WEBVTT 00:01.280 --> 00:11.074 Okay, so we come back together today to do our group practice and first to have a talk on the Dhamma. 00:11.254 --> 00:27.357 So we'll continue today with the discourse on blessings. 00:27.557 --> 00:31.202 During the time that we listen to the talk, during the Dhamma talk, 00:32.549 --> 00:34.752 begin to prepare ourselves for the meditation. 00:35.653 --> 00:42.823 The purpose of listening to the Dhamma is for preparing us for the meditation practice. 00:42.843 --> 00:50.293 We're not trying to take notes or pick up new ideas or new ways of thinking. 00:52.156 --> 00:55.300 We're just trying to collect our thoughts 00:56.545 --> 01:03.973 and bring our mind, collect our mind and bring our mind back to the reality in front of us. 01:07.476 --> 01:22.232 We're trying to learn what is the correct method of practice and how we can develop right practice. 01:29.823 --> 01:31.946 So this is really the meaning of the word blessing. 01:32.006 --> 01:36.872 A blessing has to be, what we want is a real blessing. 01:39.134 --> 01:40.596 We want these things to bless us. 01:42.378 --> 01:54.413 It's not intellectual where you add them up and when you know them, then you know the blessings or then you've learned the teaching on the blessings. 01:59.675 --> 02:19.818 The point is that we should really and truly put these into practice, and the more we are able to put them into practice, the more blessed our lives will be, the less suffering there will be in our lives. 02:19.838 --> 02:28.028 So we reached the sixth stanza, I believe. 02:29.223 --> 02:50.724 So here we're starting to get closer to the actual meditation practice. 02:50.764 --> 02:56.850 means the abstention, the giving up of evil. 02:59.598 --> 03:22.863 the refraining from intoxicating drinks, madhyapana jasanyamo, appamado jadhamesu, means vigilance or heedfulness, heedfulness in regards to the dhammas, in regards to the realities. 03:26.347 --> 03:27.428 Vihitamangalam uttama. 03:28.876 --> 03:30.158 So fairly simple teachings. 03:30.318 --> 03:34.224 There's not much theory to go through here. 03:34.244 --> 03:42.897 Only to use these to set our minds on the right path. 03:42.917 --> 03:45.721 Arati virati papa is actually quite a simple teaching. 03:46.943 --> 03:50.529 It's something that on the face of it doesn't need much explanation. 03:51.730 --> 03:58.140 But it's something that can be explained in some great detail. 04:02.862 --> 04:06.067 Arati, virati, to give up and to abstain. 04:06.087 --> 04:18.967 Arati means to give up your desire for it or give up your delighting in it. 04:18.987 --> 04:20.389 Virati means the same thing. 04:20.409 --> 04:24.997 Vi and a means to not delight in it. 04:25.097 --> 04:27.320 Virati. 04:27.340 --> 04:27.881 Virati. 04:28.502 --> 04:30.405 Vi means to give up or to abstain. 04:31.634 --> 04:36.462 To take out, aratta means delight. 04:41.551 --> 04:52.731 So what this really means is to give up our addiction or our attachment or any desire to do evil deeds or to do evil, paapa. 04:55.276 --> 04:58.359 Evil, in the Buddha's teaching, it's important to understand this. 04:59.381 --> 05:08.771 It's important to understand in some detail what we mean by the word evil, and how we can even say that there is such a thing as evil. 05:08.831 --> 05:15.238 There's a great amount of debate about whether evil even exists. 05:16.339 --> 05:25.249 In a philosophical sense, it's very difficult to come to any 05:26.933 --> 05:43.193 substantial or any real conclusion or any agreement about this, what is evil and whether there is evil and so on. 05:43.213 --> 05:54.207 Because just simply logically it's hard to come to any proof that this is evil or that is evil. 06:03.637 --> 06:09.845 So in Buddhism we have just one more theory about what is evil, and it's not the only theory. 06:10.325 --> 06:28.648 Some people will say something is evil because it goes against the wishes of a creator god, or something is evil because it goes against the society, or it goes against the culture. 06:31.143 --> 06:34.528 People will say something is evil because it goes against your own intentions. 06:35.690 --> 06:47.827 So if a person, in this case, if a person wants to do evil deeds, wants to do things, perform deeds that hurt others, if they refrain from them, then that would be evil. 06:50.350 --> 07:00.525 But in general it means if a person likes the color red, then to force them to have the color blue, this is evil because going against a person's wishes 07:03.290 --> 07:07.675 There are many, many theories about what is the meaning of evil. 07:08.877 --> 07:10.379 Buddhism just has one more theory. 07:10.399 --> 07:15.485 The difference is that this theory actually has some benefit to it. 07:16.686 --> 07:18.108 It actually has some purpose to it. 07:20.931 --> 07:23.454 The meaning of evil in Buddhism is something that brings suffering. 07:27.719 --> 07:29.061 And so by that definition, 07:30.830 --> 07:36.418 The more suffering something brings, the more evil it is. 07:38.963 --> 07:41.628 And so evil in Buddhism has three layers, three levels. 07:42.389 --> 07:48.200 There's suffering according to the Vinaya, suffering according to the Sutta, and suffering according to... 07:48.741 --> 08:02.727 Evil according to the Vinaya, evil according to the Sutta, and evil according to the Abhidhamma, which is based on suffering according to the Vinaya, suffering according to the Suttas, and suffering according to the Abhidhamma. 08:06.115 --> 08:10.620 According to the Vinaya, the evil that we're supposed to give up is evil deeds. 08:11.341 --> 08:18.609 And this is the simplest way to understand the concept of evil. 08:19.089 --> 08:26.057 It's the basic understanding that we gain when we begin to learn and to practice the Buddhist teachings. 08:26.618 --> 08:33.085 As we learned about yesterday, this was where this Anupubika Setiputta, 08:34.027 --> 08:53.513 this man who practiced in order, the first evil deeds that he began to refrain, the evil things he began to refrain from was the five, the breaking of the five precepts, so killing, stealing, lying, cheating, cheating, lying, and taking drugs and alcohol. 08:53.533 --> 08:54.494 He was refrained from this. 08:55.656 --> 08:59.381 That was his first step. 08:59.401 --> 09:03.426 So according to Vinaya, the deeds that lead us to suffering, 09:05.954 --> 09:09.199 And this is the simplest way to understand what we mean by evil. 09:09.219 --> 09:13.386 It's evil according to the Vinaya. 09:13.406 --> 09:17.693 So we refrain from killing, we refrain from stealing, we refrain from these basic immoral acts. 09:18.654 --> 09:31.675 But moreover, in the Vinaya, if you really learn about the Vinaya and you learn about morality in detail, it actually means the preventing of the mind from giving rise to the intentions to act. 09:33.511 --> 09:43.442 So true morality is the explicit decision to avoid or to refrain. 09:44.624 --> 09:48.949 So this is what is meant by arati virati. 09:48.969 --> 09:52.353 The decision to refrain from an evil deed. 09:54.195 --> 09:55.556 And this takes meditation practice. 09:55.576 --> 10:03.265 This is really the beginning of the meditation practice because as I'll explain in terms of the Suttani Abhidhamma, 10:03.987 --> 10:25.371 Even just moving your foot without wisdom, without mindfulness, becomes a moment of delusion, where we cling to the foot as me and mine, we cling to the movement as my movement, and we cling to the mind that creates the movement as my mind, my intention. 10:27.460 --> 10:38.012 if we're not aware of these things, if we're not guarding the mind, as we learned about. 10:38.032 --> 10:44.098 An evil deed can be any small act, small movement of the body. 10:45.080 --> 10:48.263 Even simply watching the stomach rise and fall can become an evil deed. 10:49.224 --> 10:49.424 Why? 10:49.504 --> 10:50.886 Because it can lead to suffering. 10:51.575 --> 11:06.549 Once you have clinging and you identify with the object, once you identify with your body, for example, then when the body undergoes change or more breaking up and the body dies, you'll feel great suffering. 11:08.031 --> 11:12.295 You're creating the habit of clinging and the habit of ignorance and delusion. 11:13.716 --> 11:17.159 If you cling to the feelings, then when feelings change, you'll be upset. 11:17.179 --> 11:19.101 When suffering arises, you'll be upset. 11:19.807 --> 11:21.809 When you feel pain, you're not mindful of pain. 11:21.849 --> 11:27.594 If you're not clearly aware this is pain, then there will arise liking and disliking. 11:29.236 --> 11:41.367 There will arise identification as me and mine and so on. 11:41.387 --> 11:49.594 So the actual truth of morality 11:51.177 --> 12:19.598 is the beginning of the meditation practice the technique of the meditation practice the using of this tool to keep yourself from acting even walking in a way that's going to create suffering in a way that's going to create attachment in terms of the thoughts clinging to the thoughts and following the thoughts and enjoying the thoughts or being afraid or upset by your thoughts we refrain from that we stop ourselves from 12:20.928 --> 12:23.210 from giving rise to these defilements. 12:25.933 --> 12:29.216 Otherwise, even moving your foot, even walking back and forth can be an evil deed. 12:30.197 --> 12:32.339 Even sitting in meditation can give rise to evil. 12:34.742 --> 12:37.304 Because what we mean by evil again is that which brings suffering. 12:37.384 --> 12:38.826 So sitting can bring great suffering. 12:38.866 --> 12:42.990 Sitting meditation, for a beginner meditator, is really an evil thing in that sense. 12:47.034 --> 12:49.416 And the question is, well then, is a beginner meditator actually 12:50.054 --> 12:51.196 actually doing a bad thing. 12:52.318 --> 12:56.845 And what it means is that moment to moment they're doing a bad thing. 12:56.865 --> 13:01.834 Moment to moment they're giving rise to defilement and therefore suffering. 13:02.234 --> 13:04.719 But the point is that because they're meditating they're going to see that. 13:06.762 --> 13:11.590 The only way to truly give up evil is to come and see that it's evil. 13:14.101 --> 13:20.790 So when we talk about keeping the five precepts, many people keep the five precepts simply because they're Buddhist or because their teacher says to or so on. 13:21.510 --> 13:25.395 But a sotapanna, an enlightened being, doesn't require such teaching. 13:26.256 --> 13:28.079 They do it because they know it leads to suffering. 13:29.180 --> 13:33.606 They refrain from evil because they've come to understand evil. 13:33.626 --> 13:43.939 So rather than repressing or pushing away or stopping, forcing themselves, saying no, no, when they want to do something to refrain from it, they simply don't want to do it anymore. 13:44.982 --> 13:46.484 because they've come to see it for what it is. 13:46.524 --> 13:48.726 This can only come from actually watching the evil. 13:49.687 --> 13:52.150 So in a sense, you require evil. 13:53.331 --> 13:54.512 You have to see that it's evil. 13:55.333 --> 13:57.356 You have to see that it's causing suffering. 13:57.376 --> 13:58.397 You have to see the suffering. 14:01.040 --> 14:07.327 And you have to let go of the suffering. 14:07.347 --> 14:11.091 You have to be able to change your behavior. 14:12.192 --> 14:13.834 So this is suffering according to the Vinaya. 14:14.014 --> 14:14.955 According to the Sutta, 14:16.353 --> 14:22.525 is the actual meditation practice, or the evil according to the suttas. 14:22.545 --> 14:32.303 Evil according to the suttas is the states of mind that are evil, the thoughts, the thoughts of anger and thoughts of greed and so on. 14:34.072 --> 14:40.021 the mental intention, karma, for example. 14:40.041 --> 14:43.005 Buddha said, karma is not the actions, karma is the intentions. 14:44.047 --> 15:03.015 So in the sutta, it's all about creating wholesome intentions, creating wholesome mind states, bhavana, kamathana, vipassana, samatha, vipassana, developing our minds, developing calm and tranquility, and developing insights. 15:06.758 --> 15:08.240 This is the second layer of evil. 15:08.260 --> 15:10.904 This is what we're trying to do away with here. 15:11.305 --> 15:22.000 In meditation practice you come to understand just how many layers of evil there are and really how profound this simple teaching is on giving up evil. 15:22.922 --> 15:27.608 How important it is to be reminded and to realize this. 15:29.371 --> 15:35.500 Because what you realize in meditation is that whereas before we thought we were 15:37.403 --> 15:46.560 a generally good person, we're quite perturbed by the fact that throughout our lives we've done so much, such a great amount of evil, really. 15:48.343 --> 15:49.766 Remember how we've hurt other people. 15:49.826 --> 15:51.970 Remember how we've hurt other beings. 15:53.012 --> 15:56.458 Remember how we've caused stress and suffering. 16:02.632 --> 16:09.047 we begin to add up and add up and realize the trouble that we've gotten ourselves in. 16:11.542 --> 16:34.785 Because before we thought that an ordinary person was really on the right track, a person who has a good job and is competitive in their field and someone who is assertive, someone who has self-esteem, someone who is confident and so on, someone who has likes and dislikes and is a socially sophisticated person and so on. 16:37.568 --> 16:41.312 So we measure success and we measure happiness, we measure goodness 16:42.693 --> 16:47.520 in a very arbitrary way or in a very partial sort of way. 16:48.461 --> 16:56.573 When we come to meditate we lose sight of that and we begin to see what it was that we were missing through all this. 16:57.174 --> 17:03.584 That actually the most important, the salient feature of our life was the good and the evil that we've done. 17:04.385 --> 17:06.628 The anger that we've given rise to. 17:07.369 --> 17:10.033 The competition that we used to think was a good thing. 17:10.402 --> 17:12.785 the victory when we beat others. 17:12.845 --> 17:23.118 We come to see how horrible it is actually, how much suffering we cause to others by asserting ourselves, asserting our ego and our will over them. 17:27.523 --> 17:32.309 We come to realize even as Buddhist meditators we can do rise to these things. 17:33.431 --> 17:39.919 We come to take stock and to bring our sensitivity to another level. 17:40.405 --> 17:55.366 So even though we may not have killed or stolen or cheated or lied, we realize how much corruption there is in our mind and how much corruption we've cultivated in our minds. 17:56.247 --> 17:58.591 How much greed, how much anger, how much delusion. 18:00.293 --> 18:05.621 We have to see the thoughts that we've had, the intentions that we've had, our whole intention in life. 18:06.923 --> 18:07.964 We see how it was wrong. 18:08.445 --> 18:10.007 We see how our views were just 18:11.219 --> 18:14.884 meaningless or unsubstantiated. 18:14.925 --> 18:17.969 They have no basis in reality. 18:18.009 --> 18:19.451 They're just views. 18:21.074 --> 18:23.017 And we see how they've gotten us into trouble. 18:23.057 --> 18:26.963 Views that I deserve this, I deserve that, I don't deserve this, I don't deserve that. 18:27.704 --> 18:29.106 Self-righteousness and so on. 18:30.127 --> 18:30.628 Conceit. 18:37.122 --> 18:58.645 to see how we've developed enmity towards other beings, and we've developed grudges and feuds and vengeance, how we've developed addictions, how we've developed our lusts and our desires, and how our mind is now like a fire because of these things. 19:00.728 --> 19:04.632 When you come to practice meditation, it feels like your head is on fire sometimes. 19:06.923 --> 19:14.094 For a person with much delusion, it feels like your head is in a dryer spinning around. 19:15.677 --> 19:21.806 It's like your mind is boiling with the water bubbling up. 19:21.826 --> 19:24.511 With greed, it feels like your mind is in a cesspit. 19:25.933 --> 19:27.936 It feels like your mind is slimy and dirty. 19:29.738 --> 19:31.843 With anger it feels like your mind is on fire. 19:32.264 --> 19:33.587 You feel this when you meditate. 19:34.088 --> 19:38.859 Not viscerally, but these are good analogies. 19:39.400 --> 19:41.666 This is how it appears to the meditator. 19:43.490 --> 19:48.321 One becomes quite distressed by this through the practice of meditation. 19:50.056 --> 19:51.778 So this is the evil that we're trying to give up. 19:51.798 --> 19:52.579 And of course we do this. 19:52.619 --> 19:54.622 This is the actual meditation practice. 19:54.642 --> 20:14.847 Once you're able to clear your mind and create the clear thought, once you have turned your mind away from the projections and the judgments, the partialities, and you're just seeing things for what they are, once you can see things for what they are, the next step here is the concentration. 20:14.867 --> 20:17.430 And this is really what the suttas focus on. 20:17.410 --> 20:28.845 how to focus the mind, how to bring the mind into focus, where it will be able to see things clearly as they are. 20:28.885 --> 20:34.813 And then the third level of evil is the Abhidhamma level. 20:35.775 --> 20:39.840 It's really the most important, whether you read the Abhidhamma or learn the Abhidhamma or not. 20:40.225 --> 20:49.236 What we mean by the Abhidhamma level is not necessarily referring to the Abhidhamma Pitika, but it means on an ultimate level, on a level of ultimate reality. 20:50.798 --> 20:58.227 Because the suffering on ultimate reality is that everything has the characteristic of dukkha, or what we say suffering. 21:00.670 --> 21:10.182 And so the meaning here is not that it's painful, the meaning is that it's meaningless, or useless, purposeless. 21:10.718 --> 21:12.420 unbeneficial, unsatisfying. 21:18.386 --> 21:31.599 And so, in fact, the truth of suffering is not that anything has to be thrown away or has to be given up, has to be moved away from. 21:31.619 --> 21:36.304 It's that things have to be let go of, let be. 21:37.415 --> 21:40.780 People always think of letting go as not having it arise again. 21:42.001 --> 21:47.889 So not having suffering arise, that's the aim. 21:49.932 --> 21:56.862 And technically speaking, it is the aim, of course, because the aim is for them to cease. 21:56.902 --> 22:02.910 But the practice is simply seeing things as they are. 22:03.391 --> 22:06.595 And so the truth of suffering is not these things are bad. 22:08.313 --> 22:10.637 that they're useless, that they are what they are. 22:10.677 --> 22:23.920 Because we have this strange question, how can it be that if an arahant is free from suffering that they still have to live their lives and have to grow old, sick and die? 22:23.980 --> 22:29.970 They're not really free from suffering after all. 22:29.990 --> 22:32.835 But even an arahant who's alive is free from suffering. 22:33.659 --> 22:44.375 and is free from it, even though they have to experience these things that are dukkha, because they're not clinging to these things. 22:45.677 --> 22:50.364 It's not the experience of these things that is stressful or painful. 22:53.168 --> 23:01.320 It's that these things are unable to bring any benefit, nothing in anything in our life, unable to bring benefit. 23:03.089 --> 23:10.978 Why I try to explain it like this, and it's not to say that it's not true, that the cessation of all of this is true peace. 23:10.998 --> 23:14.822 Because with the realization of cessation of nibbana, there is no arising. 23:15.883 --> 23:20.789 During that time, there is no seeing, no hearing, no smelling, no tasting, no feeling, thinking. 23:20.809 --> 23:31.881 But the problem is that when people begin to realize that everything is meaningless and useless, they then go too far, and they take the next step and say, therefore, it should all be gotten rid of. 23:33.262 --> 23:35.424 And many people actually feel like killing themselves. 23:36.465 --> 23:41.189 Or they get worried and concerned that they might decide to kill themselves. 23:41.209 --> 23:51.838 They become worried and concerned that they're going to have to radically change their lives or they're going to... or concerned that they're just going to become a zombie perhaps. 23:53.699 --> 23:56.862 I actually have had people who have become concerned that they're going to maybe kill themselves. 23:57.483 --> 24:02.627 As a result of this, they're afraid or they even feel the desire that they should just end their lives. 24:04.042 --> 24:05.463 But this is really going too far. 24:05.523 --> 24:10.528 The wisdom comes from seeing that things are meaningless. 24:11.089 --> 24:12.790 But that's not the impetus to kill oneself. 24:12.810 --> 24:14.412 The impetus to kill oneself is anger. 24:14.452 --> 24:15.212 It's aversion. 24:17.274 --> 24:20.878 The impetus to kill yourself is the aversion towards these things, which is still a form of clinging. 24:26.083 --> 24:33.930 The point is to come to experience reality without giving rise to liking, disliking, greed, anger and delusions. 24:35.193 --> 24:36.875 This is what it means, the ultimate level. 24:36.895 --> 24:39.558 The ultimate level, things are not good or bad. 24:39.598 --> 24:45.565 Experience is not good and bad. 24:45.585 --> 24:47.347 What is bad is the clinging to it. 24:47.367 --> 24:48.629 What is good is the letting it go. 24:48.669 --> 24:58.821 So evil, on an ultimate level, is the moment-to-moment mind states, or you can say even more, is the ignorance. 25:00.353 --> 25:25.365 that causes us to give rise to formations, abhija, bhajya, saṅkara, that causes us to form opinions, to form preferences and judgments, to see things as more than they actually are, to judge what you see, to judge what you hear, to judge what you feel and judge what you think and so on. 25:33.479 --> 25:41.530 Evil is this, the evil in the ultimate sense is this diversification or making more of things than they actually are. 25:42.131 --> 25:51.184 So when you hear something, instead of just knowing that you're hearing, as the Buddha said, sute sutta matang bhavisati. 25:53.046 --> 25:54.468 Let it be just hearing. 25:55.410 --> 25:59.976 When seeing, let it just be seeing. 26:04.597 --> 26:08.520 When you go beyond this, this gives rise to suffering. 26:08.540 --> 26:09.621 This gives rise to clinging. 26:10.682 --> 26:11.723 It gives rise to stress. 26:11.823 --> 26:14.566 It gives rise to distraction. 26:17.588 --> 26:26.396 So in our meditation practice, whether it be walking meditation or sitting meditation, the purpose is only to know what's going on. 26:26.596 --> 26:31.180 You don't have to feel some special experience or so on. 26:31.200 --> 26:32.601 You're not going to learn anything new. 26:32.862 --> 26:34.603 Sorry, you're not going to experience 26:35.242 --> 26:41.770 anything new, you're only going to be able to experience the old with perfect clarity. 26:41.810 --> 26:42.431 That's the point. 26:43.292 --> 26:44.814 The point is not to experience something new. 26:44.834 --> 26:52.123 The point is to experience the old with a perfect experience, with a clear experience. 26:52.143 --> 26:56.428 So when you lift the foot, it's the same lifting that's always gone on. 26:57.089 --> 26:59.071 And you will do it again and again and again. 26:59.112 --> 27:01.114 It's not going to get different. 27:04.840 --> 27:06.724 But what is different is your quality of knowing it. 27:07.787 --> 27:11.956 You'll become better and better at just knowing this is the lifting sensation. 27:11.976 --> 27:13.640 This is the moving sensation. 27:13.700 --> 27:16.065 This is the placing sensation. 27:22.137 --> 27:26.784 Or when we do sitting and we know that this is the rising sensation, this is the falling sensation. 27:27.184 --> 27:27.805 It's nothing new. 27:27.865 --> 27:40.483 The new is getting rid of the old, getting rid of the projections, the conceit and the views, the idea that it's me, that it's mine. 27:43.248 --> 27:46.713 These are the evil things and the formations that arise. 27:47.413 --> 27:59.329 The conceptual understanding or the attachment or the delusion of seeing things conceptually. 28:00.330 --> 28:04.336 So when we hear we think of that as being a person or a place or a person or a thing. 28:05.177 --> 28:09.863 We hear a person saying nasty things and we think that's a person who I don't like saying nasty things to me. 28:12.307 --> 28:13.448 This is delusion. 28:14.169 --> 28:17.293 This is conceptual. 28:18.935 --> 28:20.297 The reality is just sound. 28:20.918 --> 28:22.160 Even science can verify that. 28:22.200 --> 28:24.322 When you hear a sound, there's no person. 28:24.382 --> 28:25.223 There's just the sound. 28:25.824 --> 28:27.366 You can't experience another person. 28:28.267 --> 28:32.212 You can only experience the sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes, the feelings and the thoughts. 28:32.593 --> 28:34.015 This is the ultimate reality level. 28:34.075 --> 28:38.280 If you can function on this level, at least during the meditation practice, 28:42.192 --> 28:48.501 You'll be able to see what is meant by this clear state of mind. 28:49.182 --> 28:52.666 You'll be able to see the truth of the experience, the truth of reality. 28:54.849 --> 29:01.298 You'll be able to give up evil and find your mind naturally inclining away from things that create stress and suffering. 29:03.320 --> 29:07.745 Just by seeing things for what they are, you'll be able to see what is stress, what is suffering, what is the cause. 29:08.306 --> 29:14.734 It's quite simple, a simple theory, and it's quite a simple practice. 29:14.754 --> 29:23.625 But because of our habits, our habits of clinging to things and misunderstanding things, and our habits that have been developed under blindness. 29:24.726 --> 29:28.551 If you think back to most of our habits, we've developed them just at random. 29:29.003 --> 29:31.105 We always complain that there's no manual to life. 29:31.946 --> 29:38.614 And it's really because there is no user's guide that we develop our habits. 29:39.896 --> 29:43.180 Not for any reason, not for any particular purpose. 29:44.241 --> 29:48.466 It just happens to be the way we develop them. 29:48.486 --> 29:52.251 And so they could be totally against our best interests. 29:53.572 --> 29:54.513 And they generally are. 29:54.874 --> 29:57.677 Why our habits are often totally 29:59.159 --> 30:12.730 harmful to us is because they're being developed under the veil of ignorance and often under the influence of greed and anger as well. 30:15.089 --> 30:19.754 So the Abhidhamma version is just the meaning to see things clearly as they are. 30:19.774 --> 30:26.000 To see experience, momentary experience as a momentary experience. 30:26.020 --> 30:27.141 Seeing that it is what it is. 30:28.262 --> 30:36.310 This is the giving up of evil, the giving up of any kind of diversification, any kind of mental formation about the object. 30:36.330 --> 30:39.073 This is what is meant by Arati Virati Bapa. 30:41.435 --> 30:43.257 This is quite interesting really because 30:44.232 --> 30:50.137 means giving up intoxicating drink. 30:50.157 --> 30:56.983 It's funny how the Buddha singled this one out because it's always the one that gets singled out for exclusion. 30:59.486 --> 31:09.495 People will often think that the first four precepts are easy to understand, not killing, stealing, lying, cheating, cheating, lying, because those four actually hurt someone else. 31:09.895 --> 31:13.378 So people totally, completely misunderstand the purpose of the precepts, thinking that 31:14.438 --> 31:19.046 There's nothing wrong with alcohol because you're not doing any violence to another person, so therefore it's not evil. 31:20.649 --> 31:24.435 So we believe that drinking alcohol is something that's not evil. 31:26.198 --> 31:26.879 How can it be evil? 31:26.899 --> 31:29.203 You're not hurting anyone else, right? 31:29.223 --> 31:39.180 So we have a complete misunderstanding or an understanding of evil that is totally opposite to the Buddha's understanding, which is that it causes suffering for us. 31:40.240 --> 31:42.783 When you kill, the problem is not that the other person dies. 31:43.384 --> 31:45.967 The problem is the suffering that you create in your own mind. 31:47.208 --> 31:54.497 The perversion, the amount of force and disharmony that you create in your mind. 31:55.118 --> 32:04.269 Yourself wanting to find peace and happiness, and yet intentionally giving rise to suffering. 32:06.332 --> 32:09.235 This has a profound impact on your life. 32:10.531 --> 32:13.395 It's actually much more fearsome than the death. 32:14.095 --> 32:23.367 The person who dies is actually, in some sense, far better off because their mind is not necessarily sullied by that. 32:25.350 --> 32:31.357 It's not a nice thing to have to die not knowing where you're going next, especially to have been murdered. 32:32.639 --> 32:36.724 But it's a far worse thing to actually be the murderer and have to carry that around for the rest of your lives. 32:37.885 --> 32:41.371 It's something that people who have never killed before have a hard time understanding. 32:41.772 --> 32:48.905 People who have done hunting or killed even small animals and then come to practice meditation can understand this. 32:50.568 --> 32:55.056 And people who have studied criminals, for example, can understand the profound impact. 32:55.076 --> 32:55.898 There was an interesting... 32:56.859 --> 33:00.045 I think I've talked about this before, but there's one of the classic... 33:00.329 --> 33:06.516 of literature that many people know about is this book called Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. 33:07.637 --> 33:11.101 I don't know what the Russian title is, but in English they call it Crime and Punishment. 33:12.282 --> 33:15.946 It's an incredible book to read, even though it's fiction. 33:17.347 --> 33:26.117 It's very easy to empathize with this if you've ever killed before, because the crime is murder. 33:26.333 --> 33:31.921 And the punishment that this man goes through is not at all the punishment of being put in jail. 33:33.663 --> 33:38.270 It's the punishment of his own mind and seeing how liable he is to that. 33:39.391 --> 33:42.195 He has even some kind of theory that he can be above it. 33:43.417 --> 33:52.029 That people like Napoleon, for example, he uses the example of Napoleon, are above evil because they're above the state. 33:52.911 --> 33:55.294 They become conquerors. 33:55.443 --> 33:56.584 And they create the rules. 33:56.644 --> 33:58.546 And because they create the rules, they're above evil. 34:00.488 --> 34:02.490 And that carries through for most of the book. 34:02.510 --> 34:03.792 He still thinks that. 34:03.832 --> 34:06.915 He thinks the problem is not that I did something evil. 34:07.616 --> 34:09.458 The problem is that I'm not Napoleon. 34:09.498 --> 34:10.639 I'm not above the rules. 34:10.759 --> 34:12.741 I'm not strong enough to make the rules. 34:13.302 --> 34:17.786 So for most of the book, he thinks that it's just because he wasn't strong enough that he now has to suffer horribly. 34:18.727 --> 34:22.311 Until very near the end of the book, you get this profound realization that he has. 34:23.590 --> 34:26.815 that he really did something, he really killed a person, he did something horrible. 34:29.079 --> 34:36.452 Which totally destroys this theory that you can somehow be beyond the consequences of evil deeds. 34:37.093 --> 34:41.640 And he has a breakdown and he actually, at that point, can begin to recover. 34:43.083 --> 34:49.834 This kind of thing, if someone studies criminals or works with criminals, you can see how clearly they suffer. 34:50.033 --> 34:57.965 After a person kills, when a person kills another person, the profound impact it has on their minds, that even will shock the person who did the killing. 34:59.247 --> 35:01.791 Because they would have thought beforehand, it's not such a big deal. 35:01.831 --> 35:05.256 You play video games, you shoot each other all the time, right? 35:06.058 --> 35:07.941 Play video games with your friends, shoot each other. 35:08.582 --> 35:09.202 It's a common thing. 35:09.743 --> 35:10.745 Try doing it in real life. 35:10.985 --> 35:11.586 No, don't try. 35:11.606 --> 35:12.147 Of course, no. 35:12.908 --> 35:13.669 By all means, don't. 35:15.733 --> 35:16.954 By all means, don't. 35:16.974 --> 35:18.657 You shouldn't even say such things. 35:20.172 --> 35:23.395 not because it means suffering for others, but because it means a horror for you. 35:23.435 --> 35:32.222 This is something to understand well before you might give rise to such an act. 35:32.242 --> 35:36.846 So this is how we should understand suffering, or how we should understand evil. 35:37.707 --> 35:42.291 It's that which destroys the mind, that which harms the mind. 35:42.331 --> 35:45.573 And killing, for example, is a very horrible way of destroying the mind. 35:46.034 --> 35:49.757 So when we come to alcohol, it's actually quite easy to see why the Buddha singled this out. 35:54.614 --> 35:56.436 because it directly relates to the mind. 35:56.476 --> 35:59.719 Why do you take alcohol except to affect your mind? 36:01.721 --> 36:07.846 And the only effect that alcohol has on you is to pollute the mind, to cloud the mind. 36:15.093 --> 36:22.360 People who have practiced meditation and then go back and try to drink alcohol are shocked by how profoundly a single 36:23.183 --> 36:25.025 drink can affect their minds. 36:26.707 --> 36:30.631 They would have thought before, well, surely one drink is not going to get in the way of my meditation. 36:31.492 --> 36:36.618 And a person who's never meditated would be vehement that even a few drinks shouldn't impair you. 36:37.359 --> 36:43.145 People who say they can still drive a vehicle under the influence of some alcohol. 36:44.427 --> 36:48.111 And then they go further and further with that, thinking they can drive even when drunk and so on. 36:49.897 --> 36:58.970 But a person who has practiced meditation, who goes back and tries that, will be quite amazed by how quickly the mind becomes impaired. 37:01.354 --> 37:06.541 How difficult it is to even create an ordinary thought, let alone a clear thought. 37:07.102 --> 37:13.491 How impossible a clear thought becomes, because goodness and evil are measured on the clarity of the mind. 37:15.108 --> 37:19.957 Alcohol has an evil effect on the mind. 37:22.301 --> 37:29.955 The only way you could possibly avoid it is if you were already enlightened and somehow someone were to press alcohol on you or force you to drink it or so on. 37:32.279 --> 37:39.512 But even then the arahant, the enlightened being who would be under the influence of some drug would still not be able to create a clear thought. 37:41.669 --> 37:46.535 They simply wouldn't be able to create an evil thought because there's no ability for the evil to arise. 37:46.615 --> 37:48.357 There's no root. 37:48.377 --> 37:49.699 It's like the roots have been dug out. 37:51.161 --> 37:55.025 It's like you pour water in the soil over the tree, but the roots have been cut off. 37:56.187 --> 38:00.652 Or you cut down a palm tree and then you start pouring water over it. 38:00.672 --> 38:06.579 But as long as there is still some evil inside, the water is going to have the growing effect on the tree. 38:08.562 --> 38:10.444 As long as there is still some evil inside of us, 38:13.613 --> 38:19.040 Alcohol is a perfect cultivator for those evil stains. 38:19.060 --> 38:26.870 It creates the habit of evil, of clouding, of delusion. 38:28.152 --> 38:30.955 It's really for the purpose of deluding, because we don't want to see clearly. 38:31.476 --> 38:37.083 The reason why we take alcohol is generally because we have something that we don't want to be able to see clearly. 38:37.744 --> 38:39.486 Even when you go to a party, 38:41.153 --> 38:52.371 If you see clearly, you see someone and you say, or you're able to think clearly, then you'll think, oh, but what if I say something stupid or so on like that? 38:52.551 --> 38:58.901 And you'll feel self-conscious and concerned about your appearance and so on, because you can form clear thoughts. 38:59.902 --> 39:05.611 But when you get drunk, this is why people want to drink alcohol, because you can throw that out all out the window. 39:05.631 --> 39:07.414 You will say stupid things, but you won't care. 39:09.841 --> 39:11.002 You're unable to see clearly. 39:11.022 --> 39:12.704 You're unable to see when you do something stupid. 39:12.725 --> 39:14.907 If you say something really stupid, you don't feel self-conscious. 39:15.788 --> 39:17.430 You don't even know that you said something stupid. 39:18.471 --> 39:21.675 You don't even realize that there are consequences with it. 39:21.695 --> 39:23.458 You might say something to anger other people. 39:24.599 --> 39:26.501 Often this is why drunk people get into fights. 39:27.663 --> 39:29.565 Because they don't realize that they're harming them. 39:29.585 --> 39:32.068 Normally when you make someone angry, you become quite afraid, right? 39:32.504 --> 39:33.445 Oh, maybe he'll hit me. 39:33.725 --> 39:34.967 Maybe this person will yell at me. 39:35.687 --> 39:37.449 Now you're like, come on, bring it on. 39:38.590 --> 39:39.271 Let's fight. 39:39.811 --> 39:44.957 Or yelling and so on. 39:44.977 --> 39:50.302 So the reasons for taking alcohol are really the opposite of the reasons for practicing meditation. 39:50.322 --> 39:53.706 It's the most important one to single out. 39:55.227 --> 39:57.870 Because it relates back directly to the mind. 40:00.078 --> 40:03.545 Obviously it's possible to kill unintentionally. 40:03.605 --> 40:08.035 It's possible to steal something not knowing that it's not yours. 40:08.055 --> 40:13.667 It's only because of the intention in the mind that these things become evil. 40:13.687 --> 40:18.677 But drinking alcohol, the very intention to drink the alcohol, it can't be mitigated. 40:21.526 --> 40:30.186 So even if you don't know that it's alcohol, or you don't know that alcohol is going to have an effect on you, it still has an effect on you. 40:32.815 --> 40:35.721 even if you don't drink the alcohol intentionally, and then it goes down your throat. 40:36.322 --> 40:44.499 One time I was at someone's house and there was no water in the house or the water was contaminated or something, so we had to drink bottled water. 40:44.960 --> 40:50.191 And I went to the fridge and there was a glass of water there, sitting there, and I was so thirsty that I drank it back. 40:50.973 --> 40:52.596 And it turned out to be vodka, for example. 40:53.825 --> 41:01.019 I spit most of it up, but even if you drink it in that case, it's not something you can use as an excuse. 41:01.039 --> 41:02.341 Well, please don't make me drunk. 41:03.043 --> 41:04.125 Please don't affect my mind. 41:04.165 --> 41:07.431 I didn't mean to drink it. 41:07.451 --> 41:08.593 There's no mitigating effect. 41:08.810 --> 41:12.474 mitigating potential. 41:12.654 --> 41:15.698 People should clearly understand. 41:15.738 --> 41:20.884 It's a shame to hear about people who think they can practice Buddhism and still take drugs or drink alcohol. 41:21.505 --> 41:23.547 It's totally opposite to what we're trying to do. 41:24.188 --> 41:33.639 We're trying to create a natural and a clear state of mind, an objective and an impartial state of mind. 41:34.079 --> 41:35.661 So trying to create any 41:35.641 --> 42:04.315 other sort of state of mind this is opposite to our intention and the third one is of course the most important this is the clear teaching of the Buddha this is the core of the Buddha's teaching we've been going through this at the Dhammapada means vigilance or heedfulness it means having mindfulness all the time the Buddha said what does it mean to be heedful what do we mean when we say to be careful 42:05.577 --> 42:07.259 This means being mindful at every moment. 42:13.708 --> 42:25.324 It is important to understand that when we practice meditation, even if we practice for an hour, we can practice for a whole hour without having any benefit from the practice. 42:26.283 --> 42:33.455 According to the Visuddhi Manga, taking three steps with perfect mindfulness is enough to become an Arahant. 42:34.537 --> 42:38.624 There was one monk who wasn't even a Sotapanna. 42:38.684 --> 42:42.891 He had practiced, but he had made a determination 42:44.373 --> 42:48.360 to be reborn in the time of the next Buddha and become enlightened then. 42:49.542 --> 42:52.688 And so he didn't exert himself for enlightenment. 42:53.269 --> 42:56.815 As he was dying, his students asked him, and he said, Oh, I haven't gained anything from the practice. 42:56.835 --> 42:57.316 And they said, What? 42:57.837 --> 42:58.879 You're going to die like that? 42:59.880 --> 43:02.605 Please, exert yourself. 43:02.625 --> 43:05.130 So he said, Okay, then you want to see something? 43:05.170 --> 43:07.073 Prepare the walking place. 43:07.897 --> 43:23.961 And in front of them all he did this walking meditation, stepping, right, stepping, three steps, and he became an arahant. 43:24.081 --> 43:28.468 Normally for most of us how it goes is we might take three steps and suddenly our mind has wandered already. 43:29.229 --> 43:34.056 The first step might be very mindful, the second one partially mindful, and by the third one 43:35.082 --> 43:39.010 something has already taken us, something from the second step has already taken us away. 43:39.532 --> 43:41.837 And then we might take ten more steps without being mindful. 43:44.602 --> 43:47.208 So a very important part, this is what it means to guard the mind. 43:48.351 --> 43:50.435 Jitang guttang sukha vahangas. 43:51.878 --> 43:53.682 Guarding the mind with morality. 43:54.387 --> 44:08.853 what we mean by morality, to keep the mind from following after the thoughts, following after the pains, following after the memories, following after the sounds and the sights and the heat and so on. 44:10.216 --> 44:17.509 From following after these things, reminding ourselves that this is just heat, this is just sound, this is just pain and so on. 44:21.168 --> 44:24.393 keeping up with them, keeping the mind in this corral that we've built up. 44:25.415 --> 44:34.108 As I said yesterday about building up this corral, this fence that lets the mind wander, but only within these things. 44:34.128 --> 44:37.753 So as soon as the mind gets out of that, it's impossible to catch again. 44:38.755 --> 44:43.122 You have to wait for it to come back by itself, and then you know again, oh, now I was wandering. 44:44.183 --> 44:45.285 We've wasted all that time. 44:48.877 --> 44:51.982 in regards to the Dhammas. 44:52.243 --> 44:53.285 Now, this is a plural. 44:53.345 --> 44:56.290 Dhammasu is in regards to not just the Dhamma. 44:56.670 --> 44:58.574 It doesn't mean in regards to the teaching of the Buddha. 44:59.255 --> 45:01.719 It means Dhammasu is the reality. 45:03.222 --> 45:06.848 It means in regards to the experiences that we have. 45:07.910 --> 45:12.117 When the foot moves, in regards to the sensations of moving, 45:13.177 --> 45:19.489 The elements of the coolness of lifting your foot and the pressure in the leg. 45:20.632 --> 45:24.499 The pressure when you move and the coolness of moving the foot. 45:24.740 --> 45:28.948 Putting the foot down in the heat and the hardness of touching the floor. 45:33.036 --> 45:35.421 Continuing, creating this chain of mindfulness. 45:35.823 --> 45:48.457 where from one moment to the next you're mindful, guarding your mind like a sleeping baby, keeping the mind in its train of thought, just as trying to keep a baby asleep. 45:48.958 --> 45:57.327 If you break the baby's sleep, if you take the baby's attention away from its sleep, right away the baby will wake up. 45:58.228 --> 46:04.615 In the same way, if you let your mind get distracted just for a moment, let your mind cling to one thing, 46:05.455 --> 46:14.468 forget to be mindful of one thing, whether it be a sensation or a thought or an emotion, you've lost the meditation. 46:16.290 --> 46:19.695 So this appamado jadamme, so it's just the teaching on the meditation. 46:20.677 --> 46:23.160 In the sitting meditation, 46:23.815 --> 46:25.117 rising, falling. 46:25.137 --> 46:27.600 It doesn't mean that you have to stay with the rising, falling the whole time. 46:28.401 --> 46:33.408 Start with the rising and the falling of the stomach, and when the mind goes off, just make sure that you're there with it. 46:34.269 --> 46:36.532 You still have these fences, this fence up. 46:36.552 --> 46:39.316 So if it's going to go that way, you're going to be there with the fence. 46:40.678 --> 46:41.118 Stop it. 46:42.921 --> 46:52.253 Buddha gave this teaching, yāni sotāni lokasmiṁ sati tesang nivārayaṁ nivārayaṁ 46:53.532 --> 47:21.261 that whatever streams, whatever outlets there are in the world, mindfulness is that which stops them, stops the mind from chasing after things, stops the arising of this outflow or leaking, whatever leaks there, leaking in the mind. 47:22.574 --> 47:29.496 losing your presence, losing your equilibrium, unbalancing the mind. 47:30.370 --> 47:35.515 So it is mindfulness that stops this like a gate, like a fence. 47:35.535 --> 47:37.136 So these things are a blessing for us. 47:37.236 --> 47:40.479 This is where we find our blessings. 47:40.659 --> 47:43.822 We don't find our blessings in sights or sounds. 47:43.862 --> 47:52.550 We don't find our blessings in chants or holy objects, protective charms and amulets and so on. 47:52.570 --> 47:57.795 We don't find a blessing in gods or angels or even other people. 47:59.311 --> 48:25.352 we find a blessing in our practice and through our practice we are able to give up evil we are able to become free from suffering through our practice we are able to develop a clear mind we are able to attain this state that is so so seemingly impossible to not be bothered by anything to be 48:29.348 --> 48:32.291 perfectly at peace in the face of any experience. 48:35.074 --> 48:36.255 This is where we strive for. 48:36.796 --> 48:39.378 And we're able to attain it at every moment when we practice. 48:39.999 --> 48:44.624 Something that seems impossible, that everyone must have their anger, everyone must have their greed. 48:44.644 --> 48:48.087 Some people are vehement that it's impossible to give these things up. 48:49.849 --> 48:53.753 And so as a result they think it's futile to try or else it's contrary to nature. 48:55.049 --> 48:59.637 And if it weren't possible, you might have a reason to believe this. 49:01.480 --> 49:09.753 Our theory and claim in Buddhism and our realization through our practice is that such a state is actually quite easily possible. 49:11.476 --> 49:13.680 And many people are able to gain it in a very short time. 49:13.720 --> 49:19.369 Meaning just the preliminary practice 49:19.518 --> 49:32.768 not meaning that they're enlightened, but able to enter into this path of practice where they begin to see things just for what they are and where they're able to experience things without any liking or disliking, without any attachment. 49:34.452 --> 49:52.579 where they're able to deal, they're able to experience things that are very difficult to experience, able to experience great suffering, physical suffering or external, external evil, when people hurt them or act in a way that is unpleasant 49:54.652 --> 50:09.630 able to deal with difficult situations, where they may be evicted, where they may be punished, where they may be abused and so on, without suffering, without having any mental suffering. 50:10.391 --> 50:14.957 This, I should think, is obviously a great blessing. 50:15.718 --> 50:17.520 It's perhaps more than a blessing 50:18.918 --> 50:25.247 It's something that sounds too good to be true, and so it's the ultimate good. 50:26.668 --> 50:29.032 This is what we gain really by giving up evil. 50:29.773 --> 50:34.759 We should never lose sight of this, that it's not getting what we want, it's the giving up of wanting. 50:35.661 --> 50:47.777 It's not the freedom from the things that we don't want, it's the giving up of disliking, the giving up of evil, both deeds and thoughts and desires. 50:48.668 --> 50:53.054 and actually all reality, giving up any attachment to any reality. 50:53.074 --> 50:57.581 This is what we mean by freedom from suffering, freedom from evil. 50:59.143 --> 51:07.155 So that's more on the blessings, just more food for thought, and hopefully more explanation on how we should develop the meditation practice. 51:07.756 --> 51:11.301 So another talk for today, and now we'll continue on with our meditation.