Chicago Public Talk-What did the Buddha Teach Dhamma Talk with Venerable Vimalaramsi-mucyvnnb73w.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mucyvnnb73w

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

also I have a voiced it has a very very

well it's an interesting thing when we

start looking at Buddhist teaching when

a lot of people from all over the world

start talking about what Buddha up is

say the Buddha taught suffering and

actually the suffering was already there

he didn't have to teach anybody about

how much pain there is in life he taught

the cessation of suffering that's a

major difference and it's real important

to understand that all of the Buddha's

teaching is about how to have an

uplifted mind and tint mind and a mind

that's free from suckers how when we

start practicing meditation and I'm

going to talk to you about meditation

because that's I'm a meditation teacher

when we talk about meditation a lot of

people have the idea that meditation is

just about sitting like the Buddha image

behind me without moving meditation is

all of life it's up being aware of what

your mind is doing in

racing home as you become more aware of

your minds attention moving from one

thing to another you start to recognize

more easily how you caused your own

paint you have an idea that I want

something to be in a particular way when

it doesn't happen that way what does

your mind do with that now one of the

things that happens with people that do

meditation is they don't like to have

any hindrances arise but life has all

kinds of hindrances in it you have a

greedy mind I want it you have to

dislike mine I don't want it you have a

mind and gets dull on board you have a

mind that gets very restless and

agitated and you have a mind that has

downed it this can happen to anyone at

any time you don't have to be sitting in

meditation to have it happen but what

you do with that hindrance dictates

whether you suffer or not have you ever

had one of those days where you felt

like you had 25 things to do and you

only had 10 minutes to do it and you run

around from here to there oh I'm in such

a hurry i have to get this done that's a

mind it has restlessness in elizabeth

that's the line that has a version to

what's happening in the present moment

in it and that's a mind that suckers so

what do you do with

the best thing to do and the easiest way

to let go of all hindrances is to smile

and laugh at how crazy your mind is this

sounds really odd with you left at your

mind for being so flighty and so caught

up when you laugh all of the sudden your

mind goes from I i I'm in a hurry I have

to do this now I really feel a lot of

anxiety or the new word for the century

is stress I have so much stress when you

laugh at how your mind is involved with

them and taking everything very

personally and identifying with all of

those thoughts and feelings when you

laugh it changes your perspective it

changes your view of the world it goes

from I am that and I don't like it too

oh it's only this what's that something

it's easy to let go up the Buddhist path

is about having an uplift at night not

having a serious mind not having a mind

that gets upset very easily it's about

being able to recognize all of these

things and have balance in your mouth

the more balanced you practice

the less personally you take whatever

arises now when I was giving you the

instructions in the meditation I was

saying you need to smile and I have to

admit after we set for a minute or two

who I started looking around to see if

anybody was smiling and nobody was you

have a tendency to get over serious when

you're over serious you try too hard

when you try to the heart you make

restlessness or right and there's more

suffering it takes a balanced effort but

it takes a light effort the more you can

smile the more you can laugh with

whatever is happening in the present

moment the lighter your mind becomes the

more aware your mind because now I have

a yahoo group that I give instructions

all the time and we have a lot of people

come in they're very often and they tell

me about how difficult the practices my

advice always is I don't want you to sit

in meditation I want you to take one

week seven days that's all and I want

you to smile all the time and when you

can't smile I want you to laugh now what

does this do it makes your my life and

it changes your perspective every time

you see your mind getting serious that's

the time to laugh and smile every time

you have repeat thoughts over

and over again that's the time to

recognize there's an attachment there

and to smile and laugh into this you

know all of the Buddha images they have

this little smile on their lips why the

artist is trying to show that there is

joy in there in his life he's

experiencing joy joy is one of the

Enlightenment factors as a matter of

fact it's the middle enlightenment

factor there are seven enlightenment

factors joy is bright in the middle that

is the balancing point when you have an

uplifted mind your mindfulness is strong

it's easy to examine what your mind is

doing it's easy to adjust your energy

when you do that and you have that joy

then your mind becomes tranquil your

mind becomes very collected and your

mind becomes balanced that's the seven

factors of enlightenment it's real

important to practice smiling now I told

somebody this a while back and they were

telling me how difficult it was it's

hard to smile it's not hurt this month

it's hard not to smile the more you

smile into what you're doing the more

alert your mind becomes the more awake

your mind becomes the easier it

is to watch how mines attention moves

from one thing to another it's easier to

observe how your mind becomes attached

and causes you all kinds of suffering

too many times people like to blame

external circumstances for their

problems you caused me to be said it's

all your fault if you ever heard any

expressions like that well actually

nobody out there and cause you're

suffering you caused your suffering to

yourself by taking whatever arises

personally and not liking it and wanting

it to be different than it is now part

of the instructions in the meditation

that I didn't go into this morning was

when you sit in meditation there can be

some sensations that arise you get an

itch you have heat you have vibration

feel like cough coming on and there can

be paint when you sit very still now

what you do with what arises in the

present moment dictates what happens in

the future this is karma what you do

with what arises in the present moment

dictates what happens in the future if

you fight with the present moment if you

resist the present moment

you try to change the present moment the

way you want it to be you're fighting

with the dollar you're fighting with the

truth with the truth of the present

moment so what do you do when a

sensation arises almost everybody starts

moving around scratching here scratching

there anything just to make that

sensation go away but the instructions

in the meditation art don't move now

what do you do you watch how your mind

works you notice first that you have a

lot of thoughts about that sensation I

wish you would stop I wish it would go

away why does it have to bother me now

you have all of these kinds of thoughts

every time you indulge in this kind of

thinking it makes that sensation bigger

and more intense until finally you can't

stand it and you have to do something to

change so every thought about the

sensation makes the sensation bigger and

more intense so what do we do now you

let that [ __ ] go you don't continue

thinking it you just let it be there by

itself but don't keep your attention on

it now every time your minds attention

moves there's tension and tightness in

your head in your mind and that tension

and tightens is

the cause of suffering what is the cause

of suffering craving crazy always

benefits as tension and type this in

your mind and in your body so you let

the [ __ ] go now you relax that tension

and tightness now you see that you have

a free big mental fist wrapped around

that feeling and that mental fist is a

version I don't like it I don't want it

to be there but the truth is it's there

that is the Dhamma what you do with the

truth in the present moment dictates

what happens in the future if you allow

the space for that sensation to be there

without any resistance you'll see that

tight mental fist just kind of open up

and become calm now you watch and you

see there's tension and tightness in

your head in your mind relax when you

relaxed it's like a flower opening up

you see your mind kind of expand and

then it becomes very calm you'll notice

right after you let go of that tension

and tightness there are no thoughts

there's just this mind that is pure

alert and very aware and you bring that

mind back to your object annotation now

the thing with these kind of and rinses

when they arise is they don't go away

right away so you get to do it again and

again and

until it does go away but men of

influence horizons hindrance is showing

you where your real attachment is and

the attachment is always I am I am that

it showing you where you're craving is

when you let go of attention and

tightness you have a brief moment of the

cessation of suffering you don't have

clinging arise because you let go of the

cause of the clinging horizon let go of

the craving you bring that up your mind

back to your object of meditation now

let's get back to our smiling what does

this actually they do when they start to

smile into things all the time when you

have a mind that's uplifted it's alert

you can see more and more clearly when

tightness starts to pull your mind out

when it starts to cause suffering and

it's much easier to let it go as you

smile as you laugh into whatever your

mind gets caught by you're developing

your mindfulness in real now how many

here can tell me what door mindfulness

means i ran across a month the other day

and he was telling me that you have to

be mindful and I said what does that

mean well it means you have to be

mindful well what's a different

definition of mindfulness

definition of mindfulness is being

mindfulness well you can't give the work

you're trying to define in the

definition it just doesn't work so I

told him what do you think of this

mindfulness is remembering to observe

how minds attention moves from one thing

to another mindfulness is your

observation of what's happening in the

present moment now with that kind of a

definition you start to understand more

and more clearly that's when you

practice smiling you're developing your

awareness of what's happening in the

present moment and the mindfulness is

the observation power now when the

Buddha talked about the Eightfold Path

in one suta in particular he talked

about three of the factors of the folk

path that were very very important the

first was mindfulness the second was

effort

what is right effort the infopath right

effort is I used generally different

words when I talk about the Eightfold

Path and instead of right I talked about

harmonious being in harmony with your

effort means recognizing when your mind

is on something unwholesome letting go

of that unwholesome and relaxing and

bring up a smile that means bring up a

wholesome object and keep your wholesome

object go every time you smile you're

letting go of an unwholesome objective

and you're developing a wholesome object

you're letting go of a mind that's heavy

and you're developing a mindless bite

and this helps your mindfulness in

measurably the more you smile the more

you can laugh with your daily activities

the more alert your mind becomes

there's something that you did this

morning that's a very good thing to do

but you have to realize that it's not a

write-in ritual just to recite the

formula and that is you took five

precepts today why do you need to keep

your precepts well the closer you keep

your precepts more calm your mind

becomes the less you have anxiety and

stress arise and the less the hindrances

will bother you now when i was in

malaysia i was teaching meditation and

this woman came up she'd been in the

center for a long time she helped

everybody a lot she was very very strong

and keeping her priests which she would

never tell a little white light she

would never say anything that was wrong

she would never harm anyone and she

asked me if she could meditate he wanted

to learn she'd never learned it before

so I told her to come next weekend I'm

going to give a retreat I gave her the

instructions she sat down she started

meditating a few hours later I came by

and I said well how her meditation going

and he said you know I can only sit for

45 minutes only sit for 45 minutes when

she says only that I like

comes up in my head what why don't you

sit for longer you know I'm not used to

sitting on the floor and it causes a lot

of pain to come up and I can only stand

it for 45 minutes so I said there's no

magic and sitting in the floor you want

to sit in a chair sit in a chair just

don't lean in the church sit so you're

back to straight her next city was four

hours for next city she went from never

experiencing a deep state of meditation

to experiencing a very deep state of

meditation why was she able to do this

because she kept her precepts very very

well that led to a mind that doesn't

have any anxiety in it it leads to a

mind that doesn't have any remorse in it

no guilty feeling if you say something

that you know is wrong even if it's to

not hurt someone else is dealing even if

you tell a little white lie your quiet

voice in your mind comes out and it says

I shouldn't have said that and that

affects the way you see the world the

more you can follow the Five Precepts in

every aspect of your life that easier

life becomes the easier it is to marry

meditation and when you learn meditation

you have more and more opportunities to

have this uplifted night life becomes

very much fun it becomes really

interesting and there's real freedom in

that that's the cessation of suffering

the more you can practice smiling and

laughing with your own mind the more you

can have joy arise in your life the

easier it is to recognize when your mind

becomes very upset it's easy to

recognize when your mind becomes heavy

and it's also easy to let that go

because you recognize that you are

causing your own pain I come up and I

yell at you you say I'm causing you

suffering no I'm just going you're

causing the suffering to yourself by not

liking it and then resisting it and then

getting caught in all kinds of thoughts

about it

you know when the when the Buddha gave

the first discourse he talked about the

eighth old path very hairy the people

and he said that this is the middle way

now the Eightfold Path it has a lot of

write this and write that I don't really

like that very much because if something

is right then something is wrong and

then everything is either black or white

and actually very little in our life is

black or white team so instead of right

view or right understanding i call it

harmonious perspective what is a

harmonious perspective harmonious

perspective is seeing that everything

that arises is part of an impersonal

process not an example somebody comes up

to you and they have a lot of anger and

they throw their anger at you what is

your natural inclination to take their

anger make it your anger and then throw

it back at now you're at war out you're

fighting

now you're causing yourself a lot of

suffering and when they walk away when

you're fighting this is another thing

that happens I'm talking you're talking

we don't care what each other says we

only know what we said and how right we

are and how wrong they are so when they

walk away what do you think about what

they said what I said what I should have

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

then a little while later just like is

on a date dec what happened to him the

same thing what they said what I said

what I should have said now this is a

mind that has attachment in it

attachment to what it's an attachment to

the belief that these thoughts and these

feelings are mine personally every time

you think your thoughts in your feelings

that arise are yours your mind has

delusion in it your mind is confused and

you are causing yourself paint now

here's something real interesting one of

the major illnesses in this country

right now is depression I can tell you

exactly how depression arises I can tell

you exactly how to get rid of it without

taking any drugs but you got to do it

now when when depression arises what

actually

happens in your mind you have a feeling

rights and it's a painful feeling and

then your mind grabs onto that says I

don't like that now the I like mine and

the I don't like mine is crazy right

after there's this tension that comes up

then there's all of the thoughts all of

the opinions all of the ideas all of the

concepts about why this feeling came up

and then your old a digital tendency

your habitual way of looking at the

world gets more and more involved with

that now what do you try to do when a

painful feeling horizon now we have five

aggregates that make up this body mind

process you have physical body you have

feelin dat enough feeling is pleasant

painful or neither painful nor pleasant

we have perception perception is the

mind that names things you see this it's

a flower perception is a part of the

mind and put that name on that and it

has memory involved with it you have

thoughts and you have consciousness

these are the five aggregates with a

painful feeling arises our habitual

tendency is to try to think the feeling

away now the more you try to think the

feeling the bigger and more intense that

feeling becomes

so you get more and more depressed

because you're trying to control a

feeling with your thoughts the thoughts

are one thing and feelings or something

else never the two shall meet so what do

you do now when I was telling you about

what you do wanna when a painful

sensation arises while you're meditating

and tell you the first let go of the

thoughts don't be involved with the

content of the bucs let the thoughts be

without getting involved in it and relax

the tightness caused by that distraction

now you see the feeling for what it

really is it's a painful feeling it's

true but it's okay for people feeling to

be there it has to be because that's the

truth when a painful feeling arises it

is there so you allow the space for that

painful feeling to be there and relax

then you come over to your smile and

wishing happiness for someone

the more you do that the less and less

distracted your mind becomes until

finally there is no more impression this

isn't a maybe this is the way it really

works but it takes practice to do them

and that means practice with smiling

practice with laughing and every time

you laugh at how crazy your mind is

you're not crazy anymore that is

changing your perspective from a tight

observation of I am that to an

observation of its only then when you

have that tight observation your mind

tightens around it and you end up

getting headaches somebody asked me not

too long ago when was the last time I

had a headache said I don't really

remember maybe three or four years ago

it might have been longer i don't know i

don't get headaches why because i see

the titan is starting to happen and i

start relaxing right then then I don't

have any headache do I need to take

aspirin no why would I want to do that

practicing smiling and laughing into

things changes your perspective of the

world around you if I come to you with

this flower let's say it's a rose and I

give it to you and you're in a happy

mood what do you see all the flower is

very beautiful and it smells great and

the color is wonderful but if i take

that flower away and I come back and

give it to you when you're in an unhappy

mood what do you see you see the thorns

how it hurts you how you don't like it

now what's different the flower is still

the same thing it's a flower it's your

perspective that's different the Buddha

spent 45 years trying to show people how

to have an uplifted mind how to have a

Content mine how to have a mind that was

free from suffering the more you smile

the more you laugh into things the

easier it is to change your perspective

when you change your perspective what

you're doing is learning how to change

an image that you're holding in your

mind of being unhappy to an image of

being happy now the second part of the

Eightfold Path is called it's always

translated into English is right bought

but it's a terrible translation I call

it harmonious imaging what kind of an

do you hold in your mind are you in

harmony with that now the next part of

the Eightfold Path is a real interesting

thing because a lot of monks will tell

you that when you're practicing

meditation you don't need to practice

these next three factors of the of the

April tablet they call it right speech

right action and right livelihood again

I'm not real wild about those

translations so I call it harmonious

communication with the Buddha practice

or when he first started talking about

the eightfold path to the five ascetics

it was talking to people that had for

years been working very hard on

developing their mind so when he was

talking about right speech he wasn't

saying they were going around and

cursing people or using Ron speech he

was talking about a kind of

communication that you have with

yourself how many people are hard on

themselves how many people are critical

of the way they do things how many

people cause themselves suffering

because of their own thoughts and

opinions and ideas harmonious

communication means that you have to

love yourself

you're with yourself more than you're

with anybody else when you smile and

laugh you're learning how to change your

communication with yourself so you have

an uplifted knife and that leads to

freedom that means the true happiness

the next part of the Eightfold Path they

call it right effort again I change that

I call that I'm not right ever excuse me

of right action I change that to need

harmonious movement and that means

watching the movement of mines attention

not jerking your mind around not causing

undue tensions to arise in your mind and

in your body but being in harmony with

that now the next part of the Eightfold

Path has always been kind of comical to

me because it's always been explained as

right livelihood and Wright by boyhood

means don't kill any beings don't use

any poisons and don't sell any tort

don't take any slaves and so now how

ridiculous is that to say during the

first discourse to ascetics they have

been practicing not coming for a long

time so what is it what is Right

Livelihood I call it a harmonious

lifestyle and that aims being in harmony

with yourself and everyone around around

you all of the time living in a way that

causes

you and other people around you be happy

to have uplifted minds now the next part

is they go up right effort i call it

harmonious practice and i already told

you about that that's there for or fold

formula recognizing something

unwholesome letting go of that relaxing

smiley and continuing smiling have an

uplifted mind don't allow might get

caught up personally condemning and

criticizing that's unwholesome develop

that mine is uplifted it takes a lot of

energy to do that it's not easy but it's

definitely worthwhile and the easiest

way to do that smile but it's hard to do

that it takes a lot of effort to smile

and laugh it takes the effort to

remember to do that when you're caught

up in an emotional state

you're really identifying heavily with

the dissatisfaction that this life of

the present moment you're causing

yourself huge amounts of suffering but

as you remember to let go of the

unwholesome and relax and smile

developed it that mine has uplifted it

changes your view of the world it makes

that flower that I was talking about a

little while ago always be beautiful you

stopped causing yourself pain and

suffering you continually bring your

mind up the more you practice smiling

and laughing the easier it is to have

joy arise and you need to have joy

because that's one of the indictment

factors

now the next part of the Eightfold Path

is mindfulness harmonious observation

now this mindfulness is just observing

that's it's only function is to remember

to observe what is happening in the

present moment with mind and body it's

the observation mind it doesn't change

anything it just observes how am I need

is acting in the present moment the

right effort is the thing that changes

is now the last of the Eightfold Path

has always been called right

concentration and I really have trouble

with this word in this country because

concentration implies that your mind

just stays on one thing to the exclusion

of everything else but that's not what

the Buddha taught during the time of the

Buddha the poly word samadhi was made up

by the wood there were a lot of words

for one pointed concentration there were

a lot of words for having a mind that

doesn't move that he chose not to use

that he made up a word to describe how

mine can be calm and very alert of

whatever else is happening around it

so I've just given you the Eightfold

Path with a little different twist to it

than maybe what you're used to see but

this is very practical when when we use

the infopath in this practical way

there's a system of doing the meditation

it's called a mnemonic system it's a

system of helping you remember and we

made some brochures over here you can

come and get one if you want about this

mnemonic system but it goes like this

you recognize that your mind is

distracted you release the distraction

and you relax you re smile you return to

your object of meditation and you repeat

staying with your object of meditation

we call it the six ours recognized

release relax ray smile

you know I've been to a lot of

meditation retreats I mean a lot and for

20 years I was caught up in this just

like anybody else was that I was being

very serious with meditation and I was

trying very hard now this this fourth

step in the six ours is reese mile why

do you need to reese mile because when

you put in the wrong kind of effort you

never progress with your meditation you

always have problems arising with your

meditation the meditation is supposed to

be fun life is supposed to be fun

meditation is life life is meditation as

long as you practice it when you smile

at that moment you are practicing all of

the Eightfold Path at the same time your

mind is alert you're able to see how

mines attention moves from one thing to

another and you can see that without

getting attached what is the attachment

mean taking thoughts and feelings

personally letting go of that you start

experiencing more and more of what life

is supposed to be like and that is

having fun you're around your kids there

two or three years old they have fun

they're curious they want to see what

everything is

this develops that kind of mind the more

interested you become in how minds

attention moved from one thing to

another the more you start to see how

you cause your own pain and you start

letting go of it and then you become

truly alive so when you're living your

daily life I'm going to give you a

challenge right now for the next week as

much as you can remember to do it I want

you to smile smile into everything I

don't care whether you feel like it or

not we had this one man that he was

coming to the website knew that he was

talking with me very much he's he's

practicing a different kind of

meditation and finally he wasn't getting

at the night I became frustrated and I

say okay stop meditating all together I

just want you to smile for one week so

he took it seriously and he did it and

he wrote back and he said I want to give

you some of the observations that

happened to me during this week when I

smiled even if I didn't feel like

smiling it made my perspective different

he said I used to walk around going from

one place to another in a mental haze

thinking about this thinking about that

and when I started smiling my posture

changed I started standing up more

straight when I started smiling people

started smiling back to me that's

amazing they never did that before he

said they actually started to come

closer to me and talk with me and then

did that before smiling for one week

changed this perspective it improved his

mindfulness it made him more alert to

what his mind was doing and he let go of

immeasurable amounts of suffering try it

that's all I'm asking and when you can

come and visit me in misery okay

you