The teaching should be listened to without the three disadvantages of a bad «vessel».
The first disadvantage of a vessel is if it is upside down. Nothing will get in no matter how much one tries to pour any teaching into an upside-down vessel. This applies to everyone. If, during the teaching, your body is here and your mind is somewhere else, or if you are sleeping, you are like an upside-down vessel. You have to eliminate this defect. To do this, you should think: «I will listen to the teaching for an hour, an hour and a half, and then I will try to practice it. I will not sleep during the teaching». Then, after the teaching, you can sleep as much as you want.
The second disadvantage of a vessel is holes. Because if the vessel has holes, everything will come out no matter how much you pour into it. This is the case when meaning goes in one ear and out the other. So, when you return home, someone may ask you what the teaching was, and if you do not find something to say, it will mean that you are a leaky vessel.
The third disadvantage of a bad vessel is pollution. If the vessel is polluted and poisoned, no matter how much nectar is poured into it, it will also become poisoned. This is extremely important. Knowing much is not so important; it is more important to be a clean vessel. There is no benefit if there is a whole pool of nectar, but it is poisoned. But if you have a small vessel without a hole with pure nectar, you can use it to benefit yourself and others. The teacher, above all, taught me to listen. He explained that the «third vessel» is a very bad condition. Listening with the third disadvantage means listening with the wrong motivation. If, for example, you listen to a teaching and you think, «Now I will know this, and that person doesn't know or understand anything. How I am superior to him spiritually! » etc. - it won't do you any good.
