WEBVTT 00:02.815 --> 00:17.635 So here we are again, back for our daily Dhamma, daily Dhamma talk. 00:28.364 --> 00:34.291 As I said, when I was first practicing, we had a weekly talk. 00:34.311 --> 00:45.125 Every week we were able to listen to the Dhamma as meditators, which is good because we didn't know anything about Buddhism. 00:45.145 --> 00:50.531 So coming for the first time to meditate, it's good to at least have once a week. 00:50.551 --> 00:54.476 The problem, of course, it was entirely in Thai. 00:57.060 --> 00:57.460 So it 00:59.819 --> 01:06.266 it ended up being a torture session for us instead. 01:09.329 --> 01:15.236 A chance to see how long we could sit. 01:15.256 --> 01:28.510 As we would start meditating, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and then, and that was difficult, but then they'd have us sit through a dhamma talk in a foreign language for an hour, hour and a half. 01:32.219 --> 02:01.973 good practice that was our dhamma we got but eventually we'll have we'll be able to meet every day we'll try to keep this going maybe once once a week we'll stop so on Sundays when we have a internet session we'll stop 02:03.455 --> 02:09.866 Otherwise, we'll try to have a talk. 02:09.886 --> 02:20.684 It's good to have daily guidance, not just for meditators, but even actually more so for the community. 02:22.246 --> 02:30.019 Because the meditator already gets an interview every day, but for the rest of us, we don't have this interview. 02:32.125 --> 02:42.240 and it's living in a cave or living in the forest, living without any distractions, it's easy to start to lose your mindfulness. 02:45.004 --> 02:51.974 So when we come back together here, even especially for those of us not on course, it's good to bring us back. 02:52.976 --> 02:57.222 It's also good, I find it useful for myself, to bring me back on track. 03:04.610 --> 03:13.459 having to collect my thoughts and remind myself of the Dhamma. 03:13.479 --> 03:16.141 So it's not that it's something unwelcome. 03:20.866 --> 03:27.732 But on the other hand, it shouldn't be our sole focus either. 03:27.752 --> 03:30.135 The wisdom we try to find is within ourselves. 03:31.396 --> 03:33.638 It has to come from within. 03:40.553 --> 03:53.369 So why I say this is because some people become quite attached to the Dhamma discourses. 03:54.651 --> 04:00.358 I have people email me and say that they watched all my videos, some of them twice. 04:03.261 --> 04:06.966 And I guess they think that should be kind of a compliment. 04:08.144 --> 04:27.488 But it feels more like a bit of an insult that you didn't get the point of the first one, so you went and watched the second one and the second and third until you watched all 400 or 500 videos that are out there. 04:27.508 --> 04:36.379 Not an insult exactly, but it's kind of embarrassing that... 04:37.945 --> 04:45.145 The result is only wanting to hear more, wanting to see more. 04:45.165 --> 04:51.904 The Buddha, when he talked, he taught thinking, what can I say that will make them go away the quickest? 04:56.052 --> 04:56.953 This is what he said. 04:56.973 --> 04:58.696 I remember reading it somewhere. 04:58.736 --> 05:02.581 I hope I'm not misquoting him, but it was quite powerful. 05:03.683 --> 05:09.150 He doesn't teach thinking, what can I say that will make them stick around and want to listen to my talks more? 05:09.170 --> 05:15.579 He would think, what can I say that will make them go away the quickest? 05:15.599 --> 05:17.582 I'm not very good at that, I guess. 05:21.608 --> 05:24.692 Because it's not just about saying things that people want to hear. 05:26.495 --> 05:52.519 sometimes you have to say difficult things things that people don't want to hear often people are not interested in the teachings on vipassana or insight meditation because it's not it's not full of stories or 05:55.351 --> 06:00.801 magical or mystical things or spiritual objects. 06:01.943 --> 06:07.714 Vipassana is all about the body, the feelings, the mind. 06:11.341 --> 06:16.110 It's about very mundane things that we are not so interested in learning about. 06:24.342 --> 06:28.647 We want something more, something new. 06:31.630 --> 06:46.727 These things are old and mundane, uninteresting, and difficult to hear, difficult to listen to teaching on inside meditation if someone's not meditating. 06:48.289 --> 06:53.455 So sometimes people don't like it because they're looking for something interesting. 06:56.185 --> 07:24.167 the problem is when you teach interesting things people want to want more but I don't mean to complain or scold or anything because as I said we need to have this direction and this harmony that comes from meeting together 07:29.429 --> 07:30.731 the direction and the harmony. 07:30.751 --> 07:33.456 So harmony is important, but we also have direction. 07:33.676 --> 07:39.206 So our center is based on a specific teaching. 07:41.250 --> 07:48.603 People think, well, if you want harmony, why not just, you can just sit around and discuss the Dhamma and discuss ideas. 07:48.703 --> 07:52.129 But the problem with discussion is that 07:56.480 --> 08:00.164 Many ideas leads to many different directions. 08:02.607 --> 08:08.273 So this is why they have the senior monk or the senior person will give the talk. 08:09.674 --> 08:12.917 And no one else can give a talk without the senior monk's permission. 08:12.978 --> 08:13.999 This is the nivinaya. 08:15.380 --> 08:17.182 Because we want to have the same direction. 08:18.784 --> 08:20.966 Every center should have the same direction. 08:20.986 --> 08:22.808 Not just harmony, but also direction. 08:24.509 --> 08:30.494 So the senior monk is in charge of the Dhamma talk. 08:30.514 --> 08:42.085 Anyway, just some random thoughts about listening to the Dhamma. 08:42.105 --> 08:46.569 The word listening to the Dhamma is a wonderful phrase for us to remember. 08:46.589 --> 08:49.872 Listening to the Dhamma. 08:49.892 --> 08:52.474 The real way that we listen to the Dhamma is through our practice. 08:53.956 --> 09:01.825 It's really a description of the meditation, of Satipatthana meditation. 09:01.845 --> 09:07.292 The Satipatthana are the Dhamma, body, feelings, mind, and Dhamma. 09:07.312 --> 09:08.253 These are all Dhamma. 09:10.976 --> 09:15.201 These are all realities. 09:15.301 --> 09:17.223 They're all the teachings of the Buddha. 09:17.243 --> 09:23.811 When we listen to them, listening to reality, this is where our mind should be. 09:30.828 --> 09:59.755 so on with the blessings tonight I will go through more blessings I don't mean I didn't want to come up here and scold anyone I didn't mean to I don't mean any of this as something negative we're here to do positive things we're here to find peace and happiness for this reason we should talk about blessings we should 10:01.085 --> 10:30.872 talk about good things the good things that we want to practice and we want to develop and we want to attain good things in Buddhism are not like candy many people when they think of good things they think of things like candy or games or so on even though we don't think of candy and games particularly we think of things that are like candy and like games even in meditation we're always interested in the candy and in the games 10:32.455 --> 10:39.824 The candy means we're interested in pleasant experience. 10:39.844 --> 10:47.633 And so we always have, vipassana meditators are always afraid of the pleasant experiences because we're always scolding meditators. 10:47.653 --> 10:48.614 Don't cling to them. 10:48.814 --> 10:52.799 So they think, you can become very afraid of that. 10:53.219 --> 10:56.303 The teacher's going to scold me if I have a pleasant experience. 10:59.557 --> 11:02.240 There's nothing worth scolding about a pleasant experience. 11:02.260 --> 11:03.060 It's just candy. 11:05.322 --> 11:14.751 The problem is that many meditators are expecting or looking for the candy. 11:14.771 --> 11:16.213 This isn't what we mean by good things. 11:16.273 --> 11:17.754 This isn't what we mean by blessings. 11:19.916 --> 11:26.983 We'll have to see as we go through, but I think what we'll see is not one of the blessings is happiness. 11:27.003 --> 11:28.264 Happiness is not a blessing. 11:29.965 --> 11:30.806 I have to think about it. 11:30.826 --> 11:32.048 Maybe it is one of the blessings. 11:32.068 --> 11:34.451 Maybe it's in there somewhere indirectly. 11:35.692 --> 11:36.533 We'll go through them all. 11:36.753 --> 11:40.698 But I think we'll see quite clearly that all 37 of them, none of them is happiness. 11:40.778 --> 11:41.419 It's not one of them. 11:46.586 --> 11:50.831 As I explained in the introduction, the blessings are things that destroy evil. 11:51.171 --> 11:51.752 Mangala. 11:51.912 --> 11:52.933 Manga is evil. 11:53.354 --> 11:55.637 La means they destroy. 11:55.777 --> 11:57.139 These are medicines. 11:57.519 --> 11:58.260 They're not candy. 11:58.280 --> 11:59.061 They're medicines. 12:00.965 --> 12:04.168 A true blessing is not a candy, not a pleasant thing. 12:05.710 --> 12:12.037 It may be pleasant to practice the blessings, but it may also be unpleasant to practice them. 12:12.057 --> 12:21.226 It may be difficult to practice because it forces us to give up our attachments and our views and our beliefs. 12:22.247 --> 12:24.630 It forces us to see things objectively. 12:26.552 --> 12:30.516 It forces us to change our mind, to destroy the evil in our mind 12:31.660 --> 12:33.182 destroy even liking, you know. 12:34.543 --> 12:42.571 As I said, liking, you have to be careful. 12:44.193 --> 12:45.514 So, and games also. 12:46.996 --> 12:49.878 Many people think of the good things in meditation as the games. 12:52.181 --> 12:59.288 Games like remembering your past lives, or reading people's minds, or flying through the air, 13:02.137 --> 13:04.620 Just to name the extreme ones. 13:06.101 --> 13:08.123 We play all sorts of games in our meditation. 13:14.410 --> 13:17.974 Even jnana, even knowledge that we gain from meditation, we have to give up. 13:19.796 --> 13:22.679 Even knowledge of impermanence, knowledge of self, we have to give it up. 13:23.900 --> 13:25.402 Once you get it, you get it, give it up. 13:27.224 --> 13:30.287 Anything you learn, people who learn things about their lives, 13:32.258 --> 13:36.384 This is an upakilesa, very strange, that knowledge should be an upakilesa. 13:39.388 --> 13:49.060 People look at the upakilesa and they lose faith in this kind of teaching because these are all good things, the upakilesa. 13:49.081 --> 13:52.525 They are good things, but they're not mangala, they're not blessings. 13:54.127 --> 13:57.191 They're not good for anything. 13:57.892 --> 13:59.194 They're not good for anything. 14:01.199 --> 14:11.312 They're good in a conceptual sense in terms of being positive, conceived as positive. 14:13.315 --> 14:14.436 But they're not good for anything. 14:16.839 --> 14:26.211 Even when you have some profound insight into reality or your life, it doesn't do anything. 14:28.418 --> 14:30.882 Or it's not to be clung to. 14:31.062 --> 14:32.785 It doesn't help you to... 14:33.666 --> 14:37.773 It doesn't do anything for you in the next instance. 14:38.715 --> 14:45.345 Even if you gain knowledge of impermanence or suffering or non-suffering, it did something, it helped you, but that's finished. 14:46.828 --> 14:48.510 That knowledge is not going to help you now. 14:48.550 --> 14:51.996 It has changed you. 14:53.258 --> 14:57.623 But once it changed you, that was one moment. 14:58.444 --> 14:59.445 And that moment is gone. 15:03.569 --> 15:04.971 And why it arose? 15:05.151 --> 15:06.473 It arose because of your practice. 15:06.713 --> 15:09.836 So the Mangalas are the practice. 15:09.856 --> 15:13.740 All of the good things that we get will come as a result of the Mangalas. 15:14.081 --> 15:15.342 They aren't Mangalas themselves. 15:15.362 --> 15:16.043 They aren't blessings. 15:19.617 --> 15:22.561 The blessings are the practice that we undertake. 15:22.581 --> 15:24.443 So we've gone through several of them already. 15:25.104 --> 15:34.156 Now we go on to the third stanza. 15:34.377 --> 15:40.865 To have much knowledge. 15:42.307 --> 15:44.410 Much knowledge is considered to be a blessing. 15:47.242 --> 16:14.633 and we hear a lot of Buddhists kind of talk about it as though it were a curse and I sometimes think of it as a curse as well because when you learn a lot then you have to teach it and so we complain and some people are even afraid of it and often are averse to it or deride it 16:17.026 --> 16:35.068 when they hear about a monk who has much learning or so on they immediately think that it can't be someone who practices meditation and this is because often that's the case a monk who dedicates their life to learning will never have time for meditation and so 16:37.782 --> 16:42.350 Because we start by thinking better to meditate than to study. 16:42.450 --> 16:44.273 So study a little bit but meditate a lot. 16:44.814 --> 16:49.641 But then it evolves into this idea that too much study is a bad thing. 16:50.884 --> 16:51.805 And it's not really true. 16:54.389 --> 16:56.413 If you study without practice it's a bad thing. 16:58.356 --> 17:00.900 But studying is an incredible blessing. 17:03.244 --> 17:05.207 It's not the blessing of practice for sure. 17:06.638 --> 17:21.938 But to have someone who knows these things and to be someone who knows these things is a great blessing for yourselves and for other people. 17:26.484 --> 17:34.975 And it gets a little bit hypocritical where we want to go and ask these questions from the monks who have learned, but we don't want to learn ourselves. 17:36.254 --> 17:39.017 So we use these things. 17:39.037 --> 17:43.082 We want to read Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations, but we never want to learn Pali ourselves. 17:43.102 --> 17:44.204 That's a waste of time, right? 17:46.146 --> 17:55.317 But if Bhikkhu Bodhi stopped translating these books, if he didn't know Pali, we would cry out and, oh, please, please, please. 17:56.558 --> 17:57.419 Are you going to learn Pali? 17:57.480 --> 17:58.200 No, no, no. 17:58.821 --> 18:01.264 Waste of time. 18:01.284 --> 18:02.886 I'm just, you know, Buddha taught practice. 18:09.397 --> 18:11.560 It's not really... 18:13.323 --> 18:18.531 In Buddhism, we look at it as there being two duties. 18:19.733 --> 18:24.680 We have the duty of practice, insight, vipassana-dhura. 18:24.700 --> 18:29.026 But there's also ganta-dhura, the duty of study. 18:30.649 --> 18:31.710 It's our duty to study. 18:32.492 --> 18:33.413 You can't expect 18:35.975 --> 18:59.434 everyone else to do the studying for you and so you can read all the Buddha's teachings and not have to do any studying for yourself it's dishonest and it won't get you to where you want to go because it's dishonest you want all the benefits but no duties the point is that someone has to study this is why it's a great blessing to study 19:02.047 --> 19:08.855 We just shouldn't expect that someone else does all the studying for us and we can do all the practicing, right? 19:08.875 --> 19:09.376 You see that. 19:10.517 --> 19:13.020 We want to buy all these books. 19:13.080 --> 19:17.766 We think, well, he'll sell them and then we'll give him money for it. 19:20.289 --> 19:22.912 But then you think, what does Bhikkhu Bodhi need money for? 19:23.452 --> 19:24.814 You think he really wants the money? 19:26.532 --> 19:27.673 Just an example. 19:27.794 --> 19:30.938 Do you think these monks, are they ordained to get money? 19:32.259 --> 19:35.523 Can you really replace practice with money? 19:37.406 --> 19:42.612 We have to understand the blessing of study. 19:45.676 --> 19:47.879 We understand it, but we understand it in the wrong way. 19:47.899 --> 19:51.884 We think someone else will do it for us. 19:51.904 --> 19:53.746 This is not correct. 19:53.766 --> 19:55.088 Everyone should do the study. 19:59.033 --> 20:20.294 Another problem with too much studying is if it's not done in the correct way or under a teacher, it can lead to great problems as well. 20:20.414 --> 20:28.602 One of the things about expecting other people to do it for us is then we 20:30.337 --> 20:56.496 the Dhamma becomes too available someone does all the work for us translating these suttas and it becomes so available that without any practice we can study without any practice we can learn the Buddha's teaching I was quite fortunate that I went to practice meditation without having done any studying I think now I'm very fortunate 20:58.703 --> 21:02.087 It was unfortunate that I hadn't found Buddhism a lot earlier. 21:03.368 --> 21:17.063 But having gone to the meditation center really, really totally ignorant, I didn't have a clue even about the five precepts. 21:17.083 --> 21:25.892 And it was quite a shock to hear the first thing they wanted me to do at the meditation center was keep some precepts and even take a ceremony. 21:27.340 --> 21:30.203 Well, not in a bad way, but it was like, oh, really? 21:30.243 --> 21:33.127 You need morality to... 21:33.147 --> 21:34.889 I can't smoke marijuana and meditate? 21:38.894 --> 21:40.636 I can't kill if I'm going to meditate? 21:43.639 --> 21:44.480 Just to... 21:45.341 --> 21:46.843 I didn't have any clue about these things. 21:46.863 --> 21:54.192 But the good side of it was that the learning that I did then was very much in line with the 21:54.762 --> 22:19.065 meditation practice some people don't do that and they study a lot and so they get many ideas and they write books and they do too much studying and not enough practice and their monastic life or their Buddhist life is not based around the meditation practice or they do more studying than meditation 22:22.083 --> 22:23.425 And so they get many ideas. 22:23.485 --> 22:27.210 The big problem is that now there are many different ideas of how the Buddha taught. 22:28.291 --> 22:37.043 So we have these commentaries in the Theravada tradition that are supposed to do that for us, that are supposed to give us an explanation of these things. 22:37.123 --> 22:41.509 And maybe we disagree with them at times, or maybe we don't understand them at times, but follow them. 22:43.362 --> 22:55.238 And I think this is incredibly important and I'm not sure exactly how to explain it, but the point is that study is not the goal and certainly arguing about the meaning is not the goal. 22:56.379 --> 23:00.625 The goal is to practice to see what is the truth of the meaning. 23:02.688 --> 23:08.155 And so if we argue and have views about these things, it's a waste of our time. 23:12.050 --> 23:21.842 If in our practice we realize that something the commentary said is not according to our practice, then we have to take it up as an issue. 23:21.942 --> 23:29.571 But for the most part, we have a very strong tradition of how does that mean? 23:29.591 --> 23:32.695 Anyway, maybe this is a little bit off topic. 23:32.735 --> 23:41.466 Really, for our meditation practice, bahusaccha means we have to have much knowledge of realities. 23:46.525 --> 24:05.868 One example of this sort of thing is people read the suttas and do get a lot of knowledge, but they never focus on creating a path for themselves, or they never focus on the essence. 24:07.310 --> 24:11.014 So you might read the suttas, but you never memorize the four foundations of mindfulness. 24:13.019 --> 24:15.942 So when we come to practice meditation, we have to go the other way around. 24:15.962 --> 24:20.848 We have to memorize and memorize what's most important. 24:21.008 --> 24:25.213 We have to memorize the four foundations of mindfulness. 24:25.233 --> 24:27.836 Our practice should be in this way. 24:27.856 --> 24:35.305 It should be that we memorize like we memorize a map. 24:35.325 --> 24:39.550 Here we are looking at the map and we memorize the way to go. 24:40.930 --> 24:44.196 Because our intention is not to learn or to study or to think. 24:45.378 --> 24:52.109 Our intention is to practice, is to follow, is to realize the truth for ourselves. 24:52.129 --> 24:57.759 So Bahusaccha is doing things like memorizing the four foundations of mindfulness. 24:57.779 --> 24:59.462 So that when we're in our practice, 25:01.450 --> 25:04.654 we will be able to recognize right away this is body. 25:06.256 --> 25:13.765 So we will remember this is how to practice walking meditation and sitting meditation. 25:13.785 --> 25:18.050 That we don't just do walking, we have to know kacchantova gacchamiti bhajanati. 25:18.070 --> 25:21.474 We have to know kacchami, I am walking. 25:21.494 --> 25:22.956 When we sit, we have to know I am sitting. 25:28.001 --> 25:30.985 We have to have a clear idea of the 25:32.298 --> 25:51.758 the path that we're supposed to follow the Buddha called the four foundations of mindfulness like fence posts he said this is our range, our pasture we have to set them up like fence posts so we remember where our range is we have to know this is our boundary 25:52.430 --> 26:00.680 Because he said like a quail, if it goes outside of its range, it will be caught up by an eagle. 26:01.902 --> 26:10.612 But if it stays in its familiar grounds where it knows all of the places, then it won't get caught. 26:10.632 --> 26:14.677 It will be able to dive into holes and not get caught by the eagle. 26:15.518 --> 26:17.661 If we go outside, we'll get caught by Mara. 26:19.261 --> 26:24.150 If we go outside the four foundations of mindfulness, we will get caught by Mahārāja. 26:26.093 --> 26:31.383 And the meaning is we have to memorize these things and we have to keep them in our mind. 26:31.423 --> 26:33.066 This is our practice. 26:33.086 --> 26:40.259 Whenever we can, we have to remember these things. 26:40.279 --> 26:43.024 Body, feelings, mind, this kind of thing. 26:49.079 --> 26:53.804 And then we have to become full of the knowledge that comes from the practice itself. 26:54.465 --> 26:58.069 Bahusaccha doesn't just mean book knowledge. 26:59.691 --> 27:02.634 Though in the strict sense that's really what is being talked about. 27:05.498 --> 27:16.470 The knowledge that we gain from thinking or the knowledge that we gain from books is really, I think it goes without saying, we all understand it's nothing compared to the knowledge that comes from meditating. 27:21.310 --> 27:25.315 Because knowledge in books is this kind of knowledge that excites you. 27:25.335 --> 27:30.061 It can create more craving, more views, more attachment, more mental activity. 27:31.804 --> 27:34.187 Knowledge from meditation is exactly the opposite. 27:34.948 --> 27:43.059 Even people who read the Buddha's teachings become so inspired and excited and actually attached to it. 27:44.480 --> 27:48.786 People who listen to Dhamma talks 27:50.302 --> 27:55.248 The Sri Lankan people are always listening to Dhamma talk. 27:55.268 --> 27:59.934 In Thailand, in the West, no. 27:59.954 --> 28:03.198 In the West, people will download hours and hours of Dhamma talk. 28:07.243 --> 28:11.328 And because it's inspiring, it's exciting. 28:12.729 --> 28:16.074 And meditation, when you practice meditation, it's not so inspiring. 28:16.975 --> 28:19.718 The knowledge we get from meditation is too uninspiring 28:22.010 --> 28:25.735 Everything in meditation will make you more and more uninspired. 28:28.519 --> 28:31.082 This is really . 28:32.845 --> 28:37.972 You become disenchanted with suffering. 28:37.992 --> 28:39.294 You'll be disenchanted with everything. 28:39.895 --> 28:46.043 All sankharas, everything is the same. 28:52.655 --> 29:10.515 whether it's here in the forest or back at home, whether it's seeing or hearing or smelling, whether it's good things or bad things. 29:10.535 --> 29:15.981 The knowledge that we gain from meditation is uninspired. 29:16.281 --> 29:22.408 It's quite different from the knowledge that comes from learning and from thinking. 29:25.983 --> 29:28.827 The knowledge is the knowledge that we gain right here from sitting. 29:32.412 --> 29:38.240 It's the knowledge that you gain if you start listening to my voice as just sound. 29:38.260 --> 29:39.322 Rising and ceasing. 29:39.362 --> 29:41.224 As I said, not according to your desires. 29:44.108 --> 29:45.450 You say hearing, hearing. 29:45.571 --> 29:51.639 You see how jarring it is. 29:52.921 --> 29:53.762 How stressful it is. 29:56.864 --> 30:04.694 How stressful it is to cling, to expect, even expect the sound to be smooth and flowing. 30:06.883 --> 30:08.308 Even to like the sound. 30:23.172 --> 30:27.477 The knowledge of meditation is the knowledge of this, here, now. 30:30.841 --> 30:40.372 It becomes quite uninspiring, because everything is changing and arising and ceasing. 30:43.896 --> 30:47.880 Nothing is satisfying. 31:00.196 --> 31:02.078 so why is this a blessing? 31:02.159 --> 31:28.633 because this is what allows us to this is what cleanses our mind of our attachment as long as we see one thing or any one thing as special and try to cling to it or find happiness in it we'll never we'll never become our mind will never become pure we'll 31:28.816 --> 31:32.560 We'll always be seeking, always be needing that. 31:32.780 --> 31:35.543 Happiness is dependent on that. 31:38.186 --> 31:49.539 So the more we can see, the more we can see that things are changing and unsatisfying and uncontrollable, the better. 31:51.701 --> 31:52.242 The more 31:53.977 --> 31:59.926 the more boredom that arises, the more excruciating it becomes, the better. 32:01.068 --> 32:08.219 Because the more we'll let go, the less we'll depend on the external world. 32:08.239 --> 32:18.415 We're trying so much to depend on, to make the world outside something we can depend on, to make our experiences something we can depend on. 32:20.842 --> 32:22.304 So we're never independent. 32:22.985 --> 32:24.767 We want to be able to depend on these things. 32:25.408 --> 32:27.270 That they'll always be like this or like that. 32:29.073 --> 32:34.140 One woman on Skype, she said, am I ever going to be happy? 32:34.160 --> 32:40.909 I said, well, you might be happy. 32:40.929 --> 32:42.110 But it won't make you happy. 32:43.832 --> 32:46.596 If you want to be happy, you have to know you can't be happy all the time. 32:48.196 --> 32:48.857 That's the only way. 32:49.860 --> 32:52.946 You have to become independent. 32:52.966 --> 33:07.437 The only way to become independent is to let go, to see some pretty uninspiring things, to become uninspired with impermanent experience. 33:10.049 --> 33:13.615 Okay, so Bahu Satcha, we have to learn, we do have to study. 33:14.416 --> 33:18.583 But our most important study is the study of reality. 33:19.184 --> 33:21.067 It is meditation, Bahu Satcha. 33:21.728 --> 33:22.749 Sipang. 33:22.769 --> 33:30.201 Sipang means trade, a skill. 33:32.493 --> 33:38.162 And so this is the kind of thing that you might attribute more to lay life. 33:39.744 --> 33:48.558 Because it is a blessing to have a trade or to have a skill, to have something you can do, something that is useful. 33:53.565 --> 33:59.474 But this isn't something that destroys evil things. 34:00.115 --> 34:01.217 This destroys... 34:02.581 --> 34:30.040 worldly discomfort and worldly troubles so if you're poor and then you apply your skill you can escape poverty but the word Sipa we can apply it to meditation even in meditation in the Buddha's teaching you need skill you need to be clever 34:31.673 --> 34:36.821 Meditation isn't just about walking and sitting and applying the technique. 34:36.841 --> 34:37.642 You have to be clever. 34:37.702 --> 34:47.678 Sometimes when you're walking and you start to become distracted you have to know that you should sit. 34:48.759 --> 34:51.303 Or even if sitting is too distracting you can lie down. 34:55.429 --> 34:56.852 And you have to be clever about it. 34:56.892 --> 34:58.474 You have to know the technique of it. 34:59.450 --> 35:01.533 So walking isn't just walking back and forth. 35:01.593 --> 35:10.206 One time, my teacher scolded me about this. 35:10.226 --> 35:15.354 There was this forest monk who was a student of our teacher as well, but he was a little bit crazy. 35:16.956 --> 35:18.058 He had his own ideas. 35:19.420 --> 35:24.327 And so a friend of another monk, a young monk, he 35:24.914 --> 35:26.696 He said, last night I went walking. 35:26.736 --> 35:33.384 He did walking meditation with .. What's his name? 35:33.404 --> 35:36.848 I don't know. 35:36.888 --> 35:37.609 means stop. 35:37.729 --> 35:38.210 I don't know. 35:40.272 --> 35:42.515 And it was great. 35:42.575 --> 35:43.416 We walked all night. 35:43.436 --> 35:45.518 Oh, that sounds nice. 35:45.598 --> 35:46.379 And so he said, come on. 35:46.479 --> 35:46.960 Come with us. 35:47.060 --> 35:47.921 And so we went with him. 35:48.642 --> 35:50.584 And it turns out that what we did is we walked. 35:52.336 --> 36:02.909 walked quite quickly back and forth, back and forth, long walks, from one end of the monastery courtyard to the other, walking and talking. 36:02.969 --> 36:14.783 And it was quite fun, actually, because we weren't tired at all, and we could stay up all night and just walk back and forth. 36:16.805 --> 36:17.806 He gave great energy. 36:19.008 --> 36:22.493 And so I went and asked my teacher if this was a suitable sort of practice. 36:22.513 --> 36:26.879 And he said, he thought that it was my idea or something. 36:26.919 --> 36:29.643 And he said, oh, that's the way of foreigners. 36:29.803 --> 36:39.177 He said, foreign style exercise, he said. 36:39.197 --> 36:40.138 Just exercise. 36:41.800 --> 36:43.723 He said, you have to have a technique. 36:44.868 --> 36:46.430 Walking isn't to get somewhere. 36:46.490 --> 36:48.313 Walking is to be aware of the dhatus. 36:48.533 --> 36:54.401 Be aware of vayodhatu, tejodhatu, apodhatu. 36:56.223 --> 36:57.204 Patvidhatu. 36:58.306 --> 37:02.271 Not apodhatu, but patvidhatu. 37:02.291 --> 37:04.454 The hardness of touching the ground. 37:04.494 --> 37:09.621 The softness of your foot. 37:09.641 --> 37:10.081 The heat. 37:10.742 --> 37:12.725 When you lift your foot, it feels cool. 37:12.825 --> 37:14.267 That's tejodhatu. 37:15.074 --> 37:16.517 You move, it feels cool. 37:17.358 --> 37:19.042 You put it down, it feels hot again. 37:19.342 --> 37:26.576 You touch the ground, you feel the heat. 37:26.596 --> 37:30.263 When you feel the movement, the pressure in the leg, that's the vayodhati. 37:31.566 --> 37:38.078 The pressure coming up, lifting it up, the pressure releasing when you put it down, vayodhati. 37:46.985 --> 37:51.010 So you need a technique to avoid mindful prostration. 37:52.732 --> 38:00.160 Having a technique and having a knowledge of the technique of meditation. 38:02.403 --> 38:10.272 If you see how inspiring this course is, how useful it is, how portable it is. 38:11.994 --> 38:15.979 I've seen this same technique applied all over the world and it's quite portable. 38:17.039 --> 38:23.545 If a person learns this technique, not only can they help themselves, but they can help others, but even just for yourself. 38:24.566 --> 38:36.178 When I go off and do a retreat by myself, I know I won't get lost, because I know I have ten days, one, two, three, four. 38:36.198 --> 38:46.388 And as long as I stick by that, I can't easily get lost, because I have a sipa, I have a technique, a skill. 38:48.190 --> 38:54.860 So when you've learned the skill of this meditation technique, it's quite portable. 38:55.501 --> 38:56.463 And it's something you'll find. 38:56.503 --> 39:11.446 What was amazing was after I went to practice meditation and still had very little idea about Buddhism, there were a couple of people who heard that I had gone to practice meditation and wanted to learn something from me. 39:12.768 --> 39:15.092 And I was actually able to lead two people 39:15.157 --> 39:21.144 I said to them, look, I'm not a teacher and I don't really have an understanding of this, but I can go through the basics. 39:21.224 --> 39:25.729 And so I led two people all the way through, all the way up to sixth walking step. 39:26.630 --> 39:27.952 And it changed both of their lives. 39:27.972 --> 39:31.356 They're both now quite strong in Buddhism. 39:32.697 --> 39:42.008 I lost contact with both of them, but from my understanding, they're both very much into the practice. 39:48.518 --> 39:51.422 This is sipa, having a technique. 39:53.485 --> 39:56.310 And knowing the technique in the meditation. 39:56.330 --> 40:01.818 It's a great blessing to not just think, I'm going to sit in meditation and learn my own way and become enlightened. 40:03.681 --> 40:07.206 It doesn't really, it's not something that just comes to you naturally. 40:07.266 --> 40:13.476 If you don't learn the technique and practice it, some technique, any technique, and apply it diligently. 40:14.858 --> 40:17.682 Now this is, if you look in the Visuddhimagga, it's full of technique. 40:19.417 --> 40:49.221 I've even heard people who practice the technique in the Visuddhimagga to remember their past lives and can actually verify that the technique works that they were able to remember their past lives as a result of the Visuddhimagga there are people who follow all the techniques in there these are tried and tested and if you learn these skills you can do a lot with them it's a great blessing because it keeps you on track and it helps you guide others as well which is a great blessing for them 40:54.365 --> 41:02.985 To have a discipline that is well-trained, well-trained discipline. 41:05.330 --> 41:11.023 So we talk about the Vinaya. 41:12.404 --> 41:20.737 The Buddha said the Vinaya is the lifeblood of the Dhamma, or it's the support of the Dhamma. 41:20.978 --> 41:27.188 The reason why he instated the Vinaya is in order to protect the Dhamma. 41:30.553 --> 41:39.087 He said just like flowers on a raft, if you put flowers on a raft and set them adrift in the ocean, 41:40.923 --> 41:47.692 Before long, the flowers are going to blow off the raft, blown by the wind. 41:47.872 --> 41:53.140 But if you tie them up, you take a string and you tie them around the flowers into a bouquet. 41:55.483 --> 42:03.133 And you can see, even though the wind, they get tossed about in the ocean, 42:04.970 --> 42:08.134 In Thailand or in India, they put the flowers out on the river. 42:09.356 --> 42:13.000 And you see, if you tie them together, they don't get blown away. 42:13.701 --> 42:18.087 He said, in the same way, the Vinaya is for this purpose. 42:20.330 --> 42:26.458 Because the Buddha told that in other times, there were Buddhas who didn't instate the Vinaya. 42:26.478 --> 42:30.263 And as a result, the sasana of those Buddhas didn't last long. 42:33.447 --> 42:34.909 Because even though there were arahants, 42:38.382 --> 42:41.005 There was no way to develop a community. 42:41.666 --> 42:43.748 There was no chance to develop a community. 42:44.829 --> 42:48.953 Without the community rules, there was no development. 42:49.154 --> 42:50.936 Many things we should understand in this way. 42:52.217 --> 42:54.860 For the continuation of the sāsana, we need organization. 42:55.961 --> 43:04.390 Lately we've been talking about our organization, our non-profit organization, our monastic organization. 43:05.905 --> 43:15.338 And the discussion is kind of philosophical, just asking the philosophical question of what is the use of organizing? 43:19.223 --> 43:20.966 This is the meaning of the Vinaya. 43:22.588 --> 43:26.293 The reason it's a blessing is because it keeps us organized, it keeps us together. 43:27.623 --> 43:31.008 The benefit is that this asana will last longer. 43:31.048 --> 43:32.870 This asana will be a stay. 43:34.332 --> 43:37.216 Not just for the benefit of others, but for our benefit as well. 43:38.438 --> 43:45.187 We think we're just going to practice meditation and not pay attention to the rules or any sort of organization. 43:45.247 --> 43:48.932 And then before we know it, we have nowhere to meditate. 43:48.992 --> 43:53.458 We have no opportunity to meditate because we're tossed about in the wind. 43:53.518 --> 43:54.660 We have no community. 43:56.615 --> 43:59.178 This development of a community is not something easy. 44:00.780 --> 44:02.823 We've tried many times and failed. 44:02.963 --> 44:04.865 I've failed miserably. 44:06.868 --> 44:11.473 It's something that takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of care to develop. 44:11.794 --> 44:15.518 It requires harmony and discipline. 44:18.262 --> 44:21.445 So discipline is something that works very much on a worldly level. 44:22.587 --> 44:25.170 If our community can stay disciplined and stay focused, 44:26.534 --> 44:55.613 and organized if everyone is on track and doing their part and not just expecting but also giving I was saying that if you expect to get teachings well you have to be careful because you'll be expected to give them eventually this isn't a bad this shouldn't be a scary thing it's something that we should take as our burden that we've 44:57.145 --> 45:00.951 We've become a part of this organization. 45:03.134 --> 45:10.505 So discipline plays a very important part in organizing because it creates harmony and it creates peace. 45:10.525 --> 45:21.381 If you've ever been to a monastery where they don't have this, then you can see how crazy and how unorganized and how much strife and disharmony there is. 45:24.871 --> 45:28.897 But this isn't the core of the Vinaya. 45:29.758 --> 45:34.284 This isn't the core of the discipline that we are trying to attain. 45:34.324 --> 45:41.194 So of course, in Buddhism, there's always these two levels, the worldly level and then the ultimate level. 45:43.417 --> 45:46.221 On the ultimate level, we're trying to develop a disciplined mind. 45:51.078 --> 45:52.420 Our mind is fickle. 45:52.861 --> 45:54.103 Our mind is undisciplined. 45:55.184 --> 46:14.233 And this is the reason why we suffer, the reason why we cause suffering, the reason why we are defiled in the mind, because of a lack of discipline. 46:18.095 --> 46:21.579 So our training, one way of understanding our training is as a discipline. 46:24.163 --> 46:39.302 Our minds will become more like a soldier, more straight, more clear, more precise, more disciplined, more skilled. 46:42.746 --> 46:47.072 The idea is that our mind should become so disciplined, so skilled that it 46:49.938 --> 46:53.604 has a very simple relationship to the rest of the world, to its experience. 46:55.527 --> 47:01.356 That experience will just be direct. 47:01.376 --> 47:05.602 When we see or hear or smell or taste or feel or think, it will be just what it is. 47:07.185 --> 47:13.915 There won't be judging, there won't be liking or disliking. 47:13.935 --> 47:18.122 There won't be any wants or needs or 47:19.148 --> 47:20.389 dissatisfaction. 47:29.881 --> 47:38.991 Our mind will become so perfect that we'll begin to just see things for what they are. 47:39.091 --> 47:43.096 We have to be disciplined in order to do this. 47:43.116 --> 47:43.977 We have to be skilled. 47:44.858 --> 47:45.619 We have to work hard. 47:45.899 --> 47:49.003 Part of the discipline is the discipline that brings us to this. 47:50.300 --> 47:56.189 If we want to have a disciplined mind, well, we have to begin in a very disciplined way. 47:57.090 --> 48:00.295 We can't get sidetracked by good things or bad things. 48:01.356 --> 48:09.969 We can't become sidetracked by views or opinions or ideas of how things should be or could be or would be. 48:11.110 --> 48:16.358 We can't get sidetracked by problems or complaints 48:18.667 --> 48:24.594 We have to have a disciplined mind to not worry or concern ourselves with external affairs. 48:26.216 --> 48:28.478 It's very difficult in organizing a community. 48:28.518 --> 48:33.764 It's very easy to get sidetracked by administrative things and so on. 48:34.225 --> 48:39.691 This is a good warning that we should be disciplined, and we should remember what is most important. 48:45.838 --> 48:47.880 So, minna yo ca susikito. 48:50.881 --> 48:53.625 And finally, subhasita jaya vaja. 48:55.107 --> 49:02.597 So, I don't know whether any of this has been subhasita, but this is what is a blessing. 49:02.878 --> 49:05.641 When we speak, that is what is well spoken. 49:06.082 --> 49:08.926 We have to be very careful when we speak. 49:08.946 --> 49:13.412 It's very easy to speak poorly spoken words. 49:13.432 --> 49:17.057 It's much more difficult to speak well spoken words. 49:20.986 --> 49:23.749 Whatever speech is well spoken, it's a blessing. 49:24.769 --> 49:30.274 So in essence, the Buddha is explaining to us what sort of speech is a blessing speech. 49:30.855 --> 49:45.328 A blessing speech or a good speech is that speech which is a blessing, that speech which purifies the minds of the people who hear it or purifies one's own mind. 49:47.690 --> 49:49.592 And one should purify one's own speech 49:51.749 --> 49:54.997 One's speech should be for the purpose of purifying one's own mind. 49:57.663 --> 50:05.782 So we should train ourselves to engage only in speech that is good, speech that is pure. 50:07.666 --> 50:08.408 Not so easy. 50:10.632 --> 50:16.802 On a general level, Subhasita just means giving good advice. 50:17.723 --> 50:25.916 So we can say that a Dhamma talk like this, in a general sense, we can say this was Subhasita, this Vajra, this teaching. 50:27.218 --> 50:31.425 If it's something that's about the Buddha's teaching, this is good speech. 50:31.445 --> 50:37.635 The Buddha said that when you meet together, you should either talk about the Dhamma or stay silent. 50:40.282 --> 50:47.170 because this is the point of the speech. 50:47.270 --> 50:53.397 Good speech is that speech which leads one closer to the Dhamma. 51:01.247 --> 51:04.270 We shouldn't underestimate the power of the Dhamma. 51:04.290 --> 51:05.952 We shouldn't underestimate the power of 51:09.323 --> 51:38.841 of the teaching we shouldn't just the Buddha said listen to a thousand words and not get anything out of it even one word that gives us some meaning should be enough is the better speech meaning is when we shouldn't miss the blessing that comes in the speech we don't 51:40.610 --> 51:43.013 Even just the four foundations of mindfulness. 51:43.514 --> 52:02.999 One good example, I was teaching on Skype and I gave a very basic explanation of the three characteristics because it was clear that this person wasn't understanding them and asked, was that of any help? 52:03.059 --> 52:04.120 And he said, no, not really. 52:05.534 --> 52:13.802 because it seemed very basic what I was saying, so I had to explain again that, listen, don't ignore what's being said here. 52:14.342 --> 52:20.649 It sounds very simple to say that everything inside us and the world around us is impermanent. 52:20.669 --> 52:21.569 Very simple words. 52:21.730 --> 52:29.697 Everything around us and the world, everything inside of us is suffering, is unsatisfying. 52:29.717 --> 52:32.520 Everything around us and inside of us is 52:33.614 --> 52:35.897 is not under our control. 52:35.917 --> 52:40.404 It's non-self. 52:40.424 --> 52:42.727 You can go in one ear and out the other ear. 52:43.849 --> 52:53.242 So the Buddha was absolutely correct, of course, to point out that this is a blessing, that we should see the blessing in it. 52:54.664 --> 52:58.930 We should see the power of speech, the power of words, the power of teachings. 53:00.766 --> 53:25.795 the power of knowledge of the four satipatthana we shouldn't just take it as something to read and keep in our minds and read more and more and more or listen in once and listen more and more or so on we should find the meaning in it and put it into practice so these are some more blessings for us 53:29.318 --> 53:56.743 The important point is that the biggest blessing is our practice, is the development of insight, whether it be the truth that comes from it, whether it be the skill that comes from it, whether it be the discipline that comes from it, or whether it be the teaching that comes from it, whether it be the 53:58.850 --> 54:00.492 teaching itself. 54:03.174 --> 54:08.079 All of these things, the important thing is the benefit that it brings for the practice. 54:11.122 --> 54:13.043 Our knowledge should be for the benefit. 54:13.704 --> 54:16.206 Our knowledge should be based on the practice. 54:18.028 --> 54:22.392 Our skills should be applied to the practice. 54:25.055 --> 54:27.076 Our discipline should be applied to the practice. 54:27.116 --> 54:28.738 And our speech should be 54:30.693 --> 54:38.842 put into practice for the development of insight and wisdom. 54:38.862 --> 54:39.943 Anyway, that's all. 54:41.465 --> 54:51.976 I apologize for being somewhat scattered because of the minor cold, but I think it's getting better. 54:51.996 --> 54:53.558 Anyway, that's all for tonight. 54:53.598 --> 54:58.303 So now we can go back and do our practice, continue on. 54:59.768 --> 55:02.320 So everyone can go where they want to.