1 00:00:04,958 --> 00:00:07,782 Okay, hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:08,683 --> 00:00:13,789 Today we go on to verses 54 and 55, which read as follows. 3 00:00:16,273 --> 00:00:32,113 na puppa gandho patti vata meti na chandanam tagara mallikava satancha gandho patti vata meti sambadisa sapuriso pavayati 4 00:00:33,663 --> 00:00:44,719 Chandanantagarangvapi upalangatavasikhi etesangandajatanam silagandho anuttaro 5 00:00:47,990 --> 00:00:50,534 which means two different verses here. 6 00:00:50,574 --> 00:01:05,740 The first one, na pupagando pati vata meti, the scent of flowers doesn't go against the wind, nor that of chandana or tagara or malika. 7 00:01:06,361 --> 00:01:10,268 These are all different kinds of flowers. 8 00:01:11,598 --> 00:01:14,200 scented herbs. 9 00:01:14,220 --> 00:01:21,647 The scent of a good person does go against the wind. 10 00:01:22,808 --> 00:01:38,483 A good person spreads in all directions, radiates in all directions, or flows in all directions. 11 00:01:38,463 --> 00:02:03,255 And then number 55, of all of these types of flowers, of all these sorts of, of these and all other sorts of scents, the scent of one who is virtuous is supreme. 12 00:02:05,615 --> 00:02:12,527 So obviously we've got a metaphor going on here because we're not talking about moral people being smelly or scented. 13 00:02:14,070 --> 00:02:17,175 Morality doesn't have anything to do with scent in any real sense. 14 00:02:18,077 --> 00:02:19,860 But we have a story behind this. 15 00:02:20,937 --> 00:02:25,346 Ananda came to the Buddha and asked him about this. 16 00:02:25,386 --> 00:02:41,460 So the story goes Ananda was sitting in meditation and my guess, the way I interpret it is that he thought of this as a question, as a sort of a skillful means for the Buddha to be able to teach. 17 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:58,487 the virtues of a good person or the benefit of being a good person or speak of the greatness, speak in praise of goodness. 18 00:02:59,918 --> 00:03:06,083 So he posed it as a question in this way because otherwise it seems like Ananda was just, why is he asking about flowers? 19 00:03:06,203 --> 00:03:14,350 Because he thinks that he, apparently he's sitting in meditation and he starts thinking, hey, there's all these scents that go with the wind, right? 20 00:03:14,410 --> 00:03:17,613 So the Buddha has talked about three kinds of scents. 21 00:03:17,873 --> 00:03:24,499 There's the scent of flowers, the scent of wood, like sandalwood, and the scent of roots. 22 00:03:25,580 --> 00:03:26,841 I think the third one is roots. 23 00:03:27,462 --> 00:03:28,963 Or no, berries, is it? 24 00:03:28,943 --> 00:03:35,418 Anyway, three kinds of scent, but none of these go against the wind. 25 00:03:35,618 --> 00:03:41,351 So all these kinds of scents are still, no matter how wonderful they might be, they still only go with the wind. 26 00:03:41,813 --> 00:03:44,218 I wonder if there's any type of scent that goes against the wind. 27 00:03:45,464 --> 00:03:49,569 So it's an odd sort of question and it seems like he's setting the Buddha up. 28 00:03:50,751 --> 00:03:57,059 Like you know how in hockey, you know, you've got the assist, sets them up, of course. 29 00:03:57,780 --> 00:04:04,930 So he's giving the Buddha the opportunity to speak in praise of goodness. 30 00:04:06,031 --> 00:04:10,317 So he goes to the Buddha and he asks him, he asks this question, he said, is there any scent that goes against the wind? 31 00:04:11,638 --> 00:04:13,160 And the Buddha gives this verse. 32 00:04:13,841 --> 00:04:15,083 So it's a very simple story. 33 00:04:16,328 --> 00:04:40,783 But I wanted to pick up on one thing that the Buddha said and that's he uses the word sapurisa and I'd like to extrapolate upon that because we're trying to relate this of course back to our meditation and I think it relates best in terms of our sort of our desire to 34 00:04:43,750 --> 00:04:51,618 to understand the benefits of meditation, or the benefits of becoming clear in the mind, of becoming objective. 35 00:04:51,819 --> 00:04:53,000 What are we doing this for? 36 00:04:53,060 --> 00:05:08,256 And so the Buddha's given the highest praise here, that a good person, a person who is mindful, a person who is clear in mind, who is virtuous, sila, a person who is innately moral or just, 37 00:05:09,637 --> 00:05:39,643 such a person spreads and so as I was talking about last night this is the greatness of good deeds is that you can spread them to others they have an expanding quality bad deeds according to Nagasena in the Malinda Panna he says bad deeds you can't share with other people so if I kill someone I can't say through the power of that bad deed may that person suffer you can't share but you can share good deeds with others 38 00:05:39,623 --> 00:05:41,326 because they expand. 39 00:05:41,947 --> 00:05:45,633 This is the power of love, the power of compassion, the power of kindness. 40 00:05:46,594 --> 00:05:50,621 These good deeds actually have an expansive quality to them. 41 00:05:52,825 --> 00:06:01,058 And so this is the idea behind this verse that a good person is somehow 42 00:06:05,527 --> 00:06:15,144 somehow radiates or is detected by others. 43 00:06:15,184 --> 00:06:18,250 So wherever they go, they are welcome. 44 00:06:18,270 --> 00:06:23,099 Wherever they go, they are remembered. 45 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:28,328 And so this is the idea of the scent going sabadisa in all directions. 46 00:06:29,995 --> 00:06:44,578 For instance the greatness of the Buddha, how we remember it and how we think kindly and how people leap at the thought of meeting a person who they look up to. 47 00:06:45,908 --> 00:06:56,344 I guess a modern example would be of a movie star or someone who we see as somehow in a sort of a shallow way as a role model. 48 00:06:58,928 --> 00:07:08,963 Our favorite author or philosopher or even politician or whoever, the people who are somehow have, we feel have some positive quality to them. 49 00:07:10,426 --> 00:07:14,532 They are inundated by 50 00:07:15,608 --> 00:07:25,501 the desire of others to meet them, to talk with them, to learn from them, this sort of thing. 51 00:07:25,521 --> 00:07:40,620 Now, the opposite is, of course, for evil people, people who are, it goes without saying, people who are cheating and lying and unvirtuous, people who are miserly and so on. 52 00:07:40,660 --> 00:07:45,126 No one wants to be around such people. 53 00:07:46,777 --> 00:07:54,856 So what I wanted to talk about here is actually go into some detail about what it means to be a good person and how this relates to our meditation. 54 00:07:54,916 --> 00:07:58,825 How through the meditation we become the sort of person who other people want to see. 55 00:07:58,845 --> 00:08:02,473 We become a person who 56 00:08:02,453 --> 00:08:24,833 exudes these sort of positive quality, positive vibes if you will, that the Buddha went so far as to suggest that it's like a scent, the scent of a flower that is picked up by good people and people looking for companionship, for friendship and so on. 57 00:08:25,910 --> 00:08:32,359 So the Buddha taught, this word sapurisa that the Buddha uses is actually discussed in detail. 58 00:08:33,401 --> 00:08:36,545 The Buddha said there are seven things that make someone a sapurisa. 59 00:08:37,186 --> 00:08:38,508 These are the sapurisa dhamma. 60 00:08:39,650 --> 00:08:54,651 And so these sort of encapsulate in various ways the benefits of our meditation or the qualities that come from meditation. 61 00:08:55,897 --> 00:09:03,242 The first one is Dhamma Nyutta, that one comes to understand the truth or Dhamma. 62 00:09:03,282 --> 00:09:08,961 We have this word Dhamma which in a 63 00:09:10,460 --> 00:09:24,471 specific sense refers to the Buddhist teaching, but in a broader sense refers to the truth or goodness or righteousness or those things that are of benefit to people. 64 00:09:24,591 --> 00:09:26,315 There's many meanings. 65 00:09:26,355 --> 00:09:29,903 Basically the meaning is understanding the good truth or the truth 66 00:09:34,608 --> 00:09:37,812 And this is really, of course, the essence of the practice. 67 00:09:37,832 --> 00:09:48,266 We're coming to practice not to go on vacation or not to bliss out, but we're coming to try to understand ourselves, to understand what is suffering and what is the cause of suffering. 68 00:09:49,647 --> 00:09:59,440 Really what we mean by Dhamma is the teachings that surround the Four Noble Truths or cause and effect. 69 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:01,363 When you do good deeds, you get good results. 70 00:10:01,383 --> 00:10:03,265 When you do bad deeds, you get bad results. 71 00:10:05,202 --> 00:10:23,464 an understanding of how our mind works, an understanding of what is causing us suffering, what is causing us stress and what is inhibiting us from finding peace and happiness, what is keeping us from succeeding in life, what is keeping us from achieving our goals. 72 00:10:25,385 --> 00:10:29,252 That which is keeping our life from being the life that we want it to be. 73 00:10:29,272 --> 00:10:33,019 The difference between how we want things to be and the way they are. 74 00:10:33,059 --> 00:10:37,567 An understanding of this is what is meant by the Dhamma. 75 00:10:37,828 --> 00:10:42,837 So the Dhamma Nyutta is understanding suffering and the cause. 76 00:10:47,052 --> 00:10:55,567 The idea is that this makes one a noble being, this makes one someone who people want to look up to. 77 00:10:55,607 --> 00:11:01,617 Everyone wants to know what is the secret to life, what is the secret to happiness, what is the secret to success. 78 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:10,633 Many different gurus and self-help experts out there claim to have the answer. 79 00:11:10,673 --> 00:11:11,895 Well, we claim to have 80 00:11:11,875 --> 00:11:13,344 an answer as well. 81 00:11:13,404 --> 00:11:17,852 And I think we can 82 00:11:18,828 --> 00:11:34,287 we can sort of make it seem more realistic by giving the understanding that we're not talking about the path to become rich or the path to become famous or the path to become powerful and control the world. 83 00:11:35,268 --> 00:11:45,862 We're actually talking about the path to give up our ambitions and desires and to become content really and to be flexible with reality. 84 00:11:45,962 --> 00:11:48,565 So in Buddhism the 85 00:11:48,545 --> 00:12:07,380 focus in terms of the truth and in terms of goodness, in terms of righteousness, in terms of the right path is quite specifically focused on being flexible and giving up our expectations and our needs for things to be other than what they are. 86 00:12:11,039 --> 00:12:13,504 One way of looking at it might be being natural. 87 00:12:13,604 --> 00:12:17,391 So Dhamma, actually the word Dhamma is somehow related to nature. 88 00:12:18,513 --> 00:12:28,652 This idea of what exists without artifice, without deceit or illusion. 89 00:12:29,253 --> 00:12:31,157 What really is in and of itself. 90 00:12:33,500 --> 00:12:43,155 And this is really the sense that you get from someone who has practiced the meditation and who has cultivated this concept of truth, that they have a sort of a nature to them. 91 00:12:43,655 --> 00:12:44,537 There's no artifice. 92 00:12:44,617 --> 00:12:48,062 They're not trying to pretend to be something that they're not. 93 00:12:48,383 --> 00:12:57,837 They're not trying to convince people or get something from people. 94 00:12:57,817 --> 00:13:05,346 carry out their lives in a very natural way and as a result have this attractive quality to them like a beautiful flower. 95 00:13:05,366 --> 00:13:10,792 There's just something about them that attracts people to them, that people find comforting and soothing. 96 00:13:10,812 --> 00:13:26,170 There's no need for pretense around such people because they've given up their judgments and they don't have expectations, they don't have needs, they aren't clinging, they aren't expecting you to be like this or that. 97 00:13:26,150 --> 00:13:30,115 They understand and accept you the way they are. 98 00:13:30,135 --> 00:13:31,837 This is Dhamma Nyutta. 99 00:13:34,180 --> 00:13:38,025 We think of who we want to be and who we want other people to be. 100 00:13:39,748 --> 00:13:55,448 When you understand and when you've seen and when you've experienced this quality, this virtue, the goodness of just knowing the truth and acting in line with nature, in line with the truth, in line with what is right, with what is... 101 00:13:55,428 --> 00:14:01,118 with objective observation or objective experience. 102 00:14:04,540 --> 00:14:14,773 then you can feel the peace and you can see that this is who we should be. 103 00:14:14,833 --> 00:14:19,499 These are the types of people that we should associate with. 104 00:14:19,519 --> 00:14:21,702 So this is what makes one a good person. 105 00:14:21,742 --> 00:14:31,915 It's really essence of goodness is being in line with the truth and in line with nature without any artifice or construct. 106 00:14:31,895 --> 00:14:47,271 this is lost on a lot of people they don't realize that whenever you construct anything if you construct an ego you construct a being I am this sort of person I like these sorts of things I believe this sort of thing whenever you set yourself apart from others or apart from 107 00:14:47,251 --> 00:15:14,608 the objective, sort of non-specific nature of reality and take yourself out of your individual ego, your individual self, I am this, I am that, and just be, and be centered in the sense of be everyone's, as they say, everything for everyone or be every man, I guess is a term they might use. 108 00:15:15,938 --> 00:15:18,303 This is the ultimate state of being. 109 00:15:18,804 --> 00:15:28,885 You can see that when you take yourself out of this, when you go into this artifice, you're creating something, some sort of friction or some potential 110 00:15:30,721 --> 00:15:36,190 It's a stress that comes from having an artifice up, having some sort of construct up. 111 00:15:36,250 --> 00:15:39,655 So this is the essence of being a good person is Dhamma Nyutta. 112 00:15:39,675 --> 00:15:41,739 The second one is Atta Nyutta, and it's related. 113 00:15:42,119 --> 00:15:43,942 It actually is a part of Dhamma Nyutta. 114 00:15:43,962 --> 00:15:46,907 Atta Nyutta means knowing the meaning of the truth. 115 00:15:46,887 --> 00:15:49,991 So there are two aspects of the same thing really. 116 00:15:50,011 --> 00:15:55,599 The point is that if you just know the truth, for example, you know the Four Noble Truths, then what is suffering? 117 00:15:55,639 --> 00:15:56,820 What is the cause of suffering? 118 00:15:57,501 --> 00:15:59,023 What is the cessation of suffering? 119 00:15:59,904 --> 00:16:07,815 If you know these things or if you've studied them and heard them, attanyuta means knowing the meaning of them or knowing the 120 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:12,264 or understanding, you might say. 121 00:16:12,304 --> 00:16:15,329 There's different ways of looking at these two terms. 122 00:16:16,591 --> 00:16:28,470 Some people say dhamma-nyutta is knowing the cause, or knowing the cause of suffering, and atta-nyutta means knowing the result, which is suffering. 123 00:16:28,450 --> 00:16:34,678 knowing that craving, knowing what is craving and knowing that craving leads to suffering, but atta-nyutta really means the meaning. 124 00:16:35,740 --> 00:16:46,194 So as the Buddha said in other places, uttrinca sa panyaya attam pajanati, so to know the meaning that is higher than just the words. 125 00:16:47,175 --> 00:16:52,002 So if you've studied, this is the point, intellectual understanding and study isn't enough. 126 00:16:52,382 --> 00:16:56,668 You can listen to Dhamma talks and you can read books about the Buddha's teaching, 127 00:16:56,648 --> 00:17:03,779 And it can actually serve to just pump up your ego if you study a lot and you know a lot without actually putting it into practice. 128 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:13,594 There's a profound difference between knowing something and understanding it. 129 00:17:13,574 --> 00:17:15,639 which of course you can see through the meditation. 130 00:17:16,662 --> 00:17:27,588 Before you meditate you might have intellectually accepted these concepts like suffering and the causes of suffering or the idea of impermanence and the idea of non-self. 131 00:17:28,571 --> 00:17:30,435 But when you actually put into practice 132 00:17:30,415 --> 00:17:44,122 the teachings, when you try to focus your mind and try to be objective in the mind, then you really come to see how the nature of reality is impermanent, unsatisfying, uncontrollable. 133 00:17:44,663 --> 00:17:45,946 You see these things for yourself. 134 00:17:45,966 --> 00:17:49,032 So Atanyuta means, in this sense, 135 00:17:50,665 --> 00:17:53,409 understanding and comprehending the teaching for yourself. 136 00:17:54,450 --> 00:18:01,860 Just like when they say when you look at a menu and you see the food and you know what's on the menu and so you can go home and tell them what the food at the restaurant is like. 137 00:18:04,784 --> 00:18:10,632 But it's of course something totally different from actually having tasted the food and knowing what any one of the dishes actually tastes like. 138 00:18:12,248 --> 00:18:13,110 So attanyutta. 139 00:18:13,632 --> 00:18:16,761 Number three, attanyutta, without the H, means knowing yourself. 140 00:18:17,282 --> 00:18:22,256 So a good person, remember the Buddha's talking here, is someone who knows themself. 141 00:18:23,419 --> 00:18:25,465 And this is the... 142 00:18:27,773 --> 00:18:31,498 Of course, the essence of Buddhism is non-self, right? 143 00:18:31,598 --> 00:18:39,308 So we have the Buddha talking about knowing yourself, but what he means is knowing the personal or the individual nature of being. 144 00:18:40,529 --> 00:18:47,318 So it's a reminder that, or it's an aspect of the Dhamma that is the focus on oneself. 145 00:18:47,298 --> 00:18:50,825 We often get complaints in Buddhism that we're kind of selfish, right? 146 00:18:50,845 --> 00:18:53,509 We're only focused on helping ourselves. 147 00:18:53,830 --> 00:18:59,541 And it's quite true that Buddhism is very much focused on the individual and on the quote-unquote self. 148 00:18:59,601 --> 00:19:03,568 And I think that is something that is 149 00:19:03,548 --> 00:19:24,207 not well appreciated and therefore even denigrated by people outside of Buddhism or who are new to Buddhism or in other schools of Buddhism that they take it to be important to help others and to work for the benefit and the welfare of the world, the welfare of society. 150 00:19:24,187 --> 00:19:33,062 It seems quite clear that the Buddha didn't emphasize that aspect of goodness or that aspect of practice. 151 00:19:33,082 --> 00:19:43,560 It's not to say that he didn't encourage goodness for helping other people, but it seems very much a secondary thing, something that should spring spontaneously from the goodness inside. 152 00:19:43,580 --> 00:19:47,967 And this is of course the point of the Buddha's teaching, that goodness has to come from within. 153 00:19:49,516 --> 00:19:52,641 that it doesn't matter what you do outside. 154 00:19:53,222 --> 00:19:57,529 Again, it's just an artifice and you can work and work and work to help the world. 155 00:19:58,030 --> 00:20:03,538 But if you're not working from a pure mind, you're not changing the essence of yourself. 156 00:20:03,578 --> 00:20:05,922 You're not changing your universe. 157 00:20:05,902 --> 00:20:09,307 you're pushing yourself on others. 158 00:20:10,189 --> 00:20:18,202 It's the difference between experiential reality and the third person reality, first person versus third person. 159 00:20:19,063 --> 00:20:30,381 Third person reality or this impersonal reality, it exists only conceptually in the minds of the first person. 160 00:20:31,964 --> 00:20:33,546 If you 161 00:20:35,483 --> 00:20:46,378 the third person reality is something that you can create if you think about or if you conceive of it in this way or in that way, you work on that level. 162 00:20:46,418 --> 00:20:50,163 So if we talk about saving the environment, it becomes an issue. 163 00:20:50,604 --> 00:20:53,528 But it's just a concept in your mind, this idea of saving the environment. 164 00:20:53,588 --> 00:20:54,589 Or if you talk about 165 00:20:54,569 --> 00:21:04,508 For example, some important ones like race relations or color relations between people of different ethnicity. 166 00:21:05,811 --> 00:21:08,296 Or you talk about gender equality or so on. 167 00:21:09,037 --> 00:21:17,353 You're dealing with concepts and so you create this issue of gender equality, for example. 168 00:21:17,333 --> 00:21:35,195 when the reality, you know, there's an association, but the reality is still first person, and you're still dealing with individuals, which means that you're still dealing with the likes and dislikes, the partialities of the individual. 169 00:21:35,815 --> 00:21:46,969 When you talk about race, ethnic relations, or you talk about gender relations, you're still dealing with the problem, the core problem is people's 170 00:21:46,949 --> 00:21:47,715 prejudices. 171 00:21:48,401 --> 00:21:51,002 You're still dealing with people, you're still dealing with the first person. 172 00:21:52,636 --> 00:22:03,226 And so if you want to point out, you could very easily point out to people that if you're talking about dealing with external matters, you're still dealing with people's individual minds. 173 00:22:03,726 --> 00:22:11,133 So whether you work on your own self or you somehow think that you can work on other people's selves, you're still dealing with the self. 174 00:22:11,633 --> 00:22:13,215 You're still dealing with just a whole bunch of selves. 175 00:22:14,175 --> 00:22:22,643 Unless you're talking about dealing with natural disasters or earthquake relief or so on, then 176 00:22:22,623 --> 00:22:32,874 I know certainly that there's this idea of helping people out, helping people out of natural disasters. 177 00:22:33,375 --> 00:22:45,308 But the idea of helping society or working for the good of any sort of impersonal goal, in the end you're still dealing about how it affects individuals. 178 00:22:46,490 --> 00:22:51,195 Even if you're dealing with natural disasters, you're still talking about how it affects individual people. 179 00:22:51,175 --> 00:23:00,067 And so what the Buddha pointed out is that what really affects people is their own minds, their own partiality. 180 00:23:00,708 --> 00:23:10,541 So if someone hits me or even kills me, the only way it can really make me suffer is if I am unmindful, if I am partial against that. 181 00:23:11,362 --> 00:23:16,789 So if I'm afraid of death, then murdering me is going to cause me a lot of suffering. 182 00:23:16,809 --> 00:23:18,752 But if I'm not afraid of death, if I'm supposed... 183 00:23:18,732 --> 00:23:24,328 someone who is enlightened, they're not afraid of it, and you can't make them suffer just by killing them. 184 00:23:24,348 --> 00:23:25,351 It doesn't really affect them. 185 00:23:25,371 --> 00:23:28,018 Like, okay, death, well, it's coming anyway. 186 00:23:28,820 --> 00:23:30,585 Or pain, or however. 187 00:23:30,645 --> 00:23:32,691 Really, it does get to that extreme. 188 00:23:34,122 --> 00:23:39,707 But, of course, we can see this in everyday reality quite clearly. 189 00:23:39,767 --> 00:23:53,880 If someone's yelling at you and calls you nasty names, well, if you're not particularly attached to, you know, if someone calls me fat and I'm not particularly attached to my body weight, then it's like, okay, I'm fat or I'm thin or something, maybe I don't mind that. 190 00:23:53,980 --> 00:23:59,645 Or if someone calls you white, you're like, I don't care, I have white skin or black or so on. 191 00:23:59,665 --> 00:24:03,268 You know, if it bothers you, that's where the suffering comes from. 192 00:24:05,763 --> 00:24:24,992 And moreover that's where the evil comes from because then it gets into a cycle and we create conflict and so we have different ethnicities and genders and so on and people getting upset at each other or condescending and holding themselves above each other. 193 00:24:25,012 --> 00:24:26,775 We're dealing with people's minds. 194 00:24:26,755 --> 00:24:47,671 If and when we can break down these barriers inside and break down these delusions inside, these ideas that I'm better than someone or worse than someone, the ideas of comparing ourselves to others, then none of these things would ever be a problem for any of us. 195 00:24:48,592 --> 00:24:50,856 We would never have these sort of 196 00:24:53,553 --> 00:24:54,675 these sort of difficulties. 197 00:24:54,695 --> 00:25:02,886 So the Buddha had this focus on the source, that whether you deal with your own self or help other people deal with themselves, the point is to know yourself. 198 00:25:03,066 --> 00:25:09,015 And of course, it therefore goes without saying that you must know yourself first before you can help other people to know themselves. 199 00:25:09,515 --> 00:25:16,786 It would be silly for someone who had not fully understood themselves to go out and try to encourage other people to do it. 200 00:25:16,826 --> 00:25:21,973 It can be done if you have the right theory, but you need someone and you need the theory and the teaching 201 00:25:21,953 --> 00:25:24,156 of the understanding of self. 202 00:25:24,737 --> 00:25:29,745 So this is a very key concept in Buddhism, the idea that we look to ourselves. 203 00:25:29,805 --> 00:25:36,715 As the Buddha said, Settle yourself in what is good first, and then go and help others. 204 00:25:37,596 --> 00:25:40,881 Anyway, so to know yourself is very key in this regard. 205 00:25:40,941 --> 00:25:44,907 When we talk about suffering and the cause of suffering, it's very personal. 206 00:25:44,887 --> 00:25:49,333 And ethics and morality, it's all based on the individual. 207 00:25:49,793 --> 00:25:54,679 It's based on your own mind and your own intentions, your own clarity of mind. 208 00:25:55,160 --> 00:26:06,173 You can't be blamed for doing something that to the best of your knowledge, or you didn't know was going to happen, and to the best of your efforts you tried to prevent. 209 00:26:06,354 --> 00:26:12,261 It very much depends on this idea, we talk about mens rea, 210 00:26:12,241 --> 00:26:14,745 and the guilty mind. 211 00:26:15,446 --> 00:26:19,852 If your mind is not guilty, your mind is pure, then you can't be held accountable. 212 00:26:20,032 --> 00:26:24,939 So knowing yourself is therefore key, and it's a key part of being a good person. 213 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:31,830 It's something that makes people, of course, therefore desirable or attractive to others. 214 00:26:31,930 --> 00:26:37,658 It's the kind of person that you want to become friends with, that you want to learn from, you want to study from, someone who knows themselves. 215 00:26:39,494 --> 00:26:53,995 And it's someone, you know, this is a sign that we get even without even thinking about it when, you know, they say self-confidence, someone who is sure of themselves or confident in themselves and able to express themselves and so on. 216 00:26:54,015 --> 00:26:58,482 This is an idea, part of what the Buddha taught us, the sapuri saddhamma. 217 00:26:58,462 --> 00:27:05,533 Number four, matta-nyutta, to know moderation or this idea of the middle way. 218 00:27:05,553 --> 00:27:11,823 We always hear about this and therefore it does play a part in the Buddha's teaching here. 219 00:27:12,224 --> 00:27:16,470 This idea of knowing moderation or knowing the right amount to everything. 220 00:27:17,652 --> 00:27:22,039 So everything from food to speech to 221 00:27:22,019 --> 00:27:30,610 use of resources, the moderation in knowing the right amount to everything. 222 00:27:32,275 --> 00:27:34,122 Someone who doesn't overdo anything. 223 00:27:35,570 --> 00:27:42,861 It doesn't mean knowing moderation in drinking alcohol or moderation in doing bad deeds or entertainment. 224 00:27:42,901 --> 00:27:47,908 It means for things that are beneficial, knowing moderation. 225 00:27:48,009 --> 00:27:52,515 So food is beneficial, but too much food, of course, is a problem. 226 00:27:52,836 --> 00:27:54,298 Speech can be beneficial. 227 00:27:54,378 --> 00:27:56,842 Too much speech or too little speech can be a problem. 228 00:27:56,902 --> 00:27:58,945 Or teaching, for example. 229 00:27:58,965 --> 00:28:01,729 When I teach, if I talk and talk and talk for hours... 230 00:28:01,709 --> 00:28:06,077 As I sometimes do, then it starts to actually become problematic. 231 00:28:06,097 --> 00:28:15,195 The meditators get antsy and start even maybe doubting or thinking or too much mental activity. 232 00:28:17,302 --> 00:28:29,156 meditation even, knowing moderation in meditation, so that means don't push yourself to meditate walking, sitting, walking, sitting without a break, we actually have the meditators take a break in between. 233 00:28:30,078 --> 00:28:42,853 Knowing the right amount of attention, the right amount of effort, the right amount of concentration, the right amount of confidence, so this idea of balancing the faculties, 234 00:28:42,833 --> 00:28:45,596 Too much confidence can be problematic. 235 00:28:46,137 --> 00:28:48,299 Too little confidence is, of course, problematic. 236 00:28:49,020 --> 00:28:54,407 Too much effort, too much concentration, not enough effort, not enough concentration, this sort of thing. 237 00:28:56,910 --> 00:28:57,811 Knowing moderation. 238 00:28:58,271 --> 00:29:00,514 Most importantly, we talk about moderation in food. 239 00:29:00,534 --> 00:29:08,904 You have to know if you... One of the meditators, they were saying, he was falling asleep, and I said, okay, so food is important. 240 00:29:09,144 --> 00:29:12,688 You have to don't eat too much food, don't eat too little food, don't eat the wrong types of food. 241 00:29:14,018 --> 00:29:31,386 someone who knows moderation, but it's this general sense of knowing the right amount of everything, knowing when to say the right thing to say at the right time, knowing when to say things, when to stop talking, when to stop doing something, when to stop working. 242 00:29:32,952 --> 00:29:38,478 In every sense, it's a quality of mindfulness, but it's something that you notice in people. 243 00:29:40,140 --> 00:29:44,405 Someone who doesn't talk too much, someone who doesn't stay silent. 244 00:29:45,146 --> 00:29:46,107 Why are you so quiet? 245 00:29:46,548 --> 00:29:50,593 People who just sit around and don't engage in conversation. 246 00:29:50,653 --> 00:29:55,538 Not that I want my meditators to engage in conversation. 247 00:29:56,119 --> 00:29:56,840 You're excused. 248 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:58,482 There's no moderation in speaking. 249 00:29:58,502 --> 00:29:59,523 You have to be quiet. 250 00:29:59,543 --> 00:30:00,044 No talking. 251 00:30:01,245 --> 00:30:02,166 But... 252 00:30:04,913 --> 00:30:08,699 moderation in terms of taking a break when you have to take a break. 253 00:30:08,719 --> 00:30:11,263 Knowing moderation in eating is very important for meditators. 254 00:30:11,283 --> 00:30:14,908 It's one of the few things apart from meditation that they have to do. 255 00:30:17,412 --> 00:30:24,002 And so it does become actually a big deal and because it's one of the escapes that meditators have, you often find yourself 256 00:30:23,982 --> 00:30:48,066 indulging in it and so you in the beginning anyway you'll find yourself overeating and then maybe under eating to compensate for it and so you're either weak from hunger or you're late drowsy from overeating moderation in terms of times so not walking too long or sitting too long and this kind of moderation 257 00:30:48,147 --> 00:30:51,071 But a lot of it is regulated by the teacher. 258 00:30:51,091 --> 00:31:02,928 But for people at home or who are trying to do meditation at home, moderation is an important concept. 259 00:31:02,968 --> 00:31:05,591 If you push yourself too hard, then you'll find yourself stopping. 260 00:31:06,152 --> 00:31:08,415 For a couple of days, you push really hard in meditation. 261 00:31:08,455 --> 00:31:13,142 And the next day, there's actually this sort of backlash. 262 00:31:13,122 --> 00:31:16,105 the mind rebels or revolts. 263 00:31:16,125 --> 00:31:21,612 It's had enough and then you get sick of meditation because you push yourself too hard. 264 00:31:21,952 --> 00:31:28,880 So you have to take it easy and think of dealing with the mind as being like dealing with a young child. 265 00:31:29,481 --> 00:31:33,485 You have to coax it and you have to carrot and stick. 266 00:31:33,505 --> 00:31:41,374 Sometimes push it, sometimes pull it along, trying to coerce it into progressing. 267 00:31:41,354 --> 00:31:44,621 So that's matanyuta, knowing moderation. 268 00:31:46,144 --> 00:31:47,266 We have four here. 269 00:31:47,687 --> 00:31:54,300 Five, kalanyuta, to know the right time, to know times. 270 00:31:55,495 --> 00:32:03,716 A lot of these are on two levels and this one it's particularly clear that the worldly level and a level of ultimate reality. 271 00:32:03,756 --> 00:32:07,224 On a worldly level, knowing the right time means not being early, not being late. 272 00:32:07,966 --> 00:32:12,357 You could even extend it to mean knowing the right time for meditation. 273 00:32:12,337 --> 00:32:17,481 And one important concept here is knowing when is the time for meditation. 274 00:32:17,702 --> 00:32:23,567 So people who say, I didn't have time for meditating that day, I would say this is a person who doesn't understand time. 275 00:32:24,287 --> 00:32:31,193 Because you have like 24 hours in a day, it's quite difficult to think that you couldn't find 5 minutes or 10 minutes somewhere in there. 276 00:32:31,213 --> 00:32:34,977 The problem is you don't find it and so you miss opportunities. 277 00:32:35,517 --> 00:32:42,343 You have the opportunity to practice meditation and instead you go and check Facebook or 278 00:32:42,323 --> 00:32:45,553 go and take a snack or take a nap or so on. 279 00:32:46,415 --> 00:32:49,404 So instead of taking a nap, you can do lying meditation. 280 00:32:49,525 --> 00:32:56,265 Instead of checking out Facebook, you can turn off the screen and do five minutes sitting in your computer chair. 281 00:32:57,241 --> 00:33:04,313 Even just five minutes or ten minutes here or there has a really great impact on your day. 282 00:33:05,094 --> 00:33:06,536 Because it reminds you, it wakes you up. 283 00:33:06,757 --> 00:33:15,331 And just one moment where you have a clear glimpse of even a single phenomenon is a real perk for the day. 284 00:33:16,593 --> 00:33:20,920 You can feel this release that comes from seeing things clearly, even just for a moment. 285 00:33:22,283 --> 00:33:29,813 The Buddha said it like this, he said, even just a moment of deep meditation is of immeasurable benefit. 286 00:33:32,257 --> 00:33:43,580 But there's another way that Kala and Yudhisthira has to be understood, and that's on the ultimate level, and that's the difference between the present moment and what's not the present moment, so the past and the future. 287 00:33:43,620 --> 00:33:52,358 One thing we have to remind ourselves again and again, even though we know it intellectually, is that meditation is performed in the present moment. 288 00:33:52,338 --> 00:33:58,865 when you're acknowledging the rising and falling, it has to be as the stomach rises, as the stomach falls. 289 00:33:58,925 --> 00:34:07,834 When you walk, it has to be as the lifting, as the heel lifts, the lifting, the moving, the foot moves, the foot drops. 290 00:34:07,854 --> 00:34:14,742 You have to be aware of lowering as it lowers, touching as it touches, placing, pressing as it presses. 291 00:34:16,163 --> 00:34:18,586 Be aware of the movements as they occur. 292 00:34:19,226 --> 00:34:21,889 And more importantly, or more commonly, 293 00:34:21,869 --> 00:34:31,219 a problem, we have to avoid dealing with the past and the future, letting ourselves get caught up in the past and future. 294 00:34:31,899 --> 00:34:37,085 It can be in regards to worldly things or problems in the past or worries about the future. 295 00:34:38,666 --> 00:34:45,593 They can be, they can overwhelm our meditation and we have to remind ourselves this is not a way to live our lives. 296 00:34:47,776 --> 00:34:50,138 Meditation is, or 297 00:34:51,485 --> 00:34:58,112 cultivating the habit of being in the present moment is a much, much greater thing to do than worrying about a much more useful thing to do. 298 00:34:58,853 --> 00:34:59,874 We know this intellectually. 299 00:34:59,894 --> 00:35:13,008 There's no one who thinks that worrying about the future is going to somehow actually, or I guess there are, but as meditators we've generally overcome this delusion, the idea that worrying about things somehow makes them better, or mourning about the past. 300 00:35:13,028 --> 00:35:18,994 There's no one who could convince you that by dwelling in the past you're going to somehow 301 00:35:18,974 --> 00:35:25,540 benefit from it, people who think that you get closure from thinking about it again and again, I suppose. 302 00:35:26,822 --> 00:35:33,268 But we've more or less overcome this, but still we go back and dwell on it or worry about the future. 303 00:35:33,288 --> 00:35:35,230 So we need to remind ourselves. 304 00:35:36,031 --> 00:35:44,779 Part of the meditation is being able to see the difference between what is real here and now and what is illusion in the past and the future. 305 00:35:44,759 --> 00:35:52,071 The Buddha gave this profound, this vivid simile of grass. 306 00:35:52,672 --> 00:35:57,740 When you cut grass, it dries up in the sun because it's cut off from the root. 307 00:35:58,641 --> 00:36:05,232 And the same when you cut the mind off from the reality of the present moment, you can really feel as it dries up. 308 00:36:05,212 --> 00:36:14,081 This is why the Buddha said the monks still look so radiant, even 60, 70, 80 years old, they still look fresh and new. 309 00:36:14,121 --> 00:36:22,128 Whereas people who have never meditated, as they get older, even 30, 40 years old, they start to look old and sickly and dried up. 310 00:36:22,729 --> 00:36:23,670 And they feel dried up. 311 00:36:24,130 --> 00:36:25,291 You can feel it in your mind. 312 00:36:26,032 --> 00:36:28,815 Whereas someone who meditates feels fresh in the mind. 313 00:36:29,756 --> 00:36:31,317 They feel clear in the mind. 314 00:36:32,218 --> 00:36:34,240 If they're mindful, 315 00:36:34,220 --> 00:36:42,134 from moment to moment, and they can feel the reality of it, the nature. 316 00:36:42,234 --> 00:36:44,979 They feel like a part of the nature, so they're rooted in something. 317 00:36:46,321 --> 00:36:48,465 You can really feel this. 318 00:36:49,711 --> 00:37:08,862 So this idea of being in the present moment, and this goes as well for obsessing about our meditation practice, like, oh, that whole hour I wasn't mindful at all, I'm a bad meditator, I haven't meditated at all today, what a bad meditator I am. 319 00:37:09,463 --> 00:37:13,930 And in response you say, okay, well tomorrow I'm going to meditate all day. 320 00:37:13,910 --> 00:37:24,607 You see, obsessing like this is often detrimental to your practice, because then tomorrow comes and you're like, well, tomorrow, and of course tomorrow never comes. 321 00:37:25,608 --> 00:37:31,317 But this is a common pattern that we find ourselves falling into, obsessing about the past and the future. 322 00:37:31,337 --> 00:37:33,601 Another one is obsessing about the times. 323 00:37:33,841 --> 00:37:35,945 How long have I been sitting here? 324 00:37:35,985 --> 00:37:37,487 And you look at the clock and there's 325 00:37:37,467 --> 00:37:44,480 It's only been 10 minutes, and there's still another 15 minutes to go, and you look at another, oh, still another. 326 00:37:44,921 --> 00:37:47,967 So obsessing about the future will drive you crazy. 327 00:37:48,488 --> 00:37:57,906 You know, people who come here for a limited amount of time, you'll often find yourself counting the days, or when you do the course, you know, how many more days until I have to go, and 328 00:37:57,886 --> 00:38:22,307 if you think like that you won't make even one day you really will ruin your practice and people i've had people do this when they're they're counting down the number of days that are left and just just as soon as you start doing that the first day you already fail so you encourage them you say come on stay on and the next day is they can't even get through a single day when i've only got six days left and then i can then i can leave kind of um 329 00:38:24,565 --> 00:38:29,808 And this is because by the very, you know, you've pushed on the brakes. 330 00:38:29,828 --> 00:38:30,913 So if you say, okay, 331 00:38:32,615 --> 00:38:38,542 grit my teeth and bear it and I'll last through this hour or I'll last through this day or so on. 332 00:38:38,562 --> 00:38:39,623 You won't make it anywhere. 333 00:38:40,724 --> 00:38:44,208 You've suddenly ruined your practice by thinking that way. 334 00:38:44,829 --> 00:38:49,114 The only way to really succeed in the meditation is to be here and now. 335 00:38:49,775 --> 00:38:56,142 And so there should be nothing about the past, nothing about the future, nothing about how many days you're supposed to be here, how long is the course or so on. 336 00:38:56,122 --> 00:39:16,122 it should never be what are you going to do when you finish the course sometimes near the end of the course people start getting excited and thinking about oh when I go back home I'm going to do this and do that and totally ruin their course and oh wait till people know the new me and of course you therefore fail and don't take a new me home at all 337 00:39:17,772 --> 00:39:18,573 This is important. 338 00:39:18,593 --> 00:39:23,941 So Kalanyutta is a very important part of the Buddhist teaching if you understand it correctly. 339 00:39:24,302 --> 00:39:30,491 It's not just about not being late for appointments or not being early or remembering your appointments. 340 00:39:31,913 --> 00:39:35,899 It really has to do with 341 00:39:38,258 --> 00:39:48,392 understanding the difference between real time, which is here and now, and the conceptual time of the past and the future. 342 00:39:50,155 --> 00:40:03,273 So Kalanyutta number six is Parisanyutta, to know from companies or communities or groups of people, Parisa. 343 00:40:06,257 --> 00:40:07,118 This is a 344 00:40:09,916 --> 00:40:17,870 It is a fairly worldly aspect of goodness, but it's something that you notice in other people. 345 00:40:18,050 --> 00:40:21,497 Remember, we're talking about these sort of things that people will notice in you, the changes. 346 00:40:22,278 --> 00:40:26,305 The ability to be flexible. 347 00:40:26,285 --> 00:40:31,433 to be able to act appropriately in society. 348 00:40:32,194 --> 00:40:44,833 It's one of the funny things about being a monk or being a Buddhist that's changed because when I first started, of course I was one of these people who took it so seriously and I didn't want to be around anyone if they were drinking 349 00:40:44,813 --> 00:40:49,719 I remember when I first came back, I just couldn't stand being around people. 350 00:40:50,940 --> 00:40:54,345 Because it was so new, of course, and this was something quite difficult. 351 00:40:55,286 --> 00:41:07,260 And as a result, I made a real scene on several instances, just getting up and leaving in the middle of a gathering of some sort. 352 00:41:08,181 --> 00:41:13,808 Because I just couldn't take it, and talking to people in the wrong way, and brushing them the wrong way. 353 00:41:13,788 --> 00:41:19,464 Which is totally different from now where people can be drinking around me and these people drinking beer and I'm like, oh yeah, how you doing? 354 00:41:20,687 --> 00:41:23,535 Inside I'm thinking, get me out of here, get me out of here. 355 00:41:23,555 --> 00:41:28,810 But knowing how to deal with people and being comfortable around people. 356 00:41:28,790 --> 00:41:33,956 part of being natural or being a good person. 357 00:41:34,016 --> 00:41:40,022 Of course, this is a sign that you, even in a worldly sense, you know these people who are comfortable in any situation. 358 00:41:40,883 --> 00:41:46,670 But this is really an important quality that we have to, that we try to cultivate in the practice. 359 00:41:46,690 --> 00:41:49,232 And it comes from seeing things as they are. 360 00:41:49,252 --> 00:41:53,397 Instead of imagining these people out there. 361 00:41:53,377 --> 00:41:58,832 Like if I sit here and I imagine all of you listening to me and I wonder what they're thinking of me. 362 00:41:59,855 --> 00:42:05,209 Are they enjoying this or are they just bored to tears and waiting for it to be over? 363 00:42:06,708 --> 00:42:13,599 If I think like that, it creates great tension inside and suddenly you can all see it on my face and I'm no longer acting natural. 364 00:42:15,301 --> 00:42:25,257 But once you're able to start to take it as a nature, this is an experience, seeing and hearing and so on. 365 00:42:25,237 --> 00:42:55,142 You know there are people out there, but you take it from one moment at it from moment to moment Being aware of what's really happening and when you see someone it's a seeing when you hear this is hearing and being aware of reality as it is At that moment then it becomes natural And then you of course there's no difference between any situation and you react like a boxing match 366 00:42:55,122 --> 00:43:04,376 Things like boxing matches or any kind of combat where you have to deal with an unknown or an uncertainty. 367 00:43:04,856 --> 00:43:07,841 Of course, your enemy is trying to catch you off guard. 368 00:43:08,642 --> 00:43:10,304 Well, reality is very much like that. 369 00:43:11,166 --> 00:43:15,552 It's not that it's particularly trying to catch you off guard, but it does catch you off guard. 370 00:43:15,572 --> 00:43:16,514 It's an uncertainty. 371 00:43:17,515 --> 00:43:21,501 And so this uncertainty, it seems like this person, wow, how does this person... 372 00:43:21,481 --> 00:43:24,354 Know how to deal with this situation like my teacher. 373 00:43:24,997 --> 00:43:28,251 He was grew up in the rural rural Thailand and 374 00:43:29,733 --> 00:43:59,520 got a grade 3 education and now he's met the Pope and he deals with monks who grew up in the highest of the high monks in Bangkok and so on but he does it all very naturally and he wins all their hearts and he taught meditation in the Vatican he met the Dalai Lama and he travels around the world and teaches in all sorts of different societies because he's there, he's alert he's aware at that moment 375 00:43:59,500 --> 00:44:07,669 It's neat to see him even deal with Westerners in a different way from how he deals with Thai people, just innately. 376 00:44:07,789 --> 00:44:12,173 Not that he knows what Western people are like, but just because he's there with them. 377 00:44:12,754 --> 00:44:14,136 When they ask, he responds. 378 00:44:15,277 --> 00:44:17,920 It's therefore, as you say, everything to everyone. 379 00:44:20,322 --> 00:44:28,731 The idea of being comfortable in different societies doesn't mean studying up and understanding 380 00:44:30,449 --> 00:44:33,814 or practicing in society. 381 00:44:33,854 --> 00:44:39,463 It means just being there and being comfortable and being content. 382 00:44:39,483 --> 00:44:47,575 I mean, the point is you might get laughed at in certain societies because you use the wrong fork or you say the wrong words or you wear the wrong clothes. 383 00:44:48,396 --> 00:44:56,929 Obviously I'm not going to fit in with a tuxedo or a formal dance or something like that. 384 00:44:56,909 --> 00:45:04,202 But you wouldn't, through meditation, you wouldn't be upset if suddenly you found yourself in an awkward situation as I have. 385 00:45:04,222 --> 00:45:08,730 As a monk, you know, walking down the street and people think I'm crazy. 386 00:45:08,790 --> 00:45:12,677 Suddenly I'm surrounded by people asking me questions about this and that. 387 00:45:14,460 --> 00:45:18,327 Getting these catcalls from the punks on the side of the street. 388 00:45:18,307 --> 00:45:23,572 Even walking on alms rounds is a good example of this. 389 00:45:24,413 --> 00:45:26,635 Being able to deal with different people. 390 00:45:26,735 --> 00:45:28,496 I get stopped by the police sometimes. 391 00:45:29,517 --> 00:45:31,039 Stopped by people who are curious. 392 00:45:31,139 --> 00:45:32,560 I get yelled at by people. 393 00:45:34,742 --> 00:45:46,693 It's an example of being comfortable in trying situations because we're not talking about just groups of people who are 394 00:45:46,943 --> 00:45:47,784 who are friendly. 395 00:45:48,865 --> 00:45:51,929 There are also going to be groups of people who are hostile towards you. 396 00:45:51,949 --> 00:46:02,541 In a work environment, for example, your boss, your co-workers, maybe they're vying for the same position or competing for the same resources. 397 00:46:03,803 --> 00:46:08,108 It can be quite stressful if you don't know how to deal with it. 398 00:46:08,088 --> 00:46:13,499 I submit that the most important aspect is not an intellectual understanding of how things work. 399 00:46:13,679 --> 00:46:29,050 It's an innate comfort or being here and now or presence that allows you to be flexible and to react appropriately and to not have expectations. 400 00:46:29,030 --> 00:46:49,614 Because you all know how it goes when someone gets to you and you suddenly freeze up with anger or you want something and you therefore obsess over it and you of course lose sight therefore of all the rest of the aspects of the situation and are not able to accurately respond. 401 00:46:50,195 --> 00:46:57,163 So all in all it's a quality that you can see in people who are 402 00:46:58,426 --> 00:47:05,616 who are virtuous, who are on top of their game, that they're able to deal with all sorts of situations. 403 00:47:07,158 --> 00:47:12,785 And number seven is to know the difference between people. 404 00:47:14,307 --> 00:47:25,783 This is an important one for teachers, for big people, for people who are a role model or a representative of something. 405 00:47:25,763 --> 00:47:48,109 And therefore for all, really all Buddhist practitioners, because there is some sense, not in an egotistical way, but some sense that what we're doing is special, and it's not meant to pump us up, but it's the kind of a responsibility of being somehow an ambassador, someone who has something quite precious to give to others. 406 00:47:48,089 --> 00:47:54,377 So for this type of person, it's incredibly important to understand the difference between people. 407 00:47:54,397 --> 00:47:57,241 You don't just walk up to someone and, hey, you want to meditate? 408 00:47:57,582 --> 00:48:00,125 Come on, learn how to meditate. 409 00:48:00,766 --> 00:48:02,989 This is what people do after they do a course. 410 00:48:03,009 --> 00:48:11,160 They go back and try to convince all their friends and family members that you've just got to do this and this is really what you need. 411 00:48:13,908 --> 00:48:19,874 And these sorts of people quickly run out of friends and alienate their family members, of course. 412 00:48:22,978 --> 00:48:24,860 You have to understand the difference between people. 413 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:33,669 And understand the difference between people also means understanding the difference in terms of who you associate with. 414 00:48:33,689 --> 00:48:39,696 So a person who is cultivating meditation practice has to be quite careful who they associate with. 415 00:48:39,676 --> 00:48:49,732 This is why for intensive meditators we ask you not to associate, especially with other meditators because they're going through crazy stuff as well. 416 00:48:50,574 --> 00:49:00,790 Meditators are the worst actually for other meditators because you're going through so much turmoil and you're really dealing with all sorts of emotions. 417 00:49:00,770 --> 00:49:03,133 In meditation, you let down your guard, right? 418 00:49:03,534 --> 00:49:07,780 You're secluded, so you don't have to pretend to be anything. 419 00:49:07,820 --> 00:49:10,204 You can, okay, I can be who I am because you want to look at it. 420 00:49:10,264 --> 00:49:14,310 You want these things to come up so you can see them, so you can deal with them adequately. 421 00:49:14,330 --> 00:49:17,915 You don't want to pretend they're not there, run away from them, find ways to avoid them. 422 00:49:18,396 --> 00:49:19,617 You want to allow them to come up. 423 00:49:20,559 --> 00:49:26,187 Well, if you're doing that, and then suddenly you're interacting with other people who are doing that as well, 424 00:49:26,167 --> 00:49:33,923 And not only does it defeat the whole purpose, it creates situations that can be quite explosive. 425 00:49:34,464 --> 00:49:36,047 And you see this in meditation centers. 426 00:49:37,450 --> 00:49:39,394 People can drive each other crazy and so on. 427 00:49:40,477 --> 00:49:46,048 Not really crazy, but really ruin each other's meditation as a result of 428 00:49:47,193 --> 00:49:49,195 the interactions, people dealing. 429 00:49:49,236 --> 00:49:52,419 So we're very careful to segregate meditators. 430 00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:57,085 Everyone has their own room, and we ask meditators to not chat. 431 00:49:58,187 --> 00:50:01,230 I used to say the best thing is if you don't even know each other's names. 432 00:50:02,993 --> 00:50:03,493 Meditators. 433 00:50:03,914 --> 00:50:07,398 The best meditator, I said, would be someone who didn't know the names of any of the other meditators. 434 00:50:08,419 --> 00:50:09,741 It's hard to find such a person. 435 00:50:11,543 --> 00:50:21,615 But we do this because of this idea of knowing, this idea of being influenced by others. 436 00:50:22,075 --> 00:50:38,715 And so therefore, on a more broad level, broad basis or whatever, in your life as a meditator, know this, that it will be very important for you as a developing meditator to choose your friends and associates wisely. 437 00:50:38,695 --> 00:50:42,802 because you will be influenced over the long term by good and bad people. 438 00:50:43,724 --> 00:50:50,956 And even if you're set in the meditation yourself, you'll find that you're drained by such people. 439 00:50:50,997 --> 00:51:00,433 If you try to help people, I remember trying to help monks or help even meditators who were having trouble and putting all my effort into helping them and then realizing that 440 00:51:00,413 --> 00:51:01,815 They're just dragging me down. 441 00:51:02,717 --> 00:51:05,602 You can't really help people not in that way, not in the way we think. 442 00:51:05,662 --> 00:51:15,840 We think by giving these profound talks and by giving encouragement and say, come on, you can do it, that somehow we can practice for them or we can pull them along with us. 443 00:51:17,069 --> 00:51:21,198 And it's amazing how little effect it has over the long term. 444 00:51:21,238 --> 00:51:24,445 You find those people, in the end, they just give up. 445 00:51:24,906 --> 00:51:30,439 Or else they expect you to be there for them in perpetuity or indefinitely. 446 00:51:30,479 --> 00:51:33,826 And you should always be there for them when they need picking up. 447 00:51:33,886 --> 00:51:35,550 And so they never do the work for themselves. 448 00:51:37,184 --> 00:51:38,826 No, really you have to be careful. 449 00:51:38,866 --> 00:51:40,949 And this goes for teaching as well. 450 00:51:42,211 --> 00:51:43,733 Don't go out and try to teach everyone. 451 00:51:43,753 --> 00:51:46,657 Don't just teach people because you think they need to learn. 452 00:51:47,278 --> 00:51:50,002 You have to teach the people who are ready to learn, who want to learn. 453 00:51:51,684 --> 00:51:54,148 And this is something that the Buddha had in greatness. 454 00:51:54,168 --> 00:52:00,436 Of course this applies on a worldly level and it's something that you notice in people, that they deal with people differently. 455 00:52:00,777 --> 00:52:04,542 Something that I've noticed, that I've had to cultivate as a monk, 456 00:52:04,842 --> 00:52:05,963 I deal with all sorts of people. 457 00:52:06,023 --> 00:52:10,589 Some people are Sri Lankan, some Canadian people, and you have to deal with them a little bit differently. 458 00:52:11,590 --> 00:52:12,772 Because the culture is different. 459 00:52:13,573 --> 00:52:23,725 And being able to deal with, and then individuals, I have to deal with children in this way, I have to deal with the adults in this way, and then the seniors as well in a whole different way. 460 00:52:24,727 --> 00:52:28,972 It's the ability to take people as they are. 461 00:52:28,992 --> 00:52:33,938 Again, it comes back to seeing things as they are in that moment. 462 00:52:33,918 --> 00:52:40,350 and being with their experience, not bringing your own prejudices. 463 00:52:41,392 --> 00:52:43,496 The point is to not bring yourself to any of this. 464 00:52:44,418 --> 00:52:49,427 When you deal with people, again, it isn't anything intellectual. 465 00:52:49,468 --> 00:52:52,894 I don't have to intellectually think, oh, this is an old person, I have to deal with them this. 466 00:52:52,914 --> 00:52:54,998 This is a young person, I have to deal with them this way. 467 00:52:54,978 --> 00:53:22,048 you just be there for them and you dance with them and it's like a boxing match and once you see what they're doing the all that stops us from being what people need for us is being is having this need for ourselves having some kind of construct some kind of ego bringing something to it needing something or wanting to express something 468 00:53:22,028 --> 00:53:26,014 When you have no wants yourself, you're very much able to fulfill the needs of others. 469 00:53:26,775 --> 00:53:29,959 You can see right away what they need because you don't bring anything to it yourself. 470 00:53:30,019 --> 00:53:34,625 You just bring skills and tools and help people. 471 00:53:35,647 --> 00:53:41,375 So this ability to, this pukalaparoparanyurta isn't really knowing anything special. 472 00:53:42,036 --> 00:53:46,602 It's just the flexibility to deal with people as they are. 473 00:53:46,582 --> 00:53:51,131 And this is another quality of good people. 474 00:53:51,412 --> 00:54:06,463 So what I'm trying to do here is paint a picture, and I hope I've done that, of sort of a broad-based sort of, I think it would be what we'd call a gentleman, but that's, I know it's gender-specific, but the word sapurisa is also gender-specific. 475 00:54:06,443 --> 00:54:11,212 So it probably does mean gentleman, but I want to be more broad. 476 00:54:11,272 --> 00:54:23,676 But you get the idea of what we think in modern society of a gentleman, this guy wearing a suit or something who's smooth and suave and has all these qualities that are admirable and make you jealous and so on. 477 00:54:23,656 --> 00:54:28,982 It's sort of that kind of thing, I think, that is brought to this Pali term. 478 00:54:29,843 --> 00:54:32,967 So we just have to broaden it and actually think of it in a Buddhist sense. 479 00:54:33,628 --> 00:54:41,537 Not exactly like a person in a suit or something, but a good person, a good fellow, I think is how I like to translate it. 480 00:54:42,819 --> 00:54:50,608 Someone who you think of fondly and who you consider to be a person worth emulating, worth associating with. 481 00:54:50,588 --> 00:55:02,877 Someone who you think about even when they're far away and this therefore is someone who goes against the wind, whose virtue and whose scent goes against the wind. 482 00:55:04,763 --> 00:55:23,484 So that's the explanation, sort of an extended explanation of this verse, a rather short story and two verses, and the latest in our installment of trying to make sense of the Dhammapada and the stories from a meditator's perspective. 483 00:55:23,504 --> 00:55:29,370 So I hope this has been useful both for our in-house meditators and for those of you following along. 484 00:55:29,350 --> 00:55:38,247 on YouTube so thank you for tuning in and I wish for you all to find peace happiness and freedom from suffering all the best