1 00:00:00,031 --> 00:00:02,835 Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada. 2 00:00:03,696 --> 00:00:11,507 Today we continue on with verse number 35, which goes as follows. 3 00:00:25,987 --> 00:00:29,532 Which means... 4 00:00:30,743 --> 00:00:58,843 difficult to restrain flighty landing upon or lighting upon whatever it desires the taming of the mind is good the tamed mind brings happiness so another really pointed 5 00:01:00,629 --> 00:01:03,773 teaching from a meditative point of view. 6 00:01:05,375 --> 00:01:07,778 And this one has very much to do with meditation. 7 00:01:07,798 --> 00:01:12,284 It's actually quite a story, well known among Buddhist circles. 8 00:01:13,665 --> 00:01:17,290 And the story goes that there was a village called Matika. 9 00:01:18,972 --> 00:01:27,042 And there was a group of thirty bhikkhus who went to practice meditation there. 10 00:01:28,237 --> 00:01:33,486 And the headman of the village, his mother, had great faith. 11 00:01:33,927 --> 00:01:40,197 And when she saw these Buddhist monks coming, she was quite excited to see them. 12 00:01:41,179 --> 00:01:42,281 And asked them where they were going. 13 00:01:42,301 --> 00:01:46,448 They said, well, they're just looking for a place to spend the rains. 14 00:01:47,018 --> 00:02:05,924 And so she immediately jumped upon it and said, look, if you stay here, then I'll be able to take the precepts and listen to your teachings and learn more about the Buddhist teaching and have a chance, a very good chance to study and practice the Buddhist teaching. 15 00:02:05,944 --> 00:02:08,307 So she said, please stay here and we'll build you a monastery. 16 00:02:08,347 --> 00:02:16,198 And so, poof, just like that, they built off in the forest a monastery for these monks with the hopes or 17 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,083 under the promise that they would stay there for the rains. 18 00:02:20,825 --> 00:02:28,113 And they promised that they would bring them food every day and whatever they wanted that they would bring for these monks. 19 00:02:29,315 --> 00:02:40,127 And so the monks were quite happy about this because it would mean that for the rains they would have a chance to practice meditation strenuously and put all their effort into the practice. 20 00:02:40,664 --> 00:02:48,593 And so once the monastery was finished, they all went in and they had a meeting amongst themselves as to how they were going to conduct themselves for the rains. 21 00:02:50,175 --> 00:02:54,521 And what they said, just incidentally, the things that they said were kind of interesting. 22 00:02:54,601 --> 00:02:56,543 One of them is quite pertinent. 23 00:02:57,344 --> 00:03:01,569 It sort of gives you an idea of the intentions that they had going into this. 24 00:03:03,151 --> 00:03:09,979 They say, the Pali is amma 25 00:03:11,495 --> 00:03:20,807 Just like our own house. 26 00:03:24,972 --> 00:03:32,322 The eight hells. 27 00:03:35,018 --> 00:03:45,312 The Eight Great Hells are wide open for us, have their gates wide open for us, just as if they were our own home. 28 00:03:46,173 --> 00:03:54,664 So they say it would not be good for us to be pamādacāraṁ caritum, 29 00:03:56,247 --> 00:03:57,589 na vattati. 30 00:03:58,070 --> 00:03:58,991 It is not proper. 31 00:03:59,933 --> 00:04:10,068 It will not be that we, it is not the case that we should be negligent because the eight hells are wide open, meaning they still had greed, anger and delusion. 32 00:04:10,128 --> 00:04:17,700 And so if they were negligent, then these things would lead them into one of the eight great hells or couldn't possibly. 33 00:04:17,860 --> 00:04:19,483 At the very least, it would lead them to suffering. 34 00:04:19,523 --> 00:04:22,828 So they, for that reason, they made a vow 35 00:04:23,146 --> 00:04:41,111 amongst themselves out of this great anxiety or fear that they all had of the possibility of going to a bad place, and out of a desire to become free from it. 36 00:04:41,492 --> 00:04:44,496 They made a very 37 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:58,603 extreme sort of agreement, a very hard agreement with themselves, strict agreement with themselves, that during the rains retreat they would, as best as possible, not talk to each other. 38 00:04:58,683 --> 00:05:09,201 Now what it says that they did is, in the morning they would meet for alms, so then they would maybe even discuss where they're going to go on alms, who's going to go on which route, and who's going to go in which direction. 39 00:05:10,379 --> 00:05:21,587 And in the evening they would meet together to pay respect to the elder monks and to do the duties towards whatever monk is elder and so on. 40 00:05:22,445 --> 00:05:28,698 But apart from that, they would say, we will not meditate two monks in the same place. 41 00:05:29,139 --> 00:05:33,348 We will not go on alms round two monks on the same road. 42 00:05:33,989 --> 00:05:42,327 We will not meet eye to eye out of fear that we might begin to converse and therefore give rise to defilement. 43 00:05:44,635 --> 00:05:51,691 And so with this promise, they undertook themselves to spend all their time in their kuti. 44 00:05:51,711 --> 00:06:02,155 Now, the one thing they did say, and if a monk is sick, the only exception is if a monk gets sick, then that monk should go out and ring the bell in the middle of the monastery. 45 00:06:02,405 --> 00:06:05,112 and then all of us must come to attend on the Sikh monk. 46 00:06:05,633 --> 00:06:06,916 So that was the only one exception. 47 00:06:07,658 --> 00:06:17,342 Apart from that, they decided they would spend all their time in their gurus, so immediately they all went to their own huts and undertook the practice of meditation. 48 00:06:18,250 --> 00:06:28,283 Now, the woman who was the mother of Matika, the mother of the village headman, who was looking after them, was quite excited and wanted to come and make sure that everything was all right for the monks. 49 00:06:28,444 --> 00:06:33,370 So she decided that she would come to the monastery and see how her sons were doing, as she put it. 50 00:06:34,792 --> 00:06:37,215 But when she got there, it wasn't as she expected. 51 00:06:37,275 --> 00:06:46,528 She expected that her sons would be happily enjoying their monastery and discussing the Buddha's teaching and so on and so on. 52 00:06:46,548 --> 00:06:48,190 So when she saw these monks... 53 00:06:48,929 --> 00:06:51,453 She went to the monastery and she said, where are all the monks? 54 00:06:52,434 --> 00:06:57,942 And the man who was looking after the monastery said, well, they're off in their kutis one by one. 55 00:06:58,062 --> 00:07:00,165 They're all in different places. 56 00:07:00,225 --> 00:07:05,612 And she saw that this was the case, that they were all avoiding each other. 57 00:07:05,673 --> 00:07:08,136 So she said, what can I do if I want to talk to them? 58 00:07:08,268 --> 00:07:10,110 And he said, well, ring the bell. 59 00:07:10,150 --> 00:07:11,991 And so she went up to the bell and she rang it. 60 00:07:12,692 --> 00:07:14,854 And she watched and they all came from different places. 61 00:07:14,874 --> 00:07:17,716 And she said, sure enough, they're all avoiding each other. 62 00:07:18,277 --> 00:07:20,078 And she thought this was the most peculiar behavior. 63 00:07:20,118 --> 00:07:22,741 So they said, what's wrong? 64 00:07:22,801 --> 00:07:23,982 We thought someone was maybe sick. 65 00:07:24,042 --> 00:07:28,866 And she said, no, I'm wondering why it is that you're not talking to each other. 66 00:07:28,886 --> 00:07:30,388 Why are you avoiding each other? 67 00:07:30,408 --> 00:07:34,271 And she said, you must be angry at each other. 68 00:07:34,491 --> 00:07:36,553 There must be some problem with your harmony and 69 00:07:36,888 --> 00:07:41,378 Here I was hoping to gain lots of merit having you here, but now I'm afraid that there may be some problem. 70 00:07:42,220 --> 00:07:43,463 And they said, no, no, it's not the case. 71 00:07:43,483 --> 00:07:44,666 We're practicing meditation. 72 00:07:44,706 --> 00:07:47,893 And when you practice meditation, you have to be in solitude. 73 00:07:49,325 --> 00:07:53,031 And she said, what does this mean, practice meditation? 74 00:07:53,091 --> 00:07:54,734 She had no idea what this was. 75 00:07:54,874 --> 00:08:00,163 Well, practice meditation, in our case, we're thinking of this, the parts of the body. 76 00:08:00,183 --> 00:08:11,622 We say to ourselves, hair, hair, and skin, skin, and so on, focusing on the 32 parts of the body, and as a result, developing calm and tranquility, and then developing insight based on that. 77 00:08:11,662 --> 00:08:14,286 This is what we've been taught to do. 78 00:08:14,620 --> 00:08:19,151 And she said, oh, that sounds, she said, oh, that's quite interesting actually. 79 00:08:19,171 --> 00:08:22,219 And she said, is it only monks who can practice this teaching? 80 00:08:22,259 --> 00:08:22,941 And he said, no, no. 81 00:08:23,021 --> 00:08:25,688 And they said, no, no, anyone can practice this teaching. 82 00:08:26,350 --> 00:08:27,713 And she said, well, then can you teach it to me? 83 00:08:27,793 --> 00:08:30,520 And so they taught her these 32 parts of the body. 84 00:08:31,293 --> 00:08:52,828 And to just get to the end of the story, she practiced diligently and actually gained the third stage of enlightenment, anagami, means she had no more sensual desire, no more anger, but she would still have these subtle desires to become or to not become, desire to get rid of things and the desire to achieve things. 85 00:08:52,808 --> 00:08:56,896 to be this and to not be that, and she still would have conceit and so on, some of the subtle defilements. 86 00:08:57,197 --> 00:09:06,295 But she was totally, totally freed from the lower defilements of lust and craving and so on, and anger and aversion. 87 00:09:07,793 --> 00:09:09,396 And she thought, wow, this is wonderful. 88 00:09:09,476 --> 00:09:13,785 She said, I wonder, when did these monks attain this state? 89 00:09:13,805 --> 00:09:22,481 And she used these powers that she gained as a result of her enlightenment to send her mind out and to examine these monks. 90 00:09:22,521 --> 00:09:26,088 And she said, these monks are still full of greed, anger and delusion. 91 00:09:26,128 --> 00:09:27,050 They haven't gained anything. 92 00:09:27,090 --> 00:09:27,872 She said, what's wrong? 93 00:09:27,892 --> 00:09:30,156 They've been here for some time practicing meditation. 94 00:09:31,368 --> 00:09:32,370 I wonder what could be wrong. 95 00:09:32,410 --> 00:09:36,517 And she looked and she said, do they have suitable lodging? 96 00:09:36,537 --> 00:09:37,779 Yes, they have suitable lodging. 97 00:09:37,799 --> 00:09:40,324 Do they have suitable company? 98 00:09:40,364 --> 00:09:42,087 Are there any problems in between them? 99 00:09:42,127 --> 00:09:43,870 No, there's no problems between them. 100 00:09:44,631 --> 00:09:45,533 Do they have suitable food? 101 00:09:45,553 --> 00:09:47,757 And she said, aha, they don't have suitable food. 102 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:55,708 And so she thought to herself, you know, she sent her mind to all the monks and she thought, which monk needs what sort of food? 103 00:09:56,348 --> 00:10:03,837 And she realized what sort of food that the monks wanted and what sort of food would make them, would bring them comfort in their meditation. 104 00:10:03,857 --> 00:10:05,539 And so she prepared these foods for them. 105 00:10:06,039 --> 00:10:13,147 And apart from that, prepared everything for them, whatever they needed, whatever they were lacking, or whatever she knew for herself would help them. 106 00:10:13,487 --> 00:10:14,248 She brought it to them. 107 00:10:15,510 --> 00:10:18,553 And as a result, the monks were all able to attain arhantship, 108 00:10:19,546 --> 00:10:28,035 As a result of attaining arahantship, they said to themselves, wow, at the end of the rains, they said to themselves, the time has come for us to go and to see the Buddha. 109 00:10:28,055 --> 00:10:32,539 And so they went back to see the Buddha and the Buddha said, oh, you all look bright and radiant. 110 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:35,823 You must have had suitable lodging and food and so on. 111 00:10:35,863 --> 00:10:37,524 And they said, oh, did we ever? 112 00:10:37,564 --> 00:10:45,032 This lay woman, she attained anagami and she was able to read our minds and she got us whatever we want. 113 00:10:45,072 --> 00:10:46,093 And the Buddha said, oh, that's great. 114 00:10:46,073 --> 00:10:50,422 that's great, good for you and so on. 115 00:10:50,442 --> 00:10:52,367 Something profound of course, they had become Arahants. 116 00:10:53,469 --> 00:11:05,635 Now the story goes that there was one monk listening to this and overheard the Buddha talking to these monks and overheard these monks extolling the virtues of this lay woman who was so 117 00:11:05,902 --> 00:11:13,990 who was so perfect or in such a clear mind that she was actually able to attain enlightenment before these monks. 118 00:11:14,010 --> 00:11:22,979 But what he got stuck upon is he said, he heard that this woman was bringing these monks whatever they wanted. 119 00:11:22,999 --> 00:11:29,506 She was single-handedly taking care of 30 monks and as a result allowed them to attain arahantship. 120 00:11:29,546 --> 00:11:31,588 And kind of out of greed he thought, 121 00:11:32,615 --> 00:11:34,497 Wow, if I go there, I'll get whatever I want. 122 00:11:34,537 --> 00:11:35,819 If I want water, I'll get water. 123 00:11:35,839 --> 00:11:36,900 If I want food, I'll get food. 124 00:11:37,721 --> 00:11:39,222 Whatever kind of food I want, I'll get it. 125 00:11:39,823 --> 00:11:41,565 And so he asked permission to go and stay there. 126 00:11:41,705 --> 00:11:43,367 I'm not even sure if he asked permission. 127 00:11:43,407 --> 00:11:53,498 He just immediately went to this monastery and he said, Okay, if this woman can read my mind, may she send someone to clean up this monastery for me. 128 00:11:54,419 --> 00:11:56,682 Because it would have been all covered over in leaves and so on. 129 00:11:57,438 --> 00:12:04,645 And immediately this man shows up, or not immediately, but after some time, this man shows up and starts sweeping the monastery. 130 00:12:06,166 --> 00:12:08,268 Wow, that's quite incredible. 131 00:12:08,308 --> 00:12:12,132 And so he thinks, there's no water here, may she send some sweet water. 132 00:12:12,432 --> 00:12:16,536 And after some time, someone comes with some sweet water. 133 00:12:16,576 --> 00:12:26,685 And then he thinks, oh, and in the morning, may she bring me this kind of good food and yagu or congee or so on. 134 00:12:27,391 --> 00:12:31,019 with sugar and this and that and dainties and something like that. 135 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:32,903 May she bring me exactly what I want. 136 00:12:32,923 --> 00:12:36,091 And of course she brings exactly what he thinks of. 137 00:12:37,393 --> 00:12:38,556 And then for lunch the same thing. 138 00:12:38,576 --> 00:12:39,899 And then he says, wow, this is incredible. 139 00:12:39,939 --> 00:12:41,202 I would really like to meet this woman. 140 00:12:41,964 --> 00:12:42,565 And so she 141 00:12:42,967 --> 00:12:46,611 And within no long time she comes to see him. 142 00:12:48,132 --> 00:12:52,757 And he asks her, he says, wow, is it true that you can read people's minds in this way? 143 00:12:52,797 --> 00:12:54,599 And she said, why do you ask? 144 00:12:54,619 --> 00:12:57,182 And he said, well, you know, people said this. 145 00:12:57,202 --> 00:13:00,625 And she said, oh, and she did her best. 146 00:13:00,865 --> 00:13:02,227 She avoided the question completely. 147 00:13:02,247 --> 00:13:06,711 And he thought to himself, he thought, for sure she can read my mind because she isn't saying no. 148 00:13:07,833 --> 00:13:10,155 But because of her purity, she doesn't want to say yes. 149 00:13:11,198 --> 00:13:13,522 And he thought, what am I doing here? 150 00:13:13,582 --> 00:13:17,770 Suddenly, just the gravity of the situation occurred to him. 151 00:13:18,130 --> 00:13:27,908 He said, if I have one thought of lust, imagine this woman is going to know right away, and she'll probably grab me by my robe and throw me out of the monastery if she finds out. 152 00:13:28,242 --> 00:13:30,906 all the defilements that I have in my mind. 153 00:13:31,667 --> 00:13:38,837 And so the rest of the day he just was walking around paranoid, thinking, oh, I can't stay here, I can't stay here. 154 00:13:38,857 --> 00:13:41,120 Ran back to the monastery where the Buddha was. 155 00:13:42,482 --> 00:13:47,870 The Buddha saw him coming and said, you know, why aren't you staying at that monastery? 156 00:13:47,890 --> 00:13:49,572 And he said, I can't stay there. 157 00:13:49,652 --> 00:13:52,677 If I have one impure mind, I thought this woman is going to know it right away. 158 00:13:52,737 --> 00:13:55,060 And 159 00:13:55,883 --> 00:13:57,947 And then the Buddha gives this verse. 160 00:13:58,187 --> 00:14:00,351 This is the teaching that he gives to this monk. 161 00:14:00,371 --> 00:14:04,058 He says, look, you don't have to guard this thought or that thought. 162 00:14:04,078 --> 00:14:05,601 Can you do one thing? 163 00:14:05,661 --> 00:14:06,783 And he said, what is the one thing? 164 00:14:06,803 --> 00:14:13,616 And he said, you just guard your mind, watch your mind, stay with the mind, and tame your mind. 165 00:14:13,636 --> 00:14:15,259 The word is to tame the mind. 166 00:14:16,268 --> 00:14:24,641 Just go back there, train your mind and overcome these thoughts, work on them. 167 00:14:26,244 --> 00:14:31,512 Because really the truth is, this woman wouldn't have thrown him out of the monastery as an amnagami. 168 00:14:31,532 --> 00:14:35,679 She would have known very well the defilements that were in his mind and she would never complain at all. 169 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:40,707 And she would always work in a way, as we all do, to help people to overcome these. 170 00:14:41,125 --> 00:14:46,395 We never get angry or upset at students when they come and tell us they have lust. 171 00:14:46,455 --> 00:14:53,487 In fact, because we can't read their students' minds, we need our students to tell us that lust arose or anger arose or so on. 172 00:14:54,429 --> 00:14:55,772 Mahasi Sayadaw was saying like this. 173 00:14:55,832 --> 00:15:01,041 He was saying, well, it would be great if you could have a teacher like that who could read your minds. 174 00:15:01,814 --> 00:15:08,983 But if you don't have one, all you have to do is explain your situation, or it becomes your duty to explain your situation. 175 00:15:09,063 --> 00:15:11,186 That is the answer here. 176 00:15:11,226 --> 00:15:15,131 The answer is for you just to tell what is going on in your practice. 177 00:15:15,291 --> 00:15:20,978 Because the problem, as I've always said, is not this greed and not the anger. 178 00:15:21,018 --> 00:15:22,460 It's the delusion. 179 00:15:22,860 --> 00:15:26,505 It's our ignorance, our inability to understand the situation. 180 00:15:26,654 --> 00:15:34,428 the fact that we don't see that we have these, or we don't see the problem with these things, the fact that we don't understand these things as they are. 181 00:15:35,370 --> 00:15:47,953 If we actually look at them, accept that they're there, and take a look at our lust, take a look at our desire, take a look at our anger, take a look at our aversion, our frustration, our boredom, our depression, look at it, and simply see it for what it is. 182 00:15:48,625 --> 00:15:53,150 only then will we be able to become free from it. 183 00:15:53,630 --> 00:16:04,061 So rather than worrying about these things or what other people think of us or anything, let us just, he said, all you have to do is train your mind, straighten your mind as we were talking about before. 184 00:16:04,101 --> 00:16:07,484 But here he uses the word to tame the mind or to train the mind. 185 00:16:08,865 --> 00:16:17,434 And then he said this verse, he said, the mind is difficult to restrain and flighty, lighting upon whatever it desires. 186 00:16:18,123 --> 00:16:21,007 The taming of the mind is good. 187 00:16:21,508 --> 00:16:23,030 The tamed mind brings happiness. 188 00:16:23,070 --> 00:16:24,552 That's the verse. 189 00:16:24,572 --> 00:16:31,661 And the story goes that as a result he did go back and became enlightened as a result. 190 00:16:31,681 --> 00:16:42,055 So for our practice, I think it's quite obvious, and it's quite obvious with this example as to the importance or the meaning of this verse. 191 00:16:42,895 --> 00:16:49,342 that yes, this is the case, the mind will run after its desires, it will run after what it wants. 192 00:16:49,422 --> 00:16:55,009 If it wants something, then it will chase after it. 193 00:16:55,049 --> 00:17:05,781 And the commentary here has something interesting to say, it says, so much so that it won't worry about its reputation, it won't worry about what is right or what is wrong, 194 00:17:05,761 --> 00:17:12,169 It won't worry about things like, you know, in the case of lust, someone else's wife, someone else's husband. 195 00:17:12,229 --> 00:17:14,492 It won't worry about things like someone else's possession. 196 00:17:15,473 --> 00:17:17,575 It won't worry about suffering for oneself. 197 00:17:17,676 --> 00:17:20,459 It won't worry about suffering for others. 198 00:17:20,539 --> 00:17:29,130 If one is angry, even though one knows that one is hurting oneself, one will kick things and punch things, punching the wall and causing great suffering to oneself. 199 00:17:29,851 --> 00:17:35,177 This is the meaning of the word yatha kama nipatino, whatever it wants, no matter what. 200 00:17:35,495 --> 00:17:42,882 Whatever the defilements lead one to, it will go there no matter what, out of incomplete disregard for what is right or wrong. 201 00:17:43,903 --> 00:18:00,540 So this is why we see infidelity, and this is why we have theft, this is why we have murder, this is why we have suicide, all of these things because of our desires and our aversions and our inability to control them. 202 00:18:01,921 --> 00:18:08,930 So rather than control them, the Buddha says to train the mind, to train the mind to see them clearly, to see them as they are. 203 00:18:08,970 --> 00:18:11,974 This is the word vipassana, just to see them for what they are. 204 00:18:12,034 --> 00:18:18,522 Because the Buddha says you can't restrain the mind, you can't tie it down and stop it from going these things. 205 00:18:19,063 --> 00:18:24,470 It's lahu, the word is lahu, which means light or flighty, like a bird. 206 00:18:24,510 --> 00:18:27,513 These words are actually what you would use to talk about a bird. 207 00:18:27,573 --> 00:18:29,616 Last time we had a fish, now we have a bird. 208 00:18:30,170 --> 00:18:33,693 It's like a bird because it lights on whatever it wishes. 209 00:18:33,753 --> 00:18:35,015 If it doesn't like it here, it will go there. 210 00:18:36,116 --> 00:18:36,676 It will go here. 211 00:18:36,716 --> 00:18:39,579 As soon as something scares it, it will be gone. 212 00:18:40,820 --> 00:18:41,541 This is the mind. 213 00:18:41,801 --> 00:18:44,043 You can't catch it. 214 00:18:44,244 --> 00:18:46,366 It's not a physical thing that you can put in a cage. 215 00:18:46,466 --> 00:18:49,108 If it were the body, you can tie the body up. 216 00:18:49,649 --> 00:18:50,990 You can cover your mouth. 217 00:18:51,030 --> 00:18:52,031 You can plug your ears. 218 00:18:52,091 --> 00:18:53,092 You can close your eyes. 219 00:18:53,873 --> 00:18:54,954 You can stop up your nose. 220 00:18:55,014 --> 00:18:55,574 You can stop. 221 00:18:56,976 --> 00:18:58,337 The body you can stop. 222 00:18:59,043 --> 00:19:00,306 But the mind you can't stop. 223 00:19:00,406 --> 00:19:05,918 No matter if you do all of these things, the mind will still escape to cause you endless, endless grief and suffering. 224 00:19:06,500 --> 00:19:11,150 In fact, if you do such a thing, you'll find, for most people, they'll just go crazy as a result. 225 00:19:11,170 --> 00:19:16,021 This is the funny thing, because you think you can control it. 226 00:19:16,081 --> 00:19:17,845 And the more you try to control your mind, 227 00:19:17,825 --> 00:19:19,647 Maybe you try to take medicine. 228 00:19:19,707 --> 00:19:24,772 Some people, when they have headaches or when they're thinking too much, they'll take pills or drugs. 229 00:19:24,812 --> 00:19:26,754 And the more you take them, the worse it gets. 230 00:19:27,295 --> 00:19:29,757 And the more wound up the mind becomes. 231 00:19:30,097 --> 00:19:36,324 So the more you try to tie the mind down, the more of a problem your mind becomes. 232 00:19:36,984 --> 00:19:39,827 So the Buddha taught us to train the mind to see clearly. 233 00:19:39,847 --> 00:19:43,171 This is in the last one we were talking about, straighten the mind. 234 00:19:43,191 --> 00:19:46,414 But the word tame here, or damma, or danta, 235 00:19:46,883 --> 00:20:03,627 This means making the mind like a trained animal, like a horse or a buffalo or something, something that is trained and understands 236 00:20:04,062 --> 00:20:05,445 what is the important thing to do. 237 00:20:05,805 --> 00:20:13,179 So teaching the mind to understand what is of its own benefit and what is to its detriment. 238 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:17,127 Understanding the anger, understanding the greed, seeing it for what it is. 239 00:20:17,908 --> 00:20:21,936 So this is very much a reminder to us 240 00:20:21,916 --> 00:20:25,903 that the untrained mind is the cause for all of our suffering. 241 00:20:26,404 --> 00:20:29,409 And it's simply by training the mind that it leads to happiness. 242 00:20:29,770 --> 00:20:34,298 The first kind of happiness, of course, that it leads to is that it helps us to overcome suffering. 243 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:40,870 So as these monks said, it was the untrained mind that had greed, that had anger, that had delusion, that was... 244 00:20:41,525 --> 00:20:43,852 that had opened up the hells in front of them. 245 00:20:43,892 --> 00:20:55,103 They could even see in front of them that if they were to just follow their desires, follow their aversions, it's open like the doors of their own house with a big welcome mat in front. 246 00:20:55,243 --> 00:20:56,547 This is what they said. 247 00:20:56,527 --> 00:20:59,832 So the training of the mind, the taming of the mind stops that. 248 00:20:59,912 --> 00:21:01,554 It stops the mind from exploding. 249 00:21:01,614 --> 00:21:04,738 It stops the mind from going insane. 250 00:21:04,778 --> 00:21:09,685 It stops the mind from following after desires and aversions and causing so much suffering. 251 00:21:09,925 --> 00:21:15,413 We can see it even when people get angry, they kick things and they punch things, as I said, or they hurt other people. 252 00:21:16,405 --> 00:21:17,927 how we destroy our lives. 253 00:21:18,828 --> 00:21:23,053 Even in this world you can understand how training the mind, taming the mind brings happiness. 254 00:21:23,353 --> 00:21:30,902 If you think of how the world, mostly people think that happiness comes from war, from conflict and from victory. 255 00:21:31,523 --> 00:21:33,585 So, what is the result of that? 256 00:21:33,645 --> 00:21:38,751 We see how the world has gone to war and when the world is at war, so little peace in the world. 257 00:21:38,991 --> 00:21:45,619 The peace vanishes like a mirage. 258 00:21:45,599 --> 00:21:52,793 And what you're left with is conflict and the victor gains the ashes of the spoils. 259 00:21:54,777 --> 00:22:00,729 What you get is a world of rubble and fire and suffering. 260 00:22:01,170 --> 00:22:07,843 The suffering that comes from war is something that we have all been told about and read about. 261 00:22:08,313 --> 00:22:33,915 heard the records of even in our society when we look at capitalism or materialism or when we look at this competitive society what it has brought to us how much suffering how much poverty how much lack of trust this has brought to the world how we can't even trust our neighbors we can't trust 262 00:22:34,385 --> 00:22:35,507 our community. 263 00:22:36,248 --> 00:22:39,212 We can't trust the people at the stores. 264 00:22:39,292 --> 00:22:40,473 We can't trust the banks. 265 00:22:40,533 --> 00:22:42,216 We can't trust anybody. 266 00:22:42,256 --> 00:22:48,604 We can no longer trust each other because their minds are not trained, because their minds are full of these things. 267 00:22:49,025 --> 00:22:55,093 Even in the family, the untrained mind amongst family, friends, at work, 268 00:22:55,512 --> 00:23:06,243 If you talk to anyone about their job situation and how it's going, almost anyone in the world will be able to tell you about the fighting and the politics that goes on at work. 269 00:23:06,303 --> 00:23:20,558 And if you ask people about their home life, most people nowadays, because of the nature of our minds and our desires and everyone's conflicting desires, the anger and the fighting and the harsh words, 270 00:23:20,909 --> 00:23:34,028 even the abuse that goes on as a result of our untrained minds, how people, even though they want to find happiness, and they want others to be happy as well, they end up bringing great suffering to both themselves and to others. 271 00:23:34,869 --> 00:23:36,671 This is all from the untrained mind. 272 00:23:37,032 --> 00:23:42,900 If we begin to practice meditation and then we consider our own lives, 273 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:59,006 Because of the stability of mind that comes and the ability to reflect clearly on where we've come from, we'll be able to see the suffering that we've been causing in our lives. 274 00:23:59,066 --> 00:24:02,992 It'll become quite clear to us where all of our suffering comes from. 275 00:24:03,073 --> 00:24:10,204 And it'll become clear to us that we were in much suffering that we didn't even realize. 276 00:24:10,690 --> 00:24:15,158 And we thought we were living in great peace and more or less lying to ourselves. 277 00:24:15,498 --> 00:24:26,277 Once you begin to practice meditation, all of this comes up and much guilt about all of the things that you've done to hurt others when you were just avoiding it the whole time and pretending it didn't exist. 278 00:24:26,357 --> 00:24:30,083 And now as your mind starts to calm down, you get to see everything that's in there. 279 00:24:31,295 --> 00:24:40,764 So for someone who's practiced meditation, this is a clear teaching that it is the trained mind, the tamed mind, the straightened mind that brings happiness. 280 00:24:41,344 --> 00:24:44,307 So it's a good teaching for us to always remember. 281 00:24:44,447 --> 00:24:54,015 It's one that is often taught in Buddhist circles, that the trained or the tamed mind brings happiness. 282 00:24:55,056 --> 00:24:58,820 So just one more verse in our series on the Dhammapada. 283 00:24:59,300 --> 00:25:01,302 Thank you all for tuning in. 284 00:25:01,282 --> 00:25:03,698 And see you again next time.