From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=93ZM5UP_6Q4

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

[Music]

okay go ahead

so i hope you all had a

good holiday

it's really funny this is only the

second time we've been back in 10 years

in america where christmas means

something

and i've been in in asia

and christmas is just another day

so it's real interesting

interesting time

so

the suta tonight is suita 106 the way to

the imperturbable

this is a

a

fairly advanced

sutub to be giving

but

take any notes and let me know at the

end if you didn't understand and i'll

try to explain

thus as i heard on one occasion the

blessed one was living in the kuru

country in a town of the kurus named

kama sadama that's a cute name

there is a blessed one addressed amongst

us monks venerable sir they replied the

blessed one said this

monk's sensual pleasures are impermanent

hollow

false

deceptive

they are illusionary the prattle of

fools

sensual pleasures here and now central

pleasures and lives

to come

sexual perceptions here and now

essential perceptions and lives to come

both alike are mara's realm

[Music]

mara's domain

mara's bait

mara's hunting ground

i learned an interesting thing about

maura

we always call him he

but that's just so you understand who

we're talking about

he was

asexual he didn't have any sex at all

so

and he he was very much attached to

sensual pleasures

and thought everybody should have these

sensual pleasures

and

uh

eat drink and be merry for the rest of

your life that comes from mara

so

on the account of them

these evil and wholesome mental states

such as covetousness ill will and

presumption

arise

and they constitute an obstruction to

the noble disciple

in training here

all of you are noble disciples because

you're practicing

now the practice can be

just using the six hours in your daily

activities

as well as sitting in meditation

now we get to the imperturbible

therein monks a noble disciple considers

thus

sensual pleasures here and now sensual

pleasures and lives to come

constitute an obstruction to a noble

disciple in training

suppose i were to abide with the mind

abundant exalted

having transcended the world

and made a determination with the mind

that means that you're you make a

determination to stay in one of the

dramas

and we're talking about the four lower

dramas

and the highest of that is staying in

equanimity now when you get into

equanimity on a regular basis and you

stay there

what me that means is

you have

disenchantment with sensual pleasures

they just don't interest you so much

so it's not a distraction for you ever

your mind has this perfect balance in it

and your mind is calm all the time

that comes out in your voice

when i do so there will be no more evil

and wholesome mental state such as

covetous ill will and presumption

of

me with the endings that i can be

unlimited and miserable well developed

so

this is

a very good

thing to do and that is develop your

mastery of going in and out of a jhana

until you get to the equanimity where

you can stay in that equanimity all the

time

and that takes care of

all emotional upsets

that takes care of sadness fear anxiety

depression all of those things

occur

because in the past you broke precepts

when you're in a jhana you don't break

precepts

your mind is pure

your mind is uplifted

so it's a real good practice

to develop your mind in such a way that

you can stay in the genre

anytime you want to

what does jhana mean it means a level of

understanding

that's all it means

so

when he practices in this way and

frequently abides thus

his mind acquires confidence in this

base

once there is full confidence

he either attains to the imperturbable

now or else

he resolves upon it with

wisdom

resolving upon it with wisdom means

keeping the practice of six hours

and understanding how

dependent origination actually works

on the dissolution of the body

after death

it is possible that this covet this

consciousness of his leading to rebirth

may pass on to rebirth

in the imperturbable

interpretable means

no fluctuation no no

uh

wavering of being in that job

this monks is declared by me to be the

first way to direct to the imperturbable

again

a noble disciple considers us

there are sensual pleasures here and now

sensual pleasures and lives to come

central perceptions here and now and

central perception and lives to come

whatever material form there is

all material form

is the four great elements

[Music]

has

some degree or other of the four

elements air fire

uh wind

and water

they all have different degrees

of those elements in them

so

you start realizing that that's all

material form is

it's just these four elements

and that helps to keep your balance

with

uh

over

excitement of material forms

there are times when you

your shirt has a hole in it you need to

get a new shirt

you go get a new shirt but it doesn't

excite you to do it it's just something

that has to be done

when he practices in this way and

frequently abides to us his mind

acquires confidence in this space

i just learned something that david and

i were talking about today

and

uh

somebody asked the buddha about

this man that uh

had really really strong confidence in

the buddha and the power of that

confidence

and

they asked where he was reborn and he

was reborn in one of the high he never

did any meditation

but he was reborn in one of the higher

uh

devalucas

and he was there for a period of time

and came down to another and then

another and then

he was

reborn as a pacheco buddha

never having done any meditation

it was his confidence in the buddha

having confidence in the buddha is

really a remarkable thing

now in

burma there's a lot of monks that they

recite

the

good qualities of the buddha nine good

qualities of the buddha with

their beads

and

they gain such confidence in the buddha

that they are at some point

are going to probably be reborn

as a pacheco buddha

now this is over huge long periods of

time of course

there are pacheco buddhas that can be in

the same lifetime and they can even know

each other

but there is never any attachment to any

of that

so it's a

when you have absolutely

convinced

that

the buddha was real

and

you're absolutely convinced that

he was teaching the right way

you have the potential to be reborn as

a

pacheco buddha

and call it a silent buddha

that's just an interesting side note

that we discussed today i thought it was

kind of fun

once there's full confidence

oh

for a period of time for for three

months

a whole range retreat

i recited this

uh good qualities of the buddha and i

reflected on it a lot

now the way the buddha the way the

burmese do it

is they do

forwards and backwards

[Music]

like that

and you have to go all the way through

without making a mistake

and you do that

nine times

in a sitting

at the end of three months i could do

that in four or five minutes

that's how good i got at doing it

of course that's gone away

since i don't do that so much anymore

anyway

while i was sitting doing that i had an

image come into my mind

the of the buddha

while he was giving a dhamma talk

and i felt the confidence just

built up and it just covered me it was

wonderful

i was happy for a week after that

and it was not good conditions i was

living in so being happy was real

spectacular

just to let you know that these kind of

things can happen for you

but it takes work

once there's full confidence

he either attains to the imperturbable

that means gets into a genre here and

now

or else

he resolves upon it

with wisdom

and you start seeing

how the links of dependent origination

actually work and you start

really getting a lot of confidence in

that

it's kind of interesting that there's a

lot of people quote buddhists that don't

know anything about dependent

origination

and this is the backbone of the buddha's

teaching

every link has a four noble truths in it

and it gets more and more clear as you

go and you start to notice

other people

and how they do things and you can see

those links

sometimes it's just five or six links

that you might see but you can see

how this actually does work

and you can see it in animals

we have dogs around here and you can see

how dependent origination works with

them

especially our bigger dog

it's it's real easy to see his green

lust for food arise because he's really

a chow hound

so

on the dissolution of the body after

death

it is possible that this consciousness

of his leading to rebirth

may pass on to rebirth in the

imperturbable

now the imperturbable is really talking

about the first second third and fourth

john's

the

other

states of meditation

they're all part of the fourth genre

the other

states are called the immaterial genres

there's still radiance around the

different beings

but there's no material form

this monks is declared to be the second

way directed to the imperturbable

again

a noble disciple considers thus sensual

pleasures here and now sensual pleasures

and lives to come

sensual perceptions here and now on

sensual perception and lives to come

material forms here and now and material

form and lives to come

perception of forms here and now

and perception of forms and lives to

come

both alike are imperturbable

or are impermanent excuse me

what is impermanent is not worth

delighting in

not worth welcoming

not worth holding to

when you

are successful with your meditation

you go beyond that

to the immaterial

and

there's real relief in that there's a

kind of happiness that is just

no more having to put up with any of

this materials things again

of course you're in that for a small

short period of time

then you come back to the material realm

but you're not attached to the material

realm anymore

and live a life full of

balance

think about what relief there is if

there is no more arguments

if there's no more anger

nice

that's what we're working for

when he practices in this way and

frequently abides thus his mind acquires

confidence in this base

once there's full confidence

he either attains to the imperturbable

now or else he resolves upon it with

wisdom

on the desolution of the body after

death it is possible

that this consciousness of her of his

leading to rebirth

may pass on to the re to rebirth in the

imperturbable

this monks is declared to be the

third way directed

again

mobilis considers that

the sensual pleasures here and now

sensual pleasures and lives to come

sensual perceptions here and now

conceptual perceptions and lives to come

material form here and now in material

forms and lives to come

perception of forms here and now

and perception of forms and lives to

come

what are you doing

oh

[Music]

okay

technical problems

perceptions of the imperturbable are all

our perceptions now when i'm talking to

you about the five aggregates

the definition of perceptions is

different than the perceptions that we

have right now

perceptions that we're using right now

means being aware of

okay

so when we're talking directly about

meditation

perceptions have to do with memory and

and that sort of thing

so that that's the real difference of

the use of this word

for these perceptions cease without

remainder

that is the peaceful

that is sublime

namely the base of nothingness

when you get into the immaterial realms

this is what we're talking about right

now it's saying

with nothingness

when nothingness occurs you're not

looking outside your mind anymore you're

starting to look directly at it

so material things

don't have any meaning when you're in

that realm it's all a mental realm

this is the very beginning of

teaching yourself

to watch mind

and then you watch it in a finer way

when you get into neither perception or

non-perception

when he practices in this way and

frequently abides us his mind acquires

confidence in this base

having confidence in the base of

nothingness is very strong

and you realize quite deeply the

immaterial realm

this is a realm where you don't have any

emotional

nonsense

once there's full confidence he either

attains to the base of nothingness now

now you could be walking around

and actually doing things in a state of

nothingness

when you go to neither perception or

non-perception

you don't

you're not able to do that

because

your awareness is so subtle

you can't tell whether it's there or not

and this is why i tell people when they

have before they come out that they need

to reflect on what happened before

they came out

so they can see the things

through their memories they can see the

things

uh that arose and they can six are them

it only takes one or two minutes when

you come out

that's after sitting for four hours or

so

five hours six hours twelve hours

six days whatever

actually you don't sit that long in that

round

but you can sit up to 24 hours pretty

easily in that room

on the dissolution of the body after

death it is possible that this

consciousness of his leading to rebirth

may pass on to rebirth in the base of

nothingness that means you'll be reborn

in

a brahmaloka

or

in one of the higher realms

i'm not sure that's correct

i'll have to check

this monk is declared to be the first

way directed to the base of nothingness

again a noble disciple gone to the

forest or to the root of a tree or an

empty hut considers thus

this is void of the self

or of what belongs to itself

i've told you before

before i really had any

asian teachers outside of lucille ananda

and menindra

when i was in thailand by myself

because nobody else spoke in english at

the places i was staying at

i had to do practices on my own

and the practice that i really liked

doing

was going into town just kind of

wandering around and seeing the

impersonal nature of everything that's

happening in my mind

it was it was fun doing

because i i got

i started developing a real sense of

humor about how how nutty my mind was

i don't like this i don't like that

oh the this is weird

all of these kind of peculiar thoughts

would come up

but

when i noticed them i asked myself

whose thought is that

women might be a thought that i picked

up from somebody in australia

or america on the other side of the

world

who knows

who cares

it's real interesting

to see how

much credence we put in our own thoughts

and demand that things be done in the

way we want them to be done

we spend an awful lot of time and energy

doing that

and it causes

so much pain and suffering and we're

doing it to ourselves

what bad habits within

how much pain have we caused our

oceans of pain according to

some of the suit tills

well

that doesn't sound like a fun way to

have a good existence does it

it's painful

when we start believing every little

thing coming out of our mind

so it's a difficult practice

because sometimes you get caught

and you wind up

having all of this nonsense

come into your mind and you start acting

and you start doing things that get

other people

unhappy

and it's like you're doing it on purpose

but you're not really

you're just

misunderstanding

how mind works

and there's a huge amount of suffering

that we cause to ourselves because of

that

so it might be a suggestion for you with

your daily activities start doing that

where'd that feeling come from why is

that thought there

is it just because of an old habit the

way i think i should have been doing

something or is it

i'm picking it up from somebody else

now if you walk into a room where

somebody's angry

you can feel that right

you take that feeling to me your feeling

i walked in happy and all of a sudden i

can still be happy even though they

they're unhappy

whose thought is it

why do i take it as my thought

why don't i just let it be and let it go

it doesn't mean anything

at all

when he practices in this way and

frequently abides us his mind acquires

confidence in this base once you have

confidence in the base

it's a real power

and

you don't get caught by things anymore

you don't get caught with prejudices you

don't get caught with

judgments and criticisms

it's not that i need to know it's just

that i find it interesting and see how

it's going

so

full confidence is mentally and

physically

consuming

it's really really nice

he attains to the base of nothingness

now or else he resolves upon it with

wisdom

on the desolution

it is possible

just

eating to rebirth

may pass on to rebirth in the base of

nothingness that just means changing

from one realm to another

this is declared to be the second way

directed to the base of nothingness

again

a noble disciple considers thus

i am not anything belonging to anyone

anywhere

i'm not there it's not me

i have a lot of people that tell me i

asked them a question

especially if they're bored

or they have some kind of

hindrance arising

whose hindrance is it

who doesn't like it who wants to control

it who tries to make it be the way they

want it to be

and it's always that false belief in a

personal self

it's always

me

and no say

it's i

no it's me

i'm doing it to myself i'm causing this

upset

but the thing with

that question

where'd that come from

whose is it

why did it come up all of those kind of

questions

they disappeared

and you start seeing the impersonal

nature of everything more and more

clearly

so there's no

nothing anywhere belonging to me

or anyone

anywhere

it just comes up

having this physical body

is is put there as a test

does the

new

react to it

instead of respond to it

you respond to it by investigating more

closely

where'd that come from

whose is that

why am i taking this personally

it's an impersonal process

but people when i ask them these kind of

questions

they'll try to

finagle their way around saying that

they're doing it

themselves

well it's just this thought

well yeah but those thought is it

who wants it to be different than it is

who wants to

control it

that's the big question and then we all

want to control

when he practices in his way frequently

abides thus his mind acquires confidence

in this base

once there's full confidence

he either attains to the base of

nothingness now

or else he resolves upon it with wisdom

resolves upon it with wisdom means that

you can walk around

and and this is kind of an interesting

thing i had a discussion with usilananda

and i told him

some of the experience that i was having

with

um

seeing the impersonal nature of

everything

and

you can do it while you're walking while

you're talking while you're doing this

or that you can do it anytime

he said oh no no no no no absolutely not

you can only do that while you're

sitting

and

then

he tried it

and he came back with kind of a sheepish

look on his face and said you were right

on the desolution of the body after

death it is possible that this

consciousness of his leading to the

rebirth

may pass on to to rebirth in the base of

nothingness

this monk is declared to be the third

way directed to the base of nothingness

now we get into the base of neither

perception nor non-perception

again monks the noble disciple considers

thus

sensual pleasures here and now in

sensual pleasures and lives to come

sensual perceptions here and now on

central perception in lives to come

material forms here and now on material

forms and lives to come

perception of forms here and now

and perception

of forms and lives to come

perceptions

to the imperturbable

perceptions

to the base of nothingness

all our perception

where these perceptions cease without

remainder

that is the peaceful

that is the sublime

namely the base of neither perception

nor non-perception

and that's the conversation i have with

many of the students when you get to

this realm

what relief it is not to have your mind

going around

making up stuff so it can be entertained

and just

sit quietly in the quiet mind for long

periods of time

this is where your mind is most pure

you have no distractions

you have no craving arising

and that's real relief

when he practices in this way and

frequently abides us his mind acquires

confidence in this space

once he has full confidence

he retains to the base of neither

perception or non-perception

that

neither nor

it is kind of fun to contemplate

what's in between

if i can't perceive it

is it there or not

well sometimes you can perceive another

person's thought arising is it there or

not

physically it's not

but it can still be there

or else he results upon it with wisdom

on the desolation of the body after

death it is possible that this

consciousness of his leading to rebirth

may pass on to rebirth in the base of

neither perception or non-perception

that means that when you get into that

realm

it lasts for

eighty thousand eighty four thousand

maha kappas

now that's a number

that's kind of made up

who knows

might be longer might be less

what difference does it make when you're

talking about mahakapa's

expansions and contractions of the

universe i mean

but it's it's all of these

uh

thousands of maha kappas that's talked

about in the suttas is it's just a way

of saying really extended long period of

time

just like the buddha

he couldn't even go to the bathroom

without having 500 arahat following

well what is it talking about

of course they didn't do that

and

it's just a way of saying there was a

large number and that large number might

be 25 it might be 10.

who knows

doesn't matter it just gives you the

idea that this is a large number

of arahants that that was

following the buddha at the time

this is declared to be the way directed

to the base of neither perception or

non-perception

when this was said the venerable ananda

said to the blessed one

venerable seer venerable sir excuse me

here a monk is practicing thus

it might be it might not be

it will be

it

will not be mine

what exists

what has come to be

that

i'm abandoning

the

obtains equanimity

venerable sir

do such does such a monk attained

nirvana

an interesting question

one monk here and ananda might attain

nibana and another might not attain

nibana

what is the cause and reason venerable

sir

why one monk

here might attain nibana and another one

here might not attain nibana

here ananda

a monk is practicing thus

it might be

and it might not be mine

it will not be and it will not be mine

what exists

what has come to be

that i am abandoning

thus he obtains equanimity

he delights in that equanimity welcomes

it and remains holding to it

that's a problem that some people have

when i'm giving them the directions i

tell them to go to equanimity and then

radiate to all beings in all directions

and then they get into the quiet mind

and they don't think they're supposed to

be there so they come back to the

equanimity and they hold on to it

now that's wrong practice

and i try to discourage that

so

hold on to nothing

that is the way

as he does so his consciousness becomes

dependent on it and clings to it

and what is what is clinging that's the

first part

of your taking things personally

no it's a second part of taking things

personally the first part is grieving

amankhananda who is affected by clinging

does not attain nibana

but venerable sir when that monk clings

does he

what does he cling to

to the base of neither perception or

non-perception ananda

when that mock clings venerable sir it

seems he clings to the best object of

clinging

and it is

when that buck clings another he claims

the best object of clinging for him it

is the best object of

clinton namely the base of neither

perception or non-perception

and i've seen that happen too they

really like being in that quiet mind

oh what arises

well

what arises is a real tiny little

thought

of i wish nibbana would hurry up and get

here

now the way i found it's best not to

have that happen is before you sit in

meditation

and tell yourself

i don't care what happens next it

doesn't matter what happens next

i sincerely don't care

my job is only to observe

what happens and how it happens

here ananda

a monk is practicing this

it might not be and it might not be mine

it will not be and it will not be mine

what exists what has come to be

that i am abandoning

thus he obtains equanimity

he does not delight in that equanimity

and welcome and remain holding to it

since he does not do so his

consciousness does not become dependent

on it

and does not crave or cling for it

a monk ananda

who is without craving and clinging

attains nibana

no i shouldn't say a monk i should say a

person

i don't care who it is

when you follow the directions precisely

exactly

you will be able to attain nibana

and what what level of nibana

i don't know

[Music]

i can see

how your practice is going i can suspect

that the practice might be is getting

close

i'm never gonna tell you that

because then you're gonna jump at it and

it's gonna make it go away

it is wonderful

venerable spirit is marvelous

the blessed one indeed has explained to

us the crossing of the flood

independence upon one's support for

another but venerable sir

what is noble liberation

here ananda a noble disciple considers

thus

sensual pleasures here and now in

sensual pleasures and lives to come

sensual perceptions here and now and

sensual perceptions and lives to come

material form here and now in material

form and lives to come

perception of forms here and now and

perception of forms and lives to come

perceptions of the unperturbable

perceptions of the base of nothingness

and perceptions of the base of neither

perception nor non-perception

this is

person

uh personality as far as personality

extends

this is the deathless

namely the liberation of mind through

not craving and clinging

thus amanda i've taught you the way

directed to the imperturbable

i have taught you the way directed to

the base of nothingness

i have taught you the way directed to

the base of neither perception or

non-perception

i have taught you the crossing of the

flood

independence upon

one's

foreign

i have taught

noble liberty

what should be done for his disciple out

of compassion by a teacher

who seeks their welfare

and has compassion for them

that i have done for you ananda

there are these roots of trees

these empty huts

meditate

on them do not delay

or else you would will regret it later

this is our instruction to you

that's what the blessed one said the

venerable ananda was satisfied and

delighted in the blessed one's words

kind of a fonzuta

that keeps reminding you over and over

about the impersonal nature

of everything

there's nothing to hold on to

there's no reason to hold on to it

change your old habits

and the more i talk about it the more i

really want you to practice

where'd this thought come from why is

that here

where'd it come from

is it mine

is crazy thought come up

or is it just some nonsense the mind

wants to

entertain itself with

if you do that sincerely

you will attain a higher level of

meditation

and you will

live in a world

that is filled with joy and happiness no

matter what's happening on the outside

it's nonsense with

politics and all of that it doesn't mean

anything

why try to make it mean something

why get involved with any kind of

anything but personal politics

and the personal politics is

where this thought come from

why am i doing this to myself

that along with the six hours

you will be successful

so i've been talking for a while

do you have any questions

hi birthday hello

how are you

i'm doing great how are you pat i'm good

thank you good

um

i'm finding i generally sit an hour in

the morning an hour in the evening and

i'm pretty good at doing that but i find

as i get farther away from retreats that

the entire hour

i am dealing with hindrances and i am

working the six r's with them

okay

so i think i know the answer but um your

advice might be to sit longer right

because i'm breaking my sin right as i

calm down

right now practice properly is that

correct yes i'll tell you a story about

one student i had

she would sit for an hour now she she

could get into neither perception or

non-perception with ease

and she would sit for most of the time

and then at the end of an hour she would

go well there's nothing happening i'm

gonna get up and go do something

and it drove me crazy for three years

i scolded her over and over again

stopped doing that

and finally she took a retreat with me

and i walked in with a big heavy stick

and i slammed it down in front of her

and i said

i'm gonna hit you hard with this if you

don't

longer

and it scared her enough that she did

and she sat for three hours with ease

and they came back and started telling

me the praises of sitting longer

i said it only took you three years to

hear what i was saying and it was i

gave her short sentences

but it took her three years to be

convinced that along with a big stick

so yeah

so longer you can sit

and it can be very

useful

to have a weekend where there's not

going to be any disturbances

that you just sit for the whole weekend

for as long as you can

that can be very helpful too

okay thank you uh and then

um to make sure i'm not misunderstanding

so i i take the

three refuges every morning and the five

precepts and

make effort to keep them but are these

hindrances arising because i'm actually

breaking the precepts or could it be

from old comma that's coming up

from old karma

okay

and sometimes you can try some tough

love with your mind and say

enough of this

i don't want to be interrupted anymore

stop

and it'll do it

so try that and see if it helps okay

thank you

okay

last week i said that i found out that

who was reputed to be

an

onagami

uh

isn't

she was reborn in a devalukah

and

she

was practicing with mahasi saida who

didn't understand what craving was

and she never taught that

she just taught the standard mahasi line

now i'm not criticizing her in any way i

mean she was brilliant with her her able

to sit like that

she sat for seven days for crying out

loud

that's impressive

but

there's an awful lot of people that will

dispute that so i don't

think that you need to let me take the

blame and you don't talk about it

okay

i have big shoulders for that kind of

blame so it's not a big deal

does anybody else have a question

but they're on the question of when we

ask ourselves where did that thought

come from

to me the first answer i would give

myself would be from craving and

clinging

but you mentioned somewhere in your talk

and i can't remember the whole talk in

one go but you mentioned something about

a thought coming from other people or it

seemed to me that you were saying that

so is the answer not always craving and

cleaning can the the other answer the

answer is always craving and clinging

but you don't tell yourself that

right because that has craving and

clinging in

you the thought that it might come from

somebody else is our craving it doesn't

matter

okay it's just thoughts

so don't don't take them personally

and don't try to solve your problems by

using your six r's as a

stick to beat away

these distracting kinds of things

just question it and realize

no it's not mine

didn't come for me

that's where i'm from

really

and it was just kind of entertaining for

myself to think that it might be coming

from somebody in australia

but i was entertaining myself and i was

just as caught up then as i was when i

had that thought

thank you

okay

thank you for your talk uh very much

appreciate it

oh good question so the suits started

out saying central pleasures are

illusory the power of fools and this one

we think of at the time of the buddha

like kings and wealthy followers of the

buddha had access to all sorts of

central pleasures you know food sex etc

etc but they followed his teachings and

they had achievements did they had to

let this go or like how

how did they balance it how should we

balance it

it depends on their

their

practice how far they went with it

where they were with it

but

it's

almost a guarantee i'd have to say that

it is a guarantee

that if you do this

practice that i'm talking about where

does it come from whose is it

if you do that sincerely for a period of

time

all of those distractions will stop

they'll all go away

and you will attain some level of

awakening

because i'm a slow learner it took me

about six months it won't take you that

long

you can do it fairly quickly

thank you

okay

any other questions yes

hello ponte hello how are you i'm great

how are you good

um i have a question you were saying

that um

when a distraction comes up

to question where does it come from

um so we do that and also we 6r or yeah

after we question where right where this

distraction comes from right after you

realize that it's just a nothing burger

okay thank you and one last question

i find that a lot of times in the suttas

the buddha is talking to ananda

and um

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ananda was an onigami right no no oh

okay he was a sodopath

oh i see

and without fruition he just attained

sodapop

oh okay

because the buddha would advise him to

continue meditating right so in there's

always a a course

even though he's a solopana he he needs

to continue practicing or else he will

regret it right

but the thing with anando was

people would come around and try to talk

to the buddha all the time while he was

taking rest not necessarily sleeping but

taking rest

and

he

walked around the buddha's

cootie

nine times every night

he got very little sleep

and he

was making sure that everything was

taken care of where the buddha was that

the

that monastery was running properly and

everything was put back where it should

be put back and clean when should be

cleaned

so he was busy all the time

i see

and he would also go out with

other

other teachers

to visit

and

sometimes they would get invited for

meals and that sort of thing

so he was a pretty busy guy

yeah

okay

okay okay thank you

anybody else have a question

going once

okay

somebody else first

go ahead

um i have a question

um i'm

trying to sit longer than one hour and

after one and a half hours i kind of get

very tense and

nervous

and it's it's getting kind of a struggle

so well that's to be

recognized when it happens

but you still have to ask your question

who is getting tense and who doesn't

like it and who wants to be entertained

and get up and move around

just relax into it just tell yourself ah

there's nothing to get upset about

just relax and sit as long as you can

but you can't criticize yourself if you

have a short sitting

okay

criticizing yourself is no fair

you have to be nice to yourself

there might be sometimes because you've

got other things to do you might only be

able to sit for a half an hour or even

15 minutes

okay do that

be more flexible

okay

okay and be kind to yourself

that's one of the main messages that i

try to give people

be nice to yourself

don't criticize yourself

don't think that you're supposed to be

perfect

because nobody's perfect everybody makes

mistakes

and it's okay to do that

as long as you're not attached to them

okay

okay thank you so smile and be happy

and you all have a happy new year

so

romero

i think just one last question um

when base when the buddha said that

the base another perception or

non-perception is the best object for

clinging

i thought no object is worth clinging to

but then they said this is the best

object to cling to does this mean if you

were to make a mistake that's not such a

bad mistake to make it too clean to to

debate another perception or

non-perception

right

that's where your mind is most pure so

that's a good place if you're going to

cling to something playing there

okay

but of course

there's better if you don't

right

thank you

okay

so you all have a happy new year and i

wish you

the best year of your life

thank you bente i'll see you next sunday

bye

merits

yes we're gonna share mary oh sorry

must be getting old forgot it

may suffering once be suffering free and

the fear struck fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may

all

the merit that we've thus acquired

for the acquisition of all kinds of

happiness

any beings inhabiting space centers

devas and nagas of mighty power share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

so now

be happy

thank you very much bunty

thank you brandon

thank you bonte

bye everybody

hi everyone

take care david nice

nice to see everyone

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you