From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XxIq3slKmQ0

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

okay

that's as i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawatee in

jettas bro venethan bendicas park

now on that occasion a pernicious view

had arisen

in a monk named saty

son of a fisherman

as i understand the dhamma taught by the

blessed one

it is the same consciousness that runs

and wanders through the realms of

rebirth

not another this

view is now

these days we call it a hindu view but

it's brahman

view and it's the belief

that you have a permanent soul permanent

self that goes from once

one lifetime to the next to the next

several monks having heard about this

went to the

monk sati and asked him friend sati is

it true

such that such a pernicious view has

arisen in you

it's always funny to me if somebody

comes up and asks you is it

true that you're so stupid to believe

this

and that's what they're saying exactly

so

friends as i understand the dhamma

taught by the blessed one

it is the same consciousness that runs

and wanders through the rounds of

rebirth

not another then those monks

desiring to detach him from that

pernicious view

pressed and questioned and

cross-questioned him

friend sati do not say so do not

misrepresent the blessed one

it is not good to misrepresent the

blessed one

the blessed one would not speak

for in many ways the blessed one has

stated

consciousness to be dependently arisen

since without a condition

there is no origination of consciousness

yet although pressed and questioned and

cross-questioned by those monks in this

way

the monk sati son of a fisherman

still obstinately adhered to that

pernicious view and continued to insist

upon it

since the monks were unable to detach

him from that pernicious view

they went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him

sat down at one side and told him all

that

had occurred

adding venerable sir

since we could not detach the monk sati

son of a fisherman from the pernicious

view

we have reported this matter to the

blessed one

then address then a blessed one address

a certain monk

thus come monk tell the monk saty

son of a fisherman he was the son of a

fisherman but he hated the smell of fish

so this is kind of a monk joke

in my name that the teacher calls him

yes venerable

sir he replied and he went to the monk

sati

and told him the teacher

calls you friend sati yes friend he

replied and he went to the blessed one

after paying homage to him sat down at

one side

the blessed one then asked him sati

is it true that the following pernicious

view has arisen

in you as i understand the dhamma taught

by the blessed one it is

the same consciousness that runs and

wanders through the rounds of rebirth

not another

exactly so venerable sir

as i understand the dhamma taught by the

blessed one

it is the same consciousness that runs

and wanders through the rounds of

rebirth not another

what is that consciousness sati

venerable sir it is that which speaks

and feels and experiences

here and there the regal who's results

of good and bad actions

misguided men to whom have you ever

known me to teach the dhamma in that way

misguided men have i not stated in many

ways

consciousness to be dependently arisen

since without a condition there is no

origination of consciousness

but you misguided men have

misrepresented us by your

wrong grasp and injured yourself and

stored up much demerit

that will lead to your harm and

suffering for a long time

then the blessed one addressed the monks

thus

monks what do you think has this

monk sati son of a fisherman kindled

even a spark of wisdom in this dhamma

and discipline

spark of wisdom that's the key

wisdom or being wise always refers to

the links of dependent origination

how could he venerable sir no venerable

sir

when this was said the monk sat the son

of a fisherman

sat silent dismayed with shoulders

drooping and head

down glum and without response

then knowing this the blessed one told

him

misguided men you will be

recognized by your own pernicious view

and 2 600 late years later we're still

talking about him so that's how we

recognize

him

i shall question amongst on this matter

then the blessed one addressed the monks

thus

monks do you understand the dhamma

taught by me

as this monk sati son of a fisherman

does when he

miss misrepresents us

by his wrong grasp and injures himself

and stores up much demerit

who is going to say yes to something

like that

no venerable sir for in many discourses

the blessed one had stated

consciousness to be dependently arisen

since without a condition there's no

origination of consciousness

good monks it is good that you

understand the dhamma taught by me thus

for in many ways i have stated

consciousness to be

dependently arisen since without a

condition

there is no origination of consciousness

so what we're talking about is in order

to see

you have to have a good working eye

and the good working eye hits color and

form

when the good or working eye hits color

and form

i consciousness arises it needs those

conditions

for that to happen

and the meeting of these three is called

eye contact

we'll get into that in a little bit

but this monk sati son of a fisherman

misrepresents us by his wrong grasp and

injures himself and stores up much to

merit

for this will lead to the harm and

suffering of this misguided man for a

long time

monk's consciousness is reckoned by the

particular condition

dependent upon which it arises

when consciousness arises dependent on

the i

and forms it is reckoned as i

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the

ear and sounds it is reckoned as ear

consciousness when consciousness

arises dependent on the nose and odors

it is reckoned as nose consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the tongue and flavors

it is reckoned as tongue consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the body

and tangibles it is reckoned as body

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

mind and mind objects it is reckoned as

mind

consciousness just as a fire is reckoned

by the particular condition

dependent upon which it burns

when fire burns dependent on logs it is

reckoned as a log

fire when fire burns

dependent on [ __ ] it is reckoned as a

[ __ ]

fire when fire burns dependent on grass

it is reckoned as a grass fire

when fire burns dependent on cow dung

it is reckoned as a cow dung fire

when fire burns dependent on chafe it is

reckoned as a chafe

fire when fire burns dependent on

rubbish

it is reckoned as a rubbish fire

so to consciousness is reckoned by the

particular condition

dependent upon which it arises

when consciousness arises dependent on

the i

and forms it is reckoned as i

consciousness

when consciousness arises on the ear

and sounds it is reckoned as ear

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the nose

and odors it is reckoned as nose

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the tongue

and flavors it is reckoned as tongue

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the body

intangibles it is reckoned as body

consciousness

when consciousness arrives

arises dependent on mind and mind

objects it is reckoned as mind

consciousness

monks do you see

this has come to be yes venerable sir

monks do you see its origination

occurs with that as nutriment

this means food this means

your attention yes

venerable sir monks do you see

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come to be

is subject to cessation

yes venerable sir

monks does doubt arise when one is

uncertain thus

this has come to be

yes venerable sir

monks does doubt arise

when one is uncertain thus

does its origination occur with that as

nutriment

yes venerable sir monks does doubt arise

when one is uncertain

thus with the cessation of nutriment

what has come to be is subject to

cessation

yes venerable sir

monks is doubt abandoned in one who

sees as it actually is with proper

wisdom this has come to be

yes venerable sir monks

is doubt abandoned in one who sees as

it actually is with proper wisdom thus

its origination occurs with that as

nutriment yes venerable sir

monks is doubt abandoned in one who sees

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come to be is subject to

cessation

yes venerable sir

monks are you thus free from doubt

now he's asking them if they they know

it from their own experience

this has come to be yes venerable sir

monks are you thus free from doubt here

its origination occurs with that as

nutriment

yes venerable sir monks

are you thus free from doubt

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come to be

is subject to cessation yes venerable

sir

monks has it been seen well by you

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

this has come to be yes

venerable sir monks has it been seen

well by you as it actually is with

proper wisdom thus

its origination occurs with that as

nutriment

yes venerable sir

monks has it been seen well by you as it

actually is with proper wisdom thus

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come

to be is subject to cessation

yes venerable sir monks

purified and bright as this view

is if you adhere to it cherish it

treasure it and treat it as a possession

would you then understand the dhamma has

been

taught as similar to a raft

being for the purpose of crossing over

not for the purpose of craving and

clinging no venerable sir

so you can't hold on to this view you

have to

just keep watching how it occurs

monks purified and bright as this

view is if you do not adhere to it

cherish it treasure it and treat it as a

possession

would you then understand that the

dhamma has been taught

as similar to a raft being for the

purpose of crossing over

not for the purpose of grasping

yes venerable sir

monks there are four kinds of nutriment

for the maintenance of beings that

already have come

to be and for the support of those

about to become come to be

what for they are physical food as

nutriment

gross or subtle contact as

the second

formations as the third

and consciousness as the fourth

now amongst these four kinds of

nutriment have

what as their source what as their

origin from what are they born and

produced

these four kinds of nutriment have

craving as

their source craving

as their origin they are

born and produced from craving

and this craving has what as its source

grave graving has feeling

as its source feeling

is pleasant painful neither painful nor

pleasant

this feeling has what as its source

feeling has contact as its source

and this contact has what as its source

contact has the six-fold base

as its source and this six-fold base

has what is its source the six-fold base

has mentality materiality as its source

and this mentality materiality has

what as its source mentality materiality

has consciousness

as its source and this consciousness

has what as its source consciousness

has formations as its source

and these formations have what as their

source

what has their origin from what are they

born and produced

formations have ignorance as their

source

ignorance as their origin they are born

and produced from

ignorance in our language right now

we have the idea that when somebody says

that you're ignorant that means that

you're stupid

but in buddhist terms ignorance means

that you've been

ignoring something and what have you

been ignoring

you've been ignoring how the four noble

truths

actually do work four noble truths again

there is suffering there is

a cause of suffering there is the

cessation of suffering

and there is the way leading to the

cessation of suffering

when you see a lot of buddha images you

will see

that he is has

this posture

and this means that he is talking about

the first noble truth

and the second noble truth or the third

noble truth

or the fourth noble truth the last two

you don't see

very often

but that's what the artist that made the

buddha

is talking about this is suffering

now in the samut nikaya

there is a very short verse

about the right way to teach and

the wrong way to teach and the wrong way

to teach

is that everything is suffering

and the right way to teach is the

cessation

of suffering but

these days monks generally

focus on suffering

they very seldom talk about

the cessation of the suffering

what i'm teaching you is the cessation

of the suffering

by being able to recognize

that tension and tightness in your mind

and relax that

that little membrane that goes around

your

your brain

every time there's a thought every time

there's a feeling

every time there's a sensation that

membrane

tightens around your brain

that is the way that you recognize

craving when it arises

okay and it can be very very subtle at

some times

and you might not even notice that

there's a tightness there

and when you relax you don't feel any

difference

but as you continually do that then

you'll start to notice there's a very

slight

tightness that was there and when you

let that go

your mind becomes clear your mind

becomes alert your mind becomes

bright and it is pure

why because you've let go of

grieving

so

what i'm teaching you is the way

to recognize that and the way to let

that craving

go

so every time you relax and you come

back to your object

of meditation you're bringing your mind

back

that is pure

that's clear that's bright and this

is one of the reasons why you can

progress in your meditation

very quickly i was not

taught this when i first started

meditation

and i was taught

straight vipassana meditation

and in vipassana there is no relaxed

step

as a result it starts taking you

off of the path that the buddha is

teaching us

the relaxed step can't be overstated

it doesn't matter what kind of thought

arises in your mind

there is that little tiny tension that's

there

and you have to relax that when you

notice it

craving is the i like it i don't like it

mind

craving is the start of the belief

in a personal self this is me this is

mine

this is who i am

so when you let go of that craving

you start to see everything as part of

an impersonal process

in other words you are starting to

purify

the way you see the world around you

and you become much more clearer and

much more bright

when you let go of this tightness

and your mind

when you've let go of the craving your

mind stays in the present moment

it's not distracted

that's why your mind is pure

you've let go of that tightness and now

smile why is smile

important because it's a wholesome state

it

brings your mind so that it's clear

and bright and there can be joy in your

mind and when you have

joy in your mind your mind is very

clear and bright and alert

and it's very easy easy to recognize

when your mind starts to get heavy and

tight

when it gets heavy and tight guess who

has an attachment

what is the attachment i am

that whatever it is

so this relaxed step is the major

um a thing to

recognize and to do and it has to be

intentional relaxing

it's not just oh i see that let it go

and then come back because you're

bringing the craving back

with you and it's subtle

and that tightness is really there

when you're bringing the craving back

with you

you're stepping off of the path that the

buddha taught

okay and you're developing your

ignorance because you're ignoring

that little subtle tightness that's

there

now when you don't do that when you when

you

don't have that relaxed step

after a period of time tightness

starts to manifest

in your head

and it is

ignored by almost everybody

that's practicing meditation

don't pay attention to that

when i was practicing straight vipassana

then i've done many retreats and i even

did a two-year retreat

when i was doing any walking meditation

i took my

my attention and i put it on my feet and

i was watching each little intention

of moving my foot and pushing

it forward and placing it down again

and i had this pretty big headache

so i went to the teacher

and i told him when i'm doing the

walking meditation

my mind's really tight

and the instruction i got from the

teacher

was just ignore it it's nothing

so in essence what was the teacher

telling me

ignore the craving it's nothing

so that's a problem

but when we go back to the

original teaching of the buddha

and we start examining what the buddha

was saying with

meditation he was talking about

tranquilizing the bodily formation

what does that mean

well when you let go of that tightness

in your head

in your mind it starts to relax

all of the rest of your body

a lot of people talk to me about

pains in their body especially when you

start out meditation

i can't get comfortable there's a lot of

pain

so i tell you get as comfortable as you

can

keep smiling because that pulls up your

mindfulness and helps your mindfulness

to sharpen

and keep relaxing

and then smiling into things

and bring that smiling mind back to your

object of meditation

as you do that all of a sudden

the tensions in your body start to relax

and when the tensions in your body relax

that means that you've let go of tension

in your mind

so it's all interconnected

okay

now we're gonna do the forward

exposition

on arising

so monks with ignorance as

condition formations come to be

with formations as condition

consciousness

comes to be with consciousness as

condition mentality materiality comes to

be

with mentality materiality as condition

success faith comes to be

with the six-fold base as condition

contact comes to be with contact as

condition feeling comes to be

with

with clinging as conditions habitual

tendencies come to me

sorrow lamentation pain grief

and despair comes to be

such is the origin of this whole mass of

suffering

this is how it arises

we don't really want to focus on

how it arises we want to focus on

how it ceases

okay we have a reverse order

questionnaire

on the arising with

birth as condition aging and death so it

was said

now monks do aging and death

have birth as condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

aging and death have birth as condition

venerable sir thus we take it

in this case with birth as

condition aging and death comes to be

with habitual tendency as conditioned

birth so it was said

now monks does birth

have habitual tendency as condition or

not

or how do you take it in this case

birth has habitual tendency as

conditioned venerable sir thus

we take it in this case with habitual

tendency as condition birth

comes to be with

clinging as condition habitual

tendencies so it was said

now monks does habitual

tendency have clinging as condition or

not

or how do you take it in this case

habitual tendency has clinging as

conditioned venerable sir

thus we take it in this case

with the [ __ ] with clinging as

condition

habitual tendency comes to be

with craving as conditioned clinging

comes to be

so it was said now does clinging

have craving as condition or not or how

do you take it in this case

claiming has craving as conditioned

venerable sir

thus we take it in this case with

craving as condition

clinging comes to be with

feeling as conditioned craving comes to

be

so it was said now monks does craving

have feeling as condition or

not or how do you take it in this case

craving has feeling as conditioned

venerable sir

thus we take it in this case with

feeling as

conditioned craving comes to be

with contact as conditioned feeling

comes to be so it was said now

does feeling have contact as condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

failing

with the six-fold base as condition

contact comes to be so it was said now

does contact have the six-fold base

as condition or not or how do you take

it in this case

contact has the six-fold basis

conditioned venerable sir

thus we take it in this case with the

six-fold base as condition

contact comes to be with mentality

materiality as condition

the six-fold base comes to be so it was

said

now monks does the six-fold base have

mentality materiality as condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

the six-fold base has mentality

materiality as condition

venerable sir thus we take it in this

case

with mentality materiality as

conditioned

the six-fold base comes to be

with consciousness as condition

mentality comes to be

so it was said now monks does mentality

materiality have consciousness as

condition or not or how do you take it

in this case

mentality materiality has consciousness

as conditioned venerable sir thus we

take it in this case

with consciousness as conditioned

mentality materiality

comes to be with formations

as conditioned consciousness comes to be

so it was said now amongst does

consciousness have formations as

condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

consciousness has formations as

conditioned

venerable sir thus we take it in this

case

with formations as conditioned

consciousness

comes to be with ignorance

as conditioned formations come to be

so it was said now monks

do formations have ignorance as

condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

formations have ignorance as conditioned

venerable servants thus we take it in

this case

with ignorance as conditioned for

nations come to me

good monks so you say thus

and i also say thus when this

exists that comes to be

with the arising of this

that arises that is

with ignorance as condition

formations come to be with formations

as condition consciousness

with consciousness as condition

mentality material

with mentality materiality is

conditioned

with the six-fold base as condition

contact with contact as condition

being

clinging as condition habitual

sorrow lamentation pain grief

and despair comes

such is the origin of this whole mass of

suffering

now we're going to do the forward

exposition on cessation

i'm not going to go all the way through

this i think

with the remainderless fading away and

cessation of

ignorance comes cessation of formations

with the cessation of formation

cessation of consciousness

with the cessation of consciousness

cessation of

mentality material with the cessation of

mentality materiality

cessation of sixth sense

with association of the six-fold base

cessation of

context with the cessation of contact

cessation of with the cessation of

feeling cessation of

craving with the cessation of craving

cessation of

clinging with the cessation of clinging

cessation of habitual tendencies

the cessation of habitual tendencies

cessation of

birth of actions with the cessation of

birth of action

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair cease

such is the cessation of this whole mass

of suffering

now this is the part i'm not going to go

all the way through i just give you a

taste of it

with the cessation of birth cessation of

aging and death so it was said

now amongst do aging and death

cease with the cessation of birth of

action or not or how do you take it in

this case

aging and death cease with the cessation

of

birth venerable serve thus we take it in

this case

with the cessation of birth cessation of

aging and death

with the cessation of habitual tendency

cessation of birth with the cessation

of habitual tendency cessation of

clinging

oh i messed up anyway

we'll let go this this went into the dot

dot dots so it's hard to

do just by reading like that

good monks so you say this and i

also say this when this does

not exist that does not come to be

with the cessation of this that ceases

that is with the cessation of

ignorance comes the cessation of

formulation

with the cessation of formation

cessation of

consciousness with the cessation of

consciousness cessation of mentality

materiality

with the cessation of mentality

materiality

cessation of

with the cessation of the six-fold base

cessation of

with the cessation of contact the

cessation of

healing with the cessation of feeling

cessation of

braving with the cessation of craving

cessation of with the cessation of

clinging

cessation of

with the cessation of habitual

tendencies

cessation of with the cessation of birth

of action

cease such is the cessation of this

whole mass of suffering

monks knowing and seeing in this way

would you run back to the past thus

were we in the past were we not in the

past

what were we in the past how were we in

the past

having been what what did we become in

the past

no venerable sir

if you start thinking about the past are

you in the present moment at that time

no

knowing and seeing in this way would you

run

forward to the future thus

shall we be in the future shall we not

be in the future

what shall we be in the future how shall

we be in the future

having been what what shall we become in

the future

no of course not knowing and seeing in

this way

knowing and seeing how these links

arise and how they cease you haven't got

time to think about other stuff

projections of the future

knowing and seeing in this way would you

be

inwardly perplexed about the present

thus am i am i not

what am i how am i

where has this been come from where will

it go

you don't have any of those kind of

ideas coming up at all why

because they all have i

in them and there is no i

it's an impersonal process this

whole recitation of the links of

dependent origination

there's no i in there

there's no self in there

so how would you come up with

questions of am i or am i not

you see

monks knowing and seeing in this way

would you

speak this way the teacher is respected

by us

we speak as we do out of respect for the

teacher

no why because you have the direct

experience

you don't have to refer to somebody

else their thoughts and ideas because

you know for yourself how these links

actually work

knowing and seeing in this way would you

speak

this the recluse says this

and we speak thus at the bidding of the

recluse

of course not you wouldn't say that

knowing and seeing in this way would you

acknowledge

another teacher no

why because you're your own teacher

you're teaching this and how these

links work personally

you're doing it from your

own direct experience from your own

direct

knowledge of how this actually does

work are they

are the monks responding to those

questions and

when they say no venerable sir yeah okay

okay knowing and seeing in this way

would you return to the observances

tumultuous debates and auspicious

signs of ordinary recluses

and brahmanas taking them

as the core of the holy life

no venerable sir do you speak

only of what you have known

seen and understood for yourself

yes venerable sir

good monks so you have been guided by me

with this dharma which is visible here

and now

now this is the part of the

good qualities of the dhamma

that a lot of people recite

but they don't actually practice it

and that is this dharma is

immediately effective

okay and you see that for yourself it's

immediately effective when you let go of

that craving that tightness in your head

then there's no thoughts there's no

distractions

your mind is clear your mind is bright

your mind is very pure

it's not clouded by anything at all

so this is immediately effective

when i was practicing straight vipassana

it took me five years to figure out

what the meditation wasn't

before i could figure out what it was

now is that what you would call

immediately effective

but when you start practicing the way

that i'm showing you by letting go of

that craving it

is immediately effective now everybody

here that's been practicing you're

progressing into meditation

very nicely

in two or three days you're seeing for

yourself

the progress that you're making

and that's truly amazing

for it to happen that fast

i promise you it's amazing

inviting inspection inspection

onward leading to be experienced by the

wise for

themselves why are you wise

because you're seeing the lengths of

dependent origination for yourself

for it was with reference to this that

it has been said

monks this dhamma is visible here and

now

immediately affecting effective

inviting inspection onward leading

to be experienced by the wise for

themselves

okay now we have a round of existence

existence conception to maturity

monks the descent of the embryo takes

place

through the union of three things

here there is the union of the mother

and father

but the mother is not in season and the

coming being

is not present in that case

no descent of the embryo takes place

here there is the union of the mother

and father

and the mother is in season but the

coming being

is not present in this case

to no descent of the embryo takes place

but

when there is the union of the mother

and father

and the mother is in season and the

coming being is present

through the union of these three things

the descent

of the embryo takes place

the mother carry then carries the embryo

in her womb for nine or ten months

with much anxiety as a heavy burden

then at the end of nine or ten months

the mother gives birth with much anxiety

as a heavy burden

then when the child is born she

nourishes it

with her own blood for the mother's

breast milk

is called blood in the noble one's

discipline

when he grows up and his faculties

mature

the child plays at such games as toy

plows

tip cat summersaults toy windmills

toy car measures toy carts

and toy bow and arrow

when he grows up and his faculties

mature still further

the youth enjoys himself provided and

endowed with the five

chords of sensual pleasure

with forms cognizable by the eye

that are wished for desired agreeable

and likable connected with sensual

desire

and inviting lust

sounds cognizable by the ear that are

wished for desired agreeable and likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust

odor is cognizable by the moat by the

nose that are wished for

desired agreeable and likable

connected with sensual desire and

provocative of lust

flavor is cognizable by the tongue

that are wished for desired agreeable

and likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust

tangibles cognizable by the body that

are wished for desired agreeable and

likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust

on seeing a form with the eye he

lusts after it if it is pleasant he

dislikes it if it's unpleasant

he abides with mindfulness unestablished

with a limited mind and he does not

understand as it actually is the

deliverance of mine and deliverance by

wisdom

wherein those evil and wholesome states

cease without remainder

engaged as he is in favoring and

opposing

whatever feeling he feels whether

pleasant or

painful or neither painful nor pleasant

he delights in that feeling welcomes it

remains holding to it

as he does so delight arises in him

now delight in feelings is craving

and clinging

with his craving and clinging as

condition

habitual tendency comes to be

with habitual tendency as conditioned

birth of action comes to be with birth

of action as condition

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair come to be

such is the origin of this whole mass of

suffering on hearing a sound with the

ear

and smelling an odor with a nose on

tasting a flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

he lusts after it if it's pleasing he

dislikes it if it's unpleasing

now delight in feelings is grieving

and clinging with this grieving and

clinging as condition

habitual tendency comes to be

with habitual tendency as condition

birth comes to be

with birth of action as condition

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair come

to be such as the origin

of this whole mass of suffering ending

the round the gradual training

here amongst the tatakata appears in the

world

accomplished and fully awakened

perfect and true knowledge and conduct

sublime nor of worlds incomparable

leader of persons to be tamed

teacher of god's inhumans awakened

and blessed he declares this

world with its gods with its morals with

his brahmas

this generation with its recluses and

brahmanas

its princes and its people which he has

himself realized with direct knowledge

he teaches dhamma good in the beginning

good in the middle in good in the end

with the right meaning and phrasing he

reveals a holy life

that is utterly perfect and pure

a householder or householder son

or one born in some other clan hears the

dhamma

on hearing the dhamma he acquires

faith in a tatakata

possessing that faith he considers thus

household life is crowded and dusty

life gone forth is wide open

it's not easy while living in a home

to lead the holy life utterly perfect

and pure as a polished shell

suppose i shave off my hair and beard

and put on the yellow robe

and go forth from a home life into

homelessness

on that later occasion abandoning a

smaller

large fortune abandoning a smaller

large circle of relatives he shaves off

his hair

and beards and beard and puts on the

yellow robe

and goes forth from home life into

homelessness

having thus gone forth and possessing

amongst training

and way of life abandoning the killing

of living beings he abstains from

killing living beings

with rod and weapon laid aside

conscientious merciful

he abides compassionate to all living

beings

abandoning the taking of what is not

given

he abstains from taking what is not

given

taking only what is given expecting

only what is given by not stealing he

abides in purity

abandoning in celibacy he

observes celibacy living apart

abstaining from the vulgar practice of

sexual intercourse

this is for monks of course

abandoning false speech he abstains from

false speech

he speaks truth adheres to truth is

trustworthy and reliable

one who is no deceiver of the world

abandoning malicious speech he abstains

from malicious speech

he does not repeat elsewhere what he has

heard here

in order to divide those people from

these

nor does he repeat to these people what

he is heard elsewhere

in order to divide these people from

those

thus he is one who reunites

those who are divided a promoter of

friendship

he enjoys concord rejoices in concord

delights in concord a speaker of

words that promote concord abandoning

her speech and cursing he abstains from

harsh speech and cursing

he speaks such words as are gentle

pleasing to the ear lovable as go

to the heart are courteous and desired

by many and agreeable to many

abandoning gossip he abstains from

gossip

he speaks at the right time he speaks

what is fact

he speaks what is good he speaks on the

dhamma and discipline

at the right time he speaks such words

as

are worth recording reasonable moderate

and beneficial he abstains from injuring

seeds and plants

he practices

eating one meal a day abstaining from

eating at night and outside the proper

time

he abstains from dancing singing music

and theatrical shows he abstains from

wearing

garland smartening himself with scent

embellishing himself with unguents

he abstains from high and luxurious

couches

he abstains from accepting gold and

silver

he abstains from accepting raw grain

he abstains from accepting raw meat

he abstains from accepting women and

girls

he abstains from accepting men and women

slaves

he abstains from accepting goats and

sheep

he abstains from accepting fowl and pigs

he abstains from accepting elephants

cattle

horses and mirrors he abstains from

accepting

fields and land he abstains from

going on errands and running messages

he abstains from buying and selling

he abstains from false weights false

measures and false

medals he abstains from accepting bribes

deceiving and defrauding and all forms

of trickery

he abstains from wounding murdering

binding brigandage plunder

and violence

he becomes content with robes to protect

his body

and alms food to maintain his stomach

and wherever he goes he sets out taking

those with him

just as a bird wherever he fly he goes

flies with his wings as

his only burden so to

the monk becomes content with robes to

protect the body

and with alms food to maintain his

stomach

and wherever he goes he sets out

taking only these with him

along with the truck for all of the

books and

electronics and things like that but we

won't talk about that

possessing this aggregate of noble

virtue

he experiences within himself a bliss

that is blameless

on seeing a form with the eye he does

not

grasp at its signs and features

since if he left the eye faculty and

guarded evil and wholesome

states of covetousness and grief might

invade him

he practices the way of its restraint

he guards the eye faculty undertakes the

restraint of the eye faculty

on hearing a sound with the ear

on smelling an odor with the nose

on tasting a flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

he does not grasp at its signs and

features

since if he left his mind

faculty unguarded evil and wholesome

states of covetousness and

grief might invade him

he practices the way of its restraint

he guards the mind faculty undertakes

the restraint of the mind faculty

but death possessing this noble

restraint of the faculties he

experiences within himself a bliss

that is unsullied he becomes

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

and urinating who acts in full awareness

when

walking standing sitting falling

asleep waking up talking and keeping

silent

full awareness of what

full awareness of what mind's attention

is doing

when you're doing all of these other

actions

now this is one of the reasons why he

said

today i didn't want you to talk while

you were eating

watch mine watch what it's doing now

you have these thoughts that come up and

tighten that

membrane around your brain use your six

hearts

get in the habit of being able to

recognize that

as much as you possibly can

recognize when your mind is distracted

away from eating

release the distraction relax the

tightness caused by that distraction

re-smile even while you're eating you

gotta smile

return to your object of meditation

stay with your object of meditation

see it doesn't matter whether you're

defecating or urinating

stay with what your mind is doing in the

present moment

look at how it gets distracted

let go of that distraction relax

smile come back to what you're doing in

the present moment

staying with your spiritual friend

possessing this aggregate of noble

virtue

and this aggregate of restraint of the

faculties

and possessing this noble mindfulness

and full awareness

he resorts to a secluded resting place

the forest the root of a tree a mountain

a ravine

a hillside cave a charnel ground

a jungle thick and an open space a heap

of straw

on returning from his alms round after

his meal

he sits folding his legs crosswise

setting his body erect

and establishing mindfulness before him

abandoning covetousness for the world

he abides with the mind free from

covetousness

he purifies his mind from covetousness

what is covetousness

i want

lust for things

abandoning ill will and hatred he abides

with the mind free from ill will

compassionate for the welfare of all

living beings he purifies his mind from

ill will and hatred

abandoning sloth and torpor

he abides free from sloth and torpor

mindful and fully aware he purifies his

mind from sloth and dwarf

now there's different ways of getting

rid of sloth and torpor

one of the things that's really helpful

is when you have sloth and torpor don't

be in a dark

room okay there's one thing that happens

with almost everybody

i've been meditating for a long time i

meditate better when i

am in a dark room and

quite often sloth and torpor comes and

then they have to fight with that

i used to get in arguments with monks

because i'd walk into a room

and they didn't have the light on they'd

turn the light on because

that helped keep you awake

so if you have sloth and torpor

you can sit outside but not in the

direct sun

but just sit so that this there's a lot

more

light so that you can it helps wake you

up

and one of my favorite things that it

says in the sutures and it really does

say this that if you have a bad case of

sloth and torpor you take your

ear lobe and you pinch it really

hard

and that does wake you up

but the easiest way

is to go out and walk

go out in the sun and walk and

just walk back and forth for 40 or 50

feet

when you walk you don't turn around when

you get to the end of the walk

now you walk backwards as you do

that you start having to pick up your

effort and your

energy and then you

do that forwards and back for a while

and you come in and you sit

the sloth and torpor will dissipate

it just goes away by itself still need

to use the six r's

but i'm already relaxed i'm too relaxed

but this is called a contracted mind

your mind contracts and gets

tight and then you start

getting into your dreamy state and then

you start

slouching and then you start bobbing

okay now what do you do

to pick up your awareness and

overcome the sloth and torpor more

quickly

what you do is you sit a little bit

straighter than is comfortable

okay now your mind is not going to stay

on your object to meditation and these

little thoughts are going to come in and

before

long you're going to start getting these

dreamy thoughts

and right after that your back starts to

slump

now when you sit a little bit more

straight

there's a tiny bit of tension in your

back

when you start slumping it's easier to

recognize that

and straighten up and come back to your

object to meditation have you do that a

few times

you've picked up your energy quite a bit

and then you the sloth interpreter will

disappear

when i was in burma there was a period

of time that these two monks

one of them sat on this side of me and

one of them sat on that side of me

and at the same time they would get

sloth and torpor

it was like the same time of the day

and all of a sudden i'm seeing these

bobbing back and forth and i started

making jokes about it in my mind i was

i had bobbing bookends you know they

were

so i told them my secret for

overcoming the sloth and torpor of

sitting a little bit straighter and

before long they didn't have that

problem anymore

abandoning restlessness and anxiety

he abides unagitated with the mind

inwardly peaceful

he purifies his mind from restlessness

and anxiety now the way you

purify the restlessness

when it gets real bad you feel like

jumping out of your skin you feel

like just getting up and walking and

doing something

and that's exactly the opposite of what

you want to do

don't move

don't move your body at all for any

reason

now bring up a feeling

of tranquility a feeling of peace and

calm

and put that feeling into your heart and

radiate that feeling

and as you do that that restlessness

will start to go away

restlessness is an incredibly painful

feeling

so you have to allow that feeling to be

there

it's real interesting when people start

to first they start meditating it's hard

to sit still

because you've got this pain coming up

and that pain coming up and you want to

move

but the instructions and the meditation

are don't move

now what's the cause of restlessness why

does restlessness arise

because you've broken a precept at some

point in your life

how do you overcome that feeling of

wanting to move and really

get rid of that feeling

by sitting without moving and

tranquilize your mind by bringing up

this feeling of peace and calm

and wishing that peace and calm for your

spiritual friend

when i'm telling you to practice your

loving kindness i'm telling you that you

need

to make a wish

and feel the wish then put that feeling

in your heart

how can you give loving-kindness to

someone else

if you don't have it in yourself

so when you feel that wish

you start surrounding your friend in

your heart

with your feeling of loving kindness and

radiating that feeling

now you have something to give

okay now you can practice your your

mindfulness

on your generosity

but you have to bring it up for yourself

first

so you benefit and they benefit

and they really do they will feel that

difference

now sloth and torpor and restlessness

you better become friends with them

because they're going to stay around

until you become an aura

so you better become familiar with how

they work

investigate the experience

use the six r's with those

abandoning doubt he abides having gone

beyond doubt

unperplexed about wholesome states he

purifies his mind from doubt

as you let go of unwholesome states and

bring up wholesome

states your doubts start to disappear

now one of the reasons that i want you

to smile

is because that overcomes a doubt you

see

the advantage of smiling

and that wholesome state of smiling

so you don't have a lot of doubt whether

this is the right path or not because

you know for yourself

this stuff works it's not a baby

having abandoned these five hindrances

imperfections of mind that weaken wisdom

quite secluded from sensual pleasures

secluded from unwholesome

states he enters

upon and abides in the first genre

with distilling of thinking and

examining thought he

enters upon and abides in the second

drama

with the fading away as of joy

he enters upon and abides in the third

jhana

with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

he enters

upon and abides in the fourth chauna

which has neither pain nor pleasure and

purity of mindfulness

due to equanimity

on seeing a form with the eye he does

not

lust after it if it's pleasing

he does not dislike it if it's

unpleasing

he abides with mindfulness established

with an immeasurable mind he understands

as

it actually is the deliverance of mine

and deliverance by

wisdom wherein those evil

unwholesome states cease without

remainder

having thus abandoned favoring and

opposing

this is another way of saying abandoning

craving

i like it i don't like it

whatever feeling he feels whether

pleasant or

painful or neither painful or pleasant

he does not delight in that feeling

welcome it or remain holding to it

a lot of people when they have a

pleasant feeling

arise in their meditation they have joy

arise they want to keep it ah

this is good stuff and they try to grab

onto it

and hold it mentally so it doesn't go

away and that's the fastest way to make

it go away

pleasant feeling unpleasant feeling

same coin different sights

you treat the pleasant feeling in

exactly the same way as

the unpleasant feeling you

recognize release relax

re-smile return to your object to

meditation stay with your object and

meditation

when you do that the joy will last for a

longer period of time

so you don't keep your attention on the

joy

or the comfortable feeling in the body

or the equanimity whenever it arises

you allow it to be there come back to

your object to meditation

always

eventually

the feeling will last for a longer and

longer

period of time especially the equinement

team

as he does not do so delight in

feeling ceases with him with the

cessation of this delight comes a

cessation of craving

with the cessation of craving cessation

of clinging

with the cessation of clinging cessation

of habitual tendency

with the cessation of habitual

tendencies cessation of birth of action

with the cessation of birth of action

aging and death

sorrow lamentation pain

cease such is the cessation of this

whole mass of suffering

on hearing a sound with the ear and

smelling an odor with the nose

on tasting the flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body on

cognizing a mind object with mind

he does not lust after it if it's

pleasing

he does not dislike it if it's

unpleasing

with the cessation of his delight comes

the cessation of craving

with the cessation of craving cessation

of clinging

the cessation of clinging cessation of

habitual tendency

with the cessation of habitual tendency

cessation of birth

with the cessation of birth of action

cessation of

aging death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair such as this

is the cessation of this whole mass of

suffering

monks remember this discourse of mine

briefly as delivered in the destruction

of craving

now we've been

sitting here listening to this for a

little while

this is the brief version

version okay

the long version takes all night

it takes about four five five and a half

hours something like that

and it's a lot of reciting

over and over again of those links of

dependent origination

there is a teacher in burma

he died i think in the 50s

all he did was get people

to come together and recite the links of

dependent origination

forwards and backwards over and over

again

and again and again and again and again

and as they did that and they really got

it ingrained in their mind

they started seeing those links of

dependent origination

all the time in everything that they

were doing

and because of that they really started

to understand

and with that understanding they would

become sodapolis

they would become awakened

beings they would become the first stage

of

sainthood just by reciting this over and

over

and truly understanding all of these

links

now america especially

we are a fast food culture we like

things where our attention span is about

a minute and a quarter

and sometimes that's long

okay so when you hear something

repeat it over and over and over your

mind gets bored

really easy and you're not attentive

when you're not attentive you're never

going to understand how these

links of dependent origination actually

do work

you can do this through sitting and

watching

but the fast track is

starting to know

all of these links and start seeing that

in everything

in every kind of being you watch birds

you'll be able to recognize

the links of dependent origination by

their actions

or animals are dogs or cats

and you start seeing that in everything

around you

and when you do that you start seeing

that everything

in every being is part of an impersonal

process in this process

are these links of dependent origination

now each link

is the first noble truth

that is a disturbance it is a kind of

suffering

there is a cause of that

there is the cessation of that there is

the wages

of the cessation in each

link of dependent origination

so when you're seeing the links of

dependent origination you are also

seeing and realizing

the four noble truths

there comes a lightness in your mind

when when you start to actually be able

to

recognize these different links and you

say you see that in yourself and you go

oh well that happened because

this condition

arose

and you start seeing that over and over

again

one of the way one of the ways that the

buddha taught

was by repetition there's no getting

around it

and this book here is is very

good but there's a lot of

dot dot dot

which means it's just repeating so he

didn't want to

take the space because if he took the

dot dot dot

out of the each one of the sutas

which i have actually done

in my computer at home

a three-page suta or a four-page suita

can turn into a 20-page suta

but it has all of this repetition over

and over and over again

now eventually i'm going to be coming

out with some books

that have the suttas in them

and i'm changing some of the language

because some of the words that are used

are confusing at best and i'm making it

directed towards the meditation

almost everybody that does any

translation of the books

they are directed at scholarship

so i'm going to be doing the entire

majama nikaya

and changing some of the language that

makes things

easier to practice so that you'll

understand as soon as you read it

in my spare time

okay

monks remember this discourse of mine

briefly

briefly as deliver deliverance of

the destruction of craving but remember

sati son of the fisherman as caught up

in a

vast net of craving in a

trammel of creating

that is what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so now you all understand dependent

origination completely right

you have a question

i have two short questions okay number

one is a beginner question

you mentioned that if you feel stock and

corporate you should go ahead and life

if you shouldn't be in the sunlight

not the direct sunlight i'm curious why

the direct sunlight will make that sloth

interpret worse

okay you want to be in a place that's

very light

but not in the heat of the sun is

makes it look so totally

uh and the next question is and again

forgive my

beginners

because then you're giving into it and

you don't learn how it arises

okay and you don't

uh you won't progress near as fast

when you do that which one

now what happens after lunch

mentality

what happens with people after lunch

is right around between two and three

o'clock

you start really feeling

the swath and torpor what i generally

recommend for people to do

especially when it's hot like in asia

and that sort of place

that's the time to take a bath

and as soon as you take a bath your body

wakes right up

so you're as soon as you eat all of the

energy starts to go into your stomach

and it stays there that energy is

working

quite a bit so you can sit

right after you eat but then about

between two and three o'clock all of a

sudden that energy

is just it's gone now because it's so

much

has been put into digestion

so you your body wants to take a rest

and when you get it wet and

it wakes up so take a shower about that

time

if that's your problem for some people

it's not a problem at all

okay thank you

don't feel embarrassed because

you're new at asking questions

the questions that you ask are just as

relevant for everybody else here to be

quite honest

so don't be shy yeah

because everything's in a personal

process

what exactly is doing the ignoring in

the first leg of dependent origination

the belief that the suffering is

personal

i i

but what's the problem what's the cause

of suffering okay

you have a painful feeling arise whose

painful feeling is it

it is suffering there's a cause of that

suffering

is i want to control it i

want it to stop i want it to go away

okay you're made up of five things you

have a physical body you have feeling

perception formation

you're getting things mixed up

okay i'm talking about five aggregates

right now and you're talking about

something else

okay okay

now you have a physical body there is

feeling there is

perception there is formation there is

consciousness

when a painful feeling arises

we try to think the feeling away

and the more we try to think the feeling

away the bigger and more intense that

feeling becomes

and there is a tight mental fist of

aversion wrapped around

that pain

it's repulsive pain is a repulsive thing

i don't like it i don't want it there

but the truth is when pain arises

it is there so you have to allow

that feeling to be there by itself

and this is it doesn't matter whether

it's

mental or physical you treat it in the

same way

allow that to be there let go of your

thinking

about

relax let that tight mental fist

go the truth is it's there

you can't stop it you can't make it any

different than it is

the truth is the truth

when you allow a painful feeling to be

it will go away by itself

but as long as there's any aversion to

it

it gets bigger and more intense it's

like

if i if i took a a hot coal

you know from the barbecue take one of

those coals out after it's red hot

and i put it in my hand and i say oh

that hurts

and then what i try to do to make that

pain go away is i start squeezing it

tighter and tighter and tighter

is that the way to let go of that pain

no the way to let go of the pain

is to open up and let it be

you see what i'm saying yeah i

understand that's coming from the

craving part right

because we have these fragrances we

grasp onto them and then that's

and that's how actually this works

right but i was talking about the

ignorance that came before the body in

formations what is doing

ignoring before horrible truths

go ahead okay you're stuck on the

english translation

of otta as being no self and it has

very much botched up buddhism

if you use the words personal and

impersonal it helps you understand a

little better

okay it isn't that you are not here

the self they use different words to

translate this

okay and um identity or personality

actually works better for the person

than this no self and self it doesn't

work

because the westerner immediately says

i'm here

no self what's that and it's it messes

everybody up

okay it's the it's the idea of their

uh the consequences of if there was a

self that's real important the

idea of identity or personality

and we took the word personal on the

chart and showed you like which of these

links really suffer from

the personal nature and the

impersonal nature so the ignorance is a

problem

because the consequence of the idea of a

self

don't get wrapped up in what this really

is okay

the consequences of this idea of self

is causing you a problem because then

the consequence of the self is you take

everything personally and that's where

you

tighten your mind around tighten your

mind placing your body

around it's where the tightness will

create problems

it was never self and no self it was the

consequence of self and the consequence

of no self

but how can the consequence of self

arise if there's no body

speech or mind to begin with

the untrained mind functions in

ignorance

it's ignoring something what are you

ignoring

you're ignoring the four noble truths

the dependent origination which is

actually human cognition

you have an idea that this is a real

slow

process that was a hundred thousand

arising and passing away

of the links of dependent origins

it really happens very fast that's why

when you get to

infinite consciousness and you see each

individual consciousness arise and pass

away

that's really something

okay consciousness is only

a very small part of the dependent

origination

and to see individual consciousnesses

arise and pass away at each one of the

sense doors

is really a very

amazing feat

can you will you be able to do that on

this retreat

do you follow the directions

wait and see essentially bunty's

teaching you how to speed up

your awareness so that everything that's

moving so fast

let's not speed up the awareness

yeah this is changing the subject but i

i wanted to offer then this soft

intorper that there's another way of

dealing with that in terms of

paying closer attention or investigating

what's happening in the mind right

it's always with success so that brings

up the energy

the energizing factor of perhaps

mindfulness

and and that has the effect of them

on or or changing the attention so that

the sloth interpreter then

passes yeah and

when you're first starting out

it doesn't you need to have some

something more than that

when when you start getting deeper in

your practice

what you're saying is perfect

but for beginners to start off that's

why i

give them the other things

yeah ponte when i'm practicing loving

kindness

sometimes i get the image of the

sun by the twelve weeks of causation

and i start that

because my main objective is if i can

call it that

practices for right now yes okay

as you start to go deeper you'll

you'll start seeing these things more

clearly

what you're doing right now is

uh getting into your thinking a little

bit

and thinking and direct experience

there's like

no comparison the thinking is so slow

but through direct experience you're

able to see things

much more clearly and you'll you'll

recognize

does that mean that the faculty of

knowing

you're knowing is much faster than

thinking oh yes

by a lot so your apprehension is like

way faster than oh

comprehensive

the second question was in regards to

seeing the dependent origination when we

look at

the rest of the living beings around us

if you could give me an example i would

appreciate it

one instance that i'm noticing a lot

while walking over this field

is many tiny holes where animals borrow

down

and hide i couldn't help but just see

you know the rebirth and

fear factor within this individual

entity that

ended up being born based on their

craving of running away hiding away from

their fears

and borrowing down deep into the earth

to to

avoid uncomfortable sensations

that's what i'm picking up well and you

see a bird and they

they sit on a branch or they sit on a

post or something

they're always looking around they're

literally vibrating

their metabolism so fast

but you can see you can see how those

links

and that belief in a self

causes suffering

we have a dog at our our

center we have actually three but

one in particular she is very

attuned to anything to eat

and you can see you can see her lust

come up

to be fair she has thyroid well it

doesn't matter what the cause is

what matters is that you're able to see

that

come up in her mind and her

identification with

it and the birth of action

and the sorrow and lamentation and pain

when she doesn't get it when she doesn't

get that piece of food

you're able to see that

yes i was gonna ask on piggybacking on

that are there any stories in the

history where someone has been capable

of maybe teaching an animal about that

no or experimenting with it no

not really um

they the way their mind works is

different

than than the human beings

and you that

they would they understand feeling but

they don't don't

understand uh subtleties of thought

okay

there is the one story about the wild

elephant that bowed down to the noble

one

oh yeah but that was feeling again

because

the noble one was radiating

loving-kindness to them yes exactly

and the story about the

elephant and the monkey that took care

of the buddha for one range retreat

but that again they did that out of

feeling

animals are very sensitive to feeling

and in asia they think you're crazy

if you talk to an animal

but the animal knows what

and they know because of the feeling

that you're giving them while you're

talking to them

that's my bird knows when i'm sad and

it'll come onto my shoulder

oh yeah up against me you bet and say

leon

sometimes when i'm sitting there and i'm

drooping off i'll go

leon

so i i lived in northern california

and i had this dog we called him rover

because that's what he was

and he would

follow that would i had a truck and he

would

uh follow it all the way to town which

was six miles away

and one day it was raining and it was

cold and it was miserable and i

pulled in and i went to the post office

and i come out

and this lady was just coming out of the

post office saw the dog in the back of

the truck which i didn't know

he was and he looked really pathetic

and she chewed me out for leaving him

out and

and as soon as she walked away he smiled

again

are you turkey

sure okay on the bottom of the chart

under personal we have uh

you have this gray area emotion

it's kind of bad because you don't have

the colors on this so let me try to

explain them

let me just ask that question okay so

are you intending that to cover craving

cleaning

habitual tendencies for the action

and the stopping before sorrow

lamination pay

it hits in the middle of craving okay oh

and it should be the entire yeah it can

go all the way over

yeah so so when you you're talking about

emotions you're talking about

um

an unconscious uh or

semi-conscious or i'm just just an

emotional

reaction to something yeah without

essentially reasoning right this is like

it's your own habitual tendency you're

in my parking spaces

i didn't know it was yours but that

raising of the voice that's the whole

that's that whole court yeah the big one

is you're trying to get across

the point that feeling is not emotion

that feeling happens first and the

emotions

are anger depression anxiety all those

things

those are emotions right feeling is

simply

a feeling and it's not personal

a mental feeling it's just a mental or

physical sensation

it can be either mental feeling or

bodily feeling

but it's just pleasant painful or

neutral

and then the craving comes in and you

start taking that personally

and then you have the story with your

clinging and you're right

your habitual tendency in order to have

emotion you have to have

i have to be there but a feeling can

happen without

me there so enter the six hours

and at the so

we can witness the um

any of these uh uh

points uh of either contact

or a sixth sense door opening at any

and any place whether it's personal or

impersonal and at that

point it becomes

it ceases to um

provide the conditions for the next

event to occur

and if you're then right and therefore

the event does not occur right now

i just wanted to see if that was a

simple explanation yeah

okay the mess up that i've seen

happen is if somebody tries to go

overboard with this and say i'm just not

going to feel that and that'll solve the

whole problem

i will stop the feeling from coming you

see

now good and the question is how are you

going to stop that feeling when you stub

your toe

see yeah the feeling is going to be

there

what you do with that when it arises

that dictates what happens in the in

near future

if you 6r as soon as that happens

then the craving of i don't like it

doesn't arise

and with that your story about why you

don't like it your concepts your

opinions your ideas

and then your habitual tendency of

whenever i

kick kick something and stub my toe i

get angry

emotion and that causes a birth of

action for me to stomp around and curse

and that is is the suffering

so we can look at the emotional reaction

as being a

i don't know you well it would be also i

mean animals then

are actually in a condition

where everything that they're doing is

reactive

because there's no reasoning and that's

you could extend that same

thought thinking or i could to infants

and children who

don't have reasoning ability that

they're ha

they are emotionally reactive

more times enough just acting out over

emotional reactions i mean this is

getting into psychology i guess but

i'm just trying to use the terms

correctly yeah i don't think you can

separate emotion and rationality

like you made fun of that emotions are

irrational

but emotions are based on your story

with this which is your rationale

you know based on craving based on a

habitual

pattern right baba is determining

how you're playing out the emotions

would that be right

well your your most your most important

thing

is two things all right first the buddha

discovered this

incredible thing the symptom for craving

and the cur and that is magical that he

uncovered the

symptom for craving which gives you the

cue

for not going into the eye you see

okay the symptom was the tension and

tightness in mind and in body this is

incredible that he uncovered this

tension and this tightness point

and then if you as you calm down

what happens is you start practicing you

have this much tension in your body

and when and when you something pulls

you away and you grab on it

if you release and come back this is

still here and you're working with it

all day and so you've got 15 years and

no progress

right but as soon as you start to

release

and relax you come back and here we go

now we're going to go to another one

and you grab it and you release it and

you relax where are we going

we're going towards nibana what is

nibana

you're just releasing and relaxing

you're not bringing up a wholesome and

you

have to do you have to do that but what

i'm just trying to show him was the

point about the crate

the the tension level is lowering so

it's key that he

showed you two things he showed you

there was a symptom

for craving therefore if you can learn

to detect the symptom and the way you're

detecting it early and earlier

is when you release relax and smile and

come back

this is lowering release relax smile and

come back

your opening mind each time you smile

the

the alertness is sharpening and you see

it sooner as it arises because this is

going lower

as it arises you don't see it till here

next time you see it

here next time you can catch it here

next time you can catch it here

the progressive conditioning the

habitual

this is the retraining right

deconditioning deconditioning

you're responding every time you let go

of the craving

you're responding but i mean the net

effect

is that we're deconditioning this

habitual pattern

changing it purification we're changing

it from an unwholesome

to a wholesome whole game okay we we

have we're gonna have

habits so what we have to do

is make our habits good habits instead

of bad habits or getting

caught by the bad presence of

mindfulness and attention

is what that's doing so that's the

conditioning that's what you're saying

yes mindfulness and attention isn't the

conditioning no

isn't the releasing the releasing and

there isn't that the

conditioning moment and then

that's part of it part of the yeah

that's not the whole thing

it's it's the release relax and

re-smile that's the reconditioning

but what i'm asking yeah okay but isn't

that conditioning that if you're

if you're bringing up a wholesome state

yeah of course

right that's right conditioning

right now

and i'm asking you if i'm right or wrong

well

there's there's four steps the two are

letting go and the other are replacing

you can't leave a

a vacuum in the universe i'm not saying

you are but are you

are you you are changing old habits

right and developing new new habits yes

okay deep conditioning and

reconditioning and reconditioning there

you go

deep conditioning

if you do it right there's that's what i

think of as a subtle track that may be

blatantly obvious to others

but when i started trying this

i found attention very easily i got lots

of them

and said that's bad i've got to do

something about it

i think i'll release it but not

releasing it

i think that's not so good

and what i was doing was reinforcing

the very thing i was trying to give up

because i

needed to do this because i was doing it

wrong because i wanted to do it right

get right there this little circular

thing

we're back to the cake recipe you know

my grandmother's cake was 12 inches high

and had a specific

recipe and a specific way of blending

the ingredients

you can't just throw the ingredients

away or have all the ingredients and not

blend it the same way and expect to get

a cake that's 12 inches high

so if you have all the eggs and all the

ingredients for the cake

but you just throw them in a bowl and

whip them up instead of dividing the

eggs and the egg whites and doing the

stiffs first so they get high in the

oven

you know okay so now you have a cake

come out that's that high

so it will taste it tastes sweet

but it's not grandma's cake it's like

leather

you know it's because it's because you

didn't anytime you

add any extra ingredient

you can look forward to that cake not

being the same

i wasn't even suggesting yeah yeah it

was

different i was just trying to

understand the categories of what was

happening

isn't the conditioning effect and a

conditioning effect and

six hours and that's what i've been

calling the

personality development so there's a

transformation

and the transformation is due to the way

that

the condition and deconditioning work

together

the recipe as it were right right yeah i

think in traditional psychology your

your reconditioning is like we call it

reappraisal

where you meant to be mindful of the way

you react to something and then

you try to reason through why your

response

is unwarranted we're not reasoning here

right that's what i'm saying that's

what's interesting about the difference

well that's what i'm not using

like our reconditioning is you know

relaxation you know letting go of the

flight attack response bringing up

something wholesome

you know i don't know i just think it's

interesting whereas theirs is just

reappraisal it's just

thoughts yeah yeah yeah that's why it

doesn't work and that's yeah that's why

i think this works so fast and that

maybe works very slowly what we see in

most of the books is pure

he's trying to purify the mind and what

he means is doing exactly what you're

saying

and he's talking about bawa and he's

saying retrain it this way very

specifically with the four steps and

right effort and you're calling the

first two a deconditioning and

the second two as a reconditioning

that's fine

because the point you're trying to get

across is you cannot leave a hole

or these two are just going to pop back

in place again that's right

that's what the person has to really

learn perfectly simpatico because that's

that's where the big great the great

rapid transformation

takes place yeah it means it's all about

transformation like you say you know i

mean i didn't be possible for 30 years

and nothing well it did it happened for

the first you know a year and then

you know the next 20 is that what you

call

immediately effective

i always thought it was effective for

somebody else

we'll give them to you she just wants to

um the last handouts went around all the

way or not

where did they go to the last two

actually the last two

people in the front didn't get them on

this side they didn't get them the small

one

and the one that has colors on it i

don't know where they went

i've done

and there's one form that has seven

links that's a training

a training page okay

seven links are actually more usable

we'll give it to you

oh

don't you think this is a conversation

worth having with someone like john

kevinson or

one of these people who brings

mindfulness training into psychology

it's like you you go get him yeah i'm

the only one who like really wants to go

to talk show other people

i haven't laid it all out written him he

never writes me back

no they have a very pat sellable product

and they're going with it and you're not

gonna be

injecting anything that might make it

lopsided and make people

think further is the way i look at it

mindfulness-based stress reduction and

they're not interested in

in the depth of the practice that we're

describing but

i'm not the medic on the medical side of

things i have doctors who

keep encouraging me to write him and

write him and write him and someday you

will respond

because you can take a child you know

away from

the heavy medication and put him in the

room to play the game so he doesn't take

so much morphine before he dies

but they don't believe that you can

explain to the child how this is working

with

this little page of seven pieces and

haven't played the game himself

and actually they can because i've

worked with them and they can

at 9 10 and 11 years old so we're trying

to reach out

a lot in this culture though they're

just

interested in uh

technique this is the question

you know

the mental difficulties that they have

that's right that's what's working for

them

and they like it for that yeah

yeah to say that despite

our lack of progress i've meditated a

long time and i'm having more results

lately but there's oh there's something

about

buddha dharma that has kept us all in it

you know whether it was action-packed or

not

there's something that kept us adhered

or

there's something here i know there's

something here that's different than

anything else

and and what the other teachers are

teaching

they they're popping this this buddha

dharma

from whatever understanding they have

into this culture and people are

responding to it

it'll be a wonderful thing to to

integrate it with a more effective

practice

but i'm just interested that popped into

my head today despite the fact

that 30 years of practice wasn't

yielding a lot of

progress there were just some faith

about it that

you know made a stay well a lot of the

faith is i mean the asians have that

faith too you know i don't know

they keep going i mean you know it's

true isn't it

but but but when i was over there they

want more understanding

and it's all a question of do you

believe you have the absolute answer

there can't be anything better then

you're here right here and you're not

going to go any further

and if you're really still open to

looking

for even better then you will try and

see

i mean this year was the first year any

of us

got to present to any kind of audience

where there were psychologists

psychiatrists really listening

in sri lanka they were really listening

to this

and there was only one person that said

i just don't agree with you

out of like 20 of them sitting there

there was only one person like that

and that was neat that they were list

willing to listen to it and

actually take it away and

it's like i always follow it this way

but

there's just certain things about the

buddha dharma like

open handed ex try for yourself see for

yourself

um you know no it's not exclusive

anybody can try you don't have to drop

whatever beliefs you

you can enter in and experiment

so i think those kind of things bring

people in

and hopefully they will make contact

with a

more progressive practice but you know

it's interesting

you know just interesting that despite

all these years

why why did how how did i luck out

to stay in it because i could have

gotten like oh well heck with it

here i still am happily

and so are several of other of us there

is a

an enormous amount of compassion and

integrity

and courage and selflessness i have

found

in buddhism and it is valuable beyond

belief

just to have that it is far more

valuable to have that and this

that the people that i've met in it

have been selfless and giving and spent

their lives

trying to help and that's and you can

recognize from the words

that there is meaning and substance here

maybe not all of it but we

recognize that it's there we just needed

monthly to show us

boy someone should make a movie about

all that

it was real amazing when i was in asia

because i kept on telling them that

easterners think that their mind works

differently than westerners

and it really kind of makes them unhappy

to think

that western mind works exactly as the

eastern mind

because dependent origination that's the

thing that's so brilliant about it it

doesn't matter what culture you're in

it works the same way

i mean it's it's truly one of the most

phenomenal things i've ever seen

this is the human condition it has

nothing to do with culture

but i i had some people stand up and

tell me i didn't know what i was talking

about

you have a way in doing that huh

anyway anybody have any more comments

questions

so

you

okay

that's as i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawatee in

jettas bro venethan bendicas park

now on that occasion a pernicious view

had arisen

in a monk named saty

son of a fisherman

as i understand the dhamma taught by the

blessed one

it is the same consciousness that runs

and wanders through the realms of

rebirth

not another this

view is now

these days we call it a hindu view but

it's brahman

view and it's the belief

that you have a permanent soul permanent

self that goes from once

one lifetime to the next to the next

several monks having heard about this

went to the

monk sati and asked him friend sati is

it true

such that such a pernicious view has

arisen in you

it's always funny to me if somebody

comes up and asks you is it

true that you're so stupid to believe

this

and that's what they're saying exactly

so

friends as i understand the dhamma

taught by the blessed one

it is the same consciousness that runs

and wanders through the rounds of

rebirth

not another then those monks

desiring to detach him from that

pernicious view

pressed and questioned and

cross-questioned him

friend sati do not say so do not

misrepresent the blessed one

it is not good to misrepresent the

blessed one

the blessed one would not speak

for in many ways the blessed one has

stated

consciousness to be dependently arisen

since without a condition

there is no origination of consciousness

yet although pressed and questioned and

cross-questioned by those monks in this

way

the monk sati son of a fisherman

still obstinately adhered to that

pernicious view and continued to insist

upon it

since the monks were unable to detach

him from that pernicious view

they went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him

sat down at one side and told him all

that

had occurred

adding venerable sir

since we could not detach the monk sati

son of a fisherman from the pernicious

view

we have reported this matter to the

blessed one

then address then a blessed one address

a certain monk

thus come monk tell the monk saty

son of a fisherman he was the son of a

fisherman but he hated the smell of fish

so this is kind of a monk joke

in my name that the teacher calls him

yes venerable

sir he replied and he went to the monk

sati

and told him the teacher

calls you friend sati yes friend he

replied and he went to the blessed one

after paying homage to him sat down at

one side

the blessed one then asked him sati

is it true that the following pernicious

view has arisen

in you as i understand the dhamma taught

by the blessed one it is

the same consciousness that runs and

wanders through the rounds of rebirth

not another

exactly so venerable sir

as i understand the dhamma taught by the

blessed one

it is the same consciousness that runs

and wanders through the rounds of

rebirth not another

what is that consciousness sati

venerable sir it is that which speaks

and feels and experiences

here and there the regal who's results

of good and bad actions

misguided men to whom have you ever

known me to teach the dhamma in that way

misguided men have i not stated in many

ways

consciousness to be dependently arisen

since without a condition there is no

origination of consciousness

but you misguided men have

misrepresented us by your

wrong grasp and injured yourself and

stored up much demerit

that will lead to your harm and

suffering for a long time

then the blessed one addressed the monks

thus

monks what do you think has this

monk sati son of a fisherman kindled

even a spark of wisdom in this dhamma

and discipline

spark of wisdom that's the key

wisdom or being wise always refers to

the links of dependent origination

how could he venerable sir no venerable

sir

when this was said the monk sat the son

of a fisherman

sat silent dismayed with shoulders

drooping and head

down glum and without response

then knowing this the blessed one told

him

misguided men you will be

recognized by your own pernicious view

and 2 600 late years later we're still

talking about him so that's how we

recognize

him

i shall question amongst on this matter

then the blessed one addressed the monks

thus

monks do you understand the dhamma

taught by me

as this monk sati son of a fisherman

does when he

miss misrepresents us

by his wrong grasp and injures himself

and stores up much demerit

who is going to say yes to something

like that

no venerable sir for in many discourses

the blessed one had stated

consciousness to be dependently arisen

since without a condition there's no

origination of consciousness

good monks it is good that you

understand the dhamma taught by me thus

for in many ways i have stated

consciousness to be

dependently arisen since without a

condition

there is no origination of consciousness

so what we're talking about is in order

to see

you have to have a good working eye

and the good working eye hits color and

form

when the good or working eye hits color

and form

i consciousness arises it needs those

conditions

for that to happen

and the meeting of these three is called

eye contact

we'll get into that in a little bit

but this monk sati son of a fisherman

misrepresents us by his wrong grasp and

injures himself and stores up much to

merit

for this will lead to the harm and

suffering of this misguided man for a

long time

monk's consciousness is reckoned by the

particular condition

dependent upon which it arises

when consciousness arises dependent on

the i

and forms it is reckoned as i

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the

ear and sounds it is reckoned as ear

consciousness when consciousness

arises dependent on the nose and odors

it is reckoned as nose consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the tongue and flavors

it is reckoned as tongue consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the body

and tangibles it is reckoned as body

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

mind and mind objects it is reckoned as

mind

consciousness just as a fire is reckoned

by the particular condition

dependent upon which it burns

when fire burns dependent on logs it is

reckoned as a log

fire when fire burns

dependent on [ __ ] it is reckoned as a

[ __ ]

fire when fire burns dependent on grass

it is reckoned as a grass fire

when fire burns dependent on cow dung

it is reckoned as a cow dung fire

when fire burns dependent on chafe it is

reckoned as a chafe

fire when fire burns dependent on

rubbish

it is reckoned as a rubbish fire

so to consciousness is reckoned by the

particular condition

dependent upon which it arises

when consciousness arises dependent on

the i

and forms it is reckoned as i

consciousness

when consciousness arises on the ear

and sounds it is reckoned as ear

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the nose

and odors it is reckoned as nose

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the tongue

and flavors it is reckoned as tongue

consciousness

when consciousness arises dependent on

the body

intangibles it is reckoned as body

consciousness

when consciousness arrives

arises dependent on mind and mind

objects it is reckoned as mind

consciousness

monks do you see

this has come to be yes venerable sir

monks do you see its origination

occurs with that as nutriment

this means food this means

your attention yes

venerable sir monks do you see

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come to be

is subject to cessation

yes venerable sir

monks does doubt arise when one is

uncertain thus

this has come to be

yes venerable sir

monks does doubt arise

when one is uncertain thus

does its origination occur with that as

nutriment

yes venerable sir monks does doubt arise

when one is uncertain

thus with the cessation of nutriment

what has come to be is subject to

cessation

yes venerable sir

monks is doubt abandoned in one who

sees as it actually is with proper

wisdom this has come to be

yes venerable sir monks

is doubt abandoned in one who sees as

it actually is with proper wisdom thus

its origination occurs with that as

nutriment yes venerable sir

monks is doubt abandoned in one who sees

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come to be is subject to

cessation

yes venerable sir

monks are you thus free from doubt

now he's asking them if they they know

it from their own experience

this has come to be yes venerable sir

monks are you thus free from doubt here

its origination occurs with that as

nutriment

yes venerable sir monks

are you thus free from doubt

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come to be

is subject to cessation yes venerable

sir

monks has it been seen well by you

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

this has come to be yes

venerable sir monks has it been seen

well by you as it actually is with

proper wisdom thus

its origination occurs with that as

nutriment

yes venerable sir

monks has it been seen well by you as it

actually is with proper wisdom thus

with the cessation of that nutriment

what has come

to be is subject to cessation

yes venerable sir monks

purified and bright as this view

is if you adhere to it cherish it

treasure it and treat it as a possession

would you then understand the dhamma has

been

taught as similar to a raft

being for the purpose of crossing over

not for the purpose of craving and

clinging no venerable sir

so you can't hold on to this view you

have to

just keep watching how it occurs

monks purified and bright as this

view is if you do not adhere to it

cherish it treasure it and treat it as a

possession

would you then understand that the

dhamma has been taught

as similar to a raft being for the

purpose of crossing over

not for the purpose of grasping

yes venerable sir

monks there are four kinds of nutriment

for the maintenance of beings that

already have come

to be and for the support of those

about to become come to be

what for they are physical food as

nutriment

gross or subtle contact as

the second

formations as the third

and consciousness as the fourth

now amongst these four kinds of

nutriment have

what as their source what as their

origin from what are they born and

produced

these four kinds of nutriment have

craving as

their source craving

as their origin they are

born and produced from craving

and this craving has what as its source

grave graving has feeling

as its source feeling

is pleasant painful neither painful nor

pleasant

this feeling has what as its source

feeling has contact as its source

and this contact has what as its source

contact has the six-fold base

as its source and this six-fold base

has what is its source the six-fold base

has mentality materiality as its source

and this mentality materiality has

what as its source mentality materiality

has consciousness

as its source and this consciousness

has what as its source consciousness

has formations as its source

and these formations have what as their

source

what has their origin from what are they

born and produced

formations have ignorance as their

source

ignorance as their origin they are born

and produced from

ignorance in our language right now

we have the idea that when somebody says

that you're ignorant that means that

you're stupid

but in buddhist terms ignorance means

that you've been

ignoring something and what have you

been ignoring

you've been ignoring how the four noble

truths

actually do work four noble truths again

there is suffering there is

a cause of suffering there is the

cessation of suffering

and there is the way leading to the

cessation of suffering

when you see a lot of buddha images you

will see

that he is has

this posture

and this means that he is talking about

the first noble truth

and the second noble truth or the third

noble truth

or the fourth noble truth the last two

you don't see

very often

but that's what the artist that made the

buddha

is talking about this is suffering

now in the samut nikaya

there is a very short verse

about the right way to teach and

the wrong way to teach and the wrong way

to teach

is that everything is suffering

and the right way to teach is the

cessation

of suffering but

these days monks generally

focus on suffering

they very seldom talk about

the cessation of the suffering

what i'm teaching you is the cessation

of the suffering

by being able to recognize

that tension and tightness in your mind

and relax that

that little membrane that goes around

your

your brain

every time there's a thought every time

there's a feeling

every time there's a sensation that

membrane

tightens around your brain

that is the way that you recognize

craving when it arises

okay and it can be very very subtle at

some times

and you might not even notice that

there's a tightness there

and when you relax you don't feel any

difference

but as you continually do that then

you'll start to notice there's a very

slight

tightness that was there and when you

let that go

your mind becomes clear your mind

becomes alert your mind becomes

bright and it is pure

why because you've let go of

grieving

so

what i'm teaching you is the way

to recognize that and the way to let

that craving

go

so every time you relax and you come

back to your object

of meditation you're bringing your mind

back

that is pure

that's clear that's bright and this

is one of the reasons why you can

progress in your meditation

very quickly i was not

taught this when i first started

meditation

and i was taught

straight vipassana meditation

and in vipassana there is no relaxed

step

as a result it starts taking you

off of the path that the buddha is

teaching us

the relaxed step can't be overstated

it doesn't matter what kind of thought

arises in your mind

there is that little tiny tension that's

there

and you have to relax that when you

notice it

craving is the i like it i don't like it

mind

craving is the start of the belief

in a personal self this is me this is

mine

this is who i am

so when you let go of that craving

you start to see everything as part of

an impersonal process

in other words you are starting to

purify

the way you see the world around you

and you become much more clearer and

much more bright

when you let go of this tightness

and your mind

when you've let go of the craving your

mind stays in the present moment

it's not distracted

that's why your mind is pure

you've let go of that tightness and now

smile why is smile

important because it's a wholesome state

it

brings your mind so that it's clear

and bright and there can be joy in your

mind and when you have

joy in your mind your mind is very

clear and bright and alert

and it's very easy easy to recognize

when your mind starts to get heavy and

tight

when it gets heavy and tight guess who

has an attachment

what is the attachment i am

that whatever it is

so this relaxed step is the major

um a thing to

recognize and to do and it has to be

intentional relaxing

it's not just oh i see that let it go

and then come back because you're

bringing the craving back

with you and it's subtle

and that tightness is really there

when you're bringing the craving back

with you

you're stepping off of the path that the

buddha taught

okay and you're developing your

ignorance because you're ignoring

that little subtle tightness that's

there

now when you don't do that when you when

you

don't have that relaxed step

after a period of time tightness

starts to manifest

in your head

and it is

ignored by almost everybody

that's practicing meditation

don't pay attention to that

when i was practicing straight vipassana

then i've done many retreats and i even

did a two-year retreat

when i was doing any walking meditation

i took my

my attention and i put it on my feet and

i was watching each little intention

of moving my foot and pushing

it forward and placing it down again

and i had this pretty big headache

so i went to the teacher

and i told him when i'm doing the

walking meditation

my mind's really tight

and the instruction i got from the

teacher

was just ignore it it's nothing

so in essence what was the teacher

telling me

ignore the craving it's nothing

so that's a problem

but when we go back to the

original teaching of the buddha

and we start examining what the buddha

was saying with

meditation he was talking about

tranquilizing the bodily formation

what does that mean

well when you let go of that tightness

in your head

in your mind it starts to relax

all of the rest of your body

a lot of people talk to me about

pains in their body especially when you

start out meditation

i can't get comfortable there's a lot of

pain

so i tell you get as comfortable as you

can

keep smiling because that pulls up your

mindfulness and helps your mindfulness

to sharpen

and keep relaxing

and then smiling into things

and bring that smiling mind back to your

object of meditation

as you do that all of a sudden

the tensions in your body start to relax

and when the tensions in your body relax

that means that you've let go of tension

in your mind

so it's all interconnected

okay

now we're gonna do the forward

exposition

on arising

so monks with ignorance as

condition formations come to be

with formations as condition

consciousness

comes to be with consciousness as

condition mentality materiality comes to

be

with mentality materiality as condition

success faith comes to be

with the six-fold base as condition

contact comes to be with contact as

condition feeling comes to be

with

with clinging as conditions habitual

tendencies come to me

sorrow lamentation pain grief

and despair comes to be

such is the origin of this whole mass of

suffering

this is how it arises

we don't really want to focus on

how it arises we want to focus on

how it ceases

okay we have a reverse order

questionnaire

on the arising with

birth as condition aging and death so it

was said

now monks do aging and death

have birth as condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

aging and death have birth as condition

venerable sir thus we take it

in this case with birth as

condition aging and death comes to be

with habitual tendency as conditioned

birth so it was said

now monks does birth

have habitual tendency as condition or

not

or how do you take it in this case

birth has habitual tendency as

conditioned venerable sir thus

we take it in this case with habitual

tendency as condition birth

comes to be with

clinging as condition habitual

tendencies so it was said

now monks does habitual

tendency have clinging as condition or

not

or how do you take it in this case

habitual tendency has clinging as

conditioned venerable sir

thus we take it in this case

with the [ __ ] with clinging as

condition

habitual tendency comes to be

with craving as conditioned clinging

comes to be

so it was said now does clinging

have craving as condition or not or how

do you take it in this case

claiming has craving as conditioned

venerable sir

thus we take it in this case with

craving as condition

clinging comes to be with

feeling as conditioned craving comes to

be

so it was said now monks does craving

have feeling as condition or

not or how do you take it in this case

craving has feeling as conditioned

venerable sir

thus we take it in this case with

feeling as

conditioned craving comes to be

with contact as conditioned feeling

comes to be so it was said now

does feeling have contact as condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

failing

with the six-fold base as condition

contact comes to be so it was said now

does contact have the six-fold base

as condition or not or how do you take

it in this case

contact has the six-fold basis

conditioned venerable sir

thus we take it in this case with the

six-fold base as condition

contact comes to be with mentality

materiality as condition

the six-fold base comes to be so it was

said

now monks does the six-fold base have

mentality materiality as condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

the six-fold base has mentality

materiality as condition

venerable sir thus we take it in this

case

with mentality materiality as

conditioned

the six-fold base comes to be

with consciousness as condition

mentality comes to be

so it was said now monks does mentality

materiality have consciousness as

condition or not or how do you take it

in this case

mentality materiality has consciousness

as conditioned venerable sir thus we

take it in this case

with consciousness as conditioned

mentality materiality

comes to be with formations

as conditioned consciousness comes to be

so it was said now amongst does

consciousness have formations as

condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

consciousness has formations as

conditioned

venerable sir thus we take it in this

case

with formations as conditioned

consciousness

comes to be with ignorance

as conditioned formations come to be

so it was said now monks

do formations have ignorance as

condition

or not or how do you take it in this

case

formations have ignorance as conditioned

venerable servants thus we take it in

this case

with ignorance as conditioned for

nations come to me

good monks so you say thus

and i also say thus when this

exists that comes to be

with the arising of this

that arises that is

with ignorance as condition

formations come to be with formations

as condition consciousness

with consciousness as condition

mentality material

with mentality materiality is

conditioned

with the six-fold base as condition

contact with contact as condition

being

clinging as condition habitual

sorrow lamentation pain grief

and despair comes

such is the origin of this whole mass of

suffering

now we're going to do the forward

exposition on cessation

i'm not going to go all the way through

this i think

with the remainderless fading away and

cessation of

ignorance comes cessation of formations

with the cessation of formation

cessation of consciousness

with the cessation of consciousness

cessation of

mentality material with the cessation of

mentality materiality

cessation of sixth sense

with association of the six-fold base

cessation of

context with the cessation of contact

cessation of with the cessation of

feeling cessation of

craving with the cessation of craving

cessation of

clinging with the cessation of clinging

cessation of habitual tendencies

the cessation of habitual tendencies

cessation of

birth of actions with the cessation of

birth of action

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair cease

such is the cessation of this whole mass

of suffering

now this is the part i'm not going to go

all the way through i just give you a

taste of it

with the cessation of birth cessation of

aging and death so it was said

now amongst do aging and death

cease with the cessation of birth of

action or not or how do you take it in

this case

aging and death cease with the cessation

of

birth venerable serve thus we take it in

this case

with the cessation of birth cessation of

aging and death

with the cessation of habitual tendency

cessation of birth with the cessation

of habitual tendency cessation of

clinging

oh i messed up anyway

we'll let go this this went into the dot

dot dots so it's hard to

do just by reading like that

good monks so you say this and i

also say this when this does

not exist that does not come to be

with the cessation of this that ceases

that is with the cessation of

ignorance comes the cessation of

formulation

with the cessation of formation

cessation of

consciousness with the cessation of

consciousness cessation of mentality

materiality

with the cessation of mentality

materiality

cessation of

with the cessation of the six-fold base

cessation of

with the cessation of contact the

cessation of

healing with the cessation of feeling

cessation of

braving with the cessation of craving

cessation of with the cessation of

clinging

cessation of

with the cessation of habitual

tendencies

cessation of with the cessation of birth

of action

cease such is the cessation of this

whole mass of suffering

monks knowing and seeing in this way

would you run back to the past thus

were we in the past were we not in the

past

what were we in the past how were we in

the past

having been what what did we become in

the past

no venerable sir

if you start thinking about the past are

you in the present moment at that time

no

knowing and seeing in this way would you

run

forward to the future thus

shall we be in the future shall we not

be in the future

what shall we be in the future how shall

we be in the future

having been what what shall we become in

the future

no of course not knowing and seeing in

this way

knowing and seeing how these links

arise and how they cease you haven't got

time to think about other stuff

projections of the future

knowing and seeing in this way would you

be

inwardly perplexed about the present

thus am i am i not

what am i how am i

where has this been come from where will

it go

you don't have any of those kind of

ideas coming up at all why

because they all have i

in them and there is no i

it's an impersonal process this

whole recitation of the links of

dependent origination

there's no i in there

there's no self in there

so how would you come up with

questions of am i or am i not

you see

monks knowing and seeing in this way

would you

speak this way the teacher is respected

by us

we speak as we do out of respect for the

teacher

no why because you have the direct

experience

you don't have to refer to somebody

else their thoughts and ideas because

you know for yourself how these links

actually work

knowing and seeing in this way would you

speak

this the recluse says this

and we speak thus at the bidding of the

recluse

of course not you wouldn't say that

knowing and seeing in this way would you

acknowledge

another teacher no

why because you're your own teacher

you're teaching this and how these

links work personally

you're doing it from your

own direct experience from your own

direct

knowledge of how this actually does

work are they

are the monks responding to those

questions and

when they say no venerable sir yeah okay

okay knowing and seeing in this way

would you return to the observances

tumultuous debates and auspicious

signs of ordinary recluses

and brahmanas taking them

as the core of the holy life

no venerable sir do you speak

only of what you have known

seen and understood for yourself

yes venerable sir

good monks so you have been guided by me

with this dharma which is visible here

and now

now this is the part of the

good qualities of the dhamma

that a lot of people recite

but they don't actually practice it

and that is this dharma is

immediately effective

okay and you see that for yourself it's

immediately effective when you let go of

that craving that tightness in your head

then there's no thoughts there's no

distractions

your mind is clear your mind is bright

your mind is very pure

it's not clouded by anything at all

so this is immediately effective

when i was practicing straight vipassana

it took me five years to figure out

what the meditation wasn't

before i could figure out what it was

now is that what you would call

immediately effective

but when you start practicing the way

that i'm showing you by letting go of

that craving it

is immediately effective now everybody

here that's been practicing you're

progressing into meditation

very nicely

in two or three days you're seeing for

yourself

the progress that you're making

and that's truly amazing

for it to happen that fast

i promise you it's amazing

inviting inspection inspection

onward leading to be experienced by the

wise for

themselves why are you wise

because you're seeing the lengths of

dependent origination for yourself

for it was with reference to this that

it has been said

monks this dhamma is visible here and

now

immediately affecting effective

inviting inspection onward leading

to be experienced by the wise for

themselves

okay now we have a round of existence

existence conception to maturity

monks the descent of the embryo takes

place

through the union of three things

here there is the union of the mother

and father

but the mother is not in season and the

coming being

is not present in that case

no descent of the embryo takes place

here there is the union of the mother

and father

and the mother is in season but the

coming being

is not present in this case

to no descent of the embryo takes place

but

when there is the union of the mother

and father

and the mother is in season and the

coming being is present

through the union of these three things

the descent

of the embryo takes place

the mother carry then carries the embryo

in her womb for nine or ten months

with much anxiety as a heavy burden

then at the end of nine or ten months

the mother gives birth with much anxiety

as a heavy burden

then when the child is born she

nourishes it

with her own blood for the mother's

breast milk

is called blood in the noble one's

discipline

when he grows up and his faculties

mature

the child plays at such games as toy

plows

tip cat summersaults toy windmills

toy car measures toy carts

and toy bow and arrow

when he grows up and his faculties

mature still further

the youth enjoys himself provided and

endowed with the five

chords of sensual pleasure

with forms cognizable by the eye

that are wished for desired agreeable

and likable connected with sensual

desire

and inviting lust

sounds cognizable by the ear that are

wished for desired agreeable and likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust

odor is cognizable by the moat by the

nose that are wished for

desired agreeable and likable

connected with sensual desire and

provocative of lust

flavor is cognizable by the tongue

that are wished for desired agreeable

and likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust

tangibles cognizable by the body that

are wished for desired agreeable and

likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust

on seeing a form with the eye he

lusts after it if it is pleasant he

dislikes it if it's unpleasant

he abides with mindfulness unestablished

with a limited mind and he does not

understand as it actually is the

deliverance of mine and deliverance by

wisdom

wherein those evil and wholesome states

cease without remainder

engaged as he is in favoring and

opposing

whatever feeling he feels whether

pleasant or

painful or neither painful nor pleasant

he delights in that feeling welcomes it

remains holding to it

as he does so delight arises in him

now delight in feelings is craving

and clinging

with his craving and clinging as

condition

habitual tendency comes to be

with habitual tendency as conditioned

birth of action comes to be with birth

of action as condition

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair come to be

such is the origin of this whole mass of

suffering on hearing a sound with the

ear

and smelling an odor with a nose on

tasting a flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

he lusts after it if it's pleasing he

dislikes it if it's unpleasing

now delight in feelings is grieving

and clinging with this grieving and

clinging as condition

habitual tendency comes to be

with habitual tendency as condition

birth comes to be

with birth of action as condition

aging and death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair come

to be such as the origin

of this whole mass of suffering ending

the round the gradual training

here amongst the tatakata appears in the

world

accomplished and fully awakened

perfect and true knowledge and conduct

sublime nor of worlds incomparable

leader of persons to be tamed

teacher of god's inhumans awakened

and blessed he declares this

world with its gods with its morals with

his brahmas

this generation with its recluses and

brahmanas

its princes and its people which he has

himself realized with direct knowledge

he teaches dhamma good in the beginning

good in the middle in good in the end

with the right meaning and phrasing he

reveals a holy life

that is utterly perfect and pure

a householder or householder son

or one born in some other clan hears the

dhamma

on hearing the dhamma he acquires

faith in a tatakata

possessing that faith he considers thus

household life is crowded and dusty

life gone forth is wide open

it's not easy while living in a home

to lead the holy life utterly perfect

and pure as a polished shell

suppose i shave off my hair and beard

and put on the yellow robe

and go forth from a home life into

homelessness

on that later occasion abandoning a

smaller

large fortune abandoning a smaller

large circle of relatives he shaves off

his hair

and beards and beard and puts on the

yellow robe

and goes forth from home life into

homelessness

having thus gone forth and possessing

amongst training

and way of life abandoning the killing

of living beings he abstains from

killing living beings

with rod and weapon laid aside

conscientious merciful

he abides compassionate to all living

beings

abandoning the taking of what is not

given

he abstains from taking what is not

given

taking only what is given expecting

only what is given by not stealing he

abides in purity

abandoning in celibacy he

observes celibacy living apart

abstaining from the vulgar practice of

sexual intercourse

this is for monks of course

abandoning false speech he abstains from

false speech

he speaks truth adheres to truth is

trustworthy and reliable

one who is no deceiver of the world

abandoning malicious speech he abstains

from malicious speech

he does not repeat elsewhere what he has

heard here

in order to divide those people from

these

nor does he repeat to these people what

he is heard elsewhere

in order to divide these people from

those

thus he is one who reunites

those who are divided a promoter of

friendship

he enjoys concord rejoices in concord

delights in concord a speaker of

words that promote concord abandoning

her speech and cursing he abstains from

harsh speech and cursing

he speaks such words as are gentle

pleasing to the ear lovable as go

to the heart are courteous and desired

by many and agreeable to many

abandoning gossip he abstains from

gossip

he speaks at the right time he speaks

what is fact

he speaks what is good he speaks on the

dhamma and discipline

at the right time he speaks such words

as

are worth recording reasonable moderate

and beneficial he abstains from injuring

seeds and plants

he practices

eating one meal a day abstaining from

eating at night and outside the proper

time

he abstains from dancing singing music

and theatrical shows he abstains from

wearing

garland smartening himself with scent

embellishing himself with unguents

he abstains from high and luxurious

couches

he abstains from accepting gold and

silver

he abstains from accepting raw grain

he abstains from accepting raw meat

he abstains from accepting women and

girls

he abstains from accepting men and women

slaves

he abstains from accepting goats and

sheep

he abstains from accepting fowl and pigs

he abstains from accepting elephants

cattle

horses and mirrors he abstains from

accepting

fields and land he abstains from

going on errands and running messages

he abstains from buying and selling

he abstains from false weights false

measures and false

medals he abstains from accepting bribes

deceiving and defrauding and all forms

of trickery

he abstains from wounding murdering

binding brigandage plunder

and violence

he becomes content with robes to protect

his body

and alms food to maintain his stomach

and wherever he goes he sets out taking

those with him

just as a bird wherever he fly he goes

flies with his wings as

his only burden so to

the monk becomes content with robes to

protect the body

and with alms food to maintain his

stomach

and wherever he goes he sets out

taking only these with him

along with the truck for all of the

books and

electronics and things like that but we

won't talk about that

possessing this aggregate of noble

virtue

he experiences within himself a bliss

that is blameless

on seeing a form with the eye he does

not

grasp at its signs and features

since if he left the eye faculty and

guarded evil and wholesome

states of covetousness and grief might

invade him

he practices the way of its restraint

he guards the eye faculty undertakes the

restraint of the eye faculty

on hearing a sound with the ear

on smelling an odor with the nose

on tasting a flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

he does not grasp at its signs and

features

since if he left his mind

faculty unguarded evil and wholesome

states of covetousness and

grief might invade him

he practices the way of its restraint

he guards the mind faculty undertakes

the restraint of the mind faculty

but death possessing this noble

restraint of the faculties he

experiences within himself a bliss

that is unsullied he becomes

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

and urinating who acts in full awareness

when

walking standing sitting falling

asleep waking up talking and keeping

silent

full awareness of what

full awareness of what mind's attention

is doing

when you're doing all of these other

actions

now this is one of the reasons why he

said

today i didn't want you to talk while

you were eating

watch mine watch what it's doing now

you have these thoughts that come up and

tighten that

membrane around your brain use your six

hearts

get in the habit of being able to

recognize that

as much as you possibly can

recognize when your mind is distracted

away from eating

release the distraction relax the

tightness caused by that distraction

re-smile even while you're eating you

gotta smile

return to your object of meditation

stay with your object of meditation

see it doesn't matter whether you're

defecating or urinating

stay with what your mind is doing in the

present moment

look at how it gets distracted

let go of that distraction relax

smile come back to what you're doing in

the present moment

staying with your spiritual friend

possessing this aggregate of noble

virtue

and this aggregate of restraint of the

faculties

and possessing this noble mindfulness

and full awareness

he resorts to a secluded resting place

the forest the root of a tree a mountain

a ravine

a hillside cave a charnel ground

a jungle thick and an open space a heap

of straw

on returning from his alms round after

his meal

he sits folding his legs crosswise

setting his body erect

and establishing mindfulness before him

abandoning covetousness for the world

he abides with the mind free from

covetousness

he purifies his mind from covetousness

what is covetousness

i want

lust for things

abandoning ill will and hatred he abides

with the mind free from ill will

compassionate for the welfare of all

living beings he purifies his mind from

ill will and hatred

abandoning sloth and torpor

he abides free from sloth and torpor

mindful and fully aware he purifies his

mind from sloth and dwarf

now there's different ways of getting

rid of sloth and torpor

one of the things that's really helpful

is when you have sloth and torpor don't

be in a dark

room okay there's one thing that happens

with almost everybody

i've been meditating for a long time i

meditate better when i

am in a dark room and

quite often sloth and torpor comes and

then they have to fight with that

i used to get in arguments with monks

because i'd walk into a room

and they didn't have the light on they'd

turn the light on because

that helped keep you awake

so if you have sloth and torpor

you can sit outside but not in the

direct sun

but just sit so that this there's a lot

more

light so that you can it helps wake you

up

and one of my favorite things that it

says in the sutures and it really does

say this that if you have a bad case of

sloth and torpor you take your

ear lobe and you pinch it really

hard

and that does wake you up

but the easiest way

is to go out and walk

go out in the sun and walk and

just walk back and forth for 40 or 50

feet

when you walk you don't turn around when

you get to the end of the walk

now you walk backwards as you do

that you start having to pick up your

effort and your

energy and then you

do that forwards and back for a while

and you come in and you sit

the sloth and torpor will dissipate

it just goes away by itself still need

to use the six r's

but i'm already relaxed i'm too relaxed

but this is called a contracted mind

your mind contracts and gets

tight and then you start

getting into your dreamy state and then

you start

slouching and then you start bobbing

okay now what do you do

to pick up your awareness and

overcome the sloth and torpor more

quickly

what you do is you sit a little bit

straighter than is comfortable

okay now your mind is not going to stay

on your object to meditation and these

little thoughts are going to come in and

before

long you're going to start getting these

dreamy thoughts

and right after that your back starts to

slump

now when you sit a little bit more

straight

there's a tiny bit of tension in your

back

when you start slumping it's easier to

recognize that

and straighten up and come back to your

object to meditation have you do that a

few times

you've picked up your energy quite a bit

and then you the sloth interpreter will

disappear

when i was in burma there was a period

of time that these two monks

one of them sat on this side of me and

one of them sat on that side of me

and at the same time they would get

sloth and torpor

it was like the same time of the day

and all of a sudden i'm seeing these

bobbing back and forth and i started

making jokes about it in my mind i was

i had bobbing bookends you know they

were

so i told them my secret for

overcoming the sloth and torpor of

sitting a little bit straighter and

before long they didn't have that

problem anymore

abandoning restlessness and anxiety

he abides unagitated with the mind

inwardly peaceful

he purifies his mind from restlessness

and anxiety now the way you

purify the restlessness

when it gets real bad you feel like

jumping out of your skin you feel

like just getting up and walking and

doing something

and that's exactly the opposite of what

you want to do

don't move

don't move your body at all for any

reason

now bring up a feeling

of tranquility a feeling of peace and

calm

and put that feeling into your heart and

radiate that feeling

and as you do that that restlessness

will start to go away

restlessness is an incredibly painful

feeling

so you have to allow that feeling to be

there

it's real interesting when people start

to first they start meditating it's hard

to sit still

because you've got this pain coming up

and that pain coming up and you want to

move

but the instructions and the meditation

are don't move

now what's the cause of restlessness why

does restlessness arise

because you've broken a precept at some

point in your life

how do you overcome that feeling of

wanting to move and really

get rid of that feeling

by sitting without moving and

tranquilize your mind by bringing up

this feeling of peace and calm

and wishing that peace and calm for your

spiritual friend

when i'm telling you to practice your

loving kindness i'm telling you that you

need

to make a wish

and feel the wish then put that feeling

in your heart

how can you give loving-kindness to

someone else

if you don't have it in yourself

so when you feel that wish

you start surrounding your friend in

your heart

with your feeling of loving kindness and

radiating that feeling

now you have something to give

okay now you can practice your your

mindfulness

on your generosity

but you have to bring it up for yourself

first

so you benefit and they benefit

and they really do they will feel that

difference

now sloth and torpor and restlessness

you better become friends with them

because they're going to stay around

until you become an aura

so you better become familiar with how

they work

investigate the experience

use the six r's with those

abandoning doubt he abides having gone

beyond doubt

unperplexed about wholesome states he

purifies his mind from doubt

as you let go of unwholesome states and

bring up wholesome

states your doubts start to disappear

now one of the reasons that i want you

to smile

is because that overcomes a doubt you

see

the advantage of smiling

and that wholesome state of smiling

so you don't have a lot of doubt whether

this is the right path or not because

you know for yourself

this stuff works it's not a baby

having abandoned these five hindrances

imperfections of mind that weaken wisdom

quite secluded from sensual pleasures

secluded from unwholesome

states he enters

upon and abides in the first genre

with distilling of thinking and

examining thought he

enters upon and abides in the second

drama

with the fading away as of joy

he enters upon and abides in the third

jhana

with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

he enters

upon and abides in the fourth chauna

which has neither pain nor pleasure and

purity of mindfulness

due to equanimity

on seeing a form with the eye he does

not

lust after it if it's pleasing

he does not dislike it if it's

unpleasing

he abides with mindfulness established

with an immeasurable mind he understands

as

it actually is the deliverance of mine

and deliverance by

wisdom wherein those evil

unwholesome states cease without

remainder

having thus abandoned favoring and

opposing

this is another way of saying abandoning

craving

i like it i don't like it

whatever feeling he feels whether

pleasant or

painful or neither painful or pleasant

he does not delight in that feeling

welcome it or remain holding to it

a lot of people when they have a

pleasant feeling

arise in their meditation they have joy

arise they want to keep it ah

this is good stuff and they try to grab

onto it

and hold it mentally so it doesn't go

away and that's the fastest way to make

it go away

pleasant feeling unpleasant feeling

same coin different sights

you treat the pleasant feeling in

exactly the same way as

the unpleasant feeling you

recognize release relax

re-smile return to your object to

meditation stay with your object and

meditation

when you do that the joy will last for a

longer period of time

so you don't keep your attention on the

joy

or the comfortable feeling in the body

or the equanimity whenever it arises

you allow it to be there come back to

your object to meditation

always

eventually

the feeling will last for a longer and

longer

period of time especially the equinement

team

as he does not do so delight in

feeling ceases with him with the

cessation of this delight comes a

cessation of craving

with the cessation of craving cessation

of clinging

with the cessation of clinging cessation

of habitual tendency

with the cessation of habitual

tendencies cessation of birth of action

with the cessation of birth of action

aging and death

sorrow lamentation pain

cease such is the cessation of this

whole mass of suffering

on hearing a sound with the ear and

smelling an odor with the nose

on tasting the flavor with the tongue

untouching a tangible with the body on

cognizing a mind object with mind

he does not lust after it if it's

pleasing

he does not dislike it if it's

unpleasing

with the cessation of his delight comes

the cessation of craving

with the cessation of craving cessation

of clinging

the cessation of clinging cessation of

habitual tendency

with the cessation of habitual tendency

cessation of birth

with the cessation of birth of action

cessation of

aging death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair such as this

is the cessation of this whole mass of

suffering

monks remember this discourse of mine

briefly as delivered in the destruction

of craving

now we've been

sitting here listening to this for a

little while

this is the brief version

version okay

the long version takes all night

it takes about four five five and a half

hours something like that

and it's a lot of reciting

over and over again of those links of

dependent origination

there is a teacher in burma

he died i think in the 50s

all he did was get people

to come together and recite the links of

dependent origination

forwards and backwards over and over

again

and again and again and again and again

and as they did that and they really got

it ingrained in their mind

they started seeing those links of

dependent origination

all the time in everything that they

were doing

and because of that they really started

to understand

and with that understanding they would

become sodapolis

they would become awakened

beings they would become the first stage

of

sainthood just by reciting this over and

over

and truly understanding all of these

links

now america especially

we are a fast food culture we like

things where our attention span is about

a minute and a quarter

and sometimes that's long

okay so when you hear something

repeat it over and over and over your

mind gets bored

really easy and you're not attentive

when you're not attentive you're never

going to understand how these

links of dependent origination actually

do work

you can do this through sitting and

watching

but the fast track is

starting to know

all of these links and start seeing that

in everything

in every kind of being you watch birds

you'll be able to recognize

the links of dependent origination by

their actions

or animals are dogs or cats

and you start seeing that in everything

around you

and when you do that you start seeing

that everything

in every being is part of an impersonal

process in this process

are these links of dependent origination

now each link

is the first noble truth

that is a disturbance it is a kind of

suffering

there is a cause of that

there is the cessation of that there is

the wages

of the cessation in each

link of dependent origination

so when you're seeing the links of

dependent origination you are also

seeing and realizing

the four noble truths

there comes a lightness in your mind

when when you start to actually be able

to

recognize these different links and you

say you see that in yourself and you go

oh well that happened because

this condition

arose

and you start seeing that over and over

again

one of the way one of the ways that the

buddha taught

was by repetition there's no getting

around it

and this book here is is very

good but there's a lot of

dot dot dot

which means it's just repeating so he

didn't want to

take the space because if he took the

dot dot dot

out of the each one of the sutas

which i have actually done

in my computer at home

a three-page suta or a four-page suita

can turn into a 20-page suta

but it has all of this repetition over

and over and over again

now eventually i'm going to be coming

out with some books

that have the suttas in them

and i'm changing some of the language

because some of the words that are used

are confusing at best and i'm making it

directed towards the meditation

almost everybody that does any

translation of the books

they are directed at scholarship

so i'm going to be doing the entire

majama nikaya

and changing some of the language that

makes things

easier to practice so that you'll

understand as soon as you read it

in my spare time

okay

monks remember this discourse of mine

briefly

briefly as deliver deliverance of

the destruction of craving but remember

sati son of the fisherman as caught up

in a

vast net of craving in a

trammel of creating

that is what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so now you all understand dependent

origination completely right

you have a question

i have two short questions okay number

one is a beginner question

you mentioned that if you feel stock and

corporate you should go ahead and life

if you shouldn't be in the sunlight

not the direct sunlight i'm curious why

the direct sunlight will make that sloth

interpret worse

okay you want to be in a place that's

very light

but not in the heat of the sun is

makes it look so totally

uh and the next question is and again

forgive my

beginners

because then you're giving into it and

you don't learn how it arises

okay and you don't

uh you won't progress near as fast

when you do that which one

now what happens after lunch

mentality

what happens with people after lunch

is right around between two and three

o'clock

you start really feeling

the swath and torpor what i generally

recommend for people to do

especially when it's hot like in asia

and that sort of place

that's the time to take a bath

and as soon as you take a bath your body

wakes right up

so you're as soon as you eat all of the

energy starts to go into your stomach

and it stays there that energy is

working

quite a bit so you can sit

right after you eat but then about

between two and three o'clock all of a

sudden that energy

is just it's gone now because it's so

much

has been put into digestion

so you your body wants to take a rest

and when you get it wet and

it wakes up so take a shower about that

time

if that's your problem for some people

it's not a problem at all

okay thank you

don't feel embarrassed because

you're new at asking questions

the questions that you ask are just as

relevant for everybody else here to be

quite honest

so don't be shy yeah

because everything's in a personal

process

what exactly is doing the ignoring in

the first leg of dependent origination

the belief that the suffering is

personal

i i

but what's the problem what's the cause

of suffering okay

you have a painful feeling arise whose

painful feeling is it

it is suffering there's a cause of that

suffering

is i want to control it i

want it to stop i want it to go away

okay you're made up of five things you

have a physical body you have feeling

perception formation

you're getting things mixed up

okay i'm talking about five aggregates

right now and you're talking about

something else

okay okay

now you have a physical body there is

feeling there is

perception there is formation there is

consciousness

when a painful feeling arises

we try to think the feeling away

and the more we try to think the feeling

away the bigger and more intense that

feeling becomes

and there is a tight mental fist of

aversion wrapped around

that pain

it's repulsive pain is a repulsive thing

i don't like it i don't want it there

but the truth is when pain arises

it is there so you have to allow

that feeling to be there by itself

and this is it doesn't matter whether

it's

mental or physical you treat it in the

same way

allow that to be there let go of your

thinking

about

relax let that tight mental fist

go the truth is it's there

you can't stop it you can't make it any

different than it is

the truth is the truth

when you allow a painful feeling to be

it will go away by itself

but as long as there's any aversion to

it

it gets bigger and more intense it's

like

if i if i took a a hot coal

you know from the barbecue take one of

those coals out after it's red hot

and i put it in my hand and i say oh

that hurts

and then what i try to do to make that

pain go away is i start squeezing it

tighter and tighter and tighter

is that the way to let go of that pain

no the way to let go of the pain

is to open up and let it be

you see what i'm saying yeah i

understand that's coming from the

craving part right

because we have these fragrances we

grasp onto them and then that's

and that's how actually this works

right but i was talking about the

ignorance that came before the body in

formations what is doing

ignoring before horrible truths

go ahead okay you're stuck on the

english translation

of otta as being no self and it has

very much botched up buddhism

if you use the words personal and

impersonal it helps you understand a

little better

okay it isn't that you are not here

the self they use different words to

translate this

okay and um identity or personality

actually works better for the person

than this no self and self it doesn't

work

because the westerner immediately says

i'm here

no self what's that and it's it messes

everybody up

okay it's the it's the idea of their

uh the consequences of if there was a

self that's real important the

idea of identity or personality

and we took the word personal on the

chart and showed you like which of these

links really suffer from

the personal nature and the

impersonal nature so the ignorance is a

problem

because the consequence of the idea of a

self

don't get wrapped up in what this really

is okay

the consequences of this idea of self

is causing you a problem because then

the consequence of the self is you take

everything personally and that's where

you

tighten your mind around tighten your

mind placing your body

around it's where the tightness will

create problems

it was never self and no self it was the

consequence of self and the consequence

of no self

but how can the consequence of self

arise if there's no body

speech or mind to begin with

the untrained mind functions in

ignorance

it's ignoring something what are you

ignoring

you're ignoring the four noble truths

the dependent origination which is

actually human cognition

you have an idea that this is a real

slow

process that was a hundred thousand

arising and passing away

of the links of dependent origins

it really happens very fast that's why

when you get to

infinite consciousness and you see each

individual consciousness arise and pass

away

that's really something

okay consciousness is only

a very small part of the dependent

origination

and to see individual consciousnesses

arise and pass away at each one of the

sense doors

is really a very

amazing feat

can you will you be able to do that on

this retreat

do you follow the directions

wait and see essentially bunty's

teaching you how to speed up

your awareness so that everything that's

moving so fast

let's not speed up the awareness

yeah this is changing the subject but i

i wanted to offer then this soft

intorper that there's another way of

dealing with that in terms of

paying closer attention or investigating

what's happening in the mind right

it's always with success so that brings

up the energy

the energizing factor of perhaps

mindfulness

and and that has the effect of them

on or or changing the attention so that

the sloth interpreter then

passes yeah and

when you're first starting out

it doesn't you need to have some

something more than that

when when you start getting deeper in

your practice

what you're saying is perfect

but for beginners to start off that's

why i

give them the other things

yeah ponte when i'm practicing loving

kindness

sometimes i get the image of the

sun by the twelve weeks of causation

and i start that

because my main objective is if i can

call it that

practices for right now yes okay

as you start to go deeper you'll

you'll start seeing these things more

clearly

what you're doing right now is

uh getting into your thinking a little

bit

and thinking and direct experience

there's like

no comparison the thinking is so slow

but through direct experience you're

able to see things

much more clearly and you'll you'll

recognize

does that mean that the faculty of

knowing

you're knowing is much faster than

thinking oh yes

by a lot so your apprehension is like

way faster than oh

comprehensive

the second question was in regards to

seeing the dependent origination when we

look at

the rest of the living beings around us

if you could give me an example i would

appreciate it

one instance that i'm noticing a lot

while walking over this field

is many tiny holes where animals borrow

down

and hide i couldn't help but just see

you know the rebirth and

fear factor within this individual

entity that

ended up being born based on their

craving of running away hiding away from

their fears

and borrowing down deep into the earth

to to

avoid uncomfortable sensations

that's what i'm picking up well and you

see a bird and they

they sit on a branch or they sit on a

post or something

they're always looking around they're

literally vibrating

their metabolism so fast

but you can see you can see how those

links

and that belief in a self

causes suffering

we have a dog at our our

center we have actually three but

one in particular she is very

attuned to anything to eat

and you can see you can see her lust

come up

to be fair she has thyroid well it

doesn't matter what the cause is

what matters is that you're able to see

that

come up in her mind and her

identification with

it and the birth of action

and the sorrow and lamentation and pain

when she doesn't get it when she doesn't

get that piece of food

you're able to see that

yes i was gonna ask on piggybacking on

that are there any stories in the

history where someone has been capable

of maybe teaching an animal about that

no or experimenting with it no

not really um

they the way their mind works is

different

than than the human beings

and you that

they would they understand feeling but

they don't don't

understand uh subtleties of thought

okay

there is the one story about the wild

elephant that bowed down to the noble

one

oh yeah but that was feeling again

because

the noble one was radiating

loving-kindness to them yes exactly

and the story about the

elephant and the monkey that took care

of the buddha for one range retreat

but that again they did that out of

feeling

animals are very sensitive to feeling

and in asia they think you're crazy

if you talk to an animal

but the animal knows what

and they know because of the feeling

that you're giving them while you're

talking to them

that's my bird knows when i'm sad and

it'll come onto my shoulder

oh yeah up against me you bet and say

leon

sometimes when i'm sitting there and i'm

drooping off i'll go

leon

so i i lived in northern california

and i had this dog we called him rover

because that's what he was

and he would

follow that would i had a truck and he

would

uh follow it all the way to town which

was six miles away

and one day it was raining and it was

cold and it was miserable and i

pulled in and i went to the post office

and i come out

and this lady was just coming out of the

post office saw the dog in the back of

the truck which i didn't know

he was and he looked really pathetic

and she chewed me out for leaving him

out and

and as soon as she walked away he smiled

again

are you turkey

sure okay on the bottom of the chart

under personal we have uh

you have this gray area emotion

it's kind of bad because you don't have

the colors on this so let me try to

explain them

let me just ask that question okay so

are you intending that to cover craving

cleaning

habitual tendencies for the action

and the stopping before sorrow

lamination pay

it hits in the middle of craving okay oh

and it should be the entire yeah it can

go all the way over

yeah so so when you you're talking about

emotions you're talking about

um

an unconscious uh or

semi-conscious or i'm just just an

emotional

reaction to something yeah without

essentially reasoning right this is like

it's your own habitual tendency you're

in my parking spaces

i didn't know it was yours but that

raising of the voice that's the whole

that's that whole court yeah the big one

is you're trying to get across

the point that feeling is not emotion

that feeling happens first and the

emotions

are anger depression anxiety all those

things

those are emotions right feeling is

simply

a feeling and it's not personal

a mental feeling it's just a mental or

physical sensation

it can be either mental feeling or

bodily feeling

but it's just pleasant painful or

neutral

and then the craving comes in and you

start taking that personally

and then you have the story with your

clinging and you're right

your habitual tendency in order to have

emotion you have to have

i have to be there but a feeling can

happen without

me there so enter the six hours

and at the so

we can witness the um

any of these uh uh

points uh of either contact

or a sixth sense door opening at any

and any place whether it's personal or

impersonal and at that

point it becomes

it ceases to um

provide the conditions for the next

event to occur

and if you're then right and therefore

the event does not occur right now

i just wanted to see if that was a

simple explanation yeah

okay the mess up that i've seen

happen is if somebody tries to go

overboard with this and say i'm just not

going to feel that and that'll solve the

whole problem

i will stop the feeling from coming you

see

now good and the question is how are you

going to stop that feeling when you stub

your toe

see yeah the feeling is going to be

there

what you do with that when it arises

that dictates what happens in the in

near future

if you 6r as soon as that happens

then the craving of i don't like it

doesn't arise

and with that your story about why you

don't like it your concepts your

opinions your ideas

and then your habitual tendency of

whenever i

kick kick something and stub my toe i

get angry

emotion and that causes a birth of

action for me to stomp around and curse

and that is is the suffering

so we can look at the emotional reaction

as being a

i don't know you well it would be also i

mean animals then

are actually in a condition

where everything that they're doing is

reactive

because there's no reasoning and that's

you could extend that same

thought thinking or i could to infants

and children who

don't have reasoning ability that

they're ha

they are emotionally reactive

more times enough just acting out over

emotional reactions i mean this is

getting into psychology i guess but

i'm just trying to use the terms

correctly yeah i don't think you can

separate emotion and rationality

like you made fun of that emotions are

irrational

but emotions are based on your story

with this which is your rationale

you know based on craving based on a

habitual

pattern right baba is determining

how you're playing out the emotions

would that be right

well your your most your most important

thing

is two things all right first the buddha

discovered this

incredible thing the symptom for craving

and the cur and that is magical that he

uncovered the

symptom for craving which gives you the

cue

for not going into the eye you see

okay the symptom was the tension and

tightness in mind and in body this is

incredible that he uncovered this

tension and this tightness point

and then if you as you calm down

what happens is you start practicing you

have this much tension in your body

and when and when you something pulls

you away and you grab on it

if you release and come back this is

still here and you're working with it

all day and so you've got 15 years and

no progress

right but as soon as you start to

release

and relax you come back and here we go

now we're going to go to another one

and you grab it and you release it and

you relax where are we going

we're going towards nibana what is

nibana

you're just releasing and relaxing

you're not bringing up a wholesome and

you

have to do you have to do that but what

i'm just trying to show him was the

point about the crate

the the tension level is lowering so

it's key that he

showed you two things he showed you

there was a symptom

for craving therefore if you can learn

to detect the symptom and the way you're

detecting it early and earlier

is when you release relax and smile and

come back

this is lowering release relax smile and

come back

your opening mind each time you smile

the

the alertness is sharpening and you see

it sooner as it arises because this is

going lower

as it arises you don't see it till here

next time you see it

here next time you can catch it here

next time you can catch it here

the progressive conditioning the

habitual

this is the retraining right

deconditioning deconditioning

you're responding every time you let go

of the craving

you're responding but i mean the net

effect

is that we're deconditioning this

habitual pattern

changing it purification we're changing

it from an unwholesome

to a wholesome whole game okay we we

have we're gonna have

habits so what we have to do

is make our habits good habits instead

of bad habits or getting

caught by the bad presence of

mindfulness and attention

is what that's doing so that's the

conditioning that's what you're saying

yes mindfulness and attention isn't the

conditioning no

isn't the releasing the releasing and

there isn't that the

conditioning moment and then

that's part of it part of the yeah

that's not the whole thing

it's it's the release relax and

re-smile that's the reconditioning

but what i'm asking yeah okay but isn't

that conditioning that if you're

if you're bringing up a wholesome state

yeah of course

right that's right conditioning

right now

and i'm asking you if i'm right or wrong

well

there's there's four steps the two are

letting go and the other are replacing

you can't leave a

a vacuum in the universe i'm not saying

you are but are you

are you you are changing old habits

right and developing new new habits yes

okay deep conditioning and

reconditioning and reconditioning there

you go

deep conditioning

if you do it right there's that's what i

think of as a subtle track that may be

blatantly obvious to others

but when i started trying this

i found attention very easily i got lots

of them

and said that's bad i've got to do

something about it

i think i'll release it but not

releasing it

i think that's not so good

and what i was doing was reinforcing

the very thing i was trying to give up

because i

needed to do this because i was doing it

wrong because i wanted to do it right

get right there this little circular

thing

we're back to the cake recipe you know

my grandmother's cake was 12 inches high

and had a specific

recipe and a specific way of blending

the ingredients

you can't just throw the ingredients

away or have all the ingredients and not

blend it the same way and expect to get

a cake that's 12 inches high

so if you have all the eggs and all the

ingredients for the cake

but you just throw them in a bowl and

whip them up instead of dividing the

eggs and the egg whites and doing the

stiffs first so they get high in the

oven

you know okay so now you have a cake

come out that's that high

so it will taste it tastes sweet

but it's not grandma's cake it's like

leather

you know it's because it's because you

didn't anytime you

add any extra ingredient

you can look forward to that cake not

being the same

i wasn't even suggesting yeah yeah it

was

different i was just trying to

understand the categories of what was

happening

isn't the conditioning effect and a

conditioning effect and

six hours and that's what i've been

calling the

personality development so there's a

transformation

and the transformation is due to the way

that

the condition and deconditioning work

together

the recipe as it were right right yeah i

think in traditional psychology your

your reconditioning is like we call it

reappraisal

where you meant to be mindful of the way

you react to something and then

you try to reason through why your

response

is unwarranted we're not reasoning here

right that's what i'm saying that's

what's interesting about the difference

well that's what i'm not using

like our reconditioning is you know

relaxation you know letting go of the

flight attack response bringing up

something wholesome

you know i don't know i just think it's

interesting whereas theirs is just

reappraisal it's just

thoughts yeah yeah yeah that's why it

doesn't work and that's yeah that's why

i think this works so fast and that

maybe works very slowly what we see in

most of the books is pure

he's trying to purify the mind and what

he means is doing exactly what you're

saying

and he's talking about bawa and he's

saying retrain it this way very

specifically with the four steps and

right effort and you're calling the

first two a deconditioning and

the second two as a reconditioning

that's fine

because the point you're trying to get

across is you cannot leave a hole

or these two are just going to pop back

in place again that's right

that's what the person has to really

learn perfectly simpatico because that's

that's where the big great the great

rapid transformation

takes place yeah it means it's all about

transformation like you say you know i

mean i didn't be possible for 30 years

and nothing well it did it happened for

the first you know a year and then

you know the next 20 is that what you

call

immediately effective

i always thought it was effective for

somebody else

we'll give them to you she just wants to

um the last handouts went around all the

way or not

where did they go to the last two

actually the last two

people in the front didn't get them on

this side they didn't get them the small

one

and the one that has colors on it i

don't know where they went

i've done

and there's one form that has seven

links that's a training

a training page okay

seven links are actually more usable

we'll give it to you

oh

don't you think this is a conversation

worth having with someone like john

kevinson or

one of these people who brings

mindfulness training into psychology

it's like you you go get him yeah i'm

the only one who like really wants to go

to talk show other people

i haven't laid it all out written him he

never writes me back

no they have a very pat sellable product

and they're going with it and you're not

gonna be

injecting anything that might make it

lopsided and make people

think further is the way i look at it

mindfulness-based stress reduction and

they're not interested in

in the depth of the practice that we're

describing but

i'm not the medic on the medical side of

things i have doctors who

keep encouraging me to write him and

write him and write him and someday you

will respond

because you can take a child you know

away from

the heavy medication and put him in the

room to play the game so he doesn't take

so much morphine before he dies

but they don't believe that you can

explain to the child how this is working

with

this little page of seven pieces and

haven't played the game himself

and actually they can because i've

worked with them and they can

at 9 10 and 11 years old so we're trying

to reach out

a lot in this culture though they're

just

interested in uh

technique this is the question

you know

the mental difficulties that they have

that's right that's what's working for

them

and they like it for that yeah

yeah to say that despite

our lack of progress i've meditated a

long time and i'm having more results

lately but there's oh there's something

about

buddha dharma that has kept us all in it

you know whether it was action-packed or

not

there's something that kept us adhered

or

there's something here i know there's

something here that's different than

anything else

and and what the other teachers are

teaching

they they're popping this this buddha

dharma

from whatever understanding they have

into this culture and people are

responding to it

it'll be a wonderful thing to to

integrate it with a more effective

practice

but i'm just interested that popped into

my head today despite the fact

that 30 years of practice wasn't

yielding a lot of

progress there were just some faith

about it that

you know made a stay well a lot of the

faith is i mean the asians have that

faith too you know i don't know

they keep going i mean you know it's

true isn't it

but but but when i was over there they

want more understanding

and it's all a question of do you

believe you have the absolute answer

there can't be anything better then

you're here right here and you're not

going to go any further

and if you're really still open to

looking

for even better then you will try and

see

i mean this year was the first year any

of us

got to present to any kind of audience

where there were psychologists

psychiatrists really listening

in sri lanka they were really listening

to this

and there was only one person that said

i just don't agree with you

out of like 20 of them sitting there

there was only one person like that

and that was neat that they were list

willing to listen to it and

actually take it away and

it's like i always follow it this way

but

there's just certain things about the

buddha dharma like

open handed ex try for yourself see for

yourself

um you know no it's not exclusive

anybody can try you don't have to drop

whatever beliefs you

you can enter in and experiment

so i think those kind of things bring

people in

and hopefully they will make contact

with a

more progressive practice but you know

it's interesting

you know just interesting that despite

all these years

why why did how how did i luck out

to stay in it because i could have

gotten like oh well heck with it

here i still am happily

and so are several of other of us there

is a

an enormous amount of compassion and

integrity

and courage and selflessness i have

found

in buddhism and it is valuable beyond

belief

just to have that it is far more

valuable to have that and this

that the people that i've met in it

have been selfless and giving and spent

their lives

trying to help and that's and you can

recognize from the words

that there is meaning and substance here

maybe not all of it but we

recognize that it's there we just needed

monthly to show us

boy someone should make a movie about

all that

it was real amazing when i was in asia

because i kept on telling them that

easterners think that their mind works

differently than westerners

and it really kind of makes them unhappy

to think

that western mind works exactly as the

eastern mind

because dependent origination that's the

thing that's so brilliant about it it

doesn't matter what culture you're in

it works the same way

i mean it's it's truly one of the most

phenomenal things i've ever seen

this is the human condition it has

nothing to do with culture

but i i had some people stand up and

tell me i didn't know what i was talking

about

you have a way in doing that huh

anyway anybody have any more comments

questions

so

you