Good evening everyone and welcome to our live broadcast.
Today we're looking at Anguttara Nikaya Book of Fives, Sutta 101, the Saraja Sutta.
It's another classic Anguttara Nikaya Sutta, short, sweet, to the point.
It's just a list.
It's not much more than a list.
So saraja or vesaraja as it's called in the sutta, vesaraja, vesarada, vesarada means confidence, self-confidence.
It's another one of those Dhammas that we learn in Thai Dhamma school.
These are the Dhammas that give self-confidence, that give true self-confidence.
that give an unshakable confidence.
So there are people out there who can be confident without these, but they are using bravado, or a type of confidence that is limited, that is shakable, that can be shaken, can be shook.
So if you're looking for true confidence, a way to be truly sure of yourself, there's nothing worse than a person who is falsely sure of themselves.
Someone who goes by bravado.
It's quite unpleasant to hear them say and do things with such confidence when you know that they have no reason to be confident about such things.
They will kill with confidence.
They will steal with confidence.
And they're very sure of themselves, but it's not a type of confidence that is solid and sure.
It's fickle.
It can change, it can break, it can fade away.
But these five
are the true way to confidence.
I remember as a young monk going over these and reminding myself of these.
Okay.
I was highly unconfident.
I had a strong lack of confidence in myself.
Five things lead to self-assurance of being confident but comfortable about yourself.
Let's see, saraja.
Saraja means timidity.
Right, so way saraja means free from timidity, having no timidity, no fear.
Let's say fearless.
And so the Buddha said these are the five things that make
A trainee, someone who is training in Buddhism, free from fear.
So what are these five?
Here, a bhikkhu, say a meditator.
is confident.
The first one is confidence, but it's going to be a little bit different.
Faithful might be a better word.
It's a believer.
So here we have to separate the types of sada, the types of confidence.
Number two, siddhava, is moral or ethical.
Number three, bahusuto, is of much learning.
Number four, Aradha Viriyam, has firm, strong effort, great energy, unshaking, unwavering energy.
And number five, Panyava Hoti, Panyava has wisdom.
These five dhammas free one from fear.
So the Buddha says, Whatever trembling or fear there is, meekness, timidity, let's just say insecurity.
Insecurity is a good word.
Whatever insecurity there is for one who has no faith, no confidence,
That insecurity does not exist for one who has faith, confidence.
It's a hard word, saddha, because if we say faith, well then it's like believing without any reason, right?
But in Buddhism, confidence in the Buddha is what is meant here, but it's confidence with reason, not without reason.
When you have confidence because you listen to the Buddha talk or you've read the Buddha's teachings and you have confidence in his teachings.
Maybe you've just seen or you've practiced
You've gained this unshakable confidence in the Buddha's teaching.
In essence, put your faith in the Buddha.
It's not worth saying it like that, but the idea being that your faith in the Buddha protects you.
You're not afraid of anything because you know that the Dhamma will protect you.
That's your confidence.
And this is the kind of thing that comes from, it's great about meditation practice, when you learn the technique of how to cultivate this clarity of mind.
When you see something, you notice seeing.
When you hear something, you notice hearing.
When you feel, it's feeling.
When you think, it's just thinking.
Nothing can possibly phase you.
If you really understand that, if you become comfortable in that truth,
There's something that can shake that confidence.
Because what could come?
Maybe you feel pain.
Well, then it's pain.
Maybe someone attacks you or is shouting at you.
Well, it's just sound.
Maybe you see something you don't like or hear something you don't like.
Maybe you get sick.
Well, it's all just experience and you know how to deal with it.
Someone who is truly on the path of training has nothing to fear.
Sanda.
First one is confidence.
Putting your confidence in the practice.
Usually through having practiced.
But it's a good one.
If you're doubting about your practice, if you're doubting about your path, that's a good reason for insecurity.
So you better find a path that you can be confident about, or find the confidence in the path that gives you the security, the sense of security.
That's the first one.
The second one, whatever insecurity there is for someone who is unethical, immoral,
That insecurity does not exist in one who is ethical, who is moral.
Simple.
One person who is unethical has a lot to fear.
There's a lot to be worried about.
Most especially the question, am I a bad person?
They can't rightly say they're a good person.
They can't rightly be proud of the things that they do.
They will always live with this cloud over them of the bad deeds that they've done.
A lot of people remark that evil people don't seem to be remorseful or don't seem to have a sense of suffering because of what they've done.
And it's a whole different way of living that way.
It's true.
Some people are like that, but they have to run.
They have to constantly run from themselves.
Such people cannot meditate.
would go crazy if they tried to sit still and actually taste all the things that were in their mind actually experience their own minds and so they have to divert themselves constantly and for a while they might be able to do that but no one can escape their karma it's a law of nature it's an orderliness of the world bad is bad and good is good
It's a part of the system.
So such people may be very confident, but again, it's a tenuous confidence, and at any moment it could shatter when they're forced to face reality.
If you look at, I did this compilation video from the Thai version of Angulimala, and it's a really good example.
Oh, that movie, they really did a good job, and it's a shame because very few people know about that movie.
Most of it's blood and gore and killing, but when they get to the part where Angulimala meets the Buddha, it's just, from there on, the movie is just spot on.
Until the ending.
The ending is kind of weird.
They have some weird theories.
It's not bad, but it's not ideal.
But the part where he meets the Buddha, he's so confident, he's just got to kill the Buddha and then he'll become enlightened, right?
And the Buddha just sits him down and has him actually look and examine this unshakable confidence because he's so confident.
He says, what are you going to teach me?
And he shows him impermanent suffering and non-self, which is just, it's incredible that they show that in the movie.
And he just falls to pieces.
It's a really good representation of this false confidence that can potentially exist in evil people.
It's not unshakeable.
Much better to be ethical and moral and build your confidence on that because then no matter what anyone says about you, you have no reason to get upset.
Someone says you're a bad person.
In point of fact, you're not.
Whereas a person who does unethical things is never sure
Because they have some good, maybe, and they have some bad.
And you can never say with confidence, I am a good person.
So best be ethical.
Be of spotless behavior.
And number three, whatever insecurity there is for someone who has little learning, little knowledge, that insecurity does not exist for one who is of great learning.
I mean, this is,
somewhat conditional, of course, right?
An enlightened being with little learning is probably pretty confident, but it's because what they lack in learning, they make up in confidence, ethics, and all the other ones.
But all other things being equal, even in, say, an Arahant, an Arahant who has little learning,
will speak little, will not be confident giving talks, will not be inclined to give talks.
They won't be worried about it.
They won't have insecurity, per se.
But for a seka, this sutta is about seka, which is anyone from a sotapanna onto a sakadagami, or anagami.
Sotapanna, sakadagami, or anagami.
So they still have worry, potentially.
And so they can still be unsure of themselves.
Especially if they have little learning.
Because they themselves don't know it.
And haven't realized the thing, whatever it is that they are confronted with.
and they don't have the Buddha's knowledge of many things, meaning they can come across situations that they're not able to elucidate or to solve, situations they're not able to find a solution for, both because they haven't learned it experientially, they aren't fully enlightened,
And because they don't have the Buddha's teaching to back them up.
But someone who has vast learning, even if they haven't become enlightened yet themselves, well, they have the confidence of the Buddha behind them.
It's easy to get overconfident through learning in this way.
So it's certainly not something to be relied upon entirely.
But certainly a monk who has a vast store of learning all other things being equal is going to be far more confident in, not just in teaching, but in just living their lives.
They have so much wisdom to fall back on.
Of course, it's the Buddha's wisdom, not their wisdom, but they can tap into it and find answers, find support and advice and solutions to their problems.
So learning is a good thing.
Don't let anyone tell you it's not.
Learning alone is a problem, but learning accompanied with training, with the support, gives you confidence.
Just make sure you're also training, also meditating, practicing.
Number four, whatever insecurity there is in someone who is lazy,
For one who is of unshaking, unwavering effort, unwavering energy, that insecurity does not exist.
So for someone who is lazy, well, they're not sure how far they're going to go.
Laziness is what stops you in the practice.
Am I going to become enlightened?
What does my future have in store for me?
For a lazy person, it's unsure, uncertain.
And for a person who is energetic, it's a great confidence.
Like you see a person running down the highway, you know they're gonna get somewhere.
You see a person sleeping under a tree by the side of the road, you're not sure where they're going to go.
Our energy gives us confidence.
I can do this.
We see results through effort.
When you put out effort, confidence goes through the roof.
Confidence increases because you see the results.
You see progress.
You see how it works.
You do the work.
You get the reward.
A lazy person doesn't have such reassurance.
And number five, for one who is of weak wisdom, whatever insecurity there is for one who is of weak wisdom, that insecurity does not exist for one who is wise.
This is the most important one, of course.
This is about speaking of enlightenment.
So for even a Sotapanna, the wisdom of a Sotapanna that they've gained through seeing Nibbana, I mean, that's what wisdom means.
Wisdom is about experience in Buddhism.
So just a brief experience of Nibbana, well, just to get there requires quite a bit of wisdom and understanding.
But the understanding of the nature of Nibbana is such a
confidence boost because you no longer have to worry about the world you've seen you've seen something beyond the world so you don't have to concern yourself with how do I look how do I appear where am I going to go none of that's really of consequence the only thing of consequence is whether you're going to attain nibbana whether you're going to find peace
Because samsara is just going around and around in circles.
And so the wisdom that sees through that, that's the wisdom that frees you, frees you from craving, frees you from aversion, frees you from delusion.
And that gives you confidence, gives you security, a sense of self-assurance.
So these are good to keep in mind.
I think, as I said, there's something that I thought about a lot as far as building up my own self-confidence and my own meditation practice.
It's good to think of these so we can work on them because these are generally things you can work on in various ways.
Have a little bit of faith.
It can be a good thing, a little bit anyway.
Just be careful you're not consumed by your doubts and insecurities.
Certainly tweak your ethics.
Try to be as ethic and moral as possible so you don't have fear and worry of feeling like a bad person.
Learn, study.
Don't be lazy.
And most of all, practice insight meditation to gain wisdom, because that's where certainty lies.
So there you go.
That's the Dhamma for tonight.
Looks like we have a few questions.
I have a friend whose son has epilepsy caused by stress, she believes.
She has asked me to ask you if you have worked with such people before.
No, I never have.
I can't remember that I've ever worked, well, I mean, someone could have had it and not told me, right?
Epilepsy is not something that is constant, but I can't recall working with someone who was actively epileptic.
Not that I think it's a big deal.
I mean, I don't see why that would be a problem for a meditator as long as they were not in any danger of physical harm.
Certainly, if stress is a trigger for an epileptic seizure,
Meditation can't but help.
It might.
I mean, you could argue, hey, maybe, and I don't know if this is the case, but it may very well be that it could trigger an epileptic fit.
But that would be a process because meditation can force you to go through some physical stress in the beginning.
It's stressful in the beginning.
It can be.
As you deal with your stress and you learn about it, you have to face it.
So I wouldn't use that as a deterrent for such a person to practice meditation.
I would just caution a little bit of patience and not expect miracles to suddenly go away.
I would expect that such a person might very well have epileptic seizures during their meditation practice, but that overall, over time, meditation would certainly
help with any mental aspects, like mental triggers, stress-based triggers, that kind of thing.
And just dealing with the seizure itself, not freaking out, not getting upset, not feeling depressed, and so on.
Can't but help.
It would be interesting to hear of such a person, what would happen if they were to practice, how it would go.
I wouldn't be worried about it.
Dear Bhante, did the wife of the Bodhisatta, Yasodhara, have other children than Rahula?
I read some texts where she is given the name Badakatchana and had ten children.
Is this the same person?
No, I can't think of who Badakatchana was.
But there's a dictionary, the Dictionary of Polyproper Names, if you want to look up anything about people, Google the Dictionary of Polyproper Names.
It's one of the most incredible works of scholarship that exists.
I mean, it's just mind-blowing.
You won't get that if you look at the internet version, but if you ever see the text version, it's about this big, two volumes.
And it's just immense, the detail and the accuracy.
It's written by a Sri Lankan scholar many years ago.
And it's just mind-blowing how impressive that work is.
But you can look up Yasodhara in there.
She had another name.
I can't remember it right now.
I think she was called Rahulamata at some time.
But there's, I think, another name for her that might be something like Badakachana.
But I don't think that was it.
I don't know why it doesn't come to my mind, but...
Okay, let's look it up.
And the digital polyreader has the DPPN in it.
Yesodara.
Yeah, she's also called Rahulamata.
Oh, she's also called, yeah, she's also called Badakata.
Hmm.
Yeah, that is the other name.
Oh no, I was thinking Bimba Devi.
Alright, so let's see.
Maybe there is a version where she has more children.
Anyway, it's not really worth it.
In our tradition, no, she only had one child.
So we'll leave it at that.
I don't know that I've heard of any story.
But there is someone else of that similar name that strikes me.
So let's look up Bada.
I think you're probably confusing.
But...
Hmm, there's another name.
Ah, here, Bhadakacana had ten children.
Yeah, this is what you're looking at.
This is a different Bhadakacana.
That's interesting.
This is a story from the Mahavangsa Nadeepa Vangsa.
So she went to Sri Lanka.
It's, I think, a much later affair.
It's nothing to do with the Buddha.
She was probably maybe named after Yasoda.
Sounds like she was a Sakyan.
So she was of the Buddhist family.
But there's a lot of these people from later times.
Names that you hear about.
So there you go.
Same name, different person.
much freedom does a monk have in terms of the daily schedule i'm aware that activities like eating are done at a certain time but i'm curious to know how stringent the rest of the daily schedule is are all monks like yourself allowed to leave the monastery monastic community and travel well the the
The monastic discipline doesn't specify.
The only rule is that a monk must live with a senior monk for five years.
The first five years of your monk could have to be spent with a monk who has at least ten years as a monk and has other qualities that make them a teacher.
five years.
Now, that could be whoever you choose.
You could decide, hey, I don't like this jerk who is my preceptor.
I'm going to go find a real teacher.
Or you could say, hmm, you know, maybe I've learned enough from this monk, my preceptor, or maybe your preceptor says, hey, you've learned all I can teach you, or you're bothering me, go find someone else.
Whatever the case, you can leave.
There's no...
No one can tell you no, don't leave.
If your preceptor says I forbid you, you just walk out the door.
So in that sense there's no requirement, but if you then don't go and find another teacher, you're breaking a rule.
So you have to live with that teacher.
Now, okay, you might argue that, I'm not sure how the actual rules for this go, but if you don't follow your teacher, there might be ramifications.
Like, there's a sense that when you take someone as your teacher, proper behavior is to follow and do what they say.
So if the teacher then says, don't go here, don't go there, but it's entirely up to him.
He might say, you know, I want you to go off in the forest and meditate and don't come back until you become enlightened.
You might say, go ahead, travel, do what you want.
That's not true.
He can't tell you that because as long as you go and stay with a monk who is senior, wherever you go, you have to take a monk as your teacher.
You can't just live
Live on your own without a teacher.
That's the first five years.
After those five years, you do whatever you want.
But that's sort of a roundabout way of answering your question.
Specifically, it depends very much on the community and on your teacher and many different things.
If the community decides they want to do things a certain way,
It may not be breaking a rule, but it would be generally considered wrong to not follow the way of the community, and that varies greatly from community to community.
At my teacher's monastery, the program is to do chanting at 4.30 a.m. and then 6 o'clock or 6.30 p.m.
and that's it.
Breakfast and lunch, if you want to go, or if you want to go on alms round, it's up to you.
But there's only two times a day.
There's something else about being on a course, so generally you have to be doing something, or else be meeting with a teacher once a day, so you could argue that should be added, but
In practice, very few monks actually go for chanting in the morning or in the evening.
That's unfortunate, but it's kind of fallen apart.
But that is really sort of the structure.
Now, if you go to a place like Wat Pa Nanachat, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of your waking hours and the hours you wish you were sleeping are devoted to a very strict schedule, from what I understand.
So it very much depends on the monastery.
Do some monasteries require the monks to go for formal education, formal Buddhist education?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
A lot of monasteries, actually.
They do it more than meditation.
They push it more than meditation.
But it depends on the monastery.
Those are the monasteries that are study monasteries.
Does Buddhism teach that the universe is one interdependent system?
The key word is system.
It's not one thing.
But if you want to call it a system, by definition, that's what universe means, right?
As for being interdependent, that's a...
Yes, yes, interdependent.
Forget it.
It is.
I'm not going to go any deeper.
But I just, it's interdependent, yes, but it doesn't mean we are all one, I guess.
It's easy for that to then become we are one.
Interdependent is just a fancy way of saying things affect other things.
So yeah, different.
In fact, it's just about experiences affecting other experiences, as we were learning today in Paticca Samuppada.
But yeah, interdependent system, that's a fine way of explaining it.
Hello Bhante, this is Srikanth.
Not sure whether you remember, but I've been your follower for the past several years and participated in Google Hangouts and Second Life sometimes a few years back.
I have utmost respect for you and your teachings.
I'm coming to Toronto for a business trip next week and wanted to check if I can have an opportunity to visit our meditation center and pay respect to you.
This Tuesday, October 4th, in the evening, is it possible to schedule a session with you from 7 to 8 and meditate along with you from 8 to 9?
And then I can head back.
Even if you can't spend an hour, even 5 to 10 minutes is appreciated.
Sure, yeah.
Tuesday evenings are good.
Of course, yes, I remember you.
Tuesday evenings I'm back I teach meditation at the university 3.30 to 4.30 so I'm back here 5 anytime after 5 I'll be here and then I have no meditators right now 6 to 7 I'm actually potentially I can't remember I think Tuesday nights I still have 6 to 7 6 o'clock and 6.30 potentially interviews
But by 7 I'm finished.
And the address of the center I put in chat.
So if you go to the chat feature, it should have the address.
Can I practice meditation in the hope of having a better, less suffering afterlife in heaven?
As I've read that there is less suffering in heaven than in this world, but in a lower stage than nirvana.
Yeah, absolutely.
I don't think we should be afraid of talking about the pleasures of heaven, because heaven is a good place to meditate.
If you're devoted to meditation, don't be afraid to wish to be born in heaven.
It's a good place to aspire to.
How many countless Buddhists are up in heaven from practicing meditation?
So if you cultivate meditation, chances of being born in heaven are actually
greater than being born again as a human, as your mind becomes pure.
So go for it.
Go up to heaven, you'll get to meet people like Yasodhara.
No, did she become an Arahant?
So she's gone.
And Rahula, they all became Arahants, they're gone.
You'll meet Wisaka, the chief female lay disciple of the Buddha.
You'll meet Anattapindika,
They made many, many ex-monks and nuns and laymen and laywomen from the countless, from the centuries since the time of the Buddha who have been practicing and going to heaven.
Probably have communities of Buddhists up in heaven.
Can you become enlightened in heaven, or must you be reborn?
No, heaven is a great place to become enlightened.
What we don't hear about, if you read the suttas, the understanding of the commentaries and of the people who wrote the suttas is that every time the Buddha talked, countless or hundreds of thousands of angels would become enlightened, which is probably a bit of an extra.
You'd think, well, maybe that's
what do you call exaggerated but there is definitely a sense that wherever the Buddha went to teach angels would come and listen and they'd always become enlightened Saka is a good example the king of the angels of the 33 he became a Sotapanna by coming down and listening to the Buddha but that would be a common thing for angels
Now, the Brahma realms, a person in the Brahma realms, I think, cannot.
So don't do that.
I mean, functionally, that's similar to the belief in the Pure Land.
When you go to the Pure Land, it's very easy to become enlightened because you can listen to the Buddha teaching directly.
That's the difference, is there are no Buddhas in heaven.
Ah, OK. Yeah.
So it's probably something got lost in translation.
Yeah, it's a little similar in intent, though.
I want to go to this place where it's going to be easier.
It's a very good point.
But the objectionable thing is that the idea that a Buddha sits up in the pure land, it really detracts from the nature of the Buddha as having gone to his parinibbana, which is really the point.
Like, if he's still up in heaven, well, why am I leaving again?
Yeah.
because I think the idea is they want to make sure that everyone is enlightened before anyone as a result nobody becomes enlightened yeah waiting for that last one but it would be impossible the point is that it would be impossible for a Buddha to stay and that's an important point because anyone who would stay is still clinging to something of course they would disagree but whatever
Hello, Bhante.
Was any recording made of the 10-minute meditation you spoke of teaching to the public?
I'm interested to see how you went about explaining it.
Thank you.
I think it was actually the five-minute meditation at the university.
When was that?
Well, the person's wondering if there was a recording made of your five-minute meditation.
The ones that I was giving again and again, because I have given, have I?
I don't know.
This week I'm actually going to talk to somebody who works in one of the residences.
It's like the wellness residence.
And he wants me to teach meditation there, which would be awesome.
So I'm going to go have a meeting with him this week.
Tuesday or something.
Tuesday, Wednesday maybe.
And I've got a meeting with the inter-religious panel or something.
They've got an ecumenical chaplain at McMaster.
There's a new chaplain.
It's quite exciting because the chaplaincy at McMaster has been entirely Christian-based and totally archaic and useless.
And so it looks like things are finally, finally moving forward as the old guard leaves.
And they've invited Buddhists and Hindus, so we'll see if they're actually serious about that.
The point is I've actually got quite many things going on, which unfortunately does detract from the energy I put into my online presence.
But honestly, the most important thing for me is to keep the residential courses going, because we all know how useful and valuable those are.
That's going well.
We've got lots of people signing up to come, more than I would have thought.
There's really interest in coming here to do courses, which is great.
And people come with good results.
It's so heartening to see someone come and change their life.
There's no other word for it than that.
Anyway.
So yeah, five minute meditation.
No, I haven't made a recording.
It's actually quite interesting.
It'd be fun to do a five minute recording.
It would be something to put on YouTube.
Because when I was doing it again and again and again, I got into a rhythm.
And so even now I can recite some of the things I've become accustomed to saying.
Good evening Monday is the maximum capacity at Surrey mongolo for meditators, do you know if there's room left this year.
Robin.
Yes, the maximum capacity is four meditators.
Earlier we thought it might be safe to camp out in the backyard, but I actually had a bad experience with that, with a large raccoon that's out there.
And a skunk as well.
Yeah, skunk as well.
There's quite a lot of wildlife for being a city.
But yes, there are four rooms for meditators.
And as far as room left for this year, go to the website, Saramungla.org, and under one of the main menu tabs, there's schedule, and there's a Google calendar that shows which spots are blocked.
There's some periods of time that are blocked out for Panthe's travel as well.
Next week is one of those.
So right now it looks like October 17th to November 4th.
Just probably, let's see, 1, 14, 15, 16, 17.
Probably just enough time to finish a course if someone wanted to come from the 17th to the 4th.
Am I reading that right?
Yes.
But then on the 5th, we're full.
Are we full?
Wait.
What's going on here?
Definitely after January 1, it's pretty much wide open if you wanted to plan a longer period of time
Looks like we're full again until November 13th.
Oh no, we're full after that.
November 20th.
No, we're full after that as well.
December?
December 1st.
December 1st where then we have one spot.
December 15th, we have two spots.
You leave December 23rd, Bante.
Right, so December 1st would be the... Yeah, you'd have to come and take the spot on December 1st.
So there's mostly, you know, just kind of shorter periods of time now, but definitely after January 1st, it's wide open.
And the part of Canada where the center is...
It's relatively mild weather for Canada, I would think.
I mean, I've been there in the winter, and it's not the sort of place that has 10 feet of snow or anything like that.
It's pretty easy to get around.
January 4th.
I'll be back on the 3rd, I think, right?
Oh, that's right.
Is feeling oneness with God as valuable as feeling an itch on your nose?
Yep.
No, that's not fair to say.
I mean, in a mundane sense, feeling oneness with God will get you to the Brahma realms, will allow you to be reborn in the God realm.
But that's only in a mundane sense.
In terms of ultimate reality,
still impermanent.
It doesn't last forever.
So quantitatively different, qualitatively not.
The itch on your nose lasts relatively shorter.
Feeling an itch on your nose could lead to anger and
or desire, delusion.
Feeling oneness with God might lead to delusion, but not the same sort of desire or aversion.
So it's actually a better sort of mind state.
So in general, it's more valuable.
But there's still delusion, because you still have this view that you are one with God, which is problematic.
You're all caught up on questions, Bhante.
Okay.
Thank you, Robin, for your help.
Thanks, everyone, for your questions and for tuning in.
Let's see, 50 people watching.
Hi, everyone.
Have a good night.
Thank you, Bhante.
Good night.