Zoom Talk MN 4 Bhayabherava Sutta Fear and Dread with Bhante Vimalaramsi-3CZLFzkPaLA.en.vtt.txt

From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3CZLFzkPaLA

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

so i am here with bonte vimela ramsey

and he is

across from me ready to go on

and today is uh august 9th

2020 and he will be doing suit

number four from the majima nikaya

fear and dread

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living at zawate in

jethes grove venetha and bendica's part

now you can hear everything good

yeah okay

then the brahman sony

went to the blessed one and exchanged

greetings with him

when this courteous and amiable talk was

finished he sat down at one side and

said master gotama

when klansmen have gone forth from the

home life into homelessness out of faith

in the master gotama

do they have master gotama for their

eater

for their helper for their guide

and do these people follow the example

of master gotama

that is so brahman that is so when

klansmen have gone forth from the home

life into homelessness

out of faith in me

they have me for their leader for their

helper

and guide and these people

follow my example

but master gotama remote

jungle thicket resting places in the

forest are hard to endure

seclusion is hard to practice

and it is hard to enjoy solitude

one would think that the jungles must

rob a monk of his mind

if he has no concentration

that is so brahman that is so remo

remote jungle thicket resting places

in the forest are hard to endure

seclusion is hard to practice

and it is hard to enjoy solitude

one would think that the jungles must

rob a monk of his mind

if he has no concentration now they're

talking about one pointed concentration

not what we are practicing here

although as as we go along you'll

you'll see more and more why it is so

important to keep the 6rs

readily available for for you

while you're doing your practice and

while you're living

before my awakening

well i was still only an unawakened

bodhisattva

i too considered thus remote jungle

thicket resting places in the forest are

hard to

endure the jungles must

rob a monk of his mind if he has no

concentration

now what we're talking about here is

getting

involved in your thinking about

and not using the six r's

or the four noble truths

and that's a problem

i considered thus

whenever recluses or brahmins unpurified

in their bodily conduct

resort to a remote jungle thicket

resting place in the forest

then owing to the defect of their

unpurified bodily conduct

these good recluses and brahmans invoke

unwholesome fear and dread

but i do not resort to remote jungle

thicket resting places in the forest

unpurified in bodily conduct

i am purified in bodily conduct i resort

remote jungle thicket resting places

in the forest as one of the noble ones

with bodily conduct terrified

seeing in myself this purity of bodily

conduct

i found great solace and dwelling in the

forest

now it's real easy to let your

imagination get carried away

when you're by yourself in the forest

and it's uh

it can cause a lot of fear and anxiety

now this is because you're not

following the precepts as closely as you

can

this whole suta is about the precepts

and it's very amazing to me

how many people think that

meditation is just about sitting

and not about living a good

uplifted mind

and being careful with your uh

bodily actions as well as your mental

actions

i considered thus whenever

recluses or brahmins unpurified in their

verbal conduct or unpurified in their

mental conduct

unpurified in livelihood

resort to a jungle thicket resting place

in the forest

they all evoke

unwholesome fear and dread

many times when i've given a discourse

on the suttas i try to get you to

understand

this is an all the time practice

if you break your precepts

it causes your mind to feel guilty

when mind feels guilty

then you are developing

the wrong idea in a

personal self you're not seeing things

with a purified mind

you're seeing things with a guilty mind

and that causes you to identify

with all of your thoughts and all of

your feelings

and this is a

a big hindrance

for your progress in meditation

now one of the things that's real

important for you to understand

the the six r's our

right effort

the six r's are the way

leading to the cessation of suffering

the fourth noble truth

and the more closely you follow that

the more you have a quiet mind

a mind that doesn't get so involved in

uh distractions

and fear and anxiety and

high emotions and things like that

causes a lot of problems

i resort to remote jungle thicket

resting places in the forest as one of

the noble ones with

livelihood

pure

speech and pure thoughts along with pure

bodily action

seeing in myself this purity

i found great solace and dwelling in the

forest

i don't know if you've lived in the

forest i do live in the forest here

but there's all kinds of different

sounds that can come up

and it can cause

fear and anxiety to arise

what was that sound and

you can really get caught up so much

caught up that you want to run away you

want to get out of the forest

uh i'm i'm reading what it says here and

it says something about suta 17 and this

is suita number four

anyway

the more you keep your precepts without

breaking them

the easier your mind settles down

now we've all broken precepts

that's one of the reasons why we're here

is because we have broken precepts in

the past

and that causes craving

to arise what's the cause of craving

breaking one of the precepts and

taking things personally

taking things with a mind that says this

is me

this is mine this is who i am i like

this i don't like that

and you don't have such

a good mind for

tranquility

and equanimity

the stronger your equanimity becomes

through using the six r's

and going

through the jhanas the genres

are levels of understanding

it's a misunderstood word by an awful

lot of people

and the buddha spent

his time teaching this

he didn't teach straight vipassana

only he taught

jhana with vipassana

they are uh

yoked together it says in suit to number

149

in the majamon nikaya

so the idea of breaking up

vipassana and jhana practice

comes from commentaries and

it's not uh

it's not helpful

in your practice

you tend to have one pointed

concentration when you're doing

vipassana

even though they say it's not that kind

of concentration

it is why do i say that

because it doesn't

have

the relax step that is

very much needed why

because

when there's slight tension or tightness

in your mind you have the

i like it i don't like it mind

and this is the very beginning

of taking things personally

this happens because you are

feeling guilty about something you said

or something you did

in the past that's why hindrances arise

and hindrances unlike

an awful lot of people that are

practicing

meditation they think that entrances

are to be suppressed push

down not get involved with

make go away now i have a friend that's

been teaching meditation

straight vipassana for 50 years

and he still has trouble with hindrances

that means that there's some kind of

misunderstanding

in that kind of practice

if you don't recognize that

craving is the i like it i don't like it

mine when a feeling arises

and relax and let go

of that feeling

then you

are not practicing what the buddha is

talking about

the buddha talked a lot about the four

noble truths

in the discourses but an awful lot of

people don't recognize it as

the four noble truths because it talks

in a different way

link of dependent origination

has the four noble truths in it every

link

which is another way of saying you need

to use

the six r's whenever there's

any kind of disturbance in your mind at

all

any kind

the second r of

uh the six r's

is to release whatever is pulling your

attention away from your object to

meditation

it doesn't matter what your distraction

is if it's a physical feeling or a

mental feeling

fear and dread are always

mental and then it turns into physical

but first it is a mental feeling

now i spend a lot of time in asia

with people that are very much into

their

fears and anxieties of hungry ghosts

and curses and all of these kind of

things that cause fear to arise

and what i've learned

is that

when you use the six r's

and you get to the smile

re-smile

if you laugh with yourself for being

afraid

the fear disappears very quickly

i've been criticized because i say we

have six r's and i call that

right effort

but it is right effort

it's just that some things are

intertwined let's put it that way

now when you have a sensation arise in

your body

or you have

a disturbance of mind

if you keep your attention on that and

you indulge in it

and you get involved in thinking about

you are feeding that hindrance

and it's going to get bigger and it's

going to stay longer

what release means is that

you allow it to be there by itself

you don't keep your attention on the

disturbance

this is really important

don't keep your attention on the

disturbance

let the disturbance be there by itself

if you start to get caught in thinking

about it

all of a sudden your mind is a thousand

miles away and you're thinking about

this and that

and you don't even know that you're

meditating anymore

actually you're not meditating anymore

because you're getting caught up in this

so it's a real

interesting thing that

an awful lot of people get caught up in

now there's some meditation teachers and

they'll tell you

well now you need to note this until it

goes away by itself

and then you immediately come back to

your object of meditation

if you note it until it goes away by

itself you're

feeding it and it's going to continue on

and your progress

and meditation is very very

slow when that happens

now a lot of people that i've taught

over the years i've tried to get them to

really understand that you don't it

doesn't matter

what thought comes up

now when i first became a monk i did a

practice

where every time a thought or

feeling or sensation arose

i looked at that very closely and i

thought

is that mine did i ask that thought to

come up

why do these thoughts come up whose

thoughts are they

where do they go when they disappear

i did this for about six months with as

many times as i could remember

to investigate that way

and

it got to be very interesting and my

mind slowed down a lot

because i stopped taking the thoughts

that just kind of popped up in my head

it can be a memory

it can be anything when it popped up

into my head did i ask i asked myself

the question

did i ask this thought to come up is

this me

is this mine where did it come from

and i discovered a lot of these thoughts

and feelings that came up were from

memory of breaking precepts in the past

as i started seeing the impersonal

nature of letting go

of craving and started seeing more and

more clearly

what craving is

i began to understand a lot more

about what the buddha was talking about

so this

practice of using the six r's

teaches you some magnificent

lessons the first

is anything that pops up into your mind

isn't you you didn't ask it to come up

or a feeling you don't ask feelings to

come up

they pop up because conditions are right

for them to arise

so what you need to do

is stop getting involved with the

feelings

stop trying to control the feelings stop

trying to control

the thoughts stop taking emotional

upsets as this is me this is mine i

don't

like it i want it to stop

and the more you get involved in

trying to control

your emotional upsets

the bigger and more intense that emotion

becomes

and the more confused your mind becomes

and the more anger comes up and the more

hatred comes up

and the dissatisfaction and the fear

and the anxiety all of these things

arise

because you're taking it personally

because you broke a precept in the past

and when you break a precept you have a

guilty mind

and with that guilty mind comes the

i am that that's the very

beginning of craving that's what craving

so recognizing uh

the tightness

that happens in your head in your mind

is a very important aspect and the only

time you get to recognize

it is when you stop

getting involved with your thoughts

and your emotions and your likes and

your dislikes and your opinions and your

ideas

let go of that

relax smile

come back to your object of meditation

now with your daily activities your

object of meditation

can be smiling lightening your mind

the more you smile the better your

mindfulness becomes

now one of the things that happens with

a lot of people

when they start going deeper in their

meditation and start getting into

neither perception or non-perception

my advice to them quite often

you need to sharpen your mindfulness

you need to have a lighter mind an

observant mind a mind that's

clear that recognizes

the slightest little movements

this is important if you want to attain

nibana

quite often people will get

into they break into a habit

they're used to doing the meditation

this way or that way

and they see some kind of little

disturbance

and they just they don't relax and let

it go

they just say well it'll be there for a

little while who pays attention to that

that's nothing

well they need to sharpen their

mindfulness

now the thing is when you start going

deeper in your meditation you start

noticing more and more

how the consciousnesses arise

we don't care what that consciousness is

whether it's

seeing or hearing or tasting or touching

whatever or thinking

we don't care what the content is

we want to see how this process

actually works

you don't get a chance to see how this

process works

when you are

noting until it goes away

that means you're still involved with it

and you're taking it personally

you're not relaxing that tension and

tightness

in your head in your mind now i say

in your head and in your mind because

this is part of the namarupa this is

part of the mind-body connection

when you let go of tension

in your mind you actually let go of

tension in your body at the same time

so it's real important for you to

recognize

and sharpen your mindfulness so you can

see

when mine first starts to get distracted

and when it gets distracted that's when

you want to use the six

arms i've had a lot of people tell

me well i don't need to use the 6rs

anymore

well yeah you do but when you get to

certain places in the meditation when

you get very

deep that's when i'll tell somebody

well just relax

just let go of that slight tension

caused by that disturbance

every disturbance that arises everything

that pulls your attention away

is a hindrance

and it means that your mindfulness is

not as sharp

as it could be

and it needs to get sharper

now i get criticized a lot because i

tell people that they have to smile

but what people don't really recognize

is that

the more you smile the lighter your mind

becomes

the lighter your mind becomes

the sharper your awareness of

what is happening in the present occurs

and this is really important

i have a lot of people that when they

first start out in meditation

they tell me they can't smile

well that's because they don't want to

smile

they think they're supposed to be

serious with the meditation

but when i give instructions at the

start of a retreat i tell

everyone there's three things that i

really want you to

understand

you have to smile

you have to laugh

occasionally with yourself because you

get caught

what does laughing do

i've been in situations where there's

anger that comes up

everybody has

if you look at it closely

at what anger is it's dissatisfaction

with whatever is happening

in the present and okay that happens

all of us

but you're taking it personally

and you're building up that

feeling and you're causing yourself

a lot of pain

an interesting thing with buddhism

is that it will help you to

change if

you want to change

everything about buddhism is about

looking at yourself

very closely and what are you taking

personally and how are you

causing yourself pain

you can't blame anybody else for

your pain your pain

is yours and you're causing it to

yourself

that's what you have to learn that's how

you change

as you become more and more aware

of smiling

and laughing and actually

having fun with your meditation

when you do this your progress is really

fast

now i'm in the habit now of just giving

a 10-day retreat to

people and having them be

very successful with their meditation

why because of those first three

things that i talk about at the start of

the retreat

smile laugh have fun

too many people are serious with their

meditation

and that's a problem

because you try too hard when you get

serious

and you try to force your mind to be the

way you want it to be

it doesn't work i promise

it doesn't work

my biggest problem with teaching people

especially if they've done

other kinds of meditation my biggest

problem

is to get them to stop trying so hard

and stop being so serious

mind is heavy when it's serious and

anytime you

have repeat thoughts in your mind

guess who has an attachment and guess

who's got

by their hindrances

and they're taking it personally and

they're causing themselves immeasurable

amounts of pain

so the thing that's most remarkable

about buddhist practice is the

responsibility

you have to take for yourself

you can't blame anybody else for your

pain

for your suffering for your

dissatisfaction

it's not anybody else's fault it's

yours and you're doing it to yourself

now every time you use the six r's

you are learning and you're teaching

yourself a magnificent lesson

and that is right after

you use the six r's your mind is clear

your mind is bright it has no

distractions in

it and

your mind is pure because there is no

craving so using the 6rs

is incredibly important

and the more you smile

the better your mindfulness becomes

and mindfulness is remembering to

observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another

how how do you observe this happening

what happens first well your mindfulness

gets weak

for whatever reason then

you start to have little tiny thoughts

and they grow

and they get bigger until it turns into

a full-blown distraction

as you go deeper in your meditation

and you start learning more and more

clearly

about how this process

works and how it's not my process

it is just happening because conditions

are right for it to occur

and as you learn this and

use the six ours there

is personality development

and you become more and more

balanced with your thinking the things

that used to

people used to say to you and got you

angry

it's not so important anymore

your mind becomes more clear

brighter clearer

alert and fun

oh but you're supposed to be serious

with meditation

i've done a lot of meditation a lot

with a lot of different people

and for the first 20 years of my

practice whenever i walked into where

people were doing the meditation

nobody was smiling

and i always had a headache

i'd walk in and all of a sudden this

tension and tightness is really

caught up here and it stayed there for

the whole retreat

what is that tension and tightness well

that's craving

now i spent 12 years in asia

going to different teachers asking them

about craving

because it's talked about so much in the

suttas

but almost no one knows

what it actually is or how to recognize

or how to let it go

in a real way

that's what the eightfold path is all

about

every time you use the six r's

you are following the eightfold path

at that time

and you develop more and more equanimity

until it gets to disenchantment

or your mind just doesn't get excited

about stuff at all

you see things the way they are and

that's fine

but you don't get distracted by it

that's what equanimity is all about

just letting go of the emotional

excitement

of daily life

now some people would call that well

that must be boring to have a life like

that

no actually it's just the opposite

because your mind

is lighter you see things more

clearly and you can help yourself

and other people overcome

the emotional

quagmire that we get into

so when the buddha is talking about

going into the forest

if you go into the forest with a mind

that is

clear bright and you have followed the

precepts

very well

you're not going to have a lot of fear

and anxiety arise

i considered thus whenever a recluse or

brahman

who are covetous and full of lust

they have problems they have fear and

anxiety coming up

and they get afraid now when i first

went to thailand the start of my being

being a monk

started listening to them talk about

their

yeah i listened to them

talk about their uh ghost stories

things like that

and i went into the forest

now i was about a quarter of a mile or

half a mile away from anybody else i was

quite secluded

and i got up about two o'clock in the

morning and decided that i was going to

do some walking meditation outside

when you do your walking meditation

outside you take two candles

and you put one at the one side of the

walk

and the other at the other end of the

walk and that way you can walk in a

straight line without

any problem and as i

was walking i noticed some extra lights

out of the corner of my eye

and i had fear arise

i didn't quite know what to do with that

so i kept walking and all of a sudden my

imagination started taking off

and i started thinking about well there

might be some of the spirits around that

really aren't very nice and they're

going to eat me alive

and then i saw the lights again out of

the corner of my eye

now because of the sutra that i'm

reading to you right now

later on it recommends that when you are

when you have fear arise

don't change your posture if you're

standing

continue standing if you're walking

continue walking if you're sitting

continue sitting if you're lying down

continue

lying down until

that fear disappears now it so happened

that i was standing at that time and i

saw this white light out of the corner

of my eye

and i decided well you know

maybe it's time for me to go back in the

cabin and get under the covers and go

back to sleep

and then i remembered what this suit has

said and i continued standing

and i turned my head and i looked

just as some lights came on again and i

found

out that it was fireflies

it's little tiny bugs that light up at

night

and i was so afraid until i found out

what it was

and then i just laughed now i i started

talking about

the advantage of laughing when you laugh

with yourself you go

from i am that

i am that anger the

fear that anxiety whatever it happens to

depression

and then you laugh it changes

your perspective and you go

from i am that

to it's only

that it's only this

dislike it's only this fear it's only

this anxiety

it's only this depression

whose depression is it

well it's mine it's not yours when you

laugh

then you find out what it actually is

and when you see what it actually is the

fear

and anxiety subside on their own

now this is a big problem in asia

because people are very afraid

why are they afraid because they break

precepts

they don't see what they're doing they

don't think that a little white lie

is any big deal and it is

anytime you try to deceive the world

with your speech that is breaking

the precept

so even little tiny lies

are still lies and it

is a problem

and you're causing the problem to

yourself

so please take it seriously

this is real and you will see

that when you keep the precepts

you are letting go

of troubles in your life

keeping the precepts is a kind of

protection

for you and it also

makes life much easier

what kind of reputation do you have

now i've taught a lot of businessmen and

they tell me well i have to lie

and i say why why do you have to lie

well i need to make the sales and i said

what kind of reputation do you have

when you when they know that what you're

saying isn't true

i never thought of it that way

so this is a real interesting example

of how to let go

of the precepts

and let go of breaking the hindrances

and truly understanding how

you are causing yourself upset

and problems because you break the

precepts

and then you try to forget about it but

it always comes back

i have friends that were very much into

their

cursing and then they would come and do

pre retreat with me

and the first seven days of a 10-day

retreat

they had a lot of problems with

hindrances

always coming up oh i have to keep sick

saring i have to keep letting go this is

a problem

but when they finally got the idea that

the precepts are real and not breaking

them

is important even telling a joke

that is off color

then they started progressing in their

meditation very fast

but sometimes it takes a while for

people to understand that this kind of

thing

although quote it can be funny

it's offensive people that

curse a lot and that's what's happening

a lot

and you see it on tv you listen to it on

the radio

i was very shocked when i came back from

asia at how

how much cursing and foul language they

were using in public

and then people wonder why there's so

many problems in the world today

how many people are breaking their

precepts all the time

oh but that's morality and and we don't

have to pay attention to that

we only have to practice our morality

when we're practicing

sitting meditation doing a retreat

well i'm here to tell you that you need

it more

off all the time

you have to stop letting go of breaking

the precepts

and you will find after a period of time

that everything starts to become

easier and your prosperity

starts to come up by itself

it's amazing to watch

and you start thinking about something

possibly you need to do or need to

well i need to get this so that my

computer works and my phone works better

all of a sudden it pops up by itself

somebody comes along and says here

use this

and that makes life more fun

if you're overcome by sloth and torpor

if you're

overcome by restlessness and

unpeacefulness

in mind if you're overcome by being

uncertain and doubting

if you're given to self-praise and

disparagement

of others

if there is alarm and terror

are you free from this kind of

trepidation

or are you

overly concerned

with the pandemic

oh i'm so afraid i have to wear a mask

all the time

i don't okay

if your desire is of gain and

honor and renown

there are some things that

when monks start learning about their

practice

one of the first things that happens

it's it's like the first

test is that you start to get famous

and you you start to

really think that you're something

special

that's a that's a hindrance in itself

being humble being appreciative

of other people that's the kind of mind

you want to be developing

if you're lazy and you're wanting

an energy

oh i don't feel like sitting today

you need to develop that mind

that gets enthusiastic now i'm gonna get

a chance to sit

and get quiet for a little while

i have a student that

he did three or four retreats with me

and he kept on asking me at the end of

the retreats how long should i sit

so i said well sit seven or eight hours

a day that'll be enough

and he started doing that

and his meditation is so good

and he's so much fun to be around

because he keeps his precepts he does

a lot of meditation he has he's

incredibly

knowledgeable and bright although he

doesn't do a lot of reading

he follows his intuition a lot

and he has

fun sitting with a quiet mind how much

relief is that

could you get me a glass of water

sorry

okay if you have an unconcentrated mind

with then your mind

is straying a lot

that happens with a lot of people that

come for the first time they do

retreat oh my mind is so active

yeah well why

because you've let your mind get sloppy

you let your mind break precepts

thinking that it's cute or it's funny or

this is this is real important

it's not it's more important to keep

your presets

than it is to try to make a joke and

make somebody laugh

whenever recluses and brahmins devoid of

wisdom

their drivelers resort to

remote jungle thicket resting places in

the forest

then owing to the defect of their being

devoid of wisdom and drivelers

these good recluses and brahmans evoke

unwholesome fear and dread

and i do not do that

thank you excuse me

seeing in myself this possession of

wisdom i

found great solace and dwelling in the

forest

i personally like being in the forest

and i like being alone

i consider this

there are the especially auspicious

nights of the 14th

the 15th and 8th of

the fortnight now what if

on such a night as these i were to dwell

in such awe-inspiring horrifying abodes

as orchard shrines

woodland shrines and tree shrines

of which there's a lot in asia

perhaps i might encounter that fear and

dread and later on

such as especially auspicious nights as

the 14th

the 15th and the 8th of the fortnight

i dwell in such awe-inspiring horrifying

abodes as

forest shrines woodland shrines and tree

shrines

and while i dwelt there a wild animal

animal would come up to me or a peacock

would knock off a branch or the wind

would rustle

the leaves and i thought what if this

is the fear and dread coming

i thought why do i dwell always

expecting

fear and dread

what if i subdue that fear and dread

while keeping the same

posture that i'm in when it comes up

upon me

so this is where it's talking about

don't change your posture once you have

the fear and dread coming

while i walk the fear and dread came

upon me

i neither stood nor sat nor lied down

till it had subdued that i had subdued

that fear and dread

while i stood the fear and dread came

upon me i neither

walked nor sat nor lied down till it had

said

i had subdued that fear and dread

now remember fear and dread is easy to

let go of if you

don't take it personally

it's a it's a feeling that is not nice

it's a painful feeling

but as soon as it comes up we have a

tendency

to run away from it try to get away so

you don't have that fear and dread

that's how strong

it is but actually

the way to let it go is by

laughing with yourself for being afraid

and then you'll see what that fear and

dread is and quite often it's

uh occasionally we have birds that like

to fly into the windows and knock

themselves silly

but if that happens at night

oh that that what was that sound there's

there's a ghost out there

there's something that's going to eat me

alive

and you want to run away

but if you laugh with yourself

for being afraid you're not afraid

anymore

that's the way you overcome it

there are brahmana some recluses and

brahmanas

who perceive day when it's night and

night when it's day

i say that that part that their part

this is abiding in delusion

i perceive night when it's night and day

when it's day rightly speaking

were it to be said of anyone a being not

subject to delusion has appeared in the

world

for the welfare and happiness of many

out of compassion for the world

for the good welfare and happiness of

and humans it is a man deed that rightly

speaking this should be said

tireless energy was aroused in me and

unremitting mindfulness

was established

now the word mindfulness is really

misunderstood

and i've had a lot of the teachers that

ask about the word mindfulness tell me

it means to be mindful

well okay but you can't use the word

you're defining as the definition so

that's why i tell you it's remembering

to observe how mind's attention

moves seeing the slightest

movement of mind's attention

and recognizing as soon as it starts and

you relax and let it go

and don't keep your attention on it

that will disappear very quickly

my body was tranquil and untroubled my

mind was collected

and unified that's the advantage

of keeping the precepts

quite secluded from sensual pleasure

secluded from unwholesome states

i entered upon and abided in the first

jhana

which is accompanied by thinking and

examining thought with joy

and pleasure born of her happiness

born of seclusion

now again jhana does not mean one

pointedness

it does not mean keeping your mind only

on your object of meditation

at first

you have to bring up a feeling of loving

kindness

feel that feeling

put that feeling in your heart put your

friend right in the middle of the

feeling so there's more

activity than just focusing on one

part of the meditation

and that's what true mindfulness is

observing how this process works

with distilling of thinking and

examining thought i entered upon and

abided in the second

geno which has neither self has

which has self-confidence and stillness

of mine

without thinking and examining thought

with joy and happiness born of

collectedness

every ghana is a different

step of your learning

you're teaching yourself when you go

from the first genre to the second

genre you start noticing the difference

you're able to stay with your object of

meditation longer

you start having more joy arise you

start feeling more at ease and you feel

like you are progressing

that's why you get self-confidence

yeah that's the way to say it

it says in the sutta that's the way it

says it's supposed to be

this is not some

commentarial idea

of what insight knowledges

are and things like that

this is about the actual practice

and how you're teaching yourself

to recognize when your mind is

distracted

to use the six r's not to keep your

attention

on the distraction let it be there by

itself

don't keep your attention on it relax

the tightness

caused by that distraction

then smile

bring that smiling back to your object

to meditation

stay with your object the meditation

every level of understanding every

ghana is a different kind of meditation

because the results are different

at each level

so people say well that's for jonas

yeah okay i'm talking long i i just got

found out

well

uh there's a lot more to the suta

and it has the the

three super knowledges that it talks

about

after you get to the fourth jhana then

you start working with remembering past

lifetimes then you

develop your divine eye and divine here

and you can go to all different row uh

realms of meditation

and then you can attain nibana from that

but this goes through the whole thing

i'm not gonna do that now i've been

talking for too long

i understand so

do you have any questions you can unmute

and

ask now

nobody has any questions

boy i must be a great teacher if i don't

have any questions

i answered everything and you understood

it without any doubt

at all thank you bente for your

talk i have a question if i may ask

then let's share some merit

we got a question okay good for us

yes thank you again i have a

quick question uh is it possible

is it possible to go into janna from

listening

to asking and what question do you have

this omero from los angeles

hello yes hi this is omero from los

angeles

ah okay i can hear you now please ask

my question is is it possible for

someone to go

into the first china just from listening

uh the sutas yes

yes you have to do it with a very

attentive mind that doesn't think about

other stuff

while you're listening

okay the buddha called that giving

ear

you give here by just a paying attention

you can get into dramas while you're

listening

and you can actually attain becoming a

sodapanha

while you're listening but you have to

truly understand

what you're listening to with a very

attentive mind

okay thank you okay

uh i wanted to ask you what's the

difference between

fear and dread and the fear and shame

of wrongdoing how would you explain

our fear and dread kind of arises on its

own because

conditions are right knowing that you

are going to break a preset

that's the fear and and wrongdoing

that you experience you can experience

so you have to be careful with

what you're going to say before you say

and what you're going to do before you

do it

but fear and anxiety can be from an

outside source

it can be an animal running at you

or it can be any kind of thing like that

do you understand the difference

yes i just wanted to tell you that uh

fly a fright is a reaction of the

central nervous system

right uh to protect ourselves

and uh and here the buddha is talking

about fear and dread

which is arising from uh out of uh we

breaking the precepts

and uh we have what i was talking about

yeah and fear of wrongdoing is something

that

occurs before breaking the precept right

yes

the thing with the more you keep the

precepts without breaking them

the more you understand what you're

going to do

before you do it

and you make a choice whether you're

going to break a precept or not

but if you're in a car

and somebody looks like they're going to

hit you you're gonna have fear arise

that's different

okay

thank you okay

hello this is india

yes uh i wanted to ask you about the

experience of a stream enterer

okay yeah so once you get that

experience

uh like i'm just i want to refer to the

suta

number 106 from majama nikaya

and that ananda asked buddha that

how a disciple uh cannot

be cling to the experiences of bajanas

like attendance so buddha says that

a disciple with clinging cannot attain

ibana

so but but the experience of

a stream entry is it's something like

mind tends to cling to it

because of the relief and everything

else how to not to cling to it

and still who clings to it

okay see that's the thing

when you become a sodapana you start

recognizing more and more

clearly the impersonal

nature of things so you're not going to

cling to it

as much and if you're around a teacher

like me

i'm not going to let you cling to it

yeah yeah okay

thank you thank you so much okay yeah

around three questions uh the first

question is um

it's related to meditation like once i

finish my meditation you recommend

to walk right

i didn't quite understand what you just

said say it again please

after meditation uh you recommend uh

to have some walk

through meditation well that's that's

just part of the meditation

yes uh

for example if i am sitting with economy

or a quiet mind while i was walking

he recommend me to work with quiet mind

yes i prefer that you do

whatever drama you happen to be

experienced

doesn't have to be just while you're

sitting

it can be with your daily activities

walking here to

here to there can you have joy arise in

your mind while you're walking

you see what i'm saying yeah i got the

point

okay

yeah and i have the next question

uh like i noti i'm noticing that

when i'm sitting in the meditation i am

when the disturbance occurs

i am recognizing it at the stage of

formations stop

over analyzing as soon as you see

a disturbance 6r right then

don't try to overanalyze and

are you an engineer yes

i thought so

you're taught to overthink as an

engineer

so you want to back off a little bit

from that

don't try to figure out what it is what

what part of you're noticing

is just as soon as you notice

let it be there by itself relax smile

and come back

okay okay actually i was

um you are right i can say like whenever

some distraction is happening i was

linking it to

uh which um which which link it is

actually it was

like in the dependent origination well

you know i don't call

the hindrances i don't say that this is

lust or this is hatred or this is sloth

and torpor i just say it's a hindrance

it's a disturbance let it be

a disturbance you don't have to analyze

which kind of disturbance it is

okay that's where you get into problems

and you you

pose your attention away okay

okay okay day uh third question is

it's not related to meditation some

people say that

uh like when whenever

when i was doing meditation previously

with other technique

people say that this place is good for

meditation that place is good for

meditation but i don't think so

what is your stand on that like well

wherever it's most comfortable for you

you don't have to go by what somebody

else says it's

this is a personal thing it's up to you

where you're most comfortable

sometimes i'll walk into a room and i'm

not comfortable at all so i'm not going

to sit in that room

other times i walk into a room and it

feels really peaceful and really calm

then i'll sit in meditation there

it depends on the situation entirely

okay

actually today's talk i feel like

it answered most of my questions

good so i'm thankful for your

session today

i have no more questions now okay

thank you thank you very much okay

anybody else with a question

yes panty yes

thank you i've been a meditator

for over 30 years and i

only heard of you in june

and i took your online course

oh good and i want to tell you

i had such

great change long-awaited change and i

want to thank you

very much oh you're very welcome and i'm

happy that you found

us i hope to be seeing you in september

oh good don't be afraid of the virus

we don't have that problem here

thank you okay

i look forward to meeting you i look

forward to meeting you thank you

anything else

oh monty

so have a quick question okay what are

you what is your advice on balancing a

play life in meditation what is my

advice for what

saying and again uh balancing the way

life

and meditating because i find that like

the more i practice

the six orders the more i meditate

uh it feels so good but i want to keep

doing it more and more

good continue

yeah as long as you have time to do it

do as much as you can okay

cool

thank you where are you from

uh i'm from california uh can you come

and visit me sometime

oh make sure to or and and

some i have been going to california in

northern california

um what's the name of it

saint francis yes

saint francis and san juan batista i've

been giving retreats there once a year

oh okay so you can come there if you

if you have the time and energy awesome

okay thank you okay

anyone else

hey bunty hello uh i have

one question today okay and it's about

the the characteristic of the

the first jhana which is a i think

thinking thought and evaluation

or something right in those lines um

could you

describe a little bit more what that is

and is that is that something that we

can

actively cultivate or is it just

something just notice that arises

you actively cultivate it

and that is by

verbalizing a wish for your friends

happiness

feeling the happiness and

wishing that happiness to your friend

that's what the thinking and examining

thought is all about

when you get to the second genre i'll

tell you don't

verbalize anymore

that's how that's different than the

first genre

okay if you continue verbalizing when

you get into the second drama you're

going to give yourself a headache

because you're trying too hard you need

to back off a little bit

um so okay so verbal verbalizing the

wish is there any

um is there anything other to verbalize

like for example sometimes

i find it helpful to sort of verbalize

oh my mind is distracted or no i don't

need to do that you gotta you need to

get into the

habit of using the six r's

without saying the six r's okay

so the verbalizing is just the wish for

for your friend's happiness

right okay all right

okay thank you thank you manthey all

right it is my pleasure

anything else

one thing uh if there are no questions i

want to say one thing

okay

we want to say happy birthday to you

thank you

i'm not sure i want any more birthdays

i'm getting too old now

it reminds me that i'm getting older

anyway

why don't we share some merit now

may suffering ones be suffering free

and the 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

hey beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours may they long

protect the buddha's dispensation

okay please come back next week will we

give you another discourse okay

thank you

happy birthday happy birthday

williams is happy birthday happy

birthday

so i am here with bonte vimela ramsey

and he is

across from me ready to go on

and today is uh august 9th

2020 and he will be doing suit

number four from the majima nikaya

fear and dread

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living at zawate in

jethes grove venetha and bendica's part

now you can hear everything good

yeah okay

then the brahman sony

went to the blessed one and exchanged

greetings with him

when this courteous and amiable talk was

finished he sat down at one side and

said master gotama

when klansmen have gone forth from the

home life into homelessness out of faith

in the master gotama

do they have master gotama for their

eater

for their helper for their guide

and do these people follow the example

of master gotama

that is so brahman that is so when

klansmen have gone forth from the home

life into homelessness

out of faith in me

they have me for their leader for their

helper

and guide and these people

follow my example

but master gotama remote

jungle thicket resting places in the

forest are hard to endure

seclusion is hard to practice

and it is hard to enjoy solitude

one would think that the jungles must

rob a monk of his mind

if he has no concentration

that is so brahman that is so remo

remote jungle thicket resting places

in the forest are hard to endure

seclusion is hard to practice

and it is hard to enjoy solitude

one would think that the jungles must

rob a monk of his mind

if he has no concentration now they're

talking about one pointed concentration

not what we are practicing here

although as as we go along you'll

you'll see more and more why it is so

important to keep the 6rs

readily available for for you

while you're doing your practice and

while you're living

before my awakening

well i was still only an unawakened

bodhisattva

i too considered thus remote jungle

thicket resting places in the forest are

hard to

endure the jungles must

rob a monk of his mind if he has no

concentration

now what we're talking about here is

getting

involved in your thinking about

and not using the six r's

or the four noble truths

and that's a problem

i considered thus

whenever recluses or brahmins unpurified

in their bodily conduct

resort to a remote jungle thicket

resting place in the forest

then owing to the defect of their

unpurified bodily conduct

these good recluses and brahmans invoke

unwholesome fear and dread

but i do not resort to remote jungle

thicket resting places in the forest

unpurified in bodily conduct

i am purified in bodily conduct i resort

remote jungle thicket resting places

in the forest as one of the noble ones

with bodily conduct terrified

seeing in myself this purity of bodily

conduct

i found great solace and dwelling in the

forest

now it's real easy to let your

imagination get carried away

when you're by yourself in the forest

and it's uh

it can cause a lot of fear and anxiety

now this is because you're not

following the precepts as closely as you

can

this whole suta is about the precepts

and it's very amazing to me

how many people think that

meditation is just about sitting

and not about living a good

uplifted mind

and being careful with your uh

bodily actions as well as your mental

actions

i considered thus whenever

recluses or brahmins unpurified in their

verbal conduct or unpurified in their

mental conduct

unpurified in livelihood

resort to a jungle thicket resting place

in the forest

they all evoke

unwholesome fear and dread

many times when i've given a discourse

on the suttas i try to get you to

understand

this is an all the time practice

if you break your precepts

it causes your mind to feel guilty

when mind feels guilty

then you are developing

the wrong idea in a

personal self you're not seeing things

with a purified mind

you're seeing things with a guilty mind

and that causes you to identify

with all of your thoughts and all of

your feelings

and this is a

a big hindrance

for your progress in meditation

now one of the things that's real

important for you to understand

the the six r's our

right effort

the six r's are the way

leading to the cessation of suffering

the fourth noble truth

and the more closely you follow that

the more you have a quiet mind

a mind that doesn't get so involved in

uh distractions

and fear and anxiety and

high emotions and things like that

causes a lot of problems

i resort to remote jungle thicket

resting places in the forest as one of

the noble ones with

livelihood

pure

speech and pure thoughts along with pure

bodily action

seeing in myself this purity

i found great solace and dwelling in the

forest

i don't know if you've lived in the

forest i do live in the forest here

but there's all kinds of different

sounds that can come up

and it can cause

fear and anxiety to arise

what was that sound and

you can really get caught up so much

caught up that you want to run away you

want to get out of the forest

uh i'm i'm reading what it says here and

it says something about suta 17 and this

is suita number four

anyway

the more you keep your precepts without

breaking them

the easier your mind settles down

now we've all broken precepts

that's one of the reasons why we're here

is because we have broken precepts in

the past

and that causes craving

to arise what's the cause of craving

breaking one of the precepts and

taking things personally

taking things with a mind that says this

is me

this is mine this is who i am i like

this i don't like that

and you don't have such

a good mind for

tranquility

and equanimity

the stronger your equanimity becomes

through using the six r's

and going

through the jhanas the genres

are levels of understanding

it's a misunderstood word by an awful

lot of people

and the buddha spent

his time teaching this

he didn't teach straight vipassana

only he taught

jhana with vipassana

they are uh

yoked together it says in suit to number

149

in the majamon nikaya

so the idea of breaking up

vipassana and jhana practice

comes from commentaries and

it's not uh

it's not helpful

in your practice

you tend to have one pointed

concentration when you're doing

vipassana

even though they say it's not that kind

of concentration

it is why do i say that

because it doesn't

have

the relax step that is

very much needed why

because

when there's slight tension or tightness

in your mind you have the

i like it i don't like it mind

and this is the very beginning

of taking things personally

this happens because you are

feeling guilty about something you said

or something you did

in the past that's why hindrances arise

and hindrances unlike

an awful lot of people that are

practicing

meditation they think that entrances

are to be suppressed push

down not get involved with

make go away now i have a friend that's

been teaching meditation

straight vipassana for 50 years

and he still has trouble with hindrances

that means that there's some kind of

misunderstanding

in that kind of practice

if you don't recognize that

craving is the i like it i don't like it

mine when a feeling arises

and relax and let go

of that feeling

then you

are not practicing what the buddha is

talking about

the buddha talked a lot about the four

noble truths

in the discourses but an awful lot of

people don't recognize it as

the four noble truths because it talks

in a different way

link of dependent origination

has the four noble truths in it every

link

which is another way of saying you need

to use

the six r's whenever there's

any kind of disturbance in your mind at

all

any kind

the second r of

uh the six r's

is to release whatever is pulling your

attention away from your object to

meditation

it doesn't matter what your distraction

is if it's a physical feeling or a

mental feeling

fear and dread are always

mental and then it turns into physical

but first it is a mental feeling

now i spend a lot of time in asia

with people that are very much into

their

fears and anxieties of hungry ghosts

and curses and all of these kind of

things that cause fear to arise

and what i've learned

is that

when you use the six r's

and you get to the smile

re-smile

if you laugh with yourself for being

afraid

the fear disappears very quickly

i've been criticized because i say we

have six r's and i call that

right effort

but it is right effort

it's just that some things are

intertwined let's put it that way

now when you have a sensation arise in

your body

or you have

a disturbance of mind

if you keep your attention on that and

you indulge in it

and you get involved in thinking about

you are feeding that hindrance

and it's going to get bigger and it's

going to stay longer

what release means is that

you allow it to be there by itself

you don't keep your attention on the

disturbance

this is really important

don't keep your attention on the

disturbance

let the disturbance be there by itself

if you start to get caught in thinking

about it

all of a sudden your mind is a thousand

miles away and you're thinking about

this and that

and you don't even know that you're

meditating anymore

actually you're not meditating anymore

because you're getting caught up in this

so it's a real

interesting thing that

an awful lot of people get caught up in

now there's some meditation teachers and

they'll tell you

well now you need to note this until it

goes away by itself

and then you immediately come back to

your object of meditation

if you note it until it goes away by

itself you're

feeding it and it's going to continue on

and your progress

and meditation is very very

slow when that happens

now a lot of people that i've taught

over the years i've tried to get them to

really understand that you don't it

doesn't matter

what thought comes up

now when i first became a monk i did a

practice

where every time a thought or

feeling or sensation arose

i looked at that very closely and i

thought

is that mine did i ask that thought to

come up

why do these thoughts come up whose

thoughts are they

where do they go when they disappear

i did this for about six months with as

many times as i could remember

to investigate that way

and

it got to be very interesting and my

mind slowed down a lot

because i stopped taking the thoughts

that just kind of popped up in my head

it can be a memory

it can be anything when it popped up

into my head did i ask i asked myself

the question

did i ask this thought to come up is

this me

is this mine where did it come from

and i discovered a lot of these thoughts

and feelings that came up were from

memory of breaking precepts in the past

as i started seeing the impersonal

nature of letting go

of craving and started seeing more and

more clearly

what craving is

i began to understand a lot more

about what the buddha was talking about

so this

practice of using the six r's

teaches you some magnificent

lessons the first

is anything that pops up into your mind

isn't you you didn't ask it to come up

or a feeling you don't ask feelings to

come up

they pop up because conditions are right

for them to arise

so what you need to do

is stop getting involved with the

feelings

stop trying to control the feelings stop

trying to control

the thoughts stop taking emotional

upsets as this is me this is mine i

don't

like it i want it to stop

and the more you get involved in

trying to control

your emotional upsets

the bigger and more intense that emotion

becomes

and the more confused your mind becomes

and the more anger comes up and the more

hatred comes up

and the dissatisfaction and the fear

and the anxiety all of these things

arise

because you're taking it personally

because you broke a precept in the past

and when you break a precept you have a

guilty mind

and with that guilty mind comes the

i am that that's the very

beginning of craving that's what craving

so recognizing uh

the tightness

that happens in your head in your mind

is a very important aspect and the only

time you get to recognize

it is when you stop

getting involved with your thoughts

and your emotions and your likes and

your dislikes and your opinions and your

ideas

let go of that

relax smile

come back to your object of meditation

now with your daily activities your

object of meditation

can be smiling lightening your mind

the more you smile the better your

mindfulness becomes

now one of the things that happens with

a lot of people

when they start going deeper in their

meditation and start getting into

neither perception or non-perception

my advice to them quite often

you need to sharpen your mindfulness

you need to have a lighter mind an

observant mind a mind that's

clear that recognizes

the slightest little movements

this is important if you want to attain

nibana

quite often people will get

into they break into a habit

they're used to doing the meditation

this way or that way

and they see some kind of little

disturbance

and they just they don't relax and let

it go

they just say well it'll be there for a

little while who pays attention to that

that's nothing

well they need to sharpen their

mindfulness

now the thing is when you start going

deeper in your meditation you start

noticing more and more

how the consciousnesses arise

we don't care what that consciousness is

whether it's

seeing or hearing or tasting or touching

whatever or thinking

we don't care what the content is

we want to see how this process

actually works

you don't get a chance to see how this

process works

when you are

noting until it goes away

that means you're still involved with it

and you're taking it personally

you're not relaxing that tension and

tightness

in your head in your mind now i say

in your head and in your mind because

this is part of the namarupa this is

part of the mind-body connection

when you let go of tension

in your mind you actually let go of

tension in your body at the same time

so it's real important for you to

recognize

and sharpen your mindfulness so you can

see

when mine first starts to get distracted

and when it gets distracted that's when

you want to use the six

arms i've had a lot of people tell

me well i don't need to use the 6rs

anymore

well yeah you do but when you get to

certain places in the meditation when

you get very

deep that's when i'll tell somebody

well just relax

just let go of that slight tension

caused by that disturbance

every disturbance that arises everything

that pulls your attention away

is a hindrance

and it means that your mindfulness is

not as sharp

as it could be

and it needs to get sharper

now i get criticized a lot because i

tell people that they have to smile

but what people don't really recognize

is that

the more you smile the lighter your mind

becomes

the lighter your mind becomes

the sharper your awareness of

what is happening in the present occurs

and this is really important

i have a lot of people that when they

first start out in meditation

they tell me they can't smile

well that's because they don't want to

smile

they think they're supposed to be

serious with the meditation

but when i give instructions at the

start of a retreat i tell

everyone there's three things that i

really want you to

understand

you have to smile

you have to laugh

occasionally with yourself because you

get caught

what does laughing do

i've been in situations where there's

anger that comes up

everybody has

if you look at it closely

at what anger is it's dissatisfaction

with whatever is happening

in the present and okay that happens

all of us

but you're taking it personally

and you're building up that

feeling and you're causing yourself

a lot of pain

an interesting thing with buddhism

is that it will help you to

change if

you want to change

everything about buddhism is about

looking at yourself

very closely and what are you taking

personally and how are you

causing yourself pain

you can't blame anybody else for

your pain your pain

is yours and you're causing it to

yourself

that's what you have to learn that's how

you change

as you become more and more aware

of smiling

and laughing and actually

having fun with your meditation

when you do this your progress is really

fast

now i'm in the habit now of just giving

a 10-day retreat to

people and having them be

very successful with their meditation

why because of those first three

things that i talk about at the start of

the retreat

smile laugh have fun

too many people are serious with their

meditation

and that's a problem

because you try too hard when you get

serious

and you try to force your mind to be the

way you want it to be

it doesn't work i promise

it doesn't work

my biggest problem with teaching people

especially if they've done

other kinds of meditation my biggest

problem

is to get them to stop trying so hard

and stop being so serious

mind is heavy when it's serious and

anytime you

have repeat thoughts in your mind

guess who has an attachment and guess

who's got

by their hindrances

and they're taking it personally and

they're causing themselves immeasurable

amounts of pain

so the thing that's most remarkable

about buddhist practice is the

responsibility

you have to take for yourself

you can't blame anybody else for your

pain

for your suffering for your

dissatisfaction

it's not anybody else's fault it's

yours and you're doing it to yourself

now every time you use the six r's

you are learning and you're teaching

yourself a magnificent lesson

and that is right after

you use the six r's your mind is clear

your mind is bright it has no

distractions in

it and

your mind is pure because there is no

craving so using the 6rs

is incredibly important

and the more you smile

the better your mindfulness becomes

and mindfulness is remembering to

observe

how mind's attention moves from one

thing to another

how how do you observe this happening

what happens first well your mindfulness

gets weak

for whatever reason then

you start to have little tiny thoughts

and they grow

and they get bigger until it turns into

a full-blown distraction

as you go deeper in your meditation

and you start learning more and more

clearly

about how this process

works and how it's not my process

it is just happening because conditions

are right for it to occur

and as you learn this and

use the six ours there

is personality development

and you become more and more

balanced with your thinking the things

that used to

people used to say to you and got you

angry

it's not so important anymore

your mind becomes more clear

brighter clearer

alert and fun

oh but you're supposed to be serious

with meditation

i've done a lot of meditation a lot

with a lot of different people

and for the first 20 years of my

practice whenever i walked into where

people were doing the meditation

nobody was smiling

and i always had a headache

i'd walk in and all of a sudden this

tension and tightness is really

caught up here and it stayed there for

the whole retreat

what is that tension and tightness well

that's craving

now i spent 12 years in asia

going to different teachers asking them

about craving

because it's talked about so much in the

suttas

but almost no one knows

what it actually is or how to recognize

or how to let it go

in a real way

that's what the eightfold path is all

about

every time you use the six r's

you are following the eightfold path

at that time

and you develop more and more equanimity

until it gets to disenchantment

or your mind just doesn't get excited

about stuff at all

you see things the way they are and

that's fine

but you don't get distracted by it

that's what equanimity is all about

just letting go of the emotional

excitement

of daily life

now some people would call that well

that must be boring to have a life like

that

no actually it's just the opposite

because your mind

is lighter you see things more

clearly and you can help yourself

and other people overcome

the emotional

quagmire that we get into

so when the buddha is talking about

going into the forest

if you go into the forest with a mind

that is

clear bright and you have followed the

precepts

very well

you're not going to have a lot of fear

and anxiety arise

i considered thus whenever a recluse or

brahman

who are covetous and full of lust

they have problems they have fear and

anxiety coming up

and they get afraid now when i first

went to thailand the start of my being

being a monk

started listening to them talk about

their

yeah i listened to them

talk about their uh ghost stories

things like that

and i went into the forest

now i was about a quarter of a mile or

half a mile away from anybody else i was

quite secluded

and i got up about two o'clock in the

morning and decided that i was going to

do some walking meditation outside

when you do your walking meditation

outside you take two candles

and you put one at the one side of the

walk

and the other at the other end of the

walk and that way you can walk in a

straight line without

any problem and as i

was walking i noticed some extra lights

out of the corner of my eye

and i had fear arise

i didn't quite know what to do with that

so i kept walking and all of a sudden my

imagination started taking off

and i started thinking about well there

might be some of the spirits around that

really aren't very nice and they're

going to eat me alive

and then i saw the lights again out of

the corner of my eye

now because of the sutra that i'm

reading to you right now

later on it recommends that when you are

when you have fear arise

don't change your posture if you're

standing

continue standing if you're walking

continue walking if you're sitting

continue sitting if you're lying down

continue

lying down until

that fear disappears now it so happened

that i was standing at that time and i

saw this white light out of the corner

of my eye

and i decided well you know

maybe it's time for me to go back in the

cabin and get under the covers and go

back to sleep

and then i remembered what this suit has

said and i continued standing

and i turned my head and i looked

just as some lights came on again and i

found

out that it was fireflies

it's little tiny bugs that light up at

night

and i was so afraid until i found out

what it was

and then i just laughed now i i started

talking about

the advantage of laughing when you laugh

with yourself you go

from i am that

i am that anger the

fear that anxiety whatever it happens to

depression

and then you laugh it changes

your perspective and you go

from i am that

to it's only

that it's only this

dislike it's only this fear it's only

this anxiety

it's only this depression

whose depression is it

well it's mine it's not yours when you

laugh

then you find out what it actually is

and when you see what it actually is the

fear

and anxiety subside on their own

now this is a big problem in asia

because people are very afraid

why are they afraid because they break

precepts

they don't see what they're doing they

don't think that a little white lie

is any big deal and it is

anytime you try to deceive the world

with your speech that is breaking

the precept

so even little tiny lies

are still lies and it

is a problem

and you're causing the problem to

yourself

so please take it seriously

this is real and you will see

that when you keep the precepts

you are letting go

of troubles in your life

keeping the precepts is a kind of

protection

for you and it also

makes life much easier

what kind of reputation do you have

now i've taught a lot of businessmen and

they tell me well i have to lie

and i say why why do you have to lie

well i need to make the sales and i said

what kind of reputation do you have

when you when they know that what you're

saying isn't true

i never thought of it that way

so this is a real interesting example

of how to let go

of the precepts

and let go of breaking the hindrances

and truly understanding how

you are causing yourself upset

and problems because you break the

precepts

and then you try to forget about it but

it always comes back

i have friends that were very much into

their

cursing and then they would come and do

pre retreat with me

and the first seven days of a 10-day

retreat

they had a lot of problems with

hindrances

always coming up oh i have to keep sick

saring i have to keep letting go this is

a problem

but when they finally got the idea that

the precepts are real and not breaking

them

is important even telling a joke

that is off color

then they started progressing in their

meditation very fast

but sometimes it takes a while for

people to understand that this kind of

thing

although quote it can be funny

it's offensive people that

curse a lot and that's what's happening

a lot

and you see it on tv you listen to it on

the radio

i was very shocked when i came back from

asia at how

how much cursing and foul language they

were using in public

and then people wonder why there's so

many problems in the world today

how many people are breaking their

precepts all the time

oh but that's morality and and we don't

have to pay attention to that

we only have to practice our morality

when we're practicing

sitting meditation doing a retreat

well i'm here to tell you that you need

it more

off all the time

you have to stop letting go of breaking

the precepts

and you will find after a period of time

that everything starts to become

easier and your prosperity

starts to come up by itself

it's amazing to watch

and you start thinking about something

possibly you need to do or need to

well i need to get this so that my

computer works and my phone works better

all of a sudden it pops up by itself

somebody comes along and says here

use this

and that makes life more fun

if you're overcome by sloth and torpor

if you're

overcome by restlessness and

unpeacefulness

in mind if you're overcome by being

uncertain and doubting

if you're given to self-praise and

disparagement

of others

if there is alarm and terror

are you free from this kind of

trepidation

or are you

overly concerned

with the pandemic

oh i'm so afraid i have to wear a mask

all the time

i don't okay

if your desire is of gain and

honor and renown

there are some things that

when monks start learning about their

practice

one of the first things that happens

it's it's like the first

test is that you start to get famous

and you you start to

really think that you're something

special

that's a that's a hindrance in itself

being humble being appreciative

of other people that's the kind of mind

you want to be developing

if you're lazy and you're wanting

an energy

oh i don't feel like sitting today

you need to develop that mind

that gets enthusiastic now i'm gonna get

a chance to sit

and get quiet for a little while

i have a student that

he did three or four retreats with me

and he kept on asking me at the end of

the retreats how long should i sit

so i said well sit seven or eight hours

a day that'll be enough

and he started doing that

and his meditation is so good

and he's so much fun to be around

because he keeps his precepts he does

a lot of meditation he has he's

incredibly

knowledgeable and bright although he

doesn't do a lot of reading

he follows his intuition a lot

and he has

fun sitting with a quiet mind how much

relief is that

could you get me a glass of water

sorry

okay if you have an unconcentrated mind

with then your mind

is straying a lot

that happens with a lot of people that

come for the first time they do

retreat oh my mind is so active

yeah well why

because you've let your mind get sloppy

you let your mind break precepts

thinking that it's cute or it's funny or

this is this is real important

it's not it's more important to keep

your presets

than it is to try to make a joke and

make somebody laugh

whenever recluses and brahmins devoid of

wisdom

their drivelers resort to

remote jungle thicket resting places in

the forest

then owing to the defect of their being

devoid of wisdom and drivelers

these good recluses and brahmans evoke

unwholesome fear and dread

and i do not do that

thank you excuse me

seeing in myself this possession of

wisdom i

found great solace and dwelling in the

forest

i personally like being in the forest

and i like being alone

i consider this

there are the especially auspicious

nights of the 14th

the 15th and 8th of

the fortnight now what if

on such a night as these i were to dwell

in such awe-inspiring horrifying abodes

as orchard shrines

woodland shrines and tree shrines

of which there's a lot in asia

perhaps i might encounter that fear and

dread and later on

such as especially auspicious nights as

the 14th

the 15th and the 8th of the fortnight

i dwell in such awe-inspiring horrifying

abodes as

forest shrines woodland shrines and tree

shrines

and while i dwelt there a wild animal

animal would come up to me or a peacock

would knock off a branch or the wind

would rustle

the leaves and i thought what if this

is the fear and dread coming

i thought why do i dwell always

expecting

fear and dread

what if i subdue that fear and dread

while keeping the same

posture that i'm in when it comes up

upon me

so this is where it's talking about

don't change your posture once you have

the fear and dread coming

while i walk the fear and dread came

upon me

i neither stood nor sat nor lied down

till it had subdued that i had subdued

that fear and dread

while i stood the fear and dread came

upon me i neither

walked nor sat nor lied down till it had

said

i had subdued that fear and dread

now remember fear and dread is easy to

let go of if you

don't take it personally

it's a it's a feeling that is not nice

it's a painful feeling

but as soon as it comes up we have a

tendency

to run away from it try to get away so

you don't have that fear and dread

that's how strong

it is but actually

the way to let it go is by

laughing with yourself for being afraid

and then you'll see what that fear and

dread is and quite often it's

uh occasionally we have birds that like

to fly into the windows and knock

themselves silly

but if that happens at night

oh that that what was that sound there's

there's a ghost out there

there's something that's going to eat me

alive

and you want to run away

but if you laugh with yourself

for being afraid you're not afraid

anymore

that's the way you overcome it

there are brahmana some recluses and

brahmanas

who perceive day when it's night and

night when it's day

i say that that part that their part

this is abiding in delusion

i perceive night when it's night and day

when it's day rightly speaking

were it to be said of anyone a being not

subject to delusion has appeared in the

world

for the welfare and happiness of many

out of compassion for the world

for the good welfare and happiness of

and humans it is a man deed that rightly

speaking this should be said

tireless energy was aroused in me and

unremitting mindfulness

was established

now the word mindfulness is really

misunderstood

and i've had a lot of the teachers that

ask about the word mindfulness tell me

it means to be mindful

well okay but you can't use the word

you're defining as the definition so

that's why i tell you it's remembering

to observe how mind's attention

moves seeing the slightest

movement of mind's attention

and recognizing as soon as it starts and

you relax and let it go

and don't keep your attention on it

that will disappear very quickly

my body was tranquil and untroubled my

mind was collected

and unified that's the advantage

of keeping the precepts

quite secluded from sensual pleasure

secluded from unwholesome states

i entered upon and abided in the first

jhana

which is accompanied by thinking and

examining thought with joy

and pleasure born of her happiness

born of seclusion

now again jhana does not mean one

pointedness

it does not mean keeping your mind only

on your object of meditation

at first

you have to bring up a feeling of loving

kindness

feel that feeling

put that feeling in your heart put your

friend right in the middle of the

feeling so there's more

activity than just focusing on one

part of the meditation

and that's what true mindfulness is

observing how this process works

with distilling of thinking and

examining thought i entered upon and

abided in the second

geno which has neither self has

which has self-confidence and stillness

of mine

without thinking and examining thought

with joy and happiness born of

collectedness

every ghana is a different

step of your learning

you're teaching yourself when you go

from the first genre to the second

genre you start noticing the difference

you're able to stay with your object of

meditation longer

you start having more joy arise you

start feeling more at ease and you feel

like you are progressing

that's why you get self-confidence

yeah that's the way to say it

it says in the sutta that's the way it

says it's supposed to be

this is not some

commentarial idea

of what insight knowledges

are and things like that

this is about the actual practice

and how you're teaching yourself

to recognize when your mind is

distracted

to use the six r's not to keep your

attention

on the distraction let it be there by

itself

don't keep your attention on it relax

the tightness

caused by that distraction

then smile

bring that smiling back to your object

to meditation

stay with your object the meditation

every level of understanding every

ghana is a different kind of meditation

because the results are different

at each level

so people say well that's for jonas

yeah okay i'm talking long i i just got

found out

well

uh there's a lot more to the suta

and it has the the

three super knowledges that it talks

about

after you get to the fourth jhana then

you start working with remembering past

lifetimes then you

develop your divine eye and divine here

and you can go to all different row uh

realms of meditation

and then you can attain nibana from that

but this goes through the whole thing

i'm not gonna do that now i've been

talking for too long

i understand so

do you have any questions you can unmute

and

ask now

nobody has any questions

boy i must be a great teacher if i don't

have any questions

i answered everything and you understood

it without any doubt

at all thank you bente for your

talk i have a question if i may ask

then let's share some merit

we got a question okay good for us

yes thank you again i have a

quick question uh is it possible

is it possible to go into janna from

listening

to asking and what question do you have

this omero from los angeles

hello yes hi this is omero from los

angeles

ah okay i can hear you now please ask

my question is is it possible for

someone to go

into the first china just from listening

uh the sutas yes

yes you have to do it with a very

attentive mind that doesn't think about

other stuff

while you're listening

okay the buddha called that giving

ear

you give here by just a paying attention

you can get into dramas while you're

listening

and you can actually attain becoming a

sodapanha

while you're listening but you have to

truly understand

what you're listening to with a very

attentive mind

okay thank you okay

uh i wanted to ask you what's the

difference between

fear and dread and the fear and shame

of wrongdoing how would you explain

our fear and dread kind of arises on its

own because

conditions are right knowing that you

are going to break a preset

that's the fear and and wrongdoing

that you experience you can experience

so you have to be careful with

what you're going to say before you say

and what you're going to do before you

do it

but fear and anxiety can be from an

outside source

it can be an animal running at you

or it can be any kind of thing like that

do you understand the difference

yes i just wanted to tell you that uh

fly a fright is a reaction of the

central nervous system

right uh to protect ourselves

and uh and here the buddha is talking

about fear and dread

which is arising from uh out of uh we

breaking the precepts

and uh we have what i was talking about

yeah and fear of wrongdoing is something

that

occurs before breaking the precept right

yes

the thing with the more you keep the

precepts without breaking them

the more you understand what you're

going to do

before you do it

and you make a choice whether you're

going to break a precept or not

but if you're in a car

and somebody looks like they're going to

hit you you're gonna have fear arise

that's different

okay

thank you okay

hello this is india

yes uh i wanted to ask you about the

experience of a stream enterer

okay yeah so once you get that

experience

uh like i'm just i want to refer to the

suta

number 106 from majama nikaya

and that ananda asked buddha that

how a disciple uh cannot

be cling to the experiences of bajanas

like attendance so buddha says that

a disciple with clinging cannot attain

ibana

so but but the experience of

a stream entry is it's something like

mind tends to cling to it

because of the relief and everything

else how to not to cling to it

and still who clings to it

okay see that's the thing

when you become a sodapana you start

recognizing more and more

clearly the impersonal

nature of things so you're not going to

cling to it

as much and if you're around a teacher

like me

i'm not going to let you cling to it

yeah yeah okay

thank you thank you so much okay yeah

around three questions uh the first

question is um

it's related to meditation like once i

finish my meditation you recommend

to walk right

i didn't quite understand what you just

said say it again please

after meditation uh you recommend uh

to have some walk

through meditation well that's that's

just part of the meditation

yes uh

for example if i am sitting with economy

or a quiet mind while i was walking

he recommend me to work with quiet mind

yes i prefer that you do

whatever drama you happen to be

experienced

doesn't have to be just while you're

sitting

it can be with your daily activities

walking here to

here to there can you have joy arise in

your mind while you're walking

you see what i'm saying yeah i got the

point

okay

yeah and i have the next question

uh like i noti i'm noticing that

when i'm sitting in the meditation i am

when the disturbance occurs

i am recognizing it at the stage of

formations stop

over analyzing as soon as you see

a disturbance 6r right then

don't try to overanalyze and

are you an engineer yes

i thought so

you're taught to overthink as an

engineer

so you want to back off a little bit

from that

don't try to figure out what it is what

what part of you're noticing

is just as soon as you notice

let it be there by itself relax smile

and come back

okay okay actually i was

um you are right i can say like whenever

some distraction is happening i was

linking it to

uh which um which which link it is

actually it was

like in the dependent origination well

you know i don't call

the hindrances i don't say that this is

lust or this is hatred or this is sloth

and torpor i just say it's a hindrance

it's a disturbance let it be

a disturbance you don't have to analyze

which kind of disturbance it is

okay that's where you get into problems

and you you

pose your attention away okay

okay okay day uh third question is

it's not related to meditation some

people say that

uh like when whenever

when i was doing meditation previously

with other technique

people say that this place is good for

meditation that place is good for

meditation but i don't think so

what is your stand on that like well

wherever it's most comfortable for you

you don't have to go by what somebody

else says it's

this is a personal thing it's up to you

where you're most comfortable

sometimes i'll walk into a room and i'm

not comfortable at all so i'm not going

to sit in that room

other times i walk into a room and it

feels really peaceful and really calm

then i'll sit in meditation there

it depends on the situation entirely

okay

actually today's talk i feel like

it answered most of my questions

good so i'm thankful for your

session today

i have no more questions now okay

thank you thank you very much okay

anybody else with a question

yes panty yes

thank you i've been a meditator

for over 30 years and i

only heard of you in june

and i took your online course

oh good and i want to tell you

i had such

great change long-awaited change and i

want to thank you

very much oh you're very welcome and i'm

happy that you found

us i hope to be seeing you in september

oh good don't be afraid of the virus

we don't have that problem here

thank you okay

i look forward to meeting you i look

forward to meeting you thank you

anything else

oh monty

so have a quick question okay what are

you what is your advice on balancing a

play life in meditation what is my

advice for what

saying and again uh balancing the way

life

and meditating because i find that like

the more i practice

the six orders the more i meditate

uh it feels so good but i want to keep

doing it more and more

good continue

yeah as long as you have time to do it

do as much as you can okay

cool

thank you where are you from

uh i'm from california uh can you come

and visit me sometime

oh make sure to or and and

some i have been going to california in

northern california

um what's the name of it

saint francis yes

saint francis and san juan batista i've

been giving retreats there once a year

oh okay so you can come there if you

if you have the time and energy awesome

okay thank you okay

anyone else

hey bunty hello uh i have

one question today okay and it's about

the the characteristic of the

the first jhana which is a i think

thinking thought and evaluation

or something right in those lines um

could you

describe a little bit more what that is

and is that is that something that we

can

actively cultivate or is it just

something just notice that arises

you actively cultivate it

and that is by

verbalizing a wish for your friends

happiness

feeling the happiness and

wishing that happiness to your friend

that's what the thinking and examining

thought is all about

when you get to the second genre i'll

tell you don't

verbalize anymore

that's how that's different than the

first genre

okay if you continue verbalizing when

you get into the second drama you're

going to give yourself a headache

because you're trying too hard you need

to back off a little bit

um so okay so verbal verbalizing the

wish is there any

um is there anything other to verbalize

like for example sometimes

i find it helpful to sort of verbalize

oh my mind is distracted or no i don't

need to do that you gotta you need to

get into the

habit of using the six r's

without saying the six r's okay

so the verbalizing is just the wish for

for your friend's happiness

right okay all right

okay thank you thank you manthey all

right it is my pleasure

anything else

one thing uh if there are no questions i

want to say one thing

okay

we want to say happy birthday to you

thank you

i'm not sure i want any more birthdays

i'm getting too old now

it reminds me that i'm getting older

anyway

why don't we share some merit now

may suffering ones be suffering free

and the 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

hey beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours may they long

protect the buddha's dispensation

okay please come back next week will we

give you another discourse okay

thank you

happy birthday happy birthday

williams is happy birthday happy

birthday