What is Depression, Mindfulness and Wisdom-OME89CJFcyI.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OME89CJFcyI

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

a few years ago I was at a college and

somebody asked me about depression that

seems to be a biggie in this country how

do you overcome depression what do you

do well to see how it arises see what

happens first painful feeling arises

first right after that painful feeling

tension and tightness arises in your

mind then your thoughts start and then

your habitual tendency to try to control

the feeling with your thoughts and that

makes the feelings bigger and more

intense and that leads to the birth of

action leave me alone I don't want to be

I won't want to be bothered I'm

depressed and you get into your thoughts

and trying to control your thoughts more

and more and more and that feeling that

painful feeling keeps getting bigger and

bigger and bigger so what to do painful

feeling arises as soon as you notice

that painful feeling you use the six RS

which I haven't gone all the way through

yet but I will right now

you recognize that your mind has a

painful feeling in it you allow the

space for that painful feeling to be

there

don't keep your attention on it if you

keep your attention on a painful feeling

that painful feeling is going to get

bigger and more intense you relax that

tension and tightness in your head in

your mind as soon as you relax your mind

is clear your mind is bright and your

mind is

or why because we've let go of craving

now you have you have to bring up

something wholesome and that is smile

sounds odd a lot of Buddhists don't like

the idea that you're supposed to smile

but they're the ones that suffer the

most when you smile your mind becomes

light and you become very observant when

you smile it helps your mind to be more

alert bring that smiling mind back to

your object of meditation return and

repeat staying with that object of

meditation for as long as you can when

you do this over a period of time the

mot the amount of distraction becomes

less and less because you're improving

your mindfulness and the time that you

spend on your object to meditation gets

to be longer and longer as you stay on

your object to meditation you're my I'm

going to give you a definition of

mindfulness mindfulness is remembering

to observe how mind's attention moves

from one thing to another this is key

it's not trying to control anything it's

not trying to make anything different

it's just the observation mind that's

what mindfulness is mindfulness right

now is starting to be catch-all phrase

and nobody ever gives you a really clear

definition of

you're supposed to know what mindfulness

means but it's just like the word wisdom

everybody knows God what wisdom is it

means to be wise right

no whoops you can't use that word in the

definition what is wisdom wisdom is

developing the ability to see this

process and when you are able to see it

you can let go more quickly your your

mind naturally tends to become more

happy that's the whole point of the

meditation it's learning how to

naturally release and relax all of the

suffering that we do when we try to

control things we can't make things

happen the way they want to they're

going to happen the way they happen but

we can use the six RS and eventually

there is personality change towards the

positive because you're putting more and

more wholesome things in your mind and

when you put more and more wholesome

things in your mind things like

depression become weaker now this is a

kind of hindrance depression the last

thing you want to do when you're

depressed is to smile or laugh that's

the last thing you feel like doing and

that's the first thing you should be

doing you start smiling you start

laughing with yourself about how crazy

your mind is everybody's mind is crazy

when it has craving in it so there's a

big problem that we have because we keep

taking everything personally

this is my feeling this is my anger I

have a right to be angry because you're

causing me suffering and I'm going to

throw it back at you but the truth is

you are making yourself suffer by taking

these emotional upsets personally and

fighting with them you wind up saying

things that later you wish you hadn't

said you wind up doing things that you

wish you hadn't done this is how wars

start and it's war within yourself I

don't like this feeling I don't want it

there then you try to think the feeling

and then you come up with all kinds of

stories justifying what you do when you

have that kind of feeling arise in your

mind and you cause yourself suffering

and you guys other people around you

suffering because of that so what we

have to do is learn how this process

actually does work and then practice the

way to change almost everybody that

comes oh I say almost I have to I have

to say that because a lot of people are

born into Buddhism they don't have a

choice but everybody that really

understands what suffering is they start

looking for a way to let go of all the

pain they go through

and it's it's hard work it's not easy to

let go of this pain because we're

attached to it this is me this is mine

this is Who I am well did you ask that

painful feeling to come up

did you ask all of those thoughts to

come up and try to fight that painful

feeling well no not really

it's an impersonal process that we're

taking personally and that is the cause

of suffering when I give retreats in

Asia and particularly in particular

almost everybody that's practicing

Buddhism they know about the Four Noble

Truths and the first noble truth is

suffering and to them that translates

into everything is suffering and that's

not true the second part of the noble

truth is there is a cause of suffering

what is the cause of suffering craving I

don't like it

this is a painful feeling mental or

physical it doesn't matter I don't want

that feeling to be there clinging all

your stories about it and taking it so

personally this is my idea this is a way

it has to be because my my mind has told

me this over and over again that doesn't

necessarily mean it's true

what you have to do is understand that

there is another noble truth that's

really important and it's the most

important part the cessation of

suffering every time you use the six RS

and you relax that tension and tightness

your mind is clear your mind is bright

and your mind is pure there's no

thoughts in your mind at that time but

you bring that pure mind back to a

smiling mind that major mind becomes

even lighter and more alert and you

bring that smiling mind back to your

object of meditation which is for me

most of the time I'm teaching

loving-kindness meditation and that is a

good happy feeling in the center of your

chest it feels good and a lot of people

have a misunderstanding of what

meditation actually is the Buddha said

there's three parts to your meditation

you practice your generosity

you take somebody as your object of

meditation and you radiate a good

feeling to them but you can't radiate a

good feeling to them unless you have it

yourself so you make a wish for their

happiness and feel that happiness and

then give it away that's generosity

and I've already talked about the

precepts if you truly want to be

successful with your meditation you

absolutely have to keep your precepts

and this is some time not as some time

practice it's an all the time practice

just like generosity you want to give in

three different ways you give with your

your body helping somebody else so that

they don't have as much suffering you

give with your speech saying things that

make other people feel good about

themselves and feel happy and with your

mind so I just got through writing that

book life is meditation meditation is

life there's no part of your life that

you can't be meditating and what bhante

was bringing up that today at lunch the

word meditation is it's changed a lot of

ways that people think what meditation

actually is but the pali word is Bhavana

and Bhavana does not mean meant

meditation it means mental development

can you develop your mind so that you're

happy and wish other people happiness

while you're walking down the road if

you can remember to do it yeah of course

or when you're standing in line at the

store or doing whatever you're

practicing your generosity by giving

good feelings to people around you

intially and physically

and through your communication so this

is a kind of mental development that is

not not just about sitting on a cushion

this is about true change and

personality development a lot of people

that come here they're quite successful

with their practice they get to certain

levels of the meditation and all of a

sudden they they go home and they say

everybody's telling me that I'm a lot

more mellow than I used to be I don't

get so angry like I used to

well that's because you're changing

you're replacing replacing an old habit

with the new habit and the new habit

leads to happiness not only for you but

for other people around you and this is

Karma - what kind of mental actions or

verbal actions or bodily actions do you

do if you lead to the happiness of

yourself and other people around you you

can be rest assured that good karma will

come back to you if you break the

precepts you cause problems for other

people you have you want revenge because

somebody else did something to you you

can look forward to those kind of

problems happening over and over and

over again till you learned that that's

not the way to do it that is karma are

you sitting in meditation and a

hindrance comes up okay what you did in

the past

arises in the present so you have a

hindrance what you do with what arises

in the present dictates what happens in

the future you have a choice to make you

can fight with these thoughts and

feelings and take them personally and

get really caught up in emotional

nonsense stuff or not it's your choice

if you choose to fight with it and try

to control it and try to make it be the

way you want to be you're fighting with

the truth because this stuff arose it's

there that's the truth when a painful

feeling arises it's there anytime you

try to change the truth anytime you try

to control the truth anytime you try to

make the truth be the way you want it to

be that is a cause of suffering so you

have a choice fight with it have it come

back over and over and over again until

you learn that's not the way to do it or

you can start using the six RS and

letting it go and relaxing into these

things and a lot of people they're

absolutely shocked and surprised that

this really does work at all different

levels when you relax into things and

not take them personally let go and you

start going deeper into your practice

that's the way it works

how the hindrances as much as I would

talking about them in a negative way

actually are very necessary for your

practice of meditation the hindrances

are showing where your attachments are

where you're taking it personally

and then you use the six RS with the

hindrance at first come you've never

done any meditation before you might get

distracted for two or three minutes

before you notice it and then you've got

to use the six hours to come back to

your object to meditation and your mind

goes away again for a period of time but

as you become more familiar with using

the six R's the length of time that

you're distracted becomes less the

length of time your stand is saying with

your object of meditation becomes more

now as you allow the space for that

hindrance to be there and you relax into

it it starts to get weaker because

you're not trying to resist it you're

not trying to control it anymore

and as it becomes weaker it just doesn't

come up so often finally it disappears

when it disappears you have a very

strong feeling of relief and right after

that joy arises and you feel happy and

the joy will be there for a period of

time and then you will feel your mind

become very tranquil and peaceful and

your mind and your body become very

comfortable and your mind stays with

your object meditation for a few minutes

can be three minutes five minutes ten

minutes whatever now what I just

described to you is called a jhana in in

the Buddhist teaching and jhana means a

level of understanding what kind of

understanding did you gain from that

experience that this is part of an

impersonal process and you start

understanding more and more how to let

go of things that used to catch you and

cause suffering and you start letting

them go and they start fading away

that's how you purify your mind