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[bell]

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[bell]

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[bell]

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[bell]

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Dear Thay, Dear Sangha

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In difficult moments, and [br]in not difficult moments also,

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we have the practice of coming back

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to the island within ourself.

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We have a song, [br]“Being an Island Unto Myself”

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and guided meditation[br]“Being an Island Unto Myself”

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[singing] Being an island[br]Unto myself

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as an island unto myself.

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Buddha is my mindfulness

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shining near, shining far

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Dharma is my breathing

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guarding bodhi and mind.[br]I am free.

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Being an island unto myself

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as an island unto myself.

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Sangha is the five skandhas

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working in harmony.

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Taking refuge in myself,[br]coming back to myself

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I am free, I am free,[br]I am free. [end singing]

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So this practice has been [br]recommended to us

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above all when we are in [br]difficult moments.

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But in order to be able to [br]practice it when we are in difficulty,

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we need to have a training, [br]we need to

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train ourself when it’s not [br]difficult to come back

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to ourself. So many times [br]the Buddha taught non-self,

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and now we are practicing [br]coming back to our self.

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Non-self is an idea,[br]and self is also an idea.

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Non-self is the cure, the idea[br]to cure the idea of self.

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So, primarily coming back to [br]our self means coming back

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to our body, feeling our body [br]as it is in the present moment.

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We have the layer of skin[br]on the outside of our body,

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so in a way, our body has [br]limits, but we also know our

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body depends on everything[br]outside of our body, also.

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In this practice, we come

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back to our body primarily

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The example that we hear[br]the Buddha give

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is the example of a turtle: has[br]a head, four legs, and a tail.

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When the turtle is in a difficult[br]moment, the turtle will

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draw back its legs, its head, [br]its tail under its shell.

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So for us, it means bringing[br]back our eyes, ears, nose,

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all those things that sense[br]the world around us,

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not letting them go out, [br]be dispersed around us,

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but coming back so we can [br]come back inside of ourself

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and be there for ourself[br]to take care of ourself.

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Because if we do not be there [br]to take care of ourself,

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we cannot really be there to[br]take care of the other person.

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When you take care of [br]somebody who is very sick,

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you know very well that the [br]first thing you need to do

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is come back and be solid[br]and stable in yourself.

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So this exercise is taught us, [br]so that we can be solid,

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and we can be stable in the [br]present moment.

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When we hear the sound of [br]the bell, we come back to the

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island in ourself. We become [br]a refuge for ourself.

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The human mind has a [br]tendency to go out and try to

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find a refuge in things around, [br]but we know if we’re not

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stable ourself, then we cannot [br]have a place of refuge,

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so also we practice coming [br]back to be a refuge for ourself.

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Being an island unto myself.[br]Being a refuge for myself.

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And my self is that island,[br]my self is that refuge.

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In Chinese and Vietnamese [br][C/V], self is the island, [C/V]

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self is the refuge. In Pali, [br]atta dippha, atta sharana.

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Then the Buddha teaches us,[br]to make it clearer,

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the Dharma is your island,[br]the Dharma is your refuge.

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That means that when we [br]come back to our true self,

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we can find the Buddha in [br]ourself, the Dharma in ourself

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and the Sangha in ourself.

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This wonderful teaching was [br]given to Ananda, Buddha’s

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attendant, three times: twice [br]individually, and once with the

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rest of the Sangha. The [br]Buddha gave this teaching at

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end of the life of the Buddha,

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when the Buddha was [br]already 80 years old.

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Maybe many people, they [br]took refuge in the Buddha;

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there was the practice of the [br]three refuges in India at that time.

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People, when they came and [br]listened to the teaching of the

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Buddha, they would practice, [br]“I take refuge in the Buddha,

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I take refuge in the Dharma, [br]I take refuge in the Sangha.”

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Maybe people, when they [br]took refuge in the Buddha,

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they were taking refuge in a [br]Buddha outside themselves,

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but that Buddha, like [br]everything else, was

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impermanent, and would not[br]be there much longer.

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That is why the Buddha gave [br]that teaching to Ananda.

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The Venerable Ananda was a [br]wonderful attendant for

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Buddha. The Venerable [br]Ananda gave all his life, all

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his being, attending the Buddha.

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So he did not have time so[br]much to practice coming back

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to himself.

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In the last rains retreat that

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the Buddha was alive

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in Vaishali,

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the Buddha became very, [br]very sick.

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In the sutra it says[br]bordering on death.

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The Buddha was in a [br]lot of pain, his body became

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extremely weak, and there [br]are times when it is very easy

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when the body is in so much [br]pain, and so much

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weakness, it’s easy to leave [br]the body, to die.

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The Buddha knew that at[br]any moment, when he was

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sick like that, that he could [br]die. Knowing that, looking

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deeply and knowing he had[br]not taken leave of the Sangha

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he had not said good-bye to[br]the sangha, maybe there was

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some last instructions that the[br]Sangha still needed, Buddha

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had not given. It is said that [br]Buddha had to make a strong

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resolution, strong [br]determination, based on the

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life force. A strong[br]determination to live for

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some more months in order[br]to be able to give the

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teachings that the Sangha[br]may still need.

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I remember one time when[br]Thay, our teacher, was

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very unwell, in Germany. [br]Thay could not eat anything

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for a long time. Thay said,[br]“I am living by volition food.”

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We know that volition[br]food is the third kind of food.

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A very important food[br]for us.

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So when the Buddha made [br]that determination to live

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for some more months,[br]the Buddha was using volition food,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that food that comes from [br]within, when we come back

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to the island of the self. That[br]food does not come from

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without.

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If you think of the five [br]particular mental formations

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the first one is zeal [...] [br]chanda. It is really wanting

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something. The second one [br]is adimoksha, [...] and that

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means determination,[br]resolution.

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We all know that in our [br]practice, we develop

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these mental formations,[br]the mental formation of

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determination, because when [br]when we come to the practice

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and maybe for many years [br]afterwards, we have many

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habit energies. If we want[br]really to transform them

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we need a strong [br]determination, a strong

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resolution. So it’s said[br]that the Buddha resolved

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on what is one of the[br]first six universal

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mental formations [...][br]universal mental formations

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in the Theravada tradition[br]What is that? That is

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jivitandriya, the life force,[br]the force for life that is there

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in all of us, in our [br]consciousness.

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The Buddha gave his[br]attention to that

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mental formation, [br]the life force.

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Using concentration, which[br]is another of the particular

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mental formations...[br]remember zeal, resolution

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or determination is the [br]second, and the third is

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mindfulness, concentration[br]the fourth, and the fifth is

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insight. These are mental[br]formations that we can

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
choose to practice or not.[br]We can choose to use them

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a wholesome or not[br]wholesome way. They are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
called particular mental[br]formations.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So the Buddha used[br]concentration in order to

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be able to overcome the pain[br]and he was able to recover

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from his sickness. He went [br]outside his hut and sat

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
outside, and Ananda saw the [br]Buddha sitting outside, and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ananda was overwhelmed[br]with joy.

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“The Buddha is going to live![br]The Buddha is still alive!”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ananda came to the Buddha [br]and said, “How wonderful!

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
How wonderful! You are still[br]there, you are better,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you are going to be with us.”[br]Then Ananda said, “When the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Buddha was sick like that,[br]my knees shook, I lost my

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
concentration, my mind [br]became confused.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha said, “That won’t [br]do, Ananda.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then gave the teaching of[br]being an island to yourself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to find the Buddha in[br]yourself.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Buddha said that in a [br]short time, the Buddha will

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not be with you anymore, so[br]now is the time to practice

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
being an island to yourself,[br]being a refuge for yourself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to find the Buddha within[br]you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ananda said to the Buddha,[br]“Altho’ you were very sick,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I had quite some hope that[br]you would get better, be

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with us for longer, because[br]you had not yet told us

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what to do when you weren’t[br]there anymore.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You had not told us who [br]would guide the Sangha

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after you were not there[br]anymore.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then the Buddha said, “Oh,[br]Ananda, why...”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ananda said, “We were [br]waiting for you to make

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
some announcement[br]concerning the Sangha,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who would guide the sangha,[br]who would lead the sangha.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha said, “What [br]more is the Sangha waiting

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for? I have taught everythng, I [br]have taught all the practices.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha said, “I am not a[br]teacher with a closed fist,

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I don’t hold anything back,[br]everything I practice I hand

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on to my disciples. What [br]more are you waiting for?

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If you are waiting for me to[br]tell you who’s going to lead

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you, who’s going to guide you[br]that is something I will not do,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because the Buddha never [br]thinks, “I am in charge of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Sangha, I direct the [br]Sangha.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha is only a bhikkhu[br]like the other bhikkhus.

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If the Buddha does not direct [br]the Sangha, why should the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Buddha want to hand on to[br]somebody else

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to direct the Sangha?”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
After that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Buddha set out on his[br]last tour,

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wanting, probably, to go back[br]to

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Kapilavastu, the place[br]he came from, where he’d

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grown up. So he went from [br]Nalanda, from Rajagriha, in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that direction. In the sutra[br]it says that when he came to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Sravasthi, the Buddha [br]received the news

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the death of Shariputra

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and Mogallana.[br]It’s strange, because

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Shravasti is not really on[br]the route from Rajagriha to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Kapilavastu, it’s a 200 km[br]deviation.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Maybe it’s a mistake, he [br]wasn’t in Shravasti, he was

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
somewhere else. So [br]then...we have...if you look in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Samyutta Nikaya, [...][br]in Chap. 47, which is about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the practice of mindfulness,[br]you will find 3 sutras about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
end of the life of the Buddha.[br]The first is sutra #9, it’s called

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Gelanna, it means sickness,[br]it’s about the time when the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Buddha was sick. The second [br]is #13, it’s called Chunda.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Chunda is the name of the[br]attendant of Ven. Shariputra.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Shariputra comes from [br]Nalanda, and he went back to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nalanda with the Buddha.[br]When the Buddha and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Shariputra were in Nalanda[br]maybe Shariputra knew that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he would not meet the [br]Buddha again, so he came to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Buddha, and said to the [br]Buddha, “Of all the Buddhas

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that have been there in the [br]past, will be there in the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
future, and are there in the [br]present moment, you are the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
number one, you are the [br]foremost Buddha.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha said to [br]Shariputra, “How can you say that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Shariputra? Did you know all [br]the Buddhas in the past?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Do you know all the Buddhas [br]in the present, and in future in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
order to say I am the [br]foremost?” Shariputra had to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
admit he didn’t know all those [br]Buddhas. But he said, “When

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I look at the practice of the [br]Buddha, how the Buddha

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
guards the six senses, always [br]practices mindfulness, I

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cannot think that any human [br]being could practice better

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than that, so that is why I say [br]the Buddha is the foremost of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all Buddhas.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Of course, the Buddhas of the [br]past and the future, they also

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
practice to guard the six senses.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the end, the Buddha said [br]to Shariputra, “That is a good

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
teaching that you can give to [br]people, that the Buddha is the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
one who practices guarding [br]the six senses at all times.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But Shariputra was not to live [br]for much longer.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
After the Buddha had left [br]Nalanda, Shariputra had

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
asked to stay behind. [br]Shariputra also became very

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sick, and died. His attendant, [br]Chunda, after the cremation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
brought the ashes, brought [br]the robe and the bowl, back

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the Buddha, wherever the [br]Buddha was. First of all,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
whenever Chunda arrived at [br]where the Buddha was,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he went to Ananda. He told [br]Ananda what had happened,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that the Ven. Shariputra had [br]died.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ananda said, “This is news [br]that together we need to bring

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the Buddha.” So together [br]Chunda and Ananda went to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Buddha, and told the [br]Buddha what had happened.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then Ananda said again, [br]“When I heard that Shariputra

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
had died, my knees shook, I [br]lost my stability, I became

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
confused in my mind, [br]because we had lost our

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
elder brother.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha said, “When [br]Shariputra died, did he take

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
away your mindfulness with [br]him? Did he take away your

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
concentration and your insight?”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ananda said, “No, he didn’t, [br]but Shariputra was an elder

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
brother we all took refuge in. [br]We knew that he could give

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
us the teachings that we [br]needed. Now he’s no longer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there in the Sangha.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then, for the second time, [br]Buddha taught Ananda,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
“Ananda, you should be an [br]island to yourself, you should

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
be a refuge to yourself. Let [br]the Dharma be your island,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
let the Dharma be your [br]refuge, and do not take

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
refuge in any other person, in [br]any other thing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That is the second time [br]Ananda received the teaching

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on being an island to yourself.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The third time was in a sutra [br]we are all familiar with,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because it’s part of our [br]chanting book, which is called

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Discourse on Taking [br]Refuge in Yourself; that is

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
how we translated it. If you [br]look in the Samyukta Agama

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
[...] #639 You’ll see that it is [br]called the Uposatha Sutra,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and that is because uposatha [br]means the day when the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Precepts are recited, and it [br]happened to be the full moon

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
day when the Buddha gave this sutra.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In Pali, it is in the Samyutta [br]Nikaya [...] [Chap 47], #14,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and it is called Ukkacela, [br]which is just the name of a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
place where the Buddha gave [br]this teaching.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
“I heard these words of the [br]Buddha one time, when the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Lord was staying in the [br]mango grove, in the cool

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
shade of the mango trees, on [br]the bank of the river Ganges,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the forest of Magadha. The [br]elders Shariputra and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Moggallana had recently [br]passed away. It was the full

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
moon day of the Uposatha [br]ceremony, and the Precepts

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
were being recited.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha spread out his [br]sitting mat, and, facing the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
community, after looking out, [br]he said, ”As I look at our

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
community, I see a large [br]space left by the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ven. Shariputra and Moggallana.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the Pali version, it says, “It [br]appears to me there is an

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
empty space in our Sangha.”[br]It APPEARS that there’s an

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
empty space, because where [br]Shariputra and Moggallana

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
had been in the Sangha, we [br]can no longer see them there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Oo, I forgot to say that two [br]weeks after Shariputra died,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Ven. Moggallana died.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So by the time the Buddha [br]gave this sutra, both

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Shariputra and Moggallana had died.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, ‘it appears to me there is [br]a large space’, before, we

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
could always rely on [br]Moggallana and Shariputra to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
be there, and now we see [br]they’re not there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha uses the word [br]‘appears’, which means that it

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
appears, but it’s not really like that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If you want, you can still find [br]Shariputra and Moggallana.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
“In the Sangha, these two [br]venerable monks were the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
most eloquent in giving [br]Dharma talks, encouraging

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and instructing all the other [br]monks, nuns, and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
lay people.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then the Buddha uses the word...searching for, looking

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for, looking for something.[br]“Oh monks, people look for

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
two kinds of riches: material [br]riches, and the riches of the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Dharma. In their search for [br]material riches, they go to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
worldly people. In their search [br]for the riches of the Dharma,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they would go to Shariputra [br]and Moggallana. The

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Tathagatha is not searching [br]for anything, whether it is

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
material or the Dharma.”

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
If you remember, there’s a [br]verse in the Udanavagga in

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Sanskrit, and it says the deer [br]take refuge in the countryside

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the birds take refuge in the [br]sky, those who discriminate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
take refuge in the Dharma, [br]and the arahats, those who

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
have enlightenment, take [br]refuge in Nirvana.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That is us, those who [br]discriminate. Discriminate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
here means be able to [br]discriminate what is

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
wholesome from what is[br]unwholesome, to rely on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the practice of the Precepts, [br]mindfulness, concentration,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
insight, in order to train [br]ourselves in our daily life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So here it says we can go for [br]refuge to our teachers for the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
riches of the Dharma, and we [br]are always looking for the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
riches of the Dharma to help [br]us to transform our afflictions.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Those who have transformed [br]the afflictions do not need to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
search for the Dharma [br]anymore.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Maybe they have found the [br]Dharma within themselves.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They just practice [br]mindfulness, concentration,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and insight.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We should remember, also, [br]that tho’ they do not search

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for anything more, the [br]arahats always practice

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mindfulness. [br]All four pairs, and eight kinds

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of holy people in the Sangha, [br]from the stream-enterer to the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
arahat, they all practice [br]mindfulness, concentration,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and insight. [br]When you become an

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
arahat, you do not stop [br]practicing mindfulness.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Does that mean to say that [br]when we are looking for the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Dharma, we are not able to [br]be in touch with nirvana?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
No, it doesn’t mean that.[br]Nirvana is available

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to us when we become a [br]stream-enterer, or even

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
before. But, we cannot be in [br]touch with nirvana the whole

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
time, so we need to keep [br]listening to the Dharma,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
contemplating the Dharma, [br]and putting the Dharma into

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
practice in order to be able to [br]be in touch with nirvana

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all the time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then the Buddha gives the [br]example of the tree, a very

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
old, large tree. Like the oak [br]tree in the Lower Hamlet.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha said that that tree [br]was made of heartwood,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it had very good wood inside [br]the tree, it’s not rotten inside.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That tree is the sangha, [br]the Sangha that has 8 kinds

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and 4 pairs of holy people. [br]The Sangha that practices

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mindfulness, concentration, [br]and insight is like a tree.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That tree, when it first starts, [br]has two large branches. They

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are the oldest branches, the [br]elder brother, or elder sister

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
branches of the Sangha.[br]Relying on all those branches

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
other branches also grow on [br]the tree, just like a banana

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
tree has the leaves, and the [br]first two leaves, they nourish

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all the other leaves that come [br]along afterwards.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, Shariputra and Mogallana [br]were like the large branches,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and when those large [br]branches break, there are still

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all the other branches, and [br]the tree, the Sangha, is still there.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Buddha gave that example.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the Sangha of the [br]Tathagatha, Shariputra and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Mogallana were the greatest [br]students, so it’s natural that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they would enter nirvana first.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The next paragraph is about [br]what is natural.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Actually, it says like this, if[br]you look at the Chinese,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it says, ‘All phenomena that [br]are either born, or arise,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or are made, or are [br]conditioned phenomena,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
all these phenomena have to[br]disintegrate, they have to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
decay. They cannot exist [br]without someday being

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
decayed, without [br]disintegrating.’

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then it says, ‘If you want any [br]phenomena not to decay,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
then that is something [br]impossible.’

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Somehow, in our mind we [br]have an idea of something

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
impossible.[br]All phenomena, that means

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
psychological phenomena,[br]physiological phenomena,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
physical phenomena...[br]they all disintegrate

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after a time.[br]In our mind we have an idea

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that there must be things that [br]don’t disintergrate,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the people we love, they don’t disintegrate.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Because of that, when they [br]do, we have to suffer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because we are not prepared.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So in our practice, what we [br]are doing is we prepare

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
ourselves—like the [br]meditation we did this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
morning: I am of the nature to [br]get sick—is a way to prepare

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
ourself, to face the reality of [br]what happens, so we don’t

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
live in a world of things that [br]are not possible, wanting

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
things that are not possible.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Here it says things that are [br]born. When we say things

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that are born, we mean living [br]beings who are born from the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
womb or the egg. Things that [br]arise means things that arise

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in dependence on other [br]things, things that arise like

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the flowers, the trees.[br]Things that are made are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what human beings can [br]make, those phenomena, like

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the clothes we wear, are [br]made; they also disintegrate.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There’s nothing that can [br]escape disintegration.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Not just human beings.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And all things which are [br]conditioned phenomena...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a conditioned phenomena is [br]something that relies on what

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is not itself in order to be [br]there. So we are conditioned

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
phenomena, because we rely [br]on the food that we eat,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we rely on those around us,[br]in order to continue to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
manifest. If we look around [br]us, most things are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
conditioned, nearly everything [br]is conditioned dharma.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It is said that only one thing [br]that is not conditioned, and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that is nirvana, because[br]nirvana is the removal of all

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
concepts.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Everything we cherish and [br]hold dear today we will have

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to let go of and be separated [br]from.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
‘In not too long a time, I will [br]also pass away. Therefore,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
practice being an island to [br]yourself. Know how to take

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
refuge in yourself, and not [br]take refuge in anyone or

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
anything else. Practice taking [br]refuge in the island of the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Dharma.’ The Dharma here [br]means the practice of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mindfulness.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
‘Meditate on the body in the [br]body,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
nourishing right [br]understanding and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mindfulness.’

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In this version that I have [br]here, he just talks about

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
meditating on the body in the [br]body, but if you read the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sutra, you will see that it also [br]says meditate on the feelings

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the feelings, on the [br]perceptions in the percep...on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the mind in the mind, and on [br]the dharmas in the dharmas.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So it includes all the four [br]establishments of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mindfulness.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Even tho’ the Buddha [br]recovered from his illness,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
his body was very weak[br]and he told Ananda that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he practiced something, it’s [br]called the animitta

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cetosamadhi. It means the [br]concentration on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
signlessness.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
‘Nimitta’ means a sign.[br]Suffering is a sign, and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
no suffering is also a sign.[br]Permanence is a sign,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
impermanence is also a sign.[br]A sign means a characteristic,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a mark of how something is.[br]In English we can call this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
signlessness [of the mind [br]concentration].

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When you have pain in your [br]body, it has to go along with

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the suffering in your mind.[br]Normally it’s like that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As soon as there is pain in [br]the body, the mind begins to

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
feel also in pain. That is why [br]sometime we say the mind

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and body suffer in unison, or[br]the mind and the body are

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
happy in unison.[br]We can say like that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But if you practice, you can [br]recognize that the pain in the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
body does not have to be the [br]pain in the mind.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can take care of your [br]mind so that the pain does

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not influence your mind.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
At that point, you are not [br]caught in the sign of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
suffering.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the Vajracchedika Sutra, [br]it just teaches about not being

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
caught in signs. Not being [br]caught in phenomena, but

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
also not being caught in signs[br]In the Vajracchedika we hear

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
about different kinds of signs [br]like human and living being...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
wait a minute...human, ah, [br]self, human, living being and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
life span. But there are many [br]other signs as well that we

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
get caught in. Suffering is one [br]of those signs that we get

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
caught in.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In fact, when they talk about [br]the 3 signs in Theravada

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Buddhism, suffering is one of [br]them. Impermanence, no self,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and suffering. But suffering [br]has an opposite, whose name

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is not suffering. In terms of [br]the Four Noble Truths, the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
first Noble Truth is suffering, [br]and the third Noble Truth is

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not suffering, the end of [br]suffering, the cessation of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
suffering. If suffering is a sign, [br]then not suffering is also a

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
sign. We can be caught in the [br]sign ‘suffering’, and we can

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
also be caught in the sign [br]‘not suffering’.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
According to the Buddha, we [br]practice the Middle Way,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which is not being caught in [br]either extreme.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
By practicing this samadhi, [br]this concentration, by not

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
being caught in signs, the [br]Buddha was able to live fully

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
enough in the last few months [br]of the Buddha’s life, and give

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the teaching the Buddha gave [br]on being an island unto

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
yourself. If the Buddha had [br]not lived for those last

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
months, we may not have the [br]teaching for being an island

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to yourself, which is [br]something that we can all

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
practice in our daily lives, and [br]need to practice in our daily

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
lives, in order [that] when we [br]come across difficult

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
moments, we can truly come [br]back and take care of our

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mind. By taking care of our [br]mind, we can also take care

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of our body.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Coming back to mindfulness [br]of our body is the first

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
establishment of mindfulness. [br]The second establishment of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
mindfulness is coming back [br]to our feelings, and taking

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
care of our feelings. Feelings [br]are really what is the

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
suffering, what is the not [br]suffering that is due to kinds

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of feelings. When we practice [br]the concentration on

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
signlessness, we have to first [br]of all recognize that ‘this

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
feeling is suffering’, then we [br]have to go beyond the sign

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and recognize that that [br]feeling just comes from what

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is happening in our body, and [br]it doesn’t have to influence

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our mind. The feeling does [br]not have a separate self, it’s

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
impermanent and changing at [br]every moment.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We can concentrate on the [br]island in ourself in terms of

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
our feelings and not just in [br]terms of our body.

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When we first start to island [br]of ourself, we come back to

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our body, and then we [br]recognize our feelings.

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The Buddha said that those [br]practitioners—monks, nuns,

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laymen, laywomen—who are [br]able to come back to the

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island of self, take refuge in [br]the island of self, come back

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to the island of Dharma, take [br]refuge in the island of

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Dharma, are the best [br]practitioners, both now, while

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the Buddha is still alive, and [br]after the Buddha is no longer alive.

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[bell] [BELL]