Day 1 June 5 -Why are you Retreating? Orientation Talk Jun5-14th 2025

How many of you are new to TWIM? By a show of hands. How many of you are doing or have done the 6R's? By a show of hands. Before I get into the instructions, I want to talk about why you guys are attending a retreat. What is the intention behind why we go on retreat? I would say that it's right intention, sammasankappa. Are you here on retreat because you want to experience jhana, or because you want to experience stream entry or enlightenment, or you want God to open up the ceiling and show himself to you? What is it that you're here for? Or are you just here because, well, just here, but are you here because you want more peace, more clarity, more calm?

You want to know how to deal with difficult life situations? All of these are valid intentions. Many times when we go on retreat, we're very gung-ho about the meditation. We're very gung-ho about, okay, I'm here on retreat, I'm going to give it my all and I'm going to try my best. And what happens? We push. And we experience resistance in that pushing. We experience all kinds of what we would call hindrances. Noise in the mind. All kinds of thoughts and ideas and concepts taking us away from what we think is the practice, what we think is the meditation. So what is your intention for this retreat? Think about it. Contemplate it.

What do you want from this retreat? I'm here because it's the only thing I know to do. And my intention is to help you all, to show you kind of where the path is. Here's a shortcut here, here's this, here's this drive-through here, whatever it is. But your actions, your choices, your intentions are what count. David, Kirsten, and I are always available whenever you need to discuss your practice. If something is going on that is new, different, obviously you'll mention it to me in the interviews.

But if you're not available, or I'm not available after the interviews, David and Kirsten are. Or if you see me aimlessly walking around somewhere, you can always come and see me. So we're here. We're here to help you guys in any way we can. But you must take the responsibility of doing the practice. The onus is on you. Make the best use you can of these next eight or nine days of this retreat. What do I mean by right intention? And what do I mean by what we call in Pali "sammasankappa"? Sankappa actually literally comes from the idea of a vow. I take a vow to do this and so on and so forth.

When we say right intention, or right choice, or a right inclination, we're talking about three things. I'm talking about Nekkhama, Avihimsa, and Avyapada, these three. Nekkhama means renunciation. And I'm not talking about the outer renunciation. None of you have to take on the robes and the bowl and everything like that. No. I'm talking about letting go of the world around you, outside of this meditation center.

Leave aside all your concerns about the outside world. Leave aside your conceptions of what the practice is or what the practice should be. It's a process of renouncing what we think we know, letting go of our notions of things. For those of you who have probably come here on retreat hundreds of times, or done TWIM retreats hundreds of times, have come across the same information over and over and over again. Your mind might just gloss over what is being said. You may have heard David saying it, you may have heard Kirsten saying it, you may have heard Bhante saying it, you may have heard me saying it dozens of times, hundreds of

times. But try to let go of assuming that you know what it is. This is so important because, yes, this is a meditation retreat. Yes, this is a retreat of practicing the brahmaviharas. Yes, this is a retreat of learning how to experience the jhanas. But all of that is dependent upon several factors. Namely, the preceding factors of the Eightfold Path, the jhanas and meditation, is at one end. But they are dependent upon making sure we have other elements in order. Namely, our sila.

In the morning, you will be taking precepts. I believe you'll be taking eight precepts. The reflection on those precepts is basically what? That I have made the choice today, in this moment and throughout today, to basically be free of any kind of hindrances. Because hindrances and distractions arise when you break a precept. Meditation is dependent upon a mind that is collected, a mind that is free of barriers. A mind that is free of any kind of hindrances, distractions, and so on. And for that mind to be free of any kind of distraction, it needs to be stabilized. The process of meditation doesn't stabilize the mind. A stabilized mind is the tool for meditation, and a mind that is stable is only dependent upon a mind that does not have regrets.

A mind that is free of any kind of remorse, and such a mind is only free of that when it starts to align with the precepts. These precepts are not religious in nature, not even spiritual in nature, they're just about being a human being. Coming back to the sense of being a human, what does it mean to be a human? It means that I don't cause harm to myself and I don't cause harm to others through my intentions, my thoughts, my words and my actions.

So don't think that you're just on a meditation retreat, which means you sit on the cushion and you're meditating for so many hours, and you come to the interview and you're going to talk about your practice and all of that. You are also practicing how to maintain the precepts. Sila, Samadhi, Panna. Sila is the foundation. Sila, I'm stealing this from my good friend John, who is sitting right in front of me. We've had a lot of discussions about this. It's really about being kind. Everything that we do... Oh, there you are. I was looking for you.

It's really about being kind, right? About being kind to ourselves and being kind towards others. When we keep the precepts, we are making a commitment to be genuinely kind. It's an expression of kindness; it has nothing to do with some moral judge up there or down there or any kind of thing like that. It's about being kind. And when you have that kindness come up naturally, it's so much easier to experience loving kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity. So remember, the precepts are not just some kind of routine or part of the schedule, just so you guys wake up early in the morning and then have to meditate. They are an essential and integral part of the practice.

Only then are you ready for samadhi. And samadhi is the mind that is even. The mind that is balanced. And through that balanced mind, you will experience some interesting states. But do not be an experience chaser. Do not go through the motions of, I need to experience this jhana, and I need to pay attention to what he's saying, because he's talking about this experience and this experience. And then I have to do this, and I have to do that. And if I don't do this, then I'm a failure. No, no, no, no. Let go of all of that. Samadhi is a mind that is even. As long as your mind is even, all of the different jhanic states will present themselves whenever they are ready to come.

Dependent upon causes and conditions. And through that process of samadhi, you experience what's known as Panna in Pali, and that is wisdom. And what is wisdom? What is this wisdom that we speak of? This wisdom is an understanding. Is there water in here? Wisdom is the understanding of how mind creates its reality. Our reality is conditioned by our thoughts and how we react to different situations. And there is the world out there that is coming in through the senses. But then our mind takes that and interprets it in its own ways, dependent upon previous causes and conditions.

So wisdom is understanding that, and wisdom is seeing things as they are, from that scope of: this is how mind is producing craving. This is how mind is letting go. This is how mind is interpreting. This is how mind is experiencing. This is how mind is collecting information. This is how mind is reacting to that information, and so on and so forth. This is what is known as dependent origination, which is an ocean of knowledge in itself. It is a vast topic, which we will explore on this retreat at some point.

It's an interesting word or set of words, dependent origination. To the newcomer, what does that mean, dependent origination? Don't worry about it. You will understand it when it happens, when you see and when we discuss it. But my point about this retreat is remember that everything that you do on this retreat is an integrated process for you to experience a greater level of calm, clarity, wisdom, insight, and intuition. When you come to see me for the interviews, which will start the day after, I will ask you some questions, and that's just to get the ball rolling. And it's really for you to see what's going on in your practice. I'm not going to be judging you, even secretly.

I'm not carrying any notes. I don't have a mark sheet at the end of the retreat for you, with any kind of certificate. This is for you to express what's going on with you. Remember, I've said this many times: I'm not a therapist, right? We're not going to go through any kind of things that happened in your childhood and all of that. You will see how things arise in the meditation, and then we will explore together. I'm just here to show you and reflect to you what's happening in the practice, and then give you a couple of pointers, and say this isn't... this might be a better direction to take, but the choice is yours, what you choose to do with your time, with the instructions and with the suggestions. The whole process of this retreat is intended for you to make your own schedule. When it comes to the practice, there are two components: there's the sitting meditation, and there's the walking meditation.

You decide how long you want to sit and how long you want to walk. Generally, if you are a beginner, you want to sit for a minimum of 30 minutes. And for all of you advanced meditators out there, I expect you to sit for at least 45 minutes to an hour. And eventually, as the retreat progresses, you'll be able to sit for longer. But it's quality over quantity, right? Which means, what's not working in the meditation? Let's explore that. Let's understand what is going on so that we can deal with it and you have more quality sits. What do we mean by more quality sits? It's nothing about good or bad sits. Some sits are busier than others when it comes to stuff happening in the mind.

And some sits are quieter. And there's not much going on in the mind. And that's okay. It doesn't matter. We're not grading you on this. So I want to go back again to right intention. So nekkhama means to renounce, to let go, to abandon all notions. To just be here. You're here for the next eight or nine days.

Make it about your practice, not about the world outside, not about all the concerns you might have, not about trying to fix your problems. Meditation is not going to fix your problems. This retreat is not going to fix your problems. It's going to equip you with the understanding and the tools, hopefully, for you to be able to solve your own problems, in your own way. So, along with that is something called avyapada. Avyapada means non-ill will. Non-ill will is essentially no ill will towards oneself and no ill will towards others. And usually, this is cultivated through the practice of loving kindness, which we'll talk about shortly. But what do we mean by non-ill will? You've heard that statement: take no harm, do no harm. It means you don't harm yourself and you don't harm others. You just don't have any ill will towards anybody. And this is difficult. This is difficult in today's reality because everybody has many different viewpoints. We have our own viewpoints, and then they clash.

The world has never been more clashing than it has before. It has been a clash of all kinds of things. But whenever we take it personally, which means we think that we are that view, or that perspective is our own, as if we are the originators of that view, as if we are the ones who created that view. As if those views are our babies, we become so personalized to them and so defensive that we become protective, and then we push anybody or anything, any obstacle that gets in the way of that view or that gets in the way of whatever it is that we want to do. And that pushing, that wanting to push away, is the ill will.

So what is it that you're pushing away in your meditation? What is it that you're pushing away in your life on retreat? Can you let go of the resistance? Can you allow space for whatever is arising and deal with it in a way that is conducive towards wisdom instead of conducive towards craving? And then avihimsa is non-cruelty. What is cruelty? Cruelty is the recognition of another being's suffering, or the acknowledgement of it, or the seeing of it, then adding to that being's suffering. So the non-cruelty is cultivated through the practice of compassion and it starts here. It starts with ourselves. Why be cruel to yourself? Why push yourself? Why suppress the mind?

I say all of this because at some point or another it will happen and it's okay. But you'll remember that we must first be compassionate to ourselves, self-compassion. And this brings to mind two things. Two of the things that I have noticed of meditators on retreat is they try too hard, they push, they become very gung-ho about the practice. They have to experience this in a certain way. And the second is the other side of it, which is the self-doubt. But that also is a reflection of the inability to accept things as they are. That is what dharma is, or dharma is the reality of the situation as it actually is.

You don't add anything to it, you don't take anything away from it. It is the present moment. Right now, right here, in the present moment, this is what's happening to the mind. I'm aware of what's going on, but I don't try to change it because I feel uncomfortable with it or because I want more of it. That is craving. That is identification.

I'm aware of what is arising and I see that it's not conducive for my mental well-being. It's not conducive for the realization of wisdom and therefore I will choose to reframe it. I will choose to navigate it using that there, the 6R's. And we'll get into that. So now I'm going to talk about one more thing about nekkhama, which is the renunciation. Let go of control. In the meditation practice, let go of controlling anything. Everything that we do in life is a way to assume or find security in an otherwise unstable

world and that process is to control. When we feel out of control, we try to control the situations around us. When we feel out of control, we try to control others. It's natural. When we feel pain and suffering, we don't realize that our actions are causing pain and suffering to others, and that can then lead to cruelty. But when we realize that we are suffering ourselves, and we bring compassion to ourselves, then we can also deal with the suffering of others. We don't have to add to our own suffering and add to the suffering of others.

So let go of control in the practice. Just observe what's going on. You are now, when you meditate, you're watching a television show, which is the mind, watching all kinds of things come and go. Or, put it another way, you're watching a play, a stage play, and you see the performer. And the performer on stage is your object of meditation. The spotlight on the performer is your attention.

Your attention is on the performer, right? The spotlight follows the performer. That which guides that spotlight is the intention. How you choose to pay attention to something. What you choose to pay attention to. See, because in every given moment there is a choice. You can decide to just be with the particular object or you can choose to be distracted. I know that sounds funny because you don't usually choose to be distracted. If you had it your way, you would never be distracted. But in reality, when you're meditating, there's something that comes up and your mind gets interested more in that than it does in the performer on stage. And the stage manager, to make sure that the guy behind the spotlight isn't falling asleep, is mindfulness, right?

Now, I don't like the word mindfulness. I have decided I don't like the word mindfulness. What does that even mean? Mindfulness. It's a word that has now penetrated our society, and we just think we know what mindfulness is. Mindful eating, mindful walking, mindful sleeping, mindful, whatever it is, and compared to what, mindlessness, I suppose. But the word mindfulness, I would say, it's about remembering, because that's what the original word is in Pali, sati, and in Sanskrit, smriti. It means to recollect. It means to remember. What are we remembering? We're remembering to observe how mind's attention moves from one thing to the other. This is the process of mindfulness.

The stage manager is paying attention to make sure that the spotlight follows the performer on stage. That's the whole process of this. This is what you will be doing. You're remembering to stay with your object. So what you're doing is mindfulness of the brahmaviharas. And that's the practice of the meditation. And this whole process of meditation is equipped by mindfulness and right effort.

So when we say mindfulness, it's sati sampajanya. Sati means to remember, to remain here and now. And sampajanya is the clear comprehension of what is arising in every moment. If my mind is fixed to its object, I've got nothing to do. But as soon as I recognize that my mind has drifted away, it is now distracted. What do we mean by drifting away? When we say drifting away, it doesn't mean that my mind's attention is still somewhat on the object. It means that my mind's attention is completely somewhere else. It's not even in the same vicinity now, the object. So as soon as I recognize that, that's mindfulness. I have brought up my attention. Oh, my mind is somewhere else.

It's no longer on its object. As soon as I recognize that, because now I'm caught up in the different hindrances, I'm caught up in this particular thought about, you know, whatever it is, a memory or a concept or an idea or some kind of worry about something. Now I'm adding fuel to it through my attention. The spotlight has gone somewhere else.

So, what do I do? Now I'm stealing this from David, if I remember this correctly. Now, what I do is, it's like you are driving a car and you have your foot on the gas pedal. But you're going too fast. There's too many things on the road. So what do you do? You release your foot from the gas pedal. This is what releases. You take your attention off the distraction and you're releasing any kind of energy that's flowing to it. You're taking your attention away from it.

And then one of the crucial steps is relax. What does it mean to relax? Everybody knows how to relax here? No? Yes? It's so funny because when you try to explain what relax means, it's like, my fist is tense right now, but I relax. What am I doing when I relax? I'm letting go of the tension that's there. So, my relaxing, I'm bringing my attention back to the present moment, noticing where any kind of bodily or mental tension is present and I'm letting it go. Because tension is a manifestation of craving.

Tension is a bodily formation, we'll get into that later, but this is how the process works. We tranquilize, which means we relax any kind of tension, and when we do that we experience a mundane form of nibbana. Our mind becomes clear, absolutely clear, like a cloudless sky, and then we bring up the smile. We re-smile. I'll explain why. The smile is actually helping you to come back into the present moment, to bring back your mindfulness, to bring back your awareness, to remember to come back to your object, which is the next step, return. So what's going on here?

I was with my object, and then the guy behind the spotlight starts to get more interested in something else, and he drifts away, and the spotlight goes here. And then the stage manager, through his walkie-talkie, says, hey, wake up, let's recognize. Oh, wait, my spotlight's gone somewhere else. So I release that, I release the attention from that. I relax, and I re-smile, and then I guide the spotlight back to the object, gently. You don't have to bring it back like this. Just gently bring it back. And this is the process that you're doing with right effort. This is how right effort works.

Already when you are practicing this meditation, you are doing an integrated approach of the Eightfold Path. Why? Because now you're letting go of all of the worldly distractions, which is the Nikama. You're cultivating loving kindness and compassion, which is the non-ill will and the non-cruelty. You're practicing to keep the precepts. That's right speech, right action, right livelihood. And therefore now you're ready to have the right effort, the right mindfulness, so that you have right meditation. What is the object of meditation that we're going to deal with? For those of you who are new to this practice, it is called the Brahmaviharas. And the Brahmaviharas are essentially fourfold. Metta, karuna, mudita, and upekkha.

Metta is generally translated as loving-kindness. What does that mean, loving-kindness? Metta means friendliness. When we are a friend to ourselves and a friend to others, we do not wish ourselves harm. We do not wish others harm. We wish the welfare and benefit for those people. I would suggest to you, those who are starting with this practice, how do you begin? Now, there is no magic in sitting cross-legged.

You can sit on a cushion. You can sit in a chair. But try to keep your back relatively straight. And when you sit, for the first minute or two, you can just notice any kind of tension in the body and just consciously relax it. Come back into your body. Now there are a few ways to bring up this feeling of loving kindness. The feeling of loving-kindness, and we talk about it on a somatic level, is a feeling of warmth in the middle of the chest. It's a feeling of this glowing light, maybe you could say, that comes up in the chest. But the emotional aspect of it is a feeling of well-being. It's a feeling of being happy.

It's a feeling of having goodwill towards oneself and towards others. For those of you who are starting out on this practice, you start out 10 minutes to yourself. And there are different ways you can bring this up. You can use in your mind different phrases. May I be happy, may I be well, may I be safe, may I be free of suffering. But you can play with it. You can decide how you want to do that. Another thing you can do is imagine something that makes you happy, an image that makes you happy, like a little baby. Holding a little baby in your arms, preferably not crying, right? Smiling back at you. When you see a baby and you see the eyes of a baby, right?

There's something about that. There's like this beautiful connection that you experience. And it's sometimes that warmth in your heart or just, oh, that's so cute, right? That feeling, that's the loving kindness. We're holding a puppy. Now, we've got a fat cat. I'm not body shaming. But we do have a fat cat named Sukha. And Sukha means happiness, actually. I stay away from him because he and I have a certain relationship, let's say. But he likes to be around people. And sometimes he'll come on your lap, sit on your lap, and you can just pet him. And you'll feel that kind of connection to that being, that loving kindness. That's the feeling that you want to inculcate in your heart.

So you can use the phrases, you can use an image that makes you happy, maybe a wholesome memory from your life, right? Anything that uplifts you, puts a smile on your face. You can use gratitude, things that you are happy for, things that you have experienced in life, the people that love you, that cherish you, people that support you, the relationships that you have. The experiences that you've had that have uplifted you. And sometimes all you have to do is just sit down, relax, and ask your heart, what is it that you need in this moment? What do you need? Do you need a hug? Do I give myself a mental hug? Do you need a bowl of soup?

Whatever it is you need. And give yourself that in your mind. And then you start to see that, yeah, I love, I have loving kindness for myself. I'm loving and kind to myself. I am a friend to me. And you stay with this for ten minutes, at least. And then you switch over to your Kalyana Mitta, which is your friend. We call them spiritual friend, but by no means does that friend have to be spiritual in nature. It doesn't have to be the Dalai Lama. It doesn't have to be somebody who is perfect in your eyes. It could be anybody that you feel brings a smile to your face. They should not be a relative, and they should be alive.

And generally, they should be of the same sex. For those of you who are starting out, or even those who are not starting out, and you want to bring up some loving kindness and send it to someone, send it to me. I need all the loving kindness I can get. So, you bring up somebody that makes you happy, that you feel. When you think about them, you immediately, a smile comes on your face.

And you can imagine them in front of you, smiling. You can visualize them in your heart. Or if you're not a visual person, you can't imagine. That's okay. You can just keep them in mind. And keep that feeling of loving-kindness present. Just with your awareness of the loving-kindness. And you stay with that intention. You stay with that experience. You stay with that object of meditation, this feeling of loving-kindness. But remember, this process of meditation isn't just about feeling loving-kindness. It's also about how can you express loving-kindness in your day-to-day life, even here on retreat. Are there opportunities for you to be able to be loving and kind to yourself and to others? Loving and kind means I don't need to sit in Padmasana, in the lotus posture, just because somebody has told me to, and it causes me all kinds of knee pain and back pain.

That's not loving and kind to you. Loving and kind in physical ways, find what works for you, what is comfortable for you. Loving and kind in mental ways, when something arises that disturbs your mind, gently let it go. Loving and kind in speech. Now you will be having noble silence. When you get off a retreat, you can be loving and kind to yourself. Say good things to yourself. Say good things to other people.

This process of loving kindness isn't just the manifestation of a feeling in the heart, but it's also the practice of expression of loving kindness. Just to reiterate, in the sitting meditation, for the beginners, for those who have never done this before, you send loving-kindness to yourself in these different ways. You can bring it up with different phrases in your mind, with gratitude, with an image that makes you happy, a wholesome memory, or just sitting and asking, what do you need? And then by mentally offering and fulfilling that need, you feel uplifted and you're loving and kind to yourself and that warmth arises and you stay with that. Now, invariably, you will get distracted.

Your mind will wander off here and there. I don't expect any of you to necessarily have a good meditation today, tonight, or even tomorrow morning because you've traveled far and wide and there's all kinds of things that you've had to go through. So it will take some time for the mind to settle down. So you are going to feel sleepy. You're going to fall asleep in your meditation and that's okay. Or you'll be filled with all kinds of restless thoughts and that's okay too.

But to deal with it is the process of the six R's. So I might bring up the feeling of loving kindness to myself and I can feel the warmth in my heart. I have the smile. Very important. Remember, when you are meditating, when you're sitting down for meditation, have the smile up. When you see the Buddha's statue or any of the images of the Buddha, you'll see him having a little smile. You look at the photo of Bhante behind you there. What a beautiful smile he has. So it doesn't have to be that wide, but a small smile on your face, in your eyes, in your heart. And so you have this feeling that comes up, and you're staying with the feeling of loving-kindness, and you're there, and it feels great, and it's great, and then suddenly your mind wanders off to something else, where you're starting to fall asleep, and you might do that for a while.

But then you recognize, oh, I don't feel the loving kindness anymore. My mind is somewhere else. You've already recognized. First step. Now you release your attention from that. You take the foot off the gas pedal. You relax. You find any tightness and tension, you relax. There's no tightness and tension, no problem. Still, just relax back into the mind. Find your center point, right? And there's this sense of a clear, cloudless sky in the mind when you relax. Bring the smile back up. If you're already smiling, great. Come back to the feeling. Now, does that mean I have to start all over again with the gratitude? I have to start all over again by bringing up the image?

Not necessarily. Sometimes that might happen. And sometimes I can just relax back into the feeling of loving kindness. I can feel into the warmth and stay with it. And so I return and I repeat whenever I get distracted. Remember, the distraction is when my mind's attention is completely off of the feeling of loving kindness. And then, as I said, you bring up a person that you want to send loving kindness to and you send it to them. You direct it to them. Now, the walking practice, it's not where you're walking slowly and you're mindfully alert of what's going on. The walking practice is you're inculcating loving kindness in all activities. So when you're going for a walk, maybe 20 minutes at a time, you just bring up the feeling of loving kindness, and you're staying with that for yourself, or you're staying with it with your spiritual friend.

So you can alternate. Sit and walk, sit and walk. But generally, you want your sitting to be longer. So if you're sitting for 30 minutes, try to see if you can prolong that to 45 minutes. If you're having a good sit, keep sitting. But sit for a minimum of 30 minutes. You're not going to miss lunch. If you hear the lunch bell, but you feel like your sitting is still going on, great. We will make a note of who's not there, and we will make a plate for you. So don't worry, your food will be there, you're not going to go hungry. For those of you who are more advanced and who have done the Six Directions, just work on the Six Directions.

If it feels appropriate for you to have loving kindness to yourself for the first 10 minutes, that's okay, just to prime up the engine. But then go in each direction, and then go in all directions. It doesn't have to be loving-kindness. Just ask your mind, what does it feel like today? Or what does it feel like in this moment? Loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, whatever it is. I would suggest not to go directly in quiet mind, because that's going to take a while for you to get there. What you think is quiet mind is nothing more than the mind that has sloth and torpor. The quiet mind arises naturally when your mind becomes more in tune with the brahmaviharas.

And you have some level of activity to balance out the energy. This is the instruction for the advanced people. For the beginners, 10 minutes loving kindness to yourself. The rest of the time to another. When you get distracted, oh, I got distracted. Recognition. Release your attention. Relax the tightness and tension. Come back to your smile, return back to your object. I think I pretty much covered everything. I don't know. There's some practical stuff. But the interviews I can talk about tomorrow. It's not a big deal. I think that's it.

Tomorrow, Bhante will be there. On video. Any questions? I know you guys are all wanting to sleep, so I can see it in your eyes, but if you have any energy for questions let me know. Going once, going twice, three times, and sold. There we go. Where's the... So, this is the sharing of the merit. Most of you are aware of this. Why do we share merit? Do you know why we share merit?

Because, let's go line by line. What does that mean when we share merit? May suffering ones be suffering free. So, that's compassion. I recognize the suffering of others, and I wish them to be free of suffering. May the fear-struck be fearless. May the grieving shed all grief. May all beings find relief. This is all compassion. This is a wish of compassion. May all beings share this merit that we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. So by listening to this talk you have presumably obtained some kind of merit. We've all obtained some kind of merit. I've obtained merit by giving you this talk, offering this talk to you, and hopefully if you've been listening you've acquired some merit by listening and rejoicing in the Dhamma talk, enjoying the Dhamma talk. And so by doing this, that we have acquired, we're deciding that whatever merit that we've acquired in this moment, you would like all beings to share into that for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness, any kind of happiness that is wholesome.

Beings inhabiting space and earth, devas and nagas of mighty power, share this merit of ours. Now, this is something that is more in tune with the different realms. What it's saying is, if there are beings that are more evolved than us, in some sense, they might be present on this planet, they might be present up there somewhere, may they also share this merit of ours. May they all be included, all beings. And may they long protect the Buddha's dispensation. So what we are doing here, essentially, is extending the dispensation of the Buddha. When you say dispensation, it's the Buddha's message. It's the Buddha's findings into the nature of reality. We've been exploring that.

And we're asking those who are able to protect it, to protect it. So we're experiencing compassion, we want joy for others, so that's mudita, and we're asking for protection, however that might arise. So that's what we're doing, it's not just something you do by rote, and you just say and all of that. If you understand it in this way, then feel into it, and realize what you're doing here. So let's share some merit. May suffering ones be suffering free, and the fear-struck be fearless. 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, sadhu.