The Sangha US 147 12 21 24

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Transcript

Dhammarato: All right, so it’s Saturday morning Thailand time. I think it’s in fact the what, 21st December. So Christmas is this week. We, the, the folks of Thailand, the Thai people, they don’t celebrate Christmas. There’s nothing here to it. There’s nothing Buddhist about it. That in fact we could talk about Christmas in the sense that there are two different kinds of Christmases. I’m not going to talk about it for very long, but there’s two different kinds of Christmas. So let me ask you guys some questions. When I use the word Christmas, what do you think about? You think about Santa Claus in a red suit. How many of you do that? When you think about Christmas? How about Christmas trees? When you think about Christmas, do you think about food? When you think about Christmas, do you think about gift giving? Yeah, there’s been with his Christmas tree, not much of one. All right, and then there’s the other kind of Christmas. How many of you, when I mention the word Christmas, think about staying up all night at church on Christmas Eve? Not one of you, huh? How about swaddling clothes? How many of you think about that? Well, Ivan, so you finally joined. You were the one who asked about Christmas. And so I was giving a little bit of talk about Christmas just for you. Oh, thank you. All right. And so the first kind of Christmas is a Western kind of Christmas. In fact, we European. And the second kind of Christmas is a stolen Christmas. How many of you, when you think about Christmas, think about virgin birth. How many different virgin births have there been? Actually, Jesus was in a long tradition. There was Isis and Seth and, oh, what was his name? Mithras all had virgin births. In fact, when Christianity took over, it’s quite likely that a virgin birth didn’t exist in Christianity until about the third century when Christianity was used to take over the Mithras religion, which is basically the religion of the Roman army at the time, except that the priests got too powerful and Constantine decided to replace them all. And so he used Christianity as sort of a wedge to take the power away from the. The priest of the Mithras religion. How many of you know that story? They don’t teach that in Sunday school. And Juna know, okay, I know about the ISIS connection.

Speaker B: And a little bit like a paragraph of the Mithras connection. Yeah, Isis.

Dhammarato: Jesus was only given the story of a virgin birth because they wanted to prove that he was special. Now I ask you this story about Joseph, you know, Joseph and Mary. How old does Joseph have to be before he can’t get it up anymore. And yet he was out traveling on foot. So here you have an old man who’s walking for long distances and he using his legs that way, but he can’t use his legs for hopping. Who’s going to believe that story? Only children. That’s why Christianity works for children. Because other than that, everything about Christianity is ridiculous. It’s almost ridiculous as Christmas. Now let’s talk about the first kind of Christmas that I mentioned, and that is the Christmas of first off, let’s look at where the equator is. It’s not in. It’s in northern Africa, but it’s halfway down the Sahara Desert, which means that all of the Mediterranean is a thousand or more miles, the southern part of the Mediterranean and the northern part of The Mediterranean is 2,000 miles away from the equator, which means that almost all of Europe is frosty during the wintertime. It snows. Snowed in Rome, snows in Greece. And so what was happening, especially throughout all of the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages, is that when harvest time came, the local warlord or the guy who ran the castle would send his armies out after the harvest and steal as much food as they could from the serfs and from the land people. Which meant that by Christmas time many of them were starving to death. And this is what gave rise then to the whole concept of yule, Yule logs giving gifts. That’s the risk. People would have a party to feed the serfs, to keep them alive throughout the winter because he’d already stolen all of their food in October. So this is where it came from. Now there is a poem. In fact, I had memorized that poem. I can almost do it again. I could, if I could review it, I’d remember the whole thing. You’ve heard the poem, I’m sure. Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring at even a mouse. Later on in that poem it says he was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. How many of you remember that line? Okay, so why is Santa Claus dressed in red felt with white trim? Does anybody know why Santa Claus is not the Santa Claus of 200 years ago? The answer to that is Coca Cola. The red suited Santa Claus is a Coca Cola invention. And they did that in the 1920s after the laws were passed so that they couldn’t continue to put coke in Coca Cola, the cocaine was removed and their sales fell dramatically. It was good in the summertime, but in winter, who wants to drink Coca Cola. That’s where the whole story of the red suited Santa Claus comes from. It comes from the 1920s and 1930s Coca Cola commercials. How about gift giving? Where did that come from? It comes from Macy’s, the big store in New York. They wanted to make a lot of money by the end of the year and so they started having things like Thanksgiving Day parade, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades and other things like that to kick off the buying season and Americans in particular, but basically worldwide, Christmas is nothing but an opportunity for retail business to screw you before the end of the year. This is what is Christmas. All right? It’s either based on one kind of lie or an evolving lie. And so I’m perfectly happy to live in Thailand where there is no Christmas. So before we leave that topic, does anybody have any questions or any remarks about Christmas? Ivan, you started this.

Speaker C: Not much. It was very interesting that you mentioned about that. You know, the commercial aspect, the capitalism aspect. Yeah, it is eye opening. Yeah.

Dhammarato: All right. Does anybody know about Christmas trees? Where did that come from? There’s an old German song called Old Tannenbaum. How many of you have heard that? Okay, so I don’t know the exact story of why, but it’s an old German tradition that didn’t make it into England and it didn’t make it into the United States until guess what? Hollywood. Hollywood revived the Christmas tree. And they did so in a 1930s movie. I think in fact it was the first edition of White Christmas. And then all the cowboy movies started to having Christmas trees. And pretty soon there’s a whole industry grew up on Christmas trees, including the one that you’ve got. Ben, did you know that in the 1920s and before that at Christmas time nobody had a Christmas tree? It was sold to you by big business, Ivan. Did you know that? So the Yule log. By the way, the Yule log is a log that’s supposed to, if you put it in the stove correctly for long enough, It’ll burn for 12 days. That’s what the Yule log is all about. 12 days of Christmas. Where does that come from? Yes, Arjuna, go ahead.

Speaker B: Is it, is it true that the name Hollywood for the city comes from the holly tree? Something.

Dhammarato: Precisely. So deck the halls with balls of holly. Exactly that. In fact, in England it wasn’t a fir tree, it was holly. That was the symbol for Christmas. Precisely. Hollywood, which by the way is hallucinogenic. Did you know? All right, so enough for Christmas. I don’t hold much stock in it other than I spent, as you can tell, enough research in my youth to find out that Christmas is not what it’s cracked up to be. It’s an exploitation. So any final words about Christmas?

Speaker B: Well, is Christmas. So was, I’m wondering a question that a lot of people have asked. Was Jesus actually a real person?

Dhammarato: Actually, that’s an irrelevant question. And how many Jesuses was there? There’s the Jesus of the virgin birth, there’s the Jesus of a 12 year old kid. I really like this story where he says to his family when they got, when they lost track of it, when he was 12, he was in the temple arguing with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. That’s my style. So I’m the 12 year old Jesus. And then there is the Jesus of the teacher Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, parables, that kind of stuff. And then there’s the Jesus who broke into the temple, raided the place, turned over the banker’s tables, pissed a whole bunch of people off, and within a week they had nailed him up to a cross. There’s that Jesus. And then there’s a Jesus who pulled himself off of that cross and floated up into the air. The miracle Jesus, the one who’s going to save you from your sins. The one who if, I mean, if he rose from the dead, why is he still walking around? He’d been dead all of these thousands of years. Okay, so there’s that Jesus, there’s a Catholic Jesus, they keep nailing him back up on the cross. Then there’s a Protestant Jesus who they keep taking off the cross and he keeps floating back up in the air. And just in time, the Catholics grab him by the foot and drag him back and nail him back up on the cross. So in fact we’ve got all of these Jesuses. Which one of them is real? The answer to that is probably not any of them. Or maybe if there’s a possibility, the one who was at about teaching, the one who actually taught Dhamma, there’s that Jesus. But the atheists have gotten a whole lot of, let us say, energy into even that Jesus didn’t exist. The whole story was made up by the Roman Empire. I think it was the whole idea of the Father and the Son was in order for the son of the Emperor to take over. What was his name? Titus. Whichever one. I’ve forgotten which one that was. So anyway, the, the answer to that question is since we don’t have a Jesus that keeps floating up into the air, we don’t have a Jesus that’s actually a savior. I mean, how many people have Christianity who have been baptized? Who’s actually been saved from their sin and become sinless? Well, that’s the only Jesus counts. And he doesn’t count. He doesn’t work. It’s a broken system. Even the priests are not without sin then. In fact, this is something that we can talk about today is how can one who practices the teaching of the Buddha actually become free from sin? Because that’s the whole goal, is to become free from desire. Because desire and the other feelings that we’re about to talk about is the source of all of our wrongdoing. We hurt each other. Why? Partly because we’re ignorant and we want to help. We make a mess of what we’re doing. So if we would stop trying to help people and stop trying to help ourselves, then we would be free from sin. You just live your life happily. Everything is okay. So is anybody here free from sin? Santiago, are you free from sin?

Speaker D: Oh, it depends what you mean by sin.

Dhammarato: Yes, it does, doesn’t it? Definitions. If it’s Christian, go ahead.

Speaker D: If it’s Christian sin, then no, and I’m going to hell.

Dhammarato: But is there such a thing as a Christian sin? Or is not the word sin just the word for wrongdoing, which is a Buddhist term? So what wrongdoing are you doing right now? You look good to me.

Speaker D: Pretty good right now.

Dhammarato: Yeah, you’re pretty good right now. So you’re free from sin right now. How about you, Mikey? Are you free from sin right now?

Speaker E: Free as can be.

Dhammarato: Okay, so this is where we have to start looking at it is, is that you see one of the major mistakes that is made. And I’ll get into those things in a moment, what a mistake is, and ignorance and all of that in a moment. But one of the main mistakes is made is that we look at time over a long period of time, like there’s a great big long past and a great big long future, and really those things don’t exist. The only thing that exists is right here, right now. So when I say, are you free from sin? That’s actually a question of about the present. It’s not a question of how long have you been free from sin or are you going to remain free from sin, but really it’s talking about right now, are you free from sin? Never mind what you’re going to do in the future. That’s up to you. Depends upon whether you can watch what you’re doing or not. And so the real teaching, the Buddha, is Really much more about what’s immediately happening, rather than, let us say, grouping it a bunch together. Now, one of the problems with Hinduism, they have a thing called kama, kamapaka, kamaga mala. The results are the fruit of action. And you’ve heard the story of good action gives good results, right? And bad action gives bad results. But here you are going off into old age and you’ve had how many different actions in your life? Hundreds of thousands of actions. How are you going to come up with some sort of medium or mean to where you would then be listed as for yourself, listed as either good or evil? That sort of thing doesn’t work. Or if it does, it requires a huge, huge supercomputer. Maybe Elon Musk Dojo could figure it out, but I don’t think so. There is no big comma machine in the sky. This is what Christianity kind of thing is. Oh. It requires a God to figure out, to do the calculations and to figure out whether you’ve been good or bad. But in fact, here’s something that’s very interesting. Back to the story about Christmas. You know that the. The song says he’s making a list, checking it twice, going to find out who’s naughty or nice, right? Does he do that for the whole year? Does he only do it for three weeks in December? Does he only do it for a couple of days? How about for your whole life, what you were doing in diapers? Now all you’re going to get is cold in your stocking, and you’re 25 years old. So you can see how that whole mentality of stretching it out over time doesn’t really work. What we really need to do is start looking at what’s happening right now. Right now, you can either be enlightened or you can be befuddled. So, Santiago, you had a question before we started. Can you restate your question?

Speaker D: Yeah. The question was, what is the root of emotions? What should one do with them? How does one regard them? Did they exist? Some explanation would be appreciated. Thank you.

Dhammarato: Okay, let us say it this way, that emotions and feelings, most specifically is something that comes out of instincts. And there are primary feelings that. In fact, I would like to address it in the sense that there are four kinds of feelings. We’ll reserve one of them. The first three is feeling like, I like it, a feeling of pleasure, a feeling of something that’s related to desire. And then there is the feeling of not liking it, not wanting it. And then there is the third kind of feeling, which is the one that we really want to talk about today. Now, in the suttas, in the Pali, it actually talks about it in the sense of not pleasure, not pain. And the other way that it’s spoken about is that it’s both pleasure and ill will or pain, and that it’s wrongly translated as neutral or no feeling. Why is that wrong? Because, in fact, if you had no feeling at all, there’s no feeling. But in fact, this third kind of feeling is a very interesting kind of feeling because it’s a mixed bag. And that’s where we spend almost all of our moment, moment by moment. We’re a mixed bag of feeling that we have. You’ve heard about a cloud that has a silver lining. Well, what is that? Silver lining is nothing but sunshine, right? And if there’s no clouds and all you have is sunshine. So a cloud with a silver lining is the way that we live our lives. We have both the dark and the bright, and we’re often confused as to which way to go. Which one do I like? Which one is the better way? Okay. This confusion, then, is actually the seed of doubt. So basically, we could say that there’s only two feelings. I like it and I don’t like it. Now, the one I like, it actually gets kind of confused in the sense that if you like something and there it is, then you can enjoy it, you can like it. But almost always, when we like something, we want to continue to like it. We want to keep it around. We want to own it, and we can’t own it. I like it, but I don’t own it. I like it, but I can’t have it, or I want something that I don’t have. And that’s when the feeling of liking actually turns into the feeling of not liking. Why? Why is that, Mikey? Why does the feeling of liking turn into the feeling of not liking so naturally?

Speaker E: I’m not sure.

Dhammarato: All right. How about you, Santiago? By the way, that’s the right answer, Mikey.

Speaker D: Because it’s impermanent or something like this?

Dhammarato: In a way, yes. If you want something, if you like it and you don’t have it, then you don’t like being without it. If you like something and you want to keep it around and you can’t do that, what that means is, is that if you like it, you’re better off with it, and you don’t. So that means that now you’ve just created a hole in yourself. For one thing, you were whole, and now you’re not whole because you don’t have what you Want, that’s how it turns from liking into not liking. So we don’t want to do without. This is why Putin, when he wants Ukraine or territory, he’s going to wind up in a war. That’s the way that the mind works. And so because of this duality of liking and not liking, we sometimes get off into I don’t know whether I like it or not. And so we stay in this state of confusion. All right? Now, these three kinds of feelings, liking it, not liking it in confusion, is actually part of petita samuppada. The way that the mind works haven’t spoken about it in that reference for quite a while now. So the three kinds of feelings is liking, not liking, and confused. Now, we spend most of our time in that state of confusion. We don’t know whether we like something or not. When we say, I like this or this is good, we’ll always find it. Something’s wrong with it. We can’t find something that’s just good enough and leave it good enough. We’ve always got to kind of screw it up. And with that screw up with that confusion, that’s where doubt comes from. And where doubt, by the way, is the hindrance. And the hindrance of doubt is actually that third kind of feeling of being not sure. And we don’t like being not sure. That’s the part of the issue, is that liking turns to not liking. They get mixed together. We don’t know whether we like it or not. But if we’re in that state of confusion, we don’t like that either. And so we wind up making stuff up. This is where religions come from. This is where Christmas, both kinds of Christmas, comes from. It comes from people making stuff up because they don’t like being confused. They don’t like being in that state of not knowing. And yet that’s the normal state that we’re in. I mean, that’s why we have astrologers, that’s why we have fortune tellers, is because we don’t like the state of not knowing. And yet nobody knows the future. Not even the future knows the future. And by the time it gets to the future, there’s still a new future that it doesn’t know about. There’s no end to not knowing. But what we can do is we can practice so that we can find a way of finding just enough so that we know enough, so that we can begin to control these feelings. And what is then enough is to know them, to be able to examine your feelings, to be able to know Are you in a state of liking? Are you in a state of not liking? Are you in a state of confusion about it? And now I’ll open the gate to that fourth kind of feeling and we’ll talk about it eventually. The fourth kind of feeling is in fact a feeling of no feeling at all. If you have no opinion, if you have no perception, then if there is no perception, there is no feeling. This is actually the feeling of emptiness, the feeling of peace. And this is actually part of the goal of the Buddha. And so please don’t confuse the feeling of no feeling at all versus this third kind of feeling, which is a mixture of. And a confused feeling that we don’t like. So that. That third kind of feeling is the one that most people have most of the time. So when I say, how do you feel right now?

Speaker D: Enjoying the talk, kind of thirsty, not liking, that.

Dhammarato: That’s a. I detect a bit of confusion also.

Speaker D: There is some confusion. Yeah, about Sunyata.

Dhammarato: So notice that that confusion feeling is there most of the time. Now, some will say, well, wait a minute, are you saying you can have more than one feeling at a time? The answer to that is, what do you mean by at a time? How long is at a time? How long does that last? A nanosecond, a microsecond? A second? A tenth of a second? An hour? Four hours? A day? A lifetime? The answer would be something probably around a tenth of a second, which is in fact what you would have as an alpha wave in the brain or half of reaction time. And so about a tenth of a second, maybe a fifth of a second, is how long it takes to have a thought, and then we have another thought after that, another thought after that, and another thought after that, and that most of these thoughts that we have are actually in the state of yeah, but. Yeah, but is our favorite thought. I like it, but I can do it, but. And so this is how we live our lives is not just liking it and then finish, I like it. No, there’s always a but there. So can you in fact start watching these feelings so that you can begin to manage them? Now? Basically, what I said before was that feelings are based upon perception. They’re not based upon reality. Going back into the teaching of the Piticha Samapda, what that basically means is that we contact the world through our senses, we contact reality through our senses. But when we contact reality through our senses, that does not give rise to feelings. When we contact reality through the eyes, through the ears, through the touch, through the taste, through the smell through the proprioceptic, whatever way that we’re touching reality, we always then want to make sense of reality. If you touched reality for the very first time, you have no knowledge of it. That’s like being perpetually. An infant is born in the first minute of life. Oh no. Over our lifetimes we keep building up more and more and more knowledge so that whenever now as an adult, you look and you see something, you always go to your memory base and try to compare what you’re seeing now with what you’ve already seen before. In other words, we’re going to make an image of it, we’re going to see it and this is called perception. We’re going to perceive it. What does perceiving mean? Perception. Actually now perception is a noun, but it’s actually what we’re doing is an action is a verb, preceiving, what is that? It’s the actual making up stuff that doesn’t exist. We’re creating. That’s our creative function, is making perception. And then when we perceive something, we actually write a little story about it. Look how many mind moments this kind of stuff takes. All right, and when we make a little story about it, this is actually now a reference to what we actually saw with the eyes. Now we see it on the inside. And the Pali word for this is called salayatana. Now the salayatana actually means internal senses. Atana means the sense. So we take something and internalize it. And in the process of taking something and internalizing it, we screw with it, we try to make sense of it, we mollify it, we beat it with our mental hammer, we pound it into shape. And what shape do we want? The shape of understanding so that it fits in with all the old crap that we’ve already pounded into shape. Now once we tell ourselves this story, once we have this salayanta, once we have the understanding in some regard, that is what contacts us, the real contact, the contact is not between the eye and the sight. That’s a kind of a contact. But the real contact is after the story is told and it’s the story that impacts us. And this is what gives rise to feeling. In the Pali, this actually started from consciousness. And seeing something is sanya and then nama Rupa is the creation from the rupa from the reality into naming it. This is perception. Perception gives rise to salayatana. Savayatana touches us called pasa. And pasa leads to vedana. And all of this happens in the mind like in a split. Why do we know that it’s so lickety split is look at the fact that you can learn to catch a ball. A four year old, you throw the ball and it’ll hit him in the chest and he can’t catch it. But as he develops the skill, as he develops that salayanta, as he develops whatever mental math that it took to figure out where that ball is going to be when it gets close so that I can grab it out of the air with my hand. And now we can catch a ball. If you’re really good at it, you can catch a ball running at about 90 miles an hour. I don’t think any of us are quite at the level of being able to catch a bullet in our teeth yet. That’s much more of a magic trick. But we can catch a ball or at least that fast. How long does it take for us to calculate the trajectory of where that ball is going to be so that we can put our hand where that ball is going to be by the time that he gets there and then close our hand around it to grasp it? How long does that take? Somewhere less than a half a second. Right? So that’s how fast the mind is. The Buddha says, folks, the mind is so fast that he doesn’t even have an analogy for it. This is in the Angutara and the kya in the ones, I think it’s number 65 or so. The mind is fast monks, which means then that we need some training. And so in this sequence that I’m talking about, Petitu Samapata is almost always taught front to back. Now, I’ve only talked about a little bit of it, but it’s taught front to back, which means this happens and that happens, and this happens and the next thing that happens and the next thing that happens and then you feel bad and then you have dukkha because you’ve created a self, all right, but that’s not the way that we see it. We see it in reverse order. Anybody can see they feel bad. The question is, can they see the creation of the self? Can they see their own clinging? Can they see their own feelings? Can they see their own story that they made up? Can they see that contact? Can you actually see your own perception? Now you’re getting pretty fast, getting really, really fast if you can see your own perception. And this is why it takes skill. The skill development is to be able to see things one by one as they occur. Now today we’ll go. Yes, go ahead. And Angina, what does it mean to.

Speaker B: See one’s own Perception. What is that?

Dhammarato: Aha. Looks like you need to practice. You’re like the idiot in the forest who says, well, what’s a mirror? All you have to do is see one and then you know, but you have to be able to see it for yourself. In fact, that’s. It may be a point in time to stop to talk about it is that the teaching of the Buddha is never ever actually passed down. The knowledge is never really passed down. You’ve seen it in Hinduism and sometimes in Tibetan where they give you the shaktipat or something. And that’s the transmission of knowledge from the guru to the sila. Guess what? That doesn’t happen. All we can do as a good Buddhist teacher is teach you how important it is for you to keep looking and eventually you’ll see it. But defining it like we would define it in a dictionary is just going to make you more confused. More and more and more words does not define what perception is. But when you see that you made that shit up, then you’ll know what perception is. To be able to see that you make most of your stuff up. You don’t live in reality in the sense of the outside world. You live in a made up reality and every second, every tenth of a second, you’re making it up. Can you see that process that you’re actually making stuff up? That’s why we have to practice. We have to get good at it. Right now we’re like a four year old and that ball keeps hitting us in the chest. You can’t see it coming until it whacks you. And how does it whack you? That touch means that you’re now going to have feelings. Oh, that hurt. It got me in the chest. But if you keep practicing, you can begin to see your own perception. And as you get even better of it, you can begin to control that perception. And when you get really good at controlling perception, you can soon learn to stop it. And only by stopping perception can you actually end feelings. By the way, this is in what? Suta, Mikey, Suta. 111, Sutta. 111. By the name of one by one as they occur, that you can bring the end of perception. And when you bring the end of perception, you bring the end of feelings. Well, naturally, if you have a snake and you cut it off someplace in the middle, then you don’t have the rest of that snake, you cut it off. Especially if the snake is in time. So this is the whole point is, is that where are you going to, how fast Are you so that can you see your own feelings as they arise? If you can see feelings of pleasure arise, can you stop it right there? So that I like it, but I don’t want it. So now we’re in the part of Petita Samapda where we start with Vedana. This is the second half. Vedana goes to Tanha and Tanha goes to Upadhana. What does this mean? I like it, I want it. I gotta have it. Now the eye gets stronger. I like it. The eye is little, I want it. The gaia is growing, I gotta have it. That’s when the, the self is fully blown, fully mature. That’s where we talk about it in the sense. Then from Upadana we have bhava, which is the development of the self, and then jati, the birth of the self, which then is birthed into dukkha. So let’s spend some more time on the, the point of Vedana, especially the three kinds of Vedana, especially the mixed kind, because we always are confused, always messing stuff up, and always full of doubt. So I can give a new student clear instructions on how to practice. You know what they do? They don’t start practicing, they start asking questions. They want to make sure that they’ve got it right. Arjuna, have you ever done that?

Speaker B: All the time.

Dhammarato: Yeah. We can’t just see the instructions and say, okay, the real instructions that the Buddha gives is remember to look at what you’re doing and make a change. Remember to look at the way you feel and make a change. Remember to look at the way that your attitude and change it from the attitude of a victim to the attitude of a winner, from the attitude of an unwholesome thought to the attitude of a wholesome thought. From the attitude of I’m confused and I don’t know as a Vedana, a feeling into the feeling of I like it. You have control over the way you feel. You have a control over your attitude. You have control over your thoughts. When you start exercising that control, and that control is what the Buddha talks about as right noble effort, take the effort to make a change. Okay, so now we can go and redefine sin as sin. Then is going to be that ignorance of not knowing how we feel, which almost always winds up in the feeling of confusion. So sin then is confusion. You don’t know what to do, and so you’re likely to really screw it up. And how do you come out of sin is by looking at the thoughts that you have, looking at the way that you, your attitude because your attitude controls your thoughts and your thoughts control your attitude. They’re interchangeable. Now we can go and see the connection between our attitude and our feelings. If you feel good and feel good and feel good and perpetually feel good, doesn’t that give you the attitude of being a winner as opposed to you feel bad and you feel bad and you feel bad and you feel bad, doesn’t that give you perception then of being a victim? That’s your mental state and it’s always your choice. Now, there’s a little thing that we’ve, that I’ve said before. When we have a thought that gives rise to our feelings, our thoughts and our feelings gives rise to our speech. Our speech mentally gives rise to our actions. Our actions give rise into our habits, and our habits give rise to our destiny. We are all destined. What is your destiny is to follow your habits until you run into a brick wall. So how then can we change our destiny? We change our destiny by changing our habits. How do we change our habits is by changing our actions. Learn to control your behavior. If you can learn to control your behavior, you can learn to control your speech. And the place that we start with all of that is learning to control your thoughts. And with learning to control your thoughts, you can control your attitude. And with your attitude, you can control the way that you feel. And so all of these things kind of run and circle around each other in the sense of look at what you’re doing, remember to look at what you’re doing. And when I say remembrance, the Pali word is sati is almost always translated into English as the word mindfulness. But the word mindfulness has many, many different problems with it. So remembering is better. But when I say remembering, I’m actually saying to remember to be here now so that you can look. If you’re all one worrying in the past and all confused and everything like that, can you remember to come back to the present moment and look at what you’re thinking about rather than just having it happen subconsciously? And so if you can remember to look at what you’re thinking about, only then can by being able to see it. Remembering to look and to see it gives you the opportunity to change it. And so you can start changing those unwholesome thoughts to wholesome thoughts. You can change your attitude from a victim’s attitude into a winner’s attitude. And then you can begin to change your feelings so that you’re in a state of if you could feel the way you wanted to feel, Santiago, how would you feel? Mm. Would you choose to be in this feeling state of confusion? Would you choose to be in a state of not liking and hating, or would you choose to feel in the state of liking? Which one would you choose to feel? Your choice. Every moment. So I’m not asking about permanently. I’m asking you right now. How do you want. If you could feel the way you wanted to feel, how would you feel right now?

Speaker D: We are happy. Happy.

Dhammarato: Okay, so I already saw the smile when you. I saw the recognition light up your face before you said it. I could see it. Yes. We have a choice, Rachel. You have a choice. You can feel the way you want to feel. If you can remember that you’ve got a choice. You have a choice over your attitude right here, right now. That doesn’t mean that you have it permanently, but you can change it right now. And if you can change it now and change it again and change it again and keep changing it again, keep practicing, and keep changing. Fairly soon, we begin to change the standard of way we do things, which is called habit. We’ve ingrained habits, and the habit that almost all Westerners have is the ingrained habit of containing confusion. Everything is a mixed bag. Then we don’t like that mixed bag. And so now the next thing is we don’t like it. Then we say, wait a minute, maybe I do. And so we keep in that circle. But when you see what. How you feel, you have a choice. I’m in. If you had a choice about how you feel, how would you feel right now?

Speaker C: Relax.

Dhammarato: All right. Okay. So we can feel the way that we want to. I mean, I could see that you were relaxed already before you used the word relaxed. So this is the way that we practice over and over again, because we can, in fact, continue to practice to begin to change which feeling we’re going to have. Are you going to stay stuck in your feelings of confusion and asking questions and never getting around to practice, or are you going to perpetually be in a state of not liking it? Oh, no, that happened. Oh, no, this happened. And I’ve seen a lot of people who get into a state of not liking one thought after another after another of not liking it. Fact, prisons are filled with such people. So they’ve gotten into the habit of not liking. But you have a choice about how you’re going to feel. And the way that you would handle that is first, you can choose and continue to choose liking until you get skilled at it, and then eventually, you can begin to control even that down to where there’s not much of feeling at all. No feeling. I’m good, I’m satisfied. And that’s the end of feeling. Why am I satisfied? It’s because I’m not perceiving. I’m not trying to make shit up. I’m not trying to figure it out. So you can see that this petitra samapada, it runs in circles around each other. So that our not liking influences our perception, our attitude messes with our perception, our perception messes with our attitude. And all of this is done kind of let us say normally, because we were normally trained that way. But I wouldn’t say that it’s natural. That natural would be when you actually can control your feelings and feel the way that you want to. Then you would be in touch with nature. Then you would be in reality, living according to reality rather than according to your own confusion about reality. So, Rachel, do you have anything to say about this?

Speaker F: Well, currently, I think I feel exactly how I want to feel, which is content.

Dhammarato: All right. Can you remember? Can you remember? You’ve got a choice, I think.

Speaker F: Yeah, I think I’m remembering and I’m hearing you. And I’m here.

Dhammarato: And I’m not going to be here forever. I’m going to turn this computer off and go back to bed and have no thoughts at all. What do you want to do?

Speaker F: Well, I’m not really worried about that. I’m just, like, content right now, you know, I’m not really. I’m glad that you’re going to go to bed. I think I’m. I’m good now. I’m gonna be good when you go to bed.

Dhammarato: Don’t worry about me. You worry about. Can you remember that you’ve got a choice about how you feel?

Speaker F: Well, I think what I’m trying to say is that I’m. Yeah, I’m pretty confident that. That I’ll remember. And that’s. That’s thanks to you drilling it into my head.

Dhammarato: That’s a little bit. All right, Santiago, did I answer your question today?

Speaker D: Yes. Thank you.

Dhammarato: Ivan, are you relaxed about Christmas?

Speaker C: I mean, kind of. Kind of shifted my perception of Christmas for a bit. So in a good way, I can just relax. Not much for it.

Dhammarato: Excellent. Well, how about you, Alexander Hippo? I see you up there in the corner.

Speaker C: Everything is okay. Thank you all so much. Thank you.

Dhammarato: How about you, Michael? No, I’m feeling pretty good, thank you. Damarado. Andrew, how about you? How about you, Brandon? Brandon’s gone dark on us, I think. How about you, Edward? What a crowd. You’ve got today.

Speaker C: I’m happy I can choose how I feel.

Dhammarato: All right. I got a message saying people are having trouble hearing me. Does everybody hear me okay? I hear you fine. Yeah. All right. Yes, I hear you. Okay. Does anybody else have any statements to make about what we talked about today? Yes. And Junior, go ahead.

Speaker B: Christmas.

Dhammarato: Yeah, yeah, go have yourself a merry little Christmas. So, Santiago, do you have any final things to say?

Speaker D: I’m pretty good, thank you. Dalmarado.

Dhammarato: All right. Rachel, how about you?

Speaker F: No, I’m good, thank you.

Dhammarato: Okay. Eat your vegetables. How you feeling? I didn’t catch that. Ike, can you help me with her?

Speaker C: I think she’s outside, so I can’t really hear her.

Dhammarato: I’m Mike. Zach. I’m sorry. All right. If nobody else has got anything, final things to say. Mikey, why don’t you take this thing home? Let’s land this plane, let’s dock this port.

Speaker E: Yeah. Thank you, everyone, for being here today. And have a happy holy day. While you’re at it, go check out opensongafoundation.org if you post something. Yeah. If you click the menu button, you can go to community and then click groups and there we have a Sangha group where people have been posting things, liking each other’s post, posting comments under those posts. So there’s little community growing on our website. Yeah, you can also post blogs, post videos, photos.

Dhammarato: Right. Got something long to say. Post, add a post.

Speaker E: Yeah, so, yeah, go check that out. And check out our discord as well. And we also have a one on one domicol, Skype group if you’d like to schedule a one on one call with a seasoned practitioner. Other than that, take care, everyone. Good to see so many happy, smiling friends.

Dhammarato: Lesser choice. All right, thank you so much, everybody. Enjoy your moment. Remember.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Dhammarato: Your choice. You feel the way you want to feel. Let’s stop feeling confused to start feeling happy. Thank you. Bye. Damrato. Hi, everyone. It.

Summary of this Dhamma Talk

In this Dhamma talk, Dhammarato begins by discussing the cultural and historical aspects of Christmas, contrasting the Western commercialized version with the religious origins. He critiques the commercialization of Christmas, linking it to capitalism and the influence of corporations like Coca-Cola and Macy’s. He then transitions into a deeper discussion on the nature of feelings (vedanā) and how they arise from perception (saññā). Dhammarato explains that feelings are not based on reality but on our perceptions, which are often distorted by our mental habits. He emphasizes the importance of mindfulness (sati) in observing and controlling these perceptions and feelings. The talk concludes with practical advice on how to change one’s mental habits, attitudes, and ultimately, one’s destiny by being mindful of the present moment and choosing how to feel.

Outline of this Dhamma Talk

Introduction to Christmas and Its Origins (0:02)

• Dhammarato begins by discussing the cultural differences in how Christmas is celebrated, particularly in Thailand where it is not a traditional holiday.
• He contrasts the Western, commercialized version of Christmas with its religious roots.
• He critiques the commercialization of Christmas, linking it to capitalism and the influence of corporations like Coca-Cola and Macy’s.
• He mentions the historical context of Christmas, including the Roman Empire’s influence on Christian traditions.

The Two Types of Christmas (0:47)

• Dhammarato identifies two types of Christmas: the Western, commercialized version and the religious version.
• He asks the audience to reflect on what they associate with Christmas, such as Santa Claus, gift-giving, and religious observances.
• He critiques the religious version, questioning the historical accuracy of the virgin birth and other Christian narratives.
• He suggests that many Christian traditions were borrowed from earlier religions, such as the Mithraic religion.

The Commercialization of Christmas (7:01)

• Dhammarato explains how the modern image of Santa Claus was popularized by Coca-Cola in the 1920s.
• He discusses how gift-giving became a central part of Christmas due to marketing campaigns by retailers like Macy’s.
• He critiques the capitalist motivations behind the commercialization of Christmas.
• He concludes that Christmas has become more about consumerism than any spiritual or religious meaning.

The Nature of Feelings (Vedanā) (22:17)

• Dhammarato introduces the concept of vedanā (feelings) and explains that there are three primary types: pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral.
• He emphasizes that feelings are not based on reality but on our perceptions (saññā).
• He explains that most of our time is spent in a state of confusion, where we are unsure whether we like or dislike something.
• He suggests that this confusion is the root of much of our suffering (dukkha).

The Role of Perception (Saññā) (33:31)

• Dhammarato explains that perception (saññā) is the process of interpreting sensory input and creating mental images.
• He emphasizes that perception is not reality but a mental construct that can be distorted.
• He uses the example of catching a ball to illustrate how quickly the mind processes sensory information and creates perceptions.
• He suggests that by observing our perceptions, we can begin to control our feelings and reduce suffering.

The Importance of Mindfulness (Sati) (50:07)

• Dhammarato introduces the concept of mindfulness (sati) as the practice of being present and aware of our thoughts and feelings.
• He explains that mindfulness allows us to observe our mental habits and make conscious choices about how we feel.
• He emphasizes that mindfulness is not about passively observing but actively changing our mental states.
• He suggests that by practicing mindfulness, we can break free from habitual patterns of thought and behavior.

Changing Habits and Destiny (49:09)

• Dhammarato explains that our habits are shaped by our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• He suggests that by changing our thoughts, we can change our habits and ultimately our destiny.
• He uses the metaphor of a snake to illustrate how cutting off negative thoughts can prevent them from leading to negative outcomes.
• He emphasizes that we have the power to choose how we feel and that this choice can lead to a more fulfilling life.

The Four Kinds of Feelings (22:44)

• Dhammarato elaborates on the four kinds of feelings: pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and the feeling of no feeling (emptiness).
• He explains that the feeling of no feeling is the goal of Buddhist practice, as it represents a state of peace and freedom from desire.
• He contrasts this with the mixed feelings of confusion that most people experience.
• He suggests that by practicing mindfulness, we can move towards the feeling of no feeling and achieve a state of contentment.

The Role of Doubt (Vicikicchā) (27:11)

• Dhammarato discusses the hindrance of doubt (vicikicchā) and how it arises from confusion.
• He explains that doubt is a natural part of the human experience but can be overcome through mindfulness and clear understanding.
• He suggests that by observing our doubts, we can begin to see through them and make more informed choices.
• He emphasizes that doubt is not something to be feared but something to be understood and transcended.

The Practice of Right Effort (47:13)

• Dhammarato introduces the concept of right effort (sammā vāyāma) as the practice of making conscious choices to change our mental states.
• He explains that right effort involves recognizing unwholesome thoughts and replacing them with wholesome ones.
• He suggests that by practicing right effort, we can change our attitudes and feelings, leading to a more positive outlook on life.
• He emphasizes that right effort is a key part of the Buddhist path to liberation.

The Importance of Choice (51:21)

• Dhammarato emphasizes that we have the power to choose how we feel in any given moment.
• He suggests that by making conscious choices about our feelings, we can break free from habitual patterns of thought and behavior.
• He uses the example of choosing to feel happy or relaxed to illustrate how we can take control of our mental states.
• He concludes that the practice of mindfulness and right effort allows us to make these choices and live more fulfilling lives.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts (58:31)

• Dhammarato concludes the talk by encouraging the audience to practice mindfulness and make conscious choices about how they feel.
• He emphasizes that the goal of Buddhist practice is not to escape reality but to live in harmony with it.
• He suggests that by observing our thoughts and feelings, we can break free from confusion and achieve a state of peace.
• He ends with a reminder that we have the power to choose how we feel and that this choice is the key to a happy and fulfilling life.

How to Practice

• Mindfulness in Daily Life: Practice being present and aware of your thoughts and feelings throughout the day. This can help you recognize when you are falling into habitual patterns of negative thinking.

• Observing Perceptions: When you experience a strong emotion, take a moment to observe the perception that led to it. Ask yourself if your perception is based on reality or if it is a mental construct.

• Changing Habits: Identify negative habits and work on changing them by replacing unwholesome thoughts with wholesome ones. This can be done through mindfulness and right effort.

• Choosing How to Feel: When you find yourself in a state of confusion or dissatisfaction, remind yourself that you have the power to choose how you feel. Practice choosing positive emotions like happiness or relaxation.

• Breaking Free from Doubt: When you experience doubt, observe it without judgment and try to understand its root cause. This can help you move past doubt and make more informed decisions.

• Practicing Right Effort: Make a conscious effort to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. This can help you develop a more positive outlook on life and reduce suffering.

• Living in the Present Moment: Focus on the present moment rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. This can help you break free from habitual patterns of thought and behavior.

• Understanding Feelings: Recognize that feelings are not based on reality but on your perceptions. By understanding this, you can begin to control your feelings and reduce suffering.

• Cultivating Contentment: Practice being content with what you have rather than constantly seeking more. This can help you achieve a state of peace and freedom from desire.

• Breaking the Cycle of Confusion: When you find yourself in a state of confusion, take a moment to observe your thoughts and feelings. This can help you break free from confusion and make more informed choices.

Metaphors, Analogies, and Stories

The Snake Metaphor (44:10)

• Metaphor: Dhammarato uses the metaphor of a snake to illustrate how cutting off negative thoughts can prevent them from leading to negative outcomes. He explains that if you cut a snake in the middle, the rest of the snake will not continue to move.
• Clarification: The snake represents a chain of negative thoughts or actions. By cutting off the negative thought (the snake) at its source, you can prevent it from leading to further negative outcomes. This metaphor emphasizes the importance of mindfulness in recognizing and stopping negative thoughts before they lead to harmful actions.

The Ball Catching Example (37:49)

• Story: Dhammarato uses the example of catching a ball to illustrate how quickly the mind processes sensory information and creates perceptions. He explains that a four-year-old may not be able to catch a ball, but with practice, they can learn to predict where the ball will be and catch it.
• Clarification: This example illustrates how the mind processes information and creates perceptions. Just as a child learns to catch a ball by predicting its trajectory, we can learn to observe and control our perceptions through mindfulness and practice.

The Coca-Cola Santa Claus (7:19)

• Story: Dhammarato explains how the modern image of Santa Claus was popularized by Coca-Cola in the 1920s. He suggests that the red-suited Santa Claus is a marketing invention rather than a traditional figure.
• Clarification: This story highlights the influence of commercialization on cultural traditions. It serves as a critique of how capitalism has shaped modern celebrations like Christmas, turning them into opportunities for profit rather than meaningful cultural or religious events.

The Yule Log Tradition (10:39)

• Story: Dhammarato mentions the tradition of the Yule log, which is supposed to burn for 12 days, symbolizing the 12 days of Christmas. He explains that this tradition originated from the practice of feeding the serfs during the winter after their food had been stolen by warlords.
• Clarification: This story provides historical context for the tradition of gift-giving during Christmas. It suggests that many modern traditions have roots in practices that were originally meant to address social and economic inequalities.

The Cloud with a Silver Lining (24:14)

• Metaphor: Dhammarato uses the metaphor of a cloud with a silver lining to describe the mixed feelings that most people experience. He explains that the silver lining represents the positive aspects of life, while the cloud represents the negative aspects.
• Clarification: This metaphor illustrates the duality of human experience, where positive and negative feelings are often mixed together. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing both the positive and negative aspects of life and finding a balance between them.

The Four-Year-Old and the Ball (37:49)

• Story: Dhammarato uses the example of a four-year-old learning to catch a ball to illustrate how the mind develops the ability to process sensory information and create perceptions.
• Clarification: This story emphasizes the importance of practice and skill development in mindfulness. Just as a child learns to catch a ball through practice, we can learn to observe and control our perceptions through mindfulness and practice.

The Snake in Time (44:14)

• Metaphor: Dhammarato uses the metaphor of a snake in time to illustrate how cutting off negative thoughts can prevent them from leading to negative outcomes. He explains that if you cut a snake in the middle, the rest of the snake will not continue to move.
• Clarification: This metaphor emphasizes the importance of mindfulness in recognizing and stopping negative thoughts before they lead to harmful actions. It suggests that by cutting off negative thoughts at their source, we can prevent them from leading to further negative outcomes.

The Christmas Tree Tradition (9:30)

• Story: Dhammarato explains that the tradition of the Christmas tree was revived by Hollywood in the 1930s and became popular through movies like “White Christmas.”
• Clarification: This story highlights the influence of media and popular culture on modern traditions. It suggests that many modern traditions have been shaped by commercial and cultural influences rather than historical or religious roots.

The Virgin Birth Tradition (2:30)

• Story: Dhammarato discusses the tradition of the virgin birth, suggesting that it was borrowed from earlier religions like the Mithraic religion and was not originally part of Christianity.
• Clarification: This story provides historical context for the tradition of the virgin birth in Christianity. It suggests that many Christian traditions have roots in earlier religions and were adapted to fit the needs of the Roman Empire.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (8:00)

• Story: Dhammarato explains that the tradition of gift-giving during Christmas was popularized by retailers like Macy’s, who used events like the Thanksgiving Day Parade to kick off the holiday shopping season.
• Clarification: This story highlights the influence of commercialization on modern traditions. It suggests that many modern traditions have been shaped by the needs of retailers and the capitalist economy rather than cultural or religious values.

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