From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CtKS4sQULFc

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

lot of you know about the suit oh where

there was a monk that was trying too

hard and the Buddha came along and said

it's like a stringed instrument if you

stretch it too hard the sound isn't

right if you don't stretch it hard

enough the sound isn't right it's only

when you get it in between too hard and

too soft that it sounds like it's

supposed to and that's what you have to

learn with your energy if you use too

much energy your mind is going to get

restless if you don't use enough energy

you've probably found out today that you

get a little bit sleepy so one of the

things with the meditation is learning

that balance of using your energy when

you try too hard or you have a an idea

that you want to accomplish something

with the meditation I want to sit Ewa

sitting like I did last time that desire

will make you try too hard the thing

that you really want to the mind that

you want to develop for this meditation

is whatever comes it's okay it doesn't

matter whether it meets my expectation

or not

if it doesn't meet your idea of what you

want to happen you try harder and it

gets the meditation gets much worse if

you don't take enough interest in your

object of meditation and sincerely

wishing your spiritual friend happiness

then you're going to dull out so it's

walking that fine line in between those

two states and when I was practicing in

Burma I was always told that you have to

try harder you have to do it more and as

a result the practice was not what I

would call a tranquil easy practice to

do I had one meditation teacher that

told me there are fifty thousand seconds

in a 16 hour period I never multiplied

it out to see if that was true or not

that's just what he said and he said you

should note fifty thousand times well

you can't say that to Westerners because

we try to do that Asians are more kicked

back there they're more loose with that

sort of thing so they try to get them to

pick up their energy so they say that

for them but they don't realize that

there is a difference between Westerners

and Easterners we coming from the West

have a tendency to be very goal-oriented

which means you put too much energy yet

put too much effort in you try to

control you try to make things be the

way you want them to be and when you

don't use effort and you have a lot of

pain because it's not happening the way

I want it to happen

now remember last night I told you

there's one sentence that has three

things in it that you never hear at any

other retreat smile have fun and laugh

those are the three things that you very

seldom see in other admitted even a

treat you never hear of that sort of

thing but when when you smile it

improves your mindfulness when you have

fun in doing it your interest is high

that means as you stay in balance but

you're real interested in how it works

when you were at school and you had a

class that you really liked you had fun

with that class as a result you got good

grades for it the same thing as here

have fun with this practice don't take

it so seriously and try to make things

happen the way you want them to doesn't

work I promise you it doesn't work

and when you laugh with yourself for

getting caught by a hindrance you're no

longer caught by that hendren you're not

taking the hindrance personally when you

laugh with yourself and it's just a

little chuckle it's not a belly laugh

but when you laugh what it does is it

changes your perspective it changes your

idea from this is here and I don't like

it and I don't want it to oh it's only

this I can let that go easy so when you

laugh with yourself what you're doing is

you're going from a personal view I am

this thought I am this desire I am this

person too well it's only the stuff

that's there it's only this and it that

is an impersonal view and the more you

get into the impersonal view with

everything that arises I don't care if

it's a pain in your knee or a painful

thought I don't care what it is it is an

attachment this is the cause of

distractions that pull you away from

your object of meditation so the whole

point of the meditation is to see how

minds attention moves from one thing to

another and see this all as part of an

impersonal process and it is a process

one of the things that when i was in

asia a lot of asians they think that

their mind works differently than a

Westerners mind but our minds work

exactly the same way exactly there is no

difference in human beings everybody's

mind works in the same way a feeling

arises pleasant or painful craving

arises I like it or I don't like it then

you have all of your concepts opinions

ideas attachments to all of the thoughts

about that and then you get into your

habitual tendency your emotional

reaction and I call it reaction because

it's the same kind of action you do

every time this kind of thing happens so

when you see that a feeling arises and

then there's as little tightness if you

can catch it right then and relax use

the six arts your mind becomes clear

your mind becomes bright your mind

becomes pure why because you've let go

of the craving now you bring that pure

mind back to something wholesome and

that's what the smile is for Reese mile

smile in your mind smile with your face

oops

it's okay

the more you can remember that this is

not just about the first three parts of

the six artists it's about doing all of

the sixers you recognize when there is a

distraction you let the distraction be

you don't get involved in trying to

control it you don't keep your attention

on it until it goes away why because

you're feeding it and that means it will

keep coming back and coming back and it

gets stronger and stronger and relax if

you don't if you if you just release

relax release relax release relax I have

a lot of people that come to me and they

tell me it doesn't work I can't make it

go away well of course you can't it's

not yours to control anyway so why are

you trying to make it be something that

you want it to be it doesn't make sense

did you ask that thought to arise no I

you know I haven't been sad for a long

time I might as well be sad now is

anybody going to do that to themselves

no when the conditions are right for

these different things to arise and your

mindfulness is not very sharp you will

get distracted but you use the six ours

and it gets easier and easier to

recognize where your attachment is and

you can kind of chuckle along with it if

you want you relax into that your mind

is pure your mind is bright

and this is the difference between the

word recognized and cod nice recognized

means yeah I've seen it before and I'm

doing it again cog knives means you're

in the present moment and you observe

what's in the present moment and then

you make the decision to come back to

your object of meditation after you

smile you bring up something wholesome

so the more you can remember to do that

the easier your practice will become I

read at an account of a meditation

teacher that went on a self retreat for

six or seven months and they wrote about

it and they started talking about for

the first four months I really suffered

a lot I had all of these distractions I

had all of his stuff piling up on me and

there's that says something about his

practice and he's not doing something

right four months of having distraction

if you have it more than one day I'm

going to ask you what are you doing why

are you trying to control it back away

it's only this thought doesn't matter

that it's there or not doesn't matter

even if it pulls your attention to it

let it be there relax smile come back

so the whole thing is when you get

caught up in thinking about and not

paying attention to closely to what's

happening you are going to have

distractions arise and you have to know

how to take care of them now you were

talking yesterday about I'm doing

loving-kindness and my mind gets

confused and I go back to the breath the

breath is a distraction so you six are

that and six are means coming back to

your object to meditation well but my

attention goes back to the breath okay

do it again and the first thing you have

to do is make up your mind that you're

going to let the attachment to the

breath go okay i'm doing this meditation

now i'm not going to i'm not going to

want this other thing to a right because

if you want it it will arise because of

your attachment to it and who wants it

and what is that that is craving and the

whole point of the meditation is to

learn how to let go of the craving so

you can cognos what is happening in the

present moment as it changes so all

distractions I don't care whether you

call them hindrances or not all

distractions basically come down to the

same thing they pull your attention away

from your object of meditation now you

start thinking this and thinking that

and just you're starting to think that

this is important where it's not

important or i'm sleepy or i'm bored or

I've heard this before I don't need to

hear it again who doesn't like that who

wants it to be different than it

actually is

I do now this is subtle stuff the thing

with craving is it's not particularly

strong but it is particularly persistent

and it's going to come up all the time

if you don't see it and let it be by

relaxing coming back to your object to

meditation so the whole thing with

unwise attention what is what is wisdom

mean what is being wise mean being wise

means seeing how the links of dependent

origination actually do work and it is a

process it's nothing personal about it a

feeling arises did you ask that feeling

to come up did you ask it to be pleasant

or painful no it's just a feeling and it

arises because your mindfulness isn't as

sharp as it could be

so the way you sharpen your mindfulness

is by using the six RS and smiling all

the rest of the day it's not an easy

practice the smile all the time but the

more you smile the better your

mindfulness becomes a bit the easier it

is to recognize when your mind starts to

get heavy and all of a sudden you have

these hindrance there and then you need

to use the six RS to get back on track

and stay with your object of meditation

now you can't grab onto your object of

meditation too tightly you can't force

something to be different than it is but

you can just let it be there without

keeping your attention on it see that's

a mistake that this meditation person

that was a mistake that he was making he

was trying to control and the more he

tried to control the more he put energy

into it the worse the hindrance became

because he kept feeding it over and over

and over again and he never saw the true

nature of it it's just thought that's

just feelings and it's okay for it to be

there it has to be okay when a

distraction arises because it's there

that's the truth that's the Dhamma of

the present moment any time you try to

fight with the truth any time you try to

control the truth any time you try to

make the truth be anything other than it

is that is the cause of suffering well I

don't like this thought I don't like

this feeling so who does it who wants to

control it who wants to make it

different

who is causing themselves suffering and

there's nobody out here there's nobody

around you that is causing your

suffering you caused the suffering to

yourself by the reaction every time this

kind of thought comes up I don't like it

frustration anxiety fear whatever it

happens to be I don't like it I want it

to be different and then you have all of

these thoughts about the story why you

don't like it and all of a sudden

they're jumping into your emotional

reaction a lot of people right now are

suffering from depression what is

depression painful feeling arises I

don't like that now you take it as yours

personally and you have all of these

thoughts about why you don't like it and

then your emotional response well when I

ever I get depressed I go into my room

and close all the windows and make it

dark and i'll be over it in two or three

days well is that what the Buddha called

immediately effective

but that's the way most people are see

the whole thing is we have five

aggregates and that's on one of the

sheets that we gave you yesterday we

have five aggregates we have a body we

have feeling not emotional feeling just

feeling we have perception perception is

the part of your mind that makes

concepts arise every thought that you

have is a concept what's a concept this

is a chair where is the chair is it the

back is that the seat is it the legs

where's the chair concepts are made up

of a lot of timing little things put

together to give us the concept of chair

then you have thoughts the sin Cara's

and consciousness now what happens when

a painful feeling arises the painful

feeling is not only in your mind but

it's also in your body at the same time

and then you have the concept of what it

is and then you get caught in the

habitual tendency of trying to control

your thoughts or your feelings with your

thoughts and the more you try to do that

the more you try to think it thank the

feeling the more painful it becomes and

the bigger it becomes still finally you

can't stand it and you have to have some

kind of relief well

when you're sitting in meditation and a

sensation arises in your body well it's

painful I don't like that or it's an

itch or whatever it happens to be it

doesn't matter it pulls your attention

to it the first thing you do is start to

think about it I hate this pain in my

knee when it arises I wish it would stop

I don't want to be bothered with it

right now I'm meditating at that time

you're not meditating you're getting

caught in clinging and then your

habitual tendency of trying to think the

feeling and try to control the feeling

with your thoughts but thoughts are one

thing and feelings or something else and

the two never meet so the first thing

you do when a pain arises in your body

is notice that you're thinking about it

and let go of that thought and relax now

you'll notice that there's a tight

mental fist wrapped around that feeling

and that is a version I don't like it I

don't want it there but again the truth

is it's there and the tighter you try to

squeeze around that feeling the bigger

and more intense it's going to become

until it turns into an emergency and

then you have to move but the

instructions and the meditation is you

can move as much as he does in other

words no don't move well it's only a

hitch

so what do you do the truth is when a

pain is there it's there and it's okay

for it to be there because that's the

truth you have to allow the truth to be

there by itself don't fight with the

truth it's okay for that true that pain

to be there it doesn't matter whether

it's emotional or physical you let it be

all of the Buddha's teaching is about

doing this with your mind opening up and

relaxing opening up and relaxing letting

go of the attachments to whatever it

happens to be let it be there by itself

then you smile and come back to your

object to meditation stay with your

object of meditation as long as you can

but the nature of these kind of

sensations when they arise is that they

don't go away right away well I six art

it and it didn't it didn't go away so I

moved no six art again it doesn't matter

how many times your mind gets distracted

by that it will either go away or your

mind will have balance so it doesn't

matter whether it's there or not and

again if you get up in meditation and

that pain doesn't go away I don't want

you to sit that way anymore sit so that

you're comfortable a meditation pain it

goes away in five or ten seconds real

pain doesn't go away

so sit in a way that that works for you

if you want to sit on the floor one time

sit on the floor one time then you feel

like sitting in a chair then sit in a

chair

lot of you know about the suit oh where

there was a monk that was trying too

hard and the Buddha came along and said

it's like a stringed instrument if you

stretch it too hard the sound isn't

right if you don't stretch it hard

enough the sound isn't right it's only

when you get it in between too hard and

too soft that it sounds like it's

supposed to and that's what you have to

learn with your energy if you use too

much energy your mind is going to get

restless if you don't use enough energy

you've probably found out today that you

get a little bit sleepy so one of the

things with the meditation is learning

that balance of using your energy when

you try too hard or you have a an idea

that you want to accomplish something

with the meditation I want to sit Ewa

sitting like I did last time that desire

will make you try too hard the thing

that you really want to the mind that

you want to develop for this meditation

is whatever comes it's okay it doesn't

matter whether it meets my expectation

or not

if it doesn't meet your idea of what you

want to happen you try harder and it

gets the meditation gets much worse if

you don't take enough interest in your

object of meditation and sincerely

wishing your spiritual friend happiness

then you're going to dull out so it's

walking that fine line in between those

two states and when I was practicing in

Burma I was always told that you have to

try harder you have to do it more and as

a result the practice was not what I

would call a tranquil easy practice to

do I had one meditation teacher that

told me there are fifty thousand seconds

in a 16 hour period I never multiplied

it out to see if that was true or not

that's just what he said and he said you

should note fifty thousand times well

you can't say that to Westerners because

we try to do that Asians are more kicked

back there they're more loose with that

sort of thing so they try to get them to

pick up their energy so they say that

for them but they don't realize that

there is a difference between Westerners

and Easterners we coming from the West

have a tendency to be very goal-oriented

which means you put too much energy yet

put too much effort in you try to

control you try to make things be the

way you want them to be and when you

don't use effort and you have a lot of

pain because it's not happening the way

I want it to happen

now remember last night I told you

there's one sentence that has three

things in it that you never hear at any

other retreat smile have fun and laugh

those are the three things that you very

seldom see in other admitted even a

treat you never hear of that sort of

thing but when when you smile it

improves your mindfulness when you have

fun in doing it your interest is high

that means as you stay in balance but

you're real interested in how it works

when you were at school and you had a

class that you really liked you had fun

with that class as a result you got good

grades for it the same thing as here

have fun with this practice don't take

it so seriously and try to make things

happen the way you want them to doesn't

work I promise you it doesn't work

and when you laugh with yourself for

getting caught by a hindrance you're no

longer caught by that hendren you're not

taking the hindrance personally when you

laugh with yourself and it's just a

little chuckle it's not a belly laugh

but when you laugh what it does is it

changes your perspective it changes your

idea from this is here and I don't like

it and I don't want it to oh it's only

this I can let that go easy so when you

laugh with yourself what you're doing is

you're going from a personal view I am

this thought I am this desire I am this

person too well it's only the stuff

that's there it's only this and it that

is an impersonal view and the more you

get into the impersonal view with

everything that arises I don't care if

it's a pain in your knee or a painful

thought I don't care what it is it is an

attachment this is the cause of

distractions that pull you away from

your object of meditation so the whole

point of the meditation is to see how

minds attention moves from one thing to

another and see this all as part of an

impersonal process and it is a process

one of the things that when i was in

asia a lot of asians they think that

their mind works differently than a

Westerners mind but our minds work

exactly the same way exactly there is no

difference in human beings everybody's

mind works in the same way a feeling

arises pleasant or painful craving

arises I like it or I don't like it then

you have all of your concepts opinions

ideas attachments to all of the thoughts

about that and then you get into your

habitual tendency your emotional

reaction and I call it reaction because

it's the same kind of action you do

every time this kind of thing happens so

when you see that a feeling arises and

then there's as little tightness if you

can catch it right then and relax use

the six arts your mind becomes clear

your mind becomes bright your mind

becomes pure why because you've let go

of the craving now you bring that pure

mind back to something wholesome and

that's what the smile is for Reese mile

smile in your mind smile with your face

oops

it's okay

the more you can remember that this is

not just about the first three parts of

the six artists it's about doing all of

the sixers you recognize when there is a

distraction you let the distraction be

you don't get involved in trying to

control it you don't keep your attention

on it until it goes away why because

you're feeding it and that means it will

keep coming back and coming back and it

gets stronger and stronger and relax if

you don't if you if you just release

relax release relax release relax I have

a lot of people that come to me and they

tell me it doesn't work I can't make it

go away well of course you can't it's

not yours to control anyway so why are

you trying to make it be something that

you want it to be it doesn't make sense

did you ask that thought to arise no I

you know I haven't been sad for a long

time I might as well be sad now is

anybody going to do that to themselves

no when the conditions are right for

these different things to arise and your

mindfulness is not very sharp you will

get distracted but you use the six ours

and it gets easier and easier to

recognize where your attachment is and

you can kind of chuckle along with it if

you want you relax into that your mind

is pure your mind is bright

and this is the difference between the

word recognized and cod nice recognized

means yeah I've seen it before and I'm

doing it again cog knives means you're

in the present moment and you observe

what's in the present moment and then

you make the decision to come back to

your object of meditation after you

smile you bring up something wholesome

so the more you can remember to do that

the easier your practice will become I

read at an account of a meditation

teacher that went on a self retreat for

six or seven months and they wrote about

it and they started talking about for

the first four months I really suffered

a lot I had all of these distractions I

had all of his stuff piling up on me and

there's that says something about his

practice and he's not doing something

right four months of having distraction

if you have it more than one day I'm

going to ask you what are you doing why

are you trying to control it back away

it's only this thought doesn't matter

that it's there or not doesn't matter

even if it pulls your attention to it

let it be there relax smile come back

so the whole thing is when you get

caught up in thinking about and not

paying attention to closely to what's

happening you are going to have

distractions arise and you have to know

how to take care of them now you were

talking yesterday about I'm doing

loving-kindness and my mind gets

confused and I go back to the breath the

breath is a distraction so you six are

that and six are means coming back to

your object to meditation well but my

attention goes back to the breath okay

do it again and the first thing you have

to do is make up your mind that you're

going to let the attachment to the

breath go okay i'm doing this meditation

now i'm not going to i'm not going to

want this other thing to a right because

if you want it it will arise because of

your attachment to it and who wants it

and what is that that is craving and the

whole point of the meditation is to

learn how to let go of the craving so

you can cognos what is happening in the

present moment as it changes so all

distractions I don't care whether you

call them hindrances or not all

distractions basically come down to the

same thing they pull your attention away

from your object of meditation now you

start thinking this and thinking that

and just you're starting to think that

this is important where it's not

important or i'm sleepy or i'm bored or

I've heard this before I don't need to

hear it again who doesn't like that who

wants it to be different than it

actually is

I do now this is subtle stuff the thing

with craving is it's not particularly

strong but it is particularly persistent

and it's going to come up all the time

if you don't see it and let it be by

relaxing coming back to your object to

meditation so the whole thing with

unwise attention what is what is wisdom

mean what is being wise mean being wise

means seeing how the links of dependent

origination actually do work and it is a

process it's nothing personal about it a

feeling arises did you ask that feeling

to come up did you ask it to be pleasant

or painful no it's just a feeling and it

arises because your mindfulness isn't as

sharp as it could be

so the way you sharpen your mindfulness

is by using the six RS and smiling all

the rest of the day it's not an easy

practice the smile all the time but the

more you smile the better your

mindfulness becomes a bit the easier it

is to recognize when your mind starts to

get heavy and all of a sudden you have

these hindrance there and then you need

to use the six RS to get back on track

and stay with your object of meditation

now you can't grab onto your object of

meditation too tightly you can't force

something to be different than it is but

you can just let it be there without

keeping your attention on it see that's

a mistake that this meditation person

that was a mistake that he was making he

was trying to control and the more he

tried to control the more he put energy

into it the worse the hindrance became

because he kept feeding it over and over

and over again and he never saw the true

nature of it it's just thought that's

just feelings and it's okay for it to be

there it has to be okay when a

distraction arises because it's there

that's the truth that's the Dhamma of

the present moment any time you try to

fight with the truth any time you try to

control the truth any time you try to

make the truth be anything other than it

is that is the cause of suffering well I

don't like this thought I don't like

this feeling so who does it who wants to

control it who wants to make it

different

who is causing themselves suffering and

there's nobody out here there's nobody

around you that is causing your

suffering you caused the suffering to

yourself by the reaction every time this

kind of thought comes up I don't like it

frustration anxiety fear whatever it

happens to be I don't like it I want it

to be different and then you have all of

these thoughts about the story why you

don't like it and all of a sudden

they're jumping into your emotional

reaction a lot of people right now are

suffering from depression what is

depression painful feeling arises I

don't like that now you take it as yours

personally and you have all of these

thoughts about why you don't like it and

then your emotional response well when I

ever I get depressed I go into my room

and close all the windows and make it

dark and i'll be over it in two or three

days well is that what the Buddha called

immediately effective

but that's the way most people are see

the whole thing is we have five

aggregates and that's on one of the

sheets that we gave you yesterday we

have five aggregates we have a body we

have feeling not emotional feeling just

feeling we have perception perception is

the part of your mind that makes

concepts arise every thought that you

have is a concept what's a concept this

is a chair where is the chair is it the

back is that the seat is it the legs

where's the chair concepts are made up

of a lot of timing little things put

together to give us the concept of chair

then you have thoughts the sin Cara's

and consciousness now what happens when

a painful feeling arises the painful

feeling is not only in your mind but

it's also in your body at the same time

and then you have the concept of what it

is and then you get caught in the

habitual tendency of trying to control

your thoughts or your feelings with your

thoughts and the more you try to do that

the more you try to think it thank the

feeling the more painful it becomes and

the bigger it becomes still finally you

can't stand it and you have to have some

kind of relief well

when you're sitting in meditation and a

sensation arises in your body well it's

painful I don't like that or it's an

itch or whatever it happens to be it

doesn't matter it pulls your attention

to it the first thing you do is start to

think about it I hate this pain in my

knee when it arises I wish it would stop

I don't want to be bothered with it

right now I'm meditating at that time

you're not meditating you're getting

caught in clinging and then your

habitual tendency of trying to think the

feeling and try to control the feeling

with your thoughts but thoughts are one

thing and feelings or something else and

the two never meet so the first thing

you do when a pain arises in your body

is notice that you're thinking about it

and let go of that thought and relax now

you'll notice that there's a tight

mental fist wrapped around that feeling

and that is a version I don't like it I

don't want it there but again the truth

is it's there and the tighter you try to

squeeze around that feeling the bigger

and more intense it's going to become

until it turns into an emergency and

then you have to move but the

instructions and the meditation is you

can move as much as he does in other

words no don't move well it's only a

hitch

so what do you do the truth is when a

pain is there it's there and it's okay

for it to be there because that's the

truth you have to allow the truth to be

there by itself don't fight with the

truth it's okay for that true that pain

to be there it doesn't matter whether

it's emotional or physical you let it be

all of the Buddha's teaching is about

doing this with your mind opening up and

relaxing opening up and relaxing letting

go of the attachments to whatever it

happens to be let it be there by itself

then you smile and come back to your

object to meditation stay with your

object of meditation as long as you can

but the nature of these kind of

sensations when they arise is that they

don't go away right away well I six art

it and it didn't it didn't go away so I

moved no six art again it doesn't matter

how many times your mind gets distracted

by that it will either go away or your

mind will have balance so it doesn't

matter whether it's there or not and

again if you get up in meditation and

that pain doesn't go away I don't want

you to sit that way anymore sit so that

you're comfortable a meditation pain it

goes away in five or ten seconds real

pain doesn't go away

so sit in a way that that works for you

if you want to sit on the floor one time

sit on the floor one time then you feel

like sitting in a chair then sit in a

chair