1 00:00:02,140 --> 00:00:03,181 Okay, good evening everyone. 2 00:00:05,124 --> 00:00:09,909 Continuing our study of the Dhammapada. 3 00:00:09,929 --> 00:00:15,937 Today, verse 205, which reads as follows. 4 00:00:20,722 --> 00:00:26,950 pavi-veka-rasang-pitva-rasang-upasamasacca 5 00:00:31,418 --> 00:01:00,970 nindaro hoti nipapo tam piti rasam pivam which means having tasted having drank having drank the flavor of seclusion and the flavor of 6 00:01:08,729 --> 00:01:12,277 tranquility or quietude. 7 00:01:17,147 --> 00:01:17,849 Upasama. 8 00:01:21,417 --> 00:01:29,033 One has no suffering, no pain, no sorrow, and no evil. 9 00:01:33,890 --> 00:01:45,862 drinking the taste of rapture in the Dhamma, Dhammapitira Sampivam. 10 00:01:45,882 --> 00:01:49,726 There's no evil, no suffering and no cause of suffering. 11 00:01:50,587 --> 00:01:51,047 No evil. 12 00:01:51,928 --> 00:01:53,249 Papanipapu. 13 00:01:55,812 --> 00:01:59,796 For one who tastes the flavor of 14 00:02:02,223 --> 00:02:30,222 Seclusion and quietude Upasama, the quenching or the pacification, something like that Peace is what it really means So this verse was taught in regards to Tissa In regards to the Buddha's passing away, there was a monk, Tissa 15 00:02:33,172 --> 00:02:42,661 Four months before the Buddha passed away, he declared to the monks, he said, in four months I'm going to pass away. 16 00:02:45,184 --> 00:02:45,885 It was a big deal. 17 00:02:45,945 --> 00:02:47,887 They say the earth shook, I think. 18 00:02:50,750 --> 00:02:52,191 It was a big deal for the monks. 19 00:02:52,872 --> 00:03:00,259 They say those monks who were not yet enlightened cried, wailed. 20 00:03:02,686 --> 00:03:26,584 Those monks who were already enlightened were moved, moved with a sense of the impermanence of all things and the importance of the clarity and the peace and the wisdom that comes from enlightenment. 21 00:03:28,403 --> 00:03:33,249 removed by the gravity of the situation, not disturbed by it, but moved. 22 00:03:35,852 --> 00:03:49,547 Some monks would get together and those that hadn't become enlightened yet and were depending on the Buddha would get together and think to themselves something like Kim Karisama, which means, what are we to do? 23 00:03:51,550 --> 00:03:56,115 Kim Nuko Karisama, what in the world will we do? 24 00:04:01,816 --> 00:04:04,098 They spent a lot of time concerned with this. 25 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:22,496 They say the monks and lay people as well, of course, not just the monks, spent a lot more time being around the Buddha, trying to get their last chance to be in the presence of the Buddha. 26 00:04:22,516 --> 00:04:23,357 And who wouldn't, right? 27 00:04:24,598 --> 00:04:25,559 Well, you know who wouldn't. 28 00:04:27,220 --> 00:04:29,022 There was one monk, his name was Tissa. 29 00:04:30,082 --> 00:04:36,549 And while all this was going on, he was ignoring everybody. 30 00:04:38,591 --> 00:04:44,997 Sitting off in a corner and the monks came up to him and asked him what he was doing and he ignored them. 31 00:04:46,299 --> 00:04:52,645 And he said, hey, the Buddha has said he's going to pass away in four months, don't you know? 32 00:04:54,447 --> 00:04:55,408 They didn't even reply. 33 00:04:55,448 --> 00:04:58,131 Didn't say anything. 34 00:05:02,144 --> 00:05:06,572 So the monks thought to themselves, hmm, this isn't right. 35 00:05:06,593 --> 00:05:17,173 And they went to the Buddha and they said, look, venerable sir, there's this monk, Tissa, and he certainly doesn't care at all about you. 36 00:05:17,193 --> 00:05:21,521 He hasn't come to see you since you've declared your passing away. 37 00:05:21,621 --> 00:05:25,148 All he does is sit in the corner, doesn't even pay any attention to anything. 38 00:05:29,178 --> 00:05:32,162 Something's wrong with this monk. 39 00:05:32,182 --> 00:05:33,564 He has no love for the Buddha. 40 00:05:35,828 --> 00:05:37,951 And so the Buddha called and said, well, bring him here. 41 00:05:41,255 --> 00:05:42,998 And he said to Tissa, is this true? 42 00:05:43,018 --> 00:05:47,745 And Tissa confirmed, and he said, what's the meaning of this? 43 00:05:51,691 --> 00:05:55,997 Maybe he didn't say exactly that, but it's a good phrase, good question. 44 00:05:56,918 --> 00:05:58,240 What is the meaning of this? 45 00:05:59,165 --> 00:06:03,231 We say it in English when we're angry, I think, but he wasn't angry, obviously. 46 00:06:04,633 --> 00:06:20,116 And Tissa said, Honorable Sir, I heard that you're passing away, and I thought to myself, I'm not enlightened yet, and what should I be doing? 47 00:06:20,978 --> 00:06:25,324 Now the Buddha is here in front of us for a sankhaya, 48 00:06:26,468 --> 00:06:29,792 Asankhaya means uncountable, an uncountable period of time. 49 00:06:29,892 --> 00:06:34,778 Four of them, plus a hundred thousand great eras. 50 00:06:34,938 --> 00:06:40,865 Now a great era is like a big bang to a big crunch kind of thing, like the universe. 51 00:06:41,566 --> 00:06:45,290 A hundred thousand of those, and those are small compared to an asankhaya. 52 00:06:46,472 --> 00:06:49,775 Those are nothing compared to an asankhaya, plus four of those. 53 00:06:51,117 --> 00:06:55,362 That's how long it took for this Buddha to, this being to become a Buddha. 54 00:06:57,232 --> 00:07:05,484 And after all that time, we have such a short time to hear what he has to say and learn from him and practice his teachings. 55 00:07:05,544 --> 00:07:16,319 And he thought, what a shame, how shameful of me if during the time that the Buddha was here, I didn't become enlightened. 56 00:07:17,501 --> 00:07:20,505 And so reasonably, he spent his time in meditation. 57 00:07:24,181 --> 00:07:27,407 And the Buddha of course said, sadhu, very good. 58 00:07:29,410 --> 00:07:38,066 And he said, if anyone loves me, if anyone cares for me, respects me, appreciates me, they will do as Tissa does. 59 00:07:40,230 --> 00:07:47,843 Those of you who bring candles and flowers and incense to me, you're not doing the greatest homage, but the one who 60 00:07:49,105 --> 00:07:50,387 Practices my teaching. 61 00:07:50,527 --> 00:07:57,036 One who practices my teaching to realize the truth. 62 00:07:57,277 --> 00:07:58,278 Practices the truth. 63 00:07:59,019 --> 00:08:01,803 Practices the Dhamma to realize the Dhamma. 64 00:08:02,244 --> 00:08:02,925 That's what it means. 65 00:08:04,347 --> 00:08:07,992 You practice the Dhamma, so one part of the Buddha's teaching is how to practice. 66 00:08:08,713 --> 00:08:10,856 The other part of the Buddha's teaching is the truth. 67 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:15,703 And you practice one to realize the other. 68 00:08:19,733 --> 00:08:23,218 that person pays homage with the greatest sort of homage. 69 00:08:23,399 --> 00:08:25,682 That person truly loves me, kind of thing. 70 00:08:27,285 --> 00:08:29,388 And then he taught this verse. 71 00:08:33,134 --> 00:08:35,818 And so the verse is not exactly 72 00:08:39,848 --> 00:08:42,913 It's not exactly a summary of the story by any means. 73 00:08:44,315 --> 00:08:45,957 It's only related tangentially. 74 00:08:46,939 --> 00:08:48,321 But this seems reasonable. 75 00:08:48,341 --> 00:08:50,124 It seems like the sort of thing the Buddha did. 76 00:08:50,184 --> 00:08:51,806 It's the sort of thing a teacher does. 77 00:08:52,888 --> 00:09:03,625 When an opportunity for a lesson arises, sometimes the lesson they teach is only tangentially related to the opportunity because their intention is to teach the important lesson. 78 00:09:05,107 --> 00:09:06,549 That being said, it is related. 79 00:09:06,629 --> 00:09:08,472 It's clear why the Buddha taught this verse. 80 00:09:10,510 --> 00:09:13,595 Three lessons from this verse and the story. 81 00:09:14,697 --> 00:09:16,419 The first lesson comes from the story. 82 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:18,362 It's the obvious lesson. 83 00:09:18,382 --> 00:09:21,387 It's a very classical Buddhist lesson. 84 00:09:21,407 --> 00:09:27,156 It's instructional for new Buddhists, instructional for old Buddhists. 85 00:09:27,176 --> 00:09:29,059 And that's that Buddhism is a practice. 86 00:09:31,722 --> 00:09:39,955 Whatever you want to say about Buddhism, you can call it what you like, you can cling to whichever, hold on, focus on whichever part of Buddhism you like. 87 00:09:40,936 --> 00:09:47,586 It's impossible to deny with the texts that we have that Buddhism is about practice. 88 00:09:48,427 --> 00:09:49,509 The Buddha said it himself. 89 00:09:50,370 --> 00:09:52,554 He often criticized monks who just study. 90 00:09:53,315 --> 00:10:00,666 He certainly criticized, or not criticized, but put in their place people who simply worship 91 00:10:01,827 --> 00:10:07,174 Because, of course, there's nothing wrong with paying homage with candles and flowers and incense, which we see Buddhists do. 92 00:10:07,895 --> 00:10:13,002 There's nothing wrong with chanting and religious ceremony. 93 00:10:14,885 --> 00:10:16,327 But there's nothing great about it either. 94 00:10:16,387 --> 00:10:20,152 There's nothing deep or profound or core about it. 95 00:10:20,172 --> 00:10:27,422 It certainly isn't the sort of thing the Buddha taught. 96 00:10:27,442 --> 00:10:30,366 The Buddha favored always those who practice 97 00:10:33,367 --> 00:10:45,621 And so for old Buddhists, this of course is a lesson because we grew up Buddhist, often we grew up with Buddhist culture and we are very focused on ceremony and ritual. 98 00:10:47,272 --> 00:10:52,079 And sometimes it's very much in line with the Buddhist teaching, sometimes it's not. 99 00:10:52,760 --> 00:11:05,338 The problem, of course, with ritual and ceremony and culture is that they are not always grounded or connected to the religion and it's easy for them or it's possible for them to drift. 100 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:14,832 And you see a lot of Buddhist cultures and societies engaging in practices that seem very un-Buddhist. 101 00:11:16,904 --> 00:11:19,549 or have drifted from the original teachings. 102 00:11:19,609 --> 00:11:28,025 And so while these things are good often, they're only good if they're connected and supportive of the practice. 103 00:11:29,428 --> 00:11:30,710 Culture is like a shell. 104 00:11:31,452 --> 00:11:33,796 Ritual and all that is also like a shell. 105 00:11:33,916 --> 00:11:37,984 It protects the egg, protects what's inside. 106 00:11:42,335 --> 00:11:51,737 It can be very useful as a support, but only if it's supportive, not if it's contradictory or unconnected. 107 00:11:54,890 --> 00:11:59,015 And it's useful for new Buddhists as well who want to know what is Buddhism. 108 00:11:59,816 --> 00:12:08,545 So these sorts of teachings are very instructional in terms of giving a clear view of where Buddhism focuses. 109 00:12:08,606 --> 00:12:17,015 Because of course, if you read texts, or if you read theory, if you read what people have written about Buddhism and theory, it seems like so much. 110 00:12:17,195 --> 00:12:18,737 And there's so many aspects of it. 111 00:12:21,603 --> 00:12:36,212 And so it's good to have sort of a focus, a lens through which to view all of the Buddha's teaching, not to be memorized or thought about, talked about, taught about, to be practiced. 112 00:12:36,232 --> 00:12:43,527 If you want to follow the Buddha's teaching, go and sit in a corner or in a room in a quiet place like Tissa and practice them. 113 00:12:45,717 --> 00:12:49,121 It's instructional when you're listening to a Dhamma talk like this. 114 00:12:50,062 --> 00:13:07,962 Sometimes you'll be listening and you're doing, I know people watch these on YouTube or even listen to them when they're driving and that can be useful, I think, but it's important that you're mindful of the fact that this is meant to be practiced, not just to be 115 00:13:09,292 --> 00:13:11,655 thought about, enjoyed, and that sort of thing. 116 00:13:11,876 --> 00:13:23,573 If you really want to follow my teaching or the teaching that I present through, that comes through me that I say is the Buddha's teaching, you really have to be practicing it. 117 00:13:23,593 --> 00:13:27,698 And so when you're sitting here listening, you should really be trying to be mindful as you're listening. 118 00:13:28,940 --> 00:13:35,029 When I give the talk, I should try to be mindful, even of my lips moving, being mindful of that feeling. 119 00:13:36,477 --> 00:13:39,003 When you hear my voice, you should be mindful of hearing. 120 00:13:39,063 --> 00:13:46,098 When you feel, of course, sitting cross-legged, you'll feel pain or you'll feel tension. 121 00:13:46,980 --> 00:13:47,782 You should note that. 122 00:13:49,526 --> 00:13:51,630 Hot or cold, that sort of thing. 123 00:13:52,953 --> 00:13:54,216 All of this should be noted. 124 00:13:57,436 --> 00:14:01,044 Then you can really say you're listening to the Dhamma. 125 00:14:01,625 --> 00:14:06,155 It's honestly, if you talk about listening, listening is a way of describing meditation. 126 00:14:07,478 --> 00:14:09,081 You're listening to the Dhamma. 127 00:14:10,223 --> 00:14:12,829 It's not just the sound of my voice or the words. 128 00:14:15,948 --> 00:14:17,890 It's the sound. 129 00:14:18,030 --> 00:14:20,333 It's the experience. 130 00:14:21,735 --> 00:14:24,058 And of course all the mental activity that goes on. 131 00:14:24,078 --> 00:14:24,638 You like it. 132 00:14:24,698 --> 00:14:25,539 You dislike it. 133 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:26,901 You feel happy. 134 00:14:26,941 --> 00:14:27,862 You feel unhappy. 135 00:14:29,744 --> 00:14:30,085 Doubt. 136 00:14:30,425 --> 00:14:31,066 Confusion. 137 00:14:31,967 --> 00:14:34,310 All of these things are the Dhamma and you have to listen to them. 138 00:14:35,030 --> 00:14:36,152 Because they'll tell you something. 139 00:14:36,172 --> 00:14:39,215 They'll teach you about yourself. 140 00:14:39,235 --> 00:14:40,297 So that's the first lesson. 141 00:14:42,079 --> 00:14:43,120 The second lesson 142 00:14:45,428 --> 00:14:55,317 is that Buddhism is a practice that very much is concerned with happiness. 143 00:14:57,299 --> 00:15:00,202 And you hear this expressed by different teachers in different ways. 144 00:15:01,103 --> 00:15:05,507 So we have to be a little bit careful, and we have to be fairly precise about this. 145 00:15:06,327 --> 00:15:14,575 But there's no doubt about the fact that Buddhism is very much focused on happiness and peace. 146 00:15:15,820 --> 00:15:20,350 And there's a sense that peace and happiness are one and the same or are interconnected. 147 00:15:22,395 --> 00:15:26,805 I think we're still in the Sukhavagga, the happiness chapter of the Dhammapada. 148 00:15:27,907 --> 00:15:30,994 So all of these have been somehow related to the idea of happiness. 149 00:15:32,838 --> 00:15:33,981 And it really is the 150 00:15:35,210 --> 00:15:36,714 the point of Buddhism. 151 00:15:36,794 --> 00:15:47,763 I don't want to quite say it's the goal, though you could say that as well, but I have a problem with language that talks about goals, because it's not how you should be thinking when you meditate. 152 00:15:47,803 --> 00:15:48,545 It's the point. 153 00:15:49,367 --> 00:15:50,991 That's maybe a better way of expressing it. 154 00:15:52,490 --> 00:15:54,633 Because Buddhism, of course, isn't about the future. 155 00:15:54,673 --> 00:15:58,339 It isn't about trying to achieve something in a sense. 156 00:15:58,359 --> 00:16:01,424 It kind of is, but language is difficult. 157 00:16:01,504 --> 00:16:02,786 It's about the present moment. 158 00:16:03,708 --> 00:16:05,871 You're trying to achieve presence. 159 00:16:06,112 --> 00:16:11,460 You're trying to get to now, to have less and less concern about the future. 160 00:16:14,815 --> 00:16:17,801 But nonetheless, Buddhism is all about happiness. 161 00:16:18,603 --> 00:16:19,564 It really is the point. 162 00:16:19,825 --> 00:16:28,943 Buddhism isn't about doing the right thing because God says it's right, or that sort of thing that comes in other religions following some doctrine. 163 00:16:30,391 --> 00:16:38,163 That's why the focus in Buddhism is always on suffering and understanding suffering, not because we want to suffer, but because it's what's stopping us. 164 00:16:38,303 --> 00:16:39,525 It's what's in our way. 165 00:16:40,026 --> 00:16:41,488 It's between us and happiness. 166 00:16:42,149 --> 00:16:45,314 If there was none of that, the way would be clear to be happy. 167 00:16:46,596 --> 00:16:49,981 Again, it's not about a way that we would be happy. 168 00:16:52,265 --> 00:16:54,508 The mind is like a 169 00:16:56,328 --> 00:16:59,411 A shining gem. 170 00:17:00,212 --> 00:17:05,517 The Buddha said, This mind is radiant. 171 00:17:05,737 --> 00:17:06,819 It's lustrous. 172 00:17:06,939 --> 00:17:07,759 It's beautiful. 173 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:09,421 It's perfect. 174 00:17:09,441 --> 00:17:15,187 But it's soiled and covered over and sullied by defilements. 175 00:17:16,308 --> 00:17:22,154 So if you get rid of all of those, the things that are causing stress and suffering, you're left with something beautiful. 176 00:17:23,475 --> 00:17:24,276 Something perfect. 177 00:17:28,407 --> 00:17:30,070 And there are two happinesses. 178 00:17:30,090 --> 00:17:43,270 So this verse gives a good example of the distinction between... Well, it gives us an opportunity to talk about a couple of distinctions. 179 00:17:43,351 --> 00:17:46,275 And the first one is mundane and super mundane. 180 00:17:46,295 --> 00:17:49,560 But the other one is tranquility and insight. 181 00:17:50,161 --> 00:17:54,448 Because worldly happiness comes from 182 00:17:55,829 --> 00:17:56,650 from meditation. 183 00:17:57,471 --> 00:18:06,724 When we talk about sensual pleasure and what most, the vast majority of people think of as happiness, we don't consider that happiness in Buddhism. 184 00:18:06,744 --> 00:18:10,690 Yes, there's pleasure when you enjoy the senses, but we discard it. 185 00:18:10,710 --> 00:18:17,259 We don't even consider it because it's caught up with defilement. 186 00:18:17,439 --> 00:18:18,801 It's caught up with attachment. 187 00:18:18,881 --> 00:18:21,185 And when you get what you want, you want more of it. 188 00:18:21,305 --> 00:18:21,465 And 189 00:18:23,032 --> 00:18:37,688 It's a very basic teaching in Buddhism, not an easy one, and not to trivialize it, but it's important to understand it's a very core foundational idea that sensual pleasure, we don't have any sense that it could possibly be happiness. 190 00:18:38,489 --> 00:18:41,613 Our whole practice, in a sense, is to free ourselves from that. 191 00:18:43,154 --> 00:18:50,963 And so we discard it immediately, giving no quarter to the idea that sensual pleasure might be happiness. 192 00:18:52,765 --> 00:18:54,622 But worldly happiness does exist. 193 00:18:54,864 --> 00:18:56,802 It's this paviveka. 194 00:19:00,224 --> 00:19:25,624 the seclusion and it's mental seclusion and it's of two types really and that's where we get this distinction between tranquility and insight because if you want to have a secluded mind, a mind that is secluded from defilements and a mind that is not harassed by worry and stress and anger and frustration and greed and desire, you have two choices. 195 00:19:25,604 --> 00:19:33,837 One, you seclude yourselves from those things that are causing those desires and aversions and worries and so on. 196 00:19:33,857 --> 00:19:37,162 And you focus on something that has no connection with that. 197 00:19:37,442 --> 00:19:40,387 Like a simple object, often a light or a color. 198 00:19:40,447 --> 00:19:43,131 Even the breath is a good object. 199 00:19:43,953 --> 00:19:50,283 And eventually your mind becomes so fixed and focused that you have no sense of any disturbance. 200 00:19:50,503 --> 00:19:52,506 And your mind is very peaceful and quiet. 201 00:19:54,747 --> 00:20:00,014 The other option is to change the way you look at these things that cause you stress and suffering. 202 00:20:01,356 --> 00:20:05,101 So the things that cause you to get angry, change the way you look at them. 203 00:20:05,782 --> 00:20:07,565 And this is what we do with our practice. 204 00:20:07,585 --> 00:20:10,168 When you feel pain, change the way you look at it. 205 00:20:10,228 --> 00:20:15,235 Rather than getting harassed by disliking of the pain, see it as just pain. 206 00:20:15,275 --> 00:20:16,717 Say to yourself, pain, pain. 207 00:20:16,737 --> 00:20:19,301 You'll cultivate this ability to see it just as it is. 208 00:20:22,465 --> 00:20:23,607 And of the two, 209 00:20:25,696 --> 00:20:27,619 Well, they are quite distinct. 210 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,265 The first one, I would use the word artificial. 211 00:20:34,468 --> 00:20:36,431 And it's not really in a pejorative sense. 212 00:20:36,591 --> 00:20:38,193 It's in a limiting sense. 213 00:20:39,335 --> 00:20:44,542 Even the Brahma world, rebirth as a god, is artificial. 214 00:20:45,583 --> 00:20:50,370 In the basic sense that it's created and it's temporary, it's limited. 215 00:20:53,050 --> 00:21:02,149 When you cultivate this fixed state of mind, that's very peaceful, very pure, very strong, very good, very wholesome, very positive. 216 00:21:04,846 --> 00:21:11,295 you're avoiding or ignoring the relationship you have with all the other stuff. 217 00:21:11,315 --> 00:21:26,335 And so when you stop practicing and the concentration dissipates, you're left back where you started with the potential and the eventual development of greed and anger and delusion. 218 00:21:28,057 --> 00:21:30,060 So it's temporary and it's artificial. 219 00:21:31,238 --> 00:21:39,190 And if you keep it up, you'll be reborn as a god and you'll live for billions or billions of years or however long as a god. 220 00:21:39,311 --> 00:21:44,479 But even after that, you'll be born as a human again and you might do all sorts of evil things. 221 00:21:44,559 --> 00:21:50,548 In the Buddha's time, once the Buddha smiled at a pig. 222 00:21:51,670 --> 00:21:54,234 They were walking on Amjron and he smiled at this pig. 223 00:21:55,175 --> 00:21:56,858 And Ananda saw him smiling and 224 00:21:58,694 --> 00:22:00,257 I thought, well, I'll have to ask about that. 225 00:22:00,297 --> 00:22:04,305 And after they'd eaten, he said to the Buddha, he said, I saw you smile, Venerable Sir. 226 00:22:04,345 --> 00:22:06,308 Why is it that you smiled? 227 00:22:06,329 --> 00:22:07,571 And the Buddha said, oh, that pig. 228 00:22:07,611 --> 00:22:08,773 Did you see that pig? 229 00:22:09,635 --> 00:22:11,118 That pig was once a Brahma. 230 00:22:12,099 --> 00:22:13,382 That pig was once a god. 231 00:22:15,786 --> 00:22:19,774 And it passed away from there and was eventually born as a pig. 232 00:22:22,285 --> 00:22:28,531 And so there's this poem that was in Burmese and translated into English. 233 00:22:31,814 --> 00:22:36,538 In Brahma's realm she shines bright, in pig's pen too she finds delight. 234 00:22:39,441 --> 00:22:41,082 We're happy wherever we're reborn. 235 00:22:42,043 --> 00:22:51,432 We don't realize the danger of our situation, the precariousness of it. 236 00:22:53,251 --> 00:23:01,622 The other method, the one that we favor, not really trying to dismiss the other one, but there is a limit to it. 237 00:23:02,524 --> 00:23:08,612 And it can be very supportive in practicing insight meditation, but I think it can never be more than that. 238 00:23:08,852 --> 00:23:15,481 It can never be a replacement for ultimately changing your relationship with experience, which is what we do. 239 00:23:15,501 --> 00:23:19,647 We kind of streamline, simplify, and 240 00:23:20,403 --> 00:23:31,657 Well, it can be a lot more unpleasant and a lot less grand or exalted, but it's a lot simpler and more straightforward. 241 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:41,449 So meditators in this tradition often don't feel so happy or peaceful, in the beginning at least. 242 00:23:41,986 --> 00:23:46,314 And it's important to understand that that's a sign that you're not proficient. 243 00:23:47,156 --> 00:23:49,680 I mean, that's really how the practice works. 244 00:23:49,761 --> 00:23:52,866 That's how you know where you are in your practice. 245 00:23:52,886 --> 00:23:53,568 How are you feeling? 246 00:23:53,888 --> 00:23:55,732 Are you full of greed, anger and delusion? 247 00:23:56,673 --> 00:23:57,315 You're not there yet. 248 00:23:59,419 --> 00:24:03,927 You haven't cleaned off, polished and purified the mind completely yet. 249 00:24:08,024 --> 00:24:12,952 And this often leads to a great discouragement among meditators. 250 00:24:13,052 --> 00:24:15,015 And that's something to be addressed as well. 251 00:24:15,075 --> 00:24:18,841 This shouldn't be a reason to be discouraged. 252 00:24:20,464 --> 00:24:24,190 So often a meditator will not feel peaceful and happy, especially when I talk. 253 00:24:24,210 --> 00:24:25,392 That's why I say we have to be careful. 254 00:24:25,973 --> 00:24:31,822 Especially when we talk about happiness, it's often quite discouraging for those who are not happy in their meditation. 255 00:24:31,862 --> 00:24:35,668 Don't find it a pleasant undertaking. 256 00:24:37,943 --> 00:24:55,952 And so I think the best and most honest way is to describe and explain the meditation in this way, that it's like polishing a dusty gem, or maybe more viscerally, 257 00:24:56,506 --> 00:24:58,448 more clearly. 258 00:24:58,948 --> 00:25:08,658 It's about cleaning a pigsty or it's about cleaning your house or a bathroom or something very dirty. 259 00:25:11,060 --> 00:25:19,048 So the reason why for some of us and for most of us I think meditation is difficult and often unpleasant is because of this. 260 00:25:19,088 --> 00:25:21,090 We're very much corrupted. 261 00:25:21,491 --> 00:25:24,994 Our minds are not clean. 262 00:25:26,172 --> 00:25:30,097 And you shouldn't feel discouraged about that, because that's the whole point of meditation. 263 00:25:30,177 --> 00:25:36,485 Don't feel like, I can't practice meditation, I'm too corrupt, I'm too defiled, I have too many attachments. 264 00:25:38,188 --> 00:25:39,329 What else are you going to do? 265 00:25:39,349 --> 00:25:41,612 I mean, that's the whole point of meditation. 266 00:25:41,672 --> 00:25:46,138 That's why the Buddha created insight meditation, why the Buddha taught. 267 00:25:47,924 --> 00:25:52,592 If you feel discouraged and if you say that sort of thing, you're really doing a disservice to Buddhism. 268 00:25:52,632 --> 00:25:54,315 It's a sign you haven't really understood. 269 00:25:55,116 --> 00:25:56,438 That's exactly what this is for. 270 00:25:56,518 --> 00:25:58,842 That's exactly the point. 271 00:25:58,862 --> 00:25:59,884 So don't be discouraged. 272 00:25:59,964 --> 00:26:12,565 Be encouraged that you're doing something that has the potential, very real potential, and not even just potential, but has the effect of purifying the mind. 273 00:26:12,666 --> 00:26:13,527 That's the whole point. 274 00:26:15,262 --> 00:26:19,531 The Buddha called his teaching the Visuddhimanga, the path of purification. 275 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:33,760 But nonetheless, and it shouldn't be denied that as you practice, you should and will 276 00:26:34,938 --> 00:26:36,600 gain happiness and peace. 277 00:26:37,161 --> 00:26:45,692 By the time you get through an intensive meditation course, as an example, by the end of it you often feel very peaceful and very happy, we might say. 278 00:26:45,972 --> 00:26:52,701 I want to use the term delicately because it's not like you'll be jumping for joy or smiling or laughing. 279 00:26:53,482 --> 00:26:57,127 You might often smile, but it's not even about smiling. 280 00:26:57,167 --> 00:26:58,168 It's about peace. 281 00:26:58,268 --> 00:26:59,710 It's about freedom from suffering. 282 00:26:59,730 --> 00:27:03,595 It's about a sense, a deep sense of peace. 283 00:27:05,903 --> 00:27:11,590 deep sense of contentment, satisfaction. 284 00:27:11,610 --> 00:27:26,730 Because you stopped clinging to things, because you've changed the way you look at things, you gain a profound temporary sense of equanimity towards things. 285 00:27:26,710 --> 00:27:34,504 And I stress temporarily because it is as well, I don't want to say artificial, but it's fragile. 286 00:27:34,544 --> 00:27:37,830 It's preliminary. 287 00:27:39,513 --> 00:27:43,800 It's like you haven't quite come into focus when you have the camera lens. 288 00:27:44,582 --> 00:27:46,265 It's not quite in focus. 289 00:27:46,545 --> 00:27:50,372 So you can't quite say that it's going to be permanent. 290 00:27:50,977 --> 00:27:51,820 It's real. 291 00:27:52,121 --> 00:27:57,983 I would say it's natural in a way that tranquility meditation, the other kind of meditation, isn't. 292 00:27:59,279 --> 00:28:00,721 I don't want to get in trouble with that. 293 00:28:00,761 --> 00:28:03,586 I don't mean to be pejorative about it, but it's different. 294 00:28:03,827 --> 00:28:08,234 It's much more natural because you're not avoiding, you're not limiting your experience to anything. 295 00:28:09,336 --> 00:28:13,102 You've created the same sense of clarity about everything. 296 00:28:14,384 --> 00:28:15,486 But you're not quite there yet. 297 00:28:15,746 --> 00:28:16,848 And that's the distinction. 298 00:28:16,928 --> 00:28:24,561 The Buddha said, pavivita paviveka paviveka risang 299 00:28:26,515 --> 00:28:27,536 I forget the Pali now. 300 00:28:27,556 --> 00:28:30,078 Pabhiveka rasang pitva. 301 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:33,321 Pabhiveka, I think he says. 302 00:28:33,341 --> 00:28:35,483 Pabhiveka rasang pitva. 303 00:28:36,404 --> 00:28:39,146 That's the... Pabhiveka is seclusion. 304 00:28:40,347 --> 00:28:41,008 That's mundane. 305 00:28:41,128 --> 00:28:42,189 That's these two types. 306 00:28:43,410 --> 00:28:46,173 And the other one is rasang upasama sacca. 307 00:28:46,193 --> 00:28:48,475 The flavor of upasama. 308 00:28:49,095 --> 00:28:50,997 So he made a distinction between these two. 309 00:28:53,879 --> 00:28:54,480 And... 310 00:28:56,570 --> 00:29:03,741 The distinction is upasama refers to the quietude that I said, quietude, peace, quenching. 311 00:29:03,821 --> 00:29:06,365 That refers to something super mundane. 312 00:29:06,385 --> 00:29:07,626 It refers to nibbana. 313 00:29:10,971 --> 00:29:15,578 So once a meditator practices and sees things perfectly clearly, it doesn't stop there. 314 00:29:15,899 --> 00:29:17,561 It leads to something. 315 00:29:18,743 --> 00:29:25,513 It leads to this second type of peace, which is truly 316 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,367 earth shattering, mind shattering, mind blowing. 317 00:29:32,369 --> 00:29:34,454 Mind blowing might be a good adjective. 318 00:29:36,859 --> 00:29:43,975 It truly shatters the foundation of 319 00:29:45,085 --> 00:29:49,690 of the mind, in the sense of being stuck to samsara. 320 00:29:49,710 --> 00:29:54,734 It changes the way you look at things in a very fundamental sense. 321 00:29:55,976 --> 00:29:58,158 It gives a perspective that wasn't there before. 322 00:29:58,218 --> 00:30:06,406 It's like when you're inside here, you don't know what the weather is like outside until you go outside. 323 00:30:06,526 --> 00:30:10,570 Once you go outside, you have that sense, you have the knowledge of 324 00:30:12,777 --> 00:30:24,946 And so you might think this air is okay to breathe, but when you go outside and you feel the fresh air and the sun on your face, you realize that these lights and all is very limited. 325 00:30:25,587 --> 00:30:26,770 You have a different perspective. 326 00:30:28,235 --> 00:30:29,077 It's like Plato. 327 00:30:29,337 --> 00:30:34,367 Plato talked about this very interesting, very famous simile of a cave. 328 00:30:35,689 --> 00:30:39,016 If you know Plato's simile of a cave, then you know what I'm talking about. 329 00:30:39,937 --> 00:30:44,606 He talks about people as like cave dwellers who have never seen the outside. 330 00:30:44,686 --> 00:30:47,111 You can read his simile. 331 00:30:47,131 --> 00:30:48,033 It's an interesting one. 332 00:30:48,293 --> 00:30:50,277 It's kind of the same idea here. 333 00:30:53,716 --> 00:30:55,679 Upasamma is something very different. 334 00:30:55,919 --> 00:30:59,884 It's peace that goes beyond the mundane. 335 00:31:01,487 --> 00:31:05,012 It's ineffable in a sense that you can't describe it. 336 00:31:06,053 --> 00:31:07,195 You can't even remember it. 337 00:31:08,817 --> 00:31:12,722 When you have an experience of Nibbana, there's no memory of it because there's nothing to remember. 338 00:31:12,762 --> 00:31:14,705 There's no arising during that time. 339 00:31:17,489 --> 00:31:18,350 But it shakes you. 340 00:31:18,390 --> 00:31:19,892 It shatters something. 341 00:31:25,458 --> 00:31:34,438 And so that one is real and lasting and enlightening. 342 00:31:38,148 --> 00:31:40,350 So that's the second lesson, it's about happiness. 343 00:31:40,411 --> 00:31:50,842 The third lesson is just, I think, I separated it out because it's an interesting point, and that's this idea of nipapo, because it relates back to the story. 344 00:31:50,882 --> 00:32:04,037 It's how the verse relates to the story, is that people were criticizing this monk for his meditation practice, and the Buddha said, nipapo, he has no evil, there's nothing wrong 345 00:32:05,992 --> 00:32:12,149 And it's the point that when your mind is pure, you have no evil, no corruption in your heart. 346 00:32:12,249 --> 00:32:16,300 And so criticism is unwarranted towards such a person. 347 00:32:17,744 --> 00:32:20,170 It is a bit of a debate. 348 00:32:21,888 --> 00:32:25,192 I think not so much among Buddhists, though it can come up. 349 00:32:25,913 --> 00:32:30,939 But it's often a debate that Buddhism has to enter in with other religions and non-religious people. 350 00:32:32,061 --> 00:32:38,108 I've heard people talk about Buddhist monks and meditators as lazy and parasites. 351 00:32:44,376 --> 00:32:45,517 And it's a little bit strange. 352 00:32:45,557 --> 00:32:49,482 I think it does have some credibility when we find that 353 00:32:51,436 --> 00:32:57,829 monks are encouraging people to give them things and support them and so on. 354 00:32:59,753 --> 00:33:13,360 And maybe when Buddhist meditators are just engaging in mundane pleasures, like tranquility meditation or just the pleasure of being in solitude, it can be a little bit self-serving and even 355 00:33:14,639 --> 00:33:17,728 can be a cause for evil to arise. 356 00:33:18,069 --> 00:33:28,277 It's possible that meditation centers, monasteries, often you hear and you find about some places become corrupt. 357 00:33:31,413 --> 00:33:54,616 But the idea that practicing meditation is laziness or the idea that it's not contributing to society here, the idea that one is a parasite if they're being supported for their spiritual practice is really unfortunate because of how powerful and beneficial meditation is. 358 00:33:56,078 --> 00:33:58,180 If you have someone 359 00:33:58,447 --> 00:34:24,100 If there exists someone in the world like the Buddha, the last thing, the farthest thing from the parasite, because of the great beneficence they give to the world, even not intentionally by going around trying to teach people, but first of all just by example, by providing the option or the 360 00:34:25,362 --> 00:34:32,216 a vision of another way, rather than trying to prop up a society that's based mostly on greed. 361 00:34:33,478 --> 00:34:41,194 We have an alternative, and that's leaving society, even not just Buddhists, but religious people in general who leave society and go and live in seclusion. 362 00:34:43,368 --> 00:34:46,731 offer a really great, I mean, a great alternative. 363 00:34:46,751 --> 00:34:54,478 I mean, hearing about them myself when I was 13, I think from a computer game, actually, I was playing at the time. 364 00:34:54,538 --> 00:35:06,990 I read about the Dalai Lama in this video game, and it got me learning about this idea of leaving society, and it was very interesting. 365 00:35:07,851 --> 00:35:09,012 I was very interested in that. 366 00:35:09,032 --> 00:35:12,615 It was one of the things that propelled me to go to Asia in the first place. 367 00:35:17,962 --> 00:35:34,579 But more importantly, when a person has accomplished all of the goodness that comes from meditation practice, not only are they incapable of evil, the relationship with them is so mind-changing. 368 00:35:34,639 --> 00:35:43,328 I mean, just having an association, listening to the things they say, taking their advice, learning how to practice meditation from them, 369 00:35:45,367 --> 00:35:48,392 It has an unmeasurable benefit. 370 00:35:49,895 --> 00:36:05,822 And it benefits, you know, the Buddha benefited his disciples who benefited their disciples who benefited their disciples who benefited eventually, benefited my teacher and benefited me and then I benefit you, hopefully, and then you benefit others. 371 00:36:10,122 --> 00:36:19,838 The greatness of our emphasis on self-exploration and study and enlightenment is beyond compare. 372 00:36:20,780 --> 00:36:33,902 It's so much more beneficial than running around like all these monks did, wailing and moaning about the Buddha going away and ensuring that they saw the Buddha before he passed. 373 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:37,766 None of that is anywhere near. 374 00:36:37,806 --> 00:36:47,012 Or the social work that many religions and Buddhists engage in is nowhere near as beneficial as changing your mind. 375 00:36:47,614 --> 00:36:50,001 Because if you talk about good deeds, 376 00:36:50,943 --> 00:36:56,699 and the avoidance of bad deeds, they only really are possible because of your purity of mind. 377 00:36:56,759 --> 00:37:05,965 So if you're a good person, it means you have some purity and you're able to do good things, but you're only able to do good things to the extent that you're a good person. 378 00:37:05,945 --> 00:37:25,444 And so if you still have evil inside of you, if you still have corruption, defilement, anger, greed, delusion, your good deeds will always be tainted by that and limited by that, affected by that and contrasted with the evil that you do based on your greed, your anger, your delusion. 379 00:37:27,546 --> 00:37:31,149 So your effect on others will not always be positive. 380 00:37:31,550 --> 00:37:34,112 Your effect on the world will not be entirely positive. 381 00:37:36,202 --> 00:37:43,118 And it will be negative if you talk about people who get involved with the world and you say, well, they're better because look at how hard they're working or so on. 382 00:37:45,163 --> 00:37:54,885 Quite often the work that they're doing is hurting people, hurting the world, giving people the wrong impression, leading people towards greater greed, anger, delusion. 383 00:37:57,177 --> 00:38:03,807 So if we talk about them as industrious and meditators as lazy, well, better to be lazy in that case. 384 00:38:03,827 --> 00:38:04,869 Better to not do anything. 385 00:38:04,909 --> 00:38:11,940 You go off in the world, at the very least, you've freed all sorts of people from you. 386 00:38:13,262 --> 00:38:15,105 And that's actually a Buddhist teaching. 387 00:38:15,125 --> 00:38:21,655 The Buddha talked about abhayadana, which means freedom from fear. 388 00:38:21,695 --> 00:38:24,079 When a person keeps the five precepts, 389 00:38:24,059 --> 00:38:28,946 And they have freed countless of beings from them. 390 00:38:28,986 --> 00:38:34,574 From killing, from stealing, from lying, from cheating, drugs, alcohol. 391 00:38:34,594 --> 00:38:38,620 Well, the first four anyway are very much related to others, but drugs and alcohol as well. 392 00:38:39,441 --> 00:38:43,707 When you stop doing them, you're much less likely to break the others or do anything evil. 393 00:38:45,409 --> 00:38:50,877 So keeping those five precepts has already been a great gift to society just by not doing lots of things. 394 00:38:56,122 --> 00:39:06,776 A person who practices in this way, a person who experiences the great peace and happiness of enlightenment and just meditation in general, does the world a great service. 395 00:39:06,837 --> 00:39:08,178 They're incapable of evil. 396 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:10,642 They have no sorrow or fear. 397 00:39:12,524 --> 00:39:18,032 And that's the third lesson. 398 00:39:19,373 --> 00:39:20,896 So that's the Dhammapada for tonight. 399 00:39:21,276 --> 00:39:22,337 Thank you all for listening. 400 00:39:22,838 --> 00:39:23,479 Wish you all the best.