JT1 MN 20 Bhante Vimalaramsi 19-Feb-06-VVa8HhO9HcA.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=VVa8HhO9HcA

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

okay the discourse I'm going to do

tonight is suit the number 20 in the

middle link sayings it's called the

removal of distracting thoughts as

anybody had any distracting thoughts

really wanted removed

thus as I heard on one occasion the

Blessed blood was living at sawatya in

Jettas Grove nfm pendejas park there he

addressed the monks thus monks Venable

sir they replied the blessed one said

this monks when a monk is pursuing the

higher mind which in abidal in poly is

called abhidhamma and here he is

referring to getting into the jhanas

from time to time he should give

attention to five signs what are the

five here monks when a monk is giving

attention to some sign and owing to that

sign there arises in him evil

unwholesome thoughts concerned with

desire with hatred with delusion then he

should give attention to some other sign

connected with what is wholesome now

what is this talking about this is

talking basically about the part of the

Eightfold Path that is generally called

right effort

right effort is recognizing when your

mind has become distracted letting go of

the distraction and relaxing coming back

to your object to meditation and staying

with your object of meditation I talked

to everybody today in and one of the

things that came up quite often was that

their mind was very active this is not

bad just because you have an active mind

doesn't mean that you have bad

meditation meditation is about being

able to recognize the movements of minds

attention from one thing to another

recognizing that attention movement

when a thought arises and it pulls your

attention away from your object of

meditation that is the feeling of loving

kindness and making a wish for your

happiness or your friends happiness when

you recognize that your mind is not on

your object of meditation then you let

go of the thought or feeling whatever it

is that pulls your attention away from

your object of meditation you let that

be you don't try to throw down the

thought stop the thought stomp on the

thought beat the thought up because it's

there you just recognize that the

thought is there let the thought be

there by itself don't keep your

attention on it and then gently relax

the tension caused by that minds

movement now smile and gently re return

to your object of meditation and stay

with your object of meditation as long

as you can

sometimes your object of meditation is

only going to be there for part of one

thought and then it goes back then you

do the whole process again allow that

distraction to be there relax smile come

back to your object of meditation it

doesn't matter how many times in a

sitting your mind wanders away just

because you have an active mind does not

mean that it's bad meditation bad

meditation or no meditation is

recognizing that you're thinking

something and you notice it but to

continue thinking now you're not

meditating at all they're getting

involved with the story you're getting

involved with the liking and disliking

of something the more you get involved

the less likely you are to let it go and

relax and come back so when a

distracting thought or feeling arises

and it pulls your attention to it allow

it to be there but don't give it any

more attention even if you're in

mid-sentence just let it be

every time mine becomes distracted away

from your object of meditation there is

tension and tightness that arises in

both mind and body that tension and

tightness is what the Buddha called

craving craving is the I like it I don't

like it mind right after craving

clinging arises what is clinging

clinging is all of your opinions all of

your concepts about why you like or

dislike the feeling and then your old

habitual tendency arises and you always

treat this feeling in the same way our

old habitual tendency is always when a

feeling arises is to try to think the

feeling the more you think the feeling

the bigger the feeling becomes the more

intense it becomes the more attached you

become to that feeling so when you

notice that a feeling arises or a

distracting thought pulls your attention

away from your object to meditation as

soon as you notice it let it be relaxed

smile come back to your object of

meditation

if it's always kind of comical for me

because a lot of people i'll say okay

tell me about your meditation I had a

great meditation there was my mind is

stayed on the object of meditation and

didn't move at all and it was just a

great meditation and I kind of ho-hum

that yeah yeah okay you had some candy

but if you come and tell me oh I had the

most terrible meditation my mind was all

over the place my next question to you

is well did you recognize that did you

let it be did you relax did you come

back to your object of meditation oh

yeah I did all of that but it still kept

on running around oh you had a great

meditation and didn't yet it's exactly

the opposite of what everybody thinks is

a good meditation why because when you

let go of the distraction relax smile

and come back to your object of

meditation you are building up your

mindfulness muscles you're building up

your ability to observe what is

happening in the present moment so you

had an active meditation that means you

had to roll your sleeves up and you had

to do some real work but it was good

meditation just like lifting weights you

do that you repeat it over and over

again eventually you start getting

pretty strong when you have an active

meditation it means that you are

learning how to strengthen your

mindfulness muscle and this is

great meditation it's not just good

meditation like I said bad meditation is

seeing that you're thinking about

something and then just get so involved

with it that you don't want to let it go

now you're not meditating at all now an

interesting thing happens when craving

arises it always manifests in the same

way as tension and tightness in your

mind and in your body and I told you

that craving is the I like it I don't

like it mine what did we start off with

here I this is the very start of the

oughtta belief that this feeling is me

this is mine this is who I am and then

when craving arises all of the thoughts

about the feeling reinforce that belief

that this feeling is me this is mine

this is who I am and it causes mine to

contract and with that contraction comes

more of the same your habitual tendency

in poly we call it bhava it's always

translated by most people as being

or experience but actually I had a real

good long talk with my abhidhamma

teacher say about Lucille Ananda before

he died that it was actually closer to a

correct correct translation that we use

the words habitual tendency now what is

a habitual tendency when this feeling

arises I always act that way when a

painful feeling arises I always have the

same reaction somebody says something to

you and all of a sudden your mind grabs

on to it and there's anger there how did

that occur one of the things I have to

ask you to do and this is a monk thing

and the Buddha said that we cannot give

a dama talk if people are sitting in

particular ways crossing your legs

crossing your arms so I have to ask you

not to do that and then I found out some

years ago by talking with somebody that

was a

body language expert and he did some

experience some experiments with about a

hundred people and he gave them

information but first he said first I

want you to cross your legs and cross

your arms and then he gave him a test on

what he'd he'd on the information and

gave them they got about sixty percent

correct and then he said okay uncross

your arms to keep your legs crossed and

they got about seventy percent correct

and then he said okay now open up don't

cross your legs don't cross your arms

and he gave him more information they

got close to ninety percent of what he

was saying so this is why the Buddha

said that monks can't give talks when

when there are certain kinds of body

postures

when we have craving arise

it always manifest as tension and

tightness now I'm talking about very

subtle I'm not talking about growth

tensions although it can turn into gross

tensions there is it's like a sac around

your brain and every time your mind has

a thought in it it contracts a little

bit it's not real big but it is

noticeable once you learn about it so

when I say to let go of the tension and

tightness in your body I meaning the

gross tensions and tightness is of

holding your hands pipe or your

shoulders tight or your back or wherever

it happens to be but I'm also talking

about this subtle tension and tightness

that's in your head now everybody here

right now has tension and tightness in

their head notice that there is this

subtle tension and let it go when you

let it go you'll feel the kind of

expansion happen in your head of a

release of tension and right after that

your mind becomes calm

you'll notice for a brief moment that

there's no thoughts there's only this

pure awareness and you bring that pure

awareness back to your object to

meditation now I know that there's some

of you that have been practicing

different kinds of meditation and I'll

tell you I'll show you exactly why the

Buddha's meditation the way he taught it

works so well and is immediately

recognizable and effective when you

practice normal meditation your mind is

on your object to meditation it gets

distracted now there's three or four

different methods of dealing with this

one of them says you noted until it goes

away another one says you let it go and

you come back immediately but what

you're doing when you practice in this

way is you're bringing that craving that

you haven't let go of yet back to your

object of meditation and eventually your

concentration starts to develop so it

becomes very deep and it will start

suppressing hindrances when they arise

now there's a little problem with this

because your hindrances are where your

attachments are so you practice

absorption concentration you can get

real peaceful and calm while your mind

is absorbed but when you lose that

concentration then you have hindrances

coming at you really heavily and you're

not really very aware of it now the

Buddha's practice is this your mind is

on your object of meditation that's the

same your mind gets distracted that's

the same you let go of your distraction

that's the same but where the Buddha's

teaching is different is the Buddha said

tranquilize your bodily and mental

formation mind and body before coming

back to your object of meditation now it

says this often it says it in the sati

putana suta it says it in the

mindfulness of body suta it says it in

mindfulness of breathing suta it says it

in suit the number 62 where the Buddha's

giving instructions in on how to do the

breathing meditation to rahula his son

i'm going to read that to you just so

you let you know that this isn't my idea

ok this is the mindfulness of body suit

number 119 it says mindfulness of

breathing here among gone to the forest

or to the root of the tree or an empty

Hut sits down having folded his legs

crossed a lot crosswise I need to get a

new set of teeth that gets blown down

sets his body erect and establishes

mindfulness in front of him ever mindful

he breathes in mindful he breathes out

breathing in long he understands I

breathe in long breathing out long he

understands I breathe out long breathing

in short he understands I breathe in

short breathing out short he understands

I breathe out short now did you hear me

say nose nostril upper lip or abdomen no

it says you understand when you take a

short breath you understand when you

take a long breath now the real

instruction occurs he trains us these

are keywords he trained thus I shall

breathe in experiencing the whole body

not body of breath the whole body

physical body he trains us I shall

breathe out experiencing the whole body

he trains thus I shall breathe in

tranquilizing the bodily formation he

trains thus I shall breathe out

tranquilizing the

the formation that's the entire

instructions in how to practice

mindfulness of breathing and you have no

idea how many times I've gotten in

discussion with monks in Asia with monks

here with laymen teacher here and I'll

say it says that on the in-breath you

tranquilize your body formation on the

out-breath you tranquilize your body

formation you tranquilize your body

formation on the in and out breath do

you do that well no I practice this way

well but the instruction that the Buddha

gave very specifically said you'd

tranquilize on the in-breath and you

tranquilize on the out breath in other

words when you breathe in you're not

focusing on the breath you see the

breasts and your relax on the in-breath

you see the rest and you relax on the

out breath and you relax on the ingress

you relax on the out breath that's quite

different from the way in this country

in particular meditation is being taught

meditation is being taught to focus very

deeply on the tiny sensation of the

breath but there's no relax

see that's occurring and I've run across

a lot of people that have said well I

become real peaceful and calm and serene

when you're practicing without the

relaxation your mind becomes absorbed

there's no hindrances that can arise you

can have all sorts of things that are

very nice states that your mind focuses

on that you're not practicing in sight

while you're practicing your breath

meditation you're practicing a form of

absorption if you don't have that

relaxing now coming back to the

mindfulness of meta because that's what

I teach I teach in sight in meta there

is that relaxing I'm continually talking

about you see a distraction you relax

any tension or tightness in your body in

your mind let it be and relax so this is

basically the same kind of instruction

that the Buddha was giving for the

mindfulness of breathing when the Buddha

was a bodhisattva he practiced the

absorption kinds of concentration where

he got very deep states of absorption

but then he went to the teacher and he

said is this all there is and that

teacher said yeah this is it this is as

far as you can go you can get to the

first teacher said the realm of

nothingness the second teacher said the

realm of neither perception or non

perception can't get any higher that's

it and the bodhisattva said I'm not

satisfied with that there's still

something there that I'm seeing he said

there has to be another way now the

meditation the absorption meditation has

been taught from time immemorial

everybody practices that in one form or

another it doesn't matter what religion

you're talking about when they're

talking about some form of concentration

they're talking about absorption types

of concentration I was in Burma for

almost three years I had the opportunity

to go and study with some really really

good scholars one of the scholars was at

the 6th Buddhist Council and he was the

chief answerer for the six buddhist

council is called a min goon saya dah he

had memorized over 12