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Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha | Otter.ai

Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha

John Pulleyn48min

Speaker 1

00:07

This is the first day of this April, 2025, two day sesshin. And for this first day, we're going to start start off by reading from a book called titled, throw yourself into the house of Buddha, the life and Zen Teachings of Tangen Harada Roshi. Tangen roshi, of course, is, for many of you know, is one of the main protagonists, if you will, in the three players of Zen other than Roshi Kapleau, for those who are new and haven't read that book, Philip Kapleau trained in Japan in the I'd say, mid 50s to early 60s. He was there basically for 13 years, and his first three years were at this monastery called hoshinji, which is in the town of Obama. Yeah, that's right. And there he met Tangen, who's, I think, about 10 years younger than than Philip Kapleau was, like, in his 40s back then. Anyways, they became very they became dharma brothers. And I know Roshi Kapleau visited him several times once he returned back to the US. He did several visits in Japan. But anyway, so there's these two books that came out just recently, finally, and this was the first one, throw yourself into the house of Buddha, and they're basically collected teisho encouragement talks from Tangen roshi. So I'm going to read a chapter, chapter 10 called Zazen. I thought it'd be good to start off by talking about posture and the breath practice, or the different practices that we we have in working with pain. And a good way to talk about this would be through this chapter that he that he writes about zazen I up. So we begin. How should we practice? And this is, of course, Tangen roshi speaking. How should we practice? What is the path? Zazen is the foundation of our practice. We start out by learning to do Zazen correctly, following the guidance of a teacher to settle the body, settle the breath, settle the mind. And in fact, he'll be talking about those three different so called topics, the body, the breath, the mind. Essentially the body, breath and mind are not separate just one, but provisionally, we can divide this into three parts in order to explain it. Body check your posture, making sure that you are properly positioned on your cushion. Your bottom is a little farther than halfway forward on the zafu. So, yeah, I often tell people, zafu, by the way, is a Japanese word for cushion. We just as much as possible. We've kind of translated all Japanese words into English. Some are not possible, but for zafu, we now use the word cushion. So I always tell people to sit no more than halfway, ideally a third, on the front of your cushion. That way you're not going to cut any circulation, cut the sciatic nerve, for instance. So sit in the front third of the cushion. After arranging yourself properly on the cushion, cross your legs and lean your whole body forward towards the ground. You can do this at the start of a round. Say when, when the bells are being struck, then bring your body slowly back up, taking care to leave the lower back straight. This might be a little misleading, though, keeping the lower back straight. We do want to maintain the curvature of the spine. So, as I often say, Don't you know, you can, of course, raise your chest to straighten out your back, but make sure you have the curvature in your spine. Don't, don't try and be like a marine and get everything straight. That's not ideal, basically, and he'll talk about this a little later on, once you're in in your posture for the roundness in seshin or outside as well, you just basically the whole body is relaxed, you know, an upright back and spine. With the curve curvature in the lower back, but the whole the shoulders the upper body. It's just the whole body is relaxed once, once you you get into to your posture. Okay, I'm going to repeat this after arranging yourself properly on the cushion, cross your legs and lean your whole body forward toward the ground, then bring your body slowly back up, taking care to leave the lower back straight. Now you will be centered in your Tangen with the spine straight, the hips back and the belly forward. So yeah, there's kind of like a tilting of the pelvis here, so that your belly is kind of like sticking out. And of course, then you'll have the natural curvature in the lower back

Speaker 1

05:53

Tangen. So the tangent is in the lower belly area. Japanese have a tendency to really talk a lot about the Tangen. We don't do that so much as I'll talk a little later on. We're really not into technique. We don't want to make a technique out of getting into this posture. So we don't talk a lot about the hara or Tangen if ever really. Now, having said that, you know, as you progress and your practice matures, inside and outside of seshin, what you will find naturally, and it's not always the case, but just as a general guideline, you will find yourself having more of your attention down in the lower belly area. It's not a science, but that is the tendency, because that's where all the action is. That's really that's our center, vertically and horizontally, is in the belly. Can leave that there. So yeah, and why is that? Because as you focus more on, as you pay more attention, as you focus more on, say, the counting of the breath, you get less caught up in this bifurcating mind of ours, this, this, this thinking, thought in mind. It doesn't become such a huge burden, and we just find ourselves naturally as we follow the breath, find our attention gets more and more down here in the belly, your ears should be on the same plane as your shoulders and your nose aligned with your navel. The back of your neck is straight so that your head is suspended as if a string from the heavens were pulling up the top of your head. All right. So a little piece of advice about that I often do this even to this day, which is, grab the the your robe. You know you want that chin tucked in, so your chin is like a drawer, and you push, it's as if you're pushing a drawer, so your head gets straight. And the other trick that I do sometimes is, you know, tug at my robe, make sure the back of my robe is up against the neck. That can be really helpful. This way the chin will be aligned in the correct place. You know, I always like to talk about this, about keeping the head adjusted, just because it was just so beneficial for me in my early years, where my head was always jutting out. I was just so stuck in my head, so wrapped up in my thoughts trying to figure things out. And so the monitors in Roshi really got on my case about that, and kept adjusting my head. And you know what? After, like, months and months of frustration and wanting to well, just wanting to, yeah, just, I was just feeling so frustrated that my head was always jutting out and I was feeling frustrated the mantras were always adjusting it. But, you know, once it was there, once it was in place, I did notice a difference. It did help my practice.

Speaker 1

09:29

This is not to say that your posture is forced. It is very natural. You don't need to put any tension anywhere, shape it with your mind, not your muscles. Just do your best to work towards a good posture. Think most of us, when we come to this, we have all kinds of tensions in the body, just Yeah, tight muscles behind the just lot of strain in the neck. Or a lot of strain or tight contractions behind the shoulder blades that will all naturally kind of dissipate over time. Is once your you, your body, your mind, becomes more relaxed once you get into the practice and you're doing it every day as time goes on, then that kind of tension will release itself. It's just, it's just a question with sticking with it and not giving up, even if your body resists, keep your mind open. Remember that it is all right. Remember that it is all right. Simply work with what you've got. Simply work where you are. Keep your eyes a half open, naturally gazing softly at the floor in front of you. Place your left hand on top of your right hand and join the thumbs together, resting them on your feet. If you're sitting in a low lotus posture right in front of your tandem, there's that word again.

Speaker 1

11:17

If you do this with attention, you will be able to sit well. Discriminating thought is abandoned. True Nature is one with the self most naturally in this posture. True dignity is true mind sit in the form of true mind. Now the breath, the breath flows in and out from the bottom of your belly. You are breathing from your Tangen. You can become settled in this way, patiently breathe this one breath deeply from your lower belly. So about the breath, you're not trying to control it. You're not trying to manipulate it. If you're breathing shallow, you're breathing shallow, breathing deeper, then you're breathing deeper. But the key here is not to to try and control anything, not to try and manipulate the breath. Just let the breathing breathe. When you're asleep, do you control the breath? No, you just breathe naturally. That's part of our nature, that's there's no control in there. There's no manipulating, contriving. So it's the same thing when we're doing Zazen. Just, just breathe naturally. Don't make a technique, a technique out of it, your Tangen becomes your center. Naturally, the bottom of your belly is where you are. The stabilizes. The breath goes in. The breath goes out for all your body, all your spirit, into this one breath. There is nothing outside of it. Just breathe this one breath. This is all there is. Give it your all. You are a one with the breath. The way is one, even if you are not thinking about taking this breath, the breath is breathed, breathed for you. You are perfectly nurtured, like the baby is nurtured by its mother. There is nothing to figure out. You are naturally cared for when you go to sleep at night, you are directing. Are you directing your breath since you were born? 2040, 70 years ago? 365, days a year, how many times in one night alone has this breath been breathed? Always? It has been natural. You have never had to will it to be you.

Speaker 1

13:50

The last section, mind, various ways of practice are given to us. There is a practice just right for you, the practice that will reveal to you this one way path. There is no question of comparing and saying, This is a good practice, but that one is not so good. It is just like the Olympics. You have the 100 meter race, the 1000 meter race and the marathon, depending on the way you are able to practice one practice will be better for you than another. It is only if you are not giving yourself completely to the practice that you will become dissatisfied with it. There is counting the breath following the breath. Shikantaza mu the sound of one hand clapping your original face, or many other koans, the teaching is the same, and each practice reveals one and the same thing. I always like to say, all paths lead to Rome. It's the same thing with with practice. You know, for many, many decades, most people worked on mu, the koan mu. It's changed recently, and I think it's a good thing. It doesn't always have to, you don't always have to work on mu some people just, they just don't feel a connection to that, which is fine. What is it? Is another koan that a lot of feels like more kind of a natural koan. What is it? And I know some people are working on that as well. It's all fine, but I will say that once, if you do take on a koan, then to commit yourself to that koan and really give it a char try, just stick with it year after year, if necessary, but to stay with the koan and, yeah, just stay with it. Now. It's not always the case. Some people do change that, that practice, but yeah, only after if, if you've given it a really good go and and then maybe if change it, if you need to. But I don't know, for me, there was nothing like mu as frustrating, and as I wanted to pull every single hair out of my head working on mu that that was the one for me. And didn't matter how long it took, it was just that was the one for me. I

Speaker 1

16:44

counting the breath is the perfect practice at the beginning, Shakyamuni, Buddha himself taught this practice. We have example after example of it in the sutras, starting with a few deep, abnormal abdominal breaths, your mind's eye settles in your lower belly, counting on the exhale. Just count one. There is no separation. Just doing, just being the breath, being the count to just to count to 10, and naturally start from one again. Earnestly, count this one breath. Do not let yourself be bothered by thoughts and feelings. If you fall off the count, you pull yourself together and go back to counting your breath. Many thoughts arise in the brain. Just let them be many thoughts arise in the brain. Just let them be. The brain is actively going all the time which is neither good nor bad, whatever arises, no matter how inviting it appears, neither entertain it nor reject it. This is the key. Be strong on this point.

Speaker 1

18:09

Another way of putting it is avoiding grasping or rejecting or suppressing, be firm and determined, be resolved. The host is not the discriminating consciousness. The host is true self, all of heaven and earth same root, all the myriad things are one body, the true nature, openly, obediently. Be pure, grasp nothing, hold nothing. Rest nowhere, let go of everything. You are the embodiment of truth, just as you are, stay in your lower belly. Do this one doing. What is one doing? You can only answer this for yourself by doing it. Simply count this breath

Speaker 1

19:08

Okay, I think the only other thing I'm I'll mention, is briefly, just working with pain. Hmm?

Speaker 1

19:25

The more you place attention on, say, counting of the breath, counting the inhalations and exhalations, the more you do that, the less pain, the less pain there will be. Pain is something inevitable, not only in life, of course, but in our practice, it's so essential that we don't move during the rounds. Obviously, little micro adjustments are fine if you do notice, like for instance, this what I struggle with, my head jutting out and yeah. Go ahead and adjust that, but the limbs, the arms, legs, no moving. And why is that? Well, we all know why, as Tangen roshi mentioned, body mind are not two. They are one. So the more, the more still you can be, the more likely it is that you can get into a deeper state of concentration. And so with the no moving, especially as beginners, it can be it can be difficult, it can be painful. So obviously, the I always warn people, if you feel in a sharp stabbing pain. Then you want to change your posture and get into something different, where the pain is more manageable. You don't want any damage going on, but the doll achy pain, yeah, I still get it. The monsters still get it. That really does not become a problem, so long as you're just focusing your attention on your practice. And what can be really surprising. I think this was one of the big I got a deeper leap of faith. And this is in this practice is I was in so much pain, sometimes in seshin, but sometimes the pain would just disappear. So what was that? That's not always the case, but all of a sudden the the pain subsided. I was concentrating on mu, putting my whole body into mu without straining, but just really focusing, concentrating on mu and the pain wasn't a problem anymore, and at times it even went away. So this is, this is something that each and every, each one of us will experience if we stick with it, managing this pain, it just does not become a problem anymore, especially when the days progress. When days progress in seshin, we get less wrapped up in our thoughts, less grasping of any kind of emotional turmoil that's going on, anxiety. We become less wrapped up in that, and it just becomes easier to to focus the mind, to focus the body mind, and the pain just does not become a problem at all anymore. Alright? So, yeah, no moving and sharp pain, get out of it. But other than that, work with it. Work with it.

Speaker 1

22:54

All right. So, moving on to our main text, which is by the master Ajahn Chah UNT, titled The book is everything arises, everything falls away, teachings of impermanence and the end of suffering. You

Speaker 1

23:32

uh Ajahn Chah was a 20th century master from Thailand. He's a Thai from the end. He kind of really helped revive the Thai forest monastery in in Thailand and practice. He is a theravan teacher, but as you'll soon see from from reading from his book, there's very much a lot of civil similarity with what we're doing with our practice. So I will try and really pay attention to not use mindfulness words, because what Ajahn Chah talks about often is mindfulness practice, but really it's all it's it's all going to The same root. And so I'll probably just use some words, translate some of some of his words into the parlance, if you will, of of Zen. But first, I always like to read a little bit about the teacher's life. And so I got this actually off of there is a website that dedicated to Ajahn Chan and his teachings. So here we go. Ajahn Chah was born into a typical farming family in a rural village in the province of Ubon rachadani, northeast, Northeastern Thailand. In 1918, he. Lived the first part of his life as any other youngster in rural Thailand, and following the custom, took ordination as a novice in the local village monastery for three years, where he learned to read and write, in addition to studying some basic Buddhist teachings. After this, he returned to the lay life to help his parents, but feeling an attraction to the monastic life at the age of 20, he began he again entered a monastery, this time for higher ordination as a bhikkhu, or Buddhist monk. He spent the first few years of his Bhikkhu life studying some basic Dharma discipline, Pali, language and scriptures. But the death of his father awakened them to the transience of life. He caused them to think deeply about life's real purpose. For although he had studied extensively and gained some proficiency in Pali, he seemed no near to a personal understanding of the end of suffering.

Speaker 1

26:09

Almost feel like what else is there to say? We can read all the books on Zen, study Zen, read the Scriptures or the sutras, but it's not, it's not going to well menu, a menu does not satisfy hunger. And obviously the young Ajahn Chah realized this. And there are so many accounts of the masters from Japan and China who had terrible, terrible tragedies in their life, their parents, especially with their parents dying early, and that really kind of turn things for them and realize that, yeah, reading about it, that's not going to that's not going to cut it, is it? It's doing the practice. Okay? So feelings of disenchantment set in and a desire to find the real essence of the Buddhist teaching arose finally in 1946 so he was 28 years old, he abandoned his studies and set off on mendicant pilgrimage. He walked some 400 kilometers to central Thailand, sleeping in forests and gathering ALMS food in the villages. On the way, he took up residence in a monastery where the Vinaya, that's the monastic that's the rules and regulations of of monasticism. They were carefully studied there and practice well. While there, he was told about Venerable Ajahn mu red data, a most highly respected meditation master, keen to meet such an accomplished teacher, Ajahn Chah, set off on foot for the Northeast. In search for him. He began to travel to other monasteries, studying the monastic discipline in detail and spending a short but enlightening period with Ajahn Mun, the most outstanding Tai force meditation master of this century. At this time, Ajahn Chah was wrestling with a crucial problem. He had studied the teachings on morality, meditation and wisdom, which the text presented in minute and refined, detailed, but he could not see how they could actually be put into practice. Ajahn Mun told him that although the teachings are indeed extensive at their heart, they are very simple, with mindfulness established. It is, it is seen, if it is seen that everything arises in the heart mind, right, there is the true practice, true path of practice. Excuse me, I'll repeat that again, with mindfulness established. If it is seen that everything arises in the heart mind, right, there is the true practice, the true path of practice, kind of remind me, reminds me of what you know. In our workshops, the teachers will often, they may recite the the eighth fold, the noble eighth fold path described by the Buddha. But in Zen, all those eight paths just we we put it all into our Zazen. Doesn't mean that morality is doesn't play a place in practice. Of course, it does. The precepts do really. It's out of our practice. It's out of zazen that we just become more aligned with the precepts, more aligned with this eighth, eight fold path. This succinct and direct teaching was a revelation for Ajahn Chah, and transformed his approach to practice the way was clear for the next seven years, so he must be in his early 30s now for the next seven years. Ajahn Chah practiced in the style of an ascetic monk in the austere forest tradition, spending his time in forests, caves and cremation grounds, ideal places for developing meditation practice. He wandered through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for developing meditation he lived in Tiger and Cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate the true meaning of life. On one occasion, he practiced in a cremation ground to challenge the and eventually overcome his fear of death. Then, as he sat cold and drenched in a rainstorm, he faced the utter desolation and loneliness of a homeless monk. After many years of travel and practice, he was invited to settle in a thick Forest Grove near the village of his birth. This Grove was uninhabited, known as a place of cobras, tigers and ghosts, thus being, as he said, the perfect location for a forest monk. This does remind me, of course, of Roshi Kapleau. You know, when he was given permission to teach, he was ordained as a priest and moved back in 1966 probably a little earlier to United States. After training in Japan for 13 years, he did travel around a little bit to find a place where he hoped to start a Zen Center. And Rochester was the place for him. He was invited there. And one of the reasons he said later on in life was It was great. It's a great place, because it can get so cold. It's good for training, good for practice. Alright, I'm just going to finish up. I got a little more information just the tail end of his life. From from a Wikipedia from the Wikipedia page, yes, after years of wandering, Ajahn Chah decided to plant roots in an uninhabited Grove near his birthplace. In 1954 wat nang pa Pong monastery was established where Ajahn Chah could teach a simple practice based form of meditation. He attracted a wide variety of disciples, which included in 1966 the first Westerner, Venerable Ajahn sumedho. Think John sensei read from Ajahn sumedho last year or the year before, in seshin, he did attract a lot of Western practitioners. Probably the most famous one here in this country is Jack Kornfield, and he founded the Center in Massachusetts, and also out in California. I think it's called Spirit Rock. But this Ajahn sumedho is actually British, and he's still living and training in in England, he's got a forest monastery there. By the early 1980s Ajahn Chah health was in decline due to diabetes. He was taken to Bangkok for surgery to relieve paralysis caused by the diabetes, but it was to little effect. Ajahn Chah used his ill health as a teaching point, emphasizing that it was quote, a living example of the impermanence of all things, and reminded people to endeavor to find a true refuge within themselves, a true refuge within themselves, since he would not be able to teach for very much longer in a shaky Muni Buddha be a light upon yourself. Ajahn Chah would remain bedridden and ultimately unable to speak for 10 years, until his death On 16 January, 1992 at the age of 73 the

Unknown Speaker

34:24

All right, everything arises, everything falls away.

Speaker 1

34:34

I will read one in this book, there are actually a couple of kind of anecdotal stories about Anjan Cha. I will read one just give the spirit of what he was like this. This chapter is called Bringing the mind under our command. Oh, no, excuse me, it's the next one. A lot of defilements. Ajahn Chah at play.

Speaker 1

35:11

Ajahn Chah spoke repeatedly, oh and sorry. This is, I believe, one of his disciples, telling the story. Ajahn Chah spoke repeatedly of uncertainty, and he also made sure that the life of his monasteries reflected that truth of existence. Disciples learned to live without attachment to routines, expectations, possessions, even to him in later years, as Ajahn Chah pace became slower, he would go for alms rounds to the village nearest the monastery. Usually when the line of monks got to the end of the village, when the last donors had offered their rice, a novice or junior monk would relieve him of his bowl, and most of the entourage would walk on ahead, bound their heads slightly and putting their palms together in a gesture of respect as they went by him. Often he was accompanied by one of the older monks, but occasionally he walked alone. Sometimes, as you ducked your head to pass, he would call your name so you would fall and step behind him. One such morning, he began to question me about the abbots I had stayed with in the branch monasteries. When we started talking about Ajahn siuan, a senior disciple who was now Abbot of his own monastery, and who was one of Ajahn Chah favorite whipping boys, he was also renowned. I don't know if I'll get to this other story, but he was also very strict. It could be very hard on his, on his especially he's his senior students. Oh, yeah. So this, this disciple said, I said that I had eventually come to feel that Ajahn sinuan was somewhat lazy and like the goof off, in spite of his protestations about what an ardent practitioner he was right, said, Ajahn, Chah, just like me, I've got a lot of defilements. I like to fool around, although I realized he was putting me on I was startled to hear such talk and didn't know what to say. Ajahn Chah went on, bending his head towards me, lowering his voice and speaking in mock confidentially. Listen, I'm planning to disrobe, and I want you to help me find a nice woman I

Speaker 1

37:51

speaking of the faults of others. And here Ajahn Chah saying, Yeah, I've got my own defilements. Now, obviously he's not going to be disrobing, but he is acknowledging his own like we all do. We are all I wish I brought this quote from Japanese master. I don't have it on me right now, but it's, yeah, we all have our own defilements. Are they fixed? No, of course not. But what we do through our practice, through Zen practice, we just keep working and refining, purifying this buddha mind, this bright, luminous mind that we all have, every single one of us, no matter how severe or stuck we feel with some of these defilements, whether they may be greed, anger, delusion, the three big ones, we all have them, every single one of us, and Ajahn Chah himself is acknowledging, yeah, I've got my own defilements. You.

Speaker 1

39:05

All right, chapter 11, bringing the mind under our command. And

Speaker 1

39:22

this is Ajahn Chah speaking, whatever states of mind, happy or unhappy occur. Never mind. We should constantly be reminding ourselves this is uncertain. This is something people don't consider very much that. Quote, this is uncertain. Justice is a vital factor that will bring about wisdom in order to cease our coming and going and find rest. We only need to say this is uncertain. Sometimes we may be distraught over something to the point that tears are flow. Going that is something not certain. When moods of desire or aversion come to us, we should just remind ourselves of this one thing. Another way of putting it is it will pass, whether standing, walking, sitting or lying down, whatever appears is uncertain. Can't you do this? Keep it up no matter what happens. Give it a try, alright? So obviously, for us as Zen practitioners, we're not going to be saying this is uncertain. It is because it is everything is uncertain. But instead of obviously, instead of saying, this is uncertain,

Unknown Speaker

40:58

counting the breath, just just the counting,

Speaker 1

41:09

the way I practice, he goes on the way I practice meditation is not very complicated. Just this. This is all. This is what it all comes down to. It's uncertain. Everything meets at this point. You don't need to keep track of all the various instances of mental experience. When you sit in meditation, there may be various conditions of mind appearing, seeing and knowing, all manner of things experience different states. Don't keep track of them, and don't get wrapped up in them. You only need to remind yourself that they're uncertain. That's enough. That's simple, and it's easy to do when you then you can stop. Insight will come, but then don't make too much out of that or get attached to it. Those are the tricky ones. Or they can be the tricky ones. If we get some kind of, say, personal insight about our past or our habit patterns, it can kind of it can be. We can kind of cling to that and hold on to it, especially, or if it's say, some experience we've had where we get into a Samadhi for a period of time, and then eventually, of course, like all things, since everything is uncertain, it will pass, and Then we'll just get caught up in our own, our own thoughts, and wanting to get back to that, and holding on to that, and and trying to recreate that. And none of that will help. It's just simply returning.

Speaker 1

43:12

This understanding of things is always timely and relevant at all times. It is in permanence that rules this is something you should meditate on. The true and correct words of the sages will not lack mention of impermanence. If there is no mention of impermanence, it is not the speech of the wise. It is not the speech of the enlightened ones. It's called speech that does not accept the truth of existence. As I see it, once we have correct insight, the mind comes under our command. So he's talking about awakening. Here. He uses the word knowledge, which is an odd translation, but as I see it, once we have correct insight, the mind comes under a command. The command be a little deceiving. Oh, our mind comes under a command.

Speaker 1

44:19

They're just thoughts. They're just thoughts. But what do we do? We grasp at our thoughts, we cling to our thoughts, we try to avoid ourselves, we try to stop our thoughts, but they're just thoughts. It's like I said, they're not good, they're not bad. All thoughts are created equal. You uh, so our mind comes more under our command, because we don't. We don't care about our thoughts. We don't we don't analyze our thoughts. We we just get back to the practice over and over and over again. And really, it really is. It's like working a muscle. It really is. You know, it's or Roshi used to use the analogy of weight lifting you in terms of her practice, maturing and progressing. It's kind of, we reach a different plateau, you know, you end up putting on 10 more pounds the next week. I'm not crazy about that analogy, actually, but, but that that's the principle is there is things can just change, really on a deeper level. And it's not an all or nothing thing with with our thoughts. It just, we just slowly but surely, uh, disentangled more and more from our thoughts and then, and then that plateau, that change, that deep, that drop is like, Oh, they're just thoughts, like, I don't need to, I don't need to focus on them. Just get back to counting the breath, or just get back to mu. But then we just get stuck in our thoughts again, over and over again. And then, if it's not our thoughts, we get frustrated because we're so stuck in our thoughts and like we're the wheels start turning, and why am I not progressing? What is wrong with me? And again and again, those are just thoughts. And then, as a result of our wheels spinning more and more, we just get frustrated, and that's when the emotions, or the the feelings can start kicking in and and then we're really off and running, where all we really need to do is just turn to the practice over and over again and how we say this over and over again. You probably hear is tired of hearing, hearing, but it's the truth.

Speaker 1

46:52

Just drop the cling. Just Just return. And it just just, it gets easier. It really does.

Speaker 1

47:18

As I see it, once we have correct insight, the mind comes under our command. What is this command about? The command is Annika, knowing that everything is impermanent. Annika is the the Pali word for impermanence. Everything stops here when we see clearly and it becomes the cause for us letting go, then we let things be according to their true nature, according to their nature.

Speaker 1

47:54

All right, our time is up, and we'll now recite the four vows so

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