From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=To6bKMbXjFw

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

i guess we'll start

today i'm going to do suta number

59 the many kinds of feelings

one of the reasons that i particularly

like the suta

is it tells you about the

different kinds of presentations

that you can hear

when the buddha gives a talk to

different different sets of people

that's okay so sometimes he gives a

presentation that there's he's only

talking about a couple kinds of feeling

but he goes all the way up to 108

and it depends on the presentation that

you get

so

on one occasion the blessed one was

living at sawatee and jettas grove

vanessa and pindika's park

the carpenter panchakanga went to the

venerable

udayan after paying homage to him he

sat down at one side and asked him

venerable sir

how many kinds of feeling have been

stated by the blessed one

three kinds of feeling have been stated

by the blessed one householder

pleasant feeling painful feeling

and neither painful nor pleasant feeling

these three kinds of feeling have been

stated by the blessed one

not three kinds of feeling have been

stated by

the blessed one venerable udayan

two kinds of feeling have been stated by

the blessed one

pleasant feeling and painful feeling

this neither painful nor pleasant

feeling has been stated by the blessed

one as a peaceful and sublime kind of

pleasure

a second time and a third time the

venerable udayan stated his position

and the second and third time the

carpenter ponja conga stated his

but the venerable udayan could not

convince the carpenter ponchaconga nor

could the carpenter poncho conga

convince the

venerable who'd die and

the venerable ananda heard their

conversation

then he went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him he sat down at one

side and reported to the blessed one the

entire conversation between venerable

udayan

and the carpenter panchakonga

when he finished the blessed one told

the venerable

ananda ananda

it is actually a true presentation

that the pond the carpenter panda conga

would not accept from udayan

and it was actually a priest a true

presentation that odyn would not

accept from the carpenter pancho conga

now one of the things that

i've started seeing more and more

is that people start arguing about

it's the sutta says this

and they get real rigid thinking

and that does not lead to a peaceful and

calm mind

that does not lead to a happy mind

so it's real important for you to

understand that there can be a lot of

different

ideas that are according to the buddha's

teaching

but not necessarily to a limited way

of thinking

so the buddha said i have stated two

kinds of feeling in one presentation

i have stated three kinds of feeling in

another presentation

i have stated five kinds of feeling

in another presentation the five

kinds of feeling are the five aggregates

i have stated six kinds of feeling in

another presentation this

is the sense doors

i have stated 18 kinds of feeling in

another presentation

i have presented 36 kinds of feeling in

another presentation

i have stated 108 kinds of

feeling in another presentation

that is how the dhamma has been shown by

me

in different presentations

when the dhamma has thus been shown by

me in different presentations

it may be expected of those who will not

concede

allow and accept what is well stated and

well spoken by others

that they will take to quarreling

brawling

disputing and stabbing each other with

verbal daggers

but it may be expected of those who

concede

allow and accept what is well stated

and well spoken by others that they will

live in concord

with mutual appreciation

without disrupting

and disputing

blending like milk and water viewing

each other with kindly eyes

now i've been with a lot of people that

have some very different

views but if you don't

spend time saying that

this person is wrong because they have

this idea

but start looking at what is agreeable

what you can agree on

one of my teachers in in malaysia

he was invited to go to a christian

gathering and when he got there

they asked them what's the difference

between the buddha's teaching

and christian teaching

and the monk said i i prefer

not to look at differences i prefer to

look at similarities

and they said no no now there was about

150 people

at this gathering and

he was talking about the differences

between buddhism and christianity people

started getting up and leaving

and that did not lead to a good

outcome so

look for things to agree upon not things

to fight about

and as the world is going right now

there's an awful lot of people that talk

bad things and

it's not worth it

look for similarities and if somebody

wants to talk about

negative opinions about

something you can just back off you

don't

need to be around that kind of person

or you can try to change change the

change the things that you're talking

about

the whole point of doing meta the whole

point of

practicing

the six hours and loving kindness

is you want to have an uplifted happy

mind

you don't want to dwell on negative

things

and spend a lot more

time appreciating things around you

the more you can do that

the better life becomes for you and you

start affecting

people around you in positive ways when

you do this

so it's a real important aspect of the

teaching

to keep smiling all the time as much as

you can remember

don't take take things personally and

get

angry because of

what somebody else thinks or says it's

not that

important

ananda there are these five

chords of sensual pleasure what are the

five

forms cognizable by the eye that are

wished for desired agreeable and likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting

lust sounds

cognizable by the ear that our wish for

desired agreeable and likable connected

with sensual desire and inviting lust

odor is cognizable by the nose that are

wished for desired agreeable and likable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust flavors

cognizable by the tongue that our wish

for

desire agreeable and likable connected

with sensual desire

and inviting lust tangibles

cognizable by the body that are wished

for

desired agreeable unlikable

connected with sensual desire and

inviting lust

these are the five cords of sensual

pleasure

now the pleasure arise dependent on

these five

chords of sensual pleasure are called

sensual pleasure

should anyone say that this is the

utmost

joy and pleasure that beings experience

i would not concede that to them

why is that because there's another kind

of pleasure

loftier and more sublime than that

pleasure

and what is that other kind of pleasure

here ananda quite secluded from sensual

pleasures secluded from

unwholesome states

a monk enters upon and abides in the

first

jhana which is accompanied by thinking

and examining thought

with joy and happiness born of seclusion

this is that other kind of pleasure

loftier and more sublime than the

previous pleasure

now this is kind of an interesting thing

because he'll go through all of the

genres

and each progressive jhana is a

different kind of joy and happiness that

you

experience and remember

that jhana does not imply

concentration

jhana is talking about

a level of your understanding

when you get into the first drama you're

not

experiencing a worldly

feeling you're experiencing

an unworldly feeling

and this is the kind of feeling that

arises

not only from

uh well let me put it a different way

this is the kind of feeling that arises

because you have a quieter mind

because you're learning how to focus

your mind you're learning how to

understand how

mind actually works

and there's a great deal of

satisfaction and happiness that arises

because of that

should anyone say that the utmost

pleasure

enjoy that being that

beings experience i would not concede

that to them

why is that because there's another kind

of pleasure

loftier and more sublime than that

pleasure

and what is that other kind of pleasure

here ananda with the stilling of

thinking and examining thought

a monk enters upon and abides in the

second johno which has self-confidence

stillness of mind without thinking and

examining spot

with joy and happiness born of

collectedness

this is that other kind of pleasure

loftier and more sublime

than the previous pleasure

when you get from one genre to the next

it's like you're doing a different

you're staying with your same object and

meditation

but it's a different meditation

because now you're going deeper the joy

you experience is much stronger

you don't have

any kind of distracting thoughts

or very little

the happiness that you experience after

the joy fades away you become

very comfortable when you get into the

second genre

you start experiencing

a lot more confidence you have a feeling

that you are progressing

you're able to stay with your spiritual

friend for a little bit longer period of

time

without any disturbance and then you'll

feel

when the the joy comes up it will be

quite a bit stronger now this kind of

joy is called

uplifting joy your mind is

very light and the feeling in your body

is almost like floating

so it's a real interesting thing and

when that joy

fades away you feel more comfortable

than you've felt

ever

and you keep as you go to different

levels of

meditation you keep feeling the

differences

and it's more and more clear all the

time

should anyone say

that this is the utmost pleasure

and joy that beings experience i would

not concede that to him

why is that because there's another kind

of pleasure

loftier and more sublime than that

pleasure

and what is the other kind of pleasure

here ananda with the fading away of

joy joy is too coarse a feeling

for your mind now

when joy arises and is fairly strong

there's excitement in your mind

and as you start to go

deeper that excitement just kind of

disappears and you start having

more and more peaceful and calmness

and more comfort in your mind and

in your body you're able to stay with

your object

of meditation for longer periods of time

now this is where

as you get more and more calm and more

and more

peaceful the

you you start to lose feeling in

different parts of your body

you don't feel your hands or an arm or a

leg

now if you put your attention on your on

that part of your body you will

feel it but

if you just stay on your object of

meditation

you won't notice that anymore

if there is some contact let's say an

insect walks on you you will feel that

so what you want to do is

use your 6rs and allow it to be there by

itself

and come back to your object to

meditation

it's very comfortable feeling very

much at ease as you keep going

deeper and deeper the feeling

in your heart is going to change

and it's going to move up into your head

this is a good thing don't try to push

it back down into your heart

let it come up into your head

now you're going to get to the

recognition

that you're in a mental realm

strictly mental realm

the feeling in your heart will

just move by itself sometimes

some people say it moves up to here some

people say it's up here sometimes it's

over in the side

it doesn't matter when it moves up into

your head

now you're going to be able to have more

and more equanimity and tranquility

for longer periods of time you're going

to be able to sit

with staying with your objective

meditation without distraction

now just for the heck of it let's talk

about a distraction for a little while

what's the cause of distractions

why do distractions arise

do you know

distractions arise because

you broke a precept in the past

now an awful lot of people they they

hear about the precepts and it's like

yeah yeah yeah we uh

all right everybody knows about the

precepts don't break the precepts but

they don't follow it very well

you will have a lot

of hindrances arising

from the guilty feeling of breaking one

of the precepts

so keep your precepts as closely as you

can

and you will notice over a period of

time you can get into the deeper kinds

of meditation

much more quickly and easily

when you keep the precepts all the time

now when i give a retreat at the end of

the retreat i start talking about the

importance of

keeping your precepts and reciting the

precepts every day

not as some kind of right and ritual but

as a reminder

to keep the precepts

as pure as you can

this will help your sitting it will help

your mind be more peaceful

and calm you'll be able to get into the

genres

much more quickly when you keep your

precept without breaking

so when you get into the third genre

you abide with equanimity mindful and

fully aware

what does mindfulness mean

that's always a good question because

so many people don't know what

mindfulness

means

mindfulness is remembering to

observe how mind's attention moves

from one thing to another how does it

move

what happens first what happens after

that when you start seeing that

you will start paying more and more

attention

to how your attention gets

sidetracked

and how you get caught in emotional

upsets and dislikes and that sort of

hindrance

so i know there's a big deal about

mindfulness

that's been going on for a couple of

years here in this country

but there's so many different kinds

of definitions

that it just gets really confusing

if you remember to observe that your

mind is not with your object of

meditation

and use the six hours and stay with your

object of meditation

or what you're doing at the time

and while you're smiling

then your mindfulness

improves very quickly and your sitting

gets better and better

okay uh still feeling pleasure with the

body

enters upon and abides in the third

jhana

on account of which noble once announced

he has a pleasant abiding who has

equanimity

and is mindful

now one of the things that people have a

wrong

idea about and

that is

you only can be in jhana while you're

sitting

and it's not true

now if if you are successful with your

sitting meditation on a retreat

i can give you the opportunity to

develop

your mastery of going in

and out of the jhana at will

you can be walking down the street

in of the third genre

or the fourth jhana

or you can be with other people and

still be

in the jhanas

takes practice but it certainly is

worthwhile

this is that other kind of pleasure

loftier and more sublime than the

previous pleasure

should anyone say that this

is the utmost pleasure and joy that

beings

experience i would not concede that to

him

why is that because there's another kind

of pleasure

loftier and more sublime than that

pleasure

and what is that other kind of pleasure

here anondo with the abandoning of

pleasure and pain

with a previous disappearance of joy and

grief

a monk enters upon and abides in the

fourth

channel which has neither

pleasure nor pain and purity of

mindfulness

due to equanimity

this is that other kind of pleasure that

is loftier and more sublime than the

previous pleasure

when you get to the fourth jhana you'll

notice

when you're either you're taking a

retreat online or

you come and you do a retreat with me

i kind of make a big deal out of getting

into the fourth jhana because that's

where you have

the strongest balance of mind

and you can see

things very clearly without

emotional upset

every time you go from one genre to the

next

you go deeper into equanimity

and balance of mind

and you wind up being more and more

peaceful and

calm more happy

at ease

so should anyone say

that this is the utmost pleasure

and joy that beings experience i would

not concede that to him

why is that because there's another kind

of pleasure loftier and more sublime

than that pleasure

and what is that other kind of pleasure

here a nano with a complete surmounting

of

gross perceptions of form

when you get to this level you don't

feel your body anymore

but if there is contact you will feel it

if a fly lands on your on your hand

you'll feel that fly but it doesn't make

your mind wobble and shake

you just notice that it's there

this is a uh

subtle kind of feeling that you

feel now when you get into the mental

realms

sometimes people will have hindrances

arise that are pretty big

and they can still be happening even

when you get into these

arupa jhanas

but the thing is whatever hindrance

arises if you're using the 6rs properly

you're going to notice that the second

step of the six-fold or this

the six r's is

to not keep your attention

on the hindrance let it be there by

itself

relax next step

smile next step

return that with the mind that is light

that is smiling and stay with

that as long as you can

but if you have a kind of hindrance

that's really intense

or really big if you keep

trying to control it trying to push it

away

trying to stop it from being there

it's going to stay and get bigger

because you are

feeding that feeling

with your attention

so you want to back off on that you want

to back off

from keeping your attention on

something that's disturbing your mind

let it be there by itself it's not

important that it's there

what's more important is what you do

with it

and that is to let it be there by itself

relax the relaxed step

is the most important part of the six

hours

why because when you relax you're

letting go

of craving you're letting go of the

false belief

and this is me personally

so it's real important for you to

understand that the

six hours are

the fourth noble truth

it is the path leading to the cessation

of suffering

that is the path

so it's real important for you to

continue on with

[Music]

uh

using the six hours as much as you can

okay

so

with the disappearance of gross

perceptions of

sensory impact

aware that space is infinite

a person enters upon and abides in the

base of infinite space

this is that other kind of pleasure

loftier and more so

blind than their previous uh

pleasure now when you get

when you're doing loving kindness

loving kindness will just stay with you

until you're the fourth drama

then the feeling of loving kindness

changes

i'm not going to tell you how it changes

that's up to you to find out

but as soon as it changes

your mind has more and more equanimity

in it your mind has more

balance in it you're more at ease with

everything

around you and this is

all the time

remember to use the six hours

during the day anytime you find your

mind has some tightness and it doesn't

matter what causes it

as soon as you notice that that

tightness is there

relax and smile

with somebody happiness

be grateful for

the opportunity to have a hindrance

arise

don't fight with it

don't take these feelings

and try to control them and try to push

them down and push them away

because they're painful

allow it to be there by itself relax

smile come back

and wish somebody well

even if it's yourself that's fine

should anyone say

that this is the utmost pleasure and joy

that beings

experience i would not concede that to

him

why is that because there's another kind

of

pleasure loftier and more sublime than

that pleasure

and what is that other kind of pleasure

hear ananda by completely surmounting

the base of infinite space

of where the consciousness is infinite

a person enters upon and abides in the

base of

infinite consciousness this is that

other kind of pleasure loftier and more

sublime than the previous pleasure

when you get to infinite consciousness

this is where you start getting some

really really nice

insights into the true nature of

everything the insight

that you really start seeing is

at one of the sense doors the eyes or

ears

you're gonna see very fast flickering

very fast

now that was

a roughly a hundred thousand arising and

passing away

of consciousness

this happens very fast when you start

seeing this flickering at one of the

sense

doors you're starting to see individual

consciousnesses arise and pass away

arise and pass away some of the insights

that you have

when you get to this state is

that you are seeing up close

and personal the impersonal nature of

everything

this happens by itself

you're seeing that anitra

change is continually happening

you're seeing birth death birth death

birth death birth death

this is the difference between

reincarnation

and rebirth that the buddha teaches

reincarnation is you have a

a permanent self for soul that sees all

of these things and it's

you it's yours but the buddha said

there's

nothing in the world that is permanent

everything is in a state of change

and it's impersonal and because there is

that kind of continual

movement there's a dissatisfaction that

happens with

it so you're seeing anichia duka anata

up close and personal and you're saying

it

very clearly

so those are some of the insights that

you start to have

just as you look around as you as you

observe

life and how things actually work

should anyone say that this

is the utmost pleasure and joy that

beings experienced i would not concede

that to him

why is that because there is another

kind of pleasure

loftier and more sublime than that

pleasure

and what is that other kind of pleasure

hear ananda by completely surmounting

the base of

infinite consciousness

what happens is the feeling of

compassion changes

to a feeling of

very happy subtle

joy

it's not the excited kind of joy that

you

experienced before this is just more of

a happy

feeling this is the kind of joy that you

experience

with developing

the seven awakening factors

this kind of joy is right in the middle

of the awakening

factors it's a happy feeling

but it's not an excited happy feeling

so this

is is what you

experience when you start understanding

deeply the impermanence

the dissatisfaction of everything moving

all the time

and the impersonal nature

aware that okay and what is that other

kind of pleasure

here and on the by completely

surmounting the base of infinite

consciousness

aware that there is nothing

a monk enters upon and abides in the

base

of nothingness now the feeling

of joy fades away and you start

feeling very very strong

equanimity there's just no excitement in

your mind at all

this is where you start to experience

more and more

clearly the

this enchantment of

things

this is where mind is not looking

outside of itself anymore

this is where you're just watching mind

now you'll be able to sit for quite a

long time

half an hour 45 minutes an hour without

any movement of mind's attention

you can stay on your objective

meditation much

more easily

and this is very pleasant

this is very happy that you you can do

that

okay

this is that other kind of pleasure

loftier more and more sublime than the

previous

pleasure now we get into some

interesting stuff

should anyone say that this is the

utmost pleasure and joy that beings

experience

i would not concede that to him

why is that because there's another kind

of pleasure loftier and more sublime

than that pleasure

and what is that other kind of pleasure

i just lost my place

by completely surmounting the base of

nothingness

now this is with strong equanimity

and so you start to have more and more

disenchantment food although you still

have your favorite foods

it doesn't make your mouth water so much

yes you know that you have to have food

to continue

on but it's not so important

so this disenchantment starts to grow

at all of the different sense doors

and it's it's a a finer

degree of equanimity

okay surmounting the base of nothingness

a person enters upon and abides in the

base of neither perception

nor non-perception this

is that other kind of pleasure loftier

and more sublime

than the previous when you get to this

realm

it's like being asleep and being aware

at the same time mind becomes

very subtle

if you see any movement of mind's

attention

any wobbling any going to a thought

you need to relax

smile a bit and come back to a quiet

mind

now an awful lot of people when they

come and they do

meditation with me this is where i start

them to sit for longer periods of time

i'm not going to suggest that for you at

home

unless you've been practicing quite a

lot

i have one student in malaysia

he is retired

and his wife has died so he's by himself

he sits for four hours without moving

he sits with a very quiet mind

very balanced mind

and then he gets up in the afternoon and

he starts wandering around doing this

and that

in the evening he sits for three hours

so he sits seven hours a day i know that

you're not going to be able to do that

that's a special circumstance

but he can sit for two hours three hours

without any disturbance in his mind

at all

no wiggles no distracting feeling

no distracting thought just

a quiet mind

it's actually very inspiring

and i'd like for everybody to be able to

do that

but i know that that's not going to

happen

when you get to neither perception or

non-perception

you want to start sitting for longer and

longer periods of time

and right after

that you'll get to a place where

the cessation of

perception feeling and consciousness

disappear

when you come back and you see this

starting to arise

again very quickly you'll see

little tiny teeny bubbles very fast a

verizon pass away

you are starting to see the links of

dependent origination

and that's when you experience

nibana you'll have a lot of joy arise

so this is a very

important teaching about feeling

and this particular

suta it talks about

every kind of feeling that you can

experience

as a human being

talks about joy and happiness and all

its different levels from sense

pleasures

all the way up to developing your minds

of

awareness

okay

okay it is possible ananda

that wanderers of other sects

might speak thus the recluse

gotoma speaks of cessation of perception

feeling and consciousness and he

describes that

as pleasure what is this

and how is this wanderers of other sects

who speak thus

should be told friends the blessed one

describes pleasure

not only with reference to feeling

rather friends the tatakata describes

as pleasure any kind of pleasure

whatever and in whatever

way it's found this is what the blessed

one said the venerable anando was

satisfied and delighted in the blessed

one's words

now this is suita number 59 if you want

to go

take a look at that for yourself

so do you have any questions

yes sir okay please sir actually i was

practicing vipassana meditation

for a period of uh from last five to six

years

okay then i got to know from my brother

regarding uh your loving kindness

meditation

then actually i was experiencing uh

sensations

but as per loving kindness meditation we

have to

ignore the sensations is it correct sir

you have to what the meditation you say

ignore

sensations sensations you don't ignore

the sensations you

allow the sensation to be there by

itself

you don't keep your attention on the

sensation you

allow it to be relax

and come back to your object to

meditation whatever that happens to be

with your object of meditation for as

long as you can

okay now if you're doing your daily

activities if you see that you have

tightness that happens in your head in

your mind

you can relax that right then

you can use the six hours right then and

you can use

smiling as your object of meditation

like mind this is why i rather

insist that smile as much as you can

the more you smile the better

your mindfulness becomes

the better your mindfulness is

the clearer your mind becomes

and the faster you recognize when mind's

attention

pulls away okay is that

sir one one more thing sir uh like

while practicing we pass on meditation i

was in

in daily while doing sleep i was

observing the sensation and never

sleeping

should i continue same or should i can

we continue the loving kindness

meditation during sleep

during sleep did you say

i mean while sleeping while starting off

sleeping no you don't have

you're not this is mindfulness

is remembering to observe how you pay

attention to your mind's attention

moving

when you're sleeping you sleep

you're sleeping can be quite good

and if you start to have

dreams you can

radiate loving kindness into your dream

but when you're sleeping i know

that the vipassana folks they've really

tried to get you

interested in the idea of meditating

while you're sleeping

or reading a book while you're sleeping

no it doesn't work that way

mind's attention is it needs to have

rest

okay he said sir one more things one

last

one last thing sir sir can you elaborate

on a relaxed processor

relaxing process

[Music]

the relaxing process is letting go of

the tension

and tightness in your head in your mind

it is like a breathing out uh by

by breathing out it is like breathing do

anything with breath

you just relax

you don't do anything with breath

okay sir in my opinion relax step is uh

i am thinking like that uh by uh

forgoing

every everything relaxing means forgoing

everything

no you don't do anything with the breath

you stay with smiling

and relaxing on its own

okay if you if you use a breath you're

gonna get in your way and you're not

gonna have

as good or fast a

practice

okay sir

okay let go of the breath completely

now if you want to do the breath

meditation i can teach you that

but your progress in the meditation is

very much slower

now i was just in india as you all know

and i had about 200 students while i was

there

at different retreats and that sort of

thing

and there were about 110

experiences of nibana

with the retreats that i was giving

you need and that has nothing to do with

the breath

it has to do with the brahma viharas

and following the instructions that are

given

without adding or subtracting anything

now in 10 days there were people that

experienced

and they retreat

if you're doing mindfulness of breathing

it's going to take you

at least six weeks to get where you do

with loving kindness in 10 days

takes a long time

it is a different kind of meditation

so i like to stay

with a loving kindness because it works

so well

and i see so many people being

successful it's just great

okay okay okay

anyone else have a question

it doesn't necessarily have to be with

uh the meditation itself it can be a

question on anything

any kind of understanding you want to

clear up

hi bonte hey i have

actually a related question about the

six r's

okay speak up a little bit louder if you

can

okay how is this that's better okay

great

um so i have a related question about

the six r's

uh specifically the second step the

release step

um so i mean sometimes when i'm doing

the six r's

uh i'll recognize and then i'll just go

right into the relaxing

so i mean is just shifting your

attention

to the relaxed step is that enough of a

release or is there something more

involved in the release step

well if you don't keep your attention

off of the uh

things that's cracked in your mind

you need to move that then relax and

smile

and then come back to your objective

meditation

so it's real important to understand

especially when you start getting into

deeper parts of the meditation

the importance of not keeping your

attention

on the distraction

that's better yeah much better

that's okay so

don't leave out any of the steps of the

sex

arts okay

it's just don't just let

the distraction whether it's a painful

feeling or a painful thought or a

distracting thought of any kind

don't indulge in that

be easier by itself

and relax and smile and come back to

your objective

meditation that's how it works

the best and the fastest okay

you understand um

i guess i'm just trying to understand a

little bit better the

maybe sort of the process so the reason

i'm asking really is sometimes i get

um i find that maybe sometimes i make a

really big deal out of the release step

of like oh

don't make a big deal out of it and i

kind of get caught in like this whole

kind of conversation and process about

release so i guess i'm

trying to find a balance of how much

attention to put on the release step

before i

sort of move on to the the relaxed step

well i'll tell you the thing is this

is a learning process and you

learn from the pain you cause yourself

by doing

something in a particular way

and before long you'll start recognizing

oh

this isn't working

what what am i doing that's a mistake

how am i how am i causing this pain

because we always cause pain to ourself

we can't blame anybody else for our pain

so it's real important for you to

understand that you

are your own teacher

you're teaching yourself you get caught

by

something and you get caught up in it

for a while and you

you try all different ways of getting

rid of it

and then you go oh wait a minute let's

back

off here and just

when i'm teaching a retreat i try to get

people

to understand that

life is supposed to be fun

and it's supposed to be a game

now you're gonna get caught sometimes

and you're gonna

cause yourself some kind of problem

but then you want to be able to laugh at

yourself because you got

caught again and as you do that

you naturally have an uplifted mind

so you can't criticize yourself no

please don't do that

it's very important that you

be kind to yourself you be gentle with

yourself

if you start criticizing yourself what

are you actually doing

you are

raising unwholesome thoughts and

identifying with them and you beat

yourself

up

i've told this story a few times but

this one man he was so much into his

hindrances and he came and did a retreat

and he was walking around

really dog's face i mean just

and sad and

after two or three days i asked somebody

to go out and buy me a pair of boxing

gloves

and i had him put the boxing gloves on

he said why are we doing that

i said well you want to beat yourself up

so much i thought you could do it

without hurting yourself so much

don't do that to yourself

don't criticize yourself don't get hard

on yourself

be gentle with yourself

that's wholesome

judging condemning all of these kind of

things

that's unwholesome so you want to

spend more time

with being nice

and helping yourself and being grateful

for the opportunity that you have to use

the six hours

the lighter you become the better your

mindfulness becomes

the more happy your life becomes

so it's a real important thing to

continue on with

the meditation as much as you can

remember

during the day be kind to yourself

okay laugh

i know i'm one of the few meditation

teachers that i

i tell you i want you to laugh i want

you to smile

i want you to have fun when i say that

in india you should see the surprise

looks on people's faces when i say that

it's good fun

but this helps your mindfulness to get

better

now every all of the different kind of

suggestions that i make

are the suggestions that will help

you to be more happy all the time

so please do that

have a happy mind

laugh with yourself because your mind's

crazy

and it's okay to have a crazy mind

because all of us do

we all get caught by our little likes

and dislikes

but as you do this meditation more

what's going to happen is you're going

to see that you're not

caught for as long

so you still are going to have your ups

and downs but they're not going to be as

radical as they were

before so it's a real important thing to

remember

this okay

thank you smiling keep happy

don't get serious

all right does anybody else have a

question

andy i have one question this is ken

okay okay one day i've been meditating

um uh uh quite good

it's i said i can sit about two to three

hours without any

problem but well not without problems

about two hours in i have this very

strong um hindrances like

you know mine is all over the place uh

sometimes i just i just have to give up

and uh no no no no you

the way you overcome restlessness is not

by quitting okay it's my

stop fighting in it stop trying to push

it away

don't keep your attention on the

hindrance

it doesn't matter if it's physical or

mental

but you make a big deal out of it in

your mind

oh there's this problem and now i'm

gonna fight

with it and try to control it and you

just cause yourself for more suffering

so what you want to do is just let it be

there stop paying attention to it ah my

mind's just going crazy it's crazy

anyway so i'm not gonna pay attention to

it

it will settle down by itself another

thing that the buddha said

was bring up a feeling of

tranquility

and relax into that tranquility and stay

with that

and the restlessness will start to fade

away by itself

i noticed that boss is always

almost like a the same thing you know

like it's

so i you know one of your your tape said

there's a

uh attachment i of course is there's an

attachment in my mind in this

particular event then you know it's

always

going back to it i don't know how to

release this attachment

the attachment you have to it is that

it's there

and you don't want it there yeah

so why don't you laugh at it okay

okay and just bring up a feeling of

tranquility

stop making it a big deal in your mind

your mind's gonna do that fine it can do

that

it doesn't matter what matters is what

you

do with that you allow it to be there

you relax into it

and kind of make fun of your mind for

being crazy

just laugh with yourself a little bit

one of the things that happens in

in asia is an awful lot of people

they have fear

excuse me

they have fear of

ghosts and goblins and all kinds of oh

this person put a hex on me and so they

have a lot of fear

do you know how to overcome fear

laugh laugh and the fear

disappears very quickly

it's just an attachment this isn't what

i want to feel this

isn't what i want the way i want things

to be

so you laugh with it and it changes

and no more problems

okay okay

hello stop being so serious yes

uh one day i was practicing loving

kindness

and i had done one online course as well

and the good part is when i was

walking outside i'm sending loving

kindness and

i'm feeling very very good about that

good and i have a question regarding my

practice

like uh i can sit for like uh one and a

half hour

or one hour 45 minutes okay

sometimes i find that after uh one hour

15 minutes something like that there is

some there is a trying mind in

there is something i want to try how to

let go the trying mind

well stop making a big deal out of it

stop pushing yourself to make your mind

be

the way you want to be because that's

how you cause your own suffering

back off smile

lighten your mind relax

and come back gently to your objective

meditation

your spiritual friend or whatever

but you can't be pushy with your mind

you can't

force your mind to do what you wanted to

do

because it's going to do what it's going

to do

and the more you try to push

the more painful it becomes

and you need to

back off that's one of the things that i

on retreat that happens quite often as

i'm continually telling people

you gotta back off

stop trying so hard

stop trying to control it

because who's trying to control it

i'm trying to control it who doesn't

like it the way it

is i don't like it that way

so i'm gonna keep pushing and trying to

make it

better and the more you push

the bigger and more intense the feeling

becomes

and the more painful it becomes

so it's a real important thing for you

to realize that you

are causing your own pain when something

that doesn't

meet your expectation

so back off with your expectation oh

my my mind's real active right now so

yeah

never mind relax into it

it's not so important okay

it's the expectations that we get caught

with a lot

and that causes all kinds of suffering

so

the more clear you become

the lighter you become and stop getting

serious with stuff

the easier the meditation

becomes and it's supposed to be

fun turn it into a game

don't get over serious please

okay okay i have another

question it is related to sudha

in one of the it was said that what you

feel

that you perceive what you perceive

that you cognize

is it saying that is it

saying that

whenever a hindrance comes if you keep

the attention on it

it will be bigger and bigger

it will give me understanding why

because you make a big deal out of it

because you want to control it

okay you have to let go of the controls

okay got it

relax lighten your mind up

laugh with yourself have fun

anytime you see your mind getting

serious

guess who has an attachment

guess who's causing themselves pain

so you want to back off relax into

things

have fun with your life

just because the first noble truth says

there's suffering in life

well yeah everybody knows that but that

doesn't mean you have to suffer

that's what the third noble truth is all

about letting go

of the suffering

thank you thank you and that is the six

hours

okay okay

thank you for answering my questions

monday okay

anybody else yeah montias

and i've got a question but it's not

strictly

connected with the meditation because i

don't

can can you hear me yes

okay and the the question is um what i'm

trying to do is

i'm really trying to be more present in

my life

uh when i get out of the meditation i'm

trying to be

very very present in in my life trying

to

get the same feeling get the loving

kindness around and spread it

where i can and sometimes

life is like very distracting yes some

sometimes

someone will someone will call me

someone will uh

do something tell something or i just

stumble upon something and then

i i'm lost i completely forgot that i

should be present

is there any trick like some practical

thing i could

do to go back to this there is something

that works

then it's so easy that we forget

it's not right

fun

let go of the judging mind

the i like it i don't like it mind

let go of being serious with it turn

everything that you do into a game

okay make it fun

be happy

well sometimes i don't feel like being

happy okay

laugh

laugh at how crazy your mind can become

now this is not a kind of teaching that

you're going to hear very much in

buddhism

but that's what the whole point of the

buddhism is

to learn to let go of unwholesome

and develop wholesome

smile stop being serious with life

there's nothing to be serious about

don't try so hard to be perfect

you're not gonna be okay

we're all gonna have mistakes

but it's okay to have a mistake because

that way you can see it

and learn how to overcome that problem

have fun with it

thank you okay

anybody else yeah hi banda it's uh

i have two questions um one question is

that you mentioned

you bring up tranquility when you can

and

i wonder if there is any middle step to

do that like in

meta you say we have to think about or

send meta to a special friend

or is there any a step to or middle

step to get to that feeling of

equanimity that you come in

sure the more you smile the easier it

becomes

okay the other

question is that um i guess

follow up with the previous question in

day-to-day life there are so many

instances that you come across the point

that

um when you are doing documentation or

you try to send meta around

um you keep forgetting that i guess it's

also

we come back to a smile and start doing

that

you can think about it forgive

yourself for not being perfect forgive

yourself for making a mistake

be grateful that you are

aware that there is some pushing that

you're doing

in your in your life and you're trying

to be

too perfect

don't be too perfect relax into it

don't be too judgmental to yourself

or others allow other people to make

mistakes

allow yourself to make mistakes

if you don't make mistakes you're not

going to learn

right so try not to be perfect with what

you're doing

try just to have fun with what you're

doing and you'll see that

eventually it does turn out better

okay so coming back to

hindrances i guess one question is about

procrastination and not sitting

do you have any recommendation for that

and um

yeah use the six

r's okay

laugh see every kind of hindrance that

you

experience is because of a past

mistake that you made with somebody else

or with yourself

and you feel kind of guilty because of

it that's why the

hindrance comes up

so when you use the six hours with that

eventually everything starts fading away

it will start to go away after a period

of time

okay oh my

my teacher the venerable lucille ananda

i was with him for two years i stayed in

the monastery anything he wanted done

i did and helped him in any way that i

could

and he reminded me every day that i have

to develop my

patients

things don't happen as fast as we want

them to

so we want to be patient

patience leads to nibana i heard that so

much it used to drive me crazy

but it's really true

be patient with yourself

you're not going to be practice makes

perfect

eventually

so don't try

too hard don't put in

too much energy

oh and in india i had a lot of students

that were going

they practiced with him for years some

of them for 20 years

and i found out that almost everybody

tried too hard

when their mind had a hindrance come up

all of a sudden they put a little bit

more energy in

to get rid of the hindrance

and that's exactly the opposite of what

needs to be done you need to

back off

don't try so hard lighten your mind

don't resist or

push soften your mind

and smile okay

okay write that down on a piece of paper

drops don't resist or push

soften and smile

and you'll see some wonderful things

happen

because of that okay

right fantastic thanks one last question

you mentioned about

um training that you can go in and out

of

john orzadville um how can

one person start training after that

until you become successful with the

meditation

okay not an easy practice

okay thanks okay

what country are you in

oh i'm in the u.s you are come and visit

me

okay sure i was there last year but i'm

looking forward to be there

again after this okay

okay good thanks

okay anybody else yeah hello banter

hello can you hear me uh my name is

andrew

i'd like to ask about the cessation and

havana experience

i've had few times this kind of

experience but

last time two days after this experience

i experienced quite strong anxiety

like you know hitting something

well that says you didn't have the

experience because it takes the anxiety

away

okay but it was the blank spot

a relief um preventing joy

but two days after i felt strong anxiety

you want to be able to

lighten your mind more

don't question don't get involved in

an internal dialogue about what you want

to see happen

relax you're being too serious

you gotta lighten up

okay anxiety disappears when you do this

i promise it will happen

okay it's just that you're putting in

too much effort

to make it the way you want it to be

back off and allow it to be the way it

is

and it will change on itself

on its own okay

okay and please smile homework you have

such a beautiful smile

continue okay okay okay

okay okay look at

how much better your mind feels right

now there's no anxiety right

no no no yeah i was i was just you know

wondering what this

happened again because you're pushing a

little bit too hard

i think so yeah yeah

see your mind feel better now yeah

[Laughter]

excellent yeah

anybody else have a question

hi auntie hey how are you

sorry

hi you have a question yeah i do

um so i was wondering

um about presets

and sometimes i can get very curious

about the precepts that the monks take

and i was wondering if it's helpful to

sometimes

add more to the five precepts and say

okay that makes sense for me to do

or is it better to do the five precepts

very well

it's best to do them as closely as you

possibly can

okay and not add anymore because

sometimes

i can read the vinaya and be like that's

all very interesting

and um i'm finding that i'm naturally

kind of adding more to the precepts but

sometimes i feel maybe that's a little

bit more distracting

than it needs to be well the five

precepts

do you need to really follow okay unless

you're doing a retreat then it's eight

precepts

but do five precepts and i would suggest

that you don't

read the vineya anymore five precepts

is enough because the vineyard is for

monks and monks have to be around their

teacher

for five years before they really start

to understand

how this stuff works

so you picking up the vineyard and just

saying well there's this rule and i need

to follow it

no it's not quite like that

it's a little bit different so be

careful with that

okay

keep that beautiful smile you have going

okay be happy

okay anybody else

okay then i'm going to share some

merit and then

give this over to david to do whatever

he wants to do with it

so may suffering ones be suffering free

and to fear struck fearlessnbc

the mighty power share this paradigm

okay now i'm gonna i will be back

next week same time same station

thank you thank you

thank you thank you very much

thank you

thank you