2022-12-29 Ready to Change (4 of 5) Inspired and Elated

6:51PM Jan 1, 2023

Speakers:

Gil Fronsdal

Keywords:

inspired

sensual desire

generosity

mind

hindrances

buddha

talk

imc

elated

give

people

happy

redwood city

live

ethical

changed

ready

stain

wholesome qualities

preparing

So hello, everyone and continuing on the theme, and thinking we just did this morning that this theme of I call it ready for change is seemed perfect for the end of the year getting ready for the new year to look forward to the little bit to the new year that we are preparing ourselves so that we can be changed in a good way beneficial way with what comes in this new time. So how do we prepare ourselves and so for the Buddha, he prepared people, for his liberating insights, he would give dharma talks that created certain mind states for people are kind of creative is the right word, but inspired within people. And so those are the five things that he when he saw were present and people he would give them their his deepest teachings. And those five things that, that he's recognized in people's minds was there was a readiness, the receptivity there was, there is a malleability of workability of the mind and mind is soft enough to really, you know, take something in and be changed by it. They're free of the hindrances. And the usual translation for the fourth one is for today is elated. To be I think inspired is a good way of talking about it. And then we'll talk about tomorrow is digital translation is confidence. I like the word trust there, and we'll talk more about it tomorrow, that word also means kind of luminously bright. So, but today's elated, so there's a way of being inspired, that certainly can be so preoccupying, so we can lose ourselves in it, that we're not available to the world and to experience to teachings to be changed by it. But it's also possible to be inspired or or gladdened or elated, in such a way that the mind gets quieter still, to really listen well to really take into really allow the experience of the moment to really penetrate deeply. And then so that's the second type of inspiration, is what I think the Buddha was pointing towards. And so this word, to be inspired. And, and, or to be elated or to be happy, in a way. So the Buddha would inspire that from people, that classic tech say that by giving a talk, giving dharma talks that covered a range of of themes that I think we were inspiring were really got people's attention, really, they got kind of absorbed, in a sense of concentrated in in the talk. And these five qualities or other qualities of a kind of absorbed, concentrated mind, like really present. And so he'd give talks about generosity. And now I don't know, we don't know what he says, No, they don't specify in the texts. You know what exactly he said. But so what that means to me is that when it's unspecified, then it's up to us, for ourselves to understand to figure out, how do we get really inspired? How do we become a better person, by reflecting on considering the topic of generosity. For me, I lived for years in you know, secluded from the world, you know, living in deep mountainous monasteries, in in here in this country in Asia. And it was lovely, he's fantastic for me, and no regrets having done that. And, and it's quite wonderous to be in society and here I am in Redwood City in in the middle of a city and to be living the kind of the full life of a householder here. And, and to see how much generosity there is that I never knew when I was younger knew about and, and you know, like, for example, raising children here and seeing all the adults, so many who were putting on sports events and coaches and All kinds of things are volunteering their time, their generosity, to make a rich life for the children going up here, and I think is really something to experience so much generosity for children, there could have been more certainly, but what I saw was, you know, inspiring and then caring for my mother as she aged and, and then, you know, went through her dementia and died. Again I saw so much generosity, that particular care place where she was, she was in it was phenomenal to me the generosity that care, the kindness of love that she received. And there were so many there also, there were so many volunteers who came to offer extra things for the people there the care home and musicians who came in played and artists and all kinds of things that came in good things with people there. And then I live here, you know, we came here to this place in Redwood City. IMC is I think of it's kind of like, middle of the city. And, and it's become a wonderful collection here, of so many generous people. I mean, IMC is completely run by volunteers, and volunteers, volunteer out of the generosity out of their care, their love, their happiness, and, and to be kind of experiencing the growth, this phenomenal kind of outpouring of generosity that allowed this community to grow and develop, and we do so much here and, and are at our retreat center. So inspired this, there's a lot of generosity that's inspiring and brings out the best in people and does something to my heart that just makes it kind of open and soften. And then there's ethics to be inspired by people's ethics. There's plenty of if you read the news, of course, there's not the opposite of being ethical. Virtue doesn't stand high, in front page news. But for every horrible story, and in the news, there are lots and lots and lots of and sung heroes of ethics people who have committed to, to being honest, but to be to not steal, not kill, not lie. And you know, a lot of this what they people don't do, is never seen because there's nothing to see. And so it's not celebrated. It's not appreciated. But there's a phenomenal amount of, of ethical people in the world. And I see lots of little examples as I go through my day. And there's plenty of examples of the opposite of course. But where does our minds settled on? What is it focus on? What is the world we want to live in? Do we want to live in the world of, of a net of unethical world do we want to live in an ethical world, if we want an ethical world be ethical, love ethics, love virtue, love this kind of and, and recognize it, see it appreciate how much it's here to be inspired by it. And then the absence of the hindrances is the Buddha's teachings is, is meant to be a source of gladness, source of contentment, of happiness, wow, finally, I'm not in debt, not in prison, not a slave to the hindrances. Something else I'm not now I'm here and kind of certain kind of way more in charge rather than hindrances and desires, charge. And then the Buddha gave a part of this series of talks was he gave a talk on the first hindrance in the sensual desire. So as a hindrance, it's clear it's a problem. And but I think he highlighted as being a particular characteristic of the human realm is that people are very driven by sensual desire and sensual comfort. And then there's a way in which that there's dangers in pursuing sensual desires. Lots of people make all kinds of horrible mistakes and suffering in the world and harm others through the pursuit of sensual desires of different types. There's the he talked about the dangers of it, he talks about the vanity of sensual desires. It's interesting to think how vanity or conceit is part of it, especially when it hurts other people. And he talked about the stain of sensual desire and in the modern

kind of English speaking world, but I don't think we'd like so much to think about the stains, but there's a way in which we feel kind of, you know, if you really feel some of the way ways that people act around sensual desire, where they objectify other people, for example, and it's all about their own pleasure and not about a human connection, there's a stain, there's a diminishment, there's a contraction within, and to feel the benefit, the ethical dimension of how to live with our sensuality ethically, it can be inspiring to feel this. So to be inspired by this, to feel goodness of it, to feel the, the, what's going right in our life, so that we have the right balance of input into our hearts, so that our heart is not weighed down or struggling. And how do we get the right input? How do we get inspired enough, not the Inspire inspiration, where we lose ourselves, but you know, you know, but rather the inspiration that allows for a deep kind of availability, full presence for this world and for our experience, and for here, so that we're ready to be changed. We're happy to be unhappy as to not the opposite of being ready for changes to be maybe caught and tight and limited and deflated. And, but to be happy in a way yes. I have the courage I have the willingness, I have the availability of trying something new of trying a new way. And being a new way of letting go some places where I'm stuck letting go of some things I'm holding on to, yes, I'm available. So it the so these are all wholesome qualities. The Buddha said, it's possible to cultivate the wholesome, if it's not possible to cultivate the wholesome, I would not tell you to do so. But it is possible to cultivate the wholesome. And so that's my instruction. And so here, these are some of the wholesome qualities that the Buddha kind of held up as being valuable, in preparing to be changed to be open to really let the full impact of this dharma practice work. And so to be ready to be malleable, malleable mind to be have a read, it's all about the mind, it says, ready mind and malleable mind, a mind for you the hindrances and inspired mind. And then tomorrow, it's the trusting mind, luminous mind. So. So for today, if you'd like for your homework, your life's work, is to see if you can be not exactly happier. But see if you can tune in to the parts of what's happening here in this life of yours. That does make you happy, glad inspired. Don't give so much notice how much priority, statistically, you know, in terms of time, how much priority you give to things which are the opposite of inspiring the opposite of making you happy? Because whatever your mind is involved in and think about, does have an impact on our mood or emotions or heart? And is your mind spending a lot of time with things which are not inspiring and not happy predict producing? And if and can you switch the, the percentage to have more percentage of the time, not all the time, but just that maybe just you know, 10% more focused on what's inspiring, what's happy and good. I love the word good these days. And what is really good, what's the goodness of the moment here? So thank you. I hope that this homework life work of inspiration is good for you and good for the people around you today. Thank you