Ajahn Thanissaro Bhikkhu | 15 December 2017

it used to be that people thought that Buddhism was very pessimistic that talked all about suffering suffering suffering and nowadays people are beginning to realize that no the Buddha was actually talking about happiness he talked about suffering because he wanted us to understand that there is suffering in life but it is also possible to find happiness but the teachings all aimed at happiness but still many times the interpretation of this is quite pessimistic mother was teaching that things change that you simply have to accept the fact that things are impermanent things are inconstant things are going to be changing all the time as you learn how to accept that and be at ease with that then you'll be happy that's pretty miserable it gives the impression that there's really nothing we can do it that there is no long-term happiness in life there's no deeper happiness there's no special happiness in life that all we can do is just be very passive and just be okay with whatever comes up which is very pessimistic the Buddha actually taught something much higher and much of much greater value which if there is a happiness that we can attain through our efforts something that's special something that's not dependent on conditions is something that lies beyond just normal pleasures coming and going but lies deeper in the heart the idea that we simply have to accept that things come and go I think comes from taking the Buddhist teachings what you might call the Buddhist two wisdom teachings which are the three characteristics and the Four Noble Truths in putting the three characteristics first I'm putting a foreigner we'll choose after that mother was saying that that the Buddha says things are in constant or impermanent things are stressful things are not self in fact sometimes this is defined as what right view is when you accept these facts and then based on this interpretation they're civil of conclusions that people come to one is interpreting the teaching on not self as a no self teaching which is that there really is no self there there's no agent here you're simply on the receiving end of things coming in depending on conditions and you have no agency and changing things that's one one of the conclusions are strong the second conclusion is that suffering comes from not being okay with change thinking that you have the power to change things and you're going to suffer if you think okay change is going to happen just learn how to accept change I'll be okay that's the idea of what people are not suffering based on this is the idea of the clinging that clinging means you don't realize that things are impermanent and so you hold on to them hoping that they will be permanent but you're okay with the fact if you are okay with the fact that things are going to change then you're not really clinging they're just kind of erasing and lightly and then letting go but if you ever noticed the way people claim they don't cling always with the idea that things are permanent I mean to it the big thing is we cling to in life or food and sex right does anyone think food is permanent no does anyone think sex is permanent no we all know that these things are impermanent and yet we cling anyhow and the reason we cling is not so much that we think that they're permanent but we think that the effort that goes into clinging is worth it the Buddha says we cling because of the pleasure we get out of things and we think that the pleasure we gain from holding on is worth the effort that goes into the clinging and human beings are really bad at calculating what's worth the effort and what's not worth the effort I live in America and when I go out to then into the forest I go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and I have to drive through Las Vegas now Las Vegas is an excellent example of people not knowing what's worth it in fact they have signs on the road someone once said what he liked about Las Vegas was that it's very honest the signs say 93% payback rate you know what they're telling you right you give them $1.00 they'll give you 93 cents back and still every Friday night people go go go to Las Vegas every Senate at Sunday that the traffic jam coming back from Las Vegas is incredible we're very bad judges of what's worth effort in our lives there was once a positive psychologist you know the kind of psychologist who studies why people or how people can be happy or what they do to be happy and he began to notice that you ask people what makes you happy in life and they'll give a list of things and then if you actually interview them while they're experiencing those things I say are you happy and say well that's so happy and yet people will still say this is what makes me happy you can think about the meal you're going to have after this talk tonight I mean Singapore is a food Haven you have the whole world available to you and so you can sit here thinking for the entire hour well I'd like to think about maybe some pizza or maybe some cha-cha-cha food or whatever and you can enjoy thinking about these things for a whole and for the entire hour miss the Dharma talk entirely and then when you go out the eating is pretty short right it's very quick quick quick quick and then you go not much pleasure and so this psychologist was saying why is it the people are such bad judges of what makes them happy and then he thought about himself you'd like to climb mountains nothing has anything it's stupid it's climbing mountains you get to the top and they have to go down and there's a lot of effort that goes into cotton going to the top and effort that goes into coming down and he says while he was doing he realized he was actually pretty miserable but he came back and he couldn't wait to the next time he would go climbing them out so our clinging comes from bad judgment basically we think that something is going to be worth the effort and yet it's not really worth the effort that's what the Buddha's teaching us is basically to look at why we're clinging to things it's not because we think that they're going to be permanent but we think that the effort that goes into them is going to be worth it and so the whole purpose of his teachings is not to just tell us to accept things as they are but he says that the teaching is to figure out how to change our powers of judgment so that we become better judges of what's worth the effort and this is what comes from instead of putting the three characteristics first we would put the Four Noble Truths first the Four Noble Truths basically are based on the realization that yes we are active in our approach to life we don't just sit and receive things coming and we are more active and as a Buddha said all Tamas are based on desire everything we experience in life is based on desire one kind of another our sense of who we are our sense of the world around us is based on our desires I'll give you an example my older brother is an alcoholic and one time he came to visit me at the monastery and as we're driving from the airport into town we went past the one place in town that sells liquor now I had never noticed this place because I was not interested as soon as we drive past my brother says Jeff can I borrow the car tomorrow he said no I've been his brother long enough I know what he's thinking but his world is different from mine as I say if an alcoholic goes into a house they know very quickly where the alcohol is kept if a monk goes into a house they know very quickly with a dark choc that has kept our expense our sense that the world is dependent on our desires our sense of who we are is also dependent on our desires and what the boat is telling us with affordable truths is you have to look at your desires are they leading to happiness are they leading to suffering now we all know that the Buddhist is suffering is based on craving just craving for its sensuality craving for becoming craving for not becoming sensuality is what I talked about just now is thinking about sensual pleasures our fascination with planning our next meal our next trip our next whatever the central pleasure is going to be the problem is not the pleasure itself the problem is our fascination with thinking about it again you can think about tonight's meal for the whole hour and make different changes to what you're going to do where you're going to eat it but the meal itself is not so much the problem it's the Benham amount of time that's put into thinking about it as for craving for becoming the word becoming basically means your sense of who you are in a particular world of experience that's gonna be based on a desire but again if you have a desire for a pizza who you are is one the person who will enjoy the pizza and to the person who has the ability to get the pizza in other words you as the consumer and you as the provider that's your sense of who you are and then the world around you is what is going to be helpful in getting the pizza and once be getting in the way and anything that's not related to pizza is totally irrelevant in that world once you've had the pizza then the Nick wants the next desire okay you have other desires and there'll be a different you and a different world now sometimes you have conflicting desires at the same time which is why we think we have conflict inside and also have conflict in the world outside but basically this is what the Buddha means by the world word becoming and it's your sense of who you want to be in the world do you want to have that's that's the kind of craving that will lead to suffering then there's a craving for no becoming you get into a particular sense of who you are and you don't like it you want to abolish it and this right and then that's craving for it not becoming now the Buddha says we suffer because of these different kinds of craving but not all craving is bad is that the craving to gain awakening is actually part of the path the craving to get rid of unskillful thoughts in your mind that the craving to develop skillful thoughts in your mind this is all part of right effort which is part of the path so what the boat is doing is but the Four Noble Truths is teaching us to look at our desires realizing our desires are going to shape our sense of who we are the world that we live in and they can go in two very different directions either leading to happiness or leading to suffering now when the Buddha explained as part of the Four Noble Truths you can dine with get the desire the crave the three kinds of craving kill those are the cause the suffering that comes from the written as a result on the other side the desire that's part of right effort these two the end of suffering the end of suffering is the result so you've got four noble truths now out of those four noble choose each one has a duty the duty with regard to suffering is to conquer and in other words to understand it let's understand it so thoroughly that you finally don't feel any passion for it anymore we don't think that we're passionate for suffering but you look how people suffer again and again and again they keep going back to things that make themself suffer there's a passion there when the Buddha talks about craving he are clinging is basically talking about our addiction to things that we've suffered from before what we keep going back so soon so that's the duty there is to comprehend that the fact that there really is suffering in that clinging the things that we hold onto the dirty with regard to the cause is to abandon it we see the craving arise we shouldn't see it as something we should get rid of these are activities that we have to do our problem with these two causes is these two Noble Truths as we usually get backwards we think that suffering is our enemy craving is our friend and is that john surratt used to say no if you've got it backwards you have to see craving as your enemy and suffering as your friend a friend in the sense that you want to get to know it well to understand it and then when you understand it then it then you can go beyond it but for most of us we see suffering and we won't try to get rid of the suffering right away that's the wrong duty it's like going into your house seeing your house is full of smoke and you put out the smoke if you don't look for the fire you just keep putting out the smoke putting out of the smoke it's never going to end the smoke smoke is gonna keep on coming you have to find the fire that's what you let go of you let go of the craving on the other side you have the end of suffering and the duty there is to realize that you do that by developing the path something you actually have to bring into being so these are the four of Duty's we have with regard to the Four Noble Truths and when the Buddha taught the three characteristics one he didn't call them three characteristics he called their perceptions ways of looking at things the purpose of looking at things in these ways is to help with these duties for the Four Noble Truths in other words you see that they're suffering you want to see that this is the suffering is something that's in constant because it's in constant you want to perceive it as stressful and when you can perceive it as stressful you realize it's not worth holding on to as yourself in other words just this is a value judgment it's not worth clinging to it's not worth holding on to should let go of it similarly with the causes of suffering you see locate these things lead to something bad so you have to see them as inconstant I either undependable they're stressful something that you should not identify with you think of your mind like a committee and the see you some members of the committee you don't want to identify with as for the path okay you don't apply the three character or the three perceptions quite yet you actually trying to develop the path you apply the perceptions two things that would pull you away from the path for instance part of the path is virtue and as a Buddha said sometimes we are afraid to follow the precepts because we think we feel our health will be at stake or our wealth or our relatives in other Buddhists says you have to realize these things are impermanent if you break the precepts and then they take you down to hell you say wait a minute I did this for I broke this precept because of my mother I broke this precept so I could make more money and give it to my mother and what do you think the hell guardians were gonna say that's your mother's business you've got to go to hell we don't care how noble your motive was you broke the precepts and so say even in cases like that you have to say I can't lie for the sake of my health I can't lie for the sake of my wealth I can't lie for the sake even of helping my relatives you have to see these things as inconstant impermanent stressful things that you cannot are not really yours similarly when you're practicing concentration you apply the three perceptions two things that would pull you out of concentration things that would get in the way every discernment so you have to be skillful in how you use these three perceptions so in basically it's important that you see could the Four Noble Truths come first these three perceptions come within the context of the Four Noble Truths and so instead of just simply accepting things coming and going the Buddhist saying look at your desires there are desires that will actually lead to the end of suffering the desire for awakening is a good thing the belief that you can do this that that the Buddha calls actually kind of conceit like other people who do this pen can go do this why can't I know that's actually a my skillful form was conceit something that you should encourage and so what we're doing here they're not just simply accepting things that say oh it's okay waves are coming in off the shore good waves are coming in bad waves are coming it doesn't matter I'll just sit here and accept the waves what's gonna happen of course is someday the waves are going to cover [Music] and who knows where they're gonna wash you up again and the image the Buddha gives some of the practice is not just sitting there accepting things is there's a dangerous river you have to cross but you can get across the river and you do that by holding onto the path and you're by making an effort you have to paddle with your hands and your feet you have to make that effort but there is a place of safety that should get you if you get up on the raft and say look I'm not holding on what's gonna happen you fall off and get swept down the river there's a teaching by ajahn Chah he says you're coming back from the market you're carrying a banana in your hand and someone comes up Jesus why are you carrying the banana SM carrying the banana because I want to eat it he says how about the Pilar you're gonna eat the peel - no then why are you carrying the peel and then he says what are you use to answer up and that his answer is comes in two stages he says first you have to have desire you have to want to give a good answer in other words your discernment is not going to come without the desire you have to desire to give a good answer then of course the answer is the time hasn't come to let go of the peel if I let go of the peel now the banana would become mushed in my hands it's a saying the thing is we practice the path there's something we have to hold on to something that we have to have hold on if you don't hold on to the path your mind becomes mush so you have to hold onto the path and realize that this is a desire that's actually a skillful desire the desire to follow the path of something you want to hold on to as the Buddha said wisdom comes to you the question what will I do what will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness listen to that what when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness this is a question these as gives direction to your desire one recognizing there is such a thing as long-term happiness it's not just waves coming in and going away and coming away some pleasures are longer some pleasures are shorter some pleasures are harmful some pleasures are not you want to look for pleasures that are not harmful pleasures that don't harm yourself that don't harm other people what pleasures at last and it's going to end on your actions that's the second part of your of the wisdom it's not going to just come washing up its depends on what you're going to do your actions make all the difference that's what wisdom it starts with was that realization and the first level of the Buddhist answered that question what when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness is making merit other answers also include practicing the path developing concentration developing discernment but tonight I'd like to focus on making merit because sometimes people look down on making merit they say that that's for people who are not serious about the practice people who are just script grumpy and selfish they just want to make merit so they can win the lottery the next time does that happen in Singapore do you have a lottery at what made that we have five casinos around the monastery we're in an area there are lots of Indian reservations and in America if you have an Indian reservation you can build a casino because of laws that govern Indian reservations are different laws are different from the laws for the rest of the state and so it's like traps for people coming into the monastery they either trap you on the way in in which case you may not actually make it to the monastery or they trap you on the way yeah I want to know how much merit I made at the monastery right now you go to you throw throws to throw some money away okay if that's your approach to merit yes it is selfish but that's not how the Buddha was teaching merit it's not teaching merit to win the lottery he's teaching of merit because this is a way that you can actually develop wisdom and discernment and prepare yourself for the more advanced parts of the practice because on the one hand when you look at that what the Buddha is talking about is making merry it's not just being generous but it's also includes following the precepts and meditating and developing thoughts of goodwill goodwill from all beings if you can basically merit as the Buddha said is a way of finding happiness so this is actually another word for happiness is acts of merit and you think about it if you find your happiness by being generous if you find your happiness by being virtuous you find your happiness by spreading thoughts of goodwill to everybody it's not selfish it's actually a kind of happiness that breaks down boundaries between yourself and other people because when you're being generous you benefit other people benefit too when you're being virtuous you benefit other people benefit too when you practice goodwill you benefit other people benefit too so this breaks down boundaries if you find your happiness and things like wealth status praise sensual pleasures can that actually creates division so I mean if you gain wealth somebody else loses you gain status other people lose you go around get trying to get praise for yourself other people are going to be jealous that creates divisions so if you're looking for happiness through merit is actually an unselfish way of practicing now the record Buddha across recommends that you practice all three kinds not just being generous because you do just being generous or just observing the precepts there are dangerous ajaan one who is a famous teacher in Thailand many years back once said if you are generous but don't observe the precepts entertain you have the hope of being reborn as a dog in an American house very comfortable people love you but you don't know anything you know right you can listen to Dharma talks all day and not understand a word if you are generous and observe the precepts you have hopes of being reborn as a human being with wealth but if you don't meditate then you will not have the wisdom to use your wealth well wisely now then then that way your wealth can actually turn around and destroy you as we see many times around as people who have all the wealth they need but they use it and buying things that are worthless or things that are actually harmful so and what if you want your merit to be safe you develop all three kinds generosity virtue and developing thoughts of goodwill for all beings I'd like to go into these one by one to show that they're also in addition to being a skillful way of finding happiness they also prepare you for the higher levels of the practice for example with generosity when the Buddha taught generosity one of the first things you pointed out was someone once came to ask him he said where should a gift to be given now this was a king who was asking the question that he had asked this question of Brahmins and chains other religious groups in the past and they've gotten the answer of the Brahmin said ok a gift should be given to the province they asked the Jains the Jane said gift should be given to the Janes and so the king was expecting that where should a gift be given he was expecting the Buddha say give to the Buddhist but that's not what the Buddha said he said give where you feel inspired give Rio think or be well used there was no pressure to give to any particular person that Buddha never said you should give here you should give there after all it is your wealth but he's also beyond that he's pointing on the fact that you shouldn't reveal I said generosity should come from a free choice on your part he's trying to teach a basic principle of karma is that we do have freedom of choice and one of the best ways of realizing this is when you give a gift you have perfectly free to give to anywhere you want anywhere you feel that you would like to give you think back on this when was the first time you gave a gift not because it was expected of you not because it was Chinese New Year's not because it was somebody's birthday or because it was a teacher simply because you wanted to give a gift that means a lot more than when you're told well you have to give a gift here if you go to weddings it got to give a gift but no you've really wanted to give it in my own case I was thinking about this a while back and I realized that when I was 10 years old we had moved from where I lived on a farm to a little town and in the town I could get on my bike and I could drive to a store now here at Singapore that's a very common thing right the stores everywhere but when I lived on a farm it was very difficult to go to a store but now I lived in a town I could get on my bike in five minutes I was at a store so one day I had some money in my pocket ten years old I walked into a store and I noticed they had an egg separator not my mother liked to think she baked cookies she baked pies she baked cakes and she was spending a lot of time separating the eggs I thought she would probably like an egg separator you know those things it's just like a little cup and there's a place where the white can go through and it took cost about you know 15 cents and so I bought my mother an egg separator I came home gave it to her but I realized that was I realized thinking back on it that was the first time I gave a gift not because I was told to give again but is because I wanted to years later after my mother died we went through her personal effects found the except egg separator she had made a mistake one time and put it in the dishwasher and it melted but she kept it and I know why she can't do it's when a gift is freely given it means a lot more and so when the best is when the Buddha's teaching is when you really give out in generosity of your heart you're teaching yourself a lesson about freedom you're not a slave to your greed you're not a slave to your possessiveness you have the freedom to give something away and the Buddha wants to protect that the monks are told that if someone comes to them says where should I give a gift they should say give where you feel inspired give where you feel it would be well used several years back a student of mine had a mother who was quite wealthy and she was going to give a gift of two million dollars to a Buddhist Center and he wanted her to give it to our Center and so called me up and said what should I tell my mother I said television whereas she feels inspired and she feels would be well used so so she gave it to the other group and so I thought to myself okay I preserve my precepts my precepts are worth more than two million dollars I think felt good about it but the Buddha has has lots of teachings for the monks about not asking for or not even trying to influence people to give there was a case where monks were building huts and the monk so it was getting beyond limits in fact they said the people when they started seeing monks come they were turn away they would close the door even if they saw a cow coming this is a monk they were turned away so word gets to the word he calls the monks together says looks people don't like being asked for money people don't like fundraising he said even animals don't like fundraiser told the story about there was a monk one time who is living in a forest where was the big marsh and the birds would come at night and settle in the trees there chap chap chap chap chap chap all night he says I'd like to get rid of the birds and the bird is said ok the first watch the night get up and make an announcer ok every bird here in the forest I want one feather the second watch of the night every bird here in the forest I want one feather third watch the night every bird here in the forest I want a feather and this and the story goes that the bird said this monk is greedy and they all left so when the Buddha was to protect your freedom of choice and giving a gift history Alaska this comes from your own choice and you realize how you do and have freedom of choice this is the number one principle in karma it's not that your bad karma is going to get you the number the moment principle and Karma's you do have freedom of choice what you do makes a difference and you learn this by being generous you also learn that you become a different person the world around you becomes a different part the world when you're being generous this is a lesson in becoming this is a skillful kind of becoming you become a more generous person your heart is wider the world becomes a more welcoming place so you learn an important lesson about how your actions shape who you are how your actions shape the world around you by being generous if you approach generosity not simply as something you want to do a better you approach it as a skill and then the Buddha gives you more instructions the depends on your motivation depends on your attitude depends on the recipient depends on the actual gift you give these are the four things you want to think about as you make generosity into a skill terms of your motivation the Buddha said the lowest motivation is if I give this gift I'm going to it back with interest okay it's a good motivation it's that it's the lowest but it still counts as a good motivation it's better than not being generous at all okay okay the higher generation motivation is it's good to give a higher motivation is it's not right that here I have all this wealth and these other people are poor they don't have anything if I don't give it's not right that's a higher motivation a higher motivation still is that giving makes the mind serene and then finally becomes just a natural expression of the mind that you have something you only can think of is you how can you share it okay your motivation grows higher and the results that come from your generation generosity also grow higher in terms of your attitude you want to give with an attitude of respect you want to give attentively pay attention as you're doing it you want to give of the mind if sympathy for the person who's receiving it you want to be glad when you think about doing the gift glad while you're giving the gab glad when you have given the gift these are if you develop these attitudes then the merit that comes from the gift grows higher and higher the Buddha tells there was a story in the Canon about this very wealthy man who could not use his wealth he had fine food but he had the good food he would throw up so he had to eat very poor food if he ride in his nice chariot he would get sick he had to walk if he lived in his home insects would attack he couldn't live in his fine home he had to live in a little shack and finally ended up dying and then all of his wealth was given to the king and the buddha said in a previous lifetime he gave a gift to a private buddha but then a venturi game that gift he said gee I wish I didn't do that haven't done that I could have given it to some you know kept it myself get get the gift meant that he was going to become wealthy but the fact that he regretted the gift meant that he could not enjoy his wealth so when you give try to be happy while you're doing it before you do it after you do it that way you get the most benefit out of the gift as for the gift itself you want to give something that's timely that people can actually use like here in Singapore you know in America they like to give knitted caps to the monks because it's cold in Singapore I don't think you need knitted caps it's not timely in Singapore and also give a gift that doesn't harm yourself or have other people in other words you don't break the precepts you don't steal something to give or you don't cheat in order to give you give because something that you have earned in a fair way and then of course with the recipient you try to find a recipient who would make good use of the gift the Buddha recommends someone who is either without greed aversion and delusion or someone who is working on the path to get rid of greed aversion and delusion you look for people like this it's more likely that you actually will be happy when you've given the gift if you give it to somebody who's greedy then you realize what they abused it then you don't feel so glad afterwards so look for any who think is an appropriate recipient know again the Buddha doesn't say you have to do this they says if you want to be more skillful in giving you think about your motivation you think about your attitude you think about the appropriate gift you think about the appropriate recipient now as you approach gift-giving in this way and the gift doesn't have to be a material thing you can give your whizzed you can give your knowledge you can give your energy you can give your time you can give your forgiveness this is often the hardest in the bunch but it's also the most meaningful so in other words when you give a gift it's not a ritual you don't do it just because everybody says you're doing it but you give you approach it as a skill in terms of these four out of these four qualities get the gift gives that much more happiness and it has that much more of a positive effect on the world around you and also the person that you become that's generosity similar with virtue you follow the precepts you become a better person the world around you becomes a better world you're learning an important lesson of becoming you're important that lesson in how to channel your desires now some people complained about the precepts on the one hand they say their card and fast rules but that there it's better to prescribe meds clear-cut because you need something very clear-cut when you are most tempted to break the precepts because if the precepts are complex and have lots of ins and outs it's very easy this we go through but if you know no killing no stealing no illicit sex no drinking no lie at all then when you feel tempted you realize well okay there's a precept against this there's a in Alaska they have bears that was visiting there several years back and they had big scientists a bear awareness the e AR and there all these do's and dont's you see a bear don't run now that's your first impulse you see a bear you want to run but say don't run they keep it short staying where you are raise your arms so you look bigger the Bears have very very bad eyesight so you look big when you raise your arms and then they say speak to the bear in a calm and reassuring voice in other words don't scream okay and they go down this long list of do's and don'ts to Xena's but it's very chic or short break clear their cut finally though they get to it that FK if the bear attacks you lie down play dead then the difficult one if the bear starts chewing on you try to figure out is the bear chewin on you out of curiosity or is it chewing on you out of hunger this is where the do's and don'ts and okay if the bear is chewing on you out of curiosity it'll stop because the things you're dead in a go away if the bear is chewing out me out of hunger attack the bear which means you need a lot of mindfulness and a lot of alertness that's what we get into meditation that's tomorrow night's talking can you take but the precepts are very clear-cut for a good reason as you need something that's clear-cut when you feel most tempted bring them you feel tempted to lie no lies you feel tempted to have illicit sex no illicit sex period that way you can holder the precepts some people often complain about the precepts that they're too narrow there's a pre-civil against killing but there's no precepts again against eating meat okay people say well jerky if you're eating meat then you're encouraging other people to kill kill the animals and the precepts focus on the area of life for you you are in charge where you can make a difference and that means what you do and what you tell other people to do you can control that now beyond that you cannot control it off too often we focus on things that are beyond our control we forget to look at what we can control so the precepts are there to focus on what you can control now if you decide that you don't want to eat meat perfectly fine but the precept starts with what you're doing and what's rather telling people to do that's what you're responsible for and again that's focusing yourself back on okay with the way I shaped my my life is shaped is shaped by my intentions my desires I am mature responsible for those at the same time the precepts teach you the qualities like mindfulness alertness ardency which all part of mindfulness practice my husband's you have to keep the precept in mind you have to remember I have this precept alertness is you have to be alert to what you're doing my teacher had a student one time who was wanted to observe the eight precepts she came to the monastery and the afternoon she walked past guava tree and the guavas looked really nice and ripe and before she knew it my teacher was standing just a few yards away he said waiter what's that in your mouth she realized I wasn't paying attention okay that's a lack of alertness so the precepts require that you be alert what you're doing right now and they've got art and sage something you have to make the effort because sometimes there's a really strong temptation you know you say well he's just a little white lie and be okay no you haven't that means you have to figure out how can I not say things that give it harmful information to someone else but how can I also not lie at the same time this is where the precepts develop our alertness in art scene and also your just sermon so the precepts are not just rituals they're they actually are there to train the mind in the qualities that you need when you meditate finally with the practice of good will the word med I preferred it Turpin is good well some people translated as loving-kindness and it's based on as a passage in the Canada where the book but when sometimes translated and says just as a mother would cherish her child only child that way you should cherish all living beings that's not what the Buddha is saying the Buddha says just as a mother would protect a child with her life the same way you should protect your attitude of good well you protect your goodwill at all times this means you don't have to like the other person if you're gonna have had a goodwill for snakes you don't want to go up and pet the snake the snake probably wouldn't like it right my teacher had a snake move into his room one time and you decided okay this has got test for me so he lived with a snake for three days spread lots of goodwill to the snake but then after the third nine he's okay three days is enough and so in his meditation he dressed and addressed his thoughts to the snake he said okay it's not that I have any ill will for you it's just that we are different species and it's very easy for speaking different species to misunderstand one another there's plenty of space out there in the forest we can be happy and so please find some other place to go and so the snake left no that was good well it's not loving-kindness you don't go up and pet the snake but good will for the snake you wish the snake's happiness now the practice of good will you have to realize is something one that you have to do and some it's also related to teaching karma related to what you're wishing for the other person in other words you're wishing good will for your own sake it's not because we're one with everybody or everybody has Buddha nature we wish goodwill because we want to make sure that our actions are going to be skillful even in very difficult situations so you have goodwill for people you don't like you have goodwill over your boss if you're going to have a difficult date with the boss think thoughts of goodwill first so that when you go in you don't say something harmful to the boss okay or whoever the person is that you don't like it's for your own saying that you're extending thoughts oh good well secondly it is something you have to develop goodwill is not innate or if it is innate it's just as innate as ill will we can fail we'll just as easily as we can feel good well sometimes easier and so remember you have to be like this something you have to work on this is a quality I have to develop and finally when you're wishing goodwill for others it's not just spreading thoughts of cotton candy the books basically says you're hoping that they will understand the causes of happiness and be able to act on them now that you're thinking in terms of karma if they're going to be happy and as to be their Karma so what you're wishing for is may this person understand the causes of true happiness and be able to act on those causes and that's a thought you can have for anybody no matter how evil no matter how bad they've been in the past whether they've hurt you or hurt people you love or even think any number of politicians what I'm doing speaking in America everybody laughs at that that you might think of the otago it I don't really like this person I don't like the policies but you can wish came made this person to understand the causes for to happiness and be able to act on them you can think that thought without hypocrisy that's when you were developing goodwill and this where you're developing insight into the principle of karma the developing príncipe insight into your own mind that your mind has these potentials that you have to develop you have desires that go in different directions you have to be careful about which desires you're going to follow so when you're developing generosity you're developing furniture you're developing goodwill you're learning some very important lessons about how your desires shaped the world in which you live how your desires shape you and by acting a skillful desires you become a better person the world around you becomes a better world in America I don't know if I have that attitude and singapore's but in America people don't like the word parent do you have Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and sing apartments in America it sounds like enough Boy Scout with Scout badges brownie points Girl Scout badges and then maybe a better word trend-setting there would be goodness you're developing your goodness you're developing the goodness and the unfortunately this is a word we don't hear much how many times you speak about someone's goodness how it is been seen many times used to be by your own goodness I tried an experiment one time I got into amazon.com very occasionally going on online and in the box for search I typed in goodness to see what would come up and it was all quite books on cakes and pies and cookies that's goodness in the modern world and now the Buddha's say there's a much greater goodness is the goodness of your own heart which you developed by developing the principles of merit by being generous by being virtuous by developing thoughts of goodwill you are developing your goodness your salute gain you an insight into how your desires shape your life you're gaining skills and mindfulness or gaining skills and alertness you're gaining skills and ardency all of which are going to be useful as you go further and further the path so what this means if you bring the right attitude to the practice of merit it's not just a ritual it's not just a selfish way of trying to get end and it's not for people who are not serious it's for everybody who's serious about the practice you should look at your future virtual you should look at your generosity should look at your goodwill as the Buddha said if a person is stingy there's no way they're going to get in - right concentration there's no way at all they're going to get awakening so everything begins with the practice of merit so don't look on it but have the right attitude as you go about it realizing that we live in a world not where the waves are just coming and going coming going we're shaping the world by our desires and we have it within our powers to make ourselves maybe maybe we can affect the world outside that much but the world that you live in the world at you and the person is you are is something you can shape and them in the right direction a way to do this okay this is your this you becoming a wise person you're learning how to change your actions so that you would lead to long-term welfare and happiness my happiness that doesn't harm yourself my happiness doesn't harm anyone else happiness is good for everybody so those are my thoughts for tonight what am i watch go I have some time for questions because I didn't want to raise a hand first or we have to wait for the written questions [Music] you [Music] [Music] okay question my time has to be devoted to many seemingly unending duties to my parents in deal with old parents can be very frustrating sometimes I have no time for myself how can I overcome this dilemma okay one realize the duties to your parents are not unending either you'll die first or they'll die first and when you separate you want to be able to look it back at your time with your parents and not have any regrets so think of it as a form of generosity here's some there's a way that you give of your time that you give of your energy and give to your parents now while you're being generous and while you're with your parents okay this is a good time to stay with your breath try to develop a sense of well-being inside as you're following the duty in that way you can be practicing mindfulness at the same time this your practice generosity with your parents my parents seem to be dealing with all parents can be very frustrating when you were a child if you think you were not frustrated I remember your parents it's like they're going back to a childhood so when they're being frustrated you said I probably was a very frustrating child to my parents here's my opportunity to develop patience here's my opportunity to develop a lot of the perfections and put up with that got me to say I have no time for myself even when you're with your parents you can breathe right okay stay with your breath try to make the breath comfortable this gives you a grounding so that you can be meditating at the same time that you're with your parents here's a question of the javanese meditation technique I was going to save questions on meditation techniques for tomorrow night is that okay can you give an example of using the formal truths in everyday life I just gave you lots of examples I think being virtuous okay that's right the right action the right speech right livelihood it's writing thoughts of good will right resolve right concentration good that's state that's the Eightfold Path in your life looking at your clinging looking at your addictions learning how to separate yourself from them okay that's following the duty with regard to the first noble truth so by developing merit you are actually developing the Four Noble Truths in daily life how do we read a radicand anger in the Spotted world that is full of anger and lay down our burden okay again it's not the only to modern world that has anchor they had in the ancient world as well the problem is that just where it attacked by so many more people's anger that's what you have to realize again their anger is their anger you do not have to pick up their anger remember their anger is their their comma if you pick it up there's the assembly someone throws a hot coal at you if you pick it up to throw it back you burn yourself so I'll go into more of this on Sunday night when we talk about learning how to overcome unskilled unskilled attitudes in the mind if we have to realize it's one when you turn on the internet do you have to that should always be your first question that John Fogg used to say before you speak ask yourself is this speech necessary the same principle applies to turning on the Internet is this necessary because so much would pick up about the people's greed aversion and delusion comes from the fact that we're connected were online and so try to reduce the amount of time you spend online to only ones absolutely necessary so you're picking up less of other people's anger do I break my precept if I put roach bait in my house first page what happens to the word roaches when they eat the bait do they die they break the precept you have to be very careful about your food very careful about your water if they have they have roach hotels in America where the roaches go in but they don't die but they can't get out so get a roach hotel and then you can take the roaches down to the park find some way of getting rid of the roaches without killing them two questions about me what made you decide to become a monk I was suffering there and I found someone that I thought was not suffering as a job flow I said I want what he has when I was in school we had we had we're very fortunate we had a monk from Thailand a book from Japan came to teach meditation but I realized okay this is a very important skill that we don't at that time we did not have an America and so I went to Thailand with the idea I want to find a meditation teacher who would teach me more it took me two years when I finally met with his own firm I didn't know anything about the forest tradition there's not no books available but it just happened a friend of a friend invited me to meet him I said okay he's someone special and as he said it he didn't start out special it was because of his training that he received from his teacher so I said okay I want this training so I stayed with him I found that he was very wise and very kind so even though he was very harsh with me I felt it was because it was for my own good so I stuck with him so if that answers the other question is there are so many famous ones do your time in Thailand why did you choose to learn for China for he was the first one I met and someone once asked me and I said there are all these famous at John's there's ajahn Chah there's a jump mahabhava child fund and ajahn on and it's on tape why didn't you go out and see the other John's there too two reasons why I didn't go one when I went to see a John four and I talked about visiting some other John's uses do you already have any job or not is that already having a John so then you don't need another one and then to someone else asked me why didn't I go and I said I haven't come to the end of a child fluent yet and he happened to die before I came to the end of it John Flynn so I stayed with him until he died more questions what is the buddha's take on mental illness as with any illness your illness can be a combination of two factors past karma and present karma now if it's prop packed our present karma you basically try to change your activities if it's past karma some past karma is responsive to medicine and some past carmen is not responsive to medicine and so you tried medicine first to see if the illness was going to responsible of the medicine or whatever whatever form of treatment it might be psychiatric care might be in some cases meditation is good some patient it is not people who are psychotic should not meditate people who are neurotic should meditate you know the difference between neurosis and psychosis psychosis thinks 2+2 is 5 neurotics think 2+2 is 4 but they hate them for it in other words they live in reality but they're not comfortable with reality psychotics are not in reality at all there's someplace else people with psychosis should not meditate D look at my brother's mental delusion is taking control of my well-being it brings me a lot of stress and tension how do I deal with the aspect of filial piety and the duties of a child we'll get to ends on what her delusions are it's a hard question to answer in the abstract my father as he was approaching death was going through Parkinson's some sort dementia Parkinson's dementia and he said you know there's this black dog in the living room of course there was no black dog in the living room and if you told him there was no black dog in the living room it can upset but if you ended living him back it's not there now who's okay so that's the kind of delusion you're doing with learn how to work with the parameters of the delusion if the mother is very negative all the time just think goodwill goodwill goodwill over your mother and do what you can I found I'd wanna brag I've been told that my voice is very calming and so you can take some of my Dharma talks and put them on in the background he kind of calmed them down I met this one woman one time that she said that when her children couldn't sleep she would put my Dharma talks on I felt a lot of chagrin but maybe that maybe a calming daughter talk in the background would be helpful how can a person develop goodwill for oneself nor give this person had a difficult childhood and live with the very limited material and challenged emotional well-being okay remember what goodwill is it's wishing that you would understand the causes of happiness and be able to act on them so your past is really not the issue you should and that's that sometimes people have the feeling that they don't deserve happiness in which case you have to remember everybody deserves to be happy remember that the Buddha did not teach teach only for people who deserve to be happy you taught everybody he didn't teach the way out of suffering only for people who had undeserved suffering even people who deserve to suffer ISA there's a way out of course the word deserve here it never really appears in the Buddhist teachings because we have to remember we all have past bad karma and so the word had still had compassion for all of us so we should have learned this way even if I have past bad karma I should still have compassion for myself just because I have a bad past doesn't mean that I have to have a bad future or because people made me feel that I was an undeserving child that doesn't that should not affect me now everybody has it within the rhythm to understand happiness and the causes for happiness because after all it's not a selfish thing one of the things that people but berate you as a child is that they say you're a selfish child but the kind of happiness that comes from being for a choice that things mean generous level of being thoughts of goodwill there's nothing selfish about this so after - okay I do deserve to be happy no matter what the past is because if I can overcome the causes of unhappiness of my life that means I will be more skillful in my actions and I also be able to give more to other people so it's not a selfish thought two wheel swish yourself happiness wish yourself good will do you have any advice on how we can continue to follow the path I always feel it reminded it much better after listening Dharma talks or every Buddhist literature but then I get busy with work family etc and stray from the path okay this is when you have to realize your breath is always there even when you're working even when you were there family I think the breath is always there and you can make the breath comfortable this is an important principle in the meditation it's not just noting what's there it's again being more proactive and creating a sense of well-being for the breath being is creating a sense of well-being inside and learning how to carry that around with you and if it the problem is at work you might put a little sign at your desk okay breathe put signs around the house Buddha something that will remind you because it's not like you know the Dharma is only for when you're sitting here listening to the Dharma talk the Buddha means for it to be taken into your life so that you when you work at when you're at work okay it's an opportunity to observe the precepts but the work make make it difficult but here's a chance to develop your discernment to develop your ingenuity and learning how to be more skillful in observing the business I understand the Jon Stannah beacon the ordination what are your suggestions for females who want to lead the holy life to its completion without our dating is going forth necessary giving the best conditions for females to practice the path okay or dating as an eighth precept 9 does count as ordination and they're good communities where there are good teachers where you can ordain as an eighth precept unn if that's what the adventure of your choice is so look for the good communities it's just like there's some bad there bad nun communities and those are bad monk communities you have to be careful about where you practice I can accept many things that were to talk about when it comes to heavenly beings and their stories for example verses in heaven it is hard for me to accept what is 7 to bring to accept what do you think the gay the Buddha asked you to believe in one thing and that's karma ok that's what worse is in heaven that's not related to the question of why are you suffering right now ok anything that's related a a question of why are you suffering what kind of you do is put an end to suffering and we believe that it depends on your actions ok that's something the boys I do believe in that because the principle of karma are not anything you can prove we cannot prove freedom your freedom of choice you cannot prove that your actions have results basis if you assume this you will be more likely to act skilfully if you assume this then you will be more likely to benefit so that's where he asked you to believe this is for horses in heaven I forgot that there were horses in heaven so don't let the horses trip you up again please explain dependent origination in simple language [Music] how many nights would you want okay simple language okay two most important things to realize against okay there are two kinds of causes that influence whether you're going to suffer right now causes that come from the past and causes are come from your present actions and your present actions are more important that covers a lot of dependent origination to when you look at the list of dependent origination sensory contact comes in the middle means okay as soon as you see things or hear things a lot of things have already happened in the month there's a lot of fabrication there's a lot of different activities of the mind you're basically going out and looking in that remember the principle I said earlier that things are based on desire and basically it is desired that runs the show and so you're not suffering because of things coming in you're saying something because of what's coming out of the mind and if you can train yourself to be have more knowledge about what's coming out of the mind you'll be less likely to suffer from what's coming in so look at your mind and because all too often it's not the case that we are sitting around perfectly innocent and something beautiful comes in and we feel lust or greed or something bad comes in who feel anger all too often we're out looking for something beautiful that aggravate our lust we're looking for something to get angry about I have a student one of my monks at the monastery and occasionally and the monks have to go down to the airport when another monk is coming back from a trip and he began to notice a was spending all of his time looking for the pretty women and you notice we'll get the records are pretty woman here a pretty woman there he said what if I look for the signs of agingg sorry what's the butt to the airport that day is okay I wouldn't see these signs of aging where are the wrinkles whereas the white hair where the bent-over people he said they were everywhere he hadn't noticed them before so what you see depends on what you're looking for so ask yourself when you're looking are you looking for trouble that's dependent corazon last question if a person is psychotic he can't meditate what can he do he can be generous he can learn to follow the precepts because isn't being generous and following the precepts of the reason people are psychotic is there things in their personality that they feel rebadow bout and he just try to deny them and so by training them in generosity training them in virtue it gives them more to feel good about it's like having more good members of the committee and as you get more good members in the committee than the bad member then you can begin to admit oh yes there's some bad members in here so it strengthens your self-esteem so there's still plenty to practice virtue generosity still there's still a lot of the practice it's possible okay that's nine o'clock it's been a long night okay thank you for your attention

Channel: BuddhaDhamma Foundation

Views: 46,796

Rating: 4.9116721 out of 5

Keywords: Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, Buddhist, Dharma, Buddhism, Sila, Samadhi, Panna, Wisdom, Nibbana, Nirvana, Thanissaro, Bhikkhu, Ajahn, Ajaan, Merits, Lay, Layman, Lay life

Id: MpU6zG8kIBQ

Length: 70min 20sec (4220 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 19 2017