So So, yesterday we talked a little bit about the Buddhist view on depression, how depression is a mental state. So, one first tries to prevent. Prevent. Okay, start again. To prevent, yeah.
So, anything else? So, not only depression, every emotion, or the unhappiness, you know, in general. So, one first try to prevent. So, if one does not succeed, not allowing. So, with the mind is a question of not allowing to arise.
So, with regard to the body, as we have seen, with regard to the body, the disease, the illness, sickness. So, with regard to the body, so one applies the antidote, take the medicine and then it removes, yeah, it removes the illness. But with the mind, it’s not a question of removing, but it’s a question of not allowing, not allowing to arise. So, anger not allowing to arise, sadness not allowing to arise and so forth. Anger, dissatisfaction not allowing to arise.
So, depression not allowing to arise. But, if it arises or when it arises, then to accept, you know, the acceptance. So, acceptance, which does not mean surrender, it doesn’t mean surrender. So, It means the purpose of acceptance is not to make it worse than which is bad. So, acceptance is in relation to that which is unpleasant, yeah?
Patience. Acceptance, patience, same thing. So, one become patient on the basis of acceptance. Acceptance, what? That which is unpleasant.
So, that which is unpleasant, it is to be accepted. And then, that which is unpleasant, it doesn’t become worse. It doesn’t become better. See, we normally, you know, whatever unpleasantness arise we reject, you know, we immediately regenerate aversion to it, we fight against. So, in reality, we wish is to go away, what we wish is to go away, to pass.
But, the result that we get is totally the opposite, totally the opposite, it increases. So, the moment we generate aversion to it, the pain will increase, The pain increases. The discomfort increases. The unhappiness increases. So, it doesn’t become better, becomes worse.
So, therefore, one should stop, you know, wishing to make it better. Know? So, first we have to make it leave it as it is, experience as it is, bad. You know? When something is bad, one should so one has to make an effort to keep it bad, not to make it worse.
But we want to make it better. And so, in trying to make it better, it becomes much worse. First, we accept. So, therefore, it stops increasing. So, it stops increasing.
That’s what we need. So, we need to stop making it worse. So, with regard to depression, first one is to accept. Stop fighting, stop rejecting, feeling sorry about oneself, but to accept. And the depression is very much the cream, we can say, the cream of selfishness.
When the person is depressed, it’s the clear sign of being very selfish, which of course you don’t tell this to the depressed person, you know, that he’s selfish. Afterwards, when he passes, one can talk, you know, we can make that person be aware of his or her selfishness. So, selfishness that in Tibetan, you know, is that which, you know, you know, is holding oneself dearly, you know, holding oneself dearly. And when do we hold, this is the word used or translated as selfishness. So, and when do we hold ourself dearly, you know, when we suffer, you know, when we are in pain, yeah, when we suffer, then that is the moment, that is the time when we hold ourselves very dearly.
So, there is only me, you know, there is just me. So today, for example, I feel a little bit, you know, I feel a little bit sick. So every single atom of my body says Antonio, Antonio, Antonio. You know, even the breath is Antonio breathe out. Antonio breathe in.
You know, it’s very solid. It’s cosmic. Cosmic. Know, it’s cosmic. As if in Copenhagen there is only Antonio.
Yes, you know, it feels, it feels. So this is, you know, that is selfishness. So when we suffer, so selfishness is not simply not being able to share, you know, your piece of bread with somebody else, you know, your money, the wealth, you know. That is an aspect, yes, of selfishness. But the real selfishness, it is experienced, it manifests clearly when we are, you know, when we experience unpleasantness.
So, when one is depressed, is really one hundred percent unpleasantness. So, all the doors, the senses, all the doors, the window, everything is closed. Even if Buddha, God, Jesus, Jung, all the psychologists in this world come to help us, we can’t hear anything, you know? We wouldn’t be able to hear, talk. So, there is only me, you know, there’s just me.
It feels, you know, as if everyone left, you know. It feels as everyone left in this world. So, it is just me, only me. So, but the thing what actually happened is that because it is a sign of selfishness, you know, the ego becomes really big, we become really big, tall. And so, when we look, when the person is very tall and looks around, sees nobody, so everyone is there.
You know, if I look around, see nobody. So, but everyone is there as if we are the only one, you know, as if one is the only one in the world suffering. And, so we know that when So, the opposite, no? The opposite of selfishness is what is altruism, you know, thinking about others. And here, see, in Buddhism, altruism, compassion, loving kindness is not presented as a strictly religious or spiritual thing.
But, it’s very much as a therapy. It’s something that one need, it’s a necessity, you know, it’s a necessity, like a medicine. So, we know that when we are sick, for example, when we are sick and we feel like that, you know, as if you are the only person in this world being sick, then the moment we hear, Ah, that person too is sick. And that one also, we feel better, you know, it’s good, you know, thank God I’m not alone. So, we already begin to feel better.
Why? Because the mind begins to expand. So, when we think just me, me, me, me, the mind becomes very narrow, you know, becomes very narrow, you know, we feel suffocated. So, the moment we hear everyone in Copenhagen also says, you got the flu, you know, or you got sick, whatever, is depressed, let’s say. Everyone in Copenhagen is depressed?
Okay, you know, well, you know, I’m not the only one. So, it feels good. Yeah, strangely enough, it feels good. And, yeah, and why? Because the mind begins to expand.
So, the mind diverts, therefore what happens is the attention, it diverts from me, me, me, me to others, you know, others. And so, that’s why loving kindness, compassion is so important because it is good, first of all, for oneself. Loving kindness, compassion is good for oneself. So, that’s why His Holiness the Dalai Lama, you know, always says, If you want to be selfish, then just be big selfish instead of narrow selfish, you know? Because if one thinks about others, the benefit, the first benefit is oneself, you know?
In that sense, big selfish. So, the first two benefit is oneself. And the psychology, if you like, of altruism, thinking about others is that, that it expands the mind. It expands the mind. Can you please sit properly?
Yeah, sorry. Yeah. You know, it expands the mind. So, therefore, but of course, if we never trained, you know, the point, if we never trained in thinking about others, then when we are ready, when we find ourselves in that situation of, like being sad, you know, depressed and so forth, it’s very difficult to divert the attention. It’ll be very difficult.
But, if one is trained, you know, from time to time, one thinks about others, how, in what sense? How that it could be always worse? Normally, we think it could be better. But, you see, as long as we think it could be better, there’s no end to it. Then it could be better and better and better.
Even if we own this world, then we wish to own the moon, and then Mars, you know, and then the entire universe. And not even that is enough. You know, it could be better. It could be better. But the moment one thinks it could be worse, it stops.
You know, the mind stops complaining it could be worse. Yes. So, there is no end to it. And it could be always worse. There is always something worse than what we are experiencing.
So, that makes the mind So, it stops the mind complaining. So, it could be Yeah, it could be worse. So, it could be worse means, you know, thinking about others see to other people in the world that are more unfortunate than oneself. More unfortunate than oneself. So, one Of course, it is a question of habituating, yeah?
It’s not that when one is feeling like that, sad or depressed or whatever, you know, without having done it before, just try, you know, it won’t work. Very difficult, you know, it be very difficult. So, this type of training has to be done when one is not depressed, when one is fine, is well. Unfortunately, when we are well we like to just simply enjoy, you know. Have a good time, enjoy.
Never think, never prepare, never prepare oneself, you know. We never try to prepare oneself. As Śāntideva says, I hope for the best, I prepare for the worst. You know, I hope for the best, I prepare for the worst. But we never prepare ourselves because we always think it could be better, you know.
It won’t strike me, you know. It won’t strike myself, you know. It won’t happen to me. It won’t happen to me. Even the people in New Orleans, I’m sure, I must have told.
We are in America. Can I open something bad to us Americans? It’s impossible, you know. Nothing bad can happen in America. So, but in reality, it did.
So, did happen something, you know. And so, very unprepared. Very clear example, isn’t it? The American government, very unprepared. They were very prepared to do something in Iraq or somewhere else, but very much unprepared for, you know, domestic, you know, for domestic problems.
So, like ourselves. And, yeah. So, therefore, semi loving kindness, no? So, loving kindness is, you know, it is the type of mind that it takes, for example, happiness as an object. The object of loving kindness is happy, you know?
How wonderful if he or she or them, you know, be happy. So, the object of love is happiness. It’s not love itself. Love is just a word, you know, just a word, love. You know, just a word.
So, object of focus is the happiness of others, either rejoicing over it or wishing be others to be happy. Yes. So, if one trains, for example, you know, and see it, look at it as a therapy rather than religious, you know, something religious, spiritual, you know, but like a necessity, then, you know, it can be extremely, you know, very useful. Because, if we take, for example, the depressed person, the depressed person will think, you know, when we see the happiness of others, happiness is the object of love. But the person, when begin to be depressed, let’s say, know, he’s begin to be depressed, already depressed.
The more sees that the people happy, more depressed it become, You know, you look around, everyone is happy, it’s much even worse. You know, it makes you even more depressed, isn’t it? You know, when we see other people that happy but not me, we become even more depressed. It aggravates it, you know. It makes it much worse.
So, rejoicing, therefore, rejoicing of other people happiness, you know, When we see it, we look at it as something like an assisted, as a therapy, not as a religious thing. You know, can be very useful. Yeah, can be very useful. Love. Because the object of love is happiness, unlike, for example, the object of compassion is suffering.
One contemplates the suffering of others. Yeah. So, therefore, with regard to, you know, what we call this sensation, this feeling, the sensation which is unpleasant, which is unhappiness, but we give a name, you know, we call it depression. But, it’s nothing else than unhappiness. So, either one tries to prevent or when it has a reason, accept and on the basis of acceptance try to divert the attention from me, me, me, me, me to others.
So, thinking about how many other people in world are much worse than ourselves. So, then one feels better, you know, feel it helps. It helps. So, as we say this, it is a feeling, it is a sensation, it is mind, yeah? It is a mental experience.
So, the mind. Therefore, it is very important to know the mind, what is the mind. So, the focus, as we have said in Buddhism, the focus is the mind. It’s not the self, it’s not the person, it’s not me, but it is the mind. And, so, to look at the mind, to understand to look at the mind, first, one, we need, you know, to discipline.
We need some discipline. Without discipline we cannot withdraw the attention inside, we cannot look at the mind. So, we need to be disciplined. So, we need first to, to some extent, tame the mind, control the mind, to be able to control. In order to see it, one needs to be able to control, to tame the mind.
So, in order to tame the mind, one must first tame or control the body and the speech. That’s why morality, ethic, discipline, it comes first. Śīla, Samādhi, Prajñā. Morality, concentration and wisdom. So, without wisdom, without concentration, so the mind cannot penetrate its object.
So therefore, cannot generate a discriminative mind. And without ethic, without morality, without disciplines, there’s no way one can generate concentration. And what is the discipline? As we mentioned yesterday, it is that which cools, you know, that which cools. Cool, yeah?
Nobody is so famous, you know? Cool, cool, everything is cool. Be cool, everyone wants to be cool. Yeah, it’s cool. Everything is cool.
Cool. So everyone wants to be cool? So, Buddha taught about coolness two thousand five hundred years ago, you know, the importance of being cool, which is very different of what normally experience, you know. So, cool, yeah, it only has the same meaning, you know, because the person, for example, cool means is a little bit of self control, you know. It can be someone who kill hundreds of people but he has some self control, he says cool.
So, is cool in the sense cold, yeah? Not emotional. Yeah? So, not emotional. But, of course, here the type of coolness that we’re talking about is not simply emotional, not emotional, but virtuous as well.
So cool, cold, cool, but So not emotional, but at the same time, virtue. You know, virtue. Awesome state of mind. Most of the cool people nowadays, the state of mind is most of the time unwholesome, you know, not virtue. So, we are talking about coolness which is wholesome state of mind.
And, so one begins to be cool by restraining the speech, restraining the body. So, slowing down, slow down the behavior. So, slowing down. So, the way the one talk, you know, gentleness, restraining one’s speech, keeping silence, you know, when there is time for silence, keep silence. Restraining the body, the way one walks and so forth.
So, this, it begins, it helps to cool the mind. So, in order to cool the mind, even though it depends, everything depends on the mind, you know, in dependence on intention, we act. Therefore, in dependence upon the mind we talk and we behave. So, the mind comes first. But still, in order to cool the mind, one somehow begins to cool the body and the speech, restraining, yeah, restrains the body and the speech.
So, morality, ethic, so very important at the beginning. And so, that’s what one does during a retreat. So, that is the foundation, you know, that is the foundation of a retreat, it is the foundation of meditation. Restraining the body and the speech. Then, so, in this way the mind is withdrawn inside, the person becomes less emotional, less distractions, less discursiveness.
And so, one can begin to withdraw the mind inside and see, look at the mind. And when one look at the mind, the very first thing that one notice, you know, is very much what one notice when trying to meditate. So, when one tries to meditate, the very thing that one notice is that how So, the thing that we want to do when we struggle, you know, we want to tame the mind, you know, tame the mind, control. So, because we identify meditation, for us meditation means to relax, you know, relax, feeling good, peaceful. But when we see it, you know, we see that the result is totally the opposite, you know.
We are not relaxed at all, you know, we are not peaceful at all, the mind is totally agitated, totally out of control. And therefore we think. So, first of all, you know, become afraid. So, we become afraid and discouraged, you know, we become discouraged because of ignorance, you know, because of ignorance. We think, and the first day and so we think, That’s not for me.
It is impossible. That’s not for me. I can’t meditate. I can’t control the mind. So, but what it’s telling us So, when we close our eyes or whether you keep your eyes open or whether the moment you look at the mind, the first thing that we notice how that uncontrolled, how uncontrolled is the mind.
So, therefore the mind has its own life. That’s what he’s showing. So, what he is showing is that the mind has its own life. It doesn’t take any permission. So, when anger arrives, does it ring you?
Say, Tomorrow I’m going to be angry. Are you ready? Or, something, oh, come up, you know, somewhere in the back of your, you know, in the back of your whatever, your mind, your brain will say, Okay, tomorrow I’ll be angry. So, when anger arises, doesn’t take any permission, just arises. Due to cause and condition, not by itself, yes, not by itself, but it doesn’t take any permission from the I, me, you know?
So, we think, you know, when we think I, me, you know, the controller, the observer, the controller, the one who’s in charge, the experience. And also, anger passes, does it take any permission? Okay, I’m going now. When anger passes So, he passes, goes and doesn’t take any permission. When he decides to go, he goes.
And when he decides to come, comes. And same thought and same feeling. When unpleasantness arises, when unpleasantness manifests physically or mentally, again, it doesn’t take any permission, just arises. That is mind. So, that thing is the mind, yeah?
The very experience, no? The experience is the mind, so concept, perception, mental state. So, when they arise, they arise as they pleased and they pass whenever they like. So, therefore, what is showing to us is that the mind has its own life. So, in a way, so far we can say that.
So, therefore, we cannot control the mind the way we like it. And we can also say that, therefore, you know, controlling the mind, how do we control the mind? So, when we try to control the mind, the mind becomes more out of control, isn’t it? The more you try to control the mind, the more you become out of control. So, therefore, the best way to control the mind is not to control it, you know.
Not controlling the mind is controlling the mind. Not taming the mind is the real taming. Not controlling the mind is the real controlling. So, in what sense? That the way we like to, that is not the way to control.
So, in that sense we cannot control the mind. Therefore, the not controlling the mind is the best. So, not controlling the mind means to let. Let. By letting, we are not trying to control, isn’t it?
Yeah? Let. No? When we let, we are not trying to control. So, letting the mind be that it begins to control.
So, but first we have to feel that, realize. So, the mind is very much like a child. So, a child, you do you say do it, you won’t do it. You say you won’t do it, you’ll do it. You know, it’s like Italians.
Italians say, you know, with the law, should not do it, they do it. They shouldn’t do it, they do it. Yeah. So, same. So, the mind is very much like that, you know, like a child.
And, and you can even when you see you can try, for example, when you, for example, when you are trying when you meditate or try to meditate when you want to when you try to bring the mind here and the mind doesn’t want to come back, you know, it’s scattered. Then at that moment try to say go and see whether it goes. Or when you get angry, for example. The more you try not to be angry, the more you wish not to be angry, the more angry you become, yeah? So, at that moment, try to, okay, be angry.
Tell the mind, be angry. Do you think you can be angry? Yes or not? Because now, for example, let’s say you are not angry, I don’t know. Maybe my accent is not so clear, therefore you may be irritated.
But, if you try you know, consciously be angry, if you order your mind, be angry. So, you think you can be angry? So, very clear, you can’t. Yeah? You can’t order the mind.
Be angry. So, if you say be angry, cannot be angry. But when anger arise and you wish not to be angry, you so you become more angry. So, yeah, be distracted, you know. When the mind is distracted and doesn’t want to come back, then at that moment, if you try, be distracted, go, tell the mind go, then you see whether it goes.
You know, it won’t go. Because it likes to do totally the opposite, So, that’s why with the mind is this with regard to the mind, it is very much understanding the mind is in terms of what is not. When one look at the mind is, oh, everything is done by what is not, what is not, what is not. And also, doing totally opposite. Of course, we’re gonna for the clever person, you you have to be clever.
So, letting. So, therefore, is the opposite of controlling, you know, is letting. So, if we control we are not letting, isn’t it? Yeah? Because this term is very important, let.
When we control, when you are trying to control the mind: do it, don’t do it, yeah? Come back, don’t go, don’t be. So, we are not letting the mind. Or rather, we do let the mind do, but this is with distractions. Out of control, the mind.
We let the mind. We let the mind, but not consciously. So, here, letting the mind consciously. Consciously letting the mind, in that sense to let. So, therefore, let be angry.
So, when the mind is angry, let be angry. But consciously, it’s different. So, huge difference. So, just We normally let the mind, yes, you know, but this is unconscious. So, without being aware.
Unaware. We are constantly unaware, so we like to let, you know, we let. Know, let in the sense be yourself, you know, be yourself, just abuse, say whatever you like, say whatever arises in your mind, know, be yourself, be natural, you know. In that sense, we let things, you know, to arise, but that is not the type of letting that you are referring here. So, yeah, it’s let with awareness.
So, as long as there is awareness, then one can let anything. So, by the way, so this is Vipashyana. This is Vipashyana. So, let. Let with awareness.
And when we let with awareness, so then anything is allowed. Yeah? So, because letting with awareness, we don’t become it. So, we don’t identify with it, we don’t become the thing. So, if we let with awareness, with regard to anger, we don’t become angry.
Let be angry. So, anger becomes the object, not the subject. So, normally when we become angry, when anger arise, we become angry. So, we become the subject anger, you know, you know, angry. Anger is the anger anyway.
Anger is the anger. But for us, we identify. So, instead of being simply the object anger, a mental state, a mental factor, it becomes the subject, you know, the angry, you know, the angry. So, letting, when one let with mindfulness, let with awareness. So, it becomes, you know, one detached oneself.
Yeah. Yeah. One become detached. It doesn’t become it. So, what doesn’t become it?
It becomes simply an object, like something external to you, you know, something external to us. Let. And that is what meditation was called at the beginning. So, in the early Buddhism, the word for meditation was that, let it be, let it be, or make it be, yeah, make it be and let it be. That was the word used for meditation.
So, yeah, in the sense, so here there is Everything is allowed to arise. Now, when one look in the context of the mind, there is no discrimination between good, bad, pleasant Between good, bad, interesting, not so interesting. Like, dislike. Everything, even the most unpleasant mental state is the object to be observed. Yeah?
So, one let it arise. So, one see its nature. Is Everything must be, you know, allowed to arise so one sees its nature because to understand the mind we have to look at the mind and so therefore, for example, sadness is mind. Unpleasantness is mind. So, if we want to know the mind, cannot discriminate this yes, this not.
We will never, we would never understand what the mind is. So, therefore, there is no discrimination in regard to looking at the mind. Everything is allowed to arise, everything is allowed to arise, including depression, for example. That too is mind, that too, it is allowed, so by allowing with mindfulness, with awareness, with discipline, then see its nature, being impermanent, being transient, yeah, being impermanent, yeah, and so forth. So, let, you know, this With regard to this type of meditation, yeah, this type of approach, let’s say, this let is, you know, extremely, you know, important because it has two things, let with awareness, one way to let you control.
On one side, you know, one, by letting with awareness that is controlling. And at the same time, by letting one does not become rigid. Because if when we look at the mind becoming rigid, then we become, you know, we get lung, you know, as we say in Tibetan, you know, we become tense, you know, the mind becomes narrow, tension, we feel tensed, agitated, stressed. So, letting therefore, on one hand letting, it is it controls. One is controlling the mind and at the same time it’s keeping the mind a little bit loose.
Yeah, a little bit loose. Relaxed. So, these two things are very important, you know. But this, you know, must find the right balance, so not too loose, not too tight.