1
00:00:02,225 --> 00:00:05,889
Hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.

2
00:00:05,909 --> 00:00:30,595
Today we go on to verse number 46, which reads,

3
00:00:32,313 --> 00:00:47,672
Which means, having known this body, having known this body, by the simile of or as similar to a bubble.

4
00:00:49,913 --> 00:01:09,492
You who see, who penetrate, or who come to know perfectly, or penetrate into the higher knowledge, awaken to the higher knowledge.

5
00:01:11,952 --> 00:01:18,404
of the body being in nature like a mirage.

6
00:01:19,146 --> 00:01:28,003
Abhisambhudana, you who awaken, who have become awakened to the knowledge that the body is like a mirage,

7
00:01:30,262 --> 00:01:53,907
Having cut the flowers or the flower-tipped sensual pleasures of Mara, go to where the king of death cannot see you.

8
00:01:55,287 --> 00:02:24,838
So this is an exhortation to someone who has seen the body as being like a bubble and come to realize its nature of being like a mirage The instruction is having cut through the flowers of Mara Those things which are tipped with flowers or look like flowers are enticing like flowers

9
00:02:26,624 --> 00:02:31,534
Go to where the king of death or Mara cannot see you.

10
00:02:33,678 --> 00:02:35,342
Go to Nibbana.

11
00:02:36,344 --> 00:02:38,228
So this is another short story.

12
00:02:38,248 --> 00:02:48,328
There's not much of a story to it, but it's instructive and it's an example of how realizations in meditation can occur.

13
00:02:50,283 --> 00:03:03,865
The story goes that there was a monk who became desirous of practicing meditation and so he went to the Buddha and got a meditation subject and went off into the forest and practiced ardently.

14
00:03:05,227 --> 00:03:09,153
But no matter how much he practiced, he felt like he wasn't getting anywhere.

15
00:03:09,193 --> 00:03:15,463
He didn't get any higher realizations or wasn't able to penetrate to the truth.

16
00:03:15,443 --> 00:03:30,178
So after some time he got kind of frustrated and decided that he would head back to have the Buddha clarify the kamatana, clarify the meditation for him, to give him a better explanation or to help him see where he was stuck.

17
00:03:32,437 --> 00:03:58,107
But on the way back on the road, off in the distance he saw a mirage, because in the heat it was the summer months, and off in the distance he saw something shimmering that looked like there was maybe a city there, or it doesn't say what, but some kind of mirage he saw that looked like this or looked like that, and as he got closer he realized it disappeared.

18
00:03:59,150 --> 00:04:15,235
And because he had just come out of meditation, because he was so focused on the contemplation of the body and maybe he was contemplating on the loathsomeness of the body or something, that he immediately

19
00:04:15,215 --> 00:04:20,320
picked up this idea and realized that the body is just like this mirage.

20
00:04:20,820 --> 00:04:21,781
That really is all it is.

21
00:04:22,141 --> 00:04:33,131
This body which we take to be solid and we take to be ours and an entity and something that we carry with us wherever we go is actually just a mirage.

22
00:04:33,391 --> 00:04:38,016
Actually it's something that arises and ceases and it's of the same nature as a mirage.

23
00:04:39,217 --> 00:04:45,222
When you have experiences like seeing and hearing and so on, you see it as

24
00:04:45,202 --> 00:04:50,749
Or you identify it as being an entity when in fact it is just experiences.

25
00:04:53,092 --> 00:05:01,102
And so he thought about this and it really kind of hit him and gave him some insight.

26
00:05:01,743 --> 00:05:11,175
It helped him to let go and it brought him deeper in his meditation or more intent on his meditation.

27
00:05:12,792 --> 00:05:18,579
And so he kept walking and as he was walking suddenly a storm cloud came up and it started raining heavily.

28
00:05:18,619 --> 00:05:35,037
So he went quickly under a tree and as he was sitting under this tree, he's meditating on the body and meditating on this idea of the body being like a mirage and watching the experiences arise and cease and parts of the body arise and cease.

29
00:05:37,666 --> 00:05:55,033
he had his eyes open, he was looking out and he saw the rain falling on the ground and he saw it splashing and hitting the ground and hitting the puddles and making like a bubble and rising and ceasing, rising and ceasing, going and going.

30
00:05:55,013 --> 00:06:05,190
And he thought to himself, well the body is just like this, this being, this atabava, this being is just like a bubble, or just like a series of bubbles.

31
00:06:05,310 --> 00:06:08,415
It rises for a brief moment and then disappears.

32
00:06:08,495 --> 00:06:11,820
It comes into being only to vanish.

33
00:06:12,562 --> 00:06:13,463
It's not permanent.

34
00:06:14,605 --> 00:06:20,835
And so again he had this deep sort of, not exactly a realization, but this

35
00:06:20,815 --> 00:06:28,210
awakening of some sort to the truth of these things and realizing that this was actually what he was faced with.

36
00:06:29,132 --> 00:06:35,044
The body and this being of his wasn't the solid entity that he thought it was.

37
00:06:36,847 --> 00:06:51,902
And the story goes that the Buddha realized this and taught him this verse, somehow projected himself from a distance to this monk and spoke a verse to him or somehow connected telepathically or whatever.

38
00:06:51,882 --> 00:07:11,899
The point is there was this teaching and the Buddha said that's correct and he said now go the next step and cut off your attachment to the body and so on, attachment to sensuality and go beyond death, go to where the king of death cannot find you and he spoke this verse.

39
00:07:13,583 --> 00:07:38,241
So here's one that you don't have to stretch or twist to see how it fits with our meditation, but it's maybe a good chance, a good opportunity to help to explain or to explain the nature of Buddhist meditation and our goals and our aims and where we should be heading and why it's important to see these things.

40
00:07:40,297 --> 00:07:48,814
So the realizations that this monk had are not really vipassana insight because they're still dealing with concepts or comparisons.

41
00:07:49,756 --> 00:07:56,449
But they're the kind of concepts that lead one to cultivate or to develop

42
00:07:58,117 --> 00:08:21,103
this kind of sense of urgency and desire for for for a greater and more intense practice when one realizes these things they can be a real cause for insight because or a stimulant for stimulus for the arising of insight because of how they direct the mind

43
00:08:22,670 --> 00:08:39,351
The first stage in meditation is to see what really exists or to begin to understand what we're dealing with, what things make up ultimate reality.

44
00:08:40,373 --> 00:08:44,458
So as long as we take the body as an entity and we take the mind as an entity,

45
00:08:46,025 --> 00:08:53,813
We're not able to, these are not things that you're able to change, not things you're able to understand.

46
00:08:54,634 --> 00:08:59,979
It blocks any further kind of understanding because the body is, well, it's just the body.

47
00:09:00,900 --> 00:09:02,241
And the mind is just the mind.

48
00:09:02,281 --> 00:09:03,603
Anger is just anger.

49
00:09:03,703 --> 00:09:04,604
Greed is just greed.

50
00:09:04,644 --> 00:09:05,965
Attachment is just attachment.

51
00:09:07,567 --> 00:09:16,015
Without really understanding the process of what's occurring when we say body, when we say mind.

52
00:09:17,648 --> 00:09:27,019
So well, this is often the case with meditators that they'll go off into the forest or go to a meditation center and feel frustrated that they're not getting anywhere.

53
00:09:27,039 --> 00:09:35,228
They're just seeing everything is changing and they're seeing it's unsatisfying and they're seeing that they can't control it.

54
00:09:35,248 --> 00:09:43,638
And they feel like something's wrong with their meditation because they're not really able to control the experience.

55
00:09:43,658 --> 00:09:47,082
They're not able to control their mind.

56
00:09:47,062 --> 00:09:49,526
And they're not experiencing anything super mundane.

57
00:09:49,546 --> 00:09:56,056
They feel like everything is mundane, boring, unattractive and so on.

58
00:09:56,076 --> 00:09:58,419
When actually this is what we're aiming for.

59
00:09:58,439 --> 00:10:06,792
So these kind of realizations that this monk had when he was on the road kind of adjusted his understanding of what he was looking at.

60
00:10:06,772 --> 00:10:14,554
He had been spending all this time, only someone who had been spending all this time looking at ultimate reality would have these kind of observations.

61
00:10:14,614 --> 00:10:20,190
Of course, a person who sees a mirage doesn't normally think right away, wow, the body is just like that mirage.

62
00:10:21,132 --> 00:10:28,985
But he had really missed this about his practice, that really this is what he was seeing, what he had been seeing all along.

63
00:10:29,926 --> 00:10:42,566
Because he had been so intent on the body and watched it rising and ceasing, and he didn't realize how important this was, but he would be seeing parts of the body disappearing, where he would be sitting and suddenly he wasn't sure if his arms were there or his legs were there.

64
00:10:45,070 --> 00:10:46,212
He would be having...

65
00:10:46,192 --> 00:10:50,479
You know, seeing the pain arise and cease, seeing the feelings arise and cease.

66
00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:59,936
If you're watching the stomach, watching the breath, the stomach is arising and falling and the arising or the rising arises and ceases.

67
00:11:00,617 --> 00:11:02,580
The falling arises and ceases.

68
00:11:03,269 --> 00:11:06,133
And they don't come from anywhere and they don't go to anywhere.

69
00:11:06,173 --> 00:11:08,816
They arise out of nothing and they disappear back into nothing.

70
00:11:09,677 --> 00:11:19,790
But of course you wouldn't see this without this kind of instructive realization, which you'd normally get from a teacher who would explain to you, you see this is the truth.

71
00:11:19,870 --> 00:11:23,134
What you're seeing is that everything arises and ceases.

72
00:11:24,532 --> 00:11:53,492
and so this was kind of like a teacher to him to remind him that this is the nature of things and he saw this mirage he thought well you know the body was acting in just this way I would think the stomach was there rising and falling but then suddenly it would disappear there would be no rising no falling or I would see it fall apart and disappear and there would be the experience of sitting and then even that would disappear or my hands would disappear or my legs would disappear

73
00:11:54,991 --> 00:12:24,745
and watching the mind to these mind states where you have emotions that you think are somehow existing that somehow are entities that maybe boil up and then go back down or something but they're always in there and then you see that actually this isn't the case you'll notice them and you'll say to yourself angry, angry or frustrated or bored or wanting, wanting or so on you see it crumble and it disappear and you realize that this is just like a mirage

74
00:12:25,923 --> 00:12:30,230
So when he saw this mirage, he thought, well, this is exactly how the body and the mind were acting.

75
00:12:31,391 --> 00:12:37,501
And he starts to rethink whether he really did get, maybe he really was getting something out of the meditation.

76
00:12:37,561 --> 00:12:42,688
He realized that this is what's actually most important in the meditation, to see these things.

77
00:12:43,169 --> 00:12:43,369
Why?

78
00:12:43,409 --> 00:12:44,531
We'll get to why that is.

79
00:12:44,992 --> 00:12:46,394
But he was seeing that this is the truth.

80
00:12:46,734 --> 00:12:49,999
Well, the first most important reason is that he's seeing the truth.

81
00:12:50,680 --> 00:12:51,622
But there's ramification.

82
00:12:51,662 --> 00:12:53,044
There's benefits to that.

83
00:12:54,391 --> 00:13:10,093
The second thing he thought about the bubble as well, just really more of the same, but it comes back to, well, first of all, seeing that the body is like a bubble in that it arises and ceases.

84
00:13:10,113 --> 00:13:15,401
So this is how this commentary frames this, that he was seeing his whole existence.

85
00:13:15,942 --> 00:13:19,707
It seems that this is what they're implying is that he saw his whole existence.

86
00:13:19,687 --> 00:13:48,225
like a bubble something that is temporary and this is one way of understanding impermanence the most gross way of understanding impermanence is that we're not going to last it's a very important realization that this body is eventually going to lie on the ground before long this body will lie flat on the ground like a useless burnt log

87
00:13:52,357 --> 00:13:59,645
And this kind of thing, of course, creates a great sense of urgency, realizing that everything that we're holding on to, we have to let go of.

88
00:14:00,105 --> 00:14:14,380
All of the things that we like, all of the things that we cling to as special as me, as mine, as our, as me, as mine, as ourself, or ours, our possessions, all of these things we have to give up.

89
00:14:15,201 --> 00:14:17,503
Even our body won't go with us when we die.

90
00:14:18,867 --> 00:14:20,350
But it gets a little bit deeper than that.

91
00:14:20,410 --> 00:14:24,980
And actually in terms of meditation, he would have been seeing quite a bit deeper than that.

92
00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:33,277
So, you know, the next step is seeing that now we're a certain age and, you know, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, we were a different age.

93
00:14:34,099 --> 00:14:37,045
Maybe when we're old, we see how we were younger, how we were

94
00:14:37,463 --> 00:14:45,592
When we were younger, we see how we were a child, we realize that that's gone, that this is the impermanence of, it's like a bubble.

95
00:14:45,772 --> 00:14:46,793
Where is that bubble gone?

96
00:14:46,813 --> 00:14:47,474
It's disappeared.

97
00:14:48,655 --> 00:14:56,183
And eventually a person is able to see quickly, see closer and closer and understand that even yesterday we were a different person.

98
00:14:57,205 --> 00:15:00,468
Even a moment ago, we were a different person.

99
00:15:00,708 --> 00:15:06,795
Our thoughts, our body and our mind is just like many, many drops of rain, one after another.

100
00:15:08,092 --> 00:15:12,380
All of our experiences arise and cease in a brief moment.

101
00:15:13,523 --> 00:15:17,009
So he realized that this is just like experience.

102
00:15:17,911 --> 00:15:21,458
There's no underlying soul or self or me or mine.

103
00:15:22,099 --> 00:15:26,708
There's only experiences arising and ceasing, like raindrops falling on the ground.

104
00:15:28,831 --> 00:15:35,340
And again, this is the sort of thing that was very much connected to vipassana insight, even though the thought itself isn't the insight.

105
00:15:35,841 --> 00:15:37,623
The thought itself comes from the insight.

106
00:15:38,324 --> 00:15:41,869
And this is something that helped him to realize he was actually seeing the truth.

107
00:15:41,929 --> 00:15:49,720
And then the Buddha, coming in there and reaffirming it for him, helped him to propel him on, and he actually became enlightened.

108
00:15:49,801 --> 00:15:55,108
After the Buddha gave this verse, he was able to see the truth and became an arhat as a result of this.

109
00:15:57,012 --> 00:16:00,699
And so this is the benefit of seeing the truth.

110
00:16:00,839 --> 00:16:20,995
Once he saw like this and started to look and started to examine and appreciate and come to accept this truth of life, this is the next part of the verse that the Buddha was exhorting him, saying, now that you see this, look closer until you can be free, until you can cut your craving for these things.

111
00:16:21,127 --> 00:16:32,706
Because all of the things that we cling to, this is what the Buddha called the pupakani, those things that have flowers at their tip.

112
00:16:34,542 --> 00:17:00,381
so the translation that they use is flower tipped arrows so I'm not sure if that's exactly the if there's any commentary to back that up but what it means is all the central flowers you see the flower you know this like from Macbeth the flower but underneath it there's a snake so this is like this is what is meant by these things that are beautiful on the outside

113
00:17:00,361 --> 00:17:02,604
So you don't see the snake lying under the flowers.

114
00:17:04,527 --> 00:17:06,449
Mara's pleasures are all like this.

115
00:17:06,530 --> 00:17:15,602
But the idea of flower-tipped arrows means there's poison underneath, or there's a sharp arrow underneath.

116
00:17:16,603 --> 00:17:23,533
When you grab the flower, you get the blade that's underneath the arrow point.

117
00:17:24,948 --> 00:17:29,096
and it poisons you and it kills you or it leads you to suffering.

118
00:17:30,659 --> 00:17:33,185
Because this is how we understand sensual pleasures.

119
00:17:33,445 --> 00:17:39,918
All of the things that we cling to are based on the idea of concepts.

120
00:17:39,958 --> 00:17:43,345
You can't cling to something that's arising and ceasing.

121
00:17:43,325 --> 00:17:48,556
When you look at reality, when you look at the reality of our experience, there's nothing there that you can cling to.

122
00:17:48,596 --> 00:17:51,302
If it's a moment of seeing, it arises and ceases.

123
00:17:51,362 --> 00:18:02,025
The ultimate reality of it is not only you can't cling to it, but it's not something that anyone would have any reason to cling to.

124
00:18:02,005 --> 00:18:14,167
So the ultimate reality doesn't lead us to clinging, but our inability to see the ultimate reality and therefore taking these things as concepts like the body.

125
00:18:14,187 --> 00:18:22,242
This body is me and my hands and my feet and so on and my face and I'm beautiful or I'm ugly or I'm tall or I'm short.

126
00:18:22,222 --> 00:18:31,410
All of these things that we cling to as entities, this is what creates our attachment.

127
00:18:31,430 --> 00:18:32,731
These are the things that we attach to.

128
00:18:32,791 --> 00:18:35,674
So once you see reality, you have no reason to attach.

129
00:18:35,994 --> 00:18:41,078
But then there's the other question as to which is better, right?

130
00:18:42,039 --> 00:18:48,745
Maybe some people say, okay, that's fine, but am I not better off to believe in concepts then?

131
00:18:49,065 --> 00:18:51,047
Even if I agree,

132
00:18:51,027 --> 00:18:54,953
that they're just conceptual, why shouldn't I cling to them?

133
00:18:55,674 --> 00:18:59,220
Doesn't that lead me to pleasure, to sensual pleasure?

134
00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:00,542
What's wrong with sensual pleasure?

135
00:19:02,405 --> 00:19:12,240
And this is why the Buddha points out that they're flower-tipped, because he said, I know the gratification, the pursuit and the gratification of sensual pleasure.

136
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,465
There is this gratification.

137
00:19:15,445 --> 00:19:21,652
For flowers, for example, they give you pleasure when you see them.

138
00:19:23,173 --> 00:19:24,255
This is the gratification.

139
00:19:24,415 --> 00:19:26,597
But then there's the danger of sensuality.

140
00:19:27,838 --> 00:19:29,520
And the danger of it is that it's not real.

141
00:19:30,541 --> 00:19:31,502
It's like a mirage.

142
00:19:32,924 --> 00:19:39,411
There's a very important danger to that because there is a reality underneath and this reality is changing.

143
00:19:41,045 --> 00:19:55,155
the reason why we fight, the reason why we cheat each other, the reason why we waste so much of our effort trying to attain even the smallest bit of sensual pleasure.

144
00:19:57,346 --> 00:19:59,650
It's all because of this attachment.

145
00:20:00,272 --> 00:20:04,961
All of the suffering that we have is because we can't get what we want all the time.

146
00:20:05,462 --> 00:20:08,788
Because the objects of sensual pleasure are not real.

147
00:20:09,469 --> 00:20:13,397
The underlying reality is impermanent, unsatisfying and uncontrollable.

148
00:20:15,014 --> 00:20:18,659
So you may be enjoying something wonderful and then someone comes in and ruins it.

149
00:20:18,739 --> 00:20:22,944
Maybe breaks when you're looking at some flowers, someone comes and cuts them off.

150
00:20:23,184 --> 00:20:27,890
When you hear this verse, cut the flowers of Mara, you think cutting flowers.

151
00:20:30,474 --> 00:20:34,058
What if I came in and took your flowers and stepped on them and smashed them into a pulp?

152
00:20:34,559 --> 00:20:35,140
How would you feel?

153
00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:37,022
You'd feel unhappy.

154
00:20:38,285 --> 00:20:39,567
And you'd say, you made me unhappy.

155
00:20:39,587 --> 00:20:40,148
And I'd say, no.

156
00:20:41,350 --> 00:20:43,474
Your attachment to those flowers made you unhappy.

157
00:20:43,954 --> 00:20:45,116
I can't make you unhappy.

158
00:20:45,858 --> 00:20:49,123
If you weren't attached to those flowers, I would be totally impotent.

159
00:20:49,984 --> 00:20:50,866
But you give me power.

160
00:20:51,988 --> 00:20:52,549
And we do this.

161
00:20:52,609 --> 00:20:54,572
We give people power over us.

162
00:20:54,552 --> 00:20:56,355
situations power over us.

163
00:20:56,635 --> 00:21:06,009
It's an incredible weakness to be addicted, among other things, but it's an incredible weakness in the world to be addicted to sensuality because this is where they get you.

164
00:21:06,069 --> 00:21:06,810
They get you, right?

165
00:21:07,190 --> 00:21:13,840
You watch commercials and if you are, if you watch, if you like pizza and then there's a pizza commercial, they've got you.

166
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:16,564
If you like hamburgers, there's a burger commercial.

167
00:21:17,085 --> 00:21:19,668
This is, they've got you.

168
00:21:19,688 --> 00:21:20,750
People get us as well.

169
00:21:21,190 --> 00:21:22,973
When people know that we want something,

170
00:21:24,235 --> 00:21:26,641
They have a claim over our hearts.

171
00:21:26,861 --> 00:21:28,706
They have a claim over our actions.

172
00:21:29,327 --> 00:21:32,495
And this is what leads to being manipulated by others.

173
00:21:33,177 --> 00:21:37,066
You can't be manipulated if you don't have any wants, if you're not bothered by anything.

174
00:21:38,289 --> 00:21:40,033
You can't be manipulated if you

175
00:21:40,013 --> 00:22:00,404
If you do away with the delusion, if you see things as arising and ceasing, if you look at everything as ultimate reality or experiential reality, it's seeing, it's hearing, it's smelling, it's tasting, it's feeling and thinking, then there is no... It's like neutralizing the poison.

176
00:22:01,385 --> 00:22:03,569
Nothing can... These things can't hurt you.

177
00:22:03,609 --> 00:22:06,493
You cut off the...

178
00:22:07,469 --> 00:22:13,619
You cut off the attachment to sensuality or you cut off sensual desire at the root.

179
00:22:15,643 --> 00:22:21,192
So this is what it means to see things as they are.

180
00:22:21,232 --> 00:22:26,381
This is what the result of the practice is.

181
00:22:27,002 --> 00:22:32,852
When you practice, when you see things as they are, you cut off this craving, you do away with this.

182
00:22:32,832 --> 00:23:02,265
and it's not as a result you don't experience sensual pleasure but you don't experience sensual desire so you may still eat and there may be the feelings of well there's at least the physical pleasure but the mind doesn't find its pleasure in that sort of thing it doesn't rely upon sensual mental pleasure or this joy that comes

183
00:23:02,245 --> 00:23:04,048
momentarily from getting what you want.

184
00:23:04,809 --> 00:23:05,730
It's all really the same.

185
00:23:05,891 --> 00:23:10,377
People will say, well, what about relationships?

186
00:23:10,437 --> 00:23:12,040
Or many people are, what about romance?

187
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:13,843
What about food even?

188
00:23:13,883 --> 00:23:15,145
People will say, what about beauty?

189
00:23:16,166 --> 00:23:17,108
But there's no what about.

190
00:23:17,188 --> 00:23:20,152
It's a chemical process in the brain.

191
00:23:20,232 --> 00:23:21,975
There's no exception.

192
00:23:21,955 --> 00:23:24,860
It's a physical and a mental experience.

193
00:23:25,341 --> 00:23:26,784
You experience pleasure.

194
00:23:27,305 --> 00:23:32,414
So the question is whether that should be considered as happiness.

195
00:23:33,135 --> 00:23:34,778
Because it actually is momentary.

196
00:23:35,038 --> 00:23:37,062
It's something that

197
00:23:37,042 --> 00:24:01,227
arises in a moment ceases and it's something that creates this dependency creates desire which creates addiction which creates this striving and this need for things that of course as i said puts us in a dependency um takes us out of our out of our state of contentment it's discontent

198
00:24:01,207 --> 00:24:07,554
It creates need, it creates addiction, it creates trouble for us when we can't get what we want.

199
00:24:08,916 --> 00:24:15,743
When someone interferes with our ability to enjoy things or even suggests, as I'm suggesting, then we give it up.

200
00:24:16,084 --> 00:24:19,287
Of course this makes many people unhappy, displeased.

201
00:24:20,389 --> 00:24:22,271
This is what is meant by the disadvantages.

202
00:24:22,912 --> 00:24:24,233
So the Buddha said there are three things.

203
00:24:24,253 --> 00:24:30,420
There's the gratification, then there's the disadvantage, but most important there's the escape.

204
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:32,142
the escape from these things.

205
00:24:32,322 --> 00:24:40,692
You don't need to depend upon sensual pleasures, even beauty, even nature, even flowers.

206
00:24:41,413 --> 00:24:43,556
You don't need to depend on these things for happiness.

207
00:24:44,777 --> 00:24:48,762
You can be far happier when you let them go.

208
00:24:48,782 --> 00:24:57,893
Your mind is far more free and independent, not tied down to this or that.

209
00:24:57,873 --> 00:25:02,050
not subject to the whims of reality.

210
00:25:03,576 --> 00:25:06,347
You find your mind is unshaken when things change.

211
00:25:07,542 --> 00:25:30,917
So this is the importance of seeing these illusions, seeing the truth of these illusions, the truth of the body as being an illusion and all of the things like flowers and beauty as being just a sequence of events and seeing them for what they are because that's where true happiness and peace lies, from being free from our need, free from our partiality.

212
00:25:33,260 --> 00:25:35,863
So this is what is meant by the practice.

213
00:25:35,904 --> 00:25:40,069
The final part of the verse is where you go beyond the king of death.

214
00:25:40,169 --> 00:25:43,253
And this is a little bit of explanation needs to be made here.

215
00:25:46,898 --> 00:25:57,833
Because Mara is the king of death means he's this, whether you believe he's real or not, it could be just a simile or you could think of it as just a simile, a metaphor.

216
00:25:57,813 --> 00:26:00,958
for all of our existence.

217
00:26:01,398 --> 00:26:07,347
Our attachment, our sensual craving is what leads us to death.

218
00:26:08,890 --> 00:26:09,991
You say, but everyone dies.

219
00:26:10,072 --> 00:26:12,535
But you see that one death is one thing.

220
00:26:13,497 --> 00:26:24,293
But the fact that we die again and again and again, the fact that death is something that we have to deal with ad infinitum.

221
00:26:24,273 --> 00:26:41,640
is what is meant here our craving is what keeps us coming back for more again and again and again and so to go beyond this we have to give up becoming we have to give up our attachment to experience this is what is meant by nibbana

222
00:26:41,620 --> 00:26:45,345
So this is something that is probably the most difficult.

223
00:26:45,845 --> 00:26:51,652
Reaching all the way to the end of the Buddha's teaching gets quite difficult because it's the most frightening.

224
00:26:53,134 --> 00:27:01,705
Well, we can understand giving up our attachments, that's okay, but the idea that when you give up all your attachments, you don't come back and get the things that you're attached to,

225
00:27:01,685 --> 00:27:04,029
Very hard to understand because we're so attached to them.

226
00:27:04,490 --> 00:27:05,411
But this is what it means.

227
00:27:05,612 --> 00:27:09,839
It means that in the end when a person gives up, they really give up and they're free.

228
00:27:10,641 --> 00:27:12,324
They don't have any reason to come back.

229
00:27:13,325 --> 00:27:21,820
So we don't have to... I think this is not something that's easy to teach or something that really should be contemplated by people.

230
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,224
You don't have to accept this.

231
00:27:24,905 --> 00:27:31,935
All you have to accept is that you'd be better off not clinging to certain things and that can be very coarse things that you see are harming you.

232
00:27:32,516 --> 00:27:41,049
Because once you give those up then you'll see clearer those subtle things that are harming you, that are causing your suffering and so on and so on.

233
00:27:41,069 --> 00:27:42,711
It will be more and more subtle.

234
00:27:43,079 --> 00:27:46,605
until you are convinced that you're better off without clinging.

235
00:27:46,665 --> 00:27:50,912
It doesn't have to be an all or nothing and you don't have to subscribe to the teaching.

236
00:27:51,213 --> 00:27:52,455
Buddhism isn't about faith.

237
00:27:54,578 --> 00:27:58,926
The more you practice, the deeper you see and the more you want to practice.

238
00:27:59,006 --> 00:28:07,200
The deeper you want to go because you see the next thing, you see more subtly those things that are causing you harm on a more subtle level.

239
00:28:08,081 --> 00:28:09,103
So that's the...

240
00:28:10,484 --> 00:28:12,246
correct way of approaching this.

241
00:28:12,787 --> 00:28:21,817
What it ultimately leads to is being free from death, not having to come back again and again and again, which some people seem to think would be a nice thing.

242
00:28:21,857 --> 00:28:23,959
And well, yeah, maybe I can understand how that would be.

243
00:28:24,740 --> 00:28:26,322
You could think that a few times.

244
00:28:26,862 --> 00:28:35,732
But I think for most people, if we're honest with ourselves, we wouldn't really be happy having to come back

245
00:28:35,712 --> 00:28:41,441
But there's nothing you can say because infinity or eternity is not just a long time, it's eternity, it never ends.

246
00:28:41,541 --> 00:28:43,164
So there's no choice really.

247
00:28:43,665 --> 00:28:55,003
Eventually you either keep doing this, keep doing what isn't all that meaningful in the end, in the end it's completely meaningless.

248
00:28:54,983 --> 00:29:04,389
When you have goals and you say, I'm going here, I'm going there, and you get them and then that's it and you do it again or you don't do it again or you go the other way and you try everything.

249
00:29:04,409 --> 00:29:08,721
Once you've tried everything, eternity still hasn't come yet.

250
00:29:08,942 --> 00:29:10,005
It never will come.

251
00:29:09,985 --> 00:29:14,252
So the only option is to stay or to go.

252
00:29:14,272 --> 00:29:27,353
And eventually a person who cultivates understanding will eventually give up and let go and be free.

253
00:29:27,333 --> 00:29:29,359
So that is the meaning here.

254
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:31,063
That's the teaching in this verse.

255
00:29:31,084 --> 00:29:32,227
This is verse number 46.

256
00:29:32,287 --> 00:29:34,954
So continuing on.

257
00:29:35,556 --> 00:29:40,951
Thank you all for tuning in and I hope that this has been instructive and is useful in your meditation practice.

258
00:29:41,533 --> 00:29:46,928
Look forward to our next talk.