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Really. Life is a series of tests.
Difficulties are tests. We're in school now. The whole life is a school. From the time we were born until we die, we're in school. And this is an informal school, no classroom, no textbooks. Everything we see, everything we hear, everything we smell, everything we feel. Every happiness and every suffering, every problem, every achievement, every success, every failure
is a lesson. It's a test. When we have a success, that is a test. But we don't think of that as a test.
It is testing you how humble you can be when you are successful. Most of us become very proud and conceited. "Oh, I'm a success. Other people are failure." So we don't treat people with respect anymore. We become conceited, arrogant. So success is a test. And the same way, failure is a test.
How
equanimous you can be. How much you can keep your balance and not feel depressed, not feel inferior, not feel unhappy about not succeeding in doing something. And also, it is a test to find out whether you will try again.
Failure? Try again. Another failure? Try again. So it is a test that whether you have that kind of maturity, courage, and trust in yourself, and trust in life also, whether you will try again and again.
So we need to trust ourselves and trust our life too. Most people don't have trust in life. They don't have trust in themselves either. This is also another very deep thing to think about. When I learned to trust my life and trust myself, from that time I learned more and more.
And things get better and better, easier and easier. It becomes like a game, but a very serious game. Life is a very serious game. So when you face a failure,
it is very important to understand that very deeply and not become depressed. And try to find out what's the best thing to do, and do it again, and do it again. Learn. Correct yourself. Learn more. Do it again. So life is a series of tests. But if you pass your tests, you look back upon them as good experiences.
That is really true.
When you are facing a difficult condition, difficult situation, difficult time, many times you will think that, "Oh, how unfortunate I am. What have I done to deserve this difficulty, this pain?" So you complain to yourself, you complain to your karma, you complain to your parents or your husband or your wife or your government.
You complain more and more. So the more you complain, the more it shows that you are failing your test. This is a test. To test your maturity. To test your endurance. To test your equanimity. To test your wisdom.
So whenever you face a difficult situation, remind yourself, "This is a test. This is a challenge. I must learn something from this experience and grow up, grow mature, become more mature."
So
I'd like to talk about myself very much because that's the person I know very well. My life has been a series of difficulties. Since I was a young boy, difficulty after difficulty. I failed. And I learned a lot from that. So that's why I want to encourage you also. No matter how much difficulties you are going through, try to maintain your equanimity.
Meditate a little bit. Calm down a little bit. And see if you can learn something from that experience. If you can develop your inner qualities. If you can be more understanding, more loving, more forgiving. If you can endure a little bit more. So whenever we have difficulty, we blame another person. We accuse another person.
We can't forgive that person for not doing enough for us.
Sometimes we blame ourselves. "I'm so stupid. I got myself into this trouble." We can't forgive ourselves. We feel ashamed of ourselves. "Oh, people will know that I'm stupid. And how can I show my face again? I have to run away, go away, so nobody knows me anymore." So when people do that, they run away. They don't want to face their old friends anymore because they are ashamed of themselves.
Hello?
But if you pass your tests, you look back upon them as good experiences. You look back upon them as your success. You have succeeded. You have learned something.
Concealed in every new situation we face is a spiritual lesson to be learned.
So really, this is a spiritual lesson. The whole life is actually a spiritual lesson. We come here to learn. We come here in this world, in this human life, at this time of the history, to learn what we need to learn.
And when I read about people who talk about their past lives,
many people express very similar ideas. And one of them is that they come here to fulfill something, to learn something.
Many people express that. And I feel it the same way too. I feel the same way about my life. I have come to this human life to learn something and to fulfill some of my duties and obligations, or whatever you might want to call it.
So when you understand your life in that perspective, from that angle, then everything in your life becomes meaningful. Everything is meaningful.
So
another thing that I read in a book and remembered very well, one sentence, very beautiful and very
precious like a jewel, is that everything in this world has a hidden meaning.
Everything in this world has a hidden meaning. Because we look so superficially, we don't see the meaning, and things become meaningless. So many people ask me, "What's the meaning of life?"
How can I answer that question?
It depends on how mature you are. It depends on how much meaning you put into your life. Don't ask, "What does life mean?"
Ask first, "What meaning do you give to your life?" We have to give the meaning. Don't ask for a meaning. Give meaning to your life. Give meaning to your experience.
This is very important. Whenever something happens, just try to find out, "There must be some spiritual meaning in this experience. And I need to find that out." That's why I'm facing this situation, whether it is good or whether it is bad. Good experience also has meaning. If we don't understand the meaning properly, we misuse the situation, and then we destroy the situation and get into trouble again.
So whether it's good experience or bad experience, it is very important for us to look very deeply and find out, "What does this mean to me?" To me, not to everybody. We want to try a meaning for everybody. Sometimes we cannot agree with the meaning. So don't ask whether somebody else will agree with your meaning.
Just ask yourself, "What does this mean to me?" Sometimes I did something and it was very meaningful for me, but most of my friends said, "This is meaningless. You are crazy. Why are you doing this? You are crazy." If I believe them, then I lose my meaning. So most of us believe what others thought, what others think, what others tell us.
We don't believe ourselves. We don't trust ourselves enough. So forget about what others are saying. Because you are here, I understand that
you know you have different values. Different from your family, different from your friends. You know you have different values. And you know that people will judge you, criticize you. Sometimes they make fun of you maybe. So everybody who walks on this spiritual path
faces the difficulty of being misunderstood. Everybody faces the same difficulty: misunderstood, misunderstanding. So you need to have trust in yourself. I know what I'm doing, and I know what it means to me. If it doesn't mean anything to other people, if it doesn't make any sense to other people, it's not my problem.
Just say that, "It's not my problem. I know what I'm doing."
So everything has a meaning.
It is good to be tested. We grow and learn through passing tests.
Really. We went to school, we studied things, and we sat for exams. We passed the exam, and we get to another higher standard. So every time you pass your exam, you get to a higher state. And this is the way with our life too. Every time we pass a test, we learn, we grow up.
We grow up, not really grow old. Some people grow old, but they don't grow up. Some people, although they are not very old, they are already grown up. So growing up doesn't depend on the number of years you have lived. Growing up depends on how much you have learned from your experiences, from your life.
Not from books. Not from other people. From your life, from your experiences.
So one of the joys of living a life is knowing that you are growing up. Each day you are growing up. That is one of the joys.
So I look upon all my tests as good experiences. So I hope you can say the same thing to yourself. This is somebody who told me. Somebody said that, and I like it very much.
So there was a time when I thought it was a nuisance to be confronted with a problem. So that story I told you just now, the man, he had no problem. Everything was just perfect for him. He got everything he wanted.
So here, there was a time when I thought it was a nuisance to be confronted with a problem. I tried to get rid of it. I tried to get somebody else to solve it for me. So when we face a problem, we want somebody else to solve the problem for us. Our daddy solved the problem, mommy solved the problem.
And if we are married, sometimes we expect, "Oh, my husband will solve the problem." Or sometimes even the husband thinks that, "Oh, my wife will solve the problem." And sometimes we even expect that our children will solve our problems. In many, many cases, it happens.
So I tried to get rid of it. I tried to get somebody else to solve it for me. But that time was long ago. And this is a happy person who can say this. That time was long ago. You are no longer looking for somebody else to solve your problem. If you can say that that time was long ago, then I can say that you are a happy person.
It was a great day in my life when I discovered the wonderful purpose of problems. Wonderful purpose of problems. Problems have their purpose.
It's a lesson we need to learn and grow up.
Yes, they have a wonderful purpose. Some people wish for a life of no problems. But I would never wish such a life for any of you. What I wish for is the great inner strength to solve your problems meaningfully and grow.
That's the purpose of our life. To grow up, to learn, to solve our problems meaningfully, meaningfully. So there comes the wisdom. There comes mindfulness. We need to be mindful. We need to develop wisdom. We need to be always ready, always prepared, always alert. Not to react automatically.
When we react automatically, we are not solving our problems meaningfully. Because automatic reaction happens unconsciously, and mostly it has no wisdom. Most of the time it's unskillful. Automatic reactions are mostly unskillful. So whenever we face a problem, we need to remind ourselves, "Be mindful.
Be mindful. Take your time. Calm down. Calm down." Don't take it so personally. Don't react from your personal feelings. Look at it from a
higher perspective.
Be mindful. And when you become very, very mindful, you feel like you are above everything. You can see everything happening down there. It's way down there. You can see what's happening. Maybe some of you have felt that way. When you become very mindful, you are far and above. You can see everything, how things are related to each other, what will happen next, and what people are doing, what the forces are, what the situation is.
So try to get that sort of perspective more and more, every day. So the best thing you can do is get up early in the morning and meditate. And tune your mind into that sort of mood. This mood is very important. When you are in the right mood, then when something happens, you are ready. You are always ready. So mindfulness gives you a kind of equanimity, which is a kind of mood.
It makes you calm. And it makes you, in a way,
detached also. But detached doesn't mean unconcerned. Detached means not egoistic, not personal, not attached.
So problems are learning and growing experiences. If we don't want to face problems, we will not learn and we will not grow up, no matter how old we become. So I know many people. One person is about 50 years old now, and her father passed away three years ago.
So when her father died, she was about 47.
And she cried very much. And she said, "My father treated me like a child until he died. And I have not grown up yet." Because her father solved all the problems for the whole family. A very fatherly person, very powerful too. He was a very powerful person.
So he made all the decisions for everybody. Nobody needed to decide anything. So when he passed away, nobody knew what to do.
So if we don't solve our own problems and expect other people to solve our problems for us, then we will not learn. We will not grow up.
A life without problems would be a barren existence. Barren existence.
Bare, meaningless.
It would be very childish. Without the opportunity for spiritual growth, with no problems, we will not have opportunity for our spiritual growth. Actually, difficult situations are opportunities for us to learn and develop our spiritual qualities. When people treat us badly, it is an opportunity for us to
be mindful, not to become angry and hateful, not to react too much. When things are difficult, it is an opportunity for us to make our life more simple.
So every problem is an opportunity. If you can understand this and take every problem as an opportunity, then your life will become more and more meaningful. So to take every problem, every difficult situation as an opportunity, you need to be mindful. So you need to be always mindful.
There should be mindfulness already in your
heart.
So we must use every opportunity to live out our spiritual ideal. So what is your spiritual ideal?
I had many ideals since I was young. I took one ideal, and then after a while I was very unsatisfied with that ideal. So I discarded that one. And sometimes I didn't have any ideal to live for, to live with. So that was very confusing. That was very disorienting and painful too.
And then I would try to find out something worth living for, something worth to have as a goal in my life. Because at the time in my life I was, so to speak, materialistic.
So at that time, my life was the most meaningless. Because to have this materialistic
point of view makes life very meaningless.
So I tried to find out something that will make my life more meaningful. And it was very, very hard to find one ideal, one goal.
And when I started studying the teaching of the Buddha, slowly and slowly I began to appreciate a few things here and there. I couldn't understand everything. I was a very stubborn person,
very skeptical too, won't accept anything from anybody. So I was prepared not to believe,
to doubt. I was prepared to doubt. But slowly and slowly I learned something. For example,
to put myself in another person's situation.
That became one of my ideals. Not to hurt anybody. I don't want to be hurt. So I think it is very important for me not to hurt anybody. If I say that I don't want to be hurt, I don't want to be cheated, I don't want to be lied, I don't want to be insulted, I don't want to be treated disrespectfully, and I do that, if I treat other people disrespectfully, if I hurt another person, then that means I have, what do you say, double standard.
That is not good. Double standard is not good.
So
once I had that sort of ideal, and this is still my ideal, if I want to be loved, I must be loved. I must learn to love. And it is very difficult. I'm still learning to love, unconditionally.
So if I want to be respected, I must respect others. If I want to be treated honestly, then I must treat others with honesty.
And that becomes my ideal. So one of my friends asked me, "What is your religion?" Because when I was in university, when they fill up the forms, in one place we had to fill up, "What is your religion?" I always put, "Not any yet."
Not any religion. I don't have any religion yet. This is honesty. Because at that time I couldn't decide what to believe. I didn't believe in any religion. But when my friends asked me, "What is your religion?" I said, "My religion is honesty." So if you can make that one ideal and really believe it, really honestly take it as your ideal, "Honesty is my religion," I think you can achieve everything in your life.
So when you do something, ask yourself honestly, "Why am I doing this?" Now you are here. Ask yourself, "Why am I here?
What do I expect? What am I doing? What is my ideal?" Very important question. So any kind of spiritual ideal you take, like say example, love or compassion or honesty, anything you take it and really stick to it, honestly stick to it, if you do that, you can develop every other spiritual quality.
If you can do one thing, everything will follow. So later I changed my ideal to mindfulness.
So later when people ask me, "What is your religion?" I say, "Mindfulness is my religion."
I try to be mindful as much as possible, every way, any way, any time. Because when you take it as your religion and you practice it only in the evening from 7:30 to 8:30, and you forget about it the rest of the time, then you are cheating yourself.
So ask yourself, "What is my ideal?" If you take mindfulness as your ideal, then ask yourself, "Am I really doing it all my life, all my waking hours?"
If you can do just one, this one thing, to be mindful from morning, from the time you wake up until you go to sleep, you might forget it because it is very easy to forget. It is quite natural to forget too, but not deliberately. If you remind yourself that, "I will try my best to be mindful in every situation, every way, every time," if you just try to do that, you can develop all other spiritual qualities.
So to do one thing wholeheartedly is very important.
So we must use every opportunity to live out our spiritual ideal, not just in charitable endeavors, not just in our life's major projects, but in the home, in the street, in the market, or in associations with the individuals in the various walks of life. Every way.
If you do that, you'll be very satisfied with yourself. Even though you know that you are not perfect, you'll be very satisfied.
Knowledge in itself is of little value. You have heard enough about meditation instructions. Quite a lot. They are very useful in their own way. But knowledge in itself is of little value. It is the practical application of knowledge that matters. Practical application.
So when you know what mindfulness means, and when you know that, experientially, when you know how your mind is, the quality of your mind when you are mindful, and the quality of your mind when you are not mindful, when you are absent-minded, when you are daydreaming, if you see the two,
if you really see these two states of mind again and again, which one would you choose?
To be mindful, of course.
So when you are not mindful, when you are absent-minded, when you are daydreaming, you are allowing all kinds of thoughts to come into your mind, all kinds of weeds to grow in your garden. So meditation is like cultivation, cultivating a garden. That's a simile I gave last Saturday in my meditation commentary course.
So practicing meditation is like cultivating a garden. You have to weed almost every day because airborne weeds are falling into your garden. Seeds coming from the air,
falling into your garden. If you see them, the moment they fall, you can just pick that out. But if you don't see them, they'll sprout and they'll take root. And if they are very young, you can still pull it out very easily. But if you leave them there for a long time, they'll take deep root and grow, and it will be very hard to uproot those weeds.
So if you let all the weeds grow in the garden, then your flowers will not have a chance to grow because weeds will
overcrowd your flowers. They will take away all the water and nutrients, and the flowers will not have enough water and nutrients to grow. So meditation is like cultivating a garden. You have to tend the garden every day. Keep the soil soft. Irrigate the soil properly.
So what counts is how we live our daily lives, how constructively we use the resources we have, and how lovingly we treat the people around us. So just to sit and meditate is not enough. When we become more sensitive to ourselves, we become more sensitive to other people. So to love people is also very important.
So when we practice Vipassanā meditation, there are many other meditations that we should
practice to support this Vipassanā meditation. And one is metta, loving-kindness. Without loving-kindness, we cannot nourish our heart. It's like nourishing the soil,
irrigating the land, putting manure, nourishing the soil with loving-kindness. That includes also karuna, mudita, upekāh also, and reflecting on the quality of the Buddha, which is the highest ideal, the highest
spiritual attainment.
So to love and respect Buddha is very important too because he represents our goal. He is our teacher. So the more you understand what Buddha means, the more you love Buddha, then the more you feel happy about practicing.
So some people don't think about that very deeply. They think that if you practice meditation, that's enough. No, we need to love somebody. We need to take somebody as our teacher. It's very important to choose the right teacher. If you choose the wrong teacher, you'll get into trouble.
And reflecting on that also. Life is very short. Even though it's 80 or 90 or 100, it's nothing compared to the samsara. It will go away very soon, one life after another. So these are other meditation practices that we need to practice so that our mind becomes really focused toward meditation.
Otherwise, we get distracted to many things. So what counts is how we live our daily lives.
Every aspect of our lives is connected to every other aspect of our lives.
Take your time and let this idea sink into your mind. Every aspect of our lives is connected to every other aspect of our lives. You cannot keep things separated. This compartmentalization, what they call compartmentalization, is becoming very common in the modern world.
We think we can keep things separate. For example, one person who was a meditator, and he was also a businessman. And in his business dealings, he was not honest. He cheated quite often. So when one of his friends pointed out that, he said, "You are a meditator, but look, in your business dealings, you are not really honest."
And this man said, "Oh, the two are different."
So he thought that he can cheat in his business and then go to a meditation center and meditate and expect to become enlightened.
He cannot do such thing.
So the same way, you are very unloving or very cold and cruel in your relationships. And if you come to a meditation center and sit and meditate and expect to be enlightened, no way.
You cannot keep things separate like that. So every aspect of our lives is connected to every other aspect of our lives. This truth is the basis for an awakened life. This is the basis. So if you really want to develop your inner qualities, develop your wisdom, be very mindful
every way, in every relationship. Whatever you do, do it very thoughtfully, very mindfully. Am I really honest? Am I loving? Am I being mindful? If you can do this, although it is not quite easy to do, but if you do this
consistently, if you go on and on doing like that, you will develop your inner qualities.
And meditation will become your nature. If we do something which is not in accordance with our meditation, then we have conflict in our mind. And with that kind of conflict, we cannot really develop deep insight.
So these are a few things that I want you to remember and think about
and put into practice too.
So now we are going to sit and meditate.
Make yourself as comfortable as possible.
As relaxed as possible.
If you can sit without your legs overlapping on each other, in the long run, it is much easier. Although in the beginning, it's quite difficult. But if you get yourself used to sitting like this,
after a while, it becomes very easy. If you put your legs like this, then the hard bone and another hard bone touching, after a while, it becomes painful. But if you keep your legs like this, then it's easy. It's just a matter of practice.
Not difficult. When I was younger, I can sit full lotus without touching my legs. I can just fold my legs like this. I don't know whether I can still do it or not because I haven't been doing that for a long time. But let me try.
So one leg has gone up. Ah, another leg.
It's quite easy.
You can still do that. Some people find it very hard. They just pull on their leg like this. So I can sit like this for a long time.
It makes your body very stable. In the beginning, it's hard, but when you get used to it, it's very good. So you are sitting like a pyramid shape with a broad base. Your head is like the top of the pyramid, and you put your arms like this or like this, but not lean on your arms.
Just
let your arms go down. Or just like this also.
You can sit like this, like a rocky mountain, like a pyramid. It's an image of
stability.
Makes you feel very stable. So this body image also helps your mind. It makes you feel very strong. So it doesn't matter how you sit. Just be very comfortable.
And then breathe in slowly and deeply. Because when you breathe slowly and deeply, it helps your mind to calm down.
Breathe in. Be completely aware of the whole breath from the beginning to the end. And then breathe out. Completely aware of the breath from the beginning to the end.
Do that for a few times, a few minutes.
And go over your whole body and check again
and see if any part of your body is tense, if you can feel any tension in your body.
Arrange your body. Move about a little bit. See if you can find a better position.
Make yourself more comfortable.
Breathe in and breathe out.
It is very important to be very relaxed when you meditate. Meditation itself can become very stressful. Although being relaxed is not our primary goal, it is important to be relaxed.
So
see if you can feel any tension
on your forehead, especially between your eyebrows. If you can feel any tension, feel it, and then slowly let go.
See if you can make yourself more relaxed.
Feel your eyes.
Are you trying to keep it shut? Just drop your eyelids. Relax.
Muscles around your eyes.
They must be quite tired. All day looking, looking, looking.
Eyes must be quite tired.
Relax the muscles around your eyes.
Relax the muscles
that you use to move your eyes. Just relax.
Relax your jaw.
Are you clenching your teeth? Drop it.
Loose your jaw.
And your lips. You talk so much. Your lips get tired.
Make your lips become very soft.
And the muscles in your neck, very big muscles.
The muscles keep our head in the position. See if you can feel any tension near your neck where the muscle comes in contact with your head.
Relax your neck
and then your shoulders.
Drop your shoulders.
And slowly go down your arm.
Down to the tip of your fingers.
Slowly see if you can feel any tension.
Relax your arm.
Relax your throat.
Let your tongue become very relaxed.
Let your tongue become very relaxed.
Breathe in
slowly and deeply with no effort. Don't put any effort. Just let yourself breathe in.
And breathe out. See if you can feel any kind of tension
near your breastbone,
near your heart region.
Whenever we become tense or anxious, that region becomes very tense.
Let go.
And then
the diaphragm that we use when we breathe.
Breathe in and breathe out. And see if you can feel any tension in the diaphragm.
When we are anxious,
the diaphragm doesn't relax as much as it's good.
So relax your diaphragm as you breathe in.
Your shoulder, your back. Go down to your lower back.
And slowly move down to your legs.
If you feel any tension, be aware of that. And if you need to move, if you can make it more comfortable, move a little bit.
And now go through the whole thing again,
slowly,
as slowly as you want to. I will not disturb you.
Go through that again by yourself.
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.…