WEBVTT 00:02.377 --> 00:15.996 Okay, so today we come back together to continue our practice and first we have listening to the Dhamma, Dhamma Savana. 00:16.016 --> 00:23.406 So last time we learned that this was a great blessing, Kali na Dhamma Savanam hitamang garumutamang. 00:32.279 --> 00:42.430 It's an interesting aspect of reality of our existence that words have such power, and that they really do. 00:52.781 --> 01:00.750 From our very young age, we develop an understanding and an association between words and language. 01:06.282 --> 01:12.511 And so if someone says the wrong thing to us, it can lead us on the wrong path. 01:12.691 --> 01:19.761 It can make us upset and angry and even want to hurt others or hurt ourselves, even kill ourselves. 01:19.781 --> 01:20.101 Speech. 01:20.762 --> 01:21.844 Speech is very powerful. 01:27.051 --> 01:29.775 This has also to do with the 01:34.126 --> 01:42.940 the aspect of reality that is our proliferation or our extrapolation of experience. 01:42.960 --> 01:46.666 Because when you think of it scientifically, words are only sound. 01:49.110 --> 01:53.096 Scientists know this and science has taught us this. 01:53.296 --> 01:56.141 Sound actually doesn't exist. 01:56.261 --> 01:57.703 It's actually the air vibrating. 02:00.029 --> 02:00.972 No sound. 02:01.212 --> 02:03.238 It's not like when I talk, sound goes to your ear. 02:03.278 --> 02:04.121 It doesn't actually. 02:04.141 --> 02:10.579 And so many air being disrupted by vibrations. 02:18.068 --> 02:41.196 And yet because we extrapolate just about everything, we extrapolate what we see, we extrapolate upon what we hear, we extrapolate upon what we feel, we extrapolate on our thoughts, we extrapolate on all of our experience, we make more of it than is actually present. 02:41.216 --> 02:42.658 And this is how we've created language. 02:46.098 --> 03:00.017 And so the interesting thing or the special thing about speech, about sound, is that here we have a means by which to undo it, undo this extrapolation, to bring us back to reality. 03:00.698 --> 03:01.539 This is the teaching. 03:03.001 --> 03:05.404 Sound, it's possible to use sound to teach someone. 03:08.268 --> 03:14.637 It's possible to use this extrapolation, to use language, to teach someone to let go of 03:15.950 --> 03:20.538 our attachments to things like language, to see through language. 03:23.463 --> 03:33.520 So we can use language, we can use sound as a means of helping people to understand that it's just sound. 03:36.200 --> 03:48.736 And so there was this one teacher in Thailand who would always tell his students when he began to teach the Dhamma that you really don't have to listen to what is being said. 03:48.796 --> 04:01.212 If you can acknowledge the sound of your ear, say to yourself, hearing, hearing, and see it just as sound that's arising and ceasing, then you've accomplished the goal of listening to the talk. 04:03.132 --> 04:24.523 We have these stories of animals becoming pure in the mind, not enlightened, but gaining purity of mind through listening to the Dhamma, even though they didn't know what it was, because of the nature of the speech and the nature of the sound and how they extrapolated, how they conceived of the sound. 04:26.606 --> 04:27.688 They conceived of it as being pure. 04:28.985 --> 04:36.603 harmonious, of being melodious, of being peaceful, of being calming and soothing. 04:37.725 --> 04:47.668 And so they gained states of concentration and were able to go to heaven after they passed away. 04:56.238 --> 05:03.829 And so we can use speech, we can use the Dhamma, we can use these words, the right words. 05:03.849 --> 05:05.031 We can use them to bring peace. 05:05.051 --> 05:09.437 The Buddha said, one word that brings peace is better than a thousand words that bring no peace. 05:13.403 --> 05:17.589 But one word that brings peace is also much better than no words. 05:20.493 --> 05:25.080 Because for a person who has no understanding of the truth of reality, 05:27.457 --> 05:36.365 Without that one word or without sometimes a thousand words, silence won't help them. 05:38.087 --> 05:39.748 They won't be able to gain anything. 05:40.048 --> 05:43.631 So we can use sights and smells and so on. 05:43.892 --> 05:46.494 We can use these as well to train the mind. 05:47.775 --> 05:50.738 But the one that we use the most is sound. 05:50.778 --> 05:53.340 And so listening to the Dhamma is a very important thing. 05:54.461 --> 05:55.422 You have to understand that 05:58.979 --> 06:10.893 that, even though the purpose of Buddhism is not to listen and not to learn and not to gain intellectual knowledge, build up a store of intellectual knowledge. 06:13.756 --> 06:22.827 Still before we can come to understand reality, understand that this is just words, understand that it's just sound, we have to be given the teaching. 06:26.148 --> 06:32.076 People who have never heard the teachings, they can't be expected to just practice meditation and become enlightened. 06:33.478 --> 06:38.965 You can see what happens if you start to teach people, you start to engage with... 06:38.985 --> 06:54.906 If you have done any engagement with people who have practiced meditation, other types of meditation, meditation on their own, which I am often consulted about, then you know how invariably... 06:56.084 --> 07:02.934 When people simply practice meditation without any teaching, they invariably go astray. 07:03.275 --> 07:07.762 They cling to something, they latch on to something, and they develop wrong views and so on. 07:08.683 --> 07:13.791 Or they simply become afraid of things that they've experienced and don't know how to deal with them, and so they stop. 07:17.076 --> 07:21.142 So learning the Dhamma is very important, but there's something more to hearing the Dhamma. 07:22.864 --> 07:23.425 And this is 07:25.193 --> 07:27.176 the repetition of what has been said before. 07:29.319 --> 07:39.653 Because there's another curious thing about words, about language, and that is the same words can have the same effect a second time. 07:41.576 --> 07:44.620 They can bring about the same effect, even though someone has heard something. 07:46.861 --> 07:51.411 The mind is such an interesting thing and it helps us to see non-self. 07:52.433 --> 07:57.684 You would think that once you'd heard something once, it wouldn't have the same effect the second time. 07:58.205 --> 07:58.726 But it can. 08:00.269 --> 08:04.859 For example, in Thailand it's a big thing. 08:04.879 --> 08:06.422 People will tell a joke. 08:08.208 --> 08:09.450 And everyone laughs. 08:10.711 --> 08:12.473 And then they tell the same joke right away again. 08:12.534 --> 08:14.156 And everyone laughs again. 08:14.176 --> 08:16.919 And they can tell it three or four times. 08:16.999 --> 08:20.584 And you watch people sitting around telling the same joke three or four times. 08:21.185 --> 08:23.287 It's quite interesting how it evokes the same response. 08:26.051 --> 08:28.454 This is the same when we think of something funny. 08:29.876 --> 08:33.220 We can laugh for a long time or keep laughing and coming back and laughing about it. 08:35.056 --> 08:38.539 When we think of something sad, it makes us sad every time we think about it. 08:38.760 --> 08:48.349 And it becomes a habit so that as soon as it arises in the mind, it creates sadness, longing. 08:49.210 --> 09:02.903 When we see something beautiful, we see the object of sexual desire, for example, immediately evokes lust to the point where even just the hint evokes the feelings of lust, of attraction. 09:04.520 --> 09:05.102 And so on. 09:05.985 --> 09:07.430 So the Dhamma works actually the same. 09:07.470 --> 09:09.517 You can hear the same thing over and over again. 09:09.558 --> 09:15.458 And it will repeatedly bring you back to the proper path. 09:16.619 --> 09:18.921 For instance, the four foundations of mindfulness. 09:19.702 --> 09:30.093 Just saying this, bringing up these words, should bring people, if they're familiar with them, to remember about their practice. 09:30.113 --> 09:34.018 To remember the body. 09:35.059 --> 09:38.062 When we start to enumerate them, it becomes even more apparent. 09:39.323 --> 09:42.947 Just using the word body makes everyone remember about their body. 09:45.442 --> 09:49.235 and vedana, the feelings. 09:49.255 --> 09:51.783 So we start to think about the pain in the body. 09:51.803 --> 09:55.536 Just saying feelings reminds you of the feelings that you have. 10:01.945 --> 10:08.793 Sometimes when we read the Buddha's teaching, people are confused as to why the Buddha would repeat the same thing again and again. 10:08.833 --> 10:15.661 Often in a talk he would repeat the same thing first for the eye, then the ear, then the nose. 10:15.681 --> 10:17.403 Because this isn't an intellectual teaching. 10:17.463 --> 10:19.185 He's not just trying to give them information. 10:20.146 --> 10:21.688 He's teaching the Dhamma. 10:21.708 --> 10:23.290 He's teaching them how to see the Dhamma. 10:26.333 --> 10:30.298 Jitta, when you think of the mind, thinking about past or future. 10:32.708 --> 10:50.944 Just hearing these things, Dhamma, when you think about liking, disliking, drowsiness, distraction, doubt, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking, just hearing about all of these things helps remind us where we are and what we're doing, and brings us back to our investigation of reality. 10:55.408 --> 11:02.715 So, this is in regards to hearing the Dhamma, and in fact this isn't the topic of today's talk, but it's an interesting subject 11:04.788 --> 11:05.309 What do we have? 11:05.329 --> 11:07.150 Today we're going on with the Mangalas. 11:07.411 --> 11:29.412 I think this is going on to the next stanza, which goes, So we have four blessings today. 11:30.213 --> 11:33.816 Kanti means patience or forbearance. 11:35.517 --> 11:40.443 Sovajasattva means being easy to talk to. 11:40.483 --> 11:57.643 Samananantadasanam, seeing samanat, seeing people who are reclusive or who are philosophers or people who are ascetics. 11:59.429 --> 12:04.397 People who are samana, shamans, the translation in English is shaman. 12:05.299 --> 12:13.693 It's not the translation, the word that is used, the form of the word samana has become shaman, shaman. 12:17.960 --> 12:19.463 kālīna dhamma sāgacā 12:20.810 --> 12:48.083 so last time we had which means listening to the Dhamma from time to time this means discussing the Dhamma from time to time so having discussions about the Dhamma these are the the most special blessings among the highest blessings in life so this is what we are talking about today 12:50.324 --> 12:51.365 Number one, kanti. 12:52.207 --> 12:56.773 Kanti is one of the most important qualities. 12:58.275 --> 13:06.146 So much so that when the Buddha taught what he later called the Ovadapati Moka, he started with this kanti. 13:06.326 --> 13:10.132 Kanti paramantapoditika. 13:10.152 --> 13:13.937 Patience is the highest form of austerity. 13:16.560 --> 13:17.682 It's really the most important. 13:19.990 --> 13:23.155 We have to understand what kanti means, what patience really means. 13:23.255 --> 13:26.000 Patience is on many levels. 13:26.060 --> 13:30.607 There's the level of being patient in terms of forbearing with something. 13:31.188 --> 13:39.121 When there's something that you dislike, you grit and bear it, buck up, grit your teeth. 13:43.568 --> 13:45.171 When there's something that we want, we... 13:46.096 --> 13:48.860 We can't get it. 13:49.360 --> 13:53.225 We stop ourselves from going after it. 13:53.425 --> 13:55.869 So we repress the desires. 13:57.731 --> 14:01.496 Patience in the form of repression is one type of patience. 14:01.516 --> 14:06.442 So most people would understand patience. 14:06.462 --> 14:10.888 But the higher level of patience that we're trying to develop here is 14:12.455 --> 14:18.288 The ability to see things clearly while they exist. 14:18.308 --> 14:21.214 To live with things clearly as they exist. 14:21.234 --> 14:24.642 Because Gritting and Barrett isn't really patience, it's actually diverting the mind. 14:25.651 --> 14:30.621 bringing about some sort of pain in the mind or some sort of aversion in the mind. 14:31.322 --> 14:33.507 And so you're not actually patient with the object at all. 14:33.527 --> 14:35.451 You're avoiding the object. 14:35.471 --> 14:38.056 You're finding some way to avoid the object. 14:38.096 --> 14:40.581 When it's something good, you find some way to stop yourself from wanting it. 14:41.282 --> 14:44.689 When it's something bad, you stop yourself from getting angry about it, repress the feeling. 14:46.238 --> 14:47.960 The Buddha actually recommended this. 14:48.020 --> 14:51.966 If there's nothing else to do, he said, well, that's a good stopgap measure. 14:52.847 --> 14:55.330 It's better than going off and chasing after things. 14:55.370 --> 14:56.893 But it doesn't last. 14:56.913 --> 15:06.405 It's only the last option. 15:06.986 --> 15:10.491 As a last option, when there's no other option, you can use that one. 15:12.428 --> 15:16.936 But the most important type of patience is to actually look at the experience. 15:18.679 --> 15:30.319 To see that inside of your problems, whether it be a problem of something that you want or are addicted to, or whether it be something that you don't want and are averse to, averse towards, 15:34.957 --> 15:38.488 You see, the problem is not actually the experience at all. 15:38.528 --> 15:42.419 The problem is not the reality of what you're experiencing. 15:42.460 --> 15:44.004 The problem is that you think there's a problem. 15:46.793 --> 15:49.641 The problem is that you're trying to find a solution. 15:52.692 --> 15:59.243 And so this is the meaning of kanti, the meaning of patience, is to stop that, to change that, change this habit. 15:59.704 --> 16:07.478 Not to change the habits of liking and disliking, but to change the delusion that says it's an entity, it's a problem. 16:09.722 --> 16:14.430 In our lives we meet with, even in monastic life, we meet with many problems. 16:16.148 --> 16:17.110 We meet with many issues. 16:17.350 --> 16:18.712 We'll find ourselves getting angry. 16:18.793 --> 16:21.577 We'll find ourselves greedy and wanting things. 16:21.858 --> 16:25.905 We'll find ourselves depressed. 16:25.985 --> 16:28.970 We'll find ourselves overwhelmed, worried, scared, and so on. 16:31.855 --> 16:33.258 None of these are really a big problem. 16:33.298 --> 16:34.560 They are obviously a problem. 16:34.600 --> 16:35.862 They're a cause for suffering. 16:38.170 --> 16:39.592 But the biggest problem is delusion. 16:40.353 --> 16:44.798 The biggest problem is our attachment to the problem, our attachment to self. 16:45.338 --> 16:51.365 Whether it be an attachment to ourselves, as in, I don't deserve this, or so on, or I do deserve this. 16:53.868 --> 17:02.558 Or an attachment to the object, as in, this object is mine, this problem is mine, I have a problem. 17:04.512 --> 17:06.738 Or whether it be our attachment to... 17:06.879 --> 17:11.512 I got an email today from someone today who suffers from depression. 17:11.553 --> 17:18.252 And the person was explaining to me how awful things are. 17:20.273 --> 17:22.897 in their life and so they have this depression. 17:23.478 --> 17:33.774 And they were explaining that the reason they have the depression is because they require, they have the need for a meaningful life, meaningful career. 17:33.834 --> 17:40.645 They feel like life is meaningless now, that they aren't able to achieve what is meaningful. 17:44.185 --> 17:47.610 And so I would say that the former is not really the problem. 17:47.630 --> 17:49.853 The problem is this trying to find meaning in life. 17:50.895 --> 17:56.503 Trying to cling, or not trying, but clinging to some goal as having some meaning. 17:57.204 --> 17:59.287 And so trying to strive to achieve it. 18:00.709 --> 18:01.450 This is delusion. 18:03.453 --> 18:05.816 The idea that somehow something is going to satisfy you. 18:10.824 --> 18:11.104 So 18:12.468 --> 18:15.353 Patience is really associated with wisdom. 18:15.754 --> 18:26.494 Patience is focusing on the object as it is, which is really the opposite of what we would normally 18:29.782 --> 18:36.093 people would normally advise others, or how we would normally try to deal with the situation. 18:36.173 --> 18:38.296 Normally, it's the last thing we want to do. 18:38.316 --> 18:44.246 When you're in pain, the answer is to find some way to be without pain, because you have pain. 18:44.627 --> 18:45.428 You have a problem. 18:45.749 --> 18:49.075 When you have depression, the last thing you want to do is to be depressed. 18:50.156 --> 18:50.677 It's a problem. 18:50.978 --> 18:51.739 You have to fix it. 18:56.495 --> 18:59.880 But it's only when you see that it's a problem, that it's really a problem. 18:59.900 --> 19:08.574 When you see that your life is not meaningful, when you see that your life is not attached to it, and you proliferate on it. 19:08.594 --> 19:11.860 The truth is that the depression itself can't do anything to it. 19:12.961 --> 19:14.844 The anger can't do anything to it. 19:14.865 --> 19:16.367 Lust can't do anything to it. 19:16.387 --> 19:17.369 These things cannot do anything. 19:17.649 --> 19:19.332 All they can do is create suffering in your mind. 19:19.512 --> 19:20.173 That's what they're doing. 19:22.870 --> 19:32.897 It's only when you decide that they have some meaning, you cling to them with delusion, and make a decision to act upon them, that they really and truly cause a problem. 19:35.375 --> 19:40.802 The levels of defilements that we're trying to get rid of in Buddhism are on three levels. 19:40.902 --> 19:45.728 There are the kamma kilesa, the actions that we do. 19:46.569 --> 19:48.652 And these are really the ones that create problems for us. 19:48.712 --> 19:52.617 The next level is the arisen defilements, the ones that exist in the mind. 19:53.578 --> 20:00.066 These defilements are the ones that we are trying to look at, trying to understand, trying to see for what they are. 20:05.193 --> 20:21.598 And once we see them for what they are, the underlying defilements, the ones that are the delusion ones, that have the tendency, or are the impetus for the arising of defilements, these are the ones that we want to eradicate. 20:24.346 --> 20:44.230 Once we see clearly the experience for what it is, we see the feeling, we see the objects for what they are, we see the feelings for what they are, we see the attachments for what they are, the likes and the dislikes for what they are, we will see the suffering caused by them. 20:44.250 --> 20:48.075 So we actually, the point is to look at the experience. 20:49.388 --> 20:54.916 If some defilement arises in your mind, it means that you don't understand the experience. 20:54.936 --> 20:59.764 It means that you don't see things as they are. 21:00.024 --> 21:06.213 A person would never do something that they knew was against their best interests. 21:06.594 --> 21:09.639 This is an interesting fact of reality. 21:11.682 --> 21:15.227 We postulate that it is possible to know something. 21:15.393 --> 21:20.323 If it's possible to truly know something from your experience. 21:21.105 --> 21:30.465 If it's possible to truly know something, then when a person knows that something is against their best interests, when the mind is clearly aware of that, 21:32.150 --> 21:35.153 the conclusion is that you would never do such a thing. 21:36.195 --> 21:45.905 So when we give rise to liking, disliking, anger and greed, it's because we don't understand that they're bad for us. 21:47.707 --> 21:56.758 If you say to yourself, bad, bad, bad, and if you avoid the object, you'll never come to understand it. 21:57.859 --> 22:01.583 If you never come to understand it, you'll never really know that it's bad for you. 22:03.031 --> 22:08.299 The truth of the experience is that you don't know that it's bad for you. 22:08.399 --> 22:09.600 If you did, you wouldn't have done it. 22:09.621 --> 22:10.522 You wouldn't have got greedy. 22:10.762 --> 22:11.784 You wouldn't want something. 22:11.804 --> 22:15.289 If you knew that wanting was truly bad for you, you wouldn't do it. 22:15.309 --> 22:19.054 So it's useless to say to yourself, no, no, it's bad for me, it's bad for me. 22:19.074 --> 22:19.935 Because you don't believe that. 22:21.357 --> 22:26.425 And saying it to yourself or reading it in books or thinking about it isn't going to give you the answer. 22:26.705 --> 22:31.452 It's only when you look and you see that the experience is a cause for suffering. 22:33.085 --> 22:37.691 So this is the core practice of the Buddha, to see things as they are. 22:38.672 --> 22:46.042 Once you see things as they are, it's impossible that you should give rise to greed or anger based on those experiences. 22:46.142 --> 22:53.431 Once you uproot delusion, once you uproot ignorance, you can never give rise to greed, anger or delusion. 22:53.452 --> 22:56.916 You can never give rise to partiality or projection. 23:04.658 --> 23:09.044 So patience is a little bit more than how we normally think of it. 23:09.064 --> 23:12.729 Patience is when there is the feeling of depression, for example. 23:12.749 --> 23:13.510 You say depressed. 23:13.570 --> 23:15.693 When there's a feeling of anger, you say angry. 23:15.733 --> 23:18.837 When there's a feeling of wanting, wanting, wanting. 23:18.857 --> 23:19.759 There's a feeling of fear. 23:19.819 --> 23:22.623 Fear, for example, is a huge one. 23:22.943 --> 23:24.044 People would be very afraid. 23:24.065 --> 23:27.269 And a common one is the fear of not being able to sleep at night. 23:27.289 --> 23:29.552 People who are insomniac won't be able to sleep. 23:32.317 --> 23:35.348 And it's actually the fear that keeps them awake. 23:35.388 --> 23:40.666 And insomnia is a nice example because it's very easy to cure insomnia. 23:41.509 --> 23:44.740 Simply by lying and being afraid or worried, worried. 23:49.529 --> 23:55.304 And by making up your mind that it's really actually not a bad thing to stay awake. 23:56.367 --> 24:00.197 And I always tell people when they're insomnia is to see it as a good thing. 24:01.119 --> 24:03.505 When you're not able to sleep, just lie awake and do meditation. 24:05.645 --> 24:07.227 And watch the worry, watch the fear. 24:07.527 --> 24:11.251 And once you do that, it actually becomes quite easy to sleep because it's the fear that's keeping you awake. 24:12.512 --> 24:13.153 Fear of anything. 24:13.213 --> 24:16.917 When you focus on the fear and you see that actually the fear is not the problem. 24:17.978 --> 24:19.960 The problem is that you think of the fear as a problem. 24:21.162 --> 24:24.745 Once you see the fear simply for what it is, you can have fear in your mind and go and do what you want. 24:25.206 --> 24:26.447 People who are afraid of going out. 24:27.388 --> 24:28.670 It's not the fear that's stopping you. 24:28.690 --> 24:32.714 It's the fact that you think that the fear is stopping you. 24:32.734 --> 24:33.795 That's what's stopping you. 24:33.775 --> 24:36.039 You say this fear is stopping me from going out. 24:36.059 --> 24:36.740 It's actually not. 24:36.780 --> 24:40.246 So when you say that the fear is stopping, that's what's stopping. 24:41.608 --> 24:42.770 You can go out and be afraid. 24:44.874 --> 24:47.358 You can deal calmly with people and be angry. 24:49.282 --> 24:50.704 It's a matter of being mindful. 24:52.962 --> 25:00.534 You can't actually, on an experiential level, it won't happen because once you say angry, angry, once you're aware of the anger, it disappears. 25:00.995 --> 25:04.500 But there will be many associated states with the anger. 25:04.520 --> 25:07.164 You'll feel upset and you'll feel the suffering of the anger. 25:08.186 --> 25:14.616 And then you might get angry again, so you stop and say angry, angry, and then you continue on with your work or dealing with people or something. 25:16.368 --> 25:25.188 You can be confronted with something, with the object of your desire and still be totally neutral and focused and content. 25:26.611 --> 25:30.279 When the desire comes up, you look at the desire and you forget about the object. 25:30.300 --> 25:34.950 And then when you see the object again, the desire comes up and you focus on the desire again. 25:36.432 --> 25:37.674 And you forget about it again. 25:37.694 --> 25:38.835 The desire isn't the problem. 25:38.875 --> 25:42.100 The problem is you get upset. 25:42.120 --> 25:43.321 Oh, what can I do? 25:43.402 --> 25:46.406 I have to relieve this desire and so on. 25:46.426 --> 25:50.311 I have to attain what I want and so on. 25:51.993 --> 25:54.897 So simply focusing on reality, this is what we mean by patience. 25:55.618 --> 25:59.183 So patience is in regards to good things and it's in regards to bad things. 26:01.593 --> 26:08.039 Patience is, you could say it's another word for contentment, which is another one of life's greatest blessings. 26:08.199 --> 26:12.363 But we talked about last week, no? 26:13.224 --> 26:15.906 Contentment and patience, they go together and really have the same meaning. 26:15.946 --> 26:19.209 The meaning is to see things as they are, to stay with things. 26:19.810 --> 26:22.553 Patience is in a sense of staying with it and not running away from it. 26:23.033 --> 26:28.478 When you have pain, to focus on the pain and really stay with the pain. 26:28.458 --> 26:29.379 Until it goes away. 26:29.419 --> 26:30.862 When it gets worse, to stay with it. 26:30.882 --> 26:35.148 When it goes away, come back to your ordinary practice. 26:35.168 --> 26:37.291 When it comes back again, focus on it again. 26:38.052 --> 26:41.618 Patience means when the rising and the falling is changing. 26:41.678 --> 26:43.120 Sometimes there, sometimes not there. 26:43.440 --> 26:47.086 When you get frustrated, it means to stay with it and to keep trying. 26:47.246 --> 26:47.707 To go back. 26:47.727 --> 26:48.949 To not have expectations. 26:50.090 --> 26:51.833 To not need things to be this way or that. 26:51.813 --> 26:54.479 Being patient with them the way they are. 26:54.499 --> 26:56.002 Being content with them the way they are. 26:56.022 --> 26:57.105 This is the meaning of patience. 26:57.165 --> 26:58.227 Very important. 26:58.247 --> 27:01.154 So important the Buddha said this is the highest form of tapas. 27:01.334 --> 27:04.882 Tapas means it comes from the same root as the word temperature. 27:04.902 --> 27:05.603 It means heat. 27:06.666 --> 27:07.307 So heating up. 27:08.705 --> 27:14.698 When you develop patience, this is the feeling that you get when you're being patient, when you have great pain, for example. 27:14.738 --> 27:27.465 Many meditators, when they have great pain and they're really practicing correctly, they'll find their whole body starts to shake and they can even go into convulsions through their patience. 27:27.485 --> 27:28.367 It tortures you. 27:28.347 --> 27:39.378 It's the greatest type of torture because tapas is a word, heat means, the meaning of the word or the use of the word was in India they would, they believed that defilements, you could burn your defilements. 27:39.398 --> 27:45.224 Your defilements were like this wet sappiness inside and you could burn them up by torturing yourself. 27:45.244 --> 27:47.206 So the word tapas was used to mean torture. 27:48.447 --> 27:56.295 So people would stand on one leg or go naked or go bathing every day five times, ten times a day. 27:58.216 --> 28:01.621 torturing themselves, saying this was burning up their defilements, this was their tapas. 28:01.681 --> 28:08.231 But the Buddha said the best thing for burning up, the greatest form of burning up defilements is patience. 28:08.251 --> 28:13.058 When you want something, when you have lust, focusing on it will make your whole body shake. 28:13.078 --> 28:16.984 It will make your whole, it will become so overwhelming. 28:18.046 --> 28:20.850 And this is what burns up the defilement. 28:20.870 --> 28:24.055 Once you can just stay with it, then you're totally unconquerable. 28:25.165 --> 28:45.910 Once you see the defilements and you've seen them go to their limit, and you've seen them get to the ultimate level where they are as intense as they possibly could be, and you realize that you can still deal with them, you can still live with them, you can still be patient with them, this is the highest form of austerity. 28:45.970 --> 28:48.493 This is what makes you invincible. 28:48.953 --> 28:52.017 This is what leads to confidence and reassurance. 28:53.414 --> 28:55.076 The assurance that nothing can stop you. 28:55.958 --> 29:00.684 Even though you might give rise to defilement still, they can't stop you. 29:00.705 --> 29:03.288 They can only stop you when you turn them into a problem. 29:04.971 --> 29:09.357 This is a little bit of discussion on patience. 29:09.377 --> 29:14.224 Sola jasata means being easy to talk, easy to admonish. 29:16.128 --> 29:19.773 So if you put these two together, you actually think that, well, patience is just in an ordinary sense. 29:20.194 --> 29:23.799 It can be just understood in an ordinary sense, in terms of bearing with things. 29:24.500 --> 29:29.166 But on an ultimate level, for a meditator, patience is much more, as I explained it. 29:30.508 --> 29:36.516 Because being patient can also mean, in regards to, patient with the teachings. 29:37.897 --> 29:41.161 We need a lot of patience in order to keep morality. 29:41.922 --> 29:45.245 We need patience in order to develop concentration. 29:45.265 --> 29:48.068 We need patience in order to see things with wisdom. 29:50.491 --> 29:53.555 Most importantly with morality. 29:54.055 --> 29:56.157 It's really the beginning and it's the most difficult one. 29:57.159 --> 29:59.241 Patience with not killing, with not stealing. 29:59.882 --> 30:02.925 Patience with the instruction that is given. 30:04.053 --> 30:05.916 So patience with the meditation technique. 30:07.097 --> 30:10.362 A good example is the meditation technique that we practice. 30:10.382 --> 30:12.545 It's very simple, very easy to understand. 30:12.585 --> 30:17.572 So easy to understand I'm able to explain it to people over the internet or give books out. 30:17.973 --> 30:20.096 And people get back to me and say how it changed their lives. 30:20.296 --> 30:23.922 Just listening to one, this instruction on meditation changed their lives. 30:24.002 --> 30:28.288 Because it's very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice. 30:28.308 --> 30:29.790 But very difficult to be patient with. 30:32.673 --> 30:34.055 very difficult to be content with. 30:34.455 --> 30:40.243 So Sowa Jasata is related to this, being easy to admonish, easy to teach, easy to instruct. 30:42.566 --> 30:45.751 Being easy to instruct requires patience and it requires contentment. 30:49.275 --> 30:52.740 Because things will not always be the way we want them to be or the way we expect them to be. 30:59.167 --> 31:03.394 There was once a monk who was the absolute opposite of this. 31:03.434 --> 31:06.659 I think I've told this story before, a monk from England. 31:09.103 --> 31:15.092 And my teacher was very clever, and he's heard a lot, and he's studied a lot. 31:15.112 --> 31:20.421 And this one story that, of course, he always brings up, and so I always bring it up as well, is about Tucho Potila. 31:20.441 --> 31:24.788 Potila, this monk who knew everything about Buddhism, and yet he wasn't enlightened. 31:24.808 --> 31:26.170 He was very conceited as well. 31:26.150 --> 31:49.187 and so finally he went to this novice he went to this elder monk and the elder monk refused him he went to the second eldest monk and that monk refused him and all the way down all of these monks refused to teach him until the youngest monk he went to him and said please teach me meditation and this monk also saw that he was very conceited and said you see there's a seven year old novice down by the pond you go and learn from him 31:50.720 --> 31:57.873 And so he did actually learn from him, and what the novice did was taught him how to be easy to admonish. 31:57.913 --> 32:03.703 He said, okay, I will teach you, but you must promise to do everything that I say, do whatever I say. 32:10.816 --> 32:10.956 And 32:16.285 --> 32:18.469 And so he said, oh, no problem, no problem. 32:18.770 --> 32:20.153 And then he said, okay, now go into the pond. 32:21.195 --> 32:22.418 And so he started taking off his robe. 32:22.438 --> 32:24.241 He said, no, no, no, with all your robes, go into the pond. 32:25.203 --> 32:28.891 And so he gritted his teeth and bore it and went into the pond. 32:28.911 --> 32:30.534 He said, okay, now come out, come out of the pond. 32:31.576 --> 32:33.901 Go back into the pond, back into the pond. 32:33.921 --> 32:35.745 Come out of the pond, back into the pond. 32:37.632 --> 32:40.456 And then finally he became so, he let go. 32:41.177 --> 32:41.918 This monk let go. 32:42.358 --> 32:43.940 So you're being tested in this way. 32:43.960 --> 32:46.243 My teacher did this with this English monk. 32:46.263 --> 32:53.593 He said, okay, you can do a course with me, but you have to promise, because he's got so many problems and it's so hard to deal with. 32:54.073 --> 32:59.320 You can, I'll do a course, but you must promise to do, you have to promise to do what I say. 33:01.156 --> 33:06.463 It's been so long, I can't remember what exactly... You know, the monk was like, yes, yes, I'll do exactly what you say. 33:06.483 --> 33:07.705 And then he says something to him. 33:07.745 --> 33:11.490 He says, okay, then I want you to practice in this way, which was the opposite of how he wanted to practice. 33:11.851 --> 33:17.419 And right away he says, but no, tell him I don't want to practice like... Because he didn't speak Thai, so I'm his translator. 33:17.439 --> 33:20.403 He said, tell him I don't want to practice like that. 33:20.423 --> 33:22.286 Oh, useless. 33:23.007 --> 33:24.609 This is what we call mogapurisa. 33:25.150 --> 33:25.410 Wow. 33:27.333 --> 33:27.653 Wow. 33:28.730 --> 33:32.634 The Buddha would actually say Moga Bodhisattva. 33:32.654 --> 33:34.836 Someone who doesn't have the potential. 33:36.938 --> 33:42.423 We have to try our best to not be a Moga Bodhisattva. 33:44.265 --> 33:48.949 But it's a very important thing to be... Because it does help to remove conceit. 33:49.009 --> 33:51.772 To have to do things the way you don't want and to be challenged. 33:54.054 --> 33:54.855 To... 33:57.856 --> 33:58.697 to listen to the teaching. 33:58.717 --> 33:59.958 I've been in that position as well. 34:01.200 --> 34:05.585 And my teacher has tried to make me do things this way and that way. 34:06.365 --> 34:21.282 I've seen, there was a monk once, I don't know how I've fared, it's hard to say about yourself, but there was one monk who, I heard the story, I wasn't there, but our teacher took him up to the top of this mountain and 34:22.730 --> 34:34.442 in the middle of nowhere, and there was this rich monk from Bangkok, a monk from a rich family, a fairly high-class family, one of Ajahn's great supporters. 34:37.766 --> 34:46.695 He was always favored in the monastery, and he was able to get special food. 34:47.215 --> 34:50.619 He had a good room and his room had a microwave and so on. 34:50.639 --> 34:52.060 All these things. 34:52.081 --> 34:54.724 Bridge and the computer. 34:55.284 --> 34:58.268 He was able to live fairly well. 35:00.650 --> 35:03.093 And so Ajahn brought them to the top of this monastery. 35:03.113 --> 35:04.915 They followed after him to the top of this monastery. 35:04.935 --> 35:08.379 And Ajahn turned to him and said, Okay, so I want you to stay here now. 35:11.863 --> 35:15.467 And so he... 35:17.523 --> 35:21.510 twisting and turning in his mind. 35:22.291 --> 35:26.438 And he came up to Ajahn a little bit later, I guess, or I just heard about it later, so I don't know how it happened. 35:26.718 --> 35:30.224 He came up to Ajahn and he said, Ajahn wants me to stay here, right? 35:31.807 --> 35:33.690 Yes, yes, I want you to stay here. 35:33.710 --> 35:36.274 But I cannot stay here too, right? 35:39.764 --> 35:42.829 And what's he going to say to that? 35:42.889 --> 35:45.713 Our teacher is quite kind. 35:46.855 --> 35:48.617 He doesn't want to create bad karma with people. 35:49.098 --> 35:53.224 What he's always said is, I don't want to create bad karma with people. 35:53.485 --> 35:54.406 The monk came back with him. 35:54.466 --> 35:57.030 I heard about it because he came back and they were talking about it. 35:57.010 --> 36:22.275 but they were joking about it this other monk was saying man I could never do that you want me to stay here right yes yes I want to stay here but I don't have to stay here if I don't want right but I cannot stay here if I want right the inability to follow very difficult very difficult to follow 36:25.124 --> 36:26.966 Because we have ideas about how things should be. 36:27.026 --> 36:28.207 We have ideas of the right way. 36:30.109 --> 36:31.191 It doesn't mean it's wrong, really. 36:31.211 --> 36:33.413 It doesn't mean that this monk was wrong. 36:34.194 --> 36:36.176 It's an interesting... 36:36.196 --> 36:38.238 I mean, it's actually obvious in that case. 36:38.298 --> 36:46.147 I mean, it would have been great for that monk, but we get stuck in a rut of the way we think things want to be. 36:46.227 --> 36:48.349 And the same when I go to other monasteries. 36:48.389 --> 36:53.275 I don't want to follow after their ways, so I leave because I have my own ideas of the way things can be. 36:53.555 --> 36:54.456 This is a big problem. 36:56.275 --> 36:57.977 I have to be very careful not to cling. 36:59.659 --> 37:02.663 It's being easy to admonish, easy to teach. 37:03.524 --> 37:04.525 It's a very difficult one. 37:06.727 --> 37:18.281 The only time that I would say it's really, really, really a danger, well, it's always a danger, but the time where we really have to worry about it and really have to look out for it is during the time when we're on course. 37:18.982 --> 37:21.625 When you're doing a meditation course, absolutely you have to 37:24.305 --> 37:27.991 entrust yourself to your teacher and to the Buddha. 37:28.052 --> 37:34.943 Normally in Thailand we would do a ceremony where you place yourself in the trust of the Buddha and the trust of your teacher. 37:34.964 --> 37:48.507 And actually the wording is I give up this being to you. 37:49.769 --> 38:06.968 to the Buddha and then first to the Buddha and then to the teacher I relinquish this being to you I give myself up to you put myself in your trust 38:08.365 --> 38:09.227 And this is very important. 38:09.247 --> 38:20.353 The Visuddhimagga actually says that the only proper student to teach, or not the only, but a perfect student to teach is the one who's willing to die for their teacher. 38:20.373 --> 38:25.024 If their teacher tells them they should jump off a cliff, they should be ready to jump off a cliff. 38:27.417 --> 38:28.839 or it gives the example anyway. 38:29.300 --> 38:49.069 It says, well, it's possible to get to this extent where there was actually a student who thought this and the teacher was able to read his mind and so the teacher knew that this monk, three monks actually, one of them said, thought in his mind, if I knew it was according to the meaning of this teacher or the need of this teacher, I would jump off a cliff. 38:49.089 --> 38:53.796 Another one said, I would grind myself on a rock 38:53.776 --> 38:58.825 grind my body to dust if it was what should be done. 38:59.667 --> 39:03.975 The third one, I can't remember, burn myself, immolate myself. 39:05.758 --> 39:06.539 This is an example. 39:06.559 --> 39:15.075 I mean, I don't suppose that many people get to that extreme or would ever dare to go to that extreme because it's very hard to trust teachers these days. 39:17.958 --> 39:19.780 But you have to be clear. 39:19.921 --> 39:22.164 You either have to follow the teaching or you have to leave. 39:22.324 --> 39:23.946 This is really the way a course should go. 39:24.547 --> 39:25.909 You should not argue with the teacher. 39:26.389 --> 39:32.197 If you can't bear with the teaching, of course when you have problems arise, you should ask the teacher. 39:33.159 --> 39:36.002 Tell them that you're having troubles and that you're not sure about this. 39:36.583 --> 39:39.487 And once you listen to the answer, you have to make a choice. 39:39.527 --> 39:41.670 Are you going to follow the teaching or are you going to leave? 39:43.523 --> 39:45.686 But you shouldn't argue with the teacher. 39:45.746 --> 39:53.056 This is quite a problem because that augments or reinforces the doubt. 39:53.076 --> 39:56.761 It reinforces the uncertainty about the practice. 39:56.781 --> 39:59.705 Either you're certain about the practice and certain about the teacher or you're not. 40:00.586 --> 40:09.278 And so you have to either give yourself up completely to the course and to the teacher or else you have to decide that you need to go somewhere else. 40:11.654 --> 40:17.240 And sometimes this requires contentment because the practice is not always easy and the teacher is not always perfect. 40:17.780 --> 40:19.402 In Jomtong it was very much the same. 40:19.442 --> 40:26.809 We had to put up with the fact that our teacher is very tired most of the time. 40:26.829 --> 40:32.095 Sometimes the teaching would be not totally coherent because he'd fall asleep on you or something. 40:32.695 --> 40:34.397 Sometimes I would be translating for someone. 40:35.658 --> 40:37.900 Ajahn says something, I turn and I translate it to the person. 40:37.940 --> 40:40.463 By the time I turn back, Ajahn is falling asleep. 40:41.793 --> 41:04.493 he's gotten old and he's quite tired because he works a lot so this kind of we need this ability to put up with the teaching and to be content as well of course as I said this takes patience and it takes contentment you have to be able to find contentment in the teaching many people are not able to be content with this teaching 41:05.654 --> 41:06.315 They want more. 41:06.375 --> 41:12.025 They want magical powers or they want deep spiritual attainments or so on. 41:14.029 --> 41:20.200 And so they miss the deepest spiritual attainment, which is Nibbana, which is freedom from all suffering. 41:20.220 --> 41:24.227 They're looking for some kind of calm or peace that is temporary. 41:24.969 --> 41:26.852 And then they miss the real true peace. 41:28.807 --> 41:38.239 Samana is someone who has a peaceful mind. 41:39.280 --> 41:42.003 In an ultimate sense, a samana means someone who has a peaceful mind. 41:42.023 --> 41:43.565 And this is of course a great blessing. 41:44.927 --> 41:49.212 A mind that is at peace. 41:49.192 --> 41:56.623 This is of course the greatest blessing, to be around someone, to be near someone, to learn from someone. 41:57.604 --> 42:00.489 Even just to see someone who has a pure mind is enough. 42:00.969 --> 42:01.951 It's like language. 42:02.812 --> 42:09.001 Like Sariputta Upatissa when he saw Asaji walking on Pindapad. 42:09.101 --> 42:12.246 Asaji was walking on alms round in the city. 42:12.646 --> 42:17.173 Just seeing him was enough to make Upatissa a Buddhist. 42:18.554 --> 42:26.427 It was enough to make him come and learn from Asaji and eventually become enlightened and become the Buddha's chief disciple. 42:28.290 --> 42:30.333 All because he saw someone who was peaceful. 42:31.074 --> 42:40.950 Because when he saw Asaji, he said, that must be, just not even talking to him, hearing what he had to say, just watching the way he walked, the way he held his robes, the way he looked down at the ground. 42:43.208 --> 42:44.230 This is the greatest blessing. 42:44.250 --> 42:49.137 And this doesn't have to be a monk or a nun or a recluse of any sort. 42:49.958 --> 42:52.201 Seeing anybody with a peaceful mind is a great blessing. 42:55.486 --> 43:06.162 But on an ordinary level, there's something to be said as well as seeing, for example, seeing someone who's in robes, seeing someone who is an example, who's living a life that is a good example for us. 43:07.373 --> 43:08.955 The best example, of course, is a monk. 43:09.136 --> 43:19.392 So even though a monk might be corrupt in mind, many people will be encouraged to practice meditation by seeing such people. 43:21.035 --> 43:31.491 Of course, this is the problem, is that then they go to the monastery and they want to learn meditation, and they find that the monks are not practicing or teaching, and are engaged in even unwholesome behaviors. 43:35.335 --> 43:41.847 But just seeing the example and realizing that such a thing is possible is very important. 43:42.929 --> 43:45.715 It's something that we're lacking, of course, in most of the world. 43:46.396 --> 43:55.453 I'm not talking about even Buddhist monks, but we don't ever have the chance to see people who have left the life, who have undertaken an alternative lifestyle. 43:55.433 --> 44:11.735 All we see every day are people who look and act and speak just like us and think just like us, who are engaged in worldly affairs, engaged in jobs and study and marriage and household chores and so on. 44:12.356 --> 44:20.867 Household affairs in buying things and consuming things and gossiping and fighting and idle chatter. 44:24.070 --> 44:31.845 who are engaged in the world, in society, in politics and in social activism and so on. 44:32.426 --> 44:37.716 So this is all we see and this is what we develop our ideas of what are right and wrong on. 44:38.718 --> 44:46.332 Our ideas of what are right and wrong come from our parents, come from our society, come from our culture, and as a result they're 44:47.105 --> 44:58.785 generally flawed and they generally lead only to more and more of the same repetition and more and more building up and attachment, addiction, aversion, suffering 45:01.702 --> 45:12.898 the ways of the world, samsara, wandering on, even when we have ways of doing good things, it's only for the purpose of more, only for the purpose of getting more. 45:12.938 --> 45:24.435 We help people, we think that we will become rich or powerful or we will even go to heaven as a result, not for letting go or giving up, because we don't have a good example. 45:26.052 --> 45:33.818 So when we're living in the world and we're engaging with people who are in the world and then suddenly you see a monk going on alms round. 45:35.502 --> 46:04.193 and you understand that this is someone who's not doing things the way you're doing, who has given up beautiful clothing, who has given up delicious food, who has given up a house, who has given up the comforts of life, who has given up the world, who doesn't know, who doesn't engage in business, who doesn't engage in politics, who doesn't engage in cultural affairs, who doesn't engage in marriages and funerals and 46:07.497 --> 46:11.423 births and so on, who has left behind the world. 46:11.663 --> 46:16.550 And so all of this busyness that we have in our life, suddenly we see the way out. 46:16.910 --> 46:19.594 We see a way to drop it, to give it up. 46:20.916 --> 46:21.978 And so it can be a great blessing. 46:22.478 --> 46:28.347 Even just seeing someone who, best if they have a peaceful mind, but at least who has a peaceful life. 46:29.308 --> 46:30.670 Someone who has given up the world. 46:32.928 --> 47:00.150 a very useful thing so it's something that we should be happy about that we here we are living with people and we're able to interact with people who have peaceful minds it's easy to lose sight of that and to think that the monastery is full of craziness as well because there's lots of people coming and going and expressing their defilements and dealing with their defilements but if you go and live in the world you'll see how much more stressful it is out there 47:03.218 --> 47:18.518 And you realize that even just living here in the monastery, being able to deal with, on a daily basis, people and activities that are for the purpose of leaving the world behind, is a great blessing. 47:18.798 --> 47:21.862 Living anywhere else in the world, we don't have this. 47:21.882 --> 47:26.408 We don't even have the memory or the remembrance, something to remind us. 47:26.388 --> 47:29.932 of good things, of renunciation. 47:31.073 --> 47:42.024 So here we have at least the reminder all around us of the monastery, of the Buddha images, of the monastics, and all the activities, the chanting and so on. 47:42.064 --> 47:49.551 These are things that remind us and are a blessing for us and a blessing for other people as well. 47:49.571 --> 47:55.197 This is something that's easy to tell when you go walking through the village for alms, when you go walking anywhere for alms. 47:57.353 --> 48:09.132 what a change it brings over the village, how people suddenly stop thinking about the world, and now every day they're thinking about supporting those who have left the world. 48:10.795 --> 48:22.855 And so more and more they will cultivate this, and eventually come to the monastery, and often people do come to the monastery to practice meditation once they know that there are people practicing and teaching meditation here. 48:24.995 --> 48:29.322 This is the final one. 48:31.385 --> 48:39.878 This is different from listening to the Dhamma because here the student has a chance to talk or students have a chance to discuss amongst themselves. 48:40.139 --> 48:43.444 Discussing the Dhamma is a great blessing. 48:44.185 --> 48:50.074 Not just listening to it but actually having a chance to ask and interact and to discuss the teachings. 48:51.640 --> 48:59.609 The most obvious example is the reporting session, which we do here. 49:00.050 --> 49:00.951 We do in this tradition. 49:01.532 --> 49:08.340 Every day, when a meditator comes here to practice, every day they are required to have a discussion with their teacher. 49:08.820 --> 49:14.767 Not just to listen to the Dhamma every day or every few days we have a talk. 49:14.787 --> 49:18.171 But on top of that, they have to come and talk to us as well. 49:18.151 --> 49:35.794 Sometimes it's not so important, the discussion is not so important that the teacher knows, that you let the teacher know, but it's important that you acknowledge it yourself and that you come out with the truth, that you're able to express yourself, you're able to relieve yourself and you've come to set yourself in this way. 49:36.475 --> 49:40.600 When you come to the teacher and explain to him your conditions, it's just like going to see a therapist. 49:40.660 --> 49:42.463 Why did the therapist just sit there and listen? 49:43.103 --> 49:45.947 Because it gives you a chance to reaffirm the truth. 49:45.927 --> 49:50.076 the reality of the situation, which is very much the beginning of meditation. 49:51.078 --> 49:56.951 As you can see, our meditation practice is just reaffirming the truth, so that the mind eventually comes to see only the truth. 49:56.971 --> 49:57.773 It straightens out. 49:57.813 --> 50:03.987 This is why we say pain, pain, or angry, angry, or liking, liking, or so on. 50:05.587 --> 50:07.610 basically what you're doing in reporting. 50:08.391 --> 50:12.757 And you start to actually realize things that you were missing in meditation. 50:14.159 --> 50:20.768 You will come to the teacher and then explain that you have this great peaceful feeling, for example. 50:20.788 --> 50:22.830 And the teacher will ask you, well, did you like it? 50:23.071 --> 50:24.172 And you'll say, yes, yes, I liked it. 50:24.553 --> 50:28.438 And then you say to yourself, liking, liking, and they'll realize that they're missing something. 50:28.418 --> 50:41.192 So it helps you to come back to reality in another way, to be able to express yourself, because the teacher is not going to look at you and watch you and know this, this, this, and tell you all the time what needs to be dealt with. 50:42.053 --> 50:43.695 In fact, that can often be deleterious. 50:43.715 --> 50:48.820 It can be unhelpful or even harmful to the meditator, because often the defilements are stubborn. 50:48.920 --> 50:53.745 So if the teacher says to the student, you're doing this wrong, you're doing that wrong, they'll often become angry and upset. 50:54.446 --> 50:57.109 This is suvajasattva. 50:57.089 --> 50:58.897 Dhuva Jasatah. 50:59.802 --> 51:00.465 Dhuva Jasatah. 51:00.846 --> 51:01.489 Difficulty. 51:01.510 --> 51:02.695 Being difficult to manage. 51:04.497 --> 51:13.751 So a much easier thing for both the teacher and the student is to let the student come and relate it to the teacher and have the teacher respond to what the student is willing to explain. 51:14.512 --> 51:23.206 And so for this reason it's very important for the students to be forthright or forthcoming with their experiences in meditation. 51:23.426 --> 51:28.354 When they meet with the teacher it's important that they explain everything and don't leave anything out. 51:29.856 --> 51:31.078 Important for their own practice. 51:33.978 --> 51:37.566 But it's also important because then the teacher does know what the situation is. 51:37.646 --> 51:50.535 If the teacher can't read your mind or doesn't take the time to explore your situation, then it's very difficult for them to give you the right advice if you don't explain the situation of your practice. 51:52.692 --> 51:54.916 And so this is quite necessary, quite important. 51:55.376 --> 51:57.259 This is probably the most important example. 51:57.960 --> 52:00.645 And really it's the only one that we would allow for someone who's on the course. 52:01.206 --> 52:08.337 When people are doing courses here, you shouldn't expect that when you come here, we're going to let you sit around and talk to each other, even about the Dhamma. 52:08.938 --> 52:11.983 Because even talking about the Dhamma can be harmful. 52:11.963 --> 52:19.091 You're arguing about the Dhamma or debating about the Dhamma or conceiving or philosophizing about the Dhamma. 52:19.111 --> 52:21.353 This can also be harmful to your practice. 52:21.373 --> 52:33.647 What it means is really discussing your practice with your teacher and giving them the feedback or giving them the information that they can use to provide feedback on your condition. 52:33.987 --> 52:37.431 The only way they can provide that feedback is if you give it to them. 52:39.115 --> 52:40.837 And this is something that is a great blessing. 52:40.857 --> 52:41.759 It's very difficult. 52:42.079 --> 52:44.823 Often people, all they have is listening to the Dhamma. 52:44.843 --> 52:51.873 So they content themselves and they think this is really enough to download talks from the internet or watch YouTube videos or so on. 52:54.296 --> 52:56.920 But it's very easy to, because there's no feedback. 52:57.541 --> 53:01.066 Because it's not directly related to your questions or your problems. 53:01.887 --> 53:04.971 And it's not directly addressed to you. 53:06.385 --> 53:10.510 it has very less potency than the actual discussion. 53:11.210 --> 53:25.126 And you'll find that the discussion is actually far more important, even five or ten minutes of discussion is far more important than a one-hour talk on the Dhamma, because it's related directly to your practice. 53:27.568 --> 53:35.397 A Dhamma talk has to, especially when you're giving it to a large audience or expecting to use it to broadcast it for a wider audience, 53:36.878 --> 53:41.302 It has to be by necessity in general, generally applicable to all people. 53:42.543 --> 53:54.573 But when you're giving a Dhamma discussion, when you're discussing the practice with the meditator, then you can give direct advice to the meditator and especially based on their feedback or their input. 53:55.214 --> 53:56.315 So it's very important. 53:56.335 --> 53:57.236 People often miss this. 53:58.096 --> 53:59.297 They miss the importance of this. 53:59.357 --> 54:05.923 And so they think they're going to progress on the path just as well by listening to the Dhamma, which is certainly not the case. 54:05.903 --> 54:11.396 Without the saga, the discussion of the Dhamma, it's very difficult to progress. 54:11.937 --> 54:18.513 Because you develop your own ideas about the practice, you misunderstand and you're unable to get a correction from the teacher. 54:19.476 --> 54:24.267 Because you're not able to interact with the one-way teaching, even when giving a talk like this. 54:26.221 --> 54:30.546 So discussing the Dhamma, this is a very important and it's one of life's greatest blessings. 54:30.606 --> 54:34.090 These four are very important and very useful in our practice. 54:34.110 --> 54:38.936 I think this is something that should be quite useful as a Dhamma talk. 54:38.956 --> 54:53.072 And so I think, I hope that that is the case and I hope that everyone is able to get something from this teaching and that you're able to use it for your practice and help you to find greater and greater peace, happiness and freedom from suffering. 54:53.673 --> 54:55.755 Well, thanks for listening and thanks for tuning in. 54:57.777 --> 54:59.030 Then we'll go back to our practice.