Kalimpong 2023 Buddha Pāda Day 9 8 Fold Path-Last Day

Today I see a lot of smiling faces. That's good. Mission successful. Today we'll talk about what to do, what we would say off of retreat. But in reality, you know, there's no such thing as being on retreat and off retreat. Because the only thing that changes is the setting, right? of situations. You'll be meeting with all kinds of people in your workplace, your family, your circle of friends and so on.

What is the takeaway from this retreat? The idea here is to understand that you can be loving and kind in any moment, in every moment. And in every moment you have a choice. You can either decide to be distracted and allow the mind to go here and there and become agitated, become filled with hindrances, or now that you have the tools of using right effort, you can let go of that by recognizing it, relaxing it, and replacing it with something wholesome.

You know what loving-kindness is, you know what compassion is, you know what empathetic joy is, you know what equanimity is, you've gone through different kinds of meditative experiences, and all that is well and good. But now it's important to understand what to do in your daily life. And that's why I want to talk about the Eightfold Path today. It is not really just a suggestion, not really just a recommendation. It is a non-negotiable aspect of understanding and realizing for yourself total liberation of the mind.

The Eightfold Path is a lifestyle that you choose to apply. It's a lifestyle you choose to live out instead of thinking about it in a way that is different kinds of compartments. What you will see is that these are all nested within one another, and they are all interdependent with each other. So let's begin at the start, which is right view.

Right view, or sammaditthi. Sammaditthi means right perspective, the right frame of mind, the right vision, the wholesome vision. And this wholesome vision is twofold. There is the mundane and there is the super mundane. The mundane has to do with the understanding that our actions have consequences. We have to understand that. Everything that we think, everything that we feel, everything that we speak, everything that we act out has some kind of consequence when it is with intention.

So you have to pay attention to your intentions, the choices that you make. Every choice has a consequence, either in the very short term or in the very long term. It ranges, depending upon what causes and conditions are right for the consequences to arise or not to arise, made up of different iotas of consciousnesses that arise and pass away.

That there is mother and father, a very big one. That we owe it to our parents who brought us into this existence so that we have the potential to experience Nibbana in this very life. So what does that mean? We offer our parents just doesn't cut it, because understanding the importance and rarity, the preciousness of human existence, at a time when the Buddha Dhamma is available, at a time when we can actually practice it, and at a time when we can actually experience Nibbana, is immense. The rarity is absolutely immense. If you understood just this, even if our parents have been annoying, even if our parents have been abusive, even if our parents have not really shown us the love that we've expected from them, at the very least, we do not have hatred towards them.

At the very least, we just convey in our minds gratitude for them and realize that it's because of them that we are in this existence. That alone is enough. The other aspect of mundane right view is that there is this world and there is the other. That is to say, there are these five physical sense spaces, and there is the mind through which we experience jhana. So that is the mundane and the super mundane. Now, when we see for ourselves the super mundane, then we start to become less and less attached to sensual pleasures.

And that happens gradually. And then finally, that part of right view is that there are ascetics and Brahmins out there who know the path. There are, in essence, teachers who know and have walked the path. And we show our reverence and gratitude to them. That's the mundane right view. The super mundane right view is understanding the four noble truths: the understanding of suffering, knowing how to abandon the causes and conditions for that suffering, experiencing for ourselves in every moment the cessation of that suffering, and continuing to cultivate the Eightfold Path. How is this done?

Using right effort. Every time you use right effort, every time you do the four R's, you are essentially coming to the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. Every time you relax, you're coming to the understanding of the third noble truth, which is to say you're experiencing the relief from the hindrance, which is suffering itself. And the more you do this, the more ignorance sheds away, and the more wisdom replaces it. Truth of suffering, whenever you relax, you're experiencing the second and third noble truth because you abandon the craving, you abandon the hindrance, you abandon the undue attention to that hindrance, and then you experience for yourself the cessation of that suffering. And when you come back, you're cultivating the Eightfold Path, because the Eightfold Path is encapsulated in right effort.

To right collectiveness. Once we've established our right view, then we can have right intention. Right intention is made up of three components. One is renunciation. What is renunciation? It doesn't mean that we put on robes necessarily. It doesn't mean that we go forth into the homeless life. It can mean that, but that's a very outside perspective of what we're talking about. Renouncing the sense of self in relation to things, seeing things as not me, not mine, not myself: that is the true renunciation, taking things not personally, not seeing things as this is affecting me in some way.

So whenever you read the Dhammapada verses, you see, right, it says, he abused me, he beat me, he dejected me, and so on. If you have those thoughts, then that means you do not have renunciation as an intention. But if you let go of those thoughts, then you are applying renunciation. You are letting go of taking things personally.

The second aspect of that is non-ill will. The cultivation of non-ill will essentially means the cultivation of loving-kindness. And the perfection of loving-kindness is that not even an iota of ill will is present in the mind. And then there is the third, which is non-cruelty, non-harming. So that is cultivated through the practice of compassion.

Because cruelty is essentially not recognizing the suffering in another being and adding to their suffering. But if you have compassion, then you have empathy. You have understanding. You realize this person is suffering. So if I react in a way that causes them more anger, if I react in a way that causes them more irritation, then I'm only adding to their suffering. But if I have compassion and I see that, so this is non-cruelty. That is used to deceive another. Speech that is dishonest. Harsh speech. Speech that is painful to the ears. Speech that is just harsh in its tonality. Abusive speech. Speech that is meant to cause harm. Speech that is meant to cause pain to another. Speech that is divisive.

That you say one thing here and you say another thing there, and then you cause division amongst people. Then there is speech that is unnecessary. Talking about politics, talking about this person, talking about that person, talking about sports, talking about the weather, talking about even the Dhamma unnecessarily. There's a time to talk about the Dhamma and there's a time to practice Dhamma. Right? And then gossip.

Gossip is talking about another person, right? That might be true or might not be true, but how do you know if something is gossip? If you're talking about that person and if they were in the room, would you be talking about them in front of them or not? If you would not, then that is gossip, which means you have an intention to say something untoward about them to others.

So the acronym I use here is called THINK before you speak. T-H-I-N-K. T stands for timeliness. Is it the right time to say what you want to say? Is it timely speech or untimely speech? Does it make sense for you to say it right now, or can it wait? H is for honesty. Do you know it to be true? With saying, this is what I've heard: I don't know if it's true or not, but this is what I've heard. But be honest all the time. Be upfront all the time. I is for intention.

What is the intention behind what it is that you want to say? Is it a wholesome intention or is it an unwholesome intention? Is it an intention to harm or is it an intention to bring peace? N is for necessity. Is it necessary for you to say what you want to say? In other words, is the speech restless? Are you just trying to fill in the space in between two people talking? Are you trying to just talk about the weather? Are you trying to make some chit-chat, some small talk?

And K is kindness. Can you say it with kindness? Question asked before: well, if you say to say with kindness, what about when we have to work and we have people working underneath us and we need to be a little bit more stern? What do we do then? You can be loving and kind and stern. You can express tough love, meaning you don't have to use abusive speech, you don't need to use harsh speech, but you can show cause and consequence: if you don't do this, this is what's going to happen. So get it done. You can still be kind about it.

So think before you speak. This is right speech. What is right action? Right action is abstaining from taking what is not given. Abstaining from sexual misconduct. Abstaining from... Sorry? Yeah, abstaining from killing. So when we say abstaining from killing and harming living beings, it means from causing any being harm. What does it mean to kill or harm someone? Five things need to be necessary in order for that to happen. Number one, there needs to be somebody who is wanting to harm. There needs to be a weapon of some sort. There needs to be a living being. There needs to be an intention to harm. And the action should be made in such a way that the living being is no longer living.

This is what it means to be harming or killing a living being. So abstaining from that. Abstaining from taking what is not given. Now you are more aware of what that means. Stop trying to seek attention. Stop trying to bring the limelight to you. That's one aspect. Always ask for things when you can. When you want to borrow them, you're in a household amongst people that you have to always ask them, I'm taking this, I'm taking that. No, because you are within a set of family rules. You're within the household. So if you want to take the car, you're just taking the car. If you want to take something out of the fridge, you're just taking it out of the fridge.

Taking what is not given is in terms of possessions, but not amongst family members. It's understood. Everything in this house is ours. Everybody is welcome to it. So when you go outside, for example, that's what it means. Being more mindful of that. Abstaining from sexual misconduct. For the monks, that means total celibacy. But wrongful sexual activity for lay people. What does that mean? Not harming yourself, harming another, or harming both when it comes to sexuality. Which means no rape, no pedophilia. All of the things we know to be illegal in our societies globally.

And not to cheat on your partner, right? That has nothing to do with having sex out of marriage. The Buddha never really talked about all of that. And also, it doesn't mean anything against homosexuality. It doesn't mean anything against having multiple partners. Because you can have a polyamorous relationship, for example, and there can be an understanding amongst all partners that we will not cheat amongst one another, with one another.

So it doesn't mean that you have to have so-called conventional ideas about what it means to be in a relationship. It's just be honest and be loyal to the partner or partners you may have. Whatever their gender is or whatever it might be. It's just do not hurt them. That's important. And the way it's understood is, if somebody is betrothed to another, this is how the language is, or under the protection of parents, no sexual activity with them either.

So that's wrongful sexual activity. Now, when we talk about abstaining from, we talk about three things, right? Abstaining from killing, abstaining from taking what is not given, abstaining from wrongful sexual activity. Now we could talk about abstaining from intoxicants, but traditionally it's not mentioned in right action. But it's part of having right livelihood, right lifestyle, right behavior. It also helps in terms of having right mindfulness.

Actually, what happened is the fifth precept was added later on. In the beginning there were only these four precepts. So that is right action. What is right livelihood? Right livelihood means to abstain from any kind of trade that causes harm to oneself or causes harm to others. In the case of monks, right livelihood is abstaining from anything that takes you away from practice.

That's why in some suttas you'll read that wrong livelihood also includes being a doctor. That's not wrong livelihood. It's wrong livelihood for a monastic because their aim is having left the lay life, gone into the monastic life for the purpose of nibbana. Doctors actually heal, they save lives, but that's for lay people. So in terms of the lay life, what is wrong livelihood? Any kind of trade or business that deals in harming other individuals. So that could include weapons trading, arms trading, that could include dealing in poisons, that could include

human trafficking, that could include selling alcohol, right? And that could include slaughtering animals for meat, because that actually directly kills a living being. So this is part of right livelihood, abstaining from these kinds of activities. So when you have right speech, right action, right livelihood, that makes up sila. That's the first aspect, sila. Then you can have right effort. Now, what is right effort? Right effort is what you're doing, the four R's, right? Recognizing when you get distracted, relaxing any tightness and tension, letting go of the distraction, re-smiling, generating a wholesome state of mind, and keeping that wholesome state of mind going. unwholesome states that are not yet arisen.

And the second part of that is abandoning already arisen unwholesome states. The third right effort is generating wholesome states of mind. And the fourth right effort is to keep sustaining that wholesome state. That's right effort. Once you have that, then you can come into right mindfulness. So I mentioned wrong mindfulness and I mentioned right mindfulness. What is wrong mindfulness?

Wrong mindfulness is paying attention to everything that's going on in such a way, because you hear about this in today's world, mindfully eating, mindfully walking, mindfully jogging, mindfully driving, mindfully this, mindfully that, right? All of these things. That's only one small component, which is part of sampajanna, aware of what's going on in whatever it is that you're doing. But there's another component to it, which is observing where your mind's attention moves from one object to the other while you're doing whatever it is that you're doing. Do I have mindfulness in terms of do I have loving kindness while I'm walking? Do I have loving kindness while I'm eating? Do I have loving kindness when I'm walking through the door? Do I have loving kindness when I'm entering a room and leaving a room? Right? Am I distracted in what it is that I'm doing, even if I'm aware of what's going on? Am I still distracted by some kind of hindrance? So right mindfulness is about observing how your mind's attention moves from one object to the other, as a result of which then you can recognize, relax, re-smile, and return.

Then that leads to right collectedness. Now I mentioned wrong collectedness. What is wrong collectedness? Suppression of hindrances. Becoming one-pointed. Focusing on an object of meditation to the point that you suppress everything else in mind. When you do that, what happens? You come out of the practice and then you might feel blissful for a while. You might feel equanimous for a while. And then when you're met with a difficult situation, all those hindrances pop right back up. You haven't really dealt with them. But right collectedness is about being aware, having open awareness to what is going on in your mind while you remain on one object.

So having that open awareness allows you to see if hindrances are arising and deal with them in that moment. By dealing with them in that moment, it translates to a better day. Because the more aware you are in the meditation, the more aware you are in your daily life. And vice versa. The more aware you are in daily life and the more you let go in daily life, the deeper you go in your practice.

So right effort, right mindfulness, right collectedness. These are all part of Samadhi. So the aggregate of Sila and the aggregate of Samadhi. These two, one leads to the other, so Sila leads to Samadhi. Samadhi leads to Panna. What is Panna? Right view and right intention. This is made up of Panna because it's only through collectedness when you go through the jhanas and see for yourself conjoining serenity and insight, conjoining Samatha and Vipassana, yoked together, that allows you to then experience insight and wisdom. Why, in the case of when you are on this path, you're doing the first, the eightfold path. But when you become fully liberated, it unlocks two more path factors, which is samma-nana and samma-vimutti.

In other words, right insight or right knowledge, right? And right liberation. So what is right insight? Right wisdom. What is right insight, wisdom, knowledge, whatever you want to call it? What is that? That is the full establishment of the four noble truths. And it's when your intuition is running. Right insight means your intuition is on 24-7. That is the case for the arahant, by intuition, because they understand what's going on in every single moment and are able to always use right intention, right speech, right action. In other words, they're very spontaneous. They're very much in the moment, and their intuition guides them into knowing what is needed for this moment or what is needed for this group of people.

And they will make the decision based on that intuition. Right liberation, what does that mean? Right liberation means getting off of the wheel of samsara, because there are different understandings of liberation. There's the idea of liberation going into a certain loka, being liberated from this life but going into a new life, where the idea is that you are eternally there for all time. But that is the wrong understanding of liberation. Liberation in this case is getting off of the wheel of samsara altogether.

So that is one aspect of right liberation. But in the case of the arahat, they are also able to experience nibbana in every moment. Indeed, their mind, the mind of the arahat, is nibbana. Why? Because nibbana is the complete destruction of greed, hatred, and delusion. That is the case with the mind of the arahat. Also, they are able to go into the state of nibbana. So you might have heard about nibbana with remainder and nibbana without remainder. Nibbana with remainder is essentially nibbana with fuel. The fuel of the five aggregates.

Now, it has been understood before that nibbana without remainder means Parinibbana, the final time the arahant experiences nibbana. That happens at the dissolution of the five aggregates. That's one way of understanding. But for the arahant, they go into something known as Phala Samapatti. You have Nirodha Samapatti, which is the ability to go into cessation whenever you want. Phala Samapatti is actually going into the fruition of arahatship. In other words, going into the consciousness that touches the nibbana element as you want. Being in the unconditioned all the time. This is a very special state that is available for one who is fully liberated.

So that is also constituted in right liberation. So your goal, should you choose to accept it, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to follow this Eightfold Path. It's actually very simple. You've done it. You've done it in these last nine days. First of all, you've had total noble silence. So by default, you have right speech. You have kept taking the precepts. And you have committed to keeping those precepts. So you're already having right action.

You're not doing anything in terms of work. So by default, you have right living, right livelihood, right? And your whole point of letting go, right intention, cultivating loving kindness, cultivating compassion. By listening to suttas, by listening to Dhamma talks, you're cultivating right view. And then by doing the practice of meditation, you're already cultivating right mindfulness and right collectedness. So you just have to keep doing the same thing you're doing. Rinse and repeat when you go back into the world.

Will it be difficult? Absolutely it will be difficult, because you are going to be met with all kinds of challenges, and you should look forward to that. See how well you have trained your mind in those last 10 days and see what your reactions are like. Do you choose to react or do you choose to respond? Do you choose to take a little pause before you say something? Before you act out on something? Do you choose to become reactive and not 4R and notice what's going on? Or do you choose to relax and then from there behave, from there act, from there speak?

Do you choose to continue meditating? There are some people who decide, I'm just going to meditate on the retreats. I'm just going to take sila on the retreats. When I get off a retreat, I can go smoke a joint. I could do this. I could do that. You know, I don't have to meditate. I've already done all that. You know, no.

When you get off a retreat, continue having a routine in the morning for yourself. Make it a point to take three refuges. Make it a point to take the five precepts. And then go for meditation, 30 minutes a minimum. If you can go for an hour, even better. If you can go for two hours, like it, right?

And then maintain times when you can have self-retreat. In other words, maybe once a month or twice a month, you can just go deep into the practice and spend an entire eight hours, maybe listening to Dhamma talks, studying, reading, and most importantly, meditating. So keeping sila. Yesterday I told you the benefits of keeping sila. Hopefully that should motivate you to actually keep sila and see for yourself. Bhante Vimalaramsi used to say, when you take care of the Dhamma, the Dhamma takes care of you.

And I can testify to that many a times, where the Dhamma has protected me from all kinds of dangers, all kinds of situations, all kinds of people that could have harmed me. I was radiating metta all the time. With me as well, as best as he could. And so that metta helped us to get along that journey.

We had so many different kinds of things that could have happened, but we were okay. That's just a very mundane example. There have been situations where, you know, you could have taken a flight or you could have gone somewhere and you get late. Instead of, you know, beating yourself up for it, maybe that flight wasn't supposed to go to the place it was supposed to. Maybe it would have malfunctioned and taken a detour, right? So just trust in existence, trust in your life, trust in the things that happen around you. Stop trying to control things, allow things to be as they are, and you will see a lot of magic happen, right? So if you take care of the Dhamma, which means keeping your sila, keeping your precepts, meditating.

Developing insight. All the time. For you. The Dhamma will take care of you. Any questions? Thank you for the precious talk. Thank you, Nelson. Two questions. First on the purification. So we have done things in this life and past life. I've personally killed insects and mosquitoes and whatnot. And obviously, this leads to bad karma. Out of this question, actually, there are two questions. So first is, how can we purify these actions? And second is, how does the force of karma work? That has more negative karma in comparison to killing a mosquito. Yeah.

So how does that work? So first you have to understand that every time you use the four R's, you are purifying the mind. You're purifying karma. So that's why the Buddha has said that the purification of karma is not through doing ascetic practices, but by seeing karma as it arises and letting go of trying to hold on to it. And that is essentially, hindrances are the karmic output of times when we've broken precepts one way or the other. So by letting go of the hindrances, we're letting go of that karma to continue. Now, yes, you could say that humans, you know, killing a human would be terrible karma compared to killing a mosquito. But does that justify killing a mosquito?

No. You wouldn't want to kill a mosquito either. Actually, the Buddha has talked about this, like killing humans, killing elephants, killing more intelligent beings because they have the capacity to experience greater degrees of pain through their nervous system and so on, is karmically more terrible, let's say, than killing a gnat or killing a fly or whatever it is. But every time you've done that, you know, it might have some kind of snowball effect in the form of a hindrance of ill will towards someone or ill will towards something, having aversion. And if you can let go of that aversion, you're letting go of that karma. That's the way to understand it.

Got it. Second question with respect to arahantship. You mentioned that if a mind is 24/7 mindful of activities and of thoughts and views and images and everything, right? Then essentially that mind is a mind of arahant, right? But then there's another experience where you sort of take a step back, see the samsara, and you know what I mean. But so the question being, are these two different kinds of arahants, or are these the same arahant? Because it's relatively easier for you to be 24/7 aware than experiencing this, because experiencing this is not in your hands most of the times. Actually, for an arahant it is so. In terms of an arahant, they're always mindful, right? They have complete mindfulness. They have ability to notice what's going on. And secondly, because they don't have greed, hatred and delusion, they don't have any conceit. Everything that they're experiencing is automatically

not even having to let go of. There's no attachment of I to it. That's one aspect. The second thing is, this state of disconnecting from samsara is available only to the arahant, because they have let go completely. That they can go into any jhana whenever they want. Their mind is like malleable, it's like molten gold. You can direct it anywhere you want. You want to go to the first jhana? From the first jhana, you want to go to the seventh jhana, you can do that. You want to disconnect from the world entirely, you can go into cessation. You want to experience nibbana, that is the nibbana without the five aggregates, and just go into where the mind experiences this fruition consciousness, and you can do that. So that's available to any

mindful essentially is not being an arath because you still don't you're still not experienced that childlike samsara or maybe you have experienced it but you can't bring it at your will or you're still 24 7 yeah when you're 24 7 mindful it also means it implies at least the way i would look at it is it implies that if you're mindful you're not you're gatekeeping any kind of craving from arising right if that's the case then your mind is free of any kind of craving your mind is free of any kind of conceit as long as you're detaching any sense of but there's a gatekeeping that you have to do there's a effort that you have to apply that's what i'm saying but in the case of the arahat they're automatically mindful 24 so those are two different states of mind right in that case yes Two practical questions.

One is, you've learned how to radiate loving kindness and compassion and equanimity. Any practical tips on how to take the quiet mind to daily living? Yeah. First of all, you want to cultivate the quiet mind in your practice, in your meditation, sitting meditation. And you take quiet mind into daily living is essentially being mindful of the present moment and relaxing into it.

Because yes, activity will be there around you. Yes, reflections and thoughts might arise dependent upon those activities. But you think about the quality of quiet mind in meditation. It's essentially pristine mindfulness. It's the sense of being an observer, just watching things go by. So that is essentially a level of mindfulness. So if you can do that by just relaxing into the moment, then you're starting to inculcate all of that element of quiet mind into daily life.

That's the way to do it. Second question is, how does one develop intuition? You spoke about this the other day, but if you could elaborate on this. Yeah. You have to practice intuition first and foremost. In other words, like I said, quiet mind is the birthplace of intuition. So first you need to have a relatively silent, quiet, tranquil mind. And let's say you're met with a series of choices that you don't know what to go for. But if you just ask the mind, what choice seems to be the best option, and let go of it. And then when an answer comes to you out of nowhere, and you trust your intuition to take that choice, then that's how you develop intuition.

And it happens with the most mundane choices to more, let's say, life-altering choices that you might have to take. And another way of practicing intuition is, for example, in your meditation, you might be meeting a hindrance from out of nowhere, and it seems like there's something that's underlying that hindrance, and there's no way for you to really pinpoint it. So you ask your mind, what is the underlying condition for this particular hindrance? How do I let go of the cause of this hindrance so this hindrance goes away completely? So in the quiet mind or in the tranquil mind, you ask this question and you let it go, not necessarily in meditation itself. And all of a sudden it might come to you that this underlying condition is the cause.

And then you can use the 4R to let go of that and you start to see a ripple effect. Everything else after that starts to disappear as well. This is the way to develop it. So two questions. First is around right speech. Say you are talking to a loved one and they are expressing their grief. And because you are on the other side, you are not agitated.

Sometimes people want to just talk, and sometimes they are looking for guidance. And there can be cases where you need to have a sort of tough conversation. Do we need to just focus on using as kind words as we can and not worry about how they will take it? Because sometimes, the way you said, tough love, you can express things in the most kind and compassionate way, but they can still take it personally and feel bad about it. You can't take responsibility for that. But I will say, for example, like you mentioned grief as an example. Somebody is filled with grief, and let's say you have the wisdom to know everything is impermanent. It's not helpful for you to tell the grieving person everything is impermanent. But if you're compassionate and you're just there, and you just are there to say some kind words, absolutely, you should do that. So wisdom and compassion need to come together.

Too much wisdom and you will seem cold-hearted. Too much compassion and you might go out of balance. You need both. Is it a good way in such situations just to ask the other person whether they are looking for comfort or for advice? Because in that case, they are somewhat prepared if you say something. That's a very good question. And at the risk of sounding sexist, I'll say that works a lot on women, for men, right? Sometimes women just want to be heard. They don't need advice. And I've heard this the hard way, with my mom and my sister. If they're going through some kind of emotional turmoil, I'm not there trying to give them advice.

I'm not trying to mansplain what's going on. I just ask, do you want to just be heard, or do you want some advice? And they'll tell you. The same way you can apply this in general to anyone. Women, that sometimes we do want to just want to express. So that is true. The second question is around right collectedness. So of course, when you are doing daily life mundane tasks, like cleaning and everything, it is easier to stay with the object. But even in that there can be two ways. One is you are trying to bring up any kind of brahmaviharas. Or second is you just stay with the task you are doing, observing the smallest of frames. One is not better than the other, right? You can do any of those, as long as your mind doesn't go distracted. That's all right. And if it gets distracted, four are in, come back, okay, second in that itself.

So when we are working, or doing any task where it requires us to stay focused, does the same rule apply? You just stay focused on the task. And as long as you're not getting distracted, it's okay. Like whatever it is, writing, coding, any work task. You don't have to try too hard. Exactly. That's really important. I'm glad you brought that up, because you don't want to be one-pointed in whatever it is you're doing. A lot of people feel like they're in the flow when they're just in their work. But after you come out of the flow, how do you feel? You feel exhausted. You feel tired. But if you're mindful and you're saying, okay, this is what I'm doing, of distance, then you notice that you're more efficient. Okay, just not a question, but just sharing a small experience, because it's last day, around the question of killing. One thing that I have realized from my experience of absolutely maintaining the precept of not killing in the last some months, I would say it doesn't, you feel a lot if you kill a mosquito or a fly or a spider or anything. But if you actually put effort in not killing, it uplifts the mind.

So that in some ways helps the practice at a very, very good level. That's a wonderful point. Yeah. All right. Related to killing. Yesterday we spoke about all the different situations when it comes to humans. I was curious to understand what about animals who are suffering, like pets or just grievously injured animals, and euthanizing them. Yeah. Do we have the right to make that decision? Absolutely not. Okay. Yeah. That's it. That was the question. My question is related to donation. The dana which we make in terms of money, or the dana which we make in terms of food or any item or clothing, which we actually, for example, cook and then give as dana.

So giving money and giving a gift, are they equivalent? The fruits of the dana, is it equivalent, or is giving something which we prepare, like food or clothes or any item, better than giving money as dana? I think you have to look at it this way. So the highest kind of dana is what? Dhamma. Dhamma is well appreciated and worth it. It doesn't matter if it's money or food or clothing or whatever it is. But even with money, right, you have sweated and toiled with your efforts to earn that money, well-earned money. So that in itself is also showing, I am putting my effort in the form of this money, which represents my appreciation for it.

That's one. Same thing with preparing food. The food, or you make the effort to maybe stitch clothes or get the clothes from somewhere, whatever it might be. So you don't have to look at it in terms of the hierarchy of, you know, what is better and what is less useful. It's more about what is required for that person in that moment. If it makes sense to do that, then do that. But remember, the highest can provide Dhamma in some way, and that is very meritorious. Guruji, I am saying this at the risk of repetition, but it centers around the issue of killing and also keeping the of abstaining from killing or harming any living being. Yesterday we spoke about the executioner, and his karma is terrible, even though he's doing that at the behest of somebody else, rather at the orders of somebody else, as a part of his duty.

Now when somebody gets a contract killer to get somebody murdered, whose kamma is terrible, number one. We, while living in this so-called civilized life, urbanized life, want our houses to be kept clean. And pest control is a routine regime where we employ somebody to get those pests killed. And the gentleman referred to mosquitoes. I'm just telling all those instances, different situations. Mosquitoes, and we also, although this, that there is a thing as squirting bats, are all around now, because many times your nets don't help, especially when your children are at home and things like that. Now in such situations, what is the best way to keep the precept of abstaining from all? Right, let's talk. Let's talk about first your first question about the contract killer. Is making terrible merit by killing someone.

But the person paying them to do it and making them do it is also having terrible karma. Anytime you cause somebody else to break a precept, that's also bad. Now when it comes to pest control, I don't know how it is, but in some places there are non-violent pest control options available, different things that you can do. If you can find that, then that's great. In the case of mosquitoes, yes, some mosquitoes carry disease and things like that, but better not to kill anything at all. The chances of you probably contracting a disease from a mosquito might not be as possible as you might think, right? There may be very low chances that that could happen.

Better to find more humane ways of dealing with pests and using pest control. Whatever you can do to prevent the possibility of someone else trying to do that, because even when you hire pest control, what you're doing is you're causing the other individual to do it on your behalf. So that's karma on them, and that's karma on you as well. Them share that. Well, the guy who kills probably has more, okay, terrible karma. So the judge ordering the punishment, for sure, a lot of judges are in hell right now. Yeah, yeah. We certainly want a society where we stop this punishment. It's called, what is the name, capital punishment, isn't it? Yeah. Still, again, it's still dealing with killing, right?

In the ideal world, you wouldn't need to protect your borders. So even during the time of the Buddha, you had soldiers, you had guards, you had people who had to protect the borders. So even there, by killing, you can try to justify the killing by saying, I'm protecting the country and I'm defending and all of these things. But killing is killing. Cleans the wound and put some medicine to kill some germs inside? No, in that case no. Okay, okay, not that, because germs, like germs, like bacteria and things like that, within the context of Buddhism, they are living beings but they're not necessarily beings with intention and the ability to take rebirth. Oh yes, yes. Yeah. You mentioned that in the case of IVF also? Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. The sperm is not a living being. Thank you, thank you. In connection to that question about the contract killer...

What's with you guys, man? Isn't it like a bit of a similar situation with eating meat? I'm glad you brought this up. Everyone brings this up at some point or another. It's your choice. That's all I'll say. Okay. Well, it's not technically breaking a precept. According to the Buddhist context, no. It's much more complicated than that. Okay. So in the case of monks, like there's the Jiva Kasutta, monks are permitted to eat meat because they have to accept everything that's given to them. Only on certain occasions, they cannot take meat. that the animal was specifically killed for them, if they've heard that the animal was killed, if they've seen the animal killed in that case.

The second question is something that I've asked myself a few times and that I've experienced a few times as being a tourist in India. If, for example, a taxi driver wants to charge double the amount, that seems reasonable, with that situation? You always got to haggle in India. Always. Okay. So no sort of about that. No, no. Always try to get the best deal you can. Okay. You'll be one of us when you learn to haggle.

Any other questions? When you said, anands are aware 24 by 7, means they don't sleep at all? They sleep, but they don't really sleep. Okay. They sleep mindfully. Okay. Acharya, after this 10 days, in this whole journey, no mention of devas because it was not required, because everything was done within our mind, and that's what the journey was taking place of. How are devas and the religions being in place, and how are they helping us around? Maybe you have opened an entire can of worms on this. What do you mean specifically in terms of your question? Because in Hindu mythology, we start with worship. So every day we worship the God, asking for his blessings.

Maybe he could help us out. Everything is with asking for help, because we are not doing anything out of it. The only thing we can do is ask him, please help me out. How is it? And how is he helping us out? Within the Buddhist context, if you think about it, devas are their own independent beings. They can choose to help you and they can choose not to help you.

As easy as that. Because in Hindu mythology, there is a solution for everything through puja. Remember what I said about rites and rituals a couple of days ago when we were talking about clinging to rites and rituals? This is what I was referring to. If I only do this kind of puja, I'll get this. If I only do this kind of yagya, this kind of havan, I'll do this. I'll get this. You might get it or you might not get it. That's dependent upon how the deva feels on that particular day. Do they actually try to represent?

You should not ask me this because I have no idea. They are the protectors. Fire protectors, then water protectors, then air protectors. So they depict the protectors. They are all bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas in various forms and various elements. And they are just the protectors. In Mahayana tradition, they depict this. Because this temple belongs to Mahayana traditions. Because if we see, there is Manjushri Hall, then Maitreya, then Vimalakirti. So these are all Mahayana, belonging to Mahayana Bodhisattva philosophy. All are protectors. Just one question.

I wanted to know the real difference between self-respect and conceit. And the context is as follows. We are training our children in school. I believe that they need to have some amount of self-respect in order to perform. And then we inculcate those things. So are we sowing the seeds of I, me and mine? That's a very good question. You guys have the sheet types of conceit? Maybe we'll go over that a little bit, and then we can explore that.

Here are the types of conceit. One-fold, where the mind feels superior. Two-fold, where one brags about oneself and belittles others. Three-fold: I am better than so-and-so, I am equal to so-and-so, and I am worse than so-and-so. Four-fold conceit of identification with gains, fame, praise, and pleasure. I am feeling forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangibles. Six-fold in identifying with the functions of the sixth sense basis. Seven-fold conceit of pride, arrogance, boastfulness, self-loathing, overestimation, the sense of I am, and false sense of equality. Nine-fold conceit of the threefold conceits, each experienced in each three cases. In other words, where one is indeed superior to another and feels superior, inferior or equal to that person is inferior to another and feels superior.

These are the types of conceit that somebody could experience. When we talk about self-respect, what does that mean? It's a healthy sense of self-esteem. That really essentially means that you are grounded in knowing what you are capable of and what you're not capable of. And self-respect means that you are having loving kindness for yourself. Being kind to yourself is not conceit. Being compassionate with yourself is not conceit. Being generous with yourself is not conceit. But boasting about it is conceit. Defending yourself in the case of when somebody does something untoward is not conceit. So self-respect is all about having loving kindness and having the understanding that you are capable of things and not doubting in yourself.

Actually, in today's world, that's the thing. We all need more self-respect, more self-esteem, especially in my generation and a generation that follows. Hatred, a lot of self-loathing. They have this thing called the imposter syndrome. I'm not good enough. You need to let go of all of that and see the qualities that you do possess and have loving kindness towards them. That is not conceivable. Okay, two questions. Yeah, one in the back and then one in the front. Meditation practice. We are doing meditation, and suppose there is energy flowing, there is continuation, and we are sitting. Suppose now we are in retreat for 10 days, it is in continuation. So we have time to release it, we have some different, we are going on, but when we will go back, when we will practice, and when such flow of energy is there, then how to balance it, means how to end that sitting session, what we have to do at the end? Means we are sitting, we are doing our object of meditation, but still going on.

And we know we are sitting for some time; we cannot give that much continuous. So how to balance that energy and what to do before getting up of the sitting? Every time before you get up, review what happened in your mind. And if there's anything you missed, let go of it. It's going to be more difficult for you when you go out into the real world. You have to accept that, but now you have the tools, so you can meet with the challenges of the real world using right effort, using the Eightfold Path. That's where the rubber meets the road. That's where the true test happens: to notice whether you only are able to feel happiness and joy only in places like this, or are you able to cultivate more of that happiness and joy even in difficult situations?

Is it that if we are completing our sitting session, and we are with some object, then again to mild that energy, do we have to again come back to radiating that energy and then lowering down and lowering down? I understand the last part. Say that again. No, no, no need for that. It can be continuous, and just we have to accept whatever is. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You had a question. A follow-up question on conceit. So when we are comparing our own past actions and there is any kind of aversion that's clouding, that's understood. But if we are comparing, just trying to understand from point A to B to C, how we have moved differently and just sort of taking notes.

Like even in meditation, we do, this is something that is working. This is something that is not working, and all of that. That is okay. That is absolutely okay. In fact, the Buddha talks about it, and he says, you have to notice how much more do I have left in terms of craving? Where have I gone towards? What improvements have I made? All of these are welcome to the mind. All of these help you in your practice and progress in the practice. So self-assessment in every sense. Absolutely. Let's share some merit. Struck fearless me. 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 inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. Sadhu, sadhu. So once again, thank you. Thank you so much, you came to Buddhapadha to do this retreat. Hopefully you had a wonderful time here, and basically it's a thank you note. We have a small gift for the teacher on behalf of the Buddhapadha, as well as all the participants here. So yeah, thank you, sir. Thank you. A wonderful retreat location over here, and I for one personally really enjoyed my time here, so thank you for each and every one of you as well for attending, and may you all be happy.