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Talk: 19880716-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-questions_and_answers-1554 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 00:56:07 Display_question: How can I sustain my samadhi practice in a world of non-meditators? Keyword_search: delusion, retreat, samadhi, anger, pain, mind’s heart, Brooklyn, Corrado, Ajahn Suwat, love, non-meditators, meat-eaters, Buddha, bad situation/good situation, IMS, suffering, satipanya, wisdom, bodhisattvas, dharma, happiness, daily life, react Question_content: Questioner: When you spoke of the chill, the chill that you feel, when you begin to see the depth of delusion, it’s something that's been with me a lot, this retreat. And I think the samadhi practice has really helped me to….to see that from a whole other level that I really hadn't begun to see before. And as both you know, I've live…I’ve traveled around a bit, but I live in Brooklyn now. You know I'm surrounded by a lot of delusion, and there's a lot of anger, and there's a lot of pain, that's so apparent. And I've often… felt myself losing the ability, to find the mind's heart, in that environment, and you know have traveled out and then come back. And I find that now I understand a little bit more why I lose that. Larry: Why, why do you lose it? Questioner: Because I lose myself. And with the samadhi practice, I feel I have more tools for finding myself, in that environment, or in any environment. Larry: Yes. Questioner: And I also find it so important for me to come to a place like this, and to be physically with love, which I feel all around, I feel from you, and Corrado. And Ajahn Suwat was a wonderful teacher for that also. And I just feel it's a tremendous gift. And I just wanted to say that. Larry: Okay. What you're getting at, is a very big problem, potentially, for all of us, how to live in a world of non-meditators, and even meat eaters. Some people have another agenda. It's not just enough to be a big meditator, but also no meat. If you read a lot of the teachings of the… Ajahn Suwat has lived out most of his 70 years in the forest, and that's a traditional solution to the problem. Goes back to the time of the… of the Buddha, and you can hear it in the Buddha, and also in some of the ancient commentaries. Essentially, it boils down to those people out there are nuts. Take off, and go to the forest, if you want to get free. And so, you might say, well, what about those of us who live in apartment houses in Brooklyn? It isn't hopeless at all, because the real forest, is not that forest. The real thing is, it's inward. So that, here, what we have to do is, we have to make a bad situation, into a good situation. Break_line: What I'm concerned about is a pattern, that I've seen a lot. Let's say you live in Brooklyn, and I know what Brooklyn is like, and finally you get away to IMS, and how wonderful loving people, vegetables, all of that, and suddenly you can create a new kind of suffering, that you never had before. And that is because this retreat does end. Now the practice doesn't end, but the retreat ends, and you go back to Brooklyn, and it can be worse. And you keep having the frame of reference of IMS, not to remind you to use satipanya, in your daily life, to be as mindful and as wise as you can, as you move, as you thread your way through the Brooklyn streets. But now you use it in a negative way. It makes Brooklyn seem just awful and unbearable. And you look at the people and they look a certain way and it's a people. This happens. Now the practice is not designed to make us more of a misfit, than we started out being. So we have to find some way of taking advantage of what we can learn here, in this very specialized environment, but then not misusing that. What we learn here, so that we now handicap ourselves, as we go back to an environment ,that is almost a polar opposite of here. Break_line: So one of the things that can help, is to conceive of a bad situation, is a good situation. And that is what I meant earlier. In our practice, we're attempting to use everything to promote wisdom. And so now, let's say all of those people, okay, here's a way of looking at it. I don't know if it'll be convincing. You might be have to help me. You know, the bodhisattva of compassion, great bodhisattva that..these are bodhisattva, that is just constantly listening for the sounds of suffering, in the world. And then that's what I wanted to know. Is it a thousand? Okay, all these arms and, you know, signifying, I guess, all the need in the world, and all the help that this person is committed to giving. If you look at it this way, let's say all of the... let's say, the noisy people, and the rude people, and the troubled people that make it so hard for you to live in Brooklyn. Break_line: Now suddenly the streets of Brooklyn are teeming with bodhisattvas. Wherever you look, they're pouring out of every store, every restaurant, because they're going to keep pushing your buttons. And it gives you the opportunity to free yourself from that mechanical response. Someone comes, and they're rude, and you tighten up, and go like that. Well, now you've got teachers crawling out of the woodwork. Wherever you look, there's somebody coming up to teach you something. Now, that frame of reference, it's not just, sort of a bad joke, or a booby prize. Maybe it is. I hope not. No, it isn't. It definitely isn't. It's a way of…it’s an attitude to bring into daily life, to bring the practice into daily life, so that when we find ourselves in situations like this, we still always turn the heart, towards Dharma. Always, no matter what's going on. And that's a very difficult. But invaluable training, we constantly turn towards the Dharma, constantly. And so those situations now are seen in a different way. I'm not saying it's easy, but it definitely can be done. It is being done. There are people in this room who are doing it. I'm not one of them, but there are some who are doing it. Questioner: I find that when I'm able to do that, when I'm able to keep my heart open and move through the streets that way, life is very different. Larry: Okay, but you see, I'm not even saying... let's say, if you can keep your heart open, great. But you can't keep it open forever, can you? Do you? I mean, if so, great. Then we have no problem. But it's when it shuts down, or when it reacts. Now one of the… there are signs that the samadhi practice is developing. Some is a feeling of a bit more happiness, an inner happiness. Another is you become less reactive. It's easier to be in the present moment. There's a certain strength of mind. So that this comes at you, you don't automatically react, like a machine. It's a little bit more stable. So, the degree to which we develop along those lines, when we are pushed, those are valuable moments, when you can't hold that open heart, and you close down, then you examine it, and you see what that's about, and then perhaps you're back open again. End_time: 01:04:22
