From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=A2D4bc9U1NA

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

from USA your most venerable please

before I get started with the talk I

wanted to let everyone know that when I

was invited to take part in this

conference they said that one of the

things that was most important was that

we go back to the original teachings of

the Buddha and what I told them was

that's really good I've been doing that

for 15 years now when I say going back

to the original teaching of the Buddha I

mean the actual reading of the sutras

and understanding the suit is the way

the Buddha presented them so with that

said I would like to graciously thank

the most venerable essen jollof Japan

His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet in

the venerable Maharaja of Thailand for

organizing this beautiful conference

this is a grand and wonderful

undertaking to bring us all in the

spirit of peace understanding and

brotherhood the purpose of this

conference is to explore the original

teaching of the Buddha to refine it for

the 21st century

Buddhism has something great to offer

the world at this time when the original

message is practiced and understood it

offers a useful kind of relief

it seems Buddhism is in the decline

right now some may say it's an ancient

pessimistic religion young people may

think that

that this is so when they're told all

life is suffering that desire is the

cause of suffering and that desire to

get rid of it has just let go up all of

your desires is this a solution is this

the way that would actually taught us in

the Sam you've nakiya the Buddha said

that there was two ways of teaching the

right way and the wrong way the wrong

way is to focus on suffering the right

way is to focus on the cessation of

suffering I think you would agree that

when we're presented with all life is

suffering that this is the focus that

new people coming to learn about

Buddhism really it turns them off it

stops them from wanting to know more it

sounds very pessimistic perhaps as an

alternative approach we need to tell

interested young people that there is

suffering than life everybody knows this

that there is a cause of suffering and

the Buddha calls this cause craving he

taught people how to let go of this

crazy craving and experience relief the

cessation of suffering must be

emphasized as the key tool that the

Buddhists can offer the world we do this

by teaching the Noble Eightfold Path

it's apparent in this modern age of

pewter technology all tradition

traditional ways of teaching the

Buddhist path are not working very well

for instance in my country young people

come to find out about Buddhism and they

come to a cultural center where they're

not spoken to in English and they see a

lot of bowing and reciting of things

that they don't understand why would

they want to come back and find out more

we have to learn how to incorporate the

Buddha's teaching into the language of

the country that we're staying in the

young people in the in my country they

are brought up with their traditional

ethnic ethnic ways and I don't see that

as any problem at all until they start

going to school and then they start

learning English and they have a lot of

young friends and these friends want to

find out about Buddhism but the young

people are very reluctant to bring their

friends to a temple where they know that

they're going to be they're not going to

be anything they're not going to be

showing what Buddhism is all they're

gonna be shown is a lot of people bowing

and reciting and maybe they'll get

something to eat and then they'll go

away we have to start incorporating what

we know about Buddhism

into everyday language the answer to

this problem is sorting out the actual

teachings of the Buddha from the

centuries of cultural impact this does

not mean that cultural aspects of one's

tradition need to be dismissed rather it

means some understanding the

instructions found in the original

teaching and bringing them to life the

root the brilliance of the Buddha's

message but it has to be done in the

language of the country you are in you

can't do it in your own language if you

come from another culture it doesn't

work this is probably one of the bigger

causes of decline because in my country

people come the young people they become

westernized and the family doesn't like

that very much and they try to force the

young people to come to the temple and

they're not understanding what's being

said they're not understanding why they

have to do all of these rituals so

eventually they stopped coming

altogether and they rebelled and then

they become Christians because their

friends are Christians Buddhism in my

country it has maybe one more decade

before all of the temples will just

start disappearing from lack of support

the young people are not supporting them

at all because they don't understand why

why practice Buddhism

today many months of all traditions have

lost their confidence in the teaching

there's no way to attain nirvana in this

lifetime they say but is that true when

we examine the original text by the

Buddha the key successful successful

practice can still be found quite

specifically following the original

instructions of the Buddha if you have

to follow them closely you can't add or

subtract anything without adding or

subtracting anything we can practice

meditation and attain liberation from

suffering when I came to the West

I'd been in Asia for 12 years I went

back to the United States I noticed very

much how everybody that was practicing

Buddhism had a sour face they didn't

have a face that was smiling they didn't

have a face that was happy that it

didn't have a face of relief and this

really bothered me I started teaching

people that an important aspect of the

meditation is smiling and not just

smiling once in a while but smiling all

the time and how do you smile you smile

with your mind you smile with your eyes

you smile with your lips you smile in

your heart try this one whole thing

anytime you see that you're not smiling

you can't criticize yourself for

forgetting just start smiling

when I started teaching people this I

started noticing that their mindfulness

became much sharper they were able to

see what their mind was doing more and

more and because of this they're sitting

meditation improved immeasurably so I

started looking into this and I started

seeing that one of the Enlightenment

factors that the Buddha really liked he

put it right in the middle of the seven

enlightenment factors as a balancing act

was joy now when I was practicing I did

about 20 years of practice with the

street Vipassana Burmese method any time

I experienced joy I would go to the

teacher and they would say don't be

tapped well gee I didn't want to be

attached so I stopped that joy from

coming up the only relief I had I was

stopping it because I was afraid of

being attached joy is a very major part

of our practice and when you have joy in

your mind your mind is like your mind is

alert and you can see when your mind

starts to get heavy so it improves your

mindfulness so it's a real important

factor and when I would go to the pot

sauna retreats of which I did many many

any time I

people practicing meditation they had

this look on their face because they

were trying so hard so I would go around

when I started teaching them the

meditation that I'm going to show you in

a little bit and I would start tapping

them and say no no lighten up smile be

happy don't try so hard there has to be

balance in the practice and joy is a

balancing factor this conference is an

opportunity to return to the original

teaching of the Buddha Dhamma which will

help people find release and happiness

this can be done with respect to

personal beliefs and accepting that

there are multiple paths to

enlightenment we all are on the same

journey and each one of us has our own

formula for mental development this is

necessary and it's good there's no

problem with the style of meditation

you're using but what I'm gonna suggest

to you because of my study in going back

to the sutas is that there is one extra

step that when you put it into your

practice it changes the entire direction

of your practice and it's very important

I found these keys that have previously

been emitted that show the way to

practice meditation is easy to

understand it's not a complicated system

it's immediately effective after one

sitting we can see the difference in the

practice one city and inviting all

interested people to come and see when

you start practicing what I'm going to

suggest and I've seen this happen many

times with many students all of a sudden

they're excited about their practice and

they want to tell other people a few

years ago his Holiness the Dalai Lama

made a statement he said there's

something missing in meditation he

observed how many people were sincerely

practicing meditation and they didn't

become fully liberated he saw he saw

many longtime devoted meditation

practitioners stopped meditating and

even change their religious lives

because they weren't experiencing the

cessation of suffering this is one of

the reasons that the Buddha's practice

is undefined we've gotten into the habit

of doing what our teacher tells us to do

without investigating for ourselves

without going back to the original

teaching of the Buddha going back to the

sutras and investigating what with what

was said there

sadly many months believe that the

Buddha's teachings don't translate too

well into modern life they've given up

searching the original text to find out

what has been changed in the Buddha's

message they're content to go along with

the way their elders have taught them

without questioning or active

investigation believe what the Guru says

believe what the teacher says don't do

anything else don't ever question me I'm

your teacher when I give a down the talk

to people I'm teaching meditation to I

allow them to stop me from what I'm

saying to ask questions and we have some

great Dhamma discussions because of that

we have to let go of the rigidity of

doing it this way and you're supposed to

respect me because I'm a month and you

can never question me because I'm a monk

and I'm a high monk on top of it all I

don't go along with that I want you to

stop and question anything that you

don't understand that's how I teach and

I believe that that's the way they're

going to talk - he wasn't so rigid he

wasn't so tight that he wouldn't allow

you to ask questions

since His Holiness the Dalai Lama has

mentioned meditation lacking something I

felt like a little kid in the back row

jumping up and down saying I know the

answer I know the answer many years ago

as I started to look at the original

instructions in the mindfulness of

breathing meditation which is very

popular right now it's become apparent

that the tree teaching of what the

Buddha taught us still does exist I saw

that one whole section of instruction

has been left mostly because of

commentary now this one extra step that

I'm going to talk about and show you can

be added to any other meditation and

your meditation will get deeper and your

understanding will grow exponentially

because of this one extra step this

omitted step correlates to the second

noble truth there is a cause of

suffering which is craving this is a

word that's thrown around a lot does

anybody know what craving is we're all

supposed to know but does anybody really

know how does craving manifest how are

you supposed to be able to recognize

craving when it arises what's the way to

let go of this craving what's meant when

a Buddha said craving brings the renewal

of being what are we talking about here

craving is an important aspect

the Buddha's teaching but nobody seems

to give you any definitions how are you

supposed to recognize what it is when it

arises these requests are valid

questions that need to be answered

clearly so that we can realize the

cessation of suffering and fulfill the

third noble truth to answer these

questions about craving we need to

return to the Buddhist meditation

instruction please explore this with me

for a moment and this is a true

exploration if you're practicing in a

different way let go of your old

Billie's and just explore because I'm

going to be reading directly from the

suta what the instructions are and I'll

explain why I'm interpreting them the

way that they are in the Magellanic ayah

number 10 section 4 of the sati batana

suta it says and how monks does a monk

abide contemplating the body has a body

here a monk gone to the forest to the

root of the tree to an empty hut sits

down having folded his legs crosswise

sets his body erect and establishes

mindfulness in front of him ever mindful

debris is in mindful he breathes out

breathing in long he understands I

breathe in long or breathing out long he

understands I breathe out long breathing

in short e understands I breathe in

short for breathing out short he

as I breathe out short the exact

instructions say that the meditator

breathe both in and out both long and

short there's no mention of nostrils

nostril tip upper upper lip or abdomen

or any other body location it simply

says that you understand when you take a

long breath and when you take a short

breath it's which means you've known and

recognized specifically and precisely

when one Breeze in long or short it does

not say to focus only on the breath to

the exclusion of anything else but may

arise it does not say to know the little

beginning and end of their breath these

are commentarial instructions and cause

and cause one to over focus on the

breath the instructions that please say

he knows you know when your breath is

short and when it's long next the truth

instructions begin in the sukkah it says

he trains us i shall breathe in

experiencing the whole body I shall

breathe out experiencing the whole body

the words he trains thus are very

important they mean this is the way you

practice whereas before it says that you

understand so there's a difference there

you may notice that the Buddha was not

talking about the breath body

he was always precise and specific about

the object of meditation he would have

mentioned clearly if the breath was the

only object of meditation but you'll see

in a moment that that's not the case the

idea of focusing on the breath body is

from commentaries this does not agree

with the original text here the Buddha

said to experience the entire body in

other words be aware of what is

happening in one's body and on both the

in-breath and on the out-breath next

comes the really important part this is

the step that's been omitted by almost

everybody practicing meditation these

days this is critical because it has an

action verb in it that tells us exactly

what to do on the in-breath and on the

out-breath it says he trains thus I

shall breathe in tranquilizing the

bodily formation he trains thus I shall

breathe out tranquilizing the bodily

formation the instructions say to

tranquilize the bodily formation each

time one breathes in and each time one

breathes out this is clearly understood

by using the correct translation of the

word Pali word possum by this word can

be a noun a verb an adverb or an

adjective it all depends on the words

used around it today possum is often

translated to mean that when one focuses

deeply and

absorbed in the breath their mind then

becomes tranquil possum bhaiyya

has always translated as tranquil

however omitting the specific

tranquilization of the bodily formation

allows the absorption meditator to bring

the craving back to their meditation

object leading them away from the

buddhas actual instruction this is the

reason that many people today to say

that one cannot experience true

liberation by practicing absorption

concentration and their right

if the meditator doesn't relax and let

go of the craving every time it arises

they will have that same craving

perpetually blocking their path to

liberation and peace this is why I said

craving brains renew all of being these

words he trains thus tell us the word

possum by it is an action verb meaning

to specifically consciously and

intentionally relax the bodily formation

on the in-breath and on the out-breath

the meditation is done by breathing in

relaxing mind and body breathing out

relaxing mind and body breathe in relax

breathe out relax breathe in relax

breathe out relax when a distraction

pulls mind's attention away from the

breath and relaxing softly let the

distractions go relax the tightness

caused by that distraction then the

meditator directs my mind's attention

back to the breath

and relaxing so it's a continual process

on the in-breath relax

on the out-breath relax on the in-breath

relax on the out-breath relax if you

don't have this extra step of relaxing

you are bringing cravings back to your

object of meditation and you never

recognize that being that by using this

relaxed step the meditator will go more

deeply into the meditation without

craving and experience a clearer idea of

why they're meditating and why do we

meditate the relaxed step in the

meditation is actually letting go of

craving the meditation is about using

the breath as a reminder to relax so

it's not just the breath meditation it's

the breath and relax in this way there's

no over focusing or becoming absorbed or

over concentrating just on the breath

and you can say that with any object of

meditation you want to do a mantra put

the relaxed step in with your mantra and

you'll see all kinds of deeper things

that you've never realized before

an important point here is to realize

the meaning of the word Jonna Jonna has

a deeper meaning than what is currently

being used in the sutras according to

the Buddha the word Jonin means a level

or stage of understanding not

concentration understanding

understanding what understanding through

your insights how the process of

dependent origination and the Four Noble

Truths actually occurs when the

meditator practices relaxing mind and

body in this way they will experience

extremely clear insights in every

Jonathan that is why I like to use the

term summative a possum a jhana or aware

jhana when describing this kind of

practice it's not an absorption jhana

that's different or an unaware jhana now

why would I call it unaware because when

you're practicing absorption

concentration your mind is focused on

one thing only to the exclusion of

everything else you're not aware even of

having a body when you get deep enough

into the absorption concentration how

can you have full awareness if you don't

even know you have a body

this is why it's important to go over

these instructions because breathing

always arises envy can be recognized as

being a tension or tightness in both

mind and body any time body has

tightness in it

mind has tightness in it any time mind

has tightness in it body has tightness

in it they're interconnected it is this

craving the subtle tightness in one's

head that one can learn to see

physically there's a thin membrane that

goes all the way around the brain every

time there is a distraction that

membrane contracts a little bit when

you're practicing absorption

concentration quite often you can get

headaches

why are you getting headaches because

you're not recognizing this tension and

tightness and it starts to build and get

stronger when you notice that there is

tension and tightness every time there

is a distraction it doesn't matter

whether it's a feeling in your body or a

thought it causes this tightness to

arise when you notice that your mind has

been distracted you let go of that

distraction now you relax that tightness

in your head in your mind and you will

feel your mind open up and feel relief

now you've let go of the breathing and

what you will notice right after this is

that your mind is exceptionally clear

your mind is very bright and alert

and you bring that mind back to your

object of meditation so you're actually

purifying your mind of what of creating

in simple terms craving is first seen

and recognized as a subtle or not so

subtle tightness in both one's mind and

body

it always manifests this way always with

practice it can be seen understood and

released another way a meditator can

recognize craving is that craving always

manifests as the I like it I don't like

it mind it's the first part of the

grabbing arm now in order to see you

have a good working high there is color

and form the good working eye hits color

and form and eye-consciousness arises

the meeting of these three things the

eye the color inform and the eye

consciousness when they come together is

called eye contact with eye contact as

condition I feeling horizons feeling is

pleasant feeling painful feeling neither

painful nor pleasant filled with I

feeling as condition i grieving horizons

when that feeling arises it hits the eye

there's an I like it I don't like it

that half

right after that if it's a pleasant

sight I like it I want to hold on to if

it's an unpleasant sight I don't like it

I want it to stop

right after the craving arises there is

clinging clinging is all of your

concepts all of your opinions all of

your stories all of your ideas all of

your thinking about why you like or

dislike that field now I just explained

to you a process or a part of dependent

origination and this is very practical

because as you keep relaxing the tension

and tightness in your mind and in your

body you become more alert and more

aware of more and more subtle cravings

when they first start to come up as you

let them go they start fading away and

eventually the hindrances that cause so

many problems with so many meditators

they become weaker and weaker until they

will fade away this is how you purify

your mind by letting go of the cravings

there's actually two different kinds of

Jonah being practice today the kind is

mostly being practiced by almost

everyone it doesn't matter what religion

you are it doesn't matter what the sect

of Buddhism they're practicing if you

don't have this relax step in your

practice you're practicing a form of

one-pointed concentration and you will

be able to see it as you relax more and

more and do your meditation you'll see

this process you'll understand it and

you'll start going deeper and deeper

into your meditation and experience a

lot of different Jonathas but the jhanas

come about because of your understanding

everything that the Buddha taught had to

do with understanding not mystical

magical neva knows this thing that will

come down and sweep me away it's

understanding how this process actually

works

this process of mind and body

now after the Buddha was and that became

enlightening let me back up a little bit

as is holiness the dalai lama observe

the absorption or one-pointed type of

jhana seems to be lacking something in

the end results the absorption

concentration takes a long time to

develop and some undesirable side

effects can occur constant ringing in

the air dizziness headaches but when you

add this extra step of relaxing these

things can be let go up very easily they

won't come up again and they won't ever

bother you now I've done a lot of one

pointed concentration in my life I've

had massive headaches I've had ringing

in the ears I've been dizzy for long

periods of time when I finally ran

across the actual teaching of the Buddha

and started adding this relaxed step all

of that disappeared I didn't have those

problems anymore and they never arose

arisen again when you have these kind of

things arise it is a sign that your

concentration is too deep it's too deep

and when you add the relax step the

concentration starts to get lighter and

lighter and all of these negative things

that happen in meditation

disappear I know that I've heard people

talking about what you've got to be

careful and meditate with a master

because you can go crazy if you don't

meditate in the right way that's true

yeah unless you're practicing this way

with the relaxed step now I've been

teaching this for 12 years I have not

seen one person that didn't benefit in

the first date when they followed the

instructions precisely and I have not

seen one person even though they've been

practicing one pointed concentration

that when they added this actress step

that they didn't benefit greatly from

their understanding of how this process

works

after the the Buddha was enlightened he

made up a new word there was a lot of

words for absorption there is a lot of

words for concentration but he made up a

new word called Samadhi

he made this word up to describe this

summit of a possum ah jhana and the way

to practice this after the Buddha died

the Brahmans

came in and they started changing

definitions around and they changed

Samadhi to mean one-pointed or

absorption concentration but the

original intent of the Buddha was to

practice

samata which means serenity or

tranquility and Vipassana which means

insight and in the sutras when you look

up in the suitors you can look up the

word sometta in the index and then you

worked up the word Vipassana in the

index and you go to the sifters that

they're talking about these things and

they're talking about them quite often

in the same sentence you have to

practice samhita and if you're possible

their yoke together it's like you have

two bullets and one of them as lazy and

the other one works really hard and you

wind up going in a circle because

they're not pulling equally the

concentration that is being practiced

even an absorption concentration when

you switch over and add this extra step

all of the years that

you practice the concentration are not

for a waste of time you have developed

your concentration you've developed your

discipline you need to break up this

other side which is the insight and the

insights always arise about how

dependent origination actually works how

the process works

this is not a main

the term concentrated mind means that

the mind is stuck and glued the one

thing to the exclusion of everything

else that it may try to arise

mindfulness is weak at that time by this

definition concentration mind loses full

awareness and mindfulness of what is

happening in the present moment because

it's only seeing a single thing at a

time it's not relaxing the mind and body

they're bringing you're bringing craving

back to your object of meditation and

that makes mine tight and heart the term

collective mind Samadhi gives us the

idea of a mind that's unified composed

calm still and very alert this kind of

craving less mind is able to observe

whenever mind's attention shifts from

one thing to another this is seen

clearly with sharp mindfulness through

the practice of comments of a possum

ajoomma

when one has craving in their mind

there's no true seeing of how the Four

Noble Truths which are very intimately

connected with dependent origination

you're not able to see this impersonal

process of dependent origination as we

all know this is the very backbone and

purpose of doing the meditation this is

the backbone of the Buddha's teaching

craving limits ones observation of the

present moment so you don't actually see

the real freedom from suffering why

what's the cause of suffering crazy when

you don't let go of craving how can you

let go of suffering every time you let

go of craving you are experiencing the

third noble truth a little bit it builds

as you start seeing more and more deeply

mindfulness means remembering to observe

the moments of one's attention when the

distraction arises

now first there is a thing that I've

developed over the years called the six

artists and this is for English so if

you're using a different language the

letters probably won't be the same the

first is recognize that your mind has

become distracted release the

distraction how do you release the

distraction you have let go of your

attention on that distraction now you

relax the tightness and tension caused

by that distraction next you smile Rhys

mine because that's how you have the joy

arrived you return to your object to

meditation and you repeat staying with

your object of meditation that's the six

RS recognize release relax breathe smile

return repeat this isn't to be done

mentally this this disc this it's part

of the process someone I was telling you

about this is that oh you mean we have

to roll our arms and that's it it's

recognized remains relaxed free smile

return winky stay with your object to

meditate

if you use this method you will be

absolutely amazed at how clear your mind

becomes that's a promise I haven't had a

whole lot of students maybe somewhere

around 2000 these days but when they

start using that and they start

practicing it their progress and the

meditation is phenomenal not just bring

it or good I'm used to people coming and

doing retreat and seeing them get into

drama within a few days I'm used to it

and their progress in the meditation is

very fast in my country there's people

that teach meditation and they say well

you got to take a three-month retreat I

wouldn't know what to teach you in three

months they could already understand

everything that you needed to understand

after two weeks your most venerable we

have to stop for the rest of the program

from USA your most venerable please

before I get started with the talk I

wanted to let everyone know that when I

was invited to take part in this

conference they said that one of the

things that was most important was that

we go back to the original teachings of

the Buddha and what I told them was

that's really good I've been doing that

for 15 years now when I say going back

to the original teaching of the Buddha I

mean the actual reading of the sutras

and understanding the suit is the way

the Buddha presented them so with that

said I would like to graciously thank

the most venerable essen jollof Japan

His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet in

the venerable Maharaja of Thailand for

organizing this beautiful conference

this is a grand and wonderful

undertaking to bring us all in the

spirit of peace understanding and

brotherhood the purpose of this

conference is to explore the original

teaching of the Buddha to refine it for

the 21st century

Buddhism has something great to offer

the world at this time when the original

message is practiced and understood it

offers a useful kind of relief

it seems Buddhism is in the decline

right now some may say it's an ancient

pessimistic religion young people may

think that

that this is so when they're told all

life is suffering that desire is the

cause of suffering and that desire to

get rid of it has just let go up all of

your desires is this a solution is this

the way that would actually taught us in

the Sam you've nakiya the Buddha said

that there was two ways of teaching the

right way and the wrong way the wrong

way is to focus on suffering the right

way is to focus on the cessation of

suffering I think you would agree that

when we're presented with all life is

suffering that this is the focus that

new people coming to learn about

Buddhism really it turns them off it

stops them from wanting to know more it

sounds very pessimistic perhaps as an

alternative approach we need to tell

interested young people that there is

suffering than life everybody knows this

that there is a cause of suffering and

the Buddha calls this cause craving he

taught people how to let go of this

crazy craving and experience relief the

cessation of suffering must be

emphasized as the key tool that the

Buddhists can offer the world we do this

by teaching the Noble Eightfold Path

it's apparent in this modern age of

pewter technology all tradition

traditional ways of teaching the

Buddhist path are not working very well

for instance in my country young people

come to find out about Buddhism and they

come to a cultural center where they're

not spoken to in English and they see a

lot of bowing and reciting of things

that they don't understand why would

they want to come back and find out more

we have to learn how to incorporate the

Buddha's teaching into the language of

the country that we're staying in the

young people in the in my country they

are brought up with their traditional

ethnic ethnic ways and I don't see that

as any problem at all until they start

going to school and then they start

learning English and they have a lot of

young friends and these friends want to

find out about Buddhism but the young

people are very reluctant to bring their

friends to a temple where they know that

they're going to be they're not going to

be anything they're not going to be

showing what Buddhism is all they're

gonna be shown is a lot of people bowing

and reciting and maybe they'll get

something to eat and then they'll go

away we have to start incorporating what

we know about Buddhism

into everyday language the answer to

this problem is sorting out the actual

teachings of the Buddha from the

centuries of cultural impact this does

not mean that cultural aspects of one's

tradition need to be dismissed rather it

means some understanding the

instructions found in the original

teaching and bringing them to life the

root the brilliance of the Buddha's

message but it has to be done in the

language of the country you are in you

can't do it in your own language if you

come from another culture it doesn't

work this is probably one of the bigger

causes of decline because in my country

people come the young people they become

westernized and the family doesn't like

that very much and they try to force the

young people to come to the temple and

they're not understanding what's being

said they're not understanding why they

have to do all of these rituals so

eventually they stopped coming

altogether and they rebelled and then

they become Christians because their

friends are Christians Buddhism in my

country it has maybe one more decade

before all of the temples will just

start disappearing from lack of support

the young people are not supporting them

at all because they don't understand why

why practice Buddhism

today many months of all traditions have

lost their confidence in the teaching

there's no way to attain nirvana in this

lifetime they say but is that true when

we examine the original text by the

Buddha the key successful successful

practice can still be found quite

specifically following the original

instructions of the Buddha if you have

to follow them closely you can't add or

subtract anything without adding or

subtracting anything we can practice

meditation and attain liberation from

suffering when I came to the West

I'd been in Asia for 12 years I went

back to the United States I noticed very

much how everybody that was practicing

Buddhism had a sour face they didn't

have a face that was smiling they didn't

have a face that was happy that it

didn't have a face of relief and this

really bothered me I started teaching

people that an important aspect of the

meditation is smiling and not just

smiling once in a while but smiling all

the time and how do you smile you smile

with your mind you smile with your eyes

you smile with your lips you smile in

your heart try this one whole thing

anytime you see that you're not smiling

you can't criticize yourself for

forgetting just start smiling

when I started teaching people this I

started noticing that their mindfulness

became much sharper they were able to

see what their mind was doing more and

more and because of this they're sitting

meditation improved immeasurably so I

started looking into this and I started

seeing that one of the Enlightenment

factors that the Buddha really liked he

put it right in the middle of the seven

enlightenment factors as a balancing act

was joy now when I was practicing I did

about 20 years of practice with the

street Vipassana Burmese method any time

I experienced joy I would go to the

teacher and they would say don't be

tapped well gee I didn't want to be

attached so I stopped that joy from

coming up the only relief I had I was

stopping it because I was afraid of

being attached joy is a very major part

of our practice and when you have joy in

your mind your mind is like your mind is

alert and you can see when your mind

starts to get heavy so it improves your

mindfulness so it's a real important

factor and when I would go to the pot

sauna retreats of which I did many many

any time I

people practicing meditation they had

this look on their face because they

were trying so hard so I would go around

when I started teaching them the

meditation that I'm going to show you in

a little bit and I would start tapping

them and say no no lighten up smile be

happy don't try so hard there has to be

balance in the practice and joy is a

balancing factor this conference is an

opportunity to return to the original

teaching of the Buddha Dhamma which will

help people find release and happiness

this can be done with respect to

personal beliefs and accepting that

there are multiple paths to

enlightenment we all are on the same

journey and each one of us has our own

formula for mental development this is

necessary and it's good there's no

problem with the style of meditation

you're using but what I'm gonna suggest

to you because of my study in going back

to the sutas is that there is one extra

step that when you put it into your

practice it changes the entire direction

of your practice and it's very important

I found these keys that have previously

been emitted that show the way to

practice meditation is easy to

understand it's not a complicated system

it's immediately effective after one

sitting we can see the difference in the

practice one city and inviting all

interested people to come and see when

you start practicing what I'm going to

suggest and I've seen this happen many

times with many students all of a sudden

they're excited about their practice and

they want to tell other people a few

years ago his Holiness the Dalai Lama

made a statement he said there's

something missing in meditation he

observed how many people were sincerely

practicing meditation and they didn't

become fully liberated he saw he saw

many longtime devoted meditation

practitioners stopped meditating and

even change their religious lives

because they weren't experiencing the

cessation of suffering this is one of

the reasons that the Buddha's practice

is undefined we've gotten into the habit

of doing what our teacher tells us to do

without investigating for ourselves

without going back to the original

teaching of the Buddha going back to the

sutras and investigating what with what

was said there

sadly many months believe that the

Buddha's teachings don't translate too

well into modern life they've given up

searching the original text to find out

what has been changed in the Buddha's

message they're content to go along with

the way their elders have taught them

without questioning or active

investigation believe what the Guru says

believe what the teacher says don't do

anything else don't ever question me I'm

your teacher when I give a down the talk

to people I'm teaching meditation to I

allow them to stop me from what I'm

saying to ask questions and we have some

great Dhamma discussions because of that

we have to let go of the rigidity of

doing it this way and you're supposed to

respect me because I'm a month and you

can never question me because I'm a monk

and I'm a high monk on top of it all I

don't go along with that I want you to

stop and question anything that you

don't understand that's how I teach and

I believe that that's the way they're

going to talk - he wasn't so rigid he

wasn't so tight that he wouldn't allow

you to ask questions

since His Holiness the Dalai Lama has

mentioned meditation lacking something I

felt like a little kid in the back row

jumping up and down saying I know the

answer I know the answer many years ago

as I started to look at the original

instructions in the mindfulness of

breathing meditation which is very

popular right now it's become apparent

that the tree teaching of what the

Buddha taught us still does exist I saw

that one whole section of instruction

has been left mostly because of

commentary now this one extra step that

I'm going to talk about and show you can

be added to any other meditation and

your meditation will get deeper and your

understanding will grow exponentially

because of this one extra step this

omitted step correlates to the second

noble truth there is a cause of

suffering which is craving this is a

word that's thrown around a lot does

anybody know what craving is we're all

supposed to know but does anybody really

know how does craving manifest how are

you supposed to be able to recognize

craving when it arises what's the way to

let go of this craving what's meant when

a Buddha said craving brings the renewal

of being what are we talking about here

craving is an important aspect

the Buddha's teaching but nobody seems

to give you any definitions how are you

supposed to recognize what it is when it

arises these requests are valid

questions that need to be answered

clearly so that we can realize the

cessation of suffering and fulfill the

third noble truth to answer these

questions about craving we need to

return to the Buddhist meditation

instruction please explore this with me

for a moment and this is a true

exploration if you're practicing in a

different way let go of your old

Billie's and just explore because I'm

going to be reading directly from the

suta what the instructions are and I'll

explain why I'm interpreting them the

way that they are in the Magellanic ayah

number 10 section 4 of the sati batana

suta it says and how monks does a monk

abide contemplating the body has a body

here a monk gone to the forest to the

root of the tree to an empty hut sits

down having folded his legs crosswise

sets his body erect and establishes

mindfulness in front of him ever mindful

debris is in mindful he breathes out

breathing in long he understands I

breathe in long or breathing out long he

understands I breathe out long breathing

in short e understands I breathe in

short for breathing out short he

as I breathe out short the exact

instructions say that the meditator

breathe both in and out both long and

short there's no mention of nostrils

nostril tip upper upper lip or abdomen

or any other body location it simply

says that you understand when you take a

long breath and when you take a short

breath it's which means you've known and

recognized specifically and precisely

when one Breeze in long or short it does

not say to focus only on the breath to

the exclusion of anything else but may

arise it does not say to know the little

beginning and end of their breath these

are commentarial instructions and cause

and cause one to over focus on the

breath the instructions that please say

he knows you know when your breath is

short and when it's long next the truth

instructions begin in the sukkah it says

he trains us i shall breathe in

experiencing the whole body I shall

breathe out experiencing the whole body

the words he trains thus are very

important they mean this is the way you

practice whereas before it says that you

understand so there's a difference there

you may notice that the Buddha was not

talking about the breath body

he was always precise and specific about

the object of meditation he would have

mentioned clearly if the breath was the

only object of meditation but you'll see

in a moment that that's not the case the

idea of focusing on the breath body is

from commentaries this does not agree

with the original text here the Buddha

said to experience the entire body in

other words be aware of what is

happening in one's body and on both the

in-breath and on the out-breath next

comes the really important part this is

the step that's been omitted by almost

everybody practicing meditation these

days this is critical because it has an

action verb in it that tells us exactly

what to do on the in-breath and on the

out-breath it says he trains thus I

shall breathe in tranquilizing the

bodily formation he trains thus I shall

breathe out tranquilizing the bodily

formation the instructions say to

tranquilize the bodily formation each

time one breathes in and each time one

breathes out this is clearly understood

by using the correct translation of the

word Pali word possum by this word can

be a noun a verb an adverb or an

adjective it all depends on the words

used around it today possum is often

translated to mean that when one focuses

deeply and

absorbed in the breath their mind then

becomes tranquil possum bhaiyya

has always translated as tranquil

however omitting the specific

tranquilization of the bodily formation

allows the absorption meditator to bring

the craving back to their meditation

object leading them away from the

buddhas actual instruction this is the

reason that many people today to say

that one cannot experience true

liberation by practicing absorption

concentration and their right

if the meditator doesn't relax and let

go of the craving every time it arises

they will have that same craving

perpetually blocking their path to

liberation and peace this is why I said

craving brains renew all of being these

words he trains thus tell us the word

possum by it is an action verb meaning

to specifically consciously and

intentionally relax the bodily formation

on the in-breath and on the out-breath

the meditation is done by breathing in

relaxing mind and body breathing out

relaxing mind and body breathe in relax

breathe out relax breathe in relax

breathe out relax when a distraction

pulls mind's attention away from the

breath and relaxing softly let the

distractions go relax the tightness

caused by that distraction then the

meditator directs my mind's attention

back to the breath

and relaxing so it's a continual process

on the in-breath relax

on the out-breath relax on the in-breath

relax on the out-breath relax if you

don't have this extra step of relaxing

you are bringing cravings back to your

object of meditation and you never

recognize that being that by using this

relaxed step the meditator will go more

deeply into the meditation without

craving and experience a clearer idea of

why they're meditating and why do we

meditate the relaxed step in the

meditation is actually letting go of

craving the meditation is about using

the breath as a reminder to relax so

it's not just the breath meditation it's

the breath and relax in this way there's

no over focusing or becoming absorbed or

over concentrating just on the breath

and you can say that with any object of

meditation you want to do a mantra put

the relaxed step in with your mantra and

you'll see all kinds of deeper things

that you've never realized before

an important point here is to realize

the meaning of the word Jonna Jonna has

a deeper meaning than what is currently

being used in the sutras according to

the Buddha the word Jonin means a level

or stage of understanding not

concentration understanding

understanding what understanding through

your insights how the process of

dependent origination and the Four Noble

Truths actually occurs when the

meditator practices relaxing mind and

body in this way they will experience

extremely clear insights in every

Jonathan that is why I like to use the

term summative a possum a jhana or aware

jhana when describing this kind of

practice it's not an absorption jhana

that's different or an unaware jhana now

why would I call it unaware because when

you're practicing absorption

concentration your mind is focused on

one thing only to the exclusion of

everything else you're not aware even of

having a body when you get deep enough

into the absorption concentration how

can you have full awareness if you don't

even know you have a body

this is why it's important to go over

these instructions because breathing

always arises envy can be recognized as

being a tension or tightness in both

mind and body any time body has

tightness in it

mind has tightness in it any time mind

has tightness in it body has tightness

in it they're interconnected it is this

craving the subtle tightness in one's

head that one can learn to see

physically there's a thin membrane that

goes all the way around the brain every

time there is a distraction that

membrane contracts a little bit when

you're practicing absorption

concentration quite often you can get

headaches

why are you getting headaches because

you're not recognizing this tension and

tightness and it starts to build and get

stronger when you notice that there is

tension and tightness every time there

is a distraction it doesn't matter

whether it's a feeling in your body or a

thought it causes this tightness to

arise when you notice that your mind has

been distracted you let go of that

distraction now you relax that tightness

in your head in your mind and you will

feel your mind open up and feel relief

now you've let go of the breathing and

what you will notice right after this is

that your mind is exceptionally clear

your mind is very bright and alert

and you bring that mind back to your

object of meditation so you're actually

purifying your mind of what of creating

in simple terms craving is first seen

and recognized as a subtle or not so

subtle tightness in both one's mind and

body

it always manifests this way always with

practice it can be seen understood and

released another way a meditator can

recognize craving is that craving always

manifests as the I like it I don't like

it mind it's the first part of the

grabbing arm now in order to see you

have a good working high there is color

and form the good working eye hits color

and form and eye-consciousness arises

the meeting of these three things the

eye the color inform and the eye

consciousness when they come together is

called eye contact with eye contact as

condition I feeling horizons feeling is

pleasant feeling painful feeling neither

painful nor pleasant filled with I

feeling as condition i grieving horizons

when that feeling arises it hits the eye

there's an I like it I don't like it

that half

right after that if it's a pleasant

sight I like it I want to hold on to if

it's an unpleasant sight I don't like it

I want it to stop

right after the craving arises there is

clinging clinging is all of your

concepts all of your opinions all of

your stories all of your ideas all of

your thinking about why you like or

dislike that field now I just explained

to you a process or a part of dependent

origination and this is very practical

because as you keep relaxing the tension

and tightness in your mind and in your

body you become more alert and more

aware of more and more subtle cravings

when they first start to come up as you

let them go they start fading away and

eventually the hindrances that cause so

many problems with so many meditators

they become weaker and weaker until they

will fade away this is how you purify

your mind by letting go of the cravings

there's actually two different kinds of

Jonah being practice today the kind is

mostly being practiced by almost

everyone it doesn't matter what religion

you are it doesn't matter what the sect

of Buddhism they're practicing if you

don't have this relax step in your

practice you're practicing a form of

one-pointed concentration and you will

be able to see it as you relax more and

more and do your meditation you'll see

this process you'll understand it and

you'll start going deeper and deeper

into your meditation and experience a

lot of different Jonathas but the jhanas

come about because of your understanding

everything that the Buddha taught had to

do with understanding not mystical

magical neva knows this thing that will

come down and sweep me away it's

understanding how this process actually

works

this process of mind and body

now after the Buddha was and that became

enlightening let me back up a little bit

as is holiness the dalai lama observe

the absorption or one-pointed type of

jhana seems to be lacking something in

the end results the absorption

concentration takes a long time to

develop and some undesirable side

effects can occur constant ringing in

the air dizziness headaches but when you

add this extra step of relaxing these

things can be let go up very easily they

won't come up again and they won't ever

bother you now I've done a lot of one

pointed concentration in my life I've

had massive headaches I've had ringing

in the ears I've been dizzy for long

periods of time when I finally ran

across the actual teaching of the Buddha

and started adding this relaxed step all

of that disappeared I didn't have those

problems anymore and they never arose

arisen again when you have these kind of

things arise it is a sign that your

concentration is too deep it's too deep

and when you add the relax step the

concentration starts to get lighter and

lighter and all of these negative things

that happen in meditation

disappear I know that I've heard people

talking about what you've got to be

careful and meditate with a master

because you can go crazy if you don't

meditate in the right way that's true

yeah unless you're practicing this way

with the relaxed step now I've been

teaching this for 12 years I have not

seen one person that didn't benefit in

the first date when they followed the

instructions precisely and I have not

seen one person even though they've been

practicing one pointed concentration

that when they added this actress step

that they didn't benefit greatly from

their understanding of how this process

works

after the the Buddha was enlightened he

made up a new word there was a lot of

words for absorption there is a lot of

words for concentration but he made up a

new word called Samadhi

he made this word up to describe this

summit of a possum ah jhana and the way

to practice this after the Buddha died

the Brahmans

came in and they started changing

definitions around and they changed

Samadhi to mean one-pointed or

absorption concentration but the

original intent of the Buddha was to

practice

samata which means serenity or

tranquility and Vipassana which means

insight and in the sutras when you look

up in the suitors you can look up the

word sometta in the index and then you

worked up the word Vipassana in the

index and you go to the sifters that

they're talking about these things and

they're talking about them quite often

in the same sentence you have to

practice samhita and if you're possible

their yoke together it's like you have

two bullets and one of them as lazy and

the other one works really hard and you

wind up going in a circle because

they're not pulling equally the

concentration that is being practiced

even an absorption concentration when

you switch over and add this extra step

all of the years that

you practice the concentration are not

for a waste of time you have developed

your concentration you've developed your

discipline you need to break up this

other side which is the insight and the

insights always arise about how

dependent origination actually works how

the process works

this is not a main

the term concentrated mind means that

the mind is stuck and glued the one

thing to the exclusion of everything

else that it may try to arise

mindfulness is weak at that time by this

definition concentration mind loses full

awareness and mindfulness of what is

happening in the present moment because

it's only seeing a single thing at a

time it's not relaxing the mind and body

they're bringing you're bringing craving

back to your object of meditation and

that makes mine tight and heart the term

collective mind Samadhi gives us the

idea of a mind that's unified composed

calm still and very alert this kind of

craving less mind is able to observe

whenever mind's attention shifts from

one thing to another this is seen

clearly with sharp mindfulness through

the practice of comments of a possum

ajoomma

when one has craving in their mind

there's no true seeing of how the Four

Noble Truths which are very intimately

connected with dependent origination

you're not able to see this impersonal

process of dependent origination as we

all know this is the very backbone and

purpose of doing the meditation this is

the backbone of the Buddha's teaching

craving limits ones observation of the

present moment so you don't actually see

the real freedom from suffering why

what's the cause of suffering crazy when

you don't let go of craving how can you

let go of suffering every time you let

go of craving you are experiencing the

third noble truth a little bit it builds

as you start seeing more and more deeply

mindfulness means remembering to observe

the moments of one's attention when the

distraction arises

now first there is a thing that I've

developed over the years called the six

artists and this is for English so if

you're using a different language the

letters probably won't be the same the

first is recognize that your mind has

become distracted release the

distraction how do you release the

distraction you have let go of your

attention on that distraction now you

relax the tightness and tension caused

by that distraction next you smile Rhys

mine because that's how you have the joy

arrived you return to your object to

meditation and you repeat staying with

your object of meditation that's the six

RS recognize release relax breathe smile

return repeat this isn't to be done

mentally this this disc this it's part

of the process someone I was telling you

about this is that oh you mean we have

to roll our arms and that's it it's

recognized remains relaxed free smile

return winky stay with your object to

meditate

if you use this method you will be

absolutely amazed at how clear your mind

becomes that's a promise I haven't had a

whole lot of students maybe somewhere

around 2000 these days but when they

start using that and they start

practicing it their progress and the

meditation is phenomenal not just bring

it or good I'm used to people coming and

doing retreat and seeing them get into

drama within a few days I'm used to it

and their progress in the meditation is

very fast in my country there's people

that teach meditation and they say well

you got to take a three-month retreat I

wouldn't know what to teach you in three

months they could already understand

everything that you needed to understand

after two weeks your most venerable we

have to stop for the rest of the program