From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=egFZO2e799w

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

[Music]

if you've been practicing meditation but

been doing it in a different way please

let go of the old way of doing the

practice and just do this it doesn't mix

very well the old way as compared to

what we're going to be doing we're going

to be practicing something that I call

the six hours this is right effort so

it's real important for you to get

familiar with what this is the six R's

are recognized when your mind has a

distraction in it where you're not with

your object of meditation anymore and

release the distraction the rate the way

you release the distraction is by not

keeping your attention on it this is

real important as soon as you release it

then you relax the tightness is in your

head in your mind

that tightness is actually how you

recognize what crazy is and as soon as

you relax that tightness you'll feel

like an opening up of your mind

more alertness your mind is going to be

much more clear agile and pure because

you let go of the craving craving is the

I like it I don't like it mind I'll

explain that a little bit later as soon

as you let that go and you don't have

any distractions in your mind at all and

you can observe with the peer mind

and then what you need to do is bring up

something wholesome and the way that you

bring up something wholesome is by

smiling while smiling a lot of people

think it's just here but smiling is in

your mind and this gets to be as you go

deeper into the practice this gets to be

extremely important as you smile with

your mind you stop trying so hard and

when you stop trying so hard

then you can observe how mind actually

works so what the smiling is a kind of

stepping back from whatever the

distraction is but stepping back with a

light mind with the mind that's clear

and observant but light soft

as soon as you do that then you bring

that mine back to your object of

meditation your object the meditation is

going to be loving-kindness and about

kids to keep get you the instructions in

just a minute and then you repeat

staying with your object of meditation

for as long as you can

now these six R's are things that need

to be done not just repeat in your mind

recognize release relax you have to do

each one of those not verbalize them and

it's like rolling your R's it's

recognize release relax return we smile

return repeat and it's a flow that you

start to get into of doing right effort

now when you're practicing

loving-kindness meditation you first

start by sending loving and kind

thoughts to yourself

remember a time when you were happy we

met happy feeling arises it's a warm

glowing feeling in the center of your

chest a lot of you don't this is for the

people that haven't been been here

before if you've already done a retreat

with me you'll start out by sending

loving timeless to all beings in all

directions and the six directions and

then all directions at the same same

time but for the beginners start by

sending loving and kind thoughts to

yourself get that happy feeling going

then when it's going very nicely after

five to ten minutes then you switch over

to a spiritual friend a spiritual friend

is someone that when you think of them

and their good qualities you really like

them you sincerely do wish them well

stay with the same spiritual friend all

the time don't jump from one person to

another person to another person a

spiritual friend is someone of the same

sex and they are alive some men have

asked me if they could use the Dalai

Lama as their spiritual friend and my

answer to that is is it is he the same

sex as you and is he life but if you use

the Dalai Lama it's a little bit more

difficult because you only know him by

what you think of him and what you maybe

see on the internet or something like

that but you don't know him personally

it's better to take a person that you do

know personally that you respect and you

sincerely do wish them well a lot of

women when Mother Teresa was alive

they'd ask if they could do to submit to

Mother Teresa but it's better to some

the loving and kind thoughts to somebody

that you know it's a little bit easier

that way

and it's your choice

how your mind is going to wander you're

going to start thinking about other

things as soon as you recognize that

your mind is thinking about something

else then you've already recognized that

your mind is distracted we least the

distraction by not keeping your

attention on it relax a tightness caused

by that distraction smile return to your

object to your spiritual friend and

continue staying with your spiritual

friend for as long as you can so it

doesn't matter how many times your mind

gets distracted

I had a monk that was practicing

loving-kindness meditation and he

insisted on trying too hard and he was

pushing to stay with that spiritual

friend and not not go away and is doing

it way too hard and he suffered for a

long time because he wouldn't listen to

what I would say the thing is with the

meditation if you follow the directions

this is fun this is easy and you learn

how to let go of the suffering I'll let

go of the pushing and trying to art of

this monk

was continually trying to oh I gotta be

better than I am I'm a monk I'm supposed

to be better and I kept telling him over

and over there is no supposed to be he

caused himself a lot of suffering and

every day he'd come and tell me how

restless he was I'm I won't settle down

stop trying so hard smile laugh with

yourself at trying too hard let go of

supposed to be my mind isn't supposed to

be this way it don't sit with your legs

crossed so this is about learning how to

be mindful isn't that a wonderful word

these days I just read an article about

what mindfulness isn't and I thought

that was kind of cute there's it people

are using this word as some kind of a

catchphrase and they don't have a good

understanding of what mindfulness truly

is everybody knows what the word is but

they don't know what the definition is

so I'm going to give you the definition

that works in all different aspects

mindfulness is remembering to observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another how does it move

this is important you understand this

[Music]

because like my little monk friend he

was trying to make mine be the way you

wanted it to be and he suffered a lot

and he'd become frustrated and he'd be

even become angry and he'd start

accusing me of not giving him the right

directions and I gave him the right

directions same thing every day

fortunately he was there for three

months he actually did start to pay

attention after they stopped pushing

this meditation is supposed to be fun I

don't want to say supposed to be it is

fun I want you to laugh especially when

you're caught by some kind of a

hindrance that you know you're causing

yourself some suffering by trying to

force it to be the way you want it to be

laugh at yourself with that the fastest

way to let go of an attachment is by

laughing you go from I don't like this

this isn't the way I want it to be to

it's only this now do I want to hold on

to this and make myself suffering or not

let it go

so laughing and smiling and having fun

is an important aspect of the meditation

so the more you can have fun with this

and smile with how down your mind can be

we're all dumb and it's okay to be dumb

just don't indulge in it relax into

these things stop trying to make

yourself be a particular way observe

what you're doing how you're causing

yourself the suffering and let it go

the definition of mindfulness what that

does is it makes you go in deeper to see

how this process works because this is a

process this is a psychophysical process

that we we call ourselves now you're

made up of five things okay you have a

physical body you have feeling this is

not emotion feeling is feeling feeling

is pleasant feeling painful feeling

neutral feeling you have perception

perception is a part of the mind that

means the feeling this is pleasant this

is painful this is neutral so perception

is part of the mind that puts the mental

name in your mind you have thoughts you

have consciousness what we generally try

to do and we get real good at these

these habits is when a painful feeling

arises and we start wrestling I don't

want that painful feeling to be there I

don't like it you start trying to sink

your feeling away but stop sir one thing

feelings or something else sometimes the

feeling can arise and it doesn't go away

right away so what it's only a feeling

is it your feeling did you ask that

feeling to come up did you say well I

haven't been depressed or frustrated or

sad for a while I might as well do that

now

you're not going to do that nobody's

that dumb it arises because conditions

are right for it to arise what you do

with what arises in the present dictates

what happens in the future if you fight

the present moment if you try to change

the present moment if you try to make

the present moment be the way you want

it to be you can look forward to

suffering a lot and it's your choice

it's what I told that monk every day why

are you doing this to yourself why don't

you learn and stop trying hard as I said

eventually he did but he caused himself

six weeks of pain the progress in this

meditation is going to be fast for you

if you follow the directions don't add

anything don't subtract anything if

you've been doing meditation for a long

time sometimes you're going to get

caught by not doing the six arms and

your mind is going to slip into a kind

of one pointed concentration when it

slips into a one pointed concentration

you'll get very blissful you'll get

really happy as long as you have that

one point of concentration but when you

get out of that then the hindrances are

going to come big time and you're not

going to like those and you're gonna

wish oh I wish I could get back into

that beautiful state

the six ours are let me put it this way

the Eightfold Path is all eight folds

that are equal but right effort is the

first among the equals right effort is

the thing that if you follow this and

practice it without resistance without

trying to change it without trying to

make it any different than it is it will

lead to extreme happiness and suffering

will stop so now sometimes there are

people that they have a secret they have

something that happened to them in the

past and they don't want to tell anybody

about it but it keeps coming up in the

meditation what is the secret a secret

is where I am and I'm not going to tell

I am so embarrassed or am so hurt or I'm

so whatever it happens to be that I'm

not going to say anything it will keep

coming back over and over again until it

just doesn't matter to you anymore

you'll let go of the secret and once you

say what the secret is it's not a secret

anymore

there's a lot of release in there

and we all carry these secrets around

with us and we cause ourselves a lot of

pain because that's me that's mine

that's who I am

when in fact nothing is yours personally

everything is impersonal and as you

start to soften and let that go it will

sometimes go away by itself but

sometimes you need to say it

so we cause ourselves measurable amounts

of pain the Buddha said that we've cried

so much in our existences that we could

fill up the entire ocean just with our

tears of the pain we caused ourselves of

the sadness that we took as this is my

sadness and I'm not going to tell

anybody why it happened so what we have

to do is be able to recognize that we're

doing this to ourselves and keep

softening keep relaxing into it keep

using the six R's the six ARS

we'll take you to our AHA trip I haven't

been able to prove that quite yet I have

a lot of students that are very close

and we'll see what happens in the future

the whole point of doing this meditation

the reason that you're here is so you

will change from the old way of doing

things that causes pain to a new way

where there is no more pain letting go

of that suffering that depression that

sadness whatever it happens to be and

this is too simple it's too simple to

let go of this stuff that's what a lot

of people tell me it can't be this

simple just recognize that you're

distracted release the distraction relax

smile

return let's do easy

it's not always easy but it is that

simple

when the Buddha started out teaching

people meditation if he would have

started teaching you some kind of

complicated system that was slow to get

progress how many people do you think

would have followed it but today we have

so many different methods of meditation

and I have friends that have been

practicing for as long as 50 years 50

500 years doing the same practice and

not really progressing still having the

same entrances that when they started

was a big problem now it comes up it's

not such a big

problem but it's still there why is it

coming back over and over and over again

because you're not doing the meditation

and letting go of craving

[Music]

[Music]

if you've been practicing meditation but

been doing it in a different way please

let go of the old way of doing the

practice and just do this it doesn't mix

very well the old way as compared to

what we're going to be doing we're going

to be practicing something that I call

the six hours this is right effort so

it's real important for you to get

familiar with what this is the six R's

are recognized when your mind has a

distraction in it where you're not with

your object of meditation anymore and

release the distraction the rate the way

you release the distraction is by not

keeping your attention on it this is

real important as soon as you release it

then you relax the tightness is in your

head in your mind

that tightness is actually how you

recognize what crazy is and as soon as

you relax that tightness you'll feel

like an opening up of your mind

more alertness your mind is going to be

much more clear agile and pure because

you let go of the craving craving is the

I like it I don't like it mind I'll

explain that a little bit later as soon

as you let that go and you don't have

any distractions in your mind at all and

you can observe with the peer mind

and then what you need to do is bring up

something wholesome and the way that you

bring up something wholesome is by

smiling while smiling a lot of people

think it's just here but smiling is in

your mind and this gets to be as you go

deeper into the practice this gets to be

extremely important as you smile with

your mind you stop trying so hard and

when you stop trying so hard

then you can observe how mind actually

works so what the smiling is a kind of

stepping back from whatever the

distraction is but stepping back with a

light mind with the mind that's clear

and observant but light soft

as soon as you do that then you bring

that mine back to your object of

meditation your object the meditation is

going to be loving-kindness and about

kids to keep get you the instructions in

just a minute and then you repeat

staying with your object of meditation

for as long as you can

now these six R's are things that need

to be done not just repeat in your mind

recognize release relax you have to do

each one of those not verbalize them and

it's like rolling your R's it's

recognize release relax return we smile

return repeat and it's a flow that you

start to get into of doing right effort

now when you're practicing

loving-kindness meditation you first

start by sending loving and kind

thoughts to yourself

remember a time when you were happy we

met happy feeling arises it's a warm

glowing feeling in the center of your

chest a lot of you don't this is for the

people that haven't been been here

before if you've already done a retreat

with me you'll start out by sending

loving timeless to all beings in all

directions and the six directions and

then all directions at the same same

time but for the beginners start by

sending loving and kind thoughts to

yourself get that happy feeling going

then when it's going very nicely after

five to ten minutes then you switch over

to a spiritual friend a spiritual friend

is someone that when you think of them

and their good qualities you really like

them you sincerely do wish them well

stay with the same spiritual friend all

the time don't jump from one person to

another person to another person a

spiritual friend is someone of the same

sex and they are alive some men have

asked me if they could use the Dalai

Lama as their spiritual friend and my

answer to that is is it is he the same

sex as you and is he life but if you use

the Dalai Lama it's a little bit more

difficult because you only know him by

what you think of him and what you maybe

see on the internet or something like

that but you don't know him personally

it's better to take a person that you do

know personally that you respect and you

sincerely do wish them well a lot of

women when Mother Teresa was alive

they'd ask if they could do to submit to

Mother Teresa but it's better to some

the loving and kind thoughts to somebody

that you know it's a little bit easier

that way

and it's your choice

how your mind is going to wander you're

going to start thinking about other

things as soon as you recognize that

your mind is thinking about something

else then you've already recognized that

your mind is distracted we least the

distraction by not keeping your

attention on it relax a tightness caused

by that distraction smile return to your

object to your spiritual friend and

continue staying with your spiritual

friend for as long as you can so it

doesn't matter how many times your mind

gets distracted

I had a monk that was practicing

loving-kindness meditation and he

insisted on trying too hard and he was

pushing to stay with that spiritual

friend and not not go away and is doing

it way too hard and he suffered for a

long time because he wouldn't listen to

what I would say the thing is with the

meditation if you follow the directions

this is fun this is easy and you learn

how to let go of the suffering I'll let

go of the pushing and trying to art of

this monk

was continually trying to oh I gotta be

better than I am I'm a monk I'm supposed

to be better and I kept telling him over

and over there is no supposed to be he

caused himself a lot of suffering and

every day he'd come and tell me how

restless he was I'm I won't settle down

stop trying so hard smile laugh with

yourself at trying too hard let go of

supposed to be my mind isn't supposed to

be this way it don't sit with your legs

crossed so this is about learning how to

be mindful isn't that a wonderful word

these days I just read an article about

what mindfulness isn't and I thought

that was kind of cute there's it people

are using this word as some kind of a

catchphrase and they don't have a good

understanding of what mindfulness truly

is everybody knows what the word is but

they don't know what the definition is

so I'm going to give you the definition

that works in all different aspects

mindfulness is remembering to observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another how does it move

this is important you understand this

[Music]

because like my little monk friend he

was trying to make mine be the way you

wanted it to be and he suffered a lot

and he'd become frustrated and he'd be

even become angry and he'd start

accusing me of not giving him the right

directions and I gave him the right

directions same thing every day

fortunately he was there for three

months he actually did start to pay

attention after they stopped pushing

this meditation is supposed to be fun I

don't want to say supposed to be it is

fun I want you to laugh especially when

you're caught by some kind of a

hindrance that you know you're causing

yourself some suffering by trying to

force it to be the way you want it to be

laugh at yourself with that the fastest

way to let go of an attachment is by

laughing you go from I don't like this

this isn't the way I want it to be to

it's only this now do I want to hold on

to this and make myself suffering or not

let it go

so laughing and smiling and having fun

is an important aspect of the meditation

so the more you can have fun with this

and smile with how down your mind can be

we're all dumb and it's okay to be dumb

just don't indulge in it relax into

these things stop trying to make

yourself be a particular way observe

what you're doing how you're causing

yourself the suffering and let it go

the definition of mindfulness what that

does is it makes you go in deeper to see

how this process works because this is a

process this is a psychophysical process

that we we call ourselves now you're

made up of five things okay you have a

physical body you have feeling this is

not emotion feeling is feeling feeling

is pleasant feeling painful feeling

neutral feeling you have perception

perception is a part of the mind that

means the feeling this is pleasant this

is painful this is neutral so perception

is part of the mind that puts the mental

name in your mind you have thoughts you

have consciousness what we generally try

to do and we get real good at these

these habits is when a painful feeling

arises and we start wrestling I don't

want that painful feeling to be there I

don't like it you start trying to sink

your feeling away but stop sir one thing

feelings or something else sometimes the

feeling can arise and it doesn't go away

right away so what it's only a feeling

is it your feeling did you ask that

feeling to come up did you say well I

haven't been depressed or frustrated or

sad for a while I might as well do that

now

you're not going to do that nobody's

that dumb it arises because conditions

are right for it to arise what you do

with what arises in the present dictates

what happens in the future if you fight

the present moment if you try to change

the present moment if you try to make

the present moment be the way you want

it to be you can look forward to

suffering a lot and it's your choice

it's what I told that monk every day why

are you doing this to yourself why don't

you learn and stop trying hard as I said

eventually he did but he caused himself

six weeks of pain the progress in this

meditation is going to be fast for you

if you follow the directions don't add

anything don't subtract anything if

you've been doing meditation for a long

time sometimes you're going to get

caught by not doing the six arms and

your mind is going to slip into a kind

of one pointed concentration when it

slips into a one pointed concentration

you'll get very blissful you'll get

really happy as long as you have that

one point of concentration but when you

get out of that then the hindrances are

going to come big time and you're not

going to like those and you're gonna

wish oh I wish I could get back into

that beautiful state

the six ours are let me put it this way

the Eightfold Path is all eight folds

that are equal but right effort is the

first among the equals right effort is

the thing that if you follow this and

practice it without resistance without

trying to change it without trying to

make it any different than it is it will

lead to extreme happiness and suffering

will stop so now sometimes there are

people that they have a secret they have

something that happened to them in the

past and they don't want to tell anybody

about it but it keeps coming up in the

meditation what is the secret a secret

is where I am and I'm not going to tell

I am so embarrassed or am so hurt or I'm

so whatever it happens to be that I'm

not going to say anything it will keep

coming back over and over again until it

just doesn't matter to you anymore

you'll let go of the secret and once you

say what the secret is it's not a secret

anymore

there's a lot of release in there

and we all carry these secrets around

with us and we cause ourselves a lot of

pain because that's me that's mine

that's who I am

when in fact nothing is yours personally

everything is impersonal and as you

start to soften and let that go it will

sometimes go away by itself but

sometimes you need to say it

so we cause ourselves measurable amounts

of pain the Buddha said that we've cried

so much in our existences that we could

fill up the entire ocean just with our

tears of the pain we caused ourselves of

the sadness that we took as this is my

sadness and I'm not going to tell

anybody why it happened so what we have

to do is be able to recognize that we're

doing this to ourselves and keep

softening keep relaxing into it keep

using the six R's the six ARS

we'll take you to our AHA trip I haven't

been able to prove that quite yet I have

a lot of students that are very close

and we'll see what happens in the future

the whole point of doing this meditation

the reason that you're here is so you

will change from the old way of doing

things that causes pain to a new way

where there is no more pain letting go

of that suffering that depression that

sadness whatever it happens to be and

this is too simple it's too simple to

let go of this stuff that's what a lot

of people tell me it can't be this

simple just recognize that you're

distracted release the distraction relax

smile

return let's do easy

it's not always easy but it is that

simple

when the Buddha started out teaching

people meditation if he would have

started teaching you some kind of

complicated system that was slow to get

progress how many people do you think

would have followed it but today we have

so many different methods of meditation

and I have friends that have been

practicing for as long as 50 years 50

500 years doing the same practice and

not really progressing still having the

same entrances that when they started

was a big problem now it comes up it's

not such a big

problem but it's still there why is it

coming back over and over and over again

because you're not doing the meditation

and letting go of craving

[Music]