From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=i-wuZSzSdMw

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

[Music]

so

okay all right here i am

i hope you all had a happy thanksgiving

we had turkey

so

i have done this suta before but i

something is telling me that i need to

do it again

and this is suit to number 55 59

excuse me the many kinds of

feelings

so as i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living

at sowati and jettas grow veneth

then the carpenter panchikanga

went to the venerable udayan

after paying homage to him he sat down

at one side and asked him venerable

sir how many kinds of feeling

have been stated by the blessed one

three kinds of feeling have been stated

by the blessed one householder

pleasant feeling painful feeling and

neither

painful nor pleasant feeling

these three kinds of feeling have been

stated by the blessed one

not three kinds of feeling have been

stated by the blessed one venerable who

die in

two kinds of feeling have been stated by

the blessed

one

feeling a pleasant

feeling and painful feeling

this neither painful or pleasant feeling

has been stated by the blessed one as

peaceful and sublime kind of pleasure

a second and third time the venerable

udayan

stated his position

a second and a third time the carpenter

poncho conga

he was always around

the monastery where

the buddha stayed for 21 years and he

listened to all of the dhamma talks

and then he would go back to work after

the dhamma talk was done

so he was pretty well uh

educated about the buddhist

talks but the venerable ludayan

could not convince the carpenter

panchakonga

nor could the carp carpenter pancho

conga convince the venerable udayan

so they went off and they were

not happy with each other

how often does that happen when there's

an agreement

or a disagreement of something

how does it how often does that happen

to you especially the way politics are

being run

these days

a lot of people are very very set

in their ways instead of releasing

the other person they're thinking about

how the other person is wrong and that

causes

all kinds of problems

so it does not lead to your happiness

or the happiness of others

it does not lead to your well-being

or the well-being of others

so holding strong opinions

kind of gets in the way of true

dharma

you can listen you can disagree but you

have to agree

to disagree not fight with each other

and

talk while the other person is talking

and that sort of thing

it's listening quietly

yes you can agree or disagree but don't

interrupt

hear everything they have to say then

say okay

i listened to you i was respectful to

you

now please do the same courtesy for me

okay

the venerable ananda heard their

conversation

then he went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him he sat down at one

side and reported to the blessed one the

entire conversation

between udayan and the carpenter panda

conga

when he had finished the blessed one

told venerable ananda

ananda it is actually a priest

a true presentation that the carpenter

upon chicago

would not except for mudayan

and it was actually a true presentation

that udayan would not accept from the

park park

carpenter panchakonga

i have stated two kinds of feeling

in one presentation

i have presented three kinds of feeling

in another presentation

i have stated five kinds of feeling in

another presentation what are the five

kinds of feeling the aggregates

body feeling

perception formations

and consciousness there's five kinds of

feeling

i have stated six kinds of feeling in

another presentation

six kinds of feeling or what each one of

the sense doors

now this is important if you're going to

be paying attention

to your meditation

you see as soon as feeling

starts to arise

right after that feeling whether it's

pleasant or unpleasant or neutral

doesn't really matter

at one of the sense stores

there is craving

that arises craving is the i like it i

don't like it mine

and the way you recognize that is

by

seeing that feeling

of i like it or i don't like it seeing

that tightness caused by that feeling

and this can get to be very very subtle

so when you first see a feeling

coming up

if you use the six r's right at that

time

then the clinging

[Music]

the habitual tendency the birth

the sorrow lamentation pain grief and

despair

will not arise

in other words you have purified

your mind by using the six r's and using

them

properly

and the more you use the six hours

the more pure your mind becomes

the more your mind experiences

equanimity

the more your mind experiences

true awareness and balance of mind

so using the 6rs often

and it's it's hard to get this across to

people

to use the six r's with

your daily activities you have

feeling come up at one of the scent

stores you see something that's

unpleasant

you hear something that's unpleasant

what does your mind generally do

it gets involved in the craving i don't

like that i don't want to be around that

i don't like that

side or sound i don't like that

taste or smell

and once you have

that come up you're caught

in the web of craving

in a trammel of craving

and who's causing that pain

that sound

that sight that smell

is that the cause of your upset

and your dissatisfaction and your

dislike

no this is something that

you're doing to yourself

you can't blame somebody

else for saying something that you don't

agree with or that you don't laugh

they're just using words

it's not that important but you make it

a big deal

and all of a sudden it turns into a

mighty

torrent of

dislikes and dissatisfactions

that you're taking personally

the more you can use the six hours with

your daily activities

the easier it is to let go of your old

habitual

emotional tendency

the easier it is to open

up and allow whatever is there

to be there

is all right for that sound or

smell or taste or sight whatever it is

it's all right for it to be there it has

to be all right

because that's the truth when it occurs

it's there what do you

do with the truth when it arises

most people fight the truth

i don't like this

and you let your mind get into an

emotional stick

you're making a big deal out of

what somebody else said it doesn't

have to be a big deal you're

making it a big deal you are causing

yourself

upset

but when you use the six hours properly

then your re-action

the way you act whenever something like

this comes up

can turn into a response of equanimity

and acceptance

it doesn't allow your mind to become

hard when you use the six

arts

it changes your perspective

it changes the way that you see the

world around you

and this changes your personality and

your

idea of the world

i love people that talk about the four

noble truths like it's just something

you just it's something to mention and

and not

understand because the four noble truth

is the key to

changing your old ways

of doing things and beginning a new

more awakened experience

so these six kinds of feeling

are real important that as soon as you

see any

feeling come up and then there's that

tightness

as soon as you recognize that there's a

slight

tightness happening in your head in your

mind and you let it

either you don't get involved

with analyzing it you don't get involved

with trying to control it

you let it be there by itself

and relax and smile

come back to your object to meditation

sometimes your object of meditation is

simply a smile

with your daily activities

when you begin to

apply this kind

of mindfulness

and i love the word mindfulness because

so many people have no idea what they're

talking about with mindfulness

when you apply this kind of mindfulness

in other words your observation

power to be able to recognize when this

first starts to happen with your daily

activities

it changes your entire life

now we have a lot of old habitual

tendencies not only from this life but

from other lifetimes

we always react react

react and that means act again

just like you did before

that's why we walk around being in a

haze

almost all the time

we start to use

mindfulness in the correct way

of observing and then relaxing and

letting it be

we start to change the way

we observe the world

and we start seeing it as all

part of an impersonal process

we start seeing it as a process

instead of a psychological tool

to use

and that's why when so many people come

here for

retreat they leave

as a different person they're awake

a lot of people wake up at the center

when they come and practice for 10 days

but the trick is you can't go home and

then start acting the way you always

acted

you have to allow

and use the six r's without making

big deals out of things that you don't

know this

is my philosophy is better than your

philosophy

my ideas are better than your ideas

you have to truly take an interest

in learning how to let go of the

suffering

not everything in life is suffering

there are some nice and pleasant things

that happen

but there is suffering in life and

that's what we have to start recognizing

we have to start changing

our perspective so we don't get so

caught up in emotional upsets

so we can develop naturally

having that balance of mind

so one of the reasons that i wanted to

get into this

many kinds of feeling is to

state the importance of your being

able to recognize a feeling

when it arises

it doesn't just pop up

there are causes and effects for these

things to arise

but what you do with what arises in the

present

dictates what happens in the future

the more clear you become with

this kind of observation

and use of the six hours

the more joy there is there is more

happiness there is

in your life and it happens

all by itself

you start having a mind that's more

accepting of everything

you start having a mind that's more

allowable

and not get into

emotional snits

taking responsibility for yourself

and realize how much pain you cause

yourself because of your old attachments

because of your old ways of thinking

now every now and then i listen to a

dhamma talk that somebody else gives and

i catch my mind

playing the game oh that's not right

it's okay to have that kind of thought

so that you can investigate later and

see

exactly where the mistake was being made

that doesn't mean you fight with

somebody else about it

you just check on these things for

yourself

i have a lot of students now that are

starting to

teach which is great

i try to encourage all of my students

when they

when they are practicing

and being a teacher

that they use the sutas

now some some students they use the suit

as just a little tiny bit and then they

go on

with their thoughts and opinions and

that sort of thing

and they start talking about ways that

the practices help them in one way or

[Music]

another

i can't judge that i can't say no

you have to follow the way that i do it

i have to allow people the

freedom to be able to express

the dhamma as long as they're using

smiling and the six

hours that's the only requirement of

being a teacher for for what we're doing

here

the reason that i started reading the

sutas

in the first place

was because when i started doing this

it was in 1995

and bhikkhu bodhi had just

uh released his copy of

the majima nikaya

now the books that i was using before

that there was a polytexas society

they they used old english and they used

phrases that were hard to understand

and it didn't it didn't feel right

but when bicker bodies book came out i

got

really excited because it's more

update information

it was still the suttas

but because of the change of language

and the style it was much

easier to

understand

now my whole life i

have had dyslexia dyslexia is a learning

deficiency they call it

my brain doesn't translate

the written word and

it doesn't translate so easily in my

brain

and i had trouble reading and i had

trouble writing because

when i would write i always got

b's and b's and

other letters they always got turned

around mixed up

so when i got a hold of bhikkhu bodhi's

book i thought well i want people to

understand the dhamma

as well as it can be understood

and because i had trouble reading what i

wanted to do was get more practice at

reading

and reading out loud i can read to

myself

that's no problem but when i read out

loud sometimes the words

jump around sometimes things get a

little

jumbled up

so when i started and i've been teaching

for about 20 years at that point

and when i started reading the suttas to

the students

i saw their progress in the meditation

take off

i mean it was amazing

all of a sudden they were experiencing

a lot of joy a lot of happiness clarity

of mind a lot of equanimity

because i was reading the words of the

buddha

the translation of bhikkhu bodhi's words

and as i started seeing a lot of people

being

more successful rather than me

just going off and talking about this or

that

then i could add in some of my

commentary whenever it seemed

appropriate

i became a very successful

teacher

so when my students take off and they

want to teach

i strongly suggest that they read from

the sutes

not many of them do

because everybody has their own style

and they want to have their own message

they want to put in with

it

but

none of my students are as successful

at teaching meditation as i am

because i stick to the suites

one of the things that the suit does

are renowned for is being

systematic

so you go through a lot of different

things that the buddha is talking about

with each suta

but it's done in such a systematic way

that by the end of the dhamma talk

everybody that listens to it

they have good understanding

and that along with some commentary

is the way that i would like all of my

students to

teach

not following necessarily my commentary

but they can make their own commentary

but it keeps things systematic

it keeps things flowing

and you start out slowly and you start

building

just like this suit here it started out

with two people

not agreeing with what they said the

buddha said

now the buddha steps in and he starts

saying well i've taught that i've taught

this

and they're both right

but i've also taught five of these

and six of these and 18 of those and 36

of these

he taught a lot of different ways

one way is no more correct than the

other

that's one of the things that makes a

buddha such a remarkable teacher because

he talked this way

for 45 years

he changed some of the things he

was uh teaching

but the only way he changed was in the

explanation

of the same thing

so the point i'm trying to get across

is if you

want to teach

you must be successful in the meditation

yourself to start off with

the thing is that's really amazing

is when i first went to

be with k sri dhammananda and he was

having me

give talks every other week

and over

a period of a a few months

whenever i was giving a talk i would go

in and i would start reading a suta and

discussing what the sutu was talking

about

and the number of people that i saw

listening very intentively attentively

excuse me

we're starting to shake their head every

time they

they heard something that they thought

was right

and it's really nice when you're in an

audience of 300 or 400 people

to see quite a few people

shaking their head it really gives a lot

of confidence in giving a dominate

anyway i'm going to get back to the suit

and now

okay i

have stated six kinds of feeling

in another presentation i have stated

18 kinds of feeling in another

presentation

18 kinds of feeling past

pleasant and future of the six

kinds of feelings see how they're

interconnected

and that goes on to say 36 kinds and

then it goes on to say 108 kinds of

feeling

now a lot of people think that this has

something to do with the

abhidhamma because that's always the

the list of uh

things there's 52

of this there's 108 of that there's

all these different numbers that they

use the mnemonic system

with abhidhamma as a means

of memorizing

and keeping things straight

so when abhi dhamma talks about 52

different kinds of feeling

it's all these emotional things

and it breaks down to pleasant and

unpleasant

so you can see how it's always

consistent

and always intertwined

there are some suttas in that are

written

as in in the major nikaya there's a

few of them

that aren't in the original

discourses

one of them is suta number 20.

suited number 20 talks about

different ways of

overcoming hindrances

which is taken from the vedas

not from the buddha's teaching now i'd

say

taken from the vedas that means some of

the vedas

not all of them

and when it gets down to the fifth

different kind

of way that you treat a hindrance it

says to

[Music]

push your tongue against the roof of

your mouth

grit your teeth and crush

mind with mind now this

suta

is taken

from commentary

and it's also taken from another suta

where they just copied part of the suta

and put that in and they didn't

teach the whole suit

which can cause

real misunderstanding

because in sudan number

36 this is about the buddha and his

experience with meditation and the

different things that he tried

to overcome hindrances

he said that this he would work with

that so much

trying to push down and suppress the

hindrance

from coming up

that he would have sweat coming from his

armpits

and he would get very tired physically

because he was trying so hard

now they don't put that part in that

suit to number 20.

and suit the number 20 is very very

misleading

and there are a lot of people even today

that are doing the different kinds of

meditation

mindfulness of the body the

the vipassana kind some vipassanas

kinds of meditation where you're trying

to suppress

now the way that this suta

is a mistake is that it doesn't take

into account the noble eightfold path

and it doesn't take that into account at

all it's trying to

note something until it goes away

and then immediately come back to your

object of meditation which is either the

breath

or the body whatever it happened to be

if you immediately come back to your

object meditation after allowing

something to be

or that it disappears and you don't

use the relaxed step

you are practicing a different

form of meditation than

what the buddha was teaching

a lot of people they do yoga they do

meditation

but they don't have the relaxed step

in it

a lot of people come here and they say

well can i do my yoga and

i say i don't care whether you do yoga

or not i don't care whether you exercise

or not that's up to you

the only thing i want you to do

is smile and relax your mind

and

use the six ours

any kind of distraction i don't care

what scent store it's at

you don't make it into a big

deal you don't keep your mind on it

and then try to analyze it and and

figure out why this is a problem

right effort says that you immediately

let it be by itself don't make

a big deal out of anything

allow it to be relaxed

smile lighten your mind

now when people start doing yoga the way

that i'm

i'm suggesting with the six hours and

the smile

they come back and they tell me oh the

yoga is much better now i'm much more

limber than i was because i'm not trying

to

push and and experience

the things the way i think they should

be experiencing them

my mind and my perspective is different

now

so even doing yoga is

fine if you do it in the right way

if you do it according to right

effort

if you're taught that oh i'm being

mindful and i'm noting noting noting

noting noting and i'm mindful when i do

that

by their definition of mindfulness yes

that might be

true but that is not necessarily the

definition

that the buddha was talking about

so it's a real

necessary part of this practice

for you to notice the feeling when it

first starts to come up

and know what to do when it arises

now some people when they come and they

start practicing here

they kind of complain because everything

is too easy

it's too simple

and the reason that it's simple is

you're not

getting caught in the clinging

and the habitual tendencies

like your mind always gets caught

and that helps change your perspective

which helps

change your attitude towards life

the more equanimity the more balance

you have in your life the easier life

becomes

the more fun life becomes

and the more you affect the world around

you

in a positive way

this is

part of the goal of the buddha

and his teaching

the ultimate end of the goal is getting

off of the will of sansara so you don't

have to put up with this nonsense

anymore

you don't have to put up with how much

pain you cause yourself because

of wrong view

this is me this is mine this is who i am

and i'm right and you're wrong

no

more balance

more acceptance

and the more you talk about acceptance

the more you talk about

forgiveness an awful lot of people

have this idea that i can forgive

something one time and i'm done with it

oh i forgave that but you still have the

emotional

hold on you still have that emotional

attachment to it

so whatever you quote forgave keeps

coming up and the more it comes up

the more pain you are causing yourself

so when you forgive

we've spent a lot of time in

changing some of the wording in the

forgiveness

meditation found that a lot of people

were becoming confused when i

say well six are that

so we don't have the six r's in

well we have it in in the forgiveness

but we have it in a different way

you spend time forgiving yourself for

not

understanding for causing yourself pain

any thought any distraction

that arises you forgive

that right then you forgive that thought

for distracting you

you forgive the sensation for

distracting you whatever it happens to

be

then you relax

and bring that relaxed mind back to

forgiving yourself again

so i used to say you use a six ours

but that was misleading for a lot of

people

now i just say relax

relax that tension and tightness in your

head

caused by the distraction

when you forgive the distraction

completely there will be

a sense of relief

and you'll know that you don't have to

forgive any more right about

that

an awful lot of people

especially these days

need forgiveness meditation

now we give forgiveness meditations

online

because of this virus nonsense we don't

have people coming to the center so i

can help you personally

but david is setting it up with a lot of

different helpers

that understand forgiveness very well

and they will be able to help you

to do it online

there's questions they're going to ask

you

some of those questions you need to

answer and

a lot of the

things that we feel guilty about that we

need to forgive in ourself

is things that we did

and we don't want anybody else to know

in other words you're

keeping a secret

now a definition of an arahat

is an individual

that has no secrets

now let's explain again how a hindrance

arises

something happens

and you have a negative reaction to it

and you take it personally

you told a lie you you used foul

language

you did gossip which is making up

stories about other people

as soon as you did that in your mind

your mind says

i shouldn't have done that i

shouldn't have done that

and you feel guilty you feel

a little bit of remorse and then you

shine it on

and you get involved in other activities

and forget that you did it

so when you start doing your forgiveness

meditation

these kind of memories will come up

again because

they have this false idea of a personal

self

involved with it

so you forgive over and over again

until you convince your mind that you

really do forgive

and you don't need to hold on to that

old pain that has been following you

your whole life

david just had his phone go off

so forgiveness is a lot of acceptance

so another situation comes up

that's similar to what you experienced

before

you won't have the old

reaction occurring

because you've let go of that attachment

you've let go

of that old guilty feeling

and you feel a lot lighter

and your mind is much more clear and

alert and awake

so some people

they say well i forgave that and clearly

they didn't forget it

now what my job is or david's job or

whoever is

teaching this to other people is to get

you

to continue forgiving it until

it actually comes up and you might say

something to the teacher about well one

time i did this and i made a mistake

then it's no longer

a secret because you told somebody else

and when you tell somebody else about

something that you did

it was dumb and you did it because you

didn't understand the whole situation

and you tried to deceive the world

around you with your words

but when you let go of that

it's not a secret anymore when you say

yeah i did that

and i i see that it was a wrong thing to

do and i wish i hadn't

done it but this is part of the learning

experience

this is how you become more awake

more alert

and happier you do this by letting go

of the old

habitual tendencies

now trying to keep a secret all the time

makes you break other precepts

just so you can reinforce

your secret

and you can see how it affects not only

you but it affects everybody else around

you

now i've been in some cultures

where not telling the truth

they have the belief that that's not

telling a lie

and especially in asia

little white lies are acceptable

but little white lies are lies

they're not telling the truth of what

you actually

think or see or do

and that causes a lot

of identification

and suffering in yourself

now there can be some major things that

happen

in your life

of verbal fighting or

physical fighting or whatever it

happened to be

but you tried to keep it a secret

and keeping that secret

causes you to see the world

in a different way because you're

keeping that secret

so you need to let go of the secrets

sometimes it's very difficult i remember

this one lady

she came to a teacher that i was

studying with

at the time and she sat

down and she said i've been doing

something for a long time

and i really feel guilty

and of course the teacher said oh what

was that

and she kind of hemmed and hot around

and then she said i'd like to gamble

and i have been gambling my money away

and as soon as she said that to him

she let go of that attachment to it and

you could see her face

all of a sudden become bright where it

was kind of cloudy before it was kind of

muddly

so letting go of your secrets is what

forgiveness is all about

letting go of the pain that you had in

the past that you're trying to

not let anybody else know that you had

that experience or that you did this

or that whatever it happens to be

forgiveness takes away pain

and suffering

so when you are forgiving yourself for

not understanding a lot of people come

in

and they say i don't understand

i don't understand what i'm supposed to

understand well no

you've made a mistake in the past you

didn't understand the consequences of

that

of even a little white lie you didn't

understand the consequences

of that coming back to you and causing

you suffering

so that's what you don't understand and

when you

you tell other people that come up in

your mind

from past experience that they didn't

understand

well they didn't understand the whole

situation

they didn't understand what it was that

caused this problem

so you forgive them for not

understanding

you forgive them for making a mistake

even if it's a

a physical punishment kind of mistake

you can forgive

that

the whole point of doing this meditation

is learning how

craving arises what craving

actually is and how to let it go

now we have different remedies for

different things

but they all turn out to be the same

thing it all comes back to using the six

r's

if you use the six r's with a relaxed of

your

tension and tightness in your head in

your mind

you're using the six r's

if you use the 6rs

by being able to recognize

distraction and forgive the distraction

for coming up

and you don't have to start thinking

about the cause of the distraction just

forgive it for being there

the cause and the effect will happen

all on its own as you

continue opening

up and letting go of

your secrets

so now i see that it's been for an hour

that i've been here

do you have any questions

anyone

everything you said was so clear that

you understand it and you don't

have a question about it

hi hello how are you

yeah i am fine it's been quite long time

i'm in asian time so

not able to attend you're gonna have to

speak up a little bit

i can't hear you as well as i could

yeah uh it's been very long time

uh i'm very fine i have two questions

monday

okay uh my first question

um

uh if is it possible that

somebody gets experienced cessation

but does not uh

see anybody does not

does not experience nibana

well there's a lot of misunderstanding

about things sometimes

somebody can have an experience of

opening up

and they feel real happy for a short

period of time

but that's not necessarily

the nibana experience they had a letting

go

of something

but the way you understand

having the experience of nibana

is

[Music]

test it on yourself

if you can say something that's not true

like

this book is pink and you see

that it's actually red or that it's

actually green

if you say something that's not true

like that

you will have a guilty feeling arise

if you have the guilty feeling arise

that means that you broke the precept

and your pure mind

that had experienced nibana

is real

but sometimes you can have an experience

where there's

just an opening up and if you walk

around feeling happy for a long time

that's happened to me a few times

and i had some delusions that maybe this

was the experience of

nibana but it wasn't it wore off after a

period of time

it's like you got used to letting go of

whatever it was you let go of

and now you're so used to it that it's

no big deal

but always

when you test with the

uh the precepts that's the way you

really find out whether

it's real or not is with with a guilty

feeling

okay

i have another question okay

yeah okay i understood

i will go for my next question

okay

[Music]

can i can i say something like this like

in the links of dependent origination

when there is craving

there is feeling there is feeling

also exists at that point of time

similarly like when there is feeling

uh yes

uh the see the thing is as you as you go

deeper and deeper the feeling can become

more and more subtle and you don't

notice it

like you did when you bang your foot or

stub your toe or whatever it's not big

like that

but as you quiet down

feeling always starts

with a disturbance of mind and it can be

very subtle

but as soon as you notice the feeling

then the craving is there

the i like it i don't like it and you

you feel that tension and tightness

and when you use the six hours of course

it

it will let go of that tension

and tightness and mind becomes more

clear then you have to continue on with

the six r's with smiling and coming back

to your object

but there are a lot of false beliefs

in a nibana experience

and there's a lot of different

definitions of what

nibana is

and that causes people to walk around

with their chest popped up

and i'm a sodapana

well i hope you're right

i'm not one to say whether it is right

or not

but i might ask you a few questions if

if you experience true nirvana

your perspective of the things that you

see

around you changes

things become more clear colors become

more

bright your understanding

becomes more and more set

with equanimity doesn't mean you won't

have a

an emotional upset in one way or another

ever but as you go along

and go deeper and deeper and have more

than one experience of nibana

your perspective is going to change and

the way

you see everybody around you you become

more accepting and life becomes

easier okay

did that answer that for you

yes okay

yeah how are you i'm doing great how are

you

very good i love it here in american

samoa

and my request or thought is

i'm i think you ought to

consider coming here to to

do a retreat look

there's no covent here the people

fo spot excuse me

smile all the time it's the easiest

place i know

to keeping your precepts it's wonderful

here

and i just want to bring it to your

attention oh thank you

but i'm starting to feel the effects of

traveling

quite a bit and

i still might travel but it's going to

be a while

okay well whatever

thank you for the invite you're welcome

well

welcome hey al i'm uh

booking my ticket right now

[Laughter]

it's one it's wonder it's 85

the weather is incredible and i'm

sure you enjoy it we'll enjoy it well

yeah

that's why i went to asia all the time

in the wintertime

thank you for your talk i have a quick

question

you said earlier if your students wanted

to teach

that they have to be successful in their

meditation

how do you define that

how would you know if one of your

students is successful

in their meditation like what does that

like every day or they never skip a day

like

what does that look like it's not it's

not like that it's their

understanding of the drama and being

able to experience

nibbana

do you understand what i mean by that

i i feel like there's two ways to

understand the experience nibana they're

like

what you have talked before about many

nibbanas

where we relieve where we uh free

ourselves from craving

i'm talking about the super mundane

ah the um the rupa janas have

experienced rupa janus

of course and becomes

is being sotakana necessary to be a

teacher

not absolutely necessary but your

understanding has to be

very very deep

see you have to be able to experience

something before you can give

that that knowledge

to other people

and a lot of people try to fake their

way through

and they get muddled and they get

uh they get frustrated very easily

and then wind up quitting

but when you have a direct experience

then the answers

that you give are going to be

closer to the accur accurate

real experience

okay thank you

and one of the things that we started

doing for the teachers is we started

sending out certificates of

merit

thank you monty not sure whether

whether that's uh

a good idea or not but we started doing

it anyway

i i had the idea that every time

somebody would come to meditate if they

got to a drama i would give them a

certificate for getting to that drama

and then you go all the way through

and the last certificate i give you is a

blank piece of paper

a punch card

[Laughter]

congratulations during the interview

you get your card punched

the more you can be happy

the more you have a lighter mind

with your daily activities

the easier it is to

help other people to attain that

because you have the direct experience

i run across an awful lot of people that

they just read books

and if you read the dhamma books now

there's an awful lot of them that are

misdirecting

but they'll read all of these different

books and they say well i'm qualified to

teach

when i first came back to this country

and i started teaching i wouldn't let

anybody

read any books

for a period of time

you want to read something go read the

sutes

you want to listen to something go

listen to my dharma talks

and after a period of time then i would

start

giving little pamphlets to read little

books to read

and then the the amount of books

gets to be more and more until

you feel comfortable with being able to

express

that people think

that being a teacher

is real special and it's real easy

and it's not

some of the sutas that you hear me give

i've given those 50 or 75 or 100 times

and you have to do it with the same

confidence you have to do it

with the same kind of enthusiasm i know

this stuff works

and i want to show you how it works

so you have to repeat yourself many many

many many times

without getting frustrated by it

some of my students i've had them

they listen to what i say and they might

hear me say

something 100 or 200 or 300 times

and then they have the experience and

they come

and they there it's like this is brand

new to them

wow it's just like this yeah right

and if you were to listen to what i said

the first time you would have

experienced it

oh well but that's part of being a

teacher

and then being enthusiastic when

they are successful being truly

happy for them

a lot of the students that come here

i i am truly happy

and excited for them because i see that

their mind is opening up

their mind is more clear their mind is

more bright

and that really makes me happy

that shows me that what i'm

what i'm trying to get across

is working

okay any other question

hello oh helen you go first

oh sorry oh should i go first uh

yeah no i want to thank you so much yeah

thank you so much for the uh for your

talks and also for the support group

i do really princess in the last

like four months or five months about

like like following you on

these talks which you actually was

delivering what the open thing

so i just want to share my uh first

share my like um like the happiness the

joy that i have been through with this

uh this talks and this practice is with

uh

especially now i have a a a supported

team

with kim uh so i will be um i'll be

joining the uh

the retreat soon but um on today's talk

i have a question because there is a

late experience of mine regarding of

letting go

or not analyzing our like

a feeling come up um because like i have

an experience that i have

this reaction which is also an emotional

feeling

thing that comes up and it leads me to

see

how and why it was like coming up so

the um the analyzing part um whether it

should be

doing it or not how can we balance it

because if i don't analyze it

i was not able to see deep through what

was arising it but from

the seeing of what has given the rising

of that particular reaction which is not

a response it's giving me

understanding of my previous um

perception wrong perception or inceptor

thing

but that at that point i thought it also

caused a guilt feeling already there

so um but i have an understanding

i want to know how to balance between at

not analyzing or

contemplating the the root like how

how should we balance that because if i

i contemplate i

understand how was rooting out but from

the routing i see

myself in feeling so how would you

advise

whether we should let go of the analysis

part

or going to a deeper contemplation of

understanding the right

you understand what analysis is

uh it's the thoughts which i don't like

which

is a lot of thinking and

okay you've talked a long time i've

listened to you

i want to give you the answer but you

can't talk when i'm talking

understand analyzing

is sitting and thinking and trying to

figure out why

okay that means you're not feeling at

that time

so how do you how do you don't have to

feel

guilty about it your mind is just

thinking

and sometimes you have to verbalize some

of your experience

but not over and over and over and over

and over again

now you have a feeling of joy arise okay

and then your mind says i feel this joy

okay fine that's not analyzing

that's just observing and verbalizing

what you observed

in your mind but when you start thinking

why did it come up then how did it come

up and

that's analyzing that gets in your way

six are that go back to just

feeling that

why it came up doesn't matter

does it how it came up

well because you were purifying your

mind

with the six r's and it caused joy to

arise

that's it it's simple you don't have to

try to think

about how it happened why it happened

what can i do so i can have it happen

again

you don't want to get caught in that

stay with the feeling as long as it's

there

be happy that the feeling was there

you might have some thoughts in the

future about that but they're just going

to come up as thoughts

and you can take them as yours or not

it's up to you

but do you see what i'm getting at

it's it's not overthinking again and

again and again

and again and again that's analyzing

it's not the joy feeling it's about

like sometimes i have this um uh

a subtle uh sad feelings

that is what it is like or a bad feeling

wholesome around

wholesome

is that a non-wholesome feeling yeah oh

what do you do with

unwholesome feeling

recognize it relax it

release it relax it

okay but and we smile

tell it's telling you something

it's telling but it's telling me

something that's my my question yeah

it's it's telling me something so should

i go on asking myself

no you don't go on asking anything

it's telling you that you have an

attachment and you're not willing to let

it go

that's why it keeps coming back

so you 6r it and stop making a big

deal out of it

the more you make a big deal out of it

the more suffering you cause yourself

laugh more

okay thank you your face just lightened

up a lot

yes

and that makes me happy

okay

thank you okay

hi monty hi how are you

i'm doing really well monty how are you

you're doing good

thanks you're a little blurry

but that's okay

um so my uh

my question is this so in my sitting

practices

lately i've been i'm noticing that

can you hear me all right yeah yeah okay

um

i've been noticing that i've i'm now

able to stay with the the meta for

longer um

and uh so i'll notice that like

even though i'm with the feeling of meta

i'll notice that there's tension

building up in my

mind even though i'm still with the meta

so is it is it correct is it a

correct is it right effort to relax that

tension as i'm noticing it

even though i'm still with the meta or

should i just

not worry about it stay with the meta

don't worry about it

only when your mind goes away

from the meta then you use the six arcs

and that will let go of the tension

but just ignore it until your mind is

completely distracted

okay so don't make a big deal out of it

in your mind

staying with the meta and your object of

meditation is most

important

okay so until i'm distracted just don't

worry about it

right if it doesn't really distract you

it's nothing

[Music]

okay oh thank you

that was easy yeah it most always

is

okay anybody else

uh hello uh hello auntie

um can you hear me yes i sure can

uh thank you very much i'm so new to the

group um but

thank you very much for your arousing

and

inspirational talk on the dharma thank

you

uh i suppose about the topic that was

previously discussed about

attainment and nibana um

i remember a while back i i had an

experience that for me at least

um was very very

life-changing when doing the practice um

and for a while afterwards i remember

that i would uh

ruminate and wonder oh have i

experienced nirvana have i not

experienced nirvana

do i all this sort of stuff until i

realized you know what that's just all

nonsense stuff good for you and uh

and it just got so much more peaceful

afterwards when i think you know it

doesn't matter

what matters is um

am i treating people better am i uh

actually dealing with the real problem

which is

when i'm reacting to what other people

say that i didn't like and

you know this sort of thing that that's

that's the measure i think when the

buddha

the word always talked about the

practical sense i think the sense that

um

uh am i

uh letting go of that which needs to be

let go of and cultivating

the that which leads to greater

tranquility yeah

um well

test yourself

yeah i know i did didn't i well um yeah

this is all about self-exploration

and self-discovery

when you feel naturally more at ease

with people that you didn't used to be

at ease with

and you feel your mind stay light

that is a really good sign

and the more you practice your daily

activities

with the loving kindness of

radiating a happy feeling radiating a

smile

in your mind in your lives in your with

your mouth

just a little one

and you start to make that a habit it

turns into a kind of protection

for you so that you'll be more

aware of what you're going to do before

you do it

yeah it's so it's so true it is so true

um

i think that was one of the biggest

things for me was when

i had when i started doing the practice

and i had that experience and i started

really taking the precepts really

seriously

just seeing how much simpler things

become

how much how much nonsense gets sort of

cut out

you know yeah it is good

good it makes me happy to know that

you're doing so well

thank you if i can help you in any other

way please let me know

thank you okay

anybody else have a question statement

hello monty hello

how are you how are you

are you in india yes i'm in india

where in mumbai in mumbai

ah you know sister kema is in mumbai

oh okay

so so

so i first had a question and then i got

to know that i just had to smile more

and that was one of the answers so

i'll get to the next question hello are

you able to hear me

yes yes okay everything is fine

okay so the next question which i wanted

to ask was um

when we say that we have to understand

how the mind is moving

so do i consciously try to trace back

how the mind move

after the six hours oh you consciously

stay

with your objective meditation

then you'll see more and more clearly as

you go deeper

you'll see more and more clearly how

mind's attention

goes away so i should put more energy

into

observing the object of meditation

put more energy into smiling and being

happy

and within that happiness to your friend

okay

and when you're walking down the street

smile at everybody around you and wish

them well well

yes okay

okay

thank you oh you're welcome

anybody else

okay let's share some merit now

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 this merit

that we have thus acquired

for the acquisition of all kinds of

happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power

share this merit of ours may they long

protect the buddha's dispensation

saad

thank you bundy thank you

thank you david thank you everyone

you