Last Day of the Retreat advice for Meditators - July 22, 2023

We can talk about tomorrow sufficiently. We have cars leaving, Kirsten at 8 o'clock on the list, 9 o'clock for the rest. Just check the list from the door. Please clean out your cabins. No sticker sheets. No pillowcases and towels. Just pile them up in the laundry room. Not the blankets or anything else. Sweet things out. Can't do a wastebasket here, so congratulations. We're here in the kitchen.

And that's about it. I will say all the books. You can have at it now. You can take a coffee cup, a nice six-hour coffee cup, and you can offer self-books, you can take them for friends. It's just the Sutta books are still for sale. The other ones are free. Please sit. When you are on retreat, everything seems pretty much perfect. Everything is catered for: your food, your schedule, your routine. It's very quiet, you're among people who are practicing with you, nobody is disturbing you. So all the conditions are pretty much apt for you to be able to experience whatever it is that you experience now. You will go off retreat and you will go to the real world. Now the question is, how do you continue bringing that mindset of being on retreat outside of this place? This is a question I get at the end of every retreat. So what do I do from here? How do I continue?

Do the same thing that you've been doing all this time. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It is going to be hard, it is going to be difficult, it is going to be challenging when you get out from here. The first thing you're going to be met with is other people and situations. Some of you are driving home, some of you are going to the airport. Those who go to the airport will be met with so much hustle and bustle, so much commotion. So how will your mindset be? What will be your object of meditation during that time? Will it be sending loving kindness to the TSA agent, or will it be trying to figure out how much liquid you have in your bag? What is it going to be?

You have to be able to understand that this practice that you've been doing is not really a practice. It is a lifestyle, it's a way of living. What you have been doing, invariably, is practicing the Eightfold Path. Maybe you don't know it, maybe you don't recognize it, but that is what you've been doing. Because every time you recognize a distraction, every time you recognize your mind being unmindful, every time you notice your mind slipping away somewhere, whether it's in meditation or just in daily life here on retreat, what have you been doing? You've been using the six R's to let go of that distraction, to let go of the tightness, the intention, and to bring up a wholesome state of mind. That is the Buddha Dharma:

replacing unwholesome states of mind with wholesome states of mind, and it all starts with having your view straightened. That is what is understood by right view, which is the first factor in the Eightfold Path. What is right view? First and foremost, right view is knowing what is wholesome and what is unwholesome. How do you recognize what is wholesome and what is unwholesome?

That which is unwholesome causes pain to you and pain to others, or to both. It creates tightness and tension. That which is wholesome is freeing, is liberating, is relaxed, uplifts the mind, is beneficial for you and beneficial for the other, or for both. And an understanding that your actions have consequences is also part of right view. What you think, what you intend, what you say, and how you act has consequences.

So if you have unwholesome intentions, unwholesome speech, unwholesome actions, that would lead to an unwholesome destination, an unwholesome outcome. Maybe not in that moment, maybe not after that, but at some point it will. So the understanding of kamma, action and consequence, the understanding that there is a way out of this suffering. Right there is this world, which is the five physical sense spaces, and there is the other world, which is the world of jhana, the super mundane experiences that you experienced in the form of mental joy, happiness, equanimity, relief. That's all super mundane.

It seems so ordinary, but that's what's so wonderful about it. Nibbana is not this mystical, magical, metaphysical element. It's tangible here and now, even right now in this moment. The Buddha has said, if there was no way, if there was no uninclined, unformed, uncreated element that is the cause of supreme happiness, then I would not declare it.

Then I would declare that it is not. But because there is an uncreated, unformed, unconditioned supreme happiness, I declare it. That is Nibbana. Every time you relax tightness and let go of any distraction, in that moment you are experiencing a mundane form of Nibbana. What is Nibbana? Nibbana, or Nirvana, has a multitude of meanings. Ni, or near, is non or not. Bana, or vana, can mean fire, fuel, in the form of the forest of greed, hatred, and delusion, coming out of that forest.

Every time your mind lets go of any hindrance, in that moment your mind is rid of that hindrance. And for that moment, your mind experiences relief. That is the quality of Nibbana. So every time you do this, you are experiencing that and you are cultivating the Eightfold Path. From that right view, from understanding that there is a way out, you then make a commitment to find out how to keep practicing that.

And that is right intention. Right intention means to let go of the me, the mind, the myself in regards to all experience. When you see things as they actually are, then there is no craving, clinging, or becoming. Your mind just sees that this is an experience going on. Every time it does that, it doesn't add any kamma to that process.

So that is the intention to speak and act in a way that does not add suffering to yourself or add suffering to another. And that is through the process of cultivating non-ill will, or loving kindness, and non-cruelty, or compassion. That's what you've been doing. You've been figuring out how to cultivate loving kindness for yourselves and for others, for all beings.

How to cultivate compassion for yourselves and for all beings. Sometimes you had to use forgiveness, and that's fine. Forgiveness is a very powerful practice. And then from there, you've experienced empathetic joy and equanimity at some point. Now, when you have that right intention, you also make the commitment to keep the precepts. That's the first step. There are three parts to this. When you know these three parts and you apply these three parts in your daily life, there's nothing you have to worry about. If you maintain your precepts, that means keep the five basic precepts.

Then you are cultivating right speech and right action. What are the five basic precepts? Abstaining from killing and harming living beings. Abstaining from taking what is not given. Abstaining from sensual and sexual misconduct. Abstaining from false speech, harsh speech, unwholesome speech, and abstaining from intoxicants. Think of these precepts as habits to inculcate in the mind rather than some kind of religious thing that you need to do. They are habits that you inculcate so that your mind experiences greater amounts of peace and non-agitation.

When we talk about right speech, that is abstaining from false speech, harsh speech, abusive speech, unnecessary speech. Right speech is abstaining from all speech that is intentionally unwholesome. So I will give you an acronym that you can use when you want to say something. That acronym is to think before you speak: T H I N K. What does that stand for? T: Is it the right time to say what it is that you want to say? Is it timely speech or untimely speech? H: Is it honest? Do you know it to be truthful or not? I: What is your intention? Is the intention to harm, or is the intention to help? Is it a kind intention or an unwholesome intention? N: Necessity. Is it necessary for the other person to know what it is that you're going to say, or can it wait, or is it not necessary? Is it just speech born from restlessness

to try to fill the silence because you're uncomfortable with that space of silence? And K: Is it kind? Can you say it with kindness? Can you be kind? Now, oftentimes people will ask, well, what if I need to be stern? What if I need to reprimand someone? You can, but you can do it with loving kindness. You can do it in a way that is non-demeaning to yourself or to another. You can do it in such a way that doesn't cause you or the other agitation. So this is part of right speech. Now, for the most part on this retreat you all have been practicing noble silence, or at least I hope you have been.

But if you have been, then you're already, in essence, practicing right speech, because you're not saying anything, whether it's wholesome or unwholesome. But now when you go out into the world, you will have to engage in speech with your friends, with your family, with your co-workers, with all kinds of people around you. So be mindful of what you say and how you say it. Why? Because be mindful of how you feel when somebody says something that's unwholesome to you. Be mindful of how you feel when somebody says something that's unnecessary or unbeneficial.

And you will notice that once you start to do that, your speech becomes clear. Your speech becomes to the point, and people will listen to you. Speaking in a certain way creates a certain effect. And if you get into the realm of psychic faculties and so on, it's understood within ancient Indian philosophy or spirituality, or however you want to call it, that when you commit to saying the truth all the time, as best as you can, after a certain point of time you develop what's known as vak siddhi. Vak means voice, siddhi means power: the ability to manifest whatever it is that you want with what you say. Whatever you say will happen, because your mind and your speech is so in alignment with the truth that whatever you say is the truth.

So once you start to notice the effect your words have on others, and how other speech has an effect on you, you will become more mindful, because it's rooted in that right intention of letting go of taking things personally, cultivating loving kindness and cultivating compassion. And that brings us to right action. When you abstain from killing and harming living beings, what happens? You let go of the intention of ill will, and as a result the hindrance of ill will and aversion stop arising in your mind, and you become more loved by other people around you. Other beings want to gravitate around you. The more you do this, you will see it for yourself.

When you abstain from taking what is not given, you become more generous, and people become generous around you and towards you. When you abstain from sensual and sexual misconduct, you let go of agitation. Due to that, you let go of sensual desire, the intention of sensual desire, and thus the hindrance of sensual desire doesn't arise in your mind. And as you start to let go of it, what you notice is that whatever it is that you require for that moment is provided for you. You don't even have to ask for it.

These are the perfections of keeping the precepts as you continue to keep them. When you abstain from intoxicants, your mind is absolutely pristine. What do we mean by intoxicants? Traditionally, it's understood as alcohol. Initially, during the time of the Buddha, there were only the four precepts. The fifth was added later when an arahant got drunk. I mean, not intentionally, but it happened. And so the Buddha said, okay, we need to deal with this.

But also, the alcohol or any indulgence, overindulgence in anything, drugs alcohol television internet surfing whatever it is social media what kind of mindset does it bring to you it brings a very dull mindset your mind feels lethargic after binging for 14 hours on the latest Netflix show right so overindulgence in anything you have to let go of that and when you do that your mind is clear and free of any kind of sloth and torpor then we talk about right livelihood so what is right livelihood it is engaging in any kind of work or trade or business

that does not car that does not cause harm to yourself or to other living beings now we live in a world which is very complicated i mean it's more complicated than it has ever been so a lot of times people think about what about investing in certain companies what about you know when i buy meat at the supermarket or do i know if this product has been stolen or it's been manufactured by child labor or whatever it is just do the best you can it's all about your intention first and foremost do the best you can do whatever works for you as long as you're not harming yourself and harming another individual

Once you have all of these covered, right view, right intention, right speech, right action and right livelihood, then comes the next part, because first is the precepts, remember, sila. Now comes samadhi, meditation. Now you are ready for meditation. What are the equipments of meditation? Right effort, right mindfulness and right collectedness. So what is right effort? You've been doing it all this time: the 6R's, preventing the arising of unwholesome states, recognizing when they arise and then they stop, right there and then, abandoning the already arisen unwholesome states in mind. How do you do that? Release your attention, relax.

Generating a wholesome state of mind, that's the third right effort. How do you do that? Bring up the smile, uplift your mind, and then maintain and sustain that wholesome state of mind. How do you do that? Come back to your object of meditation and stay with it as best as you can, and just repeat that process over and over and over. This is the way to the end of suffering, the end of the renewal of further karma. Once you have this, then your mindfulness is equipped with that. When we talk about mindfulness, remember on the first day what I said: mindfulness is remembering to observe how your mind's attention moves from one thing to the of it. Mindfulness, clarity of mind, the ability to know what it is that you're doing in this moment as it is happening. What is the posture that you're sitting in? What is happening in your own mind? How are you reflecting on the words that are being heard? All of this is part of mindfulness, sati sampajanya. So this mindfulness, the ability to just be clear, and if you were to

use one word to denote all of this, it is essentially just to observe, just observe everything like a movie, very clearly, a movie that you are interested in, a movie that you are engaged in, but really it's just a movie. So not to identify with it: enough attention to know what's going on, but not so much that your mind starts to identify with what's going on. And that's all basically just being a witness to what is happening. Instead of engaging with the thoughts that arise during meditation by saying, why are these thoughts arising? How do I let go of these thoughts? Pull back your attention and become just the witness to these silent thoughts.

The silent witness, I should say, to these thoughts. And then you start to see the traffic of these thoughts. And as you start to disengage from them, the mind starts to become quieter. And now you get to the natural state of mind, which is mindfulness in and of itself. The whole practice of mindfulness is to come to the natural setting of the mind, which is, as the Buddha would put it, the luminous mind, the pristine, clear awareness of mind.

That is the true nature of mind. And so using right effort, that's how you come to true right mindfulness. By doing away, by letting go of these adventitious defilements, as it's said in Anguttara Nikaya 1, in the first suttas of the Book of Ones, where it talks about the luminous mind, the pabhasara chitta, then your mind is ready for meditation in terms of coming into jhana, because now that you have that mindfulness, now you can recognize when hindrances arise and you can let go of them, and then come to jhana, the first jhana, secluded from unwholesome states of mind.

You experience relief from those hindrances and experience the first jhana, which is accompanied by thinking and examining thought, bringing up an object of meditation and staying with it, and joy and pleasure born of seclusion, and so forth, with the second jhana, the third jhana, and the fourth jhana. So this retreat is not a jhana retreat. Don't worry about whether you are in jhana or what jhana you're in.

Notice how clear your mind has become. Notice how softer your mind has become. Notice how lighter your mind has become. More relief is being felt. And in tandem with that relief, more insights are arising. So in other words, you are practicing twin Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation: Samatha, vipassana, yoked together, resulting in relief in every moment. The setting around you, right? The retreat setting around you is one thing, and it makes it easier for you to practice all of this. Now, when you go back into the world, you will be dealing with situations

where people are being difficult and challenging, where you're not getting what you want, or what it is that you want is not what you want, or what you're getting, I should say, is not what you want. So this is all part of dukkha, right? Getting what you don't want and not getting what you want. And dealing with these difficult situations, difficult people, now you know what to do. You will slip up in your mindfulness. Your mindfulness will not be as sharp as it has been on this retreat.

And you might forget that your mind is starting to gravitate towards getting upset by that difficult person or a difficult situation. Or your mind is starting to get depressed about thinking about the past, or anxious about thinking about the future, or identifying with the situation or whatever is happening in the moment. You might forget to see that. But the moment you see that, you have gained back your mindfulness. And you will see it again. If it takes time, it takes time. Don't beat yourself up for that. But when you do see it, recognize it. Understand that this is because of your practice. This is a fruit of your efforts that you've done on this retreat.

But that is also dependent upon consistent practice throughout your life. Maintaining the precepts, the first step. Observing what happens in your mind, the second. And third, 6R-ing: making the conscious, consistent effort to root away or root out all unwholesome states from your mind and replacing them with wholesome states of mind. If you do just these three things, keep the precepts, observe, and 6R, everything else will take care of itself, because now right view has been established in you. You know what is wholesome and unwholesome. You know what the precepts are. You know what breaking the precepts are. So if you keep doing that, that's going to spill over into

having sharper, keener, clearer, deeper observation. Having that, it's going to be faster, 6R's more effective, 6R's immediately noticing, and recognizing: oh, here's an unwholesome state of mind, I'm letting it go and I'm replacing it with a wholesome state of mind, or just staying in that mindfulness, in that pure awareness. And understand that the brahmaviharas are basically now tools in your toolkit. Your natural mental mode should be one or more of these brahmaviharas at some point or another. Now you can notice it's easier to be more forgiving about people, because people just don't know any better. And if they did, they would know, and they would let go of that. But if they don't know any better, you forgive them for their ignorance. You have more compassion for yourself whenever you mess up.

You're more loving and kind. You're a friend to the world, a friend to all beings. There's a lot of power in that. When you are loving and kind in this way, you will notice the world around you change. People will smile more around you. People will want to help you more. People will want to express their generosity around you. People will want to offer their help however they can. As you start to do this, then you're going to notice that the mind is naturally joyful at the joy of others.

It likes to celebrate in the joy of others. It's no longer jealous, no longer envious, no longer insecure, because the more you fill yourself up with loving kindness, you need to have dangerous amounts of loving kindness, the lethal amounts of loving kindness, because when you do that, your mind is absolutely established and secure and doesn't go out anywhere. It's content in itself, and as a result from that, it acts out of joy. It acts out of freedom, from freedom, through freedom. It celebrates in the happiness of others. And then when you have equanimity

Your mind sees things as they are, and your mind remains unaffected one way or the other. What does it mean when we say unaffected one way or the other? When there are a lot of good things happening, a lot of pleasant experiences happening, the mind doesn't say, "I want more of this." The mind doesn't try to hold on to it. When there are unpleasant situations, people, experiences around you, the mind doesn't say, "I don't like this," and push it away. It's okay with everything that's happening. The mind will still have its own preferences. The mind will feel like it wants this or it wants that, but you have to notice how your mind is when, whatever it wants, if it's not available, how does it respond? So this is the way to develop clearer mindfulness and to let go of subtler and deeper levels of craving, whether it's sensual craving or craving for existence or craving for non-existence. And then if it's a neutral feeling, how does your mind respond to it? Does your mind have identification going on with it, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant or neutral?

and as you start to notice that and recognize that that the mind is starting to say this is me this is mine this is myself and you let go of it you are grinding away at conceit not that you stop using words like I am not like you stop using words like me mine or myself be very awkward in a conversation to say this body prefers so-and-so and this mind is experiencing so-and-so people will definitely think you're crazy so use the words that you need to use for the purposes of transacting with the world the world but understand the deeper meaning and layers of understanding around that word is there really some kind of ego identification with that with the situation with the experience or are you able to let go and then come from a standpoint where you see what is most beneficial for this situation not just for me not just for the sense of self but really truly situationally best for the entire

circumstance and the people around it. This is how you behave, in such a way or you speak in such a way, that does not add to your karma, that does not add to your suffering. And then finally, what I'll say is, there is the understanding, as Bhante Vimalaramsi she would say, when you take care of the Dhamma, the Dhamma takes care of you. When you are mindful, when you keep the precepts, when you observe, when you continue the practice, there is some kind of energy around you that protects you, that keeps you away from things that can cause you harm, that keeps you away from people that may not have their best interests at heart. I'm not saying that it's all magical, but for the most part, let's say 90% of the time, you don't walk in a certain direction, you don't think of a certain thing to do, you just are where you are, and you are guided by your intuition that takes you in places or situations or with people that are most beneficial for your life path.

There will be slip-ups, and that is to be accounted for. But then the key lies in how do you deal with those situations? How do you take those situations where there might be some harm to you, verbally or physically? How do you deal with those situations? Do you get afraid, do you get angry, do you get resistant, do you get defensive, or do you see it and say, "Okay, this is a little dangerous, I'm going to keep my equanimity and back away from it"? Or if it's verbally unwholesome, verbally painful in your mind, how do you react to it? Do you see it and say, "I have compassion for that person because they're suffering, and I don't want to add to their suffering"?

So the more you do this, the more you'll see that you become more interested, not for the sake of philosophy and not for the sake of intellectualizing, but for the sake of understanding your own mind deeper. You will start to go into the suttas. You will start to see, what does this sutta say? People ask me what it is they should read. You can start reading from the Majjhima Nikaya. Just take one sutta from the Majjhima Nikaya and start to read, and see if it starts to make sense. If it doesn't start to make sense, it's okay. Keep practicing, see another sutta, and see if that makes sense. Your experience and your practice will start to decode the language of the suttas in such a way that you'll be able to see exactly what the Buddha is pointing towards. So see every opportunity in your life, or I should say, see every event in your life, as an opportunity to practice loving kindness or practice compassion

or practice letting go, practice non-identification. The more you do this, the Dhamma will take care of you. You will start to become deeper in your own practice, start to engage with higher levels of elevated mind, and start to experience very, very profound insights into the nature of self and existence. So be happy, smile, and share your smile with others. Any questions?

I'll just make a little comment that a couple days ago I just came and did the metta meditation, and I thought, "Okay, may I be happy? May I be well?" And I thought, "Wait a minute, I am happy. Not in the future. This stuff works. May I still continue to be happy and free from suffering?" So I thought, "Wow, that was a real... Oh, cool." So, yeah.

Yeah, that's a beautiful thing about it. You start to do it so much that you don't realize that you're already that. There's a question, maybe related to right effort but on a different level. Sometimes there's an inclination in the mind that does not turn into action. For example, you want to wake up early in the morning and start meditating. The intention is there. You may even wake up, but you don't get up and actually do it. Or you want to practice, or read the suttas, whatever the intention is, but it actually does not translate. I'm just wondering, what is that missing link that translates it and turns it into action? And do you have any suggestions on how to strengthen it? Do it incrementally, step by step, bit by bit. People have some very lofty goals. "I'll wake up at four in the morning" when they usually get up at eight in the morning.

i wake up at 7 45 let's see how it goes i wake up at 7 30 and you keep doing it that way so yeah there is there is something to be said about taking things slowly you don't everything doesn't have to be done right there right then you start to do an incremental increase in your practice time.

Let's say you sit for an hour and you say, I want to sit for two hours. You can't straightaway sit for two hours. Maybe you start sitting for an hour and 10 minutes, or an hour and 20 minutes. Maybe you're just sitting there and nothing's going on. You open your eyes and you just stay there for five minutes, and you say, all right, let me try another 10 minutes. And 10 minutes starts to become 30 minutes, and you start to do it that way.

So you have to be a friend to your mind. You have to be a guiding force to your mind in such a way that is soft and gentle. The more you become like a taskmaster and say, "No, we have to do this," you're immediately going to find that resistance to that, and the mind will become brittle. So work with your mind and adapt in incremental stages. You mentioned a little bit about intuition, and I don't think I've really heard much about intuition in the Buddhist context. Is it kind of like what's left over if you're taking care of everything else, or how do you think of it?

Intuition is what arises when the mind is quiet. The Buddha has talked about it in the form of, well, we talked about the Eightfold Path. But the Buddha has also talked about the Tenfold Path, which is right knowledge, Sammanana, or right insight, and right liberation, Sammavimutti. And so right knowledge is basically the guiding force for that intuition.

When your mind becomes very quiet, then the insights that arise are not dependent upon analysis and reflection. They might have started that way, by you letting go and analyzing and realizing and so on. But there comes a point where the mind is utterly quiet, and then there is a spark of wisdom that arises. And that is how intuition works. It's where synchronous thoughts come together in such a way that they bypass any kind of intellectualizing. And it is just the right, efficient thought for that moment.

So many times what will happen, you'll see in the suttas, for example, is the Buddha is meditating and it'll say that a thought occurred to him, "Maybe I should go to so-and-so place." And you find that he goes to so-and-so place, and it's somebody or a group of people who are ripe for listening to the Dhamma. And then he'll go and give the Dhamma, and then they have an experience or whatever it is. The same happened with Angulimala. When the Buddha had his intuition, he understood that Angulimala is ripe for the Dhamma. But if he does this, which is kill his own mother, he will fail. And so he intervened in that moment.

So how do you use your intuition? First, you have to ask the mind what it is that you're looking for. Like maybe you have a series of decisions to make, or a series of choices to make that could alter your life. And maybe you have time to consider those choices. But instead of trying to reflect and analyze each of those choices, you can just ask the mind what choice seems to be the most appropriate and best for my situation. And then you step aside, and you quieten the mind and you meditate, and maybe it might happen in meditation, or maybe it happens when your mind least expects it. That's how Nibbana happens as well, when you least expect it. It arises.

The same way, when you least expect it, the answer comes to you. It might not be the answer that you expect or you want, but it will be the appropriate answer. That's how to use it. I imagine you get this question a lot, but I'm going to ask you anyway. Intoxicants and psychedelics. Yes. Do you want me to say more? No, you don't have to say any more. Yeah. I think, again, it comes back to intention.

It's also about set and setting, right? Certain kinds of chemicals, certain kinds of compounds, certain kinds of molecules can be exogenous or endogenous to the mind. And certain kinds of compounds can bring up more of those molecules in the mind, that's in the brain, that starts to alter the perception of what it is that you're experiencing now. What I mean by intention primarily is why it is what it is you're doing. If you're doing it because you just want to have a good time, you might not have a good time. That's the nature of psychedelics. They're not always going to give you a good time, and they can result in really bad trips. I like the story that David told me one time, where, if I remember correctly, he knew this one person who had what was it, orange sunshine? Yes. Yeah, it was like a lot, like a heavy dose of every dose LSD, and the next he saw him, he came out of the forest with his head shaved. He was, I don't know what experience he had, but whatever it was was not necessarily helpful. No.

He left college. He was just gone. Yeah. But again, some psychedelics will open up the mind, and some people come to the practice, and some people come to this experience of wanting to know more about who am I, what is the self, what is existence, because they've had an experience with some kind of psychedelic, whether it's psilocybin, whether it's LSD, whether it's ayahuasca, or whatever. But it's, again, like how Ram Dass would say, who was it, Ram Dass or Alan Watts, one of those two, who said, once you pick up the phone and you get the message, you don't need to keep answering the phone, right? Otherwise, then what happens is it's the same as being addicted to the meditation, where you want to chase an experience. You're just chasing different kinds of emotional, visual, mental experiences, whether it's in jhana or whether it's in psychedelics.

So I think it all has its own use in its own way. Yeah, I'll say that I think all of that stuff is the gateway drug to meditation. And as actually Ram Dass said, the idea is to not get high, but to be high. And he got high a lot. But finally he went into meditation, probably the wrong type, but in any case, he still kept doing drugs too, so it didn't quite work. But he kept looking for that, the answer for that permanent happiness. I have a couple of questions, but just to follow up to what he said, I heard once that a disciple asked the Guru, "Can I smoke during meditation?"

He said, "Absolutely not." And another one asked, "Can I meditate during smoking?" He said, "Yes, you can." I think it has to do with the intention. Intention is everything. That's a good one. So, I mean, you talked about walk should be, and mind, talk and action, all three important. But a lot of times your communication is not verbal. More than 60 percent is your body language. You see, somebody may be complimenting you, they don't mean it. You can tell it. So I guess, when you have the right intention starting here and you have the right speech, your body language would be also automatically correct, is my presumption. Yeah.

And the second is, when we go out into the world, most of the time it's the rat race, and they say you are doing for having without enjoying the beat. You just keep doing because you've got to run the home, whatever you have to do. So you have encounters, you have people, and if you're in an argument, the other person is pushing your buttons, whether you know it or not, or whatever. And what you mentioned about witnessing, which is like sakshi bhava, basically, if you withdraw a little bit and see that, I guess then you won't reflexively get more and more deeper into the trap of getting your buttons pushed.

Right, is what I'm thinking. Yeah. I'm glad you brought up the nonverbal communication, because it is rooted in the intention. If you say things that are sweet but your intention is otherwise, it will come across as sarcastic, or it will come across in a disingenuous way. So it all does start with your intention. Your intention is what informs your speech and your action. If your intention is pure, if your intention is wholesome, then naturally your speech and your action and your body language will also convey that. And then the second part of that, which is the sakshi bhava, the idea of being a witness to what is going on when you do that, what you're noticing is you're actually coming to a level of non-attachment. So what is non-attachment, really? When we talk about non-attachment or detachment, it's not that you stop enjoying the things that you do in life. It's about your ability to observe what's going on and still enjoy, but not grasp at those objects of enjoyment.

Like, for example, when you see a beautiful sunset, if the mindset is, oh, I am really enjoying this sunset, I hope I can see another one like it tomorrow, where's your intention there? You're becoming the one who is enjoying the sunset. But if you observe how your mind is responding to it, and you're saying, wow, this is a beautiful sunset, this is great, it stops right there, and then there is no further reaction of applying me, mine, or myself to it. So the more you become disengaged, dispassionate towards the world that's happening up here in the form of your thoughts, the more you see them as not me, not mine, not myself. And of the indulgences, just one last thing. Just like you don't take if it's not given to you, you're not stealing. I also heard that if you eat more than what is necessary, it is stealing also. Although it's, you're not stealing, you bought it with your money, but it is still stealing. Yeah. I mean, you basically eat in moderation. You eat what is

your fill, whatever that is, and that can be dependent upon whatever your body requires? Your fair share, let's say, yeah. Fair share of the desserts. So, I can understand psychologically how to answer this, and maybe even from a Buddhist perspective. But from a Buddhist perspective, we're working on disidentifying: not me, not mine, not myself. And yet we also have this part which is saying, I'd like to set this intention to be wholesome. Yeah.

I'd like to set this intention to. So within a Buddhist perspective, are we talking about a conventional set self that we hold lightly, versus actually there is no self setting that intention, it's just a habit pattern from karma or whatever? I don't know. Yeah, this is a good question, because really, again, it goes back to one of the suttas where somebody asked about that: is there a self? And he remains silent. And then they ask him, is okay then there is no self? And he remains silent on that too. In other words, it's not that there is no self or that there is a self. What happens is it's all about conditions and conditioning. So the understanding comes from a more coarse to a subtler level, where initially you understand the benefits of being wholesome as opposed to being unwholesome, and you go from the unwholesome to the wholesome, and then you start to whittle away at other barriers to a mind that is free, because ultimately what we're looking for is a mind free

When we say freedom, what do we mean by that? We're saying free of any kind of pain and suffering, free from any kind of psychological suffering primarily. And as we start to become more clear in our observations, we notice that if I start, if this mind starts to identify, then there's still a subtle sort of dissatisfaction with what's going on, but the moment you disengage with that, you notice there's freedom in that. So it's not like there is no self, or there is a self that needs to be acquired in order for you to go from here to there, whatever it is. It's really, outside and within the scope of Buddhism, it's all about conditioning and reconditioning, to the point that the mind is okay, whether you call it itself, or you don't call itself.

So you could say, and in fact there's a sutta where the Buddha talks about the mind-made self. So there is the self that is rooted in the senses, that's in everyday life. Then there's the mind-made self, which is the self that is rooted in the four jhanas, the experience of the four jhanas, that self which experiences relief from all of the unwholesome states and sensual pleasures, and so on. And then there's the formless self, which is the self that's rooted in the arupa states.

And then he talks, he goes a little further than that. He says at that point, then you let go of all sense of self completely, because the moment you have any misidentified sense of self, there can be liability for some kind of psychological suffering to creep in. And so you let go of all notions of this is me, this is mine, this is myself, and you don't come to a conclusion, because the moment you come to a conclusion, then you create concepts, and those concepts can start to become liable to break apart, and when they become liable to break apart, then they can cause suffering. Just a quick follow-up question, well, maybe not quick, but yeah. So then is it also safe to say that karma is about not what happens to you but who it happens to? In other words, circumstances are not your karma. Mm-hmm. But who it happens to is your karma in the conditioning, or is that yeah, when you say who it happens to, because I would like to elaborate and say I think you could say how

It is taken, right? So it's not that you got hit by the truck; that is not your karma, right. It's what did you do with it, or whatever good thing or bad thing. By a truck, that's a little extreme, but it's the person you are in that moment of getting hit by the truck that is your karma. Are you responsive, or are you reactive? Are you like, right, you know, it's like that. It's like that one analogy the Buddha gives: if somebody gets shot by an arrow, they're not gonna be like, I wonder who shot this arrow and where it came from and who made this arrow, and, you know, it hits the foot, what part of the foot it hit, and all of that. You're just gonna take that arrow out of your foot. So in every moment, the idea is to notice how are you taking this process. One thing I want to elaborate on, drugs-wise, and I've seen a lot of retreaters and many years of retreats, lest you think about microdosing

or anything else, or one little glass of wine. I've seen retreaters go away and say, "What's a glass of wine? It's nothing." And they come back and they don't make any progress until maybe the last few days. And they go through a few years of really not getting through. Finally, they realize the precepts are really important. Nibbana is really sensitive. It takes everything you've got to get there. And I'm just thinking right now that the fact that that little bit of wine or microdose, that wasn't the thing. It was that you knew that was against the precepts.

And that carries with you, and that will block you. And, you know, you'll need to do some forgiveness or deal with that hindrance. So if you want to attain and be successful, keep these precepts very carefully. If that's all, let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck, fearless be. May the grieving shed all grief, and may all beings find relief. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabit space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power. Share this merit. Long protect the Buddhist dispensation. Did we go at one and a half speed? Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu. I just wanted to ask this question every day.

Same thing. Nagas are intelligent beings. They are protectors of the Dharma. So when the Buddha was meditating, for example, there was a Naga called Mucalinda. And he came and he basically went over the Buddha to protect him from the rain. So they are seen as beings who revere the Dhamma, who revere the Buddha, who revere the Sangha.

And also that the word Naga denotes something else within Buddhism. So there's the Nagas in terms of the category of beings, but there's also Nagas in terms of Arahats. Arahats who are fully awakened are referred to as Nagas, because of their level of insight and their evolved sense of being. You have Naga Sathurs and so on. But there's also, because it means that they know guna.

So there's no guna. It's beyond any kind of qualities. Without any qualities of good or bad, it's gone beyond that. So that's another way of seeing Nagas. And so within the Buddhist context, when we say devas and nagas, we talk about devas, which are like the cloud devas and the devas up there and the different lokas. And then we talk about nagas, dual meaning. One is nagas who protect the dharma, and then nagas in terms of arahats, fully awakened beings. That's a wrap.