From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7lUefVv2p6s

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

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawatee and

jetta's grove anathen pandika's park

there he addressed the monks thus monks

venerable sir they replied the blessed

one

said this monks before my awakening

while i was still only an unawakened

bodhisattva it occurred to me

suppose that i divide my thoughts into

two

classes then i

set on one side thoughts of sensual

desire

thoughts of ill will and thoughts of

cruelty

i set on the other side thoughts of

renunciation

thoughts of non-ill will and thoughts of

non-cruelty

what is non-cruelty

answer answer

compassion what's non-ill will

loving-kindness

as i abided thus diligent ardent and

resolute

the thought of sensual desire arose in

me i understood thus

this thought of sensual desire has

arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction to

others affliction and to the affliction

of both

it obstructs wisdom causes difficulty

and leads away from nibana

when i considered

then

when i considered this leads to my own

affliction

it subsided in me when i considered this

leads to the affliction of others

it subsided in me when i considered this

leads to the affliction of both that

subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nirvana it subsided in me

now this gives you the idea that he was

thinking

this

it doesn't have anything to do with

thought

it has to do with your mindfulness

when you see unwholesome states arise

you have a choice that's where your

decision your free will

is you can either

act like you always act when that kind

of thing comes up

or you can start using the six r's

and not re-act

that means act the way you always act

when that kind of

thought or feeling arises

okay so what we're talking about

is using the six r's

to keep your mind in balance

now the thing that is real important for

you to remember

is that the more you smile with your

daily activities

the easier it is

to be mindful

i the easier it is to recognize when the

thought

first starts coming up i don't like this

and you can let it go right then and

relax

whenever a thought of sensual desire

arose in me i abandoned it

removed it did away with it

six-hearted

as i abided thus diligent hearted and

resolute

the thought of ill will arose in me or a

thought of cruelty arose in me

i understood this thought of ill will or

this cruelty has arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction causes

you problems

to others affliction and to the

affliction of both

it obstructs wisdom how does its

obstruct wisdom

what is wisdom

the links of dependent origination how

does it stop that

remember what i said yesterday okay

because of the craving you're taking it

personally

you think those are your thoughts and

your feelings

and you can yell and scream all you want

but until you start to

let go of the identification

with those thoughts and feelings you're

just going to cause yourself

problems and other people around you

problems

so the key is six ours because you need

to be able to relax that tightness and

stop

identifying with those thoughts and

feelings

stop taking them personally

the way it obstructs wisdom is you get

so caught up in your

in your thoughts and feelings you're not

observant of anything

you don't know anything except the

dissatisfaction in your mind at that

time

you have no balance you have no

mindfulness

all you have is re-action

and of course that leads away from

nibana

when i considered thus it subsided in me

whenever thoughts of ill will or cruelty

arose in me i abandoned them

removed them let them be and relax

and did away with them

whatever a monk thinks and

thinks frequently and ponders upon

that will become the inclination

of his mind

whatever you think and this is where

your opinions

and concepts and ideas really

cause a lot of problems because if

things don't happen the way you think

they should happen

then you get lost

you don't even know you have a body all

you have

is this reaction to i don't like this

i want it to be different than it is

and the more you give in to that the

more you

think and ponder on that

the more intense and more off balance

you become

so you have to be careful what you think

about

and six are when you're doing your daily

activities when you're doing your

practice

there's no difference between sitting

practice and daily activity

practice it's the same

so you have to consider that if you

frequently

think and ponder on something then your

mind's going to

tend towards that now if you think

and ponder on something that's

unwholesome

your mind is going to go towards the

unwholesome

and it's going to keep thinking on

pondering on that more and more

but if you see that

and six are it and bring up a wholesome

smile laugh

then the more often you do that the more

your mind tends towards that

so it's real important to understand

that your habitual tendency

can be changed your habitual tendency

for anger

to arise because i don't like this and

it's no good

it can be changed too it doesn't really

matter that much

or as the thai say my penrai

never mind it's not that important

if he frequently thinks and ponders upon

thoughts of sensual desire he has

abandoned the thought of renunciation to

cultivate the thought of sensual desire

and then his mind inclines to thoughts

of sensual desire

if he frequently thinks and ponders on

thoughts of ill will

or cruelty he has

abandoned the the thought of non-ill

will

and non-cruelty to cultivate thoughts of

ill will and cruelty

then his mind inclines to the to those

kinds of thoughts

what you think can ponder on that's the

inclination

of your mind

it's real important to realize this

because we have a lot of repeat thoughts

every repeat thought you have

has craving in it

i am that

and the more you give in to those repeat

thoughts the more

you have a tendency to

fall back into your old habits

your old ways of acting

now the thing with buddhism is if you

really want to

learn about buddhism you have to make up

your mind that you're going to change

and the change is going to be a positive

one

but you have to want to change

i had a man i've been teaching him for

many many many years and he comes and he

does a retreat

and he calms down a little bit

at the end of the retreat he actually

comes up to me and says

now i can be the way i was went before

and i keep asking him why are you doing

retreats

you don't want to change so you're

wasting your time

you have to want to change to let go of

the unwholesome

thoughts and feelings and develop new

wholesome thoughts and feelings

but that's up to him

just as in the last month of the rainy

season in the autumn

when the crops thicken a cow herd would

guard his cows by constantly tapping and

poking them on

this side or that side with a stick

to check and curb them why is that

because he sees that he could be flogged

imprisoned

fined or blamed if he

let those stray cows into the crops

so too i saw unwholesome states

dangerous i saw in

unwholesome states danger digrit

degradation and defilement

and in wholesome states blessings of

renunciation

the aspect of cleansing

as i abided thus diligent ardent

resolute

a thought of renunciation arose in me i

understood thus the thought of

renunciation has arisen in me

this does not lead to my own affliction

or the affliction of others

or to the affliction of both

it aids wisdom does not cause difficulty

and leads to nirvana

if i think and ponder upon those

thoughts

even for a night even for a day even for

a day and a night

i saw nothing to fear from it

but the excessive thinking and pondering

might tire my body

when the body is tired mind becomes

strained

and when mind is trained it is far

from being collected

so again this isn't about verbalizing

and trying to develop is wholesome

thoughts by repeating them over and over

and over again

this is about learning how

mind attention actually does move from

one thing to another

and using the six r's

opening allowing

so

and staying on your object to meditation

when you do that often enough you start

to get a sense of balance

where things used to bother you

they won't because you have the

equinimity and balance of mind

and then you can let that be without

re-acting

anymore you start responding

with

using the six r's

with keeping your mind in balance

not giving in to the want to have

anger come up because something doesn't

happen the way i

want it to

it's not that important 95

of the time it's not important at all

except

when we take those thoughts and feelings

personally and

make them ours

that's when we run into problems

so i studied my mind internally quieted

relaxed brought it to stillness

and collected it why is that

so my mind should not be strained

a big thing that happens is the feeling

arises

and it's an unpleasant feeling and you

don't like it

and that causes that tension and

immediately after that

all of your thoughts opinions ideas the

way you think

things should be but they're not

your concept and your story and then the

emotional

state starts to arise the habitual

tendency every time

this kind of thing comes up i have these

kind of

opinions and thoughts about it now the

emotion

explodes at you

are you mindful at that time

not even close do you even know you have

a body

because you're so caught up in your head

no

do you cause yourself harm or harm to

others

by having this kind of emotional

re-action absolutely

you cause your self-harm you cause your

body harm

you hurt other people's feelings around

you

that's not worth it never mind it's

not that important

as i abided thus diligent hearted and

resolute

the thought of non-ill will arose in me

or a thought of non-cruelty arose in me

i understood thus this thought

of non-ill will or non-cruelty

has risen in me this

does not lead to my own affliction

it does not lead to others affliction

or to the affliction of anyone

it aids wisdom does not cause difficulty

and leads to nibana

now there's two kinds of nibana

one is called the mundane nibana

and the other is called the super

mundane nibana

every time you six are and let go of

that

tightness your mind becomes clear

your mind becomes bright you don't have

thoughts interrupt interrupting

your mind is pure that

is mundane nibana that is the third

noble truth the cessation of suffering

you're going to have many many many

thousands of millions

experience of nibana

every time you use the six r's

you are experiencing the cessation of

suffering

that is nibana

the super monday nibana comes when

you've done it

enough with the mundane nibbana

if i think and ponder upon this thought

even for a night even for a day

even for a day and night i see nothing

to fear from it

but with excessive thinking and

pondering

i tire my body

and when the body is tired the mind

becomes strained

and you have a tendency to try too hard

you have a tendency to

to hold on to your object of meditation

too tightly

remember that everything in the buddha's

practice

is about doing this

letting go of the tension and tightness

that's what the meditation is about not

trying to push the meditation to be the

way you want it not trying to

do it too hard

what you want to do is if you're

starting to get

restless you have to take a look at that

restlessness

and then back off don't try so hard

you're putting in too much energy too

much effort

one of the things that is very helpful

in this practice

is something that you never hear other

meditation teachers talk about

and that is having a sense of humor

about yourself

laugh with yourself for trying too hard

there i go again

see it's real important why

because when you laugh you go

from i'm trying and i want this result

to oh it's only trying

let it go so it changes your perspective

from the personal

to the impersonal when you laugh with

yourself

laugh at how crazy your mind is it comes

up with all kinds of bizarre things and

that's fine

the more you laugh with it

the lighter your mind becomes the better

your mindfulness becomes

the easier it is to change

your old bad habits and develop new

good habits

so it's a real important aspect of the

meditation

to keep it light i've had a lot of

meditation teachers

and they were all in to try harder

not trying hard enough you got to do it

more

i had one teacher that told me i was

lazy because i was only taking four

hours sleep at night

so i cut it down to two did that help my

meditation at all

not in the least

and i did that for three months

so you know there's a lot of

a lot of the teachers will tell you well

this

kind of practice is real good try it for

a while and see what you think you try

between three and six months to see

if it's helpful to you or not you don't

just do it one or two times and say nope

that's no good

because you don't know

i had one teacher that he suggested that

i

just used three postures never lay down

and i did that for six months

did it help my meditation not in the

least

it's a kind of discipline and it's nice

to have that kind of discipline and know

you can do it if you have to

but it's not

as useful for me personally

but it took me six months to find out

so i could see all the different things

that i was going through and see whether

it's really worth letting go of that or

not

so when you take a suggestion

try it not just on the surface

go for it for a period of time and i

put in a lot of effort

one meditation teacher told me that in a

day

if you were only taking four hours sleep

there was just over 50 000

seconds and that's how many times i

should note

something once a second no no no

no

wrong effort

you need to back off do it in a relaxed

but aware

way

if you try if you have the idea

let's say you have a good sitting

and it was real nice and pleasant but it

was time to get up and you do your

walking meditation

and then you come back and sit and you

think

well i'll do that again

now that one thought that one desire

to make your meditation good is the very

thing that stops it

and you start to get a little restless

and you think well maybe i'll put in

more energy

i'll try harder and then you become

frustrated because the

restlessness gets stronger what are you

thinking and pondering on

you're thinking and pondering on i want

this to be the way i want it to be

when i want it i i i

i

so what do you do you become frustrated

so you try harder and that's exactly the

opposite of what you need to do

you need to back off don't try so hard

let things come to you as they will your

job is just to observe

use the six r's go back to your object

to meditation

don't try hard

you can't compare

what this sitting is going to be like

because you don't know what's going to

happen next rough can fall down who

knows

better not but

so give up the idea that i want it to be

like it was

because it's never going to be that way

and

you're just causing yourself more

suffering

so back off back off don't try

so hard now there are times when you

have to put in some

energy and some effort when you get

sloth and torpor

but the energy and effort you need to

use

is the energy it takes to be able to

observe

how sloth and torpor arises

what happens first what happens after

that what happens after that

and i've had hundreds of students that

tell me

well i get too

relaxed if i relax at that

my mind i'm already sleepy

i'll just go to sleep no you're not

doing it right

you're letting go of the tightness you

can be more aware

of how the process works

sloth interpreter is real easy

to see how it arises

you're not on your ob you're not taking

a strong enough

interest in your object of meditation

and you kind of let your thoughts kind

of ho hum a little bit

and then it gets a little bit stronger

and then you start

getting into a dreamy state and then

your

back starts slumping and before long

you're bobbing

well how does that process work how did

it arise in the first place

what do you have to do so the sloth

intorper won't arise

take more interest in sending loving and

kind thoughts to your spiritual friend

that picks up your energy right there

investigate

tweak your energy now people that have

sloth and torpor and they're bobbing

like this

and they see that all of a sudden they

sit up real straight and they try

real hard and before long they're back

to bobbing

why because they're not putting in a

balanced

kind of energy and they're not observing

how the process works

it's a real interesting phenomena

to be able to

work with sloth and torpor

the more interest you take in it

and how it arises the faster you can

six are so you don't have those

little tiny dreamy thoughts

musics are those but you have to do it

with the right amount of energy

if you put in too much energy

it's going to burn out real quick so you

have to adjust your energy levels so

that

you're not putting in too much at one

time

now you put in a little bit of energy

see what happens if you still

start drifting off you okay there wasn't

quite enough energy in that one let's

put in a little bit more

next time okay

monks whatever a monk frequently

thinks and ponders upon that will be the

inclination

of his mind if he frequently thinks and

ponders upon thoughts of renunciation

he has abandoned the thought of sensual

desire to cultivate the thought of

renunciation

and then his mind inclines to thoughts

of renunciation

if he frequently thinks and ponders upon

thoughts of non-ill will

or non-cruelty he has abandoned the

thought of

ill will and cruelty to cultivate the

thought of

non-ill will and non-cruelty

and then his mind inclines to thoughts

of loving kindness and compassion

just as in the last month of the hot

season when all the crops have been

brought inside to villages

a cow herd would guard his cows while

staying at the root of a tree or out in

the open

since he needs only to be mindful that

the cows are there

you need to be mindful that loving

kindness is there

you don't have to push it you don't have

to make it grow bigger you don't have to

force it to do anything

you just are mindful that it's there

and allow it to grow while you stay on

your object of meditation

okay

tireless energy arose in me and

unremitting mindfulness was

established my body was tranquil and

untroubled my mind collected and unified

quite secluded from sensual pleasures

how do you become secluded from sensual

pleasures

you have to speak up i can't hear you

when you close your eyes the sensual

pleasure of seeing

is not there when there is a sound

you notice it you don't pay attention to

it you'll let it be there by itself

it's just like i was talking about last

night sometimes you can have thoughts

but you're still on your object of

meditation

ignore it don't pay attention to it

right and you do that at all the scent

stores

secluded from unwholesome states how are

you secluded from unwholesome

states

by using the six r's

not having any craving means there's

nothing unwholesome in your mind

right

4 23.

okay

um secluded from

unwholesome states i entered upon and

abided in the first

jhana which is accompanied by thinking

and examining thought with joy and

happiness born of seclusion

there's a lot of talk about jhana but

there's very little

true understanding of what jhana is

because almost everybody that practices

jhana is practicing a form of one

pointed concentration

in other words their mind becomes

so one pointed on an object that it

won't move

but you don't learn anything when you're

like that

the kind of genre that he is talking

about

is the development of your

understanding about how mind

actually does work

and when you see that a feeling arises

and this tightness happens and the

thoughts coming up in your habitual

tendency

and then all of the rest

you're seeing it over and over again as

you become familiar with it you start to

stay

on your object to meditation longer

and distraction becomes less

intense

now when you use the six r's on that

u6r and it gets the distraction becomes

weaker

because you're not feeding it anymore

you're not keeping your attention

on it and finally

the hindrance just fades away

when that happens you feel a very strong

sense of relief

you have a lot of joy

and this kind of joy is called uplifting

joy where your mind feels very light

and so does your body

when that fades away you will feel

a very strong sense of tranquility

and you'll feel very comfortable in your

body

and this is called happiness

your mind is unified your mind is

very composed and at ease that's what

the first

jhana is all about you can still have

some distracting things come up

but you'll see them more quickly and

you'll be able to six hard

come back without any problem

with the stilling of thinking and

examining thought i

entered upon and abide in a second

journal which has self-confidence

stillness of mind without thinking and

examining thought

with joy and happiness born of

collectedness

when you get into the second drama if

you try to make a verbal

wish for your spiritual friend's

happiness

you start to get tightness in your head

so you let go of that verbal wish

now you just bring up that feeling of

your wish

and put that feeling in your heart and

radiate that feeling to your spiritual

friend

this particular suta is called

the beginning of noble silence

because you haven't got the thinking and

examining thought distracting you

and you start to have confidence that

yeah this is right

you know that you're on the right path

because you're seeing how it works and

it works

fairly quickly works fairly easily

which is something that

i've been told and excuse me

come on

there i've been told in thailand that it

takes 10

to 15 years to be able to get into

adriana

15 years

i've been told in sri lanka there are a

lot more

spiritually advanced it only takes 10

years

that's when you're practicing absorption

concentration

you're not practicing one pointed

you are practicing one pointed

concentration

not what we teach here

a lot of the myth about

the

length of time that it takes to get in

the drama

is because it is very difficult when

you're practicing one point in

concentration

it's not difficult when you practice

this

two days three days you're in a job

and i've actually had some monks call me

a liar that that's

that's impossible to get into a drama

that fast

okay it's up to them they can believe

what they want but i've got a few

thousand students and i see how fast it

happens

so

with the fading away of joy

i i abided in equinimity mindful and

fully aware

still feeling happiness with the body

i entered upon an abide in the third

journal a count of which

noble ones announce he has a pleasant

abiding who has

equanimity and is mindful

when you get into the third jhana you no

longer have

joy arise it's too course a feeling for

your

for your mind

you have a very strong sense of balance

in your mind

you hear a sound it doesn't make your

mind

jump you just hear it it just kind of

goes through you no big deal

if you come up if i come up and i touch

you

you would feel that

and you feel very comfortable in your

body

and very comfortable in your mind

now one of the difference between one

pointed concentration or absorption

concentration

and this kind of collectedness

is when you get to the third journal you

don't feel your body at all your mind

becomes

so one pointed and so intense

on that one object that

you don't have a body anymore you don't

feel it

i've been around monks that have been

practicing this and you can beat on them

with the stick you can yell at them

you can move their limbs around so that

they look funny

and they won't know that you did that

when they came out

but this is called an aware genre

that extra step of relaxing

is the very key of the meditation that

the buddha taught

because that relaxed step it doesn't

allow you to become

absorbed in one object

and when you use that relaxed step more

instead of

going this way you start going

this way so you become more aware of

things around you

so that's a pretty major difference

between the two kinds of

practice and when you practice according

to

the vasudi maga they talk very much

about having a nimita a nimita

that's a pali word that means sign

and then the way it's described is

that there is a white

kind of silvery white disk that happens

in your mind and you

start focusing on that at first you're

doing your breath

or whatever your meditation is then you

take the nimita

as your object of meditation

now does that mean that there is full

awareness

and mindfulness

it it's not there you don't feel your

body

you're not aware of sounds and other

things happening around you so that's

not full awareness

but when you're practicing this kind of

meditation

there is full awareness you'll hear a

car

drive by you'll hear a motorcycle

whatever it doesn't make your mind shake

but you know it was there

now as you start going deeper in your

meditation

you will start to not be able to feel

different parts of your body like your

leg is just you don't feel it or your

hands or

shoulder whatever as you let go of

tension

and tightness in your mind you let go of

tension

and tightness in your body

so now you don't feel the gross body

anymore

unless you put your attention on it

and you don't need to you will feel

subtle things

you feel wind

or ants walking on little things like

that but it takes contact to be

to have feeling otherwise you don't feel

it

and this is where you start purifying

your blood

that's quite nice

now eventually what happens is the

feeling of loving kindness

because you don't feel your body anymore

you won't feel the loving kindness

coming out of your heart it will come

up and come into your head

you don't try to push it back down you

just let it come up

and use loving kindness

from your head

okay

with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

with the previous disappearance of joy

and grief

i entered upon and abided in the fourth

journal which has

neither pain nor pleasure and purity of

mindfulness due to equanimity

so when you get to the fourth jhana

you you don't feel your body anymore

you're just

radiating loving kindness and this is

when i will change your meditation

when you get to the fourth jhana that's

when you become

an advanced meditator

which is pretty reasonable

the buddha praises the fourth jhana up

and down

and he he

liked it very much when anybody got into

the fourth jonah

not as much as when they attained the

bottom but it's a pretty major step

so

what you think and ponder on that is the

inclination of your mind

the more you think and ponder on the six

r's the more your mind will incline

towards the six r's you want to get to a

state where

something starts to come up your mind

you see it

and your mind automatically six hours

and lets it be and relax and you come

back to your object

of meditation and it'll happen by itself

so the more you think and ponder on

the six hours

the better your progress will become

okay

so

suppose monk that in the wooded range

there was

a great low-lying marsh near a large

herd of

deer where they lived

then a man desiring their ruin harm and

bondage

and he closed off the safe wood and good

path

to be traveled joyfully and he opened up

a false path and he put out a decoy

and he set up a dummy so that a large

herd of deer might later come

upon calamity disaster and loss

but another man came desiring their good

welfare and protection and he reopened

the safe path and good path

that led to their happiness he

closed off the false path and he removed

the decoy

and destroyed the dummy

so that so that large

herd of deer might later come to growth

increase and fulfillment

monks i have given the simile in order

to convey a meaning

this is the meaning the great

low-lying marsh is a term for sensual

desire

or sensual pleasures a large herd of

deer

is a term for beings

a man desiring their ruin harm and

bondage

is a term for mara the evil one

basically like a devil

the false path is a term for

the wrong eightfold path

the decoy is a term for

delight and lust the dummy is a term for

ignorance the man desiring their good

welfare and protection

is a term for the total accomplished and

fully awakened

the safe and good path to be traveled

joyfully is a term for the noble

eightfold path

so amongst the safe and good path to be

traveled joyfully

has been reopened by me the wrong

path has been closed off the decoy

removed the dummy

destroyed

what should be done for his disciples

out of compassion by a teacher

who seeks their welfare and has

compassion

for them that i have done for you

monks there are these roots of

trees these empty huts meditate

monks do not delay or you will regret it

later

that is our instruction to you

that's what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so there are these air-conditioned

buildings

meditate monks do not delay

by observation and then i talked to a

doctor about it

and some people think they're real smart

and they say meninges is just a

just like a sack it doesn't have any

muscles in it it doesn't contract

it does because of the blood pressure

and that sort of thing

right but there doesn't have to be for

there to be tightness i mean

why do you get a headache

okay you have any questions

okay speak up so i can hear you

renunciation

not getting caught in sensual desire

renouncing it just letting it be there

without

without getting excited by it

okay now that can be

for sights or sounds or tastes or smells

or

touch or thoughts

it's renouncing the

craving letting go of that

that's what true renunciation really

stands for

it's the time to laugh and relax a

little bit

stop trying so hard

just back off a little bit take take a

small breath

and then start again without

pushing

okay

okay let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

divas and nagas of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensations

you

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawatee and

jetta's grove anathen pandika's park

there he addressed the monks thus monks

venerable sir they replied the blessed

one

said this monks before my awakening

while i was still only an unawakened

bodhisattva it occurred to me

suppose that i divide my thoughts into

two

classes then i

set on one side thoughts of sensual

desire

thoughts of ill will and thoughts of

cruelty

i set on the other side thoughts of

renunciation

thoughts of non-ill will and thoughts of

non-cruelty

what is non-cruelty

answer answer

compassion what's non-ill will

loving-kindness

as i abided thus diligent ardent and

resolute

the thought of sensual desire arose in

me i understood thus

this thought of sensual desire has

arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction to

others affliction and to the affliction

of both

it obstructs wisdom causes difficulty

and leads away from nibana

when i considered

then

when i considered this leads to my own

affliction

it subsided in me when i considered this

leads to the affliction of others

it subsided in me when i considered this

leads to the affliction of both that

subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nirvana it subsided in me

now this gives you the idea that he was

thinking

this

it doesn't have anything to do with

thought

it has to do with your mindfulness

when you see unwholesome states arise

you have a choice that's where your

decision your free will

is you can either

act like you always act when that kind

of thing comes up

or you can start using the six r's

and not re-act

that means act the way you always act

when that kind of

thought or feeling arises

okay so what we're talking about

is using the six r's

to keep your mind in balance

now the thing that is real important for

you to remember

is that the more you smile with your

daily activities

the easier it is

to be mindful

i the easier it is to recognize when the

thought

first starts coming up i don't like this

and you can let it go right then and

relax

whenever a thought of sensual desire

arose in me i abandoned it

removed it did away with it

six-hearted

as i abided thus diligent hearted and

resolute

the thought of ill will arose in me or a

thought of cruelty arose in me

i understood this thought of ill will or

this cruelty has arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction causes

you problems

to others affliction and to the

affliction of both

it obstructs wisdom how does its

obstruct wisdom

what is wisdom

the links of dependent origination how

does it stop that

remember what i said yesterday okay

because of the craving you're taking it

personally

you think those are your thoughts and

your feelings

and you can yell and scream all you want

but until you start to

let go of the identification

with those thoughts and feelings you're

just going to cause yourself

problems and other people around you

problems

so the key is six ours because you need

to be able to relax that tightness and

stop

identifying with those thoughts and

feelings

stop taking them personally

the way it obstructs wisdom is you get

so caught up in your

in your thoughts and feelings you're not

observant of anything

you don't know anything except the

dissatisfaction in your mind at that

time

you have no balance you have no

mindfulness

all you have is re-action

and of course that leads away from

nibana

when i considered thus it subsided in me

whenever thoughts of ill will or cruelty

arose in me i abandoned them

removed them let them be and relax

and did away with them

whatever a monk thinks and

thinks frequently and ponders upon

that will become the inclination

of his mind

whatever you think and this is where

your opinions

and concepts and ideas really

cause a lot of problems because if

things don't happen the way you think

they should happen

then you get lost

you don't even know you have a body all

you have

is this reaction to i don't like this

i want it to be different than it is

and the more you give in to that the

more you

think and ponder on that

the more intense and more off balance

you become

so you have to be careful what you think

about

and six are when you're doing your daily

activities when you're doing your

practice

there's no difference between sitting

practice and daily activity

practice it's the same

so you have to consider that if you

frequently

think and ponder on something then your

mind's going to

tend towards that now if you think

and ponder on something that's

unwholesome

your mind is going to go towards the

unwholesome

and it's going to keep thinking on

pondering on that more and more

but if you see that

and six are it and bring up a wholesome

smile laugh

then the more often you do that the more

your mind tends towards that

so it's real important to understand

that your habitual tendency

can be changed your habitual tendency

for anger

to arise because i don't like this and

it's no good

it can be changed too it doesn't really

matter that much

or as the thai say my penrai

never mind it's not that important

if he frequently thinks and ponders upon

thoughts of sensual desire he has

abandoned the thought of renunciation to

cultivate the thought of sensual desire

and then his mind inclines to thoughts

of sensual desire

if he frequently thinks and ponders on

thoughts of ill will

or cruelty he has

abandoned the the thought of non-ill

will

and non-cruelty to cultivate thoughts of

ill will and cruelty

then his mind inclines to the to those

kinds of thoughts

what you think can ponder on that's the

inclination

of your mind

it's real important to realize this

because we have a lot of repeat thoughts

every repeat thought you have

has craving in it

i am that

and the more you give in to those repeat

thoughts the more

you have a tendency to

fall back into your old habits

your old ways of acting

now the thing with buddhism is if you

really want to

learn about buddhism you have to make up

your mind that you're going to change

and the change is going to be a positive

one

but you have to want to change

i had a man i've been teaching him for

many many many years and he comes and he

does a retreat

and he calms down a little bit

at the end of the retreat he actually

comes up to me and says

now i can be the way i was went before

and i keep asking him why are you doing

retreats

you don't want to change so you're

wasting your time

you have to want to change to let go of

the unwholesome

thoughts and feelings and develop new

wholesome thoughts and feelings

but that's up to him

just as in the last month of the rainy

season in the autumn

when the crops thicken a cow herd would

guard his cows by constantly tapping and

poking them on

this side or that side with a stick

to check and curb them why is that

because he sees that he could be flogged

imprisoned

fined or blamed if he

let those stray cows into the crops

so too i saw unwholesome states

dangerous i saw in

unwholesome states danger digrit

degradation and defilement

and in wholesome states blessings of

renunciation

the aspect of cleansing

as i abided thus diligent ardent

resolute

a thought of renunciation arose in me i

understood thus the thought of

renunciation has arisen in me

this does not lead to my own affliction

or the affliction of others

or to the affliction of both

it aids wisdom does not cause difficulty

and leads to nirvana

if i think and ponder upon those

thoughts

even for a night even for a day even for

a day and a night

i saw nothing to fear from it

but the excessive thinking and pondering

might tire my body

when the body is tired mind becomes

strained

and when mind is trained it is far

from being collected

so again this isn't about verbalizing

and trying to develop is wholesome

thoughts by repeating them over and over

and over again

this is about learning how

mind attention actually does move from

one thing to another

and using the six r's

opening allowing

so

and staying on your object to meditation

when you do that often enough you start

to get a sense of balance

where things used to bother you

they won't because you have the

equinimity and balance of mind

and then you can let that be without

re-acting

anymore you start responding

with

using the six r's

with keeping your mind in balance

not giving in to the want to have

anger come up because something doesn't

happen the way i

want it to

it's not that important 95

of the time it's not important at all

except

when we take those thoughts and feelings

personally and

make them ours

that's when we run into problems

so i studied my mind internally quieted

relaxed brought it to stillness

and collected it why is that

so my mind should not be strained

a big thing that happens is the feeling

arises

and it's an unpleasant feeling and you

don't like it

and that causes that tension and

immediately after that

all of your thoughts opinions ideas the

way you think

things should be but they're not

your concept and your story and then the

emotional

state starts to arise the habitual

tendency every time

this kind of thing comes up i have these

kind of

opinions and thoughts about it now the

emotion

explodes at you

are you mindful at that time

not even close do you even know you have

a body

because you're so caught up in your head

no

do you cause yourself harm or harm to

others

by having this kind of emotional

re-action absolutely

you cause your self-harm you cause your

body harm

you hurt other people's feelings around

you

that's not worth it never mind it's

not that important

as i abided thus diligent hearted and

resolute

the thought of non-ill will arose in me

or a thought of non-cruelty arose in me

i understood thus this thought

of non-ill will or non-cruelty

has risen in me this

does not lead to my own affliction

it does not lead to others affliction

or to the affliction of anyone

it aids wisdom does not cause difficulty

and leads to nibana

now there's two kinds of nibana

one is called the mundane nibana

and the other is called the super

mundane nibana

every time you six are and let go of

that

tightness your mind becomes clear

your mind becomes bright you don't have

thoughts interrupt interrupting

your mind is pure that

is mundane nibana that is the third

noble truth the cessation of suffering

you're going to have many many many

thousands of millions

experience of nibana

every time you use the six r's

you are experiencing the cessation of

suffering

that is nibana

the super monday nibana comes when

you've done it

enough with the mundane nibbana

if i think and ponder upon this thought

even for a night even for a day

even for a day and night i see nothing

to fear from it

but with excessive thinking and

pondering

i tire my body

and when the body is tired the mind

becomes strained

and you have a tendency to try too hard

you have a tendency to

to hold on to your object of meditation

too tightly

remember that everything in the buddha's

practice

is about doing this

letting go of the tension and tightness

that's what the meditation is about not

trying to push the meditation to be the

way you want it not trying to

do it too hard

what you want to do is if you're

starting to get

restless you have to take a look at that

restlessness

and then back off don't try so hard

you're putting in too much energy too

much effort

one of the things that is very helpful

in this practice

is something that you never hear other

meditation teachers talk about

and that is having a sense of humor

about yourself

laugh with yourself for trying too hard

there i go again

see it's real important why

because when you laugh you go

from i'm trying and i want this result

to oh it's only trying

let it go so it changes your perspective

from the personal

to the impersonal when you laugh with

yourself

laugh at how crazy your mind is it comes

up with all kinds of bizarre things and

that's fine

the more you laugh with it

the lighter your mind becomes the better

your mindfulness becomes

the easier it is to change

your old bad habits and develop new

good habits

so it's a real important aspect of the

meditation

to keep it light i've had a lot of

meditation teachers

and they were all in to try harder

not trying hard enough you got to do it

more

i had one teacher that told me i was

lazy because i was only taking four

hours sleep at night

so i cut it down to two did that help my

meditation at all

not in the least

and i did that for three months

so you know there's a lot of

a lot of the teachers will tell you well

this

kind of practice is real good try it for

a while and see what you think you try

between three and six months to see

if it's helpful to you or not you don't

just do it one or two times and say nope

that's no good

because you don't know

i had one teacher that he suggested that

i

just used three postures never lay down

and i did that for six months

did it help my meditation not in the

least

it's a kind of discipline and it's nice

to have that kind of discipline and know

you can do it if you have to

but it's not

as useful for me personally

but it took me six months to find out

so i could see all the different things

that i was going through and see whether

it's really worth letting go of that or

not

so when you take a suggestion

try it not just on the surface

go for it for a period of time and i

put in a lot of effort

one meditation teacher told me that in a

day

if you were only taking four hours sleep

there was just over 50 000

seconds and that's how many times i

should note

something once a second no no no

no

wrong effort

you need to back off do it in a relaxed

but aware

way

if you try if you have the idea

let's say you have a good sitting

and it was real nice and pleasant but it

was time to get up and you do your

walking meditation

and then you come back and sit and you

think

well i'll do that again

now that one thought that one desire

to make your meditation good is the very

thing that stops it

and you start to get a little restless

and you think well maybe i'll put in

more energy

i'll try harder and then you become

frustrated because the

restlessness gets stronger what are you

thinking and pondering on

you're thinking and pondering on i want

this to be the way i want it to be

when i want it i i i

i

so what do you do you become frustrated

so you try harder and that's exactly the

opposite of what you need to do

you need to back off don't try so hard

let things come to you as they will your

job is just to observe

use the six r's go back to your object

to meditation

don't try hard

you can't compare

what this sitting is going to be like

because you don't know what's going to

happen next rough can fall down who

knows

better not but

so give up the idea that i want it to be

like it was

because it's never going to be that way

and

you're just causing yourself more

suffering

so back off back off don't try

so hard now there are times when you

have to put in some

energy and some effort when you get

sloth and torpor

but the energy and effort you need to

use

is the energy it takes to be able to

observe

how sloth and torpor arises

what happens first what happens after

that what happens after that

and i've had hundreds of students that

tell me

well i get too

relaxed if i relax at that

my mind i'm already sleepy

i'll just go to sleep no you're not

doing it right

you're letting go of the tightness you

can be more aware

of how the process works

sloth interpreter is real easy

to see how it arises

you're not on your ob you're not taking

a strong enough

interest in your object of meditation

and you kind of let your thoughts kind

of ho hum a little bit

and then it gets a little bit stronger

and then you start

getting into a dreamy state and then

your

back starts slumping and before long

you're bobbing

well how does that process work how did

it arise in the first place

what do you have to do so the sloth

intorper won't arise

take more interest in sending loving and

kind thoughts to your spiritual friend

that picks up your energy right there

investigate

tweak your energy now people that have

sloth and torpor and they're bobbing

like this

and they see that all of a sudden they

sit up real straight and they try

real hard and before long they're back

to bobbing

why because they're not putting in a

balanced

kind of energy and they're not observing

how the process works

it's a real interesting phenomena

to be able to

work with sloth and torpor

the more interest you take in it

and how it arises the faster you can

six are so you don't have those

little tiny dreamy thoughts

musics are those but you have to do it

with the right amount of energy

if you put in too much energy

it's going to burn out real quick so you

have to adjust your energy levels so

that

you're not putting in too much at one

time

now you put in a little bit of energy

see what happens if you still

start drifting off you okay there wasn't

quite enough energy in that one let's

put in a little bit more

next time okay

monks whatever a monk frequently

thinks and ponders upon that will be the

inclination

of his mind if he frequently thinks and

ponders upon thoughts of renunciation

he has abandoned the thought of sensual

desire to cultivate the thought of

renunciation

and then his mind inclines to thoughts

of renunciation

if he frequently thinks and ponders upon

thoughts of non-ill will

or non-cruelty he has abandoned the

thought of

ill will and cruelty to cultivate the

thought of

non-ill will and non-cruelty

and then his mind inclines to thoughts

of loving kindness and compassion

just as in the last month of the hot

season when all the crops have been

brought inside to villages

a cow herd would guard his cows while

staying at the root of a tree or out in

the open

since he needs only to be mindful that

the cows are there

you need to be mindful that loving

kindness is there

you don't have to push it you don't have

to make it grow bigger you don't have to

force it to do anything

you just are mindful that it's there

and allow it to grow while you stay on

your object of meditation

okay

tireless energy arose in me and

unremitting mindfulness was

established my body was tranquil and

untroubled my mind collected and unified

quite secluded from sensual pleasures

how do you become secluded from sensual

pleasures

you have to speak up i can't hear you

when you close your eyes the sensual

pleasure of seeing

is not there when there is a sound

you notice it you don't pay attention to

it you'll let it be there by itself

it's just like i was talking about last

night sometimes you can have thoughts

but you're still on your object of

meditation

ignore it don't pay attention to it

right and you do that at all the scent

stores

secluded from unwholesome states how are

you secluded from unwholesome

states

by using the six r's

not having any craving means there's

nothing unwholesome in your mind

right

4 23.

okay

um secluded from

unwholesome states i entered upon and

abided in the first

jhana which is accompanied by thinking

and examining thought with joy and

happiness born of seclusion

there's a lot of talk about jhana but

there's very little

true understanding of what jhana is

because almost everybody that practices

jhana is practicing a form of one

pointed concentration

in other words their mind becomes

so one pointed on an object that it

won't move

but you don't learn anything when you're

like that

the kind of genre that he is talking

about

is the development of your

understanding about how mind

actually does work

and when you see that a feeling arises

and this tightness happens and the

thoughts coming up in your habitual

tendency

and then all of the rest

you're seeing it over and over again as

you become familiar with it you start to

stay

on your object to meditation longer

and distraction becomes less

intense

now when you use the six r's on that

u6r and it gets the distraction becomes

weaker

because you're not feeding it anymore

you're not keeping your attention

on it and finally

the hindrance just fades away

when that happens you feel a very strong

sense of relief

you have a lot of joy

and this kind of joy is called uplifting

joy where your mind feels very light

and so does your body

when that fades away you will feel

a very strong sense of tranquility

and you'll feel very comfortable in your

body

and this is called happiness

your mind is unified your mind is

very composed and at ease that's what

the first

jhana is all about you can still have

some distracting things come up

but you'll see them more quickly and

you'll be able to six hard

come back without any problem

with the stilling of thinking and

examining thought i

entered upon and abide in a second

journal which has self-confidence

stillness of mind without thinking and

examining thought

with joy and happiness born of

collectedness

when you get into the second drama if

you try to make a verbal

wish for your spiritual friend's

happiness

you start to get tightness in your head

so you let go of that verbal wish

now you just bring up that feeling of

your wish

and put that feeling in your heart and

radiate that feeling to your spiritual

friend

this particular suta is called

the beginning of noble silence

because you haven't got the thinking and

examining thought distracting you

and you start to have confidence that

yeah this is right

you know that you're on the right path

because you're seeing how it works and

it works

fairly quickly works fairly easily

which is something that

i've been told and excuse me

come on

there i've been told in thailand that it

takes 10

to 15 years to be able to get into

adriana

15 years

i've been told in sri lanka there are a

lot more

spiritually advanced it only takes 10

years

that's when you're practicing absorption

concentration

you're not practicing one pointed

you are practicing one pointed

concentration

not what we teach here

a lot of the myth about

the

length of time that it takes to get in

the drama

is because it is very difficult when

you're practicing one point in

concentration

it's not difficult when you practice

this

two days three days you're in a job

and i've actually had some monks call me

a liar that that's

that's impossible to get into a drama

that fast

okay it's up to them they can believe

what they want but i've got a few

thousand students and i see how fast it

happens

so

with the fading away of joy

i i abided in equinimity mindful and

fully aware

still feeling happiness with the body

i entered upon an abide in the third

journal a count of which

noble ones announce he has a pleasant

abiding who has

equanimity and is mindful

when you get into the third jhana you no

longer have

joy arise it's too course a feeling for

your

for your mind

you have a very strong sense of balance

in your mind

you hear a sound it doesn't make your

mind

jump you just hear it it just kind of

goes through you no big deal

if you come up if i come up and i touch

you

you would feel that

and you feel very comfortable in your

body

and very comfortable in your mind

now one of the difference between one

pointed concentration or absorption

concentration

and this kind of collectedness

is when you get to the third journal you

don't feel your body at all your mind

becomes

so one pointed and so intense

on that one object that

you don't have a body anymore you don't

feel it

i've been around monks that have been

practicing this and you can beat on them

with the stick you can yell at them

you can move their limbs around so that

they look funny

and they won't know that you did that

when they came out

but this is called an aware genre

that extra step of relaxing

is the very key of the meditation that

the buddha taught

because that relaxed step it doesn't

allow you to become

absorbed in one object

and when you use that relaxed step more

instead of

going this way you start going

this way so you become more aware of

things around you

so that's a pretty major difference

between the two kinds of

practice and when you practice according

to

the vasudi maga they talk very much

about having a nimita a nimita

that's a pali word that means sign

and then the way it's described is

that there is a white

kind of silvery white disk that happens

in your mind and you

start focusing on that at first you're

doing your breath

or whatever your meditation is then you

take the nimita

as your object of meditation

now does that mean that there is full

awareness

and mindfulness

it it's not there you don't feel your

body

you're not aware of sounds and other

things happening around you so that's

not full awareness

but when you're practicing this kind of

meditation

there is full awareness you'll hear a

car

drive by you'll hear a motorcycle

whatever it doesn't make your mind shake

but you know it was there

now as you start going deeper in your

meditation

you will start to not be able to feel

different parts of your body like your

leg is just you don't feel it or your

hands or

shoulder whatever as you let go of

tension

and tightness in your mind you let go of

tension

and tightness in your body

so now you don't feel the gross body

anymore

unless you put your attention on it

and you don't need to you will feel

subtle things

you feel wind

or ants walking on little things like

that but it takes contact to be

to have feeling otherwise you don't feel

it

and this is where you start purifying

your blood

that's quite nice

now eventually what happens is the

feeling of loving kindness

because you don't feel your body anymore

you won't feel the loving kindness

coming out of your heart it will come

up and come into your head

you don't try to push it back down you

just let it come up

and use loving kindness

from your head

okay

with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

with the previous disappearance of joy

and grief

i entered upon and abided in the fourth

journal which has

neither pain nor pleasure and purity of

mindfulness due to equanimity

so when you get to the fourth jhana

you you don't feel your body anymore

you're just

radiating loving kindness and this is

when i will change your meditation

when you get to the fourth jhana that's

when you become

an advanced meditator

which is pretty reasonable

the buddha praises the fourth jhana up

and down

and he he

liked it very much when anybody got into

the fourth jonah

not as much as when they attained the

bottom but it's a pretty major step

so

what you think and ponder on that is the

inclination of your mind

the more you think and ponder on the six

r's the more your mind will incline

towards the six r's you want to get to a

state where

something starts to come up your mind

you see it

and your mind automatically six hours

and lets it be and relax and you come

back to your object

of meditation and it'll happen by itself

so the more you think and ponder on

the six hours

the better your progress will become

okay

so

suppose monk that in the wooded range

there was

a great low-lying marsh near a large

herd of

deer where they lived

then a man desiring their ruin harm and

bondage

and he closed off the safe wood and good

path

to be traveled joyfully and he opened up

a false path and he put out a decoy

and he set up a dummy so that a large

herd of deer might later come

upon calamity disaster and loss

but another man came desiring their good

welfare and protection and he reopened

the safe path and good path

that led to their happiness he

closed off the false path and he removed

the decoy

and destroyed the dummy

so that so that large

herd of deer might later come to growth

increase and fulfillment

monks i have given the simile in order

to convey a meaning

this is the meaning the great

low-lying marsh is a term for sensual

desire

or sensual pleasures a large herd of

deer

is a term for beings

a man desiring their ruin harm and

bondage

is a term for mara the evil one

basically like a devil

the false path is a term for

the wrong eightfold path

the decoy is a term for

delight and lust the dummy is a term for

ignorance the man desiring their good

welfare and protection

is a term for the total accomplished and

fully awakened

the safe and good path to be traveled

joyfully is a term for the noble

eightfold path

so amongst the safe and good path to be

traveled joyfully

has been reopened by me the wrong

path has been closed off the decoy

removed the dummy

destroyed

what should be done for his disciples

out of compassion by a teacher

who seeks their welfare and has

compassion

for them that i have done for you

monks there are these roots of

trees these empty huts meditate

monks do not delay or you will regret it

later

that is our instruction to you

that's what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so there are these air-conditioned

buildings

meditate monks do not delay

by observation and then i talked to a

doctor about it

and some people think they're real smart

and they say meninges is just a

just like a sack it doesn't have any

muscles in it it doesn't contract

it does because of the blood pressure

and that sort of thing

right but there doesn't have to be for

there to be tightness i mean

why do you get a headache

okay you have any questions

okay speak up so i can hear you

renunciation

not getting caught in sensual desire

renouncing it just letting it be there

without

without getting excited by it

okay now that can be

for sights or sounds or tastes or smells

or

touch or thoughts

it's renouncing the

craving letting go of that

that's what true renunciation really

stands for

it's the time to laugh and relax a

little bit

stop trying so hard

just back off a little bit take take a

small breath

and then start again without

pushing

okay

okay let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

divas and nagas of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensations

you