Me & Mine

Adam Mizner's Dhamma Talk on Me & Mine. Adam Mizner has dedicated many years to the in-depth study of Daoism, western Hermetics and the Buddha Dhamma, is initiated into and teaches methods from these traditions. He is a senior lay disciple of Ajahn Jumnien in the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. This deep spiritual background has a large influence on his approach to internal development teaching.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

This body and mind are neither me nor mine,

They're neither a self nor belonging to a self.

Recognizing this truth,

We become free from the sufferings of body and mind.

When we sit,

When we sit still and we don't adjust our posture,

Pain arises in the body.

If the knowing quality is bound up,

Bound to,

Mixed up with the body,

We suffer with the body.

We suffer with the body because we're under the illusion,

We're convinced that we are the body,

Or that the body belongs to us.

And when pain arises,

We suffer with it.

We're stressed out by the pain.

Intellectually,

It's quite easy to understand that we're not this body.

However,

The experience is that we're deluded by the body,

Deluded by the pains and pleasures of the body.

This is why when we're cultivating and practicing,

The suffering of the body is an important tool.

This is why sitting and not adjusting the posture is such a basic and primary practice.

Every time we adjust and run away from the pain,

We're reinforcing that we are the body,

So that our intellectual and philosophical view that we are a spirit or that we're not part of the body holds no value.

It becomes just a concept,

Just an idea.

If we truly see that we're not this body,

Then the pains of the body are just something happening and they're not something we feel driven to get involved with.

It's just phenomena happening.

If one can recognize this truth,

Life becomes a lot easier because pain of the body is part of existing.

The body gets worn out and the body gets tired.

For example,

I'm doing this teaching tour with the sprain in the SI ligament,

Which is basically it leaves you bedridden and an intense pain in the back.

For the last five days,

I slept about maximum one hour a night.

I've gone without sleep for five days.

Now,

If I got caught up in the tiredness and pain of the body,

Well,

I'd be really miserable and cranky.

Instead,

We have to learn how to recognize that that's just the goings-on of the body.

Why get involved?

It's like getting involved with the neighbors when they're having an argument or having trouble,

Running over and getting involved with the pain of everybody else.

Just let other people have their own problems and we can remain free and at ease.

Just let your body have its own problems and we can remain free from that too,

Free from the sufferings of the body.

This doesn't mean the body has no sufferings.

You can't stop that.

Even the Buddha had back pain.

Even the Buddha got sick and died.

You can't make the body perfect.

Maybe we try and be vegan and only eat organic and only breathe perfect air.

We could even live in a bubble,

But still the body would have pain.

If you rest the body too much,

It hurts.

If you don't rest it enough,

It hurts.

It doesn't follow our wishes.

It's only when we cling to it as a self or belonging to the self that it causes trouble for us.

Bodies die all the time.

Bodies are sick all the time.

Does it cause pain for us?

Right now there's a body dying.

Many bodies dying and many bodies suffering.

Does it cause pain for us?

No.

But with ours,

We identify with it.

That's why it causes pain for us.

Even material objects that definitely are not mere mind can cause pain for us when we identify with them.

For example,

A nice car that is written off in a car accident.

That causes no pain.

Who cares less about a car getting written off?

There's one happening right now.

But if it was our car and it was written off,

We'd be quite stressed out about it.

What actually happened is exactly the same phenomena.

The only difference is that we cling to it.

The truth is the car is destroyed.

The problem is we cling to that car as belonging to us.

A car being destroyed does not cause mental suffering.

What causes mental suffering is clinging to that car as being ours,

Belonging to us,

And we identify with it.

The body is the same way.

We identify with the body and then the pains of the body,

The stresses of the body,

The body being worn out or tired,

Needing rest,

Becomes a big deal.

We make an issue out of it and we create a big story about it.

In fact,

It's quite simple.

It's just a sensation.

A sensation of pain,

A sensation of tiredness in the body.

Nothing to make a story about.

We can learn to see the separation between mind and body.

The mind becomes a refuge from the body.

We can have peace in the mind separate from the pains and sufferings of the body.

Practicing Samatha and Samadhi meditation allows the mind to become at peace and to experience pleasure separate from the body.

Becomes a refuge from the body.

The problem is that the mind is a pain too.

In fact,

The mind is much more painful than the body.

The mind is what causes most of our problems.

The body just follows its own natural law,

Which is aging,

Sickness and death.

That the mind gets caught up all the time.

Most people think,

I must be this mind because I'm not the body,

I must be this mind.

But the mind changes from moment to moment.

At least the body is kind of stable.

At least we can say,

I still have the same body right now and in the next few minutes I've kind of got the same body.

Sure,

It's aging but it's the same thing.

But your mind changes completely from day to day.

One minute it can be enraged,

The next minute it's in love.

You might even end up hating that person that you love.

Thoughts arise,

Exist and fall away,

Constantly changing.

From moment to moment nothing changes the same in the mind.

When you learn new things,

Experience new things,

It changes your perceptions,

It changes your views,

It changes who you think you are.

That which we identify as mind,

Made up by emotions and thoughts,

Perceptions,

Is constantly changing.

So where is it?

What is me?

Are we the thoughts?

We can't really identify with them.

If we identify with our thoughts too much,

We get all kinds of crazy views.

We know what it's like when people identify with their political views.

If we identify with our political views and somebody else has a political view that we don't agree with,

We suffer.

We can argue with loved ones about people's thoughts,

Not agreeing with our thoughts.

So the suffering is that we identify as our thought is us or belonging to us.

Really it's just something happening.

It's just a chemical reaction,

It's just a thought formation,

Just happening.

The problem is that we get involved with it.

When we get involved with the mind,

We suffer.

If we let the mind follow its own natural way,

We don't suffer.

Things arise in the mind,

They exist and they fall away.

The mind gets moved by the body sometimes.

It doesn't matter.

There's something else that's still,

That's ever-present,

Called the knowing or jhana.

That is the true refuge,

Something that's unchanging.

Seeing the ability to know the mind as something else,

To watch the mind as if you're watching an object from the outside,

Or watching a show from the outside,

Separating,

Detaching from our own mind,

Not identifying with the activity of the mind as neither myself or belonging to myself.

We gradually,

Bit by bit,

Attain freedom from our own mind.

The mind can be cultivated and the mind can be tamed,

But the mind cannot be perfectly mastered.

It will still follow cause and condition,

Because the mind is dependent on cause and condition.

Therefore it's unreliable and not self.

So we try to make it perfectly set,

Enter perfect samadhi,

Where meditation will be perfect.

Maybe you have a really good meditation today,

But tomorrow the meditation is just not like it was yesterday.

Meditation is not as good as it should have been.

But if it's me or mine,

Why doesn't it do what you tell it to do?

We practiced meditation for 10 or 20 years and still meditation goes up and down,

Because it's the nature of mind,

To be unstable.

So it's not really a reliable refuge after all.

But we can know that in knowing,

In the clear knowing,

We can see separation between knowing and mind,

And take the knowing as a refuge,

Free from the ups and downs of the mind.

Let the mind follow its own function.

Once again it's like the neighbors.

We get involved with the neighbors argument and we suffer.

Really we should just let it go on and on.

Not get involved.

Not involved with body,

Not involved with mind.

Free from both body and mind.

Only naked awareness,

Just aware.

The honor is empty,

Clear and pure.

Empty,

Clear and pure,

It's unchanging,

Therefore it's reliable.

The mistake is that this empty,

Clear and pure knowing gets bound up with the mind and bound up with the body.

Spins around with the body and spins around with the sensations and feelings of the body.

Spins around with the mind and the arising and fallings of the mind.

Emotions,

Mental formations,

Perceptions that arise in the mind.

So that which is itself free from suffering gets bound to that which is bound to suffering.

The body will always suffer and the mind always has ups and downs.

But the knowing quality need not get bound up with them.

When it's bound up with them it's like getting involved in everyone's business.

It's a really busy,

It's really stressful.

And it's like you're running around trying to find problems all the time.

Instead you just need to let go and let them follow their own business.

Not make a big deal about it.

It's amazing the way we make problems in life.

Most of the problems in life are self-fabricated.

People get all upset about things happening in the other side of the world that they watch on the news.

It doesn't involve our body or mind in any way.

But we let our mind latch onto it and get truly involved in something that really doesn't affect us at all.

We want to identify with these things.

It makes us feel,

Feel like a self.

We can identify with our opinions,

Our views.

But really what happens when we do that is we have stress.

We argue with people that don't agree with us.

We form an opinion,

I am this,

This is my view,

This is me,

This is mine.

As soon as there's something that this is mine or me belonging to the self,

There's something that can hurt us.

But when we're free from those things we're free from suffering.

We're free from stress.

We're not opinionated.

Just being opinionated is a kind of suffering.

The more opinionated I,

The more stressed out you are.

The less opinionated I,

The more at ease you are.

And the proof is in the pudding.

Philosophy doesn't help us.

Views don't help us.

Ideas don't help us.

Our religion doesn't help us.

The books we read doesn't help us.

It's much like the Thai tree training.

If we read the text,

We hear all the theories,

It doesn't help us.

Only when you directly realize the practice do we bear the fruit.

So it's easy to understand on an intellectual level at least that we're not this body.

Most people can work that out.

All kinds of people say,

I know that I'm not this body,

But as soon as the body's in pain they fall to bits.

They can't sit still for half an hour.

As soon as they're sick they're cranky.

They can't endure sickness and be at peace.

So the theory doesn't help.

The philosophy doesn't help.

We have to look carefully and clearly until we truly recognize the truth and then stay in the knowing quality.

If we can maintain the knowing quality and see clearly that the body is not what we are,

See clearly the freedom and separation between knowing and the body,

Then when the body follows its own nature,

Which is pain,

Pleasure and pain,

Duality,

We don't get too caught up in it.

Very valuable skill.

Because the body gets more painful and more painful and more painful and sicker and sicker and then dies.

This is what we all have to look forward to.

It doesn't get better,

No chance.

It gets worse.

Right?

It gets worse and worse.

It's not romantic,

But it's true.

So it's a worthwhile skill to learn how to see the body for what it is and to learn how to be free from it.

Anyone that's experienced any real sickness knows what it's like to be truly sick,

To have true suffering in the body.

And if you're really caught up in that,

It can be a miserable state,

A terrible state.

Aging is the same and death is like the ultimate version of sickness and aging.

That's what we all have to look forward to.

So we need to learn and train ourselves to see the separation between mind and body and the separation between the knower and the mind.

Cultivating in this way,

We find a reliable refuge,

A refuge that is empty and peaceful and pure.

The knower is already pure.

The knower is already empty.

It's already perfected.

The problem is it's deluded by the mind.

It's deluded by the body.

It's deluded by identification as self.

We're caught up.

We really believe in ourself.

We truly do.

If we didn't,

We wouldn't be here.

The reason why we're here is because we believe in ourself.

And we do things chasing pleasures.

We do things chasing self-satisfaction to make ourself seem special.

Feedback,

Emotional feedback,

Body feedback,

Sensation feedback,

Everything that makes us feel the way we want to feel so that what is me and mine can be just the way I want it.

But it doesn't turn out just the way I want it.

It follows its own nature anyway.

The body still suffers.

The mind still gets stressed.

We want it to be happy,

But it's stressed anyway.

We want the body to be relaxed and delightful and perfect and beautiful,

But,

You know,

It's crappy anyway.

Body and mind follow their own causes and conditions.

They follow their own laws,

Separate to the knower.

The knower is free from those laws.

It's ignorance that makes the knower caught up with the mind.

It's ignorance that makes the knower caught up with the body.

But we're born that way.

Actually,

That's why we're born.

So to say that we're born purified or born pure or enlightened or innocent is not true.

The reason why we're born is because we're ignorant.

That's the cause of birth itself.

We're not born already,

Okay?

Babies come out and they cry.

The very first thing they do is cry.

As soon as you're born,

You suffer.

First breath suffering.

Body and mind,

Oh,

Really?

This again?

Again?

Body and mind just causing a pain in the ass again.

If you look at every day of our life,

We see the body and mind causing pain.

When we're practicing today,

The first thing we do,

We stand still.

That's all.

We just stand still and relax.

Sounds pretty easy.

But what happens?

The body hurts.

Hurts real quick.

Five or ten minutes,

The body's burning.

It's on fire.

That's not so bad,

But it gets worse than that.

The mind's on fire too.

The mind's panicking.

It's looking at the clock.

When's it going to end?

Why are we doing this again?

Oh,

I can't deal with it.

The mind starts to panic.

Then you have moments of clarity where the mind can separate from the body and you're at ease and at peace.

And then the mind attaches to the body again and it starts panicking again.

So we have a two-fold pain,

Two-fold stress.

Stress of the body and the stress of the mind.

Sometimes we have moments where the mind is free from the stress of the body and we're at ease and the practice is clear,

The practice is enjoyable,

Even if it's bitter.

And then sometimes the mind's caught up with the body and the suffering of the body and the mind suffers with the body.

But there's more than that and the important skill,

The hard skill,

The true skill is that the knower can be separate from the stresses of the mind because the mind is far more unreliable than the body.

So when we cultivate,

When we practice,

Whatever practice we're doing,

Whether it be formal sitting or standing,

Whatever comes up,

Whether it be pain or pleasure,

We try to cultivate the ability to see it clearly just for what it is.

It's just the activities of the body going on and on,

Whatever,

It's all good.

No need to get caught up,

No need to get involved.

No need to get involved.

It's just a body experience or just being,

Following the quality of the body,

Like blood flow in the leg blocking.

It blocks,

That's all that's happening,

The blood's blocking.

Then we make a story about,

Oh God,

This knee pain is unbearable,

I really have to adjust,

I hope this meditation ends soon,

What if I get the blood clot?

We make all kinds of issues.

We make all kinds of issues out of simple phenomena.

It's really quite an issue,

What issue we make.

The mind gets stressed out about things,

The way my life is,

It's not the way I want it to be.

Why do I think so much?

Why am I paranoid?

Why am I so emotional?

Surely I should be happier than this,

Surely I should be more successful.

Why aren't I in love?

Why haven't I found love?

I'm sure I was in love,

Why am I stressed out,

Why do I hate her today?

We create all kinds of stories about the activities of the mind,

But really we should just let them go.

Let them spin around like an old man watching kids play,

Like watching a movie you've seen before,

And just watch it happening.

Not involved,

Like grandparents,

Grandparents,

The kids just playing,

Oh,

It's okay.

Not like new parents,

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

Don't fall over,

We're all caught up and involved.

The less you get involved,

The more you get free from things.

When you're free from them,

They don't pull you around,

Left,

Right,

Up and down,

Pull you into pain,

Pull you into happiness,

Pull you around with samsara,

Pull you around fabricating all kinds of feelings,

Duality of life,

Ignorance and suffering.

So the knower is our refuge.

Cultivating in this way we can find peace.

In the beginning it will be very short moments,

Because the knower from old habit,

From many life cycles,

It's used to being connected to the mind and body,

It gets caught with the mind and body,

It gets bound up with the mind and body,

It's stuck to the mind and the body.

Even the ability to see for a moment that the knower is separate to the mind is quite difficult in the beginning,

It's quite difficult.

It's counterintuitive.

But with practice,

If you keep looking,

Not imagining,

There's no point imagining it to be a certain way or taking my word for it,

You just keep looking and look again and look again and look again.

You don't need to look for anything in particular,

Just keep looking.

Eventually when you look at something long enough,

You realize a truth or two about it.

You see a separation,

Separation between the knower and the mind,

A separation between the mind and the body.

This separation the Buddha called anata or non-self.

One classic description is like a car,

You have a car or a cart,

We call it a car,

Like it's a thing,

Like it's an entity.

But when you take all the parts about,

Separate every part of the car or the cart,

There's no car left anymore,

There's just parts.

And then you can take those parts apart and there's just materials.

If you take those materials apart,

There's just elements.

Everything can be taken back to zero,

Divided back to emptiness.

When we put things together,

When things come together,

We call it a self.

The coming together of this body and mind we call me or mine.

When things come together and we are attached to that coming together of things,

We suffer.

But when we can see the separation between aspects,

Or we divide and we see the emptiness of things,

Then we're free from suffering.

It's the tying together of the body and the mind that makes us suffer.

When we see the separation of body and mind,

We don't suffer.

And when we see the separation between the knower and the mind and the body,

We truly don't suffer.

This is just an aspect of seeing truth,

And the practice is simply looking.

Looking again and again and again until you see.

It's not something we fabricate or imagine.

You don't need to imagine the knower being separate to the mind.

You don't need to imagine the mind being separate to the body.

No need.

It already is.

It already is.

The imagined part is that they're one.

That's the false foot.

That's the lie.

That's Mara.

That's the trick.

That's what's happened to us.

We're deluded by it.

We feel like a self.

We feel like we must be one.

And because of that,

All kinds of issues come up in life.

And small issues become huge issues.

And sometimes they're simply unbearable.

Sometimes it's simply too much.

But issues are happening all the time.

When we learn how to see them as separate,

Take a step back from things,

Then it's just something happening.

Just something happening.

Things are happening all the time.

Pain is happening.

Guidance is happening.

Mind movement is happening.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

Nothing to make a story about.

It's all good.

Then we find peace.

Peace of letting things follow their own way.

Not trying to be a control freak.

Most of us are control freaks in one way or another.

I know I certainly am naturally a control freak.

I try to control myself to the highest degree.

I try to control people around me.

I don't even do what I want to do,

And I definitely don't do what I want them to do.

So if I cling on to that,

It's painful.

It's not stressful.

It's not how I want it to be.

I get upset.

Instead I just realize that,

You know,

Buddy gets hurt.

Buddy gets tired.

Buddy can't sleep.

Buddy's not sleeping.

Buddy's not sleeping.

You know,

I'm here on to do a tour.

I have to teach all day,

All night.

Buddy just won't sleep.

Damn thing.

If I got upset about that,

I'd be really upset.

Instead I just lie there.

It's pretty comfy really on the mattress.

It's all good.

It's just not sleeping.

It's alright.

It's comfortable.

Who cares?

Who cares?

Buddy's really worn out.

So worn out.

Busted up,

Nervous system shattered from spinal injury.

No sleep.

Jet lag.

If I get caught in that,

Real trouble.

I'd be in real trouble.

It would not be a fun workshop.

The workshops would have been miserable.

They'd be real cranky and taking it out on all you guys.

But that's just what happens in the body and the mind.

That's just what happens.

Let the body follow its way.

It doesn't want to sleep.

It doesn't sleep.

It doesn't do what we want it to do all the time because it's not me.

The mind doesn't do what we want it to do either because it's not me.

So I don't identify with the body and don't identify with the mind.

It doesn't matter that they're imperfect because they're imperfect.

That's the reality of the body and the mind.

I'd just identify with the knower because the knower can't be tired.

The knower doesn't get tired.

The knower can't feel pain.

It's just empty and peaceful.

It's already at ease.

The only time that it suffers is when it gets caught up with body and mind.

That's it.

No other time.

Its nature is already free.

It's already empty.

It's already perfected.

It's already unbound.

It's already nibbana'd.

The problem is it's bound.

It becomes bound to the mind.

It becomes bound to the body.

And in this finding it gets dragged along to all kinds of places it doesn't want to be.

So we take the knowing as the refuge.

We take clear seeing as the refuge.

Vipassana.

To see things clearly.

That is our refuge.

And it's a reliable one.

We can rely on truth.

We can become dedicated to truth.

And this doesn't mean truth like,

I will expose the government's plans.

That's not truth.

That's mind activity.

That's you thinking.

The government,

What?

I didn't notice them.

If we get caught up about them,

Yeah,

That'd be suffering.

You're caught up about my body,

About my mind,

About your body,

About your mind,

About what you think,

About what he's doing,

About his control.

It's a bit much really.

It's high stress.

Addicted to stress.

Identifying with everything.

Not just inside us but identifying with that which is outside of us.

We're so addicted to a self identification.

It's not even enough to identify with our body and mind that we have to identify with all kinds of things outside of our body and our mind.

That's how important self is to us.

And we say,

Oh,

Ego.

Ego is not enough.

My ego has to be big enough to,

You know,

Be countrywide,

Worldwide even.

Maybe even universal ego.

You said just let go of it all.

When you let go,

You're at ease.

Pick up something that's hot,

Drop it,

It stops burning.

You hold on to it,

It burns.

You hold on to this body,

It'll burn you.

It will die on you.

You hold on to the mind,

It will burn you.

Every time.

But when you let go,

It's free.

The burning stops.

This is the practice of the Pasana.

It's not enough just to note or just to look.

See clearly the way it is.

When you see clearly,

You naturally want to let go.

You don't have to contrive letting go because you see it as stressful.

We can't deny the body is stressful.

Right?

I'm pretty sure all of you are feeling stressed judging by the body adjustments.

But we move because the body is stressful.

Right?

Because it hurts.

And the mind runs around back and forth.

Maybe it wants to watch a movie to chill out and relax.

Okay,

That's not enough.

Maybe I'll look on Facebook.

No,

That's not working.

I'm listening to some music.

No,

I'm going to have a sleep.

Okay,

Why don't you give me some emotional feedback,

Babe?

Come on,

Make me feel good.

The mind chases after things all the time because it's stressful.

It's undeniable.

Just look.

Don't take my word for it.

Just look at your mind.

Just look.

If you look for long enough,

You see it as stressful.

You see it as not-self and then you drop it.

But you don't drop it till you've watched for a long time.

Because we've been holding on for such a long time.

We've been clinging on to the body and mind itself for so long.

Since time beginning with.

.

.

Even if you have no interest in the long span of previous life cycle.

Since birth,

That's a damn long time.

That's a lot of days and a lot of hours and minutes of clinging and holding on to this body and mind.

So now we're trying a new way of letting go,

Of watching it as separate.

Well,

It's difficult because we don't have the habit.

It's a difficult habit to build.

And it's unnatural.

It's going against the grain.

It's going against the stream.

Swimming upstream.

The stream leads us to death,

Suffering,

Pain.

But when you swim against it,

You can lead to the deathless.

Away from suffering,

Away from pain.

This is the path.

Away from suffering,

Away from pain.

Away from stress.

To ease.

Ease amongst it.

Ease when you're broken.

Ease when you're tired.

Ease when the mind's not where you want it to be.

The reason why this is,

Why this piece is so reliable,

Is because it doesn't require conditions to be the way we want them to be.

It's not a perfected state of bliss.

You know,

Perfect diet,

Perfect chi flow,

Perfect blood in the hammock and there's never any background sounds.

Meditation,

No cars go past.

An ideal,

Angelic,

Perfect existence.

If that's what we wanted,

Well we'll suffer because that doesn't happen either.

It just doesn't happen.

Our only refuge is knowing that everything is changing,

Everything is impermanent and that none of it belongs to us anyway.

None of it is us anyway.

When we truly see that it's not us,

We don't get caught up in it.

Like I'm sure all of you guys have stuff going on in life.

Like that fire,

Probably a fire somewhere.

I'm not burning.

Sounds selfish but I'm not burning.

Are you burning?

No,

But there's bodies burning.

The only difference between their bodies burning and our bodies burning is that self.

The cause of pain is the self,

Not the body burning.

Some of you have stressful situations in your mind I'm sure.

It doesn't matter to me.

Not even in the slightest.

It's not causing me any pain.

Sounds selfish,

Right?

But neither is what happens in my mind that's not causing me any pain either.

You can free yourself.

You're already free from what's happening in my life.

My knee pain is not causing you any pain.

Why does yours?

It's just knee pain.

The delusion is that it's my knee pain.

This is the problem.

Not knee pain.

There's about 20 knee pains going on now.

So if I identified with all of you it would truly be unbearable.

And as for mental stuff,

Well that's massive.

It's huge.

So much can be happening.

When we cling to it,

When we hold on to it,

When we identify with it,

It's misery.

When we let go of it,

When we realize we're actually already free from it,

Misery ends that moment,

Bang,

It's over.

Immediately.

You're immediately free in that moment.

Then we cling to it again and you suffer again.

If you can let go,

You're free that moment.

At that moment you are free.

If you can do that constantly,

You're constantly free.

This is the goal of true spiritual work is freedom.

That's it.

Not seeing fancy lights?

Freedom.

Freedom from yourself,

The real enemy.

The real pain,

The real pain in the ass.

The one that makes all the problems is you.

We make our own problems.

We create our own problems and we identify with them.

When you just become free from them,

Then right there,

Right now,

You're happy and free.

A happiness and a freedom that is not dependent on anything.

Why is it the ultimate happiness and ultimate freedom?

Because it's not dependent on anything.

Why is it reliable?

Because it's not dependent on anything.

The problem with happiness and freedom of the body and mind is that happiness and freedom of the body and mind is dependent on the body and mind.

And the body and mind are unreliable.

The only happiness and freedom that we can rely upon is happiness and freedom from the body and mind.

The body and the mind cannot really be free,

But we can be free from them.

The knower can be free from them.

There's a difference.

We try to make ourself free like this perfect free life,

But it's impossible.

Really,

We need to be free from ourselves.

When you're free from yourselves,

It's always easy.

You're always happy,

Even when things are rotten.

And let's face it,

Things are rotten often.

Things are not the way we want them to be.

We all want more.

Just be free from your wants.

Your wants don't matter.

Don't identify with them.

Let them go on and on just like somebody else's wants,

Because there's no difference.

The only difference is that we cling onto it as me and mine.

Me and mine are the enemy.

Freedom from me and mine is peace.

Don't take my word for it.

Just watch.

Just watch.

Just look.

Bit by bit,

You'll see this reality.

And as you see this reality,

You'll start to drop things.

When you drop them,

They no longer hurt you.

You're not involved with them.

And then there's ease no matter what.

If you cultivate in this way,

You will find happiness.

If you cultivate in this way consistently,

You'll find a consistent happiness.

If you can do this constantly,

You'll find a constant happiness.

The ultimate happiness is ultimate letting go.

It doesn't mean you have to let go of external things,

Like water.

Well,

You can't let go of water.

You die.

So we all need water,

Right?

But we can let go of what we think about it and let go of the problems we make about it,

Stories we make about it.

People often misinterpret letting go as meaning that I must never have any material objects,

Right?

Be the hardcore ascetic.

But even ascetics need water,

Food,

Sleep.

There are some things we can't let go of.

Everybody's addicted to water and food.

Everybody.

Nobody's completely free from addiction.

Nobody.

We're all addicted to water and air.

If we make an issue about being addicted to water,

That would be really stressful.

But we don't luckily,

But we make issues about other things.

So in this way,

You have to learn how to be free from the stories that you make.

If you reflect in this way,

You'll see that you make them stories in your head all the time.

Just anything.

Make a story about it.

We call it Bava or creating,

World creating.

We create worlds.

It's not enough to experience reality how it is.

We have to create a whole world around it.

Parents or older brothers,

Even if we reflect back on our own life,

Teenagers are exceptional at making worlds about things.

She didn't like my hair.

You can make a whole world about that.

Very skilled at creating worlds.

We're awesome at making worlds.

Creating.

Fabricating.

Generating worlds.

Generating me and mine and a world around it.

Suffering around it.

Instead we have to stop fabricating,

Stop generating,

Stop world making.

Cease.

End.

Let go.

Let go and be at peace.

This doesn't need to have a philosophical or even a spiritual flavor about it.

It's a very practical one.

Very practically see that we create our own suffering and simply stop creating it.

Unfortunately simple is not easy.

Simple is not yet easy.

It takes a lot of effort.

And then when you do it,

Even that's not that hard,

But maintaining it is hard.

It's easy to get moments.

And then the old habits keep going back in again.

So you have to gradually create a new habit.

It's like any skill that has to be developed bit by bit.

You develop the skill of seeing,

Knowing the truth.

The seeing is the looking path.

The knowing.

Looking at it and knowing it for what it is.

I know the body for what it is.

What is it?

It's a hunk of meat.

It's what it is.

Bones,

Flesh,

Tendons.

Blood.

Maybe a few torn tendons in there.

That's the body.

It's a bit busted up.

That's the body.

Know it for what it is and let go.

Oh,

My back.

I could make a whole story about my back and that would be a real story.

This is not the way.

We all have body problems.

We all have mind problems.

The enlightened ones are those that are free from their own problems.

Enlightened masters still have thoughts.

They're not constantly in a state of ohm no thinking.

They still think.

They still urinate.

They still drink.

They still sleep and they still have body pain.

But they don't get caught up in the stories of the body and the mind and so they're always at ease and always happy because they know it is free from body and mind.

If you can try to cultivate this way just a little bit,

Just a little bit,

When you start to see it,

That little bit will bear a bit of fruit.

That fruit will be so rich,

I guarantee you'll keep doing it.

You won't need anyone to encourage you because you'll suddenly see a freedom from yourself which is better than more valuable than anything else in life.

Being free from yourself is the most valuable thing.

Because the only pain that you take with you everywhere is yourself.

You run away from one situation,

You're still there making trouble.

Get out of one relationship,

You're still there making trouble and the next one.

Damn me,

I keep making trouble.

When you can become free from it,

It's all good there on.

It's all easy because we don't demand perfection anymore.

We realize duality is just the way it is.

Yin and yang,

It's just the way it is.

Not demanding the body or mind to be not the way it is.

Because it won't do that,

It's going to do what it does and be the way it is.

See truth,

Recognize truth,

Know truth and let go.

See,

Know and let go and do it over and over.

The knowing is cultivated to you,

You can see clearly,

Know the truth for what it is,

Not your story about it,

That's not truth,

That's a story and then let go.

You can see your story,

Know your story for being permanent and just being a story and let go of that truth.

Whatever arises in body and mind,

Just see it,

Know it for what it is and then just relax.

Letting go is just relaxing,

Just relax.

See,

Know,

Relax,

See,

Know,

Relax.

Cultivate this skill until you're really consistent at it.

Then you have a reliable,

Dependable happiness,

Not dependent on anyone else,

Not even dependent on yourself,

Only dependent on not-self.

This is the truth of Vipassana and the Buddhist teachings.

Very practical and it works.

You don't have to believe anybody,

Everybody that puts the practice in will tell you and there are many people that achieve this truth and it's a reliable truth and their happiness shines through.

The proof is in the pudding.

This body and mind is worn out,

It hasn't slept in five days.

I'm going to try and let it rest today,

Let it follow its function and hopefully that works and wish me luck.

Thank you.

Alright,

Any questions?

All good?

Feel free.

What happens when the knower completely separates from all the material suffering?

Well,

It's already separate from the material suffering.

The problem is it's deluded,

Thinks it's one with the suffering,

So it suffers.

When it realizes the separation,

The material suffering still happens but you,

So to speak,

The knower,

Isn't caught up with it,

So the suffering doesn't affect you.

The suffering just happens,

The pain just happens but it no longer affects you.

So the experience is freedom from suffering and the same goes with the mind.

When you practice your standing,

What I actually,

My personal practice for standing is that.

Just separating from the suffering and my training is truly grueling.

Main reason,

It's nothing like what I teach,

Okay?

It's many,

Many,

Many times more grueling,

Very grueling.

And the reason why I like it being so grueling is because it gives me a feedback loop to know if I'm connecting to the body or not.

It's really not about the martial arts,

It's about the suffering.

You make it extremely grueling,

It's like,

I can't lie to myself.

It's easy to lie to yourself when everything's perfect but when everything's bad,

It's hard.

When everything's bad,

You can't trick yourself.

So this is why in meditation we hold the posture,

In standing meditation we hold the posture.

In all true traditions,

You face suffering head on.

When you face the suffering of the body head on,

You know whether you're caught up in it or not.

Philosophy no longer supports you,

Only truth supports you.

Like our concepts don't help anymore.

And the same with the mind.

So what happens is you become free.

Simple as that.

How to describe it,

That's difficult.

When you experience it,

You know.

You become free from suffering.

It doesn't mean suffering ends.

This is the strange part where it's hard to understand.

The pain's still there.

The pain's still there.

But it doesn't matter.

Just like there's pain here but it doesn't matter to you,

Jim,

My pain does not matter to you.

We might have compassion,

But my pain is not hurting you.

My pain is not hurting me either.

That's where we want to get.

The pain in this body is not worrying me at all.

And then the pain in the mind does not worry you at all.

And then it's all good.

That's what happens.

What happens is it's all good suddenly.

When it's all good,

It's all good.

We're always happy,

We're always at ease.

And that's what we all want.

I have a question.

You said that when we were born,

We're not innocent.

Are you referencing reincarnation and desire to climb up?

Correct.

Can you elaborate on that a little?

Well,

According to the Buddhist view,

The reason why we're born is because of karma.

So the mere fact that we're born is proof that we're innocent is not really the right word.

We're not pure,

Not purified.

We're defiled.

We're ignorant.

We don't see the things the way they are.

We're deluded by things.

So the cause of birth from the Buddhist view is ignorance itself.

And because of ignorance,

We have attraction and aversion.

So we cling to things,

We desire things,

And we dislike things,

And we push things away.

These two things create karma and create rebirth in all of the different planes and all of the different manifestations.

So you can look at it from life cycle to life cycle or moment to moment,

The way we're born from moment to moment based on our attraction and our aversion.

We're drawn to things,

We push things away.

We create our own existence,

We fabricate our own world in the moment to moment,

In the hour to hour,

Week to week,

Month to month,

Year to year,

And life cycle to life cycle.

Do you go year to life,

Your past lives,

And your new energies?

Some.

Can you elaborate on that?

Why?

No.

For this,

For the.

.

.

It's not really,

I'd rather not.

It's just entertainment.

It really won't benefit you.

The only thing that benefits you is doing practice.

Even just seeing your own life cycles does not benefit you.

There's no benefit.

What matters is here and now,

And separating from the sufferings here and now.

Looking back at the last five minutes does not benefit us,

Let alone the last life cycle,

The one before,

The one before.

They're endless.

Isn't this now the result of the desire that created it?

Absolutely.

So looking at that is not relevant?

No.

One of the.

.

.

This is a different view,

Like in psychology,

We want to know the whys,

Right?

The causes.

We think that if we know why,

We can let go.

If only I knew why,

I didn't like it when people rubbed me on my neck,

Then I could let go and I wouldn't,

You know,

I'd be free from it.

That's the psychological way.

But that's not the Buddhist way.

The Buddhist method is you simply drop it.

That's it.

Why?

It doesn't matter,

You just drop it.

As soon as you drop it,

It no longer burns you.

So whatever comes up,

We just drop it.

You just let go.

Could you then say what compassion is if it's not feeling something for other people?

The function of compassion is benefiting other beings.

Is what?

Benefiting others.

The important part is to work for the benefit of others.

It's not a skillful quality if when you stub your toe,

If I fall over and grab my toe.

That would be feeling somebody else's suffering.

What would be skillful would be bandaging up your toe.

And then teaching you to,

You know,

Look out for bumps on the road.

So the skillful compassion,

Compassion as a skillful means,

Is to benefit other beings.

Not simply to feel others suffering.

This is a different road.

One leads to more suffering.

One leads to the alleviation of suffering.

So when you work for others,

That's compassion in action.

The compassion that matters.

Not a philosophical compassion.

Practical compassion.

Benefiting other beings.

Whether you want to or not,

Whether you're tired or not,

Sore or not,

Sick or not.

For others.

How aligned is the Buddhism that you practice with the Dalai Lama?

Partially aligned.

The part that Buddhism is aligned,

The part that's cultural isn't.

And even the Dalai Lama probably wouldn't deny that.

The essence of what the Buddha taught is aligned.

Because that's authentic Buddhism.

And then there's all kinds of cultural stuff that gets brought into different sex,

Different variations,

Different religions.

But the actual Dharma is the Dharma.

That's compassion that matters is benefiting beings.

That's the one that matters.

In Mahayana they stress that.

In Theravada we stress it too,

But not in the same way.

We stress metta.

Metta is love and kindness and it's the action of benefiting others.

And instead of thinking about how we have to develop all this kind of compassion,

We simply go and help people.

That's it.

Simply help them.

Teach them,

Help them,

Take away their suffering.

Compassion in action.

Really my philosophy of compassion isn't going to help you.

If you fall over,

I've got to pick you up,

Right?

I've got to help you.

Actual helping matters.

Actions speak louder than words.

So you know,

Lots of people talk about compassion and a lot of people that talk about compassion don't really help anybody except themselves.

They're compassionately living in their spiritual bubble.

The true compassion is out there getting its hands dirty.

That's real compassion.

Working for others.

Working for the benefit of others.

And no one can,

You know,

Can brag about themselves doing that,

But the people around you know whether you do that or not.

That's for others to make up their mind about.

Not us.

We talk about how compassionate we are.

Oh,

Our compassion is vast.

That's not the one.

That's clinging to me and mine.

Instead of clinging to me and mine,

Benefit other people.

So we deal with then others around you.

They're inspired by that and they do it too.

Compassion in action.

Anyone else?

Alright,

Thanks guys.

If any of you are once again would like an amulet,

You can talk to Andy.

He's got an amulet blessed by a little paw.

Superpowers,

Protection.

And of course every dollar goes to the benefit of others.

Compassion in action.

Feeding the poor,

Helping beating women,

All that sort of stuff.

Okay,

I can speak louder than once.

Thank you.

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