From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uycF_2BJL9A

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

you

Ramsey will be giving down talk I'm

going to try a number 53 disciple in

higher training that got suped up

just to confuse things a bit it's hired

tree me and Polly is called up and down

this is not the obvious thus if I heard

on one occasion the blessed one was

living in the sake in country kept till

about 2:00 in Negro does Park now on

that occasion a new Assembly Hall had

been built for the sake ins of cap bill

about to and it had not been inhabited

by any recluse or a brahmin or human

being at all when they built these

meeting houses that was a place for

ascetics to come and they can spend the

night with a roof over their head in

walls so the animals didn't bother him

things like that then the sake ins of

capital of a2 went to the Blessed One

after paying homage to him they sat down

at one side and said to him venerable

sir a new Assembly Hall has recently

been built for the sake ins of cap bill

about two and it has not yet been

inhabited by any Rekluse Brahman or

human being at all venerable sir let the

blessed one be the first to use it when

the blessed one has used it first then

the sake ins of cat velvet too will use

it afterwards that will lead to their

welfare and happiness for a long time

the Blessed One consented in silence

shook is that okay

then when they saw that he had consented

they got up from their seats and after

paying homage to him keeping him on

their right they went to the assembly

hall they covered it completely with

coverings and prepared seats and they

put a large water drug and hung up an

oil lamp they didn't have electricity

then the Sri Lankans

the tradition is before a Dhamma talk

there is an oil lamp it's five tiers for

four or five tiers I don't know but what

they do is they put oil in and then they

have a wick and make a little ceremony

of lighting all of the things so that

way there would be light then he went to

the Blessed One after paying homage to

him they stood at one side and said

venerable sir the Assembly Hall has been

covered completely with coverings and

seats have been prepared and a large

water drug is put out than an oil lamp

huh let the Blessed One come at his own

convenience then the Blessed One dressed

and taking his bowl and outer rope went

with the Sangha of monks to the Assembly

Hall one of the reasons he always went

places with his robes and Bowl was

because they didn't have any locks on

the doors and things sometimes would

disappear

when I was in Burma we had this big

meditation hall and we had two clocks we

had one on each each side of the wall

they were they were big box like this

and we're all sitting there one night

and this guy walks in with a ladder gets

people to move so he can go up and take

the clock off the wall and walked out he

stole it in front of all of us so after

that there was a little little frame

around it so they couldn't take it off

it give a man a ladder and he can do

anything well at the time in Burma they

were really really really poor no oh

yeah when he arrived he washed his feet

and then entered the hall and sat down

by the center pillar facing the east

facing the east there was a guy that got

some real sensitive equipment and he

measured the energy of the different

four different directions and when you

face the east you have more energy

coming at you so if you're experiencing

sloth and torpor sit facing the east and

it can help a little bit when you lay

down to go to sleep if you have your

head towards the north you get good

sleep or if you have a restless mind you

sit facing the north

I don't remember what the other

directions did the whole have to let

that go

so whenever the Buddha gave a dominant

talk he would he always faced the east

and the monks washed their feet and

entered the hall and sat down by the

western wall facing the east so the

Buddha was facing the east and they sat

down behind him the blessed with a

blessed one before them the sake ins of

capital about to washed their feet and

entered the hall and sat down by the

eastern wall facing the West so they

were facing the Buddha then when the

blessed one had it's instructed urged

roused and gladden the sake ins of kept

fill of a - with a talk on the Dhamma

for much of the night he said to the

venerable Ananda Ananda speak with the

sake ins of capful of I - about the

disciple in higher training who has

entered upon the way my back is

uncomfortable I will rest it now what

does this tell you this tells you that

this was when the Buddha was getting

fairly old he started having back

problems

now the next paragraph in here makes it

sound like the Buddha laid down and went

to sleep

but he didn't all he was doing was

laying down on his side and resting his

back but he was listening to what Ananda

set

and that's kind of a misinterpretation

makuu booty was going by a set formula

and I'll show you that in a minute

yes venerable sir the venerable Ananda

replied then a blessed one prepared his

patchwork cloak folded in four and laid

down on his right side in the Lions pose

all of all the buddha images you see him

lying on his right side like this well

there's a pillow that goes in there so

he's not just leaning on his head I had

a friend that he saw a bunch of images

without the pillow so he tried it he

tried laying down on his right side with

his head on this on his arm like this

his arm went to sleep in about 15

minutes and he tried staying like that

for an hour and it took him a long time

before he could even move his arm he had

no circulation at his heart meant at all

now one of the things that the Buddha

suggested for monks in particular was to

when you go to sleep you sleep on your

right side and when you sleep on your

right side your heart is very much open

and there's nothing pressing against it

if you sleep on your left side the side

you have your lung pushing against your

heart a little bit and you don't get as

good asleep so I've been doing this

practice for a lot of years and I can

read a book I can be tired I won't go to

sleep while I'm reading the book I put

the book down I roll on my right side

and boy I toss and turn for a good

minute

if that before I go to sleep and I sleep

very nicely very soundly he's travelling

in the RV with me he's got the couch

okay now here's where the mistake comes

from from bhikkhu bodhi on this mindful

and fully aware after noting in his mind

the time for rising now that implies

that he goes to sleep and he wasn't then

a venerable ananda announced the

venerable ananda addressed Mahanama the

sake and thus maha nama there are noble

disciples here excuse me here a noble

disciple is possessed of virtue guards

the doors of assessed faculty his

moderate and eating and devoted to

wakefulness

he possesses seven good qualities and he

is one who obtains at will without

trouble or difficulty the four Jonah's

that constitute the higher mind and

provide a pleasant abiding here and now

and how as a noble disciple possessed a

virtue here ennoble disciple is virtuous

he dwells now he's talking about monks

right now he dwells restrained with the

restraint of the potty mocha that that

is the rules for the monks the potty

mocha when there is a sound guys they

get together every new moon and

and recite all of the rules in Burma we

did this every new moon and full moon

they recited in Pali and they pick one

monk and they say okay you're going to

recite it and then he starts reciting it

and if he makes one mistake all the

other monks say whoops you made a

mistake start over again

now when you when you memorize things

like this and you have somebody to

correct your mistakes don't have

mistakes this is the most effective way

to keep the Dhamma alive by memorizing

it and have people correct you if you

make a mistake the first 500 years after

the Buddha died that's how the potty

Moka that's how the all of the Dhamma

was kept alive nothing was written down

although occasionally they would write

some down and even in after 200 years

after the Buddha they do find some that

is written but people were practicing

their memorizing of everything important

so this is the most accurate way to keep

the teachings of the Buddha alive by

memorizing it these days and times it's

not done too much by monks I couldn't do

it in Burma right now there are it's

either seven or eight can't remember

monks who have memorized the entire to

Pittock and they took a test on it and

the test lasts ten hours a day for 30

days in a row I've heard people in

college complain how what a killer it is

to have a four hour test now in order to

get the highest degree on this they

can't make more than ten mistakes that's

the most they could make that's just the

written part the reciting part is I tell

you I'm reading from the second the

discipline and higher training the

middle bank sayings and I might read a

couple lines and say okay continue and

they can in Pali

well it's Burmese Pali it's it's they

have their own brand the purest poly

comes from sri lanka the pronunciation

now when I was in Burma the Mingo and

SIA da had done this in the 50s and he

was during the the six buddhist council

maja seaside was a chief questioner he

was the answerer okay

and when I was in Burma he was still

doing quite well and game and gave talks

occasionally and then he started getting

sick he was 85 between 85 and 90 and I

had the opportunity through a translator

to sit down with him privately and ask

him questions I asked him where in the

suit is his access concentration

mentioned he said it's not in the sutras

this is in a commentary where in the

suit is moment to moment awareness

mentioned it's not mentioned in the in

the sutras that's mentioned in the

commentary where is straight Vipassana

mentioned in the suta be possono

only as a meditation that's not in the

suta's that's mentioned in the

commentary so I got to ask him quite a

few of those questions that were rather

important to me at the time because I've

been practicing straight Vipassana for

well at the time it was 19 years

and it made me not so enthusiastic about

some of the commentaries because if it's

not backed up by the suit does then it's

just somebody else's opinion somebody

else's idea that's what commentaries are

I'm giving you a commentary right now

you can believe it or not but the main

commentary that is used by the Burmese

is called the Vasudha manga and that is

considered by an awful lot of people

even in this country to be the

encyclopedia of all meditation but when

you look up the way things are being

taught they don't match up very well

with the suit does see the the author

was Buddha Gosa and he had studied the

Vedas now the Vedas are the holy books

of the Brahmins at the time that up

until the 1800s there's no such a word

as Hindu they were Brahmins and he was a

Pali scholar but he never did any

meditation so he started writing about

meditation and he was talking to four

different groups of monks that didn't

necessarily

I agree with each other on what the

Buddha's teaching was and he kind of he

tried to combine things so everybody

would come together but when it came to

the actual meditation meditation is

meditation Brahman meditation Buddhist

meditations all the same you know and he

knew what the what the Vedas said he

didn't delve into the suitors to see

what they said so this is where he's

coming up with Nimet us he's coming up

with access concentration he's coming up

with absorption concentration he's

coming up with moment-to-moment

concentration he cogito okay ich Agha in

poly means tranquil okay

he kaga ha is it's kind of kind of like

the act of being tranquil but over the

years that's also they act of being

still the act of being one-pointed now

there's a lot of justification for this

even if you read say I was healing on

this book he gave you five different

definitions of each Agata and as always

break

Iike which means one and then putting

cogito behind it and he has different

different ways of looking at that but

there are some words in Pali that you

can't tear apart you can't say Iike

means one so this is one pointed

concentration so we run into some some

problems when you start looking at iike

gah which is right after the word in

cogito in in the dictionary or right

before I don't remember which meaning

tranquility meaning stillness meaning

composure and then having a docket Iike

Goethe with a completely different

meaning and that meaning has been

changed to mean absorption concentration

it means one pointedness it means having

your mind

glued on your object of meditation now

the point with the the problem with one

pointedness is the force of the

concentration suppresses the hindrances

according to the Burmese that's a good

thing that means your mind is pure and

it is at that time but when you lose

your concentration who comes to dinner

right so you have all of these these

hindrances that come up but because they

were suppressed and it starts being

suppressed at access concentration

you're not able to recognize when they

come up your identify with the

hindrances

lot of people that I know from my own

personal practice I had a lot of pride I

know this meditation better than you

know it what you're saying is nonsense

what I'm saying is right you know it's

that kind of mind that occurs because of

not being able to recognize that kind of

hindrance when it arises why because it

gets suppressed so you don't see it when

it comes up this is part of the reason

why so many people practice straight

Vipassana for 15 20 30 40 years and they

talk about there's no real progress this

is a problem well it's not a problem if

you go back to the sutas but I went back

to the sutras and you know how much I

get criticized for this I'm an outlaw

according to them I'm not really

somebody to stay away from they're

afraid because I can show them what the

Buddha said and how I meant it so in the

instructions there's a word when we're

talking about tranquilizing the bodily

formation okay the pali word is she's

not watching possum bhaiyya

awesome bhaiyya can mean many different

things depending on the other words

around it okay now it could be a verb it

can be a noun it can be an adjective it

can be an adverb depending on the words

how it's used in the sentence this tells

you what it's talking about

now possum by the way that it's it's

supposed to be translated in English

means that you tranquilize your bodily

formation on the in breath and you

tranquilize your bodily formation on the

out-breath and the thing that tells you

about this it is he trains thus okay

that makes it into an action verb a lot

of people will say I get into this deep

concentration

I am tranquil but that's not what the

instructions are given are were or given

it's not after the fact because it says

that you become you tranquil eyes on the

in-breath and on the out-breath they

don't do that they don't have this

relaxed step in it now what's the

importance of the relaxed step you don't

get into absorption concentration when

you're doing the relaxed step it won't

allow you to go that deep what is the

relaxed step the relaxed step is letting

go of craving see how it works

so anytime somebody's doing a practice

and they don't have that relaxed step in

it and use it often then they can get

caught by this deep concentration which

suppresses the hindrances and all of the

hindrances are where your ego belief in

herself is stored okay the reason the

hindrance has come up because of past

action breaking a precept for one reason

or another and then you can feel guilty

about it for a while he killed somebody

else or you stole something or you had

sexual misconduct with someone or you

you used your your verbal telling lies

or dividing people or cursing and that

sort of thing now you can get to a point

where you go oh that doesn't mean

anything I don't care but your mind

holds on to that and your mind will say

if you if you break a precept I

shouldn't have done that I know I

shouldn't have done that but you can

gloss it over but guess what that

hindrance is going to manifest as

restlessness sloth and torpor doubt

hatred lust and all of those have

craving in them I am that whatever that

entrance happens to be so if you're not

consciously letting go of that on the

in-breath you relax on the out-breath

you relax

practice the six R's you have that

relaxed step in it if you don't do that

the force of the concentration will

suppress it but your mind isn't totally

pure why because when you lose your

concentration you got the hindrances and

the identification with those hindrances

so it's a real important thing to have

that step of relax and it's done in a

particular way on the in-breath when

you're doing breathing meditation on the

in-breath you relax

what do you relax no your brain has two

parts in it and around each part is a

membrane called the meninges now where

the two parts come together every time

there's a break of the hindrance they

kind of get stuck together okay and what

happens every time you have a thought

every time a sensation arises every time

a feeling arises this meninges tightens

when it tightens that is how you

recognize when craving has arisen

what is craving interesting question

something that you can ask a lot of

meditation teachers about and they won't

give you a real idea of what craving is

it's always recognized as tension and

tightness in mind and

body and it manifests as I like or I

don't like depending on the feeling that

arose right before that craving came up

and because that craving is there that's

the very start of your identification I

am that I like this I don't like that

then the clinging arises which is your

theory opinions ideas thoughts cravings

are not cravings but concepts and

stories ok that's the thing that pulls

you away and completely distracts you so

you don't even know that you have an

object of meditation you don't even know

where you are most of the time people

don't even recognize when they have a

body they get so caught up in the

thinking thinking thinking thinking

thinking so when you start practicing

this and you start recognizing that

there is this tightness that happens

every time there's a distraction a

hindrance and when you're able to relax

you'll feel that membrane let go a

little bit and when you do it feels like

an expansion that happens in your mind

in your head and what you'll notice

right after that is there is no thoughts

there is no clinging why because there

is no craving because you let it go your

mind is clear your mind is bright your

mind is agile and your mind is pure why

is it

because you don't have any craving in it

and you take that mind and bring up a

wholesome object

what's a wholesome object smile so your

mind gets light now you bring that

smiling mind back to your object of

meditation if you follow the directions

the way that I'm showing don't add

anything don't subtract anything use the

six ARS roll your R's it's not

recognized release relax Reis mile

return repeat it's not that it's a flow

that you get into it's there it is

let it be relaxed smile come back now

you're starting to purify your mind

why are you purifying your mind because

you don't have any craving in it at that

time until there's another distraction

so I forgot the point that I was

starting out on a cognitive well okay no

I I rather prefer to other words rather

than one pointedness or concentration

for a cockatoo I rather prefer

collectiveness or composed and unified

because your mind does

come and is very alert and it's unified

on your object of meditation now when

you look at the word unified you have

unique in it uni means one but it

doesn't mean one pointed it means

staying on on your object without gluing

your attention to it so that if there is

a distraction you'll be able to see how

mind's attention moves that's the

definition of mindfulness remembering to

observe how mind's attention moves from

one thing to another and that's the

whole key to the meditation how does

mind's attention move not why we don't

care about the content of the thought we

don't care if you're your mother bit

your toe when you're about four years

old and you didn't like it we don't care

if there's anger that comes up and

flares we want to see how does this

process work this is a completely

impersonal process you don't ask any of

this stuff to come up it comes up

because the conditions are right for it

to come up what you do with that right

now dictates what happens in the future

the more times you use the six r's and

you relax and smile and come back to

your object to meditation the longer you

will stay with your object of meditation

and the sharper your mindfulness come

becomes when there is a distraction so

you don't get caught for islam so the

soft application

well yes absolutely but I because of the

word concentration the way it's used in

this country I stay away from it as much

as I can

collected means together and it is an

alert and I do prefer that word and I

didn't invent that that definition I got

that from other books that I've read and

I kept on bumping into it with these

other different books going oh I like

that better than concentration so I

prefer the word collectiveness to

concentration because it won't be

misunderstood so easily now we'll let

that go but it's like it is anything

that you do in the dictionary the first

definition is the one you almost always

go with yeah yeah that's true and the

Polytech society is coming out with a

new edition of poly to English

dictionary there we have the second

volume now and it's actually from from

looking at it it is quite good good luck

yeah okay have one one-half of the

population you pick the name I don't

remember but but she is quite good and

she does use a lot of different

different dictionaries to come up with

the right it is it is how to two volumes

are out there I think there's going to

be two more yes they were he knew that I

was practicing Vipassana but I wanted to

know very specific questions he didn't

have much reaction he was just giving me

the answers he's memorized all switches

they're not following no not really

he even wrote series of six books making

his own commentary on the Vasudha Mogga

yeah but that's in asian countries they

they have a follow-the-leader mentality

where somebody that's really popular

write something and you do the

meditation and you see that everything

is writing happens to you and then you

have complete confidence and don't even

think to question by going back to the

original text what's happening in this

country to everybody has the sutras on

their shelves they have no idea what a

lot of them are still in their original

plastic oh don't you love

you go and get a used book and they said

you going to use section of Amazon and

you pay $30 and seven $60 it sent it to

you fully shrink-wrapped it's never been

opened never been touched it was I

bought that but oh yeah I haven't sinned

my climber II never had been the

sheriff's never been opened

well that doesn't happen to me

I'm the wall of books that I've brought

from still playing the little library

cards in and all the little cars are

still there yeah and guess who checked

them out there's like one name no you

got it you got it

fizzy astok about reading all old

bît-yakin well you can't be a Ming goon

say I know because he's from that's not

his name he's from Ming goon he's a he's

a side i from Ming Boone just like Tunku

Luce I doubt that wasn't his actual name

he was from the township of Tong Pulu

that's one of the ways that the Burmese

monks they they give the name of their

town and I'm the side out of this town

and that that's

and poets anything else it reoccurs

occasionally but bhikkhu bodhi really

does like the word concentration it's

it's there and you know an awful lot of

things that happen with with

translations it's really kind of

authority road that you go down because

if you try to be too literal

you miss the meaning there's there's two

books of anga trendy kya that's written

by are translated by hair and he tried

to do it word by word translation with

no syntax in it and it's impossible to

understand what the heck is he talking

about

because their sentence structure and

poly is different than it is in English

but he didn't care he just did it word

by word or you can get too caught up in

more freelancing kind of interpretation

and it goes away from the original that

happens with some people in California

that are doing translations right now

and I spent a lot of time talking with

Lucille Anandi about what do you do he

said the best you can basically there

are sometimes you have to weren't use a

word that's very literal and there's

other times to get the idea across you

have to change it so that in this

language it would make sense and I

promise you it's hard I mean it took me

the first suit that I tried to do this

with took me two days the second suit

has taken four days and I'm not done yet

and there's all of these executive

decisions on this word you know well I'd

be I cannot afford to change it without

changing the meaning it's it's not easy

I promise yeah right and that's what I'm

working that's what I'm working toward

but there's still some words that got to

think about them a lot I mean I had

three different thesauruses that I'm

going through to see if I can come up

with words that are a little bit easier

to understand that still give the right

flavor of what the Buddha was teaching

so it would be best that everybody just

learned Pali and do their own tracks

absolutely but even the Pali has some

mistakes are not

but I did what your talking when I was a

religion major I did Koine Greek for the

Bible and one of the things we had to do

was write out every English word that

could mean one word and sometimes you

can clearly have an entire page and then

take it in context Jesus walked on the

water by the water in the water towards

the water near the water you know and it

would make a huge difference in just

that one word yeah it's just a calling

on and I are taking Paulino and it's

been real interesting because it is peak

about ease of course but we're using a

different book he's using you know that

they have one English translation he

uses a totally different word and gets

three different words and those three

different words if you use those changes

the context of that sentence

dramatically right so it's not and then

even the word you pick my understanding

of that English word yeah it's still

going to even yeah so it's a big problem

of sometimes I put a brackets behind it

and give another word yeah well you're

hoping that person you wrote it down the

first time got it correctly otherwise

you're in past present future and have

been it's going to oh yeah

but the thing that helps with this is

doing the practice here it really does

help but doing the practice according to

the translations we have now and then I

trusting your intuition to well that

wasn't such a good word to use let's get

another one in here

the thing that we used to run into with

the list like when people got on the

subject and talked about it was like the

dictionary instance I'm going to jump on

say you know you can get to this

dictionary acta string and I spent some

time one time examining the dictionary

they're talking about all the

dictionaries online you know for English

following everything there's one hang up

here you have to look at who wrote to

compose to put together the dictionary

then you have to figure out who taught

them and you have to figure out how

involved were they with of a suti mom

and the fact is for us in this day and

time all our dictionaries that have been

developed that we're relying on to

figure all of this out Janna to look a

dictionary all people almost all almost

all right chop chop herbs right okay but

outside of childish dictionary okay are

all people who were nursed and fed and

then weaned off the Vasuki manga and

then there went into their career and

created their work and did everything

like the antelope and that group of

Germans that were in Sri Lanka they were

all completely bred out of those and

then they did their work so everything

you're hearing is according to you see

so we're stuck with that and then when

you go study poly now and they point you

to dictionaries as they're teaching you

including the GU Bari they're going to

point you to those dictionaries and

they're not going to stop and say but

wait a second who've developed that

dictionary who trained that person what

did they were they come from C and

chowder's he bucked the system yeah he

bucked the system today and he finished

his dictionary in 1870 and then he was

object he was polite enough for us to

put an ABCD efg and the scholars threw

it in his safe because you did it

because they're also poly he tried to

make it convenient for us to study poly

for the average person to be able and go

and find something which was wonderful

it's wonderful to work that way so if

anybody has a couple of years that they

don't know what to do then get every

dictionary and put them all together so

you can compare what one person said to

the other person to the other person I

wouldn't even touch that Chicago

University has a fairly decent

dictionary some words of course it's all

personal but some some words are not as

accurate as it could be that's why I

started this that's what I was going to

say everything that we do at the center

comes back to the practice come back to

the practice contact to the practice

where is it come back to

German community an experiment but they

they did their practice but it was

according to the Missouri mugga maja

seaside ha wrote a book and is supposed

to be for the teachers of the Poisson uh

and they say it says in this insight

knowledge the student will say that I've

been in interviews where that has

happened exactly and I know it's exactly

because I had already gone through that

stage and that's what I said and that's

why this is so popular because he hit he

has it really down it's really

remarkable

well according to the to what maja

seaside are taught you get - Sanka

Rebecca it we need equanimity to

formations and you go through a series

of different things and then finally

you'll get to a place where you black

out now right before this happens you

will see

Anitra Anitra Anitra any trip three or

four times very quickly or dukka dukka

dukka dukka or anata anata uh not anata

and you'll see that happen very quickly

and then you have this blackout and your

that's what he called navona see it

doesn't have anything to do with the

appendant origination and then when you

get back your mind automatically and

I'll be

if it doesn't happen you go back and you

review all of the insight knowledge --is

and it happens exactly like that it's

uncanny how how it works

according to his description but his

description of Nirvana doesn't have

anything to do with dependent

origination it only has to do with

Anitra do kanata and in in the Maharaja

I don't care what you say it says a

person can see one or all of the

characteristics without ever seeing the

links of dependent origination but when

a person sees the links of dependent

origination they always see impermanent

suffering in that self when you can

prove it you can prove it out to

yourself yes through your practice you

can prove it it's just an Ivana issue

we've talked about that thing Ivana is

she's so fascinating because for

instance you have somebody there's a big

organization that teaches Buddhism

online and their whole principle is

Buddhism is about bliss so when you

discover bliss and the ultimate rapture

which is the soaking of joy that all the

time that is Ivana so they are promoting

that then you have the Hafiz version of

what new banda is so then you have

another group that has tinnitus from

their ears and everybody in the group

gifts tinnitus and there is so now we

have a new tradition tinnitus is the

ultimate reaching of the Nirvana so

tinnitus is nirvana then you have

somebody who had there was another one

that we were ecstatic when you start

researching this it gets almost comical

because you're in a state of decline in

Buddhism and so rather than

you heaven forbid we should go back into

text and see what it says we will just

whatever and then you have this other

you have these other traditions like the

Tibetan tradition they really really

push you'd have to become a bodhisattva

you can't get anywhere and you you're

you're making the bow to stay here until

all beings can be enlightened well if

the buddha couldn't do it

Who am I the Tibetan all the Tibetans

are really very much into taking a

bodhisattva vow and also the Mahayana

are very much into taking the

Bodhisattva vow now the thing with the

bodhisattva vow is that the bodhisattva

means future Buddha okay when you take

the Bodhisattva vow you go through all

of these rounds of rebirth which are

millions and millions and for Maha

coppices the fastest and you work on

your perfections and you have all these

different kinds of experiences and it is

not an easy path it is extremely

difficult let me finish when the summate

o who was the future Buddha when he took

the Bodhisattva vow when he took it it

stopped him from attaining Nibbana he

had the potential to become an era hot

within a week he took that Bodhisattva

vow and now he's not able to attain the

abana until he becomes a Buddha okay

this is no messing around vowel the only

time at least according to the tera

vaada the only time you really become a

bodhisattva is taking the vow in front

of a Buddha and he looks into the future

and he says yes you have the potential

to become a future Buddha so you have

all of these people right now taking a

bodhisattva vow thinking they're doing

something really good and they're

stopping themselves from attaining

navona so they have to have something so

they start making up what does it mean

to be in our hot I went to a talk by the

Karmapa

and he talked for about 10 minutes and

then he brought out his translator who

was the our aha Ananda to talk in

English now the definition of Inara hot

is completely different than what the

Buddha was talking about see there's all

these misunderstanding things that

happen okay

here about semantics and dog month we

know and we've been people who are using

pot you know the Terra bada tradition

and then but I think there's you know

these lilies that bloom from every

tradition people who are actually

practicing who can articulate experience

so so but what is their experience you

can go through all these insight

knowledge --is and you can become quota

sotapanna according to their tradition

but is that really what the Buddha was

pointing towards well I just heard a

talk by Pema Chodron she didn't say

anything about being a Bodhisattva and

she had some very very useful and

relative things to for practice they

should say about practice you picked an

interesting talk to listen to because

I've heard her give long discourses on

the goodness of being a buddha sector

and how everybody needs to be a vote

esata but what happened you might be a

bodhisattva for ten thousand twenty

thousand fifty thousand lifetimes and

then you go hey this is hard i don't

want to do this anymore know how you're

not in a buddha era anymore what happens

to you you start declining and getting

on your wheel a sense are and going up

and down just like everybody else so

taking a bodhisattva vow it's not a wise

thing to do in my estimation

and I've been around Tibetans that all I

do is talk about Bodhisattva sand Bodhi

saw that and the great Bodhisattvas

this Buddha that's better than that

Buddha I am what is this

so let's go back to the original text

and see what the Buddha is as close as

we can get and see what the Buddha is

talking about so we can maybe make this

decline less steep and maybe it'll start

up for one more round of saints as this

is the age of saints I think also it but

he said I started out with Zen and

basically what a thing is Dogen this

Dogen that now and then when I found out

there was something besides that it you

know it was like I asked my teacher you

know I said well why are we starting I

just found out that the polygon it's in

English careful why why are we starting

from the beginning why are we meeting a

commentary about a commentary about a

commentary and I think what you're

talking about is that you know again I

started in Zen I'm here now

you know because actually the ones that

really attracted me the most in Zen were

always the rebel monks every time I read

something about what was called a rebel

monk you know that rebel monk was going

you're too strict with vineya or you're

not teaching donal we need to go back to

the beginning and every time I read one

else I go yes

and then when I found the Pali Canon

myself I was like wow this is it this is

this is it and I did start with Pema

children you know and started but I did

stop there

you know I went back to the Pali Canon

and started and started reading that and

I think that's how you can get what

you're calling these lilies and these

different traditions is because a lot of

these people are not doing that

tradition when I was a Zen I was in Zen

Road teaching tera vaada Buddhism that's

why a lot of Zen people didn't like me

they said you don't want to hear that we

don't want to hear what the Pali Canon

has to say not like where do you think

this came from but ever every kind of

just hurt her yesterday and I mean maybe

for yesterday in a talk I don't know

that's well said oh well and and there

are Muslims that have things well said

and Brahmans that have things well said

but the the whole thing comes die back

to are you able to use it in your daily

life and are you learning how to let go

of the craving that's the big one a lot

of these talks they can be brilliant but

you go up to that person after the talk

and say okay what's the definition of

mindfulness and they'll say to be

mindful can't do that yeah I think

sometimes too when you

some of the elements that you've been

teaching like relaxation you'll see

where that is in their talk or where

there's some kind of mention of

dependent origination some of the

elements and where that is and just

these basic foundational elements just

don't ever come out maybe sometimes read

a whole maybe a whole chapter from

somebody's writing about Nepal tonight

and you realize all they're talking

about is mundane about that they never

mention super Monday so there's no

there's no connection there and I think

that's why when you start getting back

to the original writings you start

seeing how foundational that is and yet

how it's missing for so many of these

other speakers or teachers that's true

suggest experience yeah yeah I mean

would you want a whole book of

wonderfully written words you want a

couple pages of good definitions that

are really take - yeah really show you

exactly how to do it know

we this talk has certainly gone astray

is right on point but it's a strange

from well I only got as far as virtue

but it is extremely interesting and if

you have patients going to other talks

trying to pick out what you know that

the Buddha is talking about it

can't get a little bit frustrating I'm

always accusing my students of being

spoiled because I try to give you as

many definitions as I can so that you'll

understand and have the direct

experience and then you go and listen to

famous people getting a talk and we come

back and you go wolf he didn't mention

in his course stuff he didn't give any

definitions how many people do you know

actually know what craving is and how it

manifests you do because I mentioned and

because you see it in your practice so

you don't believe the words but if you

have the practice behind it you can see

how this is progressively yeah this is

right this is right this is right

because of your own experience so you're

learning how to let go of the content of

distractions and bring up something

wholesome that makes you smile and helps

everybody else to smile so there's a

you're affecting the world around you

positively

what else is there you're letting go of

the fire knee Baumann no more fire and

there's of course different levels of

that but every time you can bring up

loving kindness instead of a hard mind

you're experiencing the bottom

okay one of the things that I enjoy is

Dhamma discussion for over welfare right

at 20 years any time I went to a Dhamma

talk we were not allowed to say anything

we were not allowed to ask any question

and it always seemed a shame to me

because there was always a lot of

questions so when I began teaching I

kind of made up my mind I wasn't going

to be like that if you don't understand

what I'm saying

please ask we both get to learn that way

so with that said is there any question

okay let's share Samaritan me suffering

ones be suffering free in the fear

struck here was be made agree be settled

reef and me all beings finally they all

being careless merit that we've thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness may beings inhabiting

states and earth neighbors of noggins

might house his merit of ours may they

long protect that was dispensation sod

you