The citta,
Mind,
Is the element that receives,
Or is conscious of,
Aramana,
Sense objects.
This is the mind,
Or the heart,
That receives aramana.
What is it that we call aramana?
They are forms,
Sounds,
Odors,
Flavors,
Cold,
Heat,
Softness,
Hardness.
This is aramana.
And there are the thoughts that arise in the mind,
Which proliferate from delusion,
Which we also call aramana.
When it arises from the mind,
It's called dhamma aramana.
Dhamma plus aramana.
It's a mental object.
Like we are sitting here and thinking about the past,
This is dhamma aramana arising.
The mental object arises in the mind.
Sometimes we want it to be peaceful,
And it's not peaceful.
Then we teach the mind.
Venerable Ajahn Chah taught us to teach our mind that it's not certain,
It's not permanent.
The mind may feel it likes something.
After it receives a sense object that it likes or it doesn't like,
Then we teach it.
It's not sure,
It's not permanent.
We teach it in all the situations that we think are permanent and are certain.
Sometimes there are two people who argue so seriously,
And it looks like there is no way that they can be in harmony.
But one day,
Oh,
They get along better.
But there are those who get along so well and are close,
And one day they may argue.
It's not sure,
It's not permanent.
And that which we like,
It's not sure,
It's not permanent.
There may be food we really like a lot,
And one day we see the downside of it.
It's dangerous to us,
So we don't like it anymore.
We've seen the fault of it.
It's not sure,
It's not permanent.
There was a monk who went on Toodong,
And he got to a pumpkin field and asked to spend the three-month rains retreat there.
The villagers said,
The monk said,
So he spent the rains retreat there.
And there was pumpkin curry,
And then that person gave boiled pumpkin,
That other person gave fried pumpkin.
It was always something with pumpkin.
Having this every day,
And the monk got bored of it.
He was so sick of pumpkin.
Whatever one gets over and over again,
The body probably gets bored of it.
Before he said he liked it a lot,
But now he didn't want it at all.
It's not sure,
It's not permanent.
If we don't teach the mind like this,
Then the mind will get lost with the sense objects and experiences.
So we have to teach the mind,
Because it's not yet intelligent.
So Ajahn Chah said that we have to teach our minds,
And then the mind has more awareness.
There is wisdom.
It is wisdom that instructs the mind to have samadhi,
Concentration.
If you don't teach the mind and just leave it as it is,
Then the mind will go on proliferating.
The sense experiences lead us to proliferate like this.
One moment there is liking,
Another moment disliking.
Another sense object contacts the mind and we proliferate all day.
So we need to train the mind to be peaceful.
If the mind is peaceful,
Then it's easy to train.
If the mind is not peaceful,
Then it's really hard to teach.
We teach it and it doesn't listen.
It's stubborn and obstinate.
The defilements are covering over it.
We teach it,
It's not sure,
It's not permanent,
It's not me.
And the mind doesn't listen at all.
But if our mind has peacefulness,
Then we haven't even got to teaching it,
And there is a feeling or the thought comes up and we put it down straight away.
There's not even time to say,
It's not permanent,
It's not sure.
The mind has already let go of it.
There is knowing arising like this.
It's easy when it's like this.
But in the beginning,
We have to practice it.
At the time before I ordained,
When I was interested in Dhamma practice,
I practiced some meditation.
I saw a teacher teaching 18-year-old students and saw that the teacher was able to stop his anger quickly.
For me,
When I was angry,
It would take a long time for it to disappear.
As for this teacher,
He had students who were sometimes studious and sometimes not studious.
And he got angry once.
He threw the eraser.
But in a short moment,
He was able to put down the mood.
So I noticed that the teacher was able to stop the mood of anger quickly.
And I had heard that this teacher had trained in meditation before,
And so I wanted to train in meditation as well.
I went to go practice it and try it out.
Practicing meditation,
I would sit and the mind was very chaotic.
When the mind had received the sense object already,
Like something that wasn't going the way I wanted,
Then the mind was very chaotic.
It would struggle and sway here and there,
So I couldn't find the way out.
And so I brought it back to the object of meditation.
Here I sat meditation,
Watching the in and out breath.
When the mental defilements cover up the mind,
Then it's really a big deal.
There is desire,
Aversion,
Delusion,
And we have no idea about it.
When we practice with a meditation object,
Awareness of the in and out breath,
Having awareness,
Buto,
Buto,
Oh,
The mind was more cool.
It was peaceful.
The body is very light.
And we can see the path of practice,
Of dukkha,
Suffering.
When we see suffering,
Then we see the way out of suffering,
Which is sila,
Samadhi,
Bhajna,
Morality,
Concentration,
Wisdom.
And we can train in it.
Then later on,
The defilements lead us just like they did before.
They pull us as they used to.
We run after the sense experiences as usual.
But when we see the drawbacks of that,
Then we sit meditation again.
Here we are determined and put forth effort.
Like us,
We come to the monastery and listen to the Dhamma.
We give homage to the triple gem and keep sila,
The moral precepts.
So this is really important.
And practicing like this,
One day we may see the Dhamma,
Which we call chula-sotapanna,
Seeing into arising and ceasing,
And by not even thinking that we would be able to do it.
So we put forth effort.
We have sila,
Givedhana,
Giving alms and listening to Dhamma regularly.
And we sit in meditation.
And using only the word bhutto,
The mind may still be chaotic.
We can then think that life is uncertain,
Death is certain.
We will certainly die.
The pinnacle of life is death.
Here we have some peacefulness.
And we contemplate the physical body.
What would it be like if it died?
We have heaps of earth element,
Water element,
Fire element,
Air element.
Four heaps.
So we mentally separate out the body into four heaps.
One is a heap of bones,
The earth element.
One heap is the water element.
We do this so that we can see that there is no I,
No self.
Before it was a small body,
And now it's a big body.
Why do we take it as a self?
Before it was in the mother's womb,
It was a tiny compound of flesh.
The mind attaches to it,
And it grows and expands,
It gets bigger.
And when the body grows a lot,
In the present now,
It's all taken as ours.
We are attached to every single cell.
If we've learnt about cells,
Then we'll understand about this.
The mind has attached to all of it.
Smaller than cells,
Then there are atoms.
There is a positive charge,
Negative charge,
Neutral charge of the protons,
Neutrons,
Electrons.
They have an electrical charge.
So there is all this in the body.
Here,
When we contemplate like this,
We sit and we use our thinking first.
The breath ends.
Now,
We're able to exist because we have the breath.
But without oxygen,
The body will die.
Each person sitting here,
Without any oxygen for five minutes,
Will die.
And who makes the body die?
It breaks apart and decays.
Does the mind want that?
The mind doesn't want it.
But the body is supported by the breath.
It's supported by oxygen.
And is this me?
The mind says it doesn't want to die.
But the body doesn't listen.
We don't want aging.
The body doesn't listen.
We don't want sickness.
It doesn't listen.
But the mind is deluded that it is ours.
Birth is ours.
Aging is ours.
Sickness is ours.
Death is ours.
Oh,
We can't yet see it clearly.
But never mind.
We have to think about it anew.
If we die,
Then the air element disappears.
The fire element will disappear.
The body will be cold.
There's no more heat.
As for the water element,
The body becomes bloated and swells up.
And it bursts.
And the water element gradually gets drier and drier.
The body,
When it's thrown away,
It gets all dried up.
The water element evaporates.
Then it's just the skin over the bones remaining.
Like we can see a body in a cremation ground.
The air element is already gone.
The fire element goes.
The water element is gone.
It's all dried up.
It's just left the earth element.
And the earth element slowly decays and decomposes.
The hard bits of the body,
Like the bones,
Are harder to decompose.
It takes some time,
But it slowly decomposes and decays.
And it goes back to being dirt.
Back to the earth element,
Like the earth.
There's no me there.
There's no me,
Or mine,
There.
The mind has some knowing arise that there is no me,
No mine.
It's just the four elements.
The body is not beautiful or attractive.
And it's not me as well.
The mind isn't yet peaceful,
And thoughts come up again.
So contemplate over.
If we die and are thrown into a cremation ground,
The breath ceases.
So we contemplate over it again.
This is called regular contemplation.
We do it a lot.
Until the mind is peaceful and still.
And then the thoughts start to get less and less.
The contemplation becomes more orderly.
And ultimately,
There is some peacefulness coming up.
The body is light.
The mind is more light.
There is strength of mind.
And here the mind is easy to teach.
When we sit meditation,
And there is samadhi,
It's easy to teach.
Hey,
This is not me.
It's not mine.
The mind believes it.
It listens and believes it well.
Coming out of samadhi,
There is liking and disliking again.
And we keep teaching the mind.
Prod the mind.
It's not sure.
It's not permanent.
It's not me.
There is no me.
No them.
If we get angry at anyone,
They are the four elements and five aggregates.
We are the four elements and five aggregates as well.
It is ignorance which gets angry here,
Proliferating thoughts from it.
It is nama,
Mental phenomena.
It's not me.
It's not a self.
It's the mental defilements that cause the mind to proliferate.
It's not a being,
A self,
A person,
Me or other.
So do it like this every day,
Every day.
We wake up and have mindfulness all day until we go to bed.
We train like this.
And one day we may have knowing arise,
Seeing arising and ceasing.
When we see arising and ceasing,
Then in reality there is no material phenomena.
In reality there is no mental phenomena.
We see arising and ceasing.
Oh.
When we see arising and ceasing,
What is it like?
There's nothing left.
It's conventional reality.
All things are conventions.
Then liberation arises.
The mind is empty.
It sees liberation.
And it's unbelievable as well.
Oh.
When we get to see it,
We really see it.
We see liberation.
There is nothing.
All material things that humans create or of nature are simply conventions.
There is no self in it.
The mind has knowing like that.
It's the wisdom that arises from bhavana,
Meditation.
We understand clearly and our faith is firmer than before.
We see clearly that what the Buddha taught is true.
It's impermanent.
It's not self.
Just like this.
We have pamoja,
Joy arise.
The joy comes from small amounts of rapture.
Then there is joy,
Rapture,
Bliss and fullness of heart.
And it pulls out delusion of love and hate.
The mind is still and peaceful.
Pasadit.
The mind is tranquil and peaceful.
There is fullness of heart.
There is equanimity.
And when it gets to this point,
We will see that there is no more me to be born,
Age,
Sicken and die in this world anymore.
The mind only temporarily resides in the body.
And intelligent people will build goodness with it.
If we have come from being a deva,
A divine being,
Then we will go back to be born as a deva.
If we have the strength of jhana,
Absorptions,
We go back to being a brahma god again.
So we learn and develop our understanding,
So that we don't need to be born again.
Also the number of our births are reduced.
Because birth each time is repeated,
Continual suffering.
So try to train and develop yourselves like this.
May you grow in blessings.
