From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=13sNUjL5nko

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

the sati patana suta has been

coined by many people as the most

important suit

that the buddha taught

there's always reference to the

satipatana suit

with people that practice straight

vipassana like that's the only suta that

they ever want to know about

but there's some real interesting

observations and differences between

the sati patana suta and what they're

practicing

most of the sati patana suta

is talking about different stages of

drama

and you'll get a chance to see this

pretty soon

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in the kuru

country where there was a town of the

kurus named casa sadama

there he addressed the monks thus monks

venerable survey replied the blessed one

said this

monks

this is

it says the direct path and i change

that to a direct path

for the purification of beings

for the surmounting of sorrow and

lamentation

for the disappearance of pain and grief

for the attainment of the true way

for the realization of nibana namely the

four foundations of mindfulness

what are the four here monks a monk

abides contemplating the body as a body

are they fully aware and mindful

having put away covetousness and grief

for the world

he abides contemplating feeling as

feeling now here

in this

it says feelings

as feelings

but

when you say it that way it's implying

emotion

and this doesn't have anything to do

with emotion

it's feeling

not plural

feeling is

pleasant feeling painful feeling neither

painful nor pleasant

so there's a little difference right

there

arden fully aware and mindful having put

away covetousness and grief for the

world

he abides contemplating mind as mine

ardent fully aware and mindful having

put away covetousness and grief for the

world

he abides contemplating mind objects as

mind objects this is dhammas as

dhammas

are fully aware and mindful having put

away covetousness and grief for the

world

now we go into the contemplation of the

body

and we start off with mindfulness of

breathing

and how monks

does a monk abide contemplating the body

as a body

hear not gone to the forest or to the

root of a tree or empty hut sits down

having folded his legs crosswise i've

never figured out which way was

crosswise

is it left over right or right over left

doesn't matter

set his body erect and establish

mindfulness in front of him

now this is a statement that an awful

part all

awful lot of the teachers look at and

they say

you always

have to

have your mindfulness in front of you

and they never really talk about what it

means

having mindfulness in front of you means

having

first

the definition of mindfulness

that needs to be given

and then you'll see more clearly what is

talking about

the definition of mindfulness is

remembering to observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another

it's only observation

a lot of people they'll give you

definitions about mindfulness that are

remembering to remember to remember

things like that

i i remember reading reading one article

in one of the buddha dhamma magazines

they were trying to

have a discussion as to what mindfulness

was

and it was so cloudy that the the writer

at the end of the article said and maybe

next time we'll find out what

mindfulness really is

but this definition that i just gave you

works

it's remembering to observe how mind's

attention moves from one thing to

another

now keeping mindfulness in front of you

means observing what arises

remembering to observe what arises

now

ever mindful he breathes in ever mindful

he breathes out

breathing in long he understands i

breathe in long

or breathing out long he understands i

breathe out long

breathing in short he understands i

breathe in short

or breathing out short he understands i

breathe out short

did you hear me say

nostril

nostril tip

upper lip

or abdomen

why

because that's not in the sutta

it says you understand when you breathe

you understand when you take a long

breath and short breath it doesn't say

to focus on the breath

to the exclusion of everything else

it just says you understand when you

breathe in long and when you breathe out

long when you breathe in short and when

you breathe out short when you breathe

fast when you breathe slow when you your

breath is very coarse or when it's very

fine you understand

that means you see it

now we get to the instructions

he trains

thus i shall breathe in experiencing the

whole body

he trains thus i shall breathe out

experiencing the whole body

this is not

the body of breath

this is the physical body the whole body

you feel your whole body on the in

breath and on the out breath

the next part of the instructions are

the key part of the instructions

he trains thus

i shall breathe in tranquilizing the

bodily formation

he trains thus i shall breathe out

tranquilizing the bodily formation

now what does that say

on the in-breath you're relaxing on the

out breath you relax

right

how many people have practiced

meditation without having that told to

them

unless it was me that was telling you

now this is a very important

aspect

of the meditation that is not generally

taught

it's not generally explained that you

need to relax your bodily formation on

the in-breath and relax it on the out

breath

and

when you don't relax on the in-breath

and relax on the out breath

you have a tendency to take the breath

as your object of meditation only

and that turns into

one pointed absorption concentration

when you follow the directions here

and you relax on the in-breath and relax

on the out breath

now that can be big gross relaxing

sometimes you feel like your one of your

shoulders is higher than the other and

you relax it

sometimes if you're holding your hand

real tight and you relax it

sometimes you feel like you need to

cough

and all of the muscles in your neck

tighten

then you relax it

but

in this

country many people

think that the body is from here

down

and from here up

is the mind

but actually

bodies from here down

and this is where

most of the the subtle tensions and

tightnesses occur

you have your brain

and there is a membrane that goes around

your brain

every time mind's attention moves that

membrane tightens a little bit

and

that tightness

in buddha's terms

is called

craving

when that tightness occurs

you have to let go of that

that's what it says here right

tranquilize on the in-breath and

tranquilize on the opera

that means let go of the tight

tightness around your skewer your brain

in your skull and when you do that your

mind

and and your

physical brain

they kind of

expand a little bit

and then your mind becomes very peaceful

and calm

very clear very alert

and

there is no thoughts

there's only this pure mind

and you bring that mind back to your

object of meditation

and your object of meditation

for this

type of meditation

is the breath

and relaxing

it's not simply the breath by itself

when you add that extra relaxed step

when you're when you're doing a

mindfulness of breathing meditation on

the in-breath you relax on the out

breath you relax you start finding

tensions and tightnesses that you didn't

even know existed

there's two

there's two different sides of your

brain

right

now

there's membrane that goes down in

between these two

as you release on the in-breath and

release on the out breath you start

letting go of the little subtle tensions

in between the two parts of your brain

and you start letting go of tightnesses

that you had no idea you had

that

is

learning

how to let go

of

breathing

so many people are teaching

absorption concentration where

what happens

physically

is that

membrane around your brain contracts

and then you focus your mind very deeply

on one thing

watching just the breath

just a sensation here or here

or here

for that matter

and you go through different stages of

concentration when you do that

the absorption concentration

has access concentration it has

momentary concentration and it has full

absorption concentration in it

none of these states

will lead you

to the cessation of suffering

why

because

watching without having that relaxed

step in it

means that you're not letting go of

craving

and when you don't let go of craving

you don't feel the cessation of grieving

and if you don't feel the cessation of

craving you don't feel the cessation of

nirvana

why

because i am

is attached to the craving

that means that you take the personal

belief

that what arises

in your in your life and in your

meditation

is this is me this is mine this is who i

am

when you let go of the craving

then you see these things

just as they are ah it's only this

it's not mine i didn't ask it to come up

came up by itself

well there's this sadness that arises

who said i am

who doesn't want that that feeling to be

there i don't

that's taking it personally

but when you

let go of that craving you see it for

what it is it's only sadness

what's that

it's easy to let go

so letting go of the craving is a very

major step

that does lead to the cessation of

suffering

and as you may or may not have noticed i

would hope that you have by now

notice that

the

six r's

have a relaxed step in it

so what am i showing you

i'm showing you the way

that leads to the cessation of suffering

this is the way

and it really works

and the more you relax into

everything that arises

and the more you see these things

as impersonal

the more freedom you have

the more clarity you have

and your mind naturally tends to be more

peaceful and calm

so the relaxed step is very very

important step

in the process

of

attaining nibara

if you don't have that relaxed step in

the way that a lot of the apostolate

people talk

well that's only absorption

concentration it doesn't lead to nirvana

they're right

it doesn't lead to nirvana

but that's not to say all jhanas don't

lead to nibara

the samatha vipassana janas do lead to

nevada

anyway

just as a skilled turner or his

apprentice when making a long turn

understands i make a long turn

or when making a short turn he

understands i make a short turn

so too breathing in long a monk

understands i breathe in long and it

goes through this whole thing again

which i'm not going to do

in this way he abides contemplating the

body as a body internally

he abides contemplating the body as a

body externally

he abides contemplating the body as a

body both internally and externally

he abides contemplating the

body its nature of arising he abides

contemplating in the body its nature of

vanishing

he abides contemplating in the body its

nature of both arising and vanishing

he abides independent not clinging to

anything in the world that is how the

monka bites contemplating the body as a

body

now we go on with this

again monks

when walking a monk understands i am

walking

when standing he understands i am

standing

when sitting he understands i am sitting

how many people know what they're doing

right now with their body

good

when lying down he understands i am

lying down or else or he understands

accordingly how his body is disposed

this has always been

one of the real question marks when i

was practicing vipassana in burma

because they said

well you have to note

when you're sitting down so you know

you're sitting

i don't need to note sitting down i know

when i'm sitting i know when i'm not

oh but you have to note it anyway

just three or four times sitting sitting

sitting sitting

doesn't make sense

and then when you're walking doing your

walking meditation

you have to note that you're walking

and then when you stop and you're just

standing still you have to note that

you're standing

i kept on asking him why

i know when i'm standing i know when i'm

sitting why do i have to make a big deal

out of it

and i never got an answer

anyway

they say that these four postures

are so that you you can understand

what's happening with your body as it's

happening

okay

so we'll go on now

to full awareness

again monks a monk is one who acts in

full awareness when going forward and

returning

who acts in full awareness when looking

ahead and looking away

who acts in full awareness when flexing

and extending his limbs

who acts in full awareness when wearing

his robes and carrying his outer robe

and bowl

who acts in full awareness when eating

drinking consuming food and

tasting who acts in full awareness when

defecating urinating

who acts in full awareness when walking

standing sitting falling asleep waking

up talking and keeping silent

what your mind is doing while you're

doing these actions

does that make sense

so when you're

walking from one place to another or

returning

you know that you're walking

that's that's a given

what are you doing with your mind while

you're doing that

staying with your object of meditation

hopefully

staying with the smile

staying with that light sense of mind

well you're doing everything now you've

heard me talk about

keep your mind your meditation going

while you're eating while you go to the

toilet while you're taking a shower no

matter what you're doing

that's what this is saying basically the

same thing

now we get into the foulness of the body

the foulness of the body meditation is

generally

for people that are really

caught up in lust

they see another person and they just

fall in lust for them

and

going over these different body parts

and contemplating these different body

parts this is what this is made up of

then there are

there is a kind of balance that starts

to happen in your mind so you start

losing the lust and we'll get to that in

just a moment

again monks a monk reviews this same

body

up from the soles of his feet and down

from the top of his hair

bounded by skin

as full as many kinds of impurity thus

in this body there are head hairs

body hairs

nails teeth skin flesh

sinew bones bone marrow kidney heart

liver diaphragm

spleen lungs intestines mesentery

contents of the stomach

feces

bile phlegm pus blood sweat

fat tears grease spittles snot

oil of the joints and urine

that's what all of these are made of

now i used to i have a lot of college

students when i was in malaysia

and they were in their

either late teens or early 20s where

they were

really starting to come on to their lust

pretty strongly i think you can mostly

remember those kind of things way back

then

and what i basically told them to do was

when you saw a lust arise from another

person that was very beautiful to you i

wanted them to turn that body inside out

and start looking at their organs

in their mind

a you've really got a nice set of

intestines

what a liver

your joints your oil joint is really

fragrant

and so is the pus

pus less

you don't know what lust is

it's wanting

uh to have sex

okay

i want

it's not only that but it's

that's what i'm talking about right now

but it's

any kind of very strong sensual desire

okay

you got it

okay

the whole point being when you start

looking at a person and their body parts

it's really not very appealing

now one of the things because i was a

monk and i was in thailand that i got to

do was i got to go through

a few autopsies

and that's really an interesting uh

thing

cutting open the body and they

they just kind of hack it open

and

break the the sternum and then they

pull the ribs out and they

yank out the liver and they weigh the

liver and if they had liver disease they

start cutting through the liver to see

what the problem was

and they pull out the heart and they

pull out the lungs and the spleen and

all of these different parts and you

start going

you know i have the same stuff as

they're pulling out right there where am

i

am i any part of these things

it's real interesting

and then they'll

they'll cut the

the scalp

back like this and they'll they'll pull

it off and just flop it in their face

and then they have a

bone cutter it's like a saw and they cut

open

the skull and pull the brain out

and if they died of a blood clot or

something like that or stroke

then they start digging through and

seeing where where it happened and why

it happened if they can guess

but it's a real interesting process

because you see all of these things and

you start going

where am i

i know i'm not part of this i'm not part

of that body but i have all of these

parts and they're all the same basically

and you start to develop a very strong

sense of the impersonal nature of the

body

so it's a real interesting

experience

there's one lady that she uh

she got hit by a car

that morning she was pregnant

and both the baby and them and the

mother died and they did an autopsy on

both of them

and the lungs of the baby

they were pink they're just gorgeous

little tiny lungs like that

and you got to see compare about

it looked like the the lady had been a

smoker at some time in her life and her

lungs were really black and kind of ugly

looking

but to see

the

these bodies being cut open

and seeing that

i'm not any part of that

has a very big effect on you

at least it did on me

i'd go into the autopsy with other monks

and i'd walk out and i'd be

just contemplating where am i

and they'd come out and say you've got a

real funny look on your face

but it was a big question

where am i am i part of this body and am

i any part of this body

no

not really

well am i the mind

where is mine is it in the heart or is

it in the brain

where is mine

i don't know

i couldn't see it

one of the things that's very highly

recommended for the monks

when they first become monks is to sit

and do this body contemplation for a

period of time

lucio ananda wrote in one of his books

how to do this particular kind of

concentration

and it took

about six months

before you you

had gone through the whole body

contemplation this is

doing it every day forwards and

backwards and

the typical burmese style of things

what that does is it helps the monks to

overcome any sensual desire

so that they can stay more balanced

in their practice

there are some

uh

catholic fathers that i

happened to run across and talked to and

they were very much concerned about

this was at a time when

fathers were getting caught having

sexual activity with their young

students

and they said you know we don't know how

to overcome this lust we don't know how

to

let this

go in our personalities and we own a lot

of a lot of

the fathers can get very much caught up

in this kind of thing

so they said what do you do

and i said well

first i recommend that you go to some

autopsies

and check them out first

and then start doing this kind of

meditation and i wrote it out for them

and

they they thank me with

not

great enthusiasm

i never

know what happened after that but i i

gave them

this is

our way of learning how to stay in

balance

now during the time of the buddha

there was an awful lot of devas

that were inspired to

die out of the devaloka and be reborn in

the human realm so they could be with

the buddha

and the way that they die out of the

deva loca they can do it very

consciously all they have to do is stop

eating

uh in the devil locals they eat grapes

and they're supposed to be wonderful and

they just appear

and

pop if you don't eat for one day

then

you will die from that realm

hopefully you'll be reborn in the human

realm

but during the time of the buddha

there was an awful lot of people because

they just come out of the devaloka where

there's a lot of sexual pleasures

they still had those sensual pleasures

and they still

liked all of that sort of stuff but they

wanted to become monks and be with the

buddha

so the buddha right before one range

retreat

he noticed how many people how many

monks were really

enthralled with sensual desire and he

gave them this meditation

and then the buddha went into three

months seclusion by himself

when he came back

he started noticing there's not many

monks around

and he said why not where are all the

monks

and this one mom came up to him and he

said well

you gave us this meditation and so many

people were so repulsed by their body

that they committed suicide

they gave all of their robes and all of

their requisites away

and they would just slice their throat

and die

because they were so repulsed by their

body

so doing this kind of meditation you

have to do it in a balanced way

and

actually you need to do it with a

teacher

this is one of those kind of meditations

that it's best to have a teacher around

anyway he told all the other monks don't

do that

and he gave them the mindfulness of

breathing meditation

and other meditations to do instead of

that so they had balanced mind

okay now we go to the next part of the

body contemplation and that is the

elements

again monks a monk reviews this same

body however it's placed

however disposed as consisting of

elements thus

in this body there are the earth element

the water element the fire element and

the air element

now

when we go to

number

uh suit to number

62.

okay

there we're talking about the earth

element

what that's uh section three

uh whatever internally belonging to

oneself that is solid solidified and

clung that is

head hairs body hairs nails teeth skin

sinew

flesh bones bone marrow kidneys heart

liver diaphragm spleen lungs large

intestine small intestines

contents of the stomach feet and

thesis or whatever else internally

belonging to oneself is solid solidified

and clung to

this is called the internal earth

element

so you're talking when he's talking

about the body here he's talking about

the different aspects of the different

parts of the body

and

that should be seen as it actually is

with proper wisdom thus this is not mine

this i am not this is not myself

when one sees it thus as it actually is

with proper wisdom

one becomes disenchanted with the earth

element and makes

mind is passionate towards the earth

element

what is the water element the water

element may be either internal or

external

what is internal element

whatever internally belonging to oneself

is water watery clung to that is bile

phlegm bust blood sweats fat tears

grease spittles not oil of the joints

urine or whatever else internally

belonging to oneself that's water watery

and clung to

have you ever felt water

huh

stick your hand in a bucket of water and

tell me what it feels like

it's not hot or cold

because that's the

fire element

what does the water element feel like

stick your hand in a bucket of water and

tell me what it feels like what what

what does wet feel

in a bucket of water

you'll feel hot or cold

breaking the surface tension you feel

uh hardness and softness

what does water feel like

it's more resistant than air

feel it

do that come back tomorrow and tell me

stick your hand in a bucket of water and

tell me what it feels like

i did that

and it blew my mind because i couldn't

feel anything

you'll see

and the water element should be seen as

it actually is with proper wisdom thus

this is not mine this i am not this is

not myself

when one sees it thus as it actually is

with proper wisdom

one becomes disenchanted with the water

element and makes the mind dispassionate

towards the water element

what is the earth element or the fire

element excuse me the fire element may

be either internal or external what is

the internal fire element

whatever internally cloned to one's

belonging to oneself is fire fiery and

clung to

that is

that by which one is warmed ages and is

consumed

and that by which one

by which what is eaten drunk consumed

and tasted

gets completely digested

or whatever else internally belonging to

oneself is fire fiery and clung to this

is called the fire element

and

that should be seen as it actually is

with proper wisdom thus

this is not mine this i am not this is

not myself

when one sees it thus as it actually is

with what proper wisdom one becomes

disenchanted with the fire element and

makes a mind dispassionate towards the

fire element

what is the air element the air element

may be either internal or external what

is the internal error element

whatever internally belonging to oneself

is air airy and clung to

that is

outgoing winds downgoing winds

winds in the belly wind in the bowels

winds that course through the limbs

the in-breath and out-breath or whatever

else internally belonging to oneself is

air airy and clung to

this is the internal error element

and that should be seen as it actually

is with proper wisdom thus

this is not mine this i am not this is

not myself

when one sees it at thus as it actually

is with proper wisdom one becomes

disenchanted with the air element

and makes

the mind dispassionate towards the air

element

what

what is the space element the space

element may either be internal or

external what is internal space element

whatever internally belonging to one's

self is space

spatial and clung to that is

the holes of the ears the nostrils the

door of the mouth

and that aperture by which what is eaten

drunk and consumed and tasted

gets swallowed and where it collects

whereby it is excreted from below or

wherever else internally belonging to

oneself

is space spatial and clean too

back in the beginning all day they talk

about

internal and external and internal and

external yeah contemplating this and

they thought they said this is the

internal outlet i'm just saying the

internal there is the external here okay

uh if you want me to do the external

let's see

the external element are simply

are the external earth elements are

simply earth element

see that's why yeah that's why i didn't

say anything about the external they're

talking about the physical earth

the hardness the softness

with

with water

it's cohesion

with air

it's vibration

and with fire it's it's hot hot and cold

everything in the physical universe

is made up of these four elements

and they're different

degrees of these four elements

okay

now is this is the

uh greater discourse

of advice to rahula who was the buddha's

son

and he said the buddha said rahula

develop meditation that oops

develop meditation that is like the

earth

for when you develop meditation that is

like the earth arisen agreeable and

disagreeable contact

will not invade your mind and remain

just as people throw clean things and

dirty things excrement urine spittle

plus blood on the earth

and the earth is not repelled humiliated

in disgust

because of that so to rahula develop

meditation that is like the earth

for when you develop meditation that is

like the earth

a risen agreeable and disagreeable

context will not invade your mind and

remain

rahula developed meditation that is like

the water for when you develop

meditation that is like water or risen

agreeable and disagreeable context will

not invade your mind and remain

just as people wash clean things and

dirty things excrement urine spittle pus

blood in water

and the water is not repelled humiliated

and disgusted because of that so too

rahula

develop meditation that is like water

for when you develop meditation that is

like water a risen agreeable and

disagreeable context will not invade

your mind and remain

good advice isn't it

and he goes through the fire and he goes

through the air

and then he goes through the space

that's why i read this space just a

moment ago rahula developed meditation

that is like space

for when you develop meditation that is

like space a a risen agreeable and

disagreeable context will not invade

your mind and remain

just as space is not established

anywhere

so to rahula develop meditation that is

like space

for when you develop meditation like

space

arisen agreeable and disagreeable

context will not invade your mind and

remain

develop meditation on loving kindness

and then we go through compassion and

joy and equanimity

now this is

a very important suta because it is very

much encouraging

you

to

not get caught up in agreeable and

disagreeable things

see them for what they actually are it's

just feelings arising

and then your mind grabs on to it and

says i don't like that or i do like it

and then you start thinking of all the

reasons why you like or don't like it

and you get into the story

and you go further and further away from

the present moment

and this is a source of suffering

when you start developing a mind that is

like the earth or like the water or like

the fire or the air

when you start developing a mind that

doesn't get caught up in agreeable and

disagreeable

this is what one of the

chinese patriarchs said was

the great way

to not be disturbed by things

by

likes and dislikes

so the more equanimity the more balance

you have in your practice

in your daily life

the more ease and more contentment you

have

in living

in being

in being in the present moment

every time you get caught up in like and

dislike

you're not in the present moment anymore

you're caught

in some kind of

delusion

that these thoughts these feelings this

thing whatever was agreeable or

disagreeable

this is me this is mine this is who i am

letting go of that

and seeing everything as part of an

impersonal process

takes away

so much suffering is unbelievable

for instance

one time i was living in hawaii i was

helping a man build a house

i wasn't getting paid to do this i was

just doing it because i wanted to hang

out with this guy and help him

after a period of time a couple of weeks

he started thinking he was my boss

and it really started to rub me the

wrong way

and one day he said something and it

really got me angry

and i started walking away from him and

the heels

my

feet were digging into the ground and

i'm thinking that no good so and so

he really is getting to me and i really

don't like it

and then the thought dawned on me he

thinks he's my boss

and it made me laugh

and as soon as i left i stopped walking

and i went wow look at that

i went from i don't like this so-and-so

and what he's doing

to

it's only this anger

just because i left

the change of perspective

from i am angry and i don't like it to

its only anger

that's the difference between the

personal perspective and the impersonal

perspective

we need to develop the impersonal

perspective in everything that arises

but the trick is

remembering

to observe

remembering to see

how these things

arise

and

practice the six hours with them

yeah but it doesn't go away right away

so

and i don't remember anybody signing a

contract saying you only had to do the

six hours once and have things go away

after that

well i have to do it over and over again

it's not working

yes it is

but you have to let go of the demands

that reality happen in the way you want

it to in your own time frame

see the thing is

these kind of attachments and they can

be old attachments that you've had for a

long time

they turn into habitual tendencies

and when that habitual tendency arises

there's this mind that's like that

grabbing on to it

and all of your concepts and all of your

opinions

and all of your stories

about why you like or dislike or why you

want to control

it pulls you further and further away

from what is actually happening in the

present moment

now you're in a dream world

you're not awake anymore

because of old habitual tendencies

and i always act this way when this kind

of feeling arises

and look at how much suffering we cause

ourself

and how much suffering we cause other

people

becoming more and more aware and using

the six r's

is the path that leads to the cessation

of suffering

you're following the entire eightfold

path

when you're practicing the six hearts

so the more you do that

the more you start purifying your mind

and the more purified your mind becomes

the more balance you have in your mind

and the easier everything becomes

you start to become more and more

content with what's happening

without having that emotional

breath

yeah but this guy came in and he was

angry and he made me angry and

nobody can make you angry

if you don't have any buttons to push

how can anyone have

their buttons pushed

sometimes when i'm sitting

i have so much going through i don't

know what to call it

don't call it anything just six are it

recognize that your mind is distracted

release the distraction that doesn't

mean change the distraction

it doesn't mean it'll necessarily go

away right away that's for sure

but

relax

smile

return

keep with your object of meditation as

long as you can then you're going to pop

back again

how strong is your attachment to

whatever that is how much are you

believing

that these thoughts and these feelings

are me they're mine that's who i am

that's how long that's going to keep

coming up

sometimes it just seems like a roar like

it isn't any particular thing it doesn't

matter

see the why

doesn't matter

it's how

that's why the the

uh

the hindrances are so important to us

because they're teaching us how mind's

attention moves and how we attach

ourselves to things

and as you become more familiar with

your mind moving from one thing to

another

going from your object to meditation

to your

uh

your

distraction whatever it happens to be

your anger your sadness your anxiety

your fear

whatever

as you become familiar with this as a

process

instead of this is me this is mine this

is who i am

when you start seeing it as processed

you're starting to see it in an

impersonal way

and you're starting to see

ah there's this there's that there's

that there's that

and then there's this hindrance

but there's always something leading up

to the hindrance

your mind just doesn't all of a sudden

jump from your object to meditation

to the hindrance

it happens

in exactly

the same way

for everybody

it doesn't matter

what country you come from in this world

everybody's mind works in exactly the

same way

yeah

can you reiterate i mean can you talk

about how this practice works for

everyone especially for those who

sometimes encounter doubt

what is death

how does doubt

in the mind

how does it arise

there is a feeling and it's unpleasant

then there's

craving

i don't like it now

where the doubts really start to grow

is with the clinging

that's with your concepts with your

opinions with your ideas

with your

story and then

your habitual

tendency

when this doubt starts to grow a little

bit and you start thinking about all the

reasons why

you don't know

you always act this way when these kind

of feelings come up when these kind of

thoughts come up

and it causes

the birth of action

okay that's dependent origination that's

how it works

you're depressed

how do you how does depression occur

there's a painful feeling that arises

and there's an i don't like it mind

tightness

and then there's all of your opinions

and concepts and reasons why you don't

like that feeling

and then you try to think

the feeling away

the more you think

about a hindrance the bigger and more

intense the entrance becomes

so the first thing you have to do is let

go of your thinking about

and relax

then you notice there's a tight mental

fist wrapped around that feeling

now feeling is feeling

it's not good it's not bad

it's just a feeling

allow the space for that feeling to be

there without trying to change it

without trying to make it any different

than it actually is

then relax that tightness

caused by the craving

and smile

and

come back to your object of meditation

and stay on your object of meditation as

long as you can

see the biggest problem with something

like doubt is you think you can solve

the doubt by

thinking

and that's not the way you get rid of

doubt

you get rid of doubt by not thinking

by observing how the six r's work

okay

and we can say

we can say fear we can say anxiety we

can say depression we can say sadness

whatever the catch of the day happens to

be it doesn't have to be doubt it can be

any of the hindrances

you treat it in the same way

see there's there's contact there's

feeling there's

craving there's clinging there's

habitual tendency there's birth of

actions

there's sorrow there's lamentation

there's pain grief and despair

why

because of that not recognizing that

tightness it's just the

when you let go of

the craving

all of the rest doesn't even arise

and it's hard to see that at first it's

very hard

but as you become familiar with it when

these wonderful hindrances arise your

friends

as you become more familiar with it and

you start seeing it more clearly

you start going oh yeah

yeah this is an oh well

this is how it works

so uh

overcoming doubt

means

letting go of the thinking about that

feeling

because that's all it is it's a feeling

there's grieving and then there's all of

your concepts and opinions

and your story

and your habitual tendency and birth and

then all of that pain and suffering

and the more you indulge in thinking

the bigger and more intense the doubt

becomes

why

because

doubt is a feeling

it doesn't have anything to do with

thoughts

but you're trying to control the feeling

with the thoughts

and it doesn't work

okay

and this works exactly the same for

everybody

if you're a human being

your mind works the same way as

everybody else's mind

boy is that hard for americans to take

ah but i'm different

not really

so it's a real interesting uh

phenomena when we get back to the sati

patana suta about the elements

that when we're talking about the

elements we're still talking about body

parts

and that's why it's

in in the section on the body

now the next nine

body contemplations

are a little bit more on the gross side

and they are called cemetery or eternal

ground

meditations where you go to where they

bring a body

in india it used to be and they still do

it a little bit in bali

somebody would die

they would carry the body to the turtle

ground and they would put it down and

say okay

whoever the relative is they can come

and take care of it

and sometimes they do and sometimes they

don't

so there was a lot of

being able to observe a body after three

or four days how it gets bloated and how

insects start to invade it and

then after

a week then you see the the skeleton

with just little bits of flesh on it and

it

it's just a progression of

longer and longer

uh decay of the body

it's hard to do that meditation now

like i said i had

the day before i left bali

somebody told me about a

charnel ground there's hindus on bali

and they treat the body in the same way

and i didn't get a chance to go

do that meditation because we were

leaving the next day and that kind of

bothered me because i didn't get to do

it

isn't that odd

yeah let's go look at a rotten it

well isn't it

hotter that you can see it on television

but they only give you 30 seconds of it

maybe that's too much

if i was gonna do that i would i would

spend the entire day and night there

now i did go to a

graveyard in thailand

and i've never really thought much about

ghosts and all of this kind of stuff

but when i got to thailand they really

think about this kind of stuff a lot

and they're very much afraid of ghosts

so i went to this graveyard because i

wanted to do uh

it's a cemetery meditation where you

sleep in the graveyard overnight

and i sat down beside this grave that

had only been this person had been in

the ground for like a day and a half or

two days

and i was sitting there

and all of a sudden i started hearing

noises

i was just about ready to run away

and one of the village puppies

came and started digging in the ground

where that grave was

and it's there's moaning and groaning

and what it was was just gases coming

off the body

and this dog is starting to dig around

because he wants something to eat

and i thought

ah

if that dog's not afraid of those sounds

why should i be

no ghost is going to eat me alive

tonight

but there is something

in one of the sutas that talks about

what you do with

when you have fear arise

and the buddha gave us a very clear

direction he said whatever posture

you're in

when fear arises don't change that

posture

and stay there until the fear goes away

so i was in thailand and i was in the

forest by myself i was a little cootie

that was two or three miles away from

town

and i got up at two o'clock in the

morning decided i was gonna go out and

do walking meditation

now there's no electricity around so i

had a couple candles and i put one at

one end of the walkway and one at the

other end of the walkway and i started

doing my walking meditation and out of

the corner of my eye i saw something

and i stopped and i went

do i really want to be out here

doing this walking meditation right now

and i thought well

okay we'll continue so

i didn't even get one more step in

and i saw something out there again

and the hair on the back of my neck

stood up and i was really considering

going back into my cootie and hiding

underneath my robes

and then i remembered that that the

buddha said don't change your posture so

and i stopped

so i started walking again

and i had my head turned a little bit

and i saw a flash of light

oh

man

they're coming for me you know these

yuccas are they're gonna eat me alive

these ogres whatever

and i thought it was kind of interesting

as i was walking so i turned my head all

the way and i saw

fireflies

i built up those fireflies into the

biggest baddest ghosts that were going

to eat me alive

you see how ridiculous that was

so

what we want to do is

learn how to get in balance with

whatever kind of mental state that

arises

and treat everything like the earth

or everything like the water or the fire

or the air

so you don't

have

likes and dislikes when disagreeable

things arise or agreeable things are

right

the more balance you can put into your

practice and into

your way of observing things

the less suffering you will experience

it's just that simple

and practicing the six r's

is the way

to do that

yes

um i haven't been sleeping well i you

know the first

domino

you mentioned that during this loving

kindness meditation you sleep better

but

that perhaps you'll encounter something

in your dream

and to send it send it loving kindness

and actually that's scary

i really don't know what you meant by

that

do you know how to radiate loving

kindness yes but okay if you're in if

you're if you have a dream and it's not

a pleasant dream then radiate loving

kindness okay that's what it means

really is there's not nothing to it

but your your sleep will start to be

better but if you wake up in the night

get up

i don't mean get out of bed i mean just

sit in bed

put the covers around you and and start

practicing your living kindness

and then when you

feel sleepy then

lay down and go to sleep again

okay

when

the the rule of thumb for meditation

retreat is when you wake up get up

and

you can sit in the bed

sometimes you you'll

not want to break your sitting to get up

and go to the first sitting in the

morning

sometimes you'll

just do that for 10 minutes and your

mind says oh let's lay down and go back

to sleep

and that's fine either way

i'm going to give you a short diamond

talk today

the rest of the sati patana suta is

going to i'm going to

go through that tomorrow

because it just takes too long to go

through this whole suit at one

city and it would take away from your

opportunity to

do more practice

okay does anybody have any other

questions or comments or whatever

questions so are there five

hindrances

essentially different aspects of feeling

yes

the

uh

restlessness can have it be either a

pleasant feeling or an unpleasant

feeling and it's the same with all of

the

all of the hindrances

an example of

restlessness being a pleasant feeling is

planning

and accounting to me does come up

okay

yes it's a small point but it's always

bothered me um the suit is says to sit

cross-legged and he didn't say

cross-legged or on a chair if that's

more comfortable

you have to understand that during the

time of the buddha or even if you go

into

burma or thailand now they don't have

any chairs

they're used to sitting on the floor

they're used to sitting cross-legged

we were not brought up that way we were

brought up to be sitting in chairs

you can

work

very hard and go through an awful lot of

pain and be able to sit cross-legged on

the floor

but does that lead to good meditation

there's no magic on the floor

if it causes you a lot of pain

then sit in a way that doesn't cause

pain to arise

and

for westerners sitting in a chair is

very comfortable

um i had a friend

she was a very virtuous woman

that

she wanted to learn meditation so i told

her to come for a retreat i was giving

one on the weekend

and after the first i give her that i'd

given her the instructions after after

lunch i went and i talked to her and i

said well how's your meditation going

and she said well it seems to be going

all right how long are you sitting i can

only sit for 45 minutes

ah only

i said well why don't you sit longer

and she said you know i'm not used to

sitting on the floor and the pain in my

knees is just

awful

and i can only stand it for 45 minutes

before i have to get up

so i said well

sit in a chair just don't lean heavily

in the chair

her next sitting was four hours

she got into the first drama

see having the pain is not necessarily a

good thing it's a distraction

and you can

practice sitting cross-legged

i was sitting cross-legged on the floor

for a long time

and i had a teacher that kept on saying

why don't you sit longer

so i was sitting for long periods of

time

and i developed blood clots in my legs

thank you very much

that i've just recently figured out how

to take care of it so i don't have these

problems

but it took me more than 15 years to get

rid of the blood clots in my legs i

couldn't sit on the floor now for any

length of time

they're built differently than we are

because they're used to sitting on the

floor

their hips are a little bit different

than ours

and if the physiology is there

so that's

it's your choice what you want to do

does it interfere with your meditation

or not do you want to sit with pain and

use pain as your meditation

it's not a comfortable thing

are you going to get to the bonnet by

experiencing all this pain

no because you start identifying with

the pain

it's hard to sit with pain your mind

goes like that it becomes a rock

so it's up to you

you can you can follow what that said

there's a difference between the letter

of the law and the spirit of the law

and sometimes i bounce back between one

and another

for whatever is appropriate

at the time okay did that help

uh yeah it raised raised one other

question

with the pain so if you're sitting

and there's pain

it seems natural to stand up to relieve

it if it gets too bad but the

instruction is to stay still

now this is within reason

and

there are two different kinds of pain

one is meditation pain

and the other one is real pain

the only way you can tell the difference

is you have a lot of pain say you have a

pain in your knee

okay

meditation pain is

you get up and you start walking and

within three steps you don't even

remember you had the pain

real pain is that doesn't go away

okay

don't sit that way

if it's a real pain

sit in a way that doesn't cause the pain

to arrive

i've had meditation pains

for

years

it was i felt like somebody took a knife

and stabbed me right in the arm and

there wasn't any position that i could

use

while i was meditating that there was an

extreme pain

but when i got up and start walking away

there was nothing

finally it just went away by itself

i burned that karma out

i probably wound up

stabbing somebody in the arm at one

point or another

it was

and of course i was doing all kinds of

things to it thinking that i could heal

that i was putting healing oils on it

and i was doing all kinds of stuff none

of it worked

so

let's sit in a way that doesn't cause

real pain

yes well isn't it true that the buddha

would lie down at times because he had

pain in his back so he meditated lying

down yes definitely so

there isn't any prescribed posture that

you have to have

that way

for monks we are taught to sleep on our

right side

and that's the way the buddha when he

laid down he always lay down on his

right side

and the reason for that is your heart

needs to have nothing pushing against it

if you lay down on the left side

you have lungs and stuff that start

pushing against your heart you lay down

on the right side and it's open and it's

much more comfortable

and i've developed this habit so that

i can read a book for hours

and then say okay it's time to go to

sleep put the book down turn the lights

off

get on my right side within five seconds

i'm asleep

i mean i toss and turn for a good five

seconds

but that's because i've developed that

habit over the years of sleeping on the

right side

if i try to go to sleep on the left side

i i don't sleep

i'll lay there away

i go on my right side

so when you're picking your

posture

pick a posture

that doesn't

cause you

real physical pain

that's one of the problems that i had

when i went to burma and they i

i started a retreat i'll give you the

whole story

i started to retreat with this one

teacher

and the first day of the retreat i

walked into the interview and he said

how long did you sit i said i sat for an

hour and i walked for an hour that's

prescribed okay

he said why don't you sit longer i said

okay

i came in the next day i said he said

how long did you sit i said

i sat for two hours walk for an hour

okay why don't you sit longer

okay

came back the next day

how long did you sit

three hours it was a

killer don't want to do that again

okay why don't you sit longer oh man

okay i'll try

come in the next day tears coming down

so much pain how long did you sit

four hours it was a killer

walk for an hour

did you move while you were sitting

yeah i was moving all over the place

there's painful

well don't move

okay we'll try

i came in the next day how long did you

sit i sat for four hours did you move no

i never want that experience again

why don't you sit longer no

i'm not going to sit any longer that's

it

but he eventually coerced me into

sitting for six seven eight hours

without moving

and that's why i developed these blood

clots

in my legs

because i was sitting

it's just like a hose you know if you

put a crimp in the hose you don't get

any water through it well that's what

was happening to my blood vessels

it was not a natural way of developing

the meditation

i have had students that

they can sit for that long

but they don't have any physical

problems when they sit that long because

just developed over a period of time in

a very natural way to sit longer and

longer and longer

and anybody that was sitting long

periods of time when they when they got

up from that sitting i made sure that

they were getting their blood

circulation moving and that's when i

started telling people you have to do

your meditative walking meditation

going up and down stairs

and you can't you can't do it for any

less than 30 minutes

and i want you to do it fast so that

you're puffing

that put balance back into their body

so the whole thing comes down to

actually

not necessarily following what a teacher

says but following

what your body is telling you

if you're sitting in a particular way

and there's really extreme pain

and you get up and that pain doesn't go

away please do not sit that way again

i don't want anyone to wind up with

physical problems

okay any other

question

are you interested in esoteric questions

or not

ah let's save that for more towards the

end of the retreat

okay

okay let's share some marathons

here

may all beings share this merit that we

thus acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

made beings inhabiting space and earth

that it is amazing

and this merit of art

may they long protect the greatest

dispensations

you