Ajahn Brahm Q&A - Dealing with depression; Difference between Vipassana & Samatha

my first Teesha he told me to do you get up in the morning you do go to bathroom he said marvelous he says in your bathroom is her mirrors and of course there is and so he said even before you go into the cubicle please look at your face in the mirror and smile at yourself and I said to my teacher at a time smile at myself I'm a student I stay up late at night in a morning I'll be afraid to look at myself in the mirror let alone smile and he said do it and if you card manager normal smile he said get your two fingers put them on the side of the mouth and push and I had enough confidence in these teachings to actually do that for two years without missing a day doesn't matter how and those days and I was not a really good Buddhist I was drinking and we're going out with girlfriends later the night was sorts of naughty stuff but doesn't matter how I felt on in the morning I go in the mirror put my two fingers up and I see this silly young man making a face in the mirror and I would smile and the guy in the mirror would smile and I would smart even more and the gardener Miller was smiling and what even more and then I start laughing and the guy in the middle was start laughing I'd laughed at myself every morning for two years that is how to overcome depression such a simple thing to do get up there look in the mirror and push then you can see that's where now my face has got stuck like that the last place to get stuck but that was wonderful because sometimes in depression you only see the two bad bricks in the wall the terrible things in your life all the things was going wrong or do I don't have to get up to God it was a point of going to work you have to really stress out they pay but it's never enough money and whatever you get the government gets most of it and if they don't get it somebody else does and if you have anything left I can promise you to make a donation so you've got nothing left oh it's just what's the point of going to work I might as well stay in bed and after how you think like that of course you get depressed but you see somebody funny smiling at you in the mirror and that's yourself and you laugh that turns your head around and makes look another part of life which is always there and that is basic cognitive behavioral therapy which you might have to pay hundreds of dollars for if you go to see a therapist and you come here you get it for free it's wonderful to do that so that's one thing you can try try the finger method if that doesn't work we feel heavy when you wake up in the morning get one of these beds with the springs so you set the alarm clock or whatever you go back and the longer the spring goes up and pushes you out a bit to the head best like that yeah that'd be a great invention you know for getting up early in the morning either that or just turns around and just throws you out of bed at a certain time so you can press eat the button say six the rock in the morning it says I know I don't really want to get up six o'clock then you've rejected out of bed like the ejector button in an aircraft now that would be very very good that's the best way to get you up so that's what I would do anyway as for meditation of course meditation gets rid of depression simply because remember what I said yesterday two halves of the mind the knower and the doer because we do so much we've got hardly any energy left for knowing mindfulness is so dull anyone who's depressed you know you know what it's like food even the most delicious food it's got no taste to it so the beautiful colors it's all just darlin pastor even music even ajahn Brahms incredible jokes anything is really horrible and rotten and this is this is the reason it's because you know that your mindfulness is so low so doubt you've got no mental energy but what happens is that when you start to be still energy starts going on into the mind it increases and increases and colors became bigger begin to become vivid smells sounds become more interesting everything becomes alive again because you're putting energy back into this the knower and one of the reasons one of my theory is why there is so much depression these days is because people have to work so hard you struggle so much just to survive in today's world now you do much more today than you did last year much more last year than you did ten years ago you work so hard and sometimes you have to struggle so hard you get frustrated it means you put more effort into it and you get really really deeply profoundly tired which means your mindfulness is not up there anymore you don't enjoy things anymore things which you found beautiful inspiring before they don't sort of do that to you anymore you're dull really low energy state and that's reason why a little bit of meditation you literally wake up energies come up and the things which you couldn't enjoy before you start to enjoy again depression vanishes so that's a wonderful thing to do is just to do meditation good of cognitive behavioral therapy just smiling at yourself now really tasty well depression here we go please explain we pass on our meditation there was this couple partners and they were both meditators and one day after life they decided to go for a walk together they decided to go for a walk up samadhi mountain meditation mountain and the partners the guy was called Sam Sam utter and his partner was called vy5 asana so Sam utter and viper sana went up meditation relatives will walk and of course they took their dog with them and that dog was called meta meta the dog so Sam vine meta the dog went up a walk on meditation mountain now Sam set up that mountain because it was so peaceful and calm up on meditation mounted he went up there for the peace by passing her she went up there for the view she took her camera with her to take some beautiful shots you could see everything on top of bypassing the mountain I wouldn't let her go up there for what did dog they just do it for fun dogs are so much wiser we have to have a reason to do something and dogs they just go there for the fun of it the joy of it so the three of them went up there met her Sam and VY and itthere only got halfway up the mountain it was so peaceful Oh Sam was already happy even halfway up sigh she was already taking lots of shots with their camera even halfway we could see long distances you know the view the sights was amazing I met her the dog the more she went up that mountain the more she was working her tail like dogs do when they're happy and by the time they got up to the top of meditation Mountain sad Wow sorry credibly still out there so peaceful Sam was just so happy but Sam had a pair of eyes as well he could see the view and vie his wife she was taking one shot after another shot it was incredible just what you could see up there on top of meditation mat you can see everything the whole universe almost laid out before you just there to see and understand but she could also appreciate the deep peace and Metta the dog just like dogs do and they're really happy they're running around wet how wagging back was gonna fall off at any moment Mehta was so happy but even metal the dog she too could feel the peace and she had eyes too and could see the great view because the meaning of that story is on top of meditation Mountain yes there is stillness and is also the insight and one thing people forget is also the compassion the kindness the joy because those three things coexist on the top of meditation Mountain it's not just Samhita and weep a sauna that is just so dry intellectual hard what about Metta - so Sam Atari personal matter they all come together on the top of meditation Mountain so you may be thinking I'm just doing better meditation I'm just doing saboteur meditation I'm just doing with passing a meditation but it's all the same mountain the more we personal you do the more calm you get and the more kind you get if it's a probably personal but some we pass no teachings they don't make you kind they say take the smile off your face just be mindful oh god that's really tell she's got to be mindful I'm not allowed to smile and not allowed to be happy but real insight as I said the Buddha was a happy muck the Buddha smiled the monks in a jaded way of smiling and happy so that's what happens when you meditate so the three of these things all coexist so you may think you're doing we pass the meditation we also doing saboteur and met at the same time you made me think you're doing saboteur meditation but you're doing repast no and met at the same time everything you don't matter but you're doing some it'll be pass at the same time the three them all go together for goodness sake and for those of you who have gone to these places and talk to all these monks and they say saboteur that's anapanasati we pass honor that study putana that is what I call go my yang I'm going to teach you a party word today go my AK go means ball bu double L my yang is the stuff which comes out of the backside of a ball and they're there you know well go by Aggies and I get into trouble cuz I jump rum yeah I know we love you we know you're wise but please don't keep saying those naughty words and so I okay I will not say you know the BS word so I call it go my yang no use party what is a on amok so when they say anapanasati is Samhita that's go my young they they say study but I'm to be a person that's another bunch of go my young look at the other part Assadi suitor when the world one night magic minicar you just read it there anybody anybody who completes anapanasati also complete society putana anyone complete steady pattarna fulfills of seven enlightenment factors you become enlightened it's exactly the same anapanasati equals sati batana so said the buddha and he's a boss if he says it you can't argue so Samhita and we passing the same the trouble is in today's world we have no what I call the spiritual materialism said Moton that yesterday my meditation is much better than your meditation what do you do I do samhita thats just get you stuck you go do we passionately personal video anyway now we passing this not the only way you got to do them to get now that's not the only way you've got to do method now you go to item Brad Smith and now you're gonna do Patrick Smith now you got it is someone else's method that is real go my young let people to like that I say how many retreats have you done for I've done 20 retreats man and Anna and I I'm fortunate I've seen that in Buddhist circles please don't get into that sort of rubbish summit are we personal matter or go in the same direction so I don't know what meditation you do because you may say you do we pass now and I know you're doing sama to and met at the same time if you do met on a to assembly person there if you're doing we've set a summer to you're doing the person you're going to get insight just it happens as long as you're doing Eightfold Path that's what I care about pay for price is a way to environment how do we cultivate and sustain happiness in our daily life thank you just keep this into a jump um he can you always sustained happiness in your life that's one of the troubles in today's world you're always supposed to be happy and sometimes as a monk even if you're not happy you have to pretend to be happy I'm a monk I feel tell I don't I really fed up but I still got a smile even though I really so that book good bad who knows it's also been clear Bengali American edition an American edition know what the title of my American edition of good bad who knows is I think he probably it's not supposed to be but you probably find in some book shops here in Australia it is don't worry be grumpy that's entitled don't worry be grumpy and where that came from was there was this Indonesian girl she's very famous now only her name is because she was she gave rise to one of the great stories in that book because she was on one of my retreats and after three or four days she came to see Amelia trees are filled terrible so what's wrong said I was supposed to be happy but I'm not I feel grumpy I feel awful now there's all these other people smiling that really know pisses you off and so I said just hang over I hang on for a moment so she sat there and I went in the office very quickly turned on the computer and I printed out the first of the grumpy licenses this was on a monetary letterhead paper and it said this certificate this license grants to the the undersigned I thing for one and coffee or one name was permission to be grumpy at any time for any reason or no reason in particular for the rest of her life signed a jumper up it was a grumpy write ins so say you are you can be grumpy now he got permission signed for me but she looked at that and she laughed her head off and that was the end of her feeling miserable see that psychology she felt miserable she didn't want to feel miserable she felt guilty about being miserable so I gave her permission to be miserable then she was invisible anymore you understand psychology so if you try to be happy every day you will get miserable trying to be happy thinking I must be happy that is really a bummer so don't try to be happy usually psychology allow yourself to be miserable today I feel rotten I'm going to be one today I'm gonna be miserable yeah I demand my right to be miserable he did that because I was taught a lot figure yourself I know your misery goes away it's trying to be something you're not that's called suffering setting yourself open the door of your heart to who you are how you feel right now that's freedom so so simple so don't try to be happy everyday people who just expect everyone to be happy or they cause so much misery in this world so I've got to be busy will be miserable I give you permission you know when I said that and I told that story this retreat in Germany some years ago and one of the monks was supposed to be looking after me put that on his Facebook page and the next day I had about 80 hour grumpy certificates I had to sign because there one said I want one - yeah me as well I want one what is grabby certificates I was giving it a habit anyway there we go please conduct a guided meditation at the end of this retreats oh if your karma is right it will happen if it's not no way who knows I don't know the future is uncertain see what happened now no people did ask me that do a meta meditation we've done that before so the end of this retreat I'm going to do not a meta meditation a grumpy meditation so think of all the people sit down close your eyes think of all the people you hate I'm thinking all the things you're going to do to the math words so that works much better than make you happy and you won't get depressed after took a okay baby how come one wanted to his or her progress when practicing on a partner studied meditation spots would explain the steps how you can monitor your progress because sometimes people come out of me said I'll go into this stage that stage this stage that stage no I don't listen to them I look at the expression on their face if meditation is working you've got a happy bright face I call it the mouth indicator if the bottom ones are turned down no you have it be practicing properly even horizontal that's not good enough if they're turned up at the edges pretty good more turned up getting there really right up here good you're making progress because otherwise it's just intellectual please remember this is deep teaching the path of meditation is an emotional journey not an intellectual journey you find your way into the deepest meditations through emotional skill through feeling your way in never through thinking your way in and sometimes you're trying to think our way through trying to work it all trying to understand it intellectually stage-by-stage just like it was some experiment in a chemistry lab meditation is not like that you feel it you have this emotional sensitivity you know your mind is getting peaceful peace is an emotion or the thought pretty suka the joys of meditation that's incredibly high emotions and people already mentioned in some of the questions yesterday that sometimes you get excitement and fear and that's only just a part of the emotional power of these states and if you're not skilled at handling emotions it's emotional powerful states scary states if you don't know those emotions will wait to weave your way through those obstacles you'll never get into deep meditation it's not a question of thinking about it it's actually feeling it even something like peace sometimes that I'm amazed that a word like peace you can all spell it you probably know it in two or three different languages but how many people know what it really means your peace it's an emotion you can't really describe it that's why many of these things you need a poet to actually to paint a picture what peace is not a physicist so you need to feel it and when you really feel it you get it and you notice it can grow and so you do need a huge amount of emotional skill and knowledge of that world to develop deep meditation you have to feel your way in don't think your way in so sometimes the progress and apana Ceti stop progress at all its ingress you're going in and you know how deep you've gone by how much is vanished body vanish great so time vanish no past no future you're getting somewhere thoughts vanished brilliant breath vanished now you're riding high then nimita vanished now you're getting somewhere so that's how you know how you go by not how much you've achieved but how much has vanished is that disappearing that's why it was edge of a Maori who he got some of some of the best talks I've given to the monks transcribed amid heated them put them in a book and he chose the up the title art of disappearing now that brilliant that was a I could have got a better title than that the whole practice of Buddhism is about not gaining more things but losing things vanishing which is why I did write you write I like to preface myself another forward and a forward I would say in this world is someone calls you a loser that's usually trying to upset you but I say if someone calls me a loser I say sorry Silas harder thank you that's a great compliment because as a mark we're supposed to be losing more and more things you know we lost family we lost girlfriends we lost our money we lost all our possessions you know as a mug we lose things and if you become a so one you become in those stages of one of the biggest losers so do you want to become a biggest loser so become a so on and the biggest loser in the whole world was the Buddha himself he was the biggest loser he lost everything so so my advice to you is please get lost and that's what I stated before the last words of my last words to or please anybody reading this get lost so we do it we're losing everything losing our attachments losing all our ideas of dis attainments we're losing things disappearing vanishing that's the part I jump a nestled understand five aggregates to become enlightened if you don't understand that before you would understand them afterwards fire backwards it's just another way of looking at the body in the mind juris and they're good ones because each one of these five aggregates that's where most people think they exist the body are you the body is that yours is it people say no I've read that in the suitors I've heard it from the monks but ha ha ha when the doctor says your cancer is irreversible you're gonna die within a couple of days it's our money 26 unfair what do you mean unfair the body doesn't belong to you you only realize how much attached you are to your body when you're about to go and I always like mentioning dr. case freedom and under he was so anchor man lived in Malaysia because I knew his doctor and the doctor told me and it's common knowledge for many people now that when the doctor told him his cancer was terminal this nothing more they could do he was going to die soon this mark when he heard that news burst out laughing that's a muck you're gonna die yes can you do that there's been many doctors here we've had a patient you say I'm sorry but the the biopsies come back is terminal there's no possibility of you living before another couple of weeks and they laugh and they pudgy a yes would you do that if you understand the five kandar's and the body nothing to do with me you would punch yeah yes at last bring it on two weeks kind of make it one week doctor five days come on it's five days wait an hour your feelings are you happy are you saying they having a good time having a tough time is that you can you really control your happiness no you're gonna get sick even if you eat organically grown free-range carrots it's going to be free-range each day it's not putting carrots all close together that's like battery hence they believe you do yoga and run for my living warning people still die and a stick and they still suffer and they still get happiness so you'll find after a while your happiness and suffering are totally out of control that's why I have this picture in my room it's one of our Gen Charles poses and he saw this is a statue in a jungle dat asss monasteries in the south of China and it's a month expressing his enlightenment hands up right here now finally broken through finally another hour had a statue and a caption is joy at last to know there's no happiness in the world that's amazing it's so beautiful joy at last to know there's no happiness in the world there's nothing wrong with you you think oh okay I suffer sometimes and I must be doing something wrong I am tired depressed sometimes what am I doing wrong I jump ground please tell me what I'm doing wrong I'm miserable nothing wrong welcome to life happiness and suffering people come for marriage counseling say my husband's like this is like that so what do you expect but I've been this business a long time all husbands are the same don't ever think that you have a defective model living her exactly say you guys you think oh I'll just get rid of this one and get another one weird women it's slightly different I think I mentioned this on Friday night with women different chassis but the same engine that's what bad guys Oh guys I said I want a sort of new chassis a younger one but same so I mentioned inside the same name my toast it was wide you've got so let's say I made this you will find this is a lovely little understanding happiness in your life happiness it's just pauses between two moments of suffering when the suffering ends you're happy and have had suffering is when happiness finishes suffering is the space between two moments of happiness happiness is the space between two months of suffering I remember just some of the happiest times in my life finish school finish University and free now why is that so happy because all the pain of studying and doing exams weekend holidays we finish work why is that a happy moment because all the suffering of having to go to work how many times is it that the happiness it's just a result of all the suffering which won't be before someone wins see the Cricket World Cup why is that team happy only because of all the other teams who are suffering they've lost it's true and the more teams lose and suffer the happier is a team which wins their happiness isn't direct proportion to the suffering of others that's great to understand that so happiness and suffering they both come when you accept that happiness suffering they all come now you're going to be joyful now you're going to be painful that's just life joy at last to know there's no happiness in this world that's happiness and perceptions because we try and control our happiness and some people think if you give enough donations if you come to the temple enough then you go to heaven and be happy ever after and that whole idea of heaven of a place where you can exist with happiness forever and ever and ever and ever and ever never to me I soon saw through that that's impossible illogical you can go to any realm at or even a Buddhist world Pure Land the realm of the original mind or any realm happiness and suffering always have to come together you can't have one without the other no remember reading Christian theology at least someone was smart and they said yes in Christianity if you're a good person you go to heaven but one day a year everyone has to go to hell for a day otherwise they would not appreciate heaven that's so true if you didn't go to to hell for one day then of course you wouldn't appreciate the heaven you'll just be boring happiness is dependent upon suffering suffering is depending upon happiness you kind of one way up the other you can have just eternal happiness can't happen so that's when you understand of a dinner and perceptions Sagna do you understand the truth is your view the right view your Buddhism is that the best Buddhism or have you backed the wrong horse is if when you find out the terabyte of Buddhism wasn't the right one Mahayana was a lie one or maybe my honor Christianity was a lie one oh my goodness I backed the wrong horse all these donations all this meditation oh my god what's going to your perceptions you think I am light my view is how many times have you argued with people and how many times have you been wrong lots of times but you think you're right and other people along and other people think you're wrong and they're like it's interesting is now why do people argue so much reason is because I think I'm right and you're wrong it's obvious I'm right you know what I mean so that's when we get stuck on our perception our way of looking at things that's not you let it go your perception is only one way of looking at things and then we get to the big ones the fourth of the five Candice will and thought those are the two main ones thinking all that are they your thoughts are they if they're your thoughts you are stupid because how many stupid thoughts if you had basically 99% do you think they're yours and this is a simile which shows you what I mean how many of SE the guys have been watching cricket match and during the cricket match which is maybe the World Cup maybe that's what shellac was playing the worker maybe they're having a match in Sydney and you're watching it here in Melbourne and you're watching on the TV and then and then somebody hits the ball straighter hits the ball and somebody catches it and you say out how's that that's out why are you shouting for the match is in Sydney they cannot hear you here in that form and they say no it's probably recording anyway have you seen people shout of the TV set when they're watching a football match to a soccer match what about your girls watching a movie what you move you cry out look out behind you always I remember this when I was a student and I remember the movie it was tarantula you know we would just go watch stupid movies just for fun and tarantula it was this big spider obviously who'd been in some nuclear accident accident and mutated and being this giant sort of pathological spider would he would keep up on people and spare was it sting them and eat them really really spooky this was 1960s or something and then during the movie to add to his creeping upward and it was always a beautiful girl in any movie if you're a fat ugly girl you're perfectly safe you don't have to worry because the monsters and zombies whoever is they always go for the beautiful girls who ever notice that there was this beautiful girl and and tragedy was creeping up behind it and of course someone in the movies it was about 10 years old it's me they cry out hey look out tradtional behind you and the whole orders we cracked up laughing we would stop laughing it's a movie sort of quite it crying out for they can't hear you you've seen that and you've done that yourself now you understand why you get involved in thought it's exactly the same process this thought is like a fantasy like a movie and you get totally rolled in it you get excited you get enjoyable you get so much you get really into it so this is where we learn if we can only when we have thoughts instead of getting involved in it really getting getting engaged in it if you can think of the the thoughts or the or the our fantasies like a movie on the TV and your remember you're sitting in the couch at home it's only a movie it's only a sports match they can't hear you you are not at the ground you are not in the movie you are not in the thoughts if you can just separate yourself you find it so easy to let go of the thoughts they're not yours you're not inside of them you're watching from a distance that's a great way of detaching more your thoughts fantasies plans it is like movies and it's true many of those thoughts are just reruns of old movies you've seen it before so not mine so shut up and the biggest part of the Sankara for Kenda is your will did you really decide to come here this weekend did you or did you have no choice how many of you came here because you've been watching me on youtube you have been blown wash I him that I put the suggestion in you will come to this retreat you will come to this anything you made your decision sorry your will is out of control you think you choose how does advertising work people say that every dollar you spend on advertising you get $3 profits how does that work if you see these stupid advertisements on the TV you see them on the billboards next to the highways there's stupid adverse I just saw one the other day on the way to - I'm guy with his head in the sand cause he looked like he was bowing I thought he'd bow to put or whatever and it was no just don't keep your head in the sand by ing insurance or something how ridiculous but they do that because they know the message has got in there and the next time you choose insurance you think you're making a free choice sorry you're not you have been brainwashed you have been conditioned by what you've seen it gets into your head and with modern advertising they try and make the advertisement stupid juvenile they do that because you have this idea that I that's just too stupid for me to believe in no sensible person especially me would be influenced by that that is their trick to take down your guards using I'm not going to be influenced he gets in there for me I saw through this when I was a student because I saw this advertisement on TV for Saint Bruno tobacco in the days where we didn't know that the back was bad for your health I never smoked a cigarette but then his advert there was a guy and he was in a particular handsome guy just an ordinary young guy and he was walking down the street of some English town and he took out a pipe and he put the tobacco in the end of the pipe so Bruno tobacco and he lit it and as soon as the owner of this tobacco wafted into one of the shots there was this incredible beautiful blonde they don't have those in real shops but he happened she was really hot and as soon as she smelt the aroma of San Bruno tobacco she was charmed she was entranced she jumped over the counter and followed this guy waiting to do his every command and then it went past some green grocers is beautiful a brunette and she was just captivated - when does the newsagent a redhead and they had after about one minute this advertisement had the most beautiful girls in the whole world following this guy just because they could not resist the aroma of saying glue no tobacco irresistible to women it was absolutely ridiculous who would believe in that I boss of some food up it's a backup I went down the stree Island it's the only thing which bothered me was a dog no beautiful girls are supposed to be intelligent okay but that's how advertising works yeah you figure it's yours it's always manipulated so this is actually when you see I am NOT the person behind my will I don't call the shots there's no one else at the Buddha let's drive this bus that is shocking and your Buddhist you know this is how to put a talk you mean that I am not the person to make the choices and who does today I do but I jump out who made your choices at Jantar did he brainwash me where did that come from I don't Charles teacher where did that come what did that come from came from the Buddha where did that come from the previous Buddha goes round and round and round that's why the past day and a half I admit it I will tell you I've been brainwashing you and all you people who listen to YouTube how many YouTube talks are some of you heard of mine you have been totally brainwashed but it's good it makes you happy and peaceful so anyway the last kind of the consciousness are you the one who's listening to me right now what is his consciousness when you get into deep meditation you'll find no your consciousness fades away it disappears it vanishes until there's nothing left at all emptiness nothing there huh where's me you never we're in the first place and so you're not here now you won't be in the future you're Gone Baby Gone those are the five headless I got all these questions I've done two or three like a bit of keep going on each is a relationship between diet and practice if there was I'd be stuffed diet try a vegetarian diet health food diet whatever diet one thing I have known is in the time of the Buddha the Buddha didn't ban things because he know that one of the old sayings of Shakespeare one man's meat is another man's poison so different people have different foods and trouble would be monks especially this is the Thai tradition then he ties here over there no but anyway the Thai tradition they have this idea whatever you offer to a monk and that monk eats you get when you go to heaven until you get what I'm saying so they want to eat say durian they have to give it to me and I have to eat it not because I like it or not because they want a way to when they go to heaven that really sucks really doesn't work right that you make good karma it's like you make some money can in heaven you've got a bank balance you can buy whatever you want with that he doesn't have to just get some durian or whatever but one thing which I did notice I got this from when I went to visit and saw a video of a monastery this was a 13th century this Dogon one of the great founders of Zen and is incredibly strict monastery they get up at 3 o'clock in the morning they bathed in icy cold water they'd work really hard they'd have to meditate all day and if they if they got sleepy they get whacked on the back really fierce and very high discipline but the one thing which stood out they said the food now we make sure the food is delicious and plentiful what the monks like to eat and that stood out with all the other rigorous discipline why was food supposed to be just so delicious and the teacher answered is because if you eat food which you don't find delicious and tasty you get bad digestion and then I'll just remember my basic biology I'll give this experiment now for you close your eyes now think of your favorite food think of it like it's right before you it's almost like you can smell it can you feel the saliva coming out of your mouth now like open your eyes just even thinking about the food saliva comes out which is and all these other stuff in your tummy which you need to digest the food the more delicious it is the more these things are actually secreted which is why they get well digested and that is why people like Dogon and people like the Buddha said no everything else is quite so restrain but the food makes sure it's delicious what you like to eat and that's what I do as being avid of a monastery I try and find what the month like to eat and try and get that for them and then they don't have too much trouble with digestion when I was in sri lanka last time into the monks told me that summer like 60% of all marks in Sri Lanka have got bad digestion 60% because sometimes you just give them food you don't really look at the quality of the food and whether it's things they can digest which is one of the reasons they get sick so each one of you today when you're eating what food did you take you took the food which you liked because you can digest that you try for a week taking the food you hate you get sick that's one of the reasons a diet there's sometimes what's really good for us okay story of Ted Ted was this friend of my disciple no English from York was he Yorkshire yeah it's on the border goes on you Lancashire side the negative side of the border and many years good guy didn't smoke but still eventually got cancer did all the treatments nothing working there's going to die they sent him to the hospice and when he went in the hospice and only a few weeks to live of cancer the nurse asked him the first night what do you want to eat for dinner so said look I've got diabetes so nothing sugary or syrupy I've got sort of hard arteries so no salt I've got high cholesterol so I can't have anything sort of oily like that and the nurse doctor what are you talking about you're not going to die of cholesterol you're not gonna die of salt you're not going to die of diabetes you're dying of cancer in a couple of weeks you can eat whatever you like so what whatever you like already sweety as much salt as you like Wow and so he ordered the oily sweet sugary salty food which his wife would not let him eat for the last four years all the stuff he really liked after one week his condition had improved that much he walked out of the hospital went back home true story I was there six months later he went back again and died properly we had an extra six bugs enjoying himself rich what does that lesson teach you it teaches you that man doesn't live by bread alone you know it sometimes our happiness and enjoy if it's nice food you digest it so please be careful the diets don't forget it's not just physical food it's mental for it as well that's the best diet happiness could you give a bit of advice on how to walk the spiritual path successful you are meeting commitments of a laborious night doing your job taking care of kids paying mortgage etc number one downsize your house you know need a big house for goodness sake small house less mortgage more free times you don't have to worry about paying off the stuff and have less things I'll go in people's houses actually don't just have houses they also have storage sheds as well where all their rubbish they go and put in there why are you buying all that stuff in the first place for how many TVs do you need one for the landfill one for the bedroom one for the people have it in the toilet as well these days handing to go our TV in there in the kitchen and they'll get breakfast from what's the news it's crazy stuff just what one TV stuff and don't need a big one small one no this is Hinayana small vehicle small a cars then a big car get the tram get the bus I don't know why people have cars these days though now it's in London that they insisted no it's not like for a month ago on public transport so they insisted on taking me in a car a couple of hours late traffic we have got in the underground we'll be there in a couple of hours earlier in a place like London I can't see what the use is of having a car public transport is so good and in for you one public transport be okay in Melbourne I'm not quite sure things where you live why not get a bicycle good for your health nvm okay you got me there these carpool or do something so you know you don't have some and how many cars do you have in your family and because how many cars do you need to go to mbm one for the husband one for the wife one for the kids maybe he can downsize and laws that need so much stuff and then you don't need to work so hard you can retire young when you know how to live simply how much jewelry do you need come on what did we're telling jewelry for okay now when you're young when you're looking for a partner maybe just jewelry and expensive clothes once you've got him give it all away bad bad sometimes sometimes girls you could take the jewelry from your husband is a sign of affection that's why this car he was a day before Valentine's Day then he asked his wife what do you offer Valentine's Day darling as you can she said I don't need anything darling I just got you he'd been married long enough to realize that's not what she meant well cover I want to buy you something so she looked to him and said darling anything with diamonds in just some with diamonds okay he smiled I'll get you something with diamonds and a 40-day Fantan say he handed her her present she opened it up it was a pack of playing cards playing cards has 13 typewritten bits that's why you asked for so okay so taking care of our kids pay Mother's look at me how many responsibilities I have I have to look after my kids to you guys you're my kids my mug set my kids are my babies so go look after them and I got each of them not just not just boys now got girl kids dumbass our monastery whoo oh yeah you have to look after them but you can still do lots and lots of practice how much time do you really have my little thing before we have a break I thought I often notice what I call in-between moments of your life there's many in-between moments of your life you left home you haven't arrived at work here it's an in-between moment don't waste them other meditate or listen to a talk so don't go listening to the radio and wasting your time you're at a doctors surgery waiting for your appointment another in-between moment you've arrived but you have gone into surgery you sit down close your eyes and meditate the or just put the the dinner in the the oven another half an hour before it's ready another in-between moment sit down and rest relax there are so many in-between moments of our lives and once you recognize those in-between moments you can grab them you can meditate you can relax which means you make use of your time far more efficiently tomorrow I'm going to the airport they're going to take me there early just in case they don't want me to miss my flight and I'm going to have half an hour an hour sitting down waiting to the boarding call what do I do in between moment let's grab this and meditate there are so many in-between moments which we waste once I point that out you finally have heaps of time to meditate to relax to make the best use of your time so please don't waste the in-between moments of life and now we have 15 minutes of in-between time to go to the toilet take a break take a rest whatever

Channel: BSV Dhamma Talks

Views: 47,405

Rating: 4.8633881 out of 5

Keywords: Buddhism, Dharma Talk, Dhamma Talk, Buddhist Society of Victoria, Ajahn Brahm

Id: AjfzZaglP24

Length: 59min 3sec (3543 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2015