1 00:00:01,128 --> 00:00:05,173 Hello and welcome again to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:05,193 --> 00:00:10,860 Today we go on to verses number 26 and 27, which read as follows. 3 00:00:12,842 --> 00:00:24,756 PAMADAM MANU YUNJANTI BALADU MEDHINO JANA APAMADAN CHA MEDHAVI DANNAM SE THANGVA RAKHATI 4 00:00:25,900 --> 00:00:45,900 So two verses again on the practice of meditation. 5 00:00:46,370 --> 00:00:59,625 The Appamada Vaga is going to be mostly about the practice of meditation because the word Appamada, we translate it as heedfulness, but it's really the core of what is meant by meditation or meditation practice in Buddhism. 6 00:00:59,645 --> 00:01:03,850 It's translated directly by the Buddha as mindfulness. 7 00:01:03,870 --> 00:01:13,862 It says the meaning of the word Appamada is to be mindful all the time, to never be without mindfulness or without sati, without remembrance or recollection. 8 00:01:15,665 --> 00:01:42,499 so the direct meaning of these verses they indulge or they partake of heedlessness or negligence the fools and the unwise people but those who are wise the wise 9 00:01:43,070 --> 00:01:55,888 partake in apamada, partake in heedfulness, and guard it, rakati, danang setang, like a high or a special treasure. 10 00:01:57,109 --> 00:02:04,099 So the wise guard mindfulness or heedfulness as a great treasure. 11 00:02:05,294 --> 00:02:16,052 And then the Buddha says, don't engage in heedlessness, in negligence. 12 00:02:17,434 --> 00:02:27,370 Don't partake or indulge in, or don't become intoxicated by sensuality. 13 00:02:27,350 --> 00:02:42,060 Because only those who are heedful and meditating attain great happiness or attain a profound happiness. 14 00:02:42,441 --> 00:02:46,810 A profound happiness is attained. 15 00:02:48,511 --> 00:02:51,455 So this is a very important teaching to understand. 16 00:02:51,756 --> 00:02:57,764 And it's something that really cuts right to the heart of our attachments in the worldly sphere. 17 00:02:58,766 --> 00:03:00,448 Really good story, very short story. 18 00:03:01,710 --> 00:03:06,537 But the story goes that in Savatthi, there was a holiday. 19 00:03:07,658 --> 00:03:13,206 And it kind of seems like a strange holiday, but there are parallels even in modern times. 20 00:03:13,246 --> 00:03:17,472 It was a holiday where anything went, anything was allowed. 21 00:03:18,025 --> 00:03:24,293 So there was no sense of respect for anyone. 22 00:03:24,473 --> 00:03:33,505 The people who partook in this holiday would abandon all sense of respect for mother, father, for boss, for teacher, and so on. 23 00:03:33,926 --> 00:03:44,640 And they would go from house to house, probably drunk, and abuse and revile everyone, you pig, you cow, you goat, calling them all sorts of horrible names. 24 00:03:45,245 --> 00:03:49,551 And the game was that if you wanted them to go away, you had to give them stuff. 25 00:03:49,912 --> 00:03:53,477 So it was like trick or treat, basically, like Halloween, except they really didn't. 26 00:03:53,517 --> 00:03:55,039 They were really mean and nasty. 27 00:03:55,540 --> 00:04:03,912 And they would stay there until you give them some money or some wine or I don't know, whatever, food, and then they would go away. 28 00:04:05,647 --> 00:04:11,615 And so the thing was that in Savatthi there was a great proportion of people who were enlightened. 29 00:04:12,016 --> 00:04:15,701 Or Sotapanna or Sakitagami at some stage of enlightenment. 30 00:04:15,741 --> 00:04:18,565 So they obviously wouldn't partake in such a festival. 31 00:04:19,046 --> 00:04:21,249 And so they had a horrible time for seven days. 32 00:04:22,531 --> 00:04:26,997 And they asked the Buddha not to come to Savatthi because if the Buddha went there they would revile the Buddha. 33 00:04:27,398 --> 00:04:29,201 And that would be very bad karma for them. 34 00:04:29,241 --> 00:04:33,527 So they said to the Buddha, please stay in Jetavana and we'll bring you food every day. 35 00:04:33,647 --> 00:04:35,029 So they brought food for seven days. 36 00:04:35,930 --> 00:04:41,939 And then after the seventh day, they came to see the Buddha and said, oh, venerable sir, we stayed so awful for these seven days. 37 00:04:41,999 --> 00:04:46,405 It was so tiring for us to have to put up with this silliness. 38 00:04:48,148 --> 00:04:49,489 Why are people like this? 39 00:04:49,770 --> 00:04:50,571 Why do people... 40 00:04:52,137 --> 00:04:53,238 act in such a way. 41 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:56,121 Isn't it crazy that they do? 42 00:04:56,161 --> 00:05:06,172 And the Buddha said, oh yes, this is the difference between those who are enlightened or those who have understood the truth and those who are still mired in delusion. 43 00:05:07,513 --> 00:05:15,782 And so the first verse here, and then he told these verses, and the first verse explains the difference between the two, that 44 00:05:16,505 --> 00:05:36,403 An ordinary person, a person who has no idea about what is right and what is wrong and has never contemplated these things or investigated what might be the truth, what the things that they value are the most base and useless qualities. 45 00:05:36,964 --> 00:05:39,829 For instance, negligence or drunkenness. 46 00:05:40,383 --> 00:05:52,941 So an ordinary person and people in ordinary life will actually, the things that they will cherish are the times when they were the least mindful and the least clear in their mind. 47 00:05:53,021 --> 00:06:06,019 So when you think in lay life, would people, or not in lay life, for people who haven't practiced meditation, the kind of things that they cherish, they cherish those times when they were drunk or when they did something silly and they were having a great time. 48 00:06:05,999 --> 00:06:11,326 and doing all sorts of crazy things when they were young and crazy and how wonderful it was and so on. 49 00:06:12,728 --> 00:06:15,712 They cherish these times when they do the craziest things. 50 00:06:15,772 --> 00:06:22,941 And so people who, for instance, in this festival, they would always think back to, oh, wasn't it a wonderful time where we could say whatever we want? 51 00:06:22,981 --> 00:06:24,243 Didn't we have a great time then? 52 00:06:25,444 --> 00:06:27,687 And they make it out to be this wonderful thing. 53 00:06:28,072 --> 00:06:46,468 And a person who has actually taken the time to see the consequences of our actions and the consequences of every individual mind state is totally the opposite and actually cherishes as a treasure those times when they are cogent, those times when they are aware. 54 00:06:46,448 --> 00:06:59,825 And one of the big reasons for this, I think, is that a person who has no idea or no skill in understanding experience will have a very difficult time just being with reality. 55 00:07:00,085 --> 00:07:06,053 Reality is the worst thing for them, the last thing they want to focus on, because it's unpleasant, it's difficult to deal with. 56 00:07:06,093 --> 00:07:07,815 So pain comes up and they're... 57 00:07:07,795 --> 00:07:20,877 tears in their eyes and when someone's saying things to them that they don't like and they get angry when they have to do work and then they can become frustrated or bored or depressed or so on. 58 00:07:21,869 --> 00:07:24,812 the last thing they want to do is to focus on reality. 59 00:07:28,276 --> 00:07:49,699 So the whole goal or the point in Buddhism, in the Buddhist teaching, is to come back to reality and to find a way to be happy at all times, in any situation, not have our happiness depend on some specific circumstance. 60 00:07:50,506 --> 00:07:55,919 and not have it require some specific situation. 61 00:07:56,560 --> 00:08:05,882 Because when your happiness depends on something, it becomes an addiction and it becomes a partiality where you aren't able to accept the rest of reality. 62 00:08:05,862 --> 00:08:34,367 because you're thinking about or wanting or striving after a certain experience and the experience has to become further and more and more extravagant in order to satisfy the cravings because our pleasure stimulus isn't a static system when you get what you want you want more of it when you get more of it you want even more and it gets 63 00:08:34,583 --> 00:08:58,920 builds and builds and builds until you the only way you can be happy is to have some crazy festival like this where you go and do something you know because you're repressing these desires you're repressing your your you know your greed your anger and so on there i heard about this one society this one uh group of people where they will engage in in uh 64 00:08:59,491 --> 00:09:29,329 group group sex they will get all together and have a big orgy just like animals and for them I mean this may sound coarse and rude to say but it's actually a philosophy that they have that well if this is a way to find pleasure then you should strive to indulge in it to the most extreme extent possible and so it's a philosophy that they have and the idea being that as long as you can get it 65 00:09:29,309 --> 00:09:30,351 Then what's wrong with it? 66 00:09:30,411 --> 00:09:32,193 Because you can be happy all the time. 67 00:09:32,213 --> 00:09:33,035 This is the idea. 68 00:09:33,055 --> 00:09:37,381 So this is for people who don't see what they're doing to their mind. 69 00:09:37,401 --> 00:09:38,643 They think it's somehow static. 70 00:09:38,663 --> 00:09:40,366 Well, if I want it, any time I can get it. 71 00:09:40,406 --> 00:09:42,549 And then if I don't want it, I can come back and not have it. 72 00:09:43,170 --> 00:09:50,862 Without seeing the effect that it's having on your mind and on the pleasure stimulus systems in the brain and so on, and how actually... 73 00:09:50,842 --> 00:10:20,562 you're creating an addiction and you're creating an intense partiality this is an example of an extreme state there are societies where they don't allow this sort of thing and where you have to be totally formal and polite and proper at all times conservative, ethical and so on and any kind of showing of emotion is considered bad form 74 00:10:21,115 --> 00:10:26,514 But then they... So they still have these desires and they repress them and repress them and repress them. 75 00:10:26,534 --> 00:10:28,381 And then they have these festivals. 76 00:10:28,501 --> 00:10:30,990 So there are... I've heard places where... 77 00:10:31,207 --> 00:10:35,994 Everything has to be proper and everyone has a role and a hierarchy and so on. 78 00:10:36,355 --> 00:10:39,219 But then they have these parties where they get drunk and anything goes. 79 00:10:39,540 --> 00:10:45,288 And like you have... I heard about the boss getting together with, you know, having crazy things. 80 00:10:45,949 --> 00:10:47,872 So these are the things that I hear in the world. 81 00:10:47,912 --> 00:10:49,314 And these things really do go on. 82 00:10:49,394 --> 00:10:54,502 I mean, it's actually kind of embarrassing to talk about these things. 83 00:10:54,763 --> 00:10:56,345 But this is what's really happening in the world. 84 00:10:56,425 --> 00:10:57,687 People are so... 85 00:10:57,667 --> 00:11:03,876 that they actually think these things are a cause for happiness. 86 00:11:03,936 --> 00:11:24,906 And so there are scientists and researchers who have studied this and see that it really goes step by step by step until finally it becomes such a perverse thing where you're involving these groups or even, they were saying on this one site, this one article that I read 87 00:11:25,780 --> 00:11:30,206 It eventually gets to with animals and so on. 88 00:11:30,226 --> 00:11:31,548 This is where you find your pleasure. 89 00:11:31,588 --> 00:11:35,173 And so this is the kind of thing that we would have seen in Savatthi. 90 00:11:35,193 --> 00:11:37,437 Of course, it just talks about reviling people. 91 00:11:38,018 --> 00:11:44,066 But for sure that they had other festivals in regards to sensuality. 92 00:11:44,086 --> 00:11:46,950 And this is where the whole Kama Sutra came up and so on. 93 00:11:46,970 --> 00:11:50,235 And this is how people in the world think that they can find happiness. 94 00:11:50,806 --> 00:11:55,074 So there are two ways that we understand this. 95 00:11:55,094 --> 00:11:59,142 For someone who practices meditation, it's obvious that these things don't lead to happiness. 96 00:11:59,823 --> 00:12:04,091 You engage in them, you indulge in them, and you find that you're just back where you started from. 97 00:12:04,131 --> 00:12:06,556 You're still unhappy inside. 98 00:12:06,576 --> 00:12:12,848 You're still unsatisfied even with these things. 99 00:12:14,566 --> 00:12:18,733 Really, the idea is that we're trying to find happiness here and now. 100 00:12:19,094 --> 00:12:24,604 Even if you can say that, well, I may be unhappy here, but when I get what I want, at that time I'm happy. 101 00:12:24,764 --> 00:12:25,586 So what's wrong with it? 102 00:12:25,606 --> 00:12:27,148 I'm getting a happiness, right? 103 00:12:27,188 --> 00:12:28,731 At the time when I get it, there's pleasure. 104 00:12:29,653 --> 00:12:37,587 But the point is that the bare fact that you want that is a sign that you're not happy. 105 00:12:37,853 --> 00:12:48,229 If you are happy, you wouldn't need to strive for something, you wouldn't need to go for something, you wouldn't need to build something, you wouldn't need to create something, you wouldn't need to attain something or get something. 106 00:12:49,771 --> 00:12:57,803 So the radical task that we have is to find happiness without getting that, without getting anything. 107 00:12:57,783 --> 00:12:59,325 To find happiness here and now. 108 00:12:59,365 --> 00:13:01,947 And it's actually really a simple thing. 109 00:13:01,967 --> 00:13:04,330 And if you think about it, it's how it should be. 110 00:13:04,370 --> 00:13:06,653 That we should find happiness here and now. 111 00:13:06,713 --> 00:13:09,315 Why should our happiness depend on something over there? 112 00:13:10,156 --> 00:13:12,158 Why can't our happiness be here and now? 113 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:18,285 It's a very valid question, but it's one that we never ask and we always overlook. 114 00:13:18,345 --> 00:13:21,829 We think, obviously, if you want happiness, you have to strive for it. 115 00:13:21,889 --> 00:13:22,930 You have to go for it. 116 00:13:23,264 --> 00:13:27,432 Well, the truth is that even to find happiness here and now, you have to strive for it. 117 00:13:27,692 --> 00:13:36,769 And so this is why actually often people will find that the practice of meditation is something that is uncomfortable and unpleasant, right? 118 00:13:37,410 --> 00:13:39,955 The point being because you always want to go out for something. 119 00:13:39,975 --> 00:13:44,543 You want to go after that and you're trying to train yourself out of that. 120 00:13:44,583 --> 00:13:47,348 So sometimes you stop yourself and you say no and then you feel... 121 00:13:48,290 --> 00:14:09,842 or sometimes you go after it and then you feel guilty or so on, until you finally are able to change your mind and straighten your mind so that you're able to see the goal, to see the object of your desire and to simply see it for what it is. 122 00:14:10,075 --> 00:14:17,247 and to be able to live with the perception of something without having to chase after it. 123 00:14:17,367 --> 00:14:21,133 So when you think of something that you normally would like, you're just thinking of it. 124 00:14:21,834 --> 00:14:26,422 When you hear a sound that you find pleasant, you just hear the sound. 125 00:14:26,442 --> 00:14:28,405 When you see something beautiful, you just see it. 126 00:14:29,547 --> 00:14:35,577 And you're able to experience happiness in that moment without having your happiness be only 127 00:14:35,995 --> 00:14:40,942 when you get that object and you find yourself at peace here and now. 128 00:14:41,322 --> 00:14:43,085 But it's something that you have to strive for. 129 00:14:43,145 --> 00:14:45,008 So we can say that there are these two strivings. 130 00:14:45,108 --> 00:14:55,883 This is what the Buddha said, people who strive after pleasure and trying to find some object of happiness and people who strive to be free from that, to find happiness here and now. 131 00:14:56,003 --> 00:14:57,285 It's really two different paths. 132 00:14:57,725 --> 00:15:00,990 It's not that we're striving to achieve something or get something. 133 00:15:01,358 --> 00:15:06,827 We're trying to stop striving, to stop achieving, to stop chasing after. 134 00:15:06,847 --> 00:15:08,169 It's also very difficult. 135 00:15:08,509 --> 00:15:11,634 So these are the two paths and this is what the Buddha lays out here. 136 00:15:12,075 --> 00:15:16,322 That for ordinary people they will just let themselves go. 137 00:15:16,922 --> 00:15:21,730 Drink alcohol and take drugs and engage in all sorts of foolishness. 138 00:15:22,098 --> 00:15:29,109 enjoying the happiness, but they don't see how it's changing their minds, and they don't see how it's building these mindsets. 139 00:15:29,129 --> 00:15:30,230 We're not static beings. 140 00:15:31,672 --> 00:15:35,178 Another thing is, this shows how important the Buddha's teaching of karma is. 141 00:15:36,660 --> 00:15:40,746 And it goes a lot deeper than we actually think, because I don't have karma, you don't have karma. 142 00:15:41,067 --> 00:15:43,330 Karma is the truth of reality. 143 00:15:43,370 --> 00:15:44,532 There only is karma. 144 00:15:45,453 --> 00:15:47,336 We create ourselves out of karma. 145 00:15:47,817 --> 00:15:49,800 The whole of our being is created out of karma. 146 00:15:49,820 --> 00:15:50,721 The whole of our life 147 00:15:51,106 --> 00:15:52,288 is created out of karma. 148 00:15:52,308 --> 00:15:56,012 There's no I. There's only the actions, the things that we do. 149 00:15:56,052 --> 00:15:59,437 So everything that we do creates us. 150 00:15:59,997 --> 00:16:02,641 The reason why we get angry is because we've built up anger. 151 00:16:02,681 --> 00:16:07,887 The reason why we have greed and want things is because we build up greed and want things year after year. 152 00:16:07,907 --> 00:16:08,688 That's all we are. 153 00:16:09,209 --> 00:16:16,498 We're this accumulation or this conglomeration, aggregation of mind states, both positive and negative. 154 00:16:16,538 --> 00:16:19,442 Why we have love and kindness is because we've developed this. 155 00:16:19,810 --> 00:16:26,924 because we've come to see the truth, because we've come to see how horrible it is to suffer, and so we don't want to see other beings suffer and so on. 156 00:16:29,208 --> 00:16:30,230 We are what we do. 157 00:16:30,270 --> 00:16:35,220 We are according to the things that we do and the qualities that we build up. 158 00:16:36,179 --> 00:16:55,509 So it's important to understand the difference here, because I think all of us can see in our own lives and in our own past this attachment to negligence, this attachment to having fun and enjoying life and so on, without seeing how it's creating addiction, how it's actually feeding our dissatisfaction. 159 00:16:55,609 --> 00:16:58,354 So it's making it harder for us to just be here and now. 160 00:16:59,495 --> 00:17:01,258 When we come back to be just here and now, we say, 161 00:17:01,559 --> 00:17:05,163 how radically opposed these two paths are. 162 00:17:06,104 --> 00:17:19,918 Just being here and now is something totally different and completely opposed in the sense that the more we strive to achieve happiness and strive to achieve pleasure, the harder it is for us to find happiness and peace here and now. 163 00:17:20,499 --> 00:17:24,763 The more we find peace and happiness here and now, the less we want, the less we need of anything. 164 00:17:25,104 --> 00:17:31,110 If you think just where we are right here, right now, when we find happiness here, everything else disappears. 165 00:17:31,681 --> 00:17:41,252 suddenly the whole world, all of who we are, our lives, our friends, our family, all of our thoughts, all of our ambitions have just 166 00:17:42,110 --> 00:17:43,973 disappeared, vanished in thin air. 167 00:17:45,375 --> 00:17:46,196 That's the first verse. 168 00:17:47,598 --> 00:17:55,429 The second verse is an injunction by the Buddha, that once you see this, if you're a wise person, you should not engage in negligence. 169 00:17:55,630 --> 00:17:59,275 Don't engage in it, because it will make it harder for you to find happiness. 170 00:17:59,295 --> 00:18:02,920 It will make you less happy, less satisfied, less at peace with yourself. 171 00:18:03,801 --> 00:18:10,050 Don't get caught up in delight in sensuality. 172 00:18:10,491 --> 00:18:11,813 This is what the Buddha says. 173 00:18:11,793 --> 00:18:16,443 Because this is, sensuality is really the worst of them. 174 00:18:17,746 --> 00:18:19,450 It's the most coarse of our desires. 175 00:18:19,851 --> 00:18:26,325 We may have ambitions or so on, but our desire for sensuality, sights and sounds and smells and tastes and feelings, 176 00:18:27,824 --> 00:18:54,372 is the worst because it involves the body and it involves chemicals and hormones and so on and dopamine in the brain and so on and this addiction cycle which as I said is actually creating what we call sankhara it's forming our reality it's changing who we are from the very core it's not us doing this this doing becomes us this is who we become 177 00:18:56,478 --> 00:19:00,368 And he says, why should you follow what I say? 178 00:19:00,688 --> 00:19:04,839 Why should you not be negligent and why should you not indulge in delight and sensuality? 179 00:19:05,761 --> 00:19:13,440 He says, because it's only the appamato, only by being heedful, jayanto and meditating. 180 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:20,728 Does one attain the profoundest happiness? 181 00:19:21,329 --> 00:19:24,874 So the happiness here is the happiness of peace. 182 00:19:25,495 --> 00:19:29,441 The Buddha said, There is no happiness without peace. 183 00:19:30,623 --> 00:19:44,102 The happinesses that we call happiness, the pleasures in the world, the things that we say are our happiness or our way to find true satisfaction, are not real happiness because they're impermanent, they change. 184 00:19:44,167 --> 00:19:59,374 they're dependent they require some attainment that is also important they require an object and they create partiality they create their opposite which is suffering and dissatisfaction and so one 185 00:19:59,742 --> 00:20:05,168 The more one indulges, the more one goes back and forth between one and the other, pleasure and pain. 186 00:20:05,849 --> 00:20:06,950 And one is never at peace. 187 00:20:07,070 --> 00:20:09,814 One is never able to just be here and now. 188 00:20:10,875 --> 00:20:19,064 One's life is always about seeking after this, running away from that, seeking, running, seeking, running, being pushed and pulled back and forth. 189 00:20:19,785 --> 00:20:21,427 And one can never just be here and now. 190 00:20:21,667 --> 00:20:23,910 One never has the... 191 00:20:25,797 --> 00:20:31,450 the ability or the safety or the stability of just being here and now. 192 00:20:31,470 --> 00:20:38,204 They can build up some kind of pleasant state of being for some time and then see it washed away in the end. 193 00:20:38,225 --> 00:20:45,240 At the very end, then, when they die, they will be in a state of loss because of their attachments, because of the things that they still are clinging to. 194 00:20:46,418 --> 00:20:50,265 So the profound happiness that the Buddha is talking about is peace here and now. 195 00:20:50,566 --> 00:20:54,753 Being able to be in the here and now without any clinging or any attachment. 196 00:20:55,875 --> 00:20:57,058 So that's the teaching today. 197 00:20:57,098 --> 00:21:00,384 That's Dhammapada verses 26 and 27. 198 00:21:00,765 --> 00:21:01,746 Thank you for tuning in. 199 00:21:02,227 --> 00:21:05,714 I wish you all to find peace, happiness and freedom from suffering. 200 00:21:06,134 --> 00:21:06,435 Thank you.