Cultivating the One that Knows as the Way Out

0:01 [chanting]

0:25 Time. Report an error in the passage at 0:25 Highlight the passage at 0:25

0:47 Time. What Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

0:53 is time? Report an error in the passage at 0:53 Highlight the passage at 0:53

1:01 Is there such a thing as time? Does time exist? Does time not exist? Report an error in the passage at 1:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01

1:14 How do we measure time? Report an error in the passage at 1:14 Highlight the passage at 1:14

1:22 Dhamma of the Buddha is supposed to be timeless, isn't it? Timeless Dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 1:22 Highlight the passage at 1:22

1:33 And yet we live in time, or so it seems. 20 years since I've been here, it's a long time. Report an error in the passage at 1:33 Highlight the passage at 1:33

1:48 13 years I lived here, it's a long time. Seven years before that, I lived in Thailand. It was a long time. And it certainly took a long time for me to finally meet this beautiful Dhamma of the Buddha. I was 22, so I had already lived a long time. Report an error in the passage at 1:48 Highlight the passage at 1:48

2:17 So what is this phenomenon we call time? Time passes? How Report an error in the passage at 2:17 Highlight the passage at 2:17

2:32 do we measure it? How do we even know? What time is. The only way we can really measure time is through change. Report an error in the passage at 2:32 Highlight the passage at 2:32

2:48 We perceive change. Things that once were no longer are. Things that we once remembered we forgot. Or so we think. Where does it all go in time? Where do our forgotten memories go? Report an error in the passage at 2:48 Highlight the passage at 2:48

3:19 And why is it? That the Lord Buddha could remember 91 eons of time. 91 eons. Do you know what an eon is? An eon is the time between the world expansion and the world contraction. Right now, scientists tell us that the world is still expanding. So we're not even halfway in this eon. Report an error in the passage at 3:19 Highlight the passage at 3:19

3:56 So it's a long time. And the Buddha remembered 91 of those in detail. So where does it all go? Report an error in the passage at 3:56 Highlight the passage at 3:56

4:12 Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Makes you wonder if time even exists. Is it just an illusion? But for us, in our lives that we're living, in the way we experience life, time seems to be a very Prominent factor. Certainly don't feel like I'm 22 anymore. Report an error in the passage at 4:12 Highlight the passage at 4:12

4:45 Which is when I became a monk. I was 60 last year. 60 years. And as they say, time goes by faster when you get older. When Report an error in the passage at 4:45 Highlight the passage at 4:45

5:03 you're young. I was talking to Venerable Yodako the other day and he suggested maybe it's because when you're 20 years old, You only have 20 years to remember back. Report an error in the passage at 5:03 Highlight the passage at 5:03

5:19 But when you're 60, you got 60 years to remember back. And so what's ahead of you is less than what went before. So maybe that's why in our perception, at least, time passes quicker. Report an error in the passage at 5:19 Highlight the passage at 5:19

5:49 But as I said, the only way we have to remember this phenomenon, of time is through change we see things changing we see this body of ours changing from birth through infancy childhood teenage the twins whatever and Report an error in the passage at 5:49 Highlight the passage at 5:49

6:22 then you see it get older and after a while you look in the mirror and you think what the hell is that Report an error in the passage at 6:22 Highlight the passage at 6:22

6:34 I look at my skin and I think, God, this is really terrible. It's time for you, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 6:34 Highlight the passage at 6:34

6:47 So this body is something that changes. But does it really change in time? Is that what time means? When you're in a deep meditation and you come out afterwards, sometimes you don't know how long you sat. It could have been half an hour, it could have been an hour. It could have easily been a couple of hours. So time disappears when the mind becomes still, when movement becomes less. Report an error in the passage at 6:47 Highlight the passage at 6:47

7:28 Time seems to slow down and even vanish. Our feelings change in time. Sometimes we have pleasurable feelings and we never want them to change. We want to keep them. Because they make us happy. And then they change. And just because they change, even the very fact that they're changing means that the experience afterwards, the feeling that comes, is less pleasurable. Report an error in the passage at 7:28 Highlight the passage at 7:28

8:07 We call it pain. Sometimes we have pain and we think we can't endure it. And then when that pain finally ceases, we feel happy again. Report an error in the passage at 8:07 Highlight the passage at 8:07

8:24 So these feelings are changing and they make us perceive time. Our memory, again, changes. Memory and perception, very closely related phenomenon. Our perceptions change. Things you didn't like to eat when you were a child, what's it called in English? I think kohlrabi, I think. Huh? Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

9:04 Is it kohlrabi? Anyway, cauliflower. No, maybe not cauliflower. I don't know what it is. Something I hated as a child. And I hadn't eaten it for a long time. And then somebody made some and I really liked it. I remember my most extreme experience of change in perception was when I had gone to Thailand and Report an error in the passage at 9:04 Highlight the passage at 9:04

9:38 Well, just to give a bit of background, I was brought up basically as a fish, in the sense that my dad was a scuba diving teacher, and we used to always travel to all these wonderful countries, Israel, Greece, in the old days Yugoslavia, Italy, Spain, and we had these amazing holidays by the sea, scuba diving. So when I went to Thailand, for some reason I never made it to the sea. Report an error in the passage at 9:38 Highlight the passage at 9:38

10:09 Even though the sea in Thailand is supposed to be very beautiful. Instead I went to the mountains because I hadn't seen them yet. But then from the mountains I went to the monastery and I never left for seven years. Never went back to Germany for seven years. Never left the countryside. I went to different monasteries but never to the sea. So I think it was around after my fifth rains retreat we went down to pay respects to Venerable Ajahn Buddhadasa, who lived in the south of Thailand. And we traveled by car and we stopped in a monastery that was by the ocean. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:52 I think it was Petburi, if I remember correctly. So they actually had monks' kutis, monks' huts by the beach. And I thought, wow, this is wonderful. This is great. I finally get to see the ocean. But of course, as a monk, you're supposed to be restrained and you're not supposed to be playing in the water like lay people. Report an error in the passage at 10:52 Highlight the passage at 10:52

11:13 As it says in the monks' rules, once the monks were playing in the water when they were bathing and the lay people complained and said, these sons of the Sakhyans, they behave like little children. So the Buddha laid down a rule and he said, okay, no more playing in the water. So ever since then, thanks to these monks, we can't play in the water. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:34 So anyway, I didn't dare to go into the ocean and I waited until everybody was asleep. So around midnight, it was a full moon night, I went and swam in the ocean. And the experience was absolutely terrible. Report an error in the passage at 11:34 Highlight the passage at 11:34

11:54 I mean, at the fact that there were these jellyfish that were supposed to be quite painful, I didn't like it at all. And I used to love the sea. I used to literally love it. And all of a sudden, after all these years, that perception, perception had completely changed. There was no enthusiasm, no desire, no love for that element of water anymore. Report an error in the passage at 11:54 Highlight the passage at 11:54

12:31 And that was a shock to me. That was a real shock. And it was perhaps the first time that I tried to reflect on it, because as monks, we're supposed to be contemplatives and reflecting on the... Truth of nature and all these amazing things and I thought, what is it? Why is that? How can it be that it changes like that? And so, I don't know, can we say that time changed it? Report an error in the passage at 12:31 Highlight the passage at 12:31

13:09 Is it time's fault that I didn't like water anymore? I don't think so. It's just the nature of all things to change. It's the nature of all things to manifest change. And things is my favorite translation of what we call the Dhamma. All Dhammas are impermanent. All things are impermanent. It's a very beautiful, a very neutral way of looking at phenomenon. A very neutral way of seeing experience. Report an error in the passage at 13:09 Highlight the passage at 13:09

13:58 We experience things, things like the body, things like feelings, things like perceptions. They're all dhammas, but they're also all sankharas, which means formations, conditions. So all these things are conditioned. They arise because of causes. There's nothing in this world that simply is. It's just in the process. Report an error in the passage at 13:58 Highlight the passage at 13:58

14:32 Of constant change. And sometimes we don't notice it. But that for me was one of those first occasions where something that I had loved and cherished was all of a sudden gone. Let alone when we talk about thinking. Can we ever sustain a red thread along a particular line of thought? Most people Report an error in the passage at 14:32 Highlight the passage at 14:32

15:08 Think in what we call associative thinking. And we think about one thing and then something else comes up and then we think about that and we think about that and before we know it we're completely somewhere else. Report an error in the passage at 15:08 Highlight the passage at 15:08

15:24 The mind doesn't think in linear ways. It thinks according to associations. So thoughts are highly impermanent. They are highly changeable. Report an error in the passage at 15:24 Highlight the passage at 15:24

15:42 That we can see. And we can measure time by the way we think. We can measure time when obsessive thoughts plague us for hours. And then all of a sudden these thoughts disappear into nothingness. They're gone. And there's a sense of relief that this obsessive thought is finally gone. But then someone else pops up. Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

16:15 Another thought. And we obsess about that. So sometimes when you ask people or you tell people that it's actually possible to just know in the present moment without thinking, they think you're crazy. They think it doesn't work. It's impossible not to think. Report an error in the passage at 16:15 Highlight the passage at 16:15

16:41 So what about consciousness? Sense consciousness. We have these six classes of consciousness as the Buddha named them. Sight. Report an error in the passage at 16:41 Highlight the passage at 16:41

16:52 Eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness and mind consciousness, they're always changing. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, touching, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, smelling, tasting, touching. We're plagued by these contacts, the sense contact. Report an error in the passage at 16:52 Highlight the passage at 16:52

17:22 We're sensitive beings. We are... It's like an open wound and we can't help it but make contact with the world and sometimes the contact is pleasant and we feel happy and sometimes the sense contact is painful and we feel irritated by it. Report an error in the passage at 17:22 Highlight the passage at 17:22

17:50 So sense consciousness again is something by which we can measure time and because it changes we can See, experience directly how all these senses are constantly bombarded by contact from the world around us. And if it's not the world around us, then we make up our own world inside the mind and we think about these things because the mind can take up all these six classes of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 17:50 Highlight the passage at 17:50

18:27 As you know from dreams, we can... We can have smells in dreams, we can have tastes in dreams, touches we can see, hear. So the mind is capable of experiencing all of these sense impressions even though there is nothing coming from the outside world and change. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

18:57 So where is this timeless dhamma then? What is timelessness when all these things continually change? Report an error in the passage at 18:57 Highlight the passage at 18:57

19:10 And the closest we can get, if Report an error in the passage at 19:10 Highlight the passage at 19:10

19:16 we are not enlightened, is in meditation, when the past becomes history, not lingering on history, nor building hopes on fantasy, but trust in this reality, a timeless present here and now. It's one of those little verses I once made up for myself to remind myself of Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

19:58 the passage of time. Report an error in the passage at 19:58 Highlight the passage at 19:58

20:04 Not lingering on history, nor building hopes on fantasy, but trust in this reality, the timeless present here and now. So there is a sense, at least, of timelessness when we retreat into the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 20:04 Highlight the passage at 20:04

20:26 And you all know Ajahn Brahm teaches that, has been teaching it for many, many years. And I was confounded by it at first. And I tried to sit meditation and not even begin to start watching the breath. But I really wanted to be in the present moment because that was what I was supposed to do. Report an error in the passage at 20:26 Highlight the passage at 20:26

20:49 Present moment awareness. And it was frustrating. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. And then one rains retreat, I remember, I had a lot of time to meditate and really tried to get into this present moment and all of a sudden, there it was. Report an error in the passage at 20:49 Highlight the passage at 20:49

21:16 No past, no future, no thoughts, just awareness of this moment. And I had gotten into nice states of meditation before that through breathing, Ānāpānasati, breath meditation. And the interesting thing I realized at that time was that the state of peace I had attained at that point from merely being silently in the present moment was exactly the same as the sense of peace I attained from watching the breath. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

22:01 There's no difference. There's no difference because the awareness is exactly the same. What you know seemed Report an error in the passage at 22:01 Highlight the passage at 22:01

22:18 to be irrelevant for the peace of mind. Report an error in the passage at 22:18 Highlight the passage at 22:18

22:28 There was another experience I had when I think you might have even been after that rains retreat. I'm not sure. My timeline is a bit confused. Report an error in the passage at 22:28 Highlight the passage at 22:28

22:45 I can never remember these things. But anyway it was after the rains retreat and it was supposed to be the Katina celebration. And of course during the rains retreat everybody wants to meditate and so certain things get a little bit neglected. So I had the, well, seemingly unpleasant job of cleaning the veranda on top of the eating hall. Report an error in the passage at 22:45 Highlight the passage at 22:45

23:15 Those of you who've been around for a while, remember the eating hall in the old days was just a one-story building. And then there came a time when we put the second story on top and it has this veranda around it. So that veranda, the railing, was really dirty. Lots of bird shit, cobwebs, what have you. Anyway, and I thought, why do I have to do that? Report an error in the passage at 23:15 Highlight the passage at 23:15

23:45 I want to go back and meditate. I want to clean the veranda. But of course I realized very quickly that wasn't a very skillful thought. So I said, okay, I'm going to put 100 % effort into making that the most beautiful veranda in the universe. So I got myself a bucket of warm water and a sponge and I started cleaning. Report an error in the passage at 23:45 Highlight the passage at 23:45

24:15 One stroke at a time. ...thing at a time, little by little, work myself around. And I got so absorbed into cleaning that veranda that that became the object of my mind. And I blissed out, just like I blissed out in the present moment when I was sitting in meditation. Just like I experienced happiness after watching the breath for a certain period of time. Report an error in the passage at 24:15 Highlight the passage at 24:15

24:52 It was the same bliss, it was the same awareness, it was the same mind. It was the same mind that cleaned the veranda, it was the same mind that experienced the present moment, it was the same mind that experienced the breath. Report an error in the passage at 24:52 Highlight the passage at 24:52

25:15 So that really taught me something. It taught me that the mind doesn't really care what it experiences. So long as it is continuous, unbroken awareness, unbroken attention, one-pointedness of mind, Report an error in the passage at 25:15 Highlight the passage at 25:15

25:45 it's amazing if you understand that. Because then you know that giving 100 % for Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

25:58 whatever you do is the trick for happiness. If you do things half-heartedly, If we do things sloppily, if we do things and already think about something else, there's no way the mind can become happy. There's no way the mind can become peaceful. But if you give 100 % when you're talking to someone, give 100 % when you're cleaning, cooking, bathing, eating, going to the toilet, whatever you do, it doesn't matter. Report an error in the passage at 25:58 Highlight the passage at 25:58

26:39 So long as you're there, present. With what you're doing. Because it is the same mind. I gave a talk in the monastery once. It's called toilet seats and seclusion. And if you want to sneak a dharma talk from the monk section in the monastery, you can listen to it. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

27:08 So I was just talking about the need to be, what do you call it, considerate. Because as people we rub up against each other. Living in society, living as a family, living wherever, you live with people. People rub up against each other. So being considerate, to leave less marks behind, certainly in the toilet, really helps for a pleasant abiding with your Friends, your family. So when you then go into seclusion, you're happy. Report an error in the passage at 27:08 Highlight the passage at 27:08

28:03 You're at ease. Because you know you did well. You cleaned up after yourself. It really helps. Because it's the same mind. It's the same awareness. It's the same quality of knowing what is going on. Report an error in the passage at 28:03 Highlight the passage at 28:03

28:25 On the level of mindfulness, we train. We train to be aware. We train to be awake. We train to be present. We train to be sharp. And of course the more sense input we indulge in, the less likely it becomes that the mind can maintain continuity. I think the attention span of your average teenager these days is about three minutes. Report an error in the passage at 28:25 Highlight the passage at 28:25

29:04 How long is the YouTube clip these days? I don't know, I don't watch it. You know, so forget about meditation. If you can't keep your mind still enough for long enough to be with one thing and actually enjoy it, it becomes less likely that the mind can really get into what we call the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 29:04 Highlight the passage at 29:04

29:13 meditation. Report an error in the passage at 29:13 Highlight the passage at 29:13

29:38 In the midst of all this change by which we measure time, we have this quality of awareness. We have this quality, this ability to know, this ability to be mindful. There's a German word for mindfulness, for the word sati, that I prefer when I give talks in German, because mindfulness is such an overused word. Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

30:13 I remember in the old days in Nanachat, whenever you did something wrong, people would come up to you and say, be more mindful. Report an error in the passage at 30:13 Highlight the passage at 30:13

30:25 So it becomes like a, I don't know, like a slogan. But nobody really knows what mindfulness really is, what sati really is. Report an error in the passage at 30:25 Highlight the passage at 30:25

30:38 And sati, mindfulness, or this present moment awareness, in the teaching of the Buddha, It needs to be accompanied by wisdom. And the wisdom is, for instance, that we know change, that we understand change, and that we understand the uncertainty in conditioned phenomena. And that word conditioned phenomena is again one that I personally dislike. Report an error in the passage at 30:38 Highlight the passage at 30:38

31:19 Because when you use the word conditioned phenomena, it implies that it is some thing. So I much prefer the word conditions or sometimes translated as formations. It's good to learn some of these Pāli words like sankara. Sankara are formations. They're not... conditioned phenomena. Report an error in the passage at 31:19 Highlight the passage at 31:19

31:55 Why? Because they are as much conditioned as they are conditioning. So a formation is both conditioned by conditions from the past as it conditions the conditions of the future. The Buddha was once asked, formations, formations, why do we call these things formations? Report an error in the passage at 31:55 Highlight the passage at 31:55

32:24 Formations are called formations because they form the formed. Sounds a bit strange. But if you think about it, if you allow it to sink in, it makes sense. It's active, but it's also passive. It's the result of the past and it is the cause for the future. So talking about time, we have these modi. We have the past. Report an error in the passage at 32:24 Highlight the passage at 32:24

32:55 We have the present and we have the future. What's the difference? Report an error in the passage at 32:55 Highlight the passage at 32:55

33:04 What we hear a lot is to let go of the past and to let go of the future and to be in the present. As if the past somehow was bad, the future is bad and only the present is great. And yeah, to an extent that's true. But does that mean that we're not allowed to learn from the past? Report an error in the passage at 33:04 Highlight the passage at 33:04

33:28 Does it mean that we are not allowed to contemplate the consequences of our actions for the future? Our actions have consequences. What we are experiencing right now is the result of the past. So the past, present and the future, as Lompocha once very beautifully said, can be seen as one. We have this beautiful word in the Dhamma, What we call bhava. And bhava in most cases they translate it as existence. Report an error in the passage at 33:28 Highlight the passage at 33:28

34:12 But there's also some translators who translate it as becoming. And I never liked that word becoming when I was a young monk because it never made sense to me. And now I don't like the word existence anymore because that doesn't make any more sense. Becoming makes a lot more sense to me now because there is Nothing. Report an error in the passage at 34:12 Highlight the passage at 34:12

34:41 Because everything changes. The Buddha said there is change Report an error in the passage at 34:41 Highlight the passage at 34:41

34:52 in persistence. So certain things, they last for a particular time. True. This body has lasted 60 years. Knock on wood, hopefully a few more. But you can perceive change in that persistence. Report an error in the passage at 34:52 Highlight the passage at 34:52

35:22 So there's the arising and there's the passing away. And in some of these teachings that are based in the commentarial literature of Buddhism, what we call the post-canonical teachings, not really originally from the Buddha, they talk a lot about arising and passing away. Report an error in the passage at 35:22 Highlight the passage at 35:22

35:48 What they miss out on is that which persists. But the Buddha said, even in those things that persist, change can be perceived. And so there is really nothing, absolutely nothing, that simply is. Report an error in the passage at 35:48 Highlight the passage at 35:48

36:13 Everything has to change. Why? Because it's conditioned, because it's formed, because it's born, because it's created. Because it has arisen because of causes. Has arisen because of food. This body subsists on food. The body subsists on air. If you breathe in and you don't breathe out, that's it. You're dead. Finished. One breath. That's all you have. The breath ceases. Report an error in the passage at 36:13 Highlight the passage at 36:13

37:00 That's the end of what we call this body. Feelings change. From happiness to pain, from pain to happiness, perceptions change, thoughts change, sense consciousness changes. Report an error in the passage at 37:00 Highlight the passage at 37:00

37:18 So what can we trust in this world? What can we truly put our trust in? Because that's what we're looking for, isn't it? We want to trust in something. We want to have a certain sense of security. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

37:39 We want to be safe. Report an error in the passage at 37:39 Highlight the passage at 37:39

37:46 So what can we trust in? What takes us through this life? If we rely on these things that constantly change, eventually they change for the worse. And then we're in trouble. Because if we're not prepared, it's going to be painful. But if we can see it as nature just taking its course, Report an error in the passage at 37:46 Highlight the passage at 37:46

38:19 then we're on top of things. We see these five groups of existence. What we call them, the five heaps, the five khandhas. I like the word heap much better than groups. Groups is too, it reminds me of going to school. But heap is great. It sounds a bit more messy. And that's what they are. They're messy. Form is messy. Feelings are messy. Perceptions are messy. Thoughts are messy. Report an error in the passage at 38:19 Highlight the passage at 38:19

38:57 Sense consciousness is messy. There are five heaps not to be trusted. They stab you in the back sooner or later. That's the truth. It's the awful truth, but it's one that we need to come to terms with if we really want true happiness. And that true happiness we can only find in that which we can truly trust in. Report an error in the passage at 38:57 Highlight the passage at 38:57

39:27 And that's for the time being anyway. Report an error in the passage at 39:27 Highlight the passage at 39:27

39:34 Our ability to be aware, our ability to know, our heart. In the beginning, when we start practicing, we can't trust the heart. The heart is deceitful above all things. I think someone once said. And yes, or they say the heart wants what it wants. When people talk about the heart, they point to their chest. Report an error in the passage at 39:34 Highlight the passage at 39:34

40:04 When people talk about the mind, They point to their head. Why is that? Is there a difference between the heart and the mind? Report an error in the passage at 40:04 Highlight the passage at 40:04

40:18 Where is that awareness? Is it in the head? Is it in the heart? It can be, but it can also be somewhere else. If you learn how to astral travel, well, that's a bit far out, isn't it? But still, the mind is not the four elements. Report an error in the passage at 40:18 Highlight the passage at 40:18

40:49 The mind is the element of knowing, the consciousness element, if you like. The eyes, they don't know. They're stupid. The ears don't know. They're dumb. The nose doesn't know. The tongue doesn't know. This body doesn't know. Has the body ever complained to you? Report an error in the passage at 40:49 Highlight the passage at 40:49

41:20 Well, let's take it even further. Have your feelings ever complained to you? Have your perceptions ever complained to you? Have your thoughts ever complained to you? They don't care what they think. Perception doesn't care what it perceives. Feeling doesn't care what it feels. The body doesn't know anything. It's this awareness. It's this ability to know what's going on. Report an error in the passage at 41:20 Highlight the passage at 41:20

41:46 And that's where we can put our trust. Because then we can step back from Report an error in the passage at 41:46 Highlight the passage at 41:46

41:58 Formations. We can see formations arising. We can see them change while they persist. And we can see them fading away into nothingness. Report an error in the passage at 41:58 Highlight the passage at 41:58

42:18 And that's wonderful if you can do that. Because it gives the mind a sense of equilibrium. It gives the mind what we call equanimity. Equanimity is a word that I think it was even Ajahn Brahm once who pointed that out and he said that the Pāli word upeka, pekkati is the infinite of looking and upeka is like an intensified looking. Report an error in the passage at 42:18 Highlight the passage at 42:18

42:56 So what upeka, what we translate as equanimity really means is really looking, really seeing. Why? And that's where the equanimity comes from because you're no longer interested in what you see. There's no more liking and disliking. That's why they call it equilibrium or equanimity. Report an error in the passage at 42:56 Highlight the passage at 42:56

43:22 It's that liking and disliking in the mind that constantly oscillates between good and bad, right and wrong, happy, unhappy, beautiful, ugly. This I want, this I don't want, this is good, this is bad. Report an error in the passage at 43:22 Highlight the passage at 43:22

43:40 That's what makes us Report an error in the passage at 43:40 Highlight the passage at 43:40

43:44 It's that constant oscillation in the mind between liking and disliking that wipes us out. And what do we like and dislike anyway? Report an error in the passage at 43:44 Highlight the passage at 43:44

44:00 We put our likes and dislikes in things that always change. So we like it now and then it changes and then what? We don't like it now and then it changes and then what? So you can't trust these things. You can't trust your liking and disliking because that is also conditioned. It's created. We've accumulated these desires, these longings, these yearnings for pleasant sense experience for countless lifetimes. Report an error in the passage at 44:00 Highlight the passage at 44:00

44:42 Literally. Remember the Buddha remembering 91 eons? That's why when you read in the suttas that before the monks or the nuns become enlightened, they always recollect their past lives. Report an error in the passage at 44:42 Highlight the passage at 44:42

45:04 So the Buddha recollected 91 eons and then he said, okay, that's enough. Let's get out of here. I remember as a French monk once, he actually was in Perth the year I came, or I think a year later. He spent a year with us in Perth. In the old days, I think it's 94, 95, around that time. And he was one of these monks. I always hoped he'd stay in robes. Report an error in the passage at 45:04 Highlight the passage at 45:04

45:31 Unfortunately, he disrobed. But I always thought if he ever wrote an autobiography, it'd be the most amazing autobiography ever. Because he'd been with every Kuba Ajahn you can imagine. He's seen all the monks. He's asked them all the questions. So he had all these stories. And he went to this one monk in the south, who was supposed to be Narayan, who could remember his past lives. And he always had the ability to ask them point blank. Report an error in the passage at 45:31 Highlight the passage at 45:31

46:02 So he said, so how many past lives do you remember? And I can't remember the number, of course, because it could have been 90 or something like that. But it was a relatively small number, at least compared to 91 eons. So he said about 90, let's say 90. And then this monk said, well, if you can remember 90, Why didn't you remember anymore? You know what he said? It was enough. It was enough. Report an error in the passage at 46:02 Highlight the passage at 46:02

46:38 So that was all he needed to see futility in running after things that changed. The Buddha, remember when the Buddha, there's a beautiful sutta where the Buddha talks about, it's called the Arya something, Pariyasana sutta or something. And he said, Why am I looking or why am I who am myself subject to birth, old age, sickness and death? Report an error in the passage at 46:38 Highlight the passage at 46:38

47:12 Why am I looking for things that are also subject to birth, old age, sickness and death? And then it clicked. And he said, no, I'm not going to be looking for things that are subject to birth, old age, sickness and death. I'm already subject to birth, old age, sickness and death. I'm going to look for something that is not subject to birth, old age, sickness and death. Report an error in the passage at 47:12 Highlight the passage at 47:12

47:38 I'm going to look for something that doesn't change. And it's the same with Luang Por Chah. I composed these verses of Luang Por Chah once, where I took my favorite teachings of Luang Por Chah and I put them in a somewhat chronological order. Report an error in the passage at 47:38 Highlight the passage at 47:38

48:02 And I put them into a metric form, because I like metric form, because you remember it. I like meter, I like poetry. So, and in the beginning of that, he was stating that he was looking for things that have an end. Report an error in the passage at 48:02 Highlight the passage at 48:02

48:24 Things that have an ending. Because otherwise, you'd just be going round and round in circles. Report an error in the passage at 48:24 Highlight the passage at 48:24

48:34 And so, I don't know about you, but in those years as a monk that I've been trying to look for a way out, a bit like these exit signs up there above the doors, for me the exit sign that seems to be the most promising is through that awareness, to cultivate that awareness, to cultivate this mind, cultivate this heart. Report an error in the passage at 48:34 Highlight the passage at 48:34

49:07 Whatever you want to call it, doesn't matter. There's ability to know, because that you can retreat into. What happens to that, for the time being, is irrelevant. But it's that which points the way out. It's through awareness that we attain freedom. It's through awareness that we can attain what Report an error in the passage at 49:07 Highlight the passage at 49:07

49:40 we call... or what, what, uh. Report an error in the passage at 49:40 Highlight the passage at 49:40

49:46 Independency. I always liked that. I always wanted to be independent. It was one of these sort of things, ideas you have as a teenager. You don't want to depend on your parents. You don't want to depend on the whatever. You want to be independent. And then of course you realize as a human being living in the world, living in society, you will always be dependent. Report an error in the passage at 49:46 Highlight the passage at 49:46

50:17 And certainly when I became a monk, I realized I'm absolutely 100 % dependent on those people who feed me, like you. If you don't get up in the morning and make some food and bring it, I go hungry. So yeah, it's a debt of gratitude towards all those people who provided requisites for me for the last, what, 37 years. Report an error in the passage at 50:17 Highlight the passage at 50:17

50:44 So yeah, I am dependent. I'm in debt. And the Buddha actually called us debtors until we become enlightened. Because it's only once we become enlightened that the Buddha said we are truly free from debt. Report an error in the passage at 50:44 Highlight the passage at 50:44

51:06 Until I reach that, I'm still in your debt. But the idea of independence was always something I cherished. And so how do we become independent? Report an error in the passage at 51:06 Highlight the passage at 51:06

51:25 Are we independent if we get upset if we don't get enough likes on Facebook? No. Are we dependent if we depend on people liking us? No. Am I independent if I care whether you like my talk tonight or not? No. So Report an error in the passage at 51:25 Highlight the passage at 51:25

51:51 independence is to me, at least it's a beautiful concept. But we have to realize as human beings that we are, we're social beings in a sense. We depend on each other. Report an error in the passage at 51:51 Highlight the passage at 51:51

52:07 And it's that realization that once you practice the dharma more and more, the more you understand the depth and breadth of what the Buddha meant when he taught something like the Four Noble Truths. Report an error in the passage at 52:07 Highlight the passage at 52:07

52:31 Dukkha, the more you understand dukkha in yourself, the more you understand dukkha in everyone else. And that's where true compassion comes from. If you don't understand suffering, if you're arrogant enough to think that you're not suffering, or somehow you can get out of it, escape it, in some worldly way, then of course. Report an error in the passage at 52:31 Highlight the passage at 52:31

53:07 You won't have compassion for those fellow beings because you want to just get your own, don't care about anyone else. Report an error in the passage at 53:07 Highlight the passage at 53:07

53:20 If you understand how dependent you yourself are, as human beings, as beings born into this world, we're completely dependent on our parents. That's why the Buddha said, right view, one... aspect of right view is to realize the debt of gratitude towards your parents. Because if they had forgotten you on a bus stop somewhere when you were an infant, you wouldn't be here today. Report an error in the passage at 53:20 Highlight the passage at 53:20

53:56 Because you're completely hopeless as an infant. I don't know how long my mom wiped my butt when I sat on the toilet. Mama, mama, come, wipe my bum. Report an error in the passage at 53:56 Highlight the passage at 53:56

54:17 It's true, isn't it? So yeah, we hope we're completely dependent. So how do we become independent? How do we become equanimous to what people think? We need to develop that heart. We need to develop our mind. We need to be confident in knowing the truth. The more we know the truth, the less we are dependent on what People say around us, praise and blame no longer affect us. Why? Most people who blame us, they don't even know us. Report an error in the passage at 54:17 Highlight the passage at 54:17

55:00 And those people who praise us, they don't know us either. And sometimes we should actually be blamed for things they praise us for. Report an error in the passage at 55:00 Highlight the passage at 55:00

55:13 Sometimes we should be praised for things they blame us for. They get it all wrong. So what do we care what other people say? Report an error in the passage at 55:13 Highlight the passage at 55:13

55:23 It's because we don't have enough confidence. We don't have enough trust. We don't know where we can put our trust. That's why we have the triple gem. Report an error in the passage at 55:23 Highlight the passage at 55:23

55:35 That's why we have the Buddha. You can trust the Buddha implicitly 100%. You can trust in the dhamma that the Buddha taught implicitly 100%. You can trust the noble ones. who've seen that truth for themselves, implicitly, 100%. One of the things I always loved about being around beings who actually were awakened, some of these Report an error in the passage at 55:35 Highlight the passage at 55:35

56:09 monks who had actually developed the dhamma to the point of complete self-realization, was the fact that they would never judge you. Never, ever. Will you feel judged in the presence of an arhat? Probably not even in the presence of an anagami. Report an error in the passage at 56:09 Highlight the passage at 56:09

56:36 Because they've seen non-self. And they've seen formations as formations. They've seen sankara as sankara. They've seen the heaps that we attach to and cling to and hold on to and cry and laugh over as what they are. Just nature. Report an error in the passage at 56:36 Highlight the passage at 56:36

57:00 And they don't see it personal. They don't take it personal. Even though they know that you're still full of sh... Oh, sorry. They never judge you. They never do. You feel safe in their presence because they don't look at you as a person, as an individual. Report an error in the passage at 57:00 Highlight the passage at 57:00

57:29 They look at you as formations that have arisen because of causes and that eventually will change. Maybe for the better, maybe for the worse, and then for the better, and then for the worse again, depending on how long we hang around in saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 57:29 Highlight the passage at 57:29

57:54 But there's no stability in that. There's no safety. There's a safety in being around enlightened beings because they don't judge you. Report an error in the passage at 57:54 Highlight the passage at 57:54

58:09 I remember, it's because I like, sometimes I like a bit I'll be a bit provocative. I think it's the first retreat they asked me to give in Singapore. They wanted a bio-data. I thought, what the heck is a bio-data? I didn't even know what it was. Somebody said, oh, a bio-data is like a short biography of your life. Report an error in the passage at 58:09 Highlight the passage at 58:09

58:40 So I wrote a little poem. I sent it to them in Singapore. What's there to life? It's nature's play, just eating and excreting, while getting older day by day, life's pleasures all are fleeting. Report an error in the passage at 58:40 Highlight the passage at 58:40

59:03 And I actually printed that out. Report an error in the passage at 59:03 Highlight the passage at 59:03

59:08 That's the first banner of my talk in Singapore. I had my bio data on it. So there you go. Don't take it personal. It's just sankara, just formations. Report an error in the passage at 59:08 Highlight the passage at 59:08

59:22 Nothing else, just nature's play. Report an error in the passage at 59:22 Highlight the passage at 59:22

59:28 So yeah, can we see our lives as nature playing itself out? If we can, we're at ease. Just watch as things change. And we're not upset by it. It's easy to say, isn't it? A doctor comes to me tomorrow and says, oh, sorry, Cattamalo, three months max, lung cancer, stage four. Sorry, mate. Report an error in the passage at 59:28 Highlight the passage at 59:28

1:00:01 Am I going to be able to just smile like a smile now? Or is it going to get to me? I don't know. I can talk like that. I don't know if I can do it. I hope I can. I've been practicing for it for the last 37 years. So it would be a shame if I couldn't. But I'm still an uncertain quantity, if you want. I don't know. But that's what we're practicing for. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:01 Highlight the passage at 1:00:01

1:00:31 That's the direction that we need to go. That's where freedom is. That's where independence is. And we all know we're going to die. We all know we're going to get old. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:31 Highlight the passage at 1:00:31

1:00:46 So, yeah, if you made good kama in the past, like one of these great monks in the forest tradition, Lumpu Dune, he saw in his meditation that he hadn't harmed any being for such a long time that in this lifetime He wouldn't experience sickness. And he didn't. And it was actually a full moon night. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:46 Highlight the passage at 1:00:46

1:01:17 In the morning he told his monks to gather because it was also, I think it was also one of these big festivals. Could it have been Katina or something? I can't remember. And so there was a lot of people coming to the monastery anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:17 Highlight the passage at 1:01:17

1:01:39 So, any... He hadn't been able, I think he hadn't been walking for a while. So he asked the monks to put him in a wheelchair and to roll him around the monastery. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:39 Highlight the passage at 1:01:39

1:01:54 The monks thought it was a bit strange. And then he went through the motions of the day with the lay people and ceremonies and whatnot. And then in the evening he gathered the monks around him and gave a really nice dharma talk and then he copped it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:54 Highlight the passage at 1:01:54

1:02:18 Just like that. He knew. He knew exactly when he was going to die. It's beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:18 Highlight the passage at 1:02:18

1:02:29 But yeah, for us, as what we call not so enlightened ones, it's something to aspire to. But we need to know where we can put our trust. Put your trust in the triple gem and put your trust in your heart. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:29 Highlight the passage at 1:02:29

1:02:57 Try to develop your heart to the point where you can actually trust it. If you can't trust it yet, it's okay. But you know sometimes you can trust yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:57 Highlight the passage at 1:02:57

1:03:10 So trust in the awareness. Trust in the ability to know. I always say when you're depressed, you know that you're depressed. When you're happy, you know that you're happy. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:10 Highlight the passage at 1:03:10

1:03:27 So it's the same knowing that knows that you're depressed. It's the same knowing that knows that you're happy. So let's cultivate that knowing, cultivate that awareness, cultivate that trust in mindful awareness. But don't forget the wisdom part. And the wisdom part is that which tells you all conditions, all formations have arisen because of causes and they will cease. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:27 Highlight the passage at 1:03:27

1:04:10 And sooner or later. So it's going beyond conditions. It's going beyond formations. It's not putting our trust in formations. We're putting our trust in that which can know formations. And that's the exit door. That's the way Report an error in the passage at 1:04:10 Highlight the passage at 1:04:10

1:04:35 out. So anyway, I've been rambling on for about an hour now. So I think that might be sufficient. But... I'd be happy if you still have some energy to answer the odd questions. So Prem was the first, very quick. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:35 Highlight the passage at 1:04:35

1:05:02 Thank you for coming back after how many, 17, 18 years, and I appreciate it, and thank you for the teaching tonight. You mentioned, I don't know if I understood correctly, the present moment awareness, you said is timeless dhamma. Is that sort of what you meant? Timeless Dhamma is present moment awareness. The timelessness of the Dhamma as far as I understand it is what makes the Dhamma timeless is that it has nothing to do with time. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:02 Highlight the passage at 1:05:02

1:05:44 So the Dhamma has absolutely nothing at all whatsoever to do with time. And that's why it's timeless. Now, what does it have to do with? It has to do with hetu and pachaya. It has to do with het pon, as they say in Thai, with cause and effect. So, the causes and effects, 2,500 or 600 whatever years ago, or 91 eons ago, and the causes, 91 eons hence, Report an error in the passage at 1:05:44 Highlight the passage at 1:05:44

1:06:26 If they're the same causes, they produce the same results. So cause and effect is at the heart of the Buddhist teaching. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:26 Highlight the passage at 1:06:26

1:06:37 So it's not time. That's why I said sort of in the beginning, or I raised the questions, I didn't want to answer it because honestly I don't even know whether time even exists. I don't even want to discuss it because it's not the point. The point is that that the only way we can perceive time is through change. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:37 Highlight the passage at 1:06:37

1:07:03 And the only way we can perceive timelessness Is to go beyond cause and effect as long as we create causes there will be effects the good the bad and the ugly Report an error in the passage at 1:07:03 Highlight the passage at 1:07:03

1:07:20 Ajahn Haro's Proud to understand, I've read and all that, I don't know that it's correct, the fact that there is no expiry date for the Buddha Dharma. I mean, it is two and a half thousand years later, it is as valid and as effective as it was the time of the Buddha. Yeah, but even that would be limiting. Even that would be limiting. It literally means that it has nothing to do with time. It literally means that cause and effect. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:20 Highlight the passage at 1:07:20

1:07:53 is what makes this universe go round. So when Lumpa Chah, remember there is this saying, he said, above causes and beyond results. That's where freedom lies. As long as we create causes, there will be results. But anybody notice that beautiful sign outside the Dhamma hall here? It says, what does it say? Report an error in the passage at 1:07:53 Highlight the passage at 1:07:53

1:08:22 to avoid To avoid evil, to cultivate good, and to purify the mind. So before we can purify the mind, we need to do good and avoid evil. So we got to make the mind better first, and then we can let it go. You can't let a bad mind go. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:22 Highlight the passage at 1:08:22

1:08:45 Thank you very much, Ajahn. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:45 Highlight the passage at 1:08:45

1:08:53 Lady over here? Oh, sorry. I think you were in first. I thought I'd follow you quickly after. So you go ahead. Thank you, Ajahn. Beautiful talk, very deep. Just in relation to the comment you made about compassion is something that is developed through experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:53 Highlight the passage at 1:08:53

1:09:15 Is that developed through experience over lifetimes? So are you born with compassion that you've not cultivated or experienced over lifetimes? Yes, yes. You would come with a certain... package, everybody comes with a package, nobody comes as a white sheet, doesn't exist, we all bring our package from the past, so if you have developed an understanding of dukkha, like suffering, in the past, and thereby developed that sense of compassion, that cetanā, that intention of wanting to alleviate dukkha, first first of of all all in in yourself, yourself, but then through Report an error in the passage at 1:09:15 Highlight the passage at 1:09:15

1:10:30 Then we understand it in others. So it's like we're all in the same boat. That's why this whole world is such a mess because people are allowing themselves to be divided. I mean, what the hell? I mean, they never learned from history or what? I mean, people just forget. So why is it that people allow themselves to be systematically divided so that some people can just rub their hands? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:30 Highlight the passage at 1:10:30

1:11:00 And what do we get upset about? What do we get divided about? It's pettiness. It's petty things. We're all in the same boat. We're all brothers and sisters in birth, old age, sickness and death. Whether you're black, white, woman, man, whatever. It's all the same. I remember, because I was here, 9-11, remember? Boom. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:00 Highlight the passage at 1:11:00

1:11:28 And that morning when somebody told me the news, my heart went out in equal measure to those people who had just burned to death, including the pilots. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:28 Highlight the passage at 1:11:28

1:11:44 Because I knew those stupid pilots, I mean they weren't going to be going to heaven and have their, how many did they get, 70 nymphs or something like that. They were in hell, burning, you know. So it's like that realization, it made my compassion extend to them equally. Even though I didn't condone the act of evil, I mean you don't condone evil, but you understand that evil arises because of delusion. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:44 Highlight the passage at 1:11:44

1:12:20 Evil arises because of not understanding dharma, not understanding the truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:20 Highlight the passage at 1:12:20

1:12:28 So yeah, that's kind of what I meant. But yeah, you will be born with more or less compassion depending on how you developed it in the past. So it comes back to cause and effect. Exactly. You created the causes in the past like that. And is it both cultivated and experienced? You can do both, can't you? Just by being aware of... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:28 Highlight the passage at 1:12:28

1:12:57 What those pilots are going to be going through and having compassion for them. So that's sort of cultivating some compassion rather than a past experience. It's a bit like a question that I recently discussed with someone whether, you know we're talking about letting go, yeah? And we're talking about insight, right? So what comes first, the insight or the letting go? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:57 Highlight the passage at 1:12:57

1:13:29 And I think it's simultaneously. It's like the inside is the letting go, the letting go is the inside. It happens at the same time. And so when you're asking whether compassion is both cultivated and experienced, it's, I mean, I suppose there is a sense of you needing to cultivate something before you can experience it. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:29 Highlight the passage at 1:13:29

1:13:30 simultaneously. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:30 Highlight the passage at 1:13:30

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:14:02 But the moment you actually, let's put it that way, the moment the cultivation culminates in understanding, that's the moment when true compassion also arises. So it's like the insight that arises from the cultivation is simultaneous with the experience of true compassion. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Thank you. Thank Report an error in the passage at 1:14:02 Highlight the passage at 1:14:02

1:14:40 you for that talk tonight. Very interesting. I just want to go back to the point that you were making about the awareness, that moment that we have when we are truly aware of the things around us. So from what I understand as humans, we are surrounded by objects. Everything in our world is an object and we experience those objects and develop perceptions to varying degrees. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:40 Highlight the passage at 1:14:40

1:15:11 For these objects and with that comes that duality, you know, with happiness, unhappiness and all sorts of different ways of perceiving. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:11 Highlight the passage at 1:15:11

1:15:21 To be aware and to just focus in that moment, I'm not clear on how we can exist in this world of objects with these dualities. And how we navigate that line between existing in this world with duality and being aware, like is that something that we do every moment of our life? I mean, how do we navigate? I'm not sure if I'm making this clear. I think I know where you're coming from. Well, see what the Buddha taught was what we call a gradual training. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:21 Highlight the passage at 1:15:21

1:16:06 So obviously then when we start there's still a lot of, the mind is still very diversified and there's a lot of dynamics and there is the constant switching between the different sense impressions. So when the Buddha taught the gradual training the very first in these different steps Until we get into deep meditation is what the Buddha called the control or the restraint of the senses. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:06 Highlight the passage at 1:16:06

1:16:45 And that can sometimes be misunderstood because when we hear the word sense restraint, especially as a lay person, we kind of go three steps back and say, I don't want to restrain my senses, I want to experience, I want to indulge, I want to have it all kind of thing. So then what that of course does is that we're constantly switching. The mind is constantly, you know, one oscillating between like and dislike, but also among all the switching between the different senses. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:45 Highlight the passage at 1:16:45

1:17:18 So we experience a lot. So the more we experience, the more input we have, the less that quality of awareness actually becomes prominent. So when the Buddha said, well, you have to first of all restrain the senses. So most people then when they hear that, they understand that you have to stop looking, you have to stop listening, you have to stop smelling, tasting, touching, have to stop thinking. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:18 Highlight the passage at 1:17:18

1:17:47 And to an extent, on an initial level, to avoid certain situations, people, scenarios. That are potentially increasing your desire and aversion is of course good. As a monk, I avoid certain places. I just don't go there. I avert certain people. If there are stupid people and I can avoid them, I avoid them. But you can't get enlightened through just avoidance. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:47 Highlight the passage at 1:17:47

1:18:24 You can't see the truth through just avoidance. So what real sense restraint means is you watch. At the mind door, when sense contact happens, it's like as a teacher once gave the simile, he said, if you have a lizard that crawled into an old abandoned anthill, and that anthill has six holes, how do you catch that lizard? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:24 Highlight the passage at 1:18:24

1:18:56 How will you catch it? Okay, you block five holes and you watch on the sixth, right? Easy. So with sense restraining it's the same. You watch over the mind because the mind is where liking and disliking arises. It doesn't arise at the eye. It doesn't arise at the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body. Liking and disliking arises in the mind. That's why I said earlier the mind doesn't care what it experiences so long as it experiences one thing continuously and gives it awareness, gives it attention and then the mind starts to... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:56 Highlight the passage at 1:18:56

1:19:34 The energy starts to grow in one place and that's where the joy, where the strength, the stability of the mind comes from. So if you're constantly allowing the mind to run around, to roam around in the sense world and experience liking and disliking all day long, then in the evening you're pooped, you're tired. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:34 Highlight the passage at 1:19:34

1:19:58 So sense restraint then on the proper level Doesn't mean that we look away. Yes, sometimes I look away. I don't deliberately go looking. I always try to look for the ugliest woman in the room. Because it's more healthy as a celibate monk than to look for the most pretty girls. But it's difficult because the tendency is obviously to look for the pretty ones, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:58 Highlight the passage at 1:19:58

1:20:28 So it's like you've got to train yourself and then with time, the mind becomes more strong. And then that awareness that you're talking about, it can grow. It grows when it is limited in what it is aware of. So that's why in meditation we need, I call it, and some people can't figure out what I'm talking about, but I try anyway, because I like it, it's from Tanpo Lee, one of the... Report an error in the passage at 1:20:28 Highlight the passage at 1:20:28

1:21:02 Disciples of Luang Por Mani said, what practice really is, is the movement from many to two, to one, to zero. So in other words, less is more. So he said, many means the mind is constantly roaming between seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking, thinking all the way. Two means the mind has one object, like the breath, or like a mantra, or like a vision, a visual object. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:02 Highlight the passage at 1:21:02

1:21:32 Or like loving kindness, or cleaning a veranda, or cleaning a toilet. So you give the mind one thing, and you stay with that, you focus on that, and then the energy can grow. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:32 Highlight the passage at 1:21:32

1:21:47 And from that, that awareness becomes a quality, it becomes a friend. It becomes something that you can fall back on. It's like the Buddha compares it to like a post you firmly embed in the ground, it's like something that, you know, it holds you. Or like a rock in the ocean, and the waves can just crush against it, but it doesn't move. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:47 Highlight the passage at 1:21:47

1:22:20 So your awareness becomes more stable. It makes sense. Thank you very much, Thay. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:20 Highlight the passage at 1:22:20

1:22:49 Ajahn Cattamalo, thanks for a very deep talk. No, Cattamalo is not here. It's my brother, Cattamalo. I'm the other one. I'm the other brother. No, you. I'm talking about you, Chittapalo, isn't it? I'm the other brother. Oh, sorry. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:49 Highlight the passage at 1:22:49

1:23:08 Chattamalo. Chattamalo, okay. Anyway, Ajahn, yeah. In your talk tonight, you know, initially you talked a lot about time, you know, time. Time, time. Yeah. The Buddha was telling us we are all lost in time and space, you know. So in other words, we are all trapped in saṃsāra. There's birth, old age, sickness and death, it's going on. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:08 Highlight the passage at 1:23:08

1:23:38 And the whole thing is, as you say, is a mess. It's suffering. The way out is suffering. The way out, the exit, we have to look for exit. And the exit is the Buddha's teaching. Is that the question? Can you see what I mean? Is that the question? I think, yeah, I think. Yeah, I'm just saying, so each time. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:38 Highlight the passage at 1:23:38

1:24:25 When we have our problem, you know, a problem, you know, which we have now, we should bear in mind, oh, we are all trapped, this thing, this thing, okay. What we should do is this thing is we should go into like, you see, the tools which Buddha gave us, it take a long time, okay, like meditation, blah, blah, blah, all these things, to keep lightening ourselves, lighten and keep lightening, lightening, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:25 Highlight the passage at 1:24:25

1:24:48 As we lighten, we float up to like a, 31 place, we go up, up, up, up. We suffer less and less and less and less and less. You're right, you're right. I think, I mean it's a fair description because like I said just similarly here, it's a gradual training. Yes. And so we have to trust in that gradualness. So we cannot expect magic, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:48 Highlight the passage at 1:24:48

1:25:17 It doesn't happen like that. Nobody can come with a magic wand and say ping. You're enlightened now. So we have to do the work. And the work for us as monks is the same as it is for you as lay people. There's no eightfold path for lay people and eightfold path for monks. It's just how far you prepare to take it. That's the only difference. But it does take time. And so in that sense, yeah, time, as it were, exists on that conventional level. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:17 Highlight the passage at 1:25:17

1:25:48 But that's the idea of Following that eightfold path and then allowing the mind to become lighter and lighter and lighter, as you said, so that the burdens that we carry become less and less and less. But the crucial thing is to see a burden as a burden. If we don't see burdens as burdens, we keep carrying them. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:48 Highlight the passage at 1:25:48

1:26:16 So we need to know what the burden is and for that we need to be willing to look at suffering. And that's what most people are not prepared. Most people run away from suffering and they never look at it. If you never look at it, you never see it. If you never see it, you never contemplate it. If you never contemplate it, you never understand it. So we've got to be able to look very carefully at these things that we hold on to, Report an error in the passage at 1:26:16 Highlight the passage at 1:26:16

1:26:45 I said in the beginning, are all subject to change. And then trust in that awareness, which gives us the ability to step back from experience to an extent and look at it and understand it. Because it is only through understanding that we can let go. That's right. Only through understanding we can let go. The Buddha was saying, he doesn't want us to read his teaching, he wants us to experience it. It's only through experience can we lighten ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:45 Highlight the passage at 1:26:45

1:27:20 You know, there's one line, I wasn't going to use it tonight, but I might as well, because it's a good one. Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. These days everybody thinks when they look at the internet for 20 minutes, they know. But all they do is they collect information. Because they don't actually apply that information to their own experience to make it their knowledge. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:20 Highlight the passage at 1:27:20

1:27:50 But even if you know, it doesn't help you. You know certain things are bad, you still do them. You know certain things are good, you still don't do them. So knowing is not wisdom. And wisdom is not truth. So what is wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to let go when it hurts. Anybody can let go when it doesn't hurt. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:50 Highlight the passage at 1:27:50

1:28:13 I can let go of that glass of water. Okay, I drink one when I get back to my room. But can I let go of something that really hurts? Something that I really want? Can I let that go? So letting go when it hurts means you understand that that which hurts, It's not yours, because then it doesn't hurt anymore. It's still a painful feeling, but the mind is no longer taking that up as a personal thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:13 Highlight the passage at 1:28:13

1:28:46 He sees it as nature. And then wisdom is not truth in the sense that only the arahat has arrived at the truth. He doesn't need wisdom anymore, because he is wisdom. So wisdom is the path. Wisdom is the path. ...to liberation. Wisdom is the path to truth. So information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom and wisdom is not truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:46 Highlight the passage at 1:28:46

1:29:12 So understand the difference and don't fall for the illusion that information is knowledge. Or even for the illusion that knowledge is wisdom. Some people know the suttas inside out, they still haven't got a gram of wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:12 Highlight the passage at 1:29:12

1:29:34 So, wisdom means to be able to let go when it hurts. And if you no longer need to apply wisdom, because you are wisdom, then you arrived at the truth. You finish. The job is done. Just one more quick one. One quick one. Ajahn, I just want to ask you. You talk about the exit, Ajahn, about the exit door. There it is, exit. No, no, exit door. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:34 Highlight the passage at 1:29:34

1:30:03 Okay? I know. So the exit, you know, what you're talking today is nirvāṇa, you know, nibbāna, exit, nibbāna, you know, end of all this. Nibbāna is what's on the other side of the exit. Yeah, that is the exit door, the other side of the exit, fair enough or whatever, I know what you mean here, yeah. My question is, it's a hard question, you don't have to answer. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:03 Highlight the passage at 1:30:03

1:30:32 Do you think it is difficult to attain dimbana? And the other thing is, do you think a lot of us here, we are close to it, Eddie? Eddie, I don't think it merits a yes or no answer, because it's the same process. We just need to do it. I mean, when I was a young monk, I thought, oh, I just... Quickly get enlightened and then I can go back to Germany and enjoy myself. It took me a few years to realize it's not going to work that way. But now I'm at a stage where I realize, what the hell, it doesn't matter how long it takes. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:32 Highlight the passage at 1:30:32

1:31:15 Because that's the only way there is. That's the only exit there is. If it takes one lifetime, great. If it takes two, ten, a hundred, a thousand, okay. Maybe I was too lazy. That's what I'm saying. There's no eightfold path for you. The eightfold path for you is no different than the eightfold path for me. The dhamma is the dhamma is the dhamma. Full stop. It's just a matter of how much effort are you willing to put in. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:15 Highlight the passage at 1:31:15

1:31:42 And I say to people sometimes, I say, draw 24 lines on a piece of paper. 24 lines, 24 hours a day. Then you count how many hours you need to work. You can't get out of it. How many hours you need to eat. Go to the toilet, wash. Sleep. How many hours do you need to, whatever, socialize? How many hours do you need to, whatever you think you need, you must do every day, you write that down with the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:42 Highlight the passage at 1:31:42

1:32:20 And then you see under the line how many hours you got left. Then you take those hours that you have left and you divide them by two. In other words, you cut them in half. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:20 Highlight the passage at 1:32:20

1:32:33 And that is the minimum you should meditate every day. So everybody try that. I guarantee there is more time under that line than you meditate every day. So if you can live up to that, then I can answer that question. Thank you very much. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:33 Highlight the passage at 1:32:33

1:33:01 Any more questions? Can Report an error in the passage at 1:33:01 Highlight the passage at 1:33:01

1:33:07 you give us a concrete example of how What would letting go look like in our daily life? And you know how you were saying letting go means it hurts? What I try to get across gently is the fact that true letting go arises from wisdom, arises from understanding. Now what we understand, when we truly understand, is precisely that which I've been Gently saying, which is the fact that all these things, whether it's form, like the body, feeling, perception, thoughts, consciousness, these things change. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:07 Highlight the passage at 1:33:07

1:33:55 And in those forms that we experience, these five heaps, these five aggregates, there's always the good and the bad. There's the pleasant, there's the unpleasant. There's that which we like and there's that which we don't like. But true letting go only happens from the realization that both need to go. You can't have one without the other. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:55 Highlight the passage at 1:33:55

1:34:22 And that's why it's so difficult. Because we still perceive in terms of me and mine and self, we always want the pleasure. We want to get rid of the pain. So if you understand that even pain on a higher level... Sorry, if you understand that even pleasure on a higher level is pain, that's the place from where you can really let go. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:22 Highlight the passage at 1:34:22

1:34:51 But that's very difficult. So that's why I said what we can trust in is the awareness. Because the awareness can know pleasure. The awareness can know pain. And from that awareness, you can let go of both. I know it's hard to swallow, but that's the awful truth. Thank you. Thank Report an error in the passage at 1:34:51 Highlight the passage at 1:34:51

1:35:25 you, Ajahn. Very nice talk. In contemplating that dharma is timeless, I find looking, seeing that relative reality is time dependent and then the whole aspect of letting go seems to no future, no past, letting go, letting go. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:25 Highlight the passage at 1:35:25

1:35:54 leads to a space of ultimate reality almost, or nirvāṇa. So my question that I'm a little bit stuck on is grasping and clinging, I'm trying to understand if they're time dependent. So if I'm at a space of having aversion and I'm pushing away, I feel like, or I don't understand, I can't see that that's time dependent. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:54 Highlight the passage at 1:35:54

1:36:31 I'm a little bit stuck. It's okay, because on that level of what we call convention, we need to grasp. We need to hold on. But we need to hold on to the good stuff first. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:31 Highlight the passage at 1:36:31

1:36:53 We need to hold on to those things that we know can propel us in the right direction. It's like that sign outside underneath the Buddha statue. We need to cling to good first and let go of evil. You know that simile that people give sometimes with a letter. You go up a letter, you've got to hold on to the higher one before you can let go of the lower one. And then you go up higher and higher. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:53 Highlight the passage at 1:36:53

1:37:22 But eventually, once you're on the top, you can kick the ladder away, which means both. But you need to cling to the good first. You have to make the mind good. And that's the job of wisdom, of right view, what we call right view, is to understand what are the things that are worth holding on to. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:22 Highlight the passage at 1:37:22

1:37:44 If you're a lay person, you have a marriage, you have children, you have a job, then... It would be irresponsible to try and let go of those things that you have responsibility for. That's where your responsibilities lie. If you're a mother, or you're a father, or you're a daughter, or a son. So you have responsibilities. And learning how to take responsibility for our actions, that's developing wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:44 Highlight the passage at 1:37:44

1:38:15 So we try and do what is right and what is good. But we don't forget, it's like, it's not wrong to look at that higher goal from time to time, but not to the point where it frustrates you because you feel, I can't reach Nibbāna, I can't reach Nibbāna. It's like, it's okay, you know, but you know the direction, which with time you'll find you will become more equanimous. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:15 Highlight the passage at 1:38:15

1:38:49 Your mind will have more equilibrium. Things will not rattle you as much as they did before, even the unpleasant things. And that's the benefit of developing wisdom. So it's like we can't jump in the deep end like that. I mean, I know that talk was a little bit more, you know, kind of like somebody said, deep. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:49 Highlight the passage at 1:38:49

1:39:17 But it's just... It's just, I kind of find it's good for people to know the direction, you know, but at the same time, you know, once you're still, you know, need to take responsibility for certain things in the world, you can't do that level of letting go. Even the most monks can't do it, let's face it, you know. I mean, it'd be nice. I've been trying for 37 years. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:17 Highlight the passage at 1:39:17

1:39:50 Ajahn Brahms gave the example in his talk earlier today about the gentleman who went into that space of stillness and he was taken. And so I was reflecting on that example and moments of wow moments that I've, as short as they are, that I've had in meditation where you do get to that point of stillness and everything opens up to nothing. What happened with that particular person is because he had created these conditions in the past. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:50 Highlight the passage at 1:39:50

1:40:29 And in a sense it was like a fluke, what we call a fluke experience. It doesn't mean that it didn't have causes. Of course it had. It wouldn't have arisen without causes. But the causes might have been created a long time ago and then Something triggered it and he was able to go into that state. It's the same with past lives. Sometimes you get flashes. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:29 Highlight the passage at 1:40:29

1:40:55 You get flashes of particular things and then you remember and you know it was a past life. It wasn't just a dream or just a fantasy. But to remember consecutive lifetimes systematically back, Report an error in the passage at 1:40:55 Highlight the passage at 1:40:55

1:41:15 That's a psychic power that is very, very profound that not many people have in this day and age. And it's the same with that. So we'll just trust in that gradual training and then keep developing the right causes. And in my experience, most of the time I had a good meditation was when I didn't expect it. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:15 Highlight the passage at 1:41:15

1:41:38 It just came together. together. When you talked about that concept of time, it's been amazing to reflect on and that dharma is timeless. I had this notion of rebirth. We always think we're reborn on a timeline, but it almost makes me contemplate the whole fact of rebirth being any time. It was quite profound. That's why I don't like the word re anymore, you know, as birth. Birth. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:38 Highlight the passage at 1:41:38

1:42:20 And it can go in either direction, you know. Okay, so I think people are getting restless, so I think we call it a night. So thank you all for being here and appreciate your attendance. Hope you take something away. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:20 Highlight the passage at 1:42:20