,
not much. And you should have
seen the uproar that I caused
when I said that the Third Noble
Truth is called the mundane
Nibbana and supermundane Nibbana.
What's a mundane Nibbana? It's a
wordly kind of cessation, and
you have to experience that many
thousands, many hundreds of
thousands of times before you
get to experience the
supermundane, which is the
Nibbana that everybody thinks
about, the big pie in the sky
Nibbana.
So, when you're practicing
the 6Rs, you are practicing
Right Effort, and there's four
kinds of Right Effort.
Recognizing that there's an
unwholesome state that has
arisen, letting go of that
unwholesome state and relaxing,
bringing up a wholesome state -
smiling and your object of
meditation - staying with your
object of meditation, staying
with that wholesome state. Now,
as you might have noticed I kind
of snuck in the 6Rs, because the
6Rs and Right Efforts are one
and the same thing. So, that's
basically what this is telling
you to do right here.
MN:
[Repeats]
thoughts connected with desire,
with hate, and with delusion,
then he should give attention to
some other sign connected with
what is wholesome.
When he gives
attention to some other sign
connected with what is
wholesome, then any evil
unwholesome thoughts connected
with desire, with hate, and with
delusion are abandoned in him
and subside.
BV:
So, this particlular sutta is
recommended very strongly by
just about everybody that
practices Theravada Buddhism,
but they always seem to stress
the last part of this. I'm going
to read you the last part. Now,
what I'm trying to show you with
the hindrances is how to
lovingly accept the hindrance
and not fight with it then not
try to control it. Just let it
be and it'll start to fade away
by itself, right? Ok, it says...
MN:
7. (v) "If,
while he is giving attention to
stilling the thought-formation
of those thoughts, there still
arise in him evil unwholesome
thoughts connected with desire,
with hate, and with delusion,
then, with his teeth clenched
and his tongue pressed against
the roof of his mouth, he should
beat down, constrain, and crush
mind with mind. [121]
BV:
Does that sound like a
peaceful kind of meditation to
you? Now, what's happened is
this particular sutta was added
later, and they took part of
this from another sutta. They
took exactly the same words, but
with this, what the Buddha is
saying was "This is a practice
that I tried while I was still a
bodhisattva trying to become a
Buddha, and I found out it
didn't work". And it's exactly
the same wording.
MN:
[Switching to
MN36.20]
"I thought: 'Suppose, with my
teeth clenched and my tongue
pressed against the roof of my
mouth, I beat down, constrain,
and crush mind with mind.' So,
with my teeth clenched and my
tongue pressed against the roof
of my mouth, I beat down,
constrained, and crushed mind
with mind. While I did so, sweat
ran from my armpits. Just as a
strong man might seize a weaker
man by the head and shoulders
and beat him down, constrain
him, and crush him, so too, with
my teeth clenced and my tongue
pressed against the roof of my
mouth, I beat down, constrained,
and crushed mind with mind, and
sweat ran from my armpits. But
although tireless energy was
aroused in me and unremitting
mindfulness was established, my
body was overwrought [243] and
uncalm because I was exhausted
by the painful striving."
BV:
Now, do you think the Buddha
is recommending doing this or
not? The whole thing with the
Buddha's teaching is harmony and
loving acceptance with whatever
arises. Now, some people get a
strange idea about "Well, if
you're practicing metta that
means that people can do
anything they want to you; they
could step all over you and you
have to smile and take it".
Practicing metta does not make
you stupid. Ok? You don't have
to take things. You can bow out
of a lot of situations so that
you don't have to be in that
situation where people are
taking advantage of you.
But the whole point of the
meditation is learning how to
have balance in yourself, and
learning to recognize the
hindrances and how they arise,
starts to help you with your
personality development. The
personality development about
things that used to get you
angry and they don't get you
angry anymore. A great for
instance, we were driving here
and we stopped at a place to get
something to drink and it was
one of the turnpike places in
Pennsylvania or wherever it
happened to be, I don't know,
and we went in and got something
to drink and we came out and I'm
looking at the car and I'm going
"Somebody ran into the car. Side
of the car is, somebody pulled
in too close and then when they
pulled out they turned the wheel
too hard and they just scraped
the whole side of the car!" And
I said to Khema "Look at that,
somebody hit the car"! And she
said "Yeah". And I said "Ok,
let's get in and go". (laughter)
Now, what would have happened a
few years ago is a little bit
different story. Not for me so
much, but for the nun that's
travelling with me, she would
have flipped her lid and
complained all day that day and
all day the next, and had really
gotten into her anger, but
because of practising the 6Rs
and getting a sense of balance
it's just "Um, ok, we'll have to
take care of it when we get
back". What more can you do?
As you learn how the
hindrances arise, as you start
paying attention to the process
of the hindrances, you start
learning where all of those
little places are that cause
pain and you start recognizing
that I'm causing this pain to
myself and you start letting it
go. You start having more and
more balance in your life and as
a result, life becomes easier.
Now, it's a real interesting
phenomena especially since I got
back from Asia, which is turning
into close to ten years now -
blows my mind. Anyway, the big
words when I got back from Asia
were stress, and depression, and
anxiety, and everybody was
talking about it. Well, what are
those? They're just simply
hindrances. How do you handle a
hindrance? Allow it to be,
relax, smile, come back, and
wish somebody happiness.
Practice smiling. You start to
notice that every hindrance that
arises, they always arise in
exactly the same way, and I can
describe to you exactly how it
arises. It doesn't matter
whether it's anger or sadness,
depression, whatever it happens
to be. They all arise in exactly
the same way. And I'll tell you
something else, the Asian mind
and the Western mind, there is
no difference. It happens the
same for every person.
There is contact, well let's
do it this way... in order to
see you have to have a good
working eye, the good working
eye has to touch the colour and
form. When the good working eye
touches the colour and form, eye
consciousness arises. The
meeting of these three things -
the eye, the colour and form,
and the eye consciousness - is
called eye contact. With eye
contact as condition, eye
feeling arises. Feeling is
pleasant feeling, painful
feeling, neither painful nor
pleasant. It's not emotional,
doesn't have anything to do with
emotion. Emotional is on down
the way. With eye feeling as
condition, eye craving arises.
What is craving?
Craving always manifests as
tension and tightness in your
mind and in your body. The
craving is the "I like it, I
don't like it" mind. It's the
very start of the ego
identification. Right after
craving, clinging arises. The
clinging is all of the stories,
all of your concepts, all of
your opinions, all of your ideas
about why you like or dislike
that sight, or sound, or
thought, or taste, or touch, or
smell. This is where your mind
really starts taking off, and
this is where it becomes the
belief that these thoughts and
these feelings are mine
personally really hit very big,
very quick. With clinging as
condition, habitual tendency
arises. What's your habitual
tendency?
Every time I see that kind of
thing or think that kind of
thing I always act this way. So,
what is stress, what is
depression? It's a painful
feeling that arises, your mind
says "I don't like it", that's
the craving. And then it starts
to get into all of the stories
about why you don't like it, why
you want it to be different than
it is, and then you start acting
in the same way every time this
kind of feeling arises. But
there's a habit that we get into
that is really a problem and
it's so ingrained in us that we
won't even recognize it until we
start seeing it ourselves with
the hindrances.
Now, we're made up of five
different things. The
psycho-physical process is made
up of: 1) A physical body. 2)
There is feeling - pleasant,
painful, neither painful nor
pleasant. 3) There is perception
- perception is a part of the
mind that puts names on things.
Perception is a part of the mind
the when you look at this (the
book in his hands) your mind
says "book", and that has memory
in it too. 4) Then we have
thoughts. 5) Then we have
consciousness.
Now, when a painful feeling
arises or a pleasant feeling
arises - either one - but we'll
take painful because that's the
most obvious - what our habitual
tendency is, is to try to
think the feeling away. But
if you'll remember with the
instructions I gave you last
night, I said the more you try
to think a feeling, the bigger
and more intense that feeling
becomes. So, the first thing we
have to do, especially when
you're sitting in meditation and
a pain comes up or a hindrance
of whatever kind, the first
thing we have to do is notice
the thoughts about it, and let
the thoughts go because if we
try to control the feeling with
the thoughts, the feeling gets
bigger and more intense until it
turns it into an emergency and
you can't stand it anymore. Then
you have to do something
radical, move around or
whatever. So, the first thing we
have to do is recognize the
thoughts, and let the thoughts
be there by themselves, and
relax.
Now you see the feeling for
what it is. It's a painful
feeling. Ok, so it's a painful
feeling, so what? It's a painful
mental feeling. Ok, that's an
emotion isn't it? It's an
emotion because we get involved
with the thinking about, and
identifying with, and taking all
of the feelings to be ours
personally, and then we want to
control it. We want to control
our feelings with our thoughts,
but thoughts are one thing and
feelings are something else. The
two never meet. So we have to
let go of the thinking, and
relax, and allow the space for
the feeling to be there without
trying to do anything to make it
different than it is. That is
what true mindfulness is;
observing how mind's attention
moves from one thing to another;
observing how mind has the
desire to grab on and to
control. We have to learn how to
lovingly accept what arises in
the present moment. Any time you
try to fight with what arises in
the present moment, any time you
try to control what arises in
the present moment, any time you
try to change what arises in the
present moment, you're fighting
with the Dhamma, you're fighting
reality, you're fighting the
truth. The truth is, when a
feeling arises, it's there!
Allow the space for it to be
there, "Yeah, but it's painful",
ok so what? "But it really
hurts", ok so what?
A lot of people have heard me
talk about when I was in Burma,
and this silver tooth right here
(he shows the tooth), a dentist
thought he was going to do me a
favour and clean my teeth and he
broke it. So, I had to have a
root canal, but in Burma they
don't clean their needles from
one person to the next. I wasn't
about ready to have them stab me
with a needle so I could get
AIDS, so I said "Ok, no pain
killer, have a root canal".
There was pain, you better
believe it. It was real painful,
but I started being mindful of
my mind and my body, and I
started noticing that I was
sitting with my hands on the
thing and I was white knuckled.
And I went "Ah, look at that"
and I let go and I relaxed, and
I noticed that there was all
kinds of tightness in my
buttocks and tightness in my
back, tightness all over my
body. So, I started relaxing
that and letting go of the
tightness, and then I relaxed
the tension caused by that, and
I had time to send loving and
kind thoughts to the person that
was causing me the pain, the
dentist. And then he'd hit
another spot and I'd jump and
then all of this happened again.
So I was spending time
continually relaxing more and
more. The reactions to the pain
were much less when he was
almost done. He was still
hitting the sore spots but it
didn't make me jump so much
because I was learning and it
was figuring out how to lovingly
accept even something as painful
as a root canal. When they did
the root canal of course they
went in about that far (gesture)
it seemed like anyway, and I
think he was feeling so good
that he actually extended the
time he was giving me the root
canal. (laughter)
But as soon as he was done my
mind was clear, my mind was
alert, my mind was filled with
joy. Not because the pain wasn't
there, but because I had let go
of an attachment. And my mind
was exceptionally clear for
three or four days after that, I
mean it was really amazing. So,
you say "Well, it really hurts",
yeah, ok, so what? It's only
pain. So what?!
As you learn to develop your
loving acceptance of the present
moment, you start having more
and more balance arise in your
life, and you start noticing
that there is personality
development. And the personality
development only occurs when you
practice your daily activities
with the 6Rs and you're able to
notice the hindrances when they
come up. You're able to not get
so heavily involved with liking
this or disliking that or that
no good so-and-so did this or
that. 4534
Now, this is a gradual
training. At first, you're going
to get caught, you're going to
get lost for a period of time,
but as you keep practicing the
6R's, that period of time that
you're caught by these
hindrances becomes less and
less. Now, I had a student in
Malaysia that she really had a
lot of anger. I mean, when she
walked into the room, I wanted
to walk out of the room, but she
came to see me so how can I get
away from that? So, I started
talking to her and she said "I'm
really angry at my husband", she
has three children. "He got mad
at me and told me he wasn't
going to talk to me anymore, and
he doesn't. And it makes me mad!
What am I supposed to do with
that?"
And I said "Well, you might
as well start practicing some
loving kindness, radiating
loving kindness and see how that
does". Now, when he would do
something, she would get angry
and she would stay angry for two
weeks at first. And that clouded
her perception of everything
that she did. She was looking
through the eyes of anger at
everything, but as she started
practicing meditation and she
started practicing loving
kindness, the length of time
that she got angry started being
less. So, instead of two weeks
it was ten days, and after
another period of time it was
seven days, and after a period
of time it was four days. And it
kept going down as she was
practicing her meditation, as
she was practicing her daily
meditation with her daily
activities.
And it got down to, he would
do something that was like she
would be riding in the car with
him and say "I have to stop at
this store, I'll be there no
more than five minutes, wait for
me." And she would go into the
store and he would take off. And
she'd come out of the store and
she'd look and he wasn't around
and she'd go "I wish he wouldn't
do that". And then she said
"Well, it's a nice day for a
walk", so she enjoyed her walk
all the way home. She didn't
hold onto it, she didn't have
the repeat thoughts, she didn't
have the disgust or the demands
for control. Now, this did take
a period of time because she was
only able to sit about a half an
hour a day, and she was never
able to take a retreat because
she was always taking care of
her kids.
But when you take a retreat
this is your intensive time to
really pay attention to what
your mind is doing all of the
time. When you see an
unwholesome state arise,
recognize it, release it, relax,
smile, come back to an object of
meditation - to your spiritual
firend, to the feeling of being
happy, to smiling. You really
need to practice smiling often.
It doesn't matter what you're
doing. This is really important
because the more you smile the
more uplifted your mind becomes.
The more uplifted your mind
becomes, the better your
mindfulness becomes, the more
clear your mind becomes, the
more interesting watching how
mind's attention becomes.
Now, I was just in Germany
and gave a week retreat there,
and I was amazed because I had
everybody practicing loving
kindness meditation and they'd
all been practicing mindfulness
of breathing. So, it was a real
shock to them to hear that I was
going to teach loving kindness.
And after about four days there
were men and women both, all of
a sudden they were sitting there
practicing loving kindness
feeling really happy crying
their eyes out. They were crying
and and they kept coming to me
and saying "What is this, why am
I crying, I'm happy?" "Well,
you're just letting go of some
old stuff, that's all. Don't
stop it, don't control it, let
it happen. If you get too wet
get a blanket or a towel out of
the fold here. And they all
distarted?51;15 at me. Their
faces became absolutely radiant.
And their being German they
weren't used to smiling much,
but their being German meant
that they were willing to try
anything just to see how it
works, and they did, they tried
it. They would come and complain
about "My jaw muscles hurt so
much."— "Well, it's because
you're not used to smiling,
that's all". (laughs)
Any time you see repeat
thoughts in your mind, you have
an attachment, taking it
personally. So, let that be a
key to remind you that "Oh, I
have an attachment here". When
we have repeat thoughts, they
happen just like they were on a
tapedeck. Same words exactly,
over and over again. Same
feeling, same dissatisfaction
with the feeling. Same want for
it to be different than it is,
but not willing to let it go.
This practice is to teach you
how to let this go, how to have
an uplifted mind all the time.
And the more you can smile into
whatever you're doing - I don't
care if you're at work - you can
be happy while you're at work.
You can have fun while you're at
work. As a matter of fact, if
you don't you gotta get a
different job. (laughter) So,
the more we can remember to
recognize when our mind is
distracted and release the
distraction without getting
involved in the story about, the
more we can do that and relax
into it and actually have fun
while you're meditating…
I just gave a talk at Mark's
house and there was fifteen or
sixteen people there and I said
something about having fun while
you're meditating and I stopped
and I said "When was the last
time you heard that before? Have
you ever heard it before?" Fun
and meditation in the same
sentence. Wow!
Now, there's another thing
that is very helpful when you
get caught by a hindrance, and
guaranteed this works 100% of
the time: laugh at being caught;
laugh at your mind for being so
crazy, for being attached. The
more you develop your laughter
about yourself the more your
perspective changes from "I am
that and I don't like it" to
"Ha, it's only that." (Whish!)
Easy to let go of.
I had one student that he
started practicing loving
kindness with me and he got into
such a happy state that he would
sit very quietly and before long
he was kind of chuckling to
himself. (laughter) And he was
very softly just (snickering)
and he was doing this for like
two hours at a pop. (laughter)
And he's sitting for two hours
and he's snickering and laughing
all the time. And he came to me
with this real concerned look on
his face and he said "Is it ok
to do that"? And I said "Yeah"!
And everbody else around him
started doing the same thing. It
was a great retreat. Everybody
progressed really, really fast.
Developing a sense of humour
about how crazy your mind can
become, or is, is a skill that
we all need to develop more
because it takes it away from
the personal. "I'm sad. I'm
angry, I'm restless, I'm
sleepy", it takes it out of the
"I am that" and makes it "It's
only this. What is that?
Nothing!" So, it's a real
interesting process and the more
you start recognizing how mind's
attention works, not why things
arise the way they do, you're
going to be able to let go of
your old habits of always
looking at things in this way or
that way. And you start changing
your perspective, changing your
view of life itself.
Now, if you're angry and I
walk up to you and I give you a
rose, what's your reaction? "Ah,
look at those thorns. Why are
you giving me something that has
thorns in it"? But I can take
that same rose and walk up to
you when you're happy, and you
look at that and go "Wow, that's
really beautiful". Now what's
different? Same flower, what's
different? Your perspective. One
perspective is "I don't like"
"I", "I", "I", and the other one
is a sense of wonderment, a
sense of beauty.
One of the reasons that
people begin to practice
meditation or Buddhism in
general is because we all have
all kinds of suffering, and we
suffer along until finally you
start going "Gah, there's gotta
be a better way of doing it.
This life is no good." So, you
start developing your curiosity
then, and as you start
practicing more and you start
seeing it work, your confidence
starts to build. And as your
confidence builds, your energy
starts to improve, and with the
improved energy, your
mindfulness becomes sharper, and
with your mindfulness becoming
sharper you start having more
and more collected mind. And
with that collected mind you
start seeing the process of how
dependent origination actually
works.
It all starts from suffering
and being curious about "there's
gotta be a better way than
this". But the thing that I
found over the years is my
curiosity hasn't gotten less.
It's actually gotten a lot
stronger than it used to be, "I
want to find out everything. I
want to know how everything
works". With that curiosity you
start developing an "I don't
know" mind. You start developing
a beginner's mind, the mind that
says "I'm just curious how this
works, I want to see it". It's
not the mind that says "Ah, this
is the same old stuff. It's just
doing the same thing over and
over again. I'm bored". But
having the curiosity to see how
the process works you start
going deeper and deeper into
your practice and it just gets
more and more fascinating, and
it really turns into a lot of
fun. And that's what I'm talking
about with the meditation,
developing that sense of fun
with the meditation and a sense
of curiosity of "How does that
work"? That's how you overcome
the hindrances.
Now, what happens with the
hindrance is every time you let
it go and you relax, and you
smile, and you come back to your
object of meditation, every time
you do that, that hindrance
becomes a little bit less. And
eventually you start recognizing
things more quickly, and you
start letting it go more easily,
and you start staying on your
object of meditation for longer
period of time. One time that
hindrance is going to arise and
you let it go, and it's gone.
That's it! Now, what happens
after that, you have a very
strong sense of relief. After
the relief, you start feeling a
lot of joy. Joy is one of the
enlightenment factors.
I had almost twenty years of
teachers telling me whenever I
experience joy "Don't get
attached". Geese, I didn't want
to get attached, so I get joy
and I just start stuffing it
down "Nope, nope, we don't want
this". That's not right. You
don't get attached to joy when
you start treating it like every
other feeling that arises. It's
a pleasant feeling. Ok, allow it
to be there, relax, come back to
your object of meditation. Don't
try to hang onto it. Don't try
to control it. Allow it to be
there. Eventually the joy will
fade away. When the joy fades
away, you feel very tranquil,
you feel very comfotable in your
mind and in your body. This is
what the Buddha called
happiness, sukha. Your mind
naturally stays on your object
of meditation very easily. Now,
you can still have a distracting
thought because your mindfulness
is not very strong at this
point, but you'll be able to
recognize it fairly quickly.
Sometimes it's a whole thought,
sometimes it's a half a thought,
and you see it and you release,
relax, smile and come back, and
it's almost effortless staying
on your object of meditation.
Now, what I just described to
you is called the first jhana.
Now, an awful lot of people have
the idea that jhana means
concentration. Jhana does not
mean concentration. Jhana is a
stage of the meditation. Jhana
is the first stage of your
understanding how the process
works. There's other jhanas that
you'll experience, but they're
all stages of understanding.
Your understanding goes deeper
and deeper as you go deeper into
the jhanas. It's not a word to
be afraid of and when you start
looking at the word jhana in the
suttas you'll see it mentioned
many thousands of times.
You'll see the word vipassana
mentioned maybe a hundred times
- I think it's a hundred and
eight, but I'm not sure a
hundred and seven, something
like that - but vipassana about
eighty times, when it's
mentioned, is mentioned with the
word samatha. Samatha means
tranquillity. You gain deep
tranquillity and samatha then
you experience the jhana. So,
the samatha and the vipassana
they're yoked together just like
a bullock cart. They have to be
pulling equally in order to go
in a straight line. The
vipassana and the jhana are
happening very much at the same
time.
Jhana has had a lot of
misunderstanding around it
because there is more than one
kind of jhana. There is actually
two kinds of jhana. One kind of
jhana is the one-pointed
concentration. Now, what happens
when you experience the
one-pointed concentration: your
mind is on your object of
meditation, it gets distracted;
you recognize that and you let
go of that distraction and
immediately come back to your
object of meditation. Now, what
happens is your one-pointed
concentration starts to develop,
and it gets so good that the
force of the concentration will
suppress the hindrances, stop
the hindrances from arising.
And I've just been talking to
you about the necessity of the
hindrances and why they're
important. So, when you practice
one-pointed concentration what
you're doing is you're not
letting go of the craving and
you're bringing that craving
back to your object of
meditation. And you're
experiencing deep concentration,
but you're not learning anything
from that. The kind of
meditation that the Buddha
taught adds one extra step. Your
mind is on your object of
meditation and gets distracted,
same, let go of the distraction,
same, relax, that extra step of
relaxing the tension and
tightness in your mind and in
your body is very important. And
then you bring that craving free
mind back to your object of
meditation. The end results are
very different.
Now, when people talk about
jhana because they're practicing
one-pointed kinds of
concentration they'll say: "Well
if you're only practicing jhana
practice, then you'll never
attain Nibbana." And it's true,
if you're practicing one-pointed
concentration you won't
experience Nibbana. Why? Because
you still have that craving, you
haven't let go of the craving.
Your mind will go so deep,
that's as far as it goes.
When the Buddha was a
bodhisatta he was practicing
one-pointed concentration and
went as far as he could with it,
and he still saw that there was
something missing in the
practice. And that something he
later discovered was that extra
step of relaxing. When you
practice the samatha-vipassana
you will have insights while
you're in the jhana because the
jhana that the Buddha was
talking about doesn't go as
deep, and you start seeing how
the process of dependent
origination actually does work.
That's what the insights are.
Now, I know that there are
commentaries, they say there's
sixteen different insight
knowledges that you have to
experience. Well, with that
particular form of practicing
straight vipassana that might be
right, but it doesn't lead to
the experience of Nibbana, not
the way it's being practiced and
taught right now.
So, when we start practicing
with this extra step of
relaxing, and relaxing often,
your mind naturally goes deeper
more quickly than you can
believe, but the thing is it's
not just a sitting practice.
It's an all-the-time practice.
Watch what your mind is doing. I
don't care if you're walking
from here to there, I don't care
if you're getting your food, or
eating your food, or going to
the toilet, or taking a shower.
I don't care what you're doing,
watch your mind, and when you
start seeing your mind get heavy
with thoughts, let go, relax,
smile, return to your object of
meditation. Carry your object of
meditation with you as closely
as you carry your skin, or
closer if you can. (laughter)
So, the hindrances are
actually your best friend. Don't
fight with them. Don't try to
force them to be other than they
are. They help you to go deeper
into your meditation. They help
you to experience all these
different levels of
understanding. They help you
very much with seeing how
dependent origination works.
They teach you a lot, so treat
them like your closest friend, I
mean they're precious. When
you're saying "This anger I have
is precious? What are you
talking about? You're crazy". It
is precious when you use it in
the right way, when you start
seeing how the process works and
start using the 6Rs continually.
You start having this pure mind
more and more and more because
you're letting go of the
craving.
Ok, so, I've been talking for
a while, and I wanted to know if
anybody has any questions. Great
teacher, huh? (laughter) Yeah?
S: ~
BV: Really appreciate your
friend. The more you appreciate,
the more closely you stay with
your friend.
Now one of the things that
happens is that if you start
letting your mind ho hum a
little bit, you’re not being
sincere in the wish, you’re just
kind of feeling the wish a way
that turns: "Ah, yeah, yeah,
yeah." Ok, that leads to
dullness of mind. So what you
need to do is really appreciate
that person that you’re sending
it to. Like them! And feel like
you’re doing a good thing for
them, because you are. Smile to
your friend. Really wish them
well. You’re just not used to
it. It will come, I promise.
<Long section inaudible due
to noise removed.>
(Let's share some merit
then.)
