From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=495itF-Xkl8

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

okay

the discourse tonight is going to be

suit to number 113.

the saporisa suta

the true man

now you've heard that you've heard in

other discourses when they talk about

a true man and you have to believe them

or not believe them and have faith in

them or not have faith in them this is

what a true man is

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living at sawati and

jetta's grove anna

park

there he addressed the monks thus monks

venerable sir they replied the blessed

one said this

monks i shall teach you the character of

a true man in the character of an untrue

man

listen and attend closely to what i

shall say

yes venerable sir the monks replied the

blessed one said this

monks

what is the character of an untrue man

here an untrue man who has given

who has gone forth from an aristocratic

family

considers thus

i have gone forth from an aristocratic

family

but these other monks have not gone

forth from an aristocratic family

so he lauds himself and disparages

others because of his aristocratic

family

this is the character of an untrue man

but a true man considers this

it is not because of one's

aristocratic family that states of greed

hatred or delusion are destroyed

even though someone may not have gone

forth from the aristocratic family

family

yet if he is entered upon the way that

accords with dhamma entered upon the

proper way

and conducts himself according to the

dhamma

he should be honored for that he should

be praised for that

so putting the practice

of the way first

he neither lauds himself nor disparages

others

because of his aristocratic family

this is the character of a true man

moreover

an untrue man who has gone forth from a

great family from a wealthy family

from an influential family considers

thus

i have gone forth from one of these

kinds of family

but these other monks have not gone

forth from these kinds of family

so he lauds himself in disparages of

others because of his influential family

this too is a character of an untrue man

but a true man considers thus it is not

because of one's influential family that

states of greed hatred or delusion are

destroyed what's greeted through greed

hate and delusion

those are

what are they but also states

yeah the first three tanks

though someone may not have gone forth

from an influential family yet if he has

entered upon that way the way that

accords with the dhamma

entered upon the proper way

and conducts himself according to the

dhamma he should be honored for that he

should be praised for that

so putting the practice

of the way first he neither lauds itself

nor disparages others because of his

influential family

this too is the character of a true man

so the whole thing comes down to and

this does happen in asia

somebody

comes from a wealthy family or an

influential family and they just kind of

shine other monks on

they just can

you're not worth talking to

that kind of attitude

one thing that's real amazing

is the more

intelligent they are

the less they have the tendency to do

that

like they give tests

um

for

for pali and

the vineyard rules and all of that sort

of thing

and the ones that turn out to be number

one in the country are quite often the

most humble

it's really kind of an amazing thing

when you get right down to it

moreover

an untrue man who is well known and

famous considers thus

i am well known and famous but these

other monks are unknown and of no

account

so he lauds himself and disparages

others because of his renown

this too is the character of an untrue

man

but a true man considers thus

it is not because of one's renown that

greeds of hate

of greed hate or delusion are destroyed

even though someone may not be well

known and famous

yet

if he has entered upon the way that

accords with the dhamma entered upon the

proper way and conducts himself

according to the dhamma he should be

honored for that

he should be praised for that

so putting the practice of the way first

he neither

lauds himself nor disparages others

because of his renown

this too is a character of a true man

when i got invited to go to the

the big temple in kuala lumpur i was

entered introduced to 3 000 people

and i was introduced as a famous monk

and he's the key shri dominant is

talking about a famous monk and i'm

looking to see where the other

which monks he was talking about i had

no idea

and i've never considered myself famous

i don't care about that sort of thing

moreover an untrue man who gains ropes

alms food resting place and requisites

of medicine

considers thus

i gain robes alms food resting place and

requisites of medicine

but these other monks do not gain these

things

so he lauds himself and disparages

others because of that gain

there's a

monks are incredibly generous

they

they have a lot of things given to them

and as a result they practice giving a

lot of things away

it's one of the hardest lessons to learn

when you become a monk because people

will give you things that you don't

really need or want

but you have to accept it so what do you

do with that afterwards

on

katina ceremony they

give robes to

monks

and at kuala lumpur

just

one katina ceremony i got 50 ropes

along with all the other stuff

what am i gonna do with all this stuff

that's that's burdensome

so what i've what i finally decided was

i was

accepting it as a member of the sangha

it's not my mind personally

and i talked with keshiri dominant and i

said are there monks that are poor that

need ropes that you know of

he said yes

and i generally ship all the ropes to

sri lanka

so the monks there have ropes so that

they can use them i said please add this

stuff too

but there were some things like there

was vitamins i might take a bottle of

vitamins but i got 25 of them

and

little things i might take a little bit

but

buy and large everything that i got i

was there for for

three katinas

and

i was there for two katinas

so i had a hundred robes and i had

all this other material stuff and it

just

had it distributed

and there's monks like in thailand they

they go from one katina to the next

katina to the next continuous so they

can

accumulate stuff

well i was a traveling monk

i accumulated books

i always had 100 kilos or 50 kilos of

books

but i certainly didn't want anything

else

and i was i was getting ready to go to

another country

and

uh a doctor came to check and make sure

that i was healthy

and the doctor said how many how many

ropes are you gonna take with you

you said three

well i couldn't travel that life i said

you don't have to carry it

yeah i

don't know

but a man considers thus it is not

because of gain

that greed the states of greed hate or

delusion are destroyed even though

someone has no gain

yet he has entered upon the weight

that accords with the dhamma entered

upon the proper way and

conducts himself according to dhamma

he should be honored for that he should

be praised for that so putting the

practice of the way first he neither

lauds himself nor disparages others

because of gain

this too is the character of a true man

an untrue man who is learned

who is expert in the discipline

who is

a preacher of the dhamma

who is a forest dweller

that means they they live exclusively in

the forest

the only time they come out is for homs

who is a refuge rag wearer during the

time of the buddha

the

cloth was deer

so the monks what they did was they went

to the terminal grounds because they

always

covered the body up with

white cloth when they brought it there

and then they wait for the family

members to come so there's pieces of

cloth around here and there

and they would take those and then they

would clean them very well and then they

would dye them and sew them together to

make their rope that's why it's called a

patchwork

rope

these days we don't have that problem we

got lots of

robes that are already

already made up

an alms food eater

and almost food eater only eats what's

been offered into his bowl

and that this is one of the

these these

last few little things

about being the forest well iron refuge

ragwear and alms food eater and and the

other ones these are called the dutongas

these are the special

extra discipline that you can do if you

want

and there's always advantages to doing

a tree root dweller that means that he

only he only stays at the roots of a

tree he doesn't sleep

in a hut

a charnel ground dweller a charnel

ground dweller is somebody's doing the

the meditation on

the

dissolution of the body

when you spend the night in eternal

ground or graveyard

you have a tendency to have dreams

of the people that have died before

and they can be real

real interesting dreams

and you will remember them when you wake

up

a continual sitter

what they're talking about here is that

you have

you have four postures

you sit you stand you walk

you lay down

what they're talking about continual

sitter is somebody that uses three

postures

there's three levels of

each one of these dutonga practices

the first level is by far the hardest

which means that

you never lay down

and

you sit

in meditation and sleep or you sit like

you're sleeping like like you're in

meditation and sleep

very difficult practice

you wind up sleeping a half an hour 40

minutes at the most and then you're

waking up because you slumped a little

bit you're really uncomfortable

then you get up and walk and if you're

still sleepy then you come back and do

that again

that's the hardest degree

the next degree is

leaning against a wall

i did that for about six months just to

see what it was like it was pretty

interesting

and

the next degree is sitting in a chair

but never lying down is somewhat

difficult

and after you do it for a while you have

so much physical energy is unbelievable

yeah that's what i'm talking about

anyway

and any bed user

so monks

travel from one place to another

quite often there are no there are no

cooties that they can use so they wind

up going into the meditation hall

sleeping on the floor

i've done that i have no idea how many

times

and i actually got in the habit of i'm

not real comfortable sleeping on a bed i

want to sleep on the floor i'm

comfortable on the floor

a one session eater

i'm a one session eater i just eat one

time a day

when he considers thus i'm a one session

eater but these other monks are not

one session eaters i went to a monastery

where they they were teaching monks how

to memorize the suttas

commentaries things like that

and they were young monks

everybody got up at five o'clock

you went out for almost

come back about 5 30 a quarter to six

you give them all of the food

and then they would prepare a meal

at about

quarter after six

and then

they had a meal about

8 30. and then they had a meal at 11

o'clock

but doing that much memorization

is incredibly

uh it takes its toll on your body

if you don't eat enough

there was a monk at mahasi center that

he was amazing he was he was memorizing

abida

he would come in

and he would he had a bowl that was

bigger than mine

he would fill it to the top

with rice and he'd put a little bit of

curry on it

and he would eat that bowl of rice

before i

moving very slowly

had my first diet of food i mean it

wasn't it was like three minutes

and he was done

he'd get up and walk out

and the monks that

that do that they wind up with

bad digestion because they're not

chewing their food at all they're just

swallowing and i don't i couldn't

imagine how anybody can eat that fast

but he did

i am a one session eater but these other

monks are not one session eaters so he

lodges himself and disparages other

others because of being a one-person

eater

and it's it's amazing like i go to

chicago

and go to the thai temple

and i sit down with them at breakfast

all i want is a cup of coffee and

they're continually trying to push food

at me

i don't want to eat i'm not hungry i

don't want any food

but

that's that's the style of being with

asians because food to them is real real

important

yeah

and when they

when they miss a meal

they suffer greatly

but a man considers thus

it is not because of being a one-session

eater that states of greed hatred or

delusion are destroyed

even though someone may not be a

one-session eater yet if he has entered

upon the way in accordance with that

dhamma

and entered upon the proper way and

conducts himself according to dhamma

you should be honored for that he should

be praised for that

so putting the practice of the way first

he neither loves himself nor disparages

others because of his being a

one-session eater

this is a character of a true man

now over here when it says

who is an expert in discipline in the

vineyard

there are monasteries where they really

really are strict with their vineyard

and the slightest little thing

they get criticized for making that

mistake

that's part of the training

but then when somebody comes from

outside

they see them do something that they

shouldn't

they don't they won't say anything about

it

now that's the proper way to practice

you

with when you're with somebody and

you're trying they're trying to learn

all of the different

of the six million rules

which there are i mean there's there's a

lot of rolls that are not in the 227

rolls

you have to have your fingernails

trimmed so that you look like this and

you don't see your fingernails

but i always grow my little fingernail a

little bit longer for digging around and

cleaning up the ears and that sort of

thing and i get criticized for it

yeah

you're breaking the rules sir

and i i got ready to leave this one

place and i took my bowl because i

didn't want to carry it on my shoulder i

took my bowl and put it in the suitcase

they criticized me for that

you always

if you're leaving a place your bowl is

supposed to be on your left side

and

when you go out for alms

ams food is always supposed to be on

your right

there's a little tiny things

that it's etiquette almost yeah it's a

kind of etiquette but it it's like

give me a break

you have to i think you have to be

careful not to start worshiping the

rules

that is true holy

place

and the monks that do that they get up

at four o'clock

in the morning and discuss

one tiny little rule

for two hours before they go out

so that gives you some of the idea

only so much time in a day

yeah

well but being the monk you haven't you

have the title

good time

okay moreover

quite secluded

from sensual pleasures comes

secluded from unwholesome states an

untrue man enters upon and abides in the

first genre

which is accompanied by thinking and

examining thought with joy and happiness

born of seclusion

he considers thus

i have gained the attainment of the

first jhana

but those other monks have not yet

gained the attainment of the first drama

so he lauds himself and disparages

others because of his attainment of the

first journal

this too is the character of an untrue

man

but a true man considers thus

non-identification

even with the attainment of the first

jhana has been declared by the blessed

one

for in whatever way they conceive the

fact is ever other than that

so putting

non-identification first he neither

lauds himself nor disparages others

because of his attainment of the first

jhana

this too is the character of a true man

it doesn't say that you don't talk about

it

it says that you don't look down on

other people because they haven't gotten

to that yet

yeah you know

i think one

part of that is

it and i hear people do it and it it's

doesn't it's not right to me that if

somebody's a kind of an advanced

meditator they'll say

oh i remember when i was in the sixth

genre like this and and they're talking

to some beginner

and it's just not

ever appropriate to

talk about that kind of stuff

no but when you run across somebody

that's in that that has that experience

then it is appropriate to talk about it

and one of the things that the

major rules that monks can break

is by saying that they're in a geno

without experiencing that job

that's bad bad

but there is a thing about that

they can overestimate where they are

you saw that this summer

so they think they're there yeah

and they in good faith they say it but

then they're wrong right they're they're

wrong so best and somebody that

understands that will say

you're overestimating your practice

you're not experiencing what you think

you're experiencing

and the reason that they aren't

experiencing what they think they're

experiencing is they might have had that

experience one time

but then they started letting go of the

practice and doing other things

so they don't continue on with the

practice

with the stilling of thinking and

examining thought an untrue man enters

upon and abides in the second genre

or with the fading away of joy he enters

upon and abides in the third genre

or with the abandoning of pleasure and

pain he enters upon and abides in the

fourth jhana

moreover

with the complete surmounting of gross

perceptions of form

with the disappearance of gross

perceptions of

disappearance

that's

sounds like absorption

yeah i i've talked to vikka bodie about

this and i said what you have down here

is misleading

so he spouted off the bali to me and i

said i don't care what the polly said

this is misleading

is not the complete this disappearance

it's

it's the

you have to say complete disappearance

unless contact is made

right and

leave it at that yeah

but it's not just any kind of perception

it's the gross perceptions

so there's a disappearance of the gross

perception of sensory impact yeah i can

go along with that

but there's still the subtle perception

of

the sensory impact that's available if

there is contact

and this this last sentence i completely

quite often i don't even say it

it says with the disappearance of

perceptions oops no

with the non-attention to perceptions of

diversity

i never knew what it meant but it sure

sounded cool

well

that says that if there's any change you

don't have any attention you don't know

that it's changing

okay well that's not right

sorry but it's just not right

aware

that space is infinite

an untrue man

enters upon and abides in a base of

infinite space and then he lodges

himself because he thinks he's hot stuff

moreover by completely surmounting the

base of infinite space aware that there

is consciousness

and so he experiences infinite

consciousness and this is a real

interesting state where you see

change

it's undeniable it's unavoidable

because you're seeing the arising and

passing away of individual

consciousnesses

you're seeing that there is no

oh this thought is a continuous thought

or the stream of thoughts is a

continuous thing or this site

is i'm continually saying no you're not

you're seeing and rising and passing

away very

very quickly and it looks like it's it's

a movie

but when your mind gets to this state

it's like

your your awareness becomes so sharp

that you see

the arising and passing away of each

individual consciousness

and it said all of the scent stores

including mind

so you see that and it gets tiresome

seeing that everything is in a state of

change

and you see

really really well that there is no

controller

you can't you can't control this you

can't make it stop

when a sound hits the ear you're gonna

you're gonna see all of those individual

consciousnesses arise and pass away

and you can't do anything about

not hearing something

so the whole thing is as you go deeper

into your practice

you start to see

the anitra duca and not uh

while you're in the practice

and you start thinking you're pretty

good

a lot of people are by that time they're

thinking that they're yeah i'm starting

to progress now i am saying this is real

interesting

but the way i teach i try to

impress on the students that the genres

are just levels of understanding

it's nothing to puff puff your chest up

and say i'm hot stuff because i could do

this

and as you understand really

understanding you start losing the want

to brag

so

uh

when people practice absorption

concentration they have a tendency to

brag about the states that they're in

we're

good

we did that a little bit

so did i so did

different than

what was experienced during papasana

well change is the same but you're going

to see it on a finer level

and you see change all the time

see what the people that practice

vipassana do is they they emphasize

like that's the end result that's really

where it's at

and

it's not

because you see anitra dukanata when

you're able to see the

links of dependent

origination you're seeing the four noble

truths and anichidukanata in every link

that's a bigger understanding oh yeah

i went to

a spirit rock to talk with

somebody there i went to see that i

wanted to show

camo what it was like there

and this guy came up and he started

talking to me and he said he practiced

he was a monk and he came back and

disrobed

now he was a teacher there at

spirit rock

and he had practiced with the powwow

monk

who has memorized the entire visudi maga

and he teaches exactly like it says in

the visual

so as we were talking along i kept on

talking about dependent origination

and he was starting to come around

and kama was talking to a female teacher

there

we were sitting in the same room

at exactly the same time

we both said

you can see one or all of the

characteristics of existence

without ever seeing dependent

origination

but when you see dependent origination

and the links in it

you will always see

the three characteristics of existence

and that was kind of odd because it was

like i was hearing an echo of what i was

saying

but after i got done talking with him

for a little while he and he had thought

that he had become a sodaponder

according to

what the powwow monk was teaching

and i asked him

very point blank about being able to see

the lengths of dependent origination

and he

wasn't able to see those he wasn't able

to see that

and i told him that the reason he wasn't

able to see it

was his mind was too one-pointed

i was too focused on just one thing

and if he wanted to be able to see the

length of dependent origination he had

to add one thing to his meditation and

that was

the relax step

that changes the entire meditation

finally we're getting ready to leave and

he said

you know

i think i ought to come practice with

you

and i said fine here's my card you want

to come practice you can

well why don't you try to teach here

too many people don't like me there

because of

reading what the buddha said

that makes me an outlaw there

because they're used to winging it and

coming up with

all kinds of psychological stuff and

stuff that really

there

we

we stopped in the meditation hall and

they were having a retreat

and this lady started

doing a guided retreat and loving

kindness

and a woman got up and ran out of the

meditation hall and went into the

the cloak room

and started blowing her eyes out

yeah

i i couldn't understand it

what did you just go through

you have to cry like that

interesting

moreover by completely surmounting the

base of infinite consciousness aware

that there is nothing an untrue man

enters upon

and abides in the basic nothingness and

lauds himself and thinks he's hot stuff

and i met a monk that had had

experienced that with absorption

concentration

great concentration

but

it was kind of a like

okay so what

you're talking about this you can go

this deep and what did you learn yeah

see the the realm of nothingness is

probably one of the most interesting

states of meditation that you can

experience

because

the vibration of your mind is very

little there's very little movement

and

there's all kinds of interesting things

that happen while you're in that state

and the amount of attention you use

on your object of meditation

is

you have to adjust

you just too much one way then you slip

off one way or the other you're either

going to have restlessness or

dullness

so what this state is all about is

learning how to

stay with your object to meditation with

the proper amount of

attention

so the same things i could deal with now

i'll be dealing with still like

oh yeah but this gets to be real fine

and it's just little tiny tweaks of

energy just paying a little bit more

attention to

staying with your objective

so it gets to be real interesting

and there's all kinds of

other neat stuff that you see

that you have to talk to me about that's

why you need to come every day you need

to talk to me okay

you can talk to camera you can talk to

these other people about what the

meditation is

but if you want to progress you come and

talk to me

because i'm their teacher

is there any particular time that would

be good for you to see him

well

round 10

moreover by completely surmounting the

base of nothingness

an untrue man enters upon and abides in

the base of neither perception or

non-perception

he considers thus i have gained the

attainment of the base of neither

perception or non-perception but the

other monks have not gained that

attainment

so he lodges himself and disparages

others because of his attainment in the

base of neither perception or

non-perception this truth is a character

of an untrue man

but a true man considers thus

non-identification

even with the attainment of the base of

neither perception

nor non-perception

has been declared by the blessed one

for in whatever way they conceive the

fact is ever other than that

what does that say

i can describe

very eloquently and precisely

what the realm of neither perception or

non-perception is

and it's not even close to the actual

experience

so the words that i use the concepts

that i use

they can help point you in the right

direction

but it's not close to the actual

experience

that's why

it's so important

that you go through all of these

different stages

so that you can see them and know them

without

jerry and rosa back

without

um

any question

because you

you got it

and the thing with intellectual

knowledge is

it is incredibly slow

okay intellectual knowledge just

you got to think up your concepts you

got to think up your words but when

you're experiencing something directly

it there's no faith that you have to

have

because you're seeing it for yourself

you know that this is real

so it's it's a real interesting

phenomena that what is a true man a true

man as somebody that goes through all

these experiences

without

looking down on other people

without consent without conceit that's

what we have to teach chris

so

the more you can

practice smiling practice your six hours

practice

going deeper into your meditation

the wiser you become

because you're starting to see how when

feeling arises there's craving there's

thoughts there's habitual tendency

there's birth there's suffering

and you start seeing that in all

different aspects of your life

so then you can start letting it go

that's what the whole point of the

meditation is about

and the reason that i insist that you

have the direct experience

is because

i can't convince you

to attain the ibana any other way

you have to go through all of this let

go of your own attachments

because everybody's attached in a little

different way

mine works in exactly the same way

but everybody because of their

experience

they get caught in one way or another

moreover

by completely surmounting the base of

neither perception or non-perception a

true man enters upon this is a and

abides in the cessation

of perception feeling and consciousness

and his taints are destroyed

by his seeing with wisdom

this mom does not concede

does not conceive anything he does not

conceive in regard to anything

he does not conceive in any way at all

why because he's becoming a hot

he didn't have wandering thoughts

anymore

that is what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so when i was giving talks in indonesia

i was telling people that if you come

and practice a week or two weeks with me

you'll get at least to the fourth

journal

boy that really woke him up

because

they were practicing one point of

concentration almost everybody does

this is one of the reasons that

reading from the suttas is so important

so you know who the real teacher is

it's not the guy that's reading it

the real teacher is the buddha

and the more you can follow his advice

the faster your progress becomes

the cheer samaritan

many suffering ones be suffering free

and the fierce drought fear and speed

may the grieving shed all grief and male

beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have thus acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

many beings inhabiting space and earth

davis and maggie's of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensations

you