From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MuauM8p62zI

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

[Music]

so i hope you

all have had a good week

and had a lot of smiles and laughs and

had fun

that's what the buddhist practice is all

about

so many people have the wrong idea when

they read the four noble truths

i gave a talk

one time at a zen place

and the guy started the talk by slamming

his hand on the floor and saying

all life is suffering

and i couldn't i couldn't put up with

that

so i said that's a wrong interpretation

there is suffering in life

and the zen master got really angry

and then i said and

i'm more interested in the third noble

truth than i am the first

there's a way to get out of the

suffering

so

that's a

it was kind of an amazing experience to

see

how attached some people

are to the idea that all

life is suffering

i mean how many experiences whether

you've done any meditation or not how

many experiences have you had

where something really nice happened and

it made you happy

is that suffering well they would say

yes because it doesn't last

well it doesn't last because you don't

keep it going

with your generosity and helping other

people

overcome their suffering

anyway

i'm going to do suta number 152

the development of the faculties

this is one that i haven't done for a

while but i remember it as being

quite a nice suta

and it's a new one for most people

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living

in conjugalla

in the grove of

[Music]

trees never heard of that kind of tree

but that's india

anyway

then the brahman student uttara

a pupil of the brahman

oh all of these foreign names

went to the blessed one and exchanged

greetings with him

when this courteous and amiable talk was

finished he sat down at one side

the blessed one then asked him butara

what does a brahmana i'm not going to

say his name again

teaches disciples

and not what does

does the brahman teach his disciples the

development of

the faculties

he does master gotuma

but umtara how does he teach the

disciples

the development of the faculties

hear master gotama one does not see

forms with the eyes one does not hear

sounds with the ears

that is how the brahman teaches us his

disciples the development

of the faculties

and with all the meditation different

teachers and that sort of thing

they have this idea a lot of them have

this

idea that the way

you guard your sense faculties

is by not using them

like you can not use your ears if you

hear a sound

it's going to happen whether you want it

to or not how do you shut it down

how do you suppress it

and it goes that way with all of the

faculties

i had uh one friend i was in burma

in burma they have uh different ways of

getting rid of a lot of

uh rain water

so they have open trenches there's

cement open trenches

right in the middle of the walkways

and this monk decided he was going to

close his eyes down

so he closed his eyes while he was doing

walking meditation

and he walked too far

and he fell into one of these ditches

and broke his leg

so that says something about whoops

that doesn't work let's try something

that does work

let's let's pay a little bit of

attention to what

we're doing while we do it

we have to use our sense faculties

whether we want to or not

if that is so uttara

then a blind man and a deaf man

will have developed his faculties

according to what your teacher says

for a blind man does not see forms with

the

eye and the deaf man does not hear

sounds with the ear

when this was said the brahman student

who tara

sat silent dismayed with shoulders

drooping

and head down glum and

without response

then knowing this the blessed one

addressed the venerable

ananda ananda

the brahmana teaches his disciples the

development of the faculties in one way

but in that the noble one's discipline

the supreme development of the faculties

is

otherwise

now is the time blessed one now is

the time sublime one for the blessed one

to teach the supreme development of the

faculty

in the noble one's discipline

having heard it from the blessed one the

monks will

remember it then

ananda attend closely to what i shall

say

yes venerable siri replied the blessed

one said this

now ananda how is there the supreme

development of the faculties of the

noble ones discipline

here ananda when a monk

sees a form with the eye

there arises in him what is agreeable

there arises what is disagreeable

there arises what is both

agreeable and disagreeable i would say i

would use the word neither

in that case but or either

in that case

he understands thus there has arisen in

me

what is agreeable there has arisen

in me what is disagreeable

there has arisen in me what is

both agreeable and disagreeable neutral

but that is condition

gross dependently arisen

this is peaceful this is the blind that

is

equanimity

now all of the meditation that you do

when you're recognizing hindrances

and you're using the six r's

is you're developing your equanimity

this is not so

openly talked about by most meditation

teachers

and um

the the meditation teachers that i've

been to

when they get done with the retreat

and we're ready to to go

they always say something to the effect

of now just

be mindful trying to mean

that you be mindful with your daily

activities but they never

discuss how to do it

they think by your practice you're

supposed to know how to do it

but

when i get in at the end of the retreat

i tell people to keep smiling

because this improves your equanimity

and it improves your equanimity with

your daily activities

so all of your life is part as part of a

meditation

when you develop this kind of balance

with whatever is happening

i still have some work to do because my

heart started beating real fast when i

started thinking about this suit i was

going to be getting

getting giving and

i uh got a little excited

and that made my heart beat faster and

that

took some of the breath away that's

happening in me

right now

so i guess the moral of the story is

don't get old and be mindful all the

time

so the thing that that's most

important is the equanimity

that balance of light of of everything

in life when you start to get excited

about something that's not right

where's your mindfulness or

do you get caught in your emotional

uh habitual tendency of getting

more and more excited either positive or

negative it doesn't matter which one

i had a talk with a psychologist

and he was telling me he had a lot of

people

that were really

suffering from alcohol and he said

what would you do about it i said

alcohol is no different from any other

emotional

attachment

so i would teach them how to develop

equanimity

and he immediately walked away

disgusted like i didn't say something

that was

actually quite profound

anyway

the agreeable that arose the

disagreeable that arose

and both agreeable and disagreeable

letter rose cease

in him when you use the six

r's

it might only cease for a brief time

and then it comes back because it

depends on the strength of your

attachment to

your ideas attachment

to your concepts and opinions about

the way that the way life is supposed to

work

okay they uh the cease in him when you

use the six hours

and equanimity is established

just as a man with good sight

having opened his eyes

might shut them or having his eyes shut

might open them

so too concerning anything

at all that's an important statement

anything at all

now mind is the forerunner of all states

right

you hear that a lot and i get people to

recite that a lot

when when

uh i'm giving a retreat

and i'm not having you do that just

reciting some formula reciting some

words

there i have you do that even when you

get off retreat every day

i recommend it i recommend it very

highly

and i recommend that you think about

what the precepts actually are

representing

they're representing a wholesome mind

that has equanimity in it that has

balance in it

now your mindfulness might help catch

you

with your dissatisfaction

that's the easiest to really catch to be

quite honest

and look at what it does to your blood

pressure

look what it does to your heart look at

what it does to your mind

your mind becomes hard

rigid and the critical

mind that habitual

tendency of being critical i'm right and

you're wrong

grows

as you indulge in it

so there's a big problem

that we all have to face i mean as a

human being

i'm starting to see more and more

people try to make a difference because

cultures are so different

but every culture is made up of human

beings

they might have some things that are

agreeable to you

they might have some things that are

disagreeable to you

but if you have true equanimity towards

them

there is no criticism of them

unless as a human being

they're breaking precepts

so right now this culture

in in the west is trying to divide

people

into groups have you ever heard that

song

that statement

divide and conquer

that's what they're trying to do right

now

but as you truly practice your

generosity

and be an example

of keeping your precepts

you are defeating that idea

you find things to agree with rather

than fight over

and the more you can do that

the more balance is going to happen in

all society because you

affect the world around you

the more you

develop this balance this equanimity

the less

disagreements you'll have

the attitude of we have to agree to

disagree about some things

when you start with that

that puts balance into what you're

saying so each side can actually listen

instead of closed down

so

this is called the noble one's

discipline

a noble one's dis

disciple

excuse me discipline my uh

dyslexia is acting up today

oh that's good fun

i see words that aren't there sometimes

i see words that aren't in the right

order

oh it's always entertaining

okay i'll try this again this is called

the noble one's

disciple

i did it again the noble ones

disciplined

the supreme development of the faculties

regarding forms cognizable by the eye

again

when a monk hears a sound

with the ear there arises in him

what is agreeable there arises

what is disagreeable

there arises what is both agreeable and

disagreeable

and he understands

now sounds an awful lot of people that

are practicing

meditation they do everything they can

to make it as quiet as they can

and i did too before i went to asia

going to asia

i go to a meditation retreat and people

are

whispering they're

uh

coughing they're belching

they're passing gas they walk

very loudly that doesn't matter

what's happening outside the meditation

hall

people can be arguing people can be

talking very loudly which they have a

tendency to do in asia

without respect for the people that are

sitting

as a result a lot of people

really don't like sounds but what's to

dislike

about a sound a sound is a sound

it doesn't matter whether it's there or

not

i've told the story many times about

being in

in burma where they have a habit

of clearing their throat often during

the day

and they don't don't do it quietly

and then they hawk which means spit

they like to chew beetle

and when they're spitting their beetle

out

it is kind of a black bright cherry

red color which is always interesting to

be walking down the sidewalk and see

the the red color knowing you're you're

walking through spit but that's part of

their culture

and every westerner that i know

complained to their teacher about them

making so much

noise and the teacher just

so what

so you had to develop the mind

that said it's okay to hear this stuff

without getting caught up in it

now we get back to the six ours

what's the second step of the six hours

it's the second

most important part of the meditation

is letting

it go that means you don't keep your

attention on it you don't keep your

attention

on the dislike of the sound

the truth is when you dislike a sound

you're fighting with the dhamma you're

not practicing the dhamma you're

fighting it

because it doesn't meet your standard of

what you think

things are supposed to be

so you have to back off on that

and again i told i've told a lot of

people

about my experience being in a

meditation hall

where there's no windows it's only

screen

[Music]

and right outside the hall they were

drilling

for well for water

and they drilled from about eight

o'clock in the morning until about six

o'clock in the

evening with a motor that is an

old world war ii motor that didn't have

a muffler on it

so it was throwing out a lot of sound

now as soon as i started the retreat

there

and they started doing that i had to

make up my mind

either go crazy

because i hated the sound or is that

accept the fact that the sound is there

and develop

equanimity towards it it was a great

lesson

it wasn't a hindrance

but in this country if there's a clock

in the meditation hall

and it ticks too loudly

people get upset oh it's let's turn that

clock off we don't need to have that

clock

now what are they developing

a critical mind

a mind that's attached to their habitual

tendency of fighting the present moment

fighting the dhamma

it's pretty amazing

to see people even that are somewhat

advanced in their meditation

insist that everything be quiet

i was in santa fe

new mexico

and it was hot and we were in a room

that was pretty well enclosed they

didn't have a lot of windows

but it was it was over 90 degrees as i

remember

and they had a fan in there because they

didn't they didn't want

to air condition that part of the

building

cost too much money

and people were doing the meditation

they were supposedly advanced meditators

and they said to the teacher well let's

turn

the fan off

my being a monk and

people respect me a lot

i had to say no way

sound is just a sound you're not

teaching the people

how to have equanimity towards

everything

as a result the fan stayed on

because it wouldn't have helped to go

outside it was just as hot

outside as it was inside

now that that's something that we have

to really

we have to give up our old ways

of

demanding that everything be very

quiet

we have to give up our old habitual

tendencies

to our ideas to our

concepts and opinions

and develop new ones that are accepting

and that's what equanimity

does that helps you to have a more

and more balanced state of mind

again when a monk smells an odor

when i'm when a monk tastes of flavor

when a monk touches a tangible

when among cognizes a mind

object with mind

see we're going through all of the

faculties

and you have to treat all the faculties

in the same way

not as disturbance

but think about cognizing

your thoughts your thought objects

pay more attention to your thought

objects

watch more closely

when there's something disagreeable

and that's the time you use the six r's

you don't keep your attention on what is

disagreeable

and this cuts out a lot of blaming of

other people

for things that you don't like

now granted there can be some things

that you might not like

but does your

anxiety does your depression does your

heart mind does your want to

push away that aversion make it any

better

that's a good question you know

what kind of pain are you causing

yourself

when you are fighting

with the dhamma

now i heard a lot about a psychological

[Music]

babel well i'm just

venting what are you doing when you vent

you're indulging in your

hatred of the situation whatever that

happens to be

and you think you're letting it go but

you're actually

building it because of the version in

your mind that you're

not letting go of

a question that i use fairly often

with people that come to do the

meditation

and that question is are you

willing to change are you

willing to let go of your old ways of

doing things

and develop new ways of doing things

and you can't put it on anybody else

when i was with saida usilananda i was

his attendant for two years as a layman

at that time there was

a group called est

and they would have large groups of

people get in a room and then try to

convince them that they could let go

of their anger by beating on a

pillow and yelling and lucy lenanda

heard about that and he started

laughing is that they're just

making it worse

that's what venting does it makes it

worse

because of your attachment

your dissatisfaction

and that can create breaking precepts

saying things that aren't true that

aren't necessarily true

or that

are exaggerations

are you following the buddha's path when

you do that

or are you just indulging in your old

habit your old way of looking at the

world

and justify it to yourself and and try

to put the blame

for that pain that your experience onto

somebody else because they did this or

they did that

and i'm gonna vent against them

does that venting ever really go away or

does it just

lay in wait till the next time you can

do it so it can get

bigger and more intense so you can hold

on to it for a longer period of time

and you are making yourself suffer

that's one of the things that i try to

instill

in all of my students

and that is there's nothing out there

that causes

your suffering you

cause your suffering yourself

a long time ago i used to read a lot of

stories

in

the reader's digest and one of the

stories really it stuck with me for a

long time

and it was about some jews in a

concentration camp

and they decided to change their

image of the world

and they began to help people

if they were sick they would take care

of them they would give them

what they could of food and that sort of

thing

and it kind of caught on and even

the guards became less

harsh

now they were in a situation that is

completely disagreeable

and there's a lot of pain in there

but they made the best of the situation

that they

could by practicing their generosity

by helping someone else

there's a lot to generosity a lot more

than people give it credit for

but if you are depressed

go find somebody that's really suffering

go visit a hospital that somebody's

dying of cancer they have

real pain it's not a made up

mental pain

and try to make them smile help

them

that's going to change your personality

from depression

into a sense of hope where

you can actually

do something that is

helpful not only to you

but to all of the people around you

you have to be willing to change

from self-centered i am that

i'm the most important person in the

room i'm

the most important

i do the most important things

you have to change it from that

to how can i help you

to let go of your suffering

a lot of times

even people that are in the hospital

that are suffering very

very

strongly from physical pain

if you

see that they have such aversion

to the pain

you don't have to feel hopeless when you

walk in the room

their pain is theirs you can't feel

their pain

you don't know what they're going

through you can say you

know that they're suffering oh i know

all the pain you're going through and i

said i

feel sorry for you don't feel sorry for

them

love them

radiate loving kindness

and compassion and that will help

the person be

more and more at

ease and their pain

this isn't a maybe i've been with

many many many different

people in the hospital

and i've seen all kinds of suffering and

i've seen some miracles

occur maybe not what you would call a

miracle but it's

changing a person's face from

anger sadness dislike

to a smile

that is a miracle

changing somebody's attitude

from a negative attitude to a positive

attitude

that is a miracle

and i've seen a lot

generosity is not some

little part of your practice

it's a huge part of your practice

so the more you can affect people around

you

in a positive way the more

you can have balance when there

is a

a stressful situation

i lived in california for years and

years and years

and we always had the fearful anxiety

not all of us but a lot of us had a

fearful anxiety of earthquakes

or fires

what good does fear and anxiety of

something that doesn't

hasn't happened yet what good does that

do

doesn't mean you don't be cautious of

course you do

but it doesn't mean that you worry about

it and think about it and having it

as a continual

arising of the same thoughts

over and over again

anytime you have the same thoughts over

and over again

you are caught

by craving

i just gave a talk to some indonesians

online

one of the things that i told them

because this is a big part of their

culture

there are people that practice

negative uh

negative things

and they can affect you in a negative

way

now one of the one of the major teachers

over there

someone was psychically

attacking her and her business went down

and she couldn't figure out what was

happening so she called

me and i told her to put loving kindness

around the person that's causing the

problem

and put loving kindness around herself

this is a

protection

now you put loving it's like you put a

bubble around them

about somebody that doesn't

really like you for whatever reason

and they want to cause problems for you

you put a bubble of love around them

then all of the negative thoughts that

they have

the harmful thoughts that they have

they bounce back to the person that's

sending them

the more you can remember to do that

the less problem

they will have

but also

i told them

the fastest way to overcome fear and

anxiety

is by laughing

that's a protection for you

fear and anxiety causes your body to get

very

tense and cause and can cause all kinds

of problems

physically because of your mental

states

so we get back to what's the basic

teaching that i try to show you

laughing having fun

smiling

doesn't that create a bubble of loving

kindness around you

doesn't that help

helps you but the strange thing is

and they can measure this with some of

the scientific things

if you radiate loving kindness around

you

it goes out

five hundred feet is as much as they can

measure

i don't believe that i believe it goes

out further than that

by a lot

and i've had a lot of examples of people

and over

problems there was i was in america

and one of my old students

from malaysia had just had a baby

and she had jaundice

and they were very concerned about that

i mean she

she wasn't um i think she was two days

old before she started turning yellow

and the parents were in fear for their

life

for her life so what they did

was call me up and say what am i

supposed to do

and i said well you have to start

radiating loving kindness to your baby i

know you love your baby but she needs a

little bit extra

she needs a boost and i

will do the same thing

and i started sending loving kindness

to little baby i can't remember her name

right now

and they were in

a room with the baby and they saw

the color of the baby start changing

from

jaundice to regular color

and they called up again

and they said when did you start doing

that

and i said well i started doing that

right after

you called me

and they said

whatever you're doing is weird

it's amazing even in the room

i can feel your presence

isn't that a miracle and it's on the

other side of the world

and there's no i as

hard as as soon as i started doing it

things started changing

i was not sending her love in an

attached way i was just wishing her

to have a healthy happy body

you can do the same thing i'm nothing

special

i'm somebody that prefers to be a monk

to being a layman so i have more time to

do the things i want to do

that's the only difference between you

and me

why can't you do that for the rest of

the world

you will affect the world in a positive

way

and it's not only

limited to your neighborhood

it's unlimited

that's what a brahmavihara is it's an

immeasurable you can't a measure you

can't measure

how far out that loving kindness goes

you can't expect it to work in the same

way all the time because it doesn't

you can

expect to see something happen but it's

on its own time frame too

one of the things that i highly

recommend

everybody do

i want you to get a glass bottle

or a glass

drinking cup that you can put a lid on

and i want you to put distilled water in

it

i want you to hold that while you are

radiating loving kindness to all beings

in all directions

i want you to do it every day

for as long as you want to do it

then if you start feeling a cold coming

on

take a sip

if one of your family members starts to

get sick

have them drink some take some

in your hand and give them a massage

there is benefit in doing that

especially for pregnant women

radiate loving kindness

while holding just one time holding

a glass or a bottle of water

it has to be distilled water can't be

bubbly water

or tap water it has to be distilled

then

one of the things that they found out

about water

is the water holds memory

and that's been proven scientifically

but you have to use the water

now if you want to really see results

fast start pouring that water

giving them a plant a drink that's

sickly

and watch what happens

all of a sudden they start

loving you because you're helping

them see this is a generosity thing

again

the more times you can come up with ways

to help the world around you in a

positive way

please do that and tell us about

it because that'll

inspire a lot of other people to do

something that's

very positive that's very helpful

excuse me

and do that every time you sit hold that

water in your hands

and use that water now you go down about

half a bottle

fill it up with distilled water

shake it 15 times i don't know why 15

works but shake it 15

times it's infused with that loving

kindness that memory of loving kindness

and well-being

and you'll never run out

when i was in malaysia

pregnant women woman came to me and

asked if i would give the bless

a blessing to her

and her baby

of course i did but i was holding a

radiating loving kindness into the water

and i gave it to her i told her

that anytime the baby starts feeling

restless and hurt her tummy

to take some of the water and rub it

on her tummy and massage the baby

and be radiating loving kindness while

they do that

i also recommended that they practice

loving kindness

not only to the baby

but to all beings

when the baby was born they called me up

and told me

that it was going to happen so i started

radiating loving kindness to her while

she was

uh going through a kind of stressful

event

and she the baby came out

quickly not a whole lot of pain

and came out smiling

and the baby was doing weird things

like sleeping all night that never

happens but it did

and the word got out that i did that

sort of thing and all of a sudden i had

an awful lot of pregnant women coming to

me asking me to

bless the bottle and

radiate loving kindness into it

and all the babies came out

very happy good-natured

ready to smile

i remember i went to this one family

the baby had been born about two weeks

before

and they said you want to see our baby

yes well yeah

and as soon as the baby saw me

the baby was on his stomach

and he saw me he started to smile

and then he put his hands together like

that

like he knew i was a monk

and he knew that i had helped him in one

way or another

and i did because i was radiating loving

kindness to him

i gave him that water to be used

and

uh that was

maybe 25 years ago

and i didn't see the baby again

because i left about about 20

24 22 years ago

i meant to come back to america i went

back to malaysia

and i met him or her

and they recognize me

now how isn't that a miracle

i haven't seen a baby since it was two

weeks old

and years and years later the

the person recognizes me like we have

some kind of

a bond

i thought that that's really amazing

and i started talking to his parents

about him

or her and how they were doing

and they said oh they're very strict

keeping their precepts

and they're they're living good lives

and they're having

a lot of fun with their friends and

and relatives and they spend quite a

time

quite a lot of time going to

orphanages and old people's

homes to help them to be happy and

they take food and clothing and and

toys and things like that to them and he

said

they they spend their whole time doing

that

wow

isn't that a miracle

i guess it comes from a good start

of course the parents had a lot to do

with that too but it wasn't all me

but seeing the results

what made me happy

and it built up my confidence

the more you do this the more you see

the positive outcome

the more disenchantment

you have with worldly things

the more you practice your generosity

the more you're gonna see wonderful

things

happen and it's up to you

that's what life is for life isn't about

getting a job and earning a living

life is about living with a mind that's

happy and uplifted as much as possible

so life all life is not

suffering

it's your choice whether you go get into

that suffering or

not

and making the best out of

whatever the problem was

so i've been talking for a long time

and you get an idea of why i

like the suta because it is development

of the faculties

towards equanimity

towards balance of mind

which leads to happiness and contentment

and clarity

and that rubs off on other people around

you

so i've been talking for a long

time

actually over an hour wow

it's amazing time flies when you're

having fun

so i hope i gave you something to think

about

and you all have that willingness to

change so you can have balance in your

life

all the time

i wish you happiness

now do you have any questions

come on you have to have some question

you have a question karen

huh hello hello hi

um your face is very light and bright

that tells me that you've been doing

your practice

and that makes me happy yes every day

excellent so what's your question um

i didn't have one but i had a comment

so i sat my first online retreat

um you know in an asian household so

it's really loud everyone's yelling

i'm so angry and i'm not normally angry

so i was sitting i was like everyone

knows i'm meditating they should be

quiet

and people next door to me had their tv

on

and i was like oh i was so angry that i

was gonna

smash the wall i don't know what came

over me i was angry

and i was like no i remember what banty

said it's just me creating this issue

so i just sat with it and it took maybe

a few days

and then eventually yeah it just that i

was hearing the same sound

from the tv same yelling and uh i just

wasn't

it wasn't it wasn't bothered by it

anymore so this exhaust worked

ah see it works it does

yeah now yeah i'm basically i can sit

through anything

i think so fast so far i consider

anything perfect

that really makes me happy that you have

learned

a great lesson now one of the things

that you have to remember

is that if you don't practice every day

you're gonna forget and then you'll get

caught up in again but

the more you practice the more you make

it

a habit of having that equanimity

the less it will bother you

but you get a chance to see how much

pain you cause

yourself okay

thank you thank you

i see a lot of other people smiling

because of what you said

[Laughter]

maybe maybe knowing smiling

or maybe not you you affected a lot of

people right here just by what you said

excellent sadhu

anyone else have a question

hello hello now

um i don't have a well yes i have one

question but i

also wanted to tell you because you

advised that i do the

forgiveness meditation yes

so i did for the last three weeks

and uh it's wonderful

i have the feeling something melting

in me i'm melting and something gets

very soft yeah and

my father died last year

and yesterday i had this wonderful

experience that he looked into my eyes

in the meditation with so much love

and it was exactly how i just described

in the book or how you describe it in

your video

and it did happen it works yeah

i believe you yeah that's wonderful

every

every time something like that happens

it gives you

more and more confidence that

yes you are on the right path yeah

and i thank you so much it's so

wonderful

really it's life-changing and it changed

it changes my whole

environment around me also

it's amazing if you want to continue

yeah if you want to continue on with

that

ask yourself a question

do i need to do more forgiveness or

should i go back to loving kindness

your mind will give you the answer

yeah it's not i don't find it so easy

with the intuition yet

but yeah well it you'll get the answer

it's it's just it's only going to happen

one time

and you have to really be paying

attention to it

you will yeah

okay thank you you've cleared a lot of

things away

that were blocking you from being able

to hear your intuition

so this is going to be kind of new for

you yeah so maybe i continue for a while

okay yeah i have one more question

okay in one of your talks some weeks ago

um you said that

women have a different function than men

and yes they can

so i was wondering whether

being reborn from from one life to the

next one

is one always is the gender always the

same like no it changes just like a

change is different to different beings

okay and then in the jataka tales it

talks about

one of the the foremost monks

and his past lifetimes and

he spent a lot of time

as a bird

and a lot of times in the heavenly

realms

and then he was it was not

uh the heavenly male

realms can either be male or female

and as i remember he he was a female

in a few of those heavenly realms

and he was reborn as a male

yeah so it depends it depends on on on

your past actions

your past lifetimes what you've done

but it's it's a blessing being

being a female it's different from being

a man

and your perspective is a little bit

different

one of the things that the buddha said

that was kind of comical

in

when he was asked about the difference

between men and women

and the buddha said men think about

women

women think about men

and that seems to be true

but honestly some of the

still some of the literature some of the

sutas

have mistakes in them

and they're prejudicial mistakes

they're actually cultural mistakes

because in a lot of cultures women

are second class

and one of the things that that it says

is that a woman can never lead a country

can never be a leader well that's just

not true

women can be leaders

one of the reasons

that women can't be reborn

as a buddha the

buddha is always male

is there are

physical differences

and they couldn't go out and do as

strenuous a thing as a lot of

our as men do because they're physically

not capable

and they're they're mentally they're

capable of course

but physically there is some problems

being in a forest where there's wild

animals

and a scent of a woman draws

wild animals to it

but ascent of a man doesn't

and that can be a major problem when

you're

working to become fully awake

i mean that that'd take you out of one

one realm and put you in another because

uh

that animal would attack a lion or a

bear

or whatever

so that doesn't happen for men near as

much

and i'm and this is a personal

opinion on my part it just makes sense

because of that slight physical

difference

and you can give birth

which is amazing

and is truly wonderful

and one of the other things that i

started

thinking deeply about about the

differences

between men and women

men have a tendency to be linear

thinking

and women have a tendency to be group

thinking

and you see that in large corporations

where there's

uh some women

that are uh

leaders and they they have a tendency to

temper

the brashness of men

and they come out with more um

balanced perspectives

and again this is personal is it's not

what the buddha said

but it's just my idea

we're different and thank god for the

difference

because women

they're always going to be more

protective

than men are so

a woman say in business

makes men's from not being as aggressive

and making mistakes and they give a

perspective

that puts things in more imbalance

that has a tendency to be more

successful

now that's not hundred percent but what

is

but that's my observation

and i got a lot of this observation

from watching the

uh she was i guess

i don't know what they call it over

there in iceland she was the leader

in iceland and

on her advising committee

she had it about equal between men and

women

and i think the way they would discuss

things

and come up with solutions for

things

she said it was a lot different

than going to a corporation that was all

male

and they had to have much more tendency

to be aggressive

abusive hard

and while she was the leader

there the iceland

just blossomed it was really amazing to

watch

how they

tended to they might argue with each

other

but they tended to agree at the end

and both sides were satisfied

and as a result that affected that whole

island

because of the balance of women to men

so i hope that helps

yep thank you okay

anybody else have a question

hey how are you i'm great

how are you i'm good thank you uh i

wanted to ask you a quick question

about the latex independent origination

the um baba that you translate as

habitual tendencies or right uh

and most people translate as being i've

also seen it translated as

existing and uh becoming but i was

listening

i was listening to um your friend and

uh brother monk um

the late bonte punaji i have some talks

of his

and he's describing it and i think i

understand um

can you help me make sure i understand

correctly that the issue when you use

being for example

is that uh we're bringing um

we're taking in a self yeah uh

a process that is actually becoming

we're actually

changing but we're taking it to be

that's true is that true i i had a long

talk with him about it

and as he was describing what he was

saying

he would he it wasn't satisfied without

those

uh translations either

but he used them and he was always

looking

for a different translation

but when i was talking with him when he

would mention

bhava and we're talking about dependent

origin

and then it went through the whole thing

but every time he said baba

because he wouldn't translate it as

becoming her existence he didn't like

those

so he used the word baba i would

translate it in my mind to habitual

tendency

and that made it agree with everything

that he said

now usually ananda who was

a brilliant translator and he taught me

a lot about

the philosophy of translating and what

what was really needed

and i went to him and i said

i have come across this

and it seems right to me

habitual tendency

and he thought about it for a little

while and he said yes that's right

and he seemed to think that it was a

closer translation than becoming

because of the

understanding is

more clear

when you say existence what does that

really mean

it means being something

but uh

harmonious

perspective

of becoming

is true and

bhava is just a

tricky

pali word

it might have something completely

different

at the time of the buddha than it does

now

but we can only go with our gut on on

some things

yeah i like i like your translation it

helps me actually understand it because

i never understood that

link when i read it before and i get it

it's the

reaction right right and that really

and that could that could that it's the

reaction

of becoming does that make sense

yeah it does that's complicated it is

i was just trying to tie together what

monte punanji was saying

and trying to understand with what how

you define it and i think i sort of have

it

but um thank you for your explanation ah

thank you

thank you [ __ ] okay

and i had we agreed a lot

about a lot of things but not about all

things

i understand we agreed to disagree

it was always a joy to hang out with him

for a few days because

of the different opinions that made our

uh discussions quite lively sometimes

and that that was fun that was good

there was

only loving kindness and compassion in

both of us agreeing that we wanted to

understand more deeply

and that's why we explored the way we

did he was a great teacher

yeah oh yeah these talks are priceless i

i love them yeah yeah

yeah thank you okay

anybody else have a question

or a comment hello bonte thank you for

your talk

um i have a quick question um

i started listening to a talk i didn't

hear the entire talk so i

can't attest to it but the gist of it

was that the person was

arguing that thinking of dependent

origination as

has a mental states that we can

experience and recognize

was a mistake and uh dependent

origination is really more on a grand

scale

how you know people are reborn and what

keeps us

tethered to samsara but it's not

something that we're going to recognize

you know like

individual it's not like a psychological

experience

so i didn't hear the whole thing in this

whole argument but it just made me

curious

um if you have any thoughts or you've

heard that opinion

i find that kind of interesting

because i think it's suita number 28.

sorry puto was talking to somebody and

he said

when you talk about dependent

origination you're talking about

dhamma when you're talking about dhamma

you're talking about dependent

origination

that person's opinion isn't as

clarifying as

i think it could have been

and it tells me that he was

just reading

and getting his own opinions from what

he's read

and studied but he hasn't practiced

because you do see dependent origination

when you practice

all right yes i just wanted to get your

your opinion because i felt like

if you can experience this and if you're

saying that i don't know how you can

look on the psychological experience of

dependent origination

right i didn't hear the whole thing it

just seemed like

yeah his opinion

and uh it's just not

something that i would say is as correct

as it could be

okay thank you okay thank you

anybody else

hi bonte hello

it's good to see you it's good to see

you too

how have you been uh

i've been pretty good um um

practice has been consistent you know

life kind of still has its ups and downs

yeah um but the the practice has been

um very helpful for me

yeah so i'm very grateful very grateful

for the domino

uh i'm happy for you

you have a question

i do i potentially have a few questions

um they're all kind of about

intuition so i'll just start with one of

them

uh how do you how do you recognize

intuition and how do you kind of

distinguish it from

just chatter

well the thing with the meditation is

that you

have a quieter kind of mind all the time

when you ask a direct question to your

intuition

you know that it's going to give you an

answer so you start

being more attentive and waiting for

that answer to come

there's a lot of other cultures that

that

talk about intuition and using it

and huna was one of the cultures a

hawaiian

way i guess you could say

and they uh

we're talking about the more you use

your intuition and pay

attention to your quiet voice

the more you become

familiar with it

but they did give an example as this guy

he uh was driving his car and his

intuition

came up and he said uh

turn here

and he didn't follow it

and he got into uh there was an

accident and he got into a situation

where he couldn't turn around and go

back

and he had to wait through it and he was

frustrated by that because he

didn't pay attention to that quiet voice

you'll know that it's correct

but it'll just come up and it'll go

walk into that store now that's an

unusual kind of thought

that's not your day i'm gonna go in that

store

you didn't intend to go into that store

but if you go into the store you might

meet someone

that can be helpful to you in one way or

another

now when when i'm talking about

intuition

i'm being a little not so general

although it will start to develop on its

own

and it's more specific of asking it

questions

and then paying attention to the answer

following the answer if you don't follow

the answer

what's going to happen is the the

problem that you're trying to solve

or the question you're trying to answer

the intuition's going to say well you

don't pay attention to me why should

why should i come back to you

so it's like it it has a

a memory when you didn't pay attention

before i'm not going to give you an

answer this time

so pay attention to that that gut

feeling

as it were okay

thanks monty

one more question and i think you're

like just kind of touching on it

um because you talk about asking your

intuition

is there sort of uh do you want to be

in like a deep state a quiet

state when you're asking or are there

sort of

well should be selected yeah

it's the asking it's not the state

you're in

at that time but you want to be in an

alert state

now in suta number 127 the buddha talks

about intuition and how to use it

he talked about the question

uh what's the cause and condition

that this is blocking my way

why is it doing that

now he didn't have a teacher that could

give him an answer

he was all by himself

and he started seeing

the importance of the intuition

and asking those questions this was long

before

he became awakened

he figured out that

by noticing when he asked his intuition

a question that he always got an answer

from it and it was correct

then he started trusting it and then he

started using it

while he was doing his sitting

meditation

but you can use your intuition at any

time

what i have a friend that

um he went out into the forest and got

lost and he used his intuition

on what direction he needed to walk

so that he saw something familiar

and he followed his intuition and he was

only lost for

an hour two hours something like that

and then he came out of the out of the

woods

so trusting your intuition is a is an

important facet in

all different parts of your life

you can ask your intuition

sometimes you can have a feeling

of

it's you go into a store and you you

just don't feel right

well your intuition is telling you it's

time to leave

don't stay in there that can be

troublesome for you

and you can have intuition about people

that they might wish you harm in one way

or another

so you have an intuition that says

let's go a different way i don't want to

be around this

now it's important for women

because they can be attacked

and harmed but if they trust her

intuition

you feel like if i walk down this way

i don't feel comfortable well don't walk

down that way follow

what your your intuition says

trust it

okay

great thank you bunte okay um

i have one more question actually okay

um so i've had the experience where sort

of

uh practicing asking my intuition and

it's sort of a question that i'm

uh brings the question itself is like

i'm scared to ask you basically and i'll

get

even but you

even before i finish asking the question

i'll get like a very loud sort of like

uh very strong almost like reactive and

i'm

in those situations i'm really curious

if like that sort of

reactive voice even before i finish

asking like is that

intuition or is it you know it can be

uh generally it's a quieter kind of

voice

but it can be a loud voice

pay attention to it

you don't have to be afraid of the

intuition it's gonna it's gonna tell you

the right thing it might not be what you

quote want

but you'll figure out later that yeah

it's a good thing i didn't do that

because it would have caused so many

problems

so it's really just about practicing

with it

yeah thank you

all right then hi bonte i have a

similar like a question about my uh like

intuition

like sometimes i find it like things

that is

going out like very quick and fast that

it becomes

um something that i wasn't able to it's

become

reactive instead of responsive that

it's kind of like a dagger like it's too

quick

and it's trying to beat like the mind

beating the other mind so how should i

handle that

it can be quick it can be quiet but

you will know that it's the right answer

unless you have such a strong

opinion that you want it to be this you

want it to be

that that it overshadows the intuition

and it gets into your desires

yeah sometimes

i've asked a question and then heavy

philosophical

questions that's the way my mind works

on

how this actually works and how

uh

the speed of things actually occur

and does it always have to be in the

same order

according to depend and origination

those kind of questions i ask myself

and my intuition might work on that for

a half and a half a month or

two months sometimes even up to a year

before some kind of thing

shows me

what the how to answer that question

it can be intuition it can be an

experience

that my intuition pulled up

but just general everyday kind of

questions especially about hindrances

why is this coming

uh people that have nightmares

generally speaking

i tell them to start forgiving something

that they've done

in the past

and that they'll come up with the answer

through their intuition their intuition

might give you

a name of someone that

did something in in your past life that

caused you a lot of anxiety and pain

and fear and and

when you do the forgiveness

you can you can forgive while you're in

the dream

you can forgive the the scary thing

while you're in the dream

and that will change it and it will

become

much

more peaceful and calm

your dream

yeah but you have to be

you have to be able to to discern

whether it is intuition or its opinion

of something that you want to see

happen generally it's yes

no kind of questions that you need to

ask

not opinions but all it can also be

um should i get involved with this group

or

that group ask your intuition it'll give

you a yes or no

might even give you a reason why you

should or

shouldn't get involved with them

trust it the more you

use your intuition the more confidence

you have in it the easier it is

to find out

um yeah i do find the meta

like as an object is like harmonizing

the two

like um set of uh thoughts that's been

going on with

like a uh a

rational mind and then a emotional

like they're fighting and that matters

to me is one way that i find it a

balancing factor in many ways for that

respond

reactive yeah yeah

yeah it's true thank you very much yeah

bunty

be happy

anyone else yeah

hello now that we're on this topic i do

have a question

so um okay so every day we

you know recite the democratic verses

right so seeing

the essential as essential and seeing

the an essential as an essential so i've

always wondered about that

and especially now that you've mentioned

discernment

says that where intuition

is where we would see it right

okay trust your intuition then the

unessential

won't grab on to you

okay yeah thanks because you know

in the past especially i found so many

things that

was so unessential but i felt it was so

essential right

so every day i read the verses and i'm

like oh

that's what i was doing before it's

better now

so i was wondering about that um because

uh

but no i i guess um the precepts is

helping

helping that a lot oh yes

it puts a bubble around you too

it helps your mind be more alert

so you will know what you're going to do

or say

before you do it so you can trust your

intuition to

push you in the correct way

thank you okay

boy her face is just amazing

i have a question yeah hi

i um was uh starting to meditate

uh the other day and uh i this has never

happened before

but all of a sudden i was just totally

flooded in fear

and it was like almost like a panic

attack and i don't even meditate maybe

seven minutes or so

but it was it was like it was so

overwhelming i i tried the 6r and i

tried everything i could and i

it just kept intensifying so i had to

quit

so i know what what do you do you had

and you had a release

oh you let go of some kind of attachment

and

generally speaking you had tears of joy

and you tried to push the tears of joy

away

and they

didn't pay attention it kept coming back

oh interesting

oh no when you got done with your tears

did you feel lighter

yeah i did ah

good one that doesn't happen

sometimes it's not anything to be upset

by

depending on where you are in your

meditation

you can get into the

highest form of joy

which is called all-pervading joy

now this all-pervading joy it'll open

your eyes up

all of a sudden you feel it's

it's a very uh not excited but

happy deep down happy

feeling and contentment

and all of a sudden your eyes pop open

okay you didn't you didn't try to make

it happen it just happened by itself

and so you close your eyes and your eyes

want to be open so they'll

pop open again

so you don't fight with it you just go

okay you want to be open be open i don't

care

you're not looking at anything in

particular

but it's just one of the functions that

happens with that kind of joy it's the

awakening

factor of joy okay thank you

okay

yeah i have one more question about the

forgiveness

before i was i was um radiating loving

kindness to the

directions and as far as i read

now i'm i went back to

radiate metal forgive myself

having the object of the heart again is

that right

but today after having this experience

yesterday

there's this strong wave trying to

get back up into my head

and i was repeating the forgiveness

to kind of stay there

okay let go of the forgiveness for a day

or two

[Music]

and do the the six directions with a

loving kindness

okay and don't forget to use your

beautiful

smile all right okay okay

thank you very much okay

anyone else with a question

michael yes i have a quick question

thank you

is there uh as you may describe it a

connection

i've i'm having trouble hearing you you

have to turn your

mic up a little

um

intuition and you often repeat

uh the intuition and what

you're listening to your own intuition

yes so

is there like a direct line between

when you say you know you are your own

teacher

there's there's the direct line of your

striving to the wholesome and that's

what the

intuition gives you

so that that offers some discernment

would you say

of course that helps with discernment

yes

okay okay thank you

god you look great your face is just

radiant

oh i love it when people are so

successful with their meditation i

absolutely love it

just seeing your face as bright as it is

makes me smile

all through my body

thank you

okay any other question

then let's hear some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

be 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

sadhu

i wish all of you a happy week

thanks monty thank you very much

thank you

[Music]

you