How We Develop Ourselves

0:07 atasam guvattuva-rahatuva-sammāsambuddhasana-mūtasā guvattuva-rahatuva-sammāsambuddhasana-mūtasā guvattuva-rahatuva-sammāsambuddhasaputtānta-māmsaṅkā Namassāmi As Report an error in the passage at 0:07 Highlight the passage at 0:07

0:37 we were saying earlier, the regular contemplations. Report an error in the passage at 0:37 Highlight the passage at 0:37

0:45 It teaches us the best way to contemplate. I am of the nature to die. I have not gone beyond death. This is the nature of these bodies and minds. Death will come. I am of the nature to sicken. I have not gone beyond sickness. Report an error in the passage at 0:45 Highlight the passage at 0:45

1:07 All amount of imaginable illnesses and diseases and sicknesses that can occur. That's a part of nature. What happens is we get intoxicated with youth, intoxicated with hell, intoxicated with life. Even sometimes people You know, they take their meditation and they think because they get power from their meditation that, you know, they're not susceptible to sickness or whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07

2:03 So the point is that, you know, we're all susceptible to these things. These were the great divine messengers that the Buddha and the great Buddhas before him, you know, when they were bodhisattvas, when they were in their last life. You know, Report an error in the passage at 2:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03

2:32 there was these messengers of old age, sickness and death that struck their hearts so deeply that they went forth from the home life to the homelessness and then persevered and became fully enlightened Buddhas based on all of their countless past lives of perfecting themselves. before they become, they're in line with me. Report an error in the passage at 2:32 Highlight the passage at 2:32

2:57 So, you know, these are not small things. These are massive. And the owner of our actions is that one. We are responsible for the three doors, body, speech and mind, of what we do. And that we're going to be all that is mine, beloved and pleasing, become otherwise, become separated from me. It could be our house or a car, it could be a loved one. Report an error in the passage at 2:57 Highlight the passage at 2:57

3:29 It could be a friend, it could be a cup, a pen, a piece of clothing. It could be a favourite tree, a building. Whatever it is, when that is destroyed and that is broken and that is sick, if we haven't prepared our minds, then that will bring up suffering. Just like if we have a favourite possession and it gets broken or burnt. Report an error in the passage at 3:29 Highlight the passage at 3:29

4:01 burned or stolen, then the mind can suffer for them. So, what the Buddha teaches us is to contemplate these things, to think about them, to put our minds on them, to investigate them. And to do this we need a peaceful mind. And so that's why often you hear the great forest masters, the Bhantes, who have practiced impeccable monks. Report an error in the passage at 4:01 Highlight the passage at 4:01

4:33 They teach us to train in the peaceful mind, whether we can gather our peace drip by drip or whether we can get it by the jugful. They just depend on our personality type. Either way, we have to persevere. As we persevere, the causes will build up. Report an error in the passage at 4:33 Highlight the passage at 4:33

4:55 I was struck once by a simile. You know what a domino is? One domino hits on another and hits on another. It's like 32 dominoes that you can knock over the moon. Starting with one little domino, you'll fall and hit over a bigger domino and a bigger domino. And something like 32 dominoes, the exponential force, is enough to knock over the moon. Just starting from a tiny little domino. Report an error in the passage at 4:55 Highlight the passage at 4:55

5:29 And it struck me, this is like our mindfulness and our right view. We're established in right view. If we're established in the four foundations of mindfulness, if we have our precepts pure in all this Adhisila, Adhicitta, and then Adhipanya, then what happens is this unremitting mindfulness grows strength. Report an error in the passage at 5:29 Highlight the passage at 5:29

5:55 So that's the Buddha's promise to us. In seven years or seven months, seven weeks or seven days of unremitting mindfulness, we can become And why? Because those causes are in place and then they build up exponential force, one domino knocking over another, knocking over another, until the mind is supreme, until the mind is vast and powerful. Report an error in the passage at 5:55 Highlight the passage at 5:55

6:29 And such a mind can then realize and penetrate a right view and see clearly. And in such a moment with one's unremitting mindfulness and one becomes, depending on where one is, one can become a Sotapapa. So whatever we do, however we apply ourselves, we have to see. That we have to have periods of time where we're putting great effort into aligning those causes. Report an error in the passage at 6:29 Highlight the passage at 6:29

7:16 Ajahn Chah made the simile of a man trying to make fire and he would come along with the two sticks and he would start rubbing but after a little bit he would get tired and bored and he would stop and he would come again later and he would start rubbing again and he would get tired and he would stop. Report an error in the passage at 7:16 Highlight the passage at 7:16

7:38 So we went on like this until we thought, oh, there's no fire in these sticks. And they just went away. And so the same is with our practice. Report an error in the passage at 7:38 Highlight the passage at 7:38

7:49 You know, at whatever level we want to develop, whether our meditation, our siddha, our virtue, or our wisdom, it all comes down to this right view and unremitting mindfulness. And so once we have it, we have to have periods of time. We're focused on developing the causes. We're focused on growing the steps one by one so that we can have unremitting mindfulness for seven years, seven months, seven weeks or seven days. Report an error in the passage at 7:49 Highlight the passage at 7:49

8:26 So we have this process where we're going to have an opportunity where the mind has enough power to actually realize this determination. Or realize the power of the fruit. Because if we don't have that power, if we don't have that exertion, you know, these things will be very hard to realize. And the other way is to dedicate our good actions. So, for example, as lay people, taking up the lunar observances every now and then, and wearing wine, taking the eight precepts. Report an error in the passage at 8:26 Highlight the passage at 8:26

9:04 Taking a low bed, the one meal, not wearing any sense or garlands. All those eight precepts can take like one day a week or a fortnight or a month. And that is an exponential way of creating great virtue and merit. Or we can just focus on our five precepts. We can focus. I'm developing noble silence and good actions in our daily lives and then dedicate that towards realizing right view. Report an error in the passage at 9:04 Highlight the passage at 9:04

9:40 And we just say in our hearts, whatever the Buddha taught is true and not otherwise. I believe this with all my heart. And may I realize, or may I realize higher determination. And we dedicate all those good actions that we've done That we don't want for any material gain. That we don't want for any worldly pursuit. That all we want is for Magha Pāli Nibbāna. Report an error in the passage at 9:40 Highlight the passage at 9:40

10:11 That the Buddha often would teach lay people about heaven and the dangers of sense pleasures, the dangers of sights and sounds and smells and tastes and touch and thoughts about these things and the benefits of renouncing them. Because when we have this indriya sampahara sīla, this restraint of the six senses, when we have sīla, that's enough to develop a heavenly mind with our generosity and our good actions, and that's enough to go to heaven. Report an error in the passage at 10:11 Highlight the passage at 10:11

10:47 And that's, you know, a goal in the heart for people to attain to, something to aspire towards. But really, anyone with that kind of goodness can also not just go to heaven, but they can realize these higher determinations, these paths and fruits. These things are not beyond us. We're in an age where the Buddhist teacher is still alive. We're in an age where there's Aryas and Arahants still in the wild, though there may be less in former times. Report an error in the passage at 10:47 Highlight the passage at 10:47

11:27 These things still exist. These beings still exist. So the Buddha's teaching is still very alive. So our birth is a well-begotten birth because we are born as a human in a time of a Buddha's teaching. This is a very difficult birth to attain to. And the Buddha's analogy, I always forget, the turtle and tortoise in an ocean, but the turtle... Report an error in the passage at 11:27 Highlight the passage at 11:27

11:58 Once every hundred years, in an ocean, there's blind turtles swimming through the ocean. So you imagine, the ocean is vast. We can barely imagine the land of the earth, but the ocean is 70 % of the earth. The ocean is vast and deep. So it's a massive area. And the Buddha said, you know, if you have this blind turtle once every... Report an error in the passage at 11:58 Highlight the passage at 11:58

12:27 100 years would put its head to the surface of the ocean. What are the hours of its putting its head through a yoke? It's like a circular piece of tube floating on the surface of the ocean. A small bit of circular tube, you know. And this blind turtle happens to put its head through that yoke. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:57 Very difficult, and only once every hundred years is there an opportunity. The Buddha gave this analogy twice. Once for how difficult it is to get out of the animal realm. I guess that's because it's very hard to make good karma in the animal realm because you don't have the same thinking mind and have the same opportunities for memory. Report an error in the passage at 12:57 Highlight the passage at 12:57

13:22 And he also gave that analogy on the topic we're talking. it's that it's That is how rare and difficult it is to become a human, born as a human, in the time of a Buddha's teaching. Report an error in the passage at 13:22 Highlight the passage at 13:22

13:44 So it's this incredibly rare opportunity. And we have to see how long it is between Buddhas, how many Buddhas there are. Just because in this last age we've had three Buddhas, Now, if we look at the history of the Buddhas in our texts, it's incredibly rare for a Buddha to arise. So, you know, we've had a particular period where there's been quite a few Buddhas in a short period of time. Report an error in the passage at 13:44 Highlight the passage at 13:44

14:21 But before that, the time between the Buddhas for the previous 20 or so Buddhas were massive amounts of times between Buddhas. And so, You know, the point is we never know what's going to happen in the future. We never know when we're going to die. So what we do is we have to dedicate our good actions, dedicate our time to bettering ourselves. You know, the money and the house and the car and all of these things in the world, there's nothing wrong with them. Report an error in the passage at 14:21 Highlight the passage at 14:21

15:05 People can even be millionaires, billionaires and trillionaires and still be Buddhas. But it's what we do with our tongue. It's what we do with our mind. It's what we do with our generosity. It's what we do with our speech. It's how we develop ourselves so we can incline towards silence, so we can incline towards peace, so we can perfect right view. Report an error in the passage at 15:05 Highlight the passage at 15:05

15:32 So we have to see. What is the purpose of our lives? What is the mission of our lives? Because, you know, as lay people it's very difficult having to work by the sweat of the brow and then still give dharma and support, the four requisites of those gone forth, and to support mother and father and sick relatives and the homeless and all those that we can help. Report an error in the passage at 15:32 Highlight the passage at 15:32

16:00 It's incredibly difficult. Just to run a household and all the chores and the busyness that goes along with that. And so, we have to see, are we getting lost in life? Are we forgetting what is really the purpose of things? Because when we put the purpose first, that the problem is saṃsāra, the problem is that the mind tends to go downhill. Report an error in the passage at 16:00 Highlight the passage at 16:00

16:31 And so we have to yoke ourselves to goodness. In beginning we have to attach to goodness. We have to attach to virtue. We have to attach to wholesome actions. We have to attach to the Buddha and the Dharma and the Saṅgha. And firmly. Other things don't take those places. Because without strong desire, without strong determination, how will we realize? Report an error in the passage at 16:31 Highlight the passage at 16:31

17:02 So we not only need to see old age, sickness and death, pain, lamentation and despair, but we need to use it as an impetus, as the driving force to take our lives seriously, to take our practice seriously. This opportunity, being born as a human in the age of a Buddhist teaching, is so rare. You know, it's so precious. And so we have this wonderful opportunity. And then, you know, finding the right means of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:38 We can get enlightened with just the six recollections, recollecting the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, the generosity, the sīla, the five qualities of a heavenly being. Just the happiness of recollecting those things. And developing our practice, if we did that often, we could realize path and fruit. And the Buddha said that one who is attained, and one who is a sotāpanna or above, that these are a pleasant abiding for them to dwell in. Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

18:13 So just because the world is suffering, saṃsāra is suffering, we have this beauty of the dharma. We have these wonderful ways of meditating. And depending on what our difficulties are, it depends on the meditation. We usually teach breath meditation because that was how Lord Buddha got enlightened himself. Report an error in the passage at 18:13 Highlight the passage at 18:13

18:39 That was his regular abiding. And we're always close to the breath. But we need some recollection, like the five recollections we were talking about, such as death, just taking one of our meditations. And focusing on that, and thinking in line with dharma, and seeing clearly the nature of these bodies, the nature of death, and what will happen when we die. Report an error in the passage at 18:39 Highlight the passage at 18:39

19:09 Will we be upset? Will we be disturbed? Or will we understand that this is a part of nature, and this is a truth that the Buddha pointed to? And so as we develop our minds, As we develop our goodness, we need a strong determination, but we also have to relax. Ajahn Chah said, you know, whether one life or ten thousand lives may I live by the Dhamma. You know, we believe that Ajahn Chah is now an impeccable being, but still that is the determination that he had in his heart. Report an error in the passage at 19:09 Highlight the passage at 19:09

19:56 So you do it the way that Buddha said, Lord Buddha said. You're willing to put out with difficulties. Sometimes other people are going to, you know, not get along with you for certain reasons. You know, sometimes people, like Lumpur Tej, who's running from the shrine, when he was in Phuket, the monks were throwing rocks at him on Pindabang, the local monks. Report an error in the passage at 19:56 Highlight the passage at 19:56

20:25 And they even burned down his kuti, actually set it on fire and burned down his hut. But he didn't get disturbed by those things. It's a sign of a very good monk, not even to be disturbed by those things, just to patiently endure. And eventually the community accepted that these monks were practicing very well and that the rumors and things that were said were not true. Report an error in the passage at 20:25 Highlight the passage at 20:25

20:54 And so sometimes, you know, in life bad things happen or people say bad things or many kinds of situations can arise like destruction of property or health or life. And so we need to know how to detach, to see earth as earth, water as water, fire as fire. Wind is wind. And space is particularly beautiful because space doesn't attempt anything. If you try and hook something on space, there's nowhere for it to land. Report an error in the passage at 20:54 Highlight the passage at 20:54

21:37 And so, this is like the emotions or the words of others. We have this praise and blame. Sometimes we get praise and usually people get elated. Sometimes... Sometimes we get blamed and people get dejected or upset. Sometimes we gain property or money or material things and sometimes we have loss and they get destroyed. Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

22:08 Sometimes we succeed in our endeavors, in our businesses, in areas of our lives and other times we fail. Sometimes there's feelings of dukkha, of suffering, of pain, and sometimes there's feelings of sukha, of happiness, of ease. And these are called the eight worldly winds. And the reason they're called the eight worldly winds is these are the things that blow us around. They blow us here and they blow us there. Report an error in the passage at 22:08 Highlight the passage at 22:08

22:43 They blow us everywhere. But what we have to do is we have to see that the dharma You know, we make stable in our heart. We make a firm stake with our meditation object, with our mindfulness, with our precepts, with the commitments that we have that are going to help improve our lives in line with dharma. Report an error in the passage at 22:43 Highlight the passage at 22:43

23:07 So we have to associate with wise people. We have to associate with those who are practicing the dharma well, whether monks and nuns or lay people. We need to have the saṅgha, the broader fourfold saṅgha, or the actual ordained saṅgha, which are even more helpful, because well-practiced ordained saṅgha, they give us an example, because they can dedicate their lives to the dharma. Report an error in the passage at 23:07 Highlight the passage at 23:07

23:35 They don't have all the same destructive responsibilities as lay people. There are highly attained, well-practiced lay people, but they're much more rare. So it's much easier to find useful ordained people because when we go to such people they help make us zealous, they help make us focused on the dharma and they remind us of what we're meant to be doing so we don't get lost in our lives and lost in the things that are not really important. Report an error in the passage at 23:35 Highlight the passage at 23:35

24:13 And so when we make the importance In our practice, then we start to overcome these eight worldly winds. And actually the night before the Buddha's enlightenment, a man came along and he gave him these bales of hay to sit on. And symbolically that was a representation of these eight worldly winds. So when the Bodhisattva sat down to meditate, and now he had restored his health and his strength, Through eating enough food, you know, he'd given up the ascetic practices. He'd found the middle way of practice. And now he was sitting down to do his final battle with Māra. Report an error in the passage at 24:13 Highlight the passage at 24:13

25:01 And what did he sit down upon? Those bales of hay represented these eight worldly winds. So he sat down upon them. And then, you know, that classic line that he said, may my... Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:17 May my blood and flesh dry up and only my skin and sinews remain. I will not rise up from this seat. I can't remember exactly, but he put his life on the line. He made a determination. So Bodhisattva, he wouldn't break that for anything. So if anything happened after that, He wasn't going to move. Through all of the past lives of the Buddha, he always had truthfulness. Report an error in the passage at 25:17 Highlight the passage at 25:17

25:56 That's one of the signatures of a Buddha to me, is they're always truthful, have perfect truthfulness. And so, on this last slide, you can imagine those uncountable past lives of developing truthfulness. And now he's made this resolution. That he'd rather die than move. He was going to realize the supreme enlightenment. And Māra tested him in many ways. Report an error in the passage at 25:56 Highlight the passage at 25:56

26:25 Māra even sent all of the armies of Māra against him. And what happened? The Buddha just hadn't met him. And so arrows were thrown and flowers fell on their place. Such is the power of a good heart. That on that night of enlightenment there's no way that anything that Māra does can have any effect because all that effort that went in for that Buddha to be or that Arahant to be, you know, means that they had come to the end of their practice. Report an error in the passage at 26:25 Highlight the passage at 26:25

27:08 They'd come to the pinnacle. They're greater than a Brahma. You know, their minds. have overcome even the to overcome even the formless realms. They've gone beyond greed and hatred. They're the minds of Anagamis about to become fully enlightened Arahants, or they're Bodhisattvas about to to become fully enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 27:08 Highlight the passage at 27:08

27:36 So this overcoming of the eight worldly winds is not a small thing. So whether we, in our daily lives, we contemplate these things, or we meditate upon them, we can see that just in these four things, this is how we get blown about in life, attaching to this, being averse to that. Here and there we go, but we haven't resolved the problem, we haven't seen in line with dharma. Report an error in the passage at 27:36 Highlight the passage at 27:36

28:13 So we have to come back and take that generosity and take those precepts and good actions that we have as our firm foundation and then determine to develop our wisdom so we can bring our mind to profound peace. Because when we have profound peace and this truthfulness and this goodness, then we can make very powerful determinations. Report an error in the passage at 28:13 Highlight the passage at 28:13

28:41 Then, you know, we can build up our practice and do many hours of sitting or walking meditation based on this right view and actually have the opportunity to further magha-pala and nibbāna. That's the dharma talk. Report an error in the passage at 28:41 Highlight the passage at 28:41

29:13 that arises from my practice mainly my spiritual teachers and guides of great virtue my mother my father and my relatives the sun and the moon and all virtuous May the Lord of Death, may those who are friendly, indifferent or hostile, May all beings receive the blessing of Thammanaya. May they soon attain the three complex and realize the leftness through the goodness that arises from my practice and through this act of sharing. Report an error in the passage at 29:13 Highlight the passage at 29:13

30:11 May all desires and attachments quickly cease and all harmful states of mind until I realize divinity. In every time of birth, may I have a mind with mindfulness and wisdom, austerity and vigilance. May the forces of delusion not take hold, nor weaken my resolve. The Buddha is my excellent refuge and surpasses the protection of the Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 30:11 Highlight the passage at 30:11

30:49 The solitary Buddha is my noble Lord. This sunrise is my supreme support. Through the supreme power of these, may darkness and illusion be dissolved. Report an error in the passage at 30:49 Highlight the passage at 30:49