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About criticism: “The Lord Buddha himself was not beyond criticism: Lay people and even bhikkhus criticized him, so he left for a whole rains retreat. “I needed a teacher to see my own delusion... practice is not easy”. “Conceit and arrogance are what concern us as westeners” Metta: “The best way to practice metta is to teach the way to the heart”, not just developing fake metta. Dealing and fighting with tiredness: for a practitioner, 4 hours of sleep is more than enough. Jhanas: Luangta says that if you have not practised them before, it takes 20 years to get the first ones; so forget about them if you have samadhi. “What we normally know in the west are artificial jhanas and artificial brahma-viharas”. Happiness does not come because of our climbing a mountain or driving a race car but because of the concentration they require. Kamma: it's because of our kamma that we meet good or bad teachers. “Arahants can smoke cigarettes” but in the west, they don't understand that. The Lord Buddha allowed monks to smoke their pipes. We tend to know only the Buddha's teachings we like.