WEBVTT 00:00.537 --> 00:08.099 So tonight we continue on with a little Mangala Sutta. 00:08.119 --> 00:09.383 Discourse on Blessing. 00:33.528 --> 01:00.784 Again, we study the Mangala Sutta as a means of encouraging ourselves and directing our minds and our intentions and our goals in a good direction in a way that is to our benefit and to the benefit of the world around us. 01:02.603 --> 01:12.816 to bring goodness and to do away with all suffering and sorrow and stress, all kind of fear and worry. 01:22.548 --> 01:25.472 All evil things to be free from. 01:30.076 --> 01:46.315 And also to encourage ourselves in terms of what we've already attained and already gained and how we're living our lives to be happy and confident in the practice of goodness. 01:47.357 --> 01:56.067 It can be quite difficult often to practice goodness in the faiths of so much. 01:57.515 --> 02:01.641 busyness and stress and evil in the world. 02:04.065 --> 02:07.070 So we need encouragement. 02:09.073 --> 02:14.121 And so much stress inside of ourselves even, even here in the forest. 02:14.141 --> 02:24.737 We need encouragement because we find much stress and unwholesomeness even in our own minds. 02:26.945 --> 02:30.669 And this can be discouraging. 02:30.689 --> 02:37.776 So it pays to remember what are the blessings and how well off we are. 02:40.458 --> 02:48.386 And to realize that life's blessings are not something that you need to live in a certain place or so. 02:48.406 --> 02:56.614 That many of life's blessings are 02:59.024 --> 03:03.431 are independent of your location. 03:03.451 --> 03:07.937 Certain of life's blessings do require a particular location. 03:08.338 --> 03:24.762 And so the Buddha made it clear that actually you can't get away from the fact that, as the Buddha said, dwelling in a suitable location, this is the next blessing in order. 03:29.433 --> 03:53.382 Actually, many of the blessings do seem to require a specific lifestyle, and people might begin to complain that when they hear this talk that so many people can't ever hope to it, or don't have the opportunity to enjoy these blessings. 03:55.100 --> 04:10.240 And so they might think that this is somewhat of a biased or self-aggrandizing teaching. 04:17.510 --> 04:28.309 We have to look very much in the bigger picture of things, that we are where we are for a reason, and we're surrounded by the people that we are surrounded by for a reason. 04:29.290 --> 04:38.286 This was, as mentioned yesterday, Buddhism is about empowering yourself, taking control and taking responsibility for your own future. 04:43.042 --> 04:48.749 In theory, Buddhism makes it quite clear that in theory you can become anything you want. 04:51.873 --> 05:01.345 If you want to become king of the world, it's not an incredibly difficult thing to do. 05:01.365 --> 05:04.510 It's something that takes time and effort and, of course, dedication. 05:06.352 --> 05:11.158 For a person who has all of these things, who develops all of these things, it's quite possible. 05:14.564 --> 05:28.071 So when people say they're surrounded by people who are not meditating or not practicing, there's no one in their area who they would consider to be a wise person, so how can they enjoy these blessings? 05:29.373 --> 05:35.205 And when we talk even more about living in a suitable place, well, we're suddenly being very specific. 05:43.690 --> 05:53.325 But part of taking control of your own fate is aligning yourself with what is right and accepting that change has to come. 05:54.707 --> 05:56.951 Accepting necessary change. 05:58.633 --> 06:04.122 Many people complain about their problems but don't do anything to fix them. 06:04.823 --> 06:12.094 They feel stuck or attached to this or that and don't take the effort, make the effort to 06:13.222 --> 06:39.803 change their lives now here we see we have very good example here because none of us are in our home country we've all taken the jump taken a leap and often at great expense to ourselves in many ways having to give things away having to give up opportunities having to lose any potential for job security or 06:41.183 --> 06:44.529 Sometimes even against the wishes of our family and friends. 06:47.695 --> 06:55.549 So many things, so many sacrifices, let alone the cost, the monetary cost of getting a ticket to come here. 06:57.993 --> 07:04.845 Having to give up your safety and your security and your comfort to come here. 07:06.648 --> 07:09.591 It's not that it's not possible for most people. 07:09.611 --> 07:15.878 It's that most of the time we're too short-sighted to think that we could possibly do such a thing. 07:17.100 --> 07:22.906 And so we don't take the focus and the effort and the perseverance to get ourselves here. 07:22.926 --> 07:29.674 It's quite encouraging to think that here we've come all this way. 07:29.734 --> 07:34.039 You think about where you were born and how far you are from where you were born. 07:35.808 --> 07:47.003 just that, we've done something quite special. 07:47.023 --> 08:00.039 So even finding a suitable place to live, if we consider that it's important, then we should make effort to acquire this as a blessing in life. 08:00.059 --> 08:05.106 Of course it goes without saying that without this blessing you can still survive, you can still even become enlightened. 08:07.145 --> 08:11.490 But the Buddha said it's a blessing, so we have to ask, what does it mean to live in a suitable location? 08:13.472 --> 08:17.077 The Visuddhimanga goes into some detail about this. 08:17.097 --> 08:19.439 I don't think it's quite so useful for us at this point. 08:19.499 --> 08:22.123 We're stuck here where we are. 08:23.264 --> 08:31.954 But it's important to understand what is meant by a suitable location so we don't become discouraged or averse to our living condition. 08:32.812 --> 08:38.181 A suitable location doesn't mean that we have all of the luxuries and all of the 08:39.815 --> 08:43.921 and all of the requisites that we need. 08:44.903 --> 08:58.223 We had this discussion that the Buddha even said, even if you don't get adequate alms food as a monk, if you're in a place and the people don't have so much faith, you should ask yourself whether it's a suitable place for meditation. 08:59.264 --> 09:07.797 Whether living here you obtain insight and you obtain calm in the mind or not. 09:09.211 --> 09:29.309 And even if you do obtain all the requisites that you need and you have a nice place to live, but you don't obtain insight, you don't obtain calm, your mind doesn't become focused and clear, and wisdom doesn't arise, then you should not stay there. 09:29.329 --> 09:31.894 This is what the Buddha meant by a suitable place. 09:32.853 --> 09:39.039 So sometimes people will come to the forest and think this isn't a proper place to live for me. 09:39.499 --> 09:56.515 This isn't a place where I could stay for any length of time because the food is not perfect and there are many mosquitoes and leeches and bugs and snakes and scorpions even. 09:56.535 --> 10:00.819 So they think this is not suitable because actually it's quite dangerous in many ways. 10:00.839 --> 10:02.320 It's quite uncomfortable in many ways. 10:04.274 --> 10:21.316 And sort of longing for the comforts and the pleasures of beds and hot food and comfort foods and so on, and friends and entertainment. 10:21.336 --> 10:25.101 They're unable to stay in such a place. 10:32.573 --> 10:38.205 It's hard, I think, to think of such a place as this as a suitable place to live. 10:38.706 --> 10:43.556 I don't think you'd find many people when they're looking for a place to live. 10:46.361 --> 10:49.428 They'll come driving out here and asking if this place is for sale. 10:50.330 --> 10:52.033 Can they come and live here in one of the caves? 10:53.296 --> 11:06.772 When people go searching for a place to live, they look for some luxurious house in the city or in a place that is... Nowadays, people will find a place that is guard-gated. 11:07.813 --> 11:09.175 Gate? 11:09.195 --> 11:09.936 Guard? 11:09.956 --> 11:11.537 No. 11:11.558 --> 11:12.318 Guard-gated? 11:12.539 --> 11:13.219 I don't know. 11:13.240 --> 11:14.241 I think that's what they call it. 11:14.301 --> 11:15.402 Guard-gated community. 11:17.184 --> 11:17.464 Gate? 11:17.485 --> 11:17.905 Guarded? 11:19.086 --> 11:20.468 Guarded gate community. 11:22.979 --> 11:24.541 Garden gate community. 11:28.267 --> 11:29.669 A place with guards and gates. 11:31.071 --> 11:34.637 That's a suitable place to live because there you're perfectly safe. 11:34.897 --> 11:36.179 No suffering will come to you. 11:36.239 --> 11:39.484 No danger will come to you. 11:39.664 --> 11:44.972 Buddha said, This is not a refuge. 11:45.954 --> 11:46.935 This is not safety. 11:47.676 --> 11:48.818 It's not a safe refuge. 11:57.893 --> 12:20.442 When people hear about us living in such a place, they're quite shocked to think of people living like this, living in a cave, for example, or living off of one meal a day or two meals a day, living in the forest, living among snakes and scorpions and leeches and mosquitoes, in the very most bare of conditions. 12:24.674 --> 12:37.951 But this is, for us, for those of us who have dedicated our lives to this, this is exciting for us, that we've actually managed to make it to such a wonderful place. 12:37.971 --> 12:43.758 I think we all feel, I think I speak for everyone when I say we feel blessed to have this place. 12:45.240 --> 12:49.585 Here we are sitting up on the roof under the Bodhi tree. 12:51.877 --> 12:57.624 We can hear the far away sounds of the roads in the city. 12:57.644 --> 13:03.570 And sometimes we hear the music that they're playing in the village. 13:03.590 --> 13:07.415 Can't even hear any horns honking. 13:07.435 --> 13:10.138 The loudest sound is the crickets and the frogs. 13:14.703 --> 13:20.770 You don't even have to speak of arguments and busyness and 13:23.635 --> 13:38.858 advertising, games, and entertainment, and people, and talking, and chatter, and going here and going there, all that we're free from. 13:38.878 --> 13:41.202 It's exciting, and it's inspiring. 13:42.023 --> 13:44.547 It's reassuring that we found such a place. 13:46.180 --> 13:47.502 And moreover, where are we? 13:47.522 --> 13:48.924 We're in Sri Lanka. 13:48.984 --> 13:57.797 We found the most suitable country in the world, I think, from what I've seen, for what we're doing. 13:57.817 --> 14:09.454 Here we have a country where the majority of the people are happy to know that we're doing what we're doing. 14:11.020 --> 14:40.470 supportive both materially and intellectually and spiritually supportive of us to the point where they'll give us food go through the village and they appreciate so much what we're doing that they give us food sometimes they have to wake wake up early in the morning just thinking that they're going to make us food make food for the for the meditators 14:45.327 --> 14:46.569 This is not easy to find. 14:46.609 --> 14:52.337 This is something that is a great blessing for us to live in such a place. 14:52.357 --> 15:01.451 Something that we certainly shouldn't take for granted that here we are given this place and given these, the requisites, given food even. 15:01.471 --> 15:03.874 Even people have decided that they want to give us food. 15:04.896 --> 15:06.158 We didn't do anything for them. 15:06.218 --> 15:07.199 We didn't ask them. 15:07.219 --> 15:11.065 We didn't make any deal with them. 15:13.390 --> 15:30.397 people out of desire to do good deeds, knowing that what we're doing is something important for the world, something beneficial, that there's a blessing being cultivated here. 15:30.417 --> 15:38.310 Where in the world could we find such a place where you walk in the town and people don't think you're crazy for wearing a bed sheet? 15:38.350 --> 15:39.432 When I was in America, 15:40.627 --> 15:41.331 horrible things. 15:41.392 --> 15:45.878 I was arrested and put in jail just for sitting under a tree by the ocean. 15:48.575 --> 16:02.816 I was stopped by the police routinely, stopped by Christian missionaries, stopped by an old man in a pickup truck, stopped by so many kinds of people. 16:02.876 --> 16:11.308 It was quite an experience, quite eye-opening, especially the jail term, my night in jail. 16:14.275 --> 16:18.361 But you can definitely say it's not a suitable place in that regard. 16:19.723 --> 16:29.516 Sri Lanka has many advantages over America in this regard. 16:29.536 --> 16:32.020 Here we have people who understand and appreciate. 16:33.301 --> 16:37.928 You go to the cities and you see the people in the monasteries are chanting. 16:38.689 --> 16:41.633 Even the little kids can chant the Buddha's teaching, the Mangala Sutta. 16:43.081 --> 16:45.404 Small children in this country chant it. 16:47.926 --> 16:52.992 This is on the lips of every Buddhist in this country, the Mangala Sutta. 16:53.012 --> 16:54.013 People know the Mangala. 16:54.113 --> 16:57.837 They know the blessing. 16:57.857 --> 17:00.080 And we're very lucky to be here. 17:00.100 --> 17:04.344 This is where this school of Buddhism first arose. 17:05.225 --> 17:09.510 And in our tradition, this is where we say Buddhism is going to come back to. 17:11.144 --> 17:22.018 The legend or the story goes that eventually, in maybe another 2,000 years, Buddhism will come back to only in Sri Lanka. 17:22.078 --> 17:24.241 And from Sri Lanka, it will go back to India. 17:25.543 --> 17:28.907 And then in India, the Buddha's asana will end in India. 17:31.490 --> 17:33.693 But they say it will come through Sri Lanka. 17:33.713 --> 17:35.756 This could just be a myth or a legend. 17:35.816 --> 17:36.797 It's a legend. 17:38.684 --> 17:44.691 At the very least, in the minds of Buddhists, this is the hub in our tradition. 17:44.751 --> 18:02.610 This is where the Buddhist teachings were preserved and disseminated, where the commentaries were written and the Visuddhimagga was written here. 18:02.630 --> 18:04.472 The school of Buddhism arose in this country. 18:07.523 --> 18:09.668 Very ancient Buddhist history. 18:09.688 --> 18:11.232 So in this way, we're very lucky. 18:11.272 --> 18:15.923 And in so many ways, we have a blessing to live in this place. 18:15.943 --> 18:21.937 So we have a blessing here. 18:22.257 --> 18:24.723 The second blessing for today. 18:24.743 --> 18:26.427 Having done good deeds in the past. 18:27.740 --> 18:44.601 So many people wonder why it is that the village people would want to give us food, and why it is that we feel comfortable taking food from people, and that we didn't work for, that we didn't make an agreement for. 18:44.641 --> 18:51.250 All we do is walk and sit and serve ourselves, self-serving. 18:54.073 --> 18:56.076 But the real reason why people give is really 18:57.457 --> 19:02.124 Well, not just for our benefit, but very much for their own benefit as well. 19:05.410 --> 19:16.567 This can be a very self-serving thing as well, which is a good thing, to serve yourself, to make yourself a better person. 19:16.587 --> 19:23.498 One thing that many meditators find is they realize that they haven't done enough good deeds in the past. 19:24.625 --> 19:26.067 It's an interesting way of phrasing it. 19:26.107 --> 19:28.991 The Buddha didn't say doing good deeds is a blessing. 19:29.031 --> 19:33.877 He said having done good deeds in the past is a blessing. 19:33.897 --> 19:36.861 Because the blessing of good deeds is the fruit that they bring. 19:38.623 --> 19:44.772 When a person who hasn't done good deeds comes to practice meditation, they find it very difficult. 19:44.792 --> 19:52.742 And they've cultivated only unwholesome mind states and they've never been generous or kind or caring or moral or... 19:53.093 --> 19:56.497 supportive of others and so on. 19:56.517 --> 20:02.244 And they were taking the time to focus or concentrate their mind and do good deeds of body, speech and mind. 20:03.466 --> 20:06.289 Very difficult for them to practice meditation. 20:06.309 --> 20:10.114 So much pain and suffering and stress and agitation in the mind. 20:10.174 --> 20:15.741 It can be even too much and cause them to run away and leave the meditation entirely. 20:15.761 --> 20:16.882 Lose the opportunity. 20:17.463 --> 20:20.907 Some people fly out here and can't even stay for the whole course. 20:22.490 --> 20:29.705 simply because it's too stressful, too painful, too difficult, because they have not done enough good in the past. 20:33.112 --> 20:34.575 So we realize this in meditation. 20:34.595 --> 20:40.427 This is one thing that is quite eye-opening, is that often we realize we're lacking in this blessing. 20:41.168 --> 20:42.591 We haven't done enough good in the past. 20:46.756 --> 20:57.552 Meditation is one of the greatest eye-openers in this regard to, as I said, to karma, to the realization that karma is a part of reality. 20:58.473 --> 21:01.117 It's not a theory or a philosophy. 21:03.220 --> 21:07.026 It's an intrinsic part of how the body and the mind work from moment to moment. 21:08.339 --> 21:13.004 We've been cultivating unwholesome moments and that's all that we have. 21:13.244 --> 21:13.664 We see this. 21:14.545 --> 21:25.637 We see that our goodness is counteracted, counterbalanced by our unwholesomeness. 21:25.657 --> 21:33.925 We realize the truth of the Buddha's saying that there's a great importance on doing good deeds now, in fact having done them already. 21:35.103 --> 21:42.511 If we haven't done them, we have to incorporate that into our practice. 21:42.531 --> 21:48.598 Very important to develop wholesome mind states of generosity, of renunciation, of giving up and giving. 21:49.379 --> 21:57.728 Let these people in the village give and maybe even give more than is comfortable for them to give. 21:57.748 --> 22:01.432 It's not something that anyone should feel guilty about or bad about. 22:02.173 --> 22:03.895 It's something that we should rejoice in. 22:04.921 --> 22:08.390 Often we have arguments about whether we should go. 22:08.430 --> 22:12.080 We know people are waiting and we have enough food. 22:12.140 --> 22:14.888 Should we turn around or should we go on? 22:15.008 --> 22:15.911 We can't decide. 22:16.111 --> 22:19.420 We can't make a clear decision on it because 22:20.699 --> 22:22.622 We know how important it is for them to give. 22:22.642 --> 22:29.390 It's not like we think, oh, then I'll get some better food or something like that. 22:30.352 --> 22:35.138 We're not that shallow that we think, oh, then I'll get some food that I like. 22:35.178 --> 22:37.281 This house gives me food that I like, so I'll go there. 22:39.283 --> 22:44.530 But we're often feeling bad because we didn't give them a chance to help themselves. 22:46.484 --> 22:54.475 I suppose it sounds kind of perverse to say such things, and arrogant to say such things, but it's very much the truth. 22:54.495 --> 22:57.439 A person who gives food gets much more than a person who gets food. 22:58.180 --> 23:01.784 That's quite humbling for us, who are on the receiving end. 23:03.447 --> 23:08.293 Because we get nothing from it except greed and attachment to the good food and the bad food. 23:09.194 --> 23:11.918 All we get from the food is just more morkilesa. 23:13.265 --> 23:14.126 I like this food. 23:14.166 --> 23:15.147 I don't like that food. 23:15.167 --> 23:16.509 Oh, this house gave me this food. 23:16.529 --> 23:17.029 That's good. 23:17.049 --> 23:19.332 Oh, I didn't get any of this food. 23:22.455 --> 23:27.401 We get the short end of the stick. 23:27.421 --> 23:35.570 And then we eat too much and we feel tired and we fall asleep and so on and we get lazy as a result. 23:35.590 --> 23:42.698 Maybe even some of the people who give us food go hungry for the day because they had so much faith that they gave us their food or something. 23:45.918 --> 23:48.702 And here we are falling asleep because we ate too much. 23:50.624 --> 23:51.245 Very dangerous. 23:52.527 --> 23:56.412 This is why people might say that monks are lazy and good for nothing and so on. 23:57.254 --> 23:59.657 Because it can happen that we're good for nothing. 23:59.677 --> 24:04.804 It can happen that we waste the opportunity that we have. 24:06.910 --> 24:09.957 These people who give are getting a great blessing. 24:09.977 --> 24:12.823 We can sometimes get a curse. 24:12.843 --> 24:15.409 The food can be our curse. 24:15.429 --> 24:16.010 Very dangerous. 24:23.406 --> 24:25.290 Many people actually, when they become monks, 24:26.671 --> 24:34.990 especially in Buddhist societies, they decide that it's not for them, that it's actually a detriment to their practice. 24:35.010 --> 24:38.318 Because they don't see how these monks can do good deeds. 24:38.679 --> 24:40.142 They don't want to ordain some people. 24:40.884 --> 24:43.971 Because they think as a layperson you have much more chance to do good deeds. 24:45.605 --> 24:53.938 Because they understand good deeds to be only giving or charity or helping other people. 24:54.198 --> 24:55.340 They think of this as good deeds. 24:56.562 --> 25:00.889 They see that the monks only do meditation or stay in the monasteries or just eat food. 25:01.610 --> 25:03.372 They see many corrupt monks as well. 25:03.433 --> 25:04.735 So they say it's very dangerous. 25:04.795 --> 25:07.278 Being a monk is a very bad thing. 25:07.298 --> 25:08.721 You have no chance to do good deeds. 25:08.741 --> 25:11.545 You just sit in the monastery and wait for people to come and give you stuff. 25:18.511 --> 25:24.725 So I think with this we can see how important it is to teach, how important it is to find something to give. 25:26.649 --> 25:28.132 As monks we don't have much we can give. 25:28.152 --> 25:30.257 We're not even allowed to give food away to people. 25:30.277 --> 25:34.326 We're not allowed to give things because it's considered that we're corrupting them. 25:35.437 --> 25:50.655 Then they think, oh, the monks are a source of things for us, a source of money sometimes, people employing laborers or so on. 25:50.676 --> 25:53.759 They think monks are a source of income for us. 25:53.779 --> 25:55.481 They never think to practice meditation. 25:55.521 --> 26:00.988 So we corrupt the minds of these people thinking that Buddhism is a way for us to make money. 26:02.521 --> 26:08.569 a way for us to find work if we go to the monastery. 26:08.589 --> 26:13.155 We're not allowed to do this, so what good can we do? 26:13.195 --> 26:17.541 Besides the goodness that we do for ourselves in making our minds pure, what good does it do to the world? 26:21.086 --> 26:29.457 If people refuse to teach, you could actually argue that this is a self-centered practice. 26:30.449 --> 26:35.540 The point to make here is that it actually can be a detriment to our practice. 26:35.820 --> 26:50.010 If a person decides they want to just go off in the forest and practice, if they don't have the requisite kusala, the requisite punya, the requisite goodness, they can go crazy and many bad things can happen because of the instability in their mind. 26:54.344 --> 27:02.297 I talked about this before, about teaching, but there is something to giving some dhamma to people. 27:02.317 --> 27:08.767 Not putting yourself up as a teacher, I don't think that's ever a good idea, but to be a friend to people, to give them what is useful. 27:11.191 --> 27:20.166 Buddha said you can't compare the gift of dhamma when you give, when you show other people the way. 27:23.268 --> 27:25.731 You consider that you've paid back the lay people. 27:25.751 --> 27:26.692 The Buddha said it like this. 27:27.052 --> 27:30.316 He said, these lay people are very useful to you monks. 27:32.318 --> 27:33.059 They give you food. 27:33.099 --> 27:33.980 They keep you alive. 27:34.040 --> 27:35.842 They give you all the requisites that you need. 27:36.423 --> 27:40.928 A place to stay, food to eat, medicines and robes. 27:40.948 --> 27:41.649 They'll give you these. 27:43.211 --> 27:45.914 They have much faith and they're very useful for you. 27:45.934 --> 27:53.022 And he said, you monks are also very useful to the lay people because you teach them the Dhamma, because you give them the truth, 27:55.027 --> 27:59.936 So the Buddha said it like this to remind the monks that it is good for them to teach. 28:00.837 --> 28:02.340 It's good for them to give something back. 28:05.125 --> 28:07.209 This is what it means to have done good deeds in the past. 28:07.329 --> 28:14.802 Once you've helped other people in this way, your practice will become much smoother. 28:14.822 --> 28:18.148 Teaching, I've said before, is something that really helps your own practice. 28:20.677 --> 28:22.319 It helps you see your own defilements. 28:22.519 --> 28:39.782 I was joking today about how in Thailand, the head monk at Wat Lampung, he was saying, I think he said, or else I extrapolated it from what he said, that the best way to disrobe a monk is to make him a teacher. 28:42.325 --> 28:43.827 And it seemed like that, really. 28:43.887 --> 28:49.975 Every monk that he made a teacher disrobed quickly after, or sometime after. 28:51.541 --> 29:01.413 Because when you become a teacher, you get to see all your own defilements, your hypocrisies, and you sit around telling other people to realize nibbana and you yourself have not realized nibbana. 29:02.034 --> 29:04.637 Tell other people to be mindful and you yourself are not mindful. 29:04.678 --> 29:07.101 Tell other people to give up and you yourself haven't given up. 29:08.042 --> 29:08.963 It can be very difficult. 29:11.646 --> 29:14.430 Actually, I think people often overreact to that. 29:15.912 --> 29:18.595 They think they have to be perfect to be able to teach and so on. 29:20.549 --> 29:22.151 Of course you don't want to be a hypocrite. 29:24.014 --> 29:30.963 But the way I've always thought is when I teach you I'm also teaching myself and I'm also reminding myself. 29:30.983 --> 29:32.004 I think that's fine. 29:32.124 --> 29:35.589 This is equally applicable to myself and I'll just follow the advice as well. 29:36.230 --> 29:41.697 I tell you something and I tell you we should be without defilement but I still have defilements. 29:41.717 --> 29:42.057 Okay. 29:42.758 --> 29:44.020 I'm telling myself as well. 29:45.602 --> 29:47.264 Teaching doesn't mean you have to be perfect. 29:47.284 --> 29:50.168 It doesn't mean you have to be proficient. 29:50.570 --> 29:53.995 All that's required, I think, is that you're trying yourself. 29:56.078 --> 29:57.720 And this is what it means to be empowered. 29:58.501 --> 30:04.289 Not that you're perfect, but that you're practicing, that you're developing yourself. 30:04.309 --> 30:08.595 Having done good deeds in the past is indeed a blessing because it's a support for our practice. 30:10.043 --> 30:13.868 When we haven't done good deeds in the past, all we can do is begin. 30:13.888 --> 30:21.419 We should never become discouraged that we have to stop meditating to go and fix our problems or to go and do good deeds first. 30:23.101 --> 30:26.766 If anything, we should think that the meditation is what we've been neglecting. 30:27.467 --> 30:30.752 And it is the good deed that we have to do, the purification of our minds. 30:32.099 --> 30:34.161 Once we've done this, then we can feel blessed. 30:34.802 --> 30:38.286 And so all of us should feel quite blessed in this regard. 30:38.306 --> 30:39.267 We've done meditation. 30:39.347 --> 30:41.529 We've begun the path. 30:42.550 --> 30:43.712 We've set out on the path. 30:44.532 --> 30:49.217 What we've gained in meditation is very hard for people to gain in this world. 30:49.237 --> 30:58.107 Some people, even just a few days of meditation is an impossibility for them due to their difficulties in life. 30:59.605 --> 31:23.503 to their situation which has been caused by their karma and by their way of living so here we've managed to make it all this way we've done something right we've done some good in the past for sure to make it to this place to come all together like this to listen and to discuss the Dhamma and then to practice the Dhamma together 31:24.783 --> 31:41.307 day by day by day, and to have this opportunity every morning, every evening, all day to be practicing intensive meditation, to meet together in this way, and to live together in this way. 31:42.428 --> 31:43.951 We must have done some good in the past. 31:43.971 --> 31:49.879 This is the blessing, and it's something that we should always be clear about and never lose sight of. 31:51.378 --> 31:53.220 But it's taken something for us to get here. 31:53.240 --> 31:55.983 If we're complacent now, we can easily lose it. 31:57.465 --> 32:01.949 If we become lazy, if we become complacent. 32:05.714 --> 32:13.902 So we should always, not only should think about the punya, the good things that we've done in the past, but also realizing the importance of doing punya for the future. 32:15.164 --> 32:17.166 If you want to have a good future, do good now. 32:19.323 --> 32:24.992 The good that you do now might not make you happy now, but the cultivation of goodness. 32:25.793 --> 32:27.075 The Buddha said this is happiness. 32:30.020 --> 32:31.842 It's the accumulation of goodness. 32:31.862 --> 32:34.166 This is happiness. 32:34.186 --> 32:34.987 This is number two. 32:35.027 --> 32:39.033 Number three on this stanza. 32:40.656 --> 32:44.502 Atasamapanidita. 32:44.782 --> 32:46.545 Atasamapanidita. 32:49.259 --> 32:51.803 Setting oneself in the right direction. 32:54.226 --> 33:00.195 This is one of life's greatest blessings. 33:00.215 --> 33:06.144 So we dwell in the right place, we've done good deeds, what's next? 33:09.529 --> 33:14.797 This one is really a term for the entire practice, for the meditation practice. 33:15.357 --> 33:17.140 Setting yourself in the right direction. 33:18.453 --> 33:29.044 Because when we talk about the right way or the right path, we're not talking about a specific lifestyle. 33:29.064 --> 33:33.008 We're talking about setting your mind in the right direction. 33:33.028 --> 33:44.820 No matter what you do in life, where you live or who you live with, your situation in life, set your mind on the goal. 33:44.940 --> 33:46.502 Set your mind in the right direction. 33:49.182 --> 33:50.243 Wake up your mind. 33:50.404 --> 33:50.784 Wake up. 33:52.507 --> 34:14.177 See the power that you have, the ability that you have as a human being and as a spiritual being to develop yourself and to become free, to become blessed, to bless yourself, to bless your life. 34:16.975 --> 34:26.048 So the finding the right direction, finding direction, and people are always asking, what is the right way for me? 34:29.392 --> 34:36.422 It doesn't mean to become this or to become that, to become a monk or to get a good job or so on. 34:37.323 --> 34:38.565 What should I do with my life? 34:39.286 --> 34:43.472 It means to set your mind in the right direction, to set your mind in the right path. 34:44.870 --> 34:46.993 Set your mind to become free from greed. 34:47.034 --> 34:48.997 Set your mind to become free from anger. 34:49.818 --> 34:53.584 Set your mind on becoming free from delusion. 34:53.604 --> 34:59.534 If you can set your mind in just these three things, there's really nothing else that needs to be done. 35:02.439 --> 35:11.974 If all of your life can be directed, and your goal in life can be the abandoning of these three mind states, 35:14.435 --> 35:17.478 then you can live your life as it comes to you. 35:19.120 --> 35:22.024 In whatever country, in whatever place, surrounded by whatever people. 35:26.248 --> 35:28.571 Because all other blessings come from this. 35:28.611 --> 35:35.459 The Buddha said, The mind comes first. 35:36.300 --> 35:38.162 All dhammas are preceded by the mind. 35:39.884 --> 35:43.007 They are led by the mind and they are created by the mind. 35:44.759 --> 35:50.591 So when we set our minds in the right direction, all of the other blessings will follow. 35:50.992 --> 35:54.640 The people that we associate with will begin to change for the better. 35:55.461 --> 35:57.846 The place that we live will change for the better. 35:57.866 --> 36:02.937 We'll begin to gravitate towards goodness, gravitate towards blessings. 36:09.228 --> 36:11.872 So here we are setting ourselves in this way. 36:11.892 --> 36:17.720 This is really the practice of meditation is cultivating this way, cultivating the path. 36:18.421 --> 36:20.044 We call the Eightfold Noble Path. 36:21.205 --> 36:26.373 This is the path that we're walking, that we're cultivating here. 36:26.393 --> 36:27.675 We're here to develop mindfulness. 36:27.755 --> 36:29.157 We're here to develop wisdom. 36:30.659 --> 36:33.283 We're here to develop morality, concentration. 36:33.303 --> 36:34.965 We're here to develop insight. 36:36.481 --> 36:37.884 And we're here to liberate our mind. 36:38.945 --> 36:41.711 This is the path that we're following. 36:42.191 --> 36:44.075 This is setting our sights on the path. 36:45.938 --> 36:46.940 This is a great blessing. 36:46.980 --> 36:48.884 It's something that changes a person's life. 36:49.124 --> 36:50.967 It changes who they are, what they do. 36:52.029 --> 36:53.191 It changes how they speak. 36:53.272 --> 36:54.334 It changes how they think. 36:54.354 --> 36:56.818 It changes everything about their life. 36:58.402 --> 37:02.609 in a very real way, in a very empirically observable way. 37:02.689 --> 37:24.004 The number of people that contact us just to tell us how great the meditation has been for them and how amazed they are at how it can change their life, even from just a little bit of meditation, even from just once a day, twice a day, even once a week or so, even from just accepting and adopting the principles of the meditation. 37:28.304 --> 37:39.064 So how blessed we should feel having the time to do hours and hours of meditation and to dedicate our whole lives to the meditation practice. 37:39.084 --> 37:47.761 This is something that is a great blessing for us. 37:47.781 --> 37:48.422 Something that is 37:51.575 --> 37:53.980 It should be very encouraging that we found this. 37:54.060 --> 37:55.864 We should never be discouraged living this life. 37:55.884 --> 38:00.374 We should never let ourselves become discouraged in what we're doing. 38:00.815 --> 38:11.878 We should be patient and persevering and try to better ourselves, try to make ourselves more inclined towards this way. 38:14.373 --> 38:32.976 again and again to set our minds on goodness and to try and free our minds from the unwholesomeness, from the clinging, from the craving, from the aversion, from the judgments, from the conceit and the views that we have inside of ourselves. 38:33.016 --> 38:38.743 This is life's greatest blessing, setting your mind in the right direction, setting yourself in the right way. 38:40.698 --> 38:47.502 So there's three more blessings for us to count and to be encouraged by and to set ourselves on. 38:49.034 --> 38:49.735 And here we are. 38:49.815 --> 38:53.139 We've come to a good place. 38:54.240 --> 38:58.104 We've done so much good that we were able to be born a human being. 38:58.144 --> 39:00.447 And not only that, but to meet with the Buddhist teaching. 39:01.127 --> 39:04.851 And not only that, to actually come to practice the Buddhist teaching. 39:04.871 --> 39:14.001 And not only that, but to actually have the desire and the intention to practice the Buddhist teaching. 39:14.021 --> 39:15.463 And we actually are practicing it. 39:19.358 --> 39:23.862 and that we're undergoing the process of setting ourselves in the right direction. 39:23.882 --> 39:29.086 This is the blessing that we have being here. 39:29.106 --> 39:32.970 So more for us to feel good about. 39:33.771 --> 39:35.292 You should feel good as a meditator. 39:35.312 --> 39:40.697 You shouldn't feel depressed or hate yourself or feel like you're unworthy. 39:42.018 --> 39:49.264 You should never think that humility means hating yourself or means saying 39:51.252 --> 40:04.517 saying bad things about you or talking bad about yourself or thinking bad about yourself or chastising yourself. 40:05.038 --> 40:10.327 Humility just means letting go of yourself and not having a thought for yourself. 40:10.348 --> 40:12.231 Now when we feel poor, when we feel 40:13.223 --> 40:14.925 low self-esteem and so on. 40:14.985 --> 40:19.372 We need encouragement to see that actually what we're doing here is giving up the self. 40:19.392 --> 40:20.834 What we're doing here is already good. 40:22.075 --> 40:28.324 We may not be perfect at it, but seeing that even not being perfect at it is a sign of non-self. 40:29.245 --> 40:31.148 Coming to let go of the need to be perfect. 40:32.495 --> 40:35.499 Being content with what we have and seeing the blessings in what we have. 40:35.599 --> 40:37.782 Seeing the blessings in being free. 40:38.583 --> 40:41.247 Not the blessings in acquiring and accumulating. 40:42.789 --> 40:44.210 Seeing the blessings in letting go. 40:46.694 --> 40:54.124 Blessings in finding a place in the practice and practicing to free yourself. 40:56.607 --> 41:01.253 To see that we are on the right path and to be encouraged with how things are going. 41:02.954 --> 41:03.896 This is important. 41:04.216 --> 41:07.722 It's important to keep the mind, to incline the mind towards it. 41:07.742 --> 41:11.528 If the mind is not happy about what it's doing, it won't continue. 41:11.768 --> 41:13.571 It won't put out energy. 41:13.631 --> 41:20.102 It won't develop effort. 41:21.888 --> 41:23.470 contentment in what it's doing. 41:23.510 --> 41:29.037 So we need these blessings and we need to feel good about what we're doing. 41:29.057 --> 41:41.993 It's important to have right view and right perception to see that this is something good and what we're doing is good and that we are capable and that we are blessed. 41:43.155 --> 41:45.798 We have a blessing too. 41:46.619 --> 41:48.081 We have received this blessing. 41:50.896 --> 41:53.576 So, time for more blessing now. 41:53.596 --> 42:00.788 We can undergo the real blessing of the practice and continue with mindful prostration, walking and sitting.