So, my friends, we continue now on the five characteristics of the dharma. And this little statement is often chanted, it's part of the probably daily liturgy of Tera, Vaada. monastics the dharma is well spoken by the Buddha. It is visible here. It is immediate now. It invites us to see it's onward leading, to be experienced, personally by the wise. So, today the topic is onward leading. This is a beautiful and wonderful quality of the dharma quality of this practice we do that it is onward leading, it leads to what's really good, it leads to freedom that leads to peace to a kind of dharmic happiness. And, and how it leads, there's also quite fascinating, because we certainly have our role in the practice and going the path of practice. But there also there's a way in which we end up kind of doing this practice in the current that carries us in the direction of this, what's good and healthy, that there's something that we discover that is leads us to greater peace and happiness. And so it's this way that dharma was onward leading, carries us on, and how does this work? What is this and, and some of it is, has to do with this Ouch. And there are that I talked about in the meditation to today. And that is that it's simplistic to just to orient ourselves to feel and sense things from the point of view of an ouch and an awe. But the benefit of it is it's so simple. The ouches don't have to be understood and all their complicated ways. Just to take it, you know, whether it's you know, some irritation and having and, you know, I don't know, it's meditation cushions too hard to having some major world of difficulty happened for us. The juicy Ouch. And no stories, no complicated things no into trying to understand why. And the same thing for the ah, we can get sensitive to what feels good and feels right. And move in that direction. Without making it complicated for us without appropriating it for self for me, myself and mine identity, not making it a big project and engineering project understanding why we're doing it then. And, and questioning what is this all for? Or am I doing the right thing, there's a way of making it so simple. That comes from a sensitivity and ability to be really here and present. So this is not thinking about things, it's more closer to feeling things or sensing or experiencing the ouch and the audits. The other advantage of this these words is they're more experiential, than they are concepts and ideas. So as we're able to kind of stay here in our direct experience as we're able to stay the direct experience now and this extended now. And maybe even timeless now really stay here time for time just relax and not rushing and being ahead of ourselves here. And we we respond to the call to see more carefully what is here. What is this experience? What's going on here. And to see as simple just oh that ouch and that's all if I'm breathing in a way that feels a little bit shallow and deep and maybe a little uncomfortable.
Then I might have a thought that wow, you know I ate too much breakfast and I'm always eating too much breakfast and and I'm a lousy breakfast eater and now I can't be a good meditator all those sentences, all those attitudes have an out to them. If you're really quiet, if you're not, if you're in the thoughts, if you become the thoughts, then they kind of drive the show when we almost don't even don't even see the ouch in them. But if we're quiet and peaceful, and calm enough, Beto, that's an ouch. There's another Ouch. I do a lot of ouches. These are the second arrows that we talk about in Buddhism, how we pile we might have something uncomfortable some suffering. And then we add suffering on top of it. Then on top of it, there'd be layers and layers of self criticism or blame in the world or anger or despair, all kinds of extra things. And, and so this simplicity is Oh, that's an ouch. And they have time for that, oh, nothing to hurry not pushing it away. Not judging it just oh, that's the Oh, look at that. That's a certainly an ouch. And because of that time, lots of time, but we have to be here, then we can also feel and sense. There's a direction, there's something that opens up in a direction of an awe, there's a way of being that's onward leading, there's a way of, of there's another way, in fact, the simple fact that I'm giving time and, and space to feel the Ouch. That is in awe. That is good. The ability to step back and see it to be curious and not entangled in it. But to see it from a place of some modicum of calm that Sinawe. Trust that. Use that as a guide that is onward leading, stay close to the jaw, the uncomplicated if there's an AW, that we stand appropriate for ourselves and say, Oh, that's really good, I should really kind of luxuriate and really kind of indulgent it or relish it or this is my chance. And if you really if you do in fact, give yourself time to feel what's going on to really see it. You'll see the stress in those attitudes, you'll see the ouch and that the onward leading way is the way in which mindfulness is self correcting or corrects us, mindfulness gives us information for what is our chin what is our and as the practice deepens as we get calmer and the all opens up to more time or space, more present a moment of attention, more sensitivity. It works beautifully, to help us not get caught in the ouches and to move towards a more and more valuable and more and more valuable way of kind of moving towards greater peace or greater freedom. The word for onward leading and Pāli is Ponte, Ponte and in that phrase, it's paññā Yoco. Open ayiya Ko and and the loop has a prefix that can mean upward so and the NE koan is to lead and so OPA can be upwards leading upwards, which is kind of a metaphor for moving towards freedom. It could also the loop also has a prefix meaning of near leading close to Kevin says, Oh, this leads closer to freedom this leads closer to peace. This leads closer to what's really feels right here, full present. And, and sometimes we follow that path towards, you know, what's onward leading, upward leading, brings us closer. And sometimes what you can feel is that we're being brought there that the dharma is leading us the dharma is guiding us we're in their current that flows in that direction. And a lot of what the practice becomes, is just continuing to open and let go of anything that gets in the way of that process. It's letting go of all the ouches all the self centered efforts we might do.
And, and and part of so part of the practice is to know when to let go when to trust that process. And that takes this very deep sensitivity of comes from being present in a timeless way almost to really feel and sense what's here. So we can sense and feel when we have when it's best for us and most healthy for us most of all for us to come back to apply ourselves to let go of something and be more actively involved because the alternative is worse than And when the best alternative is not to do so much, just let go, let go let go. And then then that letting go feel like being carried and moved along. So it's one of the great kind of aspects of the dharma is that the dharma is not external to us, it's found inside of us. And it's found inside of us and is onward leading way in which our psychophysical system moves towards freedom given a chance, that has a capacity to move towards the greater ah, the greater ease the good, less stress to, to the absence of stress, the absence of strain, the absence of inner oppression, that we can often live under. So, so try today to go through parts of the day or the whole day. See how simple you can make this, this understanding this observation of suffering in your life and happiness in your life. Make it so simple, there's an ouch and there's an AW. And see if in that simplicity, whether there's little more freedom around the ouches and a reminder to kind of stay close, stay calm and mindful. And a greater awareness of the odd the possibility that it's you don't have to sacrifice that maybe you don't want to ignore that you want to make space for this aha because it's onward leading it creates a good environment, it's also creates a more onward leading healthy direction for our social relationships. And, and that's part of the value of this dharma and it also supports our communities or relationships to move in healthy direction. So try today's keep it simple. Ouch. And ah, and if you can have enough time to really feel that maybe you can feel the onward leading nature the door that opens up from the Aw, that can take you further in the direction of so enjoy. And and and I look forward to giving the last talk on this series tomorrow. Thank you
