So, both both these two actually, one should go beyond these two. Happiness and happiness. And so, Buddha thought, as I mentioned in the beginning, that’s what Buddha, from the very beginning, thought about Dukkha. Yeah? Which is really very misleading, this term suffering.
Dukkha, actually the terms dukkha is something like, I don’t remember exactly the word, is something to do with empty, nothing. That’s why a characteristic a characteristic of so called suffering is selfless, no? Selflessness, impermanence, and then pain. Yeah. But, dukkha is something, there is no substance, therefore, there is nothing to grasp.
Yeah. And that’s why there is no, you know, nothing to grasp, very unsubstantial, very unworthy, therefore unworthy. Is dukkha therefore is more, you know, than suffering is. Yeah. So, we identify whenever we think about suffering, we think of pain, isn’t it?
For us suffering is pain. People say nowadays, I don’t mind to die as long as I don’t suffer in the sense I don’t feel pain, you know. So, we wish, you know, that’s the very thing, know, the very reason for euthanasia, you know. People don’t want to, you know, we don’t want to die in pain. People don’t want to die in pain.
So, we identify suffering with pain. Yeah? Well, definitely Buddha didn’t spend three countless eons to find out that there is pain in this world. Three countless eons just for that. So, therefore what we call suffering is something different.
So, for us, whenever we talk about suffering, when we think suffering, we think pain. Yeah? That’s what is suffering for us, pain. But is there something worse than pain? Is there something that is much worse than pain?
Hopelessness. Worse than pain. Because for us, in terms of suffering, there is nothing worse than pain. For us, suffering and pain are the same thing, you know, it’s very synonymous, it’s the same thing. So, whenever we think of suffering, we are thinking of unpleasantness, that’s what we think, you know, something really unpleasant, pain.
Well, in Buddhism there is something much worse than that, you know. Is there something worse than pain? Yeah, you know. Well, something worse than pain is suffering. Suffering is much worse than pain.
For us is synonymous, yeah? For us is synonymous, same thing. Buddhist point of view, pain and suffering. So, is there pain for example? Well, is there suffering without pain?
Is there pain without suffering? Is there an example of is there pain but not suffering? Is there an example? Is there a situation or an experience where someone is experiencing pain but not necessarily suffering? Sports.
Yeah, in the sense Who says sports? Yeah, yeah, in the sense like So there is unpleasantness, you run forty kilometers. Yes, So there is pain, you know, there is unpleasantness, but mentally you are happy because I’m going to get a gold medal or I’m going to prove myself that I’m good, whatever. So therefore, there is pain, but not necessarily what the person is suffering. The person is not suffering in the sense unhappy, yeah?
In that sense, the person is not necessarily unhappy. So there is many, there are many examples that there is pain, there is pain, unpleasantness, but the person is not necessarily unhappy. Actually, he could be very happy. And also, there, and then, this is the more, where is the suffering but unnecessary pain? Suffering, the person is suffering.
Loss. Lost? Lost. Oh, the loss is pain, unpleasant. I think love can be very You can suffer very much from love.
Yeah, and like? Yeah, like but exactly what? Well, because when you love somebody, you’re always afraid to lose that person. Yes, but yeah, so something which is, so here we have to find something which is suffering but not unpleasant, something but not unpleasant, not pain. Dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction. You could be in a five star hotel, very nice food and having everything you would like around, but you want even more. Yes, yes. You’re not satisfied with that. Yeah.
So, therefore, yeah, so there is pleasure but you are dissatisfied, yeah? Dissatisfied. So, that’s what Buddha is talking about. So, here, when Buddha talk about suffering, he’s really talking about pleasure. If Buddha were talking about pain, that’s too easy.
There wouldn’t need a Buddha to know that pain is suffering. Easy to understand, even animals understand that. Even animals understand that pain is suffering. But pleasure is, when Buddha taught about suffering, what they refer is pleasure. This is difficult to swallow, to accept because we are obsessed with pleasure.
To point to some sutras, Buddha even say give give Give up pleasure. Give up pleasure. But of course, it’s not something that pleasure you can give up. Pleasure is pleasure. Pleasure, it arises when the object, the consciousness meet, there’s pleasure and pleasure is good.
Yeah? Pleasure is good. So pleasure is pleasure. Is what Buddha is saying is craving for it. The craving for pleasure.
Definitely, yeah. So, abandon pleasure doesn’t mean to abandon pleasure or the object of pleasure. Abandon the craving for it. See, our fear is that if we abandon the craving for it, you abandon us, we don’t experience pleasure altogether. This is our fear.
So, therefore, when we hear that abandon pleasure, give up desire, give up pleasure, you say, well, so far I agree with everything you said, Venerable Antonio, but at this point, if you ask me to give up pleasure, I’m sorry. You know, this is unacceptable because pleasure is the only thing that makes us happy. Our happiness is pleasure. We don’t know any other happiness than pleasure. Therefore, to give up pleasure, it means to die, to be dead.
Well, definitely doesn’t mean that, and Buddha, he didn’t mean that, yeah. So, up pleasure. And why it is suffering? With regard to pain, you know, pain, we can get used to pain, you know, we can get used to pain. We can, yeah, but it’s very difficult to get used to, you know, pleasure.
Whenever pleasure arise, we want more, you know, we are never content. See, we are never content. So that’s the suffering. So we are never content, we want more, you know. With pain, we can be.
We can feel in peace with pain. We can train and, you know, we know very well, yeah. Whether it is Buddhist or Christian, you know, the will of God, you know, I accept. So, You know, with pain we practice acceptance, so the mind rests. So, we experience peace.
We can experience peace, we can get used to it, but with pleasure. So, you know, in the middle of pleasure, you know, not when you had enough. In the middle of the pleasure, can you say that’s enough? So, the middle, right in the middle, at the beginning, at the beginning of it where you are like, that’s enough? If stops you at that time, you may kill the person.
Yeah. If someone stops us in the middle of the pleasure, become angry. That’s why anger is very much, in the Buddhist point of view, anger comes from attachment, desire, craving. Without craving, desire, attachment is no anger. You know, whether it is attached to myself, attached the object, the person, you know, including attachment to annihilating oneself, suicide, still attachment.
That is attachment to annihilation, craving for annihilation, you know, still attachment. So when we are in the middle of pleasure, when one is in the middle of pleasure, you you cannot say stop, that’s enough. So we want more, more, more, more, more. And so, crave for it, which then turns into suffering, it turns into disappointment. That’s what it is.
It turns into disappointment because Buddha say give up, you know, give up pleasure. In the sense, for example, for the tantric practitioner who is very, for the tantric practitioner, a very sharp, sharp faculty uses pleasure because he knows the nature of pleasure which is impermanent. But the people, a person like us, which is ignorant with regard to what is pleasure, pleasure has to be controlled. So, we have to control the pleasure in the sense when we experience, that’s okay, and then when it passes, okay. So not to crave for it.
The moment we generate pleasure, immediately, and pleasure could be with regard to ideas, opinions, know, not necessarily physical. So craving desires all the time, it could be for anything. And the mind, when it arrives, it is becoming restless, so it becomes restless. Before getting the object, it becomes restless and not peaceful. When you get the object, it becomes fearful, afraid because it becomes attachment.
Know, so that’s why in the Tibetan terms, ‘dö chag’ for ‘dö, is desire, is attachment. It comes together. Because in reality, we get the object the moment we think of it. We don’t really need to to possess the object. See, attachment has to do with having the object.
Desire is to do with wishing for the object. Yeah? Wanting the object. So desire, we wish the object. Attachment, we already have.
Isn’t it? Yeah? With attachment, we already have the object so we cling to it. You know? We hold it.
That’s attachment. So but in reality the moment there is attachment, the moment we desire something there is already attachment because the mental, you know, the mentally we already have the object. The moment we desire for it, even though we don’t have the physical object, you know, the wishing for it, there is already attachment to it and therefore the fear of losing it. So, the fear of therefore, even without obtaining the object, we’re already afraid of losing it. Even without obtaining the object, even without knowing the person, already know the fantasy, we know how much fantasy we can make.
Fantasize already argued many times, even without having seen the person, never made the person desire. With desire, we begin to fantasize. Nice, I like, I like, like this. And then there’s already attachment. Therefore, argument, the fear, somebody else knowing the person or someone knowing before us, before me, whatever, yeah?
A simple stupid example, but, you know, is desire attachment. Therefore, is restlessness, there is the mind is made unpeaceful. So, the mind is fear, you know, there’s fear. So that therefore whenever there is desire, unfortunately therefore, unfortunately for us, pleasure is much worse than pain, you know. We don’t, we are not aware of it.
That’s the tragedy, we are not aware of it and if we are, we don’t want accept it. But in reality, pleasure is much worse than pain because pain in the sense of unpleasantness we can get used to, we can train, get used to. But pleasure, we cannot handle it. We can’t handle pleasure. I’m talking in general, maybe some of you can handle it very well.
I’m talking in general, yeah. So we can’t handle pleasure, therefore we crave. The moment the object appear in our mind, let alone just having it, the moment appear in our mind, the mind is already craving for it. And when we watch the mind at that time, at that moment, then how does it feel? Because here, as I said at the beginning, you know, before, it’s not a question of just discussing, discussing, you know, this is my opinion, that’s your opinion.
Yes, we can have opinion. But with regard to what really is, you know, the only way is when one stops and watch. Well, that is the weekend retreat. The weekend retreat. Four days retreat where we emphasize that’s what one watch.
That’s the purpose of the retreat, you know. To see the very thing, the very thing that one observe with the mindfulness awareness is that the characteristic of life unsatisfactory, in the sense is constantly craving, craving, craving, craving for it, craving for pleasure, and for how the mind becomes so unhappy because of that. So, our unhappiness is very much based on that. So, even therefore, the so called, you know, when we hear realization of emptiness, to realize emptiness, you know, what is the purpose? Well, the purpose is very simple, you know, to eliminate the very thing that make our life miserable which is craving.
Craving desire is the immediate cause, you know. The immediate cause of our unhappiness is craving desire. We can talk of historical cause, you know. The root, but the historical cause, let’s say, is ignorance. Yes, it comes from ignorance, but immediate.
But if we talk about ignorance, if we concentrate on ignorance, it can become very abstract, you know. If we can get into Mind Only, all the various school of thoughts, and feel very proud and good. Yeah, that’s what she said. But we may we may just miss the point. All these the result of all this ignorance is craving, you know.
Because of ignorance, we crave. So but when we talk about ignorance, as I said, it’s vague. It’s not clear. You know, it’s true, it’s ignorance. But when we talk about crave, it’s more, you know, it’s more clear.
But even more clear is what Buddha called. So the term that Buddha used for craving is thirst. Even craving, you know, is craving is not, it has some, not not necessary as a negative connotation, yeah, but when we say thirst, crave is thirst. The Pali or the Sanskrit word the Buddha uses thirst, which is translated as craving. Yeah.
So, if we think in terms of thirst, then we have a different, a better picture. So, our life is constantly thirst. Thirst. We are already thirst for, you know, for knowing the result of Italy versus I forgot. You know what I mean?
We already thirst with the dinner. We already thirst what is going to show on TV. We already thirst with regard to ringing somebody and so forth constantly. The moment we wake up in the morning till we go to bed, even when we sleep, you know, we dream, you know, due to imprint, we are thirst, thirst about this, about that. That’s craving.
Yeah, that’s craving. So if we think in terms of thirst, then we have a better idea. Yes. And, this is the very condition. Now, Buddhist point of view, this becomes the condition for depression.
This is the very root. This is the very root. Mhmm. Because the opposite of it, what is the opposite? By looking at the opposite, we understand why it is the root.
The opposite is contentment. The content The opposite of craving desire is contentment. Yeah? And when one is content, you know, it’s not Definitely, it can’t be depressed. You know, it can’t be depressed.
Yeah. So, of course, how one becomes content Contentment is not that a person aims at contentment, you know. It’s like when something is poison, what we need to know is that it’s poison. We don’t need to do a workshop or a conference, to go to a conference or a retreat, you know, to learn how to stretch our hand, you know, not to take that poison food. You know what I mean?
So, it’s just enough to know that it’s poison so the hand, they would move. It’s just enough to know it is poison. Okay. So, same, when we know, we know, when we clearly understand, feel it, that craving desire, you know, makes our life very unhappy, it creates it makes the mind, the life empty. Because craving desire, desire means wanting, wanting, wanting, wanting.
So we want what we don’t have, yeah? So we don’t want what we have. We want what we don’t have. So therefore every time there is wanting, it implies empty. You know, we are empty.
So wanting empty. We are constantly empty. So therefore we become dissatisfied. So, more we become, you know, dissatisfied, more we feel empty. Nothing is happening to me, you know.
That’s what the depressed person feels. Nothing is happening to me. Everything is happening to everybody else but not me, you know. Nothing good is happening to me. So, disappointment, so constantly because then it becomes, you know, it becomes addicted.
That’s the thing. That’s why meditation, in the Tibetan word for meditation is gom pa, you know. Gom means familiarize, in the sense become used to it, acquainted to it, you know, addicted to it. It’s a question of really addiction. Yeah?
So, as we are addicted to it with anger, to anger, so we want to try to be addicted to patience. It’s really meditation is retreat, it’s very much like a rehabilitation form, rehabilitation course. And that’s why it’s difficult. Meditation is not easy because as we are addicted to craving desire, to anger and so forth, so true meditation was trying to become addicted to the opposite. So you become addicted with contentment.
So one become find difficult to be dissatisfied. You know, when one is addicted to something, find very difficult to do the opposite, naturally comes. So naturally, we now naturally we crave, you know. Naturally we we are distracted. Naturally we wonder.
We understand that the consequences of this type of mind, craving desire mind, which is a very undisciplined mind, then naturally one becomes more content. Contentment is really the consequences, you know, is the consequence. So, one become more, you know, as said, more we know that thing is poisoned, the less we So, the more we get we keep distance. So, in terms of, therefore in terms of depression, which of course, you know, has nothing to do with what probably Western psychology psychologists talk about depression, but anyway, this is, as I say, it is the Buddhist view, which is not just With regard to that which is unpleasant, you know, the cause is very much the same. It manifests in different ways.
It manifests in different ways, but the cause is very much the same. You know, the cause of our unhappiness, because that’s what it is when we are depressed, we are unhappy, is this constant, you know, craving, it’s obsession to craving. And Buddhist point of view, when we begin, you know, when we begin to realize, when we begin to see the nature of our existence, you know, the nature of our existence is very unsatisfactory, you know. That’s why life is very unsatisfactory. And so the intelligent person, unlike the stupid, you know, we when we hear, as I said at the beginning, when we hear this we become depressed.
But the intelligent person when you hear that, he sees there is nothing to cling, therefore you relax, you know, because that is a very, you know, our problem is attachment. So when something is unsatisfactory, you want to stop craving for it. That’s very That is simple, isn’t it? When we find something unsatisfactory, okay, who cares? You know, I don’t give a damn, you know.
So the mind begin to relax. So that’s where the mind begin to relax. Therefore, contrary to the belief, one begins. So we think that if we perceive our life really unsatisfactory, we think that we become more depressed, you know. Our life become gloomy, you know, flat.
But actually totally opposite. Because the moment the mind begins to relax, then when life, then when we begin to live, you know, then one begins to live one life really peaceful and happy, if you want to call it happiness, you know. And so, is happiness unhappiness? One is to try to go beyond that, you know, to go beyond happiness unhappiness. So, is as bad as unhappiness.
That’s the thing. Yeah? Happiness is as bad as unhappiness. So, then if we want to then what? What is there?
If there is no What does it mean to go beyond unhappiness and happiness? Means the opposite of it is going beyond is to live in the present. So in the mind the person lives in the present. You see, we are constantly beyond really, you know. We are constantly projected.
We are constantly, you know, beyond, you know, in the world of fantasy, you know. We want to go more beyond, you know. We are already beyond. We are never here in the present, so we never feel it. You know, water, you know, rough, smooth.
The life, the so called life, we talk about life a lot but we never feel it, you know, because our mind is totally in the world of fantasy constantly. So we are constantly beyond, but we want to go more beyond. So more beyond there is just more suffering. More beyond there is simply obsession. The real beyond therefore is here.
Beyond is there. So, to go really beyond means to be in the present. So, more one lives in the present, more goes beyond happiness and happiness. Yeah. So, how one goes beyond happiness and happiness?
Living in the present. As Buddha say, when you eat, you just eat. When you listen, you listen. Know, when you touch, you just touch. Yeah.
When you look, you just see. No more than that. This is how one begins to live in the present. So one goes beyond happiness and unhappiness. And definitely, there’s a guarantee, definitely the person won’t feel depressed.
It will be impossible. The person will definitely the person who lives in the present. The question is whether or you know, how difficult it is. Yes, you know, it’s not easy because we are addicted to fantasy. We are addicted to be projected into the past, into the future, thinking about the past, but if we succeed, if one can live in the present, there is a hundred percent guarantee like a signature, like Berlusconi in Italy, no?
When during the election, we made a contract with Italians, Five points, we didn’t keep any of those. But recently asked how what is the vote you give to your What vote will you give to yourself for this five last five years? They say ten plus. So it’s a guarantee know, signature. If one lives in the present, can’t be depressed.
I think we stop here. So, there is Anyway, maybe we continue with this tomorrow and then tomorrow, no? Yeah. Yeah, we continue. So if it’s not enough with the pressure, we can continue tomorrow.
And so we talk a little bit more about the mind as well. So, let me know if you have some questions. I’d like to ask you if you could give us a small test of this Vipassana that you’re going to do during the weekend retreat. Small? Is it possible to make a meditation?
Oh, here, now. Vipassana practice maybe tomorrow? I take away meditation. You take away meditation? Something to take away.
Something to take away, yeah? Yeah, to take away. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. All right.
Oh, yes, my eyesight is really. Yeah, you crave less. Well, it’s not like immediate, no. Everything is gradual. Of course, but then it seems to conflict with the worldview we normally live in, like, you need to be educated, you need to, yeah, all the time have Well, first of all, Dharma is really Dharma really goes this way, our life goes that way, yeah.
You know, you really go to the opposite way. So, it is it is a choice, it is a question of choice. So, someone, see Buddha, he never comes to, he never, you know, ask people, you know, you must do this, you should stop craving, you know, you should, you must stop touching and so forth is when we understand, let’s say, when one understands, if one doesn’t understand and just does because it feels good or maybe it makes sense, I’m a Buddhist, I’m a Buddhist so I have to be content and so forth, and without believing it, then it becomes very difficult and then the conflict because the world goes this way, Dharma goes that way. When one understands, when one feels that it is important to understand the importance of cooling because Buddhas were called, you know, Buddhas, Śīla, for example, morality, what we call morality. Ethic is Śīla, which means cool, cooling.
We need to cool. It’s like our passion, you know, our passion is like hot water, it’s like something hot. So we need to cool, like take a shower, cold, fresh, you know, to cool something. So contentment, when we talk about Śīla, Śīla is contentment and it cools, you know, it cools. So it cools.
Therefore, we are not talking about giving up, it cools. We need one needs to cool the desire. The problem is not with the object. The problem is we can’t handle it, you know. The point is we don’t know how to handle it.
Our pleasure is a fact, you know, it’s a fact. Then is but then is the world, but the world is that’s that’s how it is. The point is, is not that what I said, for example, so far is is as it is. That’s the Dharma. Buddha taught things as they are.
It’s not that Buddha is Buddha or Buddhism, it was it’s not a revealed religion. It’s not like Buddha spent, you know, how many? Six years in meditation, then something appeared, so look, I tell you, this is how it is, you know. So, he found, so he realized he saw things as they are, you know. So, craving is negative.
Craving is that characteristic not because Buddha said or because God said it is as it is. So, it’s nature. It’s nature is unhappiness. And so, we understand that, then it’s our choice. Then it’s our choice.
To pursue it, follow it, to stop it. Yes, of course. The world is true. Go this way and you’re supposed to go that way. Yes.
So at the beginning, everything is gradual. So it’s not that one makes a drastic change, you know, bit by bit, bit by bit, and depend also how clever. If the person is very clever, then he can deal, he can enjoy the object by being attached, by being detached. That is possible, but it will be difficult. For the person who find it very difficult, then the less object, the better.
Less become involved, the better. It depends, you know. For those who find very difficult to get detached, then it is advisable not to be too much involved. Those who are very clever, those who are very clever, they can enjoy without being too much involved, they can, of course, very difficult. So it depends, you know, depends on the individual.
Also, craving is, for example, they wish to become a lawyer, they wish to have a family, that is not the type of craving desire, something different. The craving desire that we are discussing here is the type of craving desire that when it arise will make us unhappy. If, so in the sense, if we don’t get it, you know, we feel unhappy. That, if it’s the wish, the mere wish, we can call it desire. We are using the same terms but for different things.
Sometime we say, you know, desire this, I desire to that, I desire to go, you know, take a vacation or whatever. That’s okay. Yeah. And what would you say to modern therapists who believe that depression, certain types of depression such as manic depressive depression and so on are physically caused and who constantly are adding chemicals to a patient’s body and as proof that it works, some of them are actually have a better time of it. Yeah.
Yeah. We’re getting an answer from Buddha himself. Here he is. Yeah. They must have heard.
Okay. He must have heard. He must have seen that it’s too difficult question. I need to answer that. Yeah.
Well, this Buddhist there are things that we can prevent because here we have to take into consideration, I don’t know if you are familiar with karma, you know, you heard about karma? karma, this is so whatever we experience, the very body, you know, the very body that we have, you know, is is a message. Very body that we have is the karmic result, you know. So everything, the shape of our body, the size of our body, you know, how healthy or unhealthy our bodies and so forth, they are all the result of past actions. So we don’t exist just in this life.
You know, we have a long history, actually, so long that there actually is no beginning to it, There is no beginning to our mind. So, there is no beginning to our existence. And, in the Sūtra, would have said very clearly, in virtue Buddha emphasized a lot, practicing virtue, abandoning on virtue. So, when we hear the teachings, when it’s when the Lama teaches or at the beginning of teachings, there is a very famous verse that one recite. Abandoning even the the tiniest non virtue, practicing perfectly virtues.
Taming the mind is the teaching of Buddha. So, because from non virtue suffering, from virtues, happiness. This means from virtuous actions, it’s not only in this life, but in our future lives, whatever action we perform mentally, physically or verbally, it leaves an imprint consciousness. It leaves an imprint in our consciousness that then ripen. For example, to be born simply as a human being, yeah, to be born as a human being, the cause of my human being body is to be ethic morality.
No? Abstaining basically from killing, stealing, you know, harming others. Abstaining from harming others both physically and verbally is the cause of human being body. But then the human being body has to be also the human body has to be nourished, so we need to eat to survive. Yeah?
That too has its own causes, that is generosity and so forth. The fact that one is a healthy body, strong body, that is it is said to be the cause of patience. Anyway, and the cause of being too constantly harmed, you know, oneself constantly harmed in this life is having caused harms to others in past lives. So therefore, so called whether it is chronic depression or manic depression, even the tiniest unpleasantness is the fruition of past karma. That’s why with regard to unpleasantness, whether it is So, because basically that’s what it is.
When the person is depressed, chronic depressed, it’s certain unpleasantness. Yeah? It is unpleasantness. That feeling of unpleasantness is the fruition of past actions. Yeah, is the fruition, the result of past actions.
And so with regard to that, you know, whatever unpleasantness may be, we cannot we can do anything about even Buddha. karma is even even powerful than Buddha. Once once the seed it has been planted, yeah, so unless unless it is purified. So, if it is purified, one can does not experience the result. But if it’s not purified, then one is bound to experience the result.
So, everything that we experience in this life in terms of unpleasantness, sickness, so mental or physical, whatever it may be, you know, all this unpleasantness, mental or physical, it is all fruition of past actions. And with regard to that, we cannot change it. The only thing we can do is to train the mind, you know, like to be mindful of it, to accept and so forth. We can do a lot to keep the mind undisturbed. That’s what we can do.
So, we can keep the mind undisturbed so it doesn’t become unpeaceful. But the things still happen, you know. Things constantly arise, ripen. And, with like chronic depression, depends, you know, depends how clever is the person. If the person is, you know, if the person is very disciplined, he begins to see in terms of unpleasantness, you have a more content life particularly, you know, acceptance, you know, the practice of acceptance is a big help.
Let’s put it like that, big help, you know, because when something arisen, we have to live with it. We have to live with it. You know, we all have to live. We live without where we want to, you know, in terms of physical or mental. So, acceptance is the real answer, I mean, for this type of problem, chronic.
And it’s not simple, it’s very difficult, but extremely powerful. And acceptance, it doesn’t mean at all surrender, at all. Acceptance actually means not to accept at all, you know, because when we accept, the very reason why we accept is because we don’t like it, isn’t it? So, but the point is we don’t like, you know, we don’t like that unpleasantness, but what we do is totally the opposite. We create more Because we reject, we it increase, you know.
When we reject the pain, you know, when we reject, when we generate aversion to the things that we don’t like, you know. So the person who is chronic, is depressed, is aware of it, yeah, and definitely that he or she doesn’t like, I don’t like this, yeah, tries to fight. And that is the very mistake that we make because we simply increase, increase the pain. So, we don’t want the pain, but we end up increasing it even more. So, with acceptance, you know, with acceptance it, it, we create a space so it doesn’t last long.
It doesn’t become so heavy. In a way, you know, it, yeah, it passes, you know, as it passes, it becomes light, you know. So, it’s the best way is really, you acceptance in that sense. I don’t know if, you know what I mean? Acceptance is really, acceptance is really non accepting, in the sense trying to do something or to experience to be, to feel better.
Yeah. Which is not, we emphasize a lot, not in the retreat, the people, they mistake acceptance for surrender, not at all. Just with, if we just, if we were just able to practice acceptance, we’d be the most happy person in this world. That’s possible. For this type of depression, acceptance is how to begin, definitely.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.