WEBVTT 00:16.012 --> 00:17.133 Good evening everyone. 00:17.954 --> 00:26.563 Welcome to Evening Dhamma. 00:26.583 --> 00:35.192 Today we're going to look at the Salekha Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya number eight, if you're interested in following along. 00:41.138 --> 00:44.702 The Salekha Sutta has a special place in 00:48.074 --> 00:52.945 In our tradition, in my heart, Mahasi Sayadaw wrote a book on it. 00:55.350 --> 01:01.664 And I highly recommend if you're really interested in this teaching to go and read his book. 01:01.704 --> 01:06.876 Of course, I recommend anything that he's written, that he wrote. 01:12.205 --> 01:15.932 We're not going to go into such detail, but we'll try and go through it all. 01:16.012 --> 01:17.074 The Salekha Sutta. 01:19.299 --> 01:23.266 The word Salekha, I'm still not quite sure exactly what it means. 01:23.647 --> 01:28.917 I get the feeling that it was a word that was in use in the time of the Buddha. 01:32.925 --> 01:35.209 Like dharma or karma or that kind of thing. 01:37.366 --> 01:41.892 We have the word salekana that the giants used. 01:42.052 --> 01:47.659 Salekana was the practice of giving up food until you die. 01:47.699 --> 01:57.170 And the idea was that that slowly burnt away as you starved yourself to death. 01:58.292 --> 02:02.817 You would slowly become free from defilement. 02:05.058 --> 02:16.570 The word I think comes from, or they say it comes from leek, which means to scratch, to make a scratch in something, make a mark. 02:18.271 --> 02:47.215 And so I think the idea has to do, in some colloquial sense, with scrubbing or effacing, really, polishing perhaps, sanding, that sort of thing, scraping off the, making a dent in the problem, slowly, slowly cutting away at the 02:48.832 --> 02:59.349 And so it came to mean this idea of purification, this process of purification. 03:01.493 --> 03:07.022 Effacement, to remove the bad stuff. 03:07.042 --> 03:10.387 Slowly, slowly, scratching, scraping it off. 03:13.252 --> 03:15.295 But effacement is a good word, I think. 03:19.358 --> 03:29.047 And so Chunda, one of the Buddha's great disciples, I'm pretty sure was an Arahant at this point, came and asked the Buddha a question. 03:29.147 --> 03:35.333 And the commentary says he asked the question because he was observing monks. 03:35.873 --> 03:40.717 He was observing a problem and he wanted to address this problem with a question. 03:40.758 --> 03:41.818 So he asks the Buddha. 03:44.421 --> 03:46.783 He says there's all sorts of views in the world. 03:47.810 --> 03:53.359 views about self or views about the world, cosmology and that sort of thing. 03:57.066 --> 04:01.994 When one begins to practice, does one give up these views? 04:05.540 --> 04:09.447 And so what he's asking is, is it enough to decide 04:11.114 --> 04:21.906 hey, I'm following the Buddha's teaching, I'm following this view, this person who has these views, and I'm taking on their views, is that enough? 04:23.648 --> 04:37.324 And so the commentary says there were a lot of monks who were of this, perhaps not of this view, but they fell into this trap of thinking that it was enough for them to be Buddhist or enough for them to be monks. 04:38.806 --> 04:45.035 And that somehow they were able to, they were pure. 04:45.055 --> 04:47.539 And the Buddha understood what he was asking. 04:48.601 --> 05:07.429 Are these monks who think they're pure because they're Buddhist and because they can repeat the things the Buddha has said, because they wear monks' robes and because they look and act like monks, have they purified their minds from views? 05:14.497 --> 05:16.239 And the Buddha says something very important. 05:16.399 --> 05:20.925 He says basically no. 05:21.005 --> 05:22.747 He doesn't use the word no. 05:22.827 --> 05:24.949 No is not something the Buddha says very often. 05:27.272 --> 05:30.676 He instead tells him what the truth is. 05:30.756 --> 05:43.491 The truth is if and when the object that those views are based upon 05:45.108 --> 06:01.264 that the object that causes those views to arise, if and when one sees that object as it is, one then gives up those views. 06:01.445 --> 06:08.292 If one sees that it is not me, not mine, not myself, then of course there's the abandoning of the view. 06:12.316 --> 06:13.697 So what he's saying is that 06:18.740 --> 06:22.344 We can learn and we can study. 06:22.384 --> 06:26.489 Take non-self, for example. 06:28.732 --> 06:31.115 So the view of self is quite pernicious. 06:31.375 --> 06:38.443 It's quite deeply embedded in us, the idea that we have a self or a soul or that we have an identity. 06:39.565 --> 06:45.051 So much so that even the idea that it might not be true, the suggestion that it might not be true is met with great 06:46.600 --> 06:48.743 concern and fear. 06:54.630 --> 07:01.558 And yet many people take up Buddhist practice and try to claim that they have this view of non-self. 07:02.500 --> 07:04.462 The three characteristics are often like that. 07:04.542 --> 07:09.028 People learn about the three characteristics and they get this idea, oh yeah, impermanence. 07:09.769 --> 07:10.630 I understand that. 07:11.511 --> 07:13.333 Because they talk about it and they think about it. 07:15.642 --> 07:17.927 And so you could say to some extent they believe it. 07:20.614 --> 07:27.289 But the view isn't abandoned, not until they see clearly the thing that the view is based upon. 07:28.788 --> 07:30.170 That it's actually not like that. 07:30.230 --> 07:37.501 So it is true that upon reflection you can say, hey, yeah, this body is changing. 07:37.541 --> 07:44.732 And this body is not really able to satisfy me and it's not really under my control. 07:45.172 --> 07:48.417 Just by thinking about it and by reflecting on your experiences. 07:48.397 --> 08:05.201 And because you see that, because of that sort of vision in a conventional sense, you're able to, to some extent, take on the view of non-self or impermanence, suffering non-self, such that you don't cling as strongly to things. 08:08.485 --> 08:09.747 But that's really what it's all about. 08:09.827 --> 08:17.678 Until you see that, until you see the wrongness of your view, 08:18.856 --> 08:19.738 You'll never give it up. 08:21.622 --> 08:39.377 And of course, simply intellectually, understanding impermanent suffering non-self is not nearly enough to break through the core view of things, of experiences being permanent, satisfying, controllable, that kind of thing. 08:39.397 --> 08:40.780 Stable, satisfying, controllable. 08:45.822 --> 09:15.036 And so in the context of reality, what's really important and our experience and goal as the experience of freedom from suffering, it's very important to understand the inadequacy of taking on a view or intellectually understanding something 09:18.374 --> 09:40.213 or even more perhaps subtle, the conflation between concentration and wisdom, the conflation between strength of mind and purity of mind. 09:43.670 --> 09:51.664 Or perhaps purity of mind states and purity of the mind, if you will. 09:51.724 --> 10:01.862 I mean, it's just conventional, but purity of mind states is achievable in many different ways, right? 10:02.583 --> 10:07.652 If you just distract yourself from things that upset you, then you have a pure mind for a time. 10:09.320 --> 10:12.285 You can momentarily have a good pure mind. 10:12.305 --> 10:18.015 If you're kind and generous to people, you can have a pure mind for quite some time. 10:20.520 --> 10:27.953 But when confronted by things that are displeasing, you can still become displeased. 10:30.008 --> 10:45.987 And so the next thing the Buddha says is, and this is interesting for those people who are unsure about the place of concentration, of tranquility meditation and insight meditation. 10:47.188 --> 10:52.995 The Buddha points out something that he's talked about and encouraged his monks to practice quite a lot, and that's the aid attainment. 10:54.578 --> 10:59.526 The four form jhanas and the four formless jhanas. 10:59.547 --> 11:09.724 These are the tranquility meditations, where one goes deeper and deeper into a state of trance, if you will, or a state of concentration. 11:10.846 --> 11:19.641 A powerful mind that's based on some object, maybe love, compassion, maybe just a candle flame or something like that, maybe the breath. 11:23.283 --> 11:31.114 By focusing on that, one's mind becomes very fixed and focused and actually very pure in that moment. 11:32.736 --> 11:37.163 But you can't really say that the mind itself is pure as a conceptual thing. 11:37.243 --> 11:38.745 The mind doesn't really exist. 11:38.845 --> 11:49.560 But overall, there's a lack of something very important that leads to another level of purity, and that's the purity of potential. 11:52.392 --> 11:55.176 See, an enlightened being, it's not that they aren't angry. 11:55.196 --> 11:57.219 That's important. 11:57.259 --> 12:00.243 What's important is they don't have the potential to be angry. 12:01.284 --> 12:06.712 We're not all angry all the time, but an enlightened being doesn't have the potential to get angry. 12:07.713 --> 12:11.979 Not because of concentration, for sure, but because of wisdom. 12:12.880 --> 12:14.923 They don't have a potential to be greedy. 12:14.943 --> 12:19.750 They don't have a potential for delusion, for doubt, for worry, for fear. 12:21.535 --> 12:25.221 There's no potential because they've come to see things. 12:25.381 --> 12:28.686 Their mind truly is pure in a very different way. 12:28.726 --> 12:34.515 And so the Buddha says it's possible that one enters into any of these eight attainments of tranquility. 12:34.535 --> 12:36.438 And they're just, you can research them. 12:36.458 --> 12:43.729 I'm not going to go through them, but let's just say simply one can enter into a tranquility state, a state of tranquil mind. 12:45.616 --> 12:53.389 where one is very mindful and very clearly aware, but focused on a concept, focused on a specific object. 12:55.913 --> 12:58.678 And one might think, I am abiding in effacement. 13:01.402 --> 13:06.170 I have attained this scraping away of the defilements. 13:06.470 --> 13:07.472 I have cut them off. 13:09.275 --> 13:10.617 I have purified my mind. 13:11.619 --> 13:19.354 And the Buddha says, and this is important that people don't perhaps know, he said, these attainments are not called effacement. 13:19.374 --> 13:23.962 It is not these attainments that are called effacement in the noble one's discipline. 13:25.104 --> 13:32.498 These are called sukha, dita dhamma sukha viha, dita dhamma, what is it? 13:38.587 --> 14:05.404 ditta dhamma sukha vihara is what they're called ditta dhamma sukha vihara the first ones are anyway let's see the the the the first four the second four are called peaceful abiding 14:08.776 --> 14:09.197 That's it. 14:09.618 --> 14:15.430 They are ways of finding happiness and peace in the here and now, in the present time. 14:15.450 --> 14:16.111 And so they're good. 14:16.151 --> 14:18.015 They're beneficial. 14:18.035 --> 14:18.917 They can be used. 14:19.157 --> 14:21.863 The power of them can be used as a basis for insight. 14:22.724 --> 14:28.877 If you then switch to practicing insight meditation, but they aren't in and of themselves cleansing of the mind. 14:32.468 --> 14:36.194 And then the Buddha begins to teach what he actually calls effacement. 14:36.255 --> 14:42.746 And there are 44 ways that one goes about cleansing the mind. 14:43.928 --> 14:47.394 But let's step back and talk about the idea of cleansing the mind first. 14:47.414 --> 14:50.339 We're going to go through these fairly briefly. 14:50.379 --> 14:56.029 I don't want to spend too much time on them. 14:56.009 --> 15:17.528 So we have to talk about what it means to cleanse the mind and how we go about cleansing the mind because there's this question of, well, if you actually work to change yourself, well, you certainly run the risk of 15:18.925 --> 15:21.269 of trying to fix things, of trying to be in control. 15:21.289 --> 15:25.276 You run the risk of cultivating a view of self. 15:28.021 --> 15:34.032 And it can be quite wrong 15:35.328 --> 15:43.059 headed, you can get in the wrong direction if you try to force your mind, if you try to forcefully cleanse the mind. 15:43.119 --> 15:48.186 And so it's important to understand, well, you'll see as we go through them, they're actually quite good. 15:48.326 --> 15:56.557 But this is why the Buddha talks and Chunda brings up views, because it's really in many ways all about your view. 15:57.679 --> 16:03.647 And so when we go through these, it's not even so much about, hey, I'm going to do all these things. 16:05.315 --> 16:09.700 It's about understanding what is right and what is wrong. 16:09.840 --> 16:12.603 So getting, first of all, this knowledge. 16:16.006 --> 16:22.973 When you're taught something, when the Buddha expounded all these teachings, simply teaching them to people. 16:23.754 --> 16:32.503 If I have the view that there is a self, that I have a soul, I have a self, I am me, this is me, this is my body. 16:34.120 --> 16:36.602 Well, that's going to affect everything I do. 16:36.642 --> 16:38.504 It's going to affect my intentions. 16:38.524 --> 16:40.005 It's going to affect my actions. 16:40.986 --> 16:42.267 It's going to affect my speech. 16:44.449 --> 16:50.034 It's going to affect my whole attitude and my whole behavior. 16:50.054 --> 16:52.796 It's going to affect who I am quite deeply. 16:53.377 --> 16:56.059 Christians, being a Christian affects who you are. 16:56.119 --> 16:59.522 Muslims, being a Muslim affects who you are. 17:00.283 --> 17:03.165 It changes you, the views and beliefs that you hold. 17:04.850 --> 17:05.811 It changes many things. 17:05.911 --> 17:07.714 It changes the world around you as well. 17:10.918 --> 17:23.234 And so then if someone like the Buddha comes along and teaches something very different, then it's like throwing a bucket full of black marbles and you throw a white one in. 17:23.995 --> 17:25.457 There's something new in the mix. 17:28.272 --> 17:37.424 And depending on the individual, how much of the new stuff gets in and how deep of an impact it has, well, it depends on the individual. 17:42.011 --> 17:56.170 But we understand there's this power of teaching, and the Buddha describing these things, even just starting off talking about non-self, changes the way, you know, it threatens this view, it challenges this view. 17:57.888 --> 18:03.596 And in many ways, just challenging the view is a way of changing your direction, right? 18:04.497 --> 18:12.949 It's what leads people to decide, hey, well, this person is teaching something, but then they give all these reasons for it and it makes sense. 18:13.830 --> 18:17.675 What if I were to try that and see where it leads, right? 18:17.695 --> 18:19.778 Point being that learning 18:21.040 --> 18:27.587 And experiencing this teaching. 18:27.867 --> 18:31.071 I'm sitting here and the Buddha is talking to me. 18:32.012 --> 18:33.733 And that experience changes me. 18:35.696 --> 18:36.677 That's the very beginning. 18:37.457 --> 18:44.685 And of course as it changes you and you start to look at the world in a new way, that looking at the world in a new way changes you as well. 18:46.167 --> 18:55.939 So when we go through each of these 44 things, just hearing about them, each one is going to change the way you think about that situation. 18:55.959 --> 19:02.928 There's a power of teaching, the power of listening to the Dhamma, is a part of the process of change. 19:03.309 --> 19:08.375 So when we ask, how is it that you change if we talk about not being in control and so on? 19:10.418 --> 19:16.005 And how do we go about changing who we are if we're not supposed to force change? 19:19.732 --> 19:22.236 So we understand it all, it comes naturally. 19:22.277 --> 19:29.990 It's not deterministic, not exactly, but it's more in the present moment. 19:31.052 --> 19:38.365 Changes come each moment based on our experiences and our reactions to those experiences. 19:44.099 --> 19:53.301 So let's go through these 44 and hope that, well, we expect that some change comes about in all of us by going through them. 19:53.321 --> 19:56.309 So this is how, he says, this is how effacement should be practiced. 19:56.329 --> 19:58.935 This is how we cleanse our mind, these 44 ways. 19:59.978 --> 20:03.181 This is what we're doing in our meditation practice. 20:03.201 --> 20:12.551 And in many ways all of this just means changing the way we look at things and seeing the problems in certain practices. 20:12.652 --> 20:15.034 So the first is other people will be cruel. 20:16.095 --> 20:16.936 We won't be cruel. 20:18.378 --> 20:19.419 This is how we practice. 20:19.439 --> 20:21.421 We make a determination not to be cruel. 20:23.463 --> 20:29.850 So by hearing this and by deciding in our minds, yes, cruelty, that's not the way to purify your mind. 20:31.872 --> 20:33.675 It's so interesting when you think about it. 20:33.695 --> 20:39.563 It's quite a shock to think there are people who wish for other people to suffer. 20:41.346 --> 20:42.727 Isn't it kind of absurd, right? 20:45.011 --> 20:50.278 People who actively pursue harm towards others. 20:52.862 --> 20:56.828 It's kind of shocking, I think, living in Canadian society to think that that's true. 20:58.650 --> 21:00.613 In many ways, we're kind of sheltered, I think, 21:01.893 --> 21:05.081 We think, I don't know, I'm sheltered for sure. 21:05.783 --> 21:17.050 But I think many of us are rather sheltered and it's a shock when we meet with someone who is out to hurt other people, out to hurt us. 21:21.991 --> 21:26.636 And we suffer greatly because we're not prepared for it, and we're upset by it. 21:27.898 --> 21:30.181 And it is upsetting. 21:30.201 --> 21:32.263 I mean, it's quite shocking to think that. 21:33.364 --> 21:34.005 I mean, it's not. 21:34.045 --> 21:35.287 Of course, it's not a surprise. 21:35.367 --> 21:36.548 And we know that the world's full of this. 21:36.568 --> 21:47.661 But if you actually think about it, what an absurd state for someone to want to hurt someone else, for cruelty, for someone to be cruel. 21:49.919 --> 22:00.631 Of course, as we practice mindfulness, we start to see how tainted, how defiled that state is, how unpleasant it is to be cruel to someone else. 22:02.313 --> 22:05.256 People do it often with great relish and joy. 22:05.296 --> 22:09.361 They take joy, they take pleasure in being cruel to others. 22:11.223 --> 22:12.504 Buddha said it's like a leper. 22:13.726 --> 22:19.352 Just like a leper takes pleasure in cauterizing their wounds with fire. 22:21.087 --> 22:24.994 Not exactly the most blessed sort of pleasure. 22:26.456 --> 22:31.204 It's an awful sort of, it just feels all wrong to be cruel to someone else. 22:31.285 --> 22:35.973 And you can feel the toxic energy building up inside you as you do it. 22:38.136 --> 22:39.619 So we decide not to be cruel. 22:41.708 --> 22:43.531 Others will kill, we will not kill. 22:44.853 --> 22:46.697 Abstain from killing living beings. 22:46.777 --> 22:50.163 Such a powerful thing to do when you finally make that decision. 22:51.385 --> 22:59.338 If you've killed before, if you were inclined to kill, where you make a vow to yourself never to kill a living being again. 23:01.021 --> 23:03.145 Others will steal, will take what is not given. 23:03.205 --> 23:06.130 We shall abstain from taking what is not given. 23:07.477 --> 23:10.443 Others will be un-celibate, we shall be celibate. 23:10.463 --> 23:11.725 Okay, so this is for monks. 23:11.845 --> 23:17.516 Some Buddhists are not celibate, but this is a practice of purity. 23:17.556 --> 23:29.839 Really, the closer you can be to celibacy, the more powerful your practice leading towards purity, because our sexual activity is addictive. 23:31.220 --> 23:37.430 It's a very powerful, pleasant state in the brain and the mind, and it's highly addictive, of course. 23:38.992 --> 23:51.993 So it leads to, I mean, it leads to, as you're mindful, you can feel again the toxicity of it, the actual defilement of the pleasure, right? 23:52.494 --> 23:58.223 This isn't something intellectual, but you start to feel how it's not actually, it's kind of gross, really. 24:00.785 --> 24:04.470 You start to become uncomfortable with it. 24:04.490 --> 24:10.418 You see that there's a lot of discomfort associated with sexual pleasure, for example. 24:12.260 --> 24:18.128 Not to mention, of course, the addiction and the stress and suffering. 24:18.168 --> 24:22.494 I mean, really, that's a part of the stress and suffering that comes from not getting what you want. 24:26.159 --> 24:28.682 And there's the lie, we shall abstain from lying. 24:30.907 --> 24:34.572 Others will speak maliciously, we shall abstain from malicious speech. 24:34.692 --> 24:39.319 Others will speak harshly, we will abstain from harsh speech. 24:40.060 --> 24:49.674 Others will gossip, we shall abstain from gossip. 24:49.694 --> 24:50.896 Wrong types of speech. 24:51.136 --> 24:59.648 Speech is, of course, it's a challenging one because it's very quick to speak, to say things that perhaps we regret. 25:00.961 --> 25:06.787 Speech is one thing that we should be very careful with as a result, right? 25:06.807 --> 25:07.688 Because it's so quick. 25:08.528 --> 25:13.974 It's so easy to just say something that sometimes you say something that you can never take back. 25:14.675 --> 25:17.397 You regret and the deed is done. 25:17.858 --> 25:25.005 Very powerful words have many, in many ways, much more meaning than physical acts, right? 25:25.025 --> 25:26.747 Because there's a meaning to your words. 25:26.947 --> 25:28.268 You express something. 25:30.560 --> 25:34.967 can in many ways be more harmful than physical acts. 25:44.824 --> 25:49.311 Others will be covetous, others will have ill will, others will be of wrong view. 25:51.147 --> 25:52.129 And I'll separate those. 25:52.169 --> 25:53.952 Others will be covetous and have ill wills. 25:54.032 --> 25:56.496 So this is really the key. 25:56.857 --> 26:01.865 And when it gets right down to it, most of our problems have to do with liking and disliking. 26:02.767 --> 26:03.568 It's quite simple. 26:04.430 --> 26:10.780 Most of our emotional states, no matter how flowery we make them, come down to liking or disliking. 26:12.243 --> 26:16.530 I read something today about how depression is a 26:18.822 --> 26:40.628 something but they said depression may be a they're talking basically saying it's a physical problem which is such an absurd thing to say they're so intent people are so intent on finding the cause finding the depression in the brain and fixing that 26:44.962 --> 26:46.304 It's never going to happen. 26:46.904 --> 26:55.876 The brain is very much dependent on the mind in the sense of our experience. 26:55.896 --> 27:01.563 You can cut out big chunks of the brain so that you don't experience this feeling or that feeling. 27:01.603 --> 27:03.165 It's not actually going to solve anything. 27:09.053 --> 27:09.794 The potential. 27:10.074 --> 27:13.939 You never cut off the potential because you can't create wisdom that way. 27:15.455 --> 27:18.365 You can't cut off the potential. 27:18.386 --> 27:21.216 I mean, in this life, of course, you can give someone a lobotomy. 27:21.236 --> 27:22.039 They'll never get angry. 27:23.103 --> 27:23.865 Not in this life. 27:24.789 --> 27:26.595 But you haven't fixed the problem for them. 27:34.777 --> 27:43.545 Others will have wrong view, wrong intention, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration. 27:45.127 --> 27:47.249 That's the eightfold ignoble path. 27:47.629 --> 27:49.551 Others will have these eight bad things. 27:51.673 --> 28:02.843 We will be of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. 28:07.818 --> 28:11.725 So the wording is interesting. 28:11.785 --> 28:15.492 And there's actually, he's going to go over these 44 things in several different ways. 28:15.572 --> 28:26.873 But the wording of this section is, it's, I think, perhaps significant in terms of not concerning ourselves with others. 28:28.372 --> 28:28.653 Right? 28:29.215 --> 28:33.732 Being very, very much focused on our own purity. 28:34.816 --> 28:38.128 That's not central to this message, but it is important. 28:40.268 --> 28:41.970 We're not trying to change the world. 28:42.390 --> 28:44.893 This isn't a social activity. 28:45.934 --> 28:47.736 This isn't something we do externally. 28:47.756 --> 28:48.897 I mean, really, that's the point. 28:48.937 --> 28:50.638 It's not about whether we help others or not. 28:50.659 --> 28:53.281 It's about this being an internal practice. 28:53.662 --> 28:56.064 Hey, we're talking about something that goes on inside. 28:56.104 --> 28:58.827 It's not something that goes on outside. 29:00.048 --> 29:09.938 So even when surrounded by people who are angry or greedy or gossiping or lying or cheating or killing or stealing, we will not 29:11.386 --> 29:13.289 This is how we purify ourselves. 29:13.309 --> 29:21.400 You want to purify yourself, you in many ways have to go contrary to your own environment. 29:23.843 --> 29:25.645 The world is full of these things. 29:29.991 --> 29:33.075 And then we have wrong knowledge and wrong deliverance. 29:33.155 --> 29:40.245 So based on the Eightfold Noble Path, there comes right knowledge and thus freedom, deliverance, freedom. 29:42.436 --> 29:45.038 But other people have wrong knowledge. 29:45.058 --> 29:46.119 Their views are wrong. 29:46.160 --> 29:53.306 And so what they see, what comes about from their practice or lack of practice is all wrong. 29:54.908 --> 29:55.929 And so they're not free. 29:58.831 --> 29:59.932 We will not be like that. 30:00.113 --> 30:05.678 We will not get caught up in wrong view and wrong inclination. 30:06.839 --> 30:11.143 And thus we will not get caught up in the wrongness of the results. 30:15.983 --> 30:18.165 Others will be overcome by sloth and torpor. 30:19.246 --> 30:20.908 We will be free from sloth and torpor. 30:20.928 --> 30:21.869 Others will be restless. 30:21.929 --> 30:22.950 We won't be restless. 30:25.192 --> 30:26.373 These are determinations. 30:26.473 --> 30:30.737 This in and of itself, it's not going to change things just because you say, hey, I'm not going to. 30:32.719 --> 30:42.328 But they incline the mind and give you very strong guidelines for how to direct your mind, direct your practice. 30:44.637 --> 30:53.435 And when you make a determination to be objective about these states, because when you see things clearly, none of these problems will arise. 30:55.820 --> 31:00.029 So you make a determination that when these things come up, you'll make effort to see them clearly. 31:01.633 --> 31:03.777 And that in and of itself will free you from them. 31:06.136 --> 31:07.338 Others will be doubters. 31:07.398 --> 31:08.680 We shall go beyond doubt. 31:09.101 --> 31:15.331 It's very easy to get caught up in doubt and think that somehow you're doing what's appropriate by doubting. 31:18.796 --> 31:30.675 And it would be true if this were some sort of religious, you know, faith-based teaching, but when we talk about practice, what we're really talking about is overcoming doubt, you know. 31:32.545 --> 31:34.528 So we say to ourselves, doubting, doubting. 31:34.548 --> 31:36.411 It's not for some other nefarious purpose. 31:36.511 --> 31:43.942 It's just to be free from the doubt, really to see the doubt clearly and see how it's causing you your stress. 31:44.042 --> 31:46.887 And when you give up that doubt, you don't have to believe anything else. 31:48.749 --> 31:51.153 You just gain the knowledge that doubt is stressful. 31:52.455 --> 31:52.876 And that's it. 31:52.896 --> 32:00.527 And then you're free from doubt, not because you learned something else, but because you learned about the doubt. 32:02.735 --> 32:04.938 Others will be angry, we shall not be angry. 32:04.978 --> 32:17.094 Others will be resentful, contemptuous, insolent, envious, avaricious, fraudulent, deceitful, obstinate, arrogant. 32:18.136 --> 32:19.237 Really good words, right? 32:22.081 --> 32:24.765 As meditators, we recognize these things in ourselves. 32:25.746 --> 32:32.235 Often you remember things you've done in the past that were arrogant, deceitful, obstinate, 32:33.953 --> 32:35.076 We all have these things. 32:35.517 --> 32:39.107 It's important not to feel guilty or hate yourself because of them. 32:41.153 --> 32:42.497 Just make this determination. 32:43.439 --> 32:45.465 Say to yourself, this is where I'm going. 32:47.217 --> 32:49.600 Or be aware that the Buddha said this at any rate. 32:50.321 --> 32:58.492 And being aware that the Buddha said this will incline you, will challenge those states and make you recognize them. 32:58.512 --> 33:00.935 Oh yes, this is something that I have inside me here. 33:01.636 --> 33:04.299 This thing that's coming up is one of those things the Buddha said. 33:04.640 --> 33:08.364 Buddha pointed out is a cause of defilement. 33:08.545 --> 33:10.888 We can see, oh yes, he was right. 33:11.829 --> 33:12.770 This thing is not good. 33:14.332 --> 33:15.013 And you give it up. 33:18.436 --> 33:20.258 Others will be difficult to admonish. 33:20.358 --> 33:21.919 We will be easy to admonish. 33:21.999 --> 33:23.580 We shall be easy to admonish. 33:25.142 --> 33:26.223 This is an important one. 33:27.604 --> 33:31.507 Some students are very difficult to admonish, always arguing with their teachers. 33:34.470 --> 33:35.131 It's a problem. 33:35.731 --> 33:36.952 It's a sickness sometimes. 33:37.372 --> 33:40.675 You can't help yourself, but you argue with your teacher. 33:43.398 --> 33:44.379 It's not always wrong. 33:44.439 --> 33:48.342 Sometimes it's good to argue with your teacher, but some people are intent upon it and they 33:49.452 --> 33:51.155 It's very difficult to teach them. 33:52.217 --> 33:57.686 Teachers are disinclined to help them out. 33:57.706 --> 33:59.088 Others will have bad friends. 33:59.168 --> 34:00.250 We shall have good friends. 34:00.370 --> 34:03.596 Bad friends are a huge part of the problem. 34:03.616 --> 34:05.118 You get surrounded by bad people. 34:05.179 --> 34:07.603 It's very hard to pull yourself out. 34:09.486 --> 34:11.950 Very easy to follow after their bad example. 34:13.313 --> 34:15.663 Others will be negligent, we shall be diligent. 34:15.924 --> 34:18.114 Others will be faithless, we will have faith. 34:18.977 --> 34:20.323 Faith here is confidence. 34:20.464 --> 34:23.577 Others will have no confidence, we shall be confident. 34:25.177 --> 34:29.122 Others will be shameless, we shall be shameful here. 34:30.324 --> 34:31.405 And fear of wrongdoing. 34:31.465 --> 34:35.750 Shame and fear of wrongdoing are just conventional words. 34:35.871 --> 34:46.624 They don't actually mean shame and fear in the way that we think of them, because that would be involving anger or aversion, a disliking of the state. 34:46.644 --> 34:55.015 But shame and fear of wrongdoing have to do with this visceral understanding that the act is wrong and the results are wrong. 34:56.176 --> 34:58.204 seeing the negative, they go together. 34:58.224 --> 35:00.212 They're really part of the same experience. 35:00.252 --> 35:06.135 When you see the nature of an experience and its results, 35:07.583 --> 35:09.346 You gain this. 35:10.768 --> 35:11.950 It's called hiri otapa. 35:13.232 --> 35:16.237 Most of us have a sense of this because we've been through bad things. 35:16.297 --> 35:23.448 We've lived countless lifetimes where we've done nefarious deeds and reaped the results. 35:23.588 --> 35:35.447 And so, having come through hell countless times, we're naturally shy and averse to doing... Most of us are averse to doing horrible things because... 35:35.427 --> 35:36.989 we know where that leads. 35:37.249 --> 35:40.413 And that's a sort of a sense of hiri-ottaba based on experience. 35:42.816 --> 35:53.028 But it comes very strongly from meditation as you start to recoil, just naturally recoil from the whole idea, the very idea of doing anything evil. 35:56.191 --> 35:59.275 Others will be of little learning, we shall be of great learning. 36:01.921 --> 36:09.453 Yes, the Buddha did encourage his monks to learn, to study, to listen to the Dhamma, to repeat and review the Dhamma. 36:11.476 --> 36:13.579 Others will be lazy, we will be energetic. 36:13.880 --> 36:17.045 Others will be unmindful, we will be established in mindfulness. 36:18.106 --> 36:21.111 Others will lack wisdom, we shall possess wisdom here. 36:23.065 --> 36:29.045 Others will adhere to their own views, hold on to them tenaciously, and relinquish them with difficulty. 36:30.148 --> 36:36.248 We shall not adhere to our views or hold on to them tenaciously, but shall relinquish them easily. 36:40.345 --> 36:42.709 So views are one thing. 36:43.089 --> 36:47.296 It's possible to have wrong views just because you don't know any better or you fell into it. 36:48.457 --> 36:54.186 But the Buddha said the worst, there's no greater evil than someone holding on to a wrong view. 36:55.468 --> 36:58.192 Where you tell them they're wrong and they disagree. 37:00.175 --> 37:01.117 They stick to it. 37:02.038 --> 37:06.505 Even you give them reasoned arguments and it's the greatest evil. 37:08.155 --> 37:09.517 You can't teach such a person. 37:09.577 --> 37:11.620 You can't help them. 37:11.640 --> 37:14.584 Someone who won't see reason, who won't question their views. 37:14.925 --> 37:16.808 We should all question our views all the time. 37:18.190 --> 37:22.796 As long as we should question whether we actually know what we say we know. 37:23.818 --> 37:31.008 It's interesting, this sutta reminded me today I was just reading the apology of Plato's apology with Socrates. 37:32.270 --> 37:34.313 And Socrates basically says this is all he did. 37:34.353 --> 37:35.074 He went around 37:37.130 --> 37:44.180 Showing people or pointing out that people who said they knew this and knew that didn't actually know anything. 37:44.961 --> 37:47.124 The things they said they knew, they didn't actually know. 37:50.007 --> 37:52.331 That's basically what he's talking about here. 37:57.377 --> 37:58.719 People hold on to views. 37:58.839 --> 38:01.503 They say this is true, that is true. 38:01.583 --> 38:04.487 And when investigated, when interrogated, 38:05.783 --> 38:09.587 turns out to be just empty words. 38:11.028 --> 38:14.191 There's nothing to it. 38:17.715 --> 38:21.839 So this is how we practice effacement. 38:22.219 --> 38:22.760 That's 44. 38:25.903 --> 38:27.264 And then he goes over them again. 38:27.324 --> 38:33.951 He says, even just inclining your mind towards all 44 of these states is of great benefit. 38:35.838 --> 38:39.782 even if you don't actually do anything physically. 38:39.982 --> 38:56.379 I mean, before you actually go and do something physically or verbally, just inclining your mind towards this and saying, yeah, cruelty is, wouldn't it be great if I could, if I could be not cruel, free myself from cruelty. 38:57.120 --> 38:59.602 Just that inclination of mind is very powerful. 39:01.084 --> 39:05.068 So he says the mind should be inclined in all 44 of these ways. 39:09.875 --> 39:13.960 Then he says something additional that adds to this. 39:14.020 --> 39:16.303 He says, what is the, how do we avoid? 39:17.625 --> 39:19.207 Oh no, it's just the same thing actually. 39:19.547 --> 39:19.847 Sorry. 39:24.133 --> 39:33.504 He says, he points out that each of these 44 bad things has the opposite as its means of avoiding them. 39:36.128 --> 39:39.612 So just as one were to avoid an uneven path, 39:40.790 --> 40:10.712 by taking the even path you see how this path turns out to be fraught with thorns and brambles but fortunately there's another path I mean that's really what's great mostly we live our lives without any clue as to the right path and we acknowledge that the path I'm on isn't great but I don't see any other way ah so the Buddha for each of these 44 bad things he gave a way to avoid them 40:13.460 --> 40:19.108 So being cruel has non-cruelty as a way of avoiding it. 40:19.629 --> 40:20.510 It's just the opposite. 40:25.998 --> 40:39.737 And then he says, just as all 44 of these lead downward, and all wholesome states lead upward, so cruelty has non-cruelty to lead one upwards, outwards, to freedom. 40:40.848 --> 40:58.435 down being a sort of metaphorical down being into bondage he says just as one who is himself sinking in the mud 41:00.372 --> 41:11.490 One who is themselves sinking in quicksand or in the mud in the swamp could never pull someone else out. 41:15.196 --> 41:22.228 But one who is not sinking in the mud could be able to pull someone out of the mud. 41:29.228 --> 41:45.904 So I guess what he's saying here is, in a way, people who are not cruel, for example, who are not all 44 of these things, are a means of helping one become free from all 44 of these things, extinguishing them. 41:46.425 --> 41:52.150 They're extinguished by one who doesn't have them, meaning a teacher or a friend. 41:55.914 --> 41:57.295 But not really. 41:59.553 --> 42:11.907 The point is that the non-states, non-cruelty, and that state of being non-cruel helps purify the cruelty. 42:13.148 --> 42:20.777 That's basically what he's saying. 42:20.797 --> 42:21.318 And that's it. 42:22.659 --> 42:23.740 He says, I have taught. 42:24.621 --> 42:26.944 So it's a highly abbreviated version, but 42:28.409 --> 42:31.173 You should read Mahasi Sayadaw's book if you're really interested. 42:32.014 --> 42:34.097 He says, effacement has been taught by me. 42:34.137 --> 42:42.087 The way of inclining the mind, the way of avoidance, the way leading upward, and the way of extinguishing. 42:42.648 --> 42:45.452 These are the all different ways of looking at these 44 things. 42:48.996 --> 42:57.808 What should be done for his disciples out of compassion by a teacher who seeks their welfare and has compassion for them, that I have done for you, Junda. 43:01.265 --> 43:06.010 So the Buddha has done what he can do. 43:07.372 --> 43:08.893 This is a standard passage. 43:08.953 --> 43:12.317 He says, there's the trees, there's the empty rooms. 43:15.200 --> 43:16.241 Meditate. 43:21.807 --> 43:24.550 Don't be negligent. 43:27.934 --> 43:30.917 Don't be remorseful. 43:31.606 --> 43:32.167 later on. 43:33.849 --> 43:34.710 Don't regret it later. 43:34.790 --> 43:37.693 As Bhikkhu Bodhi says, or else you will regret it later. 43:37.893 --> 43:39.515 This is our instruction to you. 43:40.737 --> 43:52.310 And that's the Salekha Sutta. 43:55.514 --> 43:56.695 That's the Dhamma for tonight. 43:57.336 --> 43:58.457 Thank you all for coming up.