Speaker 1 00:00:14 Welcome to my Bob Thurman podcast. I'm so grateful and some good friends enabled me to present them to you. If you enjoy them and find them useful, please think of becoming a member of Tibet house us to help preserve Tibetan culture. If that house is the Dalai Lamas cultural center in America, All best wishes. Have a great day.
Speaker 2 00:00:48 This is episode 285, my early years mindfulness and the Mahayana.
Speaker 4 00:01:14 So, um, anyway, when I started, um, I started in the 60, 62 kind of, um, with a teacher and, um, I, I, I can't really evaluate myself because I'm at a stage where I get up in the morning and I look around one time, the room and it's evening time is like swish. You know, my 80th birthday is in about a week or like 10 days. And, um, it's, uh, it's, it's wonderful. I wouldn't go back and inch, you know, and I'm looking forward to the next life even, but I think I have to hang out here a little bit more with a few aches and pains, but, uh, um, I'm in order to stay another 24 years, but I think he's just kidding me because he has promised his people to say till he's a hundred and 113, he originally started promising actually 120 and then 113. And now he's down to 103.
Speaker 4 00:02:21 So that, that excuses me at 97. Uh, according to his rules that I have to say as long as he does, which he did just because I kind of, he usually doesn't say that to Western people, but he says that to Tibetans who are worried about him leaving. So then I blew the whistle on him, you know, because the Western people are reading the press and oh, leave any time or is the last Tyler Lama. There's all these funny things where I run in the press, you know, but anyway, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to digress, but that's a little bit privileged of 80 year olds. But, uh, on the other hand, um, when I started precisely, my teacher would have, let me meditate. I was so frustrated with him. I really wanted to meditate. And, um, he wouldn't be my girl either. He said, oh no, no, I can't be, your girl will say, I am not enlightened.
Speaker 4 00:03:10 Then he said, and be, if I was your guru, then when I scold you or I reprimand you or criticize you or ask you to improve something, and then you might get angry with me, then you'd be arguing with your brewer. Then that would really be bad, be a great sin. So I'm just your friend, you know? And, uh, there is that tradition of what's called Kalyana Midtown that have that also in Teravata, meaning a virtue friend, literally a or a skill sounds less moralistic than virtual friend. Kalyana Mitchell, you know, a goodness friend, you know? And, um, and then when we would, then he said, but I think maybe it'll be better if you learn to read to Betten and then you can study say things in Tibet. So he started teaching me to bed and by reading me Nagarjuna, his book called a friendly letter to the king.
Speaker 4 00:04:07 But then when we got to the section on meditating, he was able, oh, you don't need that. And he would skip it. And by that time I was around verse 20 or 30 and I was already learning the language a little bit. And then I really wanted to do that. Cause I was, you know, 20, 20 years old, 21 years old. And I wanted to, uh, I wanted to, I had the idea that meditation was escaping. I wanted to, I wanted to go straight to the, what they call the jhanas in Teravata, the contemplative states, you know, the Brahma Viharas to get away from my mental problems of a 21 year old. And, um, and he always kept blocked me from doing that. And then even he was clairvoyant obviously. And he would find me out at two in the morning, in my room quietly trying to meditate.
Speaker 4 00:04:58 And he would knock on the door and invite me out for yogurt or you're having trouble sleeping. What are you doing? I would seek out and try to be in the tree in the summer, under a tree outside of the monastery. And he would catch me and he would say, why are you out here under the tree? People think we have crazy people here tell, you know, the new people, the neighbors. So he kept blocking me. And I was very frustrated. The idea was that, um, you know, meditation is very powerful and, uh, it it's, uh, it really, your mind does control your experience. And if you're kind of ignorant, like I was, although I thought I was very knowing because I was 21. So that's what I thought. I knew everything. And um, so if you, but if you don't know that and you then immediately jumped to deepening whatever state of mind you're in, then you happen to be in a confused one seeking to escape from the reality of things around you.
Speaker 4 00:05:58 Uh, then actually you could, you could get into an altered state, like more sort of problematic, that's their idea. So they say first level of wisdom is born of learning. Second level of wisdom is born of thinking about a learning or meditating in a discursive manner, you know, like thinking about something or investigating re-analyzing. And then the third one is the meditating Baba NA, which means somehow to make something happen, to make your state of mind more real and bring your mind out and make it stronger. And, um, and, uh, you're not supposed to then the wisdom borne of that is the deeper one and important one of course, because meditation is super important of course, but, but first, if there is a kind of learning and then reflecting to try to correct any distortion, particularly of course the distortion that we all have not you because you wouldn't be here.
Speaker 4 00:06:58 If you're not all probably already good meditators, you're already, as far as Buddhists, you're already students of your, of the world and of Buddhism and of yourselves would think, you know, and the, but most people, you know, they have sort of an examined ideas of their own identity and they have a tendency to focus on that identity and to be a bit self centered, people naturally are brought up like that in our culture. And so then if they meditate strongly on that, then that's not good because then they'll become more self-centered and we've seen some scandals in different meditation centers over the years, not Barry med center, cetera meditation said his day been good. There's been no calls. And no problem. There is one of the wonderful exceptional places, but there have been a lot of them in all of the traditions, not just of ed morons, not just the Zen ones, not just those, but all of them yoga also not, not just the Buddhist funds. And that may be because somebody's got to be really adept at meditating without having dislodged a little bit, the self concern and the self-preoccupation. And then after years of deep concentration, they have their discovery. You recap, I'm so great.
Speaker 4 00:08:17 And then that backed up by strong meditative concentration, then they're really sure that they're great. And then when somebody else doesn't think so then they push them out of the way, you know, and they become like annoying, right. Have we noticed that can happen? I think I see a few knowing expressions. So, so the wonderful thing that mindfulness coming to that wonderful thing about it is actually the thing where it was a little bit known in a subculture in America, which I followed, helped me get to a Buddhism. Uh, Sharon is the Gurdjieff tradition because Gurdjieff taught and he purported to have obtained that understanding in Tibet actually by probably the doc, because he was not in Ross, had some people saying, but he might've been in the dark. And, um, he that's, this that's a mindfulness. What he called, what a spend skin, he called self remembering, because the word for mindfulness that we translate mindfulness is Sati in poly, which is short for which is colloquial and short for smoky.
Speaker 4 00:09:31 It sounds great, which means remembering actually. And so it means you're remembering what is here right now, instead of your mind, wandering through past memories and past, uh, past their goals and moments or past resentments and bad moments and or anticipate using memory of the future, which are anticipating things that might happen good or bad, you know, where our mind often wanders away from the moment. And so remembering as a practice is being fully aware of what's here and who you become fully aware of. What's here you go to magically go inside because when you're just sitting somewhere and you're not on a tour of anything, it's too boring to look at the war hall or the Dharma center that you're in or the back of the person in front of you. And so you will look into inside your mind, what's happening in the moment.
Speaker 4 00:10:24 And then you become much more aware of how your mind works and you gain more freedom. Ultimately at first you get kind of scattered and, but you all know this high sleeping. Could you do a show of hands? How many of you have already practiced mindfulness quite a bit or a little bit, a little bit. And don't quite a bit, I think I don't see any hand not raised. Exactly wonderful. That's so great. So I bet you're all better than me at me than me chair. And certainly, but you know, I'm a kind of, um, um, um, I also try to be a scholar. That's what I was trying to do, but I'm not really a scholar because in the sense of, I'm not just looking you're a scholar might read a suture or something and they would say, oh, well they mentioned a place here.
Speaker 4 00:11:10 And that, that place is latitude so-and-so and longitude. So, and so, and in those days it was such and such, and now it's in such and such a place that they just go completely offline. And those are, and they're interested. That is interesting, but I'm not interested so much for that. I'm interested in what it's about and what we're about. And I'm so grateful to the Buddha Dharma for helping me look into that. Not that I fully understand it, but I'm really, really grateful that it has helped me discover know, explore that, that era, those things here now, what I am. So why I asked Sharon to work with me this weekend on the is, which means the grade to the long, or you could skip the grade. Um, and you know, it's usually a translation foundation of mindfulness pro Pestana or Botana, which I don't like so much.
Speaker 4 00:12:04 I certainly not wrong, but Uzbekistan sort of means closely focused on something. So it is a foundation, but it's the thing you're looking at. So when you think of a foundation, I think you're sitting on it and then you're looking at something else. But actually when the, for mindfulness has that are taught in the Sutra or for or focuses, I think there's a use, you're not excuse the Latin plural. You're supposed to say in English, you say focus sense instead of four PSI. So the four focuses of mindfulness. So it's where you're putting your mind, uh, rather than where you're sitting on. So, so therefore I prefer focus to foundation, but you know, you can translate that as foundation too. So, uh, I just, I was really studying it closely. I visited treeline car a couple of years ago before COVID with some people. And I was so pleased and especially my wife was because my wife in some past life regression, uh, session had remembered that she had been a Buddhist mendicant in Sri Lanka centuries ago, and very humble, simple one in the village.
Speaker 4 00:13:15 And she was really almost like a village school teacher. And the children really liked her because she was teaching them ABC, you know, or , you know, the, the alphabet, the poly alphabet, and also how to read and this kind of thing. And they really liked him and that she had that myriad of memory. So she really wanted to go to Sri Lanka. So we did go and she was having deja VU all over the place and Sri Lanka, enjoying herself as her digital. I was, but I was reading the Maasai, Botana SOTA, Maha, Botana SOTA. And then I just freaked out with joy. Now, one thing I think you probably all know, you know, what are the three baskets, another preparatory thing I want to say the three baskets are pick the car, you know, the tree pit Decker and Peter Cummins, a basket. And the reason that a collection of Buddhist texts is called the basket is because they had loose-leaf texts and they would keep them in a basket once they wrote them down, which they didn't do for centuries in all of the Buddhist traditions, they didn't write them down, they memorized them.
Speaker 4 00:14:20 And they had however, extraordinary memories like London taxi drivers, or they could remember huge bunch of things, you know, like, like repeat for hours, what somebody had just said. Some of them had that ability and the Buddha's close disciple had that ability. And, um, so, and I particularly love what the Buddha had to say. So, so, um, anyway, they are, the three baskets are what's called the Vinaya, which we usually translate to discipline. And that is sort of like the rules and the ethics of the mannequins. And I never say monk or nun, which are Christian terms. I say mendicant, which can also be a Christian term, meaning are men one who wanders and who lives on arms. And I also like it because men do is gender neutral. So you can say men deacons, and it doesn't specify whether it's male or female, big shoe or a picture ne what's called the literally between means one who lives on arms and legs because they are only, they have dropped out of everything else in life.
Speaker 4 00:15:21 But the quest of enlightenment, the quest of, of that's I think the main thing human beings should be doing greatest opportunity of human life is to attain Nevada, right? So, um, that's rotating anyway. And then they become a mendicant and in a generous culture, uh, like ancient India was in Buddha's time. People will give them a free, actually not lunch, but brunch they'll give them a free branch and they don't ask for dinner and they don't ask for breakfast, just branch it. They have to eat it before noon and they have to bake it the next day. They can't bake two days worth in usual situation. So they have to keep interacting with the society. So they're not to Hermitage main. I mean, eventually at some stages, some people do become more retreatant, but usually they interact Buddha designed it. So they would be Madigans meditating all day and studying and learning and memorizing texts and then analyzing them.
Speaker 4 00:16:21 And then we'd have to go back and get that tree brunch to remind themselves that they're being supported by the generosity of the lay people. And that they're, they're on an important mission so that somebody in the community has a higher perspective and has a higher ethical level of life and sets an example and eventually becomes a tree. And this introduces the element of seeking freedom as the highest thing that a person can do in a caste society, which India was and patriarchal kind of society, which India still somewhat is. So, uh, cause it takes a lot to change those things. So I'll go. So that's the Vinaya and in the videos where the Buddha's biography has to be found, but he's setting an example and, um, the rules for the Mexicans and, uh, other stories of the famous men, deacons who achieve things to again, to set examples, um, and they're saying is that they're enlightenment poems and things like that.
Speaker 4 00:17:19 The wonderful collection, there are the Terry got us to female men, deacons, a big Sean is, and the poems of enlightenment, which I particularly really liked. I especially liked the one. I forget Sharon might remember her name, but I don't. And she's saying, and she's doing a poem and she's saying, well, I just had lunch that someone gave me and I didn't have to cook and I didn't have to pound the rice. And I only have a one dish and I just wipe it out and put it back in my bag. And now I can meditate under this tree, the rest of the day. And if this is not nibbana, it is just almost as good, but thank you. But as she says, you saved me from three cooker things. You said you saved me from my crooked pestle, with which I to have to pound the rice. You saved me from my bent over mother-in-law scolding me all the time. And you saved me from my hunchback husband.
Speaker 4 00:18:25 I forgot her name, but there are a lot of wonderful ones, very humorous and very down to earth and a freedom on every level. So, uh, oh yeah. Then the second piece in the Patriot house is the Sutra and Sutra has a different meaning in Buddhism than it does. Like in yoga sutras, you know, like in Hinduism where it means a thread that holds the things together, a Sutra means a discourse of the Buddha foundationally. I mean, somewhat. Sometimes they talk about where he was and they have the settings and things, but then other people are recounting the story of when they heard the Buddhist say that, but basically it's what his own speech. And so the Vinay goes along with the practice of ethics of a higher ethics, a behavior of a body and speech and mind and controlling and Mo and becoming better at living.
Speaker 4 00:19:23 Although those three levels of your life, your thoughts and yours, what you say and how you behave physically and, and, uh, but Sutra corresponds with your practice of meditation. So therefore when Buddha speaks, the people who listen are taken into, he always said that just by hearing what he said, you couldn't get his state of mind just by hearing what he said, because it's inexpressible the reality of a person who is truly reality, aware, and really knows everything about themselves in the world, around them and others, like a Buddha, one who has blossomed into all knowingness. Uh, you can't get that from it from just saying that the word or any kind of dogma or formula, but you can be instructed in finding it in yourself. And so when he speaks, he sort of creates a, it's like a guided meditation. So sutras are all guided meditations.
Speaker 4 00:20:22 So the is like the Buddha leading the Mexicans in a guided meditation of mindfulness and a, and there's a, there's a shorter one, which is in this middle length, middle length discourses, the Majjhima Nikaya in poly. And that's the one that people usually work because it's shorter. And, uh, I knew that one and it sort of quite brief. And that's when I knew and I was worried about it because the final thing to think about is the four noble truths, but you all know what they are, but you haven't heard anybody call them what I like to call them. The four friendly facts.
Speaker 4 00:21:05 That's my new term for the four normal two. It's not new, but noble truth is fine. But you know, there's some problems with calling it noble truth because when does she, when you hear something which you think is a religion and it has trues, then I think the early translators into English, a Buddhist texts, they thought, oh, that's the Buddhist credo. You're supposed to believe that. And then if you're a long, as you believe that you're a Buddhist, because everything has a credo, you know, you're supposed to believe something. That's what religion is defined as. And, uh, but not the case in Buddhism and the word Sattia, which can mean a truth. And then also in English, a truth, right? Can be two different things. One is, it can be a state of reality, like the truth. And therefore it's prevalent to reality. And the other one is a proposition about things and it's true or false.
Speaker 4 00:21:56 So a truth can be something you believe or a creator, right? So when they translated it as a truth, people, I think thought of it as a belief, he goes to believe Nirvana. I supposed to believe sufferings was to believe the cause of suffering. So to believe the path, but actually you're not, you're supposed to believe you're supposed to believe Nirvana. Yes. Or imagine you're not even considered capable of believing about it. You're supposed to imagine you're on at first and then attain it. And you're supposed to believe suffering if you don't attain this, not in general, but just as long as you don't attain, it you'll be frustrated. So you will be, my nickname is Tenzing. It was very appropriate. It'd be in someone who's always tense tinsy. But in Tibet, in Tanzania is holder of the teaching. Luckily, but people was called Tenzing with a G at the end, but it doesn't have internet.
Speaker 4 00:22:48 So people say, oh, Tenzing. And then I would always think it was appropriate because I was always tense because I was in D and doctrinated to be tense in American culture. Right. Protestant ethic and all that. Okay. Yeah. American schools and colleges, you know, compete, you know, pass her tests, tense up stress, stress, stress. Right. So I'm sorry, that's a digression. I know. So, so therefore to read a Sutra nowadays is, is to be led in a guided meditation by the Buddha. And of course, it's kind of through many steps, shows memorized for centuries, then written down. Then there are different versions, longer and shorter, or many of them because they're kept in memory and the shorter ones are abbreviated. Usually the longer ones are correct or more close to whatever was the original thing. And, uh, actually I believe, I think maybe sequesters so much, but I very much believe that the texts that we have, the authoritative canonical texts are very accurate actually through centuries of memory, because they had that tradition of memorizing things, amazingly that we modern people wouldn't even imagine.
Speaker 4 00:24:00 And, um, and then they keep it very scrupulously. Although in India, it's a problem because they didn't print things. They screwed hands, scrubbed them, uh, over, over centuries, you know, they were inscribed again and again. So that's what that is. Then the third basket is just academically is Abby DEMA. And that is where they take the themes from the led meditations, by Buddha, which are always appropriate for particular audience. Because if you're a Buddha, you become empathetic of all the people you're teaching or you're around. So the he's the ideal teacher because he knows what the student is thinking, where their hangups are, what their obstacles are. And he, he or she, because there are female voters, he or she, uh, can therefore be very appropriate of what they, how they teach them. Because Buddha was like a Socratic type of teacher. He wasn't a dogmatic type of teacher.
Speaker 4 00:24:49 He was what was a little bit in dialogue with people and he would, he would find out, get them to ask a question and he would, he would counter and deal with their questions. And he would, he would always be different depending on different people. And, um, uh, it was, he was Supreme. One of his favorite names, if not the, almost the greatest thing for a Buddha is Shasta in Sanskrit. And which is same in Pali Shasta, which means teacher Shasta. It means teacher. Okay. So, so I went, okay, I'll put the put, uh, this is a text from the Deegan. Nikaya the long selection of longers futons. And this is a version by Maurice Walsh does have I heard? And there's another version where it has the original title, more the long discourses and has a green cover as do I have that too, but I couldn't find her just today.
Speaker 4 00:25:42 So I have this one, but I'm not going to read from the printed book so that you can follow the texts as we read it, if you want. But on the other hand, you can just meditate so that when we, when we read it, we are meditating. And actually Sharon is like stepping in as what they call a Binaca, that is a T a transmitter. And when she, what she just did with us, and that meditation is really going from this tutor and she is residing she's channeling the Buddha's instructions perfectly accurately actually, and also simplifying a bit to adapt to us, you know, who are not used to certain for, you know, like, uh, like figures of speech and things that are common were common and put as time, you know, and Buddha wanted that to happen. Uh, Buddha was against making sort of highly formal written things out of what he was teaching.
Speaker 4 00:26:35 In some cases, sometimes he did like the more formal thing, but usually he just wanted to be understandable by people sort of, he distinguished himself from the Vedic thing where they're doing some sort of holy writ, you know, sort of thing where, you know, like intolerable word of God. And he was, he was using fallible word of Buddha, which is an airing and its guidance, but it doesn't claim to be perfect. He purposely, as he says himself, that's why he's so great. He says, he says, uh, I do know everything now. And enlighten when you're enlightened, you will know everything. You'll be all knowing, whatever your turn, your mind tool you'll know exactly everything and you, and that will keep you happy because if you really know the reality of everything, you'll realize everything is fine and everything is okay. It's cool. You'll know that it says, and I do, but unfortunately, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 00:27:31 I can't really explain it to you, whatever I say, don't just grab it and just keep repeating what I said, because then you become dependent on me and really you have to find this understanding of yourself and good news is, I know you can, cause I did. I was a spoiled brat. Princeling, you know, spoiled by my dad who was trying to spoil me into becoming a king, like him and conquer my neighbor. Like he, he like Kings like to do, you know, there's your commander in chief, right? So they liked that. They liked to have wars in the old days. And I refused to do that. And, uh, so, uh, I became instead enlightened, which were more fun. And so that's what you can do, right? And then the father kept sending other young princess to talk them out of it and bring him back.
Speaker 4 00:28:23 And none of them went back. They all stayed with Buddha because they decided they wanted to be free too. And they went into his field. It's like, when you walk into Berry and you go for meditative retreat terror, you get into, you walk into a field of people who are trying to be attentive to their mind and to the reality around them. And the other is there with, with the med. And so you walk into a field where people are living at a little higher degree of awareness. You know, there's some big hitters like you or me or whatever. And there are some who not, but, but in a way, the place develops kind of gets it's a feeling like that. And that's very helpful in itself. That's a wonderful thing, you know, and the mendicancy community was like that it was a community. They weren't, that's why monk is kind of, you know, amongst comes from Greek monos, which means alone or solitary and their early desert fathers were caved, volleying, solitary, but monastics and men, deacons are live in a community.
Speaker 4 00:29:22 It's just a different community. It's not a family community, you know, and they're, they're, they're celebrated and they are property lists and they're related to everyone. Like everyone is a relative. So that makes they have to be a little more alert just because they, they're not only have a few people that really bugged by their siblings and their parents, everybody, everybody bugs them equally because they're like all brothers, you know, that almost says when he gives a talk to his brothers and sisters, his head. So every, I dunno, maybe you have great siblings, but siblings are also have a little jostling. Well, I don't think so. When you're a mendicant, you everybody's your sibling. So you're deeply connected to them. But other hand you have to deal with each other's habits. Okay. Turn away. You guys have I heard at one time as Howard begins or once this transfers, or I don't want do that, I'm going to show you the texts.
Speaker 4 00:30:18 And actually now I do a very naughty thing and you can't have this text because it's not published and I don't intend to publish it. What it is is I take the, take it some texts, and then I change it to suit myself, but not, not the real meaning of it, but just some of the terminologies, which are like, like I don't like it does. Have I heard it's very traditional for Buddhists. Translators does have I heard once upon a time, but I don't like that because why are they, I heard it's like, I heard it around town. Oh, I just heard it. No, that's not what Avon, my shut down means ever miles for Thomas at the beginning of every authentic put us teaching, but it Sutra teaching. And what it means is I heard it a time that Buddha said it. So it's a warrant of the accuracy and the authenticity of the teaching.
Speaker 4 00:31:13 It's not like once upon a time. And then the , which they translate here as once. It's a very special way of saying at a certain time, there's another more simple way to say that that is not some IAA. And they come in and say, it goes, Holly, that's one set at one time, but it semis very special. Meaning it means a special occasion when two beings come together and what came together was the, my mind, my knee, the litter, my ears, and my mind and Buddhas, Buddha, and his speech and his mind. And we don't know if he has one, but we think he doesn't know the way he talks. And so those two things came together and it's a very, it's like a special occasion.
Speaker 4 00:32:00 So that's what sort of the first words, but, but it's , which is same for poly and Sanskrit, except for the consonant clusters. They change a little bit, but otherwise it's exactly the same. And that, that means this is the real thing. Now you're in the presence of a Buddha as indirect as it is thousands of years later from a written text. So, I mean, I make little changes like that, but I didn't change the meaning. Okay. So you see this, I said, did I hear on a singular occasion? Although really, maybe on a special occasion might even been better. No, but anyway, it's the same thing. One bus have I heard at one time, but then the blesser one, that's a good bag of one. Buddha was staying among the kudos and the, their market town called and there the blizzard one addressed the mendicant.
Speaker 4 00:32:53 And I originally said, monks. So this is John where I didn't really change anything, except I call them indicas instead of monks, because they are not Christian monks. There are many difference. And they live in a community. They're not solitary is particularly okay. They don't live in a family. Okay. Mindy hens, plus it one day replied to be out of politeness. And the blizzard once said there is men Dickens, this one way to the purification of beans for the overcoming of sorrow and distress for the disappearance of pain and sadness for the gaining of the realistic path, for the realization of Nirvana. I knew I can't help writing Nirvana, which I'm used to put in poly. It's actually a banner that is to say the four focuses of mindfulness. So there, all I changed was, for example, usually people say right pass, but I don't like right and wrong for this, although it's not wrong, but I don't like it because right and wrong.
Speaker 4 00:33:58 Or like as if you're following a rule and you're right, because you're following the rule to intercourse for, and your role, if you say two and two was fine, but the word some yard and meatier, I mean, according to reality or unreality, you know, what is real and what is the losery? And I got the word, you'll be amused, Sharon, Alan Wallace used it for awhile. Then he abandoned and went back to being right and wrong. But I really thought it was that triggered me. And I really think it's correct. And it's really great because it takes Buddhism out of the Buddhist teaching out of the sort of realm of he's the big boss. And he's telling us what's right and wrong sort of moralistic thing and said, he's telling us, he's introducing us to reality, which is what he's does. You know, and his alignment, therefore is not some fantasy world of seeing things in some magical out of those worlds way.
Speaker 4 00:34:54 It is a realistic way. You seeing the reality of things that is to say the four focuses of mindfulness, what are the four amended abides, contemplating body as body ardent, clearly aware and mindful having put aside wishing and worrying for the world she abides. I just said, instead of saying, he, because in, in those, those gender languages that have pronouns that are gendered, um, they, they, uh, they say that the, he includes the, she like we do with mankind, but in our modern time, we know it doesn't. So we say she with a line like that, that's easiest way. Cause she contains, he is just your own hero cause you're going to share, but there's a he in there when you'll see it written. So she abides, contemplating my contemplating a body as body ardent, clearly aware and mindful. I love that ardent. That's like really?
Speaker 4 00:35:56 That's their role, their word. And I love it fairly intense. That means and, and enthusiastic. And you should be like that when you meditate, you should be happy that you are like, you're in love. You know? Like you're really enjoying. You should never feel those. I love that. It's like really we realize this is the path towards the overcoming of sorrow and distress for the disappearance of pain and sadness for the gaining of the realistic path and the realization of Nirvana, which is freedom from suffering. So there you definitely are that if you, if you think that's the case, if you think, or even, you know, you, you may be doubting somewhat, but you, you think maybe it's the case, even it will make your order having put aside wishing and worrying for the world. She abides contemplating sensations as sensations. I know this one, they translate as feelings, which we in English can, can slip over to include emotions.
Speaker 4 00:36:58 And this is not emotions it's purely pleasure or pain or numbness. So you could accept sensation sensations as sensations ardent, clearly aware and mindful having put aside wishing and worrying for the world. She abides contemplating mind as mind, ardent, clearly aware and mindful having put aside wishing and worrying for the world. And she provides contemplating mind objects as mind, objects ardent, clearly aware and mindful having put aside wishing and worrying for the world. So those are the four focuses, right? And when you do breath, therefore breath, you know, Sharon makes it concise for us and go to the straight to the breath. But what breath is, is the way to connect to the body because the body needs to breathe, to stay alive. And so, and, and the mind knows that. And so the mind either automatically, or, or, or not automatically consciously. So mine says I'm going to breathe so many and hear men deacons does a mendicant abide, contemplating the body as bar.
Speaker 4 00:38:10 I'm sorry. How many parties party here are men having gone into the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place place or to a zoom conference, zoom retreat. But you can be meditating. I don't really have to look at the text, sits down cross lake or cross your ankles. If you're in a chair, holding hers, like the button head here's body erect, having established mindfulness before shim, I liked like the male, the male chauvinist language. So that's why I don't fuck. This is not this. Just be playing with it. But only in that kind of peripheral way, mindfully, she breeds in, there you go mindfully. She breeds out breathing in a long breath. She knows that she breezed in a long breath and breathing out a long breath. She knows that you breeze out a long breath. And Sharon wonderfully said, don't worry about the next one.
Speaker 4 00:39:22 You just know that you're reading that one. So that's remembering to be where you are not anticipating the next breath rushing to read. It's very hard when you first do it. When you focus on your breath, you immediately want to draw a big gulping breath, or you want to freeze more quickly. Especially if you're testing yourself by counting, how to quickly get to 10 before you, before you get distracted. And then me, I'm, I'm done by two, but, and then you compete with yourself. So then you come back a while or you pre, or, or if you're retired, you might cheat because no one can catch you except yourself. I, you know, all those things, I bet you practice. So mine's really a long breath and breathing out a long breath. She knows that she brings out a long breath breathing in a short breath. She knows that she breezed in a short breath and breathing out a short breath. She knows that she brings out a short path. She trains herself thinking I will be in conscious of the whole body. This is our second step. She trains herself. She guides her. She aims herself. I'm not talking to the word training, but I kept it. That's what they put anyway, educates herself. I almost want to say a train is over. So she trains she himself thinking I will breathe in conscious of the whole body.
Speaker 4 00:40:57 So there, even if initially you were just focusing at the very beginning at the breath coming in out of the nostrils, you are filling up your lungs and the diaphragm is expanding. So it's, you're sort of sending the energy of the breath all throughout the trunk and even to the limbs, you know, sort of, you're imagining you're filling your body like a balloon and that's the second step. But then that makes you mindful of the whole body. So it has a side benefit. Okay? So she trains himself thinking I have a breed in conscious of the whole body. She trains himself thinking I will breathe out conscious of the whole body. She trains himself thinking I will read in calming the whole bodily process. She trains about what she, herself thinking. I will breathe out, calming the whole probably process.
Speaker 4 00:42:04 So that's the breeding and that's, there's several edges to that. First. There's just breathing, noticing the breath at the nurse. And of course, when you do it in a retreat, your guide Sharon or another teacher might tell you just to stick with the very first kind of breathing, just breathing, knowing you're breathing in knowing you're breathing out period, but then might move on to filling up the body, feeling it you're going throughout the party and then maybe calming the body slowing down or the discursive thoughts by just calming yourself. And those are sites who stages right in there in the Buddha's cat version guided version.
Speaker 4 00:42:49 And then he gives an analogy. The butter does to his men, deacons, who are already been a lot of meditating, by the way, these are not new newbies. These are already men deacons. He's talking to him. They've been on a lot of retreat. They've dropped out. They don't, they're not worried about their bank accounts. They're not worrying about their babies, feeding their children or their pets. They're not worrying about their husbands or wives or parents or grandparents. Uh, they're, they're really focused on overcoming distress and pain and sorrow and, and realizing the aim of human life, which they have come to feel is find this freedom for this, for themselves and for others. Because when they find it for themselves, then they help others turn their mind toward their true purpose of life. Just as a skilled Turner or his assistant in making a long term, no, that she is making a longterm or in making a short turn, knows that she is making a short turn. So to a mendicant in breathing in a long breath, knows that she breeds in a long breath breathing in a short breath. She knows that she breeds in a short breath and breathing out a short breath. She knows that she breeds out a short breath and so trains yourself thinking I will breathe out, calming the whole bodily process.
Speaker 4 00:44:25 So now they have what the heading is by the translator. And I just kept at insight, but this is, this is, uh, important to the practice to avoid getting bored, feeling just like you're doing some routine or duty, the full thing and not being ardent. And this is sort of making it joyful for yourself is celebrating the insight that you get when you do those follow that guided meditation of the previous paragraph. But as previous passage, and you say, so she abides, he's encouraging his mendicant spontaneous. She abides contemplating body as body internally, contemplating body as body externally. Cause wherever you feel the whole body with breath. So you became very aware of yourself as a whole body contemplating body, as body, both internally and externally, she abides contemplating things arising in the body. She abides contemplating things, vanishing in the body. She abides contemplating things, both arising and vanishing in the body or else mindfulness that there is body is present to shun just to the extent necessary for knowledge and awareness.
Speaker 4 00:45:47 And she abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. And that meant Dickens is how a mendicant abides contemplating body as a body. So there, that means you are kind of celebrate. This is like an insight. This is my reality. I am doing this. I am this. And I have this way of being calm. And you know, then from that can kind of rise so much wellbeing actually already. That's finding kind of wellbeing in being a body actually already. But I want you to note that if you do that much, you will begin to be more content just to be there yourself because you will have calm dress and you have realized that you're breathing and that, and that's, that's a good thing again, amen. They can, when walking knows that she is walking and standing knows that she is standing and sitting knows that she is lying down, knows that she is lying down in whatever way hers body is disposed. She knows that is how it is.
Speaker 4 00:47:08 So she abides and then he repeats it. And the repetitive thing is part of the guiding of the meditation. It's like an incantation. So she abides contemplating body as body internally, externally, and both internally and externally. She abides contemplating things arising in the body. She abides contemplating vanishing in the bar. She advised contemplating things, both arising and vanishing in the bar or else mindful is that there is body is present to shim just as the extent necessary for knowledge and awareness. And she advised independent tree, not clinging to anything in the world. And that mendicancy is how amend to kinda bides contemplating body as body.
Speaker 4 00:48:01 Okay. So I'm gonna stop there. And, uh, uh, because we're coming to this thing and who I work more on a we'll go further tomorrow. But what is what I think is wonderful there about it, just to make a little commentary is that she's so careful he's Nate. He knew he, by the way, he he's talking to people, but he doesn't say, you, you do this, you do that. And if you're following, you're seeing yourself as a he or she. And in a way, by focusing your mindfulness like this, you are moving your mind outside of your normal sense of being in the center of your sentence. You know, like being at your heart center maybe, or Western people might think they were in the brain or something, looking out through their eyes, hearing out through the ears, sniffing through the nose, tasting in the mouth and touching maybe the lips, you know, we move our faces a lot.
Speaker 4 00:49:04 When we, when we meditate, we tend to, and of course we're inhabiting our limbs and our trunk and so forth and our back because we started to feel sure cause we're sitting it's so, so, uh, you know, sitting still and, uh, he sort of by making you feel the body right away and making you calm the body, he's making you look back into the body and how there is going in there and what it does. And the diaphragm opens. Then you feel almost as if it's quite down to your, to your limbs and going to your extremities. And, um, so you become, you inhabiting your body and you're then self aware of it, you know? And there are Gurdjieffian self remembering practice. They actually say that the early practitioner develops a kind of bird's eye view. As they're standing, walking, going around in this sort of see themselves 360 degrees from above aware of that.
Speaker 4 00:50:04 But so they see themselves from outside and they develop a kind of second awareness and the more, the more they become like that, the more self-aware they become. And the more careful they come, the way they walk, the way they do things and the more conscious they do and it sets a, it's a beautiful skill that he teaches. And, um, uh, this one, this one trays, I want to say my friend mark Epstein, I Sharon might make a big fuss about this phrase, but mark makes a huge phrase out of this one on one of the early paragraphs, having established mindfulness before shame her or him. And he loves that because he says that's where he, he gets out. It sort of is my out and looks into himself as if his mind was able to, to, because it has guided. What we don't know is when we think we're inhabiting our body and happening our senses, that's just our routine, imagining of how we are.
Speaker 4 00:51:08 We are, we actually can there's slippage, you know, and even we might think it's like some, someone, some there's something wrong with somebody, but you can sort of be over there, here already. You become fascinated by something you're watching TV, or you get caught up in a drama or at a movie theater you're sort of in the screen. You know what I mean? But our mind is much more mobile and nimble than we think. So Buddha mark really gets into this and he learned it at Berry and he really gets into it having established mindfulness before putting your mind in front of you, he really thinks that's important. He makes the whole stick. Does it Sharon, when we do, we use, we sometimes do a trip to Plex as we had mark always, it goes on that one and I, I get it. I get it. He, he grounded into my head and I, I see that. Okay. Lots of love everyone.
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