Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to our live broadcast.
So apparently, I have to project my voice.
I'm not loud enough.
I want it loud.
Oh, see, it keeps turning me down.
My volume should be way up there.
That would be better.
Is that louder?
That is louder, but from my end, it sounds very staticky.
Static key, now?
Now I think it's okay.
Maybe someone can let you know from watching it on YouTube too.
You hear me as static key right now?
Just a little unclear.
It's louder, but a little unclear.
So it was better quieter?
From my perspective, but it may sound different on YouTube.
Yeah.
Apparently Hangouts on Air is shutting down, so we're going to have to switch over to YouTube anyway.
Not that that'll change the sound of my voice.
Apparently that makes the audios worse over there, apparently.
Whatever.
Do we know when that is, Ponte?
September, I think, so soon.
All right, so today we're looking at a simple teaching, something that's important to talk about and not all that complicated.
It's the recognition of what the Buddha called
gratification asada asada asada is a word that you don't hear often enough I don't think but it's the admission of pleasure the admission of the positive
aspect of desire that when you want something well you can get it you can be gratified by by getting what you want it has to be acknowledged it's important that we don't ignore that because that's the argument that we're trying to refute that's the misunderstanding we're trying to address
We don't acknowledge that that is the confusion, that the confusion is surrounding this, and that the reason why we're in trouble is because of this.
And we can miss the whole point of the practice or the whole focus.
the core of the problem.
We never get to the root.
Meeting around the bush trying to tell us no, tell ourselves no, sensual pleasures are bad, greed is bad.
But there's always this small voice saying, Asada, Asada, it's enjoyable.
I like it.
You have to address that.
You have to accept that that's
It's real.
There is a true gratification.
The problem is, this is the thing.
The Buddhists, there are three aspects.
And remember, we're in the Book of Three, so we're looking, starting at Sutta 103, the third 50.
Gautar Nikaya Book of Three is starting at Sutta 103.
104 in the Pali.
This is what he asked himself.
He said, before I was enlightened, there came to me this thought.
What is the gratification in the world?
The first thing.
The second thing, what is the problem?
The problem, really.
The negative aspect.
The catch.
And what is the escape?
The release.
Because there is a problem.
And that's the key.
You can rail all you want about how pleasant it is to get what you want, but there's a problem.
You can't always get what you want.
In fact, more than just not getting what you want, the things that you want are unstable.
They're ephemeral.
They last only a moment.
They don't satisfy.
They gratify, but they don't satisfy.
And there's a difference.
Yes, it's pleasant to get what you want.
How long does the pleasant state last?
How long does the enjoyment of getting what you want last?
A brief moment.
Buddha said it's like a bone smeared with blood
When you give it to a dog, they're so happy.
And they gnaw on the bone and taste the blood.
But they're never satisfied.
They're gratified, but they're not satisfied.
They don't become satiated by the gnawing on the bone.
If you're not clear, if you're not really practicing meditation, it's very difficult to see this, but you can see it in everything when you begin to meditate.
You sit down to eat, and you think, oh, this delicious food.
As you're mindful, you see, oh, well, hmm.
Yes, it's enjoyable for a moment, and then it's gone, and then there's just the taste.
Maybe enjoyable for another moment, but then my mind is off wandering, and the pleasure is gone.
Meditators who come to stay with us after some time, they begin to find eating a chore.
The food is still good, hopefully.
But everywhere I've been, no matter what the food is like, at the end of the course, the meditators begin to
And think, oh, now I've got to go eat again.
If only I didn't have to go and eat, which is an odd thing to hear for most people.
You think, wow, food is one of life's great pleasures, especially in Thailand.
You've got all this wonderful Thai food that everyone loves.
And your meditator's coming, and oh, the food is so great.
Wonderful food in this meditation center.
And then you start to see that wonderfulness of the food is like a bone smeared with blood.
It's really kind of tainted.
It just causes more stress eventually because you realize that you start to see how much stress it is to like and to want things and to crave things.
And you'll be sitting in meditation, and you'll be craving, and you can't have, and you'll have a terrible stress.
So the Buddha said there's a ..
There's a catch.
There's a problem with the nature of things.
Getting what you want is not really all that it's cut out to be.
It doesn't solve anything.
It just makes you more thirsty.
You need it more.
You want it more.
Chase it more.
And so that's the situation we find ourselves in.
This is the truth.
Most people don't want to see, let alone admit.
Don't want to admit, let alone see.
We want to believe that there are things out there that will satisfy us.
And so we chase after sensual gratification.
We chase after all sorts of things, goals and ideals, ambitions.
We chase and we want and we crave and we need and we get.
And we're gratified by what we get, but we're never satisfied.
And we fight and we kill each other for this.
This is what sets families against each other.
It's what sets friends against each other.
It's what sets cultures and societies, nations.
It's what sets the world on fire.
It's why the world is on fire right now.
Why the climate is degrading.
I mean, whether you believe or not in climate change, it's quite clear what we're doing to most of the world.
There's so much beauty in the world, things that we find pleasant and delicate and beautiful.
It's funny, all that we find beautiful, by chasing after it, by trying to distill it down to its most pure essence,
we crave it more right you see flowers well it's not enough to see flowers you want to have them in your home so you cut them and as you cut them they well they stop growing or it becomes more difficult because everyone wants them so you have to hoard them or you have to grow them in special and then it becomes who can afford the flowers and
Who can afford the delicious food, the best food?
And then people want more delicate food.
And so they grow harder to grow food.
And then we want it more immediately.
And we wind up in the state
We wind up with what we see now, what we see in modern times.
The world is not nearly as beautiful as it once was.
All the things that we found beautiful that we've tried to capture in our homes, all the pleasant sensations that we've tried to enhance with our comfortable beds and couches and our luxuries.
We've ruined the earth as a result.
We've made it less beautiful, more coarse.
And this is the nature.
This is the way of things.
The more you chase after things, the more you destroy them, the more you sully them, the more you crave them more intensely.
This is how they say pornography works.
begins you enjoy seeing beautiful people, beautiful shapes, sensual shapes.
And so you look at pictures, and then pictures aren't enough.
And then it goes on to movies, and then those movies aren't enough.
And then it goes on to more and more coarser and coarser until you drive yourself insane.
You become addicted.
There's a site out there on how pornography works or how pornography addiction works.
I know because my video is on it, my video on pornography addiction.
I did it many years ago and it's still to this date by far my most popular video.
As opposed to my least popular where I talk about how terrible cats are.
I had to remove that one.
So what is the escape?
These are the two, and then the third thing the Buddha says, the third thing you have to know is what is the escape.
Let's see what the Buddha says.
I mean, basically,
I just want to get the Buddha's words on it.
I don't think we have a...
I don't see an exact...
I mean, so what is the escape?
Well, the escape is simply with the giving up of the gratification.
It's really the seeing this.
This is what we see in meditation.
You see how, yes, it's gratifying.
And it's important to see.
It's important to accept.
Yes, I want this.
I like this.
I crave this.
Accept that.
Accept that as a fact.
If you don't, if you try and pretend or try and control yourself, control your mind and say, no, bad, you shouldn't want that, you'll never get to the core of the matter.
You'll never come to the truth.
Truth is truth.
I want this.
I want that.
I like this.
I like that.
That's why the Buddha said, when you like something, don't deny it.
Embrace the truth.
I like this.
Liking, liking.
Embrace the truth.
Because the truth is, there's a problem.
There's a catch.
And when you see that catch, when you see that problem, when you start to see the true problem with gratification, with seeking gratification, with believing that gratification somehow leads to satisfaction,
When you see that, it doesn't.
See, the gratification leads to stress.
It's what leads to all the problems in the world.
All the problems in our mind, all the craziness in the mind.
Once you see that, your mind starts to let go.
It starts to escape.
It starts to turn away.
We have this word called nibida, nibindati.
Ata nibindati duke.
One becomes...
Disenchanted is the word.
Loses the luster, the shine.
I forget the rest.
Anyway.
Come look at this world.
He looks to the mind like a beautiful royal chariot all decked out with jewels and gold and wonderful things.
The world seems full of wonderful things.
that fools fall into fools get caught up in it but the wise find no connection and so you start to see the cracks and you start to see the problems
The mind begins to let go, not from denying that you like things, but from seeing, oh, liking things is such a terrible thing.
Oh, to not like anymore.
Oh, to not want.
Oh, to be free from this.
And you turn away and you give up.
You become bored of it.
You become tired of it.
You see it so much.
You watch your mind clinging and craving and wanting.
You let it go.
This comes from seeing, comes from looking, comes from seeing, comes from practicing, observing.
This is what meditation is all about, not denying.
I think that's an important teaching.
It starts with the gratification.
That's where the practice starts.
See how much we love things and acknowledging that and looking deeper, looking to see what it means to love things, to want things, to crave things.
Objectively, because that's the power of the truth is that it stands up to inquiry.
It stands up to investigation.
Belief doesn't.
Belief is nothing in the face of inquiry.
But truth, a truth, a claim of the truth is something that you can investigate.
Well, the claim of the truth.
But the truth is something you can find for yourself.
Anyway, so that's the Dhamma for tonight.
The gratification, the problem, and the escape.
Because you have to escape.
There's only one way.
Either you escape or you go around in circles.
And you suffer.
Then you're never satisfied.
No peace.
All right.
Any questions?
Lots of questions.
Yes.
During meditation, is there a problem when the pace of noting is inconsistent, mostly too fast, but sometimes very slow?
I answered that already last night.
I tried to be very open, honest and loving with everybody, but people often seem to be wary, cautious, skeptical.
It causes misunderstandings.
How do I better come across as a person who means no harm?
Well, you may be trying too hard.
And better than being all those things is being mindful.
Because the way that people react the best to you is when you're
When you're yourself, when you're, it's cliche to say it's not really true, but when you're natural, you know, an enlightened being is not something, you know, they don't dazzle you or speak in deep voice or something.
An enlightened being is natural.
It's at peace, you know.
So we resonate with each other.
And sure, you're going to be surrounded by people who have all sorts of crazy defilements inside.
No matter how great you are, you'll be surrounded by such people.
And so if you let it get to you, then that's a strike on you.
It's a stress on you.
And so that's the most important is to be at peace and to be unshakable.
so that you can absorb the defilements that people have but you're like a what are these things like a filter you clean the dirt from other people because you don't react so if people are critical of you or or suspicious of you or so on well that's on them
So what's on you is to be at peace with yourself and to be clear-minded.
So I wouldn't try so hard to be something.
Not that those things are not good, but they should come naturally.
And then you don't have to think about it.
And then you don't have to worry about what other people think or how you come across, I suppose.
Because you can't really control how you come across to others, right?
But you do come across a lot better when you're just natural, just yourself.
But that's not really yourself.
That's just a word.
You know how we say that.
Just be yourself.
But it's kind of like that.
It's just don't put on pretenses.
Don't put on airs.
Don't try to be something.
Don't even be yourself.
Don't be anything.
Be present.
Be mindful.
Be clear of mind.
Objective.
My friend just said this to me.
I don't want to, this is the friend saying this, I think.
I don't want a compassionate heart with everyone.
I prefer my coping mechanism.
I developed it for a reason.
How do I penetrate this attitude to help my friend?
Yeah, if you could help everyone, right?
You can just poof, help people.
It doesn't really work that way.
I can barely help all of you and you want me to help you.
I can barely help the people who come here to do meditation courses.
You have to do the work yourself.
The work is for you to do yourself.
You're not going to fix everyone's problems.
You should send loving kindness to this person and wish for them to be well.
But try to be a good example and be mindful.
Once you see things for yourself, you'll have the answers to them.
To all questions.
So when someone says something to you like, I don't want a compassionate heart, I prefer my coping mechanism, you'll understand that.
And you'll say, well, sounds stressful to me.
Or you won't.
You won't judge them or criticize them.
But you'll do things to help them see that it isn't really peaceful.
The best way they can see that is when they see that you have a better way.
You see that you're more together than they are.
It's more peaceful the way you do things.
To not have to cope, to be open and at peace, to not have to protect yourself because you're invincible, it's much better.
I don't see more meaning in living as 99% of society lives, studying, working, buying, consuming.
The only thing that has kept me alive and not committing suicide was the meditation, the Buddhist teachings, philosophy, and the desire to live isolated, planting my own food.
But I'm losing now my desire to live isolated and the desire to study philosophy.
The only thing that seems reasonable for me is living a monk's life.
I don't have desire to be a monk.
It is a desire but not a common desire like the others.
But I feel this is the only way of living.
I'm 19.
I saw a video of how you became a monk.
And I can relate a lot about your history since I was a child.
Since I was a child, I wanted to know the meaning and why we suffer and what was a great philosopher.
What should I do now?
I simply don't know where to go.
It's time to go to a monastery or should I push myself into the misery of studying and working for nothing?
That's valid, and it's kind of what I did.
I should have become a monk right away, but I didn't.
I think I could have convinced my parents to let me become a monk, but I kind of let them convince me not to for two years, until finally I said, this is enough.
So, yeah, I would say absolutely don't put it off.
If you're at that point where you know it's the way, do it.
Don't expect it to be easy.
Don't expect that to be something like a door that suddenly solves all your problems.
But do it.
No, don't study, don't work, don't do all that stuff for nothing.
If you're ready to become a monk, do it.
Find the right place and do it.
Another question of where to go is a different question, much more complicated.
But don't put it off.
Don't let society or a convention tell you what to do.
Think of the Bodhisatta, how radical he was.
He wasn't one of these people who just waited for things to fall in his lap or waited for the time to be right.
As soon as he figured it out and said, man, I've got to get old, sick, and die.
There's no way out of this.
He said, I'm going to find a way out.
And he just dropped everything.
He left his, you know, can you imagine being the prince?
Whether he was a prince of a big kingdom or something, or not.
But he was a prince, or he was somehow high up in society.
And suddenly he just dropped out.
He just threw it all away and said, I've had enough of you guys.
And he went off in the forest.
So anyone who thinks they shouldn't do that, they're kind of besmirching, they're disdaining the way of the Buddha.
What's the deal with the various mudras?
The Buddha, the Buddha rupas have various hand gestures.
Is there any value or could there be any benefit in using different mudras in formal practice?
What do you think?
Sorry, I had myself muted.
What does he think?
I want to know what he thinks.
This is a test.
You've come this far and you've listened to me this much.
I want to ask you, what do you think of that last question?
I'll answer the first one.
So the Buddha, Rupa's
The different mudras are just a means of reminding us of a specific time or a specific aspect of the Buddha, like a specific event in some cases or a specific aspect of the Buddha in some cases.
They're just artist representations.
Buddha images came to be hundreds of years after the Buddha passed away.
It wasn't something the Buddha said, okay, remember this mudra or that mudra or something.
But your last question, is there any value or could there be any benefit in using different mudras in formal practice?
I want you to answer it for yourself.
I'm not going to give you the answer there.
If a person did nothing other than the basic practice, would the stages of insight happen naturally, or are they something that needs to be taught?
No, they would happen naturally.
I mean, they happen to anyone who goes through, who becomes a Sotapanna, becomes enlightened in any way.
But we have, you know, in our technique, we have a tradition.
We have a format that's designed to promote the realization of the stages of knowledge by increasing the complexity of the practice, as we've seen.
So it's a means of helping you along, increasing the speed, making it easier, facilitating the realization of the knowledges and the progression through the knowledges.
But absolutely, you can walk three steps and go through all the stages of knowledge in those three steps.
I have a friend who has suicidal thoughts just because she's in a situation where she is verbally abused very often by a narcissistic man she thinks is her teacher or master.
I don't pretend to know how karma works, but is there any way I can explain to her that she has other options other than just to endure or to purify karma, as she says?
She meditates, but not our way.
Why is her judgment so clouded?
She can't break away from this man's influence.
Yeah, teachers are dangerous.
Religious people in general are dangerous.
That's why a lot of people have turned away from religion.
Well, why is there such a judgment so clouded?
I mean, it's easy when someone is charismatic.
And when your mind is fragile, it's easy to gain great and powerful faith in someone.
I used to have a teacher who was very charismatic.
I think, in general, he was teaching good things, but I ended up realizing that it was mostly charisma, mostly about
playing mind games with the meditator to give them faith and to make them believe that the teacher knew something or had special knowledge.
And I really felt that.
I really was totally confident about this guy until it all fell apart.
And I realized, actually, he's just full of himself.
Sorry.
I shouldn't say that.
I mean, honestly, this is the guy who taught me some really good things.
But he was the one who first taught me how to meditate in this tradition.
So he's teaching this tradition.
Even today, he teaches it.
That's not, you know, I mean, none of us are perfect.
So I probably shouldn't criticize him too much.
You're supposed to have, you're supposed to appreciate the person who first taught you meditation.
And John Tong's always getting on my case about that.
about that whole situation.
I understand it.
Sorry, I digress.
But I can understand how it's easy to get really caught up with someone who you might see as actually somewhat narcissistic.
But charismatic is really the key.
If a person is charismatic, they're very much able to manipulate their students.
and to cause them to do things they wouldn't normally do.
What about this idea that she has to stay with him to purify her karma?
Is there anything that can be said about that?
Why would they believe you more than they believe their teacher?
which I mean, not to say they wouldn't.
And I guess that's the thing is you have to find a way to be more persuasive than the teacher.
which involves helping her to see that what this teacher is explaining.
It's the same with all religious people.
I'd probably recommend letting her talk about it, asking her questions about the teacher, just non-probing questions, just helping her see clearly what it is that she's involved in.
being a good example for her.
It often just comes back to being a good example because you can't fix other people's problems.
In fact, often the more you try, the further you alienate them from you, themselves from you.
You might want to give her my booklet on how to meditate and say, maybe you want to try this out.
And then leave her to it, you know.
If she ever comes to the point where she sees there might be another way, maybe she'll be able to give it up.
You know, I mean, be there for her for the things you can.
If she's got suicidal thoughts, forget about the teacher and all that.
That's her choice.
But help her deal with her suicidal thoughts.
Be a friend to her.
You can't fix other people's problems.
You can't change other people's minds.
But when people ask for help, when people are in dire straits, you can be there for them, give them advice, give them support.
There are so many spiritual traps out in the world, and they all say about themselves that they are based on the Buddhist teaching.
Why don't real Buddhists say something about them?
How can people avoid falling into these deluded teachings in their search for spiritual awakening?
That's a fair argument.
Maybe I'm wrong to not talk about these things.
I mean I do talk about Buddhist things.
To me that's something that I should talk about.
I get that.
And I do.
Not so much here because I'm trying to focus on meditation questions but
It's a fair point.
I mean, I've recently, not recently, but when this year, last year, I wrote an article about the Heart Sutra.
And I'm frequently fairly critical about Mahayana Buddhism.
or what has become Mahayana Buddhism, whatever that means.
I mean, some aspects of Buddhism that call themselves the Mahayana are really critical about their teachings, because there are teachings out there that are, from my point of view, not Buddhist, not something that came from a Buddha.
They claim to be, but they're not.
So I'm willing to call those things out personally.
But the funny thing is, some of you know that whenever someone like I, some radical person like I do, does that,
like I like me does that we get pounced upon we get we get crapped on I don't I didn't mention this but like recently I was I told you I was in Toronto recently and I'm still puzzling it out but this other Theravada monk there I don't know if I should be saying these things on the air it wasn't gonna say anything but
I think it had something to do with me criticizing Chinese, you know, the Chinese Buddhism, but you know what I'd said, I think at one point on YouTube,
was that the sutta that day was, I don't think it was ever spoken by the Buddha.
And then the next morning, I got this email from a Theravada Buddhist monk who was there just scathing, calling me a spoiled brat, and talking about how more when he looks at those monks, those Chinese monks, he sees them as so pure compared to me, and I'm like a spoiled brat.
It was just a bizarre email because he ends it like, okay, respectfully, and then he signs his name.
So I wrote back and I thought about it for a while and I was thankful.
I said, you know, well, I thank you for your candor.
I'm not sure if it was something, I have no idea.
It could have just been something about him, but...
I'm happy to hear that I might be spoiled and childish and immature because I'm always happy to improve.
But I got the feeling that it had something to do with some sort of criticism.
And it's just one example.
You criticize anything, you know?
People who criticize Islam.
You know, I criticize Islam, but I see other people who publicly criticize Islam.
What are they accused of?
Racism.
My little sister, I was at my dad's house and we were talking about Islam.
My father said something about he didn't like it or he said something bad.
And my sister said, dad, that's racist.
And I said, no, it's not.
Islam isn't a race.
Islam is a religion.
Yes, there's a lot of racism associated with stereotyping, at the very least, where people associate any Middle Eastern person.
I have a friend, and we did a peace studies project.
One of the members on our team was, when we did this peace symposium, one of them was a Sikh.
And she said she gets this all the time.
Everyone thinks she's a Muslim.
Not that there's anything wrong with being a Muslim per se, but as a result, she gets a lot of negative.
I mean, I think at the time it wasn't that negative, but it's getting negative.
Anyone who looks like a Muslim is, it has to, you know, sort of be afraid of that.
So it's like anyone who is black is thought of as a criminal or a predator or that kind of thing, you know.
So there's all that.
But my point was that we tend to gloss over the problems with things, especially with religion.
We have this idea of, I guess it's postmodernism to some extent, this idea that whatever you believe, that's right for you.
Such a dangerous idea.
No, it's not right for you just because you believe it.
This is something that Buddhism is definitely against.
Theravada Buddhism, anyway.
My Buddhism.
Our Buddhism.
No.
Things you believe might be terribly, terribly wrong for you.
I mean, we know this.
Think about it.
What a silly thing it is to think that a person's beliefs should be held sacred because they believe them.
No, they shouldn't.
Your beliefs might be awful and evil, of course.
What if you believe it's good to kill people?
We should respect that and believe that rape is good.
Torture, you believe it's right to torture people.
So how this relates to your question is, yes, I agree, things should be said, but it's not as easy as just saying it.
Sometimes you get yourself in more trouble than it's worth when you... And so this is why even enlightened beings, especially enlightened beings, you don't see them that often getting involved in such...
You know, going out of their way to rail against the inequities or the injustices of the world.
They tend to focus.
And I think that's why it's best use of our time and effort to focus on meditation, this group, questions about meditation.
Yes, some people are going to get lost because they misunderstand Buddhism.
But there's lots of people who find the path.
And we can help all of those people.
And then they can help others.
So the best way is, the most important is to help those people who are meditating and who are interested in the right things and do have their head on straight to some extent.
I am quite new to meditation, so I need some help.
What would you recommend for a meditation habit?
How long?
I'll do some every day but try and do both walking and sitting hopefully you've read my meditation booklet and I've started to practice that way so otherwise you know there are other techniques and they'll have other things to say but in our tradition you do half walking and half sitting do walking first and then sitting half and half sometimes you might just want to do sitting that's fine but when you have the energy for it do both
And if you're able to do walking.
But even 10 minutes each is a good start.
If you can do an hour or two a day, that's a great schedule.
And if you have time, whenever you have time, you can do more than that or actually go and do a meditation course.
That would be the greatest.
And the best way to gain a meditation habit is to go and do an intensive course that really gives you a foundation and understanding of what meditation is, because then the daily practice that you do is much more powerful, much more efficient.
Why are parents the first teachers or masters?
How can we integrate this idea into practice?
Thank you, .
Well, they're your first teachers because they're the first people to teach you something.
And that's important because very much of the core things that we learn about how to live come from our parents, most of us.
Not all of us, but most of us.
There's no integrating that into your practice.
It's just a fact.
And so recognizing that is important.
If you deny respect or if you disrespect your parents and if you're nasty and mean to your parents and they've done these good things for you,
Sometimes we think, well, I do things for them, they do things for me.
We're kind of even, right?
Why should I respect them more than they respect me?
It's kind of foolish because they've done so much more for you than you have for them.
You can't do the things for them that they've done for you.
Very difficult, the Buddha said, to pay back your parents for most people.
Unless your parents abandoned you and didn't do anything for you.
Even then they argue, well, your mother still gave birth to you, so there's that.
And you can never do that for her.
Not in this life.
So even that is something powerful.
But more than that, when our parents do raise us,
To deny that and to ignore that and to think, well, I do good things for them is just ignorance, plain and simple.
And you'll feel it when you meditate.
You don't have to incorporate it into your practice, but you'll feel it.
You'll feel all the bad things you've done to your parents, I don't have to tell you.
You'll feel so terrible because of how awful a person you were to people who did good things for you.
So what you should incorporate into your practice is asking forgiveness and trying to help them.
Helping your parents is just wonderful if you've got parents who are actually, you know, besides the rare case, like there was this one student, her father raped her.
I mean, that happens.
And I don't know what to say.
Forgive him and try and make your way without him, I guess.
Think of him of afar.
Pity him from afar.
But for most of us, helping our parents is just an awesome thing when you have the chance.
So there's something, you know, find a way to find ways to help them.
My father, I'm still the computer guy in the family.
So my father calls me up when he has, just yesterday or the day before he called me up, he had a computer problem.
So we spent about half an hour, an hour figuring out how to log him back into his computer.
He's not dumb and he's really actually quite smart, but
It's not that good on computers, and he's aged in his understanding.
I've got an edge on him still.
I'm losing my edge as I grow old.
But I still know a thing or two about a thing or two.
So I was able to log him back in.
It was good to help my father.
I think it's the right thing to do.
What they do, the khandhas have a particular order.
I wonder why vijnana is mentioned last instead of second.
Could you say something about this?
I have no idea.
You know, sometimes I don't get the order of things, some things.
Sometimes I don't think there is quite the order that we would, or is it quite a...
specific order.
I mean, sometimes, not in this case, probably, but in some cases, the Buddha would, well, maybe in this case, the order has more to do with the order in which they're taught.
When you sit down and you explain all five, teaching when jnana lasts, using when he actually speaks the words, speaking when jnana lasts may be the best way to enlighten the listeners.
It may be that by going through the others first,
By the time you come around to vijnana, the person is ready to understand things.
That's, I would say, one of the big reasons why the Buddha ordered things the way he did.
That would be my guess.
I don't know about the five aggregates, why they're ordered that way.
I mean, vijnana, of course, what you're recognizing is it's the overarching
and it's interesting how the Visuddhimagga actually does Rupa and then Vijnana, right?
Maybe this is what you're realizing, is that when we're studying the Visuddhimagga, it does Rupa and then Vijnana.
The Buddha didn't do that.
The Buddha taught the other three first.
No.
Just one of those things.
I wouldn't focus too much attention on it.
Sometimes when I meditate, I don't have access to the meditation app.
I've been recording the time when I get home.
Is that lying as it's not recording the actual time I was meditating?
I'm noticing a bothersome feeling in my mind.
Do I understand this to be what is called an unwholesome state of mind?
Yeah, I mean, worry is an unwholesome state of mind.
Yeah, it's not perfect.
I've done that.
I did that once, I think.
And it's funny, the one time I did it, I didn't do it quite like that.
I didn't.
What did I do?
I started meditating and I thought I'd started the timer, but then I didn't.
And when I finished walking, I realized I hadn't.
So I started the timer then.
And then by the time I came to the broadcast, my bell rang.
And everyone was laughing and calling me out.
And some people were thinking, oh, he doesn't actually meditate.
He just sets the timer to make it look like he does.
Our teacher doesn't actually meditate.
One time I did this.
But yeah, there is something there.
We've got a problem with this system in that regard.
It's not really a problem, but it might be better not to do that.
I mean, there's no
pressure to record your meditation on this app.
But you are kind of giving us all the impression that at that moment you're meditating.
And if everyone started to do that, then they start to wonder, are these people really meditating or are they not?
You add suspicion, you see.
It says currently meditating, and you're not currently meditating.
So probably better not to do that.
Bonte, what you say makes perfect sense.
But also, you know, we sometimes call out people, oh, you know, you're asking a question and you haven't meditated.
So I wonder if there's a way to, like, kind of put in offline meditation.
You know, plug in, somehow plug in the time that you are meditating that you can't be online.
Someone can open an issue to allow you to just add in hours I meditated.
It's a bit complicated.
Yeah, I know for myself, like if I have just a short amount of time, I'm not going to go and run and grab my phone and log in because by the time I do that, then I'll notice that I got three emails and then my 10 minutes to meditate is gone.
So there's so much time that I don't bother to log in.
But it's still meditation time.
Yeah, I mean, I don't, it's not like I use this, I don't use this app to log my meditation.
Just the one before, the one before the thing.
I mean, it's more than that.
The whole thing is we want people to be in a good mode.
So the idea was do some meditation before this, if possible.
Do some meditation before we meet, like recently before we meet, so that you're in a good state of mind when you come here.
Yes, you do meditation other times, but it's not quite the point.
It's fine.
It's okay.
But it would also be nice if you came here having just meditated so that your questions and your mind is in a good state.
I don't know.
I wouldn't take it too seriously.
I would say not.
Don't bother.
But yeah, there's people who are actually using this for commitments, right?
Like how many they're doing every week.
And then if you don't log it on time, well, we better add that then.
You better be able to add time retroactively.
Because that's right.
It's better not to make it look like you are meditating.
You should just be able to add time.
I don't care.
What are people going to do, lie about it?
Pad their profile hours and put it on their resume or something?
So yeah, we should put that in.
We should allow people to add time retroactively.
Yeah, just so when we're, you know, because we're always looking at people's profiles and saying, oh, this person doesn't meditate.
So maybe not going to answer the question.
Don't post it.
Yeah.
Well, if someone can open an issue about that, hopefully our awesome IT team can get around to it.
Is there a subconscious?
Is that a concept?
Not exactly.
There's kind of a pilot light consciousness.
You know how these old stoves have a pilot light, or a gas stove has a pilot light, a furnace has a pilot light?
It's this little flame that keeps burning so that whenever you turn the furnace on,
It can ignite it.
So even when we sleep, in deep sleep, there's still a consciousness.
That's why you kind of have a feeling of time having passed when you wake up, even though you weren't really conscious of it.
And it seems to go very quickly, but it's not that it's just instantaneous.
In between experiences, there is a consciousness, but it doesn't do anything.
It doesn't have any mystical power.
It's just like a placeholder consciousness waiting for something to impinge on the sense doors.
If I do more than three hours of meditation a day, I usually experience a severe lack of pleasure in everything.
How can I deal with this?
Meditate on it.
Do you want to be pleased by everything?
If so, then you should say wanting, wanting.
Or if you're worried about it, you should say worried, worried.
You dislike it.
How can you experience a lack of pleasure?
It means you're not experiencing pleasure, which isn't a problem.
If you're not experiencing something, it's not a problem for you.
But if you find that to be a problem, if you're worried about it or upset about it, that's where your problem is.
Maybe you mean displeasure, in which case you have to be mindful of that.
Bhante, if one is not enlightened, isn't the purpose of metta and karuna more about subduing one's own anger and cruelty instead of trying to change others?
No, it helps to change others.
changes others and changes your relationship with them.
I mean, subduing your own anger and cruelty is going to greatly change your relationship with them, and it's therefore going to help them.
It's going to make them more positively inclined towards you.
Helping yourself, you help others.
Helping others, you help yourself.
So I mean,
You know, helping others is valid.
Helping other people to become enlightened is valid.
If you want to become a Buddha, that's part of your path.
It's not that the only thing... And this is a good point, I suppose.
It's not that the only goal in life is to enlighten yourself.
Many people's goal is to enlighten others as well, and that's valid.
It's not valid to... A valid goal is not to get married or to get rich.
But a valid goal is to help other people become enlightened.
You want to become a Buddha, that's part of your goal.
Even many Arahants help many others.
It's part of their path, sort of.
So I wouldn't really quite separate it out like that.
I mean, you could argue that
Yeah, what you're saying is important because a person who's not enlightened yet, it's important that they help themselves first.
And that's important to point out.
But helping others, you help yourself.
So the good that you give to others through your love and your compassion is a great help for you as well.
I guess the only thing is you wouldn't be, you shouldn't be focusing on helping others until you're enlightened.
I was reading a book by Geshe Kalsang Gyatso, and he was speaking about the six realms that we could be born into while in samsara.
Do you see these realms as real or just symbolic?
I'm trying to better understand Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism so I can possibly choose a path to follow.
Well, they're not symbolic.
But if you ask, is the human realm real?
It's not symbolic.
And you would say, well, of course it's real.
But it's not really real.
It's just a concept.
It's a delineation.
We call the human realm any realm that a human is born into, I guess, or the realm of experience of a human being.
But it's not really a realm, right?
Is this the human realm I'm in?
Well, not really.
But my universe is a human universe because I'm human.
So when I see all this, human.
Why?
Because of me.
Because the experiencer is human.
So there are, I mean, the realms are just ways of, they're just different.
different kinds of experience.
So there are types of experiences or types of beings that are born in terrible straits and the experiences they have are full of suffering.
So we call those hell beings and hell realms.
All it means really is that person is having hellish experiences.
It doesn't mean that they're still human.
It doesn't mean that only humans exist and that we go through all the realms.
No.
No, there are actually beings that are not human.
They don't look like this.
They're in bodies that are far more coarse and unpleasant and they suffer terribly.
They die again and again and they bleed and they suffer again and again.
And then there are beings that are, that other experiences, there are states of being that are pure and pleasant and agreeable.
And so we call those the heavenly realms and heavenly beings, but still just experience.
It just means there's great experience of pleasure all the time.
They're not human.
They don't look like this.
But the way to go is I or you or any of us can go to these places, can transform into one of these beings over time through this form dying away.
And through the mind that is pure, the mind that is defiled, cultivating a new experience.
It cultivates an experience based on its inclination.
It's inclined towards good things.
It will cultivate a heavenly realm, a heavenly existence if it cultivates.
It's full of unpleasantness.
It will cultivate an unpleasant realm, an unpleasant existence.
Dante, is the human realm close to the animal realm, since we obviously are sharing experience with one another?
It's not real.
There's no such thing as the human realm.
What is meant by the human realm is the sphere of rebirth.
So you can be reborn as a human.
It means there is a human realm.
is just means the soil, really.
Soil is maybe a good way to understand it.
You can grow in that soil.
Or basis.
There's the basis for existence that is human.
You can be born as a human.
You can be born in hell.
It's a basis.
You can be born as an animal.
It doesn't mean the animals have their own realms.
means there is a basis of existence that is called the animal existence and of course it's subdivided into so many different types of existence by so many different types of animals that's all they mean it's just and it's really just a classifying into six or ten or twelve or thirty one there's thirty one realms in Abhidhamma tradition or not Abhidhamma but Theravada tradition I guess
It's just a classification.
I guess what I'm asking is because as we walk around and experience our universe, we run into animals.
Whereas we may think we hear angels, but we definitely run into animals.
They're all around us.
So is there something?
Well, it's because their nature is very similar to ours.
I mean, angels are apparently all around us, but their nature is just so different from ours that we're not able to perceive them, not without intense spiritual practice.
Thank you, Bhante.
The recognition wherein all that is conditioned arises and ceases, the space that emits love in no direction, but is love, is space for form to arise.
What can you say about an experience like this?
Those sound like two very different experiences.
Seeing that all that is conditioned arises and ceases is one thing.
The experience of being love is another experience.
And it's not just an experience, it's also an interpretation.
So recognizing where in all, recognition where in all that is conditioned arises and ceases.
You know, I mean, it can just be a conception.
It doesn't have to be recognition.
Because when you recognize that everything arises ceases, the only way you can really experience that is through Nibbana.
Because Nibbana is non-arising.
There's no arising in Ibana.
It doesn't arise.
It doesn't cease.
So through that experience, that's how someone realizes that all that arises ceases.
Beyond that, for most people, it's just a conception.
You don't actually understand that.
You see it again and again, things arising and ceasing, and you might come logically to the conclusion that all that arises or ceases, but it's not really knowing it.
And that's important because
Well, through the realization of Nibbana, you will see the difference.
You'll be blown away by the truth that all that arises actually does cease.
As for being love, that's just a conception.
There's no such thing really as being love.
There's an experience of love.
And then there's probably a conceiving that as being love.
What does it mean to be love?
Love is an experience.
Love is a state of mind.
And it's not just love.
There's pleasure as well, usually.
Love is actually a very small part of what we think of as love.
Most of it is just the pleasure and the liking of the state, attachment even.
Because how could you call it love if it doesn't have an object?
Usually it's just, well, usually it's just kind of loving a state, right?
A state of pleasantness, a state of bliss.
That's probably what, I mean, that's my guess.
There's so many different states and we can call them many different things, but that's what it sounds like to me.
Bonte, I don't always log in when I meditate.
Sometimes I'm not at my computer to log in.
Do I really have to use my phone?
I don't carry it with me all the time.
No, I mean, if you want to use this platform as a commitment, as a way of committing, then it's up to you.
There's no must.
The thing is, if you're going to ask questions, we'd like to know that you're actually a meditator.
So I know that you're a meditator.
That's fine.
But some people, if I don't recognize them and they start asking weird questions, then I can click on their username and say, oh, you don't meditate with us.
I'm not going to answer your question.
We were getting that before.
I'm not getting any of those questions now, but good questions.
But we were getting speculative questions, and I started to say, yeah, these are too speculative.
Look, you guys aren't meditating.
I'm not answering your questions.
I think we're not really going to be checking on people.
I mean, this new site isn't the same setup anyway, but
um you know use this site if it's useful for you come meditate with us before or whenever you know lots of people using the site so it appears to be useful hopefully it stays useful most useful is this meeting i think that we have right but um the point was to make sure that the understanding is that this meeting is for meditators it's not just for people curious or speculative
Do dreams have meaning?
Not really.
They can.
Usually they don't.
And even if they do, they really don't.
Because any meaning that they might have is just conventional.
They might predict the future or they might be trying to teach you something, but the things they can teach you are only conventional.
They can't teach you the truth of reality.
So they're not really all that useful.
All right, after 10, that's enough.
Good night, everyone.
Thank you, Robin, for being with us.
Thank you, Bhante.
Good night.