Easy Right Effort Aurélien 1 08 14 24

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Dhammarato: The question you asked is “Why is it that Westerners don’t understand the value of practice?”

Speaker B: Yeah. Okay.

Dhammarato: Okay, so basically, to not understand the value of practice is actually to miss out on the entire point of the Four Noble Truths. And that our culture, let us say, is a victim’s culture. Every child is raised as a victim. Every child is actually born as a victim. When someone is born, they can’t feed themselves, they can’t walk, they can’t talk, they can’t pick up an armor and swords or a gun and defend themselves or anything. And as the child grows up, they begin to play. And what Mommy does is take the child’s play away and says, clean up your room, do your homework, do what you’re told to do, go to school, et cetera. Like that. And so in that regard, we remain victims to Mommy. She’s the boss. And so our whole world is as a up, down, big dog, little dog, underdog. In fact, Fritz Pearls called it top dog and underdog. And every human being is born as an underdog, and they want to become a top dog, and they don’t know how to do that. And so they make a huge number of mistakes in the sense of, I’m a bully, I’m a top dog. No, bullies are really underdogs. I’ve got a lot of money, I’ve worked hard. I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a top dog. No, you’re an underdog. A good example of that would be Elon Musk.

Speaker B: Yeah. So that recently I was going to mention, the problem arises when you’re a victim to Mommy is what if Mommy doesn’t have it all figured out?

Dhammarato: What if Mommy doesn’t have what?

Speaker B: What if Mommy doesn’t have it all figured out? And what if Mommy has her own?

Dhammarato: What do you mean, what if?

Speaker B: As in, no one’s in.

Dhammarato: As in, that’s the only way that you’re going to find a mommy. Well, yeah, all the mommies are like that. Why? Because enlightened women are unlikely to have babies.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I understand that. But enlightened women might also, I don’t know, give talks, give teachings, like, as yourself. We can still learn from them, can we not?

Dhammarato: Well, the whole point about it is that if we’re going to teach the Dhamma, it’s better to have an audience who can understand it.

Speaker B: Correct? Yeah.

Dhammarato: And Children are not developed mentally enough to understand. This is why children are given rules, precepts, commandments, jobs to do, keeping them in that one down position. And as they grow up, they grow up under all of the rules that they’ve been given their whole lives. Okay? So the rules become the boss. And that as we become adults, it’s possible then for a mind that’s mature enough is to start recognizing that. Wait a minute, all the stuff that I have learned is not correct. In other words, I’ve been lied to. There’s a little joke about that. The mom was a vegan vegetarian and she was raising her kid that way, etc. Like that. And then she took the kid for a play date and her and her playmate friend had chocolate, good high quality chocolate. And this kid got some of that chocolate. And his response to that was, mom.

Speaker B: Now they weren’t chocolate.

Dhammarato: You’ve been holding out on me. Okay, so very few of the four year olds in the world come to the conclusion that mom’s been holding out on us. Or worse still, that they held out on mom to the point that mom never figured it out. And that’s basically what happened, is that we have an entire culture of the blind leading the blind.

Speaker B: So then does it just come down to a lack of education in the Dhamma?

Dhammarato: Actually, I wouldn’t use the word education. It would be, for instance, a language. If you’re going to learn, you’re not going to learn Spanish by taking a high school class in Spanish.

Speaker B: It’s a span. That’s how you learn.

Dhammarato: You gotta go to Spanish culture. It’s immersion. You’ve got to have it that way. So another one it would be, is that the Dhamma is to be practiced often and enough so that the Dhamma then becomes That Dhamma is to be lived.

Speaker B: Baseline living. Yeah.

Dhammarato: Okay. Big, big change in life. And so also the other point is that no matter what religion that people are in, the culture is Christian. But Islam has exactly the same trouble. And that is that the people who are in a religion depend upon other authorities. Preachers, Sunday school teachers, but mostly a daddy that doesn’t exist. A sky daddy and a Jesus has been dead for 2,000 years. And they become the substitute of the surrogate authorities. And in fact, what that means is that the person then stays a victim to the things that don’t even exist. And we suck up to that. This is, in fact, you probably heard this a lot in Christianity if you’ve been around it, that Jesus saves.

Speaker B: Oh yeah.

Dhammarato: Jesus saves, you need Jesus. If you don’t have Jesus, you’re screwed.

Speaker B: But like you said, Jesus has been dead a long time. We can only save ourselves.

Dhammarato: This is back to the four noble truths then is that the second noble truth is so profound that most people miss it, even though it’s simple in the sense that the cause of suffering, the cause of dukkha. And by the way, let’s redefine the word dukkha to be dissatisfaction.

Speaker B: dissatisfaction.

Dhammarato: Now dissatisfaction means that we don’t like stuff.

Speaker B: And something to be different.

Dhammarato: All of Christianity is all wrapped up on God did it.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: And in that regard we stay victims to God.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: We need his help, we need his mercy, we need Jesus as a savior, etc. Like that. And basically that means to save us from our own dissatisfactions, our own disappointments. But the Buddha teaches that the second noble truth is our own actions, our own feelings, ignorantly. That in fact if we think that it’s God’s fault, that’s a huge ignorance right there. That all the dissatisfactions that anyone ever comes up with are self made. We were taught that and we believed it. We were victims to mommy and to the teachers and to grandpa and to Uncle Sam or whoever. And we’re just victims because we have been victimized by adult victims.

Speaker B: We’ve been told we need permission to be okay whenever we want to be. When in reality we don’t need any permission. We can give that permission ourselves.

Dhammarato: Okay. I missed you. You said you need what? To be okay.

Speaker B: So we’ve been raised thinking that we need permission from someone else to be okay, like God, our parents. When in reality is we can give that permission ourselves.

Dhammarato: Yes, we need permission. And that is in fact one of the ways of saying it is that there are three kinds of doubt. And the first doubt is who can I get to help me out of the mess that I’m in? And sometimes it takes a long time. People can be practicing, even practicing Buddhism, but not practicing correctly because they still don’t understand. They think that the guru, the teacher, someone is going to help them if they can only show off enough to prove that they’re a good student and then they’ll get blessed. They’ll be told, oh, you’re a good boy and you know this and you know that and then they’ll feel good. Yeah, we’re wanting validation. Why? Because we don’t know how to give it to ourselves. And the reason for that is because we never been around anybody who knows how to teach one to validate themselves, or better still, to figure out that we don’t even need validation. What we really need is reality.

Speaker B: Yeah. This very moment is all we need.

Dhammarato: The need for validation is not real. The need for love, looking for love in all the wrong places is because we’ve been taught that we need to be loved and we don’t need to be loved. You’re already okay without being loved.

Speaker B: You’re alive now. You’re breathing, you’re fine. And I hear you saying a lot, “If you’re not breathing, even better, you don’t worries anymore.” (laughs)

Dhammarato: Exactly so. Because all the worries that are created are created by people who are breathing. And so this is the way of recognizing that the second Noble truth actually has a profound point to it, and that is that nobody’s going to help you. Now, if a kid goes to a piano teacher after he’s been practicing for a week, the piano teacher can hear his practice.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: But the guru cannot look at the meditation hall and see what people have on their minds. It is. It’s actually up to every student to figure out that they’ve got to come out of their own ignorance, they’ve got to come out of their own greed, they’ve got to come out of their own ill will, that nobody’s going to help them. That’s that level of doubt that we can. When we get over that level of doubt now, the second doubt sets in.

Speaker B: Oh, okay.

Dhammarato: And what is that? Am I up to the task? We’ve been taken care of all of this time by someone else. We could get somebody else to confess for us, to take care of us, to feed us when we’re hungry, et cetera, like that. And so we’ve been dependent. Now when we figure out this, nobody’s going to help you clean up your mind. You’re going to have to do that yourself. And so that’s basically where we start with correct practices to practice cleaning up our act, to clean up our mind, to clean up our attitude, to clean up our feelings.

Speaker B: Dhammadasa uses this analogy of the buffalo, you know, veering off to the side of the tracks. And then you have to gently but effectively put your mind back on track so that you keep on the path straight and narrow.

Dhammarato: Actually, that comes from Sutta number 19.

Speaker B: Well, I wasn’t aware.

Dhammarato: Yes. The story is that the cowherd, not a drover that’s got 10,000 cattle going from Texas to the railhead at Dodge City or something, but rather this cowherd is in the time of the Buddha, he’s got half a dozen cows. So he sets out from his house and he has to take those cows through a bit of a village.

Speaker B: Mm.

Dhammarato: In order to get to the place where they can graze. Well, along this village is salespeople on their, you know, selling carrots and selling bhaji and guptas and whatever. Other people have their laundry out. The kids are out playing. And so this cowherd has to keep his cows in check. If they start eating carrots, if they mess with the laundry, if they trample a kid, that the village may, in fact, take those cows away from that cow herd. So what he’s. He does is he carries a stick, a long walking stick. And when that cow tries to get something off that table, he’s going to whack that cow. If the cow veers off the path, he’s going to whack that cow. Now, when he gets those cows out to the pasture, they’re going to graze. They’re going to have their heads down, chewing. Now, the cowherd doesn’t have to stand with the cows anymore. In fact, he can go and sit under a tree and kind of keep an eye on them. And so the Buddha uses this example of that in the sense that in the beginning practice, the mind is likely to wander into unwholesome thoughts, wander into somebody’s laundry, start to steal some carrots off the table, trample it, whatever that we’re doing in our minds, and we have to kind of whack it, and that we’re going to whack it joyfully. And the Buddha has the phrase, aha, I see you, Myra, I can see you joyfully. We whack that cow to keep it on the path. That’s the way that we’re going to practice, is to keep going that way. So after we practice a while, we begin to get the confidence that we can do this. That also then introduces the third level of doubt, okay? And the third level of doubt is basically as stated, is the knowledge and vision of what is the method, what is the path, what is the way, and what is not. Because all that you have been doing is not the way into peace and contentment and joy. And so we’re going to have to rely upon the Method, the Eightfold Noble Path, to practice that. So the three levels of doubt is, who can I get to help me? Can I do it myself? And do I have the method that I need to do it with? Do I have the tools and the skills? And when we have all three of Those. We’re good to go.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of people’s contentment with practice comes along on each one of those steps. But I think, at least in my experience, maybe the doubt number three was the most prevalent because I would be constantly thinking about whether this is causing me dukkha, when in reality, if I’m thinking that, that is already dukkha. So then I should just return to the moment and start focusing on my breath.

Dhammarato: Well, focus, actually. Breath is part of reality.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This very moment.

Dhammarato: Focusing on the body, focusing on our feelings, focusing on our mental attitude, the mind state that we’re in, and focusing on the moment by moment thoughts. So this, all four of those together is what is referred to as the satipatthana. Okay. The four foundations of what we’re going to be working with. Okay, now that four foundations of mindfulness, the satipatthana actually follows along with very, very ancient physics. Now we have a periodic table of elements now that’s got 92 counting. But in the time of the Buddha, they had only four elements. Solid, liquid, gas, or air. And fire. Basically you could say smoke. Yeah, and fire. Okay, so with, with that four elements that makes up everything. And as we deal with reality, the reality of the existence has those same four elements. And that we’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places, which means looking for it on the outside. And when we begin to work on the inside, what that means then eventually is to tear down that boundary between what’s on the inside and what’s on the outside so that you merge with reality. This is referred to as at one month or atonement, being in tune. There’s a lot of different analogies for it. Duality versus unity. Okay? But the reality is that we were looking for love on the outside side because we’ve already broken that bond between the individual person and the reality that he lives in. He’s already living in a lie. What lie? The lie that mommies and daddies and teachers told them about you being a victim rather than being a champion of reality. So we, all of our lives, we’ve been lying to ourselves, telling us ourselves the same old lies that we’ve been told. And we have to free ourselves from the lies that we’ve been told by seeing them. Aha, I see that. Yet more unwholesome thought, Aha, I see that lie that I have been told. And then we come back out of the lie into the reality is that everything’s okay inside and outside, everything’s okay. Everything is fine, not a worry in the world. There are no dangers. So the feeling then becomes the feeling of safe and secure, feeling of comfort. And that builds into the feeling of satisfaction. Now that satisfaction, the Pali word, by the way, is sukha.

Speaker B: Sukha.

Dhammarato: Okay. And suka is exactly opposite of dukkha.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: In fact, that’s what the Buddha was actually looking for when he says dukkha. Dukkha naroda. What he’s actually talking about is see the dukkha. And to come out of it into a state of satisfaction, come out of your dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction coming back into a state of sukkah. And we practice that over and over and over again. And as we do, we gain confidence that I can do this.

Speaker B: I’m a winner.

Dhammarato: And I’m a winner now.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: Okay. I’m the one who is in charge of the way I feel. Mommy’s not in charge. The church is not in charge of the way that I feel. The heavens and hells that they talking about is self created. And I’m going to stop creating hell for myself and start creating paradise instead.

Speaker B: There was, I think I watched a video either yesterday or the day before. But you give the example of atheist and I think Christian, arguing on the side of the road, whether or not. And then the Buddhist person says, you’re both in hell.

Dhammarato: Yes, you’re both in it.

Speaker B: Yeah, that was a good one because I was raised Catholic. But I like all of the wondrous talk about feeling saved and being at peace. Never really like, not like it didn’t sit right. It just didn’t feel right.

Dhammarato: Yeah, you gotta really suck up to.

Speaker B: The big daddy, count your rosaries and.

Dhammarato: Then you’ll be what you’re told to do.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: Gotta be a good little boy so that you can get permission to be okay.

Speaker B: Exactly. And then immediately when I started practicing Annapanasati, I knew I was okay because I could feel it and I was telling myself it and it was like, so life changing, really, because.

Dhammarato: Liberating, actually.

Speaker B: Yeah, liberating. That’s exactly what it is. Yeah.

Dhammarato: That you don’t have those shackles, you don’t have those fetters, you don’t have those bosses.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: That. We grew up thinking that the bosses were bosses because when we were really little kids, we didn’t have much choice about all the bosses around us. But now that we’re adults, we’ve got choices.

Speaker B: We make our own mental state now. So, yeah.

Dhammarato: So this is the way that we practice that whole point about the second noble truth. Then Is the answer to your original question. Okay, was is that people don’t think that they need practice, that they need to suck up to something that’s going to help them without them having to do the work themselves.

Speaker B: Two things I have on my mind at a moment. I think people misunderstand how effortless the practice is. Like, you just. It’s literally just a thought you repeat in your mind. It’s so free, and you can do it at any moment. And off the chain of that, I think people get wrapped up in their daily lives and think, oh, I’m too busy to practice right now. You know, I’ve got to think about work. I’ve got to think about all of the other things.

Dhammarato: Oh, my mom died. I can’t practice. Oh, I’m sick. I can’t practice. Oh, I’ve got to go to school. I can’t practice. Okay. All of those are the excuses to where you can go to school and on the way to school, you can practice.

Speaker B: Yeah. Any moment.

Dhammarato: Now. The practice in that regard can be referred to as the right noble effort. And as has been described, right noble effort is just the tiniest bit of effort that’s needed in order to actually get the job done.

Speaker B: Just enough to be okay.

Dhammarato: Yeah, just enough. And yet we’ll find a whole lot of people who are practicing meditation and they’re not getting much benefit out of it. So they start to work really hard.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: Putting in way too much effort, leading.

Speaker B: Them to more dissatisfaction because they’re not getting the results they want because they think there’s results to achieve.

Dhammarato: Well, they’re not practicing the results that they want.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Dhammarato: So they’re expecting the common machine to come walks into the meditation hall after 10 or 20,000 hours and bless them, and then they’ll feel good. But they got to work. You got to practice, you know.

Speaker B: Oh, God.

Dhammarato: Practicing correctly, you’re actually practicing feeling good, practicing having a winner’s attitude, practicing relaxing.

Speaker B: The body, the person, the process is the end result. There is no end to the practice because you just continue practicing.

Dhammarato: Right. However, let us say that the beginner, because the effort is not familiar and he doesn’t have the skills, that there becomes a difference. In fact, I’ll give you the three P’s about that and will refer to music as the example.

Speaker B: Okay.

Dhammarato: And that is in the beginning, when a child is practicing or learning to play the piano, he practices. Even when he’s in front of his teacher, he’s still practicing. Now, if the teacher is good and gets him ready for his first recital. In his recital, he’s still practicing, but he’s beginning to perform.

Speaker B: Okay.

Dhammarato: And as he gets good at it, he learns to perform.

Speaker B: Okay.

Dhammarato: But eventually he gets so good at it that it’s no longer practicing or performing the piano. He’s playing the piano. Okay. So it becomes a joy. It becomes a play. It becomes, aha. I do see you, Duka. I do see you. And it becomes a game that we’re playing, a very happy game, a joyful game. Reality becomes a toy to play with.

Speaker B: Yeah. Because that’s what it was from the beginning. But we were so delightful in the.

Dhammarato: Beginning is practice, and we got to put a lot of effort into it. But as we get things rolling, the effort. There’s several skills that come into play. And one of the skills is that attitude change, that if you think you can’t do it, it doesn’t matter how much you struggle getting it done, you still feel like a failure. And so along the way, when we’re practicing, we begin to change our attitude from being a loser practicing correctly into being a winner who’s practicing correctly. And now it really gets easy to do. Go ahead.

Speaker B: Another video you were saying was Buddha was a lion. So once you become that winner, you start to embody the lion. I don’t know where I’m going with this.

Dhammarato: You’re not afraid of anything or anybody that you’ve got an attitude. A lot of people will look up to someone who has that winter smiler’s attitude, and other people are put off by it. They can’t hardly stand the fact that somebody is okay when they don’t feel okay.

Speaker B: That happens so often, actually. Yeah.

Dhammarato: But you’re okay already.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: That’s the amazing part, is that what you’re practicing is what’s already real.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: And even you’re fine. You’re all right.

Speaker B: And even if someone’s trying to rain on your parades, that’s fine. I’m still going to be okay. They’re going to cause their own unhappiness, and I’m still going to be happy. Exactly.

Dhammarato: But that takes practice to keep doing that in the face of when they want you to be unhappy. They’ll work hard at trying to get you to be as unhappy as they are.

Speaker B: They’ll go to many extremes to do so, but keep practicing.

Dhammarato: Mm.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: Well, it sounds like that you’re on your way. I’m glad to hear that you’re. You’re making some progress with just enough.

Speaker B: Effort to keep me on path from my perspective, from the very Beginning was that this. I don’t know what phrasing I should use, but this is like the antidote to what everyone is suffering with in Western society. And everyone’s complaining about it, but nobody, well, very little people know the solution to it. So, like, everyone complains about being addicted to their phones, suffering from screen time addictions to all sorts of things like cigarettes.

Dhammarato: They’re looking for validation. They’re looking for love, they’re looking for entertainment. They’re looking for something because they don’t actually believe that they’re already okay. They believe the lie that they’ve been told. You’ve got to work, you’ve got to perform. You’ve got to do what you’re told to do. You got to suck up to the dude who’s got the juice because you don’t got none.

Speaker B: So, yeah, I. After acknowledging that, I knew that all I needed to do was practice with just enough effort. And I feel like I made. I don’t even know how to, like, talk about it, but I just made the progress that I needed to at the right time to help me in specific scenarios which showed me how real it was, which then doubled down on my understanding of how effective the practice was. And so then after that, I knew that, okay, well, then I’m just going to continue practicing. That’s all there is.

Dhammarato: That’s right. That’s exactly correct. That’s in fact profound. When you see how valuable that Anapanosati practice is of grapefruit, it’s of enormous value. Which means let’s keep doing it because we’re getting such great satisfaction out of it. And then that satisfaction actually grows.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it does. And I feel like I’m maybe at the tip of the iceberg. But even then I. Well, yeah, it grows. Yeah, I think so. There’s that saying, like, you can’t give a loaf of bread to someone who’s not ready for crumbs. But I think if more people were ready for Annapanasati, we could be living in a completely different world right now. And I know saying that is because one time you said there’s three worlds. The planet Earth, like the actual Earth. Then there’s your concept of the Earth, like humanity. And then there’s the 50 meter radius around you. Right. And I think all we can affect is the 50 meters around us. But if more people were practicing Anapanasati and Dharma, everybody’s 50 meter radius would be better. And I think it’s hard to predict what that would look like. But all I Can do, rather than wishing it was. I can just practice and practice and practice, and hopefully people see that and catch on, I guess. Yeah, right.

Dhammarato: And as you continue to practice, your joy continues to build, almost as if your bucket is getting full. And when it does, it overflows. And then you spread your joy to other people. Exactly that. In a way, I would say that the Plant Bika Buddha Dasa was kind of on to this back in the 1930s when he said that we do not have to keep the actual teaching of the Buddha secret anymore. It’s time to let the cat out of the bag.

Speaker B: Wait, of curiosity, was it secret in the past?

Dhammarato: Oh, yeah, it happened. It happened because of the. Not actually originally, but even in the time of the Buddha, he had enemies. And by the 1400s, the Brahmins and the Moguls, the Ottomans, they actually destroyed Buddhism in India, killing something like a hundred million people.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: Destroying the university, pulling up the Bodhi tree by its roots. They did everything they could to destroy it.

Speaker B: All that dissatisfaction that they have, that’s Islam for you.

Dhammarato: Yeah, but they didn’t destroy it because a lot of people just put away the robes. Many others took their robe in their bowl and took a hike. Many of them to Thailand, to Burma, to Sri Lanka, to China, to Tibet. But in fact, it’s kind of like this. Imagine that you’ve got a whole handful of salt cheese. Okay, like, oh, Swiss cheese or something like that. What happens when you squeeze it to get it really tight? It comes out all over the place. Right. That’s what happened with Buddhism. It just. When they tried to murder it, it just went all over the place. But in that regard, they decided that it was dangerous to just let anybody know what their actual teaching of the Buddha was, because there’s going to be those who don’t like to hear that.

Speaker B: Okay.

Dhammarato: The Christians hate Buddhism. Not because they hate. I mean, they hate atheists because atheists want to argue with them. Christians, they don’t even know the danger of Buddhism. And when they do, they really hate it. Because Buddhism just destroys Christianity. Yeah, because reality always takes over the fables. And so Christians will actually hate and not want the teaching of the Buddha taught. But Christianity is on the decline now.

Speaker B: It is. Yeah.

Dhammarato: And many people are leaving it, and they’re still looking for something. And so Buddhism has a chance. If they. If the people who were looking can actually find someone who understands the teaching of the Dhamma, the actual Buddha Dharma will spread even easily. Unfortunately, Western Buddhism has a lot of charlatans, crooks and money grubbers who are trying to sell the Dhamma High five books.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: Right. So a lot of people are going to Barnes and Noble and bookstores or Reddit to find the Buddha. And they’re not going to find it there. You’re going to find it with good, noble friends. That’s where we find the actual teaching.

Speaker B: Of the Buddha in Sangha, if they’re able to access them. And this one. Are there other open Sangha foundations or is this like the first online interpretation of Dharma, Buddha, Buddha, Dharma?

Dhammarato: Well, I wouldn’t say that we’re not unique in any particular way other than one thing, and that is that every website about Buddhism that you’ll find is about our center, our Buddhism, our book, our retreats without having an open invitation. There are also some places that have list of places like Dominet or Buddha Net and Goset and several of those. But ours, our website is highly interactive. That’s what makes it unique, is that it’s high because we’re there to help people find friends. Find the Dhamma double friends.

Speaker B: Go practicing. Yeah.

Dhammarato: Help practice correctly to take the money out of it and put friendship in then. In fact, here’s something really weird.

Speaker B: Okay.

Dhammarato: The west, even England, especially America, is capitalistic.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

Dhammarato: Buddhism is socialistic.

Speaker B: And they’re happier. Who would have thought?

Dhammarato: Yeah. It’s social.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: It’s a friendship base. There’s no buying and selling. Everything is given away free. Capitalists, they don’t like that so much.

Speaker B: Because they need to find a way to make money out of it.

Dhammarato: You can’t make any money off of it. That’s right. You can’t make any money off of the teaching of the Buddha. It’s priceless in a way. That’s how it said it’s so priceless that you can’t charge for it. It has to be given away freely.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Dhammarato: But it also has the quality of paying forward. It’s not a payback. Western Buddhism is going in the direction of capitalism, going into a business model, which means you pay for what you get, but with the pay forward, which is actually the way that humans are built in the sense that mommy and daddy doesn’t expect a little kid to take care of them. They can take care of themselves. But when Johnny grows up, he’s going to pay it back to his parents by raising his own kids. We pay it forward into the next generation. So that’s what we’re looking for. In fact, we’re looking for people who learn the Dhamma well enough that they get inspired. Well enough that they’re overflowing with it. And then they passed it on to the next generation.

Speaker B: I had another thing come to mind. When you use the example of squeezing the cream cheese. I thought about how each chunk of cheese between your fingers splits off and kind of like. So Buddhism would be less cohesive after they were spread out. Right. I think some of the work you’re doing is just returning back to its roots and also consolidating it into one big mess again. Perhaps that’s how I interpret it.

Dhammarato: Well, actually, there’s really nothing to it. How can you consolidate nothing? There’s just nothing there. No problems, no worries, no money, no teacher guru. That everything is just friends.

Speaker B: Friendship and practice with noble friends. Yeah. I think this school’s been great. I’ve had a great time. Yeah. Well, I know what I’m gonna be doing. I’m gonna take a peek into those books you recommended. I’m gonna continue practicing, and I’m gonna continue watching, and I’m gonna continue attending Sangha calls.

Dhammarato: Yes, we have Skype. Yeah. Discord. And we have the website. And you can communicate. You can send messages, you can join group, you can hit the forum, you can post, you can add comments. There’s all kinds of ways to communicate with one another. And in fact, I really like the messaging system because if somebody doesn’t get their message within 24 hours, this website will actually send out a email.

Speaker B: Oh, that’s good. Yeah. Nice. Nice little reminder. I like that. Yeah. Well, I’m feeling content and happy and satisfied.

Dhammarato: Excellent. Welcome aboard. Glad to have you as a friend.

Speaker B: Glad to have you as a friend as well. Demarato, it’s been such a pleasure and delight, not only on this call, but watching your videos. You know, you have such a unique blend of humor, wisdom, and intelligence that it’s really inspiring. So.

Dhammarato: Yeah, just an old man.

Speaker B: You’re just doing. You. You’re keeping real. Keeping it real.

Dhammarato: Right. Okay, well, let’s finish this call now. Call me back in a week or so.

Speaker B: Okay, Perfect. Yeah.

Dhammarato: You keep practicing.

Speaker B: Do I need to book a call or can I just.

Dhammarato: No, no, you just call anytime.

Speaker B: Amazing. Well, I’m going to keep practicing.

Dhammarato: Excellent.

Speaker B: Keep well, Dhammarato, and enjoy the weather. Have some fun. Yeah.

Dhammarato: Okay. We’ll see you.

Speaker B: See you, Dhammarato. Bye.

Summary of this Dhamma Talk

Dhammarato discusses the importance of practice in Buddhism, emphasizing that people often misunderstand how effortless it is. He notes that Westerners are raised to be victims and look for validation from others, rather than taking responsibility for their own happiness. He encourages listeners to practice mindfulness and focus on the present moment, rather than getting caught up in thoughts of the past or future. He also discusses the concept of “just enough” effort, and how it’s possible to make progress on the path to enlightenment without getting bogged down in unnecessary striving.

Outline of this Dhamma Talk

The Importance of Practice

• Westerners don’t understand the value of practice
• We’re raised as victims, looking for validation from others
• We need to take responsibility for our own happiness

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

• Focus on the body
• Focus on feelings
• Focus on mental attitude
• Focus on the moment by moment thoughts

The Problem with Western Buddhism

• Western Buddhism is going in the direction of capitalism
• It’s become a business model, where people pay for what they get
• This is not in line with the original teachings of the Buddha

The Value of Sangha

• Sangha is a community of friends who practice together
• It’s a way to connect with others who are on the same path
• It’s a way to learn from others and get support

The Concept of “Just Enough” Effort

• It’s possible to make progress on the path to enlightenment without getting bogged down in unnecessary striving
• We need to find a balance between effort and relaxation
• This balance is key to making progress on the path

References

The Story of the Cowherd mentioned in this talk is from Majjhima Nikaya Sutta 19 - “Dvedhavitakka Sutta” or “Two Kinds of Thought” (MN 19).

Bhikkhu Bodhi Translation of Sutta 19

Bhikkhu Sujato Translation of Sutta 19

Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation of Sutta 19

The story of the cowherd is used to illustrate the concept of mindfulness and the importance of being present in the moment. The cowherd is described as someone who is fully engaged in his task of herding the cows, and is not distracted by thoughts of the past or future.

The sutta uses this story to make a point about the importance of mindfulness in daily life, and how it can help us to cultivate a greater sense of awareness and clarity.

Dhammarato uses this story to illustrate the concept of “just enough” effort and the importance of being mindful and present in one’s actions. The cowherd’s task is to take the cows through the village without causing any trouble or disturbance. He needs to be mindful of the cows, the villagers, and the surroundings to achieve his goal. Similarly, in our spiritual practice, we need to apply “just enough” effort to make progress without getting too caught up in our thoughts or emotions.

In the context of the transcript, Dhammarato uses the story to explain the concept of “just enough” effort and how it applies to our spiritual practice. He emphasizes the importance of being mindful and present in our actions, just like the cowherd, to achieve our goals and make progress on the spiritual path.

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