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

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

okay let's see we have five minutes okay

uh let's see we're up and um

let me get bonte here so today

um we'll formally start this

um today august

2nd 2020 2020

and uh i'm here at the yamasuka

meditation center with

ponte vimel and he will be doing

53 the

disciple in higher training training

otherwise known as abhidhamma

but he'll

so hold on okay uh without further ado

let me get bonte

situated here

okay can you hear me

yeah okay yep hello

thus have i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawat

in the asaki and country of cape villa

was the town that

grew up in

now on that occasion a new assembly hall

had recently been built for the saturns

of

capilavatu and had not

yet been inhabited by any recluse or

brahmin or human being at

all excuse me

then the sakians of cap villavatu went

to the blessed one after paying homage

to him

they sat down at one side and said to

him venerable sir

a new assembly hall has recently been

built

for the sakians of capilavatu

and it has not yet been inhabited by any

recluse or brahman or a human being at

all venerable sir let the blessed one be

the first to use it

then the blessed one has used it first

then the

sakions of captive

will use it afterwards that will lead to

their welfare and happiness for a long

time

the blessed one consented in silence

then when they saw that he had consented

they got up from their seats

and after paying homage to him keeping

him

on their right they went to the assembly

hall

and covered it completely with coverings

and prepared seats

and they put out a large water jug and

hung up an oil lamp

the thing during the time of the buddha

they didn't have electric lights

they had these oil lamps and they uh

they gave off very little light to be

quite honest

but the sri lankans before every domino

talk

they like to have an oil-like

lighting ceremony where people can

light one of the wicks that's in an oil

then they went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him

they stood at one side and said

venerable sir the assembly hall has been

covered completely with coverings

and seats have been prepared

a large water jug has put it been put

out in an

oil lamp hung up now is the time for the

blessed one to do

as he thinks fit

then the blessed one dressed and taking

his bowl and outer robe

went with the sangha of monks to the

assembly hall

when he arrived he washed his feet

and then entered the hall and sat down

hit by the center pillar

facing the east an interesting

thing about facing the east is that you

have a tendency to have more energy when

you face

east and

if you have sloth and torpor

if you if you face the east it will help

overcome that problem

now if you face north

it can put you to sleep north is a low

energy and if you have your head

pointing to the north when you lay down

and sleep you'll get good sleep that way

or if you're meditating and you have a

lot of restlessness

face north and

the restlessness tends to go away

that is also with

your using the six hours and other

things that i've taught you

he went to the sangha of monks

in the assembly hall when he arrived oh

he washed his feet that i did that and

the monks washed their feet and entered

the hall and sat

down

by the western wall facing the east

so basically they sat behind the buddha

with the blessed one before them the

sakians of

villa to wash their feet entered the

hall

and sat down by the eastern wall facing

the west

with the blessed one before them

then when the blessed one had instructed

urged roused and encouraged the sakians

of kapilavatu with a talk on

the dhamma for much of the night he

said to the venerable ananda

ananda speak to the sakians of

capilovatu

about the disciple in

higher training higher training in pali

is abhi dhamma

higher dhamma excuse me i have a

sneeze coming

my back is uncomfortable and i will rest

it

now an awful lot of people think that

when he told ananda to take over

this is in in the buddha's later life

in the last couple years of his life his

back started bothering him quite a bit

and he wasn't

upset because there was pain he just

knew that he had to rest his back

so that he could continue on doing

things

but he didn't lie down and go to sleep

and that's kind of

what the translator here

infers by his using a formula

that is in a lot of other sutas about

how how to do do the lying posture

then the blessed one prepared his

patchwork cloak

folded in four and lay down on his right

side in the lion's pose

you see a lot of uh

buddha images lying down and you always

see him with his

he's like this with his arm they don't

show you the pillow that he's got his

head on

that he's he's not just

putting all the weight on his arm

tried that for about 45 minutes my

my arm went to sleep

and it was really painful

so he did use the pillow

okay he he laid down on his right side

in the lion's pose

and one foot overlapping the other

mindful and fully aware

after after noting in his mind the time

for a rising

this is uh part of the formula

that it kind of looks like

the that's too low it has to be

yeah they're complaining they can't see

your face because there's something

because there's something down below

here's our your name

well i can't see my face now oh

so maybe i need to come up then yeah

is that better yes okay

anyway during the time of the buddha

they didn't have clocks and

the way they told time by was by

a rope that was very very big like like

this

and they would let it smolter

and every hour they would see how far

it's gone they say okay that's one hour

it was that's how they told their time

then the venerable ananda addressed

mahanama

the sake mahanama

took over for the buddha's

father when the father died

he was the oldest son

he was the buddha's brother

and he was a monk

when his father died and he was in the

room as a father

died and he

uh they were looking for somebody to

to become the

ruler and

[Music]

they couldn't find anybody so the buddha

said well we have to have somebody

that's vertuous

and he said okay

mahanama you become the next

the next king and

uh you can you can start ruling

and his father agreed that that was a

good thing so he disrobed and became

a layman and became the king

hear a noble disciple

excuse me

a noble disciple has possessed a virtue

guards the doors of his sense faculties

is moderate in eating and devoted to

wakefulness

he possesses seven good qualities

and he is one who obtains that will

without trouble or

difficulty the four genres that

constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

the way meditation is being taught now

there's some real confusion

that's happening because of

the burmese style

of meditation they don't like to have

people doing drama practice they want

you to do

insight only and that's caught on here

in this country so

there's some confusion about this

and it's the

uh the real problem

because the buddha very often

talks about the dramas in the suttas

and explains that the sutras

they need to be practiced

but because of the confusion with

straight vipassana meditation

uh the peop some people are

being led astray from the buddha's

teaching

now there's a funny experience that

i i had a student that had been teaching

going to style meditation for 20 years

he's been teaching a lot of people

and he came and he started practicing

with me

and because he started using the 6rs

and the relaxed step

one day he walked in for the interview

and he was

lit up i mean he was very happy

and i said well what's happening and he

said after

20 years i finally understand what a

pleasant abiding is

and he thought that was just great

anyway it it the the dramas

constitute the higher mind

not the worldly mind your mind is very

pure

when you're in a jhana

why is it pure because there is no

craving that arises there's no

hindrances

that arise while you are practicing and

are in a drama

and how is a noble disciple possessed a

virtue

here a noble disciple is virtuous he

dwells restrained by the restraint of

the potty mocha

the potty mocha is the rules for monks

now you have five precepts right i have

227

but that doesn't mean that you have to

follow

the way that i'm doing it keeping the

five precepts

purifies your mind enough

now you have hindrances that arise

and they distract your mind when you're

meditating

why do hindrance of right hindrances

arise what's the cause of a hindrance

the cause of a hindrance is

breaking a precept at some point in your

life

so you break a precept and you know

you've done something that's not

good and you start to feel

guilty because of that and then you

start because of that guilty feeling

you start taking your thoughts and

feelings personally

this is me this is mine this is who i am

when you're using the six r's

you are learning how to let go

of that past unwholesome

action that you did

and this purifies your mind in other

words

as soon as you relax and let go of the

craving

you will have a mind

that's clear that's very

bright and alert and

pure why is it pure

because you have let go of craving

craving is very

misunderstood throughout the world

wherever i teach most people don't

understand what craving is

or how to let it go

yeah and i spent 12 years in asia

looking for somebody to tell me

what craving actually was and nobody

could

how were you supposed to recognize it

well it's just

desire if you let go of desire

then you uh

then you

will be letting go of the craving and it

doesn't quite work

like that what is

craving craving is the

i like it i don't like it mind

when a pleasant feeling arises i like it

when a painful feeling arises i don't

like

it when

you are able to recognize that slight

tension

and tightness that happens in the head

and relax you will

notice that your mind is clear

your mind is very alert and bright

and there's no distracting thoughts

now one another thing that happens with

an awful lot of people

and that is they have

everybody is supposed to know

what the word mindfulness is supposed to

be

and there's a lot of definitions out

there

about mindfulness

i went to a mindfulness conference

and when it was my turn to get up and

talk that was the first thing i said was

okay you we've been talking about

mindfulness

all this conference can anybody give me

a

definition of what mindfulness is

and there was words like awareness

and that's a very

weak meaning

mindfulness is remembering

to observe how mind's attention

moves from one thing to another

now this works a hundred percent of the

time

your mind is on your object of

meditation all of a sudden you're

thinking about this or that

how did that happen we don't care

why it happened we want to be able to

see

how this process actually works

and as as you keep practicing

with the 6rs you start having insights

into how

it actually works

now this is insights

while you're in the jhana

so this is a little bit different than

is being taught right now

okay

now keeping the precepts

uh when i got back from

asia i start talking about the precepts

and minds

everybody's mind just turned off

yeah yeah yeah we know what it is

but they didn't practice it

now if you want to try and experiment

break a precept say something that's not

true

and watch what happens with your sitting

meditation all of a sudden you have a

hindrance

where did that hindrance come from well

it came from you

now the thing is that hindrances

are well that was interesting

hindrances are not your enemy to fight

with

hindrances are your teachers

they're showing you where in the past

you made a mistake

and now you want to purify your mind so

you use the 6rs

so it comes up to showing you

that you have a past

thing that's blocking your meditation

now you need to use the six

hours and let go of that distraction

don't make a big deal of it in your mind

the second step of the six hours

is

okay

he just did something the second step

of the six hours is release

release what release

the distraction that's

causing your mind to get distracted

how do you release it you don't keep

your attention

on that distraction no matter how big

or how painful it happens to be

then you relax

now you bring up something that's

wholesome

i'm real big on smiling

why am i real big on smiling

the more you smile

the better your mindfulness becomes

the more alert your mind becomes

one of the big problems with meditation

as it's being taught right now

is everybody gets way too serious

[Music]

and they

start trying to control and push

and make things be the way they want it

to be

and that causes a lot of pain

meditation is supposed to be light

it's supposed to be fun every time i

give a retreat i'm continually talking

about

have fun

don't be serious

i've been to a lot of meditation

retreats

and the first 20 years of my practice

was with the meditation retreats of

maasi saida

when you walk into a room where there's

20 30 40 50 people that are sitting in

meditation

you don't see anybody smile

not one time

and when you walk in you feel this

tightness and tension that's happening

in your mind

why does that why is that there

now i asked the mahasi teachers

why i don't i didn't want to have any

painful thing coming up in my head

they told me oh just ignore it it's

nothing it'll go away by itself

eventually

well as i started experiencing more and

more

with the sutas themselves and seeing

what the answer was

it was craving and they weren't able to

recognize it as craving

they didn't know how to let craving go

so there's a a problem

that's happening with an awful lot of

people that are doing

the practice and the problem is they try

too hard

you get too serious and then you start

trying to

force your mind to be the way you want

it to be

now i'm constantly telling people to

smile i'm constantly telling people

to laugh

while you're in meditation it's okay to

laugh

well of course it is your mind's crazy

might as well laugh with it right

smile laugh have

fun turn this into a game

rather than a serious problem

why do i say that

well when you were in school and you had

a favorite subject what kind of

grade did you get in that subject that's

pretty good right

why because it was fun

and you you liked it

well do that with the meditation

don't make it some kind of big hard

difficult thing to do

turn it into fun

when you do that i promise you

your meditation will

your meditation progress will

improve faster than you ever thought

possible

so

when you keep your precepts without

breaking them

the longer you do it

it turns into a protection for you

and

you will be able to recognize when other

people are

you're around other people that have a

tendency to break precepts and you won't

feel very comfortable around them

they won't feel particularly comfortable

around you

i've had some relatives that were

into their alcohol they were really into

drinking

and and breaking all kinds of precepts

and whenever i went to see them

i would start radiating loving kindness

to them and it was so uncomfortable for

them being

beside me that they got up and left the

room

that's a phenomena that can

happen i can remember

when i was in san francisco many years

ago

i was a layman at the time but i'd been

doing a lot of meditation

and i went to a party where there was

smoking pot

and they're drinking alcohol and they're

generally being

rowdy and i wasn't interested

of being around them so i just kind of

sat by myself and i thought well

i wonder what happens when you radiate

loving kindness to these folks

as i was radiating loving kindness

people got up and left the room

they went to another room where they

could be

sloppy with their mindfulness

and before long i was sitting in the

room

there was 20 people at this party but i

was sitting in the room by myself

and i was just about ready to get up and

leave

and some of the

boyfriends or girlfriends

they weren't into doing the alcohol

and all of that they started coming back

into the room

and we had a great night talking about

spiritual things

so it's a kind of protection it stops

you from being around unwholesome

people

so now it says after keeping the precept

he is perfect in conduct and resort

and seeing fear in the slightest fault

he trains by undertaking the training

precepts

this is how a noble disciple is

possessed of virtue

i'm going to go to another suta

for just a little

uh thing that talks about

what you do when you keep your precepts

let's see why you're doing that

while you're doing that monty let me

just say

martina if you just mute yourself

it will stop flashing to you

because any noise in your room it just

flashes

over to you thanks

okay this is from the kosamiyan

suta number 48 this is section

11. a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the character of a person

who possesses right view

what is the character of a person who

possesses

right view this is the character of a

person who possesses right view

although he may commit some kind of

offense

for which a means of rehabilitation has

been laid down

this is me this means you made a mistake

you said something that wasn't true

or you broke one of the precepts

now you can be rehabilitated and you can

rehabilitate yourself

the thing with breaking a precept is as

soon

as you break the precept your mind very

quietly says

i shouldn't have done that and you know

that you did it

now what do you do

when you recognize that you've broken a

precept

now what you need to do

is forgive yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again it doesn't

matter whether it's outlied

out loud or in your mind but take the

five precepts

again

with a strong determination

that you won't do that again

now when you when you treat breaking the

precepts this way

you will start to become more and more

aware

that well i broke a precept

and now you're going to let it go

and you'll notice that your sitting

meditation

has fewer and fewer hindrances

arising there's still going to be

hindrances come up

but it's going to be fewer

now i had one student that

i taught him for many

many many years he did

every retreat that i gave he was there

at the retreat

and when he got off to retreat he said

okay

i'm off retreat i don't have to do

anything with the precepts i'm going to

go back to being the way

i was

and i kept telling him he he used to

curse

a lot he liked dirty jokes

so he was always using foul language

if he came for a two-week retreat

the first 10 days of the retreat

was full of

hindrances it took him a long time to

settle down

finally when he purified his mind enough

then he started progressing but he was

only

progressing for two or three days before

he

at the end of the retreat and it

happened like that

continually every time he did a retreat

and he

i kept on telling him if you stop

using the foul language

then you're going to progress much

faster

it only took him 30 or 35 years to

figure that out

but when he did figure it out

all of a sudden his progress in the

meditation

really took off that's wonderful

so it's a real good idea for you to take

the precepts pretty seriously

okay uh although he may commit

some kind of offense for which a means

of rehabilitation has laid been laid

down

still he at once confesses

reveals and discloses to the teacher

or a wise companion in the holy life

having done that he enters upon

restraint

for the future just

as a young tender infant

lying prone

uh at once draws back when he puts his

hand

or foot on a live coal

so too that is the character of a person

who possesses right view

so you can see that this this is fairly

important

this is why you

will progress very fast when you keep

the precepts

and it won't be very fast if you don't

and you're in charge you

are your own teacher

i'm not your teacher

i'm a guide i find out how your

meditation is going and i might give you

some

suggestions and if you follow them

[Music]

then you're going to be successful with

your meditation

the progress in meditation

can be very fast

i know i did 12 3 months retreats

at one point i was doing heavy duty

retreats all the time

no progress not really

i did an eight-month retreat in burma i

did a two-year retreat

in burma before i became

disillusioned after 20 years of doing

the same practice

and not being successful with that

practice

but being told that i was successful

i started looking for other kinds of

practice so i went to the sutas

themselves

okay

this is how a noble disciple is

possessed of virtue

and how does a noble disciple guard the

doors of his sense faculties

on seeing a form with the eye a noble

disciple does not

grasp at its signs and features

start thinking about what you're seeing

instead of staying with your object to

meditation

that takes you away from your object of

meditation and turns into a

disturbance

now this doesn't mean that you can't see

and appreciate

beautiful things a flower can be very

beautiful

but if you start thinking oh you know i

saw that flower

last year and it was absolutely gorgeous

i remember when i gave one of those to

somebody else

all of a sudden you're not being with

your spiritual friend

or your object of meditation

and you're just caught up in thinking

so that's a problem

so you want to be

able to

keep the six r's close

okay use the six r's whenever there's

distraction

since if he left the eye faculty

unguarded evil unwholesome states of

covetousness and grief might invade him

he practices a way of its restraint he

guards the eye faculty he undertakes the

restraint of the eye faculty

on hearing the sound with the ear on

smelling an odor with a nose

on tasting a flavor with the tongue

on touching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

a noble disciple does not grasp

at its signs and features

since if he left that those faculties

unguarded evil and wholesome states of

covetousness

and grief

might invade him he practices the way

of its restraint he guards these

faculties

he undertakes the restraint of the

faculties

that is how a noble disciple guards the

doors

of his sense faculties

and how is a noble disciple moderate

in eating here

reflecting wisely a noble disciple takes

food neither for amusement

nor for intoxication or for the sake of

physical beauty and attractiveness

but only for the endurance and

continuance of this body

in discomfort and for assisting the holy

life

the buddha suggested that you eat until

your stomach is half full with food

then you drink a quarter

of your stomach's capacity with water

and you leave air for the

rest of it

he also suggested that

when you chew your food you chew

the food until it becomes

liquid in your mouth

until you you really

chew your food a lot

now an awful lot of people especially in

in

asian countries they wind up with bad

stomachs

because they eat their food too fast

and the first part of digestion

is a saliva that you have

from your mouth intermixing with

the well-chewed food if it's

just chop chop chop swallow

then you have these big lumps and it's

hard to digest

in your stomach and that causes problems

for your health so

taking more time to eat and

chew your food is very

important

how one of the things that monks do

is they only eat

between six o'clock in the morning

and high noon

and i only eat one time a day

now

i stay healthy

because of this i fast for 16 hours a

day

and this is good for your health

i know a lot of people that oh i have to

have my

evening meal i have to eat first thing

in the morning i have to eat

uh no you don't really need to

in the morning either drink

water or you can have a cup of coffee or

tea whatever you like

but no solid food and

that way you stay healthy

now when i was in australia many years

ago

i was i went all the way through a cold

season

where there was frost on the ground

until

oh 10 or 11 o'clock in the aft in the

morning

i was only eating one meal a day i

didn't get sick

then it got to be the warmer season

spring was coming

and and i started going in and hanging

out with the monks

and they were eating breakfast and i

wound up taking a little bit here and a

little bit there and before long i was

eating

a full meal in the breakfast

and i immediately caught a cold

as soon as i noticed i caught the cold

i stopped eating all together i laid

down

and rested i took vitamin c

and the cold lasted about eight hours

now a lot of times you feel a cold

coming on

and if i come around and i say oh you

feel

you feel bad go take rest no i have to

go to work

i have to do this i have to do that

well you have about a two hour window

from

when you feel achy in your body

that you need to lie down in that period

of time

or else the cold is gonna

catch you and it's gonna last for

oh 10 days two weeks something like that

so if you learn to recognize

when you start feeling a cold

coming on you stop eating

if you need to eat just

eat some rice soup

without any meat in it without any other

vegetables

just fry soup

and lay down and rest now when i say lay

down and rest i mean

don't listen to music don't

watch tv don't read a book

lay down and rest

and when you feel like you you want to

go to sleep go to sleep

that's fine

then you'll overcome this cold

very quickly

this is not the advice that you hear by

most people

especially doctors they like you to eat

a lot

especially when you're sick

but i've been doing this for

35 or 40 years and occasionally

i do catch some kind of a cold

then i stop eating immediately and just

lay down and rest

and in a short period of time i'm over

the cold

but anybody else that i'm with they keep

trying to power their way through it oh

i can overcome this and

all i have to do is take this medicine

and that'll get rid of it

it's not the medicine that's needed

what's actually

needed is rest

give your body a chance to heal

itself

okay and how is a noble disciple devoted

to wakefulness

here during the day while walking back

and forth and sitting

a noble disciple purifies his mind of

obstructive

states hindrances

in the first watch of the night while

walking backing forth and sitting he

purifies his mind of obstructive states

the first watch of the night is seven

o'clock

in the evening until 11 o'clock in the

evening

in the middle watch of the night he lies

down

on his right side in the lion's pose

with one foot overlapping the other

the middle watcher of the night is

eleven o'clock until three o'clock in

the morning

after rising in the third watch of the

night

while walking back and forth and sitting

he purifies his mind of obstructive

states

the third watch is three o'clock in the

morning

until seven o'clock now when i was in

burma

for eight months i lived like that

well actually it was five months i lived

like that and then my teacher said why

are you being so lazy and sleeping so

much

so i cut my sleeping down to two hours

i don't recommend it

it took me six weeks to recover from

this

being so tired anyway

this is how a noble disciple is devoted

to wakefulness

and how does a noble disciple possess

seven

good qualities here a noble disciple has

faith he places his faith

in the tatakata's awakening thus

the blessed one is accomplished fully

awakened

perfect in true knowledge and conduct

sublime knower of worlds incomparable

leader of persons to be tamed

teacher of gods and humans awakened and

blessed

[Music]

now i've had some some students that

have had

extreme fear

and what i what i told them to do

was recite this the blessed one is

accomplished

fully awakened perfect and true

knowledge and conduct sublime knower of

worlds incomparable leader of persons to

be

tamed teacher of gods and humans

awakened and blessed

and i get them to recite that every day

for a period of time

and the fear starts to go away by itself

now fear is africa feeling

okay

the fastest and easiest way to

overcome fear

is by laughing

laugh because you have the fear

laugh at how crazy it is because it came

up

as soon as you do that

the identification with the fair the

fear

i'm afraid i

am disappears and it turns in to be only

being

a feeling now did you sit there

and tell yourself i have to be afraid

right now

because i haven't been afraid for a long

time

no it happens because conditions are

right for it to arise

what you do with what arises in the

present

dictates what happens in the future

if you fight with what's happening in

the present if you try to control it

if you indulge in it if you try to make

it be the way you want it to be

you can look forward to having a lot

bigger and more intense fear arising

or if you

keep your mind light and kind of

laugh with it because it's not yours

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

make it go away

so why get involved with it

now this is the second step of the six

hours release it let it be there by

itself

don't get involved with it it's only a

feeling

it's not even your feeling

so let it be

he has shame he is ashamed of

misconduct and body speech and mind

ashamed of engaging in evil and

wholesome

deeds

it is good to develop that so you become

more aware

when you want to do something

and right before you do it you become

aware of what you're doing

and you back off you don't do it

he has fear of wrongdoing he's afraid of

misconduct in body speech and mind

afraid of engaging in evil unwholesome

deeds again

being ashamed of doing it

and having fear of doing it

will keep your mindfulness more clear

and you will start to

see and appreciate the effectiveness

of keeping your precepts without

breaking them

he has learned much what he has

learned and can talk consolidates

what he has learned such teachings

are good in the beginning good in the

middle and good in the end

with the right meaning and phrasing

and affirm a holy life that is utterly

perfect

and pure such teachings

as these he has learned

much of remembered recited verbally

investigated with the mind and

penetrated

well by view

it's a good idea to memorize

some of the easier sutas to memorize

they aren't long they're easy to

memorize

like overcoming fear by looking at the

good qualities of the buddha

it's a good idea to do that you can do

it

in poly or you can do it in english it's

up to you

you see a lot of monks walking around

with his row of beads

there's 108 beads in there

that they carry they use that

as a counter so that

you can do this three or four times in a

sitting

and you won't lose track

he is energetic in abandoning

unwholesome states

energetic in using the six r's

and in undertaking wholesome states

he is steadfast firm in striving

not remiss in developing

wholesome wholesome states

he has mindfulness he is possessed of

the highest

mindfulness and skill remember it's

remembering to

observe how mind's attention moves

as you go deeper into your meditation

you'll start to see more and more

quickly

when there is some

disturbance of mine and you can

use the six r's right then as soon as

you do that

then you'll start seeing more and more

subtle little tiny things that can arise

he recalls and recollects what was done

long ago and spoken spoken long ago

he is wise he possesses wisdom

regarding the rise and disappearance

that is noble and penetrative and leads

to

the complete destruction of suffering

that is how a noble disciple possesses

good qualities

and how is a noble disciple one who

obtains at will

without any trouble or difficulty the

four

genres that constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

now what what i do with people

is i will teach them

and then i will

when when they are successful with

the practice then i will teach

them how to gain mastery of going

in and out of any of the genres

at will and i teach

that and there's a lot of usefulness

in that a lot of people have an idea

that jhana is just for sitting

meditation

and you can be in a genre when you're in

a crowd of people

you can if you want to affect that

people

with an uplifted mind

you can start radiating loving kindness

to those people and get into

the first john and second john i third

john a fourth drama you can do that with

loving kindness

it's up to you

and the more you practice this

the better you get at

being able to go in and out of the drama

whenever you want

the more successful you are and more

the more people around you become

happy

here secluded from sensual pleasure

secluded from unwholesome states

a noble disciple enters upon and abides

in the first

genre with the stilling of thinking and

examining

thought he enters upon and abides in the

second

genre with the fading away

as joy he enters upon and abides in the

third jhana

with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

he enters upon

and abides in the fourth china which has

neither pleasure nor

pain and purity mindfulness due to

equanimity

that is how a noble disciple is one

who obtains at will without trouble or

difficulty the four jonas that

constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

when a noble disciple has thus become

one

who is possessed of virtue who guards

the doors of his sense faculties

who is moderate in eating who is devoted

to wakefulness

who possesses seven good qualities

at will and who obtains

at will without trouble or difficulty

the four

genres that constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

he is one called in higher training

who has entered upon the way

his eggs are unspoiled he is

capable of breaking out capable of

awakening

capable of attaining the superior

supreme security from bondage

nibana

suppose there was a hen with

eight or ten or twelve eggs

which she had covered incubated

and nurtured properly

even though she did not wish

or think

oh that my chicks might pierce the

shells with the points of their claws

and

beaks and hatch out safely

yet the chicks are capable of piercing

their shells

with the points of their claws and beaks

and hatch out safely

so too when a noble disciple has thus

become one who is possessed of virtue

and the rest and is called an

entire team training who has entered

upon the way

his eggs are unspoiled

he is capable of breaking out

capable of awakening capable of

attaining the supreme security from

bondage nibana

having arrived at the same supreme

mindfulness whose purity is due to

equanimity

this noble disciple recollects his

manifold past lifetimes i'm not going to

get into this part of the

of the sutta

because it takes a lot longer kind of

explanation

and this is turning into a long

talk

although i can't see a clock to tell us

what time it is

yeah okay

so

then the blessed one rose and addressed

the venerable and onto thus

good good ananda it is good that you

have spoken to the sakians of capilavatu

about the disciple in higher training

who has entered upon the way

that is what the venerable ananda said

the teacher

approved the sakians and of cap

villavatu

were then satisfied and delighted in the

venerable ananda's words

so this suit has a lot of information

in it that is very useful

in a practical way

and if you

are serious about wanting to experience

what the buddha was talking about

i highly suggest you follow these

instructions

what the buddha was talking about i

highly recommend that

you follow

what the buddha suggests

it works

i promise it works

i have many

many students that are successful in

their meditation

their life has changed they become more

happy more uplifted

and more alert

and they don't get caught up in

emotional upsets

like something like this corona virus

that's happening right now they don't

become upset

because of that it's just

what's happening right now this is

happening in the present moment

why get upset by it

why try to fight with it why become

dissatisfied with it it's just what's

happening right now

and that will change on its own

and in

in maybe four months five months six

months

you won't even remember about this time

because it's not so important

so

turn life into a game

laugh smile have fun

the more you do that the better your

mindfulness becomes the more you smile

and

what you're doing while you do it

you are practicing the entire eightfold

path

at that time every time you use the six

hours you are practicing the

entire eightfold path at that time

you are practicing the four noble truths

at that time

this is why it's so important to

understand

to remember to use the

six r's often

whether you're sitting in meditation or

not

if a hindrance comes up and you get

knocked over

by it it's emotional pain and suffering

or physical pain and suffering

let it be there by itself don't get

involved with it don't try to make it

change

don't indulge in it just allow it to be

by itself

then relax into it and you'll see that

your mind becomes much more clearer more

bright

more alert more pure

so the more you can practice

this way the

easier the meditation becomes and the

more

fun the meditation becomes

now do you have any questions

oh hello monty hello

i have a couple of questions

uh the first question is uh sometimes

when i do uh

like the six hours if i do the loving

kindness

sometimes i'll feel like something jump

up in my heart

and my heart will like skip a bit i'm

wondering what that is

oh you're just starting to let go of

some old

attachments oh okay

it's nothing to be over concerned with

okay cool okay

what else second question

i think in one of the talks you said uh

not the mix of disciplines

are you referring to like vipassana in

six hours

it doesn't work so good your mind gets

confused

right

stick with the 6rs

that has been proven to be

very good and you get a successful

end result if you follow the rest of the

directions

cool no i did straight vipassana for 20

years i do

understand this and i understand all of

the insight knowledges that you're

supposed to have

because i experienced them but

it didn't lead to the experience of

nibana not

as it's described in the suttas

there could be some people that might

luck out and they experience

this is some some types of nibana

but it's all only maybe one every

500 000 or so that has that experience

i just i spent

i gave retreats for about 200 people in

india

half experienced

some form of nibana

half that's a lot different

than one every 500 000 people

and it's because of learning to

recognize the craving

and how to let it go how to practice

the six hours it works

i see some of the people that have been

practicing with me here

and they have successful practice

and they do very nicely

with their daily activities they don't

get so caught up and upset

so it really does work

okay oh yeah

anybody else

yeah hi bente hello

it's good to hear you here

um thank you for your teaching yeah it's

just

um you just said today um

the inside and we have inside we can see

inside or we

feel inside while in the janna

right right and so

this is like now with the calling the

intuition like

calling my intuition saying i want to

have an insight or something

we just allow that insight to arise or

to come and we

notice well of course it's it's like all

of a sudden

you've been wrestling with a problem and

now you got the answer

oh that's an insight it's not right

coming just there

during the meditation during the jannah

right during

maybe at any time any time yeah

coming yeah and it makes you real

happy because you figured something out

you saw how you were

doing something that uh

caused pain and now you figured out what

it is and how to let it go

that's a great insight

right especially when i'm not looking

for it it's coming right

and so that that is different than

before on your teaching

that yeah not really no really was the

same but

kind of yeah i didn't explain it quite

the same way before

okay just want to change my

way and no way but opening this a little

bit more that's what i'm

asking the question so thank you yeah

yeah okay it's great to see you again

yeah thank you

[Laughter]

when are you gonna come and visit me

well i would love to

i would love to i just was wondering how

to do this with uh you know the virus

like it's um

well they'll let you go from one state

to another it's not much of a big deal

it's just that um you know we are so

confined in the bay area we just don't

have we know

it's so heavy here about cannot move out

of your home with our mask and

everything that

i feel like i don't know what to do for

the plane i mean you did it i mean you

came back from

india right so yeah so you kind of

when you were staying in your meditation

in your jana and

just allow this to not having anything

coming to your body probably

right yeah i would love to i would love

to

and um i would love to get you out of

california

they're crazy there uh it's so um

you know i went to south of california

to a breeze because there was much

easier not coming south but in the

middle and that was really nice

landscape

space away from the bay but thank you

for your invitation i will allow that to

come in thank you

okay good i look forward to it

anybody else have a question

i have one question okay um

when i'm doing my uh forgiveness

meditation

huh like it's very tight

here like i can't verbalize it

well you're doing you're trying too hard

you're trying to push that feeling the

way you want it to go

instead of just forgive it for

not and forgive yourself for not

understanding

forgive yourself for getting caught by

your desires

okay the more you forgive

likely the easier it becomes

don't try too hard don't try to force it

that's that's where you wind up with a

tight mind

okay okay thank you

and please smile more

okay okay all right

uh i have a question regarding my

practice

so when i'm when i'm with the economy

uh if there is any disturbance is coming

i'm just bringing up

the tranquility so it's becoming

balanced

but this imbalance is coming

quite often

what do you mean by imbalance you mean

feeling a radiation of the equanimity

disappears

uh yeah okay and because because of

there is a disturbance of

mind well you mean moving on too tight

to the equanimity when it disappears

now you take mind as your object of

meditation

and it's just there's nothing there's

not going to be any movement of mind's

attention there's not going to be any

thoughts

it's just going to be quiet

and use the quiet mind as your

object of meditation don't hold on to

the equanimity

just let the mind be quiet

if you see the slightest thought

starting to come up as soon as you see

that relax and come back to the quiet

mind don't get involved with it

wrong you're just going from one level

to another now

and this is the good thing okay

i think you're right i was actually

holding

tight yeah you're holding on a little

bit too much

and that's okay forgive yourself for

doing that it's no big deal

just don't do it anymore just allow that

quiet mind to come

thank you i have some students

that can sit with a quiet mind without

any movement of mind's attention

for an hour

okay so that gives you an idea how you

can do that

and if you if you have the time now

is the time to sit longer

okay if you can afford to do that

i have one student that

he is retired so he doesn't have the

responsibility of

having to go to work and support himself

he's already retired

but he gets up very early in the morning

like four o'clock and he will sit in

meditation

until seven o'clock

so he'll sit for three hours

that's quite good if you can do that

and everybody is different so it's okay

if you don't have the time to do it

don't worry about it

as long as you sit every day

you will progress in your meditation

now if you can only sit for an hour in

the day your progress is not going to be

so fast

if you can sit for two hours at one time

your progress is going to do better

you can do three hours it can do even

better

but that depends on you and your

situation

you you get decide to decide for

yourself whether you want to do that or

whether you can't do that

it's up to you your life right

thank you one day uh i also want to

share

few changes i am experiencing

i i didn't quite hear you i want to

share uh like

i have been practicing um

uh since one month i was

i'm seeing a lot of changes a lot of

positive changes for me

good uh actually my my wife is saying

that you changed a lot

good you practice laughing with her

and having fun with her and that will

help your relationship with her

very much yeah okay

and i i can i can for sure say that you

you impacted a positive change in my

life i can say that

well thank you that makes me happy to be

able to help you

thank you thank you very much okay

anybody else

hi bunte hey how are you

i'm doing well i'm good very happy and

joyful

today excellent that makes me happy you

know

um so can you hear me all right yes okay

so i've had a lot of questions coming up

over the the past

weeks um kind of all about

the the precepts and especially the uh

the fourth precept about you know right

speech about not lying and no harsh

speech

right um and one of the questions that

actually came up about a month ago

uh was when i think david was sharing a

suta about

the buddha talking to an actor and

the actor was really pressing him for

sort of where am i going to go

and i think the from what i remember

basically the buddha said he was

going going to be reborn in a really low

state because of his profession

um so i mean does that mean that um

what i understood from that was that you

know by acting and sort of creating

fiction and these sort of

stories that aren't real is that of is

that to be understood as a form of

deception and

breaking the precept is am i

understanding that correctly

nah stories are understood by

everybody so it's not that it might be a

fantasy story

but if it has a a moral of the story

to it it's not breaking a precept

okay this has to be intentionally

trying to fool other people

okay okay

okay so i think that kind of answers my

second question but let me

just check to be sure um like sarcasm

you know is is literally as i understand

it you know saying one thing but meaning

another

but it's often meant as a joke so if if

the intent and if the understanding if

it's understood that you're not actually

that it is actually a joke then that's

also not breaking the precepts

well

look at the reaction you get from using

sarcasm

and yet generally it's not a good

reaction from other people

so it's better to stay away from that

kind of speech

right okay say things that make people

laugh

say things that make people happy to

hear

okay and so what if you're

sort of around people that don't always

pre

you know hold the precepts correctly

like you you mentioned earlier like

if it's family for example and you're

sort of people that you're living with

[Music]

well

one of the things i found when i started

doing

so much with meditation and that

was that my old friends were boring

and i started getting new friends

and they were interesting

but we were heading in the right in the

same direction basically

and people that break precepts all the

time

they're boring to be around you're not

comfortable around them

so you just don't be around them as much

and they'll fade away on their own just

keep practicing the precepts

yeah but you you be the

example of using right speech

and when you're the example then other

people

start following that

okay anything else

yeah there's one more question so i was

listening to

uh one of the dhamma talks you gave um

and you were talking about the i think

you were talking about a story of a

woman whose daughter was eaten by a

shark

yes you're really encouraging her to

sort of

uh let the pain come up and sort of

um well the truth is the pain is gonna

come up on its own whether she wanted it

to or not what i was trying to do was to

get

her to accept the pain without

trying to push it away or try to

uh get over involved in the sadness

of the situation

so it so it's not necessarily about

encouraging her to express it

it's it's just more about not trying no

not really okay

[Music]

i was trying to encourage her

to stay with the present even though the

present has

a lot of pain in it don't fight

don't fight or resist

soften your mind as much as you can

now there was there was extreme sadness

okay the sadness was there

you're not supposed to be smiling and

happy when that kind of sadness can

overwhelm you so allow it to be there

don't resist it don't try to push it

away

soften your mind as much as you can

and eventually it

changes and goes away

okay okay i understand thank you

thank you okay

happy to help you in whatever way i can

okay anybody else

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 just acquired

for the acquisition of all kinds of

happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power

share this merit of ours may they

long protect the buddha's dispensation

you

okay let's see we have five minutes okay

uh let's see we're up and um

let me get bonte here so today

um we'll formally start this

um today august

2nd 2020 2020

and uh i'm here at the yamasuka

meditation center with

ponte vimel and he will be doing

53 the

disciple in higher training training

otherwise known as abhidhamma

but he'll

so hold on okay uh without further ado

let me get bonte

situated here

okay can you hear me

yeah okay yep hello

thus have i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in sawat

in the asaki and country of cape villa

was the town that

grew up in

now on that occasion a new assembly hall

had recently been built for the saturns

of

capilavatu and had not

yet been inhabited by any recluse or

brahmin or human being at

all excuse me

then the sakians of cap villavatu went

to the blessed one after paying homage

to him

they sat down at one side and said to

him venerable sir

a new assembly hall has recently been

built

for the sakians of capilavatu

and it has not yet been inhabited by any

recluse or brahman or a human being at

all venerable sir let the blessed one be

the first to use it

then the blessed one has used it first

then the

sakions of captive

will use it afterwards that will lead to

their welfare and happiness for a long

time

the blessed one consented in silence

then when they saw that he had consented

they got up from their seats

and after paying homage to him keeping

him

on their right they went to the assembly

hall

and covered it completely with coverings

and prepared seats

and they put out a large water jug and

hung up an oil lamp

the thing during the time of the buddha

they didn't have electric lights

they had these oil lamps and they uh

they gave off very little light to be

quite honest

but the sri lankans before every domino

talk

they like to have an oil-like

lighting ceremony where people can

light one of the wicks that's in an oil

then they went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him

they stood at one side and said

venerable sir the assembly hall has been

covered completely with coverings

and seats have been prepared

a large water jug has put it been put

out in an

oil lamp hung up now is the time for the

blessed one to do

as he thinks fit

then the blessed one dressed and taking

his bowl and outer robe

went with the sangha of monks to the

assembly hall

when he arrived he washed his feet

and then entered the hall and sat down

hit by the center pillar

facing the east an interesting

thing about facing the east is that you

have a tendency to have more energy when

you face

east and

if you have sloth and torpor

if you if you face the east it will help

overcome that problem

now if you face north

it can put you to sleep north is a low

energy and if you have your head

pointing to the north when you lay down

and sleep you'll get good sleep that way

or if you're meditating and you have a

lot of restlessness

face north and

the restlessness tends to go away

that is also with

your using the six hours and other

things that i've taught you

he went to the sangha of monks

in the assembly hall when he arrived oh

he washed his feet that i did that and

the monks washed their feet and entered

the hall and sat

down

by the western wall facing the east

so basically they sat behind the buddha

with the blessed one before them the

sakians of

villa to wash their feet entered the

hall

and sat down by the eastern wall facing

the west

with the blessed one before them

then when the blessed one had instructed

urged roused and encouraged the sakians

of kapilavatu with a talk on

the dhamma for much of the night he

said to the venerable ananda

ananda speak to the sakians of

capilovatu

about the disciple in

higher training higher training in pali

is abhi dhamma

higher dhamma excuse me i have a

sneeze coming

my back is uncomfortable and i will rest

it

now an awful lot of people think that

when he told ananda to take over

this is in in the buddha's later life

in the last couple years of his life his

back started bothering him quite a bit

and he wasn't

upset because there was pain he just

knew that he had to rest his back

so that he could continue on doing

things

but he didn't lie down and go to sleep

and that's kind of

what the translator here

infers by his using a formula

that is in a lot of other sutas about

how how to do do the lying posture

then the blessed one prepared his

patchwork cloak

folded in four and lay down on his right

side in the lion's pose

you see a lot of uh

buddha images lying down and you always

see him with his

he's like this with his arm they don't

show you the pillow that he's got his

head on

that he's he's not just

putting all the weight on his arm

tried that for about 45 minutes my

my arm went to sleep

and it was really painful

so he did use the pillow

okay he he laid down on his right side

in the lion's pose

and one foot overlapping the other

mindful and fully aware

after after noting in his mind the time

for a rising

this is uh part of the formula

that it kind of looks like

the that's too low it has to be

yeah they're complaining they can't see

your face because there's something

because there's something down below

here's our your name

well i can't see my face now oh

so maybe i need to come up then yeah

is that better yes okay

anyway during the time of the buddha

they didn't have clocks and

the way they told time by was by

a rope that was very very big like like

this

and they would let it smolter

and every hour they would see how far

it's gone they say okay that's one hour

it was that's how they told their time

then the venerable ananda addressed

mahanama

the sake mahanama

took over for the buddha's

father when the father died

he was the oldest son

he was the buddha's brother

and he was a monk

when his father died and he was in the

room as a father

died and he

uh they were looking for somebody to

to become the

ruler and

[Music]

they couldn't find anybody so the buddha

said well we have to have somebody

that's vertuous

and he said okay

mahanama you become the next

the next king and

uh you can you can start ruling

and his father agreed that that was a

good thing so he disrobed and became

a layman and became the king

hear a noble disciple

excuse me

a noble disciple has possessed a virtue

guards the doors of his sense faculties

is moderate in eating and devoted to

wakefulness

he possesses seven good qualities

and he is one who obtains that will

without trouble or

difficulty the four genres that

constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

the way meditation is being taught now

there's some real confusion

that's happening because of

the burmese style

of meditation they don't like to have

people doing drama practice they want

you to do

insight only and that's caught on here

in this country so

there's some confusion about this

and it's the

uh the real problem

because the buddha very often

talks about the dramas in the suttas

and explains that the sutras

they need to be practiced

but because of the confusion with

straight vipassana meditation

uh the peop some people are

being led astray from the buddha's

teaching

now there's a funny experience that

i i had a student that had been teaching

going to style meditation for 20 years

he's been teaching a lot of people

and he came and he started practicing

with me

and because he started using the 6rs

and the relaxed step

one day he walked in for the interview

and he was

lit up i mean he was very happy

and i said well what's happening and he

said after

20 years i finally understand what a

pleasant abiding is

and he thought that was just great

anyway it it the the dramas

constitute the higher mind

not the worldly mind your mind is very

pure

when you're in a jhana

why is it pure because there is no

craving that arises there's no

hindrances

that arise while you are practicing and

are in a drama

and how is a noble disciple possessed a

virtue

here a noble disciple is virtuous he

dwells restrained by the restraint of

the potty mocha

the potty mocha is the rules for monks

now you have five precepts right i have

227

but that doesn't mean that you have to

follow

the way that i'm doing it keeping the

five precepts

purifies your mind enough

now you have hindrances that arise

and they distract your mind when you're

meditating

why do hindrance of right hindrances

arise what's the cause of a hindrance

the cause of a hindrance is

breaking a precept at some point in your

life

so you break a precept and you know

you've done something that's not

good and you start to feel

guilty because of that and then you

start because of that guilty feeling

you start taking your thoughts and

feelings personally

this is me this is mine this is who i am

when you're using the six r's

you are learning how to let go

of that past unwholesome

action that you did

and this purifies your mind in other

words

as soon as you relax and let go of the

craving

you will have a mind

that's clear that's very

bright and alert and

pure why is it pure

because you have let go of craving

craving is very

misunderstood throughout the world

wherever i teach most people don't

understand what craving is

or how to let it go

yeah and i spent 12 years in asia

looking for somebody to tell me

what craving actually was and nobody

could

how were you supposed to recognize it

well it's just

desire if you let go of desire

then you uh

then you

will be letting go of the craving and it

doesn't quite work

like that what is

craving craving is the

i like it i don't like it mind

when a pleasant feeling arises i like it

when a painful feeling arises i don't

like

it when

you are able to recognize that slight

tension

and tightness that happens in the head

and relax you will

notice that your mind is clear

your mind is very alert and bright

and there's no distracting thoughts

now one another thing that happens with

an awful lot of people

and that is they have

everybody is supposed to know

what the word mindfulness is supposed to

be

and there's a lot of definitions out

there

about mindfulness

i went to a mindfulness conference

and when it was my turn to get up and

talk that was the first thing i said was

okay you we've been talking about

mindfulness

all this conference can anybody give me

a

definition of what mindfulness is

and there was words like awareness

and that's a very

weak meaning

mindfulness is remembering

to observe how mind's attention

moves from one thing to another

now this works a hundred percent of the

time

your mind is on your object of

meditation all of a sudden you're

thinking about this or that

how did that happen we don't care

why it happened we want to be able to

see

how this process actually works

and as as you keep practicing

with the 6rs you start having insights

into how

it actually works

now this is insights

while you're in the jhana

so this is a little bit different than

is being taught right now

okay

now keeping the precepts

uh when i got back from

asia i start talking about the precepts

and minds

everybody's mind just turned off

yeah yeah yeah we know what it is

but they didn't practice it

now if you want to try and experiment

break a precept say something that's not

true

and watch what happens with your sitting

meditation all of a sudden you have a

hindrance

where did that hindrance come from well

it came from you

now the thing is that hindrances

are well that was interesting

hindrances are not your enemy to fight

with

hindrances are your teachers

they're showing you where in the past

you made a mistake

and now you want to purify your mind so

you use the 6rs

so it comes up to showing you

that you have a past

thing that's blocking your meditation

now you need to use the six

hours and let go of that distraction

don't make a big deal of it in your mind

the second step of the six hours

is

okay

he just did something the second step

of the six hours is release

release what release

the distraction that's

causing your mind to get distracted

how do you release it you don't keep

your attention

on that distraction no matter how big

or how painful it happens to be

then you relax

now you bring up something that's

wholesome

i'm real big on smiling

why am i real big on smiling

the more you smile

the better your mindfulness becomes

the more alert your mind becomes

one of the big problems with meditation

as it's being taught right now

is everybody gets way too serious

[Music]

and they

start trying to control and push

and make things be the way they want it

to be

and that causes a lot of pain

meditation is supposed to be light

it's supposed to be fun every time i

give a retreat i'm continually talking

about

have fun

don't be serious

i've been to a lot of meditation

retreats

and the first 20 years of my practice

was with the meditation retreats of

maasi saida

when you walk into a room where there's

20 30 40 50 people that are sitting in

meditation

you don't see anybody smile

not one time

and when you walk in you feel this

tightness and tension that's happening

in your mind

why does that why is that there

now i asked the mahasi teachers

why i don't i didn't want to have any

painful thing coming up in my head

they told me oh just ignore it it's

nothing it'll go away by itself

eventually

well as i started experiencing more and

more

with the sutas themselves and seeing

what the answer was

it was craving and they weren't able to

recognize it as craving

they didn't know how to let craving go

so there's a a problem

that's happening with an awful lot of

people that are doing

the practice and the problem is they try

too hard

you get too serious and then you start

trying to

force your mind to be the way you want

it to be

now i'm constantly telling people to

smile i'm constantly telling people

to laugh

while you're in meditation it's okay to

laugh

well of course it is your mind's crazy

might as well laugh with it right

smile laugh have

fun turn this into a game

rather than a serious problem

why do i say that

well when you were in school and you had

a favorite subject what kind of

grade did you get in that subject that's

pretty good right

why because it was fun

and you you liked it

well do that with the meditation

don't make it some kind of big hard

difficult thing to do

turn it into fun

when you do that i promise you

your meditation will

your meditation progress will

improve faster than you ever thought

possible

so

when you keep your precepts without

breaking them

the longer you do it

it turns into a protection for you

and

you will be able to recognize when other

people are

you're around other people that have a

tendency to break precepts and you won't

feel very comfortable around them

they won't feel particularly comfortable

around you

i've had some relatives that were

into their alcohol they were really into

drinking

and and breaking all kinds of precepts

and whenever i went to see them

i would start radiating loving kindness

to them and it was so uncomfortable for

them being

beside me that they got up and left the

room

that's a phenomena that can

happen i can remember

when i was in san francisco many years

ago

i was a layman at the time but i'd been

doing a lot of meditation

and i went to a party where there was

smoking pot

and they're drinking alcohol and they're

generally being

rowdy and i wasn't interested

of being around them so i just kind of

sat by myself and i thought well

i wonder what happens when you radiate

loving kindness to these folks

as i was radiating loving kindness

people got up and left the room

they went to another room where they

could be

sloppy with their mindfulness

and before long i was sitting in the

room

there was 20 people at this party but i

was sitting in the room by myself

and i was just about ready to get up and

leave

and some of the

boyfriends or girlfriends

they weren't into doing the alcohol

and all of that they started coming back

into the room

and we had a great night talking about

spiritual things

so it's a kind of protection it stops

you from being around unwholesome

people

so now it says after keeping the precept

he is perfect in conduct and resort

and seeing fear in the slightest fault

he trains by undertaking the training

precepts

this is how a noble disciple is

possessed of virtue

i'm going to go to another suta

for just a little

uh thing that talks about

what you do when you keep your precepts

let's see why you're doing that

while you're doing that monty let me

just say

martina if you just mute yourself

it will stop flashing to you

because any noise in your room it just

flashes

over to you thanks

okay this is from the kosamiyan

suta number 48 this is section

11. a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the character of a person

who possesses right view

what is the character of a person who

possesses

right view this is the character of a

person who possesses right view

although he may commit some kind of

offense

for which a means of rehabilitation has

been laid down

this is me this means you made a mistake

you said something that wasn't true

or you broke one of the precepts

now you can be rehabilitated and you can

rehabilitate yourself

the thing with breaking a precept is as

soon

as you break the precept your mind very

quietly says

i shouldn't have done that and you know

that you did it

now what do you do

when you recognize that you've broken a

precept

now what you need to do

is forgive yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again it doesn't

matter whether it's outlied

out loud or in your mind but take the

five precepts

again

with a strong determination

that you won't do that again

now when you when you treat breaking the

precepts this way

you will start to become more and more

aware

that well i broke a precept

and now you're going to let it go

and you'll notice that your sitting

meditation

has fewer and fewer hindrances

arising there's still going to be

hindrances come up

but it's going to be fewer

now i had one student that

i taught him for many

many many years he did

every retreat that i gave he was there

at the retreat

and when he got off to retreat he said

okay

i'm off retreat i don't have to do

anything with the precepts i'm going to

go back to being the way

i was

and i kept telling him he he used to

curse

a lot he liked dirty jokes

so he was always using foul language

if he came for a two-week retreat

the first 10 days of the retreat

was full of

hindrances it took him a long time to

settle down

finally when he purified his mind enough

then he started progressing but he was

only

progressing for two or three days before

he

at the end of the retreat and it

happened like that

continually every time he did a retreat

and he

i kept on telling him if you stop

using the foul language

then you're going to progress much

faster

it only took him 30 or 35 years to

figure that out

but when he did figure it out

all of a sudden his progress in the

meditation

really took off that's wonderful

so it's a real good idea for you to take

the precepts pretty seriously

okay uh although he may commit

some kind of offense for which a means

of rehabilitation has laid been laid

down

still he at once confesses

reveals and discloses to the teacher

or a wise companion in the holy life

having done that he enters upon

restraint

for the future just

as a young tender infant

lying prone

uh at once draws back when he puts his

hand

or foot on a live coal

so too that is the character of a person

who possesses right view

so you can see that this this is fairly

important

this is why you

will progress very fast when you keep

the precepts

and it won't be very fast if you don't

and you're in charge you

are your own teacher

i'm not your teacher

i'm a guide i find out how your

meditation is going and i might give you

some

suggestions and if you follow them

[Music]

then you're going to be successful with

your meditation

the progress in meditation

can be very fast

i know i did 12 3 months retreats

at one point i was doing heavy duty

retreats all the time

no progress not really

i did an eight-month retreat in burma i

did a two-year retreat

in burma before i became

disillusioned after 20 years of doing

the same practice

and not being successful with that

practice

but being told that i was successful

i started looking for other kinds of

practice so i went to the sutas

themselves

okay

this is how a noble disciple is

possessed of virtue

and how does a noble disciple guard the

doors of his sense faculties

on seeing a form with the eye a noble

disciple does not

grasp at its signs and features

start thinking about what you're seeing

instead of staying with your object to

meditation

that takes you away from your object of

meditation and turns into a

disturbance

now this doesn't mean that you can't see

and appreciate

beautiful things a flower can be very

beautiful

but if you start thinking oh you know i

saw that flower

last year and it was absolutely gorgeous

i remember when i gave one of those to

somebody else

all of a sudden you're not being with

your spiritual friend

or your object of meditation

and you're just caught up in thinking

so that's a problem

so you want to be

able to

keep the six r's close

okay use the six r's whenever there's

distraction

since if he left the eye faculty

unguarded evil unwholesome states of

covetousness and grief might invade him

he practices a way of its restraint he

guards the eye faculty he undertakes the

restraint of the eye faculty

on hearing the sound with the ear on

smelling an odor with a nose

on tasting a flavor with the tongue

on touching a tangible with the body

on cognizing a mind object with mind

a noble disciple does not grasp

at its signs and features

since if he left that those faculties

unguarded evil and wholesome states of

covetousness

and grief

might invade him he practices the way

of its restraint he guards these

faculties

he undertakes the restraint of the

faculties

that is how a noble disciple guards the

doors

of his sense faculties

and how is a noble disciple moderate

in eating here

reflecting wisely a noble disciple takes

food neither for amusement

nor for intoxication or for the sake of

physical beauty and attractiveness

but only for the endurance and

continuance of this body

in discomfort and for assisting the holy

life

the buddha suggested that you eat until

your stomach is half full with food

then you drink a quarter

of your stomach's capacity with water

and you leave air for the

rest of it

he also suggested that

when you chew your food you chew

the food until it becomes

liquid in your mouth

until you you really

chew your food a lot

now an awful lot of people especially in

in

asian countries they wind up with bad

stomachs

because they eat their food too fast

and the first part of digestion

is a saliva that you have

from your mouth intermixing with

the well-chewed food if it's

just chop chop chop swallow

then you have these big lumps and it's

hard to digest

in your stomach and that causes problems

for your health so

taking more time to eat and

chew your food is very

important

how one of the things that monks do

is they only eat

between six o'clock in the morning

and high noon

and i only eat one time a day

now

i stay healthy

because of this i fast for 16 hours a

day

and this is good for your health

i know a lot of people that oh i have to

have my

evening meal i have to eat first thing

in the morning i have to eat

uh no you don't really need to

in the morning either drink

water or you can have a cup of coffee or

tea whatever you like

but no solid food and

that way you stay healthy

now when i was in australia many years

ago

i was i went all the way through a cold

season

where there was frost on the ground

until

oh 10 or 11 o'clock in the aft in the

morning

i was only eating one meal a day i

didn't get sick

then it got to be the warmer season

spring was coming

and and i started going in and hanging

out with the monks

and they were eating breakfast and i

wound up taking a little bit here and a

little bit there and before long i was

eating

a full meal in the breakfast

and i immediately caught a cold

as soon as i noticed i caught the cold

i stopped eating all together i laid

down

and rested i took vitamin c

and the cold lasted about eight hours

now a lot of times you feel a cold

coming on

and if i come around and i say oh you

feel

you feel bad go take rest no i have to

go to work

i have to do this i have to do that

well you have about a two hour window

from

when you feel achy in your body

that you need to lie down in that period

of time

or else the cold is gonna

catch you and it's gonna last for

oh 10 days two weeks something like that

so if you learn to recognize

when you start feeling a cold

coming on you stop eating

if you need to eat just

eat some rice soup

without any meat in it without any other

vegetables

just fry soup

and lay down and rest now when i say lay

down and rest i mean

don't listen to music don't

watch tv don't read a book

lay down and rest

and when you feel like you you want to

go to sleep go to sleep

that's fine

then you'll overcome this cold

very quickly

this is not the advice that you hear by

most people

especially doctors they like you to eat

a lot

especially when you're sick

but i've been doing this for

35 or 40 years and occasionally

i do catch some kind of a cold

then i stop eating immediately and just

lay down and rest

and in a short period of time i'm over

the cold

but anybody else that i'm with they keep

trying to power their way through it oh

i can overcome this and

all i have to do is take this medicine

and that'll get rid of it

it's not the medicine that's needed

what's actually

needed is rest

give your body a chance to heal

itself

okay and how is a noble disciple devoted

to wakefulness

here during the day while walking back

and forth and sitting

a noble disciple purifies his mind of

obstructive

states hindrances

in the first watch of the night while

walking backing forth and sitting he

purifies his mind of obstructive states

the first watch of the night is seven

o'clock

in the evening until 11 o'clock in the

evening

in the middle watch of the night he lies

down

on his right side in the lion's pose

with one foot overlapping the other

the middle watcher of the night is

eleven o'clock until three o'clock in

the morning

after rising in the third watch of the

night

while walking back and forth and sitting

he purifies his mind of obstructive

states

the third watch is three o'clock in the

morning

until seven o'clock now when i was in

burma

for eight months i lived like that

well actually it was five months i lived

like that and then my teacher said why

are you being so lazy and sleeping so

much

so i cut my sleeping down to two hours

i don't recommend it

it took me six weeks to recover from

this

being so tired anyway

this is how a noble disciple is devoted

to wakefulness

and how does a noble disciple possess

seven

good qualities here a noble disciple has

faith he places his faith

in the tatakata's awakening thus

the blessed one is accomplished fully

awakened

perfect in true knowledge and conduct

sublime knower of worlds incomparable

leader of persons to be tamed

teacher of gods and humans awakened and

blessed

[Music]

now i've had some some students that

have had

extreme fear

and what i what i told them to do

was recite this the blessed one is

accomplished

fully awakened perfect and true

knowledge and conduct sublime knower of

worlds incomparable leader of persons to

be

tamed teacher of gods and humans

awakened and blessed

and i get them to recite that every day

for a period of time

and the fear starts to go away by itself

now fear is africa feeling

okay

the fastest and easiest way to

overcome fear

is by laughing

laugh because you have the fear

laugh at how crazy it is because it came

up

as soon as you do that

the identification with the fair the

fear

i'm afraid i

am disappears and it turns in to be only

being

a feeling now did you sit there

and tell yourself i have to be afraid

right now

because i haven't been afraid for a long

time

no it happens because conditions are

right for it to arise

what you do with what arises in the

present

dictates what happens in the future

if you fight with what's happening in

the present if you try to control it

if you indulge in it if you try to make

it be the way you want it to be

you can look forward to having a lot

bigger and more intense fear arising

or if you

keep your mind light and kind of

laugh with it because it's not yours

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

make it go away

so why get involved with it

now this is the second step of the six

hours release it let it be there by

itself

don't get involved with it it's only a

feeling

it's not even your feeling

so let it be

he has shame he is ashamed of

misconduct and body speech and mind

ashamed of engaging in evil and

wholesome

deeds

it is good to develop that so you become

more aware

when you want to do something

and right before you do it you become

aware of what you're doing

and you back off you don't do it

he has fear of wrongdoing he's afraid of

misconduct in body speech and mind

afraid of engaging in evil unwholesome

deeds again

being ashamed of doing it

and having fear of doing it

will keep your mindfulness more clear

and you will start to

see and appreciate the effectiveness

of keeping your precepts without

breaking them

he has learned much what he has

learned and can talk consolidates

what he has learned such teachings

are good in the beginning good in the

middle and good in the end

with the right meaning and phrasing

and affirm a holy life that is utterly

perfect

and pure such teachings

as these he has learned

much of remembered recited verbally

investigated with the mind and

penetrated

well by view

it's a good idea to memorize

some of the easier sutas to memorize

they aren't long they're easy to

memorize

like overcoming fear by looking at the

good qualities of the buddha

it's a good idea to do that you can do

it

in poly or you can do it in english it's

up to you

you see a lot of monks walking around

with his row of beads

there's 108 beads in there

that they carry they use that

as a counter so that

you can do this three or four times in a

sitting

and you won't lose track

he is energetic in abandoning

unwholesome states

energetic in using the six r's

and in undertaking wholesome states

he is steadfast firm in striving

not remiss in developing

wholesome wholesome states

he has mindfulness he is possessed of

the highest

mindfulness and skill remember it's

remembering to

observe how mind's attention moves

as you go deeper into your meditation

you'll start to see more and more

quickly

when there is some

disturbance of mine and you can

use the six r's right then as soon as

you do that

then you'll start seeing more and more

subtle little tiny things that can arise

he recalls and recollects what was done

long ago and spoken spoken long ago

he is wise he possesses wisdom

regarding the rise and disappearance

that is noble and penetrative and leads

to

the complete destruction of suffering

that is how a noble disciple possesses

good qualities

and how is a noble disciple one who

obtains at will

without any trouble or difficulty the

four

genres that constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

now what what i do with people

is i will teach them

and then i will

when when they are successful with

the practice then i will teach

them how to gain mastery of going

in and out of any of the genres

at will and i teach

that and there's a lot of usefulness

in that a lot of people have an idea

that jhana is just for sitting

meditation

and you can be in a genre when you're in

a crowd of people

you can if you want to affect that

people

with an uplifted mind

you can start radiating loving kindness

to those people and get into

the first john and second john i third

john a fourth drama you can do that with

loving kindness

it's up to you

and the more you practice this

the better you get at

being able to go in and out of the drama

whenever you want

the more successful you are and more

the more people around you become

happy

here secluded from sensual pleasure

secluded from unwholesome states

a noble disciple enters upon and abides

in the first

genre with the stilling of thinking and

examining

thought he enters upon and abides in the

second

genre with the fading away

as joy he enters upon and abides in the

third jhana

with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

he enters upon

and abides in the fourth china which has

neither pleasure nor

pain and purity mindfulness due to

equanimity

that is how a noble disciple is one

who obtains at will without trouble or

difficulty the four jonas that

constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

when a noble disciple has thus become

one

who is possessed of virtue who guards

the doors of his sense faculties

who is moderate in eating who is devoted

to wakefulness

who possesses seven good qualities

at will and who obtains

at will without trouble or difficulty

the four

genres that constitute the higher mind

and provide a pleasant abiding here and

now

he is one called in higher training

who has entered upon the way

his eggs are unspoiled he is

capable of breaking out capable of

awakening

capable of attaining the superior

supreme security from bondage

nibana

suppose there was a hen with

eight or ten or twelve eggs

which she had covered incubated

and nurtured properly

even though she did not wish

or think

oh that my chicks might pierce the

shells with the points of their claws

and

beaks and hatch out safely

yet the chicks are capable of piercing

their shells

with the points of their claws and beaks

and hatch out safely

so too when a noble disciple has thus

become one who is possessed of virtue

and the rest and is called an

entire team training who has entered

upon the way

his eggs are unspoiled

he is capable of breaking out

capable of awakening capable of

attaining the supreme security from

bondage nibana

having arrived at the same supreme

mindfulness whose purity is due to

equanimity

this noble disciple recollects his

manifold past lifetimes i'm not going to

get into this part of the

of the sutta

because it takes a lot longer kind of

explanation

and this is turning into a long

talk

although i can't see a clock to tell us

what time it is

yeah okay

so

then the blessed one rose and addressed

the venerable and onto thus

good good ananda it is good that you

have spoken to the sakians of capilavatu

about the disciple in higher training

who has entered upon the way

that is what the venerable ananda said

the teacher

approved the sakians and of cap

villavatu

were then satisfied and delighted in the

venerable ananda's words

so this suit has a lot of information

in it that is very useful

in a practical way

and if you

are serious about wanting to experience

what the buddha was talking about

i highly suggest you follow these

instructions

what the buddha was talking about i

highly recommend that

you follow

what the buddha suggests

it works

i promise it works

i have many

many students that are successful in

their meditation

their life has changed they become more

happy more uplifted

and more alert

and they don't get caught up in

emotional upsets

like something like this corona virus

that's happening right now they don't

become upset

because of that it's just

what's happening right now this is

happening in the present moment

why get upset by it

why try to fight with it why become

dissatisfied with it it's just what's

happening right now

and that will change on its own

and in

in maybe four months five months six

months

you won't even remember about this time

because it's not so important

so

turn life into a game

laugh smile have fun

the more you do that the better your

mindfulness becomes the more you smile

and

what you're doing while you do it

you are practicing the entire eightfold

path

at that time every time you use the six

hours you are practicing the

entire eightfold path at that time

you are practicing the four noble truths

at that time

this is why it's so important to

understand

to remember to use the

six r's often

whether you're sitting in meditation or

not

if a hindrance comes up and you get

knocked over

by it it's emotional pain and suffering

or physical pain and suffering

let it be there by itself don't get

involved with it don't try to make it

change

don't indulge in it just allow it to be

by itself

then relax into it and you'll see that

your mind becomes much more clearer more

bright

more alert more pure

so the more you can practice

this way the

easier the meditation becomes and the

more

fun the meditation becomes

now do you have any questions

oh hello monty hello

i have a couple of questions

uh the first question is uh sometimes

when i do uh

like the six hours if i do the loving

kindness

sometimes i'll feel like something jump

up in my heart

and my heart will like skip a bit i'm

wondering what that is

oh you're just starting to let go of

some old

attachments oh okay

it's nothing to be over concerned with

okay cool okay

what else second question

i think in one of the talks you said uh

not the mix of disciplines

are you referring to like vipassana in

six hours

it doesn't work so good your mind gets

confused

right

stick with the 6rs

that has been proven to be

very good and you get a successful

end result if you follow the rest of the

directions

cool no i did straight vipassana for 20

years i do

understand this and i understand all of

the insight knowledges that you're

supposed to have

because i experienced them but

it didn't lead to the experience of

nibana not

as it's described in the suttas

there could be some people that might

luck out and they experience

this is some some types of nibana

but it's all only maybe one every

500 000 or so that has that experience

i just i spent

i gave retreats for about 200 people in

india

half experienced

some form of nibana

half that's a lot different

than one every 500 000 people

and it's because of learning to

recognize the craving

and how to let it go how to practice

the six hours it works

i see some of the people that have been

practicing with me here

and they have successful practice

and they do very nicely

with their daily activities they don't

get so caught up and upset

so it really does work

okay oh yeah

anybody else

yeah hi bente hello

it's good to hear you here

um thank you for your teaching yeah it's

just

um you just said today um

the inside and we have inside we can see

inside or we

feel inside while in the janna

right right and so

this is like now with the calling the

intuition like

calling my intuition saying i want to

have an insight or something

we just allow that insight to arise or

to come and we

notice well of course it's it's like all

of a sudden

you've been wrestling with a problem and

now you got the answer

oh that's an insight it's not right

coming just there

during the meditation during the jannah

right during

maybe at any time any time yeah

coming yeah and it makes you real

happy because you figured something out

you saw how you were

doing something that uh

caused pain and now you figured out what

it is and how to let it go

that's a great insight

right especially when i'm not looking

for it it's coming right

and so that that is different than

before on your teaching

that yeah not really no really was the

same but

kind of yeah i didn't explain it quite

the same way before

okay just want to change my

way and no way but opening this a little

bit more that's what i'm

asking the question so thank you yeah

yeah okay it's great to see you again

yeah thank you

[Laughter]

when are you gonna come and visit me

well i would love to

i would love to i just was wondering how

to do this with uh you know the virus

like it's um

well they'll let you go from one state

to another it's not much of a big deal

it's just that um you know we are so

confined in the bay area we just don't

have we know

it's so heavy here about cannot move out

of your home with our mask and

everything that

i feel like i don't know what to do for

the plane i mean you did it i mean you

came back from

india right so yeah so you kind of

when you were staying in your meditation

in your jana and

just allow this to not having anything

coming to your body probably

right yeah i would love to i would love

to

and um i would love to get you out of

california

they're crazy there uh it's so um

you know i went to south of california

to a breeze because there was much

easier not coming south but in the

middle and that was really nice

landscape

space away from the bay but thank you

for your invitation i will allow that to

come in thank you

okay good i look forward to it

anybody else have a question

i have one question okay um

when i'm doing my uh forgiveness

meditation

huh like it's very tight

here like i can't verbalize it

well you're doing you're trying too hard

you're trying to push that feeling the

way you want it to go

instead of just forgive it for

not and forgive yourself for not

understanding

forgive yourself for getting caught by

your desires

okay the more you forgive

likely the easier it becomes

don't try too hard don't try to force it

that's that's where you wind up with a

tight mind

okay okay thank you

and please smile more

okay okay all right

uh i have a question regarding my

practice

so when i'm when i'm with the economy

uh if there is any disturbance is coming

i'm just bringing up

the tranquility so it's becoming

balanced

but this imbalance is coming

quite often

what do you mean by imbalance you mean

feeling a radiation of the equanimity

disappears

uh yeah okay and because because of

there is a disturbance of

mind well you mean moving on too tight

to the equanimity when it disappears

now you take mind as your object of

meditation

and it's just there's nothing there's

not going to be any movement of mind's

attention there's not going to be any

thoughts

it's just going to be quiet

and use the quiet mind as your

object of meditation don't hold on to

the equanimity

just let the mind be quiet

if you see the slightest thought

starting to come up as soon as you see

that relax and come back to the quiet

mind don't get involved with it

wrong you're just going from one level

to another now

and this is the good thing okay

i think you're right i was actually

holding

tight yeah you're holding on a little

bit too much

and that's okay forgive yourself for

doing that it's no big deal

just don't do it anymore just allow that

quiet mind to come

thank you i have some students

that can sit with a quiet mind without

any movement of mind's attention

for an hour

okay so that gives you an idea how you

can do that

and if you if you have the time now

is the time to sit longer

okay if you can afford to do that

i have one student that

he is retired so he doesn't have the

responsibility of

having to go to work and support himself

he's already retired

but he gets up very early in the morning

like four o'clock and he will sit in

meditation

until seven o'clock

so he'll sit for three hours

that's quite good if you can do that

and everybody is different so it's okay

if you don't have the time to do it

don't worry about it

as long as you sit every day

you will progress in your meditation

now if you can only sit for an hour in

the day your progress is not going to be

so fast

if you can sit for two hours at one time

your progress is going to do better

you can do three hours it can do even

better

but that depends on you and your

situation

you you get decide to decide for

yourself whether you want to do that or

whether you can't do that

it's up to you your life right

thank you one day uh i also want to

share

few changes i am experiencing

i i didn't quite hear you i want to

share uh like

i have been practicing um

uh since one month i was

i'm seeing a lot of changes a lot of

positive changes for me

good uh actually my my wife is saying

that you changed a lot

good you practice laughing with her

and having fun with her and that will

help your relationship with her

very much yeah okay

and i i can i can for sure say that you

you impacted a positive change in my

life i can say that

well thank you that makes me happy to be

able to help you

thank you thank you very much okay

anybody else

hi bunte hey how are you

i'm doing well i'm good very happy and

joyful

today excellent that makes me happy you

know

um so can you hear me all right yes okay

so i've had a lot of questions coming up

over the the past

weeks um kind of all about

the the precepts and especially the uh

the fourth precept about you know right

speech about not lying and no harsh

speech

right um and one of the questions that

actually came up about a month ago

uh was when i think david was sharing a

suta about

the buddha talking to an actor and

the actor was really pressing him for

sort of where am i going to go

and i think the from what i remember

basically the buddha said he was

going going to be reborn in a really low

state because of his profession

um so i mean does that mean that um

what i understood from that was that you

know by acting and sort of creating

fiction and these sort of

stories that aren't real is that of is

that to be understood as a form of

deception and

breaking the precept is am i

understanding that correctly

nah stories are understood by

everybody so it's not that it might be a

fantasy story

but if it has a a moral of the story

to it it's not breaking a precept

okay this has to be intentionally

trying to fool other people

okay okay

okay so i think that kind of answers my

second question but let me

just check to be sure um like sarcasm

you know is is literally as i understand

it you know saying one thing but meaning

another

but it's often meant as a joke so if if

the intent and if the understanding if

it's understood that you're not actually

that it is actually a joke then that's

also not breaking the precepts

well

look at the reaction you get from using

sarcasm

and yet generally it's not a good

reaction from other people

so it's better to stay away from that

kind of speech

right okay say things that make people

laugh

say things that make people happy to

hear

okay and so what if you're

sort of around people that don't always

pre

you know hold the precepts correctly

like you you mentioned earlier like

if it's family for example and you're

sort of people that you're living with

[Music]

well

one of the things i found when i started

doing

so much with meditation and that

was that my old friends were boring

and i started getting new friends

and they were interesting

but we were heading in the right in the

same direction basically

and people that break precepts all the

time

they're boring to be around you're not

comfortable around them

so you just don't be around them as much

and they'll fade away on their own just

keep practicing the precepts

yeah but you you be the

example of using right speech

and when you're the example then other

people

start following that

okay anything else

yeah there's one more question so i was

listening to

uh one of the dhamma talks you gave um

and you were talking about the i think

you were talking about a story of a

woman whose daughter was eaten by a

shark

yes you're really encouraging her to

sort of

uh let the pain come up and sort of

um well the truth is the pain is gonna

come up on its own whether she wanted it

to or not what i was trying to do was to

get

her to accept the pain without

trying to push it away or try to

uh get over involved in the sadness

of the situation

so it so it's not necessarily about

encouraging her to express it

it's it's just more about not trying no

not really okay

[Music]

i was trying to encourage her

to stay with the present even though the

present has

a lot of pain in it don't fight

don't fight or resist

soften your mind as much as you can

now there was there was extreme sadness

okay the sadness was there

you're not supposed to be smiling and

happy when that kind of sadness can

overwhelm you so allow it to be there

don't resist it don't try to push it

away

soften your mind as much as you can

and eventually it

changes and goes away

okay okay i understand thank you

thank you okay

happy to help you in whatever way i can

okay anybody else

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 just acquired

for the acquisition of all kinds of

happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and nagas of mighty power

share this merit of ours may they

long protect the buddha's dispensation

you