From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=e8s-WSXQjNk

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

okay this evening we are at Casey

Anderson's home in Woodinville and this

is Bond TV Mona Ramsey and it's March

the 30th 2007 and tonight we're going to

talk about majima nakiya number 19 the

weight of the top Gus UFFDA

two kinds of thought okay that's what I

heard on one occasion the blessed one

was living in Swati in jeta's grove and

i think indeed is parked there he

addressed the monks that's monks

venerable survey replied the Blessed One

said this monks before my enlightenment

well I was still only an unenlightened

Bodhisattva it occurred to me suppose

that I divided my thoughts into two

classes then I said on one side thoughts

of sensual desire thoughts of ill-will

thoughts of cruelty and I set on the

other side thoughts of renunciation

thoughts of non ill-will and thoughts of

non cruelty non ill-will is

loving-kindness non cruelty is

compassion no I want to give you the

definition of compassion so that you can

understand it compassion is seeing

someone that has pain allowing them to

have their own pain and love them

love them no matter what a lot of people

have an idea that compassion is trying

to take someone else's pain away from

them

but I can't take your pain away you

can't take my pain away it doesn't work

when you allow the space for someone to

have their own experience and love them

that is being compassionate I used to go

and visit a lot of people in hospitals

and people would like to come along with

me some people would come in and there

would be somebody that was suffering a

lot they had cancer they were dying and

they would immediately become sad

because this person had cancer and they

were dying and they started feeling very

very bad and they were causing a lot of

pain for themselves but when I walk into

the room I walk in with a mind that is

open and accepting of whatever condition

that person has and I allow the space

for them to have that condition and then

I start radiating loving-kindness to

that person

and they say things that are light say

things that will help their mind become

uplifted so they have a lot of pain when

I walk in before long their mind starts

to get higher and they start to relax

and this is the relief that they can

experience when you practice true

compassion

the person that would walk in and they

say only poor dear I feel so bad for you

I wish there was something I could do to

help you and they make themselves sad

and other person doesn't benefit at all

you cannot take someone else's pain

their pain is their pain but as you

allow them to have their own experience

of the pain without trying to control it

or make it any different than it is

there is space for them to change and as

you radiate loving kindness to them

their mind starts to become more and

more uplifted more and more at ease more

and more relaxed and you keep smiling

inside and giving that smile away before

long they start laughing they start

laughing with you you say something

silly and they think oh this is great

yeah and when they laugh the pain in

their body becomes less and less now

this is a proven fact there is these

things called endorphins that are in

your body and it's an indoor the

endorphins are about ten times stronger

than morphine when you are sad when

there is a lot of pain and you're

resisting that pain the endorphins are

stopped from the the pineal gland from

coming out because of that tightness as

you start to relax and you start to

laugh a little bit that opens up and

then all of a sudden the endorphins come

into

and the painkiller is there naturally so

it's a very good thing to help other

people so that they can have a light

mind so the more you can practice your

compassion towards them and allow them

the space to be the way they are no

matter what their condition is and

loving them unconditionally that makes

the whole room feel alive have you ever

walked into a room where there's

somebody that's depressed and you feel

like turning around and walking out but

when you don't allow that feeling to be

your feeling you just say that feeling

can be there and that's fine but I can

be happy and I can still radiate loving

kindness that person that's depressed

all of the sudden they start their mind

starts become lighter so this really

does work this way and it works very

well as I have I did thus diligent

ardent resolute a thought of sensual

desire arose in me I understood this

this thought of sensual desire has

arisen and me this leads to my own

affliction to others affliction to the

affliction of both it obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from me

bona when I considered this leads to my

own affliction its subsided in me when I

considered this leads to others

affliction affliction means pain its

subsided in me when I consider this

leads to the the

of both its subsided in me when I

considered this obstructs wisdom causes

difficulty and leads away from navona it

subsided in me whenever a thought of

sensual desire arose in me I abandoned

let it be and eventually it disappeared

to by itself as i abided thus diligent

ardent and resolute a thought of

ill-will rose and me or a thought of

cruelty arose in me

I understood thus this thought of

ill-will or cruelty has arisen and me

this leads to my own pain to others pain

and to the pain of both it obstructs

wisdom causes difficulty and leads away

from Navona when I considered thus it's

subsided in me whenever a thought of

ill-will or cruelty arose in me I

abandoned now we come to a very

important statement monks whatever a

monk frequently thinks and Ponder's upon

that will become the inclination of his

mind what do you think about it often

that's what your mind starts to tend

towards it starts to think about that

naturally this is where our habitual

habit of thinking about this or that it

causes us to think about this or that

more so when you start to recognize the

your mind is starting to tend towards a

desire for something or dislike of

something whatever it happens to be as

you recognize that you let it be and you

relax the tightness in your head in your

mind caused by Minds movement to that

and you relax then after you smile you

come back to your meditation welcome

back to wishing somebody happiness and

stay with that what are we actually

doing we are practicing what the Buddha

called right effort I call it harmonious

practice it's recognizing when your mind

is caught up and unwholesome things

letting go of that unwholesome thing and

relaxing bringing up a wholesome thing

smiling and staying with that wholesome

thing that's right effort that's what I

just suggested for you

oh do when I get them in six art

I've developed a kind of the system and

this this system works with any kind of

distraction that comes up in your mind

and it works very well we call it the

six R's you recognize that your mind has

been distracted you release the

distraction and relax then you re smile

return to your object of meditation and

repeat stay with your object of

meditation that is six hours this is how

you meditate now a lot of people will

teach you how to meditate and one of the

things we can forget to tell you about

is the relaxed state the relaxing right

after you let go of the distraction you

relax right then what are you doing

every time craving arises it causes

tension and tightness to arise in your

mind and in your body that's how you can

recognize it kaitlin's so every time you

relax what are you doing you're letting

go of that crazy okay what's the second

noble truth the cause of suffering is

craving so you're letting go of the

second noble truth every time you relax

and right after that your mind will feel

kind of expanded and become very calm

and very peaceful you don't have any

thoughts you just have this pure kind of

awareness and you bring that back to

your object of meditation the loving

kindness of feeling of acting so you are

experiencing the third noble truth and

the way to do that is by practicing the

six art that is the fourth noble truth

so you see right now you're practicing

all the Four Noble Truths right here as

you recognize that your mind has some

kind of suffering in it and then you see

the cause of that is the tightness that

that suffering be and you relax now you

smile why do you smile because that

helps your mind to be uplifted do you

smile in a lot of different places you

smile in your mind you smile in your

heart and your eyes you smile with your

lips little one and you smile in your

heart so it's not just smile without

feeling this is smiling with feeling and

then you bring that smile back to your

meditation this helps joy to arise and

when joy arises your mind is very alert

your mind has uplifted and it's very

easy to see when it starts to

so smiling is a very important part of

the meditation and I ask people to

practice smiling all the time when

they're on retreat and when I say you're

not smiling I will make you smile have

that is for a very good reason because

your mind is more alert when you're

happy it's much easier to see everything

more clearly when you have happy

happiness in you so the more you smile

the more happy you become the more happy

you become the better your mindfulness

is the better your mindfulness is the

less suffering

so this is a very important thing now

think of this in a different way

whatever you think and ponder on that

will become the inclination of your mind

if you're thinking and pondering on the

happy thoughts and wishing somebody well

what's going to happen to your mind it's

going to tend towards them so as you

develop the habit of smiling and being

happy your mind will naturally tend to

become more happy all the time that's

what the Buddha was talking about that's

what the Buddha wanted for us he wanted

us to have a happy mind that was in

balance when you have

anger anxiety sadness whatever fear

whatever it happens to be your mind is

not in balance at that time your mind is

out of balance and you start identifying

with all of those thoughts and all of

those feelings you start saying this is

me I'm sad and I don't like it now we're

made up of five things we have a

physical body we have feeling feeling is

pleasant painful neither painful nor

pleasant

we have perception perception is the

mind that names things when you see this

you say that's a lamp that's the part of

your mind the perception is the part of

your mind that made that and that has

memory in it too you have thoughts and

you have consciousness now when a

feeling arises our natural tendency is

to try to think the feeling and control

the feeling with thoughts but thoughts

are one thing and feelings are something

else they're not the same

as you try to control the feeling with

your thoughts

it makes the thoughts bigger I mean it

makes the the feeling bigger and more

intense and then you start really

trained to think about it and try to

stop I don't want this anymore I want it

to go away

at that time you're very much taking

those thoughts and feelings personally

this is me this is mine this is Who I am

so what's how do we overcome this

problem the fastest way you've overcome

the problem is by laughing when you

laugh it changes your perspective your

perspective goes from I'm said I'm angry

I don't like it - it's only this sadness

or it's only this anger it's not mine I

didn't ask it to come up I didn't say

you know I haven't been sad for a long

time I might as well be sad now no it

came up because the conditions were

right for it to come up what you do with

what arises in the present moment

dictates what happens for the future if

you resist the present moment if you try

to control the present moment if you try

to think your feelings you can look

forward to suffering arising but you

have a choice right at that time you can

see those thoughts and you can say oh

they're just thoughts and you let those

thoughts be and you

that when I say let him be what I mean

is you're not trying to stop the

thoughts from coming up you're allowing

the thoughts to be there but you don't

pay attention to them anymore and you

relax the tightness in your head really

now you see the feeling and it's a

painful feeling okay that's all right it

has to be all right because that's the

truth

when a painful feeling arises it's there

as you allow the space for that painful

feeling to be there and relax the

tension and tightness caused by that

dislike and wanting it to be different

than it is now the feeling even though

it might be painful it doesn't distract

you anymore and you relax and you bring

that relaxed mind back to the feeling of

loving kindness and making a wish for

happiness of the nature of these kind of

hindrances is they don't go away right

away so you'll be with here in your

loving kindness for a little while and

all of this

mind is back over to that feeling of

sadness or anger whatever it happened to

be so as your mind goes back and forth

your job as a meditator is not to figure

out why there's sadness or anger but to

see how mine's attention move from the

loving-kindness over to the sadness or

the anger how did that happen

so every time your mind gets distracted

let go of the thoughts and relax

you let the feeling be relax and come

back to your meditation again but it

goes back how did that happen as you

become more familiar with how mind's

attention moves you start to see more

and more clearly that there is a process

that so your mind will go back and forth

for a little level and as it does that

you start to see that there are a lot of

little parts a lot of little things that

arise and pass away now when we think of

sadness or we think of anger these are

concepts

what is the concept well you stop and

think about an automobile well that's

the car okay

so where is the car is it the wheel is

it the door is it the steering wheel is

it the windscreen is it the motor a car

or an automobile is a lot of little

parts put together to make up this

concept now sadness and anger are the

same little things that come together to

make up this concept of sadness as you

start to become more familiar with how

Minds attention movies you start to see

as soon as there's a little movement of

minds attention that there's some

tightness that's there and before that

you start recognizing oh there was a

feeling that happened before that now

this is the way that Minds attention

moves when it has a hindrance in it a

feeling arises quite often it's a

painful feeling right after the feeling

arises there's tension and tightness

that is the I like it or I don't like it

mine and that's crazy

right after craving then you start to

have all of these thoughts opinions

ideas and concepts about why you like or

dislike that

you know and you really start

identifying very heavily and taking

those thoughts and feelings personally

as you do that and as you see that you

start to have your old habitual

tendencies your habitual your your

habits of when this kind of feeling

arises I always act that way you're

going to be caught for a little while

your mind is gonna miss day on this

distraction whatever the distraction is

but then you remember this is part of

mindfulness you remember ah I'm supposed

to be meditating so you've recognized

that your mind is distracted and you

release that distraction you let it be

now you're relaxed that tightness caused

by the craving and when you do that mind

is pure it doesn't have any craving in

it anymore mine is very alert and bright

without ups and you bring in that mind

back to your object of meditation every

time you let go of the distraction and

relax and come back to your object of

meditation you're purifying your mind

so your mind will eventually start to

stain with the loving-kindness and

staying on your object to meditation for

a longer period of time and when it does

get distracted it won't be distracted

for a shorter period of time so you

start to see ah there is a process

that's happening here and you start

recognizing this now every time your

mind brings up a distraction we call it

a hindrance your mind is teaching you

some very very good lessons it's

teaching you that this is where my

attachment is this is where I'm taking

all of this stuff personally and it's

also teaching you how to let go of that

attachment as you relax and smile and

come back to your object to meditation

now over a period of time and that means

if you're gonna come for a retreat that

we've been in one week you will be very

familiar with this and you will have

taught yourself a lot of things but when

that hindrance keeps coming up and you

see it it gets a little bit weaker a

little bit weaker until finally it

doesn't come up

when it doesn't come up anymore you have

a sense of relief now all this time you

have been teaching yourself how the

process of dependent origination

actually does work and you've been

teaching yourself how the Four Noble

Truths work so you're getting insights

into how this process continually goes

on and on so you get a real strong sense

of relief and right after that relief

you feel very happy you've let go of an

attachment your joy comes up the joy

will make your mind feel very light and

your body feels very light and it's a

happy feeling it's an excitement feeling

this is wow this is really it this is

what I've come to meditate for as that

feeling fades away and it will it's

nothing is permanent then you will feel

very very tranquil very very peaceful

and very comfortable in your mind and

your body you won't have any and you

feel like your your mind is just stays

on your meditation object of a feeling

of loving kindness and making a wish and

staying with that with it just stays

there naturally

now what I've just described to you is

the first jhana Jonah is a word that is

very much misunderstood every time

somebody hears the word Jonah

or almost

every time they think of absorption

concentration deep deep one-pointed kind

of concentration jhana does not mean

concentration jhana means a level of

understanding this is a level of this is

one stage of your meditation when your

understanding becomes so good that you

can let go of a hindrance and relax and

not have it come back you have taught

yourself some very wonderful things so

you get into this first jhana and this

is what I like to call candy for your

meditation because it's real nice and

it's sweet it's really good but an awful

lot of people when they come and they do

a retreat with me they start talking

about my meditation was really lousy

today my mind was jumping all over the

place and I started asking about how

their minds what their mind was doing

and how you saw that and how long did it

take before you came back to meditation

object things like that and quite often

after they tell me how bad their

meditation practice is I start telling

them how good it is they had to work

mind was being very very active and

that's okay as long as you see it and

you relax let it be and come back to

your object in meditation that is good

meditation when somebody says oh I got

the

destroy and it was so wonderful and now

I know why I'm meditating and this is

really great but that the reason you had

that joy and that happiness and that

stillness of mind and that wonderful me

is because of all the hard work you did

when your mind was distracted the hard

work that you did to let go of that

distraction and relax come back so as

you start to learn this while you're in

retreat you start developing this idea

of what I think and ponder on that's the

inclination of my mind and you start to

realize that your mind feels a little

bit more happy than it ever did before

and you have this balance that you

didn't really know about before and you

start teaching yourself more and more

about the meditation

so it can go either way actually if he

frequently thinks and Ponder's upon

thoughts of sensual desire he has

abandoned the thought of renunciation to

cultivate the thought of sensual desire

and when his mind inclines to thoughts

of sensual desire if he frequently

thinks upon thoughts of ill-will or

cruelty

it has abandoned the thought of non

ill-will and rule to cultivate the

thought of ill-will and cruelty and then

his mind inclines towards those kind of

thought so we have a choice that we can

make and we make it all the time whether

to get involved in this hindrance or not

the thing with the hindrance is you

become very aware of the hindrance while

you're City but that's not the only time

the hindrance is going to come up you

have hindrances arise during your daily

life but while you're sitting as you can

see your mind

how it starts to work it means that when

you are living your daily life and

sadness or anger or frustration whatever

it happens to be when that comes up

you'll start recognizing that more

quickly and you'll start letting go of

that more easily now I can tell you

exactly how depression arises depression

is something that how what is it one out

of three people in this country suffer

from depression and a lot of people are

taking drugs because of depression and I

can tell you exactly how it works a

painful feeling arises and then the I

don't like it mine are rising and then

all of your thoughts and your stories

and all of your ideas about why that

feeling arose starts to come up and the

more you think about it the more you get

into a habitual tendency and you keep

trying to think the feeling away and the

more you try that feeling gets bigger

and more intense and then you start

going I don't want to be around anybody

I'm depressed leave me alone and you can

be in a state of depression for many

days and not really recognize how much

you're making yourself

suffer so what we want to do when we're

doing the meditation is be able to

recognize how the process works and when

you notice how the process works then

you're not going to be caught you're not

going to be knocked off balance so

easily that doesn't mean that you're

still not you're you that you're gonna

you're always going to be in a state of

equanimity you know you have your life

and there's going to be some things that

are really gonna catch you for a period

of time but as you practice how looking

at how the process works and you start

using the six R's not only while you're

doing your sitting practice but doing

your daily activities your start going

to start teach to teach yourself more

and more clearly this process of how

everything works and how to let go or as

you go deeper into your practice you get

more and more a sense of balance and

that balance can start to stay with you

for longer and longer periods of time so

you don't have the roller coaster ride

of your emotions it starts to turn into

waves and there's some highs and there's

some lows but they're not as bad as they

used to be

as you continue doing your meditation

you will get to another place where the

the balance is much stronger and it

starts to last into your daily

activities may

until lunchtime or maybe after lunch

time from your practice in the morning

but you become more and more aware of

how this process works then you use your

six hours everybody around you will

start going you seem to be different

you're more happy than you used to be

what are you doing

how are you doing this don't want to

know because they see you become more

happy and as you become more happy you

start affecting everyone around you in a

more positive way as you become happy

everybody else becomes happy as you

become more peaceful and more calm

everybody else around you will be more

peaceful that's why when I would go into

a hospital room with a Columbine that

has a lot of love in it everybody in

that room would start to raise their

consciousness up to the level that I was

holding so the more you can practice

doing the six r's that that's talked

about in this pamphlet during the day

and while you're doing your sitting

practice the more balanced you have in

your life and the more you help other

people around you I rather insist that

everybody smile when they're doing a

retreat

and I want you to give your smile away

give it to as many different people as

you can remember to the more you can

remember to smile during the day the

more you help other people smile and you

know how it feels to smile feels good so

you're giving that good feeling to other

people and they will give it back and

they will start to give it to other

people that's how you affect the world

around you so the more you smile the

more you laugh the more uplifted your

mind is the more uplifted everybody

around you become broken glasses that's

what the Buddha wanted us for for us

he's said in the Dhammapada we are the

happy ones we're the happy ones and that

means give your smile away practice your

generosity by giving that smile and

those happy thoughts give him away as

much as you can remember what do you

think and ponder on that's the

inflammation of your mind as you have

more joy coming up you're still going to

have the problems of life if there's

going to be problems that come up but

the more you hope joy in your

mind the smaller that problem will seem

now if you take that problem and you

start worrying about it and you try to

control that feeling with your thoughts

that problem is going to turn into a

huge problem and you won't see any way

around the problem you'll just see that

this is a problem and there's no way I

can solve this problem at all

so how do you solve that problem stop

focusing on that problem and focus on

the solution smile radiate loving

kindness give that away and then that

huge problem is just a little tiny

problem it's not so big but our mind

because of our old habitual tendency our

mind likes to take a hold of a problem

and say oh this is really bad this is

terrible oh yeah nobody loves me and

nobody's going to help me to solve this

problem well you don't need any help all

you have to do is remember remember to

put loving kindness into a problem now I

used to do a lot of handyman kind of

things and I built very fancy houses and

things like that and there were times I

truly did not like plumbing because I

have a big body and plumbing is always

down there in this space that's only

this big so I have to do something down

there and I couldn't get the thread to

be just right so it would go on like it

was supposed to and is always

frustrating and I were never ever I

think this stuff and I really don't want

to be a plumber and don't like doing

this and there's not enough room and

there's not enough light and then I

watch myself grumble about those kinds

of things for a little while and then I

go this is dumb

so I started radiating loving-kindness

and at seeing loving-kindness helped me

to solve this problem and then I go in

and I go and it's done I've done that

hundreds of times because I focus on the

solution after getting caught by the

problem

it doesn't matter what the problem is

when you start radiating loving-kindness

into that the problem starts to dissolve

away one of the things that happens

everybody wants to be have more

intuition they want to be able to tap

into that that part of the mind that

knows how to take care of everything it

gives you the answers everybody wants

that but when we're spending our time

thinking thinking thinking thinking

worrying about the problem

the intuition mind comes up and we don't

even pay attention to it we just keep on

worrying worrying worrying what am I

gonna do oh this is terrible I'm gonna

have so many problems and I mean this

just isn't gonna work at all but then

just you have to let that go and

remember that you need to be focusing on

the loving-kindness so you need to start

radiating that in kindness and you can

do it to yourself

you can do it to somebody else whatever

but when you're having a problem it's

best to do it to yourself and you can

you can radiate a feeling of a clear

home peaceful mind and then your mind

starts to settle down

there's not worried so much anymore and

you start letting them go and then you

let go of the problem completely and do

something and then the answer is right

there oh all I have to do is this and

that's taken care of easy

you need to quiet your mind and relax

and not worry about what the solution

might be but start focusing on the

loving-kindness taking care of this

problem and as soon as you do that there

is no problem what we think and ponder

on that's the inclination of our mind so

the more times we can think and ponder

on happy thoughts uplifting thoughts

smiling thoughts joyful stuff the more

we can focus on that unless these other

problems

the Buddha was pretty smart man to see

this and to recognize it just as in the

last month of the rainy season in the

autumn when the crops thickened the cow

a cow herd who would guard his cows by

constantly tapping and poking them on

this side and that with a stick to check

and curb them why is that because he

sees that it he could be flogged in

prison fined or blamed if he let those

cows stray into the crops so - I saw an

unwholesome State's danger degradation

and defilement and in wholesome states

the blessings of renunciation the aspect

of cleansing having an uplifted mind as

I invited this diligent ardent and

resolute thought of renunciation arose

in me I understood that this thought of

renunciation has arisen in me this does

not leave this does not lead to my own

affliction or to others affliction or to

the affliction of both it aids wisdom

does not cause difficulty and leads to

Navona

if I think and ponder upon this thought

even for a night even for a day even for

a night and a day I see nothing to fear

from that but if excessive thinking and

pondering I might tire my body inland

body is tired mind becomes strained and

when mind is strained it is far from

collected so I studied my mind

internally quieted it brought it to

stillness and collected it why is that

so that my mind should not be strained

see that's what I was talking about you

let go you you radiate that loving

kindness and let it be and relax now you

don't have any thoughts you come back to

your object to meditation when you're

sitting you wish somebody happiness

while you're doing your daily activities

and then just don't even think and

ponder on the problem but the problem go

okay monks whatever a monk frequently

thinks and Ponder's upon that will

become the inclination of his mind if he

frequently thinks on Ponder's upon

thoughts of renunciation he has

abandoned the thought of sensual desire

to cultivate the thought of renunciation

and when his mind inclines to thoughts

of renunciation if he frequently thinks

and Ponder's upon thoughts of non

ill-will upon thoughts of non cruelty he

has abandoned the thought of he'll will

and cruelty to cultivate the thought of

non ill-will and non cruelty and when

his mind inclines to the thought and

then his mind inclines to thoughts of

non ill-will and non cruelty just as in

the last month of the hot season when

all the crops have been brought inside

the villages a cowherd would guard his

cows while staying in at the root of the

tree or out in the open since he needs

only to be mindful that the cows are

there so - there was made for me only to

be mindful that these states were there

didn't have to focus on them so much

tireless energy was aroused in me

unremitting mindfulness was established

my body was tranquil and untroubled and

my mind collected in unified supposed

monks that a wooded range there was a

low line

Marsh near which a large herd of deer

lived then a man appeared desiring their

ruin harm and bondage and he closed off

the safe and good paths to be traveled

joyfully and he opened up a false path

and he put out a decoy and set up a

dummy so that the large herd of deer

might later come to up upon calamity

disaster and loss but another man came

desiring their good welfare and

protection and he reopened the safe and

good path that led to their happiness

and he closed off the false path and he

removed the decoy and destroyed the

dummy so that the large herd of deer

might later come to growth increase and

fulfillment monks I have given this

Emily in order to convey a meaning this

is the meaning the great low lying Marsh

is a term for sensual pleasures the

large herd of deer is a term for beings

the man desiring their ruin harm and

bondage is a term for Mara the evil one

the false path is a term for the wrong

Eightfold Path that is wrong perspective

wrong in imaging wrong communication

wrong action wrong livelihood wrong

effort from mindfulness

concentration the decoy is a term for

delight and lust the dummy is a term for

ignorant the man desiring their good

welfare and protection is a term for the

tatata accomplished and fully

enlightened the safe and good path to be

traveled joyfully is a term for the

Noble Eightfold Path so amongst the safe

and good paths to be traveled joyfully

has been reopened by me and 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 else you

will regret it later this is our

instruction to you that is what the

Blessed One said the monks were

satisfied and delighted in the Blessed

ones work I like this it's real fun how

does anybody have any questions

yes so each time and I'm pondering upon

even if I'm thinking about good thoughts

and happy thoughts

I'm still thinking creating new being

for myself do have these come up more

often and this is tiresome because I'm

still in craving it's because of

overthinking I think you can have you

can have a single thought about

something that's an observation okay but

if you keep thinking that thought over

and over and over and over again you

will have a tendency to develop

unwholesome thoughts because your mind

will get tired of thinking the same

thing and then both oh and I remember

the time and then you recall I

remembered that and now you're a

thousand miles away and you're

identifying with your thoughts and

feeling so what he's saying is to let go

of even holding on to these thoughts but

watch how the process works and relax

into it that's how you develop your

wisdom and your wisdom is always seeing

that process

if it's an insect if you if you've done

an insight by carrying out that you

dilute the quality of that with an

insight the purity of these that you

started thinking about it too much and

also in the original original insight

that you had been diluted lost it well

you don't you won't lose it but you're

certainly not benefit from it as much

they'll still know that that deal wait

what right that's the way it worked and

you've lost the purity as well so the

whole idea of learning how to smile and

the tension and tightness and then smile

and have fun with what you're doing and

the present moment that keeps your mind

like that keeps for my very alert and

it's much easier to remember to let go

of things that start letting you down

it's real important that we take

take the time to remember that the

Buddha wanted us to be happy and reflect

on that he really wanted us to be happy

the way he was happy and the way he was

happy was by having this balanced money

now he had problems when he was in his

last lifetime there were people that

tried to blame him and do all kinds of

things to him but it didn't make his

mind upset he relaxed into it and they'd

all his problems solved themselves

without his having to worry about it one

of the things that I was brought up with

him in the book when I became a Buddhist

and I was told this often was that when

you take care of dama dama will take

care of you that means as you start

seeing when your minds get going gets

pulled down and you start smiling into

that and letting go of the cause of

suffering craving as you do that the

Dhamma will start protecting you more

and more what do you think and ponder on

that's the inclination of your mind

I really like that state mostly because

it really really works

you

okay this evening we are at Casey

Anderson's home in Woodinville and this

is Bond TV Mona Ramsey and it's March

the 30th 2007 and tonight we're going to

talk about majima nakiya number 19 the

weight of the top Gus UFFDA

two kinds of thought okay that's what I

heard on one occasion the blessed one

was living in Swati in jeta's grove and

i think indeed is parked there he

addressed the monks that's monks

venerable survey replied the Blessed One

said this monks before my enlightenment

well I was still only an unenlightened

Bodhisattva it occurred to me suppose

that I divided my thoughts into two

classes then I said on one side thoughts

of sensual desire thoughts of ill-will

thoughts of cruelty and I set on the

other side thoughts of renunciation

thoughts of non ill-will and thoughts of

non cruelty non ill-will is

loving-kindness non cruelty is

compassion no I want to give you the

definition of compassion so that you can

understand it compassion is seeing

someone that has pain allowing them to

have their own pain and love them

love them no matter what a lot of people

have an idea that compassion is trying

to take someone else's pain away from

them

but I can't take your pain away you

can't take my pain away it doesn't work

when you allow the space for someone to

have their own experience and love them

that is being compassionate I used to go

and visit a lot of people in hospitals

and people would like to come along with

me some people would come in and there

would be somebody that was suffering a

lot they had cancer they were dying and

they would immediately become sad

because this person had cancer and they

were dying and they started feeling very

very bad and they were causing a lot of

pain for themselves but when I walk into

the room I walk in with a mind that is

open and accepting of whatever condition

that person has and I allow the space

for them to have that condition and then

I start radiating loving-kindness to

that person

and they say things that are light say

things that will help their mind become

uplifted so they have a lot of pain when

I walk in before long their mind starts

to get higher and they start to relax

and this is the relief that they can

experience when you practice true

compassion

the person that would walk in and they

say only poor dear I feel so bad for you

I wish there was something I could do to

help you and they make themselves sad

and other person doesn't benefit at all

you cannot take someone else's pain

their pain is their pain but as you

allow them to have their own experience

of the pain without trying to control it

or make it any different than it is

there is space for them to change and as

you radiate loving kindness to them

their mind starts to become more and

more uplifted more and more at ease more

and more relaxed and you keep smiling

inside and giving that smile away before

long they start laughing they start

laughing with you you say something

silly and they think oh this is great

yeah and when they laugh the pain in

their body becomes less and less now

this is a proven fact there is these

things called endorphins that are in

your body and it's an indoor the

endorphins are about ten times stronger

than morphine when you are sad when

there is a lot of pain and you're

resisting that pain the endorphins are

stopped from the the pineal gland from

coming out because of that tightness as

you start to relax and you start to

laugh a little bit that opens up and

then all of a sudden the endorphins come

into

and the painkiller is there naturally so

it's a very good thing to help other

people so that they can have a light

mind so the more you can practice your

compassion towards them and allow them

the space to be the way they are no

matter what their condition is and

loving them unconditionally that makes

the whole room feel alive have you ever

walked into a room where there's

somebody that's depressed and you feel

like turning around and walking out but

when you don't allow that feeling to be

your feeling you just say that feeling

can be there and that's fine but I can

be happy and I can still radiate loving

kindness that person that's depressed

all of the sudden they start their mind

starts become lighter so this really

does work this way and it works very

well as I have I did thus diligent

ardent resolute a thought of sensual

desire arose in me I understood this

this thought of sensual desire has

arisen and me this leads to my own

affliction to others affliction to the

affliction of both it obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from me

bona when I considered this leads to my

own affliction its subsided in me when I

considered this leads to others

affliction affliction means pain its

subsided in me when I consider this

leads to the the

of both its subsided in me when I

considered this obstructs wisdom causes

difficulty and leads away from navona it

subsided in me whenever a thought of

sensual desire arose in me I abandoned

let it be and eventually it disappeared

to by itself as i abided thus diligent

ardent and resolute a thought of

ill-will rose and me or a thought of

cruelty arose in me

I understood thus this thought of

ill-will or cruelty has arisen and me

this leads to my own pain to others pain

and to the pain of both it obstructs

wisdom causes difficulty and leads away

from Navona when I considered thus it's

subsided in me whenever a thought of

ill-will or cruelty arose in me I

abandoned now we come to a very

important statement monks whatever a

monk frequently thinks and Ponder's upon

that will become the inclination of his

mind what do you think about it often

that's what your mind starts to tend

towards it starts to think about that

naturally this is where our habitual

habit of thinking about this or that it

causes us to think about this or that

more so when you start to recognize the

your mind is starting to tend towards a

desire for something or dislike of

something whatever it happens to be as

you recognize that you let it be and you

relax the tightness in your head in your

mind caused by Minds movement to that

and you relax then after you smile you

come back to your meditation welcome

back to wishing somebody happiness and

stay with that what are we actually

doing we are practicing what the Buddha

called right effort I call it harmonious

practice it's recognizing when your mind

is caught up and unwholesome things

letting go of that unwholesome thing and

relaxing bringing up a wholesome thing

smiling and staying with that wholesome

thing that's right effort that's what I

just suggested for you

oh do when I get them in six art

I've developed a kind of the system and

this this system works with any kind of

distraction that comes up in your mind

and it works very well we call it the

six R's you recognize that your mind has

been distracted you release the

distraction and relax then you re smile

return to your object of meditation and

repeat stay with your object of

meditation that is six hours this is how

you meditate now a lot of people will

teach you how to meditate and one of the

things we can forget to tell you about

is the relaxed state the relaxing right

after you let go of the distraction you

relax right then what are you doing

every time craving arises it causes

tension and tightness to arise in your

mind and in your body that's how you can

recognize it kaitlin's so every time you

relax what are you doing you're letting

go of that crazy okay what's the second

noble truth the cause of suffering is

craving so you're letting go of the

second noble truth every time you relax

and right after that your mind will feel

kind of expanded and become very calm

and very peaceful you don't have any

thoughts you just have this pure kind of

awareness and you bring that back to

your object of meditation the loving

kindness of feeling of acting so you are

experiencing the third noble truth and

the way to do that is by practicing the

six art that is the fourth noble truth

so you see right now you're practicing

all the Four Noble Truths right here as

you recognize that your mind has some

kind of suffering in it and then you see

the cause of that is the tightness that

that suffering be and you relax now you

smile why do you smile because that

helps your mind to be uplifted do you

smile in a lot of different places you

smile in your mind you smile in your

heart and your eyes you smile with your

lips little one and you smile in your

heart so it's not just smile without

feeling this is smiling with feeling and

then you bring that smile back to your

meditation this helps joy to arise and

when joy arises your mind is very alert

your mind has uplifted and it's very

easy to see when it starts to

so smiling is a very important part of

the meditation and I ask people to

practice smiling all the time when

they're on retreat and when I say you're

not smiling I will make you smile have

that is for a very good reason because

your mind is more alert when you're

happy it's much easier to see everything

more clearly when you have happy

happiness in you so the more you smile

the more happy you become the more happy

you become the better your mindfulness

is the better your mindfulness is the

less suffering

so this is a very important thing now

think of this in a different way

whatever you think and ponder on that

will become the inclination of your mind

if you're thinking and pondering on the

happy thoughts and wishing somebody well

what's going to happen to your mind it's

going to tend towards them so as you

develop the habit of smiling and being

happy your mind will naturally tend to

become more happy all the time that's

what the Buddha was talking about that's

what the Buddha wanted for us he wanted

us to have a happy mind that was in

balance when you have

anger anxiety sadness whatever fear

whatever it happens to be your mind is

not in balance at that time your mind is

out of balance and you start identifying

with all of those thoughts and all of

those feelings you start saying this is

me I'm sad and I don't like it now we're

made up of five things we have a

physical body we have feeling feeling is

pleasant painful neither painful nor

pleasant

we have perception perception is the

mind that names things when you see this

you say that's a lamp that's the part of

your mind the perception is the part of

your mind that made that and that has

memory in it too you have thoughts and

you have consciousness now when a

feeling arises our natural tendency is

to try to think the feeling and control

the feeling with thoughts but thoughts

are one thing and feelings are something

else they're not the same

as you try to control the feeling with

your thoughts

it makes the thoughts bigger I mean it

makes the the feeling bigger and more

intense and then you start really

trained to think about it and try to

stop I don't want this anymore I want it

to go away

at that time you're very much taking

those thoughts and feelings personally

this is me this is mine this is Who I am

so what's how do we overcome this

problem the fastest way you've overcome

the problem is by laughing when you

laugh it changes your perspective your

perspective goes from I'm said I'm angry

I don't like it - it's only this sadness

or it's only this anger it's not mine I

didn't ask it to come up I didn't say

you know I haven't been sad for a long

time I might as well be sad now no it

came up because the conditions were

right for it to come up what you do with

what arises in the present moment

dictates what happens for the future if

you resist the present moment if you try

to control the present moment if you try

to think your feelings you can look

forward to suffering arising but you

have a choice right at that time you can

see those thoughts and you can say oh

they're just thoughts and you let those

thoughts be and you

that when I say let him be what I mean

is you're not trying to stop the

thoughts from coming up you're allowing

the thoughts to be there but you don't

pay attention to them anymore and you

relax the tightness in your head really

now you see the feeling and it's a

painful feeling okay that's all right it

has to be all right because that's the

truth

when a painful feeling arises it's there

as you allow the space for that painful

feeling to be there and relax the

tension and tightness caused by that

dislike and wanting it to be different

than it is now the feeling even though

it might be painful it doesn't distract

you anymore and you relax and you bring

that relaxed mind back to the feeling of

loving kindness and making a wish for

happiness of the nature of these kind of

hindrances is they don't go away right

away so you'll be with here in your

loving kindness for a little while and

all of this

mind is back over to that feeling of

sadness or anger whatever it happened to

be so as your mind goes back and forth

your job as a meditator is not to figure

out why there's sadness or anger but to

see how mine's attention move from the

loving-kindness over to the sadness or

the anger how did that happen

so every time your mind gets distracted

let go of the thoughts and relax

you let the feeling be relax and come

back to your meditation again but it

goes back how did that happen as you

become more familiar with how mind's

attention moves you start to see more

and more clearly that there is a process

that so your mind will go back and forth

for a little level and as it does that

you start to see that there are a lot of

little parts a lot of little things that

arise and pass away now when we think of

sadness or we think of anger these are

concepts

what is the concept well you stop and

think about an automobile well that's

the car okay

so where is the car is it the wheel is

it the door is it the steering wheel is

it the windscreen is it the motor a car

or an automobile is a lot of little

parts put together to make up this

concept now sadness and anger are the

same little things that come together to

make up this concept of sadness as you

start to become more familiar with how

Minds attention movies you start to see

as soon as there's a little movement of

minds attention that there's some

tightness that's there and before that

you start recognizing oh there was a

feeling that happened before that now

this is the way that Minds attention

moves when it has a hindrance in it a

feeling arises quite often it's a

painful feeling right after the feeling

arises there's tension and tightness

that is the I like it or I don't like it

mine and that's crazy

right after craving then you start to

have all of these thoughts opinions

ideas and concepts about why you like or

dislike that

you know and you really start

identifying very heavily and taking

those thoughts and feelings personally

as you do that and as you see that you

start to have your old habitual

tendencies your habitual your your

habits of when this kind of feeling

arises I always act that way you're

going to be caught for a little while

your mind is gonna miss day on this

distraction whatever the distraction is

but then you remember this is part of

mindfulness you remember ah I'm supposed

to be meditating so you've recognized

that your mind is distracted and you

release that distraction you let it be

now you're relaxed that tightness caused

by the craving and when you do that mind

is pure it doesn't have any craving in

it anymore mine is very alert and bright

without ups and you bring in that mind

back to your object of meditation every

time you let go of the distraction and

relax and come back to your object of

meditation you're purifying your mind

so your mind will eventually start to

stain with the loving-kindness and

staying on your object to meditation for

a longer period of time and when it does

get distracted it won't be distracted

for a shorter period of time so you

start to see ah there is a process

that's happening here and you start

recognizing this now every time your

mind brings up a distraction we call it

a hindrance your mind is teaching you

some very very good lessons it's

teaching you that this is where my

attachment is this is where I'm taking

all of this stuff personally and it's

also teaching you how to let go of that

attachment as you relax and smile and

come back to your object to meditation

now over a period of time and that means

if you're gonna come for a retreat that

we've been in one week you will be very

familiar with this and you will have

taught yourself a lot of things but when

that hindrance keeps coming up and you

see it it gets a little bit weaker a

little bit weaker until finally it

doesn't come up

when it doesn't come up anymore you have

a sense of relief now all this time you

have been teaching yourself how the

process of dependent origination

actually does work and you've been

teaching yourself how the Four Noble

Truths work so you're getting insights

into how this process continually goes

on and on so you get a real strong sense

of relief and right after that relief

you feel very happy you've let go of an

attachment your joy comes up the joy

will make your mind feel very light and

your body feels very light and it's a

happy feeling it's an excitement feeling

this is wow this is really it this is

what I've come to meditate for as that

feeling fades away and it will it's

nothing is permanent then you will feel

very very tranquil very very peaceful

and very comfortable in your mind and

your body you won't have any and you

feel like your your mind is just stays

on your meditation object of a feeling

of loving kindness and making a wish and

staying with that with it just stays

there naturally

now what I've just described to you is

the first jhana Jonah is a word that is

very much misunderstood every time

somebody hears the word Jonah

or almost

every time they think of absorption

concentration deep deep one-pointed kind

of concentration jhana does not mean

concentration jhana means a level of

understanding this is a level of this is

one stage of your meditation when your

understanding becomes so good that you

can let go of a hindrance and relax and

not have it come back you have taught

yourself some very wonderful things so

you get into this first jhana and this

is what I like to call candy for your

meditation because it's real nice and

it's sweet it's really good but an awful

lot of people when they come and they do

a retreat with me they start talking

about my meditation was really lousy

today my mind was jumping all over the

place and I started asking about how

their minds what their mind was doing

and how you saw that and how long did it

take before you came back to meditation

object things like that and quite often

after they tell me how bad their

meditation practice is I start telling

them how good it is they had to work

mind was being very very active and

that's okay as long as you see it and

you relax let it be and come back to

your object in meditation that is good

meditation when somebody says oh I got

the

destroy and it was so wonderful and now

I know why I'm meditating and this is

really great but that the reason you had

that joy and that happiness and that

stillness of mind and that wonderful me

is because of all the hard work you did

when your mind was distracted the hard

work that you did to let go of that

distraction and relax come back so as

you start to learn this while you're in

retreat you start developing this idea

of what I think and ponder on that's the

inclination of my mind and you start to

realize that your mind feels a little

bit more happy than it ever did before

and you have this balance that you

didn't really know about before and you

start teaching yourself more and more

about the meditation

so it can go either way actually if he

frequently thinks and Ponder's upon

thoughts of sensual desire he has

abandoned the thought of renunciation to

cultivate the thought of sensual desire

and when his mind inclines to thoughts

of sensual desire if he frequently

thinks upon thoughts of ill-will or

cruelty

it has abandoned the thought of non

ill-will and rule to cultivate the

thought of ill-will and cruelty and then

his mind inclines towards those kind of

thought so we have a choice that we can

make and we make it all the time whether

to get involved in this hindrance or not

the thing with the hindrance is you

become very aware of the hindrance while

you're City but that's not the only time

the hindrance is going to come up you

have hindrances arise during your daily

life but while you're sitting as you can

see your mind

how it starts to work it means that when

you are living your daily life and

sadness or anger or frustration whatever

it happens to be when that comes up

you'll start recognizing that more

quickly and you'll start letting go of

that more easily now I can tell you

exactly how depression arises depression

is something that how what is it one out

of three people in this country suffer

from depression and a lot of people are

taking drugs because of depression and I

can tell you exactly how it works a

painful feeling arises and then the I

don't like it mine are rising and then

all of your thoughts and your stories

and all of your ideas about why that

feeling arose starts to come up and the

more you think about it the more you get

into a habitual tendency and you keep

trying to think the feeling away and the

more you try that feeling gets bigger

and more intense and then you start

going I don't want to be around anybody

I'm depressed leave me alone and you can

be in a state of depression for many

days and not really recognize how much

you're making yourself

suffer so what we want to do when we're

doing the meditation is be able to

recognize how the process works and when

you notice how the process works then

you're not going to be caught you're not

going to be knocked off balance so

easily that doesn't mean that you're

still not you're you that you're gonna

you're always going to be in a state of

equanimity you know you have your life

and there's going to be some things that

are really gonna catch you for a period

of time but as you practice how looking

at how the process works and you start

using the six R's not only while you're

doing your sitting practice but doing

your daily activities your start going

to start teach to teach yourself more

and more clearly this process of how

everything works and how to let go or as

you go deeper into your practice you get

more and more a sense of balance and

that balance can start to stay with you

for longer and longer periods of time so

you don't have the roller coaster ride

of your emotions it starts to turn into

waves and there's some highs and there's

some lows but they're not as bad as they

used to be

as you continue doing your meditation

you will get to another place where the

the balance is much stronger and it

starts to last into your daily

activities may

until lunchtime or maybe after lunch

time from your practice in the morning

but you become more and more aware of

how this process works then you use your

six hours everybody around you will

start going you seem to be different

you're more happy than you used to be

what are you doing

how are you doing this don't want to

know because they see you become more

happy and as you become more happy you

start affecting everyone around you in a

more positive way as you become happy

everybody else becomes happy as you

become more peaceful and more calm

everybody else around you will be more

peaceful that's why when I would go into

a hospital room with a Columbine that

has a lot of love in it everybody in

that room would start to raise their

consciousness up to the level that I was

holding so the more you can practice

doing the six r's that that's talked

about in this pamphlet during the day

and while you're doing your sitting

practice the more balanced you have in

your life and the more you help other

people around you I rather insist that

everybody smile when they're doing a

retreat

and I want you to give your smile away

give it to as many different people as

you can remember to the more you can

remember to smile during the day the

more you help other people smile and you

know how it feels to smile feels good so

you're giving that good feeling to other

people and they will give it back and

they will start to give it to other

people that's how you affect the world

around you so the more you smile the

more you laugh the more uplifted your

mind is the more uplifted everybody

around you become broken glasses that's

what the Buddha wanted us for for us

he's said in the Dhammapada we are the

happy ones we're the happy ones and that

means give your smile away practice your

generosity by giving that smile and

those happy thoughts give him away as

much as you can remember what do you

think and ponder on that's the

inflammation of your mind as you have

more joy coming up you're still going to

have the problems of life if there's

going to be problems that come up but

the more you hope joy in your

mind the smaller that problem will seem

now if you take that problem and you

start worrying about it and you try to

control that feeling with your thoughts

that problem is going to turn into a

huge problem and you won't see any way

around the problem you'll just see that

this is a problem and there's no way I

can solve this problem at all

so how do you solve that problem stop

focusing on that problem and focus on

the solution smile radiate loving

kindness give that away and then that

huge problem is just a little tiny

problem it's not so big but our mind

because of our old habitual tendency our

mind likes to take a hold of a problem

and say oh this is really bad this is

terrible oh yeah nobody loves me and

nobody's going to help me to solve this

problem well you don't need any help all

you have to do is remember remember to

put loving kindness into a problem now I

used to do a lot of handyman kind of

things and I built very fancy houses and

things like that and there were times I

truly did not like plumbing because I

have a big body and plumbing is always

down there in this space that's only

this big so I have to do something down

there and I couldn't get the thread to

be just right so it would go on like it

was supposed to and is always

frustrating and I were never ever I

think this stuff and I really don't want

to be a plumber and don't like doing

this and there's not enough room and

there's not enough light and then I

watch myself grumble about those kinds

of things for a little while and then I

go this is dumb

so I started radiating loving-kindness

and at seeing loving-kindness helped me

to solve this problem and then I go in

and I go and it's done I've done that

hundreds of times because I focus on the

solution after getting caught by the

problem

it doesn't matter what the problem is

when you start radiating loving-kindness

into that the problem starts to dissolve

away one of the things that happens

everybody wants to be have more

intuition they want to be able to tap

into that that part of the mind that

knows how to take care of everything it

gives you the answers everybody wants

that but when we're spending our time

thinking thinking thinking thinking

worrying about the problem

the intuition mind comes up and we don't

even pay attention to it we just keep on

worrying worrying worrying what am I

gonna do oh this is terrible I'm gonna

have so many problems and I mean this

just isn't gonna work at all but then

just you have to let that go and

remember that you need to be focusing on

the loving-kindness so you need to start

radiating that in kindness and you can

do it to yourself

you can do it to somebody else whatever

but when you're having a problem it's

best to do it to yourself and you can

you can radiate a feeling of a clear

home peaceful mind and then your mind

starts to settle down

there's not worried so much anymore and

you start letting them go and then you

let go of the problem completely and do

something and then the answer is right

there oh all I have to do is this and

that's taken care of easy

you need to quiet your mind and relax

and not worry about what the solution

might be but start focusing on the

loving-kindness taking care of this

problem and as soon as you do that there

is no problem what we think and ponder

on that's the inclination of our mind so

the more times we can think and ponder

on happy thoughts uplifting thoughts

smiling thoughts joyful stuff the more

we can focus on that unless these other

problems

the Buddha was pretty smart man to see

this and to recognize it just as in the

last month of the rainy season in the

autumn when the crops thickened the cow

a cow herd who would guard his cows by

constantly tapping and poking them on

this side and that with a stick to check

and curb them why is that because he

sees that it he could be flogged in

prison fined or blamed if he let those

cows stray into the crops so - I saw an

unwholesome State's danger degradation

and defilement and in wholesome states

the blessings of renunciation the aspect

of cleansing having an uplifted mind as

I invited this diligent ardent and

resolute thought of renunciation arose

in me I understood that this thought of

renunciation has arisen in me this does

not leave this does not lead to my own

affliction or to others affliction or to

the affliction of both it aids wisdom

does not cause difficulty and leads to

Navona

if I think and ponder upon this thought

even for a night even for a day even for

a night and a day I see nothing to fear

from that but if excessive thinking and

pondering I might tire my body inland

body is tired mind becomes strained and

when mind is strained it is far from

collected so I studied my mind

internally quieted it brought it to

stillness and collected it why is that

so that my mind should not be strained

see that's what I was talking about you

let go you you radiate that loving

kindness and let it be and relax now you

don't have any thoughts you come back to

your object to meditation when you're

sitting you wish somebody happiness

while you're doing your daily activities

and then just don't even think and

ponder on the problem but the problem go

okay monks whatever a monk frequently

thinks and Ponder's upon that will

become the inclination of his mind if he

frequently thinks on Ponder's upon

thoughts of renunciation he has

abandoned the thought of sensual desire

to cultivate the thought of renunciation

and when his mind inclines to thoughts

of renunciation if he frequently thinks

and Ponder's upon thoughts of non

ill-will upon thoughts of non cruelty he

has abandoned the thought of he'll will

and cruelty to cultivate the thought of

non ill-will and non cruelty and when

his mind inclines to the thought and

then his mind inclines to thoughts of

non ill-will and non cruelty just as in

the last month of the hot season when

all the crops have been brought inside

the villages a cowherd would guard his

cows while staying in at the root of the

tree or out in the open since he needs

only to be mindful that the cows are

there so - there was made for me only to

be mindful that these states were there

didn't have to focus on them so much

tireless energy was aroused in me

unremitting mindfulness was established

my body was tranquil and untroubled and

my mind collected in unified supposed

monks that a wooded range there was a

low line

Marsh near which a large herd of deer

lived then a man appeared desiring their

ruin harm and bondage and he closed off

the safe and good paths to be traveled

joyfully and he opened up a false path

and he put out a decoy and set up a

dummy so that the large herd of deer

might later come to up upon calamity

disaster and loss but another man came

desiring their good welfare and

protection and he reopened the safe and

good path that led to their happiness

and he closed off the false path and he

removed the decoy and destroyed the

dummy so that the large herd of deer

might later come to growth increase and

fulfillment monks I have given this

Emily in order to convey a meaning this

is the meaning the great low lying Marsh

is a term for sensual pleasures the

large herd of deer is a term for beings

the man desiring their ruin harm and

bondage is a term for Mara the evil one

the false path is a term for the wrong

Eightfold Path that is wrong perspective

wrong in imaging wrong communication

wrong action wrong livelihood wrong

effort from mindfulness

concentration the decoy is a term for

delight and lust the dummy is a term for

ignorant the man desiring their good

welfare and protection is a term for the

tatata accomplished and fully

enlightened the safe and good path to be

traveled joyfully is a term for the

Noble Eightfold Path so amongst the safe

and good paths to be traveled joyfully

has been reopened by me and 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 else you

will regret it later this is our

instruction to you that is what the

Blessed One said the monks were

satisfied and delighted in the Blessed

ones work I like this it's real fun how

does anybody have any questions

yes so each time and I'm pondering upon

even if I'm thinking about good thoughts

and happy thoughts

I'm still thinking creating new being

for myself do have these come up more

often and this is tiresome because I'm

still in craving it's because of

overthinking I think you can have you

can have a single thought about

something that's an observation okay but

if you keep thinking that thought over

and over and over and over again you

will have a tendency to develop

unwholesome thoughts because your mind

will get tired of thinking the same

thing and then both oh and I remember

the time and then you recall I

remembered that and now you're a

thousand miles away and you're

identifying with your thoughts and

feeling so what he's saying is to let go

of even holding on to these thoughts but

watch how the process works and relax

into it that's how you develop your

wisdom and your wisdom is always seeing

that process

if it's an insect if you if you've done

an insight by carrying out that you

dilute the quality of that with an

insight the purity of these that you

started thinking about it too much and

also in the original original insight

that you had been diluted lost it well

you don't you won't lose it but you're

certainly not benefit from it as much

they'll still know that that deal wait

what right that's the way it worked and

you've lost the purity as well so the

whole idea of learning how to smile and

the tension and tightness and then smile

and have fun with what you're doing and

the present moment that keeps your mind

like that keeps for my very alert and

it's much easier to remember to let go

of things that start letting you down

it's real important that we take

take the time to remember that the

Buddha wanted us to be happy and reflect

on that he really wanted us to be happy

the way he was happy and the way he was

happy was by having this balanced money

now he had problems when he was in his

last lifetime there were people that

tried to blame him and do all kinds of

things to him but it didn't make his

mind upset he relaxed into it and they'd

all his problems solved themselves

without his having to worry about it one

of the things that I was brought up with

him in the book when I became a Buddhist

and I was told this often was that when

you take care of dama dama will take

care of you that means as you start

seeing when your minds get going gets

pulled down and you start smiling into

that and letting go of the cause of

suffering craving as you do that the

Dhamma will start protecting you more

and more what do you think and ponder on

that's the inclination of your mind

I really like that state mostly because

it really really works

you