Letting Be

0:00 Okay, so let us get started with a talk and we'll see what happens. So as I mentioned at the beginning of the meditation, we have just finished our annual three months rainy season retreat. It kind of fits quite well, it rained quite a bit. I don't know if it rained here in Perth, but it rained in Serpentine, I know that much. Probably a similar kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:30 And it is a time in the monastery for meditation practice and for kind of withdrawing from the usual things that we deal with in the outside world. That's why you haven't seen us here and you have had some alternative speakers and a variety of other things happening here. And when you go on long retreats like that, it always leads to obviously, you know, you start to... Report an error in the passage at 0:30 Highlight the passage at 0:30

0:54 You obviously have to contemplate meditation a little bit because that's pretty much what you do. And so you look at your meditation and you gain hopefully a deeper understanding of the process. So what I'm going to talk about today is the idea of letting go, what that actually means, how it works, how do we let go. Report an error in the passage at 0:54 Highlight the passage at 0:54

1:16 And it's one of those kind of tricky, one of those strange things that people are often very confused about. How do you actually let go? Yeah, people come to you when they come on interviews on the meditation retreat and they ask, oh, I'm trying to let go, I can't let go. What am I supposed to do? How do I do this? What is the trick to let go? And you can see people are really frustrated. They spend the whole meditation retreat trying to let go. Report an error in the passage at 1:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16

1:41 And they have a few times when they... You know, finally something happens and then they kind of, they grasp things again and they kind of have to start from scratch and trying to let go again and it goes on in cycles like that and never really finding that kind of button that actually really lets go fully. Report an error in the passage at 1:41 Highlight the passage at 1:41

1:58 One of those strange conundrums, how do you let go? People ask this question all the time. That's kind of what I want to talk about today. So even though it is... It kind of seems tricky and even sometimes you can get very frustrated if you try to let go all the time. Obviously one of the answers to that is not to try to let go. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:20 If you get frustrated by trying to let go, an obvious answer is not to try to let go. You're not going to get frustrated if you don't try to let go. That's kind of a good starting point. But an important point to realize is that it is an important... It's part of the Buddhist path. The way the Buddha taught, he really teaches it as a path of letting go. It's a gradual kind of non-attachment to things. Report an error in the passage at 2:20 Highlight the passage at 2:20

2:47 That is the whole path, not just the path of meditation, but all the other aspects of the path as well, have that kind of idea behind them of gradually kind of allowing. Letting go of the grip that you have on things in the world and things in your life. That's kind of one way of looking at the entire Buddhist path. Report an error in the passage at 2:47 Highlight the passage at 2:47

3:08 You can look at it from many different angles. You can look at it as a path of calming down, a path of increasing happiness, a path of... Report an error in the passage at 3:08 Highlight the passage at 3:08

3:17 Compassion and loving kindness, a path of insight and understanding, but also a path of letting go. And you see this in the way the Buddha describes things. One of the beautiful things the Buddha says in the suttas, and I'm going to check your language abilities now, see how good your language is. The Buddha says something as follows. Report an error in the passage at 3:17 Highlight the passage at 3:17

3:37 He says, vosagaramanankaritva labhati samadhing labhati chittasa ekagata. Yeah, you agree? Maybe. This is a Pāli phrase. It's a phrase that you see in the suttas in certain places. And what it means, it means vosagga, vosagga ramana, means having created a foundation through letting go. The foundation is letting go and through that foundation you gain samādhi, labbati samādhi, you gain samādhi through that foundation, labbati chittasikagata, one-pointedness of mind. Report an error in the passage at 3:37 Highlight the passage at 3:37

4:18 So it is actually what allows the samādhi and meditation to happen is... The process of letting go, having made a foundation through that. This gives you an idea of how important it is in the Dhamma. The whole process of meditation is based on this idea of letting go. It's a nice Pāli word. Vosagga is a Pāli word. Vosagga. We have a monk in a monastery called Vosagga. You can ask him if he's living up to his name or not. Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

4:44 No, don't do that, that would be very... Terrible. Of course he is. At least he's trying to let go, like everyone else, I suppose. It's a nice name, Vosagga. I like that. He made a very good choice. I said to him, why don't you take the whole phrase I just mentioned before as your name? And he said, no, it's too long. You have to have a shorter name. So Vosagga already long enough. So Vosagga. Report an error in the passage at 4:44 Highlight the passage at 4:44

5:06 is the movement of the mind, or the foundation that you build up that allows samādhi, stillness, and the deep meditations to happen. But it's much more than that, because the very end of the Buddhist path, you know, we're talking about the Third Noble Truth, which is at the end of the Buddhist path, they have this beautiful word called Patti Nisagga, which is also related to the word Vosagga. Report an error in the passage at 5:06 Highlight the passage at 5:06

5:28 And that also means the idea of letting go, of relinquishment, of giving up. So the whole path to samādhi is about letting go, and then the whole path that leads you to awakening itself, to the very end of the path, that also ultimately is about letting go. It's just letting go upon letting go upon letting go. That is how important it is in the dhamma, this whole idea. Report an error in the passage at 5:28 Highlight the passage at 5:28

5:55 And so, for that reason, it is important to understand what we are supposed to do, and how we're supposed to do this, and how it happens, especially in meditation practice. But before I go on to discuss this more practically, I would like to tell you a few stories. One from the suttas and one from kind of a more contemporary story. And it gives an idea of how this idea of letting go, how it can happen in practice, and what it means, how it actually comes about. Report an error in the passage at 5:55 Highlight the passage at 5:55

6:29 And one of these stories is about Venerable Ananda. Venerable Ananda, many of you will know, was the Buddha's attendant for 20 years, following around the Buddha all the time, listening to every discourse the Buddha ever gave. He was the monk with the best retention, memory retention. And so he was like, he heard one sutta, one discourse by the Buddha, and he retained it basically verbatim. Report an error in the passage at 6:29 Highlight the passage at 6:29

6:54 It's kind of extraordinary. I don't know how that is possible. I'm going to test you after. We'll see if you can remember every word I said during this talk. It's very hard to imagine, isn't it, almost? Maybe especially in the present day with so many distractions. But anyway, he was this repository of suttas. You just asked him to open his mouth and the suttas would just pour out of him. Report an error in the passage at 6:54 Highlight the passage at 6:54

7:16 It's kind of extraordinary. And so after the Buddha passed away, it was a very traumatic time obviously for the Saṅgha, for the monastic community, and also for the lay community. And one of the things they realized very soon afterwards is that they needed to recite the word of the Buddha, the suttas. Report an error in the passage at 7:16 Highlight the passage at 7:16

7:37 And the monastic code that had been laid down for the monastics, this had to be recited in unison. They had to come together and do the recital to keep it alive for future generations, otherwise it would get lost. And not everyone had heard the same sutta, so you had to hear some suttas from Venerable Ananda and maybe some of the other monks or the nuns or even sometimes the lay people had heard different suttas. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

8:02 And so they came together in this. Convocation called the Council. This was soon after the Buddha passed away. And in this council, the Pāli word is Sangiti. Sangiti literally means to chant together. It's like a communal recitation of suttas. And in this council, they had invited 500 arahants, 500 fully enlightened people to recite the suttas of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 8:02 Highlight the passage at 8:02

8:29 Isn't that kind of cool? Imagine 500 arahants, 500 fully enlightened people. Wouldn't that be awesome? Imagine the atmosphere when there's 500 enlightened people. No one is very interested in talking very much. Everyone is just really peaceful. Everyone is full of compassion and mettā. Everyone has the highest kind of wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 8:29 Highlight the passage at 8:29

8:54 Imagine a room, a large room, 500 people takes a large room, coming together like that. Just the sight of that is kind of extraordinary. So this is what happens. They chose these 500 people, supposedly all 500 Arahants. I don't know how they knew, if they had some kind of listing, cross-off here, if you're an Arahant or not. Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

9:14 I'm not sure how that actually worked, but supposedly there were 500 Arahants. So some of these things, a bit uncertain how they... How they knew these things. But there was one person who hadn't been invited and that was Venerable Ananda. And one of the reasons was because he was not yet an Arahant. Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:31 But they said, okay, he knows all the suttas so we have to invite him even though he's not fully enlightened yet. And so Venerable Ananda was really embarrassed. He got invited even though he was not fully enlightened. Everyone else was fully enlightened. He was the only one. He felt, oh, what am I going to do? Report an error in the passage at 9:31 Highlight the passage at 9:31

9:51 He practiced really, really hard on the days before this council they were going to have. And he practiced and practiced. He was already obviously quite highly attained. He was a stream mentor already. His samādhi was obviously very good. But he practiced really, really hard. And he didn't get anywhere. He wasn't able to make that breakthrough. Report an error in the passage at 9:51 Highlight the passage at 9:51

10:09 He wanted to be the 500th Arahant in that assembly, but he wasn't able to make it. And finally, he gave up. And after giving up, He lies down and according to the suttas, according to how this is said, before his head, while his feet was kind of still in the air, but before his head had hit the pillow, bang, he got enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:35 And then that council had 500 arahants. And that is very interesting because... What it shows you, it shows you something about the idea of letting go. He was trying and trying and trying and eventually when you give up, that is kind of when it happens. When finally you relax, you realize, OK, it's not going to happen this time, OK, so let me just relax, let it be. And then the insight comes, and then the highest kind of understanding arises from that. Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

11:05 And that tells you something very important about the arising of any kind of letting go, any kind of insight, any kind of samādhi. It happens because you relax, because you let go, not because you try. The trying very often comes from the sense of self. The trying is the restless mind. I am going to do the letting go. But you can't do the letting go. Report an error in the passage at 11:05 Highlight the passage at 11:05

11:32 The letting go happens by itself. When the cause and conditions are in place, you have to wait for the cause and conditions to come into place, then the letting go happens. That is what we have to do, and that is what I will talk about later on, how to get those cause and conditions into place. This is what happened with Venerable Ananda. Let's take a leaf out of his book. Let's see if we can do something similar in our meditation, so we don't get so frustrated in the way we practice. Report an error in the passage at 11:32 Highlight the passage at 11:32

12:03 That was the first story, Venerable Anna. That's actually a very, I don't know, a very inspiring story in many ways. The other story is a story that Ajahn Brahm tells. It's always dangerous when you tell Ajahn Brahm's story because he usually has told those too many, many times already. Yeah, here at Amaloka Center. But I'm not sure when he last told this story. Report an error in the passage at 12:03 Highlight the passage at 12:03

12:23 This was a story from his early days in Thailand. I don't know why all the stories are so old. It's always from the early days in Thailand, or early days here, or early days there. But anyway, that's kind of the way it goes. And the story is, I'm not sure if Ajahn Brahm was there, but the story, it was this novice monk. A novice monk looks basically like Vinabhima Oka and us, except that they are novices. Report an error in the passage at 12:23 Highlight the passage at 12:23

12:52 You can't believe, sometimes they're very small because they are just kind of, they're not 20 years old yet, they're kind of just teenagers or something, but sometimes they're also grown adults. But anyway, this little novice monk, he was sitting there, Ajahn Chah, Lungphu Chah, Ajahn Brahm's teacher, was giving a dharma talk. Report an error in the passage at 12:52 Highlight the passage at 12:52

13:11 And Ajahn Chah was famous for this practice called Toroman. Have you heard Toroman before? What does it sound like? Sounds like torment, right? And that's exactly what he was. He was famous for the practice of tormenting his disciples. And so very often he would give dharma talks that went on for an hour. Report an error in the passage at 13:11 Highlight the passage at 13:11

13:31 An hour is not enough, right? So another hour, two hours, actually we can go on a bit more, three hours. And he would do this, just carry on and on and on. And sometimes, even Ajahn Brahm says, sometimes it wasn't all that interesting. Sometimes he just did it just to really test you. That was kind of the purpose of talking for three hours. Not actually because he had that much to say. There's a limit to what you have to say. If you look at the way the Buddha taught in the suttas, he was fairly concise usually. Report an error in the passage at 13:31 Highlight the passage at 13:31

14:02 He certainly didn't go on for three hours. Sometimes very short discourses. And so after a while, this little novice was getting really fed up. He was getting really exasperated. And he was sitting there, when is Ajahn Chah going to stop? When is Ajahn Chah going to stop? Have you heard this story before? When is Ajahn Chah going to stop? And he carries on like this. Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

14:26 And suddenly, after saying this, maybe for half an hour or something, because he's really kind of had enough, suddenly something happens in his mind. Suddenly he thinks, when am I going to stop? And the moment he thinks, when am I going to stop, then everything shuts down. He becomes peaceful. And then, of course, he can sit there for as long as he wants. Report an error in the passage at 14:26 Highlight the passage at 14:26

14:48 He doesn't want to get up anymore. The whole idea of Ajahn Chah giving a talk that is too long is gone. Because he had an insight. And that insight, that understanding that if you want to be peaceful, You cannot wait for the external conditions to be right. You have to do something with the internal conditions. And when the internal conditions are right, that is when peace happens. Report an error in the passage at 14:48 Highlight the passage at 14:48

15:13 That is when you can sit listening to a three hour long dhamma talk or whatever. So this is kind of interesting. It says something again about how to deal, how to actually let go. Letting go is not something you do. Letting go happens through, first of all, not doing very often and often through insight, through understanding. Report an error in the passage at 15:13 Highlight the passage at 15:13

15:38 And that insight doesn't happen because you... Try to have an insight. That insight happens because you are standing back or sitting back and observing what is going on and then at a certain point you understand what is really going on and then you let go because of that understanding, because of that insight. Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

15:59 So this gives you some bare bones on how this whole idea of letting go happens. You don't do it. It happens in a very different kind of way. that. So Report an error in the passage at 15:59 Highlight the passage at 15:59

16:13 So, to go a little bit further on this, what we have to do to be able to understand how to actually effectuate this, how to make this happen in our practice, what we have to do is we have to understand what it is that we are letting go of. What does it mean to let go of? What actually are we supposed to let go of? Report an error in the passage at 16:13 Highlight the passage at 16:13

16:36 And very often it is kind of hard to say. Okay, so one of the kind of obvious things that you have to let go of when you do your meditation is that you are thinking a lot. Is there anyone here who has never had any thinking in their meditation? If not, I would be very, very surprised. And I would have to congratulate you on being an extraordinary meditator if that was the case. Report an error in the passage at 16:36 Highlight the passage at 16:36

16:59 Almost everyone has had thinking in their meditation. And so obviously, one of the things we have to do is to let go. of that thinking. That's kind of one of the things that we have to do. So how do we let go of thinking? This becomes an important point. Another thing that we sometimes have to let go of and you will realize in your meditation is that sometimes the breath is not really very attractive or very nice or very smooth to watch because you have a feeling that you are holding on to the breath too much. Report an error in the passage at 16:59 Highlight the passage at 16:59

17:31 And when there is a holding on it's not really pleasant. Do you know what I mean? Has anyone had that feeling? And again, it's this feeling, I need to let go, right? Because the holding on actually makes it not really nice. That destroys the whole beauty of the meditation. Because once you let go, you feel, wow, this is what it really means. You're just allowing the breath to be, and that's when the breath becomes incredibly delightful. Report an error in the passage at 17:31 Highlight the passage at 17:31

17:55 Easy to watch, peaceful, soothing, kind of cooling you down. It's a positive experience once you have the ability to let go. And then further down the track you need to let go of more things. Gradually you allow the body to fade away, you allow the senses to fade away. All of these things come further down the track. And eventually more and more things in your experience are gradually let go of. Report an error in the passage at 17:55 Highlight the passage at 17:55

18:24 So how does this actually happen? What is kind of the... The tricks behind this. How does this whole process happen? So when it comes to the thinking mind, one of the reasons why you are thinking, or the main reason why you are thinking, very often you will listen to Ajahn Brahm and he will say, well you have to let go of all the activity, all the doing. Report an error in the passage at 18:24 Highlight the passage at 18:24

18:46 That's kind of part of it. But why is there so much activity? Why is there so much doing in your mind? Why is there all that thinking? And the reason is because you are interested in all of this stuff. That's why it is there. And you may think, surely I can't be interested in all this nonsense. It's embarrassing, isn't it, to be interested in all of that nonsense? But actually, this is the point. We are kind of interested in those things. And that's why they come up. Report an error in the passage at 18:46 Highlight the passage at 18:46

19:12 And so what that means is that we have to kind of go to the root of the problem. And the root of the problem is that very interest. And that interest really is when we talk about the first of the five hindrances, which is basically sensual desire. That is an aspect usually of sensual desire, an aspect of this interest in the world. Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:34 Our interest in the world is greater than our interest in the spiritual path. We haven't got our bearings right. We haven't really given it the right kind of priorities. And because our priorities are wrong then we tend to think about things in the world. And so that gives you an idea of where we go wrong. Your priorities are wrong. Report an error in the passage at 19:34 Highlight the passage at 19:34

19:57 So how do you get your priorities right? Well, the way to get your priorities right is to have what is called right view in Buddhism. Right view means that you see the world in a similar way as the way the Buddha described the world. The Buddha tells you the things that are really valuable. The Buddha tells you the things that will lead to happiness and what will lead to suffering. And so by acquiring that right outlook, Looking at the world in the right way, in the way the Buddha taught about the world, then your values start to get aligned with the dharma, aligned with the way the Buddha saw things. Report an error in the passage at 19:57 Highlight the passage at 19:57

20:37 Right view, the way the world actually is, gives you the right kind of values. And what are those values? Well, those values are valuing of the spiritual path, valuing of kindness, valuing compassion, valuing peace, valuing sitting on your bottom, watching your breath. Report an error in the passage at 20:37 Highlight the passage at 20:37

20:59 It's kind of amazing that people value that, but once you start to understand what it means, you start to understand why it is valuable. And so right view leads to right values. And then when you have the right values, your priorities fall into place because you prioritize according to your values. And then because you prioritize right, you sit down, you close your eyes, you allow the kind of the noise, the momentum of the city life, of the family life, of the work life, you allow that momentum to run its course a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:35 This takes a bit of patience in the beginning. And then when it's run its course, Because you have the right values, the right priorities, the mind, like a dutiful dog, yeah, or whatever. I'm not sure if the mind is like a dog, but maybe it is like a dog. It goes to the breath, or it goes to the loving kindness meditation, or it goes wherever you want it to go, because the mind knows what is important. Report an error in the passage at 21:35 Highlight the passage at 21:35

22:01 Right view is a fundamental part to making this process work, understanding the world in the way the Buddha understood the world. And what does the Buddha say about the world? The Buddha says about the world, when I say talking about the world, I mean like the world outside, not the inner world. The inner world is what we're trying to develop on the spiritual path, but the outer world outside. And that world is out of control. Report an error in the passage at 22:01 Highlight the passage at 22:01

22:28 That world is unreliable. That world is impermanent. And if you rely too much on that world outside, you're going to end up very disappointed. It's not really going to work your way. And so seeing things in that way allows you to withdraw from that and go within instead and knowing what it is where you should be placing your attention. Report an error in the passage at 22:28 Highlight the passage at 22:28

22:50 This is what I mean by right values. So contemplating these things is what this is about. And so one of the critical things that you start to realize when you start to understand this idea of letting go is that it is a very kind of long-term process. An idea such as right view, looking at the world in the right way, is something that matures over time. It takes a long time for these things to penetrate, because we are used to thinking about the world in a very different way. Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:25 And so gradually, gradually, the mind turns around. Our habits are very powerful, and being able to turn around those habits is what is so difficult. Report an error in the passage at 23:25 Highlight the passage at 23:25

23:37 It's like a freight train, right? Actually, I like the idea of a supertanker. I use this simile all the time, probably too much. But the idea of the supertanker is the idea that the supertanker is enormous ships laden with oil or whatever. When they go 20 knots at full speed, it takes a long, long, long time to turn that supertanker around. Kilometers, yeah, 20 kilometers or whatever before it turns around. Report an error in the passage at 23:37 Highlight the passage at 23:37

24:02 And our minds are like those supertankers. They're full of... Habits full of momentum from the past. It takes a long time to turn the mind around. And so we need to develop this over time. The right view, the right understanding, gaining the right values. And as you do that you will start to see. That your mind actually is easier, it is more naturally goes to the right place when you sit down to become peaceful, when you sit down to do your meditation. Report an error in the passage at 24:02 Highlight the passage at 24:02

24:32 The momentum now is different. You have a different outlook, a different way of doing things. So this is one of the things that allows you to let go because you now understand the world in a different way. You understand things in a different way. You no longer hold on so much. You don't cling to all of these things. Report an error in the passage at 24:32 Highlight the passage at 24:32

24:51 He robs so many things in the world because you understand their uncertainty, their unreliability. And even with the breath, even when the breath is there, you don't grasp the breath so much because that breath too is part of that world outside, part of the kind of five sense world outside. Report an error in the passage at 24:51 Highlight the passage at 24:51

25:11 The problem is all of this grasping, the holding on, grasping the grip, grasping the various kind of things, and letting go of the grasping is what we are trying to do. And that happens through this long-term development. But there are many other ways in which we can actually avoid this grasping. Because as I mentioned just before, the idea, the reason why... Report an error in the passage at 25:11 Highlight the passage at 25:11

25:36 Why we do all of this grasping, the reason why we hold on to the breath or we hold on to the thinking mind is because of the Desires that lie behind that. And those desires are ultimately rooted in our sense of self. I want these things. These are my things. This is my world. This belongs to me. All of these things, the me, the I, is kind of one of the things that lies behind all of this. Report an error in the passage at 25:36 Highlight the passage at 25:36

26:05 It's one of the root causes of the problems that we have. One of the ways of helping to let go is to let go a little bit of the sense of self. And I will tell you a very nice way of reducing the sense of self. And one of the kind of beautiful ways of eliminating part of the sense of self, which may not be very obvious, is the idea of generosity, of giving. Report an error in the passage at 26:05 Highlight the passage at 26:05

26:34 One of those kind of extraordinary things that I always like to talk about in the suttas, The word that I mentioned before, vosagga, we have this monk in the monastery called vosagga, which means giving up. This is also a word for generosity. The same kind of word, the idea of giving up, letting go, and generosity is the same thing. You can see why that obviously is the case, because to be able to be generous, well, you have to give up, you have to let go. Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

27:02 If you don't let go, you can't be generous, give it to, no, no, okay, not sure, yeah, yeah, actually you have to let go, otherwise it doesn't work. And so... Letting go begins very often with the idea of generosity. I think this is one of the reasons why the Buddha makes so much of it, and why he often places at the beginning of what he calls the anupubhakata, the gradual talk, starts off with generosity. Report an error in the passage at 27:02 Highlight the passage at 27:02

27:28 And because the leaning of the mind when you are generous is the same leaning as when you're giving something up, when you're letting something go. It's the... Elimination of the sense of self in a way. When you give up, the sense of self is no longer holding on to that thing. You have to let go of that sense of self at that particular point. Report an error in the passage at 27:28 Highlight the passage at 27:28

27:50 And that is exactly the same thing that you have to do in meditation. You have to let go of those things that you hold on to in the same way. The sense of self has to let go of its grip a little bit. And so generosity, this idea of giving up, is one of these beautiful ways of actually Report an error in the passage at 27:50 Highlight the passage at 27:50

28:08 Understanding what letting go also means in meditation practice. So be generous. Be a generous person. Not only to Buddhist causes, be generous in your daily life to all the people that you meet. Say some kind words, do an act of generosity, simple act of generosity. Often it is not about something big, it's about the small things that you do again and again and again that are really important. Report an error in the passage at 28:08 Highlight the passage at 28:08

28:35 And the more you develop that, the more you are inclining the mind towards letting go. And you will be surprised at the effects a simple thing like that has in meditation if you practice it systematically. Letting go through generosity. Vosagga, this beautiful word. So this is... One of the ways of understanding how letting go happens. Another way that is very important to help you to let go is the idea of kindness. Report an error in the passage at 28:35 Highlight the passage at 28:35

29:08 And one of the reasons why kindness or morality on the path is so important is because it gives you a kind of inner stability, an inner... A platform, an inner foundation, an inner source that you can lean on when you have to let go. And that sense of feeling good about yourself and feeling positive about yourself means that there is something there that you can grasp onto, a spiritual thing that you can grasp onto that then stops you from having to grasp so much to the world outside. Report an error in the passage at 29:08 Highlight the passage at 29:08

29:43 So this is one of the reasons why morality is so important on the Buddhist path, because it gives you a kind of platform, somewhere to stand, something you can actually use when the letting go is supposed to happen. So again, a very important part of this. Another very important part is this idea I just mentioned before, the idea of right view. Because if you have right view, you understand that certain things are not worthy of being held on to. Report an error in the passage at 29:43 Highlight the passage at 29:43

30:11 And that understanding that they're not worthy of being held on to, the more you understand that, the easier it is to let go. This is why someone who is fully enlightened or awakened, why they can get into deep meditation very easily. They get into meditation like that because they know exactly where happiness is to be found and where suffering is to be found. They understand that. Report an error in the passage at 30:11 Highlight the passage at 30:11

30:35 This is all suffering. Why am I holding on to suffering? If you put your hand wrongly on a hot plate, do you have to think for a long time whether you should remove it or not? No, because if you think too much it's going to be too late. So bang, you take it away straight away. So you understand the hot plates of life. There are lots of hot plates. Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

30:56 So remove your mind from those blooming hot plates and then there's a chance that your meditation will deepen. This is understanding and the mind withdraws automatically from the pains of life, from the problems of life. This is an understanding of the dhamma, understanding what I was talking about. Then there is the The counterpoint to that is to understand the delight of the beautiful states that come after you let go. Report an error in the passage at 30:56 Highlight the passage at 30:56

31:33 And very often that depends on kind of experiences that you had in the past where you have let go of something. And you know how wonderful it is when you really let go. And sometimes that can happen maybe just in daily life. In daily life, suddenly you feel that you let go and you feel like you're kind of flowing through life. You know, they have this kind of idea of flow in psychology these days. Report an error in the passage at 31:33 Highlight the passage at 31:33

31:55 And sometimes you can kind of feel that in your own life, how you kind of suddenly start to flow through things. That is an aspect of letting go. And you want to bring You bring that kind of flow also into your meditation experience. And so this is also very helpful because you know there's something out there that is far superior to what you normally have and you allow that to be the carrot that kind of draws you or kind of moves you on and then allows the letting go to happen as a consequence. Report an error in the passage at 31:55 Highlight the passage at 31:55

32:23 So all of these things are supporting factors. All of these things have to be developed over a long period of time. And as you develop the path, as all of these factors mature, letting go happens in your meditation. You don't do it anymore. You stop doing it because you don't know when these factors are going to be mature enough. Report an error in the passage at 32:23 Highlight the passage at 32:23

32:49 You don't know when they are ready to ripen in letting go. There's a beautiful simile in the suit as about an axe handle. Someone who has used an axe for a very, very long time, let's say you are one of the old-fashioned timber men, I don't know if they're timber women, but timber whatever it is, and you have an axe, and you use the axe for a long time, and after many years or decades of using that axe, you can see the fingerprints on the axe handle, because it has worn away. Report an error in the passage at 32:49 Highlight the passage at 32:49

33:23 And if you look at that axe handle, you don't know how much was worn away yesterday or the day before, but you know that now it has worn away to this extent. It's the same thing with your meditation. You don't know when the letting go is going to happen, but you know if you keep on practicing the full Noble Eightfold Path in this way, then one day it is going to happen, but you don't know when. Report an error in the passage at 33:23 Highlight the passage at 33:23

33:48 And so it means you stop trying. You stop trying, sitting in meditation and saying to yourself, let go, let go. No, that's pointless because you don't know when it's going to happen. And you know that that trying to let go with gritted, you know, with clenching your fist and gritting your teeth, that's going to make it worse. Report an error in the passage at 33:48 Highlight the passage at 33:48

34:08 That's the last thing you want. That's not how you get letting go. That's actually really holding on, right? If you kind of clench your fist or whatever. The last thing you want to do is clenching your fist and gritting your teeth. Pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth. These are all kind of similes taken from the suttas. So that's not what you want to do. Instead, you understand patience is the right way. Report an error in the passage at 34:08 Highlight the passage at 34:08

34:30 That is the way to go. And then when letting go is ready, when all these factors come together, it will happen by itself. So you stop stressing out in meditation. You sit back. You learn to wait. You learn to be patient. And then one day, when the letting go happens, you think, wow, that is how it works. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:52 And then, when you know how it works, what do you do then? Well, ideally what you do then is you carry on doing that. But that's not what happens. And then you kind of grasp again, right? Because now I've seen how it works. And you grasp that. And you're back to square one again. Report an error in the passage at 34:52 Highlight the passage at 34:52

35:09 You know what I mean? That's how it works, right? That's the reality of things. We think that now we understand. Actually, we don't understand. Then we have to kind of learn the process over again. But ideally, we learn from that. And then we kind of learn to let go in the right kind of way. And so this is how letting go happens. Report an error in the passage at 35:09 Highlight the passage at 35:09

35:29 Is there anything that we can actually do in our meditation? And the answer is yes, there are things we can do in our meditation. And what we can do is to kind of set up the causes for letting go to happen. Not trying to let go all the way throughout the meditation, but setting up the causes at the beginning of meditation very often. So when you start out your meditation, You set up your mind in a positive way. You try to have a positive outlook. You kind of feel the good vibes in a place like this. Report an error in the passage at 35:29 Highlight the passage at 35:29

36:03 You have a positive attitude to things. Maybe you remind yourself that you're here to practice a spiritual path. That is what really matters. I'm not here to think about the world or my job or whatever it is, whatever silly things that people think about. Because it's not really important. Remind yourself what is really valuable. Remind yourself what your priorities really are. You can do that at the beginning of the meditation and then allow the process to happen. Report an error in the passage at 36:03 Highlight the passage at 36:03

36:29 But don't try, because that trying is not going to work. And if you are able just to sit back and allow the process to happen... Sometimes what happens is that you gain little insights on the way because you see yourself moving in the wrong direction. You see yourself doing the wrong kind of thing. And then you actually letting go will happen as a consequence of that instead. So this is kind of how letting go happens. Report an error in the passage at 36:29 Highlight the passage at 36:29

36:57 And then if you follow this process, something very beautiful happens in your life. Meditation becomes more pleasant because you're not trying so hard anymore. And because meditation is becoming more pleasant, you become encouraged to practice this path more as a consequence of that. Because you practice the path more, because you put into place all the foundations that are required. Report an error in the passage at 36:57 Highlight the passage at 36:57

37:24 Gradually, gradually, gradually your meditation improves. You let go of more and more and more and as you let go of more and more and more you find more and more happiness in your life. You understand what a pain it is to hold on to things in the world. It is really problematic. It doesn't lead to anything good. And so you let go and you let go and you let go. Report an error in the passage at 37:24 Highlight the passage at 37:24

37:45 And the final letting go, the ultimate letting go, is like when Venerable Ananda lies down, puts down his head on the pillow, just like this young woman over here. Are you enlightened already? Put your head down on the pillow. And then one day that final letting go happens. And that is then the final awakening that comes as a consequence of that. So, that is my... Report an error in the passage at 37:45 Highlight the passage at 37:45

38:15 Talk for this evening on the idea of letting go and then as a consequence hopefully enjoying your meditation more and allowing the meditation to be. Letting be rather than letting go. As I mentioned earlier on during the meditation at the beginning, letting be is this beautiful idea. Allowing things to be, allowing things to unfold and then letting go suddenly happens as a consequence of that. Okay, so there you... Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:45 I just wanted Report an error in the passage at 38:45 Highlight the passage at 38:45

39:07 to make sure that I'm on the right path with understanding it, but it sounds like what you're outlining is the distinction between basically a category of action and non-action, because I'll use an example from my life as a university student. Passing a test or an exam doesn't really track to a distinct action that I can take in the world. It's really just a set of prerequisites that seems to be achieved and I just wanted to make sure that I'm understanding kind of the letting go is a similar kind of non-action. Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:39 Yeah, so like when you take an exam, the reason why you do well on the exam is because of what you have prepared beforehand, exactly, not because of what you do so much on the exam. It's almost like automatic, you allow your pen to flow according to what you have learned before. And in a sense, that is very similar to meditation practice. You allow the process to flow, depending, grounded on all the things that you have done for years, ideally, building up all of these qualities that are there. Report an error in the passage at 39:39 Highlight the passage at 39:39

40:04 So a similar kind of thing, yeah. Just as a follow-up to that, when you highlight people, and I've seen this in other people, there's this craving for this non-action. I'm wondering if other states as well, such as gratitude or something like that, is also a non-action as well. People sometimes talk about feeling gratitude, but is it the case that we can actually do that as an action, or is that actually just us giving the space space and the um orienting ourselves towards that as an expression rather than a discrete action Report an error in the passage at 40:04 Highlight the passage at 40:04

40:42 There is some action in all of this, but it's knowing where to put the action and where to put the non-action. That's kind of the critical thing here. So you don't really generate gratitude through a direct act. The gratitude is generated through some prior idea. Gratitude is generated because you understand, well, someone did something wonderful and beautiful, and you remember that. Report an error in the passage at 40:42 Highlight the passage at 40:42

41:04 That gives rise to the gratitude. So it's important to understand what is the cause and what is the effect. If you try to create the effect out of nothing, that's when you have a problem. Some people try to create happiness. But happiness should come from the right kind of cause. The right kind of cause is because you feel good about yourself, because you're living well. Report an error in the passage at 41:04 Highlight the passage at 41:04

41:25 You get gratitude because you remember something. Wow! Ajahn Brahm has given one talk to me every Wednesday in the monastery for the 30 years I've been there. Wow! Ajahn Brahm is just amazing! Wow! And does he do it? He does that for all of us. Just to help us, just to assist us. He doesn't get anything out of it except for hassle. Report an error in the passage at 41:25 Highlight the passage at 41:25

41:46 He doesn't really want to give those blooming talks. But he still gives them. Wow! Ajahn Brahm is kind of the big hero. And then you feel a kind of gratitude because you look at it in the right way. Just knowing where to place the action. And then the result comes. And so most of the action for letting go to happen happens actually outside of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 41:46 Highlight the passage at 41:46

42:40 Please. Yeah. Ajahn Brahmali, so I was wondering, in the Vitaka Santana Sūtra, they say like four or five ways of letting go of different thoughts. But aren't we doing something when we are doing those things? Yes. But the idea there, again, is if you have done a lot of practice beforehand, it's much easier to apply those methods. Report an error in the passage at 42:40 Highlight the passage at 42:40

43:06 So the first method there is that kind of turning, it's like... Putting your mind on a different kind of thought, right? So if you're thinking something negative, you put your mind on something positive. But that is only possible if you have practiced a lot of positive thinking beforehand. Otherwise it doesn't work. If you have some person who maybe you find a bit difficult, oh, I don't like this person, oh, difficult, I have to deal with them, and they invade your mind. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:32 It's kind of what people do sometimes. They invade your private space inside, go away. The only way you're going to be able to deal with that person is if you have learned to have compassion for them or you have learned to see the good sides in them. All of that is developed outside of meditation. You can't develop that in the meditation. You can, but that's not really what meditation is about. You develop that outside and then because you have all of these perceptions ready in your mind developed beforehand, you can kind of substitute. Report an error in the passage at 43:32 Highlight the passage at 43:32

44:02 substitute, yeah? Actually, let me not look at the negative things. They don't know what they're doing anyway. They are trapped in this stupid conditioning. I should have compassion for these people. Yeah, for good. If you do that in the right way. It's a very simple thing that you're doing in your meditation, and with a blink of an eye you can go from having a negative mind to having a positive mind, if you do that in the right way. Report an error in the passage at 44:02 Highlight the passage at 44:02

44:31 That is the first one. The second one is where you see the thought. This is the Vitakka Santana Sutta, number 20, the calming of thoughts Sutta. Sutta number 20 in the middle link, sayings of the Buddha, if those who want to look it up. Second one is where you think of these negative thoughts as something terrible. Report an error in the passage at 44:31 Highlight the passage at 44:31

44:51 It's like having a carcass of a dog hung around your neck. The suit has a very graphic, yeah, this is kind of one of the nice things about this, they give a very graphic description. Carcass of a dog, carcass of a snake, or a carcass of a human being. You decide what is worst. But, so, yeah, and so again... Report an error in the passage at 44:51 Highlight the passage at 44:51

45:11 The ability to understand why a thought of anger is like having a carcass of a snake hung around your neck, to really get that you have to have contemplated that beforehand. You have to know why anger is really problematic, why you don't want to go there. And if you remind yourself, then very quickly it will stop because you know how it destroys the beauty of your mind. The mind is very beautiful when it's developed in the right way. Report an error in the passage at 45:11 Highlight the passage at 45:11

45:39 The mind is compared to gold in the sutras. It's shining, it's bright. If you polish it, it becomes even more beautiful. There's something very, very attractive about the mind when it is developed in the right way. Gold is the most beautiful kind of worldly thing. The mind is the most... Wonderful thing in the spiritual path when you develop in the right way. And then you come to these other factors where you learn to, you have amanisikara, asati amanisikara, you don't pay attention to the thought, right? Report an error in the passage at 45:39 Highlight the passage at 45:39

46:09 That is kind of very simple. Instead of looking at that thought which is disturbing you, you just go back, you stay with the breath and you allow that thought just to be in the background until it disappears. So there's not much, you don't do very much there at all. All you do is kind of allow it to disappear in the background. Report an error in the passage at 46:09 Highlight the passage at 46:09

46:27 And then you have the idea of calming down the thought, and the last one is you use willpower to get rid of it. But all of those are, they are not necessarily a lot of activity, if you know how to use them in the right way. And all of them pretty much rely on the things that you have done outside of meditation before you can really do them properly. You want to use the minimum amount of work in those Vitaka Santana. Report an error in the passage at 46:27 Highlight the passage at 46:27

46:52 If it happens, In your ordinary life you can use a little bit more work to get rid of them. But in meditation you don't want to do a lot of stuff because it just damages, stops your meditation. So you just want to basically observe and allow it to fade away. Very often that's the best method in meditation. A little bit of ill will comes up, you just kind of allow it to fade away by just going gently back on the breath or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 46:52 Highlight the passage at 46:52

47:16 Happy with that? Thanks so much. If you want the long version of that answer, you have to come to one of my retreats. That's where they get the long version. It goes for at least an hour. Okay, great, Report an error in the passage at 47:16 Highlight the passage at 47:16

47:39 thank you. Anyone else here? Everyone else here is happy? Okay, good. So let's have a look from overseas. hour so yeah okay Report an error in the passage at 47:39 Highlight the passage at 47:39

47:48 So we have a question from Germany, from Wolfram from Germany. How can you trust a monk again after you see that even the old holy monks in Thailand were caught living in luxury for years? They used the money people gave to the temple. How can you trust a monk? Well, the thing is that how can you trust anyone? And the truth is that monks are human beings. Report an error in the passage at 47:48 Highlight the passage at 47:48

48:13 And so just like with... Other human beings, there are some you can trust and some you can't trust. The same thing with monks, there are some you can trust and some you can't trust. I guess the question for you now is if you can trust me. Because if you can't trust me, you can't trust what I'm saying now. And then you have a problem. So presumably you trust me, otherwise you wouldn't ask this question. So there you are, you're already trusting one monk already. Report an error in the passage at 48:13 Highlight the passage at 48:13

48:35 I just proved to you that you trust me, otherwise you wouldn't ask this question. Report an error in the passage at 48:35 Highlight the passage at 48:35

48:42 So you have to just have your eyes open. You have to look, you have to know, and you have to be discerning. And sometimes you trust, sometimes you don't. Because the world is complicated and the world is difficult. And sometimes what you have to do is you have to hang out with these monks or with these lay people over a long period of time. Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

49:04 This is one of the reasons why I have stayed with Ajahn Brahm for 30 years. I have tremendous trust in Ajahn Brahm. You may not have that trust in Ajahn Brahm because you haven't seen him. I have seen him for 30 years. I've seen the integrity. I've seen the continuation of remarkable actions and remarkable... Report an error in the passage at 49:04 Highlight the passage at 49:04

49:24 Spiritual qualities over long periods of time. And that's really, really powerful when you see that. So be discerning. Look over a long period of time. And as you do that, gradually you start to get the feeling for who you can trust and who is maybe not so trustworthy. That's kind of the answer to that question. Sometimes people are so black and white. It's either good or it's bad. They're either against us or they're for us. Report an error in the passage at 49:24 Highlight the passage at 49:24

49:51 But the world isn't black and white. The world is in shades of grey. And these days everything seems to be black and white. I think the internet is kind of making the world black and white. But the internet is wrong. The world is not black and white. Don't trust the internet. The internet is dodgy. Okay, question from Bolivia. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:11 Virya comes from viro, or hero, meaning that the Buddha is a hero, which brings us tears of joy. But shouldn't those tears be born from saddha and not from virya? Report an error in the passage at 50:11 Highlight the passage at 50:11

50:24 I'm confusing those. So when you think of the Buddha as a hero, that's not virya, that's saddha, because you are thinking of the Buddha as the hero. And yeah, the Buddha is a hero. The Buddha is kind of the greatest hero in human history. The Buddha is like this amazing, extraordinary person who is able to see through the deepest kind of delusion in the human mind. Report an error in the passage at 50:24 Highlight the passage at 50:24

50:51 That's kind of absolutely astonishing. To me the Buddha just stands head and shoulder above everyone else in human history. And we still have those sutras, we still have the word of the Buddha in the present day. So it is incredibly, incredibly precious because of that. And that is faith, that is saddha, because you see the Buddha in that way. Report an error in the passage at 50:51 Highlight the passage at 50:51

51:12 But what is interesting, when you have that kind of faith, that faith first of all is confidence because you feel... Confident after a while that the Buddha really knew what he was talking about. But it's also faith in the sense that it is emotional. Faith is emotional. It's supposed to bring out emotions. That is when it's powerful. That's when you have, as you say, tears of joy. Because those emotions are what allow the meditation to work. Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:39 And that is the saddha of Buddhism. This mixture of confidence and... Faith, the emotions that come from faith. But then when you have that faith, what that leads to, and this is kind of where what you're saying here, because it's interesting, what that leads to is energy. Why? Because when you have faith, when you have joy, the energy comes with that. Joy is always energetic. Joy is always mindful. Report an error in the passage at 51:39 Highlight the passage at 51:39

52:12 So the joy, the pamudja, the sati, the mindfulness and the energy are kind of three aspects that arise together in the mind. These are things that tend to work together in a sense. And so in that way you are right. Faith and the virya are closely connected to each other in that particular way. So contemplate the Buddha by all means and see him for the hero he was, this extraordinary person who kind of went his own way and found the answer to the deepest realities of life. Report an error in the passage at 52:12 Highlight the passage at 52:12

52:47 It's a very lonely journey because you are the only person who does that. You have to reject... All existing ideas in society. You can't listen to anyone else. You are completely on your own. This is kind of why it is so hard. This is why it's kind of heroic, because you are on your own. It starts with the Buddha kind of just walking off into the forest and saying, OK, I'm going to find the solution to the meaning of life. I'm going to find the end of death. Report an error in the passage at 52:47 Highlight the passage at 52:47

53:18 This is kind of his idea. And then he walks off to find the end of death, the solution to the problem of dying. And then he finds that through this very kind of, first of all using the existing teachers, but eventually doing it all on his own. That's kind of really extraordinary. And in this way, yes. Report an error in the passage at 53:18 Highlight the passage at 53:18

53:38 You can get faith in the Buddha. Okay, last one. Eddie from Indonesia, I believe. Dear Ajahn, you ever mentioned about if mindfulness is strong, the meditation takes off. Kindly elaborate more on that and how do we build strong mindfulness despite external factor problem. Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

54:04 Yes, external factor problem. That's a very good point. That's a very big problem. And so you have to build that strength of mindfulness really comes from the other factors of the path, and building those up in the right way. Mindfulness comes because basically you feel good about yourself. You want to be present. You want to be here. Report an error in the passage at 54:04 Highlight the passage at 54:04

54:29 If you feel happy about yourself because you're living a good life, your mind will tend to be present. There's no reason for you to kind of want to... Flee the present moment or be somewhere else. Because here is nice. Here is good. Here is positive. The virtue of the morality builds up the sense of being present. Report an error in the passage at 54:29 Highlight the passage at 54:29

54:49 And of course, right view. Right view that being present is valuable. Right view that being present is delightful. If you want to be alive, you've got to be present. Otherwise you're not really alive. If you want to be able to react appropriately to what is happening now, you have to be mindful of it, because you can't even react appropriately. Report an error in the passage at 54:49 Highlight the passage at 54:49

55:12 You react to some kind of muddled thing that is going on, partly what's going on in your mind, partly what is happening here. And so there's really this integration of the noble, helpful path. And sometimes you will be confused. Sometimes your life, because it is busy and because you're doing all kinds of things, will mean that your mind is muddled. And that is to be expected. Report an error in the passage at 55:12 Highlight the passage at 55:12

55:37 There is a nice sutta. There's the Buddha's cousin called Mahanama. You know the famous story about Mahanama and Anuruddha? They were brothers. They were the two brothers. And this is one of my really cute little stories from the Vinaya Pitaka. And I told this story here before, but it's such a nice little story, I'll tell it again, just for those of you who are kind of sitting here. And if you want to leave and don't want to hear it, you're very welcome to do so. Report an error in the passage at 55:37 Highlight the passage at 55:37

56:04 But they were the cousins of the Buddha. The Buddha just got enlightened and he comes back to his home country. And everyone is really inspired by the Buddha. Wow, our kinsmen, our... Our family, our relative has become this amazing teacher. We should all have at least one child in every family should go forth and become a monk. Report an error in the passage at 56:04 Highlight the passage at 56:04

56:25 This was before there was nuns. Every family should have at least one monk. In those days they had large families so they could spare one son to become a monk. It's difficult, but they could do it. And so all the families, they kind of sent one young man to become a monk, but then there was the family of Anuruddha and Mahanama. And Anuruddha and Mahanama, they're kind of meeting up, and Mahanama says to Anuruddha, well, all the other families are sending one young man to become a monk, we should do the same. Report an error in the passage at 56:25 Highlight the passage at 56:25

56:56 Either you, Anuruddha, should become a monk, or I should become a monk. And then Anuruddha says, well... I have been treated so nicely. I've been brought up in all the comforts of the world. There's no way I can be a monk. I couldn't stand it for a single day. It's too tough. You become a monk. That's what Anuruddha says. Really kind of slack. Report an error in the passage at 56:56 Highlight the passage at 56:56

57:19 What kind of person is that? That's what you start to think. And then Mahanama says, well, if that is the case, that I should become a monk, Well, you have to take over the household. What? What do you mean household? I don't know anything about household. All I know is about eating and enjoying myself. Report an error in the passage at 57:19 Highlight the passage at 57:19

57:39 What are you talking about, taking over the house? Well, you have to take over all the work in the fields. So at the beginning of the season, you have to plow the fields. Yeah, then you have to kind of plow them and removing all the stalks and the stumps or whatever. You have to make the furrows. After making the furrows, you have to put in the seeds. Report an error in the passage at 57:39 Highlight the passage at 57:39

57:59 After putting in the seeds, you have to irrigate it with water. After irrigating it, you have to drain the field. After draining the field, you have to weed the field. And then when the crops come up, you have to reap the crops. And then you have to kind of thrash it and get all the junk out and kind of get the seeds. I'm not sure what you call getting the junk out. Report an error in the passage at 57:59 Highlight the passage at 57:59

58:17 It's not a technical term, but you know what I mean. So getting all the... The rubbish out of the straws and the husk or whatever. And then you have to put it all in silos. And Anuruddha says, wow, that's a lot of work. And then, when everything is finally in the silos and in stores, then you are ready for the next harvest, the next season. Report an error in the passage at 58:17 Highlight the passage at 58:17

58:39 And then Anuruddha says, what do you mean ready for the next season? When does the work stop? And Manu said, the work never stops. Our fathers and our grandfathers, they died right there while they were working in the fields. And then Anuruddha said, well in that case, I will go forth, you stay in the home life. Report an error in the passage at 58:39 Highlight the passage at 58:39

58:58 This is Anuruddha. It was a real kind of scallywag, really dodgy. And then he turned out to become a really, really good monk, of course. You can see even the kind of really bad material can turn out really, really, really, really well, which is kind of extraordinary. Extraordinary, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 58:58 Highlight the passage at 58:58

59:14 So this is the story of all these people going forth. And I'm not sure where I was going with all of this now and how it relates to the mindfulness here. Report an error in the passage at 59:14 Highlight the passage at 59:14

59:33 But anyway, so that was... So forget about all of that, and coming back to the idea of mindfulness. Mindfulness basically comes about through the practice of all the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path. Report an error in the passage at 59:33 Highlight the passage at 59:33

59:50 In this particular way. And as you do that, as you build it up, as you understand the danger of all the defilements of the mind through the daily life, yes, as I was saying, you lose that mindfulness. You can expect that. Just like Mahanama and Anuruddha. Mahanama, even though he stayed behind, because Anuruddha finally decided to become a monk, even though he stayed behind, he became a very powerful disciple. Report an error in the passage at 59:50 Highlight the passage at 59:50

1:00:17 And according to the suttas, he became... He became a stream-enter as a layperson. So it is possible, even as a layperson, to enter very deep meditations and see the Dhamma. But then he goes to the Buddha and he says to the Buddha, well, sometimes when I go into Kapilavatthu, Kapilavatthu was the capital city of the Sakyan clan, sometimes when I go into Kapilavatthu, I feel confused. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:17 Highlight the passage at 1:00:17

1:00:42 Because there's so much noise and things going on, all the elephants and the horses and the chariots kind of running around and people, drums and trumpets and I don't know what is happening, a couple of vattu, I feel really confused. And then the Buddha says, don't worry, don't be concerned, because you have enough insight, enough understanding that your death is going to be a good one. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:42 Highlight the passage at 1:00:42

1:01:08 In the same way, Don't be too concerned if your mindfulness sometimes goes low. Don't be concerned if in daily life it is really hard to keep your mindfulness and knowing exactly what you're doing. You do your best. Sometimes you will be confused. Sometimes you lose maybe your sense of direction. Sometimes you forget what is up and what is down, what is back and what is forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:08 Highlight the passage at 1:01:08

1:01:31 But it comes back again. It returns to you because you are on the path and you're living in the right way. And so just make the most out of this. Occasionally go on a meditation retreat, do something nice like that, and then see how your mindfulness is going. And if it kind of turns into samādhi, and it turns into good meditation on the retreat. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:31 Highlight the passage at 1:01:31

1:01:55 All right. Okay. Anything else anyone wants to say here? Anyone else is happy here? Are you sure you're happy here? Yeah? Okay. Happy enough? Okay, very good. Okay. Yes, please. Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:55 Highlight the passage at 1:01:55

1:02:14 In Singapore, Malaysia, you said start a near-death experience club, remember? Is it possible to do here? A near-death experience club? I heard in your talk, you said. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:14 Highlight the passage at 1:02:14

1:02:29 That's interesting, isn't it? I suggest that because I think that a lot of people have lots of stories. And sometimes they are afraid of telling their stories because they're afraid that people will laugh at them and think they're crazy or whatever. But this is a Buddhist community. And people are actually open to the idea of near-death experiences. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:29 Highlight the passage at 1:02:29

1:02:49 And so sometimes it is a good idea to have that kind of group coming together and talking and telling some stories and that kind of thing. So I think it is possible. You just need someone to get it together, I suppose. What was that? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:49 Highlight the passage at 1:02:49

1:03:09 you call it? So... So let's consider it and see what happens. But I think it would be really interesting to hear what people have to say. I'm sure there are some very interesting stories available in our society. All right. So, okay. Oops, sorry. I didn't try to destroy it. It just fell off. Okay, everyone, let's pay respect to the Bodhidharma Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:09 Highlight the passage at 1:03:09