05 Nothing To Attain
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Alahato Samma Sambuddhassa Namo Tassa Bhagavato Alahato Samma Sambuddhassa Namo Tassa Bhagavato Alahato Samma Sambuddhassa Buddham, Dhammam, Sangham, Namassami. I do find it very useful to be able to do some chanting of very inspirational suttas, words of the Buddha, before giving a Dhamma talk. Because I remember that was a Dhamma talk of the Lord Buddha we just heard.
When you chant it in Pali, it has, to me anyway, a far kind of deeper meaning. It has a meaning that this was actually taught by the Buddha and created the first stream-winner in Venerable Gondanya. Why didn't the other monks become stream-winners yet? But nevertheless, eventually they did become not just stream-winners, but for arahants.
And that could somehow, you know, be misunderstood by our lay community and monks community as well, as if this is what we have to do in monastic life to get another attainment, another medal, another certificate which we can put on the wall. And when we have certificates, when we have attainments, when we have medals, that's where many of the difficulties and problems come from. And please excuse me, all of you have heard this story before, but some of you haven't.
And that was the story of that elderly Sri Lankan lady who went to visit her family in Colombo, a family done very well. And please excuse me again, but as I heard the story, the family were very happy to see their mum, their grandma, who's now very old, but looking after her was a bit difficult. So they came up with what they thought was a brilliant idea, to send her off on a retreat.
That's one of the reasons why sometimes I look at monasteries, teaching Dhamma, and sometimes I ask, can I please send my child to your monastery, you know, for just a couple of weeks, because they're a bit naughty and they just need some structure in their lives. And then you usually find out that they're not really interested in teaching their child, they just want to go off on holiday somewhere. And sending them to a monastery for two weeks is the way they can trust they're going to be happy and well, and monks will look after their kid.
And so when they come home, they have the double advantage, they have a holiday, and also their child is much better. So we don't do that anymore here. So instead we only allow old people to come here.
It's true, have a look at them. But anyhow, this old lady, they were having this retreat, and it was run by lay people. Monks would not do this, by lay people.
Two months, and after two months of teaching meditation and also Dhamma as well, the people who were running this retreat, you had to pay for it, but afterwards, you know, they were good teachers, and they knew a lot, and afterwards they would examine sort of the candidate who went there for two months. When they examined this old lady, they were so impressed with her, that on the final day they came up to her with a wonderful certificate and said, Grandma, congratulations. You've really impressed all of us, and we've all agreed unanimously that all the things which you can do, all the understandings which you have, that you are a stream-winner.
And this grandma, I looked at them, was really angry at them, and said, a stream-winner? I said, yes, congratulations, it's a wonderful achievement. How many of you would love to be confirmed as a stream-winner? And this is what happens when we have these kind of goals we want to achieve, that we want to achieve. So she got so angry.
Why are you angry at me? Said the head of this little retreat centre. She said, you don't remember me, do you? No. Who are you? She said, I was here about three or four years ago, and you gave me a certificate, which I still have.
I'm a non-returner. You demoted me. I think they said non-returner, otherwise she wouldn't go back to the retreat centre.
But as a once-returner. So you demoted me from a once-returner to being just a stream-winner. And I remember when I first heard that, I laughed, and I like to tell it a lot.
Apparently the retreat centre was a real story, not just a joke, and the retreat centre just closed up shortly afterwards. But the idea of thinking that these are attainments you can learn. These are things which, you know, just with a bit of meditation, no matter how deep it is, how do you know you're doing the right meditation? What is a sign that you've got enough deep meditation, enough samadhi, that it can count towards what we call, you know, the essential jhanas? There's many quotes which, if you don't want to trouble me, you can trouble Ajahn Brahmali, which is the essential nature of jhanas in order to become a non-returner, and I would say even a stream-winner.
It's an essential part of the path. It's the eighth factor of the path. We just chanted that in the sutta.
That's one of the reasons why I learnt Pali. I was happy that I learnt Pali. I'm not an expert in Pali, but happy enough that when you chant something like the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, you can understand it.
You know what the Buddha's saying. And even little things like when the heavenly beings, they were celebrating, and they were sort of saying, well done, and they could hear each other celebrating the fact that the Buddha had given this wonderful sermon and that the Buddha was now an enlightened one. You could hear them.
And that kind of, weird, but it inspires me. It inspires me because it just shows just what can be done. And it's also, I remember reading one edition of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which was not the official version.
It was chanted in one monastery somewhere, and after the Brahmakayaka said, well done, and then the Brahma said, well done, and then the realm of the first jhāna gods said, well done. And when they started getting into this, they said, what are these people doing? You know, what they're chanting is impossible because the jhāna realms are separated from the realms of the, even the heavenly realms, what we call like karmaloka. These are the three realms of existence, the karmaloka, rupaloka, and arupaloka.
And the rupaloka and arupaloka are kind of, you cannot sort of contact each other from those. Am I right there? We have to leave some of those realms. You have to come out of the jhānas in order to be contactable.
But anyway, these are things which sometimes you can read those, and it's just that some versions of these suttas, some people who don't know what they're doing or saying, can sometimes add things which, if you know what you're doing or saying, it is obviously wrong. And this is one of the reasons why you have to be not just knowledgeable of these suttas or these vinaya, but also to have some experience, understanding of what it means, what samādhi means. So even with, you know, the factors of a first jhāna, what on earth do they mean? People can understand them.
They've had some sukha before, they've had some pīti before, ekaggata, that's even like the word aga. You see, Sanskrit version of that word is like agra. And I always remember that word because he did actually go to Agra, that's where the Taj Mahal is, and the Red Fort.
That was the capital, the peak, the top of the Mughal Empire over in India. Ekaggata never means like one pointedness. It means a single peak, a single summit of the mind.
If you've had any real experience of a thing like a jhāna, you understand just how appropriate that is. This is not just the mind becoming like one. It's the mind becoming a huge summit of experience.
Not an ordinary thing at all. That's one of the reasons why many years ago, I just remember just, I was not the teacher at the time. Somebody else was teaching the retreat and I was talking to one of the meditators and just asked him, you know, how's it going? He said, oh, not that good.
I said, why? He said, well, I can only get first jhāna in this retreat. I just couldn't get to the second jhāna. And when he said that, I remember, thinking that guy has no clue what jhāna is.
Even if he just got a first jhāna, he'd be blissing out, he'd be as happy as, I don't know, sometimes you can say happy as Larry, but then people ask, Larry who? Does that mean you, Venerable Sagarathna? Your name then was Larry, wasn't it? Yes. Yes. Please excuse me.
But you do need to have some personal experience to understand what these things actually mean. Even somebody was asking me today, can you please say something about what āujā means? That's an important part of dependent origination and many other things. And āujā is, it does not mean ignorance.
Ignorance is almost like a fault of the brain. It can be solved by learning some more. And it's the idea of delusion, it's much closer to what it means.
It means much closer because it is what you're seeing, you're misinterpreting. I always say it's like the simile of the mirage, or you've got a little bit of information but you don't see the whole lot. I wasn't really going to mention that today but then I was just listening when I was chanting that we have the first noble truth even of suffering.
And how do you actually to break through that? What are you supposed to do with that idea of suffering? It's not just to know it. It says, periyātābhāna. Peri means the complete, the thorough.
You know it upside down, inside out, that's how much you know it. You know it perfectly. Not just knowledge.
That's one of the problems too because many people think they have knowledge but that knowledge really gives it understanding. How many of you know the four noble truths? Have you got on to the second one yet Ajahn Brahmali? Sit across. So you can blame Ajahn Brahmali.
No you don't blame anybody. It's actually to see that you have to know very deeply, very profoundly. And that's why I often say, give similes.
Please excuse me for giving similes you've already heard before but these are some of the best and I haven't found better ones yet. The similes of walking up Kingsbury Drive many years ago and not recognising it because I was going slowly and my mind had been developed a bit that morning so you could see more deeply. Or going into the toilet in the men's quarters, the men's toilet block over in China Grove.
Seeing things which you could see more deeply than you've ever thought is possible. This is what happens with even, before when I was looking at the contents of a toilet bowl there was a Ouija, I didn't see it thoroughly. It wasn't Pahinanti, Pahinan, thoroughly seen.
And this is one of the reasons why when it's thoroughly seen and the Ouija's disappeared then you can actually say that, okay, that's a personal experience which I know that because I've said that because I was the first person who gave that simile that I didn't expect some people to imitate me but a couple of people have said, oh yeah, the same thing happened to me. You know sometimes I don't trust them. Really? So sometimes if you want to prove that you have got some deep meditation I'm going to put you in the toilet and see if you can say wow, wow, wow.
But some of these things are just personal. You only say them as an example of what can be done. You see things really, really deep.
And how can you see things deep? What is the cause? So the nutriment for Ouija and there's, you all know that, the five hindrances. That's what causes Ouija. It's nice having this cause and effects, these nutriments, which keep this cycle of existence going.
Once you see those nutriments, can you see those nutriments? How can you see, sort of, a delusion? There's always one of those little contemplations. If you're deluded, it means you can't see it. So you think you have.
So how those five hindrances are suppressed, I say suppressed because it's not eradicated yet. It's through the jhanas. So if you haven't experienced those jhanas yet, it does mean that you don't really know whether those hindrances are there or not.
They're difficult. That's why they keep bothering people and keep getting them reborn again and again and again. So to actually, to really penetrate them, to be able to let them go, you do need those deep meditations of jhanas.
That is the way, according to the Buddha. Those five hindrances together with, I like those extra two, sometimes I can demean the teachings, but I kind of like, you know, the way that I describe it. The two light-free gifts in a five-fold gift packet of relief from hindrances for a while.
You don't have the five hindrances, but also you don't have tandi and analia. No, not analia, sorry, that's the person. Arati, yes.
So arati and tandi. Arati is, I would say, discontent, but you don't have to worry about the transformation because you have a feeling for what the word is. How do you know that part of the word, what it means? You can analyse it, but if you do get a jhana, you can know what's missing.
This is something which I often encourage people. I just wrote this as a reply to someone today in an email about, you know, what is jhanas. And you know a jhana, but not what it feels like as much as by what is missing.
What's not there, which is nearly always there. It feels different. Why? What's different? And with even a first jhana, you know, there's a few things that are missing which are nearly always there.
The weariness. I know that weariness feeling a lot these days. I'm getting old and people feed me too much cake.
I've had birthdays which last for weeks. It's true. And so you have a weariness and you have a, you know what that feels like.
But it's amazing, you get a good meditation and the weariness is gone. That's a beautiful experience. I kind of like that.
Okay, it's attached to those things, I'll admit that. But those attachments lead to the, which are, you know, part of the experience or the results of jhanas. Parts of those attachments, they're kind of allowed.
They lead to freedom, they lead to the, they lead to the enlightenment states. So you get an idea of what a weariness, when it goes. Why does it go? I should be weary, I should be tired.
But it's also the discontent. It just disappeared too. Imagine just people say things to you, they criticize you, they're not happy with you.
But then, that's part of the course. So one of the wonderful things about developing these deep meditations and the results of them and the insights which come is that no matter who you are, no matter what you do, you always get people criticizing you. And, you know, being able, how can you ever accept that criticism? Because people criticize the Buddha as well.
But nevertheless, you know that dhamma, you know where it's come from. That's why little sayings like Ajahn Chah used to say, if anybody calls you a dog, look at your bottom. If you've got a tail, then you're a dog.
And so you should say to anybody who called you the dog, thank you. They taught you some dhamma. If you haven't got a tail, then you say, it's no problem.
You don't argue with them, you just walk on. And you say thank you to them, I was going to say you also wag your tail in appreciation. It doesn't exist.
I say that because there's two dogs on the shrine, I don't know what they're doing up there. So, these are just little ways of understanding just how, what these qualities actually are. You can feel them, you can recognize them.
Once you can feel them and recognize them, then you don't make them up. Because if you just have the full picture of what this meditation does, then the whole idea of that other little thing which I've been saying for years, that samadhi is not concentration. Of course I make jokes about that, but it's also so true, it's so important to understand that.
Concentration is, I've seen some people who are just way more concentrated than I've seen anybody else. But they are, they got no peace, no wisdom. It doesn't work.
If you've ever experienced concentration, it's a very unpleasant state. It doesn't have the state of freedom, of emptiness, of vastness. Concentration is just a very confined, it's like putting your mind in a prison.
But the other samadhi, what it really means is the stillness. And I love that concept of stillness. And it's one of the reasons why when I do have a chance, and I don't have that many chances, you go into your cave, and in the cave, I've never ever allowed in the cave to have an interview in there.
If you have interviews, it's in the office, never in the cave. I never, if I've got some work to do, sometimes I never take any of the computers or tablets in that cave. There's something about that cave in which I live which is kind of like a holy place, holy like reverence.
And I've never seen this rule in the Vinaya, that in a holy place next to a Buddha, you should never take a computer, obviously. Because there never were computers in those days. It's just a feeling that this is not correct to do.
This is one place in this monastery which will always be computer-free. A place I can just be there and just sit and if I need to open my eyes, I can see this Buddha statue there. I just need to sit, just face the Buddha statue, you can face another way, you've got your meditation cushion there, you've got a blanket if it's too cold, and you can sit there and be simple.
And that simplicity is where stillness leads. You don't need very much. Too much stuff, there's just too much complications.
So that stillness is so important. And where that stillness is, imagine just being really, really still, where hardly anything is moving. Where can the hindrances be? Where can you have restlessness? And the mind is always moving when everything is still.
Where can you have, even like, wanting? Things are still, you're content, you're happy, you don't want anything. So the nature of that with the mind is, wants to stay. That's what happens, you know, when you're getting those deep meditations, when you just, actually it's not really deep meditation, if you have the thought, it's lunchtime, I should get out.
But you know, when you're getting close to deep meditation, when it comes to time, you know that you're going to miss lunch if you don't come out now. Oh, what the heck. It's much better to have the deep meditation than have lunch.
I think that's maybe one of the reasons I was so thin when I was young, as a young monk in Thailand. I preferred just to sit meditating, instead of, it was only the alms round I remember, that was difficult, because you're expected on the alms round. It's nice when you're not expected to do anything, and that's one of the lovely things when you are on retreat.
And I say that here, and I say that for Dhammasara, and say that for every monastery, and Khampa, for Pattachara, for, now I've got to go through all the names of the monasteries now, Kusala Weihara, the Cambodian temple, where else? Anyway, every monastery. It's wonderful if there's only a couple of people there, the people understand you're doing lots of meditation, so they'll leave you alone. If you get into a deep meditation, enjoy it.
It's so much more beneficial than food. And I say that. I'm a fat monk, but I'd rather have the meditation than anything else.
Does it say that in the suttas? In the Vinaya? This is what you learn, your own experience of the Dhamma. When you know that experience, you're not making it up. Then of course, this is your own understanding of the Dhamma, your own wisdom, and that own wisdom, that is much more powerful than any explanation you can actually read in those suttas, or in that Vinaya.
That is the understanding which we're supposed to be developing. Suttas are wonderful. Just like hearing the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, it's inspiring.
I don't know for you, but this evening I was really a bit tired, lots of things were happening this evening, but nevertheless, listening to that, it just took me over. This is one of the reasons why the teachings of the Buddha are fantastic. So you get the decent translations, or even better than the translation, rendering is hearing it in Pali.
And after a while you still get used to the Pali and understand it. That's really inspiring. And as you get to know it and it inspires you, you can check it out.
To me, the suttas and the teachings of Dhamma in the Vinaya, what the Buddha used to call the Dhamma Vinaya, these are the map. It's nice being able to just search for the treasure of nibbana, find truth and meaning in your life, what this mind really is.
and what the truth really is. Can you actually get that true meaning of finding out who's right just by listening to other monks or nuns? It's amazing. Why is it that so many senior monks, and some nuns as well, the senior monks, why do they argue over what the meaning of like samadhi is? What the meaning of Nibbana is? What the meaning of Parli-Bhana is? What happens after you become fully enlightened?
Who's telling the truth? Can you actually trust others? So what you do is do some of those teachings which make more sense, because you have known enough about some of the teachings, and that you can practice them. That will be the only way that you will know what is true Dhama, or what sounds good, but is not true Dhama, or your own experience, by seeing what happens when you let go, and how easy it is to let go.
And I say that because how easy it is to let go, it may sound troublesome for you, but after a while, if you hang out in places like this long enough, and you keep visiting, after a while, it happens. You've got no choice. I use those words carefully. I hope you understood. You have no choice. Literally, after a while you get brainwashed enough, nothing else works. And you do, just let him go.
People keep asking, how do you let go? You've got no choice. So stop choosing to let go. Stop choosing not to let go. Stop choosing to figure out how to let go. And you just say, when I might try this, and then I'll try that, and then I'll try something else. It doesn't work for me.
Stop it. Seize. Don't mind stop. You're not doing anything. You're letting go. And just do more of that. And you find that the mind, it kind of loves you for that. At last, you're giving me some peace. You're not ordering me around all the time. You know the thing which orders you around all the time, it's not you. Sometimes you call it Mara. It keeps controlling you. The one way to overcome Mara is by wisdom. I know you, Mara. You don't have to control. You don't have to tell yourself what to do. What other people want to do? What's it like living with a control freak?
It's always telling you what to do. Whatever you do, you do it wrong. Sometimes. It will drive you crazy. People say, oh, Ajahn Brahm, you're the abbot here. You're the boss, you're the teacher. So no one ever tells you what to do. Yeah? Do you think? And if none of you are around, I tell myself what to do. This is even worse. I don't know if I tell Brahm. This is your retreat. This will be a bubble atom Brahm.
And these are little understandings which you get. And when you actually practice it, you give it a chance. You test it out. Maybe it's because this is how it's taught as a scientist. You test it out, see if it works. It doesn't work. And of course it's wrong. It has to be that self-understanding, the proof. You experience it for yourself. You don't trust other people that much in science. And that's where you make these big discoveries. When you make the big discoveries, oh, what if you have a people who made that discovery too? And they're aliens. So you have a look and find out and test it out. Sometimes how do you know that it's correct inside?
There really is right for you. How do you know? How many times have you got wrong for you? I remember telling that story of years ago when I thought I was enlightened.
I like telling that story. One of the reasons is because it never went it's funny. It really humiliated me. But also it was a very instructive how easy it is to get a few signs who were enlightened. Like in no time, five hindrances are totally gone.
You know, this particular time. It was up all night. It didn't feel like sleeping. And that story, you know, when you do the morning chanting. Yo, so bado, ah! Full voice and I couldn't stop it. I wasn't trying to show off. It was natural. No time. But just the arrogance, which was natural too. That's a good sign. If you're arrogant, think you're somehow better than others. That's obviously it should be a sign which you learn. It can't be enlightened. And this is where just every lay person was giving me food. Just sticky rice, a tiny bit of sticky rice.
On the right I was found after I got enlightened. Forced enlightenment. I really thought it was that. Or I really zapped them with energy. I really surprised a lot more of those ladies would start crying. Or all the diseases would suddenly vanish. I felt I had some credible energy. That's an eventually like credible energy turns to incredible anger. When they... So I asked this laugh at my own stories. I laughed at my own joke. I'm consistent. When they had my mixed two curries together.
I just thought, you can't do that. He took his first of all. He shared the nice curry.They were all the same. They were all the same. So I mixed them all up and they had them to me. If they were all the same, why did he take his first? He could have mixed them first. And then said to all the same. But anyway, I thank him for that because that was what was necessary to play. What was necessary to prove that was a little bit of a hot hit. I don't know. Eating the curry after the mixture of curry which was disgusting.
That didn't matter. More disgusting. Imagine what it'd be like. You really think you're a knight and you find out you're not. That was disgusting. It was a great experience afterwards when you laughed at it and you understand it so much more. So a lot of these things, they can be deceptive. One of the reasons why Alwee Chah is a lot of simple things to see. That's also one of the reasons why it's not ignorance. It's like the delusion.
You really think you are. And all the signs seem to be there. It's like the mind creates a force reality. It wants. The desire is still there. That's one of the reasons why it's the desire. The one thing is the biggest enemy there. And how do you overcome wanting?
Concentration encourages wanting. I want to have a mind like this. But it's the letting go and the stillness. But nothing moves to mind. It's one of the reasons why a few people in the interviews said that sometimes they're very peaceful.
They don't have much drawing yet. Stillness. See how still the mind can become. It'll be still. That's the most important quality. The bliss will come afterwards. But stillness. It could still stop wanting. Every time you want something, the mind is not still. And that was kind of the meaning of that little talk I gave some time ago. A couple of weeks or something. When that little meditation, which I used to do in my fifth year, six year, there's a monk who's just being aware of the mind. And if at any type of vauditing I saw, I would actually stop it. And became very clear, just observing one thing and making sure it didn't come into my mind.
Just wanting. And that became very powerful. It was just very peaceful. Very still. What moves your mind? Why does it move? What is that movement in the mind? That agitation, even mild agitation. Why is it you're maybe peaceful? And that's really quite pleasant. What do you want to do in this thing? Where does that idea come from? What causes the mind to go from the other to the other direction? Why are there reasons why? Okay, I prefer these teachings in Pali. But you have the translation of the metasuita into English.
Be content and easily satisfied. There's a great meditation instruction. Be easily satisfied.
If it's just a first genre, it's pretty good. Would you be satisfied at the end of the sutree if you had a first genre? Why is there where people have first genres that want a second genre? There's something wrong there. They haven't abandoned the wanting yet. And that kind of makes me feel that maybe their first genre is not correct. So no wanting at all. Be peaceful, perfectly satisfied.
You don't want anything in the whole world. Nothing. And that lack of wanting. Of course that means the lack of non-wanting as well. The lack of real wealth.Imagine what that does to you. After a while, you're not using up any energy at all. Your mind is just not consuming any energy. And of course, you know, there's any sloth and topper. Can't handle that. And the restlessness is poised. Not wanting anything, but energized. I know sometimes people say yes, they try to let go.
They try just to watch the breath. And they get sleepy. Because the sloth and topper can't stand that. They're energized, but they're not wanting. So they're not moving the mind anywhere. It's like they've got all this electronic vehicles that's fully charged. But you're not sort of turning it on. So it's fully charged, but it just sits there. Still. And when that starts to get really strong, apparently people tell me that if you charge up a lithium battery too much, then it's going to explode.
That's what happens when the mind. Boom. First downer. Boom. Second downer. Boom.
Energy's got no waster go. It just bliss out. Big time. No damage at all. Except to the hindrances and the defilements. And Marla gets really upset. But then that's what we've got this mind for. So after a while, you find out that the sign you've got deep stillness.
How do you know you've got deep stillness? It's because your insight gets very strong.
Inside into the nature of you. The meaning of your life. What are you here for? Why were you born? Why do you come on this Wednesday night into this hall to listen to a dummitole? Why? So you can disappear. The meaning of life, in that meaning of life box, which was auctioned on my birthday, is to turn yourself off.
That's what I like that because we'll say, that's crazy idea actually. It's a turn yourself off. What's on your bucket list? What can we get you for your birthday? What do you want? I want such content when you don't need anything anymore. Such peace. Stillness. And of course, after a while, you will turn off totally. So these are describing just the deep meditations and the insights, which are like inseparable friends. That's a simile. So as you get deep and deep in the meditation, you don't want anything. You let go more and more and more.
And the side of your wisdom is not the dummitole you give. The side of your wisdom is how much you don't want. How free you are. From all this one thing in the ill world and struggling and striving, I want you to get deep meditation, I want to get rid of this sickness, illness, whatever. All of that just disappears. Nothing you want in the whole world. That's what you get. Nothing. Real nothing. Real insights. If you do have real insights, of course, stillness happens. I was going to say, well, you know how to be still. Of course, you don't know how to be still.
It's not a knowledge. It's a natural phenomena. It's a default state. You don't disturb the default state. If you ever notice many of you ask those questions about your meditation, sometimes you get a nice dumeter. Then it doesn't last. Sometimes you even get no close to a jharma. Then it doesn't last. It really sucks, doesn't it? All these years, and you get closer, then why does that happen? Is there something wrong with me? Is it because I don't need enough mushy, please? The reason is, of course, is because you do something. You disturb it.
And don't think anyone else does that. And after a while, I'm just not going to disturb anything anymore. I'm going to be so content, whatever happens is fine by me. I'm not going to do anything. That's why I say, now, that really is lazy. You're not going to do anything. You refuse. You can't strike. The people do that anymore. Sit down, strike. I don't know. You can sit down there and just do absolutely nothing. Absolutely, I think.
The absolute nothingness.
Though, discussed with Ajay Vapit earlier, nothing is much higher than God. Correct? This is recorded, so your friends over the years will hear this. They better say the right thing otherwise. It's wonderful to understand that emptiness is stillness, where everything vanishes and disappears. That obviously is a great wisdom. It's a wisdom-born of stillness. And a wisdom-born of stillness, not someone telling you. The words of the Buddha to encourage pointing the correct direction. Afterwards, as I say, if you've had some really deep meditation-based insights, that is when you go and look at the centers.
That's when you go and investigate them. A lot of the time, they just bring tears to your eyes, simply because that's how the Buddha said it. Some of these dhammas are very, very difficult to put into words. They would be describing a different realm where a lot of people don't go to. Every now and again, you see some of these similes, like the Cheshire cats. I'm not quite sure what Louis Carole was doing. But nevertheless, sometimes you see in English, there's not any sort of similes which are really good. They're not perfect, but they manage to capture a very difficult experience.
That's where Alice kept on seeing this Cheshire cat just appearing, then disappearing, then disappearing again, and disappearing again. She said, this is so curious and it's quite irritating. First of all, I see you then, I don't see you, then I see you, then I don't see you. So the Cheshire cat, I apologize or something. I may get it a little bit wrong, but nevertheless, the essence of it, I said, okay, I don't want to cause you any difficulty or trouble. I'll disappear slowly for you. And then the Cheshire cat just disappeared part by part.
This part I do remember, first of all, the ears disappeared, then the whiskers disappeared, and then the fur on the head disappeared. And then the eyes disappeared with the Cheshire cat, and then the whiskers again disappeared, just leaving only the smiling mouth. And then the lips disappeared, leaving only the smile and nothing else.
And Alice said, this gets curiouser and curiouser. I've often seen a cat without a smile.
This is the first time I've seen a smile without a cat.
And I thought that was beautiful. It was something which resonated, you know, what happens in the meditation. Sometimes the happiness, the joy, the bliss, is there, but there's nothing to be blissful. Weird, but such a great simile. And there's also just some of the insights which come after these genres as well, the William Blake to see a world in a grain of sand. See heaven in a wildflower. She would have said, see heaven in the bottom of the toilet bowl. How did it fit into the palm of your hand?
And it turned into our beautiful stuff. That's why the sign of appreciative insight means you've had a quiet mind. And the more still the mind is, the more you can understand some of these amazing similes of the Buddha. Not through logic, but through stillness.
And the side of that you understand these things is that you can access stillness. You know how things can cease, can stop. You stop controlling, you stop owning.
And I mentioned that owning because what we own, we see we have the right to control. If you don't own anything, I would not go into Agro-Bamal, it's hot, and rearrange it for him. I don't own that. I don't leave it alone, let it go. So all these hindrances and stuff, and one thing, when you don't own anything, you have some freedom. At the moment, I still own Bodhinyana monastery and Dharmasala, because I'm still working, but in a couple of weeks' time, I've never had a lot of time to talk to me about it. And that's a fun time. I always go understand that.
Is that okay? That's all I'm giving you. Thank you.
Supati-pano, Bhagavad-gopu-sala-haka-sang-gopu-sang-gah-nam-man.