Được dạy bởi Sư Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu
Dịch Việt: Việt Hùng
Lời người dịch: Trong các bài Hỏi & Đáp như vậy, tôi sẽ chủ yếu dịch thoát ý, chứ không chặt chữ. Một mặt đây là việc tôi làm để có thể nghiền ngẫm phần trả lời của Sư Yuttadhammo. Một mặt, tôi chia sẻ lại đây, và hy vọng nó hữu ích cho các thiền sinh Vipassana tham khảo.
Bài pháp ngắn này được đăng tải trên Youtube vào ngày 03/02/2012. Phần English transcript ở cuối bài. Link Youtube của bài nói ở đây: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKe6KikBMCo
Mặc dù đã cố gắng tốt nhất trong khả năng của mình, tôi chắc chắn không thể ghi xuống được một cách chính xác 100% tất cả các từ ngữ, đặc biệt là các từ Pali mà Sư đề cập trong bài pháp. Tôi sẽ tiếp tục cập nhật bản ghi, bất cứ khi nào tôi thấy được những điểm còn thiếu sót.
Con xin thành kính đảnh lễ tạ ơn Sư Yuttadhammo về bài pháp thoại ngắn quí báu này. Con nguyện cho Sư được mọi thuận lợi và sức khoẻ trong hành trình tâm linh của Sư.
Các bạn có thể tìm hiểu thêm thông tin của Sư Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu và các lời dạy của Sư tại trang web: https://www.sirimangalo.org/.
English Transcript (quickly jotting down)
Question: I waste too much time lost in samsara, the events of the day, without paying attention to Buddhist practice. Any tips on keeping alert and mindful during the day?
[Monk 1] Well, I wonder where I have to answer this question. No, no, no, I didn’t mean anything, but I think you’ll be good at answering. Well, I think the good thing is, first of all, to notice that I’m spending too much time and there’s too many events going on. So this is the first step. I think to the second question is what everyone has to answer for himself. How much is enough time in practice? One person might say one hour a day is fine for me. But if I feel that there’s a lack. And it’s certainly worthwhile looking at the time I’m spending during the day, wasting my time, because obviously there is a problem. I don’t think there’s a guideline where you can say it’s OK to spend one or two hours with events and some people need for this and people need sticks. I certainly spend a lot of time wasting. But while I was out there in the samsara world, I thought that meditating in the morning and evening was good enough for me. But still, I spent many hours wasting, so I felt the same. So I can relate to the question very well.
[Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu] Got any tips for them? Good answer. I mean, the.
[Monk 1] Well, becoming a monk. It’s certainly a way. It’s a possibility. But I got rid of it… Well, I never had a television, really. So I spent a lot of time and computer. We discussed it here, too. We said, because it is a problem if you spend think… This goes for a young generation, especially. If you spend half a day in front of the computer, it’s just not healthy. It’s not wholesome. So if you notice it, there is something coming up. We feel bad about it. Then, you might have to put up a rule and say, OK, if it’s possible. I mean, at work, probably you still have to work computer. It’s usually eight hours more. So if you’re spending private time and computer playing games and stuff, you certainly are going to be feeling very bad on that. But I didn’t have that problem. But I know many people do. So everyone has to find out, I think for himself what is good, what is wholesome and what can be done about it. But certainly putting up a rule saying, if possible, not more than half a day in front of any kind of machine, it just makes it drains you out and keeps you away from practice.
[Monk 2] I see things for keeping mindful throughout the day, just be simple. Because say, you’re in a waiting room, you could sit there, watch the breath, you can add specific things to remind you to be mindful, like start with something simple. Like whenever you walk to your hallway, be aware that you’re walking through your hallway. You see the hallway as a time to go. Step right, step left. Become aware that if you’re going through a doorway, just be aware that you’re walking through the door, going into a different area. Just little things to bring the mind back to what’s happening right then. That’s all it is, just being aware of what’s happening right now.
[Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu] Another thing that I think is incredibly important, not to mention and not just in regards to this question is, I mean, that’s the main of the question has been answered. But to add something. For Westerners, especially, people who live in this what we call the Western world, we tend to feel a lot of guilt when we don’t perform up to some standard and as opposed to other societies or certain societies that feel not enough guilt. So when they’re doing really bad things, that they they don’t feel ashamed of it at all. And it can in both ways are incredibly dangerous. When you’re too serious about something and when you’re not serious enough. And the important, incredibly important thing that I wanted to mention. This is the Buddha’s words, on one moment, the Buddha said, if a person spends one moment developing clarity of mind, it’s better that they had that one moment and died the next moment than they should live for 100 years and never have that one moment. He said, one moment of mindfulness, one moment of love, kindness, compassion and a list of several states, it is of immeasurable, is of great benefit. And so he said, so just think of what happens when you do it for a long for a long time. I think this is a much better way to approach things like meditation, kind of like money in the bank. Uh, we should think of or one way to think of, a good way for people who are feeling guilty and thinking I’m not doing enough is to look at it in a different way and think of every every meditation you do as a good thing. The point being, you want to feel good about meditating. You don’t want it to be like a chore and be something that you’re pushing yourself to do. Because most likely the reason why you’re pushing yourself to do it is because it’s not comfortable. Or because there’s some aspect about it that because of its being unnatural or taking it out of your natural state, it seems unpleasant and your mind rejects it because actually meditation, when you’re doing it, is a lot less unpleasant than you think it is, right? We think, oh, that an hour of meditation, that’s going to be tough. But when you’re actually doing it and when you finish doing and you feel like, oh, I’m really getting something here. You feel like like it’s benefiting you. Uh, but it’s easy to get these negative tendencies and they get worse when you feel guilty about it. When you say I should be meditating, I should be meditate, you develop more aversion, more and more anger inside you. And the quality of anger, according to the Buddha, is, um, it’s the dissatisfaction that leads one to seek out the essential pleasures. So by creating this aversion to the fact that you’re not meditating, is disliking of the fact. That there’s anger in regards to, self-hatred, in regards to the fact that you’re not meditating. You make it harder to meditate, you make yourself less likely and more likely to get caught up in samsara. Your natural tendency will be more towards getting the central pleasures. Because you’re not happy.
When you look at meditation as something that brings you benefit and you think, wow, if I meditate, every moment that I’m mindfulness is something that one of my teachers always said. Every moment that you’re mindful of, your defilement, seven lifetimes worth of defilement die off. This is according to the Abhidhamma. You can work it out like that. It’s kind of a tricky way of saying things. But it’s actually true every moment that you say to yourself rising and you’re clearly aware of the rising, the defilement in your mind die, seven lifetimes worth of defilements die in one moment. Because every thought moment has every perception has seven, seven karmic moments in a row and all seven of those go out into samsara and can give rise to result in any of any lifetime. So you destroy all of those seven, seven lifetimes worth. I think it’s a bit of a stretch, but you destroy seven bad karma for sure. One moment. So if you do an hour and suppose you’re mindful 10 percent of the time, which is, you know, when you’re just starting out 20 percent of the time, think of how many thought moments you’re being mindful of. That’s goodness. That’s the accumulation of goodness when you look at it this way as a plus instead of, you know, something that you’re adding instead of something that you’re missing. So when you do it, you’re giving yourself something instead of when you don’t do it. You’re neglecting something. Now, it’s true that you actually are neglecting something. It’s not wrong. Your assessment of your life is not wrong. And we should be practicing quite a bit. But the only way to get there is to feel good about it and to enjoy it and to see it from here (in the heart) as a good thing, not up here (in the mind) where you think, oh… Which is how we normally do things. We feel guilty when we’re not doing. Uh, and I think that goes for all goodness. Good deeds should not become a burden everyday. They should become something that is liberating and pleasant for us.
The other thing I wanted to say about in regards to this question is you should never underestimate the value of a community when you’re surrounded. The Buddha was clear on this. The holy life is lived based on your companions, your friends. If you’re surrounded by good people, you’re more likely to do well. You’re naturally inclined to do good deeds and to remember to avoid bad deeds. If you’re surrounded by people who are doing bad things and you’re much more likely to do bad things. So that’s not an option for some people I know, living in rural areas or living in places, even in a city where where people are not so much. But you should do your best to at least avoid people who are unmindful and try to find a way to, um, stay to yourself so that you’re active, you know. And even better to find people who are mindful and stay with them, because you will certainly rub off …
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