Sharpening the razor (1980)

0:00 This is the third complete perfect day, completely Report an error in the passage at 0:00

0:09 flawless, in which you mindfully observe the results of your endeavors, practicing meditation. What kind of results have you been getting? Report an error in the passage at 0:09

0:34 Reflecting on, you find your mind becoming confused, you find a lot of depression or anger or discouragement. Report an error in the passage at 0:34

1:04 why anymore, you're Report an error in the passage at 1:04

1:11 have feel the way you do Report an error in the passage at 1:11

1:26 That's kind of a beginning, just something to do, like Report an error in the passage at 1:26

1:37 I said, like friction, like on a sharpening stone, when you sharpen your razor, in order to get the razor sharp, you have to cause friction. Report an error in the passage at 1:37

1:57 So Ānāpānasati can be like friction, something that you're not... not skilled at doing, you're not trained to do it, you have to kind of make yourself do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:57

2:15 the mind their attention back to the breath You begin to observe, you know, the kind of energy that you have in the moment. The wandering, fantasizing mind or the depressed feeling, the doubts and Report an error in the passage at 2:15

2:41 ...uncertainty about whether you're doing it rightly, or whether you're capable of doing it at all, or hoping that you get some kind of good result from it, comparing yourself, forcing yourself to do it when you don't want to, then giving up and discouragement and so forth. You begin to see, just observe, the way you approach anything is simply just watching your breath. Theoretically, it's understandable, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 2:41

3:28 they actually do it. Report an error in the passage at 3:28

3:37 attitude, as I was saying previously, very important, because if we approach something with the wrong attitude, it, towards ourselves, we end up by destroying the razor we're sharpening rather than sharpening If Report an error in the passage at 3:37

3:59 you want to sharpen a razor, you figure out how to do it in the right way, which way to move the razor on the stone, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 3:59

4:14 And rather than just taking a stone and a razor and causing friction, like you can bind them together, and that's friction. Report an error in the passage at 4:14

4:28 You can bash the razor with the stone, or the stone with the razor. There are different ways of causing friction, but it's not to get friction for its own end, but to learn to develop a skill, so that you, say, are sharpening something rather than dulling it. Report an error in the passage at 4:28

4:55 So the right attitude is one of careful observation, of attentiveness to how the results you're getting. But always in that place of calm and peacefulness rather than a frantic desperation, desperately trying to get it sharpened. It's like taking a razor and grinding it on the stone. You'll Report an error in the passage at 4:55

5:20 just end up with a completely useless razor. To Report an error in the passage at 5:20

5:30 sharpen the razor, you probably have to have a kind of a calmness, the right touch on the stone so that you get a nice smooth stroke. Report an error in the passage at 5:30

5:40 And that's a gentle It's not something harsh and hard and aggressive and forceful. It's that amount of effort it takes to lift the hand up, hold the razor, hold up the stone and move it along the stone, causing the proper amount of friction or sharpening. And that you only know through practice, no matter how much you might read about it. Report an error in the passage at 5:40

6:08 Well, understand it theoretically, it's only in actually doing it that you develop the skill. So the attitude is one of calm, cool, collected peacefulness with what you're doing. So Report an error in the passage at 6:08

6:33 that's why in this meditation retreat, regard each, you know, like each day as just, as good enough in itself, rather than the, I've got to get, make progress today so I can get the, I used to have a Report an error in the passage at 6:33

7:07 reoccurring Report an error in the passage at 7:07

7:23 dream in which pass the exam at the end of the course. Report an error in the passage at 7:23

7:28 During the first few years of practice, I kept having this dream. It would be in variations on the theme, but the theme was that I was doing something like going into a coffee shop or doing something and I'd say, oh, I shouldn't be doing this, I should be studying for the examination because the examination is due very soon and I'm not ready to take it. Report an error in the passage at 7:28

7:59 I know I'll fail. And then I'd sit down and this thing would be nagging away. I should be doing something else other than what I'm doing now because of the exam. Report an error in the passage at 7:59

8:12 So wherever I went, whatever I did, there'd be this nagging feeling that there's something I should be doing and what I'm doing now isn't what I should be doing. There's something else that I haven't done yet that I need to know and do in order to pass the exam. Report an error in the passage at 8:12

8:32 And so this dream kept reoccurring when I would fall asleep. What is it trying to say? I've been practicing meditation for years. What do I have to do? Have I left something out? Is there something I haven't studied yet? What should I be doing? Maybe I should read the suttas. Maybe I should study Pāli. Report an error in the passage at 8:32

9:05 Maybe I should delve into the Abhidhamma. Maybe I should do this or that. Maybe I should develop all the jhānas. And maybe I'm not ready for the exam yet. And the doubts would come into my mind that somehow that there is something very difficult yet that I had to study and do in order to pass the exam. Report an error in the passage at 9:05

9:29 But as I kept reflecting on this dream, it would keep reoccurring. It's trying to tell me something, obviously. What is this dream about? What have I not done that I shouldn't be doing? Report an error in the passage at 9:29

9:50 Finally one day I had an insight and I realized quite clearly that the answer to the dream was that there wasn't any examination. Report an error in the passage at 9:50

10:04 It's Report an error in the passage at 10:04

10:30 just this doubt and this fear and all this thinking that there is one. I thought there was an examination I'd have to But then one can say the examination is going on all the time, isn't it? In other words, being mindful is the way to pass the examination. Report an error in the passage at 10:30

11:12 Meditation, when you're starting, when you're a beginner, you've got to realize that it's kind of like sitting here on this retreat for some of you who have never done a retreat before. It's like tying yourself down, putting yourself in a straitjacket. Or even like, sometimes probably like nailing yourself on a cross. I mean you're bound and restricted. You can't talk when you feel like it. Report an error in the passage at 11:12

11:46 You're sitting a lot, sitting posture, formal practice of walking and so forth. You're tied up, you're bound, you're restricted. You can't do what you feel like doing in the moment. You can't just follow your whims and impulses. You have to sit and endure through the impulsiveness of the mind. And because of that, because we don't have the Report an error in the passage at 11:46

12:16 ability or the opportunity really to get rid of, to just follow the impulse or to repress it, we have to more or less endure its presence, that kind of energy that would make us go off and do something else than what we're sitting here. The impulses, restless impulses arise. We want to do something, go somewhere. Pain, from sitting too long, we want to get rid of the pain. Report an error in the passage at 12:16

12:49 We want to reflexively just move to get away from discomfort. The mind is confused and depressed. But when we bind ourselves down to something, when we tie ourselves up, we tend... To feel very angry sometimes. A lot of aversion arises. We feel negativity arising that we probably never noticed all that much before. Report an error in the passage at 12:49

13:20 Like if I were to hold you down, take you physically and hold you down to the floor, pin you down to the floor, you'd feel a lot of negativity towards me, wouldn't you? Report an error in the passage at 13:20

13:36 Well, the same applies when you're bound here. To the sitting posture, to the meditation retreat. You can direct that negativity to me or to yourself or whatever. Your patterns, your habits of being negative will become apparent to you. Report an error in the passage at 13:36

14:07 Because you can't do what you want to do. You can't just follow your habits. The way you can, if you're not on a 10-day retreat, or you're not under someone else's direction, when you can live life on your own terms, do what you want, and eat when you want, sleep when you want, do or follow your various impulses when you feel like it, and then suddenly, no, no, no, you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't talk, you can't eat once a day, so forth, so that you find... Report an error in the passage at 14:07

14:41 You're bound and restricted. So if some of you are experiencing a lot of negativity, that's a natural result of being bound and restricted. Report an error in the passage at 14:41

14:54 It surprised me when I, the first few months of meditation, when I was a Samanera, how much hatred and anger I was experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 14:54

15:07 I never thought of myself really as being a negative, hating person. You know, one has a kind of an image of oneself as being a certain kind, a certain type of person. And my self-image was being a jovial, good-hearted, kindly person. Report an error in the passage at 15:07

15:31 And then during those first few months of meditation, I found out all kinds of ugly things in me that began to bubble up. Report an error in the passage at 15:31

15:47 I couldn't think of a nice thought about anybody for weeks at a time. Report an error in the passage at 15:47

15:54 Even when, like, one old lady in Nankai, a Chinese lady, decided to bring food to me, I even hated her most of the time. And Report an error in the passage at 15:54

16:12 I felt so much hatred for my parents and for... I felt this incredible amount of aversion coming out in every direction. And it was something that I was rather shocked at seeing, because when you think of yourself as a kindly, gentle and good-hearted man, and then this really nasty bitchiness kind of spews forth all the time, you don't quite know how to deal with it. Report an error in the passage at 16:12

16:41 You think that meditation is really... Before I meditated, I was kind and gentle. And Report an error in the passage at 16:41

16:52 now I've become a nasty, bitchy person. Report an error in the passage at 16:52

17:10 This was a natural result of one thing, being a samanera, not being able to get away from negativity. Like in lay life, I've realized that so much of the negative impulses, as soon as I felt their presence, I'd get away from them as soon as possible. Report an error in the passage at 17:10

17:33 There are all kinds of habits I developed in which I could escape from. The negative side of life as quickly as possible. Smoking cigarettes and drinking and watching television, reading books and chatting with friends and going to the cinema and so forth. There are all kinds of ways you could get out of it if you were depressed or miserable or full of anger. You could get away from it quickly by changing the the mood into something else you found or interesting. Report an error in the passage at 17:33

18:18 as a seminar, suddenly I was denied all possibilities of escape. just sit there in a little hut. a very nice little heart either. spent a lot of time criticizing that heart. Report an error in the passage at 18:18

18:57 I still had enough wisdom to stay with it. I realized that there's really nothing much one can do because if you try to stop it all and make it stop, it takes so much effort to stop the flow that you could only hold it down for about two seconds and then it would blow you away again. Report an error in the passage at 18:57

19:26 And since you were... Bound in a yellow robe, in a ramshackle kuti, and you didn't dare go out or do anything because the people of the other monks would know. You just decided to just resign myself to my fate. Stay with it. And in that resignation was a kind of peacefulness I developed towards all this negativity. Report an error in the passage at 19:26

20:06 In other words, I just began to accept my fate and just stay and allow these things to just come up and go. And that's the attitude which is beneficial towards liberation. Rather than trying to get rid of these bad moods or repress them or change them, just allow them to just observe that they're changing conditions, be at peace with them. Report an error in the passage at 20:06

20:37 Don't be frightened by them. Don't be appalled by them. Just see them as changing conditions. It's kind of a cleansing of the mind. Where before you, there's so much of yourself you kept holding up, pushing down, repressing, and you found you spent a lot of energy in your daily life just trying to Keep the things, keep from having to look at a lot of these ugly, nasty things. And now you have all the time in the world just to observe these things as they come forth. Report an error in the passage at 20:37

21:19 But you're not, you're not saying, oh, what an awful person I am to have such ugly thoughts or feelings. But you're just observing the anicca of these conditions. Report an error in the passage at 21:19

21:32 Keep seeing these as anicca rather than as personality problems or that are yours that are making Report an error in the passage at 21:32

22:10 Nostiness is an impermanent condition, I guarantee it. Even though when you're caught in an ugly, nasty hell for a while, it seems permanent. But that's because it has the appearance of permanency because you don't want it. Anything you have that you don't want has that feeling of being permanent, if you know this. Report an error in the passage at 22:10

22:38 Have you noticed? Like when you're depressed, if you're in a depressed state, I'm always going to be depressed. I'm always going to be miserable. I'll never be happy again. I'll never have a joyous moment in the rest of my life. I'll always be this miserable, depressed being eternally, forevermore. That's what Christians call eternal hell. Report an error in the passage at 22:38

23:10 Hell has this appearance of being eternal. Report an error in the passage at 23:10

23:17 when you... See that eternal hell is only temporary, impermanent in nature, then you have insight into the nature of hell. Eternal hell is impermanent and not self, not yours. So Report an error in the passage at 23:17

23:42 even though things may seem permanent, that is how they seem, that's the seeming, that's the illusion they create in your mind. By Report an error in the passage at 23:42

23:58 reflecting on the changing, Anicca, impermanent, characteristic of suffering, depression, doubt, worry, fear, anger, greed, lust, stupidity. When you reflect on the changing characteristics, then you begin to, say, abandon your identification with the collegiate and begin to see it from a perspective of Being it as a changing condition, it's separate from you. It's not me, it's not mine. This is what we mean by natta, not self. Report an error in the passage at 23:58

24:42 Where before, when you're attached to that condition, like if you're depressed, attachment to the depression thing, you think, I am depressed, I'm miserable, I'm no good, there's no hope for me, I'll always be miserable and unhappy and so forth. You think and you add to the depression, depressing thoughts, that make you more depressed then you think i'll always be depressed and that very thought i'll always be depressed is That's the illusion of eternity. Report an error in the passage at 24:42

25:19 That's the illusion of the thought, isn't it? At that particular moment in time, I'll always be depressed, I'll always be miserable forever. Report an error in the passage at 25:19

25:30 That's the illusion of eternity. Eternity. I'll always be depressed. Eternal hell. Report an error in the passage at 25:30

25:34 I've been in hell for eternity. But see that as an illusion. Just like when you're in pain, physical pain, where you've been sitting for an hour and you have pain in your knees or legs, whatever. Report an error in the passage at 25:34

25:52 Now, that pain seems like, you know, if you have to, if you watch a clock, you see, you're waiting for a bell to ring, five minutes. 5 minutes for the bell. You know the bell will ring and you'll be able to get out of the pain without losing your self-respect. Report an error in the passage at 25:52

26:24 So you think, 5 minutes left. Oh, that's not very long. I can endure for 5 minutes. Then you're waiting for the bell to ring and the pain increases and absolute agony. It should be 5 minutes by now and you look. Only 1 minute. It has the Because pain, when you're in pain, you have what is, what the time seems to increase its length. Report an error in the passage at 26:24

26:56 One minute of agonizing pain seems like an hour. An hour of happiness in bliss seems like a minute. Because that's the illusion of those conditions. Heavenly happiness was what we like and what we would like to have for eternity, isn't it? I'd like to be happy forever, in love forever, romance forever. I'd like to have all this beauty forever. Report an error in the passage at 26:56

27:34 Heaven. We'd like to stay in heaven eternally. But the illusion of heaven is that it seems to go by too fast. It's too impermanent for one. Heavenly happiness goes by too quickly for us. When we would like it to stay on and linger hour after hour after hour, day after day, month after month, year after year, they Report an error in the passage at 27:34

28:14 were talking about the illusions that we have in dealing with time, the feelings, sensations in the body, the moods that we have. Report an error in the passage at 28:14

28:25 The illusion of self as connected to these particular conditions, these changing transient conditions. Just like one minute of pain is like one hour. We don't want the pain, we'd like the pain to go away. Report an error in the passage at 28:25

28:47 We'd like it to go away instantly, as quickly as possible, not have to wait, because physical pain makes us terribly impatient. We want to get away from it quickly, the quicker the better. So, even a minute of pain seems like an eternity, because we don't want that pain. Report an error in the passage at 28:47

29:13 And when we don't want, when we have something we don't want, we want to get rid of it immediately. As quickly as possible, destroy it, annihilate it, because Report an error in the passage at 29:13

29:27 we're impatient. That's the blind reaction to the unpleasant, painful. Then Report an error in the passage at 29:27

29:42 the reaction, blind reaction to the pleasant and the beautiful is wanting to possess it forevermore, make it mine forever. Report an error in the passage at 29:42

29:53 I want this beautiful thing to be mine forever. I want this pleasurable feeling to be mine forever. I want to be happy like this forevermore. I wish I could always be happy and joyful and loving like this all the time. Report an error in the passage at 29:53

30:14 The illusion, wanting something that you like to be yours forever, wanting to get rid of something you don't like that you have already. Report an error in the passage at 30:14

30:29 Wanting to get rid of it instantly, as quickly as possible. Now observe this in your mind, you're just observing, you're not trying to change anything, but just observe the way things are, so you'll not be deluded by these conditions. Report an error in the passage at 30:29

30:51 Because it's the delusiveness, the illusions of these experiences that is the suffering. It's thinking that this pain is mine forever or this ugly thought is me or these terrible memories are mine or these bad habits are mine this body if it's sick and weak or ugly or whatever is me and mine Report an error in the passage at 30:51

31:24 don't want it be me or mine. We want it to be, it's beautiful, we have a beautiful body, Report an error in the passage at 31:24

31:36 Beautiful thoughts, beautiful feelings. Then we'd like that to be that way forever. To be forever eternally beautiful, radiant, joyous, and happy. Since Report an error in the passage at 31:36

32:00 we find ourselves in this particular condition of the human form, now let's reflect on this human body as it is in nature. Report an error in the passage at 32:00

32:13 It's an animal's body, isn't it? It functions just like any other animal's body. Doris, you notice she has two eyes, two ears, nose and a mouth just like we do. Report an error in the passage at 32:13

32:29 She has a heart and she has veins and liver and clean kidneys. Big fat stomach. Report an error in the passage at 32:29

32:40 Eating too much. Just like we would have if we were eating too much. She Report an error in the passage at 32:40

32:54 has Stomach. Report an error in the passage at 32:54

32:56 We don't have fur all over our bodies, but we do have hair, bodily hair. She has claws and we have nails. There are slight differences. We Report an error in the passage at 32:56

33:12 don't have tails. But Report an error in the passage at 33:12

33:22 notice this body, this human body, its functions. Are we like to think of ourselves? Now, when you think of yourself, what do you want to appear like to other people? Report an error in the passage at 33:22

33:39 What you want to, the kind of impression you want to radiate outward to others is that you're not an animal. Say, if you're an animal that just eats and sleeps and goes to the toilet like cats and dogs will just defecate anywhere, just right out on the road, where we wouldn't do that. Report an error in the passage at 33:39

34:09 We don't want, we would think, I don't want people to realize this is an animal's body. Report an error in the passage at 34:09

34:16 Do you know what I mean? That came right out of him. And shitters. Report an error in the passage at 34:16

34:28 Now Report an error in the passage at 34:28

34:34 we Report an error in the passage at 34:34

34:42 have thousands of pounds of building little cloths. Report an error in the passage at 34:42

34:49 With Report an error in the passage at 34:49

34:56 nice porcelain toilets and clean water that we can wash our hands in. yes. Report an error in the passage at 34:56

· · · silence, 1 minute

35:05 Making it fairly attractive and clean and pleasant so that the coarse function of eliminating the bodily waste is not too unpleasant, reminds us too much of the coarseness of this body. Report an error in the passage at 35:05

35:29 There's thinking in the materialist age of how much money is spent On beautifying and decorating the bathroom and toilets, where you can, in the West, in Britain, America, America has some of the most beautiful toilets in the whole world. Report an error in the passage at 35:29

36:10 Because in this position that we have to put ourselves in, it's not one that we like to, we'd like to have our photographs, taken, or something that we would want to, say I'd have to share with any of our friends. Report an error in the passage at 36:10

36:41 because this is a cause and growth of the Report an error in the passage at 36:41

37:01 feel very different about it. Before they're made self-conscious about it, they're quite proud of their defecation and elimination of weight, because they get praised for it. I remember my little nephew, and he's been trained for the potty, and my sister'd praise him every time that he went to the potty. Report an error in the passage at 37:01

37:27 So he would, whenever guests would come to the house... Report an error in the passage at 37:27

37:36 My sisters, they feel quite embarrassed about that. Report an error in the passage at 37:36

37:44 But then we outgrow that. We find that's not something that we share or boast about to others. Report an error in the passage at 37:44

37:57 Now this, just to see, to remind yourself that this is a part of nature. This is the course. And no matter how refined we might become, no matter if we're Report an error in the passage at 37:57

38:14 Queen Elizabeth or the most glamorous film star or the most respected and well-educated man or woman, no matter how important we are in the world, no matter how wise we become, no matter how refined we may be, we still have to perform these gross functions of the body. Report an error in the passage at 38:14

38:47 So we might be able to delude ourselves in a public image basis of, say, you know, of appearing very well dressed, beautifully presenting ourselves as, to give the illusion of being not an animal at all, but being some kind of ethereal, lovely celestial being, is Report an error in the passage at 38:47

39:13 what we would like, would rather be mistaken for, like a star in the sky. A movie star, a glamorous, lovely, beautiful deva, angel, something that was an impressive fighter, a warrior, a great father, an all-loving mother, and identifying with the great mythical heroes of the past. We would like to seek our identities. Report an error in the passage at 39:13

39:48 With those kinds of qualities other than with the animal ones, just the animal function. So even something like eating food is made into something so that the kind of coarseness of eating is diminished. You can see in Europe the refined etiquette that they developed in eating of food, serving it in beautiful dining rooms. Report an error in the passage at 39:48

40:20 The illusion Report an error in the passage at 40:20

40:50 of glamour, of eliminating gowns. Report an error in the passage at 40:50

40:53 We're doing something that is very civilized and refined and lovely, eating food. It's like Doris gobbles down a fish without any pretense of being glamorous. Report an error in the passage at 40:53

41:13 So Report an error in the passage at 41:13

41:22 we have the illusion of being very refined and lovely in trying to make the gross bodily functions seem not quite so gross a cause. So in our meditation, we're not trying to ignore these anymore, but to see them in perspective, to understand the gross, the coarse. Report an error in the passage at 41:22

41:53 It's necessary to eat food, isn't it? Even though the Buddha forbade many things to be, because he didn't deny them the food we're allowed to eat. Report an error in the passage at 41:53

42:09 That's a necessity, that's something very important, just for maintaining this physical body so that it doesn't become too miserable a condition. Report an error in the passage at 42:09

42:22 In the way we eat as bhikkhus, out of the bowl, it's to be aware of this. We're not just eating for the pleasure of the taste of the food, just to kill time. Report an error in the passage at 42:22

42:44 Or are we pretending to be glamorous devas? We're just eating, dumping it in a bowl and eating it. You look in your alms bowl and you see you're going to transfer that food into your mouth. It'll go into your stomach and then out eventually. Report an error in the passage at 42:44

43:08 So you begin to say, pay attention to eating it as just as it is, not with the attitude of aversion to it. But trying to see, bringing forth that kind of awareness of the attitudes and feelings of attraction in the birds that you experience in regards to the eating of food. Report an error in the passage at 43:08

43:32 Now sometimes when you meditate you get a lot of samādhi, you get concentrated, you get refined, so refined that you don't even want to eat anymore because eating is so gross, so coarse. If you can stay in samādhi for a long period of time in a refined kind of mental state, you'd rather do that than have to endure the course eating, frozen. Report an error in the passage at 43:32

43:59 But eventually, even though you can stay in samādhi for a long time, you eventually have to come out of that and start eating again, because the body needs that kind of nourishment. Report an error in the passage at 43:59

44:15 So the Buddha allowed us to eat, and we eat. One meal a day of food that's offered by a generous lady. So Report an error in the passage at 44:15

44:40 you can see in the human birth, in your own mind, a longing for refinement, desire to experience heavenly bliss and happiness, because in heaven there's no, heaven does not contain anything like defecation, urination. Report an error in the passage at 44:40

45:05 Parts of boiling excreta are strictly reserved for hell. Report an error in the passage at 45:05

45:12 Big tubs of boiling excrement is reserved for the hellish state, not for the heavenly one. Report an error in the passage at 45:12

45:24 The heavenly ones are where everything is light, clean, clear, bright, beautiful, pleasant, blissful and helpful. This is what we would like to have forever. Report an error in the passage at 45:24

· · · silence, 1 minute

46:43 If I punch her in the stomach, the same kind of unpleasant feeling that she experiences that you would if I punched you in the stomach. Report an error in the passage at 46:43

46:57 She wants to live, she doesn't want to die. She has a desire to live. And all animals would rather live than die, most of the time. Sometimes animals want to die. Report an error in the passage at 46:57

47:27 Animal's body is a teacher's voice. It's not something we should regard with contempt or aversion or mistreat or misuse, but to have the proper respect, the proper attitude towards it, is what we mean by mettā. Ajahn Sumedho, having the proper attitude towards this creature here, this being, this body. Report an error in the passage at 47:27

48:03 Learning how to take care of it properly without being neglectful of its need or indulgent. Report an error in the passage at 48:03

48:19 Now the mentality can become very refined. You can experience refined mental states and happiness and equanimity. You go off into nothingness and the state of the highest state attainable for a human. For refinement of the human consciousness is a state of neither perception nor non-perception. A mental state so refined that it's neither perception nor non-perception. Report an error in the passage at 48:19

48:59 Which is very, what a lot of people think is the ultimate goal of nibbāna. But the Buddha realized that even though he went through, he attained that state of neither perception nor non-perception, he realized that it's also an impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 48:59

49:22 And then one has to come down from that state and start feeding the body eventually. You know you don't want to. He became emaciated. He had to eventually accept some milk from Sugata rather Report an error in the passage at 49:22

49:49 than just stay off and refine states of consciousness. He had to learn to stay. We live within the restrictions and the conditions of the human form. So Report an error in the passage at 49:49

50:05 even though we would rather not have to deal with the coarse pain and gross functions of the body, and we'd like to get as far away from that as possible, part of our life has to, inevitably, we have to deal with these things, with sleeping and eating, with Report an error in the passage at 50:05

50:30 elimination of weight, bathing and so forth. covering the border, keeping it when it's cold. Report an error in the passage at 50:30

50:42 it when hot, care of it when it gets thick, when it gets... So the human Report an error in the passage at 50:42

50:55 birth means we can't stay too long in the deva realm, because this body will see that we don't. You can go up for a while to states of refinement, but you inevitably come down to the coarse functions of the body with its pain. Report an error in the passage at 50:55

51:15 Now, why is it like this? What is the lesson we have to learn from these restrictions we find ourselves in, in the human birth? Report an error in the passage at 51:15

51:30 This is why we're here practicing meditation, developing this right attitude, proper Report an error in the passage at 51:30

51:40 attitude towards the body and the conditions of the mind. And the proper attitude is... Being at peace with both the coarse and the refined. Taking no sides. Not trying to get rid of one and keep the other. Report an error in the passage at 51:40

52:02 Not trying to make the refined states into my personal possession, my heaven, and deny and repress and get rid of that which you don't like. But it's that clarity of mind and seen in perspective of non-attachment that these conditions change. Heavenly happiness is impermanent, and not self, as well as pain, physical pain, the body, the condition of the mind, no matter how gross or refined they might be, are impermanent, and not self. Report an error in the passage at 52:02

52:46 And so we, during this lifetime, within this human form, under this convention of being a human being, the attitude is one of peaceful kindliness, Kindliness towards everything, towards the body, own body, towards the conditions of the mind, Report an error in the passage at 52:46

53:09 things that we perceive outside of us, the other people, the other animals, the other beings. Report an error in the passage at 53:09

53:21 kind of peaceful Report an error in the passage at 53:21

53:53 This evening we start our fourth day, another perfect day, starting with this evening, 24-hour period of learning to be at peace with everything, with whatever, with whatever is now. Report an error in the passage at 53:53

54:19 Just to learn how can you be at peace with it. When you're so used to, say, resisting, like if I were holding you down on the floor and you were resisting me, we'd both become exhausted. Report an error in the passage at 54:19

54:35 After a while you can only do that for so long. And when you stop resisting, relax, then Report an error in the passage at 54:35

54:46 you can be at peace with me, which will affect me, won't it? If I'm trying to hold you down and force you down, keep you down on the floor, pin you there, the more you resist, the more I resist. So there's a struggle going on all the time. Trying to resist each other, pushing and struggling with each other. Report an error in the passage at 54:46

55:11 But if you relax, just relax, then I have nothing to struggle with. So I can relax. And apply this to your practice here. Relax within it. Regard this meditation, this ten-day retreat, as a time for mental ease, in which you can just be aware of the dis-ease that comes and goes, or the pleasure or the pain. Report an error in the passage at 55:11

55:49 See it not as a test of your endurance to prove that you can do this, or to compete with this person, or to get something out of it, or to get rid of your defilements, or to get pulled in the eye of the dharma. It's a struggle and resistance. Report an error in the passage at 55:49

56:11 It's regarded as more or less a chance to give every opportunity just to be at peace. Not much is demanded of you at all, is it? Report an error in the passage at 56:11

56:27 not a military camp, we're... Report an error in the passage at 56:27

56:42 you use the time is up to you. this is my way of suggesting an attitude which will be most beneficial the practice of insight. I've Report an error in the passage at 56:42

57:01 seen people go into meditation and spend years trying to get rid of evil and try to change this and try to become that. And you wonder, they've been doing it for years, they never learn. They keep doing the same old things over and over. They don't seem to get any wisdom, even years of meditation. It's because they haven't developed the right attitude. They still do meditation with the idea of gain, or with the idea of annihilation. Report an error in the passage at 57:01

57:39 The in the middle way is... is your Report an error in the passage at 57:39

57:42 It's neither gaining nor annihilating. Report an error in the passage at 57:42

57:49 Transcending means not attaching to anything. It doesn't mean annihilating everything. This means that gentle calm, nirvāṇa, meaning being at peace with all conditions. Report an error in the passage at 57:49

58:07 The body still functions, the mind, all that still go, but you're not reacting like a blind fool anymore to these changing conditions. You're not demanding. Report an error in the passage at 58:07

58:20 Let this animal body be a deva. You're not demanding that pain be other than it is. You're not demanding that the coarse bodily functions be other than they are. You can be at peace even with the most unpleasant conditions and Report an error in the passage at 58:20

58:45 with the most pleasant conditions. Report an error in the passage at 58:45

58:52 Andamayam vadagatāsātū karam gātāṁ āse Report an error in the passage at 58:52