Enlightenment is Now (1999)

0:00 This afternoon is the first of the summer talks, and again I advise you to reflect on what is being said. It's this ability to contemplate, not just get caught in the green or disagreeing. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:29 With dharma, it's always here and now, so I'm interested in just the power of of the conditioned realm as it affects us. Words, suddenly a word will suddenly hit you between the eyes or in the head or somewhere in the heart and it can be quite an ordinary word or listening or maybe what's being said is causing disease or you feel uncomfortable or you disagree and that's observing that feeling. Report an error in the passage at 0:29 Highlight the passage at 0:29

1:08 It's the sense of your own feeling of uncertainty or not liking what's being said and just observe that. This state of a silent watcher, a witness, a knower is what we're aiming for in the Buddhist practice of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 1:08 Highlight the passage at 1:08

1:37 Because this is something we can all, because of the state of sensitivity that we're in, we have to live in this continuous sensitive realm for as long as our body is alive and breathing. And so what contacts it, what impinges on it, what happens to us is, who knows? It could be anything, and we are aware of that, of the vicissitudes, of life that we all have experienced so far is the good times and the bad times, the pleasure, the pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37

2:19 And the Buddhist teaching is an awakened state of the mind which isn't depending on conditions being anything, you know, like supportive or gentle or kind or good or appropriate. The state of the awakened mind means that whatever is happening to us, how good or bad, pleasurable or painful it might be, we still have the ability to learn from it and to not be caught in just endless struggle, resistance and creation of suffering around what we have to bear with or experience in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 2:19 Highlight the passage at 2:19

3:04 Of Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:09 course we... Here we've been, you know, I look at my life, I feel how fortunate it's been. I've been a monk, this is my 33rd Vasa, so it's half my lifetime has been monastic. And even within the protective conventions of Buddhist monasticism, Report an error in the passage at 3:09 Highlight the passage at 3:09

3:39 And with all the good people that surround me, life still has its ups and downs. It's not a smooth ride, even for a Buddhist monk, when everything is going well. Because the world that we live in is a world of karma. It goes according to the law of karma, not according to what we desire or want or would like it to be. Report an error in the passage at 3:39 Highlight the passage at 3:39

4:12 I remember being brought up in the Western idealistic attitude that life should be fair and just. And I think here in England people constantly think, you know, it's not fair. Something is happening and they don't like it. They don't think it's fair. And then I think, well, life isn't necessarily going to be fair. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Report an error in the passage at 4:12 Highlight the passage at 4:12

4:39 But it is what it is and how we respond to it. We have a choice. We can either react to it with hatred, resentment, aversion or we can respond to it with mindfulness. If there's nothing we can do to change anything, if it's beyond our ability to To make changes or make things fairer then, but we can't even learn from unfairness in terms of dharma. Unfairness isn't an obstruction to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 4:39 Highlight the passage at 4:39

5:17 But wanting fairness can be an obstruction to enlightenment. Because one gets attached to that desire and then of course there's no way you can get enlightened if one is attached to ideas of any sort. So today the first title, Enlightenment is Now, is a kind of hackneyed phrase ever since the 60s, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 5:17 Highlight the passage at 5:17

5:48 It's kind of been propounded and hacked over so many times in the past several decades about Enlightenment is Now. And it makes it sound quite... You know, easy in the sense that we don't have to wait till tomorrow. But we have to know what enlightenment really is because we might have an idea of enlightenment which is, you know, might be even a good idea of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 5:48 Highlight the passage at 5:48

6:28 But it is an idea, some kind of image or some perception we have of what enlightenment is. is or should be and we may not even be aware that we're attached to this view we just hold this view and of course when we're holding to a view about enlightenment then we can't ever recognize enlightenment as a reality because we're always looking for something that we idealize and therefore the enlightenment that is available to us is never seen or noticed. Report an error in the passage at 6:28 Highlight the passage at 6:28

7:06 So getting Report an error in the passage at 7:06 Highlight the passage at 7:06

7:27 back to the reflective mind when we contemplate in terms of one's own ability for enlightenment is What do you mean by that? And what does that imply? I remember thinking when I first started meditation and when I heard the Buddha was in light, I had this idea of being kind of totally kind of taken over by light like a big flash or like St. Report an error in the passage at 7:27 Highlight the passage at 7:27

8:02 Paul on the road to Damascus where you drop in the road with this kind of blinding, blazing light in your eyes and Thinking that must be enlightenment. And yet, every time I have a picture taken with a flashbulb, I get this blinding light. Report an error in the passage at 8:02 Highlight the passage at 8:02

8:24 And it does blind me, and it is very bright, but it isn't the kind of light that helps you to see anything. It might help you to take a picture of somebody, but in terms of the kind of light you need to see as you are as a human, At this moment, if it's too bright, it blinds you. You know, you go blind with it. Like looking at the sun. We have to wear sunglasses, tinted glasses and able to bear the direct sunlight because it's so strong. Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

9:03 So light is something that we live with, something that's part of our nature. It's not something that we don't have and we have to find. But it's... But when we hold to views about it, then we tend to not see the light that is here and now. Report an error in the passage at 9:03 Highlight the passage at 9:03

9:26 So in just the experience of consciousness, isn't it, is an experience of light, being conscious being. Even when you're in a dark room where there's no light, pitch black, Report an error in the passage at 9:26 Highlight the passage at 9:26

9:43 You're still conscious, and that's light, isn't it? So, you know, you know you're in a dark room, you can see the darkness. Well, that's light, isn't it? To be able to see and to know. But if you get lost in your emotional reaction to the dark, then you can get terrified in a dark room, can't you? You can think, I can't see, I don't know what's in this room. Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

10:10 And when you're in a dark room, then you could imagine anything could be in there because you can't see. You could imagine any kind of absurd ghost or creature or poisonous insect or anything could be in that room because you can't see it. But you could imagine in the dark all kinds of dangerous... And somehow in the dark, we don't imagine like the rooms usually filled with... Report an error in the passage at 10:10 Highlight the passage at 10:10

10:39 Lovely beings, we think of usually as something horrible in the darkness. But if we rest in the light or in the attention of the mind, in the awareness at that moment, then there is light. We're resting in light rather than in darkness. Maybe what you see, what your eyes see is dark, but what your refuge is, is light. Report an error in the passage at 10:39 Highlight the passage at 10:39

11:10 Because it's awareness. There's awakeness. So contemplate that. Just to begin to just contemplate, you know, what do we mean by light and enlightenment? Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

11:28 So we can look for light as something like looking at the sun through the eyes and think that that's very obviously, you know, a ball of fire or an electric light. Report an error in the passage at 11:28 Highlight the passage at 11:28

11:43 But that which sees the lamp and the electric light, that's also light. So by reflecting in this way, we're beginning to recognize the light that's always with us rather than thinking that we are somehow don't have any, we're not enlightened, we're dark beings who have to find the light and become enlightened in the future. Report an error in the passage at 11:43 Highlight the passage at 11:43

12:14 But it's not going around thinking, I'm already enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 12:14 Highlight the passage at 12:14

12:20 It's not kind of grasping some idea that I am enlightened as a person, but in recognizing light, awakening to light. Report an error in the passage at 12:20 Highlight the passage at 12:20

12:34 Light, then enlightenment is the ability to see things as they are. And this is the... Because that's... Report an error in the passage at 12:34 Highlight the passage at 12:34

12:42 The epithet of the Buddha, the one who knows and sees things just as they are. The Pāli phrase, one who knows things as they are. Report an error in the passage at 12:42 Highlight the passage at 12:42

12:55 And so the Buddha, when you think of the historical Buddha of 2,500 years ago in India, he didn't know anything about England or America, never mentions them. And yet, you know, this island was still here, it was here. I don't know if it was called England then, but I don't think it was. It was called something or other. Report an error in the passage at 12:55 Highlight the passage at 12:55

13:23 But that's not the kind of knowledge, that's not yatha, putang, yana, dasa, nang, or the knowing things as they are. These are the things we create. We create names. We create a language and we call this England. Report an error in the passage at 13:23 Highlight the passage at 13:23

13:45 And I remember doing a kind of exercise one time, walking meditation, looking at the ground, walking back and forth in that walking meditation style and asking the ground, he said, are you England? Report an error in the passage at 13:45 Highlight the passage at 13:45

14:03 Just like playing a game, a bit of a game. And the land doesn't say anything. It just, you know, it doesn't have a name. It doesn't. You know that it belongs to anybody. But then just to see how we name it. We say, this is England, that is Scotland, that is Northern Ireland, and that is France and so forth, and Kosovo, and on and on. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:33 We get into terrible battles and fights and sense of, you know, this land is mine, it's not yours. And the whole realm of wars and strife come from that. From our own ignorance of not seeing things as they are, we create endless illusions around the experiences that we do have. Report an error in the passage at 14:33 Highlight the passage at 14:33

14:59 So the earth here is, as we say, it's the samuti satya or the conventional reality. So we're allowing for convention to operate. So we're quite willing to recognize this. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

15:43 in the dark of our own habitual patterns based on ignorance and fear and desire. Report an error in the passage at 15:43 Highlight the passage at 15:43

15:58 causes of our suffering as we create these kind of mental states through not understanding things as they really are the awakened mind is... Awakening to the way it is. This Buddha gave very clear instructions on how to break through the illusions we hold through our conventional reality. Report an error in the passage at 15:58 Highlight the passage at 15:58

16:28 For example, just being from my own background, being American, I have a cultural conditioning that you get when you're born in that country. Report an error in the passage at 16:28 Highlight the passage at 16:28

16:40 So it's And from having the kind of parents and social status and background that I have, I acquired that from after being born through the social and cultural conditioning. And that's an acquired state, isn't it? That's something, I wasn't born with it. I was born into that part of the planet that we call, say, the United States. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

17:15 That is what we call conditioning of the mind. That's not the dhamma in terms of It's not ultimately real or true. It's conventionally usable, but it can be seen in different ways. Native Americans, American Indians, don't look at it quite the same way as white people do. My ancestors came over and managed to snatch away a lot of the land. Report an error in the passage at 17:15 Highlight the passage at 17:15

18:13 from the Native Americans and they had justified reasons for doing so. The fact of the conceit that comes through that kind of cultural conditioning and thinking that being able to justify and it wasn't that they were bad people who were just out to exploit other people for evil means. It was based on a whole illusion. Report an error in the passage at 18:13 Highlight the passage at 18:13

18:43 that many people shared and justified. We could call it in the name of Jesus Christ or God and do things that could be in themselves quite evil acts and yet justified through claiming that they're done for the welfare and for the best of everyone involved. Report an error in the passage at 18:43 Highlight the passage at 18:43

19:08 Now in terms of dhamma, we see we're looking not at the... much at the what is ultimately We aren't looking in terms of ultimate good and evil, but recognizing the nature of all conditioned phenomena is impermanent. That the perceptions of the mind, being Native American or being white American or being whatever identities that you might have or any prejudices or biases or whatever that one might be holding that whatever they are good or bad, right or wrong they are impermanent this is being able to see things as they are all conditions are impermanent This isn't meant to be a kind of judgment against conditioned phenomena because sometimes we think we can use it as a kind of disparaging. Report an error in the passage at 19:08 Highlight the passage at 19:08

20:21 as useless because it's impermanent, but to recognize, to be able to break through the assumptions that we might have around the very things that affect us in ordinary life that we've never questioned. That we've just operated on the assumption of the mind, that this is really England. I am English, and we are like this, and life should be like that, and life should be fair. Report an error in the passage at 20:21 Highlight the passage at 20:21

20:57 I mean, in these kind of ideals, you know, fair enough. Life should be fair. According to an idea. But awakening to life as experience, we recognize it is the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 20:57 Highlight the passage at 20:57

21:19 And so that is seeing it in terms of dhamma rather than in terms of what should be. So this means that we can always see and awaken to dhamma in whatever situation we might find ourselves. And I find this a very challenging practice because Report an error in the passage at 21:19 Highlight the passage at 21:19

21:59 kind of laborious work, find sometimes our technology more A kind of difficult and upsetting than, say, something less complex and complicated. For example, when I first ordained in Thailand, we lived in these forest monasteries which were very primitive in terms of technology. There was no electricity or anything like that, so you just lived with paraffin lamps or candles. Report an error in the passage at 21:59 Highlight the passage at 21:59

22:35 And torches, we had that. That was quite modern, you know. To have a torch was quite a big deal in those days. And I remember we used to feel envious when somebody got a really good torch. You look at the monk. We might give him one of those with four batteries in it. Report an error in the passage at 22:35 Highlight the passage at 22:35

22:57 Envy can come over anything, I find out. Now, you know, because you don't really need a torch here. You wouldn't even look. I've been given all kinds of tortures. They don't arouse any feeling in anybody. But the technology tends to be a way of saving time, of getting through the tedium and the boarsness of life. Report an error in the passage at 22:57 Highlight the passage at 22:57

23:26 But in the process, we've created a society where people feel very stressed out. So, stress is the big word for this age, isn't it? This is what I hear all the time, people talking about stress. 30 years ago, I don't remember using that word very often. It wasn't a common word that people described their state of mind. But now, it's everywhere. And you hear, you know, courses on stress reduction. Report an error in the passage at 23:26 Highlight the passage at 23:26

23:59 People compare companies... Kind of contracting psychologists to come in and give courses on reduction of stress for managers and businessmen. Because with all the high tech and the cleverness of our mind, we create increasing amount of stress. Report an error in the passage at 23:59 Highlight the passage at 23:59

24:23 When you think of, like living here in Britain, for example, the conditions are quite good. For most of us, the stress is through thinking, isn't it? The endless, the way we think, the habitual patterns of thought, even when we're in quite a stable and well-run society. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:54 And no matter how secure, Our social economic position might be. We can still have a breakdown or worry about possibilities of something going wrong. Or you find your stress levels rise up like when the electric coffee maker doesn't work in the morning or something goes wrong with the television or the computer breaks down. Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

25:27 This is This is a kind of suffering that, say, didn't really exist maybe 60 years ago. People didn't have the technology or the things that would create that. But now, people have quite severe breakdowns when their computers pack up or something doesn't go right, some little thing goes wrong. Because in a society that is like ours, we can really be ultra-concerned about little details. Report an error in the passage at 25:27 Highlight the passage at 25:27

26:08 When you're living in a third world situation, you're more concerned about the basics, like do I have enough food, and survival, more on an instinctual level of learning to just get through the day so you get enough. To feed your family and yourself. So sometimes we're quite amazed when we travel in third world areas how some people often comment how happy the people look. Report an error in the passage at 26:08 Highlight the passage at 26:08

26:43 Because we think if they're poor like that they shouldn't look happy. They shouldn't be happy. look there you go Report an error in the passage at 26:43 Highlight the passage at 26:43

26:54 They should be miserable because they don't have a computer, they don't have television, they don't have a washing machine, all these other things. And so we oftentimes even romanticize like the noble savage fantasies of the past where these simple people are much happier than we are because they're content. Report an error in the passage at 26:54 Highlight the passage at 26:54

27:23 And they don't demand a lot from life. Admittedly, that contentment is the key to learn to be content. And this is something that has been very important for me because I was not brought up to be content with anything. My background is to be discontented. There's always look on what's wrong and how you can make it better. And what you have now, you could always have it better, you know. Report an error in the passage at 27:23 Highlight the passage at 27:23

28:02 And so last year's model is rather feel embarrassed about showing you last year's model when the new model is much better, this kind of thing. So the mind is always looking for ways of improving, making things better. Well then we're not content. But then we look at contentment like, you want me to be like a cow chewing cut out in the pasture, just kind of stupid bovine creature, just chewing grass. Report an error in the passage at 28:02 Highlight the passage at 28:02

28:33 They're content, aren't they, most of the time. They look fairly content, just chewing on grass. And then we think, is that what the Buddha meant? We should just become more and more kind of bovine. Another one of my... One of my ploys when I was a young monk, because I had such an active mind, was to look at the water buffaloes. And I thought, another creature I've ever seen that looks so stupid is a water buffalo. Report an error in the passage at 28:33 Highlight the passage at 28:33

29:06 And they look so dull and so stupid. That's what I'm going to try to do, make myself like a water buffalo. So I used the water buffalo practice, you see, just standing and trying to be content with... With just being in the same spot. Well, that was a means of just kind of playing with my mind, but it was making a point when not trying to go to the animal realm and become a water buffalo, but to recognize a quality. Report an error in the passage at 29:06 Highlight the passage at 29:06

29:47 That sometimes one sees in animals which is a contentment with very simple things because it's a reminder of one's own tendency towards discontentment and always looking for something better. Report an error in the passage at 29:47 Highlight the passage at 29:47

30:07 Monasticism itself as designed by the Lord Buddha is the learning to be content with things with fewness of And the irony of this is that ever since I've become a Buddhist monk, everything I've ever wanted has been given to me. Report an error in the passage at 30:07 Highlight the passage at 30:07

30:34 So, I mean, even though one has learned to be content with the robes and the food that you get in the alms bowl and the shelter that's assigned to you and so forth, there's a good practice. Then the irony of it is that somebody's always trying to give you something better. At least it's coming from outside, isn't it? It's not coming from inside. Report an error in the passage at 30:34 Highlight the passage at 30:34

31:07 Getting back to enlightenment is now, this is a reflection on time also, because time is something that maybe we never question. We just operate in believing that time is reality. But is it? Report an error in the passage at 31:07 Highlight the passage at 31:07

31:28 In terms of experience, is there ever tomorrow as experience or yesterday? Is it possible? We have these science fiction novels, the time machine going back in time to a previous age, but that's fiction, isn't it? That's a fantasy. But in terms of, say, the ordinary human being's experience, Report an error in the passage at 31:28 Highlight the passage at 31:28

32:00 That, you know, through consciousness, what is it that, what is the time that we're always experiencing is here and now. Report an error in the passage at 32:00 Highlight the passage at 32:00

32:09 That's all there ever is for us. And so this is something to contemplate. Because when we talk about enlightenment is now, then it's not trying to be clever and kind of enigmatic or What are we doing? We're not awakened to the now. We're We're grasping the idea that I am somebody who's not enlightened and I've got to become somebody who is. Report an error in the passage at 32:09 Highlight the passage at 32:09

33:09 And that enlightenment usually is some kind of very remote possibility and we usually put it in such a high position on a pedestal that it makes it sound so remote and so impossible that even in Buddhist countries today many Buddhists feel that you can't get enlightened anymore. Because it's been raised up to such a high degree that nobody can possibly climb that high. Report an error in the passage at 33:09 Highlight the passage at 33:09

33:40 But then when we examine the Buddha's teachings, like every morning we chant, in the morning puja we chant the description of the dhammas, santitiko, akaliko, ehipasiko, upanayako, banjitang, wetidapo, inui, which... Which is apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation, leading onwards to be experienced individually by the wise. Report an error in the passage at 33:40 Highlight the passage at 33:40

34:11 So this is, it's always about dhamma as akalika dhamma, Report an error in the passage at 34:11 Highlight the passage at 34:11

34:21 timeless. It's the dhamma that encourages us to investigate experience right now, not analyze things from the past or try to figure out through a kind of ability to remember things and project them into the future, but to use our intuitive ability to pay attention to be awake in the present. Report an error in the passage at 34:21 Highlight the passage at 34:21

34:52 And this is why Buddhism is a religion that has a lot to offer at this time in countries like this. Because we've lost this kind of wisdom. Our society is very much a society that is trying to create perfection in the future. This idea of progress is very strong, at least from the American side, of trying to make everything better in the future, to realize some maybe golden age or something. Report an error in the passage at 34:52 Highlight the passage at 34:52

35:56 our lives in order to try to promote that kind of experience in the future. But when we awaken to life, what do we find in terms of our own experience? Report an error in the passage at 35:56 Highlight the passage at 35:56

36:14 And first of all, the basic assumption that I am a kind of permanent personality is beginning to be questioned. Am I the same person all the time since I was born 65 years ago? And And before I was a Buddhist monk, and during the 33 years I've been a Buddhist monk, and even from this morning on to this moment, am I the same person? Report an error in the passage at 36:14 Highlight the passage at 36:14

36:49 And so then we began to contemplate what personality really is, how dependent and changeable personality is. We can assume we're the same person. That's an assumption of the mind. I'm exactly the same person that... That's an assumption. But in terms of experience, are we always, you know, are you the same person that I talked to a few months ago? Report an error in the passage at 36:49 Highlight the passage at 36:49

37:23 Well, we can assume on the conventional level that you are, that we are. But in terms of examining, investigating, you begin to see how Your personality changes according to conditions, according to who you're with, according to what's demanded or not demanded, according to the climate, the weather, the temperature in the room, the food that you're eating, whether you're with your mother or father, whether you're with your husband or wife, or with your children, or with the cat. Report an error in the passage at 37:23 Highlight the passage at 37:23

38:06 My father, he was much nicer to the cat. Report an error in the passage at 38:06 Highlight the passage at 38:06

38:15 It was to me, because with the cat he could go all kind of gooey and smarmy. My father used to get all this kind of really syrupy with the cat. He couldn't do that with me. Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:36 The conditions weren't the same, were they? And so you find like here in England, people love their pets a lot because... There's a certain side of us that can appear in relating with great affection to a cat or a dog that we find difficult to exhibit towards even our own children or other humans. Report an error in the passage at 38:36 Highlight the passage at 38:36

39:06 So this is a contemplation of just the way things are and the changingness of personality. But that which is aware... This is important to really try to contemplate this, that awareness is transcending the personality. Like you can actually observe your own personality. When you're mindful, you're aware of wanting to kiss and hug a kitten or wanting to slap somebody in the face. Report an error in the passage at 39:06 Highlight the passage at 39:06

39:41 Or feelings you have towards your mother or your father. You can feel jealousy arise or you can feel anger or boredom. And so this ability to reflect on the emotions, say, is what the Buddha emphasized, is our refuge, this awareness. Report an error in the passage at 39:41 Highlight the passage at 39:41

40:05 Because the person, you can't, how could you create a perfect personality when all this is dependent, you know, on conditions, what we call a normal personality. Report an error in the passage at 40:05 Highlight the passage at 40:05

40:18 What's a normal personality? Report an error in the passage at 40:18 Highlight the passage at 40:18

40:25 And even in the suttas, and the Buddha was talking about his disciples, and Sāriputta, I think, was walking one day, and they said he walked like a monkey. If he's an Arahant, certainly an Arahant wouldn't be walking like a monkey. Report an error in the passage at 40:25 Highlight the passage at 40:25

40:41 Well, if you think of an Arahant, it would be perfect, the word Arahant. They would walk, you know, how would an Arahant walk? And then we've got this idea of this perfect kind of poised, beautiful, graceful, contained walk that we can idealize as a perfect way of walking. And then we see Sāriputta walking like a monkey. Couldn't be an Arahant. Arahants don't walk like monkeys. Report an error in the passage at 40:41 Highlight the passage at 40:41

41:15 So then the Buddha said, well, in the previous life he was a monkey, you know. This is vipakakamma, resulting in karma. So this is also considered how, you know, when we're looking for perfect examples through ideas, how we can oftentimes not really appreciate the things right in front of us. For example, in Thailand, with Ajahn Chah, Report an error in the passage at 41:15 Highlight the passage at 41:15

41:44 I remember Westerners used to come and they'd hear that Ajahn Chah was an Arahant. And so then they'd come, they'd see him chewing betel nut, this kind of stuff that they chew in Asia. Makes your saliva turn red. Looks like you're spitting out blood and turns your teeth black. And to a European, it's a rather disgusting habit. Report an error in the passage at 41:44 Highlight the passage at 41:44

42:08 So... You'd see this great teacher chewing this stuff and spitting out this red spittle into a spittoon. And then you'd hear, it couldn't be an Arahant. An Arahant wouldn't chew betel nut. Or my ideal Arahant would never chew betel nut. This is where we, you know, is betel nut a sign of defilement or is it? Report an error in the passage at 42:08 Highlight the passage at 42:08

42:37 What is it? Or smoking cigarettes. Smoking cigarettes now is definitely something that is considered a bad thing to be doing. And so surely an enlightened being would not smoke cigarettes. And so we can make facile judgments like that. But what we can be aware of is that these are conditions of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 42:37 Highlight the passage at 42:37

43:06 that our own view about what Arahants would be doing or not doing is a condition of the mind that rises and ceases. It saves us from having to these kinds Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:24 conditions that we don't understand or we just see very superficially. So knowing things as they are is seeing that all conditions are impermanent and all conditions and you can't find a permanent sense of a self in anything when you're looking for your true nature or your soul or something that is uniquely yours that isn't anyone else's. Report an error in the passage at 43:24 Highlight the passage at 43:24

43:59 See if you can find anything. I haven't been able to find anything that I can say is truly mine. Ajahn Sumedho is a unique kind of something or other. But the thing that I do trust is in the awakened state of mind. This is awareness, mindfulness. Because this is, and this isn't, Mind. It's not like something I can do, a special gift that I have. This is what we all are capable of doing. Report an error in the passage at 43:59 Highlight the passage at 43:59

44:41 It's within the potential of every one of us. It's not personal. It's not like some special gift that only I have. It's not that I'm a specially gifted human. In fact, it's so ordinary. Report an error in the passage at 44:41 Highlight the passage at 44:41

45:02 It's not even high up. It's not like refined or special. It's so ordinary that we don't tend to value it or appreciate it because we don't see it. We don't see it as worth anything. Now, like oftentimes having magical powers seems very impressive. You know, if I could fly through the air here and float over you, you'd be terribly impressed. Report an error in the passage at 45:02 Highlight the passage at 45:02

45:31 And think, isn't he advanced? If I could walk on the water, read your minds, or do all these kind of fantastic, manifest things like Sai Baba does, out of my hands, and Swiss watches, or... Report an error in the passage at 45:31 Highlight the passage at 45:31

45:53 Fountain pens and whatever, then you'd be really impressed. You think, well, not many people can do things like that. And so that's very special. That's fantastic. But just the state of awakened awareness, you would never notice. It goes unnoticed. Because I could be sitting here with my eyes closed and you think, he's asleep. I mean, you might, you know, you would never know the state that I'm in. Report an error in the passage at 45:53 Highlight the passage at 45:53

46:26 But if I was doing some fantastic miraculous act, then that would impress you. But that's not the path that the Buddha was pointing to. It wasn't towards the special and the miraculous, but towards the dhamma, the ordinary. And the ordinary is always here and now. And it's timeless. And it's realized through just the simple ability we have to open up, to listen, to pay attention. Report an error in the passage at 46:26 Highlight the passage at 46:26

47:04 Nothing more than that. Just in the state of attentive awareness right now. It's not like you have to train to do this. It takes years of hard work and ascetic practices to be awake in the present. But it doesn't... Just awake in the sense of not being fast asleep in a bed, it means being fully with the present moment, being here and now, being fully attuned and integrated with this present moment. Report an error in the passage at 47:04 Highlight the passage at 47:04

47:43 And so when we train ourselves through meditation, we keep reminding ourselves to... To wake up, to pay attention, to be with this present moment as it is, the way it feels, even in your body, the way you're feeling in your heart or just the external conditions, external according to what we see or hear externally or internally, the emotions that you're feeling or sensations within your body itself. Report an error in the passage at 47:43 Highlight the passage at 47:43

48:24 And this awareness isn't special. It's ordinary. And it's learning to trust in it that is the great challenge. To trust it because the mind is conditioned to mistrust it. We're too convinced that we've got to become something. Report an error in the passage at 48:24 Highlight the passage at 48:24

48:54 We're so convinced that... That I am somebody who's got to become something else in the future called an enlightened Arahant or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 48:54 Highlight the passage at 48:54

49:09 Or we can be fully committed to the scenario that I am a screwed up person and then I've got to practice in order to not be screwed up and become a normal person and then become enlightened. Some time in the future, hopefully, before I die. And because Westerners aren't so even, oftentimes we don't even really believe in rebirth or reincarnation. Report an error in the passage at 49:09 Highlight the passage at 49:09

49:42 So we really, you know, for Asian Buddhists, they can put things off for the next lifetime because they really believe in that. But for Westerners, our view is much more narrow. Report an error in the passage at 49:42 Highlight the passage at 49:42

49:56 Now it's all or nothing. It's now, you know, this lifetime. And if we mess it up in this lifetime, we don't know what's going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 49:56 Highlight the passage at 49:56

50:07 So this Buddhism has come to challenge the West at this time. And it is. It's a big challenge. And I think I even hear that Roman Catholics, some on the higher echelons, are quite frightened by it. Cardinal Ratzinger, one of the... Advocates to the Pope has made statements that the big danger to Christianity in the future is Buddhism, not communism. Report an error in the passage at 50:07 Highlight the passage at 50:07

50:41 I'm quite not to take that. Because I can only see Buddhism as an asset to Christianity rather than as something that's going to destroy it. Report an error in the passage at 50:41 Highlight the passage at 50:41

50:56 Because with Buddhism, what, it's... It's not a religion to convert. We're not here to compete with the Christians or any other religion and try to see how many converts we can make. Report an error in the passage at 50:56 Highlight the passage at 50:56

51:12 The whole point is to awaken, to encourage awakenness. Whatever religious convention you so prefer, you can only enhance your practice through awakenness. Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:31 I'm sure Jesus Christ didn't say, I want you to just be sleepy and dozy and not awake, and that's the way. Or just to be blind followers of, you know, you do what the priest tells you and don't think for yourself. But there is, in Christianity, there is also that same kind of imperative, but it's oftentimes... Report an error in the passage at 51:31 Highlight the passage at 51:31

52:01 Not emphasized. And even within Buddhism, where it's so obvious the essential teaching is awakenness. And yet, Buddhism can drift into ceremonies and superstitions just like any other convention. Report an error in the passage at 52:01 Highlight the passage at 52:01

52:24 But the challenge then to both the Buddhist world and the non-Buddhist world And even towards Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka or Thailand, is to really develop this awakeness and to trust it. And as you begin to trust it more and more, then you begin to see for yourself. You have the insight, insight knowledge, in which you know for yourself. Report an error in the passage at 52:24 Highlight the passage at 52:24

52:55 You're not just... Trying to convince yourself or going along with the party line of a religion. You have this jnana dasana or this insight knowledge which is like gut level knowledge. You know it from your guts. It's true because you've known the reality of it. It's not abstract or theoretical learning. Report an error in the passage at 52:55 Highlight the passage at 52:55

53:22 And this is through this meditation. Report an error in the passage at 53:22 Highlight the passage at 53:22

53:35 So here at Amar Bhatti, what I'm trying to do is just to keep encouraging this. Come back every Sunday, just so I can encourage you some more. Because it's so easy to forget, you know, go out the door and suddenly you're back in all the, what you call the real world. Report an error in the passage at 53:35 Highlight the passage at 53:35

54:00 It's not real, you know, it's not real at all. People believe it is real. but we... Report an error in the passage at 54:00 Highlight the passage at 54:00

54:06 They'll say, you're not living in the real world. You want to bear that? Report an error in the passage at 54:06 Highlight the passage at 54:06

54:16 But we have to know what the real world is. And of course the real world is here and now. And it's your mind and body. And to awaken to that is to learn to, say, trust that awakened state of mind where... I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 54:16 Highlight the passage at 54:16

54:37 You know what you're feeling, whether it's pleasant or painful. You know what you're thinking, what you're feeling, both physical or emotional or whatever. You're aware of how impermanent those feelings are. You're not judging. If you're feeling horrible and then you say, I don't want to feel horrible, then you're passing a judgment. Report an error in the passage at 54:37 Highlight the passage at 54:37

55:06 But feeling horrible is... So it's learning to trust your ability to bear with experience as it is without trying to make it into something else or trying to get rid of this or get hold of that until Report an error in the passage at 55:06 Highlight the passage at 55:06

55:30 eventually through reminding you of your potential and you feel more and more confident and appreciated. So in... Then in the difficulties of life, when life really has its crises, and we find people we love have cancer, or there's traumas, or there's great losses, or disappointments, Then we have this wisdom to carry us through the difficult experiences of our life. Report an error in the passage at 55:30 Highlight the passage at 55:30

56:17 So last week we had, or two weeks ago, this young man that died of leukemia, Lee Graham, and he was only 25 years old and he had leukemia for about a year and a half and his family were very, and he was a very devout Buddhist, so he, He was able to use his illness for awakening himself, which was very inspiring to everyone that knew him. Report an error in the passage at 56:17 Highlight the passage at 56:17

56:53 Rather than feeling sorry for himself and say, why me? It's not fair and all that. He actually could awaken himself to the feelings and the emotions. Both that he had and the people around him were having. And so he was able to turn what is in most people's minds something that's horrible and tragic and shouldn't be, especially, you know, a very young person who's a very good person. Report an error in the passage at 56:53 Highlight the passage at 56:53

57:30 It's not fair, is it? Somebody that's really good and young dying from leukemia. In terms of our values. But in terms of Dhamma, it was no obstruction. In fact, he actually could turn the situation into Dhamma through this awakened awareness. And he was able to share this with his relatives and with us. So one felt, even though he died young, it was not a waste of a lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 57:30 Highlight the passage at 57:30

58:05 You know, he's not... It wasn't like poor thing didn't have a chance and it's a waste of a life. One felt that actually he probably fulfilled his life through the immediacy of having a terminal illness. Report an error in the passage at 58:05 Highlight the passage at 58:05

58:25 So this is just to, not that, you know, I don't certainly, we're all going to die anyway. I mean, that's certain. certain. Report an error in the passage at 58:25 Highlight the passage at 58:25

58:36 And when you have a terminal illness, there is more certainty to it. They say you have six months to live, and that makes it more immediate than if you think, well, you know, I'm 65. I could live till 90 or 100 even. I'm from a long-lived family. I could drop dead next minute. Report an error in the passage at 58:36 Highlight the passage at 58:36

59:02 But if somebody said, you know, go to the doctor and they say, you know, Ajahn Sumedho, you've got terminal cancer. You've got about three months to live. Somehow that'd make it easier, wouldn't it? In some way. Having a, what, a deadline? Well, it's very kind of, I could live to 100. Report an error in the passage at 59:02 Highlight the passage at 59:02

59:32 90 at least, 80. I'm sure I'll live to 80. Deadline. Report an error in the passage at 59:32 Highlight the passage at 59:32

59:37 But even 80 is not that far off, is it? 15 years. But even 15 years seems like a long time from the present. But if they said six months... So in terms of just recognizing our own death, like in Buddhism, we contemplate this death, dying, as a part of our life. And because Lee Graham was able to... Report an error in the passage at 59:37 Highlight the passage at 59:37

1:00:11 To share death with his family, one felt like his grandfather said, I remember I gave a talk one time to them and they were asking me advice about how Buddhism saw death and illness and all that. And so I just made the most kind of ordinary statements I thought were quite, you know, common sense about death being a natural thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:11 Highlight the passage at 1:00:11

1:00:37 And then the grandfather came up and said, That was really helpful. That really helped me. I never would have thought of that. Because when somebody you love is dying, you don't think of it as natural. The mind easily goes into some kind of panic or aversion or fear around it. But when you start contemplating death as a natural thing, It isn't so frightening, isn't it? Just emotionally, one feels that one is just following the law of nature rather than doing something that isn't very nice, like dying. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:37 Highlight the passage at 1:00:37

1:01:25 So in many ways, with all our idealism and our internet and so forth and our fantastic, miraculous technology, that we... We have. Somebody gave me a cellular phone last week. One of these mobile phones. It can do anything almost. It's much more clever than I am. I'm not clever enough yet to use it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:25 Highlight the passage at 1:01:25

1:01:58 It's a special thing. It's a miracle. But ordinary awareness is not miraculous. It's like this. It's paying attention. It's like listening. Without trying to get anything or Report an error in the passage at 1:01:58 Highlight the passage at 1:01:58

1:02:26 learning to trust that more and more until you trust it totally where you can totally rest in this state of awareness it's a restful state it's not something Report an error in the passage at 1:02:26 Highlight the passage at 1:02:26

1:02:42 That you have to hold up and prop up all the time and keep trying to keep it going as you begin to trust it more and more. You have a sense of it supporting you all the time. Everywhere, all the time. It's your refuge. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:42 Highlight the passage at 1:02:42

1:03:02 So I'll stop here. And the tea. Ready? on the survey and so I invite you all to have a cup of tea and then in about 20 minutes I'll ring the bell and those of you who wish can sit down and if you have any questions or anything you want to discuss I will be here for that. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:02 Highlight the passage at 1:03:02

1:03:37 Time to if you have questions yes Report an error in the passage at 1:03:37 Highlight the passage at 1:03:37

1:03:49 well Report an error in the passage at 1:03:49 Highlight the passage at 1:03:49

1:04:08 it's As you get to know yourself better and you see the result of good practice, then you have a confidence that comes from that. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:08 Highlight the passage at 1:04:08

1:04:22 Where expectation is still like coming from something, you still imagine some state you hope to get or still anticipating something. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:41 I found contentment a helpful reflection for myself because I tend to not be content and to have to keep reminding myself to be content. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:41 Highlight the passage at 1:04:41

1:04:57 And that word I found helpful. So it's like for each one of us, you find out what we each have to work with the way we are, not from the way we'd like to be, but from the way we are. So then it's learning to know yourself and what kind of skillful means work for you, you know, to say bring you to a state of contentment and confidence. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:57 Highlight the passage at 1:04:57

1:05:29 And then, you know, so that you know this directly rather than thinking that you should be content or you should be confident. Then you're idealizing those states. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:29 Highlight the passage at 1:05:29

1:05:46 And like doubting is, I mean, if you think a lot, you doubt a lot. And so this, you know, and we're educated now. Like most of the Buddhist world here in Britain are educated, very well educated people. So they think a lot and then there's a lot of doubt. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:46 Highlight the passage at 1:05:46

1:06:12 Because when you're attached to thinking, then you end up never being quite sure because you can always... Think more, you know, what could be, or never quite sure whether this was right or wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:12 Highlight the passage at 1:06:12

1:06:30 And so there's an endless kind of dilemma in our lives, having to choose or never be quite certain. And there's all kinds of ethical dilemmas now, moral dilemmas, and that it's because of medical technology. Like cloning people and genetic engineering and all this, you know. There's so many views and opinions and ethical problems around it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:30 Highlight the passage at 1:06:30

1:07:07 Because it does demand an endless kind of complicated interference with the conditioned world. They're not exploring, they're not realizing the unconditioned. They're just endlessly kind of rearranging the conditions and refining them until it gets more complicated through refinement. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07:07

1:07:32 And then we suffer the stress that comes from that. So then meditation is going back to a kind of natural state that we've forgotten. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:32 Highlight the passage at 1:07:32

1:07:48 Maybe it's the Garden of Eden. But it's not innocent anymore. Like Garden of Eden in the Bible always reminds you of a state of innocence where then they were tested and they lost their innocence. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:48 Highlight the passage at 1:07:48

1:08:10 And now going back to that state of simplicity rather than innocence. But it's like innocence. It's simple and clear. Innocence so Report an error in the passage at 1:08:10 Highlight the passage at 1:08:10

1:08:21 Pure, but there's also wisdom, which is incorruptible. Wisdom is innocence you can corrupt. Wisdom you can't. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:21 Highlight the passage at 1:08:21

1:08:35 But this is also why I say trusting yourself doesn't mean trusting your ego, but your ability to just learn to pay attention. Trust that. And no matter how... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:35 Highlight the passage at 1:08:35

1:08:53 What you're feeling, no matter how anguished your mind might be or angry or disappointed with life or happy or whatever, just to increasingly kind of be the witness to it rather than the critic and trust in that. You'll find an enormous kind of confidence coming through that you don't have when you're trying to solve every problem and clean up every mess. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:53 Highlight the passage at 1:08:53

1:09:23 Yes? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:23 Highlight the passage at 1:09:23

1:09:41 Well, I find, because of the lifestyle, it's just integrated into the lifestyle, really, of a monk, like the formal sitting practices, which I really enjoy. And it does, you know, just to sit still is quite, and just using that as a reference point helps to... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:41 Highlight the passage at 1:09:41

1:10:11 Increase the confidence to be in that still place when you're not sitting in the temple, when you're having to deal with worldly problems and difficult scenes. But then people get very attached to sitting and thinking that ordinary movement of life is somehow not where it's at. That the real practice is sitting in the temple on a cushion. That's because one does get attached to, you get more refined that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:11 Highlight the passage at 1:10:11

1:10:50 You know, the stillness and the lack of kind of coarse impingement on you at the time. But I don't feel I have to do that anymore. But I enjoy doing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:50 Highlight the passage at 1:10:50

1:11:25 Right, because the whole thing is integrate it. Like how I describe it is like I find the silence of the mind. This word means something. So I've used this when you're kind of listening to a ringing silent sound in the kind of background sound. ...that I pick up when the mind is in that state of receptive awareness. And then that, as I listen to that, then I realize the mind is in a very receptive state of presence here and now. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:25 Highlight the passage at 1:11:25

1:12:17 And then remembering that when you're not just in a temple, but in a noisy place. So I used to practice listening to the silence and... In traffic jams and when there's a lot of noise and when I'm chanting and when in the middle of committee meetings and things like this, because then I feel like I'm integrating that rather than just kind of dutifully performing, going through my duties. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:17 Highlight the passage at 1:12:17

1:12:56 In life and then going back to the temple thinking that's where I want to be. It gives you a sense of being able to flow and to even take on responsibilities and duties in a community that before one would feel were quite disruptive to the stillness of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:56 Highlight the passage at 1:12:56

1:13:26 Yes? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:26 Highlight the passage at 1:13:26

1:13:45 Right. That's where to see that the idea of non-attachment is a condition. So it's not a matter of grasping the idea of non-attachment, but realizing non-attachment. So like with meditation, you're actually experiencing the reality of non-attachment rather than trying to not be attached according to some idea. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:45 Highlight the passage at 1:13:45

1:14:19 So, I mean, like in... It's the difference between, say, abstract thinking and the realities of a situation. So we can be very attached to ideals, you know, of being fair and kind and loving and very, you know, be very attached to these lovely ideas. And then in the realities of our life, we never... We're always kind of falling, never quite living up to the ideal. And then we become self-critical. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:19 Highlight the passage at 1:14:19

1:14:56 We become defeated by our own attachment to the ideal. We become quite cynical or even become embittered by it. But if you start observing this desire and attachment, conditioning and attachment, And getting to just know that through awareness, then you actually can know the non-attachment, the freedom of non-attachment. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:56 Highlight the passage at 1:14:56

1:15:29 And so that is then developing the path of non-attachment, which isn't an idea anymore, but a realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:29 Highlight the passage at 1:15:29

1:15:42 Yes? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:42 Highlight the passage at 1:15:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:16:14 Well, you're developing, you're realizing... A transcendent, deathless reality. The changeable personality is the transcendent. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:14 Highlight the passage at 1:16:14

1:16:37 It's not personal, though. And this is where you have to stop thinking. Because... Well, you can... Well, it depends on... Like we're using personality as the conditioning of the mind. So, I mean, on a conventional level, we can say, I realize this. But then, in terms of putting it in a more accurate term, we say there is this realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:37 Highlight the passage at 1:16:37

1:17:12 Because the whole sense of me as a separate person, as a kind of absolute separate entity, drops away. It seems unreal. There's awareness. There's purity. It's universal, but it's not mine. So it's where we let go of trying to define ourselves or hold to views of... Or even like the word I. Like after the Buddha was enlightened and he was on his way to give his first sermon, he met a... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:12 Highlight the passage at 1:17:12

1:17:47 I... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:47 Highlight the passage at 1:17:47

1:17:59 An ascetic, on the way, the ascetic, the holy man asked the Buddha, you know, why do you look so beautiful and radiant? Then the Buddha said, I am the perfectly enlightened one. And the ascetic looked at him with doubt and kind of, and didn't quite believe it and walked away. And so, you know, at first I thought, why would the Buddha say I am the imperfect enlightened one? And I realized that that is... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:59 Highlight the passage at 1:17:59

1:18:30 True, you know, that was a direct and true statement and teaching, but it couldn't be understood by the person listening, because the person listening sees the I only as an ego, as a personality. So that's why when the Buddha went to teach, gave his first sermon, He gave the Four Noble Truths, which he said, there is suffering, there are the causes, and so forth, pointing to suffering rather than using the pronoun I. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:30 Highlight the passage at 1:18:30

1:19:07 And they have these, I am the way, the truth, and the life in Christianity. These are all valid teachings, but the pronoun I is... is so bound up with the ego that it is sometimes best to question it rather than to empower it. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:07 Highlight the passage at 1:19:07

1:19:37 So, like in Buddhist monasticism, we're forbidden to make those kind of statements, I am enlightened or anything like that. And partly to avoid, you know, claiming states that you don't have. Because... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:37 Highlight the passage at 1:19:37

1:19:55 In various stages, you go through various stages where sometimes you think, oh, I'm enlightened now and I'm... And it can be kind of a defiled state that you're in. But also just on the level of realization that the Buddha always lets that side be a direct realization rather than a metaphysical teaching. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:55 Highlight the passage at 1:19:55

1:20:25 So, like with Buddhism, especially the Theravāda school, they emphasize the Four Noble Truths, which is the suffering, its causes and cessation, as the way to realization. And then there's no attempt to describe, say, they talk about the deathless, but there's no description of it. It's to be realized, each one for themselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:25 Highlight the passage at 1:20:25

1:20:58 Yes? Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:20:58 Highlight the passage at 1:20:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:21:49 I find, like, now, whatever comes up in my mind, I realize is a, I can, I mean, I see it as a liberating experience rather than seeing it in negative terms. So, it's like seeing that, you know, even if you have anger or Report an error in the passage at 1:21:49 Highlight the passage at 1:21:49

1:22:50 able to liberate that anger through... Through consciousness. And you get more confidence in this as you begin to trust it more. Because at first, when I first started meditating, my mind was conditioned to want to get rid of bad things. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:50 Highlight the passage at 1:22:50

1:23:12 So that's the conditioning of my mind. The bad habits, the bad thoughts, immature emotions, all this, you're trying to get rid of them. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:12 Highlight the passage at 1:23:12

1:23:24 And so, you know, you work hard trying to get rid of them, and then sometimes you think, well, they're all, you know, I don't get angry anymore, and I don't feel jealous, and I'm past beyond that, and watch out, suddenly something will happen, and you find yourself overwhelmed with some kind of anger or jealousy. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:24 Highlight the passage at 1:23:24

1:23:49 So, it's... And then you think, oh, you know, I've been meditating all these years, a monk and everything, and I'm really no better than I was before. And you can feel discouraged. And that's looking at it on a personal level of having gotten rid of something, feeling happy about getting rid of, and then when it comes back, feeling upset because you thought you were... Report an error in the passage at 1:23:49 Highlight the passage at 1:23:49

1:24:23 was so uh but if you change your attitude towards it so, like the Buddha emphasized what we call vipaka kama, like we all have to live through our karma. So even the Lord Buddha in the scriptures, in the Tripitaka, after his enlightenment, then he lived a life, it wasn't, he lived on... Report an error in the passage at 1:24:23 Highlight the passage at 1:24:23

1:24:49 In a heavenly realm, you know, of just bliss. But he actually lived in the world, established an order, a monastic order, and had to deal with really difficult people. Because you read in the scriptures, you know, some of the things they tried to do to the Buddha, tried to kill him, they tried to frame him, spread horrible rumors about him. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:49 Highlight the passage at 1:24:49

1:25:14 And, you know... He had much more difficult time than I've ever had when you read the history of the Buddha. And so, you know, being sensitive, he would certainly feel all these things. But then in the scriptures, he has this statement when Māra would come and tempt him. Māra's the evil tempting force in nature. And Māra, kind of like the... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:14 Highlight the passage at 1:25:14

1:25:48 personification of the devil. And Māra was thinking, I'm going to see if this Buddha is really a Buddha, if I can fool him. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:48 Highlight the passage at 1:25:48

1:25:58 Māra would go and try to do something to the Buddha and then the Buddha would say, I know you, Māra. And that I found helpful. Just, I know you, Māra. Sometimes these Maras do come up in the mind. And just to know them as Māra rather than as some kind of personal failure or a sign that I'm not getting anywhere and getting caught up in that kind of belief. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:58 Highlight the passage at 1:25:58

1:26:29 Because to know the world is to recognize that this realm is like this and that our ability to learn from it rather than endlessly kind of Make demands on it and feel continuously threatened and frightened by it. In this way, I feel more courageous and willing to experience life, even experience the unpleasant things of life, because I'm more confident in how I can respond to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:29 Highlight the passage at 1:26:29

1:27:14 But when I didn't have that confidence, then... Then I had a lot of fear and cowardice in me because, you know, I just didn't know what to do. If something horrible would happen, what I'd do, you know, and afraid of what might happen and that I wouldn't be able to handle it and that I'd fall apart or things like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:14 Highlight the passage at 1:27:14

1:27:37 In the thinking mind, then you kind of become cowardly and frightened by life. But as you understand yourself more and more, then that falls away, and you feel a sense of being able to meet life, to be with the flow of life, without making any demands on it. You know, like, I want life to be nice and peaceful for me. Even though I wouldn't mind that. I mean, that would not be an unwanted state, but... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:37 Highlight the passage at 1:27:37

1:28:15 I know that life also is going to produce the opposite. And I feel that I can handle that now. I can deal with difficult things that before I would have felt very unable to deal with. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:15 Highlight the passage at 1:28:15

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:29:39 Well, I mean, this is the limitation of language, really. So Report an error in the passage at 1:29:39 Highlight the passage at 1:29:39

1:29:50 it's like when... Have you read the biography of Ajahn Man? Report an error in the passage at 1:29:50 Highlight the passage at 1:29:50

1:30:02 Well, that's called Super Bikku, you know. I mean, they wrote a biography that makes him sound like Superman. That's a bit unreal. But it wasn't written by Ajahn Man either. So, I mean, it is how somebody saw Ajahn Man. So you can tend to maybe... And also think of your own... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:02 Highlight the passage at 1:30:02

1:30:30 Even if you were to write your own biography, would you want to write all the details of your life in a biography? Or would you be quite selective what was printed? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:30 Highlight the passage at 1:30:30

1:30:43 When you think of it, there's a certain amount of things that, you know, the pettiness and the selfishness and the not so nice side of our life that we particularly don't want to There are certain things we don't mind them knowing about, like how I conquered fear by sleeping in a tiger's cage or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:43 Highlight the passage at 1:30:43

1:31:12 Things like that can be quite a bravado in a way. But then one time there was this old monk that and then Report an error in the passage at 1:31:12 Highlight the passage at 1:31:12

1:31:30 I used to admire, he was with Ajahn Chah, and he'd ordained late in life when he was about 70, and he was, when I first went to stay with Ajahn Chah, this old monk was very good to me, and I really liked him, so I kind of idealized him in a way. And so then, one time I was on alms round with Ajahn Chah, this other monk, and And Ajahn Chah was questioning me, he says, well, what is it that this old monk teaches you? And I said, well, he teaches me to be patient and selfless. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:30 Highlight the passage at 1:31:30

1:32:11 And he says, he does? He's not that way. This last month he was fighting with another monk over some food and the monk looked very embarrassed, you know, sheepish. much. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:11 Highlight the passage at 1:32:11

1:32:27 Ajahn Chah kept pushing, he said, what is he really teaching you? I said, well, I don't know. He says, he's teaching you about old age. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:27 Highlight the passage at 1:32:27

1:32:39 And so this is kind of direct, you know, even in one's own mind, you know, like Ajahn Chah now is dead. So he tends to get this apotheosis. He's kind of up in the stars now. And so people idolize Ajahn Chah a lot in Thailand or everywhere, this wonderful wise monk, because he's no longer alive, and he's now a star up in the firmament, and Ajahn Mun is up there. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:39 Highlight the passage at 1:32:39

1:33:13 But when you're actually living with Ajahn Chah, he's human. human. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:13 Highlight the passage at 1:33:13

1:33:22 Yeah, and it's not that he's a superman or a perfect, flawless, and never wrong kind of human being when you're living with him. But when you write his biography, then you usually talk like that about all the wonderful things he did. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:22 Highlight the passage at 1:33:22

1:33:52 And like killing your defilements, this kind of language we used a lot in Thailand. Like Ajahn Chah would say, kill your kilesas. But this, for a Western person, I didn't find a very helpful way of reflecting because it tends to be too, it's too violent a word. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:52 Highlight the passage at 1:33:52