Transcript

These monks in northeast Thailand are on Bindabat, the daily dawn walk to receive their food offered by the villagers. Not all monks in Thailand keep strictly to the discipline proscribed by the Buddha, but these monks strive to maintain the original forest tradition of a pure and simple life. They’re not allowed to possess money nor grow their own food. This ensures their total dependence on the lay community so they can’t cut themselves off in a spiritual cocoon. For the laity, Bindabat is a way of paying respect to the discipline of the monks and also a way of making merit, which many believe brings good fortune in this life and in future rebirths.

About 50 monks and novices live at Wat Pah Pong, ranging from 13 years old to 70. Some may stay for many years, but the majority will only spend a year or two where it’s the Thai custom for men to be ordained for a short period of their lives. After returning from Bindabat, the monks eat their only meal of the day, which consists mainly of rice and vegetables. The day began at 3am with chanting, meditation, general chores, and duties. It’s now about 8:30. Until this time tomorrow, they’ll consume only liquids.

[Bell rings] After the meal, they bow to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The abbot, the venerable Ajahn Chah, has been in robes for 50 years.

Here in the forest you can learn to be in harmony with the way things are in nature. You can live happily and peacefully.

Here a monk is able to contemplate the nature of things. As he looks around him, he understands that all forms of life degenerate and eventually die. Nothing that exists is permanent. And when he understands this, he begins to become calm and serene.

Ajahn Chah teaches that even the most mundane activity can be a form of meditation if carried out mindfully. Much of the day is spent making and maintaining their few basic possessions. Meditation can eventually become a constant practice.

Monks are trained to be content with little, to eat only what they need, to sleep only when necessary, to be satisfied with what they have. This is the foundation for Buddhist meditation.

Buddhist monks don’t practice meditation for selfish reasons. We practice in order to know ourselves so that then we’ll be able to understand and teach others how to live peacefully and wisely.

This monk has been ordained for 15 years. He’s respected not only for his skill in meditation but also for his practical skills, his consistent mindfulness.

Meditation doesn’t just involve being at peace with the world. Confronting the self can be like walking into a raging storm. It’s quite usual at first to despair, even to want to kill oneself.

Some people think that a monk’s life is a lazy and an easy one. If that’s what they think, they should just try and see how long they can stand it. A monk’s work is hard. He works to free his heart so that he begins to feel loving kindness which embraces everything. He sees that all life has the characteristic of the breath. It rises and it falls. Everything that is born expires. So his suffering diminishes as he knows that nothing belongs to him.

This novice is 14. He comes from a local village and has been in the monastery for several months.

What’s the hardest thing about being a novice?

Novice: Being a novice isn’t difficult, but being in the world is very hard.

Why is that? Why?

Novice: Because there’s a lot of problems involved in looking after buffalos.

I was tired with the world, so I wanted to come and live here to practice the dharma. I used to have a wife, six children, buffalos. All these I had to give up. I felt that coming to live here was more useful to myself and to others. As I experienced the teaching of the Buddha, so I can pass it on to others.

Discipline is a crucial part of the experience. The 227 rules which a monk has to observe are not ends in themselves but stepping stones towards mental resolve. Shaving the head is a symbol of the renunciation of the world.

This monk from London is one of several Western monks here.

Western monk: Their life is very simple; their life is very simple. And if you look at the rules, they all seem very complicated, which seems a bit of a contradiction. But in actual fact the two work together because simplicity also involves always coming down into the moment, the moment which you’re in. Simplicity helps you do that. And then the complicated rules helps you do that more because you always have to be recollecting what you’re doing.

[Bell rings] The day’s activities are regulated by a bell. Twice a month it calls them to confession. They recite to each other the categories of offense. The most serious, which includes sexual intercourse, are punished by expulsion. Lesser offenses incur various penances. Of course a monk is free to leave the order if he finds the discipline irksome.

A monk learns to challenge his moods. Our aim is to become aware of everything that passes through our minds, knowing the greed, hatred, delusion. We watch these feelings, but we don’t cling to them and follow them. We just watch them come and go.

After the confession comes the Patimokkha, the ritual recitation of the 227 rules. Occasionally prompting is sometimes necessary. [recitation]
Western monk: You can’t control yourself, in a way, you know? I mean, you try and you fail. But then you find out why you fail. That’s the thing. And through that then you get understanding, which enables you to work it. Let’s put it like that. That’s one way of saying it, talking about it, a certain way of looking at it.

So it’s a question of becoming aware of feelings, hatred, lust, or whatever?

Western monk: Right, it’s not running away. Right, you’ve got to look right at them, confront them all. And through that then you can do it. But if you just push them away … I mean, that’s happened. People have done that, and they ended up going crazy you know. Because we’re not trying to … we’re not trying to be anybody special or anything, so these rules aren’t leading us on to sainthood or something like that. It’s not the idea. We’re just looking at what we are. And we’ve got to get the muck out the way. And that’s what they help us do.

But what does all this do for the laity? The monastery exerts a tremendous pull on the lay community, and they provide all the money for the buildings. This man used to be a village spirit priest. But now in response to Ajahn Chah’s teaching, he’s turned his back on spirit beliefs and he’s now revered because he walks without fear through forests others believe are spirit haunted.

In Thailand, Buddhist practice is often blended with pre-Buddhist beliefs. Many villages make offerings to guardian spirits whose powers they’re fearful of. But coming to the monastery, they leave all this behind. Ajahn Chah tries to discourage all forms of superstition, which includes people asking him to divine winning lottery numbers.

This man used to own a string of bars and nightclubs. He’s been so impressed by Ajahn Chah that he’s abandoned all these in search of a more moral livelihood. Now he comes regularly to the monastery for advice, teaching, or to see if any work needs doing.

Man: Meeting Ajahn Chah has helped me to solve many problems which were causing me a lot of unhappiness and which I wasn’t able to solve myself. I come to the monastery in the same way that if I’m physically sick I go to the hospital. If there is any illness in my mind, I come here to find a cure. Whenever I begin to feel suffering, I come here to Ajahn Chah. He teaches me to come to terms with things and find a purpose in life. He explains to me about the nature of things, how suffering arises, and how to end it according to the teachings of the Buddha.

[Buddhist prayer chant]

Four times a month on Buddhist Sabbath days, the local community congregate at the monastery. Some travel from afar to hear Ajahn Chah’s discourse. The day begins with chanting.

[Buddhist prayer chant]

To help people contemplate the true nature of the body, we have human skeletons in the assembly hall because when one doesn’t understand death, life is very confusing. If our body really belonged to us, then it would obey our commands. But if we say, “Don’t get old,” or “I forbid you to get sick,” does it obey us? No. It takes no notice. We only rent this house. We don’t own it. If we think the house belongs to us, when we have to leave it to die, we suffer. In reality, there is no such thing as a self.

Buddha made a distinction between ultimate truth and conventional truth. The idea of a self is merely a convention. Foreigner, Thai, you the interviewer, these are all conventions. In ultimate reality, there isn’t anybody. There is only earth, fire, water, air, elements which have combined temporarily. We call the body a person, mine, but ultimately there is no me. There is only anatta – not self.

Some of the lay community will sit up all night meditating on these things with the monks. For a brief period, they are inspired and uplifted and become one with the spiritual struggle of the monks.

To understand anatta, not self, you have to meditate. If you only intellectualize about it, your head will explode. One you understand anatta, then the burden of life is gone. Your normal daily life with your family, your work, all will be much easier. You’ll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness, and when we stop clinging, we can begin to be happy.

Before I came here, I was like a boat without a rudder. Now Ajahn Chah has taught me what is right and what is wrong. I feel I have that rudder, and I can choose the right course.

Originally I had strong feelings inside, but they kept … they were frustrated by my external conditions, or so I thought. But actually, that wasn’t so because these external conditions were helping this to grow, you know? And I feel that now is about the first time that I really feel I got a whole view of things. Do you see what I mean? In the right perspective, that I wanted it for myself from this inner kind of feeling I had, which sometimes I thought was all wrong because it wouldn’t fit in with the outer life, you know, and this kind of thing. And now I feel that things have come together in the right way, in the right way. Before they’ve come together, but never so right I would say. That’s not to say everything’s all right [laughs], but anyways, things … I feel right about things basically, solid, solid inside of me.

You shouldn’t be concerned with Nirvana or attaining Nirvana. If you are, then that in itself will prevent you from gaining Nirvana.

So what should a monk’s main concern be?

The aim is to let go.

So you have to let go but without striving to let go?

That’s right. You should let go without desire. If there’s still desire in the pursuit to do that, then that’s not Nirvana.

Letting go towards Nirvana may seem impossible for the laity tied to the world, but in the shape of the monks, they can see their own unfulfilled aspirations take the form of flesh and blood. Only the few have the discipline to walk with them on the direct path, but the effect on the laity is this: When they see them, they feel it can be done.

So the laity give the monks food for the body, and the monks give the laity food for the mind and heart so that they can understand the cause of unhappiness and know why things are as they are.

Be mindful and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still like a clear forest pool. All kinds of rare animals will come to drink at the pool. You will see many wonderful and strange things come and go, but you will be still. Problems will arise, but you will see through them immediately. This is the happiness of the Buddha.

Transcript

[inaudible] following in time, the thing is almost a hundred acres [inaudible] that have five or more [inaudible] and at that time, there was only a couple left and [inaudible] evolve, easier to evolve then to [inaudible]

What do you think?

Just thinking of parts of the discussion [inaudible] walking down the path and [inaudible] and find him and possible [inaudible] doing work in a [inaudible] or a community group of some kind some kind of work trying to get back into the system [inaudible] I’ve done seven years of withdrawal and personal retreat, I was thinking about getting back in it again but getting this close to it in Seattle and Vancouver, I didn’t feel like [inaudible] and I’ve got some more work to do to see if I’m going to get back in. I certainly understand what he is saying and I can relate to it. I also relate to [inaudible] which I did learn about three days ago which was very positive development for me [inaudible].

People that are bachelors but they are not fresh.

To reflect it in this way [inaudible] a step in the right direction, start doing something useful in your life for yourself instead of always [inaudible] stepping off in that way.

Your generation or this generation in fact, speaking of that consciousness [inaudible] firmly established in a kind of set pattern going to find positive energy [inaudible]

England is kind of the center between Thailand [inaudible]

You can help out too or you give it all to him.

What is a [inaudible] are you bored, is the staff ok?

We were part of the group that founded it, and began it, that Stephen, the person who works with crazy people who lived here before and we were part of the people who put up the money to find a place [inaudible] five or ten people. Michael, Stephen and I, Erickson and Richard, people that live in California now [inaudible]

Who is looking after them? Just the staff, the immediate staff? The present staff?

The staff changes.

There is no like board?

There is a board of directors and they officially are in charge of what’s happening and they meet every two or three weeks. [inaudible] it’s nothing major, but there is a conflict between [inaudible]

Sometimes there is a conflict between dharma led [inaudible] community and perhaps, what would be the greatest sermon [inaudible] and simply doing their work as services and simply being more individual in their city [inaudible] off and being more off [inaudible] unfortunate.

[Buddhist prayer chant]

He said if you would like, it would be nice for you to get a picture of me and the people here to sort of remember this [everyone talking simultaneously] maybe after the meal.

He said okay that is fine, he said please feel free to go ahead and eat, and then after the meal there will be time for [inaudible]

Look for a way [inaudible] it makes your heart you know spiritually happy [inaudible] difficulties [inaudible].

He said even though you live in the city; don’t forget the farms, don’t forget the country.

You can tell him [inaudible] this far. [inaudible]

We really like this house a lot and it was a place you could go and feel very respectful of [inaudible]

He’s really [inaudible]

He said you can just take a little time throughout the day, maybe five or ten minutes to go, get centered and really get in touch with the dharma [inaudible]

He said in a house or a place where you don’t have a space to sit and meditate. You don’t do that, all you do is work, which you don’t get to eat the fruits of your work. So it turns out you don’t get to [inaudible].

He said, sort of in a comic way from Thailand, he said it’s like some people, they raise chickens and they forget to eat the eggs and baked in chicken shit then they don’t forget to collect the eggs out of the chicken shit. [inaudible]

Forgets the egg.

[inaudible] many people don’t stop to meditate, to practice. Genuinely get caught up in what they are doing [inaudible]

He said unfortunately that is the way it is a lot to times. [inaudible]

They eat chicken shit and they forget the egg. [inaudible] they support the temples and then do their stuff outside.

Not many people merely practise in a genuine way.

He says to meditate at home in a systematic way; it’s really good, it’s much better than a doctor would be. He said a lot of people come and ask him can they live a life without being attached, and even if it’s a household, he will tell you, it’s possible – not easy, possible. But much better if you’re trying [inaudible] systematic methods as a householder there is a way of the householder, limited by certain things, constraints, to the householder. [inaudible]

I would say even really inspired. [inaudible]

He says take a little walk [inaudible] goes to the right place, it’s a lie.

[unknown person speaking]

He said any age is fine if you know the rules [inaudible] don’t do those things which create bad karma. [inaudible] how karma works and any age can be of spiritual development.

He said things will develop because of the law of change, things will also get destroyed and become much worse because of the law change, exactly the same basic truth. And it depends on the kind of motivation.

He said following the law of change depending on what happens, it can change and raise and develop, it can change and raise and be really awful. Depending on the way people go about working with that, and they kind of inherit law change in their world.

One way that [inaudible] you can say is before there weren’t any people building towns or having cars like this [inaudible] meditation room [inaudible] into a spiritual path and that is one change that will make a positive [inaudible]

He said three people for being as crazy as me.

Oh yeah, what is that?

Just drugs.

In the old days…

Drug addiction.

Was it [inaudible] drug addiction and things like that, but he knows in Thailand it’s going to be really bad places in the world that kind of thing is an indication of that kind of change.

He said did you know [inaudible]?

What do you think?

Not really that much [inaudible]

He said if you’re moved [inaudible]

He said things won’t help. Possessions and development and things and all that.

He said it’s only if you can develop the heart and the mind so it really is strong. It’s a lot of energy. That you can help, really.

Then it is possible to get benefit from the heart [inaudible]

So therefore you should really work with the systematic practice every day, meditation.

He said even if it’s just 5 minutes when your work is done, you should every single day.

Then you start to really understand who you are, in a more genuine way, your true nature.

See the way we are living, the way…

Our lives, what is important in our lives. To take the time to do that.

And for people who don’t practice meditation, he said, for the entire day they don’t know for the entire day that they have taken a breath even because they have been so busy with outside things.

People who ever had a day which they didn’t pay attention to their breath and realize they were breathing, you know, just so busy with other things.

He said we just [inaudible]

He said the entire day you don’t even realize it, you don’t even pay attention, what you are really doing with yourself for one second and people do that he says.

He said, even if you work all day…

Transcript

It is now the time and opportunity for all of you Buddhists that have gathered here together to listen to the dharma, and in order to understand and contemplate that which is good and wholesome.

To make your minds peaceful, quiet, collect them and point them to just let the sound go into your ear and just hear what he is saying.
In the practice of the dharma, that the opportunity to listen is indeed very valuable and useful.

So, when we come to listen to the dharma that we must make our bodies and our minds very firm and stable so that we are able to listen and absorb and hear.

We are in the time of the Buddha when the Buddha would expound the dharma; that those monks that had their minds in a Samadhi state were very concentrated and when appointed that they became enlightened through the dharma on their very meditation seats.

The few days that he’s had to stay here and see the place here, the surroundings, the meditation center, that he feels it’s a very important place and that it is a very appropriate place for the practice of the dharma.

Those external things, the external surroundings here are very quiet and peaceful. And so, the only thing that is left to do is make the internal element quiet and peaceful.

So all of us come in here to practice and apply ourselves; that it’s very natural, it’s quite normal that we expect to be peaceful-some and not peaceful-some.

You have to know the reason. To ask ourselves, what we’re doing here? Why we’re here? Why we have come to try and make our minds peaceful?

Because we still don’t know those things which lead to peace and tranquility. So we have come here in search of that.

We still don’t know in accordance with truth, what is right and wrong, what leads to suffering and doubts and what is what.

The cause, the reason, for his coming here is because our minds aren’t peaceful, are not tranquil, that we still have doubts, we still have suspicions, we still don’t know.

So that today, having the opportunity to listen to him expound the dharma that we should prepare ourselves and make our minds very firm to listen. Because when he expounds the dharma that it’s his nature to expound it in a rather forceful and almost violent ways he said.

Even though he may be very forceful in his dharma talk, that, he still has a heart to admit that.

So that some of the things that he says, because of the cultural differences, customs in Thailand and here, may be offensive, and so to please forgive him for that.

It’s very good to speak in a very forceful and almost violent way because it causes us all to be excited and thrown back on ourselves. If he was to talk very softly, that we would all just sit there indifferent to the whole matter and fall asleep.

In regards to our practice, he said there are different approaches and he draws the simile to like planting a tree from a small seedling and which will grow quickly, and we can eat quickly, and this doesn’t last very long. And the next type of approach is where we plant it from the seed, where it has the chance to gets its roots and things into the ground and be much more firm and solid.

So when we don’t know about ourselves, know about how to practise, that it is very difficult. He himself had many difficulties coming to sit in practice and practice meditation and to know what is what and what to do and what not to do. And so we cause ourselves a lot of pain and suffering. Many tears are shed because of this.

That in our practice, we always miss the middle way. That we either go too high or we go too low that we never know what the right amount is. And so this is the cause to continuously throw us off because we don’t know that balance.

In regards to the practice that his observation of having come here, he says that there are many approaches, there are many teachers, and so many, that people don’t know what to do. They don’t know where to begin, or to start, because they are always being thrown about by their doubts about which is the right teacher? Which is the best method? And we just spin ourselves around in a continuous state of chaos and confusion, never really knowing what to do. So, that we have become very complex, and never know how to establish ourselves and do a practice which we can follow and stick to.

In regards to the practice that we want to simplify things and the way we do this is to slow down, and ideally to bring all of our thinking to a very mild state. That because we think so much that we can’t penetrate, we can’t look into ourselves because of this confusion that we create with so much thinking. And thinking is not wisdom so that we have to learn how to get beyond, or penetrate through all of this thinking. And just simplify ourselves down, coming here to just do the simple practice that is offered, that we have, and that’s enough.

Sitting at home and doing a lot of thinking, have you ever escaped suffering in that way?

So that the more you think, and the more you get confused and the more that you shed tears, and cry about the mess that we have ourselves in, so again, he’s re-emphasising that that is not wisdom. That thinking is not wisdom.

That the Buddha was a very wise man, and that he pointed the way for us to realise our own wisdom and that in our thinking process, as long as we continue to indulge in it, and don’t know how to tranquilise to make ourselves peaceful through the concentration, that we develop the samadhi, that we can never realise, and wisdom can never have a chance to arise. So that it’s only through the tranquilising, the collecting, and the calming of the mind that it can become still enough so as to allow wisdom to arise.

When wisdom truly arises, then that’s the dharma. When we realise that that we can learn to use or that wisdom and the actual thinking process will in fact be one in the same thing. But until we really do make our minds peaceful, so that we can see this clearly, then of course it just runs wild and we never penetrate in to its true nature.

In his own practice, in the beginning, he said he was one who was continually arguing with the teachings of the Buddha, with all teachers. And that he constantly would fight, would resist, and would argue with it all of the time.

And of course, this created a very big problem and confusion in his life. And so, as he continued in this way that he wouldn’t believe or trust in anyone, and just this continuous arguing and resisting in himself. And he didn’t want to listen to his teacher; he didn’t want to listen to Buddhist teachings, or anything.

And until he really looked within himself and realised that the only way to work with this, the only way to deal with it, was to put some trust and some confidence in the teacher so that he could have a bit of guidance and direction.

So that today he wants to give you a very simple teaching. But the teaching is only simple in the words.

So he says to begin, that we can close our eyes and relax and sweep through our bodies with our consciousness, with our awareness, from the soles of our feet up to the top of our head, from the top of the head back down to the soles of the feet, and do this several times to relax, to collect ourselves and compose ourselves, and then to start to become aware of the in and out flow of the breath. The natural in and out flow of the breath, not to make it too long, not to make it too short, but let it just follow it’s natural course and to concentrate and one point our minds in this way.

So the one thing that we have to do, the one responsibility that we have to do, in this practice is just to become aware of the in and out flow of the breath. Its natural flow, and to let things go. All of the feelings and the thoughts that will come in, not to pay any attention to them, to let them flow in and let them flow out. And this is how we let go of things. Not to force anything, not to make anything tight or forceful, that just to let these things flow naturally, that we just have this one thing to do, to make it simple, to keep it very simple.

So as we continue to do this practice, that again, not to force anything, not to let any of this, any of the things that arise upset us. Even let the breath in its natural flow will go a bit shorter or a bit long but just let it flow naturally, to relax yourselves, let yourselves settle in to this practice. And as you settle in, that the breath will begin to refine down, it will become more and more subtle. And it will become so subtle as it refines down that it will become very light and almost unnoticeable, until it does become in fact unnoticeable, that it disappears and this is the beginning stages of peacefulness, of samadhi.

That as we do this practice if we find that we can’t settle into it, that the mind is very agitated and restless and wondering about and jumping about, that we can take a very deep inhalation, a full, a complete breath, very deep breath and then to let it all out again, and to do this three or four times, and then again let it go to its natural flow. Each time that we feel that the mind does become very agitated in this way, that we can use this as an aid to help to calm ourselves down. And the same in walking practice, that if we find that we can’t settle into our walking path that we can stop and do the same thing to one point and bring ourselves right into the present moment until those things go away and then we can continue our walking. And the same in sitting, when this happens, that we take a very deep inhalation and exhalation to kind of recollect ourselves and begin again.

So when the practice, the one who knows is the one who is aware right now. Who is looking and being aware right now. The conditions of the mind as those things come and go that that is the mindfulness that we are in fact being mindful of them and being the one who knows so that these two are combined together to look at and to be aware of the movement of the mind as we sit.

So that as we sit and develop and train ourselves, that our minds can reach a state which is tranquil and peaceful. And in this state, things that still do arise that we can be aware of them, and just to note their coming and going; he compares it to like taking a chicken and putting the chicken in the cage and the chicken can move around in the cage, but that it doesn’t go outside of the cage. If in fact it goes outside of the cage, then it is lost so that it has lost that state of tranquility so in the same way, the mind that is in a tranquil state but that the movement of the mind that we are very clear and aware and mindful of it.

He says the thing that we must be very careful of and watch for is of course when the lion goes out of the cage and goes back home and wanders around the shopping center and department store and wherever it might decide to go and thirty minutes later it decides to come back and “wow where have I been?” and so this is the thing we must be very cautious about and be on the alert for.

So we must be very careful about this so when the mind does wander and goes outside that we must know how to pull it back, to bring it back. But he takes that a step further and he says in fact the mind really goes nowhere that it is right here all of the time and when we are aware of that, when we are mindful of that, that that movement of the mind is taking place right here and it really goes nowhere so that very mindfulness itself is the very thing that brings it back, and brings it back to the place that it never left.

So that as long as we are mindful of our breath, the in and out flow of the breath, that it doesn’t wander, it doesn’t go anywhere. But, when that mindfulness is destroyed, when that mindfulness falls away, then of course it is as if the mind has gone from its meditation subject, from its mindful point. But as long as we remain mindful of this that it remains here all the time.

So as we sit and develop our practice, that the two things that become apparent are sati which is mindfulness and sampajanna which translates as clearly comprehending, clearly aware of things. That these two go hand in hand, and as we develop this and practice this, he said it’s like, he uses the simile as two people carrying a heavy piece of wood, and as they are carrying it, that it becomes clear and aware that they, that the mindfulness and the clear awareness of the carrying of this piece of wood is the causes for their rising of wisdom and this is the third factor that appears, that comes along to help mindfulness and clear awareness.

So as we develop these three factors: the mindfulness, the clear awareness, and the wisdom, that they will reinforce each other and make us very stable in our practice so that all things that arise in the mind, all the conditions of the mind, all of these feelings and mental thoughts and moods that arise in the mind, that right away, we will recognize them as impermanent. And, we won’t let them get a hold on us.

And as long as we remain firm in this, that all things will come and they will go, that we won’t give them a second chance, but soon as this mindfulness and our clear comprehension and wisdom factors begin to slacken and that, such things will come up such as we have doubts about this practice, and we lose ourselves, and we forget ourselves, and we get lost, and caught and trapped, and doubting about the practice that we are doing, about other teachers, about other methods.

But again, if we can reestablish ourselves and bring it back to the present moment, that again, that we will be clearly aware and mindful and know how to deal with these things in the other present moment. And as we do develop this practice, that all things that arise in the mind that we will be clearly comprehending and aware of and we will know how to free ourselves from them to let these things come in and let them go out again.

The meditation instruction that he has given is enough for right now and he’s going on to the development of the metta aspect in our lives. And the Thai word that he uses is warmth and generosity. And he says the opposite thing, the thing that strucks this loving kindness and warmth and understanding and generosity to other beings is of course greed is lobha. And so we have to start working with this, learn how to share, learn how to be able to perfect our dhanna aspect in our lives.

The dhanna is generosity, being able to give and to share with other people he says. But we can contemplate this in the way that we look at ourselves and see that we are hungry and we want things to eat and to have, so we have to learn how to share them. But normally, he says if we have say two apples, he uses the example of two apples, and we have a little tiny apple and we have a nice big juicy apple. And of course we want to share it with our friends but we don’t give them the big juicy one we give them the little one. And, he said, this is one way of generosity but there is still something lacking in that, we are still holding back. Have any of you been this way?

And so in our practice, and this example of the two apples, he says that we have to learn to resist or to go against that desire of not wanting to let go, of not wanting to share in a more whole way, a more complete way.

To really give up that thing which is the hardest to give up and to force ourselves to do it, and he said it is only difficult if you sit there and you think about it and you contemplate it “well, I don’t really want to give it to him” and on and on. And this thing you keep resisting, but then if you go against that flow of not wanting to and just do it, then after you’ve done it, of course you feel very good about it and there is no more to it than just that. And so in this way, we have to train ourselves constantly, learning how to go against that thing which we want to that we most resist and that we want to avoid.

So this is the way that we can, the word he uses is to conquer ourselves and to become like the champions and unless we can do this then of course we lose and we never learn how to overcome these things.

How about in your minds? Has any of you ever experienced this? Any of you ever had this?

That our minds of course want to avoid and resist this giving, this generosity, and so that we don’t want to do those things, we are selfish, we are stingy. And we want to keep everything for ourselves and so this is a way to develop, this is a way to clean, to wipe away those things which are unclean which are unwholesome in our minds.

So this is one thing that we all should try and develop and make a useful thing in our lives. And some of us may think when we hear this thought, we are taking advantage of, we are exploiting ourselves and we are not looking after ourselves. But he says in fact that is not the case that you are exploiting; you are overcoming ones defilement, ones kleshas.

He says our kleshas, our defilements are like a cat. That as long as we continue to feed the cat, that it will keep coming around and meowing and coming to bother us but right away when we no longer feed it and we refuse to feed it anymore then it’s only a few days and then it’s going to go away, no longer come around to bother us.

But to make our defilements afraid of us, not that we should be afraid of our defilements.

So in this way is the way that we can come and study the dharma of the Buddha; that we don’t have to seek the scriptures, to seek sacred books and things to try and find the dharma and the Buddha. That in just this simple example, this simple teaching that he is giving you right now, that if each and every one of us looks into themselves and reflects on this and contemplates it, then we can see this very simple teaching and see it for ourselves, that we don’t have to look to very profound examples and very profound teachings and scriptural quotations from various masters and patriarchs and things. But just from this very simple and very down to earth kind of approach that we can see and realize for ourselves that Buddha is dharma.

So these examples that he was giving you in regards to dhanna and generosity he says this is in a material way, how to give things in a material way. You give objects, you give food, whatever it might be. And so he is talking about a more refined, a more subtle type of giving and that comes with the giving of one’s pride, of one’s views and opinions.

For example, all of the people here, many of us have studied with different teachers and probably everybody has their particular method or their particular approach and school that they prefer; some prefer the Tibetan, some prefer the Zen, some Theravadan. But whatever the case, when we hear other people’s teachings and listen to other people and we think when they are talking “oh their method is no good but our method is the best” or “that’s not wrong and ours is right”.

He said to really look at that and to be generous, and to give that up, to let it go, and to be generous in this way. Not to cling and to hold to one’s stubborn views and opinions and things that you know, but to keep them to yourself, and just to listen, and not to make yourself very arrogant, and proud, and haughty, but rather to learn how to give these things up.

So this first aspect that he talked about, the dhanna aspect that this, is one of the things that we have to develop and prefect on the path to enlightenment. And the next thing that he would like to talk about is the sila the discipline, or the morality aspect of the teachings; the five precepts, the training precepts, or the eight. And he compares them to like a mother and father of the dharma, that these are the things which will be conducive to realising the dharma, the things which overlook, which are kind of like the overseers, to watch over the dharma so as to protect it and allow it to arise.

So in regards to the precepts, to the training precepts, that he wants to talk about each one of them.

And the first one is nonviolence or the non-exploitation of other living things and this means all living things from the lowest form of life up to the highest form, human beings down to all animal forms and insects and it includes all sentient beings.

And the second is, what he says, being respectful of and knowing, respecting other’s possessions, and mainly not to steal, not to take those things which are not given.

The third, he describes the third training precept the kamesu, the sexual misconduct, that we have to know what the right amount of this is. And so he describes it in the way that they teach it in Thailand, and that’s that we should know that when we have a family, we have a wife and we have a husband. That we should know the right amount in consensual in our sexual relationship, that the right amount, he says, that we have to look for ourselves. He’s talking about over-indulgence, and this over-indulgence of course that we are not satisfied with our husband, we are not satisfied with our wives, and so we go and find ourselves another wife, maybe two wives or we go and find ourselves another husband, maybe two or three husbands.

And he says that we have one husband and one wife and there is more than enough to handle, to look after with one person, let alone creating all of these problems and going out and seeking, and indulging with many other people, so we have to really look and we have to investigate this for ourselves, because, please, be sympathetic with me, I know this is a very touchy subject. And he says himself, that he knows that the situation here, he has been in America enough, and I have told him enough about what it’s like and so he says that we have to develop fidelity, loyalty, to one’s spouse, that we have to know, the term he uses is the approximation – the right amount, not over indulgence in this thing, in sexuality, and we have to learn to limit ourselves, to restrain ourselves.

I’ll wait on that, there’s a note that he brought up before about sexual relations outside of marriage, but I’ll let him.. I’m sure someone will ask on that and he can bring it up for that.

He is very strong and is very emphatic with this teaching, the knowing the right amount. And he said that like in our families, and things that we already have enough to look after just in that way, so that if we want to have a limit, something to kind of encase our lives so as we have some direction and guidance. If we step outside of that boundary that we set for ourselves of course we just create innumerable problems.

And he talks about the other two precepts; mainly the intoxication and those things which leads to intoxication, which causes you to be negligent and unmindful of what we do. He says having a wife and children, having a husband and children in a family that we are already intoxicated enough with being caught up and looking after and dealing with these things. And he says if you come an add other things such as alcohol or whatever it is to get yourself high, to get yourself stoned, he says that you become more intoxicated, that you could just create total darkness for yourselves and so you must…

And he says that he is speaking very strongly and so please forgive me he says that I am speaking so strongly but that his intentions are coming from the purest intentions and he only wished the best for each and every one of you.

Forgive me.

I don’t want to say anything, but the Buddha told me to.

So as we develop, as we purify our sila, that we will begin to reap the fruits, the results of the purification of our sila and that we will experience the joy and the happiness, the serenity that comes from having purified one’s sila. And that whatever we do that we will be very happy, and be in a very happy state, and that the peace and the harmony that we will have in our lives will be indeed great; that everything will be great, everywhere that we go, that we will be what we could say “temporarily contented and happy”.

But he says, and he compares this to having entered heaven, a heavenly state, and so that we will become like Mr. and Mrs. [inaudible] and [inaudible] is like a celestial being or a deity and this is of course an anthropomorphic way, a simile, a way of talking about our mental happiness that is the result from having relinquished those things which are bad, which are unwholesome, which are evil, and having developed those things which are good, which are wholesome. And so he says, when people do develop this, that you have to take it a step further, that when people have reaped the fruits of purifying their sila in this way, that they tend to forget themselves and that they tend to lose themselves in that happiness.

And he says this is a danger; this is something that we must be careful of, that that very happiness that we are experiencing is like closing the door or putting beyond happiness because of the characteristic of this happiness that it is impermanent. That it’s like not letting us see the other side, that when it changes that we can experience, again experience unhappiness and the suffering.

So we must be very careful to look deeper into this happiness and not to lose ourselves in it, not to forget ourselves in it. But as we experience it, and the results of these good deeds that we don’t attach or cling too tightly to them and we know how to look into them deeper and know that as well, is a changing condition, that is an uncertain thing.

So as we continue to investigate and to look into ourselves and see the impermanent nature of this happiness and see the impermanent nature of the unhappiness that these things had continued to change. And that they are uncertain, that the mind begins to turn away from those things that this fashion arises, that we turn away and become fed up, no longer wish to reap those results, and to indulge in those things. And as we turn away and detachment sets in that a very peaceful and tranquil state will arise in our minds.

So when this fashion, this attachment sets in, that we turn away from all things, that we no longer want to be reborn, we no longer want to be born again. He said that all of these things that each and every one of us is experiencing here, coming to sit, all of the things we’re having to deal with, having to put up with, and suffer through, he says “come, this is what we call the fruit of past actions”, of things we have done in the past and this is the law, or you can say the law of karma, manifesting itself that we in the past put in these conditions to reap and for the results and the fruits and things that we’re reaping right now.

And so that we have to learn to deal with these things and understand and know that this is a natural law, that it arises from a cause. And when there is causes there is going to continue to be effects, so it’s going to continue to be the results from the causes and this we call the law of karma.

And so today he has spoken about quite a bit and that this is his first trip here to America so he says there’s many things to say and that he wants to leave you with, to pass on to all of you and so once again he said, if you’re unhappy or with what he has said, that not to blame him and to put the blame on him but rather to put the blame on the Buddha because he’s the one that told him to say it.

He said today he thinks was like shooting birds; he says he thinks that he would have hit every one of them today. Is that right?

So today, this is all that he has to say and that now it is your responsibility to take these things upon yourself to investigate them, to contemplate them and to work with them for yourselves, to know those things which are good and bad, know those things which are right and wrong.

And he said that in your development of your practice, he said to relinquish those things which are bad and unwholesome; he says you don’t have to let anybody see that or know that, he says that you can just sweep them away and clean them away in yourself and you don’t have to make a big thing out of that and to let other people know. But to just continue your practice in this way; continue to develop that which is wholesome which is good and to continue to relinquish, to let go of those things which are unwholesome and bad.

He says he is a monk that likes to speak very directly and to get right to the point and not to that is not useful for anything and really no real value or positive results will arise from it. So he said if nobody’s willing to listen to his direct immediate teachings that he can just finish and quit right there and that would be fine as well.

[Buddhist prayer chant]

Transcript

Highest freedom and that if we are letting go and it’s still suffering and that we are crying that is not true letting go and once we truly let go and then we are complete and whole and nothing remains.

[inaudible]

What did you do with your son when that was happening?

[inaudible]

That to point to the stars and to our own minds of our suffering and he’s saying that in one’s meditation practice that we can experience anything and everything and that whatever we see that we are standing on and that we’re clinging and grasping to, to know that for ourselves to see it and then to take the appropriate actions to make amends to appease and remediate our suffering.

[inaudible]

He said that it’s going to happen because there will be those of us that will be fed up, that will be, have had enough of materialistic culture and we will graduate, back away, and move away from that and move in to the direction of the dharma and that it’s the same way that he compared it to [inaudible]. What about it? We’re playing and having a good time instead of making ourselves quiet and peaceful.

He said happiness and pleasurable things, fun things, that there’s no end to them but that when we make ourselves peaceful, and then it’s complete and we put a stop and an end to that cycle.

Said that we all should have had enough, we have been doing it for years and years, when are we going to stop and settle down and learn to be attentive and peaceful.

In doing all of, having a good time, seeking a lot of pleasurable things and we want to be filled and satisfied, he said it’s like trying to fill a water jar that has a hole on the bottom of it and no matter how hard we try to fill it, it just keeps leaking out and so we have to plug up the hole.

Is that true?

He says you can try it for yourself, go find yourself a water jar with a hole in it and try to fill it up until about midday and about midday after you’ve tried that and it doesn’t work then plug up the hole and try again and see if it works.

He says there is no need to have a lot of doubts about enlightenment that it is attainable in this lifetime but that we really have to do it and that we have to persevere and endure and apply ourselves and that it’s attainable for each and every one of us in this very lifetime.

Both of you seem happy, however in terms of values or quality of happiness or something, so are there two kinds of happiness or are you teaching me that you’re suggesting that when we think we are happy there is some delusion but yet you seem happy [cough].

He said your happiness is the happiness that you got from a hot fire and boiled and made it. It’s kind of a play on words as well, that the soup that is used in this word “to gain enlightenment” means to make yourself done, or make yourself right. And you’ve done it through that kind of happiness and rightness is coming to a hot fire and burning yourself whereas our kind of happiness comes from the natural way like fruit ripening in the natural way.

But as in quality I mean subjectively?

[inaudible]

He says no, that kind of happiness is unhappiness.

That happiness is the kind that has happiness and suffering, happiness and suffering, happiness and suffering, always changing.
Have you ever been really happy for a really long time, several days, even a week or several weeks?

No

Why not?

I don’t know

[inaudible]

That’s why the Buddha talks, to not believe that, to know it has changed, that it’s imperative it’s not uncertain.

And then not to get crap [inaudible] by happiness or by suffering if it’s to the right or to the left, happiness is to the right, suffering to the left, but to walk down the middle, in between, in the direct and straight path.

He said that kind of happiness is the kind of happiness that is not really right, you can’t have it because it’s against nature and he’s comparing it to the kind of happiness that if you take a string, a rope and tie it around your neck and start to fasten it and make it very snug and tight and tighter and tighter and the cinching the noose around your neck, this discomfort, distress and pain that you would experience, it will become greater and greater and then when they release the rope from your neck that you will again be happy and contented with but that it’s the same happiness and contentment that you had before but it’s not really true happiness and contentment, it’s only just the opposite of the pain.

When you’re happy, do you ever get fed up with your happiness?

Once you get fed up, then do you want it again?

When you’re going to be complete? When are you going to graduate?

He says that’s the way life is.

[inaudible]

So are you believing? Pardon?

[inaudible]

He says not that we are running away, escaping, we are doing it in order to build our own wisdom and then we can truly help with the problems and things wherever.

We train ourselves to make ourselves strong and make ourselves stable and give ourselves a lot of strength like a boxer. Does a boxer just go out right away and start boxing or does he train first?

Practise to give ourselves experience.

He says the history of the Buddha, the Buddha was born in the forest and he became enlightened in the forest and then he taught and expounded his teachings in the forest and that he attained to the final nirvana in the forest and if that was the case, was he running away from all his problems?

He said of all the people in that are here this evening, at least around 100 of you, he says is there just one person that is really willing to be a disciple?

He said that we all want to be peaceful but we want to attain and realise the dharma but that none of us are willing to do it and so all we do is go around and ask people to solve our problems [inaudible] as we never solve them and do anything about them ourselves.

Can you ask him to tell us what a [inaudible]

Mainly a person that follows *what is it called?*

Into the [inaudible]

That of the disciple.

Does this mean someone from the monastery or the lay person [inaudible]?

[inaudible]

He said yes, in the land you can do it as well but that you have to have in translation he said a boundary, a monastery within yourself and be able to take that wherever you are going, use the example of Paul who was ordained as a monk and lived with him for six years and he is still practicing very similarly to when he was in the monastery.

It was pretty hard to figure out, if you look at him, he’s not a monk, but then you look at him, and he’s not really a lay person as well. He really can’t figure out what he is.

That’s the way his mind is as well, he’s kind of in between there.

Gives him about 50%.

If he was 100% then he would have to ordain.

If you go out and teach meditation then he just wouldn’t do that. He would just kind of sit there in that middle state, limbo state.

He said that’s good if as a lay person if one practices not exploiting, taking advantage of other people, and one practices disciplining oneself and learning to have love and kindness for other people and not to do those things which are wrong, which are unwholesome, which are detrimental to yourself and as well as others.

That if everybody was doing this that it would be a very positive step in the right direction that it would create a very wholesome environment society for us all to live in.

He said that his friend has been asking Paul to go to the movies, go out and enjoy some entertainment, whatever it might be, and that he doesn’t go. And so they kind of draw back and just wonder what’s with this guy anyway? Is he mad or what?

He’s kind of in the middle, not totally drawn one way or another. You have to understand his relationship has been going for about 6 or 7, about 7 or 8 years, 8 years, about 8 years. And he’s had him under his thumb for about 6 years, and now he’s at it again, so he’s not letting him get away with anything.

They coming, having this opportunity to come, and meet with all of you, he wants to thank you all very much.

He said all of your doubts, that you can come to Thailand to solve them there.

You have to go there and be happy and content, you go there and you create a lot of problems.

He said that he is glad and happy to have everybody whether it be women or men who are willing to make the effort and wants to go and that it’s open to everybody.

And that it is starting to develop and take foothold in London in England there is a lot of western monks staying there now and they seem to be going in a very positive direction and we encourage you all to keep the five lay precepts and if not, he says there is no path and no way that you will ever to attain enlightenment.

[inaudible]

The five mean not doing that which is wrong, which is bad.

The five things.

At the very least.

[inaudible]

Write it down. The first one is not to exploit [inaudible], all sentient all beings.

The second one is not to steal.

If you’re the heavy one, he says he wants you to listen this well and remember this third one.

If you have a wife then you can’t commit adultery.

In both case, wife, husband and wife.

Not to commit adultery if one is married.

[inaudible]

The fourth one is not to lie.

The fifth [inaudible]

Transcript

Today, he has the opportunity to again meet with all of you, so please forgive him for this.

(Audience laughs)

For the things that he says, that some of you will like them, some of you will dislike them. That maybe the older people will like the things and the younger people will dislike. Uh, so that, uh, we have to, uh, all be aware of this.

But whatever the case maybe, that we all should understand that he is saying these things, out of love for us, out of metta and compassion for all of us.

So that the teaching that he gives to all of us that he passes on, he sees that, we don’t know what is what, that we are very confused and don’t have an understanding of truth, of the true nature of things. So that, in his teaching, that he is giving to all of us, he is giving it to you for your own investigation, for your own contemplation.

The Dharma that he is going to give us this evening is the Dharma that the Buddha taught, that the Buddha taught in accordance with truth and those things which are truth, that are useful for us, the things that aren’t, that weren’t in accordance with truth, that he didn’t teach about, that they had no value or were not worth teaching about.

All of the dharmas including encompassing all things, the things that are floating in the air, that are above us, and the things that are in the forests and in nature, the things that, are outside of us, that these aren’t the important things, the important things and the things that he wants to talk about are those dharmas, which specifically apply to us in our own practice and that is, that we’ll apply and help us.

He wants to talk and he is going to talk about those things which have to deal with our own bodies and minds. Those things which maybe we see but we still don’t know, or maybe we know but we still don’t see, or maybe we see but we still don’t know. And only these things so that he wants to clear this up and point this out.

So that the things he says and that he, uh, relates on are things that apply to us specifically, that they don’t apply to the traits to external things but they apply to each and every one of us, to our own bodies and minds.

Isn’t that the way it is? Is that right?

So that the things that he has already said in the past and the previous days and the things that he is saying today, that maybe we still don’t understand, we don’t see them for ourselves. But nevertheless that at a later time we will see, we will understand, and we will know. Because we are still young, that we don’t understand and see these things, but this is like planting the seeds for us to realize and see these things for ourselves at a later time.

So when we come to sit, we’re not peaceful, we’re agitated, we’re stirred up and we’re everything but peaceful. And the reason for this is because we don’t know what is what. We don’t understand, we don’t see clearly. So that the teaching he is going to give you today is a teaching to help to clarify, help to point out and help you to understand what is what.

So when we come to listen to the dharma, when we come to hear it, after we have heard it and begin to practice it, we will begin to see and realize it and it will become easier and easier as we apply this.

For himself and his own practice, uh, that in the beginning, he didn’t know what was what. He didn’t know anything. He was totally lost and had nowhere to begin as well. His mind was chaotic, was agitated and stirred up as the same as all of us.

So some of us come in to sit here, maybe experiencing the same thing. We sit and, uh, we just see, no way that we can become collected, we can become peaceful. So maybe we get fed up, maybe we get bored with the whole thing and just want to quit.

We have to be very patient and enduring. That this is a term he continually uses through all of his teachings. His endurance, his patience, uh, using them hand in hand. And he says that as we endure it patiently and endure our dukkha, our suffering, that it grows, and it gets larger, and it gets bigger, and it grows and it grows until it gets so big that eventually, it dies away.

So when he speaks about this death, uh this dying he said, there is probably some of you that don’t understand, or what he is talking about.

Because of our delusion and because of our ignorance, that we don’t understand things, that things that are small we can elaborate, we can embellish and colour them and make them into something big, and things that are big, and we can turn around and make them small. The same with things that we dislike, we can turn into our likes and the things that we like, we can turn into dislike.

So now he wants to give you some examples and so each and every one of you should prepare yourselves and make your minds very firm and stable to listen.

This bell here, do some of you think it’s large? Do some of you think it’s small?

Can you answer? Small, huh?

(Audience laughs)

Isn’t it big now?

(Laughter)

Who understand in this way.

So that our desire, that this form, when we come to look at this form, that, uh, within, with desire we can make this into something big or we can make it into something small.

So all of us sitting here, that if we come to try and uh, classify this object as big or small, that it is very difficult because we have nothing to measure it to.

So when he lifts this glass up and then we have something to compare it to, and immediately it becomes big.

So what gets bigger, what happens anyway when he lifts the glass up? Does the bell get actually bigger?

So when we start to play with these labels, that we classify, uh, like this bell here, that some of us will say, well it is large. Maybe some of us will say it’s small. But he gives example whatever we call it, if you bring my alms bowl down and you put it next to this bell, then immediately of course it will become small.

So all of us, when we look at this bell, we come to classify it, to judge it. Some of us will say that it’s small, and if we say that it’s small, then according to our desire, according to what we like, it becomes small. And the same for if somebody comes along and says, “Well, it’s large”. And we make it large according to our desire, and according to, what we like, but in reality, in truth, in reality, that it is neither small nor is it large. That it’s just what it is. But because of ignorance, because of our delusion, we don’t understand and we don’t see this. And, to know that, that the true nature, uh, of this bell, uh, that as it sits here it’s neither large nor small but just what it is.

So that we have to come to train and to develop ourselves in accordance with the dharma. So we understand what is what, we understand in accordance with truth and reality.

So as we develop ourselves in accordance with Dharma, as we begin to understand that a gradual, a gentle development, growth begins to take place within us. That we start to, uh, be very cautious, to be very careful, to be very heedful about all things, about all of our senses, all of our experiences. That we are careful not to get too lost, get too trapped in, uh, over liking things, or disliking things, going to these extremes. And we begin to balance ourselves out in this way. We begin to find that middle-ness.

So the Buddha taught that the reason that we have to suffer that we have to, uh, misunderstand is because we don’t see things in accordance with truth, in accordance with reality. That we are constantly following our whims, our impulses and our desires according to like and dislike.

So we should understand that when we come to practise that our one aim is to try to, is to develop some quiet too, and some peace of mind. Uh, living in our homes, in our houses, we think that we can’t be peaceful. And so we come to a meditation retreat. We come here to, uh, the meditation center and think that because we come here, we are going to peaceful. Are all of you peaceful? Everybody? Does everybody have peace of mind?

Where is peacefulness anyway? You’re not peaceful at home, you’re not peaceful here, what is it anyway, where is peacefulness?

So we come thinking that we are going to become peaceful, become tranquil and concentrate, and the reason that we don’t is because we don’t understand, we don’t truly know what peacefulness is. That we think that the external environment, the surroundings that we have here are conducive to that and he says they are but only about twenty or thirty percent worth. And so we come thinking that we are going to be peaceful and in fact it goes just the opposite. We become chaotic and totally agitated and just lost because we don’t know and understand what is what.

He said in the beginning in his practice, that he was very stupid. He was very foolish. That he thought that to attain, to quieten, that you needed a quiet place like the forest and that you shouldn’t have to hear anything so that he took wax and he put it in his ears. And it was indeed very peaceful, very quiet in the forest but inside it wasn’t. And he was thinking in a way that people that are deaf, people that are blind could attain to arhatship because they didn’t see and they didn’t hear and this would aid them and be instrumental in helping them to become enlightened. But in fact this was his delusion, that was his ignorance. And he said even till this day, he says he has many things that he’s learning about because of his stupidity and foolishness. So he wants to relate this on to each and every one of you.

So we come here to sit and to practice meditation and to follow according to the way that Jack and the other teachers instruct us. That we sit and we try to tranquilize and make our minds peaceful. But if we are sitting and we are sitting for a little while, then all of a sudden an airplane passes overhead and hummm over and we get stirred up with the airplane. And then a car passes by and “whoosh”. And that upsets us. And maybe people sitting around us, upset us and stir us up.

And we get very upset and we think all of these things, the sounds of the plane, the sounds of a car passing by or other people moving next to us, that these things are bothering us, that they have come to bother us. But, in fact, in accordance with truth that they don’t come to bother us but that we go out to bother them. And, so we must understand this and we must reflect on this, that if we reflect and understand that an airplane is an airplane, and that it has its usefulness and things in the world just like the car, uh, so that all of us that came here, how did we get here? What transportation did we use?

Of course we came, most of us came by a car, by automobile. And, and because we don’t understand the nature of a plane, the nature of an automobile, that we go out to bother these things and make them into something more than they are. But if we practise in accordance with truth and reality, that we let planes be planes, we let cars be cars and we let ourselves be ourselves. And there is no problem. And we understand, what is what.

We should all understand in this way.

So like this building that we are all sitting in, we can come here and sit comfortably. And before this building was built, we had to find all the materials for it. And we had to find the wood, the metal and the cement, the rock, all of the things that we needed, all of the materials we needed to put to make this structure. And before it was put together, there was nowhere to sit. And things were scattered all about in a very disorderly fashion. But as we began to build and we put things in their place, the cement, where it should go, the wood, the roof and all of the roof and all of the materials, that we now have a very comfortable place to come and sit in because everything has been put in its place and put in an orderly fashion. Isn’t that right?

Because we don’t know and understand what is what, that we are scattered and we’re strung about all over the place. And we come to sit on our meditation cushion instead of, rather than being a meditation cushion, it’s like a coal or a bed of hot coals and fire.

Just like this building, we learn how to put everything in its proper place. We know where everything goes. And so there everything, then everything becomes orderly and neat and tidy.

All of the senses, when things come to contact, the senses, things, sounds come to contact the air to just let them go, take their natural course. The same with sites, they come to contact the eye, to let them go, to let them take their natural course. Smells that contact the nose, taste that contact the tongue, feelings that contact the body to let all of these things go and take their natural course. And then thing, everything becomes very orderly and peaceful.

So we have to understand in accordance with truth and reality, uh, that the true nature of things. That how all things come into being and pass away and know what is what. Uh, because we still go out to bother everything and everybody and everything. That we still cause ourselves to suffer, we cause ourselves to be agitated, and scattered about.

So we understand that and we think that because we will not let anything contact our senses, that we will close off all of our senses. That that’s what we have to do. That we don’t understand how to truly make ourselves calm and collected to make ourselves peaceful. If this was the case, if we were to close off the ears, close off the eyes, close off our nose and our mouth, and, that, you know, what would that do? Is that really the way? If that was the case, then blind people, that people that were deaf and dumb, that would all be enlightened and would attain to arahatship.

Do you see that within yourself? Do you understand that for yourself? This is where the Dharma is. He talks about the things in the air. That you won’t understand that. The Dharma isn’t there.

So to understand peace, uh, that it comes from letting go, from feeing ourselves, from liberating ourselves in this way. So then we come to sit this one continuous letting go. That things arise and we let them pass away. And then we will truly become peaceful and understand and we’ll have freedom.

So that as we, when we come to sit here, uh, that all of the things that are coming back on us, that is our old karma, the things that we have accumulated. All of those things which we’ve done in the past are catching up with us. That there is nowhere to run, there is nothing that we can do. The only thing we can do is to learn to endure these things. In the past we thought, these things were good, that they were wholesome, that they were the right thing to do, and at that time they were and we didn’t, we weren’t aware of what the consequence would be, and what the results would be. And so now all of these things are coming back on us. And so he uses that one word to be patient, to endure. And he says that’s karma.

He says that sitting here at sixty years old, that things are still coming back on him. That he has to, still has to put up with thing as well. And he used the word that we are all in debt. And he said he hasn’t paid off his debt. And he says, “How do you think you are going to pay off your debt when you are that much younger than he is?” So we have to indeed learn to endure.

So we should be very careful. We should be very heedful of what we do. That if we do, that which is not good, which is unwholesome, that maybe it won’t come back on us today, but it will come back on us tomorrow. Maybe not this month but next month. Maybe not this year but next year. Maybe not this life but in a future life. So we must be very heedful and very cautious about this. And he said this is one of the basic teachings of Buddhism is to perform good is to receive good, and to perform bad is to receive bad.

So we must be very careful about this. We must understand this very clearly that we have to patiently endure and to relinquish, to overcome these things little by little. The things that we have done in the past, that they are going to have to come back on us. But not to make any future, uh, put in anymore unwholesome causes to come back on us in the future. And to work with the present. The simile he gives with working with the present is like we have a container of water. And each day we take a smaller container, and we take a little bit of water out and we dump it out. And the next day we take some more water out of it and we dump it out. And we continue in this way in a very patient, gentle and gradual way. But be very careful not to take a glass out today and put another one in tomorrow. And then take one out again as it starts filling it up again. And he says this would take very long to get rid of all the water in that big container.

It’s probably enough, if he says too much, it might be really heavy.

Just the right amount.

Do you understand? Taking it out. Continue to take out those things which aren’t good. If you take the things that aren’t good out, but then you keep putting them back in, they’ll never get used up.

It’s really hard, isn’t it? It’s really filled up. That’s the way it is.

Like in our work, it’s quite natural that we are lazy, we are lethargic, we don’t want to do it. But of course if we don’t resist that, if we don’t go against that and go out and work, we are not going to have any money to live by, to buy things with. The same way in the Buddhist teachings, that we are lazy, but if we don’t do it, we are not going to get any results.

Could it be that way for you? Laziness. Go out to work, but we are lazy to work. We have to overcome. Get beyond our laziness. Meditators, when they hear the bell ring, “bing”, right away, they should get up right away, but they turn over and sleep again. Get up right now. If we all believe in, trust in our laziness that there wouldn’t be anybody here sitting. Isn’t that right?

To give you all a blessing. He wants to wipe away his karma. He feels that he has probably hurt you and stung you all.

(Buddhist prayer chant)

For yourself, which path you want to walk on, he compares it to, if you are in a hurry, that you get in a car. But if you are patient, that you can walk. But whatever the case, that you have to, uh, seek out that path and do it for yourself.

(Buddhist prayer chant)

He wants you to do a good job on the recordings so that you can take everybody’s voice from here back and play it for the people in Thailand.

Transcript

Today, he is saying he is alternative speaking to you he has not had professional opportunity because he’s always busy going here going there, he’s saying he would like to talk to you, as a group.

Practice is meditation, …where lay people, where people who have worldly responsibilities. Do you understand how to practise? Are you spiritually within your mind?

There are so many teachers, lay teachers, monks, Buddhist monks, various gurus that are teaching various methods, various styles, various systems, various limitations you might have many doubts and uncertainties about which way to practice, and if it’s the right way to practice meditation.

The practices of the dharma is taught by a Buddha is a way to make peace to the heart and this is a certainty if one is willing to do the practice. This way has been proven in many years. And this is a certainty that as one does it one will achieve their goal, liberation.
Our hearts are very uncertain things that some days one sits in meditation and feels very much at peace, the next day one sits and feels very much confused, doubtful. The conditions of our mind are always very uncertain, always changing.

Sila, samadhi and prajna is in the mind, is not something we have to look for. There’s something outside, something said, and something that we don’t have. It is a practice of the Buddha is something we can do all the time.

Sitting, practicing Samadhi or concentrating on the mind, shutting our eyes, closing our eyes. This is an opportunity to see, to look at the conditions in our mind as they are. As we close our eyes… so that in order to pay close attention to the movement, the vision we are experiencing within us at that time.

One way of, one technique of practicing meditation is to watch the breath, in order to see inhalation and exhalation of our own breath. We can, in doing this we of course bring awareness, awareness of the breath. Following the breath, knowing it and feeling it, being fully aware of it rising and passing and this is a way for closing the mind, collecting it and pointing it on one thing and being fully aware that I can be completely with the breath. This is one technique that we use.

You miss practice, the more you forget. When you sit down, reflect or think to yourself, I am doing this by myself, I am here alone. To remind yourself that it’s your mind that you are watching, to not think about who is around, who is sitting beside, who is sitting in front or to get caught in liking or disliking or worrying about things that are surrounding you but to say to yourself I am here alone, just watching the grass and then compose yourself on the grass and watch the inhalation and exhalation.

What’s the normal, natural breath, do not force it into any specific length, rather than making it shorter nor longer than what is naturally is. Be aware of one’s natural, normal breath, just following it in and following it out not in any way trying to control it.

Letting go of these conditions outside, not to reconfirm our minds on the breath, concentrating solely on that, the conditions, the experiences, offences. We do not dwell on, we do not, we are not, conscience of the sound of you talking and the various other sense experiences in life impinge on our senses, that we’re composed at one point and on the grass and that’s all we know, just aware that the breath is going in and the breath is going out.

If your mind won’t concentrate, imposed or elected then exhale for two or three times, expelling all the air, inhaling and exhaling all the air again, do this for three times and then when this is done, watch your normal breath again before you unwind, following the breath.

You get momentary peace when there is confusion, in other words when the mind can’t concentrate then do this again to expel the air completely from way down deep in your stomach, just expel all the air that you can and then do this again and then compose your mind on the breath.

Through this, in a regular way, doing this until you find your concentration.

When the mind is concentrated and one is no longer the healing with or being disturbed by the contingent from outside. The way that your or whatever impinging one single breath, following it in following out, concentrated on that and this is the growth or coarse impingement becomes less and less, even the concentration becomes increasingly more refined until the breath becomes almost hardly noticeable, it becomes a refined breath, a much more refined concentration and this is looking at our mind, watching our minds having mindfulness, sathi.

When the mind is composed like this then one is the mind is composed and the mind is composed and seeing the condition of the mind as one watches the breath, this is the union of sila, samadhi, prajna, where it becomes one pointed and this is what we call samadhi, ..three sila – morality, samadhi, concentrated prajna wisdom become one, one pointed, one harmonious whole in our own minds which is what we call samadhi.

Concentration in this way, being completely one pointed on the breath, seeing the breath, and seeing it completely so clearly. Eventually, it becomes so refined it seems its breath disappear like we don’t have any breath at all and this is a refined concentration on the breath until at this time what one will see is has contemplated the fifth line contingent completely with it following it in, following it out, then when there is no more breath, or seeing as if there is no more breath, one changes the attention to the fact that there is no more breath. One says to oneself there is no more breath.

When this happens, this is a point or place where sometimes signs appear in the mind, one might see light or hear faint sounds, we will have visions of various sorts, and some people will not, it’s not the same for everybody. And some people will become very frightened thinking that if they are not breathing then they are going to die, a lot of fear rises in some people when their time when their breath disappears but all that is necessary to do at this time is just to be aware of the feeling of one’s no more breath because that concentration of the feeling that says there is no more breath.

This is what we call a thick, stable, kind of concentration or samadhi. This is taking samadhi to its ultimate. Concentrating in this way is the ultimate in concentration.

This state, the strange feeling, the sensation, is like weightlessness occurs and one feels like one’s body has disappeared, or that one’s body is floating in the air and these kinds of sensations we feel, if we follow them, we’re not to follow these kinds of feelings but just be aware of these feelings of the feelings that arise at the time.

When one has trained the mind to do this and achieved this concentration, then one can stop concentrating and just leave it or can stay in it, sometimes we are too lazy to stop and we enjoy it so we can stay in it, during this time we don’t feel any pain, not bothered by any [inaudible] from outside and you like to feel this way and well in this state but you can leave at any time if you want to. If we do this state for seven days from half an hour to an hour, this will affect our lives considerably, make it much more easy to be able to deal with life and live in a much more peaceful way because it is like cleaning one’s mind out, purifying it, making it tidy and neat. So it affects our lives during that day and for the days forward.

This is the duty of samadhi or concentrating is to give peace, tranquility. This is the sole purpose of samadhi, and this is its duty, just like sila has its duty and prajna has its duty. Well this sila is the morality, prajna wisdom has its duty to perform and this samadhi it has its duty which is to make our make our minds calm, clear, peaceful, tranquil.

This sila, samadhi, prajna, they work together. When one has samadhi, when the mind is peaceful and tranquil and one can see clearly and this helps the development of sila and prajna and with the development of sila and this helps to develop the samadhi and when we have the samadhi, then the clarity helps to develop the prajna so they work together, they help each other, they support each other. You can’t have one without the other being affected in a beneficial way so that sila develops samadhi and samadhi develops prajna and prajna develops samadhi and samadhi develops sila.

Transcript

He has to take this opportunity from each and every one of you to give this Dharma talk that Jack has asked him to come and give [inaudible]

To make your minds firm, to establish your minds in here, now, because the opportunity to listen is not a lot.

He says it’s his good fortune as well as your good fortune that they have this opportunity to meet together today.

Coming to stay here he has received the generosity and from all of you as hosts and hostesses to look after our needs and requisites and various needs of the monks.

So he wants to entrust to each and every one of you, those, that Dharma, which is necessary in your lives.

All of us that were, have been born into the world and those of us that come to separate ourselves and distinguish ourselves from that, to live in a quiethood and in a peace of a quiet forest retreat like this, that this has an excellent and a very high meaning.

We are looking and searching for peace and quiethood according to the practice of students of the Dharma, and practices of the Dharma.
The Dharma that we have to practice, if we look and see and take a good look that there is no place that the Dharma doesn’t exist, that we can’t practice that.

Throughout the world, throughout the whole universe, pervading and permeating everywhere, whether it has form or no form, is nothing but the Dharma.

So the Buddha taught us to look for the Dharma in places which are quiet and peaceful. Those places which are conducive to finding that peace and quiethood.

That he taught us to see the blame, the punishment, the Thai word he uses is “tod”. It’s rather difficult to find an English equivalent but it generally means to see the disadvantage, the harm in those things which are unwholesome and unskillful. And this is but the most important for those things which we practice to learn and to see this for ourselves. Those things which are harmful, unbeneficial, unskillful. And which bring about blame, guilt and remorse.

In regards to peacefulness, that, that’s good to become peaceful but we must know the nature of peacefulness and how it arises and know that it’s a changing thing. And we become very peaceful and quiet and then when we are separated, we have that, we get stuck in that happiness of that peacefulness of that quiethood of mind and then when we go places that, when it changes, then of course we get all stirred up and chaotic.

So we should understand that the external environment, external conditions, that’s not the ultimate, that’s not where we can really find that peace and quiethood.

If the Buddha taught us to live and practice in those places which are peaceful, but, and to hold on to them as using them as a useful thing but not to become attached, not to get stuck and become attached to them.

So that the right place and correct understanding of the place to practice is on the path of right understanding.

In accordance to truth and reality, when we see according to right understanding, we must understand the nature of happiness, the nature of suffering. And when suffering, when happiness arises, we see its nature and know it for what it is and we don’t attach to it. And the same for suffering, when suffering arises, we see its nature and we don’t attach to that.

In regards to, that we all should understand in regards to happiness, when that arises, to know it and not to cling to it. And the same for suffering. And we should see these things according to truth and reality and allow wisdom to arise so that we can penetrate and see through these things beyond these things.

In regards to knowing the Dharma, in regards to seeing the Dharma, that we don’t need anything external, we don’t need a lot of things to study that. All we need is our bodies and our minds that we can study right here, and this is enough. That we turn our attention, lead our attention inward onto ourselves. And then we can know and understand and see and know for ourselves.

His, in his practice, when he was staying by himself out in the forest, and he kind of had become very peaceful and quiet. And then when he came out of the forest into the village and there was musical entertainment and things going on in the village and he became very stirred up and agitated and he thought to himself that, that the music and the festivity had come to bother him, had ruined his peacefulness, and his contentment, mental quiet and peace. And then he contemplated that, looked, that he took a closer look at it and really looked at it and contemplated it, and thought if that was really right or wrong. That this sound and the music and things had come to bother him and stir him up. And as he looked, and took a closer look, a deeper look at it, the understanding came that the music and things didn’t come to bother him. But that he went out to bother the music. So that this was his wrong understanding. And he learned a very valuable lesson.

He is kind of talking and advocating and has on the whole trip that the Dharma that he teaches and that his understanding seeing is that the Dharma which is found that he finds outside of the scriptures that you can’t go to the books and find these things and one benefits and understands this from going to live in the peace and quiet of the forest. And this understanding comes as a fruit, and, of the practice.

That he wants to come in to see all of you diligent practicers and students of the Dharma. That he wants to entrust these things to you and he compares it to a piece of wood. That if you only have one piece of wood, say a foot long, then you have no measuring stick to really know whether that, if that piece of wood is long or whether it’s short. But if you get a longer piece of wood, two foot long, and then you can see that the piece one foot is shorter. Or if you get a piece that is only half the size of the one foot, then you see that it is longer. And in the analogy with the Dharma that coming to, if you, a different approach, a different look at things so that you can really [inaudible] yourself and contemplate it and get another look at things at your own practice and at yourselves.

Even these days that there are many teachers and many methods, and techniques that people are using. And so then if we, unless we really understand our practice and what we are doing, that it can be very confusing. And we can lose ourselves. So he is reminding us to be careful about this and not to forget ourselves. And in the practice and in the various methods and techniques, that, that are existing, such as “shamata” practice and “vipassana” practice or just “vipassana” practice or just “shamata” practice. That all these different methods are, are taught.

That these are just convention, convention of realities that people use to talk about one and the same thing.

That the “Shamata, vipassana” practice is developed together, that they happen and progress and develop together.

For example, in the practice of making our minds peaceful and quiet, that there are two types of peacefulness. And the first one is coming to live in a secluded place, a quiet place, such as the meditation centre here that is out in the forest, in the quiethood of the country side. And this is the first kind of peacefulness.

That this kind of peacefulness that comes from the quiethood of, or from a quiet place, that this is a very weak kind of peacefulness. That as soon as we are separated from those conditions and come into contact with things which stir up our senses and bring up moods and feelings in our minds, that that peacefulness is gone. And he compares it to like a rock on grass and as long as the rock is covering in the grass, of course it doesn’t grow. But as soon as one takes the rock away, the grass again begins to grow.

So this is the first kind of peacefulness that one will experience. And taking it a step further, developing insight into “anicca”, “dukkha” and “anatta”. And this is the cause of developing this state of mind to understand things according to “anicca”, “dukkha” and “anatta” is the cause, it’s the planting of the seed for the arising of wisdom, for the appearance of wisdom.

That we don’t have to do any kind of special thing, that whether we are sitting, walking, standing or lying down. That we can reflect and do this practice.

So that doing this type of practice that we want to constantly be mindful ever of, mindfully aware of the changing phenomenon, the impermanent nature of all, of all things that especially our moods and our minds and constantly reflecting and reminding ourselves that everything is uncertain, is uncertain. That whatever happens whether it be happiness or suffering, pleasure or painful, that we constantly reflect that it’s uncertain, that it’s changing.

So in the past, where we would always take these things to be realities, to attach and cling to them, to think them to be ourselves. And as we practice and investigate these things that we see that they are changing. When in the past we would become one with them, that we would hold them as realities as the self. And of course then “dukkha” would be born into the mind and we would experience suffering. And when we see clearly and according to truth and reality, the true nature of these things, that we no longer attach and cling to them. So then we no longer become those things.

When we see in accordance with truth and reality the true nature of things, that none of this is permanent, that it’s changing. We no longer attach or cling to any of it. Then that’s the end of our problems. All our problems are solved. And that’s it. That’s all there is to it.

Have any of you ever experienced “dukkha”? Have you ever had “dukkha” arise in your mind?

That’s it. That’s where we have to look. That the Buddha said that happiness and suffering don’t exist somewhere off on a mountain top. That it’s right there in our minds and right there in our minds is where we have to deal with it, have to work with it.

In regards to happiness and suffering, that we experience natural happiness and suffering that, that’s the nature of our existence and of life. And the Buddha and the Arahats, they all experienced happiness and suffering in a natural way. But the happiness and suffering that goes beyond that, that we make into something beyond what is natural, is that happiness and suffering which we cling to, which we grasp on to. He compares it to, like the feeling that one has when you have a shot in the arm, and to get a shot in the arm, when the needle goes into the arm, of course we experience the tang and the prickling of the needle going into the arm. And that’s natural. That’s natural type of dukkha, of pain. And the Buddha would experience the same. The Arahats would experience the same. Or in the case of like sickness and sickness is natural and there is discomfort and unhappiness that comes with sickness, a very natural kind. But he compares the suffering that arises from grasping and clinging from “upadana” is as if you took this needle and you bathe it in poison and then you stuck it into your arm. And now we are talking about that it’s, it’s caught up with grasping and with clinging. And of course that means that we firmly identify and grasp onto these things. And that’s the type of suffering that is beyond, or that is outside of that which is natural. And, and, that, that, that which is caught up with clinging.

That all of us should understand where the Dharma arises, where it passes away and where to look in our practice. And that our senses, the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, that these are just characteristics of the mind. And that we have to turn the attention inwards, lay the attention inwards on ourselves. And like a car, the light, lights, headlights of a car that those are just lights of the car but does the car see? Or does the person standing in the car see? And people come to the forest and they come here to stay and practise meditation and in a very quiet and peaceful environment. But they don’t see it, they don’t really understand where real peace is. Just like the eyes of the car, the headlights of the car. That the car doesn’t see the lights, it’s the person inside.

In his teaching, the way he teaches the Dharma, that he likes to speak in similes and parables. Things that we can use as aids to our meditation. Those things which we can use to deceive. The word, the Thai word, “ubai” is those things which aid our meditation, those things which help us to compare and understand the Dharma.

When we observe and contemplate the world, that the world is a place of chaos and turmoil. But the real chaos and turmoil isn’t in the world, it’s in us. And so that’s where we have to look. We have to look at external things like trees, like an old tree and constantly draw a simile and compare with ourselves. As the tree in nature and things change and that we see that we’re changing according to nature as well. And when we see things externally, we understand both things internally and externally are the same and in a constant state of change and understand in this way.

Walking the Dharma path, as we walk the Dharma path, that we have forward movement, that we are walking in a forward direction. And we have coming back and walking in a reverse direction and we have stopping and standing still. And but that Dharma which is the true Dharma, the ultimate Dharma according with truth and reality. That which all wise men and all Buddhists penetrated in real lives. There is no forward movement, there is no walking forward and there is no coming back, walking backward, and there is no stopping and standing still. Where is that?

This is the Dharma that each and every one of us, those who practice, can realise and understand for oneself. That this, this Dharma, that this we call the “Saccha Dharma”, the Dharma that is in accordance with truth and reality. And this Dharma has no owner. That it always exists and always has existed. And will continue to exist and be. And those who practice according to its truth and to realise it that they can know and see it for themselves. And the path that we practice leads us to this. And it has no names, it has no abiding place. It is neither moving forward, backward or standing still.

So the practice that we are all doing, that all of you are doing here, the retreats and things that you have we can [inaudible] the practice that is constant and is, is ever present. They were using continuously and we should understand it like when we eat, when we partake of a meal, once we are full, that we take that away with us. That we continue to use that energy, and that strength, that the food will give us. And in the same way in our practice, that we should take that away with us and use the strength, stability that the practice gives us and take it and use it for mindfulness. And in all aspects of daily living, no matter where we go or where we are at.
He is asking us if our mindfulness, our awareness, makes it in time or not; how keen it is, how sharp it is, how when things contact the senses, they come into contact with our senses, for example the air, a pleasant sound. And he gives the example of a sound of a bird. And if we look at, if we see it clearly, with clear mindfulness, that as soon as that sound arises, that’s that, that’s all, we are just aware of arising of that sound and no more.

But then beyond mindful person forgets oneself in that sound and begins to colour and embellish it and make it into a very pleasant thing. Oh that’s a very nice sound, that’s a pleasant sound! Or maybe, if we are a hunter, or we like, it’s a bird that one would eat, then you think about how you’re going to catch it, how you’re going to trap it, and kill it. And of course the mind runs away and gets in, loses itself in thinking about just from that one basic thing, the sound.

And the same with all of our senses. That if we are not developing and seeing all of our senses, the things that contact the senses, that it’s the same with all of them. That we understand, as these things, as things contact the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue and the body, that, that, and the mind, that it’s just contact. And if we see in accordance to truth and reality and see how they, which the danger in, in the attaching to and the colouring and embellishing of the attachment to those sense bases. Once we see that for, clearly how to let go and, and, and not to attach to that, that our practice is going in the right direction. And so each and every one of us has to contemplate this and take a look and see where we are at.

He says he doesn’t have a lot to say, a lot of words to give you. And but maybe there is nothing to give you anyway, maybe you’ve already all escaped. But if you haven’t, if you haven’t, then he wants you to investigate and try it for yourselves. And he says that just one thing is enough. That all you have to work with and use is, is anything that arises, anything that happens. To just repeat to yourself that it’s uncertain, that it’s not sure, that it’s uncertain, that it’s changing. And whatever is happening, however we are, whatever we’re doing, just to repeat to ourselves that it’s uncertain. And if we constantly remind ourselves of this uncertainty of all things, the impermanent transient nature of all things, no matter what we are doing, where we are going through any of the senses, any of the mental moods and things that come into the mind, that we’ll begin to realise that things are in fact uncertain and constantly changing. And that uncertainty is the Dharma. And the Dharma, he, who sees the Dharma, will see the Buddha, will know the Buddha. And he, who sees the Buddha, will know the Dharma. And that’s it. That’s all that one needs to do. That’s enough.

That the practice that you’re all doing here is very good. The “Shamata” practice, and the practice of making one, one’s mind peaceful and quiet. But he encourages and wants all of you to take it further than that, to investigate and look deeper into the uncertainty and constantly use this one word or this repetition of “it’s not certain.” Things are not certain, uncertain. And to constantly repeat that to ourselves wherever we are, wherever we are going, and that we can realise and penetrate to the Dharma, whether we’ll be standing, sitting, walking or lying down.

He wants us all to try it for ourselves, to look. Do we have like, do we have dislike? Do we have happiness, do we have suffering? To each and every one of us to investigate and look for oneself.

He says that’s right to like and dislike, that we all have this, that that’s natural, that that’s normal for people to have. But a like and dislike which is caught up with clinging and grasping the same as the needle that is put into poison bath. That that is the like and dislike that we have to be careful of and to get beyond.

At this time he would like to open it up for questions that you have. If you let him just talk, that he can continue all night and the day and another night and still not finish it all.

Questions that apply specifically to problems in practice that we may have.

Have you, any of you ever experience that? Where you have heard a sound and you think, “Oh, that sound has come to bother us. It has come to bother me.”

Did it come to bother us or did we go to bother it?

Be very careful.

Person from audience: This is an example, that, this may be extravagant but it points toward a difficulty I have with what you are talking about right now. Suppose there is a smell that has come to bother me. And that smell is the smell of smoke, of a fire. If I just assume and just say smell, smell, smell. Maybe I don’t respond to the fire. That’s not so good. It worries me.

He says meditation shouldn’t be that foolish or stupid. That if that such a thing happens and if we are contemplating in that way, that that’s not proper practice. And you know it’s gonna burn us all up and kill us, of course we should get up and go do something about it.

Transcript

I wonder if Ajahn Chah would explain why there are so many writers, talk about the difficulty of the [inaudible] of describing the experience in meditation and yet most of them also seem to say that such experience is a necessary pre-condition of enlightenment.

Who are these writers?

Zen Buddhism, Theravadan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, many have spoken of enlightenment and many of those also do speak of the enlightenment experience, whether they are called Satori, Kensho, coming to the one, Buddhamind, whatever, they do speak of this.

So the question is why they are saying that this experience is important but not to ascribe importance?

No that’s not the question. The question was, as I understand what I read, ascribing perception experience interferes with attaining enlightenment.

However, most of these people that I have read, and maybe I have read the wrong books, seem to suggest that such an experience is a necessary precondition of enlightenment and I would like to know what Ajahn thought about this question. Whether it is correct, incorrect or there is some alternative.

What’s a better word for describing? “Boom”.

As far as all the books goes, the way he sees it, you should take all the books, put them in a bookcase and leave them there. And not bother with them, and read into your own heart and your own mind and learn from that.

And he hasn’t bothered with books for many, many years and doesn’t usually advise people to study books because they get attached to the words and the ideas and the terms and they forget to look inside themselves and they just remain as deluded as ever even when they get knowledge from the book so that this whole thing about books and what people say is not the angle that he goes on.

The first thing he says was that what’s in the book may be correct but it is very easy to get confused and lost with it so he advises people to put the books in the bookcase and just follow Buddha’s example because Buddha didn’t learn from books and but you can read all about things in books and think you know it but still you’re not seeing it inside yourself.

The books are talking about truth or about Dharma, they are not Dharma itself you know, they are not truth itself, they’re just talking about it.

And to read about desire and anger and all of that in a book is one thing, to see the letters there and then to experience it, to know the flavour of it for yourself is quite a different thing.

So he says open up the textbook that within you and read that.

The Buddha expounded it from his heart, from his own experience when he expounded it to people who came along and wrote it down.

That we all should become Arahats so we don’t have the hassle of asking all these questions. But not describe too hard from that and that will block you but decide on the right way and the appropriate way and the balanced way.

She asked Venerable Ajahn what she should do after she leaves the retreat, how to conduct her life, how to continue with the practice and in her daily life in regards to sitting and regards to just daily life in general.

And he said that if it was important, the importance of maintaining a relationship or an awareness of one’s teacher and he said to just continue on with your practice. He says wherever you go, of course you [inaudible] in Japan, you have the opportunity to practise and not to understand the practice is just sitting with your eyes closed and watching your breath flow in and out he said, when you close your eyes is not the only time that you must calm the body, you calm the body with your eyes open as well.

So, and you have to be constant, always be aware and learn the things which are right and for yourself and then to perform those things, to build on those things and the things which are wrong that you relate with and give those things up and continue on this way and with reflection of one’s teacher and he says that one’s teacher is wherever you go. And then experiences that you’re having, you know these things that’s your teacher.

And you take the guidance and direction that you received from your teacher and from a retreat but then to take that and to apply it continuously, constantly in your daily lives.

I have a question that has two parts to it. I have a hard time knowing these emotions particularly anger and sorrow, whether I’m letting go of them or whether I’m just avoiding or suppressing them and I’d like some guidelines concerning that.

And the second part is concerning anger. If you’re in a situation where someone in its behaviour is really making you feel angry, would it be better to work on communicating the anger without getting caught up in it or would it be better to work on it just yourself in dropping it without communicating it.

First are the emotions and what was the other part, the first part?

Working with emotions of sorrow and…

…particularly sorrow and anger for me but in general, sometimes it’s very subtle when you let go of something and when you just not let it come up… that’s… let go.

He answered the second part first, he said to know the person that you are dealing with, whether it’s appropriate to open up to them or not. You know if it’s the wrong person and you tell them that you’re angry at them, they’re going to get angry at you. He said like you may think it’s a cat but actually it’s a tiger that you’re dealing with.

And the second or the first part, the first question that you asked… First, I guess we didn’t express it clearly and he just said that it’s just a matter of, you know when you have sorrow it’s nothing, it’s just looking at it and seeing where it came from.

You’re attached to something or somebody you lose, things just don’t follow your wishes and your desires and it would be foolish to get sad over it and then we explained a little better about the distinction between letting go and just suppressing or running away from it or avoiding it and he said the only way to know is to look into your mind and see just what has happened there and whether you’ve really killed it, dead and done with or whether it comes back and talking about fire, like when you put out a fire, put out the flame, then it still smoulders and you’ve got smoke and even after the smoke is gone, you’ve still got the ambers there, something that is still hot and you can still get burnt by it so you have to keep on checking into it and what I would add is it’s not strong things or strong emotions like this, you don’t generally let go of them in one sitting, one experience, but you just keep on coming back to them over and over again and your mindfulness gets a little bit better as time goes by and gradually let go a little more which is fine.

He was talking about this last night, the simile of the fire, and he said once the flame had gone down, and it’s smouldering and smoking, and he says you’d still have to be very careful because it is very easy for the fire to get started again.

So, but once the fire is out and if it’s smoking and it’s just the heat remaining, he says you can ease off a little bit but you still have to be careful of course until it is completely off, it is completely eradicated and extinguished.

Speaking about fire, the other day, Ajahn Chah said to be able to, when doing practice to be able to distinguish between being cool headed and hot headed. What are some of the signals of being hot headed as opposed to, but my problem is, whether there’s something that needs to be looked at that kind of sits there, and I guess to some extent anticipating but I’m not so sure whether I’m creating a situation by being to, I need to know what the difference between being hot headed and cool headed for one.

Yeah that would be a good start.

Do you know what hot is, what heat is? Have you ever been hot? What about coolness, have you ever been cool? Where is the heat and where is the coolness?

That’s right, right there, that’s where it’s cool and that’s where it’s hot.

So, when we attach, or when we grasp and cling to that heat, and when we let the things go, then of course it goes away and then that’s cool.

So, he’s saying that dealing with our moods, our mental conditions, he says when we deal with them with ignorance he says, then that’s the heat, that’s the fire, and we don’t know. But when we deal with them with wisdom and we see them clearly, he says that’s of course coolness because we know how to deal with them, how to let them go and then he said, he went on to say that that’s not enough, that’s still not complete, that’s still not the end and to be very careful about this that things will continue to come and we will have to continue to practise to investigate.

So for example maybe when we’re angry, but we know anger and we see it and we don’t let it, we deal with it with wisdom because it’s a very mild anger and so we’re thinking oh well I’m on top of that or we’ve overcome that but when a very strong anger, he uses the word a very violent anger comes up, we’re just gonna close this off again, we’re not getting back, having got caught and lost it again. So we have to continuously look and deal with these things and he’s saying not to get overconfident or get complacent and think that we’ve gained or got anywhere but to continuously be on top of situations and continue to work with ourselves.

And then he goes on to talk about doubts and asking questions, how everybody, he said, everybody that comes and always have questions and they have doubts and things they want to ask. And he said you know it is not that you’re going to be able to ask all of your questions and find all the answers and solve everything.

He says there’s no end to that, you know continuously to ask and try to give answers.

He said that of course you have to turn it back on to yourself eventually and to look within yourself and to ask these things for yourself. So he said it is like him and myself coming here, then many people have been to Thailand, have been to Lua [inaudible], have been to [inaudible] where I stay and have come [inaudible] about the meditation society here and about Jack and Jack and all the people here and we hear about it and but we’ve never really seen it and now we’ve come for ourselves, we’ve seen it and we’ve experienced it for ourselves.

There’s no need to listen to anybody or to hear anybody say anything more about it, that we know for ourselves, what it is, and where it is at and what it looks like, the whole experience of the centre here. And we’re going to use this as [inaudible] during [inaudible] on ourselves, investigate and we’ve got to deal with our own doubts and problems.

Venerable sir, in the practice, I’m having trouble in the other direction, not between heat and cold but between what I think is heat and topor.

Like something will come and eventually I’ll get back to the prayer but in the mean time it seems I just sit there and I don’t do much without making a move because I don’t want to get in my own way by moving [inaudible] for some reason but it seems to take an awful long time for the breathing to take over.

Is that too cool or is that still in topor and energy can go [inaudible] without [inaudible] move something else. I’m confused about the process.

How to bring yourself back to your meditation subject like during sitting kind of thing?

Yes that’s the breath. The breath does come back…

So in a kind of a very lethargic way.

Who are you pulling back? Coming back to your breath who are you pulling back?

He said nobody’s is gone so why is there anybody to bring back?

Nobody was away…

He said the mind does not go anywhere, one is sitting in it. What can we bring back if it does not go anywhere?

That’s why [inaudible] was looking at the palm of your hand wondering where the back of your hand has gone. It’s there all of the time.
He said just become aware of the whole thing, just what’s going on.

You know be aware of the whole process, the whole thing that goes on there, that it’s not something that you can hurry or push to attain enlightenment. If you try it then that is all from fire but he says that enlightenment and wisdom is something cool, it’s not something hot because…

It’s neither fast nor slow, that is only convention, you know, labels we create in our minds for ourselves and we think it is too slow of course because it’s so [inaudible] to suffer and if we want to speed it up because it is [inaudible] to suffer and it will be just more conventions that we are creating. It would just happen, it would neither be fast nor would it be slow.

That’s why people, people that have that go after higher to do their work, of course they want to go out and get it done quickly so they can quickly get another job and they go with that attitude. The people that have monthly wages, that they want to get it all done in a week then they can just sit around.

I think there was like somebody who gets hired by the hour who wants to go at it but somebody who wants to get as many hours as possible, but somebody who’d get a monthly salary he’d be happy to put in a week [inaudible] a month.

He said he had a disciple who once who would look at people and couldn’t understand why people were different. You know, one person has one kind of mind, another person has another kind of mind. One is hot and the other is cold, he just couldn’t figure it out, what he was really saying, wanted all people to be the same and he ended up going mad. Like not to want to force nature, the natural pattern in a particular mould that you want to see it that way.

And the same as well with ideas of perception that individuals come up with but the actual reality you know, [inaudible].

It was the last thing you said earlier too, you were talking about nature and we want to try to encase nature, to limit nature and to fit it to our desires of the way that we want it to be, not to live under its power, the way that things happen naturally. And there is no way that you can do that, that you have to let things take their natural course and to flow with that natural flow of nature, live in the power of nature and the natural cause and effect. And things just take their natural course. And then we try to put it in, in our terms that kind of thing, he says it’s impossible, it doesn’t happen that way.

Achalai I’m having difficulty with an intense pain that I get in my leg that increases with the amount of time I sit. And this produces a great restlessness which increases as the pain increases and it comes to a head and [inaudible] always [inaudible] out. I was just wondering if he…

That you have to deal with it, deal with it just like that, just sitting with it. And that as it came on its own, it’ll go on its own.

And the other thing he said, more than that, that to this voice it is natural coming and going, the pain, intense pain, he said that you know if you’re sitting, to go ahead and shift your position a bit to relieve it a bit.

…pure restlessness is to really look at it and to observe it and let it come on its own and that it will go on its own the same way, and that he says where is it going to go? He says where is it going to go? It’s going to die, let it die, it’s going to die he says. Let it die on its own.

That the conditions for it is there and the cessation for it has to be there as well. And he says to let it go in that way because there is nowhere to go.

He says that this is the truth, this is the way that it really is, not to understand that he’s joking about it. You have to really look and see that that is nature, that’s how it’s happening this is really nature, that’s how it is happening and that the wind in regards to our practice, there are all these things that are in a constant rate of change in the realm of change, we take them to be real, we take them seriously, we take them to be true, and of course we grasp and cling to them and therefore we cause ourselves to suffer and we’re not understanding what in fact is really truth and the truth is that the change is just to sit there and to look, they rise and they have to pass away. To really look and to penetrate right into that, there is no where else to go, no where else to deal with but right there, to see the true nature of things. Not the true nature that, they’re ours, and that we want to cling and grasp but the true nature that they come and that they’re going to go.

I have a question about karma in terms of [inaudible] past karma whether there’s a way to help that process. When I, people that I know who have bad karma, how can I overcome that with the person [inaudible].

Transcript

…about dying, and from what I understand what he said was, it’s best to die now and get it over with and you can start living.

So my question is, how would you go about it?

He said he doesn’t know where all the questions from people’s minds come from. They just don’t seem to have any source, they just seem to be endless.

On other days, he’s come down here and he says you know, you’ve got to live a life a bit like a prisoner, he stays upstairs and every once in a while when in doubt we interrogate him.

He said when your questions and your doubts are really gone, that’s what he means by dying. That’s the real death, no more problems and no more difficulties, one knows we’ve really come to an end.

So how are we going to do it so that our questions, our doubts and everything are all gone. He said if you know how to do that, you learn that you have to do for yourself, then you can really die, he says that’s the real death. You don’t have to wait till tomorrow, you can do it right now.

Do you have any questions?

He said that [inaudible] here hasn’t died yet, he wants to move forward again and ask a question.

You brave enough [inaudible]?

He wants to continue to explain a bit more because it is an important question.

He said that the reason this kind of question comes up and the reason that we have our problems in our lives is because we don’t know how to die. That’s because we don’t really look into the matter, we look over it. Somehow our vision goes way past what’s actually essential.

We’re looking for all kinds of things outside ourselves. We have to look in to see our true self, our true nature and if we look in to see what our true self, our true nature is, we see that our true self is no self. That there is no one, no thing that we can call ourselves in there. There’s just this empty process of things changing, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant arise in passing.

Anyone who doesn’t look in to see what their true self, their true nature is, is someone who’s looked too far, too far away.

And when you do that and when you see in a clear way, that there isn’t anything there and it’s just these changing elements, experience, that’s what’s called really dying.

That understanding leads to a sense of no one being there so no one suffers, and no one is happy, things change but the real death has taken place. And from that comes genuine freedom.

Outside of the retreat site [inaudible] … somewhat of a problem. I find myself, my meditations being pretty much surfacy, there doesn’t seem to be the desire to penetrate or very often I’ll just roll over and go to sleep when I should get up and…

Not here but when you’re taking…?

Usually, uh hum.

He said a [inaudible] if I can find that word, somebody who is as hard as a tree. What would you call that?

Stubborn. Someone who’s very, very stubborn, like Paul.

Exceptionally stubborn.

He said that the problem is that you don’t have enough power, enough personal power, your mind, your heart doesn’t have and so you come here he said, and it’s… that you’re sitting with your friends sitting around, or you have teachers, you have something to inspire you but really what you’ve done is you’ve given your power away to your friends, or your teacher.

They see you, you sleep like you get embarrassed so you get up or there’s somebody who says something really inspiring, you take a little power from that.

But the problem is that you don’t have enough of your own power. Your mind is weak, doesn’t have that kind of personal power.

Do you understand that?

Okay, so it takes time to develop.

He says it’s very important that you to understand that real power rests in yourself and that you shouldn’t project it out or expect it from other people. That you have to understand very clearly that the source of power must come from within you. Yes it does.

Ask it, ask yourself, the power, is it good to be lazy? Is that alright? You want to do that some more? Stop and do it. Is that good?
He said yeah, you have to really examine it, look at it and work with it, ask it he said, and maybe if you had starved it, fast for six or seven days see what it would take.

You really have to be willing to exert yourself, press yourself.

…[inaudible] horse … stubborn

…you have to be willing to work…

…it becomes real freedom and that comes…

If you [inaudible] karmic confusion … how can you make decisions about…

About?

About your [inaudible] daily life. If you have to make decisions how do you do that?

How do you make decisions?

He says who is it that is making you unable to make decisions? Who forbids you to make decisions?

The confusion that comes with it.

And who is that?

I don’t know.

That’s the problem, you don’t know who you are really.

He started by asking why is, why we are in such a state like this and he compared us to rubbing a couple of sticks together to get fire. And we take the sticks, rubbing and nothing’s happening but somebody told you that there is fire in the sticks!

But you rub them for a little while, you don’t see any fire, so maybe just give it up and think it is useless but it’s there but you haven’t done enough work yet, you haven’t made enough friction, enough heat to get fire.

But foolish people put the sticks down and think there’s no fire there, just out of laziness or whatever, so that your own practice hasn’t gotten there yet to a point where you can take care of things like these but if you keep on working at it then it can.

If you don’t let laziness get in the way and it’s like seeing the necessity for it, you will do it. Like yesterday when I was unplugging the tape recorder, I grabbed the prong and I got a shock! He was watching and he said, who told you to let go of it?

You didn’t have to think about it or have anybody to tell you, it was just like natural you did that. You didn’t stop to think or rationalize and say well, it’s too difficult to let go or anything like that. Just let go of it. That if you’re paying attention then that’s the way things are. You’re [inaudible] stimulus to make you practise and make fire.

He says part of the problem is that we want to get enlightened in our household life at home. He says while we wanted to be comfortable, he said Paul, where did the Buddha get enlightened? Was he out in the forest or was he living in household / city. Paul said he got enlightened in his heart. And Ajahn Chah replied, true, but where was his city?

He said it’s not just here in America, it’s the same in Thailand, everybody wants to have a nice, comfortable, own house, householder, and get enlightened at the same time.

It makes it difficult to put those together.

We don’t consider the consequences of our actions, we go out looking for pleasure, for satisfaction, so we think gee we will have a family, will have this kind of household life and children, whatever it is, and then we come and we want to do meditation practice and we’re so engaged or caught up or so much responsibility and that, that it becomes difficult and then we come to a teacher and we say how do we get free after we have already tied ourselves out in a lot of different ways.

He said you tie yourself down if I keep putting chains on your ankles and your neck, different parts of your body, you chain yourself up and you say you want to get unchained.

He said it is really important that you begin to look at the law of cause and effect and see that consequences in the choices and the actions that you make in your life, that you learn about that, that you learn from that so that you act in accordance with that law, acting in ways that lead you to genuine freedom.

He says therefore he gives you warning, if you hadn’t made that choice of family, children and stuff, he said do you want?
You don’t have to do that. He said if you have it already then you can work with that and learn how to become free situation but pay attention.

He said don’t take it to say I forbid. Follow your own heart but look at it. Very simple.

Just the last thing he said, for people that already have families and children, that you must endure, be patient, endure and persevere.
Can you say a little bit more about pursuing Buddhism through the monastic path versus the way our monks…

He said if it’s possible for you to ordain, it’s possible for you to renounce the household life and become a monk, that’s really excellent he said. Then maybe you’ll only have one rope, one chain on you that instead of many that come within the household life.

If you can do it, if that’s possible for you, then it’s really wonderful.

He said you have to take your happiness and throw it away. You have to take your friends, your relatives, your family, your wealth, your possessions, drop all of that, let go of absolutely everything.

He said I understand that right. He said and then the person dies in doing that and all that’s left is a monk but the meaning of that monk is somebody who is really free.

He said that way you can live like a bird. He says a bird has the beak, and has its two wings and its feet, that’s all it has and it’s free, can go an a tree and partake of a fruit that’s on that tree, take the essence of that fruit and fly off and go somewhere else.

It has freedom, it can leave one tree behind and go to the next. It is unencumbered.

He said people here aren’t like birds and they need big cars and trucks to carry all their things with them.

I was wondering who you can stay truly open to the fact that you can die, physically die at any moment and truly and [inaudible] body without fears.

He said you don’t have to make anything special happen. You just really have to reflect on that possibility. And you have to keep doing and as you do without making any special thing of it or adding anything to it, he said gradually you’ll see that it has a great power and the power will be when you realise that, that any moment could be your last.

The power will be that your desires, the things that you are caught up in will drop away. That your aversion and your hatred and all the kinds of petty things that we get involved in will drop away and deeper defilements will also weaken and drop away.

And what will be left will be just a very strong sense of a unified mind in the present, and out of that he said instead of there being more fear, there really comes the fearlessness.

When you realize that and you pay attention, you gradually make that part of your perception the world, that you could die at any time. There comes a great strength and a non-strength.

He said for her he realized the seeds were planted in [inaudible] that recollection of that because after the meals where [inaudible] was speaking to her that over the last few days but has anybody else done their work, their reflection today. Has anyone in this room considered today, even once, that today or sometime, we’re gonna die. Today might be it, someday will be your death.

Is there anybody who [inaudible] today or did you also forget about it?

Did you think of it?

Sure I thought of it but to say a part of it is somehow not to, it’s like, it’s sort of like it slips my mind and bounces off of it. I mean I can’t, I thought of it very, very…

Fleetingly?

It just comes as words and I know that. Even though that I’ve had an experience in which it was very, very much true that, I thought it was interesting the fact that ten years ago, I had an open-heart surgery in a hospital and I could have, it could well be I wouldn’t be here now. And even knowing that, even having that experience, still I don’t have the strength to hold on to them.

He said keep working with it as a practice, sit down some day and to hold your breath, hold your breath for a while and see. That’s all you have to do is hold your breath and wait a second, work with it.

He said another stubborn one. Our luck.

Whatever you’re taking as a practice he says, really do it frequently, work with it and the more often you do it then the more that becomes for you, the more it will work to transform you.

He said that this rubbing of sticks together again, he said the fire is not yet getting hot. Not enough…

Suppose tomorrow you will be executed, what would you think?

Sometimes I tell myself that but it doesn’t seem to help.

If that’s the case then you really have to work with holding your breath.

Really look into it frequently and it will come, you will see. …work with it.

If you take that reflection, you walk around, you’ll see, plants are dying, trees are dying, and that reminds you that that is a part of life all around you.

Animals, people, grass will die, plants and leaves you will go like hey, that too. If you look for it, you’ll see it. It’s there.

He says now we can see the tree dies, a dead tree, oh it’s just a dead tree. We don’t see it in action, we see dead animals, without making… Even other people die, people we know, we just see other people die.

Really, we’ve got to shave away.

Can you speak a little about the [inaudible]?

He wants to know if you know what the world is. What is this world?

He said the real meaning of the world is, as the term “as worldly”, is darkness.

He said already it’s misunderstanding, it’s not [inaudible].

He said the real essence of the world is the mind, it’s the heart.

We have to see that what he means by the world is getting lost, getting intoxicated in the world, getting caught up in the scent and the sight and sound and things.

And all of that brings darkness, so it is sort of the definition of this difficulty and darkness in the world, and it is important to see that that’s what’s meant by the world.

There’s no problems with the light in the world, there’s plenty of lightbulbs, plenty of electricity, and plenty of physical energy in the world. It’s really the energy of mind that gets caught in illusion and ignorance and darkness.

He said it was probably different here in the past, and the U.S. even, wasn’t it?

He said probably in the old days it wasn’t so comfortable, houses and electricity and telephones and things everywhere but people were probably more away, more centred, and more aware living in more simple conditions.

He said now things are all developed and people travel around and see people walk down the road, he says all there is, is divide. The mind isn’t even alive, isn’t awake, isn’t really present there.

The brighter the lights get, the darker our minds get.

Talking about all progress and material development, the more that builds up, the smaller and the darker that we get. The brighter the electricity and all of that, the material development. The material wealth that we have, it just makes us more and more foolish.

Can he recommend if we have the opportunity to spend time alone in meditation?

He said for some it’s good, for some it’s not very good. There are good people and bad people. People who have wisdom can use it and it will be fine. But if you don’t have wisdom it will be a lot of trouble, a lot of difficulty.

He says it is like chicken shit, if you brought some chicken shit and put it in the forest it smells, if you put it in your house it smells.
Speaking about how to understand further the question of darkness in the world, and he said, that we have to understand knowledge.

He said that knowledge is like a… , it has different functions. In some ways as the world develops its knowledge it can get darker in other ways.

It brings an image he says, it’s like having a knife that you sharpen until it is very, very sharp and you keep.

He says depending how you use that knife. You can use it for good things or for bad things. You can use it to serve you and cut things that need to be cut. You can cut yourself or kill other people and you can give that knife to somebody, to people who are bandits or people who are in prison or something that can be used as a weapon.

Or you can give that knife, that knowledge to someone who is a wise person, to someone who has understanding and they can take it and use it for the development and harmony of community and people living together in the world.

To give it to a foolish person is like giving it to a bandit.

And went on to say that the problem is if people in the world take knowledge alone as if it were something valuable and they say see how much knowledge I have, see how important I am, look at what I know, what I can control.

He said but they separate knowledge and they don’t connect it with goodness or they don’t connect it with truth and that which is true.

As long as knowledge isn’t connected with what’s true or with what’s good, then it has the power to cause suffering, to create disharmony, to destroy things. You have to understand that.

Besides Ajahn Chah’s invite it to the household I have been doing it in places, does he have anything to say about trying to live as freely and in a non-cash way if possible within this [inaudible].

He said people like to ask questions about the household life.

But he says these little householders are like prisoners in a way, they want to come and they want to meditate and all of a sudden somebody comes along and they say okay, stand up and move over there. There’s always somebody in your life who’s saying that to you, do this, do that.

He said you come here, whatever you experience being away from your responsibilities, perhaps you’ll start to see the effect, the karmic consequence of getting enveloped in a household life, as a result of it, the disadvantages, the problems.

He said so it’s not so easy, you’ve got to look at that, then he said, the first thing as he said before is yes, you have to develop patience and endurance and strength in any situation. You really have to work with it in that way. And he said you have to work with…