WEBVTT 00:26.930 --> 00:27.991 Good evening, everyone. 00:29.173 --> 00:36.621 Welcome back to Evening Dhamma. 00:36.641 --> 00:49.657 Tonight, I'd like to look at... Oh, you know, it's one second. 00:49.677 --> 00:50.518 So many switches. 00:52.120 --> 00:53.481 Hello? 00:53.501 --> 00:55.063 Can you hear that? 00:56.410 --> 00:57.131 Is that loud enough? 00:59.053 --> 00:59.513 Hello? 01:00.414 --> 01:00.915 That's better? 01:02.496 --> 01:02.897 Too loud? 01:05.419 --> 01:08.302 That's good. 01:08.322 --> 01:21.155 So today we'll be looking at the Bhaya Bhairava Sutta. 01:21.175 --> 01:24.679 If you want to follow along, it's Majjhima Nikaya Sutta number four. 01:30.363 --> 01:47.728 In this talk, the Buddha is approached by Brahmin Janasoni who basically asks whether the followers of the Buddha take after his example. 01:49.531 --> 01:52.675 Meaning, do they practice as you practice? 02:01.919 --> 02:14.815 Which is, basically the idea is that the students are capable of the same sort of practice as the Buddha. 02:14.835 --> 02:30.795 Of course, in that time, or in religion in general, it can happen that the headmaster, the guru is capable of practices that the students are not capable of. 02:36.395 --> 02:43.082 Do your students actually practice the things that you practice? 02:43.763 --> 02:45.705 That's basically what he's asking. 02:45.725 --> 02:48.648 Do they follow your advice? 02:48.748 --> 02:51.190 Do they do what you do? 02:51.310 --> 02:53.412 Are they able to keep your teachings? 02:54.754 --> 02:56.055 And the Buddha affirms all this. 02:56.275 --> 03:00.259 He says, yes, indeed, my students do look to me for guidance. 03:00.339 --> 03:03.803 They take my advice and they follow my example. 03:07.698 --> 03:35.747 which in and of itself is quite impressive because the Buddha's practice of course was quite rigorous and the Buddha himself only slept only lay down for three or four hours a night and the rest of the time was mostly actually spent in teaching but they say even those three or four hours when he lay down were 03:37.634 --> 04:06.527 Were not actually sleeping He would actually teach them as well But the The talk here is about The talk here is about Specifically the practice of living in the jungle So Janosoni says He says wow I would think that it 04:07.672 --> 04:09.636 It would be hard for the monks to live in the jungle. 04:09.656 --> 04:22.724 I would think that if someone were to go off and live in the jungle alone, if they weren't focused, if they didn't have a strong mind, they'd go crazy. 04:24.989 --> 04:27.013 Let's see what the Pali is for go crazy. 04:38.840 --> 04:56.749 Haranti means take away the mind. 04:58.612 --> 04:59.273 No, I don't get it. 05:01.577 --> 05:02.018 Haranti. 05:02.038 --> 05:02.198 Haranti. 05:06.397 --> 05:07.423 to get back to that one. 05:07.443 --> 05:12.070 Anyway, your mind will be, you'll lose your mind, basically. 05:19.998 --> 05:21.120 And the Buddha affirms this. 05:21.181 --> 05:25.610 He says, yes, it's hard to endure living in the forest. 05:25.750 --> 05:27.334 It's hard to live in seclusion. 05:28.115 --> 05:29.699 It's hard to enjoy solitude. 05:29.879 --> 05:39.880 One would think living in the jungle would drive you crazy if you have no concentration, if your mind is not focused. 05:45.513 --> 05:56.643 And then he goes through, why I brought this sutta up is because he goes through a bunch of qualities that are, we can say they're required for practice. 05:57.284 --> 06:13.579 And so it well answers the question of what sort of qualities we need to develop and the sort of qualities that differentiate a person who's capable of living in seclusion and one who is not. 06:13.559 --> 06:25.518 What's it going to take, useful for us, what's it going to take for us to be able to successfully participate and complete a meditation course? 06:26.119 --> 06:29.124 What's it going to take for us to be able to stay alone with ourselves? 06:32.810 --> 06:36.496 To do the work that is required to understand ourselves? 06:39.040 --> 06:40.562 So this is what this sutta is about. 06:46.027 --> 06:48.210 The Buddha uses himself as an example. 06:48.511 --> 06:53.298 He says, when I was unenlightened, I thought about that. 06:53.539 --> 06:57.044 I thought about how hard it would be, and then I thought about the qualities that I would need. 06:59.127 --> 07:12.388 And so the first three qualities you need are purity of conduct, physical conduct, verbal conduct, mental conduct. 07:14.107 --> 07:23.620 If you're a person who's full of corruption in body, speech, or mind, then it's not easy to stay alone with yourself. 07:24.121 --> 07:26.925 You're going to be overwhelmed with remorse. 07:27.746 --> 07:39.422 If you're a murderer, if you're a thief, if you're a liar, if you're a cheat, if you take drugs and alcohol, if you're addicted to this or that, 07:43.098 --> 07:47.163 Not easy to stay alone in the forest, or to stay alone in general. 07:49.486 --> 07:51.589 Honestly, living in the jungle is quite peaceful. 07:52.290 --> 07:57.376 It's sort of a romantic notion that often people think about. 07:57.557 --> 07:59.159 Hey, I'll just go off and live in the jungle. 07:59.880 --> 08:01.722 It's not actually the jungle that's a problem. 08:01.742 --> 08:06.088 Well, there's other reasons why the jungle is dangerous. 08:06.448 --> 08:10.113 Sickness and dangerous animals. 08:10.573 --> 08:11.755 Even the ants will kill you. 08:13.793 --> 08:26.069 But as far as just living alone in the forest, I lived alone in a tent in the jungle, trying to set up a forest monastery. 08:27.411 --> 08:30.294 And I've told this story before about how I got chased out by a tiger. 08:31.936 --> 08:34.740 So there are those kind of dangers. 08:37.504 --> 08:40.948 But simply living alone in the forest is quite peaceful. 08:42.380 --> 08:45.464 It's really interesting how difficult it is for us to be at peace. 08:46.145 --> 08:48.429 I mean, it's really at the crux of the situation. 08:48.489 --> 08:52.074 It's not that being alone is stressful or suffering. 08:52.094 --> 08:55.800 It's that we're not able to be at peace. 08:56.380 --> 08:57.302 We're not at peace. 08:59.645 --> 09:04.192 And so we find ways to distract ourselves, to avoid dealing with ourselves. 09:06.775 --> 09:10.581 It means we have no tools, we have no means of dealing with ourselves. 09:16.298 --> 09:38.408 And so again, this is a list of ways of coming to terms with ourselves, being able to be alone with ourselves, to go inside and to experience the here and now, to be without always getting what we want or being stimulated by delightful things that are our addictions. 09:44.311 --> 09:50.023 And so the first three steps, the first steps are purity of conduct, morality. 09:50.403 --> 09:51.886 It always starts with morality. 09:52.808 --> 09:59.562 It's not even that morality is all that important because you're not going to be killing or stealing or lying or cheating when you're here meditating. 10:00.564 --> 10:03.450 It's more that morality is like a roadblock. 10:04.747 --> 10:09.115 If you're not a moral, ethical sort of person, you won't even get in the door. 10:09.155 --> 10:10.778 You won't want to come and meditate. 10:10.818 --> 10:17.109 You'll try to sit still and you'll be completely perturbed, distracted. 10:18.852 --> 10:24.342 Great stress will come from the sickness in the mind that's a result of unwholesomeness. 10:28.760 --> 10:29.983 That's not to say that you can't. 10:30.324 --> 10:32.068 Having done bad deeds, you can't meditate. 10:32.108 --> 10:33.772 It just makes it difficult. 10:34.634 --> 10:37.220 It might drive you crazy if you've done a lot of bad deeds. 10:38.262 --> 10:39.445 You have to go slowly. 10:41.365 --> 10:44.890 This is a reason why we make a determination to keep the five precepts. 10:45.010 --> 10:52.941 One good reason is to give you confidence that, okay, I did bad things in the past, but I don't have to feel guilty because I've changed. 10:53.822 --> 11:02.574 I understand that that was wrong and I hurt people and so on, but I've changed now. 11:02.694 --> 11:06.399 And you get a great confidence by knowing that you're now a good person. 11:08.482 --> 11:09.724 It's all really psychological. 11:09.764 --> 11:10.765 That's what it's all about. 11:20.718 --> 11:21.960 Number four is livelihood. 11:22.561 --> 11:24.343 So livelihood relates to the first three. 11:26.466 --> 11:43.131 He says if people are impure of action or of livelihood, means their business, their means of livelihood is corrupt, cheating others and so on, or hurting others, or 11:44.410 --> 11:47.574 manipulating others to make a living, it's going to be hard. 11:47.594 --> 11:50.058 They're going to go crazy if they try to be alone with themselves. 11:50.378 --> 11:51.239 It's not going to be easy. 11:51.319 --> 11:53.502 But he said, I'm not like that. 11:54.624 --> 11:56.406 And so this gave him great confidence. 11:59.811 --> 12:02.875 He says, I found great solace in dwelling in the forest. 12:16.220 --> 12:45.535 And then he goes the next step To start to talk about Once you've talked about Your conduct Then the next thing that You have to work on is The mental states, right? 12:48.130 --> 12:58.387 So he says some people are covetous and full of lust, great desires, addictions, wanting this, wanting that, liking this, liking that. 12:59.869 --> 13:00.871 We don't see the danger. 13:00.891 --> 13:06.440 I often get this question of why should we give up the things that we like? 13:06.540 --> 13:07.742 They make us very happy. 13:10.102 --> 13:19.996 You get your answer when you try to sit still with yourself, when you try to do this very peaceful, seemingly simple thing of just being, just sitting. 13:23.200 --> 13:28.968 It's very difficult because your mind is tormented, really tormented. 13:29.108 --> 13:31.391 And you wonder why meditation is so stressful. 13:31.431 --> 13:34.576 It's not that meditation is so stressful. 13:34.596 --> 13:37.780 It's that wanting things and not getting those things is stressful. 13:40.021 --> 13:43.845 You can't blame the meditation for your addictions. 13:48.130 --> 13:50.213 Other people are full of ill will or hate. 13:55.199 --> 13:57.601 For some people their mind is on fire. 13:59.203 --> 14:07.733 I mean a big, a good example of this is just hatred of pain. 14:10.413 --> 14:20.627 The inability to stand discomfort. 14:20.647 --> 14:21.468 We blame pain. 14:21.489 --> 14:23.031 We think pain is a bad thing. 14:23.111 --> 14:24.132 Pain is a problem. 14:25.334 --> 14:26.636 Why should I sit with pain? 14:26.716 --> 14:29.219 If I have pain, I should change my position. 14:29.299 --> 14:31.122 I should go somewhere else, do something else. 14:34.797 --> 14:36.119 The Buddha doesn't blame pain. 14:36.159 --> 14:39.364 He says it's not the pain, it's the aversion. 14:40.425 --> 14:42.008 It's the disliking of the pain. 14:44.431 --> 14:45.313 Very hard to see. 14:46.555 --> 15:02.138 But our mind in any way, inflamed with hate, if you hate, if you have anger towards other people, if you feel you've been wronged, if you're consumed by thoughts of vengeance or thoughts of anger, 15:05.307 --> 15:08.210 Very difficult to be with yourself, very difficult to be alone. 15:11.134 --> 15:13.596 You think about all the bad things people have done to you. 15:18.141 --> 15:19.423 Very hard to be at peace. 15:26.371 --> 15:30.235 Someone else is overcome by sloth and torpor, laziness. 15:31.649 --> 15:32.952 sluggishness of mind. 15:34.115 --> 15:36.120 The ordinary mind is weak. 15:37.644 --> 15:42.857 Sloth and torpor is like the equivalent of a person who has never done any exercise. 15:44.018 --> 15:45.259 Physically, they're very weak. 15:45.560 --> 15:48.703 They're not able to lift any weights, not able to do any work. 15:49.784 --> 16:01.356 If you give them manual labor, say, go and lift those blocks or build that wall or something, they're not able to use their bodies. 16:02.378 --> 16:09.385 This feeling of being too weak for something, when you get that feeling in the mind, that's a sign of sloth and torpor. 16:11.018 --> 16:12.480 The mind not being strong enough. 16:12.560 --> 16:15.003 You want to be mindful, but your mind is not strong. 16:15.203 --> 16:15.944 You have a feeling. 16:16.245 --> 16:20.750 You can feel that the mind is not able to stay with the object. 16:20.851 --> 16:21.531 It's lazy. 16:21.612 --> 16:23.814 It gets easily distracted. 16:27.319 --> 16:29.221 It doesn't want to put out the effort. 16:30.002 --> 16:33.066 It's reluctant. 16:33.086 --> 16:34.168 It's stiff. 16:34.188 --> 16:35.049 It's unwieldy. 16:35.710 --> 16:36.130 It's weak. 16:36.330 --> 16:37.532 It's sloth and torpor. 16:40.364 --> 16:43.308 Because for such a person, very difficult to stay alone in the forest. 16:44.089 --> 16:49.616 Very difficult to stay alone because of course you get easily distracted and caught up. 16:51.418 --> 16:58.287 And you find it very difficult to be present. 17:03.273 --> 17:06.878 And difficult to deal with all the challenges that arise. 17:10.992 --> 17:14.538 He says, another person is full of doubt, uncertainty. 17:15.439 --> 17:20.688 Without an uncertainty, very difficult to stay alone with yourself, especially in the forest or the jungle. 17:24.755 --> 17:37.776 Without the certainty, the power of mind, you easily get lost and discouraged, overwhelmed by your defilements, your wants and aversions. 17:39.545 --> 17:48.536 very easily get overwhelmed and lose your ability to continue on with the practice. 17:50.538 --> 17:56.566 Some meditators are so full of doubt that it's very difficult for them to progress in the meditation practice. 17:57.407 --> 17:58.068 It's encouraging. 17:58.128 --> 18:01.712 Some of them are able to really break through and give it up. 18:02.713 --> 18:08.961 But it often happens that the doubt leads a meditator to stop practicing, at least temporarily. 18:10.679 --> 18:13.913 be so discouraged and confused. 18:14.033 --> 18:16.423 I don't know right or wrong, good or bad. 18:16.463 --> 18:19.255 I have so much doubt. 18:27.993 --> 18:29.575 Buddha said, I've gone beyond doubt. 18:29.976 --> 18:31.578 So these are the five hindrances. 18:32.399 --> 18:36.085 And these are really our enemies in the practice. 18:36.105 --> 18:40.932 Regardless of whether you think of them as right or wrong or dangerous or not. 18:41.933 --> 18:44.517 They get in the way of progress in meditation. 18:45.839 --> 18:48.142 And really they get in the way of peace. 18:48.643 --> 18:50.705 They get in the way of clarity of mind. 18:52.087 --> 18:53.229 They get in the way of happiness. 18:55.372 --> 18:57.375 They're a cause for stress and suffering. 19:00.798 --> 19:28.341 prevent us from they prevent us from succeeding so the Buddha said you know I develop uncovetousness I give up my desires I have a mind of loving kindness I am without slots and torpor I have a peaceful mind not restless 19:29.738 --> 19:30.659 I missed one, right? 19:30.920 --> 19:31.620 Restlessness. 19:31.841 --> 19:33.963 After sloth and torpor we have restlessness. 19:36.387 --> 19:39.871 So the opposite of sloth and torpor is when your mind is too active. 19:41.053 --> 19:42.194 A hyperactive mind. 19:43.135 --> 19:45.979 Jumping here, jumping there, not able to focus on anything. 19:49.103 --> 19:49.924 And this is really 19:52.840 --> 19:54.663 It's a good focus for our practice. 19:54.723 --> 19:56.527 It's a good focus to think of these things. 19:56.587 --> 20:00.594 I mean, this is a very big part of what we have to be mindful of. 20:00.894 --> 20:16.502 When we practice meditation, a very large part of our practice is to try and be mindful of the hindrances, and to learn to let them go, to fix them, to straighten our minds, and to cultivate such 20:17.866 --> 20:24.553 firmness and rectitude of mind that these defilements don't have power over us. 20:24.653 --> 20:27.456 They don't have a chance to consume our mind. 20:32.240 --> 20:38.787 He says some meditators, some religious people are given to self-praise and disparagement of others. 20:41.930 --> 20:43.992 Some are subject to alarm and terror. 20:45.693 --> 20:46.774 fearful. 20:47.755 --> 20:48.956 They have great fear. 20:50.458 --> 20:52.980 Some are desirous of gain, honor and renown. 20:55.523 --> 21:01.128 Very difficult to go off into the forest if you have ambition. 21:03.651 --> 21:05.492 Some are lazy and wanting in energy. 21:05.553 --> 21:08.195 Some are unmindful and not fully aware. 21:11.639 --> 21:14.181 Some are unconcentrated and with straying mind. 21:15.730 --> 21:20.498 Here's a list of other more general qualities that are required. 21:20.598 --> 21:25.446 Self-praise and disparagement of others. 21:26.027 --> 21:26.327 Ego. 21:27.409 --> 21:31.997 Ego is a real obstacle to the practice. 21:35.843 --> 21:40.050 Because an egoist, egotist, someone who is egotistical, 21:41.650 --> 21:46.234 requires an audience, they require praise, they require constant validation. 21:48.917 --> 21:57.305 We love to make other people proud of us, have them look on us positively. 22:00.728 --> 22:03.010 Very difficult to find reality that way. 22:04.491 --> 22:09.396 Very difficult to stay with the present moment when you're consumed by 22:10.658 --> 22:11.780 The need for praise. 22:16.808 --> 22:18.330 Or when you're disparaging of others. 22:20.093 --> 22:22.377 Sort of a nasty state. 22:26.023 --> 22:28.026 Subject to alarm and terror is 22:33.254 --> 22:36.559 Well, particularly in the forest, it's very difficult to be in the forest. 22:36.599 --> 22:37.981 They're so peaceful at night. 22:39.223 --> 22:42.208 But can you imagine being full of fear and dread of the forest? 22:43.129 --> 22:46.735 I grew up in the forest, so going into the forest at night was never a scary thing. 22:46.755 --> 22:54.907 Of course, it's kind of troublesome about snakes and scorpions and so on. 22:55.528 --> 22:56.730 There are real dangers. 22:58.043 --> 23:00.928 And then of course there's fear of ghosts, fear of spirits. 23:01.930 --> 23:09.505 There were times when I was in the forest and the noises, sometimes the noises were so disturbing. 23:13.652 --> 23:20.305 But just being alone with yourself, if you're a worry, if you're worried, someone who worries a lot, 23:21.770 --> 23:29.440 If you have great fear, being alone can be such a fearsome, crippling experience. 23:34.906 --> 23:39.532 If you're lazy, so I guess Latantorpa we can't call laziness, it's just a weakness of mind. 23:40.213 --> 23:44.318 But laziness is when you really just can't be bothered. 23:46.458 --> 23:51.265 A lazy person living alone in the jungle will not last very long. 23:52.847 --> 24:09.790 It's not something that's going to... They'll constantly be seeking out more comfort and avoiding the cultivation of wholesome qualities. 24:10.851 --> 24:12.313 All of the evil will seep in. 24:13.660 --> 24:20.213 Laziness and not putting out effort, it's not actually in and of itself evil. 24:21.195 --> 24:25.844 It just is basically saying allowing the evil to continue and grow. 24:26.585 --> 24:33.319 Those things that cause us suffering, those things that create stress in our minds, they grow because of laziness. 24:34.321 --> 24:35.483 You might think, well, 24:35.463 --> 24:37.165 Why should I bother? 24:38.226 --> 24:40.588 What's wrong with just living, right? 24:41.449 --> 24:42.971 The problem is that we're not just living. 24:43.491 --> 24:47.115 Our minds are full of things that cause us stress and suffering. 24:48.637 --> 24:52.000 And our laziness is like permission for them to continue. 24:56.065 --> 25:00.209 Some meditators are unmindful and not fully aware. 25:00.589 --> 25:03.192 The Buddha said, I am established in mindfulness. 25:05.821 --> 25:06.882 That's of course key. 25:07.783 --> 25:19.115 If you're not mindful, this is where all of the problems of the mind gain hold, take control. 25:22.239 --> 25:31.609 Why we suffer, why we're traumatized, why we react violently to experiences is because we're not clearly aware 25:32.804 --> 25:35.628 of the nature of the experiences as they happen. 25:35.648 --> 25:38.171 If you're mindful, you can never react improperly. 25:38.892 --> 25:44.379 If you're truly aware, in that moment there's a pure understanding of the experience. 25:46.482 --> 25:50.928 And because of that pure understanding, there's no reaction of liking or disliking. 25:50.968 --> 25:57.276 There's just experience. 26:01.745 --> 26:05.431 Some meditators are unconcentrated and with straying minds. 26:05.571 --> 26:07.674 I am possessed of concentration, he says. 26:08.696 --> 26:10.279 So there's things he thought to himself. 26:11.681 --> 26:12.983 I'm not like this. 26:13.083 --> 26:14.525 I can go off and live in the forest. 26:14.645 --> 26:16.248 I can be alone with myself. 26:17.931 --> 26:19.353 Finally, because I'm focused. 26:20.194 --> 26:22.538 If your mind is not focused, again, very easy. 26:24.205 --> 26:31.334 for your mind to stray into unwholesomeness and things that cause you stress and suffering. 26:31.374 --> 26:36.120 By evil and by unwholesomeness, we just mean those things that cause you stress and suffering. 26:37.222 --> 26:45.212 Just sitting here, it's not always a pleasant experience because there is desire, because there is aversion, because there's all these things. 26:46.614 --> 26:53.723 It's a fairly comprehensive list, or it's a good list of the sorts of things that we're going to have to work on 26:55.087 --> 26:58.252 in order to succeed in our meditation practice. 26:59.734 --> 27:02.819 He says something else after that that's interesting. 27:03.580 --> 27:08.268 This question of whether we should avoid unpleasantness. 27:08.328 --> 27:11.814 He's talking particularly about fear. 27:12.655 --> 27:16.521 He says when someone is devoid of wisdom, 27:19.994 --> 27:47.368 then they get afraid by living in the forest they get upset living in the forest I know that's not the important point oh yeah no the last time the last one is wisdom so the final quality is wisdom if one is unwise this is the understanding if one doesn't understand reality 27:48.918 --> 27:50.340 Take pain, for example. 27:51.342 --> 27:55.889 Now, true understanding of pain is really that pain is neutral. 27:55.950 --> 27:57.071 It's an experience. 27:59.495 --> 28:08.951 If you don't have that understanding, if you haven't seen that clearly, which most of us haven't, pain is intolerable. 28:10.934 --> 28:12.457 Pain is something to be done away with. 28:12.537 --> 28:12.777 Why? 28:12.817 --> 28:15.702 Because we don't understand it. 28:19.293 --> 28:26.079 An important claim in Buddhism that I repeat often is that when you understand something, it has no power over you. 28:28.461 --> 28:39.552 If you understand reality as it is, if you have a clear understanding of reality, it's not possible for you to be disturbed, stressed, upset. 28:42.014 --> 28:43.896 Suffering can't arise. 28:45.297 --> 28:46.498 Suffering is... 28:50.917 --> 28:54.121 Suffering is a product of delusion, of ignorance. 28:57.065 --> 29:05.456 When you experience pain, if you see it just as pain, when we say to ourselves, pain, pain, it has no power over you. 29:06.017 --> 29:13.847 When you see something that would normally make you very angry, or you hear something that would make you very lustful or ambitious, you know, desire it. 29:13.887 --> 29:19.995 If you're mindful, that doesn't occur. 29:21.848 --> 29:26.295 You experience it, it arises, it ceases. 29:26.315 --> 29:33.686 So the next thing I wanted to talk about was just as a note, because he talks about it as well in the suttas. 29:36.230 --> 29:39.234 When these experiences arise, what should you do? 29:39.275 --> 29:40.536 Should you do something else? 29:41.478 --> 29:46.185 And the Buddha's practice as a bodhisattva, before he became a Buddha, 29:47.920 --> 29:49.282 was to not run away from it. 29:49.743 --> 29:52.067 Suppose there's something that makes you afraid. 29:53.349 --> 30:01.783 Well, what he did is he went to forest shrines on the holidays. 30:02.564 --> 30:10.637 It's basically the equivalent of going to a haunted house on Halloween. 30:12.592 --> 30:21.775 In India, there would be these forest shrines where the angels or the demons, they would go to propitiate these spirits, evil spirits, good spirits. 30:23.138 --> 30:28.486 And these spirits were said to be active on the full moon, especially active on the full moon, on the new moon. 30:29.307 --> 30:30.068 It's superstition. 30:31.110 --> 30:35.276 But basically it's the equivalent of a haunted house on Halloween. 30:35.336 --> 30:39.302 It's the scariest possible situation. 30:39.663 --> 30:42.127 I went there and I did walking meditation. 30:42.928 --> 30:52.302 And if when I was walking I got afraid, I would say to myself, I'm not going to stop walking until this fear goes. 30:56.062 --> 31:00.808 And if I was sitting, I would say, I'm not going to stop sitting. 31:01.449 --> 31:04.453 Meaning he didn't even change his posture. 31:04.493 --> 31:13.325 The point is, when the fear came, he made a promise that he would stay and deal with the fear. 31:15.328 --> 31:24.921 It's actually just one example of the sorts of things that can arise, but it's an example of how to deal with any sort of problems. 31:26.082 --> 31:27.183 when you're very angry. 31:27.203 --> 31:31.868 As a meditator, you shouldn't run away from the thing that makes you angry. 31:31.928 --> 31:43.160 In fact, to some extent, following the Buddha's example, it's good for you to be in association with the things that make you angry to the extent that you're able. 31:45.343 --> 31:52.090 If you're strong enough to be able to change the way you look at the experience, it can be quite powerful. 31:53.572 --> 31:58.980 And you're able to experience the same thing without getting disturbed, stressed, upset by it. 32:06.392 --> 32:12.381 So with all these qualities, it's not something to be afraid of or discouraged by. 32:12.421 --> 32:16.187 If you have any of these 32:17.703 --> 32:24.993 problems that are going to get in the way of your practice, really the best way to deal with them is to spend some time being mindful of them. 32:26.535 --> 32:28.578 If you're lazy, be mindful of your laziness. 32:28.678 --> 32:31.542 If you're angry, be mindful of your anger. 32:32.503 --> 32:38.831 If you want something or you're addicted to something, spend time being mindful of it in all of its aspects. 32:39.993 --> 32:44.419 The feelings, the emotions, the thoughts, the experiences. 32:49.327 --> 32:53.474 And then he goes through the progression of enlightenment, which is fairly standard and I won't go into it. 32:54.556 --> 32:56.459 I thought this would be interesting to talk about these. 32:56.519 --> 33:02.268 It gives us a chance to go over things that get in the way of our practice. 33:04.171 --> 33:11.183 We're all very interested in learning how to stay with ourselves, how to be with ourselves, and how to have it be a productive experience. 33:12.285 --> 33:14.929 Now this sutta does a good job explaining the ways that 33:16.732 --> 33:21.208 The difference between a productive meditator and an unproductive meditator. 33:22.694 --> 33:24.440 So, there you go. 33:24.480 --> 33:25.725 That's the Dhamma for tonight. 33:26.487 --> 33:28.294 Thank you all for tuning in, for coming out. 33:29.843 --> 33:32.348 Saturdays now we have visitors. 33:32.969 --> 33:33.790 It's advertised. 33:34.892 --> 33:37.297 I also give talks Monday and Wednesday. 33:37.317 --> 33:38.559 You're welcome to come out then. 33:38.579 --> 33:41.925 And of course our center is open anytime. 33:41.965 --> 33:43.248 You're welcome to just come by. 33:43.268 --> 33:48.898 If you want to learn how to meditate, just make an appointment and we can set something up. 33:55.612 --> 33:57.234 So questions are for Wednesday. 33:57.314 --> 33:59.457 I'm going to try that for a while, see how that goes. 33:59.718 --> 34:02.121 No questions tonight. 34:02.141 --> 34:04.044 We'll save all our questions once a week. 34:05.025 --> 34:06.147 There's too many questions. 34:07.729 --> 34:08.891 No, there's lots of questions. 34:08.971 --> 34:10.513 So Wednesday will be question day. 34:12.216 --> 34:17.463 Saturday is giving an official talk based on some teaching of the Buddha. 34:19.246 --> 34:21.028 So thank you all for coming out again. 34:21.068 --> 34:22.210 Have a good night.