WEBVTT 00:15.438 --> 00:16.579 Good evening everyone. 00:19.442 --> 00:21.044 Hopefully this is working properly. 00:33.276 --> 00:44.247 So we have another graduate here with us today who's very happy to have finished the course 00:45.745 --> 00:48.509 Or maybe he's just very happy to be done with it. 01:00.125 --> 01:00.705 Edward, right? 01:02.628 --> 01:06.974 It's funny, I never call my meditators by their names, so I often even forget their names. 01:08.957 --> 01:12.401 I know them very, very well, but I don't even know their names some of the times. 01:14.724 --> 01:14.865 Edward. 01:14.885 --> 01:15.145 Edward. 01:16.390 --> 01:17.291 Come say hello. 01:20.816 --> 01:23.659 Hopefully that mic works. 01:23.679 --> 01:24.040 Hello. 01:27.744 --> 01:29.066 Did it work? 01:29.086 --> 01:29.467 Say again. 01:29.747 --> 01:30.067 Hello. 01:30.888 --> 01:34.573 Yeah, I think it worked. 01:34.593 --> 01:41.382 So, um, you've been here for how long have you been here? 01:41.422 --> 01:42.143 Three weeks now. 01:42.483 --> 01:43.544 Yep. 01:43.605 --> 01:43.925 21 days. 01:44.826 --> 01:45.587 How is the food? 01:46.715 --> 01:47.356 Good. 01:48.177 --> 01:48.918 It felt like home. 01:49.940 --> 01:50.641 It felt like home. 01:50.681 --> 01:51.081 It was good. 01:51.462 --> 01:51.702 Yeah. 01:55.347 --> 01:58.151 And the rooms were okay? 01:58.732 --> 02:00.054 Yeah, no, everything was in order. 02:00.314 --> 02:01.056 Everything was good. 02:01.216 --> 02:02.878 I didn't know what to expect. 02:05.081 --> 02:15.456 Yeah, it felt like home, so it had the comfort of being at home, but still the discipline of being at an intense meditation course, and that was excellent. 02:15.957 --> 02:16.097 Mm-hmm. 02:18.035 --> 02:19.197 How was the meditation? 02:19.237 --> 02:20.859 Difficult? 02:21.721 --> 02:22.402 What did you learn? 02:23.424 --> 02:23.704 Wow. 02:25.447 --> 02:31.516 Your feeling before you came here and how you feel now when you're getting ready to leave. 02:32.177 --> 02:33.500 What's changed? 02:35.563 --> 02:36.284 Great question. 02:36.524 --> 02:37.306 I haven't thought about it. 02:37.326 --> 02:42.574 I've been trying to pay attention to the moment. 02:44.731 --> 02:47.957 So my feeling coming in here was to learn a new technique. 02:47.977 --> 02:50.401 I've been meditating for a few years now. 02:51.643 --> 02:55.069 And I've heard and read a lot about this technique. 02:55.329 --> 02:56.912 So I was open to try something new. 02:58.094 --> 03:01.440 Didn't know much what to expect. 03:01.420 --> 03:06.127 Walking meditation was a new thing for me. 03:07.249 --> 03:16.142 And doing that, it really showed me how it complemented having this dynamic practice to the sitting, which I found very helpful. 03:16.783 --> 03:23.794 And in fact, I tried to sit now without walking, and I saw how much more difficult it is without the walking. 03:24.836 --> 03:26.057 So that was nice. 03:26.078 --> 03:30.364 It really does calm the mind and help the sitting. 03:31.897 --> 03:33.979 There's so much to say, I don't know. 03:35.241 --> 03:36.022 How do you feel today? 03:36.862 --> 03:41.207 You've come out of the hardest part of the course. 03:41.247 --> 03:42.208 How do you feel today? 03:43.530 --> 03:45.011 Relieved that it's over. 03:45.031 --> 03:48.055 At the same time, a part of me wants to keep going. 03:49.256 --> 03:50.337 Okay. 03:50.357 --> 03:52.620 And so, yeah. 03:53.120 --> 03:55.403 But yeah, of course, relieved that it's over. 03:55.463 --> 03:56.544 It was tough. 03:58.006 --> 04:01.009 But as they say or as I've heard, 04:01.816 --> 04:04.182 You purify through fire, in a sense. 04:05.727 --> 04:10.841 You need to go through that difficulty to get through to the other side. 04:11.462 --> 04:13.969 But do you feel peaceful today? 04:15.316 --> 04:16.217 Yes, a lot more. 04:16.277 --> 04:21.344 I mean, I'm sensing it now speaking on the mic. 04:21.404 --> 04:23.446 I'm very calm. 04:24.568 --> 04:28.332 I don't know if that comes across, but yeah, absolutely. 04:29.674 --> 04:36.683 And the meta, yeah, the meta part was very nice, very special. 04:37.540 --> 04:45.209 It takes time, of course, to really sort of digest what a meditation course was all about. 04:46.431 --> 04:48.474 And it's not part of an ongoing process, right? 04:48.534 --> 04:51.177 This isn't the beginning for you, and this certainly isn't the end. 04:51.437 --> 04:53.159 So congratulations. 04:53.199 --> 04:54.841 Thank you very much for everything. 04:55.242 --> 04:55.903 You're most welcome. 05:01.650 --> 05:04.033 Everyone says congratulations. 05:06.596 --> 05:07.497 You're a star. 05:11.037 --> 05:11.578 How was that? 05:11.798 --> 05:13.841 Was the mic okay? 05:14.242 --> 05:15.303 I got two mics set up here. 05:15.343 --> 05:17.526 That mic isn't as sensitive as this one. 05:18.828 --> 05:21.011 I should probably turn this mic down a little bit. 05:26.379 --> 05:33.028 Part of a process is sort of the theme for tonight. 05:35.995 --> 05:51.394 I often get questions about how long it's going to take to free ourselves from our bad habits. 05:51.414 --> 05:54.237 What can we do to free ourselves? 05:54.578 --> 05:55.318 What can we do? 05:55.378 --> 06:03.268 Sort of an underlying assumption that it's just going to suddenly, yeah, 06:05.240 --> 06:07.903 The mind is just suddenly going to fix itself. 06:12.328 --> 06:19.296 The Buddha compared the path to the ocean, the great ocean. 06:26.364 --> 06:28.767 He was approached by this 06:31.244 --> 06:36.830 sort of the titans in Greek mythology, a demigod kind of being. 06:38.712 --> 06:47.042 These beings who are like angels, but a little more coarse, a little more unrefined. 06:50.365 --> 06:56.172 Some form of angel in Buddhist cosmology or heavenly being. 06:58.075 --> 07:01.200 celestial being, but sort of associated with the earth. 07:01.220 --> 07:04.847 And this one was one that lived in the ocean. 07:05.367 --> 07:16.066 And I approached him and asked him, I approached him to listen to his teachings and the Buddha asked him, I asked him about the ocean. 07:16.807 --> 07:19.792 He said, what do you think of the ocean? 07:20.733 --> 07:21.936 I said, do you delight in it? 07:21.956 --> 07:22.817 And he said, yes. 07:24.417 --> 07:26.279 Yes, we are asura. 07:26.299 --> 07:28.642 Asura is the name of this type of being. 07:28.682 --> 07:29.924 So we delight in the ocean. 07:33.228 --> 07:36.892 So the Buddha asked, how many great qualities does the ocean have? 07:36.912 --> 07:38.294 He's going to set something up here. 07:38.314 --> 07:46.084 He wants to compare his teaching to the great ocean. 07:46.104 --> 07:47.826 So he asked, how many great qualities 07:49.105 --> 07:53.251 cause you to delight, make you delight in the ocean. 07:54.212 --> 07:54.913 What do you see in it? 07:57.476 --> 07:59.539 So this is in the Anguttara Nikaya Book of Eights. 07:59.639 --> 08:01.742 There are eight great qualities of the ocean. 08:04.285 --> 08:13.578 And the first, the first is that the ocean doesn't, as deep as it is, it doesn't suddenly drop off. 08:13.718 --> 08:15.200 It doesn't suddenly become deep. 08:16.742 --> 08:18.184 It inclines 08:19.497 --> 08:36.409 slowly so huge that so vast that this huge depth it can slant even so slightly 08:37.334 --> 08:44.761 And even though I'm slanting just so slightly, it still reaches great depth because of how vast it is. 08:46.583 --> 08:47.664 Not like a swimming pool. 08:47.684 --> 08:53.910 A swimming pool has to get deep really quick because there's not enough room for it to get deep. 08:55.352 --> 08:56.153 But not the ocean. 08:56.833 --> 09:03.780 The ocean gets deep very slowly until it gets super deep. 09:11.692 --> 09:16.858 And then the second quality is that the ocean is stable. 09:18.700 --> 09:20.301 It doesn't overflow its boundaries. 09:24.366 --> 09:26.828 So the ocean doesn't flood. 09:26.989 --> 09:27.729 Well, it doesn't yet. 09:29.311 --> 09:32.975 As we know, the boundaries are probably soon going to change and expand. 09:33.095 --> 09:40.163 But well, for the longest time, the ocean has been kind of stable. 09:42.033 --> 09:44.197 It's not like a lake or a river that floods. 09:49.167 --> 09:56.481 The third is that the ocean doesn't keep corpses. 09:56.501 --> 09:59.907 It doesn't keep refuse. 10:01.928 --> 10:03.731 Because we know that now even this isn't true. 10:05.233 --> 10:10.721 Because now there's a big island of refuse in the middle of the ocean because it's plastic. 10:10.741 --> 10:12.844 It's about the size of Texas, apparently. 10:17.491 --> 10:19.114 Yeah, a great island of plastic. 10:21.858 --> 10:28.628 But the ocean, generally any refuse, a corpse, any corpses... 10:30.025 --> 10:33.492 The idea here is corpses. 10:34.554 --> 10:40.827 In India they would cast off their bodies into the river and carry down to the ocean. 10:42.691 --> 10:43.954 But it would never stay in the ocean. 10:43.994 --> 10:45.878 The ocean would toss them out. 10:46.539 --> 10:47.882 The ocean is pure in that way. 10:54.460 --> 10:57.684 And number four is that the ocean is one. 10:58.966 --> 11:07.076 Even though you have all these rivers reaching the great ocean, they're no longer separate. 11:07.897 --> 11:10.860 All water joins together in the ocean. 11:12.002 --> 11:17.228 All water eventually goes to reach the ocean and becomes simply the great ocean. 11:26.168 --> 11:36.620 Number five, no matter how much water flows into the ocean, there's neither a decrease nor an increase. 11:40.604 --> 11:47.592 Even though you constantly see water pouring in and constantly water evaporating, it's stable. 11:48.213 --> 11:54.420 Again, not trespassing its boundaries, but also not decreasing or increasing. 11:58.518 --> 12:02.704 Number six, the ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt. 12:03.745 --> 12:09.433 And where you go in the ocean, it doesn't taste differently. 12:09.633 --> 12:15.481 You don't get a different taste depending on which part of the ocean, which beach you go to swim on. 12:19.667 --> 12:23.332 Number seven, that under the ocean there are many precious substances. 12:25.255 --> 12:27.478 There is much of 12:28.808 --> 12:50.669 great magnificence in the ocean, the corals and the pearls and the gems, even gold, silver, rubies apparently, and all these beautiful shells and beautiful fish and so on. 12:50.689 --> 12:54.293 And number eight, the great ocean is the abode of great beings. 12:56.804 --> 13:03.862 We've got some names of great beings here, but they're apparently great spirits that live in the ocean. 13:04.844 --> 13:08.413 Apparently there are even just animals in the ocean. 13:08.454 --> 13:11.160 Some ocean animals live to be like 500 years. 13:12.263 --> 13:14.188 Apparently lobsters don't age. 13:15.957 --> 13:22.568 And lobsters could live for hundreds of years, except they get too big and then it's hard for them to survive. 13:22.648 --> 13:28.338 But other fish just live on and on for 500 years in the ocean. 13:30.041 --> 13:38.235 You think humans are long-lived compared to animals, but there are some animals that have been around in the ocean for hundreds and hundreds of years. 13:45.539 --> 13:48.743 And then the Buddha compares this to the Dhamma. 13:48.763 --> 14:10.652 He says, just as the great ocean slants, slopes and inclines gradually, not dropping off abruptly, so too in the Dhamma Vinaya of the Buddha, the realization of the truth occurs gradually in stages. 14:13.653 --> 14:15.856 So it's not something that you just get all at once. 14:15.976 --> 14:17.778 It's something that is open, Aiko. 14:17.818 --> 14:18.660 It leads us on. 14:20.021 --> 14:22.985 The more you learn, the more you realize there is more to learn. 14:24.828 --> 14:33.619 The more you understand, you just get closer and closer to freedom. 14:36.468 --> 14:41.493 And the important thing here is to realize that it's not just going to all get better all at once. 14:42.694 --> 14:46.737 It's not going to happen overnight and it's certainly not a one-step process. 14:49.180 --> 14:58.048 Someone tonight made me think of this because he said he'd been practicing for a few months and he still had all these problems. 14:58.348 --> 14:59.930 Oh, don't think in terms of months. 15:03.193 --> 15:05.935 You have to think in terms of lifetimes for some of it. 15:07.248 --> 15:12.835 How many lifetimes have we been building up the wrong habits? 15:12.855 --> 15:15.858 How much deeper and much more profound than we think? 15:19.322 --> 15:23.788 So what we look at is whether we're inclining in the right direction. 15:27.532 --> 15:31.757 Are we inclining in a wholesome direction or are we inclining in an unwholesome direction? 15:31.797 --> 15:35.061 And just be content with that and work in a way 15:36.475 --> 15:38.397 bring about greater and greater understanding. 15:40.819 --> 15:43.161 Being reassured that we're, you know, it's getting deeper. 15:43.982 --> 15:47.885 We're heading towards the bottom of the ocean, the bottom of the Dhamma. 15:48.005 --> 15:49.247 We're getting to the bottom of it. 15:51.108 --> 15:52.269 It's just going to take time. 15:55.552 --> 16:06.162 And just as the ocean doesn't overflow its boundaries in the same way when the Buddha lays down precepts, the rules, 16:14.022 --> 16:16.725 What's amazing is that people don't transgress them. 16:18.827 --> 16:28.317 Especially a person who practices meditation will be unable to break with the moral code. 16:31.060 --> 16:37.127 There's such a power to the realization of the Dhamma that people are 16:41.579 --> 16:45.667 are powerfully disinclined to perform unwholesome deeds. 16:50.698 --> 16:56.550 It goes both ways because without the practice of morality, of course, meditation can't succeed. 16:59.686 --> 17:06.458 I've been a bit lax, but we do these online courses and I meet once a week with meditators. 17:09.564 --> 17:16.136 So we had one meditator who just explained to me that he's involved in killing animals. 17:17.558 --> 17:20.243 And I said, oh well, we can't continue with the course. 17:22.602 --> 17:25.866 I mean, it's just, there's too much friction involved. 17:26.827 --> 17:27.908 There's too much conflict. 17:28.970 --> 17:29.691 It just won't work. 17:35.738 --> 17:46.070 I have to be vigilant now to remember to make sure that people are keeping at least the five precepts. 17:46.090 --> 17:47.071 But it will come to a head. 17:47.131 --> 17:49.234 I mean, I've had meditators, I've had people 17:50.969 --> 17:58.597 practicing meditation before, who came to realize that they couldn't continue with their livelihood and they just had to give it up. 18:00.059 --> 18:06.286 I had one friend like this who eventually came to a head. 18:06.306 --> 18:09.450 He had to quit with his studies. 18:09.530 --> 18:14.395 He was studying in a lab working on rats. 18:16.602 --> 18:21.928 He was a biologist about to finish his degree in biology, and he had to actually change his major. 18:21.948 --> 18:26.393 He just decided he couldn't continue, and now he works for the Canadian government, I think. 18:29.637 --> 18:35.764 In public, public something, public... 18:35.784 --> 18:36.565 I can't remember what it was. 18:37.205 --> 18:39.388 Something administrative, nothing to do with biology. 18:41.730 --> 18:44.854 This is amazing that people are, through the practice, 18:48.158 --> 19:05.053 They're willing and they're inclined to change their whole lives in regards to keeping in moral and ethical behavior. 19:12.543 --> 19:29.882 Number three, just as the ocean doesn't associate with a corpse and thrusts it out, so too the Sangha does not associate with a person who is immoral, of bad character, impure, of suspect behavior, secretive in his actions. 19:33.046 --> 19:37.150 So again, quite quickly we expel those who are 19:38.345 --> 19:40.087 Theoretically, no. 19:41.429 --> 19:45.775 Not theoretically, but in a... 19:52.304 --> 20:03.880 In terms of the ultimate sangha, the sangha of meditators, because of course even in Buddhism there are bad apples who come and go, but 20:06.627 --> 20:24.045 What's amazing is how good people, people who have cultivated meditation practice, want nothing to do with those who are not interested in meditation and those who are unable to see the benefit of cultivating wholesome mind states. 20:30.927 --> 20:37.914 And it says, even though he is seated in the midst of the Sangha, yet he is far from the Sangha and the Sangha is far from him. 20:39.115 --> 20:59.854 How unsullied the mind and the world of the meditator is from the defiled minds or the ordinary minds of those who are inclined towards sensual gratification and 21:01.117 --> 21:03.735 indulgence in immoral activities. 21:10.432 --> 21:21.366 Number four, just as when the great rivers reach the ocean, they give up their former names and it all becomes the ocean, so too everyone who comes to the Dhamma. 21:21.427 --> 21:24.270 What's amazing is that they all just become Buddhists. 21:24.491 --> 21:33.222 As we were talking about before, the idea that we give up a lot of who we are, not consciously, but just naturally. 21:37.668 --> 21:39.190 We give up status and 21:40.537 --> 21:53.370 identity, personality, and we just become people, kind, compassionate, natural, peaceful people. 21:59.416 --> 22:09.666 We lose all the demarcations of groups and 22:12.042 --> 22:18.470 all the barriers of culture and race and class and so on, gender, it all just disappears. 22:25.939 --> 22:39.315 And number five, even though, just as when the, just as the ocean doesn't increase or decrease, even though, no matter how much rain falls into it or is evaporated out of it, 22:46.788 --> 23:00.311 even when many people attain the truth, um, just means that many, many people attain it and it never, it never becomes, uh, full. 23:02.294 --> 23:07.223 We can always, always receive more meditators, receive more. 23:09.406 --> 23:11.049 There can never be too many basically. 23:11.069 --> 23:12.812 I mean it's the, the, 23:13.045 --> 23:18.110 Statement is that nibbana doesn't increase which is actually interesting in the sense. 23:18.130 --> 23:41.753 It's not like heaven or something Whereas heaven gets quite full when when a Buddha comes to being The Angels all remark at how full heaven is becoming because all the Buddhists go up to heaven And so they they comment they come in the comment on this to the Buddha But nibbana doesn't isn't like that Nibbana doesn't get more full 23:44.180 --> 23:57.063 So I guess what you could say about this is how special the teaching is or the goal is, the goal of the Buddha's teaching is, and that it's infinite. 24:00.829 --> 24:01.871 There's no change. 24:03.113 --> 24:05.698 It is beyond samsara, is really the point. 24:11.652 --> 24:17.703 Number six, just as the ocean has but one taste, so too the Dhamma of the Buddha has only one taste. 24:18.985 --> 24:21.650 While the ocean is salty, that's the taste of the ocean. 24:23.313 --> 24:24.676 The Dhamma is freedom. 24:25.297 --> 24:28.142 It has the taste of freedom, the taste of liberation. 24:30.890 --> 24:33.814 So that's what meditation, that's what Buddhism should feel like. 24:35.175 --> 24:36.417 How should it taste to you? 24:36.457 --> 24:38.379 What is the flavor of the Dhamma? 24:38.399 --> 24:40.161 The flavor of the Dhamma should be liberation. 24:40.401 --> 24:45.287 If you feel more trapped and more caught up, then you're not practicing the Dhamma. 24:45.768 --> 24:56.661 But if you feel more free and more released from your traps and your bonds, your bondage, 24:58.835 --> 25:04.343 more free from judgment, impartiality and identification and ego. 25:06.426 --> 25:07.607 That's the taste of the Dhamma. 25:11.112 --> 25:21.467 Number seven, just as the great ocean contains many precious substances, lots of precious, beautiful, magnificent things, 25:22.915 --> 25:25.939 So too the Dhamma of the Buddha contains great things. 25:26.179 --> 25:44.825 It contains the four foundations of mindfulness, the four great efforts, the four bases for power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of enlightenment and the noble eightfold path. 25:44.845 --> 25:45.966 A lot of jewels there. 25:47.509 --> 25:50.813 A lot of precious and magnificent things to be found in the Dhamma. 25:54.944 --> 26:06.608 And number eight, just as the great ocean is an abode of great beings, whales and sharks and wondrous ancient creatures, 26:10.317 --> 26:18.004 Apparently there are beings that live in the ocean that are 500 yojana, which is 500 leagues, which is about 8,000 miles. 26:18.444 --> 26:20.165 I don't know. 26:21.046 --> 26:27.852 I don't know what's going on here, but very, very far too big to actually exist in the ocean as we understand it today. 26:29.854 --> 26:31.855 Maybe Sanka can shed some light on this. 26:33.357 --> 26:35.338 Because a yojana is 16 kilometers. 26:35.358 --> 26:39.582 500 times 16 is 8,000 kilometers long. 26:41.418 --> 26:44.546 I don't think such beings could fit in the ocean as we understand it. 26:47.253 --> 26:51.644 Nonetheless, great beings do exist in the Dhamma. 26:51.664 --> 26:57.739 They're not that big physically, but they're great and profound mentally. 26:59.626 --> 27:12.645 So in the Dhamma we have the stream-enterer, the Sotapanna, the person who has freed themselves from wrong view of self and attachment to rites and rituals or doubt about the practice. 27:12.966 --> 27:21.118 We have the Sakadagami who is weakened, has very little greed or anger, such that they'll only ever be reborn one more time. 27:22.740 --> 27:27.287 And the Anagami who's freed themselves from all sensual desire and all aversion. 27:29.815 --> 27:32.799 And we have the arahant who has freed themselves from all delusion. 27:37.186 --> 27:39.690 All these great and profound beings. 27:46.319 --> 27:48.242 Yeah, maybe they're celestial. 27:48.302 --> 27:49.164 That would make sense. 27:50.385 --> 27:56.194 Then they could somehow be an extra-dimensional sense of being so big. 28:00.983 --> 28:04.749 So those are the eight astounding qualities of the Dhamma. 28:04.769 --> 28:06.772 The Dhamma is something great and profound. 28:08.534 --> 28:10.037 It's like, think of the great ocean. 28:10.097 --> 28:19.751 It's a useful simile because it allows the mind to grasp just how great this teaching is, how profound it is. 28:20.512 --> 28:24.478 Because when you compare the ocean to the Dhamma, the ocean is actually quite insignificant. 28:26.802 --> 28:27.683 But we often... 28:29.266 --> 28:31.289 minimalize or trivialize the Dhamma. 28:32.431 --> 28:51.041 And so by thinking about the great ocean and just how profound and deep, vast and complex the ocean is, the Dhamma is vast, profound, deep. 28:54.587 --> 28:56.590 So there you go, there's our Dhamma for tonight. 29:06.425 --> 29:08.929 Today I have two monitors going. 29:08.969 --> 29:16.881 I've got this little monitor here that's allowing me to... 29:16.901 --> 29:19.024 I can check questions here on the other monitor. 29:21.027 --> 29:22.689 So hopefully the recording went well. 29:22.729 --> 29:24.552 I think it's got the whole screen in it now. 29:34.201 --> 29:38.669 How does impermanent affect a yogi mother in relation to her children? 29:39.390 --> 29:40.873 Does she become unattached to them? 29:40.913 --> 29:42.836 The question is from a real life situation. 29:43.578 --> 29:44.439 Yes, absolutely. 29:45.020 --> 29:46.884 I had this happen to one of my meditators. 29:47.745 --> 29:48.667 It was great. 29:48.687 --> 29:57.863 This meditator, she came, or this woman, she came to me, a Thai woman, and her 30-year-old son was, I mean, it's a, 29:59.159 --> 30:02.682 It's probably not exactly what you're asking, but it's still a good example. 30:03.383 --> 30:04.263 So he was 30 years old. 30:04.283 --> 30:05.084 He was quite old. 30:07.126 --> 30:17.074 But he was being terrible to her, and he had taken up Hinduism, but he had gotten involved with his guru, and he had gotten very egotistical about it and wasn't very nice to his mother. 30:17.995 --> 30:19.877 So she was having real trouble with him. 30:21.078 --> 30:23.279 And she said, Can you help my son? 30:23.620 --> 30:26.142 Can you do something to help with this? 30:26.262 --> 30:27.703 And I said, Sure, I'll help. 30:27.743 --> 30:28.744 You come and meditate. 30:30.968 --> 30:39.061 And she was kind of unimpressed by that answer. 30:39.541 --> 30:43.047 But eventually she did come and meditate and she finished a meditation course with me. 30:44.108 --> 30:46.692 And once she finished, I asked her, you know, how's her son doing? 30:46.712 --> 30:47.834 And she said, oh, I don't know. 30:48.515 --> 30:49.497 Let him go his own way. 30:50.618 --> 30:58.731 And she had totally changed from being worried and attached to him to being totally free and liberated from that. 30:59.909 --> 31:08.640 So, yeah, certainly a mother would become, now the question I suppose is, what would they do in regards to a young child? 31:09.781 --> 31:16.409 I mean, just because you're unattached doesn't mean you don't care for or do positive things for others. 31:17.530 --> 31:25.360 Actually, the opposite is the case, is that you care and wish well for others even more than before. 31:26.217 --> 31:28.059 much more inclined to be supportive. 31:28.179 --> 31:34.307 So I doubt there would be much problem for one practicing the Dhamma, but they wouldn't be at all inclined to. 31:35.308 --> 31:40.855 So another case is I had a meditator who became pregnant. 31:42.216 --> 31:47.723 She came to do a course with me, finished a meditation course, and then went back to meet her husband. 31:49.125 --> 31:52.930 And they slept together. 31:52.950 --> 31:54.992 And when she came back, she was pregnant. 31:56.930 --> 32:00.054 She came back to do a second course with me, finished the second course and went home. 32:00.254 --> 32:03.398 Her husband actually left her. 32:03.838 --> 32:05.941 He found another wife. 32:07.202 --> 32:15.972 She was forced now, as a quite accomplished meditator, to take care of this young girl. 32:17.094 --> 32:25.924 Wow, the trouble that it was for her, and the challenge that it was for her, but how well equipped she was to deal with it. 32:28.705 --> 32:33.652 but it's even more of a challenge for her because she's not at all inclined to be a mother. 32:34.493 --> 32:45.089 She was inclined to be a meditator, but nonetheless she took care of the child and is probably a better mother than most. 32:50.477 --> 32:54.162 I met her child later on when she was about five years old. 32:56.806 --> 32:57.447 Crazy kid. 33:04.328 --> 33:14.886 I've heard of the technique of trying to be mindful of the last moment before falling asleep and the first moment after waking up. 33:16.168 --> 33:18.793 This is something a non-intensive meditator should try to do. 33:21.085 --> 33:22.126 Yeah, for sure. 33:22.186 --> 33:25.290 Try to be as mindful as you can before you fall asleep. 33:25.370 --> 33:28.914 I mean, it's just a challenge. 33:29.194 --> 33:38.184 It's not like you get a prize when you do, but it's a sign that thinking in that way will keep you mindful. 33:38.204 --> 33:44.091 It will keep you from falling into a mindless state before you fall asleep. 33:44.171 --> 33:47.515 And you'll find that your sleep is actually improved because of it. 33:48.997 --> 33:51.081 If you're mindful, up into the moment before you sleep. 33:53.064 --> 33:55.749 It's a good idea to do walking meditation right after waking up. 33:57.612 --> 33:58.433 Yeah, absolutely. 34:00.457 --> 34:00.998 It depends. 34:01.058 --> 34:04.644 If you're really tired, walking just might make you fall over. 34:04.664 --> 34:05.806 It might be too much. 34:06.507 --> 34:09.132 Sometimes sitting for a bit allows you to wake up. 34:10.867 --> 34:11.888 You have to decide. 34:12.689 --> 34:16.174 Sometimes sitting meditation is better, right, when you wake up, depending on how you feel. 34:17.135 --> 34:20.620 But again, if you're sleeping well, when you wake up, you should be refreshed. 34:27.709 --> 34:33.837 To reflect the nine virtues of the Buddha is to consider them in the terms given of the given explanations. 34:36.685 --> 34:41.434 It is difficult to memorize, so can buddhanussati be done with a guide or does it require memory? 34:44.580 --> 34:46.845 I don't teach too much about buddhanussati. 34:46.865 --> 34:50.552 I'm not really going to give details about that. 34:50.792 --> 34:59.048 It's something that you should know about and you should be inclined towards, but you shouldn't put too much thought into it. 35:00.209 --> 35:01.330 It's good to memorize that. 35:01.851 --> 35:08.819 But if you can't, you can just say, That's really enough. 35:10.201 --> 35:12.544 For meditation purposes, you don't need to memorize much. 35:25.720 --> 35:26.781 And that's all the questions. 35:27.462 --> 35:28.984 Are there any local questions here? 35:34.027 --> 35:37.772 Is it possible to have a mind of upeka when one sees a being who suffers? 35:39.033 --> 35:43.759 Are arahants always moved to help when they see beings who suffer, given that they are in a position to help? 35:47.404 --> 35:50.748 They're not really moved to help in that sense. 35:51.309 --> 35:52.470 And often they don't help. 35:54.192 --> 35:57.857 But they're inclined to... 35:59.525 --> 36:14.547 go with the flow for the most part, in the sense that if it's the right moment for them to help, they will act appropriately. 36:14.712 --> 36:23.666 I mean, I would think most people would look at an arahant and think of them as quite passive and uninterested, generally uninvolved. 36:23.746 --> 36:30.115 Unless it's requested of them, they would generally not get involved with other people's problems. 36:31.057 --> 36:31.698 Because they're free. 36:31.718 --> 36:33.260 I mean, they don't have any desire for it. 36:36.785 --> 36:41.833 They have a desire to help others or a desire to change the world. 36:45.256 --> 36:48.940 but they'll never be mean or nasty and cruel. 36:49.000 --> 37:03.898 And if approached to help, they will generally, I mean, it's generally more if they're approached and asked to help or if there's some expectation that they have on them to help. 37:03.918 --> 37:06.261 Can stream entry be attained through sila alone? 37:06.962 --> 37:08.343 It depends what you mean by sila. 37:08.363 --> 37:10.866 I mean, sila means normal. 37:11.267 --> 37:13.069 So it can be attained by the proper 37:14.618 --> 37:18.586 And by normal here it means what is one's ordinary way. 37:18.806 --> 37:26.762 So if one is by nature, means by sila, mindful. 37:30.248 --> 37:35.158 If by nature they are mindful, meaning they have as a sila being mindful. 37:36.472 --> 37:40.296 That's not normally how we use the word in Buddhism, but it's what the word actually means. 37:41.217 --> 37:42.739 What is your normal behavior? 37:43.840 --> 37:52.330 So if your normal behavior is good and mindful, yes, that's enough to become a sodapanna. 37:52.370 --> 37:54.232 But not just from keeping precepts. 37:54.372 --> 37:56.995 Precepts are one way of understanding the word sila. 37:58.176 --> 37:58.817 That's not enough. 38:01.565 --> 38:04.310 If you're always guarding the senses, well, that's enough. 38:04.330 --> 38:05.412 That's being mindful. 38:06.454 --> 38:16.092 If you're watching the mind as things arise to keep from liking and disliking and learning to see things objectively, well, that's enough. 38:16.112 --> 38:19.118 That will lead to enlightenment, to arahant. 38:32.159 --> 38:34.531 Okay, I guess that's all for tonight. 38:35.074 --> 38:36.240 Thank you all for coming out. 38:38.512 --> 38:39.537 Wish you all a good night.