Salaam.
Salaam.
Salaam.
Welcome to Buddha Sangha.
Today we will do a sutta from Anguttara Nikaya.
Sutta no.
3.
85 A trainee.
Then a certain bhikkhu approached the blessed one and said to him,
Aunty,
It is said,
A trainee,
A trainee.
In what way is one a trainee?
And the blessed one replies,
He trains bhikkhu,
Therefore he is called a trainee.
And in what does he train?
He trains in the higher virtuous behaviour.
He trains in the higher mind.
He trains in the higher wisdom.
He trains bhikkhu,
Therefore he is called a trainee.
One who is a spiritual seeker,
Who is on this path,
Is really here to transform himself.
If someone is on the spiritual path only for spiritual time pass or spiritual entertainment,
He is only doing harm to his own self.
Humut no.
1 for you.
Are you on this path just for spiritual entertainment?
There are lot of people who love philosophy who tend to step onto the spiritual path.
There are lot of people who love poetry who tend to step onto the spiritual path.
Then when they are in this community,
They get so consumed by peer pressure,
They start considering themselves as spiritual enthusiasts.
But that is not true about them.
Till the time it is all philosophy and just words,
And it is pleasant to the ear,
They like it,
They enjoy it.
But the moment it comes to self transformation,
Something in them steps back,
Because they were not here for that in the first place.
Take a moment to look within and check.
Are you really here for self transformation?
Or are you here because you love philosophy,
Because you love poetry?
Or you just like different kinds of views?
Or you are an intellectual who loves to be in another intellectual person's company?
These are not the right reasons for being on the spiritual path.
And therefore,
You are not a trini.
A trini is one who is here to train himself.
To train himself in what?
In number one,
Virtuousness.
I will not do anything that will make my inner environment restless.
And such a trini recognises that that which makes my inner environment restless is not an external object,
Not an external person,
Not an external situation.
These will continuously come and go because of my past karma.
But the one that reacts to these external objects,
If that continues to react,
It will forever remain agitated.
He trains to stop this agitation from internal towards external.
He does not blame the external.
He focuses on the internal.
Next homework for you.
Is your focus inside or is your focus still outside?
If your focus is still outside,
Then you are not a spiritual trini yet.
One who trains himself in virtuousness and virtuous behaviour only because he recognises that being non-virtuous externally agitates my mind first.
So,
First there is affliction here,
Then there is affliction outside.
First there is agitation here,
Then there is agitation outside.
First there is less restlessness here,
Then there is restlessness outside.
Because I can give only what I have.
I cannot give what I do not have.
Do you see what I am saying?
So the agitation outside is a reflection of the agitation inside.
A trini recognises this agitation inside and trains to be virtuous so that this inner agitation settles down,
Fades away,
Leaves him.
And he becomes pure and silent and serene like a lake.
When he is so serene,
Obviously serenity reflects outside.
Again,
I do not mean that past karma will not come his way.
It will come.
But he has stopped reacting in his past conditioned manner.
Now because of that non-reaction,
He does not get lured into this external drama.
And that karma withers away and does not come back to him in future.
This is what the trini trains in.
Are you here to train yourself to dissolve the karma and have it wither away?
Check.
A true trini listens to the higher wisdom that is provided in Buddha's sessions and then he works on them.
He does not have fake belief.
He does not make concepts out of them.
In fact,
He uses the wisdom in such a manner that he experiments with his own mind.
He experiments and proves it to himself that yes,
This leads to agitation in my own mind.
When I cease doing this,
The agitation ceases.
Oh,
This is the path to peace.
This is a higher wisdom.
He trains himself to get there.
He avoids contact with all external agents that can prevent him from progressing towards the higher wisdom.
Whether those external agents are people,
Situations or things.
He learns to discard that which is non-virtuous in life.
And he learns to move on only with that which is virtuous.
Next homework for you.
Are you doing that?
Are you walking the path of virtuousness even at the cost of discarding those elements that increase non-virtuousness in you?
You check.
If you are doing that,
Then only are you a true trini.
As the trainee trains along the straight path,
The knowledge of destruction arises first,
Immediately followed by final knowledge.
What does this mean?
What kind of knowledge of destruction?
Destruction of fetters.
What is fetters?
Fetters are all the negative aspects of one's personality.
There is destruction of lust in him.
There is destruction of hatred in him.
There is destruction of delusion in him.
There is destruction of all kinds of negativities going forward.
One by one these fetters get destroyed.
This knowledge first comes to him,
Oh!
Lust has been abandoned by me automatically.
This is amazing.
I don't lust for that object anymore.
This knowledge comes to him first and then the final knowledge comes.
For those who have been walking this path for a long time,
Check with them.
Have you noticed even a single fetter get destroyed in you?
Whether it is a fetter of lying,
Whether it is a fetter of stealing,
Whether it is a fetter of speaking unnecessarily just to show off,
Whether it is a fetter of speaking harshly,
Whether it is a fetter of gossip.
And there are so many more examples that you can really think of.
You look at your own life and you check,
Have fetters started falling off?
If not,
Then something is missing in being a true training.
Start training now.
Thereafter,
When the fetters of existence are destroyed,
For one liberated by final knowledge,
The knowledge arises,
My liberation is unshakable.
Only when the fetters get destroyed does final knowledge arise.
And in that final knowledge,
You will notice that your final knowledge is unshakable.
Your liberation is unshakable.
Nobody can take away that liberation from you.
May you all reach there in this very lifetime.
May you all be enlightened.
Apu,
Deepu,
Bhavru.
Be your own light.
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