The Sangha UK 278 12 22 24

Video

Transcript

Dhammarato: So welcome, folks. It’s Sunday afternoon in Thailand. Wow. Almost everyone here is in Thailand. What would Ben and Mikey. Ivan’s in Malaysia. Kwan is in Phuket. Rachel, you’re in northeast. And we have Patrick and Ben. Good crowd today. All right, so what we can speak about is ongoing or continuing talking about feelings. The Buddha back, by the way, was really big on feelings. He talked about it a lot. And that one of the quality of feelings, which is actually quite strange for almost everyone, is that the feelings that you experience are not yours. What does that mean? Of course they’re mine. I feel sad, I feel angry, I feel frustrated. I feel you’re a dick. I feel all kinds of stuff, okay? And the reality is that that opinion occurs because actually, in a real sense, we attach to feelings that they are mine. We claim that they’re mine. We have the opinion that they’re mine, but in fact, they’re just feelings. More to the point, many people are in a situation so that the feelings that they have actually control their behavior. We are out of control of our feelings. It would actually be slightly better off if they were my feelings rather than I belong to the feelings. One of the little jokes that I have is, is that whenever I would be out walking the dog, somebody would invariably ask, you know, because I don’t ever use a leash or a collar. And they say, is that your dog? And I’d say, no, I’m that dog’s human. The dog is the one who was attached, not me. All right, so we can begin to see then that our feelings sort of accompany the air that we’re breathing rather than, they’re my feelings. And that’s a good way to start, because that’s, in fact, the way to train a dog is by stop thinking that you own the dog, tell the dog what to do, and become disappointed because the dog doesn’t do what you tell her to do that the right way. We call it training, but it’s not. But we observe a dog’s behavior all on his own, and we congratulate that which we like, and so he’ll do more of it. We reward him for what they do good, and we ignore that which we do bad. And that’s the dog’s training. I had a dog that was actually at one time, she was a singer. When anybody would pick up the guitar, she’d sing along. She would also. She loved to pop balloons. And so we would fill a whole room full of balloons. Not the up to the ceiling, but the floor would be full of them. And she’d be overjoyed to go around popping the balloons. I didn’t train her to pop balloons. She just liked doing it. She also liked tearing into Christmas presents. I don’t know why, but that’s what she did. And that if we can think of that way, that we can in fact learn to control our feelings by rewarding ourselves for the feelings that we want and ignoring the feelings that we have that come up that we don’t want. Now let’s put feelings in a modern context. In two worlds, we would have those that would be considered pleasant feelings, and then we would have those that would be considered unpleasant feelings. Using the Buddha’s language, the feelings that we have that are unpleasant always have fear as the basis for the feeling. And those feelings that are joyful, pleasurable, is when we are free from fear. Now guess what? Every one of us born as a human, born with DNA in that DNA embedded right in the DNA, is instincts. And the primary instinct is called the self preservation instinct, which gives us the hint that the instincts are about keeping us alive, which means that its feed is danger. And the language that the self preservation instinct speaks in is in the language of fear. And what fear does basically is that it’s a set of chemicals. You could say that the amygdala, which is part of the brain, part of the hippocampus, part of the reptilian part of the brain, the ancient part of the brain, sends signals to the pituitary gland and the pineal glands, which are located in the back of the head, back of the neck, about an inch apart, and they communicate to the adrenaline gland. And so you could say then that the chemical of fear, or the physical part of fear, is the chemical called adrenaline and its twin cortisol. These things are produced by the adrenaline gland. But it all comes out of the mind, most specifically the amygdala. Now the amygdala is located about eye level, a little bit below that, it’s fairly big, and it kind of sits on the top of the throat, just where the throat begins to curve. That’s where the amygdala sits. And it is the source of all fear. Which means then that when it’s not producing its chemicals associated with fear, you could also then say it’s the source of non fear, which would then be considered pleasure. So with fear we have a lot of secondary emotions that we use language for, like frustration, anger, rage, hate, sadness, guilt, all of those kind of feelings. Hello Martin, good to see you have all of those feelings that all have a Base of fear. And that when we don’t have fear, we have a whole different group of feelings like pleasure, joy, relief, satisfaction, safe, security. Those are the ones that we have. And the question is, can you learn to begin to control that stuff rather than having it come directly out of our instincts? That you could go so far as to say the entire teaching of the Buddha if is to come out of our instinctual behavior and bring it up into the frontal cortex, which means we begin to see. And with that seeing, we can take control over it. The control that we’re talking about here is referenced as right, noble effort. So the funny thing then is, is that our primary feeling is based in fear. That’s our primary way of feeling. Go ahead, Karwan. I’m afraid your microphone is off.

Speaker B: Yeah, okay. Can you hear. Can you hear me right now?

Dhammarato: Now?

Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. I think now I’m practicing, as I said, I’m practicing doing some exercises to get rid of the fear, because that’s my main thing. The first call that I had with you was about fear. And I feel like figure something so smart, you know, in the last few weeks, I’m feeling like I’m becoming fearless a little bit fearless. I talk louder, I am more bolder. But now I’m getting a new kind of fear. And now is the fear of. The fear of becoming more fearless and think, okay, what will become if I’m truly become more and more fearless and what kind of things I’m going to do? No, I’m basically, I’m afraid that I will become totally free of fear. And what then will I be doing? A new kind of fear that is developing. Yes. So that’s what I fear is something very smart. Very.

Dhammarato: Yeah, let’s play with language just a little bit so that we could get a good feel for what we’re talking about here. You’re using the word fearless. Fearless is a word that is often used associated with fights and war and violence and other things like that that is associated then with people who are afraid but they’re going to go into battle anyway. We call it bravery. Yes. So when we use the word fearless, we’re actually talking about someone who can conquer their fear, get on top of their fear, be able to act in spite of. Of the fear. Okay, but that’s not what we’re practicing here. We’re practicing something completely different than fearlessness. What we’re practicing instead is the feeling of lack, complete lack of fear in the sense of feeling safe and secure and comfortable, relaxed and pleasurable. Okay. Someone who is brave is actually a warrior dressed up in some sort of war costume. That in fact, if he were truly feeling safe and secure when he hears the enemy is coming, then instead of wrapping himself up in warrior’s clothing, kilts and swords and shields and AK47s and tanks and what F16s and all kinds of stuff that what he’s going to do instead if he is completely fearless. You see, the fearlessness that you’re talking about is something we do in the face of an enemy. What we’re really talking about here is there is no enemy. We’re not going to dress up for war. We’re going to fix lunch. We’re going to invite him in. He’s our friend. He’s not our go. And so this is a different perspective is that there’s really nothing to be afraid of. As opposed to fearless is mounting up on top of fear. Guess what? The one that we’re talking about here is being safe and secure is much easier to practice than. In fact, fearlessness is almost something that’s almost always has to be practiced in the face of real danger. Okay. Often though it’s an example of that is that, oh, the boss is probably not going to be in a good mood today and I’m afraid to go to work, but I’ll go to work anyway. That’s bravery. But what we’re talking about here is, is that all boss is going to be fine. We’re going to be good friends today. I can happily go to work. There’s a subtle difference here. Hello, Anna. Good to see you. So this whole point about this number one emotion, that’s actually the Buddha talks about it in the sense of three feelings. We talk about three feelings in the sense of Paticcasamuppāda. But I’ll offer you the fact that there are four feelings and we need to make sure that we discuss what those four feelings are. The first feeling is the feeling of pleasure. I like it now that if we can do that wisely, we can just simply like it. Like, oh, she’s a pretty girl, she’s all made up. That’s okay, I don’t want her. That’s wise feelings. But when we see her all made up, oh, I gotta have her. That’s ignorant feelings. It’s a pleasurable feeling, but it’s full of desire. So can you in fact just have a pleasurable feeling that isn’t associated with wanting something? And then there is the feeling that is referred to as ill will and often is referred to. In fact, it’s specifically defined in the sutta as putting up with something that is hard to endure. Now, there’s some special relationship in these two feelings of ill will and the feeling, the ignorant feeling of wanting or pleasure. And that is that they’re basically the same thing in the sense that if I want something, if I like something and I want it, that means then somehow deep inside the brain, I have the idea that I would be better off if I had it. Because I like it and I want it, I would be better off if I had it. Which means then that I’m in a state of loss, I’m not whole, I want something, I would be better off if I had it. Which means now I’m worse off than before I liked it. This is an ignorant kind of feeling. And so it winds up being a mixed bag of liking and not liking, which gives rise to the third kind of feeling that the Buddha talks about. And in the Pali, it’s got both Sukha and Asuka and that in the English language translations, it’s translated wrongly because they call it in the English language translations a neutral feeling. Well, guess what? If it’s a neutral feeling, it’s no feeling at all. Oh no. This is a mixture kind of feeling. And that mixture actually has the quality of confusion returning a package. So the quality then is this third kind of feeling. We can say it’s either a mixture of I like it and I don’t like it, or it’s something kind of removed. I’m not sure whether I like it or not like it. And so it’s a fate, it’s a state of confusion. And that this is the state where most people spend most of their time in a state of slight confusion. Well, guess what? We normally don’t like being confused. Especially if you’re raised in the Western tradition. You go to school, you’re supposed to know, you’re supposed to have the answers to those questions. So when we don’t know, we get confused and we want to know. This would then be a new kind of greed. Agreed. For knowing almost every time that I talk to someone and start to teach them about how to practice correctly in the sense of being able to see these feelings, be able to see your attitude, to be able to see the thoughts that are associated with it and see them as unwholesome and then change those to wholesome thoughts, to change our attitude to a wholesome attitude, to change our feelings from a feeling of fear into a feeling of relaxation. Guess what happens. People don’t immediately start to Practice. Why is that? I give them instructions on how to practice. How many monks, on how many videos for how many centuries have taught people how to practice correctly? And what do we do instead of practicing correctly? We start asking questions. Why? Because we’re still stuck in that state of confusion. Instead of practicing correctly to come out of that state of confusion, we give into it by saying, oh, well, what about this and what about that? I have spent sometimes an hour or more arguing with people, trying to get them to start the practice. Here it is. It’s an easy practice. Let’s do the practice. They say, wait a minute. Before we start doing it, I have this question, and I have that question, and I want to know about this, and I want to know about that. And when I know all about how to practice, then I’ll start to practice. That’s almost like somebody who is taking piano lessons and telling the piano teacher, oh, I’m not going to play any of the piano, I’m not going to practice any of the piano until I’ve already memorized all of Chopin’s works. Not possible. In fact, oftentimes the questions that we’re asking kind of melt away. They don’t matter anymore. When we’re actually practicing correctly, when we’re actually practicing correctly, when we’re having thoughts of wholesomeness, when we’re having thoughts of everything is okay, not a problem in the world. When we start having those kind of thoughts, then we’re not in that feeling of confusion anymore, and therefore we don’t have any questions. I find this such a profound part of the teaching. How can we get students to stop asking questions about the teaching of the Buddha and start practicing the teachings of the Buddha that we already know? Enough. All we need to do is to remember to look at what we’re doing and then make a change. Now, what we’re doing almost always has four qualities to it. We’re doing it with the body, we’re doing it with the feelings, we’re doing it with our mental attitude, and we’re doing it with our thoughts. This is called the Satipatthana are the four foundations of mindfulness, which is a very, very good reason then, for us to recognize that these four things is that which needs to be paid attention to. Now, we don’t pay attention to them all at one time, but we pay attention to them basically kind of as one by one, as they occur. It’s also easier to see big things, and it’s sometimes not so easy to see the little things. In fact, there’s A whole school of practice, both into Tibetan and in the Theravada, which teaches the monks, you’ve got to learn to control your body. You got to hold your bag right. You got to walk right. You got to have your eyes downcast. Exactly right. In other words, teaching the students to pay close attention to what the body is doing. Why? Because the body is a pretty big thing. It’s kind of easy to start training the body. But in the Suttas, the Buddha didn’t do that. He didn’t start with training the body, but rather leaving the body as part of the mix of the Satipatthana. Now, he does give instructions in the body in the sense of watching what we’re doing with the body. Notice our grasping, notice our reaching, notice our picking up. Notice our sitting down. Notice getting out of a chair. Notice sitting back down in the chair when you’re out walking. In fact, the Buddha would recommend a walking meditation that’s done barefoot. Why? So you can watch your feet and watch where they’re going. Pay attention. Now, if you’re not watching and paying attention, you might step on something, and people would rather say, I’d rather not even pay attention to where I’m walking. I’m gonna wear boots. We’re gonna put boots on the ground so we can tromp around on stuff. But real practice would be done by walking barefoot. Real practice then, if you think about it from the body’s perspective, is also, we’re going to take off the gloves. We’re going to start paying attention to what our hands are doing. Now, this can be done in a kind of a scheduled practice, but we can also practice it in combination with the other aspects. Now, in the Great Purity in Sutta number 117, the Buddha actually starts talking about looking at our thoughts and looking at our attitude, looking at our intentions, but looking at our thoughts so that we can. Why? Because the thoughts are actually the easiest thing to change. It’s kind of hard to train the body. It’s big and all of that. And it’s certainly one of the styles of practices to practice training the body first. But that may take a long time. We’re looking at your thoughts. The thoughts are subtle. The thoughts are easy to deal with. And so let’s start looking at our thoughts. We can also look at our attitude, because the attitude gives rise to our thoughts. This is all done, by the way, in the Satipatthana sutta, it talks about these four foundations of mindfulness. But then in the Anapanasati sutta, number one, Hundred eighteen In the Majjhima Nikya, the whole sutta is laid out in the order of the structure of the Satipatthana. And what it’s kind of pointing at is that it’s a little bit easier getting started to dealing with our thoughts and our attitudes. And with that, we can then begin to take control of the way we feel. We can literally talk ourselves into feeling. We can talk ourselves into having a right attitude. And then in the Anapanasati sutta, the whole point about the body is to relax the body. If we can relax the body, then maybe we can relax the feelings, we can relax our attitude, we can relax our thoughts. We’re not so uptight that we can relax. Going back to that word that Carwin was using about fearlessness, fearlessness is not relaxed. No, let’s relax instead. We’ve got nothing to fear. Let’s start practicing like that, like everything really is okay. I can handle this. Not a worry in the world. And that will lead then to an attitude change. And that attitude change would be from being a victim, being at, let us say, the beck and call, or being owned by something into the attitude of being the boss. Now, Fritz Perl’s early psychologists had the concept of top dog, underdog. How many have ever heard of Fritz Perls? None of you guys did a master’s degree in psychology during the 1960s. I can tell. All right, so Fritz Pearls had this idea of top dog, bottom dog, and was pointing out that everybody has a favorite position. What’s your favorite position? Are you a top dog? Are you a bottom dog? Are you on your back trying to fight off? In other words, the bottom dog is a victim of the top dog. Now, this victim position, we’re all born with it. It’s part of the instinct that, in fact, you could say that the self preservation instinct is in fact a victim’s position. We gotta protect ourselves from danger, which is completely different from there’s nothing to be. There’s no danger. Now, probably a hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, a half a million, maybe two or three million years ago, when we’re not yet quite human, things that were dangerous occurred often. We were often in a state of danger. Every time we take a drink, we have to clear the crocodiles out of the way. Every time we lay down, we have to sweep the snakes out of the way. All right? But in our modern culture, there’s very, very few dangers. Dangers really don’t exist in our society. We built housing, we wear clothes, we have transportation, we have medicines, we have all kinds of things that keep us kind of safe. So I ask you, why don’t you feel safe? The reality is you’re safe. Martin, I’ll get to you in a minute. Chris, what is dangerous about the what that you live in?

Speaker C: I. I could get snake bit. These cliffs are pretty steep. If I got too far out in the forest and I broke something badly, it’d be a bad day. I lost my glass. I almost lost my glasses in a river once. That would have been a really bad month. I can’t see it all.

Dhammarato: All right, but you don’t have snakes all the time. I was expecting, in fact, for you to say, oh, our water is pretty safe here. Yeah, it’s okay.

Speaker D: I’m fine.

Speaker C: I’m not. I have no fear. I mean, I have a health.

Dhammarato: That’s the whole point. Is that the fear that you just brought up about losing your glasses and snakes and scorpions and whatnot like that is all in your mind right now. In other words, you made that stuff up. The reality is, is that there’s no snakes or scorpions on your desk right now. You don’t have a scorpion or spiders or anything crawling up your leg. He begins to feel, maybe, okay, so this is the reality. The reality is that there’s not much danger. Most of the dangers that we find are between the ears. Martin, go ahead.

Speaker E: I’m not sure how to say that, but sometimes the confusion I have is more doubt about the practice. You know, for example, I’m gonna have thought about taking care of myself. And in a way, I’m feeling like I’m victimizing myself. You know, why would I take care of myself if I was a champions? You see, that. That kind of stuff.

Dhammarato: I’m. Partly because of accent. Mikey, can you help me understand what he’s saying?

Speaker F: Yes. What I heard was that if. If there isn’t fear, then there’s not the need to take care of oneself. Is that correct, Martin? Or there’s not the feeling. There’s kind of like that’s champions attitude. So, like, well, why would one take care of oneself if they’re a champion, that being victim.

Speaker E: Yes, you’re right. Thank you, Mikey.

Dhammarato: All right. That’s actually quite a legitimate question. And I’ll refer to a place in the suttas where the Buddha talks about that there are four kinds of actions. Four kinds of kamma, like the Hindus have. They have good action that gives good results and bad action that gives bad results. But the third kind of kamma is a mixed bag. Just like we’ve been Talking about feelings or a mixed bag. And it’s like a cloud that’s got a silver lining. Why do we have clouds with silver linings when we just have sunlight? So the cloud with the silver lining or the mixed feelings is common. It’s the most common action we have. It’s based upon maybe this, maybe that, oh maybe I should do this and so we do it, etc like that. But there is a fourth kind of common, by the way, for those who are interested. Chris, this I’m talking about here is out of Sutton number 57, the dog duty aesthetic. Or maybe it’s 56 where the Buddha talks about four kinds of kamma. And this fourth kind of kamma he says is neither bright nor dark. It’s not a good nor bad action, there’s nothing to it. And that leads to the end of action. That’s an important point. It leads to the end of action. Which your question then would be about. Well, if I didn’t have any fear, I probably wouldn’t take much action. I wouldn’t do anything. Congratulations, you’re understanding the teaching of the Buddha. If you don’t feel bad, why do something? Why do anything? Most of the actions that we have are motivated out of ignorant feelings as opposed to motivation out of wise feelings. If your feelings were wise, Amrit, if your feelings were wise, what kind of feelings would you have?

Speaker G: I would have uplifting feelings, feeling of joy.

Dhammarato: Uh huh. Okay Ivan, if you could have the kind of feelings that you wanted to have, what kind of feelings would you have?

Speaker D: Maybe not.

Dhammarato: Harry, last time I asked you this question you said relaxation and now you’re confused. All right, so let’s look at it from the possibility of maybe there is a kind of ignorance, like we’ve been confused. That’s ignorance. And we don’t know that we’re ignorant. We want to know the answers. We’re in a state of desire and wanting. But there is a kind of ignorance that is called wise ignorance. What is wise ignorance is that you don’t know something. You maybe don’t even know how to feel. You don’t know the answer to a question, but that’s okay, I’m alright, I don’t know. And that’s all right. So maybe we could say, well, how do you. How would you feel if you wanted to feel? How would you feel if you felt the way you wanted to feel? Perhaps the answer to that is nothing, feel nothing. Which is different than a mixed bag. And there is certain kinds of feelings that are not feelings at all. But this is a Skill to be developed. This is really, really wise. And that according to sutta number 111, this feeling of nothing, no feeling at all, comes when we can practice, perhaps up through the fourth Jhna of having no perception. If we don’t perceive anything, if there is no object to touch us, then that gives rise to no feeling at all. So the end of perception then is going to be the end of feelings. And you can just sit there. Everything is so beautiful and I’m not thinking about anything. Then that would be a kind of feeling which would be no feeling at all. And according to the way that the suttas are phrased, that may be the best feeling at all. The feeling, the feeling. But we need to practice because very few people can start right up there at the top. An example of that is every child is born, cannot walk. How in the world can we have a champion, let’s say an Olympic champion, who doesn’t practice running? So normally what happens without any practice at all is that the feelings just happen ignorantly. We don’t know we like something, we want it, we feel bad because we don’t have it. We’re in a state of mixed feelings. We don’t like that we want to figure it out. And that whole mess of feelings, which we could call a thicket of views, a thicket of briars. We don’t know what to do. But if we practice correctly, the right way to practice is to come out of fear into a state of safe and security, which then will promote the feeling of pleasure. So what I’m suggesting is that ultimately our practices comes in stages. It’s a two stage process. The first set of skills to develop is a set of skills to learn to control your feelings so that you can feel the way that you want to feel. And then as we practice even deeper and learn to really control the mind, we can bring it to a state where there’s nothing much happening, nothing at all, nothing to it. Which by the way, there’s a Pali word for that called sunyata or sunyata. Nothing there. Why is nothing there? Well, never was anything there other than perhaps reality. But everything that is there, we made it up, we perceived it, we invented it. Can you actually see that you’re in the process of making stuff up? When we think of politics, we’re making stuff up. When we think of religion, we’re making stuff up. When we’re actually thinking about and practicing Anapanasati, we’re making stuff up. But we’ve got a control over it now. It’s not just happening. And as we practice, deeper and deeper, we can come to the place to where we can control, so that we can control and bring stuff to a kind of a stop. Just leave it. So, Martin, that actually goes now back to your position of, well, if I have no fear, what am I going to do? The answer is, take a rest, relax, you’ve got nothing to do. Why does our society want to keep you busy? Because all the other people, they want the fruit of your action. The boss man wants you to work at work so that he can get some higher pay, maybe even get a bigger position. He wants you to work. The guys who had castles back in the old days and had their own army, they wanted all the people to work in the fields so that they could have a bountiful harvest. And so our whole culture is based upon this. And the funny part about it is, is that everybody, even the wealthy, gets trapped in this system of more and more and more. And a good example right now is Elon Musk. He’s just figured out that if he manipulates Donald Trump and manipulation gets the votes, he can have a whole more billions of dollars he’s made. He already had 200 billion, now he’s got 400 billion. Isn’t that enough? Elon, take a break, sit down and enjoy your life. Is he going to do that? Oh, no, he’s scheming for more. He’s not in control of his feelings. Martin, if you were actually in control of your feelings and felt the way that you wanted to, when are you going to feel like you’ve got enough and you don’t have to do anything anymore? You can just enjoy your life. Emorett, you got your hand up.

Speaker G: Yeah. I have a kind of one question for me, like, I’m sitting and enjoying the talk and listening. Time to time, a thought will come up about I have to clean the apartment. And then they will do a feeling of heavy feeling. Ah, no. And so what should I do? Should I ignore the thought or I should.

Dhammarato: Maybe if you’re skilled in your investigation, you’ll see that thought is an unwholesome thought. Then you’ll say, oh, I don’t need to think about that. I can sit here and think about nothing much or I can think of something pleasurable. My choice. But remember that most thoughts are part of that mixed bag. It’s got unwholesome and perhaps wholesome mixed together. Or maybe it’s unwholesome, but we believe that it’s wholesome because we want Something. And so this is why it’s a skill to be developed and it takes some time, but in fact, right from the very beginning, I can give the instructions, throw out unwholesome thoughts and have wholesome thoughts, and people will do that. And they can feel enlightened, they can feel beautiful, they can feel bountiful immediately. But then when they go off on their own, they’ll start having this mixed bag kind of thought and they’ll say, oh, well, it must be a wholesome thought, but it still gives rise to action. So that’s a really important point right there. That’s a very, very good position, is to see that thoughts that give rise to actions are probably not wholesome. Thoughts that give rise to actions probably are not wholesome. That doesn’t mean that I would demand you just stop doing everything right now, but do what you’re going to do wisely. Pay close attention. Is this worth doing or not? Ah, come on. Go right ahead.

Speaker B: I just wanted to say, is there not also some, some good things in being greedy and being, and having desires? Basically, let’s say Elon Musk, you know, because of his desire, he has built the SpaceX, you know, and I’m thinking, if we all shut down, basically the desire and greed and we all become happy, how, how, how would we build a society? Isn’t it because of our greed and desires that we have built?

Dhammarato: Yes, because of greed and because of desire, we have built a technological hellhole. I started to say a technological paradise, but guess what? No one is in a technological paradise. It’s a hellhole. All right.

Speaker B: Well, in a way, yes.

Dhammarato: How many people feel really, really happy because they’ve got a cell phone phone as opposed to at one time, how many of you were there alive and, and lived a life where there was no cell phone? I mean, they only came in about what, 18 years ago, 2006. Does anybody remember what life was like before the cell phone? Anna, you do? Is your life about the same now as it was before the cell phone?

Speaker G: No, it’s more busy and fast and running after something.

Dhammarato: Right. Okay, so let’s say it like this. Elon Musk has Starlink. Well, actually, he’s got SpaceX because the SpaceX, he has Starlink. And because of Starlink, you got a whole lot more people on the Internet. Because you’ve got more people on the Internet. They’re watching Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin closely. Does that make them happy? And going back to the cell phone, when you had no cell phone, how many buttons did you have to push. Now that you’ve got a cell phone, how many apps, how many buttons do you have to push? There’s almost no end to it. Oh, I want this. Oh, I want that. Oh, I’m going to go to Lazada. Oh, I’m going to go to ebay. Oh, I’m going to go to Amazon. Oh, I’m going to go to YouTube. Oh, I’m going to go to here. There. Where is the peace and relaxation in that? Haven’t we, in fact, through our technology, created even more of a hell for ourselves? And the whole point of technology was to, what, make life easy? How many people have an easier life because of cell phones? Maybe we can look at it from like this. In the old days of farming, the guy had to pull his own plow and then he got some technology. He got a plow before that, he would dig in dirt with his fingers, and then he had a mule or a bull to haul the plow around. That made it a little bit easier. Fast forward now he’s got a tractor and he’s sitting on that air conditioning tractor burning a bunch of diesel fuel, and he’s making a whole lot of dirt fall around. Is he happier now than he was when he was digging in the ground with his hands?

Speaker B: Can I say something?

Dhammarato: Because I seriously, I’m looking right at you. Go right ahead.

Speaker B: I seriously do believe I understand in one way. You know, many times you look at the past and we think Zihad is better or it was better back then. But I also do believe that technology and the way people are building things, it’s also positively affecting the society. I mean, the fact that we have right now, this call, this is because of people like Elon Musk. So we have Internet, we have Skype, we have video calls. And also it have also made the life of many people better in a way like poverty. You know, poverty is right now much less than, let’s say 100 years ago or 50 years ago. So.

Dhammarato: But people may not be in poverty. They may have more variety of food. They may have four pairs of shoes instead of just flip flops. The question I keep coming back to is, does that make people free from fear? Does that technology in and of and by itself make people feel better? But in fact, we’ve had many people who have been here on these calls, and they have even more problems because they were on the call, oh, you insulted me. Oh, you called me stupid. Right. Okay, so the fact is, is that the technology may be there. It may make things easier but it doesn’t change our attitudes from becoming. From being a victim into being a winner. That farmer may ride around in his truck. He may ride around on that combine feeling pretty good until he’ll hear something on the radio, and now he’s all pissed off again. He’s not in control of his feelings. He may be in control of the tractor until John Deere comes and takes it back. And so what I’m saying is, be careful of thinking that technology is your savior. But in fact, you could go so far as to say many people like Elon Musk think that technology itself is a religion, just like a whole lot of people think that money is a religion. And all of those people, the more money you get, they’re not happier. What’s going to make you happy is learning to control your own amygdala, learning to control your own mind, learning to control your feelings so that you can feel the way that you want to, not feeling the way that you feel when you press that button on the cell phone and it goes boom. So the technology is not, in fact, liberating. Money is not liberating. Yes, go ahead.

Speaker B: Sorry. Today I have a lot of questions. I know I need just a practice to be relaxed and not ask those questions, but I feel like I need to ask.

Dhammarato: Well, before you ask the next question, guys, what kind of feelings does he have right now? Don’t answer because you’re asking these questions means that you do have that state of confusion. And you’ll say, oh, I’ll feel better if I get the answers to my questions. Guess what? You’re going to have a lot of questions, and you’re still going to have that feeling of I want more until you start to practice correctly. And to practice it correctly here is to see that feeling. Here I am sitting in Thailand on the other side of the peninsula from you, and I can see your feelings better than you can. Why is that? It’s because I’ve developed the skill of looking. Shall you develop the skill of looking at how you feel also, rather than giving into those feelings or the other thing you can do is you can say, he’s picking on me right now. This Internet call is no good. You have the choices. Can you have the choice of, oh, wow, I really am glad I can feel the way I want to feel. But you don’t want to do that. You want to have the confusion and you have questions. So go ahead, I’m listening.

Speaker B: Okay, thank you.

Dhammarato: Well, matting was my little spiel there. Didn’t stop his Confusion now, did it?

Speaker B: I’m totally aware of it. I’m aware of it. And thank you for, for saying that. Yeah, so I’m here to learn, you know, that’s why I’m here.

Dhammarato: I hope not. I hope you’re here to learn, to practice, not just learn a bunch of information. I’m not an information dispensing man machine. I’m a happiness giver.

Speaker B: I was thinking, what if, say, with technology, they built a pill and we take that pill and the pill affects the amygdala and it makes basically that. That we don’t have to do the practice. Basically the pill does the practice for us.

Dhammarato: Because right now that’s like walking into the gym and talking to the trainer and says, oh, Mr. Trainer, put £400 on that barbell there. And now you watch him put the pounds on the barbell. Is that your practice? Oh, well, I watched him do it. No, you’re going to have to start. Wait a minute, don’t put £400 on there. I can’t do that. Let’s put 50 on each side and maybe I can do £100 and you start with what you can do. All right. But all of the teaching of the Buddha is about practice. You could go so far as to say everything that he teaches about Dukkha, Dukkha Naroda has that quality of making one’s right noble effort to make that change from the Dukkha into the Dukkha Nirodha. But we have to look and see that these questions and these confused states of mind is a kind of Dukkha. And getting answers to questions don’t solve that state of mind. Just like technology doesn’t change your state of mind, you’ve got to change your own state of mind. You got to practice, you got to blip those bars mentally. Ivan, go ahead.

Speaker D: No, I just, I just remember some of my favorite buttons on YouTube or any website, you know, they recommend me stuff, right? And then there’s always a button there that says, I’m not interested. I love pressing that button.

Dhammarato: Ah, yes. That’s probably the number one button that I push is not interested. I’m not interested in this, that and the other thing over and over again, I’m not interested. Then now I set the cell phone down. I’m not even interested in YouTube. Wow. Take a break. What a relief. It is I don’t have to YouTube right now.

Speaker D: Yeah. It’s interesting to know that everything outside is trying to get you into something. And it’s nice to have a Choice.

Dhammarato: Now, Karwan, one of the things that I can see from you is, is that you have been introduced to modern technology. And so you’re saying, oh, we’re better off with modern technology. Technology. But the answer to that is you don’t know what to compare it to. I mean, have you actually spent 10 years sitting on a log in front of a fire with no cell phone and no television and no electric lights? All you’ve got is that log and that fire. You haven’t done that. So you don’t know what you’re comparing to you like what you’ve got. But I would go so far as to say that people way back when had a better chance of being happy, safe and secure. They had a better chance than you do now. In modern society. The technology is not what it’s cracked up to be. That many people who get, oh, here’s an example, many people who have money, they think that they’re going to be better off with money. How many have ever heard about this? This happens commonly. It’s called the lottery. And people who play the lottery and they play the lottery and they never win anything. And then they’ll win a maybe 20 million or $100 million and they say whoopee. And then they go spreading money like it was unlimited. And within three years they’re worse off than they were before they won the lottery. How many of you heard those kind of stories? Be danger, be, be careful about lotteries. They can be very dangerous. This is in fact why the lotteries have started doing 20 year pays. Because maybe, maybe before the 20 years is up, people will learn to stop being so proud of all their money and spending it all. Maybe the best thing to do with money is to stash it up, put it where the thieves can’t get to it. Let inflation eat your money instead. So this is a problem with money, it’s a problem with technology, it’s a problem with religion, it’s a problem with jobs, it’s a problem with farmers. It’s a problem everywhere because people think that they’re going to get joy. They’re going to get the information that they want out of something on the outside to where really best joy is that which is developed within one’s own heart. As Jesus said, the kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God is right here at hand. It’s not out there someplace. If you know that, that means that now you can develop the skills to get it. You can feel good because you’re practicing. So anyway, Karwan thank you very much. You’ve been quite an example today of this. Asking questions about practice instead of actually practicing. And instead of answering your question, what I give you instead is joy. May you pick it up and wear it like a shiny new pair of feet. Ah. So who else has suffered to say we’ve come to about the end of our time? Ben, do you have something to say? No questions.

Speaker D: Dhammarato.

Dhammarato: Thank you. Thank you. Martin, how about you? Are you ready to do nothing?

Speaker E: Yeah, I would like. Yeah.

Dhammarato: How about you, Anna? Good to see you.

Speaker G: Yeah, good to see you. Thank you. Dhammarato. Feeling very good. Thank you for. For your joy. Contaminating joy.

Dhammarato: Yeah. Patrick, you have something to add?

Speaker D: Oh, just doing nothing.

Dhammarato: Chris Fry. Chris, just.

Speaker C: Thank you, Dhammarato, and. And for everyone showing up. You know, I’m not going to do nothing right now, but gonna go do something.

Dhammarato: All right. I think I’m gonna sweep.

Speaker C: I think I might sleep for a while.

Dhammarato: Ah, now that’s a whole lot of nothing. So, Ivan, do you have any last remark?

Speaker D: Not really. Just kind of nice to able to see the danger. Like you said, it feels very wholesome to me for some reason. Yeah.

Dhammarato: All right, Amorett, how about you? You got something else to say?

Speaker G: No, thanks, Dhammarato. I also have nothing to add.

Dhammarato: All right, Mikey, why don’t you take this thing? Let’s land this plane, let’s dock this ship. Yeah.

Speaker F: Thank you, friends. Thank you, friends, for being here today. This is a great Dhamma call. I very much enjoyed it. If you haven’t yet, go and check out opensanghafoundation.org and click on the menu button and click Community and there you’ll find groups. We have a Sangha group there where people have been posting and commenting on others posts and liking posts. It works pretty similarly to Facebook. Dhammarato’s referenced it as being sort of like Buddhist social media site. So go check it out. And of course, there’s all sorts of other features as well on opensongafoundation.org. so, yeah, set up a profile and go play with it.

Dhammarato: Got a huge, huge PDF library also. In fact, our library is so big that it would take me hours just to figure out what’s in there so that I could take a few more hours to tell you what’s there. But it’s huge. You got a huge audio library. We’ve got whole series of talks by monks, by Santa Caro, all kinds of things in there. In the audio section.

Speaker F: Yeah, there’s lots of books and audios. All about doing nothing. So.

Speaker C: On the Internet, on your phone?

Dhammarato: Yes. Come to the Internet for nothing.

Speaker F: All right, well, thank you.

Dhammarato: Yes, thank you, guys. Thank you so much. We’ll see you later.

Speaker D: Thank you, everyone.

Dhammarato: Thanks, everyone.

Speaker D: Thanks.

Speaker B: Bye.

Dhammarato: Bye. Wow. There was nothing to that.

Summary of this Dhamma Talk

This talk focuses on the nature of feelings and our relationship to them. Dhammarato emphasizes that feelings are not “ours,” though we habitually claim them as such. He explains that unpleasant feelings always have fear as their basis, while pleasant feelings arise from freedom from fear. The talk explores how technology and external solutions don’t address our fundamental relationship with feelings, and true happiness comes from developing control over our own mind and amygdala.

Outline of this Dhamma Talk

Introduction to Feelings [0:03-4:01]

• Feelings are not “ours” despite our claiming them
• Most people are controlled by their feelings
• Analogy of dog training: observation and positive reinforcement vs. ownership and control
• Story of his dog who loved popping balloons and singing with guitar

Modern Context of Feelings [4:39-8:01]

• Two categories: Pleasant and Unpleasant
• Fear as basis for unpleasant feelings
• DNA and self-preservation instinct
• Explanation of amygdala and fear physiology

Discussion of Fearlessness vs. Safety [8:01-13:01]

• Distinction between bravery/fearlessness and true safety
• Example: warrior preparing for battle vs. making lunch for a friend
• Emphasis on developing feeling of safety rather than conquering fear

Four Types of Feelings [13:01-24:32]

• Pleasure (wise vs. ignorant pleasure)
• Ill will (putting up with something hard to endure)
• Mixed feelings (confusion)
• No feeling at all (through practiced development)

Practice and Control [24:32-37:01]

• Four foundations of mindfulness (Satipatthana)
• Body, feelings, mental attitude, thoughts
• Importance of starting with thoughts rather than body

Technology and Happiness [37:01-52:02]

• Discussion of whether technology improves happiness
• Example of cell phones and modern conveniences
• Critique of technological “progress”

Questions and Practice [52:02-61:44]

• Addressing confusion about practice vs. learning
• Discussion of internal vs. external solutions
• Story about lottery winners and money’s limitations

How to Practice

1. Observing Feelings

• Notice when you claim feelings as “yours”
• Watch how feelings arise without identifying with them
• Practice seeing feelings as accompanying experiences rather than possessing them

2. Working with Fear

• Recognize fear as the basis of unpleasant feelings
• Focus on developing genuine safety rather than “conquering” fear
• Notice when you’re acting from fear vs. acting from safety

3. Developing Control

• Start with managing thoughts rather than trying to control the body
• Practice recognizing unwholesome thoughts and replacing them with wholesome ones
• Notice when you’re in states of confusion and resist the urge to seek immediate answers

4. Dealing with Technology

• Notice how technology affects your state of mind
• Practice saying “not interested” to digital distractions
• Evaluate whether conveniences actually increase happiness

5. Practice Over Theory

• Avoid getting caught in endless questions
• Focus on direct practice rather than intellectual understanding
• Start with manageable “weights” in practice (like starting with 50lbs rather than 400lbs)

6. Working with Confusion

• Recognize when you’re in a state of confusion
• Notice the tendency to ask questions rather than practice
• Develop comfort with not knowing

Metaphors, Analogies, and Stories

1. Dog Training Metaphor

Rather than trying to control feelings through force (like an owner commanding a dog), observe and encourage wholesome feelings (like training through positive reinforcement).

2. Gym/Weights Metaphor

Just as you can’t start lifting 400lbs immediately, spiritual practice requires starting at an appropriate level and gradually building strength.

3. Technological Hell vs. Paradise

While technology promises to make life easier, it often creates more complexity and stress rather than true happiness. The metaphor emphasizes that external solutions don’t address internal well-being.

4. Lottery Winners Story

Illustrates how external circumstances (money) don’t create lasting happiness and can actually make things worse without internal development.

This talk emphasizes the importance of direct practice over intellectual understanding, developing genuine safety rather than conquering fear, and finding happiness through internal development rather than external solutions.

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