From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OQ5w5rsbqDI

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

[Music]

it's good

[Music]

okay

so tonight we're doing

majaminikaya 107.

thus have i heard

so it the sutas always start out thus

have i heard because this is part of a

rigorous oral tradition leading

back to the historical buddha

and

suta means thread so really

over the course of this retreat you'll

get a few different sutas and you'll see

how the pieces start to fit together

these are different teachings that the

historical buddha gave at one time or

another

and this particular suta

is essentially the complete training

program

so that's why it's a good one for the

second day because you'll get to see how

all these pieces

start to fit together and how this

practice

proceeds

on one occasion the blessed one was

living at savati in the eastern park in

the palace of magara's mother

then the brahmana ganuka mogalana went

to the blessed one and exchanged

greetings with him

when this courteous and amiable talk was

finished he sat down at one side and

said to the blessed one

master gotama in this palace of megara's

mother there can be seen gradual

training

gradual progress and

gradual practice and gradual progress

that is down to the last step of the

staircase

so in other words the palace is built

bit by bit by the architects

among these brahmanas too there can be

seen gradual training gradual practice

and gradual progress that is in study

and among archers too there can be seen

gradual training

that is in archery

and also among accountants like us

who earn our living by accountancy there

can be seen gradual training

that is in computation

so ganacha

actually means uh accountant

that's his name ghanika mogallana but

it's this is his profession

for when we get an apprentice first we

make him count one one two twos

three threes four fours five fives

six sixes seven sevens eight eights

nine nines ten tens

and we make them count a hundred two

can you imagine being an accountant

before the calculator

it's a rough job

no excel spreadsheets

miserable

now is it also possible master gotuma to

describe gradual training gradual

practice and gradual progress in this

dharma and discipline

so now we get

the full training regimen

please

it is possible brahman to describe

gradual training gradual practice and

gradual progress in this dhamma and

discipline

now

what he's going to go through is

three different phases of the training

essentially and that is sila

leading to samadhi and then panya in

other words virtue

leading to collectedness and meditation

and then wisdom

just as brahman when a clever horse

trainer obtains a fine thoroughbred cult

he first makes him get used to wearing

the bit

and afterwards trains him further

so in the tatakata

the tatakata is how the buddha refers to

himself

and it means thus gone one who's thus

gone

so uh

and afterwards trains him further so

when the tatagata obtains a person to be

tamed

he first disciplines him thus

so this is actually this analogy of

the buddha as a trainer of men just as

we might train an animal is

a common analogy in the sutas

and i think it's a pretty good analogy

in the sense that

we're really training ourselves we're

training the mind and we're gaining some

control over more

let's say primal parts of the brain like

the the limbic system and the brain stem

these are more habitual patterns

that lead us towards suffering and

mental agitation and so

of course what he's laid out is is the

ultimate antidote to that

come biku be virtuous restrained with

the restraint of the pot of the parimoka

parimoka is the buddhist monastic code

there's 227

different rules for a fully ordained

monk and

311 for venerable ibasa so y'all can be

thankful you only have eight on this

retreat the the morning precepts

be perfect in conduct and resort

beca be perfect in conduct and resort

and seeing fear in the slightest fault

train by undertaking the training

precepts

so this is the first foundational part

of the practice it's the training

precepts that we took in the morning

that we'll take every morning

why do we take the precepts

corey

that came to me when i realized that it

was basically permission to be a kind of

person

in so many ways

absolutely right

so you're

you're giving yourself permission to be

a kind person and what does that lead to

what's the

what are the benefits of this let's say

yep

acting in harmless ways

right

so this is what we'll

see in this training progress that the

boot is laying out here

but essentially the the precepts are

creating a balanced mind a mind that can

get into samadhi that can be collected

he says

seeing fear in the slightest fault

and that seeing fear comes from

recognizing cause and effect

it comes from seeing that if you break a

precept in other words if you have a bad

intention

that there's a direct comic effect of

that which is suffering for yourself

either immediately afterwards in some

cases or it might take longer but seeing

this cause and effect and seeing

dependent origination which we'll get to

more later in the retreat

but essentially seeing this chain of

causality

leads you to see fear in even the

slightest breach of the training

precepts

and i can think of an example when i was

younger i was about four years old

and

my neighborhood friend that i was

playing with had this really cool lego

block

and i was obsessed with legos at the

time we actually had a small room of the

house devoted to legos called the lego

room just so we wouldn't step on these

sharp pieces

throughout the house

and he had this cool block that was a

essentially a chef with like a round

pizza

pizza dough piece uh pizza pie

and i don't know why but at that age i

thought this was the coolest uh little

lego block and i just stole it from him

put it in my put it in my uh

pocket and went home from the play date

and then i felt so guilty about this

later that i confessed to my mom and she

had me go and apologize to him

but it just

it just weighed on my mind it was like i

couldn't keep that block without feeling

like

this is wrong i need to give this back

so it created all this suffering for me

and then the fact that that memory came

up later in meditation

uh even just this year

just shows you that little breach just

haunted me

you know decades later and if i'd known

the effects of breaking that precept i

never would have done so

so this as your mindfulness gets sharper

and as your collectedness gets sharper

it's also a feedback loop where

the collected mind can see cause and

effect more readily and in other words

you can

you'll naturally

just keep your precepts easier you'll

naturally be more virtuous because

you'll see how this is just a way to

have a mind that's at ease and at peace

all the time

when brahman the beku is virtuous and

seeing fear in the slightest fault

trains by undertaking the training

precepts

then the tatagata disciplines him

further

come

guard the doors of your sense faculties

on seeing a form with the eye do not

grasp at its signs and features

since if you were to leave the i faculty

unguarded evil unwholesome states of

covetousness and grief might invade you

practice the way of its restraint

guard the i faculty undertake the

restraint of the eye faculty

on hearing a sound with the ear

on smelling an odor with the nose

on tasting a flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with the mind

do not grasp at its signs and features

since if you were to leave the mind

faculty unguarded evil unwholesome

states might invade you

practice the way of its restraint guard

the mind faculty

undertake the restraint of the mind

faculty

so there's a couple things to unpack

there

first he's talking about guarding the

doors of the sixth sense base in other

words your five senses plus the mind

sense like your thoughts

and

don't grasp at the different signs and

features that might appear at any of

those six sense bases basically what

he's saying is

there's going to be contact and feeling

that's inevitable it's this is happening

you know millions of times a moment

but

that's kind of so that's the again

dependent origination is something we'll

discuss in more detail later in the

retreat

but up to after that point of contact

it's up to us whether that feeling can

turn into craving and can create all

sorts of agitation in the mind

and that's the point when you can use

the six r's when you realize after the

feeling when you recognize okay that

feeling is getting away from me it's

turned into full-blown craving now i'm

grasping after it you know it's and then

it's leading to the the evil unwholesome

states which are the obstacles or the

hindrances

it's at that point that you apply the

six hours you notice okay i'm no longer

with the feeling of loving kindness i'm

no longer with my spiritual friend

and i need to apply the six hours

relax release relax

and let go of that obstacle let go of

the craving

and then just come back to

being with the object in this way it

just stays at a feeling it doesn't get

elaborated into craving and suffering

so

as an example

we might think about the dark chocolate

at tea time i'm a big fan of it

and

so you might have your first piece of

dark chocolate

uh or first couple pieces and you're

enjoying it that's the feeling it's an

enjoyable feeling and there's nothing

wrong with that

but then what might follow from that

feeling is craving so now you're

thinking

i'll bet i could get a couple more

pieces of chocolate

but i wonder if anyone

around here would see me do that and

think i was

greedy or something

and i wonder maybe this is a good brand

this lint chocolate maybe i should order

some on amazon when i get home and how

long will that take to get to my house

will it still be will it be melted by

the time i'm you know and so you're just

because that feeling has now gone into

craving and into all these stories

it's gotten out of control

so essentially what he's saying by guard

the

the sense faculties is just to 6r when

you notice that the

the raw feeling has turned into

full-blown craving

okay so the next part of the training

when brahman the beku guards the doors

of his sense faculties then the tatagata

disciplines him further

come beku be moderate in eating

reflect wisely you should take food

neither for amusement nor for

intoxication

nor for the sake of physical beauty and

attractiveness

but only for the endurance and

continuance of this body for ending for

ending discomfort and for assisting the

holy life

considering

thus i shall terminate old feelings

without arousing new feelings and i

shall be healthy and blameless and shall

live in comfort

so

the buddha was big on intermittent

fasting

i think he started that trend

of course there were many other ascetics

who were eating very little but he

really talked about a middle way between

basically starving yourself and

over-indulging

but this part of the training can also

be applied to other areas of

over-indulging in the senses

because

if you think about at the time of the

buddha this was really

the most indulgent thing someone could

do other than probably to have sex

there was no netflix at the time there

was no

youtube or twitter

and so

this part of the training also applies

to your mental diet as well as your

physical diet in other words what are

you consuming throughout the day what

kind of mental inputs are you letting in

that might cause

agitation in the mind

are you consuming a high calorie

dopamine rich

diet

full of

uh you know social media and

such or are you consuming only what's

really important to you only what's

worthwhile to you

and then leaving

space in your mind to for meditation

throughout the day

and uh

you know this really emphasizes i think

the importance of this being an all the

time practice that we're always

thinking and choosing wisely what to

consume with the mind which means

whatever we pay attention to that's

really

affecting the mind

on probably in a deeper way than we

realize until we until we're on retreat

and away from it all

and of course the news cycle is vicious

and i can remember when i went to

bali this was probably the first time

that i fully unplugged for a month i was

away from the news i wasn't reading

anything

i wasn't going on electronics

and i was just doing this yoga teacher

training program

and then

i had this thought like i'm missing so

much the world's just moving so fast

there must be so much that i'll have to

catch up on when i get off of retreat

and i called my brother who's a pretty

well informed guy and i said so what did

i miss the last month

and he said well i can't really think of

anything

i can't think of anything important

right because what seems important now

is isn't important two days from now for

the most part

so i'm not saying

stop reading the news entirely

necessarily but just choosing wisely

what we pay attention to and seeing as

we do in the morning

reciting the dhammapada

noticing what's the essential and what's

the unessential

what's important and what gets six hard

when brahma

and also i'll just say that there are a

lot of benefits to

intermittent fasting

you know the reason for this precept is

to

well one it's for the monks not to have

to worry about food all day long but

also

just to

notice that there's certain benefits to

your meditation practice when you um

when you don't eat past noon

which might not be feasible off retreat

for you but having some kind of a larger

window there's many health benefits to

intermittent fasting and certain

certainly meditation benefits

and it's a major part of many different

spiritual traditions

uh we'll have days of fasting and such

so

there's also the practical and literal

food aspect of it

when brahman the bhikkhu is moderate in

eating then the tatagata disciplines him

further come beku be devoted to

wakefulness

during the day while walking back and

forth and sitting purify your mind of

obstructive states

in the first watch of the night while

walking back and forth and sitting

purify your mind of obstructive states

in the middle watch of the night you

should lie down on the right side in the

lion's pose

with one foot overlapping the other

mindful and fully aware after noting in

your mind the time for rising

i think then delson mentioned this last

night but

just

making an intention for what time am i

going to get up in the morning

and

that'll come into play as your practice

progresses with

determinations but you're basically just

building the ability to set intentions

and to gain control over that part of

your mind

which is really quite remarkable that

you can actually wake up sometimes to

the minute on the dot after a full

night's sleep

so you might give that a try and

obviously at the time of the buddha

there were not alarm clocks

but this is something he recommended

after rising in the third after rising

in the third watch of the night walk

while walking back and forth and sitting

purify your mind of obstructive states

so

being devoted to wakefulness means

having

the energy and putting in the right

effort to 6r all day long

and in doing so you're purifying your

mind of obstructive states which are the

the hindrances

and we'll talk about those shortly but

these are basically they cover the

entirety of what would be a distraction

in your mind what would be an agitated

mental state

so again this part of the training

this um

fourth part of the training is really

emphasizing that it's an all-day

practice

that your mental hygiene throughout the

day determines how deep you get in your

sitting

so if you've

going back to number three if you've

been consuming a lot of social media and

such

you might notice that leaves a certain

mental residue that requires more

zigzaring when you actually sit down

but also if if you're constantly

purifying your mind throughout the day

by being devoted to wakefulness then it

means you're six-houring all the time

and you're just naturally cultivating a

collected mind

and so insight might even arise during

your daily walking meditation with this

practice or while you're taking a shower

or while you're using the restroom

but it'll also make it that much easier

to go very deep in your sitting

meditation

and i don't think i fully appreciated

this when i started out with the

practice where i really just thought

about the formal sitting as

my meditation practice

and i didn't think about how everything

that i was doing throughout the day was

training a certain mindset and training

a certain

um was training the mind essentially and

this is neuroplasticity the ability that

we have to

basically rewire our synapses and our

neural connections depending on how we

consciously apply our attention

so

meditation has been called self-directed

neuroplasticity

by dr rick hansen for example he's got a

good book called buddha's brain

and

it's basically taking control of these

automated habits and automated

formations

that we some of which were born with and

some of which get conditioned into us

over a lifetime

um

and some you know some of which may come

from previous lifetimes

and basically taking control of that

process by consciously reprogramming and

reconditioning the mind by using the 6rs

when brahman the bhikkhu is devoted to

wakefulness then the tatagata

disciplines him further come beku be

possessed of mindfulness and full

awareness act in full awareness when

going forward and returning

act in full awareness when looking ahead

and looking away

act in full awareness when flexing and

extending your limbs

act in full awareness when wearing

wearing your robe and carrying your

outer robe and bowl

act in full awareness when eating

drinking consuming food and tasting

act in full awareness when defecating

and urinating

act in full awareness when walking

standing sitting falling asleep waking

up talking and keeping silent

so this is the the mindfulness component

and of course they're all related right

so this is related to

wakefulness and purifying your mind but

this is

an emphasis on being aware all the time

there's a

harvard study that's often quoted i

think it was from 2010

where they found that people spend 47

percent of the day on average lost in

thought

and

on average most of those thoughts are

negative because they're ruminating

about the past or worrying about the

future

and um

i think it's actually much higher than

that their study design was to

send people little notifications on

their phone and ask them if they were

paying attention so of course if they

answer the notification then they

couldn't defend that present so anyways

if you just observe your own mind you

can see what percentage of the day am i

am i just unaware that i'm

where i am or what i'm doing

but uh that study was called the human

mind is a wanderer the conclusion was a

human mind is a wandering mind and a and

a wandering mind is an unhappy mind

so we're also just generally happier if

we're in the present

and the way that mindfulness is defined

by bonte is remembering to observe

how mind's attention moves from one

object to the next from one thing to the

next

so

in psychological terms we might say

remembering to have your metacognition

online remembering to observe your mind

constantly

and the the key part of that is you're

not controlling your mind a lot of times

the deaf the definition of mindfulness

implies that you're

using your mind like a laser beam and

you're

uh

you know intentionally finding things to

note with it or controlling it in some

way or another

and

um if you're controlling the mind you

won't see how the mind actually works on

its own you might not see the impersonal

nature

of uh how the mind works and how it's

all dependently arisen

impersonal process

when brahman the beku possesses

mindfulness and full awareness then the

tatagata disciplines him further

come biku resort to a secluded resting

place the forest the root of a tree

a mountain a ravine a hillside cave

a charnel ground a jungle thicket an

open space

a heap of straw

damasuka meditation center

he resorts to a secluded resting place

the forest

a heap of straw

on returning from his alms round after

his meal he sits down folding his leg

crosswise setting his body erect

and establishing mindfulness before him

now he's going to go through the

five hindrances the five obstacles

abandoning abandoning covetousness for

the world he abides with a mind free

from covetousness

he purifies his mind from covetousness

covetousness is

a fancy word for desire or it's the i

like it mind

so how does

how does this person purify their mind

of covetousness

the six hours right

abandoning ill will and hatred he abides

with a mind free from ill will

compassionate for the welfare of all

beings he purifies his mind from ill

will and hatred

so ill will and hatred that's the i

don't like it mind that's aversion

abandoning sloth and torpor he abides

free from sloth and torpor percipient of

light mindful and fully aware he

purifies his mind from sloth and torpor

so this is a dullness of mind or

sleepiness sometimes your head might

start popping even

and

it says percipient of light

which is

one of the antidotes actually you can

even meditate outside uh it can be

helpful

if there's a lot of sloth and torpor and

there's other strategies that delson

will probably talk about more that you

can use if there's a lot of sloth and

torpor there

abandoning restlessness and remorse he

abides unagitated with a mind inwardly

peaceful he purifies his mind from

restlessness and remorse

abandoning doubt so this is the fifth

hindrance doubt he abides having gone

beyond doubt unperplexed about un about

wholesome states he purifies his mind

from doubt

so doubt can be

am i doing the practice right what's a

wholesome state of mind what's an

unwholesome state of mind

it can also be doubt in yourself

self-doubt is a pretty common obstacle

especially in these early days of the

retreat

or doubting the teacher down the doubt

in the teaching

so

this person has sat down and they've

just abandoned the five hindrances

they haven't done any they haven't

single pointedly focused their mind on

anything they've just let go of the find

five hindrances that's it they've just

purified their mind of

all of the of the five obstacles that

account for every distraction that could

arise in the mind

and then what happens next

having thus abandoned these five

hindrances imperfections of the mind

that weaken wisdom

quite secluded from sensual pleasures

secluded from unwholesome states he

enters upon and abides in the first

jhana which is accompanied by applied

and sustained thought with rapture and

pleasure born of seclusion

the jhanas are levels of understanding

and levels of cessation and

there's a big talk on that tomorrow that

bonte gives it's a recording

where he goes into more detail about

each of the genres

but what's important to notice here is

that this person has gotten into the

first genre just by abandoning all the

of all the obstacles

as soon as they're not present

then naturally the seven enlightenment

factors come into play and the mind is

in jhana

and um

this first jhana is uh

he's secluded from unwholesome states

and um secluded from central pleasures

so the mind is really turned inward away

from the sense faculties

and of course it's a very

joyful experience

and at this stage there's still

applied and sustained thought which

means basically that kind of starter

fuel for the loving kindness just having

the intention there and having even a

phrase there at that point

with the stilling of applied and

sustained thought he enters upon and

abides in the second genre which has

self-confidence and singleness of mind

without applied and sustained thought

with rapture and pleasure born of

constant born of collectedness

i don't use the word concentration

because people often

take that to mean really single

pointedly forcing the mind to do

something

but um

again it's just a collected mind that's

free of the obstacles and the second

genre the

the chatter or the rather the applied

and sustained thought has died down so

now the mind is very quiet

this was also what the buddha called

noble silence

with the fading away as well of rapture

he abides in equanimity

and mindful and fully aware

still feeling pleasure with the body he

enters upon and abides in the third

genre

on account of which noble ones announce

he has a pleasant abiding who has

equanimity and is mindful

so now even that joy

even that pleasure is taken to be a

little bit of mental agitation

and so the mind calms down to an even

deeper level where it's equanimity and

mindfulness and there's still a little

bit of

kind of pleasant feeling in the body but

it's really that

kind of more coarse joy has really

settled down

with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

and with the previous disappearance of

joy and grief he enters upon and abides

in the fourth jhana

which has neither pain nor pleasure and

purity of mindfulness due to equanimity

so we can see here how

the full training program

for starting with the virtue

and then after virtue uh guarding the

the different faculties having

moderation in both physical and mental

diet

having wakefulness and mindfulness and

finally sitting down for meditation

and just letting go of the at that point

the hindrances just fall away because

this person has completed the the full

training regimen

and they naturally find themselves in

jhana

and

this will so this is the samadhi piece

now the

right collectedness the the meditation

piece of the practice and this will lead

to

panya or wisdom naturally

and um

there is a connection between

the precepts and these five hindrances

that were mentioned

it's not necessary

not necessarily will every precept will

every hindrance result from

a broken precept

well that this is my opinion that not

every

um

obstacle that comes up will be a the

direct result of one of breaking one of

these precepts but there is certainly a

correlation so

uh

killing and harming living beings which

is the first precept taken

which obstacle do you think that might

lead to

so remember the five obstacles again

were

restlessness

desire doubt dullness

and aversion

so killing and harming living beings

what kind of mental state might that

lead to

exactly aversion

and then the second precept

right not stealing

what kind of mental state might that

lead to

i'm sorry

yeah so it could also lead to desire or

greed

um we also might say restlessness

because

if you've just taken something that you

shouldn't have you might feel like i

wonder if someone saw me do that or i

wonder if someone's going to

catch me for that or whatever it is

and then sensual misconduct

what might that lead to

right craving or desire

and then

lying

which of the obstacles is that linked to

exactly because if you lie you can't

even trust yourself if you've lied

enough

you might have a lot of self-doubt at

that point

and you also

won't trust others as much if you're

constantly lying

and then

finally intoxicants

intoxicants

sloth and torpor yeah

so

kind of interesting right these five

precepts line up with the

five hindrances and um

it's just a way not to beat yourself up

over which hindrance or which precept

did i break in the past or whatever it

is but just seeing that there is

a direct connection between the virtue

part of the training and your

sitting meditation practice

the other thing that i'll note is that

the the obstacles shouldn't be seen as

enemies they're not

out to get you they're not worth

fighting with

these are actually your friends they're

showing you where your mindfulness isn't

sharp they're showing you where you need

to

work on

using the six hours to let go of

something

and

they're actually they can all be linked

to different survival instincts

so when you think about your mind is

trying its best to be happy and it's

trying its best to keep you alive and

reproduce and such

so

for example aversion is often i mean

this is something we should feel

towards things that would have

once caused us harm

or

restlessness is um an anxiety could be

the result of in our ancestors time not

knowing if there's a lion that's going

to jump out of the jungle or

of course desire you know kept kept our

ancestors procreating and

uh doubt is is

uh useful if you're not sure who to

trust and

uh uh sloth and torpor because our body

does need to rest at some point

so they're all natural instincts there's

no reason to see them as enemies there's

no reason to fight with them

it's just that when we're in meditation

and also in the modern world where

there's no longer a use for

for example there's no line that's going

to jump out of the

thicket at us

we can just realize that we don't even

though the mind is doing its best to

help us out we just don't need these

obstacles in our way when we're

meditating there's a much higher state

of

consciousness in a much deeper way of

being which are these genres which then

lead to

wisdom and then this leads to

liberation from from suffering so

again there's no use in

trying to battle with the hindrances or

to see them as

uh

as enemies or to judge ourselves for

having them

these are completely normal and everyone

has them everyone's born with them

it's just that as we let them go we can

see that there's a better way of being

and the mind will naturally be in jannah

this is my instruction brahman to those

bekus who are in the higher training

whose minds have not yet attained the

goal

who abide aspiring to the supreme

security from bondage

but these things can do conduce both to

a pleasant abiding here and now and to

mindfulness and full awareness for those

bhikkhus who are our hearts with taints

destroyed who have lived the holy life

done what had to be done

laid down the burden reached their own

goal

destroyed the fetters of being and are

completely liberated through final

knowledge

so he's saying this

is gonna feel good now it's gonna feel

good right away and also

even once you've become an arahat and

completed the the goal of this training

you'll still just naturally do this on

your own because it's

just what an arhat does and it feels

good

when this was said the brahmana ganaka

mogalana asked the blessed one

when master gotuma's disciples are thus

advised and instructed by him do they

all attain nibana the ultimate goal or

do some not attain it

interesting question so he's

basically it's are you guaranteeing

success if i follow this path it doesn't

sound so easy necessarily

so if i'm going to put in the effort am

i definitely going to get to nibana

i think it's a fair question

when brahman they are thus advised and

instructed by me some of my disciples

attain nabana the ultimate goal and some

do not attain it

master gautama since

nirvana exists and the path leading to

nibana exists master gotum is present as

the guide

what is the cause and reason why when

master gotuma's disciples are thus

advised and instructed by him some of

them attain nibana the ultimate goal and

some do

some do not attain it

what do you all think why do some people

not attain nabana

not practicing at all

or poorly right

so

as to that brahman i will ask you a

question in return

answer it as you choose

what do you think brahman are you

familiar with the road leading to

leading to raja gaha

raja gaha was a the capital city of

magda which is a

kingdom at the time of the buddha

and

they actually date based on the pottery

they think rajiga has

from about at least 1000 bc it was

existing

and the buddha gave a lot of teachings

there because he was gifted like a a

grove essentially

yes master gotama i am familiar with the

road leading to rajagaha

what do you think brahman suppose a man

came who wanted to go to rajagaha and he

approached you and said venerable sir i

want to go to rajagaha show me the road

to rajagaha

then you told him now good man this road

goes to rajagaha follow it for a while

and you will see a certain village go

little further and you will see a

certain town

go a little further and you will see

raja gaha with its lovely parks groves

meadows and ponds

so this was you know back in the day

when they would say go a little past

that and then go a little past that and

you might see this on the left so things

are a little easier now we just say siri

get me to rajigaha

siri get me to nibana

then having been thus advised and

instructed by you he would take a wrong

road and would go to the west

then a second man who wanted to go to

rajigaha and he approached you and said

venerable sir i want to go to rajagaha

show me the road to rajigaha

then you told him now good man this road

goes to raj

follow it for a while and you will see

rajigaha with its lovely parks groves

meadows and ponds

then having been thus advised and

instructed by you

he would safely he would arrive safely

in rajagaha

now brahman since rajagaha exists and

the path leading to rajagaha exists and

you are present as the guide what is the

cause and reason why when those men have

been thus advised and instructed by you

one man takes a wrong road and goes to

the west

and one arrives safely in rajagaha

what can i do about that master gautama

i am one who shows the way

so too brahman nibana exists and the

path leading to nibana exists and i am

present as the god

yet when my disciples have been thus

advised and instructed by me

some of them attain nibana the ultimate

goal and some do not attain it what can

i do about that brahman

the tatagata is one who shows the way

so he's really putting the burden on us

to do the practice

he's given the instructions

and it's like that classic analogy of

the finger pointing to the moon

and some people just look at the

teacher and

bow down but it's really he's just

pointing the way he's just pointing the

way

not that there's anything wrong of

course with uh devotion but just rights

and rituals won't get us to nibbana

right

when this was said the brahmana ganaka

mogalana said to the blessed one

there are persons who are faithless and

have gone forth from the home life into

homelessness not out of faith but

seeking a livelihood who are fraudulent

deceitful treacherous haughty hollow

personally vain rough tongued

loose-spoken unguarded in their sense

faculties immoderate in eating undevoted

to wakefulness unconcerned with

recluseship

not greatly respectful of training

luxurious careless leaders in

backsliding

neglectful of seclusion lazy

wanting and energy unmindful

not fully aware unconcentrated

with strang minds devoid of wisdom

drivelers

master gautama does not dwell together

with these

it's a harsh rebuke

of the

of the person who doesn't follow the

training

but there are clansmen who have gone

forth out of faith from the home life

into homelessness who are not fraudulent

deceitful treacherous

haughty hollow personally vain

rough-toned and loose-spoken

who are guarded in their sense faculties

moderate in eating

devoted to wakefulness concerned with

reclusive

greatly respectful of training not

luxurious or careless

who are keen to avoid backsliding

leaders in seclusion energetic resolute

established in mindfulness

fully aware

concentrated with unified minds

possessing wisdom

not drivelers

these meditators are here now at

tamasuka meditation center

master gautama dwells together with

these

just as black oris root is reckoned as

the best of root perfumes and red

sandalwood is reckoned

as the best of wood perfumes and jasmine

is reckoned as the best of flower

perfumes

so too master gautama's advice is

supreme among the teachings of today

there were many teachers at the time of

the buddha and

in some of the other suits as you'll get

to see how he

challenged their different views and

their different practices

and of course today there's probably

even more uh different teachings and

paths and views so

um

not all not all roads lead to rome

magnificent master gautama magnificent

master gotuma master gautama has made

the dhamma clear in many ways as though

he were turning upright what had been

overturned revealing what was hidden

showing the way to one who was lost or

holding up a lamp in the dark for those

with eyesight to see forms

i go to master gotuma for refuge and to

the dhamma and to the sangha of bhikkhus

let master gotama remember me remember

me as a lay follower who has gone to him

for refuge for life

so that's the full training program now

it's up to you all

do you have any questions

yeah i think we can only speculate on

this and i'll give my answer and then

maybe delson can add anything but um

you know there's a couple of things to

take into account here the first is that

he's speaking to monks who are really

gunning for our hotship and so

these are people who already have very

energetic and clear minds

and

by this part of the training right

because this is stage

four

so

um

they're also living at a time when

there's much less stimuli

so their mind isn't having this

push-pull

all day long with different stimuli

being bombarded so they may have needed

less sleep

and

there also might have been less of a

clear distinction in terms of they

didn't have specific

watches or they didn't have clocks

so the first watch of the night for all

we know could have been

um

you know until

the moon was at a certain height and

then

the second watch may have began at dawn

or whatever it is

um if it is the case that it was

exactly divided into three four-hour

shifts and the monks were only sleeping

for four hours

that is possible

but again i would think about the

historical context and also what level

of training they were at at that stage

so i mean we haven't found that to be

necessary here in fact it's encouraged

that you get eight hours of sleep

and then even take like naps throughout

the day if you need it

your body will kind of tell you how much

rest you need

and i think it's also similar to the not

over indulging in food where

your body will tell you what you need

but then obviously you don't want to

just laze around in bed all day so

there's just kind of that

middle way of

listening to your body and seeing what's

going to be conducive to good meditation

oh i see yeah yeah well you have to be

tricky right because

that's really one of the obstacles in

that case that's probably restlessness

and my advice would be to

six are the few the first few urges to

get up so let's say so you should start

sitting longer and longer at least

sitting for an hour and then at least

sitting for half an hour and then

sitting longer and longer

but you might get these

your meditation might be very nice and

then you just get this thought like well

there's not much happening or

whatever i should just get up now

but

when that first thought comes up i would

6r it and i would 6r the first couple

first few thoughts that say i should get

up because what you might find is when

you 6r

then your meditation actually goes

really deep after that and it was just

some kind of restlessness

yeah

well when your object of meditation is

the love and kindness you're

aware of the love and kindness

and um

it's it's infusing

this open field of awareness but you're

still staying with that feeling in other

words you're not tight you're not

tightly clenching around it such that

the only sensations appearing in your

attention camera is you don't want your

attention camera lens to be like this

but it's more of just this open

awareness that's kind of collected

around the loving kindness

so in other words your awareness isn't

such that it's going everywhere like

there's a bird and it's going over there

and there's this and that it's just

staying with the loving kindness within

that field of awareness and you're just

watching it radiate out on its own or

staying with your spiritual friend if

that's your object

yeah okay let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fierce truck fearless bee

and grieving shed all grief and may all

beings find relief

may all beings share this merit with

thus acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

davis and naga's mighty power share this

merit of ours may they long protect the

buddha's dispensation

sadhus