WEBVTT 00:19.673 --> 00:22.897 Good evening everyone, welcome to our live broadcast. 00:24.980 --> 00:27.523 So many buttons to push, I can never remember which ones. 00:27.664 --> 00:28.505 Did I push them all? 00:30.127 --> 00:31.729 Okay, I think we're going, I think we're good. 00:34.513 --> 00:44.466 So tonight we have decided to look at the Abhinna Pachavekitabha Dhanasutta, Anguttara Nikaya Book of Fives, 57. 00:50.251 --> 00:51.453 There's a bit of overlap. 00:51.473 --> 00:55.558 You'll find that some of this is stuff we've been going over and we've talked about. 00:57.260 --> 01:05.490 But this sutta is very well known in popular Theravada Buddhism. 01:08.254 --> 01:09.735 Enchanted, actually. 01:10.336 --> 01:12.058 You find it in disenchanting books. 01:12.939 --> 01:19.768 abhinna-pacchavekida-bha, something that should be reflected upon often. 01:21.807 --> 01:23.510 So this is a question we get, right? 01:24.311 --> 01:26.816 What sorts of things will help me in my practice? 01:27.096 --> 01:36.653 How should I, besides simply meditating, what are some things I can do to support my practice? 01:36.673 --> 01:37.294 Here's a good one. 01:37.875 --> 01:39.819 Reflect upon these things often. 01:41.982 --> 01:42.904 This is what the Buddha said. 01:46.681 --> 01:48.283 Pikkabodhi calls them themes. 01:48.744 --> 01:49.725 The word is tana. 01:49.745 --> 01:51.547 Tana just means a base. 01:53.269 --> 01:56.714 It means it's a cause for reflection. 01:57.955 --> 02:00.398 There's a reason to reflect often on these things. 02:02.621 --> 02:10.731 And the other thing that's interesting about this, and quite unique, well, it stands out in the Buddha's teaching. 02:12.415 --> 02:17.860 The Buddha says, So they should be reflected upon often. 02:19.161 --> 02:21.484 By a man or a woman. 02:21.604 --> 02:23.586 Okay, that's not uncommon. 02:23.606 --> 02:29.632 It's not like men and women have different objects of contemplation for the most part. 02:30.612 --> 02:38.440 means one who lives in a home, who holds a house. 02:41.069 --> 02:45.016 And Babacitta is one who has gone forth, one who has left the home life. 02:46.018 --> 02:53.390 Now that's not unique, but somewhat, how do you say, somewhat unique? 02:54.672 --> 03:02.967 Somewhat rare in the Buddha's teaching to find a specific emphasis placed on the fact that this is for everybody. 03:03.828 --> 03:04.950 You don't often read that. 03:08.052 --> 03:11.056 These are things that work for both lay people and monks. 03:11.957 --> 03:20.868 And I think the takeaway is that it's widely applicable and especially important. 03:22.290 --> 03:24.974 So important that it works for everybody. 03:27.517 --> 03:32.824 Now, these aren't actually all that unfamiliar, but it's an interesting list and it's, as a result, something we chant. 03:33.505 --> 03:35.427 Monks have a group of ten. 03:35.660 --> 03:43.314 And there's another list of ten, eventually we'll probably get to in the Anguja Nikaya, ten things that they should frequently reflect upon. 03:43.355 --> 03:48.685 It's a bit different, but that's specifically for monks, and we'll see why if we get to it. 03:48.705 --> 03:52.612 But here, for everybody, what should we reflect upon often? 03:55.317 --> 03:58.984 jarādāṁ mōṁ hi jarāṁ anattīto 04:03.554 --> 04:09.381 I am subject to old age, I am not exempt from old age. 04:10.002 --> 04:13.767 So we catch the theme that's going to come from this. 04:13.867 --> 04:18.172 Predictably, after that is going to be sickness. 04:20.135 --> 04:21.717 And after that, of course, death. 04:22.798 --> 04:23.779 The first three are familiar. 04:24.660 --> 04:28.465 I've talked about these recently in more than one of the recent talks. 04:31.060 --> 04:35.887 Old age, sickness and death doesn't sound like something you'd want to think about often, right? 04:38.431 --> 04:48.867 I think the important thing to understand about Buddhism is there's a presupposition of objectivity. 04:51.783 --> 05:01.940 So the idea, which leads to being shocked, when you don't have this objectivity, you can get easily shocked by these sorts of statements. 05:02.601 --> 05:11.997 In this case, kind of surprised at that being something that we're expected to think about often. 05:13.900 --> 05:15.363 Because for us, we're not objective. 05:15.463 --> 05:17.807 Old age, sickness, and death, even in culture, 05:18.952 --> 05:20.415 are generally thought of as evil. 05:21.537 --> 05:24.402 Hey, the Buddha even said that death is a kind of evil, sure. 05:27.408 --> 05:40.032 But if you step back from that, and you become practical about it, you have to accept that death is a part of our future. 05:41.277 --> 05:51.751 Just like your first day of school or your first day on the job or you're preparing anything you prepare for. 05:52.733 --> 05:53.173 Marriage. 05:53.213 --> 05:54.956 Some people prepare to get married. 05:55.176 --> 05:56.658 Childbirth. 05:56.678 --> 05:57.820 Prepare to become parents. 05:59.562 --> 06:02.326 We prepare for these events in our lives. 06:02.786 --> 06:05.610 We do prepare for things. 06:05.630 --> 06:08.594 We prepare for a trip. 06:08.614 --> 06:09.816 We prepare for guests. 06:12.614 --> 06:37.592 prepare for a date prepare for prepare for storms when the weather turns but unfortunately we often don't prepare for old age sickness and death why we think of thinking of them even the concept of considering these things is 06:39.547 --> 06:44.194 morbid, undesirable. 06:44.254 --> 06:46.718 Why would you think about death, right? 06:46.738 --> 06:50.884 How morbid of you. 06:50.904 --> 06:52.366 How depressing. 06:53.969 --> 06:54.850 But it need not be. 06:55.451 --> 06:56.953 Death doesn't have to be depressing. 06:56.993 --> 07:07.309 Death is a profound event that changes everything, right? 07:10.090 --> 07:15.977 But as a result, you'd think we would be spending the majority of our time preparing for it. 07:18.040 --> 07:20.784 Maybe not the majority, because we want to say, hey, I want to live. 07:22.626 --> 07:26.110 As ordinary people, we want to live, so we don't want to obsess about death. 07:28.213 --> 07:29.955 True, in the end, death is just a moment. 07:31.798 --> 07:35.322 But certainly something we should give weight to, because it's coming. 07:36.466 --> 07:37.808 It's coming fairly quick. 07:37.828 --> 07:41.071 50 years for most of us. 07:43.154 --> 07:45.897 In the next 50 years, that's a long time. 07:48.440 --> 07:49.501 It goes by pretty quickly. 07:50.021 --> 07:51.083 But it's going to come. 07:51.283 --> 07:52.184 That's on the way. 07:52.464 --> 07:54.146 Old age, it's on its way. 07:55.387 --> 07:58.471 Starting to get gray hairs, bald, turning bald. 07:59.933 --> 08:02.015 Teeth chipped, back crooked. 08:02.696 --> 08:04.718 Aches and pains where they used to not be. 08:08.933 --> 08:10.175 Old age will come to us. 08:10.255 --> 08:11.376 Sickness will come to us. 08:11.476 --> 08:12.558 Maybe we'll get cancer. 08:12.698 --> 08:14.701 Maybe we'll get heart disease, diabetes. 08:16.463 --> 08:17.685 These things will come to us. 08:20.468 --> 08:29.801 If we want to look at them as taboo topics, things that shouldn't be discussed, then okay, fine. 08:30.702 --> 08:35.228 There's very little chance that we're going to be ready for them when they do come because they are on their way. 08:37.132 --> 08:49.369 anything anything that you want to be prepared for anything that you know is on its way so you're ready for it so it doesn't so you don't suffer from it so it's not an evil thing 08:54.935 --> 08:57.338 So the point being, there is something we can do to prepare. 08:57.618 --> 09:02.103 We don't have to constantly be thinking about death, but we think about it often. 09:03.025 --> 09:12.055 It consistently reminds us, or constantly reminds us, to do a good thing, to do the right thing, to do what is actually going to be useful. 09:12.576 --> 09:22.107 If someone spends all their life building up wealth, building up possessions, fame, power, 09:24.095 --> 09:27.821 This is a sign that this is what happens when you forget about death. 09:28.863 --> 09:31.408 Because death makes all of that meaningless. 09:34.974 --> 09:38.560 On the other hand, a person who is clear about death, they don't have to live a depressed life. 09:39.721 --> 09:58.246 they can live a reassured life, a life that isn't afraid of the future, isn't living in fear behind, in a prison of their own fear, not doing this, not doing that, because they're afraid of getting sick, of dying. 10:00.249 --> 10:02.492 They're afraid to live because they're afraid of death. 10:06.837 --> 10:08.800 I suppose on the other hand, there's the person who 10:10.147 --> 10:28.629 casts aside their fear of death and ignores death and just lives life to its fullest, which is also terribly foolish because, well, they end up no better off than when they started and perhaps even, most likely, even less prepared for death. 10:28.649 --> 10:39.462 Death which prevents them, old age which prevents them from living life to its fullest, sickness, death, events that are coming in which they're not prepared for. 10:40.859 --> 10:42.582 So Buddhism looks at these objectively. 10:42.602 --> 10:49.572 I'm not going to get upset about this or afraid of this, but I'm going to say, hey, this is coming, and I'm woefully unprepared for it. 10:50.514 --> 10:54.520 I don't know how I'm going to react when I get old, when I get sick. 10:54.540 --> 10:58.686 Right now I get a little bit of sickness and I start wailing and moaning. 10:59.487 --> 11:03.233 How am I going to deal with when I really get sick, when I really get old? 11:04.836 --> 11:05.837 How am I going to deal with death? 11:08.045 --> 11:15.232 Just the thought of death scares us, makes us sad, losing our life. 11:19.817 --> 11:23.781 So the Buddha said these are the first three things, old age, sickness, and death. 11:23.801 --> 11:28.986 But the fourth and fifth we haven't talked about much recently, I think. 11:29.006 --> 11:35.993 Number four is sabbehi me pyehi. 11:37.694 --> 11:47.388 We chant this. 11:47.448 --> 12:01.187 What does it mean? 12:04.795 --> 12:07.999 I will become separated. 12:08.019 --> 12:12.444 I will... 12:15.027 --> 12:21.214 I don't know, this is a bubble logic, I think. 12:21.894 --> 12:29.503 To translate, all things that are dear to me, that I'm fond of, 12:32.437 --> 12:33.338 What is their fate? 12:33.798 --> 12:53.737 That all things that are dear to me, all things that I am fond of, people, possessions, experiences, they will become lost. 12:54.017 --> 12:55.819 is a tough one. 12:55.879 --> 12:56.820 means separated. 12:57.321 --> 12:58.482 So become separated. 12:59.463 --> 13:02.005 also means separated in a different way. 13:04.668 --> 13:07.651 I will become part, I will have to part from them. 13:13.297 --> 13:26.891 Our families, our friends, all of our possessions, even our bodies, we're renting these things, borrowing these things. 13:27.131 --> 13:30.975 Even this body, not in a long time we're going to lose it. 13:32.116 --> 13:33.257 We'll forget about our bodies. 13:34.621 --> 13:36.162 everything else we hold dear. 13:38.064 --> 13:42.088 It's a good reflection, right? 13:42.108 --> 13:53.058 It helps us look at the things around us, the things in our lives, people, places, people, things, places, and see how much attachment there is. 13:54.860 --> 13:57.482 See the potential for suffering because that's where it comes from. 13:57.502 --> 14:00.465 It comes from our attachment. 14:00.485 --> 14:03.548 If you're attached to a person, then when they're gone or when they change, 14:06.008 --> 14:35.728 when they die and you suffer terribly from it you don't actually gain anything from the attachment either it's really the funny thing you think you gain so much from being attached to people it's like an addiction you gain a little bit of pleasure once in a while it becomes like a rush you get this rush and you want it more and you want it more it doesn't make you a better happier person 14:37.733 --> 14:40.718 Let's take romantic couples who have sex all the time. 14:42.120 --> 14:47.789 I'd love to do a study of this, to look at their general sense of happiness and well-being. 14:49.211 --> 15:00.248 I guarantee they would be the ones who fight the most, who are most passionate in their anger towards each other, bitter and unhappy. 15:02.612 --> 15:03.994 That's why the most romantic couples 15:04.345 --> 15:30.278 involvement end up being the most bitter divorces I think you could find that I think that study would not be difficult to do since we don't want to see it we don't want to think we're surprised I would even suggest such a thing because of course intimacy, sexuality these are good things, right? 15:30.318 --> 15:33.222 this is how you express your love 15:36.155 --> 15:40.441 Yeah, well, interesting study. 15:42.064 --> 15:43.887 I'm not, I used to have sex. 15:45.689 --> 15:47.612 I used to. 15:48.213 --> 15:51.017 And my fair share didn't make me happier. 15:51.037 --> 15:53.681 It was awful, really. 15:53.721 --> 15:54.923 I ended up a bit of a jerk. 15:56.489 --> 16:02.347 Remember, it doesn't make you happy. 16:02.388 --> 16:06.220 This is not something that I'm thinking of academically. 16:06.280 --> 16:07.343 It just really doesn't. 16:13.921 --> 16:20.347 But we reflect on the fact that we're going to lose everything, everything we have is going to go away. 16:21.248 --> 16:31.138 And I think there's a more philosophical point being made there, that that therefore cannot be our goal in life, to gain things, to have all the things we want. 16:32.079 --> 16:32.620 To what end? 16:33.140 --> 16:36.063 Even if you said, yes, these things make me happy, okay, okay. 16:37.204 --> 16:41.869 As long as you get what you want, you're happy, you're pleased, you're satisfied. 16:43.165 --> 16:43.846 But to what end? 16:44.547 --> 16:45.368 What good? 16:48.932 --> 16:53.558 I think it's an important point that once it's all gone, you're not any better off. 16:53.578 --> 16:54.399 You're not wiser. 16:55.600 --> 16:56.341 You're not happier. 16:57.222 --> 16:58.123 You're not more content. 17:01.707 --> 17:09.677 People who are content when they get old and sick and when they're on their deathbed are people who have gone through a lot. 17:09.737 --> 17:11.299 They've gone through good and bad. 17:12.798 --> 17:17.773 and come to see what we try to see in meditation on a much more accelerated scale. 17:21.325 --> 17:24.073 It's not so much about the experiences, it's about your outlook. 17:25.201 --> 17:38.624 Old people who tend to get this in general, not all, but many old people will be very contented, not because of what they get, but contented because of their outlook. 17:39.024 --> 17:40.146 They've stopped trying to get. 17:40.186 --> 17:45.094 They've started to realize what we realize in a very short time in meditation. 17:48.320 --> 17:49.382 Nothing's worth clinging to. 17:49.902 --> 17:50.644 It's not what you get. 17:50.924 --> 17:51.445 It's your outlook. 17:56.622 --> 17:59.926 And so that should give a hint at what meditation is. 17:59.986 --> 18:02.249 Meditation is about experience. 18:04.231 --> 18:05.793 It's about gaining experience. 18:07.395 --> 18:15.525 Objective, methodical understanding of life. 18:17.387 --> 18:18.168 That's what this is. 18:18.228 --> 18:20.971 You walk back and forth and sit. 18:21.652 --> 18:22.153 That's life. 18:23.014 --> 18:24.115 It's you living. 18:25.495 --> 18:42.236 in a very controlled environment, sure, but it helps you understand your existence framework within which we have to live and work. 18:42.256 --> 18:43.578 Just like getting old quickly. 18:44.339 --> 18:45.761 Just like living your life quicker. 18:46.802 --> 18:47.503 Maybe that's it. 18:48.867 --> 18:53.536 It's about more living, more living, living more than an ordinary person. 18:53.636 --> 18:55.680 Most people don't really live. 18:55.700 --> 19:02.052 A person who has done a lot of meditation will attest to that and say, I was like dead before. 19:02.452 --> 19:04.396 Before I started meditating, it was like I was dead. 19:05.658 --> 19:06.440 I wasn't really living. 19:10.387 --> 19:11.449 So that's number four. 19:13.927 --> 19:23.041 Number four is that everything we hold dear, we will be separated from. 19:24.464 --> 19:40.609 Number five, kama sakom hi kama daya do, kama yoni kama bandhu, kama pati sarano, yang kama karisami, kalyanang wapapakamwa, tasa daya do bawisami di, 19:41.939 --> 19:49.228 Apologies for those of you who are not keen on me reciting long passages of Pali that you have no understanding of. 19:50.289 --> 19:53.272 First you have to understand this is very close to what the Buddha actually said. 19:53.292 --> 19:55.715 There's a belief that the Buddha actually said these things. 19:56.817 --> 20:01.722 So it's nice to actually hear what the Buddha, hear things in the Buddha's own words, potentially. 20:05.367 --> 20:07.209 But also then this is something that we chant. 20:07.569 --> 20:10.613 I want to give you a sense of 20:12.652 --> 20:14.033 something that might be chanted. 20:14.814 --> 20:20.440 Because in Thailand we would chant it in Pali and then chant it in Thai, so we actually understood what was being said. 20:22.241 --> 20:27.507 I forget the Thai by now. 20:27.527 --> 20:39.098 Okay, so this one, I am 20:42.841 --> 20:49.188 I am the owner of my kamma. 20:50.329 --> 20:51.871 I am the heir of my karma. 20:53.173 --> 20:58.699 I have kamma as my origin, kamma as my relative, kamma as my resort. 20:58.779 --> 20:59.980 I think refuge might be better. 21:02.163 --> 21:05.166 I will be the heir of whatever kamma, good or bad, that I do. 21:05.206 --> 21:09.591 Whatever kamma that I do, I will become an heir to that. 21:13.621 --> 21:17.727 a reminder that our actions have consequences. 21:22.415 --> 21:26.121 Nobody else, no one else owns our karma. 21:28.565 --> 21:31.129 You do bad deeds, no one can save you from it. 21:33.592 --> 21:36.197 I always remember Udi, who's now passed away. 21:36.777 --> 21:40.303 He's a good friend, a big Israeli monk in Thailand. 21:42.308 --> 22:09.582 no one can escape their karma something he held I don't think he was a great monk or a great meditator he had his own goodness but boy was he strong in that in his belief or understanding certainty of karma I think that comes from meditation it comes from living 22:11.013 --> 22:13.418 Seeing that your actions have consequences. 22:14.079 --> 22:15.743 It's a very important Buddhist principle. 22:20.492 --> 22:22.075 Whatever we do, we can't escape it. 22:23.739 --> 22:25.422 It's not about other people finding out. 22:27.606 --> 22:28.448 It's about memory. 22:30.082 --> 22:31.824 We can remember everything we've ever done. 22:32.786 --> 22:42.619 If you meditate long enough and powerfully enough, you can actually remember all the way back through your life, which means it's still there, which means you never escape it. 22:45.844 --> 22:48.467 And in meditation, you see so many of our memories popping up. 22:51.632 --> 22:52.713 That's karma. 22:52.733 --> 22:59.903 When you feel guilty about something you did in the past, well, that feeling guilty is the bad result of that bad karma. 23:01.705 --> 23:05.411 Of course it can become new karma by feeling guilty and getting upset about it. 23:06.432 --> 23:12.101 But having to remember is the result of doing these deeds. 23:13.904 --> 23:18.010 Having to experience unpleasantness. 23:21.652 --> 23:25.257 A meditator really understands the law of karma. 23:26.018 --> 23:30.284 Someone who's come to meditate fresh, never meditated before, realizes it. 23:30.444 --> 23:32.868 When I first started meditating, it was a shock to me. 23:33.809 --> 23:39.517 I realized what an idiot I had been, how foolish, how ignorant. 23:39.537 --> 23:47.288 All the things that I had done, just wave after wave of junk. 23:47.848 --> 23:51.253 I said, oh no, I've been so blind. 23:52.398 --> 23:54.002 It wasn't like I was being brainwashed. 23:54.062 --> 24:00.820 I was really just looking, opening up my mind for the first time and seeing, what have I put in here? 24:02.364 --> 24:03.908 What have I been carrying around with me? 24:06.134 --> 24:07.116 That's what karma is. 24:10.825 --> 24:13.530 Kama bandhu, we are tied to our kama. 24:13.550 --> 24:16.054 Kama yoni, we are born from our kama. 24:17.016 --> 24:27.635 Kama pati sarna, pati sarna, pati sarna means, this is a resort, but it's our dwelling, I suppose. 24:28.777 --> 24:30.220 It's the room that we live in. 24:30.761 --> 24:34.167 Our karma is our house, our home. 24:36.813 --> 24:37.634 It's our universe. 24:37.814 --> 24:39.777 Our universe is built up of our karma. 24:40.098 --> 24:40.779 We build up this. 24:40.879 --> 24:46.928 Even the human body is conditioned by life after life of karma. 24:51.534 --> 24:56.201 The Buddha then goes on to talk about how these five things, why these five things are useful. 24:56.261 --> 24:57.623 So let's go through this a little bit. 24:59.054 --> 25:02.258 So the first one, why should we think often about old age? 25:02.298 --> 25:05.221 Well, it's because when we're young, we're intoxicated with youth. 25:05.802 --> 25:07.624 And so we engage in misconduct. 25:08.145 --> 25:10.227 We do bad things because we're intoxicated. 25:10.267 --> 25:13.911 Because we think, ah, this will never catch up with me. 25:14.292 --> 25:16.655 I'll be able to just escape because I'm young. 25:17.636 --> 25:19.218 I'll be able to always get what I want. 25:20.099 --> 25:22.902 Then we get old and we can no longer get what we want. 25:25.328 --> 25:29.416 We are weak and people look down upon us. 25:29.676 --> 25:33.623 Ageism, when you get old, people think of you as feeble, as unimportant. 25:34.866 --> 25:39.735 You no longer have the same society. 25:39.755 --> 25:41.498 They end up putting you in an old age home. 25:49.207 --> 25:53.191 For young people as well, acknowledge that this is not going to last forever. 25:53.231 --> 25:58.535 If you don't make the most of it and do right by it, old age will come to you. 26:00.717 --> 26:04.681 And the same goes with health and sickness and death. 26:04.701 --> 26:06.843 Because people, when they're healthy, they become intoxicated. 26:06.863 --> 26:07.784 Oh, I have good health. 26:08.304 --> 26:09.045 I never get sick. 26:12.688 --> 26:14.130 Foolishness, foolishness. 26:15.091 --> 26:17.813 And we feel this conceit, right? 26:19.008 --> 26:43.783 conceit that well i'm you know i'm lucky you know i never get sick or i'm lucky boy we're lucky how healthy we are it's foolish that's not the truth it's not luck it's just circumstance sickness will come to you could come to you tomorrow and we get this false sense of security and it has consequences 26:45.130 --> 26:50.476 Because all of this is about pigeon-holing your ability to accept. 26:50.516 --> 26:54.862 You can only accept a certain subset of experiences. 26:54.962 --> 26:56.043 So this is acceptable. 26:56.744 --> 26:59.387 But all of this, you can't handle it. 26:59.828 --> 27:03.412 So we do our best to run away from it, but it's not avoidable. 27:05.574 --> 27:11.982 It's just a bad way to live in any way when you only are able to cope with a subset of reality. 27:13.210 --> 27:14.752 I mean, it shows your weakness. 27:15.052 --> 27:17.054 And for most of us, the subset is not even 50%. 27:19.658 --> 27:23.262 We're only able to cope with less than 50% of possible experiences. 27:28.388 --> 27:39.741 The only way to be truly happy and truly at peace is to widen that so that you're able to accept and live with and be happy with 100%. 27:40.987 --> 27:56.284 And that's really what we're trying to do in meditation, is to experience the things that are hard to experience, bear the things that are hard to bear, and learn about the things that we'd rather avoid, so that we can free ourselves from suffering. 28:03.112 --> 28:04.213 So sickness, death. 28:05.114 --> 28:06.656 When people are alive, we're intoxicated. 28:06.676 --> 28:07.737 Boy, I'm still alive. 28:09.117 --> 28:11.661 Yes, it's great to be alive, right? 28:12.382 --> 28:15.588 Well, you're going to be dead soon, so don't get too attached to it. 28:21.016 --> 28:23.220 Number four, why should we worry about our karma? 28:28.328 --> 28:30.151 Because people engage in bad deeds. 28:31.854 --> 28:32.375 Period. 28:32.415 --> 28:33.216 This one is simple. 28:33.376 --> 28:34.939 Why should we focus on this? 28:36.303 --> 28:37.584 Because we engage in bad deeds. 28:37.604 --> 28:40.747 But when we reflect upon this, we stop doing bad deeds. 28:41.088 --> 28:43.670 And because of that, we feel better. 28:44.431 --> 28:46.152 We don't have the results of bad karma. 28:49.556 --> 28:56.863 Why should... Oh, did I miss one? 28:56.883 --> 28:57.383 Oh, I missed one. 28:57.483 --> 28:58.884 Number four is being separated. 29:00.726 --> 29:04.690 Why should we reflect on being separated from everything we love? 29:07.015 --> 29:11.541 Well, because we have desire and lust in regard to those people and things that are dear and agreeable. 29:12.061 --> 29:17.168 And excited by this lust, again, we engage in unawesome deeds. 29:17.328 --> 29:20.512 We do things that cause stress and suffering. 29:22.214 --> 29:26.059 But when we realize that we're going to be parted, well, we stop obsessing over these things. 29:26.219 --> 29:30.344 You know, it's not something I can keep forever. 29:31.405 --> 29:32.467 This too will change. 29:32.567 --> 29:33.428 This too will pass. 29:40.343 --> 29:47.906 And he talks about what happens when you reflect upon these things and it leads you to the path. 29:48.147 --> 29:51.838 It leads you, these things help you get closer to the goal. 29:53.506 --> 29:56.310 When you get closer to the goal, you become free from attachment. 29:56.330 --> 30:01.978 And then he gives a poem, which is often, there's often poetry at the end of these suttas. 30:03.100 --> 30:10.570 So whether he actually spoke these or these were meant as a summary of what was said by someone later, author, I don't know. 30:11.852 --> 30:15.036 But we like to think that the Buddha spoke these verses as well. 30:17.059 --> 30:17.840 I won't go into it. 30:18.982 --> 30:19.783 It's basically a summary. 30:21.907 --> 30:25.272 So, five things for frequent contemplation. 30:25.312 --> 30:26.354 Don't forget them. 30:29.279 --> 30:36.710 Good Dhamma to know for all of us who wish to live our lives in line with the Buddha's teaching. 30:36.750 --> 30:38.753 Of course, meditation is the most important. 30:38.794 --> 30:40.156 Being mindful throughout the day. 30:41.358 --> 30:42.960 Remembering yourself throughout the day. 30:43.501 --> 30:44.763 Remembering your experience. 30:44.923 --> 30:45.484 What am I doing? 30:48.265 --> 31:00.923 But, alas, here are some extras that are useful, especially for people living in the world who might easily get lost or get sidetracked, lose sight of what's important. 31:02.805 --> 31:11.918 Remember, if you contemplate on these, reflect on these frequently, you're much better able to keep yourself on track. 31:14.561 --> 31:17.125 So, that's the Dhamma for tonight. 31:18.674 --> 31:32.245 Hello, Bhante. 31:32.265 --> 31:43.495 I have come across a teacher's teachings which says to keep the watcher separate from the breathing and criticizing what he says is the sinking down of the mind to the abdomen. 31:44.236 --> 31:47.278 I'm not sure what is meant by this and would like to hear your thoughts. 31:47.638 --> 31:48.259 Thank you. 31:53.352 --> 32:07.969 You know, if I had to answer to all these people who come up with these wacky theories, I don't have any frame of reference with which to presume that what he's saying has any basis in the Buddhist teaching. 32:09.551 --> 32:11.513 It sounds like he's just blowing out steam. 32:12.914 --> 32:17.380 You have to understand that watching the abdomen has become quite popular in Thailand. 32:18.220 --> 32:19.562 It's sort of the 32:20.656 --> 32:24.148 institutional favorite, I think, right now. 32:25.151 --> 32:31.813 I mean, mainly because of very powerful people like Ajahn Tong, Lungpho Chodok, 32:33.042 --> 32:37.629 Lumpa Charan is another one. 32:37.649 --> 32:40.874 Lumpa Charan wrote many books about karma. 32:40.974 --> 32:46.302 So if you're Thai or you know anything about Thailand, Lumpa Charan also practiced Vajrayana Rising. 32:46.443 --> 32:49.888 He's passed away recently, I think. 32:50.469 --> 32:55.116 Lumpa Asaphat is a Burmese monk at Vivekasom. 32:55.897 --> 32:58.341 He's also passed away several years ago. 32:59.840 --> 33:28.918 but a lot of work has gone into bringing this to Thailand and it's become fairly prevalent like now in Bangkok when they have and there are other teachers as well actually there are new teachers who have big followings Mae Siri is another one a woman called Mae Siri is another one a student of Lumpur Chodok but she's long passed away 33:29.287 --> 33:31.751 I think, or she's very old. 33:31.972 --> 33:33.394 I think she passed away many years ago. 33:35.278 --> 33:37.361 Lumpa, there's many monks. 33:39.525 --> 33:45.335 Ajahn, Pachak, I think is another one I practice with. 33:48.401 --> 33:53.269 So, I don't want to say jealousy, but you know, there's a lot of 33:55.240 --> 34:01.050 by people who practice other techniques have become, well, they've had to speak out on this at the very least. 34:02.433 --> 34:09.605 So we might snidely suggest that they're just jealous, but there's definitely some animosity. 34:09.946 --> 34:14.093 So you get all sorts of these weird claims like sinking down to the abdomen. 34:14.153 --> 34:15.736 What a ridiculous thing to say, really. 34:17.419 --> 34:19.763 What, so the bottoms of your feet are bad because they're lower? 34:22.460 --> 34:35.835 I mean, I don't know if you're translating it exactly as it was said, but there is a sense that watching the breath around the nose is traditional for anapanasati, but that's because it calms you. 34:35.875 --> 34:38.118 It's nothing to do with it being higher than the stomach. 34:39.079 --> 34:42.022 The stomach is mentioned specifically as vayodhatu. 34:42.283 --> 34:46.948 It's not actually anapanasati, although you could call it anapanasati. 34:46.928 --> 34:50.912 It's one of the dhatus which makes it perfect for insight meditation. 34:52.453 --> 34:53.214 So, I don't know. 34:53.234 --> 34:54.335 I don't have much to say about this. 34:54.375 --> 34:57.558 I'm not even sure we should entertain such questions. 34:58.199 --> 35:13.293 Probably should just say something like, yeah, well, if I had a penny for every teacher who criticized my teaching, I'd be breaking the rule many, many times. 35:14.534 --> 35:15.535 I'm not allowed to touch money. 35:32.525 --> 35:34.807 Sorry, the screen seems a little frozen up. 35:35.508 --> 35:37.049 The last question. 35:38.691 --> 35:39.312 I clicked it. 35:39.472 --> 35:41.314 Maybe if we both click it, it causes problems. 35:42.355 --> 35:43.055 That may be it. 35:43.356 --> 35:55.327 Okay. 35:55.347 --> 35:56.548 You may have to refresh your screen. 35:57.429 --> 35:58.110 That's what I'm doing. 35:59.373 --> 36:00.555 I'll read this one. 36:01.297 --> 36:05.446 Life has become unbearable after being able to see through the Western games of living. 36:05.466 --> 36:06.568 I'm 16. 36:06.708 --> 36:09.634 I've just come home from living in a Buddhist monastery. 36:09.654 --> 36:14.484 Now I have to make a choice to either live in the West or go back to the monastery. 36:16.509 --> 36:17.491 Go back to the monastery. 36:18.292 --> 36:18.613 Duh. 36:23.639 --> 36:29.089 I mean, all other things being equal, I don't know that there's much of a comparison. 36:29.690 --> 36:30.812 What good would living at home be? 36:31.113 --> 36:32.676 If you can live in a monastery, go for it. 36:34.319 --> 36:40.230 You have to give me more information about why that might be even a question in your mind, because there are many factors to that. 36:47.838 --> 36:57.198 attained enlightenment with concentration meditation, and after recalling a memory when he was younger, he said that jhana is indeed the path to enlightenment. 36:57.218 --> 37:04.433 It seems contrary to what most teachers say now, which is vipassana is the path to enlightenment. 37:04.453 --> 37:05.515 We have a challenge here. 37:05.535 --> 37:08.361 Let's look at MN 36, the Mahasattva Kusuta. 37:16.508 --> 37:17.429 Ah, yes, right. 37:17.569 --> 37:18.971 Could that be the path to enlightenment? 37:19.692 --> 37:21.535 This is indeed the path to enlightenment. 37:31.648 --> 37:37.335 Well, the first thing we can say is he wasn't a Buddha yet, so anything he says has to be taken with a grain of salt. 37:38.750 --> 38:05.314 there I could shoot you down but to take any such statement as being canonical like aha therefore there is no other way without entering into the jhanas right I mean what he's saying here this is a description of his this is a description of his practice as a bodhisatta where he had 38:06.712 --> 38:13.429 where he had lived many years indulging in sensual pleasure, and then he had lived many years torturing himself. 38:14.551 --> 38:18.100 And so his concern was, there's pleasure involved with ajanas. 38:18.561 --> 38:19.624 Does that make it wrong? 38:21.022 --> 38:22.605 And then he realized, no, it's not wrong. 38:22.645 --> 38:24.308 It's not the pleasure that's the problem. 38:24.989 --> 38:31.300 It's a very profound sort of teaching, especially at the time when all pleasure was thought to be wrong. 38:31.340 --> 38:32.482 But pleasure is not the problem. 38:32.542 --> 38:36.249 The problem is unwholesomeness. 38:36.329 --> 38:38.693 And this state is without unwholesomeness. 38:44.680 --> 38:48.815 Why am I afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states? 38:48.915 --> 38:53.070 And he said, well, I'm not afraid of it, since it has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states. 39:02.483 --> 39:11.395 So, but to say that, I mean, it's really a technical argument because yes, technically the jhanas are necessary, but there are different ways of going about that. 39:11.415 --> 39:13.958 And I've talked about this many times. 39:14.058 --> 39:23.631 If you cultivate insight first, then you end up in a place where the jhanas come as a result of insight. 39:27.357 --> 39:29.339 It's terribly dogmatic to think otherwise. 39:29.399 --> 39:38.868 And it's kind of ridiculous because the jhanas, as they're traditionally understood, are devoid of insight, which is, you know, what does the Buddha teach? 39:38.928 --> 39:39.689 He taught insight. 39:39.729 --> 39:43.433 He taught the five aggregates, understanding impermanence, suffering, and non-self. 39:43.453 --> 39:48.978 You can't understand that, depending on how you understand the jhanas, but in many cases you can't understand that. 39:48.998 --> 39:50.560 I was just reading, I just got this book. 39:52.202 --> 39:54.664 Here's the book. 39:57.968 --> 39:58.669 I was just reading it. 39:59.050 --> 40:05.142 This is by Leigh Brasington, an American. 40:07.347 --> 40:09.010 American, so take it with a grain of salt. 40:17.086 --> 40:19.892 There's no control F on paper books, unfortunately. 40:22.657 --> 40:25.242 But I just happened to open it to a page. 40:25.362 --> 40:26.264 Ah, no, it's in the introduction. 40:26.304 --> 40:27.486 Here we are. 40:27.506 --> 40:30.652 So, I sat with Aya for five weeks. 40:30.732 --> 40:35.862 I learned jhanas six, seven and eight and was thoroughly enjoying running them up and running them back down. 40:36.262 --> 40:44.698 Not too long after I gained some skill at doing this, I was again in an interview and she said, now you must do insight practice in the same sitting after you do the jhanas. 40:45.758 --> 40:54.169 So the point is, and it goes on to talk about how this person did it, it's quite impressive that they're able to go through all the jhanas like that. 40:54.189 --> 40:55.711 There's no question this is a great thing. 40:56.652 --> 40:59.676 But there's also no question that doing it doesn't give you insight. 41:00.778 --> 41:05.384 Going one to eight, I mean, wow, one to eight jhana, I have to take their word for it. 41:06.846 --> 41:08.287 I'm actually somewhat skeptical. 41:08.588 --> 41:11.452 It sounds a little too easy, but I didn't read the actual book. 41:13.134 --> 41:15.597 But one to eight, up and down, up and down. 41:16.842 --> 41:18.825 And then the teacher says, well now practice insight. 41:18.865 --> 41:21.009 So clearly no insight came from that. 41:21.329 --> 41:24.554 Ajahn Chah says these things are based on craving. 41:26.097 --> 41:31.666 The Buddha says it's just vedana and it's impermanent. 41:31.686 --> 41:33.889 So they become a base for insight, surely. 41:35.219 --> 41:43.852 But the real point and the purpose of the jhanas is to enter into a state that's free from the defilements or free from the hindrances. 41:44.934 --> 41:48.799 So there are many ways to get to the point where you have no hindrances. 41:50.542 --> 41:57.232 But it's important that along with being secluded from the hindrances, you're also gaining insight. 41:57.252 --> 41:59.235 So whether you do that before or after, 42:00.278 --> 42:01.521 It's not really important. 42:01.682 --> 42:05.452 What's important is that you have both insight and freedom from the hindrances. 42:05.552 --> 42:12.010 And to some extent, they have to come together because you can only gain insight through the freedom from the five hindrances. 42:13.728 --> 42:22.676 but there are different kinds of, I mean, there are different sort of technical differences about types of concentration that free you from the hindrances. 42:22.696 --> 42:25.659 There's something called access concentration, which isn't a jhana. 42:26.580 --> 42:42.975 And so it gets quite technical, but if that's what it's going to devolve into is on a technicality, you have to do this, you have to do that, it really becomes quite dogmatic and ridiculous because it doesn't hold up in experience. 42:44.322 --> 42:45.605 To just say, oh, you need this. 42:45.625 --> 42:47.811 It doesn't really tell you anything about it. 42:49.435 --> 42:50.638 Seek and ye shall find. 42:50.678 --> 42:54.147 If you go into practice, I guarantee you practice just the jhanas, you won't get anywhere. 42:55.358 --> 42:57.340 They'll get somewhere, but it's not far enough. 42:57.881 --> 43:07.810 Which is another reason why this idea that all practices are the same and all paths lead to the same goal is just the same goal, different practices. 43:08.831 --> 43:12.936 As a Buddhist meditator, this is one example of how we can pinpoint that that's just not true. 43:13.796 --> 43:17.780 There are many people who even do meditation, but will never attain enlightenment. 43:17.800 --> 43:23.947 There's no way they could, because they never make the jump from tranquility, from samatha to vipassana. 43:24.587 --> 43:25.348 It's very common. 43:26.493 --> 43:32.661 And many of the religious traditions out there are just stuck in a Samatha type state, where they enter into these blissful states. 43:32.701 --> 43:36.265 And the problem is then people say, well, you see, that's like your nirvana, right? 43:36.285 --> 43:42.093 You have nirvana, we have rapture, we have our state. 43:42.113 --> 43:47.860 And a big part of the Buddhist teaching was to say, no, no, I've entered into those states and they only go so far. 43:49.865 --> 43:54.291 So if you want to ask this question, it's just one that keeps coming up. 43:54.311 --> 43:55.793 Are not the jhanas necessary? 43:55.813 --> 43:59.357 Technically, to some extent, yes. 43:59.778 --> 44:03.442 But what that exactly means is very much open to interpretation. 44:03.482 --> 44:05.285 What the jhanas actually mean, gosh. 44:06.346 --> 44:09.090 Ten different Buddhist teachers have ten different explanations. 44:09.991 --> 44:10.251 Really. 44:11.373 --> 44:16.619 So you look in the commentary, which is our oldest understanding, we have two types of jhana. 44:17.100 --> 44:19.483 Aramanupani jhana and Lakhanupani jhana. 44:19.463 --> 44:26.601 So the Buddha here is talking about Araman Upanijana, where he enters into a tranquil state based on a fixed state of mind. 44:29.127 --> 44:35.262 To say that that is necessary is... 44:35.242 --> 44:38.766 Well, it turns out not to be explicitly true. 44:39.868 --> 44:49.680 Because there are ways of getting there, to that state, that don't require the samatha, the strict samatha practice. 44:51.582 --> 44:53.224 You want to come and do a course with me, I'll show you. 44:57.990 --> 45:01.475 But definitely, I mean, you're suggesting that that's the path to enlightenment? 45:01.535 --> 45:02.195 Absolutely not. 45:02.256 --> 45:03.477 Read on in the sutta. 45:05.701 --> 45:13.810 And elsewhere the Buddha says that Samatha meditation, the Jhanas, have a problem. 45:13.830 --> 45:14.972 They are still just Vedana. 45:15.012 --> 45:19.617 They are still impermanent. 45:19.637 --> 45:20.698 The path to enlightenment. 45:21.559 --> 45:25.244 The Buddha said what is the path. 45:25.344 --> 45:31.711 When you see that all formations are impermanent, that's the path to enlightenment. 45:31.731 --> 45:34.915 This is the path to purification. 45:59.549 --> 46:07.117 Thank you for answering my question regarding what is required to stay at Saramangalo and what may be necessary when considering to ordain. 46:07.758 --> 46:14.606 I very much appreciate your advice and believe it is wise to take part in your meditation course before making a commitment to ordain. 46:15.887 --> 46:19.791 Are there specific dates I should plan to travel to make the best use of our time? 46:20.512 --> 46:23.996 I don't want to be inconvenient or a burden to you or the other meditators. 46:24.516 --> 46:25.978 I'm simply interested in learning. 46:27.410 --> 46:28.352 P.S. 46:28.373 --> 46:35.872 I attempted to write this message to the contact form on the Surrey Mongolia website, but received the error, failed to send your message. 46:35.892 --> 46:39.121 Please try again or contact the administrator by another way. 46:39.141 --> 46:42.229 Do you have a problem with the contact form? 46:52.283 --> 46:59.874 right we should talk about this in another forum you can try contact me on my web blog utadamo. 47:00.374 --> 47:21.784 or you can just do utadamo at gmail.com just send me an email utadamo at gmail if it's strictly the contact form I did send Ivan a link to the application for meditators and a link to the schedule we have the schedule up right people can see when we have room 47:22.658 --> 47:22.998 Yes. 47:24.840 --> 47:27.543 I can see and I assume other people can too. 47:29.125 --> 47:46.043 Some of my friends ask me not to talk about my practice anymore because I sometimes talk about death and dying and they don't really understand and think it's morbid. 47:46.764 --> 47:51.349 I'm not sure how to handle it sometimes other than just not talk about it to them anymore. 47:51.768 --> 47:57.080 But that means I'm also not being a good example and following the Dhamma in the way of passing on information. 47:57.762 --> 48:01.852 Do you have any suggestions for dealing with people who have fear of death and dying on faith? 48:02.393 --> 48:03.255 Thank you. 48:07.485 --> 48:10.131 Following the Dhamma doesn't mean passing on information. 48:11.782 --> 48:15.209 If people are looking for it or will benefit from it. 48:15.950 --> 48:17.894 The Dhamma is about speaking at the right time. 48:17.914 --> 48:22.362 So obviously, it sounds like you might not be speaking at the right time. 48:23.324 --> 48:24.507 It's not really beneficial. 48:25.007 --> 48:26.170 It's not having a good result. 48:26.290 --> 48:29.797 So you have to work on mindfulness. 48:29.897 --> 48:30.819 Try to be mindful. 48:31.781 --> 48:33.604 Get a sense. 48:33.584 --> 48:39.050 So don't have this idea that it's necessary to pass anything on to anybody. 48:39.850 --> 48:40.731 It's not necessary. 48:40.771 --> 48:44.435 Necessary is to speak the right thing at the right time. 48:46.157 --> 48:58.309 And that takes clarity of mind, takes some knowledge and understanding of reality, of the nature of things, to know when to speak and what to say. 48:59.842 --> 49:05.209 If it's causing problems, then the best way is just to work on your own state of mind. 49:05.829 --> 49:17.343 Or maybe that sounds harsh, but it could just be that you have this wrong idea that you have to somehow proselytize or spread Buddhism, which is certainly not the case. 49:22.390 --> 49:23.471 People ask for your opinion. 49:23.531 --> 49:24.172 Give their opinion. 49:24.672 --> 49:25.293 Give your opinion. 49:26.935 --> 49:28.617 Was it Ajahn Tong or Ajahn Chah? 49:28.637 --> 49:29.258 I can't remember. 49:31.060 --> 49:32.282 No, it was Ajahn Tong, he said. 49:33.324 --> 49:41.759 So you tell them, if they ask, you give them your opinion, and if they don't agree with you, it's no problem. 49:41.779 --> 49:43.182 He said something very simple like that. 49:44.745 --> 49:48.772 You tell them, you give them the right advice, if they don't go for it. 49:50.755 --> 49:55.043 Chö, I think he said chö, just be neutral about it. 50:01.132 --> 50:01.472 Hello. 50:01.893 --> 50:08.743 When doing walking meditation, I sometimes switch between a step with right foot to stepping in the right foot. 50:09.664 --> 50:11.426 It's a translation thing. 50:11.446 --> 50:17.294 It is as if sometimes I feel I am doing the stepping, and then it feels more natural to say that there is a step. 50:18.055 --> 50:21.220 I've let this go as an experiment to see what feels more natural. 50:22.061 --> 50:23.583 It felt right, at least. 50:24.284 --> 50:30.733 Is that a correct form, switching between observing my action or an action? 50:31.203 --> 50:33.205 You want to deal with that one first? 50:33.225 --> 50:33.966 Is the other one different? 50:36.248 --> 50:36.529 Yes. 50:37.310 --> 50:38.691 All right. 50:38.711 --> 50:39.312 Go ahead, Robin. 50:43.837 --> 50:44.557 What do you think? 50:45.158 --> 50:46.039 Okay. 50:46.059 --> 50:46.700 First question. 50:52.326 --> 50:55.990 I don't think... 50:56.150 --> 50:57.451 I'm actually not sure about this. 50:59.774 --> 51:00.214 Okay. 51:03.552 --> 51:10.459 A new meditator is in many ways trying to find, you mentioned it last night I think, it's the same thing, it's a trick. 51:11.781 --> 51:21.411 This person is trying to find a way to make it easier, trying to find a way to make it stable, satisfying, controllable. 51:22.492 --> 51:31.382 What you're experiencing in your meditation when you do either of those is impermanence, dissatisfaction and lack of control. 51:31.362 --> 51:36.348 So you'll do it one way and it doesn't feel very natural, so you'll try it another way. 51:36.548 --> 51:40.153 What you're trying to do is find a way that you can somehow control and keep it stable. 51:41.514 --> 51:44.398 It's not the right way to practice. 51:44.418 --> 51:46.680 No, it's important that it's difficult. 51:46.700 --> 51:52.948 It's important that it upsets you in the sense that it challenges you, disturbs you. 51:54.447 --> 52:04.978 We have to shake ourselves out of this sleep that we're in, sleepwalking, thinking that things are going to be stable, satisfying, controllable. 52:05.858 --> 52:08.101 Help us realize that you can't depend on anything. 52:11.704 --> 52:14.487 So you're overthinking it, is what I would say. 52:15.808 --> 52:20.353 Pick one, stick with it, even when it's unpleasant, even when it doesn't seem to be working. 52:21.667 --> 52:26.293 doesn't seem to be working just means that you're not in control, that it's not the way you want it to be. 52:27.074 --> 52:28.276 And that's what we're trying to see. 52:29.397 --> 52:35.946 And trying to learn to be okay with that, to stop reacting to that, to stop getting upset about that, to learn to let go. 52:35.966 --> 52:43.035 Does that sound, do you think Robin, does that sound reasonable? 52:44.076 --> 52:46.039 It does, yes. 52:46.059 --> 52:47.681 Okay. 52:47.701 --> 52:48.282 The second one. 52:49.223 --> 52:55.391 When transitioning to sitting meditation, I felt more appropriate to do standing meditation before going to sitting. 52:55.992 --> 53:02.521 Because of the rhythm of walking, the sitting, it suddenly feels abrupt, as if to ease into the pace of things that arise. 53:03.142 --> 53:04.524 Is that also appropriate? 53:08.249 --> 53:12.094 Could be, but again, it would be more about, hey, suck it up. 53:14.437 --> 53:15.619 You know, I mean, 53:17.540 --> 53:19.982 It's okay if things are disturbing. 53:20.022 --> 53:28.651 It's not a problem that you do standing meditation in between, but your reasons for doing it is to stop it from being disturbing? 53:30.713 --> 53:33.515 You have maybe the wrong understanding of what meditation is supposed to be. 53:33.575 --> 53:35.657 It's meant to be disturbing. 53:36.858 --> 53:37.939 It's meant to be challenging. 53:39.201 --> 53:43.004 In a sense, we're putting ourselves in a difficult position to see how we react to it. 53:44.165 --> 53:45.927 So don't be afraid of adversity. 53:50.395 --> 53:51.096 I hope that helps. 53:52.337 --> 53:55.880 I hope it doesn't sound like I'm picking on you or something or laughing at you. 53:56.160 --> 53:56.861 That's not really it. 53:58.182 --> 54:01.505 I'm trying to be fairly honest. 54:01.525 --> 54:02.867 Hopefully it's not too brutal. 54:05.589 --> 54:17.280 I think you've also mentioned when going from walking to sitting to do it slowly, mindfully, not to really 54:17.648 --> 54:20.853 Right. 54:20.993 --> 54:22.836 Don't stop being mindful in between. 54:23.197 --> 54:26.221 So when you finish walking, don't just walk back. 54:26.261 --> 54:29.967 Ajahn Thang is quite strict on this after walking. 54:30.328 --> 54:33.733 In fact, one time he even said you should be like an airplane. 54:34.760 --> 54:35.501 Is that how he said it? 54:35.641 --> 54:36.702 I think it was like an airplane. 54:37.703 --> 54:39.605 So suppose you're doing the sixth step walking. 54:40.606 --> 54:48.875 When you're done walking, you'll go to fifth step, and then fourth step, and then third step, and then second step, and then first step, and then you'll go to your mat. 54:48.895 --> 54:59.127 So actually, I don't think he does that all the time, or I don't think it's something that's expected to do all the time, but it's an interesting technique. 54:59.147 --> 55:04.092 At any rate, he's very clear on having to be mindful all the way back, and when you go to sit down, bending and so on. 55:05.658 --> 55:06.519 Trying to be mindful. 55:06.539 --> 55:08.001 That's just continuity. 55:08.662 --> 55:17.334 Don't break your mindfulness. 55:17.575 --> 55:23.603 Oh, maybe. 55:24.184 --> 55:25.586 Sometimes they would just live under trees. 55:25.606 --> 55:28.650 It wasn't that big of a deal. 55:29.391 --> 55:30.132 You die, you die. 55:30.373 --> 55:31.094 Cold, you're cold. 55:31.114 --> 55:31.935 You're hot, you're hot. 55:33.417 --> 55:37.324 And someone would wander into the forest to find them to bring them food? 55:38.285 --> 55:39.407 No, they'd come out of the forest. 55:39.447 --> 55:44.235 I mean, they wouldn't go so far into the forest that, right, they wouldn't go so far that they couldn't meet people. 55:45.197 --> 55:46.339 But you'd be surprised, you know. 55:47.841 --> 55:50.025 Places like India, Thailand is another. 55:50.045 --> 55:54.452 In Thailand, you can go off in the forest, up on a mountain, and there'll still be people somewhere. 55:55.334 --> 55:57.417 And usually they'll give you a little food. 56:01.902 --> 56:05.267 But yeah, sometimes you have to go several kilometers to get to people. 56:08.973 --> 56:10.755 Several miles for you Americans. 56:13.259 --> 56:21.672 Does the Terracotta School say that enlightenment is something remote you have to attain for the existing state of affairs? 56:24.396 --> 56:27.160 Enlightenment is something that you have to attain. 56:27.180 --> 56:29.023 It's fairly remote. 56:30.421 --> 56:37.975 Certainly not the existing state of affairs. 56:37.995 --> 56:46.090 Does the rising and falling of the abdomen hint at which mental states or objects arise in the mind, so that we are sure we are noting with accuracy? 56:46.130 --> 56:47.012 Thank you. 56:48.832 --> 56:50.176 I don't quite understand. 56:50.256 --> 56:56.955 If I get what you're saying, when you're doing rising and falling, are you then able to know what states arise in the mind? 56:56.975 --> 56:59.863 I mean, mindfulness helps you do that. 57:01.467 --> 57:03.533 Sort of your presence, sampajjanya. 57:04.981 --> 57:05.842 I'll help you do that. 57:06.303 --> 57:11.392 I mean, it's a skill that you start to gain the ability to know what's going on in your mind. 57:12.333 --> 57:14.938 You're able to realize when you get distracted. 57:14.978 --> 57:20.286 So you do rising, falling, and then you get distracted, and then you realize, oh yes, here I'm just distracted. 57:21.488 --> 57:23.251 And then you'll note it. 57:23.271 --> 57:31.545 I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but when you're aware of something, you'll note that, whatever it is. 57:32.960 --> 57:49.697 Usually after we note it, we come back again to the rise and falling, so we have a kind of a base to not get too lost in the flux of experience. 57:49.717 --> 57:50.858 Greetings, Bhante. 57:51.298 --> 57:58.225 The Buddha said that karma is volition or will, and that is what transmigrates from life to life in the process of rebirth. 57:58.508 --> 58:04.296 Does the moment of rebirth follow instantaneously after the death moment, or is there time in between them? 58:05.057 --> 58:09.163 If the latter is true, can the Kama exist in other realms during this period? 58:10.104 --> 58:12.507 Kama doesn't transmigrate. 58:12.527 --> 58:13.629 That's a misunderstanding. 58:15.632 --> 58:19.077 Maybe in a conventional sense it does, but nothing transmigrates. 58:19.557 --> 58:21.580 There's no such thing in Buddhism as transmigration. 58:23.652 --> 58:31.072 So again, you have to get into my explanation of the philosophy of rebirth, but it's not that we believe in rebirth, we just don't believe in death. 58:32.155 --> 58:35.925 Death is something, the death that we do believe in is something that happens every moment. 58:36.186 --> 58:39.535 So we're born and die every moment, born and die, born and die, born and die. 58:39.515 --> 58:51.668 So your question doesn't really have much importance except in a conventional sense, that at the moment of death there is a sort of a decision making that goes on. 58:52.469 --> 59:06.805 So apparently the spirit, and this is sort of a Mahayana thing, but Theravada tends to agree that, Theravada teachers tend to agree that the spirit might stay around for a while, so it's not really dead yet, but it's still being born and die every moment, there's still experiences. 59:06.785 --> 59:13.455 And then there will be a moment where it departs and arises in another place. 59:14.176 --> 59:30.902 So there is that sort of a specific, what we call patisandhi, which is linking, linking again, relinking or links to the back into samsara, in a new birth, becoming. 59:32.603 --> 59:38.509 So whether it's instantaneous, non-instantaneous, there's nothing that transmigrates. 59:38.549 --> 59:40.491 It's just born and die every moment. 59:40.812 --> 59:51.523 No matter where you are, no matter what happens, there's still just moment after moment. 59:51.543 --> 59:53.005 Does wisdom come with age? 59:53.445 --> 59:57.249 I know that age does not guarantee wisdom, but does it increase the chances of it? 59:59.592 --> 01:00:00.733 No, I don't know. 01:00:00.753 --> 01:00:00.973 I mean, 01:00:02.152 --> 01:00:04.274 Yes, certainly. 01:00:08.599 --> 01:00:13.565 Because we're talking about experience, so it's about your presence of mind. 01:00:14.105 --> 01:00:17.589 Someone with no presence of mind will get worse as they get old, right? 01:00:17.609 --> 01:00:22.795 But generally not less wisdom, because experience is a very much important part of wisdom. 01:00:22.875 --> 01:00:24.497 Someone who has lots of experience 01:00:24.477 --> 01:00:28.462 They may not be very wise, but they're generally wiser than they were before. 01:00:29.283 --> 01:00:31.085 I think that's across the board. 01:00:31.105 --> 01:00:34.830 Even foolish people become wiser with age, I think. 01:00:35.130 --> 01:00:36.552 Unless they're like drunk all the time. 01:00:37.613 --> 01:00:41.738 It's a rare case, I would say, where a person gets less wise. 01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:48.887 I mean, there's so many other factors, but generally there's a certain wisdom in the sense, you know, oh, I won't do that again. 01:00:48.927 --> 01:00:49.127 Why? 01:00:49.207 --> 01:00:50.569 Because it had bad consequences. 01:00:52.321 --> 01:00:59.579 Some people don't learn much, but I think generally, I don't know, it's a somewhat speculative question. 01:01:03.991 --> 01:01:06.938 Sir, what would you say are some of the challenges that new monks have? 01:01:08.133 --> 01:01:11.398 Well, the four dangers, right? 01:01:12.480 --> 01:01:18.570 Getting angry, that's the waves in the ocean. 01:01:22.456 --> 01:01:25.521 Being gluttonous, that's the crocodiles in the ocean. 01:01:28.166 --> 01:01:32.773 Having attachment to sensuality, that's the whirlpools that drag you down. 01:01:33.952 --> 01:01:43.942 and women, if you're a man, if you're an heterosexual man, because they're the sharks in the ocean. 01:01:43.982 --> 01:01:45.143 They bite and don't let go. 01:01:49.287 --> 01:01:50.028 That's a good list. 01:01:53.331 --> 01:01:54.653 I think the anger is a big one. 01:01:55.654 --> 01:01:57.255 But those four really sum it up. 01:01:57.856 --> 01:01:58.997 Basically, anger and greed. 01:02:02.369 --> 01:02:07.597 I think you did a really good talk on that, that was transcribed in the Lessons in Practical Buddhism, right? 01:02:07.618 --> 01:02:08.719 Right. 01:02:08.739 --> 01:02:09.561 So you can read that. 01:02:11.123 --> 01:02:12.265 Some people don't know about that. 01:02:13.707 --> 01:02:14.268 I actually did. 01:02:14.849 --> 01:02:19.537 That book came of a conversation I had with a novice in Sri Lanka. 01:02:20.458 --> 01:02:23.483 They were saying, you know, how can we drum up support for the monastery? 01:02:23.503 --> 01:02:24.465 I said, you should write a book. 01:02:26.969 --> 01:02:29.473 So I started transcribing some talks to make a book. 01:02:32.812 --> 01:02:36.919 It was to drum up money for the monastery, though, did you say? 01:02:37.500 --> 01:02:39.804 Not money particularly, just support, interest. 01:02:40.966 --> 01:02:43.329 Get people involved with the place. 01:02:44.211 --> 01:02:47.617 No, we weren't going to sell the book or something. 01:02:47.637 --> 01:02:53.807 It's just publicity to get people to know more about us. 01:02:53.827 --> 01:02:55.790 He was saying that people like books. 01:02:57.833 --> 01:02:59.376 Many people look for Buddhist books. 01:03:01.432 --> 01:03:02.073 It's a good book. 01:03:02.134 --> 01:03:03.076 I've read it a few times. 01:03:03.376 --> 01:03:04.098 It's on the website. 01:03:04.439 --> 01:03:05.120 That's good to hear. 01:03:06.203 --> 01:03:08.909 It's a kind of book that what was neat about it is I could just add to it, right? 01:03:08.929 --> 01:03:12.758 I could still add more chapters to it just because it's just miscellaneous stuff. 01:03:19.218 --> 01:03:22.482 And I think it came, people actually transcribed some of my talks. 01:03:22.502 --> 01:03:28.690 I think it was people were helping out with it, transcribing, and then I just converted it into book form. 01:03:28.710 --> 01:03:38.862 It's not, some people, someone was criticizing, it's not very well converted into a book, so it still sounds a little bit informal, but yeah. 01:03:38.902 --> 01:03:41.586 I think it's very informative. 01:03:42.527 --> 01:03:42.627 Good. 01:03:55.313 --> 01:03:57.236 Sorry, my screen is stuck again. 01:03:57.256 --> 01:03:57.737 I got it. 01:03:57.757 --> 01:03:58.839 Sankha's got a question. 01:03:59.780 --> 01:04:02.966 Can a monk staying in the forest consume fruits falling from trees? 01:04:03.687 --> 01:04:04.829 Is that allowed in Vinaya? 01:04:06.852 --> 01:04:07.053 No. 01:04:08.735 --> 01:04:18.672 No, there is an exception, which is an odd exception, but if one sees fruit... 01:04:19.917 --> 01:04:28.054 in the forest, one is allowed to bring the fruit to a lay person if there is a famine. 01:04:30.953 --> 01:04:41.151 So it's an odd allowance, but I guess the idea is that desperate times, it would be silly to leave the fruit. 01:04:41.191 --> 01:04:50.667 So a monk may pick up the fruit, bring it to a layperson, and if the layperson chooses to share it with the monk, the monk can eat it, which is actually normally against the rules. 01:04:52.047 --> 01:04:54.638 But in the case of a famine, there's an allowance. 01:04:55.079 --> 01:04:56.104 That's what I remember. 01:04:56.987 --> 01:05:00.683 But no, even if you're standing under the tree and you catch it as it falls, right? 01:05:01.245 --> 01:05:01.787 No, not allowed. 01:05:09.766 --> 01:05:13.752 I think you're caught up, Ante, but I'm sorry, my screen is still frozen, so I can't say for sure. 01:05:13.772 --> 01:05:15.374 You've got another one here. 01:05:15.435 --> 01:05:20.122 Mindfulness meditation can cure severe social anxiety. 01:05:20.142 --> 01:05:22.145 It's said to have a chemical component. 01:05:22.345 --> 01:05:22.766 No. 01:05:24.128 --> 01:05:27.453 You have to be able to separate the chemical component from the mental component. 01:05:27.673 --> 01:05:30.037 There's a very physical component to anxiety. 01:05:30.057 --> 01:05:31.359 I was just talking about this tonight. 01:05:31.379 --> 01:05:33.081 I've done several videos on anxiety. 01:05:35.305 --> 01:05:37.528 So I'm just going to repeat and be repeating, but that's fine. 01:05:39.398 --> 01:05:45.330 If you're ever interested in specific topics, go to video.sirimongolo.org. 01:05:45.631 --> 01:05:52.345 We've made an attempt to categorize some of my old videos that were actually one video, one topic. 01:05:53.568 --> 01:05:55.011 So you might find some answers there. 01:05:55.051 --> 01:05:56.614 But in brief... 01:05:56.594 --> 01:06:05.129 The physical component, even chemicals, it's something you can experience, and it's not the actual anxiety. 01:06:05.169 --> 01:06:08.916 Anxiety is a mental thing, so you actually experience being anxious. 01:06:08.936 --> 01:06:10.118 But it's not the whole story. 01:06:10.158 --> 01:06:19.935 The anxiety comes and goes, but there's many physical components, results of being anxious, or instigators of anxiety. 01:06:19.915 --> 01:06:24.300 But as with anything else, physical, they need not be a cause for anxiety. 01:06:24.320 --> 01:06:30.207 But what usually happens is we're anxious, and then it affects our body, and then that makes us more anxious. 01:06:31.409 --> 01:06:35.453 And so it becomes a cycle, it becomes a habit. 01:06:35.473 --> 01:06:39.979 But the chemical component that you're talking about is something you can be mindful of. 01:06:39.999 --> 01:06:43.543 The chemical component is... 01:06:46.072 --> 01:06:51.261 Yeah, I'm not sure what the chemical component would be, but there's a brain, definitely a brain component. 01:06:51.902 --> 01:07:00.296 But with work, you can learn to experience those brain stimuli without getting anxious about them. 01:07:04.463 --> 01:07:05.004 Absolutely. 01:07:05.585 --> 01:07:08.470 Don't listen to Western understanding. 01:07:08.510 --> 01:07:09.632 What do Westerners know? 01:07:11.063 --> 01:07:24.472 But they would just say that, with mindfulness meditation, it can change your perspective of what you worry about, perhaps you're not as worried what people think of you, perhaps that can use some anxiety. 01:07:24.492 --> 01:07:25.194 Oh, yeah, absolutely. 01:07:25.214 --> 01:07:25.475 I mean, that. 01:07:25.635 --> 01:07:25.956 Yeah. 01:07:28.221 --> 01:07:29.624 Right. 01:07:29.704 --> 01:07:29.764 Um, 01:07:31.972 --> 01:07:40.264 You know, that sort of falls under the many types of wisdom that you gain from meditation, understanding that gives you a better perspective. 01:07:41.806 --> 01:07:45.010 But no, that's a different kind of understanding. 01:07:45.811 --> 01:07:59.751 I guess it would fall under sort of the more theoretical or intellectual or maybe the bigger picture of what happens when you're more mindful, right? 01:08:00.676 --> 01:08:15.820 But on a technical, microscopic or momentary level, we're talking about seeing the experiences that normally make you anxious and not getting anxious about them. 01:08:17.943 --> 01:08:22.971 So basically what you're saying, but it's not so much. 01:08:25.651 --> 01:08:50.140 On a technical level, it's not so much about how you look at yourself or other ways of talking about it, but technically it's just experiences that give rise to the habit of anxiety, based on all this garbage that we have, the baggage that we have about them, and the baggage of self and so on, to see them clearly and rather to not get anxious about them. 01:08:52.364 --> 01:08:53.905 Yeah, it's all in there. 01:08:54.746 --> 01:08:59.951 Because it makes you less attached to self, less worried about what people think of you, right? 01:08:59.971 --> 01:09:05.136 The reasons why you're not worried about what people think of you, the best reason is because you lose sight of you. 01:09:05.496 --> 01:09:06.517 You lose sight of the self. 01:09:07.798 --> 01:09:09.640 And it becomes just about experiences. 01:09:12.222 --> 01:09:16.626 But your way of putting it probably makes it better understandable to people. 01:09:17.927 --> 01:09:19.949 I just like to do very technical. 01:09:19.969 --> 01:09:21.831 I mean, I found that just... 01:09:21.912 --> 01:09:46.452 you know i i often think you know several years ago i couldn't be here on a live stream you know even participating and helping like this i was extremely socially shy and self-conscious and meditation has helped in just practical ways very well put because i often 01:09:49.537 --> 01:09:54.323 neglect to highlight those aspects, what it really means practically. 01:09:54.684 --> 01:09:58.950 It's nice to have a place to hear that. 01:10:02.795 --> 01:10:12.388 You can often get tiresome, I suppose, hearing again and again about moments of experience that don't resonate, right? 01:10:13.549 --> 01:10:15.612 What resonates is hearing how it affects your life. 01:10:19.372 --> 01:10:22.823 Thank you, Robin. 01:10:24.388 --> 01:10:25.190 I think we're all done. 01:10:26.394 --> 01:10:27.257 Thank you, Bonte. 01:10:27.317 --> 01:10:27.798 Good night. 01:10:28.099 --> 01:10:28.761 Thanks, everyone. 01:10:28.782 --> 01:10:29.263 Have a good night.