From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=B5HKwjWW_ok

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

[Music]

oh

hello y'all have a good one

you have a good week yes

since i saw you last lots of smiles lots

of laughs having fun

and sitting yeah

lots of sitting lots of sitting oh good

uh i was at a toss-up of which

suit to give you and

this one won out the anaphtha and

penbika sutra

this is a suta that the buddha

gave to nathan pandiko when he was on

his deathbed

now you might think well i don't need

that nobody nobody i know is on a

deathbed

but there's a lot of very interesting

and illuminating

insights into the suta

so i'm going to read it and then i'm

going to read part of it

a second time

so

thus as i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living at sawatee in

jettas grove and

then pendicas park

[Music]

now on that occasion the householder

anna sanpendika

was afflicted suffering and gravely ill

when he addressed a certain monk thus

come good man go to the blessed one

pay homage in my name with your head

at his feet

and say venerable sir

the householder anathen pandita is

afflicted

suffering and gravely ill

he pays homage with his head at the feet

of the blessed

at the feet of the blessed one

then go to the venerable sorry puta

pay homage to him in my name with your

head

at his feet and say

venerable sir the householder and a then

pen because

afflicted suffering and gravely ill

he pays homage with his head at the feet

of the venerable sorry putta

then it would be good venerable sirs if

the venerable

sorry puta would come to the residence

of

the householder and pendica and out of

compassion

uh anathen pindika

his teacher monk was

sorry puta because he didn't want to

take away the time from the buddha

so he turned into one of his favorite

teachers

yes sir the man replied he went to the

blessed one after paying homage

to the blessed one sat down at one side

and

delivered this message

then he went to the venerable sorry puta

after paying homage to the venerable

surrey puta he delivered his message

saying

it would be good venerable sir if

venerable sariputta would come

to the residence of the householder

anathem pinbica out of compassion

the venerable sorry puta consented in

silence he just went

okay

then the venerable sorry putin dressed

and taking his bowl and outer rope

went to the residence of the householder

anathen pandika

with with the venerable ananda is his

attendant

ananda was

attending to

a lot of the arahats anytime they went

out

if they didn't want to go out alone and

quite often they

they preferred to have another monk with

them

he would go out with them

so he had pretty full days of

taking care of things in in the

monastery as well

as attending monks whenever they wanted

to go out

now at that time he was not

an arahat he didn't become an arahat

until after the buddha

had passed away

he was a sodapana he become a sodapana

very early on

in his time

as with the sangha

but then he became the buddha's

attendant

and he didn't have time to do a lot of

meditation

now there's there's a belief that

most monks spend their time doing

meditation

and that's just not true a lot of the

monks

don't do that they spend their time

studying and

taking care of the monastery and and

helping people whenever they come

only about five percent of the monks

and that might even be a high percentage

of monks actually do meditation

there's a lot of talk about meditation

and a lot of people

a lot of monks that don't practice

meditation still teach meditation

and that's where things can become very

confusing

and uh

some of the

ways of practice become few

confusing for other people that are

practicing with them

now i'm starting to develop quite a few

people that

i've have sent them

it's kind of like a diploma

it's an acknowledgement of their past

practice and

they have my blessings to teach

and this is happening in a lot of

different countries

the only requirement you have if you

want to be the teacher

a teacher is you have to be successful

with your meditation

and be able to explain it

and you mention the six hours

often

that's the only requirements so

having gone there he sat down at a seat

made ready

and said to the venerable householder

i hope you're getting well householder i

hope you

are comfortable i hope

your painful feelings are subsiding not

increasing

and that they're subsiding not their

increase

is is apparent

venerable sorry puta i am not getting

well

i am not comfortable my painful feelings

are increasing

not subsiding their increase

not their subsiding is apparent

just as if a strong man were splitting

my head open

with a sharp sword so two

violent winds cut through my head

i'm not getting well

just as a strong man

we're tightening a a tough leather strap

around my head

as a headband so too

there are violent pains in my head

i'm not getting well

just as if the skilled butcher or his

apprentice were to carve out

our car carve up an ox's belly with a

sharp butcher's knife

so too violent winds are carving up my

belly

i am not getting well

just as if two strong men were sub to

seize

a weaker man by the arms and roast him

over a fire pit

of hot coals

too is the violent burning in my body

i'm not getting well i'm not

comfortable my painful feelings are

increasing not subsiding

their increase not their subsiding is

apparent

now this is the part that i really want

you to be

attentive to and let it sink in

because there's going to be a lot of

repeating with this

this is very similar to the repeating

of the six sets of six

you should train thus i will not

crave and cling to the eye

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on the eye

you should train thus i will not

cling and crave to the ear

and and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on the ear i will not crave and

cling to the nose and

my nose will not be dependent

on the my consciousness will not be

dependent on the nose

excuse me

i will not crave and cling to the tongue

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

upon the tongue

i will not crave and cling to the body

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on the body

i will not crave and cling to mind

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on mind thus you should train

you should train thus

i will not crave and cling to forms

my consciousness will not be dependent

on

forms i will not crave and cling to

sounds

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on sounds

i will not crave and cling to odors

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

upon odors i will not crave and cling to

flavors

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on flavors

i will not crave and cling to tangibles

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on tangibles

i will not crave and cling to mind

objects

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on mind objects

thus you should train

keep these in mind

all that all the time with your daily

activities so

you start depending on your mind objects

too much

and it turns into a distraction and you

start thinking about other things

so you can use uh

your um six r's

and remind yourself what's really

important

so letting go of the craving

householder you should train this i will

not crave and cling to high

consciousness

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on eye consciousness i will not crave

and cling to ear

consciousness and my consciousness will

not

be dependent on your consciousness

both things this is a reminder

to sharpen your mindfulness so you're

in observation mode without identifying

with these different

objects

i will not crave and cling to the ear

consciousness

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on ear

consciousness i will not crave and cling

to nose consciousness

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on those

consciousness i will not crave and cling

to

tongue consciousness and my

consciousness will not be dependent

on tongue consciousness i will not

crave and cling to body consciousness

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on body consciousness

i will not crave and claim to mind

consciousness

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on

mind consciousness

thus you should train

you should train thus i will not crave

and

cling to eye contact

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on

eye contact i will not crave and cling

to ear

contact and my consciousness will not be

dependent

upon ear contact

i will not crave and cling to nose

contact

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on nose contact

i will not crave and cling to tongue

contact

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on

tongue contact i will not crave and

cling to body contact

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on body contact

i will not crave and cling to mind

contact

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on mind contact

householder you should train thus

i will not crave and cling to feeling

born of eye contact

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on feeling born of eye contact i will

not crave and cling to

feeling born of ear contact

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on f to to the feeling born

of ear contact

i will not crave and cling to feeling

born of

nose contact and my

consciousness will not be dependent on

feeling

born of nose contact

i will not crave and claim to feeling

born of

tongue contact and i

my consciousness will not be dependent

on feeling born of tongue contact

i will not crave and cling to feeling

born of

body contact and my consciousness will

not

be dependent on feeling born of body

contact

i will not crave and sing the feeling

born of

mind contact and my

consciousness will not be dependent on

feeling

born of mind contact

now when people are doing meditation

one of the things that seems

to catch people and get caught in their

in their hindrances

is getting involved with

mind contact

what does that mean that means you

have some little things starting to come

up you don't catch it when it first

arises

and you let it get full blown and then

you keep your attention on it

and then you come and complain to me

that my mind is so full of

restlessness well

these hindrances when they come up

they come up for a very specific reason

because of breaking a precept

in the past and the guilty feeling of

breaking that precept

and then trying to slough it off like

it's nothing

but your mind holds on to that

and it will start arising

as soon as

that slight movement

of mind's attention away from your

object to meditation

occurs

now you hear me talk a lot about smiling

and the more you smile

during the day now i don't necessarily

mean

a physical smile but smiling in your

mind

the more you smile

the easier it is to see hindrances

when you're on your object of meditation

see it's all interconnected

and making a big deal out of whatever

arises my curiosity

comes up and says oh i gotta check this

out

this has got to be something that uh

i've got to inspect

no you don't it's just more

grist for the mill it's just more

ways that your mind gets

its energy to bring up distractions

so the more you can

use the six r's the more you can

smile and have an

uplifted feeling for the day

the easier it is to recognize

when disturbance occur

and to use the six r's with that

so you see you let go of the personal

nature

of that distraction

and you

start seeing things

as they actually are

you don't have a lot of disturbance of

thinking this and that

you're you're able to observe better and

longer the sharper your mindfulness

becomes

so what's the key to the meditation

being able to recognize when you have a

disturbance

don't fight with a disturbance don't

stay

with the disturbance don't get caught up

in the story of this

of the disturbance

any slight movement away from

attentive observation

of your object to meditation even a

little

tiny slight movement

has a tendency to pull your attention to

it

and you need to

recognize that as soon as possible

so that your mindfulness

is sharp and you can

relax not keep your attention

on any kind any part of the disturbance

at all

not at all

then

come back to your object of meditation

stay with your object of meditation

for as long as you possibly can

if you get into the habit of staying

with the object of meditation for a

minute

or two and it doesn't go any longer you

have to start looking at that and saying

why

why aren't i progressing what do i have

to do

to them to get better at doing this

ask your intuition

ask that little quiet voice in your mind

that's always right

so when you do that

you will get an answer and then you can

adjust

but you have to be willing to adjust

not just wait and say well that's the

way meditation

is and i'm never going to progress so i

won't

well that's true you won't because

you're not taking an interest

in going deeper and seeing how mind's

attention actually

does work and seeing the

impersonal nature of everything

everything in your life everything in

the world

is changing

and it's unsatisfactory because there's

always the chance of hindrances coming

up

and seeing the impersonal nature of it

this is a process

we take it all personally

and we think it's me it's mine

but no it's just part of a process

you're on the wheel of sansara because

of breaking precepts

that's the cause of karma

and how karma works

now as you start purifying your mind

more

and more for longer periods of time

your mind naturally starts to tend

towards that

starts to tend towards the wholesome

mind

and it starts coming up more often

and then you get to see the magic of

being

alive

because life is going to surprise you in

so many

fun and positive ways

in ways that you don't expect

and that makes you happy

and you naturally have a tendency

to practice your generosity

you see somebody that needs a hand with

something

we'll help them

i've given you the example of some of

the things that have happened to me

i've i've gone into a store

and there was a little woman

a short woman that wanted something on a

top shelf

and this was at walmart and they have

pretty high shelves

so i asked her if that's what she wanted

and yeah so i gave it to her

and the smile she gave me

was worth it by a lot

it was really wonderful

and then i got some other candy

by just walking down an aisle and a

woman or a man

i don't remember what gender he was

looked up to me and gave me a big smile

for no reason

wow that's really something

and it's a reminder for me to give it

back

to help other people to relieve their

suffering

that's why we're here

and it all stems back to

your daily practice

and mindfulness and what you do with

that

in your daily practice you see your mind

starting to run

run across stuff and and repeat thoughts

well guess who has an attachment guess

who's causing themselves

suffering guess who's causing a big

problem for themselves

but they want to blame other people for

their suffering

and you can't

it all depends on you

and your

perspective of life

and you'll find too that

your friends start to change as you go

deeper and deeper into meditation

and your perspective changes they don't

feel as comfortable around you as they

used to

but new friends come and they feel

completely comfortable with you

so this is one of the things that can

happen you start

the people that are unwholesome

they just don't come around as

often i had a

cousin that he was in and out of jail

a lot and

i went to a family meal

and i saw that he was suffering and i

started radiating loving kindness to him

he got up and left the room he couldn't

stand

being around something that was so

wholesome

and of course i've told you the story

about

going to a party where they were

breaking precepts with drugs and alcohol

and there was well maybe 20 people in

the room

and we're sitting around talking i

started radiating loving-kindness

because they what they were talking

about

was no interest to me at all

and they all got up and went into

another room

and i was sitting there by myself in a

party

in the main room and nobody was there

so i started thinking well i might as

well leave why be here

and just as i started to get up

a woman from the other that went into

the other room came back and we started

talking and we started talking about

uplifting happy things

and then before long there was three or

four other people that came into the

room

and we had a great time we had great

fun discussing things and learning from

each other

now they were ones that they were with

a mate whether they were married or not

i have no idea but they

had come together and one of them

decided they wanted to do the drugs and

stayed in that room

and and the other one got kind of bored

with it and came into the room that i

was in and we were

we just had fun talking

that's how this turns into a protection

for you

if somebody comes at you even if you're

in a crowd and they're very angry type

and they start causing a problem with

you in one way or another

all you have to do is start radiating

loving kindness to them they'll leave

they'll go away they don't want to be

around that at all

so it's a uh this is a protection for

you

and the protection for your observation

mind and your mindfulness

so the more you can get

into

the observation of mine

with your daily activities as well as

with your sitting your sitting is a

quiet time

where you can really go in deeper and

watch what's happening

so i lost my place where i was gonna

okay

so householder you should train thus

i will not crave and cling to the base

of infinite space

and my consciousness will not be

dependent

on the base of infinite space

i will not crave and cling to the base

of

infinite consciousness and my

consciousness will not be dependent

on infinite consciousness

i will not crave and cling to

nothingness

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on nothingness

i will not crave and cling to

the base of neither perception or

non-perception and my consciousness will

not be dependent on the base of neither

perception nor non-perception

householder you should train thus i will

not crave and cling to this

world and my consciousness will not be

dependent on this world

i will not crave and cling to the world

beyond

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on

the world beyond

you should train thus i will not crave

and cling

to what is seen and my

consciousness will not be dependent on

what is seen

[Music]

i will not crave and cling to what is

heard

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on what is heard

i will not crave and cling to what is

sensed

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on what is sensed

i will not crave and cling to what is

cognized

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on what is cognized

i will not crave and cling to what is

encountered

and i will not crave and cling

to what is encountered

i will not crave and cling to what is

sought after

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on what is soft after

i will not crave and cling

what is examined by mind

and my consciousness is not dependent

on what is examined by mind

and my consciousness will not be

dependent on

that

when this was said the householder

anathen pindiko

wept and shed tears

then the venerable ananda asked

him are you foundering householder

are you sinking now we're going to get

into something that i'm not sure

is a correct translation i'll let you

decide for yourself

i'm not foundering venerable ananda

i'm not sinking but although i have long

waited upon the teacher and the monks

worthy of esteem

never before have i heard such a talk on

the dhamma

now the reason he didn't hear he didn't

just sit down and listen to asuta

he was always taking care of somebody

one way or another

i have to do this for them they need

some water over here

and i'll go get that so he was having

broken so he never heard the suta

in uh continuous

such a talk on the the dhamma this is

the statement that i'm i'm not sure

about

such a talk on the dhamma householder is

not

given to lay people clothed in white

i don't see that at all

because that would imply that there is

a hidden teaching

and the buddha's teaching is not hidden

such a talk on the dhamma is given

only to those who have gone forth

now i can i can take this in a variety

of different ways

thinking that they don't give this

this specific way of

of reciting the suta

to uh laymen

but the monks are still going to

give them that information just in a

different way

that might be what is right i don't know

but this is just say flat out

uh people in white clothes that means

the layman

they're not going to understand it

and there was a lot of

people during the time of the buddha

that were sowed upon sodapanas

and laymen and saktagamis

and they were laymen and onigamis and

they were laymen

and they certainly would be able to

understand a suita like this

without any other explanation they would

understand

so

it must be i've never had a chance to

talk to bhikkhu bodhi about this

particular

suta and

i it might be just a misunderstanding

that he has i don't know

i'm not i'm not criticizing him for that

at all

i mean his his translations by and large

are great but they're not

exactly as perfect as they could be

for example he only put

i am not

uh i am not clinging

i add craving

and clinging because i think that's a

more more in line

with what he's actually saying

but that's my opinion and beku body

is much more

he tries to get as close to his

translations as he possibly can

and i get more into the practical

applications of what the suit is say and

i

i change words and i so that they'll be

easier to understand

and i'll uh add words like i just did

with the suta

and neither one of us is a hundred

percent correct

so please don't take this as any form of

criticism

for what he's done because he has done

magnificent work

and i would never i can have

talks with him about agreeing to

disagree

and we both have a different opinion but

we don't lose

respect towards each other and this is

super important to me

i have the highest respect for him

well then venerable sorry puta

let such a talk on the dhamma be given

to

lay people clothed in white

there are klansmen with little dust in

their eyes

who are wasting away through not hearing

such a talk on the dhamma

there will be those

who will understand the dhamma

and this is kind of an amazing phenomena

because people will

they'll start out by doing some

meditation they're not

they're doing one form or another not

particularly

progressing as fast as

a lot of you do but

then they tried to pick up

the sutas they'll buy a brand new

magiman ikaya because that's that's my

favorite book

and they won't even break the plastic

on it because they're not ready to

grasp what the buddha's talking about

now when i first started uh teaching

in this country uh

nobody was doing any reading

reading of the suttas they just didn't

understand them

but the thing that's kind of an amazing

phenomena

is as you go through your meditation

and you gain more and more insight to

how the process works in you

then you pick up the suttas

and you open it up and you can pretty

much understand what the buddha's

getting

getting around

one of the things that people used to

say well what suit

should i read well it depends on you

but a fun game with the matchman nikaya

is just open it up at random to asuta

and then read it it will give you

benefit

that's the nature of the suttas

it will teach you something

but if you don't have the direct

experience of the meditation

it doesn't work as well as it could

so when i first came to america

nobody was reading the suttas

and

i used to give

talks that were an hour and a half to

two hours long because that's the way i

was trained in asia

and you should have heard the complaints

and then there was the quoting

someone else's book about what the

buddha thought

which isn't necessarily true

so i told i told all of my students i

don't

want you to read anything

including the newspaper for a year

all i want you to do is listen to dhamma

talks and practice that

that kind of meditation

and before long i was starting to cut

back i

i still talk a long time i understand

that

but i uh started cutting down the time

that i would give a dhamma talk

but a lot of it depends on the audience

on how long i give a dhamma talk if i

see everybody's

getting fairly easy fairly quickly

then i have a tendency to cut it down a

little bit shorter

but sometimes i get carried away and

give give a two and a half hour dominant

talk

it does happen

anyway

reading the dhamma talks and reading the

suttas

now that you have done enough meditation

and you've been somewhat

successful and you've gotten into at

least

the brahmaviharas which is

major steps

you will be able to

figure out what the buddha is talking

about even with some

some statements okay

then after giving the householder an

attenbindiga this

advice the venerable sorry putin

venerable ananda

rose from their seats and departed soon

after they had left the householder

inauthentica

died and reappeared in the tusita

heaven the tusita heaven

one day

in the tusita heaven is the equivalent

of 400 years

human time

so at last that that heavenly realm is

going to last for a real

long time and that's where

the future buddha maitreya

is residing right now and my teacher

said us

he is in that heavenly realm which only

makes sense he

he would want to be reborn there

and so he could be around them a buddha

and maybe become in a future become

one of his chief disciples who knows

but uh there are other heavenly realms

that you can be reborn in some of them

they last a lot longer one day

in the highest brahmaloka

is equivalent to 1500 years

in human form

and each one of these they all live to

be about a hundred years old

but it extends quite quite a bit as you

can see

uh the the lowest is is the

earthbound davis

and they uh one one day

there is equivalent to 50 years here

but you you hear about some people that

are

doing gardening and growing things

and they depend on the earthbound davis

they can communicate with them

and get ideas how to make things better

and how to cut down on insects and stuff

eating their plants

so

then when the night was advanced anathen

bendika

now a young god of beautiful appearance

went to the blessed one illuminating the

whole

of jetta's growth after paying

homage to the blessed one he stood at

one side and

addressed the blessed one and stanza

o blessed is this jetta's grove he's the

one that gave it to

the sangha the buddha and the sangha

dwelt in by such sagely sangha

wherein resides the king of dhamma

fount of all my happiness

by action knowledge and dhamma

by virtue and noble way of life

by these mortal

mortals purified

not by lineage or by wealth

therefore a wise person who sees what

truly

leads to his own good should investigate

the dhamma

and purify himself with it

sorry puta has reached the peak

of in virtue peace and wisdom's ways

any monk who has gone beyond

at best can only equal him

that's what the young and then the young

god anathan bentika said

and the teacher approved

then the young god anna then bendica is

thinking

the teacher has approved of me

he paid homage to the blessed one

keeping him on his right he vanished at

once

when the night had ended the blessed one

addressed amongst

us monks last night when the night was

well advanced there came to me a certain

young god of

beautiful appearance who illuminated the

whole of jetta's grove

after paying homage to me he said he

stood at one side and addressed me with

these verses

that i just read that is what the

the young god said

then the young god thinking the teacher

has

approved of me

paid homage to me and keeping me

on his right has vanished at once

when this was said the venerable ananda

said to the blessed one surely venerable

venerable sir that young god must have

been

anazan bendika for the householder

anathen bendika

had perfect confidence in the venerable

sariputta

good good ananda you have deduced the

right conclusion

the young god was anathanpendika

no one else this is what the blessed one

said

the venerable ananda was satisfied and

delighted in the blessed one's words

so i was going to read a part of the

suit again but i see i'm starting to run

out of time so i'm not going to do that

but go back over in your own time

from section number five

until

uh section number 14.

i would highly recommend memorizing this

and um i have worked for hospice i have

been around

a lot of people that have died and i

wish that i would have had

this suita at that time

it would have been very helpful to have

people

they would have a very uplifted mind

after hearing this if they

understand a little bit about what the

buddhist teachingism is about

so if you memorize it

you happen to be around someone that is

suffering

one way or another this can help relieve

the suffering if you recite that to them

or read it to them

so i have been talking for a long time

your turn do you have any questions

it's amazing how quiet it gets

when i say that hello hello

how are you doing patrick i'm doing good

today thank you how are you

good okay um i forgot one question

yesterday

okay may i ask it uh now sure

um so if a student is weight is um

working with a meditation object in

retreat and at the end of the treat they

they're working with a certain object

after the retreat do they begin their

meditations now from

that object going forward or oh

i thought i explained that to you once

you get off retreat you're in charge of

what you do

okay if you feel like you want to

continue on like you were in the retreat

that's up to you if you ran across a

situation

where you would think that radiating

loving kindness to someone is an

advantage for for both you and them

then do that okay

yeah my experience has been that um

after a time

maybe a couple weeks or three weeks i

found in the past that like if i were

radiating in six directions with

equanimity for example

that i was really doing a loving cut it

felt like loving kindness

after i get faded yeah it'll take me

time yeah it will fade because you're

not doing it as

intensively okay

understood and what i would suggest is

that you sit no less than one hour a day

and start by doing loving kindness

and then your mind will jump to the

equanimity when it's ready

okay okay

thank you so

have fun okay thank you

anybody else

a bad day yes um

but i don't know if this question is too

broad

um i've read different things about

instant and gradual enlightened

enlightenment but i've always found it

really confusing

um would you be able to help explain

well the word enlightenment i have a lot

of problems with

because enlighten and fear infers that

you're learning something that you

didn't know before

so if i tell you the right direction to

go to some

place i've enlightened you to get there

so it's really too broad a word what

instant awakening

i suppose it would could happen i mean

it happened pretty quick for sorry foods

and mogulana both

but that's very highly unusual

now i had a person come to malaysia

they had done meditation different kinds

before

they ever ran across what i was teaching

and they were real serious with it and

they they did a lot of heavy-duty

practice

when he came and started doing twim with

me

in one day he became a sodapana

but it's because of all of the work that

he did before

so it's hard to tell you know what what

is instant

and out of

however many students i have

it's happened one time so that gives you

an

idea

and it depends on what you've been doing

before and how ready your mind

is to do it now during the time of the

buddha there was a lot of people that

it was fairly instantaneous

but in their past lifetime

they had done a lot of practice

so it's it's whether you've done your

your due diligence in this lifetime or a

past lifetime you still can have

pretty fast awakening

and it all depends on you on the

individual

that's about the only answer i can

really give you for that

i i don't

i haven't run across too many people

that they they claim to be

awakened in one way or another

but they don't keep their precepts very

well so it makes me

consider that they they're they've done

a different kind of practice

maybe there's advantage to it sometime

later in

in their life or maybe it's

just some kind of twinkie experience

i don't know but i generally

i don't wind up being around those kind

of people

very often or for very long

i don't i don't want to get into

arguments about well this is the right

way this is the wrong way

so i wind up not not talking as much as

i could

as other people they they do

yeah and if i can just mention that add

to what gary was just asking like

i was in rachel o'brien's class and just

recently this question

came up and i think he gary may have

been asking it from a slightly different

angle the difference between gradual

awakening

and instant awakening is the difference

between

learning through wisdom and putting that

wisdom into practice so we gain

understanding and that's a gradual

method as opposed to

using a cohen for example and so that

understanding of cohen it gives you

let me tell you about a cohen okay

you can't go any higher than the first

jhana with the coin

because you're verbalizing in your mind

so i have some real problems with some

of the

quote instant enlightenment kind of

ideas that they don't they're not the

same kind of

practice they might have an enlightening

experience

but it's not a true awakening experience

and like i said this man that came to me

he'd been doing

10 years intensive meditation

he had developed not so much wisdom

but he had developed his concentration

to a very

fine degree so and this is what happened

during the time of the buddha

that they had he had a lot of

ascetics coming to him and they just

listened to what he said and started

practicing it while

he was they were listening and became

arahats

well that's because of all the work they

did before

seeing the buddha

and and you would say well that was

instant enlightenment

but was it no because

of the work they did before

you got to get the you got to put the

work in so there's

there's no such a thing as instant

enlightenment

as far as i can see

because there's always work done

before an understanding that might

just need to be tweaked a little bit

and then they

understand and then maybe they become

awakened

well if that happens in one day great

but it wasn't an in

instant enlightenment

okay

okay elizabeth

in verse 14 uh where

i will not cling to what is seen

heard sensed cognized encountered

um i added all the rest of that

yeah my my question is about intuition

so

it doesn't say anything about intuition

no but

um intuition is um

sensed it's felt it's encountered

um in in my experience and i just

wondered what's the difference between

what would be the um

liberating mode of consciousness to not

crave or cling

right intuition what what is the right

right

in intuition yeah

in some ways i'm misleading people

when i'm talking about intuition

intuition arises from the wholesome part

of the mind

and when i'm telling you i want you to

sit

in quiet mind and not pay attention to

anything

intuition will come up

and there will be a sentence or a

short

message for you

on how to adjust or an

insight

and

that is okay

that is fine for

that it's not really a disturbance

sometimes your mind needs to verbalize

something it's wholesome

so that you'll get it stuck in in your

in your understanding you'll

but it only happens for a short period

of time

it's never repeated

and that that is just the way that

intuition works

so i i tell you just stay with a quiet

mind only stay with a quiet mind and

99 of the time that's right

but there can be these instances where

you

have an insight into the way

dependent origination works

you'll have an insight into

uh overcoming some kind of slight

problem

that mind has

of changing your perspective and that

sort of thing

these happen

but for the majority of time

most of those thoughts that come through

are not the intuition

they are

restlessness of one form or another

there it is a hindrance

did that help

thank you do you want more

um it seems that the longer

um one pursues the path and the more the

mind is purified the sharper the

intuition would be

yeah and so i guess my question is

if you're not clinging and you're not

craving but you're paying attention

uh that that uh that wise attention

to intuition it will pop up

but it's it's generally speaking a much

quieter

voice than a than a

disturbing voice and and is it fair to

say bonte that wise attention

is not anywhere in the realm of craving

or clinging

right right absolutely yeah

thank you okay how have you been

you too i have a question about pain

okay about pain um a couple months ago i

had severe nerve pain

and it was

very difficult to meditate when you have

extreme

pain yeah

you know i will not cling to sounds i

will not cling to odors but

they sure can cling to you

[Laughter]

and so it's like there's sort of this

abracadabra

quality to this oh i heard that so now

i'm

i'm you know well i'm planning for him

but i i have trouble

let me talk for a minute okay when pain

arises naturally your mind goes towards

aversion

and the more you go towards the version

the bigger the pain becomes

the more intense it becomes

it means that your mindfulness is out

the window

what you want to do is

stay and allow the pain to be there but

not

keep your attention on it

and develop your balance of mind

your equanimity to the pain

the pain might still be there but it's

not going to be as intense

the intensity of the pain is because of

the aversion that happens and

the thoughts of boy i wish it would go

away i wish it would stop

every thought like that causes it to get

bigger and more intense

and i i've had plenty of pain in my

lifetime

and always when the pain

was really intense it was hard to

relax and let it be there but as i

stopped

keeping my attention on it and this is

a lesson that i learned from it

it got more bearable

so much so that

i had a root canal and i had it drilled

without any painkiller

no novocaine

and that was pretty intense pain

but while that was happening i was not

keeping my attention on the pain itself

i was radiating kindness to the person

that was giving me the pain

and that made it bearable he still hit

spots that

it made my body jump but i didn't hold

on to it

so when he got done drilling all of a

sudden

everything was fine

there was no lingering pain afterwards

which i i have heard that that does

happen

but it depends on your perspective

the thing that you really have to do is

change your perspective

of i don't like it to i forgive it for

being there

and that will help put your mind into

balance

[Music]

i so love what you're saying and you you

taught me how to retreat

um you probably don't remember about my

strange ear issues but

yeah i do i remember you told me to fig

you know to forgive it and right

there there have been times when i've

been meditating and it's just feels

impossible it's so loud

and i will just bring up that feeling

of loving kindness toward this thing

that feels like my enemy right that

feels like it's thwarting

everything and i'll start to kind of

get very the tears will come up and

there'll be this letting go

and i can meditate it's it's amazing

yeah and um yeah i thank you so much for

teaching me that

because it's it's really remarkable it's

just like

allowing it forgiving it

and befriending it instead of hating it

yeah

and that's that's a hard thing to do

i fully i fully appreciate how difficult

it is

but you have a choice you want to fight

or not fight with it

makes it bigger makes it much

uh you gotta learn to change your

perspective

which is not an easy thing i'm not

saying it's easy

but it is necessary to make it

bearable yeah

and you haven't gotten much choice often

no

yeah you can fight it or not

no i see that i see that the aversion

makes it worse

yeah it's a stress test where the

what is it the rubber makes the road you

know

and what elizabeth was just saying was

she

started to develop some equanimity

towards it so it wasn't such a big

deal i've been using that a phrase

a lot since i've come back from

india don't make it a big deal

whatever it is whatever comes up into

your mind

don't make it a big deal

because you keep your attention on it

you're giving it food

and that food helps it to grow

so when you don't make a big deal out of

physical pain mental pain

sadnesses anxieties restlessness

aversions if you don't make a big

deal out of it it's easier to

endure and eventually

that will fade

quite a bit not necessarily ever going

to go away completely

depending on whether it's a real

physical pain or not

but all of the mental pains

they can go away

that's why the buddha said mind is a

forerunner of all states

because it is

okay

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

beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

[Music]

dispensations

you