Just Do It

Good morning, everyone. It's always good to see you all. So, I think I have mentioned several times, if you remember, for those of you that's been coming, that as we progress through our practice, there will be obstacles. Right? Anybody recall me talking about that?

Okay. So, I want to talk about that a little bit, because we have a majority of the folks who have been here with me for a while. And those obstacles come from many different sources. But you will experience those obstacles more so because your intention is now trying to make the progress.

Life has its natural obstacles as well, right? It doesn't just go smoothly every time, right? Is your life just always smooth? It's always obstacles. Create up and down, or you have to, you know, work through a lot of obstacles. But especially when you make the intention to practice, to devote to the truth, to be aligned spiritually with the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, it's inevitable that your ego will come up.

And there will be many distractions that keep you away from the path, many obstacles that will make it hard and difficult. And the most dangerous obstacle you might know what that is. The most dangerous obstacle is your own spiritual ego. Especially as you start making progress, start gaining more knowledge, understanding, and have experiences, especially.

There's that spiritual ego gets developed because there's a sense of accomplishment. Okay? If there's a sense of accomplishment, just remember. And once you get really stuck with an idea about yourself, that I know this. I know. I know. I know. I hear that.

I know. Right there is the trap. That's the trap. That's the trap. That's why devotion to the truth requires a teacher to be able to expose that to you. That's why we take refuge to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Sangha really means the teacher, the monastic teacher.

And I've said this already, but when I became a monk, first thing they teach us is to say, "Yes, me." Which means, "Yes, Venerable." To whoever tells you to do something, you just do it. And obviously, at first we question it. Because it seems like it's about control.

That's what it feels like. Whatever labor work we do, teaching, whatever. But what it is really meant for is to let go the ego. Your ego.

Me, myself and I that knows. You know. So I struggled through that, too. Because I had my spiritual experiences prior to becoming a monk. That's why I became a monk. Because those experiences gave me the confidence in the path to deepen the practice.

But as you deepen the practice, every level you go up, there will be traps. We just have to be aware of that. If you're not aware of that, then you won't know. And a lot of times you won't know. That's why you have to have guides, teachers, to let you know that.

And when they do, it may hurt. Especially when those are, once you have certain experiences and you want to be recognized for that. You want to be acknowledged. You know? And I went to go see my master several times because as I was in the meditation hall, you know, all this different spiritual awakening.

Yeah. But I had full trust and confidence. As soon as he stepped on it, I said, okay, not it. Even though I I know it. This is it. As soon as I said, nope. I said, okay, it's not it. Right away. Because I had that full trust and confidence.

That's what took me to the next level, and next level, and next level. That encounter with the, with my teacher. So, right now, you know, everybody is still working through your personal transformation. But I say this kind of early on, and I will mention this more often, because it's been a while since we've been practicing together.

So, as you have experiences, okay, as you gain knowledge, as you gain understanding, okay, be careful. And, if you don't have the trust and the confidence on the teacher, then you need to go find one. Otherwise,

it's gonna be a mess. That spiritual ego, even the Buddha said, "I cannot fix that." There are three people, three things I can't do, he said. I can't convince you if you're not willing to learn. Okay? Even those that are willing to learn, if their spiritual egos high, I can't change their mind.

I can't wash away their karma. And I can't wake everybody up at the same time. So, I still have a weekly call with my mentor. Even though he says it's unnecessary, just to have that conversation. The experience is because I want to make sure I don't fall into a trap without knowing.

Because there's perfect enlightenment. There are other levels of enlightenment. Until it's completely done, we still have to be careful. Even though there has been insights, even though there's no more claim of a self, they're still subtle, very subtle. karmic energy and attachments. It could be.

So, I share this because I see that people that are dedicated to practice will get there. We'll get there where you'll start experiencing and we talked about certain experiences you had physically, mentally, there will be a lot. but they're just experiences. That's it.

Okay? We got to look at it. That's why we're training when we meditate. We're training our minds to simply watch. That's the training. Because what do you have right now? Tendency to follow the thoughts, right? To strive. So, the practice, the daily guideline that I have for everybody to do is a guideline.

Okay? Don't turn that into a checklist. Another thing to do then it just becomes a checklist, that's all. But if you can be devoted into the practice, okay? After certain periods you should be going beyond it. Going beyond it. If you did an hour per day, maybe a little bit more.

Another twenty minutes. Okay? Chanting. If you did the morning puja, maybe when you have time, remind yourself with it again. Random act of kindness. If you're doing it every day, increase it. You know, mindful activities. If you're doing three, now five, now seven.

Because it's not about knowing anything. Okay, this practice is not about gaining knowledge. It's about being, beingness. Our new way of being. Free from the ego. Free, becoming liberated from our karmic way of being, our old way of being, to new way of being, which is liberated.

So it's not this, "Oh, it feels so good."

You know? Anybody can have that when you go to spa or nice environment. You know, you guys talk about that, right? Go outside, meditate and feel so, so much better. Yeah. That's still just a feeling. True peace, when you find that, is imperturbable.

Peace. That's the equanimity that we're talking about. When we talk about the four immeasurables. Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Imperturbable peace. No matter what the environment is, we should be able to stay present, and be open. Yeah. But if we prefer something else, and don't like something, that's the ego. Just recognize that.

Oh, I don't like this. I'd rather be this way. That's your preference. Okay? So more and more, as your practice becomes deeper to the spiritual practice level, I don't know if anybody looked at the website, tier one, tier two. Tier two level, once you really dive into the spiritual practice, living a life of spiritual life, We're more mindful of what we enjoy or find pleasurable.

We're mindful. And we haven't got there yet, so I'm not going to go too much into that yet. But right now, we're still trying to find peace within chaos. By training our minds to simply be without any judgment, any judgment, any resistance. Okay? There's discernment, which choice I should make.

But we're trying to train our mind to allow things to be. Okay?

So, if you come to me for, especially for recognition, you know, I'm not going to feed your ego. Okay? I'm not going to recognize it. But, at the same time, if I see something that needs to be encouraged, I will encourage you. So, if you're hurt by what I say, then you should look at the relationship.

Do I have the full trust and confidence to accept the teacher's advice? Okay? And that's what, that's the work that you have to do. Okay? I can only guide, point the way, go this way. You have to do all the work. You do, yeah. And even the Buddha, the perfectly incomparable, had people just walk away, or where he just stood up and got left, too, because they weren't listening.

Yeah. So, it's just, it has to be open-heartedness. That's what we're training first, open-heartedness. And there are teachers that would take advantage of that, you know. You know, want to be idolized and tell you to do this and that for their personal gain.

So, be on the lookout for that, okay. There should be no personal favors. Nothing pleasure-based, okay. There has been a lot of issues in the past, okay. There should be no, truly, not really a personal relationship, only teacher-student relationship. But because of what happened, there's been, there's a lot of issues, even in the Buddhist community.

So, decide, if you're going to follow the guide, commit, commit to the practice. Commit to the practice. That's all I ask of you. Commit to the practice of letting go. Ultimately, enlightenment is letting go. To release ourselves from the grips that we have. The grips. Because those grips, no matter how well you can justify it, it will cause suffering. Even if you say, "Okay, I can suffer a little." Then you don't understand what suffering is. Don't understand karma.

All of those accumulate. Everything we say, we do, we think, creates vibrational energy. Right? Physically speaking. That accumulates into the memory of the consciousness. And that's what becomes causal condition for our future experiences. Those causal conditions accumulate and manifest into whatever is conditioned to manifest. That's just a karmic process. There's no judgment in that. We can call it good and bad based on what we like and what we don't like. You know, it's positive and negative based on whether it supports life versus it hurts life. Okay? But that's just karma. That's how everything is. Everything that exists, exists upon the karmic causal conditions. That's it. So the decisions you make will have its ramifications. Not good or bad. It's just gonna have its butterfly effect.

Okay? Based on accumulation. Even if you don't say anything, don't do anything, the thoughts alone, okay, will create agitation in your mind that accumulates into creating more thoughts that are created by those causal conditions. Okay? That's why we have to become very, very, very mindful. That's the right mindfulness of the Eightfold Noble Path, is watching our self. What am I thinking right now? What are my thoughts? What am I doing right now? What am I seeing right now? All those accumulates. And as you practice, you know, some people come here with really extreme suffering, and they, through your practice, you'll find some relief. It gets better, life gets a little bit, you know, you overcome those. That's when you start to move away from the path again.

It's like, "Okay, I'm good." Yeah, this seems a little bit too boring, repetitive. And a lot of people, it doesn't find it interesting enough. Yeah, this is where that commitment, the practice, the intention. Okay, intention is so important. It's what's going to create the direction of your life. And then they'll start suffering again, and they'll come back. I mean, it's lucky if they do come back. But if they don't, then they'll continue on that path. And never know what caused their suffering. That's the thing about, you know, karmic consequences that we are experiencing right now. we can't remember because there's so many different karmic causal conditions. The only thing we can do is be awake right here in the now so we can make conscious choices.

Conscious choices. Not right and wrong. You know? Right and wrong is your own opinion, your own positionality. Everybody's right to have their own opinions. That doesn't mean it's true. Right? So being conscious, being at a higher level of conscious is supported by wisdom and compassion. To be able to see things as is with open-heartedness and with compassion. Willing to serve others. Willing to put myself up there for others.

To volunteer.

To lend a hand. To be kind. Even though they were mean to me. You know? Yeah. How can I transform my way of being is the whole point of this practice. It's not to change the world, even though it will impact the world.

Simply by working on our own beingness. Okay? So, we all want world peace. We all want this world to be peaceful, people to get along. But ask yourself, how am I being? Are there any confrontations? Are there any conflicts? You know, how am I serving others?

Right now? You know, or am I trying to strive for my own goals? There's nothing wrong with that. There's no judgment. Just be able to discern, you know, the compassion versus, you know, self-driven. And whenever you are self-driven, ask yourself, especially being the practitioners here, I don't see anybody too self-driven here, based on your practice. But, it's so easy to come off the path.

So easy. Just, even after you get to a certain level, the fall is very, very quick. It may take you a long time to get to a certain level. But the fall happens like that. Just by being convinced by the ego, by the situation, by money, you know, by relationship.

It's so easy. You know? What do they say? Sex, money, and drugs ruins everybody. That goes for spiritual practitioners, too. Yeah.

A lot of the masters that came to the U.S., because they got idolized, you know, they start taking advantage of their students. They're obviously not masters. If they can't have that, you know, self-disciplined mind to control one's own pleasure-seeking, then all of those teachings are useless.

That's why shila comes first. For monks, that's what separates the monks from the lay practitioners. It's the shila, moral conduct. That we take the vow. And some people take it seriously, some people don't. But that's really the only point where, as a lay practitioner, you can judge a monk, whether that person is abiding by those, you know, or at least trying.

And they're at this age, age of degenerative dharma, you have monks with families and things like that. But not to judge them. It's just what's happening. So for us to return to the authentic intention of the Buddha, to help us to liberation, liberation of the karma, is to dissolve the ego, the ego, this whole me-ness that we have, this I-ness, okay, that's so deeply rooted.

Even though you understand that it's not me. But it's still there, right? Still there. So don't fight that either. You know, I've seen the comments like, "My ego is so strong." You know, just recognize that. You don't have to judge yourself, judge your ego.

Just recognize it, recognize it, recognize it. At least when you recognize it, you don't fall into it. Does that make sense? Like when you're angry, when you're frustrated. If you recognize that, okay, there's a frustration energy, and just try to look at it as not me. Don't identify yourself with it.

Just look at it as a, just energy that's habitual, that comes up and goes. Then you're no longer in it. The more you pay attention to it, less and less and less powerful its grip's gonna be. That's the whole method of letting go.

It's not this, it's just looking. And as your power increases to observe, it'll go quicker, it'll dissolve quicker.

So that's the practice that I'm trying to train you on, is to look, watch, observe. Which word, whatever word that resonates with you, okay? There are a lot of different words out there, it means the same thing. To know. Sati. Is to be aware. To know. What is. Right now.

And that's what we're practicing. Mindfulness. Sati. Sati. To know. To be right here. So we don't get lost in our thoughts. About future. All this fear comes from the future. All these regrets. All this rumination. It just takes its way into the world of suffering.

So we don't want to suffer. We want to be free. Then be right here. When you're truly present, you'll recognize this. When you're truly present, there's no problem. What so ever. It's just happening. And you get to see the causal conditions that allows it to happen.

And it stays for a little bit, and it gets dissolved. That's it. So what is there to hold on to? What is there to be emotional about? So you recognize that. So the paradigm shifts and changes throughout your practice, right? So those of you who have been practicing, you notice the change, how you look at the world, right?

Yeah. That's the progress you're making. You're no longer, you know, argh, irked, triggered. Sometimes. Yeah. It's better than when you first began. Okay. Yeah. So notice that. Notice that. That's the work. To just simply watch. To be the shining sun, shining awareness, luminous mind.

That is just simply being. Right. That's the essence. Right. So I try not to, like, use the verbs and, you know, the words to describe the absolute because it creates conceptual ideals. But that's just it. That's here and now where you are aware is all there is.

That is the truth. That is the absolute. Everything else is keeping you from being able to see that. All those thoughts. Think in mind. Is what is creating all these haste, judgments.

And it is difficult when you are immersed in your responsibilities and livelihood. It is. I recognize that. But that's why we have to set the intention. Devotion is to truth. And I'm just a guide. Okay. So, whether you follow the guide or not is a choice.

But if you decide not to, I can't do anything for you. And even if you agree with everything that I say, if you don't commit to the practice itself of being on the path, staying on the path, then it's not beneficial. All these are just ideals and concepts.

Until you start practicing and recognizing your own ego. Okay? And say, okay, this is ego. Just by recognizing that, you're already getting better. Okay? So don't expect too much. Or expect at all. Just do it. Just do it because I told you to do it.

How's that? You need to do every day, puja in the morning, you know, reflection at night, 108 prostration, if you're physically able. Just do it. Just do it. Random act of kindness, mindful activities, you know, meditate to train your mind. Just do it.

Just do it. Yes? Yes? That's not one of the mandatory ones. It's included in the optional. Yeah, it's optional. So after a while, if you're physically able, you should try that.

Yeah. I always have a question about this. Why is it always 108? 108? Somebody asked that, too, on Wednesday, right? 108 is a number that Buddhists and Hindus share, but a little bit different calculation. It's based on the six senses, you know, of six senses, six objects of the senses, and then six consciousness that comes up.

The past, present, and future, you know, all multiplies into, because all of those senses is the door for kleshas, meaning fetters. You know, so we are looking at 108 defilements, fetters, based on, based on our six senses that crave visual pleasure, hearing pleasure, smelling pleasure, you know. All of those pleasures and, and aversions that we have, they all kind of multiply, I forgot exactly how they multiply, it multiplies it to 108.

And that's, that's why they're saying it's 108 defilements, based on our six senses, and what we crave through our senses. Okay? That make sense? I think I posted up on the band one time. I'll try to find it and repost it. So, yeah.

That's why 108, then you have the beads. The Buddha told them to make the beads, the 108, to remind yourself the bead that she's wearing. Yeah. To remind yourself of those defilements. So, we're always being mindful of what we're trying to find pleasure with our eyes, ears, nose, you know, touch, taste.

You know, thinking. Six senses. And six objects of, you know, desires. You know. So, those all multiplied by what I did in the past, what I'm doing now, and what I'm in the future. All equates to 108. That's why it's 108. Okay? Thank you. Any other questions? No? I have another one. Yeah, sure. I've been kind of processing this for the past year, but the relationship between Buddhism and dopamine has been kind of a question mark for me because in the modern world today it's probably because of the general dharma, but I see people kind of being willing to think, do different things that bring us joy, but I feel like some of these joys are short-term gratification. I see a lot of the modern day worlds like consumerism, food, screens, a lot of the things that we do are short-term gratification and it triggers high dopamine. And I'm wondering how in

Buddhism we regulate, or how we're supposed to how we're supposed to like receive dopamine in a life of joy. Yeah. So dopamine is not always bad, is it? Is it? No. Yeah. Dopamine is just a release when you feel like you've accomplished something. Right? You got what you want. We just get addicted to it. Right? Without knowing. So it's not the dopamine itself that's bad. It's our attachments to things. Addictions. So we just have to focus on that. You know, whether, what am I addicted to? Okay? What am I addicted to? And we're addicted to pleasures. We want things to be convenient. We want to be comfortable. Okay? And we don't want anything discomfort. All right? At a certain point, with the advanced practitioners here, we we're going to experience some discomfort. Because we have to work through that, to be able to accept that. You know? Once we step it up, we haven't been able to do that right now because we don't have the environment. When you have to be able to accept uncomfortable situations for the sake of practice. Right? For a person who went to ten-day meditation, it wasn't comfortable, was it? Yeah. Even the living condition wasn't all that comfortable.

Right? But it's just working through that when you overcome that. Right? So we learn to accept things as this. Yeah. And I can say this and you can do this through meditating at home. You know, but until you really have to physically experience it, you know, that push through, that power to push through doesn't get developed. That's why 108 prostration is powerful. Because at first, it's hard, right? It gives you sore legs, right? Yeah. It's not easy. But as you continue, your devotion becomes stronger. Okay? It helps you to really develop very, very powerful karmic energy. That's why prostration is very powerful. At least 108 a day. And once in a while, we want to do about 300. Because it's hard. Not just because it's hard, because it allows that opportunity to let go of that ego, let go of the body, and just do it. And you'll see, you know, that experience. When I did my first 3,000 in high school, when I went to Korea, I think I was junior, before junior year, in the summertime. Yeah, I remember it's like 2,500 something, you know. The reason I remember that number is when I was, like, about to give up, I was talking to a monk, and he's like, "How much did you do?" And I sped up the exact number, and he's like, "Pff, you're stuck on the numbers now." And he corrected me that you're stuck on the numbers and your accomplishment, because I was very proud. I did 2,500, whatever, you know. And he kind of woke me up from that. So I went back and we just did it.

And realized that it was all in the mind. All this pain that I wanted to get rid of, to avoid. And the last 300 was actually pretty smooth and easy. And that's what I came out of it, that it's all dependent on the mind, what we project out there, even with our own body. Okay? So your mind can become very, very, very powerful, or it can be very, very, very weak. Sometimes it takes a little bit of experience to do that. So second time I did 3000, you know, I didn't, it was, it took a long time and it was difficult, but I didn't have that obstacle. You know, just did it because I committed to it, you know. So, by doing that, my knees aren't very good.

But spiritually you grow. Yeah. Because I was born with very weak joints and it wasn't good for my knees, but still, spiritually you grow. That's why we have to sometimes push through the

hardship and as your practice gets deeper, you will experience hardship in your life that will detract you from the practice. Illness, financial ruin, whatever it is, it'll start to appear. Not just because of that, but it's just the karmic debt that you have that happened to rise faster. And that's when we have to say thank you. Thank you for letting me, allowing me to dissolve this now, you know, so I don't have to carry this with me. It just means that you're becoming more purified. It's a purification, a karmic purification process. Karma doesn't just go away because you pray or you practice. You have to experience it. And how you experience it will be different depending on your attitude, your mental agility, and your intention. Okay? So when you do face difficulties, embrace it.

Okay? It's all my creation. I take full responsibility for it. And then overcome it. Adopt and overcome. Embrace and overcome. Okay? Any other questions? Yes? After the recent disaster in Nepal and Tibet, My mind started thinking about the term group karma. And I wondered if my mind should stay off that thought and just worry about my own practice. Or is there anything you wanted to comment about group karma? Yeah. Just send a lot of compassionate prayers for them. You know? Or send donations, if you can, to help. That's it. If you think more about it, then it gets very confusing. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, one of the Dalai Lama's attendants asked him, as they were fleeing Tibet, "What do we do so wrong? What is our karma that makes us deserve?"

Just practice, you know. Just pray. It was popping into my mind. Yeah. Just pray. What did those good people do so wrong? Yeah. It's not about what they did wrong. It's not, it's not always right and wrong. It's just what happens. And you just happen to have to be in, you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time because of the choices you made in the past. Right? Um, yeah. So you can't really, uh, uh, pinpoint karma. That's the thing. You can't really pinpoint this cause that. That's why we have to be careful moment to moment. Yeah. Buddha said, if you try to do analysis back all this karma to figure out, you either never get there or go insane. So just understand that everything is, um, karmically created.

but there's infinite amount of causal conditions. That's why we have to become liberated from it. Otherwise, we are still swept away. We're still swept away by the waves without even knowing. That's why we have to become awake. That's why we have to come out of the water instead of just trying to keep our head above the water all the time. We have to come out. That's the ultimate intention.

Intention of this practice. To become completely liberated from the samsara. Continuation. Okay? Alright, so it's noon. We're not going to have the tea time today because we're going to head out to the event. We're going to finish with our metta prayer and then have maybe an announcement after that. So let's bring our palms together. Repeat after me. May all beings be free. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be joyful. May all beings awaken to their true nature. May all beings be free. Have a wonderful weekend.