From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5eiSg4m1bfU

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

in brawling and we're in deep disputes

stabbing each other with verbal daggers

the reason that this dispute happened

was because there was two monasteries in

this village one of them was a suit to

monastery and one of them was a vineya

monastery and the suit monastery went to

visit the venía monastery so the head

monk and at one point the master had to

go to the bathroom so he found out where

it was and went to the bathroom they

don't have paper they use water and when

he cleaned himself off he left a little

bit of water in the scooping boy the

venía monk went in after him and saw

that he'd left some water in the

scooping Bowl and when he got done with

his

business he came out and said to the

suit to master did you know that you

just broke a rule many people the monks

that practice venía they're really

really strict with all different forms

of following rules and the suit two

masters said no I didn't realize that

and the venía master said well you left

a little bit of water in that bowl and

when you do that then beings can come in

and lay eggs and if you use it again

then it's going to be killing living

minks so the soup de master said thank

you very much I won't do that again

when the suit to master left the venía

master went to his students and said how

can this monk do this it's such a simple

thing everybody knows that you can't

leave water in them in the scooping bowl

and he pretty heavily criticized the

next morning the students went out on

Armstrong I may ran across the suit to

students that have gone out unarmed

drown and told him how bad their teacher

was because he left a little bit of

water in the bowl and he should know

better than that and he should not do

that sort of thing so the suit students

went back and told the suit to master

and the suit to master criticized the

vini monastery for criticized and then

they just started fighting back and

forth and they were stabbing each other

with verbal daggers they were saying all

kinds of

nasty things to each other so they asked

the Buddha to come to this spot and get

them to stop fighting they're both

monasteries okay then a certain monk

went to the Blessed One after paying

homage to him he stood at one side and

said venerable sir the Buddha was going

to planning on spending the whole range

retreat in this town venerable sir

the monks here at Kosambi have taken to

quarreling and brawling and are in deep

dispute stabbing each other with verbal

daggers it would be good venerable sir

if the Blessed One will go to these

monks out of compassion the Blessed one

cuts consented in silence he just shook

his head yes then the Blessed one went

to those monks and said enough monks let

there be no quarreling and brawling

wrangling or dispute when this was said

a certain monk said to the Blessed One

wait venerable sir let the Blessed One

the Lord of the Dhamma livid 'is devoted

to Pleasant abiding here and now we are

the ones who will be responsible for

this quarreling and brawling and

wrangling and dispute I couldn't imagine

saying something like that to the Buddha

you know it's kind of like saying get

away from me boy you bother me let us

take care of our own our own problems a

second time and a third time the Blessed

One said enough let there be no

quarreling and brawl

wrangling or dispute the second and

third time that monk said to the Blessed

One wait venerable sir we are the ones

responsible for this quarreling brawling

wrangling and dispute then when it was

morning the Blessed One dressed

taking his bowl and outer robe went into

Kosambi for alms

when he had wandered for arms and

Kosambi and had returned with his alms

round after his alms round he ate his

meal and set his resting place in order

took his bowl and outer robe and while

standing uttered these stanzas the

Buddha never gave adamant talk when he

was standing so he said when many voices

shout at once nun considers himself a

fool though the Sangha is being split

nun thinks himself to be at fault they

have forgotten thoughtful speech they

talk obsessed by words alone uncurbed

their mouths they brawl at will none

knows what leads him to so to act he

abused me

he beat me he defeated me he wrapped me

there's a son familiar in those who

harbors such thoughts hatred is never

appeased he abused me he beat me he

faded me he robbed me and those who do

not harbor such thoughts hatred is a

beast for in this world hatred is never

overcome by further acts of hate it is

only overcome by non Hey

that is the the fixed an ageless law

those who do not recognize that here you

should restrain we should restrain

ourselves but those wise ones who

realize this at once and all M&T

breakers of bones and murderers those

who steal cattle horses and wealth those

who pillage the entire realm when even

these can act together why can you not

do so too if one can find a worthy

friend a virtuous steadfast companion

then overcome all threats of danger and

walk with Him content and mindful but if

one finds no worthy friend no virtuous

steadfast companion then as the King

leaves his conquered realm he walks like

a Tusker in the woods alone better is it

to walk alone there is no companionship

with fools walk alone and do no evil at

ease like a Tusker in the woods then

having uttered these stanzas while

standing the Blessed one went to the

village on that occasion the venerable

bhaggu was living in that village then

the venerable bhaggu saw the Blessed One

coming in the distance prepared to

Seaton and made water ready for watching

his feet the Blessed one sat down on a

seat made ready and washed his feet

the venerable bhaggu paid homage to the

blessed one and sat down at one side the

Blessed One said to him I hope you are

keeping well monk I hope you are

comfortable I hope you are not having

any trouble with alms food I am keeping

well blessed one I am comfortable and I

am not having any trouble getting alms

food then a blessed one instructed urged

roused and gladdened the venerable

bhaggu and a talk on the Dhamma after

which he rose from his seat and he went

to the eastern bamboo park now what

happened to these monks is everybody in

town got really ticked off because the

Buddha left and they refused to give the

monks food and because they didn't get

any food and they would question why

aren't you giving food like you normally

do and they said because you're

quarreling and you get to your fault

that the Buddha is not spending the

rains retreat here so they stop

quarreling but they still had trouble

getting food for that whole three months

they didn't eat well at all so when the

buddha went to the eastern bamboo park

on that occasion the blessed the the

venerable anuruddha the venerable nan

diya and the venerable kim billah we're

living at the in the eastern park the

park keeper saw the blessed one coming

in the distance and told him do not

enter this park Rick Rekluse there are

three Klansmen here seeking their own

good

do not disturb them the venerable and

rude I heard the park keeper speaking to

the blood

one and told him friend our keeper do

not keep the Blessed One out he it is

our teacher the Blessed One who has come

then a venerable anuruddha went to the

venerable Nandi and a venerable Kim

billah and said come venerable sirs come

out our teacher the Blessed One has come

then all three went to meet the blessed

one took his bowl an outer robe when

prepared a seat one set out water for

washing their feet the Blessed One sat

down on a seat made ready and washed his

feet at this time they didn't allow

sandals so whenever you went anyplace he

would always wash your feet before he

went inside

then these three venerable ones paid

homage to the blessed one and sat down

at one side and the Blessed One said to

them I hope you're keeping well

Aniruddha I hope you are comfortable and

arruda was Ananda's older brother okay I

hope you're comfortable I hope you are

not having any trouble getting alms food

we are keeping well Blessed One we are

comfortable and we're not having any

trouble getting homes food

I hope aniruddha that you are all living

in Concord with mutual appreciation

without disputing blending like milk and

water viewing each other with kindly

eyes surely venerable sir we're leaving

we're living in Concord with mutual

appreciation without disputing blending

like milk and water viewing each other

with kindly eyes but a Neruda how do you

live thus Ben Roble sir as to that I

think thus it is a game for me

it is a great game for me that I'm

living with such companions in the Holy

life

I maintain bodily acts of loving

kindness towards these venerable ones

both openly and privately I maintain

verbal acts of loving kindness toward

them both openly and privately I

maintain mental acts of loving kindness

towards them both openly and privately I

consider why should I not set aside what

I wish to do and do what these venerable

ones wish to do then I set aside what I

wish to do

and do what the venerable ones wish to

do we are different in body venerable

sir but one in mind

the venerable nambia and venerable Kim

Billa each spoke like wise adding this

is how venerable sir were living in

Concord with mutual appreciation without

disputing blending like milk and water

viewing each other with kindly eyes good

good Aniruddha I hope your you all abide

diligent ardent and resolute surely

venerable sir we abide diligent ardent

and resolute but a Neruda how do you do

abide thus then verbal sir as to that

which ever us of us returns first from

the village with alms food prepares the

seats sets out the water for drinking

and for washing and puts the refuge

bucket in its place whichever of us

returns last eats any food left over if

he wishes otherwise he throws it away

where there's no greenery or drops it in

water where there is no life he puts

away the seats and the water for

drinking and washing he puts away the

refuge bucket after washing it he sweeps

out the refractory whoever notices that

the pots of water for drinking or

washing or for the latrine are low or

empty takes care of them if they're too

heavy for him he calls someone else by a

signal with the hand and they move it

hands but because of that they do not

break into speech but every five days we

sit together all night discussing the

Dhamma that is how we abide diligent

ardent and resolute good good and arruda

while you abide thus diligent ardent and

resolute have you attained any

superhuman states a distinction and

knowledge and vision worthy of the noble

ones a comfortable abiding what he's

asking here is have you gotten into

Jonathan Kaye venerable sir as we abide

here diligent ardent and resolute we

perceive both radiance and visions of

vision of forms soon afterwards the

radiance and vision of forms disappear

but we do not discover the cause of that

you should discover the cause of that

aniruddha before my awakening while I

was still only an unawakened Bodhisattva

I to perceive both vision radiance and

vision of forms soon afterwards the

radiance and vision of forms disappear I

thought now this is the question that

I've talked to some people about to ask

themselves what is what is the cause and

condition why the radiance and vision of

forms have disappeared when you keep

running across the same hindrance it

keeps coming back and keeps coming back

you need to ask yourself the question

what is the cause of this how come I'm

not generally like this I don't

generally have restlessness why is it

arising now this happened a long time

ago when I first started meditating in

San Jose there was a man that came to do

or retreat and he was the only person

doing the meditation and I was kind of a

handyman of the place and I had their

place was not great shape so I was doing

all kinds of different things

cleaning up and fixing windows and doing

things like that and the teacher came to

me and he said I want you to do a

retreat so he doesn't do it alone

I just gotten done with a one-month

retreat so he wants me to do another ok

fine so I started meditating and I'm not

one that's prone to a lot of

restlessness and my mind was incredibly

Restless I couldn't stay on the object

of meditation more than two or three

seconds before to take off and do

something else and after a couple of

days of this it started really bothering

me and I thought why is this happening

and then I just kind of let that thought

go and I started meditating again and my

intuition told me you don't really want

to be meditating because you have all

these other things you want to do and I

started considering the reason that I

would came to the Meditation Center was

I wanted to meditate I have a beautiful

opportunity to meditate and then

thinking about all this other stuff I'll

let it go after that I had no more

restlessness okay so you

have an expectation you have an idea of

the way you want things to go that's

exactly what's not going to happen okay

yeah let go with that you don't know

what's gonna happen next the roof can

fall down and kill all of us right now

do you know that's whether it's gonna

happen or not no so don't think about it

don't worry about it let it go so this

is an important question to ask what is

stopping my progress

what is slowing down my progress and you

only have to ask at one time let it go

don't think about it anymore and your

intuition will tell you oh this is

something when I was in Korea there was

a man that he got to neither perception

nor non-perception pretty quickly really

good we practice meditation a lot so he

advanced very quickly and then he stayed

there and he started to get a little bit

antsy about it

why isn't Moorhead white there's

something wrong with his practice so I

told him you have to ask yourself this

question so he intellectually tried to

tell me there's nothing that's blocking

my practice and finally I said it comes

to you as an insight you have to ask

your question while you're sitting and

the answer will come the next day he

came and he sat down and he said I've

now stopped waiting

so his waiting for Nibbana to occur was

a very thing that stopped it from

occurring because he had an attachment

the answer can can be any sort of thing

as simple as well I want other I got to

do other things so you start putting in

too much energy and too much effort and

you get restless so you ask yourself the

question why is this happening what can

I do to overcome this entrance and then

the answer comes you don't want to be

here well I'm here to meditate that's

why I'm staying at this place so let go

of that desire I can do all this other

stuff later

and then meditation was great after that

so what is the cause and condition why

this hindrance is there then I

considered this doubt arose in me

because of doubt my collectiveness fell

away when my collectiveness fell away my

mind my object a mess of meditation

disappeared

I shall so act that doubt will not arise

in me again as a Neruda I was abiding

diligent ardent and resolute I perceived

my object of meditation disappeared soon

afterwards I perceived the object of

meditation soon afterwards the object of

meditation disappeared I thought what is

the cause and condition why the object

of meditation disappeared then I

considered thus in attention arose in me

and because of inattention my

collectiveness fell away when my

collectiveness fell away the object of

meditation disappeared

what is inattention mean it means ho

humming letting your mind just yeah I'm

on the object of meditation kinda and

you have other thoughts coming in so

you're with your object to meditation

but you're thinking about something else

okay so you're not being attentive and

that is a kind of hindrance and that

stops you from staying with your object

to meditation

I shall act so that neither doubt nor

inattention will arise in me again as in

a root I was abiding diligent hardened

and resolute the object of meditation

disappeared

I considered sloth and torpor arose in

me after asking the question and because

of sloth and torpor my collectiveness

fell away when my collectiveness fell

away my object of meditation disappeared

I shall so act that neither doubt nor

inattention nor sloth and torpor will

arise in me again howdy

why does sloth and torpor arise why does

torpor arise not enough interest in

staying with your object of meditation

that's the first cause of it and then

these little tiny thoughts come in and

you're still kind of staying with the

object of meditation but not really now

one of the things is not mentioned here

is some people get bored with their

object to meditation I'm bored and

because of that they're not able to stay

with their object of meditation

very well and they come complaining to

me about I'm bored with this can I can I

do another kind of meditation no you

have to stay with this who's bored after

the discourse last night that's an

interesting question in it who doesn't

want to stay with their object of

meditation

now when boredom comes up for me that's

a real good sign because that means that

you've worked real hard getting to this

place and your mindfulness slipped a

little bit now you have boredom there

and you have to go through the boredom

it's just showing you your condition

okay we're in a society where an awful

lot of people like to be entertained and

doing the same thing over and over again

with your object meditation your mind

says I don't want to do this anymore I'm

bored same thing over and over so if

somebody comes to me and they say

they're bored I kind of smile and say

good go through it who's bored Oh who's

mindfulness has slipped away

who's identifying was that feeling and

causing themselves suffering go through

it oh but I do better if I could have

another spiritual friend to send the

loving-kindness to know go through it

so it's the same with sloth and torpor

do you have to go through it and I've

already given you ideas of how to do

that as in a route I was abiding

diligent hearted and resolute then it

fell away and I lost my object of

meditation I asked the question what's

the cause and condition why is this

object of meditation gone away I

considered thus fear arose in me because

of fear activeness fell away when my

collected miss fell away the object of

meditation disappeared suppose a man set

out on a journey and murderers left out

on both sides of him then fear would

arise in him because of that I would

arise in him because of that

so to fear arose and me my object of

meditation disappeared I considered thus

I shall so act that neither doubt nor

inattention or sloth and torpor nor fear

will arise and me again a lot of times

people are sitting in meditation and

fear arises and they go I don't have

anything to be afraid of why am I afraid

why is this fear here fear arises as you

continually do the six R's in your

letting go of the craving and the belief

in itself and your mind doesn't like

that so it will finally

go okay where I'm gonna distract you a

good one this time and because it's

feared to arise and it's a fear of

seeing that everything is impersonal and

that I am NOT there now this is a

deep-seated fear because how many

lifetimes have you gone through and

believed that I am I am these thoughts I

am these feelings and now all of a

sudden you're letting go of that craving

that you've been carrying around for

since time immemorial that was one of

the men Andrews favorite sayings and now

you're letting go of that and your mind

is going wait a minute I am here and if

you don't believe it I'm gonna make you

afraid okay so you just gently six

alright okay fine you can do that you

can be there it's not me it's not mine I

certainly didn't ask it to come up it's

just fear so you allow it to be there

now fear is kind of an interesting thing

when fear is real strong the first thing

you'll notice is your stomach is tight

your shoulders get pulled up real far

your buttocks gets very tight and you're

ready to run

okay so when fear is real strong first

thing you want to do is relax your body

relax your shoulders relax that

tightness in your stomach relax the

muscles in the back of your legs now and

u6r of course now you see that tight

mental fist wrapped around that I don't

like this fear and it's okay to have

fear it has to be okay to have fear

because when it arises it's there that's

the Dhamma that's the truth of the

present moment so you allow that fear to

be there it's not yours anyway you can't

control it you can't change it you can't

make it go away all you can do is allow

it to be there relax into that relax

that tightness in your head and in your

mind come back to your object of

meditation with a smile okay it comes up

again fine I don't care if it comes up a

hundred times actually it'll be good if

it comes up a hundred times because it

helps improve your mindfulness every

time you let go of a hindrance and relax

and smile and come back to your object

of meditation it is improving your

mindfulness your observation power so if

you keep doing that over and over again

it might get tiresome doing it

but your mind is helping you to develop

your mindfulness and when you finally

have enough mindfulness then the

hindrance the fear its away doesn't come

back anymore

now you go deeper into your practice

because your mind is clear because

you've let go of an attachment this is a

good thing people come to me all the

time and they they go oh I had a great

meditation and I was able to sit for a

long time and stay with my spiritual

friend and everything was just great and

I kind of go okay continue but when

people come to me and they start going

oh man this is hard those hindrances it

just keeps coming back over and over and

over again do6 all right

yeah I'm sick sorry but it doesn't work

of course it works you know that it

works but it keeps coming back

good it's helping you it's helping you

develop your mindfulness so that when

that attachment finally lets go when you

purify your mind of that attachment now

you can go deeper into your practice and

then you can start seeing other things

and how they arise so it's really a good

thing to have hindrances they are your

teacher they are showing you exactly

where your attachment is and it is

helping you to strengthen your

mindfulness so you can

stay on your object of meditation for a

longer period of time so the hindrance

is your best friend absolutely it is

your best friend this is teaching you

how dependent origination works how's it

doing that

by pulling your attention away from your

object of meditation and being a

distraction so you have to work with it

over and over and over again and you

become familiar with how your mind's

attention moves and then you start

seeing right before your mind got really

carried away there was something else

that happened right before that you let

go and relax and smile and come back and

then your mind gets pulled back and win

that little thing before getting carried

away it arises your six alright that

after you six are that enough then

you'll see there's something that

happened to right before that so you're

teaching yourself that everything that

happens one is part of an impersonal

process and it has a definite pattern to

it

so it's a real important thing not to

fight with your hindrance but to realize

it's only this feeling and I didn't even

ask it to come up I can't make it go

away so I have to allow it to be there

because it's the truth it's there and

the more you allow and open up and

soften your mind and relax and smile and

come back to your object of meditation

the better your meditation becomes so

when you come and complain to me about

how hard the meditation is that yeah

good that is really the good thing

because now you have to work now you're

teaching yourself how this process work

now you're having to roll up your

sleeves and really do it when you come

to me and you have all of this wonderful

experience and staying with your object

of meditation that's good

but that's the candy you'll lose the

candy before it evolved and now you've

got another entrance to work with and

that's a good thing so many people they

have this idea that the Bodhisattva on

the night of his enlightenment that he

had great meditation well the first part

of his meditation he was attacked by the

hindrances big time and what was his

mind doing he was probably one of the

most advanced meditators in the world at

that time but he still had hundreds

has come up okay so what was his mind

doing his mind was helping him to

develop his mindfulness so his mind

became more clear and pure and he let go

of all of those hindrances then he got

into the jhanas then he saw past

lifetimes then he saw all of the

different realms and attained Nirvana so

when you come and you tell me most of

the time my meditation is great you

might even be in the realm of neither

perception nor non-perception and you

get attacked by all of these entrances

good keep sick sorry be patient it will

fade away everything changes and that's

helping you go deeper that means you get

one step closer to the experience of

Nevada

as a Neruda I was abiding diligent

hearted and resolute my object of

meditation disappeared I can say after

asking the question this has got dot dot

dot so I kind of had living a little

here after asking the question what's

the cause and condition why is this

happening

I considered elation arose in me because

of elation my collectiveness fell away

when my collectiveness fell away my

object of meditation disappeared suppose

a man seeking one entrance to a hidden

treasure came all at once upon five

entrances to hidden treasure then

elation would arise in him because of

that

so to elation arose in me the object of

meditation disappeared I considered this

I shall act that neither doubt nor an

attention nor sloth and torpor

then he went dot dot dot so that if I

gotta get the other ones in attention

sloth and torpor fear and elation will

not arise again elation the close enemy

of loving-kindness is uncontrolled

laughter okay you can have a chuckle but

when you start laughing and you start

rolling around and beating on things and

laughing and laughing and laughing and

tears come out your eyes that is a

hindrance to the practice it dissipates

your your mindfulness and it dissipates

your collectiveness so if laughter

starts coming up and it's almost it's

like it's uncontrolled just I can't make

it stop you have to start 6rn that and

not get involved with the happy feeling

of laughter another enemy of

loving-kindness is and the reason that I

don't want you to practice sending

loving-kindness to a family member to

start off with is if the family member

becomes sick you become way over set and

you lose your balance of mind so it's

kind of an important thing not to use a

family member to start off with but

someone that you're a little bit more

distant

so also with family members the family

member does something that you don't

necessarily like and then you start

sending loving and kind thoughts to them

and all of a sudden it's a trick that

you're sending because you don't like

something that they did but with a

spiritual friend that doesn't come up so

much there's a little bit more distant

and eventually I'll give you family

members to radiate loving-kindness to

but you have to have a certain degree of

balance in your mind before I'll give

that to you as a Neruda I was abiding

diligent and hearted Arden and resolute

my mindful my object of meditation

disappeared I asked what is the cause

and condition why the object of this

meditation has disappeared

I considered thus inertia arose in me

because of inertia my collectiveness

fell away when my collectiveness fell

away the object of meditation

disappeared

I shall so act that neither doubt nor an

attention nor elation nor inertia will

arise in me again what is inertia no way

back when when I was an athlete and

playing basketball we played basketball

so much of the time that we started

getting stale

and then the coach would say ok this is

what's happening to you you need to let

go and let's play some games so we

started playing different kinds of games

and that kind of revitalized our

enthusiasm and we then we carried on and

we were back to normal

ok so getting stale means inertia your

mind just gets to a certain point you've

done it so long there's it just says

nothing's happening so it blocks you it

blocks you from going deeper so what do

I tell you to do why don't you go out

for a walk and just enjoy it

I said she did the river remember that I

went one morning they'd been meditating

for a long time and they were getting

stale so I walked in and I said I don't

want you to meditate at all today I want

you to go down to the river I want you

to have fun the only thing I want you to

do is smile and anytime you notice an

unwholesome thought arise let it go and

laugh go I don't want to see you again

all day so at 6 o'clock for the Dhamma

talk I walked in I said well how was

your meditation today and Irwin says oh

we didn't meditate today we have fun so

when there's an ER show when you

starting to get a little bit stale and

the meditation is that it doesn't have a

lot of energy it doesn't mean you stop

meditating

it just means you change a little bit

and go out and enjoy and laugh and smile

and have fun that's what the Buddha was

talking about anyway wasn't it having an

uplifted mind so I'm kind of sneaky

sometimes so I'll have you do that sort

of thing

and he still hasn't forgiven okay as a

Neruda I was abiding diligent ardent and

resolute my object of meditation

disappeared I considered this excess of

energy arose in me because of an excess

of energy my collectiveness fell away

when my collectiveness fell away the

object of meditation disappeared suppose

a man were to grip a quail tightly with

both hands it would die then in there so

to excess of energy arose in me my

object is my object of meditation

disappeared I considered this I shall so

act that neither doubt nor an attention

nor inertia or excess of energy will

arise in me again excess of energy

trying too hard one of the biggest

problems I have teaching is everybody

just about everybody that comes and

practices with me has had another

practice and in that other practice

their teacher has told them you have to

try harder really have to put in a lot

of effort I had one Vipassana teacher

that said now you get up at 3 o'clock

you go to bed at 11 o'clock that is

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