From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=deq5r5I5Ong

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

[Music]

[Applause]

i'm going to give a dhamma talk on one

of my favorite sutas

this is called the kusamians

kosambi was a place where there was a

lot of different spiritual

teachers

and

they kept getting a lot of mixed

messages

and they were very confused so they

asked the buddha to do that

and

he did he went to kosami he was going to

spin the range retreat there

but there was an incident where there

was

one

monastery was spreading rumors about

another monastery and they got pretty

much divided and they were always

quarreling with each other

so

that's kind of the background of what uh

what i'm gonna be

talking about today

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blasted one was living at kosami in

gositas park

now on that occasion the monks of

kosambi had taken to quarreling and

brawling basically they were

gossiping

a lot

and we're in deep disputes stabbing each

other with verbal daggers

[Music]

they can neither convince each other nor

be convinced by others

they could neither persuade each other

nor be persuaded by others

then a certain monk went to the blessed

one after paying homage to him sat down

at one side and informed him of what was

happening

then the blessed one addressed a certain

monk thus

tell those monks that in my name the

teacher calls them

yes venerable sir

is that better

can can you hear me better enough okay

yes venerable sir he replied

and he went to those monks and told them

the teacher calls you venerable ones

yes friend they replied

they went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him set down at one

side

the blessed one asked them monks is it

true that you have taken to quarreling

and brawling and are in deep disputes

stabbing each other with verbal daggers

that you can neither convince each other

nor be convinced by others

that you could neither be persuaded you

can neither persuade each other nor be

persuaded by others

yes venerable sir

monks what do you think

when you take to quarreling and brawling

in our deep disputes stabbing each other

with verbal daggers

that you on that occasion maintain acts

of loving kindness and body speech and

mind in public and in private towards

your companions in a holy life

no venerable sir

so monks

when you take to quarreling and brawling

and are in deep disputes stabbing each

other with verbal daggers on that

occasion you do not maintain acts of

loving kindness

by body speech and mind in public and in

private towards your companions

okay

that you can neither convince each other

nor be convinced by others that you can

neither persuade each other nor be

persuaded by others

misguided men

that is a big slap

that will

lead you to your harm and suffering for

a long time

then the blessed one addressed amongst

us

monks

there are these six memorable qualities

that create love and respect and conduce

to helpfulness

to non-dispute to concord into unity

what are the six

here a monk maintains bodily acts of

loving kindness in public and private

towards his companions in the holy life

this is a memorable quality which

creates

love and respect and conduces

helpfulness to non-dispute

to concord into unity

again a monk maintains verbal acts of

loving kindness in public and private

towards his companions in the holy life

this is a memorable quality that

conduces to love and respect and

conduces to unity

again among maintains mental acts of

loving kindness both in public and

private towards his companions in the

holy life

this is a memorable quality that

conduces to love and respect and

conduces to unity

now if i was giving this dharma talk i

would have changed the order

and started out with

mental acts

why

because

mind is a forerunner of all states and

if you're not doing it in your mind

you're not going to do it with your body

or with your speech

so

and this is a set formula it's that way

all the way through the

the uh sutas

but i wish it was in a different order

that's my personal opinion

again a monk uses things in common with

his virtue as companions in the holy

life without making reservations

he shares with them any gain of any kind

that accords with the dhamma

and has been obtained in a way that

accords with the dhamma

including even the contents of his bowl

uh when i was going on arms drawn in

monk burma was practicing a special

kind of

discipline

it's called a dutanga discipline where

he would not take anything that was not

offered into his bowl

he only ate what was offered

and

i would go out on

alms round

and

i always got a lot of food

i think mostly because i was a tall

westerner and i had red hair which was

really

kind of strange at that time

anyway

as i was eating from my bowl i saw a

kind of food that the monk liked

so i would put that into his bowl

whether i liked it or not didn't matter

i just i like giving that's that's

one of the things that i do a lot

i give away a lot of

different kinds of things

anyway

we always everybody knew the kinds of

food that he like that he would like so

that if they got any of that

they would do that

now where i was going out on arms round

because they thought i was something

very special

sometimes would give food

and they only had enough food for

themselves for the day

and they would put all of that food into

my bowl

so at the end of the

the meal

i took that food out i put it on a tray

and i went back and i gave it back

i couldn't see not eating that food

but there is a rule for monks

that says

when you get done with your bowl

you're supposed to empty it empty the

food out and throw it on the ground

and i couldn't do that

so when i started going back to the

village and it was a mile mile and a

half walk it wasn't very far

so when i took all that food back

i got criticized very very heavily

that i was breaking a rule that

shouldn't be broken

but it just didn't make sense to me that

i had i had enough food for four or five

months

and these people were giving me food

that they only had for the day how could

i not give it up give it back to them

they already made a lot of merit because

they gave the food to us

to me and the other monks

so

it's not taking anything from them it's

just giving back

that's what i

did daily and i got criticized daily for

doing it i was told in no uncertain

terms that i'm going to leave that

monastery if i don't stop doing that

which i did after a couple of weeks i

couldn't take it anymore

but there was another thing that

happened they knew that there was a

treat

uh that

it's uh

fermented tea leaves

and it has

nuts and garlic and and sesame seed and

things like that

and

they would give that

and i would eat it

but the monks that came to visit

what they did

was

they would wait until i was done eating

and put my bowl aside

and then they would offer that food to

me

now i would take it but i wasn't going

to eat it

so i just put it with the other food so

that the other other people could have a

treat

but they were testing me to see whether

i was really like that or not

and okay

you can test me all you want that's so

that's fine i don't i don't have any

problem with that

so

there are certain dootanga practices

that

i practice for a period of time

one of the do tonga practices is only

using three postures

now there's four postures that we all

use

standing sitting walking

lying down

so i didn't lie down

i did that for a number of months

and

uh you wind up not sleeping so much and

you wind up getting more energy and that

sort of thing but it is a very difficult

practice

there's uh three levels of doing it

one is sitting in the middle of the

floor

while you're sleeping and when you do

that you only sleep for 10 or 15 minutes

at a time

and you wind up with backaches

i saw a lot of monks that were trying to

do that in thailand

and they would just go all the way down

put their head on the floor and go to

sleep

and they all wound up with bad backs

the next kind is leaning against the

wall

and i found if i leaned in a corner

that it supported my body better so i

could do that

and the last kind is sitting in a chair

without any arms

so it's a an interesting kind of

discipline that we

that we practice

so

some of the practices

layman cannot do

it's uh

a practice of never entering a building

it's a practice of sitting out under a

tree

or it's a practice of

sitting out in the open

now if you sit out in the open you had

to take your ropes

and make a little tent

so you get out of the direct sun

so it's a

hard practice especially during the

range retreat where it does rain a lot

so

it's a hard practice

and not one that i wanted to do

but there's other things of

only

using three robes

uh

only

wearing

uh

rag robes

rag robes are

pieces of cloth they mostly came from

charnel ground and they were wrapped

around bodies

and after a period of time the body rots

and then you can take that cloth and dye

it and turn it into a rope

but i didn't see any real advantage of

doing that of course there are reasons

for doing all of this is the lack of

attachment and that sort of thing

but it's too very

an interesting thing with a bowl or with

a robe that gets uh

torn

if the tear is over

one inch

then

the only time you can repair the robe

is

before you go on an arms round

in other words you got to get up at four

o'clock in the morning

and sew your robe

and repair it and put a patch on it if

it needs a patch whatever

and

that's a difficult practice

so

there's all kinds of different things

that monks do that that layman really

you're not suited to do

so

and i have met monks that that do all of

those things

they only live in the forest

one monk he was very famous monk

in burma

he had super strong loving kindness

and when i went to visit him

he

was doing something with his back turn

as soon as i walked into the room

he turned around and smiled at me and

raided me

radiated some very very strong loving

kindness of course i gave it back to him

and radiated loving-kindness to him

but he was a monk that could sit in

front of a bowl of water

and he he would chant

and it was like the water was on a hot

plate and it started rolling

bubbling

and of course anybody and any time

somebody did that when he was in the

room doing that they would get some of

that water for themselves

and

it was

real interesting being around him but

unfortunately he only spoke for me

so i had to go through a translator and

i never know what the translator is

saying

so i have no idea if what i said came

across to him but he seemed to smile a

lot

and we laughed

and

he had a nice

kind of laugh

and it was it was great it was good fun

and it so happens that he

uh

gave me a set of robes

which was all good and well but the

ropes were big enough for a salmon era

that's nine years old

they're really small

and i couldn't wear it so i gave it to

someone else

anyway that's a way that we

we get things according to dhamma that's

donated in a particular way

and we chant over it and that sort of

thing and

then we uh share the merit of doing that

with them

and that's done in

accordance with

okay

again among dwells both in public and

private

possessing in common with his companions

in the holy life

those virtues that are unbroken unformed

unblotched unmuddled

liberating commended by the wise

not misapprehended

and conducive to collectedness

now what are we talking about here

we're talking about

keeping the precepts

this

an awful lot of people have especially

in the west have this idea the only time

you really have to be careful with them

you're doing a retreat

and quite often if you're doing a

retreat they only give you the precepts

one time and they don't talk about it

and this is

kind of a mistake

because the precepts need to be followed

as closely as possible

with

your daily activities

whatever you're doing

when you break a precept

and then you try to sit in meditation

what happens

you are going to have

a hindrance arise

that's why hindrances arise because

we've broken precepts in the past

and it can carry over from one one

lifetime to the next

so you never know exactly which precept

you broke to cause that to happen

but

it does happen this way

and

it's real important that you understand

deeply

uh

that you need to keep your precepts

the whole reason you're doing the

meditation is so you can purify your

mind

so your mind can become more wholesome

and

uplifted

so breaking a precepts means that's

going to be a hindrance to you so that

you can't have that happen

so there's definite benefits

now when you keep your precepts for a

period of time

a year two years five years whatever

then

you'll notice

that magical things start to happen

you'll you'll be much more

sharp with your mindfulness

you'll be able to see how mine moves

from one thing to another much more

quickly and you can let it go

and use the six r's and

that

will help you

in your everyday life and

life starts to get very magical you

start to think about

well you know i really need this or that

i need to look at this book or that book

and all of a sudden it's there

it's really kind of fun

when you

keep your precepts

and of course it keeps your mind

sharper

and more alive

you're not living in

a dream world anymore

where you're caught up in your

wants and desires and your dislikes and

your frustrations and your anxiety and

the classic word right now is stress

i don't feel any stress

why would i want stress

why would i worry about whether

something is going to happen or not

either it's going to happen or it's not

it's out of my control so why would i

need to have this stress

this dissatisfaction

this frustration this fear

this anxiety

so you see

when you keep

without breaking them it turns into

a protection for you

and that's wonderful

so though

the easier life becomes

again monk among dwells in public and in

private

possessed in common

his campaigns and holy life

that view that is noble and emancipating

and leads one who practices it in

accordance with the complete destruction

of suffering

oh what's that talking about

it sounds sounds pretty interesting

doesn't it

it's talking about

being able to share your experience with

other people

the idea of

not

talking about what where your practice

is with other people is actually harmful

to you

and you don't have a

deep feeling of

uh

commitment you don't have a deep feeling

of

sangha

you don't have any kalyanitas that you

can talk to if a problem comes up and

you don't know how to solve it

but i try to teach everyone

that when you keep your

intuition going

and you pay attention to your intuition

and you follow your intuition

it will give you all the answers you

need if there's a major problem that

you're going through

so this too is a memorable quality all

of these are

all six of these are memorable qualities

and the way you

you get to show other people what these

qualities can do

is

by

your own practice

you be the

the

giver of

confidence

and the more confidence you have and

this is the way it works the more

confidence

comes back to you

so many people have this idea that being

a teacher

means being

somebody that's the boss

that's the guru you have to follow what

i say

and i spend a lot of time in each

retreat trying to tell people you're

your own teacher

follow your own intuition

believe it and follow it the less you

believe it and follow it the less it

comes up

and it's a quiet little voice

so it's a real important thing for you

to understand

that when the intuition you're driving

along and and

your intuition says stop you need to go

into this store

do it

because there's going to be something

there

that

you need

to hear or do

or help

in whatever way

and that makes life a lot more fun

these are the six memorable qualities

that create love and respect

a helpfulness

to non-dispute to concord into unity

of these six memorable qualities the

highest

and most

comprehensive the most conclusive

is

with

this view

that is noble emancipating and leads one

who practices in accordance

with the complete destruction of

suffering

we just had a student of mine stay with

me for a little while

and he was an onigami

so being around him he was a great

example

of keeping his precepts he wouldn't even

think about breaking a precept

and

right b he just left to go go to europe

and one of the last things i said to him

was i thank you for coming

so we could laugh together

and we did

we were always giggling and laughing

about something

we hear hear uh somebody else say the

dhamma that that's great that that made

me laugh

and i i also

i i told him that

the longer i'm on this path

the more joy i have and it doesn't go

away

i have a lot of

joyful feelings coming up

spontaneously by themselves

and i don't have a lot of

fear and anxiety and and boredom and

depression i don't have any of that kind

of stuff coming up

why

because i have so much joy

and that was one of the things that i

practiced in

in burma

and whenever joy would come up they

would say

don't get attached

well i didn't want to be attached to

anything so i was pushing it away

wrong

how dumb is that

i was just blindly following because i

didn't know

but all of you are

you're smart people

you're very intelligent especially

intelligent in dhamma and that makes me

happy

you have no idea how happy that makes me

so

be the example

and then watch what happens with other

people around you

how they start to change because

they're using you

as kind of like a parent

you know all the parents they're they're

example of their actions and their words

to all their kids

so when you have good actions and good

words

you're teaching other people

you have to let them do what they're

gonna do you can't talk people out of

doing bad things

because they'll say yeah yeah yeah i'll

do it but they're not gonna

so

you be the example and show them

how to be kind to other people

i used to go into walmart occasionally

and there would be a short lady

and she'd want something on the top

shelf so i

i'd reach up and give it to her

and oh that really made them happy

they didn't have to trouble anybody else

they didn't have to go away and

try to get other people that were taller

to help

i just saw the need and did it

and that helped my joy that helped her

joy

and

our deep inside happiness

that's what meditation is for

it's not for the attainment of this or

that

it's for living life in a happy

helpful way

help other people

become less

and it's fun

so

just as the highest most comprehensive

the most comprehensive uh con conclusive

part

of a pinnacle building

is the pinnacle itself

so two of these six memorable qualities

the highest is the view that is noble

and emancipating

see why i like this this suta

and how does this view that is noble and

emancipating

lead one who practices in accordance

with the complete destruction of

suffering

interesting question

here gone to the forest or the root of a

tree or an empty hut

considers thus

is there any obsession

unabandoned by myself

that might so obsess my mind that i

cannot know and see things as they

actually are

think about your worry your anxiety

that's an obsession isn't it

do you think about things as they

actually are or are you clouded

with

anxieties and taking things personally

if a monk is obsessed with sensual lust

then his mind is obsessed

if he is obsessed with ill will then his

mind is obsessed

if he is obsessed with sloth and torpor

then his mind is obsessed

if he's obsessed with restlessness and

anxiety then his mind is obsessed

he's obsessed with doubt then his mind

is obsessed

if a monk is absorbed in speculation

about this world

where do we come from why are we here

those kind of questions

then his mind is obsessed

if a monk is absorbed in speculation

about other worlds then his mind is

obsessed

what's going to happen to me when i die

where am i what am i going to be reborn

all of these kinds of questions

if a monk takes to quarreling and

brawling and is in deep dispute stabbing

each other with verbal

daggers then his

mind

is obsessed

he understands

thus

there's no obsession unabandoned in

myself that might so obsess my mind that

i cannot know and see things as they

actually are

my mind is well disposed

for awakening to the truth

this is the first knowledge attained by

him that is noble

super mundane

not shared by

ordinary people what does super mundane

mean

supra mundane means

that you have experienced a jhana

that you keep your precepts without

breaking them

that you experienced

nirvana

it's all of those different things

again a noble disciple considers this

do i pursue

develop and cultivate this view

do i personally obtain serenity

personally abstain quenching

well again it's talking about being

indigenous

you have a mind that's very peaceful

very calm it has equanimity in it

and there's no hindrances that arise

while you were in the jhana

now if a jhana seems to come up why does

it come up

because your mind

weak for whatever reason

you just kind of lose interest a little

bit and then a hindrance arises you're

not in the jhana at that time

but when you use the six r's and get

back into that genre then you're in that

super mundane state

and

ordinary people

they don't know about this they're

walking around

asleep

for the most part they're caught up in

their

personal beliefs in a in a

self

i'm bored i'm this i'm that

and they're caught up in that

but as you go along

the path

one of the things that you'll notice

is that

your sense of humor starts to change

and as instead of having

really loud belly laughs

you have

kind of a chuckle

and

this this chuckle

the quality of chuckle i can tell what

state you are in

just by your laugh

and quite often one of the things that

i'll ask is

what's your mind doing right now

and if they go through hindrances that

are very difficult

what have you learned from this

it's an important question

he understands that

when i pursue develop and cultivate this

view

i personally obtain serenity i

personally obtain quenching

this is the second knowledge attained by

that person

that that is noble superman pain not

shared by ordinary people

excuse me i'm getting hiccups

again a noble disciple considers lusts

is there any other recluse or brown

outside the buddha's dispensation

possessed of a touches that as i possess

i've been doing meditation for 45 years

i've done a lot of different kinds of

meditation and i've never found a view

like this

so it's real interesting

they might talk about it they might talk

about

especially the brahmins they'll they'll

talk about not-self in a lot of

different ways but not like this

why is that because they haven't learned

what craving is and how to let it go

he understood he understands thus

there's no other recluse or brahman

outside of the buddhist dispensation

possessed of you

such as i possess

this is the third knowledge attained by

them that is noble super mundane not

shared by ordinary people

how could they

if they're not educated

one of the things i tell all my students

when they come for retreat is you're

going to be a lot smarter in 10 days

than you believe possible

you're not going to believe how smart

you are because you are teaching

yourself

you're solving your own problems

and you're having personality

development

again a noble disciple considers thus do

i possess the character

of a person who possesses right view

i don't call it right view i call it

harmonious perspective

which means the impersonal

nature of everything

what is the character of a person who

possesses right view

this is the character of a person who

possesses right view

although

they may commit some kind of offense for

which a means of

rehabilitation has been laid down now

i'm gonna let this let that be for a

moment

what are we talking about breaking a

precept

you break a precept

and what happens

the first thing is

this wrong belief in a personal self

arises

i

shouldn't have done that

that's what's really quietly in your

mind

and that's where

all of the hindrances come from

they come from breaking

a precept

and then taking it personally and then

feeling guilty about doing that

say stealing

it's a weird phenomenon stealing

because things that are stolen

they don't last very long

if they steal money money just

disappears

and in the night it would all disappear

wow

so they always like the pirates to come

and and go into the uh drink some

alcohol and get a little bit rowdy and

then they

wind up

getting rid of all of the things that

they stole

so they've got no real advantage from

doing that

okay now

after you break a precept you're going

to feel guilty

and sometimes

you might not even break a precept but

you thank you

and you feel guilty

now if that happens

then what i want you to do if there's

nobody around that you can tell about

this

is forgive yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again you only have

five precepts i have

227. so you see there's a big difference

here

but

after you

take the priest stepped you make a very

strong determination i'm not going to do

that to myself again no more

and i told this story a few times

somebody came up to me in malaysia and

they said

okay okay okay

i want to be wealthy

how do i get to be wealthy

and if i said the first thing you got to

do is

you have to give

and this

second thing you have to do is keep your

precepts without breaking them he

finally said okay

i'll do that

how long do i have to keep the

precepts and i said well you can start

it a hundred years from now and and go

longer as time goes by

so that gives you an idea how it's not

this is an active kind of meditation

too many people think that meditation is

only about sitting and it's not

it's about living that's why i wrote the

book life is meditation meditation is

life

there's no difference between the two

it's still watching how your mind works

that's the key

okay

just as a young tender infant lying

prone

at once draws back

when he puts his hand or his foot on a

live hot skull

so too that is a character of a person

who possesses right view

he understands thus i possess the

character

of a person who possesses right view

this is the fourth knowledge attained by

him that is noble super mundane

not shared by ordinary people

again 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 be active in various

matters for his companions and holy life

yet he has a keen regard for training

and higher virtue

in pali higher virtue is called

abhidhamma

it's not the same as the burmese teach

abhi dhamma those are books

that are

made up after the buddha died

they didn't come into being

strongly until about the fourth buddhist

council but the third buddhist council

they started

uh paying more attention to the

abhidhamma than they did any kind of

practice or any kind of study

training in the higher mind and training

in the higher wisdom just as a cow

with a new calf

while she grazes she watches her calf so

too

that is a character of a person who

possesses right view

now the next two things are the things

that i really really like

uh

a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the strength of a person

who possesses right view

what is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

this is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

when the dhamma and discipline

proclaimed by the tatakatas being taught

he heeds it

gives it full attention

this is called giving ear

he engages it with all his mind

he hears the dhamma with eager ears

that's one of the things that makes this

fun

because you see you you can hear the

same suit over and over and over again

and you can learn something new you get

an aha moment

that oh that's what that's talking about

when i was talking with delson about

this the

man that's an onagami

he

uh

what

oh you made me forget what i was gonna

say

he would listen to a dhamma talk that i

was giving

and the whole time he had a smile on his

face

and he was going like this

every every time i made a point he's

like yeah

and it's like he was listening to it for

the first time

and i know he's heard the suit as many

times before

but he kept on hearing it at a different

level that's one of the magical things

about buddhism

is you hear it at this level and then a

little while later you hear it at

another level and you go

oh

yeah that's right

and it gets real exciting and it gets

real fun

so i want to encourage you to read good

dharma books

as much as possible

he understands us i possess the strength

of a person who is right view this is

the sixth knowledge attained by that

person

that is noble super mundane not shared

by ordinary people

again

a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the strength of a person

who possesses right view

what is the strength of a

person who possesses right view

this is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

when the dhamma and discipline proclaim

by the tatakatas being taught

he gains inspiration in the meaning

and that can happen many times with the

same suta

gains inspiration in the dhamma

gains gladness in the dhamma

that is connected with the dhamma

and that happens to me all the time i

hear a good dumb and talk

it makes me smile it it brings

my mind

uplifted and happy

because i'm hearing it in a different

way

a lot of times when i'm giving the suta

and i'm reading it to you i'm not

hearing it as deeply as i could

that's just that because it's different

places in the mind that are getting used

for

saying it out loud

but when i hear it

i get real

a lot of gladness

and happiness

he understands thus

i possess the strength of a person who

possesses right view this is the seventh

knowledge

attained by him that is noble super

mundane not shared by ordinary people

when a noble disciple is thus possessed

of seven factors

he has

he has well sought the character for

realization of the fruit of stream entry

now i know there's been some debate with

whether listening to a dhamma talk you

can attain nibbana

it doesn't happen often

but it can happen to anyone

i

have one student in particular that many

years ago

i was reading to her about dependent

origination

and she really liked dependent

origination and she really paid close

attention to what i was saying

and she attained nibana right then

it's wonderful

it's amazing

and ever since then

she has become a teacher and she's an

indian now

the only thing that really interests her

is dependent origination and different

ways of being able to

uh

teach it

she's always trying to come up with a

different way so everybody will

understand it that's wonderful

when a noble disciple is this possessed

of seven factors he possesses the fruit

of stream entry

that's what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so now you know why i like this suit

it gives you a lot of information

it's not as deep as some some suit does

go but it is quite good and it's quite

interesting

so

now the question that causes everybody

to get very silent

do you have any questions

oh

yes

how are you

it's been a long long time

yeah

it's going to get more regular and i am

going to be giving online retreats for

10 days

that's good where i talk to you every

day

so

one day i continue

i want to

share some

gratitude to you

uh because uh i made uh

we are

i'm we are have we have a group of

film friends

and we are having

weekly suta sessions

just good four to five people

and we are having good brahma

discussions and every in every

discussion

we remember you and

we are so grateful to you so

on on behalf of all of our group members

i am saying thank you a big thank you

sadhu to you too

i would i truly wish you all the

happiness

i wish you the joy that i experienced

all the time

thank you

we are so grateful for your banter for

sharing film with us

and it changed our life i can't say

oh that makes me really happy

does anybody else have any question or

comment that they don't understand

uh bantay i

have a question about

uh intuition

and i

as i

so you uh

explain it like

you ask a question

unless i understand if you're really

silent you can you can get a pretty good

answer

um yeah is there is there more to it to

like

um

maybe some good tips or tricks or is

that really the best you can um

go with

by far the best

okay

now you're not always going to get

answers that you particularly like

it can be answers that you don't like

but follow your follow what the

intuition says and you will

fit greatly

when he didn't have a teacher around

he had to follow his own intuition

right

and

with some of the

exploring that we've been doing

we figured out

what it's like to be an arahat

and arahat has no craving at all but

they have all five aggregates

so they walk around they have no

distraction in their mind but they're

very aware of everything around them

and

they have

loving kindness coming out of them

very strongly

so

you look like you have another question

i i was

wondering what

what is intuition what were

is that

a voice that is always right

[Music]

and we're going to be able to figure

that one out um

by intuition

yeah you will

you'll ask a question it doesn't always

come in at the speed you want it to

sometimes it takes a little while

but it's definitely worthwhile

thank you

you'll see and the more you pay

attention to it

the

the better it gets

okay michael

hi ben

michael is next

i can't hear you

i can't hear you you have to unmute

you just uh um

yeah

but you just took it off the uh

the video

ah now i can hear you

thank you bonte great to be with you

i was wondering ponti if you could

kindly

uh expand upon the uh

the seven

what was it the seven factors

right

he's going to put it on youtube so you

can go over it again if you want

all right thank you

okay

[Music]

happy to see you again

yeah hello

yeah i can hear you

can you hear me

barely if you speak up a little bit

louder it would be easier

yeah

we are so thankful for you bante

yeah i have a silly question like how to

become an intelligent

how to become intelligent

yeah

by pay attention very closely to the

dhamma talks

you get more intelligent all the time

because you were teaching yourself from

direct experience

okay as i am searching for a job

so that's why

i'm asking this question

patience leads to nibana

thank you is there any other question

okay then let's share some merit

the merit is right behind me

right right oops

i'm excited interrupt how are you i

thought you were asking her if she had

another question i asked one quick

question of course okay it's good to see

you again it's been a while thank you

it's good to see you too

um

is it uh so

in the last month um

during my sits i've had the hindrances

arising quite a lot and i'm wondering

uh

when is it appropriate to switch to

forgiveness meditation

um

when you feel like you need it just when

you feel like okay when you feel like

you need it yeah

um but does that help with with the

hindrances because i'm breaking precepts

obviously

or have in the past it's certainly

yeah it certainly can yes of course okay

that's the thing is that i want you to i

want you to be careful of is don't get

involved in the story

of why you broke a precept in the past

the most important thing is staying with

the forgiveness

and forgive your mind for any

distraction or any any hindrance at all

just forgive it for being there and come

back

and some

experience in the past will come up

and then you spend your time forgiving

that person or people

until you feel relief

and this is a real relief

it's like

somebody took a hundred pounds of rocks

off your shoulders and you almost feel

like flying

okay

yes okay

thank you

and if you have any problem

let us know and we'll try to help you

okay thank you

okay

anybody else

hello quick question it says

hi monte

it's been a while

yeah

yesterday

[Laughter]

this this is this is maybe a silly

question related to the precepts so i i

like to play board games sometimes but

like in some of these board games you

kind of have to lie so to speak because

you're pretending to be something

is that

better not to do or it's not that's no

everybody knows that you're doing that

oh okay all right okay yeah

you're not you're not trying to deceive

the world

well you don't know what kind of game

okay

okay thank you for answering that how

was how was your trip

that was great yeah it was really great

yeah it was very good very easy the only

challenging part was i had to travel

with this man

and then he lost his phone and uh

drama

oh

that was really tough yeah

but no i i had a really great time thank

you so much

so how's marco doing

oh he's doing really well he's doing

really well he's he's playing outside

right now we we we played the whole

morning because i

did the time difference i was up really

early so yeah

yeah perfect

yep

okay be happy

i'll do my things is there any other

question

no

okay bonnie this is this is bo i i just

want to say it's such a delight to see

you i haven't seen you so long so i just

didn't want you to get away

just to say thank you and thank you

david and yeah it's just really warmed

my heart so much and thank you so much

oh good thank you

yeah i do do you too

okay let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fearless fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and naga's of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

thank you for coming everybody we'll see

you next week

same time same channel

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

i'm going to give a dhamma talk on one

of my favorite sutas

this is called the kusamians

kosambi was a place where there was a

lot of different spiritual

teachers

and

they kept getting a lot of mixed

messages

and they were very confused so they

asked the buddha to do that

and

he did he went to kosami he was going to

spin the range retreat there

but there was an incident where there

was

one

monastery was spreading rumors about

another monastery and they got pretty

much divided and they were always

quarreling with each other

so

that's kind of the background of what uh

what i'm gonna be

talking about today

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blasted one was living at kosami in

gositas park

now on that occasion the monks of

kosambi had taken to quarreling and

brawling basically they were

gossiping

a lot

and we're in deep disputes stabbing each

other with verbal daggers

[Music]

they can neither convince each other nor

be convinced by others

they could neither persuade each other

nor be persuaded by others

then a certain monk went to the blessed

one after paying homage to him sat down

at one side and informed him of what was

happening

then the blessed one addressed a certain

monk thus

tell those monks that in my name the

teacher calls them

yes venerable sir

is that better

can can you hear me better enough okay

yes venerable sir he replied

and he went to those monks and told them

the teacher calls you venerable ones

yes friend they replied

they went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him set down at one

side

the blessed one asked them monks is it

true that you have taken to quarreling

and brawling and are in deep disputes

stabbing each other with verbal daggers

that you can neither convince each other

nor be convinced by others

that you could neither be persuaded you

can neither persuade each other nor be

persuaded by others

yes venerable sir

monks what do you think

when you take to quarreling and brawling

in our deep disputes stabbing each other

with verbal daggers

that you on that occasion maintain acts

of loving kindness and body speech and

mind in public and in private towards

your companions in a holy life

no venerable sir

so monks

when you take to quarreling and brawling

and are in deep disputes stabbing each

other with verbal daggers on that

occasion you do not maintain acts of

loving kindness

by body speech and mind in public and in

private towards your companions

okay

that you can neither convince each other

nor be convinced by others that you can

neither persuade each other nor be

persuaded by others

misguided men

that is a big slap

that will

lead you to your harm and suffering for

a long time

then the blessed one addressed amongst

us

monks

there are these six memorable qualities

that create love and respect and conduce

to helpfulness

to non-dispute to concord into unity

what are the six

here a monk maintains bodily acts of

loving kindness in public and private

towards his companions in the holy life

this is a memorable quality which

creates

love and respect and conduces

helpfulness to non-dispute

to concord into unity

again a monk maintains verbal acts of

loving kindness in public and private

towards his companions in the holy life

this is a memorable quality that

conduces to love and respect and

conduces to unity

again among maintains mental acts of

loving kindness both in public and

private towards his companions in the

holy life

this is a memorable quality that

conduces to love and respect and

conduces to unity

now if i was giving this dharma talk i

would have changed the order

and started out with

mental acts

why

because

mind is a forerunner of all states and

if you're not doing it in your mind

you're not going to do it with your body

or with your speech

so

and this is a set formula it's that way

all the way through the

the uh sutas

but i wish it was in a different order

that's my personal opinion

again a monk uses things in common with

his virtue as companions in the holy

life without making reservations

he shares with them any gain of any kind

that accords with the dhamma

and has been obtained in a way that

accords with the dhamma

including even the contents of his bowl

uh when i was going on arms drawn in

monk burma was practicing a special

kind of

discipline

it's called a dutanga discipline where

he would not take anything that was not

offered into his bowl

he only ate what was offered

and

i would go out on

alms round

and

i always got a lot of food

i think mostly because i was a tall

westerner and i had red hair which was

really

kind of strange at that time

anyway

as i was eating from my bowl i saw a

kind of food that the monk liked

so i would put that into his bowl

whether i liked it or not didn't matter

i just i like giving that's that's

one of the things that i do a lot

i give away a lot of

different kinds of things

anyway

we always everybody knew the kinds of

food that he like that he would like so

that if they got any of that

they would do that

now where i was going out on arms round

because they thought i was something

very special

sometimes would give food

and they only had enough food for

themselves for the day

and they would put all of that food into

my bowl

so at the end of the

the meal

i took that food out i put it on a tray

and i went back and i gave it back

i couldn't see not eating that food

but there is a rule for monks

that says

when you get done with your bowl

you're supposed to empty it empty the

food out and throw it on the ground

and i couldn't do that

so when i started going back to the

village and it was a mile mile and a

half walk it wasn't very far

so when i took all that food back

i got criticized very very heavily

that i was breaking a rule that

shouldn't be broken

but it just didn't make sense to me that

i had i had enough food for four or five

months

and these people were giving me food

that they only had for the day how could

i not give it up give it back to them

they already made a lot of merit because

they gave the food to us

to me and the other monks

so

it's not taking anything from them it's

just giving back

that's what i

did daily and i got criticized daily for

doing it i was told in no uncertain

terms that i'm going to leave that

monastery if i don't stop doing that

which i did after a couple of weeks i

couldn't take it anymore

but there was another thing that

happened they knew that there was a

treat

uh that

it's uh

fermented tea leaves

and it has

nuts and garlic and and sesame seed and

things like that

and

they would give that

and i would eat it

but the monks that came to visit

what they did

was

they would wait until i was done eating

and put my bowl aside

and then they would offer that food to

me

now i would take it but i wasn't going

to eat it

so i just put it with the other food so

that the other other people could have a

treat

but they were testing me to see whether

i was really like that or not

and okay

you can test me all you want that's so

that's fine i don't i don't have any

problem with that

so

there are certain dootanga practices

that

i practice for a period of time

one of the do tonga practices is only

using three postures

now there's four postures that we all

use

standing sitting walking

lying down

so i didn't lie down

i did that for a number of months

and

uh you wind up not sleeping so much and

you wind up getting more energy and that

sort of thing but it is a very difficult

practice

there's uh three levels of doing it

one is sitting in the middle of the

floor

while you're sleeping and when you do

that you only sleep for 10 or 15 minutes

at a time

and you wind up with backaches

i saw a lot of monks that were trying to

do that in thailand

and they would just go all the way down

put their head on the floor and go to

sleep

and they all wound up with bad backs

the next kind is leaning against the

wall

and i found if i leaned in a corner

that it supported my body better so i

could do that

and the last kind is sitting in a chair

without any arms

so it's a an interesting kind of

discipline that we

that we practice

so

some of the practices

layman cannot do

it's uh

a practice of never entering a building

it's a practice of sitting out under a

tree

or it's a practice of

sitting out in the open

now if you sit out in the open you had

to take your ropes

and make a little tent

so you get out of the direct sun

so it's a

hard practice especially during the

range retreat where it does rain a lot

so

it's a hard practice

and not one that i wanted to do

but there's other things of

only

using three robes

uh

only

wearing

uh

rag robes

rag robes are

pieces of cloth they mostly came from

charnel ground and they were wrapped

around bodies

and after a period of time the body rots

and then you can take that cloth and dye

it and turn it into a rope

but i didn't see any real advantage of

doing that of course there are reasons

for doing all of this is the lack of

attachment and that sort of thing

but it's too very

an interesting thing with a bowl or with

a robe that gets uh

torn

if the tear is over

one inch

then

the only time you can repair the robe

is

before you go on an arms round

in other words you got to get up at four

o'clock in the morning

and sew your robe

and repair it and put a patch on it if

it needs a patch whatever

and

that's a difficult practice

so

there's all kinds of different things

that monks do that that layman really

you're not suited to do

so

and i have met monks that that do all of

those things

they only live in the forest

one monk he was very famous monk

in burma

he had super strong loving kindness

and when i went to visit him

he

was doing something with his back turn

as soon as i walked into the room

he turned around and smiled at me and

raided me

radiated some very very strong loving

kindness of course i gave it back to him

and radiated loving-kindness to him

but he was a monk that could sit in

front of a bowl of water

and he he would chant

and it was like the water was on a hot

plate and it started rolling

bubbling

and of course anybody and any time

somebody did that when he was in the

room doing that they would get some of

that water for themselves

and

it was

real interesting being around him but

unfortunately he only spoke for me

so i had to go through a translator and

i never know what the translator is

saying

so i have no idea if what i said came

across to him but he seemed to smile a

lot

and we laughed

and

he had a nice

kind of laugh

and it was it was great it was good fun

and it so happens that he

uh

gave me a set of robes

which was all good and well but the

ropes were big enough for a salmon era

that's nine years old

they're really small

and i couldn't wear it so i gave it to

someone else

anyway that's a way that we

we get things according to dhamma that's

donated in a particular way

and we chant over it and that sort of

thing and

then we uh share the merit of doing that

with them

and that's done in

accordance with

okay

again among dwells both in public and

private

possessing in common with his companions

in the holy life

those virtues that are unbroken unformed

unblotched unmuddled

liberating commended by the wise

not misapprehended

and conducive to collectedness

now what are we talking about here

we're talking about

keeping the precepts

this

an awful lot of people have especially

in the west have this idea the only time

you really have to be careful with them

you're doing a retreat

and quite often if you're doing a

retreat they only give you the precepts

one time and they don't talk about it

and this is

kind of a mistake

because the precepts need to be followed

as closely as possible

with

your daily activities

whatever you're doing

when you break a precept

and then you try to sit in meditation

what happens

you are going to have

a hindrance arise

that's why hindrances arise because

we've broken precepts in the past

and it can carry over from one one

lifetime to the next

so you never know exactly which precept

you broke to cause that to happen

but

it does happen this way

and

it's real important that you understand

deeply

uh

that you need to keep your precepts

the whole reason you're doing the

meditation is so you can purify your

mind

so your mind can become more wholesome

and

uplifted

so breaking a precepts means that's

going to be a hindrance to you so that

you can't have that happen

so there's definite benefits

now when you keep your precepts for a

period of time

a year two years five years whatever

then

you'll notice

that magical things start to happen

you'll you'll be much more

sharp with your mindfulness

you'll be able to see how mine moves

from one thing to another much more

quickly and you can let it go

and use the six r's and

that

will help you

in your everyday life and

life starts to get very magical you

start to think about

well you know i really need this or that

i need to look at this book or that book

and all of a sudden it's there

it's really kind of fun

when you

keep your precepts

and of course it keeps your mind

sharper

and more alive

you're not living in

a dream world anymore

where you're caught up in your

wants and desires and your dislikes and

your frustrations and your anxiety and

the classic word right now is stress

i don't feel any stress

why would i want stress

why would i worry about whether

something is going to happen or not

either it's going to happen or it's not

it's out of my control so why would i

need to have this stress

this dissatisfaction

this frustration this fear

this anxiety

so you see

when you keep

without breaking them it turns into

a protection for you

and that's wonderful

so though

the easier life becomes

again monk among dwells in public and in

private

possessed in common

his campaigns and holy life

that view that is noble and emancipating

and leads one who practices it in

accordance with the complete destruction

of suffering

oh what's that talking about

it sounds sounds pretty interesting

doesn't it

it's talking about

being able to share your experience with

other people

the idea of

not

talking about what where your practice

is with other people is actually harmful

to you

and you don't have a

deep feeling of

uh

commitment you don't have a deep feeling

of

sangha

you don't have any kalyanitas that you

can talk to if a problem comes up and

you don't know how to solve it

but i try to teach everyone

that when you keep your

intuition going

and you pay attention to your intuition

and you follow your intuition

it will give you all the answers you

need if there's a major problem that

you're going through

so this too is a memorable quality all

of these are

all six of these are memorable qualities

and the way you

you get to show other people what these

qualities can do

is

by

your own practice

you be the

the

giver of

confidence

and the more confidence you have and

this is the way it works the more

confidence

comes back to you

so many people have this idea that being

a teacher

means being

somebody that's the boss

that's the guru you have to follow what

i say

and i spend a lot of time in each

retreat trying to tell people you're

your own teacher

follow your own intuition

believe it and follow it the less you

believe it and follow it the less it

comes up

and it's a quiet little voice

so it's a real important thing for you

to understand

that when the intuition you're driving

along and and

your intuition says stop you need to go

into this store

do it

because there's going to be something

there

that

you need

to hear or do

or help

in whatever way

and that makes life a lot more fun

these are the six memorable qualities

that create love and respect

a helpfulness

to non-dispute to concord into unity

of these six memorable qualities the

highest

and most

comprehensive the most conclusive

is

with

this view

that is noble emancipating and leads one

who practices in accordance

with the complete destruction of

suffering

we just had a student of mine stay with

me for a little while

and he was an onigami

so being around him he was a great

example

of keeping his precepts he wouldn't even

think about breaking a precept

and

right b he just left to go go to europe

and one of the last things i said to him

was i thank you for coming

so we could laugh together

and we did

we were always giggling and laughing

about something

we hear hear uh somebody else say the

dhamma that that's great that that made

me laugh

and i i also

i i told him that

the longer i'm on this path

the more joy i have and it doesn't go

away

i have a lot of

joyful feelings coming up

spontaneously by themselves

and i don't have a lot of

fear and anxiety and and boredom and

depression i don't have any of that kind

of stuff coming up

why

because i have so much joy

and that was one of the things that i

practiced in

in burma

and whenever joy would come up they

would say

don't get attached

well i didn't want to be attached to

anything so i was pushing it away

wrong

how dumb is that

i was just blindly following because i

didn't know

but all of you are

you're smart people

you're very intelligent especially

intelligent in dhamma and that makes me

happy

you have no idea how happy that makes me

so

be the example

and then watch what happens with other

people around you

how they start to change because

they're using you

as kind of like a parent

you know all the parents they're they're

example of their actions and their words

to all their kids

so when you have good actions and good

words

you're teaching other people

you have to let them do what they're

gonna do you can't talk people out of

doing bad things

because they'll say yeah yeah yeah i'll

do it but they're not gonna

so

you be the example and show them

how to be kind to other people

i used to go into walmart occasionally

and there would be a short lady

and she'd want something on the top

shelf so i

i'd reach up and give it to her

and oh that really made them happy

they didn't have to trouble anybody else

they didn't have to go away and

try to get other people that were taller

to help

i just saw the need and did it

and that helped my joy that helped her

joy

and

our deep inside happiness

that's what meditation is for

it's not for the attainment of this or

that

it's for living life in a happy

helpful way

help other people

become less

and it's fun

so

just as the highest most comprehensive

the most comprehensive uh con conclusive

part

of a pinnacle building

is the pinnacle itself

so two of these six memorable qualities

the highest is the view that is noble

and emancipating

see why i like this this suta

and how does this view that is noble and

emancipating

lead one who practices in accordance

with the complete destruction of

suffering

interesting question

here gone to the forest or the root of a

tree or an empty hut

considers thus

is there any obsession

unabandoned by myself

that might so obsess my mind that i

cannot know and see things as they

actually are

think about your worry your anxiety

that's an obsession isn't it

do you think about things as they

actually are or are you clouded

with

anxieties and taking things personally

if a monk is obsessed with sensual lust

then his mind is obsessed

if he is obsessed with ill will then his

mind is obsessed

if he is obsessed with sloth and torpor

then his mind is obsessed

if he's obsessed with restlessness and

anxiety then his mind is obsessed

he's obsessed with doubt then his mind

is obsessed

if a monk is absorbed in speculation

about this world

where do we come from why are we here

those kind of questions

then his mind is obsessed

if a monk is absorbed in speculation

about other worlds then his mind is

obsessed

what's going to happen to me when i die

where am i what am i going to be reborn

all of these kinds of questions

if a monk takes to quarreling and

brawling and is in deep dispute stabbing

each other with verbal

daggers then his

mind

is obsessed

he understands

thus

there's no obsession unabandoned in

myself that might so obsess my mind that

i cannot know and see things as they

actually are

my mind is well disposed

for awakening to the truth

this is the first knowledge attained by

him that is noble

super mundane

not shared by

ordinary people what does super mundane

mean

supra mundane means

that you have experienced a jhana

that you keep your precepts without

breaking them

that you experienced

nirvana

it's all of those different things

again a noble disciple considers this

do i pursue

develop and cultivate this view

do i personally obtain serenity

personally abstain quenching

well again it's talking about being

indigenous

you have a mind that's very peaceful

very calm it has equanimity in it

and there's no hindrances that arise

while you were in the jhana

now if a jhana seems to come up why does

it come up

because your mind

weak for whatever reason

you just kind of lose interest a little

bit and then a hindrance arises you're

not in the jhana at that time

but when you use the six r's and get

back into that genre then you're in that

super mundane state

and

ordinary people

they don't know about this they're

walking around

asleep

for the most part they're caught up in

their

personal beliefs in a in a

self

i'm bored i'm this i'm that

and they're caught up in that

but as you go along

the path

one of the things that you'll notice

is that

your sense of humor starts to change

and as instead of having

really loud belly laughs

you have

kind of a chuckle

and

this this chuckle

the quality of chuckle i can tell what

state you are in

just by your laugh

and quite often one of the things that

i'll ask is

what's your mind doing right now

and if they go through hindrances that

are very difficult

what have you learned from this

it's an important question

he understands that

when i pursue develop and cultivate this

view

i personally obtain serenity i

personally obtain quenching

this is the second knowledge attained by

that person

that that is noble superman pain not

shared by ordinary people

excuse me i'm getting hiccups

again a noble disciple considers lusts

is there any other recluse or brown

outside the buddha's dispensation

possessed of a touches that as i possess

i've been doing meditation for 45 years

i've done a lot of different kinds of

meditation and i've never found a view

like this

so it's real interesting

they might talk about it they might talk

about

especially the brahmins they'll they'll

talk about not-self in a lot of

different ways but not like this

why is that because they haven't learned

what craving is and how to let it go

he understood he understands thus

there's no other recluse or brahman

outside of the buddhist dispensation

possessed of you

such as i possess

this is the third knowledge attained by

them that is noble super mundane not

shared by ordinary people

how could they

if they're not educated

one of the things i tell all my students

when they come for retreat is you're

going to be a lot smarter in 10 days

than you believe possible

you're not going to believe how smart

you are because you are teaching

yourself

you're solving your own problems

and you're having personality

development

again a noble disciple considers thus do

i possess the character

of a person who possesses right view

i don't call it right view i call it

harmonious perspective

which means the impersonal

nature of everything

what is the character of a person who

possesses right view

this is the character of a person who

possesses right view

although

they may commit some kind of offense for

which a means of

rehabilitation has been laid down now

i'm gonna let this let that be for a

moment

what are we talking about breaking a

precept

you break a precept

and what happens

the first thing is

this wrong belief in a personal self

arises

i

shouldn't have done that

that's what's really quietly in your

mind

and that's where

all of the hindrances come from

they come from breaking

a precept

and then taking it personally and then

feeling guilty about doing that

say stealing

it's a weird phenomenon stealing

because things that are stolen

they don't last very long

if they steal money money just

disappears

and in the night it would all disappear

wow

so they always like the pirates to come

and and go into the uh drink some

alcohol and get a little bit rowdy and

then they

wind up

getting rid of all of the things that

they stole

so they've got no real advantage from

doing that

okay now

after you break a precept you're going

to feel guilty

and sometimes

you might not even break a precept but

you thank you

and you feel guilty

now if that happens

then what i want you to do if there's

nobody around that you can tell about

this

is forgive yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again you only have

five precepts i have

227. so you see there's a big difference

here

but

after you

take the priest stepped you make a very

strong determination i'm not going to do

that to myself again no more

and i told this story a few times

somebody came up to me in malaysia and

they said

okay okay okay

i want to be wealthy

how do i get to be wealthy

and if i said the first thing you got to

do is

you have to give

and this

second thing you have to do is keep your

precepts without breaking them he

finally said okay

i'll do that

how long do i have to keep the

precepts and i said well you can start

it a hundred years from now and and go

longer as time goes by

so that gives you an idea how it's not

this is an active kind of meditation

too many people think that meditation is

only about sitting and it's not

it's about living that's why i wrote the

book life is meditation meditation is

life

there's no difference between the two

it's still watching how your mind works

that's the key

okay

just as a young tender infant lying

prone

at once draws back

when he puts his hand or his foot on a

live hot skull

so too that is a character of a person

who possesses right view

he understands thus i possess the

character

of a person who possesses right view

this is the fourth knowledge attained by

him that is noble super mundane

not shared by ordinary people

again 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 be active in various

matters for his companions and holy life

yet he has a keen regard for training

and higher virtue

in pali higher virtue is called

abhidhamma

it's not the same as the burmese teach

abhi dhamma those are books

that are

made up after the buddha died

they didn't come into being

strongly until about the fourth buddhist

council but the third buddhist council

they started

uh paying more attention to the

abhidhamma than they did any kind of

practice or any kind of study

training in the higher mind and training

in the higher wisdom just as a cow

with a new calf

while she grazes she watches her calf so

too

that is a character of a person who

possesses right view

now the next two things are the things

that i really really like

uh

a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the strength of a person

who possesses right view

what is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

this is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

when the dhamma and discipline

proclaimed by the tatakatas being taught

he heeds it

gives it full attention

this is called giving ear

he engages it with all his mind

he hears the dhamma with eager ears

that's one of the things that makes this

fun

because you see you you can hear the

same suit over and over and over again

and you can learn something new you get

an aha moment

that oh that's what that's talking about

when i was talking with delson about

this the

man that's an onagami

he

uh

what

oh you made me forget what i was gonna

say

he would listen to a dhamma talk that i

was giving

and the whole time he had a smile on his

face

and he was going like this

every every time i made a point he's

like yeah

and it's like he was listening to it for

the first time

and i know he's heard the suit as many

times before

but he kept on hearing it at a different

level that's one of the magical things

about buddhism

is you hear it at this level and then a

little while later you hear it at

another level and you go

oh

yeah that's right

and it gets real exciting and it gets

real fun

so i want to encourage you to read good

dharma books

as much as possible

he understands us i possess the strength

of a person who is right view this is

the sixth knowledge attained by that

person

that is noble super mundane not shared

by ordinary people

again

a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the strength of a person

who possesses right view

what is the strength of a

person who possesses right view

this is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

when the dhamma and discipline proclaim

by the tatakatas being taught

he gains inspiration in the meaning

and that can happen many times with the

same suta

gains inspiration in the dhamma

gains gladness in the dhamma

that is connected with the dhamma

and that happens to me all the time i

hear a good dumb and talk

it makes me smile it it brings

my mind

uplifted and happy

because i'm hearing it in a different

way

a lot of times when i'm giving the suta

and i'm reading it to you i'm not

hearing it as deeply as i could

that's just that because it's different

places in the mind that are getting used

for

saying it out loud

but when i hear it

i get real

a lot of gladness

and happiness

he understands thus

i possess the strength of a person who

possesses right view this is the seventh

knowledge

attained by him that is noble super

mundane not shared by ordinary people

when a noble disciple is thus possessed

of seven factors

he has

he has well sought the character for

realization of the fruit of stream entry

now i know there's been some debate with

whether listening to a dhamma talk you

can attain nibbana

it doesn't happen often

but it can happen to anyone

i

have one student in particular that many

years ago

i was reading to her about dependent

origination

and she really liked dependent

origination and she really paid close

attention to what i was saying

and she attained nibana right then

it's wonderful

it's amazing

and ever since then

she has become a teacher and she's an

indian now

the only thing that really interests her

is dependent origination and different

ways of being able to

uh

teach it

she's always trying to come up with a

different way so everybody will

understand it that's wonderful

when a noble disciple is this possessed

of seven factors he possesses the fruit

of stream entry

that's what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so now you know why i like this suit

it gives you a lot of information

it's not as deep as some some suit does

go but it is quite good and it's quite

interesting

so

now the question that causes everybody

to get very silent

do you have any questions

oh

yes

how are you

it's been a long long time

yeah

it's going to get more regular and i am

going to be giving online retreats for

10 days

that's good where i talk to you every

day

so

one day i continue

i want to

share some

gratitude to you

uh because uh i made uh

we are

i'm we are have we have a group of

film friends

and we are having

weekly suta sessions

just good four to five people

and we are having good brahma

discussions and every in every

discussion

we remember you and

we are so grateful to you so

on on behalf of all of our group members

i am saying thank you a big thank you

sadhu to you too

i would i truly wish you all the

happiness

i wish you the joy that i experienced

all the time

thank you

we are so grateful for your banter for

sharing film with us

and it changed our life i can't say

oh that makes me really happy

does anybody else have any question or

comment that they don't understand

uh bantay i

have a question about

uh intuition

and i

as i

so you uh

explain it like

you ask a question

unless i understand if you're really

silent you can you can get a pretty good

answer

um yeah is there is there more to it to

like

um

maybe some good tips or tricks or is

that really the best you can um

go with

by far the best

okay

now you're not always going to get

answers that you particularly like

it can be answers that you don't like

but follow your follow what the

intuition says and you will

fit greatly

when he didn't have a teacher around

he had to follow his own intuition

right

and

with some of the

exploring that we've been doing

we figured out

what it's like to be an arahat

and arahat has no craving at all but

they have all five aggregates

so they walk around they have no

distraction in their mind but they're

very aware of everything around them

and

they have

loving kindness coming out of them

very strongly

so

you look like you have another question

i i was

wondering what

what is intuition what were

is that

a voice that is always right

[Music]

and we're going to be able to figure

that one out um

by intuition

yeah you will

you'll ask a question it doesn't always

come in at the speed you want it to

sometimes it takes a little while

but it's definitely worthwhile

thank you

you'll see and the more you pay

attention to it

the

the better it gets

okay michael

hi ben

michael is next

i can't hear you

i can't hear you you have to unmute

you just uh um

yeah

but you just took it off the uh

the video

ah now i can hear you

thank you bonte great to be with you

i was wondering ponti if you could

kindly

uh expand upon the uh

the seven

what was it the seven factors

right

he's going to put it on youtube so you

can go over it again if you want

all right thank you

okay

[Music]

happy to see you again

yeah hello

yeah i can hear you

can you hear me

barely if you speak up a little bit

louder it would be easier

yeah

we are so thankful for you bante

yeah i have a silly question like how to

become an intelligent

how to become intelligent

yeah

by pay attention very closely to the

dhamma talks

you get more intelligent all the time

because you were teaching yourself from

direct experience

okay as i am searching for a job

so that's why

i'm asking this question

patience leads to nibana

thank you is there any other question

okay then let's share some merit

the merit is right behind me

right right oops

i'm excited interrupt how are you i

thought you were asking her if she had

another question i asked one quick

question of course okay it's good to see

you again it's been a while thank you

it's good to see you too

um

is it uh so

in the last month um

during my sits i've had the hindrances

arising quite a lot and i'm wondering

uh

when is it appropriate to switch to

forgiveness meditation

um

when you feel like you need it just when

you feel like okay when you feel like

you need it yeah

um but does that help with with the

hindrances because i'm breaking precepts

obviously

or have in the past it's certainly

yeah it certainly can yes of course okay

that's the thing is that i want you to i

want you to be careful of is don't get

involved in the story

of why you broke a precept in the past

the most important thing is staying with

the forgiveness

and forgive your mind for any

distraction or any any hindrance at all

just forgive it for being there and come

back

and some

experience in the past will come up

and then you spend your time forgiving

that person or people

until you feel relief

and this is a real relief

it's like

somebody took a hundred pounds of rocks

off your shoulders and you almost feel

like flying

okay

yes okay

thank you

and if you have any problem

let us know and we'll try to help you

okay thank you

okay

anybody else

hello quick question it says

hi monte

it's been a while

yeah

yesterday

[Laughter]

this this is this is maybe a silly

question related to the precepts so i i

like to play board games sometimes but

like in some of these board games you

kind of have to lie so to speak because

you're pretending to be something

is that

better not to do or it's not that's no

everybody knows that you're doing that

oh okay all right okay yeah

you're not you're not trying to deceive

the world

well you don't know what kind of game

okay

okay thank you for answering that how

was how was your trip

that was great yeah it was really great

yeah it was very good very easy the only

challenging part was i had to travel

with this man

and then he lost his phone and uh

drama

oh

that was really tough yeah

but no i i had a really great time thank

you so much

so how's marco doing

oh he's doing really well he's doing

really well he's he's playing outside

right now we we we played the whole

morning because i

did the time difference i was up really

early so yeah

yeah perfect

yep

okay be happy

i'll do my things is there any other

question

no

okay bonnie this is this is bo i i just

want to say it's such a delight to see

you i haven't seen you so long so i just

didn't want you to get away

just to say thank you and thank you

david and yeah it's just really warmed

my heart so much and thank you so much

oh good thank you

yeah i do do you too

okay let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fearless fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and naga's of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

thank you for coming everybody we'll see

you next week

same time same channel

[Applause]

i'm going to give a dhamma talk on one

of my favorite sutas

this is called the kusamians

kosambi was a place where there was a

lot of different spiritual

teachers

and

they kept getting a lot of mixed

messages

and they were very confused so they

asked the buddha to do that

and

he did he went to kosami he was going to

spin the range retreat there

but there was an incident where there

was

one

monastery was spreading rumors about

another monastery and they got pretty

much divided and they were always

quarreling with each other

so

that's kind of the background of what uh

what i'm gonna be

talking about today

thus if i heard on one occasion the

blasted one was living at kosami in

gositas park

now on that occasion the monks of

kosambi had taken to quarreling and

brawling basically they were

gossiping

a lot

and we're in deep disputes stabbing each

other with verbal daggers

[Music]

they can neither convince each other nor

be convinced by others

they could neither persuade each other

nor be persuaded by others

then a certain monk went to the blessed

one after paying homage to him sat down

at one side and informed him of what was

happening

then the blessed one addressed a certain

monk thus

tell those monks that in my name the

teacher calls them

yes venerable sir

is that better

can can you hear me better enough okay

yes venerable sir he replied

and he went to those monks and told them

the teacher calls you venerable ones

yes friend they replied

they went to the blessed one after

paying homage to him set down at one

side

the blessed one asked them monks is it

true that you have taken to quarreling

and brawling and are in deep disputes

stabbing each other with verbal daggers

that you can neither convince each other

nor be convinced by others

that you could neither be persuaded you

can neither persuade each other nor be

persuaded by others

yes venerable sir

monks what do you think

when you take to quarreling and brawling

in our deep disputes stabbing each other

with verbal daggers

that you on that occasion maintain acts

of loving kindness and body speech and

mind in public and in private towards

your companions in a holy life

no venerable sir

so monks

when you take to quarreling and brawling

and are in deep disputes stabbing each

other with verbal daggers on that

occasion you do not maintain acts of

loving kindness

by body speech and mind in public and in

private towards your companions

okay

that you can neither convince each other

nor be convinced by others that you can

neither persuade each other nor be

persuaded by others

misguided men

that is a big slap

that will

lead you to your harm and suffering for

a long time

then the blessed one addressed amongst

us

monks

there are these six memorable qualities

that create love and respect and conduce

to helpfulness

to non-dispute to concord into unity

what are the six

here a monk maintains bodily acts of

loving kindness in public and private

towards his companions in the holy life

this is a memorable quality which

creates

love and respect and conduces

helpfulness to non-dispute

to concord into unity

again a monk maintains verbal acts of

loving kindness in public and private

towards his companions in the holy life

this is a memorable quality that

conduces to love and respect and

conduces to unity

again among maintains mental acts of

loving kindness both in public and

private towards his companions in the

holy life

this is a memorable quality that

conduces to love and respect and

conduces to unity

now if i was giving this dharma talk i

would have changed the order

and started out with

mental acts

why

because

mind is a forerunner of all states and

if you're not doing it in your mind

you're not going to do it with your body

or with your speech

so

and this is a set formula it's that way

all the way through the

the uh sutas

but i wish it was in a different order

that's my personal opinion

again a monk uses things in common with

his virtue as companions in the holy

life without making reservations

he shares with them any gain of any kind

that accords with the dhamma

and has been obtained in a way that

accords with the dhamma

including even the contents of his bowl

uh when i was going on arms drawn in

monk burma was practicing a special

kind of

discipline

it's called a dutanga discipline where

he would not take anything that was not

offered into his bowl

he only ate what was offered

and

i would go out on

alms round

and

i always got a lot of food

i think mostly because i was a tall

westerner and i had red hair which was

really

kind of strange at that time

anyway

as i was eating from my bowl i saw a

kind of food that the monk liked

so i would put that into his bowl

whether i liked it or not didn't matter

i just i like giving that's that's

one of the things that i do a lot

i give away a lot of

different kinds of things

anyway

we always everybody knew the kinds of

food that he like that he would like so

that if they got any of that

they would do that

now where i was going out on arms round

because they thought i was something

very special

sometimes would give food

and they only had enough food for

themselves for the day

and they would put all of that food into

my bowl

so at the end of the

the meal

i took that food out i put it on a tray

and i went back and i gave it back

i couldn't see not eating that food

but there is a rule for monks

that says

when you get done with your bowl

you're supposed to empty it empty the

food out and throw it on the ground

and i couldn't do that

so when i started going back to the

village and it was a mile mile and a

half walk it wasn't very far

so when i took all that food back

i got criticized very very heavily

that i was breaking a rule that

shouldn't be broken

but it just didn't make sense to me that

i had i had enough food for four or five

months

and these people were giving me food

that they only had for the day how could

i not give it up give it back to them

they already made a lot of merit because

they gave the food to us

to me and the other monks

so

it's not taking anything from them it's

just giving back

that's what i

did daily and i got criticized daily for

doing it i was told in no uncertain

terms that i'm going to leave that

monastery if i don't stop doing that

which i did after a couple of weeks i

couldn't take it anymore

but there was another thing that

happened they knew that there was a

treat

uh that

it's uh

fermented tea leaves

and it has

nuts and garlic and and sesame seed and

things like that

and

they would give that

and i would eat it

but the monks that came to visit

what they did

was

they would wait until i was done eating

and put my bowl aside

and then they would offer that food to

me

now i would take it but i wasn't going

to eat it

so i just put it with the other food so

that the other other people could have a

treat

but they were testing me to see whether

i was really like that or not

and okay

you can test me all you want that's so

that's fine i don't i don't have any

problem with that

so

there are certain dootanga practices

that

i practice for a period of time

one of the do tonga practices is only

using three postures

now there's four postures that we all

use

standing sitting walking

lying down

so i didn't lie down

i did that for a number of months

and

uh you wind up not sleeping so much and

you wind up getting more energy and that

sort of thing but it is a very difficult

practice

there's uh three levels of doing it

one is sitting in the middle of the

floor

while you're sleeping and when you do

that you only sleep for 10 or 15 minutes

at a time

and you wind up with backaches

i saw a lot of monks that were trying to

do that in thailand

and they would just go all the way down

put their head on the floor and go to

sleep

and they all wound up with bad backs

the next kind is leaning against the

wall

and i found if i leaned in a corner

that it supported my body better so i

could do that

and the last kind is sitting in a chair

without any arms

so it's a an interesting kind of

discipline that we

that we practice

so

some of the practices

layman cannot do

it's uh

a practice of never entering a building

it's a practice of sitting out under a

tree

or it's a practice of

sitting out in the open

now if you sit out in the open you had

to take your ropes

and make a little tent

so you get out of the direct sun

so it's a

hard practice especially during the

range retreat where it does rain a lot

so

it's a hard practice

and not one that i wanted to do

but there's other things of

only

using three robes

uh

only

wearing

uh

rag robes

rag robes are

pieces of cloth they mostly came from

charnel ground and they were wrapped

around bodies

and after a period of time the body rots

and then you can take that cloth and dye

it and turn it into a rope

but i didn't see any real advantage of

doing that of course there are reasons

for doing all of this is the lack of

attachment and that sort of thing

but it's too very

an interesting thing with a bowl or with

a robe that gets uh

torn

if the tear is over

one inch

then

the only time you can repair the robe

is

before you go on an arms round

in other words you got to get up at four

o'clock in the morning

and sew your robe

and repair it and put a patch on it if

it needs a patch whatever

and

that's a difficult practice

so

there's all kinds of different things

that monks do that that layman really

you're not suited to do

so

and i have met monks that that do all of

those things

they only live in the forest

one monk he was very famous monk

in burma

he had super strong loving kindness

and when i went to visit him

he

was doing something with his back turn

as soon as i walked into the room

he turned around and smiled at me and

raided me

radiated some very very strong loving

kindness of course i gave it back to him

and radiated loving-kindness to him

but he was a monk that could sit in

front of a bowl of water

and he he would chant

and it was like the water was on a hot

plate and it started rolling

bubbling

and of course anybody and any time

somebody did that when he was in the

room doing that they would get some of

that water for themselves

and

it was

real interesting being around him but

unfortunately he only spoke for me

so i had to go through a translator and

i never know what the translator is

saying

so i have no idea if what i said came

across to him but he seemed to smile a

lot

and we laughed

and

he had a nice

kind of laugh

and it was it was great it was good fun

and it so happens that he

uh

gave me a set of robes

which was all good and well but the

ropes were big enough for a salmon era

that's nine years old

they're really small

and i couldn't wear it so i gave it to

someone else

anyway that's a way that we

we get things according to dhamma that's

donated in a particular way

and we chant over it and that sort of

thing and

then we uh share the merit of doing that

with them

and that's done in

accordance with

okay

again among dwells both in public and

private

possessing in common with his companions

in the holy life

those virtues that are unbroken unformed

unblotched unmuddled

liberating commended by the wise

not misapprehended

and conducive to collectedness

now what are we talking about here

we're talking about

keeping the precepts

this

an awful lot of people have especially

in the west have this idea the only time

you really have to be careful with them

you're doing a retreat

and quite often if you're doing a

retreat they only give you the precepts

one time and they don't talk about it

and this is

kind of a mistake

because the precepts need to be followed

as closely as possible

with

your daily activities

whatever you're doing

when you break a precept

and then you try to sit in meditation

what happens

you are going to have

a hindrance arise

that's why hindrances arise because

we've broken precepts in the past

and it can carry over from one one

lifetime to the next

so you never know exactly which precept

you broke to cause that to happen

but

it does happen this way

and

it's real important that you understand

deeply

uh

that you need to keep your precepts

the whole reason you're doing the

meditation is so you can purify your

mind

so your mind can become more wholesome

and

uplifted

so breaking a precepts means that's

going to be a hindrance to you so that

you can't have that happen

so there's definite benefits

now when you keep your precepts for a

period of time

a year two years five years whatever

then

you'll notice

that magical things start to happen

you'll you'll be much more

sharp with your mindfulness

you'll be able to see how mine moves

from one thing to another much more

quickly and you can let it go

and use the six r's and

that

will help you

in your everyday life and

life starts to get very magical you

start to think about

well you know i really need this or that

i need to look at this book or that book

and all of a sudden it's there

it's really kind of fun

when you

keep your precepts

and of course it keeps your mind

sharper

and more alive

you're not living in

a dream world anymore

where you're caught up in your

wants and desires and your dislikes and

your frustrations and your anxiety and

the classic word right now is stress

i don't feel any stress

why would i want stress

why would i worry about whether

something is going to happen or not

either it's going to happen or it's not

it's out of my control so why would i

need to have this stress

this dissatisfaction

this frustration this fear

this anxiety

so you see

when you keep

without breaking them it turns into

a protection for you

and that's wonderful

so though

the easier life becomes

again monk among dwells in public and in

private

possessed in common

his campaigns and holy life

that view that is noble and emancipating

and leads one who practices it in

accordance with the complete destruction

of suffering

oh what's that talking about

it sounds sounds pretty interesting

doesn't it

it's talking about

being able to share your experience with

other people

the idea of

not

talking about what where your practice

is with other people is actually harmful

to you

and you don't have a

deep feeling of

uh

commitment you don't have a deep feeling

of

sangha

you don't have any kalyanitas that you

can talk to if a problem comes up and

you don't know how to solve it

but i try to teach everyone

that when you keep your

intuition going

and you pay attention to your intuition

and you follow your intuition

it will give you all the answers you

need if there's a major problem that

you're going through

so this too is a memorable quality all

of these are

all six of these are memorable qualities

and the way you

you get to show other people what these

qualities can do

is

by

your own practice

you be the

the

giver of

confidence

and the more confidence you have and

this is the way it works the more

confidence

comes back to you

so many people have this idea that being

a teacher

means being

somebody that's the boss

that's the guru you have to follow what

i say

and i spend a lot of time in each

retreat trying to tell people you're

your own teacher

follow your own intuition

believe it and follow it the less you

believe it and follow it the less it

comes up

and it's a quiet little voice

so it's a real important thing for you

to understand

that when the intuition you're driving

along and and

your intuition says stop you need to go

into this store

do it

because there's going to be something

there

that

you need

to hear or do

or help

in whatever way

and that makes life a lot more fun

these are the six memorable qualities

that create love and respect

a helpfulness

to non-dispute to concord into unity

of these six memorable qualities the

highest

and most

comprehensive the most conclusive

is

with

this view

that is noble emancipating and leads one

who practices in accordance

with the complete destruction of

suffering

we just had a student of mine stay with

me for a little while

and he was an onigami

so being around him he was a great

example

of keeping his precepts he wouldn't even

think about breaking a precept

and

right b he just left to go go to europe

and one of the last things i said to him

was i thank you for coming

so we could laugh together

and we did

we were always giggling and laughing

about something

we hear hear uh somebody else say the

dhamma that that's great that that made

me laugh

and i i also

i i told him that

the longer i'm on this path

the more joy i have and it doesn't go

away

i have a lot of

joyful feelings coming up

spontaneously by themselves

and i don't have a lot of

fear and anxiety and and boredom and

depression i don't have any of that kind

of stuff coming up

why

because i have so much joy

and that was one of the things that i

practiced in

in burma

and whenever joy would come up they

would say

don't get attached

well i didn't want to be attached to

anything so i was pushing it away

wrong

how dumb is that

i was just blindly following because i

didn't know

but all of you are

you're smart people

you're very intelligent especially

intelligent in dhamma and that makes me

happy

you have no idea how happy that makes me

so

be the example

and then watch what happens with other

people around you

how they start to change because

they're using you

as kind of like a parent

you know all the parents they're they're

example of their actions and their words

to all their kids

so when you have good actions and good

words

you're teaching other people

you have to let them do what they're

gonna do you can't talk people out of

doing bad things

because they'll say yeah yeah yeah i'll

do it but they're not gonna

so

you be the example and show them

how to be kind to other people

i used to go into walmart occasionally

and there would be a short lady

and she'd want something on the top

shelf so i

i'd reach up and give it to her

and oh that really made them happy

they didn't have to trouble anybody else

they didn't have to go away and

try to get other people that were taller

to help

i just saw the need and did it

and that helped my joy that helped her

joy

and

our deep inside happiness

that's what meditation is for

it's not for the attainment of this or

that

it's for living life in a happy

helpful way

help other people

become less

and it's fun

so

just as the highest most comprehensive

the most comprehensive uh con conclusive

part

of a pinnacle building

is the pinnacle itself

so two of these six memorable qualities

the highest is the view that is noble

and emancipating

see why i like this this suta

and how does this view that is noble and

emancipating

lead one who practices in accordance

with the complete destruction of

suffering

interesting question

here gone to the forest or the root of a

tree or an empty hut

considers thus

is there any obsession

unabandoned by myself

that might so obsess my mind that i

cannot know and see things as they

actually are

think about your worry your anxiety

that's an obsession isn't it

do you think about things as they

actually are or are you clouded

with

anxieties and taking things personally

if a monk is obsessed with sensual lust

then his mind is obsessed

if he is obsessed with ill will then his

mind is obsessed

if he is obsessed with sloth and torpor

then his mind is obsessed

if he's obsessed with restlessness and

anxiety then his mind is obsessed

he's obsessed with doubt then his mind

is obsessed

if a monk is absorbed in speculation

about this world

where do we come from why are we here

those kind of questions

then his mind is obsessed

if a monk is absorbed in speculation

about other worlds then his mind is

obsessed

what's going to happen to me when i die

where am i what am i going to be reborn

all of these kinds of questions

if a monk takes to quarreling and

brawling and is in deep dispute stabbing

each other with verbal

daggers then his

mind

is obsessed

he understands

thus

there's no obsession unabandoned in

myself that might so obsess my mind that

i cannot know and see things as they

actually are

my mind is well disposed

for awakening to the truth

this is the first knowledge attained by

him that is noble

super mundane

not shared by

ordinary people what does super mundane

mean

supra mundane means

that you have experienced a jhana

that you keep your precepts without

breaking them

that you experienced

nirvana

it's all of those different things

again a noble disciple considers this

do i pursue

develop and cultivate this view

do i personally obtain serenity

personally abstain quenching

well again it's talking about being

indigenous

you have a mind that's very peaceful

very calm it has equanimity in it

and there's no hindrances that arise

while you were in the jhana

now if a jhana seems to come up why does

it come up

because your mind

weak for whatever reason

you just kind of lose interest a little

bit and then a hindrance arises you're

not in the jhana at that time

but when you use the six r's and get

back into that genre then you're in that

super mundane state

and

ordinary people

they don't know about this they're

walking around

asleep

for the most part they're caught up in

their

personal beliefs in a in a

self

i'm bored i'm this i'm that

and they're caught up in that

but as you go along

the path

one of the things that you'll notice

is that

your sense of humor starts to change

and as instead of having

really loud belly laughs

you have

kind of a chuckle

and

this this chuckle

the quality of chuckle i can tell what

state you are in

just by your laugh

and quite often one of the things that

i'll ask is

what's your mind doing right now

and if they go through hindrances that

are very difficult

what have you learned from this

it's an important question

he understands that

when i pursue develop and cultivate this

view

i personally obtain serenity i

personally obtain quenching

this is the second knowledge attained by

that person

that that is noble superman pain not

shared by ordinary people

excuse me i'm getting hiccups

again a noble disciple considers lusts

is there any other recluse or brown

outside the buddha's dispensation

possessed of a touches that as i possess

i've been doing meditation for 45 years

i've done a lot of different kinds of

meditation and i've never found a view

like this

so it's real interesting

they might talk about it they might talk

about

especially the brahmins they'll they'll

talk about not-self in a lot of

different ways but not like this

why is that because they haven't learned

what craving is and how to let it go

he understood he understands thus

there's no other recluse or brahman

outside of the buddhist dispensation

possessed of you

such as i possess

this is the third knowledge attained by

them that is noble super mundane not

shared by ordinary people

how could they

if they're not educated

one of the things i tell all my students

when they come for retreat is you're

going to be a lot smarter in 10 days

than you believe possible

you're not going to believe how smart

you are because you are teaching

yourself

you're solving your own problems

and you're having personality

development

again a noble disciple considers thus do

i possess the character

of a person who possesses right view

i don't call it right view i call it

harmonious perspective

which means the impersonal

nature of everything

what is the character of a person who

possesses right view

this is the character of a person who

possesses right view

although

they may commit some kind of offense for

which a means of

rehabilitation has been laid down now

i'm gonna let this let that be for a

moment

what are we talking about breaking a

precept

you break a precept

and what happens

the first thing is

this wrong belief in a personal self

arises

i

shouldn't have done that

that's what's really quietly in your

mind

and that's where

all of the hindrances come from

they come from breaking

a precept

and then taking it personally and then

feeling guilty about doing that

say stealing

it's a weird phenomenon stealing

because things that are stolen

they don't last very long

if they steal money money just

disappears

and in the night it would all disappear

wow

so they always like the pirates to come

and and go into the uh drink some

alcohol and get a little bit rowdy and

then they

wind up

getting rid of all of the things that

they stole

so they've got no real advantage from

doing that

okay now

after you break a precept you're going

to feel guilty

and sometimes

you might not even break a precept but

you thank you

and you feel guilty

now if that happens

then what i want you to do if there's

nobody around that you can tell about

this

is forgive yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again you only have

five precepts i have

227. so you see there's a big difference

here

but

after you

take the priest stepped you make a very

strong determination i'm not going to do

that to myself again no more

and i told this story a few times

somebody came up to me in malaysia and

they said

okay okay okay

i want to be wealthy

how do i get to be wealthy

and if i said the first thing you got to

do is

you have to give

and this

second thing you have to do is keep your

precepts without breaking them he

finally said okay

i'll do that

how long do i have to keep the

precepts and i said well you can start

it a hundred years from now and and go

longer as time goes by

so that gives you an idea how it's not

this is an active kind of meditation

too many people think that meditation is

only about sitting and it's not

it's about living that's why i wrote the

book life is meditation meditation is

life

there's no difference between the two

it's still watching how your mind works

that's the key

okay

just as a young tender infant lying

prone

at once draws back

when he puts his hand or his foot on a

live hot skull

so too that is a character of a person

who possesses right view

he understands thus i possess the

character

of a person who possesses right view

this is the fourth knowledge attained by

him that is noble super mundane

not shared by ordinary people

again 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 be active in various

matters for his companions and holy life

yet he has a keen regard for training

and higher virtue

in pali higher virtue is called

abhidhamma

it's not the same as the burmese teach

abhi dhamma those are books

that are

made up after the buddha died

they didn't come into being

strongly until about the fourth buddhist

council but the third buddhist council

they started

uh paying more attention to the

abhidhamma than they did any kind of

practice or any kind of study

training in the higher mind and training

in the higher wisdom just as a cow

with a new calf

while she grazes she watches her calf so

too

that is a character of a person who

possesses right view

now the next two things are the things

that i really really like

uh

a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the strength of a person

who possesses right view

what is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

this is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

when the dhamma and discipline

proclaimed by the tatakatas being taught

he heeds it

gives it full attention

this is called giving ear

he engages it with all his mind

he hears the dhamma with eager ears

that's one of the things that makes this

fun

because you see you you can hear the

same suit over and over and over again

and you can learn something new you get

an aha moment

that oh that's what that's talking about

when i was talking with delson about

this the

man that's an onagami

he

uh

what

oh you made me forget what i was gonna

say

he would listen to a dhamma talk that i

was giving

and the whole time he had a smile on his

face

and he was going like this

every every time i made a point he's

like yeah

and it's like he was listening to it for

the first time

and i know he's heard the suit as many

times before

but he kept on hearing it at a different

level that's one of the magical things

about buddhism

is you hear it at this level and then a

little while later you hear it at

another level and you go

oh

yeah that's right

and it gets real exciting and it gets

real fun

so i want to encourage you to read good

dharma books

as much as possible

he understands us i possess the strength

of a person who is right view this is

the sixth knowledge attained by that

person

that is noble super mundane not shared

by ordinary people

again

a noble disciple considers thus

do i possess the strength of a person

who possesses right view

what is the strength of a

person who possesses right view

this is the strength of a person who

possesses right view

when the dhamma and discipline proclaim

by the tatakatas being taught

he gains inspiration in the meaning

and that can happen many times with the

same suta

gains inspiration in the dhamma

gains gladness in the dhamma

that is connected with the dhamma

and that happens to me all the time i

hear a good dumb and talk

it makes me smile it it brings

my mind

uplifted and happy

because i'm hearing it in a different

way

a lot of times when i'm giving the suta

and i'm reading it to you i'm not

hearing it as deeply as i could

that's just that because it's different

places in the mind that are getting used

for

saying it out loud

but when i hear it

i get real

a lot of gladness

and happiness

he understands thus

i possess the strength of a person who

possesses right view this is the seventh

knowledge

attained by him that is noble super

mundane not shared by ordinary people

when a noble disciple is thus possessed

of seven factors

he has

he has well sought the character for

realization of the fruit of stream entry

now i know there's been some debate with

whether listening to a dhamma talk you

can attain nibbana

it doesn't happen often

but it can happen to anyone

i

have one student in particular that many

years ago

i was reading to her about dependent

origination

and she really liked dependent

origination and she really paid close

attention to what i was saying

and she attained nibana right then

it's wonderful

it's amazing

and ever since then

she has become a teacher and she's an

indian now

the only thing that really interests her

is dependent origination and different

ways of being able to

uh

teach it

she's always trying to come up with a

different way so everybody will

understand it that's wonderful

when a noble disciple is this possessed

of seven factors he possesses the fruit

of stream entry

that's what the blessed one said the

monks were satisfied and delighted in

the blessed one's words

so now you know why i like this suit

it gives you a lot of information

it's not as deep as some some suit does

go but it is quite good and it's quite

interesting

so

now the question that causes everybody

to get very silent

do you have any questions

oh

yes

how are you

it's been a long long time

yeah

it's going to get more regular and i am

going to be giving online retreats for

10 days

that's good where i talk to you every

day

so

one day i continue

i want to

share some

gratitude to you

uh because uh i made uh

we are

i'm we are have we have a group of

film friends

and we are having

weekly suta sessions

just good four to five people

and we are having good brahma

discussions and every in every

discussion

we remember you and

we are so grateful to you so

on on behalf of all of our group members

i am saying thank you a big thank you

sadhu to you too

i would i truly wish you all the

happiness

i wish you the joy that i experienced

all the time

thank you

we are so grateful for your banter for

sharing film with us

and it changed our life i can't say

oh that makes me really happy

does anybody else have any question or

comment that they don't understand

uh bantay i

have a question about

uh intuition

and i

as i

so you uh

explain it like

you ask a question

unless i understand if you're really

silent you can you can get a pretty good

answer

um yeah is there is there more to it to

like

um

maybe some good tips or tricks or is

that really the best you can um

go with

by far the best

okay

now you're not always going to get

answers that you particularly like

it can be answers that you don't like

but follow your follow what the

intuition says and you will

fit greatly

when he didn't have a teacher around

he had to follow his own intuition

right

and

with some of the

exploring that we've been doing

we figured out

what it's like to be an arahat

and arahat has no craving at all but

they have all five aggregates

so they walk around they have no

distraction in their mind but they're

very aware of everything around them

and

they have

loving kindness coming out of them

very strongly

so

you look like you have another question

i i was

wondering what

what is intuition what were

is that

a voice that is always right

[Music]

and we're going to be able to figure

that one out um

by intuition

yeah you will

you'll ask a question it doesn't always

come in at the speed you want it to

sometimes it takes a little while

but it's definitely worthwhile

thank you

you'll see and the more you pay

attention to it

the

the better it gets

okay michael

hi ben

michael is next

i can't hear you

i can't hear you you have to unmute

you just uh um

yeah

but you just took it off the uh

the video

ah now i can hear you

thank you bonte great to be with you

i was wondering ponti if you could

kindly

uh expand upon the uh

the seven

what was it the seven factors

right

he's going to put it on youtube so you

can go over it again if you want

all right thank you

okay

[Music]

happy to see you again

yeah hello

yeah i can hear you

can you hear me

barely if you speak up a little bit

louder it would be easier

yeah

we are so thankful for you bante

yeah i have a silly question like how to

become an intelligent

how to become intelligent

yeah

by pay attention very closely to the

dhamma talks

you get more intelligent all the time

because you were teaching yourself from

direct experience

okay as i am searching for a job

so that's why

i'm asking this question

patience leads to nibana

thank you is there any other question

okay then let's share some merit

the merit is right behind me

right right oops

i'm excited interrupt how are you i

thought you were asking her if she had

another question i asked one quick

question of course okay it's good to see

you again it's been a while thank you

it's good to see you too

um

is it uh so

in the last month um

during my sits i've had the hindrances

arising quite a lot and i'm wondering

uh

when is it appropriate to switch to

forgiveness meditation

um

when you feel like you need it just when

you feel like okay when you feel like

you need it yeah

um but does that help with with the

hindrances because i'm breaking precepts

obviously

or have in the past it's certainly

yeah it certainly can yes of course okay

that's the thing is that i want you to i

want you to be careful of is don't get

involved in the story

of why you broke a precept in the past

the most important thing is staying with

the forgiveness

and forgive your mind for any

distraction or any any hindrance at all

just forgive it for being there and come

back

and some

experience in the past will come up

and then you spend your time forgiving

that person or people

until you feel relief

and this is a real relief

it's like

somebody took a hundred pounds of rocks

off your shoulders and you almost feel

like flying

okay

yes okay

thank you

and if you have any problem

let us know and we'll try to help you

okay thank you

okay

anybody else

hello quick question it says

hi monte

it's been a while

yeah

yesterday

[Laughter]

this this is this is maybe a silly

question related to the precepts so i i

like to play board games sometimes but

like in some of these board games you

kind of have to lie so to speak because

you're pretending to be something

is that

better not to do or it's not that's no

everybody knows that you're doing that

oh okay all right okay yeah

you're not you're not trying to deceive

the world

well you don't know what kind of game

okay

okay thank you for answering that how

was how was your trip

that was great yeah it was really great

yeah it was very good very easy the only

challenging part was i had to travel

with this man

and then he lost his phone and uh

drama

oh

that was really tough yeah

but no i i had a really great time thank

you so much

so how's marco doing

oh he's doing really well he's doing

really well he's he's playing outside

right now we we we played the whole

morning because i

did the time difference i was up really

early so yeah

yeah perfect

yep

okay be happy

i'll do my things is there any other

question

no

okay bonnie this is this is bo i i just

want to say it's such a delight to see

you i haven't seen you so long so i just

didn't want you to get away

just to say thank you and thank you

david and yeah it's just really warmed

my heart so much and thank you so much

oh good thank you

yeah i do do you too

okay let's share samaritan

may suffering ones be suffering free and

the fearless fearless be

may the grieving shed all grief and may

all beings find relief

may all beings share this merit that

we've thus acquired for the acquisition

of all kinds of happiness

may beings inhabiting space and earth

devas and naga's of mighty powers share

this merit of ours

may they long protect the buddha's

dispensation

thank you for coming everybody we'll see

you next week

same time same channel

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