Ajahn Kalyano | 29 March 2018

so and I'm very happy to be here and how Eli temple brother Ken taking us around showing us the new building the opositor home which is very inspiring new building you have here for the monks and also for the laity to make use of in the future it's a good opportunity for us just to come together to listen to the Dhamma you've done some chanting and some meditation when we come to listen to the Dhamma it's for say to remind us about the way of practice in Buddhism or if you know already maybe just to further deepen your understanding give you some pointers to how to practice the Buddha always said his pact practice and his teachings are for liberation liberation from suffering and ultimately from the round of rebirth samsara but to understand how to free ourselves from suffering and from samsara we have to turn our attention inwards come back to ourselves regularly through our practice for our lives so this is why the practice of Bologna or meditation it's very much at the center of Buddhist practice I think you all know about the practice of Dharma practicing generosity sharing what you have practicing kindness father's forgiveness for others this is something that we have often brought up whether as Buddhists and practice regularly we know about this what's a little harder is the practice of sila learning to live in a virtuous way a moral way in our daily lives where we're not following any intentions which may come up in our mind to harm others through our speech our actions we're consciously refraining from that any intention to harm oneself or others this is the practice of sila we know about that maybe we've heard about the practice of the five precepts for many years now but it's still a practice we have to constantly review every day how is speaking how we're acting interacting with the world even harder than that is the practice of Bologna requires more effort because our minds and trained for many years now we've been in the world we've let our minds go according to our moods our desires [Music] affected by the experiences we have every day some Pleasant some unpleasant our mind is constantly reacting to the different experiences we have with pleasure with this pleasure and so we talked about practicing for the end of suffering and liberation from samsara but that really takes place in our mind where is samsara located were really it's within our own hearts and minds and the process of birth and death and the arising of suffering passing away of suffering it takes place in our mind so this is a place of actors for power now we practice with our speech erections of course but we also need to learn how to refine our awareness and our understanding to come to look at our own minds this is why we come to places like this to get some guidance and support in our practice of our whanau because often it's helpful if we learn to meditate with others with a teacher and with others because our tendency is to just follow our moods and when we come to train our minds in meditation well that will come out so when you feel like doing it you might do it for a while you might say all today I feel very enthused I want to meditate for an hour sit and then another day you'll sit down and in a few minutes you say oh I'm so bored or so Restless I can't do this and you just stop that's the nature of our mind if we let it go according to moves and desires and it's not very stable not very peaceful my teacher Lumpur Chow used to say our mind is really it's a bit like a wild tiger and we're living with a wild tiger all the time sometimes it growls and sometimes it becomes very fierce very emotional sometimes very passionate sometimes very destructive that's the nature of the untamed human mind so the Buddhist practice and particularly practice of our line is learning how to tame our mind through our own efforts so tonight you're all the lion tamer or the tiger tamer tiger isn't all bad sometimes they talk about the tiger states you know emerging economies where people are working very hard to earn a living and develop the economy and they have a certain power and strength to what they do so probably the practice of bow and I was learning to harness the strength of our mind to build up strong qualities of mind that can help us help us to understand the truth help us to release us from our own slavery you might say we're bound to our own emotions our own attachments our desires and to break free from them you need some strength and how do we get that strength where we get that strength through regular practice and particularly regular practice of meditation nowadays you see in Singapore everybody is much more aware of fitness so we're more interested in diet and exercise we go walking and running and cycling which is good it improves our quality of life and our physical well-being but we shouldn't stop there and we should also put effort into mental fitness mental exercise and the mental exercise we develop in Bhavana is in a human way is the opposite of physical fitness physical fitness is generally about using your body moving the body strengthening the muscles through movement and exercise and so on mental fitness for about an hour is about learning to still remind quiet in the mind so it's the opposite because normally our minds are very restless very agitated because of the power of our accumulated desires and attachments you know it's very little very difficult for our my justice it still be still with itself even though physically you might be sitting here not moving around physically but mentally your mind is still moving all the time you hear a sound and the mind goes to the sound you have an itch you start thinking about the itch you have a memory pop up about something you were doing earlier you start moving towards that memory you smell the smell of the nice food being cooked out in the depth in the marketplace maybe your mind moves out with the nice smell and that's the nature of the untrained human mind is always moving its Restless is agitated and this is where stress comes from and ultimately this is what binds us to birth becoming to samsara is this movement that we can't stop we haven't got the strength of mind and the qualities needed to stop it or change it so Bauer now especially in the beginning is something we were learning to to do and it requires quite a lot of effort and some discipline some effort and motivation and that comes from our faith in the Buddha's teachings when we come to the temples that we see the Buddha statue is sitting there and the Buddha statue is always very serene sitting still it's giving us a teaching straight away when you come into the temple you're reminded that our there's also this part of life the serenity of life the stillness the quietness of our hearts this is something that's important as well because of course when you go out to work in your day it's the opposite isn't it you go to work you're not thinking about serenity and stillness you're thinking about what's the next task what's my next duty my next job I've got to get to someplace do something that tends to be our more normal experience as human beings you know we're experiencing always moving on planning doing things and we even feel guilty sometimes just to sit still like a Buddha statue at work you'd feel guilty yeah you've worried that your manager will come along and say why aren't you doing anything what's your output for the name and what have you done today did you complete that job I gave you yeah that's the way we're conditioned but when we come to practice Bower now we're adjusting a little bit and we're seeing that stillness is something that value it's valuable to practice being still calm and serene maybe not all the time but it's a quality we need to develop more of in our lives to counter this endless mental proliferation and attachment to activity why is that is because the attachment to activity and doing things wears as hell mentally and physically as well why why do we become stressed in life why do we become mentally agitated through anger jealousy worry and all the different kinds of mental suffering we have as humans it's because the mind keeps moving and if we honest we can also see we don't always have such great control of our own minds on the outside we've never admit that if you went to work and told your boss I can't control me or my mind you'll be worrying you lose your job so we're not fully honest or when we're at home you wouldn't tell your kids actually my mind is all over the place it doesn't sell well in our society but when you come to practice meditation you have to be honest and the starting place is to be very humble and say oh my mind is still agitated he gets stressed it's still pray to its desires emotions otherwise if you can't admit that or see that then there's no point in practicing is that you have to come back to a sense of humility when you begin practice so we have a very famous phrase that a Buddhist master once coin is in the beginner's mind when you come to practice meditation your you must develop or hold on to this beginner's mind and again that's maybe something that our culture around the society around this doesn't encourage you know again we don't like to go out and tell our friends I'm just a beginner I don't know anything it doesn't sound good we like to be someone who knows something we know what we're doing yes we have knowledge we're an experts you know that's what we're striving for in our life and true in a way we are striving for that in meditation as well but in order to gain knowledge and experience we have to be first of all we have to recognize we're still a beginner when you so to be humble you might say is the beginning of spiritual practice and particularly meditation and that's okay you know it's quite all right to begin your meditation with the feeling I don't really know anything because that will lead on to effort wanting to know you where does real knowledge in meditation come from it comes through the effort to bring out mindfulness awareness and wisdom and understanding they say if you if you're meditating and you'll begin with the attitudes I know I already know everything then you're like a glass that's full of water you can't put any more water in our class that's already full if your mind is full of knowledge in a sense you have that conceit that I know then you're not going to be ready to learn anything fresh so the the attitude of being one who is willing to learn and learn from our own experience is the starting point you might say I'm Buddhist meditation we have our teacher the Buddha who was all-knowing we call the whatever SAP Anu Buddha he was all-knowing through his efforts in the practice we are his disciples so we have to start from this place of not knowing ignorance but when you realize that you don't know you start to know you start to learn from that very point from that very moment so when we come to train our minds in meditation we have to develop this very open attitude we're learning from our experience and often it's very useful to set aside everything that we we've remembered it long before least temporarily bring out with a very open mind and a certain curiosity just to learn from our experiences we made a change agent char used to say in the beginning of the range retreat in monks and nuns they do a three three months range retreat every year in monasteries all over the world are here as well as everywhere else at the beginning of that three months meditation retreat as inch are used to tell the monks get all the Dumber books all their knowledge and lock it up in a cabinet it's just encouraging everyone to set aside all their preconceived ideas and about what is a about their lives in the world because when you come to many things you're really focusing in on the present moment and your place of learning is just the present moment how your body and mind is in the present moment right now and even though our memories and the knowledge that we have is important you also need to know how to set it aside so that you can deepen your understanding of what's there this body this mind as it is and you also need attack me some something to hold your attention because our mind is 10 tends towards restlessness and agitation all the time we need something to hold our attention you might say an anchor so we have our meditation object it may be the breath the breath is perhaps the most universal meditation object them not only Buddhists but many other traditions use as well and it's something that we all have we all are breathing anyone who's not breathing is probably not here they're dead already so where we all have the breath we can all use it for our meditation but you can use other techniques as well many others have talked about by the teachers and in the text for him for this not evening maybe I'll just talk about the breath so if we are using the breaths as a meditation object the breath is nothing that you're creating it's not something you have to go away and find it's nothing you have to purchase it's just what we have normally everyday we're breathing in breathing out all the time so it's a very suitable object for meditation but again it's something very subtle and it's not immediately attractive or it doesn't give you that maybe the immediate confidence I or if I spend the next 30 minutes watching my breath what good will that do me you might have that down to rice what can I learn from just following the sensation of the in and out breath it doesn't immediately sound like something very useful for you but it actually is maybe that's the first hurdle we have to get over in meditation just our initial doubts about the technique what what good is the breath this is really useful for me we also have to go beyond our doubts about ourselves and I really watch my breath for 30 minutes aren't I gonna get bored or what happens when I'm Restless want to do something else and we have our own doubts about ourselves so that's where we also in the beginning of meditation often we recollect the Buddha our teacher or a living teacher someone like a jet shower any of your teachers that you've encountered sometimes you just remind yourself of the words of your teacher to help give yourself the confidence that to direct your mind focus your mind to what you're doing and the Buddha practice anapanasati or breath meditation himself on the night of his enlightenment so he's already got a seal of approval or guarantee we like to have guarantees when we buy something well when you practice meditation you've got a guarantee the Buddha has already become enlightened following his breath so say for me that gives me a sense of them this is something useful there must be something in it if the Buddha became enlightened following his breath it's worth trying isn't his worth finding out so this may reflecting like this may help you get over some of your initial doubts about meditation we have a very good teacher and a good tradition of many teachers since the time of the Buddha who have used these techniques then we have our self our own willingness to try our faith maybe we've had some insight or some sense that we've noticed our stress and our our mind is maybe not very peaceful in different situations in life so now we have an interest I want to experience more peace more happiness so we have our own motivation as well so that's your starting point and the breath will is here we're all breathing now so we can turn our attention to the breath when we practice meditation and surprisingly you might find if you practice this regularly you gain some of these qualities I was mentioning earlier about how to strengthen your mind strengthen your ability to be aware of an object practice mindfulness clear comprehension develop some states of serenity or what we call Samar team and even develop some wisdom and understanding all from watching the breath but you have to try it it's just the same as exercising your body maybe your friends is let's go to the gym and do some exercise weightlifting or use a machine then you might have your down I don't think I can do it so you have to at least try before you dismiss it just try it some people they say I can't meditate you ask them have you tried in it no never trying or how do you know that they say I just know my mind is too busy I can't concentrate if you can't concentrate very well your mind is very strange to agitate it that is the very reasoning why you should try meditation if your mind is already peaceful you don't need to meditate of course your mind is not peaceful therefore you meditate that's why we practice so don't let your own thinking put you off your doubts your worries your concerns some other people I want to talk to from Singapore they said well I was told if you meditate maybe you just kind of float away and then you'll die well I've never met anyone who who died meditating or floated away so you know maybe that legends had a starting point once in the deep distant past but recently I've never heard of it happening I don't think it's dangerous to meditate to be honest I think it's more dangerous not to meditate because when we don't practice mindfulness our mind is like this tiger it goes all over the place every day we are like a victim of our own moods and emotions and if we are honest we have to say oh I do get stressed worried angry so not meditating is really the problem when we meditate of course obstacles come up when you start to practice meditation straight away you'll have sensations in your body aches and pains you notice it is some people find nearly they come to me and they say I started meditating and since I meditated I started having some pain in my jaw I get a headache or something in my body as some pain in my stomach and they often are blaming or tributing knees to the meditation but often what's happening is you're just becoming more aware of your own body and mind and of course you notice various pains different sensations some of them are stress induced some of them are just you know the aches and pains of a human body just normal so you have to be a little bit patient with that when you begin meditation you know except there will be some aches and pains come up unusual sensations the same with your mental state some people say I can't meditate because I'm thinking too much too stressed I can't concentrate really what you're doing you're coming to be aware you're seeing what's there all the time so perhaps you could look at it in a different way as a oh I'm thinking too much to meditate maybe that you should stop and say oh because I think so much maybe I should try harder and do more meditation because my mind is all over the place we have to see the value of it and be willing to push through some of these initial difficulties our own resistance sometimes we feel shy of it or lazy or we have our doubts so you have to be willing to stick with it bring up patience and accept it will take time to train the mind you can't you don't always get instant results some people do you go on a meditation retreat and there'll be somebody sitting next to you who said I had a really blissful meditation a very serene you think why they're not me easy well you sometimes you have to just practice what we call moody turn Moody tell for the people who are seem to get quick results but don't worry about that there'll always be someone else who seems to get quicker results than you a more peaceful they can sit longer they don't have so much pain that's normal just be able to accept the way you are your peaceful okay you're not people okay develop this kind of acceptance and you'll be able to meditate better of course we have our different moods will come up and that's what we're learning from as we meditate the technique is very fairly simple learning to pay attention to the in and out breath so watch our teacher used as they try and find the feeling at the tip of your nose and it's just that feeling you breathe in it's a sensation as the air goes in you breathe out as a sensation as the air goes out and it's quite a subtle feeling so might take some time before you can find this so often we encourage you to take a few deep breaths when you begin your meditation breathe in breathe out to find that feeling the sensation of the breath but after you've done a few deep breaths to establish awareness and you just let it go this natural pace what many people find this they do want to control the breath they're so keen for a result they're keen to get concentration get some RT that they really you know they scrunch up their forehead they bite their teeth together and they sit in a very kind of tense way and they determined to stick with the feeling of the breath and a very quickly they become uncomfortable because they're trying too hard and their mind becomes maybe so focused they're forcing it into one place that it becomes unhappy and it wants to resist it wants to desperately get away from this practice of meditation really it's not the meditation as the problem is this the attitude of wanting to get a quick result wanting to control them very quickly so if you notice that happening well maybe try to relax a bit just bring up a more relaxed effort the other extreme which is also very common is that we are too relaxed and we've been thinking a lot in our day mentally very active solving problems doing our job going here going there that when we come to sit meditation we do want to relax so very quickly we just nod off fall asleep we let go of our thoughts we relax the body and the next thing you know where we're drifting into sleepiness so we tend to have these two general experiences where either tried too hard too tense or we're not trying hard enough we just drift off into sleepiness so one of the first things we have to learn how to approach the meditation with balanced effort how to assess our own effort and sometimes you that means you have to have a conversation with yourself it means you actually need to comment on your what you're doing just like you know when you're with kids teaching kids or getting them to do a task you you remind them what they're doing and you help them to learn what they're doing whether they're doing it right wrong we have to do that with ourselves you have to learn how to talk to ourself in our meditation but this is talking with an ending in sight it's not just aimless talking just to pass the time which would lead on to more restlessness of mind this is actually what we call wise reflection the Buddha's word the only soul monastic RA means learning to use our thinking mind intelligently wisely to assess review remind ourselves what we're doing ask ourselves what am i doing now am i doing you correctly what's going on in my mind right now sometimes we have to do that it's learning to become more fully aware of ourselves in the present moment so we have the practice of mindfulness which is basically remembering or recollecting the breath from moment to moment then we have the practice of wise reflection or we also call it clear clear comprehension some hachaliah developing this ability just to assess and know what we're doing being aware is it correct incorrect am i trying too hard to lit all my stuck in some way or am i drifting off thinking about something else and we might have to develop this ability through our meditation because our mind doesn't just stay in one place for very long we will find we can be with the breath for a few moments and then off we go thinking about something again you need this quality to be able to catch the - oh no no this is not the time to think about what I'm gonna have for dinner later what I'm gonna do at work tomorrow this is not that time this is the time to focus on the breath listen you need that voice to remind you direct you back to the breath not to be distracted by other things yours only that voice to tell you am i trying too hard maybe just relax or if I'm relaxing falling asleep sit up straight somebody has to be guiding your meditation so that guidance partly it's mindfulness partly it's your own intelligence your wisdom and then you'll get better at it as you review your own practice you're going along you're noticing what's happening and you might do this at several points through a meditation session you have set for thirty minutes or one hour you may come back to your own meditation periodically another very good technique you can use is just to take a few deep breaths every few minutes or after 10-15 minutes because so often we're just drifting away being caught up into train of thought about other issues and the other issues take over the mind then you notice oh I wasn't with the press how do you reestablish awareness we'll just stop take a few deep breaths consciously breathe in breathe out and then carry on and your aim is to follow the breath each breath in each breath out and you might have to do that a hundred times in one meditation session that's good you're training yourself every time you do it and you're willing to do it you're training yourself to bring up more mindfulness more awareness and you're letting go of the habit that leads to more mental activity mental proliferation worries or sleepiness whatever we have to be willing to train the mind so it's like a kid learning to walk yeah when you're a kid one two years old you want to walk you see other people walking all you have in your mind is I wanna walk right then you walk three steps and bam you go down and maybe you can hurt yourself sometimes but kids generally they don't care do they straight away they're out they want to walk again so they walk a few more steps and man they're gonna be they're determined to learn how to walk and almost nobody has to push them they just want to do it you have to develop that kind of motivation for yourself I want to develop mindfulness I want to develop understanding the same as the Buddha so even though my mind runs away every three minutes he's gone I have to bring it back that's okay you're learning to walk or you're learning to meditate using the breath so we have to develop a number of different qualities in our meditation practice ability to keep putting effort in over and over again picking ourselves up when the mind gets lost or distracted we have to develop patience with our Restless mind with ourselves with our bodies we also have to develop loving-kindness meta for ourselves because if you really want to improve your mind you have to love your mind what is value your mind value yourself often that's another obstacle in the beginning of meditation you know we often feel we're not such a good person don't deserve to be happy don't really deserve anything like who am i little old me often we have low self esteem from other issues in our life and then when we meditate we bring that in and so it's almost like we're giving ourselves an excuse not to practice not to try without I can't meditate I don't know anything but really we have to get beyond that as well we have to learn how to really love ourselves respect ourselves as a human being often we can have a feeling of respect and love for others especially come closer people and family friends but we also have to have that same feeling to ourselves as well equally if you really want to train your mind you've got to have a sense of you want to care for your mind it's something valuable if you want a comparison world like a child say you're a parent you've got a child you love your child so you're willing to train your trial child go through all the difficulties when they get annoying you're willing to give them when they're lazy you're willing to tolerate them get them to do what they have to do when they see you look after them you know with a child it's very automatic when you meditate is the same kind of quality but now directing back to yourself so sometimes there's a resistance where you feel we I don't deserve this kind of attention I'm no good we can do it fathers we can but for ourselves often it's harder so part of meditation is also recognizing you need to improve as a person you need some good qualities some love some support and it's not wrong yeah really if you're really going to help others yours I have to be able to help myself it goes together it's not separate so that's another doubt that people have sometimes they say meditation is too selfish you know often on your own with your eyes closed you're not helping anybody you're too selfish it won't bring any good for yourself or any others but if you're really gonna help others you're also going to help yourself if you're going to understand others you have to understand yourself if you're going to be in peace with others you're going to be at peace with yourself and where their conflicts in the world arise is actually inside ourselves so understanding that you know it's not being selfish to meditate it's not being self-centered it's not indulging yourself to meditate it's actually doing something which will be a benefit for everyone and you only have to ask people are you know how to see the result say like very simple one regularly we get people come to our monastery to learn to and mom or dad learns to meditate and they have many other duties in their life they have children they have a job a few months later you ask them how's it going Missy it's alright but often they're very shy because they don't feel like the meditations progressing so shy so you ask someone else in the families you ask the kids you say how's mums meditation going they said I was really good she doesn't lose her temper someone's Oh mum doesn't worry so much anymore mum is more relaxed more calm you hear this kind of response over and over again the people around the meditator are benefiting and they know they are they happy that's the you know the living proof of that meditation practice does help us it's not just our own self noticing any benefit people around us not just a benefit so then you can definitely be confident it's not something that selfish self-centered or indulgent it's something that will help others around you have a knock-on effect in your jobs there you go to work if you're somebody who meditates maybe you can do your job better you can concentrate better you're more relaxed with other people and ups and downs of life the stresses of life maybe you deal with it better the more you've learned to meditate so this is another doubt we have to get over the meditation is selfish you know waste of time or something like that as you're meditating you know these doubts will come up you have to learn how to wisely reflect look at them understand them and then set them aside so you need some loving kindness for yourself as a human being need the patience you need the faith you need the effort probably the last quality you need it's essential is is wisdom it goes hand in hand with the practice of meditation often you hear people say I want to meditate so I become wise so I know and it's true you might say the completion of our meditation practices the arising of wisdom and understanding but you use wisdom at every stage you use wisdom in the beginning just the very thought you know noticing that you have some mental stress suffering and saying I should learn to meditate that's wisdom as well may not yet be complete wisdom but it's the beginning of wisdom when you recognize there's a problem there's something I need to do that's you're on mind growing a little bit you're becoming more aware of your own the nature of your own mind and of course that kind of wisdom will grow and develop a you meditate through experience if you meditate say once a day for a year just for example if you're willing to come in you say I have faith in the Buddha so for this next year I gotta meditate at least once a day they guarantee at the end of that year you'll be wiser than before his real wisdom comes from studying learning about ourselves on the inside not just on the outside that's the way of the world and of course worldly knowledge and wisdom is important we need it Wow it's limited what's in the books what you learn in university what the skills you learn at work and not yet relating back to here your own mind there's a distinct sort of separation and you can you know develop all kinds of knowledge of things in this world science technology the economy anything but here you may still be not knowing much at all a wisdom out there is not yet wisdom here so this is why meditation is very important for getting gaining some real wisdom on number one how to pacify your own mind because that's what we want we want to be more peaceful more happy so the kind of wisdom knowledge you're gaining through meditation is it's understanding particularly as you meditate them say using the breath you come to understand a few simple truths very quickly and that's one many meditators very quickly come to understand is they start to see the changing nature of their mental activity the waste thoughts come and go feelings come and go feelings of pleasure pain happiness irritation pleasure displeasure they come and go memories come and go since we say sense consciousness you know seeing hearing tasting touching since consciousness arises passes away perhaps the most common insight people have as they learning to meditate on the braces they're coming to be aware of how transient their own thoughts are and this is a very liberating kind of knowledge why well you may have experienced this already you may be you've been stuck in a mood for a while you come home from work very stressed angry about something worried about something there's something you want you haven't got yet you come home from work and that's bothering you but then you go on meditate and you start putting effort into following the breath what happens to those thoughts you start to see the changing nature of your mental landscape the thoughts in your mind you may have certain thoughts coming up you know worries or anger but also you start to notice gaps the thoughts come and they go they're there for a while they pass away maybe you experienced a little moment of peace that you're meditating and then those thoughts return but you're starting to see the reality that your thoughts such as thoughts just we call the mental formations Ankara's they arise they're there for a while they pass away feelings are just feelings you know sometimes you have some pain in your body but then you're meditating over to the breath for a while after a while the pain disappears maybe later on it comes back again maybe the pain is in your knee here for a while you think it or not this pain then it disappears then you get a pain in the other knee hold on half an hour ago it was this thing you know is this the yes it's what we caught an e-check you know feelings are a teacher they arise they pass away they're in permanently change thoughts are in each one moment you're obsessed with that guy in the office that you're really annoyed with and thinking about them all the time and then you're meditating for a while and suddenly if he's got those thoughts have gone and you're now thinking about you know what you're going to do for your holiday next year you're noticing these changes because now you're becoming more aware through the meditation practice this is what we call wisdom insight you see more I thought it arises it's there for a while it passes away it could be a very good song it could be a very angry very unpleasant song very sad sore but they all have one thing in common as they arise they cease what arises must cease because that's the nature of the world isn't it this is one of the wisdom truths that that would have pointed to that anything that arises must cease you don't have one thought in your mind all day long that's a delusional sometimes we believe it we think oh I'm very depressed today maybe that's the most common thought that comes up through your day you sort of keep returning to some problem in your life you keep thinking and it makes you feel depressed but as soon as you practice mindfulness you notice actually it's just coming and going it's a feeling then it passes maybe later it comes back mindfulness starts to expose or show us the reality of our experience of the physical experience and the mental experience and we're seeing or everything arises and ceases there that passes away just since the beginning of today this morning how many thoughts have you had tens of thousands ISM in you let's say I'll get up oh I must brush my teeth or I must make my breakfast or I must get the car oh I got to do that job endless thoughts through your day if you added them all up now at the end of your days tens of thousands of thoughts you've had some of them are very ordinary just what am I gonna do next some of them are very full of emotion so I know somebody tells you off get very angry maybe that sticks in your mind a long time because the emotion is strong the feeling is strong or maybe something very good happens maybe it's your birthday and somebody takes you out for dinner and gives you a present your very happy maybe the happiness lasts for a long time thoughts and emotions they're very closely linked and they may come out very strongly or very briefly that's just a moment but you're noticing you know through your day all the thoughts coming and going that's giving you some understanding that later you can use that you maybe later you are in a situation where you become very stressed keep thinking about something you can't let it go but then you remember it's just a sort and these thoughts that come and go are seen in a hundred times before when I meditated now I know they're transient they're a teacher that gives you maybe the mental strengths and the insider that one will just have tropics letting come so this is where your experience liberation it may be something very ordinary you just you know you're obsessed about something that's been bothering you for a while but then you realize them it's just a song so the horizon way let it go and you have some feeling of freedom from that another insight is perhaps a bit deeper but leads on from that is the insight into an ATAR not self we can also see that just watching our thoughts come and go as we meditate on the breasts another thought comes it goes what is impermanent you can't really label or identify withers yourself can you because it's gone so say you're very angry you see your anger come up but then you see it pass away is gone you're not really angry it's more like it's just a transient mental state filling your mind for a while comes many colors and if you are ever mindful enough to see that even after the event sometimes it's after the event no you're going agree then it went away but you see it with mindfulness on its past it's gone you're aware of the cessation the ending of that mood that's thought yeah that's an insight you can use again the next time maybe the next time you're getting angry it's starting to bubble out you say oh this will pass - and maybe very quickly it passes because you already you're seeing as temporary straightaway as it's arising you know it will cease in the end your mind may be again it's very clear it's like that's just a thought it's just a mood it will pass and you don't take it so seriously you know grab onto it so tightly so monks often talk about letting go this is the practice of letting go in in in practice you may be having enough insights a mood comes up it's disturbing you but you know it's impermanence you just allow it to pass away of you and you keep doing this you get better at it this is where your strengths of mine comes the strengths of mine to establish mindfulness and the strength of mind developers inside to let go of what you were cleaning too that was causing you suffering so just like going to the gym and getting fit running lifting weights physically mentally if you meditate everyday you're gonna get mentally stronger brighter happier and you have this skill at seeing things that are impermanent and ultimately are not really you you don't have to cling on to them you can let them go you know first letting go can be quite daunting frightening you think what if I let go what have I got left there's no me there's nothing left but if you do it a few times you realize what it's liberating brings you happiness relief you don't have to carry a heavy weight around you know all these mental states these attachments that we cling on to in our mind then they cause our suffering because they feel heavy if you could describe it you guys ain't a mental heaviness all your desires what you want that you haven't got all your reactions to things your impulses passions you have you know these are all heavy and if you add them all out it's like a heavy weight on your mind all the time as you're becoming more insightful aware of their impermanence little by little your mind is slightly stepping back from them we say becoming more detached having this sense of detached awareness knowing oh it's just another mood another thought and with that you get a sense of relief letting go brings a sense of relief brings a sense of happiness it's not that it means your mind your life is meaningless sometimes people have that concern they think oh if I see impermanence in everything then there'll be nothing left to attach to this what's the point it's all impermanent I might as well just give up is true you might think that but when you're actually practicing it it's not like that when you practice letting go there is something left that's understanding is the mind is clear and he understands these things that should be like oh of course they're the cause of suffering now I'm not suffering so what's left is happiness peace of mind brightness your mind is improved that's something you have to experience through the practice as an idea yeah maybe it doesn't sound so income so great if I let go of everything it's all impermanent what am I gonna have left yeah you might think like that but actually when you practice it you feel very relieved very peaceful and your mind doesn't need so much you don't need so much physically the Buddha didn't need anything did he he was somebody completely abandoned all his attachment to your wealth fame fortune all the things that we need to keep us happy in the world he didn't need any of that because he had this understanding he said ultimately these things are all impermanent and they're not self I don't need to grasp onto them anymore and identify with them somebody was telling me the other day and now people are having a they're doing a new practice they're liberating themselves from Facebook they're deleting their Facebook account I say oh I feel so relieved now and maybe that's a you know that's a small step towards liberation is amazing things that we attach to sometimes we have to learn how to put them down put your phone down put your Facebook account down sometimes we go on retreat we we learn to leave things behind first it's not easy because we are so attached but as you gain more insight you realize you can let things going it's not the end of the world your world your life won't crumble when you let go you actually feel very happy what it releases a lot more energy and understanding you can actually do more things for the world for yourself fathers the more you let go it doesn't lead to inactivity you know become a rock just sitting there you don't know what to do in life anymore it's not like that but to let go you have to practice you have to taste it for yourself it's not something I can just tell you or let go and you'll be happy you know it doesn't work you have to practice it so you have to see where you're attaching and see the suffering that comes and in practice be willing to practice letting go sometimes you know we're attached to our our wealth to practice letting go you do practice down on us letting go isn't it letting go of people there was recently in the monastery where we live that husband and wife came and they said we're having so many problems always arguing so I said maybe you need to practice letting go of each other to find happiness go on a meditation retreat but not in the same place one goes to him one goes there after your meditation retreat you come back together how is it so much better if you cling on you then generally have more suffering that many more arguments or worries when you feel this heaviness of clinging when you separate sometimes then you appreciate each other better you can see the dammit clearer so then your relationship you prove so letting go is sometimes it can help us more than we realize sometimes you let go of something then you can see it with a new perspective when you're just clinging on you can't see it clearly we'd say you can't see the wood for the trees you know you look more you clean them or blind you are so sometimes it's in our own interest just to let go this is a mental thing doesn't mean to say you necessarily have to let go of your family or your house your job whatever you still might do those things have those things it's a mental thing where you're letting go of your cleaning that's coming from blindness lack of awareness lack of understanding so I've talked a little bit about meditation tonight some of the qualities we need some of the qualities we gain from meditation [Music] maybe I'll just finish the formal talk there and wish you all success in your own that my practice for the future but before we finish can also give you a chance if you have any questions I'm happy to answer any questions you have [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] of your family you who passed away [Music] you've answered the question we can make married for our family for our parents for our family members and what would if they were here what would they want from you they would want you to be happy they wanted you to live your life in a way that will bring you happiness success to make merit and we can also share our merits back with them we honor and remember our parents our grandparents all the people who've helped us by being a good practitioner putting effort into our practice and that can often be us you know strength of mind again it can give us energy when we remember that ones we love were passed away rather than just sitting without grief and just feeling sorry that at the loss we said now I must go on and do more good we also remember that we also must die they've died I will die too my time is sure my time is limited I must use it well so you have to turn the situation situation around to develop some skillful qualities of mind this is making marriage this is why Buddhists say when somebody passes away what do we do when we arrange funeral services we invite monks to child to teach we make offerings of course there's the sadness of separation of loss and you everyone will have to experience that but you use that to motivate you to go on and do more good don't be lazy don't just sit there feeling sorry for yourself imagine if your you're the loved one was right next to you they wouldn't want you to be sitting there crying they'd want you to go on with your life and do good so we have to [Music] [Music] where is the one mind that we're training so it's the one mind that is mindful or is the one mind that is not mindful it's just moment to moment things change according to what we're doing with our line so when we lose our mindfulness then we become caught up in two streams of different kinds of calais so we say the hindrances take over the mind take us away from the present moment and from awareness when we consciously bring up mindfulness clear comprehension then we're back with the present moment we're training the mind so it's an intention these are sang what we call shankara's it's the intention to bring up mindfulness be aware of the breath the English word awareness well sometimes we use it interchangeably with mindfulness sometimes we use it together with mindfulness and clear comprehension sati in-sample January stop Harley so Sam Virginia means sometimes all around knowing all around awareness so it's slightly different from mindfulness which is literally recollecting the object paying attention to the object to the breath all around the way this is the ability to know that the breath is going where it is you know it's coming it's gone out the breath is long breath is short it's a sort of broader understanding of what you're doing at that very moment but they're working together and they allow wisdom to arise as well because this mindfulness and clear comprehension are developed and sustained they become more sustained then wisdom can function because normally our wisdom faculty is a little bit weak because of all this movement of the mind and wisdom itself often involves movement following the movements of the mind you know we don't do it very well when there's not much mindfulness but as mindfulness becomes more sustained we start to experience some stillness some car some continuity of awareness so then we can really see and know what's going on so wisdom can arise them so they work together these different qualities but they're all in the same one mind it's just when they're trained well then they'll be there often all the time or most of the times are there when they're not trained so well they're there sometimes and then they disappear again other qualities take over you're often more negative more wholesome qualities take over we need to struggle to bring them back again work hard to bring the mindfulness the clear Cobra engine back again but if you keep practicing when we get better at it mindfulness is improved mindfulness itself is just that ability to concentrate on the present moment so one famous teacher in Thailand Lupo Buddha dasa and yeah Buddha dasa he used people used to ask him this question all the time how much mindful is do I need to practice alma and he would say you need as much mindfulness as you as you need to tie your shoelace just enough to stop tie your shoelace properly and carry on that's all you need and we've all got that so we naturally have the raw material the resource that we need we've already got it just we haven't trained it enough normally our mind is very scattered we think of one thing and then we think of another and then another and another so we get very mentally tired diffused dispersed our mind mindfulness is scattered around so we don't see a lot of the truth we believe every thought we get caught into every mood we get deluded by things very quickly very easily but as you practice more mindfulness you're getting more used to coming back to the present moment your mind more still when you're still you can see you can know so in short we need to think of it less thinkin that discursive way that I might Wayne think of less and be more mindful this will bring us knowledge understanding well as we focus on mindfulness on the breath saying your mindfulness your attention is becoming narrower and narrower to one thing the breath so naturally the sensations are normal awareness of the body becomes less because you're in one point so maybe you becoming more one pointed on the feeling here for example breath breathing in breathing out your awareness is there so your awareness of other parts of the body is less and it's a great rest to the mind it's kind of pulling back from its normal attachment to the body so the heaviness of the body starts to fade sometimes that's all in one go so it seems like the whole body has disappeared sometimes it's just parts of the body and this is depending on the refinement of the awareness the mindfulness not just the heaviness of the body will disappear sometime you you're no longer thinking about sounds and noticing sounds you could turn to what listen to the sounds but you're now so fixed with the breath that you don't notice sounds you don't notice sensations in the body so this is usually very pleasant the body can feel like it's just very light or you can just disappeared so much we have tears hair stand on on in sometimes we have feelings waves of energy going up and these are examples of what we call pity or rapture and if you meditate regularly well you may experience them regularly first there can be a cause of doubt what's happening why can't I feel my hands or my legs but if you practice regularly you realize there's nothing to worry about they're just the signs of the bodies and the mind are coming down during the meditation and it doesn't have to distract you because at first it can be distracting disturbing but over time you become more used to just focusing on the breath and you you notice how at the moment the body feels very light or it doesn't maybe you're not very peaceful yet so the body still seems very heavy you just notice and you don't worry too much about it if your mind becomes very absorbed with the breath or in the end that's all you know it's just the feeling of the breath sensation of the breath and you may still be aware of the body but now we call it the breath body is this a very light awareness of the the breath as if all around the body because the breath is all around the body is in all our cells and it flows through the blood as well as through the lungs so you will get these different experiences as the mind becomes quieter concentrates more on the breath your main aim is just to maintain my mindfulness with the breath and it may even get to the point where the breath disappears seems to disappear from your experience so you're just noticing that point where the mind is aware the breath the movement of the breath is now gone you can't feel the body much you can't feel the breath all that's left is just the knowing or the breath has gone again you just keep your awareness with with the mindfulness with that sensation the breath is gone and carry on continue on there if you were to contemplate maybe at that point you start contemplating the body you actually consciously turn your to contemplate the body maybe the unattractiveness of your own physical body go through the 32 parts or the corked contemplations or the four elements you actually turn to develop that based on the calm that you've throughout with the breath you now turn to contemplate the body and condor blame the three characteristics so the impermanence the unsatisfactoriness and the lack of self in this body may be from one of the four elements may be one of the corpse meditations when may be one of the 32 parts of the body this is something you have to explore the more you meditate this is where you're with wisdom faculty will deepen as you calm the breath then go on to contemplate the body to see this body is it's not a self it's another person a being it's made up of four elements this is how your meditation might progress [Music] yes that's very common this to down these experiences when they first happen what you have to do is maybe recollect the Buddha or your teacher they've practice like this there's no danger here there's nothing to worry about this has been the cause for them to be enlightened practicing like this so your mind becomes a little bit more confident stronger and in whatever happens even this experience of the mind dropping over a cliff or going down letting go of all kinds of sensations and feelings of thoughts he won't be afraid of that you you'll be willing to stick with your meditation object and the mindfulness and whatever experience arises as you just noted in the end it will be just another experience it arises it passes away it may give you some insight some lasting insight but it won't be harmful the important thing is not to build it up into something very special in your mind that tends to happen we either like you say get frightened or worried by it or sometimes we think oh I've had a special experience now I have had this special experience I am somebody special I have a special meditator it can give rise to certain conceit or self-importance in the meditation so again you have to be on your guard not not to give in to that way of thinking you just want to keep your awareness just to know whatever happens happens and not to give it too much importance or label it build it up into something special be yourself this has happened and maybe someone off experience it doesn't happen again maybe it happens again regularly but just notice this like this when the mind is very refined the mindfulness is very strong it's like this and then later try not to create a new sense of self around whatever experience you have because again that could be an obstacle in your practice the short the brief answer is mindfulness mindfulness of an object will overcome all the hindrances in what go but sometimes it's very difficult to establish mindfulness because I mind this stubborn kilesas are strong hindrances of strong so you often use wisdom and wise reflection to help so each hindrance will have its antidotes so saying talked about doubt no worry often worry is about the future things that haven't happened yet and we have to start questioning our worries as they do I really need to worry about this it hasn't happened yet I can't know this the porch I used to say if you're worrying a lot of think about this just think if this is my last night in this world this is the last day that last night I'm going to leave these things I'm worrying about do they really matter you know what I'm gonna do next year doesn't matter anymore if it's the past things that have happened in the past that you keep going back to worrying about your agitated about them teach yourself these are finished they're over I can't fix the past or change the past the best solution is actually drop the past and focus on the present moment and do my best in the present moment you may leave various reflections like this to cut through restlessness agitation that comes up sometimes to be very firm if I was to die tonight that's the end of it you don't need to worry about this anymore it depends on the kind of problem that you can use these kind of reflections to help if it's sleepiness you need to arouse your mindfulness an antidote to sleeping sleepiness is maybe focus on a candle open your eyes get light focus on a candle because when you're sleeping you tend to close their eyes and drift off so sometimes you'd open the eyes sit up straight sometimes we do other things we charmed if we sleepy we chant for a while arouse energy by focusing on the words of the charm the meaning of the words until energy is aroused then we go back to maybe the breast meditation sometimes we do walking meditation if we can't sleep sit because we're too sleepy where we walk is that the more creative solutions we can find you know what I always like is them monks used to put a little cup paper cup in water on the handles you don't want to get sleepy because if your head drops you wet yourself once you wet yourself ones you don't want to get wet again so then you stay up straight and awake the Zen tradition they have a monk come along and tap you on the shoulder with a bamboo just to wake you up so you get the idea you're finding skillful ways to awaken out of your sleepy habit so you have to see what works for you anger well there's different reflections obviously the most commonly used one is loving-kindness the antidote you're angry with someone find out a way to bring up a thought of kindness tolerance towards that person think of their good the good that they've done they work hard to think about the good that they've done because of your mind when it's angry or any thinks about the bad things what's wrong same with yourself you know if you're angry with yourself think about some of the good you done bring up the sense of acceptance of your faults and your weaknesses and a sense of kindness to yourself it's anger towards in material things situations maybe you have to consciously remind yourself to accept you the world is imperfect the weather the different situations that arise to be patient with them tolerant of them so sometimes wise reflection is needed sometimes it's a feeling you know you keep thinking of with anger he'll will you have to pull your mind back to the feeling of loving-kindness consciously bring that out if you do it regularly it's easier isn't it if you regularly do a meditation on loving-kindness when anger arises you're quickly able to go back to loving-kindness because you're familiar with that theme the feeling that way of reflecting if you never do it then you're it's like oh I should be mindful of loving-kindness now I'm angry what do I do if you've never done it before it's difficult to practice it it don't wait till you're angry to practice it practice it regularly even when you're not angry because it's easy then you do your loving-kindness reflection and you really have to have that feeling it's not just an empty intellectual reflection it's a feeling as well so the Buddha said find that feeling it's like a mother's love for a newborn baby so imagine what that feeling is you don't have to be a parent to have that love or that feeling yeah you can have it but you have to work on it bring it out and make it familiar to you so you can quickly turn to it drop the anger see there the suffering of anger or when I'm angry I'm suffering yeah that clear in your mind so then you quickly want to drop those angry sores you don't want to give in to anger because you know you're suffering and I'm gonna go there often you can see anger rising step by step thinking about it the more you think the more anger you angry you become so cut it off quickly this I'm not gonna think that way you find what works for you the hardest is sexuality attachment to our five physical senses and then all the memories and thought proliferation internally about them and we love to follow our senses you know we love to think about beautiful things usually it's the opposite sex you know visions images of the opposite sex but not alone it could be a car clothing beautiful things we lie that my dwells on them fantasizes about them could be smells tastes touch any of our senses will stimulate us depending on our mood and our habits so you have to find the nd don't contemplate impermanence however beautiful attractive it is it does not last the feeling of pleasure doesn't last it's there for a while then it comes away so it's not satisfied that pleasurable object nice food a nice image a nice sound music or whatever it doesn't last so you're gonna invest all your happiness is something that doesn't last or are you gonna recognize you with mindfulness honestly this doesn't last it's impermanent I can let it go you let it go you ain't you can you can do something better a higher kind of happiness the happiness of inner sight singing impermanence so it's not that letting go of means you've got nothing left you've actually got something better left than before or sometimes you have to be tough on your Jose if you have a lot of last you have to bring up the reflection on a Sukkah if you have a lot of attachment to food we contemplate what happens to food you eat food you digest it becomes unattractive immediately saliva digestive juices then it comes out the other end as poo reflect on that you know that's that's what you're looking at that's what you're thinking about you're bringing wisdom to the mind where you've seen the whole picture rather just one bit of the picture which you really like your nursing but there's also this other side you know we don't like to do it because you know it used to be with pleasure with beauty with what we like seeking so you have to gradually educate your mind in a new way that's dealing with the hindrances but you have to see what it brings you to somewhere better a higher kind of happiness it's not didn't I always start saying well I don't get pleasure food off of the things that I I last for that I am attracted to there's some pleasure there but in very temporary a very coarse and it's an attachment which leads to a lot of suffering if you can free your mind from that attachment you'll be much happier so you motivate yourself that way and of course when you're peaceful in meditation your mindfulness is constant your mind becomes more serene more still you know you're well you can always control other people or authorities so they in a workplace you might just have to let them decide if somebody decides to get the exterminator in that's their decision and you might have to just accept that but in your own difficult you try your best to keep the precept because you know the precept is something you keep through your own experience recognizing the value of giving up the intention to kill which often is not the most convenient solution to the problem you know if you're not going to kill then you may have to practice patience find some other solution which is more costly time consuming and sometimes it's like that but if you're ready training your mind to give up unwholesome intentions you'll see the value of of the preset more and more in your life and of course there will be times when you're challenged and challenging situations arise and you have to try and use your dama your understanding your personal practice in that situation so people do face even things like you've described and some people very powerful face their character is very strong in faith they go home and they charge and they meditate and they spread matter to solve this problem without killing the animals or the intersects and sometimes they get good results as well some people use wisdom they just think and think until they work out a way to solve the problem without killing it's a challenge that you've set yourself you say I want to keep this preset because I know if I break the precept I'm giving in to this unwholesome tendencies it's creating karma suffering for other beings you're improving your practices you you're you take that as your starting point how can I keep the precept in this situation and you work from there sometimes maybe out of frustration you'll give in and you give in and you have to call the exterminator or whatever your aim is always to keep the precept and you work from that point outwards like in the monasteries we have plenty of bugs and creatures but we're willing to solve the problem without killing so you learn ways of prevention like if if you have ants in your kitchen keep your kitchen more clean it's put more effort into clean you have all the crumbs and so on if you have a building with wood in it that termites may come from or find ways to prevent the terminals getting into the building without killing them you just do your best to to solve the problem with the intention of preserving life if you can that's your aim

Channel: BuddhaDhamma Foundation

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Length: 87min 15sec (5235 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 06 2018