1996-07_03 Vipassana Retreat, Part 3 of 8 - Q&A 1

Talk: 19960703-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-vipassana_retreat_part_3_of_8-43307 Start_time: 00:47:20 Display_question: I’m fed up with dullness–what do I do? Keyword_search: dullness, sloth, aversion, fed up, unsuccessfully, rid, hate, lost, ho, sleepy Question_content: Larry: …was a problem, so you opened it up and observed it while breathing or anything else that might be on your mind? Yes. Questioner: What kind of instructions today and yesterday? Sloth, dullness. It was dullness, it wasn't like… Larry: Right. Questioner: And I kind of worked with it through the afternoon. And the truth is I didn't remember to open it up, and so I was counting unsuccessfully, doing everything but standing up unsuccessfully. When I looked at it, it did kind of, the distance I guess did disappear a little, but I had a hard time kind of… dullness here. Larry: Yeah. Can you hear in how you're speaking how much you want to be rid of it? Questioner: Oh, I really want to be rid of it. Larry: Yeah, so one of the things you have to look at is the aversion to it, how fed up you are, how much resistance there is. Enough. That's really, in a sense, when the mind unfolds, and here's what we're calling dullness. I know it's a complex state, has all kinds of little things in it, but really, the dullness then begets aversion: “I don't want this anymore. I hate it. Oh, no, not again.” And so forth. So really, the mindfulness is of that. Do you see the difference, at least in terms of words? Questioner: I totally lost in it. Do you know what I mean? Larry: Oh, yeah, of course. Questioner: I forgot that. Larry: Yeah. Break_line: But before we proceed, how many of you feel very sleepy or dull right now? Can I have a show of hands? And has that been with you through much of the afternoon? Okay, let's try something. We can finish strong, perhaps. Sometimes in Asia your teacher will just scream at you when you get like that. But us being, we're more democratic. One way they scream is just “ho,” h-o. So I'm going to go one, two, three, and we all do it together: “ho.” And don't forget about the silence now. Just, one, two, three: “ho.” One, two, three: “HO!” One, two, three: “HO!” Good. That's easier than being quiet, isn't it? Okay. Now, you see that; you can't please everyone. Questioner: inaudible Larry: Okay, good. End_time: 00:50:15