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

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

good evening this is damasuke meditation

center in annapolis missouri welcome and

this evening

venerable vimala ramsay is going to do

a talk about

majima nakai number 19.

the dwindha vitaca sutta

two kinds of thought

and the date is february the

10th

2011.

okay

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawatee and

jettas grove anneth in pandika's park

there he addressed the monks thus monk's

venerable sir they replied the blessed

one said this

monks before my enlightenment

before my awakening

while i was still only

an unawakened bodhisattva

it occurred to me suppose that i divide

my thoughts into two classes

then i said on one side thoughts of

sensual desire

thoughts of ill-will

and thoughts of cruelty

i said on the other

side thoughts of renunciation thoughts

of non-ill will and thoughts of

non-cruelty

what are

thoughts of non-ill will

this is not a quiet time this is a time

to answer

thoughts of harmony and

possibly you can harm others

or

yourself what have been practicing today

okay that's non-ill will

what are thoughts of non-cruelty

lots of non-cruelty

is compassion

as i abided thus diligent ardent and

resolute

a thought of sensual desire arose in me

i understood thus

this thought of sensual desire has

arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction

to others affliction

and to the affliction of both

it obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nibana

any time in buddhist scripture where you

hear the word wise or wisdom it's

talking about dependent origination

in other words

how the process works

then i considered

when i considered this leads to my own

affliction it subsided in me

when i considered this leads to others

affliction it subsided in me

when i considered this leads to the

affliction of both

it subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nibana it subsided in me

whenever a thought of sensual desire

arose in me i abandoned it removed it

did away with it

as i abided thus diligent arden and

resolute a thought of ill will rose in

me

i understood thus

this thought of ill will has arisen in

me

this leads to my own affliction to

others affliction and to the affliction

of both

it obstructs wisdom causes difficulty

and leads away from nibana

when i considered thus this leads to my

own affliction it subsided in me

when i considered thus

this leads to others affliction it

subsided in me

when i considered this leads to the

affliction of both that subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nirvana it subsided in me

whenever a thought of ill will arose in

me i abandoned it removed it and did

away with it

as i abided thus diligent ardent and

resolute

a thought of cruelty arose in me

i understood thus

this thought of cruelty has arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction to

others affliction and to the affliction

of both

it obstructs wisdom causes difficulties

and leads away from nibana

when i consider thus

then we've got a dot dot dot

this

this leads to my own affliction

it subsided in me

when i considered this leads to others

affliction

it subsided in me when i considered this

leads to the affliction of both

it subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nibana

it subsided in me

whenever the thought of cruelty arose in

me

i abandoned it removed it did away with

it

now this is a very important sentence

whatever a person frequently thinks and

ponders upon that will be the

inclination of their mind

if

if one frequently thinks and ponders

upon thoughts of sensual desire

they have abandoned the thought of

renunciation to cultivate the thought of

sensual desire

when

their mind inclines to thoughts of sin

then their mind inclines to thoughts of

sensual desire

if one frequently thinks and ponders on

thoughts of ill will or cruelty he has

abandoned the thought of non-non-ill

will and non-cruelty

to cultivate the thought of ill will or

cruelty

and as mine inclines to

thoughts of ill will or cruelty

so what you constantly dwell on

that's the inclination of your mind

so your mind is going to incline to

think those kinds of thoughts

this is one of the reasons that when

you're sitting in meditation i tell you

don't get caught in the content of the

thought

if you get caught in the content of the

thought then

you're going to think it some more

right

so what do you do

when

distracting thoughts start to arise

right

in other words you let the content of

the thought be there without keeping

your attention on it

in order to be able to let go of your

attachments

to certain kinds of thoughts certain

kinds of feelings certain ideas certain

opinions

you have to stop feeding those

and you feed those thoughts

with your attention

okay so you let go of that then you

release it

and then any tension

in your head

in your mind

you've got to relax

and when you do that

there

is

a mind that is clear

a mind that is bright a mind that is

very alert and there's no thoughts in it

now

you smile and bring that mind back to

your object to meditation that's how you

purify your your mind

so it doesn't matter how many times a

certain kinds of thoughts come up

what do you do with that do you indulge

in those thoughts

do you try to keep those thoughts going

at the start of the meditation of course

you do

because you're not used to that and you

get caught and then you're caught for a

period of time

before

you go oh wait a minute let's 6-r that

now the six r's they're six steps in the

six r's

i wish i had another finger

but

you don't say

in your mind each one of those r's

the six r's are a flow

you recognize release relax smile come

back

it gets to be a flow

so you don't have to

mentally say each one of those steps

while you're doing it

okay

now what happens when you do that

well you've let go and you've purified

your mind

but because your attachment is strong

your mind is going to go back to that

because

in the past you thought and pondered on

that

situation that

opinion that idea

so you're going to be bouncing back and

forth for a little while

and that's okay

because every time you use the 6rs

you're improving your mindfulness a

little bit

before long you'll start to stay on your

object of meditation a little bit longer

the distraction doesn't last for as long

so

what you're learning how to do when you

practice this

is learn

learn how to think and ponder

on a wholesome object instead of an

unwholesome object

what's an unwholesome object

any thought that keeps your mind's

attention off the present moment

any thought that you identify with

you take personally

now you can be sitting and be

completely happy

alert

and all of a sudden anger comes up

now did you decide that it's time to get

angry

did you decide that

well i haven't been angry for all day i

might as well get angry now

of course not it arose because the

conditions were right for it to arise

what you do with what arises in the

present moment dictates what happens in

the future

now because you thought and pondered on

these kind of thoughts these kind of

ideas these opinions these concepts

in the past that's why they come up into

the present

now it's your choice what you do with

that

you can indulge in it just like you

always do

and get caught and make yourself even

more miserable

that's

your choice

or

you can change your old habit into a new

habit

and

you can

6r

and come back to your wholesome object

wishing your spiritual friend happiness

so

the more times you do that

the more you change your old bad habit

of indulging in thoughts and feelings

and opinions and all that other nonsense

which really it is nonsense

and

you start to develop a new habit

of having an uplifted mind

oh you heard me tell you last night i

want you to have fun with this

i don't want you to get serious with it

anytime your mind gets serious

who's serious with it

i am

who wants to control it

i do

who wants to make it stop or continue

either way

i do

now we're made up of five things

you have a physical body

there's feeling now this is not

emotional feeling this is just feeling

feeling is the pleasant feeling

or painful feeling or neither painful

nor pleasant

you have perception

perception is the part of your mind

that names things

you look at these dogs and you say black

okay perception

is the thing that called up

that

color

okay that has memory in it with it too

but it's a thing that names things

you have thoughts

you have consciousness

i'll tell you how any emotional feeling

works

every emotional feeling works this way

a painful feeling comes up

i don't like that painful feeling

i want it to be different than it is

and then you try to control the feeling

with the thoughts

now feelings are one thing and thoughts

are something else

they're not the same

and this is a habit that we get into

we get into trying to think our feeling

and make our feeling be the way we want

it to be

and that's the cause of more suffering

so what you want to do

is

you just did it

you're not supposed to be helping

helping she just laughs

look at how your mind feels when you

laugh

your mind feels light your mind feels

uplifted

the more you can bring joy up

your mind becomes very alert when you

have joy in it your mind becomes very

agile

and clear

and when your mind starts to get heavy

it's easier to notice that so you can

six-hour that and then have more joy

so having more joy in your practice

actually helps you out a lot

anytime you start taking things

seriously

you're causing yourself suffering

it's that simple

and it's your choice

you can get caught in trying to think

your feelings away

doesn't work but you can do it all you

want

you'll do it until you learn

that

you got to let go of those thoughts

they're just nonsense stuff coming

through

silky

wow

we we have trio dogs

that that snore at

different pitches

see why we keep them around

how does your mind feel

see when you start getting serious and

you start trying to control your

feelings with your thoughts

you're thinking and pondering

on an unwholesome object

because it's not the way i want it to be

now what you have to do

is first recognize that you're thinking

and let go of those thoughts and relax

bring up your smile

radiate some loving kindness to yourself

or to your spiritual friend

if your attachment is strong you'll keep

going back to it that's fine

do it again

it doesn't matter how many times your

mind gets distracted

doesn't matter at all

what matters is that you recognize it

you release it you relax you smile you

come back to your object to meditation

your object of meditation is your home

base

okay

always go home

going home means going back

to having that light mind

having that alert mind

having that mind

that isn't

identifying with the thoughts and

feelings when they come up

so the more times you can do that

the more you're changing your old habit

into a new habit

and the happier you become

simple right

not easy

but simple

the hardest part is

remembering

that's what mindfulness is

the function of mindfulness is to

remember

i read a

an article in a

buddhist magazine where they were trying

to define what mindfulness was

and this one teacher been teaching for a

long time he says

it's remembering to remember to remember

what in the world is that supposed to

mean

it's remembering to observe what your

mind is doing in the present moment

remembering to observe how your mind

moves from one thing to another and what

happens when it does that

so the more times you can

let it be relax smile and come back to

your object of meditation

the more you're letting go of your old

habits of thinking and acting

and a whole new world opens up

now sometimes there's people that come

here

and they're

pretty depressed

when they look at everything in the

world

it's kind of

black and white and gray

and after they're here for a little

while they start going

wow the colors are really good around

here

it's amazing

there's so many colors yeah why

because you stopped letting that

depression

you stopped owning that depression

you stopped

trying to think

your feelings

and when you do that the whole world

starts to open up

everything becomes easier

everything becomes more fun

and i know that there's an awful lot

especially vipassana teachers

that they don't want you to have fun

they don't want you to smile you're

supposed to know what suffering is

like

nobody actually does

but

you to suffer

get right in the middle of it indulge in

it as much as you can

david and i started meditating about the

same time he was actually a little bit

before me

and we had the same teacher

and we had to know what suffering was

and boy did we ever do it

he was a great teacher for that

we really suffered a lot

never did find out how you're supposed

to make it stop

yeah we never did know why

really

but the whole thing is

the reason that we suffer

is because we hold on to

opinions

and ideas

and concepts

we hold on to them tight

and when the world doesn't match that

then

we start trying to think it so it will

happen the way we want it

and thinking doesn't work this is not a

practice about thinking

we have to let go over thinking

and relax

and smile

and then notice that tight mental fist

that we have around that feeling we

don't like that feeling we don't want it

to be that way

or we do like that feeling and we don't

want it to stop

but

feeling is only a feeling it's just

pleasant or unpleasant

and it's okay for that feeling to be

there well but it's painful when it

hurts

yeah okay

so

it's just a feeling

and it's all right for that feeling to

be there

it has to be all right because that's

the truth when it hurts it hurts

so what you have to do is let go of the

tight mental hold

you know when a painful feeling comes up

it's like taking one of these red hot

coals and putting it in your hand and

you say you know that hurts

so what your natural inclination to do

is to squeeze it and squeeze it and

squeeze it and you go wow that really

hurts

well

yeah

so

open up and let it go

it's okay that it hurts

it's not yours anyway

you didn't ask it to come up

you didn't say well i haven't been paint

but i haven't been in pain for a long

time i really need to get into my pain

that's what we did

and we indulged in it

but the buddhist practice is not about

grabbing onto anything

it's about opening up and letting it go

and then there's a lot of relief in that

when you finally realize

these thoughts these opinions these

ideas

these memories

whatever it happens to be

it's okay for them to be there they're

not yours anyway

it's just part of a dream that happened

before

the only time you're really alive

is when you're in the present moment

there's no such a thing as a future

there's no such a thing as a past

there's only what we're doing right here

right now

but we get so caught up

in our thoughts in our feelings in our

memories in our desires for things to

happen the way we want them to

that we cause ourselves immeasurable

amounts of suffering

that's part of the human condition

so i'm teaching you not to be a human

anymore

i'm teaching you how to be awake

so that you can be in the present moment

and it's okay

present moment is wonderful

there's no problem being in the present

moment

it's when we lose our mindfulness

and get caught

by

past experiences

wants for the future to be the way we

want it to be the fears

the anxieties the depressions

the sadnesses

all of that stuff

isn't real

it's all made up because

those are where

i

am

and anytime you take those kind of

things personally

you can look forward to suffering

and you'll keep suffering over and over

and over and over until you finally

learn

it's not worth it let it go it's nothing

it's more fun to have fun

profound in it

and it sounds odd

and this is one of the things that most

teachers will not

ever

encourage

and it's to laugh

and this sounds odd

but when you laugh at how stupid your

mind can be

welcome to the human race we're all the

same

we all have our own little quirks and

our own little attachments or whatever

they happen to be

when we laugh at ourselves for getting

caught in this one

we're not caught anymore

you know there's a sadness that comes up

or this

fear or anxiety or

whatever the catch of the day happens to

be

when you laugh at yourself for being

caught

it goes from

i'm sad i'm anxious i'm afraid

to

it's only this sadness it's only being

anxious it's only this fear

do i want to hold on to that

got to be crazy for that one it's easy

to let it be

see what laughing does is it puts a

perspective

it changes your perspective from i'm

that

and

that happens to be this huge mountain of

problem

that's so big that you can't see over it

you can't see around it you can't get

underneath it

and it really gets kind of funny because

i have some students that come and tell

me i tried laughing it doesn't work

well that always works

it's not funny

well that's a fairy thing that makes me

laugh

look at how caught you are in that

it's okay to get caught

no problem

you can go away and be mad and

call me and no no good so and so because

i

laughed at you

and that's happened

but the whole thing is when you start

actually see how silly it is

that you're caught up in your

thoughts and opinions and concepts and

ideas and wants and desires and all this

stuff

it's really is funny

so when you laugh all of a sudden

that eye drops away

and then it's just these these different

kinds of thoughts well do i want to hang

on to that no it's painful okay

let it go

you ever had one of those kind of days

that

everything you tried to do

just wasn't right

yeah

today

and yesterday yeah and the day before

did you say it was the last five days

yeah the only way to stay safe was to

say this is ridiculous

it's really funny

so when you laugh all of a sudden

it turns into an okay day

it's all right

there used to be a song i don't remember

who did it

i remember it when i was a teenager and

it went something like

mama said there'd be days like this

my mother said there would be days like

i don't need you to sing it thank you

that's what it was my mother said

there'd be days like these

and what i what i got in the habit of

doing was when i had those kind of days

was bringing up that song and it always

made me laugh

yeah there's days like this

it's okay so what

and then everything starts working

when you're identifying with your

thoughts and feelings and taking them

personally everything is an emergency

it's horrendous mountains

but when you laugh all of a sudden you

see it's just this little tiny bump

no big deal so what

how much do you get caught up in your

thoughts how much do you start

identifying with your feelings how much

suffering do you cause yourself

meditating

teaches you

that

you don't have to make yourself suffer

for so long

you might get caught for a little while

one of my favorite stories is

a lady came when i was teaching in

malaysia she walked into the monastery

and as soon as she walked in i wanted to

walk out

she had so much anger and sadness and

frustration and

i was just amazing how much negative

energy she had

but she came to talk to me so i couldn't

run away

so i said what's happening and she said

well i'm married and i have three kids

the oldest one is just starting to be a

teenager

and then a couple of younger kids

and

my husband got mad at me

because i was always complaining

and he told me i'm not gonna talk to you

anymore

and he didn't

and it made her furious

so she said what am i supposed to do

with this

and i said well

why don't you try practicing some loving

kindness

so she said when am i supposed to do

that i don't have time i have three kids

two of them

go to school in the morning they're out

at lunch the other one goes to school at

one o'clock comes a

is out at six o'clock i have a job

i'm running around i'm doing all of

these things for my children i don't

have time to meditate

and say we'll meditate before they get

up

she said well maybe i'll be able to do

that i'll i can do that about 25 minutes

a day

and then they went she and her whole

family went uh

down to joho which is

right

close to singapore

but you have to have your passports to

get into singapore

she forgot the passports

but her husband didn't

so her husband said i'm going to go to

singapore and she wanted to go to

singapore

but she had no way of doing it she

didn't have her passports with her for

all the kids and everybody

so the husband went to singapore and she

held a grudge like you couldn't believe

she was mad about that for two weeks

and

i said you got to keep meditating keep

going keep going

you have to forgive him for

not meeting your expectation

you have to just let it be

so she kept practicing and he would do

some other kind of thing and really got

her ticked off and

he

she would stay mad instead of for

two weeks

she'd stay mad for

10 days

which is a major improvement

and as time went by he'd do something

else and she'd be mad for a week and

then it was

four days and then it was

one day

and over a period of time now this did

take time because she only did it for 25

minutes a day and she never took a

retreat with me

over a few years

the time that she was angry about things

that he did because he continued on

being the same turkey that he would

okay he kept on acting in the same way

and cutting her out of things and

just all kinds of nonsense stuff

but the time that she would stay angry

became less and less and less

and

finally

i was getting ready to leave and come

back here

and

she

she had her husband drive her to his

shop

she had to do something really quick

and then she was gonna

get it right back home

and she told him it's just gonna take me

five or ten minutes

i'll be be out in that time

and as soon as she got out in the car

and into the shop he took off

and she came back and he wasn't there

and she stayed mad for almost a minute

before she said well it's a nice day for

a walk

and she walked home

thankfully it was close enough that she

could do that

but she didn't hold the grudge

now over time

she let go of her hang her her

attachment to anger and ill will

and developed loving loving-kindness

so as she was walking she was sending

loving-kindness she wasn't thinking

about what a turkey was how

unthoughtful he was how nasty he was she

wasn't thinking about any of that she

let it go

now the meditation

will teach you what you think and ponder

on that's the inclination of your mind

but what this really teaches you is

that

you

cause

your own pain

okay

there's nothing out there that causes

your pain

what you think and ponder on that's the

inclination of your mind

if you think it didn't meet my

expectation the way i wanted it to

then

as you

carry on with the rest of your day how

many times does it come up

same words

same order just like it was on a tape

deck

i said this they said that

i should have said this

i'm right

they're wrong

and then

it fades away a little bit and then it

comes up again just like it's on a tape

deck any time you have repeat thoughts

who has an attachment

who is causing their own

pain

so you can do that all you want

it's up to you

or

you can let go of your strong desire

for things to be the way you want them

to be when you want them to be that way

and

stay in the present moment

now what happens if you get in a fight

it doesn't matter who you fight with

you both start talking at the same time

know that one

you know what you said but because you

were talking you didn't hear what they

said

one of one of my best friends

that just died a little while ago okay

sridamananda

people would get married and they'd ask

him to come and give them advice

and his advice was always this

never

talk at the same time

you listen to what the other person has

to say you don't say anything

and then when they get done you say

thank you very much and now you say what

you need to say

he said if you can do this one simple

thing

you're going to have a good life

together

because you're giving each other respect

you're giving each other

the space to blow stuff off

now it's funny there's a lot of students

that come around and all of a sudden

they come in stomping in and

this person did that now and they're

going on and on and i just sit there

and then i start sending them some

loving kindness

and before long they start calming down

and then they start talking without

yelling

and before long they're just

chit-chatting this or that

and before long then they say

well i really got to go i got to do this

or that

thanks reverend

and i didn't say anything

it happens

i can't take your pain away

your pain is your pain that's the truth

the definition of compassion is allowing

that other person to have their pain

but you love them no matter what

do you send loving and kind thoughts to

them

and

their emotional attachment becomes less

and less

and before long you're actually able to

communicate

i spent a lot of time going into

hospitals

people that

were close to death

and i always before i walk in the room i

always remind myself

whatever they're going through is theirs

i can't make it any different than what

it is

if i try to take their pain away all i

do is make myself

suffer

so it's okay for them to have that pain

and some of them were going through

major amounts

of physical pain

but as i keep my mind in balance and i'm

sending them loving and kind thoughts

their mind starts to come up to the

balance that my mind has

and

before long

we start giggling and laughing about

something

and all of a sudden their pain becomes

less and less

i used to be a carpenter

of sorts

and every now and then

holding a nail i'd miss

and i would hit my thumb

now when you have that kind of pain and

it's there and it's real

does it help for you to curse it and get

angry at it

and

stomp around and throw tools around and

that just makes that last longer

that makes that pain really really

intense

so i learned this

and what i learned to do

was

whenever pain arises in my body

i start sending loving kind thoughts to

that spot

why because it hurts

it wants loving and kind thoughts

i don't care if it's a headache i don't

care if you stub your toe i don't care

if you cut yourself i don't care if you

burn yourself i have all kinds of scars

on my hands right now because i burn

myself

but that's okay

as soon as i feel that

burn spot

i start sending loving and kind thoughts

there

that's what it's telling me

that pain is telling me

it needs love

and in no time at all

that pain disappears

so i hit my thumb

i look at that and go wow that was a

good one

okay stand loving kind kindness to it

good go back to work

pain goes away in a short period of time

and it heals faster

you can try this yourself especially

with a wood-burning stove

you

accidentally hit something is real hot

and it burns

get angry at that see what happens how

long does it take for that to heal

and the next time you do it

forgive that pain for being there start

sending loving-kindness to it how fast

does that heal

it's amazing the difference

you heal a lot faster when you send

loving and kind thoughts into the

situation

into a physical pain into any kind of

sensation

into any kind of emotion

why you're here

to learn how to do that

that's what the what the the whole

process is about

learn how you cause yourself pain

and stop doing that

learn what you worry about

and laugh with it

let it go

it's nothing it's only this it's only

some worry

i had a friend that

her husband

was going to have to go in for surgery

for

some kind of thing i don't remember what

it was a spleen surgery or something

like that

so i went to visit her the day before

the operation

he's already in the hospital and

and she says well

i you only stay a little well i i'm i'm

gonna be worrying until he comes out of

the

and i said why

you can cross that fence when you get to

it

don't project what you think is going to

happen

or worry about what might happen

that's just nonsense

daydreaming

so what you think can ponder on that's

the inclination of your mind

just as in the last month of the rainy

season in the autumn when the crops are

thickened

a cow herd would guard his cows by

constantly tapping and poking them in

the side

with a stick to check them and curb them

this is in asia where the all the fields

don't have fences

why is that

because he sees that if he he could be

flogged in prison fined or blamed if he

let them stray into the crops

so too

i saw in unwholesome states dangers

degradation and defilement

and then wholesome states the blessings

of renunciation the aspect of cleansing

as i abided thus diligent arted and

resolute

a thought of renunciation arose in me i

understood thus

this thought of renunciation has arisen

in me renunciation letting it go it's

not that important

we only make it important when we think

and ponder on it

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

nibana

if

i think and ponder upon this thought

even for a night

even for a day

even for a day and a night

i see nothing to to fear from it

but with this excess thinking and

pondering i might tire myself

and when the body is tired the mind

becomes strained

and when mind is strained it is far from

being collected

so i steady my mind internally quieted

it

brought it to stillness and collected

why is that

so

that my mind should not be

in

strained

words you come back to your object to

meditation

lightly

you don't use a loving kindness as a

stick to beat things away

just lightly have fun with this

as i abided thus diligent arden and

resolute a thought of non-ill will arose

in me or thought of non-cruelty arose in

me

i understood thus

this thought of non-ill will or

non-cruelty has arisen in me

this does not lead to my own affliction

or to others affliction

or to the affliction of both

it aids wisdom does not cause

difficulties and leads to nibana

if i think and ponder upon this thought

even for a day even for a night even for

a night and a day

i see nothing to fear from it

but with

excessive thinking and pondering

i might tire my body

and when my body is tired mind becomes

strained

and when mind is strained

it is far from being collected

monks

whatever a monk frequently thinks and

ponders a book upon that will become

the inclination of their mind

now

that makes me want to go to another suta

guess which one

okay

there are these five courses of speech

that others may use when they address

you

their speech may be timely or untimely

true or untrue

gentle or harsh

connected with good or connected with

harm

spoken with a mind of loving kindness or

with inner hate

when others address you their speech may

be timely or untimely

when others address you their speech may

be true or untrue

when others address you their speech may

be gentle or harsh

when others address you their speech may

be connected with good or with harm

when others address you their speech may

be spoken with a mind of loving kindness

or with inner hate

you should train thus

my mind will remain unaffected

and i shall utter no evil words

i shall abide compassionate for their

welfare

and with a mind of loving kindness

without inner hate

i shall abide pervading that person with

a mind imbued with lovingkindness

starting with him

i shall abide pervading the

all-encompassing world with a mind sim

abundant exalted immeasurable

without hostility and without ill will

that is how i should train

okay monks even if bandits were to sever

you savagely limb by limb with a

two-handled saw

he who gave rise to a mind of hate

towards them would not be carrying out

my teachings

that's pretty major

wherein you should train thus

my mind will

remain unaffected and i shall utter no

evil words

i shall abide compassionate for their

welfare

with a mind of loving kindness without

inner hate i shall abide pervading them

with a mind imbued with lovingkindness

starting with them i shall abide

pervading the all-encompassing world

with a mind imbued with loving-kindness

abundant exalted immeasurable without

hostility and without ill will

that is how i should train

monks

if you keep this advice on the simile of

the saw constantly in mind do you see

any course of speech

trivial or gross

that you could not endure

no venerable sir

therefore monks you should keep this

advice on the assembly of the saw

constantly in mind

that will lead to your welfare and

happiness for a long time

what do you think can ponder on

what do you want your mind to incline

towards

just as in the last month of the hot

season when all the crops have been

brought in

inside the villages a cow herd

would guard his cow while straying out

at the root of a tree or without any

open

since he needs only to be mindful that

the cows are there

so to their needs there was need for me

to be

mindful that those states were there

those uplifted states those happy states

tireless energy was aroused in me and

unremitting mindfulness was established

my body was tranquil and untroubled my

mind was collected and unified

quite secluded from sensual pleasures

secluded from unwholesome states

i entered upon and abided in the first

jhana

okay

suppose monks

that in the wooded range there was a low

great low fi fly low lying marsh near

which her herd of deer lived

then a man appeared desiring their ruin

harm in bondage

and he closed off the safe and good path

to be traveled joyfully and he opened up

a false path and he put out a decoy and

set it up and set up a dummy

so that the large herd of deer might

later come to 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 remind 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

a man desiring their ruin harm

and bondage

is a term for mara the evil one the

devil

the false path is a term for the wrong

way of going

the decoy

is a term for delight and lust

the dummy is a term for ignorance

the man desiring their good welfare and

protection as a term for the tatagata

that's what the buddha called himself

accomplished and fully awakened

the safe and good path is traveled

joyfully in the terms of the noble

eightfold path

so monks the safe and good path to be

traveled joyfully

has been reopened by me

the wrong path has been closed off the

decoy to remove 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

there are these roots of trees these

empty huts meditate monks do not delay

or else you will regret it later

this is my instruction to you

that is what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so

gives you an idea of how you need to not

get so involved in your thinking about

and taking it personally

they're just thoughts they're just

opinions they're just ideas they're just

concepts

so whenever you see that you're caught

up in that one you can't criticize

yourself for getting caught

okay you have old habits of course

you're going to get caught for a little

while until you get used to developing a

new habit

so you can't criticize yourself

you hear me

okay

be nice to yourself

you're one of the good guys

so

you let go and just turn this into a

game

okay my mind wants to play this one for

a little while fine it can do that

as you get used to recognizing when your

mind is distracted and let go of that

distraction and relax and smile and come

back

it gets easier because you get used to

those distractions

now the first day

of a meditation

is what i call

the meditation blues

because this is the hardest part of the

meditation is the first day

because your mind's still out there

thinking this thinking that just running

all over the place and it's hard

it gets easier i promise

the thing that you have to really

recognize is whether you're smiling or

not and if you're not smiling i don't

care whether you feel like it or not

smile

there's an interesting study that was

done not too long ago a few years

on what happens to your mind when you

smile

and the study

was talking about even if your mind

uh

is unhappy for whatever reason

or depressed

and you put a smile on your lips

your mind looks down and said i'm

smiling

i must be feeling better than i really

feel

so let's go with the depression

the corners of your mouth are real

important

when they go up so does your mental

state

when they go down

so does your mental state

smile more

lightly do this meditation

now i prefer that you do the meditation

in the dhamma hall

in here

and when you leave your cabin as much of

a pain in the neck as it is you have to

turn the heater off because it's really

expensive

things are getting more expensive all

the time

so we want to conserve that as much as

we can you can turn these these

highlights off and then the lights

around here is it's a nice light to sit

in

yeah don't shut it off all the way turn

it just turn it down so the little pilot

light is lit okay

yeah

keep your meditation going all the time

when you're walking when you're sitting

cut down on the amount of talking

okay

you can compare notes later

you're only going to be here for a few

days so i want you to have the best

benefit you can

okay

when do you have to leave sunday

how far is franklin from here

so i was

you'll have a thinking better drive home

it's supposed to be beautiful sunday

sunday or monday

both

we're gonna have like three days and 50s

oh and above freezing

in town today they said sunday was going

to be way low again there's going to be

a week where it doesn't get below

freezing

i've never seen according to the

forecast

what a bunch of rookies

night was

i had to keep my blankets on all night

almost see my breath

minus

and i put my coat on and i went to bed

so do you have any questions

don't be shy

it sounds like the chinese

okay let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and naga's of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhist

dispensation

you

good evening this is damasuke meditation

center in annapolis missouri welcome and

this evening

venerable vimala ramsay is going to do

a talk about

majima nakai number 19.

the dwindha vitaca sutta

two kinds of thought

and the date is february the

10th

2011.

okay

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawatee and

jettas grove anneth in pandika's park

there he addressed the monks thus monk's

venerable sir they replied the blessed

one said this

monks before my enlightenment

before my awakening

while i was still only

an unawakened bodhisattva

it occurred to me suppose that i divide

my thoughts into two classes

then i said on one side thoughts of

sensual desire

thoughts of ill-will

and thoughts of cruelty

i said on the other

side thoughts of renunciation thoughts

of non-ill will and thoughts of

non-cruelty

what are

thoughts of non-ill will

this is not a quiet time this is a time

to answer

thoughts of harmony and

possibly you can harm others

or

yourself what have been practicing today

okay that's non-ill will

what are thoughts of non-cruelty

lots of non-cruelty

is compassion

as i abided thus diligent ardent and

resolute

a thought of sensual desire arose in me

i understood thus

this thought of sensual desire has

arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction

to others affliction

and to the affliction of both

it obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nibana

any time in buddhist scripture where you

hear the word wise or wisdom it's

talking about dependent origination

in other words

how the process works

then i considered

when i considered this leads to my own

affliction it subsided in me

when i considered this leads to others

affliction it subsided in me

when i considered this leads to the

affliction of both

it subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nibana it subsided in me

whenever a thought of sensual desire

arose in me i abandoned it removed it

did away with it

as i abided thus diligent arden and

resolute a thought of ill will rose in

me

i understood thus

this thought of ill will has arisen in

me

this leads to my own affliction to

others affliction and to the affliction

of both

it obstructs wisdom causes difficulty

and leads away from nibana

when i considered thus this leads to my

own affliction it subsided in me

when i considered thus

this leads to others affliction it

subsided in me

when i considered this leads to the

affliction of both that subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nirvana it subsided in me

whenever a thought of ill will arose in

me i abandoned it removed it and did

away with it

as i abided thus diligent ardent and

resolute

a thought of cruelty arose in me

i understood thus

this thought of cruelty has arisen in me

this leads to my own affliction to

others affliction and to the affliction

of both

it obstructs wisdom causes difficulties

and leads away from nibana

when i consider thus

then we've got a dot dot dot

this

this leads to my own affliction

it subsided in me

when i considered this leads to others

affliction

it subsided in me when i considered this

leads to the affliction of both

it subsided in me

when i considered this obstructs wisdom

causes difficulty and leads away from

nibana

it subsided in me

whenever the thought of cruelty arose in

me

i abandoned it removed it did away with

it

now this is a very important sentence

whatever a person frequently thinks and

ponders upon that will be the

inclination of their mind

if

if one frequently thinks and ponders

upon thoughts of sensual desire

they have abandoned the thought of

renunciation to cultivate the thought of

sensual desire

when

their mind inclines to thoughts of sin

then their mind inclines to thoughts of

sensual desire

if one frequently thinks and ponders on

thoughts of ill will or cruelty he has

abandoned the thought of non-non-ill

will and non-cruelty

to cultivate the thought of ill will or

cruelty

and as mine inclines to

thoughts of ill will or cruelty

so what you constantly dwell on

that's the inclination of your mind

so your mind is going to incline to

think those kinds of thoughts

this is one of the reasons that when

you're sitting in meditation i tell you

don't get caught in the content of the

thought

if you get caught in the content of the

thought then

you're going to think it some more

right

so what do you do

when

distracting thoughts start to arise

right

in other words you let the content of

the thought be there without keeping

your attention on it

in order to be able to let go of your

attachments

to certain kinds of thoughts certain

kinds of feelings certain ideas certain

opinions

you have to stop feeding those

and you feed those thoughts

with your attention

okay so you let go of that then you

release it

and then any tension

in your head

in your mind

you've got to relax

and when you do that

there

is

a mind that is clear

a mind that is bright a mind that is

very alert and there's no thoughts in it

now

you smile and bring that mind back to

your object to meditation that's how you

purify your your mind

so it doesn't matter how many times a

certain kinds of thoughts come up

what do you do with that do you indulge

in those thoughts

do you try to keep those thoughts going

at the start of the meditation of course

you do

because you're not used to that and you

get caught and then you're caught for a

period of time

before

you go oh wait a minute let's 6-r that

now the six r's they're six steps in the

six r's

i wish i had another finger

but

you don't say

in your mind each one of those r's

the six r's are a flow

you recognize release relax smile come

back

it gets to be a flow

so you don't have to

mentally say each one of those steps

while you're doing it

okay

now what happens when you do that

well you've let go and you've purified

your mind

but because your attachment is strong

your mind is going to go back to that

because

in the past you thought and pondered on

that

situation that

opinion that idea

so you're going to be bouncing back and

forth for a little while

and that's okay

because every time you use the 6rs

you're improving your mindfulness a

little bit

before long you'll start to stay on your

object of meditation a little bit longer

the distraction doesn't last for as long

so

what you're learning how to do when you

practice this

is learn

learn how to think and ponder

on a wholesome object instead of an

unwholesome object

what's an unwholesome object

any thought that keeps your mind's

attention off the present moment

any thought that you identify with

you take personally

now you can be sitting and be

completely happy

alert

and all of a sudden anger comes up

now did you decide that it's time to get

angry

did you decide that

well i haven't been angry for all day i

might as well get angry now

of course not it arose because the

conditions were right for it to arise

what you do with what arises in the

present moment dictates what happens in

the future

now because you thought and pondered on

these kind of thoughts these kind of

ideas these opinions these concepts

in the past that's why they come up into

the present

now it's your choice what you do with

that

you can indulge in it just like you

always do

and get caught and make yourself even

more miserable

that's

your choice

or

you can change your old habit into a new

habit

and

you can

6r

and come back to your wholesome object

wishing your spiritual friend happiness

so

the more times you do that

the more you change your old bad habit

of indulging in thoughts and feelings

and opinions and all that other nonsense

which really it is nonsense

and

you start to develop a new habit

of having an uplifted mind

oh you heard me tell you last night i

want you to have fun with this

i don't want you to get serious with it

anytime your mind gets serious

who's serious with it

i am

who wants to control it

i do

who wants to make it stop or continue

either way

i do

now we're made up of five things

you have a physical body

there's feeling now this is not

emotional feeling this is just feeling

feeling is the pleasant feeling

or painful feeling or neither painful

nor pleasant

you have perception

perception is the part of your mind

that names things

you look at these dogs and you say black

okay perception

is the thing that called up

that

color

okay that has memory in it with it too

but it's a thing that names things

you have thoughts

you have consciousness

i'll tell you how any emotional feeling

works

every emotional feeling works this way

a painful feeling comes up

i don't like that painful feeling

i want it to be different than it is

and then you try to control the feeling

with the thoughts

now feelings are one thing and thoughts

are something else

they're not the same

and this is a habit that we get into

we get into trying to think our feeling

and make our feeling be the way we want

it to be

and that's the cause of more suffering

so what you want to do

is

you just did it

you're not supposed to be helping

helping she just laughs

look at how your mind feels when you

laugh

your mind feels light your mind feels

uplifted

the more you can bring joy up

your mind becomes very alert when you

have joy in it your mind becomes very

agile

and clear

and when your mind starts to get heavy

it's easier to notice that so you can

six-hour that and then have more joy

so having more joy in your practice

actually helps you out a lot

anytime you start taking things

seriously

you're causing yourself suffering

it's that simple

and it's your choice

you can get caught in trying to think

your feelings away

doesn't work but you can do it all you

want

you'll do it until you learn

that

you got to let go of those thoughts

they're just nonsense stuff coming

through

silky

wow

we we have trio dogs

that that snore at

different pitches

see why we keep them around

how does your mind feel

see when you start getting serious and

you start trying to control your

feelings with your thoughts

you're thinking and pondering

on an unwholesome object

because it's not the way i want it to be

now what you have to do

is first recognize that you're thinking

and let go of those thoughts and relax

bring up your smile

radiate some loving kindness to yourself

or to your spiritual friend

if your attachment is strong you'll keep

going back to it that's fine

do it again

it doesn't matter how many times your

mind gets distracted

doesn't matter at all

what matters is that you recognize it

you release it you relax you smile you

come back to your object to meditation

your object of meditation is your home

base

okay

always go home

going home means going back

to having that light mind

having that alert mind

having that mind

that isn't

identifying with the thoughts and

feelings when they come up

so the more times you can do that

the more you're changing your old habit

into a new habit

and the happier you become

simple right

not easy

but simple

the hardest part is

remembering

that's what mindfulness is

the function of mindfulness is to

remember

i read a

an article in a

buddhist magazine where they were trying

to define what mindfulness was

and this one teacher been teaching for a

long time he says

it's remembering to remember to remember

what in the world is that supposed to

mean

it's remembering to observe what your

mind is doing in the present moment

remembering to observe how your mind

moves from one thing to another and what

happens when it does that

so the more times you can

let it be relax smile and come back to

your object of meditation

the more you're letting go of your old

habits of thinking and acting

and a whole new world opens up

now sometimes there's people that come

here

and they're

pretty depressed

when they look at everything in the

world

it's kind of

black and white and gray

and after they're here for a little

while they start going

wow the colors are really good around

here

it's amazing

there's so many colors yeah why

because you stopped letting that

depression

you stopped owning that depression

you stopped

trying to think

your feelings

and when you do that the whole world

starts to open up

everything becomes easier

everything becomes more fun

and i know that there's an awful lot

especially vipassana teachers

that they don't want you to have fun

they don't want you to smile you're

supposed to know what suffering is

like

nobody actually does

but

you to suffer

get right in the middle of it indulge in

it as much as you can

david and i started meditating about the

same time he was actually a little bit

before me

and we had the same teacher

and we had to know what suffering was

and boy did we ever do it

he was a great teacher for that

we really suffered a lot

never did find out how you're supposed

to make it stop

yeah we never did know why

really

but the whole thing is

the reason that we suffer

is because we hold on to

opinions

and ideas

and concepts

we hold on to them tight

and when the world doesn't match that

then

we start trying to think it so it will

happen the way we want it

and thinking doesn't work this is not a

practice about thinking

we have to let go over thinking

and relax

and smile

and then notice that tight mental fist

that we have around that feeling we

don't like that feeling we don't want it

to be that way

or we do like that feeling and we don't

want it to stop

but

feeling is only a feeling it's just

pleasant or unpleasant

and it's okay for that feeling to be

there well but it's painful when it

hurts

yeah okay

so

it's just a feeling

and it's all right for that feeling to

be there

it has to be all right because that's

the truth when it hurts it hurts

so what you have to do is let go of the

tight mental hold

you know when a painful feeling comes up

it's like taking one of these red hot

coals and putting it in your hand and

you say you know that hurts

so what your natural inclination to do

is to squeeze it and squeeze it and

squeeze it and you go wow that really

hurts

well

yeah

so

open up and let it go

it's okay that it hurts

it's not yours anyway

you didn't ask it to come up

you didn't say well i haven't been paint

but i haven't been in pain for a long

time i really need to get into my pain

that's what we did

and we indulged in it

but the buddhist practice is not about

grabbing onto anything

it's about opening up and letting it go

and then there's a lot of relief in that

when you finally realize

these thoughts these opinions these

ideas

these memories

whatever it happens to be

it's okay for them to be there they're

not yours anyway

it's just part of a dream that happened

before

the only time you're really alive

is when you're in the present moment

there's no such a thing as a future

there's no such a thing as a past

there's only what we're doing right here

right now

but we get so caught up

in our thoughts in our feelings in our

memories in our desires for things to

happen the way we want them to

that we cause ourselves immeasurable

amounts of suffering

that's part of the human condition

so i'm teaching you not to be a human

anymore

i'm teaching you how to be awake

so that you can be in the present moment

and it's okay

present moment is wonderful

there's no problem being in the present

moment

it's when we lose our mindfulness

and get caught

by

past experiences

wants for the future to be the way we

want it to be the fears

the anxieties the depressions

the sadnesses

all of that stuff

isn't real

it's all made up because

those are where

i

am

and anytime you take those kind of

things personally

you can look forward to suffering

and you'll keep suffering over and over

and over and over until you finally

learn

it's not worth it let it go it's nothing

it's more fun to have fun

profound in it

and it sounds odd

and this is one of the things that most

teachers will not

ever

encourage

and it's to laugh

and this sounds odd

but when you laugh at how stupid your

mind can be

welcome to the human race we're all the

same

we all have our own little quirks and

our own little attachments or whatever

they happen to be

when we laugh at ourselves for getting

caught in this one

we're not caught anymore

you know there's a sadness that comes up

or this

fear or anxiety or

whatever the catch of the day happens to

be

when you laugh at yourself for being

caught

it goes from

i'm sad i'm anxious i'm afraid

to

it's only this sadness it's only being

anxious it's only this fear

do i want to hold on to that

got to be crazy for that one it's easy

to let it be

see what laughing does is it puts a

perspective

it changes your perspective from i'm

that

and

that happens to be this huge mountain of

problem

that's so big that you can't see over it

you can't see around it you can't get

underneath it

and it really gets kind of funny because

i have some students that come and tell

me i tried laughing it doesn't work

well that always works

it's not funny

well that's a fairy thing that makes me

laugh

look at how caught you are in that

it's okay to get caught

no problem

you can go away and be mad and

call me and no no good so and so because

i

laughed at you

and that's happened

but the whole thing is when you start

actually see how silly it is

that you're caught up in your

thoughts and opinions and concepts and

ideas and wants and desires and all this

stuff

it's really is funny

so when you laugh all of a sudden

that eye drops away

and then it's just these these different

kinds of thoughts well do i want to hang

on to that no it's painful okay

let it go

you ever had one of those kind of days

that

everything you tried to do

just wasn't right

yeah

today

and yesterday yeah and the day before

did you say it was the last five days

yeah the only way to stay safe was to

say this is ridiculous

it's really funny

so when you laugh all of a sudden

it turns into an okay day

it's all right

there used to be a song i don't remember

who did it

i remember it when i was a teenager and

it went something like

mama said there'd be days like this

my mother said there would be days like

i don't need you to sing it thank you

that's what it was my mother said

there'd be days like these

and what i what i got in the habit of

doing was when i had those kind of days

was bringing up that song and it always

made me laugh

yeah there's days like this

it's okay so what

and then everything starts working

when you're identifying with your

thoughts and feelings and taking them

personally everything is an emergency

it's horrendous mountains

but when you laugh all of a sudden you

see it's just this little tiny bump

no big deal so what

how much do you get caught up in your

thoughts how much do you start

identifying with your feelings how much

suffering do you cause yourself

meditating

teaches you

that

you don't have to make yourself suffer

for so long

you might get caught for a little while

one of my favorite stories is

a lady came when i was teaching in

malaysia she walked into the monastery

and as soon as she walked in i wanted to

walk out

she had so much anger and sadness and

frustration and

i was just amazing how much negative

energy she had

but she came to talk to me so i couldn't

run away

so i said what's happening and she said

well i'm married and i have three kids

the oldest one is just starting to be a

teenager

and then a couple of younger kids

and

my husband got mad at me

because i was always complaining

and he told me i'm not gonna talk to you

anymore

and he didn't

and it made her furious

so she said what am i supposed to do

with this

and i said well

why don't you try practicing some loving

kindness

so she said when am i supposed to do

that i don't have time i have three kids

two of them

go to school in the morning they're out

at lunch the other one goes to school at

one o'clock comes a

is out at six o'clock i have a job

i'm running around i'm doing all of

these things for my children i don't

have time to meditate

and say we'll meditate before they get

up

she said well maybe i'll be able to do

that i'll i can do that about 25 minutes

a day

and then they went she and her whole

family went uh

down to joho which is

right

close to singapore

but you have to have your passports to

get into singapore

she forgot the passports

but her husband didn't

so her husband said i'm going to go to

singapore and she wanted to go to

singapore

but she had no way of doing it she

didn't have her passports with her for

all the kids and everybody

so the husband went to singapore and she

held a grudge like you couldn't believe

she was mad about that for two weeks

and

i said you got to keep meditating keep

going keep going

you have to forgive him for

not meeting your expectation

you have to just let it be

so she kept practicing and he would do

some other kind of thing and really got

her ticked off and

he

she would stay mad instead of for

two weeks

she'd stay mad for

10 days

which is a major improvement

and as time went by he'd do something

else and she'd be mad for a week and

then it was

four days and then it was

one day

and over a period of time now this did

take time because she only did it for 25

minutes a day and she never took a

retreat with me

over a few years

the time that she was angry about things

that he did because he continued on

being the same turkey that he would

okay he kept on acting in the same way

and cutting her out of things and

just all kinds of nonsense stuff

but the time that she would stay angry

became less and less and less

and

finally

i was getting ready to leave and come

back here

and

she

she had her husband drive her to his

shop

she had to do something really quick

and then she was gonna

get it right back home

and she told him it's just gonna take me

five or ten minutes

i'll be be out in that time

and as soon as she got out in the car

and into the shop he took off

and she came back and he wasn't there

and she stayed mad for almost a minute

before she said well it's a nice day for

a walk

and she walked home

thankfully it was close enough that she

could do that

but she didn't hold the grudge

now over time

she let go of her hang her her

attachment to anger and ill will

and developed loving loving-kindness

so as she was walking she was sending

loving-kindness she wasn't thinking

about what a turkey was how

unthoughtful he was how nasty he was she

wasn't thinking about any of that she

let it go

now the meditation

will teach you what you think and ponder

on that's the inclination of your mind

but what this really teaches you is

that

you

cause

your own pain

okay

there's nothing out there that causes

your pain

what you think and ponder on that's the

inclination of your mind

if you think it didn't meet my

expectation the way i wanted it to

then

as you

carry on with the rest of your day how

many times does it come up

same words

same order just like it was on a tape

deck

i said this they said that

i should have said this

i'm right

they're wrong

and then

it fades away a little bit and then it

comes up again just like it's on a tape

deck any time you have repeat thoughts

who has an attachment

who is causing their own

pain

so you can do that all you want

it's up to you

or

you can let go of your strong desire

for things to be the way you want them

to be when you want them to be that way

and

stay in the present moment

now what happens if you get in a fight

it doesn't matter who you fight with

you both start talking at the same time

know that one

you know what you said but because you

were talking you didn't hear what they

said

one of one of my best friends

that just died a little while ago okay

sridamananda

people would get married and they'd ask

him to come and give them advice

and his advice was always this

never

talk at the same time

you listen to what the other person has

to say you don't say anything

and then when they get done you say

thank you very much and now you say what

you need to say

he said if you can do this one simple

thing

you're going to have a good life

together

because you're giving each other respect

you're giving each other

the space to blow stuff off

now it's funny there's a lot of students

that come around and all of a sudden

they come in stomping in and

this person did that now and they're

going on and on and i just sit there

and then i start sending them some

loving kindness

and before long they start calming down

and then they start talking without

yelling

and before long they're just

chit-chatting this or that

and before long then they say

well i really got to go i got to do this

or that

thanks reverend

and i didn't say anything

it happens

i can't take your pain away

your pain is your pain that's the truth

the definition of compassion is allowing

that other person to have their pain

but you love them no matter what

do you send loving and kind thoughts to

them

and

their emotional attachment becomes less

and less

and before long you're actually able to

communicate

i spent a lot of time going into

hospitals

people that

were close to death

and i always before i walk in the room i

always remind myself

whatever they're going through is theirs

i can't make it any different than what

it is

if i try to take their pain away all i

do is make myself

suffer

so it's okay for them to have that pain

and some of them were going through

major amounts

of physical pain

but as i keep my mind in balance and i'm

sending them loving and kind thoughts

their mind starts to come up to the

balance that my mind has

and

before long

we start giggling and laughing about

something

and all of a sudden their pain becomes

less and less

i used to be a carpenter

of sorts

and every now and then

holding a nail i'd miss

and i would hit my thumb

now when you have that kind of pain and

it's there and it's real

does it help for you to curse it and get

angry at it

and

stomp around and throw tools around and

that just makes that last longer

that makes that pain really really

intense

so i learned this

and what i learned to do

was

whenever pain arises in my body

i start sending loving kind thoughts to

that spot

why because it hurts

it wants loving and kind thoughts

i don't care if it's a headache i don't

care if you stub your toe i don't care

if you cut yourself i don't care if you

burn yourself i have all kinds of scars

on my hands right now because i burn

myself

but that's okay

as soon as i feel that

burn spot

i start sending loving and kind thoughts

there

that's what it's telling me

that pain is telling me

it needs love

and in no time at all

that pain disappears

so i hit my thumb

i look at that and go wow that was a

good one

okay stand loving kind kindness to it

good go back to work

pain goes away in a short period of time

and it heals faster

you can try this yourself especially

with a wood-burning stove

you

accidentally hit something is real hot

and it burns

get angry at that see what happens how

long does it take for that to heal

and the next time you do it

forgive that pain for being there start

sending loving-kindness to it how fast

does that heal

it's amazing the difference

you heal a lot faster when you send

loving and kind thoughts into the

situation

into a physical pain into any kind of

sensation

into any kind of emotion

why you're here

to learn how to do that

that's what the what the the whole

process is about

learn how you cause yourself pain

and stop doing that

learn what you worry about

and laugh with it

let it go

it's nothing it's only this it's only

some worry

i had a friend that

her husband

was going to have to go in for surgery

for

some kind of thing i don't remember what

it was a spleen surgery or something

like that

so i went to visit her the day before

the operation

he's already in the hospital and

and she says well

i you only stay a little well i i'm i'm

gonna be worrying until he comes out of

the

and i said why

you can cross that fence when you get to

it

don't project what you think is going to

happen

or worry about what might happen

that's just nonsense

daydreaming

so what you think can ponder on that's

the inclination of your mind

just as in the last month of the rainy

season in the autumn when the crops are

thickened

a cow herd would guard his cows by

constantly tapping and poking them in

the side

with a stick to check them and curb them

this is in asia where the all the fields

don't have fences

why is that

because he sees that if he he could be

flogged in prison fined or blamed if he

let them stray into the crops

so too

i saw in unwholesome states dangers

degradation and defilement

and then wholesome states the blessings

of renunciation the aspect of cleansing

as i abided thus diligent arted and

resolute

a thought of renunciation arose in me i

understood thus

this thought of renunciation has arisen

in me renunciation letting it go it's

not that important

we only make it important when we think

and ponder on it

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

nibana

if

i think and ponder upon this thought

even for a night

even for a day

even for a day and a night

i see nothing to to fear from it

but with this excess thinking and

pondering i might tire myself

and when the body is tired the mind

becomes strained

and when mind is strained it is far from

being collected

so i steady my mind internally quieted

it

brought it to stillness and collected

why is that

so

that my mind should not be

in

strained

words you come back to your object to

meditation

lightly

you don't use a loving kindness as a

stick to beat things away

just lightly have fun with this

as i abided thus diligent arden and

resolute a thought of non-ill will arose

in me or thought of non-cruelty arose in

me

i understood thus

this thought of non-ill will or

non-cruelty has arisen in me

this does not lead to my own affliction

or to others affliction

or to the affliction of both

it aids wisdom does not cause

difficulties and leads to nibana

if i think and ponder upon this thought

even for a day even for a night even for

a night and a day

i see nothing to fear from it

but with

excessive thinking and pondering

i might tire my body

and when my body is tired mind becomes

strained

and when mind is strained

it is far from being collected

monks

whatever a monk frequently thinks and

ponders a book upon that will become

the inclination of their mind

now

that makes me want to go to another suta

guess which one

okay

there are these five courses of speech

that others may use when they address

you

their speech may be timely or untimely

true or untrue

gentle or harsh

connected with good or connected with

harm

spoken with a mind of loving kindness or

with inner hate

when others address you their speech may

be timely or untimely

when others address you their speech may

be true or untrue

when others address you their speech may

be gentle or harsh

when others address you their speech may

be connected with good or with harm

when others address you their speech may

be spoken with a mind of loving kindness

or with inner hate

you should train thus

my mind will remain unaffected

and i shall utter no evil words

i shall abide compassionate for their

welfare

and with a mind of loving kindness

without inner hate

i shall abide pervading that person with

a mind imbued with lovingkindness

starting with him

i shall abide pervading the

all-encompassing world with a mind sim

abundant exalted immeasurable

without hostility and without ill will

that is how i should train

okay monks even if bandits were to sever

you savagely limb by limb with a

two-handled saw

he who gave rise to a mind of hate

towards them would not be carrying out

my teachings

that's pretty major

wherein you should train thus

my mind will

remain unaffected and i shall utter no

evil words

i shall abide compassionate for their

welfare

with a mind of loving kindness without

inner hate i shall abide pervading them

with a mind imbued with lovingkindness

starting with them i shall abide

pervading the all-encompassing world

with a mind imbued with loving-kindness

abundant exalted immeasurable without

hostility and without ill will

that is how i should train

monks

if you keep this advice on the simile of

the saw constantly in mind do you see

any course of speech

trivial or gross

that you could not endure

no venerable sir

therefore monks you should keep this

advice on the assembly of the saw

constantly in mind

that will lead to your welfare and

happiness for a long time

what do you think can ponder on

what do you want your mind to incline

towards

just as in the last month of the hot

season when all the crops have been

brought in

inside the villages a cow herd

would guard his cow while straying out

at the root of a tree or without any

open

since he needs only to be mindful that

the cows are there

so to their needs there was need for me

to be

mindful that those states were there

those uplifted states those happy states

tireless energy was aroused in me and

unremitting mindfulness was established

my body was tranquil and untroubled my

mind was collected and unified

quite secluded from sensual pleasures

secluded from unwholesome states

i entered upon and abided in the first

jhana

okay

suppose monks

that in the wooded range there was a low

great low fi fly low lying marsh near

which her herd of deer lived

then a man appeared desiring their ruin

harm in bondage

and he closed off the safe and good path

to be traveled joyfully and he opened up

a false path and he put out a decoy and

set it up and set up a dummy

so that the large herd of deer might

later come to 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 remind 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

a man desiring their ruin harm

and bondage

is a term for mara the evil one the

devil

the false path is a term for the wrong

way of going

the decoy

is a term for delight and lust

the dummy is a term for ignorance

the man desiring their good welfare and

protection as a term for the tatagata

that's what the buddha called himself

accomplished and fully awakened

the safe and good path is traveled

joyfully in the terms of the noble

eightfold path

so monks the safe and good path to be

traveled joyfully

has been reopened by me

the wrong path has been closed off the

decoy to remove 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

there are these roots of trees these

empty huts meditate monks do not delay

or else you will regret it later

this is my instruction to you

that is what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so

gives you an idea of how you need to not

get so involved in your thinking about

and taking it personally

they're just thoughts they're just

opinions they're just ideas they're just

concepts

so whenever you see that you're caught

up in that one you can't criticize

yourself for getting caught

okay you have old habits of course

you're going to get caught for a little

while until you get used to developing a

new habit

so you can't criticize yourself

you hear me

okay

be nice to yourself

you're one of the good guys

so

you let go and just turn this into a

game

okay my mind wants to play this one for

a little while fine it can do that

as you get used to recognizing when your

mind is distracted and let go of that

distraction and relax and smile and come

back

it gets easier because you get used to

those distractions

now the first day

of a meditation

is what i call

the meditation blues

because this is the hardest part of the

meditation is the first day

because your mind's still out there

thinking this thinking that just running

all over the place and it's hard

it gets easier i promise

the thing that you have to really

recognize is whether you're smiling or

not and if you're not smiling i don't

care whether you feel like it or not

smile

there's an interesting study that was

done not too long ago a few years

on what happens to your mind when you

smile

and the study

was talking about even if your mind

uh

is unhappy for whatever reason

or depressed

and you put a smile on your lips

your mind looks down and said i'm

smiling

i must be feeling better than i really

feel

so let's go with the depression

the corners of your mouth are real

important

when they go up so does your mental

state

when they go down

so does your mental state

smile more

lightly do this meditation

now i prefer that you do the meditation

in the dhamma hall

in here

and when you leave your cabin as much of

a pain in the neck as it is you have to

turn the heater off because it's really

expensive

things are getting more expensive all

the time

so we want to conserve that as much as

we can you can turn these these

highlights off and then the lights

around here is it's a nice light to sit

in

yeah don't shut it off all the way turn

it just turn it down so the little pilot

light is lit okay

yeah

keep your meditation going all the time

when you're walking when you're sitting

cut down on the amount of talking

okay

you can compare notes later

you're only going to be here for a few

days so i want you to have the best

benefit you can

okay

when do you have to leave sunday

how far is franklin from here

so i was

you'll have a thinking better drive home

it's supposed to be beautiful sunday

sunday or monday

both

we're gonna have like three days and 50s

oh and above freezing

in town today they said sunday was going

to be way low again there's going to be

a week where it doesn't get below

freezing

i've never seen according to the

forecast

what a bunch of rookies

night was

i had to keep my blankets on all night

almost see my breath

minus

and i put my coat on and i went to bed

so do you have any questions

don't be shy

it sounds like the chinese

okay let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and naga's of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhist

dispensation

you