WEBVTT 00:35.705 --> 00:36.926 Good evening everyone. 00:37.887 --> 00:41.511 Welcome back to Evening Dhamma. 00:45.475 --> 01:03.973 Tonight we are ending the Sabasava Sutta and we've recently been over the topic of this section so I'm not going to go into great detail but 01:05.168 --> 01:07.130 It's the kind of thing that it's okay to go over. 01:07.150 --> 01:16.661 Tonight we're looking at the taints or defilements to be abandoned by developing or cultivating bhavana. 01:19.424 --> 01:22.887 Bhavana is a very important word in Buddhism. 01:24.910 --> 01:27.332 Bhava comes from bhū. 01:27.392 --> 01:30.636 Bhū means existence or to be, being. 01:33.569 --> 01:34.410 It's a simple word. 01:34.571 --> 01:37.595 If you talk about something existing, you say it exists. 01:37.715 --> 01:38.316 Bhavati. 01:41.000 --> 01:42.202 Bhava. 01:42.222 --> 01:45.707 Bhava is something coming into being. 01:45.727 --> 01:50.054 It's existing or being. 01:53.199 --> 02:01.872 But bhavana Bhavana means causing something to become, to be. 02:04.585 --> 02:08.149 It's an important word because it describes Buddhist practice quite well. 02:09.850 --> 02:19.720 Buddhist practice isn't about relaxing or running away. 02:19.760 --> 02:27.247 Buddhism is very much about developing and cultivating. 02:30.731 --> 02:33.934 So meditation, this is why I have to repeatedly 02:38.470 --> 02:40.794 Can you get the door? 02:40.814 --> 02:42.798 Why is someone barging into our house? 02:58.246 --> 02:58.707 This is new. 03:01.218 --> 03:08.908 So the idea is to become something, to not become something, sorry, to cause things to come into being and specific things. 03:10.990 --> 03:21.664 When we practice meditation, we are not just... What's the problem? 03:21.684 --> 03:26.770 I think he was trying to figure out what kind of place this was. 03:30.209 --> 03:33.393 I guess now that I've got the speakers on, people can hear us outside. 03:35.015 --> 03:35.796 That's interesting. 03:42.906 --> 03:46.070 We're trying to cultivate certain qualities. 03:46.210 --> 03:50.015 So meditation isn't just about closing your eyes and blanking your mind. 03:50.075 --> 03:54.341 There's quite a bit more to meditation than people think. 03:54.421 --> 03:58.326 It's not even just a question about it being about relaxing. 04:00.668 --> 04:04.312 Meditation isn't exactly about one single thing. 04:04.373 --> 04:24.297 There are ways of summing it up, but there's quite a bit involved with meditation, many qualities of mind, many facets to the quality of mind that we're trying to cultivate. 04:35.144 --> 04:51.774 meditation and Buddhist practice in general involves producing, causing to come into being many qualities of mind. 04:52.375 --> 04:58.806 And we're talking about qualities of mind that were weak or non-existent before. 05:03.342 --> 05:08.511 I'm not talking about something physical. 05:09.212 --> 05:11.376 I'm not talking about cultivating anything physical. 05:12.658 --> 05:20.972 Buddhism isn't about building monasteries or shaving off your hair, putting on special clothes. 05:22.374 --> 05:26.802 It's not about getting to the point where you can sit in full lotus posture. 05:31.355 --> 05:33.437 What we're cultivating here is qualities of mind. 05:37.301 --> 05:50.936 And that's something I think takes a little bit of patience but should be a focus when we have the question of what are we getting out of this practice? 05:50.956 --> 05:55.121 I mean our focus is too often on how happy is it making me, right? 05:57.303 --> 05:59.826 Which is fine and good but 06:00.076 --> 06:13.248 It smacks of potential impatience and addiction, really, to pleasure. 06:15.770 --> 06:29.863 If I say to you meditation is supposed to make you happy, well, we tend to ignore all the work that has to be done and focus very much on that happiness 06:31.868 --> 06:37.994 When in fact it's our obsession with happiness that makes us unhappy. 06:38.014 --> 06:47.403 If you want to talk about success and progress in the practice, you have to ask about your state of mind. 06:48.524 --> 06:50.907 Because happiness isn't something that's easy to come by. 06:52.548 --> 06:57.753 Happiness requires a strong and healthy and pure mind. 06:59.355 --> 07:00.576 A well-developed mind. 07:01.957 --> 07:16.395 So Bhavana, the Buddha said, Just like rain penetrates an undeveloped, a poorly thatched roof. 07:18.718 --> 07:23.104 So to the undeveloped mind, Abhavitam Chittam. 07:26.425 --> 07:28.269 allows the defilements in. 07:29.671 --> 07:37.526 Defilements meaning those things that get us caught up in addiction and aversion and suffering. 07:37.546 --> 07:39.851 We suffer because our minds are undeveloped. 07:40.712 --> 07:45.902 Not because we're working too hard, but because we're not really working hard enough or we're not working in the right way. 07:51.316 --> 07:54.140 If you want to be happy, there are many qualities that you have to develop. 07:54.180 --> 07:55.742 Most importantly, mindfulness. 07:55.842 --> 07:56.983 And this is the first one. 08:01.970 --> 08:03.772 Mindfulness always is the first. 08:03.892 --> 08:06.395 It's very important that it be placed at the beginning. 08:09.279 --> 08:13.024 It's the one the Buddha said is always useful. 08:14.065 --> 08:15.467 When you refer to the 08:16.882 --> 08:21.430 The Bhoja Angas, what we're supposed to be developing are the seven factors of enlightenment. 08:23.874 --> 08:25.637 Bhoja Anga, Bodhi Anga. 08:26.778 --> 08:29.383 Anga is just a word that means member. 08:31.166 --> 08:33.650 Bodhi means enlightenment. 08:36.114 --> 08:40.341 Bodhi is that moment when everything comes together. 08:41.840 --> 08:57.455 when one is perfect in all the many factors and qualities, faculties and qualities of mind that come together to create enlightenment. 08:57.775 --> 08:58.636 That's bodhi. 09:00.818 --> 09:10.648 So these seven factors are the seven things that we cultivate and having cultivated, realize bodhi, realize enlightenment. 09:12.856 --> 09:13.998 Sati is the first. 09:15.179 --> 09:19.806 We talk a lot about sati and of course this is how we come to see. 09:19.846 --> 09:38.712 This is, as we talked about last time, how we abandon the defilements temporarily and with the pure mind that comes from being mindful we're able to abandon and free ourselves. 09:40.160 --> 09:46.035 see clearly, and through seeing clearly, free ourselves. 09:54.925 --> 10:07.176 So once we've developed sati, then there comes dhamma vichaya, which means in regards to the dhammas, the understanding that comes about, the shedding the light. 10:08.176 --> 10:23.970 Mindfulness is like a very powerful light and dhamma vichaya is where you analyze, not intellectually, but you start to react really, or not react, but taste, taste your reactions. 10:26.279 --> 10:33.389 Dhamma vichaya is where you start to discriminate, where you really start to be able to judge properly. 10:34.171 --> 10:41.381 We talk a lot about how judgment is a real problem, but it's only wrong judgment that's a problem, or ignorant judgment. 10:43.664 --> 10:48.912 Once you see things clearly, you start to be able to judge things properly. 10:50.798 --> 10:56.008 and undeniably discriminate between good and bad. 10:57.030 --> 10:58.413 This is undeniably bad. 10:58.713 --> 10:58.994 Why? 10:59.114 --> 11:03.863 Well, I've seen it with perfect clarity. 11:05.480 --> 11:06.902 That's what we do in the practice. 11:06.962 --> 11:11.369 It's like picking out the bad stuff and throwing it away and sorting everything into good and bad. 11:12.731 --> 11:17.658 Not because someone told you so or because you think so or because you feel so. 11:18.760 --> 11:20.983 Because you know so and you see. 11:21.043 --> 11:34.643 Once you do that, to develop, you need to develop effort. 11:36.209 --> 11:41.495 So you can have mindfulness, and through mindfulness comes this discrimination. 11:43.798 --> 11:45.479 But for it to succeed, you need effort. 11:45.499 --> 11:46.661 The third one is effort. 11:47.782 --> 11:49.824 This means the first two are really the practice. 11:50.885 --> 11:54.630 But for it to be successful, you need to put effort in. 11:55.891 --> 11:59.135 You can't just do it once and give up, right? 11:59.155 --> 12:03.259 Sit down for 10 minutes and that was that. 12:03.359 --> 12:04.841 Now I've meditated. 12:04.881 --> 12:05.642 I'm a meditator. 12:07.225 --> 12:23.681 Something that you have to do, the Buddha said, satacca kiri avasena, to get into the habit or the activity of this continuous, satacca means continuous, mindfulness and investigation. 12:25.202 --> 12:27.905 It means when you're eating, eating should become a meditation. 12:29.446 --> 12:36.253 When you're walking around, sitting down, lying down to sleep, when you're in the shower, when you're on the toilet, 12:39.271 --> 12:46.724 Everything you do, every moment is a moment when you can be cultivating these qualities. 12:47.726 --> 12:48.367 It takes effort. 12:50.931 --> 12:59.085 But once you cultivate effort and the effort comes, another thing about it is once you're mindful and you start to see things clearly, you free up a lot of effort. 13:00.247 --> 13:12.119 You know, when we talk about being tired, we think of being tired as because you've worked too hard, but it's oftentimes not even a physical tired, it's a mental stiffness. 13:13.060 --> 13:15.242 It's like a tension of the mind, really. 13:16.303 --> 13:26.473 And once you're mindful, you suddenly feel all this energy come back, gradually feel all this energy come back as you start to let go and ease up. 13:28.748 --> 13:33.823 Your mind becomes more focused and more alert. 13:33.843 --> 13:42.690 And you gain more energy and then the final of the energy side is rapture. 13:44.425 --> 13:52.938 And so once you become energetic, then you start to become, it becomes habitual. 13:53.759 --> 14:00.769 So rapture is this state of gaining momentum, really, becoming powerful. 14:02.752 --> 14:10.804 Through putting out effort, it becomes stronger and more, it's like inertia, really. 14:12.083 --> 14:20.443 When it starts to get in the groove, it becomes habitual and easier, really. 14:21.465 --> 14:22.768 More efficient. 14:24.976 --> 14:28.179 Rapture refers to anything you get caught up in, really. 14:28.220 --> 14:30.242 That's why we use the word rapture. 14:31.503 --> 14:33.745 So it's easy to get caught up in many different things. 14:34.887 --> 14:38.391 Here you start to get caught up in mindfulness, and that's a really good sign. 14:39.732 --> 14:49.042 Once it becomes second nature, where you're just mindful constantly throughout the day, or it becomes very much a part of who you are, that's rapture. 14:50.303 --> 14:52.406 You become enraptured by mindfulness. 14:52.746 --> 14:53.667 What a great thing. 14:57.545 --> 15:03.611 So those ones, well, mindfulness is in the center, but the other three are on the effort side. 15:03.651 --> 15:08.035 And then we have on the other side of things, your mind becomes calmer. 15:08.415 --> 15:11.678 So, your mind becomes more tranquil. 15:12.459 --> 15:15.462 Samadhi, your mind becomes more focused. 15:15.482 --> 15:20.587 And upeka, your mind, this is the most important one, your mind becomes more equanimous. 15:23.309 --> 15:27.113 And once you've completely tranquilized the mind and the body, 15:28.747 --> 15:38.981 to the point where you're able to be still, and you feel very sorted out. 15:40.023 --> 15:42.406 Every experience becomes orderly. 15:42.446 --> 15:50.737 It's still chaos, but it's manageable chaos, and there's a quietude to it, a stillness. 15:50.778 --> 15:52.560 There's no more defilements or anything. 15:56.084 --> 15:58.412 Samadhi means you're focused. 15:58.432 --> 16:02.244 You have this perfect clarity of focus on each object as it arises. 16:03.749 --> 16:06.297 And dupeka means you have no judging. 16:11.002 --> 16:12.925 These are the qualities that we try to develop. 16:13.546 --> 16:14.988 We put mindfulness in the center. 16:15.028 --> 16:18.532 The other ones are on the side of effort and concentration. 16:18.572 --> 16:27.024 So if you have a lot of effort, then you have to be clear that you're a lot of energy, over energy, you're distracted and restless. 16:28.306 --> 16:36.317 Then you have to be clear about that and start to focus on the other three, calming your mind down, focusing a bit better. 16:37.580 --> 16:43.515 Trying to be less jumpy and less judgmental or reactionary. 16:44.199 --> 16:44.923 More equanimous. 16:46.169 --> 16:50.817 I mean, just acknowledging those things helps you focus your mindfulness, really. 16:51.960 --> 16:53.041 Mindfulness is the tool. 16:53.062 --> 16:56.428 You don't have to get too distracted by this idea of balancing things. 16:57.530 --> 17:07.688 It's more of an intellectual thing for you to step back and say, uh-huh, well, that's where I'm obviously not being mindful, or it's harder for me to be mindful because I'm out of balance. 17:09.254 --> 17:19.286 And so knowing this helps you to focus your mindfulness and make you focus your efforts to be more mindful of those things that are important. 17:23.370 --> 17:27.175 So this one, this one really pairs with the first one. 17:27.355 --> 17:31.920 Remember we had the first one was seeing in this sutta. 17:32.693 --> 17:34.156 So seeing is our practice. 17:34.177 --> 17:35.540 We're trying to see the truth. 17:36.201 --> 17:38.787 It's a very lofty sounding goal, but it's quite simple. 17:38.827 --> 17:40.391 It is lofty, but it's simple. 17:42.055 --> 17:45.122 We're trying to understand what's going on. 17:45.243 --> 17:46.305 Why are we suffering? 17:46.886 --> 17:48.390 Trying to understand our minds. 17:49.957 --> 17:51.419 Understand our experience. 17:51.960 --> 18:03.940 Understand reality as a mundane thing, as a process of experience that causes us so much stress and suffering. 18:05.523 --> 18:06.925 And to change that. 18:09.008 --> 18:09.990 To fix that, really. 18:13.109 --> 18:23.440 Fix that through seeing, through seeing the problem, understanding the problem and naturally inclining or changing the way we incline our minds. 18:26.052 --> 18:33.423 And so the other five that we've been through up to today are more supportive practices. 18:34.285 --> 18:41.075 And indeed, each one of those supportive practices cuts off a part of the problem. 18:43.058 --> 18:54.355 And these asala, which means these sort of threads that are getting us off balance, that are leading to 18:55.550 --> 18:59.687 stress and suffering, really. 19:01.152 --> 19:16.571 But the main practice is still seeing And bhavana is just bringing it back home That as you start to see and start practice seeing There are qualities that you are cultivating So bhavana is the qualities It's the same with the Satipatthana Sutta, right? 19:17.813 --> 19:29.067 The Buddha goes through the Satipatthana Sutta And then at the very end Well, before getting into the truths He talks about the factors of enlightenment What you're developing through the practice 19:31.628 --> 19:44.195 So this is this section, these seven things, mindfulness, investigation, effort, rapture, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. 19:44.215 --> 19:47.241 These are the seven factors of enlightenment. 19:52.182 --> 19:54.945 He says something interesting about each of them that I didn't mention. 19:55.005 --> 20:15.985 It's... Which means... Each one of these factors is based on... Based on seclusion, dispassion, cessation. 20:18.468 --> 20:20.029 And has... 20:21.832 --> 20:37.273 giving up or relinquishment as its ending, as its result. 20:37.293 --> 20:50.050 So the stress here is on the fact that these are the qualities that lead to seclusion or are associated with seclusion, dispassion and cessation. 20:53.236 --> 20:54.638 These are the qualities of mind. 20:54.658 --> 20:55.358 These are them. 20:56.820 --> 21:18.045 These are the way to true seclusion in the sense of being secluded from the defilements, where your mind is away from all that heat and stress and fever of defilement, dispassion and cessation, the cessation of suffering. 21:20.759 --> 21:22.281 and have letting go as their end. 21:22.341 --> 21:24.383 So we talk about letting go a lot in Buddhism. 21:24.443 --> 21:25.404 How does one let go? 21:25.464 --> 21:29.008 Letting go is the result, parinaming. 21:30.229 --> 21:32.812 It's the ending. 21:35.495 --> 21:36.737 And it comes from all of these. 21:36.817 --> 21:47.188 It comes when you're mindful and when you develop all the qualities that lead to enlightenment. 21:50.358 --> 22:13.159 And so in conclusion the Buddha says, when one has removed all of these defilements, the ones through seeing that should be abandoned by seeing, the ones through using, through enduring, through avoiding, through removing, and through developing, 22:15.856 --> 22:21.405 Then one is called a bhikkhu who dwells restrained with the restraint of all the taints. 22:23.027 --> 22:24.429 It's not quite the language I would use. 22:24.489 --> 22:27.855 I mean, it's difficult language. 22:27.875 --> 22:29.157 Dwells restrained. 22:29.197 --> 22:34.345 Dwells restrained. 22:37.229 --> 22:41.796 Having restrained all of the... Yeah, restrained is not the best word. 22:44.813 --> 22:58.010 sabāsava-sammara-sambuddho, having restrained them, I guess. 23:02.576 --> 23:12.829 So the āsava again, it's kind of this metaphor of streams or this imagery of these things that get us 23:14.682 --> 23:15.564 Get us lost. 23:16.827 --> 23:19.073 It's like a leak. 23:19.093 --> 23:20.878 So it means you've plugged all the leaks. 23:23.765 --> 23:25.750 Our mind ordinarily is at peace. 23:25.850 --> 23:28.236 Why can't we just be here and now? 23:29.802 --> 23:35.590 Ordinary reality, as we describe it and as we think of it, is really pure. 23:36.932 --> 23:45.023 But it's the asawa that get us impure, that get us caught up in busyness and stress and friction. 23:45.063 --> 23:47.647 They're the poison. 23:51.152 --> 23:55.438 And so once one has done this, one has plugged up all the leaks. 24:00.076 --> 24:03.879 Ache chitanhang, one has cut off craving. 24:04.840 --> 24:12.727 We watai sangyojanang, one has untied. 24:13.287 --> 24:16.910 We watai, I don't know. 24:16.930 --> 24:21.134 What does Bikubodi say? 24:21.154 --> 24:25.477 Flung off the fetters. 24:25.497 --> 24:29.661 Sama mana bisamaya antamakasi dukasa 24:31.750 --> 24:38.200 With the complete penetration of conceit, he has made the end of suffering, made an end of suffering. 24:43.158 --> 24:50.908 So again, what's great about this sutta is it gives a really comprehensive look at the practice. 24:51.088 --> 25:04.064 I mean, there's much more that could be said about each one of these and so many details and many ways of implementing all the aspects of the practice, but this gives a good summary of Buddhist practice, really. 25:06.066 --> 25:09.891 And it comes back, starts at seeing and comes back to cultivating. 25:12.723 --> 25:23.874 And it really gives us some good pointers and good reminders on how to keep our practice going and keep it going in the right direction. 25:25.936 --> 25:28.138 So that's the Sabasavasutta. 25:32.142 --> 25:39.068 And that's the Dhamma for tonight. 25:39.088 --> 25:40.890 We can see if there are questions. 25:45.460 --> 25:51.318 Is it useful to expose ourselves to situations we are averse to in order to learn about them? 25:52.181 --> 25:59.503 For example, I have an aversion to reading, so it would be useful for me to try to read something and study my reactions using the noting technique. 26:00.935 --> 26:03.560 I think I just answered this one. 26:03.801 --> 26:15.484 It's not really a good idea to intentionally evoke defilements because then you're cultivating that triggering activity. 26:17.185 --> 26:24.517 I mean, part of what we're trying to learn is neutrality or objectivity. 26:25.739 --> 26:34.694 And if you're triggering it, there's the real danger of getting impatient or ambitious about the practice. 26:34.714 --> 26:38.099 Hey, if I do this, is it useful? 26:38.159 --> 26:43.969 Like this question of is it useful, it's potentially ambitious, where instead you should just 26:45.400 --> 26:48.885 Live your life and then add mindfulness. 26:50.086 --> 26:51.688 Let the changes come naturally. 26:51.728 --> 27:05.146 I mean, instead of going out of your way to read a book, when you actually naturally are in a position where reading is the appropriate thing to do, then study it. 27:06.247 --> 27:07.569 It's more natural that way. 27:07.609 --> 27:14.057 There's a problem with sort of artificially evoking defilements, except in the most 27:16.484 --> 27:33.269 innocuous sorts of ways, like doing sitting meditation, walking meditation, potentially evokes quite a few problematic mind states, but it's quite benign, I think, in the sense of it's just walking and it's just sitting, right? 27:35.753 --> 27:38.577 But going out of your way, I think, is problematic. 27:41.560 --> 27:47.508 Who is Sona Mahatera that Sayadaw mentions on page 87, a manual to insight? 27:51.354 --> 27:56.902 There are two Sonas, but the main one is about inner effort. 27:56.922 --> 28:02.049 He was a person who had too much, pushed too hard. 28:04.512 --> 28:09.880 So I think this is where the simile of the three strings comes in, right? 28:11.125 --> 28:12.748 You have overzealousness, is this? 28:12.768 --> 28:16.135 87. 28:21.226 --> 28:22.288 Right. 28:22.308 --> 28:24.733 The heroic efforts made by Sona Mahatera. 28:26.456 --> 28:28.621 Oh, this is different, right? 28:28.641 --> 28:29.843 Thinking about... 28:32.675 --> 28:36.739 Teacher reflecting on the attributes, considering the heroic efforts made by Sona. 28:37.520 --> 28:48.411 So Sona was so, if you want to know about any of these sorts of people, the Dictionary of Polyproper Names is a really good resource. 28:49.232 --> 28:50.353 You can look up Sona there. 28:50.934 --> 28:52.155 It'll give you all the information. 28:52.175 --> 29:00.724 But he was so delicate that there were hairs apparently growing on the bottoms of his feet 29:02.662 --> 29:08.170 And the king, I think, even asked to look at his feet because he was astonished that someone could possibly have hair there. 29:09.211 --> 29:11.274 But he had these fine hairs on the bottom of his feet. 29:11.294 --> 29:15.260 He was so delicate, apparently. 29:15.280 --> 29:21.008 And so when he became a monk, he did walking meditation and his feet started bleeding. 29:23.097 --> 29:36.335 I'm hoping I'm getting this story right, but his feet started bleeding, but he persisted and it was because of him I think the Buddha eventually allowed the monks to wear sandals. 29:39.720 --> 29:41.542 Monks would go barefoot before that. 29:43.645 --> 29:48.852 But at one point it was, I think it was a Brahma, 29:50.350 --> 29:51.612 I don't think it was the Buddha. 29:51.832 --> 29:53.455 The simile of these three strings. 29:53.555 --> 29:56.460 If a string is too tight, no, it may have been the Buddha. 29:57.201 --> 30:00.246 If a string is too tight, it snaps. 30:00.507 --> 30:02.430 If a string is too loose, it doesn't play. 30:02.470 --> 30:05.936 The string has to be perfectly tuned. 30:06.517 --> 30:07.979 And that's how your effort should be. 30:08.039 --> 30:10.643 You shouldn't just push too hard. 30:11.625 --> 30:17.134 So he worked really hard, and that's a good thing, but in the end, he worked too hard. 30:20.084 --> 30:26.130 But I recommend looking up in the dictionary of Pali proper names because I may have butchered some of that. 30:30.334 --> 30:34.077 Could you go over the Anattalakanasutta next? 30:34.418 --> 30:34.638 Sure. 30:39.823 --> 30:43.326 I'll do that maybe Saturday. 30:46.249 --> 30:47.330 I want to become a monk. 30:47.370 --> 30:48.471 How can I go ahead 30:49.801 --> 30:54.912 I'm not going to answer questions about how to become a monk because I think it's misguided. 30:55.373 --> 30:56.174 No, misleading. 30:57.157 --> 31:10.645 It's problematic because people ordain... There's too much... It's often the case that people put too much attention and... 31:14.236 --> 31:16.679 attention to ordination. 31:17.681 --> 31:20.985 And that actually takes away from people's attention to meditation. 31:21.045 --> 31:26.172 It's seen as sort of a quick fix and that causes problems for monasteries. 31:26.192 --> 31:31.399 So I shy away from focusing on that aspect of Buddhism. 31:32.521 --> 31:40.952 Ordination, it's certainly possible, but it should be related to your meditation practice. 31:43.025 --> 31:44.487 And in that case, it'll come naturally. 31:44.507 --> 31:49.192 I mean, you'll be at a center, and the opportunity will arise, and you'll just take it. 31:49.212 --> 32:12.019 I mean, part of the problem is that it's hard to find a center where it's a good place to ordain, and it's hard for me to give a recommendation because there are many different, well, there are lots of obstacles to becoming a monk and for those who have become a monk in modern times. 32:16.319 --> 32:17.541 I come from a Jewish family. 32:17.581 --> 32:22.849 My family is worried that one day I might get the idea of becoming a monk. 32:22.869 --> 32:27.136 They say for years I slowly transformed to a fundamentalist in my views through Buddhism. 32:28.018 --> 32:31.283 How could I deal with its ignorance? 32:31.383 --> 32:34.007 It is very difficult to talk to people who have no idea of Dhamma. 32:38.375 --> 32:40.878 Well, patience and practice on your own. 32:40.938 --> 32:51.729 And once you become very comfortable in the practice, people can't help but over time see that it's benefiting you. 32:53.170 --> 33:04.382 Well, they can, but it becomes a matter of disassociating yourself with such people or bringing them over to your side. 33:06.725 --> 33:09.765 where they accept the fact that it's a good thing. 33:18.233 --> 33:22.957 I'm sorry if that doesn't really answer your question, but it's not really an easily answered question. 33:22.977 --> 33:24.939 You can't just fix people's ignorance. 33:25.159 --> 33:29.964 You can't just solve their concerns. 33:31.005 --> 33:36.850 It could very well be Sariputta's mother was scolding him to the very end. 33:38.792 --> 33:47.920 Sariputta, who was of great wisdom, and it took until he was dying for his mother to see the goodness of what he was doing. 34:08.335 --> 34:10.959 There was another question about being a monk, and I just deleted it. 34:16.468 --> 34:17.990 Yeah, I'm not really going to answer that. 34:18.250 --> 34:23.278 Again, I don't want people to fixate on this idea of being a monk. 34:23.298 --> 34:26.844 I know it's very romantic, and everyone wants, there's many questions about it. 34:27.885 --> 34:32.773 It's quite an interest, and that's a good thing, but... 34:34.390 --> 35:03.385 well maybe it's not such a good thing I mean I think I would discourage that and I would encourage people to focus more on meditation and because becoming a monk if you have to ask me you're probably not there yet right the only time it should be asked is when you're in a meditation in a monastery and you're talking to your monastic teacher 35:04.529 --> 35:13.077 And you're just looking to further your meditation practice that you're already undertaking. 35:14.999 --> 35:19.763 If you're asking me on the internet, I would say stick to your meditation for now. 35:22.806 --> 35:28.812 Or find a place to go and do a meditation course. 35:29.072 --> 35:34.097 It's much more practical, especially in modern times, to focus in that way. 35:36.912 --> 35:39.010 So that's all for tonight. 35:39.877 --> 35:41.088 Thank you all for tuning in. 35:41.471 --> 35:42.096 Have a good night.