Day 8 Wise Friendship

DIN THAYAM JAKKU MAHEKARAJAM HARISAVANNO PATA VIPPA BHAASAM TAM TAM NAMAS SAMI HARISAVANNAM PATA VIPPA BHAASAM THAYAM JAGUNTA Thank you. Today again we're going to have a double feature. I'll be starting and then Panthiananda will be giving you some clarity on what to do after the retreat ends. Just so you know, all of you are aware, tomorrow, I don't know if you've told them, at 4.30, we're going to all go to Mahabodhi.

And we will do the last Dhamma talk over there. The Sutta I'm reading today is Majjhima Nikaya 22, Alagaddupamasutta. Alagaddupama, the simile of the snake. Thus have I heard: on one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. Now on that occasion, a pernicious view had arisen in a Bhikkhu named Arittha, formerly of the Vulture Killers.

I wonder what kind of sect that would be, Vulture Killers. This view appeared thus: as I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, are those things... Don't worry. I was just thinking, my dad, after each dinner, he had this peppermint candy. I was like three years old and I saw him. I'm 34 and he's still doing that. And it's like his whole heart. He's just like picking up my peppermint candy after a good meal. So I'll try to make your peppermint candy in the night and help your digestion. It's been very, very light. This was a very good talk. I love that sutta. It was a beautiful exposition of it and an operation from Nelson.

Nothing very deep on my side, actually. I love to end retreats on a light note, to really go back to looking at, "Hey, what do we have here?" A lot of the time, what we do when we come back to the lay life, basically, is things get a lot of courses in here. And you look at your phone, and then you have 150 messages. And you have all these communications that start coming in and rolling in and papancha going off, and, you know, that's normal. It's okay. And that's just going to happen anyway. So it's not something that, you know, in the retreat is amazing. We have all those beautiful conditions for amazing practice and we're so grateful.

And then we use that and flow into our life, and use our momentum that we gain here, and then we can actually start changing our lives. It's not only in meditation, it's also in our interactions with each other, with your colleagues, your employees, your everybody, your friends, your family, your children, your daughter, your sister. One of the things that is super important and very amazing here, Nelson's been doing a lot of shaming his blood on his books and talking about a mind without craving, and then I'll go with mine and develop an open heart. That's the name of my book.

I don't have it here anyways because I'm just a monk. Yeah, they go together like hand in hand, I think. Isn't it? What do you do with the mind without prayer? It's supposed to work with the heart. And that leads there too, so it's amazing. This retreat, actually, you will see that you're much more calm and you have much more capacity for producing, generating, and compassion for the people around you. And so, be generous with that. Don't hesitate. Remember everybody wants...

There's this one law in the whole universe. I kind of came up with that. This one law in the whole universe is: all living beings all want to be happy and we all want to be loved. And so I haven't seen anything that could refute that so far. And even people that are mean, especially people that are mean, especially people that hurt us, especially people we get offended with and annoyed by.

And so especially those people need your compassion, even more so. Actually see that as an opportunity for you to be generous and to give more of your compassion, and beautiful things happen doing that. You will see, and one of the things that happens is that your life might change also, so that's another interesting thing. It's a process. I love how the Buddha says it's an Anupasikham. So this is a gradual path, a gradual training. It's changing. It's always evolving. We are developing in both states. And so life is bound to change, obviously. Now we've talked a little bit about Anicca, quite a bit, actually. But we can actually change it for the better. Many, many things you will see that's in the Vipassana, like the kind of the real down-to-earth Vipassana here and now kind of thing, is you will start to see that some of the things in your life create trouble for you.

that you can see the work and that's great because now you'll see it and then you'll be able to see that, hey, there's actually a way out of this. Also there is a liberation of this. Like, I don't know, maybe your husband talks to you and makes you upset or something. Then you can see that actually the anger is only just, well, it's a choice. Or I'm trying to think of a better example because that one is not good. But you take, for example, a lot of chocolate before you go to bed. If that's your thing, I don't know. Or something like that. And one of the things that you might notice, I will say that because for me, it was a huge thing in my life when I stopped eating at night.

It made me feel so much better, and my meditation was just so much better. But it was a change, and it was a bit strange at the beginning, but it did bring so much amazingness to my life. But one of the things, and this is what I want to lightly touch upon tonight, and we've been slowly directing to that, is the people that surround us, and how important that is. And so, in this practice, in the Buddhist teaching, Sangha is always huge. It's very important. And that doesn't mean just broken Sangha, but that means people like all of you here. And that means people that have similar interests, Dhamma interests, because you'll see that what you want to do is meditate more, go less to the movie theater and watch Netflix or something.

And be like, well, this is awesome. I just want to put this out on meditation all my life. And be surrounded by people that just want to do that with me, and support this. Then, yeah, groups will change and circles will change. And you will move always towards probably more and more people like that. The Buddha always made a point that actually there is this interaction between Ananda and the Buddha. And Ananda says, Bhante, this surely must be half of the holy life, this wise companionship, good friendship, wise company. And he says, don't say that, Ananda. It is the holy path. The holy path. So that's how important it is.

This short sutta that we discussed, Parato ghoso, in the book of twos. Very short sutta, how do we acquire wisdom? How does it come into our lives? I mean, that's an interesting process. How do you become wise? Well, Parato ghoso, the voice of another, and wise attention. Once again, the Pali word for wise friendship is kalyanamitta. Kalyanamitta are spiritual companions, spiritual friends, basically.

And since I always tend to end retreats on that kind of topic, I'm not sure why I have an index. I've been indexing the canon, and that's a bit of a job. So it's like a tagging system that's really and kind of complete. And I'm like maybe 10%. It's like I've been working on it for three years. But there was, I don't know why I typed wise friendship, and there's two suttas I completely forgot about, and one of them was just like a jewel, and I just translated it, and I thought I would just offer it to you tonight. I call it the dawn of the path. It's very short, so don't worry.

Very short and simple. This is at Savatthi. This, monks, is the herald, the very first sign of the rising sun, that is, the breaking dawn. In the same way, monks, this is the herald of the Awakened One's eight-spoke path arising, that is, wise friendship. It is because of seeking and desiring wise friendship that the eight-spoke path will be developed and brought to maturity. And how does a monk, or anybody who has wise friends, develop the eight-spoke path and bring it to maturity? Here, as one develops wise understanding, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise lifestyle, wise awareness, and wise collectiveness, wise practice, wise awareness, and wise collectiveness, which come from letting go, calming down, release, and culminating in service.

These are four qualities that the Buddha talked about quite a lot. Sometimes he applied it to the seven supports of awakening or the eight folds of the path, basically. It's translated differently. I like this translation because it's really close to the 6R's, so it makes it really applicable. And you know, each of these things, they are bright or they are wise because of these four qualities, also because they are rooted in letting go, attaching in everything that you do. They be like, let go of, send the send compassion and let go hometown and release it all, let it all go. Surrender in the Dhamma, basically. That doesn't mean becoming doormat or anything, but surrendering in the Dhamma, surrendering in faith in the Dhamma.

That's all I want to say about this sutta. And before I end this, I always have this thing at the end of every retreat. I would like to ask all of you for your forgiveness. If I've done anything or said anything or acted in any way that was hurtful or offensive, even if I never meant it, sometimes it does happen. We came back online, yes. Feels like a post-session. The bill was paid. And of course, thank you. Thank you for your practice. It's beautiful to see. So keep going, please. Did everybody get a copy from the book? Yes, sir. Are you? Very good. And if you are ever interested in reading the translations, I was reading them all on the website.