Presentation at the Huna Conference in 2006 'on Joy'-PX3Gqbr3kPk.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PX3Gqbr3kPk

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

hello because I'm a Buddhist monk I'm

going to give you a perspective but it's

not really going to be much different

from what you already know one of the

things that the Buddha did was he taught

very much in depth how mine works and

the talk that we heard this morning was

great very good talk and I would only

add one thing to that and that is when

the Hawaiian family was all together and

they finally worked out the problem the

healing factor that happened for the

child was the joy of the release of that

attachment and what I want to talk to

you today is about today is how to

develop joy all the time I've been in

the healing arts for probably 40 years

and 20 years ago I had to make a

decision on which path I wanted to

follow for the healing whether I wanted

to be a hands-on

either or i wanted to do the next level

of healing and i decided that i wanted

to do the spiritual healing so I became

a Buddhist monk and I studied very hard

enough practice a lot of meditation I

hear people that are teaching meditation

now and I said oh I did 13 months

retreat and that was really something at

now I empty and I've done 12 or 15 of

those and I did an eight-month retreat

in Burma very intensive getting up at

three o'clock in the morning meditating

till eleven o'clock at night the last

three months i was there i was going to

bed at midnight getting out of two so

I've done a lot of very intensive

meditation what I found out later after

I got out of her I also did a two-year

retreat which was about as effective

intensive means I didn't talk to anybody

with the teacher and all I did was

sitting meditation walking in a date and

I did that for hours and hours on him I

went through what they said was the

final result and I was not satisfied

with that so I left Burma and I came

back and I did an eight-month fairly

intensive

this was only about 12 hours a day sorry

experiencing the head of danger but i

did it with loving-kindness meditation

not with the Vipassana or the one point

a kind of concentration that is

generally being taught in the world

today when I got done with that I was

invited to start up a monastery in a

suburb of Kuala Lumpur and they asked me

to start teaching loving-kindness

meditation almost everybody in Malaysia

that was practicing meditation they were

practicing a form of meditation called

de pasada when you practice the pasta

mine has a tendency to get a little bit

critical a little bit hard a little bit

judgmental I'm right I don't care what

your experiences I know what the

experience is things like that and when

they would get done with a pasta not

retreat they would say things and do

things that were very hard to other

people they're hurting other people's

feelings and they come running to me and

they say I have to do a retreat with you

with your next spring tree and I was

giving one way free treats with loving

kindness now when you practice why the

kindness meditation it is a smiling than

paper and this is incredibly important

there was a study done in the University

of Minnesota I think

it's been so long ago on the corners of

your mouth when the corners of your

mouth go down your mental state goes

down when the corners of your mouth go

up your mental state goes up so I said

okay that's a key to having joy arise

you've got to smile and these people

would come and they say okay I'll do the

meditation with you and they would come

after the first day and they say this is

a pony smile and i would say i don't

care whether it's funny or not keep

smiling the more you smile more if it

love lifted your mind becomes as you

start to have more and more uplifted

mine you're naturally starting to

develop joy when you have joy in your

mind your mind is very alert if your

mind is very bright and it's real easy

to see when there's not an enjoying your

mind it's real easy to see when you have

one of the emotional things that arise

whenever something unpleasant happens

sadness depression anxiety stress

whatever the capture the day happens to

be it's real easy to see that you're

caught by that when you notice you don't

have joy so what did they tell people to

do I told them the head is mine and the

more you smile the easier gets the more

uplifted your mind meanness and the more

actual healing there is that

place joy is the real healer and it has

so happens in Buddhism there are these

things called seven factors of

enlightenment and the first factor is

mindfulness the next one is

investigation of your experience the

next one is energy the next one is joy

that's right in the middle of the

Enlightenment factor after that there's

tranquility there's collectiveness and

then there's equanimity but for our

purposes here we want to focus on enjoy

why it is joy right in the middle of

that mess because that is the balancing

factor between putting too much energy

into trying to control things and not

enough energy in the trying to control

thing the morning see joy arise in your

daily activities the more manager duke'

you can manifest why you got to worry

about something you have joy in your

mind no room I I was we have a chat

group for meditating basically and there

was a man from Australia that wrote and

he said even practicing

for six years very intensively and he

thought he was missing something so he

asked me to help him and I told him okay

what kind of practice where you're doing

and he was doing a breathing meditation

now when i teach breathing meditation

it's a little bit different because i

follow what the buddha was talking about

directly in the suit when you do your

breathing meditation you know when you

have a long breath you know when you

have a shortbread you know when your

breath of course you know when your

breath is fine you know when your breath

is past you know when your red is slow

then the instructions happen and the

instructions say experience your entire

body on the in-breath experience your

entire body on the out breath then the

instructions say is this is the

important part it says tranquilize your

bodily formation on the in-breath and

tranquilize your bodily formation on the

out breath what does that mean when you

breathe there is tension and tightness

relaxed on the in breath relax on the

outbreak relent now when I teach your

loving-kindness guard mindfulness of

breathing I also tell them that this is

a smiling meditate

do and he didn't much like that idea

because you like the idea of being

serious I'm going to do this practice

i'm going to try real hard now let

tension that arises so he had resistance

to smiling now he was doing the same

kind of practice basically except for

this one extra step of relaxed and he

was not making any progress at all it

was still caught in the old ways of

practice so I said okay I don't want you

to do that practice anymore I want you

to switch over and do loving-kindness

meditation loving-kindness meditation is

sending loving and kind thoughts

purposefully to your spiritual friend

the spiritual friend is somebody of the

same sex if you send loving and kind

thoughts to a person of the opposite sex

your mind will tend to become infatuated

and you don't want that to happen now it

doesn't happen when you're doing it on a

surface level but when you're doing it

deeply this kind of thing

can happen so you pick someone of the

same sex and you make a wish for their

happiness the wig can make any kind of

positive which you want to make doesn't

matter the trick is you have to feel

that which you make a wish for somebody

so that they're peaceful and calm you

know what it feels like to be peaceful

in home of course bring that feeling

into your heart put your friend right in

the middle of that feeling and give them

a great big heart help with the feeling

of peace and calm radiate that feeling

now the thing when you start doing this

you're going to notice when you start

doing it in an intensive way you're

going to start noticing that your mind

is going to think about other things

it's ok that your mind thinks about

other things thoughts are not your enemy

they're not something to fight with

they're not something to control let the

thoughts go relax and the reason that

you relax right here is every thought

and every feeling that arises there is

tension that arises along

that one of the places that the tension

arises is in your head everybody here

are guaranteed has tension in their head

right now it's a tightness around your

brain relax let go of that and what

you'll feel is a little bit of expansion

out and calmness now what you do when

you have a distraction your mind is

thinking about this or that for the

period of the city let go of the thought

relax bring that mind back to your

meditation the feeling of warmth in your

chest the wish that you make and putting

your friend right in the middle of that

wish when you see you a friend in your

heart see them smiling and happy now

when you smile there's four different

places that I want you to smile you have

to smile in your mind you have to smile

with your eyes even though your eyes are

closed when you're serving your

meditation you need to put a little

smile on your lips now you notice a lot

of Buddha images they have this little

and a fixie kind of smile where he's

just a little bit of a smile on his face

the artist is saying he is experiencing

joy at that time put that little smile

on their face and a smile on your heart

it doesn't matter how many times your

mind wanders away every time you see

your mind is thinking about something

else let go of that relax coming back do

the meditation is more if you have a

sitting for a half an hour and during

that half an hour your mind wanders away

a hundred times and a hundred times do

you notice it and you let that go and

you relax and you come back that is a

good meditation it's an active

meditation it's a meditation where you

have to kind of roll up your sleeves and

work a little bit but that is a good

meditation it's kind of funny because I

think a lot of retreats and people will

come in and they'll say I say how's your

meditation going today and they say aw

has terrible my mind is jumping all over

the place i'm thinking about this and

thinking about that i just can't stand

it and i do have some questions that

there are you able to see it well yeah I

could see it very quickly and then it

can let it go on relax and come back do

you do that all the time yeah good

meditation in it what most people

consider good meditation and what I

consider good meditation are not always

the same your mind will calm down by

itself but it does take some effort and

letting go of these distracting

and relaxing now that's the sitting

meditation that's only say for a half an

hour a day 45 minutes when you're

sitting is good sit longer it's up to

you then there's the meditation that's

all the time and I mean all the time

when you're walking from here to your

car what are you thinking about home

some of this some of that nothing in

particular well that's the time you

should be smiling that's the time you

should look around and look at how

wonderful everything it is don't worry

about the way it might be in a moment

look at how it is right now we were

visited a restaurant and I went outside

I'm waiting for them to come out and

everybody that walked out of out of the

door they said oh it's really hot and

I'm sitting there enjoying the heat

thinking that's not a bad thing but

everybody had this tight money because

they were in a cold place they went to a

place where there was a change and their

mind went tight and they didn't really

notice it and that tiny mind is the

thing that dictated what kind of

thoughts they were going to have now

when the Buddha that's talking about

mine I mean he was really really

and really really precise he said your

mind works in the same way everybody is

mind that it doesn't matter with your

agent or western doesn't matter where

you come from your mind works the same

in order to see and this is going to be

going kind of thing and although explain

it in a different way a little well in

order to see there have to be certain

conditions that have to be met you have

to have an eye in good working order

there has to be color and formed and

when the eye it's the color and form

that is called our I consciousness

arises as soon as I consciousness arises

that is called contact with contact as

condition feeling arises now every time

somebody hears feeling they think of

emotion and this is not that kind of

feeling feeling according to the Buddha

is pleasant or painful or neither

painful more pleasant so you have your I

hitting them that's the contact with the

right as soon as contact arises feeling

arises as soon as feeling arises right

then that is when that tightness happens

and that tightness is called craving

cream always manifest as tension or

tightness in your mind and in your body

it always manifests that way and right

after the craving there is plenty and

clinging are all of your thoughts all of

your opinions all of your concepts all

of your ideas and this is where you

start taking everything personally these

are my thoughts these are my feelings

now when you're walking down the street

and your mind starts thinking about

something there was a feeling there was

the craving there was the clingy and

this is why we have the roller coaster

ride of I like it I don't like it I like

it I don't like it and all of the

emotions that go along with that as you

become more aware of how mine works

instead of having the highs and the lows

it starts to be more like little waves

there's times that are easier than

others welcome to the real world but the

thing you want to remember is if you

want to have balance in your life you

need to practice joy smiling

and one of the things that the Buddha

taught was the first part of meditation

that the Buddha taught was you have to

practice her generosity a lot of people

think both amongst talking about

generosity you want you to give him

something the kind of generosity the

Buddha was talking about was the kind of

generosity that makes other people smile

makes other people happy now there's

three ways you can give your generosity

you can give your generosity with your

speech you can give your generosity with

your actions you can get it with your

thoughts now he said also there's three

other things that you need to know when

you are giving your gift prepare your

gift with a happy mind while you're

giving your gift given your gift with a

happy mind after you get in the gift

reflect on that was a really good thing

with the happy month so the more you can

say things that make people smile the

more you can do things that make people

smile the more you reflect on doing that

the more of that your mind becomes to

have your you become the more joy you

have in your life it's all

interconnected it's really really

important to realize that any

your mind is being serious about

something that there is this craving and

taking this there that doesn't mean you

don't point your mind towards and in

goal you do but you don't do it with a

tiny mind you do with the relax mind as

you learn how to do this with a relaxed

mind you manifest things much more

quickly much easier and everything

starts to be fun somewhere along the

line somebody told us as we were growing

up the light was supposed to be serious

that's pump have fun smile laugh how

does your face radiate when you when you

look in the mirror it's a year's El

smiling isn't that nice do you want to

affect the world around you in a

positive way then be the example smile

you want to make a Mother's Day go up

and give that mothers of the dead child

some kind of compliment that mother will

start smiling like you can't believe and

really appreciate that's the generosity

in one of the things that the Buddha

said was what you think and ponder on

that is the

Glenn Asian of your mind the more you

practice giving kind thoughts helpful

speech kind actions the more your mind

will tend towards doing that and then

you start watching how fast everything

benefits the more joy you have the

easier life becomes now I was giving a

retreat up in the mountains and there

were some people that were really

practicing hard and they were practicing

so hard that they were starting to get

stale so I came in one morning and I

said okay I don't want you to meditate

today and there's a look of relief and I

said I want the guys to go out and play

and I want you to have fun the only

thing I want you to do is I want you to

notice if your mind gets serious about

something you have to let it go and

laugh and have more fun they thought I

was crazy but they wanted to do it yeah

let's go play I said I don't care what

you do just go do it so about six

o'clock I got ready and I came in and

they're sitting there waiting for me to

get the top and I said how did your

meditation go today they saw we didn't

meditate when playing we had great fun

mean their faces were brilliant they

were really alive I said well did you

let go of any serious mind when you saw

oh yeah oh it's such a great day it's

the best day I've had in a long time I

said good meditation wasn't it this is

immediately affected it really works

smart I don't care what it feel like one

of the things that I used to do was a

decision somebody bought me some mirrors

and we painted smile on the mirror

little hand mirror and said I want you

guys to carry around with you I don't

care what you're doing look at it see

what your face is do it if you see your

face isn't smiling and you got a smile I

don't care whether you feel like smiling

or not you got us mine when you're on

the telephone smile that goes right

through your voice into the other person

and helps them to be happy and the thing

is the more you practice being happy it

becomes contagious and you start

affecting the world around you in a very

positive way

I've been reading a lot about the

effects of television on your psyche and

on your body and television and really

nasty it changes your being aware from

one side of the brain and goes to the

other side where you become kind of an

automaton even if you're not listening

to the television you're still hearing

the commercials and they are affecting

you there was a man in California called

Swami beyond Ananda kingdom and he said

I believe everybody should practice with

their television turn off the set and

television

yeah and I really have to agree with

that television is physically addicting

it's as addictive as heroin they're

finding out this is nasty stuff turn off

the television and start really

communicating with other people around

you make up games where you can play and

laugh and have fun that's one of the

things that's happening in this country

right now is everybody is getting

serious and the more you can smile and

the more you can laugh the more uplifted

your mind becomes the faster your

progress is in your spiritual path and

in life it's real amazing that when you

keep your mind uplifted like I walk from

one place to another guy was in Miami of

all places and I'm walking for exercise

and I'm practicing sending loving and

hang close to everybody around me I'm

just having a great time man stocks he

says can I give you right said no thanks

I'm just watching for exercise you sure

yeah yeah no problem and it happened two

or three times and I've got back to the

temple and I started telling the people

that are running the temple i just went

out for a walk there's two or three

people that wanted to give me a ride but

i was walking and they stopped and they

said you mean here in Miami yeah I just

walked in and dawn well nobody ever does

that you want to manifest things more

quickly be happy practicing that's the

thing everybody know a hundred percent

of the people in this country will say

yes but I want to be happy and then when

you say well it's simple all you have to

do the smile hit me and laugh and have

fun

nothing's that simple well actually it

is this guy that I was telling you about

it when I was writing with the email he

started doing the loving-kindness

meditation and he's really having

problems how you have this warm feeling

in your chest how do you focus all of

this I night I got to a place I said

listen I don't want you to meditate

anymore for one week so my one week you

can do that but everything you do during

this week if you see that you're being

serious I want you to laugh and anytime

you see that you're not smiling I want

you to smile so he didn't write for a

week and I'm thinking I lost that one

and he writes back and he said I want to

tell you some of the things that

happened this week he said I used to

walk from one place to another always

with my head down and I was having these

thoughts of dis dis light him and

dissatisfaction and depression and all

of these things and now I walk with my

head up and it smiling he said even when

I didn't feel like smiling I smiled and

there was no benefit from that and

people are starting to come towards me

before they always stay away if you have

a sour face of course against

when you smile or the way they like you

you want to affect the world around you

smile and smile at everybody you see the

trick can't make it a false smile can't

make it a painted-on smile got a smile

you guys got a smile with the heart got

a smile with your mind does a practice

that's why I teach the meditation they

do this for about a half an hour a day

good to see how your mind works your get

to see how you get caught in all of

these roller coasters I like this I

don't like that and you start letting

them go that's putting more balance into

your life as you do that with your

sitting meditation and carry that with

you into your life and you start smiling

being happy with everybody around you

all of the troubles of the world would

start to get solved by themselves you

don't have to worry about what's what's

happening in Iraq that will take care of

itself you smile right here right now

you don't have to worry about anything

there's nothing to worry about what's

there to worry about

so we had and one of the things that I

came up with was this sheet that they

gave out all the six ours and this is a

way of doing the meditation this is the

reminder you recognize when your mind is

distracted and you are not happy you

have to recognize what your mind has

gone to something that's pulling you

down anything you worry you dissatisfied

you release that let go of it even if

you're in mid-sentence in in a dialogue

that you're having in your mind let go

of that now relax the tension and

tightness caused by that distraction

right then you'll feel really but we

didn't put that in there then you re

smile this is an important part of the

meditation is not something as hell yeah

yeah yeah Reese minor then you return

back to wishing somebody well and you

continue wishing somebody well until you

get distracted again that's what the 6r

is art it's just the method and you can

apply this at

x if you don't see that you're smiling

if you don't feel a smile you can't

criticize yourself you can't come down

on yourself this is a process of playing

again do it over again some Katie the

more outlet that your mind becomes the

easier everything else becomes the less

resistance you out to what's happening

in the present moment let it go this

ended and tightness is a major thing and

the more you can remember to do that the

easier life becomes and the more fun you

have now there's one more thing that you

really have to do and that is when you

see that you're being being serious

about some problem and you see your mind

really getting involved with it the

fastest way to let go of these negative

mental upsets is to laugh at how crazy

you mind is it's too simple when you

laugh you can go from I'm mad and I

don't like this to pump it's only this

anger so what it's nothing it changes

your perspective you see I have this fan

here and this is the Eightfold Path and

the first part of the full path is

called samedi key and salma BTW

means harmonious perspective every time

you laugh with your mind not at your

mind within your mind it changes your

perspective from big real / serious

caught by some heavy-duty problem that

is huge mountain that you don't know how

to overcome and as soon as you laugh you

see there's nothing more than this

little bump in the road and you start

laughing at how absurd your mind was for

getting caught by that again human race

and everybody is crazy everybody is

crazy especially when we get caught by

these kind of mental state smile laugh

we have at home

and I've interest inside story i was in

washington DC and there was this woman

that came to learn meditation from me

and i gave her one of these mirrors that

says smile and it so happens that she

was the makeup man for joe lieberman as

he was running for vice presidents so

she was telling him the things that I

was telling her and it got time for this

big debate between he and Rainie and

she's putting makeup on it to get him

ready for television and he's all

worried and he's all flustered and she

started talking to him and finally she

pulled the marriott put in front of its

face and said you have to smile and he

started to and then he calmed right down

supposedly because i don't watch

television i don't know these things

supposedly this was the best debate of

anybody during that presidential

election because they weren't focusing

on personality they were talking about

issues so you never know how you're

going to affect the world around you

when you have other people's mine and

the more you can practice it the more

fun you have more fun you have the war

uplifted your mind is more alert your

mind

and joy is the healer joy is the thing

that as soon as that joy comes up it

heals all kinds of situations and when

you practice and you go deep enough

India meditations enjoy will arise

whether you wanted to or not you will

smile whether you want to or not now

there are some kinds of joy that are

real interesting especially when you go

deeper into your meditation it doesn't

happen very often I probably have a

couple thousand students by now I don't

know and it's only happened when one

student so you let you know it doesn't

happen very often but when enjoy is

strong enough it will actually help him

to levitate which is really kind of

straight you're sitting there very

peaceful and this joy this is called a

certain kind of joy this is called

uplifting George and only get it through

the development of the meditation of

your mind but the joy becomes so

overwhelming that your body comes up off

the ground cup of tea stay there for a

little while and go ahead and then come

back up stay there for a little while go

back

now you can develop this that's what the

Transcendental Meditation people were

doing you can develop this so you can

bounce up a nearby a feed or whatever

and depending on your meditation and

your personality type you can learn

develop that even further so you can't

fly but it takes somebody that's very

very sensitive to feeling there's

there's three kinds of personality

basically there's the intellectual kind

of personality that's not very sensitive

to feeling and there is the emotional

kind of personality where they seem

everybody seems to fall apart are always

crying and always having these emotional

ups and downs that sort of thing that

happens because they're very very

sensitive to feeling those are the kind

of people that are is very easy for them

to develop psychic abilities psychic

abilities flying in the air reading

other people's mind walking through

walls things like that honestly I

haven't had too many students that I

like thankfully

all the rest of us are in between where

we're not super intelligent and don't

have any feeling or sensitivity to

feeling or are so sensitive to feeling

it's like we don't really have any brain

but we're in between so everybody can

develop psychic abilities it depends on

how sensitive they are to feeling

unfortunately for me i'm not that

sensitive i'm more than select tool type

oh my mother good only here you never

study here crazy i did this study till I

got out of college

then I could go and read whatever I

wanted to the thing that held me back in

college was not that was interesting too

okay is there am I getting close to the

time you still have another talk I mean

it's easy I started okay okay one of the

things that this would be said in the

Dhammapada was that hatred can never

overcome my hatred hatred and only me

overcome my love this is an eternal law

it doesn't matter whether the Buddhist

editor genes ascetic or whoever said

think this is just a law that works you

can never overcome hatred and hatred I

like to change that a little bit and say

you can never overcome a version with a

version what is a version any kind of

painful feeling there rises I don't want

that it's trying to push away a

situation push away a feeling the only

way you can overcome a version is

through loving and acceptance as soon as

you can accept the situation it's no

longer problem as soon as you put love

into that situation that problem turns

into a wonderful thing it really works

now one of the things that I tell people

to do

come and practice meditation with me is

I tell them that when they go to bed at

night right before they go to sleep make

a determination determination is a

smallest wrong which make a

determination that when you wake up in

the morning you're going to wake up with

a smile on your face and the smile in

your mind and when that happens it will

blow your mind you think you can do it

but keep it going don't stop do whatever

you do in your morning activity is

smiling an AB keep going get in the

practice of smiling and being happy with

as many different things as you can

during the day this affects the world

around you you want peace in the world

and start with number one gotta start

with yourself being at peace with

yourself means liking yourself and

wishing yourself well excepting that

you're going to make mistakes okay

she'll be any anybody here never make a

mistake in their whole life see you

gotta accept it because it's a truth the

mistakes are where we learn that's what

we learn from you learn what's the the

way it causes you pain then you're not

going to do that anymore so the more you

can focus on having that uplifted mind

smiling not taking things seriously

anytime you see that you have repeat

thoughts that says that there's an

attack

they're you're holding on tight and

there's taken you need to let that go

let go of the attachment smile laugh at

your mind for being so over concerned

about this or that now this doesn't say

that in the real world there aren't

going to be some things that are nasty

or unpleasant that are they will happen

somebody in your family dies it's not

going to be a pleasant time but as you

see that tension and tightness of the

dislike of that and let go of the

thoughts about your dislike of that

situation and focus on sending loving

and kind thoughts to the person that has

passed on then the grief will not stay

around as long now I used to work with

the hospice I helped set one up in

California and I was working at a

nursing home at the time too because I

wanted to be around people as they would

I isn't that oh I wanted to be around

people so that I could help them have a

mind that was accepting and it didn't

matter whether they were Christian or

Hindu or Islam or Buddhist I didn't care

what their religion was I was just there

to help them

uplifted knife I was there to talk with

them right before they died to find out

when they're happy times were in their

life and then as they were dying I would

remind them of that and it was real

amazing I saw some true miracles happen

the person died but when you see someone

dying with a smile on her lips it's

really something

the more we can practice smiling

remember the Buddha said what you think

and ponder on that's the inclination of

your mind the more you think and ponder

joyful thoughts happy thoughts thoughts

of well-weighted and laughing the more

your mind will tend towards doing that

and that's how the Buddhist meditation

and this teaching is immediately

effective in one week this man that did

the meditation went from being grumpy to

walking around wishing other people well

and helping to teach other people on the

Yahoo this this was my experience and it

was so wonderful ok so I think one thing

the last thing I want to do is every

time I give a talk at the end of the

talk i want to share merit football

games so please bear with me a suffering

ones be suffering free and the fair

struck fear the speed may the grieving

should all brief and may all beings I'd

relief they always share this merit that

we thus acquired for the acquisition of

all kinds of happiness may beings

inhabiting space and earth David's and

Dawkins of mighty power share this merit

of ours may they long protect the

Buddha's dispensation

thank you