From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SnmetqCgU9I

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

[Music]

and when you

keep your mind light you keep your mind

alert you'll start to see

when you get distracted and it'll be

much easier to catch it

so that you will let go of the suffering

more easily

all formations are impermanent all

things

are impersonal all

things are impersonal

that is how the blessed one disciplines

his disciples

that is how the blessed one's

instruction is usually presented to his

disciples

now during the time of the buddha

because a lot of people

especially the monks they listen to

dominant talks all the time

and this is like a little tiny reminder

for them to make sure they unders

they understand the impermanence and the

impersonal nature of

everything that arises

this is why when people would come to

the monastery they would see

monks smiling

and they thought that was quite unusual

because they'd go to other monasteries

of other sex

and they'd be arguing and they'd be

loud

so this is part of the lesson

of the suta is

how important seeing the aggregates are

seeing them as impersonal

and seeing them as impermanent because

they're always

changing now quite often when i'm given

other discourses i say

that was the arising and passing away of

a hundred

thousand ear consciousness

and it's that way with all of the

aggregates and the scent stores

and i know that there's a lot of people

that teach

oh everything's impermanent it's all

let's start the state of change

but that's a philosophy

when i start talking about being able to

see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away you get to see this for

yourself

and you see that it's not some kind

of philosophy that you just think about

it's something that you can see now you

have to be fairly deep

into your meditation before you're able

to do that

but it is possible to see this way

and you see that there's no controller

it's impersonal

the dukkha the unsatisfacto

unsatisfactoriness

is because these consciousnesses are

continually arising

passing away rising and pass away birth

death birth death birth death birth

death birth death

and when you see the impersonal nature

that there's no control of it

there's real freedom in that

your mind becomes much more clear you

begin to

get into states where there's no

there no there's no movement of mind's

attention

it's just quiet

and that's not nibana but it's a form of

nibana because there's no movement

but it's mundane nibana

eventually you can't get into the super

monday

and when you come here for a retreat

i'll show you how to do that

if that is what the recluse go to my

asserts we

we indeed

see what is disagreeable

perhaps sometime or other

we might uh meet master gotama and have

some conversation with him

perhaps we might detach him from that

evil view

now he was saying this to osagie who was

one of the first

arabs

now at that time 500 lekkavis

had met together in an assembly hall for

the business

some business or other then sachiko the

negative son

went to them and said come forth good

luck of these come forth

today there will be some conversation

between me and the recluse go to ma

if the recluse gotoma maintains

before me what was

maintained before me by one of his

famous disciples

the the monk named osaji

then just as a strong man might cease a

long-haired ram

by the hair and drag it to

and drag it fro and drag it drag him

round about

so indeed i will drag the recluse go to

my

two and drag him fro and drag him round

about

just as a strong brewers workman

might throw a big brewer's sieve into a

deep water tank

and take it by the corners and drag it

to

and drag it fro and drag it round about

so indeed i will drag the recluse go to

my two

and drag him fro and drag him round

about

just as a strong brewers mixer

might take a strainer by the corners and

shake it down and shake it up and

thump it about

so indeed i will shake the recluse goat

down and shake him up and thump him

about

and just as a 60 year old elephant might

plunge into a deep

pond and enjoy the game of hemp washing

so i shall enjoy playing the game of

hemp washing with the recluse gotama

i have no idea what that is actually

talking about i don't know what hemp

washing is

they used hemp for ropes and all kinds

of things and i know it had to be

cleaned

and they they pull it apart so they can

get to the fibers and then they make it

into rope

but i don't know what hemp washing

actually is

done by an elephant no less

come forth good luck of ease come forth

today there shall be conversation

between

me and a recluse gautama

thereupon some lack of he said

how can the recluse go to my refute

sachika the niganta's son's assertions

on the contrary sachiko the knee got the

son

will refute the recluse gottama's

assertions

some lecca said who is sachika then he

got the son that he could refute the

blessed one's assertions

on the contrary the blessed one will

refute sachiko the niganta's son's

assertions

then sachika the niganta son went with

the 500 lekkavis to the hall with the

peaked roof

in the great wood now on that occasion a

number of monks were walking

up and down in the open

then sachiko then he got the sun

went up to him and asked where is master

gotuma staying now sirs

we want to see master gotima

the blessed one has entered the great

woods sachika

and is sitting at the root of a tree for

the days abiding

then sachika the niganta sun together

with all a large following of lechovese

entered the great wood and went to the

blessed one

he exchanged greetings with the blessed

one after

courteous and amiable talk was finished

sat at one side some of the

luck of these paid attention to the

blessed one

and sat down at one side and paid homage

to the blessed one excuse me

some exchange greetings with him and

when this courteous

and amiable talk was finished sat down

at one side

some extended their hands in reverential

salutation

towards the blessed one and sat down at

one side

some pronounce the name and clan in the

blessed one's

presence and sat down at one side

some kept silent and sat down on one

side

when sachika the niganta son had sat

down

he said to the blessed one i would like

to question master gotaman a certain

point

if master gotu will grant me the favor

of

an answer to the question

ask what you like sachika

how does master go to my discipline his

disciples

and how is master gotama's instruction

usually presented to his disciples

this is how i discipline my disciples

asachika

and this is how my instruction is

usually presented to my disciples

monk's material form is impermanent

feeling is impermanent perception

is impermanent formations are

impermanent

consciousness is impermanent

monks material form is

impersonal feeling

is impersonal perception

is impersonal formations

are impersonal consciousness

is impersonal all formations

are impermanent all things

are impersonal that is how i discipline

my disciples

and that is how my instruction is

usually presented to

my disciples

a simile occurs to me master gotama

explain how it occurs to you sachika the

blessed one said

just as when seeds and plants and

whatever their kind

reach growth increase and maturation

all do so in dependence on the earth

based upon the earth and just

as when strenuous works

whatever their kind are done

all are excuse me all are done

independence on the earth

based upon the earth

so too master gautama

a person has material form

as self

based upon material form he produces

merit or demerit

a person has feeling as self

and based upon feeling he produces merit

or demerit

a person has perception of self

and based upon perception he produces

merit or demerit

a person has formations as self

and based upon formation he produces

merit or demerit

a person has consciousness itself

and based upon consciousness

he produces merit or demerit so he's

saying everything is part of the self

this

is very much the hindu ideas

that are that are

real popular in india

sachika are you not asserting material

form is myself

feeling is myself perception

is myself formations

are myself consciousness

is myself i assert thus master gotuma

material form as myself feeling as my

self-perception as myself

formations are myself and consciousness

is myself

and so does this great multitude now

this is one of the

first mistakes that he's really making

and

he gets put in his place here

what has this great multitude to do with

you sachika

slap

please confine yourself to your own

assertions

alone

then master goat i assert go to my

assertus

material form is myself feeling as my

self-perception as myself formations are

myself and consciousness

is myself

in that case sachiko

excuse me i shall ask you

a question in return answer

as you choose

what do you think sachika

when the head of anoint uh a head

anointed king

a noble king for example king passinati

of kusala or king ajatasat ajatasatu

of magadaha exercise the power in their

own realm

to execute those who should be executed

to find those who should be fined and to

banish those who should be banished

master gotama had anointed noble king

for example king passanati of kosala

or king ajata satu of magadaha

would exercise the power in his own

realm

to execute those who should be executed

to find those who should be fined

to banish those who should be banished

for even these oligarchic communities

and societies such as the vaginas and

namalians

exercise the power in their own realm

to ex to execute those who should be

executed

to find those who should be fined and to

banish

those who should be banished

so all the more

so all the more so should be a

head anointed noble king as king

pasanati of kusala or king ajatasatu of

magadaha

he would exercise it master gautama

he would be worthy to exercise it

now we get into a part that i want you

to listen

very closely to

what do you think sachika

when you say material form is myself do

you

exercise any such power

over that material form

as to say let my form be

thus let my form

not be thus

when this was said sachiko the night the

sun was silent

a second time the blessed one asked the

same question and a second time

sachiko the night the sun was silent

then the blessed one said to to sachika

answer now now is not

the time to be silent

if anyone when asked a reasonable

question

up to a third time by the tatagata

still does not answer his head splits

into seven

pieces there and then

now on that occasion a thunderbolt

wielding spirit

holding an iron thunder thunderbolt

that burned blazed and glowed

appeared in the air above sachiko

got the sun

thinking if sachiko then he got the son

when asked a reasonable question up to a

third time by the blessed one

still does not answer i shall split his

head

into seven pieces here and now

the blessed one saw the thunderbolt

wielding spirit

and so did sachiko but nobody else saw

it

then sachika the niganta's son

was frightened alarmed and terrified

and seeking his his shelter

asylum and refuge in the blessed one

said

ask matt ask me master go to my i will

answer

what do you think sachiko when you say

thus

material form is myself

do you exercise any such power

over that material form as to say

let my form be thus let my

form not be thus

no master gotama

pay attention sachika pay attention to

how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards

nor does what you said afterwards agree

with what you said before

what do you think sachiko when you say

thus feeling is myself

do you exercise any power

over that feeling as to say let my

feeling be thus

let my feeling not be thus

no master gotama

pay attention sachika pay attention to

how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said

afterwards nor does what you said

afterwards agree with what you said

before

what do you think sachika when you say

thus perception is myself

do you exercise any power over

that perception as to say

let my perception be thus

let my perception not be thus

no master go to mom

pay attention sachika pay attention to

how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards

nor does what you said afterwards agree

with what you said before

what do you think sachiko when you say

thus formations are myself

now you start you're starting to get the

idea of

the impersonal nature of everything

of all the aggregates

it's not you do you ask a feeling

to come up or do you tell yourself well

i haven't sneezed all week i need to

sneeze now

do you have any control over that

no

but we like to think that we're in

control of everything

and that causes suffering

when you recognize that your mind is

distracted

what almost everybody does is they get

caught

in the conceptual ideas of what that

distraction

is and they get caught thinking about

continually and taking it personally

but the 6rs they tell you

how to handle any kind of distraction

you recognize that your mind is

distracted

you release the distraction you don't

keep your attention on the distraction

and immediately after that you relax the

tension

and tightness caused by that distraction

what is the cause of the distraction

the cause of a distraction is that

sometime

in your past lives

it can be many lifetimes or it can just

be a habitual thing that you've been

doing lifetime after lifetime but it can

also be

something that's happening right now

you take it personally and you get

involved in

thinking about but that's not the

instruction

of the release see the six

r's are just a different way of saying

right effort

the first part is the recognize

now you see that you're distracted

the second part is

let that distraction be

let it go don't continue thinking it

and relax

when you relax that's when

you're purifying your mind

[Music]

that's how you recognize craving when it

arises it's a tension

and tightness that happens in your head

in your mind

in your body

so you relax as soon as you relax

your mind becomes clear your mind

becomes

very alert and

pure why

because you have let go of the wrong

idea in a

personal self

then you bring up something wholesome

smile lighten your mind

bring that pure light mind

back to your object of meditation

stay with your object of meditation for

as long as you can now if you're doing

daily activities i was talking a while

earlier about the importance of smiling

the more you smile the better your

mindfulness becomes the easier it is to

recognize when you get distracted

the easier it is to let it be without

getting involved in that distraction

now the very beginning

of the wrong idea and a personal self

starts at craving right

after the feeling the feeling is there

and then the craving arises and says

that's me that's mine that's who i

am

so you relax your mind is still very

clear

your mind is very bright but it doesn't

have the distraction

in it anymore you're not seeing it as

a personal thing you're seeing it

as an impersonal process

then you smile bring that smiling

light alert mind back to your

object of meditation which can be

smiling

if you're doing your daily activities

and stay with that as long as you can

that's the four parts of right effort

in the eightfold path this

is the part that i call harmonious

practice

and it's very very important

that you practice in this way

if you don't have that relaxed step

you're bringing that craving back to

your object of meditation

and that takes you off of the path that

the buddha

is teaching us

and the end result is very much

different

than if you follow the six r's

closely and use them often

when you say thus formations are myself

do you exercise any such power over

these formations as to say

let my formations be thus

let my formations not be thus

no master gotuma pay attention sachika

pay attention to how you reply

so he's really digging digging in

and then make it a

strong point

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards nor does what

you said afterwards agree with what you

said before

what do you think sachika

when you say consciousness is myself

do you exercise any such power over that

consciousness as to say

let my consciousness be thus

let my consciousness not be thus

no master gotuma pay attention sachika

pay attention to how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards nor does what

you said afterwards agree

with what you said before

what do you think statuca

is material form permanent or

impermanent impermanent master gotuma

is what is impermanent suffering or

happiness suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject to change

fit to be regarded thus

this is mine this i am this

is myself

no master gotama

isn't that interesting the way he did

this

what do you think sachika is feeling

permanent

or impermanent impermanent master

gautama

is what is impermanent suffering or

happiness

suffering master gotama is what is

impermanent suffering and subject to

change fit to be

regarded thus this is mine this

i am this is myself

no master gotama

what do you think sachika is perception

permanent or impermanent

impermanent master gotama is what is

impermanent suffering or happiness

suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject

to change fit to be regarded thus

this is mine this i am this

is myself

no master rotima

what do you think satrika are formations

permanent or impermanent

impermanent master gotama is what is

impermanent suffering or happiness

suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject to change fit to be regarded

thus

this is mine this i am this

is myself

no master gotama

what do you think sachika

is consciousness permanent or

impermanent impermanent master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering or

happiness

suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject to change fit to be

regarded thus this is

mine this i am this is myself

no master go to now so you see

all of these aggregates that we call

ourselves this is me this is mine this

is my feeling this is who i

am is a false belief in a personal self

and any time you take this false belief

and you take this craving and you start

identifying with it that is the cause of

suffering

that's the second noble truth isn't it

isn't that amazing

and what's the third noble truth

the cessation of the suffering

how do you do that you do that by

practicing right effort

you do that by practicing the six hours

the more times you can use the six hours

during the day

with your daily activities when your

mind just starts to

hum and think about this and think about

that

and it's just it's just spewing out

nonsense

the more you can

recognize that release

let go of the hindrance

relax

re-smile should be smiling all the time

anyway right

and bringing that light pure mind

back to your object of meditation

the more you do that the more you purify

your mind the weaker the craving

will become over a period of time

how many lifetimes have we been caught

up

in taking everything personally and and

causing all kinds of havoc for ourselves

our relatives and everyone else around

us we cause a lot of havoc

because of taking things personally

now the reason that i really like this

suta because

it explains it so clearly

material form is that me or is it not

do i have any control over it

so the clearer you become

the more you deeply understand

what it is to have a clear

pure mind

now you're starting to change your old

habits

into new habits and the new habits

is the one that leads to letting go

of the suffering

you have to do that many many times

every time you use the six

r's you are experiencing nibbana

name means no

bana means fire

now every time you relax you're letting

go of craving

craving is described by the buddha

as heat

burning

so you have to be able to relax

and let go of that craving

many many many thousands of times many

hundreds of thousands of times

before you're going to experience the

supra mundane that's the going beyond

the craving

so what to do

is your choice you can make yourself

suffer

you can make yourself not suffer it's up

to you

you can continually

use the six hours with your daily

activity instead of you're letting your

mind just ho-hum around

you'll find that you become much more

efficient with what you're doing and

you'll find that you become

more clear in your mind

and things start to change personality

development starts to really happen

because you're not taking things so

personally

and you are developing a mind

that has more equanimity and balance in

it

so the things that used to cause your

mind to

be upset they aren't so important

anymore and it's easier just to let them

go

so

use the six r's smile

more please smile

a lot and you'll see

the change in your personality

when i was growing up

which is quite a few years ago

my mother always told me that if i had a

bad habit and i want didn't want that

habit to

dictate things in my life i had to

change my habits

and it takes about 30 days to start

changing your habit from

being highly emotional being angry

being fearful being sad whatever it

happened to be you want to change

that you use the 6rs

and you will start to see a development

in your own

personality and this is one of the ways

that you can recognize that you are

progressing another way of recognizing

that you're progressing

is that your sense of humor becomes

softer gentler

and you start laughing with things just

because they make you feel good

so this particular suta

is quite powerful and

is very wonderful

what do you think sachika when one

adheres to suffering

resorts to suffering holds to suffering

doesn't that sound like we do that

and regards what is suffering thus

this is mine this i am this is

myself could one ever fully

understand suffering oneself

or abide with suffering utterly

destroyed

how could you do that because you get

caught in it

how could one master go to ma no

master go to ma what do you

think sachika that being so

do you not adhere to suffering

resort to suffering hold the suffering

and regard what is suffering thus

this is mine this i am this is

myself he is getting back to the idea

that

these

things that we hold to be personal

that is the cause of suffering

and if you want to let go of suffering

you need to let go of

the craving

so now you start to see more and more

why i kind of

insist that you smile more

the more you can smile the lighter your

mind becomes

the better your mindful the quality of

your mindfulness becomes much better

and your mind becomes much more clear

and bring that clear mind back into your

daily activities

it is the though a man needing heartwood

seeking heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood

were to take a sharp axe and enter the

wood

and there he would see a large plankton

banana tree

and the trunk would be straight and

young and

no fruit bud core

then he would cut it down at the root

cut off the crown and unroll

the leaf piece but as he went on

unrolling the leaf sheaths

he would never come to any

even any sapwood

let alone heartwood

so too sachika when you pressed and

questioned and cross questioned me about

my own assertions

you turned out to be empty vacant and

mistaken

but it has but it was

you who made this statement before the

visali

assembly i see no

recluse or brahman the head of an order

the head of a group

the teacher of a group even one claiming

to be accomplished and fully awakened

who would not shake shiver and tremble

and sweat under the armpits

if he were to engage in debate with me

even if i were to engage a senseless

post and debate

it would shake shiver and tremble if it

were to engage in

debate with me so what shall i

say about a human being

now there are drops of sweat

on your forehead and they have soaked

through

your upper robe and fallen to the ground

but there's no sweat on my body now

the blessed one uncovered his cold

colored body

before the assembly

when this was said sachiko then he got

the sun was sat

silent dismayed

with shoulders drooping and head down

glum and without response

then dumukha the son of the lake of east

seeing saatchika the night the sun in

such a condition said to the blessed one

assembly

a simile occurs to me master gotuma

explains how it occurs to you

[Music]

suppose venerable sir not far from a

village or town

there was a pond with a crab in it

and then a party of boys or girls went

down

from the town or village to the pond

went into the water and pulled the crab

out of the water

and put it on dry land and wherever the

crab extended a leg

they would cut it off broke it and

smashed it

with sticks and stones so that the crab

with all its legs cut off broken and

smashed

would be unable to get back to the pond

as before

so too all sachiko the night the sun's

contortion

writhings and vacillations have been cut

off

broken and smashed by the blessed one

and now he cannot get near the blessed

one again for the purpose of

debate

when this was said sachika then he got

the son told him wait

do much wait we are not speaking with

you

here we are speaking with master gautama

then he said let that talk of ours

master gotama like that of an ordinary

recluse or brahman

it was mere prattle

but in what way is a disciple of the

river clues go to my

one who carries out his instructions

who responds to his advice who has

crossed

beyond doubt become free from

perplexity gained intrepidity

and become independent of others in the

teacher's

dispensation this is an interesting

statement become independent of others

i continually tell you that you

are your own teacher

you're teaching yourself how to let go

of the suffering

by using the six arms

but you have to have you have to

take the responsibility

to do it for yourself you can't

get it from listening to somebody else

you have to do it you have to be

responsible for yourself

and each one of the dramas that you

experience is a level of your

understanding

of how mind works

it becomes more and more clearer as you

go deeper and deeper you go to the

second john the third john a fourth

jonah

and then you start getting into the

arupa

jhanas

now the fourth jhana has four

parts to it and these are the different

states

of the arupa ghana

i know in the west we we prefer

not to say the individual john as we

preferred is to put a number to it well

this is the fifth genre this

is the sixth genre no that's not right

you say this is infinite space this is

infinite consciousness

this is joy this is equanimity

those are the four states in the fourth

genre

so it's a real important thing to

understand

that part

and i know what you're talking about

when you say

this the the number of the jhana

but i always try to get you to not do

that and say

what jhana you're talking about

so that you stop trying to shorten the

teachings

here's achika any kind of material

form whatever whether past

future or present internal or

external gross or subtle inferior

or superior far or near

a disciple of mind sees all material

form

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

now wisdom the definition of

wisdom is seeing the impersonal nature

of things

and seeing the way this process works

through the links of

dependent origination

of all of the impermanent suffering

and impersonal nature probably the most

important one to realize

and see for yourself and teach yourself

how to relax into things

is the anata

seeing the impersonal nature

when we see that we see impermanence and

suffering

very quickly very easily and see it

directly

so you teach yourself how to recognize

these things

more and more clearly and understand

them

as part of a process

and it's an impersonal process so i

like this suit very much because

all material form is seen

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus this is not mine

this i am not this is not myself

here's sachika any kind of

feeling

whatever whether past future or present

internal or external gross or subtle

inferior or superior far or near

a disciple of mind sees all feeling

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

any kind of perception

whatever whether past future or present

internal or external gross or subtle

inferior and are superior far or near

a disciple of mind sees all perception

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus this is not mine this i am

not this is not myself

here's sachika any kind of formation

whatever whether past future or present

internal or external gross or subtle

inferior or superior far

or near a disciple of mind sees

all formations as they actually

are with proper wisdom thus

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

here's sachika any kind of material

or excuse me any time of consciousness

whatever

whether past future or present internal

or

external gross or subtle inferior or

superior

far or near a disciple of mind sees

all consciousness as it actually is with

proper

wisdom thus see when we see

everything with proper wisdom

you don't have any suffering arise

that doesn't mean in life there's not

going to be ups and downs but it's not

you're going to lose the attachments to

them

they just become something else that

needs to be done

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

i i've told this story before but

when i was when i first became a monk

um 35 years ago

a long time

i spent about six months

watching everything that was happening

in my mind

a thought would pop up and i the first

thing i would start to do

would be look at

is this me is this my thought is this

part of reality is this part of the

dream

what is this

now when i did that with every thought

that i could

of course i wasn't good at the start of

it but as i got

used to doing it i started looking at it

at

everything as part of an impersonal

process

and you if you do that you can go

quite deep

now i was just doing that

but later when i finally figured out

about craving

i recommend now that you

look at the impersonal nature and relax

the tightness and tension caused by that

thinking

your mind will settle down very well

you'll be able to sit for long periods

of time with a quiet mind

and you'll be able to see how these

thoughts and feelings are not personal

it is something stored in your mind from

past experience

from past breaking of precepts

from making mistakes and taking things

personally

after about six months i became very

very

clear about the impersonal

nature of everything

and then i went on to do other things

other kinds of practices because there

was

i was at the time i was in thailand

and they have a lot of different kinds

of meditation that they teach and i

wanted to find out about

everything that i could so i started

going to other teachers

but that was a real interesting

experience

to do with every time you have a thought

every time

a feeling a rose every time a sensation

did i ask this to come up do i want this

to come

up is this mine

or is it just part of a continuum

that's impersonal

i recommend the experience of doing that

but add the relaxed step after every

time

that you question

is this me is this mine is this myself

then relax and watch

see what happens after that

in this way a disciple of mine

is one who carries out my instruction

who responds to my advice

who has crossed beyond doubt

become free from perplexity

gained intrepidity and become

independent of others in the

teacher's dispensation

you are your own teacher

you learn by experiencing suffering and

how much it hurts

and then you start using the six r's

more and more

and see that suffering become less and

less

and because of that relaxed step

which is super important

there is personality the development

you become more balanced you become more

alive

colors seem to change a little bit

mind seems to settle down

and you can sit for periods of time

without having any distraction of mine

you can relax into it

and you can start seeing the beauty of

the world around you

because it is truly a remarkable thing

mastered rotamon in what way is a monk

an arahat

with taints destroyed who has lived the

holy life

done what had to be done laid down the

burden

reached the true goal destroyed the

fetters of being and is completely

liberated through final knowledge

well that's an interesting question

sachika any kind of material form

whatever

whether past future or present internal

or

external gross or subtle inferior or

superior far

near a monk has seen all

material form as it actually is with

proper wisdom thus

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

and through not craving and clinging

he is liberated

and then it goes through all of the

five aggregates i'm not going to do that

this time

because i've been talking for a real

long time

when amongst mine is thus liberated he

possesses

three unsurpassable qualities

unpresurpassable wisdom

unsurpassable practice

of the way

now that is the path that is the

eightfold path

itself an

unsurpassable deliverance

when a monk is thus liberated he still

honors reveres and venerates the tataka

to thus

the blessed one is awakened

he teaches the dhamma for the sake of

awakening

the blessed one is tamed

he teaches the dhamma for

taming oneself

the blessed one is at peace he teaches

the dhamma

for the sake of peace

the blessed one has crossed over

and he teaches the dhamma for crossing

over

the blessed one has attained nibana

and he teaches the dhamma for attaining

nibana i like that one a lot

when this was said sachika the niganta's

son

replied master gotama

we were bold and impudent in thinking

that

we could attack master gotaman debate

a man might attack a mad elephant and

find safety

yet he could not attack master rotolo

and find safety

a man might attack be a

blazing mass of fire and find safety

yet he could not attack master go to mon

find safety

a man might attack a terrible poisonous

snake and find

safety yet he could not attack master

gotama and find safety

we were bold and impudent and thinking

that we could attack

master rotamon debate

and after that he invites gautama

for a meal

so this particular super is something

that i

very much like

of course there's some things in it that

seem kind of weird getting your head

split up

opening this different

pieces you wonder whether that would

really happen or not

but that only hope that only happens

when the

the buddha is around so i don't think

i'll be able to see that one happen

anyway

it shows you how clear the buddha can

become

when he gets in debate with other people

of other sects

that have they have their different ways

of

looking at things and explaining things

and how they can get

confused the whole point

is the buddha didn't argue with them

and say no you're wrong

all he did was said listen closely and

i'll teach you the dharma

and he clears everything up as he does

that

so it's it's a real

interesting way of

living

an awful lot of people they get highly

emotional and they

really get

hurtful with the ways these things that

they can say in a way that they can do

things but that doesn't mean that you

have to take it personally

you can let them rant and brave and then

you can say well i'm gonna

i'm gonna show you this

works this way you can believe it or not

i don't care

and that's what he did when he started

talking about the aggregates that was

whether it was permanent or impermanent

suffering or happiness

and the more you can see

the impersonal nature of everything

it'll take your mind into very deep

understandings

that will help change the way you see

the world around you

so

sadhu for all of you

[Music]

and i want to ask you if you have any

questions

nobody has a question

[Music]

where is your request thank you bonsai

for your talk

um i have a question

um so i understand why the aggregates

are not me not mine not self

uh what about our actions when the

buddha talks about our actions being you

know we are

owners of our actions heirs of our

actions when he's talking about kama

so are actually something in a separate

category

when you see everything as impersonal

your actions turn wholesome

okay you understanding the way you

perceive the world around you

begins to change

and that helps you to have a more clear

mind that doesn't get

fogged and clouded in

too many thoughts coming in all the time

so this is all kind of interconnected i

mean this is

the formations body speech and mind

and the consciousness now this is nama

rupa

this is mentality and materiality

that's what is is in the five aggregates

it's just a different way of

explaining it

right so my actions are also

not me not mine not self

well when you choose correctly

when you choose without any craving in

your mind

you're going to do things in the proper

way

and that's going to lead to your

happiness and the happiness of people

around you

when you see those kind of actions that

are taking place where you help somebody

i'm a very tall person

and i used to go into the grocery stores

and i would see

some short lady trying to get something

off the top shelf

and i always thought it was kind of fun

so i'd go up and say is that the one you

want

and then take it down for

that made me happy that made her

especially happy

and that made our speech together

because i was willing to give i was

willing to put out that energy

and give to someone else that i didn't

even know

but it made them smile

this is generosity

this is something that needs to be

practiced

in all different ways

and practice your generosity and body

speech and mind

give people the doubt

don't automatically oh i don't want to

talk to you

you're got all kinds of problems

but when you practice

true meditation

which is first

practicing your generosity giving to

other people

having other people around you have an

uplifted mind

and then you keep the precepts without

breaking them

which is incredibly important

and you start thinking kindly about

other people

now you're practicing true meditation

the sitting meditation

is just a small part of the meditation

that's why i wrote the book life is

meditation meditation

is life too many people

think that meditation is just about

sitting

sitting quietly

and it's not that it's about

living it's about living

in the right way that causes you

happiness and other people around you

happiness

it causes you to smile and other people

around you to smile

now there's times that i'd be thinking

about something when i was at the store

and i was gonna

i knew where this thing was and i had to

go over there and get it

and i got got lost in my thoughts

and somebody walked by me

and i looked at their face and they had

a great big smile on their face

and in my mind i said thank you very

much and started smiling and having fun

going and getting what needs i needed to

do

that's part of meditation

it's not just about getting off the

wheel

it's about living life in an uplifted

way

that's why i tell you to smile all the

time the more

you can smile the better your

mindfulness

the better your mindfulness the easier

it

is to let go of the suffering

how a lot of people

have an idea

that you you

are satisfied with meditation when

it's

when it's a happy feeling

but there's two sides of the coin

there's the happy feeling and there's

the painful feeling

sometimes there are things in life that

are not

so pleasant

but what you do with what arises in the

present dictates what happens in the

future

if you fight what's happening in the

present

you have some kind of painful thing

happening

if you try to resist

and the more you resist

the more you think about the problem the

bigger the problem seems to become

and it's painful

well yeah there's going to be times when

it's painful

that's part of feeling too

but when you develop your equanimity

when you develop that balance of mind

then you're not resisting the painful

feeling you're allowing it to be

like somebody in your family dies that's

not going to be one of your happier

joyful

more more joyful kinds of experience

right

but what are you going to do with that

i run across many many people

that they really get into their grief

and their sadness and mope around

and they feel absolutely helpless and

hopeless

or what can i do now that they're gone

i wish i would have said this to them

when i was working at hospice i was

teaching

people before the person died

that they needed to be

sending loving and kind thoughts to all

the family members

everybody that's suffering

and sad and resisting

this kind of change

[Music]

i taught them how to

not feel hopeless not feel helpless

but radiate loving kindness to them

that helps them even though you might

not

notice it as you see it

they might not act any different

but they will start to get a sense of

relief anytime they're around you

especially when you're radiating

loving kindness to them

when my mother died

it was a few years ago

my family is very big

and she died at home

and on the day she died there was

different family members that were

hanging around basically just waiting

for her to die

and i was sending

feelings of equanimity to everybody

now when she had her last breath

nobody was crying

i was just radiating this balance of

mine

and after five or ten minutes one of the

family members said you know i don't

know whether to laugh

from relief that it's finally happened

or cry

and i said to them it doesn't matter

now she's left the body

she's not around anymore

so your your sadness if you want to

express that

that

emotion don't resist it

don't fight it don't try to stop it let

it come

let it be there by itself

and i because i'm a buddhist monk

with a very strong christian family they

think that i'm pretty much

crazy and weird

but every one of those different family

members came up to me

after a period of time and thanked me

for being there

now that's pretty pretty major for a

christian

person that has all of this belief

outside that the power is outside of

themself

to acknowledge that the feeling

of acceptance without fighting

affects other people around you

and i suggested to some of them that

some of the men my mother was 94

95 years old something like that

and they were very much attached to them

and they were very

sad but they were trying to stifle the

tears

if the tears come let them come

don't resist or push

soften your mind

allow that feeling to be there

of course there's going to be pain and

it's going to come up at different times

in their life for a period of time

so it's real important

to support the other

other people around you to radiate

loving kindness to them

and they'll become more accepting and

they'll have more balance in their mind

and that's how you practice your

generosity

and teach them because they get sad and

they

they say there's nothing oh there's

nothing that can be done

they're gone and they resist

this painful feeling

what you resist persist

so they're going to be sad and

real upset for quite a long

period of time

if they don't know how to let go of

the attachment

the fighting of that painful feeling and

trying to push it away

and not let the expression of that

sadness

come out by itself

and if they don't practice their

generosity

to other people around them

within two years they're going to have

some kind of major

physical problem that happens

and it's because they don't let go of

the grief

and they don't know how to let go of the

grief they indulge in it

this painful feeling comes up

and oh especially men

they like to push it away a stiff upper

lip

i know one one man that is his

[Music]

relative died and he had a stiff upper

lip and within two years he had cancer

of the lip

because he wouldn't allow that

expression of

softening and allowing that feeling to

be there without trying to change it or

make it different than it is

the six r's are not a stick

to beat away painful feeling

that's not what it's about it's about

allowing it to be there without

resistance

or keeping your attention on it

allow that feeling to that sadness

feeling to be there okay

fine now i can relax and i can come back

to an object of meditation what do i do

with the object of meditation

i start sending loving and kind thoughts

that's what it's all about

i don't know what just happened but uh a

lot of the pictures that were there

disappeared thank you

[Music]

okay okay

so did that help yes

thank you okay so there's a lot of

different kinds of action that you can

take

generosity is a big one

and that's the first part of what

meditation is all about

too many people are interested they're

over interested in

sitting and having a clear mind

then they get up and they have just as

many problems as they did when they

started

because they don't understand about

letting go

of craving and that's what the six

hours are for to let go of that

don't focus on anything but your object

to meditation

let the let the pain be there by itself

okay thank you okay

anybody else have a question

one day i have okay

i see you okay um i have a question it's

not directly related

uh related to today's sutra

but it's more about understanding um

consciousness okay there is some i know

there is

a pali word called chitta yeah which is

also translated as consciousness right

and then when we look at the dependent

origination

there is this vinyana which also we

translate as consciousness

right and others too different or are

they the same

it's a different way of saying the same

thing

okay so the chitta is also

that was one of my questions for one of

the first teachers that i ran across

and then every time i asked after that

all the teachers were saying that

vinyana and jayta are basically the same

thing it is a kind of consciousness

okay thank you okay

thank you for your talk today thank you

very much welcome

bandy i have a i have a question on this

suta

okay uh in sutra it says uh

far or near for

all the aggregates what is far or near

when it was when it was saying you're

gonna have to

yeah in sudden it was saying uh

like for example feelings far or near

okay i didn't catch that part far or

near

yeah is what is the meaning of far or

near

how can a feeling be far or near

do you have feelings about somebody

that's uh in another

another city

because then you like them

and when you think of them it causes

your mind to be

happy that's a feeling from

that's far or somebody in the same room

that's a feeling that's near

what he's basically trying to say with

that

is that it doesn't matter

when it a feeling arises it doesn't

matter

where that feeling comes from

it's

realizing that all feeling is part of an

impersonal

process

so he tries to give you as many

different

examples of far near

all of these kind of things he's just

giving you an example

that it doesn't matter where that

feeling is

or where it comes from

it's just part of the process

okay okay one day thank you

thank you for clarifying you only have

one question

today yeah only one question i'm

exhausting my questions

[Laughter]

okay good thank you thank you for this

talk i like this stuff

very welcome

any other questions hello bonte

hello how are you doing well how are you

quite well thank you thank you for this

talk yes

and my question is about something you

said today

that unset unsatisfactoriness

arises um right

because of the rising and passing away

of consciousness

or one of them it's just their

impermanence

it's unsatisfactory because

one of the things that everybody

in this world really wants is something

to be permanent

and so they make up ideas about god

god is the same now as before

and it always will be the same

but everything is in a state of change

there's nothing that's permanent

except the impermanence of everything

[Music]

so when the mind becomes quiet

does that mean that this rising and

passing away has stopped or it has

simply accessed a state of mind it's

still

there's still change that's happening

but you can sit for periods of time

[Music]

and the the thing with the meditation

when you start getting deeper and you

get into

neither perception or non-perception i

call that the quiet mind

you are observing

still how things are changing

they're changing in you with a quiet

mind

and it you're not going to be noticing

so much the chaotic

change that mind goes through with its

daily activities and that sort of thing

um

no i forgot what i was going to say

so the mind is just not noticing

the change happening or it's still

hiding what happens when you get into

these deeper states

mind loses a lot of its activities

in in the brain so to speak

and it becomes quieter and quieter

but there's still changes that are

happening

you still have your blood flowing your

heart beating you're still breathing

there are those changes that are still

there

but you don't keep your attention on

them

okay it's like there was an

example there was a movie called

[Music]

lucy

where a girl got involved in taking a

certain kind of drug and it made her

mind expand

and her understanding was growing more

and more and she had an example

of you see a car

going down the street and you see it in

normal

awareness but as the car

speeds up and speeds up and speeds up

and speeds up

then you don't even see the car although

it's still there

because it's going so fast

that's the way our consciousness is

okay now when you start becoming more

and more

relaxed and quiet

it's it's like all of these

things that pulled your attention to it

before

you don't even notice them anymore that

doesn't mean there's not still happening

but it's just different

okay

anytime you can

quiet mind enough so that you can see

with clarity the quiet mind

then you can see subtle little

tiny changes that start to occur

and you can relax into that

now there's still these things that are

that you're not necessarily going to

notice so much

but they're still happening when you get

to the state of nirvana where there is

the cessation

of perception feeling and consciousness

that's why it's so different

than all of the other

states of ghana that you that you can

experience

all of the states of

ghana

they are a part

of a process

and as you go deeper and deeper the

process gets more and more subtle

until finally it's so subtle

that it just stops there's no more

consciousness that arises there's no

more feeling there's no perception

and you don't know you're in that state

you don't know how long you're going to

be in that state

and then you can

when you come out of that state

you if your mindfulness is sharp you

will see

the links of dependent origination the

more times this

experience happens the clearer it is to

observe

all of the different things of dependent

origination

as they occur and it will become more

and more clear to you

all the time what you just described is

is that the final nibana that the buddha

experienced

it is nibana but there's different

levels of that experience

uh in the good qualities

of the sangha

it says there's eight kinds of

individuals

and that means the sodapana

sodapana with fruition that's two kinds

of individuals

then there's the sakuragami and then

arahat each one of those has two two

different levels

okay

and that's what we're striving for i'm

still looking for

our hots around we don't seem to be able

to find them so much

i look for 12 years and i couldn't find

one in in asia

maybe we'll have one here before long

who knows

that would be wonderful yeah

i told my students in uh

in asia any one of those

those students if they became an arahat

then i would take them as my teacher

but

one thing yeah okay yeah david was just

doing something with my screen

uh okay they say that ajahn bola

was an arahat i have real problems with

that because i

lived with him for a period of time and

he was

not a very nice individual

it was very very demanding

the first day i was there they gave me

the job of cleaning

the floor in his cabin

and anytime i took a step there was a

creek

and he would get angry

and i said i've never been in there oh

am i supposed to know where to step

and he chewed me out really good

i didn't stay with him very long i was

not impressed with the dhamma that he

was teaching

because he didn't talk about letting go

of craving or how to do that

he was very skilled

at going into one pointed kinds of

concentration

but i don't even think that he had

become had the experience of

sodapony

that's my opinion you can take it what

it's worth

i know a lot of people they talk about

hajjan mon

and and other hydrons and

that they read about

but i have serious doubts as to whether

they have experienced

are a hardship

that's just me i'm a skeptical person i

don't take things

i don't i don't

believe just because everybody else

believes

i have some real doubts that

i see now i've been around enough monks

too

and i've studied enough

that if i would have spent six months to

a year

with one of these teachers i could have

seen

whether they were and are hot or not

but my first impression was no

that's just my skeptical mind i don't

know

thank you for sharing that

anybody else

no no more question

then let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

a fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness may beings inhabiting

space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhist

dispensation

[Music]

you all have a good fun week and keep

smiling as much as you possibly can

[Music]

and when you

keep your mind light you keep your mind

alert you'll start to see

when you get distracted and it'll be

much easier to catch it

so that you will let go of the suffering

more easily

all formations are impermanent all

things

are impersonal all

things are impersonal

that is how the blessed one disciplines

his disciples

that is how the blessed one's

instruction is usually presented to his

disciples

now during the time of the buddha

because a lot of people

especially the monks they listen to

dominant talks all the time

and this is like a little tiny reminder

for them to make sure they unders

they understand the impermanence and the

impersonal nature of

everything that arises

this is why when people would come to

the monastery they would see

monks smiling

and they thought that was quite unusual

because they'd go to other monasteries

of other sex

and they'd be arguing and they'd be

loud

so this is part of the lesson

of the suta is

how important seeing the aggregates are

seeing them as impersonal

and seeing them as impermanent because

they're always

changing now quite often when i'm given

other discourses i say

that was the arising and passing away of

a hundred

thousand ear consciousness

and it's that way with all of the

aggregates and the scent stores

and i know that there's a lot of people

that teach

oh everything's impermanent it's all

let's start the state of change

but that's a philosophy

when i start talking about being able to

see

individual consciousnesses arise and

pass away you get to see this for

yourself

and you see that it's not some kind

of philosophy that you just think about

it's something that you can see now you

have to be fairly deep

into your meditation before you're able

to do that

but it is possible to see this way

and you see that there's no controller

it's impersonal

the dukkha the unsatisfacto

unsatisfactoriness

is because these consciousnesses are

continually arising

passing away rising and pass away birth

death birth death birth death birth

death birth death

and when you see the impersonal nature

that there's no control of it

there's real freedom in that

your mind becomes much more clear you

begin to

get into states where there's no

there no there's no movement of mind's

attention

it's just quiet

and that's not nibana but it's a form of

nibana because there's no movement

but it's mundane nibana

eventually you can't get into the super

monday

and when you come here for a retreat

i'll show you how to do that

if that is what the recluse go to my

asserts we

we indeed

see what is disagreeable

perhaps sometime or other

we might uh meet master gotama and have

some conversation with him

perhaps we might detach him from that

evil view

now he was saying this to osagie who was

one of the first

arabs

now at that time 500 lekkavis

had met together in an assembly hall for

the business

some business or other then sachiko the

negative son

went to them and said come forth good

luck of these come forth

today there will be some conversation

between me and the recluse go to ma

if the recluse gotoma maintains

before me what was

maintained before me by one of his

famous disciples

the the monk named osaji

then just as a strong man might cease a

long-haired ram

by the hair and drag it to

and drag it fro and drag it drag him

round about

so indeed i will drag the recluse go to

my

two and drag him fro and drag him round

about

just as a strong brewers workman

might throw a big brewer's sieve into a

deep water tank

and take it by the corners and drag it

to

and drag it fro and drag it round about

so indeed i will drag the recluse go to

my two

and drag him fro and drag him round

about

just as a strong brewers mixer

might take a strainer by the corners and

shake it down and shake it up and

thump it about

so indeed i will shake the recluse goat

down and shake him up and thump him

about

and just as a 60 year old elephant might

plunge into a deep

pond and enjoy the game of hemp washing

so i shall enjoy playing the game of

hemp washing with the recluse gotama

i have no idea what that is actually

talking about i don't know what hemp

washing is

they used hemp for ropes and all kinds

of things and i know it had to be

cleaned

and they they pull it apart so they can

get to the fibers and then they make it

into rope

but i don't know what hemp washing

actually is

done by an elephant no less

come forth good luck of ease come forth

today there shall be conversation

between

me and a recluse gautama

thereupon some lack of he said

how can the recluse go to my refute

sachika the niganta's son's assertions

on the contrary sachiko the knee got the

son

will refute the recluse gottama's

assertions

some lecca said who is sachika then he

got the son that he could refute the

blessed one's assertions

on the contrary the blessed one will

refute sachiko the niganta's son's

assertions

then sachika the niganta son went with

the 500 lekkavis to the hall with the

peaked roof

in the great wood now on that occasion a

number of monks were walking

up and down in the open

then sachiko then he got the sun

went up to him and asked where is master

gotuma staying now sirs

we want to see master gotima

the blessed one has entered the great

woods sachika

and is sitting at the root of a tree for

the days abiding

then sachika the niganta sun together

with all a large following of lechovese

entered the great wood and went to the

blessed one

he exchanged greetings with the blessed

one after

courteous and amiable talk was finished

sat at one side some of the

luck of these paid attention to the

blessed one

and sat down at one side and paid homage

to the blessed one excuse me

some exchange greetings with him and

when this courteous

and amiable talk was finished sat down

at one side

some extended their hands in reverential

salutation

towards the blessed one and sat down at

one side

some pronounce the name and clan in the

blessed one's

presence and sat down at one side

some kept silent and sat down on one

side

when sachika the niganta son had sat

down

he said to the blessed one i would like

to question master gotaman a certain

point

if master gotu will grant me the favor

of

an answer to the question

ask what you like sachika

how does master go to my discipline his

disciples

and how is master gotama's instruction

usually presented to his disciples

this is how i discipline my disciples

asachika

and this is how my instruction is

usually presented to my disciples

monk's material form is impermanent

feeling is impermanent perception

is impermanent formations are

impermanent

consciousness is impermanent

monks material form is

impersonal feeling

is impersonal perception

is impersonal formations

are impersonal consciousness

is impersonal all formations

are impermanent all things

are impersonal that is how i discipline

my disciples

and that is how my instruction is

usually presented to

my disciples

a simile occurs to me master gotama

explain how it occurs to you sachika the

blessed one said

just as when seeds and plants and

whatever their kind

reach growth increase and maturation

all do so in dependence on the earth

based upon the earth and just

as when strenuous works

whatever their kind are done

all are excuse me all are done

independence on the earth

based upon the earth

so too master gautama

a person has material form

as self

based upon material form he produces

merit or demerit

a person has feeling as self

and based upon feeling he produces merit

or demerit

a person has perception of self

and based upon perception he produces

merit or demerit

a person has formations as self

and based upon formation he produces

merit or demerit

a person has consciousness itself

and based upon consciousness

he produces merit or demerit so he's

saying everything is part of the self

this

is very much the hindu ideas

that are that are

real popular in india

sachika are you not asserting material

form is myself

feeling is myself perception

is myself formations

are myself consciousness

is myself i assert thus master gotuma

material form as myself feeling as my

self-perception as myself

formations are myself and consciousness

is myself

and so does this great multitude now

this is one of the

first mistakes that he's really making

and

he gets put in his place here

what has this great multitude to do with

you sachika

slap

please confine yourself to your own

assertions

alone

then master goat i assert go to my

assertus

material form is myself feeling as my

self-perception as myself formations are

myself and consciousness

is myself

in that case sachiko

excuse me i shall ask you

a question in return answer

as you choose

what do you think sachika

when the head of anoint uh a head

anointed king

a noble king for example king passinati

of kusala or king ajatasat ajatasatu

of magadaha exercise the power in their

own realm

to execute those who should be executed

to find those who should be fined and to

banish those who should be banished

master gotama had anointed noble king

for example king passanati of kosala

or king ajata satu of magadaha

would exercise the power in his own

realm

to execute those who should be executed

to find those who should be fined

to banish those who should be banished

for even these oligarchic communities

and societies such as the vaginas and

namalians

exercise the power in their own realm

to ex to execute those who should be

executed

to find those who should be fined and to

banish

those who should be banished

so all the more

so all the more so should be a

head anointed noble king as king

pasanati of kusala or king ajatasatu of

magadaha

he would exercise it master gautama

he would be worthy to exercise it

now we get into a part that i want you

to listen

very closely to

what do you think sachika

when you say material form is myself do

you

exercise any such power

over that material form

as to say let my form be

thus let my form

not be thus

when this was said sachiko the night the

sun was silent

a second time the blessed one asked the

same question and a second time

sachiko the night the sun was silent

then the blessed one said to to sachika

answer now now is not

the time to be silent

if anyone when asked a reasonable

question

up to a third time by the tatagata

still does not answer his head splits

into seven

pieces there and then

now on that occasion a thunderbolt

wielding spirit

holding an iron thunder thunderbolt

that burned blazed and glowed

appeared in the air above sachiko

got the sun

thinking if sachiko then he got the son

when asked a reasonable question up to a

third time by the blessed one

still does not answer i shall split his

head

into seven pieces here and now

the blessed one saw the thunderbolt

wielding spirit

and so did sachiko but nobody else saw

it

then sachika the niganta's son

was frightened alarmed and terrified

and seeking his his shelter

asylum and refuge in the blessed one

said

ask matt ask me master go to my i will

answer

what do you think sachiko when you say

thus

material form is myself

do you exercise any such power

over that material form as to say

let my form be thus let my

form not be thus

no master gotama

pay attention sachika pay attention to

how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards

nor does what you said afterwards agree

with what you said before

what do you think sachiko when you say

thus feeling is myself

do you exercise any power

over that feeling as to say let my

feeling be thus

let my feeling not be thus

no master gotama

pay attention sachika pay attention to

how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said

afterwards nor does what you said

afterwards agree with what you said

before

what do you think sachika when you say

thus perception is myself

do you exercise any power over

that perception as to say

let my perception be thus

let my perception not be thus

no master go to mom

pay attention sachika pay attention to

how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards

nor does what you said afterwards agree

with what you said before

what do you think sachiko when you say

thus formations are myself

now you start you're starting to get the

idea of

the impersonal nature of everything

of all the aggregates

it's not you do you ask a feeling

to come up or do you tell yourself well

i haven't sneezed all week i need to

sneeze now

do you have any control over that

no

but we like to think that we're in

control of everything

and that causes suffering

when you recognize that your mind is

distracted

what almost everybody does is they get

caught

in the conceptual ideas of what that

distraction

is and they get caught thinking about

continually and taking it personally

but the 6rs they tell you

how to handle any kind of distraction

you recognize that your mind is

distracted

you release the distraction you don't

keep your attention on the distraction

and immediately after that you relax the

tension

and tightness caused by that distraction

what is the cause of the distraction

the cause of a distraction is that

sometime

in your past lives

it can be many lifetimes or it can just

be a habitual thing that you've been

doing lifetime after lifetime but it can

also be

something that's happening right now

you take it personally and you get

involved in

thinking about but that's not the

instruction

of the release see the six

r's are just a different way of saying

right effort

the first part is the recognize

now you see that you're distracted

the second part is

let that distraction be

let it go don't continue thinking it

and relax

when you relax that's when

you're purifying your mind

[Music]

that's how you recognize craving when it

arises it's a tension

and tightness that happens in your head

in your mind

in your body

so you relax as soon as you relax

your mind becomes clear your mind

becomes

very alert and

pure why

because you have let go of the wrong

idea in a

personal self

then you bring up something wholesome

smile lighten your mind

bring that pure light mind

back to your object of meditation

stay with your object of meditation for

as long as you can now if you're doing

daily activities i was talking a while

earlier about the importance of smiling

the more you smile the better your

mindfulness becomes the easier it is to

recognize when you get distracted

the easier it is to let it be without

getting involved in that distraction

now the very beginning

of the wrong idea and a personal self

starts at craving right

after the feeling the feeling is there

and then the craving arises and says

that's me that's mine that's who i

am

so you relax your mind is still very

clear

your mind is very bright but it doesn't

have the distraction

in it anymore you're not seeing it as

a personal thing you're seeing it

as an impersonal process

then you smile bring that smiling

light alert mind back to your

object of meditation which can be

smiling

if you're doing your daily activities

and stay with that as long as you can

that's the four parts of right effort

in the eightfold path this

is the part that i call harmonious

practice

and it's very very important

that you practice in this way

if you don't have that relaxed step

you're bringing that craving back to

your object of meditation

and that takes you off of the path that

the buddha

is teaching us

and the end result is very much

different

than if you follow the six r's

closely and use them often

when you say thus formations are myself

do you exercise any such power over

these formations as to say

let my formations be thus

let my formations not be thus

no master gotuma pay attention sachika

pay attention to how you reply

so he's really digging digging in

and then make it a

strong point

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards nor does what

you said afterwards agree with what you

said before

what do you think sachika

when you say consciousness is myself

do you exercise any such power over that

consciousness as to say

let my consciousness be thus

let my consciousness not be thus

no master gotuma pay attention sachika

pay attention to how you reply

what you said before does not agree with

what you said afterwards nor does what

you said afterwards agree

with what you said before

what do you think statuca

is material form permanent or

impermanent impermanent master gotuma

is what is impermanent suffering or

happiness suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject to change

fit to be regarded thus

this is mine this i am this

is myself

no master gotama

isn't that interesting the way he did

this

what do you think sachika is feeling

permanent

or impermanent impermanent master

gautama

is what is impermanent suffering or

happiness

suffering master gotama is what is

impermanent suffering and subject to

change fit to be

regarded thus this is mine this

i am this is myself

no master gotama

what do you think sachika is perception

permanent or impermanent

impermanent master gotama is what is

impermanent suffering or happiness

suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject

to change fit to be regarded thus

this is mine this i am this

is myself

no master rotima

what do you think satrika are formations

permanent or impermanent

impermanent master gotama is what is

impermanent suffering or happiness

suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject to change fit to be regarded

thus

this is mine this i am this

is myself

no master gotama

what do you think sachika

is consciousness permanent or

impermanent impermanent master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering or

happiness

suffering master gotama

is what is impermanent suffering and

subject to change fit to be

regarded thus this is

mine this i am this is myself

no master go to now so you see

all of these aggregates that we call

ourselves this is me this is mine this

is my feeling this is who i

am is a false belief in a personal self

and any time you take this false belief

and you take this craving and you start

identifying with it that is the cause of

suffering

that's the second noble truth isn't it

isn't that amazing

and what's the third noble truth

the cessation of the suffering

how do you do that you do that by

practicing right effort

you do that by practicing the six hours

the more times you can use the six hours

during the day

with your daily activities when your

mind just starts to

hum and think about this and think about

that

and it's just it's just spewing out

nonsense

the more you can

recognize that release

let go of the hindrance

relax

re-smile should be smiling all the time

anyway right

and bringing that light pure mind

back to your object of meditation

the more you do that the more you purify

your mind the weaker the craving

will become over a period of time

how many lifetimes have we been caught

up

in taking everything personally and and

causing all kinds of havoc for ourselves

our relatives and everyone else around

us we cause a lot of havoc

because of taking things personally

now the reason that i really like this

suta because

it explains it so clearly

material form is that me or is it not

do i have any control over it

so the clearer you become

the more you deeply understand

what it is to have a clear

pure mind

now you're starting to change your old

habits

into new habits and the new habits

is the one that leads to letting go

of the suffering

you have to do that many many times

every time you use the six

r's you are experiencing nibbana

name means no

bana means fire

now every time you relax you're letting

go of craving

craving is described by the buddha

as heat

burning

so you have to be able to relax

and let go of that craving

many many many thousands of times many

hundreds of thousands of times

before you're going to experience the

supra mundane that's the going beyond

the craving

so what to do

is your choice you can make yourself

suffer

you can make yourself not suffer it's up

to you

you can continually

use the six hours with your daily

activity instead of you're letting your

mind just ho-hum around

you'll find that you become much more

efficient with what you're doing and

you'll find that you become

more clear in your mind

and things start to change personality

development starts to really happen

because you're not taking things so

personally

and you are developing a mind

that has more equanimity and balance in

it

so the things that used to cause your

mind to

be upset they aren't so important

anymore and it's easier just to let them

go

so

use the six r's smile

more please smile

a lot and you'll see

the change in your personality

when i was growing up

which is quite a few years ago

my mother always told me that if i had a

bad habit and i want didn't want that

habit to

dictate things in my life i had to

change my habits

and it takes about 30 days to start

changing your habit from

being highly emotional being angry

being fearful being sad whatever it

happened to be you want to change

that you use the 6rs

and you will start to see a development

in your own

personality and this is one of the ways

that you can recognize that you are

progressing another way of recognizing

that you're progressing

is that your sense of humor becomes

softer gentler

and you start laughing with things just

because they make you feel good

so this particular suta

is quite powerful and

is very wonderful

what do you think sachika when one

adheres to suffering

resorts to suffering holds to suffering

doesn't that sound like we do that

and regards what is suffering thus

this is mine this i am this is

myself could one ever fully

understand suffering oneself

or abide with suffering utterly

destroyed

how could you do that because you get

caught in it

how could one master go to ma no

master go to ma what do you

think sachika that being so

do you not adhere to suffering

resort to suffering hold the suffering

and regard what is suffering thus

this is mine this i am this is

myself he is getting back to the idea

that

these

things that we hold to be personal

that is the cause of suffering

and if you want to let go of suffering

you need to let go of

the craving

so now you start to see more and more

why i kind of

insist that you smile more

the more you can smile the lighter your

mind becomes

the better your mindful the quality of

your mindfulness becomes much better

and your mind becomes much more clear

and bring that clear mind back into your

daily activities

it is the though a man needing heartwood

seeking heartwood wandering in search of

heartwood

were to take a sharp axe and enter the

wood

and there he would see a large plankton

banana tree

and the trunk would be straight and

young and

no fruit bud core

then he would cut it down at the root

cut off the crown and unroll

the leaf piece but as he went on

unrolling the leaf sheaths

he would never come to any

even any sapwood

let alone heartwood

so too sachika when you pressed and

questioned and cross questioned me about

my own assertions

you turned out to be empty vacant and

mistaken

but it has but it was

you who made this statement before the

visali

assembly i see no

recluse or brahman the head of an order

the head of a group

the teacher of a group even one claiming

to be accomplished and fully awakened

who would not shake shiver and tremble

and sweat under the armpits

if he were to engage in debate with me

even if i were to engage a senseless

post and debate

it would shake shiver and tremble if it

were to engage in

debate with me so what shall i

say about a human being

now there are drops of sweat

on your forehead and they have soaked

through

your upper robe and fallen to the ground

but there's no sweat on my body now

the blessed one uncovered his cold

colored body

before the assembly

when this was said sachiko then he got

the sun was sat

silent dismayed

with shoulders drooping and head down

glum and without response

then dumukha the son of the lake of east

seeing saatchika the night the sun in

such a condition said to the blessed one

assembly

a simile occurs to me master gotuma

explains how it occurs to you

[Music]

suppose venerable sir not far from a

village or town

there was a pond with a crab in it

and then a party of boys or girls went

down

from the town or village to the pond

went into the water and pulled the crab

out of the water

and put it on dry land and wherever the

crab extended a leg

they would cut it off broke it and

smashed it

with sticks and stones so that the crab

with all its legs cut off broken and

smashed

would be unable to get back to the pond

as before

so too all sachiko the night the sun's

contortion

writhings and vacillations have been cut

off

broken and smashed by the blessed one

and now he cannot get near the blessed

one again for the purpose of

debate

when this was said sachika then he got

the son told him wait

do much wait we are not speaking with

you

here we are speaking with master gautama

then he said let that talk of ours

master gotama like that of an ordinary

recluse or brahman

it was mere prattle

but in what way is a disciple of the

river clues go to my

one who carries out his instructions

who responds to his advice who has

crossed

beyond doubt become free from

perplexity gained intrepidity

and become independent of others in the

teacher's

dispensation this is an interesting

statement become independent of others

i continually tell you that you

are your own teacher

you're teaching yourself how to let go

of the suffering

by using the six arms

but you have to have you have to

take the responsibility

to do it for yourself you can't

get it from listening to somebody else

you have to do it you have to be

responsible for yourself

and each one of the dramas that you

experience is a level of your

understanding

of how mind works

it becomes more and more clearer as you

go deeper and deeper you go to the

second john the third john a fourth

jonah

and then you start getting into the

arupa

jhanas

now the fourth jhana has four

parts to it and these are the different

states

of the arupa ghana

i know in the west we we prefer

not to say the individual john as we

preferred is to put a number to it well

this is the fifth genre this

is the sixth genre no that's not right

you say this is infinite space this is

infinite consciousness

this is joy this is equanimity

those are the four states in the fourth

genre

so it's a real important thing to

understand

that part

and i know what you're talking about

when you say

this the the number of the jhana

but i always try to get you to not do

that and say

what jhana you're talking about

so that you stop trying to shorten the

teachings

here's achika any kind of material

form whatever whether past

future or present internal or

external gross or subtle inferior

or superior far or near

a disciple of mind sees all material

form

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

now wisdom the definition of

wisdom is seeing the impersonal nature

of things

and seeing the way this process works

through the links of

dependent origination

of all of the impermanent suffering

and impersonal nature probably the most

important one to realize

and see for yourself and teach yourself

how to relax into things

is the anata

seeing the impersonal nature

when we see that we see impermanence and

suffering

very quickly very easily and see it

directly

so you teach yourself how to recognize

these things

more and more clearly and understand

them

as part of a process

and it's an impersonal process so i

like this suit very much because

all material form is seen

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus this is not mine

this i am not this is not myself

here's sachika any kind of

feeling

whatever whether past future or present

internal or external gross or subtle

inferior or superior far or near

a disciple of mind sees all feeling

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

any kind of perception

whatever whether past future or present

internal or external gross or subtle

inferior and are superior far or near

a disciple of mind sees all perception

as it actually is with proper wisdom

thus this is not mine this i am

not this is not myself

here's sachika any kind of formation

whatever whether past future or present

internal or external gross or subtle

inferior or superior far

or near a disciple of mind sees

all formations as they actually

are with proper wisdom thus

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

here's sachika any kind of material

or excuse me any time of consciousness

whatever

whether past future or present internal

or

external gross or subtle inferior or

superior

far or near a disciple of mind sees

all consciousness as it actually is with

proper

wisdom thus see when we see

everything with proper wisdom

you don't have any suffering arise

that doesn't mean in life there's not

going to be ups and downs but it's not

you're going to lose the attachments to

them

they just become something else that

needs to be done

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

i i've told this story before but

when i was when i first became a monk

um 35 years ago

a long time

i spent about six months

watching everything that was happening

in my mind

a thought would pop up and i the first

thing i would start to do

would be look at

is this me is this my thought is this

part of reality is this part of the

dream

what is this

now when i did that with every thought

that i could

of course i wasn't good at the start of

it but as i got

used to doing it i started looking at it

at

everything as part of an impersonal

process

and you if you do that you can go

quite deep

now i was just doing that

but later when i finally figured out

about craving

i recommend now that you

look at the impersonal nature and relax

the tightness and tension caused by that

thinking

your mind will settle down very well

you'll be able to sit for long periods

of time with a quiet mind

and you'll be able to see how these

thoughts and feelings are not personal

it is something stored in your mind from

past experience

from past breaking of precepts

from making mistakes and taking things

personally

after about six months i became very

very

clear about the impersonal

nature of everything

and then i went on to do other things

other kinds of practices because there

was

i was at the time i was in thailand

and they have a lot of different kinds

of meditation that they teach and i

wanted to find out about

everything that i could so i started

going to other teachers

but that was a real interesting

experience

to do with every time you have a thought

every time

a feeling a rose every time a sensation

did i ask this to come up do i want this

to come

up is this mine

or is it just part of a continuum

that's impersonal

i recommend the experience of doing that

but add the relaxed step after every

time

that you question

is this me is this mine is this myself

then relax and watch

see what happens after that

in this way a disciple of mine

is one who carries out my instruction

who responds to my advice

who has crossed beyond doubt

become free from perplexity

gained intrepidity and become

independent of others in the

teacher's dispensation

you are your own teacher

you learn by experiencing suffering and

how much it hurts

and then you start using the six r's

more and more

and see that suffering become less and

less

and because of that relaxed step

which is super important

there is personality the development

you become more balanced you become more

alive

colors seem to change a little bit

mind seems to settle down

and you can sit for periods of time

without having any distraction of mine

you can relax into it

and you can start seeing the beauty of

the world around you

because it is truly a remarkable thing

mastered rotamon in what way is a monk

an arahat

with taints destroyed who has lived the

holy life

done what had to be done laid down the

burden

reached the true goal destroyed the

fetters of being and is completely

liberated through final knowledge

well that's an interesting question

sachika any kind of material form

whatever

whether past future or present internal

or

external gross or subtle inferior or

superior far

near a monk has seen all

material form as it actually is with

proper wisdom thus

this is not mine this i am not

this is not myself

and through not craving and clinging

he is liberated

and then it goes through all of the

five aggregates i'm not going to do that

this time

because i've been talking for a real

long time

when amongst mine is thus liberated he

possesses

three unsurpassable qualities

unpresurpassable wisdom

unsurpassable practice

of the way

now that is the path that is the

eightfold path

itself an

unsurpassable deliverance

when a monk is thus liberated he still

honors reveres and venerates the tataka

to thus

the blessed one is awakened

he teaches the dhamma for the sake of

awakening

the blessed one is tamed

he teaches the dhamma for

taming oneself

the blessed one is at peace he teaches

the dhamma

for the sake of peace

the blessed one has crossed over

and he teaches the dhamma for crossing

over

the blessed one has attained nibana

and he teaches the dhamma for attaining

nibana i like that one a lot

when this was said sachika the niganta's

son

replied master gotama

we were bold and impudent in thinking

that

we could attack master gotaman debate

a man might attack a mad elephant and

find safety

yet he could not attack master rotolo

and find safety

a man might attack be a

blazing mass of fire and find safety

yet he could not attack master go to mon

find safety

a man might attack a terrible poisonous

snake and find

safety yet he could not attack master

gotama and find safety

we were bold and impudent and thinking

that we could attack

master rotamon debate

and after that he invites gautama

for a meal

so this particular super is something

that i

very much like

of course there's some things in it that

seem kind of weird getting your head

split up

opening this different

pieces you wonder whether that would

really happen or not

but that only hope that only happens

when the

the buddha is around so i don't think

i'll be able to see that one happen

anyway

it shows you how clear the buddha can

become

when he gets in debate with other people

of other sects

that have they have their different ways

of

looking at things and explaining things

and how they can get

confused the whole point

is the buddha didn't argue with them

and say no you're wrong

all he did was said listen closely and

i'll teach you the dharma

and he clears everything up as he does

that

so it's it's a real

interesting way of

living

an awful lot of people they get highly

emotional and they

really get

hurtful with the ways these things that

they can say in a way that they can do

things but that doesn't mean that you

have to take it personally

you can let them rant and brave and then

you can say well i'm gonna

i'm gonna show you this

works this way you can believe it or not

i don't care

and that's what he did when he started

talking about the aggregates that was

whether it was permanent or impermanent

suffering or happiness

and the more you can see

the impersonal nature of everything

it'll take your mind into very deep

understandings

that will help change the way you see

the world around you

so

sadhu for all of you

[Music]

and i want to ask you if you have any

questions

nobody has a question

[Music]

where is your request thank you bonsai

for your talk

um i have a question

um so i understand why the aggregates

are not me not mine not self

uh what about our actions when the

buddha talks about our actions being you

know we are

owners of our actions heirs of our

actions when he's talking about kama

so are actually something in a separate

category

when you see everything as impersonal

your actions turn wholesome

okay you understanding the way you

perceive the world around you

begins to change

and that helps you to have a more clear

mind that doesn't get

fogged and clouded in

too many thoughts coming in all the time

so this is all kind of interconnected i

mean this is

the formations body speech and mind

and the consciousness now this is nama

rupa

this is mentality and materiality

that's what is is in the five aggregates

it's just a different way of

explaining it

right so my actions are also

not me not mine not self

well when you choose correctly

when you choose without any craving in

your mind

you're going to do things in the proper

way

and that's going to lead to your

happiness and the happiness of people

around you

when you see those kind of actions that

are taking place where you help somebody

i'm a very tall person

and i used to go into the grocery stores

and i would see

some short lady trying to get something

off the top shelf

and i always thought it was kind of fun

so i'd go up and say is that the one you

want

and then take it down for

that made me happy that made her

especially happy

and that made our speech together

because i was willing to give i was

willing to put out that energy

and give to someone else that i didn't

even know

but it made them smile

this is generosity

this is something that needs to be

practiced

in all different ways

and practice your generosity and body

speech and mind

give people the doubt

don't automatically oh i don't want to

talk to you

you're got all kinds of problems

but when you practice

true meditation

which is first

practicing your generosity giving to

other people

having other people around you have an

uplifted mind

and then you keep the precepts without

breaking them

which is incredibly important

and you start thinking kindly about

other people

now you're practicing true meditation

the sitting meditation

is just a small part of the meditation

that's why i wrote the book life is

meditation meditation

is life too many people

think that meditation is just about

sitting

sitting quietly

and it's not that it's about

living it's about living

in the right way that causes you

happiness and other people around you

happiness

it causes you to smile and other people

around you to smile

now there's times that i'd be thinking

about something when i was at the store

and i was gonna

i knew where this thing was and i had to

go over there and get it

and i got got lost in my thoughts

and somebody walked by me

and i looked at their face and they had

a great big smile on their face

and in my mind i said thank you very

much and started smiling and having fun

going and getting what needs i needed to

do

that's part of meditation

it's not just about getting off the

wheel

it's about living life in an uplifted

way

that's why i tell you to smile all the

time the more

you can smile the better your

mindfulness

the better your mindfulness the easier

it

is to let go of the suffering

how a lot of people

have an idea

that you you

are satisfied with meditation when

it's

when it's a happy feeling

but there's two sides of the coin

there's the happy feeling and there's

the painful feeling

sometimes there are things in life that

are not

so pleasant

but what you do with what arises in the

present dictates what happens in the

future

if you fight what's happening in the

present

you have some kind of painful thing

happening

if you try to resist

and the more you resist

the more you think about the problem the

bigger the problem seems to become

and it's painful

well yeah there's going to be times when

it's painful

that's part of feeling too

but when you develop your equanimity

when you develop that balance of mind

then you're not resisting the painful

feeling you're allowing it to be

like somebody in your family dies that's

not going to be one of your happier

joyful

more more joyful kinds of experience

right

but what are you going to do with that

i run across many many people

that they really get into their grief

and their sadness and mope around

and they feel absolutely helpless and

hopeless

or what can i do now that they're gone

i wish i would have said this to them

when i was working at hospice i was

teaching

people before the person died

that they needed to be

sending loving and kind thoughts to all

the family members

everybody that's suffering

and sad and resisting

this kind of change

[Music]

i taught them how to

not feel hopeless not feel helpless

but radiate loving kindness to them

that helps them even though you might

not

notice it as you see it

they might not act any different

but they will start to get a sense of

relief anytime they're around you

especially when you're radiating

loving kindness to them

when my mother died

it was a few years ago

my family is very big

and she died at home

and on the day she died there was

different family members that were

hanging around basically just waiting

for her to die

and i was sending

feelings of equanimity to everybody

now when she had her last breath

nobody was crying

i was just radiating this balance of

mine

and after five or ten minutes one of the

family members said you know i don't

know whether to laugh

from relief that it's finally happened

or cry

and i said to them it doesn't matter

now she's left the body

she's not around anymore

so your your sadness if you want to

express that

that

emotion don't resist it

don't fight it don't try to stop it let

it come

let it be there by itself

and i because i'm a buddhist monk

with a very strong christian family they

think that i'm pretty much

crazy and weird

but every one of those different family

members came up to me

after a period of time and thanked me

for being there

now that's pretty pretty major for a

christian

person that has all of this belief

outside that the power is outside of

themself

to acknowledge that the feeling

of acceptance without fighting

affects other people around you

and i suggested to some of them that

some of the men my mother was 94

95 years old something like that

and they were very much attached to them

and they were very

sad but they were trying to stifle the

tears

if the tears come let them come

don't resist or push

soften your mind

allow that feeling to be there

of course there's going to be pain and

it's going to come up at different times

in their life for a period of time

so it's real important

to support the other

other people around you to radiate

loving kindness to them

and they'll become more accepting and

they'll have more balance in their mind

and that's how you practice your

generosity

and teach them because they get sad and

they

they say there's nothing oh there's

nothing that can be done

they're gone and they resist

this painful feeling

what you resist persist

so they're going to be sad and

real upset for quite a long

period of time

if they don't know how to let go of

the attachment

the fighting of that painful feeling and

trying to push it away

and not let the expression of that

sadness

come out by itself

and if they don't practice their

generosity

to other people around them

within two years they're going to have

some kind of major

physical problem that happens

and it's because they don't let go of

the grief

and they don't know how to let go of the

grief they indulge in it

this painful feeling comes up

and oh especially men

they like to push it away a stiff upper

lip

i know one one man that is his

[Music]

relative died and he had a stiff upper

lip and within two years he had cancer

of the lip

because he wouldn't allow that

expression of

softening and allowing that feeling to

be there without trying to change it or

make it different than it is

the six r's are not a stick

to beat away painful feeling

that's not what it's about it's about

allowing it to be there without

resistance

or keeping your attention on it

allow that feeling to that sadness

feeling to be there okay

fine now i can relax and i can come back

to an object of meditation what do i do

with the object of meditation

i start sending loving and kind thoughts

that's what it's all about

i don't know what just happened but uh a

lot of the pictures that were there

disappeared thank you

[Music]

okay okay

so did that help yes

thank you okay so there's a lot of

different kinds of action that you can

take

generosity is a big one

and that's the first part of what

meditation is all about

too many people are interested they're

over interested in

sitting and having a clear mind

then they get up and they have just as

many problems as they did when they

started

because they don't understand about

letting go

of craving and that's what the six

hours are for to let go of that

don't focus on anything but your object

to meditation

let the let the pain be there by itself

okay thank you okay

anybody else have a question

one day i have okay

i see you okay um i have a question it's

not directly related

uh related to today's sutra

but it's more about understanding um

consciousness okay there is some i know

there is

a pali word called chitta yeah which is

also translated as consciousness right

and then when we look at the dependent

origination

there is this vinyana which also we

translate as consciousness

right and others too different or are

they the same

it's a different way of saying the same

thing

okay so the chitta is also

that was one of my questions for one of

the first teachers that i ran across

and then every time i asked after that

all the teachers were saying that

vinyana and jayta are basically the same

thing it is a kind of consciousness

okay thank you okay

thank you for your talk today thank you

very much welcome

bandy i have a i have a question on this

suta

okay uh in sutra it says uh

far or near for

all the aggregates what is far or near

when it was when it was saying you're

gonna have to

yeah in sudden it was saying uh

like for example feelings far or near

okay i didn't catch that part far or

near

yeah is what is the meaning of far or

near

how can a feeling be far or near

do you have feelings about somebody

that's uh in another

another city

because then you like them

and when you think of them it causes

your mind to be

happy that's a feeling from

that's far or somebody in the same room

that's a feeling that's near

what he's basically trying to say with

that

is that it doesn't matter

when it a feeling arises it doesn't

matter

where that feeling comes from

it's

realizing that all feeling is part of an

impersonal

process

so he tries to give you as many

different

examples of far near

all of these kind of things he's just

giving you an example

that it doesn't matter where that

feeling is

or where it comes from

it's just part of the process

okay okay one day thank you

thank you for clarifying you only have

one question

today yeah only one question i'm

exhausting my questions

[Laughter]

okay good thank you thank you for this

talk i like this stuff

very welcome

any other questions hello bonte

hello how are you doing well how are you

quite well thank you thank you for this

talk yes

and my question is about something you

said today

that unset unsatisfactoriness

arises um right

because of the rising and passing away

of consciousness

or one of them it's just their

impermanence

it's unsatisfactory because

one of the things that everybody

in this world really wants is something

to be permanent

and so they make up ideas about god

god is the same now as before

and it always will be the same

but everything is in a state of change

there's nothing that's permanent

except the impermanence of everything

[Music]

so when the mind becomes quiet

does that mean that this rising and

passing away has stopped or it has

simply accessed a state of mind it's

still

there's still change that's happening

but you can sit for periods of time

[Music]

and the the thing with the meditation

when you start getting deeper and you

get into

neither perception or non-perception i

call that the quiet mind

you are observing

still how things are changing

they're changing in you with a quiet

mind

and it you're not going to be noticing

so much the chaotic

change that mind goes through with its

daily activities and that sort of thing

um

no i forgot what i was going to say

so the mind is just not noticing

the change happening or it's still

hiding what happens when you get into

these deeper states

mind loses a lot of its activities

in in the brain so to speak

and it becomes quieter and quieter

but there's still changes that are

happening

you still have your blood flowing your

heart beating you're still breathing

there are those changes that are still

there

but you don't keep your attention on

them

okay it's like there was an

example there was a movie called

[Music]

lucy

where a girl got involved in taking a

certain kind of drug and it made her

mind expand

and her understanding was growing more

and more and she had an example

of you see a car

going down the street and you see it in

normal

awareness but as the car

speeds up and speeds up and speeds up

and speeds up

then you don't even see the car although

it's still there

because it's going so fast

that's the way our consciousness is

okay now when you start becoming more

and more

relaxed and quiet

it's it's like all of these

things that pulled your attention to it

before

you don't even notice them anymore that

doesn't mean there's not still happening

but it's just different

okay

anytime you can

quiet mind enough so that you can see

with clarity the quiet mind

then you can see subtle little

tiny changes that start to occur

and you can relax into that

now there's still these things that are

that you're not necessarily going to

notice so much

but they're still happening when you get

to the state of nirvana where there is

the cessation

of perception feeling and consciousness

that's why it's so different

than all of the other

states of ghana that you that you can

experience

all of the states of

ghana

they are a part

of a process

and as you go deeper and deeper the

process gets more and more subtle

until finally it's so subtle

that it just stops there's no more

consciousness that arises there's no

more feeling there's no perception

and you don't know you're in that state

you don't know how long you're going to

be in that state

and then you can

when you come out of that state

you if your mindfulness is sharp you

will see

the links of dependent origination the

more times this

experience happens the clearer it is to

observe

all of the different things of dependent

origination

as they occur and it will become more

and more clear to you

all the time what you just described is

is that the final nibana that the buddha

experienced

it is nibana but there's different

levels of that experience

uh in the good qualities

of the sangha

it says there's eight kinds of

individuals

and that means the sodapana

sodapana with fruition that's two kinds

of individuals

then there's the sakuragami and then

arahat each one of those has two two

different levels

okay

and that's what we're striving for i'm

still looking for

our hots around we don't seem to be able

to find them so much

i look for 12 years and i couldn't find

one in in asia

maybe we'll have one here before long

who knows

that would be wonderful yeah

i told my students in uh

in asia any one of those

those students if they became an arahat

then i would take them as my teacher

but

one thing yeah okay yeah david was just

doing something with my screen

uh okay they say that ajahn bola

was an arahat i have real problems with

that because i

lived with him for a period of time and

he was

not a very nice individual

it was very very demanding

the first day i was there they gave me

the job of cleaning

the floor in his cabin

and anytime i took a step there was a

creek

and he would get angry

and i said i've never been in there oh

am i supposed to know where to step

and he chewed me out really good

i didn't stay with him very long i was

not impressed with the dhamma that he

was teaching

because he didn't talk about letting go

of craving or how to do that

he was very skilled

at going into one pointed kinds of

concentration

but i don't even think that he had

become had the experience of

sodapony

that's my opinion you can take it what

it's worth

i know a lot of people they talk about

hajjan mon

and and other hydrons and

that they read about

but i have serious doubts as to whether

they have experienced

are a hardship

that's just me i'm a skeptical person i

don't take things

i don't i don't

believe just because everybody else

believes

i have some real doubts that

i see now i've been around enough monks

too

and i've studied enough

that if i would have spent six months to

a year

with one of these teachers i could have

seen

whether they were and are hot or not

but my first impression was no

that's just my skeptical mind i don't

know

thank you for sharing that

anybody else

no no more question

then let's share some merit

may suffering ones be suffering free and

a fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus

acquired for the acquisition of all

kinds of happiness may beings inhabiting

space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddhist

dispensation

[Music]

you all have a good fun week and keep

smiling as much as you possibly can