From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ckPTR0KJJOE
Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.
had returned from his alms round
after his meal he went to the great wood
for the days abiding
entering the great wood he sat down at a
balfour
sapling for the days abiding
dan de penny dan de penny was
a a minor king
with the innasaki and
clan his his kingdom was not very big
and he was very much attached to the
brahman
and he did not care for the buddha at
all so he always was trying to find
ways of
criticizing and that sort of thing
so dan de penny the sakian while
walking and wandering for exercise
also went to the great wood
and when he had entered the great wood
he went to the balfous sapling
where the blessed one was and
exchanged greetings with him
when this courteous and amiable talk was
finished
he stood at one side leaning on his
stick
and asked the blessed one
what does the recluse assert
what is is what does he proclaim
now that it shows the disrespect he
thought that
uh dandapani thought that the buddha
should get up
and greet him but the buddha was sitting
and he continued sitting
so then the panties stood
with his head above a teacher which is
a show of disrespect
uh can everybody hear me all right
oh okay just making sure
uh so dan depending stood
and he leaned on a stick instead of
showing
respect
and asked this question
then the buddha said i assert and
proclaim
such a teaching that one does not
quarrel with anyone in the world with
its gods its maras
and its brahmas in this
generation with its recluses and
brahmanas
its princes and its people
such a teaching that
perceptions no more underlie that
brahman
who abides detached from
sensual pleasures without
perplexity shorn
of worry free from
craving of for any kind of being
when this was said dandapani the sake
shook his head wagged his tongue and
raised his eyebrows
until his forehead was puckered in three
lines
that means these lines here
then he departed leaning on his stick
when it was evening the blessed one rose
from his meditation
and went to negrotus park where he sat
down on a seat made ready for him and
told the monks
what had taken place then a certain monk
asked the blessed one but venerable sir
what is a teaching that the blessed one
asserts whereby one does not
quarrel with anyone in the world with
its gods its mars and its promise
in this generation with its recluses and
brahmanas
its princes and its people
and venerable sir how is it that
perceptions no more
underlie that brahman who abides
detached from sensual pleasures
without perplexity shorn of worry
free from craving for any kind of being
monk as to the source through which
perceptions and notions
tensed by mental proliferation
beset a man
if nothing that is found there to
delight in welcome and hold
two this is the end of the underlying
tendency
to lust the end of the underlying
tendency to aversion
the end of the underlying tendency to
craving the end of the underlying
tendency to views
of the underlying tendency to doubt
of the underlying tendency to conceit
of the underlying tendency to desire
for being of the underlying tendency to
ignorance this is
the end of resorting to
rods and weapons of quarrels brawls
disputes recrimination
malice and false speech
hear these evil and wholesome cease
without remainder
that's what the blessed one said
having said this the sublime one rose
from his seat and went into his dwelling
because nobody asked him any questions
he always paused after giving a domino
talk
and allowed space for people to ask
questions when nobody
said anything he thought okay
we all understand so we're just going to
continue on and i'm going to go
go in and do whatever i need to do in
my heart
so that lets you know that it's not good
if you don't ask questions you
want to be asking questions at the end
of the dhamma talk
to clear up anything that you're going
through it doesn't have to
mean just meditation
okay then soon after the blessed one had
gone the monks
considered now france the blessed one
has risen from his seat and gone into
his dwelling after giving a summary in
brief
without expounding it
without expounding the detailed meaning
excuse me
now who will expound this in detail
then they considered the venerable
mahaka chana is praised by the teacher
and esteemed by his wise companions in
the holy life
he is capable of expounding the detailed
meaning
suppose we went to him and asked him
the meaning of this the thing
is um in
other sutas anytime
maha kachana was asked a question
or gave a dhamma talk it was always
the answer came back about
the links of dependent origination he
really got into that
very much so these are the kind of
answers that he would give
so that you would understand the lengths
of dependent
origination in different ways
then the monks went to the venerable
mahaka-chan i exchanged greetings with
him
when this courteous and amenable talk
was finished
they sat down to one side and told him
what had taken place adding let the
venerable
mahaka-chana expound it to us
the venerable mahaka-chana replied
friends it is though a man needing
heartwood seeking heartwood wandering in
search of heartwood
thought that heartwood should be sought
for among the branches and leaves of a
great tree
standing possessed of heartwood
after he had passed over the root and
the trunk so it is with you
venerable sirs that youth
you think i should be asked about the
meaning of this
after you pass the blessed one by
when you were face to face with the
blessed one
for knowing the blessed one knows
seeing he sees he is vision
he is knowledge he is the dhamma
he is the holy one
he is the sayer proclaimer
elucidator of meaning the giver of the
deathless
the lord of the dhamma the tatakata
that was the time when you should have
asked the blessed one the meaning
as he told you so you should have
remembered it
surely friend kachana knowing the
blessed one
knows seeing he sees his vision
he is knowledge he is the dhamma
he is the holy one he is the sayer
proclaimer an elucidator of meaning
the giver of the deathless the lord of
the dhamma
the tattagata that was the time that you
should have asked the blessed one
the meaning so
what we're seeing here is that
during the time of the buddha he spent a
lot of time
answering questions
and people were not afraid to ask
questions
take that as your example of what to do
okay
as he told us so we should have
remembered it
yet the venerable mahakatrana is praised
by the teacher
and esteemed by his wise companions in
the holy life
the venerable mahaka chana is capable of
expounding the detailed meaning of this
summary
given in brief by the blessed one
without expounding the detailed meaning
let the venerable mahaka-chana expound
it to us
without finding it troublesome
then listen friends and attend closely
to what i shall say
yes friend the venerable
monks replied the venerable
mahaka said this friends when the
blessed one
rose from his seat and went into his
dwelling
after giving a summary and brief
without expounding the detailed meaning
that is
monks as to the source through
which mental perceptions and notion
tensed by mental proliferation beside a
man
if nothing is founder to delight in
welcome and hold to it
this is the end of the underlying
tendency to lust
the end of the underlying tendency
to aversion
the end of the underlying tendency to
craving the end of the underlying
tendency to views
of the underlying tendency to doubt
of the underlying tendency to desire
for being of the underlying tendency to
ignorance this is the end of
resorting to rods and weapons
of quarrels brawls disputes
recrimination malice and false speech
here these evil unwholesome states cease
without remainder
that is what the blessed one said having
said this the sublime one rose from his
seat
and went into his dwelling
i understand the detailed meaning
of it to be as follows
dependent on the eye and forms eye
consciousness arises
with the meeting of the three there is
eye contact
with eye contact as conditioned there is
i
feeling what one feels
that one perceives
what one perceives that one
craves what one
graves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one is mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notions tanged by
mental proliferation beset of man with
respect
to past future and present forms
cognizable through the eye
dependent on the air and sounds ear
consciousness arises
with the meeting of the three there is
air
contact with ear
contact as condition there is ear
feeling what one feels
that one perceives
perceives means name
you you have a sound happen
perception right then says that
sound and
i like it or dislike it depending on the
quality of sound that you hear
so when we're talking about perception
we're talking about
getting into the conceptual
uh
way that we think we only think
in concepts we never
uh are
able to con to express
anything other than concepts
uh let's say you talk of wanna talk
about fear
what is fear fear is a concept
what is a concept a concept is made up
of many different
parts put together to come up with the
idea of fear
this is how we think
continually in concepts
that's why it's best to to work with
your meditation
until you get to the place where you can
get into the quiet
mind as soon as you get into the quiet
mind
all of a sudden the conceptual
things that we live with every day
disappear and there's a lot
of relief not living in the conceptual
world
what one feels that one perceives
what one perceives that one graves
what one craves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one has mentally proliferated
as the source perceptions and notions
tanged by mental proliferation beset a
man
with respect to the past future
and present sounds cognizable through
the
ear
excuse me
dependent on the nose and odor's nose
consciousness
arises with the meeting of the three
there is no contact
with nose contact as conditioned there
is
no feeling what one
feels that one perceives
what one perceives that one thinks
about or excuse me that one craves
what one craves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one has mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notion tense by
mental proliferation beset a person
with respect to past future and present
odors cognizable through the nose
when we talk about the mental
proliferation
which you're mentally proliferated
and according to the links of dependent
origination
in pali they call it bava
but i don't use that that term very
often
because it's been interpreted
in a lot of different ways that can get
things confused
i call it mental proliferation
now it's real interesting because i've
been with a lot of monks that are very
learned
and i hear them talk with each other and
they
they like to discuss bhava
and when i hear them discussing it
in my mind i'm changing
the word bhava into
conceptual uh
habitual
yeah my mind just took a blank spot
so it's habitual tendency sometimes i
call it
habitual emotional tendencies
now when i'm talking about that i am
talking about
baba and what this
is really talking about is
getting caught up
in your emotional states
now every time i listen to monks talk
about
their definition of bhava and that sort
of thing
i change it to habitual tendency and
habitual tendency works very well
so there's no problem with that
i went to bhikkhu bodhi and i told him
that for practical purposes when you're
when you're working with dependent
origination
for practical purposes it makes more
sense to use
habitual tendency than it does
uh existence or
what's the other one that they use of
being it doesn't make any sense
or very little sense
but he didn't agree with me he said no
that's not right
because it's it's not the using the
complete definition of what bhava
is bhava is
uh the physical
the jhanas and the arupa-janas
that's what they're talking the way it's
talking about
but when i use the term habitual
tendency
that turns it into a more
practical aspect of the teaching
and it's easier to understand that way
so when we're talking about habitual
tendencies and how we get
caught up in it that's where our
emotions come from
and that's old attachments to the way
things used to be
or the way things you want them to be
so
it makes sense
to understand completely what i'm
talking about here
you have five aggregates you have body
you have feeling feeling is not your
emotion
feeling is feeling it's either a
pleasant feeling
a painful feeling or a neutral feeling
now right after feeling is perception
that's the part of the mind that names
that
feeling it's pleasant it's painful then
you have formations now formations when
i'm talking about this
i'm talking about
your thoughts you're thinking about
and how you try to control a
feeling with your thoughts
and the more you think about a feeling
the bigger and more intense that feeling
becomes
the more mental proliferation there
is
so it's quite a bit uh
easier to understand this way
when you're using the six r's
the second part of the six r's is
what the second r is
release
now if you are caught
in getting involved with your thinking
and your emotional upsets whatever they
happen to be
you're not practicing the 6rs
it's just that simple
you're getting involved with your
thinking about
and trying to control your feelings with
your thoughts
and it doesn't work
you cause yourself immeasurable amounts
of
pain so paying attention to the six
hours is much more important
than you realize
how much pain you cause yourself
because you get in a situation and you
don't like it and you want to blame
somebody else for your problems
and think about them and how nasty they
were
and what they said and then what i said
and all of this nonsense stuff
you're making a big deal
that causes yourself more suffering
you're turning a minor thing
into a major thing
the whole point of doing this meditation
is so that you can develop your
equanimity
your balance
and not get caught up in your thinking
about
the more you think about
the more difficult things become
so what to do
let it go don't get involved with it
let it be there by itself but don't keep
your attention on
it then
relax
put some lightness into your mind
little tiny smile sometimes you don't
feel like smiling at all
and that that turns out to be funny
well i'm too serious there it is
are you really
so the more that you smile the more you
can laugh with yourself
the easier it is to let go of that pain
and your mind tends towards
lightness and happiness
then you bring that back to an object of
meditation
which can be equanimity
it can be if you feel like you need
compassion at the time
you can lose compassion
you're in control of the different kinds
of things that you can do
for yourself find out which is the best
way to go
find out for yourself
somebody else can come along and they
can have an opinion
and you hear it and you go no i'm not
going to do that
that doesn't feel right then don't
follow it
you follow your own intuition
and that's a big part of this practice
following the intuition and letting go
of emotional
upsets
so your habitual tendency is
about emote emotional upsets and how
you try to control a feeling with your
thoughts
it has never worked
but you get into the habit of doing it
because that's kind of the way you were
taught
so back off on that take a look at that
see how it really does work
and then change
a lot of people do buddhism
and they get caught in the first noble
truth
everything is suffering well not
everything is suffering
i i was kind of
raised by buddhists that were burmese
and to them
everything is suffering
and from that perspective
yeah it is
and there's no joy there's no happiness
if you have joy arise the first thing
the teacher
says to you is don't
get attached
now if you're like me i didn't want to
get attached
so i pushed the joy away the only relief
i'd had in years
i pushed it away because i didn't want
to get attached to it
i didn't know what attachment was
i didn't know what craving was
now there was a blank spot in the
teaching that i was getting
and when i finally
let that go and started reading
the sutas and found out that the suit
has told us to do some
very definite different kinds of
practice
that help you to let go of your
suffering
then joy was not intimidating anymore
joy was something to look forward to
and it's very important
to develop as much joy as you can
now i told you the last time i think it
was that there was a scientific
evidence that smiling
does affect your brain
and they they did
these experiments without
using uh words
they were just checking out what the
muscles
the change of muscles the configuration
of the muscles in
in your uh in your head
when you smile so they put a pencil
and you had to smile
and then they measured what was
happening in your brain and they saw
that
your mind tended towards
being happy having more
joy over a period of time
that can change into a habit
and the more you you
develop this habit
the more life becomes interesting
and fun
so if you don't want to smile all the
time fine
just carry a pencil around in your mouth
okay
so i wanted to i wanted to let you know
about that definition of bhava
that i use it's not a complete
definition
but it's a practical definition when you
look at it
on the physical plane
it makes it a little easier to
understand how the links
intertwine with each other
dependent on the tongue and flavors it's
unconsciousness
arises with the meeting of the three
there is tongue contact
with tongue contact as condition there
is tongue
feeling what one feels
that one perceives what
one perceives that one
craves what one craves
that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates and it's a constant thing
of trying to control your feeling
with your thoughts
and you wind up fighting with yourself
quite a bit i spend a lot of time on
retreats
reminding people to be gentle with
themselves
stop being critical with yourself
stop trying to force your mind to be
the way you want it to be
laugh with yourself
that you need to do a lot
the more you laugh the less
craving affects you
give your laugh
away
give your happiness
away give it to other people
that's the first part of meditation
practicing your generosity in this way
very necessary part of the practice
so if you're walking down the street and
you're smiling
and you give that smile away you are
practicing your generosity
and if you can have them laugh
that doesn't mean a full-on belly laugh
but just a chuckle
then you're giving your happiness away
and it's necessary
how many times do you see people walking
down the street
looking down and never
smiling always having a sour face
you see it a lot when you're practicing
smiling your posture changes when you're
walking and you tend to look up
and when you look up you see people
and you actually see them smile back
so they help remind you to continue
so they're practicing their generosity
it's a win-win situation right
with what has one mentally proliferated
as
the source perceptions and
notion tends by mental proliferation
beside a person
with respect to the past future and
present
see the taste cognizable through the
tongue
dependent on the body
and tangibles body consciousness
arises with the meeting of the three
there is body contact with body contact
is conditioned
and there is body feeling what one
feels that one perceives
what one perceives that one craves
what one craves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one is mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notion tinged by
mental proliferation
beside a person with respect to the past
future and present tangibles cognizable
through the body
dependent on mind and mind objects mind
consciousness arises
with the reading of the three there is
mind contact
with mind contact as condition there is
mind feeling what one
feels that one perceives
what one perceives
that one graves
what one craves that
one thinks about what one
thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one has mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notion tends by mental
proliferation beset a person
with respect to past future and
present mind objects
cognizable through mind
dependent oops
when there is the eye of form
and i consciousness
is possible to point out the
manifestation
of eye contact
when there is the manifestation of
eye contact it is possible to point out
the manifestation of
i feeling when there is the
manifestation of i
feeling it is possible to point out the
manifestation
of eye craving
when there is a
excuse me when there is the
manifestation of i
craving it is possible to point out the
manifestation of
thinking when there's the manifestation
of
thinking it is possible to point out the
manifestation of
habitual tendency
when there's a manifestation of habitual
tendency it is possible to point out
the perceptions and notions intended
tension
by mental proliferation
when there is the era of sounds and ear
consciousness it is possible to point
out the
manifestation of ear contact
when there is a manifestation of ear
contact it is possible to point out
the manifestation of ear feeling
when there is a manifestation of ear
feeling
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of perception
when there is a manifestation of
perception
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of craving
when there is a manifestation of craving
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of thinking
when there there's the manifestation of
thinking
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of habitual
tendency beset
by perceptions and notions
changed by mental proliferation
so you get a chance to see how
this process works and how
it everything gets tanged by
your thoughts your opinions your beliefs
and how you get caught up in your mental
proliferation
of that of the emotions
of that right now if you walk down the
street and you say
something and somebody hears it and they
don't like it
they're gonna attack you or they can
which is pretty amazing that
they're so lost in their thinking
they're so lost in their emotional
upsets
that they aren't even acting like human
beings anymore
they're acting like animals
and it's all because they don't
understand how this process actually
does
work and they're taking it all
personally and they're actually
getting caught up
in those emotions and
they will start to
cause themselves more and more pain as
time goes by
and this is not a maybe this is a for
real
so instead of fighting back with these
people
and arguing with these people
develop your compassion
see the suffering that they are
experiencing
let them have their own suffering
and radiate loving kindness to them
now it's pretty amazing when you start
practicing loving kindness on a more
regular basis it is pretty amazing
because
you get more and more confidence in the
power
of the loving kindness
when you see somebody that's getting
angry with somebody else
you can start radiating that person
to both of those people
and as you radiate loving kindness to
them
they settle down
they stop talking with angry voices they
stop
yelling at each other as it were
and the more you can be
an influence in that way
you are starting to affect the world
around you in a positive way
it works i've seen it happen
way too many times to have any doubt
that it works
and even a little thing of i
i saw a boy that was
he was very shy and he was afraid to
make a mistake
and he was getting questioned by his
parents
for one thing or another and he didn't
want to answer
so as i started radiating
loving-kindness to him
i could see in his face that all of a
sudden he lost a lot of tension
and then he just came out with the
answer
and then they had a good discussion
after that
i was radiating to the family the whole
family
at the same time and everybody was
affected by that
it's really kind of magical when you
remember
to use it
when you remember not to get involved in
your emotional upset because
things aren't happening the way you
think they should
put your compassion and loving kindness
into the situation into the people
around the situation
and you will start affecting everybody
in a positive way
and you'll see how magical it becomes
it's actually really good fun to do it
i recommend it highly nice way to spend
your day
excuse me
ah
when there is uh
nose and odors there is no
consciousness
and it is possible to point out the
manifestation of
nose contact
when there is the manifestation of nose
contact it is possible to point out the
manifestation of nose feeling
when there is a manifestation of those
feeling it is possible to point out the
manifestation of perception
when there's a manifestation of
perception it is possible to point out
the manifestation of
craving when there is the manifestation
of
craving now the manifestation of craving
this is
really important to understand
when craving manifests itself
you are taking whatever it is that's in
your mind
personally
and you're owning it
now there's not a lot of equanimity
in your in your mind when you're doing
that
there's not much balance because of your
attachment
to wanting to be right
wanting to be listened to
wanting to be in control
and the more you get caught up in that
the more suffering you experience
for yourself
okay
so it's real interesting
when you when you
develop your mindfulness
or ability to watch
how things change how they move from one
thing to another
and what that does with your observation
if your mindfulness is strong you'll be
able to see
that there is that mental
proliferation that's happening
and it's impersonal it's not yours
you'll be able to see that and when you
see it
you don't get caught by it and when you
don't get
caught by it your mind
tends towards true balance
and happiness
so i've been talking for quite a while
and i got told that i talked too long
last last week so
i'm going to have to back off and
talking more
but this is an important suita to
realize
so i'm going to go to the end of the
suita where they start talking about
this suta in particular
when this was said the venerable ananda
said to the
blessed one venerable sir just as if a
man
exhausted by hunger and weakness
came upon a honey ball
and in the course of eating
it would he would find a sweet
delectable
flavor so too venerable sir
any able-bodied person
in the course of scrutinizing with
wisdom
the meaning of this discourse
on the dhamma would find satisfaction
and confidence of mind
venerable sir what is the name of this
discourse on the dhamma
as to that ananda you may remember
the this discourse on the dhamma as
the honey ball discourse
that's what the blessed one said the
venerable amanda was satisfied
and delighted in the blessed one's words
so there's a lot of lessons that are
more
subtle than
you really consider when you're reading
it on your own you don't think about
these kind of things it takes some
practice to do it
but you'll start seeing more and more
the practical
nature of the buddha's teaching
and there has to be the willingness
to change
to not continue to do things in exactly
the same way
that causes suffering
that lets go of the pain that's there
now every time you use the 6rs
you are experiencing
a form of nibbana
means no bana means fire
so no fire and that's what the buddha
continually said over and over
again
he called craving fire
because it makes your mind hot
and it makes your mind tight
and when you use the six hours
your mind becomes cool
and more open
and there's more balance
there's a discourse that one monk a thai
monk in
uh thailand he called it
the the cool nature of nibana
and it is cool
i thought it was kind of cute that he
did that
anyway do you have any questions
i was having a question
regarding the same sutra like in this
uh it says like when there is no i
no form i know
right they're talking about the uh arupa
jhana nature okay
okay that that explains it a lot easier
than
uh trying to figure out what he's
talking about with everything
the first part he's talking about just
the physical
the uh regular genres
but when he gets to this state he's
talking about
the mental realms
okay
yeah uh i understand uh like
does it mean that our hands won't create
contact they have contact
they're not affected by it
they have all the aggregates
but they don't have any craving they
don't have any clinging
they're not affected by it they have
perfect
equanimity
and when you ask
an arahat a question
he's going to give you the answer
through his in intuition
so it's going to be right
the advantage of being around an arahat
when you find one let me know
and uh in you our next question is uh
can you uh like
all the seven factors of enlightenment
are
connected you said at one point of time
yeah um i see like
if there is lot of investigation going
on the restlessness comes
and when i focus my attention on
tranquility
it will become it will settle down
yes can you explain other factors
well one of them is energy whether
you're using the correct amount of
energy or not one of them is joy
one of them is a still mine one of them
is equanimity
and all of these are affected by
mindfulness
so that's all seven
see the thing is when you get
these in perfect balance
that's when you attain the ibana but
you don't have to do it
you don't have to get them in perfect
balance
as you keep using the six hours
as you keep doing your meditation
they will get in balance by themselves
and then you'll attain nibana
this is one of the reasons that i say
that this is
a natural process
because all of these things will happen
on their own
when you try to push and make them
happen
it doesn't work
but when you allow the space for them to
happen
it does work
and this is another another point that
the buddha
kept going over time and time again
and that is letting go of
the want to control
and just backing off and not taking it
personally but observing
clearly how this process works
that's why the second part of the six
ours is so important release
don't keep your attention on any
distraction let it be there by itself
it's not important although
our mind likes to try to make it
important
and that that's the cause of suffering
so you have to be willing to be
more and more relaxed and open
with whatever arises
there are some people that complain to
me about how hard it
is and it's actually not very hard it's
pretty simple
it can be tiresome because it keeps
coming back over and over again
well okay but you have to continue on
with your six hearts
until it fades away on its own
see because the hindrances
keep having or keep making
uh the things arise
that distract you
they happen because you broke a precept
in the past
now it could have been a little precept
it could have been a big precept
it could have not meant much to you
or it could have meant a lot to you
and so that's that's really the nature
of karma
some karma is really small some is
really big
but what are you doing with that in the
present moment
that's the key when you're using the six
r's then it doesn't matter whether it's
bigger or small
but you start seeing more and more
clearly
how this process actually
affects your life
and if you want to change things in your
life
you have to use the 6rs much more often
smile and practice your generosity
keep your precepts
it's magical when you watch it work and
i really mean that it's quite a bit
uh i know by my experience it does work
yeah
so any other questions
i don't have any other question now okay
one question yeah um
you talked a lot about intuition and
sometimes intuition is like so weak
or we couldn't hear it because like we
are in the world that
you know we not really using it so can
you please give us a little bit of
um tips on how to improve that
meditate more
we get so caught up with a loud mind
yes with a craving mind that i want it
this way i wanted that i have to do this
i have to do that
and you're distracting yourself all the
time
so when intuition comes it's a quiet
little voice if you don't pay attention
to it
if you just kind of chuck it off and say
well i'll think about that later i'll do
it later
well then the intuition isn't there to
help you
so you have to take advantage of the
intuition
to be able to recognize it that's why
you do the meditation
so you can recognize the difference
between the intuition
and the over
active dukkha
mind
okay okay
you anybody else
ponte thank you for your talk um
you said something about um wanting to
be listened to
yes craving yeah uh my only comment
to that is uh as a father of two
teenagers
wanting to be listened to is the
constant
all day long so it's a constant craving
because i think maybe it's an
opportunity to practice 6r but it's
just a lot of craving i just wanted to
mention that
well yeah
there is the growing process
but that you can open up your
communication
a little bit more
and tell them that they
they can have your time they can talk
with you
what they're really asking you to do
almost a hundred percent of the time is
to love
them
so when you talk with them
talk with equanimity and talk with
loving kindness
and radiate some loving kindness to them
while they're talking
and you'll see a change in it and you'll
see
the happiness becomes more
uh
contagious i'm almost afraid to use that
word
thank you okay anybody else
hi monty hi am i too loud this week
nope everything is good okay thank you
um ponti i have a lot going on
uh in my life my mother is dying while
she's in the hospital
not dying let's hope she comes home my
father also
they're in their 90s and
i've had a a long and difficult
experience in life so sometimes when i
sit down
and i start the meditation
and i am trying to generate a feeling a
memory of a happy time
and that feeling of joy a happy time
to you know sometimes
i guess maybe i just need to wait longer
right there
until it comes up well actually i think
you would be
doing better to practice
forgiveness meditation
okay okay and
open your communication with your
parents about
things that have bothered you for a long
time that they might have done that they
didn't realize they did
cause the problem talk with them about
the things you used to fight with and
that sort of thing and forgive them
for not understanding
you'll get a lot of relief
and the stress will start to back off
when you do the forgiveness meditation
now if you need write to david and he
will send you a book
on how to do forgiveness meditation
okay thank you very much okay
thank you i will do that and before you
go in
to see either one of them
i want you to spend maybe one minute
realizing that their pain is
theirs it's not your pain
allow them the space to have their
own pain but send them loving kindness
the whole time you're with them
okay i'm sure i will get to see them but
i will keep i will keep that in mind
well if you don't see them but you talk
to them on the phone do the same thing
in your mind before you talk to them
okay okay great idea
thank you so much you're welcome
anybody else
everybody is so smart because i just
gave this
short discourse that you don't have any
questions huh
i i bond i am how are you i'm good
good thank you i have a question when
you send
meta or to a specific people at the end
of your
meditation or just separate everybody
has
their own karma is it possible to get
karma from other people or if if it is
possible
as you develop having an uplifted mind a
wholesome mind
you get karma from doing that
you don't take i mean
okay so avoiding people's karma there's
no way we can get people's karma
if we send meta to them you're not gonna
get their
not no there's no getting their negative
stuff okay
okay thanks okay
anybody else
okay then let's share some merit
david
okay these suffering ones be
suffering free and the fear struck
fearless be
may the grieving shed all grief and may
all beings find release
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 nagas of mighty power share
this merit of ours
may they long protect the buddha's
dispensation
so i hope you all have a
wonderful week with lots of smiles
and give your smiles away to as many
people as you can
thank you bundy thank you thank you
thank you thank you you're very welcome
you
had returned from his alms round
after his meal he went to the great wood
for the days abiding
entering the great wood he sat down at a
balfour
sapling for the days abiding
dan de penny dan de penny was
a a minor king
with the innasaki and
clan his his kingdom was not very big
and he was very much attached to the
brahman
and he did not care for the buddha at
all so he always was trying to find
ways of
criticizing and that sort of thing
so dan de penny the sakian while
walking and wandering for exercise
also went to the great wood
and when he had entered the great wood
he went to the balfous sapling
where the blessed one was and
exchanged greetings with him
when this courteous and amiable talk was
finished
he stood at one side leaning on his
stick
and asked the blessed one
what does the recluse assert
what is is what does he proclaim
now that it shows the disrespect he
thought that
uh dandapani thought that the buddha
should get up
and greet him but the buddha was sitting
and he continued sitting
so then the panties stood
with his head above a teacher which is
a show of disrespect
uh can everybody hear me all right
oh okay just making sure
uh so dan depending stood
and he leaned on a stick instead of
showing
respect
and asked this question
then the buddha said i assert and
proclaim
such a teaching that one does not
quarrel with anyone in the world with
its gods its maras
and its brahmas in this
generation with its recluses and
brahmanas
its princes and its people
such a teaching that
perceptions no more underlie that
brahman
who abides detached from
sensual pleasures without
perplexity shorn
of worry free from
craving of for any kind of being
when this was said dandapani the sake
shook his head wagged his tongue and
raised his eyebrows
until his forehead was puckered in three
lines
that means these lines here
then he departed leaning on his stick
when it was evening the blessed one rose
from his meditation
and went to negrotus park where he sat
down on a seat made ready for him and
told the monks
what had taken place then a certain monk
asked the blessed one but venerable sir
what is a teaching that the blessed one
asserts whereby one does not
quarrel with anyone in the world with
its gods its mars and its promise
in this generation with its recluses and
brahmanas
its princes and its people
and venerable sir how is it that
perceptions no more
underlie that brahman who abides
detached from sensual pleasures
without perplexity shorn of worry
free from craving for any kind of being
monk as to the source through which
perceptions and notions
tensed by mental proliferation
beset a man
if nothing that is found there to
delight in welcome and hold
two this is the end of the underlying
tendency
to lust the end of the underlying
tendency to aversion
the end of the underlying tendency to
craving the end of the underlying
tendency to views
of the underlying tendency to doubt
of the underlying tendency to conceit
of the underlying tendency to desire
for being of the underlying tendency to
ignorance this is
the end of resorting to
rods and weapons of quarrels brawls
disputes recrimination
malice and false speech
hear these evil and wholesome cease
without remainder
that's what the blessed one said
having said this the sublime one rose
from his seat and went into his dwelling
because nobody asked him any questions
he always paused after giving a domino
talk
and allowed space for people to ask
questions when nobody
said anything he thought okay
we all understand so we're just going to
continue on and i'm going to go
go in and do whatever i need to do in
my heart
so that lets you know that it's not good
if you don't ask questions you
want to be asking questions at the end
of the dhamma talk
to clear up anything that you're going
through it doesn't have to
mean just meditation
okay then soon after the blessed one had
gone the monks
considered now france the blessed one
has risen from his seat and gone into
his dwelling after giving a summary in
brief
without expounding it
without expounding the detailed meaning
excuse me
now who will expound this in detail
then they considered the venerable
mahaka chana is praised by the teacher
and esteemed by his wise companions in
the holy life
he is capable of expounding the detailed
meaning
suppose we went to him and asked him
the meaning of this the thing
is um in
other sutas anytime
maha kachana was asked a question
or gave a dhamma talk it was always
the answer came back about
the links of dependent origination he
really got into that
very much so these are the kind of
answers that he would give
so that you would understand the lengths
of dependent
origination in different ways
then the monks went to the venerable
mahaka-chan i exchanged greetings with
him
when this courteous and amenable talk
was finished
they sat down to one side and told him
what had taken place adding let the
venerable
mahaka-chana expound it to us
the venerable mahaka-chana replied
friends it is though a man needing
heartwood seeking heartwood wandering in
search of heartwood
thought that heartwood should be sought
for among the branches and leaves of a
great tree
standing possessed of heartwood
after he had passed over the root and
the trunk so it is with you
venerable sirs that youth
you think i should be asked about the
meaning of this
after you pass the blessed one by
when you were face to face with the
blessed one
for knowing the blessed one knows
seeing he sees he is vision
he is knowledge he is the dhamma
he is the holy one
he is the sayer proclaimer
elucidator of meaning the giver of the
deathless
the lord of the dhamma the tatakata
that was the time when you should have
asked the blessed one the meaning
as he told you so you should have
remembered it
surely friend kachana knowing the
blessed one
knows seeing he sees his vision
he is knowledge he is the dhamma
he is the holy one he is the sayer
proclaimer an elucidator of meaning
the giver of the deathless the lord of
the dhamma
the tattagata that was the time that you
should have asked the blessed one
the meaning so
what we're seeing here is that
during the time of the buddha he spent a
lot of time
answering questions
and people were not afraid to ask
questions
take that as your example of what to do
okay
as he told us so we should have
remembered it
yet the venerable mahakatrana is praised
by the teacher
and esteemed by his wise companions in
the holy life
the venerable mahaka chana is capable of
expounding the detailed meaning of this
summary
given in brief by the blessed one
without expounding the detailed meaning
let the venerable mahaka-chana expound
it to us
without finding it troublesome
then listen friends and attend closely
to what i shall say
yes friend the venerable
monks replied the venerable
mahaka said this friends when the
blessed one
rose from his seat and went into his
dwelling
after giving a summary and brief
without expounding the detailed meaning
that is
monks as to the source through
which mental perceptions and notion
tensed by mental proliferation beside a
man
if nothing is founder to delight in
welcome and hold to it
this is the end of the underlying
tendency to lust
the end of the underlying tendency
to aversion
the end of the underlying tendency to
craving the end of the underlying
tendency to views
of the underlying tendency to doubt
of the underlying tendency to desire
for being of the underlying tendency to
ignorance this is the end of
resorting to rods and weapons
of quarrels brawls disputes
recrimination malice and false speech
here these evil unwholesome states cease
without remainder
that is what the blessed one said having
said this the sublime one rose from his
seat
and went into his dwelling
i understand the detailed meaning
of it to be as follows
dependent on the eye and forms eye
consciousness arises
with the meeting of the three there is
eye contact
with eye contact as conditioned there is
i
feeling what one feels
that one perceives
what one perceives that one
craves what one
graves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one is mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notions tanged by
mental proliferation beset of man with
respect
to past future and present forms
cognizable through the eye
dependent on the air and sounds ear
consciousness arises
with the meeting of the three there is
air
contact with ear
contact as condition there is ear
feeling what one feels
that one perceives
perceives means name
you you have a sound happen
perception right then says that
sound and
i like it or dislike it depending on the
quality of sound that you hear
so when we're talking about perception
we're talking about
getting into the conceptual
uh
way that we think we only think
in concepts we never
uh are
able to con to express
anything other than concepts
uh let's say you talk of wanna talk
about fear
what is fear fear is a concept
what is a concept a concept is made up
of many different
parts put together to come up with the
idea of fear
this is how we think
continually in concepts
that's why it's best to to work with
your meditation
until you get to the place where you can
get into the quiet
mind as soon as you get into the quiet
mind
all of a sudden the conceptual
things that we live with every day
disappear and there's a lot
of relief not living in the conceptual
world
what one feels that one perceives
what one perceives that one graves
what one craves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one has mentally proliferated
as the source perceptions and notions
tanged by mental proliferation beset a
man
with respect to the past future
and present sounds cognizable through
the
ear
excuse me
dependent on the nose and odor's nose
consciousness
arises with the meeting of the three
there is no contact
with nose contact as conditioned there
is
no feeling what one
feels that one perceives
what one perceives that one thinks
about or excuse me that one craves
what one craves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one has mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notion tense by
mental proliferation beset a person
with respect to past future and present
odors cognizable through the nose
when we talk about the mental
proliferation
which you're mentally proliferated
and according to the links of dependent
origination
in pali they call it bava
but i don't use that that term very
often
because it's been interpreted
in a lot of different ways that can get
things confused
i call it mental proliferation
now it's real interesting because i've
been with a lot of monks that are very
learned
and i hear them talk with each other and
they
they like to discuss bhava
and when i hear them discussing it
in my mind i'm changing
the word bhava into
conceptual uh
habitual
yeah my mind just took a blank spot
so it's habitual tendency sometimes i
call it
habitual emotional tendencies
now when i'm talking about that i am
talking about
baba and what this
is really talking about is
getting caught up
in your emotional states
now every time i listen to monks talk
about
their definition of bhava and that sort
of thing
i change it to habitual tendency and
habitual tendency works very well
so there's no problem with that
i went to bhikkhu bodhi and i told him
that for practical purposes when you're
when you're working with dependent
origination
for practical purposes it makes more
sense to use
habitual tendency than it does
uh existence or
what's the other one that they use of
being it doesn't make any sense
or very little sense
but he didn't agree with me he said no
that's not right
because it's it's not the using the
complete definition of what bhava
is bhava is
uh the physical
the jhanas and the arupa-janas
that's what they're talking the way it's
talking about
but when i use the term habitual
tendency
that turns it into a more
practical aspect of the teaching
and it's easier to understand that way
so when we're talking about habitual
tendencies and how we get
caught up in it that's where our
emotions come from
and that's old attachments to the way
things used to be
or the way things you want them to be
so
it makes sense
to understand completely what i'm
talking about here
you have five aggregates you have body
you have feeling feeling is not your
emotion
feeling is feeling it's either a
pleasant feeling
a painful feeling or a neutral feeling
now right after feeling is perception
that's the part of the mind that names
that
feeling it's pleasant it's painful then
you have formations now formations when
i'm talking about this
i'm talking about
your thoughts you're thinking about
and how you try to control a
feeling with your thoughts
and the more you think about a feeling
the bigger and more intense that feeling
becomes
the more mental proliferation there
is
so it's quite a bit uh
easier to understand this way
when you're using the six r's
the second part of the six r's is
what the second r is
release
now if you are caught
in getting involved with your thinking
and your emotional upsets whatever they
happen to be
you're not practicing the 6rs
it's just that simple
you're getting involved with your
thinking about
and trying to control your feelings with
your thoughts
and it doesn't work
you cause yourself immeasurable amounts
of
pain so paying attention to the six
hours is much more important
than you realize
how much pain you cause yourself
because you get in a situation and you
don't like it and you want to blame
somebody else for your problems
and think about them and how nasty they
were
and what they said and then what i said
and all of this nonsense stuff
you're making a big deal
that causes yourself more suffering
you're turning a minor thing
into a major thing
the whole point of doing this meditation
is so that you can develop your
equanimity
your balance
and not get caught up in your thinking
about
the more you think about
the more difficult things become
so what to do
let it go don't get involved with it
let it be there by itself but don't keep
your attention on
it then
relax
put some lightness into your mind
little tiny smile sometimes you don't
feel like smiling at all
and that that turns out to be funny
well i'm too serious there it is
are you really
so the more that you smile the more you
can laugh with yourself
the easier it is to let go of that pain
and your mind tends towards
lightness and happiness
then you bring that back to an object of
meditation
which can be equanimity
it can be if you feel like you need
compassion at the time
you can lose compassion
you're in control of the different kinds
of things that you can do
for yourself find out which is the best
way to go
find out for yourself
somebody else can come along and they
can have an opinion
and you hear it and you go no i'm not
going to do that
that doesn't feel right then don't
follow it
you follow your own intuition
and that's a big part of this practice
following the intuition and letting go
of emotional
upsets
so your habitual tendency is
about emote emotional upsets and how
you try to control a feeling with your
thoughts
it has never worked
but you get into the habit of doing it
because that's kind of the way you were
taught
so back off on that take a look at that
see how it really does work
and then change
a lot of people do buddhism
and they get caught in the first noble
truth
everything is suffering well not
everything is suffering
i i was kind of
raised by buddhists that were burmese
and to them
everything is suffering
and from that perspective
yeah it is
and there's no joy there's no happiness
if you have joy arise the first thing
the teacher
says to you is don't
get attached
now if you're like me i didn't want to
get attached
so i pushed the joy away the only relief
i'd had in years
i pushed it away because i didn't want
to get attached to it
i didn't know what attachment was
i didn't know what craving was
now there was a blank spot in the
teaching that i was getting
and when i finally
let that go and started reading
the sutas and found out that the suit
has told us to do some
very definite different kinds of
practice
that help you to let go of your
suffering
then joy was not intimidating anymore
joy was something to look forward to
and it's very important
to develop as much joy as you can
now i told you the last time i think it
was that there was a scientific
evidence that smiling
does affect your brain
and they they did
these experiments without
using uh words
they were just checking out what the
muscles
the change of muscles the configuration
of the muscles in
in your uh in your head
when you smile so they put a pencil
and you had to smile
and then they measured what was
happening in your brain and they saw
that
your mind tended towards
being happy having more
joy over a period of time
that can change into a habit
and the more you you
develop this habit
the more life becomes interesting
and fun
so if you don't want to smile all the
time fine
just carry a pencil around in your mouth
okay
so i wanted to i wanted to let you know
about that definition of bhava
that i use it's not a complete
definition
but it's a practical definition when you
look at it
on the physical plane
it makes it a little easier to
understand how the links
intertwine with each other
dependent on the tongue and flavors it's
unconsciousness
arises with the meeting of the three
there is tongue contact
with tongue contact as condition there
is tongue
feeling what one feels
that one perceives what
one perceives that one
craves what one craves
that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates and it's a constant thing
of trying to control your feeling
with your thoughts
and you wind up fighting with yourself
quite a bit i spend a lot of time on
retreats
reminding people to be gentle with
themselves
stop being critical with yourself
stop trying to force your mind to be
the way you want it to be
laugh with yourself
that you need to do a lot
the more you laugh the less
craving affects you
give your laugh
away
give your happiness
away give it to other people
that's the first part of meditation
practicing your generosity in this way
very necessary part of the practice
so if you're walking down the street and
you're smiling
and you give that smile away you are
practicing your generosity
and if you can have them laugh
that doesn't mean a full-on belly laugh
but just a chuckle
then you're giving your happiness away
and it's necessary
how many times do you see people walking
down the street
looking down and never
smiling always having a sour face
you see it a lot when you're practicing
smiling your posture changes when you're
walking and you tend to look up
and when you look up you see people
and you actually see them smile back
so they help remind you to continue
so they're practicing their generosity
it's a win-win situation right
with what has one mentally proliferated
as
the source perceptions and
notion tends by mental proliferation
beside a person
with respect to the past future and
present
see the taste cognizable through the
tongue
dependent on the body
and tangibles body consciousness
arises with the meeting of the three
there is body contact with body contact
is conditioned
and there is body feeling what one
feels that one perceives
what one perceives that one craves
what one craves that one thinks about
what one thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one is mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notion tinged by
mental proliferation
beside a person with respect to the past
future and present tangibles cognizable
through the body
dependent on mind and mind objects mind
consciousness arises
with the reading of the three there is
mind contact
with mind contact as condition there is
mind feeling what one
feels that one perceives
what one perceives
that one graves
what one craves that
one thinks about what one
thinks about that one mentally
proliferates
with what one has mentally proliferated
as the source
perceptions and notion tends by mental
proliferation beset a person
with respect to past future and
present mind objects
cognizable through mind
dependent oops
when there is the eye of form
and i consciousness
is possible to point out the
manifestation
of eye contact
when there is the manifestation of
eye contact it is possible to point out
the manifestation of
i feeling when there is the
manifestation of i
feeling it is possible to point out the
manifestation
of eye craving
when there is a
excuse me when there is the
manifestation of i
craving it is possible to point out the
manifestation of
thinking when there's the manifestation
of
thinking it is possible to point out the
manifestation of
habitual tendency
when there's a manifestation of habitual
tendency it is possible to point out
the perceptions and notions intended
tension
by mental proliferation
when there is the era of sounds and ear
consciousness it is possible to point
out the
manifestation of ear contact
when there is a manifestation of ear
contact it is possible to point out
the manifestation of ear feeling
when there is a manifestation of ear
feeling
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of perception
when there is a manifestation of
perception
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of craving
when there is a manifestation of craving
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of thinking
when there there's the manifestation of
thinking
it is possible to point out the
manifestation of habitual
tendency beset
by perceptions and notions
changed by mental proliferation
so you get a chance to see how
this process works and how
it everything gets tanged by
your thoughts your opinions your beliefs
and how you get caught up in your mental
proliferation
of that of the emotions
of that right now if you walk down the
street and you say
something and somebody hears it and they
don't like it
they're gonna attack you or they can
which is pretty amazing that
they're so lost in their thinking
they're so lost in their emotional
upsets
that they aren't even acting like human
beings anymore
they're acting like animals
and it's all because they don't
understand how this process actually
does
work and they're taking it all
personally and they're actually
getting caught up
in those emotions and
they will start to
cause themselves more and more pain as
time goes by
and this is not a maybe this is a for
real
so instead of fighting back with these
people
and arguing with these people
develop your compassion
see the suffering that they are
experiencing
let them have their own suffering
and radiate loving kindness to them
now it's pretty amazing when you start
practicing loving kindness on a more
regular basis it is pretty amazing
because
you get more and more confidence in the
power
of the loving kindness
when you see somebody that's getting
angry with somebody else
you can start radiating that person
to both of those people
and as you radiate loving kindness to
them
they settle down
they stop talking with angry voices they
stop
yelling at each other as it were
and the more you can be
an influence in that way
you are starting to affect the world
around you in a positive way
it works i've seen it happen
way too many times to have any doubt
that it works
and even a little thing of i
i saw a boy that was
he was very shy and he was afraid to
make a mistake
and he was getting questioned by his
parents
for one thing or another and he didn't
want to answer
so as i started radiating
loving-kindness to him
i could see in his face that all of a
sudden he lost a lot of tension
and then he just came out with the
answer
and then they had a good discussion
after that
i was radiating to the family the whole
family
at the same time and everybody was
affected by that
it's really kind of magical when you
remember
to use it
when you remember not to get involved in
your emotional upset because
things aren't happening the way you
think they should
put your compassion and loving kindness
into the situation into the people
around the situation
and you will start affecting everybody
in a positive way
and you'll see how magical it becomes
it's actually really good fun to do it
i recommend it highly nice way to spend
your day
excuse me
ah
when there is uh
nose and odors there is no
consciousness
and it is possible to point out the
manifestation of
nose contact
when there is the manifestation of nose
contact it is possible to point out the
manifestation of nose feeling
when there is a manifestation of those
feeling it is possible to point out the
manifestation of perception
when there's a manifestation of
perception it is possible to point out
the manifestation of
craving when there is the manifestation
of
craving now the manifestation of craving
this is
really important to understand
when craving manifests itself
you are taking whatever it is that's in
your mind
personally
and you're owning it
now there's not a lot of equanimity
in your in your mind when you're doing
that
there's not much balance because of your
attachment
to wanting to be right
wanting to be listened to
wanting to be in control
and the more you get caught up in that
the more suffering you experience
for yourself
okay
so it's real interesting
when you when you
develop your mindfulness
or ability to watch
how things change how they move from one
thing to another
and what that does with your observation
if your mindfulness is strong you'll be
able to see
that there is that mental
proliferation that's happening
and it's impersonal it's not yours
you'll be able to see that and when you
see it
you don't get caught by it and when you
don't get
caught by it your mind
tends towards true balance
and happiness
so i've been talking for quite a while
and i got told that i talked too long
last last week so
i'm going to have to back off and
talking more
but this is an important suita to
realize
so i'm going to go to the end of the
suita where they start talking about
this suta in particular
when this was said the venerable ananda
said to the
blessed one venerable sir just as if a
man
exhausted by hunger and weakness
came upon a honey ball
and in the course of eating
it would he would find a sweet
delectable
flavor so too venerable sir
any able-bodied person
in the course of scrutinizing with
wisdom
the meaning of this discourse
on the dhamma would find satisfaction
and confidence of mind
venerable sir what is the name of this
discourse on the dhamma
as to that ananda you may remember
the this discourse on the dhamma as
the honey ball discourse
that's what the blessed one said the
venerable amanda was satisfied
and delighted in the blessed one's words
so there's a lot of lessons that are
more
subtle than
you really consider when you're reading
it on your own you don't think about
these kind of things it takes some
practice to do it
but you'll start seeing more and more
the practical
nature of the buddha's teaching
and there has to be the willingness
to change
to not continue to do things in exactly
the same way
that causes suffering
that lets go of the pain that's there
now every time you use the 6rs
you are experiencing
a form of nibbana
means no bana means fire
so no fire and that's what the buddha
continually said over and over
again
he called craving fire
because it makes your mind hot
and it makes your mind tight
and when you use the six hours
your mind becomes cool
and more open
and there's more balance
there's a discourse that one monk a thai
monk in
uh thailand he called it
the the cool nature of nibana
and it is cool
i thought it was kind of cute that he
did that
anyway do you have any questions
i was having a question
regarding the same sutra like in this
uh it says like when there is no i
no form i know
right they're talking about the uh arupa
jhana nature okay
okay that that explains it a lot easier
than
uh trying to figure out what he's
talking about with everything
the first part he's talking about just
the physical
the uh regular genres
but when he gets to this state he's
talking about
the mental realms
okay
yeah uh i understand uh like
does it mean that our hands won't create
contact they have contact
they're not affected by it
they have all the aggregates
but they don't have any craving they
don't have any clinging
they're not affected by it they have
perfect
equanimity
and when you ask
an arahat a question
he's going to give you the answer
through his in intuition
so it's going to be right
the advantage of being around an arahat
when you find one let me know
and uh in you our next question is uh
can you uh like
all the seven factors of enlightenment
are
connected you said at one point of time
yeah um i see like
if there is lot of investigation going
on the restlessness comes
and when i focus my attention on
tranquility
it will become it will settle down
yes can you explain other factors
well one of them is energy whether
you're using the correct amount of
energy or not one of them is joy
one of them is a still mine one of them
is equanimity
and all of these are affected by
mindfulness
so that's all seven
see the thing is when you get
these in perfect balance
that's when you attain the ibana but
you don't have to do it
you don't have to get them in perfect
balance
as you keep using the six hours
as you keep doing your meditation
they will get in balance by themselves
and then you'll attain nibana
this is one of the reasons that i say
that this is
a natural process
because all of these things will happen
on their own
when you try to push and make them
happen
it doesn't work
but when you allow the space for them to
happen
it does work
and this is another another point that
the buddha
kept going over time and time again
and that is letting go of
the want to control
and just backing off and not taking it
personally but observing
clearly how this process works
that's why the second part of the six
ours is so important release
don't keep your attention on any
distraction let it be there by itself
it's not important although
our mind likes to try to make it
important
and that that's the cause of suffering
so you have to be willing to be
more and more relaxed and open
with whatever arises
there are some people that complain to
me about how hard it
is and it's actually not very hard it's
pretty simple
it can be tiresome because it keeps
coming back over and over again
well okay but you have to continue on
with your six hearts
until it fades away on its own
see because the hindrances
keep having or keep making
uh the things arise
that distract you
they happen because you broke a precept
in the past
now it could have been a little precept
it could have been a big precept
it could have not meant much to you
or it could have meant a lot to you
and so that's that's really the nature
of karma
some karma is really small some is
really big
but what are you doing with that in the
present moment
that's the key when you're using the six
r's then it doesn't matter whether it's
bigger or small
but you start seeing more and more
clearly
how this process actually
affects your life
and if you want to change things in your
life
you have to use the 6rs much more often
smile and practice your generosity
keep your precepts
it's magical when you watch it work and
i really mean that it's quite a bit
uh i know by my experience it does work
yeah
so any other questions
i don't have any other question now okay
one question yeah um
you talked a lot about intuition and
sometimes intuition is like so weak
or we couldn't hear it because like we
are in the world that
you know we not really using it so can
you please give us a little bit of
um tips on how to improve that
meditate more
we get so caught up with a loud mind
yes with a craving mind that i want it
this way i wanted that i have to do this
i have to do that
and you're distracting yourself all the
time
so when intuition comes it's a quiet
little voice if you don't pay attention
to it
if you just kind of chuck it off and say
well i'll think about that later i'll do
it later
well then the intuition isn't there to
help you
so you have to take advantage of the
intuition
to be able to recognize it that's why
you do the meditation
so you can recognize the difference
between the intuition
and the over
active dukkha
mind
okay okay
you anybody else
ponte thank you for your talk um
you said something about um wanting to
be listened to
yes craving yeah uh my only comment
to that is uh as a father of two
teenagers
wanting to be listened to is the
constant
all day long so it's a constant craving
because i think maybe it's an
opportunity to practice 6r but it's
just a lot of craving i just wanted to
mention that
well yeah
there is the growing process
but that you can open up your
communication
a little bit more
and tell them that they
they can have your time they can talk
with you
what they're really asking you to do
almost a hundred percent of the time is
to love
them
so when you talk with them
talk with equanimity and talk with
loving kindness
and radiate some loving kindness to them
while they're talking
and you'll see a change in it and you'll
see
the happiness becomes more
uh
contagious i'm almost afraid to use that
word
thank you okay anybody else
hi monty hi am i too loud this week
nope everything is good okay thank you
um ponti i have a lot going on
uh in my life my mother is dying while
she's in the hospital
not dying let's hope she comes home my
father also
they're in their 90s and
i've had a a long and difficult
experience in life so sometimes when i
sit down
and i start the meditation
and i am trying to generate a feeling a
memory of a happy time
and that feeling of joy a happy time
to you know sometimes
i guess maybe i just need to wait longer
right there
until it comes up well actually i think
you would be
doing better to practice
forgiveness meditation
okay okay and
open your communication with your
parents about
things that have bothered you for a long
time that they might have done that they
didn't realize they did
cause the problem talk with them about
the things you used to fight with and
that sort of thing and forgive them
for not understanding
you'll get a lot of relief
and the stress will start to back off
when you do the forgiveness meditation
now if you need write to david and he
will send you a book
on how to do forgiveness meditation
okay thank you very much okay
thank you i will do that and before you
go in
to see either one of them
i want you to spend maybe one minute
realizing that their pain is
theirs it's not your pain
allow them the space to have their
own pain but send them loving kindness
the whole time you're with them
okay i'm sure i will get to see them but
i will keep i will keep that in mind
well if you don't see them but you talk
to them on the phone do the same thing
in your mind before you talk to them
okay okay great idea
thank you so much you're welcome
anybody else
everybody is so smart because i just
gave this
short discourse that you don't have any
questions huh
i i bond i am how are you i'm good
good thank you i have a question when
you send
meta or to a specific people at the end
of your
meditation or just separate everybody
has
their own karma is it possible to get
karma from other people or if if it is
possible
as you develop having an uplifted mind a
wholesome mind
you get karma from doing that
you don't take i mean
okay so avoiding people's karma there's
no way we can get people's karma
if we send meta to them you're not gonna
get their
not no there's no getting their negative
stuff okay
okay thanks okay
anybody else
okay then let's share some merit
david
okay these suffering ones be
suffering free and the fear struck
fearless be
may the grieving shed all grief and may
all beings find release
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 nagas of mighty power share
this merit of ours
may they long protect the buddha's
dispensation
so i hope you all have a
wonderful week with lots of smiles
and give your smiles away to as many
people as you can
thank you bundy thank you thank you
thank you thank you you're very welcome
you