that's what you are supposed to be aware of.

Next question. Please ask retreatants to

look out for one another if there's a

missing person, if they suspect he's missing,

please let us know. Two retreatants

were lost in the forest this afternoon.

Fortunately, a neighbour drove them back

to Jhana Grove. [laughter] Really?

Who was lost in the forest?

You can't get lost, there's a big fence around here.

You walked through the fence. Now this

is the reason why we have like precepts,

like a fence. [laughter] If you go over that

fence and break your precepts, if you

do naughty things, how far did you get, how far?

Cos the only property out there, is a prison

and if you walk into there [laughter]

you'll be stuck there for years. [laughter]

(Voice from background : It's quite far)

Okay, now listen, there is a fence around here,

so don't go through it. You know why we put

a fence there? So you don't go through it.[laughter]

So stay within the fence and you can't get lost.

Okay. Oh dearie me [laughter]

Does an Arahant ever get angry or become irritated?

No! [laughter] Now that's one way you can tell

if someone's enlightened or not. They

get irritated or angry, of course they're not

enlightened. Then you all know that, of course, okay, is

that story, happens through meditation? About the monk who went onto the

island to live alone, to become a fully

enlightened monk. He asked his abbot, he said,

"Look you got many monks here. Out, far

is an island in the middle of the lake

where no one ever goes, perfect for solitude.

I'll build a simple hut and all I ask,

all I ask, is once a week, get one of the

attendants to row across to the island

to leave me supplies for the week. Just simple things,

rice and a few vegetables. And he can

go back afterwards, so I can live in solitude."

And the abbot said, "Okay."

So for three years, that monk lived in

perfect solitude. Just once a week, the

attendant would come to make sure he

was okay and have enough things to eat,

and any other sort of medicines or stuff

he needed. And so after 3 years in perfect

seclusion, he decided he was enlightened, an

Arahant, perfectly free of all anger and

all wants. So he thought "what should I do next?

How do you let people know that you're enlightened?"

So the next time the attendant came over in

a boat, he asked the attendant, "Can I please

have some parchment, a pen and some ink.

I want to write some calligraphy", because

in the Chinese tradition, the way that you

write those characters, is a sign of how

advanced you are. And what you say can

raise your attainments. So one week later,

the parchment, the ink and the quill pen

came and then, as the attendant went away,

the monk sat in deep meditation, preparing himself

to write the words of an enlightened being.

When he came out of meditation, he picked

up the pen and dipped it in ink and wrote

with exquisite strokes. The diligent monk,

alone for 3 years is no longer moved by the

4 worldly winds, which in Buddhism means,

you've cracked, you're an enlightened person.

And he let the parchment dry and he waited,

waited for the attendant to come the next week. When the

attendant came, he had the scroll neatly

rolled up, tied by a little ribbon and said,

"Give this to your abbot." And then he relaxed

because he imagined once the abbot saw

the calligraphy and the message, the claim

to enlightenment, imagine what would happen next?

Maybe become an abbot of an important monastery

somewhere, maybe that scroll be hung up

for monks in the future to be inspired by it.

And the days went by and the attendant came back

and gave what looked like his old scroll

back to him. He wondered, "Did you give

it to the abbot?" "Yes, this is what the abbot

gave you back." So with excitement, he

opened up that scroll. It was his scroll

with his calligraphy on it. But on top of

the first line, 'The diligent monk', the abbot

had written in red ball point pen, 'Fart'.[laughs]

What? The next line, 'is longer moved'. No,

'The diligent monk alone for 3 three years',

there was another 'fart', this time in capital letters.

And the next one, 'The diligent monk is no longer moved',

there was a 'fart' with an exclamation mark on it.

And the last line, 'by the four worldly winds',

a big 'fart', capital letters, exclamation

marks and underlined. And that monk was

so upset. This was a calligraphy of an Arahant

and it's been spoilt by this, you know

these people do graffiti all over the world,

by the stupid incompetent abbot. He spoiled this.

He doesn't know enlightenment when it is

in front of his fat nose. He was so upset

and called the attendant, "Take me back."

And so the attendant had to row him back to

the monastery. And he stormed into the abbot's

office, he slammed the parchment on the table,

"Look at this, what have you done to my

beautiful parchment!" And the abbot was calm

and he slowly unrolled the parchment,

stood up and read it out to the monk.

"The diligent monk, alone for 3 years

is no longer moved by the four worldly

winds. Yet, monk, four little farts have

blown you clean across the lake." [laughter]

That's only little winds. [laughter]

And the monk realised, "Oh god, I'm not

enlightened after all" [laughter] and went

back and meditated some more. And that is

a traditional way we try and find out if someone's

enlightened. If someone comes up and says,

they are fully enlightened. I'll tell them

it's impossible for females to become enlightened.[laughter]

They go, "What?! What do you mean?!"

Sorry, you're not enlightened, you failed the test. [laughs]

We'll do anything to try and

upset them. That's the best way you can find out

whether you're enlightened or not. So they get angry, if

they don't doesn't mean enlightened. If

they do get angry, they're certainly not.

Venerable sir, please read the questions

slowly [laughter]. Your angmo English is

hard to catch by the China man, hehe. [laughter]

I will read the question slowly if you write

them slowly. [laughter] How can you read

something like this slowly? It is so

small, you got a .. Dear Ajahn, thank you for being so

inspiring. Just want to share this, I took a

nature walk today and then I realised

that I'd wandered off too far. Oh, no.

I finally spotted Jhana Grove to my very,

very far right, looking rather small.

There was no track leading through the trees

and thick brambles. I just went in the general

direction, parting and parting away with

many tall brambles without being able

to see further ahead, but finally did

come to a clearing but still with no view

of Jhana Grove. I walked in the general direction

I remembered and lo behold I found the Buddha,

a lovely statue in a quiet sitting place.

That's the secret Buddha Garden. So it's not

that far, it is within the fence.[laughter]

So don't go too far. [laughter]

So I thought to myself, if you are on the

right path you can't really get lost. [laughter]

Exactly. Now remember in that book, "The Art of

Disappearing", have you read that book? In the preface, I told you

to get lost. But I didn't mean in the forest. [laughter]

Dear Ajahn Brahm, what is nama rupa? What about

the 5 elements, earth, wind, etc? How is the

nama rupa and the 5 elements linked to

meditation? Thank you Ajahn Brahm.

Nama rupa is just one way of looking at

the objects of consciousness. In particular

regarding the 5 skandhas which make up the

body and the mind. The first skandha is the body rupa,

it's called. And then the other 4 skandhas

has got to do with mind. Things like

vedana that's the feeling of happiness or

pain associated with each one of the 6 senses.

And there's perception, there is what we call

?? formations which include thoughts and will

and that's nama. And the consciousness is the

fifth. So consciousness and nama rupa, the

Buddha said, those 2 lean against each like

2 sheaves of reeds, using agricultural simile.

So when you got 2 sheaves of reeds leaning

together, that's consciousness and nama rupa. ,You take one

of those away, the other one falls over.

So basically, you can't have consciousness

without something to be conscious of.

And when you start to be conscious of,

there's no consciousness. That's nama rupa

and the, and the, consciousness. And the 5 elements, usually

it's usually the 4 elements, you can always

add few other elements onto it if you like, earth,

wind, fire and water. That was just the old

way they understood, know, rupa, body, stuff.

Now, that's that past that's used by the 4 elements,

because now if you've ever done science,

there're quarks, there's Higgs Boson, there's

all sorts of stuff out there. And Higgs Boson,

is that earth, fire, water or air? It's none of

those. So you can use the earth, fire,

water and whatever else is, but you don't really need to

these days, just you know, stuff.

Dear Ajahn, I have had a few experience when

I'm feeling quite still and very contented

with my breath, when I feel tear drops

forming at the corner of my eyes. Can you

please help me understand this?

If you feel tear drops, if it's happy, it's supposed to

happen. It's a form of piti, joy.

So you cry from joy. You could be crying

because you're sitting so long in here[laughter]

and your legs hurt like hell. You could

be crying because of the old jokes,

oh, not that one again. [laughter]

You could be crying because of the bad

chanting. [laughs] Whatever it is, but anyway,

if it happens, let it happen. Cry, it's good for you.

Dear Ajahn, sometimes when we wake up from

sleep, the mind is awake but the body is not.

I can't feel the body, is it similar to jhana? [laughs]

No, no, you can't get jhana that easy.

So, yeah, your body is quiet and relaxed

and your mind is waking up but when it's

jhana, it's incredible bliss. Bliss better than

sex, so when you wake up, is that better than

sex? [laughter] If it is, you're weird.

So incredible happiness and bliss in jhanas.

Dear Ajahn, sometimes when I get into deep

meditation, very still and blissful, Good, I thought I saw the nimittas

but I realised that the stream of light

seem to be coming from outside. I felt

my eyes not totally shut. Why is that so?

Look, it's very hard for you to see light

streaming in from outside inside this hall.

You have to be looking up for a start and the right

place if there's any sun coming up here.

So if it's in this hall, that was a nimitta,

nothing else. I notice some tradition

taught meditation with the eyes open,

looking downward. What's your view on that,

wouldn't it be more difficult to focus on the breath?

Exactly. So the whole idea is allowing the

5 senses to disappear. The easiest way is to