1 00:00:01,769 --> 00:00:17,837 Right. 2 00:00:19,488 --> 00:00:29,202 Absolutely, these are issues that, the first one is an issue that most people in the world have to deal with, except hermits living in caves. 3 00:00:30,524 --> 00:00:43,622 And the second one is one of these difficult situations that is somewhat unique to the individual, so it's something that you have to deal with that many other people do not. 4 00:00:43,602 --> 00:00:51,693 Which leads to its own extra layer of issues. 5 00:00:52,294 --> 00:00:57,762 But that's how I would generally suggest to approach your issues. 6 00:00:58,743 --> 00:01:00,305 Approach them layer by layer. 7 00:01:01,327 --> 00:01:04,832 Focus on what is clearest in your mind. 8 00:01:05,452 --> 00:01:06,794 And get it clear in your mind. 9 00:01:06,834 --> 00:01:10,199 Get a clear understanding of the different layers to it. 10 00:01:10,219 --> 00:01:11,601 So the first layer 11 00:01:12,982 --> 00:01:38,770 with the vision problems is maybe well one layer will be maybe for some people feeling sorry for yourself because you have the problem and someone else doesn't have and normal people don't have the problem part of it might be the anxiety of being around other people who don't have this problem maybe having to wear special glasses that make you stand out or having to answer all sorts of questions or 12 00:01:38,750 --> 00:01:44,600 having to be led around by a dog or carry a cane or so on or whatever. 13 00:01:46,523 --> 00:01:55,998 So there will be these extra layers to the problem before you can actually get to your own acceptance of it, actually get to the problem. 14 00:01:56,319 --> 00:01:58,082 Same would go with relationships. 15 00:01:58,102 --> 00:01:59,965 So when the relationship ends, 16 00:01:59,945 --> 00:02:06,293 you feel sad about the relationship, but that can lead to depression. 17 00:02:06,313 --> 00:02:08,455 It can lead to self-loathing. 18 00:02:08,535 --> 00:02:14,863 It can lead to even self-hatred when you can be angry at yourself. 19 00:02:15,564 --> 00:02:19,288 You're angry at yourself for what you didn't do to maintain the relationship. 20 00:02:19,649 --> 00:02:23,553 You can start obsessing over what you could have done to save the relationship. 21 00:02:23,634 --> 00:02:29,040 You can start obsessing over how bad your life is now that you're not in the relationship. 22 00:02:29,020 --> 00:02:39,433 And once you start to see how this affects you, you can even start getting upset about how your level of upset is affecting your life. 23 00:02:39,453 --> 00:02:53,610 So you can see there's layer upon layer and it actually can become a feedback loop until it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and something that was simply a sadness can turn into a real neurosis. 24 00:02:55,008 --> 00:03:21,994 so it's important first to take everything by layer by layer and second or maybe first thing is to separate it out into individual experiences so instead of looking at anything as an issue as a problem try to see what's going on right now right because we are not atomic 25 00:03:22,717 --> 00:03:25,460 And the word atom means something that is indivisible. 26 00:03:26,482 --> 00:03:28,004 So actually the atom isn't atomic. 27 00:03:28,024 --> 00:03:32,529 But if you don't understand the word atomic, atomic means something that is indivisible. 28 00:03:33,050 --> 00:03:33,971 But we are divisible. 29 00:03:34,872 --> 00:03:43,223 And all of our experience, all of our situations, all the issues in our life are also divisible. 30 00:03:43,203 --> 00:03:44,325 They're not atomic. 31 00:03:44,405 --> 00:03:47,430 They can be broken up into individual parts. 32 00:03:47,490 --> 00:04:03,816 So if you have a problem, say, with mourning or sadness, or if you have a problem with low self-esteem, and you say, so I have low self-esteem, you're talking about an atom, you're talking about an issue, something that is this, right? 33 00:04:03,937 --> 00:04:10,307 And once it's this, you can't do anything with that, unless you've got a cure for this, which we don't have. 34 00:04:10,287 --> 00:04:13,513 then you can't fix it. 35 00:04:14,134 --> 00:04:16,718 And why we don't have a cure is because it actually is not real. 36 00:04:16,758 --> 00:04:22,048 It's a concept in your mind that you create out of a series of things that do exist. 37 00:04:22,849 --> 00:04:26,676 So if you want to come to an actual 38 00:04:27,297 --> 00:04:44,985 solution in reality you have to focus on that which exists now what exists are experiences so right now you might have an experience of sadness right now you might have an experience of pain and of an experience of tension 39 00:04:44,965 --> 00:04:46,928 You might have an experience of anger. 40 00:04:47,669 --> 00:04:51,876 You might have an experience of happiness when you remember all the good things you did with the person. 41 00:04:52,277 --> 00:05:03,615 Happiness and then sadness when you realize you can't have it or you can't actually go any further with it as far as indulging in the pleasure of being with the person who you love. 42 00:05:05,367 --> 00:05:06,188 and so on. 43 00:05:08,171 --> 00:05:23,612 You will also have simple experiences, like with the vision problem, it means you will have experiences where you realize that you can't see something, so you have to look at something, someone puts something in front of you, you can't see it, for example. 44 00:05:23,652 --> 00:05:34,227 That is actually just an objective experience, there's nothing wrong with that until you say to yourself, that's bad, until you get upset by it. 45 00:05:34,207 --> 00:05:40,957 So, there's individual sequences, there's individual experiences in sequence. 46 00:05:41,577 --> 00:05:50,150 And once you can understand these, then you can put them into layers, and you can see what is in this layer, what is in this layer, and then you can slowly break up the layers. 47 00:05:50,170 --> 00:05:57,480 Start with the top layer, you know, your guilt about whatever the situation is or whatever, how you feel about the situation. 48 00:05:57,460 --> 00:06:08,038 And once you can break that apart, then actually look at the situation like the sadness or the frustration at having a business or the guilt or the low self-esteem. 49 00:06:11,704 --> 00:06:13,888 That's really the essence of the Buddha's teaching. 50 00:06:13,908 --> 00:06:19,958 You know, when they had this big debate about 51 00:06:21,254 --> 00:06:24,661 I want to say 500 years after the Buddha passed away. 52 00:06:24,721 --> 00:06:29,671 I can't, I don't, my history is not that good, but it's kind of shameful actually. 53 00:06:29,691 --> 00:06:30,372 I should know all this. 54 00:06:30,973 --> 00:06:36,765 But whenever they made the Kattawatu, this book in the Abhidhamma, 55 00:06:37,910 --> 00:06:47,340 would have been the third Buddhist council, which would have been maybe 300 years after the Buddha passed away. 56 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:48,201 I can't remember now. 57 00:06:49,102 --> 00:06:55,529 Anyway, the thing was, they had all these bogus monks who were saying the Buddha taught this, the Buddha taught that. 58 00:06:55,969 --> 00:07:01,555 And finally, there was one monk who was able to say what the Buddha taught. 59 00:07:01,575 --> 00:07:03,898 And he said, what sort of monk was the Buddha? 60 00:07:04,318 --> 00:07:06,060 The Buddha was a Vibhajavadi. 61 00:07:06,817 --> 00:07:15,370 one who claims or who teaches, who exhorts people to break things up. 62 00:07:15,390 --> 00:07:20,418 Vibhajya means to dissect and to break into constituent parts. 63 00:07:21,259 --> 00:07:27,188 So basically the five aggregates or the six senses or the elements or those 64 00:07:27,168 --> 00:07:57,175 pieces the building blocks that make up reality because if you can do that then you can solve all of your problems because you come to see actually that they're not problems they're just experiences and you come to see how this react way of reacting is useless that way of reacting is useless so eventually you stop reacting in ways that bring suffering to you or to other people because you see that they're they're unbeneficial they're harmful 65 00:07:57,155 --> 00:08:12,632 that's general and it's sort of relating to what you experience so hopefully that helps wishing you all the best obviously practicing meditation helps so one thing you might 66 00:08:12,612 --> 00:08:18,183 try to look at is the attachment to self and the idea that this is me, this is mine. 67 00:08:18,203 --> 00:08:23,113 You might say in the West, ego, the idea of something that's causing me pain. 68 00:08:23,153 --> 00:08:28,123 And when you identify with the pain, instead of just experiencing it, now this is pain, 69 00:08:28,103 --> 00:08:34,575 seeing it just as an experience, when you have that ego attached, it makes all your problems much worse. 70 00:08:34,675 --> 00:08:47,378 Instead of pain, now it's my pain, it's something that's on me, something that I have to bear, which makes it much, much worse, instead of just saying, oh, this is pain. 71 00:08:47,358 --> 00:08:50,445 It might be painful, but it will come and it will go. 72 00:08:50,465 --> 00:08:59,306 Once it's your pain, then it's a problem because then you get angry about it and upset and frustrated as to why does my life have to be this way and so on and so on. 73 00:08:59,948 --> 00:09:02,995 The whole ego, the I, if you can let that go, that's great. 74 00:09:03,376 --> 00:09:05,541 Obviously, practicing meditation, best way to do it. 75 00:09:06,042 --> 00:09:08,107 Try reading my booklet if you haven't already. 76 00:09:08,888 --> 00:09:11,515 I recommend that as a resource. 77 00:09:12,136 --> 00:09:13,800 How to Meditate by Yuta Damo. 78 00:09:14,081 --> 00:09:14,682 Look it up.