He says, Please don't admit, please don't misunderstand. These days, it's common for people to go on retreats for several days where they don't have to speak or do anything but meditate. Maybe you've been on a silent retreat for a week or two. Afterwards, returning to your normal life, you might think you've "done Vipassana", then we could say you've done practice. And because you feel you know what it's all about, you return to your old habits of sensual indulgence. When you do this, what happens? Before long, none of the fruits of practice will be left. If you do a lot of unskillful things that disturb and upset the mind wasting everything, then next year, you go back, do another retreat for several days or weeks, come out, and carrying on partying and drinking, that isn't the path to progress. He seems particularly focused on partying and drinking, perhaps he's reading his audience, I don't know. But there's so many other things that we do that are not maybe quite so obvious. Carry on idly talking, carry on doomscrolling through our phones. So many ways that we fill up our lives, that where we're not really present, I suppose you can do scroll through your phone and really be paying attention. But, I'm not expecting it. He says, so you need to contemplate until you see the harmful effects of such behavior. This is what is meant by renunciation. Indeed, we need to understand cause and effect. And that takes some clear eyed seeing. Recently, I've been reading a book about inflammation, and how connected it is with diet. And it's much easier to take that to heart and make changes when we notice how several days of cakes and pies lead to sore knees walking down the stairs. And you realize that the simple choices that I make during my life have an effect. And I need to make a choice. I'm not always going to do the "right thing". But I'm moving in that direction. He says seeing the harm in drinking and going out on the town, reflect and see the harm inherent in all the different kinds of unskillful behavior you're accustomed to indulging in until that harm becomes fully apparent. Just notice. Bring to your life, sort of the spirit of experimentation, what works and what doesn't work. It works much better if the changes we make are changes that we ourselves have decided on and not because somebody gave a talk and told us not to. He says this will provide the impetus for you to take a step back and change your ways. Then you will find some real peace. To realize peace of mind you have to see clearly the disadvantages and pitfalls and such forms of behavior. This is practicing the correct way. If you do a silent retreat for seven days where you don't have to speak or get involved with anyone, and then are chatting, gossiping and indulging all over for another seven months, how will you gain any real or lasting benefit from those seven days of meditation? It's necessary to speak in this way, so habits that are faulty become clearer to you and thus you will be able to give them up. You could say the reason you came here is to learn how to avoid doing the wrong things in the future. What happens when you do the wrong things, it leads you to a state of agitation and suffering where there is no goodness in the mind. It is not the way to peace. This is how it is. But many places where meditation is taught don't come to grips with it. Really, you have to conduct your daily life in a consistently calm and restrained way. Of course, it helps if you have some practice of doing that and you begin to appreciate it. When you begin to appreciate being calm, you begin to appreciate occasionally being restrained, begin to appreciate returning anger gently, begin to appreciate not getting into arguments or pissing contests with other people. He says this is a form of reminder to you all so I will ask for your forgiveness. Some of you might just feel I'm scolding you. The old monk is telling us off. But it's not like that. It's just that you may need reminders because in meditation, you have to be constantly turning your attention to the practice. This is not only on the mat. Please try to practice consistently. See the disadvantages of practicing inconsistently and insincerely and try to sustain a dedicated and continuous effort in the practice, and then can become a realistic possibility that you might put an end to the mental afflictions.