From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ko5fKKW8JFk

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

[Music]

uh a couple days ago it was

almost 90 degrees here

summertime

but it's cooled off since then

it gives the trees a big wake-up call

when it

gets like that so they're starting to

come alive

this shorter discourse on the simile of

heartwood suit the number three oh

that's what we're gonna do today

and i i like this because it explains a

lot

of course every suta explains a lot so

that's nothing new

but i particularly like the suta

it's one that i used to give a lot when

i was in

asia thus

as i heard on one occasion the blessed

one was living at sawatee and jetta's

grove

and nathan pindika's park

then a brahmana went to the blessed one

and exchanged

greetings with him when this courteous

and amiable talk was finished

he sat down at one side and

said to the blessed one

master gautama there are these

recluses and brahmanas each the head of

an

order the head of a group

a teacher of a group excuse me

a well-known and famous founder of the

sect regarded by many

as a saint

and then it goes through the names of

these different teachers which i'm not

going to do because they're hard to

pronounce

have they all had direct knowledge as

they claim

or have none of them had direct

knowledge

or have some of them had direct

knowledge

and others not

this is the kind of question that was

asked to the buddha a lot

now listen to his answer

enough brahman let this be

have they all had direct knowledge as

they claim or not

or if some of them had direct knowledge

and others not

and the real answer is

that's only speculation which leads to

gossip

which has no real uh

worth to it

so i shall teach you the dhamma brahman

instead of try to get into all of this

nonsense

speech

attend closely to what i shall say

yes sir the brahmana replied

the blessed one said this suppose

brahman a man needing heartwood

seeking heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood came to a great tree

standing possessed of heartwood

passing over its heartwood the sapwood

the inner bark and the outer bark he

would cut off its

twigs and leaves and leave them

take them away thinking they were

heartwood

then a man with good sight seeing

him might say this good man did not know

the heartwood the sapwood

the inner bark the outer bark

or the twigs and leaves

thus while kneading heartwood seeking

heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood he came to a great tree

standing possessed of heartwood and

passing over its heartwood sapwood

inner bark and outer bark he cut off the

twigs and leaves and took them away

thinking they were heartwood

whatever it is good men

whatever it is this good man

had to make with heartwood his purpose

is not served

now you can also take a look

at the

different types of spiritual practice

almost all of them think that it's uh

uh they're working with heartwood

and there are many

practices not only

what you would call meditation practices

but their

their form of practice for

different uh end results

that aren't

uh necessarily um

going to lead them to a happy realm

now in another suta

there's uh this guy that started this

practice of

acting like a dog

he would he would sleep in the dirt he

would

uh curl up like a dog

he would eat his food that was in the

dirt

and he thought that was the way to

become reborn

as

enlightened

and he he really was serious about this

practice

and he would he would

try to wag his tail but he didn't have a

tail

so he just kind of wagged his backside

when he was happy

and he would bite people if he got angry

at them

and the buddha came along and said well

that's a that's a kind of practice

that's that's for sure but it's not

going to lead to your end result that

you

want

it's going to lead to your being reborn

as a dog

now any time you're reborn

in uh an animal realm

it's really really hard to get out of

that realm

it's really difficult

so it's it's kind of amazing

that some people

they have

visions right before they die

and if they have a vision of an animal

right as they are dying they will be

reborn

in an animal realm

and once you're in the animal realm you

re

you kind of like it in some ways in some

ways you don't

and it's really hard to get out

so

there are some kinds of personality

some people that they kind of act like

animals

and this brings me to a story

of there was

a woman in burma that was a butcher

and she spent her whole life killing

animals

or killing pigs mostly because that's

what they

they do in burma they eat a lot of pig

and

uh

about a week before she died

she started crawling around on her hands

and knees and

acting like a pig

and this distressed the family very much

and they went to a monk and

and the monk said well uh

why don't you show her some of the

things that she

is when she was i

when she was the butcher when she was

younger

some of the tools that she used around

to repair things and do

things so the family

went back and they they thought ah

the thing the tools that they this

uh woman used most

was knifes

that's what that was her trade was using

a knife

and the

woman acting like a pig

saw the knives and had a

i had a heart attack and died right then

and she she had those visions of being

that

animal so now she's probably in the

animal realm somewhere

you don't know how long they last in one

one form or another

but an awful lot of the animals

are

satisfied being an animal

but they live in a state of fear

and they live in a state of anxiety

if you you look at a bird that's sitting

on a branch

he's not just taking a nap right there

and not paying

attention he's always looking around to

see if there's somebody something that's

going to get him

so there's this fear and anxiety and

they get

pretty used to that kind of feeling and

they kind of like

that kind of feeling so they stay in the

animal realm for

so much longer period of time

anyway

suppose a man needing heartwood seeking

heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood

came to a great tree standing possessed

of heartwood

passing over the heartwood it sapwood

the inner bark the he he would cut off

the outer bark

and take it away thinking it was

heartwood

then a man with good sight seeing him

might say this good man

did not know the heart would

thus needing heartwood

he cut off the outer bark and took it

away

thinking it was heartwood

whatever it was this good man had to

make

with his heartwood his purpose will

not be served

and and i'm i'm gonna shorten the suit

quite a bit because it just goes through

until

the the person finally does get the

heartwood

and his purpose will be served

so too brahman here some

clansmen go forth out of faith

from the home life into homelessness

considering

i am a victim of birth aging and death

of sorrow lamentation pain grief

and despair

i'm a victim of suffering a prey to

suffering

surely an ending of this whole mass of

suffering can be known

when he has gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he is pleased with gain honor and

renowned

and his intention is fulfilled

on account of it he

lauds himself and disparages

others i have

gained honor and renown but these

other monks are unknown with no account

so he arouses no desire to act

he makes no effort for the realization

of those states

that are higher and more sublime than

gain

honor and renown

he hangs back and slackens

i say that this person is like a man

needing heartwood

who came to a great tree standing

possessed of heartwood

and passing over the heart wood that

sapwood its inner bark and outer bark

cut off its twigs and leaves

and took the way thinking they were

heartwood

and so whatever it is he had to make

the heart with his purpose will not be

served

now this is a

a classic example of the way the buddha

taught

and the the progress

that you see when he keeps on making

more examples

i have met quite a few monks

that they crave

gain honor and renown

and

they aren't interested in doing any more

studying they they're kind of lazy

and they don't they don't do anything

else thinking that

this is good enough for this lifetime

so there are some of those kind of monks

that are around

one of the mistakes an awful lot of

people think

is when you see one in robes

that they are

uh special and they have all these high

qualities

of peace and and tranquility and

and things like that

and it's not necessarily true

it depends on their training and what

kind of training they have been

doing

um sometimes in the news you can see

angry tibetan monks

well they're the young monks

that want to get more involved in

political

things of their country rather than

develop their own minds so that they can

become

a force that inspires other people to do

that

to do less harmful things

and that's just an example of the gain

honor and renown

that some monks crave and they want to

do that

but they're mostly young monks who are

very ambitious

and they they want to become popular

so that they can have a lot of different

things given to them

anyway here

brahman some klansmen goes forth out of

faith from the home life into

homelessness considering i'm a victim of

birth aging and death

of sorrow lamentation pain grief and

despair

i'm a victim of suffering a prey to

suffering

surely an end of ending

of this whole mass of suffering can be

known

when he's gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he's not pleased with that gain honor

and renown

and his intention is not fulfilled

he does not on account of it laud

himself

and disparage others he arouses

desire to act and makes an

effort for the realization of those

states

that are higher and more

sublime than gain honor and renown

he does not hang back in slacken

he achieves the attainment of virtue

he is pleased with that attainment

of virtue and his intention is

fulfilled that means keeping the

precepts

in case you're wondering what that was

attaining virtue you have to work at it

and you start seeing that it is a kind

of

protection

that uh

it's like a bubble around you

and people that are not so wholesome

have a tendency to

not be wanting to be around you

and as soon as

[Music]

you start slowing down and realizing

that keeping your virtue

you have better collectedness of mind

naturally

and it makes my mind

much more

uh delightful

and when you get around other

people that are virtuous it's really

easy to communicate with them

so the

the more you can keep your precepts

the better life becomes and the more

prosperous you become

a prosperous is not a word that just

means money

prosperous is a word that means

having good friends

and that you can hang out with

and laugh with

that you can trust

and you can help each other

and practice your generosity with each

other

so i'm going to go back just a little

bit

and

so he arouses no desire to act any

further he just keeps his precepts and

thinks that's good enough

and makes no effort for the realization

of those states

that are higher and more sublime

than the attainment of virtue

he hangs back and slackens

i see that this person is like a man

needing heartwood passing over the

heartwood

its sapwood its inner bark

cut off its outer bark and took it away

thinking it was heartwood

so whatever it is he had to whatever he

had to make with heartwood his purpose

will not be served

here brahman some klansmen goes forth

out of faith from

home life into homelessness considering

i'm a victim of birth aging and death

sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair i'm a victim of

suffering i

prey to suffering surely an ending to

this whole mass of

suffering can be known

you know this is the reason that people

uh

start searching for

uh the uh

the way to

get out of the the suffering

states that we keep on involving

involving ourself

in for instance the

depression or sadness

or dissatisfaction of something or

another

anger fear

you start looking for there's got to be

a better way than this

this doesn't work the way i'm doing it

now so let's

let's uh spend some

quality time and start looking for

different ways to overcome these

problems

so

when he has gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he's not pleased with gain honor and

renown and his intention is not

fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of virtue

he's pleased with the attainment of

virtue

but his intention is not fulfilled

he does not on account of it lod himself

and disparage others he arouses

desire to act and he makes an

effort for the realization of those

other states that are higher and more

sublime

than the attainment of virtue

he does not hang back and slacken

he achieves the attainment of

collectedness

he's pleased with the attainment of

collectedness and his

intention is fulfilled

on account of which he lodges himself he

does

an account of which he lauds himself and

disparages

others i

am constant i am collected my mind is

unified but there are

other monks

who are uncollected

with their minds astray

so we reside he arouses no

desire to act and he makes no effort

for the realization of those other

states that are

higher and more sublime than the

attainment of collectedness

and that's when a lot of people

start to

look towards doing some meditation

and to some degree there is relief

and they think ah yeah this

is much better

but they also become more aware an

interesting thing with hindrances

is

as you become a more aware of a

hindrance

it seems to get bigger and more intense

but it's because you are becoming aware

of that hindrance and you're seeing it

through

a finer

kind of microscope

so it might look like you're not

progressing at

all with your meditation

because you see these entrances and they

can come up at any time and you you

get an emotional upset and you become

angry or fearful or

mad whatever it happens to be

and it seems like oh man

i really suffer i'm causing myself so

much suffering

but just that awareness

of that hindrance

you have improved although it doesn't

feel like you've improved at all

and there's you don't feel like there's

any personality

development

well i get just as mad as i did before

but you're seeing it more clearly

ergo if you

are or when you become aware of it

then you stop getting so involved in it

and it starts to lessen a little by

little but it takes years and

years and years of practice

to be aware of mind

and how it actually does work

so you develop a little bit of

concentration now i don't like the word

concentration because there are

many forms of concentration

that don't lead to the same end result

as what i'm showing you now

but there is some relief

with that kind of concentration and

sometimes you can even have

a blissful feeling come up

and your mind can get real quiet

and that's all forms of concentration

the reason i keep telling people over

and over again

that concentration is not the same as

what

i teach or the buddha teaches

because they're not

following the eightfold path

they're not following right effort

the force of the concentration

pushes down the hindrances so you feel

like you have a pure mind for a while

which you do

but

you know there's still still something

more to do

if you're really aware

so if you get into an emotional state

and you

you come and you you sit in meditation

and you go through the hindrances a lot

and eventually it started your

concentration

starts to get a little better and a

little better and finally

that concentration the force

of it suppresses the hindrances

of course the hindrances are important

because that's where

you take everything personally

i am that

and you identify with that and that

causes

all kinds of troubles

and misunderstandings about how

mind works

so having a mind that

can become

[Music]

concentrated means

that let's say you're reading a book

and you're really involved in reading

that

book

uh

somebody walks into the room and makes a

noise

and it will boink you

you scared me

have you had that happen before

now what's the problem with that

your mind is out of

balance with

your mindfulness

they need to be equally strong and then

you won't

have that kind of

disturbance

with your your

uh sitting practice or when you're

really concentrating hard on something

you don't notice anybody around you

right

that's suppressed until

some kind of action of some sort

comes along it can be a person it can be

somebody throwing something at you

it can be uh

uh any kind of sensation all of a sudden

it pulls you out

and it's a shock it's a shock to your

system

and that means that your mindfulness

was being suppressed at that time

you were only aware of

just reading that book or or looking at

something

with deep concentration

it's not to say that concentration is

bad

it's not it simply just does not

lead to the end result

that

is the path to the cessation of

suffering

it doesn't lead there

now you can have quite good

collectedness

of mind your mindfulness can be very

sharp

and

you can be aware of your surroundings

so that if somebody walks up you know

that they're there

you don't necessarily have to

acknowledge them

but if they start talking to you you're

not going to get

a shock like you do with the one pointed

concentration

i had one student that was very stubborn

and he would come into the meditation

hall and we had a clock

that made noise ticked real loud

and before he would start he knew it was

going to disturb him

so he would take the clock off the wall

and took the battery out so it didn't

make any more noise and then he would go

sit

and i'd come in checking on people to

make sure everything was going well

and i would see the clock and i would

put the battery back in the clock and

put it back on the wall

and he had lousy meditation because he

got so much

into his dislike of a sound

and sound is really neutral

it's either a pleasant sound a painful

sound

a neutral sound what difference does it

make that

it's there

and i i question him quite often

when he got out of his re his

sitting i would go up to him and i would

say well how was that sitting

well it was fine for a little while then

somebody plugged the clock back

in and it disturbed my meditation

and after that my meditation was very

bad

well guess what

who didn't like the sound

who took it personally

who caused their mind to get

very upset and disturbed so that they

couldn't

sit in good meditation anymore

and who do you have to blame for it

well it's easy to blame the clock or the

person to turn the clock on

but is that the truth

the truth is

that a sound is just a sound and it's

impersonal

there's nobody home there's nobody

there there's no

reason to become upset

just because a sound arose

i mean even in the forest

if you sit down and you become quiet

there's sounds all around you

the wind blows a little bit and it it

moves the branches and it shakes the

leaves and there's sound

you're gonna get angry at that because

it

it disturbs me

and sound seems to be one of the biggest

things that people get involved

with not liking

i i went to

quite a few retreats in america and i

would see people

sitting with earphones

and they put plugs in their ears first

and then they use the ear form

why well that way i can have good

meditation

except for the pressure that's on your

ears and distracts you

even that way

that's really funny

and if you walk in a forest

like i used to go to yosemite quite

often in california

and it's one of the most beautiful

places

in the world that's my personal opinion

but it really is something spectacular

and in one port part of the yosemite

park

they have these redwood trees

that are huge

uh some some of these red one of the

redwood trees they

they measured it by people taking their

hands and holding it

and going around the tree and it took 15

different people

to get around that's how big around the

tree was

anyway

if you're quiet

you sit down and calm your mind

you can hear these trees talking

they they talk very slowly so you have

to pay attention

and you can hear what they're saying

even in my forest here

trees talk when it gets ready to rain

the trees start to

actually sing

and this is a kind of concentration you

can develop

it's not harmful but when you keep it in

balance with

your mindfulness

there's more clarity in the way you

think

and less hindrances come up and distract

you

one of the

steps of developing

good meditation

starts with keeping your precepts

without breaking them

and then you start developing

more easier a tranquil mind

that's peaceful and calm when you get

that

your mind starts to become more

collected

more at ease more truly

aware of the inner workings of

how mind actually does function

and it's really kind of fun

when you

get used to doing it

now my book life

is meditation meditation is

life

is a

pretty good book even if i do say so

myself

but just

the title gives you the idea

that meditation is not just

about sitting only

meditation is about practicing

all the time in your daily life

do you have hindrances arise in your

daily life

well yeah

well that's no different than

sitting where hindrances come up

the trick is being aware of it and not

taking it personally and using your six

hours even during your daily activity

and the more you get used to doing that

with sitting

the more you get you will get

to practice

your meditation while you're doing your

daily activities

you start becoming more and more aware

of

how you cause your own pain

your anxiety your dislike of this

your life of that you're getting

involved

taking all this stuff as if your mind

was in control of everything

so yes i understand there might be

times where you go a day or two days or

even more

without using the six hours but the

more you use the six hours with your

sitting meditation the more you'll

remember

to use the six hours with your daily

activities

and the more you use the six hours with

your daily activities

the easier it is to go back into your

sitting meditation with a mind that's

still

and undisturbed

here brahman some klansmen gone forth

out of faith

from home life into homelessness

considering i am the victim of

birth aging death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair

i'm a victim of suffering

a prey to suffering sure an

ending to this whole mass of suffering

can be known

when one has gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he's not pleased with gain honor and

renown

and his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of virtue

he's pleased with the attainment of

virtue

but his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of

collectedness

he's pleased with the attainment of

collectedness

but his intention is not fulfilled

he does not on account of it laud

himself

and disparage others

he arouses desire to

act and make an effort for the

realization of

those other states

that are higher and more sublime than

the attainment

of collectedness

he does not hang back and slacken

he achieves knowledge and

vision knowing

by seeing

or understanding

he's pleased with the vision our

knowledge and vision and his intention

is not

fulfilled

on account of it he lodges himself and

disparages others thus

i live knowing and seeing

but these other monks

live unknowing and unseeing

so he arouses no desire to act

he makes an effort for the realization

of those

other states higher and more sublime

than knowledge and vision

he hangs back and slackens

i say this person is like a person

needing heartwood passing over

heartwood cut off the sap

the intercept would and took it away

as if it was heartwood so whatever it

was

that he wished to make with heartwood

his purpose

will not be served

okay here brahman

some plantsman goes forth out of faith

from a home life into homelessness

considering

i'm a victim of birth aging and death

sorrow lamentation pain grief and

despair

i'm a a victim of suffering a prey to

suffering

surely an ending to this whole mass of

suffering can be known

when he's gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown and he's not

pleased with gain honor and renown

and his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of

virtue he's pleased with the attainment

of virtue but his intention

is not fulfilled he achieves the

attainment of collectedness

and he's pleased with the attainment of

collectedness

but his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves knowledge and vision and

he's pleased with knowledge and vision

but his intention is not fulfilled

it does not on account of

okay

nor does he laud himself in this

others he arouses die desire to act

and makes an effort for the realization

of those other states that are higher

and more sublime than vision

and knowledge and vision

but what are the states that are higher

and

more sublime than knowledge and vision

here quite secluded from sensual

pleasures

secluded from unwholesome states

a monk enters upon and abides in the

first

jhana now for those

that are new to uh the teachings

jhana is a word that is misinterpreted

to be understood as

a concentration or hypnotic

state

and that's not not the way it is

with this form of meditation

this is where venerable pune poonanji

i kind of

well we kind of agreed to disagree

because

he was very much into his psychology

and and freud and

other philosophers and i didn't

necessarily see that the same as the

buddhist teaching

but he tried to justify it as part of

the buddha's teaching so we agreed that

it's okay you have your opinion i have

mine

now let's go on

the definition of jhana

is a level of understanding

not deep concentration

and the way you attain that is by

using the six r's

you recognize that your mind is

distracted

release the distraction by not keeping

your attention

on it you relax the tightness

caused by the distraction how is it

caused by the distraction

the distraction is a hindrance

the hindrance arises because sometime in

asks you broke one of the precepts

and you took it personally you said i am

that

that's why when the distraction

comes up and you use the six hours

you must use the relaxed step

if you don't use the relaxed step your

mind

is going to get into

a different state

and it will take you

off of the path that the buddha taught

that's how the importance of this

is so necessary to

understand

so you talk about

uh the six hours recognize

released relax

you're relaxing and letting go of that

false sense of

i am that

you are developing a mind that doesn't

have any

distractions in it

and is clear

and pure because you have let go

of that tension and tightness

in your head in your body in your mind

then there is the development

of the wholesome

and that is

learning to smile more

learning to have a light mind that has

some

joy in it

and then bringing that kind of mind that

is

very clear very uplifted

you bring that kind of mind to

your object of meditation either your

spiritual friend or

one of this one of the directions

and stay with that

for as long as you can

so when we're talking about getting into

the first

jhana this is the first major

step

that the buddha taught

and this is really a biggie

because your mind is so wholesome and

pure

when you get into the first jhana

if you never do anything else in your

life with the spiritual path

that brief moment of being

in the jhana is so powerful

that you will be reborn

either in the devaloka or the human

realm

that's pretty good

just having that very brief

glimpse is so wholesome

that it pretty much starts pointing you

in the direction of

the spiritual path that the buddha

taught

to the understanding that this stuff

actually does work

okay

okay now again

with the stilling of thinking and

examining thought

this suit is called the noble

silence suita

this is where noble silence

begins

okay

a monk enters upon and abides in the

second genre which has

self-confidence

stillness of mind without thinking

and examining thought with joy

and happiness born of collectedness

this too is a state higher and more

sublime

than that knowledge and vision

so this is where you stop verbalizing

in your mind the thing with the jhanas

is that you can be in one of these

states

while you are doing your daily

activities

it takes a lot of practice to be able to

do that

but it is worth the effort

your mind is wholesome there are no

distractions

your mind has joy in it

and the joy will last for a period of

time

and it turns into a tranquil

peaceful happy mind

that is very collected

and has equanimity

in it

so you can you can do that with any of

the jaundice

and that will help your daily activity

while you are in the genre your mind is

going to become much more

organized your thinking is going to be

organized your mind is going to be

clear you can notice

when you're in adrana with your daily

life you can notice the

disenchantment of things

starts to become more and more

prevalent you're gonna you're gonna

start seeing

it more and more easily all the time

so you can walk around in a state of

feeling good

and equanimity

balance

and that takes a lot of the suffering

and pain out of your daily life

it takes away a lot of the worries and

anxieties

that seem to build up these days so

easily

and again with the fading away of

joy a monk abides in

equanimity mindful and fully aware

still feeling happiness with the body

he enters upon and abides in the third

john on account of which

noble ones announce

he has a pleasant abiding who has

equanimity and is mindful

you can be in that genre

you just have to practice it enough

you can be in that journal while you're

walking down the street

or while you're doing something at work

your mind is going to be organized and

it's going to be

very easy to do things

easier than you ever dreamed possible

again with the abandoning of pleasure

and pain

with the previous disappearance of joy

and grief

a monk enters upon and abides in the

fourth jhana which has

neither pain nor pleasure and purity of

mindfulness

due to equanimity

now this is a real interesting thing

when you come on

retreat you're here for 10 days

and you follow the instructions your

progress

in the meditation is going to be very

fast

now when i say very fast i mean

sometimes it's shocking how fast it can

be

your progress can just zoom

when your mind is ready for it

and when you are walking around

with full equanimity

balance of mind

your mind becomes so much more clearer

and

alert

and that is

a really fun state to be in

because there isn't so much suffering

there's still a little bit left

and there are uh

habitual tendencies that we have our

emotional

things that come up that trigger our

mind

the emotional things are

not as troublesome when you have

equanimity

they have a tendency not to come up

but if they do then

you have a tendency to let them go much

more quickly than ever before

okay now i've been talking for a while

and

the rest of the suta

gets into the arupa genres the mental

realms

where your mind is much more alert to

subtle little changes

until you attain nibana

but because i've been talking so long i

i start to feel guilty about doing that

and i want to know what you think i want

to know

what your

questions could be is this clear enough

for you to understand it and see where

it's going

anyway

do you have any questions

there's no such a thing as a bad

question

and if you want to start getting longer

sutas

you have to come to damasuka

sometimes they get really carried away

and give a two hour

down a talk or two and a half hour down

the dock

but i hope it's interesting

dante thank you for your talk yes

i'm just wondering if you can clarify

for me i think i

understood most of the suitor but where

it says

he achieves knowledge and vision that

came before the janas

and i under i realize i don't understand

that very well can you just explain the

knowledge and vision part

please basic there's there's different

ways to add

knowledge and vision one by studying the

sutras themselves

okay but there there can be

some light meditation that's done before

uh light meditation by by mean by

uh reciting the nine qualities of the

buddha

over and over again

that gives you a knowledge and vision of

a direct

experience is that like an insight

can be

you get insights all along the way

sometimes they're really

tiny and you don't really consider them

as

an insight but if you have a deeper

understanding of

something that you hadn't

realized before that's knowledge and

vision

but it can be it can be about

anything and then

all of a sudden it kind of turns into it

oh wow yeah that's how that works

thank you so

i could call this a form of vipassana

because of that

because you get insights all the time

but i don't want to confuse anybody and

think that it's just straight

vipassana meditation because this is not

this goes much deeper than that

just like the guy that's trying to get

to the heartwood

you have to do it by stages

and the straight vipassana can be one of

those kinds of stages

so it's not that it's wrong

it's not anything to argue with somebody

else about

but taking the more

pure approach to your spiritual practice

says that you agree to disagree it's

okay that they have their view

of the way things work it might work it

might not

for anybody else it might might work or

might not for you

and it can be helpful

so don't make your minds hard and rigid

make your minds very pliable

and accepting

now accepting doesn't mean that you have

to

follow that rigidly

it just means that you accept

yeah there can be some good qualities in

doing this

that i've never experienced before but

it might be there

so keep your mind open don't be so

rigid which happens an awful lot

don't be so rigid of it has to be

this way

that's like saying everybody's life has

to be exactly the same

and we know that's not true

okay did that help clear it up

thank you very much yes okay good

anybody else with the question

thank you for the suta today

you're very welcome uh i'm glad

you mentioned about the hindrances and

how they can appear

uh more intense more apparent because

i've been experiencing that

uh with respect to restlessness

especially that seems to be the hindus

that physically most

um yeah but i had to produce more

closely

is what what's happening yeah definitely

yeah

and and because i'm glad you mentioned

it because i was

becoming frustrated and thinking i'm

doing something wrong

um but my question is um

so if if a student if we were a student

in your retreat and um let's say you

were practicing

observing um mind quiet mind

and were towards the end of the retreat

were able to go right there

during each set now after the retreat

if i sit in that fast so i generally

start each set i actually will take the

three refuges and five precepts

relax for a minute and then start my

meditation so if i'm starting

i don't radiate to the six directions

i'm just going right to

observing the mind or trying you know

trying to observe quiet mind but i don't

achieve any genre because of the

hindrances

so is it best to move back to well how

do you know whether you attain drama or

not

well yeah thank you so my understanding

is when the hindrances are upon us

we're not in jhana am i a mistake in

there right

you're not indiana at that time right so

that's

happening a lot right now with me

respect like i mentioned with

restlessness

so would it is it would

trying too hard still yeah

yeah definitely a lot of that right i

wish you'd develop your sense of humor

so you'd say

right well you're not there every day to

remind me and i forget

uh but um okay but i guess what i'm

asking

is is it better to return to loving

kindness

radiate to each direction and then the

six directions again

you're in charge of your meditation okay

so it's up to you okay

if there's parts of the the lower jhanas

that you were in before that you

want more time to experiment with

instead of

always trying to get to the same

goal which is kind of boring

in itself

uh spice it up a little bit take take

time to

just sit make a determination i'm not

going to go more than

a deeper than the second johnoff for

this this

period of time

but it gets it's kind of tiresome

just trying to uh

experience what you think

is coming right

and that will help relieve

a lot of the stress that you're

caught up in because you're pushing

you engineer you yeah that's right

that's that that's a problem that's for

sure yeah i

i understand okay well

thank you bunte yeah i just kind of

something i just need to hear it from

you i think

thanks i'm happy to help you anytime you

know

that yes thank you

okay anybody else

comments

yes thank you just to clarify my own

understanding

uh and thank you patrick for the opening

about hindrances i

also have um a bit of

a clear a need for clarification i

suppose about the hindrances

whereby you said that uh the hindrances

are rooted in um

you know a broken precept right from the

past

and that in that past event

there was also a false sense of i am

that

so oh yeah every time you break a

precept it causes a guilty mind and

that's what i

am mine is right just to clarify though

the the uh broken precept that happened

in the past would you say also have that

element of i am that

was every broken precept has that in it

that's why it is a hindrance so

so okay so then using the six arms

as you emphasize the relaxed step

right that is uh a moment for us to

choose to

undo the i am that

right and and then turn toward

the wholesome the impersonals

non-personal holes right

okay thank you

just needed to tweak that in my mind

that understanding

so i can welcome the hindrances more

i want to learn to welcome the entrances

don't don't push them away just when

they're there

you can say hi to them

okay that sounds like a plan thank you

okay karen did you want to say something

yes hello hi monty hi everyone nice to

see you

how are you this this fine day

i'm doing okay we're snowing in the uk

it's so weird knowing yeah

so last week it was 90 degrees here two

days ago

ah so jealous

at least i hope so yeah

yeah so um i don't know today i

as i was listening um this suit made so

much more sense than before

before i was just kind of like oh what

is going on

but yeah today it clicked so um thank

you for giving the talk my team

good for you yeah thanks um

oh yes so the question i had was you

mentioned

that being able to be in janna

outside of the sitting so like walking

around or working

is that something that happens naturally

as you do more formal sitting

or do you have to practice that it has

to be

intentional you have to

i mean your mind is is not to the state

that it's always going to be wholesome

and so it has to be intentional for you

to make up your mind that you want to

direct your attention

with this drama okay

and i found that very helpful when i was

going to the hospital and visiting

so many different people

because sometimes

if if i would

was radiating equanimity

they still had a lot of upset

in their body now this is people that

are

really sick and and they're they were

getting close to death

uh so i would

go back to the second ghana

and go and and stay with that joy

for a little while and then i would i

would

actually feel them become relaxed

and at ease

and their mind would

uh lose a lot of tension

in it at that time

so i found that useful

never know what's going to happen but

seemed like it was pretty good

okay so something you do on purpose

right it has to be intentional

sometimes you can put a time limit on it

it's

up to you

but the the thing that so many people

are caught up in

is only sitting

and there's so much more to it

if you really do

start practicing it and and working with

going in and out of this genre or that

genre

a lot more uh fun in life

when you do that

okay yeah so

and it's still possible for hindrances

to come on

it's impossible anytime mindfulness gets

weak

for whatever reason okay

and then six hour and continue right

okay thank you monty okay thank you

i'm happy to see you again thank you

same

okay

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving should all grief and

male beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhist

dispensation

so i wish you all a happy

week and i look forward to seeing you

next sunday

thank you bundy thank you david

thanks david ante thank you david

[Music]

you

[Music]

uh a couple days ago it was

almost 90 degrees here

summertime

but it's cooled off since then

it gives the trees a big wake-up call

when it

gets like that so they're starting to

come alive

this shorter discourse on the simile of

heartwood suit the number three oh

that's what we're gonna do today

and i i like this because it explains a

lot

of course every suta explains a lot so

that's nothing new

but i particularly like the suta

it's one that i used to give a lot when

i was in

asia thus

as i heard on one occasion the blessed

one was living at sawatee and jetta's

grove

and nathan pindika's park

then a brahmana went to the blessed one

and exchanged

greetings with him when this courteous

and amiable talk was finished

he sat down at one side and

said to the blessed one

master gautama there are these

recluses and brahmanas each the head of

an

order the head of a group

a teacher of a group excuse me

a well-known and famous founder of the

sect regarded by many

as a saint

and then it goes through the names of

these different teachers which i'm not

going to do because they're hard to

pronounce

have they all had direct knowledge as

they claim

or have none of them had direct

knowledge

or have some of them had direct

knowledge

and others not

this is the kind of question that was

asked to the buddha a lot

now listen to his answer

enough brahman let this be

have they all had direct knowledge as

they claim or not

or if some of them had direct knowledge

and others not

and the real answer is

that's only speculation which leads to

gossip

which has no real uh

worth to it

so i shall teach you the dhamma brahman

instead of try to get into all of this

nonsense

speech

attend closely to what i shall say

yes sir the brahmana replied

the blessed one said this suppose

brahman a man needing heartwood

seeking heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood came to a great tree

standing possessed of heartwood

passing over its heartwood the sapwood

the inner bark and the outer bark he

would cut off its

twigs and leaves and leave them

take them away thinking they were

heartwood

then a man with good sight seeing

him might say this good man did not know

the heartwood the sapwood

the inner bark the outer bark

or the twigs and leaves

thus while kneading heartwood seeking

heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood he came to a great tree

standing possessed of heartwood and

passing over its heartwood sapwood

inner bark and outer bark he cut off the

twigs and leaves and took them away

thinking they were heartwood

whatever it is good men

whatever it is this good man

had to make with heartwood his purpose

is not served

now you can also take a look

at the

different types of spiritual practice

almost all of them think that it's uh

uh they're working with heartwood

and there are many

practices not only

what you would call meditation practices

but their

their form of practice for

different uh end results

that aren't

uh necessarily um

going to lead them to a happy realm

now in another suta

there's uh this guy that started this

practice of

acting like a dog

he would he would sleep in the dirt he

would

uh curl up like a dog

he would eat his food that was in the

dirt

and he thought that was the way to

become reborn

as

enlightened

and he he really was serious about this

practice

and he would he would

try to wag his tail but he didn't have a

tail

so he just kind of wagged his backside

when he was happy

and he would bite people if he got angry

at them

and the buddha came along and said well

that's a that's a kind of practice

that's that's for sure but it's not

going to lead to your end result that

you

want

it's going to lead to your being reborn

as a dog

now any time you're reborn

in uh an animal realm

it's really really hard to get out of

that realm

it's really difficult

so it's it's kind of amazing

that some people

they have

visions right before they die

and if they have a vision of an animal

right as they are dying they will be

reborn

in an animal realm

and once you're in the animal realm you

re

you kind of like it in some ways in some

ways you don't

and it's really hard to get out

so

there are some kinds of personality

some people that they kind of act like

animals

and this brings me to a story

of there was

a woman in burma that was a butcher

and she spent her whole life killing

animals

or killing pigs mostly because that's

what they

they do in burma they eat a lot of pig

and

uh

about a week before she died

she started crawling around on her hands

and knees and

acting like a pig

and this distressed the family very much

and they went to a monk and

and the monk said well uh

why don't you show her some of the

things that she

is when she was i

when she was the butcher when she was

younger

some of the tools that she used around

to repair things and do

things so the family

went back and they they thought ah

the thing the tools that they this

uh woman used most

was knifes

that's what that was her trade was using

a knife

and the

woman acting like a pig

saw the knives and had a

i had a heart attack and died right then

and she she had those visions of being

that

animal so now she's probably in the

animal realm somewhere

you don't know how long they last in one

one form or another

but an awful lot of the animals

are

satisfied being an animal

but they live in a state of fear

and they live in a state of anxiety

if you you look at a bird that's sitting

on a branch

he's not just taking a nap right there

and not paying

attention he's always looking around to

see if there's somebody something that's

going to get him

so there's this fear and anxiety and

they get

pretty used to that kind of feeling and

they kind of like

that kind of feeling so they stay in the

animal realm for

so much longer period of time

anyway

suppose a man needing heartwood seeking

heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood

came to a great tree standing possessed

of heartwood

passing over the heartwood it sapwood

the inner bark the he he would cut off

the outer bark

and take it away thinking it was

heartwood

then a man with good sight seeing him

might say this good man

did not know the heart would

thus needing heartwood

he cut off the outer bark and took it

away

thinking it was heartwood

whatever it was this good man had to

make

with his heartwood his purpose will

not be served

and and i'm i'm gonna shorten the suit

quite a bit because it just goes through

until

the the person finally does get the

heartwood

and his purpose will be served

so too brahman here some

clansmen go forth out of faith

from the home life into homelessness

considering

i am a victim of birth aging and death

of sorrow lamentation pain grief

and despair

i'm a victim of suffering a prey to

suffering

surely an ending of this whole mass of

suffering can be known

when he has gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he is pleased with gain honor and

renowned

and his intention is fulfilled

on account of it he

lauds himself and disparages

others i have

gained honor and renown but these

other monks are unknown with no account

so he arouses no desire to act

he makes no effort for the realization

of those states

that are higher and more sublime than

gain

honor and renown

he hangs back and slackens

i say that this person is like a man

needing heartwood

who came to a great tree standing

possessed of heartwood

and passing over the heart wood that

sapwood its inner bark and outer bark

cut off its twigs and leaves

and took the way thinking they were

heartwood

and so whatever it is he had to make

the heart with his purpose will not be

served

now this is a

a classic example of the way the buddha

taught

and the the progress

that you see when he keeps on making

more examples

i have met quite a few monks

that they crave

gain honor and renown

and

they aren't interested in doing any more

studying they they're kind of lazy

and they don't they don't do anything

else thinking that

this is good enough for this lifetime

so there are some of those kind of monks

that are around

one of the mistakes an awful lot of

people think

is when you see one in robes

that they are

uh special and they have all these high

qualities

of peace and and tranquility and

and things like that

and it's not necessarily true

it depends on their training and what

kind of training they have been

doing

um sometimes in the news you can see

angry tibetan monks

well they're the young monks

that want to get more involved in

political

things of their country rather than

develop their own minds so that they can

become

a force that inspires other people to do

that

to do less harmful things

and that's just an example of the gain

honor and renown

that some monks crave and they want to

do that

but they're mostly young monks who are

very ambitious

and they they want to become popular

so that they can have a lot of different

things given to them

anyway here

brahman some klansmen goes forth out of

faith from the home life into

homelessness considering i'm a victim of

birth aging and death

of sorrow lamentation pain grief and

despair

i'm a victim of suffering a prey to

suffering

surely an end of ending

of this whole mass of suffering can be

known

when he's gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he's not pleased with that gain honor

and renown

and his intention is not fulfilled

he does not on account of it laud

himself

and disparage others he arouses

desire to act and makes an

effort for the realization of those

states

that are higher and more

sublime than gain honor and renown

he does not hang back in slacken

he achieves the attainment of virtue

he is pleased with that attainment

of virtue and his intention is

fulfilled that means keeping the

precepts

in case you're wondering what that was

attaining virtue you have to work at it

and you start seeing that it is a kind

of

protection

that uh

it's like a bubble around you

and people that are not so wholesome

have a tendency to

not be wanting to be around you

and as soon as

[Music]

you start slowing down and realizing

that keeping your virtue

you have better collectedness of mind

naturally

and it makes my mind

much more

uh delightful

and when you get around other

people that are virtuous it's really

easy to communicate with them

so the

the more you can keep your precepts

the better life becomes and the more

prosperous you become

a prosperous is not a word that just

means money

prosperous is a word that means

having good friends

and that you can hang out with

and laugh with

that you can trust

and you can help each other

and practice your generosity with each

other

so i'm going to go back just a little

bit

and

so he arouses no desire to act any

further he just keeps his precepts and

thinks that's good enough

and makes no effort for the realization

of those states

that are higher and more sublime

than the attainment of virtue

he hangs back and slackens

i see that this person is like a man

needing heartwood passing over the

heartwood

its sapwood its inner bark

cut off its outer bark and took it away

thinking it was heartwood

so whatever it is he had to whatever he

had to make with heartwood his purpose

will not be served

here brahman some klansmen goes forth

out of faith from

home life into homelessness considering

i'm a victim of birth aging and death

sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair i'm a victim of

suffering i

prey to suffering surely an ending to

this whole mass of

suffering can be known

you know this is the reason that people

uh

start searching for

uh the uh

the way to

get out of the the suffering

states that we keep on involving

involving ourself

in for instance the

depression or sadness

or dissatisfaction of something or

another

anger fear

you start looking for there's got to be

a better way than this

this doesn't work the way i'm doing it

now so let's

let's uh spend some

quality time and start looking for

different ways to overcome these

problems

so

when he has gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he's not pleased with gain honor and

renown and his intention is not

fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of virtue

he's pleased with the attainment of

virtue

but his intention is not fulfilled

he does not on account of it lod himself

and disparage others he arouses

desire to act and he makes an

effort for the realization of those

other states that are higher and more

sublime

than the attainment of virtue

he does not hang back and slacken

he achieves the attainment of

collectedness

he's pleased with the attainment of

collectedness and his

intention is fulfilled

on account of which he lodges himself he

does

an account of which he lauds himself and

disparages

others i

am constant i am collected my mind is

unified but there are

other monks

who are uncollected

with their minds astray

so we reside he arouses no

desire to act and he makes no effort

for the realization of those other

states that are

higher and more sublime than the

attainment of collectedness

and that's when a lot of people

start to

look towards doing some meditation

and to some degree there is relief

and they think ah yeah this

is much better

but they also become more aware an

interesting thing with hindrances

is

as you become a more aware of a

hindrance

it seems to get bigger and more intense

but it's because you are becoming aware

of that hindrance and you're seeing it

through

a finer

kind of microscope

so it might look like you're not

progressing at

all with your meditation

because you see these entrances and they

can come up at any time and you you

get an emotional upset and you become

angry or fearful or

mad whatever it happens to be

and it seems like oh man

i really suffer i'm causing myself so

much suffering

but just that awareness

of that hindrance

you have improved although it doesn't

feel like you've improved at all

and there's you don't feel like there's

any personality

development

well i get just as mad as i did before

but you're seeing it more clearly

ergo if you

are or when you become aware of it

then you stop getting so involved in it

and it starts to lessen a little by

little but it takes years and

years and years of practice

to be aware of mind

and how it actually does work

so you develop a little bit of

concentration now i don't like the word

concentration because there are

many forms of concentration

that don't lead to the same end result

as what i'm showing you now

but there is some relief

with that kind of concentration and

sometimes you can even have

a blissful feeling come up

and your mind can get real quiet

and that's all forms of concentration

the reason i keep telling people over

and over again

that concentration is not the same as

what

i teach or the buddha teaches

because they're not

following the eightfold path

they're not following right effort

the force of the concentration

pushes down the hindrances so you feel

like you have a pure mind for a while

which you do

but

you know there's still still something

more to do

if you're really aware

so if you get into an emotional state

and you

you come and you you sit in meditation

and you go through the hindrances a lot

and eventually it started your

concentration

starts to get a little better and a

little better and finally

that concentration the force

of it suppresses the hindrances

of course the hindrances are important

because that's where

you take everything personally

i am that

and you identify with that and that

causes

all kinds of troubles

and misunderstandings about how

mind works

so having a mind that

can become

[Music]

concentrated means

that let's say you're reading a book

and you're really involved in reading

that

book

uh

somebody walks into the room and makes a

noise

and it will boink you

you scared me

have you had that happen before

now what's the problem with that

your mind is out of

balance with

your mindfulness

they need to be equally strong and then

you won't

have that kind of

disturbance

with your your

uh sitting practice or when you're

really concentrating hard on something

you don't notice anybody around you

right

that's suppressed until

some kind of action of some sort

comes along it can be a person it can be

somebody throwing something at you

it can be uh

uh any kind of sensation all of a sudden

it pulls you out

and it's a shock it's a shock to your

system

and that means that your mindfulness

was being suppressed at that time

you were only aware of

just reading that book or or looking at

something

with deep concentration

it's not to say that concentration is

bad

it's not it simply just does not

lead to the end result

that

is the path to the cessation of

suffering

it doesn't lead there

now you can have quite good

collectedness

of mind your mindfulness can be very

sharp

and

you can be aware of your surroundings

so that if somebody walks up you know

that they're there

you don't necessarily have to

acknowledge them

but if they start talking to you you're

not going to get

a shock like you do with the one pointed

concentration

i had one student that was very stubborn

and he would come into the meditation

hall and we had a clock

that made noise ticked real loud

and before he would start he knew it was

going to disturb him

so he would take the clock off the wall

and took the battery out so it didn't

make any more noise and then he would go

sit

and i'd come in checking on people to

make sure everything was going well

and i would see the clock and i would

put the battery back in the clock and

put it back on the wall

and he had lousy meditation because he

got so much

into his dislike of a sound

and sound is really neutral

it's either a pleasant sound a painful

sound

a neutral sound what difference does it

make that

it's there

and i i question him quite often

when he got out of his re his

sitting i would go up to him and i would

say well how was that sitting

well it was fine for a little while then

somebody plugged the clock back

in and it disturbed my meditation

and after that my meditation was very

bad

well guess what

who didn't like the sound

who took it personally

who caused their mind to get

very upset and disturbed so that they

couldn't

sit in good meditation anymore

and who do you have to blame for it

well it's easy to blame the clock or the

person to turn the clock on

but is that the truth

the truth is

that a sound is just a sound and it's

impersonal

there's nobody home there's nobody

there there's no

reason to become upset

just because a sound arose

i mean even in the forest

if you sit down and you become quiet

there's sounds all around you

the wind blows a little bit and it it

moves the branches and it shakes the

leaves and there's sound

you're gonna get angry at that because

it

it disturbs me

and sound seems to be one of the biggest

things that people get involved

with not liking

i i went to

quite a few retreats in america and i

would see people

sitting with earphones

and they put plugs in their ears first

and then they use the ear form

why well that way i can have good

meditation

except for the pressure that's on your

ears and distracts you

even that way

that's really funny

and if you walk in a forest

like i used to go to yosemite quite

often in california

and it's one of the most beautiful

places

in the world that's my personal opinion

but it really is something spectacular

and in one port part of the yosemite

park

they have these redwood trees

that are huge

uh some some of these red one of the

redwood trees they

they measured it by people taking their

hands and holding it

and going around the tree and it took 15

different people

to get around that's how big around the

tree was

anyway

if you're quiet

you sit down and calm your mind

you can hear these trees talking

they they talk very slowly so you have

to pay attention

and you can hear what they're saying

even in my forest here

trees talk when it gets ready to rain

the trees start to

actually sing

and this is a kind of concentration you

can develop

it's not harmful but when you keep it in

balance with

your mindfulness

there's more clarity in the way you

think

and less hindrances come up and distract

you

one of the

steps of developing

good meditation

starts with keeping your precepts

without breaking them

and then you start developing

more easier a tranquil mind

that's peaceful and calm when you get

that

your mind starts to become more

collected

more at ease more truly

aware of the inner workings of

how mind actually does function

and it's really kind of fun

when you

get used to doing it

now my book life

is meditation meditation is

life

is a

pretty good book even if i do say so

myself

but just

the title gives you the idea

that meditation is not just

about sitting only

meditation is about practicing

all the time in your daily life

do you have hindrances arise in your

daily life

well yeah

well that's no different than

sitting where hindrances come up

the trick is being aware of it and not

taking it personally and using your six

hours even during your daily activity

and the more you get used to doing that

with sitting

the more you get you will get

to practice

your meditation while you're doing your

daily activities

you start becoming more and more aware

of

how you cause your own pain

your anxiety your dislike of this

your life of that you're getting

involved

taking all this stuff as if your mind

was in control of everything

so yes i understand there might be

times where you go a day or two days or

even more

without using the six hours but the

more you use the six hours with your

sitting meditation the more you'll

remember

to use the six hours with your daily

activities

and the more you use the six hours with

your daily activities

the easier it is to go back into your

sitting meditation with a mind that's

still

and undisturbed

here brahman some klansmen gone forth

out of faith

from home life into homelessness

considering i am the victim of

birth aging death sorrow lamentation

pain grief and despair

i'm a victim of suffering

a prey to suffering sure an

ending to this whole mass of suffering

can be known

when one has gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown

he's not pleased with gain honor and

renown

and his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of virtue

he's pleased with the attainment of

virtue

but his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of

collectedness

he's pleased with the attainment of

collectedness

but his intention is not fulfilled

he does not on account of it laud

himself

and disparage others

he arouses desire to

act and make an effort for the

realization of

those other states

that are higher and more sublime than

the attainment

of collectedness

he does not hang back and slacken

he achieves knowledge and

vision knowing

by seeing

or understanding

he's pleased with the vision our

knowledge and vision and his intention

is not

fulfilled

on account of it he lodges himself and

disparages others thus

i live knowing and seeing

but these other monks

live unknowing and unseeing

so he arouses no desire to act

he makes an effort for the realization

of those

other states higher and more sublime

than knowledge and vision

he hangs back and slackens

i say this person is like a person

needing heartwood passing over

heartwood cut off the sap

the intercept would and took it away

as if it was heartwood so whatever it

was

that he wished to make with heartwood

his purpose

will not be served

okay here brahman

some plantsman goes forth out of faith

from a home life into homelessness

considering

i'm a victim of birth aging and death

sorrow lamentation pain grief and

despair

i'm a a victim of suffering a prey to

suffering

surely an ending to this whole mass of

suffering can be known

when he's gone forth thus he acquires

gain honor and renown and he's not

pleased with gain honor and renown

and his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves the attainment of

virtue he's pleased with the attainment

of virtue but his intention

is not fulfilled he achieves the

attainment of collectedness

and he's pleased with the attainment of

collectedness

but his intention is not fulfilled

he achieves knowledge and vision and

he's pleased with knowledge and vision

but his intention is not fulfilled

it does not on account of

okay

nor does he laud himself in this

others he arouses die desire to act

and makes an effort for the realization

of those other states that are higher

and more sublime than vision

and knowledge and vision

but what are the states that are higher

and

more sublime than knowledge and vision

here quite secluded from sensual

pleasures

secluded from unwholesome states

a monk enters upon and abides in the

first

jhana now for those

that are new to uh the teachings

jhana is a word that is misinterpreted

to be understood as

a concentration or hypnotic

state

and that's not not the way it is

with this form of meditation

this is where venerable pune poonanji

i kind of

well we kind of agreed to disagree

because

he was very much into his psychology

and and freud and

other philosophers and i didn't

necessarily see that the same as the

buddhist teaching

but he tried to justify it as part of

the buddha's teaching so we agreed that

it's okay you have your opinion i have

mine

now let's go on

the definition of jhana

is a level of understanding

not deep concentration

and the way you attain that is by

using the six r's

you recognize that your mind is

distracted

release the distraction by not keeping

your attention

on it you relax the tightness

caused by the distraction how is it

caused by the distraction

the distraction is a hindrance

the hindrance arises because sometime in

asks you broke one of the precepts

and you took it personally you said i am

that

that's why when the distraction

comes up and you use the six hours

you must use the relaxed step

if you don't use the relaxed step your

mind

is going to get into

a different state

and it will take you

off of the path that the buddha taught

that's how the importance of this

is so necessary to

understand

so you talk about

uh the six hours recognize

released relax

you're relaxing and letting go of that

false sense of

i am that

you are developing a mind that doesn't

have any

distractions in it

and is clear

and pure because you have let go

of that tension and tightness

in your head in your body in your mind

then there is the development

of the wholesome

and that is

learning to smile more

learning to have a light mind that has

some

joy in it

and then bringing that kind of mind that

is

very clear very uplifted

you bring that kind of mind to

your object of meditation either your

spiritual friend or

one of this one of the directions

and stay with that

for as long as you can

so when we're talking about getting into

the first

jhana this is the first major

step

that the buddha taught

and this is really a biggie

because your mind is so wholesome and

pure

when you get into the first jhana

if you never do anything else in your

life with the spiritual path

that brief moment of being

in the jhana is so powerful

that you will be reborn

either in the devaloka or the human

realm

that's pretty good

just having that very brief

glimpse is so wholesome

that it pretty much starts pointing you

in the direction of

the spiritual path that the buddha

taught

to the understanding that this stuff

actually does work

okay

okay now again

with the stilling of thinking and

examining thought

this suit is called the noble

silence suita

this is where noble silence

begins

okay

a monk enters upon and abides in the

second genre which has

self-confidence

stillness of mind without thinking

and examining thought with joy

and happiness born of collectedness

this too is a state higher and more

sublime

than that knowledge and vision

so this is where you stop verbalizing

in your mind the thing with the jhanas

is that you can be in one of these

states

while you are doing your daily

activities

it takes a lot of practice to be able to

do that

but it is worth the effort

your mind is wholesome there are no

distractions

your mind has joy in it

and the joy will last for a period of

time

and it turns into a tranquil

peaceful happy mind

that is very collected

and has equanimity

in it

so you can you can do that with any of

the jaundice

and that will help your daily activity

while you are in the genre your mind is

going to become much more

organized your thinking is going to be

organized your mind is going to be

clear you can notice

when you're in adrana with your daily

life you can notice the

disenchantment of things

starts to become more and more

prevalent you're gonna you're gonna

start seeing

it more and more easily all the time

so you can walk around in a state of

feeling good

and equanimity

balance

and that takes a lot of the suffering

and pain out of your daily life

it takes away a lot of the worries and

anxieties

that seem to build up these days so

easily

and again with the fading away of

joy a monk abides in

equanimity mindful and fully aware

still feeling happiness with the body

he enters upon and abides in the third

john on account of which

noble ones announce

he has a pleasant abiding who has

equanimity and is mindful

you can be in that genre

you just have to practice it enough

you can be in that journal while you're

walking down the street

or while you're doing something at work

your mind is going to be organized and

it's going to be

very easy to do things

easier than you ever dreamed possible

again with the abandoning of pleasure

and pain

with the previous disappearance of joy

and grief

a monk enters upon and abides in the

fourth jhana which has

neither pain nor pleasure and purity of

mindfulness

due to equanimity

now this is a real interesting thing

when you come on

retreat you're here for 10 days

and you follow the instructions your

progress

in the meditation is going to be very

fast

now when i say very fast i mean

sometimes it's shocking how fast it can

be

your progress can just zoom

when your mind is ready for it

and when you are walking around

with full equanimity

balance of mind

your mind becomes so much more clearer

and

alert

and that is

a really fun state to be in

because there isn't so much suffering

there's still a little bit left

and there are uh

habitual tendencies that we have our

emotional

things that come up that trigger our

mind

the emotional things are

not as troublesome when you have

equanimity

they have a tendency not to come up

but if they do then

you have a tendency to let them go much

more quickly than ever before

okay now i've been talking for a while

and

the rest of the suta

gets into the arupa genres the mental

realms

where your mind is much more alert to

subtle little changes

until you attain nibana

but because i've been talking so long i

i start to feel guilty about doing that

and i want to know what you think i want

to know

what your

questions could be is this clear enough

for you to understand it and see where

it's going

anyway

do you have any questions

there's no such a thing as a bad

question

and if you want to start getting longer

sutas

you have to come to damasuka

sometimes they get really carried away

and give a two hour

down a talk or two and a half hour down

the dock

but i hope it's interesting

dante thank you for your talk yes

i'm just wondering if you can clarify

for me i think i

understood most of the suitor but where

it says

he achieves knowledge and vision that

came before the janas

and i under i realize i don't understand

that very well can you just explain the

knowledge and vision part

please basic there's there's different

ways to add

knowledge and vision one by studying the

sutras themselves

okay but there there can be

some light meditation that's done before

uh light meditation by by mean by

uh reciting the nine qualities of the

buddha

over and over again

that gives you a knowledge and vision of

a direct

experience is that like an insight

can be

you get insights all along the way

sometimes they're really

tiny and you don't really consider them

as

an insight but if you have a deeper

understanding of

something that you hadn't

realized before that's knowledge and

vision

but it can be it can be about

anything and then

all of a sudden it kind of turns into it

oh wow yeah that's how that works

thank you so

i could call this a form of vipassana

because of that

because you get insights all the time

but i don't want to confuse anybody and

think that it's just straight

vipassana meditation because this is not

this goes much deeper than that

just like the guy that's trying to get

to the heartwood

you have to do it by stages

and the straight vipassana can be one of

those kinds of stages

so it's not that it's wrong

it's not anything to argue with somebody

else about

but taking the more

pure approach to your spiritual practice

says that you agree to disagree it's

okay that they have their view

of the way things work it might work it

might not

for anybody else it might might work or

might not for you

and it can be helpful

so don't make your minds hard and rigid

make your minds very pliable

and accepting

now accepting doesn't mean that you have

to

follow that rigidly

it just means that you accept

yeah there can be some good qualities in

doing this

that i've never experienced before but

it might be there

so keep your mind open don't be so

rigid which happens an awful lot

don't be so rigid of it has to be

this way

that's like saying everybody's life has

to be exactly the same

and we know that's not true

okay did that help clear it up

thank you very much yes okay good

anybody else with the question

thank you for the suta today

you're very welcome uh i'm glad

you mentioned about the hindrances and

how they can appear

uh more intense more apparent because

i've been experiencing that

uh with respect to restlessness

especially that seems to be the hindus

that physically most

um yeah but i had to produce more

closely

is what what's happening yeah definitely

yeah

and and because i'm glad you mentioned

it because i was

becoming frustrated and thinking i'm

doing something wrong

um but my question is um

so if if a student if we were a student

in your retreat and um let's say you

were practicing

observing um mind quiet mind

and were towards the end of the retreat

were able to go right there

during each set now after the retreat

if i sit in that fast so i generally

start each set i actually will take the

three refuges and five precepts

relax for a minute and then start my

meditation so if i'm starting

i don't radiate to the six directions

i'm just going right to

observing the mind or trying you know

trying to observe quiet mind but i don't

achieve any genre because of the

hindrances

so is it best to move back to well how

do you know whether you attain drama or

not

well yeah thank you so my understanding

is when the hindrances are upon us

we're not in jhana am i a mistake in

there right

you're not indiana at that time right so

that's

happening a lot right now with me

respect like i mentioned with

restlessness

so would it is it would

trying too hard still yeah

yeah definitely a lot of that right i

wish you'd develop your sense of humor

so you'd say

right well you're not there every day to

remind me and i forget

uh but um okay but i guess what i'm

asking

is is it better to return to loving

kindness

radiate to each direction and then the

six directions again

you're in charge of your meditation okay

so it's up to you okay

if there's parts of the the lower jhanas

that you were in before that you

want more time to experiment with

instead of

always trying to get to the same

goal which is kind of boring

in itself

uh spice it up a little bit take take

time to

just sit make a determination i'm not

going to go more than

a deeper than the second johnoff for

this this

period of time

but it gets it's kind of tiresome

just trying to uh

experience what you think

is coming right

and that will help relieve

a lot of the stress that you're

caught up in because you're pushing

you engineer you yeah that's right

that's that that's a problem that's for

sure yeah i

i understand okay well

thank you bunte yeah i just kind of

something i just need to hear it from

you i think

thanks i'm happy to help you anytime you

know

that yes thank you

okay anybody else

comments

yes thank you just to clarify my own

understanding

uh and thank you patrick for the opening

about hindrances i

also have um a bit of

a clear a need for clarification i

suppose about the hindrances

whereby you said that uh the hindrances

are rooted in um

you know a broken precept right from the

past

and that in that past event

there was also a false sense of i am

that

so oh yeah every time you break a

precept it causes a guilty mind and

that's what i

am mine is right just to clarify though

the the uh broken precept that happened

in the past would you say also have that

element of i am that

was every broken precept has that in it

that's why it is a hindrance so

so okay so then using the six arms

as you emphasize the relaxed step

right that is uh a moment for us to

choose to

undo the i am that

right and and then turn toward

the wholesome the impersonals

non-personal holes right

okay thank you

just needed to tweak that in my mind

that understanding

so i can welcome the hindrances more

i want to learn to welcome the entrances

don't don't push them away just when

they're there

you can say hi to them

okay that sounds like a plan thank you

okay karen did you want to say something

yes hello hi monty hi everyone nice to

see you

how are you this this fine day

i'm doing okay we're snowing in the uk

it's so weird knowing yeah

so last week it was 90 degrees here two

days ago

ah so jealous

at least i hope so yeah

yeah so um i don't know today i

as i was listening um this suit made so

much more sense than before

before i was just kind of like oh what

is going on

but yeah today it clicked so um thank

you for giving the talk my team

good for you yeah thanks um

oh yes so the question i had was you

mentioned

that being able to be in janna

outside of the sitting so like walking

around or working

is that something that happens naturally

as you do more formal sitting

or do you have to practice that it has

to be

intentional you have to

i mean your mind is is not to the state

that it's always going to be wholesome

and so it has to be intentional for you

to make up your mind that you want to

direct your attention

with this drama okay

and i found that very helpful when i was

going to the hospital and visiting

so many different people

because sometimes

if if i would

was radiating equanimity

they still had a lot of upset

in their body now this is people that

are

really sick and and they're they were

getting close to death

uh so i would

go back to the second ghana

and go and and stay with that joy

for a little while and then i would i

would

actually feel them become relaxed

and at ease

and their mind would

uh lose a lot of tension

in it at that time

so i found that useful

never know what's going to happen but

seemed like it was pretty good

okay so something you do on purpose

right it has to be intentional

sometimes you can put a time limit on it

it's

up to you

but the the thing that so many people

are caught up in

is only sitting

and there's so much more to it

if you really do

start practicing it and and working with

going in and out of this genre or that

genre

a lot more uh fun in life

when you do that

okay yeah so

and it's still possible for hindrances

to come on

it's impossible anytime mindfulness gets

weak

for whatever reason okay

and then six hour and continue right

okay thank you monty okay thank you

i'm happy to see you again thank you

same

okay

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving should all grief and

male beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that we

have thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhist

dispensation

so i wish you all a happy

week and i look forward to seeing you

next sunday

thank you bundy thank you david

thanks david ante thank you david

[Music]

you