Trust Access Awareness

0:02 Thank you for coming along tonight. It's a nice cool night, but it's nice and warm in here, isn't it? There's one thing about our Buddhist society in the wintertime here, it is really quite warm. Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:21 So we'll start off in the usual way with some meditation in a moment, but I did just want to just give you an idea of what I was intending to talk about tonight, and I'm intending to go... to talk about trusting access concentration. And it sort of ties in with mindfulness a little bit. I like to talk about mindfulness all of the time, really, or think about it all of the time, because it's just such an important thing, really, in our meditation practice, just to be able to develop this mindfulness through a 24-hour cycle, if it's possible. Report an error in the passage at 0:21 Highlight the passage at 0:21

1:04 So that mindfulness is there all of the time. And it's really just the power of this mindfulness and combined with the access concentration that speaks to samādhi. Samādhi is a Pāli word here really that just means a deep concentration. But I want to sort of just go to that a little bit tonight because I was going to talk about the five jhāna factors. Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:35 Really that lead to access concentration. And this access concentration really is covered in many ways by the five hindrances. I'm sure most of you, certainly if you've been along to the introductory classes here on Saturday afternoons, you'll know all about the five hindrances. I'll just maybe mention them quickly for you. It's just desire and aversion. First two. Report an error in the passage at 1:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35

2:06 that's just all about contentment, being content. And in the meditation tonight I'll try and sort of guide you a little bit towards, you know, what that means. The second two are about energy. They're about restlessness and sloth and torpor, or restlessness and tiredness, if you like. So those two are a pair as well. Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

2:32 Together, those four really make the meditation just right, the right energy and the right attitude in your mind to make all of that work. The fifth hindrance, of course, just is doubt. But all that is covered by these five jhāna factors, and we'll go to that in the talk. But in the meantime, I'd like to just guide you for... Report an error in the passage at 2:32 Highlight the passage at 2:32

3:01 First 30 minutes just in a gentle, nice meditation. So I would invite you all just to make your back nice and straight. I always like to sort of feel that little curve right at the base of your spine when you're sitting. I notice everyone here is sitting beautifully actually, just sitting nice and straight. Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:23 But also in your chair too, rather than slumping too much, if you can sort of use your own... Strength, if you like, in your body, just to hold yourself nice and straight. You'll find that that's probably the best way to be able to sit a long time because that sort of promotes the right energy, which is a factor of the Eightfold Path. Report an error in the passage at 3:23 Highlight the passage at 3:23

3:44 So when you've got the right energy flowing in your body, it's really quite nice. So the right hand on the left with your thumbs just gently touching. And I always do that too, so I'll just maybe give you a hint there right at the start too, is just not holding too tight, but just fairly loosely so that you can actually feel the nerve endings in your fingers, just feel that tingling, because that tingling is really, has a lot to do with the bliss that we feel in meditation. Report an error in the passage at 3:44 Highlight the passage at 3:44

4:19 And Jen Brahm's always talking about bliss. Report an error in the passage at 4:19 Highlight the passage at 4:19

4:24 But this is really where it starts. This is really where the relaxation starts to come from. And it really is just the energy that's flowing into us from the universe and flowing into our bodies and just generating the activity and all the nerve endings and so on. But just to feel that there. And we'll sort of look at that as we're going through the meditation. So closing your mouth, closing your eyes, breathing through the nose. Report an error in the passage at 4:24 Highlight the passage at 4:24

4:54 We'll just do a little quick run through the body for a start, which, again, just reminding you, is the second factor of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

5:08 Well, the second factor of mindfulness anyway is just the feelings in your body, feeling into your body. And so that's an important way to start. we usually do do I've noticed that when Where Ajahn Brahm does this now, he kind of spends most of the half an hour period, starts sort of going through that, just staying with those feelings in the body because it is important actually to feel those. Report an error in the passage at 5:08 Highlight the passage at 5:08

5:44 So just taking a couple of deep breaths and just Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

5:59 then as you're bringing yourself into your body, just to make sure that you... Making that commitment that we're going to just stay with this for 25 minutes, half an hour, and just gently treat yourself well. Report an error in the passage at 5:59 Highlight the passage at 5:59

6:26 I'd like to start really just down at the toes. Maybe you can just start, you can pick any toe. It was interesting sometimes to pick a toe that you don't think about that much. Maybe it's the second toe along, the big one from the big toe. See if you can feel into that. If you've got socks on or you're feeling you've got your feet on the carpet, you can always use that as an aid just to feel, feel into that toe. Report an error in the passage at 6:26 Highlight the passage at 6:26

7:02 And then just move your attention across the balls of your feet, over the arch of your foot, into your heels. Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

7:15 And just moving your attention up through the ankles. Just noting that ankle, the ankles are really quite interesting. It's an interesting joint, articulated, so it moves quite universally on the bottom of your leg, just noting all of that, and then just come up through the lower leg. Report an error in the passage at 7:15 Highlight the passage at 7:15

7:42 You've got the hard shins at the front. Report an error in the passage at 7:42 Highlight the passage at 7:42

7:47 You've got the calf muscle at the rear, usually a bit softer and floppy, juxtaposed against the hardness of the bone in your shins. Report an error in the passage at 7:47 Highlight the passage at 7:47

8:01 Just feeling into that, just see how you can go feeling into that, just to know the hardness compared to the floppiness of the calf muscles. Then Report an error in the passage at 8:01 Highlight the passage at 8:01

8:17 just moving up through the knees, again an articulated joint there, then Report an error in the passage at 8:17 Highlight the passage at 8:17

8:27 up into the thighs. I Report an error in the passage at 8:27 Highlight the passage at 8:27

8:33 always have this sense that they're kind of big, strong muscles, which they are for all of us. Just noticing in there, noticing where those thigh muscles are really Report an error in the passage at 8:33 Highlight the passage at 8:33

8:54 ready to work for us. Then just moving through to your bottom, just the way that you're seated, whether you're on the floor or in a chair, just feeling the pressure there. Moving Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

9:14 up through into the tummy. Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:21 It's always interesting to linger around your stomach because there's always plenty of things happening there, lots of gurgling and rumbling and sort of blood flowing. Report an error in the passage at 9:21 Highlight the passage at 9:21

9:34 You've got all of the big intestines and the colon and everything working in there and it's quite a hive of activity inside your tummy. Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

9:48 Quite remarkable. Report an error in the passage at 9:48 Highlight the passage at 9:48

9:54 And then through to the lower back. So just where that little curvature of your spine is at the base of your spine. And Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

10:07 just feeling into that and just letting it relax. In fact, as you're going through this, letting everything relax. Report an error in the passage at 10:07 Highlight the passage at 10:07

10:21 Then moving up into the chest area, around all those organs of the heart and lungs, just Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

10:40 the powerhouse really of your body. Report an error in the passage at 10:40 Highlight the passage at 10:40

10:51 Fairly easy to hear some of them, feel some of the rhythms that are in there. Report an error in the passage at 10:51 Highlight the passage at 10:51

11:02 Then moving into the upper back, around the shoulder blades, just getting a sense of how they're anchored into your body and how they work to... Report an error in the passage at 11:02 Highlight the passage at 11:02

11:19 Hold onto your arms and then as you move down through the upper arms, through Report an error in the passage at 11:19 Highlight the passage at 11:19

11:31 the elbows, into the forearms and through the wrists and Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

11:40 into your hands and then into your fingers. We Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

11:48 may want to just linger around the fingers just to note and just see if you can feel any sensations, any tingling that's going on there. And Report an error in the passage at 11:48 Highlight the passage at 11:48

12:08 if you haven't done this before, you might be surprised just to see if you are. Noticing that tingling, how you can just take a little snapshot of it in your mind and then just take it and put it on, say, your shoulder or on your thigh just Report an error in the passage at 12:08 Highlight the passage at 12:08

12:28 as a bit of an aid to sort of help noticing some of that tingling that's there on your skin all the way through your body. The Report an error in the passage at 12:28 Highlight the passage at 12:28

12:44 whole body is energised and Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

12:53 as you relax more you'll notice that tingling becomes more apparent. Report an error in the passage at 12:53 Highlight the passage at 12:53

13:02 And this is where we get into the lovely feelings that are there for meditation. Report an error in the passage at 13:02 Highlight the passage at 13:02

13:13 Sometimes it can be almost as if you're floating off your seat. So Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:23 then coming back to the top of the shoulders and around your neck, moving up into the head, feeling Report an error in the passage at 13:23 Highlight the passage at 13:23

13:37 around your eyes and around your mouth, again another place where there's plenty of sensitivity, your tongue and your lips, and Report an error in the passage at 13:37 Highlight the passage at 13:37

13:52 just feeling behind the eyes, making sure that any... Pressure that's there is just relaxed and in the top of the head there's Report an error in the passage at 13:52 Highlight the passage at 13:52

14:07 usually a fair bit of energy as well. So Report an error in the passage at 14:07 Highlight the passage at 14:07

14:20 now that we've anchored ourselves into the body it's time just to move now to the mind and just using the mind to watch the breath. Report an error in the passage at 14:20 Highlight the passage at 14:20

14:38 And it's always best when you're doing that to feel first of all As you're breathing through your nose, just to allow yourself to feel your breath going right down through your chest and into your stomach and then feel it come back out again. Report an error in the passage at 14:38 Highlight the passage at 14:38

15:01 You'll find if you do that for a little while at the start, it will really help you ground yourself into your body and just give your mind a nice interest in being able to just be with that. So when you're breathing in... Just feel your breath going all the way down to your stomach. Feel the diaphragm move and perhaps the stomach is forced out somewhat. Report an error in the passage at 15:01 Highlight the passage at 15:01

15:35 And then as the exhalation starts, just noticing the diaphragm coming back in and the air going out of your body and being expelled. Report an error in the passage at 15:35 Highlight the passage at 15:35

15:49 Only to be reborn again and then in it comes again. All Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

15:56 the way down to your tummy and Report an error in the passage at 15:56 Highlight the passage at 15:56

16:02 then allowing it to come back up through your body to be expelled all through your nose. So you're feeling in the first instance just around the tip of the nose, see the breath coming in and then you're following it all the way down to your tummy and Report an error in the passage at 16:02 Highlight the passage at 16:02

16:25 then allowing it to come back up through your body and then again out through your nose. Report an error in the passage at 16:25 Highlight the passage at 16:25

16:41 This process of Ānāpānasati meditation is really what the Buddha highly recommended to do. So Report an error in the passage at 16:41 Highlight the passage at 16:41

17:08 if you just stay with that process of using your breath down through your body for a little while, just until... Your breathing and your attention onto your breath becomes fairly solid. Report an error in the passage at 17:08 Highlight the passage at 17:08

17:27 When your breath is established, you can just stop following it all the way down and then just stay at the tip of your nose and just watch the breath coming in and out from that point, especially as it's getting more subtle. So Report an error in the passage at 17:27 Highlight the passage at 17:27

17:57 again, we're just staying with the breath, this Report an error in the passage at 17:57 Highlight the passage at 17:57

18:07 beautiful breath, Report an error in the passage at 18:07 Highlight the passage at 18:07

18:11 life-giving breath. Just Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

· · · silence, 2 minutes

19:49 maintaining your attention onto the breath. Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:10 If there's any noises or distractions in the room, it's best not to go out to the noise. Just stay inside. Stay inside your body. Stay with the breath. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

· · · silence, 1 minute

20:57 We call this process samatha. So we are on the process of learning to concentrate, training the mind and Report an error in the passage at 20:57 Highlight the passage at 20:57

21:12 training our mindfulness too. Just to stay attentive to the breath. You Report an error in the passage at 21:12 Highlight the passage at 21:12

21:39 might already notice. Even with this much meditation, just that if you've been staying with the breath, just how there is no desires arising in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 21:39 Highlight the passage at 21:39

21:57 But also no aversions. You're not trying to push anything away. Report an error in the passage at 21:57 Highlight the passage at 21:57

22:05 So if it is like that for you, just recognise the contentment of that. Report an error in the passage at 22:05 Highlight the passage at 22:05

22:12 The contentment of just the mind being as it is in the moment. Just with the breath. Just Report an error in the passage at 22:12 Highlight the passage at 22:12

22:32 allowing yourself to relax with that contentment. Report an error in the passage at 22:32 Highlight the passage at 22:32

23:03 You might also notice too that the mind is not restless. It's quite content just to stay right here in the moment. But Report an error in the passage at 23:03 Highlight the passage at 23:03

23:17 also because of the interest that you're taking in the breath, there's no slothfulness or torpor or tiredness. Report an error in the passage at 23:17 Highlight the passage at 23:17

23:30 The mind's interested and Report an error in the passage at 23:30 Highlight the passage at 23:30

23:37 therefore the energy is quite balanced. This is what it feels like to have balance in your mind, a balanced energy. With contentment, so Report an error in the passage at 23:37 Highlight the passage at 23:37

24:17 you can see that you have been working with the hindrances. Report an error in the passage at 24:17 Highlight the passage at 24:17

· · · silence, 1 minute

25:10 And then just before we finish the meditation tonight, I'd like to invite you all now just to stay with the meditation, to keep your eyes closed. Report an error in the passage at 25:10 Highlight the passage at 25:10

25:21 And if you like, you can just let go of the breath and just watch. Watch with that contentment. Watch with that balanced energy and just notice, just notice what's... There in your mind, if there's anything coming up in your mind, but Report an error in the passage at 25:21 Highlight the passage at 25:21

25:43 especially if it's still, if your mind is still, to Report an error in the passage at 25:43 Highlight the passage at 25:43

25:50 notice what that stillness feels like. This Report an error in the passage at 25:50 Highlight the passage at 25:50

26:07 is working with the third satipaṭṭhāna, the third foundation of mindfulness, which Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:15 is exploring the mindfulness of mind. Report an error in the passage at 26:15 Highlight the passage at 26:15

26:24 Here as we progress with this mindful attention, we can notice the energy of the mind, the still energy of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 26:24 Highlight the passage at 26:24

26:41 The stillness, what Report an error in the passage at 26:41 Highlight the passage at 26:41

26:50 does that feel like? Can Report an error in the passage at 26:50 Highlight the passage at 26:50

· · · silence, 1 minute

28:15 you sense or feel the way that this energy is working in our body, the way that it's iterating, beginning and ending so very fast, just Report an error in the passage at 28:15 Highlight the passage at 28:15

28:34 to bring about this stillness of mind where there's no thoughts, just Report an error in the passage at 28:34 Highlight the passage at 28:34

28:45 the contentment of being able to be with that balance. Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

29:05 Our consciousness has been tamed momentarily just to allow that contentment to be there. Report an error in the passage at 29:05 Highlight the passage at 29:05

29:14 Really notice how that contentment feels and Report an error in the passage at 29:14 Highlight the passage at 29:14

29:29 perhaps pay special attention too to that tingling that I was talking about, the Report an error in the passage at 29:29 Highlight the passage at 29:29

29:38 energy that's flowing into your body, beginning Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

29:44 and ending, so fast, countless times in the wink of an eye. In Report an error in the passage at 29:44 Highlight the passage at 29:44

30:10 a moment I'm going to ring the bell just to... Bring the meditation period to a close. But to do that, I'll ring the bell three times as normal. Report an error in the passage at 30:10 Highlight the passage at 30:10

30:26 But as the resonance of the bell is working, resounding in the hall, just keep your eyes closed and just try and do a little bit of a stock take. Just notice what your mind feels like now compared to when we started. And just anything you've noticed, anything you'd like to note and just remember. Report an error in the passage at 30:26 Highlight the passage at 30:26

· · · silence, 1 minute

31:35 I don't know how that felt for you, but it sort of felt all right for me. Everybody seemed to be quite still and content. I hope that was how it was for you and that there was some stillness and that some of you were able to kind of notice and understand what I was talking about with that stillness of mind. Report an error in the passage at 31:35 Highlight the passage at 31:35

31:56 Because it is an important thing to know about the stillness. I remember Ajahn Brahm in early years when he used to sort of talk. When he was practising himself and getting to some of the lessons that he was learning himself over the years, he used to talk about stillness as really being one of the most important things in the Eightfold Path. Report an error in the passage at 31:56 Highlight the passage at 31:56

32:23 In fact, he really wanted to sort of change, at that point he wanted to change right concentration with right stillness. So that was how he was sort of seeing it at that time as he was developing his mind into the... into the way that he is at the moment, the way that he teaches at the moment. But this stillness is really, it comes about because of the energy of the universe, the energy that is there that we're all involved in because this is really the energy of the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 32:23 Highlight the passage at 32:23

33:03 It's the energy that is... that is. Well, really, like in physics, they talk about it as a zero point, zero point energy. It's energy that is coming from beyond space and time. It's nothing that we can really kind of directly, well, we can actually see it directly when we're sort of focused enough in our meditation, but it's not something that's just immediately noticeable to us. Report an error in the passage at 33:03 Highlight the passage at 33:03

33:33 Just really in the same way that the energy of an atomic bomb is not really... in the way that the physicists, you know, do that to get the energy out of the space to go into the power of a bomb like that. But this energy is there in the space. It's there all around. In fact, they call it zero-point energy. Report an error in the passage at 33:33 Highlight the passage at 33:33

34:03 And, I mean, the And the Buddha Buddha never never really... really, well, you know. Physics, of course, wasn't developed enough to be able to sort of talk in terms like that, like it is today. But he did refer to it as that energy that was coming from beyond space and time, beyond even the mind, because it's the energy that drives the mind, the energy that makes the mind work. Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:30 And this energy is just right here. It's everywhere. It's in this room. It's right through our bodies. It's really everywhere in space. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:40 Space has this zero point energy and that space, as you start to meditate more and you're kind of feeling into your body the way that we were practising before, you start to see that this energy is there inside us. It's inside all of the atoms that are in our body, inside all of the compounded nature of the way that the body is built up. Report an error in the passage at 34:40 Highlight the passage at 34:40

35:06 The Buddha talked about this as the... Kaya, the Kaya energy. K-A-Y-A. And this energy is like a, it's like a, he talked about it as like a body. And it really, you know, it goes so far as to include really the whole universe. The whole universe. So really, you know, in terms like that, you can sort of think about this universe as really being part of you, part of me. Report an error in the passage at 35:06 Highlight the passage at 35:06

35:36 We're all, we're not separate from it. We're all... Part of it, because this energy is there in the space and it's there, right there, it needs to be there because it's got to be there to power all of the systems of the body, all of the little atoms and even the subatomic particles that make up the atoms even, all of those, those little subatomic particles and through to all of the atoms. Report an error in the passage at 35:36 Highlight the passage at 35:36

36:09 ...compound into the elements of our body. The Buddha used to talk about this really as the four elements or the four elements of the body, just the earth, wind, the fire and the air was the way that he talked about it then. But this is really, this kaya that he talked about is that, this earth, wind, fire and air. It's just everything that's there in the universe. Report an error in the passage at 36:09 Highlight the passage at 36:09

36:36 And this energy is just there. Inside us, inside this room, inside this world. And as you do gradually get to see or start to understand what this present moment really is, and the constancy of the present moment as well, that's just something that is really worth contemplating about because this energy, this present moment is constant. Report an error in the passage at 36:36 Highlight the passage at 36:36

37:08 It's the only... Probably one of the only things, probably even more so than gravity or any of those other things that the physicists talk about. This present moment is a constant. It never changes. It's akaliko, as the Buddha talked about. Akaliko means timeless. And it's right here, sanditiko. It's right here, right here and now. This energy, it's always right here and now. Always akaliko, always timeless. Report an error in the passage at 37:08 Highlight the passage at 37:08

37:41 So when we think about this energy, you know, we think not only, think about it not only as in this life and just what's happening in this moment but back through all of the past lives because this is where this present moment is. It's not, you know, there isn't really, you know, when we start talking about a past and a future, you know, we've got the zero point here. Report an error in the passage at 37:41 Highlight the passage at 37:41

38:06 It's an interesting thing because zero was only really discovered. It was discovered in India, actually, but the number zero wasn't really anything that doesn't go back that far, really. But from that zero point, then we know we've got a positive side and we've got a negative side. And that's really the way that this world sort of breaks up and the way that we can notice that the... Report an error in the passage at 38:06 Highlight the passage at 38:06

38:40 The elements and the nature of the world is being made. It's being made from this positive and negative energy. And this is what sort of makes it so vital, why it's so vital inside our body. But we can start to see this. We can start to see this energy creating our mind, mindfulness of mind, the third satipaṭṭhāna. Report an error in the passage at 38:40 Highlight the passage at 38:40

39:05 It's just right there to notice, right there to feel. You can feel it inside your body. It's a little very, very subtle, but it's a subtle vibration that's there all of the time. Never ever not there. The only time that it's not there, really, is when you're kind of moving into the areas of enlightenment that the Buddha talked about. Report an error in the passage at 39:05 Highlight the passage at 39:05

39:29 This is where consciousness starts to cease. But for the rest of us, this world is akalika, it's timeless. And when we're kind of talking, when I was talking before about this constant, the constant nature of the present moment, this constancy is really there just all of the time. But it's kind of, in a way, the constancy from our point of view gets degraded because... Report an error in the passage at 39:29 Highlight the passage at 39:29

40:06 The energy coming in has got to begin and end, and it's beginning and ending so fast. You can sense the way that that vibration sort of hums in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 40:06 Highlight the passage at 40:06

40:21 Ajahn Chah, you know, I've just finished reading, it's the most wonderful book written by a monk called Jayasaro, one of Ajahn Chah's monks, and he called the book... Report an error in the passage at 40:21 Highlight the passage at 40:21

40:38 He's called the book Stillness Flowing. That's the name of the book, Stillness Flowing. And Ajahn Chah, in this book, he sort of talks strongly about us trying to notice that, notice how the stillness flows, just watching the flow of the stillness. Report an error in the passage at 40:38 Highlight the passage at 40:38

40:58 So this stillness really is the mind itself, the mind that's still. But then this consciousness, in the way that it is, it's such a fungible thing. It also has that ability to flow. It's flowing to make the creations of the world, to build the world. Report an error in the passage at 40:58 Highlight the passage at 40:58

41:21 And when it does that, of course, it sort of moves into the science and the physics part of it where you get sort of conservation laws and things like that because when this world is being made, it's being made in a relative way, in the way that Einstein talked about, relativity theory. Report an error in the passage at 41:21 Highlight the passage at 41:21

41:43 So there are, you know, he only really thought about that, he only really understood that when he realised that he could ride on the back of a photon of light and travel at the speed of light, and if he could do that, he could cross the universe in no time at all. Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

42:01 That's what he realised. But here we're sort of caught or trapped into this samsaric world here where... There's, where it's very different. We're working with this positive and negative energy that's kind of building all sorts of things. But you can, all of this creation that we see around us and we envisage. Report an error in the passage at 42:01 Highlight the passage at 42:01

42:25 But at the same time, we could also see the stillness. As Ajahn Chah has said, the stillness is there as well. So you can see the stillness that's holding everything. ...steady, holding everything in its natural, timeless way, while the flow is what we're caught up in. The flow of consciousness is what we're caught up in. And because we are caught up in that flow of consciousness, we see the world in a deluded way. Report an error in the passage at 42:25 Highlight the passage at 42:25

43:05 That's why the Buddha talked about this world as a delusion. And we only really get to see the reality. When we start to understand stillness, when the stillness of mind starts to come into view, when you really start to see it, the stillness becomes veridical as you start to approach the reality of that stillness. Report an error in the passage at 43:05 Highlight the passage at 43:05

43:37 You're kind of leaving the world behind in a way. We've just had a... Report an error in the passage at 43:37 Highlight the passage at 43:37

43:50 Quite a wonderful monk. Been over from Cambodia. I was lucky enough to be with a few other people too from our centre. Lucky enough to be able to visit him down at the Cambodian Centre. Cambodian Buddhist Society too. That's a society that our BSWA has helped enormously over the years as well. Just to build up there. Report an error in the passage at 43:50 Highlight the passage at 43:50

44:17 Their little monastery that they've got there in Scott Road in Kelmscott. This monk that we were with, he was really, in my humble view too, a very well-attained monk, a beautiful monk to be with because he kind of sees these sorts of things to be able to... Report an error in the passage at 44:17 Highlight the passage at 44:17

44:48 succinctly in the way that he does it. He was a monk that was very, well, for me anyway, I sort of experienced him as being very intimate. You kind of be right with him. But anyway, I wanted to just tell you about a little story that he told me. Report an error in the passage at 44:48 Highlight the passage at 44:48

45:12 he was saying that when you're When you're living your life, when you're living your life in this body, you just imagine the whole thing is like you're swimming across a river. But the only thing that you're doing is that you're swimming in your body and your body is like the river that's being crossed. Report an error in the passage at 45:12 Highlight the passage at 45:12

45:35 But he said when you get to the other side, when you get to the bank of the other side of the river, when you start to see it, then you abandon your body. You abandon it. This is how he explained it to me. And he said, you can see that. And this is what the Buddha did, just to abandon his body, abandon all of the materiality and even the mind, the mind itself. Report an error in the passage at 45:35 Highlight the passage at 45:35

46:06 Because even the mind itself is a compounded thing, or conditioned, it's a conditioned thing. And we are really conditioned creatures. We are, that's really, from the time that we're born, we're conditioned into this life. You know, conditioned into the way that mum and dad have brought us up. If we're lucky, it's been a very good upbringing, mostly. I think most parents have their best intentions for their children. Report an error in the passage at 46:06 Highlight the passage at 46:06

46:37 And usually they, for most people, they'll receive a reasonable amount of love and care and attention. Enough to put you on a good path to be able to sort of do what we're doing here tonight, just sitting meditation and looking at the contentment that we can find. Report an error in the passage at 46:37 Highlight the passage at 46:37

47:00 But unfortunately it's not that simple necessarily to define that, is it? Because we are so conditioned into our bodies, we're conditioned into the way that we see things, we're conditioned into this world. Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:15 Seeing the world the way that it is. We think all of this is out there. That's out there and I'm separate. When I die, I get cut off from this world because I'm not part of this world. This is the way that we normally think. But that's wrong thinking. That's just not the way that it is. Because as we start to practice in this way, when we start to see the stillness... Report an error in the passage at 47:15 Highlight the passage at 47:15

47:45 We can start to see that this mind stream that we have, we all have our own personal mind stream, our own, if you like, feel of the elephant, our own view of the world. It's a personal view and it's both personal but it's also collective. I mean, we are all kind of interdependent. We all are really... Report an error in the passage at 47:45 Highlight the passage at 47:45

48:18 In a way, one and the same, except that we do have this ability to be, to personalise the world, to have our own views and opinions about it. This is right, this is wrong. And all of these views and opinions, they're all coming from this positive and negative energy, and this is really why the Buddha talked about everything as dukkha. Report an error in the passage at 48:18 Highlight the passage at 48:18

48:42 This is dukkha in the world. The dukkha is really just something that's... That you can never make right. It's there because we all have a different feel of the elephant. We all want to... We want our views to be the right ones. You know, you see this especially in world leaders and... Well, even, you know, the politicians vying... Different sides of politics vying for power. Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

49:16 I guess there's no answer really for any of this. It is just dukkha. The Buddha talked about that as the first noble truth. We can't escape it. We can't escape the stress of it because it's just the positive and negative nature of all that happens in this world. The positive and negative nature of the way our bodies are made, the way the universe is made, the way the world is made. Report an error in the passage at 49:16 Highlight the passage at 49:16

49:47 So we get this deluded view that where we think that this world, that's all that out there, this world's out there. But it's not out there. I mean, you only have to be with Ajahn Brahm a few retreats if you are lucky enough to be able to understand and be with one of his jhāna, the jhāna practices that he teaches there, you'll see that this world and body just very easily disappears. Report an error in the passage at 49:47 Highlight the passage at 49:47

50:17 The mind disappears, the body disappears, because there's really nothing to it. It's all empty. And that's what he says. And the monk that was with us in Cambodia, he's very, very intent on talking about that too. The dukkha, the anicca, the impermanence of everything, and the anattā, the no-self nature. Report an error in the passage at 50:17 Highlight the passage at 50:17

50:46 I mean, we all know these words and we can recite them, and I'm forever doing that. It's all Anicca, Dukkha, Anicca and Atta. Report an error in the passage at 50:46 Highlight the passage at 50:46

50:57 And even though we sort of say that, we don't really kind of know until we kind of go deep inside and see for ourselves, just to see that this world is not out there. This world's in here. The Buddha said that everything that I've known, everything that I've taught, I've... Seen and understood in this fathom-long length of body. So it's not, you know, he's not talking about a world out there where he's learning from the world out there. Report an error in the passage at 50:57 Highlight the passage at 50:57

51:32 He's learning from looking inside, inside himself. And it's inside your mind, you know, if you take the four satipatthanas, you know, the... The first sativitana is feeling, just understanding feeling and how important that is, just to feel, to be able to feel into your body. Probably more so than thinking. Report an error in the passage at 51:32 Highlight the passage at 51:32

51:58 Thinking only causes confusion. It's only stillness that brings about wisdom. The wisdom comes from stillness. Thinking is always confusion. Report an error in the passage at 51:58 Highlight the passage at 51:58

52:15 You know, here again, this feeling when you're starting that process of learning how to feel properly and to certainly use your intellect. I mean, we have a wonderful intellect in the way that we can self-reflect, self-reflect and look back on ourselves, look deeply inside ourselves to notice and see these things, to be able to see just what the Buddha was pointing to. Report an error in the passage at 52:15 Highlight the passage at 52:15

52:42 Because it's hard to see. It's hard because we're not really conditioned to see it at all. We're conditioned to see the opposite. We're conditioned to believe in our bodies. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

52:54 And it just goes on and on each time that we die. Another rebirth is there and you're there again and the mind stream is just continuing on in saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 52:54 Highlight the passage at 52:54

53:06 Saṃsāra is just an endless world, beginningless world. And endless, beginningless and endless. And why the Buddha again saw this in his practice when he left the palace. You know, he left this hedonistic life in the palace, probably where he had everything that he wanted. All the food, the good food that he could eat, all the refined clothes and the coiffured hair and, you know, the horses and the sport and that that he used to play. Report an error in the passage at 53:06 Highlight the passage at 53:06

53:40 All of that sort of hedonistic stuff that when you're sort of a wealthy person that you are able to do that. So he had the very best in his youth and through his life, but then when he became disenchanted with all of that, when he realised that he needed to look deeper and he left the palace, then when he went outside into the palace, you know, he probably stayed a little bit with... Report an error in the passage at 53:40 Highlight the passage at 53:40

54:09 Thinking about those things, thinking about life from that perspective, from the palace perspective. But then gradually he just saw that that wasn't working. It wasn't cutting the mustard for him. So that's when he went to the asceticism. He went and learned how to really punish his body, to try and force, force the truth out. Report an error in the passage at 54:09 Highlight the passage at 54:09

54:36 And just sort of when people do that, you can sort of see, you know, when they're flogging themselves. Flailing themselves and sort of wearing hair shirts, putting crowns of thorns on their head to try and mimic Jesus. It's all just asceticism. And the Buddha was a... Siddhartha Gautama, as he was at the time then, he was a wonderful ascetic. Report an error in the passage at 54:36 Highlight the passage at 54:36

55:01 He built up quite a following of people, you know, that were just, you know, amazed to be with him and just to see how harsh he could be on himself. Report an error in the passage at 55:01 Highlight the passage at 55:01

55:12 But then one day he just, well, you know, that extreme, that extreme, I've been there, done that, where can I go to, what can I do? And then he thought, the middle way, the middle way between extremes. What does the middle way happen to coincide with? The present moment, this present moment. So that's really when his practice really started to cook with gas. Report an error in the passage at 55:12 Highlight the passage at 55:12

55:42 Because he could see the right way to see things. And this is really, if you do know the different lists and everything he made, the Eightfold Path starts off with that right view. Right view and then right intention. This is the two wisdom elements of the Eightfold Path. So having the right view of the way this world is. Report an error in the passage at 55:42 Highlight the passage at 55:42

56:08 But it's very difficult for us to have the right view, isn't it? Very difficult. For us to see that this world is a delusion, an illusion. It's not real. There's no reality to it. Report an error in the passage at 56:08 Highlight the passage at 56:08

56:24 You only find the reality in the present moment. And when you look into the present moment, you see there's nothing there. It's a no-self. It's impermanent. And it's no-self impermanent as dukkha. It's causing us a lot of... suffering and stress. And we see that, you know, probably the world's now one of its most stable periods, I suppose, for wars. Report an error in the passage at 56:24 Highlight the passage at 56:24

56:58 There isn't a world war going on like the Second World War was or the First World War. But heavens above, when you look at what's happening in the world and the Middle East and over in Russia and Ukraine and all of these places, just the stupidity, you know. Why do we do this? Why can't we stop it? But we can't stop it because we're kind of caught with this positive and negative energy that's there. Report an error in the passage at 56:58 Highlight the passage at 56:58

57:26 It's dukkha. It's the way that it is. Dukkha is there in our lives. It's there in the world. You can't escape it. The only way you may be able to find some respite from it It was really by developing good karma, and the Buddha sort of taught us this. You know, having the right way to see things from a moral perspective, right? Report an error in the passage at 57:26 Highlight the passage at 57:26

57:54 You know, the three aspects of morality in the Eightfold Path. You know, right speech, right action, right livelihood. And then you couple that with the meditation. If you can do that, if you can get your life to a reasonable level where you're not kind of worried about what other people... You know, what you... Report an error in the passage at 57:54 Highlight the passage at 57:54

58:15 Not worried about what you've done and whether people will be coming to get you or other situations you might find yourself in if you haven't been that wholesome in the way that you've been living. Report an error in the passage at 58:15 Highlight the passage at 58:15

58:31 I often sort of consider some of those things that you see on the news, the gangsters and the people like that playing with guns all the time. Report an error in the passage at 58:31 Highlight the passage at 58:31

58:42 It must be very, very difficult to find... A peaceful mind. It would be very difficult to find the contentment that was here in this room at the beginning of the night. Report an error in the passage at 58:42 Highlight the passage at 58:42

58:57 So when you kind of start seeing things from that way, you really understand how wise the Buddha was when he sort of found this middle way path and then developed the meditation. Meditation is a Report an error in the passage at 58:57 Highlight the passage at 58:57

59:14 I'll just finish off the eightfold path there. There's a right view, there's a right intention, and then the moral aspect of it is right speech, right action, right livelihood. Report an error in the passage at 59:14 Highlight the passage at 59:14

59:24 But then there's, in the meditation side, right concentration, which is what we started off with, the samatha. And then we did a little bit of vipassanā, looking at the insight, but that's all part of that meditation side. But then the right mindfulness is the second one, and right energy. Having the right energy in your body to be able to sort of work through all of these things. So they're very natural things that the Buddha talked about to us and advised us to be with and to practice. Report an error in the passage at 59:24 Highlight the passage at 59:24

1:00:04 But I think the main thing that I can sort of draw from all that is really just this present moment and the way that this present moment is. is right here, and the energy that's building the present moment is right here now. If you'd maybe just allow me to... In quantum mechanics, I don't really know how physicists do this, but they talk about a time that's less than 10 to the minus 43 seconds. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:04 Highlight the passage at 1:00:04

1:00:41 So that's 0 point, and there's 43 zeros, 4, 3. That's a pretty, in anyone's language, that's a pretty short space of time. I don't really know how you'd even sort of find it hard to even comprehend that. But in that time, the speed of light can travel 10 to the minus 32 seconds, which is 0.32032. That's the space. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:41 Highlight the passage at 1:00:41

1:01:05 Now beyond that is the quantum world. And this is where this energy arises. And this energy is infinite. It's infinite and it's there in space and it's there everywhere that we can work with it. But I do want to just sort of move on to just talk about the, what I was just wanting to, what I've really named the talk tonight, really just having confidence in or being Report an error in the passage at 1:01:05 Highlight the passage at 1:01:05

1:01:35 able to really, I've just got a little cheat sheet here with a, so just, I knew I'd forget this word, trusting. Trusting. Trusting the access concentration that's there that we can work towards. And the access concentration is really the fifth jhāna factor. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:35 Highlight the passage at 1:01:35

1:01:59 And it's really interesting the way that they... The Buddha's just so amazing just in the way that he sort of created these lists and just had them connected, all connected. Because these five jhāna factors, they line up with the five hindrances. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:59 Highlight the passage at 1:01:59

1:02:17 So the first one of the jhāna factors is initial application. So this is really when you're just getting started. You're sitting, you know, maybe you don't want to, but then you start. So that's a start. That's a start to a good practice. And what that does is it overcomes sloth and torpor, which is, what, say, the fourth factor, the fourth hindrance. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:17 Highlight the passage at 1:02:17

1:02:43 So that's initial application. You start that. That's the first jhāna factor. And then there's, after the initial application, there's sustained application. So when you're meditating, that's what I was trying to point to tonight with you in the meditation that we're doing, to sustain, have that ability to sustain the attention on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:43 Highlight the passage at 1:02:43

1:03:10 But eventually, you know, we can sustain the attention just on the whole process. This sustained attention covers any doubts that you might have. That's the fifth hindrance. Once that attention is sustained, then your doubts are covered. They're covered for that time anyway. covers the the Report an error in the passage at 1:03:10 Highlight the passage at 1:03:10

1:03:49 And then you move on to the next part of that is rapture and joy. And that's sort of heading down towards a process of... Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:03:49 Highlight the passage at 1:03:49

1:04:15 it's the stillness anyway and the calmness, the calmness of mind. That's all incorporated in that. When you have that... you have that Report an error in the passage at 1:04:15 Highlight the passage at 1:04:15

1:04:28 Happiness and joy that's there. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28

1:04:35 It's the start. It's what I'm talking about with the energy, the way this energy sort of comes and starts to work through your body. It's such a joy and a beautiful thing to sort of keep going. And then that moves on to the fourth jhāna factor, which is bliss. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:35 Highlight the passage at 1:04:35

1:04:57 Bliss and piety. And this is, piety is sort of a happiness that sort of is starting to get quite subtle. And bliss is like that too. It's a sort of a subtle joy that just sort of comes into your body. This bliss, and it sort of focuses, it's focusing you. You're starting to really move now to concentration. And then after that you're moving to, and that covers... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:57 Highlight the passage at 1:04:57

1:05:31 The bliss covers restlessness in the five hindrances and then you move on from there to access concentration. So then you're kind of really starting to establish the meditation and when you've got that access concentration there, you're really starting to cook with gas because you can keep the attention sustained. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:31 Highlight the passage at 1:05:31

1:06:02 onto the meditation. And this is important, and you can trust that. That's what I was just saying, trusting access concentration, because when you get to the point that you can really trust yourself, to trust your mindfulness, it's such a wonderful thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:02 Highlight the passage at 1:06:02

1:06:22 Ajahn Chah talks about this, he talks about this trusting of access concentration. For himself, he was... This book, Stillness Flying, is really an amazing book. You realise how many of these Arahant people are just ordinary. They're just like you and me. They're ordinary people. Some of the things that comes into his mind, the sensual desire that was there that he had to overcome. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:22 Highlight the passage at 1:06:22

1:06:57 Um, and the, the, and the, the... The anger and the troubles that he had in his mind, you know, it was all there for him. He's very, very honest. It's a very honest book and a very honest way of... Jay Asaro has kind of taken it all out and sort of written it down. Mind you, it's a huge book too. It's 748 pages or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:57 Highlight the passage at 1:06:57

1:07:23 But like I say, I can't see anymore now. I'm blind as a bat. So when I'm sort of looking at you all here, you're a little bit... It's sort of blurry to me, but that's... Well, it's really just by the by, though, anyway. But Ajahn Chah, he... It doesn't really matter, really, how you are, really, in the way that you practise. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:23 Highlight the passage at 1:07:23

1:07:50 As long as you've got that, being able to sort of sustain and being able to make that samādhi established. Just establish that samādhi. And once that's established, then you can really concentrate on your mindfulness. Ajahn Brahm talks about this, especially in his book, Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:50 Highlight the passage at 1:07:50

1:08:15 He kind of has sort of set this out quite clearly, actually, for us all to see there, where you can use then the power of your mindfulness. Once you've got this excess concentration there... to worry about your meditation, you don't have to keep worrying about, am I still focused on my breath, because mindfulness has got it, mindfulness knows, so you just trust it. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:15 Highlight the passage at 1:08:15

1:08:41 Trust your mindfulness. And so, as I started to say before with Ajahn Chah, he was saying that he used to snore. But as soon as all this sort of kicked in for him, his mindfulness just stayed with him overnight. Even when he was sleeping, he didn't snore anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:41 Highlight the passage at 1:08:41

1:09:02 The access concentration and the mindfulness of it had sort of taken over. So this mindfulness when that access concentration is there and you can trust that you can just allow this energy of the mindfulness this energy that I'm talking about there that creates the mind and the flow of your consciousness you can just allow that to Report an error in the passage at 1:09:02 Highlight the passage at 1:09:02

1:09:29 Because you're not so involved in the flow of the consciousness so much anymore now. You're involved in the stillness, the stillness of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:29 Highlight the passage at 1:09:29

1:09:39 And that stillness is coming into your mind and it's powering it, starting to power it right up to such an extent that you can then start to really turn that stillness back on to itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:39 Highlight the passage at 1:09:39

1:09:58 Turn it back onto itself and then you start to see the way that this world really is, the way that the consciousness itself ceases, finishes. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:58 Highlight the passage at 1:09:58

1:10:08 Consciousness goes. No longer there. Now, you might just sort of say that, well, if consciousness is not there, how does the Buddha know? Because the Buddha lived for 40, 45 years or something after he was enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:08 Highlight the passage at 1:10:08

1:10:34 You know, if he had no self and no consciousness, how did that work? This is where, again, this kaya that he talked about comes back into importance. This kaya is like the body of the universe that's there because even though the Buddha had no self, he certainly still had his body. He talked about this as something left over. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:34 Highlight the passage at 1:10:34

1:11:02 His mind was extinguished. Not just ceased, it was extinguished. But there was something left over. And that something left over is the body. And this body really is independent by itself because it's built up with systems and layers and layers and everything is interacting. So it's really the wonderful nature of the way that this world is too. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:02 Highlight the passage at 1:11:02

1:11:30 When you start to sort of see this in yourself, you start to see the systems there, 11 main systems that are inside us working, but then those systems are all made up of multitudes of other systems that are all sort of working too. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:30 Highlight the passage at 1:11:30

1:11:46 And all of this is still there, even though the Buddha, his view of self had totally gone. He had no self. But yet he still had a vicarious access to this body. That he was still inhabiting until it died. And then when the body died, he said that is a situation where everything is extinguished and there's nothing left over. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:46 Highlight the passage at 1:11:46

1:12:20 But if you're still alive and you happen to be an Arahant, you've got something left over still. And that's not still. You're enlightened. He's still an enlightened person. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:20 Highlight the passage at 1:12:20

1:12:35 But there's something left over. And that something left over is what is used vicariously. Buddha did a lot of wonderful things. I don't know how many people know this, but he made two more factors for the eightfold path. So an actual factor turned out that he ended up with a tenfold path. It wasn't really an eightfold path in the end. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:35 Highlight the passage at 1:12:35

1:13:03 Although the Eightfold Path is really all you need to practice and understand what he was talking about. But the Tenfold Path included right knowledge, so he had six knowledges that the narrow heart sort of knows. They don't all get them equally, apparently, but I'm just saying that in case anyone thinks that I'm talking like this and I'm enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:03 Highlight the passage at 1:13:03

1:13:33 To assure you, I'm not enlightened yet. I'm trying hard. But those six knowledges are available to an Arahant person. And then also the last one, the tenth one, is right release. And it's very interesting in the way that the Buddha, when the Buddha died, because he died, you know, this sort of came, the story really came through one of his monks called Ananda. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:33 Highlight the passage at 1:13:33

1:14:03 Ananda was the Buddha's personal attendant for 20 years. He looked after him. He must have been just a beautiful man, Ananda. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:03 Highlight the passage at 1:14:03

1:14:15 The way that he looked after not only the monks and the Buddha but all of the people that he came in contact with. He was really quite amazing. But he wasn't enlightened when the Buddha died. He still wasn't enlightened. And he asked... Another enlightened monk that was there at the time, I'm just trying to think of his name and I just can't bring it to my mind at the moment, but maybe I'll think of it in a tick. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:15 Highlight the passage at 1:14:15

1:14:45 Anyway, I asked him, he said, is the Buddha fully extinguished yet? This is when he died, because the Buddha died. He actually had eaten some food that was poisoned. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:45 Highlight the passage at 1:14:45

1:14:58 That's the wrong way to say it. He had... or poisoned, it was, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:58 Highlight the passage at 1:14:58

1:15:04 He had food poisoning anyway. He'd eaten some bad food and that was what caused his death. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:04 Highlight the passage at 1:15:04

1:15:17 So Ananda asked, nearly had his name, Ananda asked this monk and he said, no, he's not fully extinguished yet. He has now gone to the eighth jhāna and now he is... But he Report an error in the passage at 1:15:17 Highlight the passage at 1:15:17

1:15:35 going back from the 8th jhāna to the 7th, to the 6th, to the 5th, to the 4th. And then he's going back down now to the 4th jhāna, 3rd jhāna, 2nd jhāna, 1st jhāna. And then he said, now he's coming up again through the first, second, third and fourth jhāna, fourth jhāna, and he said, now the Buddha is extinguished. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:35 Highlight the passage at 1:15:35

1:16:02 And this is what... It's called in the Buddhist world the right release, right release. But he only had to come back after the fourth jhāna. The other higher jhānas were already taken care of with the extinguishment that happened previously when he was enlightened. But this is really his way of dealing with this kaya, the kaya body that... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:02 Highlight the passage at 1:16:02

1:16:36 ...was still there. So as he released himself from those four material jhānas, because those four at the bottom, or the first four are material jhānas, they're not mental, they got to do with the body and the world. So as he went right to the bottom of those and he's come back and released himself from all of those, from those fourth jhānas, he just stopped at the fourth jhāna because that's when there was nothing left over. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:36 Highlight the passage at 1:16:36

1:17:06 So that's... That little talk, I don't know how I'm going there for time. It's getting on a little bit. I'll give you some time if anyone's got a question. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:06 Highlight the passage at 1:17:06

1:17:18 But it's quite a fascinating thing, really, isn't it? And this access concentration turns out to be quite important, really, if you can get yourself to a point where you can really trust, trust in the mindfulness that you have. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:18 Highlight the passage at 1:17:18

1:17:42 You don't have to worry so much then about sort of, you know, am I on the breath? Am I here or am I thinking there? I mean, of course you still have to be a bit careful, but you can trust that the mindfulness is doing the job for you. The mindfulness automatically does it because it's been energised to such an extent that it just works by itself. It knows what you want and it will do it for you even when you're sleeping. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:42 Highlight the passage at 1:17:42

1:18:15 So that's... Trusting, access, concentration. The fifth jhāna factor. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:15 Highlight the passage at 1:18:15