1 00:00:01,432 --> 00:00:03,635 Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:04,256 --> 00:00:09,343 Today we continue on with verse number 91, which reads as follows. 3 00:00:11,146 --> 00:00:27,709 uyunjanti satimanto naniketi ramantite hangsava palalanghitva okamogam jahantite Which means, 4 00:00:29,512 --> 00:00:36,380 uyunjanti satimanto, the mindful exert themselves, or the mindful work hard. 5 00:00:38,643 --> 00:00:50,257 Nanikete ramantite, they don't delight in dwellings, or they don't delight in dwellings, in homes. 6 00:00:51,919 --> 00:00:56,785 Hangsawa palalanghitwa, just as a, or like a swan 7 00:00:58,148 --> 00:01:04,529 having abandoned the lake, abandoned the lake. 8 00:01:05,151 --> 00:01:10,690 They abandoned house after house, home after home. 9 00:01:14,888 --> 00:01:28,426 So this story, or this verse, was told in relation to a story that's actually interesting in relation to the verse, because it actually implies something of the opposite, what you would think. 10 00:01:29,447 --> 00:01:37,058 From the sounds of this verse, you would think that the Buddha was saying that a person who is mindful exerts themselves. 11 00:01:38,259 --> 00:01:43,326 Such a person should, you would most likely expect, 12 00:01:43,306 --> 00:01:47,442 to avoid having a home and wander. 13 00:01:50,073 --> 00:01:51,358 So here we have this story. 14 00:01:52,688 --> 00:01:59,874 The Buddha was going on pilgrimage, wandering, charika. 15 00:02:00,235 --> 00:02:03,358 The Buddha would go around India to teach. 16 00:02:04,759 --> 00:02:14,067 So traveling from place to place and living and talking with people, debating sometimes with people, with other ascetics. 17 00:02:14,588 --> 00:02:20,653 Sometimes lay people would come and debate with him or ask him difficult questions. 18 00:02:20,633 --> 00:02:25,719 and he would teach and answer and spread his teachings throughout India. 19 00:02:28,802 --> 00:02:49,105 So he was getting ready to go, and all the monks knew that the Buddha was getting ready to go, and so they all prepared, packed up their things, they scrubbed out their bowls and gathered up their robes, and then they saw Maha Kasapa, who was washing his robe, 20 00:02:51,143 --> 00:02:58,433 And they started snickering to themselves or frowning, turning up their noses at this. 21 00:03:00,376 --> 00:03:04,021 Because this is a clear indication that Maha Kasaba wasn't ready to go. 22 00:03:04,041 --> 00:03:05,322 And he wasn't going. 23 00:03:05,382 --> 00:03:06,824 And they said, oh, I know. 24 00:03:06,904 --> 00:03:08,567 One of them said, I know what's going on here. 25 00:03:09,528 --> 00:03:12,051 Here's a guy who is attached to houses. 26 00:03:12,472 --> 00:03:14,214 He's attached to his dwelling. 27 00:03:14,274 --> 00:03:15,396 I mean, who wouldn't be? 28 00:03:15,376 --> 00:03:26,492 He's famous and he's loved by all the lay people and they give him the best choices of food and robes and everything he wants. 29 00:03:26,933 --> 00:03:27,534 He gets here. 30 00:03:27,554 --> 00:03:30,298 If I got that, I wouldn't leave either. 31 00:03:31,279 --> 00:03:34,724 So no doubt he's staying here because he's attached to it and he's comfortable with it. 32 00:03:39,151 --> 00:03:43,577 And so they gossiped and were rather fairly mean-spirited, it sounds like. 33 00:03:47,540 --> 00:03:53,451 maybe not mean-spirited, but they certainly misrepresented his intention, because the Buddha heard about it. 34 00:03:54,452 --> 00:04:07,135 Well, what happened then, everyone left, all the monks left, and Maha Kasaba went with them, but he got to a certain point, and the Buddha turned and said to Maha Kasaba, Maha Kasaba, you stay behind. 35 00:04:09,308 --> 00:04:19,584 And the monks nodded and said to themselves, said to each other, now there you go, even the Buddha knows that Mahakaspa can't leave this place, he's too attached to it. 36 00:04:20,406 --> 00:04:28,018 And so when they were sitting down, I guess in the evening, or they were talking amongst themselves when they were walking, maybe the Buddha turned and said, what are you guys talking about? 37 00:04:29,681 --> 00:04:33,747 What are you bhikkhus engaged in discussion about? 38 00:04:35,752 --> 00:04:53,297 And they told him, and he said, that's ridiculous, that's not at all, he didn't use those words, but he said, that's not at all why Mahakasipa was not ready to go, and that's not at all why I asked him to turn around. 39 00:04:54,219 --> 00:05:03,312 Because Mahakasipa made, he said, made a determination in his past lives to be a support for lay people. 40 00:05:03,292 --> 00:05:08,119 And so he gives a long story about when he made this determination, but for our purposes it's not really useful. 41 00:05:08,700 --> 00:05:13,207 The point is he had this intention to stay and be of benefit to people. 42 00:05:13,267 --> 00:05:25,907 If all the monks left, then who would stay to teach and who would stay to care for and encourage and really support the meditators and the practitioners in the areas? 43 00:05:27,203 --> 00:05:33,013 So, Maha Kasaba knew that he and the Buddha were actually very close. 44 00:05:33,815 --> 00:05:40,667 And when the Buddha passed away, Maha Kasaba was sort of looked upon as the leader of sorts. 45 00:05:40,967 --> 00:05:50,865 Though not to take the place of the Buddha, but to take over some of the role of guidance and direction. 46 00:05:50,845 --> 00:06:09,917 So when the Buddha left to go on his tour, Maha Kassapa knew it was best for him to stay behind because otherwise there would be many things left undone and many people looking to learn about the Dhamma who wouldn't get to hear it and so on. 47 00:06:09,897 --> 00:06:22,612 And the Buddha said, this is, he told this long story about, well, he told a story anyway about Mahakasapa making this wish to be of benefit to people and to not go out of his way. 48 00:06:22,632 --> 00:06:38,031 And then the Buddha said that, he pointed out using this verse, he actually pointed out that it's not that, it's not that people who are mindful, who are enlightened, like an arahant, 49 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:43,686 It's not that they are the ones, or they are not the ones who need to leave houses. 50 00:06:44,186 --> 00:06:49,955 They need to leave their dwellings and need to be careful because they have no attachment. 51 00:06:51,176 --> 00:06:54,381 A person who has no attachment has no problem staying behind. 52 00:06:54,421 --> 00:07:02,753 It's the exact person that you want to have stay in one place and teach and to spread the teachings. 53 00:07:03,695 --> 00:07:14,875 So it kind of put the other monks in the place because the implication is, well, you guys have to come with me so I can take care of you and so you can not be attached to one place for too long. 54 00:07:15,516 --> 00:07:17,078 And so in Thailand you get this a lot. 55 00:07:17,980 --> 00:07:24,792 Monks will wander and never spend more than one night or never spend more than one week in one place. 56 00:07:24,772 --> 00:07:28,658 I've talked to monks who spent the whole year outside of the reins. 57 00:07:29,299 --> 00:07:37,591 They wouldn't spend two nights in a row in the same spot, so they would constantly be moving. 58 00:07:37,671 --> 00:07:40,234 It's harder to do now, but there are monks who do this. 59 00:07:40,955 --> 00:07:54,475 I'm not convinced that it's the greatest thing to do, but there's a sense that, well, when you're still attached to dwellings, that can be quite useful to keep you on your toes. 60 00:07:55,315 --> 00:07:56,337 So this is our story. 61 00:07:57,859 --> 00:08:01,385 And the verse, which is fairly clear, but let's just go through it. 62 00:08:01,505 --> 00:08:11,702 So Satimanto Uryunjanti, that the mindful are not lazy, is basically what's being said here, because there was an implication that Mahakasaba was lazy. 63 00:08:11,862 --> 00:08:14,206 He just couldn't be bothered to go on a tour. 64 00:08:14,246 --> 00:08:16,750 Why bother when everything is so comfortable here? 65 00:08:16,730 --> 00:08:23,882 The Buddha pointed out that even when mindful people stay in one spot, you can't call them lazy. 66 00:08:23,922 --> 00:08:26,186 They will never get lazy because they're mindful. 67 00:08:26,747 --> 00:08:32,136 A person who stays put, even a person who does nothing but walk and sit all day, shouldn't be considered lazy. 68 00:08:32,417 --> 00:08:38,046 Their mindfulness keeps them alert, keeps them energetic, keeps them from being lazy. 69 00:08:38,026 --> 00:08:44,639 So it's not necessarily the case that just because you stay in one place, you're not going to be energetic. 70 00:08:45,340 --> 00:08:49,408 The mindful are always energetic, never lazy. 71 00:08:50,431 --> 00:08:54,318 So those of you who feel like you're lazy out there, use mindfulness. 72 00:08:54,739 --> 00:08:59,308 You don't have to go running or you don't have to exert yourself, just be mindful. 73 00:08:59,558 --> 00:09:04,501 When you're mindful, you can be sitting still all day and still be considered energetic. 74 00:09:04,541 --> 00:09:08,539 Your mind will be alert and you won't fall into the trap of being lazy. 75 00:09:10,173 --> 00:09:14,461 They don't have love for dwellings. 76 00:09:15,543 --> 00:09:27,827 So it's not that they leave them behind, that they have to escape them, but that they have no love for them. 77 00:09:27,847 --> 00:09:31,033 And they will leave, and they're happy to go when it's time to go. 78 00:09:31,013 --> 00:09:35,983 The second part says, like a swan leaves behind a lake. 79 00:09:36,063 --> 00:09:37,587 The swan doesn't worry about the lake. 80 00:09:37,647 --> 00:09:41,996 The swan is not concerned with the lake or say, oh, that was a nice place, maybe I should stay. 81 00:09:42,036 --> 00:09:43,860 Swans, when they leave, they leave. 82 00:09:44,862 --> 00:09:47,487 I mean, swans are just dumb animals, but 83 00:09:48,766 --> 00:09:56,278 In the same vein, the swan not worrying about the lake or not loving the lake or falling in love with the lake or being attached to it. 84 00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:58,522 The swan goes and knows when it's time to go. 85 00:09:59,623 --> 00:10:10,481 In the same way, wise people or those who are mindful, they leave behind or they abandon house after house. 86 00:10:11,282 --> 00:10:14,487 So basically saying, Maha Kaspa has no problem leaving. 87 00:10:14,467 --> 00:10:20,203 He certainly is not attached to... I mean, Mahakaspa was one of the greatest of the Buddha's disciples. 88 00:10:21,286 --> 00:10:29,488 There's some traditions that say he's still alive, waiting to give his robe to the next Buddha. 89 00:10:29,468 --> 00:10:43,849 He entombed himself in the mountain and went into a trance and he's going to stay there for whatever, thousands or hundreds of thousands of years before Medea comes. 90 00:10:44,250 --> 00:10:46,453 And when Medea comes, he's going to come out and give him his robe. 91 00:10:46,693 --> 00:10:52,101 I think it's a Mahayana tradition that says, or it's maybe just an Indian folklore or something. 92 00:10:53,532 --> 00:10:56,095 But he's highly revered. 93 00:10:57,016 --> 00:11:03,903 Apparently, the tradition is, I think, that he aspired once to be a Buddha. 94 00:11:04,584 --> 00:11:13,493 But when he met our Buddha, he realized how difficult it would be and how much better off he would be to learn from this Buddha. 95 00:11:13,833 --> 00:11:16,156 So he put aside his intention. 96 00:11:16,356 --> 00:11:17,757 That was Mahakachayan, I think. 97 00:11:17,797 --> 00:11:19,299 That's a different monk. 98 00:11:19,319 --> 00:11:20,400 I'm confusing them. 99 00:11:20,380 --> 00:11:29,908 But no, Maha Kasaba was the head of the Sangha after the Buddha passed away, or the father of the Sangha is often called after the Buddha passed away. 100 00:11:29,928 --> 00:11:34,542 It's not exactly accurate, but that's sort of how he's looked upon. 101 00:11:36,513 --> 00:11:42,521 So he was a great figure in the Sangha and certainly had no attachments. 102 00:11:43,282 --> 00:11:45,244 But there's a couple of lessons we can learn here. 103 00:11:45,284 --> 00:11:48,488 The first is not to criticize people. 104 00:11:48,549 --> 00:11:50,571 Really not at all. 105 00:11:51,032 --> 00:11:53,495 Criticizing others rarely does any good. 106 00:11:54,376 --> 00:11:59,803 It usually just feeds your ego and helps assuage any 107 00:11:59,783 --> 00:12:03,934 any insecurities we have. 108 00:12:04,235 --> 00:12:06,641 You feel better bringing other people down a notch. 109 00:12:06,801 --> 00:12:09,709 Not good. 110 00:12:11,123 --> 00:12:12,745 And it's often misguided. 111 00:12:12,805 --> 00:12:20,274 People do things for reasons that, if we thought about it, we might be able to empathize and understand why they're doing things. 112 00:12:20,635 --> 00:12:26,062 The person who you're very angry at because of the evil things they've done, well, who knows why they're doing them? 113 00:12:26,122 --> 00:12:28,084 Probably they have evil inside of them. 114 00:12:29,186 --> 00:12:38,397 But they may be doing it because they feel hurt, or because they're in a position where they're not able to understand what's wrong with what they're doing, or this kind of thing. 115 00:12:38,377 --> 00:12:41,160 And often they're doing it blamelessly. 116 00:12:41,680 --> 00:12:43,162 And we get that constantly. 117 00:12:43,642 --> 00:12:48,707 Ajahn Tong, people would criticize him about the silliest of things. 118 00:12:50,629 --> 00:12:57,716 There was one monk who came and saw that Ajahn Tong had all this wonderful food because people, they adore him. 119 00:12:57,896 --> 00:13:01,139 So the food that they would give him is special, extra special food. 120 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:07,185 And there was this one western guy who ordained as a monk for a short time and 121 00:13:07,165 --> 00:13:08,951 He just was disgusted by it. 122 00:13:08,991 --> 00:13:20,348 He said, what's he doing eating all that good food when here we have to... I mean, I think it came from the fact that he wanted some of the good food, but he just felt it was wrong and unfair. 123 00:13:23,332 --> 00:13:24,693 People criticize things. 124 00:13:25,194 --> 00:13:34,284 Like there's this story of, this Zen story of these Western men, I guess, who became monks. 125 00:13:34,304 --> 00:13:41,571 And they went to live with this Japanese monk, I think Japanese monk, Chinese monk maybe, and probably Chinese. 126 00:13:42,072 --> 00:13:48,238 And they were in the monastery, and every day the, maybe it was just one man, anyway, they were in the monastery. 127 00:13:49,019 --> 00:13:51,702 Every day the monk would bow down to this Buddha statue. 128 00:13:51,682 --> 00:13:58,692 And so the guy started doing it and then every day he saw, every day we had to do bowing and bowing and bowing to this Buddha statue. 129 00:13:59,554 --> 00:14:05,162 And finally the guy got upset about it and he turns to him and he said, look, this is ridiculous. 130 00:14:05,182 --> 00:14:07,145 I don't want to bow down to this dumb statue. 131 00:14:07,645 --> 00:14:12,072 He said, I'd rather spit on that image than bow down to it. 132 00:14:13,354 --> 00:14:17,520 And the Chinese monk turns to him and says, okay, you spit, I'll bow. 133 00:14:21,905 --> 00:14:30,376 Sometimes we hold on to things quite strongly and we miss the fact that it's not wrong what other people are doing. 134 00:14:30,697 --> 00:14:31,898 They have reasons for it. 135 00:14:32,780 --> 00:14:40,470 We have to ask ourselves, this is what I learned a lot in Thailand because I was that sort of way in Thailand, criticizing this, criticizing that. 136 00:14:40,450 --> 00:14:49,473 But then I watched and I saw, especially Ajahn Tong, how uncritical he is and how accepting and how he just doesn't even comment on so many things. 137 00:14:50,416 --> 00:14:53,363 And then when he does comment, he finds the good in it. 138 00:14:54,727 --> 00:15:11,689 He finds a way to focus people's attention on what's good about it, and to point out that, sure, he'll say sometimes, like, you know, some people say this is just a ritual, but, you know, it makes people feel good, it makes people mindful, it makes people think about the Buddha, etc., etc., 139 00:15:13,053 --> 00:15:15,562 And that really opened my eyes to, yeah, that's it. 140 00:15:15,662 --> 00:15:18,010 I mean, we're the ones with the unwholesome mind. 141 00:15:18,050 --> 00:15:20,739 This guy was obsessed with spitting. 142 00:15:20,759 --> 00:15:23,148 Well, he was the one obsessed with the bowing. 143 00:15:23,188 --> 00:15:25,054 He was the one that got upset about it. 144 00:15:29,692 --> 00:15:34,743 That's the first thing we can learn is to not criticize others without knowing their reasons. 145 00:15:36,066 --> 00:15:36,487 Be careful. 146 00:15:36,928 --> 00:15:40,696 We should always worry more about our own faults. 147 00:15:43,221 --> 00:15:47,430 We shouldn't worry about the faults of others or the things they've done or left undone. 148 00:15:53,215 --> 00:15:59,430 The second thing is this point that I've sort of already made, but it's a two-pronged point. 149 00:15:59,470 --> 00:16:10,296 There's the idea that people who are truly mindful don't need to do any special practice. 150 00:16:11,930 --> 00:16:13,173 And that's very much true. 151 00:16:13,314 --> 00:16:24,204 A mindful person, there's this Zen thing about the Buddha riding in a Ferrari and wearing gold rings and so on, because he wasn't attached to it. 152 00:16:25,527 --> 00:16:27,272 And so this kind of thing, 153 00:16:27,252 --> 00:16:31,720 You know, it's possible to go way too far with this idea. 154 00:16:33,162 --> 00:16:46,105 Because you say, well, okay, so a mindful person doesn't have to do any special practice, a mindful person doesn't attach to things, well then they could have sex and they could drink alcohol and they could do drugs and all these sorts of things, it wouldn't hurt them. 155 00:16:46,085 --> 00:16:50,513 But the point is that the mindful person wouldn't do these things. 156 00:16:50,773 --> 00:16:52,537 I mean, it's not to say that it couldn't happen. 157 00:16:52,637 --> 00:16:54,360 You can be raped or that kind of thing. 158 00:16:54,520 --> 00:17:01,994 And you can drink something thinking it's not alcohol and wind up being alcohol or drugs or so on. 159 00:17:03,596 --> 00:17:04,498 I once... 160 00:17:04,478 --> 00:17:09,676 I was once given these pills by this woman. 161 00:17:09,696 --> 00:17:17,543 I don't know what her deal was, but I don't really think she had bad intentions, but she gave me these pills saying it was like ginseng. 162 00:17:18,670 --> 00:17:21,313 I thought, well, ginseng, that's good for your mind. 163 00:17:21,894 --> 00:17:25,738 But when I looked it up on the internet, I took the pill and I swallowed it. 164 00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:28,642 She gave me this bottle, and she said, it'd be good for you as a monk. 165 00:17:28,682 --> 00:17:40,676 And so I took the pill, I swallowed it, and as it was settling in my stomach, I looked on the internet to see what its characteristics were. 166 00:17:41,637 --> 00:17:43,159 And it was an aphrodisiac. 167 00:17:44,658 --> 00:17:46,121 Like, oh, well, there it is. 168 00:17:46,141 --> 00:17:49,249 I guess that's the only one I'll be eating of that. 169 00:17:53,900 --> 00:17:59,914 But it's true that if you don't have the desires, then it shouldn't affect you. 170 00:18:00,235 --> 00:18:01,317 It shouldn't be a problem. 171 00:18:04,115 --> 00:18:09,426 But people use it as an excuse to do things that they want to do and claim that they're not attached. 172 00:18:09,707 --> 00:18:13,455 Yeah, I enjoy it, but I'm not attached to it, right? 173 00:18:13,495 --> 00:18:22,714 It's a huge exercise in delusion, in self-delusion, that somehow you can be angry and not cling to it or be greedy and not cling to it. 174 00:18:26,542 --> 00:18:27,684 That's certainly not the case. 175 00:18:29,648 --> 00:18:34,636 Anything that's mental, any of your mental judgments, that's where the problem lies. 176 00:18:34,977 --> 00:18:37,942 Anything that makes you afraid or worried or bored or sad. 177 00:18:40,387 --> 00:18:45,175 Greed or anger in its very base forms, they are 178 00:18:46,403 --> 00:18:47,644 and of themselves a problem. 179 00:18:47,724 --> 00:18:54,751 So you shouldn't use this as an excuse to stay put. 180 00:18:54,771 --> 00:19:07,024 In fact, often, Maha Kasaba may have stayed where he was, but he, in the end, went and lived up on the hill, on the mountain above Rajgaha. 181 00:19:08,185 --> 00:19:09,647 I think after the Buddha passed away. 182 00:19:10,327 --> 00:19:14,031 Yeah, that's where he was staying, because that's where they did the first council. 183 00:19:14,011 --> 00:19:16,535 And they invited him down. 184 00:19:16,575 --> 00:19:20,821 They wanted him to come and stay in the city because he was the big monk and he was getting old. 185 00:19:21,643 --> 00:19:24,427 And they said, you know, we need you down here to support us. 186 00:19:25,308 --> 00:19:25,989 And he refused. 187 00:19:26,210 --> 00:19:28,473 Every day he would go back up, walk all the way up. 188 00:19:28,493 --> 00:19:29,114 It's quite a walk. 189 00:19:30,456 --> 00:19:33,060 Every day he would walk up and live up on the mountain. 190 00:19:33,881 --> 00:19:36,846 Apparently he never laid down either. 191 00:19:36,826 --> 00:19:47,359 He was always walking and sitting, never lying down, throughout his life, or his later years anyway, but I think throughout his monastic life. 192 00:19:52,047 --> 00:19:59,117 So it's not like he was just living in the lap of luxury and not clinging to it. 193 00:19:59,318 --> 00:20:08,331 And they asked him why, and he said it was out of compassion for others so that they were able to see the good example, and because it's much more peaceful. 194 00:20:09,032 --> 00:20:12,958 It's just the right thing to do, living in the forest, living alone, living at peace. 195 00:20:12,938 --> 00:20:15,404 There's no sense of that. 196 00:20:16,186 --> 00:20:19,835 But one should not be attached to these things nor criticize someone. 197 00:20:19,855 --> 00:20:28,838 I mean, a lot of criticism, there was this big criticism that went around recently about these monks who had their own private jet and wore sunglasses. 198 00:20:28,818 --> 00:20:34,789 And at first I understood that that was the criticism, and it didn't really faze me at all. 199 00:20:34,809 --> 00:20:47,672 I'm like, okay, well, it's possible that the monastery could have a jet for, you know, it's a bit outrageous, but my point being, those things in and of themselves don't necessarily, because they're tools. 200 00:20:47,992 --> 00:20:50,417 You know, even sunglasses, lots of monks wear sunglasses. 201 00:20:50,497 --> 00:20:52,260 Ajahn Tong wears sunglasses. 202 00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:52,720 Why? 203 00:20:52,780 --> 00:21:02,089 Because he had eye surgery and the light is, or has been, or was, very, very, his eyes were very sensitive to sunlight. 204 00:21:03,470 --> 00:21:08,815 And, you know, I know lots of monks in Thailand who wear sunglasses. 205 00:21:09,015 --> 00:21:15,981 I don't really think it's that great of an idea, but it's not in and of itself a sign of huge corruption. 206 00:21:16,021 --> 00:21:22,247 I mean, there are far worse things that can and probably do go on that we're not really aware of, but 207 00:21:22,227 --> 00:21:30,844 Be careful not to judge things by appearances or etc. 208 00:21:31,385 --> 00:21:36,355 I think it turns out that those monks were selling drugs or doing drugs or had women or this or that. 209 00:21:37,437 --> 00:21:40,202 That's something you can definitely criticize them about. 210 00:21:40,182 --> 00:21:46,252 But it's an interesting quote. 211 00:21:46,352 --> 00:21:59,794 I mean, on the face it's a sign of the importance of not clinging to our place, our possessions, not clinging to be mindful. 212 00:21:59,774 --> 00:22:08,995 But deeper down, and if you know the backstory, it has more to do with the idea that you don't need to be too concerned about going off into the forest. 213 00:22:09,115 --> 00:22:12,182 Oh, how can I follow the Buddha's teaching, living in the home life? 214 00:22:12,222 --> 00:22:13,525 Yeah, it's more difficult. 215 00:22:13,605 --> 00:22:17,935 Yeah, you're going to be tested and tried, but it can be done. 216 00:22:17,915 --> 00:22:19,879 And we should be clear about two things. 217 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:20,962 One, that it can be done. 218 00:22:21,002 --> 00:22:25,652 And two, that unless we're really, really mindful, it's much easier to get attached. 219 00:22:25,672 --> 00:22:33,409 So you have to be more on your guard, more vigilant when you're living in lay society, when you're living in a house. 220 00:22:34,030 --> 00:22:35,271 much easier to be mindful. 221 00:22:35,331 --> 00:22:36,433 It's actually kind of cheating. 222 00:22:36,473 --> 00:22:37,694 It's easier. 223 00:22:37,774 --> 00:22:44,101 It's an easier way to go off in the forest where we think, oh, going off in the forest, that's difficult. 224 00:22:44,161 --> 00:22:45,163 It's not really difficult. 225 00:22:45,343 --> 00:22:46,504 Living in the forest, there's nothing. 226 00:22:47,385 --> 00:22:50,048 It's just simple and easy and it's wonderful. 227 00:22:51,870 --> 00:22:54,753 Anyway, so that's the Dhammapada for tonight. 228 00:22:55,374 --> 00:22:56,375 Thank you all for tuning in. 229 00:22:56,796 --> 00:23:02,502 Wishing you all good practice and that you all become free from suffering.