WEBVTT 00:01.887 --> 00:02.848 Good evening, everyone. 00:03.489 --> 00:08.674 Welcome to our live broadcast. 00:08.694 --> 00:10.616 So we'll continue on with the Book of Threes. 00:10.676 --> 00:18.463 We're just skipping over and trying to find passages that are interesting, particularly to meditators. 00:20.305 --> 00:24.089 So we're going on to Sutta 16 in the Book of Threes. 00:25.891 --> 00:28.193 Apanakapatipata. 00:28.213 --> 00:29.494 Apanakasutta. 00:29.514 --> 00:30.055 Apanaka. 00:32.718 --> 00:43.995 This, this teaching is one, why it caught my interest, because it's one that Ajahn Tong gives, I used to give often. 00:44.095 --> 00:47.580 He used to give these morning and evening talks. 00:48.301 --> 00:55.772 So every morning he would do morning chanting and be up three o'clock or three thirty and then 00:56.849 --> 01:02.961 At 4, 4.20 or so, he would walk up from his kuti to the main hall and 01:04.848 --> 01:06.310 do chanting, 4.30. 01:06.350 --> 01:16.263 And then after morning chanting, and any of the monks who were there, he would sometimes praise us for having the energy to get up early in the morning. 01:17.324 --> 01:21.109 But then he'd give some teaching on the Dhamma, five minutes, ten minutes. 01:22.671 --> 01:24.454 Usually short, you know, five, ten minutes. 01:25.415 --> 01:27.818 But every morning and then every evening, if he was there, 01:28.675 --> 01:34.802 In the evening, it was less sure that he would be there for the chanting. 01:35.202 --> 01:41.048 But if he was in the monastery, he would come morning and evening and give us a talk. 01:41.068 --> 01:44.052 And I recorded a lot of these for about a year. 01:45.633 --> 01:50.679 And I've got like 50 hours of his teachings recorded. 01:50.719 --> 01:53.222 And I gave it over to the monastery before I left. 01:53.302 --> 01:55.324 And I made some books out of them. 02:02.645 --> 02:05.008 But this one is one of them that he liked to teach often. 02:06.089 --> 02:18.623 I think because eating is a problem, giving up three meals a day is a problem for some monks. 02:20.265 --> 02:25.591 I think this was a teaching directed to those monks who had a problem with that precept. 02:25.611 --> 02:27.673 I never had a problem, so it was never all that. 02:29.257 --> 02:30.920 obviously pertinent to me. 02:30.960 --> 02:39.292 But the three qualities, it's interesting that the Buddha put these three together at all and called them the faultless practice. 02:39.633 --> 02:40.875 Just three things, you know. 02:42.257 --> 02:47.585 They're kind of, I would say, comprehensive. 02:47.645 --> 02:52.092 And each of the three is unique in the sphere in which it works. 02:54.080 --> 02:56.165 And it's neat to look at these different lists. 02:56.185 --> 03:01.396 This is one list that is actually somewhat curious to me, why these three and why not more? 03:01.456 --> 03:02.098 Why not others? 03:03.802 --> 03:07.490 But they do make a somewhat comprehensive practice for just three things. 03:10.256 --> 03:12.661 And so they're interesting to look at, very useful for meditators. 03:12.721 --> 03:13.523 So the first one 03:15.072 --> 03:17.996 Well, first let's explain what these are, the introduction. 03:18.056 --> 03:32.473 What's important about these, he said, the Buddha says, bhikkhu possessing these three qualities is practicing in a faultless way and has laid the groundwork for the destruction of the taints. 03:32.774 --> 03:41.164 So these are practices that allow one to be sure one is not doing anything wrong. 03:44.266 --> 03:47.169 Obviously, there's more than just these three, but they make a good guide. 03:48.611 --> 03:51.655 Ajahn Thang says there are three practices that are not wrong. 03:52.496 --> 03:55.019 If you want to be sure of what's not wrong, do these three things. 03:56.841 --> 04:07.073 Focus, fix your mind on these three things, on practicing according to these three aspects of the practice. 04:07.093 --> 04:13.260 The first one is guarding the senses, the eye door, the ear door. 04:14.945 --> 04:21.171 the nose, the tongue, the body door, the mind door. 04:21.191 --> 04:23.673 Number two, observe moderation in eating. 04:25.235 --> 04:42.471 And number three, be 04:43.818 --> 04:52.012 Fixed on wakefulness, vigilance, keeping awake. 04:56.700 --> 04:59.505 But wakefulness, a wakeful state of mind. 05:00.867 --> 05:02.991 Don't sleepwalk through your day. 05:07.814 --> 05:09.476 And then he explains about these three. 05:09.496 --> 05:10.498 So I'll just explain. 05:11.379 --> 05:19.851 But this is one of the many passages where the Buddha makes this clear explanation, this important point. 05:20.873 --> 05:27.883 Having seen a form with the eye, a bhikkhu does not grasp its marks and features or signs in particular. 05:30.707 --> 05:31.989 How do you guard the senses? 05:32.049 --> 05:34.413 It doesn't mean not seeing, not hearing. 05:34.453 --> 05:37.517 It doesn't mean avoiding any sounds or sights or tastes. 05:38.797 --> 05:40.519 smells, feelings, thoughts. 05:40.559 --> 05:41.660 It doesn't mean not thinking. 05:46.324 --> 05:54.792 Having cognized a mental phenomenon with the mind, so when you think, one does not grasp its signs and particulars. 05:57.475 --> 05:58.215 What does this mean? 05:58.255 --> 06:06.123 See, when you experience a sight or a sound, it's just seeing and hearing. 06:06.223 --> 06:06.803 It's light. 06:06.903 --> 06:07.504 It's sound. 06:09.965 --> 06:14.430 Each vision is different only in its particulars. 06:14.891 --> 06:16.213 In its nature, it's the same. 06:17.674 --> 06:24.683 Whatever you see, it's just a field of light, different colors, different wavelengths of light. 06:28.608 --> 06:32.192 When you hear, it's just different wavelengths of sound. 06:39.091 --> 06:41.454 But you see, it's the particulars that's where the problem is. 06:41.474 --> 06:42.997 Like they say, the devil is in the details. 06:44.259 --> 06:45.340 Seeing isn't the problem. 06:46.041 --> 06:48.665 In fact, the details aren't the problem. 06:48.685 --> 06:55.335 The problem is when you fix on the details, that's where your defilements arise. 06:55.355 --> 06:57.979 That's where the problems arise, liking it, disliking it. 06:57.999 --> 06:59.901 You can't like light. 06:59.921 --> 07:02.365 You can only like the particulars. 07:03.863 --> 07:08.892 the concepts that you associate with the thing, with the experience. 07:08.912 --> 07:11.136 Experience itself arises and ceases. 07:11.156 --> 07:14.862 It's just light, sound, smell, taste. 07:20.131 --> 07:25.180 And if you're able to just see it as seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking, 07:26.628 --> 07:27.189 You're fine. 07:27.209 --> 07:27.910 There's no problem. 07:27.930 --> 07:34.821 But the Buddha says, if you leave the mind unrestrained, let it follow after the particulars. 07:35.842 --> 07:41.091 Bad, unwholesome states of longing and dejection will invade your mind. 07:43.695 --> 07:46.319 Desire and aversion will arise if you're not careful. 07:48.021 --> 07:54.171 If you don't keep your mind objective, if you're not able to see that seeing is just seeing, deep te, deep tamatang bhavisati, 07:55.535 --> 07:56.957 Let seeing just be seeing. 08:00.641 --> 08:08.990 I mean, this in and of itself, this is our meditation practice in a very brief explanation, brief form. 08:10.291 --> 08:11.212 It's about all we're doing. 08:12.113 --> 08:13.835 And what are we doing when we sit and meditate? 08:13.855 --> 08:15.256 What is this technique all about? 08:16.518 --> 08:17.919 Let seeing just be seeing. 08:18.640 --> 08:23.365 You remind yourself, not about the particulars of the experience, 08:24.593 --> 08:28.959 but about its base nature, simple nature, all it is. 08:30.361 --> 08:39.914 Whether you see something, a flower or a pile of dung, it's still just seeing. 08:40.495 --> 08:42.077 The difference is only in the particulars. 08:43.640 --> 08:46.864 You see a man or a woman, there's no difference. 08:47.445 --> 08:51.090 The difference is in the particulars, in your conception of it. 08:53.416 --> 08:55.660 You have a thought, a bad thought or a good thought. 08:55.700 --> 08:57.123 What makes a thought good or bad? 08:59.407 --> 09:04.055 You think about someone who hurt you in the past or something you did in the past. 09:04.075 --> 09:10.747 What makes that different from a thought about something nice someone did for you? 09:12.690 --> 09:13.772 The thought is just a thought. 09:15.235 --> 09:16.437 But if you let it get to you, 09:17.598 --> 09:38.560 If you react to it, if you become focused and caught up in the particulars, ah, this was a good thing they did, this was a bad thing they did, then you'll get upset, liking and disliking, attachment and aversion, problems, stress, suffering. 09:44.547 --> 10:04.665 guarding the senses this is the first one the second one curious that food is number two but this this sort of points to the more mundane aspect of our practice the number one is really enough that's practice but if but the pointing out the food to me signifies 10:05.928 --> 10:14.139 that we have to be alert and aware and vigilant, mindful about our mundane existence as well. 10:15.020 --> 10:15.741 What are you eating? 10:17.183 --> 10:18.024 Where are you sleeping? 10:19.946 --> 10:21.949 What sort of people are you associating with? 10:22.890 --> 10:24.913 Even what sort of clothes are you wearing? 10:25.113 --> 10:34.365 If you read the Visuddhi Manga, there's lots of particulars to our mundane existence, conceptual existence. 10:36.303 --> 10:42.812 Food is certainly the most pressing of all. 10:43.172 --> 10:44.774 Everything else you can do without, right? 10:45.715 --> 10:47.718 Even clothes, you could theoretically go naked. 10:47.818 --> 10:50.962 But food is something that you will die without. 10:53.506 --> 10:57.531 I suppose air is more pressing, but it's not usually an issue. 10:59.834 --> 11:00.215 Water. 11:01.696 --> 11:05.922 But food is the big one, not only because we need it, but because we obsess over it. 11:08.838 --> 11:09.940 We worry. 11:09.960 --> 11:14.086 If you had to go without food for one day, many people would be stressed and worried about it. 11:14.927 --> 11:19.614 Not having food in the evening scares many people. 11:23.460 --> 11:28.066 For meditators, eating too much can be a stress on your practice. 11:29.308 --> 11:32.353 Eating too little can make it impossible to practice. 11:33.294 --> 11:38.001 Eating heavy foods, eating too much sugar, eating 11:39.213 --> 11:43.517 Too much salt. 11:43.537 --> 11:47.240 Too much fat. 11:47.280 --> 11:48.281 Moderation in eating. 11:48.301 --> 11:54.606 There's not much to say there, but it is a skill and a practice. 11:55.507 --> 11:57.589 For many people, food is an obsession. 11:58.650 --> 12:02.253 So to point this out, I think it's proper and practical. 12:03.314 --> 12:05.555 Because it is something, hey, what do we do every day? 12:06.356 --> 12:08.578 It's the one thing that we do every day while we eat. 12:10.347 --> 12:12.436 got to be an important part of our lives. 12:12.918 --> 12:17.657 We don't realize how attached we are to good food or having food. 12:26.513 --> 12:35.905 It's the kind of thing that will give us the inclination to work on our eating habits, overeating, undereating, poor eating. 12:35.925 --> 12:49.922 If you eat poorly, very difficult to keep the body at peace, and very difficult for a beginner meditator to gain any sense of mindfulness. 12:53.733 --> 12:54.554 That's number two. 12:55.475 --> 13:01.260 Number three is in regards to the daily routine. 13:01.280 --> 13:03.643 I guess you could say apart from eating. 13:05.124 --> 13:08.788 So it's the routine of the practice, because the Buddha actually explains this one. 13:08.808 --> 13:09.709 How do you stay awake? 13:09.769 --> 13:12.171 How do you become intent on being awake? 13:14.053 --> 13:15.134 Here's what it is. 13:15.154 --> 13:23.402 And this is also incidentally one of the places where the Buddha actually mentions specifically walking meditation, walking and sitting. 13:24.749 --> 13:31.658 Buddha says, during the day, while walking back and forth and sitting, Bhikkhu purifies his mind of obstructive quality. 13:33.721 --> 13:40.190 So you purify your mind by seeing, experiencing things objectively, cultivating the four satipatthana. 13:40.871 --> 13:41.692 Walking and sitting. 13:42.413 --> 13:52.326 For anyone who thought the Buddha didn't teach walking meditation or wonders why our tradition insists upon walking and sitting meditation, 13:54.652 --> 14:03.603 You might be surprised to know that the Buddha himself was the one who clearly explained meditation this way, walking and sitting. 14:04.745 --> 14:06.027 It makes great sense. 14:06.067 --> 14:07.729 Sitting all the time is not good for you. 14:09.411 --> 14:12.775 But it was from the time of the Buddha. 14:12.835 --> 14:17.301 The regimen was thus walking and sitting. 14:19.897 --> 14:21.640 When you're walking, you purify your mind. 14:21.680 --> 14:24.004 When you're sitting, you purify your mind, back and forth. 14:24.024 --> 14:24.806 That's during the day. 14:24.826 --> 14:26.228 So you've got 12 hours of the day. 14:27.791 --> 14:29.514 Then at night, you have another 12 hours. 14:30.796 --> 14:36.626 The night is, in olden days, it was split into three watches, yama, three yama. 14:37.969 --> 14:44.520 The first one, in the first four hours, which would be like 6 PM to 10 PM, 14:45.833 --> 15:13.528 no change you do walking back and forth and sitting purifying your mind of obstructive qualities and in the middle watch of the night that's like 10 p.m to 2 a.m four hours you lie down that's the time when you lie down but you don't lie down to go to sleep you lie down in the lion posture that's on your side with one foot on top of the other 15:16.006 --> 15:18.409 Have you ever seen these Buddha statues lying down? 15:20.051 --> 15:24.777 Mindful and clearly comprehending after noting in his mind the idea of rising. 15:24.837 --> 15:27.781 So you accept the fact that you might fall asleep. 15:28.863 --> 15:32.988 But in your mind, you fix your mind on the time of getting up. 15:34.009 --> 15:35.972 And this is a common thing to do for meditators. 15:36.152 --> 15:41.519 If you want a good alarm, you can say in four hours, may I wake up. 15:41.799 --> 15:45.304 My intention is to wake up in four hours, to stand up in four hours. 15:47.191 --> 15:51.218 And you'll find that after four hours, you wake up and you do actually stand up. 15:53.222 --> 15:56.688 It's a good way to keep time, sleeping time. 15:58.531 --> 16:02.398 It only really works if you're doing a meditation course and your mind is clear. 16:10.225 --> 16:17.172 And after rising in the last watch, which would be 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., again, walking back and forth and sitting. 16:17.232 --> 16:28.043 So that's for the better part of the day, for the better part of those 20 hours, just walking back and forth and sitting. 16:28.063 --> 16:35.811 Now, there's got to be breaks for eating and urinating and defecating and breaks just to rest and stretch your limbs and so on. 16:37.883 --> 16:42.969 But that's a fair amount of wakefulness. 16:44.030 --> 16:45.051 Become intent on this. 16:45.091 --> 16:48.015 This is a good description of effort. 16:48.295 --> 16:50.978 Effort doesn't mean pushing yourself. 16:50.998 --> 16:56.425 Not from moment to moment, making a more effortful practice. 16:57.286 --> 16:59.368 Effort just means doing it again and again. 16:59.348 --> 17:04.154 You know, it feels often like you're doing it wrong, but that's only because it's tough. 17:04.434 --> 17:13.746 You're fighting, struggling to not cling, struggling to see things as they are without judging them and failing again and again. 17:15.308 --> 17:17.370 And that's difficult, just doing that. 17:19.052 --> 17:27.162 Doing that for 20 hours a day, give or take, lest the time that you take breaks. 17:29.993 --> 17:31.656 That takes real effort. 17:32.397 --> 17:54.837 This is the true measure of a meditator, to attain this state where they're comfortable doing, lying down for only four hours, just doing what they've been doing, doing it for all of their walking and sitting time, all of the time that they're not lying prostrate. 17:58.057 --> 17:59.278 That's effort. 17:59.298 --> 18:00.199 That's wakefulness. 18:02.102 --> 18:03.864 Some meditators won't even fall asleep. 18:03.924 --> 18:06.827 They'll lie down, and they won't sleep, or they won't even lie down. 18:07.868 --> 18:10.391 The story of Chakabala didn't lie down for months. 18:12.413 --> 18:15.837 There are monks who do this sort of thing, usually living off in the forest. 18:18.180 --> 18:21.043 But it's the kind of thing you can do in the meditation center. 18:23.707 --> 18:37.687 So these are the three practices that the Buddha says, if you possess these three qualities, guarding, you're able to guard and keep your experiences pure, clear, objective. 18:39.049 --> 18:46.339 You're able to be moderate in eating, really only eating once a day, a little bit in the morning, but then one main meal. 18:50.217 --> 18:56.785 And if you're able to be awake, keep yourself awake and be devoted and intent on wakefulness. 18:59.068 --> 19:13.927 This person is practicing the unmistaken way, the faultless way, and has laid the groundwork for the destruction of the tape, the destruction of the things that cause suffering, the bad things inside that we would rather do without. 19:15.148 --> 19:17.271 We would be happier and more peaceful without. 19:19.664 --> 19:24.009 So that's the teaching for tonight. 19:24.029 --> 19:25.131 We have questions. 19:25.151 --> 19:30.858 I suppose yesterday I've decided that Monday is because Monday is actually I'm going to have class. 19:31.939 --> 19:36.445 So I won't be doing, I won't be even here starting next month. 19:36.505 --> 19:40.650 So I thought, well, that's a good excuse to do instead the Dhammapada. 19:40.670 --> 19:46.617 So during the day I'll do a Dhammapada video and then I'll post it in the evening instead of doing this. 19:46.597 --> 19:50.042 I think that means we have some questions from yesterday. 19:50.703 --> 19:51.924 Well, we probably can't see them. 19:51.944 --> 19:53.586 They've probably been obliterated by now. 19:54.568 --> 19:55.249 What's the sitch? 19:57.051 --> 19:58.493 I think we have a lot of questions. 20:01.858 --> 20:02.138 Sorry. 20:08.527 --> 20:10.309 The one that I was looking at just went off the screen. 20:11.431 --> 20:11.811 Sorry. 20:17.107 --> 20:19.192 Well, they could ask it again if it's important. 20:19.833 --> 20:25.506 Yeah, I think actually, some people were being helpful and reposting the ones that looked like they were going to go off the screen. 20:26.368 --> 20:30.517 When doing sitting meditation, is it okay to rest by leaning back for a little while? 20:31.078 --> 20:32.702 I'm speaking of novice level. 20:33.425 --> 20:34.786 Yeah, for sure, it's fine. 20:37.909 --> 20:41.633 You want to be mindful of whatever it is that's causing you to lean back. 20:42.734 --> 20:44.876 If it's intense pain, well, that's simple. 20:44.896 --> 20:46.298 You just note the pain first. 20:47.159 --> 20:51.483 And then when you just feel like you can't take it, then fine, you sit back. 20:51.503 --> 20:55.747 But sometimes it's just laziness, boredom, distraction. 20:56.528 --> 20:58.089 So be careful to note all of that. 20:58.290 --> 21:00.732 Are you really being mindful? 21:02.517 --> 21:06.101 But absolutely, once you can't, once you have to, just be mindful. 21:06.722 --> 21:11.548 Wanting to lean, wanting to lean, and lowering, leaning, leaning. 21:15.372 --> 21:17.414 If you need, you can sit in a chair sometimes. 21:17.855 --> 21:19.537 You want to train yourself. 21:19.617 --> 21:21.019 So training the body is useful. 21:21.159 --> 21:25.804 So eventually, you want to be able to sit cross-legged without sitting back. 21:25.904 --> 21:32.372 But consider it a training, a progression, 21:33.803 --> 21:35.045 something that you have to work at. 21:35.085 --> 21:38.069 Eventually you'll get it. 21:39.732 --> 21:48.705 Which means you shouldn't be getting more reliant on leaning back or on sitting in a chair. 21:50.147 --> 21:51.930 We had one meditator once, he 21:53.902 --> 21:57.085 He was in great pain, sitting cross-legged on the floor. 21:57.105 --> 21:58.867 It was incredibly painful for him. 21:59.708 --> 22:01.310 So he asked if he could sit with cushions. 22:01.330 --> 22:01.891 He said, yeah, sure. 22:02.351 --> 22:04.834 So he put some cushions under his legs, and then that wasn't good. 22:04.854 --> 22:09.599 So he put some cushions under his bottom, and it was OK for a while. 22:10.280 --> 22:16.166 And then the pain came back, and so he went higher and higher and higher until finally he might as well have been sitting on a chair. 22:16.206 --> 22:20.871 And I said to him, look, it's fine, but you're really supposed to be getting lower as you go. 22:22.842 --> 22:26.126 It's easy to, because you can't make the pain go away. 22:26.146 --> 22:28.449 There's always going to be pain as long as you're alive. 22:28.529 --> 22:31.934 And if you're just trying to run away from it, that's the problem. 22:32.475 --> 22:43.950 You have to be aware that every time you avoid the pain or run away from the situation, you encourage the aversion to the experience. 22:44.771 --> 22:45.492 You increase it. 22:47.274 --> 22:48.175 You reaffirm it. 22:51.614 --> 22:55.498 Bhante, have you seen these meditation cushions that have like a back on them? 22:57.180 --> 22:57.321 Mm-hmm. 22:57.341 --> 22:58.081 Is that your question? 22:58.121 --> 22:58.802 You're asking me, right? 22:59.343 --> 22:59.643 No, no. 22:59.663 --> 23:03.628 I don't use one, but I've seen people bring them to meditation groups. 23:03.988 --> 23:05.170 What are your thoughts on those? 23:05.810 --> 23:07.232 Well, same as what I've been saying. 23:08.994 --> 23:10.636 You know, I've said this before. 23:10.676 --> 23:17.824 The monk who teaches, I don't know if he's still there, but in Section 5 in Wat Mahathat, 23:19.643 --> 23:21.485 He used to teach in America. 23:21.545 --> 23:22.807 He may even be in America now. 23:22.827 --> 23:23.748 I haven't kept in touch. 23:24.229 --> 23:25.390 He was in Florida for a while. 23:25.410 --> 23:35.683 But he said, Americans or Westerners are so soft, he said, because he comes and he sees these big cushions, even just the cushions people are using. 23:35.703 --> 23:42.631 And that may seem incomprehensible or shocking to hear a monk say such a thing about or criticize these cushions. 23:43.613 --> 23:45.515 But in Thailand, we sit on the floor. 23:46.196 --> 23:48.739 We'll sit on a thin mat. 23:49.613 --> 24:11.453 flat you know that's just everyone does no one uses big cushions some people now in Thailand do use these back supports old people generally there's a lot of old people come to practice and they may not even need them but they think they do and 24:12.884 --> 24:14.966 The excuse is that they're old. 24:15.026 --> 24:15.587 Now, I don't know. 24:15.647 --> 24:34.727 I'm assuming that old people, it's reasonable to suggest that they have more pain, but I would wonder whether they actually do need them more than, say, young people, or whether they have just become so averse to pain that they're not able to deal with small amounts of pain. 24:35.087 --> 24:37.690 Now, some people have genuine back problems. 24:37.730 --> 24:42.655 Like, I know I've had meditators who have, like, a slipped disc or... 24:42.635 --> 25:09.452 some genuine back problem and obviously then they need back support or else they can actually injure themselves there are real problems apparently it can come but for most people and I mean I would suggest if you can it's a great training to learn to do without it and to learn to deal with the pain if you can't then use them use whatever you need but be clear 25:10.799 --> 25:14.286 that generally, unless you have a real injury, you're just avoiding the pain. 25:14.346 --> 25:25.307 And avoiding pain is undeniably problematic. 25:26.749 --> 25:30.276 You're reaffirming the aversion to it. 25:34.340 --> 25:36.686 Thank you, Bhante. 25:36.706 --> 25:41.138 Does the Theravada tradition use mantras like Om Mani Padme Hum? 25:42.121 --> 25:44.367 What are your views on them and how does one use it? 25:44.836 --> 25:45.938 Well, we use mantras. 25:46.058 --> 25:48.282 We use mantras all the time. 25:48.322 --> 25:51.868 Seeing, seeing, that's a mantra. 25:51.888 --> 25:52.789 Hearing, hearing. 25:53.611 --> 25:55.574 Pain, pain, that's a mantra. 25:55.975 --> 25:58.399 If you've read my booklet, then you... 25:58.419 --> 25:59.361 I'm assuming you haven't. 25:59.401 --> 25:59.921 Let me see. 26:00.402 --> 26:02.245 Well, you've done a little bit of meditation here. 26:03.027 --> 26:05.471 I don't know if you've read my booklet or if you're practicing our way. 26:05.491 --> 26:07.975 Maybe you didn't realize this could be considered a mantra. 26:09.119 --> 26:09.802 Absolutely. 26:09.822 --> 26:13.077 Early Buddhist meditation was very much about using mantras. 26:13.841 --> 26:16.714 Patavi, patavi, patavi, read the Visuddhimagga. 26:16.734 --> 26:18.522 It's full of mantras of all kinds. 26:20.088 --> 26:39.531 Lumpo Chodok did a book, and I don't have it, I don't think, but in this book, he goes through all 40 meditation techniques and explains the mantra for each one of them and points out that saying rising, falling, or seeing, seeing is absolutely in line with the ancient tradition of using mantras. 26:39.511 --> 26:42.055 When you do earth casino, you don't just look at earth. 26:42.876 --> 26:45.159 You look at the earth and you say earth, earth, earth. 26:45.179 --> 26:47.062 That's actually what the texts say to do. 26:48.364 --> 26:51.789 So mantra meditation is very much about what Theravada Buddhism is. 26:52.670 --> 26:53.271 It's just a shame. 26:53.331 --> 26:55.515 And you know, even today they do it to some extent. 26:55.535 --> 26:56.877 They'll say buddho, buddho. 26:56.897 --> 26:57.818 That's a common one. 26:57.898 --> 27:00.302 Or samma arahang, samma arahang. 27:00.702 --> 27:03.607 They just don't think to do it with mindful meditation. 27:03.667 --> 27:08.033 When they practice mindful meditation, they give up the mantra for some reason. 27:09.633 --> 27:12.558 It's an incredibly effective tool, and we certainly use it. 27:16.224 --> 27:21.252 A mantra is something that fixes your attention because you're thinking all the time anyway. 27:21.312 --> 27:24.237 There's always thinking about whatever you experience. 27:24.658 --> 27:36.197 All we're doing is replacing the ordinary, unfocused, unconcentrated reaction and discursive thought with a clear thought. 27:37.325 --> 27:39.688 The thought that this is this, it is what it is. 27:40.709 --> 27:42.090 This is seeing, this is hearing. 27:42.491 --> 27:49.338 It's not creating something new, it's just replacing the old thought with a more clear and focused one, objective one. 27:54.864 --> 28:00.430 I'd like to ask how or what is the best way for me to handle depression? 28:00.764 --> 28:05.952 depression that came with contemplation of some elements of the Dhamma like non-self. 28:05.972 --> 28:10.980 I was perfectly fine today and there's nothing in my current state of affairs that warrants unhappiness. 28:11.781 --> 28:18.170 And I'm normally very optimistic and often experience feelings of pity while wishing well-being for myself and others. 28:19.012 --> 28:24.280 But something happened today that made me experience the dissatisfactory truth of non-self and impermanence. 28:25.061 --> 28:29.067 And I don't quite want to get happy again and put this out of my mind. 28:29.536 --> 28:33.982 and neither do I feel the heavy-heartedness is that useful to me. 28:34.784 --> 28:42.775 How can I turn this energy realization into something productive, something that allows me to deepen the realization without this heavy-heartedness? 28:44.097 --> 28:44.638 That's funny. 28:46.080 --> 28:47.402 OK, well, it's a little bit. 28:47.542 --> 28:50.887 It's a very good question, very well explained. 28:52.129 --> 28:53.811 But there's a little bit of misunderstanding. 28:53.851 --> 28:55.534 That's common misunderstanding. 28:56.135 --> 28:57.737 Non-self isn't a good thing. 28:58.426 --> 29:26.526 seeing non-self is should be a shock and it should upset you why does it upset you the realization itself isn't a cause for suffering the suffering comes from the attachment to the thing that is non-self why do you attach to it because you thought it was self you thought it was controllable and when you see that it's not not getting what you want is what upsets you not having it the way being denied 29:27.063 --> 29:29.535 the illusion that you thought was reality. 29:31.083 --> 29:35.807 Having reality turn out other than you thought, other than you wish it were. 29:36.412 --> 29:39.957 We're so happy that we can control things, that we can possess things. 29:41.259 --> 29:43.623 It's great happiness, but it's also great addiction. 29:44.564 --> 29:46.587 That kind of happiness is adulterated. 29:46.707 --> 29:48.069 It's associated with greed. 29:48.089 --> 29:49.371 It's associated with clinging. 29:50.032 --> 29:59.707 So that kind of happiness that you're talking about, absolutely you don't want to go back to it because you're setting yourself up for the fall when you experience non-self, which is the reality. 30:00.268 --> 30:02.110 It's an unfortunate reality. 30:02.130 --> 30:03.212 It's a bad reality. 30:04.694 --> 30:07.240 It's the problem with the world. 30:07.701 --> 30:08.563 Non-self isn't great. 30:08.623 --> 30:10.687 It isn't like, oh, awesome, non-self. 30:12.130 --> 30:13.774 Non-self is the worst thing in the world. 30:13.934 --> 30:18.805 If everything were self-controllable, forget Buddhism. 30:20.135 --> 30:20.776 Enjoy. 30:20.836 --> 30:21.717 Control. 30:22.838 --> 30:23.779 Problem is, it's not. 30:23.839 --> 30:24.980 This is what the Buddha saw. 30:25.020 --> 30:28.184 He wasn't happy about the way things were. 30:28.204 --> 30:33.290 He didn't rejoice in the fact that everything was impermanent, unsatisfying, and uncontrollable. 30:34.351 --> 30:35.312 But he saw that it was true. 30:36.453 --> 30:47.205 He saw that we're deluding ourselves into thinking when we think that things are satisfying, controllable, predictable, 30:50.813 --> 31:06.337 So, you know, don't concern yourself more with the, the addiction to things that's causing, that's the true cause of your heavy heartedness and focus on the sadness and the anger that comes from not getting what you want. 31:06.918 --> 31:09.783 Cause it's anger, disliking, unpleasantness, heavy heartedness. 31:09.883 --> 31:11.185 It's all based on anger. 31:12.194 --> 31:15.197 this base mind of aversion to something. 31:16.518 --> 31:19.061 So meditate on that and try to be objective. 31:19.181 --> 31:19.722 Absolutely. 31:20.042 --> 31:23.105 Having your illusions shattered is heartbreaking. 31:24.006 --> 31:26.489 When you lose someone you love, why do we cry? 31:26.529 --> 31:39.602 Even though as Buddhists we know, we've heard all these teachings before, still we're overwhelmed because of our addiction, not because we don't understand or even at least intellectually. 31:40.949 --> 31:55.815 but because we have addiction, because we're attached to these people, these things, these illusions, really, the illusion of stability, the illusion of satisfaction, the illusion of control. 31:57.758 --> 32:01.725 So be glad that you've had that illusion shattered. 32:02.313 --> 32:04.618 Because it was going to happen eventually. 32:05.640 --> 32:07.444 Be glad that it happened sooner than later. 32:07.484 --> 32:14.057 And now you can start to learn more about reality and admonish yourself. 32:14.137 --> 32:15.660 Hey, don't fall for that again. 32:15.701 --> 32:19.108 It wasn't the realization that made you depressed. 32:19.168 --> 32:19.849 It was the truth. 32:21.061 --> 32:26.188 And more importantly, it was your lack of understanding the truth, which is why we suffer. 32:26.288 --> 32:29.353 We suffer because we don't see things as they are. 32:29.393 --> 32:31.656 We have expectations that are not going to be met. 32:32.096 --> 32:33.378 And when they're not met, we suffer. 32:39.427 --> 32:48.199 When what is perceived to be a stressful situation in the body is present, can one note disliking, disliking, while focusing on the sensation? 32:48.854 --> 32:58.140 What confuses me is thinking that the sensation is not the disliking and that it may not be appropriate to keep focusing on the sensation when noticing a mind state. 32:58.582 --> 33:03.195 But then how can one focus on a mind state itself? 33:03.215 --> 33:04.298 Good question, Ruslan. 33:05.915 --> 33:08.299 Thank you, Chittavi, for posting all this. 33:10.864 --> 33:12.006 It's a simple answer. 33:12.066 --> 33:18.318 It isn't the disliking, but there is disliking associated with it, or there can be. 33:19.220 --> 33:28.497 If you perceive the disliking aspect of the experience, say disliking, disliking, if you perceive the stress aspect or the pain 33:28.477 --> 33:32.283 for example, then note it as pain. 33:32.544 --> 33:33.425 It doesn't really matter. 33:33.545 --> 33:36.610 It's much more how it appears to you objectively. 33:37.091 --> 33:37.552 What is it? 33:38.733 --> 33:46.165 So if it appears as a disliking experience, some mental experience, I don't like this, then say to yourself, disliking, disliking, it's fine. 33:47.988 --> 33:54.619 But if you experience it as pain, if that's more how you're looking at it in that moment, then say pain, pain, and you can go back and forth. 33:54.599 --> 33:56.221 It's not magic. 33:56.261 --> 33:58.384 You don't have to pick the right word and then you win. 33:59.345 --> 34:03.271 It's about training yourself to be objective. 34:04.492 --> 34:08.297 Creating that state of mind that sees something just objectively. 34:08.358 --> 34:08.878 It is this. 34:08.998 --> 34:09.519 It is this. 34:11.221 --> 34:13.384 So it doesn't really matter which one you pick. 34:13.404 --> 34:19.012 As long as it is what is clearly observed. 34:23.338 --> 34:24.319 What you observe about it. 34:26.864 --> 34:35.258 Are thoughts of wanting something required to note wanting, or can I just go ahead and note it when sensation associated with craving arise? 34:35.939 --> 34:43.010 In other words, smelling food might lead to sensations of a watery mouth, seemingly without any thought of wanting the food. 34:43.711 --> 34:49.380 In this case, should one note both feeling, wanting, or both? 34:50.362 --> 34:52.365 Never note something that's not there. 34:53.830 --> 34:55.212 I'm surprised at this question. 34:55.732 --> 34:56.673 The first question was good. 34:56.693 --> 34:57.955 I'm not sure how good this one is. 34:58.035 --> 34:59.276 I mean, I guess it's a good question. 34:59.316 --> 35:00.217 It's good that you asked it. 35:00.738 --> 35:01.679 But be very careful. 35:02.981 --> 35:08.747 Never fall into the idea that why would you ever note something that is not there? 35:09.808 --> 35:11.010 I don't think it's a bad question. 35:11.090 --> 35:17.537 I think it's an important question to answer and to be clear. 35:17.597 --> 35:19.139 This is one we have to be clear about. 35:19.860 --> 35:21.542 Because if you start noting what's not there, 35:23.783 --> 35:25.265 That's where craziness comes from. 35:25.385 --> 35:27.067 That's where you start to get lost. 35:28.129 --> 35:32.114 You start to anticipate and get obsessed, and you get worked up. 35:33.036 --> 35:34.938 Because what isn't there is infinite, you see. 35:35.539 --> 35:36.340 It's like concepts. 35:36.400 --> 35:37.321 Concepts are infinite. 35:37.342 --> 35:39.284 If you start noting concepts, you can get lost. 35:40.486 --> 35:45.032 You start noting what's not there, you'll tie yourself in knots. 35:45.012 --> 35:48.235 Never note something that's not there. 35:48.255 --> 35:50.757 Never no anticipation, expectation, nothing. 35:51.217 --> 35:52.539 If it's not there, don't note it. 35:52.699 --> 35:54.040 This is important. 35:54.060 --> 35:55.201 Really good question, actually. 35:55.221 --> 36:03.448 Important to answer anyway. 36:03.468 --> 36:07.492 It is so hard to maintain mindfulness when my friends are venting their problems to me. 36:08.112 --> 36:12.216 I know they only want me to be there and be a moral support, but it is so tiring. 36:12.937 --> 36:14.378 Bonte, how should I proceed? 36:24.618 --> 36:26.361 Well, good practice for you. 36:26.381 --> 36:31.209 If you want to be a Buddhist, it's not about taking an easy path. 36:33.012 --> 36:37.920 An easy path would be to tell them to get lost, take their problems and go. 36:37.960 --> 36:44.972 The Buddhist way is to be patient and bear with difficult situations. 36:45.052 --> 36:48.938 It's great practice, dealing with situations that make you tired. 36:51.162 --> 36:56.208 That being said, to some extent you have to preserve your energy. 36:56.988 --> 37:00.092 So don't like put yourself in those kinds of situations. 37:01.934 --> 37:04.637 I would say find friends that don't. 37:06.279 --> 37:09.302 Find friends that are mindful, you know, meditative friends. 37:10.804 --> 37:12.125 It's the importance of good friends. 37:12.205 --> 37:13.287 You can see it through this. 37:17.471 --> 37:19.954 Absolutely be there for people as much as you can, but 37:21.841 --> 37:24.043 Find time for yourself as well. 37:25.184 --> 37:34.894 I mean, don't go seeking out friendship, especially with people who are intent upon complaining, for example. 37:39.699 --> 37:44.084 But, you know, whatever you can do to help people, it's good on you. 37:44.344 --> 37:44.904 It's a good deed. 37:44.924 --> 37:47.427 And it's good practice. 37:51.845 --> 37:58.956 I have recently reverted to using the mantra rising and falling, but can't understand how the abdomen is doing either. 37:58.996 --> 38:08.510 Through my few years of practice, I've come to see that it contracts muscles to expand the whole and expands muscles to contract the whole abdomen. 38:09.231 --> 38:11.435 When there's tensions, the shoulders rise and fall. 38:12.096 --> 38:16.182 And sometimes the mind focuses on the rising and falling feeling of the diaphragm. 38:16.668 --> 38:23.518 But it rises when relaxed, contracted abdomen, and lowers when tightened, expanded abdomen. 38:24.119 --> 38:27.203 But that is opposite to the prescribed mantra usage. 38:27.824 --> 38:30.989 What are your thoughts and determinations advice for this? 38:31.730 --> 38:35.816 I am being mindful of the states, thoughts, and circumstances brought about by this already. 38:36.417 --> 38:42.085 Just to be clear, I do, however, understand how I can use these words to stay focused on what is happening. 38:45.777 --> 38:46.578 A little bit more. 38:46.658 --> 38:49.342 I understand the purpose of using the words rising and falling. 38:49.923 --> 38:55.030 And yes, it seems more accurate when lying on my back, which I don't do during formal meditation. 38:55.491 --> 38:56.192 Well, that's the thing. 38:56.232 --> 39:00.198 These words only make sense to a native English speaker, which I'm pretty sure you are. 39:01.740 --> 39:06.547 But in English, colloquially, the word rising is this. 39:07.048 --> 39:10.553 It's not actually rising. 39:10.533 --> 39:12.918 But a rising of the abdomen is an expansion. 39:14.502 --> 39:15.764 We say this for rising. 39:16.145 --> 39:22.619 So for a non-English speaker, it's kind of baffling as to why we would say rising. 39:22.940 --> 39:24.223 It's not actually rising. 39:24.984 --> 39:26.247 It's a problem, actually. 39:26.227 --> 39:32.595 And so in many languages they'll say instead expanding and contraction like in French. 39:33.556 --> 39:36.739 Some people say gonflé, dégonflé, inflating, deflating. 39:37.580 --> 39:44.969 In Thai they say pong which means like expanding really or inflating. 39:45.710 --> 39:48.994 And yuk means to collapse. 39:48.974 --> 39:54.044 So, to inflate and to collapse. 39:56.349 --> 39:59.997 German, heben sink and sink into sink. 40:00.718 --> 40:05.548 Heben to, I guess, I don't know German. 40:08.077 --> 40:12.004 But English has this curious rising, falling. 40:12.024 --> 40:18.976 But you should understand it not as increasing in elevation, but rising is like bread rising. 40:19.036 --> 40:20.078 It's this expansion. 40:20.899 --> 40:28.633 So yes, it does probably come from lying on your back when you can actually see it rising and falling. 40:30.048 --> 40:31.350 We don't have to use those words. 40:31.370 --> 40:35.115 You can say inflating, deflating, expanding, attracting. 40:35.155 --> 40:39.601 But for me, rising and falling just means this and this. 40:39.621 --> 40:45.288 Those are the words I use. 40:45.308 --> 40:51.596 Is it wise of me to choose this tradition of Buddhism and you as my teacher based on feelings of liking? 40:52.538 --> 40:59.667 I have listened to many teachings, and I always come back to yours as they seem to talk to me more deeply, and I have a sense of truth in them. 41:03.848 --> 41:07.505 Well, I mean, let me talk about myself. 41:08.389 --> 41:12.829 I tend to think that the teachings that I give are 41:14.750 --> 41:19.996 Not my teaching it, but the things that I teach are better than some of the other things out there. 41:20.397 --> 41:21.238 That's why I teach them. 41:22.179 --> 41:44.065 So using that as an example, I would say if the teachings, a specific sort of teaching, strikes you as better than another type of teaching, then that is ostensibly, on the surface anyway, superficially, a good reason to choose those teachings. 41:45.665 --> 41:57.700 If it's just about liking the teacher, I would say that's problematic because there are lots of charismatic people out there who teach things that are all messed up. 42:03.768 --> 42:06.491 So be somewhat circumspect. 42:06.512 --> 42:11.638 And even if something does seem right to you, you have to ask yourself, well, who am I? 42:12.817 --> 42:19.906 How do I know that I'm not just misled, misguided, that I just don't have wrong understanding? 42:20.948 --> 42:23.030 So to some extent, you have to challenge even that. 42:24.372 --> 42:32.563 The best way is to keep in mind that when you put something into practice, it's the results. 42:32.543 --> 43:00.002 it's the experience of doing something like if someone if you have a charismatic teacher and the teachings seem reasonable and impressive but then when you go to practice it feels like you feel like you're doing something wrong like you're not actually working out your problems not actually facing your problems 43:00.927 --> 43:02.930 that you're doing something strange. 43:03.210 --> 43:07.816 I mean, a lot of the bad teachings, I would say, are very specific. 43:07.836 --> 43:16.486 Like they suddenly tell you to focus on some specific entity or thing or start to give you weird practices. 43:17.187 --> 43:20.612 That's where the warning signs should come up. 43:20.812 --> 43:27.340 I mean, the teaching that we do is very, I would say, very neutral, objective, natural. 43:27.320 --> 43:41.303 Non-specific general applicable to in all circumstances, and I think that's what great about its universal It's not like compassion say compassion is very specific. 43:41.483 --> 43:50.037 It's a good thing, but it's quite specific To say that compassion is the ultimate state Doesn't really ring true 43:50.759 --> 43:55.208 You know, love, people who say love is all you need, right? 43:56.090 --> 43:56.972 It's all about love. 43:57.152 --> 43:58.495 Well, no, not really. 43:59.196 --> 44:02.463 Love is a good state, a great state. 44:02.523 --> 44:06.692 Other beings who talk about God, you know, if someone starts to talk about something like God, 44:08.242 --> 44:10.926 immediately you've got a problem because that's very specific. 44:11.046 --> 44:13.870 It's a specific aspect of the universe. 44:14.751 --> 44:16.373 You say, oh no, God is all-encompassing. 44:16.393 --> 44:16.914 Well, not really. 44:17.755 --> 44:19.077 God is a concept. 44:19.958 --> 44:26.487 I mean, even if he were real or it were real, it's just something we conceive of in the mind for now. 44:26.467 --> 44:30.616 But it's not really anything to do with the reality that we're faced. 44:31.517 --> 44:38.412 The practice we do speaks to every situation, every experience that we have. 44:38.432 --> 44:39.514 I think that's important. 44:41.182 --> 44:42.845 It doesn't quite answer your question. 44:44.027 --> 44:46.352 Short answer, be very careful. 44:47.494 --> 44:48.796 It's a good indication. 44:49.237 --> 44:51.100 If someone is charismatic, well, that's a good thing. 44:52.223 --> 44:55.529 If someone is able to explain things clearly, well, that's a good thing. 44:55.589 --> 44:58.414 If the things that they explain sound reasonable, that's a good thing. 44:59.947 --> 45:18.900 But hopefully some of the things I've just said about it being universally applicable can help you to sort of see why a teaching like this would be worth appreciating. 45:25.580 --> 45:28.544 And I think this question wasn't necessarily directed to you. 45:28.584 --> 45:29.786 It might have been to the community. 45:29.846 --> 45:31.429 But it's kind of a good question, I think. 45:32.210 --> 45:35.054 A person used to meditate without a timer. 45:35.274 --> 45:37.157 And they meditated as much as they needed. 45:37.277 --> 45:38.559 And they didn't feel distracted. 45:39.060 --> 45:42.525 But now that they're using a timer, they feel distracted. 45:44.024 --> 45:46.590 Yeah, well, that's reasonable. 45:46.710 --> 45:48.915 And you don't really have to use a timer. 45:48.955 --> 45:51.020 But there is something there. 45:51.040 --> 45:57.274 At the very least, you could say it's a good practice, watching yourself get obsessed with time. 45:58.537 --> 46:28.527 because but that's not the reason we don't use the timer to give us that challenge is the timer to make sure that we're not doing more walking than sitting or more sitting than walking and to make sure that we're not shirking our our our determination so if you say I'm going to sit for 30 minutes it's important that you know that you actually sat for 30 minutes and didn't flake off after 10 that's why we use the timer to keep ourselves honest and to force ourselves 46:28.507 --> 46:35.918 you don't want to follow your, your heart, you know, your desires, sit, walk until you want to sit, sit until you want to sit. 46:35.998 --> 46:37.504 Bad move, bad idea. 46:39.070 --> 46:44.535 Because it's those desires, it's those partialities that we're trying to do away with. 46:45.656 --> 46:51.201 So forcing yourself to sit and walk exactly the same amount is a very important practice. 46:51.942 --> 46:54.444 Even just forcing yourself to sit for a specified time. 46:55.365 --> 46:57.527 Because you can't follow your desires. 46:59.008 --> 47:06.175 This is why listening to a Dhamma talk, listening to a Dhamma talk like this is far inferior to listening to one live. 47:07.150 --> 47:13.788 for several reasons, but the most obvious reason, because if you're listening to a Dhamma talk live, you have to sit still. 47:14.530 --> 47:15.673 How many of you are sitting still? 47:15.693 --> 47:18.300 How many of you are not clicking back and forth between things? 47:18.801 --> 47:20.907 How many of you are checking Facebook while I talk? 47:21.545 --> 47:46.860 I don't know maybe hopefully none but I wouldn't be surprised so the timer is a way of keeping yourself if you follow the timer while it keeps you from just getting up whenever you want so that's a really important quality but also it's important to eat to practice 47:46.840 --> 48:13.067 objectivity about your obsession with the time is it going to go off am I done those kind of worries because they're very they're the exact same worries that we have in in our ordinary life about everything else about our work about study about the way we live our lives everything is everything is connected we react in similar ways to all aspects of our life meditation just shows them to us 48:14.212 --> 48:21.842 So take that as an opportunity to train yourself to be more objective and less obsessed with time. 48:26.167 --> 48:37.922 Do you think, Bhante, just like the meditators and, of course, who can determine to wake up after four hours, can you get to the point where you just kind of know when that amount of time has passed? 48:38.763 --> 48:39.544 Yeah, yeah, certainly. 48:41.752 --> 48:43.574 But it's not certain. 48:44.274 --> 48:46.636 You can, but it's not always going to work. 48:48.237 --> 48:50.299 In the olden days, they would use incense. 48:51.720 --> 48:58.306 You take an incense stick, and when the incense burns down, you know you've sat long enough, or walked long enough, or sat long enough, just to keep it even. 48:58.746 --> 49:00.168 One incense stick, one walking. 49:00.288 --> 49:02.209 One incense stick, one sitting. 49:07.073 --> 49:11.337 One other good reason to use it so is not to miss the Dhamma talk at night. 49:12.076 --> 49:22.248 Looking at evolution and the technical evolution we are in right now, Buddhism speaks of the next Buddha called Maitreya when looking far ahead. 49:23.289 --> 49:26.012 Could Maitreya be an AI system? 49:26.553 --> 49:28.555 I did read your booklet, and I do meditate. 49:29.076 --> 49:34.762 The reason I'm asking this is because there is no proof consciousness is only limited as an organic form. 49:35.423 --> 49:39.448 Also, this question won't help my meditation practice, but I am just curious. 49:40.149 --> 49:41.290 Let's be clear. 49:42.670 --> 49:47.360 Consciousness isn't dependent on the body. 49:47.460 --> 49:51.288 Now physical states can give rise to mental states. 49:51.589 --> 49:53.112 There is that kind of interaction. 49:53.152 --> 49:55.718 But mental states can also give rise to mental states. 49:55.798 --> 50:00.628 So there are beings without a corporeal body. 50:02.802 --> 50:16.123 The idea that a being could inhabit a silicon-based brain or something, machine, it's not impossible because it's whatever the mind clings to. 50:16.163 --> 50:21.992 Now, it would be in a far different form for a human to go to that form directly. 50:22.748 --> 50:39.137 think would be somewhat in somewhat unlikely because we're we're so caught up in the system that we have being born and die and born and die as humans and animals that 50:40.653 --> 50:41.214 Oh, I don't know. 50:41.254 --> 50:42.277 It's all speculation. 50:43.058 --> 50:43.700 We can be born. 50:43.760 --> 50:45.824 There are cases where we're born as angels. 50:46.065 --> 50:48.731 So that's born immediately, fully formed. 50:50.294 --> 50:53.581 Um, but your question whether Medea will be an AI. 50:53.641 --> 50:54.102 No, he won't. 50:54.163 --> 50:55.546 Medea will be a human being. 50:57.710 --> 50:58.071 Um, 51:00.565 --> 51:03.049 What kind of human being he will be, I don't know. 51:03.129 --> 51:16.330 I mean, maybe there will be some technology that we're using to live longer. 51:17.035 --> 51:18.617 Maybe his body will look different. 51:20.901 --> 51:21.401 But I'm sorry. 51:21.421 --> 51:23.765 I think I've actually misunderstood your question. 51:23.805 --> 51:32.798 Because if you're actually suggesting, I was thinking you were talking about a physical basis that was machine-based. 51:32.818 --> 51:35.041 But you're actually talking about artificial intelligence. 51:35.502 --> 51:36.684 I've answered this question before. 51:36.704 --> 51:39.027 Artificial intelligence isn't real intelligence. 51:39.007 --> 52:04.339 I mean I can program an artificial intelligence well actually I get I've used when I what I mean to say is when I was six years old I used an artificial intelligence way back in the 80s they were there were programs for the Apple TV where you would it would play guessing games so you think of something and it would ask you a question about it so it knew only like one question and 52:04.775 --> 52:06.758 Is it an animal or is it a vegetable? 52:06.938 --> 52:07.539 Something like that. 52:07.559 --> 52:08.560 That was the question. 52:09.081 --> 52:10.463 Animal, vegetable, and minerals. 52:10.623 --> 52:11.544 That was something. 52:11.564 --> 52:12.205 Is it an animal? 52:12.526 --> 52:12.686 No. 52:12.946 --> 52:13.647 Is it a vegetable? 52:13.787 --> 52:13.988 Yes. 52:14.869 --> 52:18.594 OK. And then it would say, is it a carrot? 52:19.055 --> 52:20.577 No, it's not a carrot. 52:20.597 --> 52:21.238 Well, what was it? 52:21.478 --> 52:23.401 And you'd say, it was an apple. 52:24.142 --> 52:27.526 What question could I ask to differentiate between a carrot and an apple? 52:27.546 --> 52:28.267 And you'd teach it. 52:28.327 --> 52:31.251 You'd tell it, well, a carrot is orange, an apple is red. 52:31.272 --> 52:33.094 So you'd ask, is it red? 52:33.631 --> 52:38.918 You could actually do this, and this basic machine would learn. 52:40.059 --> 52:42.502 Now, is that to say that there is a consciousness? 52:42.522 --> 52:45.025 It's ridiculous to think that there's a consciousness behind that. 52:45.806 --> 52:49.691 It doesn't take consciousness to do any of that. 52:50.873 --> 52:56.820 So no matter how complicated that gets, the idea that suddenly, poof, consciousness arises, 52:58.032 --> 52:59.894 Consciousness doesn't arise like that. 53:00.374 --> 53:13.927 If consciousness came to manipulate a silicon-based brain, then you could have a being conscious in the AI system. 53:15.329 --> 53:19.993 But the ways in which it would interact, I mean, I don't know. 53:20.013 --> 53:21.374 It's all getting very speculative. 53:21.815 --> 53:25.238 But it's important that you don't 53:27.614 --> 53:32.780 confuse artificial intelligence with true consciousness. 53:33.902 --> 53:36.665 Artificial intelligence has nothing to do with consciousness at all. 53:38.307 --> 53:40.330 It doesn't even come close. 53:40.430 --> 53:46.377 It doesn't come closer to consciousness than a rock at all. 53:47.138 --> 53:52.204 It's just manipulating of energies, manipulating of systems by human beings. 53:54.125 --> 54:00.588 manipulating of systems to provide information that we then process in meaningful ways. 54:00.648 --> 54:03.679 We manipulate systems in ways that are meaningful to us. 54:07.591 --> 54:33.852 instead of allowing things to go allowing energy to go towards entropy we pull the energy together and manipulate it in such a way as to create electricity computer circuits and finally what we call ai but it's all our device it's all only because we find it meaningful we do it we set it up in a way that we find meaningful it's based on our intelligence 54:35.873 --> 54:38.838 There's no such thing as AI doesn't become conscious. 54:38.959 --> 54:40.101 It's not related. 54:42.144 --> 54:43.767 It's not related to consciousness at all. 54:45.771 --> 54:51.982 Some might disagree, but yeah, pretty sure pretty confident in that answer. 54:54.507 --> 54:58.354 Fonte, in our tradition, is it believed that only humans will become a Buddha? 54:59.617 --> 55:01.400 Yeah, that's the orthodox understanding. 55:01.440 --> 55:09.773 I mean, it's pretty clear that it's not exactly a human because the orthodox understanding is that they live for thousands of years. 55:09.953 --> 55:12.017 So could that be bionics? 55:12.077 --> 55:12.437 I don't know. 55:13.198 --> 55:17.325 I mean, there's nothing stopping us theoretically from living much longer than we do. 55:18.447 --> 55:22.092 We can just stop the aging process and they're working on it even today. 55:23.675 --> 55:25.658 Some people believe it's right around the corner. 55:26.903 --> 55:31.109 But the idea is it's the human realm. 55:31.890 --> 55:43.064 And I guess by that, it just means the height of the animal realm, the height of the realm of corporeal beings as opposed to divine beings. 55:47.791 --> 55:55.020 Beyond seeing them clearly as they arise, how should one deal with feelings of ostracization? 55:55.203 --> 55:57.331 being ostracized. 56:01.767 --> 56:03.272 Why are you looking for another way? 56:03.312 --> 56:05.500 Are you saying the Buddha's way doesn't work? 56:07.775 --> 56:09.798 I mean, everything can be dealt with conventionally. 56:09.818 --> 56:13.484 There are all sorts of auxiliary practices you can use. 56:14.866 --> 56:20.935 So reading the Buddha's teaching and learning about how the Buddha taught to be alone is good for you. 56:21.236 --> 56:22.378 Being alone is the greatest. 56:22.618 --> 56:23.920 Being alone is like being God. 56:25.122 --> 56:26.043 Gods are alone. 56:26.424 --> 56:28.107 Gods live singularly. 56:29.108 --> 56:33.495 It's only angels and human beings that live in groups. 56:33.678 --> 56:37.323 So there's greatness in being alone, that kind of thing. 56:37.683 --> 56:40.727 I guess I should be able to provide you with some encouragement. 56:40.787 --> 56:42.229 Don't worry about being ostracized. 56:44.071 --> 56:46.434 But you have to understand it through your practice. 56:46.474 --> 56:49.718 You have to see that the feeling is the problem, not the ostracization. 56:51.701 --> 56:53.543 So ultimately, meditation is the best way. 57:02.720 --> 57:11.674 Bhante, can painful, unpleasant mental feelings, uidana, arise without ignorance, aversion associated with them? 57:13.036 --> 57:13.236 No. 57:14.278 --> 57:17.282 No, because doma nasa is always associated with patiga. 57:17.383 --> 57:21.048 Patiga is dosa jita, dosa jita. 57:21.068 --> 57:23.171 All are associated with ignorance, delusion. 57:25.795 --> 57:26.196 Moha. 57:31.070 --> 57:35.176 I don't answer questions about Kundalini because I don't really even understand what it is. 57:36.298 --> 57:37.479 Certainly not a Buddhist concept. 57:38.621 --> 57:41.865 Sorry. 57:41.886 --> 57:44.850 Bhante, have you seen the Buddhist tooth and how huge is it? 57:45.431 --> 57:47.393 The Buddha was obviously a perfect one. 57:47.634 --> 57:48.635 Do you have any thoughts? 57:49.096 --> 57:54.804 Some people say apparently inside the tooth relic there's actually a real tooth and that the outside is just a casing. 57:55.365 --> 57:56.547 They took some x-rays of it. 57:57.208 --> 57:58.950 Some British people did, I think. 58:01.495 --> 58:02.818 I don't have any thoughts on that. 58:04.822 --> 58:08.128 And that's a good note to end on tonight. 58:10.412 --> 58:11.174 Some good questions. 58:12.997 --> 58:13.519 Thank you all. 58:14.500 --> 58:15.563 Let's call it a night there. 58:17.206 --> 58:18.047 Thank you, Bhante. 58:18.328 --> 58:20.432 Good night.