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Embracing the Impermanence of Well-being

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RA-03174

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The talk explores the Buddhist teaching on the impermanent nature of health and pleasure, emphasizing the idea of caring "just the right amount" about pain, illness, health, and pleasure. Both health and pleasure depend on other conditions and should not be overly valued or relied upon, as they are unstable and impermanent. This understanding allows for balanced responses to life's experiences, avoiding excessive or insufficient concern, thereby fostering skillful and kind responses.

  • Dependent Origination
  • This core Buddhist concept shows the interdependent nature of all phenomena, emphasizing that neither health nor pleasure is self-sustaining or stable.

  • Poetic Imagery of the "Leaky, Tumbledown Grass Hut"

  • Used metaphorically to illustrate the imperfect and transient nature of the physical body and life’s conditions, leaving space for insight and understanding to enter, akin to the moonlight through a hut.

AI Suggested Title: Embracing the Impermanence of Well-being

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Transcript: 

and you won't care too much and you won't care too little about your pain and you won't care too little about your illness. You'll care just the right amount. You'll care a lot, but not too much. You won't care too much, but you won't care a little. You'll care wholeheartedly, but not too much. You'll care appropriately, if you remember this teaching, why you have pain and illness. And because you care just the way you respond to the pain and the illness or the pleasure and the health, you also won't care too much about your health because you remember this health does not make itself happen. It happens in dependence on other things. And things that depend things that depend on other things for their existence are not stable, are impermanent.

[01:06]

This health is not worthy of confidence. I'm healthy now, but this health is not worthy of confidence. This health is unstable, changeable, impermanent. Therefore, when you see that and understand that, you don't care too much about your health. And you won't care too little either. You'll care just the right amount about your health. And pleasure which we don't have here, but pleasure is an other dependent phenomenon. It happens in dependence on things other than itself. Therefore, it can't keep itself going. It's unstable. It's not worthy. Pleasure is not worthy of confidence. If you think pleasure is worthy of confidence, then you will care too much about pleasure. And you are or fortunately. More unfortunately, I think. You are built to think that pleasure is worthy of competence.

[02:11]

It's part of the delusion system. To think that pleasure is worthy of competence. But, if you listen to this teaching... listen to the teaching, you kind of realize, pleasure? Great, thanks. Thank you very much. Yum, yum, yum. But not worthy of confidence. If you think it's worthy of confidence, then you will care too much about pleasure. Or you'll care too little. And when you care too much or too little about pleasure or pain or illness, the responses to it will be unskillful, unkind, Unhelpful. Wrong. Bad. On the other hand, if you do this teaching, really remember it, really remember it, it will start sinking in. And then you will respond not too much or too little to your pain and your pleasure. You will respond well. Just like I did.

[03:22]

When I broke my leg, I responded well. I didn't care too much or too little about it. I cared some, but not too much. And when they tried to do an x-ray and they wanted to move my leg, I explained to them that I didn't really think I would be able to allow them to do that. Please don't move my leg. Please. take it on that bench shape it's in, because I won't be able to stand it if you start moving those shards around inside there. And they did. They took this lousy thing, but they could tell by the photograph that it was broken. But then they knocked me out and moved it. Here's another way, a poetic way, to apply the teaching of other dependent character, of dependent core rising to this, well, to this messy situation of having a body that has pain.

[04:41]

This leaky, tumble-down grass hut left opening for the moon. Now I... All the while, it was reflected in the teardrops falling on my sleeve. This leaky, tumbledown grass hut leaves an opening for the moon. This leaky, tumbledown grass hut leaves an opening for the moon.

[05:38]

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