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Can you afford not to meditate

Sayadaw U Jotika · 1 Aug 2003 · 2:18:24 · 0 plays

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We would like to invite Sayadaw U Tejaniya to give us a Dhamma talk for tonight.

Sayadaw?

Sit as you like. Make yourself comfortable,

because if you don't sit comfortably, you'll feel pain, and your mind will be there, thinking of pain, and you won't hear what I'm saying. That's the nature of mind, because the mind goes to where it's more painful.

I see many familiar faces.

This is the second time I come to this society to give a talk. Can anybody remember the first time I came? It was a long time ago, in 1996.

Many years ago.

So before we—before I give you a Dhamma talk, or before we start our discussion, let's begin our Dhamma talk by paying respect to the Buddha, reciting: "Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā samudāsa."

So.

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā samudāsa.

I know that you already have done your chanting and puja, so you don't need to do that anymore.

For me, my talk depends on you.

The audience response is very important. When you hear what I say, and when you participate in what I'm talking about, in any way, just by the expression on your face or by answering a question,

it makes the talk more interesting, and

it's very encouraging too. Because when you know that people hear what you say, then you

feel more energy, more enthusiasm, to go on talking.

Therefore, a talk depends not only on the speaker, but also on the audience.

I thought of talking some subject, another subject, but I changed that.

What I'm going to talk about today is why you cannot afford not to meditate.

You cannot afford not to meditate.

Does that sound interesting? Yes.

So,

I like reading, I like doing research. Since I was very young, I've been doing my own research works on many, many subjects.

So I read many books on research by many American doctors, especially American doctors and psychotherapists, on how meditation affects your mind and body and your way of life, your lifestyle even.

So I found many things very interesting.

Here, in my notes, the first point is: spirituality and religious life are good for people.

The interesting point here is why there are two things, spirituality and religious life. Aren't they the same? Is there any difference?

Is there any—so you said you are nodding. So you think that there's a difference between spirituality and religious life. How do you differentiate that? What's the difference? In a way, it's the same, and at the same time, in a way, it's not the same. Hmm. Oh, there is some similarity, but they're not exactly the same.

Right, I agree with you.

So that means that there are some people who do not

follow any strict religious

rules, but they still practice something which you can say is spiritual. Spiritual means it's wholesome, noble, good for your mind and body, makes you feel happy.

we have to differentiate between these two. Because in Singapore, I hear that many people are free thinkers. Is that right?

I am also a free thinker.

Because

you have to think freely. If you don't think freely, that means you are not thinking at all. How can you not think freely?

Can you say that I am thinking, but I'm not thinking freely? Does that make sense?

That doesn't make sense. If you are really thinking, then you must be thinking freely.

Therefore,

I believe that most of you are free thinkers, and I'm also a free thinker. But to be a free thinker is a big responsibility.

No thinkers have an easy life. They don't think.

But thinkers have a hard life. Because the more you think, the more you find that it's very difficult to make sure that something is right or wrong, or good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome. How do you know? How can you make sure that? So when I was younger,

I studied many subjects, and I attended many different schools. And mainly I was educated in a Roman Catholic missionary school. So I was exposed to many different ideas, many different religions. And I was grown up in a community where there are all kinds of people: Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and all kinds of people.

And all of them are my friends. I visit their homes. I spend a lot of time with their families. Sometimes I even eat there. So I hear many different views and ideas about what life means,

and what to believe and what not to believe, what is true and what is not true. So the more I hear people talking about these things, the more doubtful I became.

Because so many different ideas. How can you make sure, how can you feel sure that what this person is saying is true, and what that person is saying is not true? If you are not biased, how can you decide? So for many, many years,

I could not decide

to follow any religion

until I was 26. So that took a long time. So to make you, to tell you some details from my life story,

when we were in school, we had the fellow forms, and one thing they ask you is the religion, your religion.

And until I finished my degree, engineering degree, I felt that blank as, "Not yet."

In Burmese, it sounds more interesting. In Burmese, first I said "mashi." Mashi means I don't have it. But one of my friends said that, "That sounds very rude." So he said, then I said, then I will change it a little bit, "mashiba," which sounds a little bit softer.

Mashiba still means I don't have any religion yet.

But then my friend said, "Even that's not very good." "Mashi deba." Mashi deba means I don't have any religion now. That means it's open. The question is open. Maybe later I may have a religion. I may believe in a religious teaching.

even though I was not

a follower of any religious teaching, I was very interested in religion. I studied all religions, and I practiced many religious practices just to find out, from my own experience,

how that will affect me.

I am a very practical man. And therefore I studied engineering. Because in engineering, you have to do something. You have to work with machines. So I studied electrical engineering, which is very complicated.

Very interesting too.

Electricity is the most interesting thing in the physical world. How much it can do. Just imagine that if electricity disappears from the world for one day, what will happen to the world? Everything will come to a stop. You cannot make a phone call.

So I was very interested in engineering.

So when I studied religion,

I cannot just read something and believe it. I must do something about it. I must find out. So in my reading, I came across one sutra in the Pali text by the Buddha. And Buddha said, "Don't believe just because it is your tradition."

Oh, that gives me a lot of freedom.

Don't believe just because you have heard it so many times, repeatedly. Don't believe something just because it sounds reasonable. Sometimes things sound very reasonable, but it may not be true. Don't believe something because it

accords with the system, like philosophical systems. Don't believe something because

it agrees with what you already believe, what you think. Don't believe something because it's in the book. And don't believe something as true. Don't take it as true just because it's your teacher who said so. So don't believe what I said.

So if you don't believe, then what do you do?

You have to work very hard to find out for yourself. So which is easier, to believe or not to believe?

To believe is easier. Not to believe means you have to find out for yourself, which is you have to work harder. So Buddha said, "Practice and find out."

And that's what made me

get more interested in the teaching of the Buddha. Because Buddha gave me complete freedom to find out for myself. I have a choice. I can take it or I can leave it.

So I think my nature loves freedom.

I love freedom very much. I don't want to be told. I don't want people telling me, "Do this or do that." I don't want to take any orders. Maybe that's why I became a monk.

Because a monk doesn't take any orders from anybody.

And I never worked for anybody for one day even.

I studied many things. I have a degree in engineering, but I never worked for even one day. Because I can't take any orders.

I don't let anybody tell me to do this or to do that, not to do this or not to do that. I don't like the word "you have to."

I always want a choice.

So I respect that very much. As human beings, we are free to choose.

Whether we want to give up our freedom or not, we still have that freedom of choice. So because Buddha gave that freedom, that I don't even have to believe just because Buddha said so, just because it's in the Pali text. And I love that very much. From that day I loved Buddha.

Because he told me not to believe him. You don't even have to believe Buddha. You don't have to, you cannot say that, "This is true because Buddha said that."

If you say that, "This is true because Buddha said that," then you are not really following the Buddha's instruction. You are not a real disciple of the Buddha.

To be a real disciple of the Buddha, you have to practice and find out for yourself that this is true. So that is a very big responsibility. But I like to take responsibility. I want to work hard. I want to find out. So I started practicing meditation practice.

In the beginning, the practice was very simple, of course. I just practiced breathing and paying attention to breathing. In the beginning of my meditation practice, I did not aspire to attain nibbāna because I didn't know what it was. How can you want something you don't know?

But when I was reading Dhamma books and meditation books, there are a few things that I can agree and understand. And one thing is that if you meditate well, your mind will become calm and peaceful. I agree with that.

And I tried that and found that this is true.

In the beginning, I sat only for about 10 or 15 minutes,

very comfortably, and just breathed in and out.

And as much as possible, I tried to keep my attention on breathing near the nostril, the air rushing in and out, touching near the nostrils. So just practicing for 10 or 15 minutes a day, every day, after a few days I found out that after sitting for 15 minutes, my mind became much calmer,

less thoughts.

And when I pay attention to my whole body, I found out that after breathing

hard for 10 or 15 minutes, my body feels more energized.

The energy, the whole body feels full of energy and vibrating. I can feel a lot of sensations in all my body. And I found that very interesting. My mind got very much absorbed into observing what I was feeling in my body. And also I was watching my mind.

My mind also was much calmer than before. And another thing that I found out from reading Dhamma books and meditation books is that when your mind is calm and peaceful, then wisdom arises.

You become wiser. In Pali, it is "samāhito yathā buddham pajānati." So this is a very short sentence. Samāhito means a person whose mind is calm, whose mind is collected, concentrated.

Yathā buddha,

as it is, which means the truth. Pajānati means understand. So a person whose mind is calm, understand, as it is.

As it is means the truth.

So when the mind becomes more calm and peaceful, whatever you observe, you see it more clearly. You don't distort what you experience.

And because I like learning very much, I want to have a very good brain, good mind. I want to be more intelligent

so that I can understand

more difficult ideas. And I studied not only electrical engineering. I studied philosophy, psychology, history, anthropology, and many different cultures, biology, astronomy. What else? I even studied about black holes.

The whole, everything is so interesting. The whole world is so interesting. People are so interesting. Trees are interesting. Clouds are interesting. Stars are interesting. So I read many books on supernovas.

You know, this world, every element except hydrogen was once formed in a supernova. It was not formed on this earth, in this earth, because the earth does not have that much pressure and heat to make hydrogen atoms combine.

So it was once formed in a supernova, and the supernova exploded, and it gets condensed again somewhere. So all the elements

in this world except hydrogen were formed in a supernova. So everything in my body was once

belonged to a supernova. And I found that very interesting. When I look at the stars, that idea came into my mind. Well, I belong to that star. I am that star. They are one together. So the whole universe is one together. So I'm so interested in so many subjects that I need a kind of a

better computer, better processor,

so that I can understand many things. I can read many things and absorb and understand.

So when I read Dhamma books and meditation books and found out that if you meditate, you become more intelligent because you have less distractions in your mind. You conserve a lot of energy. Otherwise, you waste so much energy that you can't even think straight. So therefore, whenever I want to read a difficult book, before reading the book, I will sit and meditate, make my mind very calm and quiet so that I can forget about whatever happened before, clear away my mind.

And then I will concentrate all my attention to what I'm reading. It's just like a computer. You want to use one software so that you shut down every other software, so that you have all your memory in the computer available. So that way, I calm my mind down and shut off all the unnecessary thoughts and focus all my attention to what I am reading.

That way, I can understand everything I read very deeply and creatively and found that reading is really enjoyable and exciting.

So if you can read creatively,

it is really enjoyable, very exciting.

Since I want to know everything about the world, I thought, "Oh, life is so short. There's so much to know and so little time." I still think that, so much to know and so little time. I go to the bookshops and I see so many books. I want to know many subjects, but I don't have enough time.

Now I have to select

some books that I think I must read, that is worth reading. So in the beginning, it was more like curiosity, just very curious. But now I know that I don't have so much time. I have to select and read good books only. So after meditating for a few years, I found out that the way I think

changed very much. And another reason I like meditation practice is that because I was a compulsive thinker,

because my brain was too active, I could not fall asleep.

That was a big difficulty too. So when I read Dhamma books and meditation books and found out that it makes your mind calm and peaceful, not only in Dhamma books, I read that idea in many other books too. And one other book is called Relief Without Drugs, written by a doctor named Dr.

Inslea Mears. And in that book, one disease which he put in the book

is insomnia.

I have been suffering from insomnia since I was in my early teens. And I still can't fall asleep easily. My brain is very active. I want to know. I want to know. I keep observing my mind and body.

But now I can fall asleep much better than before. So because it was very difficult for me to fall asleep, I

slept in my bed with my body relaxed, the whole body relaxed, and I also let my mind relax and I focus on breathing. And I tell myself, "Relax, relax. Be at peace. Be at peace." And I give myself suggestion. I'm feeling sleepy.

I'm feeling sleepy. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to sleep soundly. So after doing that for a few days, I found out that it works. You relax your body and mind, and you give yourself suggestion that you are feeling sleepy and that you are going to sleep.

Then you sleep well. It's like I have to give myself permission to go to sleep.

Otherwise, my mind will not give me permission to go to sleep. Stay awake. Stay awake. Learn more. Learn more.

So practicing meditation allows me to fall asleep.

So that way,

when my mind became more and more calm, it became more disciplined. When I want to do something,

I can focus on what I want to do wholeheartedly. I can do everything wholeheartedly. So as I develop deeper and deeper concentration and awareness, everything becomes more and more interesting. So I want to give you one advice, especially younger people.

Many younger people here. Yes. Over there. How old are you? Yes? 20. Okay. If you want to, if you don't want to feel bored, if you don't like boredom, if you want to be interested, then learn to make your mind calm and concentrated.

When your mind becomes calm and concentrated and you focus on something, everything becomes more interesting.

Even watching an ant carrying a piece of food is very interesting. You can see how hard they work to carry a grain of rice. You can feel like you have become the ant. When you concentrate very well, you feel like you are the ant carrying that grain of rice.

And you can see that you are working very hard to pull that grain of rice. You can see that an ant is also very intelligent.

Although it is so tiny, it's very intelligent. And also the birds, you see the birds, they are so interesting. They enjoy their life so much. I never saw a depressed bird.

I watch birds. I have binoculars and I have books on birds, especially because I live in Burma. I have a book, very thick one, Birds of Southeast Asia. So whenever I see a bird, I will look up in the book, "Oh, this is the name." And I have Sounds of Bird tapes with the names.

This is the sound of bulbul. This is the sound of a certain

dove. So I get very interested in everything. Everything is so interesting. I have no time to feel bored. I never feel bored.

So if you don't want to feel boredom,

learn to train your mind to become calm and concentrated. Then everything becomes very interesting. You observe your body and it's also very interesting. When you observe your mind, it's even more interesting. So I found out that the most interesting thing in this universe is human mind.

Every other thing, everything is interesting, but the most interesting thing in the universe is human mind. It's the most complicated too.

So that's how I got very interested in meditation.

In the beginning, as I told you, I did not want to become enlightened. I just want to get interested in things that I do. And I want to find out what I really love to do, what I want to do wholeheartedly. Because when you do something wholeheartedly, you enjoy that very much.

If you have resistance doing something, it makes you feel more and more tired. You hate doing that. And sometimes you hate yourself too because you have to do that.

But when you are interested in doing something, you don't feel so tired. So I don't want to go on living my life doing things that I don't love. Life is so precious and life is so short also. Therefore, I want to do things that I really love doing.

And I learned to love meditating too.

as I practiced meditation for many years, after about eight years, one day, as I was meditating in my own room in the university hostel room,

my mind became very calm and quiet and peaceful and silent, completely silent. Then I understood what it means by silence. Silence doesn't just mean no sound around you.

Because even though

you are in a place where there is nothing happening, no sound around you, in your mind, it's very noisy. You are thinking so much and it's very noisy, noisy mind. But

as I practiced meditation for many years,

gradually it became more and more calm and quiet and concentrated. But one day it became so quiet

that, "Oh, this is the most wonderful experience in my life." And the happiness and peacefulness was also inexplicable. You cannot explain that. How can you say that you are happy when there's nothing happening in your mind?

It's very difficult to explain.

Most people

think that when you are seeing something or doing something and excited about something, then you are happy. But when your mind is really calm and quiet and there's complete silence in the mind, you feel very happy, but it's very difficult to explain. You are aware, you are alert, you feel very much alive, your body and mind is full of energy.

Then

you really feel that, "Now I am a human being."

This is very difficult to explain. That's the way I felt.

Because when your mind is agitated, you don't even know who you are. It's all the noise going on in your mind. You are compelled to do many things. You are compelled to think. Even the thoughts are crazy, crazy thoughts going on and on. You have no control. But when the mind becomes very calm and quiet and you are observing that calmness and quietness and peacefulness, then you feel that you are a human being.

I don't know whether you can understand that or not, but anyway, that's the way I felt.

And from that day on, I tell myself that from today, I am a human being.

Before that, I was just born as a human being in the shape of a human being,

but not a real human being.

And when the mind becomes really calm and quiet, whatever you observe, you can see very clearly arising and passing away, arising and passing away.

Then you see what the Buddha said is true. It's all impermanent.

Then you see that everything happens according to the law of nature. Everything happens according to the law of nature. Nothing can happen against nature.

So I give many explanations to make younger people understand what it means, what anattā means. Because in most cases, anattā means no control, no self. Everybody knows that, this definition of anattā.

No control, no person, no ego, no self.

So that means you cannot do anything about it. Whatever happens, you cannot do anything about it, right? No, you are wrong.

Anattā means everything works according to the law of nature. So if you know the law of nature, you can make things work. You can make your life work. You can plan your life and make it happen according to the plan even,

more or less. But it depends on many other factors too. For example, if you have a lemon seed, can you make it grow into an orange tree? No way. No way you can make it grow into an orange tree. But if you know what a lemon seed needs to grow into a lemon tree, you can get the right kind of soil and put the seed in the soil and you water it properly, look after it, fertilize it, and put it in a proper place where it can get enough sun.

It can grow into the best lemon tree, big and beautiful. The same way with you, with yourself. If you know how your mind and body works, how your mind affects your body, if you know how things work, you can become the best human being that you are capable of, that it's possible.

So that is anattā. Anattā doesn't mean that there's nothing you can do and it's all hopeless. If you really understand the law of nature, you accept anattā and you work according to the law of nature and you become the best that you can be.

So when I understood that, it made me feel very confident. You don't feel hopeless just because you see anattā. Oh, no control, no control. All chaotic. No.

Everything works according to the law of nature systematically. So when I first see this law of nature, I felt more confident. I feel confident now also.

I can decide to do something. I can make it happen.

That doesn't mean that just because I wish it, it will happen. No, not that way. I need to find out what causes are necessary

to make that happen. So I have to learn and find out all the necessary causes and put all the necessary causes together and it will happen.

So most people, their life is very chaotic.

I know many people who say that nothing works in their life. Whatever they try to do, they fail.

Just because they don't understand the law of nature, they don't understand the law of mind, they don't understand the law of karma.

So meditation practice helps me to understand these things. The law of mind, the law of karma, good karma and bad karma, they are affecting your life now.

So that piece that I just told you, I wrote down in this note, a piece that defies description is possible.

Very quiet, peaceful state of mind. It's very enjoyable. So people these days are very busy and they get very tired. But most people don't know how to overcome that tiredness. So to overcome tiredness, they watch television and they make themselves even more tired.

And spiritual life in general is very healthy. When you study Dhamma, when you practice meditation, you develop wisdom. Because of that, you know what is proper and what is not proper. You know what is healthy and what is not healthy. In every cases,

even when you eat something, if you are mindful, as you eat, you can know that whether this food is agreeable or not, healthy or not.

All meditators know that. And one of my friends who is a good meditator said that even before I eat that food, I know whether it is good or not. Even before that. Your mind becomes so powerful that even the smell, from the smell of the food, you can tell that this is not good, not healthy.

So one of my friends who was a smoker and also a drinker

meditated for a long time. When he first came to me, he said, "I cannot give up smoking and I cannot give up drinking, but I want to meditate. Is that okay?" I said, "Yeah, yeah, it's okay.

Meditate first." So he meditated and I reminded him that whenever the craving to smoke or to drink arises, watch that craving very closely.

Don't give in immediately. Take your time. Get interested in that desire. Desire is very interesting. Greed is a very interesting mental state. So he was a very earnest and honest person. When the desire to smoke or to drink arises in his mind, he watched that mental state

for quite a long time. But after a while, he can't wait anymore.

So I gave him full instruction. I said, "Yes, if you want to drink, if you decide that you are going to drink, go, but go mindfully. Get the bottle mindfully. Get the cup mindfully. Put the liquor in the cup mindfully. Take the cup mindfully.

Bring the cup to your lips mindfully. Take a sip mindfully, but don't swallow immediately. Keep it in your mouth for a while and see what you feel." So he tried that. He kept the liquor in the mouth and mindfully watching what's happening. He said the mouth became very warm, the throat became very warm, and the cheek also became very warm, hot.

And then he swallowed that slowly. And he said, "When I drink mindfully, I cannot drink as much as I used to drink.

I feel satisfied just after a few sips and then I put the liquor back in the bottle and put it away."

So mindfulness

limits you. If you are doing something unwholesome, mindfulness limits that. So after practicing mindfulness for a long time, maybe for about a couple of years,

and he still drank, but many times saying that, "I'm going to quit drinking." He said that again and again, "I'm going to quit drinking." And he said that to his wife too. And he told that, he said, "I'm going to quit drinking." But later he will go and get the bottle and drink. And his wife said, "You have said that you are going to quit drinking many, many times.

When are you going to do that? You are still drinking." And he got very upset. He said, "Don't tell me what to do. Because you are telling me not to drink, I'm going to drink."

So he went on drinking. But as he meditated, the craving for this alcohol drink became less and less and he didn't want to drink it anymore. So one day he said,

"From today, I will not drink anymore." And he really stopped drinking. But just to test himself whether his resolution was strong enough or not, he kept a bottle in the refrigerator.

Just as a temptation to see that if he can really

stop drinking at all.

But he really stopped drinking. Until now, he never drinks anymore. And another lady I met in America,

her story is very interesting. She was a drug addict and alcoholic and mentally also very unstable. She couldn't hold down a job. She couldn't get along with anybody. And she came to the monastery. So I asked her, "Why did you come to the monastery?" She said, "I can't sleep."

I said, "Okay, okay. If you can't sleep, it's okay. There's a kind of meditation practice you can practice so that you can sleep. What's that kind of meditation practice? Can you tell?

If you practice that, you fall asleep soundly and you don't have bad dreams." Ah, before I finish telling you, you already know. Meditation, of course. If you practice meditation, you become so gentle.

So you feel peaceful. You fall asleep. You don't have bad dreams. You wake up fresh. So I taught her to practice meditation.

And I told her to come back the next day. The next day she came back and I said, "How are you doing in your meditation practice?" She said, "I cannot practice meta meditation." I said, "Why? You send meta to yourself. May I be happy and peaceful? May I be healthy? May I have all the nice things that I want?" Everybody likes to do that.

She said, "I don't want to think about myself. I hate myself." So I said, "What about your parents?" She said, "My father died a long time ago. He was an alcoholic and I hate him very much because he never looked after us when we were young." "And what about your mother?"

And she said, "My mother also never cared for us. So I don't even want to hear my mother's voice. When she calls me on the telephone, as soon as I hear her voice, I put down the telephone. I don't want to talk with her." Then I said, "What about your teachers in school?" She said, "I can't think of any teacher that I can really feel better."

"And friends?" She said, "I have no friends."

Wow, I thought, "This is a very difficult case. I've never met such a case before."

Then I said, "I'm very surprised to hear that. I'm not blaming you, but this is the first time I've heard from somebody who has nobody that she can love."

Then she became very quiet and thoughtful and said, "Well, there's a dog that I love. It's my friend's dog. Not her dog, it's her friend's dog. When I play with the dog, I feel very happy." Then I said, "Oh, at least you have somebody you can love. Think of that dog and send meta."

Loving a dog and loving a human being, the same. The same mental state.

So gradually I taught her to develop loving-kindness and also mindfulness meditation. Her mind is so dull and sleepy most of the time because she took a lot of drugs and she drank a lot of alcohol. So it was very hard for her to sit and meditate.

So I told her to walk mindfully

without any shoes,

barefoot, bare feet, walking on the rough concrete floor. So

she practiced that very diligently. She worked very hard. So she focused all her attention on taking each step slowly and putting down and feeling the sensation on her feet. So she practiced day and night. And one day she came back to me and said, "Last night I woke up in the middle of the night.

Everybody was asleep and it was a full moon night. And I wanted to go out. So I went out and I looked at the moon. It was so wonderful. The moon was so clear and bright. And I looked at the trees, the forest, because the monastery was in a big forest, in a redwood forest.

And she said, "I looked at the trees. They are so beautiful and they feel alive. I feel like they are persons.

And I feel their peacefulness. The trees are so peaceful." And I started doing walking meditation again. And she said, "My mind became very calm and quiet and peaceful. That's the first time in my life I've experienced peace of mind."

And from that day on, she worked harder and harder. And after a few months, she totally quit drinking and totally quit taking drugs and all other. She took many different kinds of drugs: drugs, marijuana, I don't know what.

And because she was

an alcoholic and a drug addict, she didn't eat very well. She was very skinny and very poor. She had no money. But after quitting

alcohol and drugs, she became healthy. She started eating good food, healthy food. And she wrote to me, "Now I gained 17 pounds." She put on weight. She became happier, healthier. And she started making more friends and she got a job as an accountant because she has a diploma in accountancy.

And I went back to America in 2001. When I first met her, it was in 1983. And I left America in 1984. And I didn't go back until 2001. So 17 years gap in between. When one day she found out that I was there, she came to me and I saw her and I was very happy to see her.

"Oh, Taddeo." I greeted her. She said, "Oh, you remember me?" I said, "Of course I remember you. You look so healthy." She said, "Yes, I'm very healthy. I look after myself very well now. I eat good food. I meditate every day. I walk every day twice, once in the morning, once in the evening. And I own my job and I own a house."

You see, her life has changed. Meditation

gave her confidence and power and discipline,

courage, determination, persistence, all that, so that she can plan her life and she changed her life.

So I was very healthy to see very happy to see her. And one other thing she said,

"I am still sober." That's what she said.

She was very happy to say that, "I am still sober." Still sober means she stopped drinking in 1984 and until 2001, when we last met, she did not drink even a drop of liquor.

She looked very healthy.

And another thing she said, "I have an altar in my office." I didn't try to convert her to Buddhism. I only taught her to live a healthy life, to make her mind become more calm and peaceful and quiet, to be happy, to be a happy person, to live a healthy lifestyle. I just helped her to do that.

But later she developed love and respect for the Buddha and for the monks also. Now when she saw her, she met me, she bowed down with real humility, with real gratitude. And I feel so happy, not because she was bowed down to me, bowing down to me.

I feel happy for her heart, for her gratitude for the Dharma, for the Buddha.

So meditation practice can really change a person's life. It is really beneficial. It really works. These people I met, they were not Buddhists. They were Christians. And some of them are just Christian

on the paper, not in life. They don't go to church. They don't read Bibles.

They are only Christians on paper.

But after practicing meditation for a long, long time and after

they improve their life, they develop real deep understanding of the truth of Dharma,

spontaneously and naturally they develop confidence in the Buddha.

In Pali, it is called saddhā, confidence. Some people, somebody translate that into

faith, but I don't think faith is the right word. Confidence is a better word. Confidence, yes. Trust also. Trust the Buddha. Trust the teaching of the Buddha. So it happened to me the same way. I was not a born Buddhist. I was just

my parents were Muslims. I went to a Christian school. I learned more Christianity than my parents' religion.

But later when I started reading many books, I became an atheist.

I told myself that I cannot believe in any religion.

Although some of the teaching sounds good, I cannot believe in any religion. I want to be a good human being. I want to be a friendly person. I want to be loved and respected. I want to do good work. I want to help people. And I think that's enough. But later when I meditated, I found out that that's not enough.

There are deeper truths and reality that we human beings can find out, can experience. And by really seeing with our own mind the deeper truths and reality, we can become really free. So I love freedom very much. So one reason that motivates me

to keep on practicing is that the more you find out the truth, the more free you become. So one philosopher said, "Truth shall make you free."

Some people know that already, heard about that. So I like that very much. Truth shall make you free. And I agree. Therefore I want to find out all the truths as much as I can. So I also found out that life keeps going on and on. Death is not the end of life. Death is only a change in lifestyle.

It's not the end. And I've met many people who can remember their past lives. I lived with them for many years. I did a lot of research work on reincarnation, so to speak, reincarnation. But a better term is to say rebirth. So life goes on and on. Therefore I thought, I must be very careful what I do every day because it doesn't disappear.

It will not disappear. What I do will affect me now and it will affect me tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. And not only that, it will affect me in my future life too. So whatever I think, whatever I say, whatever I do will affect me now and in the future.

So I have to be very careful. So I developed more and more mindfulness and I wash my mind more and more. Whenever there is any unwholesome thoughts arising, I pay very close attention. And just by paying close attention, that unwholesome mind becomes weaker and weaker and it stops. So just paying close attention can make unwholesome mental states become weaker and weaker and disappear.

You don't have to fight. Don't fight. You will never win by fighting.

Unwholesome mental state is not afraid of

this fighting. It's not afraid of fighting. The unwholesome mental state is very afraid of

being looked at with full attention.

If you look at any mental state, any unwholesome mental state with full attention, you'll find that it will disappear very quickly. But what happens to wholesome mental states? When you wash the wholesome mental state, it gets stronger and stronger.

And

when you become more mindful and you wash that mindfulness again, mindfulness becomes more strong, stronger and stronger. So if you want to develop very strong mindfulness, pay more attention to that mindful state of mind. You must know that now the mind is mindful. Mindful, mindful, mindful.

So if you are aware of mindfulness, it becomes stronger and stronger.

So I've benefited very much from my meditation practice. And I've met many people who I have encouraged and guided to practice awareness, mindfulness, and I've seen how their life changed.

I never tried to convert anybody to Buddhism, but after they have learned from their own meditation practice, the truth, the Dharma,

spontaneously and naturally they develop confidence and trust in Buddha Dharma. So I like that way very much.

Religion usually promotes healthy lifestyles and behaviors, which is very obvious. You keep five precepts. And five precepts can make your life healthier. You don't kill, you don't steal, you don't commit adultery, you don't lie, you don't take any drugs. It's healthy for your body and mind.

It's healthy for the whole community. If everybody keeps five precepts, the community will be a really healthy community. And whoever grows up in that healthy community will be healthy too.

So these days there are so much crimes and drug abuse,

unhealthy lifestyles because people don't learn much about the value of

religion, so to speak, the value of Dharma. They don't really practice.

So from many books that I've read, many research books I've read,

many doctors said that religious people consistently report greater life satisfaction.

This is also true because you

are not doing anything unwholesome or harmful to yourself or to other people. You love yourself more. You have more self-respect. If you are doing something evil and you know that you are doing something evil, can you respect yourself?

No.

So not to be able to respect yourself is a great loss,

maybe the greatest loss.

It doesn't matter whether other people respect you or not. But if you don't respect yourself, you have lost everything. If you cannot love yourself, you have lost everything. It doesn't matter whether people love you or not. Some may love you, some may not love you. It's up to them. But if you cannot love yourself, you have lost everything.

So if you are a good person trying to be trying to practice the Dharma as much as possible, you have more respect and love for yourself. Sometimes you make mistakes. I still make mistakes. But I can forgive myself because I know that

with all honesty

and confidence in the Dharma, I'm trying my best. Sometimes I make small mistakes. I can forgive myself.

So it is also very important to forgive yourself. But if you intentionally do something harmful to yourself or to other people, it's difficult for you to forgive because there's the intention to do harm.

So religious people consistently report greater life satisfaction. Another thing, marital satisfaction.

I hear many people even recently telling me that, "Oh, her husband is a womanizer." And she's very unhappy about that.

So if a person understands and values Dharma and practice and keeps five precepts, not committing adultery, there will be not much problem in the family.

So another thing is well-being. If you keep five precepts and practice meta-meditation and also mindfulness meditation or any other kind of meditation practice, your body and mind also feels healthier. It's good for your health.

And another thing is altruism. People who practice Dharma are more loving, more compassionate. Therefore they are willing to help. They are willing to share what they have with other people. When they hear that somebody is in difficulty, in need, they are happy to help. It's not that they have the

responsibility. It's not out of responsibility they help. They willingly help other people and they are happy.

And self-esteem also develops, which is also very important. Self-esteem.

Then to non-religious people. So these research scientists, they have observed thousands of people for many, many years, for 10 years, for 20 years, and they have all the datas in the database and they found out that people who practice loving-kindness, people who practice meditation are happier than people who don't practice any kind of meditation.

And here, there are so many people here.

You come here because you love Dharma, you appreciate Dharma, you value Dharma. You read about Dharma books, you listen to Dharma talks, you practice meditation, you chant, you do chanting. So when you come regularly to this place, you get to know each other. You become friends, Dharma friends.

Dharma friends are the best friends because Dharma friends doesn't encourage each other to do anything evil.

Dharma friends encourage each other to do what is wholesome, what is good, what is beneficial. So you have support from each other. This is very important. We human beings need support from each other. Even in practicing Dharma, we need that support.

So when you come together to this place regularly and most of you are members of this society, you have a sense of belonging. We belong to this society. We belong to each other. We need each other. We help each other. So you don't feel so lonely.

Oh, here

I've copied from that research

results some datas. I'll read that for you. Greater life satisfaction 92%. 92% of the people who practice meta-meditation and Vipassanā, mindfulness meditation, experienced and the observers even observed

clear evidence. And they asked questions also. Are you satisfied with your life? 92% said yes.

So greater life satisfaction 92%. Greater marital satisfaction, greater satisfaction in their marriage. You will not believe it. 100%. Husband keeps five precepts, wife keeps five precepts.

Husband loving and wife loving. Here are my friends.

I know them very well. I live in their apartment. We went to the same universities. We studied engineering together.

So they are very happy. So marital satisfaction 100%. Greater well-being. That means health. You feel healthy. You feel strong. 94%. So 6%, some of them may have some disease. They don't feel well. And greater altruism 60%.

I think that is too less, too little. Why 60%? I don't know. So those who practice Dharma are willing to help other people, but only 60%. Too little.

But anyway, that's the data I found from the research book. And reduced alcohol use. Some people are not able to give up totally, but they reduce that. 89%. Reduced alcohol use. Reduced nicotine use. What's that? Smoking.

100%. They smoke less and less. They don't feel the greed anymore. So it's greed.

You can't it's like a compulsion.

So that's 100%. And reduced drug use. 100%. And improved psychological symptoms, including adjustment and coping. 93%.

As you develop more calmness and peacefulness, you can adjust and cope with many situations. You can understand the situation much better and you can adjust and cope and overcome.

So that's 93%. It's great. And reduced depression. That's a terrible word. Depression is a terrible word. I have suffered from depression when I was in my teens. I know that. You want to die sometimes.

And you hate that you were born. And sometimes you hate your parents. Why do you get married and give me birth to?

Just bring me into the world to suffer this meaningless life. But when you practice Dharma and learn the truth, then you feel so grateful to your parents. Now I feel so grateful to my parents. They have given birth to me. They took the trouble.

So reduced depression 71%. And this is another note I found from another book. Depression is perhaps the most widespread psychological problem of modern times.

I have many books on depression. I read about depression. I studied depression. I know a lot of people who are suffering depression and I'm trying my best to help them. And I know how terrible that is. Some people really don't want to wake up in the morning.

They don't want to face another day. Oh, another day.

It's a big burden for them even to wake up, get up and wash themselves, even to make a cup of coffee and drink.

In the simplest human terms, depression can be understood as a loss of heart, the basic goodness of the human heart. So if you don't have that basic goodness anymore, you are sure to feel depressed. So when you practice Dharma, keeping five precepts and practicing loving-kindness and practicing meta-meditation or compassion and practicing Vipassanā, Sati Pattana, mindfulness meditation, you develop calmness, quietness, peacefulness, happiness.

So when you become calm and quiet and peaceful and happy, you become more loving, more generous. You feel happy that you are alive. You appreciate every moment in your life.

So depression is a symptom that arises when we cannot feel that goodness and aliveness. We cannot feel the goodness and aliveness of our heart. You don't feel alive anymore. You don't feel goodness in your heart anymore. So when you practice meditation, you feel that you are good.

You can see that as a human being you have also good and bad qualities. But as you practice Dharma, you can see that the good qualities are getting better and better. You are developing good qualities. You become more loving, more compassionate, more forgiving, more understanding, more happy, more cheerful, wiser.

Every life situation, even all the difficulties you've been through become very meaningful. So as a human being like you, I also have many difficulties in my life, many ups and downs. So I'm no different from you. But practicing Dharma has helped me so much to understand and learn from all those difficulties

and helped me to become wiser so that now when I make a decision, I can make a very wise decision. I take time. Whenever I have to make a very important decision, I meditate for a long time, sometimes even a few days, so that my mind becomes really calm and quiet.

Then I make the decision. Then it is not greed making the decision. It is not anger making the decision. It is not envy or jealousy or pride making the decision. It is not the delusion or illusion making the decision. It is mindfulness and wisdom making the decision.

So very rarely

I make serious mistakes in my decisions. So when you become really calm and quiet and peaceful and wiser, that wisdom makes the right choice. It's not you making the choice. It's the wisdom that is making the decision, that is making the choice. So you can rely on that.

And because you know that you are becoming a better human being, you feel very happy about that. And mindfulness and concentration makes you feel really alive.

Think of the opposite. If when a person is not mindful, when a person's mind is really agitated, how can that person become or feel alive? For example,

some people who take drugs a lot, they are so dull. They don't even know where they are. I've met a lot of people like that. They don't know what they are doing. They don't feel alive. So wisdom can make you feel really alive. But before you get to that stage, even in the beginning stage of your meditation practice, once you become more mindful, you become more alive.

When you become more concentrated and more calm, you become more alive. When you develop wisdom, then you become really alive. Wisdom can make you feel alive. It's the life of life. Wisdom is. So I'm writing one book, almost finished writing a book in English, and the title in Burmese is

Adheshilayat Bhavate Nidu. To translate that into English, it means

still alive but

dead.

I don't know exactly how to translate that. Your life is dead, but your body is still alive. Your life is dead, but your body is still alive. Do you know some people like that? I know many because I go around and I meet with many people. There are some people, their body is still alive, but their life is dead.

So I've written that book very thoughtfully. This is very dangerous. This is happening. So what can you do so that your life does not die before your body dies?

Find out. And also teach your children too because they are in greater danger.

reduced depression 71%. But I think if you keep on meditating,

almost anybody can overcome depression.

Reduced hostility. That is another data. 100%. When you become more loving, more mindful, you are not so hostile anymore. Sometimes you may get angry and upset, but you don't hit or hurt another person. You may say something with anger.

I don't like it. I hate it. But you will not really harm another person. But when you become really mindful, you won't even say that. You won't even say, "I hate you." You will say that, "I don't like that. I don't like what you said. I don't like what you did."

That's okay. That's valid. You can say that. You have the right to say that. I don't like what you said. I don't like what you did. But you don't say, "I hate you."

So reduced hostility 100%, which is very good. Reduced general anxiety.

A lot of people are going through a lot of anxiety these days. Can anybody raise hand and say that, "Ah, I have some anxiety"?

Yes.

Things are changing and you are not sure of your future. But if you have developed inner strength by practicing meditation and also wisdom, then you won't have so much anxiety.

So one psychologist even called this age the age of anxiety.

So we must be prepared for all these things. Reduced debt anxiety. That's another kind of anxiety. Life anxiety and debt anxiety.

Reduced debt anxiety is 67%. 67%. You are not so afraid of debt anymore. Some people are no afraid anymore, no fear of debt anymore.

Improved general health 80%. Reduced blood pressure 80%.

Improved quality of life in cancer patients 88%. Improved quality of life in heart disease patients 67%.

Increased survival

89%. So can you afford not to meditate?

That's my question.

If you think you can afford not to meditate, I'll tell you, good luck.

So you can learn meditation practice from many teachers. I believe that many teachers come to this center to teach meditation practice. And it's not very complicated. You can begin with very simple meditation technique, but you have to meditate regularly every day. And that's very important.

Whether you make any improvement or not, keep doing it. Because as I told you, I practiced meditation for eight years without really making any improvement. But after eight years, I experienced some improvement. So I am persistent.

And I read in the book I Ching, I Ching or

a book, a Chinese book, I Ching. You know that book? I Ching.

And

in that book, in one place, in many places, it says, "Perseverance prosper." Has anybody read that part?

Perseverance. The same, persistent. Perseverance means you don't give up. So if you don't give up, gradually you will learn

to become more mindful, more concentrated,

and you will see the reality, the truth very clearly.

The longer one makes meditation part of one's routine, the more peaceful and relaxed one becomes.

So it depends on how long you practice. So when I went to walk in the morning, I see many people in the parks sitting and meditating

in Singapore.

And I feel very happy when I see people meditating.

Just to see somebody sitting very quietly and meditating. I don't know what kind of meditation that person is practicing. It doesn't matter to me. But I know that this person is doing something that is good for him, good for his mind and body. He's not doing something evil. He's doing something wholesome. And that makes me feel very happy.

when you see a happy person, it makes you happy. When you see an unhappy person, what happens?

Naturally, it makes you unhappy. So if you want to make another person happy, what is the least that you can do? Be happy.

Be happy.

Meditative calmness could disconnect everyday thoughts and worries, calming people's bodies and mind more quickly and to a degree otherwise unachievable. This is from a medical book. This quotation is.

It's not my sentence. I read from a medical book, a research book. So

meditative calmness could disconnect everyday thoughts. What's everyday thoughts?

Worries, worries. Job. Oh, prices are rising. Oh, my salary. Oh, my car. Oh, my house. My bills. My wife is sick. My husband is sick. All the worries.

So when you meditate, your mind becomes quiet. You don't think of that anymore. And it is very important. I don't mean to say that you should never think of those worries.

But it is very important to have some time when you have no worries anymore. Just a few minutes of real peace every day is very important.

So meditative calmness could disconnect everyday thoughts and worries, calming people's body and mind. Your body also becomes calm. Your mind also becomes calm. So when you work the whole day, your body is also agitated. Your mind is also very agitated, vibrating very much.

But when you meditate, after a while, if you are a regular meditator, after a while you can feel your body become more and more relaxed and calm. Even your breathing becomes more normal, calm. Your thoughts also become slowed down and quiet

more quickly, which means there's no other way by which you can make your body and mind calm so quickly. Meditation is the best way to do that. You can take sedatives to make your mind and body calm, but it also makes your mind dull. It also makes your body dull. But meditation does not make your mind and body dull.

It gives you more energy. You become more alive. To be dull means to be less alive, which is not good. But when you meditate, you feel more energy and you also feel calm. You feel more alive and you feel peaceful.

calming people's bodies and mind more quickly and to a degree otherwise unachievable, which means there's no other way you can get so calm and peaceful. This is the only way.

Like a child, your body and mind want attention and feel comforted when they receive it. Your body and mind want attention. So pay attention to the whole body, from the head to the toe. Go through from your head to your toe. Every part of your body.

Don't leave any part unnoticed. So

there's a word for that. Does anybody know the word for that? Body scan. Body scan.

Like you scan in the machine, you scan your heart. I had that last year and found out that my heart has 0% blockage.

So you scan your body. You go through slowly. You feel the tension, the stress. Slowly. Every part of your body. Neck, face, hands, arms, down to your toes. Slowly, slowly go through the whole body. Pay attention. And after that, you pay attention to your mind too.

Your body and mind will become more and more peaceful and calm.

Here's one thing I want to remind you,

which is also

warned by a doctor. Many of us try to keep the brain as busy and active as possible.

Many of us. How many of us do that?

Keeping busy

and active.

But I've learned that a period of focusing to the exclusion of everyday thoughts can actually increase mental productivity.

Some of us may think that if we think more, then we will learn more, then we will be more productive. But this is not always true.

Sometimes we don't really think. We become agitated. And when you make your mind calm and quiet, you become more productive. When I was in university, before I study any subject, I'll meditate first for 5 minutes or 10 minutes. Not to get enlightened, just to calm down.

Just to calm down.

And then I'll read the subject. It's quite difficult. Electrical engineering is mind-boggling. The circuits are so complicated.

But if you have a very calm and quiet mind, you can see how it works. You can see the reasoning, how the law of nature works in the electrical circuit.

So you can learn much more. You can remember more. You can think more creatively. You can invent something new. So to have a calm and quiet mind is more productive.

So that means it is not always useful to be thinking all the time.

I'll leave some of the things which are very important.

Here are a few short things that I've written down just to remind you. Meditation is a very creative process.

You have to learn by doing it. And as you meditate, you will learn that

as a person, you are unique and your meditation practice also is unique.

The way I practice is suitable only for me. But I learned the basics from my teacher. And as I practice, gradually it happens naturally

to suit my personality, my nature. And it becomes so natural for me now that

sometimes I don't think I'm meditating. Meditation is just happening.

It happens naturally. It becomes natural.

Therefore, meditation is also very creative. You must learn to develop

the meditation practice to suit your lifestyle, to suit your daily routine.

So just ask yourself, how can I meditate now in any situation? Let's say, for example, you're riding on a bus. Can you meditate on a bus? Of course, yes. Quite simple. Also when you're riding MRT, it's quite simple. You can meditate there. But what about eating?

Can you meditate while you are eating?

You can, but it's a little bit difficult because sometimes when you're very hungry, you want to

eat so quickly that you can't be mindful. I do that too sometimes. It's okay.

And what about meditating while speaking? Is that possible? Sometimes you can walk your mind while speaking but at the same time you're talking and can't be mindful of what you're saying. Yes, yes, yes. You're right. You're right.

You know quite well. You must be learning it for a long time. Because I'm mindful and when I'm not mindful, I feel quite difficult to talk.

I'm not too fluent on the back side.

But

I mean you're observing, not the mind, but at the same time you're observing. Yes, the same time you're observing it. Yes, thoughts are just arising. Whether you want to think or not, your thoughts are arising. So you watch your thoughts. So what's the difference between thinking and talking?

When you are talking, you make sounds from your mouth. When you are thinking,

it's the same process, but you're not making any sound from your mouth. But you are still making sound in your brain. So can you listen to your thoughts? So if you can listen to your thoughts, then you can talk mindfully too.

Thinking and talking are not much different. So Buddha instructed specifically, "Vāsiti, saṃvajānākāri hoti," while speaking, do that mindfully. A meditator, do that mindfully. So in our relationships with so many people every day, we talk.

We have to communicate. And if we are not mindful, we may say many things that hurt another person and that can create a lot of problems in our relationships.

So if you have learned to talk mindfully, you can become a better communicator. You can talk better.

And another point is meditation is human nature. It's natural for human beings to meditate. It's not against nature. Some people in the West, for example, when I was there in 1983, '84, some people say that it's not natural for people not to think.

And when I discuss about this meditation

states, the states of mind that happens in meditation practice, I told them that the mind can become so quiet that there's no thought anymore. And one psychologist said that that's not possible.

He said that because he never practiced meditation. He said, "If you stop thinking, then you are unconscious.

Then you are asleep." I said, "No, you can stop thinking and still completely awake, alert."

So it's quite natural for people to meditate. That's why people have developed meditation practice a long, long time ago. I don't know how long ago. Even before the time of the Buddha, there were many techniques

of meditation practice. And in one cave, they found

an engraving, a picture on the stone, on the rock, of a person sitting and meditating. And they estimated that this picture

has been engraved about 6,000 years ago.

That's the estimation. That means at least about 6,000 years ago, there were some people who practiced meditation in that cave.

So meditation is human nature. People sometimes want to be very quiet and still and just pay attention to one object, not thinking of anything.

And meditation is an art, which means creative. As you meditate, it will not be the same every day. I've started meditating when I was about 16

and I'm now 56, which means I've been meditating for 40 years. So

my meditation practice now is not the same as it was 40 years ago.

40 years ago, I had to work very hard to keep my mind on one object. And my mind was thinking too much, very active and thinking too much. And it was very hard even for me to observe my thoughts,

not to say to stop thinking. But now, because of practicing meditation for so many years, I can watch my mind and instantly I can make it clear, no thought anymore. Really instantly. So it's just a matter of practice.

And learning to make your mind clearer is a great achievement.

in your computer, you just touch the key clear

and it's all gone. Clear.

So I can just watch my mind

gone, clear, any moment. But it's difficult to keep it clear for a long time. It's still quite difficult.

It depends on how

long you have time to keep it clearing and clearing and clearing. So if you keep it clearing and clearing and clearing for a long time, it stays clear for a long time. But now I'm quite busy talking, talking, talking.

From morning until night, I talk quite a lot. But that's okay. Never mind.

And another thing, meditation is the science of mind. It's not only an art. As you meditate, you understand the nature of mind very exactly, clearly, and completely. So most of you must have attended some Abhidhamma classes, I believe.

Yes? So you know that there are many different kinds of mental states, jitas, and you know that there are 52 jeta seekers, mental factors. If you really practice meditation and watch your mind very closely, you can really see those mental states and those mental factors.

This mental state, this is loving-kindness. This is compassion. You can see that very clearly. You are not thinking. You are really seeing it. You can see that this is awareness, mindfulness. This is the clarity, which means this is wisdom. And this is saddhā. This is

confidence and faith in the Dhamma. This is happiness, practicing Dhamma. This is calmness. This is tranquility. This is equanimity. You can see that in your mind, each of these mental factors. So it means meditation is the science of mind.

So I read many psychology books and I travel quite a lot. I travel to America, Canada, England, Australia, Japan, Korea, and many times, more than 10 times to Singapore. So I meet all kinds of people and many psychologists, psychotherapists too. And when I meet with these people, especially these psychologists and psychotherapists, I want to learn from them too.

I know they know some things about their problems. So I want to know what their problems are. And we discuss about the problems. We discuss about the mind. And they ask me, "How do you know so much about mind?" I said, "That's what I've been doing for more than 30 years, meditating."

So the best way to learn about mind and to improve your mind is to meditate.

You may want to read books, read books, read good books. It's okay. But

without practicing meditation, you will never really understand the nature of mind.

So meditation practice is a must if you really want to know the nature of mind, your mind. So if you know your mind, then

even that knowing gives you a lot of freedom. So one of my friends who is also a meditation teacher and also a psychologist said that if you know your mind, you are not at its mercy.

Have you got the meaning clearly? You are not at its mercy. What does that mean?

Yes, not at the mercy of yourself and your thoughts. You are not at its mercy means

if you don't meditate, your mind will torture you. It's your mind

torturing you. It's your mind making you unhappy. It's your mind making you suffer. So if you really see your mind clearly and understand with wisdom, then you are not at its mercy.

So other people can make you unhappy, but if you don't react, you don't feel unhappy. It's your reaction that is making you unhappy.

You are with your mind all the time. Even when you go to sleep, you are still with your mind. And what's keeping you from sleep? It's your mind. It's your thoughts.

So if you don't want to be

at its mercy, watch your mind. So I'll come back to my old question again and conclude the talk. Can you afford not to meditate?

No. You really sure about that? Yes. Okay.

Yes, please, if you have any question. I mean,

I live alone. Yes? I live my own soul. Yes, of course. They are living beings. What happens when they die? Well, just the way what happens to human beings. They go to another life. So there's no such thing of you all are remembering yourself and then you come back. Yeah. They come back. Yes, they do.

The reason I ask is because my God just passed away. Ah.

My sister, the spirit of my daughter, my sister, and the child fell down stairs, two stories away. It's their kid.

But the child remembers seeing the dog

detect it. And when we examined the child, there's no injury.

Nature is very mysterious. So it's just a photo of a stair that the child remembers seeing the dog

next to it.

Yes. Dogs die and they get also rebirth.

But they're still detecting the fence? They can.

It's very strange. I cannot give you any proof now.

When I was younger, I did not believe in ghosts. But now I believe because I have my personal experience. I don't believe something just because somebody tells me. But I have personal experience of ghosts. Can you share with us your experience?

Well, one story I will tell you. I used to live in very deep forest for many years, for almost 20 years, alone in a small hut. And there are many places where people say that it's haunted. There are many ghosts living there. So I've seen

during the evening, especially in the early evening,

groups of people coming and going. I said, "What are these people doing in the forest?" And I took my torchlight and went to look for the people. I found nobody.

That happened many times. But that's not really convincing. But one day, I was living in a small house, not a hut, a brick house, about half this size.

I had to go out for my dhana, for my meal, to a person's house. So

this house has one screen door

to keep the mosquitoes out. And you can only close and lock the screen door from inside only. When you go inside, you close that screen door and you lock it. But from the outside, you cannot lock the screen door. But there's another wooden door which you shut and you can lock. So I just put the screen door together and I shut the wooden door and locked from outside.

And I went to my friend's house and had my meal. And I came back and I opened the wooden door and I couldn't open the screen door. It was locked from inside. I thought maybe there was a thief who broke into the house from the window and he locked the screen door.

I must go around and check. So I went around. It's a one-story house. So I went around and checked all the windows. And all the windows are locked from inside. And not only locked.

In Burma, we have

iron screens also. How do you call that? Trellises. Iron screen. Very strong on the windows. Window grills. Window

grills. Okay. Window grills. So it's not easy to break into the house.

So I could not get into the house.

I had to force the screen door very hard and open it. And I went inside and I thought, "This is very strange." And I want to check whether anything is missing there because I had a small cassette player also. Maybe somebody want to steal it.

And I had my torchlight and some clock, small clock. Not many things valuable, but just simple things that I use. Nothing was missing. And then I thought, "Maybe it's the wind that hit the screen door and locked it." But it's the kind of it's not the lock.

It's the latch that you have to push up and turn to keep it locked. So I thought, "Well, I took down the latch and I hit the screen door as hard as I can for many, many times, hoping that accidentally the latch will go up and lock."

But I was not succeed. I did not succeed in doing that. Who did that? And in the night, while asleep, I hear somebody moving around, somebody going and doing things.

And that's one story.

And many other stories too. Yeah.

Why do you meditate without the body?

Can you explain what you mean? This question. Can the mind meditate

before the body, without the body?

I think so. The mind can watch itself.

The mind can watch the mind and that's also meditation.

Yes, please. What's the range of meditation talk that you said you've seen this lately? I was very interested in meditation talks. She told me so. But what I can't understand is she makes so much effort to go to so many talks, but she can't bring herself to sit down and do it. Why?

You have to make it a habit and you have to love doing it.

just experiment with meditation practice. Don't take it too seriously. This is a very difficult thing to say because most people hear that. Sit down and determine that I will not get up before I get enlightened even though if I die sitting here. I never did that. I enjoyed meditation. And meditation practice happened to me so naturally that I didn't even know that I was meditating.

Only later, when a teacher really gave me meditation instructions, I found out that, "Oh, you have to meditate this way." For example, I like to walk very much. Even here in Singapore, I go for a walk every morning, sometimes also in the evening. So when I walk, I pay attention to my body and

I feel like my body is happy to walk.

Not only my mind. Even my body feels happy to walk. So I enjoy walking.

Moving my legs, moving my arms. This movement feels good. So I pay attention to this sensation, feeling good. I feel good when I walk. I like that very much. And also, I like good sceneries. So I go for a walk and whenever I find a beautiful scenery, I'll just sit down and watch that scenery and get so absorbed that I forgot about everything else.

I even forgot about myself.

And sunsets, I like very much. I walk up the hill and just find a nice place to sit and watch the sunset. And I watch the sun going down and down and down slowly. I can see it's going down. And then it touched the horizon and it start disappearing, disappearing, disappearing. And I watch that with all my attention.

And then it has disappeared at this moment.

And that's also meditation.

So make meditation something enjoyable. Invent your own meditation practice. I feel very reluctant to talk about this because mostly people think that you have to do meditation practice according to what is in the book.

But

because I'm a very stubborn man, I like to do things in my own way. So I invented my own meditation practice. But I took the essence of the teaching, awareness, presence of mind. Your mind must be here and now.

Not thinking about the past, not thinking about the future. You are paying attention to what you feel in your body. You pay attention to what you see. You pay attention to what you hear. You pay attention to what you smell. Or if you are eating something, you pay attention to what you eat. And when you are thinking, you pay attention to that too. So based on that information, I invented my own meditation practice and made it very interesting.

And when I get interested,

I don't have to force myself to do that because I want to do that whenever I find some time to do that. So make meditation practice interesting. Create. Be creative. Be creative. Anywhere. Even if you cook, if you are creative, you enjoy cooking and you are happy. So whatever you do, if you are creative, you like to do that.

And you can see your own progress also. The excitement, the joy keeps you going and going.

So I feel very reluctant to tell you that invent your own meditation practice. But I do that. I did that. And I find that it works. You need only the basic instruction. Be here and now. Pay attention to what you feel in the body, what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, what you think.

That's

all the instruction. You don't need anything more than that. Yes, please. Is there a way to create a present right now? Dhamma is going to change the world and make the world a nation.

Not just the Buddhist. Buddha's thinking about funding donation and things. Because now they're saying you can print it and you can volunteer your relatives' organs so that Dharma can live.

Can we hear what you're saying? The government is now. So thinking of changing the law on organ donation. Organ donation. Oh, I see what you mean. Organ donation. Changing the law. That means you can or you cannot? You can. You can. But at the moment now, it's accident. You're dead.

They remove your kick. The future is if your friend did in hospital or illness, they can remove any organ. Yes. Yes. I understand what you mean now. The question is, if your friend did, at what moment is death introduced to the subject? If we ever make a decision for a family member, how do we do it?

That's a very serious question. Yes.

Very serious. Very serious question. Yes.

When a person is not conscious anymore, you can keep the body alive by pumping the blood, but there's no real consciousness anymore. Is the person still alive even in the Buddhist concept?

I don't exactly know what's in the book, but

my own reasoning is that

when the brain doesn't work anymore,

then that person is dead.

But the soul's been created. It's gone to another life. It's not

in the body, but your heart is still.

The heart, you can even take out the heart and put the pump there and keep the blood pumping.

Surgery. Yes. So

in the heart lung transplant, I've read a book and the title of the book is very interesting. A Change of Heart. Written by a lady who had gone through that

operation. And for eight hours, she had no lungs and no heart.

And she got

a set of lung and heart from a man who died from a motorcycle accident. So they kept his body warm and then they took out his lung and heart and put that in the lady's body. But it took eight hours.

Without no heart, the person is still alive.

They had this heart lung machine.

So it's very difficult to answer. But

scientifically, if your brain doesn't work, you are dead.

Even if your heart stops beating,

you can resuscitate and make the heart beat again. But when your brain stops working, it's very difficult. Impossible. The moment you're dead is the soul beating again. I can't tell that. The moment. The moment the brain stops working, it's dead because it's the brain that controls the whole body.

So the brain is the soul and you can't control the brain.

It's very difficult to talk about the soul because

in the teaching of the Buddha, we only talk about consciousness, mental states. So even now, there are mental states one after another happening. So in the same way, no difference, when a person dies, one mental state stops and another mental state happens again continuously.

So it will take quite a long time to get deeper into the explanation. The next question. The next question is,

they have written operations to the war by Iranian dreams. They are conjoined at their heads. The Dr. Thad is a prisoner. They died in the operation table. What kind of karma seeds they planted in their previous life?

This is also a very difficult question.

I have read about people born with their heads joined. And I have read about a doctor who

is a brain surgeon, Dr. Ben Carson. He works in Baltimore Hospital. Specialist working on that kind of. So this is all the teaching of the story. Oh, really? I have read his book. So I know the situation. But I can't tell what karma because karma is something very difficult to explain.

It also makes me believe that they will be reborn in the next life and they will be conjoined.

They are so attached to each other

that they are physically attached.

Another question.

In your university hostel, you experienced a very silent and so quiet mind state. That quiet mind state are any other creatures like not human beings, like animals, devils, can they experience that mind state?

Animals, I don't think they can experience such quiet mental state because that kind of mental state needs a lot of focus.

It's not just blank.

It's full of awareness. It's full of energy. You need to practice to focus your mind. It's a focused state of mind. So it doesn't happen

without practicing.

Does it mean that in Pali it's called Manu Tattat Tonga Bhav? Only humans can?

Manu Tattat Tonga Bhav means it's very difficult to get a human life. And this means

it's very difficult to really realize Dhamma.

So as a human being, what's the best that we can have in this life? What's the best we can achieve in this life? Not money, not fame.

But most people are after money and fame. But that's not the best we can have in this life.

Real deep understanding of truth, real understanding of Dhamma is the best that we can achieve in this life. Real peace of mind, real freedom of mind.

So a person can be a millionaire or very world famous and still no peace of mind.

And I think

it's more difficult for a millionaire or a billionaire or a world famous person to have any peace of mind. I think they are living a very miserable life.

May I ask a question? Yes. Would I get a bad karma just by getting bad thoughts in my mind? Thoughts are also karma. Yes.

So without intention and action, you just think and think how to make karma. Yes. Even without intention, bad thoughts can affect you. But

unconscious intention is still there.

Habit. That's why we need to meditate.

But if the thoughts are not within your control, how can it drive you?

The thoughts are not really in control. So you don't react.

But as you practice mindfulness, you become aware of your thoughts. And just being aware of it

makes it weaker and weaker. And if you can pay attention to any unwholesome thought, it does not affect you as much as if you are not aware of it. Buddha gave an example.

A lump of iron, which is hot, but you don't know that it is hot and you pick it up. It will burn you more. But if you know that it is hot, you are more careful. Even though you touch it, because you are careful, it won't hurt you so much. So not knowing is worse.

Therefore,

for example,

I don't have a good example, but anyway, the first thing that comes in my mind is that

in advertisements, people use subliminal suggestions. And now in America, they have outlawed that. They have banned that. You are not allowed to use subliminal suggestions. For example, before the law, they will show a person

a bottle of Coca-Cola and subliminally they put a sentence, "I want a Coke." And it flashes in a split second only. You cannot read it. It's so quick that you don't able to read it. But anyway, your mind picks that up and you feel that craving to have that Coke.

And now in America, they have a law. You cannot do that. You are not allowed to do that. So without knowing something,

it can affect you more because you have no control. But for example, if you write with a big letter on the wall, "I want a Coke," and you read it, yeah, that means I want a Coke, but I don't.

You can change your mind. But if you don't know, it affects you even more. So this is very interesting.

Unconscious suggestions are more powerful. So in the same way, the thoughts that go in the back of your mind controls your life even more. So if you become conscious of those thoughts, it will have less control on your life or on your mind.

That's why it is very important to be very mindful, to be aware of your thoughts, to make it conscious. So when you become more conscious, then you can work with it because it's there. It's not hidden. You can work with it. Because you are conscious, you have freedom.

You have some control, not complete total control, but you have some control. And you can decondition yourself too. So all of us are conditioned by the culture we are born in. I was born in Burma and I've lived there until now. So I am conditioned by the culture that I was born in.

But because I learned many different cultures and also because I learned to meditate, I deconditioned myself. Very much so. But I don't think I have done it completely. It's very difficult. So you are born here, I believe, in Singapore, and you are conditioned by this culture.

And you don't even know that you are conditioned.

For example, there are certain kinds of food I cannot eat.

I cannot put that into my mouth.

Why? Because I never ate that since I was born. And there are certain kinds of foods you will not eat. You will never eat because you are conditioned not to eat that.

There's nothing wrong about the food. Some people eat that. It's okay. But you cannot. Why?

What's wrong about the food? There's nothing wrong about the food. It's the conditioned mind. So in the same way, there are some ideas you like and there are other ideas you don't like.

You can't really tell that this is good or this is bad. You can only say that I like this and I don't like that. So we are conditioned to like some things. We are conditioned not to like something. We are conditioned to believe something. We are conditioned not to believe something. But we are not aware of that. So when you become more mindful, you can see in your mind how you are conditioned.

And by seeing that very clearly, with wisdom, you can change that. You can decondition yourself. Then you become more free. So as long as you are conditioned, you have very little freedom. Even though you feel like you are free, you have very little freedom. But with awareness and wisdom, you can see your mind and decondition your mind.

Then you become free, more free. Therefore, meditation can make you free.

This is a very, very important topic. It is very deep. It's very important.

I think we should

put meditation practice

in our education system also. A kind of practical psychology. You don't have to be a Buddhist to meditate.

There are a lot of people I know who meditate, but they don't call themselves Buddhists.

But they get benefit from meditating.

You talked about mind intention. Like mind's eye and awareness and mind thoughts. Who is this eye?

Is that another part of mind that you are paying attention to? So when you are paying attention, it's the attention that's paying attention. You will find that out as you practice meditation because you take one step back and you take another step back and you see that it's only the attention that's paying the attention.

And then you will find that it's all natural process without an ego, without a self, without an I. So in Dhamma Anupassana section in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, there's one instruction saying that when a person it's very difficult without using the word person to talk. So when a meditator is mindful, he or she knows that he or she is mindful.

So which means you wash that awareness again. When you are mindful, you wash that mindfulness. When you are aware, you will wash that awareness again. And when there's this wisdom arising, which means understanding the truth

about whatever you are watching, understanding the truth is wisdom, you wash that wisdom again because it's not you who understands. It's the wisdom which understands. So by practicing like that, you can

step back and back and back and you find that no matter how much you step back, you will always find just a mental state, a quality of mind, a phenomenon, but no person. But in our daily life, we must use the word I, you. I'm meditating, you are meditating. Because without using the word I and you, we cannot communicate.

So although it is useful, we must understand that there's no permanent ego. So to give you more explanation, because I think it's important to give you more explanation, there are two levels of truth. One level of truth is called in Pali Samudhi Satya, which means conventional truth.

And another level of truth is called Paramatta Satya, ultimate truth. So from the ultimate truth point of view, there's no man, there's no woman.

So then why is there a priest self saying that one should not commit adultery? If there's no man, no woman, how can there be adultery? That one should not take what is not given. One should not steal what belongs to another person. If there's no person, then how can you steal? How can anybody steal?

So we must understand that there are two layers of reality, two layers of truth. And both of them are valid in their own levels. So when we meditate in the beginning, I feel that I am meditating. I'm working hard. I'm trying to concentrate.

But as the mind calms down and concentrates and becomes very clear, that I disappears.

There's just awareness watching without an I. Therefore, there's a book written by a doctor, Mark Epstein, and the title of the book is Thoughts Without a Thinker:

Meditation Without a Meditator.

So this is very important to understand. To give you another example,

I think you know about Newton's theories. You know that? All of you studied Newton's theory. So in Newton's theory, you can predict that a certain planet will be in a certain place. It's in a certain place. You can see that. But you can predict that it will be in another place 10 years from now, 20 years from now.

You can even predict that 100 years from now, when the sun will have an eclipse or the moon will have an eclipse, you can do that. You can calculate. Because according to Newtonian physics, you are working with a big body,

physically very big. But when you study subatomic particles, that theory does not apply anymore. It is another layer of truth. You can only say that there's a possibility that a certain particle will be in a certain place. You can only say the possibility.

You can be never definitely sure. So

similarly, I think there are two layers of truth, two layers of reality. Both are valid in their own levels. So when you throw a stone, you can tell where it will fall because according to Newtonian physics, you can calculate.

But when you get into the atom of the stone, you cannot say anything definitely.

So it's the same. When you practice Vipassana, persons disappear.

Only phenomenon, thoughts, emotions, mental states.

So it's getting late. Can we have a last question for Sayadow? Yes.

A last question for you. Last question?

Who's going to ask the last question?

My last question? No, I'm going to follow up. Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, yes. It's getting late. Yeah. Well, I'm very glad that

you still want to sit here and discuss.

We can go on this discussion the whole night. Wonderful. But anyway, I think you worked very hard the whole day and you need to rest. You need to go home and you need to take care of your duties and responsibilities. So if you don't have any more questions, we will conclude our Dhamma discussion tonight now by reciting that Pali.

I will recite for you first. I Maya

Dhammanu Dhammapadipadiya Bodhambhujeni

I Maya Dhammanu Dhammapadipadiya

Dhammambhujeni

I Maya Dhammanu Dhammapadipadiya

Sanghambhujeni

Sayadaw U Jotika

Myanmar

Sayadaw U Jotika was born on August 5, 1947, into a Muslim family in Myanmar. In his youth, he was sent to study at a Christian seminary, graduating with a degree in electrical engineering and conducting extensive research in science, psychology, and Western philosophy.…

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