Namo tassa bhagavato, arahato Samma Sambuddhasa, Namo tassa bhagavato, arahato Samma
Sambuddhasa, Namo tassa bhagavato, arahato Samma Sambuddhasa, Buddham dhammam sangham
namassami.
Sometimes when you start giving a dhamma talk, having some humour there, some lightness can be very
helpful and I say that, because sometimes, you do find that people can be a little too serious and you wonder where that seriousness comes from, where
that hardness, where that toughness comes from. A lot of times it's very much coming from a sense of self
which wants to achieve, which wants to protect, which wants to own and it's afraid of losing things and that
makes them kind of protective.
And just I know that that is not a very useful way of practicing and I'm going to just tell the story just to get it out of the way because just recently and it's still happening that people are saying Ajahn Brahm, can we chant for
you Ajahn Brahm, they sent some medicines for me which I won't take. Ajahn Brahm, you're very sick, are you
going to be alive this week or next week or when you're going to die.
It's nice that people are concerned for my physical health but my physical health is just, it sometimes surprises me, how robust my sort of health is and the reason why a few people were commenting on it was because last Sunday when I was having lunch some food went down the wrong hole and it blocked up the passage to my
stomach.
Not to my lungs, my lungs I was breathing fine, I could talk and chat but it was just my lungs got blocked which I was thinking that's not such a bad thing because many of you want me to lose weight and that's a wonderful way of losing weight, you can't put anything inside of it. But the only trouble was you couldn't put any liquid down it as well so I couldn't drink. So that was uncomfortable but it was fascinating.
But honestly whenever anything like that happens which is weird and strange and uncomfortable it's always you know it's not going to last. Ajahn Cha taught me I'll either die or I'll get better and I think none of you will let me die yet, will you? So what happens is a lovely opportunity just to be aware of the body all afternoon and just to meditate and to walk and just to let the body sort of heal itself.
But I always remember what the final thing which freed the throat or the bottom of the throat up was just when I
just meditating but it was quite late about 12:30 in the early morning. Just sitting there meditating and just
allowing the throat to relax because that's what happens when you meditate you can just relax to the max any
part of your body.
And you relax to the max and the last bit of food which was blocking it off just came out. And after that what I love telling people it was a show me. I must have been doing some good meditation for this to happen. but then I
had my first sip of water and it went down without any problem at all and then sort of had a much bigger sip and then almost half a glass and it felt so sweet.
You know water just you know usually just tastes wet but this day if it was honestly you know my preferences it
tasted more delicious than tea with condensed milk honestly it was delicious. Tim Curry. So it was more delicious than that and I was checking it out today whenever I drank water today. It's not as delicious today as it was just afterwards and it was one of those cases that the mind was just so clear.
You can actually perceive things with so much more power and clarity. And so sometimes I like experiences like that. It's nice to get in that clarity in more comfortable situations but doesn't matter I would take that and it was a nice experience. But to make sure that everybody knows on records please don't send me any more medicines.
You don't need to put me on the chanting list. You're not going to get rid of me that easy.
So Barry thank you for your concerns. But it's also the fact that when you practice this meditation which we're doing here you can use it for so many different parts you know of our human lives. Our physical health, recovery and so much more than it.
Uncontinually and I mean this. Surprised and just know how the meditation can help the body recover. How you can have a cut and it can heal much more quickly. And I think one of the reasons is because you know we find we don't react so much. So you know what happens to our body. I do remember just I was a school teacher for one year before I became a monk.
That's where I lost all my hair for the first time. That's only a joke. If you teach teenagers in a school all day they will encourage you to tear your hair out. They're all a bit naughty. Just high spirited, high energy that's all. But
anyway that when you did have any type of sickness or illness or whatever it's amazing what you could do just with a bit of meditation to allow this body to heal so much more quickly than it should have normally been able
to do.
And I don't think there's anything to do with my genes. It's just the fact that you know how to make the body
peaceful not to overreact to what happens. But anyway in that school I remember just we were teaching kids in science laboratories and kids because always one might be naughty. There's 30 kids in the class. One might
just tip up of the bottle of concentrated acid on them and start burning themselves or you know put those two
metal objects in the electricity and electrocute themselves.
So I remember just getting some advice from a GP. You know what is very very basic first day? What should
you do? You know when someone like this happens in a class and you're supposed to be the boss and people
look to you for guidance. And I remember the first thing which his GP said which I always remember is said
always be prepared to lie.
And I'm saying that to you but you know with a bit of care don't really do this unless you really really really have to. If you see so much blood around and a kid's arm is hanging off and the eyes just hanging from his sockets.
Just lie and just say oh that's nothing you'll be fine.
And the reason is said that something like that the reason is this is this old doctors an old doctor
been around a while he said most people if you say what it really looks like to you they go in shock and it's a
shock which can kill them not so much the injuries. It's always try and reassure them. So I always remember
that
and I like the idea of like not overreacting if you possibly can thinking oh it'll be okay because what that does is what it did to my throat it made the muscles around that piece of food which was stuck just relaxed.
When they relaxed the food could get out easy. It's just learning how to relax around wounds or injuries or
problems in the body. Even if you have too much cholesterol in your arteries you can have a heart attack or a
stroke. What should you do? Ajahn Api? Just relax and then you reacted. If you react the things could actually
expand. The arteries and veins don't say the same size on the time you know.
They can expand and they can. That's what I was always told anyways That it's apparently quite true that if you are a happy character and you laugh a lot your arteries and blood vessels they will expand. That's true. It's been proven by science. They all get bigger. So if you have got a bit too much cholesterol inside of you Ajahn Api,
then you must laugh a lot.
Then okay you may have lots of traffic going through your arteries but the arteries are like super highways. They're so wide that nothing ever gets jammed. That's my fear anyway. Anyway let's get more serious. It's supposed to be Rain’s retreat. But the idea of relaxing learning how to open things up. Learning how to not restrict things. That's something which it's not just in the body but it's also in just the mind when you start meditating.
You just see where you are. You don't expect to be somewhere. You won't try and put yourself in a certain posture. Even a certain posture. My goodness I was told I should the best meditation is full lotus with the right hand on top of the left hand with the thumb slightly touching the back straight the chin in a little bit and your eyes closed but not closed down tight.
So anyone if you haven't got jhana yet or haven't got into full enlightenment it's because you're not sitting properly. I will not ‘go mayang’ that statement was. In other words thinking that you have to sit in a particular position in order to get some deep meditation. You have to do it this way not that way. All of those things that sometimes people say even like little things can we get into deep meditation without going through nimittas. And the answer of course is yes.
It's like you see different forms of nimittas but it's other nimittas the best way. Can you get to Sydney without going in an aircraft without going in a car without going in a bus? Of course you can. Some people have got on a bicycle to Sydney from Perth but it's not recommended. So you can do these things but always like the familiar path it gives you a sense of more you know where you are and you know exactly what's going on.
It's like all the different stages of meditation are they really stages of meditation or what are they? I always tended to think of them like little tests for you. You know that if you want to say drive a car you got to sort of do a test maybe on a bicycle first of all then had a balance on just a bicycle and then a sense of awareness of the traffic around you.
There may be a motorbike and there may be a car and then maybe a Lamborghini. You don't get into a Lamborghini straight away because it's just too much too soon. It's the same way with many of the stages of meditation just to be able to sit still. You know one of the biggest problems when you first start meditating these are worlds for me when I started just finding a comfortable position to sit down in.
I still remember the first time when I started doing some regular meditation it was just a community center. It was actually a yoga center just close to where my mother lived. There used to be an old big house mansion where Sean Connery used to live so he moved out and he sold it and it was used for community purposes but nevertheless it was quiet, close by just to sit meditation there once a week.
But then what happened was when I was sitting meditation there, just my leg would always, one leg would always fall asleep and go numb. I always remembered that and it was always disturbing you had to move and just readjust your posture but every week it would do that and I remember to once be, again I say this, to be rebellious, to do things a little bit differently just to experiment and try something else.
So I sat down to meditate the usual posture and then my leg went to sleep again and I remember just my reaction to that time said well what's wrong with it going to sleep? It can go to sleep as long as it wants and I didn't know too much about my own body then and I thought I was worried because I thought if the the leg goes numb that means there's not enough blood flowing through it
so after my half an hour meditation that's what I was sitting in those days, after half an hour meditation being my leg going numb it would certainly develop gangrene and I probably have to go from the meditation group to hospital and have my leg cut off. That's what fear does totally exaggerates beyond all proportion so anyway I wonder I said even if my leg falls off I don't care I'm gonna just carry on meditate I'm not gonna move.
I remember that experience because it gave me some encouragement because I was sitting there and it went numb and it's not a pleasant feeling being numb I was just mostly because of my reaction to it but then just it was one of the first times I didn't move at all and then the blood started flowing again and the surface of the skin it just basically woke up again it became normal and that kind of shocked me it shocked me because I was careful not to do anything just to be patient and the problem literally solved itself.
I don't know how that happened but it was almost as if my body was testing me. Do you trust me? So-called owner of my body. I wasn't then Ajahn Brahm, there I was Pete. Do you trust me? I said yeah okay I'll trust you I didn't do anything and the blood started coming back and I love experiences like that because so often that has happened.
Sometimes you're sitting meditation and you try and find a comfortable position. Let's remember
I've been Thailand when you were meditating there we'd get up three o'clock in the morning and I didn't have enough sleep and so when you started meditating it was hot I was ill fed and really thin so malnourished really hot lack of sleep and they're just sitting there and you fell asleep.
There's always you know what it's like you know really tough you want to straighten your back up want to get rid of this defilement that hindrance always working hard one hindrance is suppressed and another one comes up that's kind of what it was like I still remember people would actually say in those retreats we used to do in Thailand as young monks they used to say they had an attack of all the hindrances that made me interested
how can you have all the hindrances all at once you know sleepiness and restlessness all together you have doubt and all the other hindrances if you have doubt you don't know what you've got probably went with that the hindrances were just playing with them and just no peace at all and
just remember just sometimes it's just out of almost like desperation whatever I do it always comes back again so I'm just gonna leave it all alone try that
so maybe you used to get up there maybe 3 15 in the morning start sitting down meditating and your head would droop so I'm wasting the time trying to lift it up again and straighten my back they'll just droop again so I said actually want to droop you droop at least I'm here and I just let it droop and then those wonderful experiences came I was just was mindful was kind just relaxing to the max and then the body straightened up again
if that's happened to you you know just the first time it's really weird I always thought I was in control of my body in charge of it and if I said something to it it would follow my orders sometimes it would follow the orders for a couple of minutes but then it would just go back to where it wanted to be again this time I didn't give any orders at all it was slumped and it just straightened up and I was aware enough I never did that I never said that I never gave it any orders it moved by itself and of course why not my heart beats all this time I never give it orders you know how fast to beat how slow to beat how whatever to beat I never give my lungs orders breathing fast be that slow or whatever I just trust my body when you trust your body you don't overreact you don't tend to get so sick it's not just that you realize that as I said last week in that Anata Lakkhana sutta, you don't own your body
if you did you could tell you what to do and it will behave I'll leave it alone it decides what to do it decides how long it wants to sleep at night not me it's a wonderful experiences of just you know getting tired in the early part of the night then sleeping and getting up and oh it's only one o'clock in the morning and just okay this is the meditating and feeling great just my body doesn't act according to how other people say it should act because I know my body I trust it and when it sort of wants to get up you get something you meditate you have a wonderful time really nice meditation
why is that because you're not fighting this body you're working with it you're not reacting to it you're making peace with it relaxing to the max with your old body that's I think why because you don't fight it and don't push it too much I think my body has got quite a few more years left in it if it wants not my call and then you do the same thing for your mind as well not me not mine on a self just what we're charging
today about the six senses six sense bases and all of that I don't know can you make sure that what you see what you hear it's smell taste touch and what you know is always pleasant. you think so on a retreat you're all the time by yourself you're in your heart you don't have to do very much some of you on retreat so how many got full control of your schedule you can sleep whenever you want however long you want in the food is a huge amount of choice of the food the climate is pretty good now that some of you have air conge you can make it cool
if you want you have heaters you can make it hotter if you want you can make have a little fan so you get some nice ventilation you can have silence peace you can have whatever you like. have all this control does it bring you happiness you think this has been the most comfortable monastery or meditation retreat center in the whole world. you not asked to do anything and even when you come for interviews
I don't have a stick I never hit any of you I didn't hit Venerable Ananda the other day but I was just an accident he just was bargeing past me and we collided but not on purpose you can so there's there's no fear it's you got plenty of support and if anybody upsets you, you just go back to your heart because this is there are also you know some birds which make bad sounds some monks might make a bad sound
but it's nothing really that much to overreactor so instead we just can have so much peace and quiet and silence and the weather the last week has been gorgeous and you get out at night and watch those stars or the full moon is growing now it's a it's a gorgeous time of the year nothing much is there to disturb you. so are you peaceful if not why not it's what you have to experience is not the point. it's how you react to what you experience even if it's noisy can we make peace with the noise and that's always been something
which I may have got this from Ajahn Cha, not quite sure when he told me this but also and I always want to kind of test out my meditation it's easy to meditate in a quiet place like this hall here but can you meditate in the center of the city or that time just when I just arrived early in Bangkok airport in Sawanabumi and I had to wait until somebody else was gonna arrive
so they said they can take you to a monk's lounge it'd be quieter there and actually they didn't know what they were talking about because when you're in a monk's lounge one monk will start
talking to you where you from where you're going what you're doing so to get some silence I said I was just sit where I am just in the middle of the concourse it was really really noisy just close my eyes and just meditate
there and put this this metaphor of imagining I'm in a bubble that bubble similar to I find very helpful I can put a little bubble around myself imagine that and it's like my cave and I don't have to engage or react with what's outside I don't even have to react with what's inside with me and that means it becomes very quiet and peaceful I don't listen for the noises I don't listen for anything. so soon the sound just kind of disappears and then you can just have this beautiful meditating
the busy place without it interfering with your calm and peace you can let it go. I kind of like those types of tests because it shows you you're not just getting peace. actually learning how to let go of this sensory impingements which you don't ask for you can't control you can't control the sounds outside of you can try and find a nice peaceful place to meditate try and find the quietest place you possibly can
but there's always something which makes a noise in your hut in your room in the hall that's what I used to say when you are on retreat you're meditating there and then maybe one of your rooms at Jhana Grove and somebody gets up in the middle of the night to make themselves a cup of tea when it is how much noise do you have to make to have a cup of tea for goodness sake and he starts thinking
I know who that one is I'm gonna tell that to Ajahn Brahm, can you please make sure they don't sort of have a room next to me next time maybe we'll have like a black list of all the noisy at Jhana Grooveys and they can all go in the same cottage I can wake each other up if they might but these we have the quiet ones and you think about all the things you can do to try and make it more quiet that's a often said
the time you lose sleep thinking about all of this is sometimes half an hour an hour and that person's already had their coffee and drunk it and just was nice and quiet now most of the noise is a reaction you have inside your head you just say the made noise and it goes pretty quickly but your reaction the way you think about it
that is a problem and this is when we learn these sorts of tricks we pass these tests then we can sit very easily almost anywhere and even when your body is a king as in pain there's a brilliant tests because as you get older you don't have to get that old you get lots of sicknesses and pains and aches in this body and sometimes it's hard to find a comfortable posture especially if you got big lump of food in your throat it won't come out you can't drink and you're really thirsty
so you move a lot so what do you do make peace with them not gonna overreact isn't what the body just has to do. so let the body do it and don't overreact and make peace with it and soon it settles down it has to that's a nature of life and once it does start to settle down because you're being mindful and you've been kind you haven't been negative or afraid you haven't overreacted in the mind because really peaceful
it becomes beautiful you got energy and clarity you drink a bit of water and it's delicious there's ordinary water never tasted the water in my cave to be so delicious before so sweet that's a sign
the meditation the mindfulness is becoming strong you don't know way state to sit down and just have a nice meditation forget about sleep you can catch up on sleep when you're dead that's a joke. but anyhow that's also what you do when you start meditating
and you just in this present moment why can't people be in this present moment. it's a beautiful place to be but you can't force yourself nothing in the meditation should ever be forced. as if you try and force yourself to be in the present moment you react to it. I just invite my mind to be in the present moment. be here if you want to be but with no compulsion with what I sometimes called unconditional mindfulness
so you can be mindful of this present. if you want you don't have to be just like I can be sitting with a leg which has gone numb it's okay if you want to fall off and get gangrene fine by me I'll allow that and when you course you don't overreact or react at all the blood starts flowing again things tend to balance. so when you don't tell your mind to be in the present moment
it just goes there it's a natural place to be all these states are default states it's what happens when you don't start messing around and wanting things and when you get rid of things and trying to aim for things and achieve things and figure out things and make things happen things. when all that thing stuff kind of stops you just become still nothing's going on. you go to default state when you stop pressing the button on your mouse on your computer. what happens the screen turns off
and it becomes nice and still things disappear that's the same how to get still in meditation don't press the button to be still you don't sort of hold something scroll something to be still it does take your hands off everything leave it alone then it becomes still because that's its default natural state so that's why you learn even when you close your eyes just don't do anything the mind wanders off here there and everywhere just let it if you let it
I mean you really letting you know indulging it in indulging is not letting it be. indulging it is just trying to turn to press the accelerator and turn the the wheel of the car go here go there do something but just let it be am I wonder here wonder there but it will wonder there less and less and less because the very cause for a wandering mind is taken away you're turning off the engine which forces the mind to go all over the place not doing anything and after a while short while a long while but it certainly happens
and what you do this is shorter that while is that the mind kind of stops I want to go anywhere you in the default state of just being here right now and the other thing is you know I was saying this last week about the silence which comes next in the meditation it's like this is an even deeper test being a present moment say not wandering all over the place you don't have any worries about the past or the future that's all in out of time right now in the present moment there's
nothing to worry about right now
in this present moment you're in this beautiful hall in Bodhinyana Monastery. there's some of the best people in them world in this hall it's totally safe it's calm it's comfortable there's no problems here at all. there's not even one mosquito it's not on me anyway have you got one. nothing really to cause any problems so it's safe why can't we be here so after a while when we realize that being here it's better than being anywhere else wherever this happens to be there's always oh my life as a monk
sometimes you have some strange experiences as a monk I have I was one time on this series of conferences over in Japan they brought me in I'm pretty sure it's true a six-star hotel and the six-star hotel there was a jacuzzi there just I didn't know anyone had ever told me what a jacuzzi is and how it works I didn't go inside and just let it turn all the buttons and see what happens
I was afraid and about different TV in each room do want to turn that on I don't know what I'd see and there was a mini bar that was a no-no and oh the bed huge bed so I had all this stuff which I couldn't use and I looked out the window I remember looking out the window which is all closed and looking out there and had his beautiful gardens a bit of forest they reminded me of you know, bodhinyana monastery, are the forests which I used to live in and I looked inside my room which was a six-star air con everything I looked out there and I realized I was in prison in this beautiful suite of rooms which I couldn't use I realized you can be in luxury and still feel like you're in prison or you can be just you know caught outside you missed the the aircraft or something and you're just really tired you want to have a rest and there's people talking to you all the time. how can you feel relaxed and rested
and the only way to do that there's obvious way of doing it it's a testing you be happy to be here. you hear the only choice you have is your reaction to it here I am I can be unhappy to be here and just figure out all these ways to escape I often think after the meal after the meal that you know something had a nice meal you just want to go back to your room and carry on meditating or have a lay down a rest or something and sometimes with the upothak
so I thought of like a wig and a full speed nothing's a sort of sort out I'll get the upothak to look like me so they
can sit in the front seat when I sneak out the back of course you know whenever you try never works someone will sush you out and you get caught so because of that you just learn how to be happy to be here no matter
what you have to do in this world and that's just like you know being this present moment yeah
it should be better should be different sometimes you think but that causes the problem of shuds this is how it's
like so let's make the best of it and enjoy it so that's how you learn how to non-react to what you're experiencing just to be here strange thing but in your life how many times did you like being here and how many times you're always going somewhere else and that's one of the little observations you've had when you go traveling people ask you know
what's it like in London what's it like in San Francisco what's it like in Toronto what's it like in C.O. where then
war sack has gone for a few days I like just making just nice observations when I was last in C.O. I saw so few
human beings so many human goings but no human beings they're always going somewhere not really being
here even when they were traveling they were still thinking of their destination that's also where you go the the metaphor that
when I sit in an aircraft I never fly anywhere plane does the flying I just do the sitting in a moment that's the way to travel even when you're walking back to your hut after this talk or to John and Grove where if you're going
remember you're always here you're not really walking the body does are walking you just do the watching just being here that's all but it's more peaceful that way so anyway we have these tests of how to be here
when we're here we really get used to being here being mindful you don't need to say much about it all these
thinking which people have why do people think one of the reasons I was meant to say this last talk when I was talking about the I think I did mention it but not maybe not enough emphasis the Lord Kelvin the only way to
control nature is to learn how to measure nature accurately first of all
and I always remember that same because it does mean it's like kind of logic but it's powerful Buddhist logic
when you don't measure you can't control anything that's just like just on Sunday night Sunday afternoon and
nighttime I wasn't measuring what's happening to me with a big lump of food in my throat instead of measuring
then you can't sort of control anything just let it be and all the measuring you have all the monks in this
monastery
do you measure them you say right on promise like this venerable person most like that I'm happy is like this
when you measure them there's always a sense of like controlling you feel kind of safe because you know you
feel that you know your boundaries you know where you are living but so many times when what people say
about each other is totally wrong you can't measure anybody I don't have to use immeasurable is that correct
actually Bob's tummy is a pomado anyway so we can stop measuring to stop measuring you have to stop
thinking a lot of thinking is about measuring measuring the future with plans measuring the past assessing what happened here and whether it should have happened or it should not have happened it has happened but stop measuring it then we can't control anything it's not me not mine or itself don't control anything instead we got
what we was charting today
we get nippet are towards all these senses and all these experiences from the six senses not just the five senses but from the mind as well it's easy to get nippeter towards like the body especially when you get old because it's always aching it's it's not as light and you can't jump up and down like you used to there's a more of a burden it gets more things go wrong with it
so it's easy to get this nippet are towards this body what about my body nippet are towards the
body especially that those people have out of the body experiences when they get close to dying yeah I'm free of this body you have to come back to it you're not ready yet or somebody tells you have to come back but it's
amazing just when you have the experience of freedom from the body it's not nice to come back
even in the genres it's not as bad when coming back because you're just so blissed out and as it says in Nala
Kapana sutta so the it's the Arati and Tandy also gone Tandy is like the weariness and discontent so you do
come back so what it's not as nice as being free but nevertheless you've had that beautiful time outside of your body being free of this body
so you don't mind so much just know what you have to do so anyhow it does mean that you get more able to
have nippet are towards a body once you know what it's like when not having a body it's much easier to get
nippet are towards sound when the sound is totally gone for you for a while much easier to get nippet are
towards sound and smell and taste physical touch nippet doesn't mean like just you don't care it's just not
equanimity
if you realize the burden of it it's an affliction it's just like having a heavy weight on your back and then you learn what it's like to take that weight off your back you feel so free that's the idea of nibbida we're chanting today
nibbida towards all the senses and also nibbida towards your mind it's a weight it's a burden to have to know
work out what this sound means what this talk means what this feeling in your throat is is it dangerous is it what actually is it it's a burden having to do stuff like that so even the knowing you get nibbida towards
now you're getting somewhere you're gonna get nibbida towards the five senses first of all it's easy to turn off
the body you're sitting meditating again at a personal moment time is you got nibbida towards the time I don't
know why people can't get nibbida towards time there's time is just a sort of pain and you're either late saying
I'm never late it's just that no time this is out of control
sometimes it goes too fast it's not my fault times fault and not just that the nibidda towards all those five senses means what on earth you're worrying about them for why are you trying to make it so your future can be more
happy you see better sights better food here better sounds better talks thank you that people would appreciate my jokes more and I've more it's impossible be on control
so you get nibbida towards all these things so where can you go that's where you start nibbida towards the
senses so you sit as comfortable as you possibly can get it out of the way and then you get it out of the way I don't mean that just you're looking for the future just do your duty and then you can relax and if you know what
nibbida is your five senses can turn off nothing
it to interest you there it's nice to see sunset so to see the black red turnt cockatoos but how many times you've you seen them and after a while it's nice to turn sight off turn sound off smell taste and physical touch that's the nicest thing to turn off when you're old physical touch the sensations in your body vanish you can't feel your legs you can't feel your butt you can't even feel your breath it all goes oh you got left it's a sixth sense that's a way
that these things you know shut down leaving your mind last of all and that's weird because the first time you
get into a deep meditation you just got your mind sense and none of the other five senses it's sort of the biggest bliss you've had in your life and I think wow how can you have nibbida even towards nimittas but then what
happens is you get a jhana and compared to then jhana's nibbidas are just so coarse and rough it's easy to get nibbida towards those when you know something better and then of course you might get attached to the first
jhana but then that's just like people saying like union
with God or something but then you get to a second jhana compared to the second jhana first jhana is you get
nibbida towards it it's getting more nibbida towards parts of your own six cents turning off and disappearing and because you have that nibbida that's why they can disappear one of the reasons why some people find it
difficult to get into jhanas or even get nibbida's stain you haven't got enough nibbida yet towards
the five cents world you still like the five cents world too much you think there's something to be gained there
from the five cents world there's some enjoyment which is worth something in that five cents world you haven't
got enough nibbida towards it yet surprising because you know you've lived in long enough you want more of
this five cents world when you get reborn again
in the five cents is always nice thought to people like that because if you don't get enough nibbida towards a five cents world right now and learn what's more beautiful like these janas and
stuff then of course you get reborn in that five cents world and then oh what was that I don't know if I can never
really you know find the corroborating evidence for this
but it's such a lovely quote about that person in the maternity ward over in the US somewhere when the baby
came out of the womb and just attached the umbilical cord still looked around and could speak and you know
the words it said were oh no not again and babies do speak sometimes very rare but it's happened when they
were born and it's the words it said was actually
beautiful oh no not again imagine
that was you would you say that if you could speak you would oh my goodness what have I done a whole life in front of you more nappies more just trying to tell your mom you've had enough milk and you've crying we said
oh come have some more don't have any freedom how many go to school again and learn all this stupid stuff
how to go to work again how many go skiing again
they knew all of that so anyway it's nice when we realized this this five senses
when you got nibbida towards them you realize see them what they really are it's not controlling them it's just
understanding them they're not interesting to you anymore one of the reasons why you know that some people ask you where would you like to go take on a holiday somewhere what would you like it's your birthday can I get you something special you say no don't want
anything people think you're weird you got nibbida towards these things what do you want anything for it's not
just trying to be the best simplest mark in the whole of serpentine it's just nature you don't want anything so this is actually how we use nibbida to learn how to get into these deep meditations much easier nibbida first of all
because you don't really value
the deep meditation gentle you had lots of experience of them and then nibbida turns you away from that world
the world of the five senses years ago I gave the simile just if some sorrow is just a big wheel we're stuck on
some sorrow just having like equanimity or contempt when it's not enough we do need this nibbida I said it's
some sorrows ejector seat you press the nibbida button and you just fly off the word of some sorrow that's
necessary okay I don't know about you but I've got enough nibbida now to my talk so I'm gonna shut up.