Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to our live broadcast.
Tonight, we're looking at the Anguttaranikaya Book of Threes, Sutta number 35, the Hathaka Sutta.
It's not much to this sutta, but it is memorable for two reasons.
It's memorable for what it teaches, and it's also memorable for the setting in which it is taught.
So where was the Buddha dwelling?
It's an odd one.
It's a curious sutta, because he's actually dwelling at Alawi.
I don't know where Alawi is.
on a heap of leaves spread out on a cow track in a singsapa grove.
Singsapa is a type of tree.
So he was resting, perhaps traveling on his way somewhere, most likely.
And he was sleeping on some leaves spread out on a cow track.
So it was, it would have been, I guess the cow track would be flattened and the brush would have been removed by the cows.
So it would have been an area that was more habitable.
And then Hataka of Alawi.
Hataka is someone,
Someone who lived in Alawi.
There's going to be a story behind him.
Actually, I can look him up.
Let's look up Hattaka.
It says he was a...
Right, we know Hattaka, the lay disciple.
But not Hattaka Alawi.
I think it's a different person.
Hmm.
Oh yeah, it is him.
So before he... At one point, not quite clear when, Ataka, one of the Buddhas, he was actually a Buddhist, one of the disciples of the Buddha.
He came upon the Buddha, or maybe he knew that the Buddha was dwelling there, perhaps with a retinue of bhikkhus, perhaps alone.
And he saw the Buddha sitting in this grove where he was dwelling.
So he approached the Buddha and asked him a simple question.
Bhante.
Let's look at the Pali.
This is always nice.
Kachi Bhante Bhagava.
Kachi is how you ask a yes-no question.
Kachi means is it that, sort of.
Kachi Bhante.
Bante, venerable sir.
Kachi bagawa sukama, sukama sayita.
Sukama sayita.
Sukang, happiness or happily.
Asayita, from say means to sleep.
Asayita, slept.
Has the blessed one slept well?
So if you want to ask someone, have they slept well?
Kaji sukkamasa ita, except it wouldn't be ita, it would be sukkamasa iha.
Sukkamasa iha.
I can look up the word.
We don't have a...
Anyway.
That's how you would say it.
Asaita.
Yeah, that's how you would ask a respected person.
Asaita is actually plural.
So if you want to ask someone, it has to be someone who's respected.
If you're asking someone who's a close friend, you wouldn't ask it this way.
You have to remember what is the aorist of
of for second person singular.
And Polly's a bit rusty.
Apologies.
Anyway, he asked him, how have you slept?
Did you sleep well?
And the Buddha said, Yes, young man.
I have slept well.
Whoever in this world sleeps well, I am among them.
I am one of them.
I'm a certain one of them.
And he's a little bit suspicious or surprised, amazed.
He finds it wonderful, perhaps.
He said, it's cold.
It is cold.
Cold are the winter nights.
Antaratako.
Antaratako is between the eights.
And there's an explanation of this.
It's the coldest time of the year.
It's a name for the cold of winter.
And he says, Himapatasamayo.
It is the time of the falling of snow.
Snow would fall.
This would have been in North India, I suppose.
Kara.
It is Karagokantakahata.
Hard is the cattle, the path.
Sleeping where the cows have tramped it down in the winter, the ground will be quite hard.
It's rough.
That's what I was thinking.
Have you ever seen where cows walk?
It's not a smooth path like where humans walk.
It's all dug up and rutted.
The ground that is dug up by the hooves of the cows is rough.
Let me see.
Yeah, thin is the spread of leaves.
So he's sleeping on leaves and spread out.
He says it's thin.
Anyway, let's not dwell too much on the Pali.
He says the leaves on the tree are sparse.
So there's no shade or protection from the trees.
And you're thin.
Your robes are quite thin.
The ochre robes leave one cold.
It's not like you're wearing furs or parka or something.
And the gale wind blows cold.
So basically, you're living in this miserable place.
You don't have a fire to warm you.
You don't have four walls to keep out the elements.
You don't have thick blankets and soft beds and pillows to comfort you.
Yet the Blessed One says thus, yes, Prince, I sleep well.
I am one of those in the world who sleep well.
I am one.
why how how could that be so how is it how is this amazing thing and he says well then he uses the word prince right that's interesting he shouldn't really use the word prince kumara just means although he may be bikkubon you know something i don't but kumara just means young boy young man but in popular in sri lankan culture
perhaps in Sri Lankan culture anyway, in like Thai culture, Kumara is like Raja Kumara.
In Indian culture, they have the word Raja Kumara, which means prince.
So Kumara is known for being used for a prince, but actually it just means young man.
That's true.
Maybe he wouldn't, it's odd that he's using the word Kumara.
He may be using it in terms of prince.
So he says, well then, Prince, let me ask you this.
I was going to ask him a question.
And this is the Buddha answering questions.
He wouldn't always give a direct answer.
He said, some questions have to be replied to with a question, which is what he's doing here.
Some questions have to be put aside so you can explain something else first.
So he says, well, let me explain this first.
And some questions should just be put aside.
You shouldn't answer them.
But this one is one he's going to answer with a question of himself.
He says, what do you think, Prince?
Suppose there were a householder, someone who lives in a house, who has a house with a peaked roof plastered inside and out, draft-free with bolts fastened and shutters closed.
A nice warm house like we've got here.
There he might have a couch spread with rugs, blankets, and covers, with an excellent covering of antelope hide, with a canopy above and red bolsters at both ends.
An oil lamp would be burning.
And his four wives, four wives, would serve him in extremely agreeable ways.
In India, they had multiple wives.
It was a polygamous society for men.
Women didn't have two husbands.
Not often.
Actually, there may be some stories where that was actually the case.
But in India in the time of the Buddha, one man, lots of women.
And the women would tend to serve.
Well, it means they were attending to his sensual desires.
What do you think?
Would he sleep well or not?
Or what do you think about this?
What do you think about this?
Would he sleep well?
What do you guys think?
Would such a person sleep well?
He would sleep well, Bhante.
He would be one of those in the world who'd sleep well.
He would surely be one.
Oh, really?
Well, let me ask you this then.
What do you think?
Might there arise in that householder or householder's son
Bodily and mental fevers born of lust, which would torment him so that he would sleep badly.
You ever wanted something so bad?
Lusting after women, perhaps.
Maybe he's got four wives, but he saw a young woman in the market who he wants to make his fifth wife.
And so he stays up all night thinking of her.
Or maybe he's lusting after money.
Maybe he's not rich enough and he's worried about his riches.
Think scheming about how he can get richer.
Maybe he's thinking of a nicer bed or maybe he's thinking about good food.
Right?
Because it's never enough.
You think this guy, you think, wow, you know, this guy's got it made.
Nobody thinks that way, not when they've got it made.
When they've got it, when anyone has, when they get what they want, right?
Those people who have it made are least satisfied.
Those ones who want more.
And he says, yes, bante, ama bante, indeed, there might arise that lust.
Bodily and mental fevers, lust affects the body and the mind.
Lust is something that arises in the mind.
There isn't bodily lust, although you could argue the chemicals and so on, it's all physical.
But that's the thing, is our lust and desire, it affects the body.
It creates a fever, a heat in the body.
It's very hard to sleep when you're full of lust, right?
When you're in a situation where you don't have what you want, where your wants are more than your attainments.
Yes, he would sleep badly.
But the Tathagata has abandoned such lust, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump.
When you cut out the top, if you don't know, if you cut the top of a palm tree, it never grows again.
If you cut a normal tree, it can grow again.
But a palm tree will not grow.
All you have to do is cut the top off.
It won't grow again, as I understand.
But he has obliterated so that there is no more subject of future arising.
Therefore, I have slept well.
It's a memorable teaching.
When you think of all the wonderful things you can have in this world, the realization that they're not enough, that they're not really what makes you happy.
They're not really the determinant of whether you're happy or tormented.
Torment doesn't come.
Of course, this householder's son, if he were lying out in the wilderness on a cow path,
He would be wailing and moaning and he would run away as quick as he could.
But it doesn't matter where he goes because if he has this desire, and the second one, if he has hatred, aversion, or delusion, any of these three, he is most likely to suffer.
And we know this is the case.
It's not just greed.
If you have anger or delusion, these as well will cause you to lose sleep, cause you to suffer.
But I don't have any of those.
I don't have any of the delusion, the greed, the anger.
I don't suffer.
And he recites a poem.
He always sleeps well, the Brahman who has attained Nibbana.
cooled off without acquisitions, not tainted by sensual pleasures.
Having cut off all attachments, having removed anguish in the heart, the peaceful one sleeps well, having attained peace of mind.
.
It's a good quote, no?
The peaceful one sleeps happily having attained peace of mind.
This is a really good example of the importance of the mind in determining happiness.
Because here you have a situation that most of us would be
would think would be incredibly unpleasant and intolerable.
And yet it's incredible how much of that is in the mind.
I have a story that goes with this.
I've told this story before.
I'm sure some of you remember me telling it.
But I was in California.
I had
Had some trouble with the monastery where I was staying.
There was a misunderstanding and a misalignment of expectations.
And the expectations weren't clearly spelled out until it was too late, and I actually had to leave.
I can't even remember if that was the case.
Anyway, maybe this was all before.
This was all even before all that happened.
Anyway, there were expectations, and I knew there were expectations, and I couldn't hang out with the other monks because we had different practices, and so I decided to leave.
And boy, did I have trouble finding another place to stay.
There was a couple of people who were going to actually give me their house to stay in.
But all of their friends told them not to do it because it would put them out of...
It would put them out of the comfort of their home.
They would have to go stay with someone else.
And so many of my students actually betrayed me and started to, not betrayed, but went against this intention, sort of made it not possible because they were horrified at the thought that these people would have to give up their house.
you know, which made me kind of seem like the bad guy, I suppose.
But it was their offer.
I'd never even asked them.
And so it went back and forth.
And I ended up, I was flying out to another state.
And I flew, I had been teaching in Minnesota, actually.
And I flew back.
And when I got back, I found out
When I got picked up at the airport, I found out that I would have to stay at someone else's house.
It was a house with a woman, and I would have to stay in the same house with this woman and her son.
I just decided, you know, I'm being pulled around and being controlled, you know.
It wasn't the control, it was the compromising, having to really be hopeless, helpless to do the right thing, being subject to the whims of people who really didn't have the same intention as me.
That's sort of putting it somewhat diplomatically.
So I made up my mind on that night because it had been, I suppose, a fairly stressful period.
Not stressful, but just confusing what to do.
And so I just got to this person's house, opened the door of the vehicle, and walked away.
And I went and slept in a park.
I don't want to get into the gory details of this situation, but I just left.
I just went and slept in a park and decided that I was going to.
I'd been thinking this for a while, that I was just going to walk somewhere through America, which in the long run, eventually I realized that was probably not a safe sort of proposition considering the climate.
in much of America, especially California.
And by climate, I don't actually mean the physical climate, the human climate.
I ended up eventually getting arrested and put in jail
in California.
But anyway, I went and slept in this park, and it was such a relief, such freedom.
I went to this park and found a picnic bench, and I sort of crawled underneath this picnic bench, which was on concrete.
So I ended up sitting on this concrete with a robe about as thick as this robe, which is fairly thick for a Buddhist robe, for a monk's robe nowadays anyway.
And I sat there, did some meditation for a while.
And eventually, I got a bit tired, and I lay down.
And I sort of curled up my robe and put the robe on the concrete and actually lay on the concrete like a homeless person, which, of course, we are.
And I remember feeling such happiness, such peace.
I didn't sleep long.
It was the middle of winter in California, which, if you know, is actually quite cold.
And there was a strong wind.
Deserts can be quite cold in the winter.
So I slept about three hours, but I felt great.
It was a great three hours.
I got up, had some more sitting, and eventually went back to, eventually they came and found me.
They didn't know where I'd gone, but then they came and found me in the morning.
went and had breakfast.
The only thing about that story is just how great it is to be free.
Here's a situation, a young monk who was somewhat overwhelmed with his circumstances and feeling trapped by machinations of lay people and monastics alike, really, and just able to find freedom, able to leave it all behind.
Even the Buddha did this.
I'm going to criticize that the Buddha was of this sort as well when there was too much craziness going on and everyone arguing.
The Buddha just left as well and went and lived in the forest.
So what it means, the meaning behind this, the import that we should take from this, I think, is how important it is to be content in the mind.
And moreover, how important it is to be at peace in your mind.
And how much of our suffering has nothing to do with our environment, but with how we react to it.
How much more important our minds are than our environment.
That you can actually go and live on a cattle path in the forest, or a cement, crying out loud.
Lie on the cement and be at peace in the middle of North Hollywood, which is not a good area, actually.
Anyway, so this is a memorable teaching to me, not just because of my story, but because of how powerful it is.
It's this kind of story that leads one to think you can just go and sleep in a park some night.
Obviously, there are other concerns.
Humans are actually the worst.
Sleeping in the forest like this isn't all that dangerous.
But humans are the worst.
And this other story many of you have heard of when I went to sleep in a, I went to stay in a rain forest.
Because again, I was in a monastery and there were issues.
So I decided to go and find my own monastery.
And I found a monastery.
And I ended up being sort of the unofficial head monk of this monastery.
But it wasn't a monastery.
It had been a monastery like hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
And all that was left were little piles of bricks that were covered in leaves and actually trees growing out of them.
It was a very old monastery.
At one time it had been.
And I just parked my stuff there and set up a tent, actually, and stayed there in the forest.
And it was great.
And eventually I got chased out by a tiger.
I had to leave because of a tiger.
But the funny thing is, and how it relates to what I was just saying, is that it wasn't a tiger.
These people came in the middle of the night and started telling me, and came to my tent, found me in the middle of the rainforest, and said, Ajahn, you have to leave.
You have to leave.
There's a tiger here.
And I said, what?
There's no.
I'm not worried about a tiger.
They said, oh, Ajahn, you don't know a tiger.
Very dangerous.
And I said, he's not going to come here.
Well, what do you do if he comes?
I'll just send loving kindness.
And they wouldn't let me stay.
But I wouldn't go.
And I was stubborn.
And so they ended up leaving.
And then I went and found out in the morning that it had been a dog.
Or not in the morning, no.
I found out like a week later that it was a dog.
And they had seen these dog footprints.
And this dog had chased some cows.
And they saw the footprints and thought it was a tiger that had chased these cows.
Turns out it was just a dog.
But in the meantime, they wouldn't let me stay.
And the park manager wouldn't let me stay in the park anymore because he was afraid of the tiger.
Maurya just didn't want me there.
He was looking for an excuse to get me out.
So yeah, people have the real problem.
Ajahn Tong says, and I'm not sure where he's getting it from, but he says there's two kinds of forest.
There's the forest of wood and the forest of defilement.
Nowadays, we tend to live in the forest of defilements.
Monks, I mean.
Lay people tend to live in the forest of defilements.
But it's still just a forest.
And if you just see it as trees and a place to lay your head, then you don't have to suffer from it.
OK, so enough of that.
Good teaching, I think.
Good one to remember.
Be content and remember that the true suffering comes from greed, anger, and delusion.
It doesn't come from your situation, no matter what your situation.
Work on your own mind.
And this is what really defines whether you're happy or whether you're in torture.
All right, so that's the teaching for tonight.
I have some questions.
We didn't have any, but I'm assuming people have been asking while I've been here.
Someone was asking some a while ago, but I didn't really want to answer them, because it looks like they weren't a meditator, and they were kind of speculative.
OK, the ones from three hours ago?
Yeah, let's go ahead to ones where people were actually meditating.
Sure.
I believe you've said before that the mind isn't continuous and it's constantly going through birth.
I was meditating and thought of this and was having difficulty with it as I feel there is continuity.
Can you elaborate on this idea or point me towards a sutra or video that would help me understand?
There's no sutta or video that's going to help you understand.
This is what you start to, this is what, this is one of the most important realizations and, well, it's one of the important realizations in meditation practice.
Keep practicing.
You'll see the mind arising and ceasing.
The continuity, that is the illusion of continuity.
There are three things, and this is a teaching that I probably don't give enough, and probably should be in my meditation.
There are three things that hide.
This will be in my last, I've got a good way to start the last chapter.
I include this in the last chapter of the book.
I was just thinking today, how am I going to start this chapter?
What am I going to talk about?
There's not so much to talk about.
Here's a good one.
Three things that hide impermanent suffering and non-self, the three characteristics.
Let me see if I can get it.
What hides impermanence is continuity, the illusion of continuity.
The speed.
So if you look at these lights in this room, the lights appear to be constant.
But as we all know, if you've ever, especially if you've ever taken photography or video, videography, when you do video, you need a certain frame rate.
If you use the wrong frame rate, you get flickering.
Why is that?
Because the light isn't constant.
The light is blinking on and off, but we're not quick enough to see it.
And the same is with the mind.
I mean, that really has nothing to do with the mind, but the same is true with the mind.
Because it's arising and ceasing so quickly, there comes about this illusion of continuity.
So what you're seeing is not the truth.
You're not yet able to penetrate and to see the mind arising and ceasing.
But eventually, if you're quick enough,
if you're not quick, but you become skilled enough so that the mind becomes quicker and more adept in seeing the reality, you'll start to see that the mind actually doesn't continue.
It arises and ceases.
And this is just an illusion.
Suffering is concealed by change.
And specifically, the specific one is the change of postures.
So we aren't able to see suffering.
Why we can't see that life has got lots of stress and that there's stress in just being is because we change all the time, right?
When there's suffering in the body, what do you do?
You move.
If you ever give a Dhamma talk, you can look at the audience and watch everybody shift.
Or if you ever go to a Dhamma talk, you can see everyone shifting.
This is how we hide it.
Even sitting here, when you're sitting at your computer chair, you'll find yourself shifting every so often.
Well, you won't unless you notice.
So this is why sitting in meditation is such a great tool for seeing the truth, because you're forced to sit.
You try to sit perfectly still, and oh boy, then you have to deal with suffering.
And you think, well, why am I doing this?
Why am I torturing myself?
That's the point.
The point is we avoid the truth of the torture of just being.
We avoid it by bathing and showering.
We avoid it by finding new things to think about.
Ah, don't dwell on it.
Come do this.
Come enjoy yourself.
So it's basically forget about your troubles.
Not a good thing.
And what hides non-self is something to do with the compactness, which I think, this one was a little bit incomprehensible to me, but I think it's the fact that things appear to be entities, or the concept, the conceiving in the mind of entities, I think.
So when you think of this as a person, you look at me and you think of me as a person, that concept stops you until you can let go of those concepts and remind yourself that's just seeing.
It's not a person there.
It's just light touching my eye.
It's just seeing.
Until you can stop seeing things as entities, you won't be able to see non-self.
So here specifically is the continuity that you're seeing.
So it's just hiding the truth from you.
And it's just because the mind is not quick enough.
No video is going to help you understand that this is one of those specific things that you have to learn from meditation practice.
It's why we do this kind of strobe effect.
It's not quick, but it's like hammering it now, now, seeing, seeing, seeing, hearing.
You're trying to catch a moment.
And if you start to catch the moment, you'll see it ceasing, ceasing.
And you'll start to see that everything ceases and that that continuity is an illusion.
Is it OK to gently repeat in your mind buddho, buddho, buddho as taught by the Theravada Willpower Institute while doing walking or sitting meditation?
Or is saying in your mind what you are doing better, does it really matter?
Saying buddho, buddho is buddhanusati.
It's mindfulness of the Buddha.
It's not as good objectively.
you know, good, bad, but if you want to use such words, it's less good, it's not, the way we do is better.
Because buddho, buddho is not what you're doing, it's not reality.
You know, Buddhism is all about learning the truth of reality.
So when you walk, is that buddho?
When you sit, is that buddho?
No.
So buddho is a way of remembering the Buddha.
It's a good thing.
It's a positive.
It's going to have positive effect on your mind, but it's inferior to actually learning about reality, to actually trying to understand things as they are.
So the difference is that one is Samatha and one is Vipassana, if you want to know the technical details.
Samatha is something that calms the mind.
Vipassana is that which allows you to see clearly.
So it's not exactly that one is.
But it's inferior.
Samatha is inferior because it can't
lead you to nibbana, it's impermanent.
So you might feel peaceful.
Are we gone?
Did we get cut off?
It says we got cut off.
Seems like everything's still working.
Oh, the questions got cut off, old questions.
What is your opinion of the Theravada Buddhist Willpower Institute?
You've asked one of the forbidden questions.
I think I know who you're referring to.
I remember the word Willpower Institute.
That's the guys in Niagara Falls, isn't it?
This sounds like this is probably someone who's in Ontario.
So right down the road, we have a meditation center.
And they teach a six-month course in Samatha meditation.
It's interesting because we once wanted to use their facilities to do an insight meditation course.
And they replied back,
that their teacher doesn't approve of the teaching of Vipassana meditation.
These are the words we got.
And the person who found this out for me said this is probably not from the teacher because he would never say something.
I'm not so sure.
But apparently this is what we were told.
We were told that the teacher doesn't approve of the teaching of Vipassana meditation because
people nowadays aren't able to understand it, aren't able to benefit from it.
The best people can do is gain samatha jhana.
So that's what he teaches.
That's why he teaches that.
I don't want to say anything good or bad about this group.
Obviously, I don't teach what they teach, and I don't really necessarily approve.
I have heard bad things that I won't repeat here.
Not horrible things, but some things that make me just kind of be disinclined to.
I mean, I'm not inclined anyway, so let's just leave it at that.
It's a different group.
It's not uncomfortable.
It's just a, well, yeah, it's potentially uncomfortable.
So I kind of avoid questions, what do you think of x, where x has nothing to do with my technique and my tradition?
If you want to, what do you think of something in my tradition?
Well, I can certainly talk about that.
But otherwise, yeah.
Bante, my own add-on question.
Willpower is part of their name in terms of Buddhism.
Is that a commonly used concept in Buddhism?
Good.
You're triggered by that is a good point.
But it's very much what they do.
They're very much into mind over matter.
And willpower is kind of an appeal to Western, as I understand, appeal to Western concepts of mental development.
Willpower, mind over matter.
The head monk is supposed to have magical powers.
This is what people have told me.
He's able to sit on snow.
He found a bunch of jade rock.
Not jade, but it's something that would be jade in like millions of years, but it's pre-jade.
In Canada, Canada has one of the largest deposits of this stone in the world.
It's quite valuable.
It's not as valuable as jade, but we got a lot of it.
And through his meditation, he is supposed to have found it and told these miners where to dig.
And they dug there.
They found this stone, and he bought some of it and made a Buddha out of it that is now in Bangkok.
And there's a big stone in Niagara Falls that is, I guess, a big piece of it.
Which in and of itself makes you wonder, because what the heck does that have to do with anything?
But different folks, different strokes.
Ponte, the jade statue, does that travel around?
Because I actually went to Massachusetts to see a display of a jade Buddha statue that was traveling around.
There's many jade Buddhas.
The major jade Buddha is the one in Bangkok, or it's called the Emerald Buddha, I guess.
But it's probably made of jade.
But they don't really get very close to it.
And it's our national treasure.
The Lao people say they stole it from Laos, which is probably true.
Because in Laos, they've got a stand for it.
There's a monastery that has the stand for the Emerald Buddha.
And the Thai people have it in Bangkok.
But it's a nice thing to go see.
And so there might be a, you know, I guess there was sort of a tradition of jade Buddha.
But any kind of tour that you're hearing about, it's an attempt to drum up support.
And that's what a jade Buddha is.
A jade Buddha is something that people, especially Asian people, Chinese culture, look very highly upon.
You know, jade is one of the greatest sort of matter substances.
What does depression and anxiety mean according to Buddhism?
Depression is based on anger.
It's an anger-based mind.
with with some delusion you know depression is not a thing it doesn't exist but it's like you mix stuff together and you get a soup right well the soup isn't soup it's a bunch of molecules or different things there's the salt molecules but it's not easy to separate them out uh so you call it soup but depression is is a whole bunch of stuff and it's it's bouncing back and forth right there's the thinking about the thing that's making you depressed
Then there's the disliking of it, which is the anger base.
But the thinking about it, there will become some kind of delusion.
There's delusion in the whole process.
Any unwholesome mind is delusion.
It's always got delusion as the base.
Like soup has water as its base.
All soup has water in it.
All unwholesome minds have delusion in them.
But there's the anger part.
There's the ego in the sense of clinging to it as me as mine.
And then there's the sort of the habitual simmering nature of it, which is just what is cultivated.
Depression is something you have to cultivate.
You can't, I don't think, become immediately depressed.
Depression is generally something that arises from sustained disliking, sustained sadness kind of thing.
Anxiety, on the other hand, is pure delusion.
Anxiety doesn't have anger in it.
Anxiety is a pure delusion mind.
maybe there's some fear.
If you talk about fear, fear is an anger mind.
But simple anxiety, I don't know.
I guess anxiety, as we look at it, it also has some disliking.
There's got to be a lot of anger minds.
But a moment of worry, anxiety, is pure delusion.
It's got kukucha in it.
But for most anxious people, there's a lot of anger there because you don't like it.
You're not happy about the anxiety.
You're not happy about whatever it is that's making you anxious.
So there's usually anger and fear in there as well.
But anxiety is that mind that is concerned about something, sees something as a problem, really.
It's the mind that says, this is a problem.
This needs to be fixed.
And something like that.
How do you define anxiety?
But you're anxious, right?
You're quivering.
You're worried about it.
And that's the sense you're obsessed or you're involved in it.
It matters to you.
And so you suffer.
But there's a lot of physical sensations associated with both of these.
And they are not depression.
They are not anxiety.
And that's important as well.
With all these things, it's important to be able to differentiate the physical and the mental.
So when you're anxious, you feel tension.
You feel butterflies in your stomach.
You're heart beating quickly, headache.
None of that is anxiety.
And if you can't see the difference, it'll just make you more anxious because you think, oh, I'm so anxious.
But you're not.
You're only anxious for a moment and then it has physical effects.
And those effects are actually neutral.
We learned about them today, right?
The unwholesome resultant, those experiences are abhayagata.
They're not wholesome or unwholesome.
I'm just going to skip one question real quick because there's a follow-up question on this.
So anxiety has nothing or little to do with greed?
Nope.
And not anger either?
As I said, there can be fear in there as well.
But simple anxiety, no.
Simple anxiety or worry, as we normally call it, is simple delusion.
There are mind states.
What that means is that there are mind states there in there that are just flustered in a sense.
Flustered is maybe a better way of thinking of it.
But worry, in English, it usually is associated with fear, right?
And fear is an anger mind.
Thank you, Bhante.
Is it possible to accidentally become enlightened?
I ask because once I stopped thinking and then left my body and traveled through a tunnel that was intense vibration, sound, and color.
Then it stopped.
I was in a white realm and had no form or thoughts.
This lasted until my first thought, which was, wow.
Then I went back through the tunnel into my body and heard bells.
It was not performing.
Isn't this the person whose questions I skipped?
I didn't even see this one, actually.
Chita has relayed it down.
I didn't even see that one earlier.
Yeah, I mean, this is not enlightenment.
And so this person should probably read my booklet on how to meditate.
And don't be concerned with such, well, or learn the difference, because that has nothing to do with our tradition.
What am I going to say to that?
Oh yes, that sounds like you became, that's not enlightenment.
So those things happen.
There are special experiences that arise, but it's nothing to do with enlightenment.
If you've read my booklet, you know that you'd be mindful of all that.
So leaving your body, you have to generally bring yourself back when you leave the body.
But when you see things, you'd say seeing, seeing.
When you feel things, you'd say feeling, feeling.
And it'll all stop.
Bonte, for older Buddhists living in Ontario, how can we be assured of a Buddhist funeral, Buddhist Theravada funeral when we pass?
There's not really any such thing.
In Buddhism, the body is the body.
It's dead.
No problem.
Why worry about your body?
Buddhist funeral is, don't worry about your body.
Leave it behind.
Get ready for what's coming next.
Be prepared.
Buddhist funeral is where the dead person says, sayonara.
I'm moving on, leaving behind the snake skin.
And where the people who are left behind watch this dead thing burn and then go home and move on.
That's a Buddhist funeral.
All this other stuff where people get together and do all that.
I mean, that's maybe being facetious because it's an excuse.
And for most people who are unable to understand, I mean, I'm being cold and callous and awful, really, because for most people, they're not able to do that.
But that's a true Buddhist funeral.
And there are monks who would probably tell you the same thing.
but most people cry, you know, and suffer because of death.
And so there are Buddhist ways of dealing with that.
So there are Buddhist funerals.
How would you guarantee?
I guess put it in your will and find a monastery that you can be sure, you know, just leave it in your will.
This is my will to have a Buddhist funeral.
And find a Buddhist monastery that does those sorts of things.
There are lots.
A good one is the West End Buddhist Centre in Toronto.
They will certainly perform a funeral.
Of course, it might be good to get to know them first.
Go and talk to them.
Find a monastery that you're comfortable with.
and set up a rapport with them and then leave it in your will.
It's a good, it's a skillful means, especially if you've got relatives who are not very spiritual.
It's a chance for, opportunity for them to learn about the Dhamma and learn how to practice and learn how to be free from suffering.
OK, that's all for tonight.
It's been almost an hour.
Thank you all.
Thank you, Robin, for joining me.
And wish you all good night.
Thank you, Bhante.
Good night.