This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness.
And who knows the path of peace.
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited.
Contented,
And easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful.
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.
Wishing,
In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak or strong,
Omitting none.
The great or the mighty,
Medium,
Short,
Or small.
The seen and the unseen.
There's living near and far away.
Was born and to be born.
May all beings be at ease.
Let none deceive another or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill will wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life her child,
Her only child,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.
Radiating kindness over the entire world.
Spreading upward to the skies and downwards to the depths.
Outward and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill will,
Whether standing or walking,
Seated or lying down,
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one,
Having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.
Skilled in goodness.
And knows the path of peace.
The 8-fold path definitely leads.
To a peaceful mind.
A peaceful heart.
The Eightfold Path gives us tools to become skillful or more skillful than we were before.
Let them be able and upright.
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Right action,
Right speech.
The Buddha is giving us.
The instructions to connect the eightfold path.
How we live.
With this as our guide.
Humble and not conceited.
Contented and easily satisfied.
Feels connected to right livelihood.
Unburdened.
And frugal in their ways also.
Connected to.
Wise livelihood.
Peaceful and calm.
And wise and skillful.
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing the wise would later reprove.
That connects a number of eightfold past factors.
Action,
Understanding,
Intention.
Mindfulness.
Collectedness.
Developing.
Skill.
In the age-old path.
We become wise to some extent.
And we also become compassionate.
If we were before,
Hopefully we have grown.
If we didn't feel like we had much to offer in that department.
Now we'll have some.
And that leads us to the.
.
.
Four Immeasurables,
The Brahma Zaharas,
Are practices.
Wishing in gladness and in safety,
May all beings.
Be at ease.
He goes on to describe.
Beings in all different states.
Size,
Shape,
Power,
Weakness.
Born to be born.
Next door.
Is the planet.
And we wish them all the same.
Equanimity.
And hacker.
And Meta and Perona.
Compassion,
And kindness.
For everyone.
There's no if,
Ands,
Or buts.
Not if they've been nice to you,
If they're on your team.
None of that.
It's very straightforward.
May all beings be happy.
How easy is that?
To not have to pick or choose.
To not separate.
And he comes back to wise speech,
Let none deceive another.
Precepts.
The fold paths.
And he brings up anger or ill will,
That we don't wish harm upon another.
Many describes how a mother would protect her child,
Her only child.
He describes it as a boundless heart.
And with that same boundless.
See you later.
We should cherish all living beings.
Not just people.
All living beings.
Cherish.
That's a powerful word.
That's not saying,
I just won't hurt them.
Or I wish them well.
Cherishing is a whole other level.
That's an active.
Wish.
He suggests that we radiate kindness over the entire world.
Upwards to the skies and downwards to the depths.
Outwards and unbounded.
This is obviously.
.
.
Not completely possible.
But it's the intention,
It's the wish,
It's the desire.
When we hear those words.
.
.
What comes up in us?
Does it seem impossible?
Or is it a beautiful wish?
Then the important.
Result.
Of putting our minds in this direction.
And by doing this,
By developing a mind of kindness.
The skillful.
Mind that isn't full of hatred in their will.
That because of these efforts,
We become freed from hatred and ill will.
Freedom.
They are noble trees.
And then he tells us how.
And he gives us the four meditation postures.
Whether standing,
Walking,
Seated,
Or lying down.
He doesn't tell us which one is best.
They're all equal.
And appropriate at whatever particular time.
He's telling us that by practicing in these four postures,
Developing mindfulness,
Developing collectiveness,
On the cushion,
While we're standing,
When we're laying down,
When we're walking,
That's every position.
That our body is in throughout the day.
There are any other positions.
One of those four.
Unless you can fly.
It tells us that we should use right effort.
We should be freed from drowsiness by right effort.
One should sustain this recollection.
You should remember.
Which is mindfulness sati.
Remember these instructions.
Sustain this recollection.
Remember the metta sutta.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
We practice.
What we've talked about so far.
This is where we will abide.
And as he wraps it up.
By not holding to fixed views.
By not being attached.
The Second Noble Truth,
By not being attached and demanding that things are the way I want them.
The pure hearted one.
We're developing this open,
Pure heart.
So we're working towards.
Having clarity of vision,
Being mindful.
Seeing things as they are.
The willingness.
To put down our attachments.
And do our best to see things as they really are,
Not as we wish them to be.
Being freed from all sense desires.
Talked about in the first hindrance,
An attachment for.
Sense pleasures.
I want it to sound this way and smell this way and taste this way and feel this way.
And I want my mind to be this way.
Instead accepting it as it is.
That we are not going to go through the cycle of samsara again.
This is what?
This is the path.
It's the whole thing.
It's all there.
He's laid it out in a.
.
.
A pretty clear and concise way.
And it's an offer.
He says if you do these things,
If you follow this path,
In this manner.
Train your mind and your body.
This is what will happen.
But he doesn't.
Hit us over the head and tell us that if you don't.
Something else will happen.
It's a hipposcope.
Come and see.
He has offered us away to the sublime abiding.
And it's up to us if we choose to.
Take his word for it.
And practice as he suggested.
