152: Retreat Dhamma Talk 47: A True Human Being

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SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Retreat series Dhamma talk number forty seven we talked last Dhamma talk about beautiful mind and Pali it's Sobanat Chaitak beautiful Cha mind beautiful mind of course Buddha gave us many different tools to practice so that we can have this beautiful mind and there are many types of beautiful minds too but the best one the highest one the most beautiful one can be achieved or can be cultivated by practicing Satipatthana Vipassana, mindfulness inside meditation. So mindfulness inside meditation is the more effective method or to develop or to achieve our the most beautiful mind. And whenever we dressed up our mind with the beauty, automatically the speech becomes polite and gentle, and the deed become very cultured. That is the reason you will hear saying mind is the leader of all things. He is the leader because it's the mind that you need to beautify, it's the mind that needs to be dressed up or cultured. And if you do that, automatically the speech and the deed follows. And to make the mind beautiful, of course, one need to train properly. And to train properly is how do you know you need this? Sadhma Javana, which means you need to listen, read, discuss the sublime dharma. Only through that sublime dharma, if you understand theoretically, you would be able to practice properly. So in here, mine is the leader. One thing is whenever we are doing something, saying something, thinking something, or under any set of condition, what is it doing? If you really look at it, whatever is happening at that moment, you direct your mind towards it. Something fell down, big sound. Your mind goes directly to there. You hear the door opening, your minds go there, your eyes go there. Everything. What it is that going the mind to this object that is happening at the present moment with everything, the minds automatically jump onto it, whichever is the most obvious. Every day of our life, that's what's happening, that's what we are doing. We don't even know it. We direct the mind, we apply the mind towards what is distinctly happening at the moment. Regardless, what? And that applying or directing the mind to whatever is happening, and partly it's called vidakat. Okay? Apply thought or directing the mind towards the object. So when you apply the mind, anything and everything is happening around you. Sometimes you apply the mind towards good stuff, sometimes on the bad stuff. More appropriately, a wholesome group of objects or unwholesome group of objects, you apply your mind. You don't know whatever is happening, you just the mind goes there. Applies the mind. So whenever you apply the mind towards the unwholesome group of objects or situation or condition that is called mitcha wita. So the mind just simply go whatever their object is. But if it is unwholesome object, wrong object, and that we named it mecha wita. So as soon as you have this mecha wita, that thought is always fused with loba dosa or moha mental defilements. So when your thoughts are associated with infused with mental defilements, okay, then the speech comes out, the deeds come out, which is infused with loba dosa and moha. And when they come out, based on the intensity, based on the situation, the angers come in, there's confrontation, rage, fight, a lot of confrontational situation arises because of that mitcha we very least it can inconvenience your surrounding, it inconveniences the people around you, the very least. That's what micha wita does. Now we know what is happening as soon as you have a Micha wita. You have no choice because things are always happening and the mind is always the right thing there. With the bad group, that's what happened. Inconvenience other people, confront with other people, fight with other people, disagree with other people. But at that moment, whether it is the wrong object or right object, wholesome object or unwholesome object, regardless, whatever object it is, doesn't matter. Even though we divide two into true, wholesome and wholesome souls. At that moment, if you apply your mind onto that object that is arising, but you don't apply it just the way it always happened. You put a special care, special effect, and apply deeply, directly. Strict and precise onto that object. All that you do is doesn't matter what object it is. You apply your mind, not casually, automatically, but very deeply, penetratively, precisely onto that object, whatever that may be. If you can apply that, of course you have to purposely do it. It doesn't happen automatic. Automatic is what norm is. If you apply like that, suddenly at that moment, even though the thought is engaged or the mind is engaged with both wholesome and unwholesome object, just the application method is different. At that moment, if you analyze that thought, that thought has no loba or dosa or moha, no mental defilements. It's just a matter of how you applied it. Purposely, attentively, deeply, precisely, apply unto that object. No loba, dosa or moha. That stage, okay, the thought, the mindset, the situation without any mental defilements. We call it you are in peace. Okay, don't think in time of oh great peace. No, it is at that moment there's no confrontation, there's no friction, no inconvenience to anybody. It is totally in harmony. That is the status of the mind that apply unto the object in that way. That's what it means by peace. Totally in peace. So when you have peace, when you have no inflection within yourself, it directly expands outward. What it is, outward is your speech and your deed is also with totally with non-confrontational, with peace and with happiness. And anything and everything around you, more precisely, people around you will also have that peace. Because you are not directing and engaging and confronting to anybody. That's how peace arises. So that is the reason we're being taught whenever you observe an object, observed with intensity, intense with power, must be a powerful observation, not simple observation, not simple application, powerful application, powerful observation. And if you do that powerful observation, automatically mindfulness is established. Okay, we keep on talking about mindfulness, sati, mindfulness, sati. What it you really need is the very powerful, precise observation. And sati is develop. And we all know whenever the sati is developed, what happens? Samadhi comes in. Because sattis make you go directly to the object and stay at the object, observe the object to the beginning to the end. Your mind is totally fixed on it. That little fixed moment, that fixed condition is samadhi. Totally. And when there is a samadhi, mental defilement is gone. There's no more mental defilement. All that you need is the samadhi. Mental defilement is gone. Mental defilement gone means in other ways there is no thoughts related with any form of negativity. Negative thoughts are also gone. So if you look at it, this powerful observation. Powerful observation is what? You need effort. Without that effort, your observation or your awareness will be like every moment that everybody is aware of everything. Aware, aware, aware. But it's not with the power. So powerful observations mean that means there's an effort, warriya. And what does warya do? Wariya is like a bulldozer. It bulldoze all the brushes and trees and ducks and rocks and make a road. It clears the path. The clear the path. Push away, clear away all the mental defilements. That's what effort does. And once the effort, the bulldozer bulldis away, there's the path form. Push away the all the dart and trees and weeds. And then sati come right in. What does the sati do? Sati put a fence all around that bulldoz road. In other words, sati is a wall and guard so that all these darts and weeds, everything would not fall back onto that cleared road. That's what sati does. And then sati does is it guards the mental defilements, not to fall back onto the part that has just been cleared. And then the samadhi, samadhi is like a you're paving the road totally with tars and gravels, and you pave the road. When you have paved the road or you cover it with about six inches of tar and gravel road, on their spot no weeds can grow, no trees can grow, no brushes can grow. In other words, no mental defilements can go. If there is a samadhi, no mental defilements can arise. Samadhi and mental defilements, they are light day and night, water and fire. If one exit the other cannot exist. That's automatic. Everything comes from that powerful observation. And really stop and think about that little process. You will find it. And if you have done that, okay, if you keep on doing, if you keep on clearing, okay, sabhi, warriasati samadi. If you keep on doing, what happened was automatically there's another set of mental state arises. We all know what hiri and uttapa is. You have the shame. You are ashamed of doing anything that is unwholesome, negative, and you are afraid, fearful of the consequences that the unwholesome actions would bring. Automatically, that two sets of mental states, hiri and otapa, arise. And how do you know in meditation? We already said it before, a person who is well endowed with this shame and dread on immoral nature. When he is meditating, before we have to meditate and we observe and we observe and we apply and we apply, we really heard not to miss a note, an observation, not to miss an object. We have to try hard and but we still missed it. But when he reads an udtapa comes in, what happened is you are afraid that you would miss one noting. That is the change in your observation. That's a change. You are afraid that one would miss an observation, a note. Because if you missed it, automatically mental defilement infused in and negativity comes in, and you don't want that negativity. That's what hiri and otapa means. That is the state you go in. And when you have this, this isn't meditation, but even in a general environment, normal environment, even under great stress, even under a great stressful condition, that hiri and udapa maintains, contains, and is stable. Even under stress, you won't be doing anything that is not noted, not not being mindful. That's the power of hiri and utapa. Sounds very simple, but that hiri and utapa, it's a very high level. You got it on a higher level, you got there. Think about it. This hiri and utapa is a priceless. You can't put a price on it as a human being because it brings peace and harmony to you and to your environment, in other words, to the humanity. And when you practice, observe again and again once you have the samadhi mental concentration. At that moment, many things are changing. What are the key changes? When you have samadhi mental concentration, at that moment you see anything and everything, whatever is at that moment very objectively. That's number one change. But when we say everything and anything is only two sets, Nama and Rupa. Material phenomenon and mental phenomenon. That's everything. So whatever the material phenomenon or mental phenomenon you are observing, you see it with objectively, and also the way you see is quite distinct and unique. Before we look at ourselves. Me, you, I, us. What are you inferring to? This body and this mind me, I. As a totally a solid base. I, my, me. That refers to both body and mind. But with a strong samadhi that is totally split into two. You see not as I, not as me. You see this is the physical phenomenon and mental phenomenon. That's how you see Nama and Rupa. You might be moving around, but you know this is the body that is moving, and that is the mind that's knowing. That kind of knowing starting to set ingrained it into the way you see and understand and feel. Nama and rupa are split. You don't have to be in a deep meditation. But once you have mastered that samadhi to a certain level, suddenly you always feel that separation of this Nama and Rupa, this body and this mind. And also you see very clearly about how those two phenomena work. How do they work? They work through the law of cause and effect, causal relationship. The mind intends it, the body does it. The bodies become very hot under the desert sun. The minds want to go into the shade. The minds want to go into the shade, the body walk down and go and sit down under the day three. You see it clearly. It is not I'm doing, I am hot, I am going, I am sheltering. Not that. You have a that simple little process, powerful observation, mindfulness, and concentration. But now you have developed to a very higher level. At that level, that's how you see, how you feel, how you sense. In other words, your view.

unknown: 23:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 23:23

Your view starting to shift direction and see in that way. Okay, and this is the starting part. And slowly and slowly, in that process of Nama and Rupa, mind and matter, in this process of causal relationships, you see the little subtleties that is being infused with together at all times. What it is is all these things are arising and passing away. Material phenomena arise and pass, mental phenomena arise and pass. They are connected, connected respectively and operating. Arising and passing away clearly. In other words, you begin to see the phenomenon of, or the concept, not phenomenon, the concept of anica. Anicchia is in permanence. One of the general characteristics of all mind and matter. You see that, but you have to see the arising and passing away. Then you truly understand the concept of anicha. Concept. Anicha is a concept. And also you begin to see that this Nama and Rupa, physical and mental phenomenon, or this me, so-called me, you, I, us, is constantly oppressed by this becoming and dying and becoming and dying and becoming and dying at every moment. When you experience that, it means you understand the concept of dukkha, suffering. You really understand concept of dukkha. Nowadays, what we think we fell down and break our legs and this is dukkha. We go into some condition and situation. Everybody shunning at you, that is dukkha. But what Buddha meant, dukkha is a lot more subtle than that. That constant oppression of this becoming and passing away or dying is the dukkha. And then thirdly, all these things are happening, arise and passed away, oppressed, you can't shake it, you can't do anything. You try to change it, you try to hold on to it, you try every way, every means so that you can maintain what you like. But you can't. It's just happening on its own all the time based on the condition of the surrounding. And that means you begin to understand the concept of nada. That's what you see. When you practice, when your samadhi is developed to the higher level, whenever every time you are moving around, going around, talking around, smiling around, crying around. You see these two phenomena, these causal relationship and the anicha dukkha and anatta. Suddenly that is the right view. If you are experiencing that way, you have achieved the right view. Samaditi. So so simple, but it has a large and wide effect, and it is profound, and it is priceless, and it is a very valuable thing. So, in here, what are we doing? In one word is we are practicing mindfulness inside meditation, Satipatthana Vipassana. We just discuss about the details of how little intricate things happen one after the other. But you can look at it in a different way whenever you practice this Satipadana Vipassana, when you have developed that kind of characteristics. And if one has it, it has the capacity to distinguish between animal nature and human nature. That's what it is. We can put it in a very large context. That experience, that insight, practicing satiparhana vipassana gives you the power to distinguish between animal nature and human nature. Animal nature, what's it? We all know animals, they are born, they grew up, they fight for survival. Food, procreation, and everything is you have to fight, you have to fight, you have to fight, you have to fight for survival. And also you want your food. Also, you want a great harem, a lot of deers, a lot of lions, a lot of anything. Lobat. And then constantly you're fighting, you are bullying, and you are always changing for chasing for power to keep your territory bigger. Animals, that's what the animal does always fighting, surviving, fear, bullying, chasing, expanding, and whenever they are doing. What are they associated with? Associated with worries and anxiety? Jealousy? Envy. All these mental states are there. And if you look at the animals, those are the mental states. 99.99999% of the mental states in animals are just that. Jealousy, envy, worry, anxiety, greed, anger, hatred, ill will, bullying for power, expanding your territory, expanding, fighting, surviving. That's animal, and that is the mental states of animals. Think deeply. And at that moment we need to develop human quality. That is the purpose of life. That's the purpose of human life. To develop human quality in us. And how do we develop human quality? We already know. You develop the human quality up to the level, up to the level so that you can utilize these human qualities. Just developing alone is not enough. You have to succeed in developing so that you can utilize, you can taste the flavor, you can benefit this quality out of it. And only if you develop in that way, it's your existence as a human being is worth it. Otherwise, you have the chance, you have the opportunity, but you wasted it. If you develop it, it's really worth it. To become, to be born as a human being. So we practice. What do we practice in general? Just Satipatthana Vipassana. When we practice it, you have to practice to the point so that we can taste the calm and happiness. We are practicing Satipattana Vipassana. Brightnessing whether you practice one month or whether we practice ten years, doesn't matter. Duration, time is unimportant. What is important is through that practice you actually taste the flavor of calm and happiness. Okay? Calm and happiness produced by meditation. You have to practice to that stage. That's not the end, but that is a very important stage. Calm and happiness. You actually can taste it. And only when you taste that calm and happiness, you will have evidence to yourself, you have proof to yourself. These calm and happiness, these peace. The pleasure of calm, peace, and happiness and peace is far, far superior to the pleasure that we always engage through the five senses. The pleasure of the five senses is very inferior when you have tasted pleasure of calm, happiness, and peace through meditation. Till then you don't know you are chasing all the time for the pleasure of the five senses. You can abandon. You will succeed in abandonment of this pleasure of the five senses only after you taste this. Nikama Sukha. The pleasure of renunciation. Nikama Sukha. What is it? The calm, the peace, happiness and harmony. You accurately through the practice. Only then you will be successful in abandoning the pleasure of five senses. Because you have a definite proof. It is far superior to the pleasure of the five senses. So that's why we always come back to the samadhi. You need the samadhi to keep that peace and calm and harmony. And also you need that to abandon the five senses. So in here, we practice to become a human quality. How can you get a human quality? You must have the calm. Why? Only then you understand it is superior to the five sense pleasure. These five sense pleasures are the ones that is developing that mecha with the cut. All these loba, dosa, and moha. That's all connected one to the other. And only at that moment, once you taste that, okay, you will not be acting like an animal anymore. Only then you will know what is the nature of the animal nature and what is the human nature. Right now we don't. We think we are human, all that we are doing is a human being good, but only at that level you have the power to discriminate, to distinguish between the animal nature and human nature. So Buddha, okay? Buddha, near the time before he passed away, he summarizes teachings. How does he summarize his teaching? Let's say teaching. Let's talk about try and understand what Buddha's teaching means. Buddha's teaching, all that he taught during 45 years. And it is also known as sasana. Buddha's teaching is also known as sasana. And also, it's also known as Buddhist culture. And he summarized it. What is sasana? Sansana is one need to understand the this might be a new word, not very familiar. 37, okay. Body phiktyya the mark. No need to go through the details. In general, what you are familiar, the full noble truth, the seven factors of enlightenment, eightfold noble part, osatipatthana vipassana. Those are all under the body bhikshayatham. First of all, you have to understand, simply understand, in other words, intellectually understand. In other words, you listen, you read, you discuss about these Dhamma, the nature of full noble truth, the nature of eightfold noble path, and so on and so on. Altogether 37. But the key point is Satipatthana Vipassana, mindfulness insight. In that mindfulness insight, there is the eightfold noble path. There is full noble truth. There is seven factors of enlightenment. All of them are there. So that's why we just use the Satipathana Vipassana. In the scripture, the Buddha says, understand this 37 body bhikshyadhamma. One needs to understand it. And then practice, not only understand. That's the first part. You remember the other word is called Saddham Javanat. That is what it is. Understand the 37 body pitchy athamma, it's sadhamma javanat. Listening, reading, discussing the sublime dhamma. And then you must practice. How do you practice? You practice with commitment. And you practice with diligence. Not simply just say practice. He said you must apply diligence. You must do it diligently and you must have commitment. That means you are going to go to the end of the road, end of the journey. That's commitment. Not abandoning halfway. Not practicing for a few months and then drop it again. And then pick it up when you want. That's not commitment. You keep it with you under your life situation with you all the time. And then what you do, commitment and diligence. And then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, multiply, multiply, multiply that. What is that? Repeat and multiply another Pali word. Or development. Bhavana. They say development, but I use the word repeat. Repeat. Okay? Again and again and again. Till when? Till you can taste the benefits of that practice. That where you go, till you taste the benefits of the practice. And then when you have achieved the practice, what does it mean? It means you got binya. It means you have wisdom. Taste the benefits means you have wisdom. In other words, you have let you have got the sublime dhamma. Saddham. Sublime Dhamma. In other words, you have, you become the holder of satsana. They are all the same. Achieve the benefits. Wisdom, sublime Dhamma, Sasana. They are the same. And you are a Buddhist who are totally cultured. You have the Buddhist culture. Just like Western culture, Eastern culture, there's a Buddhist culture. Buddhist culture is wisdom. You have got that? Through that practice. And in here we call it sasana, Buddhist teaching. We'll use that word. Buddhist teaching, sasana. What is it? Oh, Buddhist teaching, the books, all printed in stones, or audio, video, YouTube's, Buddha's teaching, Buddhist teaching, all the talks. Are those sashana? Buddha doesn't say that is sashana. All these things in the books on the records, everything, whatever documented and stone on paper, electronically, this is not sana. I shouldn't say not sana. This is not true satsana. True satsana is somebody who practiced and the essence of those in the scriptures are in every cell of that body. The Dharma is with that person through the practice. So what the Buddha said is, here is my teaching, here is my satsana. As long as there are people who practiced it diligently with commitment and taste the benefit, then you can say my sana or buddha sasana exists. When the practitioner stops, Buddha satsana extinct. There might be books, electronic books for another 10,000 years. If nobody practiced, there is no more Buddha sasana. As long as there's the practitioner who practices to the point that he tastes all the benefits, the flavor of Dharma. That's the way Buddha explained to us. That is what he told us before his Greek passing away. And that's what sasana means. And you must keep spreading the sasana. You practice, you pass on to somebody whoever is interested. It is not that you dominate and you overwhelm other philosophy or viewpoints or religion. It's simply you are spreading to people who are interested. Why are you doing that? So that you can spread peace and happiness in the world. Peace and happiness in the human for the humanity. That is the purpose of spreading sasana, not to dominate, not to overwhelm other philosophy or religion. Do spread peace, happiness, and harmonies in the world. So that is the way Buddha explained to us. And once you have practiced and tasted that, what happens is automatically that person cannot sit still anymore. Once you have fully tasted, cannot sit still anymore. He or she has tasted the Dharma, the benefits of the Dharma. And once you have tasted it, you want other people to taste that. You want other people to have that peace and happiness. And you are on the go now. Whoever is interested, you keep spreading, you keep spreading, you keep spreading the sasana. And it is, you can translate it this way, what the Sabbath is. That kind of people has the quivering mind. The mind is quivering with loving kindness and compassion and wisdom. Okay? Midta, karuna, mudita and pinya. They are quivering. Not only Mita and Karuna, also pinya. Only pinya can balance when to do, when not to do, what to do, who to do with precision. Otherwise you will be spreading with a big brass strobe. And here is pinpoint. You can do that. Those people have the quivering mind infused with loving kindness and compassion and balance with the wisdom or biny. These people become patient. These people are forgiven, do anything, even if the people transgress upon you. And these people are willing to do the self-sacrifice anytime when necessary. These are the little qualities that develop in such kind of people. And these people in the scripture, not only we talk about human beings, they said these people work for the benefit of human and dewa. Dewa also benefit from these human beings who are doing this job. Devas and human beings for this life and as well as for the lives after. That's through the human intelligence. But this human intelligence must be infused with loving kindness and compassion, mitta and garuna. And then also have wisdom so that it can keep a balance. Not to overdo one thing or underdo one thing. Human intelligence with loving kindness and wisdom and with compassion and wisdom that will truly spread, truly stop the war and confrontation in this world, and that will truly bring the world peace into this planet. That is the only way, that only true way we can achieve world peace. Everything comes from inside, everything comes from individual, must develop. That is the only true way to get the world peace. So we know all these things, we heard all these things what the Buddha said. So we'll there's one thing that what's knowing. It's called Rahula Wada Sutra. Rahula is the Buddha's son. And at the age of seven, the son asks for inheritance, and Buddha gives his son inheritance, shave the head and put the robe on and become a little samaneira. And there's a lot of Dharma discourses came around based on what he discussed or talked or interact with the Rahula Samane Rap. And one thing, to put it in a very short, brief one, the Buddha asked Rahula, what is the use of the mirror? What do you use the mirror for? What is the use of the mirror? And the Rahula thing about it and answer very short and precise. For reflection. That's it. The whole sutra is what is the use of the mirror? And Rahula said for reflection. Okay, we look into the mirror. What do we look? We look at our reflection. Why do we look at the reflection? To check out whether our hairs are in place, our makeups are in place, our clothes are properly dressed, everything in order so that we can look beautiful for reflection of the body. And the Buddha carry on. Just like you use mirror for reflection, to see the false, whatever needs to upgrade, beautify yourself to the mirror. You also look into the mirror of the mind. Wisdom. You look into the mirror of the mind, the wisdom. And if you look into the mirror of the mind, you will truly see yourself. Look into the mirror of the mind. Check into the mirror of the mind with wisdom. You check it. Instantly you check it. And instantly you correct it. And that is very interesting. Instantly you check, and instantly you correct it. It is not that you sit down, okay. What did I do yesterday? What did I do last month? Or who do I relate with? I did good, I did bad, I'm not fair. That's also reflecting, but reflecting intellectually. Okay, it's a life reflection with your intelligence and the memories and trying to put a judgment call on it. That's also reflection, not so bad. If you don't do anything at all, that's better. But here is instantly you check and instantly you correct. That has a very deep, deep meaning. That means you live at the moment. At that moment, a mental state arises. You check into it, you observe it. And then instantly, if it is an unwholesome nature, you correct it into the wholesome nature. That is observing at the moment with great powerful observation with sati, samadhi, and binya. Instantly you check, and instantly you correct. That's the way Buddha said, and that is the mirror of mind. That is wisdom. In other words, you are always correcting and checking and correcting and checking so that unwholesome cannot arise and wholesome can prevail. That's from the Rahula Wara. This Buddha's talk to Rahula. So that's the way one to and Buddha say, Fathermore, don't look into the shortcomings of others. Don't look into the shortcoming of others. Don't focus into the shortcoming of others because it doesn't have any benefit. But you always check, you always look into the shortcoming of yourself. And if you look into others, it will never end. But if you look into your own shortcoming, that is where you can improve. Shortcoming of others. By doing so instantly, all the faults that one holds will be replaced with the essence. Before it is just hollow, faulty nature, and all these things you are replacing with the true essence. What is this true essence? Buddhist teaching. Or silat samadhi bina. Morality, concentration, and wisdom. That is the essence of a human sila samadhi and pinya. You'll be replacing all your faults, all your unwholesome with the three trainings. Sila, samadhi, bina. Okay, you escape by doing so, you escape from the prism of the mental defilements. And then you will be liberated by doing so. So in here, if you dressed up your mind, if you beautify your mind, automatically, naturally your speech becomes polite and graceful, your deed become very cultured, set in the Buddhist culture as you say. And only when you develop these things, body, speech and mind, to be wholesome and to be beautiful, at that moment you become a real true human being. That is the real true human being. Your deed speech and mind is totally beautiful. You are liberated. And then only the world peace can happen. May all of you be able to beautify your body, speech, and mind, and may you be able to become a true real human being as soon as possible.