713 BV Bellevue Bahai Center 3 26 09-NSsdHtLSQGI.en.vtt.txt

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

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

well one thing's of stress dependent

origination it's a process of how mine

works dependent origination what you're

going to be able to see your mind comes

down is that a feeling arises and right

after revealing arises craving verizon's

craving can be recognized as a

for tightness in your mind

body right after craving clinging arises

clinging is all of your concept all of

your thoughts all of your opinions all

of your story about why and be like or

dislike the feeling and you put the

story to it and then you start taking it

personally this these thoughts these

feelings our mind this is who I am

that's what happens when mine gets be

clean when you have your habitual

tendency when I feel anxious I always

act this way and then there's a birth of

action and then there its sorrow

painting green despair that arises

because of that suffering

what the Buddha tough was that business

how most people's mind works I say most

people everybody's mind works in the

same way this process works exactly the

same if your agent or if your Western it

doesn't matter mine works in the same

way oh there's feeling of creating yours

clinking there's a visual tendency

there's birth there's sorrow lamentation

and all of the other stuff that happens

suffering what the Buddha taught was

that there's four noble truths the first

one is there is suffering that's painful

things don't go the way you want them to

you don't like that that's painful

there's a cause of suffering and the

cause of suffering is craving craving

always manifest

and diamonds in your mind and in your

body now when a feeling arises feeling

is a pleasant feeling or painful feeling

as soon as that arises your mind as this

becomes tight if it's a plane of tourism

peeling your mind likes it I like that

if your mind has a painful feeling arise

I don't like that right after that then

there's a story that happens you get

involved in your thinking mind how there

is the third noble truth which is a

cessation of suffering and how does that

cessation of suffering rides it arises

because you see that tension

agnes as soon as you all allow that to

be and relax your mind is pure at that

time your mind is alert there's no

thoughts now one of the things that I

always stressed with people that I'm

teaching meditation to is that you have

to learn how to smile

sometimes they're my friend you real

slow burners no but what is it smile

dude but smile starts your mind to be

uplifted and wholesome and then you come

back to your object of meditation

whatever that happens to be in his

loving kindness or if it's mindfulness

of breathing or we denote the name of

the hood over

you come back to that and you stay with

that as well

and without being distracted

dependent origination is a process of

how mines attention actually works when

you start learning meditation you are

given an object of meditation something

that you keep your mind off

loving-kindness you keep your mind on

the feeling of loving kindness and then

making a wish and feeling that with

every time your mind gets distracted

that means your mind is with the loving

guidance and now it's thinking about

this or that okay that distraction

happened in a particular way your mind

didn't just all of a sudden jump over

here and start thinking about this or

that it happened because there's a

feeling literals there's some craving

and then your thoughts start in your

so when you're practicing meditation and

your mind gets distracted you notice

that your mind is distracted you're not

with the object

you let go of the distraction the

content of the thoughts doesn't matter

the process is what we're trying to see

this is one of the differences between

psychology and when the Buddha taught

with psychology you're more into what

the content of the thoughts is but with

Buddhism were more interested in how the

process works okay so

when your mind is distracted you

recognize that your mind is not with

your object of meditation you allow

those thoughts to be there but you don't

keep your attention on them anymore now

you notice there's tension and tightness

in your head

bull and bring up

ok we have a brain and the brain is made

up of two different sections to lowes

there is a membrane that goes around

each load the membrane that goes around

each lobe in the middle is held together

it's tight and it's held together by

creed tightness and

every time you have a thought that

arises in your mind your mind that

membrane and tracks a little bit okay

now when you see that your mind is

thinking and you let go over the thought

and now you relax you'll feel an

expansion that happens in your head you

let go of the tension caused by the

thinking and you let go of that at that

time your mind is very clear your mind

is very bright and there are no thoughts

and you bring that mind with a smile

back to your object of meditation so

you're starting to purify your mind now

the nature of a distraction is it's not

going to go over way right away so

you're going to be with your object of

meditation sometimes for five or ten

seconds before your mind is distracted

again what we're trying to show you with

the Buddhist meditation

is how that happened how did your mind

go from being geared over there so what

you learn as you let it be and relax and

smile back to your object of meditation

as you do that over and over again you

start to see that this is part of a

process and right before your mind gets

distracted and you've gone away through

a minute or two right before then you'll

notice that there was something else

that came up as you become more familiar

with how this process works you start to

see these things a little bit so you

relax and let it be smile and come back

to your object of meditation and your

mind gets distracted again now this time

instead of letting it get caught and

going for however long it's going to go

you notice this little thing and you

relax rate that and you'll notice that

your mind is not distracted for as long

a period of time and you've relaxed now

you smile now you come back to your

object

you start staying on your object of

meditation for longer and longer periods

of time and at length of time that

you're distracted becomes less and less

now let's say that something happened at

the start of the day somebody came up to

you and they gave you their anger and

you didn't like that so you took their

anger as yours and you gave your anger

back to them and you fought with them

and you said thanks at the same time

that somebody else said things so you

didn't hear what they said but you know

what you said okay now they go away what

happens in your mind you play this whole

scenario over again I said this and they

said that I should have said this to him

and I'm right and they're wrong and then

just like it's on a tape deck it happens

again and it keeps happening at

different times during the day now when

you're thinking about I'm right and he's

wrong and you give in a car are you

driving

no you're thinking how the accidents

occur because you're not paying

attention in the present moment to what

you're doing while you do it what this

meditation does is it teaches you to be

more aware of what is happening in your

mind in the present moment you see that

your mind is distracted you let go of

the distraction you relax you smile and

you come back to driving the car being

alert anytime you have repeat thoughts

there is an attachment there what is the

attachment these thoughts these feelings

their mind this is who I have that's a

wrong belief did you sit and while

you're getting in your car and say you

know I'm going to get mad at that guy

again did you ask that to come up no it

came up because of the conditions were

right for it to come up

can you make it go away no you can't

control it the more you try to control a

dealing with your thoughts the bigger

and more intense the feeling becomes

stress same thing painful feeling arises

I don't like that feeling I have a story

about why I deal that way my habitual

tendency is to try to control the

feeling with the thoughts and it doesn't

work

why because we're made up with five

different things that's psycho physical

process as in five days we have a

physical body we have feeling feeling is

pleasant unpleasant neutral doesn't have

anything to do with emotion you have

perception perception is the part of the

mind that names things and it also has

memory in it so you look at this in your

mind sets cup perception is a part of

the mind that said that you have

thoughts you have consciousness when a

painful feeling arises the first thing

we try to do is think the feeling but

feelings are one thing and thoughts or

something else the two never meet we

cause ourselves immeasurable amounts of

pain and suffering because we try to

control our feelings with our thoughts

anger comes up that satisfaction comes

up sadness comes up anxiety comes up

first thing we try to do is then get

away and that makes it bigger it makes

it more intense why because you're

taking those feelings and you're trying

to personalize the feelings with your

thoughts you're taking those feelings

and you're saying this is me this is who

I am when in fact this is part of an

impersonal

processed by impersonal I mean it arises

by itself you don't ask anger to come up

it comes up because conditions are right

for it to arrive what you do with what

arises in the present moment dictates

what happens in the future this is karma

if you take this present moment and you

try to control the present moment with

your thoughts you can look forward to

having a lot of suffering so much so

that all of a sudden you got to go to

the doctor and getting give you some

pills so you can get some relief but

when you start learning how this process

works you're able to catch it sooner and

sooner and the suffering becomes less

and less so when of dealing arises the

first thing you notice is your starting

to think about the feeling and that

story about the content of the story is

not important the fact that you're

thinking about it is what's important so

you let go of the thought you let the

top be there by itself but you don't

keep your attention on you relax the

tension

tightness caused by that up you bring up

something wholesome you smile and you

come back to your object of meditation

whatever that happens to be in the

present moment and you stay with that as

well as you can now the thing is when we

have a strong attachment to depression

anxiety stress whatever you want to call

it your mind is going to bounce back to

it this is one of the things that the

Buddha said what we think and ponder on

that's the inclination of your mind you

take and ponder on stress your mind is

going to incline toward stress you think

and ponder on depression your mind is

going to incline towards depression you

think and ponder on happiness your mind

is going to be inclined towards

happiness

this stuff doesn't happen overnight

letting go of old habitual tendencies

takes a lot of work but it is worth

you've heard me discuss a little bit

about smiling smiling is absolutely

necessary for developing a happy mind

got a smile got a smile when they feel

like it or the more you smile the more

alert your mindfulness becomes and it's

real easy to see when your mind starts

to get pulled down and attachment

started out the more you can smile into

what you're doing in the present moment

the clearer your mind becomes this isn't

a maybe

I had a student that he was very

depressive and he wanted to do

meditation so I told him that he didn't

want it to practice any meditation I

wanted him to smile for one week and

when he couldn't smile I wanted him to

laugh now this sounds really dumb that

sounds stupid it's too easy it's not

easy it's hard to smile all the time but

after a week he wrote back and he said I

really took what you said to heart and I

tried it and this is what happened in my

mind I always used to walk around from

one place to another in a mental age I

was thinking about this and thinking

about that I didn't even know I was

young and what happened was I started

noticing

my posture starting to be better and I

started looking around and when I looked

around and I noticed people were

starting to smile back and they never

smiled and they after a couple of days

of them seeing me smile they started

coming up and talking to me and getting

closer and closer while we were talking

that never happened I asked him about as

mindfulness what is my face mindfulness

is remembering to observe how minds

attention moves from one thing to

another remembering to observe I asked

him how is mindfulness whether it's that

my mindfulness is so sharp right now

it's just unbelievable that's just from

smiling now the laughing what the

Laughing does and this is a major part

of the process is when you laugh at your

mind for being so dumb and it's getting

caught up in something you're not caught

in it anymore when you laugh at yourself

for being angry you go from I'm mad and

I don't like this too it's only this

anger do I need to carry that around

with me let it go laughter changes your

perspective from I am that too it's only

death so the more you can smile and the

more you can left these don't trust

returns the more joy starts to arise and

joy is an uplifting feeling now there's

five different kinds of joy the first

kind of joy is you get a little joy when

you see something at sunset or something

real special that's like little

goosebumps go all that's the first kind

of joy the second kind of joy is like a

flash of lightning it's a joy it's a

very pleasant feeling it's real intense

but it's there and it's gone the next

kind of joy is like standing in the

ocean and have these waves of joy come

over its wave after we now these three

kinds of joy will arise for anybody at

any time when the conditions are right

the next two kinds of joy only arise

through mental development the next kind

is called uplifting joy the uplifting

joy when that arises you feel very light

and your body feel very light in your

mind and you feel happy your God smile

the last kind of joy is the strongest

kind of joy it's called all-pervading

droid and this is a kind of joy that

arises and every cell that your body is

going would all of these different kinds

of joining the I don't say all of the

kinds of joy but the uplifting joy and

the all-pervading dry they feel feel

joyful throughout your body one is a

very light feeling the other one is very

more calm kind of joy now let's say have

a hindrance arise sometimes

you didn't create somebody's you get sad

because something happens we feel

stressed out because things didn't work

out the wee one now when your

mindfulness is good you'll be able to

see that your mind is doing that moving

away from the present moment to this

distraction and you let go of the

distraction and you relax smile come

back to what you're doing in the present

moment if you're practicing

loving-kindness you come back to smile

okay it's meinl whole time and your mind

goes back to that and you see that

relax and you smile let me come back

it's my Lance Moore and giving that

smile away now what happens over a

period of time is that distraction that

hindrance starts to get weaker and

weaker and weaker why because you're

starting to see how this process of

Mines attention moving from one thing to

another is occurring eventually you let

go of that that Hendrix and you feel

immediate relief right after that

immediate relief you feel this joy and

this joy is very happy field and walk

around thinking

my whole life that's really good stuff

now always after this joy arises your

mind becomes very trainable and you feel

more comfortable in your mind and in

your body than you've ever felt before

this is what the Buddha called happiness

and your mind stays with what you're

doing very easily say you're smiling it

stays with that happy feeling very

easily you might have a distracting God

you'll notice it very quickly you can

let it go on guys come back now what I

just described to you was the first

level of understanding that the candy

you get when you let go of a distraction

let go of the sadness a

tional stop whatever it happens to leave

the catch of the day

empowering the college job most people

misunderstand what Jonah means when they

been practicing meditation and they

think it means extreme one-pointed pneus

of mind or absorption and that's not

what John is it's a level of your

understanding now when you let go all

the entrance and you get this experience

you can't want it to have to forget

because if you try to make it happen

again it won't occur you can't make

anything happen put too much energy in

it and you try to make it happen and it

doesn't happen so you put more energy in

it and you get more and more Restless

and then you say whether this stuff

doesn't work but

because of not getting involved with

that entrance of which there are five

there's five entrances you have lust you

have the greedy mind I want it you have

hatred for a virgin I don't want to find

you have sleepiness and dullness you

have restlessness and anxiety and doubt

the doubt is whether you're doing the

practice / if you these five things are

called entrances and they're called

entrances because when they arise they

stop you for being aware of what

they completely take you out of the

prison wall knowing how the process

works and seeing that you can actually

start to recognize and let go of the

things that always used to catch you

starts giving you a lot more

self-confidence now you are teaching

yourself how minds attention moves and

you're teaching yourself how to let go

of these attachments I don't teach I'm a

god I'm not a teacher you're teaching

yourself by being able to recognize how

the process works

and the fastest way by far to overcome

any hindrance I don't care if it's fear

anxiety depression anger the fastest way

to overcome any hindrance is by laughing

towns dumb really works

there was a man was working up by where

we live he's a encourage of of the

project and he had ten or twelve

laborers carpenter type kind of bird

guys that were angry about something

they were gonna go talk to him and he

didn't even let him in the office he met

him at the door and they said we got to

talk to you and he started laughing out

loud and he laughed for about a minute

and they thought boy this is really

weird and then he said to them you gotta

laugh with me and he started laughing

again and needs to come on left and he

got them to left and after that he said

okay now let's go in and discuss what

the problem now he took their anger and

their dissatisfaction and he changed it

in less than a minute just by laughs

this is one of the things that the

Buddha said that this is immediately

effective when you

today the more you develop a mine that

reflects on happiness the more happiness

will come into your life the more you

develop a mind that it's smiling the

more smiles will come in

life that's how the inflammation of your

mind works change old habits develop new

habits change old habits that I always

get mad when this happens to laughing

about it because there i go being caught

again and it is funny and I've had some

students that they were really thought

about something and they come up and

they start complaining to me and I said

well just laugh about it it's not funny

and would they say that of course it

makes me laugh because it really is

funny because of the attachment theory

look at how much you're attached so I

started laughing and then they get

grumbly and then they start laughing

along with me and then everything is

fine how do you let go of that tight

mental hold that causes so much

suffering you learn that smile and you

learn to left now there's three parts to

meditation the first part of meditation

is practicing your generosity you

practice your generosity by body speech

and mind you say things that make other

smile you do things that make other

people happy and make them smile you

keep happy thoughts in your mind do you

want the world would be a peaceful place

do you want the world to be a paradise

then it's your responsibility to make it

that way you affect the world around you

whether you want to affect it positively

or negatively that's your truth you want

to walk around grumbling and make it

into a hell realm you can do that you

want to make it a happy place the

peaceful place you can do that it takes

effort now there's four kinds of effort

but recognizing when you have an

unwholesome mind letting go of it

unwholesome mind and relaxing the

tension caused by that smiling and

keeping your smiling boy

if you want to experiment with this I

did I didn't believe anything with my

teachers told me and I don't want you to

believe me would you think of that I

decided that they talked to me about

when you smile everybody smiles back at

you I wanted to see whether that was

really true so I went to the shopping

center and I walked around with the

South face and I hurt people that were

complaining I heard people that they

were grumpy and I looked around nobody

was smiling I thought I know what it's

like to make him unhappy so I went and I

sat on a bench and I closed my eyes and

history and smiling and I started giving

this mild everybody around me and after

a couple of minutes I started feeling I

staring know that feeling from somebody

in behind you staring at you feel like

turning around say what are you looking

at and I opened up by my eyes and

with 12 complete strangers standing

around smiling because that's what I was

and I went yep this works and it turns

out to be a fun game one of the things

that we kind of forget is that life

doesn't have to be serious life is

supposed to be fun now when you think of

the right effort letting go of the

unwholesome and relaxing and bringing up

the wholesome that means fun that means

helping other people smile and be happy

don't see things that are going to cause

an upset say things that are going to

make you and everybody else around you

smile turnin into a habit the more you

can give away your smile and you're

happy feeling the more you affect the

world around you in a positive way

I used to go to the hospital very often

when i was in asia people were

continually asking me to go to the

hospital and visit people that were very

sick they were dying of this or that

always before I walked into the room I

would stop and I would have this stuff I

don't care what I run into in the room I

don't care to have a measurable pain I

don't care of their sad care whatever

they are experiencing its ok with

experience you love but I was going to

be happy yeah as soon as I walked in the

room whatever Eric

was I allowed them the space to feel

that without trying to take away their

pain that's the definition of compassion

allowing another person space to

experience their home pain and love them

unconditionally always by the time I was

in the room and got ready to leave of

course they were thanking me for coming

and that sort of thing that they would

say I really feel better now and I would

get them to let one day this man i went

to see ever seeing every other day or so

it was really serious when I

and he said that everybody else in the

room you have to go out I need to talk

to Reverend Wright break by myself so

they left and I said what's happening

and he said the doctor told me that I

have to make up my will and that I'm

terminal and I started laughing and I

said I'm terminal 2 so everybody else

it's okay to be terminal no problem and

in started laughing and he saw he was

causing himself a lot of pain by taking

this so seriously I he took a couple

weeks later he did die but he died with

a smile on his lips so it's all a matter

of perspective now there's there's this

thing called the full path and Buddhism

and has eight separate things that are

put together to make the path easy to

watch one of these things is called they

call it right thought and I really don't

like that

and I call it harmonious energy what

kind of image do you hold in your mind I

always broke I'm always linked I never

get this it never happens for me that

way what kind of imagery holding in your

mind that you're manifesting for

yourself you have to learn how to change

your image by practicing right effort if

you start imaging people being happy and

being prosperous and having fun then

you're going to start manifesting that

for yourself and you become the example

for other people and that's how you

practice your generosity isn't that on

nobody ever thinks of generosity in

these terms of the month talking about

generosity I better hold my pocketbook

it's not like that you can give physical

things it always makes me happy to share

food with somebody else particularly if

it's really good

that's the first part of what meditation

is the second part of meditation is

keeping your precepts and keeping them

very closely what are the precepts don't

kill or harm living means on purpose I

don't care if it's a mosquito or a

cockroach or a hat don't kill or harm

living being on thurs don't take

anything that's not given don't have any

wrong sexual activity wrong sexual

activity means sexual activity with

another person's mate or if you have a

mate sexual activity with anyone else

sexual activity with someone that's too

young still under the care of their

Guardians or sexual activity for giving

money prostitution that's wrong sexual

activity basically it comes down to this

any sexual activity

you have that causes anyone else to have

a version in your mind don't do that the

next precept is the tough one don't tell

lies don't use the kind of language that

splits people apart use language that

brings people together don't curse

why when you curse what kind of mind you

have at that time and it's shocking the

amount of cursing that's happening on

radio and television these days and just

everybody just normally talking it's

really shocking to hear all the cursing

the going on and people think it's okay

and it's not it causes your mind have

upset in it it causes unwholesome states

to arise let go and don't gossip that

means make up stories about people that

you're not around that aren't around you

let's put that don't take any drugs or

alcohol drugs or alcohol means beer wine

whiskey pop what some of the other

growths I mean heroin cocaine all of

those kinds of things but if you dr.

beauties of Medicine

for a very specific reason you can take

that now if you keep these five precepts

you've only got five I've got 227 but

you only got five Ruiz has to keep when

you keep these presets without breaking

them your meditation will take off so

fast

so this is the second part of what

meditation is so you can see that this

is not just about sitting like a Buddha

image this is about giving this is about

real life meditation is living living is

kind of meditation when you take it back

back you have to be serious with it

could be seriously happy with it if you

happen to break a preset for whatever

reason this is not a guilt trip religion

that we're talking about here forgive

yourself for making on the state take

the precepts again right then I

undertake to keep the preset to abstain

from killing her army

living beings on perds I undertake the

priests have to abstain from taking what

is not given I undertake the priests

have to abstain from wrong sexual

activity I undertake the preset to

abstain from

lives in our speed I had to take the

preset to abstain from taking drugs and

alcohol and take that with the

determination that I will not break that

frees up together you'll be surprised

when you do this for a period of time

how good your meditation becomes you sit

down for your quiet time meditation and

your mind just because completely clear

you don't have a lot of distractions you

start seeing how process works and it

leads to a mind that is balanced all so

you don't have the high eyes and a low

lows anymore life starts to be like

little waves he's still going to go

through some tough stuff I mean just

what's that's almost two months ago

that's about six weeks ago my mother

died that was not a pleasurable

experience there was sadness and it was

ok for this happens to be there it had

to be okay because that was the truth

whatever arises in

present moment is the truth any time you

try to fight with the truth any time you

try to stop the truth from happening any

time you try to change the truth you can

look forward to suffer but the truth is

you can be sitting there and you can be

completely at ease and all of a sudden

your mindfulness lips anger comes up you

said they're being angry because of

something that happened whenever what

are you going to do with that when it

arrived you have a choice you can try it

to let the anger away you can try to

force the anger away you can try to

suppress the anger with your thinking

but that only leads to more suffering

what you do with anger when it arises

allowed to be there relax smile back and

keep your smile more and you smile

during the day the more

oh joy oh right more you have joy

arising the more you affect the world

around you in a positive way and keeping

your precepts very closely means that

your mind will become peaceful and quiet

during your daily activity you're not

going to have so many hindrances of

rising you're not going to have the

memory that something happened yesterday

and i'm still not about it you let that

go this is not suppressing anything this

is learning how to lovingly accept the

present moment without resistance let it

be there to keep your attention on it

relax bring out something also and stay

with that wholesome you bounce back and

forth for a little while fine every time

you let go of a distraction and relax

and smile and come back to smiling or to

your house

whatever happens to me every time you do

that that improves your mindful you

become more alert as to what is

happening in the prison world you start

seeing how your mind jumps from one

thing to another to another and you

start letting go of it and what's the

advantage of that your mind starts

eventually over a period of time to

become calm and you stop thinking about

yesterday you stop thinking about what's

going to happen tomorrow you start of

starting to observe what's happening

right now and when you do that you start

getting into your intuition your

intuition is a quiet little voice that

quite often is grounded out because

we're thinking about this and thinking

about that so much of the time but when

you pay attention to your intuition you

start doing things that are uplifting

really the more you smile the easier it

is to let go of things that pull your

mind down and make you end up the more

you laugh more balance you have

and don't believe and I see how it works

there was a guy that he worked a prison

for the criminally insane was a

psychologist in Hawaii he never saw any

of the inmates but when you when anybody

went in to deal with the inmates they

always walk with her back to the wall

because I didn't want to get attacked

it's really a rough place and what he

did was he would take a picture of an

inmate and he would start forgiving that

and make for not understanding and

sending him loving kindness and he did

that with every inmate and over an area

about two years there wasn't any need

for that to be they didn't have they

stopped taking the heavy drugs they

stopped having to chain him up all the

time they started acting like

people because he held an image of them

that was uplifting and happy this is

what the from the top learn how to hold

an image of everybody else around you

that's uplifted and happy and give that

happy feeling to everybody that you see

and when you forget you can't criticize

yourself just start over again okay no

fair criticizing yourself oh yeah and

then it's to be big so I've been talking

for a while question

well I showed you the spring then relax

no be what you're used to doing is

thinking right yet that be blind there

that that you're thinking like there's

tension right there because of it left

yeah

but the more you practice the easier it

becomes this is simply mean to smile on

left keep it going all the time but it's

not easy it's hard especially when you

have an attacker I don't like this that

guy cut me off that guy said something I

didn't like Greer it's hard to smile

into that but the more you practice the

easier it becomes

like Billy always arises verse 20 cause

the cause of that in order to see you

have to have a good working high and

there has to be color and formal when

the good worthy hi has color and form I

consciousness arises the meeting of

these three things is called eye contact

with eye contact as condition I feeling

aright I feeling as condition hi

creating run with I craving as condition

clinging arises with clinging as

condition at virtual tendency

rising so this is how it works why does

it work that way I wine is nature act

the way that it does because this is the

natural thing to be able to see and when

you start actually practicing cemented

and you start smiling more you'll start

noticing these things because you're

starting to teach yourself how the

process

english a title doesn't matter to you

get

doesn't matter see people have this idea

that when you sit in meditation you're

supposed to have clear your mind don't

have any thoughts bill that's not

realistic you're going to have thoughts

and it's okay to have thoughts it has to

be okay because that's true what are you

doing with the truth you will allow the

truth to be there let it be relax it's

finally come back to your object of

meditation and you go back and get

distracted again it's funny when I give

a retreat because people will come and

they'll say I had a really good

today so tell me about oh my so peaceful

and quiet and I can go full shape and

then now come in the next day and

they'll say yeah my meditations

absolutely terrible my mind is all

please oh really coming about were you

able to see those thoughts and let it be

and relax and smile and come back yeah

but it was really really hard ah good

meditation time I've been a tell a story

he was doing a retreat when we're up in

Missouri up to the mountain with a bunch

of their people

for you and they were starting to try

too hard so in the morning she enters

Bruce if they got a direct as I said

today I don't want you meditate today is

a plate now the only thing that you have

to do is you have to smile and every

time you see your mind getting serious

we have to let and I send them on their

way I didn't care what they did so they

come into the meditation Hall for the

dhamma talk and evening and everybody is

blue and they're smiling and they're

really feeling good and I said well how

their meditation go today and they said

oh we didn't have to eat we had fun and

I said did you smile one yeah it's not a

lot every time your mind got serious did

you laugh oh yeah good meditation wasn't

it I'm a speaking but that gives you the

idea this is the way we want to actually

practice we want to practice with the

leg length we want to practice in a

happy way remember what do you think in

Kandra that's the end

your mind so if you make your life fun

by making up your mind and saying today

is a playdate well I gotta go to work so

what I can play while I birkin I could

have fun while I'm working i can smile i

can laugh and i can give it away you

make up your mind today is going to be a

monday and it will be and then there's

those days that you forget and

everything you try to do doesn't work i

was going to go ahead catch the bus and

the bus left before I got there and walk

do this nothing ever nothing worth 50

when you laugh at how hard it is

sometimes all of a sudden it's not hard

when you left at how you're taking all

this stuff and grumbling and we're on r

and you laugh with yourself it changes

it makes it easier it takes that great

cloud away from this isn't maybe try see

for yourself

it's just making the determination this

today is going to be a fun day I'm going

to have a great time today and then make

it a great time by being happy that's

the Buddhist teaching

the Buddha said we're the happy ones so

let's prove it right

okay sometimes we see some crazy or

foolish man someone is always right some

are they laughing one is a sound crazy

or punishment where there are different

cuts the mother crying on big reply

because they might really have answered

when the other side they are always

happy there's a crazy we always be

learned yet on my nothing why may I

happy enough laughing but the other side

they had tried someone is going someone

is laughing and

that's the first time that's Strike 2 we

not but doesn't have a bad way this is

not like an all-rounder it is control

flat we control enough we control

without or may have to if you get into

uncontrolled laughter you have tears

coming down that takes away all of your

beats and compliments uncontrollable

laughter is an enemy of loving kindness

that's a directed but wet easy on you if

you smile when you are static the

sadness will go

even if you don't feel like smiling you

still smile I used to tell people here

is a mirror you look at your face and

you smile and every time you see you're

not smiling need to smile more and

always within one or two minutes people

become happy because splendid you know

those Ananda and then he was a Cambodian

mom it was very famous

he in Cambodia they tortured him when

Pol Pot was they took him on a chain

link fence and gave him lie down on the

train that fence and then mailed to the

ceiling and left him there for one day

two days three days a lot of pain he

needs my love in his mind he told

everyone around him not to hate these

people he was being tortured he had a

major but he's fine when you smile the

paint natural painkiller in your body

goes into your body and

is not so intent when you hate it that

stops the pain killer in your body and

it makes the pain more in-depth much

worse he said maybe on these

all weekend that is magician and before

natal on your spine waistline take wait

a little bit back there smile Taylor a

mirror and put it on your desk and look

at yourself every now and then and see

whether you're smiling and then it

starts smiling

during thought we are tiny generated for

tea trying to solve work when you have

fun doing it instead of having

dissatisfaction it makes the job easier

and when you smile while we were doing

it it makes the job

I know you work at Microsoft everybody

is grumpy and the better oh you are

completed buzz me that you are thinking

and you're active on TV so can't you

smile hey hey I do this but you start

your project by making it fun to do not

making it a job that you have to do but

making it a fun job you have to solve a

problem turn the problem into a game and

you will become very efficient at

solving problems so you smile you make

it into a game but you didn't really

he talked about whenever he talked about

when something I'm hopeful come up in

your mind to let it go and then you

bring up something wholesome and keep it

going let me taste it something here

when you have something that you're

working on and all of a sudden

distracting thought takes you and you

start thinking about something else and

I am oh you're not being efficient and

you're wasting time and then you start

feeling stressed and pressure because

you're not working on what you're

supposed to be working on and then you

develop anxiety and you develop this

life or a virgin so when your mind is

distracted away from what you're doing

you have to be able to recognize that

let it go no matter how important you

think it's supposed to be it's not it's

just a restless mind relax the tightness

smile come back to what you're doing

okay now I taught students in Kuala

Lumpur they were training students at

the University they had one testing year

they either passed the year

he'll they put a lot of pressure on

themselves studying constantly they

weren't having any fun they weren't

really learning this stuff because they

were worrying about what was going to

happen when the test arrived they came

and did a retreat I showed them how to

let go of these distracting thoughts and

come back they started getting very

efficient at doing what they were doing

and recognizing when their mind went

away it didn't pay attention to those

thoughts they let them go they relaxed

they smiled to come back okay all of

those students of which there was I

think there was about 35 all of those

students passed very easily because they

started having fun with it learning

instead of being worrying about the end

result they stayed in the present moment

exactly

of course like our research development

and you're taking your object coming up

they come come down the reason you can't

develop what you want to develop is

you're not using the full potential of

your loving the question is what's

happening to your life so that your mind

can't you know makes you want to develop

fully actually thought that you're very

important but the LCA you make you make

up your mind when you go into work

tomorrow that tomorrow is going to be

fun and you're going to have fun

figuring out what you need to figure out

and remind yourself this is fun I like

doing this look at how efficient you

become and how much easier your life

because that's holding a harmonious

that helps you to be creative that's

what meditation is all about learning

how to be completely creative in the

present moment learning how to enjoy the

prison without the directory without the

dissatisfaction and its life of course

he thought that you need educated that's

doesn't that your title of your lumping

up your mind not to get upset by things

okay I'll give you an example my God my

family they're actually not very nice

people they're very hard for me to be

around because they're there they're

course cursing all the time they're

saying nasty things to try to make you

angry I had to go home I had to be with

my mother what she was dying I was there

for six weeks whole family

for that period of time they were trying

to make me angry and I made up my mind

didn't matter what they said it was okay

for them to say it but I wasn't going to

bite into it I wasn't going to get

emotional so I started when they started

doing that I stop paying attention to

what they were saying I started reading

loving kindness to them after about

three weeks all of a sudden everything

changed and they started being nice and

they started actually smiling and

laughing and that's something they never

did I affected the world around me

because I chose to affect it in a

positive way I chose not to take the

negative path we all have the same

choice you can take the negative back

you can take the positive that your

truck which one leads to your happiness

with one leads to your unhappy

you