your false belief in a personal self

and to be able to see it

as it actually is it's only this

it's only that it's not me it's not mine

it's not who i am

in the chichaka suta

it repeats that over and over and over

again with all the different parts of

links of dependent origination

it's really quite amazing

and if you listen very attentively

to that suta and see how it applies

and don't get caught up just because it

has a lot of

repetition in it don't get caught up in

a like and dislike or oh i've heard that

before

i have some students that have heard it

maybe 50 times

and they still get insights from it

that suta is very very powerful

and i highly recommend anybody that

wants to do it

to memorize that suta

and you'd be surprised how you

use that suta with your daily activities

to help put yourself

in balance

now the thing with the water element

let your mind be like water

when water is blowing down a creek

and it comes across a boulder or a log

what does it do does it try to push it

out of the way

so it can keep going in the way that it

they will

the water wants it to be going or does

it simply

allow it to be and find a way to get

around it

without taking it personally without

fighting anything

that's why drops is so important

don't resist or push

soften your mind with everything

and smile into it

when you use drops

and

you'll find that your mind starts to get

into a state of equanimity that's

very nice and you stop

taking this kind of stuff

so personally

that's another way of practicing six

hours

relax into it

stop taking things personally

stop involving yourself with the

emotional i

like this i don't like that

the buddha comes across it comes once

every few hundred thousand or million

years it depends on

the situation

you don't realize how lucky you really

are

to be born so close to the time of the

buddha

we're still living in the buddha era

it might not come around again for

well a few hundred thousand years a

million years who knows

when conditions are right another buddha

will appear

so how lucky can you be

you have this dharma

and it's in reasonably good shape

especially when you add your relaxed

step in it

you use the six r's

take advantage of this

i get a lot of uh

[Music]

comments about the buddha

didn't tell you to smile

well he told you to be happy

what is the expression of happiness

smiling and how much are they finding

these days

that a smile affects

your mood it affects the way you see the

world around you

so the more that you can smile the

better your mindfulness becomes the

easier it is to see when you get caught

the easier it is to let go of that

attachment

let your mind be like water

don't resist or push anything out of the

way

don't suppress anything

now one of the definitions of an

arahat in the anguttara nikaya

is he is a person that doesn't

have any secrets

now what does that mean really a person

with no secrets

well i don't have any secrets except

when you broke a precept and you kept

that

personally and it affects the way you

see the world around you

you did something in the past

and you were embarrassed

or you were shocked at the behavior and

you don't want anybody to know that you

did something like that

when you let go of that secret all of a

sudden

everything becomes more clear

more alive

and when you let go

of the secrets

it's easier to attain nibana

means fire so it's letting go

of the fire

uh buddhadasa he was a

thai monk that really affected all of

thailand

because he went around teaching what the

buddha taught

and he did a lot of studying in the

suttas and that sort of thing

and he presented the dhamma in a way

to the the monks who had been getting

into

magic thai magic

it's an undercurrent of buddhism in

in thailand and a lot of people

they they put a lot of

faith in their thai magic

to manifest things and do things like

that

[Music]

and it was during the i i i guess

uh buddha dasa started teaching that

around the 40s

1940s 45

and in the 50s and 60s

and he got people back on the path

of real buddhism

buddhism has its ups and downs

during the time of

buddhigosa who wrote the visudi maga

during that time the monks have gotten

very relaxed they didn't do any

meditation they didn't study

they just went around and did their like

the tie did their tie

magic and

uh astrology

astronomy not astronomy uh

astrology yeah okay

but when he came around he started

saying well the buddha said this and

these the buddha said you need to

practice your generosity

and you need to practice keeping your

precepts

and it was like brand new ideas

now when you keep your preset your mind

starts to be like water

your mind will settle down

your mind will be very collected you

won't have a lot of

distractions

and your meditation is going to be very

good because you won't

have the secret of

whatever it is sometimes the secrets

are not even breaking the precept

sometimes it's just a secret

that you said something or did something

that it wasn't

actually breaking a precept but you feel

embarrassed about it and you don't want

to tell anybody about it

secrets cause you to be hot

because of the craving because you're

taking it personally

so make your mind like water

don't hold on into anything

the second step of the six hours the

release step

is extremely important

an awful lot of people get involved in

uh whatever thought comes up whatever

memory comes up

and they get caught in thinking about it

well that means they have that secret

and they're caught by it and it takes a

while to purify

that the six

r's are the purifying factor of the

eightfold path

sometimes it takes a long time to let go

of some things

now we do a lot of teaching of

forgiveness

and forgiveness is a very powerful tool

of learning

how to have a clear

uncluttered mind uncluttered from past

experiences

fast uh from past being embarrassed

or being shy and not telling somebody

anybody else about what you've gone

through

and that clouds the way you see the

world around you

and when you let that go when you let go

of that

attachment that craving

it becomes much more clear

and alert your mind becomes much more

alert

so it's a make your mind

like water

water doesn't let anything obstruct it

it just keeps on running and finding new

places to

explore as it were but not being

attached to anything

not trying to control anything

one of the biggest problems with craving

is you're trying to hide something

and not let it go what are you trying to

hide

whatever it was that caused that craving

to

stay there you took it personally

you you did something or said something

and you wish you hadn't done it

and then you just kind of oh slough it

off

and think about something else for a

little while

and then you forget about it but then

when you're coming up to the meditation

and the six

hours

why do you think you have such a busy

mind

what's happening here

there's attachment in your mind what is

the attachment it's a craving

it's a secret that you don't want to

tell anybody else

now sometimes women will come to me and

they'll

be very embarrassed because they had an

abortion

and they felt incredibly guilty

so i work with them with forgiveness

and before long they can let go of that

guilty feeling

and that just opens up huge amounts of

space

in your experience so you see

things more clearly you're not looking

through the embarrassment

of a past experience

that's what forgiveness does it's a mind

that has acceptance in it

it's a mind that says okay that happened

fine you don't have to feel guilty about

it anymore

but the thing with secrets is you need

to tell

somebody else what your secret is as

soon as you tell

them it's not a secret anymore

and you're able to let go of

that block that's stopping you from

going deeper

make your mind like water

and the way you do that is by letting go

of secrets

letting go of that embarrassment

or that shyness or that

guilty feeling whatever it is that

causes that

so keep your mind like water

let your mind flow around those

things if it starts to block what

happens if a rock gets in the way

does a water start complaining about it

where it just says it hits hits the rock

and says oop

can't go that way gotta go now go around

and the water will start looking for

another way to go

keep your mind loose like that

and your meditation will get very good

very quickly

now this everything is interrelated with

the things that i'm talking about

if you can let go and let your mind be

like

water that means your

mindfulness gets better

and the whole reason for your smiling

you start seeing oh that's why he wants

me to do it all the time

because it makes that difference

it makes a difference in the way you see

the world

and the way you affect the world

so i start you off with the meditation

in an easy way smile

all the time smile why

improves your mindfulness improves your

mindfulness then you can see

how an obstruction how some kind of

distraction

causes your mind to get caught and then

there's a lot of suffering

so when you improve your mindfulness you

see

that distraction quicker

and you let your mind flow around it

without getting caught up in it

and when you don't feed

something it gets weak and goes away

you feed your mind with or you feed your

distraction

with your thoughts about it and getting

caught up in it

and feeling guilty and ashamed and

whatever

word you want to put on it

but when you keep your mind like water

you can see that it's there you don't

keep your attention on it

you relax you smile smile

and bring that clear

light mind back to your object of

meditation

and sometimes during your daily

activities your object of meditation is

smiling

when you smile you are practicing the

entire eightfold path

at that time

every time you use a six hours you're

practicing the entire eightfold path

at that time

see how all of this stuff is

interconnected

and i wish it would be taught more

by the people that are teaching

meditation

but there's a lot of

there's advantage to doing all kinds of

meditation

it's not a right and wrong kind of thing

it's just what is the end result

of your practice does it lead to your

happiness

and the happiness of others around you

or not

does it lead to being able to see

hindrances and let them go or not

that's what meditation is it's not

just about sitting in one place at a

time

and allowing your mind to be

quiet for a period of time but when you

come

out of the meditation does your mind

have that same degree

of quietness does your mind

just start humming around thinking this

and that and liking this and hating that

if you practice the six hours a way that

i keep

stressing you will have personality

change

you will start to let go

more and more of

distractions and things that have caused

you

upset in the past

letting go of the lust and the hatred

and the restlessness and the doubts and

the

dullness of mine

letting go of all of those things

more and more clear

your mind becomes

different

uplifted

you become kinder you become more gentle

naturally

there's no i'm supposed to be this way

or i'm supposed to be

that way i had somebody

get get in touch with me and she said

you had a student that was followed you

for a lot of retreats and now she became

a christian

what are you gonna do about that i said

what should i do about it that's her

choice

yeah but she'd become a sodaponder so

does that mean that exclusive from

excludes

every other religion because she became

a sodapana

don't care if you're a jew i don't care

if you're a muslim

it doesn't matter it's the letting go

of these attachments that cause

us so much suffering and pain

and spending time on helping people to

be happy

that's the job of the buddhists help

others be happy

help others to lessen their suffering

okay i only got as far as the water and

i see i've

gotten to my hour

i i'm much more i'd take a lot more time

to give

dhamma talks

and it didn't used to be like that it

used to be

that i would give a a talk for

oh about 45 minutes

and then i got invited to be

at this one big monastery in kuala

lumpur

and the head monk was kesri damananda

and he gave

two hour dharma talks

now he asked me to come and be

at that monastery because he was getting

old and every

friday he gave a two-hour dhamma talk

and he said i want you to give a dhamma

talk every other week

so i had to give a two-hour dominant

talk every other week and i got in the

habit of doing that

and i came here after being

in asia for so long

and giving long diamond talks i came

here and everybody complained

when it was more than 15 minutes

they had an attention span that was

two minutes at the most before they got

distracted

and all the complaints i had

i said well if you really listen to what

i'm saying

you'll see that i repeat myself a lot

so the the it can sink in you don't have

to memorize what i'm saying

you hear it enough and you start doing

it naturally

enough for yourself then you're

you're teaching yourself

i'm not your teacher you teach yourself

at the rate that you need to understand

things

you might take a lot longer to

understand

some things and other things all of a

sudden they just come to you

now these are insights and they happen

all the time

the idea of insight meditation is almost

absurd

and this rigid well it's got to be

there are these 16 different inside

knowledges that you have to attain

before you can attain nibana actually it

was

why it was 11 12

and then after you had that experience

then you had more inside knowledges

but the reason i wanted to call this

meditation when i first got back from

asia i wanted to call it the oh

wow meditation because there are so many

insights that you get

i got talked out of it

still i might go back to it i don't know

[Laughter]

got talked into to twim

tranquil wisdom insight meditation

which is okay i guess but oh wow

makes it is makes it sound more exciting

so do you have any questions

you have to un unmute yourself if you

have a question

thank you for your talk it's nice to see

you this week oh thank you

i have a question um the genres are also

impersonal

like when the conditions are right okay

arise

in our practice right meaning that

eventually we will

we should also grow disenchanted with

janus and stop trying to

have genetic experiences it's not that

you grow and

disenchanted with the doctor the jhana

the donna becomes more disenchanted

now what i mean by that is

every level of jhana has equanimity in

it and it gets to be finer and finer as

you go deeper and deeper

and then when you get into the deeper

kinds of

jhana practice and the

arupa-jhana practice

then that disenchantment just kind of

takes over for the equanimity

and your mind doesn't get so excited

about things

and your mind stays more in balance with

things

so it's just different degrees of

equanimity that grow into disenchantment

okay thank you okay

okay susan hello bhante thank you for

taking my

question and i appreciate the duration

of time that you give

the dharma it's totally appreciated the

duration

so the question is you mentioned

we are lucky to be within the time of

the buddha

yes that's like six isn't that about

16th century

away is this considered still close to

the

buddha time i asked this because some a

talk mentioned that

people who are further away from the

time of the buddha is less i mean

miscourt is less pure

or less lucky or less pure than the

people within

the time of the buddha well

see a buddha era

lasts this buddha era lasts about 5 000

years

we're about halfway through this buddha

era

okay and the dhamma

will start to be watered down

and people won't be experiencing

uh nibana as much

and it will get to a period of time

where it's

even one rule for the monks

is not not remembered anymore

and that's the end of the buddha era

the closer you can be reborn to

the time of the buddha the more

you're actually

liable to have good experiences

from your understanding and practices

thank you i take away from what you just

said we are only halfway

from the buddha era right okay

wow we are lucky then thank you i'm very

lucky

may ask a question yes

uh thank you for your time i've been uh

with your practice for about five years

i've emailed with david a lot i've never

actually spoken to him or you

um he's a really good teacher because he

says the same thing over and over again

um but i had a question about what i

think is the eighth genre it's it's a

it's a place that i get to frequently in

my meditation

it's it's it's similar to it in that

it's a dreamlike state it's

consistent it doesn't come and go it's

always there i've had lots of phenomenon

as i've developed

that you know you're feeling smaller

larger shrinking

dissolved whatever they all go away

after a few sittings

but this one's always there and i would

really describe it as sort of a trance

state

but i'm aware the whole time a minute

and the descriptions of the eighth genre

that say

you're not aware of it when you're in it

sort of have me make me wonder if what

i'm experiencing is actually that or

something else

if that makes sense well

you know you're talking about the asiana

as neither perception or non-perception

right yes sir okay

do you have thoughts at that time

sometimes

you're not in the jhana at that time

okay

the quiet mind

doesn't have any distractions or

disturbances

you know you're in that genre

because your mindfulness is very good

now if you get to a place where there is

nothing i mean you don't even know

you're

you don't know in anything at all you

don't know you're

in this state until you come out of it

this is called the cessation of

perception feeling and consciousness

so you don't know you're in it till you

come out when you come out

you have different things that can

occur and that that is

the beginning of having uh

a nebonic experience

is there a name for this sort of

trance-like place

or is that just something that maybe i'm

just excited

if it if you're in a trance you know

you're in a trance

i have a feeling that you've been doing

a lot of

uh one pointed types of concentration

and when you get into certain

levels of trance-like

levels you know you're in that trance

but there's no distractions at all

now what that says to me what you're

asking

is that you've been doing not enough

one smiling not enough

another thing using the six arms

you still have some craving that's

pushing things down

and causing you to get in a translight

state

okay thank you okay

so i highly recommend that you start

uh using the six hours more

okay it'll become more clear to you then

thank you anybody else

bunty there's no one else may i go again

yes of course so bunty please correct me

if i'm wrong when i'm doing my

meditation

then when thoughts come so i realize i

recognize

and then and being chinese what i see

i i see it as if i'm in the river and

the thought come

like a like a cops or a one of the

chinese

sea creature a sea turtle if it's very

exciting thought it's like a sea dragon

so i i lift it i look at it and then i

put it back

down into the river and it swims away

and as it swims away i smile because i

say

to the thought method to you and that

makes me smile

and zoom the meditation goes on deeper

to

a quieter place correct me if i'm wrong

with this

uh 6r that i think i'm doing

you you do better by not even

recognizing what it is just that it's a

distraction

and then allow it to be relaxed

which is something you didn't say

and then smile you don't need to say may

you be happy

and visualize a turtle floating away

just allow it to be as soon as you

relax step your mind becomes clear

there's no visualization in your mind at

that time

your mind becomes very bright and your

mind becomes

pure because you have let go of craving

then smile and come back to your object

of meditation

you're adding things into the meditation

that's going to slow down your progress

to it so it's almost no progress

at all thank you thank you i

have to practice 6r more correctly then

yes

may i ask you a question i was waiting

for you to ask

[Laughter]

so you mentioned today we are in the

buddha era

yeah another quote i wrote down from you

is submerge yourself in the dhamma and

you will be a lot happier

oh yeah so we have a family of

five cats a mother and four for kids

and i wonder if playing your dhamma

talks

out loud is something that will

penetrate in their mind consciousness

and help them

in their yeah of course i'll tell you

i'll tell you a story

i had a dog his name was smiley

he was half pit bull

and half black lab

he started list he started laying down

at my feet when i started giving

dhamma talks and he would listen the

whole time

and there we had a infestation of

fleas so we didn't want him in the house

anymore

but when i started giving a dhamma talk

he would stand outside the door

and bark so much that you couldn't hear

the dhamma talk

so he had to let him in

and he insisted to listen i mean he was

really

quite unique that way

and we had another dog that was a little

bit smaller

we called her silky because her her

fur was just like silk it was really

amazing

and she didn't care about the dhamma

talk so much but she liked being around

people that chanted

so if she she heard she was outside and

she heard that there were chanting going

on she'd yell until she got back

got in in the same room with them she

liked the chanting

so yeah it can be a great advantage

to those animals

and that will help them so in the

buddhist

idea what i've read and heard several

monks and nuns say is that

having an animal form is not very

conducive for their progress

and of course their mind works in a

different way

they go more on feeling than they do

actual words

and uh

it's very hard to get reborn

out of the animal realm

like cats they they like to go around

they kill mice and they kill

other animals around and that killing

keeps them in the animal realm

but this dog that i was talking about

he had a sense of fun

and he was really

excited when he'd go outside he'd start

chasing the

butterfly shadows

and one day he jumped up and he grabbed

a butterfly

and he had this quizzical look on his

face

and then he opened up his mouth as the

butterfly flew out

he wouldn't kill

he was very gentle that way

[Music]

so when he died he

uh was reborn

in in a heavenly realm as a human being

sometimes he would take on the form of a

dog and then everybody would go around

saying what's this dog doing here

why is he here and then he'd

change into the human form

but it's kind of unusual to see

uh an animal take that big a leap

and be reborn in the deva loka and the

thing the reason

that i see that happening was because he

he

liked the dog the domino talks so much

our cats too yeah

yeah they'll get in the comfortable they

they look like they might be sleeping

but they're not really

they're listening and they like the feel

of the dharma talks

and that that calms their mind down and

your voice is quite soothing

so it helps well i don't know about that

to me my

voice is very harsh but

that's that's because i'm listening to

myself from the inside

not not on the outside

thank you bundy okay anybody else

should we share america yeah in a minute

i would give people a chance

i'm hi bondi yeah i hope you are up

um i have a question um

i often hear that people say when

someone goes to hire jhanas they

recommend

recommend them reading the our tamsaka

sutra

what is your thought or do you have any

recommendation about that to draw

reading that

well

there's a lot of sutas that you can read

that are very good

for that my favorite

is the anupada suta number 111

in the magiman nikaya because that

explains what each one of the jhanas

is and the experiences you have while

you're

you're in that genre

what about the um avatar sutra

i'm not as familiar with that one

okay

yeah most of the uh people that they

talked

was mainly from mahayana and adriana

traditions but i don't know how it is

taken into

trouble i'm not theravada i'm sutta vada

sure uh

the thing with mahayana and vajrayana

is they have a tendency to change things

from

the tranquil wisdom meditation to

one pointed kinds of concentration

and they don't have the letting go

of craving in it

and that makes me uh

suspicious of

that that teaching if it doesn't have

letting go of craving in it

that means they're still bringing

craving back to their object of

meditation

and when they do that that gets on a

different path than the buddha taught

right now they often say that this is

the first apparently sutra that

buddha taught to his disciples but

apparently is above

the understanding so he's basically try

to

tune it down and dial it down and start

basics basically but

um it explains all the realms of heaven

realm in other realms basically but i

don't know how appropriate would be your

body

it's it's hard to to judge

but when you are doing a practice

and this is the thing that got me

absolutely convinced that this

is the practice that i needed to be

doing

was that i would read a suta

then i would go off and practice and if

i had an

experience that was pretty well

described in the

suta then i took that suit to the mean

i'm on the right path

does that happen when you do that other

suta

do you feel like you're on the right

path when you do it or

is it just that you hit a wall

after a period of time and then you

don't progress

that has never happened when i was doing

this kind of meditation i still go

through

progress right now when i'm doing the

sitting meditation

i still have insights i still have

different uh observations

that are occurring and this is

after what 45 years of doing the

meditation

right so yeah thank you

decide for yourself is basically what

i'm saying

okay thank you one other question i

guess um

you were talking about explaining to

people about

election and other stuff and i have

something in my mind for the last

couple of years about i mean i brought

up a little bit about

that to um david but

recently this idea of engaged buddhism

is basically taking really on a stage

and

spreading mindfulness and it's one thing

sitting and do my meditation of course

in my

comfort zone and at home but then

interacting into

uh society and i guess

how to engage in a way that

is um wholesome but also spread

mindfulness kind of like buddhism and

activism rather than

being passive and staying in my own

comfort

well you natural you naturally

do that sort of thing when you're

practicing twim

you're using the six r's you're going

through

personality development and other people

notice that you're acting in a more kind

and gentle way

or you're acting in a more balanced way

then they'll ask you about it this idea

of engaged uh buddhism

uh it's kind of gimmicky i i don't go

along right

as much as i do with the scent of

following the sutas themselves

but that's me

and i think if you're happy with what

you're doing

and it leads to your having more

happiness

and clarity of mind then

continue on with it if you're satisfied

with it

as i said i'm not a teacher i'm i'm just

a guide

and the guides

their job is

to make sure you're staying on the

eightfold path

thank you thank you so much

have a beautiful week yeah you have a

good week yourself

thank you anybody else

okay then let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share that we've thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

davith and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhists

dispensation

you all have a fun week century

sunday thank you very much oh you're

very welcome

thank you thank you