From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hYG1OTMFTqM

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

when

one more time

i have a question for you

you just took the three refuges and the

five precepts what does that mean

and i want an answer do you know what it

means to do this

no

well you come and you do this every

sunday

right

so you need to know you need to

understand what you're doing everything

about the buddha's path

is about understanding

you don't just do things because

your elders tell you to

you do them because you understand what

you're doing

now when you took the the precepts in

pali

can you translate that into english for

me what does it mean

right

you shouldn't lie right

and you shouldn't have sexual misconduct

right very good

why

because those things are really bad you

can't even take moderation

because anything that falls into those

categories just come

it just it always leads to bad things it

always leads to bad things

see the reason that you take the

precepts

is because it affects your mind

in a very negative way if you break a

precept

if you kill even ants even cockroaches

even mosquitoes

if you kill them

in your mind you have anger

and you don't like those insects and you

want them to stop bothering

you but if you kill them you develop

having a guilty mind

and that starts affecting the way you

see the world

and it makes you unhappy

now if somebody steals something

something from you how do you feel

when they take it away and they won't

let you have it anymore how do you feel

do you feel happy about that

no

so you don't want to make anybody else

feel that way either right

so you don't take things that aren't

given

now

the next precept i want to talk about

is a very important one

and that is

don't tell lies

don't say things that aren't true

don't use words that are very crude and

harsh

cursing

and that seems to become more more and

more popular in this country as time

goes by by you can't watch television

without people using very crude language

you can't listen to the radio without

hearing a lot of crude language

the kind of speech you want to develop

is

something that everybody smiles when you

say it

okay

something that's very pleasing to

people's ears

now why why do you keep the precept

not to tell lies

because as soon as you say something

that's not true

in your mind

you know that you made a mistake

your mind tells you i shouldn't have

said that

it wasn't true

now the real problem with this is

it starts making your mind more and more

unsettled

your mind becomes very

agitated it's hard to sit still you

always want to be moving around

you have to be moving something

the reason that that occurs is because

you break these kinds of precepts

this is called restlessness

and the more restless a person is

that means they've been breaking a lot

of precepts

now i know that it's kind of a difficult

thing sometimes

because culturally

we're taught

to

tell little white lies just little tiny

ones it doesn't matter

but every time you say something that's

not true

your mind says oops

shouldn't have done that

and then over time it gets bigger and

bigger and bigger

and you start becoming more and more

emotional

and you start making more and more

wrong judgments

and causing yourself

and other people around you problems

and then when you start talking people

won't believe you

why

because you make a habit of saying

things that aren't true

if you want people to believe everything

you say you need to be honest

and then they will trust you

so it's real important

to

be honest

even if you do something and your your

mother or your father comes up and they

say did you do that you say yes

if your parents find out you lie then

they're going to punish you that much

more for whatever you did right

and they become very upset

why

because they want you to be honest

now when you keep all of these precepts

what happens to your mind

you don't have any guilty feeling coming

up

so your mind becomes very calm

very peaceful

and

everybody around you feels that

and they want to help you they want to

do things that are very nice

now another reason for keeping all of

the precepts

is because it is a kind of protection

you know you hear about a lot of people

they die because they were in a car

accident

or one reason or another they were

killed

they died very unnatural death

the reason that that happens is because

they didn't keep their precepts

when you keep your precepts it is a

protection

in one of the books it says

that even if you fall off a cliff

a very high

cliff

you won't die from that

you won't be killed if you keep your

precepts

now

especially in this country

a lot of people don't like the idea of

someone talking to them about morality

they don't like to hear this kind of

stuff

but they don't understand how important

it is

a lot of people will say well i'll i'll

keep my precepts when i go to the temple

and then when they get out of the temple

they act any way they want

but the precepts need to be kept all of

the time

now the sexual precept

not having uh having any

wrong sexual activity

you're some of you're a little young for

even thinking about that but the others

if you're still under the care of your

parents

it is very wrong

to have sexual activity

it causes your parents a lot of upset

causes you a lot of problems

taking drugs taking alcohol what does

that do to your mind

why would you want to do that to

yourself well everybody else is doing it

my friends do it and they don't suffer

from it

that you see

but it really causes a lot of problems

for your mind

it dulls your mind out

it makes your judgment not good

it causes all kinds of problems

well it doesn't matter if i take just a

little bit yes it does

it matters a lot

this isn't talking about taking medicine

this is talking about taking alcohol

or drugs

so you can go play

so you feel like your mind is more light

and it's more fun

a lot of people harm themselves very

badly by doing this

so you want to

not do this at all

when you keep these precepts without

breaking them

it's a protection for your own safety

and you'll be able to pick your friends

better

because you'll want to be around people

that you feel comfortable with that keep

the precepts you don't want to be around

somebody that tells lies all the time do

you

you don't want to be around somebody

that kills things

it doesn't make you happy

but when you keep your precepts and you

you make sure that your friends keep

their precepts

then it's very

easy to be happy

now

another thing that's real important

is

to practice your generosity

why i don't have anything how can i be

generous oh there's lots of ways you can

be generous

there's three ways in particular that

the buddha talked about

you be generous with your speech

generous with your actions

generous with your mind

now what does it mean to be generous

with your

speech you say things

that are helpful and make other people

feel good

you say things that are very nice

you don't say things that are hurtful

you try to say things that make your

uh your friends that you're talking to

that make them smile

that make them feel good how does that

make you feel

huh

happy you bet

that's what the buddha's teaching is all

about isn't it

how to be

happy real important

so you practice saying things that are

helpful

and kind especially to your parents

right

and then you do things that are very

helpful you don't complain because i

don't feel like doing it

you go ahead and do it

and watch the expression on your parents

face when you do it without them having

to tell you over and over again clean

your room

do you know what i mean

yeah

now the third part of this is being

generous with your thoughts

how can you be generous with thoughts

you think of people

and your friends in a very kind way

you don't talk about negative things

about your friends

you're not being generous when you do

that

or your enemies

you only use speech that is kind

not complaining speech

and when you use that kind of speech

that means that your mind

becomes generous

you start looking at the positive things

in life and this is important

if you have ever met a friend and

they're always sad

do you think they're thinking about

things that are nice and uplifting and

happy

no

they're looking about at things

that are

pulling their mind down

that are causing them to be unhappy

one of the things that the buddha said

that's real important

is

whatever you think and ponder on

that is the inclination of your mind now

what does that mean

if you think about being happy all the

time

your mind will be will tend to be happy

if you think about being sad all the

time

your mind is going to be sad

what are you practicing when you're

using

what kind of speech

now internal dialogue speech you're

thinking

you develop the habit of looking at

things negatively then you're always

going to see negative things

if you take the time to make everything

happy

and make life fun

and turn it into a game

then it's real easy to put a smile on

your face isn't it

ah

one of the things that gets lost in

buddhism

is

that the buddha tried to teach us how to

be happy and sometimes that gets lost

when you're

at school

and you're happy

and you're paying attention to the

teacher

how fast do you learn

do you learn things quickly

when you're happy

but when you're unhappy how do you learn

oh i'm thinking all of these unhappy

thoughts i'm not even paying attention

to the teacher

and then they come and they give you a

test and you do poorly on the test

because you were unhappy

i have a lot of

students in other countries

before they take a test

they come and they tell me

i'm really afraid if i don't pass this

test i'm not going to continue i won't

be able to continue on in school

what should i do

well i said worry about it that's that's

really helpful right

that helps you to study right

well you have to let go of worry

you have to let go of

fear of what is going to happen in the

future

you don't know what's going to happen in

the future do you

do you know in five minutes from now

this ceiling could fall on us and kill

us all

do you know whether that's true or not

you don't know until five minutes goes

by and you see whether it's true or not

so worrying about what's happening in

the future

causes your mind to become distracted

so what do you do when you have a

distracted mind

you let go of that distraction

and now you relax

relax your mind relax your body just for

a moment

then

smile

why do you smile

because when you smile your mind starts

to be uplifted and happy right

now you go back to studying what you

were doing

if you make study

into a game

make your school work

a fun game

it will be so easy for you to understand

and you will actually get very good

grades because of it that's what i tell

all of my students that are going to

college

if you don't like this the course you're

taking then find another course that's

more fun

that's something that you're really

interested in

the more fun you can have

studying

the better your grades become

the easier all school work becomes

but if you start thinking about oh i

hate this class i don't want to write

this thing i don't want to do this

homework i hate this stuff

then

is that going to be an easy class for

you to pass

so you have to think of ways to make it

more fun

and as you're smiling while you're doing

your homework

it gets easier and easier it's not work

anymore

now it's just learning

and that's the attitude that we need to

develop

i don't like the word work

i don't even really know what it means

isn't that odd

i used to have a big company

and sometimes there would be a lot of

things that were delivered i worked

building houses and such

a whole truckload of wood would come

now we have to take the wood off of the

off of the truck

and put it where it's supposed to go

so

grab one piece of wood take it down put

it where it's supposed to be go do it

again and again

and i was told oh yeah you're working

very hard and i didn't even know i was

working

because all i was doing was taking this

one thing and moving it over there is

that work

you see what i mean it's all in your

attitude

if you don't like that

then it turns into work

but if you're just doing this

it's easy

it's fun

that's what we have to learn

we have to learn how to change

our ideas about things

and make it fun whatever you're doing

if you can't smile and you can't laugh

with what you're doing right now

is it worth doing

do you see what i mean

the more you can smile

the more you can have fun

helping

doing things that your parents need to

be done

and having fun doing it

the easier life becomes

everything

becomes

a joy

there's nothing that you don't no i

don't want to do that

have you ever done that

mom tell you to do something you go now

later i want to watch tv

huh

a lot of people are looking down and

looking away

and then when you do it you wind up

doing not such a good job because i

don't really want to do this i want to

go back and watch tv or i want to get on

the computer and play on the computer

so you make

what your mom or dad ask you to do hard

for yourself

because you're not having any fun doing

it and it's your choice whether you have

fun doing something or not

it's your choice all the way

you can be happy

you can be unhappy

you can laugh

you can cry

your choice

i like to laugh

makes my body feel good

crying doesn't make my body feel so good

so i choose to be happy

but it is my choice

now the thing that's real interesting

is that's what the buddha was talking

about when he started talking about

keeping the precepts

you keep the precepts as closely as you

can

and it leads to having a happy mind

and the more happiness you have in your

life

the more successful you become

that's the way it works

the more you break precepts

the harder life becomes

right now there's an awful lot of people

that

have

depression

they get depressed they have to take

drugs for depression or some some people

in school say oh you have this attention

deficit disorder

why is that

because

you're not following your precepts very

well

that's the real reason

i know a lot of children today are they

they go to the

doctor and the doctor gives them some

kind of pill to take

and then it dulls their mind out so much

that all they do is just sit they can't

do much else

does that lead to a happy life

i don't think so

you keep your precepts

you

especially

don't tell

lies you don't use foul language

you don't gossip you don't talk about

other people and make up stories

you don't try to divide people

you don't say my friend is over there

and they said this about you

you don't do that sort of thing

and then your mind becomes more uplifted

now this is something that you have to

practice all the time

it's not just about keeping while you're

at the temple

this is about keeping your precepts

24 hours a day

and you know another advantage of this

go to sleep real easily

you don't have so many bad dreams

when you wake up you wake up very alert

isn't that an advantage right there

and it stops you from having

severe accidents

so there's all kinds of advantages

for

keeping your precepts

being conscious of

not breaking your precepts

now one thing that happens is sometimes

you might forget

okay

whoops i broke a precept i said

something that wasn't right

well

you don't have to feel guilty about it

but what you want to do

is

in your minds tell yourself i'm not

going to break that precept again

and forgive yourself for making a

mistake

okay

so you don't have to feel guilty about

it yes i made a mistake yes i broke a

precept

but

now i won't do that again

now i know sometimes that some somebody

will come up and they're not dressed

very nice but they think they are

and they ask what you think of their new

clothes

and you say oh that's gorgeous and in

your mind you're saying oh that's a

terrible

it's better not to say anything than

tell them a lie about what you really

think

it's better to talk about something else

okay

it really is much better

because you say something

you really think that their their

clothes is very bad and you say it's

very good your mind will say up

i shouldn't have said that

now you have a guilty feeling

and that starts to cloud the way you see

the world

you don't see the world in a clear way

anymore

and you're hurting yourself by doing

that

but you can justify it

and you can tell yourself well i said

that so i wouldn't hurt their feeling

it's better to be quiet than it is

to say something that's not true

now there's a real interesting suta

if i can find it

that talks about

what to do when people come up to you

and they use a certain kind of speech

the buddha was real

clear about this sort of thing

okay he says there are five courses of

speech

that others may use when they address

you

their speech may be timely or untimely

sometimes you're in a hurry you haven't

got time to listen to them and that's

called untimely

what they say may be true or untrue

they may say it in a gentle way or they

can say it in a very harsh hard way

it can be connected with good

or it can be connected with harm

uh

it can they can speak it with a mind of

loving kindness

or they can speak it with a mind of hate

now these five different kinds of things

can happen with anybody coming up and

talking to you

then the monks the the buddha said this

you should train thus

our minds will remain unaffected whether

they say something true or untrue

or they say something gentle or harsh

we shall utter no evil words

we shall abide compassionate for their

welfare

with the mind of loving kindness what

does that mean

a mind of loving kindness

well that's kind of it

i've been teaching everyone what loving

kindness is all week

it's having thoughts

and feelings

that are very uplifted

and you make that wish for someone else

see when you when you practice

loving-kindness meditation

you can't give something to someone else

if you don't have it

right

you want to give a gift to somebody but

you don't have the gift how can you give

it

so you have to do it for yourself first

now when i teach people how to practice

loving kindness what i do is i tell them

you have to smile

all the time

and then now everybody's looking down

again and not smiling

how does that feel when your mind when

you're smiling

how does your mind feel when you laugh

huh

feels uplifted feels good doesn't it

well when you have a mind that feels

good

then you have a mind that can send good

thoughts to other people very very

easily

right

so how much do i want you to smile

all the time

but smiling is not just here

smiling is with your eyes

smiling is with your mind

smiling is with your heart

when you can smile like that

you can give that happy feeling away to

other people because you feel good

so when you

have somebody come up to you and they

can say something that's not true

or they can say something that's very

harsh

and look at them

and send them your smile

that will help that person to have an

uplifted mind

that's what the buddha was talking about

so you can be happy

and then you affect the world around you

by being happy

other people feel happy too

you ever run across a friend

and they're very unhappy

and they're crying

what's the first thing you do oh i feel

so sorry for you are you helping your

friend by doing that

no

you're making your friend more miserable

you send

happy feelings from your heart to your

friend

and before long their emotional state

lets go

and their mind starts to come up to the

level of your mind

that's how you help

the more you can say things and do

things that are kind

and uplifting

the happier you make the world around

you

that's the way it works

that's what the buddha tried to show us

all the time

we keep our precepts so we can be happy

once we're happy

we have to practice our generosity and

give it away

give it to everybody else around us

especially to your parents

and your friends

and your teachers

and everybody you see

the more you can practice having a

smiling uplifted happy mind

the more

life becomes fun

and when life is fun it's really worth

living

isn't that right

so don't sit there with the sour face

looking at me smile

how does your mind feel now

do you see

it really does make a difference

so the more you can use kind words

and share those kind words with even

people you don't know

you walk into a store

and the cashier is

having a bad day

okay

so what do you do do you say something

to make her day worse

no

you smile

and you wish her some kind of happiness

you appreciate her

she's a complete stranger but you make

her happy

when you make her happy

the next people behind you in line

they get some of that happiness too do

you see how it works

the more you can practice being happy

the more the world becomes happy

right now that's a real unusual thing

especially in california everybody is so

tight and so afraid

things aren't going like they're

supposed to oh the economy is so bad

how am i ever going to get a job

we don't have any money to do things

well you can worry about that all you

want

or you can

help

everyone in your family to be happy

life is supposed to be a game

to play

it's not supposed to be something to be

afraid of

so how do you practice playing life

smiling helps doesn't it

doesn't it

then how much do you need to do that

i used to have some of my students give

me a mirror get me mirrors

that people could carry with them and on

the mirrors we took some

fingernail polish

and we wrote smile on it

and then i gave it to other people

and i said

anytime

you're walking down the street

anytime you're doing anything

take a look at what your face looks like

and if it's not smiling then it's time

to start

now it's a real interesting scientific

fact

that the corners of your mouth are real

important

if the corners of your mouth go down

so does your mental state

the corners of your mouth go up

so does your mental state

so the more you can practice smiling all

the time

the happier you are

that's the way it works

the more you can

help

other people to be happy

the happier you will become

so you keep your precepts

you be real helpful whenever somebody

asks you to do something don't tell them

no i don't want to do that now i want to

do something else

just get up and help

and you'll start finding out that life

is really a lot of fun

and it's worth it

not just a little bit

the more you can practice the better you

get at whatever you do right

so

the more you smile the easier it becomes

smiling with your mind

smiling with your heart

wishing your friends happiness

that's what loving kindness is

not because you want anything from your

friend

you just wish them happiness because

it's a nice thing to do

it's a way to help

and that's real important

okay so i've been talking for a long

time

do you guys have any questions

you mean i told you everything you ever

wanted to know about what the buddha

said

when i was in malaysia one time

there was a man that had been practicing

how to chant for seven years

and he came and he was very proud of the

fact that he could chant

and i asked him

if he wanted to chant for me oh yes

please let me chant this okay so i

listened to him chant

and when i got done or when he got done

i asked him

that was great

what did it mean

and he looked at me and he said

well

it doesn't matter what it means

it's the feeling

and i said

oh

then it doesn't matter whether you chant

banana over and over again because it's

the feeling you're after right

and he got the point

you chant things that you understand

if you don't understand the meaning of

something

find out before you just start chanting

it's very important

just to parrot what other people are

doing

without knowing what you're saying

you might as well say coca-cola

coca-cola coca-cola

because it has the same meaning for you

but at least you know what coca-cola is

right

everything about the buddha's teaching

is about understanding

learning

how things work

don't do things blindly just because

everybody else doesn't

know what the meaning is

and if somebody asks you to say

something and repeat them and you don't

understand what you're saying

please ask them

you won't get in trouble

ask them to tell you well what does that

mean i don't understand

so

when you're asked to take the refuges in

the buddha dhamma sangha

do you know what you're doing

what does taking refuge in the buddha

dhamma sangha mean

now you bet you all just got through

doing it

don't you know what it means

it means that you have high respect for

the buddha

he was a teacher

he was the best teacher ever

and you respect that very much

and you respect what he taught

the

dhamma and you respect all of the monks

for keeping the dhamma alive

that's why you take refuge in the buddha

dhamma and sangha

and you do it three times because

the first time you kind of well i got it

a little bit the second time

i'm starting to understand it better the

third time ah now i've got it

that's why you do things three times

the buddha was really good at repeating

everything over and over again

and

in this country

well you already said that what are we

saying it again for

this country does not lead to having

a peaceful

calm mind

this country leads to having a kind of

greedy mind

a kind of

uh weak understanding of how things work

but the way the buddha taught mostly

because it was oral tradition

he would repeat everything three times

and when he repeated everything three

times

the third time you had it set in your

mind

and then you would go away and you would

start reflecting on what he said because

you have it very clearly in your mind

now you hear things one time maybe

and you think you understand it

the you the

western mentality

is to do everything as fast as we

possibly can

i want to go get something to eat let's

go to mcdonald's

fast food fast this fast that

you want to know something interesting

in the 1930s

now this is

70 years ago

a housewife

would clean a house

and it would take her

two hours

and now we have vacuum cleaners and

electric this and electric that and we

have all of these

things that are supposed to make life

simpler

and they

timed how long it took to clean your

house

and it's two hours

well we have a lot of gadgets we have a

lot of machines that are supposed to

make life easier

but it still takes the same amount of

time to clean things

so are we are we really gaining anything

from having all of these material things

when i was in malaysia one of my

favorite questions for people was

what's more important for you time or

money

and they always got real smart and they

said well time is money and i said no

it's not

what's more important to you time

or money

ask somebody that's dying of cancer

do they want a million dollars or they

want more time

time is a lot more valuable

than money

and it's what you do with your time

that's most

important

and how do you affect the world around

you

do you affect the world around you in a

positive way or a negative way

the more you can smile

help other people so that their

suffering isn't so much

the more

you can be kind and gentle

and helpful

the more successful you will be in life

isn't that an odd thing to say

success does not equal your bank account

success

is found out to be here

if you're really successful

that means

you're very helpful you keep the

precepts very closely

you do things that make other people

happy

i'm a monk

i don't work for a living

i don't have any money

i have time

and that in itself makes me successful

i have time to study

i have time to see what the buddha was

talking about

so i can spend time with you

explaining these kind of things

one suta

talks very much

about

everybody wants

things

they have things that they wish for they

would like to see happen

and the things

don't appear

when they break their precepts

but they start to increase

as you keep your precepts

that also relates to smiling

and being happy

and being helpful for other people

the more you look out for other people

and don't be selfish

the

easier everybody can get along

you want to get over war start helping

stop helping

excuse me

start helping other people to be happy

and that can spread

the more you're happy

the more other people around you are

happy the more you affect the world in a

positive way

during the time of the buddha

buddhism

just took off

because it was only

about

teaching how

mind worked

and how to be happy

when they measured wealth how wealthy is

your family

they didn't measure by how much gold

they had

they measured their wealth by how much

they gave

away they would

go out and get a lot of food

and if they were somewhat wealthy

at one of the gates to the town

they would have a place that anybody

wanted to come for food they could be

fed

now that was a

kind of wealthy person a very wealthy

person

there was four gates to all cities

now they would put a table at all four

gates anybody that came into the town

they would have food they didn't have to

buy food

they put one

table in the middle of the

town they put one table at their gate

that was considered they were considered

to be very wealthy

they were wealthy because of what they

gave not what they ordered

didn't have anything to do with their

bank account

had to do with their generosity

the more you practice giving

the more successful you become

so you practice giving kind words

kind speech

kind actions

kind thoughts

you will be successful it's not going to

be

all of a sudden i'm rich

but you will grow

into

a more and more happy life

when i was in malaysia there was a lady

that came to me

and she said the doctor told me that i

have cancer

and he said that i'm going to die in six

weeks

what can i do so i will be happy

so i said well

one of the highest gifts that you can

give

is life

well how do you give life

you go and find an animal that's going

to be killed

and let it go free

so she thought ah i can do that there

was a lot of fishing boats so she would

go down to the fishing boat and she

would buy a hundred little fish that

they were going to use for bait

and then she would let them go free

and i told her

that when you do that

you reflect on how good a thing it is

what a kind thing you've just done

you've just

saved the life of a being so that they

can live longer and they can be happy

she did it every day

the fisherman thought she was crazy

but she she became very very happy

she went back to the doctor and the

doctor told her that she didn't have

cancer anymore

and as far as i know to this day she's

still going out and buying fish and

letting them go free because it makes

her so happy

but it doesn't have to be

fish and

in malaysia they have

at the market they they bring live

chickens

and they'll butcher them right there and

then give you the meat

and this one lady

who broke a precepts

now let me tell you the whole story

i was teaching her meditation she got to

a point where she was very good

she could sit for a long long period of

time without moving

her mind went very deep into the

meditation

i had to leave for a couple of months

because i had to go to another country

and when i came back

the first day i came back she calls me

up on the telephone and said

i'm not going to meditate anymore

i said why

she said oh i can only sit for a half an

hour

i went aha okay

now she was sitting up to four hours

before she could only sit for a half an

hour i said

what precept did you break

oh i didn't break any precept okay

i you can't stop meditating you have to

sit at least one hour

called me up the next day i'm gonna quit

i said what precept did you break

well here's the deal

she likes to keep a very clean house

but you know what it's like in asia that

you have all kinds of bugs coming around

and she had she just got through

cleaning the cabinets and a line of ants

came walking along her cabinets

and she just very nicely

got rid of them and she came back a

little bit later and there was this line

of ants and she got angry

and she went and got the insect killer

and she killed all those insects

as soon as she did that she could not

sit in meditation anymore she had a

guilty mind

now when she told me this i said okay

fine

now we know how to how to handle this

problem

i said go by an animal that's going to

be killed and let it go free

so she went to the market and she bought

two live chickens

and i told her you could take her out

take them out to the forest and let them

go free

and when you let them go free you let go

of that guilty feeling of killing these

other animals

so

she had two children

one of them was four and one of them was

six years old

and they're thinking that it's very

peculiar that they're having live

chickens in the back seat they're not

used to that

and the

mother took them out into the forest

and she cut the string off of their feet

and set them down and let them go free

with letting go of that guilty feeling

and what happened is

one of the chickens went a little ways

turned around and looked her in the eye

as if to say thank you

now let's look at this from the point of

is put in a small box

and they see every time the butcher

reaches in for one one of them gets

killed they watch him getting killed

they hear the cry of the

chicken as is dying

so this is turning into kind of a bad

day for them because they know that

they're going to be killed

they have a lot of fear they have a lot

of anxiety

so

now

they get caught

and they're thinking in their mind oh

this is it

i'm gonna die very soon

and they don't like that

but the butcher just takes some string

and ties them up and gives them away

now the woman lets them go free

what what happened in their mind

it went from the worst day in their life

to the best day in their life

they went from

very fearful dislike

to happiness realizing that they weren't

going to die

that's how powerful

giving life can be

now as soon as she did this

she went home

she sat in meditation four hours her

meditation was great

and

she didn't talk to me about wanting to

quit anymore

okay

but her kids

they thought it was great fun to do that

so they said next week can we go let

some more chickens go

so she got in the habit of buying a

couple chickens every now and then and

going and letting them go free because

the children like that so much

they really

were doing a good thing

now in burma

there was

a monk

that he spent a lot of time walking

around

on alms round

and this one water buffalo was always

watching this walk

this monk walk by

and a butcher had bought the water

buffalo and was going to kill it the

next day

now this water buffalo was pregnant and

had a

baby and was very fearful of dying it

knew what was going to happen

so at night

she had such strong thoughts

that the monk

realized that this

animal was going to be killed

he went to the in the morning very early

to the butcher and said are you going to

kill this water buffalo

and the butcher said

yes and the monk said well please don't

do that i'll be back how much would it

cost for me to buy that

and they

they came across a price

so every time the monk would stop at a

house

he would ask them to donate so they can

save a life

finally they got enough money

and

the monk took the water buffalo and put

it out on the road the water buffalo

turned around and there's a very famous

picture of this they took a photograph

of it

of the water buffalo

kneeling to the monk

and then

the water buffalo went into the forest

never saw him again

the gift of life is one of the highest

gifts that you can give

there's a lot of good merit involved in

that

so if sometime you see

at a restaurant sometimes you can go and

they have live fish swimming around and

they take one of the fish and then they

cook it

ask your mom or dad to buy it live for

you so you can go let it go free

put it back out in the ocean if it's an

ocean fish or fresh water if it's a

freshwater fish

and when you do that

anything that i've ever done wrong i let

that go with the fish

it make you very happy

okay

there is a lot of

ways

to keep your mind uplifted and happy

you have to think of them for yourself

and practice them

there is something that the buddha said

was

if it makes you happy

and it makes everyone else around you

happy

then you know you're doing the right

thing

and you should do that over and over

again

but if you do something and it makes you

happy and it makes other people unhappy

then don't do that anymore

or if you do something that makes you

unhappy

and everybody else around you unhappy

definitely don't do that again

okay

everything about the buddhist path is

about happiness

smiling

having fun

and

the monk took the water buffalo and put

it out on the road the water buffalo

turned around

and there's a very famous picture of

this they took a photograph of it

of the water buffalo

kneeling to the monk

and then

the water buffalo went into the forest

never saw him again

the gift of life is one of the highest

gifts that you can give

there is a lot of good merit involved in

that

so if sometime you see

at a restaurant sometimes you can go and

they have live fish swimming around and

they take one of the fish and then they

cook it

ask your mom or dad to buy it live for

you so you can go let it go free

put it back out in the ocean if it's an

ocean fish or fresh water if it's a

fresh freshwater fish

and when you do that

anything that i've ever done wrong i let

that go with the fish

it makes you very happy

okay

there is a lot of

ways

to keep your mind uplifted and happy

you have to think of them for yourself

and practice them

there is something that the buddha said

was

if it makes you happy

and it makes everyone else around you

happy

then you know you're doing the right

thing

and you should do that over and over

again

but if you do something and it makes you

happy and it makes other people unhappy

then don't do that anymore

or if you do something that makes you

unhappy

and everybody else around you unhappy

definitely don't do that again

okay

everything about the buddhist path is

about happiness

smiling

having fun

you like to have fun

the more you can smile into life the

more successful you become

there's nothing worth getting sad

over sadness will come sometimes

but you can let that go it's just a

feeling

let go of your judgments

smile and give your smile away as much

as you can

and then you will see how successful

life really can be

okay

so i asked if anybody had any questions

a while back i've talked some more do

you have any questions

i'll tell you i'll tell you what it says

in one of the suttas

it says whenever there's a monk around

if you don't ask them

questions

then when you die you will be reborn

stupid

but if you ask a lot of questions

you will be reborn very intelligent

it's up to you

so what do you do

you know i have an awful lot of people

come to me especially when they're sad

and upset

and i don't say anything to them

i let them go on about their sadness

and what i do

is i send them loving and kind thoughts

from my heart

and in a little period of time

now they're not emotional and they're

not really upset anymore

and they start to feel happy

so i don't say anything to them i can't

change their mind

but i can change my feeling

and i can send that feeling to them

and that helps them to let go of the

sadness

or at least be able to talk about the

cause of the sadness

and before long they they find out that

they weren't really as upset about that

as they thought they were

and they always thank me when i when

they leave

they always feel better

so what you do for your friend

is you practice loving kindness

how do you practice loving kindness

think of a time when you are real happy

and that happy feeling comes into your

heart it's kind of a glowing radiating

feeling

now you make a wish

may your mind be peaceful and calm

for instance you know what it feels like

to be peaceful and calm

okay then you take that feeling and you

put it in your heart

and you think of your friend

and then you put your friend right in

the middle of that feeling

and give them a nice warm hug

in your mind

radiate that feeling to your friend

you'll be surprised how well everything

works out

okay

i'm sure

it really works

i promise

it takes practice to do it too

it's good that if you

take a little time every day

and send loving and kind thoughts

to a friend

maybe five or ten minutes is enough

but if you do it every day then you'll

start to be more familiar with how it

works and then you can remember to use

it more

when when i teach people how to do this

meditation they have to do it with a

smiling face

i i i'm gonna give you a challenge now

i just did

no i said you have to

feel the wish

put the person in the middle of that

wish that's in your heart and radiate

that to them

no it's feel

you have to feel the wish you have to

think of the wish first of course

then you have to feel the wish put that

feeling in your heart surround that

person and radiate that feeling to them

do you have any more of the brochures or

the books

no um

it happened especially with college

students when they

were getting ready to take a test

was they would be studying for a little

while and then they would start to worry

and then their mind would kind of go

away for a little while and they'd come

back and they have to go back and

re-read everything they just read

because they weren't paying attention to

it

so what you have to do is notice that

that's what's happening

that your mind is getting distracted

and let it go

and relax

and come back

and pay more attention to what you're

doing while you're doing it

and if you don't have fun studying

make

and a way to make it fun

turn it into a game

you'll be surprised how good your your

test scores are going to be

and

you will

benefit other people around you

because of your attitude towards the

test you won't be afraid of it

now when you're taking a test everybody

starts at the top of the page and they

do this one this one this one this one

if you don't un if you don't know the

answer right away to one of those

questions let it go

go on

and then come back to it

and what happens is

if you

don't know the answer to this and you

sit there and you try to think and try

to think and try to think

then

you start losing a lot of time and you

don't have time to finish your test and

then you don't get as good a score

it's better to go oh i don't know that

one right now i'll think about it later

let's go to the next one like that

now one of the mistakes that i made when

i was in college

was when there was a major test i stayed

up all night studying

wasted time

made me sleepy i didn't feel good when i

was taking the test

the night before the test get a good

night's sleep if you don't know it by

then you're not going to know it by

staying up all night and trying to cram

for it

doesn't work

so

time that you find that your mind is

distracted

let go of the distraction

and relax that tightness in your mind

before long you'll start noticing that

you stay with what you're trying to

study for longer periods of time

and you start retaining it if you make

it fun

i can't stress that enough it's got to

be fun

you have to have high interest

so that you can do well on your test you

have to be interested in what you're

doing

if you have the mindset that i'm just

doing this so i can get the grades i can

get the heck out of here

then the chances are you're not going to

get as good a grade as you could

but if you have fun doing it

then you will get good grades

promise

okay

do you have any other question like that

easy stuff

okay

then we're going to

have a break now

okay

so i'm going to share some merit with

you

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear-struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've 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

dispensations

you